To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

40 • Midnight Sun

Tengen told her to, first and foremost, invite Muichiro on a night outing to somewhere not even she knew. Inori decided the Sound Pillar was stupid, and she was even stupider because here she was, sitting on the porch of the Mist Estate, asking Muichiro to go out with her tonight to a place not even she knew.

"Yeah, sure." Muichiro still had his eyes on the bright sky, staring dazedly at the cloud that was moving slowly away from his line of sight. "Uzui, uh...isn't that the sparkly monkey you like to kick around? Why're you even listening to him?"

"Because I won't hear the end of it, and what's the worst that could happen?" She shrugged in response, not even bothering to deny that Tengen did look like a sparkly monkey. "The worst will probably be him setting me up to be demon bait again. Nothing new, and definitely not something I can't take care of."

Oh, perhaps that was why Muichiro agreed to go with her. Every pillar in the corps did like going on joint missions, especially Sanemi and Shinobu. Sanemi because he was Sanemi, and Shinobu because she wanted to see the results of her poison on demon moons while having her safety somewhat guaranteed in case the poison wasn't strong enough to kill the demon moon because Inori could still decapitate demons.

Inori didn't mind when Shinobu admitted that because she also learned a lot about poison, and it was true that there was a higher chance for her to encounter a demon moon, more than all the other pillars combined. By high, Inori meant two out of seven missions usually ended up with her facing a lower moon, which meant Inori had a twenty-eight percent chance of encountering a lower moon every time she stepped outside of the safety of her home.

Yes, Shinobu did the calculations.

But that was just her encounter with demon moons, not counting all the other demons she had encountered. The area wherever Inori had announced herself to be would always be infested with demons, and it wasn't rare to encounter former lower moons as well. Though it must've been some kind of twisted luck for her to never encounter an upper moon demon thus far.

Then again, it has barely been a year since she became a pillar.

Finally tilting his head downwards, Muichiro turned to slightly scrunch his face at her. Then, he shook his head with a sigh. "If we want to reach wherever you want to go by night, shouldn't we leave now? You said, uh, something about food?"

"Oh, right!" Inori almost forgot she needed to stop by the restaurant because Tengen wanted something picked up. Clapping her hands, Inori stood to her feet, stretching her arm out for Muichiro to take. "Okay, let's get going, Mui! Off we go!"

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☆.｡.☆.｡.:*☆ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

Inori didn't know what Tengen was planning, but it was quite the feast he had ordered. The owners of the restaurant told her that Tengen told them to make sure she didn't open the basket before reaching the designated location, though they did assure her that it was just food in there.

The basket was heavy on her elbow, and Muichiro had taken it from her without saying a word. But with the way his body was leaning to the side, Inori huffed out a short laugh and reached out to grab the handle of the basket.

"It's easier if we're carrying it together, right?"

"No, it'll just make us vulnerable to attacks."

"The sun is still up." The sky was red, but the sun was still up. It wasn't time for demons to come out yet. "Muichiro, if you carry heavy things only on one side of your body, your spine will be bent. That's not healthy."

"My spine isn't so weak that it'll get bent because I carry one heavy thing once."

Even as she laughed at his dry words, Inori didn't let go of the basket. It wasn't the most convenient thing, having two people carry a basket of food. But while the sun was still up and they were basking under the last of its rays, then walking slowly while exchanging idle words was fine.