A Rabbit Girl's Traveling Diary

Chapter 5

Four days have passed since our encounter with that tentacle monster. We still didn't arrive at the next city. To tell you the truth, we could have done it in just an hour if we wanted to since Izayoi-san's speed is equivalent to or even greater than mine, but when I mentioned it to him, the answer he gave me was '' What would be the fun part of that? We are traveling, we should take advantage to know every possible place during this journey.''

I can't say that I disagree with him but Kuro Usagi really misses sleeping in a comfy bed, my back still hurts from having to sleep on the floor.

After about three hours walking, we found a lake and decided to make a small stop. As soon as we put our belongings near a tree, Izayoi-san approached me.

''Hey Kuro Usagi, how about we have a little spar?'' He asked that absurd question to me.

''Eh? Spar? Against Izayoi-san? No way! I'm going to die!" Izayoi-san simply let out a powerful laugh.

"Come on don't be like this, I'll go easy on you, it's just something to have fun with, and also, just like you said, we're going to find at least one Demon Lord during this journey, we should at least keep our fighting abilities sharp.'' Wow, I didn't think about it that way and what he said is quite logical!

''O-okay, but as you said, it will be something very light! If by any chance I notice that you're taking this seriously, Kuro Usagi will not spar with you any more, understand?!"I had to make things clear for him. Izayoi-san hates to lose, so if by some chance I'm winning this spar, he might act recklessly like he did when we had that game during the fire dragon festival or when he faced Faceless-san.

''Ok.''

After agreeing to my terms, we got a few feet away from each other. Gry-san sat at the side of the tree, just watching us. A soft wind blew. A leaf of some tree passed by us, and the moment it touched the water of the lake, we ran toward each other.

Izayoi-san aimed a punch to my stomach, but Kuro Usagi had already predicted the move and moved to the side. Grabbing Izayoi-san's outstretched arm, I tossed him over my shoulder. He disengaged himself from my grasp and put both hands on the ground, propelling himself back anddoing a backflip. As he steadied his feet on the ground, he came upon Kuro Usagi, punching at a speed that a normal human being or an inhabitant of the lowest digits could never follow. I blocked all the punches with ease. As I looked at Izayoi-san's face, I saw that he was smiling, it seemed like he was enjoying this spar, and to be honest, Kuro Usagi was also starting to have fun.

We continued to exchange blows for the next few minutes and, without realizing it, we arrived near the lake. When Izayoi-san distanced himself from me, I followed him, trying to hit him with a palm to the chest, but to my misfortune, Kuro Usagi slipped on the wet ground and fell forward. I closed my eyes, waiting to feel the hard ground but, instead of that, what I felt was a warm body and powerful arms embracing me and preventing my fall. Slowly opening my eyes, Kuro Usagi looked up, only to see Izayoi-san's purple eyes staring directly into my  ruby ones. Kuro Usagi's face blushed instinctively.

"You're okay, Kuro Usagi?" Izayoi-san asked with concern.

'' Y-Yes, I just slipped.'' H-huh? Why did I stutter? ''A-Anyway, I think it's enough for today, we'd better get some rest before we leave!''

"I think so?" My blond companion said with a raised eyebrow.

Pulling away from Izayoi-san, I went to the tree where our belongings were and sat down. Leaning against the trunk, I closed my eyes, trying to calm my heart that for some reason kept beating wildly inside Kuro Usagi's chest.