Pᴀʀᴀʟʟᴇʟ | Dᴏʀᴏʀᴏ 2019 Fᴀɴғɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ |

9: Weirdness and denial

Kou was told to rest after they arrived at the run down shrine where Mio is staying. Hyakkimaru was passed out as Dororo put a cold compress on his forehead. Kou remained awake as she only sat while looking at them silently.

Dororo went to her as he softly wipe her face with the wet towel, taking care not to hurt her with the wound on her cheek. Mio introduced the kids that lived together with her in the shrine. Kou could feel her heart clench after seeing the children missing some parts of their body.

"They were victims of the war..." Mio spoke.

The child called Takebo scolded Mio and told her to take some rest because she will be going to work later that night. They were given potato gruel yet Kou refused to eat.

She lied on her side, turning her back towards them and covering her head with her blazer.

"I'm not hungry. You eat it, Dororo. I'm going to sleep".

"But you need to eat, neechan". The child whined.

The teenage girl ignored his protest and pretended to be asleep by snoring out loud. Biwamaru raised his brow in amusement and Dororo could only shake his head.

He knew that it was very difficult for a child to take care of two sick teenagers but he didn't knew that they will be acting childish too.

Sighing, Dororo started to eat the bowl of potato gruel in his hands and asked Biwamaru if he wanted some too. The old man politely declined, saying that a child like him needed more nutrients to grow up.

Later that night, Mio left to work after checking on Hyakkimaru's and Kou's condition. She promised that she will be bringing medicine when she returned for the next morning.

After Mio had left, Kou rose on her feet. Despite feeling dizzy, she didn't pay it any mind and walked away. Not sparing a glance at Hyakkimaru who was observing her silently. She went out, feeling the cold wind hit her exposed arms.

Like before, it was Dororo who helped her in changing clothes. For now, Kou wore a hooded pink shirt with a print on the center and some jogging pants. She liked jogging pants very much because it's so comfortable.

Kou sighed before going to sit on top of a big flat rock. She stared at the night sky, relishing about her dreams. She had been dreaming about her grandfather a lot everytime she was asleep and she was sure that she didn't like it one bit. Dreaming about him dampens her mood a lot more than she could imagine.

As a result, she hadn't been talking to anyone eversince they arrived at Mio's place. Dororo was about to call them for dinner when he noticed that Kou was gone. He wanted to ask Hyakkimaru about it but seeing that he was covering his ears, he decided against it. Sighing, the child turned back, his eyes searching the place for the brunette.

Dororo saw her sitting alone outside, staring up to the sky.

"Dinner's ready". He spoke from behind her.

The girl made no obvious actions of moving from her spot and so the child sighed once again. Seriously, these two are a lot more hard to handle than the children on the shrine.

"I'm not taking no for an answer, neechan." He said, a warning tone in his voice. "Even if you didn't want to eat, you need to. You have been eating less".

He peered at her face and saw the same blank face that she have previously. He had noticed how the girl had talked and interacted with them lesser than before. It was like she have a world of her own.

She was acting like they were strangers and she was a lot colder than the first time they have met. He was wondering on what made her act this way. This had started eversince she woke up before meeting Mio.