|| 𝒀-𝑶-𝑲-𝑨-𝑰 || 𝑲𝑵𝒀 𝒙 𝑶𝑪 ||

Chapter 16: Manipulated

{Haru's POV}

While picking some of the plants, I realized that Rei hadn't come out to find us. Suddenly the door opened to reveal Rei's parents. "Oh, Haru, why are you still here?" Himari asked me as she walked towards us and bent down to help us. "I'm just telling them to get some of the plants to show them how natural dye is created," I explained as the other two came back with baskets full of fruits.

"Here you go Haru," Tanjiro said as he placed his and Inosuke's basket down. " Thank you Tanjiro." I thanked him as I stood up and dusted some dirt that clung onto my clothes. By the time I dusted everything off, Zenitsu had come back with tons of flowers in his basket. I looked towards Himari and asked, "Where is Rei by the way?". She looked up and sighed. "That girl, she left earlier. I bet she didn't tell any of you, did she?" She told us.

"She left?" I asked her with a gaped mouth. "I was about to call her to make some pie.." Tanjiro then placed his hand on my shoulder as I looked up to him. "Maybe make some and let us give it to her." He suggested as I lit up and nodded eagerly as I stood up and ran to the house while carrying some of the freshly picked fruits.

I walked into the kitchen to prepare the ingredients needed. As I was halfway through the process, I saw Tanjiro and the others looking at something. I stopped what I was doing and walked towards them. "Hey, what are you guys looking at?" I asked as I stood behind them. They looked at me and looked back at what they were looking at.

"OI!" I yelled at them as they all shrieked at my voice. "A-ah! Haru, didn't see you there. Hehe.." Tanjiro said as he rubbed the back of his head. "We were looking at this." He pointed to the ground as a small patch of various flowers were growing out of it. It was obvious it was more special than the others since there were no flowers like this in the whole garden except here.

I stared at it for a while before snapping out of my trance. "If you're wondering what this is for, it was for Rei's pet raven," I explained to them, all of them stood there before blinking a couple of times. I was about to continue but I realized that I left the pie ingredients on the counter. "No! The pie!" I yelled as I ran back to the kitchen. Their laugher could be heard from the garden.

{3rd person POV}

Rei was swinging her sword, stretching her arms before going into her actual training. Once she was done, she summoned Bakeneko who looked at her. 'Hello, Rei-sama.' He greeted her telepathically while you could hear a real purr coming from him. 'Greetings, Bakeneko. It's been a while since I saw you. I wanted to ask if you wanted to train together.' Rei asked as she stopped swinging her sword.

'Of course Rei-sama!' Bakeneko exclaimed happily as he shape-shifted into a lion size of himself. He ran towards her as she did the same. Bakeneko lifted his paw while his sharp claws came out, ready to strike at her. But unfortunately, Rei quickly blocked his attack by jumping backward.
Amid their fighting, Rei could feel eyes staring right at her. This distracted her, resulting in her getting hurt.

'Rei-sama!' Bakeneko worriedly called out as he ran towards her. Rei groaned as she touched her arm, a shallow slash was seen in her forearm. She looked around before looking down. 'I swear I felt eyes staring right at me..' She thought while on edge. Rei looked up to see a worried Bakeneko.
'Are you okay? Rei-sama?' The two-tailed cat asked the female.

She nodded and stood up. 'I'm alright, Bakeneko. You could rest now. I'll patch this up myself.' Rei reassured him but he still didn't look convinced but decided to put it aside and nodded. He faded away back into his realm. Rei then walked towards the door and carefully opened it before shutting it close.

Amane was almost done with the dinner but when she looked up to Rei she gasped as she ran towards the younger girl. "Rei! What happened?" She asked Rej before disappearing to get some bandages. "Ah, Amane. It was just training. I got distracted and Bakeneko managed to get a hit on me." Rei explained as she sat down and left the treating to Kagaya's wife.