『ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ, ᴏʀ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ!』

( Takes place 6 years before ARR, or 1 year before Tsukuyomi's second eye disappears from the night sky. )

Sixteen springs, soon to be seventeen. With the cherry and plum blossoms falling down from the forested mountains above cascading Namai in spring pink and white, Hikari had found herself watching over Isse and Azami while their parents were away at their behest. The closest in the village to them in age, though by a vast margin, as neither wished to trouble the busy adults with childrearing.

Of course, she couldn't say no. She didn't want to say no. Amidst her ponderings, all she truly did while she minded them while they played was grind dried herbs in the mortar and press some of the gathered sakura petals to extract their... extract. Something about an anti-inflammatory salve. Some of the elders would appreciate it for their arthritic joints.

"Hikari?" The grinding of her pestle slowed to a crawl as she turned her head. Isse fidgeted in place, holding up a sakura branch. "Do you know why these smell sweet if we can't eat them?"

Oh. Hikari set aside her task and thought for a moment. "It has a chemical in it that makes it smell good. The same compound makes it toxic fer yer liver unless its pickled an' processed."

Isse nodded, and turned his head back. Snorting, Hikari asked, "Are y'askin' fer you, or are y'askin' fer yer sister?" When he shuffled a bit in place, clearly betraying his intentions, she only shook her head with a smile. "She won't know what a liver is, she's four. Tell her it'll make her tummy sick an' she'll understand. If she asks why, y'can bring her here an' I'll tell her for you, alright?"

"Yes ma'am!" And thus he trotted off with the branch in hand, carrying it like a wand. Chuckling to herself, Hikari began to pour out the pulverized powder onto a small square of paper to press. She began to fold in the corners, only stopping when she heard a shout from behind the house.

She jolted in her seat and began to stand, Isse running to her with a panicked expression she'd never seen before. "Azami's gone!"

Her heart dropped. Gone? Hikari stood up fully, "Okay, okay, what d'you mean by gone? Missin'?"

Isse was crying now, tears streaming down his face as he sputtered out his words in a deluge. "Gone! She's gone and I can't find her and I was only gone for a few seconds and it's all my fault--"

Putting her hands on his shoulders, she gently shook him to snap him out of the frenzy. Thinking quick, she set him aside while she traced the edge of her home and grabbed the woodcutting hatchet from the woodpile for a little extra protection. She doubted she'd needed it, as a four year old couldn't have run far. "You stay with me," she said, voice grave, "an' you don't wander off. Does she have any places that she likes t'go to? Did she say anythin' before you left t'ask me about the blossoms?"

"Uh, she only really said that they were pretty and smelled good. That she wanted to see them on the water." When he spoke, his eyes dawned in horror. "Did she go to the river?!"

"No, no, she wouldn't've made it that far." Not on her little legs, nor with the soldiers patrolling. She did have an idea, though. With a hatchet in her left and Isse's hand taken in her right, Hikari went down the rocky slopes that lined Namai's paddies and cliffside homes as she had many, many times before. "I have an idea, but we gotta go quick so she doesn't get caught."

"Will they get mad at her?"

"Yer parents? They'd probably be worried, but--"

"No, not them!" Isse shook his head. "The--the Imperial soldiers. Will they get mad?"

It struck Hikari then that she didn't actually know. She spoke slowly, "If we get caught, we tell them the truth. That Azami wandered off an' we went t'go get her." No point in lyin' when it'll only get us int' trouble. "It's jus' where we're goin' that I'm worried they'll get mad about. Jus' keep yer voice even an' don't cause a scene. Can y'be calm fer me, Isse?"

Wiping off another glob of tears, Isse nodded at her. Sympathetically, Hikari nodded back and continued on through the valley's winding paths until she heard water running.

Heron's Flight was a tender and cultivated water source, and occasionally a source of meat if herons were abundant a particular year. It was the area around Heron's Flight that troubled her, because the shattered shrine of their auspice protector was laid to rest here. It was common knowledge that the worship of their kami was persecuted harshly, but Tamamo Gozen was even more despised due to her aid in the fight against the invading Imperials... or so they say. Not even an auspice of legend was enough to protect their nation, and so her destroyed shrine sat unmaintained and rotting.

She always felt bad that she couldn't do anything about it. Her mother had taught her of the legend of this place, and why the kitsune was once so revered, and also why no one could come here anymore.

A scream cut the air, shrill and sharp, followed by the clattering of elytra against a carapace. "Stay right here," Hikari commanded, rushing away from Isse as fast as her lean legs could carry her. Brisk as the fox that once called this place home, Hikari skidded past the petal-laden pond and watched in terror as Azami was being backed towards the shrine by a massive rhino beetle. It clicked its mandibles at her, raising its wings in a threat display.

It's wandered far from where it's supposed to be. Hikari didn't waste time in skirting the pond while gripping her hatchet all the while, jumping off the rock and landing squarely on the bug's back. Like killing a lobster, she brought her weapon down on the segmentation between head and thorax, sending it buckling to the ground dead. The sudden death with her strike sent Hikari tumbling to the ground dazed, weapon's edged covered in opaque hemolymph. Azami was curled up into a small ball, wailing, and was only starting to quiet down when Isse herded her into a hug.

"I told you t'stay put," Hikari groaned from her prone position in the grass. She props herself up on her elbows and lowly starts to bring herself to her knees.

"I got worried when I saw you jump on it." He admitted without apology, brows furrowed as he tried to console Azami. "I heard her crying and you got really quiet, so I..."

Swallowing, Hikari went to them both with a shaky breath. "Look, we'll jus' go home. I'm gonna hafta tell our parents what happened, but no one was hurt, so in the end it's okay as long as neither've you pull somethin' like this again, okay?"

Azami sniffled and shook her head up and down in quick succession, and Isse opened his mouth to speak before a voice, deep and authoritative, cut him off in a way that sent Hikari's heart hurtling into her throat.

"Halt, the three of you!"

Of course. No good deed goes unpunished. On instinct, Hikari dropped her hatchet to disarm herself. Do not speak unless spoken to, tell the entire truth, don't fight back, you know it's unfair, safety for yourself and others comes first.

"This area is strictly forbidden unless allowed by Imperial escort." He was a Centurion judging by the cermet armor, and by the tone in his voice he did not sound pleased. "State your business here. Promptly."

Isse spoke first. "We--"

Hikari cut him off with her own words. She didn't trust those of a child to be good enough in this scenario, and she couldn't hear or feel much beyond the rhythmic pounding of her heart in her chest and the coiling chill of fear in her stomach. "I was watchin' these two play, an' Azami wandered off 'cause she wanted t'see the petals on the water. I was t'take her home immediately but she was beset upon by a rhino beetle so I took action. We were jus' leavin', an' we will not be returnin'." Hikari bowed by bending the upper half of her body in apology, her nails subconciously gripping her clothing. "You have m'deepest apologies fer m'lapse in attention in allowin' her t'wander. It will not happen again."

The Centurion regards the two siblings next to her. "Is what she claims the truth?"

"Yes sir," said Isse, with Azami rubbing her puffy eyes still stained with tears, giving a frail nod.

The moments the soldier takes to assess are agonizingly slow. Though his armored fingers drum on his weapon for a brief moment, he eventually drops his hand to his side. "See to it that this doesn't reoccur. This is the first offence I have seen, so I will look past it this once."

The weight was relieved from Hikari's shoulders, and she felt she could breathe again. She looks down at her charges. "Let's be off an' get y'all home, okay?"

As she scooted them along down the slope, the Centurion actually stepped forward to examine the beetle. "You said you felled this beast on your own?"

Hikari did not look back just yet, only straight ahead with an expression as even as she could force. "Yes sir. In one blow."

"Impressive." The way it was said made Hikari's veins freeze for reasons she did not yet know. She turned back, only to see him approaching with the hatchet in hand. He held it out by the handle. "You must have quite the arm. Your weapon."

She didn't voice her thoughts, merely smiling and nodding, taking it by the blunt edge of the blade and hanging it off the holder to her side. "Thank you, sir. I hope you have a good afternoon."

She quickly walked the two children back to the village, and when they finally arrived ( and Azami having calmed down enough from ordeal to at least look well ), Hikari nearly collapsed with several panicked gasps being the only way to intake air. Her heart thudded against her ribcage, punching the walls of her chest, knocking the air she desperately needed from her. She felt like screaming. Isse tried to support her, but she brushed him off, letting herself calm down before standing upright.

"I'm fine, I'm okay," she reassured through a thin veneer of control. "Azami, please never run off like that again. Y'could have gotten seriously hurt," or killed, "do y'understand me?"

"I just wanted to see the flowers..." The girl frowned defensively. "I keep seeing them cover the pond from all the way over here. I just wanted to look!"

"There's a reason we don't go over there, it isn't safe." Hikari didn't snap, but her tone was strained. "It was my fault, I should have been watchin' you more closely. Next time y'wanna see the flowers on the water, I'll grab an adult an' we can take a little walk t'the riverbank, okay?"

"Okay!" And just like that, all was forgotten and forgiven. Isse gave Hikari a sheepish and apologetic look, handing Azami the branch from earlier that she took with glee and began to wave around. Hikari sighed in relief before she felt something rest a hand on her shoulder.

"Somethin' happen?" Masaru asked, looking between Hikari and her two charges. His eyes were trained on her expression with calculated worry.

Dad. Hikari breathed in raggedly, "Y'don't know the half've it."

"Tell me in the house." He whispered before calling to Azami and Isse. "You two! Your parents are back home, they wanted me to call you to dinner!"

"Thank you, Nakama-san! We'll start heading home!" Isse tugged his sister's sleeve, who followed after him still waving around that little stick. Hikari watched with relief as they went back to their house, nearly collapsing into a seated position on the ground.

Masaru supported her, though, hooking one arm under hers. His violet eyes, a couple shades lighter than her own, complimented his sun-kissed skin. If not for that tan and his considerably shorter hair, his daughter would have been his spitting image. With a furrowed brow, he looked at her, eyes dark with worry. "I overheard a little, not everythin', of course. Where did Azami wander to?"

"The shrine," Hikari croaked.

The worry became grave. "And you were caught, I take it?"

Hikari nodded agonizingly slow. Masaru sighed and dragged a hand down his face, chewing the inside of his cheek. "But they didn't hurt you?"

"No. I killed a bug shortly before the soldier arrived. Can't exactly fake a corpse." She said numbly. "I think havin' evidence gave him enough t'let us off with a warnin'. I did all y'taught me."

"Good kid." He placed a hand on her head and ruffled her curls. "It's unfair, but it kept you three safe, and that's what matters. I'll talk to their parents about what happened. You know kids like to hide things when they're afraid to get in trouble." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Kami know that you did the same thing as a wee one."

Hikari crumpled under the gesture like wet paper. "There's somethin' else that bugged me."

Her father dipped his head, as if asking her to continue.

"When he saw the beetle corpse, he said it was impressive an' that I had a good arm." She swallowed. "I didn't like the way it made me feel."

Masaru's eyes darkened at that. "And you're certain that's what he said?"

After she nodded affirmingly, she could swear she saw the tiniest hint of terror in her father's eyes before he cleared his throat. "I'll talk with your mother. All I ask is that you keep your head down, alright?"

"I... plan on it. I plan on stayin' in the village, too, unless mother wants me t'go gather herbs with her again." She explained, rubbing her wrist.