While you two were following a clue that could lead to the demon, you couldn't help but to notice that there was a little girl crying in the middle of the crowded street. You stopped walking, and then thoughtlessly shifted towards the girl. Muichiro only sighed. Just when you two were set on finding the demon, you just had to get distracted with a crybaby. He would've spaced out himself, but his mind was already sick of walking in circles.

You kneeled down in front of the kid and attempted to give her a small smile. "What's wrong?"

The girl, sobbing, tried to dry her never-ending flow of tears. She held a water bag high, inside it was a goldfish that didn't look so... alive.

"I-I w-won a goldie! B-but... but I was walking a-and I fell and... and someone stepped on him! And now it's dead!"

The girl began crying again, this time louder. You grew worried and looked at your master, who was just staring off at the girl with no emotions. To pacify the girl, you gave her your own goldfish, the one Muichiro won for you. The girl looked up at you, trembling, blinking away her tears.

"Take care of it this time, okay?"

The girl nodded, forming a toothy smile as she took it from your hands.

"What? [Y/N], why would you give away tomorrow's dinner?"

Your face contorted into an alarmed expression at his words, blinking rapidly and with your mouth agape.

"That goldfish wasn't meant to be eaten!"

Muichiro's head tilted to the side, his long black locks framing his adorably confused face.

"It wasn't...? Why else would you have a fish for?"

"Oh my God..." you covered your face with your hands, restraining a giggle. "With all due respect, Tokito-sama, I'm surprised your crow is still alive."

"What do you mean? I wouldn't eat my crow."

"Yes, but I'm surprised you haven't forgotten what a crow is at all, or forgotten that it's yours, or..."

Muichiro lost interest in the conversation, taking your hand back into his and beginning to drag you away from the seemingly confused child.

"A-ah! Wait! I still haven't found my mommy yet"

While Muichiro opposed completely, he didn't do anything to stop you from accompanying the girl until you two found her mother. He was bored, and he wanted to kill the demon already, but he had no clue where it was in the first place anyway.

"Mommy was around here somewhere..."

The girl went ahead, guiding the way as you two walked behind keeping an eye on her.

"Why are we doing this?" he asked in a whisper.

You leaned to the side, closer to him. "Because it's good to help people. If you help others, good things come to you"

He frowned, playing with the handle of his sheathed nichirin.

"That's stupid. Good and bad things happening are random chance. If you're good, you have the same possibility of, say, getting killed by a demon, as if you had been bad."

Pouting, you shook your head several times. Before you could contradict his statement, however, the cries of a grown woman alerted the both of you. It was coming from an eerie alley. Your hand unconciously tightened on Muichiro's hand, eyes fixated on a light that was getting closer, and closer, and closer. Muichiro distinguished the sound of an uneven breathing and rushed footsteps, but you didn't have that good of a hearing sense to hear them over the loud chattering and music of the cheerful summer festival.

"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!"

That desperate scream, at least, was something you were able to hear. It came along with the goosebumps that the bizarre shape of a demon gave you. You could make it out from all the darkness around. It was right behind the woman whose terrified eyes were filled to the brim with tears.

"Mommy!" the little girl exclaimed, running to the woman's side.

You quickly reacted, forcefully pulling her back by her yukata's collar, making her fall to the ground. You stepped in front of her defensively, eyes fixated on the demon with pure hatred. It was still hidden in the alley, to not be seen by more people, or so you assumed.

Muichiro took a defensive stance, putting his dominant hand over his katana, unshealthing in an instant. His mint eyes squinted, drawing the demon's shape and where its head was supposed to be. He jumped forward, rotating in the air to gain more strength. His cold blade cut the demon's neck before its hands could pierce through the running woman's chest.

The girl went back up and hugged her mom, crying. The woman was shaking so much that you could feel her dread eating her insides rapidly. You could only stare at them as the mother tried to stand up supporting herself on a wall.

Muichiro landed gracefully on the ground. He blinked slowly, as if he were just arriving to reality from a dream, as he had been too focused on killing the demon to realize the sound of fireworks exploding in the background. They had been doing so for around five minutes, but just then, when the demon was crumbling into ashes, they illuminated the darkness that previously consumed the alley.

The colorful lights illuminated his face, your eyes now focused on it. On the blood that had splashed his cheek, on his empty eyes, on his thoughtful expression as he looked up at the night sky, even though the fireworks were almost impossible to see from that spot.

Whilst you walked up to him with worried eyes, he turned on his sandals and stared directly into them.

The sound of fireworks was dying... that colorful spectacle had lasted a second.

"I'm sorry... you couldn't watch the fireworks..." he apologized, but he kept his unimpressed face.

You smiled. The fact that he was apologizing for something so small made your heart flutter.

One of your hands cupped one of his cheeks, while with the other you cleaned the blood with your kimono's long sleeve.

"It's okay. We're demon slayers, and we came here for this. I'm happy just spending time with you."

He leaned in the warmth of your palm, staring deep into your gentle eyes.

"We can still enjoy the rest of the festival..."

Your eyes widened just hearing his unexpected suggestion. Was he really saying that you two should stay longer? Your eyes lit up inmediately, cheeks turning bright red.

"Y-yes! I, um, I want to try that shooting game again!"

Muichiro nodded, his expression softening. He took your hand, and you two began walking towards the more crowded part of the festival. Even though you tried to spot the woman and child, they were nowhere to be found; but knowing that they were safe and probably resting at their home put your heart at ease.

"See? Doing good deeds results in good things coming your way"

Mixing in with the people, he let go of your hand and, without stopping, turned his head to face you.

"We helped that girl, and ended up finding the demon sooner!"

Muichiro stayed silent. He didn't wish to go against your idealistic line of thought. He only returned his eyes to the front.

The main road was surrounded by red and yellow stalls, lightened with stylish paper lanterns and the colorful kimonos and yukatas that the people there were using. They were enjoying themselves, the demonic nature of the nights unbeknownst to them. Ignorance truly equalled happiness in some cases.

Large, rough hands grabbed your wrist and forcefully pulled you back. Muichiro kept walking. You turned to see the people who had abruptly forced you to stop, finding three men around their twenties with smug smiles plastered on their faces. One of them was grabbing your wrist while another one pulled you even closer by your waist.

Oh no. people. men. too close!!

"Hey, cutie. We couldn't help but notice you from afar, and let me say, you looked pretty bored around here."

"Yeah, what if you come with us a have a little fun?"

"Huh? P-please let me go... I.. I'm with someone already" you stuttered, looking at the ground with your cheeks heated up.

"Huh? You mean that dwarf? Please, that kid's bedtime has already passed! He's probably about to ask his mommy to tell him a bedtime story when they get home."

He laughed, and the others followed. You frowned at them, your shy expression dissolving into the same hatred you had towards the unjust creatures called demons.

"But, sir, he doesn't have a mom so don't—"

Their raucous laughs interrupted you, they all looked at you with mockery.

"His mommy didn't like him and abandoned him? So sad!"

They laughed again. Over all the chatter, nobody paid attention to the scene playing out. Muichiro had already stopped and turned around, staring at the scene with a bored expression. Three men trying to steal away his tsuguko.

«Do you really think you can take her?

I trained her, idiots.»

"Anyway, lass, why don't you leave this kid and go somewhere nice with us?"

Muichiro rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh.

A soft giggle escaped your lips, but your eyes reflected nothing more than pure disgust.

"Are you on stupid pills?"

You stared directly into their eyes, a toxic smile plastered on your face.

"I swear, with every word that comes out of your mouths, the whole city loses braincells, so please do humanity a favor and shut the hell up. I'm not going anywhere with you three idiots."

Before they could even dare to reply, you kicked one of the men's stomach. Freeing yourself from the other one, you elbowed him. Finally, with the remaining one, it only took a punch to the face. All of them got knocked out with just a single hit. The last one even had a trail of blood coming out of his nose. All the people around gathered, gossiping amongst themselves. Obviously, when was the last time that a young girl knocked out three grown males with a single hit?

You gave them one last dead stare before coming back to reality. The nervous feeling of being observed got you to run off to your master's side, who was looking at the scene completely emotionless. When you two were far enough from that crowd, you let out the breath you hadn't realized you had been holding.

"Thankfully it's all over now... but I do wonder, why did they go after me? Because they saw me as an easy target? I mean, there's a lot of cuter girls here." as you were speaking, he took a peek at your profile from the corner of his eyes. "I'm not even pretty"

Muichiro looked away with a bored stare, and muttered, "You are."

"Huh?"

Suddenly, he began walking a bit faster. You had to hurry to catch up to him, with a big smile and rosy cheeks.

Of course you had heard him.

You always do.