Reunion and good-bye

If my father truly is a demon slayer like me, then wouldn't he kill Orochi? Orochi is in a human form but my father might now it's him. I bite my lip in frustration, "How do I know that he won't? Don't you trust me?"

His jaw clenched, "I trust you but I don't trust a demon slayer that I have no idea of what they could do."

If it is true that my father is such a powerful warrior, he might be able to find out that Orochi is a demon even with his identity changed to look like a human. Even if he did, I just want to see my parents. I haven't seen their faces in so long and every day I have got even more homesick. Do demon even understand how humans are so attached to their parents? I wonder if Orochi even cares for his parents, he seems so... Defensive, when it comes to sensitive matters.

I turn around and look at him, "Can I just please see them? I want to at least see their faces one more time."

He stares back at me and sighs, "Alright. But we have to be secretive about it. Your dad might already sense me because of my presence here. I already noticed some guards that seemed to be looking strangely at me."

"Huh?! Really?" I look over the crowds but I don't see anyone that would look suspicious. All the guards seemed to be just watching the people walking around and not even paying attention to us.

"Where do you see that? Everything looks normal."

He bends down next to me and whispers, "Do you see at the bread stall, a hidden guard is looking at us right now. Then over at the food booth, there are two guards chatting but they have been watching us the whole time."

I look over to see that all three men are looking over here and staring at us. Orochi is right, we are under suspicion. "But why are they suspicious?"

"I guess that they have never seen such a handsome person like me." I slap his arm and frown.

"Yeah, so handsome," I roll my eyes. "Anyway what will we do?"

"We'll just pretend to leave the market and then we'll hide. After they dissipate we can go to your house. You are even at danger here in the human world so it is best to stay some distance away." He grabs our stuff and throws it into a small bag.

"Let's go. On our way out, make some conversation so they believe us."

I nod my head and follow beside him, I notice that the two guards notice that we have moved and have started to chatter with each other. I wonder who told them to watch us then.

"Did you have fun?" Orochi asks me.

"Huh- Oh, yeah! This is super fun. I missed all the food here. The Wagashi is so amazing!" I smile at him and hope the guards think that we are leaving naturally. I look from the corner of my eye and the one at the bread booth seemed to have relaxed from watching us.

"Don't let your guard down until we are outside." He whispers only audible for me to hear.

We soon are outside and duck into the bushes in the forest. The three guards follow outside and look around.

"Where did they go?" The one guard looks around but skims over where we are; we go unnoticed.

"Probably still in the market."

"But I was sure they left!" The other two turn around and ignore what the one man says.

"Let's just go patrol. Don't want to cause trouble for us later." As they walk away from us, Orochi turns to me and grabs the pin from my hair. His index-finger glows a soft purple and he touches the flower. The flower glows the same bright violet color and then returns to its dark wine color.

"What did you do?" He put the pin back in my hair where it was.

"I put a stronger spell on it and eyesight on it. You should be able to see a little better from a distance." He stands up and holds out his hand for me, I take it and brush off the leaves from me.

"Let's go."

I walk ahead of Orochi and take a secret path that I used to take from my house to the market. I began to notice the familiar trees and my house came into view a little bit and my heart skipped a beat.

I can finally see them! I can feel myself start to walk faster towards it but Orochi gently touches my shoulder giving the subtle reminder that I needed to be silent. We circle to the back of the house where I thought my mother would be but as I look at the back, she is not sitting there. My heart aches a little when I don't see her there. Could she be busy? I wait for a minute but nothing happens.

I look down in disappointment, "Let's go, Orochi."

As I start getting up, Orochi yanks me back down close to him, "Look."

I look back and see my mother sitting down at the window looking into the forest as if she can us but her gaze is empty. I notice that her glowing beauty suddenly dimmed as if she was covered in an invisible blanket of sadness.

"Mom..." I choke out and feel my eyes begin to sting with tears. She looked like she was in quiet agony. I could my eyes get a sudden warm feeling and I could see my mother with closer detail. With the vision Orochi gifted me, I could see her skin wasn't taken care of like usual, her eyes were swollen from crying and bags were on her skin below her eyes.

My chest tightens knowing that she was probably the worst effect of my disappearance. "Orochi..."

"No, you can't go up to her."

Tears fall onto my cheeks as I see her empty shell sitting alone. "I need to say something to her." I get up and wipe the tears off my cheeks.

"You can't, you need to stay hidden!" He grabs my hand like an iron chain holding me down.

I focus my strength and yank my hand out of his grasp, "I'm going and you can't order me around like some dog." I yank the hairpin out and put it in my kimono fold. I run up out of the forest line and start heading up to her through the grass.

My mother doesn't realize there is movement until she hears my foot snap on a branch below me.

I see her eyes look up at me and her face pales.

"Ren... Ren, is that you?"

I smile and run up hugging her through the window, "Yes it's me."

Her body begins to shake and a cry comes out of her throat as she wraps her arms around me. Her hand pulls my head close to her, "My baby, your here."

I feel more tears fall, the embrace of her healed all my unseen wounds. I felt as if her hug was my home, a home in her arms. "I missed you."

She laughed between her cries, "Where did you go?"

I put back and look at her face as she holds my face between her cold hands. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you. I just needed to make sure you see me and know that I am okay."

Her face cracks in sadness, "Why? Is something wrong?"

I smile sadly, "No, nothing is wrong. I just can't tell you. I need you to promise to keep this away from my father. I can't let anyone know that I was here. Please, can you promise that for me?"

Her eyes search mine, looking for an answer but she gives in. "Of course."

I hug her again, "Thank you, Mom."

She hugs me tighter to herself. "No matter where you are, I love you and also your father. You're always welcome to come home."

My chest feels as if she nailed a piece of metal into it onto aboard.

"Here." She lets me go and pulls a hairpin that my father gave her. It had metal flowers hanging from the rose in the center. She puts it in my hair and looks at me with tears in her eyes.

"Now, you will always have a piece of home with you." Her finer gently touches my cheek and I finally break into a sob. She pulls me into a hug and lets me cry into her shoulder. Her soft hushing makes me become nub, like a soft sweet poison that only a mother has.

"Go before your father returns. I'll hold this moment deep in my heart and help him get through this." I nod my head and back away from her.

"I love you, my beautiful little lotus flower."

"I love you too, mom." With that I let my hands drop from her and walk back into the forest, not looking back.