Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

4. Tin

The spirit cores, the demon had said, were representations of people's beings.

Everything a person was appeared plastered on the landscape that kept the soul safe. Like the roots of a tree, the tree grew and extended from the soul, where everything originated from.

Kazuya wondered what kind of person that girl had to be to possess such a spirit core. Definitely not a nice one.

"I won't ask her out, not even as a joke," he muttered, blowing against his hands in a poor attempt to warm the cold fingers with his own breath. "Not even as a joke."

His gaze was still fixed on the dark roof in the distance, but the melted snow, the steep hill and the few clarity the Moon offered, high up above the sky, only made him trip time and time again.

He could barely hold the awl with which he had to break the spirit core in between his hands, his teeth chattered, snow kept getting in his clothes and why did no one tell him spirit cores could be so goddamn confusing?

The roof was the only constant there, all the trees appeared to be the same and that place was flooding with red spider lilies, tall and thin that tangled with his feet and drowned the path marked on the ground.

"Are you lost?"

Kazuya looked up to find, on top of the hill, the figure of a little child. He instantly slid the awl in one of his pockets.

She looked at him from above although her eyes were closed. There was something shining on her forehead he couldn't see. With intertwined hands inside her sleeves, the girl tilted her head to the side and waited for an answer.

"No one usually comes here by choice," she added, at which Kazuya raised his eyebrows. "It's a very ugly place."

"It sure is." Kazuya couldn't help but chuckle, leaning on his knees to regain his breath, always with his gaze on the girl.

"Hey...," he said in between huffs. The girl skipped a bit and craned her neck up, nervously playing with her hands. "Have you seen a shiny ball closeby?"

"You... you're looking for the spirit core?" She muttered, out of breath. "I don't think the samurai will like that."

She fidgeted, as if looking for someone in between the trees and the flowers. Could she even see when her eyes were still closed?

"Then don't tell them," Kazuya proposed, starting to walk in her direction again. "It can be our secret."

The girl finally got one hand out and offered it to Kazuya to help him up, blushing cheeks.

"Secret... like a friend's secret? We'll be friends that have secrets togethers?" She cheerfully whispered. Kazuya stretched a hand out to take hers and the girl tugged him to the esplanade she had been standing all that time. Even if it was a cold place, the touch of the girl was warm and comforting. When looking at her fingers Kazuya noticed they were black, frozen and on the verge of crumbling. Something so warm couldn't survive for too long in a place like that.

Kazuya realized that they had finally reached the roof. It must have belonged to the mansion of some great feudal lord that appeared in the distance. It was big, wooden, countless porches and long corridors destined for powerful royal warriors and outstanding ladies to walk through.

«The spirit core must be there» Kazuya thought. «This must be the center of everything»

The girl was still looking at him, now she had to crane her neck up and, with Kazuya's eyes used to the dark, he finally saw what shone on her forehead. An only open eye, shining, from where tears fell.