"You honor me," Marabas said with what felt like a smile-just being a mask and all meant he had no face- "But really, we wouldn't have gotten half-done with it if not for you. You're quite the prodigy in your own right."
"Aww, thanks!" Miwa said with a smile. "I'm going to sleep now, ok? You... do whatever you do for sleeping. Wait, do demons even sleep?"
"Of course we don't," the demon said with mild smugness, "Who are we, mortals?"
"I...good night, demon."
As Miwa seemingly went to sleep, Marabas stared at Miwa. A light chuckle started out from him. As it started getting out of control, he stabbed his own chest with his bare hand.
Couldn't have the child waking up, after all. Humans need rest if you want them to become perfectly fine for the future.
......
"Hey, wanna visit my girlfriend?"
Miwa looked up from the dirt in surprise at Todo's request. They had just gotten done sparring, if you could call a one-sided beat down that included such fine moments as:
Getting switched into the line of fire of her own energy wave, to be slammed into the ground by her foot when she jumped and he switched again.
Todo almost running through her with her own sword when he switched out of a trap.
Todo hitting her with a black flash, which was why she had to look up from the dirt to show her surprise.
"Oh don't give me that look, it's only been a few weeks since you saved her. She wants to thank her savior after all." Todo said with a small smile as he helped get up.
"It's not...you ask questions at the weirdest times, you know?" Miwa said with a small groan, sheathing her sword.
"Really? Name one time-
"Literally every time you meet someone new you ask them what their type of women is before beating the life out of them," Miwa said remembering their own first meeting with a shudder. How was she even alive after?
Well obviously, she was a lot sturdier now, so it wasn't worth asking. I mean, she even tanked a black-
Miwa felt explosive pain in her chest and all but immediately collapsed as the thought crossed her mind.
Ok, so maybe 'tanked' isn't the right word... Miwa thought as she passed out.
Todo looked at Miwa for a time, chuckling to himself about determined children, then scooped her up and put her in the infirmary.
As he was walking out, he ran into Gakuganji, who had Mechamaru in tow.
"Did Mechamaru do anything wrong, Teach?" Todo said with a small chuckle. "It takes too long to fix him, so go easy on him ok?"
"... Right." Gakuganji said in a way meant to brush him off. "Well, enjoy your day, you have a mission tomorrow."
"Are you going to tell me, or..."
"You'll know tomorrow. And Todo, if you see any mask parts, be sure to bring them to the association, ok?"
"Mask parts?" Todo asked in confusion.
"Yeah, like Miwa's," Gakuganji said with a slight edge in his voice.
And with that, Gakuganji and Muta walked away from Todo, leaving nothing to discuss and everything to ponder.
......
The journey to Nobukuo's house three days after had been awkward, to say the least.
Perhaps it was because despite being good friends, they generally tried not to hang out with each other and were both acutely aware that the other was doing so.
