His Light

Ch. VI

After that, Sakumi was able to talk Ichirohiko into taking a few days off. They were both surprised when they saw Jiromaru walk in to their home, a few days later, along with Kyuta.
"Kyuta?" Sakumi asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Jiromaru invited me over" he answered
"I thought Jiromaru always faught with him?" Ichirohiko said
"Nii-chan, Kyuta was able to beat me the other day" Jiromaru exclaimed, "I invited him over so he could taste some of Saku-chan's sweats"
"Jiromaru" Ichirohiko said in a warning tone, "Sakumi can't make her sweets everyday"
"I don't mind" the fox girl said getting up and heading to the kitchen
"Well you don't have to now" Ichirohiko said trying to get her to stay a bit longer, but she didn't listen and entered the kitchen.

Kyuta was pulled by Jiromaru and sat next to him on the table. At first it was a bit awkward until Kyuta remembered something.
"Hey Ichirohiko?" he asked. The boy looked at him in question, "I haven't seen Sakumi at her stall for the past few days, why's that?"
Before Ichirohiko could answer Jiromaru replied, "Saku-chan has been staying at home, taking care of nii-chan" the young boy looked away so they wouldn't his blushing cheeks.
It's true, Sakumi did stay at home taking car of him. To be honest, it was nice just staying home and having time with Sakumi. Just the two of them. It was nice having her around.
"Does Sakumi live here?" Kyuta asked
"Yeah, Saku-chan has been living with us for a while now, isn't that right nii-chan" Jiromaru explained and then looked at Ichirohiko who was still looking away from them, trying to calm his red cheeks.

"Here you go" Sakumi returned with a tray in her hands and three of her special sweets. After giving each of them a cup. Then Ichirohiko noticed that she didn't have cup herself.
"Sakumi, what about you?"
"Hm? Oh, there wasn't enough for four, so I only made three" she explained, "plus I didn't feel like having any either"
Ichirohiko only starred at her for a bit, until he heard Kyuta speak up
"Wow, this is good!" he said, "how come I haven't had this one before?" he asked
"Because only special people can have them" Jiromaru cheered
Sakumi chuckled and scratched her cheek as a blush grew on her cheeks. Ichirohiko noticed her tail swaying back and forth behind her. She was, obviously, happy at the compliment.

After eating and chatting for a bit, Kyuta stood up.
"I should be going" he said, "Kumatetsu is gonna be wondering where I am, and I have practice tomorrow"
Ichirohiko and Jiromaru looked at him
"Practice?" Ichirohiko questioned
"You finally became his disciple?" Jiromaru asked
Kyuta nodded his head, "We started training a few days ago, but Hyaku-san managed to talk Kumatetsu into giving a break today"
Ichirohiko stayed quiet for a bit and then looked at his brother, "Jiromaru, walk Kyuta to the gate" he said, "it's time I go to sleep" he said getting up.

Sakumi had been making him go to sleep early so he could get a good nights rest and recover faster. He sort of got used to it. But Sakumi noticed he's going to sleep a bit earlier than usual.
"Why are you gong so early?" she asked once Jiromaru and Kyuta left.
"I'm going to start training again starting tomorrow" he simply answered as he head to his room.
"Huh? But are you sure you're okay to start again?" she asked running after him
Ichirohiko turned around and smiled at her, "Of course, I feel refreshed and ready to start my training again" he explained, "thanks to you Sakumi" he said and then patted her head.
Sakumi's eyes widened when Ichirohiko started stroking her head. Her being a fox, it felt...kind of good. Maybe it's because he's stroking so close to her ears.
"y-you're w-welcome" she said
Ichirohiko smiled at her again and walked into his room, closing his door behind him

~~~~~~~

After a bath, Ichirohiko sat on his bed. He couldn't stop thinking about how Sakumi blushed at Kyuta's compliment, or how her hair felt so soft in his hand. he raise his head and starred at it. He could still feel the texture of her hair, he could even feel the fur from her ears when he moved his hand next to them. It made him wonder if her ears felt just as soft, and if she would like to have him stroke her ears too.

Ichirohiko widened his eyes and a blush exploded on his face once he noticed what he was thinking about. He brought his hand up and covered his mouth out of embarrassment. He then looked at his hat that Sakumi tinkered with, making it look better.
He reached over and grabbed it. He noticed that some of the stitching was coming apart.
"I guess I could ask her if she could fix it again" he mumbled 'later though'
She's done enough for the past few days looking after him. Even though he still felt a bit tired, he wanted to go back to training. He just wanted to get stronger. For his father. His brother. And for her too.

***************

After that, Sakumi spent most of her time at her stall. Ichirohiko and Jiromaru spent their time training with Iouzen, Kyuta was training with Kumatetsu, and she was busy running her stall. She had to admit, she would get lonely every once in a while. Ichirohiko and Kyuta would visit every once in a while, but she noticed that Ichirohiko didn't want to be near Kyuta. Must be something about the contest between both masters.

Sakumi sat on the counter of her stall. It's been a slow day, so not many people went to her stall. She was drinking a fruit juice she made herself when she saw Kyuta.
"Kyuta!!" she called out to him. The human boy turned to her and waved to her. He walked up to her stall. When he got close, she noticed something and almost chocked her juice. "what the heck?" she called and jumped off her counter to stand next to him. She landed a little too close to him, making a faint blush spread on his cheeks.
"w-what?" he asked
"You've grown" she simply said, looking up at him a bit
"oh, Hyuku-san and Tata-san said the same thing" he said, looking down to her.
Sakumi's eyebrow twitched a bit. She and Kyuta used to be the same size. Had time really passes by that fast that Kyuta is growing taller than her? Sakumi's blue eyes widened a bit. 'Does that mean that Ichi grew too? Aw man, he was already taller than me, how much taller can her be!?' she thought

Later that day, Sakumi was reading a book when she heard the door open and closed. 'The boys must've finished training early' she thought and got up to greet them. That's when she noticed that they have grown. Jiromaru's tusks were coming in and he was growing taller than Sakumi too. Then she looked at Ichirohiko and noticed that he was way taller than her now. Jiromaru was almost his height too. But she did notice that......he didn't look that much different. Yes, he did look a bit more...handsome. But she noticed that he was growing any tusks like Jiromaru. Had she really not been paying attention to, Jiromaru, Kyuta and Ichiromaru all this time?

"ah Sakumi" Ichirohiko said when he saw her, "I have a favor to ask" he said walking up to her
Jiromaru waved goodnight to them and walked to his own room. Ichirohiko removed his hat, showing it to her, "Do you mind fixing my hat?" he asked
Sakumi took his hat in his hand and noticed that a button fell off, it was kind of dirty, and the snout was peeling off.
"Sure, I can fix it but it might take a while" she said looking up at him, noticing how much his hair was growing a bit, not as fluffy as Kyuta's but still. If Sakumi didn't know better, Ichirohiko looked just like a-
Ichirohiko nodded, "I don't mind, I told father and we'll be training in the backyard for a bit"
Sakumi shook her head a bit, "oh, o-okay" she said blushing lightly, she looked at his hat, "Well first things first, I'll have to clean it a bit and to do that I'll have to un-stitch everything" she explained
Ichirohiko rubbed his neck, "go for it, do what you think will make it look better" he said looking at her, "I trust you with it"
Sakumi blushed a bit more, "o-okay, well I'll t-tell you when i-it's ready!" she said and quickly walked to her own room.
"oh and Sakumi?" he called and the fox girl turned to look at him, "you should upgrade your wardrobe a bit" he said blushing a bit.
The fox girl blinked in confusion and then looked at her attire. That's when she noticed that her kimono was shorter than usual. 'huh, so maybe I am growing a bit' she thought and continued walking.

Ichirohiko chuckled as he saw her walk off. His smile quickly faded and he made his way to his father's room.

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(I was feeling the writers magic and decided to update. Again. I'm gonna be working on the next chapter too, but I probably won't be able to post it tonight)