A Tale Of True Demons - Book 1: Innocence Begone (Indra Otsutsuki)

Chapter 10: Ink And Water

For some odd reason, the two brothers' little bonding time had took long enough for the sun to slowly set from the sky. Taking in heavy breaths, the brunette quickly dashed his way through the halls of the compound and down the stairs that led to the basement. And the same as from before, he as well made certain that no one was able to witness him doing so.

"I know I promised that I'm going to be gone for awhile, but hear me out first!" Indra announced as he slid the door open to enter the chamber before closing it behind him. "You see, I-"

Indra cut himself from his own words with an utterly horrified shriek when he had laid eyes on the girl. Because one moment he left her with a paintbrush in her hand for her to practice writing, the next he came back, her face, her hands, some bits of her hair and even her kimono had spots and stains of the black ink. However, as stained and soaked in dark ink as she is now, she just oddly sat there with her dull white eyes starring right at him, obviously oblivious regarding the current situation.

"Krishna, what happened?! What have you done to yourself?!" He said with a voice full of so much panic as he hurriedly made his way before the girl and dropped to his knees to be in equal level with her. He then stretched his hand out to. Her and added "Here, let me-"

The moment the boy's hand was a few inches away from her bandaged mouth, triggering her for some reason, the girl harshly slapped it away before immediately backing away from the boy and shot a glare at him. Her sudden act of aggression honestly left Indra both shocked and confused as he rubbed the very same hand she had slapped to try and ease the pain off. Realizing what she had done, her white eyes then widened.

She then let out what sounded like a whine and grabbed a hold of the very same hand of his that she harmed, startling him a bit in the process. But what had actually shocked him the most was when she made the back of his hand press against her forehead. Indra just sat there with wide eyes as the scene unfolded, not without having that quite tiny but noticeable pink tint on both his cheeks.

A few seconds passed in an awkward silence, the brunette then finally realized. Since the girl still couldn't communicate through any means, he could only presume that this was somewhat her way of apologizing to him for her mistake. Also realizing that he couldn't take this tension forming in between them any longer, with his free hand, he then slowly reached out towards the silver-haired girl.

It paused in hesitation at first, but it eventually held on to the girl's right cheek and slowly lifted it up so that the two kids may meet gazes. The girl's eyes once more were left widened in comparison to a fish's the moment she saw his smile. That very same smile she sees countless times, that smile which she could only assume is the kind of smile he makes to comfort or warm the hearts to whoever sets sight of it, even hers.

"It's okay, it's alright, I'm fine. It did hurt though, but I forgive you!"

Indra then lightly began pulling himself along with the girl up and back in their feet.

"Enough of that now, let's get you cleaned up!"

With that, the boy's hands then left both the girl's face and her very own, leaving her to have this sudden feeling of emptiness surge inside her.

He then placed both his thumb and index finger below his chin and said in thought "But how are we supposed to do that since we're down here? And the bathing room is way upstairs. Honestly, it would take a miracle to get you up-"

He was interrupted when he felt a finger tap on his shoulder. Turning towards the source, finding the girl starring right at him. And that alone was enough for the young brunette to figure out that the girl wishes to tell him something.