Chapter 44: You Big Idiot
"Tatsu!!!"
A pink figure, fast as if teleporting, brought a gust of fragrant wind and instantly rushed in front of Tatsu.
Kanae Kocho.
At this moment, she was no longer the gentle big sister next door, but the battle-hardened "Flower Hashira."
Her gaze was terrifyingly sharp, but deep within her eyes, tears were hidden, almost overflowing.
There was no hesitation.
Not even a moment of thought.
Kanae bent down and snatched up the nichirin sword that had fallen to the ground.
Although the hilt was frighteningly hot, instantly burning her delicate palm, she didn't even notice.
"Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!"
A beautiful yet sharp arc of sword energy flashed past.
Puchi—!
Two sections of forearms, still burning, were severed at the elbows and flew high into the air,
before falling into the distant grass, instantly consumed by flames and turned to ash.
Cutting off one's own wrist to save the body.
If those two forearms weren't cut off, those eerie flames would have followed the blood and burned into Tatsu's heart.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Having finished all this, the sword in Kanae's hand fell to the ground with a clang.
She gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently, her forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat.
Her face was pale as she looked at Tatsu, whose arms were empty and dripping with blood; her entire body was trembling slightly.
"It's okay... it's okay..."
She murmured to herself, as if comforting Tatsu, and as if comforting her own heart that had nearly stopped from fright.
At this time, although Tatsu had lost his arms, there wasn't much pain on his face.
On the contrary, he was looking down, staring intently at his writhing arm wounds.
Without the obstruction of the Sun Breathing flames,
his terrifying regenerative ability as a demon finally regained control.
Granulation tissue grew wildly, bones extended rapidly, and meridians were rewoven.
In just a few breaths' time,
new forearms, wrists, palms, and nails grew back at an astonishing speed.
Tatsu tried to clench his fists.
Although it consumed a great deal of stamina and the bone-deep pain still lingered in his nerves,
he could feel that his body's resistance to "heat" had increased by a tiny bit.
But even a tiny bit was a huge improvement.
"It's working..."
The corners of Tatsu's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a somewhat weak but joyful smile.
However, before he could be happy for long,
a warm aura carrying a thick floral fragrance slammed into his chest.
Slap!
A pair of soft hands slapped his cheeks hard.
Tatsu was stunned and instinctively looked down.
What met his eyes was Kanae's beautiful face, tear-streaked yet flushed red with anger.
"You... big idiot!!!"
Kanae's voice carried a clear sob. Her usual dignity and elegance were nowhere to be found,
leaving only the posture of a small woman whose concern had turned to chaos.
"Didn't you say you knew what you were doing? Didn't you say you were confident?"
"Is this your 'knowing what you're doing'? Is this your 'confidence'?"
As Kanae spoke, she reached out and gripped Tatsu's newly grown arms tightly,
her nails nearly digging into the flesh, as if confirming whether these hands were truly still there.
"Do you know how dangerous that was just now?
That was Sun Breathing fire!
That fire is specifically for killing demons!"
"If I had been a second slower... no, even just half a second slower, you would have died! You would have died!"
"You said you wouldn't make me worry, you said you would protect yourself,
you liar! You big liar!"
Kanae spoke faster and angrier, tears falling like broken pearls.
She was truly terrified.
In that moment just now, she really thought she was going to lose Tatsu.
That heart-stopping fear was a hundred times stronger than when she faced death herself.
"Tatsu, you bastard... if you die, what will I do?
What will we do?"
"How can you be so reckless... how can you treat your own life with such disregard..."
She rambled on, repeating the same few phrases over and over,
looking very much like an old mother terrified after seeing her child play with fire, or a resentful wife facing a troublesome husband.
Nagging.
She was really nagging.
In the past, or if it were someone else, Tatsu might have found it annoying.
But at this moment, listening to this machine-gun-like muttering,
and looking at the woman crying her heart out in front of him, a wave of warmth unlike anything before welled up in Tatsu's heart.
In this cold and cruel world, to have someone
cry because you are hurt,
be angry because you took a risk,
and feel fortunate because you are alive.
What a stroke of luck this was.
The crimson red in Tatsu's eyes gradually faded, returning to their original clarity.
He looked at Kanae's eyelashes, which were trembling slightly from emotion,
and saw her bloodshot purple eyes,
suddenly thinking that her angry appearance was really... quite cute.
"I'm sorry."
Tatsu slowly raised his newly regenerated hands,
gently cupped Kanae's cheeks, and wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes with his thumbs.
"I made you worry, Kanae."
Kanae's nagging came to an abrupt halt.
Feeling the touch of those large hands on her cheeks,
and looking into Tatsu's eyes, which were full of doting and apology,
most of the anger she had felt a moment ago vanished in an instant.
But she still felt aggrieved.
"Is a simple 'I'm sorry' enough?"
Kanae sniffled, glaring at Tatsu with red eyes, trying to maintain her dignity as a "Hashira,"
"Do you know how scary that was just now?
My heart almost jumped out! How are you going to compensate me for my Spiritual distress?"
Looking at her fierce-yet-cute appearance, Tatsu couldn't help but chuckle.
"Then..."
Tatsu leaned down slightly, getting close to Kanae's ear,
his warm breath hitting her earlobe, making her body tremble slightly.
"From now on, this life of mine is yours. You can do with it as you please, okay?"
These slightly flirtatious words, combined with Tatsu's uniquely magnetic voice,
instantly made Kanae's cheeks turn red all the way to her neck.
"You... you..."
Kanae stammered, unable to speak.
This guy!
He just escaped death, and now he actually has the mood to tease her?
And... what did he mean by his life being hers?
Such words... how could he just say such things so casually!
A mix of shame and shyness caused Kanae's brain to crash instantly.
But immediately after, when she snapped out of it, she became flustered and angry.
"Fine... it seems not only have your hands grown back, but your courage has grown quite a bit too, hasn't it?"
Kanae bit her lip, a flicker of "ferocity" flashing in her eyes.
The next second.
Her right hand shot out like lightning, accurately pinching a piece of soft flesh at Tatsu's waist.
Then, she gave it a hard twist.
A full ninety-degree rotation.
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