Kambara Yuu is a girl as beautiful as a cherry blossom.
There's a Japanese proverb that describes cherry blossoms.
Seven days of cherry blossoms.
The meaning is that the cherry blossoms fall so quickly, as if in only seven days, as if implying that such a beautiful scene is often short-lived.
Beautiful, fragile, and naive.
This was Su Qing'an's first impression of Kambara Yuu.
That adorable little girl in the old photo, who looked like a snowball, has grown into a graceful and elegant young woman.
Even though it hardly snows in Kanagawa in winter, the chill of being deep in the mountains made her choose a thicker, warmer black kimono instead of a light yukata, yet her figure still appeared exceptionally slender.
The girl smiled joyfully the moment she saw Kambara Shuichi. As she ran over, she noticed Su Qing'an and Satou Yunona behind her, and then timidly hid behind the man's broad back, like a frightened young deer in the forest.
"Xiao Xi, come and greet the guests." Kambara Shuichi affectionately ruffled the girl's hair, saying helplessly.
"This is Su Qing'an, a native of Shenzhou. Don't you really like Shenzhou poetry? You can ask him about it later."
Su Qing'an was speechless. He thought to himself, "Uncle, do you think everyone from Shenzhou knows classical Chinese poetry? Most people can't even recite all three hundred Tang poems."
Some ignorant and incompetent slackers can at most say, "Goose, goose, goose, with its neck bent towards the sky, it sings."
He couldn't even finish the sentence.
Even Su Qing'an herself only remembered one line. "Two orioles sing in the green willows, a line of egrets flies up to the blue sky."
I memorized this back in elementary school when my Chinese teacher forced me to do it as homework. He thought about it for a moment and said, "So what if you're so Soul Essence and the ability to learn anything instantly?"
I've completely forgotten all the ancient poems I used to memorize.
So what if you've accomplished something amazing now? You can never make up for the regrets of the past anyway.
For some reason, seeing the expression on Kambara Shuichi's face when he looked at Kambara Yuu Su Qing'an suddenly feel a little sad. He thought that Su Jinyan had also shown him that same expression, but no matter which world he was in, he would never see it again.
So the boy suddenly became a little sentimental and sad, but at the same time he was also a little happy.
Lonely people might feel happy involuntarily when they see others happy, right? So Su Qing'an thought he would memorize the Three Hundred Tang Poems and the annotations of ancient poems later.
When the time comes, whatever you ask Kambara Yuu, he will be able to answer calmly and with composure.
"This lady next to you is Ms. Satou Yunona. They're here to help Xiao Xi, so please be polite."
Kambara Yuu, clutching the man's sleeve, peeked out, her fair skin, as white as fresh snow, flushed pink. The girl looked up at the two of them, somewhat shyly, and said:
"Hello, my name is Kambara Yuu, thank you for your help."
Her voice was a little soft and sweet, and her reply had a touch of naivety and confusion.
Su Qing'an didn't know if Kambara Shuichi had told her about the Living Doll, but in any case, the two of them couldn't bring it up directly.
"Hello." Satou Yunona smiled at Kambara Yuu.
Actually, she doesn't smile easily anymore, but seeing this girl's cute appearance, Satou Yunona can smile naturally.
Kambara Yuu is indeed a girl like cherry blossoms.
At this moment, Satou Yunona couldn't help but marvel at the precision with which the master who created the Kyo Kambara Yuu for Kyo-Yuzen had interpreted it.
In the future Kambara Yuu will definitely be a rare beauty with unique charm, but for now, Satou Yunona thinks that this little girl's cuteness outweighs all else.
It's strange, really. The two of them aren't that much older than Kambara Yuu, but they unconsciously place themselves in the position of more mature elders.
Besides their own experiences leading to a maturity far beyond their peers, Kambara Yuu -slate-like innocence is also a major reason.
Su Qing'an, who was standing to the side, nodded to indicate that he had already greeted them.
Although she appeared somewhat aloof, this was simply due to a slightly awkward aspect of Su Qing'an's personality.
He is the kind of person who can remain calm and collected on the surface even when a huge tsunami is raging inside him.
The habit of suppressing one's emotions is an unconscious development after coming into this world, in order to avoid losing composure and paying the price with one's life.
As a result, Satou Yunona gave him a somewhat speechless look, as if blaming him for not showing a more gentle demeanor.
After speaking, Kambara Yuu hid behind Kambara Shuichi again. It seemed that it was too difficult for the girl to get used to the arrival of two strangers all at once.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Xi hasn't left the ancestral home since she was five years old. Lacking social interaction, she's a bit shy."
Kambara Shuichi said guiltily, "I'm the one who wronged her."
As a man, how could he not feel guilty for not being able to give his daughter freedom and forcing her to spend ten years in this cage?
But Kambara Yuu didn't think so. Instead of hiding behind the man, she chose to face him directly and spoke earnestly:
"Dad has been good enough to me."
"I feel very happy with this."
That naive and shy child vanished in that instant, and she spoke with mature and sincere frankness.
Kambara Yuu has always been very well-behaved.
Yet this child seemed so sensitive and unhappy when faced with Kambara Shuichi's negative emotions because of her.
What exactly is freedom?
Did the girl develop a longing for the outside world during these ten years?
There must be someone who desperately wants to be.
She would want to see the azure sea, the snow of China, the Great Wall of Shenzhou, watch the aurora borealis in a glass igloo in Finland, and visit the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, known as the "Mirror of the Sky."
I want to see many, many places, travel across mountains and rivers, and appreciate the beautiful scenery that Kambara Yuu, have seen in books over the past ten years.
Or even just to catch a glimpse of the cherry blossoms at Kiyomizu Temple would be fine.
The girl, imprisoned here by Living Doll for ten years, should be more willful and unreasonable, but she said earnestly that she was already very happy.
In the girl's eyes, nothing was more important than the scenery in the book, her favorite ancient poems, and the beautiful Kambara Shuichi in front of her.
As long as I stay with Kambara Shuichi, it doesn't matter if I can't see the cherry blossoms at Himeji Castle and Kiyomizu Temple, or if I spend my whole life in this ancestral home and this shrine.
But that's how it is, that's why.
Kambara Shuichi would never allow Living Doll to touch a single hair of Kambara Yuu's head. Just imagining his daughter being drained of blood and gradually withering away filled him with rage and fear that overwhelmed everything in his soul.
In the end, Kambara Shuichi simply patted the girl's head to comfort her.
The flame in his eyes burned quietly, like lava slowly flowing in the deep sea.
The Sacred God Sword in the man's hand will eventually cut through all obstacles in his path.
Even if it were a god.