She had not been allowed to go out lately, much less visit the place where Mirai had once lived."
"Yes, Master." Sun Ju bowed and knelt. He looked at Hidayada; there was no god in his eyes. In his heart, he recalled Mirai, holding a long blade.
"An S-rank defection... How could that child be so exceptional?"
Amid the endless mountains, deep within the range, a barefoot little girl darted about everywhere. She squatted on the ground to pick flowers and chased the butterflies around her. Her clean, pale yellow kimono was soon covered in dust. Yet her shoeless feet remained as clean as jade.
"Huh? Is someone up there?" Chasing a rabbit, the little girl arrived beneath a large tree, where Mirai was sleeping comfortably on a branch.
"Hey, uncle up there! Who are you? How come I've never seen you before?"
In his sleep, Mirai vaguely heard someone calling him uncle. He could not help mumbling a few irritated words, but he still did not open his eyes.
"Hmph, what a lazybones. Are you tired from plowing and running around here, so you got lazy? That won't do!" The little girl's purple eyes rolled around as a smile curled across her lips. Then she turned and ran off.
Before long, the little girl returned with a bamboo pole and a foxtail grass stem.
She carefully raised the bamboo pole high, but she still could not reach where Mirai was sleeping. Discouraged, she pouted. Then an idea struck her. She plucked the foxtail grass from the bamboo pole and put it in her mouth with a bright, innocent smile. Then she began climbing the tree, bracing herself against its trunk.
Fortunately, the tree sloped somewhat, and its bark was thick and deeply ridged, so the little girl did