At noon, everyone rested in the shade of the roadside trees and prepared to eat.
Xia Xi went off to look around on his own.
He said he was looking for ingredients willing to contribute to the Demon Slayer Corps.
The other children started getting the rest of the cooking equipment ready.
Perhaps worried that the growing children would go hungry, Persimmon opened her bundle.
She took out some Little Rice Balls prepared in advance, wanting everyone to have something to tide them over.
When she reached Sanemi,
the Vice-Captain paused briefly, then quietly slipped him an extra one.
Persimmon smiled. "Your training should be the toughest out of everyone's right now. Eat a little more so you'll have more strength."
Xia Xi had made all the rice balls beforehand.
They looked a little like small shaomai, and a little like Japanese rice balls wrapped in nori.
But neither their flavor nor their nutritional value was bad.
They were supposed to be divided evenly among everyone.
But Persimmon thought of how frighteningly intense Sanemi's training had been lately, and how he was still growing.
So she gave him some of her own share.
Sanemi froze for a moment.
Used to fighting other street punks for food, he had not been treated so gently in a long time.
Kuang Jin was next.
Seeing this, the honest boy offered his own lunchbox too.
"Sanemi, I can't eat all of mine either."
"Take a couple."
The boy grinned, letting Hajimi pick some out himself.
Although he thought he probably could not finish that much either,
Sanemi Shinazugawa was still quite touched.
Just then, even Yan Zi followed suit.
She copied what the other two had done.
Raising her voice, she called, "Me too, me too! Junior Brother, take my rice balls too!"
Shinazugawa: