What was his food?
As a demon, how could he not know?
Especially now, when his body's instinctive craving for flesh and blood constantly conveyed its needs, telling him in no uncertain terms what his food was.
But as someone who had once been human, he could not accept it, even now that he had become a demon.
And so...
He could not answer Kanao Tsuyuri's question.
Thus, hidden in the pitch-black hole beneath the wooden boards, he could only remain silent.
"Eat."
Only after a long while did he speak again.
Kanao Tsuyuri was very sensitive to her surroundings. Sensing that her question had upset Uncle, she did not dare ask anything else and obediently ate in small bites.
The food on the plate was plentiful. To Kanao Tsuyuri, for whom even eating her fill had once been an impossible luxury, it was naturally a feast beyond compare.
Yet at that moment, it somehow tasted... less delicious.
Her body clearly still enjoyed the food, but her heart suddenly... did not.
Kanao Tsuyuri could not understand this strange, sudden feeling or why it had come over her. She only felt that, with Uncle never eating, he must be... very hungry.
She finished every bit of food in small bites, then licked the plate clean. After setting the empty plate aside, Kanao Tsuyuri curled up in a corner beneath the bed, and the entire room fell quiet.
In contrast to the quiet room, it was lively outside. Curled up beneath the bed, Kanao Tsuyuri could not help raising her head. Children's laughter drifted in, accompanied by a jumble of footsteps. It seemed some children were happily playing a game nearby.
The girl's purple eyes blinked involuntarily before she quickly lowered her head again and sat quietly.
Su Mu lay just as quietly in the dark hole, his fists slightly clenched. His demonic instinct's craving for flesh and blood battered his resolve again, and the scent of "food" occasionally wafting from nearby only made that craving stronger.
Silently, he gritted his teeth and endured.
Silently, he held on to the line he would not cross.
Time slipped quietly by. Before they knew it, the sun had set, and darkness descended upon the earth.
As the sun sank, Su Mu felt his body grow more active, more excited. It was his demonic instincts rejoicing at the departure of sunlight and the arrival of darkness.
Su Mu lifted the boards covering the hole. The moment he poked his head out, he saw Kanao Tsuyuri curled up with her arms around her knees. Hearing the movement, the girl was looking at him with her pretty pinkish-purple eyes, which shone brightly.
"You haven't been under the bed this whole time, have you?"
Su Mu muttered softly. Seeing the girl about to approach, he gestured ahead with his chin. "Crawl out first."
With wide eyes, the girl watched Uncle crawl out, then followed with a little excitement, as though they were playing a game to see who could crawl faster.
She scurried out from under the bed in a flash, then stood outside and bent down, poking her head beneath it. Her wide eyes watched him, as if to say, I crawled faster than you.
She's just like a little kid.
The thought rose unbidden in Su Mu's mind, but he immediately paused, seemingly only then realizing that Kanao Tsuyuri was not very old. She really was a little kid.
Perhaps because of her childhood experiences, however, the girl always seemed vacant and rarely spoke. Su Mu's impression of Kanao Tsuyuri was that she was rather wooden, lacking the youthful energy a child her age should have.
That was why seeing Kanao Tsuyuri behave like a child felt so jarring, so unlike her.
But in truth...
This was how Kanao Tsuyuri ought to be.
"You sure crawled fast."
He emerged from beneath the bed and praised her with a smile.
Kanao Tsuyuri looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. Having just crawled out from under the bed, however, her hair was a mess and covered in dust.
Su Mu reached out and gently brushed the dust off her. Then he found a towel in the room, wet it in the wooden basin, and returned to Kanao Tsuyuri to gently wipe her little face.
As the warm towel passed over her face, the girl's eyes widened at the sight of Uncle's gentle expression.
"Close your eyes."
Su Mu tapped Kanao Tsuyuri on the head. The towel was about to pass over her eyes, yet she still did not know to close them.
The girl obediently closed her eyes. She could distinctly feel the towel brushing over their corners, damp and warm.
After washing Kanao Tsuyuri's face, Su Mu put the towel back in the wooden basin. When he turned around, he found that her eyes were still closed.
"Kanao, come here."
He beckoned to Kanao Tsuyuri.
Following his voice, Kanao Tsuyuri trotted toward Su Mu and ran straight into his arms.
Su Mu was surprised by the sudden collision, but seeing that Kanao Tsuyuri still had her eyes closed, he more or less understood why. "You can open your eyes now."
The girl immediately opened her eyes.
Su Mu reached out and lightly brushed her little nose. "When I told you to close your eyes, I didn't mean you had to keep them closed forever. Once I've finished washing your face, you can open them."
The girl looked at him and blinked her pretty pinkish-purple eyes. She seemed to understand a little, yet also seemed not to understand at all.
Seeing Kanao Tsuyuri like this, Su Mu could not help recalling her portrayal in the anime.
In the future, after Kanae Kocho rescued her, Kanao would always remain as vacant as a wooden doll because of her childhood experiences. If no one told her to eat, she would not so much as lift her chopsticks, even when her stomach growled with hunger. Without instructions, she would make no decisions at all, not even something as simple as picking up her chopsticks to eat.
So Kanae Kocho gave her a coin and taught her to make decisions by flipping it. Yet even that had once resulted in the coin telling her not to breathe, after which Kanao kept holding her breath and nearly suffocated.
"From now on, you need to learn to listen to the voice in your heart, all right?"
He patted Kanao Tsuyuri on the head.
Kanao Tsuyuri blinked.
"The voice inside you."
Su Mu spoke softly, then reached out and pressed his hand against the girl's abdomen. "It's...
"The feeling inside you. Just like how you should eat when you feel hungry. For example, when I was wiping your face with the towel just now, you should have closed your eyes when it was about to touch them and you felt the need to close them. When you feel it's time to open your eyes, open them. You don't need to wait for me to decide for you."