At this moment, Haruri stood there with a livid expression, her arms crossed over her chest. Parked behind her was a somewhat battered light delivery truck.
Passing students curiously eyed the fierce-looking woman, giving her a wide berth as they walked by.
"M... Mom?"
Sumire Kamado subconsciously wanted to step back. The sheer terror of being caught red-handed instantly welled up in her heart.
"Sumire!"
Haruri's gaze locked onto her daughter. That sharp reprimand made Sumire shudder all over.
'I'm doomed.'
This was the only thought in Sumire's mind.
Haruri strode over with quick, purposeful steps, exuding the crisp efficiency and strength characteristic of someone who engaged in year-round manual labor.
"Hold out your hand!"
Stopping in front of Sumire, Haruri wasted no time on pleasantries and issued a direct command.
"Mother, um, we're at school..."
"I told you to hold out your hand!" Haruri raised her voice a few notches, her eyes slightly red.
Biting her lip, Sumire tremblingly extended the left hand she had been hiding behind her back.
When Haruri saw the haphazardly wrapped bandages on her daughter's hand and the blood faintly seeping through them, her breath hitched.
What followed immediately was an eruption of fury.
"What is the meaning of this?! Is this why you sneaked back home last night?!"
Haruri grabbed her daughter's wrist with astonishing strength.
"I... I accidentally fell..."
"Fell? How could a fall cause a wound like this?!"
Haruri pulled a crumpled object out of her pocket.
It was a towel stained with dark red, dried blood—the exact same one Sumire had hidden under her bed last night.
'Ah... I forgot about that...' Sumire grumbled at herself in her heart.
"I swept this out from under your bed! So much blood! Sumire, what exactly did you go and do?!"
Haruri's voice trembled with a mixture of anger and fear.
"Have you been mixing with delinquents? Or did you provoke the yakuza?"
"I told you ages ago to stop reading those manga about Suzuran and Housen! I knew they would be a bad influence!!"
As a single mother raising her daughter alone in the chaotic melting pot of Fuyuki City, Haruri had seen far too many dark corners.
Driving her truck through the city's streets and alleys, she knew exactly what kind of danger surged beneath the surface of this seemingly peaceful city.
Her greatest fear was that her daughter would go astray or suffer some irreversible harm.
"No! Mom! Listen to me!"
Sumire was so anxious she was on the verge of tears, but she couldn't tell the truth.
How could she? Tell her that she was kidnapped by a psychopathic serial killer and almost sacrificed to a demon?
And then she summoned a ghost swordsman who... beat the guy to death?
If she said something like that, her mother would just think she had lost her mind, or she would send her straight to a psychiatric ward.
"You are coming with me to the hospital right now! And then to the police station!"
Giving her daughter no chance to explain, Haruri pulled her toward the truck.
"Mom! I'm not going! I'm really fine! It's just a flesh wound!"
Sumire struggled desperately, leaning her body backward in an attempt to break free from her mother's iron grip.
"Kid, your mother is quite strong," Asuka's voice echoed in her mind, carrying a faint tone of evaluation. "Did she practice Breathing Styles in the past? Her body feels quite sturdy."
"Mr. Asuka! Stop making sarcastic remarks! Hurry up and help me think of a way out of this!" Sumire wailed in her heart.
However, because Sumire exercised regularly and had the enhancement of Total Concentration Breathing, her strength was actually much greater than that of an average adult.
Under her violent struggling, Haruri actually found herself unable to pull her along for a moment.
"Get... over here!"
Haruri grew anxious.
In that instant, her right eye suddenly widened.
Asuka was in his [Spiritual Body] state. His senses were different from ordinary people, allowing him to see the flow of magical energy.
In his vision, the faint silver-pink ring within the pupil of Haruri's right eye suddenly lit up with a weak radiance.
*Hum—*
A slight distortion appeared in the air.
Sumire had been on the verge of breaking free from her mother's grasp, but suddenly, she felt an invisible force violently yank her collar.
'Is this... gravity?' Asuka thought in surprise.
It was as if an invisible rope had tightly wrapped around Sumire's clothes and ruthlessly yanked her back!
"Eh?"
Sumire cried out in alarm. Completely defying inertia, her body slammed into Haruri's embrace like a piece of iron drawn by a magnet.
"Got you!"
Haruri didn't seem too surprised by her abnormal display of strength. Instead, she skillfully reversed her grip to lock onto her daughter's shoulders, pinning her tightly in her arms.
"Still trying to run? Your strength has really grown, you brat!"
Haruri panted heavily, her eyes feeling a bit sore.
She habitually rubbed her right eye, muttering, "Honestly, my eye hurts every time I get anxious..."
In midair, Asuka narrowed his eyes.
He drifted down, leaning in closer to observe the middle-aged woman currently lecturing her daughter.
It wasn't an illusion.
In that instant just now, her eye had indeed erupted with Reiryoku... oh no, the magical energy of this world.
Asuka looked at Haruri's slightly reddened right eye.
This woman seemed completely unaware of the power she possessed.
"Alright! Stop fussing!"
Haruri held her daughter tightly, a hint of a choke in her voice.
"Sumire, you're all Mom has left... Your father passed away early. If something happens to you too, how am I supposed to live?"
Those tearful words instantly softened Sumire, who had been about to struggle again.
She felt the warmth of her mother's embrace—a scent mixed with sweat and exhaustion, yet incredibly reassuring.
"I'm sorry... Mom..."
Sumire lowered her head, tears swirling in her eyes.
"I really didn't do anything bad... and I'm not involved with the yakuza... I just..."
She bit her lip, coming up with a somewhat reasonable excuse.
"I just... accidentally fell from a high place and cut my hand while trying to save a trapped kitten."
"Saving a cat?" Haruri paused, releasing her daughter and looking at her suspiciously. "Really?"
"Really! That cat was so pitiful! It was stuck in a wire fence..."
Sumire spoke more fluently as she went on. Since she genuinely liked small animals anyway, the story she spun sounded completely plausible.
"...That's what happened. I've already bandaged it! I'm really fine now!"
Haruri stared into her daughter's eyes for a long time.
No one knew a daughter better than her mother; she could tell her daughter was hiding something.
But she could also see that the clarity and honesty in her daughter's eyes hadn't changed.
As long as she wasn't doing anything bad, it was fine.
Haruri let out a long sigh, her tense shoulders slumping.
"You child... Ever since you were little, you've been just like your damn father—nosy and as stubborn as a mule."
Haruri poked Sumire's forehead. Although she still kept a straight face, the explosive anger in her tone had mostly dissipated.
"Get in the truck! We're going home! I'll interrogate you properly when we get back!"
"Um... the hospital..."
"I brought the medical kit! I'll re-bandage it for you when we get back! If the wound is deep, then we'll go to the hospital!"
Despite her tough words, Haruri pulled open the truck door, carefully supporting her daughter's injured hand.
Sumire obediently climbed into the passenger seat.
The moment the door closed, she sensed Asuka floating above the roof through their telepathic connection.
He watched Haruri as she walked around the front of the truck and got into the driver's seat, a rare gentleness revealing itself in his eyes.
"What's wrong, Mr. Asuka?" Sumire asked in her heart.
"Nothing."
Asuka withdrew his gaze, looking ahead at the streets of Fuyuki City where the streetlights were gradually flickering on.
That woman's eyes, that aura of risking everything to protect someone important, reminded him of many people.
It reminded him of Shinobu Kocho, who was always smiling; of Zenitsu, who swung his blade even when terrified; and of the gentle Tanjiro.
"I just think you have a very amazing mother..."