【Jiguo Brothers Rihei】Asagiri

Ji Guoyansheng found an empty house with no one in it. It was in the deep mountains with dense trees. It was different from the dilapidated temples and abandoned old houses found in the past. Although there was no one in the empty house, it was relatively well preserved. It is much better than those buildings that are sometimes impossible to shelter from wind and rain.

There is often heavy fog in the deep mountains, reminiscent of the heavy fog at dawn that day. When the fog is shrouded, it seems that there is a fault with the time of the present world, and it is isolated from the world.

Ji Guoyansheng planned to stay here for a while, because the child was sick, not a serious illness, just a cold, but even such a minor illness might kill the child.Children are children of gods and Buddhas until they are seven years old, and this year the child is just seven years old, but Ji Guoyansheng always thought that no gods and Buddhas would want this child.

He thought that the child would not get sick, the ghost's body was exceptionally strong, if the twelve ghost moons, as long as the severed head was not the head, it could regenerate quickly no matter where it was.Wrapped in his haori, the child huddled aside. Although he fell asleep, he coughed softly from time to time. His body temperature did not rise significantly, but his lungs looked a little weak, and his breathing was not smooth.

Although this child has the toughness close to that of a ghost, he also retains the fragility of a human being.

Ji Guoyansheng got up and grabbed the sleeping child to his side. The body temperature of both of them was very low, without the warmth that humans would have, so even if they stayed together, they would not have any heating effect.The child didn't wake up, but shrunk a little more, and grabbed his clothes with his hands.

Ji Guoyansheng did not hide his desire to have too much physical contact with the child, and the child understood what he meant, and stayed some distance away from him every time. Ji Guoyansheng thought it was good, In a few years, the little thing will be able to live on his own. He doesn't want the child to have any dependence on him. It's better to grow up and become self-reliant as soon as possible. It's better to leave him as soon as possible.

Stretch out your hand to push away the long blemishes on the child's face. This face has indeed become more and more similar to them over time. It is estimated that it will become more similar after the child's unique immaturity fades after a while. It was also haunted by ghosts before The person who killed the team admitted his mistake.

The body has also grown a lot taller, taller than children of the same age, and the clothes on his body have been obviously shortened. Let him find someone to change or buy a new one. Seven-year-old children follow the Tradition is about wearing new clothes.

He has never looked forward to the child's future, or imagined it. He thinks that he did not regard this boy as his own child, and he did not give love to him when he was born.

Ji Guoyan won't look forward to the child's future, because everything is left to him to choose.You grow up yourself, decide your own future, choose your own name, choose your own surname, you are neither human nor ghost, so you can still choose, you can be anything.

It's different from Ji Guoyansheng who can't become anything, and he who can't leave anything and give nothing.

The child should hate him, or be afraid.After all, his life was not good. Ji Guoyansheng treated him badly, he was strict to the point of cruelty, and full of alienation, even harsher than his father was to him back then.But harshness and cruelty will make a child grow up quickly, at least this child is like this, the rest is not very clear, the knife has already been swung in a good shape.

But even so, Ji Guoyan Sheng never praised him, even if the child practiced until his nose bleeds, he didn't realize it.The child had no happy childhood. He allowed the child to play double-six kite flying with other children, but the child never went.Ji Guoyansheng only thought that he would look like a child when he watched the child humming nursery rhymes, but that was also forced by him.

It would be the best if the child could hate, then Ji Guoyansheng would feel more at ease.

He just chose an easy path for himself, blindly urging the child to grow up quickly and leave him, so that he can go back to the path that should have been delayed for several years without any worries.

A week later, the child recovered from the illness. It seems that the medicine prescribed by the doctor is useful. This is a good thing. Ji Guoyansheng knows what human common sense is useful to this child, so he can teach him. This child has a brain. Raising goldfish here is too slow.

"I will live here for a while, you can find a room you like and pack it up for a while."

After Ji Guoyansheng said this to the child, it seemed that a question mark floated on his head with the naked eye. The child has lived a life of no fixed place since birth, and is unfamiliar with the word "living" that is taken for granted by others. .But the child would not question what Ji Guoyansheng said, and he immediately carried his luggage into the old house without people. After a while, Ji Guoyansheng heard the sound of falling and things hitting the ground...

...If this clumsiness and stupidity didn't come from me, who could it come from, Yuanichi?

No, it's impossible.

Ji Guoyansheng taught the child the breathing method and the sword technique of the breath of the moon. He didn't know if such a young child could learn these things, but it didn't matter if he couldn't, even if it was just memorized as knowledge. He couldn't find a talented stepson when he was in the Ghost Killing Team, but now he wants to leave something for this child and for himself.

The child didn't understand why Ji Guoyansheng always seemed sad when he taught him how to breathe. Isn't this the sword skill he is proud of?Children like the name Moon's Breath, because the sun is too hot to burn the body, compared to the moonlight is very good, cold, and you can watch it with Ji Guoyansheng.

"There are better ones, but I won't learn them no matter what, so you can just learn this one." Ji Guoyansheng never asked his child to become a swordsman in the future. He treasured the sword skills that could not reach the pinnacle, so he taught them all to this child, "You can be whatever you want in the future, but this sword skill is the only one..."

...the only proof that I existed...

"?" The child stopped swinging the knife and looked at Ji Guoyansheng. Under the moonlight, there was a feeling that the young child had grown up.

"...No, it's nothing." Ji Guoyansheng smiled rarely, but it was not good-looking, "Go on."

"..." Ji Guoyan Sheng didn't see that the child opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but bad words seem to be hereditary. Draw a beautiful crescent.

The child got a temporary place to live. The old house deep in the mountains is better than the abandoned temples and dilapidated houses where he lived before. It can shelter from wind and rain, and it is warmer than caves. It is not like a hotel where you can go wherever you want. Where to go, although I don't know how long I can live there, it must be a more comfortable place to live.

During the day, "Father" can rest when he is resting. After enough sleep, he can practice swords in the shade where the sun can't shine. At night, he doesn't have to rush. When the fog clears, the moonlight will look beautiful. There are fireflies nearby, and unknown Cyan flowers.After only living for three months, there is an illusion that time has slowed down.

It's just that he will still be thrown out by his father several times a week to find something to eat for himself, instead of catching hares, birds and fish in the mountains all day long, and having routine contact with people pretending to be dumb.

"A bowl of yam udon—"

Cautiously avoiding the hands of the udon shop owner who handed him the bowl, the child took the bowl, and the hot food inside was passed to the palm of the hand through the container, and the heat smeared his face, making the child squint his eyes. The taste is as good as ever, and you can't taste anything in your mouth as always.

The child has no favorite food because he can't taste anything, but he likes the udon noodles he ate when he sat with his father.

There was someone sitting next to him, of course it couldn't be "Father", it should be another guest, the child raised his eyes to pay attention after he had nothing to do, and then thought - it really is this person.

It was a customer who suddenly appeared a month ago and began to patronize the udon shop. An adult male, with curly black hair tied high like a child, wearing a reddish-brown haori, with a knife on his waist, it may be Where's the samurai?The man wore a fox mask that he thought was very beautiful before, and on his ears were rare earrings like flower buds.

This town is about to usher in a three-year festival. In that festival, everyone will wear masks and sing songs to worship the gods. Although there are still several months, people wearing masks can often be seen walking around on the street. Everyone is surprised No wonder.

The child is still at the age when he can't distinguish between himself and the faces of people other than "father", but he will notice when the same person sits next to him at the same time for a month in a row.

It's just that he still doesn't care, the child who may lack a sense of crisis in his mind just thinks this is a stranger who likes to eat udon noodles, although this masked samurai has a very subtle aura that makes people feel familiar and feel A little reassuring taste.

A child with one eye wrapped in gauze and unable to speak will come to the town several times a week, and every time he will only patronize this udon shop with poor business. What kind of udon do you order? In the end, the only thing you will be given is the bowl of yam udon. This may be the reason for the bleak business.

Recently, the udon restaurant with poor business has two more regular customers. One is a child who seems to be missing an eye and can’t speak. Every time after eating udon noodles and paying, he will sit in a chair in a daze, waiting for the sun to set and the moon to set. When it is about to appear, it will leave and run in the direction outside the town.

The other is a customer wearing a fox mask, probably a samurai adult. Every time he enters the store shortly after the child arrives, he sits silently next to him and eats the same yam udon.When eating, the mask will be lifted halfway up, but only half of the face is exposed, so I don't know what it looks like.This samurai-sama doesn't talk much, but the obedient shop owner talks for a long time. Although he never answers, he always gives people the feeling that he is listening carefully.

Only when the child left did the samurai turn his head. The reddish-brown eyes under the fox mask watched the child leave, and he didn't get up from his seat until long after he disappeared from sight.

It's the same today, the masked swordsman watched for a long time the young child who was too similar to the one in his memory left, he originally wanted to say something to the child, ask something, that's not the same as The innate clear vision let him know that the child could speak.

He really wanted to ask, really wanted to know how he spent the seven years when his brother disappeared, and whether he was safe or not. In the past, as long as he knew that that person was still alive, he would be satisfied, like passing by his hometown countless times, but it was just Take a look from a distance and leave.

But now, even if he just asked "how is brother?"...he couldn't say it.

When it's time to leave, he can't always occupy the position in other people's shops. The strongest swordsman in the Ghost Slayer Squad can't show the cleanliness of killing ghosts today. He hesitated in front of a six or seven-year-old child. Indecision.

Half a year ago, he heard from the young Yanzhu that he had seen a child who looked similar to his elder brother, so he got permission from the lord to go on a long journey alone.The purpose is of course to find someone, and this search does not mean that he started looking for it half a year ago. Not good at it.

Just relying on the news from Yanzhu's mouth, of course no one can be found. When he went to the town, there was no one like his brother there. The thought of not wanting to give up.

Afterwards, he also searched for many places, took many detours, went back and forth, sometimes lost his way to the point of confusion, he was clearly looking for someone, and somehow he was the one who lost his way.

He heard from a doctor in a certain village that a man came to prescribe medicine with his sick child in his arms one night not long ago. This may be the closest Ji Guoyuan felt to his brother in the past seven years.Later he found that he should go to a place where ghosts rarely appear or ghosts suddenly disappear. His brother may still be wielding a knife, and sometimes he can see the scars of the knife not long ago on the dead trees in the wilderness. The traces left by the combat skills of Moon Breath that I have seen countless times.

The elder brother has not given up on swordsmanship. If so, Ji Guoyuan will be a little happy for a while, but then he will be overwhelmed by more hesitation.

Until one day he finally met, and passed by the child with curly black hair and the same red hair as he and his elder brother in the crowded downtown.He turned around sharply as if he had been woken up, and then saw the child staring at the fox mask sold in the street shop, and he saw the child's face clearly.

It was a face more like a brother than his own.

After that, Ji Guoyuan would put on the fox mask he bought casually, and sit next to the kid while he was waiting for udon noodles in the store. He was eating noodles and listening to the boss, but more It was watching the child through the mask.

Fortunately, he hid it well, and the child is slow, so he hasn't been discovered so far.

He didn't know what kind of thinking he had in putting on the mask, was he afraid that his face, which was very similar to his brother's, would scare him, or was he afraid that through something, he was so similar to his brother that he almost surpassed himself? The child's eyes met, or maybe he just wanted to see his brother through the child's face.

The narrow vision of the fox mask is not an obstacle, he can still see the child's callused palms, which are traces of sword practice, and he must be a diligent child just like his brother when he was young.

Before his brother left, he told Ji Guoyuan that he no longer knew the meaning of wielding a sword, his sword had no meaning, and all the time he had spent on it was useless.

As soon as Ji Guoyuan didn't understand, his elder brother was already very strong, not only strong in sword skills, but also impeccable in his conduct. Ji Guoyuan had never seen a person as noble and self-disciplined as his elder brother, and faced the temptation of the ghost king. Unwavering, even after turning into a ghost, he didn't hurt anyone...

[No...it's because of you...Ji Guoyuanyi is because of this! ! ! ! 】

That night when his elder brother yelled at him like this, the six eyes of the queen who turned into a ghost did not shed tears, but Ji Guoyuan thought that his elder brother was crying.

【I'm just a human... Now I don't even have such an excuse...】

No, don't say such sad words, don't show such a painful expression.

It's him who is excessive and cruel. He always takes things that others value and cherish lightly.He casually said some seemingly easy words, presumptuously thinking that since they are twins, if they can enjoy the same life with their elder brother, they will surely go to the same death together.

These eyes can only see blood vessels and veins, but they cannot see the broken hearts of others.

"You are hurt."

After sitting together in the adjacent position for more than a month, Ji Guoyuan spoke to the child for the first time, because he saw a wound on the child's chin that he didn't know how to cause, and the position was exactly where the elder brother's stripes were .The wound was deep, and even though it didn't reach the bone, the skin and flesh were turned out.

The child didn't seem to be aware of his wound, and just wiped off the blood so as not to stain his clothes. The owner of the store didn't notice it when he was too old, and only Ji Guoyuan noticed it. He didn't find the courage to speak up for more than a month Ji Guoyuan suddenly had the opportunity to speak.So he spoke, and reached out to touch the child's face, wanting to examine his wound.

It is cold, the blood on the face and the wound is cold.

"!?!?!?!?!?"

Ji Guoyuan was still lamenting that the child really had some ghost blood on him. When the body temperature was very low, the child looked like a cat with a cucumber on its back, jumping up in fright, Ji Guoyuan took a quick look He caught the udon that was about to fall over but didn't hold the child's hand, and then watched him flip upside down on the chair, making a lot of noise.

Ji Guoyuan poked his head to look, and found that the child seemed to have bumped into something and got a nosebleed.

... did he do something?

In fact, it's not a big deal, it's just that this child is simply not used to having physical contact with others, Ji Guoyansheng will not take the initiative to touch him, and the child understands this very well, so he doesn't seek physical contact, his There is no such behavior as coquetry in the world.Even on weekdays, he unconsciously avoids contact with others. The child does not realize that he has not had physical contact with others for a long time.

So when someone bumped into him suddenly, he was shocked. Unlike him and his "father", the temperature of the fingers of the person wearing the fox mask who was always sitting next to him was very high, which felt warmer than that of ordinary people. higher.And there is no sound, the child can't feel the slightest movement, just being touched in the face without noticing anything.

It was the first time he met such a person, so he was so frightened that he fell to the ground and remained motionless.

"You are hurt."

The man with the fox mask repeated it, and stretched out his hand to lift him up from the ground, straightened the chair and put him on it, and began to look for the handkerchief and medicine he carried with him to prepare for some emergency treatment first.

No kid, he doesn't want to be touched by this person who moves without sound or breath. He knows that his face is hurt but it doesn't hurt so it doesn't matter. As long as he eats udon noodles and goes back to sleep for one night, he will be gone.But the person in front of him didn't think so. He didn't give the child a chance to slip away. He wiped the nosebleed on the child's face with a handkerchief, put some ointment on the chin with his finger, and then obviously felt that the child's body became more and more stiff .

"Does it hurt? Don't move, just hold on and it will be fine soon." Ji Guoyuan obviously didn't understand the reason why the child was frightened.

The child was frightened and stiff, waiting for the man wearing the fox mask to finish applying the plaster, and wanted to run away.

"Wait a minute." But Ji Guoyuan couldn't hide this small gesture, "You haven't finished your udon noodles yet."

"..." The child's expression was petrified, but his pupils were trembling slightly when he looked carefully. "Father" taught him not to waste food, and he also felt that the leftovers were not good, so he could only bite the bullet Hold the bowl.

"Your bowl is battered." Ji Guoyuan pointed out that the batter was battered.

"......" It's okay, I can't taste any kind of food, it's good...

But Ji Guoyuan felt bad.

"Your bowl is mushy, eat this bowl." Then he pushed the bowl that he hadn't touched the chopsticks in front of the child, and even pulled the bowl that was already mushy to himself.

"!?!?!?!?!?" What is this person doing? ? ? ? ? ?

As soon as Ji Guoyuan found out that as long as he took the first step, it was not that difficult. He was just caring about a child who was injured and knocked himself out of a nosebleed. It was just that the child was unusually silent. Why don't you open your mouth... Although this sentence must be very strange for Ji Guoyuan, who has been autistic and silent until he was seven years old, it feels like a thousand steps and a hundred steps.

"What's your name?" Ji Guoyuan waited for the child to finish eating the noodles, then took a handkerchief to wipe off some of the blood stained on the child's collar.

"..." The child who had just finished eating the most terrifying bowl of udon noodles in his life was terrified and wondered why he hadn't let him go.

"You can talk."

"........." shivering.jpg

"?" As soon as Ji Guoyuan didn't understand why the child didn't speak, it was the same as his brother didn't understand why he didn't speak back then, so he wanted to touch the child's head like Ren Yanzhu did to his son.

"……father………………"

Then he heard a very small voice, and the child who had already panicked in his heart finally recalled the phrase "father" and him said "I don't know how to shout when I'm going to die" before my head overheated.

"...Father...help..."

It's a pity that you can't shout, and it's useless to shout. Although Ji Guoyansheng is a ghost now, he is not a clairvoyant, so he can't hear it.

"!?" But when Ji Guoyuan heard it, he panicked this time. The strongest swordsman in the ghost killing team obviously lacks experience in dealing with children. Although the child in front of him didn't shed tears, his eyes looked like I'm going to cry.

"...help...help...father..."

"!?!?!?!?!?!"

Ji Guoyuan was at a loss, felt that he needed Tanji very much now, that person must be very good at coaxing the child, he didn't understand what he did wrong, would he let the child call for help, would he appear if he called his brother? ?

...No, it doesn't.

That night, Ji Guoyansheng saw the child who came back from the town after eating was downcast. The two-step distance between him and him that he had maintained precisely in the past has been shortened by half a step today. Can open his mouth to say a word, the child said something to him when he came back——

"People... so scary..." I don't know if it was Ji Guoyansheng's illusion. He always felt that the child's voice was a little trembling when he said this, "Udon...don't eat..."

Oh, you just know.

Although he didn't know what happened, Jiguo Yansheng thought that this kid finally knew how to write the four characters of sinister heart, but what does that have to do with Udon?