They'd been walking for at least one hour, although for Kumiko it felt like an eternity. They hadn't shared any words between them since they started walking nor they held hands again after she let go for a moment to tie her hair up.

Umi was a few steps ahead and he didn't stop or turned back to look at her when he heard her speak.

“Luna... she is going to die of hunger or dehydratation if I don't go back soon”.

He stopped at that. He turned his left leg along his upper body.

“Your daughter?”, he asked and Kumiko could see a bit of concern on his face.

“Yes, my cat”, she replied pouting. 

He rolled his eyes back and turned back again. But Kumiko hold his left arm with her two hands and kept talking as both started to walk again. He just let her hold him without questioning.

“I always leave some food for her just in case, so I wasn't that nervous about it until now. But now I'm miles away from home... No, no. 'Years' away from home. And I won't be able to go back and she will run out of food and out of water and she will die in less than a week”

“Did you tie her to a post?”, he interrumpted without looking at her, “She will just hunt some birds and go look for some puddle or any stream to drink water. There's a lot of water sources in this world”.

She stopped without realising his arm making him stop too. He then turned back again to see the reason why they stopped. Behind him was the face of a girl pouting with teary eyes.

“She won't be able to get out of the house”, she sobbed, “And if she did, she doesn't even know how to hunt a fly”. 

She started crying as she was ending to talk. She let go of Umi's arm to rub her face with the back of her hands.

“Shh”, Umi suddenly seemed desperate, none idea to know what to do in that kind of situation. “That won't happen, listen-”

“I have to lift her up to help her hunt the flies”, she interrumpted her, crying every word that got out of her mouth.

He looked perplexed at her with the words still in his opened mouth. He heard as she babbled about how useless her cat was and how she was totally dependant like a baby.

She was running out of breath when he decided to lay one of his hands on her back. He gently rubbed it in short up and down movements. She slowly started to calm down, now gasping from so much sobbing. He tried to think of any solution that could help her ease her mind at that moment.

“Is there anyone that lives near you that would go to check on you if they don't know anything from you in some days?”

She lifted her head and look him right in the eyes. Her brown pupils were so humid they sparkled. From his view, she looked like a lost and scared puppy.

“My friend”, she mumbled almost inaudibly, looking down again

“Who?”, he asked in case he didn't hear right.

“My friend”, she repeated clearing her throat.

”Oh, are they a good friend of you?”

She nodded.

“Do you think they will go to your house soon?”

She nodded again. Using his free hand, he hold her chin with his thumb and index finger, and then lifted her head. They locked each other's eyes. Hers were shaking as his eyes looked at them steady. Her face was once again red and warm. Her eyes suddenly looked away at his lips and then got back at his eyes, and then back at his lips. He slightly opened his mouth and she diverted her vision going back to his eyes. 

“She'll go to look for you for sure, don't worry. She'll take care of Luna”.

“Thanks”, Kumiko let out in soft voice. 

Umi let go of her chin as he slided that hand through one side of her face. He then dried one tear with his thumb and caressed her cheek.

“Kumi”, her cheeks boiled hot as she heard him calling her like that and she knew he could feel it in his hand.

“But don't call that animal your daughter again”, he suddenly said.

Kumiko opened her eyes wide open, baffled by his words. She took a step back, separating from him with her eyes still as open. 

She turned back with mechanical movements, like a robot, and started to walk really fast. Behind he could hear Umi's laughter. He started to walk after her.

“Hey! Go slower or you'll get lost”.

She heard him clearly, but acted like she didn't. 

“Kuumiii”, he said with a low teasing tone, enlongating the way he pronounced her name.

He acelarated his pace and reached her, walking now next to her. He gave her a side eye, trying to catch a glance of her, but she just looked straight foward with a serious face. He smiled widely as he shook his head.

They kept walking until it started to look like the trees were lesser, the surroundings were less dense and more luminous. Kumiko began to liven up when she saw the ending of the forest and far in the distance, what looked like some houses. It was probably the village Umi mentioned before, she thought. She looked at him trying to get some kind of confirmation from him. He sensed her eyes on him and understood.

“We're getting to the village soon”.

Her face brighten up with a smile and illusion. 

“Finally! We can get something to eat... and I need to change my clothes”

“Yes, you should definitely”.

“You think I smell?”

She turned to face him again, frowning. That took him by surprise.

“What?”, he made a quick turn of his face to her and as quickly turned back to the front, “I meant you will draw too much attention with those clothes. You don't look from here, not from anywhere”.

“Oh... that's a good point. I just thought of changing to something clean”.

“Then you're the one that thinks you smell rotten”.

“Heyy!!”, she frowned again as she complained, “I'm not clean, but I didn't say I smell bad. Rotten is too much!! You actually think that”.

She lifted one arm and smelled her armpit. Then looked back at him.

“I don't even smell the tiniest bad”.

“You really don't have the manners of a lady, don't you?”

“Well, neither you have the manners of a gentleman, don't you?”

He gave her a mischevious smile and shook his head in deny. He grabbed the haori and put it over her shoulders. It fit her really loose and reached below her knees.

“For now, cover with this”.

Somehow, she couldn't understand him. He was nice at first, then actually mean at times and then he suddenly, when she less expected, he was nice again.

After walking a bit more and getting outside of the woods, the sun was bright above them and the sky was clear and blue. They finally arrived to a small village.

The houses were mostly made of wood and straw. On the street, there was every kind of people. There were vendors offering fruit, vegetables and even meat. There were people draging carts made of wooden carrying different things. There were women with their children going out to walk or do some shopping. There were kids playing in the middle of the sand streets. Some people peep from their homes and talked to the ones im front of them. It was a lively town.

Her distraction stopped when she noticed some eyes watching her and following her as she walked by. Some people whispered to the one next to them as she passed by their sides. She looked at Umi, but he didn't seem like he noticed, or at least he seemed too unbothered.

Suddenly, something bumped into her legs. She stopped and looked down and saw a kid in front of her rubbing his forehead with his hand.

“Did I hurt you?”, she asked squatting down to the kid's height.

“I'm sorry, I was playing and didn't see you, young lady”, the kid apologized with his hand still on his forehead.

She took his hand down and lifted his bangs to look at his forehead. She smiled at the kid.

“It's not red, it doesn't seem like it was a hard one... does it hurt?”

“No, young lady, I'm okay, I'm really sorry”.

The kid smiled widely and his cheeks slightly blushed.

“Can I go to play with my friends?”

“Of course, you can!”, she ruffled his head and got up straight. 

The kid waved at her with a smile, then waved at Umi and then went running in the direction he was going before. Five kids were waiting for him some meters away. They all started to run and laugh together as he reached them.

“So cute. Now let's get back to our journey”, Umi interrupted the scene.

“What journey?”

“To get you some clothes. I know one lady that will dress you well. She's at the end of this avenue”

They both started to walk again.

“True”, she thought, “But why does he have to be so impatient? Many people already saw me like this”.

“I remind you that you're the one that should be impatient to get home”, he said as if he read her mind.

“It's okay. It's not like I will get immediately home if I wear a different clothing”.

He rolled his eyes.

They stopped at a house and passed through the entrance, pulling a curtain aside. 

“Lady Chiyo”, Umi called out, “I bring you a costumer".

An old lady appeared from behind other curtains on the right back.

“Welcome, Umi”, she said with a rusty voice.

The woman had a long grey hair held in a low ponytail, her face was full of wrinkles same as her hands, she was a bit hunched over, but she wasn't using any kind of cane.

“Who is this young lady you bring with you?”, she asked.

“A visitor to the city. I met her yesterday. She lost most of her baggage and she would like to buy some clothes”, he calmly explained.

“How much do you have?”, the old woman continued asking.

Kumiko realized she didn't actually have any money from that time to buy anything. There was no way for her to pursue even the cheapest robes.

“It's on me. Get her the best clothes you have and as much as she needs”, Umi went ahead to answer and, with that, the way she came, the woman disappeared behind the same curtains. Kumiko got surprised by his statement. It didn't cross her mind to ask him to pay for her, neither she expected him to. She didn't feel it was the right thing for him, a total stranger, to spend his money on someone he just met. She grabbed his sleeve discreetly and when she managed to get him meet her eyes, she tried to convey her thoughts with just a look.

He slightly bent to her level and whispered in her ears as she looked down with shyness.

“It's okay. Money's not a problem for me. Let yourself be helped”.

He fixed her eyes on hers. Her eyelids lifted and their eyes met again. He was too close to her face, but she tried not to mind it. It wouldn't be the first time he made her turn into a tomatoe and she was pretty sure he noticed all the previous times. So this time, she wanted to act as normal as possible and not get so nervous.

“You're helping too much”, she said without taking her eyes away from his. “It'll be okay with just two of the cheapest one. I can just rotate them and use one as I clean the other, each time”.

“Don't get me wrong”, he replied and incorporated himself once again without stopping looking at her. “I just don't like to go around with someone that looks cheap”.

She frown at his words. Again, he couldn't be nice and just nice. He had to always be mean at least once, for each time he acted like a decent person. She look away and opened her mouth to refute, but the old woman appeared again and interrumpted her.

“Come withe me young lady”.

She took Kumiko by surprise, but after two seconds she reacted and went with the lady, disappearing both through the curtains and leaving Umi behind.

In front of them there were an infinite of clothes and fabrics with nfinite of colors as well and many different patterns.

“I chose the ones that seems to fit your body figure”

“How can she know my size with the haori covering my body?”, Kumiko thought.

“Your shoulders are too narrow and you have slim legs and feet”, the woman said as if she could hear Kumiko's thoughts.

Kumiko just nodded with a timid smile and waited for the woman to say something again.

“Take your clothes off. I'll dress you up”.

Kumiko blushed a bit but started to undress under the haori, trying not to show her clothes. When she was completely undressed, she dropped the haori covering her clothes with it, leaving her body completely naked. Her figure was slim, but a bit curvy. She had a small waist and her hips were a bit larger than her shoulders. Her breast were small and perky. 

The old lady brought her next to a big mirror and started to dress her, trying every robes on her. Kumiko just let her do, as she looked in the mirror admiring the beauty of each robes. Every and each one of them looked beautiful and fit her as if they were custom made to her measurements. Somehow each tone of color made her skin glow and highlighted her eyes and hair color. “They're all so pretty”, she thought, “I wish I could send pictures of them all to Hima”.

Her best friend Himari came to her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about her friend since she realize were she ended up. Himari's last text message wasn't replied at the end and Kumiko didn't know what would have been worst, disappearing from the world without sending any message, or replying as everything was okay and then never giving a sign of life again.

Himari must've been worried to death. The day she disappeared wasn't the best to leave her friend calm and unpreocupied. And, in fact, she then realized, she completely forgot about that day. Her mother's death anniversary had passed and she didn't thought about it not even for a second until this moment. “How could I forget?”, she thought. 

The guilty thought of forgetting about her mom and the thought of abandoning her friend without any explanation mixed on her head. 

Her eyes were on her reflexion on the mirror, but her mind was far away now. Sadness slowly wrapped her face without her realizing it.

“An expression like that doesn't fit such a pretty clothes”, suddenly heard the old lady's voice.

She looked at her through the mirror. The woman was giving her a sweet smile on the mirror as she rubbed and adjusted the last kosode she put on her.

“Are you worried about someone?”, she asked.

Kumiko nodded with a distressed expression.

“They're someone you love a lot, right?”, the woman continue interrogating and Kumiko nodded again.

“But they know you love them, right? So why are you worried?”, the woman paused and looked directly at her with a hand on her shoulder. “As long as they know how much you love them, they will always understand and wait for you. Always”.

A tear dropped from one of Kumiko's eyes and she suddenly throw herself on the old lady and hugged her as she bursted into tears.

The lady just hugged her back and rubbed her back as she waited for her to let everything out.

On the other room, Umi was sat next to a small circular table, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on a window next to the table. He heard as Kumiko cried disconsolately as he watched some birds come to rest on the window, tilting and moving their heads side to side while observing everything around them incluiding Umi, and then spread their wings and fly away again. They flew high to the vast sky and he watched them disappear in the blueness.