Is it fair to blame the trainees?

Once again Shizune woke up in discomfort, but this time she was on her own. Raiko was nowhere to be seen, nonetheless, and judging by the noise coming from above, she could take a good guess. She is probably clearing the debris of her former home.

She should go upstairs and help her out; it was her house after all. However, it wasn’t a good idea to work without eating something first, so she decided to take care of things one at a time.

Being on her own, Shizune munched a piece of jerky without much excitement; she did not bother on making tea, opting for plain water instead. After she was done, she put her boots on and grabbed her rifle to walk upstairs.

Raiko would retrieve the corpses while she would salvage supplies, that was their agreement. However, after her eyes got used to the sunlight, she noticed that her house was already cleared up. Food, water, clothes, money, weapons and ammunition were lined up outside of the debris.

At the distance she noticed Raiko coming back with her cart and a stupid smile. She did it all by herself so that Shizune wouldn’t have to see her dead father’s body, she didn’t ask, but she was sure that this is what went through Raiko’s mind. Shizune closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled.

“So you woke up, morning.”

“You could have told me you were good to go.”

“There was no need, I’m doing Klara’s home next, I’ll need you at that when you sort out this stuff.” She said, pointing at the supplies.

“I need to know, how bad was papa?”

She had to know, sure Raiko wanted to spare her the suffering, but she found her mother’s dismembered body that night, couldn’t be worse than that, right?

Raiko still took a moment to think about how to say it, Shizune has been strong so far, but everyone has a limit.

“He was alright; at least he was in one piece.”

“I see, thanks.”

“Thinking about it.” Raiko held her chin as she spoke. “I heard grandma’s brother is also your father’s dad, wouldn’t that make us cousins?”

“I never thought about it, but it seems to be the case.”

“Then we still have a family.”

The two girls nodded at each other with a smile.

Shizune then proceeded to sort Raiko’s findings, dried and canned food was prioritized, followed by ammunition for her rifle, and then the clothes, she wouldn’t take all of them, but she wanted to change for the time being. As she carried the selected supplies downstairs she reflected on what she heard, at least her father didn’t suffer too much, and his body would be well preserved.

“That was a stupid question.” She told herself.

It didn’t really matter if his body was in one piece or not if they were going to cremate him after clearing the village. Raiko was still able to put that stupid smile of hers on her face, so she was recovering, too. She just wanted to be done with this so they can rest for a while.

For the time being, though, there was still a lot of clearing to do. They headed to the next house, one made of wooden logs like many others. This one seemed to be burned to the ground as well, so the recovery work was going to be most likely short.

“Shizune.”

Raiko spoke out of a sudden, with her hand on her sword. She has also stopped while looking at the ruins. Shizune didn’t understand why, because there was nothing apparently wrong with the ruins from here, was she becoming paranoid?

Or maybe, was she developing some sixth sense?

The best way to know was to ask.

“What’s going on?”

“Wait here.”

“Okay.”

Raiko walked inside, ignoring a burned body at her feet. It was her duty, but there was something more important to deal with right now, she had that feeling. She moved through another door, where she confirmed her suspicions.

An apparition with the aspect of two bodies glued together by the waist stood over two bodies. Raiko didn’t think about it, she simply unsheathed her sword and cut it in half. Its core bounced on the ground with a soft jingle, she picked it up and crushed it under her fingers.

After the apparition was dealt with, Raiko returned her attention to the ruins. In front of her she noticed two dead bodies hugging each other. Raiko kneeled in front of the dead lovers, whom she was so happy about just a couple days ago.

“Klara… Yuri…”

She couldn’t say anything else. Even though the dead won’t listen to her, she felt it was her duty to say something, an apology, at least. She has ignored the rest of Klara’s family on her way here as well.

She was scolding herself again for being disrespectful, but she thought the apparition had to be dealt with before any recovery work could be done. Noticing Iblis floating next to her, she asked.

“Iblis.”

“Yes?”

“Suppose these people were alive, would it have been right to just ignore then and focus on the apparition?”

“Your work is to kill apparitions, so if they weren’t in immediate danger, you would have done the right thing.”

“I see, thanks.”

Raiko picked the bodies, trying her best not to separate them, and moved outside. There, Shizune was waiting with a worried expression, rifle in hand.

“What happened inside there?”

“I had the feeling that there was an apparition inside there, and there was.”

“Are you okay?”

“What can I say, I wasn’t hurt but… watching over the reminder of my failure every time I get inside a house does hurt.”

“Klara?”

“Klara.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to salvage in there, I’ll help you out with the bodies.”

Shizune thought she was fortunate of not having friends other than Raiko and Hanako, this didn’t affect her as badly as it did to Raiko. She picked a man’s body and tried to lift it, like Raiko always did.

It turned out that dead bodies are heavy, even though Raiko made it seem so easy. Unable to lift the body over her shoulder, she ended up dragging it to the cart. Raiko tapped her shoulder, offering for help, but she refused with her head.

“I can do this.”

Raiko, knowing how stubborn she was, decided to let her be.

“Alright, if it gets too difficult for you, let me know.”

With that, she walked inside the burned ruins again, returning with another body and placing it on the cart before Shizune could reach it with the first one. Still, she refused to be left behind simply because she had no magic.

She stepped over the cart and pulled the body inside, it was hard, just like before, but she had more brains than muscle. She squatted and grabbed the body again, this time pulling it with her legs instead of her arms. She managed to stand on the cart with the body, from where she just had to make a few steps back in order to put it in its place.

She spent some time there massaging her armpit area, disappointed at feeling so tired after carrying a single body. Raiko walked there and placed two more, looking at her with a calm expression.

“Are you alright?”

“Well, yes.”

“There’s only one body left, let’s go.”

She was mentally prepared to be belittled for having it so hard, but Raiko simply went along with her whim. The last body seemed to belong to an old woman, probably the clan’s matriarch, being just one, she thought Raiko would simply move the body by herself.

“Alright, grab her by the legs, let’s do it together.”

“Really?”

“You wanted to help, didn’t you?”

“Yeah… but I thought you’ll do it by yourself.”

“You don’t want to?”

“I just don’t know how helpful I can be when you’re a purifier with super strength.”

“Very.” Raiko said with a smile. “As long as I can count on you, I know I can do anything.”

“When did you become such a smooth talker?” Shizune answered with a flustered expression.

“Told you, I can do anything, now let’s get to it, partner.”