excerpt from strings of fate chapter 4
chapter link
characters: makomo, sabito, giyuu, urokodaki, OC
content: some good old fashioned goofiness and fluff
“Sayaka.”
Sayaka opens her eyes, squinting in the early morning light streaming through the front door. “Wha?” she mumbles, rubbing her eyes.
“I want to teach you how to set traps. I’m leaving in ten minutes.”
“...Setting traps just past dawn?”
Behind his mask, she could swear he’s smiling. “You’ll see.” How ominous. He offers a hand to help her to her feet. Ah, he must have remembered what she said about getting especially dizzy right after standing up. He lets Sayaka grip his hand for stability as the usual wave passes, made worse by lying down all night.
When she releases his hand, he heads out of the cottage while Sayaka gets changed into day clothes. Fastening her obi and pulling up her tabi, Sayaka takes a minute to stoke the fire and toss the ingredients for congee into a pot above the flame before she shoves her feet into zori.
Hurrying outside, Sayaka finds Urokodaki winding up a length of rope as he waits. Once she’s outside with the door shut behind her, he slides the loop over one shoulder, grabs a stack of metal buckets, and hands her an onigiri with his other hand.
“Breakfast, since we’ll be doing some walking,” he explains. Did he use the leftover rice from dinner to make onigiri? Is he worried about her but trying to act chill about it? That’s… really sweet, actually.
“Oh! Thank you.” She bows slightly before taking the onigiri. It’s nothing fancy, just a regular onigiri with some canned tuna, but the gesture is thoughtful. “Itadakimasu.” Sayaka munches on it as they walk.
Urokodaki leads her deeper into the woods before putting out an arm to stop her. “I need to reset this trap,” he explains, setting down his gear so he can crouch to fiddle with a length of rope lying on the ground. “This one connects to a swinging log. We tie the tripwire to a rope connected to the log so it will be released if something hits the tripwire.”
He grabs a rope dangling from a tree, hidden behind a bush, and drags the tripwire over to it. “I’ll show you how to do this knot and then you can try it.” He demonstrates it slowly, letting Sayaka watch from next to him, before handing it to her. She gets it on her third try.
“Good job,” Urokodaki says, straightening up. He steps carefully over the tripwire and makes sure Sayaka avoids it before they keep walking.
That’s how most of the morning goes. Urokodaki shows her a trap, tells her how to spot it, how to avoid it if it’s triggered, and then shows her how to reset it. Setting traps involves a lot of knots, as it turns out.
Their meandering path takes them to a creek. Urokodaki shrugs the buckets off his shoulder and sets them on the ground before he fills up two of them.
“Are these for traps?” Sayaka asks, filling up another bucket.
“For new traps. You’ll see,” he replies.
He lets her carry one of the smaller (and therefore lighter) buckets while he grabs a stick and shoulders two of them. They trudge a ways away from the creek with him guiding her around traps before Urokodaki sets his buckets down.
“This will be a good spot,” he says. “They’ve adjusted their usual running route to avoid the other traps but not this one.”
Sayaka perches herself on a nearby rock. “What do you mean?”
Urokodaki ties a rope to one end of a bucket and hoists it in the air. “Today is supposed to be hot.”
Oh. Ohhhhh. Ha, evil old man. But Sayaka has siblings, even if she’s more accustomed to being the baby of the group rather than the oldest, and she understands the value of a good old fashioned prank. Urokodaki can call it a trap all he likes but this is a prank.
“What if they spot it and dodge it?” Sayaka inquires, swinging her feet.
Urokodaki points at her. “That’s where you come in.”
Twenty minutes later, Sayaka is hidden in the crevice between two trees, bucket in hand and enough ivy and foliage draped over her to camouflage her. Urokodaki promised that the apprentices would come through her soon so she settled in to wait.
Sure enough, Giyuu is the first to come crashing through the underbrush. Makomo is right behind him, panting. They dodge the pitfall trap at the edge of the clearing, leaping over it, but their momentum unfortunately carries them far enough to…
Makomo’s feet hit the trip wire and several buckets simultaneously upend themselves onto the two. Giyuu shrieks in surprise and ducks, but that doesn’t save him from being drenched. Makomo just stands there, sopping wet.
Sabito skids into the clearing, sees the two of them looking like drowned rats, and immediately doubles over in laughter.
“You guys-- you--” He can barely force out words as he walks around the pit trap. By some gift of fate, Sabito happens to stand closest to Sayaka’s hiding place.
This is her chance.
Sayaka shoots up, yelling incomprehensibly, and douses Sabito with a bucketful of water. Sabito sputters, hair dripping, and Sayaka takes advantage of his pause to start sprinting back to the house. Behind her, she can hear Giyuu and Makomo laughing.
Unfortunately, Sayaka is not particularly athletic and Sabito is training to be a demon slayer. That is, he catches up to her almost immediately. Sayaka shrieks as he grabs her from behind, picks her up, and spins her around.
“Got you!” He crows, laughing. He sets her down on the ground and takes a moment to bump his cheek into the top of her head to make sure his dripping hair smacks into her previously neat braid.
“Ew,” Sayaka whines, wriggling out of his grip.
Sabito lets her go, still grinning. “That’s what you get,” he retorts. “Did Urokodaki-san put you up to that?”
Sayaka nods and wrings out her braid. “Yep. Told me it would be good for your situational awareness training. Plus it’ll be hot out today.”
Makomo trots over to them. Her socks squish with every step. “I bet he made you do it so he didn’t get soaked too,” she observes.
“...Damn, you’re probably right.” Sayaka sighs.
Sabito claps her on the shoulder. “Happens to the best of us.”
Giyuu’s stomach growls, drawing everyone’s attention. He flushes, shifting his weight. “Oops?”
“I bet the congee is ready by now. I can get some for all of you but you are not coming inside until you’ve dried off, understand?” Sayaka points at all of them in turn.
Sabito salutes her. “Yes, Sayaka-sama. Lead the way.”
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