Chapter 148: No good
The back garden.
"Mmm~ mmm~ mmm~"
Nezuko, in her pink pajamas with little flowers, having snuck out to play, hummed an unfamiliar tune.
Her little shovel turned the dirt over bit by bit.
In front of her, a freshly dug hole. Inside, a worm squirmed, determined to burrow back into the ground.
"Wor... mie...!"
Nezuko’s eyes lit up, and with her dirty little hand she caught it and placed it ever so carefully into a bucket she had beside her.
She stood there gazing at the jumble of worms tangling together at the bottom.
"Hehe~"
Her eyes narrowed with pure happiness.
Satisfied, she gave a couple of little claps, gripped the shovel again, and got ready to keep digging.
When...
A white ball came rolling in from the outer corridor, smacked into the wall with a dull thud, bounced a couple of times, and, by one of fate’s little whims, came to a stop right beside her
"Ball?"
Nezuko was baffled.
Tilting her head, she observed the white cocoon that wouldn’t stop trembling.
And suddenly, a voice burst out from inside:
"BITCHES!! Just you wait!! The second I get out of here I’ll eat every last one of you!!"
Nezuko blinked her big eyes and tilted her head to the other side.
And then, holding the shovel with the utmost care, she gave the cocoon a little poke
The cocoon wobbled, and the voice inside rose.
"What bastard is touching me?! Get me out of here right now!!! If you don’t, the moment I break free, I’ll eat you too!!!"
"Eat me...?"
Nezuko furrowed her cute little brows and pouted, indignant.
"Hmph!"
She raised the shovel and gave the cocoon a whack.
"No... good!"
She pronounced each word with a deliberate pause, in a little girl’s voice but with a gravity that left no room for argument.
Inside the cocoon, Daki was stunned.
A little girl’s voice?
No way...
Did... did a little brat just hit me?
"Who are you calling no good?!"
Before she could finish speaking, the cocoon took another smack of the shovel.
"No good!"
Driving the shovel into the dirt, Nezuko planted her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks.
"Eating people! Bad! No good!"
Daki was trembling with rage.
Worst of all, she couldn’t get out. All she could do was scream back and forth with this creature.
"Well, I will! I’ll eat people! What’s it to you?!"
"No good!"
"You’re the one who’s no good!"
"No good!"
"You—"
"No! Good!"
...
After a good dozen rounds, Daki was going hoarse. The brat, on the other hand, was still fresh as a daisy.
With her little hands on her hips, planted like a tiny empress, she radiated the unassailable authority of someone absolutely certain she’s in the right.
And all at once, Daki felt tired.
Not physically. Mentally.
She gave up on arguing, curled up inside the cocoon, and set about quietly gathering her strength, boring through the silk millimeter by millimeter.
Nezuko, seeing that the white cocoon had gone quiet, nodded in satisfaction, squatted back down, and went on digging for worms.
"Mmm~ mmm~"
She started humming her tune again.
With her perky little butt up in the air, she gave herself over completely to turning the soil, tossing a worm into the bucket every now and then.
And beside her, the cocoon wouldn’t stop trembling, rolling, and hopping.
Like a furious rabbit stuffed in a sack.
It rolled to the left, and Nezuko scooted a little to the right.
It rolled to the right, and Nezuko scooted a little to the left.
The cocoon rolled right up behind her, bumping into her butt...
Without even bothering to turn around, Nezuko hit it with the shovel and knocked it aside.
"Don’t be a pest."
Those words nearly made Daki cough up blood from sheer rage.
’Don’t be a pest? I’M the pest?’
’I want out!’
’I WANT OUT SO I CAN KILL THEM ALL!!’
The cocoon shook with twice the fury.
Nezuko, however, turned a deaf ear to all of it, focusing entirely on digging for her precious worms.
About 10 minutes went by.
And then, from inside the cocoon came the snap of tearing fabric.
A hand pierced through the cocoon, and then another.
The fingers, covered in loose threads, groped blindly at the air a couple of times. They found the edges of the hole. And pulled with all their might.
Riiiiip!
A gaping hole opened in the cocoon.
Daki crawled out.
She could not have looked more pathetic.
Her long white hair was covered in silk residue and had tangled itself into something vaguely resembling a bird’s nest.
Her brand-new apricot-yellow kimono was bunched around her in a wrinkled mess, the collar twisted and one sleeve torn.
She looked like a stray cat that had just climbed out of a garbage heap.
Panting, she pulled herself up against the wall and swept her surroundings with a murderous glare—
And she saw it.
The perky little butt, swaying from side to side among the flowers. Pink, with little flowers, round and wobbling. Just like a little piglet rooting in the dirt.
Daki’s fury ignited like gunpowder.
’It was this damn brat!’
’The one spouting nonsense!’
’The one poking me with the shovel!’
’The one who hit me! The one who lectured me!’
’The one who swatted me aside like I was trash!’
Swish
A sash shot out.
Smack!
Right on the ass.
"Ow!"
Letting out a startled squeal, Nezuko covered her bottom with one hand and, holding the worm she’d just dug up in the other, turned around absolutely furious.
Under the moonlight, a small, beautiful, soft face appeared before Daki.
Big eyes, rosy cheeks, and a little mouth scrunched into a pout. The strands on her forehead stuck down with sweat, and the tip of her nose had a bit of dirt on it.
And teary eyes that looked at her with the deepest sense of grievance.
Daki froze.
’What... what a pretty little girl.’
’No!’
’What do I care if she’s pretty?!’
’I’m furious! I’m supposed to be furious!’
"Brat! You were the one spouting nonsense a moment ago, weren’t you?!"
Her voice sounded fierce, but for some reason, the volume was half of what it was before.
Nezuko tilted her head and looked at the cocoon, now with a huge hole in it.
"Ah!"
Her eyes lit up and she pointed her pinky finger at Daki, exclaiming in amazement.
"Ball!"
A vein popped on Daki’s forehead.
"Who are you calling a ball?!"
"Huh?" Nezuko, confused, tilted her head to the other side.
She pointed at Daki. Then she pointed at the cocoon. Then at Daki again
"You... ball?"
"I already told you I’m not a ball!" Daki’s voice shot up. "Call me that again, and I’ll eat you!"
"Eat?"
That’s when Nezuko remembered that the ball had been arguing with her the whole time about eating this and eating that.
She lowered her gaze to Daki’s flat stomach, her little face scrunched up in absolute bewilderment.
"Ball... is... your... tummy hungry?"
Daki froze all over again.
Nezuko’s tenderness had hit her head-on, with no defenses up.
Those eyes. That innocent expression. That tiny voice asking her if she was hungry...
It was like an arrow straight to the heart.
’So... cute.’
’She’s just too cute.’
’No, no, no!’
Shaking her head frantically, she chased all those thoughts away.
"Who’s hungry?! I said I’m going to eat YOU! You!!"
She gestured wildly, baring her claws, trying to look as terrifying as possible.
Nezuko furrowed her brows and pouted again.
"Eating people! No good!"
She brought her free little hand toward her mouth, miming the act of eating, and lectured her with pastoral seriousness:
"Food... is yummy!"
The only problem was that Nezuko had completely forgotten that she was still holding the freshly dug-up worm in that hand.
The worm squirmed between her fingers, its slimy body dripping muddy water.
And at the sight of that disgusting thing heading toward Nezuko’s mouth...
Daki’s face turned green.
Swish
Another sash shot out.
It knocked her hand away just before it reached her lips, splitting the worm in half in the process.
"Don’t do gross things with such a pretty face!" she yelled, her voice cracking from the effort.
Nezuko, for her part, stared fixedly at the worm, split in two, dangling from her hand.
Her little mouth scrunched up, and her eyes turned red.
But Daki didn’t notice.
She was furious! ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS!! So much so that her eyes landed on the bucket sitting nearby.
She saw the good dozen worms Nezuko had spent half the night digging up, squirming at the bottom.
"And this too!"
Swish
The sash flew out once more and tore the bucket to pieces in the blink of an eye.
The worms went flying across the ground. Some squirmed, searching for the dirt. Others had been sliced into several pieces.
For one second, the garden fell silent.
Two seconds...
Three...
Nezuko looked at the scattered pieces of her flower-patterned bucket, and then at the worms that had already been cut apart.
The flower bucket...
Marcus had bought it for her.
He had promised her that, once she gathered enough worms, he would take her to the riverbank to go fishing...
That way she could have soup made from the fish she caught all by herself...
And she could even bring some to her brother...
She had waited. And waited. Counting the days on her fingers...
She waited such a long time, until that light rain finally fell in the middle of the night...
She risked getting covered in mud. She risked Marcus giving her a swat on the behind...
And with so much effort, she had managed to dig them all up...
And now...
Now there was nothing left.
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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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