[It takes him a second to continue, one hand going up to his neck and tracing the lines of the red brace around it - more instruments used to keep the Orochi at bay but not conspicuous enough to really draw too much attention. He'd laughed it off and called it a fashion statement. Ah, if only it was only just bad fashion sense.

Then he meets Sousei's eyes and actually manages a grin. Yeah. They got past the hard part and he no longer feels the ghosts of knives and needles pricking at his skin.]

Yep! It was always a responsibility of the Kumou anyway, plus I had enough experience helping to catch criminals with the Yamainu. It wasn't that hard. Soramaru was old enough to walk and the townspeople would always come by to stay with my brothers when I had to go out so they wouldn't get scared, crybabies that they were.

[Because who knew when the next moment would be that they would lose another family member? Tenka merely shrugs then though.]

The villagers would always stop by and give us food before Soramaru knew how to cook as well as he does. Somewhere around a year after you guys left - the winter after - I found Shirasu in the snow. We took him in, gave him food and a lot of love, and he's been part of the family since. It was hard! He was even grouchier and distrustful than you were as a kid!

[Tenka sighs then, long and loud and suffering, obviously.] I had my work cut out for me.

[But regardless, Tenka still isn't ready to cut Shirasu out of his life - it's hard to do that with someone who's been with you for ten years. Especially when it was someone who was his age who entered his life just as all his friends left. There's not only attachment on Tenka's part, but dependence. Even now, knowing that there's a solid chance that he was betrayed, he has nothing but fondness for those memories.

It was hard to let go of the Yamainu but somehow afterward, Tenka was able to laugh again if only because he wasn't sure what else to do.]