A soft melodious humming resounded through the air, although it was a cold and rainy spring afternoon it seemed the unfavorable weather was having little chance of dampening the mood of the young lady who was swinging back and forth before the bulletin board, her body looking almost as if she was a pendulum. "Questy~ Questy~ Let's do a request Nii-chan!"
The hooded girl exclaimed in excitement, clearly wanting to find some sort of entertainment to occupy her. Seated on the railing next to the bulletin board was a taller man, clearly trained in the art of combat judging from both hit attire and body, and as he finished drinking from a flash he declared firmly.
"Fine, but in return for being allowed to pick a request you have to pick one that doesn't involve bad behavior." The man was quite adamant about this decision, in the end, his precious little sister had been succumbing too much to the influence of the parasite that inhabited her body.
"Fine~ Fine~ How about a treasure hunt?" The lass inquired in a cheerful tone, her delicate fingers scooping up the paper parchment from the bulletin board and swayed it before her elder brother.
"It's a simple collecting of several materials. Burnt wood, a scrap of metal and some old plant that grows in the woods around this town."
The Samurai raised a hand to his chin, pondering if there was some sort of catch to this request. It sounded simply too odd and trivial for a paid request. Looking up into the girl's face he felt his hesitation falter, for despite the fact the red markings on her cheek pulsed with an eerie red hue the innocent smile that she beamed at his face was unmistakably that of the sweet little sister he had always known.
"Alright, but where do we go and collect the wood and metal? As if she had expected the question the girl spun around on the back of her heels and hummed softly. "Tsukiko is glad you asked~ Let Tsukiko go and take you to the area Nii-chan."
Seemingly both intrigued and worried the samurai followed in the wake of his sister's footsteps, slowly but surely leading back to a location that was familiar to them. Of course, how could he have possibly forgotten? This place was where his sister burnt down a whole dinner while smiling gleefully at the sight as if she was watching fireworks...
The man sighed deeply, part of him feeling glad that the people had forsaken the attempts to rebuild the dinner, not that they had much choice considering it was not just a large scrap of metal and burnt wood. But this was exactly what they needed.
Watching the lass gather planks of wood her elder brother proceeded to pick up a large scrap of metal, meaning that two out of the three materials for this 'treasure' hunt had been gathered. Only the plant was left now... But what would follow afterwards? Would they finally discover the true nature of this task?
the abyss will also gaze into thee.