chapter twelve;

━━━━━━ "I LOVE YOU KAORU, BE GOOD NOW", kisa smiled, giving the boy a kiss on the cheek before setting him down.

     "I love you too nee-chan!! stay safe~", kaoru waved, to which kisa just nodded as she proceeded onto the carriage with todoroki and bakugo.

     as the horses started trotting, they slowly rose into the air, as if there was a specific path paved for them to run on.

kaoru sighed as he turned back to the four ridiculously tall men, who just stared back at the little boy.

obviously they've never dealt with a child before, as all of them stood there like brick walls.

"so...do you guys like playing games?"

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

     "why'd you pick such a cold ass place to take us sightseeing?!", bakugo huffed, seeing his own breath of fiery air disperse into the cold wind.

"it's a winter wonderland. don't you love the snowy alps and clear icicles dangling like ornaments on the pine trees?", kisa smiled.

     "no! I like places where it's not fucking freezing like antarctica!", bakugo growled, to which kisa had raised a brow in curiosity.

     "do humans live in such cold places too?", kisa asked.

     the girl has always wondered about the human world. what the cities actually looked like, what new inventions the humans have came up with, kisa hoped that one day she'd be able to visit before staying here her entire life.

     "no, penguins live there", todoroki answered.

     "penguins?? are those a type of monster in your world?", kisa asked, having to have never read about the animals in the human world.

     "the hell?? they're mammals, birds that are black and white and waddle around like ducks?", bakugo tried to explain.

kisa would've asked what ducks were, but decided that it wasn't going to help her visualize it anyways with bakugo's explanations.

     "perhaps I ought to visit the human world sometime", kisa mumbled.

the three continued walking up the mountain with snow trickling down steadily, like water droplets rolling off one's face.

     the crunch of the snow differed with each step the trio took, leaving imprints, and creating a long trail.

     "how much longer are we wal—"

     as soon as bakugo spoke, a melodic voice had started singing. it was as if an innocent girl was humming a tune, trying to lure the two boys in.

     kisa smiled as she had long awaited for the yōkai to appear, using todoroki and bakugo as bait.

     the two males were entranced for a moment, before witnessing a pale girl, as pale as the snow itself, with long black hair and piercing eyes making her way towards the three.

     the woman inched closer with a welcoming smile as she walked through the snow with such elegance, it seemed as if she were almost floating.

"yuki onna, pleasure seeing you here", kisa greeted, snapping the woman's attention away from the two baits.

"second princess, tamotsu kisa?"

"indeed, it is I", kisa slightly bowed, to which todoroki and bakugo had glanced over at the fox girl skeptically.

"what's a sly fox like you doing here? I thought your father and I made an agreement that unless there's an emergency, neither will overstep onto the other's territory", the cold woman stated, furrowing her brows as she realized the two boys weren't lost travelers.

     "this is an emergency", kisa innocently replied, to which the snow woman gasped.

"is there an upcoming war? is it the tengus? the kappas? the onis?", the woman worried.

kisa simply shook her head. "none of that. in fact, I wanted to offer you a deal".

     "oh? what can a measly little fox offer me?", the yuki onna mocked, covering her mouth with her sleeve as she lightly chuckled.

     kisa breathed out, glancing around as she pretended to examine her empty surroundings.

     "isn't it...quite lonely up here all alone? I must say, yuki onna—"

     "my name's suzuki", the snow woman interrupted, to which kisa hastily corrected herself.

"my apologies suzuki-san. but as I was saying...it's quite lonely up here isn't it? surrounded by mountains of snow...travelers don't really come by that often anymore do they?", kisa asked.

suzuki simply didn't respond, as she knew that kisa knew that it was all true. there wasn't many humans who roamed around the mountains anymore. and even if they did, very few got lost.

"I want to offer you a lifetime marriage, to quench the emptiness that this meaningless snowstorm offers", kisa calmly stated, to which suzuki had perked up at that.

"what is your objective?", the woman coldly spat.

"there's something that your land has that I need. inside the mountains are ores, rocks that contain metal. I just need the metal, but I need people to mine the mountains", kisa briefly explained.

     suzuki didn't particularly understand why the girl needed metal, but it didn't harm her in any way, so she just agreed.

     "alright, and in return..."

     "in return I will set you up on a date in three days time. arrive at the entrance of the hayakawa village, and he will be there waiting", kisa smiled.

suzuki raised a brow in suspicion. "and if I'm not content?"

"you will be", kisa confidently promised. "and I will only have my kitsunes start mining after your date, so if you're truly not satisfied, we can overlook this deal".

the pale yōkai hummed in amusement. "I suppose it would be fine. in that case, I will see whoever he is in three days", the woman said as she suddenly disappeared into the snow.

kisa widely grinned as she turned back to todoroki and bakugo, who were clearly freezing, but had said nothing.

kisa then held a palm of black flames, which grew in size and started floating by itself, keeping the two humans warm.

"come on now, I hope you enjoyed the sightseeing", kisa chuckled, to which bakugo immediately was irked.

"SIGHTSEEING MY ASS! YOU CLEARLY CAME HERE AND BROUGHT US ALONG FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL GAINS!"

"and you got to see another part of the beautiful yōkai world. what's not to love?", the woman laughed as she started heading towards the carriage, which had magically appeared in front of them.

the two men stayed silent as they stepped onto the carriage, which was way warmer than the drizzling snow that was outside.

as the two boys sat next to each other, kisa looked out the window, watching as the scenery suddenly changed from winter to autumn, which was the original season of the yōkai world.

"how'd you know about him?", todoroki suddenly spoke up, to which bakugo turned to him in confusion.

"who—"

"I told you, that's not important. but if you want my help, I must gain something in return", kisa answered, not even sparing the dual-haired boy a glance.

"how do I know you're not lying to me?"

"well you obviously don't if you're still here", kisa replied, to which she had indeed hit the nail on the head.

if todoroki didn't think that there was a chance of touya being alive, he would've already left this damned world.

"what is that you want in return?", the boy asked, to which bakugo had stayed silent throughout the entire conversation, trying to catch on to what they were talking about.

"your services. your fire quirk is extremely helpful for what's to happen next", kisa vaguely answered, to which todoroki just nodded.

"when will I get to see him?", he asked, clenching his fists tightly.

"when he wants to see you".