The day before leaving, Kyoko Suzuki was tidying up her things. She carefully wrapped her weapon in an oilcloth, and carefully placed protective oil in the shaft.

Holding her weapon, which was almost as tall as herself, she struggled to shove the oiled wooden stick into its chamber, the other end of which was wrapped in cloth and formed a ball to absorb the grease.

Apricot moved her wrist to lubricate it carefully, and it had been a long time, and her hands were as red and swollen as a small radish. But her eyes were still so focused.

"Apricot, don't you really want me to help you. A teenager asked beside Kyoko.

"Yes, no. Thank you, it's better for me to do this by myself. Apricot looked back and smiled.

"If you want me to say, the leader still needs a strong man like me even more. After a few poses, a muscular teenager said with a smile.

Kyoko wrinkled her nose unconvinced, "This is something that the leader praises, and the leader also sends the materials very seriously, and puts forward his opinion." This time I go back to the Sound Ninja Village, I must let him take a good look at the results. ”

"Even so, these tools still need to be used by people like me. The sturdy boy said with a hearty smile.

"Yes, yes," Kyoko rolled her eyes helplessly. So the people who were sorting out their things couldn't help but laugh for a while.

Kyoko was born into a family of famous craftsmen in Tanokuni, and her grandfather loved to make all kinds of strange things. A plough that makes ploughing a field easier, a clock that pops out birds and chirps. Her father was a blacksmith in the village, and his Japanese sword was a great skill for many samurai. And mom is an ordinary housewife.

When I was a child, Apricot was always interested in what her grandfather made, so she pestered her grandfather to let her grandfather teach. Grandpa disagreed at first, saying that girls should not learn this, but should be a gentle lady. But after Apricot plucked her grandfather's precious beard, Grandpa finally agreed.

Learning a trade from her grandfather, going to school with a teacher who taught in the village, and the family's financially prosperous Kyoko has been living such a simple and stable life until she was eight years old.

Later, war broke out in Tanokuni, and several samurai arrived at Kyoko's house that day. Despite her mother's pleading, Grandpa and Father, who had mastered the craft, were taken away.

This time, Grandpa and Dad never came back.

Kyoko's mother fell ill with lovesickness and finally fell ill in bed. Later・・・・・・・・・・・・ the war spread to the village, and Kyoko lost everything she had while fleeing.

From the outside, Kyoko is a very weak girl, with a cute short hair, bangs can be the same as the eyebrows, the eyebrows are delicate, and the eyes of the double eyelids always show sadness.

But when it's time to make something, Kyoko becomes a different person, becomes confident, and becomes focused.

Kyoko is holding a firearm-like device in her hand. It can fire up to 300 iron drills at breakneck speeds, and it can also be fired individually.

Under the honeycomb-like barrel is a slightly larger barrel that can be filled with smoke grenades, high-explosive shells, and the like. At the tail of the gun is a flexible wire that can be fired, which can be nailed to the surrounding trees to achieve the effect of three-dimensional movement. This thing leaves something to be desired. Wire material that is not flexible enough cannot be found at the aggregation point.

The friends at the gathering point once used this tool to kill a tiger, and the broken tiger skin allowed them to exchange a lot of money and survive a harsh winter.

Yagamiki referred to this thing as a prototype in the letter he exchanged with Kyoko, and when he arrived in Otoshinobu Village, he would use more resources to support Kyoko's research and development.

Apricot does have some talent in this area, and Kyoko is happy about what she can do.

"Whew~ Okay. Finally, Kyoko wrapped the weapon tightly. She exhaled lightly and looked up at the sky, where a few bits of white were falling under the blackened clouds.

Apricot reached out to catch the white snowflake, and a smile rose from the corner of her mouth.

"It's snowing..."

"Is it snowing? ”

At another gathering point, a boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes looked at the sky with a frown. His wrist stabbed the kunai in his hand deep into the throat of his prey.

He pressed his prey until the struggle of the prey beneath him faded.

His prey is a wolf. A fierce timber wolf, but the dangerous wolf snout was spilling blood, and the breath between the noses was gradually disappearing.

It wasn't until the wolf's body grew cold that the boy relaxed his arm around the wolf's neck. The boy had a thick scar from his chin to the right cheek, which seemed to have been left by the claws of wild beasts, and it was not so easy to live in the mountains.

Carrying the wolf's body, which was almost twice his size, on his shoulders, the boy's brow was still tightly furrowed. He was worried about the trouble the snow would cause on the way to Otoshinobi Village. There are a few children in the gathering area who catch a cold because they can't stand the cold air, and although they have bought some medicine with money, it is still risky to travel in such cold weather.

It seems that no matter how much you look forward to Otoshinobi Village, the speed of movement will be slowed down appropriately.

In the distance, the boy saw his village in the light snow, and his companions had seen him and were waving vigorously at him. He grinned and quickened his pace home.

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

Unconcerned about the gradually growing wind and snow, the boys excitedly gathered in a circle. In the circle, two boys are fighting to the cheers of their respective supporters.

Once again, Sakai swung his right fist and slammed it into the cheek. But unexpectedly, the opponent's right foot had already kicked his left foot, and Sakai's body was unbalanced, and it was not easy to block the opponent's next short knife vertical split.

As if maintaining a tacit understanding, the two took two steps back at the same time after this attack, looking at each other in a defensive posture.

"Hey, Sakai. Do you say that our strength can wear the sound ninja forehead in the sound ninja village? Across from Sakai, the boy asked.

"I don't know, I think I should be able to, you probably can't. ”

"You're not ashamed, Sakai. ”

"It's called self-confidence. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, Sakai, who was smiling confidently, suddenly approached his opponent, and took advantage of his short knife to pull his opponent's short knife away from his short knife, and punched his opponent in the face fiercely, knocking him to the ground.

Then he spread his hands and accepted the cheers as the victor... and, of course, a big chicken leg as a bet. And with dark circles under his eyes, the losing boy could only watch Sakai eat fragrant chicken thighs and swallow his saliva fiercely.

"Now, give you a bite. It's only one bite. "Hand the chicken leg to the boy's mouth, Michichi Sakai.

"Sakai, you're such a nice person. As he spoke, the boy grabbed Sakai's right hand suddenly, opened his mouth wide and bit off more than half of the big chicken leg, puffing out his mouth and chewing contentedly.

"Ahh

In Otoshinobi Village, Yagami took care of his official duties and took a sip of hot tea brewed in white. He turned his head to look at the snow outside the window, smiling slightly, not knowing what he was thinking.