Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Her morning goes by as it always does: wake up, eat breakfast, check on her patients, and visit the cemetery. The rainy season has finally come and gone, the new growth finally coming in and filling the world with new scents and colors. The smells are nearly overwhelming, and she knows that if her husband were here, he'd be talking about how everything smelled fresh. New. Peaceful.

Kanao takes in a breath and looks up at the wisteria trees, their petals floating down gracefully around her as she hums a lullaby she'd recently been taught by Aoi. She is smiling, something that isn't uncommon for her, but it never fully reaches her eyes. She looks back down at the stone she was washing and frowns when she reads the name: Kamado Tanjiro. Kanao stops humming.

“Nezuko-chan told me she has a name picked out for her baby if it happens to be a boy. Agatsuma Tanjiro. I think it's fitting, don't you?”

She stares at the grave, hoping that it will somehow reply to her, but it doesn't. Kanao exhales and softly places a few flowers next to the stone. She stands. Three stones down, two more to go.

“I miss you.”

The stone doesn't answer.

She turns and walks a few headstones down that same row, stopping in front of one that is just as clean as the ones she'd just visited. She bows and begins to meticulously clean it off as well. She hears her crow, Isuzu, in the branches above her, but she ignores her. She needs to finish this quickly or else she'll fall behind on her other chores.

“Nee-san once told me that you liked ohagi, so I brought a plate out for you. I hope you like them.” Kanao places the bowl in front of the grave and waits. For what, she does not know. The dead never respond.

“I hope you don't mind that I come up here often. You were not family, but you might as well have been by the end. Tanjiro and I, we are forever grateful for you. I hope you know that. Your son is growing up well. We're all so proud of him.” She stands and looks up at the sun. It's nearly at its zenith. She needs to hurry. “I'll see you tomorrow, Shinazugawa-san.”

Kanao turns and walks down to the next row, her mind already working out the next round of medication she needs to hand her patients. She stops when she makes it to the last stone on her list.

“Good morning, Tomioka-san. I don't have your favorite with me, but I hope you'll accept ohagi. Everyone else got some already.” She bends down and begins to clean the already spotless stone. “I'm afraid I'm short on time right now, but I couldn't leave without saying hello. Your daughter is so big now! We're all so happy to see how fast she's growing. I hope you're watching over her from your end.”

Kanao finishes wiping and stares at the plaque in front of her. She sighs again. Isuzu takes that time to fly down onto her shoulder, but the crow doesn't say anything. She thinks she prefers it that way.

Kanao stands and bows, before she rushes out of the cemetery. She has a lot of work to do, and if she doesn't arrive back to the mansion on time, Aoi will be angry. 

Her last thought before she steps out of the cemetery is how utterly lonely she is.

*

“Now then, we can get you into therapy for a few weeks and then see how your leg has healed up by then. If you feel any more pain, please feel free to stop by again. We are always happy to help.” Kanao smiles at the young man in front of her and walks him out towards the exit, Kaburamaru coiled tightly around her neck.

Her patient thanks her and leaves, his cane clacking on the wooden panels underneath him. Kanao watches him exit the house and turns to face Aoi. Her sister has been watching her closely all afternoon and she's getting rather tired of being observed like a lab rat.

“Aoi-chan?” Aoi purses her lips but doesn't fall for the bait. Very well then.

Kanao turns back around and promptly locks the door to the estate, flipping their open sign to closed before she turns back around and walks past her sister. She is tired and she wants to take a bath before dinner. 

Kanao makes her way to the bath house, her eyes flicking up and landing on a few family portraits that still litter the main living room. She pretends not to feel the sting of loneliness again when she notices the picture of Tanjiro and the others. She shakes her head and lifts Kaburamaru from her shoulders and onto the rope she and Tanjiro had tied in the main living space. The snake goes onto it without fanfare and she smiles. 

Finally, she can bathe.

She takes her time cleaning herself off, her mind blissfully blank as she slides her clothes off and begins to lather her hair. She had received a letter earlier that day from Ubuyashiki Kiriya, so she'd already made the decision to go visit him after she's done her rounds at the cemetery tomorrow. A part of her wonders what he wants. He normally only talks to Uzui and Yushiro now, but she supposes she is his doctor. Perhaps he or one of his sisters are sick.

She stops and stares at the drain, watching as the suds slowly disappear into the tiny holes beneath her. She wonders what that'd be like, to disappear into nothingness, before she stops that train of thought. That's a very dangerous slope to slide down.

She turns the water off and makes the decision to soak in the tub for a bit. She knows Aoi is waiting for hers and she'd rather soak in the bathtub for a while before she is to be lectured.

That thought goes out the window five minutes later when Aoi steps into the tub with her. Kanao closes her eyes and waits. She should have bathed in the private ward if she didn't want company.

“Visiting the grave each morning isn't healthy, you know?” Kanao turns to look at Aoi and nods, but she can't bring herself to say anything. She knows that, of course, but she can't stop herself. She might've been able to ignore the cemetery before, but she had had Tanjiro with her. That was then. This is now. 

Kanao can suddenly see why Shinobu had done everything to get back at Upper 2 all those years ago. She wishes there was a way to get back at the curse that took her family from her.

“I know, Aoi-chan. Please don't worry. It's my routine.” She looks over at her sister and feels guilt slowly settle in her gut. Aoi looks so stressed and Kanao knows it's because of her. “Please, I don't mean to do it to make you feel upset. I just feel closer to Tanjiro there.”

If anything, that makes Aoi look even more desperate. Kanao closes her eyes and leans back once more. She's so tired.

“Inosuke, the children, and I are going to visit Nezuko-chan and Zenitsu-san tomorrow before we all come back here. Perhaps you'll join us?” Kanao feels her heart break at the hope she hears in Aoi’s voice, but she shakes her head. At least this time she has an excuse not to go.

“I'm sorry. I was given a letter by Oyakata-sama. He wishes to see me tomorrow afternoon. But you'll all be here for dinner, no?”

Aoi stares at her for several seconds, probably trying to figure out if she is lying or not, but ultimately she must sense no deception from her because she nods. Her curiosity has been spiked though.

“Did he say what for?”

“No.” 

He hadn't. That is what struck Kanao as odd.

“Perhaps he's sick?” Aoi breaks Kanao's thought process with her question and Kanao shrugs. She has no clue what Kiriya wants. She assumes that Aoi is correct though.

“Well, okay. I'll let the others know you won't be there. You'll meet us all for dinner though, won't you? We'll host it here.”

That she can do. She smiles at her sister and nods. Dinner with her remaining family is something she'll never miss. She has to die before she does so.

“Well, okay then! Let's get out of this tub. I think we're clean enough.”

Kanao laughs and feels the tendrils of sadness loosen for a moment.

*

“A part of me wishes that we had had a baby, but I don't think I would've been mentally prepared to have raised them on my own. I don't know.” Kanao eats her breakfast in front of her sisters’ graves and talks. She used to never do so, but as time went on and she was left behind by her remaining family, she found talking to the graves therapeutic.

She wishes that they'd talk back.

“Aoi-chan and Inosuke-san have two beautiful little girls and I know, whether she admits it or not, that they are wanting a third. It's become increasingly obvious. Nezuko-chan and Zenitsu-san are expecting their second. I wish I had had at least one.”

Kanao knows why she doesn't have one, of course, but she can't help but wish she did. Tanjiro had not been happy with the thought of leaving her alone with a child to raise though. He'd wanted her to have the best possible chance to remarry, and that meant no children. She'd agreed even if she knew she'd never be mentally stable enough to fall in love again.

Isuzu caws to her from the trees. It must be getting closer to when she should leave. She stands and packs all her belongings into her bag and looks at the stones that commemorate the lives of her sisters. The stones stare back at her in silence.

“I'll see you two tomorrow, okay?” She bows and takes off. She can't keep Kiriya waiting.

After the final battle, Kiriya had gone ahead and disbanded the remaining corps members and had declared a new era of peace. Everyone had moved on fairly quickly after that, but some had not. Kiriya had made it his mission to aid those who couldn't move on.

Kanao had been one of them. It is how, despite not having been a hashira, that she became well enough acquainted with the last surviving male Ubuyashiki.

She looks up towards Isuzu and continues on her way, her mind taking her back to some memories she'd rather not focus on at the moment.

After the battle, Kanao had been stuck in an endless loop of sadness, her heart fractured at having lost her older sister. She had known, of course, of Shinobu's plan to sacrifice herself, but she'd been foolish enough to believe that her sister would somehow beat the odds and survive. Shinobu had not and Kanao had fallen into a depression.

Her depression had only worsened when, after finally deciding enough was enough and she had to clean out Shinobu's study, she had found a few letters and trinkets in her desk. Letters that were written out to each and every one of them, each with one final gift and a note that said “just in case”. Kanao never truly recovered after realizing what that meant. Her sister had never wanted to die, but it had come to it in the end.

She'd been shattered. Kanao had loved both Kanae and Shinobu, but it was the latter who gave her everything. Shinobu was her Kanae, and she would have given anything in that moment to have gotten her back.

She'd managed to escape the snare of depression with the help of her remaining family members and Tanjiro. 

Especially Tanjiro.

The two of them had become close, and with Tanjiro came the addition of his group. Shinazugawa and Tomioka had also fallen into their little huddle.

They'd all lived here for a time, somewhat content with the life they'd been given. It was hard though. They were used to structure and missions; they were used to fighting for their lives to survive. To suddenly be told they were no longer needed for that was a slap to the face. Luckily for her and her sisters, they'd had jobs they could easily convert to civilian life. The others hadn't been so lucky and had clung to the safety the Butterfly Estate offered.

Shinazugawa had been the first to go, still haunted by the loss of Kanae and Shinobu to stay any longer than he needed to. They'd let him go with strict instructions to return every other week. They worried they'd never see him again otherwise. He'd never missed a single visit up to the day he died. He'd been happy enough; his friendship with Uzui and Tomioka had filled the gaps his brother and Kanae had left behind.

Then he’d fallen in love.

Kanao had been so happy to have seen him get married. He had been sad for so long, so watching him fall in love and finally get a happy ending had been so satisfying. She also knows that her oldest sister would've been so happy for him too. 

Shinazugawa had been a bag of mixed emotions the day of his wedding. He'd been happy, of course, but he'd hunted down each one of them and apologized to them. She'd been confused until he told her he would never stop seeing them as his sisters, even if he never managed to marry Kanae. Kanao had cried to sleep that night.

Sanemi had loved his wife dearly, and that love had only grown when she had his child – a sweet little boy who looked just like Genya. Shinazugawa had wept when he'd first laid eyes on his son and had spent the rest of that night holding the little boy who looked like the brother he'd loved with all his heart, yet had abused so horribly till the day he died. It had torn Kanao apart to see him hold his infant and vow to love him unconditionally. He'd kept that promise too; his son had never known anything but love from his father.

Kanao always feels her heart fracture whenever she sees how happy and carefree he is. He and his mother visit the estate often, always willing to lend a hand and show off his new accomplishments. Kanao and the girls love him like another family member, but the pain of knowing that he would've been Kanae's, a child born of flowers and wind, lingers every time they lay eyes on him. 

Shinazugawa’s widow only smiles sadly whenever she sees her son interact with them. She had admitted to Kanao, once, that she knew that Shinazugawa's heart belonged to her sister before she died. She hadn't been as bothered by that thought as Kanao thought she'd be. If anything, she'd been sad to know that they had never gotten a chance to be happy together. Kanao thanks the gods every day that Shinazugawa had fallen in love with someone as kind as her.

His son is so big now, but their happiness at his growth is always laced with sorrow. Shinazugawa deserved to have been able to raise him, but he hadn't. He died at the age of 25 due to the mark's curse. 

Tomioka followed him three months later.

Kanao thinks back to the late water hashira and smiles sadly. Like the wind hashira, Tomioka had carved a future for himself, though there had been moments where his happiness dipped and died – some scars are just too deep. 

She remembers the day his daughter was born, how she'd been so excited to hold the baby. She and the girls had offered to give the baby a butterfly hairpin, and while his wife had been excited, Tomioka had refused.

Kanao can kind of understand.

Had Shinobu lived, Kanao has no doubts her sister would've been the one to give his daughter the clip. It was hardly a secret that they'd been friends. She was the only one he openly talked to, the one everyone sent to reach out to him if he wasn't responding, and it wasn't unusual to find them eating lunch together after a joint mission. He'd eventually befriended the other survivors, but he didn't have a friend who had known him before he was “reborn”. Shinobu had died and had taken those memories of him with her.

Her sister would've been so excited to see him melt the icy exterior he had. She would've been his biggest supporter to his marriage. Kanao had mentioned it one day in front of Tomioka and his wife, and he had smiled sadly before his wife had just said that she would've loved to have met someone who had been her husband's friend during his depressive episode. 

Marriage suited Tomioka in a way she had never thought possible. Kanae – and later Shinobu – had been right; he had a kind and gentle soul. He'd been a good husband and an even better father.

Kanao remembers how horrified Tomioka had been when he realized he'd been in love, especially when he found out that the woman he loved actually loved him back. He'd not wanted to ruin her life by dying on her so early. He'd eventually caved to his feelings and had been happy.

The little girl he left behind was proof of that. Like Tanjiro, Tomioka had been adamant that he would have no children. The universe decided to spite him and gave him one anyway. His daughter had been his pride and joy. It is just unfair that he would never get the chance to raise her. He succumbed to the curse a month away from her first birthday. 

Kanao still sees the little girl regularly, and while Tomioka had never wanted to see a butterfly hair clip in his daughter's hair, they'd all gifted her one after he passed. His widow had asked and Kanao and the girls had caved. The little girl loved it and called them all family; Tomioka's widow had just smiled and said that had she not died, her little one would probably never have been born to her and would've had that little clip in her hair from the moment she was born. 

That had hurt Kanao more than she ever thought it would. She had known of Shinazugawa and Kanae, she'd caught them in multiple compromising positions after all, but it had never struck her that Tomioka and Shinobu might have become something more if her sister had lived. They'd been friends, sure, but her sister never spoke of romance. Tomioka also never seemed interested in having a partner until after the war ended. She supposes it could've been true. Had time not been as cruel as it was, she might've had two older brothers…

“Kanao-sama!” Kanao stops her trek and looks up at her crow’s voice. Isuzu is waiting for her at the top of a tree, staring at her expectantly. She blinks. She hadn't realized she'd arrived. She nods to her crow and Isuzu takes off into the large tree in the center. Best get this over with.

Kiriya is waiting for her at the front of his home, something she was not expecting. She looks for his sisters but finds he is alone. Yet another surprise. The three of them have been inseparable since the final battle.

“Oyakata-sama, hello.” Kanao bows and looks up at the young man. She's long since grown used to seeing him often ever since she became his physician.

“Kanao, welcome. I'm sorry if my calling you here was last minute, but there is something I wished to discuss and Tengen is unfortunately not in town.” Kiriya smiles at her and gestures for her to enter, so she does. 

The new home he and his sisters claimed is smaller than the last, though it is no less extravagant. Most of the decor they have is old, left behind in this used to be vacation home, but there are a few things that they bought and set up for themselves. One of those stands at the very entrance to the building. Kanao stops walking and stares at the swords on display. It's been years since she's last held one.

“Kanao?” She apologizes and follows Kiriya to his study, her eyes slowly going back to look at the swords. She'd only been a child when she wielded one. How cruel fate is.

They enter his room and the first thing she notices is that it's messy. Kiriya is a very organized man, Kanao has been into his study more than a few times, so she knows it is never this unkempt. Her eyes scan his desk and she frowns. Half of the papers strewn around are so weathered and old that she can't read the print on it. What could he want with this?

“This is what I wished to show you. Well, I wished to show Tengen as well, but he isn't here.” Kanao nods, still trying to decode whatever it is she is looking at. They just look like old papers to her. Nothing unusual about them at all. A quick glance to Kiriya tells her that these are more than just papers though.

“I'm sorry, Oyakata-sama, but what am I looking at?” Why is she looking at them too? Surely it has nothing to do with her. After the corps was disbanded, Kiriya made sure to only speak of confidential secrets to the retired hashira and a select few others. Kanao rarely made that list.

She looks back up at him when he doesn't answer immediately, and she's thrown for a loop when Kiriya sighs and breaks his calm demeanor. He looks nervous. Kanao feels her fight or flight kick in. 

“Well, I was hoping you'd have the answer to that. You see, I found these hidden away in the records room, but I have no clue what they are. I was hoping that you might, considering how well read you are.”

Kanao looks back at the papers. Well read or not, she isn't a miracle worker. The words are far too faded to read.

“I'm sorry, but I have no clue. Perhaps Yushiro-san will have something to make them legible?”

Kiriya shakes his head. 

“I already tried asking him.” He walks over to a shelf on the left side of the room and takes out an even older paper from within. He hands it to Kanao. “Yushiro-san said he can't restore it. I was hoping you'd know what it is. Or maybe, that you'd find notes on them somehow.”

Kanao knows what he is hinting at.

Shinobu had been a chronic workaholic. She'd collected materials and knowledge on anything and everything. Kiriya knows this and is probably hoping she has something laying around her house that can help them solve this mystery. Kanao doubts it.

She takes the offered paper carefully and looks at it. She blinks.

“Does this say, Kibutsuji?” She stares in disbelief and tries to read the rest of the paper, but it's too faded to read the rest. Her eyesight is not as good as it used to be now that she's blind in one eye. She looks up at Kiriya and waits.

“Yes. I wanted to see if it has any information that we may not already know. We don't wish to ever deal with another demon king, after all.” 

Kanao looks back at the paper. As fascinating as this is, it's not as if it's worth anything now. Muzan is dead. He's been dead for years. She shakes her head.

“I'm sorry, Oyakata-sama, but I can't make out what this says. I can always search Nee-san's records, but I doubt I'll find anything worthwhile. Perhaps Uzui-san will have better luck?” She hands the paper back to him and expects to be dismissed. She's confused when he doesn't do so and asks her to follow him once again.

They walk to the furthest end of the house, one still cloaked in sadness. Kanao looks over to the walls and sees pictures of the Ubuyashiki family. This must be the area that Kiriya’s late parents resided in before they moved to the bigger home.

“I also found these notes, and they seem to match the ones on the table.” Kanao looks back at Kiriya as he walks towards her with a journal. She cautiously takes the book into her hands. “It speaks of a demon that was able to manipulate time. They lived centuries before we did, but the text is still very much legible.”

“A time demon?” Kanao looks up in intrigue. How frightening. She can only imagine how hard it must've been to kill it. Still, time manipulation? That sounds like something straight from a fairytale.

She looks back at Kiriya and frowns. Time manipulation doesn't seem real, but then again, Nakime had been able to create an entire dimension with her powers, so she supposes it isn't impossible. The question now is, why is this suddenly so important? Demons are gone.

“I found the bell the book talks about. It's hidden in a secret compartment at the end of the book.” Kanao raises one eyebrow. A bell? “I read the book the entire way, and then noticed it explained that there was a bell that remained from the demon despite being killed. It's supposed to go into more detail on the papers I showed you, but you already saw the state of those.”

She nods and looks back down at the journal. She has no need for any of this. Kanao goes to hand the book back, but then stops. The bell. How come the bell didn't disintegrate with the rest of the demon?

“Is the bell the source of its power?”

“That I can't be too sure of.” Kiriya looks uncomfortable with the question. “All I know is that it has to have some significance otherwise my ancestors wouldn't have kept it.”

She bites her bottom lip. The bell probably held significance at one point, but demons are dead.

“You should get rid of it. If, for whatever reason, it can still be activated, there is no telling what can happen.” Kanao looks at Kiriya and nods down to the book in her hands. “Time isn't something to be messed with, Oyakata-sama.”

It isn't. Perhaps, at one point she would've given anything to have had a way to turn back time, but not anymore. She's 27 now. She is old enough to understand that things happen for a reason. 

“I know. I don't know how to safely discard it though. It should have disintegrated after Muzan's defeat. Yushiro said so as well.” Kiriya nods down to the journal in her hands. “My guess is that the demon had some foolproof plan to keep it safe. I'm worried that if I try to destroy it, I can set the time back several hours.”

Several hours isn't too bad of a shift if she's being honest, though she'd prefer it if it never shifted at all. She says so and Kiriya shakes his head.

“No. The problem with any form of time travel is clearly outlined in the journal. If you get sent back, the timeline supposedly splits and your mind is left in a fractured state on both ends. I have no clue how fractured, but it states that you could lose half your memories or could wind up regressing mentally or something along those lines. It's why I'm worried. To accidentally use that power…”

Kanao sighs. It isn't that she doesn't want to help, but she's not sure what he wants her to do. Stuff like this is usually unloaded onto Uzui, Inosuke, or Zenitsu. There was a time she used to be more involved, but that was when Shinazugawa, Tomioka, and Tanjiro still lived. Now, she prefers to stay away from this. 

She looks back at the journal and holds it to her chest. “I'll check this with Nee-san's records. Perhaps she might've had something in her lab that we missed on demon physiology?”

Kanao doubts it. If Yushiro doesn't know, then Shinobu wouldn't have had anything either. 

“Thank you, Kanao.” Kiriya looks so relieved at that moment that Kanao feels herself softening. She might not be excited to throw herself into research, but she'll always be willing to help. Time to leave, she supposes. She's got a lot on her plate right now.

*

“Are you going to spend all your time with that book? Everyone is wondering where you are.” Kanao looks up from her papers and stares at Aoi. She huffs out a breath and scatters her loose hairs about, the action causing Aoi to stare at her in disappointment. She didn't hear a word that came out of her sister’s mouth.

“I'm sorry, what was that?”

Aoi frowns and furrows her eyebrows before she glances at the book on Kanao's desk. Kanao feels a tired smile form on her face. Aoi hasn't made that face in a long time.

“Kanao, please. You promised to be at dinner. I know you must've found something…fascinating, but you promised.” Aoi glances back towards the kitchen before she practically stomps her foot on the ground. “I'll only be visiting for another three days and I want to be able to eat dinner with you. You rarely eat now and I worry.”

Kanao only sighs and pats Kaburamaru. She forgot that dinner would be served at this hour. She places a bookmark in the journal and stands, her joints protesting her sudden movements and causing her to wince. She hadn't realized she'd been sitting here for so long.

“Honestly, you're just like Shinobu-san! She was always so proud to say you had Kanae-san’s personality, but I don't think she saw you for who you were completely. Sitting here and starving yourself just because you found something interesting. What are you even reading anyway?” Despite her tone, Aoi is clearly worried. She has good reason to be, she supposes.

Kanao rarely eats these days, always too busy running around trying to get everything done. She'd fallen into that bad habit after her husband died and it only worsened when she sent the girls off to boarding school a few months ago. Still, she isn't so malnourished that Aoi should be scolding her. She might miss a meal or two, but she isn't skin and bones.

“Kanao?”

“Ah, sorry. Oyakata-sama gave me a journal to read. He asked if I could compare it to some of the notes we had here. I haven't found any correlation though. I'll have to tell him that tomorrow. I'll forgo my usual cemetery visit and tell him in the morning.”

Kanao looks back at the journal and frowns, her eyes going to the barely noticeable indent on the thick leather cover. She is starting to see why Kiriya is so worried. The bell should've disintegrated when the demon died. If not then, then it should have disintegrated when Muzan died. So why is it still here, as new as the day they confiscated it?

Kaburamaru hisses at her and she blinks back up at Aoi. Her sister no longer looks angry and Kanao’s guilt comes back – not like it ever truly went away to begin with.

“I’m sorry, Aoi-chan. Did you say something?”

“Kanao-chan, perhaps you've been working too hard? You're alone at the clinic and while I know you rarely get hard cases, you haven't had a break in months. Perhaps I can stay another week or so?”

Kanao is about to say no, but she stops. She won't turn Aoi away if she wishes to stay here. This was her home too, once, and she won't turn her away from it.

“Sure.” She pats Kaburamaru and smiles, the first happy smile she's had in what feels like ages. “Let's go eat then. I'm sorry for worrying you. I just needed to get that information for Oyakata-sama.”

The two of them walk back towards the kitchen, but Kanao cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong.

Why is the bell intact? If it had come from a demon like Yushiro, one who never listened to Muzan, then she'd understand. But this? Is it a failsafe? But then, is it a failsafe for the demon or for Muzan?

She hears the laughter of children grow stronger, and her weary body suddenly feels reinvigorated. She'll think about this in the morning. Right now she wants to spend the evening with her family.

*

“So you didn't find anything?”

Kanao shakes her head. She tried, really she did, but there is nothing in her late sister’s notes that has the information they were looking for. This bell is most likely a fluke. Or a cleverly disguised joke.

“I'm sorry Oyakata-sama, but I don't see anything here.” She gestures towards her late sister’s – now hers – lab. She'd transferred everything here in the hopes that she'd find something. She hadn't. “If Nee-san had anything on this, she would have labeled it. You know how organized she was.”

Kiriya nods. He looks down at the bell in his hands. Kanao does too.

It's dull, all things considered. It isn't even a typical bell, more like the tiny little jingle bells one can find on toys or sleighs. The only difference between those and this one is that this one is white and made of glass.

“Well, I suppose we can just bury it on the off chance it is dangerous.” Kanao nods in agreement.

“Thank you anyway, Kanao. I'll be sure to-”

Kiriya never gets the chance to finish his sentence before a black blur crashes into him from behind. Kanao gasps, her eyes widening when she recognizes the culprit. 

A tiny crow fledgling wobbles back to its feet, feathers askew from how hard it had crashed into Kiriya. It must've flown into the lab from the open window, excited to meet with Kanao for its daily snacks. She always knew that spoiling the babies was probably not a smart idea.

Kanao is about to ask the little black bird if it is alright, but she never gets the chance. Kiriya, having been caught off guard, tries to turn around to see what had hit him, but he accidentally steps on the crow’s tail and then flails around when the tiny bird screeches. He jumps off and grabs onto the first thing to his right. Kanao cries out in alarm as Kaburamaru hisses.

She feels nothing but fear as the medicines she and Aoi have been mixing are flung off the racks and onto the floor. The baby crow, one of Ginko’s she believes, flies up in terror when the glass lands next to it, and tries to fly back out. It is still too wobbly in its flight and misses the window, crashing into the venoms Kanao had been working with recently. 

She gasps, her hands flying up to catch the vials, but she's too far. She can already hear how upset Aoi and the girls are going to be to see their experiments – they'd been trying to create anti-venoms – shattered on the floor. Kiriya apologizes from his spot next to the racks, but she doesn't hear him. Her eyes are now focused on Isuzu.

Her loyal companion had heard the commotion and had flown in to see what was happening, only to have been hit by the fledgling as it flew out of the lab. Isuzu, not expecting the crash, had collided into another rack, one Kanao kept safely out of arms reach. It held all of their stronger chemicals; the ones only she and Aoi touch. 

She watches in horror as the vials crash to the floor and the liquids mix with the others, the chemicals reacting instantly and causing a foul odor to emit. Kanao springs into action. They need to leave. Chemicals, if mixed without care, can create dangerous gases. She needs to get them all out.

Kaburamaru hisses a warning and she turns to her right and watches Kiriya try to jump over the liquid near his feet, only to step on another puddle and slip, she turns her attention to him and grabs him by the shoulders.

“Oyakata-sama! Are you alright?”

“The bell! Kanao! The bell!”

“Kanao-sama! Kanao-sama!”

Kanao hears Isuzu cry out her name in panic and Kaburamaru hisses in fear. She turns her head to her left. She sees everything happen in slow motion.

Isuzu flies towards her shoulder and clamps on tight while Kaburamaru coils around her neck harder than he's ever done before. Kiriya motions to get away from her to catch the bell, but she squeezes him and tries to haul him out of the lab. It smells awful and she's beginning to feel lightheaded. The white bell hits the floor and shatters into such fine particles that she wouldn't have ever believed it if she didn't see it happen with her own eyes. It almost glows as it scatters across the room, the shiny specks floating around them all and making the room light up beautifully.

She feels her heart rate spike up. What is happening?

“Kanao! The bell!”

She hears his scream, but she ignores it. Who cares? She needs to get them out. Now.

The smells suddenly get worse and she chokes. She hears Kiriya coughing alongside her. Her eyes are watering now and her head hurts. Kaburamaru slides off her shoulders and lands on the floor with a loud thump. Isuzu tumbles down with him.

“Kaburamaru! Isuzu!” Kanao tries to bend down and pick up her companions, but her vision swims. She can no longer hear anything except a chiming that sounds suspiciously of tiny bells. Kiriya pulls her back up and she fights him. She needs to grab them and leave.

Kanao latches onto the animals and stands, but her legs buckle. It smells rancid in here and her lungs burn. Kiriya’s coughing gets worse and he falls to his knees. She grabs him and struggles to move.

Her mind desperately tries to find a way to escape, but she knows there is no way. The chemicals reacted instantly and she's pretty sure they mixed into some noxious gas. She thinks. Perhaps the others will have heard the commotion?

She knows it's futile to hope for that though. They'd all gone down to the cemetery while Kanao stayed here to entertain their guest. They are alone.

She clutches onto each one of them desperately and takes three wobbly steps. The door is right there.

Kanao collapses to the floor.

The last thing she registers before she faints is the room turning a sickly green while the chiming of bells ring in her ears.

Chapter Text

Kanao wakes with the worst headache of her life. Her eyes crack open and she panics for a split second at how dark the room is, but then she realizes that Aoi and the girls must've understood she wouldn't be able to handle so much light upon awakening. They must've shut the curtains and turned off the lights in consideration to how tired she'd be after such a fiasco. 

Her happiness at their kindness quickly disappears when her head pounds harder. She groans and turns around. That small amount of movement causes her stomach to roll and she fears she'll vomit.

She curls up into a ball and holds her head in her hands, body shaking from how much effort she's putting into not throwing up. She thinks she wants to cry, but no tears escape her eyes. She fades in and out of consciousness for what feels like hours, but she knows it can't be more than a few minutes. None of her sisters have come to check on her during her time awake, so she knows she can't have been up for more than 10 minutes. 

Her hand stretches out blindly in search of water or medicine, anything to make the pain go away, but instead of a drawer she finds the floor. That's odd. Shouldn't she be in the infirmary?

She opens her eyes again – her nausea only worsens and she knows it's a matter of when she vomits and not if she vomits – and notices that she's in a futon.

Kanao sits up, her head and stomach protesting her action.

Why is she in a futon? They use beds in the infirmary.

She looks around again and finally registers the smell around her: sick and mold. Is she still in the lab? No, that doesn't make any sense. She's in a futon. Is her sense of smell messed up due to the gas? That sounds more logical, but then, why would she be in a futon and not a medical bed?

Kanao looks around but the room is too dark to see anything. She's horribly confused and her headache is making thinking impossible. Her stomach lurches and she makes the horrifying conclusion that she needs to call out to her sisters before she throws up all over the sheets.

Kanao doesn't get the chance before the curtains to the room are pulled open and sunlight streams inside. She covers her eyes and hisses in pain, before she gags at the taste of bile. She is about to ask for a bucket when a voice she hasn't heard in years yells at her to get out of bed. Her mind goes blank.

“Get up! Get up! You're the last one in bed and I'm sick and tired of it!”

She looks up slowly and squints at the woman in front of her. She's hallucinating. That's the only explanation. Why else would her mother be here?

Kanao doesn't answer. She's still trying to stop herself from throwing up, so all she can do is breath heavily and watch her mother with wide eyes. Her mother snarls at her and throws  a cup at her. It misses Kanao and shatters next to her left hand. 

Kanao jumps out of bed and falls to her knees when her world spins. Her center of gravity is all messed up. She trembles and looks around in desperation. Why is everything so tall?

“Get up! Your new owner is here. I swear your brothers were more useful than you.” 

Owner? Brothers? She doesn't have brothers other than Inosuke and Zenitsu. Why is her mother here?

Kanao stands back up when her mother tries to grab her hair, her body and stomach protesting her movements. It's too bright. Why is it so bright? She rubs her left eye and panics when she realizes she can see from her right. She turns to look for a mirror, but that only causes her to feel the bile in her throat rush up. She vomits.

“Disgusting!” Her mother screams the word over and over but Kanao can't focus. Her head still hurts and she feels faint. A part of her realizes she's hungry and that now that she's thrown up, her hunger will intensify.

She looks for something to cling onto and finds that the room is vacant. The “futon” she'd been in was actually a thin sheet with holes in it, and the “clothes” she's wearing is nothing but a dirty bag. 

She's so terribly confused. Kanao is no stranger to suffering, especially with her background, but she isn't one to dwell on that anymore. Why would her mind come up with this strange hallucination?

She blinks down at the dirty floorboards and shakes her head. She will be fine if she doesn't panic.

Any minute now Aoi will come in and sedate her and then she'll wake up feeling better. She doesn't know why she's hallucinating, but perhaps she inhaled way too much of whatever gas the chemicals created.

She takes in one large breath and begins to hyperventilate. She is hallucinating, right? Surely she is. She has to be. Perhaps the others are also hallucinating right now too.

She blinks when she realizes she doesn't know who the “others” are. She hadn't been alone in the lab though, she knows that much. Or had she? She can't remember anymore. Now that she focuses, she doesn't think she even remembers her name. It is Kanao, isn't it?

This is the woman who raised her, right?

The image of two young women flash through her mind at that thought, both of them with purple eyes and butterfly clips in their hair.

Is this her mother?

Where is she?

Why is she not home?

She sees the woman – her mother? – lunge at her with a rope in her hands and she reacts before she can think. She turns and runs, her legs are wobbly and she's weak, but she doesn't stop. She runs past the door and onto the street, before she stops and cries out at how much brighter everything is outside.

Someone latches onto her shoulder and she scratches their hand. She can't see who it is.

She hears her mother scream from inside the house and her panic intensifies. What is happening? Where is Aoi? Where is Kaburamaru? Who is Kaburamaru?

The hand on her shoulder clamps over her mouth and she bites down on the finger. Shinobu – who is Shinobu? – had once told her that biting someone, while disgusting, tended to make them let you go from both shock and pain, so she bites with all her strength and doesn't let go until she feels blood pool into her mouth. 

The taste of iron pools in her mouth and she can't help but think of demons, so she spits it out and gasps for air.

The man who was holding her is now howling in pain. 

She makes a run towards the bridge in the distance, but she trips when a man sticks out his foot in front of her, causing her to hit the ground so hard her vision goes black. Run. She needs to run. 

The bridge. She needs to get to the bridge. She doesn't know why she wants to go there, but something is telling her to run to it. Salvation will be there if she can just reach it.

“Get her!” The woman is still screaming and it has started to cause a commotion. People are pointing at her now and yelling out in confusion. Women scream at her to run and not look back, while a few of the men begin to walk in her direction, perhaps to help her parents apprehend her. The man who tripped her yells out that he bought her fair and square and he only wishes to secure his property. The women begin to scream at her with more urgency when they hear that. She still doesn't understand what is happening.

“She broke my finger!” The man – her father? – who was holding her is clutching his hand to his chest, his eyes full of rage. That is impossible, she thinks. A human has a weak bite force, and while fracturing a finger could be possible, she doesn't believe she could ever break his finger just by biting him the way she did. 

Perhaps she might've been able to, had she used the same force she uses on demons, but her master had always told her never to turn her power on a civilian, so she hadn't. That doesn't stop the man from yelling in rage and rushing at her full force. Kanao knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that if he catches her, she's dead, so she stands up and looks back towards the bridge.

Something is calling to her from that bridge. What it is, she does not know, but it calls to her, beckoning to her the way lighthouses guide ships to safety. She knows she will find protection if she makes it to the bridge.

She bolts.

She hears more shouting as she runs, screams of rage mixed with cheers, but she doesn't care. Maybe if she reaches the bridge, the hallucinations will go away and she'll find Aoi?

She's so focused on running that she doesn't register the two individuals walking in front of her and she crashes into the smaller one. They tumble to the floor.

She gasps and tries to run again, but her strength is gone. She needs to recover for a few minutes. If she just starts recovery breathing she'll be fine in a minute or two. She's too stressed to wonder why she's considering recovery breathing. Demons no longer exist, so why is she falling back into her old habits?

“Oh, hello. Who are you?”

She flinches at the voice and turns to face a tall young woman, a butterfly haori on her shoulders. Her light purple eyes and long purple hair makes her heart stutter, but she doesn't understand why. The young woman smells of cherry flowers, and it's stirring a memory, at least, she thinks it's a memory,  in Kanao's mind.

“Hey! You're still on me!”

Kanao turns her gaze to the girl underneath her and she gasps when her eyes land on dark purple ones. Like the other girl, she has purple hair and wears a butterfly clip, the only difference is that she smells of wisteria and she's noticeably grumpier.

Kanao’s headache explodes and she cries out and claws at her head. The girl – her mind unhelpfully keeps telling her that they are sisters, but that can't be true. Aoi is her sister – stops glaring at her and begins to look at her in concern.

“Hey? Are you okay?”

Kanao ignores her and stands up, only to go crashing to her knees when her headache gets even worse. She feels bile rise to her throat again and she whimpers at the thought of throwing up what little food her stomach has left. 

Kanao blanks out for a while, too busy wondering if this is how she dies, when she is suddenly jolted from her position as an arm grabs her hair and pulls. She claws desperately and yells until she's thrown to the floor. The ground is so cool and she wants nothing more than to stay here and die, to finally be free of whatever torment is plaguing her, when she hears shouting. She opens her eyes to see what is happening.

The younger girl – Shinobu, her brain tells her – is yelling at the man who tripped her. He's holding a rope and is pointing at her, face darkened with anger as he complains that his property cannot be denied him. Kanao doesn't understand what he means; she is nobody's property – well, unless you count her as property of her husband, but Tanjiro died last year.

“Property? Fine! I'll buy her from you. You look like you need the money anyway!” The girl throws a pouch of coins at the man and stomps her foot for good measure. Kanao begins to breathe easier. This is good. This is just like before.

The older girl, who Kanao had forgotten even existed, bends down and checks her forehead. She looks so concerned for Kanao, going so far as to stand in front of her when the man gets too close, and her younger sister – how Kanao knows they're sisters is beyond her. The younger girl is currently arguing with the man twice her size and age, waving her fists around as if that will make her look any stronger than she does.

 “Oh, you have a fever.” Kanao fights the urge to lean into her hands. They're cool and she feels like she's burning. “Shinobu, perhaps-”

“Greedy! Here, I'll double it. Get lost!” Kanao hears another sack of something – money? – get thrown at the man and she panics. They only used one bag last time. Why is it different now? How does she know they only used one bag before? What even is this “before”?

Kanao is jolted once again when small hands drag her up from her armpits. She whimpers. Her head hurts and she suddenly feels so cold.

“Nee-san, she needs-”

“I know. She's-”

Too loud. Everything is too loud and bright. Kanao throws up once more and gasps when two sets of arms begin to drag her away. She fights back and feels her nails connect with flesh as someone yelps in pain. She needs to get to the bridge. Aoi will probably be there.

“Hey! Stop! You're going to injure yourself!”

Kanao feels a prick on her shoulder and she screams, adrenaline fueling her movements. She's not felt this terrified in a long time. Not since before living at the Butterfly Estate; to the time when she still lived with her parents. Back then she wasn't able to show emotion so she never screamed in fear, but she's different now, changed by the love she’s been shown by all those around her.

“Nee-san! She’s going to-”

Kanao doesn't get a chance to hear what else is said about her. Her body is beginning to feel heavy and she knows she's been sedated. Perhaps her hallucinations are finally going to be over? Perhaps she did find Aoi and she managed to sedate her. If so, she has to apologize to her for her behavior once she wakes up.

“Please, you're in no position to fight back.”

Kanao’s vision fades to black.

*

The next time she wakes she feels like she's underwater. She turns to look around and realizes she's in the infirmary, IV bags placed around her. She squints and sees a heavy dose painkiller and a large bag of saline. 

Kanao sighs and shuts her eyes. She's so tired, but now that she's no longer panicking, she can remember mostly everything. She'd been at the lab with Kiriya when everything went wrong. A part of her wonders who discovered them and how long they were out.

She wonders if Aoi was the one to find them and her heart sinks. Aoi would've been so scared to see them like that, especially after having lost so many family members. She needs to apologize to her the second she sees her.

That thought disappears when she realizes she has no visitors. That's odd. Normally when she or the others are injured, one of them stays behind to keep an eye on them at all times. She isn't too hurt to need that attention, but it is out of the ordinary. She wonders why.

She doesn't know, but she's too high on painkillers to care, so she decides to just sleep off her confusion. She doesn't have patients these next few days, and if anyone does show up, the girls and Aoi can handle them. The drip of the IV bags makes her drowsy, so she takes in a breath and relaxes. Surely Aoi or one of the other butterfly girls will wake her when her next round of medication is due.

Kanao dozes for a while, mind blank and body sagging into the mattress, when she comes to the realization that she is the only patient. If she recalls, they'd all been affected by the gas. Kiriya had fallen before she did, so he should be here as well. She opens her eyes and sits up. Kiriya is nowhere to be found.

Her hands go up to her neck. Kaburamaru isn't here either. That isn't too surprising since one of the girls might have taken him, but the fact that neither of them are around makes her stomach turn.

She looks around and finds no evidence of the other beds having been used. No evidence of a snake either. Dread settles into her gut. Could it be possible that she was the only one who made it out?

She doesn't know, but she holds onto her last shred of hope. Kanao calls out to her crow.

“Isuzu? Isuzu, are you there?”

She doesn't answer and Kanao's heart sinks. She recalls that the bird had fallen from her shoulder after inhaling all the gases. Surely her bird is safe though. Isuzu has survived through worse alongside her. Having no other options, she calls for another crow. If Isuzu is not around, then she can ask En.

“En?” The name echoes off the walls and she waits. Nothing.

She finds that odd. En may not be her crow, but she loves Kanao. She doesn't exactly recall why En is at the estate, but she has lived there ever since the war ended. She would've answered her call by now.

“En?”

Silence. 

Kanao doesn't know what to do. She looks around again and counts the number of beds. There's at least 10. Kanao furrows her eyebrows. That's odd. If the others found her, she'd be in the smaller infirmary, the one in the private quarters of the mansion. She and their close friends are always treated there. Why is she here? 

She looks back up at the IV bags and tries to read what they say. Is she being given something that is messing with her mind? Why is everything so foggy?

Her thoughts are broken when the shogi doors open. She turns, expecting to see Aoi or any of the other girls. Instead, the same woman with waist length hair and pink and green butterfly clips walks in, clipboard in hand and eyes scanning the paper on it. Kanao has the feeling that she knows who this is, but she can't remember. 

The seeds of panic begin to sprout again when her memory fails to conjure up the young woman's name. What is wrong with her memory? Did she inhale so much gas that she can't remember things? Is it permanent? 

Kanao stares at the young woman with rising terror and sweat on her brow. She cannot panic. She should've never done so when she first woke up. Her master would be so disappointed. She'd always told her that panicking could get her killed, and that was the first thing Kanao did when she woke up in an unfamiliar place. She's lucky she hasn't been torn apart by demons whenever she goes on her solo missions. She makes a mental note to apologize to her master. Kanao chooses to ignore the fact that she doesn't remember who her master is.

The young woman makes a noise of confusion before she marks something down in the paper and looks up to see Kanao staring at her. Her eyes widen and she smiles.

“You're awake! That's good!” She watches as the young woman hurries over to her, body ready to spring into action at any wrong movement. “We were so worried. You've been asleep for so long. You must've used all your energy since you're so small.”

The young woman stops in front of her and places her hand on her forehead. Kanao smells cherry blossoms and the smell brings her such happiness, such intense longing, that her entire body lurches forward towards the woman. She has the urge to hold her and never let go. Kanao wishes she understood why.

“No longer as warm as you had been, so that's good! I'll check your temperature anyway though. Here, let me go grab it.” She lets go of Kanao and she feels tears threaten to spill out of her eyes. 

No.

She can't leave them. 

Not again. 

Kanao doesn't understand who “them” is, nor does she understand what she means by again, but the fear in her heart is so strong she thinks she'll cry. The young woman rushes to the other side of the room, unaware of Kanao's turmoil, and begins to pull out an assortment of medical supplies. Kanao can't take her eyes off of her.

“Oh! You're awake!” Kanao turns to the new voice and gasps. The girl with dark purple eyes has a few scratches on her left cheek, ones she knows were not there the last time she saw her. Kanao recalls hearing someone cry out in pain when she'd fought back in her panic and she winces. She hurt an innocent person.

The girl seems to understand what Kanao is focusing on, because she just laughs and waves her hand. “Don't worry. I've had worse. Besides, I should've known better. Are you feeling okay? We had to get some medicine in you anyway, so you might've fought regardless. I've also made you some…medicine in the form of a tea blend. Just in case you were...” She hesitates and gestures towards Kanao's body. Kanao has no clue what she means.

The girl trails off and smiles at her warily. The other one – Kanao really needs to get their names down because she's so tired of calling them girl 1 and girl 2 – comes back and hands her the thermometer. Kanao uses it and checks her own temperature before she hands it back: 38.4 Celsius. So she does have a fever.

“Are you medically trained? I noticed you looked at your IV bags before I came in here.” The young woman holds the thermometer up and stares at the results. She frowns, but then looks back at Kanao and smiles. 

Kanao wants to nod, but she doesn't. She thinks she's medically trained. She remembers being a doctor, but now she's not so sure. Are her memories truly memories, or are they figments of her imagination? She can't trust her own mind right now. She continues to stare at the young women in front of her. She senses no ill will, but she needs to be ready in case they try to hurt her. 

The older one cocks her head to the side and smiles at her in confusion. Kanao continues to stare until the younger one sighs and grumbles something under her breath. That action nearly causes Kanao to smile. It's good to see her act like herself again after so long.

“She's probably just sick, Nee-san. That's why she doesn't answer. She still looks flushed and she's still running a fever. We most likely won't get anything out of her for a while.” The younger girl butts in and glances at the thermometer, before she looks back down at Kanao. “Here, drink it. I did not make this medicine for nothing.” 

Kanao takes the tea and drinks, but then scrunches her eyes and looks back at the murky water. She glances up at the girl in confusion. She recognizes this. It's the same contraceptive tea she'd been drinking when she was still married. Why did the girl think she needed this? Her husband died a year ago and she's never looked for…fun elsewhere to warrant such a drink.

“Please drink. We have no clue if you were…assaulted, but we can't rule it out. You were scared and we couldn't necessarily ask you after we sedated you.” The older girl is clearly the softer spoken of the two, but Kanao knows – again, she doesn't know how she knows but she does – that they are both equally kind despite one being grumpier than the other. The younger girl scowls before she points back to the tea in Kanao's hands and repeats what her sister just said.

Assaulted? Kanao doesn't think so. Was she? No, that can't be right. She'd been running from her parents and before that she'd been at the lab. Kiriya would never. But then, was the lab even real? Was that a dream? Was she actually assaulted and the dream was her disassociating?

She glares at the tea before she gulps it down. She hates this tea with every fiber of her being.

She'd wanted a baby. She had begged for a baby.

She'd wanted nothing more than to have something to remember him by when he'd eventually die from the curse. She didn't care if that meant she would have to raise the little one on her own. 

Her heart hurts. She'd wanted his baby. She would've never been so lonely if he had just agreed and had one.

Instead he'd died and left her alone.

She feels a handkerchief touch her face and she freezes, heart clenching at how much care is being put into the action. 

Kanao looks up. The older woman is wiping her cheeks with a sad smile on her face, while the other one, the girl, is looking at her with a frown. Kanao doesn't know why until she feels a tear drop onto her cheek. 

Oh.

“I'm sorry. I promise that you'll be safe here. You can become one of our sisters! Perhaps you'll meet them later today? They'd love to have you around, you know!” Kanao looks up at the young woman and feels her tears escape faster. Why does she know her? And why does seeing her cause her so much pain?

“Nee-san, you're making it worse. She's sick, please stop making her cry.”

“Oh my, but all I did was tell her she's safe. Surely she- oh!?”

Kanao throws her body into the woman and hugs her, pressing her face to her chest and breathing in her scent. Cherry blossoms. She has missed her so much. She doesn't know how she knows her, but she knows she does. It's been so long since she's died…

“Oh my, aren't you adorable! What's your name?” Kanao feels offended. She should know her name. She helped name her.

“Kanae-neesan…” Kanao doesn't know how she knows her name, but it's suddenly flashing in her mind. Kanae. The woman's name is Kanae. She was – is? – her sister.

“Huh? What was that?” Kanae cups her chin and gently lifts her head off her chest. Kanao closes her eyes and sighs. Kanae. How did she forget her own sister?

“Um, is she…?” Right, they aren't alone. Kanao turns. So if this is Kanae, then that means…

Her eyes land on the other girl.

Shinobu.

Her master.

Her sister.

She trembles as she makes eye contact with her sister. This isn't possible. Shinobu is dead. She watched her get absorbed by Douma during the final battle. Kanao had worn her butterfly clip since her death, a reminder to her that her sister gave her life in order to give her a future. How is she here?

“Are you, okay?” Shinobu is looking at her in barely veiled concern and Kanao cannot help but shake harder than she already was. Her sister hasn't looked at her that way in years. “Um, okay, let me just…um…”

If Kanao weren't so confused, she'd be laughing. Shinobu, like Kanae, rarely became confused or flustered with patients, something they'd learned from their parents. Hearing her speak like this is funny, and Kanao wishes she weren't so confused. She'd be teasing them if she weren't.

Shinobu walks up to them and presses her hand on her forehead, before she makes to grab the thermometer in Kanae’s pocket. 

Kanao’s soul feels heavy. Shinobu is right here. Kanae is right here. She can feel them. Why is her mind so cruel?

“Well, it seems her fever is spiking again, but let me double check. Nee-san, can you-ah!”

“Oh? It seems she has a favorite.”

“Nee-san! Please! She's sick. Now is not the time to be making jokes! Help me lay her down.”

“Now is the perfect time for jokes, Shinobu. Laughing is such a great medicine.”

“She isn't laughing though, is she?”

Kanao listens to their banter and then shakes her head frantically when she feels them try to pry her off of Shinobu. She squeezes harder and presses her face to the girl's shoulder. Wisteria. She smells of wisteria. Kanao tries to keep her composure. This is a hallucination. It has to be. Both of her sisters are dead.

She feels Shinobu brush some of her hair – she just realized it's absolutely filthy – from her face and Kanao feels a whimper escape her lips. Shinobu stops for a second before she hums and does it again. That proves to be Kanao's downfall.

She sobs.

Her older sister is holding her again. She doesn't care if this is a hallucination, she is holding Shinobu. She can smell Kanae. She knows that when this ends and she's returned to her right state of mind she'll be a mess, but she doesn't care. She missed them.

Kanao hears Shinobu sigh at her actions.

“You need a bath. How about I put you down and get a small tub in here? That way you don't have to leave your bed for long?” Shinobu’s voice is soft, so soft she would have missed it if she weren't hyper aware of every little thing that Shinobu and Kanae are doing. Kanao shakes her head. No. No, if Shinobu leaves, she might never get to hold her again. She refuses. 

Shinobu sighs once more but doesn't bother to stand up. Kanao knew she wouldn't. Despite how much of a spitfire her sister had been, Shinobu had been just as kind as Kanae. Kanao tightens her hold on her and presses her face to her chest. She feels Shinobu turn her head towards Kanae.

“Nee-san?”

“I'll be right back.” She feels Kanae pat her head softly before she leaves. Kanao holds her breath and waits. She should've latched onto Kanae's sleeve to keep her here with them.

The two of them sit there for several minutes, and Kanao takes that time to think. She tries her hardest to try and piece her limited information together to form some theory as to why her mind is playing tricks on her.

She'd been at the lab and had been speaking to Kiriya. She was researching something for him, something important that he needed information on as soon as possible. Kanao squeezes her eyes shut and begs for the answer to come to her. She has a feeling that if she just remembers what she was researching, she'd be able to piece together this odd dream.

“Here's the tub. Can you wash her? She seems most comfortable with you. That and I need to check on the Wind Hashira. He just arrived looking a little worse for wear.”

Kanao feels Shinobu nod slowly and peel her off of her, before she grumbles something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like, “Of course you'd check in on him.” 

Kanao rubs her face and finally stands up. Shinobu follows her and slowly begins to remove Kanao's “clothes”. She can't help but feel embarrassed. She's not been bathed by someone else since she was a child – Tanjiro does not count.

“Well, at least you aren't difficult.” Shinobu is scowling again but her hands are gentle. She gently coaxes Kanao into the tub, which had apparently already been filled by Kanae before she left, and then leans over to pick up a few shampoo bottles. Kanao believes she catches one of the labels as a lice killing shampoo and she almost shrieks in embarrassment. Why would she need that?

Kanao, luckily, controls herself and sits in the tub as Shinobu lathers her hair, though she does make a face. It smells awful. She's also a tad bit offended that they're treating her as if she's some filthy stray. Dreams don't always make sense though, so she sits there and waits. 

Her mind wanders back to what she had been doing before she began to hallucinate. She'd been at the lab and had been speaking with Kiriya about a demon, she's sure of that. She recalls that she was panicking over her chemicals being spilled and causing a reaction and then she was suddenly here, in this weird dream.

She clutches onto her knees in desperation when her mind goes blank. What had she been researching? It had been a demon, but she isn't exactly sure why. Demons have been gone for years with only Yushiro remaining. Why did she decide to do research on something obsolete? 

“Have you never had a bath? You are covered in grime. Ugh, this is going to take at least three washes before the water even runs clear.” Shinobu curses under her breath and Kanao looks to her right and catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror at the exact same time that her sister says something that brings all her memories rushing back. “So gross. I can't believe they did this to you. Oh if I could turn back time, I would. I'd like to have a few words with those animals.”

Time.

Turn back time.

Kanao stares at her reflection with dawning horror. She's tiny. She's thin. She looks like she did when she was 12. 

Her mind replays Kiriya's warning from earlier: “The problem with any form of time travel is clearly outlined in the journal. If you get sent back, the timeline supposedly splits and your mind is left in a fractured state on both ends.”

Kanao feels her heart rate shoot up as her headache comes back full force. She gasps and turns around to face Shinobu. Her sister stares at her in shock at how abrupt she'd been, before she glares at her.

“Oh for fu-please, I'm trying to help. Plus, you shouldn't be moving so quickly. You are so small you might pas-”

“Time…”

“What?” Shinobu is staring at her like she's grown two heads. Kanao doesn't blame her. She feels just as shocked as Shinobu looks.

“Time.”

Shinobu puffs out some air in annoyance and glances at a clock hanging on the wall to her right. Kanao begins to shake her head. No, that isn't what she meant.

“It's 9:47. Are yo-”

“W-what’s the date?” This cannot be happening. There is no way. Kanao’s mind replays the exact moment the bell shattered against the lab floor. She thinks she's going to vomit again.

“Hmm? It's May 21st, 1911. We found you on the 19th.”

Kanao feels all the color drain from her face.

May 21st, 1911.

She is 12.

“What?”

“It's May 21st, 1911. Did you need to be somewhere today? If so, I ca-hey! Wait! Don't faint while in water! Oh shit!”

Oh shit indeed.

*

The first thought that crosses her mind when she wakes up is that she really needs to stop fainting. She feels rather humiliated, all things considered. She had never been so emotional at this age, but she does suppose she can excuse her behavior with how odd everything has been. She tries to reason with herself that she's malnourished and has been in a state of panic since the lab incident, so of course she'd faint with the new information she was given, but she's still so embarrassed.

Kanao groans and turns to her left. She wishes nothing more but to bury herself in her blankets and forget she ever passed out in the tub. She strains her ears and listens for sounds of life, but she hears nothing. Good. She can be alone with her thoughts for now. 

She looks down to her arm and sees that she's back to being hooked up to the IV bags. She sighs. At least she feels clean. She hadn't realized just how sticky and itchy she had been feeling until now.

“So you're prone to fainting. Anything else we need to know about you?”

Kanao flinches so hard at the voice that she feels a few of her joints pop. She sits up in a panic and looks to her right. Shinobu is sitting in a chair, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands, a book flipped over on her thigh. She had, apparently, been keeping watch on her. Kanao feels her face heat up in embarrassment.

“No.” Shinobu arches an eyebrow at Kanao's raspy voice. “Not you.”

Her sister’s calm demeanor changes in an instant. Her eyebrows furrow and her eyebrow twitches. Kanao sees a vein pop up on her forehead.

“What do you mean, not me?”

Kanao doesn't answer. It isn't that she doesn't want to see Shinobu, that can't be further from the truth, but she does not want to be here. She has a life. She has a family. She has her own time and her own place. This is her past. She has long since learned to accept it and move on. She might have been depressed – yes, she'll admit that she was – but it was her life. The one she'd earned after everything.

Being here, in 1911, is not fair.

“Shinobu, please. She's sick and afraid. You probably scared her.”

Kanao looks up at the voice and sees Kanae and, to her surprise, Shinazugawa, enter the room. She feels a lump form in her throat, but she swallows it down. She's cried enough.

“We placed you into our smaller, more private ward.” Kanae smiles at Kanao and pats her on the head, the smell of cherry blossoms invading Kanao’s senses and making her blink away tears. She needs to calm down.

She looks over at Shinazugawa and stares at him. Her sisters have been dead for a long time now, but his death was more recent. Seeing him is messing with her head.

“You're dead.”

Kanae and Shinobu arch an eyebrow at her response, both of them looking more and more alarmed the more they stare at her. Shinazugawa, who had been watching her with curiosity, narrows his eyes and glares at her.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Kanao shakes her head. She doesn’t want to make him angry.

“Can you tell us your name?”

Kanao freezes.

She tries desperately to figure out what to do but she has no clue. Last time they'd named her by placing strips of paper down and having her choose them at random. At least, that's what she recalls anyway. She can't be too sure if her memories are correct. She had read the journal so she knows Kiriya was right to say that time travel can fracture someone's mind, but she has no clue how fractured hers is.

She looks back up at her sisters and frowns. 

The room is silent, the weight of Kanae's words suffocating all of them in there. Shinazugawa looks over at Kanae and frowns, but he doesn't say a word. Kanao stares at him. His eyes are bloodshot and his white hair is sticking up in all directions. His clothes are rumpled from sleep – Kanao hopes it's from sleep anyway. 

He looks awful.

“I don't recall asking you if I looked good, so what's it to you?”

Kanao shuts her mouth so fast her teeth clack together. Shinobu snickers from her corner and Shinazugawa glares at her instead. Kanao has the sudden recollection that Shinobu had not gotten along with the Wind Hashira during his “friendship” with Kanae.

“Shinazugawa-san, please. I'm sure she didn't mean it, did you?”

Kanao had but she's not about to admit that out loud. She just can't help it. She was used to seeing Shinazugawa as a loving husband and a doting father; a man who smiled and laughed often. This man, as he is now, is but a vague memory to her. 

“She isn't wrong. You look like shit.” Shinobu mutters under her breath but Kanao, and Kanae too judging by the sharp look she throws her way, hears her. Shinazugawa scoffs and crosses his arms. He glares at Kanao.

“This is the girl you bought then? She's skin and bones.” He walks up to Kanao and stares at her up close. “Her eyes don't look right either and she's speaking nonsense. Are you sure she's stable?”

“Don't touch her. She's still scared.” Shinobu swats his hand away from her face when he goes to try and brush a strand of hair away from her eyes. Kanae watches everything unfold in front of her with a gentle smile, probably as a way to make Kanao relax. Kanao knows that smile though. It's the one she uses when she's trying to come off as unassuming and meek. Kanae is plotting something; Kanao wishes she knew what.

“Please, can I have your name?” Kanae takes her hand in hers and squeezes gently to reassure her, but all it does is make Kanao’s fight or flight kick in again. She doesn't know what to do.

“Maybe she doesn't have one. You did buy her after all. Her parents were probably useless assholes who might have never bothered to name her.”

Shinobu glares at Shinazugawa again but nods in agreement. Kanao agrees with him internally. From what she remembers, she never had a name apart from Tsuyuri Kanao, and that was given to her by her sisters.

“Hmm? Well then, that doesn't mean you can't have a name. Perhaps-”

“Tsuyuri.” Kanao looks at Kanae and Shinobu, her heart in her throat. “Tsuyuri Kanao. T-that’s my name. I think. I don't know.”

The clinic is silent at her words. She looks at the three of them and bites her lower lip in anxiety. She hadn't had a name last time she met them, so they had gone ahead and named her. What else is she going to change?

“Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Kanao-chan!” Kanao's heart bleeds. Kanae hasn't called her that in years. “This is the Butterfly Estate, a home and hospital in one. My sisters and I run it together. You're more than welcome to stay and become one of us. I will admit that staying here might be…unsavory to some, but I promise that you'll be treated with kindness should you stay.”

Same speech as before, only this time there is an extra person in the room. Kanao's eyes land on Shinazugawa. He had not been here the last time she was taken in. Then again, the last time she was taken in she'd been saved while she was being dragged away. She hadn't been sedated either.

In fact, most of what happened right now hadn’t happened the first time around.

A horrifying thought crosses her mind then. A theory. One she cannot remember the name of. It'd been titled something with butterflies. She desperately tries to remember what it was called and where she read it.

She believes it was a book on quantum mechanics. She and Aoi had scoffed at the idea of a “multiverse” and how it supposedly was valid due to the “evidence”. Now she's not so sure. She knows she's in the past – her pain and other senses cannot be faked this well if she were hallucinating or dreaming – but she isn't so sure what she can even call whatever this is. 

She recalls that the journal and Kiriya had warned her of a fractured mind if she ever went back in time; that the her who went back would be confused and unable to focus due to being split in two. Perhaps she had sent some of her conscience here, to this world so to speak, while her other self remained there with fractured memories as well.

Kanao doesn’t know.

She mutters over and over, her brain working overtime to catch that wispy memory that is just out of reach. A part of her realizes she must look insane: a small, scruffy child sitting on a hospital bed muttering to herself.

She bites her lip. This is all so confusing and she doesn't know what to believe anymore. She doesn't even remember why she is thinking about this to begin with. Her mind, as much as she hates to say it, has not been working properly since she woke up in this time period.

“Hey, kid, you good?”

Kanao flinches again and looks up at Shinazugawa. He's the only one in the room now and Kanao has no idea how that happened.

“They went outside to discuss something. You need me to sit over there?” He points to the furthest bed in the room and she smiles. He might be rough around the edges, but he had always had a soft spot for children. She shakes her head and he grunts. “Suit yourself.”

Kanao looks down at her hands. Her tiny, 12 year old hands. Is she still considered a 27 year old? Is she now 12? Physically she is 12, but mentally? The journal stated that your mentality could regress the longer you stayed in the past. Is hers going to? She hopes not. 

This is a second chance and she wants nothing more than to protect everyone she can. Is she going to forget what little she remembers and fail to save her sisters as time continues in this world?

She sighs and brings her face down to her hands. What had that theory been called? She remembers that it had been ludicrous and full of ramblings that had been more chaotic philosophy than a science.

She sits there for a solid minute, mind racing with thoughts on her family back home, how the Kanao of that time is holding up, when the name hits her like a ton of bricks: The Butterfly Effect.

She sits up and gasps, sending poor Shinazugawa reeling back at her sudden movement, before she tries to stand up from the bed. She crumples to the ground but she doesn't care. She needs a journal to write in before the name slips away from her again. In fact, she needs to write down everything she can. She's going to need it.

“I remember! Please, can I-”

“Wha-Hey! Get back in bed!”

She ignores him and attempts to stand again, but her legs won't cooperate with her and she collapses back to the floor, her IV dragging the pole down with her and causing a giant crash to sound out. Kanae, Shinobu, and Aoi – Kanao thinks she asks Aoi why she's so small – run into the room and begin to pick her up and set everything back in its place. She squirms. She needs paper and a pencil. Now.

“She just, I don't know, reached an epiphany or something and then fell to the floor while saying she remembers.” Shinazugawa looks more concerned than she has ever seen him and she feels a laugh bubble out of her throat at how ridiculous he looks. Kanae and Shinobu stare at her, faces carefully blank of emotion, before they send Aoi away. Kanao is pretty sure they think she's crazy. She feels crazy.

“Well, that's enough excitement for today, don't you think? Let's get you in bed, okay?”

Kanao recognizes that voice. It's the tone she used to use on the more…unstable patients. So Kanae does think she's insane. Kanao looks at Kanae and frowns, but she doesn't argue. She has no doubt that Shinobu has some sedatives ready to use and she'd rather not go to sleep so soon after just waking up.

She turns and sees Shinobu fixing the bags back onto the pole and then glances down at her scrubs pocket. She doesn't see a syringe anywhere, but she knows Shinobu wouldn't have been stupid enough to keep it somewhere she can easily confiscate it. Kanao might not be able to see them, but she knows she has them. They always have sedatives on hand when they work with their mentally unwell patients. Kanao blinks when she realizes they're classifying her as mentally unstable.

“Kanao-chan?” Kanao looks back at Kanae and nods. She is not going to fight them. She's already changed so much of history – she snorts when she realizes this is no longer history and that only makes Kanae and Shinobu look at each other with growing concern – and she needs to reel it back.

Kanao slips back into the bed and waits for further instructions.

Kanae visibly relaxes at that, but Kanao knows she's still not completely out of “danger”. Any wrong move now and she has no doubt they'll prick her again. They might even restrain her at this point. She's surprised they haven't done so already. They have too many patients, not to mention the children. It is a gamble she wouldn't be willing to take if she were in their shoes.

Kanao ignores her thoughts and examines the room, noting that it is very empty, more than it had been when she'd woken up. Her eyes travel to Shinobu; she must've removed all the dangerous objects while she was paying attention to Kanae. 

Shinazugawa, she notes, is still there, watching her with a frown on his face and his arms crossed across his chest. Kanao wonders why he's here. He hadn't been here before, but perhaps this is a good thing. She looks him directly in the eyes and asks for paper and a pencil.

“Maybe tomorrow, okay?” Kanao ignores Kanae. She figured they wouldn't give her one. Not after her “meltdown”. A pencil, as funny as it is to say, can be a pretty dangerous weapon. Luckily for her, Shinazugawa has a soft spot for children, especially if said children are helpless and defenseless. Kanao fits those roles rather well in her current state.

Shinazugawa looks over at Kanae and Shinobu, face hesitant, for advice. Her sisters don't say anything. Kanao asks once more. She needs the paper and the pencil before she forgets. Shinobu shoots down her request.

Kanao is desperate. She has no clue how much of this she'll remember in the next minute or so.

“Can I use ink? No pencil, just ink? I'll use my fingers? I just want to write something down.” Kanao looks at Shinobu at that. Shinobu might be the grumpier one, but she was always the one who tended to cave towards the children more often, probably due to the fact that she would be their primary caretaker while Kanae was off doing Hashira business.

Shinobu glances over at Kanae but Kanae doesn't answer. Kanao presses the issue.

“How about I get you some ink in a paper cup? Would that be okay?” Shinobu glances back at Kanae, but she still doesn't answer. She's just looking at Kanao with that same smile that Kanao learned to avoid. The one that spoke of nothing but trouble.

“I didn't know you knew how to read, much less write.” Kanao freezes. Shinobu does too. “I had asked if you were medically trained because I saw how you looked at the bags, but when you didn't answer, I figured it was simple curiosity. People from your district don't know how to read. I'm just surprised, that's all.”

Everyone freezes at Kanae's words, before Shinazugawa and Shinobu slowly turn to look back at Kanao in curiosity. Kanao feels like she'll throw up again. She's never been good when placed under scrutiny and right now, with her mind as scrambled as it is, she feels twice as nervous.

Her excuse never comes to bear fruit because at that moment a crow with a purple scarf appears at the window. Shinazugawa and Kanae stand up and rush to the crow as it speaks and Kanao feels her world tilt on its axis once more.

“Kochou Kanae is to report to The Master immediately. His child has fallen ill and they are requesting immediate help on the matter.”

Chapter Text

Kanae is exhausted.

It's early dawn and she's so sleepy, but her anxiety has done nothing to calm her down so she decided to make the trip home instead of sleeping.

She thinks she regrets that decision.

Kanae had spent her entire day and night tending to the Master's child for an ailment she cannot name.

According to Kagaya, Kiriya had been fine two nights ago; a typical rambunctious toddler. That had changed when he'd begun to complain about a headache one morning, something they found odd since Kiriya never complains. They had assumed that he – Kanae, as a physician, was one of the select few who knew Kiriya was actually a boy – was coming down with a cold, but had ignored it since was talking and laughing with the rest of his sisters before he'd collapsed out of nowhere. 

Amane had immediately called for their physician when Kiriya didn't wake up after a minute or two.

His parents, not knowing what was happening, had rushed him to his bed and had kept him cool, thinking he would eventually sprout a fever due to some unknown illness; he had not. 

Instead, Kiriya woke up a few minutes later calling for a “Kanao”, they'd told him that they didn't know anyone of that name. They had thought he was dreaming and left him alone, but he was insistent that he find Kanao. That she was in danger.

He'd continued spiraling after that, claiming he had been in a lab with Kanao, a Kamado Kanao, and that she needed help. His parents had not known who to call since their regular physician hadn't known what was happening, so they'd had Kanae examine him to find the cure for his sudden sickness.

Kanae had found nothing.

She'd been so upset to have to tell them that she had no information, especially since Amane had been stressed. Kanae knows the curse weighs heavily on their shoulders, so having to tell Kiriya's parents that he seemed fine hurt her to her core. They had looked devastated, no doubt thinking the curse had already begun to work its way through Kiriya's body.

However, when they'd confessed to her he'd been calling out for a Kanao, she'd stopped in her tracks. How curious that Kiriya had fainted and had awoken looking for a Kanao, when just recently her sister and her had found a “Kanao” – Kanae doesn't know whether to believe if that's really her name – running from danger.

Their Kanao had the family name Tsuyuri, but perhaps that had been a lie. Kanae, despite what others may have believed due to her cheery disposition, is not stupid. She has always valued her smarts, and while she will agree that Shinobu is smarter than her, that in no way, shape, or form, means that she isn't intelligent. She knows that Kanao was lying to them, or at the very least, she wasn't being fully honest.

She doesn't blame Kanao for that in the slightest, but it is something she's been thinking about the entire time she was out working with Kiriya.

She had believed Kanao to be unstable at first, but Shinobu had sent her a crow with a letter not long after she'd arrived at the Ubuyashiki home, stating that Kanao was surprisingly well mannered. 

It had seemed, Shinobu wrote, that she was still spooked from her earlier ordeal of being sold and possibly raped – Kanae hopes that last part didn't happen and that the girl was at least spared that pain – and was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but she settled nicely after being given ink and paper.

Shinobu had even sent in that Kanao asked for a journal after settling down, and, being who she was, Shinobu had given her one. Her letter stated that Kanao wore herself out writing in the journal and fell asleep clutching it to her chest. Shinobu's last check in had come about an hour ago, claiming that their newest addition had slept most the day and had woken a few hours ago, curious about her surroundings but no longer acting as odd as she had been.

That had been a huge relief to Kanae. They didn't have any patients at the moment, but she is still nervous to leave a potentially unstable patient in her home. As a doctor, she does not blame anyone who is going through a mental break, but she does know that they can be dangerous to themselves and to others. She is merely being cautious; for everyone's sakes.

Kanae had naturally given all the information Shinobu gave her to the Ubuyashiki’s. She can't shake the feeling that their Kanao and the one Kiriya was mumbling about are one and the same. She just can't prove it. 

Sure enough, they'd told her that Kiriya may have had a vision and that her thinking might be correct. She had found that odd since Kiriya is only three, but she doesn't come from a line of people with prophetic dreams, so she had let it slide.

Kanae sighs and looks up at the sky; dawn has washed over the world and has painted everything a beautiful pink and orange, signaling another night survived for her and the other slayers. Seeing morning’s light doesn't comfort her as much as it should.

She was removed from active duty for at least two weeks because she is to gather as much information from Kanao as possible. It seems that Kanao will become a permanent figure in their lives whether she wants to be there or not. Kanae doesn't mind, of course, but she is worried. 

Shinobu might have stated that Kanao seemed stable, but until Kanae could see that with her own eyes, she can't be too sure. That won't be anytime soon.

Her feet feel heavy and she's exhausted, but she knows she still has about 30 minutes left before she reaches the outskirts of her town, and that's assuming she keeps up the pace she's currently taking.

Her mind goes to her other duties and she groans. She was supposed to go on a joint mission with Tomioka last night since she's the only Hashira who can stand him, but, since she was pulled from duty in order to find out who Kanao is, Sanemi had been placed as Tomioka’s last minute partner. 

Why, she does not know. Placing them together is like placing a mouse in a cage with a snake. One of them will inevitably attack the other. Kanae has a pretty good idea who the poor mouse is in this situation.

She has a feeling they'll be seeing them at the clinic soon. They don't work well together and Sanemi, being the newest Hashira, tends to accidentally get in Tomioka's way more often than not. She has no doubt that his involvement has led to some injuries for both of them.

She sighs again. 

Shinobu needs to be off the floor if that's the case. She is a great doctor, but she does not get along with Sanemi, and, if Tomioka is there…well…Shinobu might end up arguing with him too just because she can. 

Kanae feels herself smile at that thought. Yes, Shinobu would argue with Tomioka if he shows up. They don't know each other and Shinobu will probably feel annoyed with how much – or little in this case – value he places on his own life. 

She shakes her head and feels her more mischievous side take over. Perhaps she should have Shinobu on the floor if that's the case. Tomioka is notorious for ignoring medical advice. Perhaps, with Shinobu there, he might be scared into listening.

“Caw! Kanae-sama!” 

Her heart drops when she hears En’s voice. Has something happened?

“En, what happened?”

En flies down to her shoulder and drops another letter into her palm before she flies off back to the estate. Kanae relaxes. A letter means nothing urgent.

“Kanae-sama?” Kanae looks over at her own crow, Mizuki, and shakes her head. She has no clue what Shinobu thought was so important to send her at this time of night.

She opens the letter and just barely holds back a groan. Sanemi, as she had predicted, is back at the clinic, as a patient this time. Tomioka, too, was dragged in. Shinobu is asking for her assistance because someone – Kanae has a very good idea as to whom – is being difficult and refusing care.

“Mizuki, we need to hurry. Quickly.” She lets out a huff of air and allows her annoyance to dissipate. She can be annoyed later. Right now she has work to do. 

She takes off towards her home.

She always has work to do.

At least her paycheck is worth it.

*

“Tomioka-san, if you keep that up I will bind you to the chair until your injuries heal. Your move, mighty Water Hashira.”

Kanae chooses to ignore her sister's threat and focuses instead on stitching Sanemi’s gash closed. Shinobu is close to snapping, if her sudden change in tone is anything to go by. It's dripping with fake sweetness and Kanae knows that if she turns around she will see Shinobu smiling her empty and cold smile that only appears whenever she's about to fly into a rage. 

Sanemi snorts in front of her, and she gives him a look to silence him. He chooses to look out the window, ears red in embarrassment, and she smiles. As she had predicted when she'd first read her sister's letter, Tomioka had been trying to escape her sister's grasps to go heal up at his own estate. Shinobu had put her foot down.

Kanae had walked into a pretty funny scene, all things considered. Seeing the Water Hashira being yelled at by her sister was hilarious, especially since he had, for the first time in Kanae’s memory, a look of utter bafflement at being manhandled by someone at least a foot shorter than him. 

Despite his reactions, he hadn't fought back. Kanae believes it's because he was so flabbergasted by her treatment of him, her, a lower ranked slayer, since he's so used to never being approached in such a manner. 

Unluckily for him, Shinobu had taken his hesitation as an opportunity to stitch him up. Kanae had let her. It made for some good entertainment.

“I di-”

“Your arm is a mess. Look at it! If you keep this up, you'll lose it! How dare you show up to our clinic in need of medical attention, and then have the audacity to try to leave before I can help. You're lucky you haven't died yet to your own negligence.”

Kanao, who had walked in when she heard that Sanemi and Tomioka were being seen, makes a nose of horror at that comment, before she looks down at Tomioka's right arm and clutches her journal to her chest. Kanae cannot help but smile. Shinobu was right. The girl is surprisingly mild and well mannered when she isn't in a panic.

“I'm sorry, Kochou.”

The silence at his apology is deafening. Tomioka had never apologized to anyone for avoiding medical attention, other than Kagaya that is, so getting him to speak and apologize is a miracle. He must fear Shinobu's wrath if he is willing to apologize. 

Kanae stops what she's doing to look over at her sister's face, jaw on the floor at what she just heard. Sanemi, she notes from the corner of her eye, is staring at Tomioka like he spontaneously combusted; his eyes are so wide they actually look less bloodshot than usual. 

Shinobu, who had stopped speaking as soon as Tomioka apologized, no longer looks as angry as she had been, but she still has some spite left in her.

“Just don't do it again. You're important, you know. People would miss you if you died. Not me, of course, but someone out there would. Stop moving so much!” Shinobu snaps at Tomioka and smacks his left hand away when he hesitantly offers her some bandages. 

The kakushi, who up to this point had been standing silently in the corner, gasp and stare in horror as Shinobu bandages Tomioka's arm. Kanae can understand. 

Tomioka is a Hashira and therefore he should be shown respect. That respect is nowhere to be found in this room, but Kanae knows nobody will comment on it. Shinobu may be a lower ranked slayer, but here she rules above even Hashira. It is their clinic and she is his doctor. Tomioka, it seems, must realize that.

He nods and looks out the window.

“The idiot got in my way. It's why he's all fucked up.”

“Shut up Shinazugawa. You can't talk. You looked worse than he did when you got here.” Kanae giggles at how quickly Shinobu's voice begins to drip venom. She has never liked Sanemi, in part due to Kanae's feelings towards the man. 

Shinobu has always been protective of her, even as a child, and that protectiveness only got worse after their parents died. Sanemi, in Shinobu's mind, would do nothing but ruin her. She's already begun to complain about Kanae's tendency to let him stay the night, though Kanae can kind of understand where her sister is coming from. 

She just doesn't think she cares. 

They fight demons for a secret – and illegal – organization for a living. Societal standards no longer apply to them. Besides, Kanae has never once felt the need to do anything scandalous, so she doesn't see why Shinobu is so upset. It must be her dislike towards Sanemi.

Shinobu may think Sanemi is bad for her, but Kanae cannot help but disagree.

Sanemi, despite being a hothead, is kind and gentle. He has been nothing but a gentleman to her as they've begun courting, and even when it's obvious he wishes for more, he never pushes the issue. 

He is a good man. 

He is an honest man.

He is, as they all are, broken by what fate has thrown at them, but he is not a bad man. He has his rough edges, especially when it comes to his last surviving family member – though Kanae has slowly started to get him to see his wrongs there – but he is not evil as her sister claims.

Kanae does not believe in evil; not like Shinobu does. People are complex; as ugly as they are beautiful. People are never white or black, but all shades of grey. Humanity is the most imperfect perfection that exists – each human with hands that have healed as much as they have hurt.

That is why, despite everything, Kanae cannot bring herself to hate demons, not when they were once the humans she so desperately cares for. Not when they resemble humanity at its lowest point.

It is just unfortunate that Shinobu doesn't see the world as she does. Perhaps if she did, she wouldn't be as deeply damaged as she is. Shinobu's anger, Kanae knows, stems from her inability to let go; to accept tragedy for what it is and grow from it.

She prays that one day Shinobu will be able to slowly melt the ice that has encased her heart. Her little sister is kind. Kanae has seen it. She sees it every time Shinobu cares for a patient; the way she loses sleep over each and every one in the hopes that they will survive.

The day Shinobu learns to let go is the day Kanae can die peacefully. That day, she can meet her parents again and tell them that she did not fail her little sister. 

Kanae hopes even if she does not believe that day will ever come. Not with Shinobu refusing to loosen the shackles around her heart.

Kanae looks up when she feels Sanemi brush some of her hair from her face and she swallows the lump in her throat. She does not like thinking of Shinobu’s habits in public. It only ever leads her to a place she does not like to be in. 

He chooses to say something else to distract her.

“I'm sorry I got both of us hurt.” He sighs. “I just…he makes me so angry.”

Kanae smiles and pats his cheek affectionately. She knows. That doesn't make it any less okay though.

“I know. But please remember that Oyakata-sama wants us all to get along. To work as one united front. That includes Tomioka-san.”

“He doesn't even consider himself one of us, so why-”

“Tomioka-san is…different. I know he is kind, just as Oyakata-sama says. Please, Sanemi-san, try and get along? For me?”

Sanemi remains quiet but he doesn't argue back. Kanae sneaks a quick peck to his cheek and accepts that he will not change his stance on Tomioka so readily. His silent cooperation is enough for now.

“Thank you, Kochou.” Kanae turns to see Tomioka slip his haori back on and stand up, bowing to Shinobu as he does so. Kanae smiles.

It's obvious from Tomioka's actions that he doesn't know how to deal with her sister. Shinobu has completely stumped him, and judging by the look on his face, he doesn't know how to act. 

He's always been treated a bit harshly by his peers due to his aloof nature, so being met with kindness – sure Shinobu had been yelling at him the entire time, but she'd never once attacked his personality like most do – seems to have him confused.

That thought makes Kanae happy, as much as it makes her sad. She's been paired up with the Water Hashira multiple times now, and through their joint missions she's learned how gentle and kind he is. Knowing that he doesn't usually receive kindness is depressing.

She watches as Shinobu nods at him and gives him some last minute instructions and she feels hope blossom in her heart. 

Perhaps this can be a start of a friendship for them both. Shinobu, despite having more social skills than Tomioka, rarely talks to people outside their family. If she could befriend at least one other slayer, then Kanae would be happy. That way, should anything happen to her, at least Shinobu won't be completely alone.

“Please tell me you aren't considering setting them up.”

Kanae laughs at Sanemi's question and smacks his arm playfully.

“No silly. She's a little young for him, don't you think?”

Sanemi grunts and glares at Tomioka.

That would be something though, wouldn't it? Kanae shakes her head. No, Tomioka is too old for Shinobu. They might only have a three year difference, but their ages do play a major role in their actions. 

A 14 year old and a 17 year old probably wouldn't have much in common. They might be friends, but as for potential relationship material…Kanae doesn't think it will happen.

Perhaps if they do become friends then they'll have a chance in the future. A 16 year old and a 19 year old, for example, is much more logical. Still off by a few years, but most people around here at that age end up married with similar age gaps. 

Shinobu would have to get over her hatred and her rage before she ever achieved a relationship, but Kanae knows her sister would be a good partner if she ever put her mind to it. Perhaps, one day she would find someone. Maybe she could become something more with Tomioka if they ever get close enough for that. That would be nice.

“May I have another pencil?”

Kanae feels her heart jump to her throat at the question, before she whirls around and finds Kanao staring at her with her big purple eyes. Kanae hesitates. Shinobu does not.

Kanao thanks Shinobu and goes back to her corner near the doors, writing furiously in her journal, periodically looking up and staring at Sanemi and Tomioka before she writes stuff down again. Kanae cannot help but be curious.

Kanao came from a very impoverished district where most don’t care to learn to read or write; it is the least of everyone's problems. Seeing Kanao write, legibly from what she can see, is confusing. 

Kanae bites her bottom lip as she watches their newest addition scribble into her journal, eyes flicking back and forth between the men every now and then. She cannot shake the feeling that something is off about Kanao; nothing about her is normal. Kanae glances over at Shinobu and sees that she, too, is staring at Kanao with a knowing look.

Kanae needs to speak to her as soon as possible.

“I'll be off then.” Tomioka bows to Kanae and then to Shinobu. He doesn't bother to spare Sanemi a glance. Kanae winces internally. Tomioka is kind, not a pushover, but ignoring Sanemi won't solve the problem. If anything, it'll just make it worse. “Thank you, Kochou. Both of you.”

“Your physical is due in a week. You've nothing on file since you avoid all appointments, so I need to get this over with. Please remember to stop by or I'll have to make a stop at your own estate. I have your files, so I know where you live. Remember that.” Shinobu glares at Tomioka before she turns around and walks up to Kanao. Kanae lets out a chuckle. Tomioka looks absolutely baffled at her remark before it quickly changes to exasperation.

“I-Kochou, that isn't necessary. I’m-”

“It is necessary, Tomioka-san. I don't want you collapsing while on duty and having people say I did a poor job as your doctor. Your health, and more importantly, my reputation, is on the line. A week. Now get out.”

“Your bedside manner is really lacking…”

“Out! Get going!”

Kanae watches as Tomioka stares at Shinobu in disbelief, before he turns around and bows to her once more in dismissal. He’s clearly trying very hard to reel in his emotions and go back to his stoic demeanor, but he’s having difficulty doing so. 

“Have a good day, Tomioka-san.” Kanae smiles at him as he walks past her. She can't help but find this entire thing amusing. Her smile widens when, instead of ignoring him like she believed she'd do, Kanao looks at Tomioka and offers a shy goodbye. Shinobu is standing over her and trying to read the note Kanao wrote her.

Tomioka stops to nod at her too and finally slips out of the room, but not before Shinobu, in a voice far softer than she had been using the entire time she'd been interacting with him, wishes him a good day. Tomioka only stares at her warily before he returns the sentiment.

The kakushi bow to Kanae and Sanemi before they, too, leave them alone. The room goes silent.

“The fuck was that about?”

“Sanemi, please. Be nice.”

Shinobu makes a face when she hears how softly Kanae speaks to Sanemi, but Kanae does not care. Her sister can be annoyed, but she will not misplace her time. Their lives are always on the line and she'll be damned if she doesn't try to have some happiness in her life.

“Sorry.” Sanemi glares at the doors where Tomioka was last seen and Kanae sighs. At least he didn't insult him before he left. That's progress. Speaking of progress…

“I know neither of us have anything pressing at the moment, but I can't keep my promise for breakfast today.” Her heart clenches when Sanemi looks at her sadly. Shinobu makes a noise of disgust behind her but Kanae chooses to ignore it. “Maybe we can catch up later? I'll be going to sleep in about an hour. I can meet with you afterwards for a late lunch? You're more than welcome to stay and catch up on sleep too.”

“He's not sleeping in your room.” Shinobu glares at Sanemi and she points at Kanae in disapproval. “If he is sleeping here, he sleeps on the cots in the smaller infirmary. I don't want him in the private wards. He's a man. And he's creepy.”

Kanae closes her eyes and smiles in exasperation. She wasn't expecting any less from her sister, but she won't deny that she was hoping Shinobu would look the other way. She won’t argue though, not when she knows that Shinobu is worried about the…consequences. What consequences, Kanae doesn’t know; neither she nor Sanemi are ready for that step in their relationship.

Kanae opens her eyes and looks at Sanemi, whispering an apology to him as she kisses his cheek again. Sanemi shrugs as Shinobu narrows her eyes at them. Kanae needs to stop this before Shinobu begins to truly get angry.

“I'll see you later then? In the lawn?” Kanae nods at his question and stands up from her stool. She has work to do.

“Loitering on my lawn…Always loitering…Scaring the butterflies away…Townsfolk already talk about us like we're hookers. He will make it worse due to his constant loitering. The girls deserve better…”

Kanae chooses to ignore those comments from Shinobu too. Shinobu, to Kanae’s great surprise, is far more of a “prude” than she believed she’d be. She’s been very insistent on Kanae drinking the contraceptive tea lately and while Kanae is happy that her sister is willing to turn the other way most of the time, it makes Kanae feel guilty that Shinobu is stressing over something she shouldn't be worried about. 

A part of her realizes it all boils down to Shinobu’s trauma; that she worries Kanae will probably have a baby and Shinobu will be forced to care and worry about someone else.

It makes Kanae sad to know that Shinobu is so afraid of loss that she does not stop to think about love. The part that hurts her more is that Shinobu was never like this in the past. She used to laugh and smile freely. That is why she always tells Shinobu to smile. She misses Shinobu; her sister died the day their parents did. Kanae chooses to ignore that she, too, is not the same person as before. She wonders if Shinobu mourns who Kanae had been; Kanae knows she does.

She sighs. Now is not the time to be thinking this way.

Shinobu makes another comment when nobody says anything, but Kanae ignores it and looks towards Kanao.

Sanemi finally has enough.

“At least my loitering makes your sister happy.”

“Fuck off.”

Kanao, who had been watching the entire interaction silently, giggles. Kanae hopes she's giggling at how ridiculous this all is and not because she agrees with Shinobu. Kanae cannot handle another Shinobu. That would make three since Aoi’s personality is eerily similar. Having three would be too much.

She turns and walks up to Kanao as Sanemi leaves the room, a tired, but very much real smile lighting her features. She might find Kanao odd, but she is genuinely excited to have a new family member. Kanao’s smile drops and she clutches her journal tighter to her chest. Kanae feels a bit of sadness seep into her. Kanao had been fine with Shinobu not even a minute ago, but now she's acting like Kanae is a terrifying monster. 

She tries not to let it get to her. Shinobu has had many hours of constant interaction with Kanao – though Kanao had been asleep for most of those – so of course she'd be more comfortable with Shinobu. It bothers Kanae, but it doesn't matter. She has two weeks of nothing but time to get Kanao to break out of her shell.

She smiles and bends down to Kanao's level. That only seems to heighten Kanao’s defenses.

“Kanao-chan? Would you like to pick out a room? You'll be staying here for a while, and I'd love to help you choose your room and decorations. We can go shopping later today too, if you're up to it!”

Kanao takes a moment to think her question through, before she slowly looks up at Shinobu for help. Kanae feels a seed of doubt enter her body. What if Kanao just never trusts her the way she seems to trust Shinobu?

“Go on. I'm not the one who asked you the question.” Shinobu gently nudges Kanao towards Kanae, but Kanao looks down at her journal. Now that she's focusing on her, Kanae can see that she's still flushed and sweaty. She frowns.

“Is she still sick?”

“Yes. Infection, but that's a given considering how she was living. I've given her medicine to get her fever down, but it only seems to work for about an hour before she gets sick again. I gave her some antibiotics, but I don’t think it's working.”

Shinobu looks down at Kanao and frowns before she continues. “Her body is small and it's making it hard for it to fight off infection so we might need to get her on the drip. I took another sample from her and I'm hoping that it'll show a decline in growth, but it'll take a few days to see.” 

Shinobu glances at Kanao and smiles. Kanae feels her heart clench. It is times like these where Shinobu looks more and more like her old self; the feisty girl who loved freely. Perhaps, she thinks, Kanao can be the catalyst that can break Shinobu from her path of self destruction. 

Kanae notices that Kanao is listening to everything intently, almost as if she is trying to understand – or does understand – what is being said. That strikes her as odd, but she supposes she's just curious about everything. Kanae doubts the girl ever got medical care before, so perhaps she's trying to make sense of it all.

“I will say that she's extremely malnourished and it's led to her being very weak. She was recently on a saline IV since she collapsed again from dehydration, but I didn't administer as much as before.” 

Kanae looks back at Kanao at that. She is very skinny and while she looks heaps better than when they first found her days ago, what with her finally being clean and having brushed out hair, she still looks like she'll drop at any moment.

“One weird thing is that she always comes out of her feverish haze muttering names I don't know. At one point she claimed she was at a lab, but I have no clue what that even means. She never elaborated either. I was hoping you'd help me figure that part out.” Shinobu finishes listing off everything of note from Kanao's chart and Kanae nods. She'll look at it later to double check, but she trusts Shinobu's judgement. She thinks. 

Infection is bad, especially if the first round of antibiotics haven't put a dent on it, but it's not untreatable. Shinobu is probably right to put her on a drip if her body isn't fighting off the infection that well. The other part, however, worries Kanae.

Muttering names they don't know…

Just like Kiriya.

The alarm bells that had been quietly ringing since she learned about Kiriya suddenly begin to blare.

They're both suffering from the same…illness? Madness? She has no clue what to call it, really, but they have to be connected. Kanae, as a doctor and therefore a scientist, doesn't really believe in coincidences. She looks up at Shinobu and wonders if she should tell her.

She wants to. She really does. But she has no clue if she should.

Kiriya's issue isn't necessarily Hashira business, and even if it were, Shinobu, as her tsuguko, would be able to have a watered down version of it anyway. The thing is, Shinobu isn't just her tsuguko, but her younger sister. Kanae is the oldest. It is her responsibility to keep her safe from all harm.

If she were to tell Shinobu, she would indirectly involve her in whatever this is and that means Shinobu may be put in danger. But…Shinobu has always been the researcher between the two of them. 

Kanae knows her strengths well, and as such, she understands her weaknesses. She is intelligent, but she isn't necessarily good at coming up with solutions the way Shinobu is. 

Shinobu has their father's mind; his cunning. Kanae shares their intellect, but she doesn't share the same propensity to solve obscure problems. She should, based on all this, be jumping up to share everything she knows with Shinobu.

It would be the right thing to do, yet it would also mean destroying what little innocence her sister has left.

Kanae feels a headache form as she thinks.

She has no clue what to do. She doesn't want Shinobu involved in this. This feels different. It feels even more dangerous than usual.

“Kanae-neesan?”

Kanae blinks and looks at Kanao. She was not expecting the girl to call her that just yet. Then again, if what she saw when they got her, Kanao must be starved for affection. Perhaps she isn't as afraid of her as she thought, but just shy due to wanting to feel included in their family. It is rather quick, but Kanae won't look a gift horse in the mouth. It makes her job infinitely easier if Kanao trusts her.

She feels a twinge of guilt at the fact that while Kanao seems to trust her, Kanae does not trust Kanao to not be dangerous. 

Kanae doesn't believe her to be guilty of anything, and she would never turn her away regardless of whether or not she hadn't been ordered to keep an eye on her, but she still can't shake the feeling that Kanao has tipped the proverbial scale over. Something about her is off and Kanae feels uneasy every time she looks at her.

“Ah, sorry. I have a headache. I've been working really hard. There is a girl, like you, who got sick recently and I had to go be her doctor the entire time I was away.”

She winces when she realizes she's given just enough information to get Shinobu involved. It might not have been much, but her sister is smart enough to read between the lines. Sure enough, Shinobu comments on it.

“Kiriya-sama is sick? So she's had a vision?”

Kanae doesn't get a chance to respond before Kanao blurts out her own concerns. “Sick? Why?”

Shinobu glances at Kanao and frowns, her eyebrows scrunching up as she scrutinizes her. Kanae feels her headache intensify. There is no way Shinobu won't be involved now.

“Yes, but she's better now.” She smiles but her alarm bells go off again when Kanao frowns and looks back at her journal with a look of deep contemplation.

Funny, when she does that, she looks like Shinobu. Kanae's eyes flicker towards Shinobu and then back to Kanao. They are making the exact same expression, almost as if Kanao had had years of studying Shinobu's facial features and then learned to mimic them. She's even copied the way Shinobu tilts her head and everything. 

If Kanao looked like Shinobu, she'd go as far as to say they were directly related. The only similarity they share though, is the purple eyes, and Kanao's are much lighter in color, not unlike Kanae's own. A long lost cousin? But, they would have known about that if it were true. 

Their parents would have never let Kanao live the way she was living, especially since her village was very close to the one she had lived in growing up. 

And yet, everything she's seen so far makes her notice how similar Kanao is to Shinobu. They aren't exactly alike, obviously, but the way she carries herself is somewhat reminiscent of how Shinobu carries herself.

Kanae claps her hands and forces out a small laugh. She's unnerved, but she refuses to let it show. Shinobu, she knows, must have an idea as to how nervous she is, but Kanao should not. She needs to keep it that way. 

“Well then, shall we pick out a room for you? Once we do that, you can get settled with what little we have. Then you can take a nap.” Kanae hopes Kanao takes a nap. She cannot deal with her right now. She's exhausted. “We can all get lunch later and you'll meet our other sisters. Sounds good?”

“I thought you were going to get lunch with Shinazugawa?”

“He can join us too!” Kanae ignores the way Shinobu scowls at her answer. 

“Quickly now! We can even get you new clothes that fit you better!”

Kanao doesn't respond, but her eyes light up when Kanae takes her hand. She once again realizes that she won't need to work hard to gain her affection. The guilt she feels tries to crawl back up at how trusting Kanao is, but she forces it down. 

Her distrust of Kanao is a natural reaction to a perceived threat. She hopes that, with time, she learns to feel less on edge when around her. She can't claim her as a sister otherwise.

 ~~~~~

Shinobu stares at Kanao's sleeping body and frowns. Her fever has returned and it's clearly taking a toll on her.

Shinobu sighs.

She doesn’t understand why Kanao raises all her defenses, but she does. At first Shinobu had thought that Kanao was going through a mental break and since she's had to deal with mentally unsound patients before, she thought that was what caused her caution towards the girl. 

She wasn't even blaming Kanao for it either; she'd just been sold and she had been so sick when she arrived. Of course Kanao would be a bit unwell mentally.

The problem though is that Kanao, despite being so well mannered, still gives off an unsettling vibe that Shinobu cannot help but notice.

Shinobu's eyes land on the journal she gave Kanao; she's still holding it to her chest even as she sleeps. Kanae had tried removing it from Kanao when she tucked her into the bed, but Kanao had held on with such force that Shinobu had feared she would rip the journal apart. Kanae had tried to coax the girl to let go, saying she'd placed it on the table in the room, but Kanao had been stubborn.

Shinobu had to step in and try to give Kanao a softer object to hold, but the girl had refused it in contempt. For whatever reason, she wanted to keep the journal, so they'd let her.

Shinobu stares at Kanao a bit longer, her mind trying to comprehend why that journal is so important to Kanao. She hadn't even believed her to be able to write. Learning to read and write are not priorities to people from her background, so Kanao knowing how to write is a little suspicious to Shinobu.

She sighs.

There is no doubt in her mind that Kanao is more than she seems, but she can't point her fingers at her and accuse her of something without proof.

Shinobu looks back at Kanao's face and slowly changes out the wet rag on her forehead. Her infection is another concern of hers. Kanae had reviewed Kanao's chart and had come to the same conclusion as Shinobu: Kanao should probably be placed on an IV drip for the time being.

Whatever disease she picked up is fighting to remain in her system, and with how frail she is, Shinobu and Kanae couldn't risk her getting worse.

Shinobu watches Kanao sleep for a few more minutes before she stands up and walks out of Kanao's brand new room. She stands outside the shogi doors for a second and then rubs her face with her hands. The room is bothering her too.

When Kanae had asked Kanao to pick out a room, Kanao had made a beeline to this one, almost as if she knew the layout of the mansion. That would be impossible, but how else would she have found the room so easily?

She didn't search around until she found one she liked, but rather, she just was asked to find a room and she walked up to this one as if she already owned it.

Shinobu hadn't liked that.

Not one bit.

Judging by Kanae's reaction, she'd also been a little thrown off by Kanao's behavior.

Speaking of Kanao’s behavior, there is so much to unpack there as well. Kanao, who Shinobu knows is not related to them in the slightest, shares characteristics from both her and Kanae.

She's sure her sister has clocked Kanao's penchant for mimicking her actions, but she has yet to see how much of Kanae is in Kanao. 

Kanao enjoys the same foods, colors, scents, textures, etc. She is Kanae in another font. Shinobu had thought that the first two instances where she liked something similar to Kanae were merely happenstance, even if she doesn't truly believe in such things. People can share common likes and dislikes after all.

But then Kanao had asked for certain scents and then had claimed to like certain flowers. She'd even given Shinobu a list of her favorite items and colors. Some, she'll admit, are not favorites to Kanae, but her own favorites. Some had been Aoi’s favorites. Some were even things the younger girls considered favorites.

It was as if Kanao had been raised alongside them all and had picked up habits, likes, and dislikes from each and every one of them in their household. Sure Kanao listed things that were specific to her, but Shinobu cannot deny that she is eerily similar to them all; the way all siblings are similar to each other.

Shinobu had written it all down on a notepad and had debated giving it to Kanae, but she had decided against it. Kanae, while a good actor, is not able to fool Shinobu. She is sinking.

Shinobu can see it in the way she stares off into space or how she stays up way into the night. She sees it in the way her smile dampens whenever someone isn't looking; the way she forces her cheery attitude more often now than she did then.

Kanae was always the sunny child in their family, always optimistic and kind, but Shinobu has seen how she wavers more often. Her core aspects are still the same – still sunny and happy; still as naively kind towards everyone – but she's always weighed down by something Shinobu cannot name.

It worries her.

That is why she dislikes Shinazugawa so much. He does nothing but add to Kanae's stress. 

Sure she'll admit that he makes Kanae happy, but sometimes she'll be worried about Shinazugawa and his younger brother and will lose sleep over them. Other times she'll have had a small argument with Shinazugawa and her already tired mind grows even more exhausted.

Shinobu also fears Kanae is not seeing the bigger picture. What if Kanae gets pregnant? Who is going to care for the baby? Kanae is not married. Shinobu might be the last person anyone should go to for societal advice considering her personality, but she will never risk Kanae’s – or the girls’, but they are safe…for now anyway – reputation. Kanae would be ruined if that were to ever happen.

Shinobu sighs and leans against the doors. She isn't trying to be an overbearing younger sibling to Kanae, but it seems that Kanae doesn't realize how deep Shinobu’s concern is. Kanae isn't Kanae anymore, just as Shinobu isn't herself anymore.

Now they have Kanao – who Shinobu knows has become a new work related task for Kanae – to add to this. Shinobu tries her hardest to care for the girls on her own to lessen Kanae's workload, but all that does is make Shinobu grumpier, which then in turn makes Kanae sadder.

Shinobu hears shuffling come from inside Kanao’s room and she peeks in, only to see that Kanao has curled up against her journal, still fast asleep. Shinobu sighs again. Kanao is just so odd it's creepy.

She groans but ultimately decides she can't do anything at this moment, so she walks down the hall. She still has so much work to do. There are at least four patients she needs to see and then she needs to get back into the lab and mix a few more medicines. 

Doing all that gives Kanae at least two more hours of sleep, something she desperately needs, so Shinobu needs to make sure it all gets done. After that, she needs to get her sword and poisons prepared for her mission. 

She winces when she notices the time. Kanao had taken a chunk of it and while Shinobu will not blame her, she is annoyed that she does not have as much time as she'd like. 

She pinches the bridge of her nose.

At least, she thinks, she gets paid two salaries: her low salary as a new slayer and her more than spectacular salary as a doctor. She might just go out and buy herself something nice after this. She's more than earned it.

*

Shinobu glares at Tomioka as he sits on her table, rigid as a stone and eyes looking at everything but her. She doesn't have time for this.

“Tomioka-san.” Tomioka’s expression does not change, but she feels the tiniest flinch come from him. “Care to tell me how exactly it is you ripped your stitches not even 24 hours after I carefully placed them? And care to tell me why you didn't mention it until now, an entire week later?”

Tomioka doesn't answer her and she feels murderous intent rise inside. How dare he.

Her rage doesn't get a chance to explode because Kanao, who has shown to have a fascination with both Shinazugawa and Tomioka throughout the week, giggles from her corner. 

Tomioka glances at Kanao quickly and then turns to look back at the window. His face is as stoic as it was when he walked in, but Shinobu knows that it will quickly morph into exasperation. She seems good at getting him to make that expression.

“Fine. We'll do this the hard way then.” Tomioka stiffens and slowly drags his eyes to hers. She smiles and he blinks before he slowly leans away from her. Kanao giggles harder.

“Take off your uniform.”

Her sadistic side purrs with happiness when Tomioka gapes at her and his eyes widen. Kanao snorts behind her and Shinobu smiles wider. She might fear Kanao, but at least she's always on her side.

“I…Kochou, I'm not sure-”

“You messed with your stitches not even 24 hours after I placed them. For all I know, you might have done something to endanger yourself which caused you to open them.” Tomioka is looking more and more panicked. Kanae had told her he never showed emotion but Shinobu cannot think that further than the truth. 

Tomioka opens his mouth to argue and she shushes him. The kakushi who are standing behind her begin to sweat.

“You, Water Hashira-sama,” her voice drips with nothing but false sweetness, “may be a danger to yourself. I need to see if you have any other injuries. Strip or I'll do it for you.”

Tomioka sighs and removes his haori – Shinobu was going to comment on it earlier, but she figured it held some meaning to him; there is no way anyone would ever wear something so ugly without a purpose – and then slowly pulls his uniform shirt off, wincing as it catches his open wound. 

Shinobu purses her lips. He's littered with scars and fresh scratches.

She suddenly isn't looking at Tomioka, but rather at Kanae or herself; too busy and broken to bother stitching themselves back together. Theirs is more figurative than literal, but the symbolism is still there.

She sighs.

“Stop.” Tomioka freezes in his tracks, hands already unbuckling his belt to remove his pants. “We're going to do something new, okay?”

He nods.

Shinobu sighs again and hopes she doesn't lose what little patience she has.

“Okay. I'm going to give you medical attention and I won't write you up for your clear lack of self care. However, you have to promise me to come back and get seen here for your injuries every time after a mission.” Tomioka opens his mouth and she lifts her hand up. “I don't know why you are like this, and frankly, I don't think I care, but you need to take care of yourself.”

She nods towards the kakushi and they approach with some supplies. She looks back at Tomioka.

“You can go to my sister for all I care. I just don't want you pulling these stupid stunts and getting an infection. You can die and I'm not going to have your death on my hands.”

Tomioka thinks it through for a bit, or at least, she thinks he does, before he slowly nods and allows her to work. She feels a vein throbbing in her forehead.

Why are men so stupid?

“Kanao-chan? Can you get Nee-san please? I want her to update something and I'm a little busy here.”

Kanao, who had stopped laughing and had begun to stare at them with wide eyes, nods and takes off somewhere towards the private wards of the estate. Shinobu watches her leave with a smile on her face, before Tomioka says something that makes her anger return.

“You're a lot kinder to your sisters.”

She glares at him and presses the rag of antiseptic to his arm. Tomioka winces but goes back to being stoic after a few seconds.

“Shut it.” Shinobu motions for the kakushi to begin giving her some supplies and she gets to work. “Unlike you, they're family. I like my family. Now stop moving or I will go through with my threat and tie you up.”

She groans internally when Tomioka only hums in agreement and leans back against his chair. 

Why are men so stupid?

*

“Shinobu-neesan?” Shinobu looks away from Tomioka's chart and glances at Kanao. She's no longer as sickly as she was when she first arrived, though she's still just as small. She continues to carry that blasted journal around and Shinobu cannot help but wonder what she writes in it.

“Yes, Kanao-chan?”

Kanao hesitates before her eyes go to the papers in Shinobu's hands. She stares at them for several seconds before she looks back at Shinobu. 

“Why were you nice to Tomioka-san?”

Shinobu blinks and then sighs. She has no clue why Kanao seems as fascinated with Shinazugawa or Tomioka as she is, but it's starting to bother her. At first she'd believed Kanao had thought Shinazugawa to be attractive – Shinobu really doesn't see the vision but she won't judge – and just wanted to know who he was. She's young, only 12, but most children her age begin to see others as pretty.

However, that theory doesn't hold up. Kanao doesn't grow shy around him the way an infatuated teenager would, so Shinobu had thrown that theory out the window. She had then believed Kanao to be interested in Shinazugawa due to how…unhinged he looks.

Shinobu will admit that Shinazugawa looks a little unwell, so she began to think that Kanao was only waiting for him to collapse. That had been Shinobu's theory up until Tomioka showed up and Kanao began to show that exact same fascination.

Shinobu had felt her stomach clench when she saw that happen. Perhaps she had been wrong and Kanao had been sexually abused, so now she sees herself as some sort of toy for men, waiting for one of them to ask her to do something.

Whatever the case, Shinobu had immediately told the other girls to keep an eye on Kanao and she'd even gone ahead and removed all male kakushi from the estate, except for Goto as he was one of their best, whenever she or Kanae wouldn't be around.

“Shinobu-neesan?” Kanao tugs on her uniform sleeve gently.

“Ah, well, he was injured.” 

That sounds about right. What was she supposed to say anyway? That Tomioka’s lack of self care – while different to her own and Kanae’s – was a slap to her face; that he mirrored her own self destructive actions too close for comfort?

Kanao makes her usual empty smile and Shinobu swears she's looking in a mirror. She hates how much Kanao resembles all of them. It makes no sense for her to. 

Another part of her, one she refuses to acknowledge, is devastated at how young Kanao is to be as messed up as she is.

“But…you didn't have to. He doesn't like to get…he doesn't seem to like to get regular checkups.”

Shinobu narrows her eyes. That's another thing about Kanao she finds unsettling. She's only been with them for a little over a week, and yet she has information on all of them that should not be available to her just yet. When she says all, she means all.

Kanao doesn't just know stuff about them at the estate, but she knew Shinazugawa liked ohagi, something only Kanae knew. Kanao had also been the one to know a few things about certain kakushi, even going so far as to avoid the most perverted of them. Hell, she'd even known about Tomioka's penchant for avoiding care. Kanao had been the one to warn her about it before Tomioka ever landed in her infirmary.

Kanao isn't normal. Shinobu knows Kanao isn't normal.

She isn't bad, but she isn't necessarily normal. At times she acts like a child. Other times she acts far older than she should be. Those times are growing fewer and further in between, but they still pop up every now and then.

Shinobu's eyes land on Kanao's journal again and she frowns. Why does she write in that 24/7?

“Do you think you'll be friends?”

Shinobu does a double take at those words. Friends? No, that isn't possible. She's a lower ranked slayer and a doctor in one. Unless she makes it to Hashira, which she doubts considering her skill set, she and Tomioka won't cross paths often. There is no way to become friends with someone you don't see.

“No.” Kanao frowns at her words and glares at the floor. Shinobu sighs. Great, she's just like Kanae and her endless hope for Shinobu to allow herself to enjoy the company of those outside her family. “I don't have time for friendships, Kanao-chan. I'm busy. Besides, Tomioka-san is a Hashira. He has better things to do than speak with a weak slayer like me. I'll probably never be on the same wavelength as him.”

“You will.” Shinobu blinks and stares at Kanao. She sounds so sure of Shinobu's talents. “You will. You can become a Hashira too. I know you can.”

Shinobu softens just a bit. Kanao is, all things considered, such a sweet girl. It's a shame Shinobu doesn't trust her fully.

She doesn't get the chance to thank Kanao because Kanae walks into the room at that moment, Aoi and the other girls trailing behind her.

“Kanao-chan! We finally got the materials! Come on!” She and the girls rush back out of the infirmary after calling them both over one last time. 

Kanao lights up and rushes towards the others, leaving Shinobu behind with her thoughts.

*

“We have all these colors to choose from. Look! I think this pretty green would suit you, don't you think?”

Shinobu watches from the corner as Kanao stares at all the tissue papers and clips in front of her. Since she is now officially a part of their household, she was given the opportunity to create her own butterfly hair clip. The tissue papers will serve as a blueprint for when they get the piece commissioned.

Kanao had been ecstatic when they'd told her. It had made Shinobu and Kanae smile when she'd smiled at them with so much happiness at being told she'd get her very own clip.

“Look! This is so orange! Like the sun!” Kiyo holds up a bright orange paper and shows it to Kanao, her hands trembling with excitement at helping her new sister make her own clip.

Kanae laughs and agrees, but Shinobu is not looking at either of them. Her eyes are on Kanao.

Kanao, whom up to this point had been so excited to make her own clip, had frozen at the word “sun” and is now looking at the orange paper with a look of sadness and longing. It is a look Shinobu has only ever seen on the widows and widowers she's come across on her missions. It's such a jarring thought that she nearly topples over.

Her eyes go to Kanae’s but she's too busy grabbing a few more colors and showing them to Kanao. Kanao is no longer showing that same expression and is now back to smiling at all the color options. Shinobu notes how her hands won't stop touching the orange paper.

“Shinobu-chan! Come over here. We're supposed to work on these as a family.” Kanae waves to her from her seat at the table and Shinobu just sighs and walks up to them. Her eyes stray back to Kanao.

“Kanao-chan, what color do you want? You seem to really like the orange there.” Kanao jumps at Kanae's question but she shakes her head.

“I want two colors.” 

Shinobu catches how Kanae frowns, but she doesn't comment on it. Instead she holds up a green paper and shows it to Kanao.

“What about green? Naho-chan and I both have greenish clips. You can match.”

Kanao shakes her head.

“What about blue? You can match with me!” Aoi holds up a blue paper and hands it to Kanao, but Kanao slowly shakes her head.

“Pink? Purple?” Sumi holds up the colors and hands them to Kanao, but again she just shakes her head.

“Well? We went through most colors already. Unless you want yellow or red?” Shinobu holds up a few more colors and feels her anger slowly grow. What does Kanao want?

Kanao hesitates before her hands grab a forgotten paper, one that none of them had grabbed. Shinobu stares and feels her anger disappear, only to be replaced with something she cannot name.

“Magenta? That's such a lovely color!”

Kanae smiles at Kanao and Shinobu feels a headache. How convenient that a magenta paper would be in this stack. Her eyes go to Kanae. Too convenient.

Kanao nods but she hesitates. Her eyes land on the orange paper again. Shinobu is about to snap at her to just pick a color she wants, but she doesn't have to. Kanao grabs the orange one and slowly folds it into a shape. They watch silently.

“A marigold!” Kanae smiles. “How pretty. They are said to resemble life and death, no? I heard that certain cultures view them as flowers created for the sun.”

Shinobu watches as Kanao plays with the flower in her hands.

“Can I make my clip magenta with orange?”

Shinobu shrugs but doesn't say anything. The colors aren't necessarily ones she'd pick, but they don't look too bad when put together. Kanae nods.

“We'll get the clips made right away! Let's get another orange paper and design it, okay?”

Shinobu watches as Kanao looks back down at the marigold she created, before she carefully slips it into her pocket. 

She wonders who Kanao is. She was supposedly a child who had no siblings because they'd all died due to neglect. She has no love lost for them either. So why does she cling to a flower that holds significance when it comes to death, mourning, and hope?

She sighs. This is getting too weird to ignore.

Her eyes land back on Kanao. At least she no longer looks as haunted as she had when she first arrived. 

Kanao looks over at Shinobu and smiles, one that seems to be all Kanao and nothing like her own or Kanae's. Shinobu can't help but smile back.

Yes, Kanao is weird and stuff about her doesn't add up, but she's theirs now. She catches Kanae’s eye. Kanao is their sister, creepy or not, and they won't let her suffer ever again.

Chapter Text

Kanao has a problem. 

She stares at the journal in her hands and sighs, chin on her knees as she crouches on the floorboards. She ignores the way the kakushi stare at her as they walk past; she has long since gotten used to being looked at as if she is an anomaly.

Her hands flip through her journal and land on the page that is causing her anxiety. It matches today's date. She frowns.

In her past, Kanae had been given a mission today and she and Shinobu would go to investigate. It was supposed to be a quick mission where she'd gather information and then leave, but that would never happen. Kanae would fall to Upper 2 come sunrise.

The problem with this is that Kanao has no clue if it will even happen. A lot of the things that had happened last time had either never happened this time around, or, they had happened days later. Kanao has no clue if this one major event will play out the same.

There is another issue that has Kanao so worried: she knows she doesn't have all of her memories. Not anymore anyway. 

When she'd first arrived she had a very scattered brain, but it had slowly fixed itself as she settled. That was when she began to write in her journal in earnest, too afraid to forget once again. It was a good thing she had. 

Kanao had slowly begun to forget some of the more “insignificant" memories; the ones that wouldn't really play a huge role in whether or not someone would die. Then came the major memories. The first time she realized she was missing one of those was when she was trying to remember how she met the Kamado siblings.

Kanao still feels her heart sink whenever she draws a blank from the void that is that memory. She had, of course, gone back and read her journal, which sort of made some foggy memories resurface, but it is almost impossible to remember it on her own.

She has had to reread a lot of entries in order to figure out what will happen next.  

Today's date is one of them.

Kanao stares at her journal and rereads the passage again and again, sighing in frustration when only the smallest snippets of memories return to her. A kakushi, Goto, pokes her on the head to get her attention, then places a tray with her lunch next to her. Kanao ignores him and stares at the pages.

According to her journal, Kanae is supposed to get a mission this morning and she's supposed to head out with Shinobu in the evening. The problem is that it is an hour to noon and Kanae hasn't received anything. Kanao knows that. She was obsessively pacing around the estate not even 15 minutes ago, muttering to herself about Kanae’s supposed mission. She is pretty sure she looked a little insane doing so.

Her eyes flick up at Goto, who only stares at her on concern. That's probably why he's here, if she thinks about it. He is probably making sure she's okay. Kanao grabs her meal and thanks him, before she goes back to staring at her journal. Goto mutters something about getting Aoi. Kanao ignores him. 

Her entries say that Kanae and Shinobu had been busy that morning with patients, but that hadn't happened at all. This morning had been uneventful, with Aoi and Kanao making a few rounds to the patients in Kanae’s and Shinobu's place, giving them free time that had led to what her sisters are doing right now: Kanae had gone out for lunch with Shinazugawa and Shinobu had gone to buy a few supplies at the apothecary shop in town. 

Kanao cannot help but be anxious.

Surely, her involvement hasn't tampered with too much. She has been careful to not mess with anything else. She will admit that she wasn't careful in the beginning, but she hadn't been okay mentally. Too much was happening too fast and her mind was a mess. 

She got better at things as her mind settled and merged into a weird morph of who she had been as a 12 year old and who she had been as a 27 year old, but even that didn’t last very long. She knows she is changing daily. It’s especially noticeable when something “major” is changed from her “history”.

She sighs. Her carelessness changed a lot of minor details, but it created a major shift in this timeline. This is one of them. She has no clue when Kanae will receive her orders to fight Douma, but she needs to stop it from happening. That or she needs to find a way to keep Kanae alive.

Kanao sighs. None of her notes hold the answer.

She drops the rest of her meal onto the tray and then flops onto the wooden floor in the living room, eyes never straying from her journal, hoping that it will somehow make sense. It doesn't.

“Kanao-chan?” Aoi walks into the room and places a laundry basket on the floor. “Can you set these outside, please? We had a slayer who was poisoned and he was throwing up everywhere. I finally managed to wash them well enough to consider them clean.”

Kanao glances up from her spot on the floor and notices that her lunch tray is gone; Goto must have taken it. He probably called Aoi too. Kanao sits up and closes her journal, then looks at Aoi and nods.

Kanao stands and walks over to the basket, picking it up and nodding to her sister as she does so, before she carries it outside and begins to pin the sheets up. Aoi watches her for a few seconds and then shakes her head and sighs. Kanao catches Goto staring at her from a distance. She chooses to ignore them and focuses on the task at hand.

This is another thing that's different from before.

Back then, Kanae and Shinobu had kept her from doing any sort of chores. She would accidentally drop things, forget she was doing things, or she'd run into a problem her coin couldn't solve and she'd freeze. 

This version of herself has none of those issues. She does freeze often due to her shy personality – it is unfortunately back with a vengeance due to her mind mixing in with the mind of this Kanao – but they haven't had the need to treat her like glass this time around. In fact, she'd shown such “talent" at working with patients, that Kanae and Shinobu had quickly added her as a trainee nurse. It has kept her busier than she ever was when she was this age.

She wonders if all of that could be why things are no longer the same. Perhaps she’s messed with small “inconsequential” things and it has had an effect with everything else. Just like that article said; the one she and Aoi laughed at all those years ago.

Kanao finishes setting up the sheets but she hesitates at having to take the basket back inside. She looks over at the giant cherry blossom tree and she picks up the basket, walking towards the tree and the pond instead. She sits in front of it and contemplates for a while longer. Some kakushi walk past her and stare at her in confusion, but they don't dare order her around.

Her hands go up to her butterfly hair clip and she takes it out to stare at it. Last time, in her “past", she was given Kanae’s butterfly clip as a memento. This time Kanao chose to make her own hair clip instead. 

She looks at the magenta and orange butterfly and frowns. She had specifically chosen the colors in honor of her family; magenta for the outline of the wings and an orange for the inside. She admits that it sounds a little off, but the colors look pretty when put together.

Kanao stares at her clip for a few more seconds before she places it back into her hair; tightening her ponytail as well. She's so nervous, she's begun to fix her hair. 

Her mind goes back to her clip. 

She likes the magenta. It is the perfect combination of reds, pinks, purples, and blues. It is a blend of them together; just as she is a blend of all of her sisters. Her eyes go up and stare at the orange color of the sun. She likes the color orange too. It reminds her of Tanjiro.

“Kanao-san!” She turns and sees the girls run up to her and she feels a pang in her heart. 

They had been young women in her original timeline and she had spent a hefty sum to send them to the fancy boarding school that had just opened. She’d wanted the girls to have had the opportunity to have said they had graduated from there. They were smart enough. They’d only been there for a few months, but they had loved it and had sent her so many letters thanking her for the opportunity.

Now though, they are back to being the little kids she had first met. It is nice to see them so young again, but it also hurts her to see them so little. Her girls, the ones she went through all of her trials and tribulations, are gone. Kanao will never see them again. It is a bitter thought.

“Kanao-san!” Kanao smiles as they make it to her, but she doesn’t answer. The lump in her throat feels a little too large to speak over. “Kanao-san! Can you take us down to the town? We want to buy a few flowers for Nee-san!”

“Flowers?” Kanao is confused. They have plenty of flowers in the garden and the greenhouses.

“Yeah! We overheard Shinazugawa-san say he bought Kanae-neesan flowers at a cute little shop in town, so we want to go see it! Aoi-san said we should ask you to take us.” Sumi is bouncing on her feet, her eyes practically sparkling with delight at the prospect of leaving the estate. Kanao hums. She doesn’t remember walking the girls down to buy flowers last time. Then again, she wasn’t really allowed to leave the estate back then.

Her eyes land back on the basket and she stands up. She should probably return it if she plans to leave.

“Okay. Give me a second. I need to give this back to Aoi-chan.” The girls cheer and Kanao feels a smile form on her face. They may not be the girls she remembers, but they are still her sisters. That is enough. 

*

“The shop is so pretty!” 

“I can’t believe they had these flowers! They’re not in season!”

Kanao watches as the girls chatter ahead of her, their arms full of flowers that cannot be found in the gardens. They're on their way back home with a few extra trinkets and noticeably emptier wallets. 

Kanao watches her sisters run in front of her, then looks up at the sunset and feels her anxiety set back in. She waves it away. 

She had come across both Kanae and Shinobu while out on the town and they’d both confirmed that they hadn’t received any mission. That had been about two hours ago, so Kanao had relaxed. If Kanae didn’t get an order, then she won’t meet Upper 2 today. She won’t die and leave them alone.

“Kanao-san?” Kanao looks down at Naho and she nods at her to prove she is paying attention. “Why are you always so sad?”

Kanao blinks. Sad? She isn’t sad. She’s anxious, but she isn’t sad. Sure she has moments of sadness whenever she remembers that she will never see her family back from her timeline, but she is reassured by the fact that she is technically still there. The Kanao of that time will continue to watch them grow up. That is enough for her.

“I'm not sad, Naho-chan. I just like to think.”

“Think? About what?”

Kanao smiles. She loves her younger sisters.

“She likes thinking. Like Tomioka-san!” Kiyo giggles at that and Sumi nods. Naho forgets she ever asked the question and begins to talk about the flowers again. Kanao huffs out a laugh. Children.

Her eyes look up at the sunset again and she frowns. Kiyo had mentioned Tomioka. That is different.

Back then, Tomioka had only become a regular after Shinobu became a Hashira. He would stop by for checkups, or, on rarer occasions, he’d stop by with a few supplies he'd pick up for them if he found them as he went about his day. The girls had been anxious around him at first; they'd called him moody and weird. They'd eventually warmed up to him, but it had taken a considerably long time.

That isn't their response to him now.

For whatever reason, his acquaintanceship with Shinobu has jumpstarted by a few years – Kanao believes it's because of the joint mission he went on with Shinazugawa the first night she'd been sent back – and the girls enjoy his random visits. He has even taken to allowing them to crawl up all over his lap whenever he sits by the pond; he'd help them do their hair sometimes, the way an older brother would.

Kanae had been thrilled to see the Water Hashira stop by more often, later admitting to Kanao – when she was teaching Kanao basic procedures – that Tomioka was always so sad and she worried for his mental health. 

Kanae had not been the only one to be happy.

Shinobu would never admit it, but she is happier to have him around as well. Like Kanae, Shinobu was worried about Tomioka's lack of self preservation, so seeing him around every now and then reassured her that he was still alive. 

His showing up worked wonders for Shinobu as well. Kanao had been too lost the last time she was this age to really see how Shinobu had no friends; how she'd stressed continuously about all of them without having someone her age, who wasn't related to her, to talk to. Tomioka seems to have changed that. 

In fact, it was Kanao herself who had kind of gotten them to be friends. 

Tomioka seems so sad during this time period, still not completely set in his ways as a “stoic man", so Kanao had dragged Shinobu out for picnics with him a few times. 

It had been painful to watch as he sat there and disassociated, but Shinobu managed to somehow get him to respond, going so far as to begin acting as she used to around him – someone who was happy to tease a good friend. 

Kanao was pleased.

She likes Tomioka. 

He was Tanjiro's older brother; a kind man who had so much love for his friends and family. 

Kanao wants him to have that again, even if by a small margin. She hopes his friendship with Shinobu gives him something to look forward to. 

Thinking about all of this always makes Kanao laugh. It is funny how some “inconsequential actions" can lead to some odd consequences.

Tomioka’s tentative friendship with Shinobu only happened because Kanao returned back in time and caused Shinazugawa to take Kanae's place on the joint mission. That hadn't happened last time. As such, Tomioka hadn't met Shinobu until she became a Hashira.

She can't help but be thankful, especially since Tomioka seems softer in this time period. 

She supposes that makes sense. 

His personality at this age, while very similar to the one he had as a 21 year old, is a bit less stoic and a bit more sad. She had been confused about this, but she is also aware that personalities change with time and experiences. Tomioka, she knows, had years to become the "emotionless" man she knew him as, and since she didn’t know him at 17, she cannot say whether he was as impassive as he had been at 21. 

Perhaps, if his friendship with Shinobu continues, he can stay away from the stoic man he had been. She has no doubt that he will remain the same in most aspects, especially since he ignores Shinazugawa and has barely begun to engage in conversation with Shinobu, but perhaps this time around he can be less lonely. 

Kanao hopes so. His involvement with the rest of the Hashira would prove to be a huge boost of strength if he can learn to at least tolerate them and spend more time with them.

Kanano’s thoughts are broken by Sumi’s shout of happiness and she looks up. Shinazugawa is standing outside the estate gates and is seemingly waiting for them. Kanao’s blood runs cold.

Shinazugawa had been with Kanae. He would have never let her be on her own if he could help it. If Kanae had wanted to spend alone time with Shinobu, she would have sent Shinazugawa away and he would have waited for her elsewhere. He would not be waiting here, at the front gates.

Kanao does her best to hide her anxiety, but it comes up full force when Shinazugawa nods at them and utters his next sentence.

“Kanae told me that she and Shinobu will be away on a mission tonight. Just thought I’d let you know.”  He looks up at the sky and frowns, but he doesn’t say anything else. “Anyway, I’m leaving.”

A mission. Tonight. Kanao can't breathe.

“Wait!” Shinazugawa turns to look at her outburst and she feels herself begin to clam up. She looks at the girls and tries her hardest not to look panicked as she asks them to go inside. She needs answers and Shinazugawa has them. The girls giggle and rush inside, not realizing how terrified Kanao is. She turns to look at him.

“Do you know what the details of the mission were?” She knows he will probably ignore her question. She isn’t even a slayer yet, but perhaps she can get a small detail that can help her figure this out. Shinazugawa raises an eyebrow at her and shakes his head. 

“Sorry. Heard it was Hashira business. You can’t know.” He turns to walk away but Kanao’s panic makes her react without thinking. She lunges and grabs his right wrist and refuses to let go.

“Hey! Let me go!” He shakes his wrist and glares at her, but he doesn’t do much more than that. 

Kanao takes her chance.

“The demon. Is it only attacking women? Is that why Nee-san was picked to go?” 

“How did you-”

“Please, Shinazugawa-san, is that what is happening? Is Nee-san going on the mission because it is a demon that only targets women?”

Shinazugawa is looking at her like she’s grown an extra limb, but Kanao does not care. She grew complacent. 

She had assumed that nothing would happen tonight despite all the warnings she had written down. She can't blame her memory loss either; it was written down with so much detail she can remember it vividly. 

Kanao is angry.

She knew this could happen today and instead of trying to figure out how to solve it, she went ahead and went out shopping.

Shinazugawa gently pries her hand off his wrist and mutters a quick goodbye, but Kanao will have none of that. She does not care if her actions will lead to suspicion. She needs to save Kanae. She lost her once. She will not lose her again.

“There is an Upper Rank. Nee-san will be facing an Upper Rank. She needs help." Kanao stares at Shinazugawa and feels her bravado slipping. He's looking at her like he's afraid. Afraid of her. 

Kanao is used to seeing that look. Kanae and Shinobu used to give her those looks often when she first arrived, but to see it from someone else, someone she viewed as family in her past – future? – hurts more than she will admit.

Shinazugawa doesn't answer her and Kanao feels her calm break. Kanae will die if he doesn't believe her.

“She’s going to die! Nee-san is going to die! If it is a demon like I told you, one that only targets women, then Nee-san will die. It's an Upper Moon!”

Shinazugawa looks at her again but he no longer looks as suspicious as before. He looks concerned. Kanao doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know how to act. She looks at Shinazugawa and she tries desperately to find the words to tell him that Kanae will be facing Upper Moon 2 and she needs backup. 

Her mind blanks and tears begin to form in her eyes. If she fails at convincing Shinazugawa, she fails at protecting her sister. She opens her mouth again but she doesn’t get a chance to say anything before Shinazugawa’s crow flies overhead and sends a message that has Kanao crashing to her knees.

“Caw! The Wind Hashira is to head to the Flower Hashira’s location! One of the 12 Kizuki is suspected to be there! Caw!”

Shinazugawa gives Kanao one last look before he takes off after his crow. She wonders how Kagaya knew, but then she remembers Kiriya.

He'd been with her when she returned. Did he perhaps come back as well? Is his memory intact? If so, can he help them? But, how is he supposed to help? He is about three years old. He's a toddler.

Kanao shoves those thoughts away and stands up, shaking like a leaf but no longer frozen in fear. She will analyse that later. Right now she needs to focus. 

Shinazugawa will not be enough.

He is a new Hashira. 

Kanae, she is certain, will be injured by the time he gets there. Douma had hardly broken a sweat during their fight last time, breaking her sword effortlessly as he killed her. Kanao knows it happened close to sunrise, so if Shinazugawa hurries, he will make it to Kanae before Douma strikes her down – Kanao refuses to believe that Douma will manage to kill her faster this time around.

She paces back and forth as she thinks.

If it all plays out the same, which she prays it does, then Kanae will have done nothing to slow Douma down. That means that Shinazugawa will arrive to fight an Upper Rank that is at full power. He won't stand a chance. Kanao doesn't doubt his power, but she knows from experience, as that is one memory that has never gone away, that Douma is powerful. He can easily slice through Shinazugawa and Kanae at the level they are at right now. 

She continues pacing, hand on her chin. Her ears pick up the sounds of flapping wings and she hopes, even though she knows it is futile, that it is Isuzu. She calls out to her out of habit, but she hears no response and assumes it was an owl. She swallows the sudden lump in her throat and goes back to thinking.

Who gave Shinazugawa the orders to go find Kanae? She assumes it was Kagaya, but, why would he do that?

Did Kiriya somehow keep an eye on the dates as well and spoke to his father? Even at his age? If so, does Kagaya realize the predicament they're in now and has sent for more backup? Or will this fall onto Kanao?

She feels fear begin to bubble inside her but she forces it down. Panicking will solve nothing. Right now she needs to shove all of her doubts aside and think. 

Shinobu had always told her that if her body didn’t work, then her mind would. It was something she told each one of her tsugukos, hoping that it would inspire them to think critically during high risk situations and keep them alive. Kanao had never been much of a genius, but she had taken Shinobu’s training to heart.

She stops pacing and stares at her hands. They are so small and soft; the calluses from sword wielding have yet to form. Her body won’t work. She's small, too small to be of use here.

No, Kanao won't be useful, but another Hashira will.

She swallows her nerves and looks back at her home. The girls are waiting for her. They're probably getting ready for dinner, none the wiser that their happy family life will be shattered come morning if Kanao doesn't do something.

She looks back up at the sky. Sunset is nearly over and she can see the moon peaking out above the clouds. Her mind doesn't work as well as it should, but there are a few memories left of the Hashira’s habits.

Every single Hashira has an area they patrol. In most cases, their routes intersect at random locations. That is why Shinazugawa is usually found patrolling with Kanae. Their routes intersect for a good chunk of land. It is also why, in the past/future, Tomioka and Himejima were often found with Shinobu. Their routes intersected at different points, but they all managed to create a sort of focal point where the three would meet if they timed their patrol correctly.

Kanao knows that Tomioka has yet to get into the habit of patrolling at a set schedule as he used to, especially since he doesn't really speak with Himejima and Shinobu is yet to become a Hashira. He won't be of use to Kanao if she has to waste time to track him down.

Himejima, however, is a man who has set schedules and routines. He has, if she recalls correctly, always patrolled this area around this time. If she gets lucky, she'll be able to stumble upon him.

Without a crow and without any other form of communication, Kanao needs to find him in order to spread the message. There are two major issues with this plan though.

The first is that Himejima may have already been alerted by the crows, so she may never find him in the woods.

The second is that night is creeping in and Kanao is defenseless.

She knows that by running off she will be risking her own life. Demons still exist at this time. She is small and weak. She would make a very easy meal if she were to be spotted by a demon. 

But, she can't let that stop her. Kanae is in danger. Shinazugawa is in danger. Shinobu, who she knows is also there and will do anything to protect Kanae, is in danger. If they are going to be in danger, then she can risk her safety too. 

Her hand goes to her pocket where a small pouch of wisteria sits. She had asked Shinobu for some one day out of simple curiosity, and Shinobu being who she was, had made a special blend for her that should repel weaker demons…at least, in theory. Shinobu admitted that she has yet to try it out. Looks like Kanao will have the privilege of doing so.

She doesn't stop to think about the consequences of her actions before she takes off at a sprint, hand wrapped around the small satchel, her only weapon at hand, mind dead set on finding the Stone Hashira.

She's so focused on her task that she doesn't notice the Ubuyashiki crow following silently behind her.

~~~~~

Kanae looks around the empty village and wonders, not for the first time that night, if there was any reason as to why the villagers all seem to be gone. She knows they're here, she can see the curtains move as the people watch them move about silently, but other than that, there are no signs of life.

When she'd first gotten this mission, she'd been so confused as to why it had come so late, but she had accepted it gracefully. She and Shinobu had left the town immediately and had returned to their home, grabbing all necessities before they took off.

She'd asked Sanemi to tell her sisters that they'd be gone for a few hours; that she would return by dawn. She hopes he's given them the message. It's late and the girls should be arriving home if they haven't already.

Kanae’s mind goes to her younger siblings before she hears Sbinobu make a noise of confusion. She looks over in the direction Shinobu is looking at, but she sees nothing of note.

Her eyes glance down to Shinobu when she remembers why they were the ones picked for the mission.

A demon who prefers to eat women…

That was what she was given as a report, which had made Kanae uneasy.

Women.

Prefers to eat women.

Her sister, while young, can be considered a young woman at her age. For all Kanae knows, bringing Shinobu here was a mistake. She bites her bottom lip and makes a last minute decision.

“We should split up." 

Shinobu stops examining her surroundings – though Kanae has no clue what she's looking for in such an empty village – and looks up at Kanae.

“What?" 

“We should split up." 

“What? No, we can't do that." 

Kanae frowns, but presses the issue. She'll make it an order if she needs to. Hopefully Shinobu sees the logic behind her reasoning.

“Shinobu, we should split up to cover more ground. I do that often on my joint missions with the other Hashira. We should do it too." 

Sbinobu stares at her for a few seconds before she slowly nods. Kanae feels herself relax. Good. She needs Shinobu as far out of the village as possible. 

The notes said that the demon preferred to grab people from the center of the village since they enjoyed messing with the townsfolk, so her best bet to lure them out would be to walk into the center. Shinobu should stick to the outskirts. It'll be safer for her that way.

That and she can be a good lookout. The village is spaced out rather oddly, with the taller buildings being located at the outskirts, perhaps as a wind barrier for the rest of the village. If Shinobu goes that way, she has a better chance of finding something Kanae may miss.

“I suppose that's okay. We have our crows anyway." 

Kanae looks up at Mizuki and En at that. The both of them are circling above, surveying the land in search of a demon. Kanae looks back at Shinobu and nods.

“Let's go ahead and split up then. You take the outskirts and see if you can find anything. If you see any fighting, get the civilians out. Okay?" 

Shinobu nods, determination written all over her face. Kanae smiles.

“Remember, our goal is to get information and then get out. We can even stop by that one dessert shop on the way home! We should get some for the girls too!” She claps her hands in delight at the thought of spoiling her other sisters with sweets. 

“Sure. I'll see you in a bit, Nee-san!" 

Sbinobu turns around and runs down the alleyway next to them, Kanae's gut twisting in guilt at just how small her silhouette looks from behind.

*

The village is eerie.

Kanae doesn't usually feel so unnerved during her missions, especially since most of them involve Shinobu telling her nothing but horror stories as they go about their tasks, but today seems to be an outlier. Her eyes scan the vicinity and stop on a dilapidated house, the windows broken and the doors kicked in. 

She stops. 

This village is not old. There is no reason for the houses to look so abandoned. 

Kanae's heart skips a beat and she pulls out her sword. Something is wrong.

She looks around and sees nothing, all the hairs on her body standing up like a frightened cat. Her mind goes to Shinobu, before her thoughts disappear when she hears Mizuki’s caw of alarm.

She doesn't have the chance to ask Mizuki what's wrong because in that moment a kind voice – or at least, it sounds as if the owner is trying to be kind – calls out from behind her.

“Oh! What a treat! Another beautiful woman, all for me. Hello, my name is Douma. Who are you?”

Kanae turns to face the newcomer and feels her heart fall into the pit of her stomach.

She doesn't register his words or his appearance, nor does she register the blood soaked into his clothes; all Kanae sees are his rainbow colored eyes and the kanji etched into them.

Upper Moon 2.

~~~~~

Kanao runs past trees and bushes, legs carrying her as fast as possible from whatever demon that is following her. She sees the dirt path up ahead and pushes herself to go faster. 

If she can figure out what road she's on, she can run back into the cover of the forest. She just needs to make it fast enough and avoid being caught.

She knew, of course, that running off with no source of defense would be a stupid idea, but she would have never stayed home, not if it meant sitting still and having her family die a second time. Besides, she had assumed that Shinobu's wisteria blend would have worked.

Kanao snorts when she recalls that it had worked until she threw it in self defense towards the demon. It had been hit straight in the face and had grown angry at her, causing her to run for her life as it chased her down. 

It was not her brightest moment.

She breaks through the tree barrier but doesn't stop running. If she stops now, she's dead.

Kanao sees a sign ahead of her and recognizes it as the area where Himejima patrols, her heart leaping to her throat at the thought of finding him. 

She turns left at the fork of the road and rushes back into the woods, praying that she runs into Himejima soon. 

Her pursuer crashes into the sign she just flew past, stumbling for a few seconds as they regain some of their bearings. Kanao doesn't bother to turn around.

She'd forgotten what it was like to run for her life. She hadn't done that often as a slayer, but she will admit to doing it once or twice. Normally demons ran from her. 

Karma is, as Uzui says, such a bitch.

She flings herself to the side and feels a rush of air run past her when she does so, never stopping her mad dash. The demon screeches in rage at losing their meal.

Kanao feels herself smile. At least she still has her instincts.

They're not as good as they had been, considering her body is small and untrained, but her instincts have never been anything but sharp. It's a good thing she's still just as fast as she's always been. She would've died by now if she hadn't been.

She dips between trees and makes it to another road, her eyes scanning around frantically for the Stone Hashira. She spots him near instantly.

“Himejima-san! Himejima-san!" Kanao rushes towards him, body fueled with adrenaline, and crashes into his knees. She nearly sobs in relief. It hasn't been that long. He can still save Kanae.

Himejima is clearly surprised by her sudden appearance, but he doesn't push her away. Instead he scoops her up and places her on his shoulder as he throws his weapon towards the demon when they fly out of the woods. 

The demon never even gets a chance to see who slayed them.

Kanao feels herself whimper when the demon finally falls. She's exhausted, but her sisters and Shinazugawa need help. She quickly climbs down from his shoulder and tugs on his haori. Himejima frowns

“Kanao, why are you here? Where are your sisters? Are they alright?" 

Kanao shakes her head frantically and begins to tell him what she knows. He only stares at her in bafflement.

“Please! Kanae-neesan is in trouble! She-a demon. She needs to fight a demon! An Upper Moon!" 

Himejima remains silent, but she notices the way he stiffens at her words. Kanao continues.

“She was given a mission. An Upper Rank is going to be there. Shinazugawa-san just received orders that confirmed it! But he's not strong enough. It's Upper Moon 2. They won't be able to beat him!" 

She tugs on his haori sleeve in desperation and tries to lead him towards where she knows Kanae is. Himejima doesn't move a muscle.

“If Shinazugawa is there, then I have no doubt that Kanae will be fine." 

“No! No! He's too strong! When I fought him-he ate…please! Please, you must believe me!" Kanao pulls harder at his refusal, tears beginning to cling to her eyelashes in fear. If Himejima doesn't listen, Kanae will die. Perhaps she should've gone to Tomioka. He is easier to convince.

Himejima doesn't say anything, but she feels how he takes one step in her direction so she persists. She yanks with all her might and cries out in frustration at how tiny she is. If she had just been a bit bigger, not as malnourished or as abused, she might have already been able to have picked up a sword in earnest. She would never have had to resort to begging for help.

“Please…” Kanao bows her head when she doesn't feel him move anymore. She has no other way of convincing him. " Please. Don't let her die. Please. I can't lose them again.”

She mutters to herself and squeezes her eyes shut when her tears fall faster. She should have risked it and gone to Tomioka.

Himejima is not cruel, and Kanao knows that he loves Kanae and Shinobu like his own, but he is also disciplined in a way most of the others are not. He is not as easy to sway with emotions, despite how emotional he is himself. Kanao knew that, but she hoped he'd be driven to action by her pleas and by his love for her sisters. It seems she misjudged.

She feels a hand land on her head.

“I do not know what you mean by you fighting him, but I will not let anything happen to Kanae. Where is she?" 

Kanao feels her heart explode with pure relief. Kanae will live.

“Sh-" 

“Kochou Kanae has encountered and engaged Upper Moon 2. The Master has requested backup for her in the form of the Wind Hashira and the Stone Hashira." 

Kanao's soul nearly leaves her body at the new voice, eyes wide in disbelief when she turns to look at the branches above her and she spots Kagaya's crow. 

Her heart shutters when she makes eye contact with the bird. He's looking at her like he's trying to figure out a puzzle…or as if he's finally put said puzzle together. Kanao feels her stomach twist.

She hears wings flapping from a distance as the crow begins to speak once more.

“Shinazugawa is en route; a new crow has been instructed to lead you there. She will be here momentarily."

Himejima looks back down at Kanao – she'd always wondered how he was so good at that considering he's blind in both eyes – and nods at her.

She doesn't get the chance to ask him what he wants because she hears a familiar voice from above.

“Caw! Himejima-sama! Kanao-sama! This way!" 

Kanao looks back up, tears in her eyes, at a very young, but very determined, Isuzu.

~~~~~

Kanae is going to die.

She knew that fighting demons would eventually lead to her death, but she didn't think it'd happen so soon. 

The worst part of all is that this was supposed to be a simple mission. She was only supposed to gather information and get out. She was never supposed to meet with an Upper Rank.

She coughs and stares at the demon in front of her, Douma as he’d introduced himself. His rainbow eyes are mocking her. His entire demeanor is mocking her. The worst part is, he doesn't seem to be doing it on purpose either. He seems to be incapable of feeling anything other than joy at her suffering.

Kanae coughs again and wipes blood from her chin. Her lungs hurt. She clutches her broken sword in frustration.

“Oh no! Your sword!” He drops the dismembered arm he had been chewing on throughout their fight and looks genuinely distraught at having broken her weapon. 

“Oh, there are no replacement swords either. What to do?” He looks around the village before he looks back at Kanae. His frown looks so sincere in his despair for her that Kanae just blinks in confusion.

Douma shrugs after a few seconds and smiles at her, demeanor once again changing in a blink of an eye. She has a feeling his fickleness must enrage many slayers, but she doesn't allow her emotions to overwhelm her. Not yet, anyway. She will admit he is beginning to bother her though, which is rare. 

Kanae does not hate demons. Not like Shinobu does.

She had always felt bad for them. Sure, they might have chosen their fate due to having been lured in by the prospect of power and immortality, but that just makes them even more pitiful in her eyes. They are, in her opinion, nothing more than a twisted version of the indomitable human spirit; nothing more than a person's last fight for survival.

“Oh no, what's wrong? Are you done? You look so sad.” Kanae doesn't answer him, certain he'll change his tune again. He does not disappoint. “That's too bad…But at least now I can finally keep you! You'll look so pretty on top of one of my vases!”

Kanae has never hated demons, and she doubts she ever will, but, she's certainly starting to dislike this one and his sadistic attitude.

She glares and gets ready for another attack, but there is nothing left for her to do. Her sword is broken and her lungs have nearly given out from his Blood Demon Art. She is struggling to stay awake. 

Sunrise is still 40 minutes away.

The only thing keeping her moving is the thought that Shinobu is somewhere nearby. She knows that if she doesn't continue fighting, her sister will probably meet her end here as well. She must endure, even if it means her death. She just hopes Shinobu and the other girls don't lose their way once she is gone.

She shifts her weight when Douma moves his fans and lazily slashes towards her, ice flying at her at high speeds. She knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that he has won. 

She’s too weak, too tired, and he hasn’t really given her a chance to recover. Moving now is suicide, but staying here will kill her as well. Kanae prays that the world is kinder to her sisters than it was to her; she jumps in for a last attack.

“Flower Breathing, Sixth Form: Whirling Peach.”

She dances around the ice, using what little energy she has left to make her run behind him. Douma makes a noise of confusion before he starts to laugh and send out more ice. She dodges to avoid taking damage, little icicles forming on her haori and causing her entire body to feel cold, taking this chance to strike him from behind. 

She sees him, his body facing away from her, and she pushes her speed to go faster. If she can dodge this and attack while he isn't expecting her, then perhaps she can finally land a hit that will phase him.

“So fast!” Douma laughs in glee, turning around at the last second and bringing his fans up to slash down across her chest as she’s rushing him. “But I’m afraid it isn’t fast enough!”

Kanae knows that she cannot dodge this. She’s too close to him. She will die.

She feels her heart leap into her throat, but she continues her strike. If she falls, she falls fighting.

A flash of green slices through Douma's attack as his fans bounce off a green blade.

Douma is clearly not expecting it, if his confused noise is anything to go by, so Kanae takes that chance to jump back. She may have had the opportunity to slice at him then and there, but she is not stupid. She'd rather live another day helping the corps than die a fool's death against an enemy she cannot win against. She wouldn't have even had the strength to slice his arm, much less his throat.

Her eyes turn to look at her savior and she feels nothing but gratitude when they land on Sanemi. How he got here she doesn't know, but she cannot help the feeling of euphoria that comes over her at knowing he has saved her life. 

“Your sister was right. It is an Upper Rank.” Sanemi stares at Douma and Kanae's heart squeezes in fear at his words. There is no way Douma found Shinobu first. He would've gloated about it if he had. Shinobu would have never stood a chance and Douma would have reveled in Kanae’s agony if he had hurt her sister. Sanemi cannot mean Shinobu.

That logic doesn't stop Kanae from asking Sanemi what he means by his statement, hands shaking at what she fears he will say.

“What? Who? Shinobu?” Kanae looks at Sanemi and hopes he doesn’t crush her heart with his answer. Shinobu is safe. She has to be. Kanae had specifically sent her the other way where the demon sightings hadn’t been noted.

“No.” Sanemi still hasn't taken his eyes off of Douma, but it doesn't seem like Douma will attack. He's just standing there, head cocked to the side like a confused puppy, looking between Sanemi and Kanae.

Kanae feels her annoyance come back at that. What is wrong with him?

“The other one said it. Kanao.”

Kanae feels her heart stop.

She admits that she has stopped feeling so anxious about Kanao after all these months, thinking of her as nothing more than a scared child. Kagaya hadn’t told Kanae anything about Kanao either, so she had slowly relaxed around her. Sure Kanao still has moments where she acts weird, but they all have their quirks. She and Shinobu just figured Kanao was odd like that.

Hearing Sanemi say that Kanao was the one who knew that she would be fighting against an Upper Rank makes the fear she'd no longer been feeling towards Kanao come back. How had she known? There is no way she intercepted the mission. Kanae and Shinobu received it about 15 minutes after they'd run into Kanao and the girls in the town.

“You ruined my fun.” Douma pouts at Sanemi and Kanae can only stare in disbelief. She hadn't forgotten about him, but he may as well have been absent considering how he hadn't done anything to either of them since Sanemi got here.

“Shut up!” Sanemi looks like he'll charge him head on, so Kanae grips his sleeve to halt him in his tracks. Now that she's no longer fighting, she feels her adrenaline fading. Her lungs burn. 

“Don't breathe. His Demon Art. It will mess with your lungs.”

“Aww! But Kanae-chan!” Kanae doesn't hate demons, but she has limits. Her limits are telling her that she is definitely starting to dislike Douma. He doesn't count. “You ruined my big surprise! Yoo-hoo, Hashira, would you be a dear and let me finish what my new friend and I started? She's too pretty to be left alone. I want her as part of my collection, you see.”

Sanemi gets ready to attack, but he stops when they hear footsteps behind them. Kanae’s heart sinks. Shinobu.

“Nee-san!?”

“Oh! Another pretty girl! She's so young too! Young and untouched. Those are the best ones! Mmh!! How cute!”

Kanae does not hate demons, but she is definitely starting to dislike Douma.

Shinobu stops behind them both and she stares, eyes wide with panic when she realizes who they are facing against. Her hands go to her sword, but she doesn't bother to pull it out. Good. Shinobu has no right to be in this fight. She will die.

“Shinobu, get out of here. He-”

“Shinobu-chan! How cute. Are you sisters? You wear the same butterfly clips.”

Kanae doesn't bother to respond. She's too focused on keeping her little sister alive. 

Shinobu looks at Douma, but she does not fall for his bait. A shocker, really. Shinobu is always full of spite. Perhaps even she can be scared into silence.

“Shinobu! You need to go. Go see if there are any more civilians. We-”

Kanae doesn't get a chance to finish before she feels the shift in temperature. She jumps, arms stretched out to protect Shinobu. Her sister is not fast enough, not strong enough, to fight a demon of this caliber.

“Don't breathe!” Shinobu snaps out of whatever stupor she had been in at Kanae’s shout and wraps her hand around Kanae’s outstretched wrist, yanking with all her might. 

They crash onto the floor, barely avoiding the icy mist that cuts above them. Kanae feels her heart in her throat when she remembers that Sanemi had been standing next to her. She hopes he was able to dodge.

“Wind Breathing, Third Form: Clear Storm Wind Tree!”

Her prayers are answered at his shout, relief flooding every pore of her body when she sees him charge from their left. Kanae watches as Sanemi creates a small whirlwind around him and deflects most of the mist, but she bites her lip when she sees that he has not heeded her warning; he is already breathing harder than he should be.

Her heart sinks.

They say it takes multiple Hashira to beat an Upper Rank. She and Sanemi are Hashira, but neither of them are prepared for this fight. Perhaps, had Douma been Upper Moon 6 or Upper Moon 5, they would stand a chance, but he's Upper Moon 2. His strength far exceeds their current power.

“No fair! I have two perfectly good girls right in front of me! Why must you insist on fighting? I don't like men. They're too gamey!”

The fact that Douma is mocking them instead of actually fighting them is also a problem. He must be confident in his ability to kill them all and leave quickly. He wouldn't be standing here otherwise. Not with sunrise just around the corner.

Sanemi makes another attempt at rushing Douma, but Douma barely pays any attention to him and swipes his fans towards Sanemi, flinging him across the road and into one of the buildings. 

It is clear that Douma only views him as a bug – nothing more than a minor inconvenience he can swat round for amusement. Kanae tries desperately to think, but she can't figure out what to do.

Her sword is broken. Her lungs aren't working. Sanemi is nothing more than a fly to Douma. Shinobu is too weak. None of them stand a chance.

Her heart stops when Douma turns his attention towards her and Shinobu, but she refuses to let fear stop her. She stands and points her broken sword at him, trying desperately to block Shinobu from his view. She doesn’t make it easy. 

Shinobu stands up to her left, eyes never leaving Douma for a second. She still hasn’t said a word and that worries Kanae. 

Usually Shinobu is willing to chat with demons, her more sadistic side coming out to mock them before they die, but she doesn't say anything. Her silence is concerning, but her body language is even more so. 

She’s tensed up the way she usually tenses before she attacks, body ready to spring into action. Kanae hopes she’s preparing to run. She knows Shinobu is quick on her feet. She can probably still escape if she uses all her energy.

“Too bad sunrise is so soon. We could've had more time together.” Kanae’s eyes land back on Douma and she frowns at how put together he is. “On the bright side, at least you two will be together in paradise. I would hate to separate two lovely sisters from each other.”

Douma lifts his fan and slices down faster than he has done during this entire fight. Kanae feels her eyes widen as she thrusts her broken sword up to try and deflect the fans. She needs to protect her sister.

She never gets the chance to do so though, because she is shoved, hard, from her left side. She feels something slice her skin before that pain is overshadowed by the pain that radiates from her back as she slams onto the ground. 

Her breath leaves her lungs and she wheezes, eyes wide in panic when she hears Shinobu shout in agony and fall on top of her, body covering her from whatever attack Douma might send out next.

“Shinobu! Shit!” 

She turns her head towards the sound of Sanemi’s voice, hands shaking with the effort it is taking to stay awake. She's so close to fainting. Her ears are ringing and her lungs hurt so bad that she can’t breathe. She can hear a whistling noise coming from Shinobu every time she breathes and she is almost certain her lungs are damaged somehow.

“Kanae!”

Kanae ignores Sanemi and looks up at Shinobu. She’s covered in blood. Kanae tries to ask her if she is okay, but her body doesn’t respond. She feels so heavy.

“Nee-san! Nee-san! Don't fall asleep.” Shinobu is yelling at her, but she can’t help but close her eyes. She’s too cold and tired.

“Kanae!” Sanemi appears in front of her and she opens her eyes in confusion. Shouldn't he be fighting right now?

“Nee-san! Shinazugawa, help me!” Kanae looks back at Shinobu and frowns. Her sister is bleeding but she doesn't know where. Her right hand comes up to touch Shinobu’s blood soaked hair.

“Himejima-san! Can you carry her?!” Kanae is confused. How is Himejima here? Where is Upper 2?

“Kanae-neesan…Shinobu-neesan…” Kanae turns and sees Kanao staring at them with wide and scared eyes. She looks like she's crying. Kanae doesn't understand how she's here. “You're bleeding…”

“Help me carry her!”

“You must relax. You are far more injured than she." 

“I should have chased that-”

“I’m so sorry...” Kanae stares at Kanao in confusion. She has nothing to be sorry for.

Her last thought before she faints is how much of a failure she is to have not been able to keep her younger sisters safe.

~~~~~

Kanao sits in-between Shinobu’s and Kanae's beds, her hands clutching onto Kanae’s haori that she had put on as a means to comfort herself. She had spent an entire day washing it, telling herself that it was fine, that both Kanae and Shinobu were fine. That she was not cleaning the haori for a memento, but for Kanae for when she finally woke up. 

It has been a day since the fight. A day since both Shinobu and Kanae fell asleep and haven’t woken up. Kanao knows that their bodies need rest. She knows they need to heal, but that doesn’t help her anxiety. Her hands clutch the fabric tighter.

After the fight, Himejima had carried Shinobu to the estate as quickly as possible while Sanemi carried Kanae. They had wanted to stop at a wisteria house, but they wouldn’t have had the supplies necessary to deal with their injuries, so they ran to the Butterfly Estate, praying to the gods that they would live.

They had been placed on a cot immediately upon arrival, with Aoi and Kanao taking the roles of  doctors despite their young ages, the kakushi scrambling around to keep the Kochou sisters from slipping into Death’s embrace. Their efforts had paid off.

Kanae would have to be off duty for a few months, but she would live. It had been a relief to learn that, but they weren't able to celebrate. Shinobu hadn’t even fought Upper 2, and yet she had been as injured as Kanae had been.

It makes sense, she supposes. She and Himejima – he had not been happy to take her with him when she found him on patrol, but he'd refused to leave her out there alone at night – had arrived on the scene to see Sanemi charge Douma at the exact same time Douma had cut down with his fans at Kanae and Shinobu. 

Kanao had been so sure that she was about to watch them die, but Shinobu had moved so fast that Kanao had been left in shock. Shinobu had moved without thinking, pushing Kanae and herself out of the way.

Her speed was the only reason they are alive right now.

Kanae had only been grazed by his fans, all thanks to Shinobu, but Kanao knew that being grazed by Douma's attacks was all that was needed to inflict serious damage. 

As for Shinobu…well, they aren't too sure how she'll heal from here on out. She had saved Kanae's life, but she had taken a lot of damage to her lungs; Douma's fans had sliced her from behind, cutting her right where her lungs are located and leaving her in an even more fragile state than Kanae.

She'll live, Aoi and Kanao made sure of that, but they don't know what will happen from here.

Still, Kanao really can't believe how lucky they got, all things considered. Kanae would have a scar across her collarbone and to her left shoulder, but she'd live to tell the tale. Shinobu got even luckier than Kanae in the scar department. Her scar would be easy enough to hide since it will go across her back.

She hears movement coming from Kanae’s side, so she looks up and sees Shinazugawa shift in his sleep. He is in a chair next to Kanae’s bed, his left arm in a cast and a warm blanket thrown around his shoulders. He'd gotten lucky too. Extremely lucky.

Douma seemed to be having too much fun throwing him around like a rag doll. That was a good thing. It is what kept him alive.

She curls up under her sister’s haori and looks to the other side, her stare catching Himejima’s. She frowns. He's not stopped looking in her direction since she found him on patrol and begged him to help.

She'd known, of course, that by doing that she'd be thrown under suspicion, but it is odd to be seen as suspicious by Himejima. He'd always been like a father to Shinobu, which led to him treating her as a daughter as well. Now though, he shows her none of the warmth he'd used to.

He isn't cruel, but he certainly has begun to treat her differently these past couple of hours. It hurts, but she will accept any scrutiny. Kanae is alive and that means Shinobu will never have to resort to killing herself down the line. She will forever be grateful to both him and Shinazugawa – Kiriya too, she believes – for saving her sisters.

Kanao sighs and presses her face into Kanae's haori. She's so tired, but she refuses to sleep. She wants to sit here and watch them; to see them breathing with her own eyes. She nearly lost them both, this time at the exact same time, and she still can't get over the fear.

“You should sleep.” She jumps at Himejima’s voice, but she doesn't bother to look at him. He's blind anyway, he won't be able to read her expressions. “Your sisters will be safe. You made sure of that.”

She doesn't like the tone he uses, but she supposes he has every right to use it. Unlike the rest of them, Himejima was not injured and was the one to report back to headquarters. Kanao has no doubt that she was a topic of heavy discussion.

She sighs and sits up. Her head feels murkier than usual, which worries her. She's noticed, with growing alarm and acceptance, that the more that changes, the more her memory fades and the more “adult Kanao” disappears from her conscience. She feels like she is essentially becoming a teenager again somehow. One with above average IQ and battle prowess, but a teenager nonetheless. She doesn't like that.

She does have moments of clarity where her mind seems to jump back to that of the 27 year old, but those moments are few and far in-between. She wonders how much longer she'll have them.

She turns to look at Himejima and wants to, for the first time since she arrived, to tell him, them, someone, anyone, of her time travel. 

She doesn't though. 

Doing so might cause some terrible consequences. The only one she believes she could tell is Kagaya, but one does not get an audience with him without good reason. Though…perhaps she need only ask. She has a feeling he's waiting for her to seek him out.

Her mind jumps back to Kiriya. 

He is a toddler in this life. He must be suffering more than she, having gone from a life as a young man to the life of a toddler. She just hopes that he's been able to play off his knowledge of the future, assuming he's here and has said memories, as visions.

Her mind then goes to Kaburamaru. Kaburamaru, she knows, is already friends with Iguro by this point in time. Assuming animals can comprehend the way humans can, he is probably realizing he will be stuck here, back at Iguro's side, for the remainder of his life. She can't help but be happy. Kaburamaru had been content with her, but he'd loved Iguro. Being reunited with him must have been so heartwarming.

They hadn't been the only ones who were with her when she traveled back though. Isuzu…

Kanao had done some digging when she first arrived, bribing En with sunflower seeds to tell her if an Isuzu existed within the crows. En had come back a few hours later saying there was a fledgling crow with that name who had seemed sullen and absentminded. 

A few days ago En had a new report for Kanao; Isuzu, despite being so young, was willing to do work for Kagaya as her “exam", claiming she was waiting for a particular slayer. 

Kanao had not dared to hope that Isuzu had also returned. Not until now, that is. 

Isuzu sits on her shoulder, a young crow that was, for whatever reason, allowed to lead her and Himejima last night. 

Isuzu had worked tirelessly to get them to Kanae and Shinobu on time and had been furious when she'd been ordered back; she'd landed on Kanao's shoulder and had refused to leave. Kagaya had allowed it and had sent word with his crow that Isuzu would be assigned to Kanao for the time being as a “medical carrier bird". 

Kanao knows he's just humoring them at this point. 

She sighs. 

If they all were back and they all remembered, then it would make things easier. Kaburamaru could become an asset for swaying Iguro to their side as friends. Isuzu could be used to communicate with the other crows about everything in secret and have them create their own secret watch. Kiriya, perhaps, held the most power here. He could claim to be receiving visions and change the outcome of everything.

There is so much potential here, and yet, she hadn’t ever stopped to think about it until now.

Kanao stares at her hands and feels her anger come back. This entire fiasco could have been avoided if she just prepared and used her brain. 

Perhaps if she had, none of them would be in this position. Nobody had died, but that doesn't mean it was okay. She got too comfortable with her life here. Too happy with having her sisters back that it hadn't hit her until now that they could be torn from her again.

She closes her hands and grunts in frustration, Kanae’s haori slipping past her shoulders and engulfing her tiny frame. She's so small. Sure she'll be bigger in a few years, but that is in a few years, not now. 

Today has proven that fate can be changed, but now this leaves a bigger issue than before. Kanae is alive, so time will no longer play out as it had.

What happens next? 

Will Kanae be killed on her next mission? Will Shinobu never make it to Hashira because she won't be motivated to step up since Kanae is still alive?

What will happen with Muzan? Will he go into hiding? Will he strike faster than before? Will he kill Nezuko this time instead of turning her into a demon?

Kanao hadn't even thought about Nezuko. Nezuko was the only reason they won the war. Will Nezuko even become a demon this time around? 

What about Tanjiro?

Gods, Tanjiro. What would happen to him? Would he still become a slayer? Will he even survive Nezuko’s transformation this time? Who will find Tanjiro? Tomioka? 

Should she allow Tanjiro to suffer and lose his family? What kind of wife – ex wife really, since they don't even know each other yet – would she be if she let her husband lose his entire family? To let him suffer the loss when she can save them? To be selfish enough to protect her own family and let his die?

Kanao clutches her head when her questions keep piling up with no answers in sight. She feels her desperation mounting and she wants nothing more than to scream. She wants to meet with Kiriya. She needs to meet with Kiriya and Kagaya.

She also wants nothing more than to return home.

As happy as she is here, she wants her life back. She had been holding it together for months now, telling herself that she is happy and content here, but she doesn't know if she is. 

She had been sad in her time, but she had her family. She had the children she loved with her entire being. They do not exist in this timeline. Some of them, such as Shinazugawa's son and Tomioka's daughter, may never come to exist at all. Not if Kanae is alive and will most likely marry Shinazugawa if they both survive the war. 

Hell, Kanae doesn't even need to survive to the end of the war to marry him. She'd always been happy to marry and continue on as a slayer. She'd said it so many times before, just as she's said it time and again now. 

Shinazugawa’s son will never exist if that happens, and while Kanao will be so happy for him and Kanae, she can't help but think of the little boy she loves. Kanao will never be able to squeeze his cheeks and laugh when he pulls away in embarrassment.

What about Tomioka? He had survived last time, but what if he doesn't survive this time? What if he does and his future – alternate? – wife was right and he marries Shinobu once this is all over? His daughter won't exist here if that happens. Kanao will never hold her and tell her stories of her father. She will never help her make a butterfly clip the color of her father's eyes.

She wraps Kanae’s haori around herself tighter, her eyes tracing the butterfly pattern as she grapples with her mind. She cannot help but think how much smaller she looks in it than Shinobu ever did. 

Back then, Shinobu had been swallowed by the fabric, but Kanao had never noticed. Shinobu, to her, had always been such a confident and compassionate figure; someone who hadn’t necessarily replaced Kanae, but who had begun to finish what Kanae had started. The haori had suited her, even if it didn’t necessarily fit her.

Kanao suddenly feels like throwing up when she recalls that Kanae’s haori had been destroyed by Douma last time, so Kanao hadn’t gotten the opportunity to wear it after Shinobu’s death. It would have looked so odd on her body; a haori with two owners to its belt, never to settle on one who could keep it and wear it until it had lived out its life.

The saddest part of it all is that Kanao would have gladly worn it. She wouldn’t have cared if it didn’t fit her the way it had fit her sisters. The haori was theirs, just as Kanao had been theirs.

Kanao curls her fingers on the sleeve and hunches up into a ball on her chair. The fabric is so soft, still so vibrant in color despite having been covered in blood not even 48 hours ago. It has survived so much, and if time remains relatively the same, it will continue to survive through nearly everything. 

Kanao doesn't realize she's crying until she feels a giant hand land on her head. She freezes before she looks up at Himejima. He's staring at her solemnly, prayer beads clutched in one hand as he softly pats her head. 

“Losing a family member is hard, but I think too many people don't realize that nearly losing one is just as devastating. You nearly lost two. It is okay to cry, little Kanao.”

She shakes her head. She isn't crying because of that, but she can't say that, can she? 

Her loneliness from before has never really left her, now that she thinks about it. In her future, she'd been lonely because she was left alone in the Butterfly Estate. Here she feels lonely because while she is surrounded by those she loves, they aren't her loved ones. They had stayed behind while she had come here.

She doesn't know how long she sits there, crying for a future she will never see again, for the people she loves but will never be able to meet, but she assumes it's a long time. Himejima never stops patting her head and she can't help but feel grateful. 

She knows he suspects her of something, but he isn't cruel. That is all she can ask for at this moment.

Isuzu caws softly and slips down Kanao's front, Kanao's arms curling up around her crow and cuddling her to her chest for comfort; her crow is the only constant she has of the life she lived before. 

Isuzu caws sadly once more when Kanao whispers her name, then pecks Kanae’s haori in frustration when Kanao just sobs louder.

She finally stops crying after a few minutes and sits up. Her heart is heavy but her mind no longer feels as murky. She has made up her mind. She won't be able to keep her memories intact, but she'll be sure to reread her journal and remind herself every single day of what is to come. 

Today proved that she – and the others assuming they're also here – can change the course of fate. Kanae is alive against all odds and Kanao will not squander this chance. Whether or not things play out as before does not matter anymore. Her memories will be the blueprint. She just has to make it count.

Her eyes land on her sisters again and she promises herself to do everything in her power to catch up to them. She needs to start training in earnest. Last time she had to do so in secret and then leave for Final Selection without permission. Perhaps this time can be different.

She stands up and nearly trips over the length of the haori, the sleeves practically touching the floor with how large it is, before she scoops them up and adjusts it back onto her frame.

She looks up at Himejima, Isuzu still cradled to her chest. She can see herself in the mirror out of the corner of her eye: a small, helpless child.

She blinks and braces herself for what she will do now. This will change everything, but that is the point of her being here.

Kanao makes her choice.

“Himejima-san?” He nods at her so she continues. “I-I haven't been honest with any of you, but I have a good reason why. Would you perhaps be able to take me to Oyakata-sama?”

Chapter Text

“Do you think Muzan will ever attack the Kamado siblings?" 

Kiriya looks up at Kagaya's question and stops annotating Kanao's journal. He bites his lip and shrugs. 

It's been two years since his return to the past. Two years of having his parents and sisters back. 

He has cherished every moment.

Kagaya sits down next to him and looks at the journal, eyebrows furrowed in concern when he reads the date. 

Kiriya cannot help but stare at him.

It is still such an odd sight to not only be able to see and speak to his father again, but to be able to work with him and plan out the war. Time travel should never be attempted, that Kiriya believes with his entire soul, but he will never deny that this opportunity has made him one of the happiest people alive.

Kagaya points to a date written in the journal and frowns. Kiriya can understand why he's so concerned. He's worried too.

The date is at least from two months ago, but that isn’t what is important. No, what is important is the significance of that date: the day Kamado Nezuko would become a demon. However, Muzan never attacked the Kamado siblings when he was supposed to, which means Nezuko is still very much human.

They've kept close eyes on the Kamado family since then, and while there seems to have been an attack on them recently, there were no signs of demon activity. The crows even stated that both Tanjiro and Nezuko took off together to find some resources to rebuild their home.

That was two weeks ago.

Kiriya’s frown deepens before he finally answers his father’s question.

“I don't know," he shrugs and looks back at Kanao's journal. “I have a feeling Muzan will strike soon though." 

Kagaya sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Kiriya watches him with anxiety roiling in his gut, but he cannot help but think that their stressing is for nothing. He has a feeling that Muzan will attack soon. He can feel it in his bones.

“What about Kanao? Does she have any more information?" 

Kiriya shakes his head.

Kanao has done everything in her power to try and figure out what went wrong, but she has drawn a blank. She has, however, also stated that she feels something stirring. Kiriya wonders if the time jump affected them in ways that weren't stated in the journal. Or perhaps they are just coping with the fact that their plans may go down the drain.

He sighs.

At least this time they have one extra Hashira around.

Their encounter with Douma, however brief it had been, seems to have triggered a reaction neither he nor Kanao were expecting. Kanao believes it's because none of them had been careful to hide the fact that Kanao knew Douma would be fighting Kanae.

She had claimed it had tipped Muzan off that something wasn't right.

Kiriya cannot help but agree.

He sighs and looks down at his tiny hands. It's so odd to be this age again. It's almost depressing.

When Kiriya had first arrived, he'd been so confused. He had woken up a small, disoriented toddler who hadn't even known he was alive, much less who he was. Gaining consciousness was terrifying, especially when he realized he was three years old.

He'd suffered in silence for months, wondering if he'd finally gone crazy, before he'd one day looked at the calendar and remarked, quite off handedly during a late family dinner, that they'd lose a Hashira to Upper Moon 2 that day. Kagaya had immediately sent backup to Kanae as she was the only Hashira on a mission. 

Kagaya, who was trying his hardest not to stress over the fact that his toddler was no longer acting like a toddler, had immediately taken Kiriya's words as a vision. 

Kiriya was too unbothered to claim otherwise.

He'd been proud of himself, knowing Kanae would survive, but he hadn't necessarily done anything to try and plan any future events. It wasn't that Kiriya didn't care, because he cared a great deal, it was just that he didn't know if this was real. 

He'd gone back in time. That doesn't just happen. He'd honestly believed he was hallucinating, especially when neither Kanao nor any of their animal companions didn't show up to prove to him that he was, in fact, not crazy. 

So he'd just kind of gone through the motions for months. His comment on Kanae's death had been unintentional, though he was happy to learn that she survived. He had immediately gone back to disassociating right after his father had thanked him.

That had all ended when a very disheveled Kanao appeared at his home a few nights after Kanae's fight with Douma, Gyomei in tow, demanding to speak to him and his father. Kiriya had then been flung into the worst conversation of his 18 years of his life. 

His parents had been very wary of them, rightly so, and hadn’t really believed them at first.

That was until Kanao had pointed out the bell and had asked Kiriya to show them the evidence. He had, though he and Kanao had avoided being in the same room as the bell; some lessons just stick with you. 

It hadn't taken much effort to convince them after that.

Their conversation spanned an entire night and had led to some very heavy topics, especially when it came to the Kamado siblings. 

Kiriya had not put in his opinion, knowing he was still a toddler, though unlike Kanao, his mind never seemed to fracture once it was stable, and that he didn't know them as well as Kanao did.

He'd been neutral.

His father had wanted things to remain the same.

Kanao had not.

She wanted to protect Tanjiro and Nezuko from any more heartbreak, claiming she couldn't be selfish and keep her family alive all while turning the other way as his family died.

They'd argued about it for days, neither of them backing down from their respective opinions. 

It had lasted so long, in fact, that Shinobu and Kanae had woken up and had begun to demand Kanao's return, claiming that while Kagaya may be their master, Kanao was their sister and under their jurisdiction.

It snowballed from there.

Gyomei had been called in as a buffer as he was the one man who could appease the Kochou sisters, but that had only worked for about a day, and it had only really worked on Kanae anyway. 

Shinobu, while a good slayer and an excellent doctor, did not have the same admiration for Kagaya as she had when she was a Hashira, so she had no problems pushing the issue. Kiriya had even overheard from some kakushi that Shinobu had demanded to see Kanao or she'd find the mansion herself. 

Kiriya and Kagaya had not doubted her spite and had asked Kanao to please accept the consequences as they were meant to happen.

Kanao, realizing her bargaining power, had instead doubled down on her stance.

Kiriya shivers as he remembers just how chaotic that situation had been.

*

Kanao stares at Kiriya and Kagaya in defiance, head held high and shoulders squared; the perfect picture of confidence. 

Kiriya looks up at his father. 

Kanao, he knows, is as stubborn and as terrifying as Shinobu. It may have taken a few years for her true emotions to show, but that was then. This is now. 

His father may see a 12 year old Kanao, but Kiriya sees the 27 year old war veteran. She is not to be trifled with. Kagaya has, unfortunately, walked into a land mine ready to explode. He just doesn't know it yet. 

Kiriya turns back to look at Kanao and waits.

“Please, I understand that you wish to protect your friends from further harm, but messing with time is unwise," Kagaya speaks to Kanao in a soft voice, but Kanao refutes his logic.

"We've already messed with time, Oyakata-sama,” Kanao looks over at Kiriya and continues. "Nee-san is alive. She is injured, but she is alive.”

Kiriya coughs into his hand and looks up at his father once more. Kagaya is frowning in contemplation.

"I…understand. I am pleased to know that none of my children died in that last encounter, but we cannot save everyone.”

Kanao nods in agreement, but she still refuses to back down. Her eyes are sharp and calculating. She looks too much like the Kochou sisters in that moment that Kiriya almost forgets they aren't blood related.

"I understand that too, Oyakata-sama. But we also need to remember that we cannot throw lives away. If there is no reason for someone to die, then why should they?”

Kiriya decides to interject. He fears they'll get nowhere and will end up facing the wrath of the Kochou sisters; well, Shinobu really. Kanae won't do anything. Probably.

“Perhaps we can try to lead Tanjiro's family away from the cabin during that incident?" Kiriya feels his heart skip a beat at how Kagaya and Kanao turn to look at him. “By leading them away and somehow keeping Nezuko in the cabin, Nezuko and Tanjiro can still technically end up in the same situation as before, but their family probably won't die."

He sees Kanao’s side of the argument, especially since Tanjiro's mother will be able to explain the blue spider lily in depth should she survive, but he also understands why his father is hesitant. Changing too much could backfire on them.

Kanao thinks through Kiriya's suggestion and nods, but he can tell she isn't too happy about his plan. It is all they have to work with though, so she'll have to accept it. For now.

They don't get a chance to say more on the issue when Amane walks in with Gyomei, who bows to them out of respect. Kiriya winces. He knows exactly what he is about to say. 

“Oyakata-sama, it is so nice to see you doing so well. I wish you nothing but the best of health as you go forward," Gyomei stands up when Kagaya asks him to. Kiriya braces himself for the inevitable news. 

“I'm afraid, Oyakata-sama, that our time has run short. Kanae is getting worried that Kanao has yet to give them an update and Shinobu is close to spilling blood if Kanao is not returned to them immediately. You know how protective they are of the children.”

Kagaya sighs and looks down at Kanao before he nods to Gyomei.

"Tell them to get ready to pick her up. No, tell Kanae to get ready to pick her up. Shinobu is in no condition to be walking.”

Kiriya agrees with that, but he also thinks his father did that as a shield for Shinobu's sharp tongue. She's not mellowed out yet during this time – a part of him fears she'll never mellow out at all since Kanae is still alive – and Kiriya will admit to feeling a tad bit afraid of her.

Luckily for them, she's a bit indisposed at the moment. Kiriya still wouldn't take any chances though. She is, after all, the same woman who fought Douma while on Death's door. Some sliced up lungs will probably not stop her.

He smiles sadly at that thought. She HAD been the woman who fought Douma while nearly dead. That was then. Now, he isn't so sure.

Kiriya had been so happy to have learned of Kanae's survival, but it had been overshadowed with the concern he had felt for Shinobu. Sure he is joking around with calling her terrifying, but the truth of the matter is that she nearly died. 

Shinobu's lungs were destroyed. She would live, but she would never be as healthy as she had been before.

If she doesn't heal from that, then they would suffer a crippling blow. 

Shinobu was one of their biggest assets as the Insect Hashira. She managed to run a clinic, be their head scientist, and perform her duties as well as the others. With her being as injured as she is, Kiriya worries she'll never make it to the potential she showed in their future.

His father hadn't stressed when they'd discussed that a few days ago, claiming Shinobu could still contribute as a scientist and a doctor, but Kiriya and Kanao hadn't been so sure. Shinobu, in their opinion, was too useful as a Hashira to just be given the title of doctor/scientist.

Only time will tell if she would be able to overcome this.

Kanao had been certain she would. Shinobu had worked as a Hashira while deathly sick of self poisoning, so why should working with messed up lungs be any different? She admitted that Shinobu may need to have some limitations as to what missions she could take, but she was certain that Shinobu would surprise them.

Kiriya had only prayed she was right.

He tunes back in when Gyomei agrees to have Kanae pick up Kanao in half an hour. Kiriya sighs again.

They got nowhere in this discussion. They'll have to have Kanao come back soon. Hopefully Kanae and Shinobu are more willing to let her come back. He honestly doubts it.

The sisters are protective of the girls. 

Kiriya does not blame them. 

Kanae and Shinobu may be children, but they are the girls’ parents. Kanao getting involved with Kagaya and Kiriya, in the sisters’ minds, would be putting Kanao in danger. They will never allow it without putting up a fight.

“We'll speak more on this later. For now, please rest. You did well in keeping your sisters safe, so be proud of that," Kagaya stands and smiles at Kanao. Kiriya follows suit.

Kanao stares at the floor in front of them and bows, but Kiriya can tell she's not going to cave. She will argue her case further once time allows it. Kiriya smiles before he bows and excuses himself. He has a lot of work to do annotating Kanao's journal.

*

Kiriya is thrown from his memory when his father picks up the journal and reads it. He cannot help but notice that they had gotten everywhere and nowhere since then.

Things had gone surprisingly well for them. They'd planned meticulously and had kept most of history the same since their first meeting.

He'd been especially relieved to have seen Shinobu make it to Hashira right around the same time she made it last time. He couldn't help but think that this eerily matches her situation from before; hindered by illness as she does her work.

Last time it had been self poisoning, this time it would be an old wound from a battle. Time works in mysterious ways. Regardless, Shinobu had proven she could still fight, that was enough.

Kanao was right. Shinobu was too spiteful to ever be defeated by something so “trivial". 

Unlike before, however, she would be utilized mostly as a scientist. She would carry the title of Hashira and she would still go out on more dangerous missions, but Kiriya would not make the same mistakes. They just need to find Tamayo and Yushiro first.

“Kiriya?" 

He startles and looks up at his father. He shakes his head.

“Sorry. My mind was elsewhere. What was that?" 

“It is quite alright. I just asked if you had any idea as to why this may be happening?" 

Kiriya feels a headache. He has no clue why any of this is happening.

“No. But Kanao and I are convinced it will happen soon." 

His father looks down at Kanao's journal and hums. He does not look convinced, but Kiriya holds onto hope. He and the others traveled back in time. If that can happen, anything can.

He looks down at the journal before he looks back up at his father. They can worry about Nezuko's transformation later. Right now they should focus on the mission Giyuu went on. Besides, he has a feeling that his mission will lead them to their goal. 

“Do you think Giyuu will be okay working on his own? The village we sent him to has a lot of…sceptics. Giyuu isn't the most approachable either.”

Kagaya nods at his question but otherwise doesn't look too upset.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Giyuu has softened considerably since his friendship with the butterfly sisters began.”

Kiriya winces but doesn't bother to argue. “Softened considerably” are not the words he'd use, but if that's what his father wishes to believe, then he'll let him have it.

"Yeah…" Kiriya looks down at the map next to them and feels sweat bead on his brow. He hopes Giyuu does okay. “I suppose you're right. I do wish to send out a cr-"

“Caw! It has begun! Caw!”

Kiriya looks up at the crow that flew into the room and he feels his heart skip a beat. He glances at his father and speaks.

"Thank you. Please let Isuzu know. We must tell Kanao."

~~~~~

Giyuu stares at the ropes binding him in disbelief. They're secured so sloppily that he can easily move his hands around. Surely the townsfolk don't believe he can't escape such messy work?

The men holding him argue for a few minutes, but Giyuu pays them no mind. He’s too focused on whatever information he was inadvertently given. He looks back at the young woman in front of him, Yae he believed she said her name was, and tries to reason with her once more.

“What you described isn't a bear. It's a demon. Let me take care of it." 

She stares at him for a few seconds and shakes her head. Giyuu cannot help but be bewildered. Surely she has to understand that her father isn’t alive anymore? She literally described how her father ate his friends and then tried to eat her and her dog too. Giyuu tries again.

“Your father is a demon. I need to dispose of it. I’ll be quick.”

That is, apparently, the wrong thing to say. The men holding him go quiet and then begin to shake the ropes binding his arms and torso. Giyuu looks back down at his bindings and debates if he should just escape.

“What should we do with him?" 

“I say we give him a few lashes. You heard him. He wants to take out a man." 

Giyuu looks back at the men and frowns. He would never kill anyone, so why are they treating him like he’s about to go kill an innocent person? Did they not hear him say he was going to kill a demon?

“What if he's the one who attacked that family?" 

Giyuu feels his ears perk up. Attacked a family? What family? Is it the demon he's chasing?

“Don't be ridiculous. That happened two weeks ago. Whoever did it is long gone." 

They shake his bindings again and he makes a noise of discontent. He doesn't want to get into trouble, but they're hindering him on his hunt. He thinks as to what he can say to get him out of his predicament, mind racing with possibilities, when he hears a very familiar voice.

“My, my, Tomioka-san. I didn't take you as one who enjoyed these sorts of…acts. In public no less.”

Giyuu feels his heart skip a beat in relief while his stomach clenches with dread. Shinobu will help him, even if this means he will never live this down.

"Kochou.”

Giyuu turns to his right and catches sight of Shinobu and Kanao, both of them watching the scene unfold with curiosity. There is a little elderly woman next to them and she is watching the scene with nothing but sadness. Giyuu opens his mouth to speak but grunts in surprise when the men knock him down to his knees. He scowls.

"Oh my, that's not something suited for public eyes now, is it? Excuse me!” Shinobu walks up to the men while Kanao bends down to stare at Giyuu. She doesn't speak, but he can see just how amused she is by all of this. The elderly woman berates the younger men for being too rough, but they ignore her.

He grumbles. 

Giyuu watches as Shinobu smiles at the young men in front of him and sighs internally. One of them looks far too interested in Shinobu, though Giyuu doesn't mind. Perhaps she can use that to her advantage and get them to leave him alone.

“I'm terribly sorry, but I think there's been a mistake. My friend here isn't a killer." 

Giyuu tunes out the conversation and stares at the rope keeping him in place. It's getting annoying having to kneel on the floor. The snow is cold and it's getting his socks wet. He hates getting his socks wet.

“Tomioka-san?" Giyuu looks up at Kanao's voice. “What happened?" 

He shrugs.

He doesn't know, if he's being honest. One minute he was talking to Yae about a demon and the next he was surrounded by angry villagers ready to stone him. He thought he was helping by offering to hunt down the demon. Evidently not.

Kanao laughs quietly at his lack of information and he takes a moment to squint up at her.

She's dressed in a flowery kimono, one much nicer than the usual nurse uniform she wears when she's working at the Butterfly Estate. Now that he thinks about it, Shinobu is as dressed up as Kanao is. That’s odd. She usually never wears anything other than her uniform or her scrubs. 

His eyes go back to Shinobu and takes in what she’s wearing, sure he made a mistake. He didn't. She, too, is in a nicely patterned kimono and a dark purple haori. He blinks in confusion. Why are they here? Dressed as nicely as they are too?

His eyes land on the men again and he frowns. They are both beginning to stare at Shinobu a little too happily. Giyuu does not think he likes that. His sister had always told him that men who stare at women like that are bad news. 

He debates saying something to Shinobu so she can begin to back away from them, but then scowls when the man holding his rope says something that causes her to giggle.

She should've gotten him free already. She's just mocking him at this point. He looks back at Kanao's little smile and feels his frown deepen.

They're both mocking him.

“Nee-san and I are here to pick up a few ingredients from the pharmacy.” 

Kanao points to the elderly woman next to her and then points over at the building behind them. Giyuu looks between the elderly woman and the building. He assumes she must be a pharmacist, but he doesn't ask. He would rather Kanao finish what she's saying.

“Nee-san has a few days off duty, so she promised to take me shopping while we picked up a few medicines. Aoi-chan and the girls are off with Kanae-neesan two towns over. Oyakata-sama gave us the days off since we have been working very hard lately." 

Giyuu nods.

That explains why neither of them are in their work clothes. He looks back at where he last saw Yae, hoping he can get her attention and ask about the demon again. She's standing next to the elderly woman and is staring at Giyuu. He calls out to her, but she turns to look at Shinobu instead.

“Oh, tough luck! I suppose women aren't interested in you just yet. Don't worry Tomioka-san, I'm sure you'll find someone soon enough!" 

Giyuu looks up at Shinobu and frowns again when his eyes travel down to the rope in her hands. He feels his left eye twitch just the slightest amount. Now he knows she's mocking him. 

“Look Kanao-chan!” Shinobu claps her hands in delight, eyes shining with nothing but glee as she stares down at her prey. "Uzui-san was right, our dear Tomioka-san looks quite nice when he's all tied up!”

Giyuu groans internally and feels his cheeks flush. Kanao coughs into her sleeve as she stands, but Giyuu knows it was nothing more than a laugh. She and Kochou – Kanae that is – always laugh at him whenever Shinobu teases him.

“Um, excuse me?" 

Giyuu looks up as Yae walks up to Shinobu. Her face is as flushed as he feels and he wonders if she's embarrassed at what she just heard.

Shinobu yanks on the rope and gives him a meaningful look. Giyuu pretends not to feel it. Shinobu yanks harder. He has the sudden urge to yank back just to see how she'll react.

“Your…friend…told me that the bear I was talking about was a demon. What does he mean? I didn't get a chance to hear his side of the story before they tied him up.”

Shinobu’s smile drops at the question and she looks down at Giyuu. She tugs on the rope again.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I didn't quite catch why he was tied up. You said something about a bear?" 

Giyuu chooses that time to stand up and snap the ropes from his body, ignoring the way Yae gasps and stares at him in disbelief.

“Good boy! See, all you needed was a bit of coaxing to get you back up on your feet!” Giyuu looks over at Shinobu in exasperation. “Also, I hope you know that doing something like that will leave a few people speechless. Men and women alike." 

He feels his face turn a deeper shade of red when Shinobu beams up at him and points at the villagers still in close proximity; a few of them are staring at him in appreciation. He looks back at Shinobu with barely concealed panic.

Normally he's able to hide his emotions, but, when it comes to things like this, he still gets very flustered. He blames Uzui. He always knew that going to that “Hashira Bonding Party" would spell trouble for him. He didn't even bond with anyone. He just sat there and listened to Uzui speak about things Giyuu hadn't really considered and now wishes he could forget.

“The bear," Giyuu looks back at Yae and frowns. She doesn't look okay. “The bear. You said the bear wasn't a bear." 

Yae collapses into a heap on the floor and Shinobu wastes no time rushing towards her. Kanao is already checking her temperature by the time Shinobu reaches Yae. Giyuu shifts on the balls of his feet, uncomfortable with everything that is happening.

He looks at Shinobu helplessly, not knowing if he should pick Yae up and take her inside. 

He wants to, of course, but the last time he offered someone help — it had been Kochou — he'd been yelled at by someone else — Shinazugawa. It had led to Shinazugawa ordering a restraining order against Giyuu, which made things considerably difficult for both of them considering how often they frequent the Butterfly Estate.

He'd much rather not go through something like that again.

Shinobu doesn't react to his look and asks Yae something he cannot hear. Yae ignores her and turns to look up at Giyuu instead. He hesitates before he answers her question.

“The bear you think you saw wasn't a bear. It's a demon. I'm here to kill it." 

He doesn't know why Yae and Kanao look at him like he's grown two heads, nor does he know why Shinobu starts laughing at him, but it doesn't matter. He has a job to do. Yae looks stable and she has two doctors and a pharmacist near her if she needs assistance. He needs to hurry up and finish his job.

“Bye," Giyuu mutters as he hears Shinobu sigh in exasperation.

Kanao whispers something to Yae as he turns around to walk into the woods, only to be stopped by a tug on his right sleeve. He stops and stares at the tiny hand clutching his haori. 

Giyuu sighs.

“Kochou." 

“Now, now, Tomioka-san. Don't be so hasty. Let's go back and talk about this further, okay?" 

Giyuu grumbles. He doesn't want to wait. All he wants is to slay the demon, eat, and then sleep. Preferably in that order, but he'll take sleep before food if he must.

He winces when Shinobu tugs on his sleeve harder than before and he turns to look her in the eyes. She's smiling at him, but it's not her usual teasing smile. He sighs. She won't let him go now. Not when she's entered her work headspace.

“Come on, let's go inside. We can hunt the demon together. I'll even treat you to some food after this!" Shinobu smiles again and then lets go of his haori, turning to Yae and Kanao once more. She frowns as she does so and Giyuu turns back to the scene in front of him.

Yae is no longer conscious. Kanao and the pharmacist are doing their best to wake her, but it's obvious she is too sick to answer. Giyuu blinks in confusion. She had been fine just a moment ago.

“Oh dear! Tomioka-san, would you mind? We need to get her inside. Please?" 

Giyuu hums and walks towards Yae before he scoops her up and follows Shinobu to the pharmacy. He takes one last look at the sky and sees it is still in the afternoon. He supposes a quick break in here won't do much harm. Besides, he will no longer be hunting alone if Shinobu’s words are anything to go by.

“Quickly, Tomioka-san. Her fever isn't high, but she's clearly putting too much strain on her body." 

He nods at Shinobu and enters the building, but not before he catches sight of Kanao's crow jumping above in the trees over the pharmacy with something akin to urgency on her face. He wonders what Isuzu wants.

*

Giyuu blinks sleep out of his eyes when he feels someone shake him awake. He turns his head and catches Kanao walking away from him, empty tray in hand. He sighs.

When they'd arrived at the pharmacy, he'd been instructed to put Yae in a futon and was then shown to a corner in a different room. The pharmacist had given him a blanket and had apologized for not having an extra futon, but Giyuu had told her the blanket was more than enough.

He's been on mission after mission for a week now and he's yet to get any decent sleep. Being given a blanket, some late lunch, and being placed near the fire had been his undoing. He'd fallen asleep sitting up. 

Giyuu looks at the clock next to him. He'd only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep, but that had been more than enough to make him feel better. 

He rubs his eyes and looks towards the back of the pharmacy where Shinobu and Kanao are speaking to the old woman. He can't make out what they're saying, but judging by how the three of them are smiling, he can only conclude that Yae is feeling better.

Giyuu shakes his head and looks to his left. Taro, Yae’s dog, is sitting next to him, staring up at him impassively. Giyuu debates with himself for a second before he reaches out to the dog and attempts to pet it. 

That proves to be a mistake.

Taro chomps onto his hand and shakes its head furiously, never breaking eye contact with Giyuu.

Giyuu makes a noise of confusion and pulls his arm back, hoping Taro will let go, but it doesn't. If anything, it makes things worse when Taro begins to snarl in rage. 

Giyuu wilts. Animals hate him.

“I left you alone for an hour and a half, and you somehow managed to get injured. How embarrassing,” Shinobu walks up to him and stares at the scene. Taro begins to chew on Giyuu’s hand. “You really should just stop trying to pet animals. They don't like you." 

Giyuu gives Shinobu a withering look. 

"Taro likes me," he shakes his hand to make the dog let go but stops when he sees blood begin to trickle down his fingers. Giyuu purses his lips. Shinobu snorts.

“Yeah, I can see that. Please make it stop. You'll ruin your hand and we kind of need you to be whole for the mission." 

Giyuu looks back at Shinobu. Getting Taro to stop would be lovely. He just wishes he knew how to get it to stop biting him.

Taro bites his hand harder and Shinobu finally breaks her teasing as she winces.

“Oh…well, I'm sure Taro here will stop eventually!” Shinobu smiles at him as she backs away, dead set on getting Yae to pull Taro back. "I’ll ask Yae. You wait here."

Giyuu watches as Shinobu turns away and walks towards the room where Yae is. His eyes stray back down to Taro.

Taro, seemingly realizing that its master will be alerted, drops Giyuu's hand and woofs happily. Giyuu scowls and brings his hand up to his chest. He is not taking any more chances.

“Taro!" Yae rushes to where Giyuu sits and picks her dog up, bowing to Giyuu in embarrassment. "I am so sorry. Taro is just too excitable sometimes.”

"It's quite alright!” Giyuu swivels around and stares at Shinobu in disbelief. His hand throbs. It is not alright. "Tomioka-san is used to it. Animals don't like him, you see!”

“Yeah, but…” Yae looks between the two of them and puts Taro back on the floor. Taro shuffles back towards Giyuu. "I mean, nevermind. Can we talk about the bear?”

Giyuu looks over at Shinobu at that. She takes a seat next to him and motions for Yae to do the same. Kanao, who had gone into Yae's room with Shinobu, walks into the room, takes one look at Giyuu's hand, and walks back out. He blinks in confusion.

“Demons are creatures who eat humans. The bear you saw was most likely a demon.”

Yae bites her lower lip and shakes her head. Kanao walks back into the room and sits next to Giyuu, gently taking his hand and applying a salve to the bite wounds. He nods to her in thanks.

"I’m a hunter,” Giyuu looks up at Yae’s words. Her tone has gone from friendly to icy. She is also, Giyuu notes, attempting to stand back up. "I know what a bear looks like. What I saw was a bear.”

Giyuu and Shinobu share a look. Kanao finishes wrapping some bandages around Giyuu's hand and gently pries Giyuu's ponytail from Taro’s mouth.

Giyuu keeps his mouth shut. Despite what others may think, he can read the room — well, sometimes anyway — and see when the situation is delicate, and this is one of those times. He also knows that he is far from the best person to speak during such moments. His eyes go to Shinobu and then to Kanao. One of them is bound to take over. His theory is proven correct when Shinobu hands Yae a cup of tea and gently asks her to sit back down.

“Please, I am a little confused. My friend here was tied up because they believed he would kill a man,” Shinobu glances at Giyuu and then looks back at Yae. “But, from what I gather based on your words, Tomioka-san offered to help you kill a bear. If so, why was he tied up?”

Giyuu blinks.

He hadn’t realized he’d not told Shinobu the story. He turns to her when Yae closes her mouth and stares at her cup.

“She said a bear ate her father and his friends,” Shinobu arches an eyebrow and goes to sip her own tea. “But, she also said that the men were saying the bear was actually her father. Her father is a demon. I am here to kill it.”

Shinobu winces at his tone and sets her cup down. Kanao coughs behind him. Giyuu frowns. He must have said something wrong. They always do that when he says something wrong. 

“Do you guys…do you kill all demons?”

Giyuu and Shinobu turn to look at Yae. She’s still staring at her cup, but her shoulders are slouched inwards; the perfect picture of a person defeated.

Kanao chooses that moment to take Yae’s cup and pour more tea, her eyes suspiciously empty. Giyuu cannot claim to know her as well as Shinobu or Kochou do, but he has become rather close with the girl. Her sudden movements mean she is nervous. He wishes he knew why.

“Well,” his eyes flick to Shinobu when she begins to speak. “Our job is to eradicate all demons since they eat humans. I would never kill an innocent demon though.”

“Innocent?”

Giyuu glares at the floor. Shinobu needs to just tell Yae that all demons are guilty. He has never met a demon who has never eaten a human before.

He sighs when he remembers that Shinobu, while notorious for her hatred for demons, has never stopped hoping that her older sister's dream of meeting a friendly demon comes true. It is why she, despite probably never having the capacity to like said demon, would be willing to turn the other way if such a creature existed.

“An innocent demon is one that has never eaten a human before,” Shinobu looks at Yae and smiles knowingly. “Unfortunately, I have never met one that has never eaten a human. If I did, I would shelter it myself.”

Yae doesn't say anything. She just stares at the floor for a few seconds and then slowly gets up, calling her dog to her side. Taro walks up to her and snaps in Giyuu's direction.

“Well, as lovely as this supernatural tale you're saying sounds, I need to go.”

“Where are you going?”

Giyuu flinches at Kanao's question. Yae may not like how they are asking her question after question.

“I'm off to kill the bear,” Yae turns around and heads to the door. “I was raised on these mountains. I am a hunter. I will kill the bear that killed my father and his friends.”

Giyuu and Shinobu stand up as Yae finishes speaking, but they don't get very far.

“I do not need your help. I can hunt it on my own. Have a good night.”

With that, Yae storms out of the pharmacy, Taro in tow.

"She is such a stubborn young woman," Giyuu looks over at the pharmacist. She is frowning, staring at the door that Yae just walked out of. "Her father was her only family. The poor dear."

Giyuu's stomach turns. He knows what losing your only family feels like.

“Poor Yae. Seems we have quite a conundrum on our hands, don't we?”

Giyuu looks at Shinobu when she speaks and she smiles back at him. His eyes travel down her body and he frowns. She's still wearing that nice kimono. She will never be able to fight in that.

“My, my, Tomioka-san. I didn't take you for a pervert. You think you know a man.”

Giyuu feels his cheeks heat up as Kanao begins to giggle at Shinobu's words. The pharmacist laughs at Giyuu's reaction. Giyuu is mortified. He shakes his head frantically, too embarrassed to try and explain why he was looking at her.

“Well, I suppose it could be worse,” Shinobu smiles mischievously and looks towards the pharmacy door that Yae just left from. “I would rather it be you who stares and not someone like, say, Uzui-san. Wait here, I'll get into my uniform.”

Giyuu relaxes the moment she walks towards the back of the room and pulls the screen around herself for privacy.

“Kanao-chan, make sure he doesn't peek, okay?”

He clenches his jaw in horror as Kanao laughs at the comment.

*

The mountain is colder than he expected. It's a lot quieter too.

Giyuu is used to being up on mountains since he was raised up on Mount Sagiri, but this one is bothering him. It's so quiet. Too quiet.

A mountain always has some noise, even during the dead of winter such as now. This mountain is so quiet, so lonely, that he feels uneasy. There is a predator nearby, one he has yet to see.

His eyes go up to Kanzaburo and En. They're flying ahead of them, searching desperately for a sign of Yae and Taro. 

Giyuu bites the inside of his cheek. Whatever it is that is making him uneasy has yet to alert the crows.

“I hope we make it on time.”

Giyuu looks over at Shinobu and nods. He hopes the same. The demon will not die to Yae's bullets, no matter how much she may think otherwise. They need to find her before she finds the demon.

Giyuu's eyes go back to surveying his surroundings.

They need to find Yae before she finds the demon and before whatever else lurking here finds them all.

They run faster, weaving between the trees and bushes, ears and eyes straining to catch any hint of Yae. En and Kanzaburo fly over them, frantically searching for any tracks that can lead them to their missing person. They don't have to search for very long.

The sounds of gunshots can be heard from the distance before everything goes silent. Giyuu holds his breath and releases it when he hears the sounds of barking and screaming.

Screaming is good. It means Yae isn't dead. Yet.

Shinobu changes her course at the exact same time he does, both of them taking on a burst of speed as they rush to Yae’s side. He hopes they aren't too late.

They burst through a clearing and spot a demon holding Yae in the air, teeth inching towards her face while tears fall from its eyes. Yae is pleading with it, with the demonic version of her father, to let her go. Giyuu doesn't bother to stop and take in the scene.

He reacts without thinking, cutting the arm off of the demon and setting Yae free. Yae gasps as she is flung to the ground, Taro yapping at her feet when it realizes she is free. Shinobu arrives a split second after he does, but she doesn't take her sword out.

Despite all her talk of helping him, which he won't deny she has, she stands at the sidelines. It was his mission and she will respect that. Besides, the demon is nowhere near strong enough to cause him much difficulty.

Giyuu's eyes land on Yae. At least Shinobu can keep an eye on her. He still hasn't forgotten that there is something else lurking in these woods. Shinobu can keep watch.

“Kochou, watch out.”

Giyuu turns to look at the demon in front of him and frowns. Why is it wounded?

His eyes go to Taro.

Could the dog have hurt the demon in an attempt to save Yae? But if so, why is Taro still alive? Surely the demon would have killed Taro if they attacked it.

Giyuu focuses back on the demon, hoping that Shinobu understood his meaning and is alert to any other threats. He needs to finish this quickly and get Yae back into the village. He does not want a civilian up here when he knows there is something else here; something dangerous.

"Hmm," Giyuu shifts his head towards Shinobu's voice. "That's odd. Why is it injured? Did you do that, Yae? Taro?"

Yae doesn't answer, eyes focused on the demon that was once her father. Shinobu cocks her head to the side, no sign of her usual sadistic smile that she wears whenever she faces a demon. She just looks confused and perturbed. Giyuu shares her anxiety.

His eyes go to the gun near his feet. Could the bullets be the reason the demon is injured?

"Father!"

Giyuu looks back at Yae's yell. She has broken through her stupor and is on her knees, staring at the demon in front of him. He braces himself. There is nothing that can be done now. Yae's father is already dead; now his body must be laid to rest. Yae will have to just live with this for the rest of her life, just as he and many other slayers have learned to live with similar tragedies.

That thought doesn't make the sour taste in his mouth go away.

"Get ready, Yae. This is no longer your father."

Giyuu looks towards the demon while Yae gasps. Shinobu is silent throughout it all.

The demon has, surprisingly, not attacked them. It is just standing there, staring at Yae in a strange mixture of anguish and hunger, muttering something Giyuu cannot make out. It sounds suspiciously like Yae's name.

"Water Breathing, Fourth Fo-."

Giyuu hesitates at the last second, watching as the demon stands there acceptance oozing out of it. His eyes go back to Yae, her eyes shining with tears. Shinobu is watching everything silently. He changes his technique at the last second.

"Water Breathing, Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After the Drought."

He slashes the demon's head easily and watches the head roll off the body. It never fought back.

The three of them, four if you count Taro, remain in place for what feels like hours, none of them making a sound. Giyuu turns back and looks at Yae. He nods towards Shinobu and puts his sword away. Shinobu sighs and bends down to help Yae stand.

"Let's go back to the village, okay?"

Yae doesn't answer Shinobu, but she does stand up and pick up Taro. She turns around and begins to head back downhill, before she stops and waits for them. She never bothers to go pick up her firearm. Shinobu reaches out for her, but Giyuu stops her from doing so. He knows how she feels, but now is not the time.

As Hashira, they do not waver. He may not consider himself one, but he does have the title, so he knows what is expected for the role. Hashira do not waver; therefore, Shinobu shouldn't either. Giyuu refuses to acknowledge the fact that he just faltered not even five minutes ago when he struck Yae's father down, but that is just another reason why he is unworthy of his position. Shinobu is not.

"Kochou," Shinobu turns to look at Giyuu. "We are Hashira. We don't waver. Remember that."

He walks over to Yae's discarded gun and picks it up, never looking at Shinobu in the eyes as he does so. The sour taste in his mouth grows bitter when he realizes that the gun has crusted blood all over it.

Shinobu follows him after a few seconds, never once saying anything to him in return.

He looks over at Yae and feels his heart stop at her words.

"Are you going to hunt down the other one too?"

*

"So what happened while we were gone? Did you end up sending a letter to Oyakata-sama?"

Giyuu chews on his food and listens to Shinobu as she questions Kanao, but he doesn't bother to speak. His entire focus is on eating his food; he really needs to thank Shinobu for the meal. He makes more than enough money to pay for any food he may want, but she insisted on treating him since she did end up keeping him here longer than he had planned. Besides, she gets two paychecks, while he only has one. He will gladly let her pay for his meals if she offers.

"I did. Kiriya-sama helped me organize my thoughts into something more linear. He and Oyakata-sama actually responded to me earlier today. I am waiting for their last message before I act."

"Oh! That's good!"

"Mhm," Kanao takes a bite out her meal and continues to speak. "I was hoping that I could meet up with them when we get back?"

Giyuu chews on his meal as he watches Shinobu frown. He wisely keeps his mouth shut.

He wonders if Shinobu, or Kochou, realize how much of a mother hen they can be.

Giyuu looks at Kanao's face and sighs internally. She looks so hopeful, so eager to help he corps in her own way, that he hopes Shinobu will say yes.

After the fight with Upper Moon 2, it had been revealed by Kagaya that Kanao was similar to him and his son; she recieved visions from the future. They had all been more than a little shocked, but Giyuu had found the information to be less than surprising.

Kanao had always had a more mature personality, and while Giyuu knew that could have stemmed from her trauma, it seemed far more likely that it was due to something else. Her being a psychic of sorts, just made sense.

He and Himejima had taken the news rather well, as had Uzui and Shinazugawa. The only one of them who was not happy was Kanae. She had, of course, realized that meant Kanao would most likely be asked to help the corps, something she and Shinobu had argued against for weeks.

Kanao had won out in the end.

She spends the majority of her time at the Butterfly Estate, helping out as a trainee doctor, but she is called upon by Kagaya from time to time to try and plan their war. Shinobu, despite Kanae's reluctant acceptance, is still against Kanao using her gift.

Kanao butts heads with them often, claiming that her gift should be used to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Giyuu agrees with Kanao. He once tried to tell Kochou and Shinobu that, but they'd grown angry at him. Kanao, in their eyes, was a child who knew nothing of war. Giyuu couldn't help but disagree.

He disagreed so much, that he once picked up a practice sword, handed it to Kanao, and had her swing at him. He had predicted that she would be training in secret, hoping to gain enough skill and confidence to become a slayer. He'd been proven correct when Kanao was able to produce a few forms of flower breathing with little difficulty, managing to hold her own against him for about a minute or so.

Giyuu has kept her secret, but he has slowly been trying to get Shinobu to see reason. Kochou, he hopes, will fall in line if Shinobu does. That or she'll be convinced by Shinazugawa eventually. They'd be better off accepting the fact that Kanao is making this choice for herself; they will have no say in it now that her mind is made up. Shinobu and Kochou need to realize that and train her or she'll continue to train herself. That can be dangerous.

He contemplates for a few more minutes, ignoring how Kanao begs Shinobu for at least an hour with Kagaya and Kiriya. Shinobu cannot be convinced.

Giyuu takes another bite of his salmon daikon and slowly slides away from the two of them. They never fight, but he has been waiting on this meal for far too long to accidentally lose it now should they finally do so.

"Maybe we can talk about it later?" Shinobu slowly goes back to her plate and begins to eat her food again. Kanao sighs and nods. Giyuu keeps chewing his food and staring at the counter.

They remain like that for a while, enjoying their meal in silence until Shinobu pokes Giyuu in the arm. She is sitting right next to him on his left, Kanao stationed next to her. Giyuu grunts. He has a feeling his peace and quiet is about to end. It usually does whenever Shinobu begins to poke him.

"Tomioka-san?"

Giyuu looks over at her and nods.

"You said that Hashira never waver."

She hesitates for a split second before she places her chopsticks down. Giyuu watches her out of the corner of his eye. She's back to wearing the same kimono he first saw her in today. He wonders why he can't help but notice that insignificant detail.

"But," Shinobu looks down at her hands and then picks up her chopsticks again and messes with her food. "But you wavered. You hesitated before you killed Yae's father."

Kanao watches them silently, eyes boring into their souls. He wonders if she has ever had a vision of him acting in a way a Hashira shouldn't. Giyuu finds that he doesn't care if she has. He has always stated he is not one of them.

"He wasn't fighting back."

And that's the gist of it.

Giyuu kills demons because it is his job to protect those who cannot protect themselves. He kills demons because he knows what it is like to lose a family member, a friend, to them. He kills them because they are nothing more than perverted versions of who they had been.

He is not like Shinazugawa who kills them because he wants revenge. He is not like Shinobu, who kills demons because of hate.

Giyuu kills them because he must. He takes no pleasure in killing.

Yae's father had killed his own friends. He was about to kill his own daughter. And yet, Giyuu saw how a sliver of himself remained. He could have killed Yae, but he didn't. Giyuu is no fool. Yae's father had already eaten humans and he would eat more if he were allowed to live, but he hadn't attacked Giyuu. That, at least, earned him mercy.

He looks down at his food and shrugs. He doesn't really know how to answer Shinobu's question.

He'd once been asked the same question by her older sister, but Giyuu hadn't found her to be as intimidating as Shinobu is. He'd been able to explain his reasoning because Kochou is a kind and gentle soul, perhaps too much so. Shinobu is not.

Giyuu has been friends with her for two years now, and while he has seen her grow out of her sarcastic and angry self, she remains mostly unchanged. Her tone, while kinder, is still jsut as sharp. She is still just as sadistic. She has matured as all people do and has grown into a new personality — one that drives Giyuu crazy due to how unashamed she can be with her teasing — but she remains the same girl who hates demons.

He doesn't mind it, he wouldn't be friends with her if he did, but he also doesn't know how to answer her questions due to it. She is, to her core, a kind person. Giyuu and her siblings have been on the recieving end of her kindness, but in these situations, where he has to justify why he was merciful to a demon, he can't help but feel as if they are facing against each other instead of standing with each other.

"Demons can be kind," Kanao breaks Giyuu's thoughts with her words. He flinches slightly. Kanao is so much like Kochou in this regard, it is almost terrifying to see. Even Giyuu wouldn't go as far as to say that demons can be kind. That they can be friends.

"Kanao…"

"Demons can be kind. I have seen it."

Giyuu goes back to his meal. Kindness from demons is something he cannot comprehend, but if Kanao insists, then perhaps he just hasn't been paying attention.

"You are so quick to feel anger towards them, and I do not blame you," Kanao looks down at her own bowl of food. "But I have seen how kind, how selfless, they can be."

Shinobu grumbles under her breath and Giyuu smiles the tiniest amount. She will not argue with Kanao. Not when they all know that she has visions of the future.

"I suppose I will just have to see for myself then," Shinobu takes one more bite out of her meal and Giyuu decides that their heavy conversation is over. Good. He's hungry and he would spend his remaining energy on eating.

"Tomioka-san?"

He stops chewing his food and slowly swallows. He knows that tone. Giyuu braces himself for what Shinobu is about to say.

"Don't think I haven't noticed the way your eyes keep wandering over to me. Am I going to have to file a complaint on sexual harassment? My, what would Shinazugawa say?"

Kanao can't hold back her laughter as Giyuu turns to look at Shinobu in absolute bafflement. She is terrible.

*

They leave the restaurant later than expected, but Giyuu doesn't mind. Perhaps, had this been two years ago, he would have immediately left and asked for a new mission, but he is content to walk with Shinobu and Kanao to the hotel.

He will admit that he had forgotten what it was like to have friends, to feel that sense of camaraderie with someone. The inhabitants of the Butterfly Estate have slowly reminded him of what he has been missing out on. He is not willing to branch out and meet others, not yet, but he definitely feels less lonely. He prefers it this way.

Shinobu and Kanao are discussing something next to him, but he pays it no mind. He may be their friend, but he is not family. He has his feelings on certain topics — Kanao's ability to help being one — but he doesn't comment on them. At least, he doesn't comment on it while around Kanao. He still tries to get Shinobu to see reason whenever they are alone.

No, Giyuu is more preoccupied by something else. His eyes go back to the tree barrier surrounding the village.

After bringing Yae back, he and Shinobu had gone into the woods one more time, hoping to find either the other demon Yae mentioned, or the source of whatever was making him uneasy. They'd found neither.

En and Kanzaburo had flown everywhere and had come back claiming that the forest was empty, so Shinobu had called it and asked for them to return. He knows she doesn't doubt his instincts, nor does she doubt what Yae saw, but the fact of the matter was that none of them found any traces of anything.

Giyuu had not been satisfied, but he had been convinced to relax once Shinobu offered to buy him food. Now that he is no longer hungry, his anxiety is back.

He looks back at his companions and decides that he'll walk them to the hotel and then head back into the woods for one last look. Something about them is bothering him and he needs to know why.

He realizes that by doing so he could get into some form of trouble, but Shinobu and Kanao are staying the night here. Should something happen, Kanzaburo can easily get Shinobu for backup. She may still be a bit sickly from her encounter with Upper 2, but she is still quick on her feet. Her poison is nothing to scoff at either.

Kanao had also said that Kochou was staying a few towns over. If so, that adds another Hashira to their roster if they need her. She can easily make it to them within a matter of minutes if she pushes herself to run at full speed. Plus, if Kochou is on break, then Shinazugawa probably is too.

That means there are more than enough Hashira to deal with the threat. Giyuu may not count himself as one, but he will admit that he isn't too bad at fighting. Having them around plus himself would mean that whatever is around won't stand a chance.

Giyuu nods to himself. He'll do that. If, for whatever reason he finds nothing, he'll return to the hotel and finally get his much needed sleep. Perhaps, come morning, he can walk back to the Butterfly Estate with Shinobu and Kanao. They live near each other, so he can just walk them home before he walks to his own house. He would enjoy the company.

He watches as Isuzu lands on a tree branch off to their right and caws a few times. He scrunches his face in confusion. When had she left? What is she doing?

"Tomioka-san?"

Giyuu looks over at Kanao. She's staring at him with that look that he can never comprehend; like she can see him in a way no one else has before. It is unnerving, but he and the others have long grown used to it. He supposes that is just a drawback from having visions.

"What will you do when you meet a friendly demon?" Kanao stops her trek and looks up at her crow.

Shinobu stops walking. Giyuu does as well.

Isuzu, who Giyuu is certain is as odd as Kanao but he has yet to prove it, lands on Kanao's shoulder and watches him. He thinks.

He still does not believe it possible for demons to be friendly, but he has never enjoyed violence. He would, now that he stops to think about it, probably spare it.

"Kanao-chan…" Shinobu doesn't get to finish her sentence, too busy looking between Kanao and Giyuu.

Kanao pets Isuzu and looks up at the moon, never bothering to answer Shinobu's call. Giyuu turns to look at Shinobu in confusion.

"Nee-san already said she'd shelter a friendly demon," Giyuu winces at that. He knows Shinobu is probably regretting saying those words now that they know a friendly demon is, in fact, possible. "But what about you? Do you think you'd spare a friendly demon?"

Giyuu doesn't know what Kanao wants. She has to know that he would, if her knowing smile is anything to go by. Why does she want him to admit it?

"I suppose…" Giyuu catches the way Shinobu looks at him in disbelief.

He must look like such a hypocrite after telling her that Hashira don't waver — then again, he isn't a Hashira, so those rules don't apply to him.

"That's nice."

He would spare a friendly demon if it ever came to it. How had he never come to that conclusion before?

"Tomioka-san?"

Giyuu turns to look at Shinobu. She's staring at him with a small frown on her face, but he can see that she's also thinking hard about her stance on demons after Kanao's question. A part of him wonders of Kanao asked him this in order to get Shinobu to stop and actually contemplate what her actions would be.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think," her eyes go to Kanao and she bites her lip. Kanao is still staring at them, talking to Isuzu as if she didn't just crumble their entire worldview. "Do you think we'll meet a friendly demon soon?"

Giyuu doesn't know, but judging by how secretive Kanao is acting all of a sudden, he thinks they're about to find out. He shakes his head and then looks back at Shinobu. He is just going to go out and patrol the woods and forget about this for the time being.

Giyuu opens his mouth to speak but closes it immediately when he hears the rustling of feathers in the trees above them. He jumps out of his skin when Kanao suddenly appears next to him, eyes steeped in sadness and hope.

Shinobu gasps softly and Giyuu looks up. Kagaya's crow is staring down at them.

"Kochou Shinobu and Tomioka Giyuu are to head deeper into the mountains immediately. Tsuyuri Kanao is to follow them up."

Shinobu looks like she'll argue, but she keeps her mouth shut. Giyuu sympathizes with her. Why do they need to take Kanao? She isn't a slayer. She can get hurt.

Neither of them say anything other than a quick yes. Direct orders are direct orders.

He turns to look at Kanao and she's standing there, staring at the moon. Isuzu is shuffling around restlessly on her shoulder.

"We should start moving," Giyuu blinks at Kanao's tone. Shinobu makes a small noise of discontent. Kanao ignores it and looks towards them.

"We should start moving. We'll miss them if we don't."

She turns and begins to walk towards the woods. Isuzu takes off ahead of her and begins to scout. Giyuu has no clue what they're looking for. Them? Who is them?

"Do you…?" He shakes his head at Shinobu's question. He's so confused. "Oh…"

Shinobu quickly jogs towards Kanao in an attempt to stick close to her. Giyuu snaps out of his confusion and follows suit. He has no clue what is happening, but he thinks he isn't about to like what comes next.

He takes one last look down the road at the hotel. He should've just gone to bed.

~~~~~

"Do you think it'll be the same as your time?"

Kiriya looks up at his father and shrugs. He hopes it will, but he can't be too sure.

"We just have to wait and see."

Kiriya looks down at the map in front of them and he nods to himself. All they have is hope, but hope is not something to scoff at. Hope is light when there is darkness. He looks back up at his father and smiles.

Kagaya looks down at the map and sighs, but he smiles back. Kiriya feels his heart blossom with warmth. This is what they've been waiting for.

"Nezuko was the catalyst last time. She will most likely be the catalyst this time too."

"Do you really believe Giyuu and Shinobu will just let Nezuko live?"

Kiriya looks back at the map and nods. He does. Giyuu has never been one for senseless violence. That was true for his character then and it remains true now. As for Shinobu…

"Giyuu will let Nezuko live. He is kind, much kinder than most give him credit for."

Kagaya nods. Kiriya knows his father knows that.

"Shinobu, despite hating demons, is rational. She will not kill a demon if we tell her that it is an advantage to the corps. Besides," Kiriya smiles mischievously. He recalls a certain letter he received from Kanao not too long ago. "Shinobu is a lot softer this time around. Perhaps having Kanae as a role model has soothed her temper."

Kagaya hums and then laughs softly.

"Are you sure it is only due to Kanae's influence?"

Kiriya shrugs but he grins.

"I suppose only time will tell, don't you think?"

He looks at the map one last time and nods once again. Yes, only time will tell what will happen next.