Kanae brought Ryuzaki to the Butterfly Mansion for treatment, then went to seek permission from the Master. After hearing Ryuzaki's story, Kagaya Ubuyashiki's face softened with pity. Once he confirmed the boy had the strength and talent to survive as a Demon Slayer, he agreed to Kanae's request; he wouldn't let an innocent join the Corps just to die.
Ryuzaki's recovery shocked Kanae. Those injuries should've kept him bedridden for months, yet in just half a month, he was as good as new. Soon, he'd slipped into life at the Butterfly Mansion as if he'd always been there.
###
Half a year later, at dawn, Ryuzaki flowed through his morning drills, slow, water-smooth forms that steadied the breath and body. It was a habit now: breathing practice in the morning, a thousand sword swings in the afternoon. After the dirt demon, five hundred hadn't felt like enough.
Just then, a voice sounded behind him. He flinched, then turned and gently planted a palm on the culprit's head.
She was his age. Black hair with hazey gradient purple, like Kanae's, but with purple-tinted bangs and her hair pinned in an elegant twist.
It was none other than Shinobu Kocho who wore a mint-green butterfly hairpiece edged in deep purple.
Ryuzaki loved the mischief sparking in her eyes. He knew that after her sister's death, that lively, competitive streak would be hidden under Kanae's borrowed gentleness. For now, he got to see the real Shinobu. He was absurdly happy about that, even if she'd been interrupting his morning practice a lot lately.
"Damn it, Ryuzaki, let go! Patting heads stunts my growth!" she snapped.
"It's fine. A short Shinobu is cute, too," he said with a wicked grin.
"I've developed a new poison. Think carefully," Shinobu warned.
The word poison made him shiver. Ever since she'd noticed how fast he healed, she'd watched him like a lab specimen. It gave him the creepy chills.
"If you stop leaning forward, you'll slip free on your own. I'm not actually grabbing you," he deadpanned.
Realizing she'd been pushing into his hand, Shinobu sprang back with a flustered look on her face. Since Ryuzaki arrived, Kanae suddenly had a little brother. As the sis-complex girl she was, Shinobu could only cope by teasing him whenever and wherever she could.
"I have another question," she said, squinting. "Why were you calling my name while you were unconscious when you first arrived? We hadn't even met at that time."
Ryuzaki froze. He couldn't exactly say he'd known her before from an anime called "Demon Slayer" and that he had a one-sided heavy crush on her.
"Uh… do you believe in fate?" he improvised. "All things follow their traces. Maybe we knew each other in a past life. I've explained this so many times."
"You think I'm a child?" Shinobu stared like he was an idiot.
"Not that big. Still needs some growing," Ryuzaki replied with absolute sincerity.
Her eyes narrowed. "Ryuzaki, you lecher, drop dead!"
She kicked, but unfortunately for her, He easily slipped aside. Angered by that, she kicked again. And again, which were all for naught as she could only hit the air while he avoided every kick. Realizing that she couldn't get him that way, she switched tactics.
"Ryuzaki, could you stop for a sec?" Shinobu asked in her sweetest voice possible.
Hearing that, he stopped immediately, completely forgetting that she was still attacking.
Her foot thumped into his side. Then she leapt and dropped a fist onto his face. One black eye, successfullyacquired.
Ryuzaki clapped a hand over his eye and crouched. Shinobu panicked and darted forward to check on him.
He popped up with a goofy face.
She yelped and gifted him a matching black eye.
"Ryuzaki, are you okay?" Shinobu asked, worried.
"It'd be great if a pretty girl would rub it for me," he said.
"Serves you right for scaring me!"
She puffed her cheeks and turned away, her arms crossed.
Just then, a gentle voice drifted from the house. "Shinobu, Ryuzaki, breakfast is ready!"
"Got it!" they answered in unison.
Inside, Kanae Kocho burst into laughter at the sight of Ryuzaki's panda-like eyes. Aoi Kanzaki, balancing a tray of bowls, nearly dropped one.
"What?" Ryuzaki said. "Did I get even more handsome?"
"Shinobu hit you again, didn't she?" Kanae asked.
"Nope. I fell," Ryuzaki insisted.
"If he hadn't scared me, this wouldn't have happened," Shinobu said around a rice ball.
"You two," Kanae chuckled, "you two really are a perfect bickering pair."
"Sis, don't say that. I'll get mad," Shinobu huffed, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster.
Ryuzaki didn't argue. He just shot Kanae a big thumbs-up. With a sister like this, how could he worry about finding a wife?
"Aoi, another bowl!" he called, grinning.
"Eat till you burst out," Shinobu muttered.
After a cheerful breakfast, Ryuzaki started his daily training. In another six months, he'd face the Final Selection on Mount Fujikasane. By now, he had fully mastered Total Concentration Breathing.
It was the Corps' umbrella technique, developed so humans could fight demons. Strengthen the heart and lungs, flood the blood with oxygen, spike the body's capability in an instant. With it, a human could push their physique to a demonlike edge.
He had always wanted to learn it but never knew how. Only after becoming Kanae's Tsuguko had he gotten proper instruction to learn.
With the breathing in place, his sword forms came easier, which had been the reason why he couldn't use them before.
He lifted a gourd from beside him. Of course. The gourd was the real teacher of Total Concentration. The shattered gourds on the ground testified to his effort.
He only wanted to grow stronger, real fast.
Back then, the people he'd dreamed of protecting were just names on a page.
Now, they were real, so he couldn't afford to slack off. Not when he knew their fates in the near future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T/N: Patreon/Robshit for advance chapters