The next morning, early.
Sunlight spilled into the courtyard of the Butterfly Estate. Hozuki was still sleeping soundly when a burst of commotion suddenly reached her ears.
"Sis, who is she?" someone demanded, struggling to suppress their anger.
"Why is this woman in your room? And why is she even wearing your clothes?"
"That's not it, Shinobu, listen to me…" This was Kanae's voice, full of helplessness.
"I was only away from the Butterfly Estate for one day, and you already brought some seductive vixen home? You even bathed together! I'm not saying I oppose you pursuing happiness, but at least tell me beforehand! Coming back to see this out of nowhere—how am I supposed to accept it?" The accusatory voice suddenly wilted.
Slowly, Hozuki crawled out of the bedding and squirmed into the dark violet kimono patterned with butterflies that hung from the clothes rack.
Kanae's fragrance still lingered in the blankets.
Last night, after Kanae had fallen sound asleep in the medicinal bath, Hozuki had washed and dressed her, then carried her back to her room. The mistress of the Butterfly Estate had arranged everything in advance and even prepared a guest room for Hozuki. Normally, she would never have stayed in Kanae's room.
But just as she had been about to leave, Kanae had a nightmare.
Half-awake and half-asleep, the girl shed the outer shell of a Hashira and revealed a fragile side of herself. Curled into a small ball, she called out for her father and mother and clutched at Hozuki's sleeve with trembling fingers.
So, in the end, Hozuki stayed.
She gathered the girl into her arms, told her fairy tales, and softly hummed the way she remembered her own mother soothing children.
She had gone from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Rapunzel, and then from Gundam 00 to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Though in that state, Kanae almost certainly couldn't make out what sort of stories they were.
And by the time Hozuki woke up, it was now.
As the Flower Hashira, Kanae had risen early as usual to train and oversee the work of the Butterfly Estate staff. Meanwhile, Hozuki, the Thunder Hashira, had slept blissfully on the Flower Hashira's bedding. Kanae had quietly come by several times during the morning, but even as the estate courtyard grew busy, Hozuki showed no sign of waking, so Kanae had stopped disturbing her.
Hozuki pinned up her hair with a hairpin, then slid open the door.
The two people outside looked toward her at the same time.
Standing opposite Kanae was a short-haired girl whose features resembled Kanae's by seven or eight parts. Her brows were sharp, and she wore only the standard Demon Slayer uniform. Her bearing was neat and brisk; were it not for her pretty face, she might have looked more like a boy.
Hozuki recognized at once that this must be Kanae's little sister, Shinobu.
And while Hozuki was observing her, the girl was sizing her up in return.
Several strands of Hozuki's pinned-up hair had come loose from sleep and draped over her elegant collarbone. The dark violet butterfly-patterned kimono wrapped around her slender body, making her look like a noble young lady raised in the inner chambers of some aristocratic house. Earlier, Shinobu had only caught a vague glimpse in the dim room, but now, under the sunlight, Hozuki's appearance was overwhelming in its beauty—the kind that drew admiration with a single look.
Shinobu also noticed that the woman before her still had her eyes closed.
Was she, like Mister Himejima, someone who had lost her sight?
Something in Shinobu's heart stirred faintly.
"So you're little Shinobu, aren't you?" Hozuki said with a smile, bowing slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Hozuki."
Shinobu did not return the kindness.
Because Hozuki's demeanor gave her the absurd feeling that she, the younger one, had just met her sister's "wife."
That was bad. Very bad.
Shinobu herself didn't know why such a thought had popped into her head. Her earlier questioning had partly been in jest; she had never truly believed her sister would fall for another woman.
"Shinobu, greet her properly," Kanae said sternly.
Shinobu frowned.
But Kanae leaned close and whispered a few words into her ear.
"What?" Shinobu cried out before she could stop herself. "R-Really?"
"I told you it wasn't what you were imagining at all," Kanae said with an indulgent smile.
Shinobu's whole attitude toward Hozuki changed at once. She bowed hurriedly.
"Thunder Hashira, it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Shinobu Kocho! Please forgive any offense I may have caused!"
The Thunder Hashira. A swordswoman who had mastered Thunder Breathing to its very peak.
She really didn't look like it at all.
This gentle, quiet woman was actually a Hashira—and not just any Hashira, but one who wielded the swiftest of all breathing styles.
Hozuki leaned in and whispered softly, "I'm no Thunder Hashira. I'm just the little fox spirit Kanae brought home."
"Eh? N-No, that's not—!"
Shinobu nearly jumped out of her skin.
The young girl had absolutely no idea how to deal with Hozuki.
Kanae, standing to one side, made no move to help at all.
"Lady Shinobu, there are new injured patients here!" someone called from afar.
"Sister, Thunder Hashira, please excuse me!" Shinobu said, letting out a breath of relief before fleeing Hozuki's side as though escaping disaster.
Watching her retreating back, Hozuki mused, "Kanae's little sister is adorable. Her personality is rather more unexpected than I'd imagined. I thought she might be more like you."
"Shinobu is a strong child," Kanae said with a smile. "Perhaps it's because I look too easy to bully, but ever since we were young she's always been this straightforward and fiercely competitive. She's always saying she has to protect me no matter what."
"Sometimes she's just as careless and reckless as a boy, too, and ends up causing all sorts of amusing trouble."
After saying that, Kanae glanced at Hozuki.
Hozuki was straightening the collar of the kimono, then asked, "When shall we do the sampling?"
"A great many injured swordsmen were brought to the Butterfly Estate," Kanae replied, looking toward the busy figures moving about inside. "I need to settle them first."
Hozuki paused and turned toward a certain direction.
The next instant, a gust of wind and dust exploded from one side of the Butterfly Estate.
"Boom!"
A man drenched in blood appeared in the smoke.
"Damn it! Get the hell out of my way! That cursed fox demon—I'm going to cut its head off!" the man roared like a mad beast. Several medical staff clung desperately to him. He had already been injected with enough anesthetic to drop an elephant, yet it still failed to calm him. Sword in hand, he continued trying to force his way out of the estate.
Even while driving the attendants back, he deliberately used the flat of his blade.
His appearance was terrifying enough already, and in this state he looked even more ferocious. The people around him wereocious. The people around him were thoroughly frightened.
Shinobu stepped in front of him.
"Your injuries are far too severe. You cannot leave! If a demon needs to be hunted, there are swordsmen—or even Hashira—who will handle it. Right now, as a patient, your duty is to recover properly!"
"Brat." The man scowled and sneered mercilessly. "What the hell do you know? I bet no one in this place has ever even seen a demon. A bunch of people with no talent for swordsmanship ought to stay in the rear where they belong and stop barking orders at me!"
"Move!"
But Shinobu only glared back and refused to yield.
"You little—!"
Enraged, the man swung his sword, intending to knock Shinobu out with the flat of the blade.
"Lady Shinobu!" several attendants cried out. Unable to follow the speed of the strike, they thought the man meant to seriously hurt her. "Stop!"
"Hm?"
The moment his blade came down, the man realized something was wrong.
His sword had been intercepted.
A long sword in a redwood scabbard had blocked the attack. The woman holding it had appeared between Shinobu and the man without anyone noticing. Beneath the butterfly-patterned sleeve, the wrist gripping the weapon was as slender and pale as ever, as though it might snap with a single twist.
"It's you?" The man frowned. "What the hell are you doing here, woman?"
"Long time no see, Shinazugawa," Hozuki said, lifting her head. A few loose strands of hair by her ears glowed gold in the sunlight.
Sanemi Shinazugawa—the violent young man who had accompanied Hozuki during the Final Selection.
Since becoming an official Demon Slayer, his temper had not improved in the slightest. If anything, he seemed even more irritable than before.
"You're in this dump too? This is a place for the wounded, right? It's only been a month, and you've already fallen so far?" Sanemi's gaze swept over Hozuki's clothing, his tone openly mocking.
Hozuki casually handed her sword to Shinobu and folded her hands neatly before her, utterly unruffled.
"If you're going to say that, then what are you doing here yourself, Shinazugawa? You don't look to be in very fine shape either. You look like you've just been dragged out of a pool of blood."
"Woman!" Sanemi's face twisted.
To the medical attendants around them, his expression was so fierce it made them shrink back in fear, but in Hozuki's eyes he was nothing more than a white-haired hedgehog bristling its spines.
"Idiot, what are you doing?" Sanemi's head was suddenly smacked. His Kasugai crow, Sōrai, had landed atop it.
The crow flapped indignantly on his hair. "What do you mean 'woman'? Is that all the vocabulary a street punk like you can manage? Show some respect! This is Lady Thunder Hashira!"
Sanemi's pupils shook.
He looked at the quiet woman in the kimono once more.
"Thunder Hashira? What kind of joke is that?!"
"Yes, that's right. Mind your manners, Shinazugawa. It's rude to be impolite in front of a Hashira," Hozuki said with a slight tilt of her head, smiling gently. "You really have no awareness at all of your place as a subordinate."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 32
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