BUTTERFLY : SHINOBU KOCHO (PART ONE)

Part 1: Chapter 8; A Message

A week later, and Shinobu had refused to speak to Sakusa.

It wasn't like the guy showed that he even so much as noticed, he was too busy going out on patrol during the nights, eating to keep up his musculature, and tearing the woods to shreds on the outskirts of the city as training.

She spent her days writing into her notes, giving mission updates while her ribs and muscles healed.

Speaking of which, after two weeks spent sitting still, practicing the proper breathing patterns in bed, and coming out of the room to wash herself, she finally felt like she can get back to training.

When she rose out of bed the next day, and she felt no pain at all in her side, she beamed.

Yes! I'm fine now!

When she looked to the right of the room, though, the smile on her face dropped.

She had expected him to have left by this time, the sun had been up for at least a good third of the day already, but unfortunately ( or fortunately, depending on what Shinobu's shameless side felt), Sakusa was fast asleep.

With his shirt off. And his pants replaced by a pair of black undergarments. And his arm draped over his usually dazzling crimson eye, and his broad chest moving up and down softly as he breathed, and his lean and defined abdominal muscles in full view, and his tender, pink lips parted slightly as he took calm and tranquil rhythmic breaths, and the loose cloth barely masking the size of his-

WAIT A MINUTE, W-WHY AM I STARING AT HIM WHILE HE'S SLEEPING?!

Shinobu broke out into a furious blush as she darted her head in the other direction, sniffling to stop the nosebleed from rushing down her face.

What the hell, Shinobu?! Stop looking at that boy like that, get a hold of yourself!

The butterfly girl tried to calm the flustered look on her face, but she made the mistake of looking right back at the long-haired teen, right as he stretched in his sleep, thrusting his groin into the air as he brought his arms over his head, groaning in satisfaction as he repositioned himself with his legs now spread open, his groin now directed right in the teen's direction.

Her nosebleed burst out of her face like a breach in a water dam.

FUCK-

Shinobu simply decided she would pull out her uniform and get dressed in the bathhouses downstairs, it was a much, much better alternative to undressing herself right when Sakusa was ten feet away, where he could easily wake up right in the middle of her putting on her uniform, or while him moving in his sleep could be way too distracting for her.

The raven-haired girl took her uniform and haori down with her to the bathhouses on the ground floor of the inn, and the instant she had undressed herself and slid into the warm water of the female bath, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Ah~, the baths are so much nicer without anyone else in them~"

"Meh, I sometimes like the company, you know?"

Shinobu froze instantly and the air in the room grew cold as ice. That calm, collected voice was completely and utterly horrifying, and she knew exactly who it belonged to the second she heard the familiar rhythm of notes, those same ones that summoned the demon that beat them so thoroughly.

She glanced into the corner of the room, and sure enough, Sephir was sitting in a chair with a relaxed position, grinning at her. He wasn't wearing his black trenchcoat anymore, instead a white dress shirt she recognized as from the western world, along a pair of their black suit pants and suspenders.