|•| 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚂𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛 |•| 𝕂𝕟𝕪 𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

XXXVIII

   Kiyomi and Kanao arrived at the love estate and was happily greeted by the love hashira, Kanroji Mitsuri.

   "Hello, Kiyomi-chan, Kanao-chan! Both of you look cute as always!", Mitsuri greeted as she hugged the girls tightly.

   "Heheh, thank you, Kanroji-san, you look very pretty as always too!", Kiyomi replied with a giggle as Mitsuri blushed at how kind Kiyomi was and how flattered she was.

   The hashira then dragged the two inside her estate, talking about eating pancakes, butter, black coffee, and other food for each period of the day. Kanao just looked at her confusedly as Kiyomi tried understanding every single thing.

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   "Mmm! These are very delicious,  Kanroji-san! Thanks for the food!", Kiyomi exclaimed as she ate the pancakes and sweets Mitsuri made, while Kanao nodded in agreement, taking a liking to the food.

   "Really?? Aww, thank you!", the woman squealed, smiling at her compliment.

   The three of them, mostly the two extroverts, talked for a bit before resuming their training along with the others who had arrived.

   "Ooh.. I look cute in this!", Kiyomi said as she looked at what she wore. No she did not look cute at all. She was like a dressed up chihuahua. She was wearing pink tight suits that were similar to the ones used in gymnastics along with the other demon slayers.

   Mitsuri was incharge of training their flexibility, since she herself is like a gymnast, very flexible.

(I changed the events a little starting here until the 'At the serpent estate' timeskip. It was actually too.. unrealistic for me- although literally everything in here is- so I decided to change it. Sorry to the past readers!)

   "Come on! You can do it! Stretch your legs!", Mitsuri encouraged a certain white-haired girl.

    "Agh-- I'm gonna diee!!", Kiyomi cried out as she tried to stretch her legs as wide as the love hashira's. Her legs felt like they were about to rip off.

    "Don't worry! You won't! You can do it, Kiyomi-chan!", she exclaimed, smiling as cheerfully as ever. The others could only watch in terror as they looked at the suffering girl, knowing very well that they were next.

    After the love hashira finally finished Kiyomi's training, the girl walked towards the others and continued with the other excercises, her limbs very painful and sore.

    "It hurts, doesn't it?", a demon slayer spoke to her, chuckling at her pained face.

    "Yeah.. It's like my limbs were getting ripped off my body.. It hurts but we still have to do more excercise.. Ughh.", Kiyomi explained as she stretched her arms that were up in the air and groaned haggardly.

    "Hahah, that was also what I felt when the love pillar personally stretched my limbs apart. But, as days go by, it's like my limbs feel more flexible and more used to stretching. I'm sure you'll also get used to it. You can do it!", the girl smiled.

    Kiyomi looked at her with determination and nodded, "Yes! Thank you for the motivation!- Uhh.."

   "Akari. Yamamoto Akari.", Akari introduced herself.

    "Thank you for the motivation, Akari-san! I'm Takahashi Kiyomi!", Kiyomi exclaimed, returning the smile. She had made a new friend!

    "Break time, everyone!"- Love Pillar

     "YAAAY!!"- Students
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   Many days have passed and the two girls, Kiyomi and Kanao, were finally moved to another hashira. To be specific, the serpent hashira. (P.S. Akari went ahead of them days ago)

    "Thank you for training us, Kanroji-san!", Kiyomi bid goodbye to the love hashira as Kanao waved her hand.

   "See you later, Kiyomi-chan, Kanao-chan!", Mitsuri waved back with her signature smile.

   At the Serpent Estate...

   The two girls were met by a rather irritated serpent pillar. His aura was very intimidating and the atmosphere felt suffocating.

   "H-hello, Iguro-dono!", Kiyomi covered her mouth in fright, realizing that she accidentally stuttered.

  "I heard that Kanroji had a great time with you both.", the man muttered bitterly, glaring at them.

   "We did!", Obanai became more irritated at her reply.

   "She was very sweet and kept talking about the serpent hashira! I almost believed that you had a very kind personality but--.. Ahem. Yeah.", Kiyomi stopped talking as she nervously looked at the said pillar, but his face just surprised her.

   Obanai was frozen, a faint blush visible on his cheek when he heard what she had said about Mitsuri. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned back in his estate, trying to hide his flustered face, only to be noticed by the two anyway as they quietly giggled.

   Obanai's training was about attacking or dodging attacks as slick and silent as a snake, and by that, he tied up a lot of demon slayers on large woods with ropes on their bodies and towels on their mouths to prevent them from speaking.

   "Uh-- Mister serpent pillar.. Aren't they tied up for too long? I remember Tanjiro telling me that he was also training with them as.. walls..?", Kiyomi gained enough courage and hesitantly spoke up. She also noticed that Obanai wasn't wearing his haori.

    "They are punished for crimes.", he replied with a scowl on his face.

   "I.. I know that, but aren't they supposed to be free now..?", she stuttered once again.

   "They are useful for training, now quit asking questions and get to training.", Obanai glared at her as she immediately nodded in fear, trying to ignore the helpless auras of the tied up demon slayers, begging for help.

   Kanao was up first, and surprisingly she was able to sense the hashira's attacks and dodge some of them. Although sometimes, she would get hit and fail to attack the hashira.

   Next was Kiyomi's turn. It was expected that she got hit most of the time. When she tried to attack Obanai, she thought about the demon slayers that she might hit when going through the openings, so she was careful on stabbing her wooden sword through them. Unfortunately, she was too slow because of her carefulness, and got hit instead.

   Later...

    Kiyomi was secretly walking through the halls of the serpent estate because she got a little bored. But why secretly? Because she didn't want Iguro to see her walking in his halls without permission. Haha, yeah.. You need permission to even walk through the halls.. Well, it is his so it makes sense.

   While Kiyomi was walking, she noticed a slightly opened door. She got curious and decided to peak in, seeing the serpent pillar's torn haori on a table.

   'Ooh.. He still didn't fix it?', Then Kiyomi had the best (worst) idea and decided to sew his haori.

   While sewing, she heard a hiss that made her flinch. When she looked at the one who hissed, it was Kaburamaru, looking confused and on guard at what Kiyomi was doing to his master's haori.

   "Oh! Hello! You must be Kaburamaru.", Kiyomi smiled as she looked at the snake with caution. She knew Kaburamaru was a tad bit mean to everyone, like his master. He stuck his tongue out before retracting it, making a hissing sound. He was still cautious, but he caught onto what her purpose in there was.

   "Don't tell your master that I did this, please?", Kiyomi looked at Kaburamaru with pleading eyes, only to immediately sparkle when she saw his cute face.

   Kaburamaru glared at her for a moment before he stuck his tongue in and out again, a form of acceptance.

   "Thank you, Kaburamaru! Oh, I better go now before your master sees me! Byee!", Kiyomi finished sewing the ripped hem of the haori as she put the sewing tools away before quietly leaving the room.

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   To Be Continued...