BUTTERFLY : SHINOBU KOCHO (PART ONE)

Part 2: Chapter 3; Fishing

With an elegant and composed slash of his blade, the demon began to vanish into ash.

Falling to his feet from the heights above, his long, unruly black locks flowed behind him, along with his mismatched haori.

Maintaining his stoic composure as he walked away from the corpse fading from existence, the man, unbothered by the cold, slid his katana back into his sheath.

Another demon killed, another day he lives on.

He trudged his way back to the village, ready to tell them that he killed another one of their citizens, that he ended the life of someone a family within the community most likely held dear.

No, they were gone well before then. Demons are the furthest from human a creature could become.

He looked down at the ground beneath his feet, puzzled.

If this was indeed true, if it was right that demons and humans could never once coexist, then why did he let those siblings go all those months ago?

He continued to second-guess himself constantly during this time, wondering if he made the right decision to let the demon sister live, and to recommend them to Master Urokodaki and have them trained to be demon slayers. He questioned whether or not it was right to make the choice he did. Maybe that demon girl already ate her brother by now, maybe they were both dead.

That was the most likely outcome, and he would have to live with it.

It's been a while since he was confident in himself, and sure of the decisions he decided to take.

A crow flew above in the clear night skies, its caw attracting his large blue eyes upwards.

It was his crow, circling him, searching for a place to land.

He stopped walking, letting the old bird fly down to a branch on his right.

The old crow had tears in their eyes, however.

Something within him churned around, an uneasy feeling coming over him.

"D-....Dead..." The crow sputtered,

"D-Demon Slayer Yae.....i-is dead....."

His eyes, constantly displaying an expression of indifference and stoicism, flared open for a brief moment.

His jaw widened slightly, though no words escaped his lips.

He had nothing to say, no way to react.

So, he didn't.

".....I see."

He turned his head away from the crow, and continued to walk.

The crow followed close, turning a blind eye to the bitter tear that hit the ground.

Once again, he began to second-guess himself.

Maybe he shouldn't have given those bullets to her.

Fast forward another month or so, and...well,

nothing has happened, literally nothing.

Shinobu was still healing up, Sakusa's wounds opened a few times and he was screaming like a baby, they went about the most boringly average routine every single day, recovery was the most agonizingly stagnant period in Shinobu's recent memory.

They did not do anything.

Well, aside from when Shinobu felt good enough to start working on Sakusa herself (severe fatigue and a few torn muscles was all she really suffered that was of note, while Sakusa had literal holes in his body, so naturally, she was healed up before him), there was almost nothing different from their previous relationship before.