Oceans of Butterflies

004 | Unexplained

xxx

"Master..."

Shinobu snapped back into reality when she heard someone calling her. Turning around only to see a girl with a side ponytail, wearing a butterfly pin.

"Yes, Kanao?" she wipe out the frown she has and smiled at Kanao.

Quietly, the young girl bowed her head and spoke. "Aoi, just informed me that the food is ready"

Looking at Kanao, Shinobu smiled genuinely. She is still not speaking much but seeing her cute face made her heart flutter. She stood up from her chair and walked with Kanao heading to the dining area.

The atmosphere of the butterfly mansion didn't change over the year, Kanao who was training for the upcoming final selection, Aoi who kept passionate in helping Shinobu treat patients and the three girls who was also helping them.

But for some times, Shinobu still felt a little empty despite having many accompanies.

"It pains me my children, but I have to declare that the water hashira is dead."

It has been two years since that the water hashira was declared as dead. Since then, everything felt different. Shinobu thought that the hashira wasn't complete. After that incident she checked where everything happen only to find nothing.

It was all cleaned out by the assigned kakushi...

That time she was with a girl, named Yae. She was a girl who always at mountains said that she was looking for vengeance. Remembering those memories made Shinobu frown even more, the girl's father turned into a demon and she had a difficult time to kill it. But as soon as she did, she left leaving a message to the girl from the father.

Stopping by for some food, she suddenly remembered that her former comrade really love those. Salmon Daikon...

Remembering those Shinobu shook her head before making her way to the garden. Where the pond and butterflies can be seen, for her it was peaceful so we would always stay there to ease her mind.

"Ara Ara~ you should be careful next time, Uzui-san"

"I am already flamboyantly careful! Next time I would be careful with max of flamboyance!" the sound hashira started to move.

Shinobu just sighed and put some medicine in his wounds, both of them were silent and no one dared to talk.

"UMAI!"

"Umai!!"

Shinobu turned to the other side of the room where a certain hashira kept eating loudly, he started to talk like that ever since he started to eat.

"Renguko-san... please do not eat too much!" Aoi exclaimed as she entered the room with a tray full of medicine.

She didn't bother to look when the pigtailed butterfly put down the medicine in the side table.

"Is that the flamboyant medicines to cure my flamboyant wounds?!" Uzui stared at the medicine Shinobu is now opening.

She smiled at the fellow hashira before settling him down.

'Tomioka-san, isn't talktative and energetic as this"

For a second she had stopped patting down the wound and stared blankly at it, making the sound hashira confused.

"Thinking of something flamboyant?" the hashira asked.

She looked at him and smile, she didn't answer and continued to do her job.

"Thinking of him, huh?"

"What?" she looked up again only to find a smirking Uzui.

"The late flamboyant Tomioka Giyu!" he suddenly said.

It made Shinobu flinch but she just smiled. "It was nothing..."

The fellow hashira have stopped moving and asked again. "Weren't you close?"

Close? Yeah, when pigs become demon.

"So you flamboyantly agree?"

"What?! No... Please stop talking too much" she denied.

Uzui Tengen only laughed before laying the bed. He then stared at the ceiling of the room before talking again.

"It was a big loss for us, Tomioka was one of the best swordsman we have"

Shinobu listened.

"I sometimes want to flamboyantly train with him so he can be flamboyant as me but he would refuse, so unflamboyant thing to do!"

She smiled a bit, it wasn't new to her. He was a man of few words and would always avoid associating with others. That may be one of the reason why people have disliked him.

She wiped him out of her head, she wants to stop thinking about him...

And the unexplained things she have been feeling.

xxx