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WithSanemi by my side, I went around the butterfly estate. As we passed, the bright sun shined through the enormous windows, reflecting our forms in the see-through glass. Our footsteps echoed through the long, wide corridors, indicating that there was plenty of room to maneuver around. As I walked, Sanemi stomped alongside me, passing several dark oak doors as we walked.
It had been a year since Sanemi had become a hashira, and he still hadn't left my estate. His estate has been constructed, but he refuses to leave me alone due to "hygiene concerns," as he phrased it.
My relationship with him and Kanae has been fantastic, and thanks to a few missions with Tengen or Gyomei, my bond with them has developed as well.
Being a hashira has shown to be simple in my experience. Over and over again, the same process occurred. Send you on a mission, fight a demon, kill the demon, make sure no one was hurt, and return home. It is a simple task.
We came to a halt in front of a big door with a swirled gold door handle. The door's wood was etched with patterns, and a little picture frame hung on the wall beside it. I smiled at the drawing of Kanae and Shinobu hugging each other with grins in the frame before softly knocking on the door.
The limbs of a clock hung above the enormous door, quietly striking while we waited for it to open. Sanemi huffed and crossed his arms, and my brows creased in curiosity. "What the hell is taking her so long?" He asked with a raised brow.
Kanae has never had someone wait this long for her to unlock a door in all the time I've known her, and she would typically shout out to us something like, "Coming!" or, "Be there in a sec!" Except there was nothing like that, this time there was silence.
Nothing was heard.
When she went on missions, she would leave a note on the door or tell us before she left.
There was no message, no news that she had left, nothing at all.
I knocked on the door again with more force. "Kanae-Chan, are you in there?" I called out. After a moment of silence, I tilted my head and turned to Sanemi, whose eyebrows were also furrowed. "That's odd." I spoke. "Do you see any notes anywhere?" He shook his head. "Did she tell you anything I don't know about?" I inquired and Sanemi huffed.
"Don't you think I would have said something if she did?" He raised his brow while deadpanning.
I sighed. "I don't know, you're you after all." I looked back to the door and I heard Sanemi mumble incomprehensible words. I called through the door once again. "Kanae-chan, I'm coming in!" I furrowed my brows before slowly opening the double doors. I peeked my head through the opened doors before I opened them fully and let Sanemi in.
