Seduced by Shadows

Chapter One

Kohaku opened her eyes slowly, vision blurry. She looked around and realized she was in a room in the butterfly estate. Trying to sit up, she yelled out as her entire body suddenly erupted in pain. Somebody must of heard her because suddenly she felt several hands pushing her back down. She could hear someone trying to talk to her but she couldn't make out what they were saying over the ringing in her ears. There was a flurry of movement beside her before she heard the soft voice of the insect hashira in her ear.

"I'm giving you something for the pain. Relax." No sooner had she said this, Kohaku felt a cool liquid flow through the IV into her hand and she felt sleep take her. She saw Shinobu's worried eyes staring down at her just as her blue irises fluttered closed. She could've sworn she heard Tengen's voice calling out to her just before everything went dark.

Some time later, she woke again. It was dark out, the only light in the room being the glare of moonlight through a nearby window. She turned her head when she heard the chair beside her bed creak. There sat the sound hashira, fast asleep sitting up. She tried to turn more but gasped when she felt a spark of pain in her back. The sound woke the man beside her and his fuchsia eyes snapped open in an instant. Seeing her awake sent him into overdrive and he bolted upright, standing over her and pushing her to lay flat.

"You shouldn't move. You'll rip the stitches in your back and that would be super unflashy." She laughed at his usual flare.

"How long?" She rasped, coughing at the dryness of her throat as she spoke. Tengen quickly helped her get a sip of water before answering her.

"Almost 2 months. Your injuries were pretty severe. They've healed up quite a bit but your back is taking longer to heal. It doesn't help that you've had seizures from the poison. Nezuko didn't get a chance to cleanse you like she did the rest of us. You were given an antidote but it took a bit before it cleared all of the poison." Kohaku's eyes went wide. She hadn't realized her injuries were as bad as he described.

"I barely remember the end of the fight. We won...right?" Tengen grinned at her.

"Well it'd be pretty unflashy if we had lost, don't you think?" She laughed, a smile on her face.

"Yeah. Pretty damn unflashy." Her words were a mere whisper into the quiet room. Tengen watched her for a time, taking a seat in the chair he had stood from moments before.

"Shinobu was worried you wouldn't wake up. We all were." He says after a while. She looked over at him, her eyes showing the sadness she felt at having worried so many others.

"I'm sorry." She said, her voice soft. "Shinobu will probably keep me here until I'm completely healed. I live alone so if I went back to my own little house, I wouldn't have anyone to take care of me."

"You don't live with your family? I've heard you have a sister at least. Shinobu mentioned you're related to the master." Kohaku glanced over at him briefly before returning her gaze up to the ceiling.

"Kagaya took me and my sister in when she was 5 years old. He was 15 at the time. She started calling him dad at some point and I went along with it so as not to confuse her. She was happy and I wanted it to stay that way. I moved out when I turned 15 which was only 4 years later." Tengen listened intently as she spoke and she missed the look of pity he gave her as she kept her gaze forward, refusing to meet his.

"Well there's no way I can let you go home alone. Not that you'll be released any time soon, but when you are you can stay in my home until you recover enough to be on your own without worry." She finally looked at him and upon seeing the soft smile he gave, she returned a smile of her own as she agreed.

It was only a couple weeks later that Shinobu allowed her to leave. It would've been longer had she not been on board with her staying with the former sound hashira. Kohaku was surprised that he had decided to retire but when he explained his reasoning behind it, she smiled and told him he did the right thing. If she had been in his shoes with 3 wives telling her to retire after defeating an upper moon, she would've agreed without hesitation just for the sake of making them happy. Hell, she'd do it for her sister if Misaki had requested it of her.