I will always follow

I will act without orders

Sincerely,

Tomioka Giyuu."

Kanroji's response was so undeniably hers that Giyuu could have smiled. There were little hearts and doodles in the margins of the letter and she was asking them to have lunch with her the next day. She even made a point to assure them that they would not see anyone else on her Estate. Neither lower ranking demon slayers nor Hashira, just her.

If Giyuu had not known that keeping secrets from the rest of the Hashira was a big problem for Kanroji, he could have told her about his daughters, but he knew he could not do that as much as he could not tell her the truth about himself. So he promised the girls that they would go to the market that night and eat out for once and left them alone to go with Senjuro to Kanroji's Estate.

And she was waiting for them, she looked excited out of her mind, all big eyes and flushed cheeks; physically vibrating with emotion. She squealed a second before running up to Senjuro and embracing him in a bone crushing hug, she did not stop her squeaking at all during that hug but managed to control herself by opening and closing her fists repeatedly to contain her desire to pull Tomioka in for a hug meant just for him.

"I am so happy you are here," she squealed, jumping from one foot to the other, unable to stand still. "Come in, please," she said, opening the door wide and inviting them inside. "I made donburi for Sen and I made salmon daikon for you, Tomioka-san. It is your favorite, is it not?" she asked and even if she was wrong, which she was not, he would have said yes just so he would not spoil her happiness.

"We brought these as a 'thank you', Kanroji-san, Giyuu says those are your favorites," Senjuro said, offering her a wooden box that Mitsuri took with utmost care.

"There is no need," she said, her eyes already tearing up while opening the box. Inside sat a pile of perfectly shaped sakura mochi, arranged in neat rows. Mitsuri blushed and cried at the same time, not sure what to do with herself when she felt so appreciated and excited at the same time and by no other than Tomioka-san.

She could not stop herself that time.

She closed the box carefully and put her arms around the other Hashira as gently as she could manage. She did not knew why nor if her perception was correct, but she firmly believed that Tomioka-san did not like physical contact too much and she wanted to respect him as much as she could.

"Thank you, Tomioka-san," she mumbled, her voice mellow and calm in a way Giyuu had never heard from her before. Too much like his sister's voice when she tried to comfort him. "And thanks to you too, Sen. You may call me Mitsuri, we have known each other for a long time, have we not?" she said, once she let go of the hug, leaving the sakura mochi on the kotatsu and turning around with one of her big welcoming smiles. "Would you rather eat first or train first?" she asked, open to whatever they chose.

Knowing Mitsuri as they did, they knew they would not be leaving the table for a long time if they decided to eat first.

"Training, I think, once we are done with that, we can eat in peace," Senjuro said.

"To the training grounds then," Mitsuri said with a big smile, still blushing. She knew that she would probably have to show them her forms and she felt strangely shy. "What do you need to know?" she asked, extremely interested.

"Well mostly just the Love Breathing forms, if you remember any of the Flame Breathing ones we would be interested in those as well, Senjuro wanted to keep his style as close as possible to his family's. If you can, do them slowly so we can really see them," Giyuu explained, making Mitsuri's cheeks blush a deep red. That was probably the longest thing Tomioka had ever said to her.