Fast forward an entire month later, when the spring weather began to vanish and the dry summer months began to come into the fray,
Sakusa Kari had still not waken up.
He remained rested in his bed, peacefully dozing off with that same scowl etched into his visage.
Shinobu rarely left his side, continuing to wonder just when he would wake up. Of course, she left to clean, get dressed, and train, but any free time she did have was dedicated to writing in her journal and caring for the crimson-haired Hashira.
But where had they gone, now that the Nagasaki Wisteria House had gone up in flames?
It was funny, really.
It was funny that even though he was knocked unconscious and dropped an utter bombshell before falling back asleep, Sakusa still managed to find a way to protect her.
Everyone was exhausted, to say the least.
It was very telling that the one with the most energy was the civilian who suffered a head cut and a fractured rib was the one with the most energy.
Even Yae's conservative gun-slinging fighting style consumed a fair bit of stamina, though that was also down to having to evade and constantly keep her distance from the demon possessing Sakusa's body.
They had nowhere to go, nowhere to recover. Shinobu's mansion was at least a week and a half away, while Yae had lost her home when her father died. Any Wisteria House in the vicinity would be at least a day's walk away, and with Umiki still asleep, Yae and Sadao normal humans without the heightened stamina of a Hashira, and Shinobu still feeling the effects of the fight six days ago with Razel, walking anywhere was completely out of the picture.
The flames refused to die down in the house, meaning that nobody could even try and reenter to find anything to salvage. All they were able to retrieve were Shinobu's needleblade, on-hand medical kit, and Yae's personal belongings, rifle, clothes and all.
No food, no water, no essentials. Nothing.
So, the butterfly and hunter girl decided to bring the couple away from the flames and huddle them up against the wall of the courtyard with the spare clothes they did have, and try and come up with a plan to get out of their mess.
Sitting down besides the unconscious Sakusa in the courtyard (since neither girl had the energy to move a 100kg ogre that just tried to kill them less than an hour ago), Yae and Shinobu began to think.
"Miss Kocho," Yae spoke up first, "How are your injuries? You were thrown around a little bit and took a beating from Mister Kari, so I was just thinking that you might need to rest a bit, you know?"
"No, no," Shinobu shook her head in dismissal, waving off the remark, "I'm alright, I promise~"
That was a lie. I am in excruciating pain. My limbs are dead, I feel like death, my stab wound is killing me.
"E-Erm, alright then."
Yae let out a long sigh, glancing worryingly over at the couple they put up against a wall, and then down at the unconscious man to her left. "So," She said, "I'm the only somewhat healthy person here, aren't I?"
Shinobu nodded, well aware that she was still suffering. "Mh, I guess you are." She muttered in a soft, glum tone.
A silence began to take over, neither girl really had anything they could say to each other. They didn't really want to start planning, but did recognize that it was necessary to get the couple, and Sakusa, somewhere where they can rest peacefully.
"So......what are we going to do?" Yae mumbled, breaking the minute-long silence.
Shinobu let out a sigh, not really bothering with keeping up her jolly and carefree demeanour any longer. There was too much stress to keep it up, she hadn't faced anything like this is so long, she didn't even have the energy to put up her facade.
"I'm....not sure." The butterfly girl said, "If I had my purse I could get them into an inn for a while, but..." She glanced over towards the flaming house as another one of its beams cracked and tumbled down from the ceiling, and let out another sigh.
"I...don't think I have that option anymore."
"Ahaha, yeah...." Yae chuckled a bit. The hunter girl tried again, clearing her throat. "U-Uhm, so....."
"Do I......pick them up and carry them myself, o-or something?"
"No, no." Shinobu shook her head. "I'll....figure something out." She huffed, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her hands around and nuzzling her face in them.
".....okay....." Yae muttered, unsure of what else to say as a reply.
The two remained in silence, unable to say anything more.
The mood was grim, and cold.
Then, as Shinobu felt herself slowly fall asleep, Yae jumped to her feet and pointed up to the sky.
"Oi, Miss Kocho!" She exclaimed, alerting the Hashira, "Look up there!"
The Hashira did as she was told, glancing up at the sky where Yae was pointing, and flying high up in the night was a massive figure with wings large enough to block out the clouds, with unmistakable black and red feathers.
Shinobu instantly knew who it was.
It's....-
"It's Hisao!" Yae suddenly spoke up, "That's the bird that Mister Sadao and Miss Umiki told me carried Mister Kari for me when I found you guys!"
As the bird flew high above the duo of girls, Shinobu then picked up the sounds of footsteps in the distance, visibly being taken by surprise.
Oh?
There's someone coming....seven-no, more like ten people coming towards us!
Just as she had estimated, the sounds of almost a dozen pairs of feet could be heard rapidly closing in on the burning Wisteria House, followed by mumbles and incoherent sentences of both men and women, conversing with each other.
"Oi, you hear that, Miss Kocho?" Yae chimed in, looking towards the entrance of the courtyard when she picked up the footsteps, "That sounds like people!"
"Y-Yeah, it does." Shinobu replied, still in subtle shock.
Who is that....
The butterfly girl kept her guard up a bit, still weary of who might be coming. The thought that demons may be arriving in the hopes of easy pickings in the night remained on her mind, it wouldn't be unlike the disgusting vermin to attempt something like that.
That thought quickly went down the drain, however, when the figures finally showed themselves, and to her delight, relief and gratitude, they were just what they needed.
Cloaked in a different uniform to the black-and-white they wore, they wore a blazing cherry red uniform with black accents around the mask Shinobu knew so well. Even in their alternate uniform, she could easily tell who had arrived.
"Kakushi!"
The Kakushi who came introduced themselves soon after they had arrived, and their identities took Shinobu and Yae by surprise.
"We are the Kakushi assigned to the Rage Hashira, and the Kari family, Lady Kocho." An average-sized male Kakushi said, as the rest of the group tended to Sakusa, Umiki and Sadao.
"U-Uhm," Yae piped up, raising her hand a bit to signal the Kakushi, "I still don't really know who you guys are, I've never met you dudes before."
"The Kakushi are designated helpers to the Demon Slayers Corps which contribute to our cause through basic aid and helping around our medical clinics and cleaning up after a demon fight." Shinobu explained, turning towards the hunter girl. She then turned back to the Kakushi, "Although, you seem to be wearing different clothes this time, no~?"
"Yes, that is true, Lady Kocho." The Kakushi nodded, "That is because we are not Kakushi of the Demon Slayer Corps, but rather of a specific Hashira and their family."
Oh? What could that mean?
The Kakushi pressed the palm of his hand to his chest and bowed in a courtly fashion, and said,
"We are the Kakushi assigned to the Kari family, who exclusively serve the Hashira of Rage at his quarters."
Shinobu and Yae were visibly taken by surprise, with the butterfly girl's eyes widening a bit.
On the inside, though, she grew irritated again.
Huh? The Kari even get their own Kakushi?
She looked down at the man on the ground beside her and crinkled her nose slightly.
This man gets his own cleanup crew? Really? He's just a temperamental baby......
Not much else happened once the Kakushi had come.
Shinobu, Yae, Sadao and Umiki were checked up on-site briefly by the Kakushi, while others tended directly to Sakusa, taking care and extreme caution with him. They explained to her that Hisao, who was an incredibly intelligent eagle bred to be larger, stronger and more durable than the average predatory bird, had led them to her location, informing them that she and everyone else required medical assistance.
The petite Hashira eavesdropped a bit, and her suspicions as to who these people were ended up being erased when she heard their conversations.
"Oi, make sure to take care of Master Sakusa, we don't want his father to bark at us!" One Kakushi urged to the others in a hushed tone.
The others nodded and began to mumble little things Shinobu couldn't completely decipher, little bits about how 'Master Yaguchi would kill them if his son died', or something of that sort. It didn't concern her at the end of the day, though, she was more focused as to where they were going to go.
However, a benefit was that the Kakushi transported her on a stretcher, giving her some desperately needed time to relax, along with some sedatives to keep her dozing off.
Soon enough, she, Sadao, Umiki, and Sakusa were all carried on stretchers, while Yae was able to walk on her own with the rest of the group.
Her memories are fuzzy from that point onward, until she came to the morning after.
Sakusa's place was astonishing.
The only mansion of the Hashira not distributed by the Demon Slayer Corps, the Rage Manor, as the Kakushi later told her, was absolutely massive.
It took all of 90 minutes for her to be able to explore the entire thing on her own, with the mansion having at least 100 rooms, 30 of them being solely for the quarters of the Kakushi, though, which she decided not to enter.
Located around an hour's walk from the Wisteria House in Nagasaki, Shinobu questioned why Hisao didn't lead Yae to Sakusa's home when they were first found, but when she realized the torture the Kakushi went through to bring them to his place, she shut up.
As expected of an over-the-top meathead who screams all the time, the Rage Manor was equally over-the-top, sitting on the top of a mountain with a face so steep it would be almost impossible for any normal human being to climb without any aid. Not only that, but there were dogs, hornets, traps and other 'inconveniences' lining any of the passable routes up the mountain to his home, where the only viable option for the Kakushi was located at the very base of the mountain, where a certain stone needed to be pushed among the rubble in order to activate a secret staircase through the mountain itself.
Of course, nobody told Shinobu which stone to push, so she had no way of leaving without supervision. And of course, that pissed her off.
In terms of what the mansion actually looked like, Shinobu thought of it almost as a palace and a dungeon mixed together, with the exterior being a beautiful, elegant mansion not unlike her own cloaked in a black base and red accents lining the beams of wood and such, with sprinkles of gold dashed in as well. The interior, though, clearly had Sakusa's own 'touch' thrown into the mix.
It was just as elegant as before, with the kitchen, dining room, entertainment room, and main quarters all overlooking the gorgeous view from atop the mountain, while the Kakushi quarters, medical room, storage, and other essentials were located in the basement, but the decorations were....eye-catching.
Weapons upon weapons upon weapons upon weapons lined the halls, kitchen, and every single room she entered, ranging from swords, axes and spears, to rifles, shotguns, and even a cannon, it seemed as though Sakusa's manor had even artillery and weaponry to man an entire army on his own.
She understood that his family was built on a foundation of blood and combat, but she didn't expect them to take it this seriously.
At the end of the day, though, beggars can't be choosers, and Shinobu was definitely thankful for being in such a secluded, well-hidden area, far away from the demons so she could recuperate.
Not only that, but so she could tend to Sakusa, just as she wanted to continue doing the second his head rested on her thighs.
Back to the present, just reaching the summer months, and there was still no sign of Sakusa waking up.
Yae, Sadao and Umiki were all up and well, with the couple being compensated in full by the Kakushi for their home, and were told they were more than welcome to stay in the spare rooms while they healed completely.
That was two weeks ago, and they said they would take refuge in a neighbouring Wisteria House instead. However, they still thanked the Kakushi, she and Yae, and prayed for Sakusa's recovery when they left.
If she was being honest, Shinobu might even miss the boring, average-looking couple.
Not as much as she would miss Sakusa, though.
The afternoon of that day was incredibly sunny, and Yae was given permission to leave the Manor with the Kakushi to go hunt for dinner early in the morning, much to her delight. The butterfly girl could only wonder what it would feel like for an outdoorsy hunter girl like Yae to be trapped inside for so long.
Now, aside from the twenty-or-so Kakushi within the manor itself, it was just Shinobu and Sakusa.
She was back, doing what she always did, taking care of him.
Now, though, was the day she hated the most ; washing day.
She usually let the Kakushi take care of this since she couldn't handle how flustered she got, but she decided that today would be the day where she finally put her embarrassment behind her and quit being so immature, and actually do what a medic is supposed to do, care for her patient.
The Kakushi supplied her with everything she would need to wash Sakusa off, and when she opened the back door of his main quarters she received a nice, cooling breeze that helped her keep her focus.
As she slid off her haori and looked down at the bedridden boy, she felt the pit in her stomach form once more.
Tch, how the hell am I already getting nervous......come on, Shinobu, you're just washing him off, you've had to do way worse things to other people before, why is this so difficult....
As always, Sakusa was wearing nothing but a pair of pants, though a black sheet was covering everything from the neck below, making things easier on her, if she was being honest.
His resting face still made her feel a little flustered though, it pissed her off how nice he looked when he wasn't so angry.
Phew....okay, here goes nothing.....
Taking one deep breath, Shinobu took the sheet in her hand, and pulled it off him like a bandaid.
Though, it was more like pulling a plug out from a shower drain, since Shinobu felt her get sucked right back into his beauty.
O-Oh my god..... She blushed.
It was obvious that Sakusa had lost a bit of weight in his comatose, turning from a heavyweight with a body type like Uzui or Himejima, to that of Rengoku or Iguro, which only made things worse on her. Gone were the massive biceps, rock hard six-pack and huge, wide shoulders she was so used to, and instead was a much leaner, more defined figure.
His shoulders were still broad and thick, but they slimmed down a little, maybe an inch on either side, while his arms had gone from being the size of her thighs to maybe her calves, or just a little more. It was much more appealing, either way.
Her eyes followed downwards, down to the smaller pecs that still seemed so powerful, even if Sakusa had gone five entire weeks without exercise.
His abs had never been so defined, going from muscles the size of her fist to something much more appealing, turning into an eight-pack that rippled across his stomach, with a noticeable v-line protruding out as well.
La crème de la crème, though, was the glory trail of black hair that lined his lower abdomen and traveled down beneath the waistline of his pants.
Cue the invasive lewd thoughts in her mind, and Shinobu almost collapsed from her own nosebleed.
F U C K -
After getting her composure back, Shinobu found something else to lose herself in,
His scars.
Woah.....so many.....I've never noticed how plentiful they were.....
They were countless, each one more peculiar than the last. Not even her medical knowledge could decipher the cause of them all, some of them were completely mystifying to her.
She leaned forward unconsciously to touch them, unaware of what she was doing, curiosity getting the better of her.
His skin was.....hot. Hot, and yet, it wasn't so coarse as she thought it was. She thought it was rough, with his hands being so calloused and battered, it would only make sense that the rest of him would be.
Yet, to her surprise, the feeling of his abdomen beneath the palm of her hand was almost as soft as what a normal human would be, not a Hashira who literally never wore a shirt in battle.
The softness of his skin only sucked her in further, bringing a deeper blush to her cheeks as she let her hand wander across him, slowly finding its way up to his pectorals.
Shinobu was as astonished as ever.
W-Wow.....even if he's been bedridden for weeks, these things are still like plates of armour....if I was stuck in bed for this long, I'd end up looking like a twig, but this guy....he lost maybe 15 kilos and he's still built like a Hashira....
She refused to openly admit it, but she had to say, she liked the less beefy, more defined Sakusa than the one with more muscles than sense.
She found her hand laying on the spot on his shoulder where there used to be the wound struck right through by Irire, and she narrowed her eyes, deep in thought.
Woah.....there's no scarring at all here....I know he was healed when the demon overtook her body, but there's not even a sign that they fought in the first place.....
So many scars, Shinobu thought to herself, letting her fingertips trail across the boy's arm,
I wonder how he got them all.....
As she had all those months ago, Shinobu found herself slowly leaning in, closer and closer to his face, admiring its duality, and stark comparison to the rest of his toned body. Even if he was covered in scars, with black tattoos strapped around his arms, his face was left without such blemishes, as if it was meant to remain unsullied, fated to be untouched by the wars he faced.
Despite the scars across his body and near-death situations he had faced, Sakusa Kari still retained such a doll-like face.
It was odd.
His lips were pink, not too full, not too thin, enticing her in some way she could not explain.
They seemed tender to the touch, opened slightly as he inhaled and exhaled, taking shallow breaths as always, constantly maintaining the total concentration breathing as he had since birth.
She wondered,
If.....I....touched them.....how would they feel.....
Tranquility suited him much more than anger, Shinobu began to think.
It was not much longer until her eyes, clouded and lidded, sat directly above his own, their faces mere centimetres apart, with Shinobu herself leaning over top the boy's body, still finding herself dwarfed by his size.
She was trapped. Whether she knew it or not, though, was a different story.
Ever so agonizingly slow, Shinobu began to close the distance. It only felt right to do so, as if....she was supposed to.
If.....I did this, Sakusa.......
Centimetres became millimetres, with a pink tint to her cheeks becoming more and more apparent as she felt his shallow breath grace her lips.
If I were to do this, right here, right now......
would you shove me back, let it happen, or......
Shinobu closed her eyes, preparing for what was to come.
Only, she forgot this was Sakusa she was talking about.
You know what comes next.
"So, do I have to lock my fucking door whenever I go to sleep to keep you from perving out on me, or something?"
"Eh?"
Her eyes flashed open like headlights and her world came crashing down on her, when a bright red eye fueled by irritation glared right back at her confused expression.
"Pft, 'Eh', she says, as if she hadn't been caught trying to fuck me."
"EEP!"
Shinobu jolted back, jumped a metre away in fright, clamping her hand over her mouth in an instant as Sakusa shifted in his bed, letting out a groan as he sat up straight, turning his attention to the ravenette.
The butterfly girl, though, was frozen in shock.
"K-......Kari-san?"
"Yeah, what is it, brat?" The boy casually replied, rubbing his eye, as if he hadn't been comatose for a month, leaving her alone and worried over him for days upon days upon days, giving her nothing but concerns as to when or even if the man who made her feel so safe, secure and genuinely cared for, would ever wake up. Sakusa was such an idiot. If his last ever words to her were to be him wasting his breath telling her how beautiful she was, she would killed him. Sakusa was an idiot for staying asleep for so long, keeping her up at night with those words replaying like a broken record over and over again in her head, making her flush red just at the memory. Those simple, unforgettable words he said to her.
Who gave you the right, after all this time of being without you, to look so unfathomably and flawlessly beautiful?
God, those words pissed her off.
They pissed her off so much her eyes locked onto his for what seemed like hours.
They pissed her off so much that tears stung her eyes as she realized she wasn't dreaming, and that he had actually woken up, after all this time.
They pissed her off so much that she let that jolly, carefree nature crumble away to the ground with every running step she took towards him, and they pissed her off so much that she leapt right into his arms without so much as a moment's hesitation, clasping herself around the boy's waist and sobbed into his chest, refusing to let go until she let out every last bit of her pent-up anger into his skin.
Before Sakusa could even react and process what she was doing, he was showered with her anger.
"You asshole!" She screamed through her choked tears, "W-What the hell is wrong with you, y-you big dummy?! You ruin everything, you know?! What w-was the point o-of staying asleep for so long, a-almost getting yourself killed by those demons just for me?! N-Nobody ever asked you to do that! Y-You...."
"You d-didn't have to leave me alone for so long, you fu-...f-fucking asshole!"
Seconds of Shinobu's ramblings turned into minutes as Sakusa remained silent and frozen in place, blushing beyond normality as the petite Hashira let out every last frustration of hers into his chest.
He did finally take action, however, and instantly soothed her pain the only way he knew how,
smiling that oh so devastating smile of his, enveloping the girl in his arms.
"Pft," Sakusa scoffed, "You're such a child, Kocho......it kind of pisses me off, you know~?"
"You.....big.....dummy....."
The two remained in that position for so much longer than what would've been considered normal, but that was okay.
Maybe it was time to break the boundaries a little, to become a little more than just two Hashira stuck on the same mission together,
and even if it was anger and annoyance, it was safe to say Shinobu and Sakusa did hold strong feelings for each other.
Especially Shinobu.
God, Sakusa pissed her off.