Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a good day/evening/ night.
I wanna say sorry for not updating in so long, I've Just been busy with stuff.
Anyways this chapter is mainly centred around Giyuu and Hanako just like every other chapter so far. But in this one it's more of Giyu being a father like figure to Hanako.
I'm sorry for any spelling/ grammar mistakes. But I'm too lazy to go back and look for em'. Sorry.
As always, there may be things of blood and violence. But this is aimed to be more of a chill chapter.
Anyways, enjoy.
~~
They've only been on the train for about an hour? And all of those 60 minutes were just Giyuu hiding from Mitsuri, and Hanako asking him more and more questions about himself. God he wanted to die more than ever.
"Mr? What's water breathing like?" Hanako asked, not knowing that a certain love breather was trying to listen in while eating some lunch boxes a few venders from the train station were selling.
Giyuu took a good moment to think before responding "It's like if you were in a lake, and you're the heart of the lake, helping to control the water to flow it towards where it needs to go." He spoke in a quiet tone, so that Mitsuri couldn't hear him.
"Oh, I think I get it." Hanako nodded, as she looked back she noticed a certain bright-haired girl looking at them. "I think your co-worker is staring at us."
Giyuu tensed up before realising something, his half n' half hanori. That's what's gonna give his position up "Can you hide my hanori?"
"I think I can, why?" Hanako asked
"My hanori, it's one of a kind. You can't find it anywhere else, I think Mitsuri is staring to recognise it." Giyuu said plainly while taking off his hanori and giving it to Hanako before adding on "Please look after it."
"I will. I promise!" She smiled, folding the hanori up and placing it under her own one. "Also, who are you talking about again?"
He sighed, explaining who Mitsuri is and genuinely staring to explain who his fellow hashira were to the young girl sitting behind him.
Another hour or two had passed by then, he didn't realise how much he was rambling about his fellow hashira, but he was mainly rambling about a short, purple butterfly hair clipped, insect breather. But his words were interrupted by Hanako's giggling.
"You really like this 'Kocho' girl, huh, Mr?" Hanako said with small giggles in between the words.
"What do you mean?" He asked
She smiled "Well... she's coming!"
"Who's coming?" He replied.
"Your co-worker."
'Shit' he thought, she'd recognise him, especially his hairstyle and eyes, 'I'll have to let my hair down to cover my eyes...' "Can you lie?" He let down his hair.
"What?" Hanako asked "I think I ca-"
"Good. Please do so, pretend I can't talk or something." Giyuu interrupted her, before looking down at the table, pretending not to notice the pink and green haired girl approaching him.
"Um, Excuse me little girl." Mitsuri asked
"Oh hi miss, what's the matter?" Hanako smiled, doing her best to act natural.
"Is this your father?" Mitsuri asked Hanako in a gentle, worried like tone.
"I- yes. This is my father- Gichii Mazubato. And I'm- Hanaki Mazubato!" Hanako replied nervously, she was not good with being put on the spot like this. But she had to protect herself and Mr. Tomioka at any and all costs. She had thanked the heavens that they'd been having a very quiet conversation about, well, everything they were talking about so far.
"Well Mazubato-San, can your father talk? I don't need to be rude- but you don't look like him at all. I'm just a little worried for your safety." The tall women replied, toutching her fingers to her lips in a worried manor, 'Huh? The little girl is hiding something underneath her hanori, it looks like one half of the hanori Tomioka-San wears!' Mitsuri thought.
"I-m afraid not, my father is deaf and blind, he doesn't mean to be rude! And I get my looks from my mother- who we're going back home to see now." Hanako stuttered, she felt her body temperature rise quickly, and she suddenly felt very warm.
"Oh, well that makes sense, I guess... I'm sorry for bothering you." Mitsuri bowed out of respect.
"It's no problem miss- safe travels to you..." Hanako swallowed the lump that formed in her throat, biting her tongue, just waiting for Mitsuri to walk away.
"Safe travels to you as well." Mitsuri walked slowly away, 'That was an awkward encounter, but that child was so adorable though!' She smiled to herself.
"Is she gone?" Giyuu asked in a quiet monotone tone, He couldn't really see as his bangs were covering his eyes.
"Yeah, she sat back down. How much longer until we arrive?" Hanako asked, slowing down her breathing.
Giyuu nodded, thank goodness Mitsuri went away. "I think only one more stop and then we'll be at the station we'll need to get off at. Unless you want to get off a stop early and go to the house from there." He proposed,
"Yes, let's do that. I don't wanna have another awkward meeting like that with anybody else." The young girl agreed.
The next half an hour was a bit awkward to say the least, Giyuu knew Mitsuri was still keeping an eye on them. 'She's gonna tell Kocho. Great, we just had to run into the biggest blabber mouth of the bunch.' He sighed, 'No. Stop it Giyu, don't talk bad about your co-workers.'
"Time to get off..." he was trying to remember the fake name Hanako gave herself. "Hanaki" he said slowly.
"Yes- father." Hanako played along, it felt weird that she was calling someone who wasn't her father, well. Her father. It was real awkward to think or talk about.
But anyways, she grabbed his hand and walked off of the train with Giyuu. "Are you ok kid?" He asked.
She nodded, "I'm sorry Mr. It felt weird to call you my father. I guess I'm not use to it." She admitted. "Can we please head off the the house now?"
"Get on my back and I'll take us there."
"Are you sure you won't get tired Mr? I think I'm too heavy for you to lift up-" Hanako was interrupted by being picked up into a piggy back, 'This is really weird' she thought as Giyuu started running.
'Woah! He's really fast! This is soo cool! He reminds me of Tanjiro!' Hanako smiled at the memory of her big brother. 'I wonder where he is right now'
After around 25 minutes of running, they made it into the town by the butterfly mansion. It wasn't filled with people as it was just a regular Wednesday afternoon, but there were some people scattered about. There were smells of freshly baked goods which made Hanako's stomach growl. "Excuse me" she said embarrassed.
Giyuu nodded "We could stop if you want. Maybe we could get you some lunch." He suggested.
"N-no. It's ok, I'm fine with having a late lunch." She admitted.
He nodded in response "Ok." He said blankly. He didn't notice that he nearly ran into the friendly neighbourhood butterfly and the two little caterpillars.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The one with the blue butterfly clips called out, as the other girl was with a pink butterfly clip remained silent while holding the lady with a purple butterfly clips hand.
"We're very sorry! My mothers about to have a baby!" Hanako called out, Yet again lying. 'God my mama must be upset with the amount of lying I've done today.'
"Ara! Ara! That's quite alright my dear! Safe travels!" The purple butterfly hair clipped lady yelled back with a smile.
"You're too soft on them Shinobu-Sama." The blue butterfly hair clipped girl told the older girl.
"You heard the girl, their In a rush."
Hanako grinned softly as she realised that Shinobu is the lady Giyuu told her about. "Was that the Kocho lady you were telling me about on the train?" She asked innocently.
"Mhm." Giyuu replied.
"She seems lovely. I wonder if I'll ever get to be her friend one day!" Hanako gleamed.
"You will." Giyuu muttered bluntly, yet there was a slight tint of red glowing on his cheeks. 'Am I embarrassed I ran into kocho? I don't really feel embarrassed- no! I must be embarrassed.' He battled himself mentally about if he felt embarrassed or something else.
After a few more minutes, (and a quick break to eat lunch because hanakos stomach kept growling) they finally managed to make it to the house where their going to be living in from now on.
"Woah! It's huge!" Hanako exclaimed, it was at least 10X bigger than her home back in Mt. Kumotori.
"Come on Hanako. We should start to train you as soon as we can." Giyu told the younger girl, letting her down from the piggy back.
Hanako nodded, he had told her why she should be train to become a demon slayer. It was an offer she couldn't turn down, she had to avenge her family, and locate her eldest siblings. "Ok, I'll go find my room!" She said, wondering off into the estate.
'I wonder how Taioshi was able too afford this place.' Giyuu thought, 'He told me that his sister already decorated Hanako's room. And that I can pick my own. I'll chose the smallest because I don't deserve a big room. Later on I'll go out with the girl to buy some food and water, i don't think I'll need training equipment. But I need new clothes, so does she.' He thought, making a mental list while searching for the training dummies.
'Thank god the girl was able to protect my hanori. Not even a scratch or stain on it.' He thought as he located the dummies and set them up. 'After I teach her all of the water breathing forms. I'll teach her total concentration breathing constant, that will be handy. This should take about roughly two years, with a bit of luck, maybe just a year. Not to mention that I'll have to hide when she gets her uniform and sword. Wait, why am I being so confident? You stupid idiot! Don't be overconfident about the girls abilities.' He scolded himself, he didn't want to relive what he went through with Sabito.
'Sabito.' He thought grimly. A boy around his age, with peach hair and kind eyes. 'Why did you out of all people had to die? Why wasn't it me!?'
"Excuse me Mr. Tomioka?" Hanako asked softly, as to not scare him.
"Hmm?" Giyuu snapped out of his thoughts.
"Are you ok? You blanked out for a few moments just there." She asked, concerned for her new, dare she say it? Friend.
He just simply nodded at the girl, shrugging he pointed over towards where he set up the training dummies. "We'll start training there."
"Ok, let's start!"
For a good few hours, Giyuu started training Hanako. Just the basics, like how to properly hold a sword, training her how to use her breathing to her advantage. Things like that. "That is all for today."
"Mr. Tomioka, thank you." Hanako bowed, all tired out. "But shouldn't we go to the town? I don't have clothes to sleep in, and neither do you!"
"..." he forgot that Hanako wasn't like him in the way that she slept in different clothes and all that, besides she wouldn't let him leave a clothing store unless he bought clothes for himself. "Fine. The local market should be a 10 minute walk from here, can you walk that far?"
She nodded, "yep!"
~~
This kid was incredibly optimistic, happy go lucky about everything she comes across. It must run in her family, considering her older brother was exactly the same in the very brief interaction he shared with him and the demon.
Every single clothing store she found they had to go and look in, she kind of reminded him of his sister that way, before his parents had passed away from some odd illness, his sister had been a complete fashion diva. Always going on about a new kimono she had spotted when she had been spending time with her friends. 'she really did change after our parents had passed away... I miss her more and more...'
"Woah, look at that Mr.Tomioka! It's so pretty!" Hanako had her eyes set on something, Giyuu looked over to check out what it was, it was a hanori. It was definitely way too big for the girl to wear now, but maybe if she passes final selection she could wear it.
He had to admit it looked nice, half of it was checkered in a pink and white pattern, and the other half was blue and white flowers, he noticed that there was a big sun pattern on the back, with a cloud which was hiding the bottom of the sun.
"Can I please have it Mr. Please??"
Giyuu looked at the young girl for a moment, he remembered when his sister was her age, she always begged to have some new hair accessory, or a new kimono of some sort. The amount of parallels he could draw between Hanako and Tsutako felt uncanny. With each passing moment he trained this girl, he felt like he was with his sister again, he felt like he had a family.
"I'm sorry Hanako, but maybe another time."
Hanako let out a disappointed sigh, she really wanted this cool Hanori, but sometimes things just weren't meant to to be. "Oh, ok... I understand."
"How about you go look for something to sleep in? I need to get some new training clothes for myself here."
"Ok!"
Giyuu watched as the young girl wondered off to another part of the store, he mentally smiled. This was a hanori that perfectly reflected his now Tsuguko, so when she wasn't looking he went up to where the store clerk was to buy it without her knowledge.
"Excuse me, but I would like to purchase that hanori over there."
Giyuu pointed to the hanori and the clerk smiled, walking over to the stand and taking it off.
"Ah yes, this is a very special hanori you know, the stitched sun on the back was the last thing my grandmother made before she had passed away. She said that the sun hiding behind the cloud symbolises the potential it's wearer has."
The clerk boxed the hanori up, they made sure that the box wouldn't allow the hanori to become damaged while it was being transported. "That will be 150000 yen please."
He happily handed over the money, Hanako will love this when she, no, if she becomes a demon slayer herself. "Do you deliver?"
"Yes, we do. We're quite busy with deliveries right now, so it will arrive in about... 5 days."
"That's a perfect, thank you." Giyuu bowed to show his thanks before wondering off to find Hanako, luckily she wasn't hard to spot amongst the other people in the store, as she's the only one to have dark red eyes and straight, shoulder-length black hair.
"Oh, is it time to go already?"
"Yes, we have everything we need for the next week or so. We should get going before it gets dark."
"Oh, ok!"
Hanako smiled as she held Giyuu's hand, she didn't want to get separated from him in the crowd of people outside. People were whispering things like 'Awe he's such a responsible father.' , 'Poor girl, I hope she's ok after losing her leg.', and 'Aren't they just an adorable father-daughter duo?'
It felt weird that people were calling him her dad, especially since her father didn't look anything like Mr.Tomioka, her dad had firey dark red hair and dark red eyes, whereas Mr. Tomioka had pure black hair and blue eyes. Maybe she was just thinking to hard about this, she had one father, and he passed away a couple of years ago.
But, she didn't hate the fact that people were calling Mr.Tomioka her dad, it felt like he was becoming a father-figure to him. She felt hopeful, this felt like a new beginning. Yeah, this was a new beginning for the both of them.
~~
Hello again! Sorry that I haven't posted in ages, I've just been lazy to be honest.
I promise that I'll get to depose emotions later on in this story, but for now I'm just setting out some backstory before the story gets more interesting.
Anyways I hope you're all doing very well today, and thanks for reading! Enjoy this photo I found!
(All credits go to the original artist)