I didn't know what picture to use with this chapter so here, have fun.
Midori's POV
Daddy and I stared at each other in silence for a moment, the forest quiet and tranquil once more, before I burst out crying and ran towards him. I immediately felt myself being lifted into his arms and quickly buried my face into his chest, tightly clinging to his kimono like my life depended on it.
Which, I kind of felt now, really did.
"Daddy, what was that?!"
I shrieked, my horrified voice muffled by his kimono.
"A demon."
Daddy replied, his voice still sounding as calm and stable as ever.
"It-it was so scary and it said it was gonna eat me and-and-"
"I know, I know, my love, I know."
Now Daddy's voice lowered down an octave, to the tone he would use to lull me to sleep, and gently began to stroke my head. I sniffled once and shifted my hands from his kimono to wrap them around his neck once, my fingers looking as tiny as ants compared to the entirety of his body really.
"Demons truly are scary, and that is why the Demon Slayer Corps exists."
"Y-you all are heroes, Daddy!"
I somehow stuttered out through my sobbing, and Daddy didn't say anything for a moment, before slowly removing me from his neck to stare right into my eyes instead. I really had inherited the red eyes that both he and Uncle Michi shared. But, though I was only four years old, even I could tell that the depth and wisdom I could see in their eyes, especially in my father's eyes, were traits that I would never be able to match up to.
"The rule of never leaving the house without an adult, especially after sundown, has been set for a reason, Midori. Demons are active only after sundown, do you understand?"
I nodded, vowing to myself that I was most likely never going to disobey the adults ever again, before looking down at the flowers which had again been scattered all over the ground when I had gone running to Daddy to seek the sense of love and safety I desperately needed after everything I had just witnessed.
"You have a kind heart."
Daddy whispered as he knelt down to pick up the fallen flowers, mainly because I was still trembling and refusing to jump down from his arms.
"I only pray that this kindness of yours does not endanger you again as it did today. Midori."
I looked up at his face as he rose to his feet and tucked the flowers into the folds of his kimono, probably alongside the flute he always carried on him. Since Uncle Michi had made that flute for him, I had asked him if he could make me one exactly like that flute too. Uncle Michi got me five flutes from the market, all in perfect condition because, according to him, he didn't want me to have anything like an old instrument that couldn't even be played properly.
"You may be too young to understand my feelings right now. You are only four years old, after all. But I hope that, in due time, you shall be able to comprehend just how much your very existence means to me."
His lips stretched into a small smile, which was a sight rarer than the sight of Shouta-san not arguing with Zenshirou-san, and he planted a long kiss on my forehead. That was when I sensed it.
His fingers were quivering on my back. He was scared.
My jaw fell. What was Daddy scared about? He was the demon slayer, the hero, who had defeated this demon. Then why was he- My heart sunk and I hugged him tighter, promising myself that from now on, I was always going to obey him and do my best to not hurt him or scare him.
"I'm fine now, Daddy."
I whispered, and I heard him sigh softly as he tightened his hold around me.
"Thank God you are. Thank God I arrived here on time. If I had not..."
Daddy didn't say anything after that, but the quivering of his fingers on my back had increased. My lower lip trembled as I tried my best to hold back more tears. Katsuro-san was already failing to live tonight, and on top of that, I had stressed out my father even further. We remained in that position for a few moments longer, absolutely silent, before Daddy finally loosened his grip on me and muttered something along the lines of how it was best if we headed back to the Rengoku estate. After that, I couldn't register what kind of speed he used, but I discovered myself to be scurrying towards Katsuro-san's room within minutes; Daddy right behind me. When we were a few feet away from the door, from which the light filtering out had grown somewhat dimmer, Uncle Michi stepped out, and I halted in my tracks.
He had returned from his mission already?
Uncle Michi only passed me a sad smile, which was not something I usually saw on his otherwise cheerful or sarcastic face, and then turned a grave expression towards Daddy.
"Any moment now."
"Midori."
I looked up at Daddy and found him to be procuring the flowers I had collected from the folds of his kimono, before kneeling down to hand them to me.
"Go on."
I nodded and slowly walked into the room, the tears returning to my eyes. This time, now that one of the two lanterns had been extinguished, Kasumi-san was weeping as well, with Zenshirou-san sobbing into her shoulder, while Hina-san was fully bawling, her head splayed across her husband's chest. The others stood around the futon bed in silence, though anyone could tell by looking at their faces that they were trying their best to hold back their own tears.
"Katsuro-san?"
I whispered as I sat beside his head, right next to Kaito and Daichi. The man turned to look at me, face as white as a ghost, and I sniffed once before placing the flowers on his chest, above where I believed his heart was supposed to be.
"I brought these for you."
Katsuro-san produced a small smile and placed a shaking hand on my head, before moving it to Daichi's head and finally to Kaito's head.
"Take care...of Midori and Daichi...of your mother. You will...become the Flame Hashira in...a few years...from now. So, set your heart ablaze."
Then his hand fell to the floor and his eyes shut close. A soft sob echoed from behind me, probably from where the Master was standing, before I heard the Master speak as well.
"Rest in peace, Rengoku Katsuro. We salute you."
Every Hashira present in the room lowered their heads while kneeling on one knee, and the remaining lantern in the room was slowly put out.
Five months had passed since then, autumn transitioning to spring, and last month, Gakuto-san had succumbed to the same fate as Katsuro-san. He was succeeded only by a tsuguko, apparently a student, who was supposed inherit the position of the Stone Hashira next year and preserve the technique of Stone Breathing. Yes, I knew about the different breathing styles. Kaito began his training immediately after his father's death, quoting that he had no time to spare and had to become the Flame Hashira as soon as possible. According to him, the gap created by Katsuro-san's death was too crucial to be left empty for long and needed to be filled by him as quickly as possible, preferably before Muzan Kibutsuji found out. Now that another gap had been created by the demise of Gakuto-san, he needed to train harder and faster, even if Gakuto-san's tsuguko was way closer to becoming the Stone Hashira than he was to becoming the Flame Hashira. All these terms and sentences he had used in front of us, which was why Daichi and I had asked him if we could also take a look at the new books he was expected to study to become a demon slayer.
He outright refused, saying that he didn't want us to become a disturbance to him. Then he had also said something about how he didn't want us to become involved in any of this and thrown us out of his room.
We refused to give up though, determined to know more about the job in which all our family members were involved. Asking Hina-san would've been pointless because she was already too busy with managing the estate due to which we didn't want to disturb her further. So we had asked Goichi-san to give us some information, but he had only patted our heads and told us to go play. That was the point when Daichi had wondered if we were being given indirect orders to not raise questions about the Demon Slayer Corps, until the Master had revealed himself to us, saying that he had been visiting Goichi-san at that time and had overheard our conversation. Since the Master himself then gave us some books to read, we didn't feel guilty anymore. None of the grownups could override what the Master had allowed us to do. And so, the two of us had begun to exchange and read those books every single day. I had been taught how to read last year itself, mainly because Kasumi-san had been bored and wanted something to do, as a result of which I was a pretty fluent reader by now. Still, there were a few big words I couldn't understand, which Daichi would help me with later.
But it wasn't the same as Kaito helping me read a word while calling me stupid for not being able to do so on my own. As much of a bully he had been, Daichi and I missed him. He no longer played with us or even talked to us much, and on the rare occasions that we would be able to see him, he always looked grave and solemn. Nothing like the loud and obnoxious boy who once used to steal Miri from me just to annoy me. The last time he had even held one of my toys was to return Miri to me.
"Hey."
I looked up to find Kaito staring down at me. The sun on the morning after Katsuro-san's death had just risen and while everyone else was busy with the arrangements for the funeral, I was out on the engawa of the children's room and just staring at the ground. Daichi and I were expected to be asleep, and Daichi truly was asleep a few feet behind me in the warmth of the room, the tear stains of him having cried himself to sleep still scarring his cheeks. But I had not been able to sleep. Not when I still couldn't bring myself to believe that I would truly never see Katsuro-san ever again.
"Couldn't sleep?"
He asked as he slowly sat down next to me, and I shook my head in silence.
"I hadn't been able to sleep either. Woke up only an hour ago, and found this in my room."
My eyes widened when he handed Miri to me. I had once again forgotten all about her amidst the chaos of yesterday.
"You forgot her in my room when you'd left two days ago."
"Thank you."
I whispered as I slowly took the doll from his outstretched hand and hugged her tight. I was in need of her hugs right now. Then I glanced at Kaito, who had lost his father, and sniffled.
"Would you like to hold her too?"
"No. I don't have time for such things. I need to go assist my mother with all the preparations for today. Here."
He produced a small rolled parchment from his kimono and placed it next to me.
"Give it to your father. It has one of my father's last wishes written in it."
"But why does Daddy need to-"
"Because my father had wished for me to marry you. He had planned to send this letter to Yoriichi-san as a formal request for a betrothal, but died before he could do so. So, as his successor and the groom in question, I ask you to pass this letter ahead to the father of the bride."
Then he had stood up and walked away, after completing the last conversation I had had with him.
I had later given the letter to Daddy as he had asked me to, but Daddy hadn't said anything after reading it and had simply stuffed it into one of the drawers in our room. Neither he, nor any of the grownups except the Master, knew about the books which had provided substantial information about the Demon Slayer Corps to Daichi and me. It wasn't like we had purposefully not told them about what we were reading; they were all just too busy to notice. And while Daichi was grateful to have read so much about the rankings and the Breathing Styles and even about our greatest enemy, Muzan Kibutsuji, the king of the demon race, I felt more than grateful.
I felt like I wanted to be a demon slayer when I grew up.
Fifteen was the minimum age at which a person was allowed to participate in the Final Selection which needed to be passed for an individual to officially be recognized as a demon slayer, implying that full-blown training was supposed to be started at least by the age of thirteen. When I was going to be thirteen, Kaito was definitely going to be a demon slayer at seventeen. Further, since seventeen had been the age at which Katsuro-san had become the Flame Hashira, maybe Kaito too was going to be the Flame Hashira by then. If he agreed to guide and train me at that time, then I was destined to pass the Final Selection without doubt. If not, I could just turn to Daddy and Uncle Michi.
Actually, Daddy and Uncle Michi ideally had to be my first choices. Daddy's breathing style, known as Sun Breathing, was described as the very first form of breathing in the books, from which all the other breathing styles had been developed by the existing Hashira. Meanwhile, Uncle Michi had developed a style known as Moon Breathing which had proven to be more powerful than the breathing styles of even the veteran Hashira.
I hoped I would be able to master both styles of breathing one day. I didn't know if it was possible, since there was no mention in the books of any swordsman who had mastered two styles together. Then again, the concept of breathing styles was still quite new to the Demon Slayer Corps (seriously, Daddy had joined literally four years ago) so I could still hope.
"Midori?"
I turned my head when the door to the main room was slid open, only to find Daddy standing there. I returned my attention to the newest book which Daichi had been reading before passing on to me, and was also the last among the books the Master had given to us.
"My, what is so interesting about whatever it is that you're reading that you can't even smile at your father now?"
I heard Daddy muse as he approached me. I was lying with my stomach on the tatami, the book held up in front of me, and so Daddy laid down on top of me, placing both his hands on either side of my head.
"Daddy!"
I groaned in annoyance. He always did this when I was lying on the tatami.
"Yes, my little princess?"
"You're too heavy."
Lie. He actually wasn't putting any of his body weight on me, which was a feat I had no idea how he managed, but he was otherwise so big compared to an ant like me that his chest above my head was casting a shadow across my book.
"I have never heard you complain about that before. In fact, I believe that I have never heard you complain about my presence at all before. Do you not love me anymore?"
"Daddy!"
I yelled sternly.
"I do love you. But I'm bwusy right now."
"Doing what?"
"Rweading."
"I can see that, my dear, but what are you reading? And who gave you such a heavy book?"
"The Master."
"The Master?"
"Mm-hmm. He gave books to both Daichi and me to share."
Daddy didn't say anything after that and laid his head on my shoulder, probably to get a closer look at the contents of the book. I was currently reading a page which was describing how nichirin blades were ideally designed to kill demons because they were infused with sunlight, the greatest weakness of even the Demon King himself. But, right as I was about to turn the page, the book was lifted from the tatami and snapped shut.
"Huh? Wha- Daddy!"
"What kind of books have you and Daichi been reading?"
Daddy asked softly as he sat up straight, the book still in his hand. And though his voice was soft, I could still detect some kind of a darkness in his eyes, which made me tilt my head in confusion.
"About the Demon Swayer Corps and demons."
"Why?"
"Cebause we wanted to learn more about what you all do! And about the Mark too."
Yeah, we had finally received some information about the Mark that had taken both Katsuro-san and Gakuto-san from us. Apparently, those who used Breathing Styles for combat eventually developed a Mark on any part of their body, but most commonly the face, which granted them a temporary burst of impressive strength and durability that could defeat any demon for as long as that burst of strength and durability lasted. Daddy was the only one who had been born with the Mark, hence his strength, durability and skills were permanent.
"Daddy, can I pwease get my book back now?"
"No."
"What?!"
I gasped out, but Daddy stood up anyway and began to walk out of the room with the book still in his grasp.
"Daddy, wait, I was rweading that!"
I yelled and ran after him, but he softly slid the door in my face, leaving me stunned into silence for a moment. Then, when that moment of stunned silence passed, I groaned loudly and used all my might to pull the door open since it was still a little too heavy for me. After the encounter I had had with that ghastly demon on the night of Katsuro-san's demise, I did understand that our elders, the leaders among the Demon Slayer Corps, already had a lot to deal with on their plates; much more than a regular demon slayer. So, just like Daichi said, the least we kids could do was quietly obey their instructions and lessen a few worries for them. However, I still couldn't help but feel extremely aggravated when the adults told us to stay put, be it directly or indirectly, without even giving us a proper explanation. Again, just like Daichi said, it was probably best if we didn't question them or ask them to give us a proper explanation.
But this time? I had just been reading a book! Which adult had I disobeyed or questioned by reading a book?! That too a book given to me by the Master himself; the man whom even the Hashira could not speak against.
I quickly walked down the corridors of the estate towards Daddy's room but heard voices coming from Uncle Michi's room, and crept towards the entrance of his room instead. Daddy was standing with his back faced to me while Uncle Michi, in front of him, was rifling through the pages of the book; his brow set into a deep frown. Then, when he slammed the book shut, I actually shivered on seeing the furious expression that his face contorted into.
"Unbelievable. This is fucking unbelievable."
My eyes widened. I wasn't sure if I could ever recall an occasion on which my uncle had said the biggest no-no word ever.
"Just because he's the Master, he thinks he can fucking do anything he wants? Who gave him the right to give such a book to her without our permission?!"
I slowly started to step away from the threshold of the room, starting to get scared by the rise in Uncle Michi's tone.
"You had clearly told him several times before that you never wanted your daughter to become a demon slayer! But the man just never learns how to mind his own business, does he?"
"He has given similar books to Daichi as well, it seems."
"Again, disregarding Hina's wishes! Has that poor woman already not suffered enough by how her husband died and by how her first son is left with no choice but to join the Demon Slayer Corps? She's done nothing wrong by wishing to spare at least her second son from that doomed fate."
"That is where you are somewhat wrong, Nii-san. Daichi is simply a means for the Master to conceal his true intentions. His main target is our Midori."
"Of course. The bastard must've been itching to groom her into fighting for him even when her own father said that he didn't want her to join the Demon Slayer Corps. And to think he's trying to do it to her when she's only four!"
"Uncle Michi?"
Uncle Michi's eyes slightly widened when they landed on me as Daddy turned around and fixed his gaze on me as well. We all remained silent, until I gulped softly before running towards Daddy and wrapping my arms around his leg.
"Why can't I be a demon swayer, Daddy?"
"Well, first off, you can't even get the pronounciation of slayer right."
Uncle Michi remarked, and I stuck my tongue out at him before looking back up at Daddy and tilting my head at him.
"What's wrong about it? You and Uncle Michi are also demon swayers."
"Do you want to be one too?"
"Yes!"
I nodded and grinned enthusiastically.
"I wanna be a hero! Like you and Uncle Michi! And then I can sway demons with you guys! Right?"
But Daddy didn't say anything for a minute, before gently pushing me away from his leg and walking out of the room. I stared after him, dumbfounded, after which I turned my gaze to Uncle Michi at which he huffed and dropped to his knees.
"Midori."
He spread his arms out and I ran over to his chest, letting him wrap his arms back around me.
"There's a reason why neither your father nor I want you to become a demon slayer. Ever."
"But the Master-"
"The Master is wrong."
He said this with such force that I immediately shut up and buried my face into his chest.
"He's only a human, he can be wrong too sometimes. And this time."
I felt my uncle's grip tightening around me.
"He is gravely wrong. He may be our superior, but only in our profession. Otherwise, he has no right to to meddle with the personal affairs of our family and our child."
"But-"
"Midori."
Uncle Michi moved me away from his chest to stare right into my eyes and cupped my face with both hands.
"What your father and I do...it's nothing to be proud of. It's dangerous, and not something we would ever want you to get involved in. Understand?"
I stayed quiet for a moment, trying my best to hold down my disappointment, before sighing and nodding.
"I underswand."
"Good girl. Now, I'll go tell your dad to stop being a gloomy and dramatic idiot."
We giggled softly, after which he kissed my forehead and rose to his feet to walk out of the room. I stared after him, before looking up at the sky through the open doors leading to the engawa.
"I don't care how dwangewous you think your job is, Uncle Michi. I'm still proud of you and Daddy and everyone else."
I had quietly remained seated on the engawa since then, playing with any butterfly that flew by. I had always sucked at attracting them towards my finger until last year but Daddy never gave up on teaching me how to do it, as a consequence of which I could now befriend any butterfly I encountered. The biggest among them was Kasumi-san. I had no idea why she called herself a butterfly though. Maybe it had something to do with her being the Flower Hashira. Or maybe she just really liked butterflies, which would explain the giant butterfly shaped bun her hair would always be pulled into. I liked butterflies too, which was why I could have constantly kept playing with the ones flying around me had it not been for the shrill honk of a swan that landed on my ears all of a sudden. My eyes widened. I knew there was a considerably large pond a few meters into the forest right behind our estate, and I knew that beautiful white swans liked to build their nests there sometimes. Daddy never let me go too close to those nests though, saying that I would disturb the baby swans and get attacked by the parent swans as a result. However, the shrill honk I had heard just now almost sounded like a shrill cry for help and, without waiting to think it through, I raced towards the back gate of the estate from where I hurried into the forest. The honking grew louder the deeper I ran in, until I finally burst into the clearing where the pond was located.
Only to walk upon a scene that horrified me.
A small cluster of twigs at the edge of the pond, which might have been a nest once, had completely been smashed in and destroyed by stones. A swan lay within the debris, motionless and covered in blood. Meanwhile, another swan was the source of the loud honking; screaming defensively and standing in front of what looked like a bunch of eggs as a group of cackling boys kept hurling stones at them.
So, in retaliation, I picked up a stone too and flung it straight at the head of the boy standing in the centre of his group.
I didn't know what came over me. I was just a tiny four-year old while these boys, who were probably no younger than thirteen, were absolutely massive. But, what I did know was that I couldn't let them get away with what they were doing, couldn't let them continue torturing an innocent mother and her unborn children when they had never even done anything to them. If my father, uncle and all the other adults in my life could battle hideous man-eating demons, many probably worse than the one I had seen that night, with freaking swords, then I could at least drive away a bunch of cruel and evil humans with some stones.
Right? Right, right, of course I could.
"Hey!"
The boy whom I had struck, yelled and swung around, eyes widening into a glare when he saw me. I quickly snatched up another stone from the ground, but by then, that boy's other friends were also glaring at me.
"Who do you think you are, you brat?!"
My hands shook slightly when the first boy yelled at me in a loud and enraged voice. He really was quite taller than me.
"What did you do that for?!"
My throat nearly dried up from the fear that had begun to course through my veins after the initial burst of courage died out, which almost convinced me to drop the stone in my hand and just run away. Then my gaze shifted to the swan still guarding the eggs. That swan, whom I decided to refer to as 'she' because she immediately seemed like the mother to me for some reason, had been wounded in one wing which had started to turn red from blood, but she still refused to abandon her eggs. She remained there, using her uninjured wing as a shield to wrap around those eggs. My bottom lip quivered, especially when my gaze shifted next to the swan knocked out in the nest, the father most likely, who had been so badly injured that he couldn't move anymore. I tightened my grip on the stone in my hand.
"Wh-what did you do that for?!"
I yelled back, despite the small stutter.
"Why are you hwurting that poor swan?! She has eggs!"
"Did you hear that, guys?"
One of the boys called out in a mocking tone.
"This kid really called a stupid animal 'she'! It's an animal, idiot, not a human!"
All the other boys burst out laughing and I gritted my teeth.
"So what?! She still has fweelings!"
"An animal with feelings!"
Another one of the boys called out in a mocking tone again, and all the other boys burst out laughing again. Just the sound of that evil and boisterous laughter of theirs pissed me off to bring back my momentary surge of courage, which I used to hurl the stone in my hand at the same boy I had targeted earlier. This time, the hit was hard enough to create a crack on the side of his forehead, from which blood spurted out within seconds.
"That's it, you brat!"
He yelled and began to walk towards me, instinctively making me take a step back.
"I initially wanted to let you run back to wherever you came from cause you're a little girl. We were just trying to do our job. But now you've gone and done it!"
"Wait, I-"
I interrupted my own sentence with a terrified scream when that much older and much larger boy grabbed me by the collar of my kimono and violently thrashed me to the ground, after which he knelt down and started to land a series of awful punches to my stomach.
"That won't cut it, man! We should stone her to death too!"
One of his friends yelled, making my next scream much louder than the previous ones. Why did they want to kill me just for trying to defend a swan?!
"If we let her live and she reports this to her parents, we might have to get out of here before we can complete the job given to us!"
"Fine."
The boy stopped punching me and I slowly raised my head to look up at him, only to find him glaring down at me.
"Let's get rid of that swan first and grab the eggs. Then we'll deal with this little vermin here."
My eyes widened when he left to resume torturing the swan with the rest of his peers, and I suddenly realized just why I had seen the mother in that swan even though I didn't actually know if that swan was the mother. But the way she defended her eggs with all the might in her...it was probably how my mother had defended me when that demon had attacked us. But my mother had had no one else to defend her. Katsuro-san had arrived too late, as a result of which she ended up dying. That didn't have to be the case with this swan. And I didn't care if it was "just" a swan and not a human.
Life was life. Every living creature deserved saving if possible.
Ignoring the pain in my abdomen, even though tears wouldn't keep pouring from my eyes, I shot up to my feet and staggered towards the swan as fast as I could. Right as I threw myself onto her, a stone struck me above the eye. I couldn't tolerate the pain anymore, especially when I could sense blood trickling down my nose, and fully began to bawl now. When I looked up at the criminals, they showed not even a single trace of mercy in their eyes, and I hugged the swan tighter, closing my eyes shut. The pain obviously wasn't going to stop here.
"What kind of a persistent and insolent brat are you?!"
The first boy screamed.
"We were going to kill you anyway, so-"
"You were going to do what now?"
All the hairs on my arms stood up on end when that deep and chilling voice echoed throughout the expanse of the forest, gasping before slowly opening my eyes.
My father was standing behind those boys. Radiating an aura so menacing that I began to sniffle from fear. He had the face of my father alright, but he didn't seem like my father.
Not with those hooded eyes and those eery shadows cast across his face.
"Who the hell are you?!"
The first boy yelled on turning around, though the rest of his friends had somewhat stepped away from his side; their knees quivering. Even the first boy was afraid. He was acting to put up a brave front, but the shaking of his hands was easily visible. I couldn't blame him though. Not when Daddy was radiating that menacing aura; menacing enough to terrify even his own child.
"I am the father of that girl over there."
"So what?!"
The boy yelled again.
"Your stupid brat was-"
Daddy slapped him right across the face, but with such a force, that the boy's entire body went flying to the ground. He did not get up again, and a shiver raced down my spine.
"Yoriichi."
Uncle Michi approached Daddy from behind and glared at the remaining boys with such an intensity that I was once more scared into oblivion.
"Take Midori home. I shall deal with them."
"Deal with them well, Nii-san."
Daddy nodded and walked over to me, the boys quickly scrambling away to clear the way for him, and, despite the fear continuing to course through me, I still desperately reached my arms out to him, waiting to be picked up by him. Regardless of everything, he was still my father and still the one who could keep me the safest.
"Sw-swan?"
I hiccuped out when Daddy picked me up, and he glanced at Uncle Michi once who only nodded. Daddy nodded back, before starting to walk away. I immediately started screaming for the swan and, much to my surprise, the swan started honking in my direction as well, but Daddy kept walking while reassuring me that the swan and her eggs were going to be fine. Once we reached the estate and Daddy set me down on the tatami of the main room, shutting the door to the engawa for some reason, he procured some herbal paste for the wounds on my stomach and a bandage to wrap around the cut on my forehead. I had been sobbing throughout the entire process about how I had only wanted to help that poor swan, to which Daddy replied that he understood my feelings and was proud of me.
"You have a kind heart, my love."
He said as he raised a cup of honey milk to my lips. For some reason, the honey milk that he made for me always succeeded in calming me down in any situation. Tonight was no different. Especially when Daddy himself fed it to me.
"Which is definitely why you should not become a demon slayer."
I placed both hands on the cup, while he continued to hold the base, and savoured the warm liquid starting to flow down my throat.
"In a profession such as that, your kindness will only cost you. More than you, it will cost me and your uncle. Heavily. Midori."
Daddy gently lowered the cup and I tilted my head up at him.
"After what happened today, after you told me about how those books impacted you, I shall have to take some strict measures."
"Mweaning?"
"Meaning I cannot afford to lose you, and I will do anything to ensure such. Even if you may grow to resent me one day."
Uncle Michi had called in Kasumi-san only seconds after we had left the forest, and because she lived in the same neighbourhood as all the other Hashira, she had been able to arrive on time to save both the swan I had been shielding and the unconscious swan. The eggs had been unharmed but, for further security, Kasumi-san shifted the whole swan family to the pond that was right on her estate, within the safety of the four walls of her estate. I was allowed to visit them as much as I wanted, which was why I even got to watch their eggs hatch. But the entire time, I was accompanied either by Daddy or Uncle Michi or Goichi-san. In fact, after that incident in the forest, I was mostly kept cooped up inside the house and never permitted to go out even to play with Daichi anymore. Come to think of it, I was never permitted to go to the Rengoku estate itself anymore. If I ever left the house, accompanied by Daddy or Uncle Michi, I would be taken only to visit Goichi-san or Kasumi-san. Any place other than that and our own estate was forbidden, and both my guardians had stopped taking me out to visit the city every week like they used to before. That was it.
The doors were always kept closed to me.
That's their mom, Tsugikuni Akeno.