Chapter Text
“ Oi, Iguro! Wake the fuck up”
Obanya looked down from the tree branch she perched upon, only to see a familiar face.
“ Shinzugawa-San… “
Sanemi stomped his way over towards the very tree his friend resides in, only to kick it three times, with no major outcome.
“ W-why did you do that? You’re only going to hurt your foot “
Her drowsy voice croaked as she rubbed her eyes open.
“ I’m trying to get your attention but you obviously don’t seem to care much “
Obanya made her way down the tree, landing swiftly just beside her fellow hashira. She peered up at him, since he was much taller then her, she had to tilt her head a ways to see the annoyed yet eager expression on his face.
“ what exactly do you want,
Shinazugawa ? “
And like that, Sanemi’s entire demeanor changed. He grabbed Obanya’s smaller wrist gently and pulled her down the hilltop.
Obanya tried questioning the man, to no prevail. Then tried tugging against his grip, to even further failure.
Eventually, the pair arrived to a lovely setting. Dozens of blooming blossom trees dancing swiftly in the wind, pettles falling in all directions. There’s a large pond, and beautiful large stones placed precisely around it, as walking stones. A path leads the way to a bench across the way, which appears to stray off the path she and Sanemi has been standing on. There’s thick brush and woodland around the area, and Sanemi seems to be purposefully staying behind a bush.
Obanya pears threw the heavy thicket, not seeing too much of what any commotion could be about. Though she hears what sounds like two or more people talking.
As she begins to step out of the way of the bush, Sanemi shifts his hands to her shoulders and pulls her beneath him as he hunches down over her.
Obanya squirms, but quickly realizes it’s useless against the ape holding her in place, and sighs in a whisper.
“ Shinasugawa, explain what’s this about or I’m going to drown you in that pond! “
She exclaims in a whisper-yell, turning her head up to glare at the man.
He gestures a finger to tell her to be quiet, and points past the heavy thicket towards the bench from earlier.
Obanya gives in, and glances towards the way, squinting to see with her poor eyesight.
Eventually she notices a familiar figure with three long pink and green braids, and another character she hadn’t ever seen before, but appeared to be a taller male. He was wearing a long-dull typical kimono, while Mitsuri had been wearing a pink-flowered one. Obanya couldn’t begin to make out facial expressions, as the distance was at least six yards away, the thicket was still blocking her view.
They were just standing there, chitchatting.
“ Shinzugawa.. Why the hell are we spying on Kanroji??? “
Her question again, coming out an angry whisper-yell.
“ Jeez, I’d think you’d be more grateful! I know you value Kanroji as a friend, I assumed you’d want to see what and who she was doing “
Obanya nearly jumped at the accusation thrown at her friend, and thrusted her head upward to headbutt Sanemi, sending him flying backward. Obanya, quickly straddled him, fisting his collar in her hands. Leaning in closer so she could still whisper.
“ What the fuck are you insinuating!? That she’s intimate with that guy? Why would you assume that? “
Sanemi groaned as he gathered his bearings, looking quite unpleased with Obanyas actions.
“ I dunno, maybe cuz he bought her dinner and kissed her hand, only to drag her off to a romantic place like this to propose to her ? “
Obanyas eyes grew wide, as she released her grip on her co-workers collar. She jerked up straight, landing just beside Sanemi on the ground. She just stared at the ground for a second, then back to the man next to her.
“ W-what ? “
Is all she could choke out.
She peeked through the bushes as the pair seemed to not notice them, and Sanemi inched closer to speak.
“ I was passing through the neighborhood on my way back from a mission when I decided to grab a bite, they had been there before me and seemed to be getting along. Kanroji noticed me, and she ended up introducing us. She referred to him as her ‘ date ‘ after a few moments of small talk he asks her to wait outside while he payed, and she greeted me and left. He then winked at me and told me he intended on asking for her hand privately “
Sanemi paused for a moment, as he noticed Obanya noticibly sink in her place, and placed a hand on her shoulder before continuing.
“ So I secretly followed them, and remembered you shouldn’t have been far from here, thankfully it only took me a few moments to find you “
‘ why ‘ Obanya thought, ‘ why… ‘
Kaburamaru nuzzled against her cheek, noticing her eyes glistening from threatening tears. She didn’t know if she should cry of scream, so she stayed silent. So Sanemi did too.
After all… it wasn’t her right to feel this way, for her friend.
Girls don’t like girls.
They stared on for a few more moments, before he appeared to pull something out and gesture it towards Kanroji. The girl brought her hands up to her face, as she gasped loudly. And he pulled one of her hands down to place what appeared to be a ring on her finger. He then pushed a part of her bangs behind her ear to seemingly kiss her on her forehead, and she gently hugged him in response.
All awhile this happens in mere seconds, Obanya realizes she forgot to breathe. But still, her chest was hurting far worse then any wound a demon could ever give her, her heart ached more then it ever had. She hadn’t realized she’d been digging her nails into her knees, or the tears that had been falling on her leggings. She was beginning to hyperventilate, and the last thing she wanted was to be noticed by those two.
Or by anyone. She didn’t want that stranger, Sanemi, Kaburamaru, or even her precious Kanroji to see her ugly tear-stained face.
She tried to muster the courage to get up and run, but she glanced up to see the two staring towards her. That’s when she realized Sanemi tugging at her kimono.
“ Oi! Iguro! Come on, they’ll notice us. We have to get out of here!! “
She glanced back as she heard Kanroji call out “ is anyone there? “ She realized she better follow Sanemi.
The hashira pair made their escape before the two had seemed to gather who or what they were, and made a beeline for the path they were originally on. After they made it a ways away, they began to slow themselves down, and pace their steps with eachother.
Obanya had managed to gain commodity her broken state, and the tears had seemed to vanish. She now just blankly stared towards the ground in front of her, not saying a word to break the silence.
Sanemi waits a few moments, but decides on a set of words he thinks is appropriate to break the silence.
“ Pretty place back there, huh ? “
Obanya ignores him completely, her eyebrows furrowing further.
‘ Ah shit, way to go Sanemi! You dumbass!! ‘
He groans to himself, before trying again.
“ well, the scenery I mean. Not what just happened… Pretty trees “
He akwardly laughed, then realized how stupid he was sounding. Obanya again only ignored him.
“ hey, I’m sorry. Maybe you didn’t need to see that. I know she’s a good friend of yours, and if you didn’t know about him before then- I don’t really know “
Sanemi had a point, Obanya hadn’t even heard a thing about this guy. She had no idea that Mitsuri was seeing a guy, or had even met him. Surely Mitsuri wouldn’t be so desperate to marry a guy on the first date ?
She knew about mitsuri’s dreams… Of getting married and starting a family, but she always mentioned a guy… all but once.
Obanya remembers that day very vividly, it’s burned into the back of her mind. It’s the only thing that remotely validated her feelings towards Mitsuri, or gave her the slightest bit of hope- that she might ever have a chance with Mitsuri.
It was just a typical day, Both of the girls had been free as of completing their missions, and had met up to have lunch with eachother. One of Obanyas favorite things to do, in fact. They were talking about all sorts of things when the topic of marriage came up. Mitsuri was going on about how she felt that she was soon to meet her Prince Charming, that he was just right around the corner waiting for her. Obanya didn’t intervene or say anything about the topic, which Mitsuri eventually caught onto.
Mitsuri had asked what she had thought about marriage and Obanyas words were simple and to the point.
“ I don’t ever intend on wasting my time with a man, it would make me vomit at the idea. If a man ever asked me for my hand, which I doubt will ever happen, I would probably stab him “
Mitsuri stared blankly for a moment, and Obanya worried she’d been too straightforward. But soon Mitsuri’s smile returned.
“ my, my. I’ll take a note of that. But you only spoke of men, perhaps that means you prefer women? “
Obanya nearly choked on her tea when the word ‘ women ‘ escaped Mitsuris lips. All she could do was choke out a confused “ W-what ? “ her cheeks noticeably growing redder and redder.
Mitsuri giggled, and placed her hand atop of Obanya’s which was still grasping her tea cup violently.
“ It’s okay if you do or don’t, I’ll even admit I dream of a princess charming time to time “
Obanya never admitted to if she felt that way or not, and Mitsuri never prodded any further. She simply switched the topic to some silly drama she heard about the swordsman village.
But it never left Obanyas mind. The idea that maybe, just maybe.
She could love Mitsuri.
Obanya returned to the present, realizing she never did answer Sanemi, who had silently been walking aside her this entire time.
“ Shinazugawa, it’s getting dark.. perhaps we should go out separate ways now “
“ … Nah, I don’t mind walking you to your estate, it’s not that far off from mine anyways “
Obanya puased in her steps to turn and face a Sanemi that now a had fallen still.
“ I don’t need you treating me like a lady, I can walk just fine by myself “
“ Well, to me your mind seems a bit clouded. I better just walk with you in case “
“ Ugh!! You men are all the same! You think we need you in every second of our lives, in every decision or step we take. I’ve slain several demons without breaking a sweat, I don’t need you to be my personal escort! “
Sanemi, against his better judgment, reached out to grab the girls wrist, to which she jerked and pulled but could not escape.
“ Let go of me bastard! “
“ No! Just listen to me! You’re trying to push all of your anger and hatred out on me and I’m not having any of that bullshit! “
“….”
“ You wanna be miss ‘ independent ‘ I frankly don’t give a shit, I’d do the same if you were a guy. A friend isn’t gonna let a friend suffer alone. I ain’t THAT type of gu! “
Obanya stopped pulling against him, and his grip let up. She couldn’t look in his eyes after that so she looked towards her feet. Sanemi sighed, and took a step closer to put a hand on her head, patting twice.
She couldn’t help it any longer, and she let herself go into his arms. She clung to him tightly as he wrapped his arms around her.
They stayed like that for a good while, as she cried softly into his chest. He didn’t say nor ask a thing more. He was just simply there for her.