Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Exchange
Giyuu was traveling skillfully through the trees with Kanzaburo following closely behind him. He had recently finished his corresponding mission so he was now returning to the Water Estate where he resided and, if he was lucky, he would meet Sabito there.
There were still a couple of hours until dawn so he was careful, soon he felt a familiar presence near where he was, so he decided to head towards it.
“Iguro-san!” Giyuu caught the attention of the Serpent Hashira once he was close.
“Ah, Giyuu” Iguro had felt Giyuu's presence nearby, but he didn't think he would head towards him “finishing a mission?”
“That's right, i was on my way to home” they both continued their trip together, talking occasionally, both boys were not very talkative but that didn't mean their trip was any less enjoyable.
“Oh shit” they both felt a familiar presence, but it was only Iguro who complained loudly. A few seconds later the tall figure of the Sound Hashira, Uzui Tengen, was present.
“Giyuu!”Uzui happily greeted the blue-eyed man “Iguro” the Hashira did not greet his teammate with so much enthusiasm.
“Good evening Uzui-san” Giyuu formally greeted the white-haired man, in the background an “agh” could be heard from the other black-haired man.
“What are you two into?” Uzui started a cheerful conversation with Giyuu (he talks and the other listens) with Iguro following them as they continued traveling through the forest.
Meanwhile…
On another completely different existential plane, a completely different Giyuu was traveling through the same forest but with a different destination. Foolishly during his last mission he injured his shoulder, so he was now heading to the Butterfly Estate where he hoped to be treated by the Insect Hashira, Kochou Shinobu, or one of her subordinates.
Kanzaburo, who was flying close to him, raised her voice to warn him that they were approaching someone traveling ahead. Giyuu moved forward carefully until the helpless figure of the Stone Hashira appeared in his sight.
“Himejima-san!” The other man stopped his walk and turned completely towards Giyuu with tears running down his eyes.
“Ah, Tomioka-kun” the Stone Hashira greeted him “finishing a mission?”
“Yes and you?”
“Also, now I was heading to my Estate” they talked a little more as they resumed their walk, Giyuu told him that he was on his way to the Shinobu Estate due to his shoulder injury while the other man told him that he would pray for his recovery .
Himejima “observed” his fellow Hashira from time to time, Tomioka was one of the most reserved ones and seemed to keep a deep sadness inside. Himejima was one of those who did not believe that Tomioka was someone who thought he was better than the rest as Shinazugawa and Iguro continually said.
Maybe, he should invite him over for tea sometime to spend time with him. Himejima was thinking happily until his senses went on extreme alert, forcing him to stop his journey.
“Tomioka-kun”
“Don't worry, I felt it too” both men stood back to back, until cuts in the air began to attack them intensely and evenly. But not for nothing were they both Hashiras and those attacks were nothing to them.
They continued fighting for a long time until Himejima felt something different, an attack different from the others, which would reach directly at his back and he would not be able to repel it.
Only the attack did not come. The Stone Hashira managed to hear a “Himejima-san” before he realized that the Water Hashira had placed himself in the middle, the attack hitting him squarely, beams of lights illuminated the place for brief seconds and then Himejima felt his partner on the floor unconscious and the demon nowhere to be seen.
On the other side…
A similar battle was being fought, only the three men synchronized quite well to counterattack the demon, which had not shown its ugly face yet. But the inevitable happened and the demon launched his Demonic Art directly at Giyuu.
“GIYUU!” Both Hashiras shouted but neither managed to reach the black-haired man, who did not have time to prevent the attack and hit him squarely.
Intense lights illuminated the place, leaving Uzui and Iguro perplexed. When it was all over, Giyuu was lying on the ground unconscious and both boys rushed to be next to him.
“It can't be” Uzui exclaimed “Sabito is going to kill us”
“This is not the moment Uzui” Iguro tried not to panic because he knew that the other was right “we have to take him to Kochou”
“Kanzaburo, go to Sabito, tell him that we have to take Giyuu to the Butterfly Estate” Uzui looked for the crows “Nijimaru, go with him”
“Yuan you too” Iguro told his crow as they both began to run, hoping that Giyuu was okay.
Well, you know...
Giyuu woke up little by little, trying to observe everything around him carefully. The last thing he remembered was being attacked by a demon (which he couldn't even see) and then having the sensation of being swept away by a whirlpool before falling into unconsciousness.
Now as he opened his eyes, the sight of the white walls told him where he was, turning his head carefully he could see the short figure of the Insect Hashira, the empty beds in the room gave him to understand that hewas the only person in the room.
Giyuu found that strange.
If his assumption was correct, based on the position of the sun shining from the windows behind him, he would say that it is noon, so the attack must have been several hours ago. Giyuu couldn't remember a single moment when Sabito wasn't with him when he was injured, so where was his husband?
“Kochou-san?” The girl turned to see her patient, the somewhat lost look of the Water Hashira was the first thing she noticed. Shinobu felt like she was missing something, there was something strange with her teammate since he was brought in a few hours ago but she couldn't figure out what.
“Ara, ara, Tomioka-san, I notice that you finally woke up” she spoke to the other boy, who was looking at her in a strange way, something rare was definitely happening.
“Kochou-san...” the black-haired man began to say carefully, “Kochou-san? Since when did Tomioka call her Kochou-san?” Shinobu stopped his train of thought when he heard the boy continue talking “Where is Sabito?”
“Sabito?” she said with confusion “Who is Sabito?”
Now, if someone ever asked her about this, she would say that she had a civil conversation with Tomioka (or whoever this kid was) from the beginning. NO, she wouldn't tell this to anyone, maybe to Oyakata-sama, but I would take this to the grave.
Not even a second passed when she asked who Sabito was, that Tomioka's eyes shone in alert, he took his sword that was on the side of the headboard with exceptional speed, he struck her arms with his sword still sheathed, he stood up with a defensive pose while looking at her as if she were a demon.
“Tomioka-san…” little veins stood out comically on her forehead, especially when she was interrupted.
“And there it goes again, Kochou-san hasn't called me that for a long time, now answers: Where am I?” Once again Shinobu found everything strange, since she met Tomioka he had never heard him speak so much, nor so loudly.
“I don't know what's going on, but you're at the Butterfly Estate, Himejima-san brought you several hours ago after a demon attack, you had been unconscious all this time, and no, I don't know who Sabito is.”
She watched as the boy in front of her relaxed a little while muttering "Himejima-san?" With a frown, now that he was standing Shinobu could observe him better and understood why for a long time she felt that there was something strange with the Water Hashira.
His big, bright and expressive eyes, his relaxed face and posture, the buttons on his uniform, even he wore his hair short, how did you not notice before? This was not her teammate.
“Hey, I think I know...” but she was interrupted by the boy again, raising the palm of his hand and showing a noticeable smooth ring on his ring finger. And oh definitely this was not his Tomioka Giyuu.
“I think I was exchanged to a parallel world, your Giyuu was thrown into mine and I fell here”
Shinobu sighed in defeat, she will have to urgently contact Himejima-san and Oyakata-sama.