Chapter Text
The Butterfly Mansion was one of a kind — nowhere in the Corps could you ever find a building like this. In size it almost matched the Master’s Mansion, it was the biggest of the Hashira’s estates. But there was a reason for that. The Wisteria Houses scattered across Japan acted as recuperation centres for slayers after normal missions, but those who were severely injured or came after especially gruelling missions with demons that used especially tricky Blood Demon Arts always came to the Butterfly Mansion.
It was the main clinic of the Corps. According to Kanae, back in the day the Corps had to rely on public clinics for the worst cases, but demon inflicted injuries were different from the standard ones, that’s why two of the former Flower and Water Hashiras, who were both physicians before they joined the corps, transformed the Flower Estate of that time into the Butterfly Mansion that was today. They both really liked butterflies and aside from making the Corps’ own hospital, they also made a butterfly house at the side of the buildings. That's where the name came from.
Unlike the other Hashira Estates this one wasn’t technically under a Hashira’s jurisdiction, but rather the Corps as a whole and if there was a Hashira present who had medical knowledge then the Mansion traditionally fell under their care.
It didn’t even have to be a Flower Hashira and since its establishment there was already another Flower Estate built. Actually, according to Kanae, rather than there being an estate for every style of Breathing, there were a few built and they changed names depending on what Breathing the Hashira inhabiting them used. The only exceptions were the Water Estate and the Rengoku/Flame Estate that have had a Hashira of that specific Breathing style ever since their establishments.
Right now, however, the Butterfly Mansion was also the Flower Estate but like Kanae joked, once Shinobu became a Hashira it’d probably be the Insect Estate, since Shinobu was so much more talented than her. Shinobu always blushed heavily at the praise and mumbled that she wasn’t yet a Hashira.
So all in all, the Butterfly Estate was a pretty special place. And now the Tokitou twins were to call it their home. It didn’t take them long to figure out more or less how people there operated and lived. What they reminded them of.
Muichirou thought that as much as the name of their house was literally the Butterfly Mansion, its residents were more like bees.
They were constantly busy, buzzing around doing this and that. Kiyo, Sumi and Naho were little bees that everyone took care of and gave honey to whenever someone wasn't watching. Aoi was like a worker bee, constantly doing something. Shinobu would be a stringer bee, that was a fighter bee, because even though all bees had stingers not everyone was willing to use it so easily as Shinobu. In that case Kanao would be a fighter bee in training. And Kanae was obviously the queen bee, without whom the whole beehive would collapse on itself.
Yuichirou thought it was not the best analogy. First of all, there were no little bees, there were larvae and it felt wrong to call the three sweet girls that. It’d also mean that Aoi was the only one working and they were all taking care of the Estate, it was just that Aoi did so the most fervently and she relocated responsibilities to everyone, so if anything, she’d be the manager bee. Bees can sting only once in their lifetime and Shinobu ‘stung’ multiple times per battle and Kanao didn’t sting at all, she used Flower Breathing so she was more of a nectar collecting bee. And besides, there was nothing like fighter bees and nectar collecting bees and manager bees, actually. They were all the same worker bees but doing different jobs. And Kanae obviously couldn’t be a queen bee because that would mean that all the Butterfly Girls were her children and that— That was just so wrong.
But Muichirou thought that his brother was looking too deeply into things again. He was obviously not basing it all on facts, he was just stating it going off vibes. So he’ll stay with this analogy and think about where they would fit in in his beehive scenario, because he had yet to figure that out.
Yuichirou really hoped he didn’t come to some stupid conclusion like they were drones just because they were the only boys. No, please don’t.
He himself didn't really think about what the Butterfly Mansion was like to him. It was different, that was for sure.
It was different than their home, back then they lived alone, even when their parents were still alive, hardly anyone came to visit them and the few human interactions they got came from the village laying at the feet of the mountain. And the Butterfly Mansion received visitors in varying states of health daily. It was annoying at times, having to deal with so many people that sometimes seemed to purposefully get on Yuichirou’s nerves, but it also was a great opportunity to learn so many new things. So it wasn’t all bad.
It was also different from the Master’s Mansion, not only because the guests there were less common, but also because everyone was much less… demanding? They could be left alone if they wanted to, but here they had to work and contribute and when they weren’t doing that, the three little girls would find them, not taught to leave people alone as much as the Ubuyashiki Kids, and forcefully drag them into whatever game they played at the time. It wasn’t bad, Yuichirou liked doing things and he had nothing against the constant workload, but sometimes he just wished they could be left alone for longer than five minutes.
But it wasn’t bad, just different. Yeah, to Yuichirou, the Butterfly Mansion was different. Not a bad different, but different.
At least those were their first impressions of this place after a few days of living there.
***
Their first day waking up at the Butterfly Mansion began like this — Aoi woke them up. It was Muichirou who was in control when they fell asleep and it was also him who woke up, groggily wiping his eyes when Aoi took off his blanket.
“What time even is it?” The lack of a window was a little problematic, though it wasn’t like Muichirou would be more likely to wake up even if he saw that the sun was already up. It wasn’t his fault — once you fell asleep it was so hard to wake up…
At least they had a clock, though Muichirou wasn’t even about to try and read it right now. Maybe later or maybe Yuichirou would.
“The right time to wake up,” Aoi said, walking out of their room. “You live with us now, so you have to follow our daily cycle now. Meet me in the kitchen in five minutes.”
Their daily cycle was awful — Muichirou realised instantly. Last evening they didn’t really spend much time with the girls, Yuichirou made enough furofuki daikon for all of them, but the two of them ate alone, telling Kanae that they still needed to get used to the place and that the next day they’d join them. Which was true, but now it was the next day and well… because they didn’t talk with them they didn’t really know what to expect and Muichirou wasn't prepared to wake at FREAKING FOUR IN THE MORNING!!!
“Four thirty, don’t be dramatic. We stayed way past that slaying demons,” Yuichirou said when he complained to him about it outloud.
“It’s easier to stay awake than to wake up, you know? Why do we even need to wake up so early, anyways?”
It turned out that there was a very particular reason for such an early awakening. Usually, around five to five thirty Kanae and Shinobu would be back from their patrol and with both of them back at the Mansion, it meant a return to this particular routine.
Neither Shinobu nor even Kanae got many far away missions, mostly patrols of the area since both the Master’s and the Butterfly Mansions were nearby, they couldn’t let any demon nearby so patrolling the area was crucial.
“When they were away, they called for a few slayers to cover for them,” Aoi told them, going through a few cupboards and taking out different ingredients. She sounded mad, even going as far as throwing the pot on the burner. “It’s important that at least one advanced slayer always stays at the Mansion.”
Muichirou nodded.
“Once you get your sword back, you’ll probably join them so they can rotate you between patrols and farther away missions,” she continued. “Now, enough of that, do you know how to cook rice?”
He knew, so he nodded. Well, he mostly knew. It would end up a little burnt but edible. Yuichirou would do a better job, but they had yet to tell Aoi about their situation and she looked infuriated enough that he didn’t want to ask her if he could go to the bathroom to go back to their room and change with Yui.
It was Yuichirou’s idea to not change, actually. It didn’t mean that he didn’t complain when the rice, predictably, turned out burnt at the bottom of the pot and since it was Yuichirou — always the one not to throw away ‘edible’ food — forced him to scrap it off and eat.
“You seemed more decent at cooking yesterday,” Aoi commented, looking at his poor job. In his defence, that was Yuichirou. She’d understand everything once his brother got to explaining everything to her. “When we do the patient’s breakfasts I’ll handle the cooking and you’ll do the delivery.”
She told him to make tea and herself took out a pan and added the rice and all the other vegetables she cut previously. Wonder why she didn’t let him do it, he was better with cutting things than cooking them. At least he should be. He hasn't tried in a long time, but he should have improved since he started training. How different could using a knife be from a sword and cutting from slaying demons?
She added eggs and scrambled it all together, while Muichirou carried tea and utensils to the table. They ate there last evening and also when they had visited the Mansion after the Final Selection. By the time Aoi finished and divided the food into four bowls, Kanae arrived with Shinobu trailing after her. Both of them were in their uniforms and still had their swords at the sides, only that Kanae’s was dangling idly and Shinobu still tightly held onto hers.
“You didn’t have to,” Kanae cooed at the food but accepted it nonetheless, same as Shinobu.
After they ate the two sisters went to crash for the ‘night’ which was actually just them sleeping until ten when they’d start patient rounds. Meanwhile Aoi and Muichirou returned to the kitchen where she took out a much bigger pot.
Although the kitchen was big and spacious, fitted for commercial use rather than personal, Muichirou had yet to see it being used on a larger scale. Now he could and frankly, the sheer size of everything was quite scary, scarier than normal kitchen equipment.
The Kakushi — as Aoi explained — were also rotating between the Mansion and duty in the field with the vast majority constantly on the move. Many of them didn’t even do anything medical related. However, the few ones who resided inside the Mansion joined forces with the Butterfly Girls to work under Kanae (and Shinobu). With one difference, the Kakushi could provide medical help, Aoi and the rest couldn’t.
“We’re not nearly skilled enough to know if we’re actually helping,” she explained. “We can bring the medicine prepared by others but we mostly handle supportive care — food and rehabilitation.
So that was why Muichirou was pulled into preparing breakfast for every single patient in the mansion.
It was generally the same meal they ate, just prepared on a larger scale, but Aoi did prepare a few different portions.
“Some people are allergic to certain food, meaning they can’t eat them or they’ll get sick. Some are unable to hold down solids. Some can have a few different conditions that also prevent them from consuming certain ingredients. You need to take note of that and account for it,” she explained and Muichirou listened eagerly to her explanation, even if he didn’t really understand it. How could food — good and edible food, not even food that Yui claimed to be ‘good-enough’ — make you sick?
But Yuichirou took note of all of that and paid extra care when Aoi started handing him the portions, telling him directions to whom each belonged. And good thing he did, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten anything done.
“You just carry it, I’ll tell you where to go,” he said at long last, after Muichirou had gotten two portions mixed up again. The three little girls had woken up too and joined them in each delivery, helping them take care of everything much sooner.
The Mansion is divided into two sections — the smaller, where the staff lived, and a bigger where the patient rooms were. It was divided and connected by the kitchen, which has two entrances to each section. Muichirou could easily get lost in the countless corridors, but with Yui’s guidance it was a little easier to navigate the space.
And after they were done with the deliveres they returned to the kitchen where Aoi exclaimed that they were now going to make even more food.
No. No. No.
He told her he needed to go to the bathroom and changed with Yui, completely fed up with this already.
Cooking was not his forte. It never was, no matter how many times Yuichirou tried to teach him. He hoped there were some other responsibilities at the Butterfly Mansion, otherwise he’ll have to just leave everything to Yui.
***
Muichirou would benefit from learning how to cook, that was undeniable, but nonetheless, Yuichirou understood that it couldn’t be done all at the same time. He wasn’t able to make his brother cook good rice for years, he doubted Aoi would have more luck.
But when he returned to her, he learnt that it wasn’t that they would be helping with actual cooking, at least nothing that would include processing. No, she just wanted Mui to help her make rice balls, which surely was something his brother could do, it was more of a crafts thing than cooking and he was good at that.
Still, Yuichirou re-tied his hair — which he had to remind Mui of doing earlier, mind you — and joined her. He wanted to help her cut the ingredients for the filling, but she took the knife he grabbed from his hand.
“I’m not risking a kitchen accident,” she said and no matter how hard Yuichirou tried to reassure her that he knew how to use a knife she wouldn’t let him. Fine then, if she wanted more work then then alright! She could have it!
After Kanae and Shinobu’s check of all the patients, many of them would be discharged and then sent on new missions, some really far away. Preparing a bento box took much more time and it was also problematic to then carry it around for every slayer, so Aoi opted to make rice balls instead. Easy to carry and tasty. They could make a few different fillings and let slayers take as many as they wanted.
She was the one who cooked rice and prepared each filling and handed everything to Yuichirou to simply connect everything. And when all that was done she sat next to him and made the balls with him.
They sat in silence, alone in the kitchen — Kanae and Shinobu doing their rounds or preparing for them and the little girls helping. Yucihirou was also pretty sure that Mui fell asleep because he stopped begging him to eat the balls instead, because they just smelled so good.
Aoi had her brows furrowed, her hair tired neatly in two pigtails. She wore the slayer uniform with a white apron, just like the day before, in contrast to Yuichirou who wore normal clothes, though he also received an apron earlier — more like Mui did, but that was beside the point.
It was a good time to talk. He intended to tell her as soon as possible, but she was constantly busy, doing this and that. Now would probably be the only chance they would get in a while.
“Aoi—“ he started and the girl immediately jumped in place, letting go of the balls she was kneading. It fell to the ground.
“Don't do that!” She scoffed, picking it up. “Now it’s ruined.”
“I can eat it,” he offered and she looked at him as if he were a gross big but handed him the rice nonetheless. It tasted no different than a normal rice ball, its shape was only a little off. It had a salmon-daikon feeling which further confirmed his suspicion that Mui was sleeping. He’d definitely get excited by that otherwise.
“I wanted to talk with you about something,” he began as he finished. “You looked pretty confused yesterday, so I wanted to clear a few things up.”
“Finally! About time!” She pouted, by underneath that she looked uneasy, nervous even. “So? What is it? Why are you suddenly living with us? Why did Shinobu stuff your room with wisteria? What’s the deal with you?”
She asked so quickly that he practically had no time to react. He wanted to talk with her delicately, yes, and there was no way he could do that if Kanae, let alone Shinobu was there, but it seemed like Aoi herself was not about to talk delicately.
Besides, what was Yuichirou wven thinking? His idea of telling people about things was far from delicate. If anything, Muichirou would be better suited to this! But hit was Yuichirou who technically spent more time with the girl, tehy werent friends, but he still should be the one to talk with her since he knew her best.
He could use some help from Mui though.
So he hit himself in the forehead — it hurt and made his ears ring and eyes blacken for a second. Aoi jumped up again at the sudden movment and Muichirou have woken up.
“What even is that about, nii-san!? First Aoi, know you, can’t a person get some sleep in here?! Why can’t you—”
“I need your help,” that shutMui up and made Aoi look doubfounded at him and then point questioningly at herself. “Not yours, I’ll explain everything in a second, I just can’t really find the right words…”
Leave it to him to mess something like this up.
“Oh, you’re at this right now,” Mui realised. “How much does she already know, anyways? She looked at me weirdly yesterday. And she helped Shinobu prepare that room and thought it was for a demon…”
“So… Let’s start with what you know — you helped Shinobu prepare a room—“
“That was very clearly meant for a demon, why else would there be wisteria?! And you accepted it and asked Kanae if you could change there,” she gripped the knife she took from who knew where and held it close to herself, not striking or even ready to fight, but there. “You’re a demon, right? But you can change in and out and Kanae is keeping an eye on you, right?! Right, Muichirou?!”
“Wha—?” She got it mostly right, save for not including Mui, but she didn’t know about him, or rather about Yuichirou, and even more so, it wasn’t necessarily that she didn’t know about him, it was just that last time Yuichirou told her that he was dead.
“You can control it, that’s why they didn’t kill you. Kanae has been looking for a nice demon for a long time and she jumped to the occasion once she saw you, right?! That’s why you’re here? ”
For someone who had nearly gotten the whole thing right and was clearly nervous and maybe a bit scared of it, she didn’t ran away yet, which was good. Yucihirou’s delicate approach was all ruined, but it didn’t seem like she was taking it that badly.
“You’re almost right,” at his words Aoi’s face paled. Maybe he praised her too soon? “Save for one thing, really — I’m not Muichirou.”
She breathed in deeply, tryibg to calm herself. “Is that how you can look human? How you can stay in the sun? Because you took on a shape of a human?” She then pressed her lips together. “Did I ever meet the real Tokitou Muichirou? Did you— Did you kill him or was he dead before you started looking like him?”
“Wha—“ he couldn’t finish because Aoi cut him off again, rambling on.
“What?!” Muichioru could finish, not really talking in the same space as the girl.
“I mean, you’re obviously a nice demon! I don’t really think yuo killed him, otherwise the Master wouldn’t have let you live, unless he didn’t know… But well, when I saw you in a demonic form you looked similar, so you it has to have been you back then too, but well, were you one of the demons on the mountain or were you already posing as him back the—“
“Stop,” he finally managed to collect hismelf and cut her off this time. “And don’t break in again. How do you think I can explain everything if you keep interrupting me?”
“How else do you want me to react?! No one explained anything to me! There’s a demon in the same room as me and you want me to stay calm?!”
He groaned. He definitely should had left this to Mui, what was he thinking? Aoi was the epitome of unable to talk delicately.
“She’s really scared and anxious, she IS meeting a demon, be nicer.”
“Easy for you to say…” he mumbled and it worked Aoi’s attention. He breathed in, calming himself. “First of all, I’m not a demon right now — I am one, but not right now. I can transform fully from a demon back into a demon and vice versa. Well, mostly.”
“So you can eat our food and be in the sun,” she concluded.
“And get injured and don’t have any special abilities.”
“I’m not your special ability, nii-san? Your voice of reason?” Muichirou teased. “Without me—“
“Shut up! Who was talking about being nicer just a second ago?”
“Sorry, sorry…”
“But I let you finish! And now you’re—“
“No!” He gripped his hair in exasperation. “It wasn’t directed at you but at him!” He pointed to his skull.
She looked confused and a little worried at him and gosh, were just a few days able to diminish Yuichirou’s ability to remember that not everyone heard Mui? It must be so confusing to her, she probably thought he had some kind of mental disorder.
“So… What is the voice in your head?”
“A nuisance.”
“Hey!”
“And a bother, must of the time.”
“That’s not nice, you were supposed to be nicer—“
“Is that Muzan’s voice?” Aoi asked with a straight face. “You said you can mostly tranform, so that means not fully. Can he still talk to you like this? He can’t control you, right?”
“No— I— No! I never even heard Muzan, and he never once controlled me! Can he do that? Kagaya onky said he could listen through.”
“I don’t know! You’re the demon here!”
“Right…”
“So if not Muzan, then what?”
“Let’s backtrack to your previous question, the one about Muichirou. He’s not dead.”
Aoi looked relieved, but then immediately after confused. “Then why are you posing as him?”
“I’m not posing as him! Not now, at least, I told you already that I’m not him!”
“Then who are you? And what happened to him and where he is?!”
“Oh… She cares about me… I’m touched. At least someone here thinks about me and isn’t just a meanie.”
“Something’s gonna happen soon, for sure,” he hit himself in the head again and was rewarded with Mui’s squeak. “And I’m Yuichirou.”
She paused and thought over something. “Didn’t you introduce yourself like that?”
“I did, because I wasn’t used to introducing myself as Mui yet.”
“So you newly took on his appearance during the selection…?”
Muichirou laughed.
“No!” Yuichirou groaned. “I never took on his appearance! If anything, he took mine.”
“Did not! I was born with it as much as you!”
“I had it eight minutes earlier, I have property rights.”
“No, you don’t!”
“Yes, I do!”
“How can you have property rights to his appearance…?” Aoi just looked more and more confused. She looked kind of funny like this, but Yuichirou refrained from laughing at her expense, but Mui did no such thing.
“We’re twins — me and Mui. I was born eight minutes earlier so I had ‘our’ face first,” she nodded to his every word. Then stopped, as if struck by a sudden realisation.
“You’re the dead brother!”
Oh, yeah. Back then they were still going with that… That was weird, telling Aoi that he was Muichirou and that he himself was dead.
He nodded.
And then Aoi erupted. “I can’t believe you! I felt so bad for asking you about siblings and— I felt bad that you died! And you were just standing there!”
“If it makes you feel any better, I made my own grave.”
“You what?! Why would you even do that?”
“We wanted to convince Amane that I was dead so we made me a grave.”
“We? I was making most of the heavy lifting!”
“Mostly Mui did. We—“ he was just about to say that they put his arm there but seeing Aoi’s reaction he decided against it. The conversation already got out of hand and was possibly the furthers from ‘delicate’.
“Wait a minute! All good and fine, but I still don’t understand what happened to your brother. You said he’s alive,” Yuichirou nodded in confirmation. “And you talk like he helped you with the whole thing but where’s he now? You’re the only one here. Is he like you? Why did you even need to pose as him?”
Once again, far too many questions at once and a few of them would require explaining their relationship with Amane, how Mui wanted to be a slayer and he didn’t and so on. But the most important thing could be easily explained.
Yuichirou pointed to his head. “Mui’s here. He’s the voice in my head.”
Aoi just blinked. Her face turned sour and then she looked to the side, pulling her lip. What was that reaction? “I— Well, uhm…”
“Tell her I say ‘hi’ and that she shouldn’t wake me again that early,” Yuichirou rolled his eyes. There was a reason they woke so early — making breakfast for Shinobu was hardly a good reason, but Kanae made up for that.
“He says ‘hi’ and asks if you could wake us up earlier tomorrow, maybe around three.”
“No! I didn’t! Nii-san! Everything but not this!” Yuichirou snickered at his brother's frantic voice. “You know what? You’re going to be the one in control when we sleep — she can wake you and I'll still be sound asleep.”
“Sure, but don’t complain when I start eating natto and the awful texture wakes you up.”
“Don’t you even try!”
Aoi looked at him — them — with a mix of sadness, worry and nervousness. She cooped her head to the side,” so uhm… You’re a half-demon and you hear your brother’s voice in your head?” Yuichirou nodded. “That’s… Nice to meet you, Muichirou…?”
“But we’ve met!” Mui giggled. “She’s silly.”
“You have met Mui already. You saw him this morning, even.”
“I know!” She still had that weird expression. “It’s just that I didn’t know he was in your head back then and uhm…”
“He wasn’t in my head then. I was in his. You talked with him and woke him up.”
Aoi blinked. She looked at Yuichirou them blinked again. “I really… I mean…”
He narrowed his eyes. “Wait… Aoi, what do you think is the deal with Mui? You’re acting really weird about it?”
“Eeeh…”
“But you told her already.”
He did, he told her that Mui was the voice in his head and…
And she acted wierd, as if keeping herself from telling the wrong thing that set her off. And she didn’t ask any questions about the details of them morphing together. Knowing how quick she was to bombard with questions, she should had asked about a dozen already.
Wait… He didn’t tell her that they fused together, he didn’t manage to get that far. He just told her that Mui was the voice in his head.
Did she think he was hallucinating him?!
“Mui’s real.”
“But of course! He’s your brother, of course he’s real!”
“No, like…” he should have just started with that, but she just kept asking question that threw him off course. “When I got turned Mui was close by and it somehow spread and turned him too but it also morphed us together and now we share a body.”
Aoi blinked. “Are you for real?”
“Yes — as I said, you woke him up this morning, he was terrible in the kitchen, so he gave up and now I’m in control.”
“So you can switch and stuff?” He nodded. “That’s nice… Uhm… You wouldn’t be able to show me, would you?”
“Not without going through the demon state. We can do that in our room and he’ll come back to you.”
“But we gotta turn back again after that — I’m not cooking anything.” Yuichirou rolled his eyes at that.
“No, I’d want to see you both at the same time… Your demon form has four eyes, right? Would it be that one pair is for each of you?”
“How do you know about that? Kanae didnt tell you—“
“I remember from the Selection! I thought I was seeing things but it was your demon form, right?” He nodded. “So if you could show me that you’re actually to different people because it’s really hard to believe. Not that I doubt that Muichirou is still here with you! But uhm…”
“Wow. She thinks you made me up. She gives you too much credit, you’re not that creative.”
“Shut up or I’ll tell her she’s right and you’re just my imagination.”
“You’re mean.”
“You deserved that one.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I want to show you my tongue so bad, I’ll do it first thing I regain control again.”
“Sure…”
Aoi just looked weirdly at him still, blinking doubfounded and awkwardly glancing away whenever he looked her way. “I get it you’re talking with Muichirou…?”
“I swear he’s real.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t!”
“But you thought it.”
“It’s— It’s just hard to believe, alright? I’ve heard of demons splitting up and forming multiple beings, but never about fusing together!”
“So you can believe that I can change from demon to human and not that I got morphed with my brother?”
“…”
“…”
“…fair point…”
He sighed. Well, now finally she knew everything.
***
Aoi was questioning everything she knew.
Maybe not everything, but a vast part of that.
She stayed up all night trying to think of what possibly might be the deal with Tokitou and well, she got it almost right, like he said, but she was never expecting the dead brother she felt so bad about asking actually being alive all this time. Not to mention the two being one.
It was—
She just wasn’t expecting that.
Yuichirou made a point, it probably wasn’t that much harder to believe that they actually morphed together than it was to believe that there was a demon who could turn back human. But Aoi lived with Kanae for a few years now and she knew about the concept of nice demons and them somehow being able to fight their very nature — Kanae was adamant that a demon like that existed and as much as Aoi feared demons, she had to admit that Kanae’s optimism was contagious. Enough so that the thought of a demon like this wasn’t that alien to her.
But she never heard of two people becoming one demon. It was very rare for demons in general to fight in pairs or groups. For some reason it seemed more bizarre.
Maybe if she thought about it that technically one demon was made of two people so they had more humanity… It would explain their difference from the other demons. But until she saw them at the same time — so in the demon form — she would not be entirely convinced that it wasn’t just Yuichirou copying with the grief of his brother in a strange way. Not even that strange, many people reported hearing voices of their loved ones.
In a place like the Butterfly Estate it was even more common. So many times some came back from a mission, having lost their comrade, and were adamant that they lay on the next bed over. It was always heartbreaking.
It was incredible what the mind could sometimes do to protect a person from a complete mental breakdown. And let’s not even start on Kanao. Though perhaps she had a breakdown, just in a different way. Or maybe not? Maybe she was born this way.
Aoi really didn’t know why Kanao was like this, she knew she was traumatised and hurt greatly, but this… No matter how much she wanted to help the girl there simply wasn’t anything there to help with. Because there was nothing wrong. Nothing. Kanao felt nothing.
But back to Yuichirou, it was easier to assume that he was just hearing things until Kanae came.
Though… Since telling her, Yuichirou was now having full-on conversations with himself and with each word she was more and more inclined to believe that there was an actual person in his head.
“We can’t just make all the rice balls salmon with daikon,” Yuichirou had finished said filling and moved onto the next — just salted salmon. “I don’t care that it’s the best one, these aren’t even for you,” he took another portion of rice, “and don’t Nii-san me here. They took us in, we need to relay them. We’re not eating through their whole pantry just because you want.”
Yeah. Probably there was that other person. Muichirou. She just… really couldn’t understand how this could all be possible. Nothing made sense, no matter how much proof she had. She wouldn’t have even considered him being a demon, no matter how odd Shinobu acted, if she didn’t remember the boy with four eyes. Honestly, maybe she should had told Kanae about it, but she really wasn't expecting him to turn to be a demon — she thought she had a concussion.
Though there was one thing that was easier to understand now — how a scrawny, little eleven year old kid managed to pass the Selection and not lose his cool in front of a demon. He didn’t need to fear anything and was naturally on the same level as them. He was a demon too.
She wondered how good he was as a human then. He could uphold Total Concentration Breathing Constant at all times, he was doing that even now, but she had no idea what he could do. Maybe he could show her, she was already planning on asking him to help her with rehabilitating the patients once they were done with the rice balls.
Maybe Kanae would have some free time too — she usually trained Shinobu and Kanao — and Aoi, back when she was still training to be a Slayer — a little before or after the rehabilitation exercises. The training area had a roof — Yuichirou could change and she could learn for sure if there really was another person.
She’d like to spar against him — not as a demon, definitely not that, but just as a normal human. She couldn’t bring herself to fight demons, but she was still a talented swordswoman, at least according to Kanae.