When I returned to my temporary dwelling after finishing my Fixer work, there she was.
"Ah, you're back?"
"You're still here?"
Kochou Shinobu stood there.
I thought I had sent her away... so why was that girl standing there with an axe?
She held an axe and a pile of wood, as if intending to chop firewood.
"Naturally I didn't go anywhere. After all, you haven't yet promised to teach me how to hunt Demons."
Shinobu replied with an irritated tone.
And as she swung the axe, it bit into the wood with a crack, splitting the log in two.
Her stance was horribly awkward, as if she had never done this before.
"Chop some firewood. Your sister is inside cleaning and doing laundry. I'd really like to wash those clothes afterward, so it'd be best if you'd change into something else later."
I had no recollection of asking her to do that.
Since when have you taken on the role of my mother?
I pressed a hand to my forehead to soothe my throbbing temples.
"Go back home before night falls. Staying here won't get you what you want."
"I don't have a home to return to."
Shinobu answered in a solemn tone.
"It's all gone. I left everything behind. Now, I have nothing—only my sister..."
Then Shinobu raised the axe once more.
This time, her posture was even worse, and she struggled to aim properly.
At this rate, she'd end up hurting herself.
She was a child, small and unpracticed with an axe—hardly surprising she'd get hurt.
After all, Tsugikuni Yoriichi wielded an axe from his youth... but that was Yoriichi.
"You're going to hurt yourself—give it here. That's not how you chop firewood."
I snatched the axe from Shinobu's hands.
"You strike the axe straight down onto the wood, vertically."
I set the log upright on the stump, gripped the axe with both hands, and brought it down.
The log split exactly in half.
It could be done with one hand, but I wanted her to see.
"And since you're not yet grown, rather than trying to chop the wood directly on the stump, you can first embed the axe head into the log and then tap it against the stump."
I demonstrated the method, sinking the blade in before hammering the log down.
"This way is much easier."
"Oh, Mister Tsukinokami, you can do it like that too?"
"I told you, I'm not Tsukinokami."
"No. We agreed to call you Tsukinokami until you teach us how to behead Demons."
I covered my face with my hand at her stubbornness.
Cursed be the fool who spread that rumor.
"Why do you wrap yourself up so tightly when you go outside, Mister Tsukinokami?"
"...Go home."
I brushed aside her question lightly.
It was too much to saddle these sisters with the burden of Demon slaying.
Besides, nothing good could come of staying by a Demon.
"Demon hunting is beyond your strength."
"What? There are female Corps members too, right? No use lying—I heard it from people in the Silver Unit."
A headache.
Uzui—won't someone rein in that squad of his?
They just blab everything.
Back in my day, we kept things to ourselves.
"True, there are female Corps members."
Even in my era, there were women in the Corps.
Among the Starters, one was Minase Hiyori, and Amano Ruka served as Hashira.
And Uzui Ei formed the Silver Unit without even using a Breathing Style.
Tsugikuni Haruka, Yoriichi's daughter, who succeeded Amano's position, was also female.
"But their numbers are overwhelmingly fewer compared to the men."
Only a glance at the Hashira roster confirms that.
Until Amano Ruka rose to become Hashira, Minase Hiyori was the sole woman.
Moreover, Hiyori had the odd trait of becoming a Demon if she ate Demon flesh, and even as Hashira Amano was the weakest among them.
Though the Final Selection was later reorganized and the ratio improved, it's true that women's survival and return rates lagged behind.
"Now, it's still difficult, but one day you might forget."
They could never forget.
I could never forget the way I was left behind.
How could those children ever forget watching their beloved parents torn apart by Demons?
Still—
"Live a happy life as ordinary young ladies."
That was better.
It was the best for them.
The burden of slaying Demons would do them no good.
I could speak from experience—I've been fighting for five hundred years.
Had I been alone all that time, I might have truly lost my mind.
"Marry the man you love, bear children, and live until you become grandmothers..."
"There's no way we could ever forget!!!"
Shinobu cut me off, crying out.
The startled chirp of small birds from a nearby tree set branches and leaves trembling.
"You think living as if nothing happened, after seeing Mother and Father murdered before your eyes—how can you think that's possible!? There's no way...!"
No matter if they could not forget.
"There's no way that's possible!! You call that happiness—living an ordinary life?!?"
At least living as if they'd forgotten, for them—
"Pretending to forget, lying to yourselves—is that happiness!? If that's happiness, I don't want it!! That's no different from being dead!!"
"Hunting Demons is not an easy path. It's stained with blood. Your parents—if they could see you choose such a future..."
"No one knows what Mother and Father would want anymore...!"
Her voice, crying out as if about to break into sobs.
Shinobu pressed on before I could answer.
"Then can you do it? After your loved ones have been murdered and lost, can you live as if nothing happened?"
"That's why. That's why I tell you this."
I spoke, looking at her with a weary expression.
"I am a Demon. A flesh-eating Demon—the very kind that devoured your parents."
"What...?"
I decided to reveal the truth.
The Corps might hunt me down when they learn my identity.
"I am exactly the creature you fear, the one who rips and devours."
Unless I spoke thus, I feared she would never give up.
"Otherwise, what reason would I have had to fight the Hashira of Sound earlier?"
So, now leave.
I covered my face, closing my eyes.
I did not use the Revealed World either.
When I opened my eyes again, I begged for her to have vanished from before me.
The soft click of footsteps.
When I removed my hand, she was gone.
"You need not worry. I shall return soon."
At that moment, Kanae's voice came from right behind me.
She must have heard our voices and come outside in concern.
When I turned, Kanae quietly bowed her head.
"That is certain..."
I replied in a tone mixed with a sigh.
"Oh my, what makes you so certain?"
Certain? Because—
"Because you are here. She wouldn't flee alone, leaving you behind..."
Hearing my words, she smiled shyly and bowed again.
"Please forgive my sister's rudeness. She knows in her mind that Lord Tsugikuni truly cares for us—yet her heart cannot keep up. She has always been so spoiled, she adored Mother and Father so much."
I understood.
Still—
"A Corps member must have a certain physique. No matter how much one hones swordsmanship, one cannot change innate strength and muscle mass."
"...I am aware."
"Among those with some measure of build, you would fare better."
She was capable.
From my glimpse into the Revealed World, she was suited to the Blade.
She might grow as strong as Amano, or even surpass her.
But—
"Even if your sister were to become a Corps member, she likely could not behead a Demon."
She was too weak.
Neither her build nor anything could match her sister's.
"..."
"Tell me, what awaits a Corps member who cannot behead Demons?"
The death she would meet.
After I rose to the ranks of the Upper Moon...
I saw it.
The many Corps members who crossed the Sanzu River because they could not sever a Demon's neck.
Thus, I could never recommend it.
Kanae lowered her head in anguish at my words.
After a long silence, it was Kanae who spoke again.
"My father used to say, 'If you see someone bearing a heavy burden, help carry half of it. If someone is troubled, share their troubles. If someone is in sorrow, draw near and comfort them.'"
Looking at Kanae and Shinobu, I could roughly understand.
Their parents must have been wonderful people.
Kind and diligent, loving their daughters sincerely.
Like—
'What are you saying, Family Head!'
Facing down the superstitious father, like Tsugikuni Yoriichi's mother.
I still remember the face of the mother who stood fearlessly for Yoriichi.
I still remember how she spoke to Yoriichi and gently stroked his hair.
But those two lost such parents.
Through overwhelming violence.
Ripped apart so cruelly, without even a moment to resist.
Yes, how could they ever forget?
Still...
I sighed and continued.
"Are you not afraid of me? I am no different from that Demon."
"I am not afraid."
Not afraid?
I stared at her, dumbfounded.
"I want to save. Both humans—and—Demons."
.....
What sort of words were those?
Please, do not utter notions so distant from reason. My mind might break.
Surely...
she's not cut from the same cloth as Tsugikuni Yoriichi, is she?
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