But that just makes my heart pound with emotion for Iguro.
Not only could she not talk to him about what was bothering her, she was honestly backed against the wall by the feelings he stirred up in her. She couldn’t turn to him the way she always did. Mitsuri fled the restaurant and only relaxed when there were several storefronts between her and it.
I have to figure this one out by myself. I can’t lean on Iguro forever. She slapped her cheeks with both hands forcefully. But the fog hanging over her head didn’t clear in the slightest.
And then, a few days later …
“Haaah.”
Not only did the uncomfortable haze torturing her not go away, it increased with each passing day. She found it hard to breathe, and her body was leaden. Maybe because of that, she couldn’t use Love Breathing that well. She was obviously weakening. I … Honestly, what is wrong with me?
Would she be able to continue as a Hashira in this condition? Just when she was filled with self-pity and sadness, a message arrived from Shinobu.
“Would you mind stopping by the Butterfly Mansion whenever it’s convenient for you, Kanroji?”
This invitation, which would normally have delighted her, caused Kanroji even further torment. I wonder what Shinobu wants … It would be awkward to see her now. But she couldn’t exactly ignore the invitation either. As Mitsuri headed toward the Butterfly Mansion on heavy feet, she heard a cry from behind.
“Ah! You’re the … lady Demon Slayer?”
She looked back at the sound of the bewildered voice.
“It is. I knew it was you!”
Standing there was a boy she had saved along with his mother when they were attacked by a demon. His deeply tanned face split into a happy grin.
“This is great! I been looking all over for you.”
“For me?” Mitsuri blinked rapidly in surprise. “What? You need to talk? Are you in trouble?”
The boy suddenly looked around as if he was worried someone might overhear them. And then he lowered his voice and said, “Actually, the restaurant my mom works at is right near here.” Apparently, it was something that he didn’t want his mother to know about.
“If Mom hears, she’ll be up in my face about it.” The mere child spoke like a man.
“Goodness … Is that so?” Mitsuri suppressed a smile and led him to a teahouse she frequented a little further off.
They sat down together on the bench outside, and the boy gladly devoured a skewer of dumplings.
“How are you?” she asked. “You’ve gotten bigger, hm? You look so much taller.”
“I grew six inches since then!” he announced proudly.
“Six inches? Boys grow up so fast!” Mitsuri smiled brightly.
She had a little brother right about this age. She couldn’t help but look at this boy as though he were her own brother.
“And? You wanted to talk to me?”
The boy gulped down the last of his dumplings and slowly opened his mouth. “So, like, I wanna be a carpenter.”
“Oh my! How wonderful,” she said. “Are you good at making things?”
“Well, y’know. My dad was a carpenter before he died.”
“My …” Mitsuri was at a loss for how to respond.
The boy read the wrong thing into her hesitation. “Dad died three years ago now.” His black eyes focused on the empty air in front of him. “He got washed away in the river when he was putting up a bridge. He was a good carpenter, but he wasn’t too good at swimming.”
“He wasn’t …” Mitsuri lightly bit her lower lip. She stared at the boy’s tanned face.
She remembered only too clearly the face of his mother as she clutched her son to her and wept fat tears when Mitsuri rescued them from the demon. She had bowed over and over and over, so deeply that it looked like she would prostrate herself on the ground at any second.
Thank you so much for saving my son. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hearing about what had happened to the father now, the memory was unbearably sad.
“It’s ’cause of that that Mom doesn’t want me to be a carpenter. It makes her think of Dad, and she hates that. She says she wants me to open a haberdashery or be a tailor or a town official. But I don’t want to do any of that stuff. I wanna be a carpenter.”
The boy clenched his hand into a fist and continued. “I’m gonna apprentice with this boss my dad knew. It’s a secret from my mom. It’s all settled.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Mitsuri asked, baffled.
The boy stammered a bit before answering with extreme honesty. “I-it’s just, when you saved me and Mom, you were super cool.”
“What?” Now she was even more baffled. Back then, she’d been a novice Demon Slayer, still wet behind the ears. And while she’d had physical strength, she definitely hadn’t been strong. She’d swung her sword wildly and eventually managed to beat the demon’s head off.
She’d been desperate, struggling. Cool was not a word any-one could have used to describe her then, not even to flatter her.
“But I mean, back then, I was still totally weak, you know. I could only win using the most pathetic tactics. I wasn’t the least bit coo—”
“You were so cool!” the boy shouted, cutting her off. “You fought with everything you had for us, total strangers. You’re a girl, but you got totally beat up and still kept fighting for us. You were cooler than anybody in this world.”
The boy’s honest words shot her through the heart. Perhaps because he was excited, his earlobes were red like the evening sun.
“And when I saw you like that, I had this thought. Like, I wanted to be like that too. I wanted to help people by doing what I really wanted to do. I don’t want to give up or have a bunch of regrets. My mom can cry all she wants, but I’m gonna be a carpenter. I’m gonna build an even more amazing bridge than my dad did.”
Mitsuri didn’t know what to say to that.
“I wanted to tell just you at least,” he continued. “That’s why I been looking for you all this time. Okay, bye. Thanks for the dumplings!” The boy ran off, or perhaps ran away.
She didn’t even have the time to call out and stop him. He grew smaller and smaller until he finally disappeared into the crowd. Mitsuri could only stare, dazed, at the town now empty of the boy.
“Lady Kanroji, thank you so much for coming. Lady Shinobu is waiting for you.”
When she arrived at the Butterfly Mansion, Aoi Kanzaki led Mitsuri out to the training ground, a troubled look on her face. Shaken, Mitsuri wondered to herself, Why the training ground?
The training ground was, as its name suggested, a dojo used for Shinobu’s personal training and that of her Tsuguko, alongside the functional recovery training they did with the injured Demon Slayers. This wasn’t the first time that Mitsuri had visited the Butterfly Mansion, but it was the first time she’d been called out to the dojo.
After Aoi left with a worried expression, Mitsuri nervously pulled open the door to the training ground. “Umm, Shinobu?”
“Hello, Kanroji.” Shinobu was sitting in the center of the large dojo with two wooden swords next to her. And her usual smile was not on her face. She glanced toward Mitsuri with what seemed to be a cold expression and then grabbed the wooden swords, stood up, and tossed one of the weapons at Mitsuri.
Huh? Mitsuri caught it reflexively.
With the same hard look on her face, Shinobu asked, “Would you mind sparring with me a little?”
She might have phrased it as a question, but it was clear Mitsuri wasn’t being offered a choice. The tip of Shinobu’s wooden sword turned toward Mitsuri.
“Huh? Whu—uh? Shinobu?” Mitsuri grew nervous, not understanding what was going on. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shinobu step forward soundlessly.
She was suddenly in front of Mitsuri, knocking the wooden blade out of her hands. The dull sound of the sword hitting the floor echoed through the dojo.
“What was that?” Shinobu turned sharp eyes on Mitsuri, who stood rooted to the spot, stunned. “I didn’t even use half my strength. You would normally have dodged that quite easily, Kanroji, no matter how off guard I caught you.”
“Oh … umm.” Mitsuri was baffled at how hard and full of reproach the other girl sounded.