“Himejima!” a childish voice called down to him. “We made supper.”
“Please excuse us. We went ahead and used the rice and miso paste you had in the house,” Kanae added apologetically.
He had no choice but to sit around the hearth with the sisters. The meal they had made consisted of wild vegetables stewed in soy sauce, grilled char, miso soup with mushrooms, and onigiri rice balls. He was suddenly sentimental. How long had it been since he took a meal with other people like this?
A log on the fire popped with a dry snap. He brought the miso soup to his mouth. “It’s good,” he said, without meaning to.
“Shinobu made it,” Kanae replied happily. “She’s really good with her hands. We used to gather up herbs from the garden and play at being doctors, but she actually made real medicines.”
“But you’re better at everything else, Kanae,” Shinobu interjected rather forcefully.
He could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t angry, but rather bashful.
“Kanae, okay?” she continued. “She’s the most beautiful girl in our town. She’s good at everything—playing the koto, flower arranging, tea ceremony. And everybody in town’s totally head over heels for her.”
“Shinobu, enough,” Kanae told her.
“If you could see, Himejima,” Shinobu said, ignoring her older sister, “I bet you’d be surprised.”
“Come on, Shinobu!”
“But it’s true, isn’t it?”
“Honestly, you!” Kanae changed the subject. “Master Himejima, what kind of food do you like?”
“Fried eggs?” Shinobu asked. “Stews? Or maybe tempura? We’ll make whatever you want tomorrow.”
Himejima let the girls talk without saying much himself. The fire burning in the hearth was warm. And even though it was the same rice that he always ate, the onigiri the sisters had made for him had an incredibly gentle flavor. The air itself in the room felt kind and clear.
Living with other people brought this kind of warmth. He recalled the bygone days when he’d lived with children and then gently pressed the wreckage of those happy days down into the depths of his heart.
That night, Shinobu woke up screaming over and over.
“Dad! Mom!”
“Shinobu … it’s okay, you’re okay.”
“Nooooooooooooooo!”
“Shinobu, Shinobu …”
He could tell the elder sister was desperately embracing the younger to comfort her.
“A demon! A demon’s got Mom and Dad!”
“Shinobu … Shinobu …”
The younger girl’s bloodcurdling screams, her pitiful sobs, and the older sister’s soft, comforting voice haunted his ears and refused to fade.
When he woke up in the morning, Shinobu had returned to her usual self and was waiting with Kanae and the breakfast they’d made.
The sisters stubbornly refused to leave, and after three days of this, Himejima admitted defeat. It was like a twisted game of house, sisters who had lost the parents they loved and a man who’d lost the children he’d devoted himself to raising. If he kept living with them, he would inevitably start to care for them. In fact, he might have already started to. Which was exactly why he was so afraid that he would be the one to rob these children of a peaceful future.
“Come with me.”
After breakfast on the morning of the fourth day since the start of this curious coexistence, he led the sisters outside and to the back of the house—to the enormous rock he used in his training. As tall as a large man, the rock must have looked like a small mountain to the young sisters.
He looked down at them. “If you can complete the task I’m about to give you, then I will introduce you to a Trainer so that you can become members of the Demon Slayer Corps.”
“Really?” Shinobu said excitedly.
“Um, what’s a Trainer?” Kanae asked, confused.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” he replied. “A person who trains people in swordsmanship. There are a number of Trainers in various places, training people in the sword in various ways. Most of them are powerful former Demon Slayers who retired for one reason or another and now pour their hearts into raising up their successors. If you work hard under a Trainer and survive the Final Selection on Mount Fujikasane, then you will be recognized as Demon Slayers of the Demon Slayer Corps.”
“What? You’re not going to teach us, Himejima?” Shinobu’s voice held a note of dissatisfaction.
His face nearly relaxed into a smile. When she wasn’t exploding in anger or screaming at the nightmares that tortured her, she really was quite childish. The frequent changes in the tone of her voice revealed her straightforward personality, and he’d come to find this rather adorable. But he never told her that.
Himejima deliberately quashed this feeling and told her coolly, “I have my own duties. And my own training. I don’t have the time to teach anyone else.”
“But you’re so strong. You still train?” Shinobu asked dubiously.
“I understand,” Kanae cut her off. “When we are able to overcome this trial without incident, please introduce us to a Trainer.”
“You’ll be going to two different Trainers,” he said.
“What … ?”
Their fear and confusion—particularly Shinobu’s—reached him through the air. Then the girls quickly regained their composure.
“Kanae,” Shinobu said, her voice firm with resolve.
“That’s fine.” Kanae nodded deeply. “We’ll live through the Final Selection and be together again.”
Himejima closed his eyes and put a hand on the training rock. He felt the chill, tough surface against his palm. “The training is simple. Move this rock. If you can move this rock, then I will accept you.”
He knew he was asking the impossible. It had been quite some time before he himself had been able to move the rock.
This was a diplomatic method of sending a nuisance on its way. As he expected, the older sister was speechless, while next to her Shinobu gritted her teeth.
“Are you stupid?” she demanded. “There’s no way we could do that! Who could move this thing? Come on!”
“I can walk an entire block pushing this rock,” he replied.
“Well, sure! You’re Himejima! You’re as big as a bear! But there’s no way we can!” Shinobu declared, her voice indignant.
“Do you think that would be the end of it, if you can’t?” he asked her.
“W-what …”
“Someone dies if you can’t,” he said harshly. “Someone you need to protect gets killed. Will you still make these weak excuses when it’s life or death?”
Overwhelmed, Shinobu pursed her lips and said nothing.
“It isn’t about whether we can or cannot. There are things we have to do. Regardless of how strong you are, no matter what you have to sacrifice, you have to put your life on the line and do the job. Being a Demon Slayer means you bear the weight of people’s lives on your shoulders.”
The sisters were silent.
“If you can’t do that, then go home.” Himejima turned his face away from them and left without saying another word.
The orders from the Kasugai Crow came that afternoon.
When Himejima went to tell them that he would be away for a while, the girls were still in front of the rock, throwing themselves into the fruitless effort of trying to push it somehow. He told them about his mission, and Kanae quietly bowed her head.
“Please take care,” she said. “And make sure you return safely.”
“You must light the wisteria incense at night if you’re planning to stay in the house. You absolutely must not forget,” he insisted. “Promise me that you will light the wisteria incense.”
“Thank you. We will make sure to light the incense,” Kanae promised, her voice slightly tense. “I pray for the success of your mission.”