Finally Tanjiro spoke. “Hey, Inosuke,” he said quietly. “What would you do if someone took that boar head from you?”
Inosuke was outraged. “What do you think? I’d grab it right back!”
“What about the fundoshi you always wear?”
“I’d punch the guy who stole it!” Just thinking about it got Inosuke worked up. He brandished his fists menacingly.
“I know.” Tanjiro smiled gently. “This is just me, and maybe I’m wrong, but I get the impression those things mean a lot to you. Your boar head belonged to the animal that raised you. And the fundoshi came from your parents. They wrote your name in it.”
Inosuke snorted. “I don’t have any parents.”
“Inosuke,” Tanjiro chided him.
“The boars raised me,” he insisted, but another part of him was doubtful. Why do I keep this fundoshi, anyway? It’s just a thing. Why would I care about it?
Tanjiro sat wordlessly as Inosuke hunched over, pondering. He remembered how he’d discovered the writing in his fundoshi when he was little. He’d been curious about what it said and asked the mochi man to read it for him. That was how he’d learned, for the first time, that his name was Inosuke Hashibira.
“This is prob’ly yer name,” the old man had said. “Yer ma and pa gave it to ya. Make sure you cherish it.”
Right. It’s got my name on it. That’s why it’s important. Sojiro got me mixed up for a minute there.
“It’s not the cloth that matters,” he said. “It’s the name. I’d be in big trouble if I lost my own name. It’s not like I can write it out myself.”
Tanjiro didn’t argue the point. “That’s true. So let’s put the fundoshi aside for a second. The boar head...that’s an important keepsake for you, right?”
“Yeah.” Inosuke nodded.
“I think that hairpin has the same kind of meaning for Kiyo that the boar head has for you.”
“You mean she got it from her mom?” Inosuke cocked his head to one side. Now that Tanjiro mentioned it, Kanao had said something about getting the pin from somebody important. Who was it again?
“Kanee? Kanei? Kanai? No, Kanae!” Inosuke clapped his hands together, then cocked his head again. “Who’s Kanae?”
“I think that’s Shinobu’s older sister. Shinobu and Kiyo have told me about her before.”
“Shinobu’s sister?” In his mind’s eye, Inosuke saw Shinobu treating his injuries.
“I stitched up the wound,” said the Shinobu in his mind. “Now don’t pick at it. And don’t pull the thread out on your own.” She twined her little finger around Inosuke’s. “Pinky promise.”
That was all she’d done, yet he’d been unable to touch the stitches.
“She wasn’t just Shinobu’s sister,” Tanjiro said. “Kanao, Aoi, Kiyo, Sumi, Naho...she was a big sister to all of them, even if they weren’t related by blood.”
“Yeah? What happened to her?”
“She died,” Tanjiro said shortly. “I heard she was a Hashira.”
“Huh,” Inosuke said.
Death was part of life. When you died, you just went back to the earth. Big deal. But somehow, when he thought about this dead woman he didn’t even know, he saw the smile Shinobu had given him when they made that pinky promise.
“Have you noticed that everyone at Butterfly Mansion wears butterfly hairpins?” said Tanjiro. “I think Kanae wore one too.”
Inosuke listened in silence as Tanjiro explained that for the girls of Butterfly Mansion, the hairpin was a reminder of the woman who had cared for them and was no longer with them.
“So that’s it,” he said slowly. “That’s why she got mad?”
Tanjiro smiled. “It’s great that Kanao is getting better at speaking her mind, huh?”
“I guess it’s not just a thing,” Inosuke murmured, almost to himself.
Tanjiro nodded. “That’s right.”
Inosuke hung his head sullenly, then abruptly jumped off Tanjiro’s bed. He was about to run out of the hospital room when Tanjiro said, “I bet Kanao went to look for the hairpin too.”
Inosuke stopped short in amazement. How had Tanjiro known where he was going?
“I’ll come with you,” Tanjiro said. He started to climb out of bed.
“What? No!” Inosuke growled. “I’m just going to grab some food. I’m starving. I’m not going after some stupid pin.” He stabbed a finger at Tanjiro. “And you’re not supposed to move. You better not follow me! Get some sleep, got it?”
With that, he raced away. The boy in the next bed, who’d seemed to be asleep, sat up abruptly. “That guy always has to put up a front, huh?”
“Yeah,” Tanjiro said with a smile. “He’s a lot like you, Genya.”
“Me and the pig boy?” Genya sputtered. “I’ll kill you!”
But Inosuke had no way of knowing about this exchange. He was already halfway down the hall.
Roaring, Inosuke jumped from the porch with more force than was strictly necessary and landed on the ground with a mighty thump. Aoi, walking by with a basket of re-laundered sheets, stopped and turned to stare.
“’Sup,” he said.
Kiyo, walking beside Aoi, shrank back and hid behind her sister. Aoi glanced at Kiyo before turning back to Inosuke. “What do you want?” she said, her voice hard.
Inosuke ignored the question and marched over to them. Aoi clutched the laundry basket protectively to her chest. Behind her, Kiyo grabbed her apron strings.
“You remember where it went?” he demanded.
Aoi stared blankly. “What?”
“The crow that stole the peewee’s hairpin. Which way did it go?”
“Oh...” Aoi’s arms relaxed around the laundry basket. She freed one hand and pointed. “That way. It flew toward that big mountain.”
“That way, huh?” Inosuke’s gaze followed Aoi’s finger. He was about to run off again when a sudden thought stopped him. He pulled an acorn out of his pocket and held it out to Kiyo. “Here,” he said roughly.
The girl looked up at him hesitantly. “Huh?”
“It’s my favorite acorn. It’s super smooth, all shiny like a diamond. You can have it.”
“O-okay.” Kiyo tentatively stretched out a hand, and he set the gleaming acorn in her small palm. “It’s so pretty,” she murmured. Her eyes were puffy and red. The lone butterfly pin in her hair, missing its partner, fluttered in the breeze.
“Sorry about before,” Inosuke said.
“Uh...huh.” Kiyo nodded timidly.
With no further word, Inosuke started off in the direction the crow had flown.
“Inosuke!” Aoi called out behind him. He stopped and glanced back to find her gazing at him thoughtfully.
“I only saw it for a second, so I’m not sure,” she said. “But I think the crow had a single white feather in its tail.”
“Got it. Thanks for the tip!”
Aoi’s face softened for a moment. “Be careful.”
“Yup!” With that, Inosuke was in motion once more. Ahead of him, the mountain reddened in the setting sun.
Arrgh! Where could it be?