Kanao nodded and handed the pin back to him. This was sure to bring Kiyo’s smile back. The thought made her heart grow warmer.
But Inosuke shook his head. “You give it to her.”
“But you found it—”
“It’s a family thing, right?” Inosuke cut Kanao off. “You’re family, so you give it to the pipsqueak.”
His voice was low, his tone rough. The boar’s eyes stared blankly at her. And yet, in that moment, he seemed so very gentle.
Kanao nodded. Inosuke stretched dramatically. “Wanna get going?”
“Okay.”
“I’m hungry.” As if to lend credence to this statement, his stomach growled.
“Um...” Kanao hesitated. “If you want, we could stop and get some sweets on the way home.”
The town was a little out of their way, but if they hurried they could make it back before supper. Kanao could buy sweets for Inosuke and some of the crunchy senbei crackers Kiyo liked.
“Nah,” said Inosuke. “I’d rather have tempura right away. When we get back, you should fry some up.”
“What?” Kanao faltered at the unexpected response. “Tempura? Me?”
Aoi, Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho handled the housework at Butterfly Mansion. Aoi channeled her dexterity into first-rate cooking skills, so she took charge of meals, with the other girls assisting her in turn. Kanao never got involved in cooking. She was slowly learning to make decisions, but she still had trouble taking the initiative, which made her a hindrance in the kitchen.
When Kanae was alive, Kanao had once joined the other girls in preparing a spread for a flower-viewing party, but even then she was relegated to the role of taste-tester. The closest she’d come to preparing a meal was helping Kiyo boil some rice gruel when Tanjiro woke up from a coma after battling the Upper Rank Six demon, but she’d been helpless without Kiyo’s instructions.
“I’m not much of a cook,” she began. “When we get home, Aoi can—”
It’ll help you grow, the way making friends with Tanjiro has.
She heard Shinobu’s voice in her head. And Kanae’s gentle laughter …
Kanao pushed back the words she’d been about to say. “Teach me, and we’ll make it.”
She smiled up at Inosuke.
That evening, Kanao made tempura under Aoi’s watchful supervision. Somehow it ended up both burned and raw. Nevertheless, Inosuke lustily devoured the pile of fried vegetables and seafood, crying, “So good! More!”
Kiyo, her stolen butterfly once more in her hair, played with a shiny acorn. “Guess which hand it’s in,” she said to Nezuko, thrusting out two small fists.
Nezuko’s eyes flicked back and forth. “This one!” she finally cried.
Kiyo giggled. “Too bad! It was in this hand.”
“Not again!”
As they watched the girls play, Naho and Sumi puffed up their cheeks with jealousy.
“No fair, Inosuke!” said Naho.
“Please give us shiny acorns too!” Sumi pleaded.
Aoi arranged plates for Tanjiro and Genya on a tray, already lost in plans for the next day’s cooking. The only way to salvage Kanao’s tempura was to cut it up into small pieces, serve them on rice, and pour tea over the whole thing.
Shinobu watched them all with love. When her eyes met Kanao’s, she smiled, and warmth filled Kanao’s heart. She wished the moment could last forever, that the joy she felt would never end.
“Inosuke! Hold on tight!” Kanao tucked herself under Inosuke and dragged him to his feet. His muscled body was heavier than she’d imagined. She staggered briefly under her own injuries. She braced her legs and concentrated on staying upright.
In this room in the Infinity Castle, she and Inosuke had managed to defeat the Upper Rank Two demon, but only after Shinobu made the ultimate sacrifice. They were both badly injured. Kanao had lost almost all the vision in her right eye, and Inosuke was covered in gashes and blood. She’d paused long enough to stitch and bandage the bloodiest wounds, but it was a miracle they were still standing.
Even so, they had to keep moving forward. Half dragging herself and Inosuke, she forced herself into the hallway.
The boar’s head had fallen from Inosuke’s face, and he was weeping like a child. He’d just learned, after a lifetime of believing that his human parents had abandoned him, that his mother had been killed defending his life. At the sound of his sobs, Kanao felt her own tears welling up again.
Shinobu …
She tried not to cry. The inside of her nose prickled, and her vision blurred.
“You know …” Even Inosuke’s voice was weak, very unlike his usual cocky snort. “When we first met, I thought I’d seen Shinobu somewhere before. But that wasn’t it.” He took a deep breath, and more tears streamed down his cheeks. “Shinobu … looks like my mom.”
At the sound of Shinobu’s name, Kanao could no longer hold back her own tears. She prayed that wherever Shinobu was now, she could at last be reunited with Kanae.
“Don’t start crying on me,” Inosuke told her.
“Well, then, don’t you cry,” she sniffed.
“I’m not crying!” The obstinate bellow returned. Inosuke pushed her arm away, jammed his boar head back on, and started to rip off the bandages she had just applied.
Kanao grabbed his arm. “You can’t take those off! I just sewed you up. All your wounds will open again!”
“Cloth dulls my senses,” he muttered.
Kanao didn’t back down. “Didn’t Shinobu warn you to keep your wounds clean?”
At the sound of Shinobu’s name, Inosuke flinched. Grudg-ingly, he stopped picking at his bandages.
“Put it on,” he grunted.
“What?”
Inosuke tapped a fist to one side of his boar’s head. “The thing. You know. C’mon. Your hairpin.”
“Oh …” Kanao realized her hair was all over the place. Tucked away in the jacket of her uniform were the hairpins from her two big sisters.
“It’s the final demon hunt,” Inosuke told her. “Bring your family.”
Kanao gasped. Her eyes flew open, then narrowed as she smiled. Memories came pouring back, one after the other. Images of Butterfly Mansion, her friends’ happy faces, the beloved people she’d sworn to protect with her life.
If only she’d been able to keep every promise.
At the very least, she could take the hairpins back to the mansion, to the girls who were still there praying for her safety. She’d give them the pins along with the peace her sisters had bought with their lives.
I swear …
With her lips pursed tight, Kanao tied her hair the way Kanae used to tie it for her. She pinned it back with her own butterfly from Shinobu.
Watch me, Shinobu, okay?
Because she was going to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji. She was going to make sure no one else ever felt the way she did in that moment.
Please watch over me.
“Let’s kick some butt and get back home,” Inosuke said, glaring down the hallway that led deeper into the castle.
Kanao nodded silently. Then they ran together into the end of a long, long night.