What Happened?
"Alright," Yuu stood up after finishing his tea, they left the headquarters after he wore the blindfold and earplugs.
'It is a different person this time,' Yuu thought as he was transferred from one person to another in the middle of the journey, and this guy was quite a swift runner out of everyone who carried him till now.
But Yuu stopped focusing on it as it seemed they had reached their destination after about an hour and a half of running around, Yuu was transferred to a few people in between.
Taking off the blindfold and earplugs Yuu could see Kanae standing near him. Sensing his gaze she looked at him.
"Tachibana-sama I'll go and attend to the patients," Kanae went her way almost like she was running away but Yuu didn't stop her.
Yuu reached into his yukata's pocket and took out the piece of paper he found in it. There were some words written on them.
'I'll catch you the next time you try to run away,'
It was slid into his pocket while he was being carried back here from the Headquarters, it seemed that the person who was keeping an eye on Yuu was angry at his behavior.
'Well, it doesn't matter how much manpower they put on me,' Yuu placed the paper and pouch into his pocket again and walked into the estate to carry out the rest of the day.
The next day a Kakushi arrived with some different scarlet ores for Yuu to choose from so that a weapon can be made for him with it.
The whole process didn't even take 5 seconds as Yuu picked up an ore without much thought, he surely wasn't going to spend much time thinking about it because it would be pointless to stare at the ores and agonize over them.
He also didn't have any special demands aside from some extra things to be made, so the whole process was quickly finished as the Kakushi left the Butterfly Estate on his way to the Blacksmith village.
'The crow should come by in a few days,' Yuu heard this from the Kakushi as it seemed that the corps was working on this front.
After this happened things went back to normal the next morning.
"Nee-sama I'm back," Shinobu came out to the backyard and smiled only at Kanae as her face turned a little sour looking at Yuu.
"Shinobu-chan you finished your mission already?" Kanae looked at Shinobu who went on a demon-slaying mission on the day before the Pillar Meeting.
"Yes, I was able to locate the demon faster by luck," Shinobu smiled as she observed Kanae carefully.
'Something is wrong,' Shinobu could feel it while looking at her sister whose mind seemed to be all over the place usually, but now she looked like she was mulling over something.
"Well, Shinobu-chan I'll look after the patients, Don't overwork and rest for the day, Alright?" Kanae then turned to Yuu "I'll be going then Tachibana-sama."
Shinobu looked at the back of her older sister who entered the house almost looking like she was in a hurry to get away from there, Then she turned back to Yuu and asked.
"What did you do to my Nee-sama?"
"Why are you assuming I did something?" Yuu was confused as he stopped swinging the wooden katana, he hadn't done anything really.
'Well, that might be the reason,' Yuu thought while Shinobu's eyes narrowed further.
"You didn't cause any trouble at the meeting, right?" Shinobu asked as if there was nothing wrong with her questions.
"No," Yuu just shrugged because Shinobu didn't look like she believed him.
"So, did it work?" This time Yuu asked a question.
"Tch, You remember it," Shinobu clicked her tongue but eventually continued "It worked a little better than we thought it would, but if it would work on stronger demons or not, is still up in the air."
"We can only try, if it doesn't we'll try to work things out," Yuu said plainly and Shinobu nodded while crossing her arms.
What Yuu and Shinobu were talking about was a new poison they have been trying to make for over a month now, and Shinobu took it out to test it on a low-level demon, she wanted to see how effective it was.
Before this Shinobu mainly focused on poisons that could fully kill the demons, since she lacked the strength to do it the normal way, but now that she was steadily building her power.
So now, she was able to venture into various paths of using the poison which she couldn't do before because most of her time was taken away by improving her main poison, and with Yuu around it the progress was several times faster than before.
But even if the results look good now, there was no knowing how well it'll work on the Twelve Demon Moons, or more specifically the Upper Moon Two, the demon Shinobu had in her crosshair.
"Also," Yuu put his hand forward and Shinobu sighed.
"You see this is why I hate you, Can't you be a gentleman for once?" Shinobu placed a small pouch on Yuu's palm.
CLING*
"A bet is a bet," Yuu spoke flatly as he looked at the disgruntled Shinobu.
"… At least let me eat some," Shinobu grumbled, she was still on a strict diet and wanted to eat her favorite dish which she hadn't been able to in over two months now.
The bet was that Yuu would let her have it for dinner if the concoction they made failed. But it did work and Shinobu lost the money she put up as collateral, it was her salary for the month.
Shinobu is currently a Tsuchinoto, which is ranked fifth from the bottom out of the ten ranks in the Demon Slayer Corps leaving the Pillar rank out.
Her monthly salary is 160 yen, if it is converted into the current times it would be 640,000 Yen (4,782 Dollars).
Shinobu could've just lied or just downplayed the effect but she didn't do that. She was extremely serious about this work and wouldn't do that even if it benefited her.
"I guess you can have some," Yuu could see that such days are surely necessary, especially for someone like Shinobu who had a short temper, otherwise she'd just kick up a bigger storm.
"What are you planning? You're suspicious," Shinobu looked wary as she looked at Yuu with eyes full of suspicion, no way this guy just agreed to it so easily when he has been declining it no matter how much she asked for it before.
Seeing this Yuu opened his mouth.
"If you don't wan-" But before he could finish the sentence.
"Huh? What are you saying? I can't hear you from here," Shinobu who had somehow reached the roof of the estate asked while cupping her ears.
"Nothing," Yuu said as his voice was the same as before.
"Ok, then I'll go and rest," And this time Shinobu perfectly heard him and went into her own room through the window.
That night Shinobu had a blast eating a lot of rice with Shoga Tsukidani (Ginger boiled in soy sauce), it almost seemed that she was making up for the time she wasn't able to eat it.
And right after eating she went to sleep fully satisfied for the day, she fell asleep as soon as her head landed on the pillow.
She had a bit too much rice.
Yuu was currently in his room flipping through a notebook of his, the notebook contained drawings he made in the free time he had, or if he happened to come across a scenery that looked good.
The pictures in the book belonged more to the latter category. After flipping through the book Yuu was about to keep it back in his bag but...
Knock* Knock*
Yuu heard soft knocks on his door.
"Kocho-san, is something to matter?" Yuu opened the door and saw Kanae standing there.
He knew something was up since she was acting since the Pillar meeting this morning.
Even right now Kanae had a guilty look on her face.
"…I wanted to tell Tachibana-sama about something," Kanae spoke after a few seconds as she got over the hesitation.
"Ok," Yuu understood and moved back giving way for Kanae to walk inside the room.
Yuu closed the door and went to sit down on the bed next to Kanae who had already taken a seat there herself.
'Looks like she made up her mind,' He looked at Kanae without saying anything as a signal for her to speak about what she wanted to.