Growth

"It's alright, I won't go anywhere," Kanae softly rubbed Shinobu's back as she used to back when they were younger.

'You've grown a lot Shinobu,' Kanae closed her eyes while smiling gently, After they lost their parents to a demon, Shinobu wasn't even able to sleep at night and used to cry because of the nightmares.

But now Shinobu had grown, holding her tears wanting to grow stronger and not wanting her older sister to worry about herself, unlike before when after a loss she could only cry.

'Even then I am still your older sister, I can't stop myself from worrying about you no matter how strong you get,' Kanae thought as Shinobu kept on crying holding her kimono tightly.

A few minutes later, Shinobu finally stopped but she still didn't separate herself from her sister and asked her a question.

"Nee-sama ...can you tell me about the demon who hurt you," Kanae smiled knowing she would ask this.

"Are you sure? He is very strong, I don't want you to get hurt," Kanae said as Shinobu moved back and looked her in the eyes.

"I want to know, I won't let him get away with hurting you, I'll slay him myself," Shinobu's eyes were still full of tears but Kanae could see that her little sister had made up her mind, Kanae understood that Shinobu won't back down no matter how hard she tries to convince her.

"Alright, I'll tell you," Kanae nodded as she wiped off Shinobu's tears with her kimono's sleeves while telling her about Doma and his abilities, or the ones she knew of.

Shinobu took a few minutes to digest the information since it was a lot to take in, this was the third strongest demon they were talking about.

But after listening to everything something didn't feel right to Shinobu.

"Nee-sama how did you not sense that demon?" Shinobu asked since Kanae was very sensitive to people's emotions, this was especially true for demons who had intense bloodlust. So, Kanae not being able to sense someone as strong as Doma, didn't sit right with her.

"That was because ...that demon wasn't emitting any emotions," Kanae explained to Shinobu about Doma's condition.

Doma didn't have any emotions, he didn't feel anything no matter what he did. Even When Yuu nearly cut Doma's head off, she couldn't feel any sense of fear or urgency from him.

Even, when he was injected with poison it was as if Doma purposefully let himself get hit rather than trying to get away from Yuu.

"Nee-sama you also said that you couldn't 'That guy' when he attacked Doma, right?" Shinobu was talking about Yuu here, Kanae didn't feel his presence as well when he was hiding and when he appeared in order to attack.

"I knew he was shady," Shinobu frowned as she still didn't like Yuu's presence.

"It isn't like that," Kanae shook her head seeing Shinobu's actions.

"It was like that during the fight, But Tachibana-sama is different from Doma," Kanae said as Shinobu's eyes twitched.

'There she goes again,' In the end, Shinobu just left the room after talking to Kanae for a bit more.

But Kanae wasn't lying trying to cover up for Yuu and Shinobu understood that her sister was someone who felt pity for someone who tried to take her life, a demon. She felt sympathy for demons who kill others on a day-to-day basis, demons who killed their parents.

That was just who her sister was, But she was very sure of her words. if she said that Yuu wasn't like Doma then that means Kanae was sure of it.

'Just two more weeks before I am healed,' Kanae thought looking out of the window near her bed, she had many things she wanted to do after she was completely healed.

The next day in the afternoon, Shinobu was running down the road, she was on her way to the town where Kanae was attacked. She was given a task to do by Kanae.

'I have to light these incense at the graves,' Shinobu thought while carrying a box with her, she could've just relayed it to someone else but she chose to go out and do it herself.

'That demon is still alive as well,' Shinobu wanted to find some clues about Doma, the reason everyone thought that was because they found a tunnel in the basement of the house.

In that tunnel, there were words written on the wall.

That was a close call haha, Until next time Kanae-chan and Explosion Guy. –Doma.

Those were the words that were found at the entrance of the tunnel, even going deeper was of no use since all they found was a dead end.

'I doubt he'll be staying around here,' Shinobu thought as the tunnel was leading into the direction of the nearby forest, even the cult members were missing from the town so they couldn't even get any leads from them.

"It should be around here," Shinobu muttered while looking around at the monastery looking for the grave of the woman that helped Yuu.

Since her entire family was missing, Kanae wanted to place some offerings on her grave since there was no one else to do so.

'Is this the wrong one?' Shinobu wondered if she was in front of the wrong grave since this one had an incense stick burning alongside different offerings like Chrysanthemums, and fruits.

"Did the townspeople do this?" Shinobu asked the old monk at the temple about it since she was now certain it was the grave she was looking for, she had searched around the monastery and there seemed to be no mistake.

"No I don't know if he was from the town or not, but this morning a young man came and placed those offering there before praying for her," The monk answered.

The monk was sad before as there was no one here to mourn for the woman but after seeing the young man in the morning he seemed happy that at least someone came to see her.

"Can you tell me who this person was?" Shinobu asked while practically glaring at the monk.

"I don't know his name since he didn't talk much, but he was tall and had purple eyes, he even gave us a box of incense to burn for the lady every morning," The monk said making Shinobu's face twitch in annoyance.

'It is surely him, No doubt about it,' Shinobu could already picture the person even when the Monk vaguely described him.

"Leaving that aside, how can I help you, young lady?" The monk asked Shinobu who snapped out of her thoughts to do the task she had to do.

"Well, that is done," Shinobu came out of the temple after handing over the things she had and looked around the town.

'That is the house where the fight took place,' Shinobu looked at the destroyed house from afar as the streets were a lot emptier now, and there were some police officers roaming around the area.

Shinobu still hadn't looked inside the house yet, she was more focused on Kanae till now, But now that she knew that Doma was still alive.

'I won't let you get away with this,' Shinobu's hatred for Demons got even deeper as she left the town and made her way back to the Butterfly Mansion.

After Shinobu finished her duties at the hospital, she went to train in the backyard as usual. In the middle of her training, she looked at the big rock that reached her shoulders placed in the gravel a little far away from her.

'How can he lift this thing? Well, he is tall and he has a good physique but even then, I haven't seen someone of stature lifting rocks this big,' Shinobu grumbled while looking at the rock that Yuu used to train in the mornings, She had been keeping an eye on him whenever he trains in the backyard.

She knew that this was the difference in their physique, Yuu was more than a foot taller than her, and she had already accepted it a long time ago but she couldn't help feeling upset about it again.

'Let's get back to training,' Shinobu shook her head and was ready to start again but she heard a voice from behind.

"You are still at it," Shinobu froze as she quickly jumped forward and turned around to see Yuu, he was standing there with his usual expression.

'How long has he been there?' Shinobu could feel goosebumps on her body as she thought about this, she didn't even hear footsteps not his breath, it was like he appeared out of nowhere.

"What do you want?" Shinobu asked as she suppressed her inner turmoil, She glared at him because he made her jump like a frightened kid.

...

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