Forebonding

[3rd POV]

"Seiji is WHAT!!!!"

Even Kanao who was a few rooms away studying showed a reaction. She hopped in her place like a timid rabbit and her face was genuinely shocked.

"Keep it down will you," Kanae said and put a hand on Shinobu's mouth. "Shhhh."

Shinobu kept eye contact with her sister and she took long and controlled breaths before she finally calmed down. Kanae removed her hand and then Shinobu immediately asked her the biggest question in her mind.

"Seiji is engaged?! With who?"

"That's the thing, I don't know."

"Wait, when did you even learn about this?"

"In the Hashira meeting we had four days ago. Master Ubuyashiki congratulated him on his engagement and it was only then that I found out," Kanae said.

"So that means it's true," Shinobu said, her voice laced with emotions, "That bastard, why didn't he tell me?"

"I was initially upset about it as well but then I realised that he had no reason to tell us," Kanae said brutally, slightly offending Shinobu who thought they were close enough with Seiji to be informed of these things.

"It's his private affairs and from what I observed, it seemed like he did not have much attachment to the person he is engaged to," Kanae said thoughtfully.

"You mean, he only accepted it to honour his parents or something?"

"Exactly,"

"But how can you be sure? You don't even know who he is engaged to,"

"I don't."

"Why didn't you ask him about the details?" Shinobu asked with eyes narrowed in confusion.

Kanae remained silent for a while before she released a sigh, "Because I was afraid."

That only made Shinobu confused.

"The thing is Shinobu..."

There was a dramatic pause. The two sisters were alone in their shared room and there was no other sound disturbing them. The silence was loud.

"I'm in love with Seiji as well,"

"....."

"....."

There was an awkward moment where the two sisters just stared at each other. Kanae was scanning her younger sister's face to find any reaction but Shinbu's face was just deadpan.

Then Shinbu finally closed her eyes and gave a harmless smile. It was her signature smile we saw in the anime.

"Don't tell me that's the punch line after all the build-up,"

"Eh?" Kanae blinked dumbly.

"Seriously? Did you only realise that you loved him four days ago?"

"Ehhhh!!! Wait a minute, you knew?!" Kanae asked, now she was the one who lost composure.

It was a justified thought. Imagine seeing someone who was more aware of your feelings than you. How out of touch with your emotions do you have to be for such a thing to happen?

It was embarrassing, very much so because she was the older sister.

"H-How did you know?"

Kanae had been ignoring her feelings for Seiji all this time due to her morals. But just because she ignored them doesn't mean that those feelings were not there. In fact, they were always there and people could see it in her behaviour even though she herself was unaware of it.

"I wouldn't say I knew it but I kind of expected it, so it came as no surprise," Shinobu shrugged. It was like seeing dark clouds in the sky, you were not surprised it rained.

"I also have feelings for him so it was easy enough to notice how you looked at him. You see him in the same light as I saw him. You would stare at him for a long time without even realising it and often times when he was away on a mission, you would look at the traces he left in the mansion and smile fondly, remembering him." Shinobu said and Kanae at this point was too embarrassed so she stopped her.

"But love huh," Shinobu smiled, "Gezz, big sis, that's a heavy word,"

Even she would not be so bold as to claim she loved Seiji. She knew that she liked him but there was a big difference between simply liking someone and loving them.

Kanae remained silent after the comment. There was not a doubt in her mind even after that. She loved him, it was beyond just liking someone.

The difference in their feelings came from the fact that Kanae was given much more attention and saved many times by Seiji. Meanwhile, he would only train and spend time hunting demons with Shinobu.

"This sucks. I feel like I'm losing something even though it was never mine," Shinobu said and flopped on her futon.

Kanae remained in her place and watched her sister in silence. Shinobu took a pillow and covered her face but otherwise, she made no further comments.

Seeing that, she silently made her way outside of the room and when she slid the door closed she released a sigh of relief.

...

She was relieved that Shinobu's feelings for Seiji seemed to be way lesser than hers. Her sister already seemed to be giving up and was in the process of getting over him.

That was good.

She always thought that her sister's feelings were the same or even more than hers but she learned today that it was not true, amongst other things she learned.

Now the last thread of hesitance snapped.

She smiled a knowing smile, a hopeful smile.

..

..

///////////////////

[3rd POV]

"Hey, I heard from some lower demons that there is a beautiful girl in the demon slayer corps who uses flower breathing," a white-haired demon with blood on his lips said to another demon who was kneeling before him.

The white-haired demon had rainbow-coloured eyes that seemed to see everything in this world as amusement, something he could toy with. He was lying on his side and his right hand held the ample thigh of a beautiful woman.

"They say she has the beauty of a fairy, moving with grace and elegance while she slayed demons,"

"Lord Doma, you must be talking about Kanae Kocho, the flower Hashira," the demon kneeling down said. He was a demon slayer who chose to become a demon due to his greed for immortality.

The Upper Moon 2, Doma, had kept him around him at his whims. He would ask trivial questions he had about the Demon Slayer Corps and humans in general.

Which village had the most beautiful girls, how life as a Demon Slayer was, where and how the nichirin blades were made and like the question he asked now, who was the beautiful woman in the Demon Slayer corp?

"She is the greatest healer of the Demon Slayer Corp and she is indeed a beautiful woman, the best I've seen myself," the demon said.

Doma hummed and looked at the human leg he was holding. It had the soft flesh of a beautiful woman, it was a delicacy.

"I wonder, what she tastes like..." he whispered.

He thought about it for a moment and his desire seemed to mix well with their master's wish which was the eradication of the Demon Slayer Corp. Killing their healer should dramatically weaken them right?

"Can you get her to me?" Doma asked with an innocent smile like a close friend asking you to treat them to food.

"Ah," the demon gulped, "Well, she rarely leaves the Flower mansion since she is the main doctor. But often times she would go to villages that have been infected by diseases that spread naturally or due to the blood demon art of a demon,"

Domu tilted his head to the side, his smile was still the same but it suddenly looked less friendly.

"Why are you talking so much, can you do it or not?" a killing intent so chilling washed over the lower demon.

"I-I can! I can!!" the demon yelled as the killing intent faded.

"It will take some time but I can do it with my blood demon art."

"That's great then!!" Doma said with a friendly grin, "But don't make me wait too long, lest I kill you in my boredom,"

The demon was lost for words. After a long silence, he simply said.

"I understand."

....

Seiji had thought all this time that Kanae encountered Doma due to a weird twist of fate and misfortune.

He thought that his existence alone and the fact that he warned Kanae many times would be able to change this fate.

But turns out, that it was never an encounter of chance that Kanae met Doma.

She was targeted.

"Huh, I am oddly excited about this," Doma commented while looking at his arm which trembled slightly.

But was it really excitement that he felt? Doma who was so detached from emotions and often said to be emotionless did not know better.

Was it excitement or was it fear that stemmed from the bad premonition in his heart?

Every supernatural part of him, instincts, spells, and each individual cell, yelling, SCREAMING at him.

Don't do it.

..

[IMAGE]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Double release