WINTER BREEZE | t. muichiro

𝐨𝐧𝐞

( — ONE ; POSSIBLE DISASTERS )

MILA CARESSED TSUBAKI'S CHEEK, entranced at how adorable her youngest daughter could be. Her twin brother, Hiro, was playing with a ball outside, by the bamboo groves of the house.

Mila had decided to renovate the Kanata minka to make it more welcoming to her children and husband, who was currently working in Tokyo. She had her job as a newly instituted Love Hashira in the Corps of course, but since Muzan was dead, she didn't have to do anything. Akito, her husband, had also been a Tsuchinoe in the past.

It had been so long, so many years, since she was a demon slayer. She had no idea where her fellow slayers and the old Hashiras were; probably traveling across the globe and starting families of their own. All she knew was that Shinobu, Kanao, Aoi, and the Butterfly Trio had started a hospital in the Butterfly Estate.

Hiro waddled into the room. For a seven-year-old, he still had wobbly steps. "Mama, an old lady's outside to see you. She's pretty, too! Her hair reminds me of the sakura mochi you make!"

He didn't need to speak twice, she knew who Hiro was talking about. She let the twins go to the living room to read, and she headed to the front yard, where there was indeed a woman waiting, hair tied in the same triple braids as they had been before.

"Mila-chaaaaan!" Even her jovial attitude was the same. "Mila-chan, did you miss me? You probably did, right? And you even have little baby pipsqueaks!"

Mila put a hand on Mitsuri's shoulder, smiling. "Hi, Kanroji nee-san. Have you been well? And where's Iguro nii-chan?"

"He's working right now," Mitsuri said disappointedly. Truth be told, she was sad the former Snake Hashira couldn't make it to their reunion. "Anyway, are you going to let me in?"

When they got settled to the back patio with tea and oshiruko—sweet red bean soup—Mitsuri began throwing in some stories about her current life and travels.

"Speaking of, how's Akito-kun?" Mitsuri asked, sipping her tea and taking a spoonful of soup. Knowing the former Hashira, one bowl wasn't going to be enough. "He's still in Tokyo?"

"Yeah..." Mila trailed off, watching Tsubaki and Hiro recreate scenes from a book named A Man and His Shoes. "He rarely spends time with the kids. I'm not complaining, I know he needs to work, but...sometimes I think the kids don't see him as a father figure, because of how much he's away."

Mitsuri's pretty eyebrows laced with concern. "Mila? Is there anything else bothering you?"

In fact, there was something else. Replaying the scenes of Muichiro's visit a few days ago, she was utterly confused at her feelings. She was married and had a family, for kami's sake! Why was she acting like a lovesick teenager now?

But her heart said differently. Kami, if only Muichiro hadn't bothered to visit at all! Mila was on the very verge of forgetting him, and he just had to show up right when she started to move on. He even asked she keep the wisteria ring.

"No, nee-san, I'm fine." Mila lied smoothly. During her time with Mitsuri, sword skills and manners weren't the only things she'd learned. "I'm just worried about the kids."

"I know. Rena's been worrying me nonstop. She keeps getting fevers too. More frequent this time." Rena was Mitsuri's twelve-year-old daughter. "You're lucky Tsubaki-chan and Hiro-kun are healthy. It's only out of sheer luck that Shinobu-chan owns a hospital near us now."

Mila laughed, knowing full well that Mitsuri often got discounts since she was friends with Shinobu. Ah, how much she missed the old days, when she worked in the Corps and the Butterfly Estate as a nurse.

   Suddenly Mila remembered something, a report Tanjiro gave her a few years back. She had forgotten about it, but it came crashing down on her so randomly. "Wait, nee-san, didn't Tanjiro-san say something about Muzan having a family?"

   Mitsuri's eyebrow quirked, a confused expression on her face. "Did he? I thought Tanjiro-kun was the one who told you about his missions?"

   She nodded slowly, the bits and pieces slowly coming to life in a picture inside of my head. "Tanjiro-san said that when he came to Tokyo with Nezuko-san, they bumped into Muzan with a woman and a child. If that really was Muzan's biological kid, she could be half-demon. Oh my kami, nee-san, what if she becomes the next Muzan?"

   Mitsuri's eyes widened at her deduction, and she quickly placed the mug of tea down on the table. Mila could tell she still had connections to the Corps and the slayers. She confirmed it by saying, "I better go, Mila-chan. I'll send word by crow if Kagaya-sama decides to reinstitute the Corps."

   "Okay. Thank you for coming over, nee-san."

   WHEN MILA WENT OUTSIDE, Tsubaki and Hiro were nowhere to be found. She checked their rooms, the kitchen, the guest room, bathrooms. Nothing. Eventually the woman found them in the storage shed, where Tsubaki was staring in awe at Mila's old katana.

   "Mama, why does this sword have an inscription about killing demons?" Mila felt extremely unlucky and lucky on having children who were too smart for their own age. Tsubaki could read and write at four and Hiro knew all survival work by the time he was five. "And what's this note about a Demon Slayer Corps?"

   Hiro's head popped up from behind a stack of boxes, and came out carrying Akito's own katana. It was a standard one with a simple hand guard. But Mila's was just like Mitsuri's—soft, flexible, and long, with a clover-like hand guard.

   "Mama?" Hiro questioned quietly, tightening his grip around the katana. "Did you and Papa fight demon monsters when you were younger?"

   Ah. That was the part that was hard to explain. These were her children, for kami's sake! They didn't need to know that the world was ridded with demons before they were born.

   But the gleam in their eyes, the intelligent and knowledgable gleam they inherited from Akito. Akito had been a strategist in Tanjiro's group, and he had the smarts. Tsubaki and Hiro certainly inherited their wit from him.

   Mila smiled despite herself, knowing this was going to take a very short while. The twins understood just about everything.

   "Let's go to the living room, I'll tell you guys a story."