𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 | 𝐆𝐢𝐲𝐮𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨

Chapter 4 | I'll go too

'CAW CAW- ALL THE HASHIRA ARE REQUIRED FOR A MEETING AT MIDDAY - CAW - ALL HASHIRA AT MIDDAY - CAW'

The sun was already up and the two could tell that it was only a couple of hours until midday.

"I wonder what we could've been summoned for, maybe something serious," Shinobu questioned to herself.

"Probably just a mission," a deep voice responded.

Shinobu had forgotten all about last night, and how she was still resting on Tomioka's shoulder. Oh, shoot. She thought to herself, remembering what she was doing in the garden and last night's previous events.

"Ah, I'm sorry," she blurted out, flustered by her sudden realisation.

Tomioka just gave her that dumbfounded look and got up to get ready for the meeting.

Shinobu stayed behind, thinking how could he just leave like that, did he just repress his memories from last night? 

What an idiot.

But her rambling thoughts were disturbed by the sudden appearance of her adoptive sister and tsuguko, Kanao.

"Shinobu-nee-san," she whispered, "I think Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke are waiting for your daily check in on them."

"Thank you, Kanao, I'll head over right now," she said with a bright smile on her face.

The previous day's events seemed to repeat themselves, Shinobu was awfully clumsy and was tripping over things quite a lot.

Agh, what's wrong with me? I'm so caught up in my head now.

***

Heading over to the hospital ward where the three boys were resting, she heard an extra voice that did not belong to any of the butterfly girls or the three resting boys. 

"Tomioka-san?" She said, with a shocked smile, "What are you doing here now?" 

He stared over at Shinobu, he hadn't expected her here at this time.

"I was visiting the boys here."

Normally, Shinobu would've asked him to leave but this time, she felt somewhat happy that he was here, that he was taking care of the boys, that is. 

"Alright then, I'll leave you four alone, I will be heading to the meeting now." Shinobu smiled

***

The meeting went as usual, at first, all the Hashira felt nervous about the sudden meeting but Master Ubuyashiki later explained that it was nothing but an urgent mission and a few smaller missions. 

Sanemi was first to greet the master, as per usual, he kept a polite tone around the master, not daring to speak against him rudely.

Mitsuri was assigned a mission for a demon in a western town, Sanemi was to go to a north-east town and slay the demon massacring many citizens

Shinobu was assigned the last mission, the master had explained that it would be dangerous since the demon had a high chance of being part of the twelve kizuki. Shinobu was to take care and try to defeat the demon as fast as possible because it had already wiped out almost half the town.

She nodded at the master with a sweet smile. 

"Wait."

It was Tomioka's voice.

"I'll go too," he said, his calm approach to such a straight-up statement almost sounded odd.

"If that's alright with you, that is, Master Ubuyashiki." He corrected himself, remembering he was speaking to his master here, "I believe it would be good for her to have a partner, because the demon might be a stronger one."

Shinobu seemed frozen in amazement, was this really, the infamous water hashira we're talking about? Did Tomioka really just ask to go with her?

She knew it was a completely normal thing for another Hashira to volunteer to join her on a mission, especially dangerous ones where they could be facing a kizuki, but she still felt amazed at his request, maybe even slightly flattered.

"That's very kind of you, Tomioka," the master replied in his calm, flowy voice that could make anyone feel lighter, "I believe it would be good if Shinobu had some help on her mission."

"Alright then master," Tomioka said, quietly as usual.

Soon enough, Kagaya summarised the meeting and all the Hashira left. All except Shinobu and Giyu, once again.

"Hey!" Shinobu quickly yelled out after Tomioka, "Hey, wait up Tomioka-san!"

Tomioka stopped and turned around, preparing himself for Shinobu's childish teasing. He gave her that 'what do you want now'  look and tilted his head down towards the ground.

"Ara ara, you volunteer to help me out but you're also refusing to speak a single word to me?" Shinobu teased, "what did you call it again Tomioka-san? Oh, right, partners."

At this point, Tomioka was blushing hard, although he was good at hiding it, Shinobu could tell by his quivering mouth. 

Why did I have to word it that way? He mumbled in his head. Oh, how he was regretting his decision. 

"Shinobu, this has nothing to do with you trying to befriend me," he corrected.

"Lighten up Tomioka-san, I was just teasing you," she smirked before turning around and waving goodbye.