Nobility (Kimetsu no Yaiba x OC)

Chapter 7

Kanjō resorts to training herself to keep her mind off the Kyoujuro's mother.

Yūrei are not usually seen anywhere during day or night. Why is it that the mother shows herself to this Kanjō instead of her son? It doesn't make sense.

The practice dummy rattles against the pole, constantly shaking with the force of her swings. She's frustrated with the emotion forced into her heart. Feeling wasn't necessary, feeling led to dying, feeling made everything in her life so much worse.

The last strike of the wooden sword sliced through the multiple strands of straw.

The huff of her breaths were loud, almost as if she'd been doing this all night instead of a few hours. Kanjō let's out an almost silent sound of her annoyance.

"Kanjō-sama? Is everything alight?"

She snaps her head over to Kyoujuro, who is groggy from the extra sleep, tensing her body a bit before relaxing.

"I'm fine," Kanjō's gaze sharpens slightly at the slip up in her speech. "...This Kanjō's....condition is nothing to worry for."

She really does try her best to not come off as irritated, but that's something Sesshomaru mastered the art of instead. Kyoujuro sees the small twitch of her eye and her sharp nails digging into her palm, but he knows she's not usually like this, especially with how she acted around Oyakata-sama at the meeting yesterday.

Kanjō takes a single breath before turning to the same calmness she had before.

"Take off your jacket and lay on your stomach."

Kyoujuro's face becomes two dots and a line, utterly caught off guard by her command.

"Ah...I'm.......um...okay?"

He takes off the black jacket and lays down on the porch, still completely confused about what Kanjō was going to do. When she walks over and sits on his back, Kyoujuro is startled.

"Kanjō-sama, isn't this a little inappropriate?" He smiles.

While moving his wrist onto his back, she replies nonchalantly. "It is only inappropriate if you believe it to be, Rengoku."

The grin on his face falters and a light pink settles onto his cheeks, but he lets out a yelp when her hand digs into the space between his shoulder blade and muscle, the sting dulling into a weird numbness.

"Your muscles are well developed, perhaps a tad overworked from a recent mission, but we will make do." She says before doing the same to his other arm.

Kyoujuro shifts, pushing himself off the ground when Kanjō gets off, only to tremble as he does.

"This Kanjō has loosened the muscles near your shoulder blade. Learn to control your movements as you spar against me."

"H-Hai!"

"We shall start off with small movements for the first day, you will work yourself up for the next seven," Kanjō halts her speech, thinking. "After that, you'll attempt to land a single hit on this Kanjō for twenty-one days. If you do not succeed, you will be excused from fighting Kibutsuji Muzan in the last battle."

He yells at the top of his lungs. "I UNDERSTAND!!!"

"Then, we begin now."

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Senjuro sits on the porch, watching as Kanjō shifts to the right and effortlessly dodges another one of his brother's swings. They have being doing this for hours with little to no progress on Kyoujuro's end.

Lunch was forgotten and dinner was left behind, with his brother only eating a bowl of rice and nothing more. Kanjō politely declined having meals, though he didn't know why, and walked around the house with the tea cup still on her head. 

"Enough."

In mid swing, Kyoujuro halts his attack immediately, but falls forward. He's exhausted and disappointed, a full day of training and not once did he even graze her. Kanjō herself is a bit caught off guard when he starts to fall, but quickly hooks an arm around his waist and picks him up just as easily.

"Senjuro, lead this Kanjō to his quarters."

"Hai, Kanjō-san."

She almost drops him on the way, feeling human sweat drench her clothes and wet her arm. He's warm, almost feverish, she notices, and his heartbeat is still quick when he's unconscious.

"Humans and their bodily fluids.....disgusting....." Kanjō mumbles.

She forms tomorrow's lesson in her head, adding in the fact Kyoujuro needed extra rest considering the state his body is in. Kanjō was very lenient with training time by nature. Her lifespan is long and she has never overexerted herself to this extent, also a perk of having an unexpectedly overprotective brother. Maybe if he sleeps into the afternoon he'll recover, though she remembers that the man wakes in the early hours and realizes she has to watch over him. 

It's almost enough to bring a grimace to her face.

Disgusting human fluids....

Senjuro stops in front of a door and slides it open, revealing an already laid out futon in the middle of the room. She carefully lays the body down on the cushioning and silently proceeds to unbutton the shirt he had on.

"Senjuro, fetch a bucket of cold water and two towels."

He rushes out the door, tripping over his feet. Kanjō grins a little bit, but immediately scrunches up her nose when the intense smell of sweat invades her senses. She laments, praying her nose's precious sense of smell comes back later, before continuing to undress him. 

"K-Kanjō-san! Here's the water and towels."

"Good. You may rest now."

Senjuro hesitates, wondering if he should inform her how inappropriate her actions are right now.

"Um....Kanjō-san?"

"This Kanjō knows," She replies without looking. "But it is during the late hours that children should sleep."

She dips one of the towels into the clear water and gently wipes the grime off of Kyoujuro's arm. She remembers how Kagome always told her that a human's sweat could clog up their "pores" and cause these irritating rashes, then proceeds to show Kanjō what a rash looked like. She shivers at the memory. What an unsightly thing that comes with a human body.

As she wipes Kyoujuro's body, she takes note of the strained muscles he's used. 

Shoulders and forearms were used too unnecessarily, focused more on fighting it than getting used to it. The muscles around his shoulder blades are going to be sore tomorrow. His legs are well trained, there's no sign of overuse.

She takes time to wipe him down with the dry towel now, knowing it doesn't do well for the water to be absorbed back into his body.

Ah....now this Kanjō understands what Kagaya mean when he says this is an eccentric child. He doesn't take care of himself at all.

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{[ Taisho Secrets ]}

Kanjō has been alive since around hundreds of years before the Sengoku period. Her lifespan, which outlives Muzan's and makes him jealous, is virtually endless.

She totally didn't make fun of Muzan for being an incomplete existence. *wink wonk* >;D