𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 | 𝐆𝐢𝐲𝐮𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨

Chapter 14 | Uncanny

"Hey, get up, we're going to the market," Tomioka said, shaking Shinobu lightly and waking her from her slumber.

Was it morning already?

Last night was hard for Shinobu, she barely slept, she couldn't get the thought of Rengoku's passing out of her brain. In fact, the thought was still stained in her mind, everything she did, seemed to remind her of her former colleague.

But she made a promise to herself last night, the same one that she made the night after her sister's passing; she wouldn't push her pain onto others, she would just ignore it, not think about it whatsoever, so that she won't cause any further pain for anyone else.

"Oh, alright then," she replied after rubbing her eyes and sitting up, folding her blanket so she could get up.

She walked passed him and out of the room quietly after grabbing her uniform and butterfly pin. 

Tomioka glared at her as she shut the door behind her. She was acting strange. Maybe if it was a  few months ago that he saw her act like this, he wouldn't have noticed anything, but now, he felt as though she was acting odd.

***

Her hair flicked behind her as she brushed it out, her luscious purple locks doing exactly what she wanted them to do. She quickly stuck the pin into her hair and stared at herself in the mirror. 

She put a tiny smile on her face and walked out of the wooden sliding doors.

"Alright, let's start heading out," she began, seeing Tomioka against the back door with his arms crossed mindlessly.

He examined her expression but didn't reply with anything, just a slightly confused nod as he headed out the door.

"Where did you want you to go?" She asked.

"To the town nearby, we have to get some supplies."

Tomioka didn't say much after that, he just couldn't find any topics that suited the situation, neither did Shinobu. In fact, Shinobu wanted to stay quiet, she didn't want to suddenly start breaking down like she did the previous night.

"Shinobu-chan!" A cheerful yet saddened voice yelled out for her. 

It was Mitsuri, the love pillar. Her tone almost sounded excited, but it was different from normal excitement, it was somewhat closer to relief.

"Shinobu, where were you?" She quickly questioned, grabbing Shinobu's two hands and shaking them, "I was really worried about you, especially since no one has claimed to have seen you in the past five days."

Tomioka stood behind Shinobu as Mitsuri pulled her away for a conversation, though he only paid half of his attention to what they were speaking about.

He could see Shinobu smiling, but he couldn't feel her smiling. Although her mouth was grinning, her eyes stayed completely still, there was no life in them, no shine, no emotion.

"I'm alright, really."

"Shinobu, are you sure, you seem more tired than usual," Mitsuri continued, "The loss of someone is a hard thing to cope with, you don't have to go through it alone."

"Thank you for worrying about me but I promise, I'm alright."

There it was again, her agonizing smile. 

Why was it that every time she smiled that smile, Tomioka felt a wave of uneasiness run through his spine, it made him feel like he was going to puke.

"And how are you doing, I was worried about you and the others too," Shinobu added on, trying to switch the subject of the conversation.

Mitsuri glanced at Shinobu, open-mouthed for a quick moment before shedding a few tears herself, "I'm much better now, thank you for asking Shinobu-chan."