2nd Chances

Part 5

Giyuu spend his days up until the next pillar meeting training with Sanemi, doing missions and occasionally stopping by the butterfly estate. Once the time came for the pillars to meet at the headquarters he was the only one late to arrive.

The meeting had been scheduled for early in the morning and he had just come off the tail end of a long overnight mission.

Giyuu pushed the gates open with a sigh, he could only hope they didn't start the meeting already. It had only been a little over a month since he originally found himself mysteriously in front of these gates once more.

He made his way to the staging area where the pillar meeting was to be held only to spot all the pillars already in positions. The master was addressing them, the meeting had already started much to his dismay.

Giyuu awkwardly walked his way over to his position and kneeled down, but it was strange. The master wasn't even talking, no one was. He peeped his eyes upwards off the ground only to see everyone looking at him, he quickly looked back down at the ground.

"Why? Why is everyone looking at me?" Giyuu nervously thought having never had this happen to him before.

"I see you made it." Kagaya commented with a tinge of disapproval.

Not only was everyone looking at him but the master was also addressing his tardiness, how embarrassing.

"Apologies I-" Giyuu tried to explain himself before quickly shutting up.

"It is alright." Kagaya said putting the matter to rest.

"On to business. My children, I have heard that there was an upper moon appearance recently. I am glad you two are safe."

"I have read the reports the kakushi have provided but.... I wish to directly hear from you two about the encounter."

Kanae and Giyuu both shot each other a glance before one of them spoke.

"We had arrived at our mission's location and had searched the entire area before encountering the demon kazuki." Giyuu said first.

"Tomioka-San and I had entered a building in search of any demons before finding the said demon in question." Kanae took over the explanation.

"And then we engaged in combat, the demon being much more powerful then anticipation nearly overwhelmed me with one of it's attacks." Kanae further explained feeling more and more useless as she explained it out loud.

"Tomioka-San managed to stall the demon while I was barely able to do anything, the demon then fled once the sun was about to rise."

"I see..... if you had to guess, how much more powerful do you believe this demon was then the both of you?" Kagaya asked as it was important intel to have.

Kanae got quiet for a moment but just as she was about to speak, Giyuu started talking.

"If I had to say then.... It would be safe to assume that it was much more powerful then either of us could handle even combined. It seemed to only toy with us, unfortunately I could only take one of it's arms off before it fled."

The meeting got quiet for a moment as everyone thought about Giyuu's statement.

"Kanae, my child, I heard that the demon injured you, how are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm fine Oyakata-Sama. My injuries were only minor at best thanks to Tomioka-San." Kanae tried to brush away his concerns quickly as she was put under the spotlight.

"I see, and of you, Giyuu, my child?"

"My injuries were of no concern." He said mundanely.

"This is good to hear, how fortunate I am that my children's injuries were only minor."