𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝑰 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 [𝕘𝕚𝕪𝕦𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕠] (KNY)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝟣𝟨: 𝒮𝓁𝑒𝑒𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 & 𝑅𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒯𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒲𝑒 𝒜𝓌𝒶𝓀𝑒

Time skip

Author POV:

The Butterfly Mansion was silent as Kanae carefully balanced a cup of herbal tea, a plate of french toast and a cup of medicine in her arms as she headed to Shinobu's ward. 

Giyu and Shinobu, both gravely injured after their battle against Douma, had been given two small, advanced rooms for them to heal. Kanae herself had specificially treated both of them every day, and Shinobu had quickly awoken from her unconsious state. However, Giyu was not so lucky. 

"Shinobu? Good morning." Kanae gently pushed open the door to Shinobu's room, setting the plate and cups onto the bedside table. "How do you feel?"

"A bit faint." Shinobu put a hand to her forehead, sighing. "My wounds throb and my limbs ache, but mostly I'm just worried about him."

"Him who?" Kanae hummed as she stirred a sugar cube into Shinobu's tea. 

"Tomioka." Shinobu sat up straighter. "He's been comatose for almost a week now, hasn't he? If he doesn't hurry up and get better soon, he'll miss missions and people will die and stuff...." she was listing off perfectly adequate, sensible reasons that she didn't really believe priority in, when in fact her voice shook everytime she mentioned his name. 

"Ah. That Tomioka. Water Hashira." Kanae sighed. "You feel very strongly about him, do you not? Everytime you talk of him, your blood pressure goes up..." she touched the monitor on the desk. "Hmm. But Shinobu, don't worry. He'll be fine. It's not fatal."

"Not fatal!" she burst out. "They could be worse! They could leave pernament injuries and brain damage and- and-"

"Shinobu. Shinobu, sis, calm down. I get a feeling this isn't just about concern for the pillar's work." Kanae gave Shinobu a curious look. "There's more, isn't there? You can tell me, you know."

"Oh, alright." Shinobu sank down, defeated. "I just.... I really, really don't want him to have any injuries, to suffer, because, well.... it'd be my fault if he did."

"Huh?"

"He- I- he was... he took the fatal blow for me. The demon- Douma- he had struck me and if he'd hit me again, I would've surely died, but then he lept in and took the blow. So... so... I just feel like if I could've dodged, he wouldn't have had to do that." Shinobu sighed, discreetly blinking back tears. "If he'd died, it would've been my fault..."

"Shinobu. Stop. STOP it. It's not your fault for anything, not at all, if it's anyone it should be that disguisting demon, you shouldn't have to face him, you shouldn't have to had fought him- " Kanae stopped talking abruptly. 

"What do you mean?"

"I just wish... I sometimes wish you could've had a normal childhood and grew up as a normal girl, with no worries about demons and battle and always being at risk of death and injuries..." Kanae stared at the window absentmindely. "If only I could've given you that childhood, you might've been happier."

"Kanae. Oh, Kanae, sis, I've always been happy like this." Shinobu lept forwards to hug her older sister fiercly. "You gave me the life I never would've had otherwise. I love being with you and Aoi and Kanao and the Hashiras and I love everything about the life you've given me. I couldn't ask for more."

"You could. You should." Kanae blinked back tears. "You should ask me for much more, for what a girl should want. For a happy life."

"I have that already."

"Just... Shinobu, is there anything you want to do? Anything wish, that I can help fufill?" Kanae asked sadly, hopefully. 

Shinobu opened her mouth to say no, but then reconsidered. 

"Well... there actually is something...."

A/N: a cute sister-to-sister scene <3