A Carnations Regret |KNY x Reader|

| Chapter Thirteen, Hinted Ambrosia |

I folded up the letter, slipping it inside a small envelope and sealing it, before giving it Bouko. "Take it too Aki," I said, but she already knew that and was flying off before I even spoke.

Then, I grabbed Okashi's journal. My goal over this mandatory stay at the wisteria house was to get through the bland and soul-sucking pages of breath techniques. I wasn't one to speak ill of the dead, but wow was my great-great-(insert a few more greats for good measure) grandma a bland writer. All the information was there, aure, but reading it nearly put me to sleep on the second word.

My sword, still gray and bland, laid beside me, begging me to learn a technique to save it from looking like that for all eternity. I flipped through the pages, pausing at a pair of pages that felt like they spoke to me. Flower and Love breathing.

Flower breathing because...well, it was flowers. But love breathing caught my attention because of the adorable picture attached to the page. It was of a breath-taking young woman, maybe around my age, eating some sakura mochi with her thick hair tied up in a large ponytail. Her eyes flashed over to the camera, sparkling as a smile slowly began to form.

But, as much as I wanted to dive into this woman's breathing style, I looked to flower breathing first.

I read the entire page twice, to ensure I had every detail down—which I knew I did, I just had to make sure. I grabbed my sword, kicking off my shoes to feel the warm grass below my feet.

I took a deep breath as I backed myself against the wood fence, just to give me ample space. Breathing styles, from what the journal described, was simply a different variation of total concentration movement matched with different movement.

Long...long...short-long...long...

I took the pattern of breaths the book described, holding in that final breath as I jumped up. I swung my sword below me, my body moving along with the momentum. I watched the blade become lined by blue and pink mist and small white petals chasing after my sword. I barely landed on the tip of my toe as I spun myself around, extending my sword as far as possible. And just as the book described, I stopped after the third turn.

I stood there, staring wide-eyed at my sword. "Yes!" I exclaimed holding up my sword like it was the reason behind this victory. "Darling, did you see that?" I called out to Tanjiro, who was sitting inside with the doors open so he could still see me. He was trying to braid flowers into Nezuko's hair with Zenitsu.

"You're amazing!" He yelled, getting a huff of agreement from Nezuko. Zenitsu hummed absentmindedly, too focused on braiding some small peonies into her hair.

I thought back to Tanjiro's breathing pattern in Asakusa, Curious to what would happen if I applied that here.

So I backed myself against the fence again, my foot pressed against the wood.

Short—short—long...short—long...

This time, there wasn't any pink and blue mist following me, nor any flower petals, it was a steady stream of water. I could almost feel the cold spray of the water as I landed, and it disappeared.

"Was that water breathing?" Tanjiro asked, moving to let Zenitsu braid the rest of Nezuko's hair, since he was much better at it.

"Yeah, it was..." I said, twisting my sword in my hand. "But last time, it wasn't water breathing." I used it. The same breathing, but this time, it came out as water breathing instead of the orange and red fog that clung to my blade.

"Did you use the same breathing pattern? Sometimes even slight differences make it into something completely new." Tanjiro walked over and I sheathed my sword.