Bloody Rose | KNY x Reader

Chapter Five: Training

"Come on, (Y/N)-san! It shouldn't take this long!" (Y/N) heard the yell from outside the estate. He ticked another day off of the Butterfly Estate's calendar, marking four months since he and Kanao had begun training.

Currently, (Y/N) had gotten a few seconds of respite by volunteering to mark another day on the calendar. Aoi was yelling into the estate from her spot on the engawa, where she was watching the siblings train.

My break: gone, (Y/N) thought sullenly.

Still, the boy returned, and was greeted with the sight of Kanao running through the garden of melting snow and slowly growing flowers.

Standing in the center of Kanao's laps was Kanae, grinning like she was mad. Any other time, the older girl was pure kindness and smiles, but when she was training the Tsuyuri siblings...

(Y/N) didn't let the thought get to him, and was quick to join his sister in laps.

"(Y/N)-kun, welcome back! For today, you only have five laps for the warmup," Kanae said joyfully.

Too joyful... (Y/N) thought to himself.

The laps around the garden were getting easier and easier as the days dragged on, but (Y/N) always felt a sense of nostalgia along with the feeling like he could do better, or that he had gone through tougher training.

The feeling was odd.

(Y/N) still ran his laps, though. Feeling or no feeling, he chose to take the training, so he couldn't tuck out now.

•-•-•

After running his warmup laps, (Y/N) joined Kanao in the next step of training: weights.

Kanae had the siblings pick up weights and carry them from point to point in the garden. (Y/N) really didn't see the point in this, but Kanae had her reasons.

Apparently, the weights were as close to the siblings' actual weight as possible. Kanae did this so that, if one of the siblings got hurt, they would be able to carry the other.

The siblings alternated between running and walking, picking up the weights and dropping them.

Aoi cheered for the siblings from the engawa, shouting inspirational words. Shinobu, confused by the unfamiliar sound of Aoi cheering, stepped outside to watch the siblings train.

Shinobu was perplexed by the training methods, but trusted that her sister's training would be effective. She wasn't close to being a Hashira for nothing, after all.

(Y/N) was also confused by the training, but he trusted Kanae, too. Still, he had questions, and he did ask them.

When (Y/N) had previously asked Kanae why she wasn't giving them the same training as Shinobu, she responded, "I'm training Shinobu to become a better Demon Slayer. I'm training you and Kanao-chan to protect each other and yourselves. There are different values to the teachings."

It made sense, but why couldn't they also train to be Demon Slayers? Kanae had a response to that, too.

"Shinobu and I made up our minds about this years ago, and we can't turn back now. You, however, still have time to make up your minds about this. Being a Demon Slayer comes with responsibilities and risks that I don't want you taking." Kanae was serious now. (Y/N) took this as a sign to back away from the topic, and instead made small talk with the older girl.