I will always follow

I will act without orders

With the letter came money. Giyuu did not have a need for money, not even after taking Senjuro in. The salary of a Hashira at that point was insane, Giyuu was not sure what kind of business Oyakata-sama ran, but he hoped it was not something illegal. He could neither confirm nor deny.

Nevertheless, Giyuu decided to split the money Shinjuro had given him and gave a portion to Senjuro. He had more than one reason for doing that, he wanted Senjuro to be a responsible adult one day and he needed to learn how to manage money, on the other hand, the money belonged to the boy although he would not make him responsible for the exorbitant amount of money that Shinjuro had sent. That was the reason why he had kept a part; if Senjuro needed something, he could use the money, if he did not, he would save it for when Senjuro grew up or left the Water Estate, it would give him a good push to start comfortably the life he wanted.

They went all out with their studies, Giyuu never considered himself a very knowledgeable person, but he taught his kids everything he could. Mathematics had never come easily to him as it seemed to be the case with Senjuro and Aiko. Suki, on the other hand, would fly through her calculus and had already asked Amane to teach her what Giyuu could not.

Now, when reading and writing was involved, Aiko surpassed all of them. When she convinced Giyuu to buy her a new book, they would barely see her face for three or four days until she finished her new purchase. She would do her chores in a second and eat dinner and lunch at lightning speed so she could get back to her book as soon as possible.

Senjuro surprised them in a different way, he did not have a burning passion for reading or writing and math was a nightmare for him, but he remembered every little history detail he had ever heard. He could almost recount the books of the Flame Hashira by heart with dates and names without any problem. He had told them that his brother had read them out loud to him one time and he had loved them, he liked history and Giyuu had tried to find books that Aiko liked but that she could read out loud to Senjuro and that he would also find interesting.

When that happened, Suki would sit by their side and draw little sketches of the things they read and at the end of the day they would give Giyuu a short version of what they had read with Suki's funny drawings as a supporting feature.

In between their normal home life and Giyuu's missions, they made time to begin with Senjuro's training. The boy did not want to stray too much from his family's breathing technique, so they decided to study each form individually, Senjuro tried to demonstrate, but Giyuu could see the trouble he was having in even trying to replicate the movements his brother could easily do.

He would have loved to tell Senjuro that it was enough but the truth was that it was not. Giyuu could not rely on Senjuro's explanations to create a new breathing technique no matter how much he wanted to, he hardly believed that he was capable of creating anything that was worth it, his eleven form being the only exception.

So he had come down to two possible options: ask Senjuro's family: Shinjuro or Kyojuro, or ask Kanroji and, since he was still angry with Kyojuro and did not know if he could face him without hitting him at least once, Giyuu decided that Kanroji was their best option.

"Dear Kanroji Mitsuri,

I hope this letter finds you in good health.

As you know, Senjuro is staying at the Water Estate under my protection. He has told me that he would like to know how to defend himself not only while he is in heat, but always, but I know Flame Breathing would take a toll on him way too quickly and he would never get to master it. For that reason I thought I could adapt some of the forms to a less aggressive stance in hopes of making it more accessible to him.

Senjuro does not want to see his family just yet and I will respect his wishes as much as I can, but I also know that you trained under Rengoku's supervision and that Love Breathing is derived from Flame Breathing. If you are willing and have some spare time, we would like to pay you a visit and observe the Love Breathing forms. We could use your experience in creating new breathing techniques and would appreciate your input.