Breath of the Void

Breath of the Void: Chapter 12

Not gonna lie, I forgot that this was supposed to go up yesterday

————————

The arrival of Kyojuro and Musashi, along with the boys, at the Butterfly Estate caused quite the stir. Kocho had instantly ordered that Aoi and the girls check over Tanjirou, Hashibara, and Agatsuma (Inosuke and Zenitsu were their first names, he learned, and he had forgotten that Zenitsu was one of the boys who passed with the others in the last Final Selection) while she dragged Kyojuro and the unconscious Musashi away to check on them.

Musashi's injuries had been less severe than his, though Kocho estimated that she'd be asleep for a while. She had suffered a few cracked bones in her arm when she blocked a punch that came from the side, but aside from that most of her injuries were bruises and small cuts and gashes. Kyojuro, on the other hand, had sustained much more dangerous injuries. His ribs had certainly been cracked, one had been broken, and he also had smaller gashes and bruises. But Kocho admitted that she couldn't do anything for his left eye. It had to be removed.

To say that he had been calm about it would have been a lie— he had been upset. It was natural, but then he calmed when he remembered that he wouldn't need to retire from being a Pillar. Just adjust how he fought. Musashi had very little trouble fighting with one eye, he could learn.

Kocho had seemed satisfied with his conclusion before she went back to tending to the gashes he had sustained.

The process to remove his eye would be a while later— when Kocho had everything ready, but he could wait. The injury had been cleaned up, it just wasn't very smart to leave the eye as it was.

Eventually, the conversation shifted to Musashi, who was laying in the bed next to him after Aoi and the girl's brought her back from cleaning the blood off of her face. Her hair had been washed clean of blood as well and left down, and of course, Kocho had asked him about why he was staring at the other woman with, in her words, a stupid look on his face.

"You asked her to marry you after you finished off Akaza?" Kocho asked, frowning as she stared at him like he had grown an extra head. He nodded, humming with a smile.

"Mhm! I think she took it well!"

"She passed out before responding, so I don't think that counts," Kocho pointed out with a sigh, shaking her head. "Honestly, you're hopeless."

He just laughed a bit before his gaze softened and he looked down at his bandaged hands. "Maybe," he said, "But! To be fair, I feel like the more observant Pillars already knew!"

"You mean myself and... just me," she said flatly. "Maybe Himejima?"

Kyojuro tilted his head, humming. "Yeah, I guess so! Maybe Tengen?"

"I think he'd be more focused on Musashi," Kocho responded flatly before she leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. "When she wakes you, you'll have to tell her what you meant by asking her to marry you, you know," she told him. Kyojuro tilted his head, blinking.

"But I meant what I said!"

She gave him a look before sighing. "That may be so, but!" she started, flicking his forehead. "You can't just start a relationship that way if you really do care about Musashi! She might not be ready to get married, yet, remember? She told us both that she doesn't think she'd be a good wife at all. You'll have to ease her into that prospect— that is, if she recuperates your feelings at all."

The Flame Pillar listened silently while the smaller woman spoke, putting his chin in his hand as he thought. "Hmm, I suppose you're right!" he said with a nod. "Then I'll just have to talk to her when she wakes up!"