Shinobu decided against going to intercept Himejima and Shinazugawa. With the new demon slayers on the property, she just felt that leaving would be tempting fate and so she busied herself with her other duties. She did still have other patients after all, and the kakushi to look after…

She was more than a little relieved when, a little over an hour after they arrived, the Kamado siblings sought her out and Tanjiro asked if she would be willing to let him back into the cellar to sleep. She gladly did so, if only to avoid confrontations.

His sister followed them to the cellar door, her face set in a grim line. She was apparently not happy about her brother going to sleep and her expression fell further into a disapproving scowl when she saw the large, iron door that guarded the stairwell. Tanjiro apologized for not being able to make it to dinner after all, but he didn't want to risk not listening to his body, and his body said to sleep. He bid her a warm farewell with a hug and then smiled and bowed at Shinobu before heading down into the darkness, not seeming to care that the door locked behind him.

"Does it really have to be like this?" Nezuko asked her quietly once the Insect Pillar put the keys in her pocket.

Shinobu glanced at the girl now glaring at her determinedly – almost accusingly – and sighed. "I trust your brother. More than I should, and more than you probably realize. The other one, though…" She shook her head. "I can't trust him. Not yet. But your brother can control him to an extent. That is the biggest reason why I want him down there when he rests. I need to do what I can to protect the rest of my household, no matter how difficult or how I may not like it."

"I see," the girl replied quietly. She wasn't happy about it, but she seemed to accept it.

"Would you like to see your friends?" Shinobu asked, blatantly changing the topic.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl perk up. "Yes, please."

"This way," the older teen said and began to head towards the recovery rooms. Not more than a hallway away, someone began to shout:

"Where am I? What is going on? WHERE IS NEZUUUKOOOOOO?! INNOOOOOSUKEEEEE!"

Nezuko sighed.

Shinobu felt her eye twitch.

Or maybe she'd just burn the entire place down herself and be done with it.

xXx

Not long after Shinobu left Nezuko with her weeping friend and had Aoi lead the boar-headed boy to them as well, Himejima and Shinazugawa knocked on the front gate. Politely. As one would expect. Shinobu gladly answered it and welcomed her fellow Hashira in before greeting his… student? Disciple? She was pretty sure Shinazugawa wasn't his Tsuguko as she'd been the one to diagnose the heart problem he had that would prevent him from using breath forms. He could breathe just fine and would likely not have any serious problems fighting, even, but the slight irregularity of his heartbeat would prevent the even distribution of oxygen at maximum capacity… he could even seriously damage his body if he tried.

Still, he seemed determined and was definitely learning from Himejima-san, so she settled on 'disciple' until informed otherwise.

The Stone Hashira was calm, collected and steady, as usual (although she could make out tear-tracks on his cheeks and wondered why he'd been crying this time…), and Shinazugawa seemed brusque, but polite. Rough around the edges, and obviously carrying his family's infamous anger, but he kept it in check admirably.

She still reminded them that unless they were sparring or training, which certain areas were set aside for, there were to be no altercations between fellow demon slayers. Then she reiterated that they were all welcome and would show them to their room personally.

All in all it went smoothly and she went to dinner that evening feeling more hopeful about the entire situation.

xXx

Dinner was… tense. Nezuko wasn't entirely sure why, but the newcomers (besides her, Inosuke and Zenitsu) seemed… wary. Especially towards her.

She couldn't help but think it had something to do with Tanjiro, which put her on her defense to a point where even Zenitsu and Inosuke avoided trying to set her off. That, honestly, just annoyed her more because she was fine, thank you very much. Maybe a little protective of her now fully-demon brother (and wasn't that a kick to the gut?), but what did they expect?

No, she knew the answer to that. They expected him to be evil and for her to try and kill him.

She couldn't even be angry at that due to the sheer ridiculousness of it.

In any case, the boy who came with the new Hashira, Genya-san, just wouldn't stop glaring at her. She recognized him from the Final Selection, and remembered he'd been rather angry and loud, but didn't know much about him other than his name.

She did her best to ignore him, eating her meal calmly as the evening wore on.

Once most of the large group currently inhabiting the estate finished, she offered to help Aoi and the three younger girls clean up. They gladly accepted and she was able to slip away from the harsh stares. Zenitsu looked like he wanted to come along, but Inosuke dragged him outside to spar, as apparently he'd promised a fight once they finished dinner. Nezuko was pretty sure Inosuke was exaggerating, but Zenitsu needed to continue to gain confidence, and the sparring would likely help, so she just waved as he wailed and reached for her, trying to escape their other friend as he marched through the door, refusing to release his iron grip on their yellow-haired companion's haori.

Many hands make light work, and she and the girls finished the chores quickly, at which point, Nezuko calmly made her way outside, hoping that she might be able to get in on some of the sparring.

Unfortunately, she ran into the one person she'd been avoiding.

"You," he hissed the moment he saw her. Nezuko felt her face fall and put one foot back, preparing to defend if she was attacked. Then she decided to try and play nice. It was the least she owed Shinobu-san, and it's what Tanjiro would want.

"Hello, Shinazugawa-san," she said happily, even bowing a little.

He ignored her words, instead rudely pointing at her. "Where is your demon brother?!"

Her expression cooled significantly. "Why do you want to know?"

To her surprise, he stopped short and blinked, as if he didn't have an answer for that. "Just tell me!" he finally settled on.

Oh, so she was dealing with another child, not a teenager. Were these the types of boys the Demon Slayer Corps attracted? She'd expected people more like… well, the stoic Samurais of old, she supposed. Like Tomioka-san. Maybe also Himejima-san, but they were definitely the exceptions.

"Ask Shinobu-san," she replied. "If you need to know, she'll be happy to tell you." She went to walk past him.

"I'm not sleeping in an estate with a demon!"

Well, two demons actually, but she wasn't about to say that. There was standing up for herself, and then there was provoking the other party. She refused to sink that low.

"He's locked away and safe from you," she said, rolling her eyes as she finally passed him.

Then his arm shot out towards her, likely to pin her to the wall or hit her, and she had to duck and roll to avoid it. Out of instinct, she came up facing him, hand resting on her sword. He looked surprised for several seconds, and then he turned to glare at her.

"We're the ones that need to be safe from him!"

Nezuko couldn't help that she scoffed and rolled her eyes again as she straightened up. "It's obvious you have no idea what you're talking about."

"Why you," he growled and started towards her.

"Genya," a calm, deep voice made him stop in his tracks and Nezuko glanced past him to the large, blind man who had just turned into the hallway. "You need to calm down. Recite a mantra."

The boy looked pained for a second before sighing and beginning to speak under his breath.

"My apologies for my student," the Stone Hashira said to Nezuko with a nod of his head.

She immediately felt herself relax a little and was able to give him a bright smile. "Thank you, Himejima-san."

He returned her smile with another polite nod. It seemed he favored a stoic expression.

"May I ask if you have seen your brother since you arrived?"

Nezuko frowned a little, not liking that they wanted to know about Tanjiro, but she also wanted to help them trust him, so she nodded, albeit a little reluctantly. "I have."

The older man frowned thoughtfully.

"Did he act differently than normal?"

She still felt uneasy at his line of questioning, but again, felt she should simply answer truthfully. "Not really. I mean, he's sleeping more than I thought he would."

That seemed to take the man aback. "Sleeping?" he asked.

She nodded. "That's how he gets his energy in place of eating. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but he seems to need a great deal of sleep to make up for the food he's missing."

Shinazugawa snorted, but didn't stop speaking under his breath nor did he look at her. She shot him a glare before turning her wide eyes back up at the Hashira.

"So," the man said slowly, "he can no longer eat human food?"

Nezuko frowned. Wasn't that public knowledge? "He hasn't been able to since he fought the two Waxing Moons to save mine and Kanroji-san's lives. That was…" she paused and thought about it, "several weeks ago. A couple of months, actually."

"And he hasn't tasted any human flesh since then?"

This was getting tiring, but she forged ahead with a huge smile. "Nope. He's been with other Hashira the entire time, so you can ask them to confirm it." Besides, she couldn't think of a scenario that would make her brother eat humans.

"Did you know he has turned a human into a demon?" the Hashira asked.

Nezuko tensed at that because… she hadn't known that. She knew he had a new demon on his side, but she thought that had been like Akatsugi-san.

"No," she finally replied slowly.

"Well he did," Shinazugawa said, turning to her with a glower on his face (and were those tears in his eyes? Surely not), "and he was my brother."

Nezuko gasped softly. Oh… That… that explained a lot. (Although that didn't explain why he was taking his anger and grief out on her.)

"I'm… sure he had a good reason," she said, hating how unsure she sounded.

"No, there is no good reason! Sanemi would rather die than become a demon!"

Nezuko felt her hackles raise as she glared at the boy. "Nii-san's demons aren't like Muzan's demons."

"A demon is a demon!" he shouted back.

Her expression dried out and she folded her arms. "Funny, I've never seen any of Muzan's demons avoid eating by sleeping."

"And you've seen one of Kamado's do that?" Himejima asked.

Nezuko nodded. "Yes. Akatsugi-san does that now."

The larger man frowned. Nezuko didn't know if that was because he'd forgotten or because he hadn't expected her to remember that. Or maybe it was another reason? He was not an easy person to read…

"You can say that because your only living sibling wasn't turned into the thing he hates the most!" Shinazugawa said, still angry… and he seemed to have tears running down his cheeks now. Actually, so did Himejima-san as he put a calming hand on his student's shoulder. That caused her anger to calm a little. These men were hurting. She didn't need to add to that.

"No," she replied softly, "only my oldest one."

That seemed to take Shinazugawa back. The Hashira just looked skeptical.

"He hated the idea of becoming a demon," she continued, looking down as she remembered the fear on her brother's face as he woke that morning two and a half years ago. "He didn't want me to see, but I knew it scared him – terrified him. He wanted to stay human and would do anything to have a human life again."

"That isn't possible," Himejima-san said, his voice quiet and pitying.

Nezuko shook her head. "It is! People are working on cures, right now. He even saved a demon by burning the demon cells out of her! She's human again!" She smiled at them, but then frowned sadly after a moment. "Although another demon died when he tried the first time, so it's still not a guarantee…" Tanjiro had been so sad when he'd told her that… and so excited when he'd spoken of his success. He really took too much on his shoulders.

The two men in front of her stared at her in shock. Well, Shinazugawa stared in shock. Himejima-san still managed to look stunned though.

"Then why can't he burn the demon cells out of Sanemi?" the angry boy asked.

Nezuko opened her mouth, but then closed it slowly as she tipped her head to the side and thought. There wasn't any reason as far as she knew.

Huh.

"I don't know if he can or not," she finally replied, then forced a smile. "You should ask him when you see him. I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

The boy looked torn between being hopeful and wanting to lunge at her again. However, the larger man's arm held him back.

"Thank you for speaking with us," Himejima-san said with a shallow, but respectful bow. The tears on his cheeks glistened in the fading light of the hallway. "We apologize for taking your time."

"That's okay," she assured them. Then she glanced at Shinazugawa. "When strange things started happening to my brother, I wanted to know what was going on too. I hope Nii-san can burn the demon cells out of your brother."

The boy didn't seem to know what to make of that, so he just stood there as she bowed respectfully to them. "Please excuse me. I was on my way to the training ground to meet my friends. Have a pleasant night."

"You too," Himejima-san replied as she turned and continued on her way. Only once she knew they could no longer see her did she relax. That had… not been pleasant, and now she had questions for her brother as well. He'd turned a human into a demon? He could do that?! Tamayo-san hadn't said anything about that…

But Nezuko trusted Tanjiro. She trusted him with all her heart. He'd had a good reason. She just had to wait until he woke up before she could get the whole story out of him. Until then, it was useless to think on it.

A couple of seconds later, she stepped onto the engawa and saw a flash of bright yellow as Zenitsu ran by, trailing tears and snot in his wake. Nezuko sighed. At least he was using his breath form. But he wasn't going as fast as she knew he could… which made his current levels a conscious choice, despite his panicked expression. He was thinking through his panic, so improvement. He was still participating in a spar, even if that meant he'd keep away from the bare-chested boy chasing him. Loudly

Nezuko cleared her throat.

They both froze and turned to her.

"Nezuko-chaaaaaan! He's so mean to me!" Zenitsu cried as he suddenly sprinted behind her, putting her between him and the boar-headed boy.

"I gotta make my underlings strong!" Inosuke yelled. "We all gotta be the strongest so everyone will look up to us!" At least he stopped before running into her. The yelling still didn't sound good right next to her ear, though.

She sighed. "Inosuke-san, are you still up for a spar?"

The boy drew back, probably surprised, but then she could practically feel the manic grin appearing on his face behind his mask. "Fight me, Muzuko!"

She sighed, then turned and walked onto the field calmly, never drawing her sword and knowing Inosuke wouldn't attack her when she wasn't at her strongest unless he was trying to make a point. Once in the middle of the field, she turned and put her hand on her sword. With a loud, excited yell, Inosuke launched himself at her.

Off to the side, Zenitsu started shouting, calling him names for daring to be so cruel to 'Nezuko-chan'.

She made a mental note to drag him into the yard next.

After the interrogation she just had, she needed this release.

xXx

Genya watched the girl leave, thoughts conflicted. She believed in her brother, but wished the best for his? That made no sense! No, she had to be keeping the peace or buying time, no matter how sincere she'd sounded (even after all of his anger and accusations…).

He wanted to follow her and demand to know where her brother was again. Maybe if he could sneak up on him while he slept…

"Genya," the hand on his shoulder felt heavier than normal, "you are not being rational. That girl is protecting her brother."

"She's protecting a demon!" the younger slayer practically hissed back, throwing his hand in the direction she'd disappeared in.

"As are many of the Hashira and Oyakata-sama," he said sternly. "Hence why we have to be careful and find evidence." His frown deepened and he folded his arms, looming over Genya, likely without really meaning to… it was still intimidating. "I certainly hope you weren't planning on just sneaking in and killing Kamado while he slept…"

Genya didn't answer, looking down guiltily. Not that Himejima-san could see, but he likely could tell his student's intentions from the silence alone.

"That would have gotten you kicked out of the Corps," the larger man said with a tired sigh. "And may have gotten you turned over to the police as they would handle a murder of a fellow demon slayer as just that: a murder, demon or not. That's if they didn't decide to execute you for such actions. And likely that girl would have been the one to execute you as you would have killed her brother."

"He killed mine! I have every right to avenge him!"

"He didn't kill him – he turned your brother into a demon."

"That's as good as! Worse even!"

Another tired sigh. "I do not disagree with you," the man said. "But that doesn't stop the fact that we have to tread carefully. You promised me you would not attack Kamado without any evidence. Despite that, you actively planned on going back on your word."

Genya looked down again, hating the shame that bubbled in his chest. "Sorry, Sensei."

The man just shook his head. "Come along. I have more mantras for you to learn. It seems you need them more than I realized. Tomorrow, we will search for a waterfall to train under."

The younger demon slayer didn't groan, but it was a near thing. He did wince. Himejima-san's punishments were… memorable. Which was likely the point.

It irked Genya that he wouldn't be able to confront his brother's demon master (or whatever monsters like him were called), but he did trust in his teacher. He'd acted rashly, and now would have to deal with the consequences of his actions.

"Yes, Sensei," he finally said, dejected.

The older man nodded and turned to head back the way he'd come. Genya went to follow after him, shooting one last frustrated look over his shoulder at the empty hallway before sighing and rushing after his teacher.

xXx

The next several days at the Butterfly Mansion were… tense. Nezuko made sure to be polite to Himejima-san and Shinazugawa-san, and encouraged Inosuke and Zenitsu to be as well.

Inosuke outright refused, but didn't treat them any differently than he would have any other demon slayer, constantly challenging them to fights or just outright ignoring them. Shinazugawa, in return, simply ignored Inosuke right back. Thankfully, he did much the same for her and Zenitsu, and while she still found it rude, it was better than starting outright fights. Himejima-san was, at least, calm and polite. He asked Shinobu-san several questions and the two of them would often spar, but other than that, there was little interaction between Himejima, Shinazugawa, and more or less everyone else.

Nezuko actually enjoyed her time at the estate, despite this. She trained often with Zenitsu, Inosuke and Shinobu-san's Tsuguko, Kanao. Although, the latter only joined their group after Shinobu-san specifically asked her to, and while the girl didn't speak much, she was dedicated and strong. Nezuko found herself very much enjoying her training against the other girl. She also enjoyed her time interacting with the younger girls of the estate as it reminded her very much of her own siblings and went a long way to easing any discomfort she had regarding the entire situation.

Still, the whole house seemed to be on edge, and she knew exactly what would tip it over into chaos – as did everyone else.

Then, finally – almost a week after Nezuko had arrived at the estate – the demons in the cellar woke.

xXx

AN: Yes, I'm leaving it there. *Bwahahahaha* Wait until next week. *More evil laughter*

In any case, thanks again to TimelordTim, Found and Quathis! You guys are amazing!

Discord: discord. gg/q4pkrymvvr (no spaces)