Three Days Earlier, September 27, 1913
"Hey, James-san, I have a question."
Kanao's request caused James, who was working on translating the English version of the Book of Flames back into Japanese at the Butterfly Estate, to stop in the middle of it. "Yes?"
"So, um… If your parents were beating you, what would you do?"
"Beatin'? I mean, there are times where it's warranted, but…" He was unsure of what she was getting at.
"No, not like that. Not like when a child does something bad." Kanao then clarified her question. "Like if they just beat you for no reason or neglect you."
James immediately realized what she was getting at. "Oh… You mean abuse…"
"Worse," Kanao clarified further. "I saw my birth parents kill one of my sisters for crying too loud one day."
James, disgusted by what she described, replied with a grimace on his face, "Who the fuck does that to their own kid?!"
"My birth parents did," she replied with a sigh.
"I know the Bible says y'all need to honor your parents," James answered her question, now knowing the full context. "But fuck that shit when it gets to that level. I'd put a bullet right between their fuckin' eyes if they killed one of my brothers or sisters for no good reason."
Kanao thought to herself, "Put a bullet between their eyes… Put a bullet between their eyes… Now that could do it."
…
Present Day
As Kanao ran out of the tea house, a car pulled up. Just as the passenger was about to get out, Kanao pushed him back into the car and slammed the door shut, causing the man she shoved to scream, "What the fuck?! What's going on here?!"
"Drive!" Kanao then pointed her gun at the driver, who quickly sped off from the tea house as several people ran out and yelled at the car. Kanao then turned to the man in the car and noticed he was the exact same guy who had bought her five years ago. "You just get out of prison?"
The man asked, "Who the fuck are you?!"
"I'm the slave girl you bought five years ago," Kanao told him. "Tell me, do you love your brothers or sisters?"
Surprised by the question, the man replied, "Of course… How did you find me?"
Ignoring the question after a rather long and tense pause, Kanao then asked him, "How would you feel if you had to watch them die in front of you from neglect and beatings?" Receiving silence, Kanao nodded and held up her coin. "I see… Anyway, I want to know who you bought me from, now."
"If I tell you, will you let me go?"
"It won't hurt your chances," Kanao assured him. "Now tell me."
"Fine," the bald man replied. "It was the Kinoshita family. We're driving in the direction of their house. Do you want to pay them a visit or something, bitch?"
"Yeah," Kanao replied. "Thanks for the info." She then prepared to flip her coin.
"You said I would be free!"
"I said, it wouldn't hurt your chances." Kanao then flipped the coin, and when it landed on heads in her hand, she told the man, "You got lucky." However, to his horror, she then cocked the gun and aimed at the driver. "But your driver didn't." Kanao then pulled the trigger and shot the driver in the head, and just as the bald man tried to grab her, she opened the car door and fell out, spinning on the ground and ripping up part of her kimono as the car crashed into an electrical pole, knocking it over and causing a wire to hit the car, which electrocuted the bald man to death and set the car on fire. As Kanao staggered to her feet, she made sure she didn't break any bones and then adjusted her kimono, looking at it and sighing. "Shit, I tore it up."
She then turned to the house across the street and saw a man emerge from the house. The man shouted, "What the fuck's going on here?! What's with all the damn racket?!"
Kanao then noticed the family name plate on the house read out 'Kinoshita.' She turned to the man and asked him, "You recognize me, asshole?!"
"Not really!"
She then took off her butterfly hairpin and messed up her hair while still keeping a hold of her gun. "How about now?!"
The man's eyes widened as he realized who he was talking to. "Wait a minute…"
"I'm your daughter," Kanao yelled at him as she marched up to him. "But you just beat me and killed my siblings instead of taking care of me!"
"How the fuck are you still alive?! We thought you were dead after we sold you!"
"I was saved by my true family," Kanao told him as she grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him to the ground before pistol-whipping him. "And they actually gave me a name." She then stomped on his chest and placed her foot down on it as she pointed her gun at his head. "My name is Tsuyuri Kanao, younger sister of Kocho Kanae, Kocho Shinobu, and Kanzaki Aoi, and I will have my revenge!"
With the pull of her trigger, she splattered his brains all over the ground. Kanao's emotions ran higher than ever before, and with the rush of killing her abusive father filling her body, she looked up and saw whom she presumed to be her mother run out and yell, "What the fuck?! What did you do to him?! Who are you?!"
"I'm the one you didn't count on surviving," Kanao yelled at her. "You may have given birth to me, but you were never a true mother, you heartless bitch!"
"It's you!" Her mother was shocked to see her. "How did-"
Kanao then shot her in the chest, killing her instantly. "I don't wanna hear it." She then put her butterfly hairpin back on, marched past their bodies, and walked into the house. As soon as she did, she was met with a great stench that caused her to cough several times and cover her nose. "What the fuck… It stinks in here…" As she walked through the filth-covered house, she walked into a room and looked around before turning and finding a shocking sight. "What?!"
Several children were huddled into a corner, shivering with fear and wondering what was going on. She pulled out a set of matches she carried and found a torch in the room, lighting it to get a better look. One of the children yelped in fright as she lit the torch. "No! No fire!"
"Huh?" Kanao then got a better look at the kids and gasped. "Oh my God…" Tears formed in her eyes as she recognized three of the five kids. "No way… I…" She immediately told them all as she wiped her tears with her free hand, "Hey… It's me, your sister. I have a name now. You're free to come with me."
The oldest of the kids, who was a year older than Kanao and was a young man, asked her, "Free?"
The youngest of the kids who recognized Kanao, who was three years younger than her, asked her, "Oneechan?"
"Yeah," Kanao replied. "You're all safe with me. Please, we need to go. I can give you all a new life."
The youngest girl, merely a toddler who did not know Kanao, replied, "New life?"
"Yes," Kanao nodded. "Tell me, is this all of you that are left?"
"Yes," said her older brother. "This is all."
"KANAO!"
Kanao immediately shot up and pulled her gun out again. "What?!" She then turned to her siblings and told them, "Stay here." As she walked out of the room, she carried her torch out and wondered who had called her name.
"KANAO, COME OUT NOW!"
"Who are yo-?" Kanao dropped the torch in shock as she realized who was calling her name. "Ta-… Tanjiro?!"
"Kanao, please, come back with me." Tanjiro was clearly concerned for her, having become deeply worried after he had found her letter. "Look, I'll overlook all of this. Please, just… Just don't do more of this."
Kanao sighed. "Tanjiro… Tell me, how would you feel if you were in my shoes?"
"I'd be angry," Tanjiro acknowledged. "I'm not gonna deny it. I'd be fucking pissed, just like you. I'd want to kill my parents too, but… That doesn't necessarily mean I should."
"I don't think you truly understand," Kanao replied. She then turned back to the house and yelled, "Guys, come on out! There's someone here you need to see!"
As Kanao's siblings all came out, standing behind Kanao in tattered and filthy clothes, Tanjiro gasped in horror. "Oh my God…"
"This is what I fought against today," Kanao told him. "And this is why I killed my so-called parents."
"Their clothes are filthy," Tanjiro thought to himself. "So this is what she was forced to live in before Shinobu-san found her… How terrible." He then took a deep breath, formulating his response in his head. "What happened to you wasn't okay," Tanjiro told her as he walked past the bodies of her parents and went up to her. "None of it was, but… You don't need to resort to this, Kanao-chan. This isn't like you. You're not a monster or a killer, so stop trying to be one."
Kanao tried to form a response to him. "I… I…"
"Kanao," Tanjiro then told her as he extended a hand out to her. "Let's go home."
"Go home," she thought to herself as her emotions finally began to boil over. "Go home…" Kanao then fell to her knees as she began to cry for the first time in her life. As she let out several sobs, she said in between them, "I… All I wanted was to stop people from being hurt… What am I doing? How far have I gone?!"
Tanjiro hugged her on the ground as she stopped crying, shocked by the warmth of his hug. "Kanao-chan, I don't want to see you upset. It hurts."
Kanao clung to him and whispered into his ear, "I love you."
Tanjiro's eyes widened in surprise. "What?!"
Kanao then split from the hug and looked into his eyes as she told him, "I mean what I said. I love you, Tanjiro."
Tanjiro took a deep breath as he processed Kanao's confession. "I… I see… Kanao, let's go back to the Butterfly Estate and talk about this." The two then stood back up and walked back out onto the street together, and when Tanjiro noticed her siblings following them, he asked them, "Are you guys coming with us?"
"Yes," the oldest replied. "We want to be with her."
…
Somehow managing to not get caught despite Kanao's rampage, the two of them returned to the Butterfly Estate around 6 in the morning. When they reached the front gate, Shinobu and Aoi were waiting for them. Shinobu called out to them, "Tanjiro, Kanao!" She then ran out to them and suddenly embraced Kanao in a tight hug. "Oh, thank God you're okay, Kanao! I was worried sick about you!"
Aoi then told Kanao, "You really worried us! What were you thinking?!" She was clearly upset with Kanao.
Kanao replied, "I… I killed my parents."
Both Shinobu and Aoi widened their eyes in shock as she told them this news, which they had not heard due to them only knowing about Kanao leaving. Shinobu looked at her in her eyes and asked her, "You what?!"
"She's not lying," Tanjiro confirmed. "Kanao shot both of her parents and rescued her living siblings."
The oldest of them awkwardly waved to Aoi and Shinobu. "He- Hello…"
Shinobu sighed. "I feared that this would happen one day, but… I can't blame you for it." She then split from Kanao fully and very firmly told her, "Nobody, and I mean nobody, must know that you killed them, Kanao." She then looked up at her siblings. "As for you all, you are free to stay here."
"I can wash them all and get them dressed in new clothes," Aoi told Shinobu. "They clearly need both."
Shinobu then walked up to them and asked, "Do you have names?"
"Kenta," the oldest, who was seventeen, then said. He then pointed to a brother who was the same age as Kanao, sixteen. "Keisuke." He then pointed to the sister who was three years younger than Kanao, thirteen. "Keiko." He then pointed to the youngest brother, who was about nine years old. "Kenzan." Finally, he pointed to the toddler sister, who was only three years old. "Kameko."
"Use my last name for them," Kanao told Shinobu. "We don't deserve to go by our old family name of Kinoshita."
…
Around 3 in the afternoon, after Aoi had washed and dressed all of Kanao's birth siblings, Tanjiro and Kanao woke up in the same room after having crashed in Kanao's room, with Tanjiro sleeping on the floor. As Tanjiro stood up, he shook Kanao awake. "Hey, Kanao… Wake up…"
"Ugh…" Kanao then stirred awake and rubbed her eyes, looking directly into Tanjiro's gaze as she stood up. "Hey there…"
"I want to talk to you about what you said to me," Tanjiro then told her. "Is… Is it true? Did you really mean that?"
Kanao immediately knew what he was talking about. "About me and you?" She then stretched her arms and yawned. "Well… Yes. It was true."
"So you love me?"
"You gave me a voice when I needed one," Kanao told him as she cupped his cheek. "And you taught me to listen to my heart for the first time. How could I not love you?"
"Kanao," Tanjiro replied as he felt a rush of emotions run through his body. He could feel himself slowly give in to her desires as Kanao inched closer to his face. "I feel something, like there's butterflies in my stomach. What's going on?"
"I've never felt this way before," Kanao told him as she stood up and embraced him. "My heart's beating faster than ever, and it's only around you. I… I think this is love. It has to be." She thought to herself, "I need to listen to the voice in my heart…"
Tanjiro realized she was right. This was indeed love. "I'm feeling the same way, Kanao." The two then looked at each other before closing their eyes and locking their lips together in a kiss, but when they realized what they were doing, they both quickly separated. "Ah, uh…"
"I'm sorry, Tanjiro, I-"
"No, it was me," he insisted. "Not you. Look, I… Kanao, I think I love you, too. I want to sort myself out, though. We need time to build this."
Kanao nodded. "You're right. Over time, we will grow together. I'm confident we'll have a strong bond one day."
Then, Shinobu knocked on the door and let herself in. "Hey guys. Am I… Am I interrupting something here?"
Kanao immediately broke out into a sweat out of worry, prompting Tanjiro to reply, "No, you're fine, Shinobu-san."
"Okay then," she replied. "I just wanted to let you know that the next Pillar Meeting is on October 2nd. Colby-san will be made the Flame Pillar that day."
