"Oh, Ouryuu-san come on in." Kotami waves her hand at Zeno to gesture him to come in. Zeno smiles and steps up, removing the sandals at the door.
"How have things been Kotami-san? Zeno hasn't visited for a while." Zeno asks as they walk further away from the door along the hallway.
"Oh, Ouryuu-san you have quite the surprise waiting for you." She covers her mouth with her sleeve, mirth radiating off of her.
"Is that so?"
She stops and opens the sliding door revealing Erimi sitting on the floor with Kouen to her right, covering what they were fussing over. Zeno takes some kind of odd pride in at the fact that the pair is wearing his wedding gifts, the hairpin and the earring.
Kouen then notices Zeno and Kotami at the doorway and smiles one of his silent smiles that mean something.
Zeno blinks and comes a little closer. Going around Kouen before freezing.
"She's only mon'hs old, born in 1882 winter." Erimi says in a warm hoarse voice, rocking the baby in her arms. Zeno can't focus completely because the sleeping baby in Erimi's arms is probably the mother of the boar-head wearing boy.
"I've became a grandmother." Kotami smiles tearfully, as she swirls a long lock of her slowly greying blackish blue hair.
Zeno stares a little, sits down and coos at the baby. Erimi chuckles, but it's cut off by her coughing. She grunts in pain and instead ruffles the small black to blue tuft of baby hair on the infant. Kouen's eyes full of worry soften and he says one final thing.
"Name, Kotoha."
And then Erimi starts coughing again. Zeno can see, she won't last long. Erimi's sickness has been eating away at her since she was born and Zeno can sense it is very much too soon she will pass on.
Her face is thinner, skin pale as a ghost and her eyes a bit hollow. Erimi will not be able to see her baby grow up and Kotoha will live without a mother.
Zeno purses his lips and smiles on, ignoring the sting in the back of his mind.
Erimi will most likely die in less than a year.