My eyes flickered open from sunlight hitting my face. "I'm alive?" I was in a room with many beds. I was so focused on where I was, I didn't notice a girl staring at me.
"So you're awake now," it was a girl who wore a butterfly clip.
"Are you sure I'm not dead? I had a good feeling I was…" I rubbed my eyes and stretched my body.
"You were very lucky you didn't die, and it was also the help of Zenitsu who brought you here. I've managed to drain most of the poison out of your body before it could shut down. But in order to make sure you've completely recovered, you have to take medication." She was telling me the medication I had to use and when I should use it.
"Okay, thank you very much for saving me." I pleasantly smiled at her. If it wasn't this place, I would for sure die. "Oh, where am I exactly?"
"You're at the Butterfly Estate, and I'm Aoi. If you need anything just call me or anyone around you," Aoi left the room, so I decided to roam around the estate.
"Wow, the back looks nice." I peeked through the window. It was bright and nice outside with no gray sky, I loved it. "I guess something interesting did happen in my life…. Almost died, but was it not worth seeing this beautiful place? Maybe," I laughed at myself.
I heard people training in a room, so I quickly peer at the opened door to see Inosuke, Tanjiro, and Zenitsu training. I didn't want to disturb them because they were training hard, so I walked away.
Roaming around the halls, I heard two people talking. One was a high pitch voice, sounding like a woman and the other sounded like Giyu. I didn't know if I should've interrupted the conversation or waited, but I wouldn't know how long they would be talking for and I wanted to surprise Giyu. "Come on, Kirika." I mustered up the courage to open the door. "Sorry to interrupt…" when I slid the door, I wished I didn't witness the scene. It was a girl who wore the demon slayer corps uniform was on top of Giyu as if they were wrestling, or being intimate. "And I oop—" I slammed the door and ran off.
I felt so embarrassed to find out the weirdest way that Giyu was dating. "I'm going to kill myself…" My face was hot from the awkward position they had. "I need to purify my eyes!" I ran off to who knows where, I needed space to think.
I was somewhere deep in the forest shooting arrows at a tree trunk. "Ouh…" I had a sudden realization. "I can't be close to him anymore. He has someone now. I'm not a homewrecker…" I felt disgusted with myself for my interactions with him.
"Kirika, that's where you are. People were worrying about you, especially Giyu," my body tensed up. "And Shinobu." Inosuke emerged out of the shadows.
"Who's Shinobu?" I asked and Inosuke described to me who Shinobu was. "Ohhhh okay," my mind suddenly went back to the incident. "So that's Shinobu. Lucky for her…" My chest felt weird. I knew I couldn't be close with him and that what hurt me the most because time drifted us apart. "As long as he's happy that all that matters. If she can shoulder his sorrows then that's even better…" I've never felt so empty in my chest when I thought about losing a childhood friend again.
"What'd you say? Speak louder!"
"AHAHA!" I puffed up my chest and stared cockily at him. "Battle me in archery. Whoever kills the most birds in the sky wins, and I guess if you want a prize..." I was thinking about what would suit Inosuke since he's rowdy. "Then you can take whatever is at my house!" I boldly declared, smirking at him. I really needed to get Giyu and Shinobu out of my brain.
"Oh you're on!" Inosuke was pumped and energized by my offer.
Inosuke and I were battling it off as we shot down many flying birds as we saw. "Inosuke, you can't gain the upper hand. I'm a skilled archer, but I may be wrong… But we shall see our results." My heart was pumping in excitement as I was higher than Inosuke by three shots.
I pulled back my elbow, letting tension build up in the string and I let loose of the arrow as it flew up in the air, striking down birds and birds. On the other hand, Inosuke was okay with the bow and arrow. He was struggling as his let his frustration get to him.
"I can't do this crap! I'd rather attack with my sword!" Inosuke grumbled as he missed his prey.
"You have to be calm. This takes a lot of concentration like any other weapon you use. If you let your irritation get the best of you, you miss." I released the arrow and I hit another bird.
At some time we both were out of arrows. "Your arrows done?" I looked over at him.
"Yeah…" Inosuke was shaking as he fell in defeat.
"You can still keep whatever you want inside my house. I don't care really. Let's also get our birds. No need to count because you already know who won!" I had my own mini celebration for myself because it felt good to win. I considered myself a competitive person if I put my heart into it, or I try at least.
We disbursed and we looked for our birds we killed. "Let's tie them together with this rope," I suggested the easier way than having our hands full.
"I hate you…" Inosuke murmured.
"Just because I won half your total? Now before me." I laughed jokingly. "Maybe I should've done this for a living. Have an archery battle and win money…. It would be the dream!"
"I forgot you were even injured." Inosuke sounded so confused then shocked.
"Yeah, same here. I don't know if I should've overworked myself by this competition." Now I started to get confused about what I should and shouldn't do since I was still in the process of healing.
"You're on your own." Then Inosuke started to run ahead of me.
"Hey, just because you're all healthy and fine doesn't mean you can leave me behind!" I tried my best to catch up.
"Where did you guys go?" Tanjiro and Zenitsu looked at me and Inosuke.
"I was shooting arrows, then Inosuke crossed path with me so we battled it out with an archery competition. I won of course," I showed them how many birds I killed.
"It would've been scary if they killed our messenger birds…" the two boys looked at each other in sheer fear.
"We're eating birds tonight!" I left the room and strolled my way to the kitchen, but my jolly moment died when the hashira woman came out from the corner of the hallway.
"You must be Kirika Chiba! It's a pleasure to meet you," she extended her hand out to shake mine but I had my hands full with birds. "Oh? You went hunting?" she noticed the birds at hand.
My heart accelerated for no reason. "Yeah…!" I slightly felt awkward from the scene replaying in my head. I didn't want to bring it up, I wanted to forget about it, or try to at least. "I was out in the forest," I smiled through my transparent nervousness.
"I'm Shinobu Kocho, if you didn't know. I'll be taking my leave since you look busy. I'll catch you around," Shinobu waves off and left me alone.
In the kitchen, I twisted my hair into a bun and tied a white cloth around my head, and wore a white smock to prevent any staining on my attire. I started off by boiling half of the chicken into a pot and waited until it was done before I could pluck off the feathers. Doing the small task, I felt sweaty due to the heated room of the fire burning underneath the boiling pot. "Cooking is tiring even though I didn't do anything," I wiped off my sweat forming on my forehead.
After boiling and plucking, I gutted the inside. "I don't know if I did this wrong or right." I was confused if I should've gutted then boiled, but I already boiled it so I couldn't reverse the steps.
"Kirika, are you in here?" I quickly turned my head back to see Aoi was searching for me.
"Yes, I am. I'm busy cooking so if it's urgent tell me now," I shouted through my slicing and ripping.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just wondering." Aoi left the kitchen.
When the gutting was over, I chopped the birds into pieces by their joints. The kitchen was filled with chopping noises as I concentrated on making it even. Soon after chopping through twenty birds, I threw it into the hot water.
"Oh! I wonder if they have any herbs." I looked around the kitchen to see if any herbs lie in the open, but none were visible. "I wonder if they have a garden?" I hastily left the room and checked both ends of the hall if I saw any staff out but they weren't present when I needed them.
I jogged out, looking around my area to find any staff, but instead I saw Giyu walking from the end of the hall. I composed myself when we made eye contact for a split second before running off.
"Aoi!" I called, literally running in the halls, because I had a feeling that Giyu was maybe chasing after me due to me not saying a word to him for this whole day
"Yes?" Aoi peered out of the corner, and I told her what I needed. "Yeah we have a garden. I'll show you." I followed her as I was shown a big garden.
"Wow! This is amazing!" the garden was huge. "I bet it has everything," I started to pick out whatever I saw that would be good with chopped birds.
"Kirika," I heard my name being called in a soft voice.
"Yeah," I looked over my shoulder and saw Giyu. My heart was in panic mode. "Is there something you need? Because if it isn't urgent then you can tell me later. I'm kinda busy cooking right now, so…" I was really trying to make him leave me alone because I wasn't going to talk to him.
"Oh, in that case, I'll tell you later then." His footsteps faded as I continued to pick out herbs and some vegetables.
I ran back inside the kitchen, cleaning off dirt and chopping it into the pot. I was breaking into many sweat from being in the room. It felt like a sauna.
"Mom?"
I was confused about who was calling me 'mom'. I wasn't that young or old to be a mother yet, and I didn't have a husband to be called 'mom' too. "Who are you calling 'mom'?" I stared at the person who called me.
"Oh!" It was Tanjiro. He looked taken back as if his past was running through his eyes. "Sorry, you looked like my mom with the hair covering and smock." He apologized and I started to feel down because there was a little sadness lingering in his eyes.
"What's wrong? You can tell me anything," I ushered him inside the kitchen for a talk.
"No it's okay! You're cooking and I don't want the food to taste bad if you're sad because of me. Food tastes better if it's filled with love and happiness," Tanjiro was trying to find a way to back out, but I wouldn't let him go so easily.
"You will be sad if you ate all the love and happiness without feeling the emotions I poured into it." I didn't pour no love or happiness, I poured my sinful memory into it so I could forget.
Tanjiro briefly told me about his family and that his sister was a demon. "From the back, it looked like a split image of my mom that's really it."
"It's okay. At first, I thought you were insulting me because I'm unmarried. Besides that, food is ready and gather everyone."
I took my bowl first and ate inside my room than the dining area. I wasn't feeling like being in the room with the two people. "Wow, they would be a great couple." I thought more about it because I couldn't let it go. No matter how much I tried to be distracted, I couldn't let the feeling and thought go of losing him. "Kirika, you need to chill. It's been years and you should be happy for them. They're cute or whatever. She's beautiful for him, they're like two worlds collide. That's great.. that's cool! That's good! Now I need to shut up and eat."
I left my finished bowl in the room and I snuggled myself in bed. I was going to try and sleep it away. I wanted to forget about it by tomorrow, if not then I'm leaving the estate for my own mentality.