Akemi held up the scissors. "Are you ready?"

"No, no, I need more time to think about this," Moriko said, stepping back, hands raised to fend off Akemi. "I'm decidedly not ready."

Sighing, Akemi put one hand on her hip, the scissors clicking as she set them on the bathroom counter. The cabin bathroom was itty bitty, but they were lucky they had one. Some of the cabins had a communal set-up instead of having their own. "You already said you would. I mean, you sort of have to if this is going to work. I can't make my hair grow."

Instead, she was in the process of dying it completely black. The two streaks of color that Tengen had helped her put in weeks ago didn't exactly match Moriko's, now did it? To dye it, both of them had bought permanent markers at the camp canteen. It wasn't perfect, they had managed to use the markers to turn the streak mostly black. If you weren't looking for it, it would be difficult to tell, and Akemi thought that maybe she could find real dye once she was back in the real world.

Back in the real world and in a new city with her mother.

The plan was deceptively simple. Akemi and Moriko would spend their last week and a half at camp learning to completely copy each other. When it was time to leave, Moriko would go home with Giyuu and Akemi would go with Shinobu. A month later, they would reveal that they had switched and force their parents to meet up and fall in love again. Moriko would also be in charge of getting rid of Saika, which she seemed to think wouldn't be so difficult.

In theory, it seemed easy enough. But learning each other's mannerisms, speech habits, friends, preferences, old stories and everything else they needed to know to perfectly mimic each other was difficult. Akemi was having trouble keeping her expression as calm, cool, and collected as Moriko. And Moriko was having trouble being openly affectionate and bouncy.

"We have to have this figured out by the weekend," Akemi said. It was going to be their trial run. The camp was having a massive bonfire to celebrate the beginning of the last week of camp on Sunday. During the bonfire, Akemi was going to pretend to be Moriko and Moriko would pretend to be Akemi. Luckily, they had convinced Nakime that they needed to stay in the Cooperation Cabin, and since she didn't seem to actually be interested in what they were doing, she let them do it.

"I know."

"Including the hair."

"I know." Moriko twisted her fingers through her hair. She tossed Akemi a fake smile that was supposed to be like Akemi's smile. "I'm going to let you cut it in just a second, no worries."

Akemi laughed. "Okay, that sounded like me, but you can't smile like you just ate something super bitter."

Moriko rolled her eyes. "You smile too much."

"Maybe you don't smile enough." She looked in the mirror and grinned. "It's not hard."

"You said your dad doesn't smile a lot," Moriko said, "Perhaps he wouldn't mind if you weren't so expressive."

Akemi lifted her eyebrows at her reflection. "Our dad. And uhhh, more like he and everyone else in my family would think I was sick. And I don't smile all the time! I smile a normal amount."

The look on Moriko's face said she disagreed.

"Okay, look at it this way, if I show up at you and start grinning at everyone, they're going to have a problem, right?"

Moriko withdrew her fingers from her hair. "While I doubt that they would immediately jump to the conclusion that we discovered each other and switched places at camp, it might raise suspicions…"

Akemi pointed at her. "That. Exactly." She picked up the scissors again and clicked them open and closed. "I'm going to have to get used to talking all fancy."

Tying her hair into a ponytail, Moriko frowned. "I don't think you'll find it difficult."

"Really? Because you talk like you're practicing for a college-level spelling bee."

"And you know every single word I use," Moriko said, lifting her eyebrows like Akemi had earlier. They were mimicking each other's facial expressions as much as possible. "Why don't you use them?"

Akemi's cheeks heated up. "I don't know…" She clipped a tiny chunk of her hair off, getting a grumpy little growl out of Moriko. No one would notice that sliver, anyways. "I like standing out, but it's also good to blend in?" It was why she liked the idea of dying her hair but worried about getting teased by her classmates as a show-off if she used more intellectual words. Her dad was a writer, after all. She knew plenty of words.

"I've never seen the point of blending in and conforming," Moriko said. She finished tying the ponytail. "I want you to be yourself around me all the time."

Akemi smiled a bit. "Even if that means I make up words instead of using real ones?"

Moriko sniffed. "Maybe not all the time, if that's the case."

Grinning, Akemi lifted the scissors. "Ready now?"

Moriko lifted her ponytail. "No, but go ahead. Be careful, please, don't take off too much."

"Don't worry about it, I don't want a bob either."

Slowly, methodically, she cut her sister's ponytail, leveling her hair so it was roughly the same length as her own. When she was finished, she set the scissors on the counter again and stood beside her sister. Akemi made the same mildly startled expression that Moriko had at the moment. In their matching standard camp t-shirts and hair, it was impossible to tell them apart. As long as they made sure no one saw that Moriko didn't have Akemi's reckless-person scars and Akemi made sure to wear bracelets to cover up her lack of a small burn scar on her right wrist, they were perfectly identical.

"Oooh, this is freaky," Akemi said. She poked Moriko's cheek. "Give me my face back."

"Take it up with our parents." Moriko poked her back, mirror images of each other.

"So when does Akemi get home again?"

Giyuu looked up from his notebook, stirring reluctantly out of the plotline he had been figuring out. Saika sat on the park bench beside him, her hands wrapped around a cup of coffee. They had met up after she had finished with work, walking around the park for a while before stopping at the coffee shop and going back to sit beside the park's pond. Ducks swam across the smooth surface.

He thought he had already told her when Akemi was getting home, but he must have forgotten. "I'll pick her up in a week and a half." Something akin to homesickness rushed through him. The house was so empty without Akemi. It wasn't that she talked all the time or was constantly at his side or anything, but…her presence was so bright and warm, it was like he had all the lights off in the house even when they were on.

"That's so sweet of you," she said. A snag of displeasure tugged at him. Going to pick up his daughter didn't seem like something out of the ordinary or especially sweet to him. But it was probably just her perspective. "Maybe I could go with you? I mean, I'm just looking so forward to meeting her."

Giyuu looked out at the pond, watching the ducks. That wasn't going to work. He wanted to introduce them slowly, and he didn't think the long drive back from the camp drop-off location was the right time. Besides, it was family time, and Nezuko and Tanjiro wanted to go with him already.

"I think it would be better if you met her later," Giyuu said, "She'll be tired."

"I thought it was a sleepaway camp," Saika said with a laugh, "But if you think that's for the best, it must be." There was a flash of…was that relief in her eyes? No. He must have read that wrong. She was probably disappointed.

Giyuu nodded. "She'll be interested in meeting you."

"Not excited?" Saika sipped her coffee. "Won't she be happy to meet me?"

Ah… "She might be," Giyuu said honestly, "I hope she will be, but I can't promise how she'll feel."

Saika smiled and leaned against him. "Even if she doesn't like me at first, I know we'll become fast friends. You said she's a very outgoing girl."

Frighteningly outgoing sometimes. When she had been a toddler, he had to keep a close eye on her since she would introduce herself to anyone who came within five feet of her. If someone had extended a hand to her, she would take it. It had terrified him that she would walk off with someone and he would never see her again. He couldn't handle more loss, especially when it was so raw then, and the idea of losing Akemi now—

"Are you okay?" Saika rested her hand on his. Her fingers were cold from where she had been holding the cup of iced coffee.

"Yes," he said. "It's fine. I'll talk to her before you meet."

"It'll be wonderful," she said. "Kids are just so great." She took another long sip of her coffee.

Giyuu watched her, wondering why, exactly, she blinked so much when she said that. The wind was chilly. That could be the reason. He reminded himself that Saika didn't have a lot of experience with children. She was nervous?

He turned his attention back to his notebook and made a mental note to tell Akemi about that, too, in case Saika seemed standoffish. Another mental note was stashed beside it, this one a reminder to watch Saika carefully when she met Akemi. If it wasn't nervousness…hmm…