ALL NOVEL Worry
Back into Kanae's room,
"It is alright you three," Kanae said gently looking at the three small girls who were clinging to her bed bawling their eyes, looking at the tear stains it seemed like they were likely crying for a while.
And they have been, as soon as the news reached them that Kanae had encountered a demon that was Upper rank Two. They were all lost since that pretty much sealed Kanae's death in stone.
No Hashira has come back alive after facing an Upper-Rank demon in the past two hundred years or so. The three girls started crying as soon as the news reached the butterfly estate, Shinobu took off without a word making her way to the location as fast as she could even after the others tried to stop her.
But luckily Kanae was able to come back alive, even then they were crying since they couldn't hold it in after seeing her injured state.
Kanae smiled slightly patting the heads of the three girls as they slowly stopped crying.
"Also Aoi-chan it isn't good to skip training, you know?" Kanae looked at the young girl that was standing behind the three girls, she wasn't crying now but she also had tears stains on her face.
"B-But..." Aoi stuttered a bit as her deep blue eyes showed how worried she was.
"You can see I am fine, Now you can go and train with peace of mind, If you skip today Minami-sensei is going to get really angry," Kanae smiled gently as this was how their work was.
"It is alright, I will look after Nee-sama so come back after the training is done," Shinobu said patting Aoi's shoulder, she could understand her worries but since everything is fine now Aoi should focus on her training first.
"Ok," Aoi nodded and ran out of the room to reach her training area, there was a new resolution in her eyes after seeing Kanae.
"Kanao-chan come here," Seeing Aoi leave the room Kanae turned to look at a young girl that looked smaller than Shinobu.
Kanao walked towards Kanae's bedside sweating heavily as her dark lilac eyes darted around the room, her lips were clasped shut and it looked like she had a lot to say but couldn't do it.
"It is ok Kanao-chan, I understand everything," Kanae patted Kanao's head gently speaking slowly wanting to calm down her panic.
'She is scared because she can't cry, but she doesn't realize that she looks the most worried about me in this room,' Kanae smiled seeing Kanao's hands trembling, she seemed to be waiting for punishment or something which made Kanae's heart hurt.
"I asked others and she seemed to be like this from the time she heard the news," Shinobu said a little after Kanao left the room, she hadn't checked on Kanao before and was only able to ask the people present.
"I hope she understands it sooner that we would never hurt her," Kanae said looking at the ceiling.
"Mm," Shinobu nodded as she saw Kanae fall asleep, she had just taken some medicine a little while ago and it had started to work.
'Nee-sama, you used to be so patient with Kanao before,' Shinobu covered Kanae with the quilt as she looked at her sister who was sleeping.
What happened today had left a clear effect on Kanae herself, which was the reason she acted that way with Aoi and Kanao.
'I don't want such a thing to happen again,' Shinobu wiped her tears as she closed the window.
Shinobu walked out of the room without making any sound that could disturb her sister's sleep and got to work. She went to the backyard and started training.
Shinobu had made up her mind to increase her strength no matter what. She kept on training till the afternoon after which she went back in and looked after the patients before going to train again in the evening till dinner.
Their butterfly estate was also a hospital for the Demon slayer corps where all of the injured members were brought for treatment, so the traffic was high here and with Kanae being unable to work in her current state, Shinobu's workload increased and along with the intense training…...
'She is coughing up blood,' Yuu looked at Shinobu from the roof of the estate as she stood up shakily walking back into the house.
'I need to increase my training as well, my current level won't do,' Yuu was changing the red bandages from his fists.
They weren't there for style but they were actually soaked in his blood because the skin on his hands was ripped by what he was doing before, he has started to be a lot crueler during training since his family wasn't here to stop him.
If he had done this back in his world…
'They wouldn't even let me practice Martial arts,' Yuu had to be extremely careful before, but for the duration he is in this world, he didn't need to worry about that now.
"They can't find out about it here," Yuu muttered while making a schedule for himself.
***
It has been a few days since Yuu arrived at the Butterfly mansion. During those days his schedule was fixed, He would wake up at 4 in the morning and start his training in the woods near the estate so that he doesn't disturb anyone or the main reason…
'I don't want to destroy the garden,' Yuu thought as he was running back to the estate at full speed since only a few minutes remained before someone woke up.
'Well, let's start the weight training,' The time was around 5:30 currently as Yuu closed his pocket watch.
The only equipment for weight training here was rocks tied with ropes thrown over tree branches or big rocks that could be used to lift up using his hands.
But they weren't heavy enough for Yuu as only Shinobu and probably Kanae used them, they weren't people with brute strength so it was understandable.
'It didn't take a lot of time to get heavier stones,' Yuu had lugged a few of the heavier stones from the forest nearby which he used daily now.
'She is still at it,' Yuu thought as he felt a gaze on his back but he continued to lift the stones while keeping his breathing in check. It wasn't something like what the demon slayers had but a normal one that was developed by people on earth.
Yuu continued to do squats with the stone lifting them above his head and bringing it down slowly, after that he continued the normal routine of push-ups and sit-ups. The gaze on his back was long gone as Yuu finally stopped.
'The number has increased just past 500 on each, it is better than before,' Yuu had surpassed the count of 500 on push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, the only weird thing was that he only started counting after it started to hurt. He didn't count any of the ones before that.
"Tachibana-sama the breakfast is ready," Yuu looked back and saw three small girls coming into towards him from the estate.
They were the same ones who ran into Kanae's room as soon as it was opened and cried loudly.
The girl with low black twin tails with black button-like eyes was named Nakahara Sumi, she was the one who called out to him.
"I see," Yuu answered as they came in front of him.
"Tachibana-sama did you get hurt again?" A light-skinned girl with shoulder-length black hair asked in worry as she looked at Yuuya bandage wrapped hands, her name was Terauchi Kiyo.
She used the words again since Yuu was spotted several times applying medicine to his wounds not only on his hands but on his elbows knees and feet as well.
"I can handle it," Yuu said as he wiped the sweat off his face with the towel given to him by the third girl, she was about the same height as the other two with dark brown hair braided into twin tails.
All three looked like they were nine to ten years old, they were all wearing a long-sleeved nurse uniforms with different colored bows on their backs. They worked in the hospital that was operated by Kanae and Shinobu.
The three come around regularly to watch Yuu practice but only if they have free time.
"Let's go to the dining room then," Yuu walked towards the place where he'll have breakfast as the three girls followed him, they were about to eat in the same place as well.