Shinobu's Pov

A couple hours earlier

Right after me and Y/N basically crashed into each other and instantly backed away in awkwardness, we both seemed to be quite embarrassed, so we took care of everything there was to take care of in that room and went right into the next one.

Honestly, the feeling of leaving the same room as Y/N was pretty calming. Not like I hated him now or anything, but the stress of the situation was pretty tiring already, and I just didn't have the strength nor the energy to deal with it at the time, so I preferred to talk everything down with him at some other point, rather than right now, however, there were a couple of people not willing to wait for us, Kanao and Aoi.

I was certain Kanao wouldn't really ask any questions to Y/N, but I knew her, and I knew just how intrusive her gaze could be, and how it basically forces you into speaking anything out loud. As for me, I had to deal with Aoi. She was way less mind intrusive than Kanao, but that was only because her approaching method is directly intrusive instead.

Just once we left the room, not even making that Y/N or Kanao could hear us, she immediately started asking away. "What was that?! Did something happen between the two of you?! ARE YOU GUYS IN LOVE?!!!" I was mostly shrugging her off, but not only was she starting to get pretty intense with her tone of voice, but also, this last question was just triggering for me.

I immediately backed off in surprise, and as I turned around to look at her, I said. "Wow! Slow down there, little miss. I assure you that nothing that serious has happened between the two of us." She of course didn't believe me, and just stood there, looking at me with a big pout on her face. "We were just, you know, avoiding any accidents from happening. We already had one today, I'm sure Y/N wouldn't want to repeat the same situation from before." I explained, and then tried to go back to the task at hand.

She again didn't seem to believe me, but I was hoping she would at least let it be for the time being, but she of course didn't. "I don't think he would mind at all. He's fairly clumsy to think that ahead." I tried to be unfazed by this, but I wasn't able, and instead allowed some of my old antics to escape through.

"Well, maybe he changed a bit or something!" I lightly exclaimed, however, even I could notice that I sounded angrier than I would've liked, and honestly, I wasn't even annoyed, at least not with her. "That's at least more probable than him liking me or anything..." I said in a melancholic tone, but hearing me speak this way, I questioned myself. 'Since when do I care about him liking me?!' "I mean, it's not like I like him either! He's just a friend from a while ago! We all know that don't we?!" I lightly exclaimed, almost as if answering to myself, but also turning to look at Aoi for her approval.

She just looked at with some kind of disapproval or doubt, and then said, in a quite sarcastic tone if I may say. "Do we really know it? I mean, you've been acting rather weirdly ever since he came back." This took me back, and I even jolted a bit, while she just kept talking. "Yesterday the two of you woke up in the same room, which is quite odd, seeing as Y/N does have an assigned room for himself. You mentioned an accident happening earlier as well, something that you normally wouldn't allow to happen, as you can easily catch falling dishes this days, and since Y/N has done similar training to yours, I would assume pretty much the same for him. And finally, surely taking some precautions is useful, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that what you two do is a tad bit ridiculous." Honestly, everything that she said was pretty spot on, and if it wasn't for that fact that those statements were being used against me, I would be pretty impressed by her.

This was getting embarrassing already, and I didn't even know what to say, so I just rubbed the back of my neck, and looked at the floor, almost as if waiting for anything else to happen right now. "*Sigh* Look, Shinobu, one thing is my constant prying in this matter because, and I'll admit it, it is really fun to see the two of you struggle to give me a straight answer, but I think you should really think about this. None of us would like for the two of you to be unhappy." I was nice to hear her be so protective with me, and my smile was creeping its way back into my mouth, or at least it was until she spoke again. "And certainly none of us would mind if you two became a couple~" She said in a pretty sly tone, while also winking at me.

This basically reminded me just how sassy she could be, and if it wasn't for, A, the fact that I was trying to be calmer ever since Kanae, and B, that she almost immediately left the room, I would've screamed a bit at her. Mostly trying to sound angry, but truthfully being mostly embarrassed.

Seeing her simply leave like that, I just let out a sigh, and after making sure everything was completely done in this room, I followed her to the next one. As we kept moving along, Aoi of course kept trying to pester me, but aside from a few words here and there, I was mostly able to ignore her and just keep working without getting angry of anything.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm still not really sure, a while after we encountered Kanao and Y/N yet again while cleaning. I still didn't have the courage, or even the correct mindset to talk to him, but as we kept cleaning and not saying anything, we yet again bumped into each other like last time, however, unlike then, neither of us did any sudden movements, and just stayed there.

At the moment we touched, it was a tad bit surprising for the two of us, so we turned to look at each other, with some embarrassment I have to say, but after we both processed it for a moment, we seemed to realize that we didn't mind it, and just kept working like normal, though pretty close to each other.

I'm not entirely sure about him, but as for me, I was feeling oddly happy about having him this close to me. I still didn't know if it was due to love or just friendship, but I wasn't going to fill this moment with those useless thoughts, and instead, just kept doing my thing, staying as close to him as I could.

Of course it didn't last forever, and soon enough we had to change of room again, but those few minutes felt refreshing, or at least they were until Aoi had to open her mouth. Almost as soon as we walked out of there she kept repeating things like 'Why did the two of you stay that close?' 'You mean to say that's not romantic?' And some other weird stuff, but unlike before, this time I was actually able to shut her off, and she at least seemed to calm down a bit.

As almost any other day, we finished with the chores a bit before afternoon, meaning that it was the perfect time to start with the lunch, so we all could have energy for the rest of the day, however, something I didn't expect was that Y/N would say that he was going to leave right now. Honestly, that was just something I hadn't stop to think about at all. I just spent my day without thinking about when he would leave, and I even think somewhere within my mind, I held hope that he wouldn't leave, but it was time to be realistic, and so he had to leave.

"You sure you don't want to stay to eat?" I asked to him, just to be really sure that he was leaving right now, and so he said.

"No, but thanks. I'll come back soon to eat though." I nodded at him, knowing that he was right and that he would come back eventually, but still being a bit uneasy of his farewell.

He only bowed down a bit at me right before leaving, and then started walking away from the house. Aoi and Kanao were clearly saddened by his leaving, but I managed to get a tighter hold of myself, at least for the first few seconds.

As I saw him leave, I felt kind off unsatisfied with what happened this last two days, so truthfully, mostly out of impulse, I lightly exclaimed. "Y/N! Wait!" Hearing me, he of course turned back to look at me, and I instantly ran right at him, only to give him a hug.

I really didn't know where the urge to do this came from, but giving him a hug felt pretty nice. "Be safe out there." I said to him, while also tightening the hug a bit. He seemed quite surprised by my sudden action, honestly I was too, but even then, he returned the hug to me after a little while.

We stayed there for a little while, just enjoying a bit our time, and after a little while, we separated. "Don't worry, I'll be back." He said to me, and as I walked back, but still looking right at him, I said.

"Yeah, I know." And with a light chuckle from him, we finally parted ways. As he went away, we both waved at each other for as long as we could, and as he disappeared from my sight, I simply smiled, and walked back to the butterfly mansion, however, as I walked in, I realized that maybe I had a bit too impulsive, as Aoi was looking at me with the most excited, sly, and sassy grin she had ever shown, while Kanao looked at me with an intensity that could melt metal.

'Well, let's just get this over with.'

Y/N's Pov

After that quick hug with Kocho, as short or unexpected as it was, I honestly felt all my uneasiness fade away. I still had many things to think about before deciding how my relationship with her worked in the end, but it made me fell at ease to begin with.

I knew there was no real hurry to go back with Master. I had already told him where I was staying and that I was coming back today, so I hoped he wouldn't be worried about me, but I still had quite a lot of energy inside me, which made me jog most of the way there, mostly out of impulse, but it still helped to ease my mind.

A couple minutes after leaving, maybe be about an hour perhaps, I decided that, since it had also been a couple years since I last saw her, and that this was kind of a special day, being just a couple of weeks away from becoming a true Demon Slayer, I might as well go see Mother yet again.

Fortunately, my country house was on the middle between both the Mansion and Master's house, so it was convenient as well. With the pace at which I was going, it took me just a bit over two hours to get there, and maybe another three or four before getting back with Master.

As I went into the town, I encountered Mr. Takashi yet again. It was nice to see him, though it was also curious to see him grow older every time I came by. I remember that when I was a kid he looked younger, not too much, he was still an adult in his forty's maybe, and when I came back with Kocho a couple years ago, he was starting to get clearly older. Just a couple more wrinkles and some white hairs. Then today, the majority of his hair became white, and his face was very different from the first time we met.

"Hey, Y/N. Fancy seeing you here after so many years!" He lightly exclaimed to me, while also walking closer to me.

I let out a chuckle at his little comment, and as we both gave a quick hug to each other, I replied. "Nice seeing you again as well, Mr. Takashi. Sorry for not coming around here more often. These past few years have been a bit too hectic." And as we separated from each other, he said.

"It's no problem. You're moving on. Living life out there. It's fine. You'll have to tell me about it some day though. Maybe a girl has already caught your eye?" I chuckled nervously at this last part, and as I rubbed the back of my neck, I said to him.

"N-Nothing interesting, really. Just me working out and trying to figure out what's next in life for me." However, I don't think he really believed me, as he was looking with quite a lot of skepticism, probably catching up to the fact that I was lying, but either way, I decided to leave it on hold and said. "A-Anyway, I'll go visit Mother, if you don't mind." He kept looking at me with some doubt from the previous statement, but after a little he shrugged it off, and instead said.

"Alright. I'll stay here. If you want to come and chat you can." We then bowed a bit at each other as a farewell, and then I started walking away. On the little way I could also realize how the small town was starting to grow, and while it was still recognizable from when I was a kid, the outskirts of the town were starting to get filled with more houses and a couple other businesses, which was very encouraging to me.

As I got closer to my house, I actually expected it to be full of wildlife and a lot of plants, but surprisingly, it was very clean and with almost no trace of abandonment. This confused me quite a lot, because as far as I knew, there was no one living here anymore, and while the place wasn't abandoned, it didn't look occupied as well, so that was confusing to me.

I tried to look into this, but it was easy to resolve, as the closer I got to the house, I could notice that that wasn't the only change that had been done. Once I crossed the corner of my house, to look at Mother's gravestone, I could see just how much it had been taken care of.

It was filled to the top with a bunch of flowers, ranging from multiple types and colors, as well as different arranges or decorations, very beautiful to say the least. This started answering a couple of my questions, as this must've been done by the towns people, and the final word, was a new grave that was done for her, which showed all the details that a gravestone should, like the year Mother was born, her year of death, and my favorite part, the last goodbye.

'Here lies Mrs. L/N, and a memorial to Young Mr. L/N. The two of you brought happiness and prosperity to this town. We are deeply thankful for everything you've done for us. May you rest in peace.'

I started tearing up slightly. Seeing just how deeply this town, which at times almost felt like my true home when I was younger, cared for us.

I kneeled down in front of Mother's grave, while also starting to do a small ritual to honor her memory. Burning some incense, placing some flowers of my own for her, and even if she couldn't hear me, I started telling her about everything that happened through the years.

It kind of sounded like if I was excusing myself from not coming back in years, but I also told her about Kocho. I still didn't know what to tell her. If I should talk about her as a friend, or as a possible couple prospect, but I didn't care, and just talked away.

I almost lost the entire track of time, but I made sure to not stay longer than two hours, as it was starting to get dark over here. I then got up from the grave, but just right as I was about to turn around, I realized a small note beside a couple flowers, and I'm not really sure what, but something made me kneel down a bit again and grab it to look at it.

'Dear Maria. My Wife. My Love.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being distant with you. I apologize for not spending as much time with you or our son as you asked me to. And now I realize why you told me that.

You're gone, and I don't feel like I spent nearly enough time with you. Nor our son, who I can't just find in this vast country. I've been told that he's alive, which is a relief, but I just hope that he comes back to me at last.

Love you, Your husband.

Jean.'

I almost teared up reading this, and also made me realize just how much I neglected my father. Sure he wasn't around enough, but when he was, he made it worth it, at least now I knew that. When I was younger I surely didn't appreciate it, but now I looked back, and realized just how much I missed those times, mostly the ones when the three of us were together.

However, as much as I missed him and those memories, I still couldn't go back yet. I first had to figure out how my new life would work, and maybe figure out Kocho as well in the way.

'Soon Father.'

Chapter End

Taisho Era Rumors

The entire town in which Y/N's family countryside house resided helped out with keeping said place in shape. Of course not everyone met them that personally, much less Mr. L/N, but most of the kids and parents met her wife and son, and thanks to their money and the contributions they did during each vacation, the town was able to grow slowly, hence why all of them are so thankful with them.

Alright, done with this chapter. Perhaps a bit later than usual, but here it is. I hope you guys are liking it, and I was also wondering what you thought of more emotional chapters like this one. I'm always looking to improve, so always know that your feedback is very appreciated.

Not much else to say this week, so I hope you all have an amazing week. Any more feedback on my writing, or any silly comments you might have in regards of this chapter, please lave them in the comments.

See you next time, SET YOUR HEART ABLAZE!!!