Chapter 59: Your sister doesn't want you anymore, you traitor's little sister.
Butterfly Mansion.
"Traitor! That bitch! She is a complete and utter traitor!"
In the front courtyard of the Butterfly Mansion, six Demon Slayer Corps members wearing uniforms marked with "Destroy" were gathered, filled with indignation.
Most of them were covered in bandages, some leaning on crutches; clearly, they were wounded soldiers receiving treatment at the Butterfly Mansion.
Among these six, standing at the very front and cursing most hysterically was a young man named Masato.
Masato wore a neat Demon Slayer Corps uniform. However, beneath that loose uniform, his shoulders were empty.
"Flower Hashira? What a load of crap! Kanae Kocho, that shameless woman, she betrayed the Master! She betrayed the entire Demon Slayer Corps! She actually protected a man-eating demon!"
Masato roared at the top of his lungs, his voice tearing from the excessive strain. His once handsome face was now as hideous as a demon crawling out of hell.
In his mind, whether day or night, awake or in a nightmare, the night that cast him into an endless hell played on a loop.
His older brother was killed by a demon while trying to protect him. Masato would never forget that scene.
He watched helplessly as the demon let out a hair-raising cackle, then extended its barb-covered claws and tore his brother's chest open.
Scalding blood sprayed out like a fountain. Right in front of him, the demon gouged out his brother's heart and stuffed it into its foul-smelling mouth.
The sickening chewing sound was amplified infinitely in the silent night.
"Crunch... crunch..." That was the sound of his brother's bones being crushed.
While chewing, the demon stared at him with eyes full of mockery and greed.
His brother's eyes, full of despair yet desperately begging him to live, were nailed into his soul like two sharp knives.
But later, what did he see?
He saw one of the top fighters of the Demon Slayer Corps, Flower Hashira Kanae Kocho, the woman who had saved his life, actually spread her arms and, as if protecting her own child, firmly shielded a demon named Tatsu.
For that demon, Kanae Kocho did not hesitate to draw her nichirin sword, aiming the blade at her comrade, at his master, the Wind Hashira.
"She did save me! My life was spared by her! But I would rather have been eaten by a demon back then than see her hurt my master to protect a filthy demon!"
Masato fell to his knees on the bluestone with a thud, raising his head to roar at the closed door of the Butterfly Mansion, "All demons deserve to die! Did those monsters show even a shred of pity when they ate people? Kanae Kocho ran away with that demon; she is a traitor who defies her master and destroys her ancestors!!"
The five surrounding Demon Slayer Corps members echoed his sentiments, their eyes flashing with hatred and unwillingness.
"That's right! She actually attacked the Wind Hashira! If not for her switching sides, how could the Wind Hashira have let that demon get away!"
"The Flower Hashira even claimed that demon was innocent? That is absolutely ridiculous!"
"What Flower Hashira? She is just a traitor who colludes with demons now! The Master will never let her go!"
The insults grew louder and louder, seeping through the door cracks into the tightly closed room.
The room was unlit, the light dim and oppressive.
Kocho Shinobu sat on the tatami, her back against the cold wooden door. She clutched her knees tightly, burying her fair face deep between her arms.
Every word and sentence cursed by those outside was like a rusty saw, slowly and cruelly dragging back and forth across her heart.
She wanted to rush out and cover their mouths, she wanted to shout back "My sister is not a traitor," but she was choked with emotion, unable to make a sound.
Because she had witnessed it all with her own eyes.
She and Sanemi Shinazugawa had gone to exterminate the demon.
The moment she swung her nichirin sword, preparing to behead the demon, her sister moved.
Kocho Shinobu still couldn't forget that scene.
Kanae, wearing a gorgeous butterfly Haori, was like a determined moth, blocking the demon's path without hesitation.
Accompanying the crisp sound of metal clashing, the nichirin sword in her sister's hand parried her fatal strike.
"Shinobu, Sanemi, please, let him go. Tatsu... he hasn't eaten anyone!"
Kanae's voice was pleading, but her hand holding the sword was as steady as a rock. In those pink-purple eyes that were always full of tenderness and compassion, flickered a determination that even she found strange.
"Sister... why did you do that..."
Kocho Shinobu let out a whimper like an injured little beast in the dark room. Two lines of clear tears slid down her pale cheeks, dripping onto the tatami and blooming into a dark stain.
She knew that her sister had truly betrayed the Demon Slayer Corps.
Facing the iron laws of the Demon Slayer Corps, harboring a demon was a capital offense, let alone hurting a colleague.
Her sister's gentleness, her sister's kindness, had ultimately pushed herself into an abyss of no return.
But, that was the sister she loved most!
She was the sister who, after their parents were killed by demons, hugged her tightly and told her "We must live together," the sister who smiled while teaching her how to mix medicine and tolerated all her willfulness and bad temper.
In her heart, her sister was the only light in her life, the entire meaning of her existence.
"That bitch ran away with the demon! She doesn't deserve to wear the Demon Slayer Corps uniform!"
"Catch her! Let the Master sentence her to death!"
Outside the door, the insults from Masato and the five members became increasingly ugly and vicious. Those foul words turned into substantial poison needles, piercing into Kocho Shinobu's ears one by one.
Enough.
Enough!
Kocho Shinobu raised her head abruptly, and the eyes that were originally filled with tears and pain were now completely replaced by a cold, bone-chilling hostility.
She took a deep breath, her chest heaving violently. She stood up and wiped the tear stains from her face.
She would never allow anyone, in the Butterfly Mansion, in this home her sister had built with her own hands, to insult her sister so recklessly.
"Clatter—"
The closed sliding door was yanked open, hitting the door frame with a loud thud.
The moment she stepped out of the room, the coldness and anger on her face seemed to be wiped away by an invisible hand.
Replacing it was a smile of extreme gentleness.
That was the smile Kanae used most often; the arc of the corners of her mouth, the curve of her eyes, and even the expression of compassion between her brows were perfectly replicated on her own face.
However, behind this smile, were the veins bulging on her forehead from extreme restraint, and her fists tightly clenched inside her sleeves, nails digging into her flesh.
"Everyone, making such a ruckus in the Butterfly Mansion courtyard early in the morning, do you have any advice?"
Kocho Shinobu's voice was as soft as a spring breeze, the tail of her voice slightly raised, exactly the same as Kanae's usual way of speaking.
Masato looked at the girl in front of him with a hypocritical smile, and the anger in his heart was instantly doused with a bucket of hot oil.
"Kocho Shinobu! Stop faking it here! You dare say you don't know what your sister did? She is a traitor! You, the traitor's little sister, still have the face to stand here and smile?"
The smile on Kocho Shinobu's face did not change in the slightest, but a cold glint flashed in the depths of her purple eyes.
"Masato, please mind your language. This is the Butterfly Mansion, a place dedicated to providing treatment for Demon Slayer Corps wounded. If you are here for treatment, I, as medical staff, naturally welcome you. But if you are here to cause trouble, then don't blame me for being impolite."
"Impolite? Hahahaha!"
Another member laughed arrogantly, "What? You want to learn from your traitor sister and draw your sword on us too? Maybe the reason the Wind Hashira failed to successfully behead that demon this time was because of you, this little brat, playing tricks in the dark! You sisters are birds of a feather!"
"That's right! Hand over that demon! Hand over Kanae Kocho!"
Kocho Shinobu looked at them quietly, watching their twisted faces and malicious eyes.
She suddenly felt a bit pathetic.
Is this the Demon Slayer Corps that her sister risked her life to protect? Is this the world that her sister always believed in, where "humans and demons can coexist peacefully"?
Her sister was really too naive.
Once human hatred takes root and sprouts, it can never be pulled out. And demons... are even more unforgivable!
Kocho Shinobu slowly reached for the nichirin sword at her waist, the guard making a crisp clinking sound. The smile on her face became even brighter.
"I will say this one last time. The Butterfly Mansion does not welcome trash that spews filth. Now, immediately, get out."
"You dare call us trash?"
Masato roared, and although he had lost his arms, he still recklessly charged toward Kocho Shinobu, "You traitor's little sister! I will clean up the sect for the Wind Hashira today!"
Facing the charging Masato, Kocho Shinobu didn't even make a move to draw her sword. She tilted her body slightly, dodging Masato's charge.
Immediately after, she raised her right leg and kicked Masato hard in the chest.
"Bang!"
With a dull impact sound, Masato flew backward like a kite with a broken string, falling heavily onto the mud outside the courtyard.
Because he had no arms to support him, he rolled several times on the ground in a sorry state before stopping, suddenly spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"Masato!"
The other five members were shocked and reached for their sword hilts.
Kocho Shinobu stood on the steps, looking down at them from above. Her smile was still flawless, but her voice carried a bone-chilling coldness:
"What? Do you want to spar too? If you don't want to end up lying on the ground like him, take him and disappear from my sight immediately. Otherwise, next time, it won't just be his ribs that I kick to pieces."
The five members looked at Kocho Shinobu's emotionless purple eyes and, for some reason, a sudden, inexplicable fear rose in their hearts.
"You... you just wait!"
A member pointed at Kocho Shinobu with bravado, gritting his teeth, "How long do you think you can be arrogant? The Master will definitely issue a kill order! Your traitor sister will have her head chopped off sooner or later!"
They scrambled to help the fallen Masato up. Masato, while coughing up blood, stared fixedly at Kocho Shinobu with his eyes full of resentment, a cold sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Kocho Shinobu... you are still defending her? Hahaha... you are so pitiful!"
Masato panted, "Your sister... that bitch, to protect a demon that has killed countless people, she doesn't even want you, her own sister! She abandoned you! She ran away with the demon! You are just an abandoned piece of trash, a traitor's little sister! Stay here and guard this empty house, and wait to collect her corpse! Hahaha!"
Masato's hysterical laughter gradually faded in the wind as they left the Butterfly Mansion while supporting each other.
"Your sister doesn't want you anymore..."
"Traitor's little sister..."
These words echoed in Kocho Shinobu's ears like a demonic spell.
The smile on her face could finally no longer be maintained. She bit her lower lip tightly until she tasted a hint of bloody sweetness.
She was not abandoned. Her sister must have had her reasons.
However, why? Why did it have to be a demon? Why did her sister have to share that gentleness with the monsters who took their parents away?
Just then, a light footstep sounded behind her.
Kocho Shinobu turned around abruptly.
At the corner of the corridor stood a petite figure. It was Kanao.
Kanao was wearing a pink kimono with a bright green butterfly hair accessory on her head. She stood there quietly, holding a shiny coin in her hand.
"Ding—"
Kanao gently tossed the coin in her hand into the air. The coin tumbled in mid-air, drawing a beautiful arc, and finally landed steadily on the back of her hand.
Kanao looked down. It was heads.
According to the rules set by her sister Kanae, if it was heads, she had to speak.
Kanao raised her head and looked straight at Kocho Shinobu:
"Shinobu sister, Kanae sister... what happened? Those people, why were they scolding Kanae sister?"
Kocho Shinobu looked at Kanao's ignorant face. Kanao was a child she and her sister had bought from human traffickers. Because she had suffered inhuman abuse and scolding from a young age that ordinary people couldn't imagine, Kanao's heart had completely closed off for self-protection.
She had lost the ability to express emotions, and didn't even have the most basic ability to make independent decisions. She couldn't cry, couldn't laugh, and wouldn't do anything without instructions; she could only rely on flipping a coin to decide her actions.
Her sister had always believed that as long as she watered her with love, one day the ice in Kanao's heart would melt, and she would be like a normal girl, possessing her own joys, sorrows, and anger.
"I cannot... I cannot drag Kanao, who understands nothing, into this vortex. This innocence that my sister risked her life to protect, I will protect it."
Kocho Shinobu vowed silently in her heart.
She took a deep breath and mobilized her stiff facial muscles again. She tried hard to recall the look in Kanae's eyes when she usually looked at Kanao, the kind of look filled with maternal brilliance, gentle enough to encompass everything.
Kocho Shinobu forced out a smile exactly the same as Kanae Kocho's.
This smile was too perfect, so perfect that even she felt a little disgusted and sad.
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