A day that felt like war due to moving preparations came to an end.
The mansion was quiet after finishing packing, and Akira headed to the outdoor hot spring set up behind the mansion to wash away his fatigue.
"Hoo…"
As the warm hot spring water rose to his shoulders, the tension in his muscles melted away like ice.
The moonlight scattered through the white steam rising from the water surface, making it a truly dreamlike night.
Akira placed a wet towel on his forehead and closed his eyes.
Plans in Asakusa, contact with Tamayo, and pursuit by the Demon Slayer Corps—his mind was complicated, but at this moment, he was at peace.
Drrruk~
Then, the sound of the sliding door from the changing room opening was heard.
"Who is it? Shuten? I thought I said no alcohol."
Thinking that the drunk demon had barged in with a bottle of sake, Akira deliberately turned his head with a stern voice.
But the person who parted the hazy steam and entered completely defied his expectations.
"Excuse me, Akira-san."
"...?!"
Akira coughed as if choked and hid his body deep in the water. There stood Kocho Kanae.
It wasn't her usual neat kimono attire.
She was standing there completely naked, with only a white towel covering her vital areas.
Whether from the heat or embarrassment, her entire body was dyed a peach-like red.
"Ka, Kanae? This is the men's bath?!"
"I know. I came because Akira-san is here."
Kanae was smiling her usual gentle smile, but her eyes were different from usual, moist. She moved her trembling legs and entered the bath.
Splash~
The water rippled as Kanae immersed her legs into the water. Today, her movements were alluring, and her gaze felt different somehow.
Slowly entering the hot spring, her white thighs and hip line submerged in the hot spring water.
She without hesitation took a seat right next to Akira.
A distance so close that their shoulders almost touched. A faint flower scent, soap smell, and the sweet flesh scent unique to women pierced through the sulfur smell and struck Akira's nose.
"...Too close, Kanae."
"Oh, do you dislike it?"
Kanae tilted her head. Wet hair clung to her collarbone and chest, creating a strange allure.
Akira, not knowing where to look, gazed up at the night sky.
After a moment of silence, Kanae reached out her hand from the water and held Akira's hand.
"Akira-san. Do you remember… what you told me before?"
"...What words?"
"You told me absolutely not to wander outside alone this year, 1909. To always be with someone at night."
It was a warning secretly given only to her, but the most important one.
"You remembered?"
"Yes. How could I forget? It was the first time Akira-san spoke with such a serious and sad expression. …Can you tell me the reason now? Why specifically this year?"
Kanae's eyes were clear and transparent. She wanted the truth. Akira was silent for a moment.
But now she had the right to know. She was no longer a child to be protected.
"...This year was the year you were fated to die."
"Huh…?"
Kanae's eyes widened.
"In the original fate… you were destined to meet a demon called Upper Moon Two Doma this year and be brutally killed. Fighting alone until dawn… with your lungs frozen and your entire body torn apart."
Akira spoke calmly, but heavily, describing the tragic end she should have faced.
Kanae stared intently into Akira's eyes.
It wasn't a lie. In his pupils, deep sorrow and relief that she was alive intersected.
He knew the future. And to save her from that horrific future, he had taken her in, taught her, and protected her with near-overprotectiveness until now.
"Ah…"
Tears welled up in Kanae's eyes. Not from fear of death, but because her heart swelled with the deep care and love a man had poured into her.
"As I thought… Akira-san is my savior."
Kanae reached out both hands from the water and cupped Akira's cheeks.
"You saved my life, gave me a family… and even changed my predetermined fate of death."
"That's just something I happened to know, and you can meet a better man than me. You're kind, pretty, and gentle, so meet a normal human man and be happy──"
Akira said, deliberately avoiding her gaze.
But Kanae shook her head and pressed her body against him. The sensation of her ample breasts, separated only by a towel in the water, was vividly transmitted to Akira's arm.
"No. For me, there is only Akira-san. There is no man in this world who will cherish and love me more than you."
"Kanae…"
"I like you, Akira-san. No, I love you. Perhaps, from the moment we first met. From the moment you held my hand, my heart might have been yours."
Kanae's confession was trembling but firm. She looked up at Akira with sorrowful eyes.
"Can you… accept my feelings? Like Mitsuri-san… I want to be your woman too. At the very least… even a kiss…."
Akira hesitated. He thought she was still young.
But the woman before him was no longer the little girl he knew. She was a mature woman who knew love and wanted to carve out her own destiny. Besides, she was two years older than Mitsuri in the first place.
As he hesitated to answer, Kanae gathered her courage and approached first.
Smack.
Soft lips overlapped. It was careful like petals, but with an irresistible sweetness. Akira's reason began to shake.
"Mmm…"
After a short kiss, Kanae breathed heavily with a reddened face. As if determined, she untied the knot of the towel covering her chest.
Slurp~ The white towel sank into the water.
Under the moonlight, Kocho Kanae's nude body was fully revealed.
Ample breasts, a slender waist, smooth leg lines. She was the flower itself, blooming from a girl into a woman.
Though trembling with embarrassment, she did not avert her gaze and looked at Akira.
"I'm a woman too. I want to be loved by you. Tonight… hold me."
Soon, she clung to Akira's neck and delved deeper.
"Please, Akira-san."
At that pleading voice, Akira's last barrier broke. Refusing further was not something to do as a man, no, as someone who loved her.
"...Won't you regret it?"
"Absolutely not. Rather… if I can't be held by you now, I'll regret it for life."
Kanae smiled brightly and pressed her lips again. This time, Akira embraced her strongly.
"Haah…!"
The hot spring water surface rippled violently. Akira's hot hands explored Kanae's body.
Under the moonlight, the shadows of the two overlapped into one.
"Akira-san… Mmm…♡! I love you…♡"
The sound of splashing water, the sound of wet flesh colliding, and Kanae's sweet moans filled the night air.
Akira, so as not to hurt her, suppressed his monstrous strength as much as possible and loved her softly and deeply, handling her like the most precious treasure in the world.
Thus, Kocho Kanae shed the cocoon of being a girl and became a butterfly, becoming Akira's woman.
After some time passed.
The two left the hot spring with flushed faces. Kanae staggered as if her legs had lost strength, but supported by Akira, she wore the happiest smile in the world.
Her gaze was different from before. The eyes of a mature, fulfilled woman.
"Thank you, Akira-san. It's really… like a dream."
"… Me too. Sorry for being rough. Go in and rest well."
Akira kissed her forehead and sent her to her room.
There was someone watching that scene from the darkness of the corridor.
It was Shinobu.
She had come looking because her sister and Akira were not seen for a long time, and she witnessed the sounds from the hot spring and the thick atmosphere flowing between the two now.
'Sister, after all….'
Her sister's face was radiant like a freshly bloomed flower.
It was the face of a woman loved. Her sister's appearance, imbued with Akira's scent.
Shinobu felt shock and, at the same time, an unknown jealousy and anxiety rising like a volcano in a corner of her chest.
'It's unfair. Only sister… only Mitsuri-san….'
Shinobu bit her lip. She was always treated like a child.
She had been excluded with the words that she was still young. At home, until Kanao came, she was the youngest, and even after Kanao came, she was treated like a child.
But her feelings for Akira were greater than anyone's. The feelings she initially denied, she eventually became aware of and accepted.
'I'm… no longer a child.'
That night was a rare occasion when Akira slept alone. But since doing it every day was tiring, there was one day a week like this when he slept alone.
As a demon, he didn't need to sleep, but he often slept to rest mentally.
Thus, Akira could sleep alone for the first time in a while.
Tired from moving preparations and the intense lovemaking with Kanae, he yawned and entered the bedroom.
"Hoo… I'll sleep soundly today."
He turned off the light and approached the bed. And as he lifted the covers to get in.
"...?!"
There was something inside the covers.
There, Shinobu was curled up lying down in thin pajamas. Her face was red as if about to burst, but she didn't run away and looked up at Akira while gripping the covers tightly.
"Shi, Shinobu? Why are you in my bed?"
Shinobu said in a trembling voice, but with a determined gaze.
"...You only favor sister."
"Huh?"
"I've grown up too, you know. How long are you going to treat me like a child?"
Shinobu slightly lowered the covers. The ample curves visible between her collarbone and thin pajamas proved her growth.
"Tonight… let me sleep here too. But I don't want to just sleep."
Like a butterfly envying a flower, another disturbance was foretold in the stillness of the night. Akira sensed that tonight, too, sleep was out of the question.