3rd Person's POV

At the Butterfly Estate under the night skies of the half-moon, a petite young woman with a pale complexion and large, compound-like eyes that lack pupils, only a haze of gradient purple, making her eyes appear similar to those of insects. She has shoulder-length wavy hair that fades from black into dark purple, styled at the back of her head into a flat yakai-maki bun, fastened with a white, turquoise, and light purple butterfly ornament. Shinobu Kocho. The Insect Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corp.

She sits on the roof of the mansion, running her hands through her hair in distress. Each night when she's in the Butterfly Mansion, she tries to piece together Y/N L/N's whereabouts. Until this day, she tries her best to find him and bring him home like what her sister always wanted after he ran away.

-Flashback-

Shinobu's POV

I got word from Oyakata-sama that a cultivator has brought in Y/N to become a strong swordsman and join the ranks of Demon Slaying. I left Kanao in Oyakata-sama's estate as I ran along the dirt road.

I noticed a horse with a cart behind it on the side, traveling slowly as two old couples sat on top of the front cart. I sprint past them, but I felt like I want to stop for some reason, I shook it off, too focused to get to the location quickly.

===

I arrived at a small house in the small opening surrounded by trees. I walk up to the door and slowly reach out my hand to give a few knocks, my heart racing in anticipation.

"Hello? I am here to meet a cultivator named Hiroshi?" I said but received no response, I slid open the door to see no one inside and dark.

I explore the area and still found no one, no Y/N or a cultivator named Hiroshi. I went to the back to see a small open area perfect for a sparring match, I look around to see some bamboo swords on racks. This made me worried, as I try not to think the worst-case scenario until I saw dirt not flat and surrounded by rocks.

"This... No..." I whisper as my heart sinks at the realization, I quickly send word with my Kasugai Crow to the nearest Kakushis.

===

After the investigation, the Kakushi confirms that the one buried is Hiroshi. The Kakushi moves his body to the cemetery for the fallen demon slayers, giving Hiroshi a proper funeral. I walked back to Oyakata-sama's estate. I can't stop my body shaking and crying along the dirt road, I felt weak not from all the running but from how I failed to find Y/N.

"He must be the one that buried Hiroshi's body there, I don't know how sad he must have been while saying his last farewell to his teacher." I cried

===

3rd Person's POV

This pushes Shinobu to become stronger, not by strength but to train her speed and flexibility further. Finding new ways of poison that kill demons on the spot, her mind and soul is too focused on her training. Accepting Demon Slayer missions from HQ soon led her the steps to become a Pillar, an Insect Pillar.

She first uses this position to know if an examinee named Y/N L/N joins or passed the Final Selection since the day she went to Hiroshi's place. This alarms her that there are no records of examinees before the Final Selection, they will only be recorded after when they succeed to survive 7 days. This leads her to believe that Y/N might have died during the Final Selection, not knowing the fact that he left from wanting to join the Demon Slayer but to join and live with the Kamado Family that accepts him fully.

This made her depressed but this didn't last long when she tries to forget about him by focusing on her role as an Insect Pillar, training her adopted little sister as her tsuguko, and making sure for her to pass the Final Selection, and study and made new or old formulas to poison demons.

===

During her travel through the day, she came across some rumors about the nameless hero from a town not too far from Mt. Sagiri.

"Ara~ he might be a fine swordsman if he joins the corps" she says with a hum before she continues on her travel to meet the Love Pillar.

===

Next is when she is at the back of the mansion, enjoying the free time she had before another task will be given for her from HQ. Kanao walks up to her from behind, her mind racing about her meeting a person that resembles her Onii-san, Y/N L/N. She grabs her coin and flips, when it landed on her palm, she looks up and opens her mouth-

"I saw Onii-san in the Final Selection" she says, this surprises Shinobu but hearing what Kanao just said made her mind blank for a second.

Kanao waits for her sister to reply. Shinobu turns around and smiles but a nerve pops on her forehead, she's trying her best to control herself at this point. Years went on, not knowing what fate brought upon Y/N. She already accepted that Y/N is dead. She wants to forget all about him.

"Kanao-chan, your so-called Onii-chan died years ago. What you saw might be your imagination or someone that looks like him." she says with a caring tone.

Kanao nods before walking away to take her usual spot, what made this different is the sad look on her face as she hopes to reunite with her lost and caring brother crushed by her sister. Shinobu went in and noticed Aoi carrying a basket full of washed white blankets.

"Inform everyone that no one disturbs me, I'll be busy in the lab" she says seriously, this made Aoi caught off guard

Because it is rare to see Shinobu in a serious mood in the Butterfly Estate. She respects her wishes but she also wants to know what drove her master to be in this type of mood.

===

Shinobu shuts herself in the lab, trying to focus her mind by making new formulas, she looks down in a microscope but sees blurry. She backs away to see water on the see-through lens, those water is her tears. Her mind once again flooded with emotions. A breaking point to which she cried silently in the lab.

"Why won't you just accept the fact he's dead, Kanao" she whimpers through tears.

This continues until she cries herself to sleep on her desk.

===

A few days after that, she met up with Giyu Tomioka, they were walking on a small bridge over a small river.

"I wish you talk more often, Tomioka-san" she says with a smile, as Giyu tries to find a way to start the conversation.

"I met... this guy that reminds me of your adopted bro-" he says awkwardly but didn't finish

"Ara~ Now that I think about it. It's much better to shut your mouth permanently~" she says in a sweet tone with a smile but releasing a dark aura from the looks of her face

"He looks like him-" he tries to save the conversation but failed as Shinobu sent a kick so fast that no human will evade, except for the pillars like her and Giyu.

He jumps to avoid the kick and landed on the wooden railing of the bridge, this made her more furious as nerves pops on her forehead.

"Tomioka-san, let me help you stitch that mouth of yours permanently~ It's for the good of the people that meet you" she says as she releases an aura of killing intent.

Giyu dashes away to escape. Leaving the Insect Pillar all by herself on the bridge. She rests her arms on the railings and releases a sigh of frustration. She didn't like it when Tomioka starts to open a topic that wasn't supposed to.

"If what they say is true... I want to meet you myself... I want to see you... Y/N..." she whispers to the wind that breeze past her.

-Flashback Ended-

Shinobu has now decided to meet this person that forces her to bring back old memories to the present. She releases a yawn, signaling her that she needs some sleep after all the time she took in the lab to create poisons.

"Goodnight, Onee-san. Y/N-chan." she says before getting in through the window of her room.

-Meanwhile-

Y/N's POV

"Aa-Achoo!" I sneezed, this woke up my Kasugai Crow as he flew off in a panic.

Soon the crow realize that it was nothing but a sneeze from me. This made him mad and started pecking my neck I tried to protect it with my hands, but it hurts when he also pecks my hand.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to wake you up! I just sneeze alright. It's not on purpose." I reasoned, the crow sighs angrily before landing back my head and taking his nap once again.

I chuckle at the adorableness, however, he may look cute, he can peck me to death. It's here that I finally decided to reveal myself to Shinobu and Kanao. But first, my injured body needs some tending first before I should write a letter for them.

"You know, I like to give you a name... You know, instead of calling you Kasugai Crow or just crow. You good with that?" I ask as he caws happily. "Great, I'll think of a name for you later"

(Author-kun: Any ideas for the name of our OG Crow here?)

===

"Excuse me? I need some-"

"Oh, dear! Let me lead you to a spare room. What happened to you?" the same mid-age woman that owns the wisteria house asks, to which I gave her a smirk.

"Finished the mission" I said with confidence and to sound cool, only to cry out in pain when she grabs my injured shoulder. "Agh! Watch where you're holding onto, lady! It hurts like hell!" I said while hissing in pain

"Don't be a baby. Your current condition is better than being dead, right?" she says as she guides me in the wisteria house.

She leads me to a spare room, she placed me down on the bed and started removing my haori to which I'm calm but when she started removing my upper uniform, I started to panic.

"Wait! I can do this on my own" I said, grabbing her hand to stop her to which she slaps my hand away.

"Hush! I'm doing my job here. Now let me do it unless you want me to be rough~" she says to which I gulped down my spit and let her do her job.

She slowly and carefully remove the upper clothing, exposing my ripped body to the air and also the injuries I got from fighting the acid demon. She gasps at my wounds and quickly left the room which I think is her to grab medical stuff.

"Well, I better start training Total Concentration Co-"

"You will not start anything! Sit straight! I need to disinfect that wounds of yours before it becomes worst" she explains which surprises me at first as she then places some medical stuff on the bedside table.

"Fiiiine~" I whined in defeat to which I earn a giggle from her.

Every time she touches or dabs cotton with medical liquid on my wounds, I hissed, yelped, and scream in pain. She took this as entertainment for herself. For me, I took this as torture to make my life more painful.

"And done~ Now rest, I will try to visit you later while I prepare your dinner." she commands as I obey by quickly nodding my head repeatedly as she leaves the room and slid the door closed.

I waited for several more minutes before I sat up, feeling like my shoulders is about to rip themselves off my body by just doing that. I lean near the bedside table and pull open a drawer to see pen and papers for me to write on.

"Damn, this Wisteria House has everything alright. But I need to heal my wounds first." I said and laid back on the bed. I then started using recovery breathing to recover my fatigue but wouldn't work.

I sighed and changed plans, I decided to start my training to achieve a Total Concentration Constant. This didn't last long when I felt like my sleepiness overcomes me. Closing my eyes and let the darkness consume my vision to sleep.

-=-

Author-kun: Any recommendation to name the crow? I mean the good one okay? I better not name the crow myself because I will literally name him, Nutz. HAHAHA no seriously any ideas for a name?