10 hands, 10 weeks. All that's left behind of the body is one hand completely mangled and mutilated, and that's not even mentioning the bloodied spork left behind at the scene and Shinobu frankly doesn't understand why or what is doing this, luckily she has her husband to help distract her, along with a conversation with Muichiro to get her wondering if there's more to this case then it first seems.

-linebreak-

To say Shinobu was stressed would be an understatement of her current mood. 7 weeks ago she had been addressed to a case about randomly mangled and mutilated hands appearing each week, along with a bloodied spork accompanying the crime, she wasn't the only one who was put on it, it was also Giyuu, Muichiro, and Tengen, a strange assortment but a team nonetheless. A team that was currently a team of two, Giyuu and Muichiro havening already quit, Giyuu first then Muichiro more recently. Personally, she wouldn't blame them, this case made her want to quit sometimes yet she persisted. And here she was stressing over her desk about this silly case, or at least it should be a silly one yet it isn't.

"Are you still working on that case?" And there he was Giyuu Tomioka, her husband along with one of her previous partners in this case coming in to check on her like usual.

"Hm? Which one do you mean?" Shinobu responded, tilting her head upwards at him, her face softening slightly. He vaguely gestured with his hands, "The hand one," he prompted with raised brows.

"Ah yes, that one," She sighed, "well to answer that question yes, I still am." He leans against the back of her chair, letting his hand make his way up to the headrest and laying his forearms across it. "I don't know why you stay on it, it's not like your going to solve it,"

"Are you doubting my ability to solve this case?" Shinobu questioned with a quirked brow.

"I'm not doubting your ability but even Tokito couldn't solve it and he's solved a notorious amount of crimes despite his age," He spoke, laying his hands on her shoulder and kneading into his shoulder and trying to work out all the knots in her shoulders.

"True but he's still a teen so you can't judge it on that and keep on doing that- that's really nice." Giyuu let out a hum and kept massaging her shoulder

"For someone who doesn't talk much you sure are good with your hands, I'm not sure what I expected though,"

"You can blame drawing for that,"  He offhandedly responds. "Morely thank drawing, you could be a good masseuse did you know that?"

"I think I'm going to stay a demon slayer instead," He answered, stopping his massage and planting his hands flat against her shoulder instead.

Her lips curved up into a lazy smirk as she tilted her head back up at him, she reached up and lightly gripped at the hair of the nape of his neck and pulling him down into a kiss, their lips slotting together like puzzle pieces as she felt her head go a little fuzzy and warm at the feeling. She pulled away with that same smirk.

"A 'demon slayer' don't you mean detective dear?" She inquires with the tiniest tilt of her head, reaching on her hand backward and twirling a strand on his hair on her finger, and giving it a slight tug, pulling his face towards her for another kiss.

"Yes," He nods, "We're cops and detectives, not demon slayers," She says pulling him in for a peck on the lip.

"I'd say otherwise with the name of the place we work at,"

"Demon Slayer Corps, of course, a strange name for a detective and cops agency, don't you think?" He says in between another kiss on the lips. "Most people describe or view criminals as demons, it fits,"

"True, but it's just so childish don't you think?"

"You're childish," He retorted, pulling away and softly hitting the back of her head with the file of records he was holding.

"Yet you married me,"

"We married each other," Giyuu said, "besides I just got the ring." he dutifully tacted on.

"All I did was suggest that instead of being your girlfriend I could be your wife, I hardly call that a proposal,"

"In the end, it is one, I asked Uzui he said so," He answered circling around her chair and leaning against his desk.

"What does he even know about marriage?"

"A lot since he's married to 3 people," Giyuu acknowledges, sliding onto her desk and sitting onto the surface. He leans forwards onto the palm of his hands, tilting his head a few inches to the right. She lets out a slight chuckle as she stares at her husband and halfheartedly tries to swat him off of her desk. "Get off of my desk it's unsanitary,"

"I can think of plenty more unsanitary things you could do on a desk," He said as his nose wrinkled with downturned lips he added on: "Uzui has probably done worse on his desk, let's be honest. The only thing I've done is sit on a few in my life, hardly comparable,"

Shinobu snorted and rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me," She pulled open her drawer and pulled out a lip balm, and applied it to her lips. 

"What else is unsanitary is how many times you use the same lip balm per day, especially after eating." He said reaching down towards her drawer to try and pick one up. "But you really do need to stop spending money on these," He frowned with the slight tilt of his head.

She smacks his hand away from the drawer. "It's nice!" She retorts with a frown. "They smell good too, don't lie, tell me you wouldn't want to kiss these lips now that I'm wearing this!" She exclaims while widely gesturing with a wry grin.

He lets out a huff while simultaneously rolling his eyes and leans down, cupping her chin and bringing her in for a chaste kiss, leaning their foreheads together afterward. "At this point, it's an addiction,"

"Not all of us can have lips that aren't always chapped,"

"You have a tongue for a reason, use that, it's what I use," He retorts pulling away from her and rolling his eyes.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't mind using my tongue if I get to use it on you~," She said while licking her lips with a sly grin.

"I- I'm going see Sabito and Makomo," He stuttered, sliding off of her desk backing up slightly, his face deeply flushing a red color. Shinobu will admit, she liked seeing him blush, especially if she was the cause at it. At least I got him off my desk, she thinks with a smirk.

"Later tonight then,"

"No, not later tonight," Shinobu raised a brow at him.

"Maybe... But Sabito and Makomo wanted to talk to me first," He added on as he folded his arms over his chest and hardened look.

"'Maybe' you see that's what I was hoping for," She swirls around in her chair to face him, propping her elbows up on the chair's arm and laying her head on her hands. "what are you even going to talk with them for?"

"I wanted a second opinion on this case I'm on,"

"You could always ask me,"

"Okay then," He starts, opening the record folder he was holding and flipping through the case file. He stops on a page, licking his thumb and flipping a few pages, and folded it out with a frustrated sigh. "Tell me, how long can an average person swim for until they get tired? Now compare that to someone who's swum post of their life but only recently gotten back into it, how long do you think they would have swum until they got tired and eventually couldn't move anymore? Because that very well could have been the case or it could have been a-"

"Okay, okay, I get your point, go talk to your friends,"

"I'm so glad to have my wife's permission to go see my friends, so honored," He dramatically replied walking off and towards the door. She stuck out her tongue towards him. "Brat," She commented, he just shrugged. "Says you," And before she could get out a comment he leaves the room, quietly and quickly closing the door behind him.

And there she was left all alone in her office with no idea what to do or where to go when it came to this case. So, she did what she always did when it came to these things, moved.

Move and do something that'll get her out of her current headspace and her creative juices flowing. She's found that she's done that a lot more lately, or spending time with her crow and her sisters and interns. Sometimes she'd just complete simple tasks like watering her plants, or rearranging her books or just making coffee. There were so many things she could do but for now, she'd just stay simple.

So, shuffling together her files and putting them away, she gets up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her outfit, and leaves her office, turning out the light and closing the door behind her. She tells her intern, Aoi to tell anyone who wants to see her that she'll be out for a walk, along with the other girls where she'll be, Aoi nods and gets back to whatever it was she was doing and now she's off to walk where ever she wants, which currently is the garden in the back of the agency. She makes her way down the stairs, taking the long way instead of the elevator, and doesn't meet up with anyone along the way. She opens the door to the back garden, which looks lovely as usual.

Stones aligned the walkway, the occasional flower or few patches of grass sprouting between the rocks and trying to disturb the path but in the end, failed to do so, the rocks were too tightly packed together for any to get through them. A few benches aligning the path with places to sit which she ended up sitting at, solar ground lanterns illuminating the paths at night for those who stayed past times they should have, a habit she and Giyuu had desperately trying to break over the past few years yet she found herself falling back into a few weeks ago all thanks to this hand case. 

Shinobu snorted, so well for that, she bitterly thought, and I really thought I was doing something with going home on time and how a case about hands comes along and I suddenly stop, how ironic. Another thing she could label as partly ironic was the birdbath situation all those years ago, or crow-bath if she was being honest.

The estate also had crows that inhabited it on occasions, usually arriving after the arrival of a new leader to a compartment or case typing at the agency. Which meant Oyakata-sama had begun a tradition of letting the new compartment leader which meant by the time she joined there was an array of them already decorated. There was a flashy one (Flashy enough that if you looked in the dictionary and under the word 'Flamboyant' that birdbath would appear there.), one that looked ripe with age, one particularly decorated, another that seemed to be trying to hide its self from the rest and another that seemed meticulously decorated to look it's very best.

Most of them were solar bird baths, with the exclusion of Giyuu's and Obanai's. That was one thing she learned about him, he cared a lot about his fucking crow, like a lot even though the thing was old as hell and was walking a tightrope of life and death he cared a lot about. Which meant he paid attention to every painstaking detail when he designed it.

It was, as she previously stated, a birdbath fountain and it was beautiful as a result. In the middle stood a fountain, a stone fountain that was particularly plain but the flowers surrounding which were made it work. Surrounding it were bluebells, lavender, and salvia clevelandii flowers, and a strange mix of flowers that worked perfectly together. 

Which meant she had to top it, and she tried but in the end, Mitsuri's was the loveliest when she finally joined despite it not being a competition. 

She'd admit, although she couldn't say the feelings were returned he cared a lot about animals, another thing she had grown to love him for. But she was getting off-topic. 

Farther down the path and in the corner of the estate is a rock garden and in the rock garden flowers a river which flowers into a pond, a koi pond where the occasional fish or three causing ripples in the water, there's far more fish in there than that, it's a rather large pond with a simple vermillion red garden bridge stretching across it, the bridge had no railings. 

The pond had a variety of plants around and in it, floating on top of it are a few water lilies along with a few lotuses, on the outside are some horsetails along with water iris's, it's tamed compared to the rock gardens on the estate which bloom a multitude of colors, and are spread out all over the estate.

However, this Koi pond has a particular inhabitant who comes to visit it in his free time which is their local child prodigy, Muichiro Tokito, a boy who always seemed to have his head in the clouds along with a mist of mystery always surrounding him. A young teen who on his own wishes joined the agency after he helped solve a multitude of cases after only 2 months of working as an intern.

And as usual, its usual inhabitant is there once more, or at least he was walking from the usual spot he was at and ended up crossing the path where she was sat on a bench. As he passed by her she gave him a wave where she wasn't sure whether ignored it or didn't even see it, to begin with. So, in the hopes to catch his attention, she said:

"Hi Tokito-san, how are you doing on this fine sunny day?"

"I could swear it was cloudy earlier..." Muichiro aimlessly muttered, staring not at her but behind her. 

"It was, earlier this morning so your right," She corrected with a tilt of her head,  "Oh, okay,"

"Got any news?"

"No," He answers. "A new case, maybe?"

"Not to my knowledge,"

"Well is there anything of your knowledge you'd like to share?" She prompted leaning forward. 

"No... Not really. What case are you on?" There was always an air of uncaring around him, not a bad kind but one of where he couldn't have a care in the world, like his brain was made of mist

"The hand one," Unexpectedly, Muichiro suddenly snapped his head towards her, all his attention falling onto her in only one second. His gaze was nothing more of intense, like a sudden moment of clear consciousness as he glowered at her with his stone-cold eyes. It made her flinch, she had never seen him look so... menacing before.

"You should quit that one Shinobu," He insisted with a clipped tone, a tone she never thought she'd see or hear him have.

"Why?" She... Hesitantly asked, maybe crossing paths with him while he was in this state wasn't the best idea.

"Trust me, you should, curiosity killed the cat, don't let it kill you Shinobu."

"Why should I quit it Tokito-san, you aren't making any sense?"

"I..." He suddenly stuttered, blinking away whatever consciousness he suddenly had, a haze covering him once more. "I don't remember why but you should,"

"What was that just about Tokito-san?"

"I don't remember, have you seen Oyakata-sama?"

"He's where he usually is,"

"Thank you Kocho," He nodded, "It's Shinobu now,"

"...Shinobu," He muttered and she nodded, that same smile on her face. Then walks along the path to the exit of the garden, then stops, turns and looked towards her tilting his head.               "Where is his office again?" He blankly asked.

"I swear, "She grumbled, getting up from the bench smoothing out the wrinkles of her clothing. "sometimes you're more cryptic than Giyuu-san," Smiling as always she walked over towards him and said:

"C'mon, let's go Tokito-san," She prompted resting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a  little push to move him along. 

"Where are we going again?" He turned his head up towards her, tilting it to the side. "To Oyakata-sama you wanted to see him,"

"I did?... Right, right I did," She nodded, leading him along out of the garden and into the building. What's with the unneeded crypticness of lately?

-linebreak-

"I think I've begun to think this case truly his hopeless," Shinobu started again, and Giyuu let out a muddled sound, his voice barely audible as he dramatically laid his head to rest Shinobu's chest once more. The two of them were currently on the couch in his office, a couch that folded into a futon(Which personally she thought was a fantastic way to spend your money, even if was on the little pricey side to get a good one) and spending their late afternoon in a comfortable silence.

With a sigh, she reached out and cupped his face, brushing the stray hair out of the way and despite her slight resistance, softly smiled at him. "This is the part where you're supposed to say 'I know, but we'll get through it together,' you know that, right Giyuu?" And maybe the reassurance would have been more for him than her, but either way, she would have appreciated it.

After a few beats of silence, her soft smile devolved into a frown and as a result, she tugs at his hair (Not hard enough that it'd hurt, but enough to gain his attention.) stopping whatever he was about to say with a small wince, and then he pouted at her. A pout she found frankly adorable. "How dare you be irresistible," He hums and lays his head on her chest. Carefully she cradles his head in her hands, drawing circles into his cheeks with her thumbs. "Mmmm..." He hums, melting into her touch.

"Honestly, that idea Mitsuri had about going to a restaurant to watch the lobsters in the tanks fight doesn't sound half bad about now," She offhandedly says as she weaves a hand through his silk-like hair as he slowly blinked, trying his best to stay awake but failing miserably. "You better not fall asleep on top of me you big oaf,"

He blinked up at her and a lazy smile painted his face. "But I'm your big oaf," He commented scooting up to press a quick kiss on her nose and laying back down in his old spot. "Well, that's one thing your right about,"

", you're my big oaf, but your a loveable big oaf, or else I wouldn't have married you."

"Good," His smile quirked up a little but closed his eyes only a few beats afterward. "Oi," She said and started to poke at his cheek. "Don't fall asleep on me alright," She scowled and continuing to poke him.

"It's not like I can fall asleep," He muttered, shifting slightly. She snorted and wrapped her arms lazily around his head. "What? Am I not comfortable enough for you? Y'know this would be most men's dream,"

"It's not that,"

"Then what is it?"

"It's your heartbeat it's... distracting," He said as his face scrunched up slightly as he looked up at her. "Well, at least I have one unless you'd rather cuddle with a corpse instead?"

"No, no thank you, I just..." He lets out a loud yawn, his eyes fluttering closed. "I'm gonna sleep, night'"

"Wait no, don't you dare!" But it was far too late for that, for her husband, her lovely husband, had already fallen asleep, the low soft snores escaping his lips the obvious sigh he had fallen asleep. Shinobu let out a loud groan, tipping her head back as she grumbled. He wasn't going to wake up no matter what she did, well, that wasn't entirely true but you got her point.

"It's not like it can get any worse," She muttered feeling herself start to drift into a deep sleep.

~ Record Scratch ~

Famous. Last. Words.

Seriously, famous last words. Or at least they would be if I was dead but I'm sure you get the point of my expression. That sentence was my lie, an unknowing lie at that.

Now you might be asking, 'Shinobu, what the hell are you talking about?' well if you let me finish I would explain myself. It in fact could get worse for both me and Giyuu especially.

You know the saying 'curiosity kills the cat'? The one Muichiro mentioned earlier? Well, I took that a little too personally myself, which is how I ended up in this situation.

Truth be told if a literal child prodigy tells you to quit a case and that same child prodigy is right 90% of the time when it comes to said hunches you should listen to him! But I didn't, and personally, that was my own fault. Now I ask you to come with me on this journey of absolute bull-fucker and how I singlehandedly almost killed a man and almost got my husband killed as well.

A/N: It's mostly fluff for now. And they all work at an Agency called Demon Slayer Corps, which is technically Oyakata-sama's estate but yeah. It has a backyard/garden in it and it is beautiful.