Chapter twenty-four:

"Dreams like clouds at dawn"

It had been five months in total. You had mastered all the forms of the breath of mist, except for the third and seventh one that your master had developed himself. That week, Muichiro and you focused on perfecting the forms that you had already learnt. You had become good enough for him to do light training, dodging your attacks while observing the minimal mistakes of your posture and your decision-making.

You two had been so focused on it that the moon had risen and fallen in the blink of an eye, the morning sun coming to greet your sweaty figure as you panted and gripped your sword tighter, although your legs wouldn't budge. Muichiro looked up at the clear sky, then back at you with a tiredness that showed on the large bags under his eyes.

"Ah, it's dawn... If you were in a real battle, the demon would've become ashes."

Your legs gave in, letting you fall to the garden's grassy ground. Muichiro basically had to drag himself to where you were standing and take the sword from your hand. His eyes were fighting to stay open, his mind was clouded by the sleep monster. You were already entering the sleep realm, your head tilting to the side from where you had been standing.

Neither of you could think clearly.

A week of hard training, and you two had stayed awake for three days straight.

"We should take a shower" he mumbled, (gently) slapping you awake.

Being still sleepy, you nodded and supported yourself on his shoulder. Even with how incredibly tired you two were, you managed to each take turns to wash yourselves in the cold water of a nearby river. The cold actually helped you not fall asleep inside the water and drown.

When you arrived to the estate, the little energy that you had left vanished. You let yourself fall in the middle of the living room, which thankfully was covered in blankets and pillows from the sleepover you had with Muichiro the week before. They were just a mess of blankets and such, but your legs felt so heavy that they didn't have enough strength to move to your room, which was deeper into the mansion.

Your eyes closed just as your body hit a pillow, absent from whatever was happening around you. It didn't even took a second before you drifted into the sleep realm.

Muichiro, on the other hand, was already sleeping soundly on top of the random bed that was closest to the entrance as possible. Although, he couldn't recall putting so many pillows in there, but what did he care? He was tired and forgetful, so maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him again.

Whatever, he just wanted to get some sleep.

『 °*• ❈ •*°』

Light knocking on the door had been echoing through the mist estate for several minutes, yet nobody cared to open it. Shinobu was getting a little bit impatient, while Mitsuri seemed excited to be there, and Giyuu wished the visit to end quickly.

"Did they go out?"

"Maybe. Should we just go in and see for ourselves?"

They agreed on simply opening the door and peeking inside to see if you two were there. They had come all the way from their respective homes to the mist estate, so at the very least they had to make sure that nobody was there before leaving.

Shinobu cracked the door open, enough to fix her tiny head in to peeked inside.

"Ara ara~!"

The butterfly girl giggled to herself, covering her mouth with half her hand. Mitsuri's mouth agape, she looked back at the stoic water pillar and then again at the girl.

"What? What happened?"

Mitsuri tried to peek as well, but she had leaned in the poor tiny Shinobu and ended up weighting too much on her. "Kanroji-san, please get off me"

"Oh, sorry, I just wanted to see!"

Remembering what she had seen inside, another giggle escaped her lips. Due to her reaction, the other two pillars got curious. Giyuu's head tilting slightly and Mitsuri's impatiently excited expression made Shinobu want to tease them by simply closing the door and urgering them to go home, but she also wanted someone else to confirm that what she saw was real for future reference, mainly teasing Muichiro about it.

She placed her index finger on top of her plump lips, signaling them to stay quiet, as she opened the door completely.

The entrance faced the living room directly, and so the mess of blankets and pillows was the first thing that came to their sight. Passing all that, there were two bodies tangled together, of two people soundly asleep. Your arms were circling Muichiro's torso, as his were circling yours. Your face was almost buried in his upper chest, his chin rested on top of your head. The simple warmth and tranquility that enveloped the room, the lighthearted emotions that flourished just by standing there, took over Mitsuri's heart, which was beating as fast as the seconds that took for her cheeks to turn bright red.

Her 'love pillar' meter had rose the top and broken the scale. She needed to scream to the whole world how incredibly cute you two were, specially since her ship had finally sailed.

"OH MY—"

Giyuu was quick to muffle her screams by covering her mouth with his hand. He held her close to his body in order to imprison her and keep her in check.

Shinobu's smile grew wider as she stared at the water pillar struggling to contain the pink-haired girl.

"I can't believe it! Tomioka-san, you finally did something useful" Shinobu whispered with her classic closed-eyes smile, to which Giyuu simply glared at.

They all drifted their eyes to the mist couple again. You two were too busy sleeping to realize that the fluffy clouds around you were nothing else than each other. Muichiro dreamt very little, this time he was sitting by a pond with his bare feet on the water, and all that he could smell was the strong fragrance of vanilla. He swore, in his sleep, that he was used to that smell, that there was somebody close to him that wore it every day, but he couldn't remember who. Meanwhile, your dream was a pitch black world, where you lied on the floor staring at the butterflies that illuminated the darkness, as well as the strong scent of mint and fresh basil, which brought tears to your eyes.

Neither of your mumbled anything in your sleep, you two seemed rather at peace.

Shinobu smiled gently, not a fake one this time. Her features softened completely, her shoulders sank, her guard for once lowered down. She, too, felt at peace. Scenes like those were precious to her, because they reminder her that the world was a beautiful place; that despite the sadness and fear that embraced the night, there was joy and peace that kissed the day.

Sights of people being happy were those that her sister enjoyed to watch. That was the world Kocho Kanae was willing to sacrifice her life for.

Her violet eyes observed the couple, stopping over Muichiro's figure. Some time ago, he wouldn't have hold you so close. Sure, he was sleeping and probably didn't intend to hug you, but... nobody can ever embrace a person so tenderly if it's not out of love.

She turned around, tugging Giyuu's haori so he would come along with her and drag Mitsuri out of there too.

"It's good that Tokito-kun has begun to show other emotions like care for other people, you know?" she chuckled, closing the door once the other two were out, then she turned to face them "It's strange... he only thought of himself before meeting her."