The warm sun, the buzzing bees, the air swept up the scent of wildflowers, and the cherry blossom petals would rest on top of your hair and nose whenever you stayed under them for too long. The butterflies roamed around joyfully, their colorful wings painted the otherwise plainly blue sky. Spring had arrived.

Kanao's unwavering smile came into your view, as she had swung her head to the side; meeting your traumatized [e/c] spheres. You closed your previously wide opened mouth, blinking rapidly to wake yourself up from the horrible thought that the lilac-eyed tsuguko had brought up. You instantly got goosebumps when her honeyed, yet monotone voice, had uttered those horrible words to you minutes ago.

"Y-you're telling me t-that there was a mountain filled with spider demons... and t-that you were there?"

Kanao nodded, closing her eyes as she did so with her gentle smile. You frowned and backed away as far as you could from her.

"I-I think we should practice social distancing from now on! Y-you know, there might still be one hidden around you..."

"We found a demon slayer who travels with a demon too"

"What? Did he hit his head during the final selection or something? That's insane!"

You were sitting on the engawa, but had backed away farther from where she was standing. Your back rested against the shut sliding door, your legs were crossed and your hands rested there casually.

"He says the demon's good. They're on a trial right now."

"Oh!" you exclaimed, then your lips formed a smile "if she's good then that's cool with me. As long as she doesn't hurt humans, I think she deserves to live. What do you think, Kanao?"

"..."

The other female stared at you, batting her doll-like eyes. You smiled back at her with the same expression. Should any normal person walk into the scene, they would think that you were having some sort of silence competition by smiling at each other in complete quietness.

Your eyes snapped open the moment you realized, "I forgot you don't really have an opinion"

Speaking with Kanao was rather difficult, and keeping track of things like what she means with her smiles or if she needs to flip a coin to make a decision. But overall, Kanao was an incredibly sweet and reliable person who seemed to enjoy spending time with you just as much as you loved to spend time with her.

A swarm of butterflies suddenly came flying around the oldest female, who was standing close to the pond. A huge smile came to your blushed face as you stared at the hundreds of butterflies dancing. You jumped from your seat and rushed to Kanao's side, completely forgetting about the spider incident. The butterflies happily roamed around your excited figure, while Kanao peacefully looked at them. One of them sat on top of your nose, tickling you gently.

Just then, three different presences broke the beautiful aura that had formed on the garden.

"Ah, there's people here."

The voice made you flinch and search for it, alarmed. The butterfly on your nose flew away as soon as it felt your heart beating erratically.

"That's uhhh... and that's uhhh..."

"You're supposed to call them tsuguko"

One kakushi, carrying a guy on his back; and another kakushi standing close by. The guy had a noticeable red mark that resembled a flame on his forehead. He was badly wounded too, from what you managed to look at him before your feet instinctively moved to hide you behind Kanao.

Oh my God, this is that kind boy from the final selection, right?

"Tsuguko? What's a tsuguko?" he asked, his voice fading as he observed the beauty of the scene. Two young females, surrounded by butterflies in such a peaceful environment; it almost knocked the breath out of him.

"Those are Tsuyuri Kanao-sama and [Y/N]-sama. The pillars personally look after the tsuguko, they shouldn't have been chosen if they didn't have talent or excellent standing"

Tanjiro observed the both of them perplexed, remembering them from the final selection. Both the quiet girl who smelt like falling petals, and the nervous yet determined girl who smelt like pure vanilla.

"We came under Kocho-sama's orders. Can we enter the estate?"

Kanao smiled. She literally stood there smiling without uttering a single word. The kakushi looked nervously at you, but your cheeks would get redder and force you to hide your face against Kanao's back.

"Can we...? We can, right? Ehh... uh..."

The struggling kakushi was interrupted by a loud voice, that which you had come to know and love so much from all the time you spent at the butterfly estate. Aoi came in holding a basket, and asking who they were, and eventually guided them away from you and Kanao.

You let out an extremely long sigh of relief, arching your back and holding your heart to calm it down. Kanao turned to face you once the others were completely gone.

"Hey, Kanao..."

The female nodded, allowing you to proceed. She could feel your unease since the moment Muichiro left you in the estate to go to Ubuyashiki's place.

"I've been thinking about my relationship with Tokito-sama lately... about how I should accept that he sees me as his tsuguko and nothing else. Even though he's so loving towards me, I know that part of that comes from how he truly is and Oyakata-sama's advice. These last few months I've been trying to accept the fact that he may never love me the way I do, but... it sounds impossible to stop loving him. Should I... should I let go of him?"

You had uttered those words filled with unbearable sorrow knowing that Kanao wouldn't give you her opinion anyway. But those feelings kept weighting on you, hurting you, and you wished to know if you should continue acting foolishly or finally let go of everything. Maybe it wasn't meant to be, like you had thought one year ago.

Kanao's expression didn't change when she saw a small tear slid down your cheek, which you managed to dry right away. She reached for the interior of her pocket, and a couple seconds later, showed you her fist. You sniffed, lifting your eyes up to stare at the fist instead of the ground. She revealed what she was holding when you gave her a questioning look: it was a round, brown piece of cold metal.

A coin.

"Flip a coin if it helps you decide"

Decide now? With a coin?

Haha... It's fitting. Let fate decide if my relationship with my master is fate or not.

She hands you the coin, which you nervously stared at for several seconds. It laid in the middle of your palms, and it was yours if you wanted to flip it.

You gulped, closing your shaking hands and taking a couple of steps back.

You paused to take a deep breath, before flipping the coin high into the air.

"If the result is tails, I will let go of him!"

The coin spun around before both of your eyes, yours shimmering while hers were neutral. It was almost poetic; the butterflies had rested around the pond, the buzzing of bees had quieted down, just as the falling petals were now gone. The scent of flowers that previously lingered in the air, too, had vanished. It was almost as if the spring had arrived and left in the spawn of five seconds. The five seconds it took for the coin to flip and get caught by your hands.

Your heart stopped beating, and a small smile was drawn on your lips.

Kanao leaned in to check the result as well, eyes widening a little bit when she saw the coin. She took both of your hands into her soft, milky ones, to stop them from shaking. Your breathing became uneven, tears threatened to leave your glassy eyes. The black-haired female didn't exactly know what to do, but she had seen Kanae comfort Shinobu once, and Shinobu comfort Aoi twice. Her hands left yours, as her arms wrapped around you. You let your tears flow once you felt her hug, the calm beating of her heart soothing you. It was tight, gentle, and worth a million words; it drove all the anxiety and sadness away.

The brown piece of metal, which had been dropped on the grass beneath the two females, still showed the dreaded result from earlier.

Tails.