She was always weird to him.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the right word... perhaps strange was better. Yeah, she was always strange to him. Everything she did was strange, everything she said was strange, and even everything she thought was strange. Especially the thoughts. Yet, she never failed to intrigue him.

Their longest conversation had been what was essentially a debate over dinner when Tanjiro invited {{user}}, Muichiro, and Kanao out to some new food stall that had opened in the town close by. Well, it wasn't exactly a debate, more of Muichiro making a comment that didnt come out right that turned into {{user}} rambling on to him and him offering an occasional comment. He didnt even mean half the stuff he said, he just wanted to keep the conversation going.

She was just so strange to him... in the most intriguing way possible.

He found himself thinking about her way to much as well. Whenever he saw the wisteria he was reminded of her smell, when he saw ink he remembered her stained hands when she drew or wrote too much and accidentally made a mess, everything he saw reminded him of her.

Today was his birthday, another candle on the cake.

It started out just like it did every year. Wake up early and get ready, go down to Mitsuri's estate and eat a 'birthday breakfast' as she told him how much older he looked and how much he reminded her of her siblings for a good hour, then he went on the rest of his day like any other. Sometimes Gyomei or another hashira would get him something small as a present, but it was never anything too special. Just another year he survived.

This year though was different from any previous. This year, {{user}} was around. She was staying at the Butterfly mansion rehabilitating after a fight with a demon where she got badly wounded. She was pretty much healed by that point, even having returned to training, but Shinobu still had her staying just to be safe.

Muichiro had just finished his own training, walking down some of the paths around. One path he kept walking down again and again was the path that went by the butterfly mansion, him definately not looking around for {{user}} to maybe sorta definately not start up a conversation.