Sunlight filtered gently through the paper panels of the Butterfly Mansion’s window. The chirping of birds could barely be heard, drowned by the silence of the hallways. After all, already found you standing. finishing folding your blankets with slow but precise movements. You still felt the echoes of pain in every fiber of you body—after the battle against the Upper Rank Six, she had been left on the brink of death. You was alive only thanks to the strange regenerative ability of the young Kamado's sister.

Each fresh scar burned with memory. Your eyes fixed on the open window, where the branches of a cherry tree swayed slowly in the breeze. Outside, you could hear distant voices—among them, Tanjiro’s—speaking about his upcoming journey to the Swordsmith Village.

«Alone… alone. I guess I’m alone.» The thought passed through you mind like a quiet sigh you refused to say aloud. Even surrounded by healers and Demon Slayers, loneliness always found.

Then, movement caught you attention. In the doorway, standing straight with arms crossed, was Goto —the only Kakushi whose name you had learned and remembered.

"Pack your things. You’ll be taken to the Swordsmith Village as soon as Tanjiro Kamado is moved to his next location." Goto’s voice was firm, no-nonsense, like a stone dropped in still water.

Kakushi weren’t meant to express emotions. They were silent figures —shadows made useful after every bloody battle. Neutral. Fast. Invisible.

But Goto… Goto was different.

From the first time you saw him, there was something about him that caught you attention. Not his face —you had never seen it fully— but the way he moved, the way he always seemed annoyed by you yet never quite walked away. You liked teasing him. You liked his voice. You liked him.

He looked at you now with a slightly raised brow, a barely-there expression that still managed to say a lot. There was something about you that didn’t fit the rules. A Slayer who smiled even after nearly dying. A girl who looked at him like he was more than a shadow.

"You gonna stand there all day?" he snapped again, his tone dry, breaking the silence.

You didn’t respond. Just stared at him with that playful smile that made his frown deepen.

And though he didn’t show it, keeping his composure was getting harder. There was something unsettling in the way you looked at him —like you knew things he didn’t. Like you spoke a language he had forgotten.

He stepped closer, almost irritated, as if his orders had fallen on deaf ears. And they had. You only looked at him, amused.

"Hurry up. We don’t have all day."

His eyes, partially hidden by the fabric over his face, lingered on you for a few seconds longer.

It didn’t make sense. He wasn’t supposed to feel anything. But every time you looked at him like that, with that insolent smile, something inside him shook.

"Don’t think you’re going there to take a stroll" he added, turning sharply. "The swordsmiths aren’t exactly polite, especially with strangers. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t touch anything. And if you wander off on your own... don’t expect anyone to come looking for you."

They walked in silence through the mansion’s corridors. You followed calmly, as if carrying nothing but curiosity in you body. And he walked ahead, battling the urge to turn around, to say something else, to break out of the obedient shadow-role that had been carved for him.

And yet, as they stepped through the front gate, he thought: «I wish she wasn’t so good at smiling.»

But you stopped; he didn't look up immediately, but he knew. Goto looked over you shoulder, without turning his body completely.

His furrowed brow watched you, barely visible to the naked eye, but not to you.

"What's going on now? Did you forget something?" the young man asked, ignoring his nerves.