Shinobu X Female OC

Historian Butterfly AU Chapter 2

Shinobu x Female OC

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 3: Coming soon

An 18 year old Fukuro walked up to the middle school as kids were just starting to leave the building. Her hair was down showing off how wavy it was. She seemed to be wearing contacts and some makeup as well. She looked around for a few moments before someone slammed into her side.

“And here I thought Kurasshu was my nickname,” Fukuro teased as she looked at the young boy clinging to her legs.

“Dang it! I was trying to scare you! How did you know it was me, big sis?”

“Older sisters know these things, Akio. Now where is Emiko? You didn’t leave her behind to be trampled by the crowd again did you?”

“That was one time!” Akio exclaimed, lifting his arms up in the air to emphasize his exasperation. “And that was a complete accident! I swear she was right behind me a minute ago! But then I saw you and got excited.”

Fukuro laughed and patted her little brother on the head. “It's fine. She probably is not far.” She looked around for a few moments before she spotted a familiar flash of platinum blonde hair. Her eyes locked on to the person and it was Emiko. Emiko was nervously making her way out of the crowd of students. She fiddled with her hands and kept her eyes on the ground. “Hey Emiko! We’re over here!”

Emiko perked up at Fukuro’s voice and looked up. Once her eyes locked on to Fukuro’s own, the nervous look on her face disappeared, and was quickly replaced with one full of joy. Her smile was not much bigger than a very small gentle one, but the look in her eyes said she was a lot happier than she looked. She immediately ran over to Fukuro and lept into her arms.

“Whoa!” Fukuro stumbled back a bit as she was not expecting the sudden added weight. Thankfully Emiko was small so Fukuro did not fall or drop her. “Hey kiddo, how was school?” she asked as she set Emiko back on her feet.

Emiko’s voice was barely above a whisper. “...Good…”

Akio interjected as he leaned against Emiko and used her shoulder as an armrest. “You should have seen her in biology class today! We had a trivia game and thank god I had her on my team because I would have failed if she hadn’t helped me. She got us the win and our teacher gave us some candy for winning! Everyone was basically dying while they tried to answer the questions and Emi was just answering them with no effort!”

“...Akio beat all the kids in track today…” Emkio muttered.

“It was easy as cake!”

“...Except for Kumi…He ate her dust,” Emkio finished.

“Emiko!”

Fukuro laughed at her sibling’s antics. “Well that certainly sounds like a good day. Don’t worry Akio, I’m sure you’ll beat her next time,” she said as she patted him on the head.

Akio pouted. “I bet I can run all the way home within 5 minutes. That will show you that I’m the fastest. You guys will be far behind me!”

“That’s a shame. I was going to buy you and Emiko ice cream, but if you want to rush ahead…”

Akio immediately perked up. “You know what? Being the fastest is overrated anyways.”

Fukuro laughed as she walked with her siblings holding onto Emiko’s hand as Akio jumped around excitedly.

***

“Fukuro, can you help me organize the cleaning supplies?”

Fukuro looked behind her and gave Kiyo a smile. “Sure! Let me just finish helping Naho with the sweeping real quick and I’ll be right with you!”

It had been two weeks since her sudden travel through time. Fukuro’s injuries had healed for the most part. She was worried about where she was going to go at first, but Shinobu ended up offering to let her stay at the butterfly mansion since she had nowhere to stay. Fukuro was incredibly grateful, so she decided to use her time to help around with chores. In any free time she had left, Fukuro spent either researching or getting to know Shinobu and the rest of the residents of the estate.

It was a little embarrassing to admit that she had gotten attached to everyone very quickly. Kiyo, Naho, and Suma were just so cute! She loved kids a lot and it helped that they were always so sweet and helpful when Fukuro was adjusting. They reminded her of her own siblings a bit.

Fukuro had first met Aoi when she was scolding her for reopening her wounds again. Her stern demeanor was enough to make Fukuro shrink back a bit and she was 5 years older than her for Pete’s sake! But it didn’t take long for Fukuro to realize that Aoi was truly a very caring and kind person under her mask. It took some time to get past Aoi’s walls, but after about a week Aoi started showing Fukuro her softer side a lot more often. She even started making sure that the mansion always had natto in stock when she found out it was her favorite food, despite the fact that most people don’t like the dish.

Fukuro didn’t know what to think about Kanao at first. She was convinced that she hated her after she bumped into her and, despite her apologies, Kanao didn’t respond. Fukuro was actually pretty stressed about it until Shinobu explained that Kanao simply had trouble doing anything that didn’t require orders, which included talking. Fukuro made it her mission to track Kanao down and try to get to know her as much as she could, which wasn’t often because she was training for final selection. Fukuro still hadn’t learned much, but Kanao did not seem bothered by it and Shinobu seemed to be glad that Fukuro was making an effort. She really liked Kanao a lot since she reminded her of her younger sister.

Then finally there was the master of the butterfly estate, Shinobu. She was always patient with Fukuro, even when she would excitedly ask her everything about the demon slayer corps. She never seemed to find Fukuro’s clumsy nature annoying. In fact she seemed to find it endearing. She gave her a place to stay with her own room before Fukuro could even ask her. She always made an effort to check in on Fukuro without it feeling overbearing after her freak out. She even gave Fukuro a kimono, when she asked. Even if her old clothes were repairable, Fukuro thought it would be safer to wear something from this timeline and not her own. Fukuro couldn’t deny that she found Shinobu very attractive in more ways than looks. Whether or not those feelings would continue to grow was something that she would find out after time passes. But for now Fukuro was satisfied with the relationship that they had, even if she knows very little about her.

“You don’t have to help us with all of the chores you know. There are probably better things you could do,” Aoi said, walking by with a basket of laundry.

Fukuro set her broom off to the side and went to join Kiyo. “I don’t mind. It keeps me active. Besides, it gets boring reading my notes over and over again. I should really try to find a library. It would be nice to go to a nearby town and take a look around. Maybe find a way to actually make some money. The thought of finding some new books to read makes me so ex-AHH!” Fukuro proceeded to trip over the medical supplies that Kiyo had gotten out to be able to organize them.

“Just be careful so that you won’t get yourself killed,” Aoi said.

“Will do, ow.”

***

Fukuro couldn’t sleep. She had developed a bad habit of working late into the night or just not sleeping at all, so it was difficult to try to get a decent night's sleep every night. Even before that she didn’t sleep well as a kid. Fukuro just always seemed to be more active at night. Ironic considering her name. She did have medication for her insomnia back home, but obviously she did not have access to it now. Usually Fukuro would just work or read, but she didn’t want to accidentally wake anyone up. She also did not want a lecture from Shinobu or Aoi. But she had been staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, and she couldn’t take it anymore!

Fukuro got out of bed with a sigh. She went through her beat up bag, and pulled out what was by far her favorite source she found on her expeditions. It was an old diary of a girl who Fukuro assumed was a demon slayer. She wrote about her work as a demon slayer a bit, but most of it was about mundane things like how cute one of her friends looked in her old kimono or gushing about the boy she obviously liked. It wasn’t the best source in terms of research, but Fukuro liked the passionate writing of the person’s day to day life.

Fukuro wandered around the halls a bit before she decided to go outside to get some fresh air. She looked around for a place to sit and saw a ladder that someone must have left out. She climbed the ladder up to the roof, and sat down. It probably wasn’t the safest option, but she liked being in high up places. It was easier for her to relax. Fukuro would commonly go to roofs, trees, or bunk beds just to read a book. Another thing that was ironic considering her name.

Fukuro let out a sigh and opened the diary carefully. The pages were old and worn, and some of the writing had faded. She wondered how much longer this diary would last. It would be a sad day when it eventually falls apart. Sure she had a scanned pdf of the diary back home, but she obviously couldn’t use it right now and might not ever again. That thought was almost enough to make Fukuro cry.

“It’s a little late to be reading a book don’t you think?”

Fukuro squeaked as she fumbled to keep herself from dropping the diary she was reading. She looked to the side and saw Shinobu looking at her with the same smile she grew used to, as well as an amused spark in her eyes.

“You scared me Kocho!”

Shinobu responded with a small giggle. “Mind if I sit here?”

Fukuro shook her head and Shinobu sat down next to her.

“So what are you doing awake on the roof so late?”

“Oh! I couldn’t sleep, so I decided that reading would be a better use of my time instead of staring at the ceiling. I like being high up when I want to relax so I used a ladder to climb up here.”

“If you find anything about your room uncomfortable then you can tell me. I don’t mind.”

“No! No! No! The room is great! I have really bad insomnia, so I have a lot of trouble sleeping! I’ve tried different relaxing teas, but they don’t work. I used to have medicine for it but I left it at home and I can’t exactly go back…” Fukuro trailed off to think of a way to phrase her words that didn’t make the fact that she was from the future obvious.

Shinobu put her hand on her shoulder. “You do not have to say anymore if you don’t want to, Fukuro. I understand.”

Fukuro sighed in relief. She was pretty sure that Shinobu thought she lost her home to demons, even if she never said it. Fukuro felt bad that she was deceiving Shinobu, but it was easier than the truth or trying to make an excuse on her own.

“It’s just hard, you know? It’s not that I don’t like it here, because I really do. You all have been so nice to me and I can’t be more grateful for you letting me stay here. But I miss my family a lot. It’s both nice and heartbreaking how much the girls remind me of my little siblings.”

Shinobu’s expression didn’t change but there was a curious glint in her eyes. “I did not know that you had any siblings.”

Fukuro scratched the back of her head with a sheepish look on her face. “That's because the subject never really came up before. I also did not want to annoy anyone by rambling about my siblings. Once I start it’s hard for me to stop.”

“I think it’s cute that you’re so passionate about the people and things you care about. If you are comfortable with it I’m happy to listen.”

Fukuro’s cheeks grew bright red from the compliment. “Gosh, where do I even start?”

“I think their names would be helpful,” Shinobu teased.

Fukuro blushed even more in response. “Well I have one younger brother and one little sister. They’re twins and are both 5 years younger than me, so they’re around Aoi’s age. My little brother’s name is Akio and my sister’s name is Emiko. Despite the fact that I was WAY older than them we were still very close. Akio was a very loud and energetic kid. He’s very passionate about what he does, and can be a goofball. He and I were always teasing each other, but it was all for fun. It actually sounded like we were insulting each other, but we both knew we didn’t actually mean what we said. His nickname for me was Kurasshu because the earliest memory he has of me was when I was trying to help my mom take care of him but I ended up tripping and crashing into a trashcan.”

Fukuro could feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks as Shinobu put a hand to her mouth to try to muffle her laugh. “Sorry, sorry. I’m not making fun of you I promise.”

Fukuro pouted a bit, but she wasn’t offended at all. “It’s fine, get your laughs out now.”

“It sounds like your brother was a handful.”

“But he was also a very polite boy too. Akio always showed everyone around him respect. He would be running around the house like a maniac, but as soon as our parents told him to stop he did without a fight. No yelling was necessary. A lot of people would be very surprised because only close friends and family actually got to see both parts of his personality. Emiko was very shy and quiet. When we were younger she would only talk to my parents, Akio, and I because she would get so nervous. She was selectively mute until she was 14. She’s the genius of our family. Akio and I could never beat her in any trivia games unless all the questions were either sports or history related. Last time I checked she was planning on becoming a veterinarian, but she also has a passion for theatre so she might try to have a career in that field too. Emiko was always the sense of reason when we all were together. My clumsy nature and workaholic tendencies combined with both Akio and I having no sense of fear when it comes to dangerous situations are not the greatest combination.” Fukuro laughed as she seemed to be looking back on a fond memory. “We had a lot of fun together and ended up in a lot of crazy situations.”

“It sounds like you had a very wonderful family,” Shinobu said.

Fukuro nodded. “Yeah I did,” she said absentmindedly. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “So why are you awake so late? Aren’t you always the one lecturing the other slayers on how important it is for them to get plenty of rest?”

“Is that teasing I hear? I didn’t know you had it in you, Fukuro,” Shinobu teased, which turned Fukuro’s cheeks a bright pink. “I had a lot of work to do today, and I must have lost track of time. I decided to get some fresh air before going back to work.”

“You’re still planning on working?! But it’s so late!”

“May I remind you that we are both in a similar situation.”

“Hey! This time it is not because of my bad working habits. I genuinely can’t sleep!”

“Well then, I’ll start having a better sleep schedule when you do.”

“That would be impossible unless you can make your own medication for it.”

“Challenge accepted.”

The playful banter ended with both girls laughing. Fukuro was a lot more open about it while Shinobu’s was quieter with her hand muffling her laugh.

“What are you reading anyway? It looks like a very old book.”

“Oh! This is a dairy I found on one of my explorations. The person who wrote this is just so bubbly and bright that I can’t help but smile and be in a good mood whenever I read it. It’s hard to think of the world as such a cruel place when I read about someone who is able to see something good in everything and everyone.”

Shinobu hummed as she thought of something. “Sounds a lot like a close friend of mine. I should introduce you to her when I have the chance. I think you would get along quite well.”

“I would be honored to meet any close friend of yours Kocho. Let’s just hope my social skills don’t make me humiliate myself.”

“What’s with the formalities? I thought we were friends, Fukuro,” Shinobu teased. Before Fukuro could respond to defend herself Shinobu continued. “I think your social skills are just fine. You have a very charming personality that shows itself in the cutest ways. Besides, my friend is not known for being judgmental.”

Fukuro was pretty sure that her face was bright red at this point. Why does someone so pretty have to be such a tease?! “As much as I trust your judgment, it's going to be hard to make a good impression when I am half awake and sleep deprived. Hopefully I find a way to fix that problem. Aoi is going to be so mad when she finds out how late I have been staying up. I already made a mess of the medical supplies today, and I know she thinks I work too hard,” Fukuro said.

“I heard about that. She also told me that you’re interested in getting a job.”

“I just want to feel useful, you know? I know the help with the chores is appreciated, but I know Aoi and the girls don’t actually need it. I’m not opposed to learning combat, but I don’t think becoming a demon slayer is the best choice to make. Not right now at least. I also suck at anything medical! The amount of times I have almost gotten myself killed because I almost took the wrong medication is honestly concerning. I know that as Hashira you get paid any amount you want, but l feel bad for constantly leaching off you.”

“Trust me when I say that helping the girls out with the chores and keeping the girls company is more than enough help. They’ve grown really attached to you, despite the fact that you have only lived here for 2 weeks,” Shinobu said, her smile becoming a bit gentler than before.

Fukuro sighed. “I know. I just wish I could put what I am good at to use. But I don’t think many people are looking for a girl who is good at researching stuff. Especially since I don’t have access to a lot of sources right now. Even if I don’t find a job in town, a library would be nice.” Fukuro turned her head away from Shinobu in slight embarrassment. “Gosh, I kinda made this conversation about all of my insecurities, haven’t I? I’m sorry for rambling and bringing the mode down.”

“If you don’t stop apologizing then I will make you go through a day of training with Kanao.”

Fukuro gulped. She had seen the type of training that Kanao would do and it was insane. Fukuro might be fit, which was only due to her experiments with total concentrated breathing, but she was pretty sure Kanao would completely murder her within minutes. “Yes ma’am!” Fukuro exclaimed before letting out a yawn. “The sun is going to come up soon so I should probably try to sleep. Are you coming with me?”

“I think I’ll stay out a little bit longer.”

Fukuro had started to climb down the ladder. “Alright but go to sleep soon okay. We can’t have two sleep deprived workaholics here.”

Shinobu giggled. “Have a good night Fukuro.”

“You too.” Just as Fukuro finished her response her foot slipped. “Well sh*t.” She ended up falling off the ladder hitting the ground with the solid thud. “Oww.”

Shinobu peeked her head over the roof. She looked both concerned and like she was barely holding back her laughter. “Are you alright down there?”

“I’m fine!”

Shinobu jumped down, landing on her feet with seemingly little effort. “Perhaps I should take you to your room so that you don’t hurt yourself more.”

***

“You want permission to have access to the Demon Slayer Corps main library?”

Shinobu took a deep breath before answering Ubuyashiki. She wouldn’t say she was nervous, but she definitely was asking for a pretty big favor. “For the new girl taking residence in my estate, Master. She has taken an interest and I think her skills in research could be of great use to us. She managed to figure out almost entirely how the corps works with only a few books and scrolls that she found by herself. She hadn’t even met a corps member until we met.”

“Ah, yes. Fukuro Hitomi. She is quite the interesting young woman. Her ability to gather information would be a great asset right now. But I would like to be certain of some things first.”

“What do you mean? Do you think giving her access to this information would be dangerous?”

“No, not at all. My concerns are more personal. It is nothing that you should worry yourself about. I would just like to meet her in person. If you could bring her to me for a private meeting I would be most grateful, my child.”

“Of course Master. Right away,” Shinobu said before she gave Ubuyashiki a bow before walking out of the room.

Ubuyashiki smiled. “An interesting woman indeed. I wonder if your presence is apart of something much bigger than we realize.”

***

Welcome to I have never written for Ubuyashiki before and I have no idea how to write him! I’m really sorry for this chapter took so long, I honestly did not think it would take me so much time! School suddenly decided to hit me like a truck so I had very little energy. The amount of times I wrote a scene for this chapter, then decided I did not like it, and then delete it was immense. Hopefully the nest one is less of a struggle. I know not a lot happened in this chapter but I hope it’s still enjoyable! I’m thinking of doing small headcannon and fun facts posts to keep up some content between chapters. The little details I think are cool, but I won’t be able to go in depth with in this story.