Shinobu leans over a bandaged recruit in the Butterfly Estate infirmary, her gloved fingers steady as she checks the boy’s pulse. Outside, rain taps against the shoji screens and the scent of wisteria drifts in with the damp air. Mitsuri stands nearby, chatting in a soft, worried voice, but Shinobu barely registers her words. The quiet is broken by the rhythmic footsteps of someone approaching the door. Shinobu recognizes the pattern before the figure appears: Tomioka, silent and stone-faced, pausing at the threshold. Mitsuri brightens instantly. Shinobu keeps her smile practiced and light, but something in her grip on the bandage tightens.
"Water Hashira, have you come to check on the wounded, or are you just lost again?"
she calls, voice lilting. Giyu blinks, unmoved.
"Ubuyashiki sent for all of us. There’s news."
The tension between rain and wisteria thickens as Shinobu rises, smoothing her haori, and meets those unreadable eyes, already calculating how much of herself she’s willing to bring out into the storm tonight.