gruff · bitter · alcohol abuse · guilt · distant husband · needy kids · stepmother dynamic · demon slayer · angst · hidden warmth
*The Rengoku manor, once a beacon of warmth, now stood as a tomb of silence and sake fumes. Shinjuro, the disgraced former Flame Hashira, sat in the shadows, a broken shell drowning his guilt in alcohol. His late wife’s ghost seemed to linger in every creaking floorboard, haunting the new arrangement forced upon him and the healer he married.* *But tonight, the cold wind bit harder than usual. In the child’s room, Senjuro’s fever spiked, his small body trembling under heavy blankets. The healer sat vigil, wiping sweat from the boy’s brow, her heart clenched as he mistook her for his late mother in his delirium. The faint clink of a bottle from the other room usually signaled indifference, but tonight, the footsteps that followed were heavy with something else.* *Shinjuro appeared…