Natori's pov

Autumn came, the leaves resembled my feathers, it was my favorite season. The cold did not bother me but I do prefer warm places, still I loved to stare at the colorful scenery. I sat on the engawa in my bird form, the sun was behind me but the shadow of the house allowed me to sit outside.

"You like autumn don't you?" Ruka sat down next to me and I hummed in response, my gaze still fixated on the colorful trees.
Kyojuro was training with his father on the other side of the house, under the sun while Senjuro watched them.

"I heard from the others... that demon are looking for you." she started, "but perhaps you already know.

"I do. Are you worried?" I finally looked at her.

"Should I?" she asked.

I shook my head and gazed towards the blue sky, "I'm not afraid of them nor the kizukus. They won't get me."

"What about Kibutsuji?" Ruka eyed me.

"He doesn't even dare to come out, so why should I be afraid?" I answered, "he's a coward. But if the day comes where I get captured...I won't forget any of you."

Ruka: "Don't say that. I believe that day won't come."

'I hope....'

𓅘

My days with the demon slayers were full of surprises and without realising, I grew attached to them, even though they don't like me.
My missions with them might also be quiet but fighting alongside with them was interesting. Demons who saw me wanted to kill me, yet they couldn't. What could take my life was either the sun or the demon king himself.
Some demons even tried to devour me which might work, but I won't let it happen; once they catch me their hands will be set on fire which won't die easily until their limbs melt.

I thought I won't hear about Muzan anymore since he was a coward and chose to hide while demons do his work instead.

But I was wrong.

3rd person pov

Tears kept dripping from the big human sized phoenix as she inspected the corpses of a family. A toddler lied lifeless in front of her on the cold snowy ground while the rest of his family were inside. The tears fell on the toddler and one of his injury started to heal but he wasn't able to wake up anymore.

They were late.

She felt it, it was non other than the demon king himself who assaulted this poor family.

The scent of metal was strong but her sadness was bigger suppressing her thirst.

She turned around and flew towards the direction where her quiet colleague was.

She landed some metres away from him and her gaze fell on the unconscious boy and female demon.

"You're not planning to kill her?" Natori asked.

"She's different. She protected him." they exchanged looks and she shook her head, "we came late..."

"It's a good idea," she eventually commented, "she's his last family member after all."

They waited until the boy finally woke up and he immediately noticed the faint demonic scent of the phoenix who looked back at him. He didn't know why but the scent of the mythical bird was sad.

"Go look for a man named Urokodaki Sakonji in Mt. Sagiri and tell him that his student Tomioka Giyu has sent you." Giyu started, "and don't let your sister touch the sunlight."
With that being said, he disappeared.

The phoenix approached him and patted his head with her wing to comfort him, she knew that he didn't had time to cry yet.

"I'm sorry boy. We came late." she said softly and unwittingly the boy burst out in tears. The boy heard its distancing footsteps and as he looked up the giant bird was already gone only its footprints remained on the snow.

As she catched up with Giyu, their way back to the headquarters was quiet like always until he asked, "I'm not sure if I did the right thing."

"According to what you've told me, I think you did." Natori replied, "I trust your judgement."

𓅘

The sun was coming out from behind the clouds so the water pillar let the phoenix hide under his haori as she shrinked.
"Drop me at the butterfly estate please." Natori asked because the picture of the dead family was still in her mind. She use this chance to fill more bottles with her tears.

Giyu said nothing but dropped her off at Shinobu's. He left soon afterwards to avoid Shinobu.

The girls around the estate already knew Natori and instead of a bottle, she asked Aoi to bring her a bucket.

Aoi brought her to an dark room with the bucket and left her alone. Natori turned bigger into human size again and big tears already started to escape from her eyes like a waterfall.

Shinobu got informed that she was there so she entered the room. It was not the first time that the phoenix will ask for a bucket and cry so much. She only did that when she was very sad. It was always those images of tragedies. At first, Shinobu was very surprised that the mythical bird, especially a demon, had such strong sense of empathy, but now she got used to it.

"Are you sad again, Natori?" like always the bird will nod while she continued to shed tears.

"There, there." and Shinobu would always pat her back because she secretly liked to touch her cozy feathers.

"Will a hug make you feel better?" Shinobu asked again and Natori nodded again. The insect hashira used this advantage to snuggle into her feathers. Until now, she was the only one who could hug the phoenix and touch its feathers. But this will change soon.

After filling the bucket, a kakushi brought her to the Rengoku estate. Since it was winter, the days turned shorter so the sky turned darker earlier and after the kakushi dropped the bird off, Natori flew towards the living room and rested in front of the fireplace.

With her fire breath, she added more fire in the chimney since the fire turned weaker. As she grew bigger since she felt like it. From time to time she had to turn bigger because she felt like a pet in her mini form and Ruka noticed her.

"Welcome back." Ruka said as she watched Natori's big shape. She thought if the phoenix could gain some weight somehow, she will look like a cute round chicken. But she was thin, like an elegant bird.
Then she joined her at the fireplace since it was cold, "I thought demons don't mind the cold."

"That's true," Natori answered, "But I enjoy the warmth."
She caught Ruka staring at her body, "Wanna touch?"

"No..." Ruka looked away with her cheeks slightly red.

"Touch it if you want." Natori said while she continued to enjoy the warmth of the fire.

Ruka's pov

Now that she said it and let me to, I touched her feathers and they were so soft, fluffy and extremely warm!

Was that because she's a fire phoenix? Definitely.

I couldn't hold myself back and just hugged her by leaning my upper body on her back and she didn't mind.

So warm...

"N-natori, may I as well?" I heard Senjuro ask shyly and since I heard the movement of him hugging her too, it seems that Natori nodded.

"It's so cozy." I heard him say in awe.

"If you don't mind, may I use you as a body heater?" I got too into it, so the phrase just slipped out from my mouth, but to my surprise she agreed, "Why not."

"What are you guys doing?" Kyojuro came in with his father after chopping some wood, "group hug? Count me in!"

"It's so warm niisan." Senjuro informed.

"Nope, there isn't enough space." I replied while I turned my head to my son, "she's my personal body heater now."

Senjuro also turned to him with an apologetic smile, "Sorry niisan, but I don't want to get up either."

"Then I just ask Natori to get bigger!" he declared, "Natori?"

Unbeknownst to us, as we turned to the phoenix, she dozed off with her head resting on the ground. It was normal for us to see her mostly asleep since it was her way to regain her strength.

"Next time maybe." I said.

"Senjuro, come on. Please?"

"Nope!"