The cause behind Akiko's unease unravels a day later.

She's in the midst of weaving her last stitch, the sun finally having risen, when Miruna hops into the room.

"Hey! Out! Contamination!" Aoi tries to kick Miruna out, but what Miruna says next thoroughly shocks everyone in the room (minus the unconscious demon slayer.)

"Rengoku Kyoujurou has been killed by Upper Moon Three! Tamura Akiko is to report to the Ubuyashiki Estate at once!" Then, Miruna hops out.

Akiko finishes up, leaving everything else into the hands of the girls. She quickly thanks them before washing herself up, ridding herself of blood before quickly pulling on some fresh clothes.

Goto is already waiting for her outside, and she's blindfolded before thrown onto his back. Then, the two are off and Akiko uneasily awaits for her arrival.

Time passes by quickly, Goto hightailing it to the Ubuyashiki Estate. Once she gets there, Akiko immediately takes notice that she's the only one there. This quickly changes, as Miyuki walks into the garden with Sanemi.

Miyuki looks so utterly drained, and it looks like she's been crying. Sanemi glances at her with worry, and Akiko can see the love in his eyes. But Miyuki's tears are shed for someone else.

"Akiko..." Miyuki weakly mutters, her arms spread out for Akiko to run in to. Miyuki's cold presence is closer than usual, and Akiko shudders when she pulls away, but it seems to have made Miyuki the smallest bit better, and that's all Akiko can ever hope for.

"Akiko? Care to sit next to me?" A familiar voice asks, and Akiko whirls around to the engawa.

Oyakata-sama is already seated with one of his daughters by his side, and he's patting the area next to him.

"There's something I need to discuss before I start the Pillar meeting," he says, and Akiko carefully takes her shoes off before crawling up onto the engawa.

As more of the Pillars begin to show up, they look at Akiko curiously. She knows that she doesn't have a strong presence, so they must be confused as to why someone like her gets to sit next to the dearly beloved Oyakata-sama. At each Pillar's arrival, his daughter lists their names.

So Akiko meets Himejima Gyomei, Tokitou Muichirou, Iguro Obanai, Kanroji Mitsuri, and Uzui Tengen. Her teacher, Kochou Shinobu, shows up, and looks surprised when she sees Akiko seated next to Oyakata-sama. There's also Tomioka Giyuu, but Akiko ignores him completely.

The only person missing is Rengoku Kyoujurou, though Akiko's never met him before. No one makes a move to comment on his passing. Miyuki looks torn enough.

"Let's get started, shall we? I know Akiko here has some more lives to save," Oyakata-sama comments, and Akiko looks down to her lap in embarrassment.

He's straight to the point, and Akiko's eyes widen when he declares, "Tamura Akiko is the official Demon Corps head physician."

He chuckles lightly, "Though I suppose it's been like that since the start. At any rate, because of the overall looming threat of the Upper Moon demons and Kibutsuji Muzan himself, Pillars will only go on missions when there is the threat of an Upper Moon demon. Akiko will be on standby for these missions, so please treat her well."

Akiko pales under the gaze of all the pillars, and she can feel their judgement. It's like being looked down upon by other male demon slayers, but it's worse this time. Only the female pillars look at her with warmth. Akiko feels like an animal at display in a zoo.

"Your crows now have orders to fly to Akiko as soon as you encounter an Upper Moon, and for her to hurry to your location as soon as possible."

Miruna caws nearby, fluttering into Akiko lap and glaring at the other pillars. Akiko shushes her crow before a bunch of other crows flock to her, and they all start to caw at each other before flying off again.

Despite her overwhelming want to hide in a pit, Akiko looks up to meet the gazes of the pillars head on, and she raises her hand, "Hi."

"I refuse to have a doctor babysit me."

"Sanemi."

"I will reconsider my refusal."

Miyuki flashes Akiko a weak smile, and Akiko is grateful.

Akiko is told to go back to the Butterfly Estate, and the Pillar meeting commences. Goto asks her what happened on their way back, and when she tells him the news he congratulates her.

"It was bound to happen," he says nonchalantly, and Akiko feels warm with the praises she's been receiving. Three years of hard work and her title is official. She can't wait to send her parents a letter, as much as her father won't believe it.

The trip back seems shorter, since she and Goto have things to talk about. Once a certain distance away, Goto removes her blind fold so that she can enjoy the scenery.

He makes sure that she promises not to tell anyone that he has a certain soft spot for the ginko eyed girl, and she flashes him a bright smile in her happiness.

Akiko is surprised to see Aoi waiting at the front gate for her.

She frantically rushes up to Akiko, and Akiko can only assume the worst.

"Everything is already prepped! Tanjirou's been stabbed in the lower left abdomen!"

Everything feels like a whirlwind for Akiko. Aoi has to ask her multiple times if she's mentally strong enough to perform surgery on her fiance, and Akiko insists that she'll be fine, but the truth is that Akiko has no idea.

She's patched up plenty of torn open stomachs before, and from what she's heard, Tanjirou stopped the bleeding with his full concentration breathing. This case shouldn't be all too hard, but her hands sweat a bit at the idea.

She sees Zenitsu without many injuries, and Inosuke looks like he's been crying, but Tanjirou is the one that's suffered the most.

He's laying on the table, and he smiles weakly when he sees Akiko enter the room.

There's more than just exhaustion in him, and Akiko is too busy blocking out other emotions to try and figure out his own. She'll just have to ask him what happened after she saves his life, and she makes a promise to herself to make sure Tanjirou makes it out alive.

A mask is pulled over his face, and the last thing he sees is gold.

Tanjirou dreams of his father.

He's just hit double digits, and he's helping his father to weave some sandals. Akiko is playing with his other siblings, and Takeo is helping Kie with the laundry.

Everything is perfect.

Tanjuro looks down at his son, smiling when he sees that Tanjirou is watching his fiancee with soft eyes. Tanjirou laughs when his father strokes his hair, and he begins to help weave sandals again.

"I'm really glad you chose Akiko to be my fiance!" Tanjirou smiles up at his father, and a memory is brought back up to the surface for Tanjuro.

He stares at his son, a bit troubled, and Tanjirou's nose twitches at the different scent. He looks back up at his father, tilting his head as he waits for his father to explain his change in mood.

Tanjuro looks at his hard working wife, then back down at his son before smiling sadly.

"We never told you the story as to why you're engaged to Akiko, now did we?"

Tanjirou shakes his head no, and Tanjuro delves into the story. He keeps it quick and straight to the point, and Tanjirou is old enough to understand the situation. But there's a condition that Tanjuro makes sure to emphasize, and fear makes its way into Tanjirou's heart.

"Tanjirou, you must remember that you two aren't shackled together by ball and chain. If perhaps one of you falls in love with someone else, you're allowed to leave the engagement. Ray and I didn't want this to be set in stone, you see?"

He doesn't like this.

There's a chance that Akiko will marry someone else.

Would that mean all the time they spent loving each other will go to waste?

But they're still kids, so will Akiko not even count her engagement to Tanjirou after she meets someone she truly loves?

Akiko leaves for Tokyo again next week, and Tanjirou has faith in her while she's there, but does Akiko know that she holds a key to the cuffs that bind the two?

Tanjirou blinks when he sees that Akiko is waving at him with a smile, and he waves back too. Akiko can see the mood shift between the father and son from where she is, and she doesn't like how fearful Tanjirou looks.

So she runs up to him, orange in hand that she helped Nezuko pick just now.

"Look! It's all ripe and everything! Here, you can have it!" Akiko smiles, and Tanjirou takes it gratefully.

When he holds the orange up to his face, his eyes shift from her eyes to the orange. The colors are off, but he still decides that it's close enough to compare to again.

His heart melts from worry and he tucks the new information into the back of his mind.

"It kinda reminds me of your eyes!"

When Tanjirou wakes back up, he sees an IV stuck in his arm. His body feels stiff and he's in pain overall, but he has to assume that he's already maxed out on painkillers.

Judging by the smell, it's Aoi that just walked into the room, and she casually walks up to his bedside. She has a plate of food and a cup of water on the tray that she's holding, and she sets it by his bedside table to check on the IV bags.

"You've been out for a couple days, and Akiko is a little busy accompanying one of the pillars on their mission, but she'll be back soon," Aoi tell him, and he blankly nods his head.

Aoi sighs when she assumes that her words went in one ear and out the other, but there isn't much she can do about that.

So she ups his morphine then walks out.

Akiko returns late at night, a little blood on her hands but nonetheless injury free. It's not even the blood of a pillar, rather a demon slayer she found on the side of the road that accidently cut themselves with their katana.

Idiot.

She sighs, washing her face over the sink and ridding the blood from her hands. Her shoulders ache a bit from the weight of the bag, since Iguro refused to help her carry it despite the fact that she lagged behind a lot.

"You're the official doctor now. Figure it out."

Akiko wants to sock him in the face.

At any rate, when Aoi tells her that Tanjirou is awake, Akiko quickly makes her way to the medical ward, only to find that Tanjirou isn't even in bed. Zenitsu and Inosuke are out like a light, though they aren't even injured, and Akiko rolls her eyes at the empty dishes by their bedside.

Kanon is just too nice sometimes.

So Akiko wanders the empty halls, her eyes aiding her through the darkness, and she finds herself staring at a mindless Tanjirou looking up at the moon on the engawa.

She quietly seats herself next to him, her eyes already checking over his state and making sure that he isn't sleeping while sitting.

"The demon gave us a bunch of dreams," Tanjirou starts, and Akiko listens. "It was a really nice dream. You were in it. So was mom, and Rokuta, and Hanako, and Shigeru, and even Takeo. Nezuko was under the sun, and I was really happy.

I think the fact that it was a dream turned it into a nightmare.

I wonder what aniki dreamed of..."

Akiko looks over at him, "Aniki?"

"Kyoujurou. He promised to make us his tsuguko."

Akiko feels bad that she asked, and she can see the pain well up in Tanjirou. He turns away from the moon to look at Akiko, and it hurts even more to see the reflection from the moonlight in her eyes, the exact sight he saw in his dream.

"Can you hold me?"

Immediately, Akiko holds her arms wide open, and Tanjirou cries as he falls into her embrace. Her slightly bloodied shirt starts to stain with his tears, but he keeps his sobbing quiet. Akiko is running her hand through his hair like she did in the dream, and he can't help but cry louder.

"You could have saved him," he hiccups out, and Akiko's heart throbs.

"If anyone, you could have. Akiko, he died a noble death, and if you were there you could have saved him...! I know you can..." He continues to cry, but Akiko doesn't say anything.

"I saw more of the city. I saw the environment you grew up in without me. You're different now and I love that, but you don't need me anymore."

Akiko blinks owlishly at his sudden turn of topic, but she allows him to release all his pent up emotions. He's an unstable wreck right now, and the best thing she can do is listen.

He pulls away to look at her, and he can't see properly thanks to the tears in his eyes, but he smiles when Akiko thumbs his tears away.

"I love you so much Akiko. We grew up together, and we taught each other so much. But if you don't want to marry me because you want to choose your own life, I understand."

What.

Akiko glares down at her fiance before squishing and pulling his cheeks, and Tanjirou can smell an immense amount of frustration.

"You're really dumb."

"....Huh?"

"Like really really dumb. Super duper dumb! I can't believe you're such a big dummy! Dum dum."

"Akiko, wait-"

"Alright listen here," she slaps his cheeks, and he winces from the pain. But it's Akiko's mistake to ram her forehead into his, and he can see a trail of blood roll down her forehead, but she pays it no mind.

"A- Akiko-?!"

"I love you, Tanjirou. And I'm glad we get to marry each other. After all this pain you put me through, because I love you, you think I'm going to not marry you? I've loved you since we were kids, arranged marriage or not.

And we'll keep growing up together, and we'll keep teaching each other. We're still young! I'm still choosing my own life, and that includes you. I choose you, Kamado Tanjirou.

Because I love you."

He stares into the eyes of an unwavering woman, and the sunrise reflects in her glassy eyes. She's tearing up, and Tanjirou can't help himself from crying again.

So he holds her face too, and he laughs.

Her eyes shine with their new beginning together, as equals.

She kisses him, and all is well between the two.