Akiko doesn't see Tanjirou again until a week later.

By the time he returns, Akiko is about to leave for the Butterfly Estate by her lonesome, but upon seeing the brutal condition her fiance is in, all anger flies out the window.

"What happened?!" Akiko leads Tanjirou to the futon, yelling for swordsmiths to prepare some food as well as her bag while he explains the week's events.

Turns out Tanjirou has a perfectly good explanation for why he left Akiko alone for a week!

He was being bullied by a 10 year old.

Akiko spends the next day tending to Tanjirou's wounds, which thankfully aren't a lot. Just bruises and sore muscles; nothing a long soak in the hot springs can't fix.

It's when Tanjirou is talking to Genya about his week's events that things slowly start to go south. Genya gets pissed off enough that he throws the basket of rice crackers, much to the couple's dismay. And when Tanjirou notices that Genya's tooth has grown back in, Akiko can't even come up with a good excuse.

"I never lost it..." Genya mumbles weakly.

"But I have it right here!"

"TANJIROU THAT'S UNSANITARY!!"

Defeated, the physician leaves the room with the tooth in a napkin, ready to be thrown away. She plans to also soak in the hot spring, since they're likely to leave the swordsmith village the day after Tanjirou's sword is ready, which should be in 2 days.

When she reaches the hot spring, there's only one person left, but he's gathering his things to leave. Akiko smiles to herself, bidding the swordsmith a goodnight before she undresses to soak in the hot springs.

Akiko falls asleep in the hot water. She always does. Something about the swordsmith village and being able to take care of herself makes her fall into a deep sleep, and she's woken up multiple times from breathing water up her nose.

This time, she's woken up to the sound of a distant explosion.

Miruna caws above her, alerting her of a demon attack. Akiko shoves herself out of the hot spring, hastily wrapping her kimono around her and haphazardly tying the knots. At the very least, she remembers to wrap her kimono left over right.

"Go alert a nearby pillar for assistance!" Akiko yells up at Miruna, and her crow jets away.

Akiko leaps down the steps, blood rushing out of her face when she sees a splatter of blood at the base of the hill. There isn't a body in sight, which Akiko can't deduce to be a good thing or a bad thing.

By the time she arrives at the front entrance of the village, there's a small swarm of swordsmiths, kakushi, and lower level demon slayers. Akiko begins to direct the crowd immediately, yelling for half the kakushi to undergo an evacuation of the village and the other half to start setting up a med tent and treatment.

"Sayu, you're in charge of treatments while I'm gone!" Akiko says to a kakushi that she knows, "The village chief isn't here, so demon slayers come with me to the main building for an extraction!"

The three or so demon slayers huddle around Akiko, keeping her protected when they encounter some weird fish demons. One leaves the pack to lead a small group of swordsmiths they found. By the time they reach the main building, they can hear a commotion upstairs.

A pink blur flies over Akiko and the two demon slayers' heads, and upon exclaiming that the Love Pillar has arrived, the two demon slayers rush up the steps with newfound confidence.

There's no work to be done though, because Kanroji has already defeated the big demon. In her arms is the village chief, and Akiko does a quick survey of the damage.

There are two dead demon slayers on the floor, one decapitated and the other split in two. A swordsmith lays in the corner next to a giant hole in the wall, presumably unconscious, while the village chief is being held in Kanroji's arms.

"I think he has internal injuries!" Kanroji says to Akiko, pointing to the other swordsmith. Akiko begins treatment immediately, and Kanroji lays down the village elder close to Akiko.

When Akiko looks up and out of the destroyed building, she notices another flurry of attacks happening at the inn. Looking a bit closer, she sees Genya and Nezuko, but no Tanjirou.

"I'll stay behind! Go to the inn, I think Genya is there! Nezuko too, so Tanjirou shouldn't be far away. I'll meet up when I'm done here." Akiko says to Kanroji, but she shakes her head.

"Muichirou's crows is still around here, so he must be fighting demons alone. You should go find him when you're done, I'll be fine with the others!" And with that, she hops out of the building.

Thankfully, the injuries that both the village chief and the unconscious swordsmith have sustained is not extreme. The other two demon slayers work on removing the bodies of their fallen demon slayers, being instructed to return them to the med tent and then come back to safely transport the other two patients.

Akiko is done with treatment once the two demon slayers return, and she places the two swordsmiths in the demon slayer's hands before heading off to find Muichirou.

She picks up her physician's bag, running around the town in hopes of finding them. Once on the outskirts, she hears a loud crashing noise, the sound of wood being split apart. After locating the noise, Akiko spots Muichirou fighting an Upper Moon demon.

There are three bodies close to the battle, and Akiko does her best to pull them to safety. It's hard to pull one of the swordsmiths though, since he's just sharpening a blade. He doesn't even seem to notice the fighting going on.

Akiko does remember Kanamori, but there's also a kid that's injured. His arm has a deep gash on it, so Akiko pulls out her tools to begin sterilizing the wound.

After 8 stitches and a lot of crying, Akiko is done with the kid and can move onto Kanamori. He tries to explain what happened, being slashed at by the demon and then thrown to the wall. She can see that his back is heavily bruised, and his ribs are close to breaking, but they surprisingly haven't. She still sterilizes the cuts, the slashes not deep enough for stitches, then binds Kanamori in bandages from the waist up.

"And what about him? What happened?" Akiko gestures to the man still sharpening a katana.

"Oh, Haganezuka? Honestly, I highly doubt you could treat him at the moment. He's too far into sharpening Tanjirou's new blade."

Akiko's eyes almost pop out of her face when she realizes who exactly is in front of her. She always thought Haganezuka was some grumpy old man with nothing better to do than bully children and make swords.

Guess she's only wrong about the "grumpy" and "old" part.

A shroud of mist envelops the four, and a few seconds later Akiko sees the head of the demon fly into the sky. It spits some heated words at Muichirou for a few seconds before Muichirou chops the head up into smaller bits, hastening the disintegration of the Upper Moon demon.

"Lord Tokitou! Are you alright?!" Kanamori jumps up in time with Akiko, and the two rush to the Mist Pillar.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I feel great right now. But I have to hurry to Tanjirou and the others."

Akiko holds her hand up to stop him, "You're pale and shaking. Not fine."

"I said I'm totally fine. Didn't you hear me?"

"And I said that you're not fine. Didn't you hear me?"

"Would you please go to Kotetsu-BLEH" Foam starts pouring out of Muichirou's mouth and Kanamori starts to scream. Akiko steps forward to catch his body, laying him down on the ground and requesting for Kanamori to grab her bag.

Thankfully, most demon poison is the same, so the antidotes are largely universal.

She treats the poison first, injecting it so that it will circulate his body faster. Then, she begins to work on the multiple needle-like puncture wounds littered across his face and body. Muichirou takes longer to treat, but at least with him being knocked out, it's easy. Kanamori is helpful too, knowing enough basic medical terminology to hand Akiko the tools that she needs.

Akiko finishes just in time for the antidote to flush the poison out of Muichirou's system, and the boy comes to.

"There's still another demon." Is the first thing Muichirou says when his eyes open. "An Upper Moon. Stronger than this one."

"Dammit, two Upper Moons?" Akiko grumbles to herself, packing up her bag. Kanamori helps Muichirou up, and Akiko can't convince keeping him on bedrest at the moment. The battle is still going on, from the sound of trees breaking in the distance.

"Yeah, I encountered the other one first before he hit me and shot me straight out of the inn. Last I saw, Tanjirou and Nezuko were fighting the demon."

"Ok, well last I saw, Genya and Kanroji were there too. Let's just hope we can get to them in time."

Luckily, they don't need to get very far before running in on the action.

Akiko watches as a demon, Tanjirou, and Nezuko plummet down a cliff. They land hard enough for it to be considered a small explosion, and there's a blade stuck in the demon's neck. Nezuko remains motionless, but Tanjirou catches a tree branch on his way down.

"There's no sword," Akiko breathes out. Tanjirou has no sword, and the demon is starting to make its way to a couple swordsmiths.

"Gimme that!" Akiko yanks the sword from Haganezuka, and Kanamori holds him back as he grabs at Akiko. "Throw this to him, Muichirou!" She thrusts the katana into his hands, and with the last bit of strength the Mist Pillar has (which is still more than Akiko), the sword flies through the air and plunges into the ground right in front of Tanjirou.

"Use it!" Akiko yells at her fiance, beginning to carefully slide down the cliff. "Kill that son of a bitch!!"

In a white hot blaze, Tanjirou shoots forward with inhuman speed, leaving a wake of flames behind him. He rushes to the demon, and its head comes clean off.

Akiko makes it to Nezuko at the base of the cliff, but Nezuko jumps out of Akiko's grasp to rush to her brother. She screams with the bamboo in her mouth, warning Tanjirou just as Akiko notices too.

"The demon isn't dead!" Akiko yells, just as Tanjirou yells for Nezuko to hide from the sun. Akiko tries to catch up to the siblings but she's slower than the two as they run for the demon, aiming to finish him off.

But daylight breaks, and Nezuko starts to burn.

Nezuko screams in pain, covering her face in a futile attempt to stay alive.

Tanjirou turns back for his sister, and the demon starts to get away.

"Nezuko! Shrink! Make your body smaller!"

"Tanjirou, just go!" Akiko finally makes it to the two, "Get the demon! I've got Nezuko!"

"But she's-!!"

He doesn't get to finish his sentence. Nezuko kicks her brother up into the air, a peaceful look on her face that lets him know that it's alright. Akiko does her best to cover Nezuko but there's no use.

Nezuko will burn to death.

"I believe that Nezuko will conquer the sun."

Tamayo's words cut through Akiko's mind as she begins to cry. But she doesn't know if Nezuko will conquer the sun, and she doesn't know if she's willing to take that gamble. There's no use now, she'll have to gamble on Tamayo's theory whether she wants to or not.

So Akiko squeezes Nezuko's hand, crying words of encouragement and love. She urges Nezuko to beat the sun, to stay alive.

And Nezuko does.