"Ray, you're going to let her do what?!"

Ray sets his cup of coffee down, sighing deeply as Akiko sparkles with excitement. His wife is standing from her seat at the dinner table, palm slammed onto the surface and food scattered nearby.

"She's going to cut open a cadaver today-"

"YOU'RE CRAZY! THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'M LETTING YOU DO THAT! SHE'S 11! YOU'RE KIDDING, RIGHT-?!"

Akiko stares at the scalpel in her hand, a bit big since she hasn't matured yet. Ray observes her, allowing Akiko to explore her curiosity as she peeks through the window of the room.

The body is covered with a blanket, and Akiko can see that it's most likely a woman, 5'2" and in her... early 20's?

"Are you ready love?"

Akiko stares at the leather bag by her father's side, sitting onto the floor to slip the scalpel back into its roll-able mat along with the other neatly lined up scalpels. When she clicks the leather physician's bag close and picks it up with both hands, struggling under the weight, Ray opens the door.

The room is cold.

It's uninviting, and there's always a shine of metal reflecting into Akiko's gold eyes.

"What am I doing?" Akiko wonders at her father, dropping the bag unceremoniously next to the table with the body laying on top.

"Well, whenever you're ready, you can go ahead and reveal the body." Ray hands his daughter some rubber gloves, though some of her fingers don't reach the ends.

The smell of the body isn't strong, but she knows that if Tanjirou were here instead, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Akiko wonders how she'll react when she sees the actual body.

Her hands grab the ends of the blanket before she rips it right off, having already mentally prepared herself.

Or so she thought.

Akiko feels like the body on the table.

Just... Not actually dead, she supposes.

The feeling of bile still left in the back of her throat and the stillness of her fingers.

Her body draining of blood and all her nerves shutting down.

The same feeling she has now, looking right at the man who killed her fiance and his whole family.

Akiko would rather be dead than feel like this, the puddles of blood in the house and the smell of rot making her body reel back.

But what can she do?

Akiko wants to be mad, to cry, to kill him. She wants to demand for Tanjirou's life back, for Kie and Shigeru, for Rokuta to have a second chance because he died too early, for Takeo to blush whenever she smiles at him, for Nezuko to have a new kimono and Hanako to learn how to read.

Akiko wants so many things, but there isn't enough money in the world for her to get what she wants.

Akiko doesn't remember what she did after she saw the cadaver.

Ray might have talked her down from her initial shock, or she might have passed out. Maybe she cried and begged for Tanjirou. Gotten mad at life and how cruel it was to kill such a young woman. Might have even directed her anger at her father for making her look at a dead body.

But she remembers choking back every emotion in the end, hardening her mind and stopping the other unnecessary thoughts in her head. Akiko remembers thinking back to the way her father would cut through bodies in the operating room, now copying his incisions onto this cadaver.

She got the job done.

She cut a cadaver open.

Akiko knows that Kanon's left overs are in her hands, but upon looking down she sees a stomach, a spleen and a liver. Akiko can feel the heavy organs in the palm of her hand; how they make her fingers blue and how she's suddenly breathing out mist.

Akiko isn't the same anymore.

She knows the smell of rotting blood, and this man in front of her show no traces of splattered remains.

She knows the sight of a dead body, and this man is very much breathing and alive.

So Akiko steadies herself, shoves her emotions back down her throat and remembers the touch of the scalpel in her hand.

She cuts another cadaver open.

"You killed my fiance."

The man looks down at Akiko, deep blue eyes unwavering despite such a confusing statement he's met with.

The girl beside him tilts her head, continuing to smile before settling her hand on her own katana, as if she's ready to fight this small, frail looking 13 year old despite she herself looking 16.

"Oh? An acquaintance of yours, Tomioka-san?"

This man, Tomioka, disregards Akiko, choosing to walk past her instead.

Akiko's hold on her scalpel tightens, and she carves deeper.

"Four months ago, you killed my fiance. The villagers said they saw a man with black hair and blue eyes with a katana by his side and a mismatched haori. That's you. It was you."

Tomioka stops walking and the other girl looks a bit more interested in what's about to happen.

"...I have no recollection of killing a human."

Akiko grabs a bone saw.

"Don't mess with me! You killed him and his whole family! You really don't remember?!"

The man turns back around to face her, finally giving Akiko his full attention. But Akiko finds out that this is all so that he can quickly drag her into a nearby alleyway and away from curious eyes.

Akiko cuts deeper and deeper, getting past the ribs as they crack under pressure.

"Kamado Kie. Kamado Rokuta. Kamado Shigeru. Kamado Hanako. Kamado Takeo. Kamado Nezuko." Akiko wants to cry, she really does. She wants the tears to run down her face like they did three months ago.

"Kamado Tanjirou was my fiance, and you killed him."

Akiko is pressing down on the heart now, the tissue making an odd sound each time she places her palm onto it.

His face is as impassive as ever and Akiko nearly goes insane. He shows no sign of remembering, but there's no way he didn't kill the Kamado family. With the description, the similarities are uncanny.

The heart is in her hand, and Akiko finally smiles.

"You killed my happiness, and you have to pay."

A hand settles on his katana and the girl steps forward, stopping Akiko from taking a step. Akiko blinks in surprise when the girl suddenly appears by her side.

"I think you have the wrong idea." The girl places a hand on Akiko's shoulder, but the grip is enough for Akiko to forget that she's holding a heart. Her emotions rise back up, but she forces the idea of a heart into her hands once again.

"You see, we're demon slayers! If anything, Tomioka-san must have killed your demon turned fiance!"

Akiko's eyes widen in shock, her brain slowly trying to process this new information. There's screaming in her ears, but she tunes this out too.

"Demons aren't real," Is the first thing Akiko says. The girl chuckles at Akiko's foolishness, but the man remains as impassive as ever.

"How silly! Well, there's a family being killed right now down the street, so why don't you come with us to find out for yourself? Of course, it's your fault we're late for this kill."

Tomioka suddenly lifts Akiko into his arms and she screams as the self proclaimed demon slayers leap into the air, landing on roofs to bypass the massive crowd.

As Akiko looks down, she sees that the screaming is real and people are running down the street in a panicked frenzy.

So Akiko looks further, and the blood drains from her face once more.

Everyone is running out of Kanon's inn.

"The de-... The demon is at my friend's inn." Akiko says, and they finally arrive in front of the inn.

The last few people scramble out, few sporting bloodied body parts and calling for help. Akiko is let down and the two hunters unsheathe their katanas, a blue and lilac glint flickering off of Akiko's eyes.

"Care to see the demon? Or would you rather wait out here? It's much safer, and you'd only get in the way if you came with us."

Akiko rushes into the inn anyway, taking the cloth from her tied up box of food with her when catching sight of a bloodied Kanon lying on the floor.

The girl heaves a heavy sigh before they both run in after Akiko, Tomioka parrying the sudden swipe of claws directed at Akiko.

"More to eat, hm?" The demon laughs, and Akiko finally turns to take a good look at it.

She's holding another scalpel now, the urge to throw up forced away.

Waist down the demon looks normal, but from there up it's a complete mess. The demon has two heads, and their ribs burst from their body, pointy and dangerous. Their spine sticks out too, like a long row of daggers to protect itself from any attacks from behind.

But Akiko can see.

"Wha-What's that written on his eye?"

'Lower Moon 6'

And not just that too.

"You're hurt!"

Tomioka looks down at his arm to see that he does in fact have a small cut on his arm. But the pain is nothing to him, and he readies for another attack.

The girl with the butterfly pin springs around, attempting to stab through his strong defense with her odd looking katana.

"Pay attention to your friend. This is nothing." Is all he says, and Akiko's gut wrenches with annoyance.

She tears the cloth in half before wrapping Kanon's open leg wound, stopping the bleeding. Her leg looks broken too, so Akiko works to reset it and create a splint.

Akiko then turns her attention to find other fallen victims and spots Kanon's younger brother, Haruki, a few feet away, face incredibly pale and blood gushing from his head.

"You think you can beat me?!" The demon screeches, it's arm cut off due to Tomioka's attack.

"You already LOST!"

Cold blue eyes widening, the demon slayer feels a sickening pain in his arm before his bone snaps.

"Tomioka-san!" The girl yells, but he pushes on. The demon loses another arm and his ribs are sliced clean off, but his neck is heavily surrounded by bone.

"Akiko..." Kanon's shaky voice brings Akiko back down to earth, and her attention is brought back to her patient.

"My brother..."

The scalpel returns to Akiko's hand, and Akiko rushes to the fallen boy, quickly wrapping his head wound and pulling him to the side of the room to lessen his chance of getting caught in the crossfire.

Akiko then returns to Kanon's body to do the same, propping her back up against the wall while counting Kanon's breaths.

"Bone..." Kanon struggles to breath out.

Akiko checks Haruki's body for more injuries before turning to her friend, "Huh? Kanon, just stay quiet for me okay? I'm going to help yo-"

"If he cuts you, he can break bones..." Kanon loses consciousness after that, and Akiko finally realizes why Haruki must be bleeding so heavily from his head.

And why Tomioka's arm suddenly made a snapping sound.

She hopes that the brain fracture isn't too severe, and is only just a fracture.

"Shinobu!" Tomioka calls out, and Akiko looks up to see the demon is no longer protected by bones, though they're rapidly growing back.

Shinobu bursts forward with an insane amount of speed before impaling the demon through the chest, back flipping away to avoid being cut.

"Hah?! A weak stab like that? You demon slayers must be jokin- BLH" Blood comes pouring out of the demon's mouth, his bones suddenly withering away and falling to the floor. His eyes cry blood and he begins to fall to his knees, but Tomioka sees an opening as the protective bone around the demon's neck withers away as well.

With one fell swoop, the head of the demon rolls next to Akiko's sitting body. Her eyes stare at the decapitated head, glimmering like topaz and allowing her brain to process this moment, replacing the scalpel with something stronger, like a heart.

It crumbles away like dust and the body goes with it, nothing left for Akiko to cut open and examine. Almost as if everything that just happened was a nightmare.

The thought that proof of what killed the Kamado family dissipated too crosses Akiko's mind, and now she doesn't know what to think.

"Believe us now?" The girl, Akiko now knows her as Shinobu, asks. She and Akiko are the only ones injury free, but the man Akiko accused of killing her fiance cradles his arm, looking at Kanon's fainted figure.

"...You." He looks up to Akiko, who gestures for him to sit in front of her.

"It's Tomioka Giyuu." He states bluntly, complying with her request when he doesn't feel the murderous aura from earlier.

She's calmer now, though forced. A dam waiting to break, and Giyuu knows that he's the one drop that can break the dam and flood the valley.

"Arm." She holds her hand out and Tomioka raises a brow. Nevertheless, he offers her his injured arm and she rips the hem of her dress off while searching for plank boards nearby.

When she finds some, Akiko quickly apologies before setting his arm back into place. He winces, but says nothing else, and Akiko is impressed with his pain tolerance. She's about to finish her job when Shinobu offers Tomioka a pill and Akiko a small container filled with a paste.

"Before you wrap everything up, slather this over the cut, okay?" Akiko nods her head and does as she's instructed, wrapping up the makeshift splint and bowing her head to Tomioka to show that she's done.

Shinobu hums, rather impressed with Akiko's handiwork, before the two tell Akiko to stay put while they survey the rest of the inn.

While waiting, Akiko pretends not to notice Kanon's dead mother in the kitchen, instead checking Kanon's pulse and how often she breathes.

A few minutes later, Kanon wakes with a start, eyes crazy and hair matted to her face due to the dried blood.

"Wh-Where's my brother?!"

"Kanon! Calm down, breathe!"

"Haruki! Akiko, he was-" Her eyes dilate with fear when she sees how lifeless his body is. Akiko won't lie that she's worried, and she prevents Kanon from feeling his cold body in hopes of saving her friend's sanity.

"I'll save him. I promise, Kanon, he'll be okay." Her drive is strong, and Kanon can't help but give into Akiko's chrysanthemum eyes. Kanon offers a hesitant nod of her head, but Akiko assumes that Kanon is also mentally drained and needs to sleep to allow herself to cope.

Akiko holds Kanon's hands in her own, thumbs brushing over cuts and scars as her mind races for the fastest way to bring the two back to the hospital.

Black clad figures soon rush into the building, and after a quick survey of the damage, they start to work. They drag bodies from broken furniture, and Akiko notices that they're attempting to fix broken bodies.

So, she struggles to her feet, rushing to the closest black clad figure to ask if she can help.

"Miss?" Someone taps her shoulder, and she whips to meet their gaze.

It's Shinobu, smiling as innocently as ever. Akiko purses her lips, turning back to the black clad people before sighing and looking to Shinobu to give her attention instead.

"Tamura Akiko. My name is Tamura Akiko."

"Introductions! In that case, I'm Kochou Shinobu! Now, back to business, hm?"

Akiko watches as Giyuu takes Kanon's body in their arms, running out of the inn to take her god knows where. The same is done to Haruki, though taken by a black clad person, and Akiko cries out a distraught, "Hey!"

"Don't worry about that! They're being taken to the Butterfly Estate. How about you tell me how you know so much about medicine!"

"Where's the Butterfly Estate?" Akiko asks instead, and Shinobu takes Akiko's shoulders to keep her planted, instead continuing on despite Akiko's rude interruption.

"Not everyone knows how to fix a broken bone, especially a girl so young!" Shinobu smiles and Akiko hates feeling so small.

Shinobu looks at her like the rest of the boys in her class do.

There's a hint of anger in her, and though the boys felt anger for being outdone by Akiko, Shinobu's anger is placed somewhere else.

"Well I do-"

"And why is that?"

"I'm... I'm studying medicine... But besides that, bring Kanon and her brother back! We need to send them to the hospital!"

"No need! And doesn't this sound perfect!"

Akiko doesn't like how Shinobu is hiding her annoyance towards her. She can see it clear as day, and she doesn't know why Shinobu is even trying to act nice.

"What sounds perfect?"

"You can-"

"Actually," Akiko cuts Shinobu off again, and she sees the annoyance grow, similar to how Kanon's annoyance grew when they first met.

"Why don't you tell me to go home? You're always angry and yet you smile. You obviously don't want me here."

The annoyance goes away, and Akiko raises a brow at Shinobu's sudden interest in her. The sudden shift in her mood is off putting, and Akiko can't help but take a step back.

Shinobu looks at Akiko like some sort of toy.

"How can you tell?"

"You're admitting it?" Akiko scoffs, but answers nonetheless, "I can see it."

Shinobu steps forward, Akiko stiffening when hands cup her cheeks and her face is brought closer to be examined.

Withering iris eyes studying dancing ginko ones.

"Your eyes are blessed, I see. We have much to talk about concerning Tomioka-san. But how about this? Study medicine at the Butterfly Estate from now on!"