(gore warning from here on and out. Demons are going to be fighting and they get creative with their attacks)

If it was anyone's fault, blame the crow. 

Akaza and the weird kid of a hashira, Muichiro Tokito had finished up their missions pretty easily. The ex-Upper-Three couldn't lie, the kid was incredible. His form was flawless, and his technique refines; his scathing judgments kind of sealed the deal. He was Akaza's third favorite hashira. Kyojuro and Kanae still took the top spots, but Muichiro was definitely more than first impressions.

The glares? The snicker? The dead-pan look on the kid's face when he killed those demons, what had he said? Something along the lines of; "Damn, you really are all boring."

Priceless. Akaza would pay for the chance to know what those demons' final thoughts had been. He'd be impressed if the kid's victims felt anything other than complete shame as their ego was eradicated by a forgetful fourteen-year-old with a sword and an attitude.

So, to digress, the mission had been great. They walked in silence, Akaza's face curled into a smug grin as he replayed the sass he'd witnessed over and over in his mind. Muichiro had that far-off look as he walked, completely zoned out, occasionally kicking a stone down the road.

It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just a natural one. Then a crow screamed above them and their peaceful night ended abruptly.

"Emergency! Emergency!!" Its voice grated against the silence and set every muscle in Akaza's body tensing. 

Muichiro looked up slowly, expressionless as the crow dove for them.

"Is that yours?" Akaza asked.

"I don't remember," Muichiro shrugged and Akaza couldn't help but chuckle.

"Zekka reporting! The stone pillar Gyomei and the demon Doma have been trapped! Emergency! Emergency!!" He flapped around their heads like an insect and Akaza swallowed his instinct to smack the thing out of the air.

"Doma? Trapped? In what, a moral crisis?" Akaza snickered. 

"Hurry! Hurry!" Zekka pulled on his hair and something settled uncomfortably in Akaza's gut.

"What's happened?" he asked as he gently batted the ball of feathers off his already messy hair. Just because he couldn't feel the pain didn't mean he liked the idea of some bird pulling his pink strands out.

"Emergency! They are trapped! Require immediate assistance!" the crow cried desperately, flapping in Akaza's face. The demon felt his throat grow a bit dryer.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice snapping against the air.

"Follow! Follow!" Zekka cried as he took off into the night skies.

"Come on, kid," Akaza murmured. "Something's off."

"No shit," Muichiro muttered evenly. Akaza would've laughed if his gut wasn't coiling uncomfortably.

That was how his relatively easy mission turned into hell. That was how he found himself stumbling on an abandoned village, finding a pathetic demon writhing on a very familiar pillar of ice.

"What happened here?" Akaza would admit it, he growled as he towered over the insect of a demon who was skewered through her torso, the ice on the other side stained a hideous red. She was quivering at his presence, her bloodless skin growing somehow paler as she realized she was completely powerless.

"You - I didn't... please -" she begged. "I don't want to die! This is unfair!"

"Where the hell is Ex-Upper Two?" Akaza snarled, leaning in closer.

Then he sensed it. Like a dagger in his heart, his inner compass whirled to the left, its needle screaming that there was danger, unlike anything he'd faced in years. Who knew what possessed him to approach the house and open the door, but he didn't hesitate. Maybe it was the way Doma's scent reeked with terror. Not guilt, not pain, not worry, not anything that Akaza could recognize. It was a hideous, rancid smell that almost made him gag.

The doors slid open and Akaza's body shuddered once against his will. 

The infinity fortress splayed out before him like a garden of death and imprisonment. Akaza knew, in the depths of his bones, that Doma was in there.

He distantly noted that Muichiro had beheaded the demon behind him. He also distantly noted that his Compass Needle technique was spinning around his head like a bell on a string. Again and again, it rang, warning of the dangers present, the death that barked at his heels.

But he did not hesitate.

He'd never hesitated, not once in his life if he could help it. Not when he realized he'd have to steal to afford his Father's medicine. Not when he realized who was to blame for Keizo and Koyuki's fate. Not when he realized why Doma and Mirakuru shared the same eyes. 

He threw himself into that hell and felt Nakime slam the door behind him. Her biwa sounded out as it tried to tug on his blood and pull him away... She didn't want him here; good!

The fear in his body melted into his bones, smoldering in his marrow until it was a familiar warmth that brought a smile to his lips.

This was crazy. This was going to get him killed. Oh, but it was going to be a fucking fight!

"Hang on Doma!" he yelled to the hallways, an idiotic smile on his face. He couldn't help it. His heart clenched with anticipation, his hands shook at the opportunity, and his stomach twisted in fear.

Someone was next to him; their fighting spirit poising no threat, but Akaza knew that calm inferno anywhere.

"The hell are you doing here!?" he demanded of Muichiro who was at his side.

"We're fighting, right?" was all the boy replied.

"Yeah but - I didn't expect you to throw yourself in here!" Akaza retorted. "This is the infinity fortress!"

"And?" The kid just stared at him like Akaza was the idiot. It only made Akaza snicker.

"Alright kid, just keep up, I don't want to slow down to save your ass," he snarked, crashing through a hall with the hashira on his tail.

Muichiro scoffed. "I'm not the one shaking in fear."

"It's not fear," Akaza cackled. "It's excitement!"

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Goddamn fucking demons. He hated them. Sanemi hated them with every cell, every bone, every ounce of breath in his body. He hacked and slashed that hate into every foe that dared cross him, their screams dying in the night.

They came for the demon slayer sanctuary; everyone knew what the butterfly estate meant. Everyone knew what it stood for. A garden of tranquility in their lives of blood, death, and dim. A moment of reprieve from hell itself. A breath of fresh air. A rare moment of happiness... of safety.

Not a home, never a home... but the closest Sanemi had. The only one Kanae had.

And like everything else the demons tried to take this from him too. They trampled the flowers, tore up the ground, and ripped away the guise of innocence and purity that Sanemi had let himself believe in. In retribution, he took their blood. It stained the stones, the fences, the walls, the dirt, his clothes, he practically bathed in it all until all he could taste was wretched rotting iron.

Any lesser slayer would've felt the fatigue set in, any lesser slayer would've been rueing the lack of sleep and food, and any lesser slayer would've fallen. Sanemi was no lesser slayer. He'd been on the road for weeks, he'd been awake for two days straight, and he hadn't eaten since... best not to try and remember.

But he was no lesser for it. The anger, the pain, it all few the raging force that was him. The demons fled from his sword, and tried to circumvent his reign of terror. He hunted them down, held them back, and slaughtered them without mercy for they deserved none. For every demon that slipped past him, he made sure to make ten more suffer. 

Every demon that slipped past him was another demon for Kanae to strike down. Every demon he missed could go on to hunt down the wounded slayers Shinobu and Kanao were defending with their lives. Every demon that slipped past him could go take another life, and it would be because he failed to cut that monstrosity down. It would be his fault.

So he screamed in rage every time he glimpsed a slippery hellspawn in his peripheral, racing towards the mansion and beyond it. He held most of them at the edge of the estate, between two empty complexes that would house those in rehabilitation. The ribbon demon had been somewhat useful in roping off any alternative routes, her pink ribbons limiting the flow of demons, concentrating most to run through a singular alley, take to the rooftops, or condemn them to a time-consuming waste trying to cut through those flexible ribbons.

Still, Sanemi was human, and the demons seemed near-endless.

One particularly nasty demon darted right past him, a mere foot away from him, its eyes bulged at the smell of marechi, but its feet compelled it to move toward its mission.

Sanemi was locked defending himself from a sword-wielding demon, he could do nothing to stop it. It would get past him. It would kill someone. It would be his fault -

BANG

He flinched, waiting for an attack or a sudden burst of pain that accompanied all things uncertain and sudden. Was it a blood art? A new enemy? A surprise attack?

Instead of any pain, he heard a heavy splat, and when he looked back he found the escaping demon lying still, disintegrating on the dirt. There was a hole through its neck, severing its spine. Sanemi's first thought was something along the line of; 'Who the fuck brings a gun to a demon fight?'

He got his answer shortly thereafter; Genya.

Even from afar, Sanemi knew his brother's figure and recognized his tall form that trembled ever so slightly as he held up his pistol. The world seemed to freeze for Sanemi, not in time but in temperature. Suddenly, Sanemi wasn't standing between demons and the butterfly estate, he was standing between demons and Genya.

Genya, who fired another shot and took down a demon scampering on the roof next to Sanemi. Genya, who was a literal child, untrained, inexperienced, with no breathing style, no talent, no resilience! Nothing!

"What the fuck are you doing!? Get the fuck away!" Sanemi seethed, beheading the demon next to him before whirling around to scream at the useless idiot.

"I'm helping!" Genya cried back, but it wasn't angry. It was desperate, strained, yearning in a way that Sanemi despised. Genya should be fearful, not worried. He should be angry, not concerned!

"You're no help to anyone! Get the fuck out of here! You'll slow me down!" Sanemi roared as he plunged headfirst back into the demons, tearing them apart with renewed vitality. They could not get past him! They would not get past him! He couldn't fail again, he couldn't -

BANG

BANG

BANG

Three had gotten past him already and Genya's shots tolled out like a bell to make his failures. Against all reason, Sanemi looked back again and again. He had to make sure, had to check!

Genya had placed himself in the middle of a street, right in the open, maybe to get the clearest view possible. Maybe it was to make sure nothing could sneak up on him. All Sanemi knew was his brother was now the clearest target for the demons. A literal open beacon saying; 'hey, come here, snack on me!'

"Are you deaf!? I said - " Sanemi began.

"No!" Genya shouted, firing again, his shot summoning a pained screech from another demon Sanemi had failed to strike down.

The wind hashira sliced down the four in front of him before whirling around and snarling to glare down the younger who was desperately reloading, now defenseless in the open! A sword never had to reload, a sword never jammed, a sword was the mark of a demon slayer and Genya had no sword.

"You can't handle this!" Sanemi shouted. "You're weak! You're useless! Get the fuck away and call for some actual -"

"Nemi!" Genya screamed in a warning and Sanemi hissed as a blade sliced through his calf.

The name. The pain. The memories. The anger. The guilt.

He'd let his guard down, in front of Genya... this was fucking embarrassing.

He collapsed on that slanted roof, throwing his sword up to catch the next strike. The demon who'd sliced his calf was newly turned, their uniform muddied and torn but so clearly still the corps uniform. The blood on their collar was still dried red, not yet the familiar brown that came with time.

The demons were once of the Corps. Comrades turned against their own kind, their minds melted and their souls condemned to hell. If Sanemi had been any better of a person, he may have cared about the cruelness of it all but that was life; brutal and merciless. If he wanted to survive he needed to be just as heartless.

Their swords stayed locked for a moment, Sanemi's mind hissing in pain as his calf ached, his balance utterly fucked now.

BANG

The demon's face snapped back as a nichirin bullet flew clean through its skull. As the sound of the shot faded, the bullet wound sprouted with roots and wood, erupting from the cranium and rippling under the demon's skin until its hideous face burst into a mess of gore and wood, the body falling slack at Sanemi's feet, already turning to ash.

Sanemi clenched his teeth as he forced himself to stand, glancing back and finding Genya closer, standing over a demon's body, his lips and chin stained with blood. Sanemi's little brother looked up at him, sclera black, teeth stained with demon blood, and his gun smoking with the sickening stench of death, steel, and gunpowder.

"Pay a-fucking-tention!" Genya screamed, but there was no anger in the demonic growl, only fear. Only pain. Only strain as his demonic eyes filled with tears. "Are you trying to die!?"

And Sanemi couldn't say anything. Couldn't find a goddamn response or critique, not a single scathing insult to throw at those eyes or that tone. He didn't know the consequences of Genya's abilities. He didn't know if there were any costs Genya had just taken eating the remains of demons, but he knew in his gut that even if there were, Genya would've taken them.

And he hated himself for it.

Still, he readied himself, forcing his body to stand tall despite how his sliced tendons screamed. Genya pulled out his double-barreled shotgun, ready for close combat. The two brothers, one on the roof, one on the ground. One with a sword, one with two guns. One freely crying out of demonic eyes and one with watering pupils that didn't dare spill.

Both were scarred, both were scared, and both were silent.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Kanae had arrived and without hesitation was at Kotoha's side.

"Where did it happen!?" the hashira demanded desperately.

"Right here," Kotoha's voice was barely louder than a whisper as she stared at the sport she'd last seen Miku. "It came too fast, I couldn't do anything."

"How did it happen?" Kanae pleaded, looking around. The survivors had continued on, spurred by Kanao. Daki had sent the ribbons holding injured slayers with them and was clinging to Kotoha's side, perhaps for comfort, perhaps for support.

"A bubble," the demon cried. "A bubble took her!"

"It must one of the twelve Kizuki, it must be; who else is that strong!?" Kanae breathed to herself. She senses no other demons around - it must've been a long-range attack.

"What do we do!?" Daki pleaded shrilly. "How do we get her back!"

"Do we know where the bubble sent her?" Kanae inquired.

"No!" Daki wailed, tears streaming down her face as her ribbons splayed out around her and Kotoha protectively. Kotoha seemed completely entrenched in her own thoughts, her eyes distant and her face pale.

"Kanae!" It was Shinobu, perched in a tree, pointing Northward. "There are more! I count fourteen!"

Fourteen? How many had Kanae cut down and how many more were there to go? How long had Muzan been stockpiling turned slayers and demons? Granted, not every demon she'd struck down possessed the uniform or a blade, but still, there were more demons traversing her home at once than she'd ever seen. It seemed like every demon in Japan was here.

"Where are they heading!?" Kanae demanded.

There was a moment before Shinobu recognized it; "After Kanao!"

Kanae immediately set out to run but hesitated when Daki yelped. Kotoha turned as quickly as Kanae, her hands steading a swaying demon.

"What is it?" Kotoha asked, far too firm for her usual tone, but warm all the same.

"Gyutaro - he's found the bubble demon," Daki quivered her hand at her mouth. "But he's already so weak... I have to go to him! He won't be strong enough to win!"

"I will accompany - " Kanae began.

"No! Go help Kanao and the survivors; Daki and I have this." It was the last thing Kanae expected Kotoha to say.

"But - " Kanae began.

"If those demons are strong enough to slip past Sanemi, Gyutaro, and you then they may pose a threat to Kanao. Go. Save those we have left to protect, I will go help my family," Kotoha stated, not a shred of fear or doubt to be found in her eyes.

Kanae knew those eyes.

Kanae nodded slowly before racing after Shinobu who had already alighted from her perch. The two sisters left Kotoha and Daki behind, the eldest looking back as the demon grabbed Kotoha and took off back toward the ruins of the butterfly estate.

"I don't understand - why didn't she want your help?" Shinobu muttered as they jumped over the terrain, taking the fastest route to Kanao.

Kanae took a breath before accepting it, the hard stare from Kotoha, the fury in her eyes that had always burned, but never so openly. 

"Because all I can do to that bubble demon is kill it..." Kanae admitted slowly. "Kotoha is a kind woman... but she won't want that demon to die until she gets her family back."

"But she's only human; she's not trained!" Shinobu hissed in concern. "What can she do?"

"What we all do," Kanae murmured. She knew it was foolish, and she knew it was irresponsible of her to let a relatively untrained mortal walk into such a battle, but she also knew the look Kotoha had donned and she knew what her duties as a hashira were. She would not stop Kotoha from going, she was sure such a brave soul would walk into battle with Muzan if it meant her family was kept safe.

And Kanae? Kanae was in no place to stop her. She had her own duties, her own family, her own responsibilities to guard. For a moment she sent a silent apology to Doma; it seemed she wouldn't be able to keep that promise.

She would protect the slayers entrusted to her. She would stand between them and death whether it was on a hospital bed or in the field. She trusted Kotoha would do the same.

"What we always have done," Kanae murmured under her breath.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

There was so much. So much at once and Daki could feel it all.

Her ribbons stringing off the roads near the wind hashira swayed and stretched to the beating and scratching claws of demons there. The ribbons holding the injured demon slayers ached with distance and hunger, but stayed snug in Kanao's care, simmering in the presence of danger. Gyutaro through their bond informed her of his foe, his weakness, his anger... his pain. Her senses splayed far and wide, singing to her with a terrible melody of blood, death, and demons.

It scared her. It reminded her of how small she was, of how much there was to deal with, and how little of it she could control. Even then, running towards her brother's furious pain, Kotoha at her side, she could not control much of anything.

Miku was gone. That reality burned into her bones and had brought tears to her eyes, tears that had since dried, but their salty tracks still stung reminders in her cheeks. Miku was gone.

"Where is Gyutaro?" Kotoha demanded sharply, her face the picturesque image of fortitude in the face of such trauma. Daki wondered how she did it. How could she stay so calm? Just like Gyutaro. How did she hide it?

They were running back towards the estate, Daki could've gone faster but she didn't dare leave Kotoha's side as they plunged back into hell. Her ribbons readied themselves, coiling like vipers at her whim, searching for victims.

"Close," she murmured. She could see Gyutaro's poison sickles racing through the air, his blood hanging on the stars it seemed, surrounding her with the familiar stench.

"And he's sure it's the demon that took Miku?" Kotoha asked, reaching into her pockets and pulling out three vials. There was a look in her eye that Daki didn't understand, nor dare to decipher.

Just a quick lean into her brother's emotions gave her that answer. Rage. Pure and unadulterated rage poured from Gyutaro's heart along with the image of a smiling demon, saving herself with a bubble.

"Yes." Daki found the words slipped past clenched teeth. The demon Gyutaro fought... the new Upper Six. Those kanji burned into her mind and Gyutaro's rage trickled into a familiar poisonous mindset.

"He's close?" Kotoha asked knowingly, looking to the rooftops. One could easily hear the sounds of battle in the air, the squelches of Gyutaro's blood art, and the gasping of popping bubbles. In the distance there were more; screams and roars of demons, gunshots, and the clanging of steel against steel.

"He's..." Before Daki could pinpoint her brother's exact location, her ribbons shuddered to warn her of danger.

She crashed into Kotoha, pulling the woman into her chest as her ribbons surrounded them in a protective casing. A large bubble ripped away half the wall they'd been standing next to and had Daki not been faster, it could've been her head.

The ex-upper six looked up and saw her brother on the eaves of the house, trading blows with that same blood-boiling demon. His sickles were met with bubble shields, his strength waning based on how sloppy his balance was.

Upper Six; Upper Six would be at his level. Daki felt her mouth dry at the thought as her senses overwhelmed her. So much death. So much blood. So much of Muzan. They were well within attack range of that monster and the only thing standing between Kotoha and certain death was Daki. Just Daki!

She stayed crouching, suddenly stupidly aware of how delicate Kotoha was in this situation. Why had she let the human come back here!?

"Daki, it's alright. You can let me go now," Kotoha breathed, still held close by Daki, cradled to the demon's chest as if she was the child.

"No - You can't be here," Daki denied. "She'll kill you - we have to go!"

"Daki!" Kotoha's sudden sternness caught the Ex-Kizuki off guard. "Put me down." There was no smile when Kotoha ordered it, but it wasn't yet cruel. Still, Daki reluctantly released Kotoha, thickening her ribbons as Gyutaro and his foe jumped away, oblivious to them it seemed... for now...

Kotoha straitened herself up and peered through the wall of ribbons Daki had readied. She watched for a few moments, her brows furrowing and her eyes hardening as she took in the combat Gyutaro was locked in.

"Kotoha..." Daki pleaded. "You need to go. I shouldn't have let you come -"

"Gyutaro's too weak to take on his equal right now," Kotoha supposed, looking back at Daki. "And you're stretched too thin."

"What?" Daki gawked.

"Gyutaro's been fighting for ten minutes now, he must be exhausted and drained - his regeneration is slowing; look!"

And Daki did.

She didn't need to, she felt it. There was a deep hunger aching through every bit of Gyutaro's body. It slowed him in every regard. His dodges were sloppy, his blows lacked confidence... and his regeneration...

Daki watched as Gyutaro landed a good hit on his foe, his two sickles carving into her collarbone like the striking of a snake. Not a moment later his sickles and his hands had been torn away as Upper Six vanished in a popping bubble.

And they didn't grow back. Gyutaro roared, jumping to avoid the next slew of attacks, waiting and waiting for his hands to grow back and his sickles to return, blood dripping from his wrists like waving flags of vulnerability.

"He needs help, and I need answers," Kotoha held up the three vials from before and let out a long breath, perhaps to steel herself, or maybe to calm herself, Daki couldn't tell.

"But..."

"Daki, I have three opportunities. I can stop that monster from regenerating for a few moments. I know you two can restrain her if I give you that chance. You just need to get me close."

"No way!" Daki cried. She planted her feet and shook her head, her ribbons beginning to tremble. "No! I'm not - I can't!"

"Daki, I trust you. You can do it -"

"I'll take the vials! I just have to smash them over the dumb bitch's head! I'll do it! You can run and stay safe!" Daki pleaded.

"Daki - it will get all over your hands and slow your regeneration, or at worse eat away at you!" Kotoha denied. Daki was suddenly drawn to the scabbing cuts on Kotoha's hands, wounds with the glass still stuck in her fingers.

"That's okay!" she blurted.

"It's not," Kotoha stated, slowly grabbing Daki's hands. "You're stretched so thin as it is. I don't dare risk hurting you more. You need all the strength you can get to supplement Gyutaro."

"Kotoha..." Daki's voice broke, Kotoha's stubbornness didn't.

"If we do not help Gyutaro, he won't win. If we don't win, we can't force her to bring Miku back."

Daki looked up at that, right into the fiery eyes of Kotoha, burning with a spirit Daki had never seen glowing so bright. The human grabbed Daki's hands and held firm.

"We are going to get Miku back; okay?" Kotoha said it like it was nothing other than truth and fact.

"But what if you get hurt!?" Daki cried desperately. "What if - what if I -"

"Then you will rain hell on that demon, alright?" Kotoha stated. "Don't worry about me. Don't stop, don't linger, don't hesitate. Get Miku back."

Something in her tone, something in the way she stood, something in the air, it all fed that same part of Daki she'd felt in the medical ward. A firm calmness soothed over her fears as she squeezed Kotoha's hands back and read the certainties in Kotoha's eyes.

"Okay..." she managed weakly. "Okay."

She would fight. With everything she had. Every tooth, nail, claw, ribbon, and hairpin. She would fight and she would win; she knew she would. She had to.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

There was a level of pride, Gyutaro could recall, that came with being one of the Twelve Kizuki. Not just pride; pure dripping egoism. That belief that you were untouchable because you were one of Muzan's favored. But it wasn't just the devil's shadow, simply being in the Kizuki marked you as stronger, faster... better.

It was a wonderful, damning drug that Gyutaro had known for years and years and years. He'd flown so high and relished it, carving through bodies with that reality resting on his fingertips. He was better. He was powerful. He was Upper Six.

When he betrayed Muzan, he thought that would be the end of it. He thought that ego would wither with his strength. He thought that high would crash and leave him nothing more than an outcast in a world that had always ostracized him.

It didn't. It hadn't. It was him.

The envy. The anger. The rage. The grief. Everything that had haunted his past erupted full force as he took in those kanji in Mukago's face. She was the new Upper Six, she had taken Miku, she had hurt his family, and she thought she was better.

He was a monster, and he wanted to make sure Mukago knew that. He wanted to make sure this filthy replacement remembered that's all she was; a replacement!

Their battle raged on the rooftops, their feet leaving indents, shattering rooftops, ripping through the sky itself fit seemed. Mukago was fast, not as fast as Gyutaro, but she had her bubbles. She had more tenacity, a more readily available blood art. She would outlast him if he wasn't careful.

Gyutaro swung, shifted, and lunged but every time he grew close the air would contort, Mukago would grin and she'd be gone with the pop of a bubble. She'd appear above him, behind him, below, anywhere to surprise him. Most times she missed her counterattack, throwing out her hands and summoning a bubble just a moment too slow. Gyutaro would lean out of the way, contorting his body as only he could. 

But sometimes... Mukago was lucky.

Her bubbles would catch his arm, his leg, his side, his thigh, his face, anything it could. It would erupt too fast for him, expanding around his flesh and varying in size, sometimes it would only be the size of a dinner plate, and sometimes it would be three feet in diameter. The blood art would trap a bit of him and with a snap of Mukago's fingers, it would rip away, tearing some of him with it.

One particularly nasty one ripped out three of his ribs, leaving a crater in his side, a perfect half-moon cut out in his thin torso.

Mukago laughed as he stumbled.

"Tired already?" She taunted, summoning a bubble to her palm and letting it dance in the air. "Pathetic."

Gyutaro hardly heard it over the blood rushing in his head, the hate that tunneled his vision and summoned an animalistic snarl to his lips.

The new Upper Six threw out her torrent of bubbles and Gyutaro let his rage boil over. With a roar, poisonous slices erupted from his body and he lunged, his knuckles white as they clenches his sickles.

The bloody poison blows pushed the bubbles away but failed to break them. They parted a path for him, concealing his movement until, screaming over his footsteps before he emerged from them. The chaos concealed him from all eyes, even Mukago's.

The new Upper six hadn't expected such a counterattack, her eyes widening as the ex-Upper Six erupted from the storm of slices, his sickles readied like snake fangs that struck all too readily. The two sickles sunk into her collarbone, carving through bone and delivering a heavy dose of poison that festered in her blood.

But, Gyutaro could tell, the high of Muzan's blood had dulled her pain. She hardly flinched, her face a picturesque example of fury as she clenched her fist and vanished in a bubble, taking his hands and sickles with her.

Gyutaro felt himself frothing at the mouth with fury, looking around wildly for his foe as his hands and ribs grew back, new sickles forming from his bone and blood.

"Where's the coward?" He taunted from the roof, almost singing as hate dripped from his lips. "Do you think you can hide? I'm going to find you, and when I do..."

He listened to the air still thick with the sounds of distant shrieks, yells, and roars. He felt the air for any sign of attack and to no surprise they came.

Large, small, fast, and slow. The bubbles appeared all around him expanding and contracting, trying to take him with them. He twisted and lunged out of the way which proved a little difficult with no hands.

His regeneration really was shot.

That was fine. He could win without hands. It took a few more maneuvers to buy enough time, but his blood came to his beckoning and readied itself.

From his back sprouted his sickles, formed from his poisonous blood and vindictive nature. They shot out like sprouting wings, blood erupting from him like spreading plumage before the weapon tumbled over themselves, soaring through the air in search of their target.

Mukago ducked low to avoid the first and jumped to dodge the second. A bubble encased her hand as the sickles made a return trip and with surprising strength she punched them away, her grin growing larger by the second.

Gyutaro was too furious to let the fear register. Yeah, so he was growing weaker. His attacks were slower, his movements just a tad more predictable. What of it? He was Gyutaro, the true Upper Six! His blood reeked of the poison he'd grown up in, his hands marred by the killings he'd blossomed under. He would win! He always won! 

His sickles came back for round three, and with a face far too smug, Mukago spread her hands and snapped both fingers, Gyutaro's sickles vanishing in bubbles.

"Pathetic." Mukago clicked her tongue and lunged.

He dodged the first few blows well, his agility and unnatural body shape lending him incredible feats of flexibility and unpredictable movement. Mukago's claws and bubble traps failed to find purchase on him.

That was until he stepped backward, it was obvious his foe had been waiting for that. Her wicked face turned upward in a devious grin, and Gyutaro heard the squelching of blood and flesh before he felt it.

An aching pain radiated in his thigh as his entire right leg was torn away, vanishing with the pop of a bubble. He fell over, completely thrown off by his loss of limb and balance. One of his hands had grown back and he used that to catch himself, but it did nothing when Mukago took the other leg.

Then, the anger vanished for a moment. He wasn't regenerating, he couldn't move, and his sickles were gone, teleported a few miles away; fuck.

He didn't have blood to spare. Even his stub of a leg was barely bleeding as a deep ache of fatigue settled in.

Mukago lunged, fingertips glowing a gentle pink and Gyutaro could do nothing as her claws found purchase on either side of his face. They sunk into his jawbone and cheeks, summoning blood and a sick grin on his foe. He raked his claws down her face and lost his arm for that.

Son of a bitch! Not only did he hurt right now but there was something horrifically sinister about being so vulnerable and so close to his foe.

"Where are all your threats now, filth?" Mukago grinned, too close, far too close. Her breath ghosted on Gyutaro's face and made his stomach curl. "I thought you were going to skin me? Rip my organs out? Torment me? Where's all that bluster?"

"I am going to rip you apart," Gyutaro growled, near-feral in confusion-tinted rage. Why wasn't she doing anything? Why was she just standing over his defenseless form? To buy time?

"You're not," Mukago snickered. "You know why? Because you're weak. Because I'm stronger."

Oh... that's why. That's right... that ego. Muzan's gift came with pride and Mukago was still proving that to herself. Gyutaro knew that, he understood. He could list at least twenty humans he'd tormented like this, relishing their weakness, their helplessness.

He'd toyed with them. Tormented them. Now... he was them. He was something for Mukago to play with, a cat and a mouse, a samurai, and a child of Rashoumongashi.

And for a moment, his rage melted away and in its place was cold acceptance and fear. Maybe he wasn't stronger. Maybe he wasn't useful. Maybe... maybe he had been surpassed. Maybe he wouldn't be able to make the demon suffer for what she'd done to Miku...

Miku...

"Awww, are you gonna cry?" Mukago snickered, releasing his face and cackling. "How sad. And to think I used to be afraid of you. The great Upper Six! The terrifying Gyutaro."

She really was monologuing, and Gyutaro had to listen, hoping, praying a sudden rush of energy would rush over him, that his limbs would magically regrow in time, that he'd be strong enough. He had to be strong enough.

"But you were always weak. You left our Lord because you were weak. Because you were scared. And now? Now I'm going to tear you into dozens of pieces and leave you for the sun to find!"

Gyutaro found his rage starting to boil again. Not like this. He couldn't go out like this. He wouldn't let himself. Not to this...

"Then, I'll go find that pathetic sister of yours and I'll do the same to her!" Mukago laughed and Gyutaro roared.

All else melted away as a familiar mantra screamed through his very existence: Not Daki, not Daki, not Daki, not Daki!!

Who knows how he did it, who knows where he got the energy, but he erupted in poison and sickles, still limbless but furious as his senseless attack destroyed what was left of the estate around them and shredded through Mukago. It had been too fast and it seemed even she had her limits when it came to reaction time.

But she was stronger, more resilient. Despite her body getting torn to bits in the hurricane, she lunged, shrugging off mortal wounds as if they were bug bites.

A bubble formed around Gyutaro's head and he grimaced. This was it. He wouldn't die, but he didn't have the strength to regrow his head. Maybe he'd be able to reform from Daki... but would that endanger her? Would that lead Mukago to her? He would get torn apart and left to the dawn sun, a death that he couldn't come back from. He'd tried, and it hadn't been enough; wasn't that just his fate? Wasn't that the hand the universe had always dealt him? He hoped Daki made it out... he hoped they somehow found Miku, saved Kotoha, and got away.

He hoped...

A ribbon wrapped around his chest and pulled him free of the bubble, dragging him none too gently across the floor, but moving him faster than even Mukago could react. Upper Six whirled around trying to catch Gyutaro and got a face full of whatever Kotoha was holding - Kotoha!?

Gyutaro landed with a heavy thump in Daki's arms and gawked as Mukago screeched in agony, her hands flying up to her face that began dissolving under the acid. Kotoha was ripped away by another ribbon, vanishing behind Daki's form.

"Looks like it's my turn to save you," Daki's voice sounded light, but there was no whine to it, no familiar annoyance. She was scared, Gyutaro could feel it. The way she held him close and shook softly.

But more than that... more than that, she was furious. Her ribbon's supported him as he slowly regenerated, covering his weeping wounds and shielding him. She saw his wounds, knew his pain, and for a moment they were children again, human children, and Gyutaro had just scraped by a difficult fight, collapsing in a battered heap for Daki to find when she got home. A pitiful excuse for a protector that Daki would gasp at, cry for, and tend to.

"Daki - " he wasn't sure what he was trying to do. Warn her? Thank her? Apologize for all he'd failed to do and all he'd ever done...

"You filthy human, what did you do to me!?" He never got the chance to collect his thoughts as Mukago screeched, still hiding her face that had now boiled down to the bone. A single eye remained, clinging to her face with deteriorating muscle, its pupil small with fury.

Daki's ribbon's splayed out in a show of power and defense. Her hands wrapped around Gyutaro near possessively as a hiss spilled from her throat. Distantly, Gyutaro felt Kotoha behind them, safeguarded by Daki's ribbons.

"You're going to pay for what you've done," Daki promised, venom dripping from every word. Gyutaro heard the rest of the sentence; Mukago would pay for what she'd done to Daki's brother... to Daki's little sister. To the estate. To their home.

Mukago vanished in a bubble and the fight began anew.

Daki moved like a tidal wave, her ribbons bring chaos and destruction, discombobulating anyone in their furious mess, everyone except the siblings. She would be Gyutaro's legs, his whole movement if need be. She kept them agile, kept them spry, hiding Kotoha from even Gyutaro's sight as his sister avoided bubbles and lashed out at whatever moved.

What ribbons were caught by bubbles proved insignificant, if a ribbon was torn from Daki's body, it merely returned. Each one moved as if alive and sentient, each one followed Daki's bidding. When Mukago reappeared she was met with a ribbon to her neck, skewering her for a moment before she ripped it apart.

Daki's attacks could do nothing, but she could keep them moving, she could keep them untouched.

And Gyutaro? He poured everything he had into growing one of his hands back and summoning a new sickle. 

Mukago hadn't been prepared for the speed Daki possessed. She too seemed thrown off by the sheer amount of ribbons around them, distracting her in every possible. Some threw up dirt to mask their movement, some fainted attacks, and some made faux strikes, purposefully glancing harmlessly off Mukago's form in order to draw out her bubbles and test their resilience. It kept their foe's attention divided. It let them get close.

A mere second after the blade formed on his hands, Daki moved them in for an attack. She moved in fast and she moved in close, faster than a mortal could blink. Close enough for Gyutaro to shove his sickle into Mukago's throat. 

Upper Six hardly flinched, she glared coldly into the Gyutaro's eyes, her face reforming as she sneered despite the blood pouring from her throat.

"Do you really think you can -" her voice broke off in a scream as another bottle shattered on the back of her head. Kotoha was there, donning an expression Gyutaro was familiar with, but not on Kotoha; Fury. Enmity. Daki pulled away as the violet liquid splattered over their foe, Gyutaro moving with her. Kotoha, similarly, was pulled upward, a ribbon wrapped around her waist to keep her supported. She disappeared back into the dust and ribbons.

And the siblings struck again.

Whatever the liquid was, it was wisteria based and it slowed Mukago's abilities while eating into her soft tissues. Upper Six tried to summon a bubble and was easily overcome by the sibling's return. Gyutaro carved through flesh and bone while Daki's ribbons descended, wrapping around limbs to rip them clean off. Blood splattered and Mukago screamed. 

A bubble appeared around Mukago and with everything he had, Gyutaro slammed the tip of his sickle against it. Maybe, they could break it... maybe they could...

He couldn't. Upper Six had once again overcome Kotoha's acid.

Mukago vanished and the game of life, death, and hunt continued. Daki raced away, her ribbons carrying her much like a spider for a moment as she held Gyutaro close and let their senses splay out together.

She's looking for Kotoha! 

Daki's thoughts rang through loud and Gyutaro grit his teeth, his other arm near formed past his elbow... just a little more.

Daki's head snapped up and with a grunt, two of her ribbons tensed, yanking Kotoha out of the way just in time as Mukago appeared and tried to bubble her. Upper Six screamed in frustration and fruitlessly tried to chase after the mortal. Neither Daki nor Gyutaro would allow it.

"Hey ugly!" Daki screeched to Mukago.

"Pay attention, Replacement!" Gyutaro finished the taunt as he and Daki lunged again intervening the demon's hunt. Mukago summoned bubbles to her fists and tried to parry the blows. In response, Daki wrapped a ribbon around their foe's neck and pulled, yanking the demon straight up and allowing Gyutaro to sink his sickle into her chest and hold it there as Daki did the rest of the work. 

"Told you I'd fucking gut you," Gyuatro hissed to himself as he did just that. Mukago hissed as her organs threatened to spill out of the tear Gyutaro had created. As her blood splattered on top of Gyutaro, the stench of a much older, much stronger blood grew dramatically more potent.

A purer form of demon art. A spike of alarm shot through both Daki and Gyutaro as Daki hastily pulled away.

 Mukago, holding her slit stomach and chest, strangled by a ribbon, let out a roar and squeezed her fists. Immediately the area around them was filled with bubbles, set on destroying as much as demonically possible. They severed the ribbon strangling Mukago and began shredding through Daki's ribbons, forcing both siblings to retreat.

It was a chaotic mess of popping bubbles and vanishing space, something no one could've avoided no matter how agile they were. It was impossible to even see through the space.

Kotoha was tossed away just in time, the woman was granted a less-than-soft landing but she was at least free of the hell space. The bubbles popped indiscriminately, catching Daki and Gyutaro in the mix, ripping away perfect circular chunks of flesh, bone, ribbon, and blood.

Daki whimpered as a bubble caught her should and ripped a hole in it, then her thigh, then her foot, her arms, stomach, legs, face, all of it. Gyutaro hissed as he once again lost a few ribs, a stub of his regrowing leg, chunks of his new arms, the side of his face -

Where was Mukago?

Through the chaos and the pain they desperately looked for the demon who wasn't there as they tried to escape the area of death and destruction. She was gone - Where?

They both sensed it at the same time, that breath of stale air as a bubble appeared. Both siblings looked over synchronously at where Kotoha had landed in a roll. The woman had since gotten to her feet, standing in awe of the destructive power of their foe - their foe who had appeared right behind her.

Daki screeched something that Gyutaro couldn't hear, all sound was deafened as the blood he had left rushed to his half-formed head.

Mukago had erupted from her bubble in a pounce, her claws inches away from Kotoha's head, if the demon summoned a bubble, it would encapsulate the woman's head and - and -

No.

No!

They wouldn't get there in time, even with Daki pressing onward at full speed, all her ribbons galloping them forward. Gyutaro couldn't watch. He couldn't - he couldn't -

Seeing the blood made everything fall silent.

Kotoha had whirled around and taken a step back. That step may have saved her life as the claws that raked down the side of her face would've taken her spine had they been any closer. Still, the claws raked down the right side of her face, taking her eye, catching her lip, and calling forth a splash of human blood. Kotoha stumbled away, cradling her injury with her right hand as she yelped.

So many things were happening and yet the world was so slow.

Mukago landed, her clawed feet twisting in the dirt as she turned to attack again. Gyutaro threw his sickle. Daki erupted out of the field of bursting bubbles.

Kotoha, however, moved the fastest. Somehow, a sole human surrounded by demons, acted before any of them could. She didn't flinch at the sight of Mukago's final lunge, whether from shock or pure resilience, no one could tell. Her left hand, the free one, had dug out that final vial from her pocket, and without an ounce of trepidation or fear, Kotoha lunged. She charged through the arms of Mukago, paying no mind to the bubble forming around her head.

And she shoved the vial into Mukago's open, fanged mouth. She did it with such force, it cracked against the demon's teeth. The sickle that suddenly embedded in the demon's head did the trick too and the vial shattered in the demon's mouth.

The bubble around Kotoha's head shattered with the bottle, leaving her head squarely on her shoulders as Mukago's eyes bulged, their kanji gleaming in horror. Upper Six didn't get much time to react as not a moment later Daki and Gyutaro collided with her. Gyutaro grabbed his singular sickle into the demon's face and ripped it back to split her head. 

Gyutaro had legs again, how? He didn't know. He'd seen those claws rake down Kotoha's face and he knew that he needed to get the monster away from the mortal as fast as possible, he grabbed Upper Six and pushed her away, as far as he could. Daki still had a hole in the side of her face from the hellish domain of the bubble field, but she landed between Mukago and Kotoha, her ribbons offering cover as she looked back to Kotoha.

Gyutaro felt and saw it all clearly through Daki.

Mukago's claws had marred the whole right side of Kotoha's face, they were deep cuts, horrifying cuts, they cut down to the bone and extended down her cheek and into her throat where her crimson blood breathed as it bled, pulsing with every heartbeat. Daki's fear, terror, pain, grief... they all drowned Gyutaro...

And then there was calm. Daki knew what to do. 

Mukago snarled as she tried to fight back, scratching at Gyutaro's face with her claws. It was almost too easy for Gyutaro to snatch the hand between his teeth and rip it free of Mukago's wrist. He swallowed that mess of blood and power, snarling as some of his hunger waned. He was distracted and he didn't care.

Daki knew what to do. 

He watched through her eyes as a ribbon soared over, wrapping around Kotoha's neck snuggly, stemming the bleeding before bandaging half of her face as Daki had done many times before to others. His little sister collapsed to her knees wordlessly, holding Kotoha's shoulders.

Kotoha looked back, her eyes firm, her breath shaky, and her tone crystal clear.

"Go get her," came the order from the kindest women in their life.

It had been a long while since Daki and Gyutaro's minds had conjoined, the two sibling's thoughts and feelings always brushed up against one another, but rarely so synchronously. Rarely were they one.

Seeing Kotoha, seeing Mukago. Smelling blood and death and rage. This was it. This was their reckoning, their retribution, their fight.

Gyutaro shoved Mukago up against one of the few remaining pillars of the estate left standing.

"You don't seem to understand what I was," he spoke, Daki spoke; they both spoke as one, tones and phrases aligning as their minds eclipsed each other. Daki stood, turning to face Mukago and Gyutaro, he could feel her hands ball into fists, he could feel her nails dig into her palm and her teeth sink into her tongue until both drew blood.

Mukago was frothing at the mouth, one of her claws wrapped around her own throat as she tried to remedy the acid there. Still, she found the strength to push him away and prepare herself, summoning bubbles to her hands as she growled.

That was alright. Daki leaped onto his shoulder, a familiar perch, her ribbons splaying behind them. Kotoha was still behind them, but they would let Mukago get no further.

"You called me weak," They spoke. Gyutaro's second hand grew back, Daki's blood flowing with his own, her strength and senses feeding him. He, in return, gave her his eye, to lessen that terrible overload of senses she so readily held.

"You thought yourself better," They laughed, Gyutaro brandishes his sickles and Daki readied her ribbons. 

"You think you stand a chance with your pathetic sister?" Mukago snarled, choking on the acid.

Pathetic? Muzan had thought the same thing. He'd chastised Gyutaro's love and his loyalty, but they all missed Daki's strength. It's easy to miss her knack for multitasking, her spacial awareness, her many ways to sense, to steal, to maneuver. 

Everyone always missed their true strength.

"I am not Upper Six," Gyutaro spoke alone this time, a grin coming over his face. "I never was."

Daki leaned forward, and with the help of her ribbons, the two of them lunged forward, faster than either could alone. Mukago's bubbles hands caught both of Gyutaro's sickles and they stood at a standstill for a precious moment. Power against power. Strength against strength. Six against Six.

And Mukago was faltering.

They watched Mukago's eyes break, her expression melting from pain to anger to fear as she took in the presence of the true demon before her, one with two forms, four eyes, and a beautiful monstrous figure. A monster that was slowly pushing her back, sickles dripping with poison, ribbons preparing an attack

A monster that spoke with two voices, lived with two hearts, two spines, and conjoined rage. A monster that opened its two mouths and spoke; "We are Upper Six." 

They spoke the truth and without mercy, their ribbons descended and their sickles flew. Mukago was impaled by ten ribbons, each one rooting her to the ground as sickles carved her arms off her shoulders.

She vanished in a bubble, the scraps of fabric returning to their owner's back. Not a moment later, the replacement Upper Six reappeared, stepping out of her bubble and meeting another sickle to the face.

They could sense her movements if they worked together. Gyutaro's strength and Daki's feeling would ensure Mukago couldn't run. The fool tried to bubble away again and suddenly, the ribbons were there, squeezing so viciously and quickly that the bubble never had time to form. With a satisfying snap, the bubble popped.

Daki's testing hadn't been fruitless. Those weak attacks, those testing shots, they'd painted a picture of their enemy. The bubbles were firm, strong against blunt attacks, but brittle. Once formed, they couldn't change shape. The trick was not to strike them, but to squeeze them.

Mukago's face was a picture of horror.

"We're stronger than you," the siblings snarled. And they attacked once more.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Wherever Mukago went, they could follow. Wherever she could strike, they would block. No bubble went unbroke, no clawed swipe went unavenged. Daki's claws raked down Mukago's eyes at the same time Gyutaro's sickles dug beneath her ribs. The ribbons constricted her as the acid in her throat burned and broiled.

Eventually, all she could do was flail and struggle, tears filling her eyes as the presence of death crept closer and closer. This death was different, it bore four eyes, pupils slit with scars, the kanji in them faded and torn. This death came from four hands, countless ribbons, and two sickles. This death was different... this death was personal.

She had that terrible epiphany a little too late; she was losing.

"Please, please, please - please - " Pleading had worked in the past. It had granted her respite from Muzan's slaughter. It had saved her life at the hands of the pale devil... it only seemed to infuriate the siblings.

Daki snarled as her ribbons trapped Mukago in a firm hold, lifting off her brother's shoulder to stand above her foe. Gyutaro, meanwhile, crept closer.

"You can't kill me - You can't!" Mukago tried to reason.

"I can rip you apart and leave you for the sun; doesn't that sound familiar!?" Gyutaro hissed viciously.

"You can't - you can't!" 

"Let's find out!" Gyutaro cackled as he raised his sickle.

"No!" Daki intervened, landing firmly between her brother and their foe. "Not yet."

Those golden-red eyes fluttered over to Mukago and there was no mercy in them. There never had been. The lesser demon walked up to where she had Mukago trapped and Upper Six tried madly not to think of the irony in that statement. 

Daki was supposed to be weak. Gyutaro was supposed to be a sliver of his power. The latter had seemed true at their first meeting, he'd been laughably underwhelming... but then his sister had shown up and... and -

She screeched as Daki grabbed her hair and yanked it upwards. This was no weak demon! This was no pathetic excuse for an attachment as Muzan had said! Why!? Why had he lied!?

"Bring back Miku." It was an order, cold and hateful, spitting venomous threats under its simplistic words.

All Mukago could do was gawk.

"What?" she rasped, wincing as Daki's claws dug into her scalp.

"Bring back Miku right now... or I'll tear you apart again and again and again and -"

"Miku!?" Mukago echoed. "What does that mean!?"

"Don't play dumb, you bitch," Gyutaro growled. "You took her."

Daki leaned closer, her ribbons tightening around Mukago's form, squeezing and squeezing as if trying to make her pop.

"I don't..." Mukago gasped. Surely she could get out of this. She had to get out of this. She didn't live this long to die here. She couldn't die here! Her entire body shuddered at the thought. The acid on her tongue still burned... still festered in her throat.  "I don't understand!"

"The child!" Daki snarled. "Doma's child! Bring her back! You took her; bring her back!" Daki near roared and it clicked.

The rage in their eyes, the hate in their soul, the way they were ready to tear her apart like wild dogs. It tickled something in the back of Mukago's mind.

"You mean... the chimera?" Mukago breathed.

"Bring her back!" Daki grabbed the ribbons constricting Mukago so that she could pull up their prisoner and hiss in her face.

Once again Mukago was blind sighted. All of this for the chimera? She'd assumed it was because she'd taken their position because she'd tempted their power. Why - why were they fighting so desperately for the half-breed.

"I... I can't!" Mukago denied it, and the true definition of fear grabbed her heart. She didn't want to die! She couldn't die! But the mere thought of him, of his words, his threats, his desires, of his power. Muzan had asked her to deliver the chimera child to him, she had done just that. 

It had been an act of luck. She'd blindly bubbled toward where she'd seen the group of slayers. She'd caught two young mortals, neither of them the chimera, and then in a victorious moment the half-demon had run into her bubble and who was Mukago to spit in the face of opportunity?

To undo that would be treason.

"You can, you just don't want to," Gyutaro growled darkly, spinning his sickles around his hands. "You just need some incentive."

"No - no! I won't! I won't betray him! I won't! You'll have to kill me if you can! There's no way - I can't! I can't -" Mukago thrashed and wailed, kicking and scratching at her restraints to no avail.

"Do you want to die?" It sounded so earnest, Mukago froze. She looked up at her captor and found Daki's eyes still cold, but calculating. "You'd rather die than disobey him?"

Die...

It was such a small word but it chilled Mukago to the very core. Daki tilted her head to the side, her eyes crazed with anger and her ribbons pulsing with that same fury. Her brother was a demonic shadow behind her, all too ready to rip his replacement apart again.

Because... she was just a replacement. He had sounded certain when sending her off. Muzan had been so certain she was stronger. Why wasn't she?

"You don't want to die," Gyutaro recognized. "Then bring her back."

"I can't - " Mukago denied.

"Because you're scared of him?" Daki supposed.

What a stupid question; "Of course!" Mukago screeched. "To disobey him is death! You're all on borrowed time! He's coming for retribution! He's coming to punish you! The things he has planned for you will make my plans look like mercies! None disobey him and live!"

"And yet, here we are," Gyutaro sneered oh-so-pridefully.

"You - you will suffer," Mukago vowed.

"But not as much as you if you do not do what I say," Daki hissed. "I will not ask again; bring Miku back."

"I will not," Mukago snarled in return.

"He sent you here to die," Gyutaro stated bluntly, scratching his head as his sneer melted away. "You know that right? There's no way he actually believed you'd get out of this."

"I nearly killed you," Mukago snarled.

"I've been starved for years, idiot," Gyutaro growled. "You're nothing compared to me at my peak. You don't deserve the title of Upper Six that he so 'graciously' carved into your eyes. He sent you here to die."

He promised she would live.

"He doesn't love you," Daki growled. "He doesn't care for you."

Of course not.

"You're his pawn. His sacrifice," Gyutaro continued.

She would live.

"You can be free of him," Daki stated it simply and Mukago felt the space around her pause, as if in her bubble. That was impossible as no bubble had formed, but it seemed like not an atom stirred.

She looked up, slowly, her entire being trembling with the repercussions of such a thought. Daki raised her arm and sliced it open with her nails.

"Daki -" Gyutaro warned.

"You can drink my blood," Daki offered darkly. "It'll free you from him. You can run and we won't stop you... but only if you bring Miku back. Only once she's back."

"Daki!" Gyutaro denied.

"If it brings Miku back!" Daki shouted and that seemed to quell her brother.

Mukago shook her head in a panic; "He'll kill me!"

"Only if he catches you," Daki retorted.

"And we'll kill you too, don't forget," Gyutaro hissed. "Happily."

"I - I - I can't," Mukago pleaded...

Then she felt it.

His gaze was upon her. His attention focused solely on her performance and her precarious position.

No... no please it isn't what it looks like!

"You did well delivering the half-breed to me. You've fulfilled your purpose." His voice bubbled in her blood and resonated in her bones.

"No... No please! Please!" She screeched in panic. Her two captors must've sensed the change, they both backed away, claws and sickles raised.

Mukago could only roil in pain and pleas, trapped in those damn ribbons. She tried to summon a bubble but it melted away in a rotting red slosh as her own body rebelled against her. It hurt, it hurt so much. Something was ripping her apart inside to out, worse than the acid could've. Something was going to end her.

No... no no no no, please, please!!!

She didn't want to die! She didn't want to die! She didn't want to -

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Upper Six exploded in a mess of blood and twisted limbs, the Kibutsuji Curse taking form before its host could even utter his name. Mukago's screams lay in the air like an echoing bell and all Gyutaro and Daki could do was watch.

It curdled something in Daki's stomach; the smell, the sight. She covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut as unsavory memories and realities set in. That could've been her... that could've been Gyutaro...

Muzan had struck.

"Dammit..." Gyutaro hissed. "Dammit!"

They'd lost their one chance... their one chance...

Miku... Miku... Oh god, it would kill Kotoha - KOTOHA!

Suddenly Daki was scrambling over herself, nearly tripping on her own ribbons as she raced back to the place where she'd last seen the woman. She found Kotoha right where she left her, laying on the ground, a small pool of blood leaking past Daki's ribbons.

Daki slid to her side, cradling the woman as she called for her; begged for her. She looked so still, so pale, so not-Kotoha in Daki's arms. Daki could smell the human's blood, the anger, and the desperation that she'd thrown her final actions into.

"Kotoha! Kotoha! Wake up! Wake up! Please, I'm sorry - I failed, I'm sorry. Please wake up. Kotoha! Kotoha!"

The remaining green eye opened and Daki gasped, the tears pooling in her eyes spilling as she held the woman closer.

"Daki?" rasped out Kotoha.

"Kotoha," Daki's voice broke as she sobbed in relief.

Gyutaro was at her side, kneeling down with horror on his face but a gentle touch as he took Kotoha's outreaching hand.

"Did... did you beat her?" Kotoha asked.

Daki shook her head fiercely, as did Gyutaro. They had. They did. It had almost been easy once they were together.

"I - I can put you in my ribbon," Daki offered with a weak smile. "We'll get you to Kanae, she can fix you!"

"Where's Miku?" The name broke her. It broke the rest of Daki's heart as she held Kotoha even closer, her tears spilling as thoughts unwanted attacked her.

Miku's fingers softly combing through her hair as she braided. Miku's warm hands bringing her flowers. Miku's joyous laugh and infectious smile. Miku...

"I'm sorry," it was Gyutaro who broke. Daki looked over and found her brother a mess, tears streaming from his eyes as he held Kotoha's hand, his entire body shaking.

At his tone, they watched Kotoha's heartbreak. Her breath hitched as tears slipped from her remaining eyes.

"No..." she whimpered. "No... not Miku. Not my baby... please."

"I'm sorry," Daki cried desperately. "I'm so sorry, Kotoha! I'm sorry! I wasn't - I couldn't... I'm sorry..."

Kotoha's eyes were dimming, her body already too weak to start sobbing. Still, she looked up to the stars, tears spilling from her eyes and she grit her teeth.

"Bring her back," she begged. "Bring her back."

"We tried, he killed Mukago before - before we could -" Daki tried to explain, but it was clear Kotoha either wasn't listening or couldn't hear them. 

She was enraptured with the stars, her sorrowful pleas melting into an expression of rage as her jade eyes sparked with determination; "Don't you dare take my daughter..." she threatened the heavens in a breath. "Don't you dare..."

And with that consciousness left her, the blood loss setting in as she fell limp in Daki's arms. Gyutaro panicked, shaking her viciously as he tried to wake her, screaming her name before Daki's ribbons intervened, pulling him off so she could suspend Kotoha in a ribbon. As soon as Kotoha was safe, she grabbed her brother in a hug as they sobbed.

The nighttime had grown quiet. The cries of demons had lessened, as had the sound of battle, it all just made the silence that much more deafening and the guilt that much heavier.

Me: *dives for cover to avoid the pitchforks*

KOTOHA IS OKAY! I SWEAR -

*narrowly avoids getting stabbed*

SHE'LL SURVIVE!! 

*nearly gets decapitated*

I SWEAR -