There was a great commotion pulling at Nakime - but three other commotions were demanding her more pressing attention: Upper One was in the midst of his fight and Nakime was trying her best to keep that as deep in the infinity fortress as she could - as far away from her as she could. Doma was ripping through the levels, beelining it for his chimera which, speaking of, was currently outrunning. Muzan.

Nakime had traitorous, traitorous questions as to how that was even possible, but she swallowed them and did her best to keep Doma from his daughter and bring Muzan closer to the demonic spawn.

Then Kaigaku returned, screeching in her head like a petulant child as he whined and begged for attention. For teleportation. For help! For assistance! For something. He was fine. Nakime closed the gate behind him, relocating it to Gyokko's pottery shop. 

Doubtlessly, the pot demon would have new inspiration when he returned and would whine and gripe or worse - giggle.

Speaking of which, Hantengu and Gyokko had been away a concerningly long time. Surely eliminating the swordsmith village wasn't too difficult; then again it was likely that they had found entertainment or trouble. Either way, she was paying acute attention to the doorway leading to that damned village in case any mortals tried to enter or her superior moons call for her.

Kaigaku had returned though, in a fairly timely manner, so he'd likely completed his task which meant he could shut. up.

It grated on Nakime's skull as she juggled seven other responsibilities and expectations. The gate to the swordsmith village was still open but hadn't been touched. She'd closed the gate where Doma had entered from, relocating it to Muzan's residence. She hadn't meant for Akaza or that second hashira to slip in and that had been a mistake on her part... it wouldn't happen again.

It couldn't.

Kokushibo was a suffocating presence as he held off the powerhouses that were two hashiras and Akaza. The hounds were once again nipping at her heels and if she wasn't careful she'd lose focus. Doma would get Nakime and tear her apart, or he'd retrieve his spawn and Muzan would lose the child. Then it would be Muzan rending Nakime into slivers of flesh. If she wasn't cautious, Kokushibo and Akaza's battle would draw closer and she'd be in danger if any of the hashira sensed her.

All things considered, a young obnoxious brat of an Upper Moon was at the bottom of her priority list. The only reason she had to suffer his presence was Kokushibo's favor of the slayer and Muzan's word. He was at the bottom of the pecking order and he needed to learn his place.

But he just kept screaming. Begging for a teleportation. Pleading with Nakime to help him.

Help him what?

Nakime began to tune into the insufferable creature's complaints, strumming her biwa as she teleported Doma away from his spawn once more. It was obnoxious how the ex-Upper Two just kept going straight for the child - regardless of walls or hallways. How was he so infuriatingly accurate? Nakime couldn't teleport him too far away or she'd put herself in between Doma and his child, and it wouldn't take much for the ex-upper two to realize she was the better target.

Kaigaku was still screaming.

With a hiss, Nakime strummed a string and the brat appeared at her side, gasping and heaving needlessly - he was a demon, he needed to start remembering that.

"Disrupt my work once more and I shall expel you into the light of day," she threatened lowly.

"Th - They were gonna fucking kill me!" Kaigaku cried, holding his neck. Nakime looked over at him and realized with a start that he had a gash in his neck that was healing. He was missing an eye and donned a thick laceration down his left leg.

He had been fighting a losing battle.

"What happened?" she demanded coldly. "The Ubuyashikis are not slayers -"

"NO!? Well the fucking HASHIRAS hunting me sure are!" Kaigaku hissed. "And you were gonna leave me with them!? About fucking TIME you intervene you bi-"

"What do you mean hashiras were hunting you? You're in the fortress. There was no reason for your juvenile panic, you pathetic- "

A pair of sliding doors above them was viciously kicked open and with a start, Nakime looked up at something she couldn't sense.

Two humans descended upon them, landing with a crash and a splintering of wooden flooring. There was a man, shorter than most, his sword crafted to twist like the spine of a snake, and his face hidden behind bandages. There was a snake on his shoulder which bared its fangs and a paper tag stuck on his dark bangs that swung ominously across his wild eyes.

The second human was brighter in color; a splash of pastel pink and green in the setting. Her colorful hair waved in her landing, alongside her dangerously wild whip-like sword that danced in a razor-fatal whirlwind. She donned a similar tag in her bangs - but the eyes hidden behind her hair were not wild...

They looked at the demons and Nakime was struck with inexplicable fear.

They were furious. The woman's face was contorted with such disgust and loathing that Nakime's skin prickled in a way it hadn't since she'd been human. The man's dual-colored eyes shone with sadistic want. Such bloodlust... such abhorrent rancor. Such resolve...

Nakime strummed her biwa as an instinctual response and suddenly she and Kaigaku were in a different room. Kaigaku was hissing and spitting complaints but Nakime was frozen as her senses spread out to where they'd once been.

She... 

She couldn't sense them.

She hadn't been able to sense them when they'd been five feet in front of her. They'd been ghosts - less than ghosts. How? How - how was she supposed to counter them? They could be anywhere. Going anywhere!?

How - it made no sense - no human - no human should be able to - how could they - what was she -

"I'll fucking kill them! We just need to separate them or something," Kaigaku's snap began pulling a more pressing question to Nakime's being.

"You brought them here?" she threatened dangerously, raising her head so her singular eye peered through her hair, glinting with outrage. The young demon shuttered under her gaze and fell to his knees, finally remembering his place

"I - "

"You led them to the fortress!?" she growled, slowly coming to her feet.

"I - If I didn't run, I would've been killed!"

"By two hashiras? Did you even manage to finish your mission!?" 

The boy's silence spoke volumes.

Nakime snarled.

"Deplorable. Master is above punishing such useless filth -" She almost did it. A strum was all it would've taken for the useless excuse of a Kizuki to be reduced into a smear.

But Doma had found his child. Dammit! Doma had found his child and they were clashing with Muzan and the enemies had fled her master again! She'd been distracted, caught off guard, and now she had failed her mission!

Muzan would be furious...

She snapped down on a growl and steeled her plans.

It wouldn't be beneficial to eliminate Kaigaku now. If this somehow failed and Muzan was frenzied enough, she'd need a scapegoat to blame. Kaigaku was an easy target to pin this on - better she let him live as a diversion for Muzan's wrath.

"It - it wasn't my fault! If fucking Tamayo hadn't shown up, I would've been fi-"

"What." Nakime almost took it all back as she gripped her instrument so hard it began to whine.

Kaigaku cringed under the tone, folding in on himself - as if making him smaller lessened Nakime's rage in the slightest.

Not just rage... gut-wrenching fear.

It was Tamayo, Tamayo had made the humans invisible which meant there was no way that Nakime would break those spells in time. For all they knew Tamayo was in the castle. She could find Doma, Akaza, the hashira, Kokushibo - Nakime. 

Could Nakime beat such a foe? Muzan always downplayed her strength but anyone intelligent could guess enough. Tamayo had once been what Nakime was now; a trusted right hand. Upper Four may not be high in the ranks of the Upper Moons but she was immeasurable in utility - just as Tamayo had been. 

And Tamayo was much, much older...

Paranoia clawed its way into Nakime's senses as she desperately looked around the room with a hiss on her lips.

"I - I didn't mean -" the brat began again.

"You've led Tamayo to our nest on the one night when our victory hangs on the precipice. You have brought someone to our battleground that can blind me! You insolent, idiotic, child!" she seethed.

She'd kill him. She'd slaughter him!

"No! No, no, please!" Kaigaku begged. "I didn't know, I didn't know! How was I supposed to  know!?"

Nakime bit her tongue and returned to her job. She'd enjoy watching Muzan tear him apart. She'd relish his screams when all was finished and over.

"What was I supposed to do? Me versus Tamayo and two hashiras? I wasn't going to win that!" Kaigaku tried to argue.

"Then you should have died," Nakime answered cruelly as she glared at him. "Then at least you would've been useful."

The boy's eyes widened and his lips parted in a silent shock. Any retort he had died as a pink sword broke through the paper walls and sliced open his back. The hashiras were back, and this time there was no hesitation.

They had to be dealt with. It wouldn't do to have them running amok, especially if they could pass their invisibility trick onto their comrades. Maybe, if Nakime could isolate those tags on their foreheads, she could figure out how to counter them.

Yes, it could work -

She had to turn the room on its side as the snake-bearing hashira seemingly appeared in front of her, the tip of his sword millimeters from her neck. The man's veins bulged as he strained against gravity itself but he fell away from Nakime who stayed stagnant in her place. Kaigaku was also subject to the gravity change and as he tried to catch himself by clawing at the floor-now-turned-wall, the other hashira acted.

Her sword flashed like a shooting star, completely severing Kaigaku's wrists with ease and wrapping around his neck.

Nakime's heart plunged into her gut.

They were not to be trifled with. If Kaigaku hadn't turned into a bolt of lightning for a moment, the hashira would've executed him with ease. Even then, the boy appeared a few feet and was immediately barraged by the snake hashira who twisted masterfully in midair and slammed the young demon against the wall with a splintering and crashing of wood.

The young demon screeched as the snake-like sword dug into his stomach and ripped itself out of his ribs, carving a trail in the wood behind them both. Organs threatened to spill out with a cascade of blood as the young demon desperately tried to hold himself together and scramble away.

Shit, she couldn't just let him die. She needed him alive so Muzan would have someone to blame. She teleported him to her side as they moved to a room across the way. A large drop sat between them and the humans, but Nakime doubted that would stop the two.

The pink-haired one walked into the golden light of the open hallway, looking down at the drop before staring over at the demons. She raised the hilt of her sword and pointed to Kaigaku who was holding his healing side.

"You." Was it a call or an order? Whatever it was, it was cold and heatless - the expression on the woman's face was nothing short of livid.

"Crazy bitch," Kaigaku sneered, wiping the blood off of his lips.

"You're the one who killed the master," it wasn't a question, it was more... declarative. Certain. Condemning.

The other slayer was surveying the scenery before his eyes landed on Nakime's form. They were at a standstill. Nakime was fairly certain she could keep these two busy - but she couldn't balance that with Doma's clash with Kokushibo's battle with the other open doors with Gyokko and Hantengu's eventual return with the usual security...

She couldn't...

"Yeah - yeah, I did!" Kaigaku shouted back, his volume betraying a tremble. "He was weak!"

The two slayers' eyes darkened

Nakime prepared herself. When the slayers jumped over the expanse, she'd increase gravity and they'd go plummeting into the lower levels. With any luck they'd happen upon Kokushibo - though he hadn't managed to finish off the hashiras he was already dealing with.

But before Nakime could put her plan into action the slayers had started to run - but not to jump across the drop, but along the platforms to their left and right - in opposite directions, out of the gaze of Nakime.

"What are they doing?" Kaigaku breathed, running to the edge of the drop and watching them split.

Nakime wasn't willing to find out. She switched the entire area on its head and prepared to inverse it all when the first slayer lunged. They'd jumped the gap, acting independently to draw Kaigaku's attention all out of Nakime's vision so she couldn't time it. It was the woman who tried to strike first. Nakime sent her crashing into a nearby wall with a vicious switch up of gravity but hissed as a sword slipped into her neck.

The man had taken advantage of her distraction and closed his distance. Kaigaku's sword was drawn as he whirled around to help his superior, but Nakime had her weapon. Before the slayer could sever any more of her spine she turned the room around and forced the slayer to fall away, his sword slipping out of her skin fruitlessly as her skin stitched itself together effortlessly.

The pink one was back in a flurry of pink razor edges that bit at wood, paper, and flesh. Kaigaku was the focus of her attacks. He screamed in pain and fear as he was torn apart like a bird trapped amidst a hurricane, his flesh and bone stripped away as he tried to out-dance the fatal sword.

Nakime attempted to help him, but the snake hashira was back, vaulting off a wall and trying to come for her neck once more. She bared her teeth and set her resolve.

This had to end - her fingers found her biwa strings and her blood rippled beneath her thick skin. The song that sang out was a wild, hateful tune that set the entire world spinning, jerking, and twisting in a horrid near-delirious state of gravity. All it did was prove the hashira's reflexes and agility were terrifying.

The monochrome man twisted midair as if he had no other bones than his ribcage that twisted and turned to his every whim, his feet always managing to find purchase on a surface. He was relentless but Nakime was faster. He never scratched her, but he never stopped trying either, the tip of his sword whispering past Nakime's form too many times for her to be comfortable.

The other hashira was a dancer on a blood-soaked stage, stumbling a few times as she landed on a wall or a ceiling, but graceful with every leap and recovery. Nothing Makime threw at the two was enough to grant Kaigaku a chance to escape.

The one time he got close, Nakime flipped the room to the right and he clung to the walls like a cat, scrambling up the wall in a clambouring cacophony of scratching. The hashira didn't stand for that, she flicked her whip and severed Kaigaku's hands from his arms with intense and terrifying precision.

Kaigaku fell and the hashira flew, the two meeting midair in an intense exchange of blows and parries. Nakime sent the snake hashira to a separate room and set her attention on the pastel one. Perhaps separating them was the answer.

She twisted the room again, flipping it and twisting it until in a miraculous turn of events, Kaigaku managed to slam the woman against the floor (which was actually a wall), with such force that the wind was knocked from her body and her sword loosened from her grip.

That should've been her end.

Nakime flipped the room sending the dangerous elegant whip tumbling out into the hallway - now the woman was truly unarmed! 

"Now! Kaigaku!" Nakime ordered.

The young demon's sword flashed as he drew it and struck. There was a scream - but not of fear or pain or hopelessness. The woman glared into Kaigaku's eyes and opened her mouth to roar in absolute rage, her hands flying up and catching the boy's wrists and stalling his blade. Both Nakime and Kaigaku's eyes widened. Nakime chilled with shock to see a human's strength rival a demon's. Kaigaku whimpered.

The woman's roar grew into a thunderous shriek of fury, her muscles tensing as veins bulged on her face. In a trembling usurping of power, the hashira pushed the demon off of her and slammed him against the ground, pulling him into a headlock and pulling.

Her foot pinned down his hand and sword, her eyes were wide with blind rage and certainty, and a sickening squelching echoed from Kaigaku's neck as she began to tear skull from spine. And Kaigaku? He'd begun to wail.

"No! No! No! Please!" His begs died into wheezes as his windpipe collapsed beneath the mighty strength of the slayer.

Nakime broke free of her shock and strummed again, sending the slayer and demon crashing into the opposing wall, the woman hit the wall, not even blinking at the brutal crash as she stayed fixated on her foe. The hashira wouldn't be able to kill Kaigaku - not without nicihirin, but still the boy wailed in pain as his hands flew to her forearms and tried to scratch at them.

"Mitsuri!" Nakime heard the call resonate right behind her as a sword hilt flashed by her eyes - the whip sword, thrown.

She whirled around right as the snake hashira, returned from his momentary exile, struck for her neck. Flip. Turn. Twist. Flip! He would not touch her! And he didn't.

But his other goal reached its fruition: the sword he'd thrown returned to its rightful owner, the pastel woman's eyes flashing to its hilt before she released the Moon and lunged for her blade. Kaigaku, eyes wide scrambled away, holding his elongated neck that healed quickly, bones snapping back into place to recover from such a raw show of power.

The hashira, Mitsuri, so she had been called, found her footing and flicked her sword around in an elegant pirouette so that it kept Nakime at bay and caused Kaigaku to flinch back. The snake hashira had caught his landing again, pulling himself to his comrade's side as they stood at the ready, side to side, rage married to fury.

Nakime watched them for a moment, in the lull of the peace.

"NAKIME!!!" Muzan was screaming - she'd neglected her task. He was furious, with her. He was failing, and he'd blame her -

She wouldn't be able to kill the hashira, and Kaigaku was so goddamn useless he'd forgotten his blood art in the wake of his panic. She had other responsibilities, more pressing ones. She had to keep them distracted. She had to forget about them.

She couldn't do both so she cut her losses and steeled her nerves; she'd blame Kaigaku. This was all his fault anyway!

The two hashira lunged and she strummed.

The humans vanished, teleporting as far away from Nakime as she could send them. They'd find Doma or Akaza or a door  - but Nakime would be left in peace to focus on the fights that were her responsibility.

She looked over at the young demon and found him still cradling his neck in shock and fear. She scowled and he cringed under her sneer.

"Do not move, do not speak, do not so much as twitch," she demanded, and he obeyed. 

Useless. Absolutely useless.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Run. Run. Run! Run! Run! Run!

There was no thought. There was no peace. There were only flashes of light and shadow as Doma fled. He did not breathe, he did not blink, he only scrambled and fled. Miku sat silently in his arms, gripping to him with everything she had in her small form.

A few minutes of fruitless running began to let terrible thoughts trickle through Doma's icy walls.

How would they get out? How could he escape? He'd seen that room before - and that door. Was he running in circles? His blood rippled in warning as a part of his blood art shattered: That was another ice copy gone - only two left. They were running out of time! He'd seen that door before! Right!? Where was he supposed to go? What was he supposed to do!? 

He was going to catch them. He was going to kill Doma. He was going to get Miku. Doma would fail. He'd fail, he'd fall, he'd die, he'd -

"NAKIME!!!" Muzan's roar shook every hall in the infinity fortress as something snapped.

A biwa string.

Doma was yanked from the hallway he'd been racing down, landing heavily in a shadowed room alongside his remaining two ice copies. All three figures lurched in surprise before recoiling in fear at the furious scarlet eyes that burned from the singular doorway of the room.

Muzan snarled as he tossed a decapitated head aside. It had been one of Doma's constructs, the ice bouncing along the wooden floor before it vanished in a mixture of water and ash. Muzan's eyes magnetized to Doma's quivering form, a very dangerous emotion dancing in them; annoyance.

Doma tried to call forth his blood art, his vision waning as he did so, resulting in nothing more than a pitifully thin wall of ice that Muzan shattered with a single blow.

Mirakuru screamed and Doma gasped.

Muzan's hand was in his chest, an iron grip squeezing around his heart, slowly tightening its grip as it ripped the organ away from muscle and vein.

"Enough games," Muzan muttered, perfectly composed in juxtaposition to his scream which had radiated through the infinite fortress moments ago.

Doma choked as blood began to bubble in his pierced lungs and creep up his throat. Miku's eyes were wide in horror, her mouth parted in a silent scream at the visage before her.

"I am going to kill you slowly, painfully, and I will make you a spectacle before your fellow demons: Do you understand, Doma?" Muzan asked softly, his eyes like candles, glowing in the darkness of the room. Doma's eyes trembled underneath the gaze he met, wide with helplessness.

"BURN!" Miku spoke it, and so it became. Muzan burst into flames, but unlike last time he did not scream. His skin blistered and roiled but his cells regenerated just as quickly, adapting to the scorching tongues. His crimson eyes gleamed from that blaze, and they snapped their attention over to Mirakuru.

That jolted Doma out of his fearful void.

He shielded her, desperately, ripping away from Muzan and leaving his heart in the demon king's cruel hands. His organ burst into a handful of icicles and piercing blades that butchered Muzan's hand but did not bring any real pain. The flames died down and Miku was covering her mouth, wheezing out of a raw throat as she trembled in her father's arms.

"A powerful blood art, but doubtlessly detrimental for such a weak constitution," Muzan supposed, sneering through the ashes as his sinew knit itself back together. "You'll reach your limit soon."

What could he do? What could he do? What could he -

There was a small meow before a vial of glass fell from the rafters of the room and shattered between the two demons. A dark maroon substance splattered on the ground between the glass shards. Flowers exploded in Doma's vision, suffocating his nose and wrapping around his throat. Muzan cursed and Miku whimpered.

Something landed on Doma's shoulder, something with gentle paws and soft fur, it climbed atop his head and placed something on his forehead before yowling in his ear and leaping free.

Muzan lashed out violently, in every direction and Doma was sent crashing through a wall, the visions of flowers fading with the scent. He went tumbling head over heels, clutching Miku close to him before he caught himself.

He looked up and choked on a disbelief laugh.

It was Chachamaru.

The cat had a small slip of paper in his mouth and let out a muffled yowl as he ran up to Doma and jumped up into Miku's arms. She too had her eyes wide in disbelief as she released her father from her iron grip and clutched the cat close.

"How - how did he..." she rasped a question, and Doma's heart lurched to see blood spilling from her lips, her breath reeking of injury.

Chachamaru paid no mind and instead stuck the small slip of paper on Miku's forehead before wiggling out of her arms and vanishing with another meow. They looked at each other, father and daughter, both glancing at the papers now stuck to their foreheads.

Tamayo.

There was a scream of rage as the room Doma had been thrown from exploded in a writhing, twisting, wail of Muzan. The demon King wiped his bleeding eyes, held his nose, and snapped his head over to Doma and Mirakuru who both jolted at the promised pain hidden in them.

Muzan lunged and Doma tried to scramble back - fruitlessly. He was at his limit - he had nothing to use, the very scraps of power to pull from.

Mirakuru, however, raised her head and opened her mouth one, last time.

"COMBUST!"

Like a disgusting firework, Muzan burst apart into thousands of bits of blood, bone, and flesh. Miku let out a wet cough before bringing her hands to her mouth and coughing up enough blood to spill through her finger and stain Doma's pale skin.

"Miku!" Doma breathed, but more than that he ran. He pulled her closer as fear laced every bone in his body and he ran. 

Tamayo would help them - that was surely what the papers we for. As he turned the corner he saw Chachamaru running ahead of them, looking back, the box on his back opened to reveal several more papers hidden within it. 

For others.

Doma snatched the papers as he ran past, the cat vanishing with another yowl and disappearing into the depths of the fortress.

Nakime's biwa was strumming, but it no longer pulled him. Random rooms around him began to shift and twist - as if the upper moon was trying to guess where he'd be. So Nakime couldn't sense him. A familiar angry roar shook the halls as Muzan reformed all too quickly and Doma slipped away, jumping down into the depths of the infinity fortress as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Faster, faster - further, further - over, around, and through. He ran and ran as far as he could, as wildly as he could, the paper concealing his scent and his presence from the Demon King and his subordinates. After a few minutes, only after it was clear Muzan wasn't on his heels, did Doma find enough strength to look down at his daughter.

Mirakuru was weak, holding her throat as her eyes waned with exhaustion.

"Stay awake," Doma ordered softly as he leaped a wide expanse, his shadow flitting across the halls like a bird. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry -"

"I'hurs," Miku slurred with a whine.

"I know. Just stay with me, okay? Okay; we're gonna get home. We're going home."

"I'hurs," Miku's voice broke as her eyes filled with tears again and Doma's stomach tore itself inside out.

"I know... I know -"

"DOMA!" That... was a new but familiar voice. The Ex-Moon looked up with disbelief and the slightest breath as a splash of colors jumped down from above and began running beside him: Mitsuri.

"You -" he began, breathlessly.

"Oh my god! Miku!?" Mitsuri gasped as she looked at the girl in Doma's arms. "Obanai! It's Doma and Miku!" 

Doma looked up at the man running in pace with them a level above.

"What are you two... how did you two..." Doma tried to collect his thoughts. "What are you doing here?"

Mitsuri's hair was wild, a few strands out of place, and a strange tilt in her brow. Obanai was completely silent. Mitsuri slowed to a stop and Doma reluctantly did the same, throwing a fearful glance over his shoulder.

A heavy weight settled on the Love Hashira's brow.

"Master Ubuyashiki is dead," Mitsuri explained solemnly.

"What!?" Doma's eyes widened, fear gnawing deeper into his gut.

"It was a widespread attack," Obanai explained from above, perching on a balcony to survey the surroundings.

"The Butterfly Estate," Doma realized as he looked at Miku with a terrifying realization. She tried to speak, choking on her words and shaking her head in confirmation as tears streamed down her face, choking on words she couldn't quite form.

He looked back to Mitsuri desperately.

"Kotoha! Inosuke - what happened -"

"We don't know," Mitsuri explained certainly. "We came in here to hunt down Master... Kagaya's killer. But the swordsmith village and the butterfly estate were both attacked."

"We haven't heard anything about any losses," Obanai supplied darkly; "Nor any victories."

"We have to get back," Doma breathed fearfully.

"Master Ubuyashiki's killer is here, and we are in his den," Obanai reasoned.

"Akaza and I are here!" Doma cried desperately.

"Akaza!?" Mitsuri gaped. "I thought he was with Muchiro!"

"They're all here! No one's at the estate!" Doma pleaded.

It would just be Daki and Gyutaro - and if Muzan sent someone like Hantengu to deal with them... gods, gods!!

He couldn't think. He couldn't think!

"Doma!" Mitsuri placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Her eyes were burning with something so unlike the hashira, and yet the fire seemed as if it had been there all her life. The Love Hashira was thinking, hard. She glanced between Doma and Miku, from Obanai to the hellish space before them. She looked at the paper on his forehead and he looked at hers.

"We have to get out of here," she breathed, and it almost sounded like defeat.

"What!?" Obanai hissed from above.

"If Muzan gets Mirakuru and attains immortality to the sun; we'll have failed Kayaga's mission," Mitsuri breathed, raising her head as she gave a small smile to Miku. "And I don't want to lose anyone else today."

Obanai jumped down and landed next to Mitsuri, his eyes on her expectantly as he brushed against her side.

"Are you sure?" he asked it surprisingly gently.

"There'll be another chance," Mitsuri breathed. "We get Miku out - and then we can worry about avenging him. It's what he'd order."

Obanai nodded before looking at Doma with firmness in his eyes.

"You have the papers," he recognized.

"Yes, and more - I think for Akaza and the others," Doma managed tightly, holding upwards the protective wards of Yushiro's blood demon art.

Mitsuri took them from his hands, her eyes firm.

"Where are they?" she demanded.

"Below," he answered resolutely. "Gyomei, Muichiro, and Akaza - they're all fighting Upper One."

"Were they winning?" Obanai asked, raising a brow.

Akaza's head. Gyomei's face. Muichiro's arm.

"No," Doma breathed. "I... I had to go after Miku."

Mitsuri's eyes softened as she smiled at the little girl; "Of course. We'll get these to them... do you know if there's any way to get out of here?"

Doma lifted his nose and tried to smell the air...

"I can't sense any nearby."

"Then stick with us," Obanai supposed in a hiss.

"He is hunting us," Doma admitted, holding Miku a little closer.

"Even more reason to stick together," Mitsuri smiled despite the look in her eyes. "Right Miku?"

The young girl gave a small nod which widened the Love Hashira's smile as she stepped to the edge of the hall and looked down into the abyss.

"So they're down there - somewhere?" she asked.

"Yes," Doma nodded. "I... I can probably lead you to them."

Akaza's presence pulled on him now - they'd shared blood once. It was distant, but he could find them.

"Perfect. Stay out of the fight. If it's a fight we can win, we slay One and then escape," Mitsuri planned.

"And if we can't?" Obanai asked knowingly.

"Then we buy enough time to let the others escape," Mitsuri murmured, and with that, she jumped off. Obanai followed suit and Doma paused momentarily, looking down to Miku.

"We're going to get home," he promised her.

Gods... Kotoha... please please, please... be okay. Live. Be okay.

"Naho... Sumi..." Miku managed, her eyes still full of tears. She gripped her training gi, stained with blood, and Doma realized why it had smelled so familiar. He tried to comfort her, tried to find the words to say, tried to find anything more than acceptance and pain in the pit of his stomach.

Instead, he planted a kiss on the crown of her head and let out a shaky breath that he didn't need but felt somehow relieving.

"I'm sorry, Miku." He cursed her with this life. He condemned her to this pain. This was his doing.

"Papa..." she rasped, holding her throat again; "it hurts."

"I know," he breathed, looking down after the two hashiras and steeling himself. "I know..."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

The stalemate had drawn itself out for minutes now, and the longer it drew out the more pressing it became. Akaza knew it, hated it, but was helpless to stop it.

Muchiro was still losing blood. Gyomei had a new gash on his calf that went down to the bone - perhaps beyond it: from the looks of it, he couldn't put any weight on that leg. That left Akaza as the main source of power, and even then it was less that he was an active threat and more that he was a pest who couldn't be disposed of. Akaza still threw jabs alongside his air attacks, dancing around the Upper Moon and throwing himself between fatal attacks and the demon slayers they came for. Muichiro still seethed and Gyomei stood resolute, but they hadn't truly made a dent in Kokushibo's form. Sure they'd taken a hand or crushed a bone, but they always grew back - everything always grew back.

Hopelessness wasn't the word - Akaza was still willing to fight until he couldn't anymore. He was willing to go until otherwise impossible, but somewhere in it all he'd lost sight of victory and was instead just going.

Somewhere in it all he'd forgotten there was anything outside the fight.

Then the other two descended. One pink and green, one black and white. Mitsuri and Obanai. Akaza laughed like a madman to see it, and then consequentially lost his head.

"AKAZA!" Misturi cried in fear. He sensed it even when he didn't have ears and his bones were already stitching themselves back together.

"It's alright, Kanroji!" Gyomei soothed a small bit of relief in his voice.

"So they multiply," Kokushibo snarled as he looked at the newcomers who'd fallen from above like angels - or perhaps blessings.

With a sickening pop, Akaza's head was back and he was still cackling. He didn't know where they came from or how, but the help just kept coming!

"WHAT!?" Misturi gawked. "I - I thought - wait a minute -"

She was interrupted when she had to dodge one of Kokushibo's attacks, landing gingerly as she puzzled.

"Do his blows not slay demons?" Obanai supposed.

"They do," Muichiro gritted as he came to the Snake Hashira's side. The elder hashira looked over and dually noted the boy's wounds. Quickly he reached over and stuck the slip of paper on the boy's forehead.

Muichiro blinked, perplexed.

Meanwhile, Mitsuri flipped away from another attack, landing beside Gyomei and smiling as she jumped and placed his paper.

"What is this?" Gyomei asked warily, swinging his flail and favoring his good leg.

"It hides you from demons," Mitsuri answered.

"It is made by a demon."

"A friendly one," the Love Hashira reasoned, and Stone nodded with a hum.

"So many of you, all together," Kokushibo supposed, standing tall as he looked at all who opposed him. "Do you think you stand a chance?"

He lowered his stance and readied his blade. Akaza took his position between the hashira and the Upper Moon, opening his hands and taking a breath. He didn't know how he was standing - he didn't even feel like he had a body anymore.

He was simply a spirit. A fighting spirit. He didn't need muscle or bone or blood. All he needed was to fight and protect those behind him. And he fucking would.

Kokushibo took a step and the battlefield exploded with a burst of crystalizing ice. All of the water left in the river stones flew into the air and combusted into thousands of ice crystals, forming a fog so deep and so thick that it took Akaza a moment to find his senses.

Something slapped his forehead before grabbing his arm and pulling. Instinct almost had him pull those arms off, but reason stopped him as he connected the dots. He hadn't sensed anyone sneaking up on him, but he hadn't sensed Mitsuri and Obanai either - and now he couldn't sense anyone but Kokushibo.

Ice. Strength. Speed. Doma.

They burst out of the fog and leaped the expanse, the hashira all there covering their escape

"What the -" Akaza breathed as he gawked at the ice cloud behind them and the paper now on his forehead. Doma pulled him along, a paper on his head, and Miku in his arms. 

"Kid!" Akaza breathed seeing the girl so heavy and weary, covered in blood.

"Our priority is Mirakuru!" Mitsuri cried from above, supporting Gyomei as they ran and he hobbled. "We get her out of the fortress! Himejima and Tokito too!"

"I can fight!" the boy cried, and Akaza glanced over to see the boy being pulled along by Obanai, the Snake hashira holding the boy around his chest while Muchiro kept his sword in a white-knuckled grip.

A crippling blow tore through the halls above them and the group all dropped down to hide as the rubble tumbled and fell, the familiar cacophony of Kokushibo's blood art destroying everything in its path.

It felt near cowardly and Akaza seethed against hiding... but the painful wheeze rattling from Miku's lungs stalled that thought.

They dropped, twisted, and turned, Doma dead silent as he pressed forward.

"There's more, isn't there?" Gyomei demanded softly as they all ran.

"The swordsmith village, the butterfly estate, and the Ubuyashiki estate have all been attacked and need reinforcement," Obanai rattled off a bit louder, growing confident as the destructive blows grew distant.

"All the more reason to stay and finish this while we're here," Muichiro snarled.

There was a crash from above them as Kokushibo carved through all he could, desperately trying to find the rats who had slipped away. All of the demon slayers donned the same look.

"This is a chance we've been waiting for! To find Muzan's nest and slay him!! This is our chance!" Muichiro hissed.

"You're going to die if you don't get attention," Obanai snarled.

"Then that's my choice!" Muichiro yelled, ripping out of Obanai's arms only to be swept up by Mitsuri seamlessly.

Gyomei was a bit steadier but Akaza jumped to his side should the man's bloody leg decide to give out.

"We regroup!" she ordered. "We don't run in blind and we don't fall for traps! The Master taught us better!"

That did silence Muichiro as he sat in her arms.

"Kanroji is... right," Gyomei admitted regretfully. They all slipped into a new hallway, Doma's attention piquing as he smelled what Akaza began to sense: an exit!

Fresh air! Dirt! Night! Grass! Life!

"But -" Muichiro pleaded.

"Doma and I were lured in here. His daughter was as well. For all we know, we were trapped in here purposefully, leaving elsewhere defenseless," Gyomei reasoned.

"But if it's already destroyed -" Muichiro reasoned.

"It's not," Mitsuri stated. "I trust our fellow slayers: it's not. The Estate will survive. Rengoku and Uzui are protecting the village."

"And the master?" Gyomei demanded. Akaza's heart seized when Mitsuri didn't answer. She kept running with a face full of fury.

"The master would ask us to prioritize Mirakuru. He'd be impressed we'd survived... and he'd ask us to value our lives; there will be another time."

"Or there won't!" Muichiro cried! "If this is our only chance -"

"Then we will make another chance!" Obanai yelled. "We will!"

The smell was growing stronger! Close! They were so close! 

"Well decide fast!" Akaza ordered over his shoulder. "Because the moment Nakime realizes we're escaping she'll close the door, so either we all get out now or..."

He trailed off because anyone who stayed behind knew their fate.

"Tamayo gave us these papers to escape," Doma spoke softly, too softly, the hashira on the outskirts drew closer to listen as they all ran. "She gave us a chance to escape, so you have to trust that escaping is the priority. He is not trapped in here with you. You are trapped in here with him. And with Kokushibo."

"We'll make another chance," Gyomei swore to himself.

"We'll make another chance," Obanai agreed.

"We'll live. We'll avenge them," Misturi breathed.

And with that, they all turned a corner, Akaza threw open the door at the end of the corridor, and every single slayer, demon, and half-breed, tumbled through that door and stumbled into the freshness of the night air. 

Breathless, disheartened, injured, tired, angry, regretful... but free.

Alive.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

It was as if a star had crashed upon the earth and set about burning the world. That was Nezuko's fight with Zohakuten.

The wooden dragons crashed and roared, wreaking what damage they could before they died in wails and shrieks to the hungry pink flames. The two demons exchanged blows as only two mighty beasts could, crashing and snarling at one another as fist-tested flesh, blood art scraped against blood art, and demon-tested demon.

The Flame Hashira danced in that blaze, catapulting off wooden dragon scales to join the deadly fray. His sword sliced like an executioner's guillotine, splitting the thick hides of the dragons and cutting straight through Zohakuten's limbs and torso.

What wounds the hashira made, Nezuko set ablaze, and what openings Nezuko forced, the Flame Pillar took advantage of.

And Zohakuten?

At some point, his rage melted into something deeper - colder.

This was one of the traitors Muzan spoke of, no doubt. Some insignificant beast who'd pulled away from Muzan of her own accord - accompanying that boy with the hanafuda earrings! She'd been turned a few years ago! She was an ally of the humans! From the smell, she'd hardly eaten any human! 

So why?

He stuck her with lightning and the demon walked right through, a grin on her fanged smirk as she winced from the blow. The lightning faded and she struck again - kick after kick, blow after blow, each other carrying a crushing weight to it - a strength that nearly rivaled an Upper Moon's in pure force alone. Zohakuten would know.

Her regeneration. Her strength. The mastery of her blood art - her blood art!

All signals pointed to a far superior demon; something that had devoured countless humans and ascended the ladder of hierarchy formed of blood and bone. But... but she couldn't have been a demon for more than a few years, at most!

"Impossible," he gritted, calling the dragons to his side with the beat of his drum. Their wooden teeth dug into the girl's shoulder to pull her away before her blood art could activate.

Or it was supposed to.

The damn hashira was there, a red mark curling up the side of his face like a fiery inkprint. His sword glowed red in the flames and each slice through a dragon with such a blade left the wound tingling. He freed the demon girl and in response she lunged forward with a sick hunger, blood trickling from the bite wounds in her shoulder.

Zohakuten tried to jump away but she grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him in close, and cackled as they both combusted into flames.

It burned. Like the morning sun itself, the flames turned his cells to ash one painful, agonizing layer at a time. The whole time she stood in that inferno, cackling and relishing the screams of the Upper Moon.

How!? She was just a simple demon! She was supposed to be weak! She was supposed to be insignificant! This was supposed to be easy!

He had been forced further and further back, desperately outrunning the flames and the hungry gaze of the rose-eyed demon. She was fast too! Strong! Painful! He had no way to kill her either!

They danced backward into the streets of the now-abandoned village, the horror donned in fuscia and rose never ceased her pursuit. It was as if Zohakuten was prey - and perhaps he was. She drooled like a starving bear, her nails summoning his blood with every strike and her teeth glinting in the firelight she summoned.

Perhaps she lived by devouring her kind.

"You prey on the weak!" Zohakuten condemned, trying to strike her one last time.

She caught his wrist before he could drum and his blood ran cold.

"No." It was the first word he heard her speak.

As they stood in their stunned peace, Zohakuten sensed several things. First - the Flame demon was approaching to try to take off his head again. Second, Gyokko was approaching. Third, that dreaded brat had found his other form - his actual form!

And fifth - the door leading to the Infinity Fortress had opened. But nothing had come out.

He dodged the Hashira's blows, ripping away from the young demon and leaping up to the rooftops where he spotted Gyokko fairly quickly, chasing after some younger boy with...

With dark hair and emerald eyes.

"Gyokko!" he shouted.

"IN A MINUTE!" Gyokko screeched back as he madly crawled after the boy. There was a flash of light as a stun grenade was thrown between the boy and the Kizuki, another hashira appearing like magic to try and decapitate Upper Three unsuccessfully.

Zohakuten sneered and was about to intervene when his banes returned. The girl tackled him down from the rooftop, throwing him to the earth with every ounce of strength so that when he landed, the earth gave way. The hashira was next, his sword devouring everything in its path like wildfire. Upper Two just barely managed to avoid it, losing half of his face instead of all his neck.

The hashira caught himself, turned around, and prepared to pounce again when something made him pause. The younger demon did too, looking the same way as the hashira.

A lapse in attention!

Zohakuten summoned all the dragons he could, elevating himself into the air atop one as they coiled and snarled. Once he was free, and only then, did he look down to what his foes were staring at.

The house that Nakime had opened a portal through. The house leading to the infinity fortress.

The house that had just opened and spat out Doma, Akaza, and four hashira.

That just... wasn't... fair...

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

There was no time to breathe. There was only action. The freedom of fresh air was a blessing to the lungs of those escaping the Infinity Fortress, but it became readily apparent that the fight wasn't over.

The swordsmith's village was ablaze, pink flames gnawing at the wood, but not burning anything that wasn't demon blood. Doma leaned warily away from the pink flames that leaned towards him hungrily, bringing Miku with him.

More Upper Moons - Doma could smell them.

"Hantengu!" Akaza's hiss broke through his thoughts as the pale demon pointed towards a rooftop. A silhouette Doma didn't recognize stood there, but as the wind changed it was easy to confirm; Hantengu!

The Upper Moon looked down at them with horror. Mitsuri and Obanai jumped into action, lunging for the beast. Gyomei steadied Muichiro who was left at his side while Akaza and Doma prepared to defend the injured slayers.

A legion of wooden dragons erupted from the houses before the two charging slayers. Such things posed no issue for the Love or Snake hashira. Misturi's blade caught the firelight and shone with glorious brilliance as she sliced her way through the dragons, so gracefully it almost seemed she was dancing.

Obanai ran at her side, low and patient as he trusted Mitsuri's control and his own reaction. What dragons she could not stop he struck, his sword splintering the mighty jaws before him as they ran recklessly forward. They were fast, but not fast enough. Something else crashed into Hantengu's new form - something vicious, snarling, and alight with pink flames.

"Is that..." Akaza breathed.

Doma recognized it faster than his friend, or perhaps he simply had more panic to scream her name: "Nezuko!"

She was fearsome - grown. Her demonic nature was fully apparent as she stood over the demon she'd torn down. Lit by her fires and grinning threw drooled snarls... she bore no resemblance to the innocent demon who wandered the butterfly estate. It made a pit form in Doma's stomach.

"Kanroji! Iguro!!" a voice bellowed over the fires, and around the corner sprinted Kyojuro Rengoku. He was battered, but nowhere near the states of Muichiro of Gyomei, and he halted to see them all splayed before him, a strange mark staining his chin and cheek. "What -"

"What's the situation!?" Obanai hissed as he slid to a stop on the eaves, Mitsuri's blade covering him.

"Two Upper Moons. This body is only a distraction, Kamado Tanjiro hunts the real Upper Two!" Kyojuro collected himself quickly, whirling around to slice through more Dragon attacks without missing a beat.

"And the other?" Obanai was quick to demand.

"Hashibira and Uzui are dealing with it!"

"Inosuke!?" Doma choked, his throat tight as he stumbled forward. "Inosuke's here!?"

"Stay back!" Kyojuro demanded. "Defend the wounded!"

Muichiro hissed against that, stumbling forward as he brandished his sword: "I can fight!"

Akaza held out a hand to stall him. "You can stay! They have this."

Doma wished he shared such confidence. He was entranced with Nezuko's display, with cruelty he hadn't seen in her, the young demon hauled Hantengu up by his throat and threw him down into the earth, right before Kyojuro, Misturi, and Iguro.

A death sentence.

Hantengu's form summoned all the wooden beasts he could, but he was surrounded by a whirlwind of swords and fury. He lost his head, his arms, and everything in between. His defenders were reduced to splinters in mere moments as Obanai's sword sliced into his stomach, Mitsuri's wrapped around his head, and Kyojuro's took his legs.

It didn't kill him, but the demon screamed in fury and pain all the same as the process repeated itself, at least until Nezuko arrived. The demon slayers all jumped away as the blaze landed, scorching the earth around her as she tore into her prey. Hantengu's form screeched in agony now, wailing as her claws tore at his skin and her fires gnawed at his wounds.

Something was wrong. Enraptured, Doma gingerly placed Miku on the ground. She backed away from the scene, hiding behind her father and then Akaza as Doma drifted closer.

Something was wrong... he could smell it. Nezuko's blood burned all around him but more than that... more than that.

There was fury.

There was bloodlust.

There was want.

There was joy.

She was laughing. She giggled as she tore muscles from bone and then bone from body. The blood that splattered on her face warmed with the fires she summoned. She rose from the healing body of her foe, a new smell wafted through the smoke - hunger.

"No..." Doma breathed.

"We must wait for Kamado and Agatsuma to behead the true body," Kyojuro instructed as Nezuko's laughs died down.

"Well, he's taking long enough - where is he!?" Obanai snarled.

Kyojuro pointed towards the forest resolutely, keeping his sword at the ready; "That way."

"I'm going to finish the brat's job -" Obanai had moved to sprint past the scorching scene when it all fell apart.

Nezuko lunged. Doma did too. Because Nezuko did not lung at Hantengu, nor at a wooden dragon, nor at anything that was a true enemy. 

She lunged at Obanai. Her jaw opened in a desperate roar, saliva spilling from her lips as her body demanded what her spirit would never want. Obanai would not care, her heart would not matter in the end of it all.

So Doma moved faster - barely. He wrapped his arms around the girl and pulled her back mere inches from where Obanai's sword lashed out to end her life.

"No!" he pleaded into her ears. "No! Nezuko!"

Her eyes flashed, focusing on him with all her might and his blood chilled. Those were not soft eyes. Those were not kind eyes. Those were not Nezuko's eyes.

He was burning.

A scream broke past his lips as every cell in his body was devoured by the flames. It was like sunlight - worse. He was on fire and Nezuko was struggling to free herself. He was on fire and Hantengu's clone was rising, his shoulders and torso still stitching himself back together. He was on fire and all were looking on in horror.

Miku was screaming, hoarsely with the last of her voice, Akaza was forcing her back - weariness in his eyes that was drowning out the pain and fear that glimmered there. Muichiro was stepping forward. Gyomei was preparing his ax. Kyojuro, Mitsuri, Obanai - all eyes had suddenly turned on Nezuko.

"I have her!" Doma screamed over the fire. "I have her - get him!"

Nezuko sunk her fangs into his arms and he clenched his teeth so hard, that they cracked.

He had no blood art left to offer, no healing that would act faster than the fire. All he could do was hold her still, neither harming nor tiring her.

The slayers moved on reluctantly, continuing their assault on Hantengu until - with a wail - he crashed into the ground and turned to ash. Not that Doma saw. Not that Doma noticed. He didn't notice the giant fish creatures crashing through the street, turning the corner and charging the group. He didn't notice how the slayers lunged for their next victim - the beast of eel and flesh wiggling and writhing as he tried to make his escape.

He didn't even realize it was Inosuke's blade that pinned Gyokko's tail to the street - Inosuke's weary body that kept the demon from escaping and allowed Misturi's blade to rip around his neck, slicing it thin enough so that Tengen and Kyojuro could finish the job.

He didn't see Obanai's sword slice the hand that would've killed Inosuke. He didn't see how close that palm came to his son - what sliver of a chance Inosuke had to survive had Obanai's reflexes not intervened.

He could only focus on the young demon in his arms. The demon who struggled and screamed for blood, for flesh, for death, for life - for all things demons crave. 

"Please... Nezuko you mustn't," he rasped desperately. "Nezuko please -  they are your allies."

But she was desperate. Her wounds had all healed, and with no blood to awaken her blood, the fires faded. Still, she writhed like a fish in his hands and tore into every bit of flesh her claws and fangs would find.

"Nezu-""NEZUKO!"

Doma looked up to see Tanjiro, sprinting. His head was bleeding - no everything was bleeding, and yet he sprinted faster than Kyojuro could stop him. He sprinted for Nezuko!

"Tanjir -" Doma had meant to cry 'NO' or 'STOP' or something of the like. He didn't have time - the boy raced past the dissolving fish creatures and the sheathing swords of the hashira, crashing in front of his sister and grabbing her hands, fearing no nail or tooth.

"Nezuko!" he begged desperately as she growled against Doma's hold.

"She's pushed herself too far, she's in survival mode," Akaza heaved through heavy breaths. Doma did not have time to remember that Akaza didn't have to breathe...

"Please... please," Doma could only hold the girl firmer, something strange prickling at his eyes as he looked up and glimpsed Mirakuru across the street. She watched with wide eyes and dried tear ducts, her lip trembling.

"Nezuko! Wake up Nezuko!" Tanjiro strained to control his sister's vicious hands that weren't trying to tear at his flesh... yet...

The hashira were drifting closer, their eyes steeling with grief... grief...

"Don't," Doma breathed, so softly only the stars heard him. "Please don't..."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

She was hungry.

So... so hungry. And she'd been hungry for so long. That's all it was: pain and pain and pain and pain and pain! Pain and anger and fury and pain and hate and hurt. She wanted to hurt! She wanted to hurt them! She wanted to eat! Just a little bit! Just a taste - just a morsel! It would make the hurt go away, she was sure of it! 

Just... just... a little... bit...

Nezuko

The demon opened her eyes. It was cold - terribly cold. She hated the cold. Hated it - hated it! She took a step into the darkness and heard that void crunch under her feet. She looked down and found snow beneath her, its flakes taunting her as they drifted past her face.

She hated snow. How white it was... how starkly red stuck out in it.

Immediately it all burst into flame; big, beautiful, warm fire. The world burned around her and she breathed in the smoke greedily. So warm... so hungry.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

She was straining hard against Doma's arms, her growls crescendoing into vicious snarls. Her pupils were pinpricks in a glowing pink coal, wild and starved.

"Kamado," Kyojuro tried to pull Tanjiro away with words but it only steeled the boy. He held his sister's hands tight and all watched in horror, wondering if this was the end of it all - the end of such a happier tale. Inosuke had run to Miku's side, questions ramming around his head as he wordlessly held her close and watched, uncertainty in his every tremble.

Everyone seemed to tremble.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro screamed to her, side weeping with blood and breaths wheezing through bruised lungs. "Please, please you know me! You know them! Come back to me please! Don't go! Don't go - remember!!"

It was Obanai who prepared his sword first, stopped only by Tengen's hand on his shoulder and Mitsuri's tears.

"We have to accept reality," Obanai breathed - and for once it was not cruel.

"We have to hope," came Tengen's heavy answer.

Doma strained to hold the girl, his legs crossed over her torso and his arms trapping her head - all of him burned by her flames. Wounds that were not healing quickly - if at all. She writhed again, throwing her head back and slamming Doma's nose with the back of her head. He hissed in pain as blood began to pour from a now broken nose.

It seemed all was leaning into the scene, just waiting for the next thing to snap.

But, with the desperation of a dying man, Tanjiro leaned in closer, bringing Nezuko's trapped hands to his chest, wept... and sang. A broken song between gasps of pain and fear.

"Hush baby... bunny... on the hill..."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

"Nezuko?" It was Kaa-san. She waited by the hill with an open hand and the little girl eagerly ran to her side, taking that hand. Kaa-san's hands were much larger than her smaller, pudgy ones. They were also warmer in the summer.

Little brother sat on her back. New and round and sleeping.

Kaa-san smiled - a warm smile. The little girl smiled back.

Then, she was not so little and was lying in the snow, cold. She was bigger. Okaa-san leaned over her, Nezuko's head safe in her lap as she ran her fingers threw her hair - her cold, cold hair.

"Nezuko," she breathed - but she didn't breathe, "My Nezuko."

Hanako laughed. Shigeru pulled at her haori. Takeo frowned, trying to hide his embarrassment. Rokuta was cold... so cold... she held him close and he was so... cold...

"Nezuko," it was so warm, so warm.

It was her mother, in the snow, clean and happy and soft. It was her mother, but it wasn't, because her mother... because Kaa-san... because...

The house. The blood. The man... the monster...

Hushabye baby bunny on the hill... why do you have red eyes?

Kie's voice was like a blanket and a cup of honey. It was warm hands and a warmer house with charcoal burning in the fireplace. It was packed rice balls and the tying of winter shoes. It brushed its fingers through her hair and smiled at her from those purple eyes. 

Because when my mother was going to have a baby, she ate a red berry, so that's why my eyes are red.

"Kaa-san?"

"Hmmm?"

"Is that why Onii-chan's eyes are red?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you eat the berries? The red berries? Like the bunny's mom?"

She laughed. She smiled and laughed and was warm.

"Oh, Nezuko... Maybe..."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Nezuko sobbed.

Her snarls vanished into wails as she collapsed her struggles. Large tears overflowed from her eyes as she collapsed forward, into Tanjiro's arms - weeping. Gone was the monster, gone was the beast, it was Nezuko again, wailing loudly into her brother's arms with pain and hurt and loss.

"Nezuko," Tanjiro breathed, and he felt his own body sag in relief.

She was back. She wouldn't be killed. She was back...

She was hurting. She gripped his ripped haori and sobbed, each wail tearing at her throat as she curled in on herself - grief. It was grief that flooded her scent. A grief that had never been given a chance to bloom in her.

Tanjiro knew at once as she buried her face in his shoulder and screamed. Loud, raw, hurt.

She remembered.

She remembered. She knew.

"Nezuko..." he had nothing else to say. He held her close and began to rock as his own eyes prickled with tears. Mother. Rokuta. Shigeru. Hanako. Takeo.

Nezuko knew.

She shrunk in his arms after a few minutes, her wails quieting as the fatigue took over. Her eyes once set on bloodshed and hunger faded and closed as her tears continued to fall and she fell completely limp. She was small again, a toddler - a baby whose cheeks were stained with tears and blood, safe in her brother's arms. A toddler Tanjiro just barely remembered from his childhood.

Tanjiro only held her close and tried to keep his sniffles quiet, relief and grief warring in him as it had all come so close... it had all come so close.

Two arms wrapped around the siblings and Tanjiro flinched at the touch, relaxing at the scent of mochi.

"Sorry," Mitsuri sniffled as she squeezed a bit tighter. "You just... you two needed it."

Maybe it was the softness with which she said it. Maybe it was the larger arms wrapped around him, hugging in a way he hadn't remembered. Either way, it was the last bit the boy could take.

He broke into quieter sobs, squeezing Nezuko close as Mitsuri hugged him.

"Oh... Tanjiro," Misturi's voice blubbered.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he breathed shakily as Nezuko stirred in his arms. "Thank you."

Sobs caught in his throat and he couldn't stomp them down, they bubbled out of his throat as he tried to hide behind Mitsuri's arm. He peeked out only to glimpse at Doma whose burned face had melted into something with a weary smile.

"Thank you," he breathed. The demon only gave the smallest of nods.

A quiet silence descended on the fallout of it all. Nothing stirred for a moment, nothing dared to. Everyone took a breath and let the adrenaline fade.

It began with Mitsuri. Her throat choked as she held Tanjiro, squeezing him tighter as tears spilled past her eyes, flowing down her face in silent grief. Muichiro was next, collapsing onto the ground, holding his shoulder where his arm had once sprouted from. His eyes were wide, spilling with tears before he sucked in a tight breath and slumped into Gyomei's arms.

The Rock Hashira was forced to sit as he held the Mist Hashira, splaying out his injured leg which Kyojuro and Tengen were quick to run to and treat. Obanai drifted to a side of a nearby house, leaned against its wall, and slowly slid into a sitting position, holding one of his knees as he looked up into the sky and tried to blink away visions of the Master's mansion.

Miku and Inosuke ran up to Doma, Mirakuru wordlessly throwing herself into his arms as Doma pulled Inosuke in for a hug. No word dared to break the silence. Not a whisper moved past anyone's lips beyond quiet gasps of pain and softer hitches of grief.

At least until Akaza took a step and collapsed. Kyojuro was there to watch it, the pale demon swaying on his feet before daring to tread toward Doma and the others. His knees gave out and his body slammed against the earth. Kyojuro tore away from Gyomei's side as Akaza crumpled.

"Akaza!" the Flame hashira was at his side in moments, pulling him over and panicking at his stillness. There was no breath to check! No heart to search for! "Akaza!"

Doma, Inosuke, and Miku all scrambled over, Doma forcing himself to move, wincing with every step.

"What's wrong with him?" Miku demanded - her voice so hoarse it sounded more like a weak growl. She grabbed Akaza's shoulder and held it tight.

"Is he dead!?" Inosuke hissed, eyes wide and frantic.

Kyojuro tested the demon's pulse, holding two fingers at his neck, knowing full well that even if the demon was fine, the heart shouldn't beat.

"Is he... is he alright?" Tanjiro stumbled over, carrying Nezuko.

"Tanjiro, you need medical attention," Kyojuro breathed, looking up at the boy who still donned a semi-circle of holes in his torso.

Mitsuri was at his side gently pulling Nezuko away from him; "Let me hold her."

"But... he's alright," Tanjiro breathed, looking down at Akaza.

"I... I don't know." It was Doma who couldn't seem to find the strength in his words, leaning forward to grab the pale demon's arm and shake it. "He... he was decapitated... he... I don't even know how he's alive..."

"Decapitated?" Kyojuro demanded sharply.

"Many times," Gyomei explained wearily, "by Upper One."

"Kokushibo!?" Kyojuro's words caught in his throat as his eyes looked down at the pale demon wildly. "But... but he has a nichirin sword -"

"He doesn't sound harmed," Tengen supposed critically, kneeling next to Kyojuro to study the body.

"He... he smells like..." Tanjiro rasped.

"You need to sit down!" Mitsuri scolded gently.

And then Kyojuro felt it - a pulse. Soft, but firm. A heartbeat.

"His heart!" the Flame hashira almost celebrated, leaning over the demon and grinning. "His heart beats!"

"He smells like Nezuko... sleeping," Tanjiro nodded. "He... he must be ti..." the boy swayed and Mitsuri caught him firmly.

"Come on - next to Muichiro," she ordered, helping the boy (dragging him in all honesty).

"Is anyone's crow nearby?" Obanai demanded sharply from across the street, his eyes covered by his hand.

"Yes," Kyojuro nodded sharply. "I'll send him for medical assistance -"

"And the butterfly estate!" Doma pleaded desperately, leaning forward over Akaza.

Kyojuro and Tengen both recoiled in shock, the Sound Hashira gathering his words first; "Butterfly estate?" 

"It was attacked," Miku's small voice pleaded.

The Flame and Sound hashiras leaned back in horror, dissecting that.

"Everything was attacked," Obanai grated in a hiss. "It's just a matter of finding out what's left."

Kyojuro slowly looked down at Akaza's still form and found that the pit in his gut wasn't too deep as he felt the demon's heart pulse again.

"Everything?" Tengen echoed fearfully.

"Yes. The Master is dead," Mitsuri's words gutted all. All relief Kyojuro once found fled at those words as everyone turned to her. "Master Kagaya is dead. We have to regroup. We have to recover."

Everyone sagged, tears prickling what eyes weren't watering as the heaviness of Obanai's words settled with them.

"As I said..." the Snake hashira breathed, his white snake peeking out from his shoulder, also sagging under the unseen weight: "We must find out what we still have... and what else we've lost."

(*Everyone sitting there, traumatized; crying, mourning, grieving, panicking, worrying*

Zenitsu: Hi guys! Good news! I got those swordsmiths to safety and Tanjiro got the Upper Moo - whoa... what... happened???

Everyone:...

Zenitsu: Whoa cool, we got backup! That's nice, when did we get backup? What are you guys doing here? Why's Akaza on the floor? Why's Tanjiro cryi - WHOA WHY ARE YOU ALL CRYING? What did I - WDYM THE MASTER'S DEAD? WHAT? Why's Miku here - W H A T!? YOU ALL DID WHAT? W H E R E? YOU WHAT!? WE'RE WHAT!??? oh my god, Mister Rock-man, you're leg  - HOLY SHIT WHERE THE FUCK IS MIST BOY'S ARM! OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! WE ALL SHOULD'VE DIED! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! HOW AREN'T YOU ALL DEAD!? YOU STILL HAVEN'T ANSWERED THE AKAZA THING - S L E E P I N G???..... he does that now? Oh... cool...  WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE GREW HIS HEAD BACK!???????????? HUH???????)

Woooo sorry this took so long, but this sucker was a LONG BOI, so I think it makes up for it. I may rewrite the later parts of it because I just sat down and forced myself to finish it but it does its job for now. Thanks for being patient folks! Love ya, I'll publish soon! <3