"i was so worried! never do that again!"

the sweet smell of the night air and the sounds of birdsong awakened hotaru from a long and peaceful slumber.

when she blinked her tiredness out of her eyes and looked around, she realized that she was in the dream world enmu had made for her, and that she was alone.

hotaru got back up on her feet and put her hands to her throat, expecting to feel pain there from where the young man had choked her, but there was none.

what sort of magical healing techniques do demons have, to remove all the pain from an injury and heal the injury itself? she marveled.

yet again, she was surprised by the power demons had. if demon slayers had the same healing power as demons, they could heal battle wounds much faster and much more effectively, reducing the amount of recovery time it took before a slayer could return to the battlefield.

hotaru, you need to stop praising demons, she chided herself.

hotaru looked into the knothole in the tree that held the portal back to her room, and saw a figure pacing inside it. after looking closely, she realized that it was enmu, and he seemed distraught.

immediately, she touched the portal to return back to her room so that she could console him, not wanting him to suffer a moment longer.

"hotaru!" he cried out, throwing his arms around her and capturing her in a tight embrace. "my little firefly, my beautiful dreamer..."

"what is it?" hotaru asked, concerned. she'd never seen enmu this way; something had to be seriously wrong!

"thank goodness you're alive! i was so worried! never do that again!" he said huffily, letting go of her and crossing his arms with a pout.

hotaru laughed at how childish enmu was being and how cute he looked doing it, and that only made him pout more.

suddenly, an image of muichiro flashed into her mind, and her laugh abruptly ended and was replaced with a frown.

how could she be such a terrible girlfriend? he was most likely risking his life to look for her and suffering because he was apart from her, and here she was falling for the first kind man she met! how disgraceful of her! muichiro didn't deserve a girlfriend as terrible as her.

when enmu saw hotaru looking sad, he instantly stopped playing around and looked at her with concern in his big blue eyes.

"what's wrong, hotaru?" he asked.

"it's nothing," hotaru lied, not wanting enmu to know that she was thinking of a man other than him. she didn't know how he'd react, and she didn't want to upset a powerful demon like him.

"it's not nothing!" he exclaimed. "you were having such peaceful and joyful dreams, and now you woke up and saw me and now you're sad. it must be my fault..."

"enmu-" hotaru began, but it was too late. enmu had already left the room and was nowhere to be found.

no matter who i love, muichiro or enmu, there's going to be someone that suffers... hotaru thought. love is so cruel!

she sat on her bed thinking for a long while, weighing the pros and cons of being a demon and being a human, and considering whether she should pick muichiro or enmu as her lover. after an hour of thinking, with her thoughts just becoming more and more muddled and maze-like, she gave up, and decided to take a nap to rest her mind.

as she napped, she was thrust between turbulent dreams, like a sailor on a storm-wracked boat. there was no joy in these dreams, no peace. nothing but pain and sorrow.

an angry enmu was pacing the floors of his room, violent and painful thoughts filling his head and forming nightmares in the minds of others.

why didn't hotaru love him? he could see it in her eyes, she loved another man. she was trying to not make it obvious, but it was as clear as day to him.

what could he do to make her love him? he had tried being kind, and it didn't work. he could try to be mean, but knowing hotaru's personality, that wouldn't attract her at all...

as he agonized and his heart filled with hate, an idea came to him.

i'll just have to find the young man she loves and kill him! he thought. then she has no one else to love but me!

satisfied with this plan, he began looking through all the dreams in hotaru's head, searching for the name of the young man who she loved. if she loved him, certainly she would've dreamt of him at least once!

after a few minutes of looking through dreams and learning things about hotaru he never expected to learn (dreams are good ways, if not the best way of learning about people's darkest secrets) enmu found both the name and the face of hotaru's lover.

tokito muichiro, the mist hashira. a mere child. i will take him down easily!

upon finding the name and face of hotaru's lover, enmu left his room, and searched through the endless rooms and corridors of the infinity castle on a search for nakime.

it took him a long while, but eventually he found her resting in a room with her biwa by her side.

"nakime, you need to teleport me to the human world, now!" he insisted.

nakime refused, saying that she had just sent rui there, and that there was no reason for two demons to go after the same target.

"what target? i won't be stealing that boy's target, i have my own!"

nakime apologized for the mix up, and asked what target enmu wanted to be sent to and whether muzan had ordered it or not.

"tokito muichiro, the mist hashira! as for kibutsuji..."

enmu hesitated. if he lied and said muzan had ordered him to kill the mist hashira, nakime would most likely teleport him directly to the boy's location, but if muzan found out he lied in his name, enmu might get killed. however, if he told the truth, nakime might refuse to bring him to the real world, and might even report him to muzan.

a lie is always better than the truth, enmu whispered to himself.

"kibutsuji has ordered me to destroy him, so you should send me there immediately!"

nakime agreed, and with one strum of her biwa, enmu was thrown into the human world, and directly into the fight between rui and muichiro.

a/n: thankfully, this chapter is a little longer, although it does contain some moments where enmu is a little out of character. despite that, i hope you liked this chapter! exciting things are coming in the next chapters, so please stay tuned!

also here's a little silly bonus scene for you that i was thinking about in my head that made me laugh!

bonus scene:

nakime sighed deeply after enmu disappeared into the human world. she hated her job. why, she was nothing but a glorified carriage, transporting these idiots where they wanted to be! why couldn't they just go on their own...

master muzan, forgive me, but this job sucks! couldn't you have made me the chef for the group or something? i can cook! well, i basically can...

as if he had heard her thinking about him (which he probably had) muzan appeared in front of nakime.

"i heard you thinking of me, and i sensed someone leaving the infinity castle. what happened?" he asked.

"tamio enmu has gone to fight tokito muichiro," nakime said, horrendously bored of all of this.

can't i just take a nap or something? i can't be running 24/7; as much as people like to think of me as one, i am not a carriage!!

muzan looked at nakime, deeply perturbed.

"ve...ry well..." he said, confused.

he turned to go, and he heard nakime's thoughts once again.

he's just gonna leave me like that without even commenting on how sad my life has become? i do nothing but transport demons places all the time; i have no purpose in life anymore!

"nakime?" he said.

"yes, master muzan?" nakime groaned.

"good job on... you know... everything."

with that, he disappeared, and nakime spent the rest of the day cursing herself, her job, and her boss.

fuck this, she thought. i need a break.

a/n: i hope you like that little goofy mini writing piece! i know muzan and nakime are out of character, but that's what makes it funny, at least to me! i hope i could make you laugh with this :)