For those that find this master list, if you want to request here is the rules page! I've been having problems with requester, so i implore you to read the rules page thoroughly!!
(if you find any mistakes with the links tell me!! i’ll fix it asap! thank you)
thanks for all the support!!! love yall 💕💕💕
- ̗̀ KNY Writing Blog Masterlist ̖́-
thanks @promotionkny!!
- ̗̀ Demon Slayers ̖́-
Kamado Tanjirou
Kamado Nezuko (she a demon slayer in my mind u scrubs)
Pairing: oh goly gee, I wonder (Sanemi x afab!reader)
Synopsis: Sanemi is not a nice man. But he is traumatized. And he is kind. And he is trying his best.
Warnings: Maybe eventual smut, we'll see. Trauma and grief. Child and domestic abuse and death. (some pretty heavy stuff) Yeah there's angst sorry
Notes: Hi guys! It's been a while, but I've slowly been writing on the back end. I have about 5 chapters written up, with chapters a little bit longer than my usual 2k words. It's honestly slow going because I now work full time, but I really wanted to write a post Muzan story. Obvi, there will be spoilers, so anime only watchers beware. Also can you tell I've given up on changing my tumblr aesthetic and post formatting lmfao. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks (I'm 22)
This was influenced by a Lokixreader fanfic on Ao3 that I got really into called Thrown by Maple_Seed. I tried to make it my own as much as I could, but there will be some plot points that were mirrored from there. I highly recommend giving that fic a read!
No set update schedule for this. Just whenever I can bust chapters out. Love you guys!
This might sound weird and cringy but I was rereading your hating game fic and I specifically loved the ending of chapter 4 where reader started to smile... And I went to a Taylor concert and when she started singing Fearless, I started crying because it reminded me of that scene and it's just so beautiful? Just that. Just thank you <3
🥹 i can’t believe the power of the hating game and taylor swift was able to evoke such raw emotion from you. taylor swift herself (i asked her personally) and i are beyond honored 🙇🏻♀️
from one burnt out formerly gifted kid to another, i thank you for rereading the hating game! please take care of yourself!!
May I request male!reader x Rengoku headcanons where reader is a baker? no rush, you can ignore this if you would like :)
Kyoujuro x baker!reader
so yummy and fun to write hehe
Just imagine waking up at ass o clock in the morning just to make your bread and you the swordsman in your village often comes home at those weird house and stands quietly outside your bakery just for a small whiff
The one time Kyoujuro comes by in the day time, buys a shit ton of bread, eats it all outside, keeps yelling “UMAI!”
It actually helps the business so you give him a couple things for free lol and thus your relationship with the Flame Pillar begins
Kyoujuro noticing a small dust of flour on your cheek and absentmindedly licking his thumb then wiping it off before going right back into his exciting story
Your face would be a HAWT as the rolls you pull out of the oven
He would be so smooth?? And he doesn’t even know that he’s doing it???
This bakery is under the protection of the RENGOKU FAMILY, YA HEAR
Karens and demons NOT ALLOWED
You realize that he sits outside your bakery after missions just to smell the bread and decide to have an open door policy for him
So now you knead your dough and let him try your new creations and his head almost touches the ceiling when he sits on the counter as you rush around and pull trays of bread out of the oven
He brings his tsuguko, Mitsuri, in one day and you have! To! Pretend! Not! To! Be! Jealous!!!
But mitsuri is your girl and she gets the hint IMMEDIATELY while this dunce still thinks you’re nice to everyone and give away free bread all the time
He comes back one day after a nasty mission with cuts and bruises and he’s barely able to hold himself up against your door and you drag him inside, stuff a curry bun into his mouth, then do your best to clean up his wounds
“You idiot! Why didn’t you go to a doctor first!!”
“I had to see you. No matter what.”
"Also I was craving a red bean bun"
He can be soft and serious when he wants to be
FINALLY understands your feelings when you throw a heart shaped bun at his face
↳ Geniuses within the same fields yet rivals within each other’s eyes, your colleagues wonder when the sexual tension will break so that you two will become the department’s powerhouse couple so that they can enter you two into the power couple contest against the other departments. Some things might have to be done by force.
WARNINGS —
↳ cursing, alcohol, very dirty smex (tumblr plz dont censor me)
AUTHOR’S NOTE —
↳ This wasn’t supposed to become a 18+ mini fic but,,,, my hand slipped,,,
↳ Geniuses within the same field yet rivals within each other’s eyes, your colleagues wonder when the sexual tension will break so that you two will become the department’s powerhouse couple so that they can enter you two into the couples contest against the other departments. Some things might have to be done by force.
WARNINGS —
↳ humiliation/degradation/praise kink, toys, just filth before angst before closure
[Navigation]
Shinobu doesn’t want to admit how good it feels to have a vibrator shoved inside her pussy. You make sure to push it in deep and her walls stretch, already starting to feel overstimulated at the pulsing. She tries to bury herself into the pillow, to drop her hips just a little, but you make sure that she doesn’t move. Your hands wrap around her hips, pulling them up, even when her legs start to shake with the effort of keeping herself up.
Her mind is blank as you rifle around the drawer again, pushing past some rope and anal beads. Even her sex toys are purple and look expensive, and you wonder just how much free time Shinobu must have. That, or how little free time she has, and the amount of stress she holds within her small body.
Then you spot the purple collar and leash before smiling. It’s lacey and has small butterflies adorning it, and you almost laugh at how elegant the leash is. So typical of Shinobu. You decide to grab the furry purple handcuffs too, because why not. All the more to humiliate her.
Shinobu lifts her head to see what you’re doing and you take the opportunity to wrap the collar around her neck.
“You can’t be serious-” she chokes when you tug, and you mumble a “Good girl,” to keep her docile. She hates how she crumbles within an instant at that, and she hates it more than you know.
Her head turns against the pillow, watching as you hold the leash in your mouth and use your hands to grab her own, tightening the handcuffs and binding her hands behind her back.
“Such a pretty thing,” you coo, lowering yourself against her back and using your thigh to push the vibrator even further up her cunt. Shinobu can feel the vibrator finally reach the end, and she screams into the pillow.
“Bunsen?” You try to help, pulling the leash and arching her back to get a better look at her fucked out face. Shinobu’s pride is just as high as yours as she shakes her head.
“F-Fu-ah- Fuck yo- ou.” Shinobu spits out, and you smile.
“Just for that, I think I’ll take a picture.”
Her head whips back, eyes wide and panicked. You raise a brow, waiting for her protest, but she doesn’t give one. Instead she stares at you with her face red as her slick continues to spill out of her cunt, ruining the bedsheets.
“Oh you like that, don’t you?” You tease, and she opens her mouth before quickly snapping it shut. You can see the anger in her eyes, the absolute humiliation, but you also see a seed of pleasure behind it all.
What was always a little joke has turned into reality, and you now realize that Shinobu really does enjoy being put in her place. Just the thought of it almost makes you cum yourself.
The picture doesn’t do the image justice.
There is Shinobu, the silk covers bunched around her. Her ass is up in the air with the purple vibrator barely sticking out of her cunt. Her legs are streaked with her juices, running down her legs and causing a reflection to bounce off it and into the camera. Her neck is splotched with purple bruises that can be seen under the lace collar, and her boobs are pressed against the mattress. She’s turned her face towards you a little, so you can see one of her nipples perked and erect. There’s drool that continues to pool out of her mouth but she still looks into the camera, pupils blown wide and eyes looking a little dazed. Her arms are pushed behind her arched back, fingers curled around the fuzzy purple handcuffs.
The picture really doesn’t do the image justice.
You give yourself a quick stroke between your legs before turning your attention back to Shinobu, who is helpless in your hands.
“Do you want to cum?”
“Pl-Please…”
“Please what?”
“Plea-Please professor.”
“Good girl.”
You find the next toy, a purple vibrating wand, then click the one button. The head begins to shake, and you push the toy against her clit.
Shinobu cums in an instant. She screams at the sensation, but you keep her hips up with one arm and continue to press the wand to her clit. She squirts for the first time ever, and your hand starts to run with her juices, but you keep watching her face as she cums.
She tries to pull away from you, away from the overstimulation, but you keep your hold on her, only moving your arm to slap her ass as punishment.
“Good girls take what they’re given, right?”
Shinobu whimpers, and you push the toy even further against her clit.
It’s the tug of the leash, the vibrator pushed far into her cunt, the wand against her clit, and the fact that she can’t move her hands. It’s all too much but Shinobu moans and she bears it, because she’s a good girl.
She’s your good girl.
Her body goes limp and you decide that she’s had enough. Shinobu continues to babble, continues to feel her pussy throb, while you slowly turn off the wand and the vibrator, taking the devices away from her body. Her hands are the first to be freed, then her neck feels the absence of the collar.
Shinobu’s brain is still foggy when you come back into the room with a wet towel and a cup of water. She can vaguely feel your hands as they flip her over so that she faces the ceiling, or how they tilt her jaw, beckoning her mouth open to take a sip, or how they gently clean her legs and wrap her in a blanket.
She finally comes to when your hand brushes a piece of hair out of her face, and her eyes dart to yours.
“This is all this is to you, isn’t it?” She asks.
You tilt your head in confusion, “I thought I was the one asking questions?”
She ignores you and keeps going, “This is just sex to you. Just a game to you.”
Shinobu watches you, her eyes heavy and her hand starting to shake a bit. You see it and reach out to her, but she’s quick to snatch her hand away and hold it to her chest.
This time you ignore her and ask, “Why did you call me last night? Why me?”
It’s silent for a second. You wait for her answer and she’s staring at a corner of her room, avoiding your eyes. Then she does the worst possible thing she could ever do.
Shinobu turns to you, and smiles.
She puts her walls up in an instant, and she gives you the smile that you’ve always hated. The smile that makes people think that she’s better than everyone in every way possible. The political smile that people think is genuine and still think she’s nice even when she cuts them with her words.
“Stop, don’t do that to me.” You glare at her and her smile doesn’t waver.
“I heard you that day, a few months ago,” she whispers, eyes staring at you but not really acknowledging you.
“What day-?”
“There’s no way in hell you idiots will get me to date Shinobu Kochou. I’d rather an experiment blow up in my face than date her.”
You go quiet, stunned, because you didn't think she was around to hear that.
“Quite an awful thing to say, don’t you think? So yes, I knew who you were in the club. I thought I could change your mind, but then you left in the morning because it was a mistake.”
“Shinobu, wait-”
“And I realized that we were playing some game. This- This hating game. Except you were the only player and I had to play to survive. So I made sure there were rules, and you remember the most important one?”
“Please, wait-”
“Don’t fall in love.”
You’re stunned again, watching as she says all this with a small smile on her face. But then she blinks, and tears start to pool, and then they begin to fall.
“Don’t you get it? You won. You won this stupid hating game. I fell in love with you, you fucking asshole. That’s why I called you last night. But I know you’d never fall in love with me because you hate me so much. You just keep playing and playing, and I’m so done because god dammit this hurts,” Shinobu chokes her final word out, a hand over her chest.
Her eyes finally find yours beneath the tears and you’re staring at her, eyes wide. But you make no move to respond.
So she snaps, and she breaks, and she yells at you to get the fuck out of her apartment. And you do so, because she’s hurting and you know that if you admit your truth too, she’ll only think you’re taking her for a fool.
So you leave, and Shinobu cries herself to sleep.
—
“It’s a good thing your supervisor is so nice,” the voice of Kanroji Mitsuri squeaks over the phone. “A week long extension!”
Shinobu sighs, “Technically not an extension. I just told her I had the flu and couldn’t present my report to her.”
“I don’t know why it couldn’t be an email.”
“Good bye, Mitsuri.” Shinobu deadpans, then promptly hangs up the phone. Her bag is significantly lighter now that she’s dropped off her report, and her shoulders feel lighter too, since she no longer has to think about this damn presentation.
It’s been a week and she hasn’t heard from you, but she supposes it’s for the best. Her campus life today is significantly quieter, now that the department competition is over. She heard that the Physics department won, which means new lab equipment.
There’s a small part of her that’s disappointed in the lack of new chemistry equipment, but she supposes that they'll continue to make do with what they have already.
“SHINOBU!!!”
Said lady sighs in annoyance, suddenly having a frazzled Marcus rushing up to her.
“What is it now, Marcus?” she asks with all the patience in the world. She finds even more patience within her as she allows Marcus to tug her towards the labs, something along the lines of, “EMERGENCY!!!”
But she doesn’t fight it, her lab coat fluttering behind her as the two rush towards the chemistry building.
There’s a swarm of people outside the building as they approach, and she’s confused as to why they’re congregating out there when there’s no building alarm going off.
“Coming through!” Shinobu shouts over the crowd, and they part like the Red Sea at the sight of her. She doesn’t question this, instead bolting through the doors and running down the hall. She peeks through every lab room before spotting the one at the end of the hall, the door slightly ajar.
Then she hears your voice.
“Alright motherfuckers, you ready?”
BOOOOM!!
Shinobu was quick to throw her lab goggles on, and the small black smoke that starts to creep out of the doorway makes her scream.
She’s in the lab in an instant, grabbing the fire extinguisher off the way and pulling the pin to start spraying the fire out.
“ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” She’s screaming at you, for once in her life screaming at a level that has never been achieved before. The sound of the fire extinguisher blasts in her ear.
You’ve started to strip, pulling the line to the chemical shower and allowing the cold water to wash over you. Shinobu almost blasts you with the extinguisher right there for being a true dumbass.
But you’re laughing, actually laughing at the panic on her face, then throw Marcus a thumbs up over your shoulder.
"Great timing Marcus!" You call, and he hides behind the door when Shinobu whips her head to yell at him next.
"You know I'm too smart to screw something like this up," you say to her, running your hand through your hair and blinking your eyes at the water.
There's nothing hot about a chemical shower but damn do you make it so.
"You keep your tea set in the cabinet next to plate, right above the kettle, because that's practical. You arrange your skincare on your counter in the order that you apply it, and you have two sets of the same robe because laundry day means you need one clean robe to wear."
"You're not answering my-"
"You draw a little butterfly when a student gets an A on their reports, and you only grade with a purple pen. Earl Grey for the morning and chamomile for the evening. And you've made it your mission to make me feel something for anything again, and I do. Or else I wouldn't have created a safe and controlled explosion for you, or paid attention to you so much."
Shinobu stares at you, mouth agape and wide eyes blinking. Her pretty amethyst eyes, pools that glitter and sparkle even when there is no light to hit them.
You smile at her before shrugging, "I said I would rather have an experiment blow up in my face before I went out with you. And now one did. Guess what’s next?”
Shinobu pauses, gears turning and mulling over your long winded confession. But there's nothing else for her to do but smile, genuinely and truly smile, and say, “I hate you.”
“I love you too.”
---
THAAAAATS ITTTTTT
sorry this literally took me like 5 years to write, even tho it's a short story. im honestly surprised at how many of you guys enjoyed hating game and kept asking for me to finish it.
AND SORRY FOR POSTING THIS UNFINISHED. you were supposed to have a big ol speech and i forgot to write it before posting but here it is.
originally, they were supposed to do the competition, but then i realized that i would have to make a competition for these fools and make a bunch of ocs from different departments or smthn and i dont have the brainpower for that so i lazied out and made them drop lol sorry. shinobu was supposed to kiss you at the end of winning the competition and then make that confession, but i feel like this way is better and gives you guys the 18+ spice you signed up for.
anyway, thank you for reading! ive officially tied up all my loose ends on this blog, and have no guilt eating away at me since all my fics have been completed. idk, maybe one day ill go back to actively writing and completing requests! for now, good bye!
fml you guys i accidentally posted the last chapter of hating game before adding necessary plot edits im so sorry. it's deleted for now but i will be reposting in a day or two with the last official chapter :,)
to those of you that got lucky and already read it, have fun reading it twice hehe
↳ Geniuses within the same field yet rivals within each other’s eyes, your colleagues wonder when the sexual tension will break so that you two will become the department’s powerhouse couple so that they can enter you two into the couples contest against the other departments. Some things might have to be done by force.
WARNINGS —
↳ THIS IS ALL LEMON!!! SPICE UP THE WALLS!!! I'm not kidding guys this is just pure filth, every word of it.
[Navigation]
The face Shinobu makes when she cums is a sight to behold.
You can vaguely remember it from last time, though you were pretty drunk the two times you sent her over the edge. It’s more like you remember the sound of her though. How could you forget the way her pretty mouth babbled incoherently, trying to string together a sentence with words other than your name, ‘please,’ or ‘fuck.’
You’re determined to see it and engrave it into your mind now, especially since you’re making sure she answers three questions.
You’re still seated on the chair when you grab her by the waist, pulling her on top of you. Her nipples have perked up underneath her silk pajamas, and you rub a thumb over one. She shivers at your touch, and you can see that she’s a little irritated at how slow you’re going.
You’re so happy that it’s a nightgown that ends right at her thighs. You’re even happier with yourself for not pulling a pair of underwear onto her last night, since that’s the way Shinobu likes to sleep at night. Ever the vixen.
While your right hand goes up underneath to circle her right nipple, pinching and squeezing and flicking, your left thumb circles her clit.
“Is this what you wanted?” You ask Shinobu, her pussy growing even more wet. You take two fingers and slide them across her cunt, and she takes a sharp breath in.
“Yes,” she whispers, and you stop all movement.
“Yes, professor,” you chide, and instantly you feel her drip onto your pants.
She looks down at you, breathing heavily, but she keeps her mouth shut. Her face is red with embarrassment and you laugh to yourself.
“What’s wrong? I see you worship every professor that walks into the lecture hall. Can’t do it for me?”
She shakes her head, hiding her face in her hands, and you click your tongue in disappointment.
“Shame. I’ll fix that.”
You wrap an arm around her waist, lifting small frame into the air as you stand before turning and dropping her onto the couch instead. Then, once you’re on your knees, you duck your head under her nightgown and find her clit in an instant. Shinobu whines- yes, whines- aloud, grasping your shoulders for stability as her head lolls back.
You’re lapping and sucking with desperation, tongue swirling around her clit as you find a rhythm. Her thighs squeeze your head and you can feel them shake a little before pulling back.
Shinobu looks down at you with half lidded eyes, and you can see how frustrated she is that you’ve stopped.
“The point is to make me cum, asshole,” she bites and you smile.
“We have all day, relax. Such a brat,” you shake your head and Shinobu screams quietly in frustration. She runs a hand through your hair before tugging lightly and you chuckle.
“That’s not going to work on me. But something else might.”
Shinobu wants to smack the shit eating grin off your face right now, but her legs feel like jelly and she was so so close just a second ago and she wants you to talk to her.
So she swallows her pride, bites her lip, then shakily says, “Please make me cum professor.”
“Such a good girl,” you hum, then dive back in. This time you take your left hand and push one of her thighs up to get better access, hand clenching around the soft fat of her thighs. She yelps at the movement but switches to a moan once you get back to work, and she can’t deny how good you are with your tongue.
With your other hand massaging her tit and your tongue sucking just the right way, it takes Shinobu 5 seconds flat before her thigh shakes in your hand and she screams your name. You grip her thigh a little tighter to keep her from moving as she writhes around a little, and you can tell that she likes it by the way she moans your name louder, slipping in a, “Shit!” at the end.
Making sure to watch her face, you draw her orgasm out as long as you can, working her clit at the same pace and continuing to flick her sensitive nipple. And even when she slowly starts to relax from her high, you continue to diligently work.
She gives a lazy hum when she’s done, tugging your hair a bit, but you give her tit a harsh squeeze to stop her.
Shinobu’s face blossoms a deep red when you move from her clit to her cunt, lapping up the wetness that came from her first orgasm. Your tongue trails down even further, and you keep licking her clean, savoring her taste as you lick her thighs too.
“You can stop now,” she chastises, and you shrug.
“Just being thorough.”
“I can’t believe you slack off on everything but sex,” Shinobu rolls her eyes before continuing. “Alright, what’s your first question?”
You grin, “How far am I allowed to go?”
She deadpans, “I can’t believe you wasted a question.”
“Alright fine. I’ll make you cum four times then.”
Shinobu can’t tell if you’re being serious or not, but she pales nonetheless. She knows for a fact that her body can’t handle cumming four times, but the look in your eyes says that you’re willing to rip it out of her no matter what.
You thrum your finger on her thigh, patiently waiting for her to answer your question. When she realizes that this is 100% your question, she sighs and shrugs her shoulders.
“Our safe word is bunsen,” she says, and your brain ignites with possibilities.
Shinobu yelps in surprise, quickly turning to anger as she’s hoisted over your shoulder with minimal difficulty.
“Put me down!” She cries and you laugh. “Good girls don’t give orders. They take them,” you sing to her and she lets out a small scream of frustration.
“I swear to god I’ll- ah!” Shinobu moans in an instant when your finger finds a way into her pussy, already sopping wet again. You keep her there, body over your shoulder and her ass near your face. Your finger runs up and down her walls and she’s docile in a second, her mind running with pleasure.
She’s aggressive again when you throw her onto her bed, but is smart enough to keep her mouth shut. She’s rubbing her thighs together, missing the digit that was just inside her, and you smile with glee.
“Was one not enough?” You tease. Shinobu adverts her eyes, biting her lip as a war wages on inside her. Then, she mumbles under her breath, and you lean forward.
“Sorry princess, I didn’t hear you.”
“Please… Please fuck me… professor- fuck!”
You plunge two fingers inside her small cunt this time, giving her no time to breathe as you curl your fingers vigorously. Shinobu’s grabbing onto your shoulders, her back arched as she chants your name like a mantra. Over and over again, all you hear is your name in her moans, and only your name.
Shinobu is all yours, begging here for your fingers and your mouth. Your own little slut to praise and worship. Her body is a temple and it is your own to grovel at.
And she can tell, too.
Just the way your eyes search her own to make sure she’s completely at bliss. The way you use your other hand to gently wipe the bit of drool that slips from the corner of her mouth. The way you obey her commands of “Deeper, faster!” and still call her a, “Good girl,” just for taking it all.
Purple is Shinobu’s favorite color, and you make sure to paint her neck with it. You suck and bite her collarbone, watching the bruises erupt before suckling at another spot again. And when she moans particularly loud, you make sure to spend extra time sucking before soothing the bruise with your tongue.
You watch her face again, the way her eyes roll back and mouth hangs open, her walls spasming against your fingers the second your thumb swirled her clit. The high pitched screams of “Fuckfuckfuckfuck,” coming out of her mouth as Shinobu Kochou cums for the second time today.
Your fingers, though cramping slightly, continue to curl as she slowly comes down from her high. You make sure to grab every ounce of pleasure from her so that she won’t ever forget what it feels like to be fucked right again. Maybe it’s your mission to ruin sex with other people for her forever, who knows.
Shinobu tugs your hair again and you nod your head. Then she watches with wide eyes as you drag your fingers out of her pussy, the two digits gleaming with her slick, then pop your fingers into your mouth. She breathes heavily, watching your tongue swirl and giving her a good view of what you had done to her the first round, her body turned on again.
Maybe she can hit a fourth orgasm.
“What’s your second question,” she grumbles, turning her head to calm herself down.
“Did you know it was me? That night in the club?”
Shinobu tenses but she doesn’t say anything. She folds her arms across her bare chest, and you have to restrain your hands from grabbing her tits again as they push up at the movement.
“...Yes, I knew it was you,” Shinobu mumbles. You open your mouth again but she cuts you off with a glare, “I answered the question.”
“Fine, but I won’t be nice about this one,” you glare back. Shinobu’s own infamous glare would make any other person shrivel up and die, but you’ve held your own this far so you don’t back down. Besides, you meant your words as a promise.
Shinobu almost puts up a fight against you when you take her hips and flip her over. Her protests are muffled when you push her face down into the silk pillows, then position her hips into the air.
“What are you-” Shinobu pales when you reach for her nightstand and open the bottom drawer. She doesn’t know how you know about it, maybe she gave you a small tour of the drawer last time, but the drawer is proof in and of itself that Shinobu is not the perfect princess everyone claims she is.
It’s proof that she’s a dirty little whore.
“Remember,” you pick up the first toy, clicking it on and watching it vibrate to life. “The safe word is ‘bunsen’.”
---
WHEW ok so this isn't the last chapter like i said it would be. i got carried away and wrote too much so i had to split this into two. i also did NOT edit this so sorry if it's kinda all over the place.
however, next chapter IS the last chapter. half filth then half closing remarks lol.
it's also MAINLY pleasuring shinobu because this is still technically a gender neutral reader fic, so i did my best and had to regroup and make sure i stayed true to that. yes i DID make you the top but only bc shinobu tops in literally every day to day situation, just not here hehe
↳ Geniuses within the same field yet rivals within each other’s eyes, your colleagues wonder when the sexual tension will break so that you two will become the department’s powerhouse couple so that they can enter you two into the couples contest against the other departments. Some things might have to be done by force.
WARNINGS —
↳ cursing, slight smut
[Navigation]
Shinobu doesn’t want to open her eyes.
The bright sun has already peaked through her velvet curtains, lighting up the room and causing her to scrunch her little nose in annoyance. She can’t tell what time it is, but she knows for a fact that it’s not the early morning that she’s used to waking up to.
Shinobu doesn’t want to open her eyes.
She’s absolutely mortified. Her memory is better than most (maybe slightly lacking compared to you) so she knows what happened last night. She can feel the silk pajamas that glide as she turns, new and spotless after she was changed into them last night.
Shinobu doesn’t want to open her eyes.
There’s a stupid report that she has to turn into her supervisor, and she just has to edit it, but she’s supposed to turn it in in-person. And there’s a chance she missed that meeting, so might as well stay in bed. She has to grade a few more labs the undergrads turned in, and she knows that their sloppy work and ChatGPT generated answers will give her a riot of a headache.
Shinobu doesn’t want to open her eyes, because she doesn’t want to find out if you’ve left or not.
So she doesn’t open her eyes, and she lays still. She breathes quietly, begging her mind to stop running a thousand miles a second. And then she hears something, breaking the still quiet within her apartment.
The whistling of a kettle.
Shinobu opens her eyes, just to see you walk in with one of her porcelain cups balanced on a saucer.
Your eyes meet her and you quirk a brow at her, gently laying it down by her mahogany nightstand. “I’ll say this every time I come here. Your cups are pretentious.”
Shinobu doesn’t smile. She sits up to stare at you as you take the finished cup of chamomile and move to lean against the doorframe. She doesn’t even touch the new cup of tea that’s been brewed for her (she can smell the Earl Grey).
“I didn’t poison it,” you say, then push yourself off the doorframe and walk back to the kitchen to rinse her pretentious teacup.
So she drinks, smiling to herself for a moment before grimacing at her reflection.
At least you stayed.
Once Shinobu is done drinking her tea, she takes it upon herself to get ready for the day. She has certain standards for herself, and her current state is certainly abysmal next to such standards. So she steps into her bathroom, ready to take this new day by storm, but pauses when she sees that the bathroom looks untouched.
Her serums and lotions (or as you like to call them, potions and poisons) are lined up correctly, as if she didn’t swipe them off her countertops last night in a fit of anguish. There’s no bile on the bathroom floor, and the scent hasn’t remained in the air at all. In fact, the only thing different about the bathroom is the small lavender candle that burns in the corner, overpowering the traces of the previous night.
Shinobu opts for less than the bare minimum today, which is probably what you do on your day to day. And she remains in her pajamas, though she does wrap herself up in her silk robe for extra comfort. And she runs a hand through her hair, her butterfly pins left on the counter, because her hair is still smooth after you washed it for her last night.
When she steps into the living room, she’s shocked to see you curled up in her chesterfield chair in the corner, the curtains pulled back behind you to give you ample lighting. There’s a purple pen in one hand, cap in between your teeth, and you’re holding a paper with wrongly written equations on them, silently marking it before giving this poor undergrad a sad 4/10.
Her laptop is open on her coffee table, and there’s a small sandwich resting next to it. Grilled cheese, because that’s really the only thing you know how to make, but it has apple slices and the cheese is brie and she can see that it glistens slightly with honey; her pretentious grilled cheese.
“I edited your report. There was a paper that I thought would back your intro a bit more, so I added it in. If you eat fast enough you’ll make it in time for your meeting,” you say into the air.
“How do you know about my meeting?”
Without looking up from the next paper that you’re grading, you point at the big monthly calendar that hangs near the hallway. Then you scribble a 9/10 onto the paper, followed by a little butterfly, then toss it into the finished pile.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because my biggest pet peeve as an undergrad was my TAs handing me back my work weeks after I turned it in,” you smirk to yourself. Shinobu shakes her head and you can see it out of the corner of your eye. She’s on the defensive, because she doesn’t sit to eat and she’s keeping her distance. She’s picking at her nails absentmindedly, and you stop yourself from telling her to stop because she doesn’t like to take orders from you.
“You know what I mean. We dropped out of the competition, we don’t have to act anymore. And if you’re doing this because you pity me, then leave.”
“I don’t pity you, Shinobu,” she flinches at the sound of her name.
“Then what is it?”
You finally look up at her. Despite the nightmare that was last night, her eyes still shine like amethyst gems. Her hair has been smoothed down but her curtain bangs curl in an awkward way, and she’s wearing some very fluffy socks for some weird reason.
You purse your lips and shake your head, “Your meeting, Shinobu. And your sandwich is getting cold, I worked really hard on it.”
“I don’t care about the damn sandwich-”
“Ouch.”
“I want to know why you’re doing this to me.”
“And I want to know why you called me last night.”
“What does that have to do-”
“Bullshit! Don’t start with me! It has everything to do with this!” You stand abruptly, throwing the papers and her pen onto the coffee table and raking a hand through your hair in frustration. You take a step towards her and she doesn’t back down, eyebrows scrunched together and staring back at you in defiance.
“You’re the one who’s hated me since day 1. You’re the one that ended the contract. You’re the one that pulled us out of the competition. You’re the one that’d been ignoring me. You’re the one that wants me to feel like an idiot. And you’re the one that called me. So why are you doing this to me.”
Shinobu wants to tell you that half of what you said is false and that you’ve done the same to her too, but she bites her tongue as you continue.
“You’re frustrating, y’know that? My life was quiet and ideal before you. Fuck, I never should’ve gone to the club that night,” you hiss and she finally blinks, shocked as if you just slapped her in the face.
She opens her mouth but you keep going, and you’ve cornered her against the wall, arm above her head as you stare down at her. “If we never slept together then you wouldn’t be stuck in my head every minute. It’s all still in there, the sound of your moaning and screaming. The feeling of your cunt tightening around me and dripping wet.”
Your eyes dart down when you see Shinobu shift, trying to discreetly cross her legs. Before you can stop yourself you take your knee and gently push her leg to the side, sliding it up against her and touching the wall.
Shinobu puts her hands up to your chest but she doesn’t push back. Her eyes are screwed shut and she lets out the prettiest whimper when you lean in close and breathe into her ear.
“Be a good girl and tell me to stop.”
“You broke a rule,” she whispers hoarsely. You freeze, hands pausing at her waist. ‘No good girl name calling,’ you remember from the contract.
Shinobu doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s holding herself back from rubbing against your thigh, your jeans already sporting a wet spot from her cunt. But she wants to talk to you and have this conversation actually go somewhere.
Ever the genius, her mind comes up with a solution.
You balk in surprise when she takes her hands and pushes you back until you’ve fallen into the chair.
“What-”
“New rule,” Shinobu says with newfound confidence. “For every time you make me cum, I’ll answer one question.”
Your brain short circuits and your body feels like it's on fire, but you give her the same sardonic grin that you gave her at the club and ask, “How many times did I make you cum last time?”
“Two,” Shinobu recounts.
“Guess I need to make my three questions count then.”
---
PHEW it's been a while. but i think next chapter will actually be the last! i feel like i promised you guys smut for this mini fic series and i havent really delivered, so im going to try my best next chappie lol.
this is also hella unedited but i really want to get this mini fic done bc its been so long and you guys really deserve it
theres a lot more content for Murder of One than i realized so uhhh yeah i made a master list for everything LMAO
also, i plan on making a character profile for akiko soon! it’ll most likely have @wittlecowokie‘s amazing fan art of akiko as the image of her!! (again, thank you!!) the reason why i havent released one yet will be revealed,,,, soon,,,
Our destiny has always been laid out for us. It wasn’t until I found that you had died did the thought of destiny being fake enter my mind.
Half of her ashes are buried in the gravesite of demon slayers, and the second Tanjirou regains consciousness he visits her grave.
And he visits the next day.
And the next.
And no one stops him.
I ripped destiny to shreds that day and I vowed to fight for your memory from dusk until dawn.
Giyuu, Sanemi, and anyone with the time carry Tanjirou to his wife’s grave and allow him to stay and grieve for as long as he wishes. He cries with a hand placed over her etched name, and it’s usually the person that took Tanjirou that speaks a few words to Akiko.
When it’s finally Goto that takes Tanjirou to Akiko’s grave, he hands him a piece of paper, the crumples smoothed out as best as can be and the edges littered with dried blood.
“She wore her heart on her sleeve for you, Tanjirou.” Goto tells him, “I found it tucked away in her cuff when we… retrieved her arm.”
But then you returned, and all the air rushed back into my lungs.
Tanjirou usually recites his vows until his voice is hoarse. But now he recites her vows, reading the war torn paper that is her heart. Not a good bye letter, but her vows.
Tanjirou had given her hope.
So I apologized to destiny, and taped each piece back together again with a new vow.
The only reason why Tanjirou takes a break from visiting her grave is when, three years later, he, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke take the rest of Akiko’s remains to bury her with the rest of the Kamado family.
Everyone brings various shades and types of yellow flowers.
I vowed to bring the love that you deserve. The love that you need. The love that you cherish. This love I will bring to you, Tanjirou, and our new life.
Muichirou, Mitsuri, Iguro, Giyuu, Sanemi, Miyuki and Chiyo leave their katana guards at her grave, no longer in need of their precious weapons. Even Genya leaves behind his gun.
Goto leaves the same bag and tools that saved countless lives at her grave, and hands Nezuko some castella to eat on the road.
Aoi, Kiyo, Naho, Sumi, and Kanao lay a fresh set of blue hakama and white blouse at her grave, promising the group that they will send letters often.
Yushiro leaves the same bottle of sake used for the wedding at her grave and nods his head before leaving.
Giyuu also leaves the same blooming buttercup weeds at her grave and offers Tanjirou a brave smile when he sends the group off.
I would grasp the rays of light that shine from your eyes, just to feel an ounce of your warmth. An ounce of your kindness. An ounce of your love.
Tanjirou leaves a gold ring with an amber stone set in it at her grave.
And it will always be enough.
There’s nothing left of the Tamura estate in Tanjirou’s old village. It remains burnt to the ground, but Tanjirou can’t help but stare listlessly at it.
“I see you’ve come back, boy.” A voice croaks out.
Tanjirou turns to see Higuchi. She’s dressed simply, though all black, and her hair is tied in a plain bun. There are no servants around her, and she’s holding a bag of food for herself for once in her life.
There’s no smell of hatred or disdain. Just sadness.
“Hiratsuka and Ray left for Europe upon hearing the news. They can’t bear to be in this country anymore.”
When Tanjirou doesn’t say anything, Higuchi sighs. Then, gently, she takes ahold of Tanjirou’s hand and places her bag of food into it.
“You must eat. Your wife would order the same, would she not?”
It is your heart that guides my hand.
Your soul that blesses my eyes.
Our destiny, together.
Tanjirou is slowly making his way back up the mountain. In the bag are some carrots (Akiko’s favorite), apples, and potatoes. Simple ingredients. Enough for Tanjirou’s stomach to hold.
He’s taking the same path he’s always taken after returning from the Tamura estate. Nezuko should be back at the house, preparing the bath for the boys while they chop firewood and bring home game and set more traps.
It’s when Tanjirou is halfway up the mountain that an unfamiliar scent enters his nose. He freezes, unsure of what to do.
A twig snaps behind him, and Tanjirou swings around to ready himself for an attack.
But no attack comes.
In fact, Tanjirou has to look down to find the source of the unfamiliar scent.
A child no more than three with bright yellow eyes stare back at him.
The same amber, the same gold, the same chrysanthemum.
Tanjirou drops the bag in shock, and an apple rolls towards the child. But he looks at it in disinterest, instead waddling up the slope to rummage through Tanjirou’s dropped bag. When he finds a dirty carrot, his eyes light up with glee, and he starts to gnaw at the vegetable.
“H-Hey! That’s not safe for you to eat!” Tanjirou proclaims, scooping the child up into his arms and pulling the carrot away.
Instead of crying, the child stares deeply into Tanjirou’s eyes, wide and confused. Then, he begins to laugh, using his tiny grubby hands to smack Tanjirou’s cheeks.
“I found you I found you!” The child cries out.
“I-I’m not your dad! Where’d you even come from? Where are your real parents?” Tanjirou begins to check the child for any injuries, still being smacked around by him. There’s no malice in the boy though, just pure joy.
“Hiyoshi! Hiyoshi!” The child wriggles around and Tanjirou does his best to keep the child from falling. He doesn’t seem like he’s going to give Tanjirou any real answers soon, so Tanjirou sighs in defeat.
“Alright then Hiyoshi. Let’s get you a warm meal before we look for your parents!”
—
Tanjirou walking into the house with a crying child is the last thing everyone expected.
If it weren’t for Zenitsu confirming that the child is an orphan from a nearby temple based off his clothing (Zenitsu being an orphan himself) then everyone would have thought that Tanjirou went mad and stole this child.
“He says his name is Hiyoshi,” Tanjirou says, stroking the child’s jet black hair. “And he keeps saying that he found me.”
A storm brews in Tanjirou’s eyes, everyone can see it. They don’t need Akiko’s blessed eyes to do so.
Hiyoshi put up quite the fight during dinner time. He didn’t want any of the fish Inosuke had caught, or the vegetables Nezuko had found on the mountain. He only ate the carrot stew Nezuko was forced to make (“Carrots!! Carrots!!” “I think he wants carrots…”) and only if Tanjirou fed him.
“Should we return him to the temple?” Inosuke grumbles, still a little bitter that the child doesn’t seem to favor him at all. Zenitsu shakes his head, “I don’t think so. He left for a reason, right?”
Everyone sits in silence for a few minutes, Hiyoshi’s light snores filling the house.
“I think… He should stay.” Nezuko says, the one to break the silence. “I also think… he looks a bit like Akiko.”
Ah, there it is.
The sentence everyone was afraid to say lest Tanjirou break down.
It’s been three years and he was just starting to pick himself up, and they aren’t sure if this will throw him back to the start line.
Everyone stares at Tanjirou intensely, his word being the final say. And after a few minutes, Tanjirou smiles softly, an old remnant of him peeking through.
“Yeah… He does look like Akiko,” Tanjirou whispers. “I wonder if his eyes are blessed as well?”
I vow to you that we will not be separated on heaven or earth. We pieces our destiny, our universe, back together.
They find out that Hiyoshi’s eyes are in no way blessed. Tanjirou had to take his son to Tokyo once the boy turned five, and when Hiyoshi came back with the thickest glasses from the shop, Inosuke laughed.
Everyone made a promise that day to protect Hiyoshi. To make his days happier than the last. To shower him with love and affection.
Nezuko sings the same lullaby to him every day, even when he’s older and complains that he doesn’t need to be sung to sleep every night anymore.
Inosuke teaches him how to fish and how to make friends with the boars, and Hiyoshi will never say no to the food that Inosuke brings home.
Zenitsu brings home a shamisen one day to play for everyone, but it’s Hiyoshi that pays attention the closest and hums the tune of Zenitsu’s songs the next morning.
Genya is the one to influence Hiyoshi’s reaction to girls, and the two usually hide in embarrassment when approached by people they’re slightly attracted to.
Muichirou gives Hiyoshi a piece of candy or two whenever he sees Hiyoshi, so Hiyoshi usually waits by the doorway when he’s told that Muichirou is coming to visit.
Mitsuri and Iguro always bring a meal for him when they visit, and Hiyoshi takes nicely to Kabarumaru.
Miyuki takes Hiyoshi to see snow for the first time, and Sanemi packs ohagi for the three of them when they travel together.
Chiyo and Giyuu usually comes to babysit Hiyoshi when everyone is busy because Hiyoshi and Ayame are the same age, and the four always run around each other in a game of tag (the retired Pillars only lose to see both the kids smile and laugh)
Tanjirou…
And from this moment on, as husband and wife, we shall continue to do so.
As one.
Tanjirou recounts stories of his wife, of Hiyoshi’s mother. Of their life before Hiyoshi and how happy she would be to have met him. Of the lives she saved and of Hiyoshi’s grandparents in Europe. Of Akiko’s similar love for carrots and the same eyes the two share.
And Hiyoshi loves his father. His kind hearted father, who is always a little bit sad since the passing of his wife. His best friend. His soulmate.
Who always smiles at the sight of Hiyoshi, really truly smiles, and beckons him forth to watch the leaves sway in the wind. Who sings the same song aunt Nezuko sings when he is outside by his wife’s grave. Who always wears a gold ring with a piece of amber set in it, and never takes it off.
Hiyoshi always cuddles up next to his father when he hears him crying at night. They become less frequent over the years, but Hiyoshi will enter the room on random occasions and set his futon next to his father anyways.
Once Tanjirou’s health starts to deteriorate, Hiyoshi works his hardest to take care of him. To bring medicine and soup, to pick up more household chores because Nezuko has to take care of her few children.
One day, he looks at Hiyoshi, who is brewing some medicine in the kitchen.
“Hiyoshi, my son… Come here,” Tanjirou smiles gently. Hiyoshi quickly rushes to his father’s side and takes his hand.
“You can lay down father. No need to exert yourself.”
Tanjirou’s laugh is brittle and warm, and Hiyoshi helps him to lay back down.
Tanjirou gifts Hiyoshi with all his and Akiko’s worldly possessions when he passes. His hanafuda earrings and katana, Akiko’s bag and tools. The rings and sake bottle that bound the two. Their written wedding vows, tear stained and the wrinkles pressed away.
“I am glad… That you found me,” Tanjirou whispers. “I love you, so very much.”
“I love you too dad,” Hiyoshi smiles. He’s happy that his eyes look like his mother’s because Tanjirou continued to stare at them as he passed a few days later, the kindest smile on his face.
My love. My Tanjirou.
—
As always, Sumihiko is running late.
He’s rushing through the streets of modern day Tokyo when Toujurou catches up next to him, and the two jump over the closing gates.
But despite the officers that wish to have a word with the school, the two boys are still told to attend class. Truthfully, they really aren’t late, so they seat themselves right as the bell rings.
“I don’t get how you’re always so lucky,” Sumihiko’s brother sighs at him, his nose in a book.
“Why didn’t you wake me~?” Sumihiko complains, and Kanata sighs again.
“I did.”
Their teacher walks in right after, but students are quick to notice the girl that walks in right behind. Her black hair is long and wavy, and her head is kept down with her school bag held in front of her.
“Alright, listen up everyone! We have a new transfer student today, ok? They came all the way here from Europe, so speak slowly and help her out, ok? Go ahead and introduce yourself dear.”
The girl looks up, and Sumihiko is sucked into the various shades of yellow.
Amber. Gold. Chrysanthemum. Nostalgic.
They glitter endlessly and change shade each time she moves her eyes.
Finally, they land on Sumihiko, and he straightens in his seat. She smiles while looking at him before bowing to the class.
“I’m Tamura Shinako! Nice to meet you all!”
Everyone starts to chatter in excitement before they’re shushed by their teacher. Shinako is then sent to sit in the only open seat, which is right behind Sumihiko.
He averts his eyes down while blushing when Shinako passes by his desk, and when she sits down quietly Sumihiko does his best to not stare at the new girl.
But Sumihiko feels a light tap on his shoulder, and he turns to give Shinako a sleepy smile.
Shinako leans forward, a mischievous smile on her face before whispering into Sumihiko’s ear.
“I found you~”
for these two, i believe in reincarnation :)
thank you all so much that stuck around! it's been a very very long journey, and im so glad you stuck around with me for it. i miss my old machute fam and still had so much fun writing their characters in. ill go back and reedit some chapters bc certain plot points fell off but dont call me out on it I KNOW OK LOL
for now, that truly is the end. i love you all. thank you for loving taniko. they are my roman empire.
Two golden orbs flutter open, squinting slightly at the sunlight. A sudden face blocks the light for her so that she doesn't strain herself, but it’s a different kind of sun that beams down at her.
Tanjirou smiles at his fiancee, and in his hand is an orange.
“Let’s go for a walk together!”
“But won’t your brothers and sisters want to come with us?” Akiko asks, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It’s so peaceful today, and she can’t hear the loud yelling of Takeo and Hana fighting over something mundane.
Tanjirou smiles mischievously, and Akiko doesn’t get to see this smile often so she’s a sucker for whatever comes out of his mouth, and usually does whatever he asks for.
This time, he asks Akiko to sneak away with him, and to leave their chores for tomorrow.
She agrees, because she would rather do laundry tomorrow and Tanjirou would rather behead Muzan tomorrow.
The two giggle quietly to themselves as they run into the forest, hand in hand. Akiko pretends not to notice Nezuko calling out for them, and they quickly rush off into a beaten path. They run and run until their little lungs hurt, until the legs are sore and their cuts bleed and their throats are dry and their fingernails feel like ripping off.
Once they no longer hear Nezuko yelling for them to come back and save her, Tanjirou slows their run. He peels the orange for her, always from the top and always keeping the peel in one piece. He likes to peel it into one long strip, going around and around the orange. Once he has the long peel, he wraps it around Akiko’s neck.
“Like a necklace!” He says, and the two laugh.
Akiko points to a little mushroom, “Look it’s you!”
Then she points to a squirrel, “It’s you!”
She points to a single leaf hanging on a tree, “It’s you!”
A tiny acorn, “It’s you!”
When she points to a lonely crow and says, “It’s you!” Tanjirou stops her.
“Why all those things?” He asks, holding her hand so she doesn’t point at anything else. Akiko likes how warm his hands are. They’re black with soot and calloused and rough from sword fighting, but they’re warm like the sun.
“Because I see you in everything.” Akiko smiles.
Tanjirou likes that answer.
They continue their walk hand in hand, munching on the orange together. It doesn’t seem to run out.
“Look, it’s us!” Tanjirou points to two baby deer, but they look up and run away at his loud voice.
“Hey, that’s my thing.” Akiko pouts, and Tanjirou pats her head. “Why’d you take my thing?”
“Well you may see me in everything but I’ll always see us together.”
Akiko likes that answer.
They continue their walk hand in hand.
“Akiko, wake up!”
Two wretched gold eyes yank themselves open. Goto is by her side, patting her face so as to wake her up. When he sees that she’s regained consciousness, he pulls her up. Akiko can feel a bandage over her eye, and she’s still uncomfortable with the darkness that comes with only one eye.
She has to survey the battlefield again to understand what happened. At the sight of the bodies piled up in front of her, she gags, and almost faints again. She looks up, fighting the tears in her eyes, to see everyone is still desperately fighting.
When Akiko sees Tanjirou run to return by her side, she gets to her feet and raises her hand up before yelling, “Don’t stop fighting! Forward!! You have to move forward!”
That was her first mistake.
A whip comes forward and the kakushi don’t reassemble in time.
Akiko can only watch as her right arm soars into the air, her right foot disappearing under her as she falls over.
Tanjirou lets out a strangled cry, of anger or sorrow she does not know.
And gods does this one hurt. It hurts more than the pain in her eye, but she swallows her screams, clutching her bloodied shoulder socket and trying to breathe. She can’t do much about her foot, but Goto tries to wrap it as hastily as possible. The pain makes it infinitely harder to slow the blood that rushes to her missing arm, but after a few attempts she’s able to use Concentration Breathing to slow the bleeding where her arm and foot should have been.
Her second mistake is allowing herself to feel relief when Tanjirou finally reaches her. He cradles her head to his chest, apologizing over and over and over again. And she relishes being in his arms, hearing his voice in her ear.
She wants to go back. Go back to the dream where it’s just the two of them on a walk. Hand in hand.
She just wants to walk with him, is that too much to ask for?
She wonders how much strength and love Tanjirou must have had for her to be able to rip himself away from his own dream demon.
Her last mistake is letting him go. She pushes him away with her remaining hand. She leans up, kissing him softly on the lips, then whispers, “Go.”
The fire in his eyes blaze and he nods his head. He wants to smile for her but he can’t. Not when the monster that hurt the love of his life still walks.
Tanjirou rises to his feet, gives Akiko’s hand one final squeeze, then runs off.
She sees him in everything.
She sees him in the buttercup weeds that he runs past.
She sees him in the broken porcelain cups and plates that litter the ground.
She sees him in all their friends, risking their lives to fight for a better tomorrow.
She sees him in the pink and orange daylight that is barely beginning to break over the horizon.
She sees him in the crow.
The crow that seizes her heart can only mean one thing for just about everyone she is near.
And she really hopes this omen is meant for one rat bastard in front of her.
Muzan truly begins to struggle against Tanjirou and the other Pillars, letting out a scream so horrific that it sends shockwaves across the town and breaks the ground beneath him. Pillars are thrown mercilessly, but Tanjirou hangs on.
Even when his left arm is torn away, he hangs on.
It’s Giyuu that grabs on, using his only other arm to help Tanjirou stay put. The two press forward, driving Muzan into the wall.
And then he grows.
His body swells to the size of the building, his form taking the shape of a baby, and Giyuu isn’t able to hold on any longer. Akiko watches in horror as her love is sucked into the body of the demon.
The voice of Oyakata-sama is what snaps her back to reality. He shouts for them to finish him, to do everything they can to keep him under the sun. Akiko sees a Model-T nearby, and she rushes to the vehicle.
The keys are still in the engine as it runs, and Akiko steps on the gas. The car roars, kicking up dirt as it pelts across the road and she and another car ram themselves into Muzan, knocking him over.
Akiko tumbles out of the Model-T in time to dodge Muzan’s half blind swipe, and Goto drags her backwards.
More kakushi get to him, pushing a nearby trolley car onto him and keep him down. Akiko can see Himejima, bleeding through his stitches as he wraps a chain around Muzan’s head. Akiko sees that this action will be his last, and his lifeline is barely hanging on by a thread. Sanemi and Miyuki each cut off one of Muzan’s hands before landing next to Akiko.
Akiko can hear the blood roaring through her ears, her heart pounding against her chest with anxiety. All of the Pillars unleash their most powerful Breathe form as he tries to dig himself into the dirt.
And when it looks like he won’t burn away, Akiko sees Tanjirou’s hand come up. There’s a burst of blood, and Muzan sits up to scream.
Then, his body crumbles to ash.
And Tanjirou is left behind.
“Bring me to him!” Akiko please, and Goto does as he is told, reuniting the two lovers.
She holds his face in her one good hand, her eye blurring with tears. She wants this moment to stop. This is where she wants the story to stop.
Because she knows what will happen next.
She can see it.
This isn’t her Tanjirou.
His arm regenerates with a sickening crack, and the tears that blur Akiko’s eyes finally fall, because she knows that this isn’t her Tanjirou.
This is Muzan.
Her love is gone.
Giyuu is the one that pulls her out of the way.
Tanjirou’s arm shoots forward and his claws dig into her stomach. Akiko immediately coughs up blood, and the kakushi drags her away. But she still calls for him.
She calls his name over and over in hopes that he will remember. He will fight Muzan back and come back to her. Come back to her and Nezuko.
Akiko’s eyes widen at the sight of Nezuko. She’s here, in front of her, and she rushes forward, wrapping her brother in a hug.
And despite everyone’s screams, Akiko knows that when Tanjirou took a bite of Nezuko and got a taste of her antibody riddled blood, that they still have a chance of bringing him back.
She searches for Kanao, who still has the other antidote left. But Kanao is one step ahead of her, and stumbles forward. With her last remaining eye, Kanao uses her final form and dashes forward.
One of the many bone-like whips rush past her as Kanao dodges them all, and she jabs the last antidote into Tanjirou’s back.
Tanjirou stops.
Nezuko is peeled away from him.
His eyes close, and he is brought to Akiko.
Akiko keeps coughing, a hand pressed to her stomach. The kakushi are trying to help her, but her blood just won’t stop pouring out. Her hand trembles and she knows that she can’t stitch herself up. Yushiro is gone, hidden in a building away from sunlight.
And when they try to move her to a safe place, she grips onto Tanjirou’s hand.
“Serum,” Akiko mumbles, and they bring it to her. She injects a little more into Tanjirou, not knowing if this will even help. But she needs him to wake up. She needs him to finish his fight with Muzan.
She needs him to come back home.
“Please my love,” Akiko coughs. She tries to stroke his face with her good hand, but pulls it away to see all the blood that riddles her clothes.
But Tanjirou reaches up, and grabs her forearm, bringing her close to him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and Akiko cries with happiness.
Despite the pain and suffering, she wraps her arm around him, and everyone bursts into loud cheers. He turns to hug her back, and she feels like home.
“Tanjirou.”
“Yes, my love?”
“I don’t have a lot of time, so listen to me now.”
“What?”
Tanjirou pulls away, both hands on her shoulders, as he finally looks at his fiance properly.
And Akiko looks close to death.
She coughs again.
Blood.
She’s pale, deathly.
And Tanjirou knows why.
"Hey. Hey, cmon listen to my voice. I’m so sorry my love, I’m so sorry. Oh my god, please, just look here," he’s holding her face in his hands.
Everything is slick with blood.
She can’t stop coughing it up. It dribbles down her mouth and the light in her eye flickers.
Tanjirou can't stop his tears. She can feel them fall on her face, and it reminds her of rainfall.
"Akiko please. Please please please. I just got you back. We can go home together now, so please," he can't help how raspy his voice is.
They've won the war but for what?
Akiko is dying in his arms.
Words get caught in his throat and he's hiccuping through them. Tanjirou can barely see her through his tears, but she's smiling for him.
"Breathe. Just stay alive, Akiko, just stay alive," his thumb caresses her cheek and he leans down to rest his forehead onto her's.
"Time won't wait for us, Tanjirou," Akiko is crying now too. The color continues to drain from her face and she smells so strongly of blood that Tanjirou almost vomits.
"I'll tell Shinobu, Himejima and Kyoujurou, and- and your father.. your mother, Takeo, Shigeru, Hanako, Rokuta... I'll tell them you said hello, okay..?"
Tanjirou cries harder, his heart stabbed with pain and water filling his lungs.
This isn’t how things are supposed to end.
They're supposed to be happy.
He's supposed to build her a home in the mountains, or by the sea, or in Tokyo, anywhere, and live a peaceful life with her.
They're supposed to hold hands till he can feel how brittle they’ve become, but he'll look into her eyes and see the same sparkle from the same amber.
There's supposed to be the sound of children playing, laughing as they roll around dirt and chase each other about. Akiko's scolding voice and Tanjirou reassuring her that kids will be kids.
She's supposed to watch him chop wood and teach the kids how to make coal. He's supposed to watch her teach the kids how to stitch a wound. They're supposed to sleep under one big futon on a cold winter night.
Together.
And it's being ripped away from him.
But I never promised you a happy story.
I promised you a murder of one.
Her heart beat continues to crawl to a stop and he can't believe it.
Tamura Akiko can save everyone's life but her own.
So who is supposed to save her?
"It should have been me. I should have been there to save you. I should have stopped myself. And I'm so sorry, Akiko, I didn't-"
"What about Nezuko? You would have left her alone."
"Nezuko has Zenitsu now! She would have you and Zenitsu! I would have looked from above and it would have been fine! She needs you more than me-"
Akiko smiles sadly, coughing lightly before moving her face to kiss him. When she pulls away, he can still taste metallic blood.
"You don't mean that, love. Breathe for her. Please?"
“And I’ll breathe for you too! So please... Akiko please stay with me. You can’t leave me all alone here...” He kisses her again, longer this time, but she pushes his face away when she coughs up another bout of blood.
Akiko continues to cough and cough, and Tanjirou can't do anything to ease her pain. She's suffering so much, and he can't even let her go.
Akiko doesn't want to go either. A year with Tanjirou is too short, and she loves him more than she ever did when they were children.
“Akiko, please come back home. Come home and tell Kanao and Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke and Aoi and Sumi, Naho and Kiyo that you said hello!”
“You know I can’t do that, Tanjirou. I’m out of time,” Akiko closes her eyes before she takes a shaky breath, her lashes tickling his cheeks as he presses another kiss to her blood stained mouth.
And another, and another, and they greed for more time together.
Zenitsu stumbles forward, tears pouring out of his eyes. He grabs ahold of Akiko’s hand and she smiles at him. For once, they have no words to throw at each other, and Zenitsu looks towards the rising sun.
It’s then that lightning strikes through him, and he turns to everyone surrounding them.
“Gather the sake we were just using! Someone grab some flowers by the road! It’s October 10th!! Akiko is 18 now!!!! WE’RE HAVING A WEDDING!!!!!!”
No one wastes a single breath.
Giyuu rushes and finds blooming buttercup weeds, but they’re bright yellow like Akiko’s eyes and that’s more than enough. Yushiro hurries over with the sake that was being used to sanitize wounds, hands shaking and doing his best not to spill any. Inosuke takes two of Giyuu’s plucked flowers, handing them to Nezuko for her to quickly twist two makeshift rings for her brother and sister-in-law.
They’re all done within a minute, and Akiko is continuing to fight for her life. Just until they can be legally wed. Tajirou is helping her through concentration breathing, and Goto is doing his best to wrap some of Akiko’s wounds. It’s all he can do for her, and he brushes away tears as they fall.
Akiko’s dream wedding. Flowers, rings and a sake ceremony. A mix of Western and Japanese tradition. Surrounded by friends and family to witness and officiate. And willing to marry the love of her life anywhere.
Zenitsu has his arms wrapped around the two, and with his blessed ears, he begins to recite the ceremonial wedding vows he heard and memorized once all those years ago.
“Tanjirou, quickly repeat after me: This woman, I marry. No matter what the health situation is. I will love this person, Respect this person, Console this person, Help this person, Until death” Tanjirou chokes this line out, but continues, “Protecting fidelity, I swear.”
Zenitsu nods, then turns to Akiko. But she starts to cough and Zenitsu wavers, “Akiko do you promise the same?” He improvises, and Akiko croaks, “I do.”
Zenitsu beckons for a flower ring, placing it in Akiko’s hand for her to shakily slip onto Tanjirou finger.
“Tanjirou, you marry this woman and become her partner. Will you in peaceful times, during sickness, this person love, this person comfort, this person help, until death, do you promise to fulfill?”
“With all my heart! With all my soul! I will remember and fulfill this promise!” Tanjirou cries, and tears fall from Akiko’s eyes.
“Akiko, will you do the same?”
“Until the next life and the next, I will find you and uphold this promise” she whispers, and Tanjirou slips the flower ring on her finger as well. Yushiro lifts the sake bottle to Akiko’s lips and she takes a shallow sip, then Tanjirou takes a sip from the same bottle, and Zenitsu continues.
“With everyone here as our witness, under this sun that shines upon this new era of peace, I wed you two as husband and wife. It’s about damn time!” He starts to cry, stepping away from the newlyweds, and everyone begins to sob.
Tanjirou leans down, eyes staring into his wife’s and memorizing each golden fleck. Each shade of love. Each sparkle of amber. Akiko reaches up, her hand shakily cupping Tanjirou’s cheek, and Tanjirou finally closes his eyes to give Akiko a kiss.
She tastes of blood and smells of medicine, but Tanjirou deepens their kiss as their tears mix together. And when he looks at her again, he can finally say, “My wife… My lovely wife…”
“My husband… My dear husband…”
A sudden idea crosses Akiko’s mind, and she can’t help but smile.
“Knock knock...” Akiko starts singing, her voice cracking and lodging in her throat as she tries to complete the lullaby.
“Little bunny from the little mountain.”
Tanjirou joins, and they both whisper, “Why are your ears so long? When she was small, my mother ate the leaves of a tall tree and that is why my ears are so long.”
They can't hear anything else now. It’s just Akiko and Tanjirou in the world they've created for themselves.
They dive within their memories, sharing thoughts and love, and the pain in Akiko’s heart lessens.
Because she’s leaving Tanjirou with so many good things.
“Knock knock, little bunny from the little mountain”
He’ll still have Nezuko, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Giyuu, Kanao, Urokodaki, and the rest of the surviving pillars. Miyuki will stay and mother him, and Chiyo and Ayame will look after him too.
“Why are your eyes so red?”
Tanjirou still has his life ahead of him, and he can learn to love again.
“When she was small, my mother ate the fruit of a red tree”
Akiko smiles, the last few of her tears streaming out of her eyes before the sight of amber disappears for good.
“And that’s why- Akiko? No no no, c’mon. Finish it with me,” he starts to sob, and he kisses her in hopes that his princess will wake up.
“Please, Akiko, my beloved wife… We were supposed to finish everything together! We almost started our new story together. Akiko? Akiko!”
Tamura Akiko is another name added to the list of smiles Tanjirou failed to protect.
Our heroine looks down at her husband, a misty hand running through his locks one last time as she bends down to kiss his forehead.
“Akiko?” A familiar voice calls out and Akiko finds herself looking at her teacher.
Shinobu beckons her forth, and Akiko runs into her arms with glee.
The blood on her body flakes into the air and she feels no pain. It’s almost as if Akiko stepped into a fresh pair of hakama pants and slipped on a pristine poet’s shirt. The weight from her shoulders lifts, and she’s no longer constricted.
“One of my most talented tsuguko,” Shinobu presses a gentle kiss to Akiko’s forehead, and her heart bursts with pride. “You’ve saved so many. So many…”
Kyoujurou ruffles her hair, a content smile on his face before telling her, “You protected the weak! And for that, you have my thanks, young one.”
Akiko laughs in their arms, “Tanjirou says hello!” Their smiles widen before the two pillars move aside to reveal the Ubuyashiki family.
Oyakata-sama and his wife and children wait patiently, serene smiles on their faces as they all hold hands. Akiko sees a small river streaming behind their feet, and knowing the fate of their afterlife sets her at ease.
When Akiko moves to bow, Oyakata raises a hand in silence, and Akiko abruptly stops her movement.
“Thank you, Akiko,” she hears his voice for the last time. Akiko doesn’t even have the chance to bow in return when the whole Ubuyashiki family lowers their heads in respect.
A warm feeling invades her chest, and she finds herself blurting out, “You don’t have to worry about Kiriya, Kuina and Kanata. They’ll be okay. And, uh, Tanjirou says hello.”
Amane sets a hand on Hinaki and Nichika and the two step over the river, disappearing. Kagaya offers one last smile to Akiko before pointing behind her.
When Akiko looks back she sees Tamayo with her family. Kagaya is already gone when Akiko turns back again, and she takes that as her signal to approach the doctor.
“We did it, Tamura-san. You have my thanks,” she looks as immortal as ever, though happier. Her husband is by her side, holding her hand, and her children hide behind her kimono as Akiko walks closer to them.
Akiko can’t help but smile proudly, straightening her back and setting her shoulders with her head held high. Tamayo nods in approval at the sight of her confidence.
“The women that changed the world,” Akiko says. Tamayo laughs to herself. “Oh! And Tanjirou says hello!” Tamayo holds a hand to Akiko’s cheek once more before she moves her family along to reveal Himejima with a bunch of little kids surrounding him.
The children rush forward, smiling and laughing as a few cling to Akiko, thanking her for working so earnestly to keep Himejima alive.
The friendly giant himself walks up to her, resting his hand atop her head as he softly ruffles her hair and mumbles his thanks.
“Tanjirou says hello!” Akiko beams, and the lids stare at her with confusion.
“Who is Tanjirou?”
Akiko crouches down and beckons them forward, and they lean in as if they’re about to hear a secret. Then, she whispers with the love of a thousand life times.
“Someone I’ll find in my next life and every life after.”
Himejima smiles at the girl, a hand ruffling her hair. “If you weren’t there, many more would have died,” he states.
Akiko shakes her head, “I wish I had saved you too,” she says bitterly, but his smile grows even bigger.
“No. It was my time. I had the children to go back to. Everyone else’s stories are not done. Every life you touched and saved had a story to continue. My time was simply up, and I chose not to fight it.”
Akiko doesn’t like this answer, but she knows that this is what Himejima is happiest with, and she respects that with all her heart.
So she smiles at him and bows her head. When she looks back up, Himejima and the kids are gone, and in their stead stand the Kamado family.
Her eyes water and her tears finally pour from her face as she rushes to them with all her might.
Akiko can hug Kie and Tanjuro like her own parents.
Akiko can read Hanako books.
Akiko can tease Takeo and make him blush.
Akiko can carry Shigeru through the mountains and play games.
Akiko can rock Rokuta to sleep.
She smiles as they embrace her, “Tanjirou says hello!”
They smile back, “Tell him we love him.”
Akiko laughs, tears running down her face as she feels joy, “He knows!”
And that is why my eyes are so red
soooo
that was always going to be the end
i wrote this ending (at least the important parts of it) when i was stilling actively writing this 4 years ago. so my old and new writing styles are mixed in this chapter, and hopefully they arent too different/noticable.
Muzan can clearly remember the face of the doctor that ruined his life.
He was promised unimaginable strength. Immortality and youth. Ultimate power.
Is it so hard to expect those things with no consequence?
The fact that he can’t step foot under the sun, to wield his powers to the utmost ability, is a true curse.
All this strength, and for what?
Immortality, and for what?
Power, for what?
Muzan can clearly remember the face of the doctor that ruined his life.
It’s not like Muzan wanted to kill all those people. He did, of course, actually want to kill those people. He was just so hungry, and their voices grated his ears in an unpleasant way.
And once he had his first taste, well he couldn’t just deny himself more, right?
All this strength, and for what?
Immortality, and for what?
Power, for what?
He found that he could turn others like him, though not as powerful. He killed the family of a woman that would become a huge thorn in his side. He made many more… things. Humans would later start to call them demons, and he likes the sound of it.
Muzan can clearly remember the face of the doctor that ruined his life.
And there’s a doctor right now ruining him.
And the minute he finds her, he’s going to kill her.
He can tell that there’s something wrong when he starts to gain more wounds than should be possible. He’s fighting against all of the surviving Pillars, who have annoyingly regrouped with cleaned and perfectly stitched wounds.
The child with long hair breezes by him, and is particularly annoying because he harbors the same blood as Kokushibou.
The bigger one whips his chain around, and it’s annoying to bat out of the way.
The only ones without stitches are the two women, one with pink hair and the other with white hair, the snake man and the other pest that was constantly looking out for Tanjirou.
Muzan is annoyed when he’s set on fire, but he can see in the distance. Tanjirou is being carried off by another demon slayer, and there is another woman by his side, gripping his haori and injecting something into his arm.
Her.
Akiko knows that Muzan is looking at her. She forgot that, because she no longer needed the seal to look through crows and widen her vision, that she wasn’t wearing one, and thus was not invisible to him. She knows he’s her target.
But she places that in the back of her mind as Murata drags Tanirou behind a building, and she's already injecting him with a second serum.
“Chachamaru,” she says aloud, and the demon cat steps forward. “Go,” she commands, and he hops away with a meow. Chachamaru’s job is to deliver the serums to everyone, which should buy them some more time and help them continue their attacks.
“Akiko-sensei!” A few demon slayers cry, bringing a struggling Kanroji to the doctor. Her ear is ripped off and she’s crying to fight, mumbling Iguro’s name in between.
“Yushiro, inject four more vials into Tanjirou,” she says, before moving onto Kanroji. It’s painful to sterilize, but she does her best with a headwrap and bandages, stopping the bleeding and also giving Kanroji an injection of serum.
And despite the glare Iguro gives Akiko, far across the street, Akiko still discharges Kanroji for battle. The woman jumps off for the fight, just as Murata yells, “Tanjirou has a pulse!”
Akiko throws herself onto her fiance's eyes, checking his body and seeing that he does indeed have a pulse. The serum is flowing through his veins, slowly doing its work to fight against Muzan’s blood.
She cradles his head gently, laying her own forehead against his before whispering, “You know what you must do my love. The twelve forms. Connect them, and kill that bastard.”
Tanjirou’s eye opens right as an explosion sounds behind the two. The ground shakes and debris from neighboring buildings begin to fall. Tanjirou sits up before pulling Akiko close to him, rolling across the floor with her in his arms as a window pane falls right where she was sitting.
He offers her a kind smile, a kiss on the forehead, then he rushes to his feet. His katana is held tightly in his hand, and he can only see out of one eye but he’ll make do. The rest of the Pillars are down, and both he and Akiko are needed now.
Truly a dangerous pair.
Akiko’s smart enough to slap a seal over her forehead this time, and she vanishes from sight. Tanjirou grabs Kanao out of the way, saving her from Muzan’s whip. Akiko makes it to her first patient, Himejima.
He’s lost a leg and a significant amount of blood, but he’s the strongest of the Pillars, so he’s her first priority and everyone’s best chance at defeating Muzan. She employs one of the kakushi beside her to pull him from the rubble, careful with the glass that has embedded itself into his skin. His arm is cut under the brick so she hands the kakushi a bottle of alcohol, and he knows to clean the wounds. Akiko starts with his leg, tying it up quickly and doing her best to stop the bleeding.
“I need someone to stand by for wounds like these. Light a fire and raid a house for something metal. A clothing iron will do,” she says, and another kakushi runs off. She can see that Giyuu has lost his arm, and will need it to be cauterized soon too.
“In fact, raid all of these houses for sake! We need alcohol! The higher the percentage, the better!” Akiko calls out loud, and the kakushi all scramble. Demon slayers pull Pillars from the rubble, pulling Inosuke and Zenitsu close to the girl too.
They all begin injecting serum into the bloody bodies, Yushiro helping with first aid as well. Akiko finishes her last stitch on Himejima’s arm, already having gone over stitches from an hour ago.
“He can fight once he’s regained consciousness,” Akiko states, knowing that the battle has not been won. Her patients can truly rest once Muzan has died.
She can see that Tanjirou has connected half of the 12 steps, and she beckons Giyuu’s body forward. The demon slayers lay him in front of her, and the clothing iron beside her has been heated.
“I really am sorry about this,” Akiko mumbles under her breath, then presses the iron to the bloody stump that used to be Giyuu’s arm. He wakes with a jolt and a cry of pain, his hand flying to grip Akiko’s wrist with immense strength. The kakushi tries to hold his hand back, and Akiko sweats under the pressure, but once the sizzling stops she pulls away. The smell of burnt flesh enters her nose and she really does feel bad for Giyuu.
Iguro is next, and she works as quickly as possible to stitch the claw marks that run jaggedly across his face. He doesn’t flinch at the pain, and Akiko doesn’t comment about the scars that run from the corners of his mouth to his ears.
Kabarumaru hisses in Iguro’s ear, and he says, “You may want to let me go. Tanjirou needs help and I’m the only one conscious enough to help him.”
So Akiko lets him go. She was halfway done with his face but she had no choice. She moves to Inosuke and Zenitsu instead. Kanao is well enough to help her too, and they both set to healing the two. Kanao wipes away the blood, sterilizing wounds, while Akiko focuses on her stitching. They work in silent tandem, too nervous to speak and too scared to stop.
The second the two have finished, Muzan lets out a roar of anger behind them. Then, a bolt of electricity shoots through Akiko, and she screams in pain. She can feel every inch of her body ignite, every cell jump and shake and try to burst. She doesn’t know how Zenitsu controls his lightning, but she assumes that when he doesn’t have it under control, it feels something like this. But 10 times weaker.
Akiko knows that the seal has burnt off her forehead. She doesn’t need to see to know it. In fact, for the first time in her life, she can’t really see.
Her vision blacks in and out, the lighting virtually frying her brain. Yushiro comes into her vision, and he quickly slaps another seal over her forehead.
“You have to get up! Muzan knows you’re here!”
Those words frighten her enough to sober her up quickly. Her head pounds in pain, and she tries not to get up too quickly or she’ll black out again. She sees that Zenitsu and Inosuke have gotten up to fight, and that they’re deflecting Muzan’s whips as his attacks seem to be looking for Akiko.
“Come here,” Yushiro drags her by the arm, and Akiko is almost grateful that she doesn’t have to move on her own accord. Her legs stumble forward and she’s met halfways by a few demon slayers that are bringing Chiyo’s body to her.
Chiyo has a nasty gash across her abdomen and face, but nothing Akiko can’t fix.
“Make sure it doesn’t scar in a scary way for Ayame, alright?” Is Chiyo’s only request, and Akiko nods her head. Her stitches, neat as ever, close the gash that runs from Chiyo’s left cheek, over her right eye, and to her right temple. She really does her best to make them as nice as possible, but the lightning that also got to Chiyo seems to have left a nasty cut that lightly burned certain parts of the gash.
Akiko presses a cold and wet rag to Chiyo’s face for a few moments before moving to her abdomen. The kakushi take over with the rag, and Chiyo uses the last couple minutes to concentrate on her Forest Breathing.
“Giyuu will be fine,” Akiko mumbles.
“I know. You did your best. He’ll live,” Chiyo assures.
With a final snip of her scissors, the final stitch is in place, and Akiko takes the cold rag. Chiyo smiles as best she can with the stitches in her face, then rushes back into the battle.
When she sees that Himejima still hasn’t woken, but Giyuu has, she makes her way over to the giant. She scans his body and makes sure that every stitch is in place, every wound has been taken care of.
When she knows that her job is as perfect as ever, she eases. He will wake in his own time.
“I found you.”
“AKIKO!!”
A whip flashes towards Akiko so fast that she’s surprised she could barely see it. If she can hardly catch it, how in the hell has everyone else been able to avoid it?
Akiko then quickly realizes that she shouldn’t have time to think useless thoughts, and that might be her last useless thought, because the next thing she knows her right eye is in horrible pain.
And she can’t see out of it.
Akiko screams, her hand coming up to cover her right eye as it gushes out blood. The seal across her forehead has been cut off and she knows that Muzan can see her.
Her scream turns into a sob at the pain. And she knows that her eyes, the ones that Tanjirou loves so dearly, have been tainted.
“I really hate doctors,” Muzan says apathetically, making his way to the girl. All of the Pillars and Tanjirou jump forward to protect her. To protect the beating heart of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Because without Akiko, there is no hope for their survival.
And Muzan knows this.
He will kill her.
He will crush their heart.
Akiko’s left eye adjusts quickly, and this time she can really see the sharp whip zoom towards her. She lifts her arms up to cover herself, bracing herself for impact.
But it does not come.
Instead, Akiko watches in horror as a kakushi throws herself in front of Akiko.
“Sayu!” Akiko cries out. Then another whip comes, and that’s cut off by Miyuki, but nobody sees the other whip that shoots forward, straight for Akiko’s head.
No one except for another kakushi, that jumps forward as well.
And that’s when Akiko realizes.
“Stop! STOP! STOP!!!!”
But they do not stop. Kakushi run forward, creating a human shield around Akiko. They fall, one by one, taking the fatal blow that is meant for Akiko when a Pillar is unable to deflect the attack. She grabs the hem of one kakushi, Makoto, but he takes her hand.
“Keep working, Akiko-sensei! We’ll protect you-” he coughs up blood, then drops into her lap. Another kakushi takes his place, and Akiko is now crying.
She cries and she wails and she screams. She begs, because this is not ‘do no harm’.
This is harm.
This is harm in its most ultimate form.
It laughs at Akiko’s face as it crushes her soul. It destroys her life’s mission. It spits in her face and undoes the work she has put her whole body and spirit into. It does not care as it takes from her. It relishes in taking from her.
This is harm.
This is war.
This is love.
the demon slayers sacrifice themselves for the pillars while the kakushi sacrifice themselves for the doctor.
Akiko looks left to her new friend and mother figure, Miyuki. The two are lounging on the engawa, the day a bit hotter than most. The small twinkling of the wind chime sings in the air, and Chiyo is holding Ayame to Akiko’s right.
The two had come to visit, with Chiyo bringing Ayame in for a third check up this month (“She’s like… Drooling more than usual???”) and Miyuki tagging along just because (“I don’t want to be left out. What if you guys forget I exist?!”)
With no patients in her ward (for once in a blue moon) Akiko has decided to entertain the girls with something from over seas.
“It’s called a popsicle. Dad taught me how to make some and shipped over a special cooling machine,” Akiko explained as she handed out the icy treats.
So now the girls lounge in silence, listening to the wind chime and the birds tweet and Ayame’s baby babble.
Until Miyuki’s question.
“I dunno. How cold’s your ice?” Akiko shoots back. Miyuki rolls her eyes, “No but like. You see stuff-”
“So do you-”
“Quit it.”
Akiko quits it. Chiyo laughs. Ayame startles.
The two girls look between them at the younger one, her eyes closed as she gives it some thought.
“Well my nichirin tools are clear, and I can still see them. I have to clean the sharps myself now though, or the girls will cut themselves on accident. I dunno though, is that what you meant?”
Miyuki shrugs, “I guess. Genya mentioned something about how you took his measurements without a measuring tape or thermometer and stuff. And that you knew how many demons he ate, which, by the way, don’t tell Sanemi.”
Akiko rolls her eyes, “I don’t have a death wish. Also, doctor-patient confidentiality, blah blah blah.”
“Akiko, you tell me what’s wrong with Giyuu all the time.”
“Not out of kindness. I’m hoping you drop him when you realize how messed up he is. I don’t know what you see in him Chiyo,” Akiko says and Chiyo nudges her shoulder. Akiko holds her hands up in defeat, muttering a half assed apology that all three girls know is in no way genuine.
They’re silent again for a moment, but Miyuki suddenly jumps up, her eyes sparkling like a snowflake under the sun.
“Y’know what’d be really cool?! If you could see the future!!”
Chiyo and Akiko stare up at her listlessly, both wondering how that would even work.
“I don’t think that’s what my eyes are for.”
“Ok but you say that a person dies when you see one crow-”
“Because they do-”
“So isn’t that the same thing?”
“She kinda has a point,” Chiyo comments, shrugging her shoulders at the concrete evidence. Akiko shakes her head in disagreement.
“But wouldn’t it be so cool though?!” Miyuki keeps going, a smile on her face as she finishes off her popsicle.
Akiko scoffs, “What would I even use it for? Seeing which demon slayer is about to come through my door and with what injuries- wait… that actually sounds really nice…”
“See?!!!”
“It’d be great for fighting,” Chiyo comments, flexing her arm in thought as Ayame holds on like a monkey. “Then I could predict a demon’s blood art or their next moves.”
“That wouldn’t help me though. I can’t fight,” Akiko says. Chiyo and Miyuki nod their heads, knowing how sad Akiko’s physical abilities are. Her talents lie elsewhere.
“Oh! What if you like… I dunno, tell us how to fight or something? Like if you’re on the sidelines and giving us guidance.”
“Chiyo, that has to do with fighting still. Besides, I don’t think I should be on the field with an active fight.”
Miyuki grins, placing a hand on Akiko’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, we got your back! We’ll make sure a demon doesn’t touch you!”
Again, Akiko scoffs, “You guys barely listen to me though. Sanemi wouldn’t listen to me for sure. Muichirou would probably look around like ‘Who said that?’ and Iguro would rather get hurt just to glare at me for giving him an order than listen to said order.”
Miyuki and Chiyo share a look before then both ruffle Akiko’s short and slightly curly locks.
“Trust us.”
“We’ll listen to you.”
“MOVE!!!”
All four Pillars immediately jump back, just as Genya fires a shot with his newly formed demon gun. Muichirou’s sword is still embedded through the chest of Upper Moon One, but he’s abandoned it upon hearing Akiko’s scream.
The bullets burst and pierce through various parts of Upper One’s body, and roots immediately begin to grow up and out. It keeps him in place, and the Pillars all see their opening.
“DEFEND!!” Akiko commands them again, and they do so immediately.
They almost didn’t hear her over One’s monstrous roar, but Himejima’s chain whip around everyone so as to protect them, and Miyuki shoves Muichirou behind her since he has nothing to protect himself with. Akiko yanks Genya behind the wall they were hiding behind, and he throws his body over her and onto the floor to protect them from the various blades that shoot overhead.
Akiko hears a strangled scream, and her eyes quickly dart around Genya’s body to see Miyuki, crouched on the floor with her right foot missing. Sanemi grabs her by the haori and Muichirou jumps over Miyuki, rushing forward to grab ahold of his katana to give the two a second of time.
Miyuki is flung back, Genya catching her in his arms and setting her beside Akiko, who rips one of her arm sleeves off to act as a bandage. Genya runs into battle, blasting off another round from his gun, and Akiko has done all she can for Miyuki’s missing foot.
“Told you we’d listen,” Miyuki smiles painfully. Akiko nods her head, her throat choked up and tears blurring her vision.
“You can’t die,” Akiko squeaks, actually squeaks. She hates herself for worrying Miyuki at a time like this, but Akiko doesn’t know what would have happened if everyone didn’t move when she told them to. They looked like they were about to jump right in too, and Upper One still looked like he had another trick up his sleeve, and Akiko didn’t want anyone to find out what it was first hand.
“Course I won’t. I’m the damn Ice Pillar,” Miyuki ruffles Akiko’s hair, and the two hear a loud clang. They look up to see Himejima’s weapon has come down on Upper One from the bottom and top of his neck, and Miyuki makes eye contact with Sanemi.
She rushes off in an instant, and the two Pillars slam their katanas down together, delivering the final blow that rips Upper One’s head off. His neck gushes out blood with the force of a waterfall, but Akiko knows that he isn’t done. His blood coagulates at one, and the bleeding stops.
“Keep going!” she cries out, “He’s not dead!”
So the five press him. Genya with his gun, Muichirou digging his blade further up his chest, Sanemi and Miyuki working as a flawless pair with attacks similar to an ice storm, and Himejima’s own weapon flying around with enough force to break pillars and walls.
Akiko watches as he tries to regenerate his head, looking like a deformed arachnid with tusks. His body is pelted with relentless attacks, each more delivered with more desperation than the next, but then his body stops. It stops regenerating, and it begins to crumble.
Everyone stops in their tracks, weapons raised in caution, chests heaving as they try to catch their breaths. But he really does stop.
Akiko starts to cry, and her cry of relief is what startles everyone back to reality.
They’re alive.
They’re all alive.
Miyuki tackles Akiko first, then Muichirou falls into the two, then Genya pulls Sanemi with him, and Himejia offers the group a small smile.
Akiko can hear the crows caw their victory.
“UPPER MOON ONE IS DEFEATED! THERE ARE NO CASUALTIES! ALL FOUR PILLARS ARE ALIVE!!!”
Her heart soars, and she can physically feel the spirit of the demon slayers lift. Miyuki is bawling her eyes out into Akiko’s ruined shirt, and Akiko wails too. Genya wipes his own tears away and Sanemi runs his hand through his brother’s hair, truly smiling for the first time. Akiko has a feeling that the brothers will be ok.
“We must hurry,” Himejima’s voice grounds the group, and they sober up quickly. Goto has made his way back into the room, and he helps Akiko patch up the Pillars.
Akiko is halfway through stitching Himejima’s face when her sight comes across a nightmare.
“Tell them to stop.”
“Huh?”
“TELL THE DEMON SLAYERS TO STOP!” Akiko looks up at a crow in the corner. “THEY MUST RETREAT!! MUZAN IS ALIVE!”
Miruna soars out of the room immediately, and Akiko can see that he’s come across the first group of demon slayers. He caws his orders and they freeze in terror, but Miruna doesn’t stick around to make sure they listen.
He continues to soar, through rooms and corridors, warning team three and five to retreat.
But team one and two aren’t so lucky. About half of each team had begun to retreat on Akiko and Kiriya’s orders, but they weren’t fast enough to escape Muzan.
Akiko watches with horror and he slices bodies left and right, flying off walls and floors and devouring every demon slayer in sight. The few people that retreated without a second thought are no match for Muzan, and he catches them in an instant.
Akiko can feel the bile climb up her throat, the blood drain from her face. She can see Tamayo’s head in his clutches, his claw digging into her head, a thumb through her eye. She’s crying, the last of her face crumbling away. Then, in an instant, Muzan crushes her head.
Blood spurts everywhere, and Akiko finally hurls.
Muzan has revived.
And he’s bringing everyone to him.
“We have to go,” Akiko mumbles, wiping the bile from her mouth. Kiriya just gave the green light for all Pillars to regroup and kill Muzan. And she intends to follow this order.
She finds the strength in her legs to stand, though wobbly, and Himejima picks the girl up. He carries her in one arm, his weapon clutched tightly in the other, and Akiko starts to lead them through the maze. Miyuki has an arm over Sanemi’s shoulder as he helps her run, Miyuki still trying to get used to only having one foot. They’re all silent, listening closely to Akiko’s orders of left, right, up, down.
“Work with me here, Yushiro,” she mumbles, but she knows that he’s too far driven by rage to focus on anything but destroying the monster in front of him. They’ll have to take the long way, unfortunately, and Akiko worries that there is no time.
She watches as Giyuu and Tanjirou run in to fight. Muzan’s razor sharp arms flying around, delivering deep cuts to the two. She watches as Yushiro continues to manipulate the Fortress demon’s mind, and she sees past the illusion where Kanroji and Iguro have died.
They pick up more demon slayers along the way, team three and five grateful to be alive.
And even though Akiko knows that Kanao, Zenitsu and Inosuke are alive, it doesn’t stop her from crying out in relief at the sight of them.
“Akikooooo!!!” Zenitsu cries out, reaching out to her. She bats his hand away, and grabs ahold of Kanao’s instead. The girl tears up at the sight of Akiko, and they two share a look of understanding, being the only two tsuguko of the now deceased Butterfly Pillar.
Akiko blinks her tears away quickly as the building begins to shake, and she can see that Yushiro is beginning to drive the Fortress up.
“Listen closely everyone,” Akiko says, drawing more of Yushiro’s demon papers from pockets of her hakama.
