Chapter Text
During Battle…
“CAWW! Kochou Shinobu is dead! She died after a confrontation with Upper Moon 2!”
Giyuu’s stomach bottomed out. No. A tsunami of grief and anger overcame him. Bile rose in the back of his throat. Not again. Not another… A soft memory came to him. Kochou’s smile, delicate and vulnerable. Her real smile, something he had only seen a handful of times. Focus! Despite his anguish, he needed to devote his entire attention to this battle with Akaza. If he were to survive this fight, he’d yet be finished. There was much ahead of him. He would have to grieve his closest comrade later. If he made it out alive.
Post battle…
Tanjiro was alive, thanks to Kanao. Relief flooded Giyuu. It seemed to be one of the last emotions he’d likely feel, other than his constant guilt. At least someone dear to me lived. He couldn’t bare to think of Kochou. He felt his body shutting down. He’d lost an arm, his dominant arm at that. He was so exhausted. He just wanted to rest forever. His body was sluggish and heavy as he positioned himself to watch his last sunrise. This is not how I imagined it. He coughed, and felt a trickle of blood leak from his mouth. I’m sorry I couldn’t accomplish more in my pathetic life.
“Sister!” Someone screamed.
His head lolled as he watched Kochou’s younger sister race past. His heart skipped a beat as her words sunk in. The kakushi must’ve brought her body from the Infinity Castle. He couldn’t bare to see Kochou’s small form laid out, her eyes closed in a permanent slumber. A lump formed in his throat, and there was a vice’s squeeze around his heart so tight he thought it might burst. He shut his eyes.
“You’re alive,” the young girl sobbed.
Her words were electric through Giyuus body. His eyes shot open, and found as much much as he struggled, he could not stand. “Kochou,” he gasped in torment. Everything went black.
She didn’t like this place. She’d never given much thought to her afterlife, which was ironic considering she had focused her entire life around her death. She’d planned for years. Poisoned herself for a year. All in preparation to die. So there’d never been much consideration as to where she’d end up in the afterlife, or plans for her future, seeing she would never have one. She had one focus in life. It had narrowed her vision, blocking out anything that would distract Shinobu from her goal. Vengeance. Anger. Rage. It was all consuming. She couldn’t afford for her eyes to stray from the straight and narrow path of death. It was hard enough thinking about what Kanao, Aoi, and the younger three girls would experience once Shinobu died. And her comrades…
She was still in the Infinity Castle, right where she’d died. It was sick and twisted that even in death she was surrounded by the habitants of the being she hated most. This was the belly of the beast she could not escape. She wandered aimlessly. No demons were here, thankfully. She’d thought she would’ve reunited with Kanae and her parents once dead. She supposed wrong, doomed to be alone. It wasn’t much different than when she was alive, truthfully. Hiding behind her saccharine mask had successfully alienated her from everyone else, not that they’d know. She was familiar with this isolation, still it was odd.
A lone blue and purple butterfly flitted towards her. In all the time she’d been here, it had only been her. It was eerie to suddenly see another lost life. Shinobu reached her arm out, holding forth a single finger for the butterfly to land on. As soon as it touched her finger, a dark red bloomed, and dripped from her flesh. The butterfly did not rest long, for it flitted back through the air, as if urging her to follow it. With nothing else to do, she tailed after. As she walked, curiosity bested her. She sucked at her finger. Wisteria and blood. She’d know that taste anywhere.
She admired the butterfly dancing as her mind veered in the direction it typically did—to Kanae. Her sister for which she’d given up everything; her sister who had wanted her to have everything she’d given up. Perhaps this was her punishment for disobeying the will of her dear sister. Perhaps Kanae did not wish to see her yet. Shinobu shook herself from thought, and focused on the insect before her.
There was a change in the atmosphere that made her nose twitch. It smelled so familiar—like home; sterilizer and medication mixed with a sweet floral scent of the sakura tree. Maybe the butterfly was leading her to Kanae. After all this time, she could finally see her sister. Tears pricked at her eyes as she continued to the long corridor. It darkened to near black, but still, before her was the flowing butterfly leading the way. It felt symbolic of Kanae leading Shinobu through life even after her sisters death; Shinobu’s vengeance acting as her beacon. She walked on and on until a small light appeared at the end of the corridor. The nearer the light came, the stronger the smell of home until it was overpowering, and the light engulfed her.
Shinobu blinked furiously as the light blinded her. She willed her eyes to fully open. The breeze wafting through an open window next to her was so warm, like the last of the summer’s comforting embrace before the colder months descended. Outside stood the Victory tree, as steadfast as it had always been in her time at the Butterfly Estate. Soft sun rays beamed down. Everything was so normal.
Someone gasped in the door way. Oh, nee-san! But it wasn’t Kanae. She shared one of the same hair clips as Kanae, but it wasn’t Kanae. Kanao stared at her, wide eyed and exasperated, chest heaving, as if she could not believe the sight before her.
Why are you here, Shinobu went to ask, only to find her throat so dry she couldn’t speak. Not that it mattered anyway, as Kanao bolted from the doorway down the hall. It didn’t make any sense. Kanao should’ve survived. She deserved a long happy life, but it had been cruelly cut short. Shinobu was suddenly draped in guilt for her younger sisters death. It had most certainly not been part of the plan for Kanao to die. Kanao reappeared in the doorway with Aoi, Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho in tow. Things were starting to make less and less sense. Shinobu attempted to rise from her bed, an infirmary bed, she realized confusingly.
“No!” Aoi yelped, and jogged forward to Shinobu. “Don’t get up! You’re weak, and still healing.” The girls voice wobbled as tears streamed down her face. She’d never seen Aoi so shook. “Get her water!” Aoi yelled behind her to where Shinobu found the other four girls crying as well. Everything spun. Was she hallucinating? Was this a cruel trick of fate, to be haunted by the ones she’d left? It wasn’t long before Kanao brought a glass of water forward to Aoi, who in turn raised it to Shinobu’s lips. She had no choice but to swallow the water.
Shinobu’s words came out gruff. “What are you all doing here? Why are you here in the afterlife?” There were multiple voice cracks in her series of questions, but nonetheless, Aoi still understood.
“S-Shinobu-sama, you are not d-dead,” the girl laughed and hiccuped a sob simultaneously. “You are alive and awake, finally after so l-long. We thought you’d never awake, again.” Aoi suddenly grabbed Shinobu’s hand, and held it tightly to her chest. Shinobu was stunned into silence as the young girl cried on. “W-When your body was recovered from the I-Infinity Castle, there were so m-many injuries. You needed emergency m-medical attention the Kakushi couldn’t provide.” Aoi inhaled deeply and steeled herself. Though tears still slid down her cheeks, the girl no longer sobbed. “They brought you here quickly, and I did the best I could do, but I started to fear my best wasn’t enough. It was so hard.” Her lip wobbled.
Shinobu was going to be sick. She…she was alive. This wasn’t supposed to end like this. I am supposed to be dead. A single tear rolled down her face. She jerked her hand from Aoi’s grasp, and placed it over her own heart, and clenched.
“Nee-san,” Kanao whispered anxiously.
Shinobu’s vision blurred.
“Shinobu-sama, are you having difficulty breathing?”
“Leave me,” Shinobu ground out. She didn’t mean to direct her rage at the girls, but the fire was all overwhelming. She couldn’t trust herself to be around anyone at the moment.
“I need to check your vitals, and— “
“Please. Leave me.” She wanted to throw something at the wall and scream.
“But—“ Aoi continued on.
“I am a doctor. If something is wrong I will tend to myself, now leave me.”
Hesitation lacing every movement, the five girls left Shinobu to herself, and closed the door behind them. Excruciating sobs racked her entire body. Every jostle of a cry was met with a deep agony within her lungs and ribs. It made her cry harder. She was supposed to be dead. How many slayers of the corp had fallen that had deserved life more than she? She cried and cried, even until the moon was high in the dark sky. It was one thing to see Kanae versus being with Kanae in death. She saw Kanae all the time. Hallucinations, of course. A side affect from the wisteria poison she’d injected into herself for years. It wasn’t the same. It wasn’t real.
Though the sobs had subsided, she still hiccuped childishly, and wiped her eyes with the heel of her hands. Her entire face felt swollen. She wrung her hands and gazed out the window. More tears welled up in her eyes.
What was she to do?