さようなら; 𝑲𝑵𝒀! 𝑼𝑷𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑺 [✓]

十八 ;

-ˋˏ run away ˎˊ-

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you heard inchoerenet voices speaking from around you, your name was being called out a few times as if they were trying to wake you up. you squeezed your eyes, before slowly forcing them open. squinting as sun light hit your face.

"[y/n], are you..."

"she's awak... hey..."

"... what..."

"call... she doesn't look..."

"... hey... [y/n]..? [y/n] can you..."

"[y/n]..!"

"[y/n]..."

"[y/n]!"

your name rang clearly through the room as your vision cleared. you see four faces looking down at you from above. "...huh..." you groaned, rubbing your eyes. you opened them, and saw the trio and shinobu standing next to the bed you were laying in. you pushed yourself up, letting out a sigh.

"[y/n], how are you feeling?" shinobu asked, standing next to you. "uhm," your voice faded off as your throat felt sore. "here you go!" zenitsu exclaimed, shoving a cup of water to you. you took the cup out of his hand and downed the drink. "thank you," you placed the cup on the table, finally feeling more awake.

"ah, we're so glad you're okay!" tanjiro sighed in relief. "what do you mean?" you tilted your head to the side. "eh? you don't remember what happened?" he asked. "uhm... i guess..." you furrowed your brows, trying to recall how you ended up here.

"tanjiro, zenitsu, inosuke, can you please go wait outside? i'll talk to her," shinobu instructed, a soft smile on her face. the three boys nodded, reluctantly leaving the room.

"[y/n], do you remember what happened?" she started asking. "mmm, yes a little bit, that demon slayer stabbed me right? and then i passed out," you answered, making sure to leave kurai out. "were the two of you alone when it happened?" you nodded. "i see," she though for a while, "what was the last thing you saw before you passed out?"

"haru was already walking away at that time, i'm assuming he's already here somewhere?" you lied, knowing damn well that he got killed by kurai. "ah... sorry [y/n], but we found his corpse right next to your unconscious body."

"eh? he died?" you faked a shock expression, "wait what happened?"

"unfortunately we don't know either, by the time we got there it was only you and him."

"i see..." you frowned, looking down to hide your face. "one more question," shinobu added, "did haru tell you why he stabbed you?"

"no, he did it out of no where... like he started coughing and all, so i thought there was something wrong with him and went to help him. then he just stabbed me," you explained.

"well, thank you for the information. you can leave once you're feeling better," the insect hashira gave you a gentle smile before leaving the room. you got up from the bed, and stretched your sore body. you slide the door open and left the butterfly estate, heading back home.

the sun was already setting which told you that half a day had passed since the incident happened last night. you wonder where kurai went after killing that demon slayer. oh well, you'll just ask him tonight when he drops by as usual.

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a whole week had passed and there was no sign of your demon friend. you were starting to get worried for him, did he get caught? no, kurai isn't that careless. then what happened?

it was almost three in the morning as you entered your house after coming back from a mission. you quietly slid the door close, not wanting to wake senjuro or his father up. you quickly entered your room, shutting the door.

"you're home late."

you jumped at the sudden voice, spinning around, you see kurai sitting cross legged on your bed. "k-kurai?" you muttered out. you noticed how his hands were covered in blood and clothes soaked with the same liquid. there were blood stains near his mouth as well. "that's me," he smiled, holding up two peace signs.

"you're covered in blood..." you pointed out, frowning at the unfamiliar sight. kurai stood up, letting out a sigh, "yeah, i know," he stuck his tongue out, licking the excess blood around his lips.

"what happened? are you okay? where the hell have you been?" you started questioning him. "calm down, calm down, i'll tell you," he laughed, plopping back down onto your bed. "come here, i need to talk to you about something," he patted the empty space next to him.

you complied, taking a seat next to him. kurai didn't say anything for a short moment. and then he spoke, "do you trust me?" you raised your brow at his question, "of course i do."

"... are you willing to leave the demon hunters and come along with me?"

you hesitated. would you leave everything you had behind just for a demon you met not too long ago? it really depended on the situation. if it was something bad like ubuyashiki finding out about kurai and attempting to get rid of him then you would honestly lean towards kurai's side. though you didn't like the idea of leaving your friends behind, especially mitsuri and senjuro. but if worse comes to worse and something like that happened, then yeah, you would most likely go with kurai.

"uh... depends..."

"i see," he hummed in reply. "it's fine, you don't have to give me a proper answer right now. go ahead and think about it. i'll come by again tomorrow," he smiled, pushing himself off the bed. "i better leave now before someone finds out, night," he waved before disappearing into thin air.

"okay..." you mumbled out, lowering your head. honestly you were really confused as to why kurai had asked you that question after going missing for a whole week. but at this point, you were too tired to think about what he had said and decided to just get some sleep first.

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"i see, thank you for telling me," the master nodded, a disappointed smile on his face. "if... this is really true... and [y/n] is aware of what she's doing, then i'll have no choice," he continued. "gather a few demon slayers and assign them this mission," ubuyashiki instructed the crow. "take out the demon known as 'kurai'."

next chapter :
final decision

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