Can't I See You One Last Time?

Chapter 20: Facing Reality is Inevitable

Giyuu walked out of Butterfly Mansion. Although he did get kicked out, he was still happy. Tanjiro had started calling him by his first name again, and they talked until Shinobu entered the room and kicked Giyuu out. He didn't show how happy he was with facial expressions, but the air around him was light and fluffy. That air made him more approachable to the people passing by. People would wave and Giyuu would nod his head in response. His short answers didn't make people uncomfortable. Giyuu may had been wearing his expressionless face, but the air around him showed his good mood.

Giyuu may had been in a good mood, but that did stave off his tiredness. He hadn't slept for two days, and it was daylight. Working as a demon slayer turned Giyuu into a nocturnal person. Seeing as demons only show up at night, every demon slayer was bound to at least turn partially nocturnal.

When Giyuu got to his place, he took a bath, changed into sleeping clothes, untied his hair, pulled his bedding out, then laid in bed. For Giyuu, that day was a good day, but he was to tired to continue on with the day. The Hashira had decided to get a good day's sleep and then go back to Butterfly Mansion to see Tanjiro. Those were Giyuu's plans, but they were interrupted.

Giyuu woke up and was drowsy. His sleeping wear was wrinkled and lose, pieces of his hair was in front of his face, he blinked slowly to adjust to the streams of sunset light entering the room. Giyuu nodded his head a few times before moving the blanket off his body and stood up. With heavy, but somehow quiet, footsteps, Giyuu walked to the bathroom door and slid it open.

Everything was moving smoothly. Giyuu did his business, brushed his teeth, washed his face, fixed his hair, and changed into his uniform. The first half of his morning routine was completed without a problem. The second half, however, was filled with nothing but problems for Giyuu. As soon as he opened the bathroom door again, his emotions turned annoyed. Of course, his face showed no sign of the annoyance he was feeling.

It was Shinazugawa. That was the source of Giyuu's annoyance. When Giyuu slid his bathroom door open, he saw Shinazugawa sitting in his bedroom. Giyuu clearly saw the Wind Hashira but just walked past Shinazugawa as if he wasn't there. For Giyuu, today was going to be another pleasant day and no one was going to mess up his plans. Unfortunately, Shinazugawa had every intention to mess up Giyuu schedule.
"We need to talk."

Shinazugawa and Giyuu were sitting at one of the many food stalls scattered around the Demon Slayer headquarters.
"What do you need?"
Giyuu was clearly irritated because of the current situation.
"This won't take long loverboy."
Shinazugawa was actually getting used to calling Giyuu loverboy.
"I just need you to tell me about everything."
"I told you everything yesterday."
"Not about the 'higher being' but about your own experiences."
Now, Giyuu was confused. He didn't understand why Shinazugawa needed to know about the things he had been through.

Giyuu found no information profitable to the creation of the plan from the things he's been through.
"Why do you need that information?"
"Do you really expect me to go into a situation without any information? I'm not suicidal. I get that if we die we'll just be put in another dimension or whatever, but dying still hurts."
Shinazugawa did have a point. Giyuu knew a little about the major events that were going to happen, but he still didn't understand why Shinazugawa needed to know everything.
"Renogku died because of an upper moon by being gutted, and last time I took the shot because I pushed him out of the way so that was a short lived life. The first time I didn't really die, I mean, I don't think I did. If I did, I died in my sleep."

It was quiet. They didn't talk after Giyuu's short summary of what happened on the train last time and how he died the first time. Shinazugawa stayed quiet like he was expecting more of an explanation, and Giyuu stayed quiet thinking that he told Shinazugawa everything that he wanted to know.
"...is that it?"
"Yeah."
Shinazugawa was annoyed, baffled, and confused. All of those emotions stemmed from the question that had been in his mind ever since he heard the majority of what was going on.
Does he really think...
"Do you believe we can actually survive, save as many as we can, and complete the task given by the 'higher being'? We don't even know all of the rules or all of the tasks. If there are more. The possibility of doing all this successfully is insanely low."
"Are you saying that we can't?"
"The probability of everything going to shit is greater than the probability of everything going exactly the way we planned. That is all I'm saying. It's better if I know everything that did or is going to happen before we get put in an unfamiliar situation. Must I remind you, that there is something called reality and it rarely goes the way we want it to?"
Shinazugawa was completely and painfully right. The situation the two were in, was something they would laugh off and say it was impossible if they had not be thrown into it. Right now, was not the right time to think optimistically, or leave everything to fate. They had to think realistically if they wanted to get farther than Giyuu had got on his own. They had to look at the reality that was staring them in the face, and the reality they were looking at was-
"Tomioka and Shinazugawa? Now this is a weird combination!"
The two Hashira turned around to see the familiar butterfly hair ornament.

The air around the two men softened as soon as they heard her voice. It was no longer filled with the tense emotions of confusion, a forced realization, desperation, truthfulness, and many others.

"Shouldn't you be watching your patients?"
Shinobu had sat down next to Shinazugawa and ordered something small to eat.
"The kids at the mansion are very capable, so all of the patients are in good hands."
The stall worker served Shinobu her food with a nervous air around them, and a smile with a sweat drop on their cheek. It was extremely rare to have three Hashira sitting and have a meal together.
"So, what were you two talking about?"
Giyuu continued eating his food with no trouble,
"Nothing."
Shinobu didn't look away from her food once and spoke in her normal tone.
"Really? The air seemed pretty tense a while ago~"
This time, Shinazugawa responded,
"It's nothing a women should be concerned about."
"Oh?"
Because Shinobu's attempts to get the content of the conversation from the two people involved was unsuccessful, she decided to get some information out of the worker who was unwilling listening to the conversation. She wasn't going to use any violence. Shinobu just shot a few waves of killing intent at the worker. In response, Shinazugawa shot a weak waves of his killing intent to the worker as well.

They were conflicted. The worker didn't know which Hashira they should comply with. For one, they didn't even understand the content of the conversation, so the explanation would be something like,
"They were talking about facing reality."
The person wasn't necessarily wrong, but the answer was so bland that Shinobu would think that they weren't saying the whole truth. Then, she would attempt to threaten or blackmail them into telling her. Another factor was the way the other two Hashira were going to act. Giyuu rarely acted, or got involved in situations, like this so his reaction was unknown, but the worker knew exactly how Shinazugawa was going to react. Let's just say that his reaction wouldn't one of pretty sunsets and flowers. None of these endings would be a favorable one.
"They were talking about man stuff."
The response to this answer was more waves of violent energy. They understood that response from the Insect Hashira, not the Wind Hashira. They had safety covered the conversation while risking their life, and that was satisfactory. The worker had no idea how the minds of the top demon slayer's worked.

In the end, the worker was left alone and Shinobu bothered the two men, Giyuu in particular. Something like this, was a perfect example of probability leaning to the worst outcome.