𝐌𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 | Kimetsu no Yabai

Chapter 37: Live (住む)

The breeze of warm air blows while the trees dance as they make beautiful sounds from there branches and leaves. The feeling of soft grass touching your skin made you feel so secured.

You never felt liked that in a long time. It was too blissful to be true.

"Are you comfortable?" A voice rang out.

You scrunched your face a little. Feeling a bit bothered but rather curious who that was.

You slowly open your eyes to see a beautiful woman sitting besides your as she towers over you in your sight.

Who is that...? Wait I think she looks familiar.

The woman slowly gives you a gentle smile.

"I sometimes come here and clear my head. Sometimes I don't ever feel like I want to go back" she says.

You continue to stay quiet and take in her features.

"When I was young, my sister would always come to me, crying whenever she'd get hurt or just feel lonely..."

She closes her eyes and lowers her head. But that gentle smile is still there.
"But now that she's gone, I'm lonely...and Yoriichi comes to me when I cry without expecting it"

You felt sad, and sorry for the poor woman. You obviously didn't know too much about her, but just the tone of her voice sounded that she's been through a lot.

"And then I realized...I was never alone. He was in my life. And it took me a long time to finally tell him how happy and thankful I was to have him by my side...I loved him very much" she said.

"...why...why are you telling me all this" you said.
"Because you still have a life ahead of you. You cherish every moment you have with your loved ones. And when you feel like your life is complete, then you just know"

You slowly get up and finally looked around to see that you were on a grassy plain field. There was nothing but the blue sky.

You took a moment to take in the feel and look at the woman. That's when it hit you.

"You're...you're my ancestor. Yoshida Akiko I'm assuming?"
She nods.
"I hope I have not frightened you. But you do seem to look confused as to where you are right now, yes?"

You nod.
"Right now you are in the after life" she says.
This surprises you.

"I'm dead?"
"No not yet. But I'm surprised that you've made it this far young lady. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd cheat death, but that may be an understatement" she chuckles.

No wonder. The pain you felt all over your body wasn't there. You felt more at peace than before. For a brief moment all your worries were gone and for a split second while you were here, you almost forgot what you were doing before.

"Can I go back? Is it even possible?" you asked.
"That depends. Do you want to keep fighting or do you want to finally let go" she sternly says.

Tanjiro and everyone else needed you. What kind of question was that to ask if you wanted to go?

"Of course, I want to keep fighting! I have to!"
But then again even if you said that. Was your body and soul willing to put up with coming back?

You had too many bones crushed. You lost an eye. And all in all you were just mentally and physically tired.

It didn't slip pass by Akiko to see how conflicted you were behind that bravado.

"I will tell you that I didn't fight for years alongside Yoriichi just to give up. When my sister died, I felt empty. I wanted nothing to do with the world. I wanted to write my final words and commit jigai, or maybe poison myself with alcohol" she says.