The Demon Queen

The Medicine

I returned to the Kibutsuji estate as promised. But when I got there, I was suddenly hit with the eerie sensation that something was very, very wrong. Worried that something happened to Muzan, I ran as fast as I could to the house and pulled myself through the window.

The moment my eyes had the chance to scan Muzan's room, my jaw dropped. My eyes popped wide open and I put a hand to my mouth, holding back a gasp. My body started to tremble at the sight. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.

In the middle of the room was a middle-aged man laying on his stomach on the floor. Dead. A knife deeply thrown into the back of his head. His head lay face-flat in a puddle of his own blood.

My eyes moved from the body to behind it in the direction towards the wall. Muzan was there sitting on his futon, one of his hands slid under his yukata at the place his heart was at. From a distance, his skin was paler than usual, almost becoming purple, and if it weren't for the sound of his breathing, I would have wondered if he were dead.

"Muzan ..." I said, looking from him to the other man's body and back to him. "Muzan ... did you do this?"

He rose his head very slightly, enough so that he could stare at me from behind the hair falling over his face.

Hesitating, I took a couple steps forward. "You -- you killed this man, didn't you ..."

"Sakura ..." he spoke slowly in a weak, somewhat raspy voice. He sounded as if he could hardly manage his breathing to speak.

I immediately rushed over to him and got down in front of him. "You're not well," I said, trying to hold in my panic.

He breathed heavily again, clenching his hand at his chest. "Sakura, I --"

I put my hands on his cheeks and held his face in my hands. His skin was cold and clammy. "Don't talk. You need to rest. Don't exert yourself."

Muzan stared at me with blank eyes. "He ... killed ... me ..."

I quickly glanced back at the body on the floor and then back to Muzan.

"Poison ..." Muzan said weakly. "Poison ... poison ..." He took a horse breath and clenched at his chest some more before starting to cough.

"Muzan!" I caught his body as it fell forward into me. He continued to cough onto my shoulder, gasping for breath whenever he could. "Don't talk! I'll call for help! Just hang in there!"

"No."

I started to feel the echoes  of his heartbeat pounding against my body.

He won't make it, I thought.

"Sakura, please stay ... with me ..." he said. "Please ..."

Even if a servant gets help, by the time someone would get here ...

His heavy breaths puffed against my neck.

He'll be dead ...

Holding back my tears, I embraced him and held him against my body. In that moment, I had completely given up on any hope for Muzan's survival. There was nothing I could do to save him. I could only be there to ease his suffering, if that in itself was even possible.

"You are ... so warm ..." he mumbled.

I decided to let him talk if he wanted to. He was dying, and it was his wish.

"I love you ... never forget ... I love you ..."

I held him firmer in my arms. "I love you, too." Weeping silently, I stuck my face in his hair. "I will always be here with you. Forever. I promise."