Burn to ash

Making Promises

Preparations were being made. The demons are quite and thus, we can all feel it; the end is coming near. We're sending  them all away, non demon slayers, the girls at the butterfly estate, the Kakushi who wouldn't be able to protect themselves. They are all to be on standby in another house a little ways away.

" We aren't demons slayers and we,.. " Suma starts to bawl as usual and Makio takes her place yelling at her.

" What she wanted to say is, we know how you are. you don't like to promise things that that are guaranteed but, we don't care. Lie to us and tell us that you'll come back. Lie to us and then make that lie reality. Come back to us or I should say, be alive when we come back. " It always surprises me that she is so quiet and gentle, yet, firm like a scolding mother.

"We know that you don't like to make promises that you can't keep and we even like that cynically blunt part of you but this is one time that I'm going to ask you to make me, no us, a promise Houzuki-chan. I need you to promise us that you'll come back to us alive. Even if you're missing an arm or maybe a leg, you can be blind for all we care but come back to us alive. That's a promise you need to make to us right now and a promise you have to keep. Even with a blade pierced through your heart, or claws at your throat. Make a deal with the devil if you have to, you come back to us." She's stern with her words but the grasp she has on my hands tells me  that she's afraid, they all are. Hina clings to Tengen, Makio surprisingly letting her without even a mutter and then there's Suma, looking at me with eyes that make it hard for me to say no.

" She doesn't need to promise anything. She'll come back to us for sure. " I feel his heavy arm land across my shoulders and I can't help but feel the relief he's provided me with for letting me get away from her insistence. His smile is fake though. He is the only one between the four of them who knows the real dangers of this final fight. 

" Looks like this is where we part ways again Hou. You with your mission and me with my own." He finally says and I smile and remember a time that these goodbyes were nothing more than part of a mission. 

" Now, what should I say to you as I leave Tengen? That I'll make my swift return to your waiting arms or maybe that I'll miss you every minutes that we're apart? " He grins as I ask this familiar question, one that he asked me before. 

" You don't need to say anything to me. I'm not your husband or your lover." He starts and turns away for dramatics . 

" I'll watch you go in silence and watch until I can't see you anymore.  I'll assume that you won't look back, not even once to reassure my aching soul.  I'll stare in your direction long after your gone and hope that you'll miss me." I give him a grin. The girls smile and begin to walk away and he begins to do the same before facing me again. He stares silently as he said he would but before I can walk my own steps towards my mission, I'm pulled back against him. 

Spinning me to face him, he holds my face gently against his own, pressing his lips onto mine. 

"I lied." He whispers in a hushed voice as he pulls away. He caresses my check with the back of his hand, rubbing my earing with his fingers and finally pulling away. He pulled his jeweled hitai ate out of his sleeve. 

" This isn't just for fashion you know. Not only is it flamboyant but it also protects against cuts where ever it's placed." He slowly ties in around my neck. 

" Don't get your head cut off. I'll be expecting that back after the battle. " he mutters and I nod. 

"How rude of you, stealing my Shishou's tactics." My heart hurt as I mention the man who gave me to strength to become a demon slayer. 

"Not stealing, using in good memory." He pats my head, " and in good memory, you must bring this back to me just as you returned his precious sword all those years ago." The people around us don't understand the gravity of our conversation, they don't understand what had transpired between us all those years ago, they don't understand how much Shishou's sword meant to me during that time. 

It was a symbol of my master's trust in my abilities and returning that sword to him was my declaration to become his successor. I became just that but I was not able to let his rest in peace, It should have been my responsibility to quell all of his worries, to let him enjoy his retirement, but I had failed in doing so. 

Tengen, he and Zenitsu, are the only ones who know the depth of guilt I feel. 

" I'll return it. I swear it. Even if I have to become a real demon. I'll return this to you. " 

" you two make it so much more complicated than it needs to be. Why can't you just proclaim your love for one another and vow to return to each other's arms; if you really want to make it special. " The previously silent Zenitsu mutters and I smile. 

It's time to go

I give the former sound pillar a bitter smile before turning away to face the young boy. 

"We'd best get going. " I ruffle his head of hair and he looks up at me almost so tired and distressed. 

" Zenitsu, we will honor shishou in every way possible, even if it means that I must kill our brother. That is a promise I can keep and swear to the heavens."