The Demon Queen

Reunion

"I'm sorry."

Gyutaro was waiting for me in my wing one day after I finished practising sword fighting with Kokushibou.

"Oh. Hi," I said to him.

"What's this?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck with one hand and pointing to the sword in my hand with the other.

"My project with Kokushibou."

Gyutaro's eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head. "Your what!?" He slashed himself down the face. "With who!?" He scratched himself at his collarbone.

"Relax, it's not a big deal. We're just picking up where we left off several centuries ago."

Gyutaro's jaw dropped. He stared at me with a dumbfounded look.

"And you're proposing that we pick up where we left off several weeks ago, right?"

Gyutaro scratched at his neck. "Ehm ... yeah. That's it."

I smiled. "You'll need to do more than that to convince me."

"Huh!?" He slashed himself down the face.

I rubbed my forehead. "Ara ara ..." I put my sword in its sheath that was secured to my obi.

Gyutaro frantically scratched in his hair. "You know that I'm not good at this apology stuff and I don't know how to convince you better!" He suddenly started to stare at me. "Hey, you're wearing normal clothes." He pointed to the dark purple hakama and white kimono I was wearing.

"And you're shirtless."

"Huh?"

"Your skinny is showing."

"AAARGH! STOP IT!" He threw his hands to his face. "I told ya I'm sorry for all that crap I said!"

I smiled. "It's all right."

His body relaxed some. "You mean it?"

My face turned serious. "I do, but I'll never forget what you said. Even though maybe I should." I walked over to Gyutaro. "I have no right to question the bond you have with Daki. But, if what she's doing could possibly get her killed, and you, and maybe more of us, then I'd hope ..." I looked at his disappointed and pained face. "I was hoping that you'd side with me and Douma, who want us all to stay alive ..."

Gyutaro's eyes swelled up with tears.

"Let's not talk about this. I accept your apology, Gyutaro."

"I can't say no to her ..." he said. "After that mother of ours died, some monks came and gave us food until we could find jobs. The monks told me that I had to take care of her and that she was my responsibility, that I had to do it because I was grown and she was still a child. So, I can't ..."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "That's fine, Gyutaro. Let's not talk about this anymore."

Suddenly, we were both transported out of my wing. We landed together in a large room which I knew to be the one Muzan used for meetings with the Upper Moons.

"One of these? Now?" Gyutaro asked quietly.

The other Upper Moon demons started to appear around us, one by one. A second wasn't even given for any of us to ask what was going on before Muzan showed up with Nakime beside him.

Muzan's eyes caught mine. "Sakura," he said and held out his hand.

It was protocol for me to stand beside him whenever these meetings took place. I parted from Gyutaro and went over to join Muzan. When I reached my place beside him, Nakime strummed a note on her biwa.

We were met with silence and full attention as the echo of the biwa strum slowly died down.

"Enmu is dead," Muzan spoke in a serious tone. "The Lower Moons have reached their extinction."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Who's Enmu?" Gyutaro whispered to me after the meeting was over.

I was leaving with him and Douma. We decided to go over to the Eternal Paradise Faith Cult together. Muzan was getting even more angry from Enmu's death and Akaza's failure to kill all of the Demon Slayers involved in the Mugen Train incident.

"Oh, I would not want to be Akaza-dono right now," Douma said.

"I wouldn't want to be Akaza at any time," Gyutaro said.

"Aren't you a cheeky one," Douma said with a "tsk-tsk" added on to it.

I had nothing to say to it all. The entire thing was extremely disappointing to me. How was it so difficult to kill a few teenage Demon Slayers? And why the hell didn't Muzan and I find a way to get rid of that kid with the earrings when he found us in Tokyo? It was all becoming such a grave mistake, a truly troubling mistake that nothing good could come out of.

"Sakura-chan," Douma said and put a hand on my shoulder. "It'll all be okay. None of us Upper Moons have ever been killed. Over centuries, too! It's the Lower Moons that always come and go."

"Yeah!" Gyutaro agreed.

Douma looked at him. "How would you know? You haven't been here all that long."

"Because I've still seen my share of Lower Moons being replaced," Gyutaro growled.

They continued on like that until we got to the Eternal Paradise Faith Cult. I ignored their bantering, trapped in my own thoughts of where Muzan and I went wrong and how dangerous it seemed it might become for us. To my relief, Douma and Gyutaro didn't disturb me.

The only conclusion I could come to was one person: Tamayo.

She had to be behind it somehow. She would forever remain to be our greatest mistake.

However when we were in the Cult, I was able to free myself from my thoughts. Being with my two best friends at the place that had become my second home gifted me with the ability to relax. My worries temporarily deserted me as I watched Gyutaro stuff sweets down his throat and heard Douma's lighthearted, senseless chatter. I was brought back 50 years, or 75 years, before any of us knew of the Kamados, and when we believed Yoriichi's Hanafuda earrings to have been long buried with him. I would have preferred to stay there in my past ignorance of feeling that everything was perfect.

Perfect ... the past century had truly been perfect. If I was grateful for anything I got from my unnaturally extended lifespan, it was for those past 100 years. I had everything I could possibly wish for.

I even had my secret ventures into the sunlight.

I felt so loved, so complete being there, surrounded by Douma's contagious laughter and Gyutaro's mischievous smile. I couldn't help but join in on everything they had to offer me.

We drank.

We ate.

We even set up a camera Douma had bought to take some photos of the three of us.

We ultimately fell asleep together in the back room of the temple, surrounded by the little chaotic mess we had made.

I was so happy.

If only such moments could last forever.

But, I unfortunately knew the truth of the world more than anyone, and no amount of denying it could ever change the facts.

Nothing can last forever.