Purple Lotus [Kimetsu no Yaiba]

~Thirty-One~

"Do you have your tickets ready?" Tsubasa asked once more. Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke and Rengoku all nodded. She smiled. "Alright then. Now we wait for the attendant to punch them, and we can get back to looking for the other demon. I can feel the presence of another one not too far."

Just then, as if on cue, a man in a uniform looking miserable beyond belief came up to them. "Tickets, please," he grumbled. 

"Here!" they all chirped and handed the small pieces of paper to him. He punched them all and moved on. Something about him seemed off. He felt... strange. Tsubasa couldn't pinpoint what he felt like. It was like even he didn't know what he felt like either. It made her feel uneasy. And she didn't like it. 

"Kyo," she mumbled and gave him a wary look. He returned it with a serious one, as though telling her they knew what they were doing and there was no way they could fail. Eventually she smiled. He was right. There was no way they could fail. They were a tag team. The best tag-team in the Corps. They were unstoppable together!

*****

Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Rengoku's dreams were pretty much the same the entire time, so I'll only write Inosuke and Tsubasa's dream.

~Inosuke.

"And march! March! March!" Inosuke yelled to the mice that were marching at his command. "Underling one! Underling two!" he hollered.

"Here!" a mouse looking Tanjiro beamed.

"Here!" a mouse looking Zenitsu chirped.

"Move faster! We have to defeat the beast!" he commanded. "And you!" he pointed to a hamster looking Nezuko. "If you work with us, I'll give you all the nuts you can think of!!" He held out a handful of nuts and she rejoiced. 

They all marched until they reached the said 'beast.' It was a train. A train with fur and fangs. "I, the king of the mountain, together with my queen!" Inosuke announced and hugged a confused looking Tsubasa close to him. "will make sure we defeat this monster and come out victorious!"

"Do you really think we can do it, oh great King of the Mountains?" Tsubasa asked with hopeful eyes as she clung to him. 

"Of course we can! And we're  gonna make our own kingdom as soon as I'm done! We'll make lots of underlings!" the boar chuckled. "Cause we'll be together. Just the two of us."

"Now, charge!!"

*****

~Tsubasa.

It was dark. It was night-time. Tsubasa was on the patio of Urokodaki's house once more. She wasn't in her Corps uniform. She was back in her normal clothes and old pink and purple haori. It was like she was thrown back into the past! She looked around her and rubbed her eyes. Was she dreaming? "What the...?"

"What's wrong? Can't sleep again?" a silky voice called and her eyes instantly filled with tears. No matter how long it had been. No matter how many people she'd met over time. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Sabito?"

The pinkette wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in the crook of her neck. "Hey there, Tsu-chan." 

No. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be real. And yet... A cloud. A light fluffy cloud. That's how he'd always felt. That's what she was feeling now. "Sabito!" the girl whipped around and returned the hug, immediately breaking down on the spot.

"Hey, hey? What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. 

"You-you're here!" she sobbed. "I thought I.... I thought I lost you!!"

"Lost me?" the pinkette was confused. "You mean this morning? I just fell in a trap. Urokodaki is making our training harder, after all."

"T-training?" Now Tsubasa was confused. "N-no, not training. You... You went-went to Final Selection..."

"Final Selection?"

"You split your boulder.... I wasn't... wasn't ready. You-you-you went....went..." The poor girl was shaking, having to relive all the trauma as she tried to explain. It was too much. "The seven days.... seven days.. they passed.... you didn't return... I was sad. Sad... I split mine...passed the Final... The Final... I became a Hashira!!"

"What on earth is a Hashira?" Sabito finally shut her up. "Listen, Tsu-chan, you had a bad dream. We're still in training, remember? I'm right here, you haven't lost me."

"You're... here?" Tsubasa wiped her tears, looking into his deep blue eyes properly. "Really truly?"

"Really truly." Sabito hugged her tighter. "And I'm not leaving you. Ever. Now, come on, let's get you back to bed."

And so the pinkette led her back to her room. Her room. The room she'd stayed in for the past five years. But she had her own estate. Did she have her own estate? Or was that just part of the dream Sabito claimed she'd had? She laid down in her futon. Not a bed. The bed she'd owned in her own estate. Her futon. 

Sabito tucked her in. He asked her if she'd be alright on her own for the night. She nodded, knowing full well she wouldn't be okay for the night. It was routine. A routine she'd done for the past two years. She'd always been content with it. So why did it feel so empty now? He asked her again. She reassured him. 

He kissed her goodnight. And he left. Tsubasa fell asleep. In her futon. In her room. In Urokodaki's house. Sabito and Giyuu were just in the next room. Because she wasn't the Emotion Hashira. And Giyuu wasn't the Water Hashira. They were just trainees. Just the three of them. Because everything she thought had happened was a dream. Just a dream. 

Sabito told her it was a dream. And Sabito would never lie to her. So it was true. It had to be a dream. Tsubasa went to sleep, with a small smile on her face, happy that the dream had come to an end.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

¬Blu<3