Why me? ᴷᴺʸ

강제 수면~ Forced to sleep

Sumiko shot up in a bed. It took her a few seconds to remember the events before she passed out and the strange dream she had. Frantically, she looked around for her sister. How could she have just left Nezuko with that man? No, that monster? How careless could she be?

Her anxiety only grew when she realized she was in a foreign setting; it looked like a hospital. Sumiko instantly got up. Where was Nezuko? Was she truly alone with that man?

She noticed her Tengu mask and bamboo muzzle sitting on a desk nearby, but there was no time to care about that. Sharply, she took a deep breath. Her eyes shot open, landing on a sliding door. Nezuko was nearby.

***

Sumiko slammed the door open, not knowing what to expect. Sitting there were four people: Zenitsu, the yellow-haired boy, who was dramatically cowering behind Nezuko, who was obviously annoyed; a young woman with long, dark brown hair, who wore a dark purple medium-length kimono decorated with wavy pale purple tree branches and red flowers; and a young man of short stature with short hair that faded from light green to black and was styled vertically, wearing a collared shirt under a white haori and dark blue pants.

Instantaneously, the four heads shot towards her. Nezuko ran up to her. "Nee-san! You're awake!" she exclaimed, engulfing her in a warm hug. "I was so worried," she continued, her fingers running through Sumiko's burgundy locks. She pulled back, her hands still on Sumiko's shoulders. "It looks like your burns have finally healed," she said, picking at Sumiko's bandages. "You can take them off if you want."

"N-N-Nezuko~~" a shaky voice called out. "Y-You'll protect me, right? That boy keeps hitting me!!" Zenitsu continued, his voice on the verge of tears. He glanced back at the demon boy who was fiercely glaring at him. "I told you to stay away from her, mistress!" he growled angrily, a dark aura flowing from him. Zenitsu flinched and grabbed onto Nezuko's arm, only to be quickly thrown off.

Nezuko snapped her head back. "I told you to get off me!!" she hissed, turning back to her sister, who had seemingly disappeared. She turned her head again to see Sumiko comforting a shivering Zenitsu. He looked up to see who was stroking his back so gently, even though he knew there was only one person with them who was capable of being so nice.

"WAHHH SUMIKOOO YOU'LL PROTECT MEEE I KNEW ITT," he whined, moving forward to cling to her legs. Nezuko groaned. Her sister was too kind for her own good. She moved to throw him off her sister, a little embarrassed to cause such a commotion in front of people, but someone beat her to it.

"SHUT UP," Yushiro shouted, pulling Zenitsu off a confused Sumiko before violently flooring him. "You're hurting the lady's ears!" He paused, visibly thinking. "And that's not how you treat a girl!"

Nezuko stopped in her tracks. Maybe he wasn't as bad as she thought—

"Yushiro..." A soft voice called out. "That's not nice..." Nezuko felt a bit bad that she forgot there was someone else in the room. She watched amusingly as the demon boy quickly stopped reprimanding Zenitsu and quickly returned to the lady's side. He reminded her of an obedient lap dog. "Yes ma'am," he saluted.

***

Nezuko told them about her goal to turn her sister back into a human, and to her surprise, Tamayo said that it was possible.

"Every injury and illness has a medicine or treatment," she said.

But at present, she didn't know how to do so. She asked Nezuko if she could study some of Sumiko's blood, to which she agreed, and told Nezuko to get samples from a demon with a high concentration of Kibutsuji's blood—that is, from some of the Twelve Demon Moons.