𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙚... ᴷᴺʸ ˣ ᴳᴱᴺˢᴴᴵᴺ

촬영⬩Connecting Lives

The young Demon Slayer only looked back with a befuddled look on her stiff face, eyes widened and breath hitched.

"Judging from your expression..." Aether drawled, concluding. "You haven't, huh?"

Just like that, the young Demon Hunter was snapped from her musings as shook her head dejectedly. "S-Sorry... I haven't," she muttered in resignation, frowning deeply as she dropped her defeated gaze to the ground.

"Don't be," Aether replied, blinking once as his golden orbs stared at the smoldering fire once again. "I was just... hoping if you've seen her."

Sumiko could've sworn she saw a faint flicker of disappointment in the young boy's eyes, but it was so fleeting it must've been her imagination.

"What happened to her?" she asked somberly. The blond boy was unresponsive, to which Sumiko suddenly regretted as she must have triggered him to inadvertently discuss such a sensitive subject, but the tension was only amplified by the words that followed.

"She was captured by a god."

'G-God?!' The thought of a divine being screamed in her head and it almost made the young Demon Slayer's stomach twist and heart stop.

Aether continued, letting the words flow out of his lips naturally. "I tried my best to save her, but... it wasn't enough. I may not know where that god sent her, but I intend to find out."

Sumiko kept silent to fully understand the whole story, not wanting to interrupt him.

"After I woke up, I realized the god had sealed me of my powers to travel to other worlds and I was left stranded here for many weeks now. Believe it or not, my sister and I traveled to other worlds, places that exist beyond the skies."

The young Demon Hunter was rendered dumbfounded as she widened her eyes, the short tale almost sounding too surreal to absorb and comprehend.

"Each day, I searched for her, but the problem was I didn't know where to start. I asked some of the people in towns and villages, and like every other response I get, they hadn't seen someone who wears eccentric clothes as I do."

The blond-haired boy leaned back as he stole a glance at the cave's entrance and to what rested above the trees. "When I look at the sky each night, I wonder how my sister is doing. I just hope someday we could meet each other again."

Within moments, the mood between them became rather subdued from that point on, and Sumiko was left to muse in her frustration. Considering she just woke up in this alien world, she hadn't encountered any sentient beings besides her golden-haired friend and those goblin-like creatures a bit earlier. From her peripherals, a crestfallen visage was seen from the boy beside her, almost causing Sumiko to mimic him. As much as she wanted to ease the heavy air of silence, she can only flounder in the end and accept the picture of reality.

Pursing her lips in vexation, a visage shimmered into existence; someone whose life was worth more than hers. After that horrid incident back home in the mountains, Sumiko vowed to find a cure for her. To save her. Never did she give in no matter how insurmountable the circumstances were, and at the end of her long, perilous journey, it was finished - and it couldn't have been possible without the people she befriended and trusted along the way.

'Nezuko...'

Having fulfilled her purpose, Sumiko believed her worries were finally dispelled – or so she thought.

Moments spent in stillness carried on before the Demon Slayer bravely broke through that thick wall and spoke with firmness.

"Let me help you find your sister."