𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳

21. THANK GODS

[恋の予感]

Thank gods. That's all Nezuko had seem to be able to repeat, over and over again.

Thank gods the casualties were low.

Thank gods the slayers had survived.

Thank gods they had won.

The village was reduced to rubble, there wasn't much time to mourn those lost. Sakurai stood in bafflement at the place she had called home--reduced to something looking ancient, out of war, with people moving solemnly through. The streets where she danced, ate, played, spent with her family, fell in love, were now all truly gone. It was the last flame of past blown out, the ghost of everything she once had was blown out at last. The citizens were moving to another ghost village. This would be nothing more than a distant memory, just like the mountainside shrine. Thank gods, the birthplace of Ren and their cursed history had no place left in the world now.

Thank gods, Ren Sakurai no longer had an identity from four hundred years ago. Everything that she was ceased to exist, and she wondered if she should change her name too. That the priestess of the Sengoku Era was no longer real. The gifts she had received, the sword she had used— gone. No one to remember her, no one but her own heart.

Sayonara. She clapped her hands, and bowed deeply to the soil of her ancestors.

A kakushi kept harassing her to get a move on, her daze barely letting her be alert to it with the ringing in her ears. She limped with their help, taken off to the butterfly estate once again.

Three days time is all it took her to spring up and out. No chance to say goodbye again, Tanjiro wasn't awake. Inosuke and Zenitsu had dropped by, and she was glad to see them well. She spent time with Nezuko in the garden, trying to teach her flowers and learn her name. She wasn't very successful before she received her next order.

"The emergency hashira's meeting, you're joining us," Mitsuri and Muichiro informed her.

"Oh." Again?

They didn't pull up to the Ubuyashiki estate looking too hot either, their bodies all bandaged up.

"Damn, I envy you guys. Why can't I bump into kizuki?" Sanemi remarked. He seemed in much calmer spirits than Sakurai as per usual, glancing at her with a weird discomfort now she had no energy to try to understand.

Obanai side glanced him. "It's not like people bump into them all the time." Although, with that, he gave a worrying glance at Sakurai. "How are you three doing, Kanroji, Tokitou, Sakurai?"

Now she had more discomfort, feeling out of place yet in these meetings. He's addressing me? Not only that, he's asking how I am?

"Oh! I'm feeling a lot better!" Misturi replied.

"I'm still not at full power," Muichiro responded less brightly.

"I can stand," Sakurai nervously replied, unsure with this change in tone. "That's excellent for me."