Memories in and between {Giyushino}

1, a dream

"Ara ara, Tomioka-san," a young teenage girl with beautiful black locks fading into purple, a butterfly hair ornament on her head poked his side. "You. Are. Disliked. Don't deny it." In further inspection, the girl's butterfly ornament was holding her hair in place in a yakai-maki hairstyle. It fits her perfectly.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance, not going unnoticed by the girl. "I'm not disliked by people." He stared at the girl by her side, narrowing his gaze on her.

She huffed, sly smile evident on her face. "Although you say that, you don't have friends."

"I do," he retorted. "Tanjirou."

"He's friends with everyone, so he doesn't count."

She scoffed. "Either way, do your best. Oyakata-sama suspects that the final battle will take place soon."

Sitting there with her, bantering over whether he has friends was enjoyable, not that he would ever admit it to the girl's face.

Maybe she really is considered his friend too.

"Caw – Dead! Kochou Shinobu is dead! She died in a battle against Upper Moon Two!" The crow's report struck him hard.

Dead. Kochou Shinobu is dead. His friend, another one he held dear, another he loved...was dead. He couldn't protect her either.

The sinking feeling of tears prickling against his eyes long forgotten, he continued his way in the Infinity Fortress with Tanjirou, hopefully his only friend left.

(He wished he didn't see Tanjirou, with a lost limb, blood framing his uniform, the Kakushi crying over him – dead.)

His eyes jerked open and he stared motionless at the spinning fan, sweat trailing his face uncomfortably. The dream was just like every other – unrecognizable, painful, and –

He touched his face. Tears. He understood nothing about the dreams, when he awoke from his dream, tears streaming down his face before he even realizes it, he felt scared, but of what?

"Giyuu!" His sister, Tsutako barged into their shared room to yell in his ear. "You're gonna be late if you don't wake up now!" She stopped to glance at his tear tracks and questioned with a worried expression. "Nightmares again?"

He yawned, accompanied with a nod. God hasn't been letting him sleep for...how long has it been already? Insomnia wasn't what he accounted for in his life, seeing as none of his family members have it and he definitely isn't constantly under high pressure situations, none at all. Dreams excluded. The dreams were high pressure enough, and he had them every night, a constant reminder of pain.

He narrowed his eyes at the clock. 7.00. Class starts at 7.15, and he might not make it on time, but he'd been late enough times that if he's late today, trouble would brew.

Giyuu grabbed his uniform from the closet and shut the door, giving a knowing look to his elder sister, who helped grab his school bag and books in the spur of the moment, shuffling them into his bag.

"Thanks, nee-chan. Sorry but I'm skipping breakfast." He took enough pocket money to warrant his lunch, bid his dear sister goodbye and left.

He skidded down the stairs, sometimes skipping a few steps and tripping by the inch of his hair, but he could deal with it for now. With adrenaline fueling him, he took his usual route, except using his bicycle this time, opting to hide or lock it somewhere behind the school.

Five minutes. He kept a mental count of the time he has left. Not much, but if he's lucky –

Ring –

The unmistakable, loud, unbearably annoying bell rang. He's officially late, unless he climbs through the back of the school...

Well, no one has to know, do they? Smirking, Giyuu hid his bicycle in the bushes and hoisted himself up and over the fence. Just when he least expected it, a voice called out angrily.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

-

Shinobu saw herself as someone easily angered. Someone bold and not afraid to punch people in the face for their bullshit (mainly because she had Kanae as a sister, who had Shinazugawa as a friend). But when she saw a boy her age, and in her class even, climbing the fence because he was late, she went and called out to him, maybe out of spite, maybe out of something else – like familiarity.

The boy – god knows what his name is. He's one of the more antisocial bunch, but she'd heard him called out a few times in class for daydreaming during English class – humiliating, really.

He fell. That man – no, boy, fell from the fence, only slightly wincing at the pain and glaring at her with surprise, fear, and...a spark of confusion. Or was it familiarity, like her?

He croaked, "What the hell..."

Oh, Shinobu was close to seething. What the hell indeed. "Why did you choose to vault over the fence when there's a gate upfront?" She specified the word 'gate'. It was the first time in 15 years of her life that someone would take the fence rather than the gate.

The boy rubbed his head where he fell. "The bell rang."

Oh, oh... Shinobu mused. She certainly hadn't noticed that. She had been trying her best to get over to the library before class started with that troublesome prosthetic of hers, ignoring the bell completely.

Oh. Realization set in. They were both late, at places where they clearly shouldn't have been. This is bad. So, so ba –

"Who's there?" A voice yelled from a distance, and not just any voice. It was the voice of the discipline teacher, Murasaki-sensei.

The black-haired teen stood up immediately to grab her by the wrist and ran, not knowing about her prosthetic. It wasn't public information, and only select few people knew about it. But when he noticed she was having troubles running, he carried her bridal style and ran to the closest staircase, which coincidentally led to their classroom on the first floor.

Crap, there went her pride. 

Edited: 25/8/2021 
I do hope this would be better than the last ;P I'm extending the chapters' length, sometimes merging two chapters in one.