I'm back my lovelies~

I'm sorry this took forever. The first month was ate up by a freelance job, then personal tragedy happened when my last living grandparent past away so I took personal time to morn. I'm more than sure you all understand. Then for some ungodly reason this chapter was a BEAR to write...probably just from everything.

Thank you all for sticking with me though, I'm sure two months was bad...I wonder how my other story fans are doing *looks at them wallowing in three year hell* eh, they're fine~

Again, any spelling errors; let me know please!

The room was dark; the only light source hung overhead beyond sight, illuminating the western style table. There was nothing on the table save the lone metal cloche serving dish. He was oddly drawn towards it; not questioning the strange, surreal situation. He could feel the anxiety building up in his chest as he drew closer to it. Normally he'd question as to why the lid was shifting and knocking but he never reacted to it; as if that was perfectly normal. It stopped when he got close to it, and he reached out towards it to lift the lid, never even thinking about how...normal his hands looked.

Lifting the lid revealed a...anpan? That was odd. He had been expecting something more, sinister due to how his heart had been beating. He picked it up to look at it; it looked like an average anpan. He was about to sigh in relief but then the anpan twitched and split open, and white spiders started crawling out of it. Crying out, he dropped it back onto the tray as the spiders started to crawl on his hand, shaking his hand to get them off. That's when he noticed the red stuff leaking out of the anpan. Naturally, he assumed it was the anko leaking out, but when he saw that it had blue and purple veins and dark blood oozing around it, it told him otherwise. Only when it started to scream that familiar terrible scream did he realize what it was; more spiders crawling out of it's twisted 'mouth'.

That's when Zenitsu woke up.

The rush of anxiety and adrenaline made him shaky as he sat up, still slightly dissociated from the waking world and the dream one. He wiped his forehead clean from the sweat that was dripping down off of it. What was with these nightmares as of late? This was the first one he remembered, but he wished he hadn't. He sighed as he went to wipe some more irritating sweat off his neck when he realized something, the collar wasn't around his neck. He looked around and felt sick; the wall by his bed, the mattress and metal headboard of the bed, all had deep claw marks in them. He looked around again and saw that the collar had been twisted off and discarded to a corner of the room with more claw marks on the floorboards near it. At first, he thought that whatever other unknown nightmares he had must have been intense to cause so much damage, but then a worse thought came to mind:

'They're going to be so mad at me,' he thought to himself as he stood up to get a better look at the damage, 'they'll never believe I didn't do this on purpose!' He picked up the collar; it was completely broken at the lock and where the chain linked up to it. He decided to just tell someone, it would be better to tell them now than have them walk in on it and freak out about it later. He went to the door and knocked on it, trying his best to not breathe in the smell of the wisteria. He heard the Kakushi guarding the door jump from his knocking; not too surprising to him. After all, he wasn't meant to be able to reach the door.

"Um...excuse me," he meekly called out, "uh...my collar kinda...broke? Could you tell...I don't know—and you're gone." he sighed as soon as he told whoever was outside that, they quickly left. All he could do now was wait for whatever and whoever to come. He sat on the bed, wringing his hands nervously. As he waited (which took longer than he thought it would), he looked around surveying the damage. The mattress would have to be replaced, same with the floorboards...maybe even parts of the walls. He was in it deep. Then he finally noticed something very important was missing from the room: Nezuko's box was gone. He didn't get too much of a chance to think too much about it as the door suddenly swung open, making Zenitsu jump. He looked up at Aoi's scowling face. She seemed fairly confident entering the room by herself with no rubber equipment, not like when he had first met her when she seemed to be putting up a brave face.

"What did you do," she asked looking around the room looking absolutely peeved, "you didn't do this on purpose, did you?"

"Of course not," he said feeling tears welling at the edges of his eyes, "I had a bad dream, all right?! I'm sorry, I don't know what happened! I feel bad about it, and now everyone's going to be mad at me and yell at me and—"

"Enough," Aoi interrupted him rubbing her temples, "look. Lady Kocho wasn't all that upset; in fact she seemed to be expecting something like this," she said looking around again scowling hard. It was Zenitsu's turn to scowl at her.

"Hey, what do you mean she was 'expecting this' ", he said as he huffed indignantly. Aoi met his scowl with her own.

"She's an expert with demons and their behavior," she said folding her arms confidently, "but I'm sure you're an oddity when it comes to what would be considered normal." Zenitsu scowled at her words and without meaning too, quietly growled at her words.

"You stop that," Aoi said as she kept looking around the room; she seemed more and more relaxed around him the more she got familiar with him, "besides, I was instructed to take you somewhere else until the room is restored...which might take some time because of the damage. Don't you know that this wood is over three hundred years old?!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"Well, you'll be happy to know that where you'll be put," she deeply sighed, clearly indicating her disagreement to it, "in one of the open wards. We decided to put you with—"

"Tanjiro and Inosuke," Zenitsu asked with hope. She barely started to nod in agreement when he jumped up and flung himself onto her giving her a deep hug.

"Thank you! I'm so happy! You have no idea how—" suddenly he felt a hand sharply slap across his face and he instantly let her go. He put a hand to where she slapped him and looked at her; she was staring daggers at him but her hand was slightly shaking. Perhaps she did have a right to slap him, he'd probably scared her.

"Keep...yourself to yourself," she said trying to sound tough but there was a slight waver in her voice.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I was a little excited and I overreacted."

"You always overreact," she mumbled, "but never mind, we need to get going." Zenitsu was expecting some sort of restraint, but was pleasantly surprised when she didn't seem to reach or have anything of the sort. Right before they left the room, he suddenly remembered something when he took a final look around the room.

"Wait," he said pausing, having to restrain himself from grabbing her arm in fear of scaring her again, "I wanted to ask; what happened to Nezuko?"

"Oh," Aoi said looking back while opening the door, "I believe she is with Lady Kocho right now."

"What?! Oh no," Zenitsu wailed, "I hope she's not doing weird..." he stumbled and paused, thinking of all the things that could possibly happen but unable to zero down onto one, "things to her!"

"Oh please," Aoi said rolling her eyes, "Lady Kocho isn't going to do anything. She isn't cruel; she's very kind."

"To humans perhaps," mumbled Zenitsu. Aoi was about to say something in defense of Shinobu but then looked ahead. She hated to admit, but he did have a point.

"Well regardless," Aoi said, "we're running late now, so we need to get going."

"Late to what," he mumbled, "it's not like there's—" but he stopped talking when he saw the look she shot towards him. The two left the room and Zenitsu was thoroughly enjoying the small amount of freedom that he'd been allowed. It was amazing how much he'd taken for granted. Such small things like being able to move freely around a room unbounded. He was still getting use to being a stupid demon, let alone a prisoner. Once they came close to the open ward, Aoi reached out her arm to halt Zenitsu.

"Wait here," she said pointing to the ground, "I need to see if the windows are closed in the open ward. I'd get in so much trouble if you burned up and died before they wanted you to." As she continued down the hall she could hear him moan and whine something about her being heartless or something of the sort; she wasn't really paying attention to him. He stood there with his arms folded and waited, but he thought he had heard something behind him. He turned slightly to see three sets of small eyes peaking 'round the corner, staring intently at him.

"Uh...hi?" he said wondering if he should explain the situation or not. Three small girls slowly crept from the corner of the hall and approached him; it seemed that their curiosity about him was stronger than their fear. They were about four feet away from him when they decided that was close enough but they were still huddled together. This was a bit awkward. He hoped they didn't scream at the top of their lungs if he started talking or flinched...something he'd surely do in their spot.

"If you're wondering why I'm here," he finally decided to say, "I'm with Aoi. She told me to stay here while she's checking to see if the windows are closed in the open ward." That seemed to put the girls at ease and they relaxed a bit more. They started to surround him, looking at him with new interest. Now it was his turn to be nervous...from small children... It didn't help that they started to bombard him with a thousand questions:

"How old are you; centuries old?"

"What did you do to get locked up?"

"What's it like having a tail?"

The questions came out too fast for him to answer them and he found himself backing up into a corner; it didn't help when one of them grabbed his tail and started to pull it. He was in near tears when Aoi returned, completely relieved that she did.

"What are you three doing," she said with her hands on her hips, "didn't we tell you not to approach him?" The three girls turned towards her, the one still had her hands gripped around the tail and was holding it like it was a small animal that might try to escape.

"We're sorry," Kiyo said, who was standing behind Naho who was looking at Sumi who was the one holding Zenitsu's tail almost lovingly, "but we were curious and..." her voice trailed off as she shuffled her feet.

"He didn't seem all that scary," Sumi said as if she knew what she said was absurd but was looking down at the floor, then let the tail go as she nervously played with her hair, "not like...that one, that..."

"Doesn't matter," Aoi said sternly as she looked down at the three girls, "go back to your chores! We'll have a talk about this with Lady Kocho later." She grabbed Zenitsu's sleeve and pulled him forward toward the ward. He looked back at the three girls; they looked slightly worried. He didn't blame them, he didn't like getting into trouble either and Shinobu was scary enough as is. When they entered the ward, he expected to see both Tanjiro and Inosuke, but instead he saw only Tanjiro and someone else. At first his attention was drawn towards Tanjiro. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he was more than sure that it was way past the time that he would normally be up and about, but he was still asleep. Zenitsu was suddenly heard a somewhat muted sound, like a tremolo on the viola. The all too familiar sounds of anxiety and fear. His attention was drawn toward the person who was seated next to Tanjiro patiently waiting for him to wake up, someone he hadn't ever expected to ever see again.

"Oh...it's uh...you again," Murata quietly muttered towards Zenitsu, adjusting his collar that really didn't need to be, "I'm um...glad to see you're...alive and...looking well." Zenitsu wished he could say the same, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. Murata looked...well terrible. He had not one but two shiners, giving him raccoon eyes, that clearly had to hurt. His face was still bruised and slightly swollen from his broken nose, especially around his eyes. Speaking of his eyes...it kinda terrified Zenitsu to look directly into them, the sclera of his eyes were completely red.

"Uh...you...too..." lied Zenitsu. Murata put on a crooked smile.

"That's a lie," he said, "I look terrible, thanks to Pig-Ass," he reached up to his nose and gently rubbed it, "I was to come here for the Hashira meeting to report, but I was late and...kinda missed it," he looked worried, "it's not my fault though! The medicine they gave me knocked me out for several days! Now though I'm...kinda worried," he looked hard at his knees, "I hear the Hashiras are like, really scary...and the doctor said my nose has to be re-broken to be re-straightened," he looked sick saying it, "or else I'll have breathing problems in the future or something like that...I'm not looking forward to it."

"So you're here to see Lady Kocho then," asked Aoi sounding annoyed, "she's not some kind of surgeon you know. The Butterfly Estate isn't some sort of charity where you can just get free service for whatever and whenever you wish!"

"I know," he moaned, "but...I don't have the money to pay for something like that! I was hoping to throw myself at her..." here they all turned when they heard gentle moaning. Tanjiro woke up to the loud conversation. He looked around and had a sleepy smile on his face when he saw who was at his bedside.

"Oh, Murata," he said starting to sit up, but was caught short on a cloth strap that was wrapped around the bed, "I can't believe you're here! I'm so glad you're alive!"

"I'm glad you're alive as well," he said as he stood up, "I wanted to say more, but I'm running late for," he shuddered, "my meeting with Lady Kocho. I'll come back and visit later," He started on his way out, then paused and seemed to fidget with his buttons on his shirt for a moment.

"Hey um," he said as he turned halfway back toward Zenitsu, "back on the mountain...um...what I said and tried to do..."

"Yeah," Zenitsu said as he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling and hearing Murata sound in his song, "I...understand."

"But...I don't know if..." he mumbled, clearly feeling conflicted.

"Yeah, I get it," Zenitsu said, "you need time." Murata, still fidgeting with his buttons, quickly nodded and quietly left the room. He needed more time to finalize his thoughts...that's all. After Murata left, Zenitsu's attention went fully onto Tanjiro, now noticing the straps on his bed.

"They really did tie you down," Zenitsu said looking down at the straps, "they weren't kidding were they?" Tanjiro huffed and sank down into his bed. It was strange to see Tanjiro pout like this.

"Yeah," he sighed, "they said they'd let me up 'in the morning'," he said as he watched Aoi quietly untie the straps.

"But," Zenitsu asked scratching his head, "wasn't it already morning when,"

"Wait," Tanjiro said sitting up as much as he could, "Why are you here Zenitsu?"

"Well," he started twiddling his fingers but was interrupted by Aoi.

"He wrecked his room," she said as she was opening a nearby closet, searching for something, "so we've temporarily moved him here until the room has been remodeled."

"You really didn't," asked Tanjiro turning back to him. Zenitsu squawked and sputtered in agitation.

"Not on purpose," he whined while stamping his foot, a childish gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Aoi who simply rolled her eyes, "I had a bad dream okay?! Is it now illegal to have those?! I think I'm more than allowed to have them; I've been under so much mental and emotional stress as of late, I'm surprised my hair isn't falling out! You most certainly didn't help things this morning!" He paused and winced when he heard the normally consistent placid song of Tanjiro's suddenly hitch, skip and drop. Tanjiro's face slightly fell, but it was his eyes that gave away his sadness.

"I...I'm sorry," Zenitsu said as he sat down on the bed, "I shouldn't have said that." Tanjiro was still looking away as he spoke:

"It's fine," he said, "you're only speaking the truth. I...I messed up. I'm sorry too, I didn't think that—" The moment was ruined when there was a loud banging of an opening door. All parties looked over towards the noise to see that Inosuke had kicked the door open as his hands were currently full with two bowls of rice and other toppings.

"Idiot," Aoi hissed at him as he continued to march into the room, "this is a hospital ward, not your personal room! You need to be quiet!" Inosuke ignored her and marched up to Tanjiro's bed.

"Batacho," he gruffly said under his mask, "your Lord has provided you with sustenance," he shoved the bowl of rice into Tanjiro's hands, "prostrate yourself and sing my praises!"

"I'm surprised your dumb-ass knows those words and what they even mean," Zenitsu mumbled. Inosuke turned his attention towards Zenitsu and he instantly regretted it. After setting down his own bowl, Inosuke ran over towards Zenitsu and picked him up high over his head, having a firm grip on the collar of his shirt and the base of his tail.

"HA! Ginhitsu! 'Bout time you showed up! Now my training can truly begin!"

"ARG! You psychotic idiot! Put me down," Zenitsu wailed as he helplessly flailed about, but having a fear that he'd suddenly drop him, his tail wrapped tightly around Inosuke's arm, "you moron! Why do you always do this to me! Tanjiro make him stOOOP—" It only got worse when Inosuke started to run around the room laughing all the while. The room was suddenly very noisy with Inosuke's laughter and taunting and Zenitus's wailing and crying, but Tanjiro couldn't help but smile. He looked over at Aoi who for her part had her fingers pressuring her temples on her head with a very flat look on her face as the wild child known as Inosuke ran circles around her. She slowly turned towards Tanjiro and said to him:

"This is why there isn't anyone else in this ward." Her face and smell was also telling him something else: 'do something about this, NOW.'

"Okay Inosuke," Tanjiro said as he set aside his own bowl and stood up, "I know you're happy Zenitsu's joining us, but you need to put him down now. Don't you want to eat your food?" Inosuke was still as he looked hard at Tanjiro.

"Fine," he said flatly, then suddenly dropped Zenitsu from the same height he had held him up from and he landed face first hard onto the floor like a sack of rocks.

"Inosuke," Tanjiro yelled out as he looked on in horror and was about to get up to check to see if Zenitsu was okay, but Inosuke had walked back to his bed dragging a face down Zenitsu behind him.

"You can let go now Rinetsu," Inosuke mumbled as he shook his arm to try to get the tail off.

"I. hate. youuu." came the muffled reply of Zenitsu who was still face down on the floor.

"See, he's fine," said Inosuke with bits of shrimp and meat flying out of his mouth. Tanjiro was about to further berate Inosuke but he saw out of the corner of his eye saw Aoi with the rope that she got from the closet in her arms. She started to tie a bit of it to the end of the bed to the right of Tanjiro.

"Alright you," she said towards Zenitsu, "what part do you want the rope on? The leg or an arm?" He finally sat up, his face red from the impact and his previous crying.

"Huh," he asked looking up, "what do you mean?"

"Can't have you wandering around," she said as she approached him, "don't make this difficult please." Zenitsu sat up onto his ankles and was about to protest but both Zenitsu and Aoi flinched when Tanjiro suddenly stood up and said loudly:

"We'll watch him," he said with his arms and back strait as a rod, voice stern as he looked at Aoi, "Inosuke and I! We'll make sure he won't leave the ward!"

"What about when you two are at Rehabilitation Training," asked Aoi with her eyebrow raised.

"My minion can come with me," said Inosuke, "and praise me as I—"

"Right," said Tanjiro turning back towards Aoi as they ignored Inosuke, "he can come with us!"

"I don't know," Aoi said, "I was told to make sure—"

"Please trust us," Tanjiro said, "just give us and him a chance." Aoi sighed and shook her head. She gave him a stern look.

"If anything happens—"

"I'll take full responsibility," Tanjiro said, but Aoi shook her head.

"No, we'll all get into trouble. I'll talk with Lady Kocho, but I'm trusting you," she said pointing at him. He nodded and smiled at her. She sighed, undid the rope from the bed and walked out of the room. Tanjiro smiled and sat back down onto his bed grabbing his nearly forgotten food. He looked down at it and saw that there was only one beef strip and only the tails of what had been tempura shrimp...Inosuke must have eaten his share before he came into the room.

"Thanks Tanjiro," said Zenitsu as he sat on his new bed, "I wasn't looking forward to be tied down again...although I don't think rope would have been very effective." Tanjiro smiled and hummed as he currently had a mouthful of rice.

"Ropes are nothing to the Great Inosuke," Inosuke said as he banged his chest, "I could easily break them! No problem!"

"But...weren't you tied up on the mountain by Giyuu," Tanjiro asked. Inosuke stammered for a moment.

"I didn't feel like breaking out of them," he said putting back on his mask, "any other time I could have easily!" Tanjiro smiled and took another mouthful of rice. This felt right. It wasn't quite the same, but it reminded him when his family was...oh, speaking of which.

"Oh, Zenitsu," Tanjiro asked turning towards him, "where's Nezuko? Is she still in the room? I can go get her." He didn't like the fact that Zenitsu suddenly started to fidget and look away from him.

"Uh...actually," he said fumbling with his shirt's buttons much like Murata did earlier, "apparently while I was asleep...they, uh well I don't know exactly who did...but it seems that Nezuko is with...Shinobu?" He said the last part quietly as if he didn't quite know how Tanjiro would react. To his credit, Tanjiro didn't get mad or have an outburst but he did seem a little concerned. He looked down at his bowl in quiet thought.

"She did promise me that she or any Hashira wouldn't harm her," he said quietly, "I'll just have to trust that."

"THIS is what you've been complaining about," screeched Zenitsu when he finally saw what the 'relentless' training that Tanjiro and Inosuke had told him about was, "this?! You don't know how good you HAVE it, do you?!" Tanjiro was confused, he didn't see why Zenitsu was so upset to the point that he got red in the face and was visibly shaking.

"It's harder than it looks," Tanjiro said giving him his own exasperated look, "you don't know what you're talking about. I'll have you know that the tea really stinks and—"

"Not the point," cried out a clearly frustrated Zenitsu and thumped his tail hard into the ground, hard enough that it loosened the floorboards near it, "NOT the POINT! You...UGH," he turned and huffed, folding his arms and mumbled something under his breath that Tanjiro didn't hear but if he knew the blond well enough, he was sure it was insulting to the situation that he clearly didn't understand.

"Oi," said Inosuke as he had finished being stretched by the three young girls, "stop being stupid Gebensu! You're too loud and dumb about stupid things." Zenitsu looked over at him, nearly sputtering at him, but threw up his hands in disbelief and walked over to the corner of the room and mumbled something about "late bloomers" or something of the sort. Tanjiro could smell annoyance coming off of Aoi and Kanao, but they seemed to stay professional.

As the group did their rehabilitation, Zenitsu sat in the corner of the room watching them quietly with interest. Even if those two idiots didn't realize the golden opportunity they were wasting with these gorgeous girls, they did seem to need this training. Tanjiro had mentioned something about...what was it, something about doing the breathing technique but ALL the time. Seemed exhausting. He finally noticed that Kiyo, Naho and Sumi had come very close to him and had surrounded him. He squeaked in panic and tried to back up, but as he was already in the corner of the room, he was virtually trapped. The three girls weren't as frightened as they were earlier, but still cautious, they even seemed emboldened about something.

"What did you mean by saying that Master Tanjiro and Inosuke 'don't know how good they have it', Mr. Demon," asked Naho with an innocent air, tilting her head. Zenitsu blushed and cleared his throat and suddenly found the floor very interesting to look at.

"Well, uh..." he said trying to put his thoughts in the most tasteful way for these children, "y-you see um...girls uh, are...very nice you see. Too uh, well...too look at and... um, talk to and..."

"You shouldn't talk about girls like that," said Kiyo, "you need to be more respectful." Zenitsu balked at that. Sneaky little devils.

"Of course I'm respectful," he started, "I—" but as he saw their flat expressions he stopped protesting and went silent. He still didn't fully agree with them though, he was very respectful, they just didn't know! Well...thinking back from a few times back in the past...well...

"You three just don't understand yet," he finally said, "you're—you're just too young too understand such things," he said with a nod of his head. He looked at the three who in turn were giving him stern, flat looks that made him slightly shrink back.

"What's with those looks, huh!? Don't look at me like that," he said pointing to them, "like I'm pathetic or something! I'm not...well, I try not to be." He was in near tears at this point, embarrassed that these three young girls had basically put him in his place...not that it was hard to do, he had always been easily pushed around by kids younger than himself in the past.

"We're not saying you are," said Sumi a bit more gently who had been somewhat moved by his pouting, "we just want you to be more respectful, that's all."

"You don't have to say it in such a harsh way though," he mumbled, "I've been very nice and respectful to Aoi even though she yells at me," he said, counting off on his fingers, "Kanao who silently watches Shinobu be mean to me; Nezuko—" He paused and a slight smile came to his face. "it's not hard to be kind to her. She's strong and kind, quiet but that's not her fault," he held his head in his hand and looked away at nothing in particular, "I admire her because when I mean strong, I mean she's held out so—" he was interrupted when the three girls exclaimed over him, making him jump at how loud they were. They seemed so happy about something and they suddenly swarmed him and got uncomfortably close to him.

"How cute," said Kiyo.

"He's like a kitty cat," said Sumi as she started to pet the top of his head, making him slightly uncomfortable. It seemed that the quiet thrumming sound he'd produced had completely appeased the girls minds about him and not only that, it made them immediately treat him like, well a small animal. While Sumi was patting his head, Naho started scratching his chin and Kiyo started scratching behind his ear. Now, while he was happy that they weren't afraid of him anymore, but he did think the situation was really weird and everything was a bit too much.

"Hey come on," he whined as he covered his face and tried to move away from them as best as he could, "I'm not a cat! Could you—"

"What are you three girls doing," said the calm approaching voice of Shinobu, making the four of them all jump and look up at her. She still had her smile on her face, but her eyes were looking hard with disappointment at the girls. The three girls shuffled their feet and looked up at Shinobu.

"Lady Shinobu," muttered Kiyo adjusting one of her pink butterfly clips nervously, "we were just—"

"Please don't disobey me in the future," she said raising up a finger, "I'm only looking out for your safety." This caused Zenitsu to scowl a little bit.

"Why do you act like I'm going to do something? You're just making them scared of me when there's nothing to be scared of," he said a little more rudely than he normally would have, but he was frankly getting tired of her attitude towards him. She in turn simply looked at him, and smiled, and he started to regret his small outburst.

"It's not wise to get them comfortable towards demons," she said to him, "especially considering that they've lost their entire family to them," she said, making the three girls suddenly become solemn.

"Aoi," Shinobu said turning towards her, "could you please return him back to the ward for now until it's time for my examination, and then after that, I'd like to have a talk with you and the girls." Aoi stiffened up for a moment, then seemed to sag a bit in her skin; she knew she was in trouble.

"Yes ma'am," she said as she walked towards the small group.

"Please Shinobu," Tanjiro said, who until this point had been quiet, "it was my idea to bring him with us to train."

"I'm more than sure it was," she said looking over towards him, "but Ms. Kanzaki knew better than that. She needs to follow the rules of the estate at all times, for the safety for everyone—you need to do so as well Kamado." She wasn't talking as sweetly as she normally did; she was clearly annoyed with him. As soon as Aoi and Zenitsu had left the room, Tanjiro started into Shinobu again:

"You need to start treating him better," he said with a frown, "you act like he's going to attack someone at anytime. I get it, you hate demons, but you don't have to take it out on him just because he's an easy target. Give him a chance," he was going to continue to speak but when Shinobu turned towards him, the words died in his throat. Her face was flat. No smile, no amusement in her eyes; just a flat expression that seemed to speak volumes in its own way. He did smell a slight sent of sadness coming from her.

"You truly do remind me of my sister," she said, surprising Tanjiro on how tired she sounded. She left the room leaving Tanjiro more confused than anything.

Shinobu finished writing in her notebook and closed it. She still had a few things to do before she had to attend to the Esurient, but for now she still had the other two demons to worry about. She heard a clapping sound and looked over towards the corner of her office. Nezuko was still enamored with the gold fish that she kept in her office, and seemed to be estatic that the fish were swimming vigorously, clapping delightedly. She looked at the demon watching the fish and decided to try something. She got up and grabbed the fish food and held it out towards Nezuko.

"Would you like to feed the fish," she asked her. The demon seemed like she didn't understand the concept at first, just staring up at her with her pink glassy eyes. However, slowly she reached up at reached for the bag.

"Don't give them too much," she said, "or they'll get sick." The demon was still slow in her movements, but seemed to understand what was being spoken to her. She clumsily grabbed a few crumbs of food and fed the fish. After feeding the fish, the demon seemed more interested in the fish than her as her full attention was on them. Despite everything, she couldn't help but think her sister Kanae would have been ecstatic to have interacted with her and even the Esurient. But...her attitude about demons is what got her killed; her believing that they could be 'saved' and live peacefully along side humans. A fools dream...her dream. She still thought back to that horrible day.

It was the first time she had gone with Kanae to a mission, as a prerequisite to Final Selection as her Tsuguko. It was suppose to be a simple mission. However, nobody was expecting one of the Twelve Kizuki to be present. Shinobu, as part of the prerequisite, was to be the one to kill the demon by herself while Kanae was only to observe. The initial demon that they had been summoned to kill had been easily been taken care of, however it had been Kanae to be the one to deliver the final blow. Shinobu was still having a hard time with her technique and struggled with the decapitations, but that didn't stop Kanae praising her.

"You did such a good job Shinobu," said Kanae clapping her hands together, "I'm so prod of you! You nearly did it this time!"

"Yeah right," said Shinobu standing back up from falling down, dusting the dirt off her hakama pants, "I'm still having trouble with this! Why can't I cut through their necks?!" She threw her sword down onto the ground and stomped away, clearly frustrated. Kanae picked up the sword and looked down at it.

"Perhaps," she said with a smile, "you need to try a different approach. Not every demon slayer does the same technique the same way, perhaps it's time you find a new approach of your very own." Shinobu only huffed at her sisters advice.

"Although," Kanae said as she sheathed her own sword, "it's a shame we couldn't find common ground with the demon and make a connection with her. I would have liked to—"

"Sister," said Shinobu rolling her eyes, "you're never going too. They don't care! All they care about is their own life and their next meal." Kanae was about to say something else but was interrupted by a third party.

"Excuse me~," said a male voice but was slightly feminine, "may I join in this most interesting conversation?" Both girls turned towards the voice and saw about ten feet away, emerging from a doorway was a man with long silvery blond hair, a tight red and black shirt and grey hakama, waving a fan that hid the lower half of his face. Perhaps the man was thinking he was being slick hiding his mouth, but his eyes gave away the fact he was a demon. No human had such distinctive mother-of-pearl like eyes with lettering etched into them. Shinobu was instantly on edge, but Kanae was for some reason more relaxed.

"It would be interesting to hear your thoughts in the matter," said Kanae with a smile, "seeing you are a demon yourself, and an Upper Moon as well." The demon simply moved the fan and the smile grew brighter on his face. Instead of being upset that he was discovered, he seemed pleased with the outcome.

"Guilty as charged," he said as he continued to fan himself and his smile flashed, showing his long fangs.

"So could you tell us your name," said Kanae politely, "so we could know the pleasure of knowing who you are...if you are able to do so? I am Kanae Kocho, The Flower Hashira of the Demon Slayers." The demon smiled and tilted his head. Shinobu couldn't help but think that the demon was much like a cat playing with a mouse.

"I'm Doma," he finally said, "Number Two of the Twelve Kizuki. Tell me," asked Doma with an innocent air, "what do you mean by 'finding common ground' with a demon?" Shinobu didn't like where this was going, but Kanae answered him:

"It is my dream that demons can live side by side with humans," she said confidently with a smile, "that we can coexist without death and killing each other. I wish to find a way to do so, and in order to do that, I want to find common ground and make friends with demons and find a way to do so, maybe even find a cure for being a demon, if there is such a way." Doma listened to her, nodding in understanding.

"Truly a noble cause," he said, "I'm quite moved. Are you sure that you'll be able to do such a thing all on your own? Perhaps, I could be of assistance," he said as he started approaching them, "you and I could have such fascinating conversations! I remember my human life you know," he said closing his fan and slightly tapping the side of his head, "it's very rare for a demon to do that. I was only able to do that because...well...we can talk about that in one of our many lovely discussions! What do you say," he said flashing a bright smile, "would you like to be friends with me?" Kanae smiled, but this time it was slightly sad.

"I'm sorry," she said as she reached for her sword, "I'm going to have to decline. I can tell by looking into your eyes that all your smiles and kind words are false and empty. You are very good at lying, I'll give you that," she unsheathed her sword and readied herself, "but I can tell that you have no good intentions here tonight," she looked at him with a sad expression. Doma simply chuckled and placed the back of his hand under his chin.

"You are most observant," he said with a sparkle in his eye, "this will be fun~" He went into a battle stance when he paused and looked to the left, and frowned.

"Oh pooh," he said looking hard at a sliding door that hadn't been there earlier, "it seems I'm going to have to rush this after all. No fun, no fun at all. Still," he said looking at her, and suddenly the gap between the two of them was closed off too nothing. His speed was quicker than either one of the girls could even react, and it even took Kanae a moment to realize he had his arm elbo deep into her abdomen.

"Since you've given me some amusement," he said as he riggled some of his fingers deep inside her, making her face scrunch up in pain, " I'm going to give you the honor of being part of me, see how nice I am?" He removed his arm from her, picked her limp form up and started walking with her towards the sliding doors. Shinobu ran forward and tried her best to decapitate Doma from the back, but he simply kept walking, it was if she was a small child swatting an adult with a stick. To her horror, she could see Kanae was somehow starting to merge with Doma. The sliding doors opened and he started to walk through them, but Shinobu grabbed Kanae's arm and started to pull as hard as she could. Doma stopped and seemed slightly amused with this, especially when Shinobu started successfully pulling out Kanae. He was even chuckling, but stopped when a deep voice called for him beyond the door, causing him to turn and look down into the doorway. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well," he sighed in mock saddness, "let her be forgotten then." Suddenly Shinobu fell backwards and Kanae fell on top of her as dead weight. Shinobu looked up at Doma who simply waved and winked at her as he walked into the sliding doors and they vanished, and she swore she heard the faint sound of a biwa being played.

Kanae died shortly after that. Her diaphragm had been ripped apart, and she struggled to breathe the entire time, she died gasping like a fish out of water. One of the last things she had said that she had felt sorry for Doma for his emptiness. Doma was also the very reason why she went with poisons instead of trying to learn how to decapitate a demon...it would have taken too long to learn and besides, it was enjoyable watching them writhe on the ground in pain.

Shinobu thought about her sisters' last moments; feeling sorry for her killer...that was very much inline with her sister. Now here was another kind, wonderful...stupid soul that was traveling down the same path as she was and she'd be damned if she would sit back and let it happen again. She felt something tugging on her arm, she looked down and saw that Nezuko was pulling on her arm in attempt to show her something in relation to the fish tank. Shinobu flinched and quickly pulled her arm back and took several steps away, causing the demon to tilt her head in confusion. Shinobu cursed herself; she left herself wide open to attack and could have been severely injured. One could never let their guard down when it came to demons. That was exactly what killed her sister; she had let her guard down ever so slightly...never again.

"I'll be back," she said to Nezuko, "when you're done, just go back into your box and I'll have someone take you back into your room." Shinobu walked past Nezuko and out of her office and into her lab and past that into a darkened room. She lit a candle and approached a large tank and lifted the lid. Any light source other than a candle was too intense for what was inside. Inside was the grotesque, twisted demon. It was now the size of a corgi dog, but now had a functioning twisted arm with stumpy fingers that it used to scoot along the bottom of the tank. It still was working on the rest of the limbs, but they were just as twisted as the rest of it, all bending wrong with too many joints or rubbery. The thing was still headless...perhaps it was in a way, some biological self-preservation. It was still red, wet and wrong. It seemed to be struggling to breathe, and its new skin would always eventually fall off and would be pushed to the side of the tank to eventually ash away.

"Yoo-hoo~" she called out to it to get it's attention, "Good afternoon," Shinobu said to it as it struggled to scoot away from her, "and how are you today?" The thing always seemed distressed whenever she looked at it and now that it could move, always tried to avoid her.

"I had a talk with the demon that did this to you," here it really started to move around and make an ugly gurgling noise, "and he told me the most amusing thing! He told me that he had a nightmare about you; that you were the filling of an anpan! Isn't that funny? You do kinda look like red bean paste," she said leaning over the tank and squinting at it, "so until you can tell me your name, I'm just going to call you Anpan-san. I don't care if you agree or not," she said sitting back up, "it's a perfect fit." The demon was still moving around, but it seemed to be only going in circles at this point in the tank.

"Now if you're a good little demon Anpan-san," said Shinobu, "perhaps I'll give you some blood to help you further along. Although I'm surprised you haven't fully regenerated yet," she said as she watched it scoot along, "most demons can just instantly regenerate, but you seem to be struggling with it. I wonder why? Perhaps the acid did more damage that I thought. When I have time, I'll have to take a look at a bisection of flesh between glass. That way the flesh won't ash away. It's so hard studying demon blood and flesh you know," she sighed, "since it always evaporates. Ah well, I'll check in on you in a—" she paused when she thought she could hear something. It definitely came from the twisted demon. It sounded like it was attempting to speak. Ah, progress!

"I'm sorry," she said sweetly, "I didn't quite catch that, could you say that again?" It was garbled, gruff and broken, it also sounded like it hurt to even speak but it tried again.

"K..ki...lll...kk...k...illlll...m...m..e..ee."

" 'Kill you'," Shinobu said in fake surprise, "oh no, no that won't do," she said raising her finger and waving it, "I'm afraid that you don't get a say in that. Not now, but later perhaps." She picked up the candle and went to the other side of the room to gather materials from it, and she could hear it attempting to say something, along the lines of...Kibutsuji? She wondered why. It seemed more and more upset that whatever it was attempting to do wasn't working and it started to thrash around in the tank. She shrugged her shoulders, closed the tank and walked out of the room; she had something else to attend too.

Soon enough, Zenitsu found himself back in Shinobu's lab. He was sitting on the side of the bed, swinging his legs in boredom. He was aware that Kanao was intently watching him, but wouldn't do anything as long as he didn't do anything too drastic so he just kept quiet. Despite of what happened last night, he was feeling a bit safe yet nervous. After all, nothing really bad had happened yet. Soon enough Shinobu came into the lab and the calm that was in the room was swept away. She looked at him then over at Kanao.

"Kanao," she said with her bright smile, "why haven't you tied him down yet?" Kanao's own smile faltered a bit.

"We can't have him up and free now," she said walking around the lab, "please correct this quickly." She had never been verbally disciplined by Shinobu over something as trivial like this, after all, he had been allowed to be 'free' in the lab before so she figured that there wouldn't have been a problem. She also hadn't been told to tie him down, so she didn't understand why Shinobu was so...annoyed. Zenitsu seemed to be especially sensitive to her attitude and was quick to obey the order. Soon he was tied down very much like the first day. Shinobu came over to look over Kanao's work, making sure that the restraints were tight. She even added extra restraints on limbs and over the chest and hips, making him virtually pinned to the bed. To say he was concerned was an understatement.

"Alright lest get—" Shinobu started to say when she felt something tap her shin. She looked down and saw that it was the demon's tail hanging over the side of the bed, flicking about on the floor. She shook her head in disapproval.

"Well now," she said picking it up, "we can't have this loose now, now can we?" She walked over to the metal footboard of the bed and tied the tail firmly to the footboard, making Zenitsu yelp out in pain. It didn't help that she clearly broke it; as the end of it hung at an odd angle at the knot.

"What the hell lady," he finally said under strain as his back felt like it was on fire, "you didn't have to do that! What the fu—"

"I can't have you possibly grabbing me with that now," she said as she gathered a tray of tools and put on elbow length gloves, "I still remember what happened on Mt. Natagumo."

"You were going to kill me," he whined, "what else was I supposed to do?! Uh...hey wait," he said when he finally noticed what she was doing, "what are you doing? What are you doing?" He started to struggle in his restraints but he was bounded too tightly to make any difference. Shinobu started to unbutton his shirt and move it out of the way, making all too obvious what was about too happen.

"Hey come on now," he said as he watched her put some sort of oil on the tools, only when he caught a whiff of the smell of wisteria that made him gag did he realize what she was doing, "is that really necessary?!"

"Well," she said as she lined up the tools, "it is because you're a very fast healer, even for a demon," she said taking hold of the scalpel, "so the wisteria oil will slow down the process significantly."

"But it will burn," he cried out looking hard at the tools, "it's going to burn! At least put me to sleep! Why do I have to be awake for this!?" She only smiled and started the procedure.

It wasn't anything like with Tanjiro. That had hurt sure, but it had been quick and preventive measures had been done so pain would be minimal. But this? It seemed like Shinobu was purposefully taking her time doing the vertical midline incision and it burned like hell. He tried his best to not cry out; there wasn't anything he could do about the tears but it only hurt worst if he breathed or whimpered so it was best to not cry. She lifted up a tool and shook it to get his attention.

"Look," she said with a smile, "I ordered this overseas just for you. The latest model, it was only designed four years ago," she said setting it up over the incision.

"I'm going to be sick," was all he said weakly as he watched her insert the tool into the opening.

"It's called a Balfour Abdominal Retractor," she said happily as she began to open up the incision with the tool, "this way I don't have to manually hold it open or have others do it. Isn't it wonderful?" She noticed how pale and sweaty he looked and his jaw was quivering, his teeth clacking together.

"Kanao," she turned and asked, "could you please be a dear and take pictures for me?" She turned back towards her work, but then paused when she didn't hear any movement. She turned again to see Kanao still standing in the same spot.

"Kanao," she asked a little louder this time, making the girl jump, "I asked if you would please get the camera and take pictures." She nodded and went to get the camera, but Shinobu did notice that Kanao was particularly stone-faced. After Kanao took the first set of pictures, Shinobu continued the procedure.

"Can you please put me to sleep," asked Zenitsu weakly, "or give me something for the paaaIIIN—" he gasped when he felt her put both hands deep inside him and lifting something up and out of him. It felt cold and wrong.

"Alright Kanao, could you take another set of pictures of the intestines please," Shinobu asked as she stood up, "I need to gather some materials in the back room." Kanao watched her go back into the room. She did as told, but then pulled out her coin and flipped it. The decision made, she went over towards the cupboards and with her limited knowledge of chemicals found what she was looking for.

Shinobu emerged from the room with the materials she had forgotten and set them down on the tray. As she was putting back on a fresh pair of gloves she noticed how quiet Zenitsu had become. She looked at him and noticed he was asleep. Did he pass out? Then she noticed that Kanao was quietly moving back towards the chemical cupboards.

"Kanao," Shinobu said sternly, "what do you have," she held out her hand, "please hand it over." Kanao paused for a moment, then turned and quietly handed over the brown glass bottle and cloth. She read the label of Diethyl Ether and knew what she did.

"Why did you do that," Shinobu asked, "all I asked you to do was take pictures, not put him to sleep. Now I can't get certain tests done like I wanted." It wasn't like Kanao to go and do something like this behind her back. Shinobu was expecting her to look meek and submissive as she usually did whenever she was berated, a horrible byproduct of her unknown past so she rarely yelled at her for this exact reason. She was usually very good at doing everything she was told to do as soon as she was given the order to do so, however, she was standing firm with a scowl on her face.

"You don't have to be cruel." Kanao said quietly but full of resolve, "you were torturing him. This isn't like you." Shinobu scoffed and nearly laughed at that.

" 'Not like me'," she said back at her, "I'm afraid you haven't been on many of my missions. Are you really going to tell me that you sympathize with him? Why? Because you knew him as a human all of a few minutes at best," she asked turning back towards her work, "you know better than to let your gard down with a demon, I trained you better than that."

"Yes," agreed Kanao, "both you and Kanae," Shinobu paused, "trained me well. I believe she would be very sad at your actions."

"...You can go now," Shinobu said, "thank you for your assistance for today Kanao." Kanao bowed and went towards the door, but she paused and turned back towards her.

"You have been there for me like a sister," she said quietly, "please, let me be there for you too." With that, she left the room. Shinobu sighed and returned to her work. It wasn't as easy now that she had dismissed her help, but she managed well enough. Her theory did turn out to be true; blood was stored in the intestines. She also learned another interesting thing, after opening up the actual stomach the acid inside was exceedingly caustic. Fishing out a bit of acid, putting it in a glass jar and dropping in a chicken leg too see what would happen; to her amazement the leg was completely dissolved under two minutes. She could clearly see how Esurients could manage to consume so much and yet look so 'normal'. She made a mental note to make sure never have one of these demons vomit on someone...it could potentially be catastrophic. Never the less, this was all she could do for now. She now had her vials of 'demon acid' stored and ready for further experimentation. So she removed the retractor, cleaned up her workstation and waited for the healing process to do it's thing and have the Kakushi return him to the ward.

Tanjiro was slightly worried. Ever since Zenitsu returned from Shinobu's office, he simply laid face down in bed and had been very quiet. Whenever he had asked what had happened, he just shook his head and sighed. Tanjiro wished he would tell him, he could tell something had happened, he could smell the distress off of him.

"Will you please tell me," Tanjiro asked again, "I know something happened that you don't want to talk about."

"Right," Zenitsu said a bit snappy, "I don't. Want. To. Talk about it," he turned towards him glaring a bit at him, "will you please drop it already Tanjiro? I just want to go to sleep. I'm still feeling a bit nauseous." Tanjiro sighed. He knew some of the reason why Zenitsu was so snappy, but it was the other reason that was bothering him.

"Will you two shut up," Inosuke hissed, "I'm trying to sleep!" Tanjiro sighed, but still looked over towards his friend in the dark. He could see that he looked uncomfortable as he was constantly squirming in the bed.

"Do you want me to go get you something," Tanjiro kindly offered, "since you can't get it yourself," noting the short rope around his ankle, "Something is better than nothing, after all." Zenitsu looked over at him, but his face softened to a sad look.

"Thank you but no," he said hugging a pillow tighter, still face down "I'm afraid I'll puke it up. Maybe tomorrow but not now." Tanjiro just nodded. He didn't want to push him any further, he smelled distressed and embarrassed enough as is.

"Well, just try to go to sleep then," said Tanjiro, "and...I'm sorry about today. It was all my fault."

"It—"

"I SAID SHUT UP, DUMBASSES," shouted Inosuke, "that or hurry up and kiss already!" effectively ending the conversation. Tanjiro sighed, closing his eyes and tried to go to sleep. He wasn't sure when he fell asleep, but soon he woke up to a strange sensation. He felt a 'pressure' on his chest and abdomen and his legs felt pinned. When he opened his eyes, another set of dilated eyes were staring right back at him. He went to cry out but a hand immediately covered his mouth.

Zenitsu had him pinned down; his legs were tied by his tail and he tried to push him off but he couldn't even budge him. What bothered him was how flat and expressionless Zenitsu was being. This wasn't normal, it was almost creepy. Then he could smell it; there were two smells coming off of him, but before he could think about it much further Zenitsu started to lean down on him. He tried to push him off, but it was surprising how strong he was, so the only thing he could do was to try to get Inosuke's attention, but he slept like a rock. But to his horror, his head was turned to the side and he could feel hot breath on his neck. He struggled as much as he could until his arms were pinned, yelled through his nose until it was clamped closed, did everything he could.

That's when he felt the bite.

Balfour Abdominal Retractors were invented in 1911

Diethyl Ether was used as an anesthetic, I was originally going to use a needle anesthetic however the first kind wasn't invented until the 1940's...so yeah... Also a side effect of Diethyl Ether was nausea and vomiting.