^ Chapter 19 - Not Going Anywhere ^

Everything felt like it was on fire. Like burning hot needles and knives had been plunged into every single one of his joints and orifices, then twisted around brutally in order to extract the worst amount of pain possible.

Breathing was impossible, he was rendered blind. His body had refused to move when told to by his brain, and even then, any kind of thoughts or actions he tried to will to happen didn't. It was as if his entire body had shut down, and there wasn't anything that he could have done about it.

Wisteria flower-based poison is deadly to demons, especially with higher doses. It was the specialty of the Insect Hashira, because her physical strength was lacking behind the rest of her peers. By using poison as her main weapon, she compensated for her own shortcomings in order to become lethal in her own way compared to the rest of the Hashira. It had been a fluke, an accident.

She had wanted to help him so badly that she overlooked one minute detail, one thing she always did in her spare time. General blade maintenance had been the fatal flaw.

She always cleaned her stinger blade, since every time she sheathed it, a poison from her scabbard's rotating poison dispenser drum in the bottom was secreted onto the blade. She had made sure to not bring that along with her, but she had neglected to clean the blade itself, and as such, she had ended up injecting just the right amount of poison into his bloodstream from the cut.

Tanjirō should be dead. His journey should have come to an end...Nezuko would have been alone.

If that were the case, then why was there sunlight hitting his eyes...and a warmth was washing over his face?

"Nnngh…" groaned Tanjirō as he furrowed his brow, his left hand twitching slightly as he tried to move it. His body screamed at him for a brief moment, as if an entire bolder was pressing down on top of him, and he quickly stopped trying to move in order to save himself from feeling any more pain. "What...how…"

Tanjirō then heard light snoring coming from his left and he slowly opened his eyes, his vision foggy for a brief second or two before everything came into focus. He was in a room he had only seen a couple of times from the outside, with a few wisteria plants hanging from the ceiling and various pieces of artwork depicting butterflies hanging on the walls where there wasn't furniture. A bathroom door was directly across from the bed he found himself in, and to the right of the bed was a large bookcase and a desk complete with a chair and various collectibles and artifacts relating to insects or flowers.

It was Shinobu's room, he figured instantly, but why was he in there? And last time he remembered it was nearing late morning or midday, he couldn't exactly remember when, so how was it morning again already, judging by the angle of the sun coming in through the window?

Tanjirō turned his head towards the light snoring sound and he gasped silently when he saw Shinobu sleeping in the corner in a chair, her body propped up against the wall as she slept close to her own bed. She hadn't changed out of her clothes at all, and her hair even looked a little disheveled as if she had run her fingers through it several times over. Looking closer, Tanjirō could see that the skin around her eyes was puffy and red from rubbing them because of crying, which made him think even harder to try and remember what happened.

He tried sitting up again and found the pain and aching in his limbs had mostly faded, allowing him to slowly sit up from under the covers and prop himself up on his arms, only for one to buckle a little because of some residual pain focused around one specific area.

"Ow, ow...ngh...what the…" he murmured quietly as he lifted up his arm and looked at his wrist, coming to find some bandages wrapped almost haphazardly around it as if whoever did the job was in a frantic state. "How did I…"

Then it all hit him at once. The talk he had with Shinobu about practicing with their swords, the confidence he had felt in himself and his abilities, and how he had been holding his own quite successfully against the Insect Hashira for a good portion of their sparring match.

It began to heat up, and he was still feeling confident in himself as he started to let the flow of battle take him, until he misjudged one of Shinobu's sword thrusts, the quickest among all of the Hashira, and failed to protect his arm with his Blood Demon Art in order to parry it. A cut had been made on his wrist, and he had been infected with Shinobu's signature and highly toxic Wisteria-based poison. The only thing he was able to recall before his memory turned black was of a voice saying something to him, a voice that sounded desperate and full of sorrow.

"Did...did I...die…?" Tanjirō asked himself as he looked down at his hands, slowly squeezing them a few times and flinching as he squeezed the one that belonged to the injured arm. "Ouch…"

His voice wasn't held back that second time he winced and it caused Shinobu's eyebrows to scrunch together slightly as she stirred from her sleeping position, her eyes opening slightly before she brought an arm up to rub them. Tanjirō heard her yawn softly and looked her way, managing a soft smile that greeted her once she lowered her arm from her face and made eye contact with him.

There was a moment of silence that persisted between the two of them, most likely due to Shinobu's half-awake state, before her eyes widened and she scrambled out of her chair and covered the gap between it and her bed, wrapping her arms around Tanjirō's neck in a tight embrace afterwards.

"W-Whoa! Shinobu-san, it's okay! I'm okay!"

"Please...don't talk….just let me...do this for a minute…" murmured Shinobu in an almost broken tone, Tanjirō's eyes widening at how weak she sounded, before he slowly nodded his head.

He eventually closed his eyes as he felt Shinobu settle herself down on the edge of her bed while still hugging him, her arms loosening around his neck so it wasn't as tight. She was rather tenderly pressing her body against his, and that made Tanjirō have to control himself somewhat since all he could feel against his chest was Shinobu's own ample chest.

She smelled of sweat from not taking a shower, but most importantly he could smell overloading amounts of relief coming from the Hashira as she hugged him, the relief of somebody who almost caused something horrible to happen. Tanjirō could understand that, as well as how relieved and thankful anybody would feel in this kind of situation, so to return the favor he slowly wrapped his own arms around her as well and didn't speak.

Shinobu's cheeks turned a little red but she didn't say anything, because she didn't want to remove herself from Tanjirō, not until she felt ready. She'd nearly caused his death because of her own stupid mistake, so she wanted him to feel and know just how sorry she was first before she said anything. At the same time, feeling his arms around her, especially at a time when she felt just as weak as she had been when her sister was drying in her arms, it made her feel stronger and safer than before. She could feel how warm he felt...and she was almost certain that he was feeling the same way.

Tanjirō was feeling how warm she was, and he could smell it too. Mixed in with the relief he could smell the scent of that unfamiliar, yet familiar, emotion that he knew he had felt before in his life, just in a different circumstance. It was similar to what he smelled coming from Nezuko whenever they were close with one another, that brother and sister bond that existed between the two, the bond of family. It was a warm and gentle emotion, and it smelled something along the lines of berries, strangely enough.

"Shinobu-san...she smells like berries too...only...it's different…" thought Tanjirō as he sniffed the air lightly again, Shinobu catching it this time and smiling a tiny bit while they hugged. "Do you...feel better now?"

"I do...thank you…" replied Shinobu softly, but instead of letting go of Tanjirō like he suspected, she continued to hug him, even standing up a little more to cause her chest to be closer to his face, which made him blush. "Tanjirō-kun...I...I don't even know where to start…"

"The cut on my wrist, and your poison...right?"

"Yes...I nearly killed you...because of one simple oversight…" she said, her voice cracking a tiny bit. Tanjirō's eyes opened again at the slight little hiccup in her tone, one he was so used to hearing that was always cheery and full of spirit and optimism, even if at times it was to try and cover up all of her feelings of anger and sadness. "Your sister could have been left alone...all because of my stupidity…"

"But I'm still here Shinobu-san...I don't know how, but I am…"

"I...don't know either...the truth is...you were dead for ten minutes after I injected you with my poison…"

"Ten...minutes…?"

Tanjirō had to remove himself from Shinobu's embrace and scoot back a tiny bit so that they were sitting across from one another at eye level. Shinobu slowly nodded her head in response to his question on if it were true, and he looked down at his hands briefly for a moment as all of the possibilities of Nezuko's life without him rushed through his mind.

Her only family would have been gone, unable to protect her. Without her big brother there to protect and vouch for her, the other Hashira who were still untrustworthy of him could have done anything they wished to her, if she ended up reacting poorly to his passing. Even Shinobu wouldn't have been able to escape her wrath, if that's what had occurred, and they may well would have been forced to kill her in order to protect themselves and anyone else. Urokodaki could have been punished, Zenitsu and Inosuke could have been punished, the possibilities were endless. And thinking of all of them, all at once, scared him so much that his hands shook briefly before he closed them in order to make them stop.

"That's not all though, Tanjirō-kun...it wasn't my antidote that saved you...my antidote only works on those still alive…" continued Shinobu while she held her hands in her lap, rubbing them together nervously as she forced herself to maintain her composure as best as she could. She was sure that Tanjirō could smell the terror and the sadness in her heart, but rather than try to hide it, she allowed it to show on her face and through her body language, because she knew that's what he and her sister would want. "It usually takes ten minutes for a demon killed by my poison to turn to ash...but you didn't...something else happened...something extraordinary…"

"What was it…? Is it the reason why I'm alive?" inquired Tanjirō in a soft tone.

"Yes...somehow...your body started to heal itself...it was as if the wisteria poison was...was being nullified by your blood...somehow in the span of those ten minutes, your body was able to create an antibody that combated the poison, nullified it, and assimilated it…"

Shinobu then motioned to Tanjirō's bandaged up wrist, asking for it without saying so, and held it in her hand when he raised it up and held it out for her. She slowly unwrapped the bandages from his wrist, until Tanjirō was able to see a purplish-red scar on his wrist from where the cut had been made by her stinger blade.

It looked somewhat sickly because of the purple color, but when Shinobu gently pressed her fingers to it, Tanjirō saw that the scar was indeed healed and strong. It was a bit tender so he winced a tiny bit, but that was it, nothing else came out from her prodding the healing wound.

"You're the first demon ever that hasn't died by my poison, Tanjirō-kun...I don't know how...but…" she brought her eyes back up to his and let him see the tears forming out of the corners of her eyes. She wasn't going to hide her emotions this time, not this moment. Even if part of her was telling her to be strong and bottle it up, just as she had done many times before, she couldn't bring herself to do that in front of Tanjirō. "But it's why you're here...you beating my poison is why you're here...it...it was almost my sister all over again...the blood...you going limp in my arms...it was like my heart was tearing itself apart again…"

Tanjirō wanted to say something to try and calm her down, his mouth even opening briefly to start formulating a sentence, but he immediately closed it again when he watched Shinbou reach up to her eyes as she began to cry in front of him. It wasn't the forced or fake kind of crying, she was well and truly letting her emotions free, and his nose was confirming all of it because of how much grief and sadness and relief he smelled pouring out from her soul.

It almost made him choke, with how much emotion Shinobu was releasing, but again that berry-scented emotion showed itself once more through the ocean of feelings, stronger now than ever before. With one final sniff, the last puzzle piece finally fell into place inside of his mind, and he truly realized the core of these newfound emotions that were beginning to come forth out of the Hashira sitting in front of him.

Shinobu had lost the only remaining family that she had in her sister, and that had made her a being filled with nothing but sorrow over her death and anger at the demon who had killed her. That anger continued to accumulate inside of her with each demon she met afterwards, the ones that lied, that killed, that backstabbed, that did everything in their power to ensure their own survival and feast upon the lives of the innocent. She smiled to hide all of her rage and sadness, because its what her sister would have wanted, yet she had wrapped herself up so tightly with all of her emotions and her barriers to protect herself on the inside, that she had forgotten how to let them out and relieve herself of their burdens.

She was an empty husk filled with anger and sorrow with no way to let them out, at least until he came along. Tanjirō realized he had been the catalyst that started Shinobu's transformation, the reason how she had been able to start letting out her motions in small amounts at first, because he was so much like her older sister. Their training, his visits to her room every morning to go with her to breakfast before the day began, the talks that they've had, all of it had brought them closer together than when they first met, and now he could see it.

In the time that they had been together at the Butterfly Mansion, without even doing much in his opinion, outside of just trying to be himself and trying to help someone who was in need...the Insect Hashira had developed feelings for him. And Tanjirō would be lying to himself if he said that the same hadn't been occurring for him towards her either.

"Allow me to explain it then, Shinobu-san...because maybe I have the answer." stated Tanjirō as he reached forward and took one of her hands, holding it firmly between his. She gasped silently and looked him in the eyes, seeing once again how gentle and kind they were, before his lips spread apart into a warm smile. Her heart beat out of her chest and it seemed like all of her sadness and despair was suddenly purged from her body. "The reason why I didn't die is because unconsciously I knew that my sister still needed me...there's still the issue of turning her back to normal."

"His sister again...he cares so much about his sister...maybe then, he...doesn't…"

"But...I can see now that there's somebody else who still needs me...somebody that I've been trying to see clearly for the past few days...but now I finally have. What happened to me...I don't blame you at all for it, it was an honest mistake, so please, don't be upset about it, because you've already had enough sadness in your life."

Tanjirō's hands tightened a little around Shinobu's and her cheeks turned slightly red as he said that, her heart starting to beat a little faster. Was this what that feeling is? The feeling of passion? It felt as if she were practically floating, and the only thing grounding her was Tanjirō holding onto her hand.

"Just like I made the promise to Nezuko, to anyone I've ever grown to care about, I won't be going anywhere. I'm not going to leave any of you alone!" exclaimed Tanjirō with complete confidence that backed up his warm and determined smile. "Not Nezuko, not Zenitsu, not Inosuke, and not you, Shinobu-san. I swear on it!"

Shinobu's eyes widened a fraction of an inch and the tiny tears she had been letting go turned into full size streams as she seemed to hiccup lightly as his smile softened again. She hiccuped again before she pulled her hand from his and seemed to fall forward towards him, causing Tanjirō to gasp a little as she fell on top of him, her butterfly haori fluttering behind her as she did.

His head landed softly onto the bed sheets and he felt Shinobu's petite body rest on top of him in a curled up position as she kept crying softly, her hands grasping onto the front of his shirt. It was a warm feeling, her body on top of his in such a manner, and he couldn't help but continue to smile as he put an arm around her to help comfort her. It was like he was back home, nestled in his mother's lap as a young boy in front of the fire during the winter months, that loving embrace that seemed to wrap and seep its way into every fiber of your being to gently hold you in its embrace.

"Nee-san...Nee-san...thank you…thank you for passing on your beliefs to Tanjirō…" Shinobu thought to herself as she continued to cry freely, her fingers digging in more to his shirt. "I know...it had to have been you...you had to have had some hand...in allowing his family to give him such a beautiful soul…"

Just like when they had both first woken up, they laid there together like that on top of Shinobu's bed for several minutes in order to let the emotions settle down. Shinobu had stopped hiccuping, and her tears had eventually dried up after she had her fill of crying. Tanjirō had kept an arm around her as a sign of comfort and friendship, and only moved it when he heard that she had finished crying and was wiping her eyes and face with her sleeve. He could still smell passion, the emotion that had taken him so long to identify because of its similarity to the scent of sisterly love he'd smell from Nezuko, coming from the Hashira, and he wasn't sure what she still had up her sleeves.

"Tanjirō-kun...thank you…" Shinobu said softly without removing her head from his chest, being perfectly content with hearing his heartbeat and feeling every breath he took. The feeling that he was alive. "You were able to fill the hole...that my sister Kanae left behind when she passed away...in more ways than one…"

"I was just being myself, Shinobu-san...I could tell that you were in need...so I desired to help you as best as I could…" Tanjirō replied back, causing Shinobu to sniffle and smile a little before she slowly lifted her head and turned it, making it so that her face was within inches of his.

"You really do have a beautiful soul…being humble even in a situation like this…"

"That's just who I am, hehe…it'd be hard to change that now..."

"Well...who you are...is the reason why I'm doing this…"

Shinobu let her full body weight rest on top of Tanjirō, and in one slow head movement, her lips brushed against Tanjirō's and he felt an exceptional warmth bloom inside of his chest almost instantly. His eyes widened for a few moments, before he closed them as he decided to stop thinking for once, and merely let himself go with the flow.

His arm, joined by the other arm, wrapped around Shinobu as she kissed him gently on the lips with the grace of an older woman but the inexperience of a child who's never kissed someone before. It was adorable, but relatable since the only person Tanjirō's ever kissed was his mother on the cheek. Despite those shortcomings, the both of them held their lips together for what felt like an eternity as their bodies entered practically an entire different plane of existence.

The outside world around them seemed to slip away, the walls of Shinobu's bedroom were torn back, as well as the floor, until it was as if her bed with them on top of it was floating amongst a world of fluffy white clouds.

For Tanjirō, what he found astonishing was that he was currently embracing one of the strongest Demon Slayers in all of Japan, the Insect Hashira, and kissing her on her very own bed in her own home. She had been the one to initiate it, of course, but that didn't make it any less surprising. In a way, that's what made it feel all the more genuine. Shinobu on the other hand felt as though weeks and months of self-torment and anguish over her life, having to put up a fake smile just to get by through the day, were slowly being drained away out of her body by this kiss. A woman in this situation should feel as though she was at her weakest, because she was opening herself up to another person, trusting them with her emotions and her inner self, but for her it was the opposite.

Shinobu felt empowered, she felt stronger than she ever had before. She felt as though she was in her youth again, like Kanae was with her again, like she could take on the world and come out on top. She felt like she could take on the entire damned demon species and emerge victorious.

"It's not Kanae though...it's this person...this young man who quite literally...fell onto me, right into my life...and now I can't even imagine letting him go…" she thought as she began to pull her lips from Tanjirō's, causing him to open his eyes again in order to look at her once the kiss ended. "I can only wonder how much you're smiling right now, Nee-san…that bright, caring smile...just like the one he's made me fall for..."

"Whoa…" Tanjirō murmured, still feeling as if he was in a slight trance. "That was…"

"Something…" finished Shinobu with a tiny smile. "It was something...wasn't it?"

"Yeah…it was."

Tanjirō returned the small smile back to Shinobu as they laid there, faces inches apart, for a few more minutes before he felt a little tingling on his lips and he faintly caught a whiff of the smell of wisteria. How was it that Shinobu had wisteria on her lips? The plant is indigestible in any form, unless somebody with the pharmaceutical knowhow was able to synthesize it into something that was.

And in the blink of an eye, Tanjirō instantly knew what could be ingested by anybody and not feel the effects of it, unless they were a special kind of person. Unless they were a demon that was deathly allergic to Wisteria.

"Shinobu-san...why do your lips taste like Wisteria?" he asked in a low tone, causing Shinobu to freeze up a little bit before her shoulders slackened and she glanced off to the side. "Have you been-"

"There's...something I need to tell you, Tanjirō-kun...something that I can't keep from you now."

Tanjirō didn't know what to say after Shinobu finished telling him yet another secret she had kept, one that was arguably the most personal one of them all because of what it entailed if it were to come true.

Shinobu was looking down at her hands in her lap, the pair having returned to their sitting positions across from one another, only a little closer than earlier considering what they had just been doing a minute or two ago. She had managed to calm herself down and cleaned her face up a little, but that didn't mean she was still okay on the inside. There had been a reason why he had tasted Wisteria on her lips, and he was thankful for his body's newly acquired resistance or immunity, he wasn't sure on either just yet, to the flower and its toxic effects towards demons.

He appreciated Shinobu telling him the truth, but now that he knew what it was, he wasn't sure how to deal with it. It scared him, if he had to be honest with his feelings, especially with the new ones he had managed to discover.

"That's...not something you wanted to hear...wasn't it?" said Shinobu to break the silence, Tanjirō blinking when he was roused from his thoughts by her voice.

"It wasn't...to be fair, I'm still trying to grapple with it all. Part of me can understand it, because it's rooted in logic...but the other half of me…" Tanjirō replied as he rubbed his hands together, unsure how to say what he wanted to say without hurting Shinobu's feelings.

"Just tell me, Tanjirō-kun...I think at this point, we're able to say what we have on our minds without expecting too harsh of a reaction…you know?"

Shinobu's soft smile reached Tanjirō's heart just like it had several times before, and that realization was enough to make him laugh a little bit while rubbing the back of his neck out of embarrassment. What was he thinking? She was right, with the talks they've had now, it should be just fine if he wanted to speak his mind about something, or discuss something that was personal to the other.

"You're right...sometimes I tend to think more about things than I should."

"That's because you're a considerate person, Tanjirō-kun...I sincerely hope there are more people out there like you." said Shinobu before she reached up and lightly poked him on the nose. "Even if you are a demon~"

"That's not a bad thing, I'd hope?"

"No...not to me…" Shinobu blushed lightly as she returned her hand back to her lap after saying that, her eyes glancing off to the side in order to stop focusing on his eyes. "I still can't believe it, you know...you're a demon...but you're the most human demon I've ever met...all of that talk about my sister's dream becoming reality wasn't me bluffing at all...it really has...you really are the living proof of it…"

"I wouldn't necessarily say that I alone am proof. Before I became a demon, Nezuko and I traveled and lived together as well. Zenitsu and Inosuke are the same as well, we got along, and I know I can count on them just as much as they can on me. We're friends, after all!" said Tanjirō happily, his warm smile striking a chord again inside of Shinobu when she brought her eyes back up to him. "And now...you're part of that proof too, Shinobu-san. You accepted me and my sister into my home, you trained with me, ate breakfast with me...and well, you know…"

Tanjirō blushed when he couldn't finish his sentence with the most recent thing that had occurred between them, instead using his hand to motion between the two of them, which made Shinobu smile softly. She knew exactly what he meant, and nodded her head to show that she knew.

He laughed a little again and did the same, before he swayed a little side to side while gathering his thoughts for a few moments, his hands gripping his ankles while sitting cross-legged. He opened his mouth, but closed it just as quickly again because he started to overthink again, so Shinobu once again had to nudge him a little on the knee in order to get him to just say what was on his mind.

"Shinobu-san...if you ever do meet the demon that killed your sister...don't do it alone. Because if he's as strong as you believe, what you've been doing...your only sure-fire method of beating him...I don't want you to rely on it. Actually...no, I don't want you to do it at all."

"You want me to disregard everything I've done the past few years…?"

"No...but also yes. You and I both know that if we're really going to be able to take down Muzan, then some people are...going to end up dying...and it's something that terrifies me to think about. So many people had already died thanks to him, and countless others have had their humanity ripped away too…"

Tanjirō clenched his fists tightly and he even growled while baring his fangs a tiny bit, Shinobu seeing the other side of the young man before her that she hadn't seen yet. She had figured that she wasn't alone in her anger towards demons, specifically those like the one that killed her sister, but to see a genuinely nice and caring person like Tanjirō exhibit such a fervent hatred for the creator of demons was an actual surprise.

Maybe it was because she had seen him smile and laugh so much, a preconceived notion formed in the back of her mind that told her Tanjirō was physically incapable of manifesting feelings of hatred or disgust towards anyone.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try like hell to protect as many people as possible, and that includes you too, Shinobu-san. It's...actually what I like to think is the reason why my Blood Demon Art manifested itself during my fight with Rui on Natagumo Mountain." explained Tanjirō as he raised an arm and pulled back his sleeve, his skin down to his elbow during a dark maroon that glistened like metal in the morning sunlight. "Nezuko was hurting, and an intense desire to protect her spawned inside of me...to the point that I think it's why I was able to form this. It's why its named the way it is...Iron Blood Armor. It's armor that I hope to one day use to not only protect myself for Nezuko's sake, but to protect others as well. To protect those I consider my friends, my family...and those I greatly care about."

Shinobu found herself blushing profusely from the way he looked at her and from how he said those last few words. it was like a flaming arrow had pierced her chest and she was beginning to burn up inside from it, so much so that she was left reeling a little and unable to respond.

"Shinobu-san, please promise me you won't resort to that, if and when you do find the demon responsible for killing your sister." he said as he reached forward and held her hands with his, the dark maroon arm feeling even warmer to Shinobu because of the high concentration of blood that he had pushed up to his skin to form the armor.

"But Tanjirō-kun-"

"Please, promise."

Tanjirō's voice was full of sincerity, as was his gaze, but Shinobu was smart and keen enough to detect the underlying, pleading message behind those two simple words. He really was pleading with her, even if he wasn't showing it, to not go through with what she told him.

In his voice, in the way he was holding her hands, and in his eyes, she could see, hear, and feel just how attached he had gotten to her, just as much as she had to him. And because of that...she couldn't bring herself to say no.

"Okay...Tanjirō-kun...okay…" said Shinobu softly as she slowly interlocked her digits with Tanjirō's, their palms pressing gently against one another. "I promise...I promise I won't do that…"

"Thank you…"

Tanjirō felt a weight come up off his shoulders and that pleading expression on his face gave way for one of his comforting smiles, which in turn brought out Shinobu's own smile. They sat their with their hands entwined for a few seconds before she asked him if she could hug him again, to which he easily agreed to.

Shinobu picked herself up a little and closed the distance between them, before plopping down on his right and putting her arms around him in a warm embrace. Tanjirō turned his body towards her and hugged her back, the both of them resting their heads on the other's opposite shoulders as they let their embrace do all the talking for them. Both Shinobu and Tanjirō could feel the heartbeat of the other in their chests, tempered and slow, both beating for the exact same reasons. They were alive, they were young, and in the span of a few weeks...they had managed to find love.

"So...do you remember anything after I cut you, Tanjirō-kun?" she asked in almost a whisper, not wanting to disturb the tranquility that had settled within the room.

"Not much...no...all I remember is a distant-sounding voice saying something to me as everything went black...was that you?"

"It was...I...I was trying to keep you awake...I said a few things out of terror because I didn't want you to die…"

"Like what…?"

Shinobu's cheeks turned a little more red as she closed her eyes and hugged him a little tighter as she told him briefly about what happened between them after he had been cut, how she had hunched over his body and told him to not leave his sister or her behind.

Tanjirō actually felt pretty touched by what she said to him, about what she thought would be the last things she'd ever get to tell him, and it made him blush slightly as well. It really made him recognize how much he meant to Shinobu now, since he had filled her sister's place in her life, and it made him believe even more in his pledge to not leave her.

Physically he squeezed her a bit tighter against his body and closed his eyes, the warmth they were sharing with one another rising a bit.

"I said it before...and I'll say it again...I promise I won't leave you...I'm not going anywhere, Shinobu-san…" he spoke into her ear softly, causing Shinobu to shiver briefly and bury her face into his neck. "And if your sister can hear me now...I want her to know that too...I'm not gonna let her little sister stop smiling...because I've grown to like it too...your genuine, real smile…"

"Tanjirō…" murmured Shinobu, her voice coming out muffled from his neck. "You can...call me by my name...without the formality…"

"Are...you sure? What about around the others…?"

"Only when we're like this...the same with the other things too...you know…"

"Mm...because of what I am, right…"

Shinobu tenderly nodded her head without removing her face from his neck, the collar of his uniform turning warm and slightly moist because of Shinobu's breaths hitting it directly. He didn't care about the little things like that though, actually nothing else at the moment mattered to him as much as what was happening right then and there.

He understood what she meant though, because if what was occurring was going to become a reality, it would be an even greater sin to the Demon Slayer Corps than Tanjirō being a demon within the Corps had been. He could smell the worry coming from Shinobu, because she was a Hashira, a virtual pillar of strength and hope for the salvation of mankind in Japan against the threat of demons and Muzan. How would somebody react if they found out that one of these pillars had fallen for a demon?

"It has to be kept a secret...it must...or bad things will happen...really bad things…" said Shinobu as her fingers dug into the back of his shirt slightly. She was holding onto him in an almost desperate fashion, and it hurt Tanjirō somewhat to hear her speak this way, but it was the undeniable truth. "None of this can be known...not until...until-"

"Until demons and humans can well and truly coexist...and that can only start with killing Muzan…I know..." Tanjirō said to finish her sentence, nodding his head in agreement. "But I also know that it's possible...and I know that we can do it...Shinobu."

Tanjirō felt Shinobu's shoulders loosen up after he had spoken her name, her face soon pulling away from his neck as she leaned back and sat up straight with her arms staying hung up over his shoulders.

The look on her face and the scent she was giving off was all he needed to know what she was asking for, so he rested his hands on his knees and leaned forward in order to give Shinobu her second ever kiss on the lips. She made the tiniest of sounds, like a little muffled yelp, but from the way her eyelids seemed to flutter and her body practically melted a little from the kiss, he knew he had guessed right. Compared to their first kiss, this one didn't last nearly as long, but as soon as their lips separated briefly in order for the two of them to catch their breath, Shinobu went right back in with a third kiss. It was as if the first taste wasn't enough for her, and by the time the third kiss ended, easily lasting longer than the first or second combined, her body had ended up pressed against his once more.

"I-I..I'm sorry…I didn't...know what came over me..." she murmured rather shyly while pulling away from Tanjirō, her cheeks as red as two apples.

"No...it's okay...I didn't mind it at all…" Tanjirō replied in a similar tone, considering he was just as inexperienced and new to these feelings as she was.

Silently they sat there with barely a foot of clearance between one another, before they began to laugh with one another at the silliness of their embarrassment. Once they had gotten their first-time nervousness out of their systems, Tanjirō and Shinobu stared into one another's eye for another moment or two, a warm smile shared between both of them.

"Do you wanna…" asked Tanjirō while squeezing her hands a tiny bit.

"One more time…? she replied while leaning in slowly, Tanjirō slowly nodding his head as he found himself doing the same thing.

Almost like it was now an addiction, the Hashira and the young demon, for the fifth time in just a matter of minutes, once again kissed one another with budding feelings of attraction and passion clearly evident in their body language. Both of them could feel the warmth of the other's lips as they kissed, and through them the person's true inner emotions and meaning to the other.

For Shinobu, Tanjirō had come into her life first as just another demon slayer who happened to be a strange oddity for the Corps. A demon who wasn't violent towards humans had never been seen before, and it was something she, from her sister, had been unconsciously desperately looking for ever since her death. Instead of being disappointed and made angrier, like every time before, she had not only been proved wrong, but came to see that Tanjirō was far more special than she could have ever imagined.

On the other hand, Tanjirō's feelings had developed in another manner. Upon first meeting Shinobu, it goes without saying he immediately recognized she was a very pretty girl. Knowing that she was the same age as him was just icing on the cake, but at the time he wasn't looking for a relationship. Far from it, in fact. His focus was set solely on the same goal that he had from day one, with the added addition of growing stronger in order to become a beacon of hope for demons that could be out there that wanted to stop being seen as monsters and seek peace.

As each day went by though, and he started cluing in on the underlying issues he could detect from who he thought was an optimistic Shinobu, he was drawn more towards her because of his desire to help those in need. She was hurting and angry inside, and it was killing him to know, and not act, on his feelings until he was able to that first night up on the roof. Since then, he found himself caring more and more about the Hashira, wanting to make her smile genuinely and not out of necessity to hide her suffering. Until finally it all came to head here, in this moment, where he was shown her own feelings toward him. It was here where he too realized that, unknowingly, he had come to share the very same attraction to her as she had towards him.

The fifth kiss was arguably the best, because of how gentle yet loving it was, and it was also the longest as well. Fingers interlocked, palms together, and bodies just inches apart, all it could have taken was a single spark to send their kiss over the edge into something much more.

Thankfully both of them had a proper head on their shoulders and managed to pull away from one another, blushing heavily with their faces a couple of inches apart, their gazes falling to their hands.

"Tanjirō...I...don't think it has to be said at this point...but…" Shinobu said, her eyes lifting back up to look at his face so close to her's. "I...like you…I do...even though...it's-"

"I know...but it's okay. I promise I'm going to help make the world acceptable for something like this to exist..because I like you too...Shinobu."

Shinobu's lips quivered slightly as she smiled softly, then wrapped her arms around him in yet another in a string of long, warm hugs. Once she was satisfied, she finally pulled away and scoot off the bed in order to stand up and stretch, with Tanjirō standing up after her. His neck and back popped a little bit and he groaned slightly, before he rolled his shoulders and smiled as he looked at the window.

"It looks like today will be another good day, doesn't it?" he remarked as he went over to the window and looked outside past the curtains, seeing a few butterflies fly past in the early morning breeze. "I can't wait for what's in store!"

"Before I think of that, I'm going to clean myself first…I haven't bathed since yesterday…" said Shinobu while grimacing as she removed her butterfly haori and set it down on the bed.

"A-Ah...would you like me to go then? I don't want to intrude on your privacy."

"No, you don't...I was actually going to say you can wait here for me to finish...so that you could use the washroom after me, if you wish."

Shinobu glanced over her shoulder at Tanjirō as she pulled open the bathroom door and smiled softly at him, before disappearing inside and closing the door behind her to not give him time to respond properly.

He gulped and blushed awkwardly when he was left alone in Shinobu's bedroom, his eyes looking at the door while expecting somebody to knock and see if everything was okay like he had been doing for the past few weeks. Tanjirō never would have guessed he would have ended up in a situation like this, but as he sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at the ceiling, he found himself smiling quite a lot. Especially since he could only imagine what his siblings would be saying to him if they saw him right now, being inside a young woman's bedroom alone.

"Shinobu's sister, Kanae...if you're watching over us right now...I just want you to know that I'll do my best to carry on your dream...and that I swear I'll help your sister to the best of my abilities." Tanjirō thought as he closed his eyes, imagining Shinobu's sister looking down on them from heaven. "I'll help her smile...and I mean really smile...just like she said you liked seeing her do. And I promise to grow strong enough to help her accomplish what she desires and protect her!"

Yushiro tapped his fingers impatiently against his arm as he stood outside of the operation room within his lady's new home after their flight from the city after their untimely discovery by Muzan's agents. Tamayo had been hard at work, researching and developing a serum that could successfully turn a demon back to human form, and the samples that they had received from Tanjirō had certainly been a helpful addition to her research. Most recently several weeks ago, they had gotten quite a surprise in the form of not a blood sample, but an entire demon herself. What shocked them most of all was how this demon specifically said she had been told to follow their cat to them by someone named Tanjirō, which immediately grabbed their attention.

Albeit somewhat hesitantly, they had allowed the demon into their home and gave her something to drink in the form of spare blood Tamayo usually had on hand for themselves. Shockingly the demon had turned them down, citing a desire to try and move away from a dependency on human blood or flesh, which had spawned not only from what she had experienced, but because of a talk that she had with Tanjirō before she had left. Her story itself was rather overwhelming, hearing how terribly she was treated by those she was forced to be the mother of, including the Lower Moon who had changed her appearance so drastically from her original self.

She told them how she had desired death by Tanjirō's sword, but he did not give it to her, and instead talked to her and listened to her as someone who wanted to be her friend. It shocked her upon first hearing it from the slayer, and hearing it from her perspective made Tamayo smile and realize even more just how special he and his sister were. She assumed that the demon had been sent to her in order to have her body modified, and meekly the demon had responded with a yes.

She wanted to return to a peaceful existence after so much torment and strife, which included giving up on the desire to eat and desire humans in order to obtain strength. Sof or the past several weeks, Yushiro had to endure this demon taking almost all of Tamayo's attention because when she wasn't helping out humans, she was working and operating on this new demon in order to physically change her entire body to be more like theirs. Another problem of course was severing her from the connection she held to Muzan, which was the most difficult task of them all.

"I just hope that once she's done, that girl can just go ahead and leave...nobody else needs to be by Tamayo-sama's side, other than me." he told himself mentally with a slight growl, his fingers digging into his sleeve.

The doorknob then jiggled and he stepped back as Tamayo then appeared from inside of the room, wiping her hands on a towel before dabbing her face with it to clear it of sweat.

"There...the last few touches have been finished...she's all set." Tamayo said with a soft smile, before she too stepped aside and held the door open for the younger demon to slowly walk out behind her with a shy expression on her face.

Yushiro visibly gasped at the change the demon had undergone since first arriving at their doorstep, having appeared as a girl younger than him, which was her original appearance before she had been forced to take up the appearance of the Spider Family's mother. Now though, after hearing of her chronological age, which was more or less a guess on the demon's part, Tamayo had been able to miraculously modify her appearance to what she would look like currently, to match her mental age.

No longer was she the white haired and skin Spider Mother, or the younger looking young demon girl that she used to be. She had been physically altered into a young woman who had to be in her early to mid-twenties with her original brown hair that reached her lower back, and two tufts on either side of her head tied up into tiny little low hanging pigtails. The maroon lines on her cheeks had combined to form one thicker one, and her yellow eyes with cross-shaped pupils seemed to have more volume and life to them than before. Her body had grown in other areas to match this boost, and as Yushiro looked her up and down in surprise, it made her blush and hide a little behind Tamayo.

"W...Why are you staring at me like that…" she asked in a higher-pitched voice than Tamayo's, her question causing Yushiro to scoff and shake his head while looking away.

"It's okay, he's just being funny is all."

"Of course I'm not! I'm just amazed at your skill and handiwork, Tamayo-sama!"

Tamayo giggled softly as she coaxed the transformed demon out from behind her and out a hand gently on her shoulder, the two of them now almost the exact same height, with the former just a few inches taller.

She led her upstairs where as a surprise and a test, there was a woman and her child, two humans, waiting on her for a treatment meant for her sick child. The mother raised her head up towards the two of them and gasped lightly at the transformed demon woman's eyes, before Tamayo waved her hand at her to tell her that it was fine. She led the demon to them and under Yushiro's gaze she sat down across from the woman and child, Tamayo smiling as she motioned to them with a hand gesture.

"Do you feel anything…?" she asked of her patient, the demon looking from the mother and her ill child several times over before looking back at Tamayo. Not a single hint of ravenous hunger or bloodlust sparked in her stomach or mind, and it was then she realized that she really had changed thanks to the elder demon. "Seems like you don't...the operation was a success."

"E-Excuse me, Tamayo-san...is...that woman…" nervously asked the mother while protectively holding her child closer to her.

"Yes, she is...but don't worry...she won't harm you. She's actually rather sweet...if you get to know her."

The demon and the mother gazed at one another in the eyes again, and slowly but surely the latter brought up a hand towards the demon as an offering of friendship. She introduced herself, but when the demon was expected to say her own name in response, she faltered and looked down at her lap in shame.

She never was able to remember her own name from when she was a human, and all she had ever known was the "Mother" persona that she had forced upon her by Rui. She had no idea who she was.

"So...you don't have a name…?" said the Mother to the demon, who slowly nodded her head. "That's terrible…maybe...maybe your name could be...Amai."

"A...Amai?" asked the demon inquisitively.

"Well...if Tamayo-san said that you're sweet...then why not be named sweet?"

The demon's eyes widened and she held her hands up to her chest with an expression of surprise and awe on her face when the mother gave her a smile that was almost exactly like the one that she remembered Tanjirō had given her. To first be saved from her fate of being tortured by Rui and his fake family by the slayer, and sent to a place where there were two other demons who were able to help and cure her of the curse she had been given ever since losing her humanity, to finally being able to have a name again like she had become human.

All of it was so overwhelming for her that she didn't know what to say at first, and could only look at the mother with wide eyes that soon began to water and tear up as the joy in her heart began to bubble up to the surface.

"I think that's a wonderful name, Amai-san." Tamayo added after the mother with an equally as happy smile.

"T...Thank you...thank you so much! Thank you, thank you!"

A/N Well, I thought this chapter was going to be mostly about the end of the Rehabilitation Arc, buuuuuut...yeah. Turned into a whole bunch of WHOLESOME my dudes. And yes, finally, we did it! :DDDD SET SAAAAAIL

And we got to see some of Spider Mom too :3

I'd just like to give all of you a big thank you for continuing to read my story, and I hope that i can keep giving you all great content! To all of you who are Guests leaving Guest reviews, I cant physically respond to you through PM, but I can here!

Thank you so much for everything! It really makes my day to see all of the kind things you have to say! :D I'll keep doing my best!

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