Nezuko Kamado remembered.

Even if on the inside of her mind there was mist, even if everything was painted by the red. Nezuko remembers.

That man had come and spilled his red, his blood and his life over Nezuko, and she had taken it in and made it part of herself. That's why, when she saw another red, the one on the hair and eyes of her brother, she realized she wasn't painted by it all.

There were parts of her that weren't soaked in blood, parts of cheerful and pure colors that came to her in dreams and when her gaze stayed at one point for too long. Maybe Muzan Kibutsuji had dressed her in scarlet clothes, but she knew that wasn't the only red there was.

So in order not to follow that one, the one that uttered evilness and hunger and misery, Nezuko followed the ruby red of fire.

With him came the parts that weren't crimson, the purple plums on her mother's eyes, the charcoal on the hair of her sibling or the white from Takeo's skin.

Especially when she slept, the colors covered the red completely, that appeared insistently by the corner of her eye, and that brought her ease. The time she spent on the wooden box was the most peaceful she could have in between the pain of what pulsed on her veins, something dark and abysmal that she always managed to keep under control.

So when she slept, Nezuko Kamado remembered.

And when she got tired of remembering, Nezuko Kamado awakened.

It was easy to open the door of the wooden box from the inside. Her brother was too kind to not let her get out somehow on her own (that's something that constantly repeated itself on her memories, her onii-chan was always kind, always too kind).

But wherever Nezuko was didn't appear in her memories.

She looked around her, from the floor her little legs stood on, and looked for the red she was always running after.

Those who she also dreamed about, the dandelion haired boy, the wild boar and the wisteria girl, were all asleep in a row of seats not too far away from there. All of them had been kind to her, so Nezuko cherished them too, enough so for them to appear in her dreams and thus for her to remember.

She didn't recognize the people tied to their wrists. The flaming man she remembered from some time, she didn't know when, was also there. For a moment Nezuko got alarmed at the sight of the human girl he was grabbing by the neck, "protect humans, humans are family" rumbles over the dark red, but when she waited after a few seconds she realized there was no danger of her being choked to death, which left her relieved.

She would have run to her brother's side and his red if not because of the screaming.

The boy with small marks on the cheeks that Nezuko never missed when looking at him skipped a bit on his seat and screamed, falling to the floor and on his knees.

He yelled so much, unhinged and like a madman, that for a moment it reminded Nezuko of her family's massacre. Which infuriated her.

Yuu, that was how she had learned he was called, ended up huffing and drenched in his own sweat, raising both hands up his face. His eyes, wide open, traveled over to Nezuko, who stared at him unblinking from her place. The sight made him sigh in relief.

"Nezuko," he said in a whisper, brushing away the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "Thank goodness"

Both seem to forget the boy that was tied to him, who lunged forward raising the gimlet in the air that looked too similar to the dark red Nezuko always avoided.

"Protect humans."

"You're not even a slayer! How the hell did you wake up so soon!? I couldn't even reach your spirit core!" Yuu managed in some kind of miracle to move to the side and dodge him.

It's Nezuko who, with the fury caused by Yuu's yelling when remembering, kicked the human with the gimlet and left him unconscious on the floor. A thin line of spit fell down his chin.

Yuu eyed Nezuko, who eyed him back in quiet calmness.

"I keep forgetting you're a demon," he whispered to himself, without ever diverting his gaze from her pale pink eyes.

With a few more glances around him, Yuu got up, bringing a hand to the bag hanging from his shoulder and taking out a shiny syringe.

In a last blink and a mutter under his breath (the wisteria girl, Aya, had always said he was very intelligent and sharp) he knelt before the human Nezuko had knocked out and injected whatever it was the syringe contained on his neck.

Nezuko furrowed her eyebrows, because "protect humans" meant all humans. Yuu sent her a glance and smiled:

"Don't worry," he said, dismissively waving a hand. "It won't hurt him, just make sure he won't wake up anytime soon."

Even so Nezuko's frown remained. It was not until Yuu patted her head that the frown fades away.

"Everyone's asleep…" Yuu muttered more like a question than a statement, eyebrows painting a grimace on his face when looking over at the girl Rengoku has hanging from the neck. "Is this normal for demon slayers?"

Nezuko gave him a scowl when focusing on the rope that tied them all by the wrist, of the same red that appeared by the corner of her eye, that had painted the spider web from that one demon and the one in Aya's old haori.

So to stay away from it, she looked for the other red.

Her brother was asleep just like everyone else. Nezuko hoped for him to pat her head but he didn't, and it was the huffs that came from him which made her shake him from side to side in an attempt to wake him up.

Yuu stared with only one eyebrow raised, yelling when Nezuko banged her forehead against her brother's, which left her bleeding. Yuu yelled, once again and louder, when her blood started to burn and Tanjirou burned along with it.

He ran to the flames and tried to put them off with bare hands, but they didn't burn him, even if the rope that tied Tanjirou by the wrist fades away in ashes. For a moment he watched, dumbfounded, at how it does, Nezuko wonders if he was thinking or if he was just stupid.

The flames appeared to bring ease to Tanjirou, who frowned but stopped squirming nervously. Yuu got his gaze back to Nezuko, and then to Aya and her rope, kneeling before her just a moment later.

"It was an illusion, just that," he muttered to himself, bringing a hand up to his chin. "Ayaka's illusion is probably about her family."

He quickly shot to his feet, taking out another syringe and injecting it on the boy tied to Aya that didn't seem to react. When listening to the word "family" Nezuko looked up. Ah, then Aya was just like her.

"Hey," Yuu called, holding Aya's rope in between his fingers. "Do you think you're able to burn this one, but leaving a bit?"

Nezuko took some traces of blood from the injury on her forehead and painted a small part of the rope with it. In a second, it was burning, leaving the wrist of the boy tied to Aya to fall. Both wait for a moment, eyes wide open, for him to wake up. But he didn't.

"Cool," Yuu let out a trembling sigh, scratching his cheek. "Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, good, perfect, amazing-"

Nezuko tugged at his sleeve and that made him cough and stop muttering.

"Please, try to wake up the others," he muttered one last time looking at her. Nezuko looked at him the same intense way with her demon eyes (yes, she was just like Ayaka) while Yuu got rid of the rests of rope around his wrist and replaced them with the ends of Aya's half burnt one. ·However you can, but if you don't, all humans on this train will probably end up dying."

And with a last mutter to himself and the syringe against his own neck, he said "I have to fix what I broke."

«Protect humans» Nezuko remembered one last time, Yuu asleep by her feet. «Go after the ruby red.»

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The warmth of a woman had always reminded Zenitsu to the taste of peaches.

Sweet, juicy and fresh, he had liked the touch of a woman as much as eating peaches on the back of his grandpa's house.

There was an orchard, rows of huge trees with rosy peaches hanging juicy from their branches, that painted the scenery of green and pink until they couldn't be seen anymore. There were so many the backyard felt like a maze, through which Zenitsu had tried to escape countless times during training. He suspected jii-chan had planted more simply to make trying to escape in between them the more difficult, although he was good enough at lasso to prevent Zenitsu from escaping himself and dragging him back to yet another day of insufferable training he was sure he wouldn't survive. But in the end, he had.

In the end, the achievement came. He was a demon slayer, a demon slayer worth calling his grandpa's disciple.

For the first time in his life, Zenitsu Agatsuma felt like he had done something right. As much as he cried and as much as he trembled, as much disgust as Ayaka had looked at him with, as much displeassure as there had been on Tanjirou's gaze when they first met and as painful as Inosuke's constant comments were, that didn't matter, because he had all he needed to prove them wrong. That his grandpa hadn't been delusional when believing in him, that Ayaka hadn't been wrong to leave Shoichi in his care, that all those girls that despised him weren't right. That the words coming out of Kaigaku's mouth weren't true.

Zenitsu Agatsuma, golden boy who'd finally prove his worth.

The touch of Nezuko's hand was as warm as he had always thought it to be, that made him happy.

"Where are we going?" She asked, once they crossed the river, Zenitsu tugging at her hand again.

"To grandpa's house! Everyone is waiting for us, and we'll braid flower crowns and eat peaches!" A skip appeared on his step just thinking about it. And if he hadn't been holding Nezuko's hand he would have given in to the idea of using Thunder Breathing, but since Nezuko was with him, he just squeezed her hand and continued running.

His stomach rumbled and he was hungry, but he knew what was waiting for him at jii-chan's house.

The wish to make Nezuko a crown of white clovers made him skip a bit again, and that made her start chuckling when seeing his enthusiasm, but it seemed someone had already stolen the idea.

He saw Tanjirou in the distance, sitting on the porch, carefully braiding a flower crown made from cherry tree branches. Ayaka was by his side, a peaches basket on her lap, looking at him amused as he tried to make the branches stay in a circle. In the corner, Inosuke lazily played with a peach he must have stolen from Ayaka, inspecting it as if it was something he didn't understand instead of a simple peach.

"Zenitsu! Nezuko!" Ayaka was, of course, the first one to see them, standing up in a hurry to greet them. Tanjirou lifted his gaze from the already finished crown and waved a hand, smiling only like he knew.

"It's not fair!" Zenitsu started without breath, when finally joining them with Nezuko still holding his hand. "You started without us! That's cruel, Tanjirou! You're very cruel!"

"Sorry, Zenitsu," he said, nearly looking guilty as he set the crown on Ayaka's black hair. She smiled and Tanjirou settled a hand around her shoulder to make her get close to him, just the tiniest bit even if they had already been close before. Zenitsu didn't dare do the same with Nezuko because he wasn't sure if she'd get close like Ayaka had done. "Although we picked some peaches while we were waiting."

"Ta-dan!" Ayaka pressed the peaches basket against his face, and his hunger was too much for Zenitsu to continue being mad. "These are all for you, Zenitsu!"

Nezuko stretched out a hand and took one of them, juicy, shining and full. So full just a single bite could have fed him to death.

"Ah, so good," she muttered in pleasure with her mouth full, wiping off a string of juice that fell down her chin. "You should take one, Zenitsu."

She offered one to him, and in between his fingers, the fruit felt as warm as the touch of Nezuko's skin. Inosuke looked at them in boredom from where he was laying down, maybe just woken up from a nap. For a moment Zenitsu expected for him to say something, but he didn't, so Zenitsu dived in. Ayaka and Tanjirou never stopped smiling.

It was good, the peach was definitely good. Nezuko had been right. And he was enveloped by the orchestra of the gentle sounds of his friends, all in synchrony and sweet, intense and gentle at the same time. Zenitsu was sure this was how love sounded like. How their friends' love sounded like, all at once and over him, drowning every heavy burden on his shoulders with sweet flutes, soft tambourines, deep trombones and loving violins. And the green appeared to have increased, too, Zenitsu noticed, as he looked at the distance. Had jii-chan planted more trees during his absence?

Ayaka, who had Tanjirou's arm around her shoulders, turned around. And once again the orchestra on his ears grew. Zenitsu followed her gaze to find the figures of his master and Kaigaku by the door.

They, too, had baskets full to the brim with peaches.

Inosuke's hand suddenly appeared and Zenitsu jumped back, staring at the peach Inosuke had been playing with against his nose. "Take it, Monitsu."

They all looked at him, expecting, and Zenitsu, slowly, took the peach from Inosuke's grasp and chomped. There were no smiles more tender or softer than the ones painted on the faces around him, nor there were peaches juicier than the ones he was eating.

Maybe it was the feeling of using the Thunder Breathing, maybe it wasn't, but seeing aniki and jii-chan smile, with the juiciest peaches of them all filling their baskets to the brim, made an itch appear on his skin he couldn't get rid of.

"Eat it already." Kaigaku crossed his arms over his chest. "You're hungry, right? And you've ran a lot to get here."

Jii-chan smiled at him, raising the basket higher. "You deserve it. Good work."

It was Ayaka, who shared the toughness with Kaigaku as much as she shared the black hair, the one to lean a hand over Zenitsu's and smile at him. Someone as powerful as her, as skillful with the sword as to be the tsuguko of the very Stone Pillar, smiled honestly at him. None of their sounds were lying, their violins or trombones or drums were any less honest, and they were as warm as the fruit Zenitsu was feasting on.

Tanjirou's sound had been so beautiful Zenitsu could have cried, Ayaka's, although more silent, was the same.

Ah, there would never be anything better than his grandpa's peaches.

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