The heavens roared and rumbled. They couldn't believe it. They couldn't understand. How the timeline went to chaos so quickly. How it changed. This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to die-they weren't supposed to live. It's impossible, impossible, impossible. How did they change the timeline...?

...3 Hours Before The Leap...

Zenitsu was dying. He was dying, and he was dying fast. He tried to do the breathing exercises he learned, as he did at Mount Natagumo, trying to stop the blood from leaving his body, making his death slower, but not inevitable. His skin was cracked and burnt and cut to smithereens, but he still had to get up. He had to find the others, he HAD TO HELP-

The crash of lightning sounded, screams, clashing, a thud. He pried open his eyes and found a familiar face beside him. One he interacted with a few times. One he couldn't quite remember the name of...

"W-we're dying," the unnamed slayer coughed up blood, "aren't we, Zenitsu-kun?"

Murata. That was the name, wasn't it?

"Y-yeah." Zenitsu couldn't help the tears filling up his eyes. "We are."

"N-neh, I w-wish I coulda done things better. H-helped more, y'know?" Murata gave a weak smile, wincing at the sound of more slayers falling at the hands of the Uppermoon. Zenitsu hummed in agreement, closing his eyes and trying to get the energy to get up. To help. To avenge his Jii-chan.

"I w-wish I talked to Tomioka-san more. W-wished I wasn't so useless." Murata stared sadly at Zenitsu. "Wish I could've saved you."

The blonde felt tears leak out of his eyes. He heard the sadness and regret from his companion's heart, and mourned the fact that he barely knew the guy. "I need to get up..." he whispered. "I need to avenge Jii-chan. Avenge you."

"Neh, we all do, don't we? To get up." Zenitsu watched the slayer utter, the older's eyelids drooping lower by the second. Murata gently reached over, to hold his hand. Smiled gently. "Just don't want to die alone, y'know?"

The younger slayer clutched the hand like a lifeline, willing the strength back to him. Ignoring the tears, the screams, the pain, the images of a field of flowers and his Jii-chan just behind his eyelids. Keeping his eyes focused on the man in front of him. Watched as his smile faltered, and his eyes grew dull. Heard his heart slow to a stop, the last note being one of guilt, mourning, regret, and saddest of all, content. He was happy to die holding the hand of a friend.

Zenitsu got to his knees, life flashing before his eyes, searching for something-a memory to help him get up and avenge all those who died. His mind landed on one in particular...

It was midnight and Zenitsu couldn't sleep. He usually went to sleep without a hitch, but tonight was different. Something was keeping him awake, and wouldn't leave him alone. He listened to Inosuke's deep breathing on the bed beside him. He listened to Tanjiro for his own noises of slumber, but found none. Looking to his left, he found that Tanjiro was, indeed, awake.

"Neh, Tanjiro?"

The burgundy-haired teen turn towards the other. "Yes, Zenitsu?"

"How do you...keep going?" The older slayer hesitated slightly in asking.

Tanjiro smiled kindly. "I just think of all those I hope to save, have saved, or hoped to save."

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence filled the room for a good 10 minutes. If Zenitsu didn't have such good hearing, he would have thought that Tanjiro was asleep. But he did, and he wasn't.

"...what if you don't any of those?" The older slayer said softly. It's not like he didn't have people he wanted to save or had hoped to save, but he couldn't help but ask to break the silence. Not that it was ever actually silent for him.

"Then think of those you will hope to save in the future."

"What if you have no future? What if you're dying? What if you still have people to save, and can't save them?"

"Then all you can do is hope."

That last line reverberated in Zenitsu's mind, as he looked death straight in his eye, and told it no. You're not taking me now. Not until I avenge those I need to.

"Then all you can do is hope."

Zenitsu hoped. And prayed. And found the strength within him to cut Kaigaku's head off like there's no fucking tomorrow because there won't be. Zenitsu knows that. But as he looked at the fallen corpse of his comrade, the man who had said he'd wished he could have saved him, Zenitsu fucking Agatsuma, he couldn't help but feel content about the prospect of death. The prospect of seeing someone who was kind to him as he died, one who did not weep once, one who barely knew him but wanted to save him. One who was happy dying holding the hand of a fucking wimp.

When Kaigaku's head hit the ground, the blonde was at Murata's body. He used two fingers to gently close the slayer's eyes, wishing the man well with a content smile as he fell to his knees and laid down next to him. He held Murata's hand, and found himself whispering,

"Don't want to die alone, y'know?"

Zenitsu Agatsuma was the second of four to die, 2 1/2 hours before the time leap.

A/N:

...I think I just accidentally made a ship. OxO

I'm going do something in the second chapter that literally just basically made a ship I'm gonna cry LMAO