June 22, 1913
"Breath of Mist," Mukago declared as she readied her sword, attacking a demon who bore two tentacles sprouting from his back that began to attack her. "Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!" She then charged at the demon, slashing both of his tentacles quickly before readying her sword to strike his neck. "And now the First Form!" As her sword made a clean slash across the demon's neck, decapitating and killing it with ease, she concluded, "Low Clouds, Distant Haze!"
As the demon's head fell to the ground, he shouted to her, "You will pay for betraying our master! Former Lower Moon Four, your time will come!" The head and the body it was once attached to then faded away, the demon they belonged to slayed.
"Excellent," Muichiro told her with a faint smile as he clapped. "You're a pro at this, Mukago."
She giggled and gave Muichiro a hug, telling him, "I couldn't do it without you, dear." She then kissed his cheek. "It's your breath style, after all."
"Now," he told her as they split. "Let's head back to my place."
However, just as he turned around to walk the other way on the unlit road they had battled on, he heard Mukago suddenly cough several times. "Oh God…" As he turned around, he saw that she was grasping her stomach and trying to hold something in by her mouth with her other hand. "Oh no…"
"Mukago," Muichiro asked her as he walked up to her, concerned for his Tsuguko and girlfriend. "Are you alri-?!"
Then, suddenly, Mukago pushed herself away from him before bending down slightly and opening her mouth, vomiting out of it onto the ground in front of her. "Fuck, I don't feel so good!" She then puked again, the sickening sound of her vomit hitting the ground disturbing Muichiro. "I… I don't know what's happening. Mui, help me!"
"Okay, uh," Muichiro replied as he tried to figure out what to do. "Ginko! Ginko!"
His trusty Kasugai Crow then came flying down from a nearby tree. "What do you need, Muichiro-sama? What's wrong with Mukago-sama?"
"Go to the Butterfly Estate and tell them to prepare for Mukago's entry," Muichiro instructed her.
Mukago's own recently-issued crow, another female crow named Rin, also flew down and joined Ginko. "Is Mukago-sama sick?!"
"She is," Muichiro explained to her as well. "Rin, Ginko, go to the Butterfly Estate. Kocho-san needs to be made aware of this. I can take care of Mukago until we get there."
"Yes, sir," both crows replied before dashing off into the sky to deliver their message.
"Damn it," Muichiro said to himself as he approached her again. "Why now?"
...
"Hmmm," Shinobu said to herself as she looked over Mukago, who had stripped down to hospital clothes from her corps uniform. "I can't see a reason why you're sick so far. It can't be food poisoning, unless demons can get it from bad blood or something."
"We can," Mukago replied, laying down on a hospital bed with a bucket next to her. "But Mui's blood is fine, and so is the blood he gets from donors. I'd be able to tell if it was tainted or poisoned."
"So that's how you feed yourself," Shinobu replied in curiosity. "I like that nickname you have for Tokito-san. How close have you two been?"
Mukago, not wanting to spill the secret that he and Muichiro were in a relationship, replied cautiously, "Well, we work together quite extensively, so…"
Shinobu, having a hunch something was up, calmly asked her, "Mukago, since you're freed from Muzan's Curse, you can get regular periods, right?"
"Yeah," Mukago nodded, unsure of what she was getting at.
"Well," Shinobu continued. "Did you miss one recently?"
That question shook Mukago, because indeed, she had. Immediately, alarm bells began to ring inside her head, realizing what Shinobu was getting at. "I, uh… I did… Two weeks ago."
Shinobu chuckled, putting gloves on her hands. "I see. Anyway, let me take a look at your crotch area. I wanna see something." She then grabbed a medical instrument located nearby, and put on a surgical mask as well for further protection.
As she lifted up part of her gown and inspected the area, Mukago began to worry as she felt cold metal between her legs. "Holy shit," she thought to herself. "Does she think… Does she think I'm…"
"Well, well," Shinobu told her. "I see Chadwick's Sign in your cervix and vagina. That's referring to when the skin down there looks a bit bluish from the area being engorged with blood. That, coupled with your sickness and your missed period, means that you are most likely pregnant."
Mukago was shocked to hear those words. "Pre-... Preg-... Pregnant?! What the fuck?! Demons can get pregnant?!"
"According to Colby-san," Shinobu politely explained to her. "Indeed they can. The only reason they don't in Japan is because Muzan apparently didn't trust you guys to make your own children." She then stood up and removed her gloves. "Now, tell me, Mukago, who is the father? Don't lie, by the way, because I will find out."
Realizing she was running out of options, Mukago sighed. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but… The father has to be Muichiro. I've… We've been having sex for two months now."
"Sex with a demon," Shinobu replied as her tone of voice slowly changed to a slightly angered tone, despite retaining her smile. "I've… I've never heard of such a thing, especially not among a Pillar."
"Kocho-sama," a Kakushi then exclaimed as he ran into the room. "We're bringing in two badly-injured slayers! We need your assistance!"
"I'll be right there," she told him before turning around to walk out of the room. Before she did, she left Mukago with one warning, "Due to patient confidentiality, I won't tell anyone. However, you shouldn't broadcast that you're fucking a Pillar to people in the corps. It wouldn't look good on Tokito-san for him to be fathering a child with a woman who too many slayers still see as the enemy."
Once she left, Mukago was all alone on her bed in her private exam room. "Pregnant… What the fuck… What kind of luck is that?"
Muichiro then knocked on the door, asking her, "Can I come in?"
"Yeah," Mukago replied as he let himself in. "Hey, um, I have some news for you."
"I already know," the Mist Pillar explained to her. "I heard it through the door. I… I can't believe it."
The former Lower Moon Four lowered her head as tears welled up inside her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks. "I'm scared, Mui-kun. I've never been pregnant before, not even when I worked at the post-station as a tea waitress."
Muichiro held her hand and assured her, "Mukago, look, we can get through this. This is our child, not just your's." As he rested his other hand on her stomach, he told her, "You know, you don't have a bump yet."
"Women don't have that until later," Mukago replied. "When that starts, we're gonna have to tell everyone. Until then, we need to hide this as much as possible. I want to keep going on missions until we have to reveal it."
"It's risky," Muichiro noted to her. "But we can make that work."
...
June 23, 1913
During the later evening, James and Nezuko sat down in a room together, with James testing Nezuko to see if she had improved at all since she had been given some of his blood. "Okay, Nezuko," he instructed her. "I need you to take that there muzzle off."
Nezuko sighed, carefully reaching behind her head and untying it before placing it on the table. "Ja… Jam…" She was trying to say his name, but it was difficult since she had not spoken in so long.
"James," he told her. "Say it with me. James."
"Jame," Nezuko then said, only missing the s in his name. "Jame… Jame… James…"
"Excellent," he replied with a smile. "Nezuko, do y'all understand what I gave you on the 3rd of this month?"
Nezuko shook her head. "Gave… No…"
"I gave you some of my blood," James explained to her. "Your big brother, Tanjiro… He wants to see if me givin' you my blood would help you regain some semblance of sapience. With enough of my blood, you could also walk in the sunlight, but there's a catch."
Nezuko leaned in, curious to hear what he had to say. "Sunlight?"
"You will be vulnerable in the sun," James explained. "American demons may be able to walk in the day, but they don't got the ability to regrow parts of their body, heal from wounds, or use their Blood Demon Arts until the night comes. If you're not careful, you could die from bleedin' out before the night comes."
"Yes," Nezuko replied affirmatively. "Yes, yes!"
"Are you sayin' you wanna continue with blood treatment?"
"Yes!" Nezuko seemed energetic and emphatic in her decision. "Yes!"
James then handed her a small vial of his blood. "Then drink this. Tomorrow, we're also gonna experiment with injectin' it directly into your body."
Then, they heard the door to the room slide open as Zenitsu emerged, a wide grin on his face. "Nezuko-chan…"
Nezuko looked up and asked, "Huh?"
Immediately, Zenitsu was shocked to see her without her muzzle, and yelled out as his eyes widened, "Holy shit! She's even cuter without it!"
Nezuko felt a slight blush emerge on her cheeks as James turned around and told him, "Do ya have to be that loud, Zenitsu?"
Zenitsu ignored him as he approached Nezuko, not caring about the fact that she had only been around a human without a muzzle once before since she had been turned into a demon. "Nezuko-chan, can you understand me now?" He was giddy with joy at seeing her without that pesky muzzle covering almost half of her face, her fangs clearly visible when she talked.
Nezuko's blush intensified as she told him, "Dandelion… Talk?"
Zenitsu's jaw dropped at her words. "Da… Dandelion?"
James could not help but break into a fit of laughter. "Oh my God, she thinks you're a fuckin' dandelion!"
Nezuko, confused, turned to Zenitsu again and told him, "You… Dandelion person? Nice person." She then patted him on the head, tussling his blond hair. "Good dandelion. Good dandelion."
Zenitsu's face immediately lit up with a bright red as he yelled out, "This is fucking AMAZING! Nezuko-chan is patting my head! I'm beyond Heaven! This is Nirvana!"
"Keep it down," James told Zenitsu with a hush. "Come on!"
…
Meanwhile, Enmu and Patrick Cleburne were sleeping together in a room in the Dimensional Infinity Fortress, Patrick having asked Enmu to show him how his 'dream powers' worked. Enmu had designed a rough sketch of a city street at night before he had Patrick ingest some of his blood, tied a flesh-made Connecting Rope to him, and then used his Blood Demon Art to put both of them to sleep together in Enmu's dream. On the outside, a third demon sat in the same room, two buckets of water by his side when he was ready to wake them up with a Kick Event.
When both woke up inside it, they were standing in the middle of a bustling Japanese city street at night. Enmu told Patrick, "See? We're sharing the same dream right now."
"No shit," Patrick replied as he looked around in awe at his surroundings. "This is amazing."
"It gets better," Enmu eagerly told him as everyone on the street suddenly looked to Patrick for a split second before turning back to their previous activities. "My subconscious now recognizes you as an outsider." Their piercing stares shook Patrick, even if they only lasted maybe three seconds at most.
"What does that mean?"
"You'll find out in about another fifteen seconds," Enmu explained. "Don't worry. I haven't induced Permanent Dream Death, so if either of us die in here, we'll just wake up as if we were subject to a Kick Event."
"What happens in fifteen sec-" Patrick immediately got his answer when gunshots rang out, forcing him down to the ground for cover. "What the fuck, Enmu?!" Several men then exited a Ford Model T car, all armed with rifles and pistols and looking for blood.
"I weaponized my subconscious," Enmu replied as they both ran for cover into a building. "Once it detects an intruder, it sends armed guards to kill them!"
"You really thought this through," Patrick told him. Then, a volley of shots rang out as two men armed with rifles aimed at them as they stormed the room they were in, and everything went black for a split second.
In an instant, both of them woke up in the Dimensional Infinity Fortress, lying in the same beds as before, having been killed in the dream. Patrick hyperventilated several times as sweat poured down his face, still in shock from being shot. "Fucking Hell, that was… Fuck, I don't know what that was." He then wiped the sweat from his forehead before looking to the pail of water next to him and reaching in to cup water for him to drink. "Damn it…"
"That's the power of dreams," Enmu concluded with a confident smile. "So, are you convinced of my abilities now?"
"Absolutely!"
