I LIVE.

I'm very, VERY sorry that I've been gone for so long. All I can say is sorry, been sick/had other things/had a case of I'll-get-to-it-lateritus and so forth.

You guys have been AMAZING! Even during the 5 months, this story was being ACTIVLY read, faved etc, to me that says a lot...I really can't express how much that means to me. Really, thank you guys. I hope I can keep your interest alive.

Per usual, if you find any misspellings, please let me know~

When Tanjiro first lost his family all those years ago, there had been many nights filled with nightmares. Nightmares of blood and demons that hid in the dark. That had been expected. After all, for anyone who lost nearly their entire family in such a swift and violent way...how could one not have them? But...it wasn't the nightmares that haunted him. After a few months...they spaced out and became less common. No, it wasn't the nightmares; it was the nights that he couldn't sleep that bothered him the most. Nights where even after Urokodaki had worked him to the bone and beyond where sleep seemed like it was just seconds away...he would end up staring up at the ceiling in the dark. Lost in deep thought.

Thoughts of 'what if's' and 'what had really happened' that repeated endlessly in his mind.

His mind would run wild with thoughts and theories of every possible scenario of what possibly could have happened that night his family had died. His mind had run so many scenarios that he had a pretty good idea on who had died first to last...he had seen the wounds on each of them to know how much pain they must have been in. Seeing the bodies of his family, he knew that none of them died instantly. Knowing that is what bothered him the most. Also, before he knew the name and face of Muzan Kibutsuji; he wondered what did his family's killer truly look like?

Then the self accusations would start:

'Why didn't you go straight home?'

'You should have sold the coal faster.'

'If you hadn't stopped to help so many people, you would have gotten home sooner.'

Some tucked away part of his brain that he never used on anyone else before, some part that belonged to everyone, that hurtful thing was used to justify the negative thoughts. Some nights he felt such bitter resentment towards himself that he would have a sour taste in his mouth and it felt like he swallowed a hot rock. He could even smell a strong weird mix of his own resentment and distress towards his mixed feelings. It wasn't a healthy way of dealing with things, he knew that. He also knew there wasn't a thing he couldn't have possibly done...so why did he feel this way? That was when he'd throw himself twice as hard into his training. Whenever he'd be particularly frustrated, while practicing his Tameshigiri he would pretend that the targets would be a manifestation of whatever was bothering him at the time...sometimes it helped, but not always. When the pressure became to much to bear, he would talk to Nezuko's sleeping form and pretended that she was listening to him.

In some way he'd feel better, but then would feel guilty afterwards...he wasn't sure why. Unloading unnecessary burdens upon someone else who didn't deserve it...being selfish for only a moment would become another jab towards himself in the dark. The worst of it was, even after knowing who Muzan was and how powerful he was; knowing that there was absolutely nothing he could have done to save his family...those thoughts still remained. Some nights, he would look up at the night sky or up at the unfamiliar ceiling of the evening and still think about what his family had suffered through.

Now...he was getting a pretty good idea what that felt like.

He had tried to buck off Zenitsu one last time right before he felt a sharp pressure on his neck. Doing that had saved his life in one small way; it had made Zenitsu miss his targeted spot of his jugular and bit lower, near the base of his neck. For a brief moment, there was a pause from his panic and hope entered his heart as not only did Zenitsu pause as well but moved his left arm; freeing his own right arm as well. But his hopes were quickly dashed away when he felt new pressure on his shoulder and felt sharp teeth grinding into his own flesh. It was still impossible to call out since his mouth and nose was still covered but now that his right arm was freed, he desperately tried to push off Zenitsu. However it felt like pushing against a tree; steadfast, but not impossible to pull it down. Even though it pained him to do so, he began to strike at Zenitsu's face and head. Cutting the side of his own hand on the his horn on the process.

It seemed that the action was all in vain. It was disturbing to him how vastly different Zenitsu was; how easily he had moved him not only the night before by grabbing him by the horn and moved him as easily as moving a pillow but now it was if he was nothing more than an insect to him. He wasn't going to stop trying however. There was one final thing he could attempt: he went for the eyes; he started to push his thumb into Zenitsu's left eye as hard as he could. Tanjiro prepared to feel the eye rupture and profusely apologize later for any lingering trauma. But all that did was get a quiet annoyed huff from Zenitsu and he simply ignored it and slightly shifted his head, pulling at his neck, causing more pain.

So this was the feeling his family had felt the night they died: complete helplessness. Was all those years of training going to be for nothing? Had everything been for nothing? Shouldn't he be strong enough to push the self proclaimed 'weakling demon' off of himself and be able to fight back? Instead here he was, feeling a wet tongue slither in and around his open wound on his neck, a mouth wetly feeding off of himself. All he could see was the adjacent wall and a blurry patch of yellow at his lower field of view, and that was beginning to become unfocused; he was quickly losing consciousness. He didn't know if that was because he was running out of air, or because of blood-loss but either way it wouldn't matter if he didn't do something and fast. He tried one last weak attempt to push him off, but all it seemed to do was signal that he was dying because the grip on his body tightened.

'Is this really it,' he thought as he felt Zenitsu huff again as he nuzzled closer; vision getting even darker and everything sounded so muffled, 'is this how I'm really goi—'

Suddenly he felt something furry brushing against his face; the hand covering his mouth and nose released. He desperately wanted to take in new air, but he had to expel the old so he was in a desperate state of sputtering and gasping. That's when he was pulled half off the bed by his leg. Only then did he realize that Zenitsu was no longer on top of him. He quickly placed a hand to his wound to cover it; it wasn't bleeding that terribly, whether due to prior blood-loss or how he was covering it he wasn't sure. He didn't know why but it was hard to catch his breath, loudly panting and gasping. When he did manage to take in air, it didn't feel like it was enough, like he was back in his early training days only ten times worse. He had to push that thought away, wondering why he was thinking about things like that now of all times, he had to get up and help.

He looked up and saw that there were two Inosuke's...wrestling each other. No wait...that couldn't be right. One was wearing the boar mask but it was on wrong; it made it look like the wearer's neck was broken. The other Inosuke had the other in a Full Nelson grip, looking very grim. The one in the mask was trying to flex out of the grip while the unmasked Inosuke looked like he was barely hanging on. Something had to give, so the one on the back wrapped his leg around the masked ones' leg and tripped him while gripping the head. With all his body weight, he slammed the masked one's head into the ground, creating a loud thud and rattling the nearby beds. That also caused Tanjiro to be pulled further along for some reason. Now that he had gotten more air inside his body, he realized that no, there weren't two Inosuke's...but the masked one was Zenitsu. Also he had been pulled out of bed when Inosuke pulled Zenitsu off of him and his tail was still wrapped around his leg. He shook his head with a sad chuckle, why did he think that there had been two Inosukes? Was he really that out of it?

Zenitsu wasn't knocked out, just stunned, moaning behind the mask as he attempted to push himself off the ground. Inosuke pulled off the mask, ignoring the blood dripping from the mask and looked down at him.

"Are you done being stupid," Inosuke asked in a exasperated but quiet gruff tone, a first for him. Meanwhile, Zenitsu looked completely dazed. Tanjiro wasn't sure if it was the blow Inosuke gave him or what but he seemed confused. He was blankly looking up at Inosuke, as if he couldn't decide whether to be mad or not at him, but then he seemed to realize the foreign taste in his mouth.

"Am I bleeding," Zenitsu groggily mumbled as he started to rub his mouth with the back of his hand, but that's when he finally noticed Tanjiro. He must have looked pretty bad because as soon as Zenitsu saw him, his face fell and instantly went pale. He seemed to curl up onto himself and started to quietly mumble to himself. Tanjiro went to stand up to tell him it was alright, but the world spun and his legs gave out from underneath him. He was still clutching his neck, but was aware that blood was seeping between his fingers. He moved his hand quickly to look at it, and was shocked too see so much blood on it. He shouldn't have been...but he was. It sort of put a real weight on his situation. He looked back at the two and noticed that for some reason, Inosuke had taken his own shirt off and was trying to take Zenitsu's shirt off of him, quietly telling him too "hurry up, stupid."

Tanjiro was so confused by this, he didn't understand what was going on. However he was soon distracted by some sounds. He eventually got his legs underneath him and looked towards where he thought the noises were coming from when he suddenly felt someone tackle him hard and rip his hand away from his neck. The shock from that alone was enough to stun him but when he felt another bite on the same spot on his neck, it was too much! What the hell was going on?! He tried to push whoever off of him when he noticed who it was, and was about to say something when:

"Inosuke," yelled out Aoi looking on in horror, "what in the living FUCK are you doing?!" Tanjiro looked out of the corner of his eye and saw that Aoi with a few Kakushi and the three young girls had come into the room. Tanjiro looked back at Inosuke who gave him a smug, flesh-filled smirk and a wink.

"Get off of him you psychopath," Aoi was still shrieking, grabbing the back of his shirt and hair trying to pry him off of Tanjiro, "what in God's name are you doing?!" Inosuke instantly let go of Tanjiro and spun around to point at himself.

"What I had too," he said smugly, "Tambasko challenged MY spot, so I had to show him who's—" but before he could finish he was instantly swarmed by the three girls, who started to kick and hit his legs and back as they yelled out at him.

"Ow! You—OWCH! You wanna fight— I'll rip off your—"

"Just shut up you animal," Aoi said as she examined Tanjiro's neck, "This...I don't know how he did this. You," she said turning toward one of the Kakushi, "go wake Lady Kocho. This is beyond my capabilities," she always carried medical supplies with her, a useful habit she picked up from Shinobu and pulled out medical gauze to put over the wound. "keep up the pressure," she mumbled towards Tanjiro.

"Y-Yes," called out the Kakushi, who seemed nervous about doing the task. Truth be told, it was never a good thing to wake her as she rarely got a full nights sleep; she valued what little sleep she did get and was always sour when it was ever interrupted.

"You," Aoi said pointing toward the remaining Kakushi, "take that psychopath and...and put him somewhere! I don't know where, just SOMEwhere!" She looked over at the group of girls who were currently hovering over a crumpled and curled up Inosuke, kicking as hard as they could as they continued their verbal and physical assault.

"You three stop right now," she said towards the girls lifting Tanjiro up and putting his free arm around her shoulders, "and help me move him to the medical—" she paused when she noticed someone.

"Oh, Kanao," Aoi said surprised, "I didn't see you come in." She waited for Kanao to ask what happened, but instead she simply and calmly looked around the room. A lingering gaze at Inosuke, then towards Tanjiro.

"That wild boar assaulted Tanjiro," Aoi said, "the wound is really bad. We're taking him to Lady Kocho to mend it, there aren't any on-site doctors right now other than her," Kanao moved Tanjiro's hand and gauze to look at the wound.

"If I didn't know better," said Aoi mostly to herself, "I'd say a demon bit him, but that boar had his damn—" she paused and realized something, "oh no, were is it?"

"What," asked Tanjiro groggily.

"The demon," she sighed out as she looked around, "what else would I be—" Aoi paused when she saw Kanao quietly pointing. She followed the direction to where she was pointing to see on top of the bed was a jumbled pile of a blanket with two eyes staring out from underneath them.

"Oh," she sighed out, "there you are. At least I don't have to worry about any escaped demons tonight, do I," she asked glaring hard at him, but all he did was close the opening up and curl up tighter underneath. She only shook her head from that, she had more important matters to attend too.

"Would you mind helping me," she asked towards Kanao, "by get some medical supplies for this? I'd really appreciate it." Kanao lingered only for a moment, staring at something she didn't quite see but then turned around and left the room,

"Come on you four," she said to the girls and Tanjiro, "there's no time to waste." She almost dragged Tanjiro along side her while the three girls did their best to help, but they more or less got in the way of things. After they all left the room, the only thing you could hear was quiet, muffled sobbing coming from the only occupied bed.

"So that's all what will go into the official report then," asked a Kakushi who finished writing down the last testimony, "nothing else to say about it?"

"No," Aoi sighed as she finished cleaning up dishes from cooking breakfast, "just that. Send it over to Headquarters to be evaluated and we'll see if that idiot will still have a place here in the Corps or not. He's lucky he didn't kill Kamado last night! If he had bitten only a half an inch higher," she mumbled as she harshly placed the dishes back into the cupboard, "he'd have hit his jugular," she shook her head, "I don't think we'd have been able to save him if that'd happened." The Kakushi nodded and took the report with them and left the kitchen. Aoi sighed, she knew that the Demon Slaying Corps was known for recruiting people with...extreme personalities, but lately they seemed to be downright crazy! Whatever, she still had her rounds she needed to do. She checked on the other patients that weren't in the overnight medical bay, then went to check on the more extreme cases.

Tanjiro was still asleep and looked a bit better but was still a little pale. She checked the blood transfusion bottle to see how it was faring. Surprisingly it was empty, she didn't think he would need that much, if any at all. She sighed and went to remove the line from his arm.

"Good morning," came a tired voice below her, she looked down and saw that she had woken him up by removing the transfusion line.

"You feeling better from last night," she asked him. He looked over at the empty transfusion bottle and frowned. Sitting up he felt the wrapped up area where he'd been bitten and instinctively started to scratch at the gauze.

"Yes, I am feeling a bit better," he said, "but it's a bit itchy right where the stitches are."

"I'll clean the area and put new gauze on there in a second," she said as she finished moving the transfusion equipment out of the way. When she removed the bandages and gauze, she frowned at the stitched area. It looked bruised and inflamed. She placed her hand on top of the area and it had a slight fever, not a good sign.

"Does that boar never brush his teeth or something," she mumbled, "if I hadn't seen it for myself, I would swear this was a demon bite."

"What do you mean," Tanjiro asked.

"If anyone is lucky enough to survive a demon attack," Aoi said as she cleaned the area with iodine, "they can still die from demon bites. Their bites usually cause infections or other nasty things. Kinda like cat scratches, only worse because it gets in the blood and deep into the surrounding tissue. The worst part is that modern medicines can't touch what causes the infections. That's why so many people die."

"Oh," Tanjiro said quietly.

"Luckily this isn't one though," she said as she covered it back up, "if it was, I'd be worried."

"Uh...yeah, good thing it isn't," Tanjiro mumbled as his face scrunched up in the lie; thankfully Aoi's back was turned towards him so she didn't see his odd expression. He looked around for the others but noticed that they weren't in the room.

"Where are the others," asked Tanjiro as he continued to look around.

"Well," Aoi said as she gathered up the materials, "Hashibira is in isolation for now. Between that fight with the higher Corps member from the other day and this incident," she shook her head slightly as she picked up the tray with her eyes rolling at the same time, "I'll be surprised if they don't kick him out."

"Wait," Tanjiro asked lowering his hand from the fresh gauze trying his best not to scratch at the area, "do you really think they'll expel him from the Corps?"

"I've seen them throw others out for lesser things," she said as she put the supplies away, "and for only one incident. People in our line of work die all the time, we don't need anyone getting killed just to fill some idiot's weird sense of ego." Tanjiro looked down at his hands and felt like vomiting. How could he possibly defend Inosuke without telling what really happened? That would be even worse. If he told the truth, Zenitsu would definitely be killed. It was horrible to think, but having Inosuke possibly being kicked out of the Demon Slayers...was the best option right now. He just needed time to think of a way to—

"Are you listening?"

"Wha—" Tanjiro slightly gasped at how close Aoi was to his face and looked up at her.

"Clearly not," she sighed sitting back up, "I told you that your other friend," she rolled her eyes, "insisted on being put in a private room again. I think he got spooked by that psycho," she shrugged, "never seen such a wimpy demon in my life. Perhaps you're right about him," she said as she started to leave the room, "maybe he's harmless after all." As soon as she was out of the room, Tanjiro buried his face into his hands. He didn't know what to do at the moment, and was completely frustrated. The worst part was he didn't exactly feel the best and now didn't dare tell anyone about it. He sat back into the bed hard with a heavy sigh, looking up at the ceiling as if it would somehow have the answer to his problem. Should he first go see Inosuke or Zenitsu...maybe they wouldn't let him see Inosuke at the moment and...Zenitsu was also probably feeling really bad about last night.

Zenitsu it was...he'd go just as soon as the room stopped spinning.

Meanwhile, despite possibly being kicked out of the Corps (among other things) Inosuke looked as if the situation was the complete opposite. In his mind, everything was a complete success. He was currently brushing his boar mask with a hairbrush with a faint smile on his face. (He found it funny...people seriously brushed their own hair...with boar hair?) Sure he got yelled at by almost everyone for a few hours, but who cares! He did what he had to do, what any good boss would have done; take care of the weakest member of the pack. The old man had told him stories of wolves...before they had gone extinct, how the leader of the pack would always take care of the other members, no matter what. He wasn't exactly sure what happened last night with stupid Bemsemzu but he knew that if he hadn't stepped in and taken charge, then both Gomtanu and Xenidu would be dead. Camabo and Vemiado owed him a fight after this was over, and a good one at that.

He felt someone else in the room so he looked up to see the no-talk girl in the room with him, straight faced and staring directly at him. She silently approached him and was staring intently at his chest, then down at his mask. He could tell not only from the training but from what he saw at Final Selection that this girl was strong.

"Hey you," he said standing up from the bed and pointing to her, "no-talk-dead-eye girl! I know you're strong! You should fight me to see who's strongest!" Instead of saying anything to him, she kept staring at his open night shirt.

"Oi! You hear me?! Fight me," he said again as he tried again to get her attention, waving his arms around. This time, her eyes followed his arms, in quiet observation. He was getting frustrated in her lack of response.

"It doesn't fit," Kanao quietly said. Inosuke went quiet.

"Huh?"

"Your shirt," she quietly said, "it doesn't fit." Inosuke paused for a moment.

"What does that have anything to do about our fight," he asked annoyed.

"The sleeves are slightly too short," she said more to herself, "and if you buttoned up the shirt, it would be tight against your chest. It's too small for you," then she looked down, "but your bottoms are the right size."

"Stop talking about stupid stuff and FIGHT ME," he yelled out, putting on his mask and charged at her. He always hated being ignored, especially when he knew perfectly well that they could hear him just fine. However he was surprised when he didn't collide with her as he expected to, instead ran into the wall, hurting his shoulder in the process. How did she do that?! It wasn't like she had room like in the training area to jump and run around like usual. He turned back to where she had been, saw that she wasn't there any more, then noticed that she was on the other side of the bed...holding his mask looking down into it.

"OI," he called out pointing towards her, "that's MINE!" He marched up towards her as she continued her inspection of his mask, quietly assessing the inner lining of it.

"There aren't any eye holes in the mask," she stated; just as soon as she finished saying that the mask was snatched from her hands but she continued to stare into the now empty space, "how are you able to fight while wearing it?"

"I feel my way," he said as he childishly hid the mask behind him, thinking she wanted the mask for herself, then pointing to himself he seemed to puff out a bit, "I'm just that awesome!" She didn't respond to that, just blankly stared back at him. He wasn't going to let that stop him from fighting her! He grabbed the nearby nightstand and yanked it over towards her, letting everything that was on top of it go flying onto the ground, including what looked like an expensive electric lamp.

"Let's arm wrestle," he said as he placed the nightstand down and put his arm down on it. Kanao looked down at his awaiting hand as he eagerly anticipated her reply. She thought he almost had a child-like glee when it came to fighting, like it was cathartic for him or something similar. But it was wild, unbalanced...the complete opposite of what she knew.

"If I do," she said quietly, making his fingers wiggle in anticipation, "will you answer my questions?"

"Yeah, yeah," he quickly said rolling his eyes, "come on," he said eagerly wanting to grab her hand, "let's go, let's go!" She grabbed the only empty chair in the corner of the room, sat in it and extended her hand. It was immediately grabbed by Inosuke who seemed extremely pleased with this outcome.

"Okay," he said with a smirk, "when I say 'go' we try to pin the others' arm, right? Ya got it?" She nodded in agreement.

"Alright," he said as his fingers lightly danced over her hand, "ready, set—"

"Why did you deem it necessary in order to inflict that kind of damage onto Kamado?" Inosuke paused, it took him a second to even process what was even said to him.

"...What?"

"Why did you attack Tanjiro?" Inosuke rolled his eyes.

"I already said," he sighed, "he challenged my spot...now-GO—" and instantly he pulled on her arm, trying to pin it down. She was quickly put in a disadvantage state, but was able to stop his advancement much to his surprise. She wasn't sure if he was doing it wrong or if she was just more advanced than he was but he was starting to struggle with her arm. She even contemplated on letting him win...but she needed more information.

"What do you mean by 'challenge'," she asked casually, "what does that mean exactly?" Inosuke scrunched up his face and tried to move her arm, but it was steadfast... awesome, but annoying at the same time. He looked around the nightstand, trying to think of something.

"It...just means just that, stupid," he said still trying to move her arm.

"So there wasn't any good reason then," she asked.

"Yes there was," he said straining against her, making some headway.

"Of course there was," she said flatly, "it was the only thing you could do, covering something important like that up." Inosuke instantly stopped pulling on her arm and glared at her, pointing at her face.

"No. I didn't say that," he said, "I don't know what you're saying, stupid dead-eye girl." Kanao quietly scoffed and slightly smirked.

"No I suppose not," and with that, her arm went slack and Inosuke instantly pinned her arm. He stared down at the pinned arm blankly then glared at it.

"OI! You did that on purpose," he yelled as she let go of his hand and stood back up, "I want a re-match! Do it right this time!" However she didn't answer him and started to walk out of the room.

"OI! Don't ignore me! I wanna—" but the door closed on him and he was left fuming and stomping around in the room as she walked down the hallway. As she walked down, she contemplated what she learned: it turned out that Inosuke Hashibira was not as asinine as everyone believed him to be. There was this wild childish nature to his behavior, but behind all his bravado was someone that was deceptively clever. He did manage to fool everyone else after all...well...almost everyone...

The only question now was...should she tell Shinobu or not? She stopped in the hallway and pulled out her coin and flipped it.

His eyes were burning from all the crying that he'd done all day, but that seemed inconsequential to what Tanjiro must be feeling right now...if he was even alive. He'd always managed to somehow, somehow screw up any form of friendships he'd manage to cobble together but this time he'd royally mucked it up. What even made it more painful was this was the longest one he'd manage to have...2 months. What a record. It wouldn't be so bad if it was one of the 'normal' reasons why; the ones he was use to experiencing. No...it had to be something like this.

God he hated himself so much.

He was aware of someone stumbling down the hallway; it was so quiet other than his own gross wet sounding noises that filled the room. (Ugh, no wonder nobody wanted to hang around him.) Whoever it was tried to open the door, but it was locked...and apparently they didn't have a key with them. He listened as they walked away from the door; then a few minutes returned and fumbled with the keyhole. Who was this? Normally he could tell by just their sounds alone, but whoever this was it sounded off. When the door finally opened and he saw who it was he just wanted to curl up and fade away. Tanjiro didn't say anything as he found his way to the end of the bed, perhaps he felt just as awkward. It was evident that he wasn't feeling well; there was a sickly gray pallor tinge to his skin that looked tacky to the touch. That didn't stop the smile, even if it was smaller and less enthusiastic than usual, that was still ever present on his face and eyes.

"Hey," Tanjiro said as he practically fell onto the bed, "how're you doing?" Even his voice sounded softer and shaky. Zenitsu rolled away from him; didn't feel like he deserved to even look at him. He should have half expected for Tanjiro to do something but he still slightly jumped when he felt his hand touch his shoulder.

"Look," Tanjiro said, "whatever happened last night, I'm sure—"

"Stop. Just...stop acting like everything is fine Tanjiro," Zenitsu said, his own voice sounded crackled and raw, "we both know that you almost died last night. Hell you look like walking death right now," he said taking a quick glance over his shoulder, "so just...please, stop." Nothing was said for a moment, making the air uncomfortable. There were times Zenitsu could hear Tanjiro attempt to say something, then deciding not to say it, perhaps rethinking on what or how to say it.

"Please," Zenitsu finally said quietly, "leave." He closed his eyes and gripped the sheets of the bed, hoping that Tanjiro would for once in his life listen to him. A selfish part of him really didn't want him to go away, but Tanjiro was in danger...always had been. He felt the bed shift and the door open slowly. There was a pause before the door closed again.

"I'll come back later then when," Tanjiro paused seemingly to think of the right thing to say, "when you're ready to talk then. I just want you to know that I'm not upset with you...that's all," with that he quietly left the room.

"Why can't you have a normal reaction to something," mumbled Zenitsu, "if he got hit by a car, he'd apologize for getting blood on it." Whatever. This...this was for the best. He'd never thought he'd be the one cutting ties with someone. It was twice as painful as usual. Some time past before he heard something else in the hallway. Eventually, the small group made their way into his room.

'Great, now what,' he thought as he turned around and as he did he paused and...didn't quite know what to think. His brain kinda shut down, due to stress or shock, who knows but surprisingly he didn't overly react to the visitors. It was Ubuyashiki, who was standing along side two of those creepy kids with their unblinking gazes. One he definitely recognized, the black haired girl from Final Selection...just as creepy now as then. He found himself sitting up and trying to straiten his hair for Ubuyashiki for some reason, it wasn't like the man could see him.

"I hope I'm not visiting you at a bad time," Ubuyashiki said in a soft voice. He sounded tired but not put out, like coming here was a chore.

"No? Not really," mumbled Zenitsu as he looked a the two children as they looked at him with unflinching non judgemental gazes, "well, yes maybe? I don't really know." Ubuyashiki hummed at his words.

"I mean, you must know about it," Zenitsu said as he twiddled his thumbs and looked down and away.

"Know about what," Ubuyashiki asked. Zenitsu looked up and listened; he really didn't know what he was talking about.

"Is there something you would like to discuss," asked Ubuyashiki.

"It'll only make you regret helping me," mumbled Zenitsu. He heard a low gentle chuckle; looked up in time to see as Ubuyashiki make his way to the bed as the children guided his way toward it.

"Well," he said as he sat down on it, "we won't know that until you tell me what it is," he turned his head and 'looked' where he believed Zenitsu was, "why not start from the beginning?"

So, he did. He started telling him everything, from his time at the Butterfly Mansion with Shinobu and the previous night. He even started talking about things that weren't even remotely related to the topic at hand; even his life before ever meeting Jigoro, everything just spilled out. It just came out so naturally. It felt...nice. It was the first time someone was actually listening to him talk about his life without rolling their eyes or any judgmental undertones. The only time he felt slightly anxious was when he looked at the creepy kids, so he just kept looking down or over at Ubuyashiki and made eye contact with his milky lavender eyes. Eventually, he ran out of things to talk about...a first for him. He'd talked for so long his throat hurt.

"It seems you've had a very difficult life," Ubuyashiki said, but it wasn't sarcastic like when he'd heard it coming from other people. He'd meant what he had said.

"No more than other people," Zenitsu mumbled, now kinda embarrassed that he had broken off onto such a long tangent, "some have had it worse than me, I know."

"Even so," Ubuyashiki said, "that doesn't diminish yours. Now," he said, his tone slightly changing, "about what happened..." Zenitsu looked down and at his hands, then rubbed one of his eyes with the palm of his hands in irritation.

"I'm fully prepared to take the consequences. I mean, I have regrets...lots of them but," he said as he started to press harder into his eye.

"And what do you believe those consequences should be," Ubuyashiki asked. Now Zenitsu was visibly fidgeting and fumbling with his hands.

"I...suppose what's standard," he asked raising his eyebrow at him, "but..." his gaze lowered back down to his knees and his voice became quiet.

"But what?"

"I don't want to die," he found himself whispering.

"Nobody wants to die," Ubuyashiki said, "but it's an inevitability, no matter how we struggle against it," Ubuyashiki turned away from him and seemed to be looking at something only he could 'see' and what he saw wasn't very nice, "no matter how much we...I don't like to be reminded of it, I'm constantly surrounded by death every day."

"What do you mean," Zenitsu asked. Ubuyashiki smiled sadly, now it seemed his turn to talk about what troubled him.

"Every day," he said, "I receive reports of how many people have been killed in villages from demon attacks; word of how many slayers who have died for my cause," every word seemed to add weight to him, "and every day I draw closer and closer to my own death; knowing that I have passed on my burden onto my son, and he his own children...and so on until it is finished."

"Your son?" Ubuyashiki gestured towards one of the children and Zenitsu followed the invisible line towards the dark-headed child.

"My son Kiriya will inherent not only the position of the Demon Corps leadership after my passing," he said sadly, "but also the family burden."

"She's a he? Why is he dressed like a girl with makeup," it seemed that Zenitsu was fixated on this particular subject, "That's weird," it was all Zenitsu could think about, missing the entire point, "why did you raise him like that?" There was a slight pause, and Ubuyashiki chuckled once.

"Like myself," he said, "Kiriya was born weak and frail, so—"

"Not really a good enough excuse," mumbled Zenitsu, but loud enough that it was heard; he immediately regretted his actions but Ubuyashiki simply smiled and continued on.

"Kiriya will be affected with the same condition as I am," he said sadly, "and will not live past the age of 30. None of my children will."

"Wait, does that mean..." Zenitsu was finally putting two and two together.

"Yes," Ubuyashiki said as he turned his head back towards him, "my time is drawing near. I am not sure exactly how much longer but it...is morbidly comforting knowing exactly how long you have to live. I would have liked...to have seven additional years but it has been exceedingly stressful as of late," he turned his face towards the ceiling, "I too have regrets. I've had to raise my children without a childhood, much like my father with myself...I see so many people have that taken away from them...and not knowing exactly what they've lost," he looked back over at him, "I regret so, so much. I don't particularly want to add you to that list," he said standing back up. He raised his arms out and instantly his two children came to his side to help guide him along. Zenitsu gave a quick glance over at Kiriya thinking he'd be mad at him for saying what he had said, but again there were no judgmental noises coming from any of them...it was really weird.

"I don't believe anything will come from this incident, however," he said as he started walking out of the room, "I will speak with Shinobu about this, and of other topics this afternoon." With that and before he could even wish him a good afternoon, Ubuyashiki and his children left the room, making him realize why everyone in the Demon Corps respected him so much.

Penicillin wasn't discovered until 1928. It might've helped, but who knows.

Also, I was going to include two additional scenes in this chapter...but I'm pushing them back because it's so damn late...until next time on Dragon Ball Z

...wait...