Summary: I hope this chapter isn't too confusing. Heavy angst, followed by heavy fluff, followed by more stuff that isn't fluff.

Chapter Text

He blinked… It was light out, it had been dark before, he was staring up at a ceiling, and he felt bedding on his back… this wasn't right! He was on a ship! He was fighting that demon! He was falling into the water!

Muichiro bolted upright in his bed… a hospital? Did I… did I pass out?... did we defeat Stuhac? W-where am I?...

He looked around frantically, he didn't remember anything that happened to him after he was thrown over the side of the ship, he felt alive, and began to recognize the place he was in the Butterly mansion!... but.. Something was wrong, something was off.

"S- Sanemi? Tomioka-San?... Yushiro-San?..." he called out, "Kanzaki-San? Sumi-Chan? Kiyo-Chan?... is anyone here?" Something was definitely off! It wasn't just that he couldn't hear anything, it felt as though… nothing outside of that room existed, almost as though he were in a dream, but everything… felt so real.

Just then someone came through the door, a He was wearing a black and green mist-patterned Kimono, with a gold and black mist-patterned Haori, his long black hair was pinned in a bun like someone of noble birth. Other than that, albeit slightly taller, he looked exactly like Muichiro, the sole difference was the expression in the eyes, it was a pair of eyes Muichiro knew very well, his jaw dropped…

"Y… y..." the nobly-dressed boy turned to him. "YUI-NII!" he cried out, and flung himself out of bed, he wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face into the crook of his shouldier.

"But… y-y-y-you!... you were dead!" he managed to babble out through sobs!

" Control yourself! Control yourself damnit! This is an illusion! Snap out of it! "

Yuichiro sighed as he gently pushed his crying brother off of him, he pulled from beneath his robes what remained of his left arm; a stump that had healed many years ago…

Muichiro's eyes went wide. "T-then… t-that means…"

It really was his brother! Yuichiro hadn't died that night! He had lost an arm but besides that, he was looking well! He was well dressed, well-groomed, he looked like royalty! A new wave of tears overcame the younger twin as he was overcome with relief.

"It really is you! Nii-san!" He flung himself back onto his brother, wrapped his arms tightly around his neck, and bawled like a baby into his Haori.

"Nii-san! Nii-san!" Was all he managed to babble out, nothing else mattered In This moment, his beloved brother whom he had spent so long believing to be dead; was actually alive…

"Nii-san?"

Muochiro's eyes shot open again, and for a moment he stopped crying… there was something about the way his older brother repeated that title back to him… almost derisive, he pulled away from Yuichiro to get a better look at him… those cold eyes… those cold judgemental eyes.

"Who are you calling 'Nii-san'?" He spat.

Before Muichiro could respond he felt a blow across his cheek which knocked him backward onto the floor, he now trembled and shock, looking up at his twin, the expression on Yuichiro's face was not the angry scowl he had come to miss, he was looking down at him with disgust! He had never seen this expression on his brother's face before, certainly not directed at him.

"Y… Yui-nii?..."

"Don't 'Yui-nii' me you little brat!"

Muichiro screamed as his twin pounced in him, the fingers on his hand closed around his neck! He couldn't breath! He stared up at Yuichiro! His terrified mint eyes meeting Yuichiro's cold-angry stare! He tried to free himself but he was too weak! He felt his arms go limp, and only then did his brother release him.

Yuichiro still pinning his younger brother down under his weight bought his hand into a fist, and then using the stump of his left arm to pin his brother in place, pounded him, hurt him the physical blows were not that hard, it was the fact that it was him.

When he finally got up, Muichiro's face was badly bruised, he tasted blood as the inside of his mouth was cut open against his teeth, and he couldn't see anything in front of him because of how much he was crying.

"Yui… w-what did I do?" He asked desperately.

"You don't remember?" The older twin responded, "you don't remember this!" He shouted holding out his lost arm… "I hated you."

"No…"

"I hated having to babysit you"

"Yui please…"

"Having to cook for you, having to hold Your hand, Having to clean your piss-soaked sheets!"

"Yui I…"

"But look at me now!" Yuichiro declared spreading his arms and expanding his beautiful Haori, "this is what I got to become after leaving the woods! I should have left you the day our parents died, I should have left you there to be eaten by the forest animals"

More needles stung the younger twin's heart, this was not the way he had wanted to remember his brother, this was Yuichiro crueler then he had ever been.

"The Mu in Muichiro..."

"Please Nii-san, please don't say it!"

"Is the in as an inefficient..."

"Please stop." He whimpered as more hot tears stung his eyes, and he felt more needles in his heart.

"...It's the in as in insignificant..."

Muichiro fell at his brother's feet sobbing

" It's the in as in inexcusable! You are always useless! Just a pathetic crybaby it was destined to die the same way as your parents because you would keep being naive no matter how many times I told you!

"Why?... Why is this happening? Why is my brother saying this? Why… why do I feel so horrible? I… I just wanted to be happy, I wanted my friends to be happy, but now how can I?..."

Darkness! He was drowning! He felt the cold sea water submerged him, he woke up just as he unconsciously gasped and let it into his lungs,

and it hurt!

..he was drowning…

and then the pain ended, he had lost consciousness again.

He was back where he had been before, he was on the wooden floor of the hospital wing, his twin stood in front of him again but now…

A sword slashed through the Image of his brother, his eyes changed to the demonic eyes of Solovonov, and he faded into fog, an image of Yuichiro that was never Yuichiro to begin with, a demon just like Stuhac... a Nichirin blade, almost Identical to his own had slashed through it, and standing there holding it, confusingly enough…

"Im sorry you had to see that" Said Yuichiro…

Muichiro blinked… did he just see Yuichiro cut down and turned into fog… by Yuichiro?

Now Yuichiro was wearing the Uniform of a demon slayer, and a Haori that was the same pattern and colors as his old Yukata.;.

"This is probably real confusing for you?" Yuichiro stated.

Muichiro only nodded slowly.

Yuichiro smiled and extended a hand, "c'mon" he said.

Muichiro could not explain why, perhaps it was his childish naivety, or perhaps it was the fact that his wounds were gone, perhaps even the simple fact that this whole scene felt so much more peaceful… he could actually hear the birds chirping outside this time, the world was not confined to what he saw… for whatever reason… he trusted this Yuichiro enough to accept the hand that helped him up… yeah, this Yuichiro was real… he didn't need to see the stump of an arm to verify it, this was his warm older brother, not that monstrosity. He let himself collapse onto his brother, and cry once more.

"Your doing it again Mui? Right after you hugged that imposter-version of me? Boy you really are naive."

Muichiro chuckled as he let more tears soak his brother's clothes, this really was Yuichiro…

"So the you that I saw earlier, that was just an illusion created by the blood demon art?..."

"Yup"

The two brothers were now sitting on the roof of the butterfly mansion, it was a starry night, and the air was cool and pleasant.

"But… It all felt so real… It all felt so..."

"Solovonov's demon fog makes you see your worse nightmares Mui, it was the horrors of your subconscious, I'm actually just a little miffed that you saw a version of me! Im I really that scary!? And why was I dressed so preppy?!"

"But..." Muichiro asked, "Your not… your not still dead are you?"

"Yes Mui, i'm dead, but don't worry, your still alive, and your going back soon, this time I know for sure, you've already been rescued, thats why I'm not a crying mess like I was last time you were here," Yuichiro shuddered "That was embarrassing, you were always the crybaby, not me."

Muichiro couldn't help but giggle when the fake-Yui called him a crybaby, he did so with derision, but this was the same big-brotherly teasing he was so used to, he couldn't help but smile as he sniffed away the last of his tears, He wished he could stay here forever, although Yui would never allow it, he would make him go back, and he knew that he still had to go, he still had his life to live, and his friends to help.].

"To answer whats probably going to be your next question; I look like this now because that's how you would have wanted it, a world where I survived and joined the Demon slaying corps with you, grown up with you, and becoming a Pillar with you, of course, that's also why we are wearing our different-colored Haori's. People would want to be able to tell us apart."

Muichiro laughed, "thats easy Nii-san!" he said, "People can tell you apart because you're the grumpy scary-looking one"

"And your the sickeningly-cute one Mui" Yuichiro shot back.

The two brothers laughed for a moment that really was, the happiest moment Muichiro had felt in a long time, but he still had other things on his mind…

"Yui-nii, can I ask you something?" He said a little more somberly.

"Ask."

"You said that those hallucinations caused by the demon's fog show us what's in our subconscious right? That means that a lot of it is due to what we feared or experienced..."

Yuichiro looked at his younger brother with patient concern, he already knew for a long time what this was about.

"Yui… I know those things were in the back of my mind but… did you ever really feel that way?"

There was a pause, Muichiro was earnestly looking into his brother's eyes, when Yuichiro ripped the bandage off.

"By, 'that way' are you asking if I ever hated you?"

Muichiro winced.

"I'm sorry I made you feel that way" Yuichiro answered in the guiltiest voice Muichiro had ever heard him speak…

"To be honest, I was annoyed with you, I was even angry at you, our parents were dead, and I was left in charge, everything you did, the way you laughed, the way you cried, the fact that you remained so innocent after all you suffered, the way you still ran off into the woods every now and then looking for animals, the way you kept me up at night with the constant irritating questions that you couldn't remember to ask before it was bedtime… you were just like a baby… an annoying baby brother, and yeah, you got on my nerves, but… I never once hated you, you're my brother, and I've always loved you, I love you now, and I will always love you unconditionally."

Looking over at Muichiro and seeing that the tears had started falling again, Yuichiro leaned over and pulled his brother into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry I was so hard on you Mui, I thought I was protecting you, but maybe if I was a better brother to you, you would have been a lot happier."

Muichiro grabbed the back of his brother's clothes as tightly as his hands could, "Its not your fault" he whimpered, as he sunk his head into his brother's Haori, soaking it with his tears once more, it felt so real, even though Yuichiro was dead, he felt so warm, so protective, so real. He didn't want to leave him, though he knew he would eventually have to.

"I wish I could do it over" Yuichiro said tearfully, "I would have told you from the start how special the name our parents gave you was, and how much you meant to me, Instead I just broke you down, I took my frustration out on you, but you have to know that I never hated you, you must know that!"

It is not often two brothers, one in the world of the living and the other in the world of the dead; get to reunite in the middle… Yuichiro and Muichiro knew that, but they would make as much use of this time together as they had, until it was time for the younger one to go back.

"You gotta turn 15 for us Mui, its our birthday in about a week."

Muichiro wiped his eyes one last time, "Then… I'll go back to my friends Nii-san, and I'll try to stay alive for as long as I can, I promise."

Yuichiro nodded.

"But Just tell me… Our parents… and my friends, will they be here when I finally do come here for good."

Yuichiro smiled warmly at his brother. "Everyone." he said.

-ACK!-

There it was again! That awful pain of saltwater in the lungs, but he wasn't underwater anymore, he was puking it out…

Yushiro was holding him across his shoulders as he treaded water, smacking his back and helping him expel the liquid, it was messy, it was embarrassing, his lungs hurt, his throat hurt, but he was starting to feel better, as he coughed and sneezed the last of it out, he tried to take solace in the fact that Yushiro was probably feeling just as awkward and uncomfortable as he was, as the silver-haired demon patted his back.

He didn't realize until after he had gotten his breathing somewhat steady that his fingers had been digging into Yushiro's skin, he tried to move them but they were almost completely numb, gauging the rest of his injuries, Muichiro found that while his body ached all over, dehydration was by far his most serious issue right now, he had spent the whole night losing water, and now he had just gotten rid of a lung's worth of seawater, his chest hurt, his throat hurt, and he couldn't control his hands or fingers, which were becoming less numb, but trembling severely, and as he realized this, he started to feel light-headed and dizzy, he was about to let his head fall onto Yushiro's shoulder when his eye caught something that almost made him jump out of his skin.

A demon! Floating in mid-air!

"Its Okay Tokito!" said Yushiro noticing his alarm, I know who this man is…

Muichiro tried to say something but his throat was too dry to get any of the words out. "This man is Seraffiyah" said Yushiro, "he is the wandering demon king, and he's helping us"

Muichiro now noticed that the sun was out, and it was not affecting this demon at all, not only that, but rain clouds were gathering above him, casting a shadow over the three of them, and then… rain.

Muichiro would have been astonished, one look at this man and he knew that this was his demonic ability! A demon powerful enough to control the weather!

But before he could be astonished, he had to drink!...

The freshwater felt like a soothing scented bath against his salt-dried skin. It tasted like Kocho-San's sweetest medicinal tea on his tongue, after all, he had suffered that night, this was a moment of bliss. Yushiro was taking advantage of the miracle too, letting rain collect into the palm of his free hand repeatedly… the two of them didn't even seem to notice the floating demon, his unreadable expression, and motives until he spoke, but what he said made the mist pillar remember exactly where he was and snap to full attention!

"Solovonov," began Seraffiyah, pointing in the direction of the ship; "will not be under the rain cloud, you'd better listen while you are drinking because I'm only going to tell you how to beat him once."

Yeah, he had their full attention now...