Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer : Kimetsu no Yaiba or any of its characters/story.

XVII: Recovery

While she did manage to crack open her eyelids, it was a very difficult process.

Everything around her was blurry and unrecognizable, with a black spots lining her vision. An intense ringing filled her ears.. Her throat felt like it hadn't had water in weeks. Of course, not to mention that her entire body was in quite a lot of pain.

Well, at least she was alive.

A shape, black and purple, was overtop of her. It took a minute to process, but she figured out that it must be Shinobu. The sky seemed lighter, too. Or was that a ceiling?

Focusing most of her consciousness into her sight and trying to ignore her pain, things began clearing up. She appeared to be in a bed, the soft linen sheets comforting her. White walls, white tile ground. Minimal decoration, although there were many charts and what appeared to be files. Medical ones. So she was in a hospital? I mean, that makes perfect sense considering my injury.

"Kanao? Are you awake?"

The raven-haired girl tried to speak, but all that came out was a cough. Trying to sit up, she was pushed back down by her sister. A small smile came across Shinobu's face. "Don't try to sit up until you've recovered more. Go back to sleep."

Kanao's eyes asked her question. How long was I out?

"It was nighttime when you were injured, and it's about midday now." Leave it to her sister to have her do the math. She did feel tired though, even though she was passed out for so long.

Thoughts of her companions plagued her mind, but she managed to fall back asleep anyway.

.

This time she woke up feeling a bit better, and more conscious than the slightly delirious state she was in before. A pang of worry hit her as she thought about what might have happened in between the time that she was out and the time that she woke up.

Were Rui and all the other members of the Aranea family dead? How many casualties? What about Tanjiro, Rose, Zenitsu, and Inosuke? Were they okay too?

She managed to sit up, although it took some effort. Her sister was no longer in the chair that was placed next to her bed. The lights were off in her room, but through the crack of the room's door she could see that the hallway light was on. It must be the middle of the night.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Kanao set her gaze on the window of her room, which was casting a pale light across her form. Staring out at the stars, she felt an odd sense of calm. Sure, her abdomen hurt quite a bit. But sitting in complete silence felt peaceful after so much violence and bloodshed.

She didn't know how much time passed, but eventually the door to her room opened. Kanao's lips parted in a silent gasp, but then she almost smiled. Nezuko gently closed the door behind her, coming to sit on an extra chair that was against the wall.

"I came to check up on you, this is the first time I've been in with you awake though." The girl's dark pink eyes shone with relief. "How are you feeling?"

Kanao's hand went to where her pocket would usually be, but since she was in a hospital gown, which had no pockets, she didn't have her coin. Scanning around for it (much to Nezuko's confusion), she sees a glint of light on the bedside table. Making a mental note to thank Shinobu (who would have placed it there, since she knows that Kanao needs the coin), she flips the coin, checks the side, and responds.

"I'm doing fine. What happened while I was out though?" She felt anxious about, well, everything.

"It's a bit of a long story. First, since you look very nervous, my brother and all your friends are doing fine." Nezuko smiled warmly, and Kanao felt a sense of relief wash over her. She didn't know just how worried she was until someone pointed it out.

"After you were shot,"

TTTTT

/-/ About 24 hours ago…

She could hear the shouts of her classmates, before a loud BANG echoed out around her. She felt numbness, then intense pain, then nothing as her world faded to a cruel white.

.

Nezuko's eyes widened as she watched Kanao fall to the ground in front of Rui, who stepped on her still form while smirking madly the whole time.

Nobody knew if Kanao was dead or alive.

She didn't even know the girl for a long time, all she really knew was that she was one of Tanjiro's friends. Still, seeing her collapse like a ragdoll to the ground made a cold hand close over her heart. Then she felt anger towards Rui. But nothing could really compare to how her brother looked when she turned her head to check if he was okay.

Tanjiro was glaring at Rui with what looked like death itself. He already had a loaded gun out, along with one of his knives. It hurt Nezuko a little bit to see him so angry, but he was correct to feel like that. Plus, her own rage blocked out most of her other emotions, so she didn't think much on his.

It was completely quiet for about a second, then everything happened at once.

Shouting filled the garden. She could recognize Shinobu's voice among some of the voices. Tanjiro burst forward, yelling out to Rui. The silver-haired boy's smirk changed to a sneer as he dodged the bullets that flew towards him. After Rui got out of the way, Giyuu swooped in from where he was standing by, and with a gentleness Nezuko had never seen before, picked up the limp Kanao and brought her out of imminent danger, and where she could be treated by the doctors that were brought on the mission.

Once she ensured that Kanao was being taken care of, Nezuko turned her gaze back to Tanjiro and Rui's fight. The two were actually on fairly even terms, probably thanks to her brother's rage combined with Rui's exhaustion. However, there needed to be one more player in the game, just to ensure victory.

Cocking her gun and drawing a knife, Nezuko dashed into action.

TTTTT

"It was a long fight. Supposedly Tanjiro managed to do techniques that our father had come up with, but I couldn't remember much other than the generic violence." She looked down sadly. "While I don't like fighting much, and would rather solve something diplomatically, I sometimes just fall into a rage. I guess that's what most people do though."

Kanao's mind was on what Nezuko had told her. She wondered why Tanjiro apparently looked so angry when she passed out. Maybe he thought she was dead. There's no way he would actually care that much about her though.

"How could I not? You're my friend, Kanao. What, you didn't think that after all this time, I wouldn't care about you at all?"

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind, she nodded at Nezuko to continue the story.

TTTTT

After some time, too much time had passed, the fight ended.

It turned out that Rui had a plan for taking the siblings down. He had managed to snare Nezuko in a rope without her noticing, and by the time she did notice it was too late. Nobody could really help her, since Shinobu and Giyuu were both transporting Kanao to a medical site, the reinforcements somehow hadn't arrived yet, and Tanjiro was busy fighting Rui.

Before too long, she watched as her brother collapsed to a knee. The silver-haired boy came in for the final blow, but was counterattacked and cut down by Giyuu, who apparently never left (she wasn't aware until later, but he made it look like he was going with Shinobu so that Rui would believe he was gone and couldn't help the siblings).

With Rui dead, marking the last of the family to fall, the mansion was finally deemed safe. The sirens of ambulances were growing louder by the moment. Giyuu had also cut Nezuko free, the girl immediately running towards Tanjiro to check if he was alright.

Before he passed out, he had asked if Kanao was okay.

TTTTT

"That's just my side of it though. I'd ask others too, so you can try and get some different views as to what happened." Nezuko's eyes fell onto Kanao's bandages, which were a bit pink in places but not the terrifying red that could be seen within the first few hours the Demon Slayer was in the hospital.

A small ping as the coin was once again flipped. "Can you… help me walk?" Kanao was hesitant about what she wanted to ask.

"Of course. Where to, though? It's the middle of the night." Nezuko seemed confused, rightfully so.

"Um- I wanted to check on-"

"Oh, I see what this is about…" Pink eyes shone sadistically. "You want to see my brother, don't you?"

Kanao, even more hesitantly, nodded slowly. Scared of what was to come. She was getting serious Rose vibes from her, which couldn't mean anything good.

"Okay. I'll take you there. I'm pretty sure he's sleeping though."

With Nezuko's help, Kanao stood and made her way to the door. Walking down the hallway was peacefully quiet, at least until Nezuko made a remark.

"You know, I think you would make a nice sister-in-law. How about you and Tanjiro hurry up and get married?"

Kanao was beet red for the rest of the walk, but still ended up visiting the sleeping Tanjiro. Just to calm her nerves. Yes, that's definitely it.

TTTTT

Whoops. Forgot to update yesterday. Although I was pretty busy too, so I guess I'm fine?

Not much to say about this one. Just a casual hospital thing, along with a very short version of the rest of the Rui fight. I know that it's kind of unsatisfying, but I couldn't figure out what else to do. I will, one day soon, come back and update this chapter so that the fight could be better and more detailed.

See you next week, unless I'm a jerk and don't update ;)