As Nezuko was traveling to take her Final Selection, Shinobu was busy writing down notes in a medical report at the Butterfly Estate when she heard a knock at her door. "Who is it?"
"It's me," Mitsuri replied. "Can I come in, Shinobu-chan?"
"Yeah," she replied.
As Mitsuri opened the door, she told her, "I, uh… I missed my period, Shinobu-chan."
Those words immediately caused her to turn around and face her. "Wait, what?!"
"Yeah," she replied, giving an awkward smile. "Eh… I haven't told Obanai yet. I was supposed to get it, and yet I've gotten nothing. I'm telling him as soon as he comes back from a mission tonight."
Shinobu paused for a few seconds before asking her, "Have you and him been having unprotected sex?"
Mitsuri blushed as she replied, "Yes. We haven't used condoms once, and we've kept up a pretty consistent schedule of… those activities almost daily. We had plans to do it when he got back today."
"Have you urinated more often?"
"Come to think of it," Mitsuri pondered in response. "I think I have. That's another sign, right?"
"Mitsuri-chan," Shinobu then told her as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "I have no doubt in my mind that you're pregnant."
"Pregnant…" Mitsuri's eyes lit up with life at hearing those words. "Pregnant…" She then sat down in a nearby chair in the office. "Holy shit… I'm gonna have a child… Me and Obanai are going to actually have a child." She could not help but break out into a wide smile and laugh. "My God…"
Shinobu also smiled. "I'm glad you're happy."
Beneath her smile, however, Mitsuri could tell something was off. Once she had calmed herself down, she resolved to bring it up. "I… Well, before all that, I was gonna come in here and ask you about something else."
"Oh? What is it?"
"It's about Tomioka-san."
Giyu's last name sent shivers down Shinobu's spine. "T- Tomioka?"
"Yeah," Mitsuri nodded. "You haven't talked to him in a month. You haven't even gone on any missions with him recently. What's going on, Shinobu-chan? This is so unlike you." Shinobu turned away from her and did not answer her question. "Shinobu… Come on."
"Well," Shinobu began. "There's…"
"There's what?"
"Oh for fuck's sake." She then took a deep breath. "I kissed him a month ago," Shinobu confessed. "And I haven't spoken to him since. I don't know why I did. I just felt this urge to do it."
Mitsuri was surprised. "You… kissed him?"
Shinobu continued with, "I didn't even ask beforehand. I was just cutting his hair one second, and then in the next, our lips met."
"Shinobu-chan, it sounds like there's some underlying feelings in that action." She then stood up from her chair. "I've had a feeling for a long time that you felt differently about Tomioka-san than you let us all in on."
Shinobu sighed. "Why would anyone think of me that way? Sure, I may have my own feelings, but I established long ago to myself that I was the runt of the family, the one no man would want."
Silence filled the room as Mitsuri took in her words, shocked by how extreme Shinobu had tore herself down despite her own opinions on her looks. "You… You really think that way?"
"Of course I do," Shinobu confirmed with a nod and a laugh. "When your sister was Kocho fucking Kanae, anyone with a body as small as mine would feel the same way. Next to her, I felt so small, and seeing her and Shinazugawa-san become married only confirmed what I already suspected: I was the afterthought of the two sisters, the one that everyone just sort of acknowledged was there." She then closed her eyes and looked down at the floor. "And then the better half of us died."
"Shinobu-chan, no…" Both sadness and anger were building up inside Mitsuri.
"I've long since resigned myself to the fact that I'm not good-looking or a candidate for marriage," Shinobu added as she continued to put herself down. "I hate myself and the body I was born in, Mitsuri-chan. Every day, I wish the roles had been reversed. I wish I had died instead of my sister. I've longed to die in combat one day, and hopefully I can die fighting the demon that killed her. Every day, every God damn day, wish I was dead!"
Mitsuri was horrified by her words. "No… Shinobu, no! You can't think like that! You can't just ignore Tomioka-san after doing that with him, and you can't just throw your life away! What the fuck?!"
Shinobu yelled back, "You cannot tell me what I can and can't do!"
"Don't you realize I fucking hated myself, too?!" Mitsuri's statement caused Shinobu to pause. "Listen to me! I wasn't normal! I never was, and I hated myself for it! I got told over and over again that I was too masculine for being physically strong, and I tried to change myself in horrifying ways! I dyed my hair black and tried going without eating anything for days on end!" By now, she had begun to cry. "I tried so hard, so God damn hard, and in the end, it still wasn't good enough! I still got rejected by suitors! I still was called an ugly fucking ogre of a woman, and that stung so much! So fucking much!" She then wiped away her tears. "Then I found someone who actually gave a fuck about me and liked me for who I was, and now, we have a future together!"
"I have no future! My future is six feet in the motherfucking ground!"
"How can you say that?! You have two sisters who need you! I need you! Tomioka-san needs you!" She then sunk to the floor in despair. "Please, Shinobu-chan… I want you to be part of my child's life. You're my best friend. Please, stop tearing yourself down like this!"
Shinobu coldly began to walk out of the room. "I'll let you sit here and think to yourself." She then closed the door. "I'm done with this conversation, Mitsuri."
Mitsuri, angered by her reaction, yelled at her through the door, "If you're just gonna abandon me like that, then fuck you! We're through! I never want to speak to you again, Kocho!" She continued to cry as Shinobu walked away to try to ignore her. "How… How could someone just abandon their own siblings and loved ones like that?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! I wish you could see how you hurt others! Maybe then you'd get it through your thick skull that people actually give a fuck about you! Maybe you'd realize how sad people would be if you fucking died!"
Shinobu by now was also crying, her friendship with Mitsuri officially over. She now had nobody but herself. "Damn it," she muttered to herself as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket as well as a few matches. "Fucking thing sucks." As she struck the match on the side of the wall and then lit a cigarette on her lips, she thought to herself, "I am alone. All alone. Nobody is there for me. Fuck my life. Fuck my life so much." After taking a puff and blowing some smoke, she said to herself, "Well, that ends that."
Meanwhile, Aoi and Kanao, who had both overheard the argument from another room without either of them knowing, were both horrified. Aoi was crying into Kanao's shoulder, while Kanao was sweating profusely and deeply worried. "Why," Aoi told her. "Why did Shinobu-oneechan say that?" She had called her by an honorific that she had not used in years, usually calling her 'Shinobu-sama.' As she wiped away her tears, she continued with, "I don't want my sister to die, Kanao. Please, if she won't take care of herself, do it for her."
"I…," Kanao tried to reply. "I… Aoi…" She was truly at a loss for words, and could not express the variety of emotions she was feeling in response to Shinobu's depression and Aoi's request.
"Please," Aoi quietly begged her. "I don't want her to kill herself in battle."
"Okay," she replied, still unsure of her answer but giving her one anyway. "Okay."
…
Meanwhile, Nezuko had arrived at Mount Fujikasane, and was among 13 other people who had come to take the Final Selection. She had managed to walk along the path to the mountain entrance fine despite the numerous trees of wisteria surrounding her. The gap that made up the only entrance into the mountain was heavily guarded and under 24/7 supervision by slayers to make sure captured demons did not try to walk through it to escape. As she looked around at the group, she noticed that many of them looked tired and disheveled, indicating they had come a long way to come here.
Then, Kyojuro and Tengen appeared before everyone, coming out from behind the trees and presenting themselves to the crowd. "Welcome," Kyojuro gleefully told the group. "You have all travelled very far to come to Mount Fujikasane. This, however, will be your ultimate test! For those who do not yet know of me, my name is Rengoku Kyojuro. I am the Flame Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps, making me one of the top slayers in the organization. I use the Breath of Flames."
"And I'm Uzui Tengen," Tengen replied with a wave. "The Sound Pillar. I use the Breath of Sound. Beyond this wisteria is a field of demons that the corps has captured alive periodically over the years and released onto this mountain. Here, you will have to survive for a week. If you do, you pass, and you officially join our ranks."
"Slaying demons is an inherently dangerous job," Kyojuro further explained. "But that does not mean you cannot take measures to protect yourself! Use common sense, work together with your fellow participants, and never leave a comrade behind! While we cannot completely guarantee your safety, we can assure you that your training will not let you down. We shall let not even one ghost come back and say that their training let them down!"
"With that said," Tengen concluded. "You guys have five minutes to start heading in. Good luck to all of you."
Nezuko thought to herself as the two of them bowed, "That's different. My brother said that two of the Oyakata-sama's kids usually did the intro. Maybe they were busy…" Then, a young man her age looked over to her and suddenly looked away, frightened by her. "Huh? What's wrong?" The young man did not answer initially. "Are you okay?"
"Aren't you…" The young man, who bore a scar on his face, then turned around to face Nezuko. "You… You aren't…"
Nezuko immediately realized what he was picking up on. "You picked it up, huh?" She immediately felt self-conscious, taking a deep sigh. "No, I'm not human."
Then, a girl in the crowd raised her hand and asked, "Rengoku-san?"
"Yes?"
"I just noticed something off about one of our trainees," she replied. "She… She looks like a demon."
Those words immediately caused the entire group to start whispering to each other. Nezuko said to herself in annoyance, "Fucking… Why now?"
"Well," Kyojuro answered. "I might as well address it. Yes, we have a demon among our ranks. She… Is very different. When you get into the corps, you will find that the war between humans and demons goes deeper than even the two of us thought possible. All I can tell you is that she will not bring harm to you. She may be a demon, but she is here to fight her own kind on behalf of us."
"You have our word," Tengen added. "Trust me, if she did do anything bad, we'd take care of it. Thankfully, we know her enough to know she wouldn't do anything bad." Nezuko smiled, slightly embarrassed they brought her up, but glad they defended her. "Kamado Nezuko lost her whole family to Muzan, and was turned into a demon against her will. She has partially conquered the son and has already fought against other demons on an unofficial level. You will not attack her as if she was an enemy, and that's final."
"With that out of the way," Kyojuro concluded. "Begin!"
The girl who asked the question, who bore dark violet hair, readied her sword and thought to herself, "I'll be the judge if this demon won't harm us. What the Hell do those two know anyway? They look well-enough off to have never known what it was like to lose everything to demons!"
Nezuko meanwhile thought to herself, "I'm gonna not only survive these next seven days, but also kick ass while doing so! I'll prove my worth in combat if people don't think I have any!"
…
Inside the forest of Mount Fujikasane, Nezuko had walked toward the east with the help of a compass for about an hour and had not yet encountered any demons as she slowly traveled up the mountain. She was all alone, and as time ticked by, she grew more and more tense, expecting an attack at every turn. She said to herself with a sigh, "This is getting fucking ridiculous. I should have ran into a demon by now."
"And that's my cue to attack," then shouted a voice from above before a demon with elongated legs and feet jumped from a tree and came down on her. Nezuko quickly deflected his attack with her sword and pushed him to the ground nearby. "I've been watching you for a good ten minutes!"
"Thanks for the fact," Nezuko replied as she readied herself to attack.
"Wait a minute," the demon questioned as he became confused. "Aren't you a demon yourself? What the Hell are you doing?!"
"I'm not on your side," Nezuko yelled. "I'm on the side of justice and peace!"
"I can't even eat you," the demon said in disappointment. "What a shame, huh? What a God damn shame. I can at least get some combat experience, though!" He then charged at her.
"Breath of Water," Nezuko then called out as she charged at him. "First Form: Water Surface Slash!" She made a single, powerful slash towards the demon, quickly decapitating it with a slice of the neck and killing it. "That takes care of you…" As the demon's body and head began to disintegrate, she sneezed several times in a row and said to herself, "Fucking shit, that damn wisteria from earlier must have made me sick." She also thought to herself, "If my brother heard me say any of that, he'd be horrified. I don't think he's ready to hear his little sister say such language yet." As she wiped her nose, she walked away and continued on her journey eastward.
Another participant noticed her and ran over to her. This participant was the same young man who had been afraid of her earlier. "Hey, Kamado-san!"
"Huh?"
"Are you heading to the East too?"
"Yeah," Nezuko replied with a smile. "The sunlight will reach that area first. My brother told me about it."
"Seems odd you'd want that," the young man replied. "Won't you burn in the sun?"
"Not anymore," Nezuko replied. "But I won't be able to heal myself if I get hurt or use any of my Blood Demon Art attacks."
"Oh," the young man replied, curious about her. "I'm kinda confused."
"I still am too," she jokingly added. "I barely heard about places outside of Japan before all this. Now they're telling me the war on Kibutsuji and his demons has been going on for centuries beyond Japan."
