Taishō 5, January 2

Infinity Castle

I once believed that the road of happiness...Kochō Shinobu reflected as she recalled a memory from when she was ten-years-old and her older sister Kanae was thirteen. In it, she was sitting in her father's lap being tickled while Kanae hugged him from behind and their mother sat nearby, smiling at her daughters and her husband...continued forever and ever into the distance. But when it was destroyed, I realized for the first time...

Then the memory changed to one in which her ten-year-old self and thirteen-year-old Kanae were huddled in a corner while the bodies of their parents lay nearby, covered in blood. An oni had broken into their house that night and attacked, their parents dying to protect the sisters.

...that happiness lies atop a thin sheet of glass,the Mushibashira continued to reflect. Then, she recalled how the oni had gone to attack her and Kanae. However, that had been when Himejima Gyōmei arrived, putting himself in between the Kochō sisters and the oni, slicing its head off and then crushing its body with his Nichirin just as we were saved...there are those whose happiness hasn't yet been destroyed. So I wanted to get stronger...and protect them.

The memory changed again, this time to shortly after that fateful night.

That's what we promised each other.

"Let's defeat as many oni as possible. Together,"Kanae had said as the Kochō sisters sat before one another, their pinkies crossed."We won't let anyone else experience what we went through."

Even if we're weak...Shinobu thought to herself as she used Tomioka Giyū's Nichirin-tō to cut through Dōma's neck, sending Jōgen no Ni's head flying as his body fell to the floor...and can't cut off oni's heads...if we defeat one oni, then we can save dozens of people. And if we defeat a Jōgen no Kizuki, then we can save hundreds. It isn't about whether we can or cannot. There are things wehaveto do.

"Are you angry?"The Mushibashira recalled being asked by Kamado Tanjirō back in March on the roof the Butterfly Mansion where she had found him working on his breathing techniques.

Yes, I'm angry, Tanjirō,Shinobu silently replied.I've always been angry. My parents were killed. My older sister was killed. And except for Kanao, all of my Tsuguko were , Shinobu's thought turned to Naho, Aoi, Kiyo and oni hadn't murdered those girls' families, they'd be living happily with them right now. But, now that I've done it...now that I've won...now that I've cut off an oni's head...now that I've avenged Nē-san...I can feel all of that anger beginning to slip away. Maybe...maybe I can be happy...and live the kind of life Nē-san wanted for me...

"Huh, I guess I was wrong..." the Mushibashira said out loud, sliding Giyū's Nichirin-tō into her own sheathe and staring at the body of Jōgen no Ni as it crumbled away into nothing at her feet.

"Kochō...what do you mean by that?" Giyū asked, confused by her sudden statement.

"Hmm?" Shinobu said, looking up at the Mizubashira.

"What were you wrong about?" He asked her.

"I...I thought that I would have to die...in order to defeat Dōma," the Mushibashira admitted.

"..." Giyū's dark-blue eyes widened as he stared at Shinobu with a mixture of shock and disbelief, his grip loosening on the hilt of the Mushibashira's Nichirin-tō and allowing it to fall to the wooden bridge. Then, he walked over to Shinobu, placing his hands on her shoulders as he locked eyes with her . "Kochō...why...why did you think that you would have to die?"

"Well, up until now...I've never been able to cut off an oni's head," Shinobu explained. "I don't have enough arm strength to do so, and that's why I use poison. However, I can only deliver so much poison at once with my katana, which even before tonight I knew wouldn't be enough to kill him. So, for the last fourteen months, I've been filling my body with wisteria poison. My plan was to let Dōma kill and eat me, hoping that it would be enough to kill him...or at least weaken him to the point where someone could cut his head off without too much trouble. It's...it's why I called you to the Butterfly Mansion earlier tonight, Tomioka-san. There's...there's something I wanted to tell you, and I wanted to tell you before I died so that I could die without regrets."

"..." The Mizubashira was left speechless as he continued to stare at the Mushibashira. On one hand, he hated it when people threw their lives away, and this plan of hers felt incredibly cruel to everyone who cared about her. Aoi, Kanao, Naho, Kiyo and Sumi...they had already lost Kanae, and Shinobu's plan was going to force them to lose her too. Giyū knew that those girls would've been absolutelydevastatedif they had lost the Mushibashira tonight.

On the other hand, the Mizubashira understood her pain. He knew that, if he ever had the chance to avenge his older sister or even his best friend, that he would do whatever it took to get the job done, even if it cost him his own life. Although, now that he thought about it, neither was likely to ever happen. The oni who had killed Sabito was on Fujikasane-yama, only accessible to those participating in Final SelectionduringFinal Selection, and his sensei had sent him a letter over twelve-months-ago to tell him that Tanjirō had slayed that particular oni during Final Selection.

As for the oni who killed Tsutako, Giyū had no idea. When it showed up at their house that night, she had hidden him and it hadn't been until the next morning that he'd found her partially-eaten corpse. For all he knew, the oni was probably dead, having been killed by a Kisatsu-taishi years ago. Or perhaps it was a Kizuki that'd already been killed or even one that was soon to be killed.

"Kochō..." Tears began to fill the Mizubashira's dark-blue eyes and spill down his cheeks as he pulled Shinobu into a hug. "Thank goodness... Thank goodness it didn't have to come to that."

"..." The Mushibashira was surprised by Giyū's sudden hug, but she felt comforted by its warmth and gentleness. She looked up into his tear-filled eyes and smiled. "Ara ara, Tomioka-san. I don't think I'veeverseen you likethisbefore. The thought of me dying is really effecting you. Is there something that you'd like to share, Tomioka-san?"

"I...I love you, Kochō," the Mizubahira confessed. "I've been in love with you ever since we first met seven-years-ago, I've just never had the courage to tell you...until now. All my life, I've lost people I care about. My parents. My older sister. My best friend. I don't want to lose you too."

"Tomioka-san..." Shinobu said, wrapping her arms around Giyū, tears beginning to glisten in her purple eyes. "I love you, too... That's what I was wanting to tell you tonight...before...before we had to come here. I love you, and I've been in love with you ever since I first saw you smile. It was almost three-years-ago, after that mission that I helped you on...the one involving a Matagi's father who had been turned into an oni. We went to a restaurant together to get something to eat afterwards. And that's how it all started for me."

"I remember that," the Mizubashira said, a small smile forming on his face. "I...I thought that I had made you uncomfortable or something...the way you were looking at me."

"No..." the Mushibashira assured him. "I had never seen you smile before, Tomioka-san, and...I was overwhelmed...by how cute you are."

"Oh, that's what it was," Giyū said, relieved to hear that she hadn't been disturbed by him.

"Mm-hmm..." Shinobu nodded and looked down. "But, ever since Nē-san died a few years ago, I've been so focused on avenging her that I never allowed myself to evenentertainthe idea of having a normal life. So, I bottled those feelings up inside, and just tried to ignore them."

"Is that why you were always teasing me?" Giyū asked. "You were trying to push me away?"

"No, it wasn't that..." the Mushibashira replied. "I don't hate you, Tomioka-san, and I don't think thateveryonehates you. Iguro-san and Shinazugawa-san are probably the only ones. But it really hurt to see you closing yourself off from people. I've been angry at the world for a really long time, Tomioka-san. My parents were killed. My older sister was killed. And except for Kanao, all of my Tsuguko were killed. All my life, I'vealsolost people I care about. That's something that we have in common. But our ways of dealing with loss are different. I'm sorry for hurting you."

"No...it's fine, Kochō," the Mizubashira said. "I love you too much to hold it against you."

"You're too much, Tomioka-san," Shinobu said, looking back up at Giyū and smiling. Then, she pulled her arms back and stood up on her tip toes, wrapping her arms around the Mizubasshira's neck as she gently pressed her lips against his. Giyū was caught off guard, but he reciprocated.

There, in that moment, the Mizubashira and Mushibashira celebrated their happiness with a kiss.