As Things Should Be

-18- Unions

"Inosuke!"

Inosuke jolted awake. Awake!? What the - oh, he must've fallen asleep on the train. He rubbed his face and groaned as he opened his eyes...

And found himself very much not on a train. That was... wrong. He was on a train, right? That fiery guy Rengo-something had just killed two demons. It had been badass and cool! So where the hell had it all gone!?

"What the hell?" he muttered to himself as he looked around. He was in a field, a bright, full moon overhead with more stars in the sky than he'd ever seen. Fireflies danced and he narrowed his eyes as he looked around.

What the fuck was going on?

"Inosuke! Come on!!"

Inosuke jumped to his feet and looked over his shoulder, up the grassy hill to the top. Miku was there, grinning toothily as she waved at him.

"Come on!" she cried. "Or we're gonna be late to the festival!"

Inosuke recoiled as he tried to grapple with that idea. A festival? What festival? When had he gotten here, how had he gotten here...

Miku took off down the hill and Inosuke was torn about following her. Something felt wrong...

Where was he supposed to be? Again, he recoiled as he tried to think on that. He wasn't supposed to be here... but where was he supposed to be?

"Zoning out on us, huh? You should've gotten more sleep," a hand clapped on his shoulder and Inosuke jumped, reaching for his swords that weren't there.

It was just Doma. His father smiled down at him, concern in his eyes.

"Inosuke, are you alright?" the demon asked and Inosuke struggled to answer as he quickly looked around for his swords.

"Where are my swords? I just had them... I swear." He checked the grass, the hillside, he looked for anything that glimmered in the moon.

"Your swords? Why would you need swords?" Doma asked softly, gently stilling by gently squeezing his shoulder. The tall demon leaned down and his smile helped Inosuke's chest relax as his breaths suddenly stopped being so controlled.

No... no, he was supposed to concentrate on his breathing. Constant concentration breathing! Why? Because, that's why. Because... because...

"I'm a demon slayer... I, I need swords to... I need them to..." Inosuke fumbled as his head clouded in confusion. Something was wrong here but he really couldn't figure it out.

"Inosuke," Doma laughed. "It's over. Muzan's gone. You killed him, remember?"

Inosuke recoiled and gawked.

"I what?"

"Don't you remember? We're safe now. We're safe and it's all thanks to you. Your the greatest warrior there ever was."

"No way," Inosuke grinned. Doma only smiled wider.

"Are you two coming, or what?" They both looked up the kill where Kotoha stood impatiently in a new kimono decorated with green-stitched koi fish. Inosuke broke into a run and collided with the woman, wrapping his arms around her as he laughed. She laughed and hugged him back.

"I killed him? I killed Muzan!?" Inosuke laughed in wonder as his mother held him.

"Of course. Don't you remember? You're my little warrior after all, of course, you killed him. I knew you would," Kotoha laughed.

They pulled apart and Inosuke laughed in disbelief. Doma came up, his smile still bright and joyful as he looked at them all. Kotoha grabbed Doma's hand, leading him to the top of the hill, over it, and to the village below. Inosuke followed in disbelief and distantly saw Miku at the bottom of the hill, on Daki's shoulders. Gyutaro and Akaza were arguing about something while Daki and Miku laughed at them. Well, Miku was laughing, Daki looked annoyed.