Wishes in the Waves

•~Chapter 19: Please~•

(The song is part of a vocaloid. If you want to know the story, look up Story Of Evil, on YouTube. The story or vocaloid is not related to this fanfic whatsoever, but I used the song only because I thought it fit the theme of this chapter.)

(Once again, the song is not mine, but enjoy anyways!)

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It had already been almost a month since that fateful day.

Most people had recovered from the shock and terror of the incident. 

The towns of the merpeople and the humans were being rebuilt, and merpeople and humans began getting along after 'discovering' each other.

But, there was still one person who was filled with the trauma from that day.

And...it was none other than Tanjiro.

Kanao's seemingly lifeless body had been laid in a separate room in the castle.

Tanjiro would walk to the door of her room every day, and stare at it. He would place his hand on the door, mutter something, and then leave hurriedly, as he was always on the verge of tears.

Those who lived in the castle were concerned for the young king. Even people in town were concerned for him, since they knew how horrible the boy felt.

They knew that he blamed himself for everything that had happened. 

They knew that he thought that if he had been awake during the remainder of the big fight, Kanao wouldn't have made such a sacrifice.

He ate meals alone in his room all the time, and during the day, he never came out of his room, except to try and visit Kanao. Seeing him around the castle had become a rare sight.

And during nights, he wouldn't get good sleep, and those who saw him, even rarely, noticed the deep and dark circles under his eyes.

There was one day, though, when this depressing routine came to a halt.

Tanjiro had come out of his room to go to Kanao's during the afternoon. 

Zenitsu and Nezuko, at the time, were walking through the hallways together.

Nezuko noticed her brother standing at the door of Kanao's room. 

After shushing Zenitsu, who had been chattering away, the two ran behind a wall, to see what Tanjiro would do.

To their shock and happiness, they saw Tanjiro take a deep breath, and they heard the door to Kanao's room open. 

They were happy, since he had never gone inside Kanao's room since...the incident.

Rushing over behind the door, Nezuko peeked to see what was happening in that room. 

She knew he would probably catch their scents, but she wanted to know what he was doing, nevertheless.

She and Zenitsu saw Tanjiro sitting at the foot of the bed where Kanao lay.

Kanao's chest moved up and down very slowly. Then, they heard Tanjiro begin to speak.

"I'm sorry Kanao. If I were awake that day, instead of being knocked out, your body wouldn't be here like this."

"We could've been outside, together on this beautiful day...we could've been doing anything else."

"But, because I was knocked out, you're here. Probably not even hearing what I'm saying."

Nezuko and Zenitsu began to hear quiet sniffles and sobs inside the room. They could both practically feel their hearts breaking at the guilt that Tanjiro felt.