Moonlight

Twenty-Eight

Slowly as the days went by, Sara's body began to recover. When she was eventually allowed to leave her bed in the infirmary, the first thing she did was pay Muichiro a visit.

"Muiii, oh- you're awake? That's good. How are you-"

"Sara."

The female slayer stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide in a mixture of shock and disbelief. Then, as those feelings started to calm, she smiled.

"Muichiro-kun."

The Mist Pillar, who had been staring at his blanket the whole time, finally looked up. For the first time in what felt like ages, Sara saw the long-lost look of familiarity in Muichiro's eyes as they made eye contact. That alone was enough to make her cry, but she forced herself to blink the tears away.

Not now. I have to be strong.

"I'm sorry... for forgetting." Muichiro wanted nothing more than to look back down at his blanket, but he was willed himself to hold Sara's gaze. "I tried so hard to remember. Every time I looked up at the sky, ate food, killed a demon, I felt nostalgic, but I didn't know why. Every time you walked past me, I wanted to call out to you, but I didn't what to say that would make you understand."

Sara clenched the fist that she did not even realise she had made. Not out of anger - in fact, she had no idea how she felt, or how she should feel. "Make me understand what?"

"That you were still special to me even if I had forgotten everything. That you have always been special to me and always will remain the most precious person to me. That I hated myself more than anyone else for not being able to remember."

Sara released her fist, walking closer to Muichiro and sitting down next to his bed. Slowly, she reached out her hand to hold his. Both of their hands were heavily calloused, as a result of both of their hard work.

"Mui, you don't need to force yourself to remember." The Ice Pillar smiled reassuringly. "Because my memory is an archive of all the time we've spent together. If you forget my name, I'll introduce myself over and over again. If you forget how much you mean to me, I'll keep reminding you every single day. You don't need to remember every conversation we have, because as long as I remember, it will never be forgotten."

A long silence stretched out between them, though it was not uncomfortable. Both of them thought carefully about what to say to each other.

"Sara, when I recover, let's train together, and fight alongside each other. Let's eat our meals together, like we used to."

Sara smiled reminiscently at the fond memories of when they were younger. It felt like so much had changed since then, but it was a relief to know that their bond stayed the same.

"Yeah, let's do that."

꧁☯︎︎꧂

Contrary to the rather peaceful talk she had  with Muichiro, Sara was greeted by a commotion in the Butterfly Estate.

"WHAT THE?? NEZUKO-CHAN IS SPEAKING!!" Zenitsu was having an absolute seizure. Meanwhile, everyone else was trying to get him to calm down and Nezuko seemed totally unfazed. "FOR ME? IS IT FOR ME? IS SHE WORKING HARD FOR ME? OH YEAH, I'M BACK IN THE GROOVE! CAN WE FINALLY GET MARRIED?? NEZUKO-CHAN UNDER THE MOON WAS AMAZING, BUT NEZUKO-CHAN UNDER THE SUN IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! WONDERFUL! MARVELLOUS! IF WE GET MARRIED, I'LL FEED YOU EEL AND SUSHI EVERY DAY, SO PLEASE MARRY ME!"

"Welcome back, Yuhiko-san."

Well, that was more than enough to shut him up. And everyone else too, because Sara now emitted a deathly aura that surpassed any Upper Moon they'd met so far.