𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳

28. SWEET HOME

not gonna lie I hate the exposition of the ending but this fic sat for so long I finished it off and in the future may rerelease a better end.
「幽玄」

Did I protect him?

Sakurai's eyes were dry and intact. She couldn't be fooled. Whether this was a dream or death, the clear view above her gave it away. A blue sky; she hadn't gazed up so endearingly at the blue sky in so long. Her eyes were to fixated on hatred and malice, vipers and snakes, volcanos, eruptions, magma and fire, and the demons that had plagued her world for 416 years. She had long neglected to admire the beauty that surrounded her; the clouds moving slowly across the sky on a hot summer day, the cicadas chirping in rhythm. The last of the sakura petals to fall in early June, browning and beginning to prune on the grass around Sakurai's still body. Her hair long again and free of ties, her scars absent, and body wrapped in her traditional grab. If only this could be Eternity, not plagued by humans or demons, not by human thought or emotion, but a pure emptiness so simple yet sublime. Her fingers entangled with the fresh grass, smelling sweet and overgrown. Had Sakurai's mind always wanted this? This perfection?

This is not what I want now.

Just like the dream that had been given to her on the train, her mother's perfect visage and nurturing spirit had long left the world and had been replaced by a cruel demon, who Sakurai turned to dust. The same with this gentle forest, from with Sakurai came from. It's time was no longer of this world, and things are not meant to be stagnant and unchanging for eternity. That was for certain.

Reality was harsh, unforgiving, but the dream had passed. Sakurai couldn't feel her hair touch her chin, and she couldn't see the room so clearly with one eye. She could only feel the bedsheets and grip them with one hand.

Beauty was such a shallow note to strike the chords of Sakurai's heart, after all she'd been through. There were many things different about her appearance a month after the battle. She now had an eyepatch for lack of an eye at all. It also partially hid a rather large scar. Her brightly coloured eye had lost it's foxy slits, now just clear blue. She had lost her beautiful long hair; she hadn't realized she placed such value in her hair until now. She was missing a hand entirely, hidden by her long-sleeved haori. Scars littered her body from the final battle from head to toe.

Sakurai had the shallow joy of worrying about something so trivial. She did not feel beautiful, but suddenly, without the worry of hunting down demons and fighting for their lives, even if it was not a big deal she had the time allowed to worry about it like any other normal girl allowed to worry about their appearance.

Upon looking in the mirror, she reeled in disgust at her scars despite the good cause they had served. Yet in some bittersweet way, it made her happy.

Now was the perfect opportunity to don the fox mask from her past to hide this unfamiliar face.

Although she had such a strong desire to live, and live out with those she deemed her family now, she was reluctant to share the victory with them. From what she knew after she passed out, Tanjiro had gone on a rampage urged by Muzan's cells, and conquered the sun subsequently. Nezuko appeared in time to try and stop his attack, her memories and humanity regained, and he refused to eat or attack her but trying to stop him from hurting others resulted in him biting her and blasting her hand. No one could bring themselves to cut his head when he was the one who had fought so hard to save them all. Kanao woke up barely in time, with the last of the drug for turning demons back to human, and used her special technique to quickly inject Tanjiro. He returned to human thankfully, she lost most of her sight, and there were no casualties as a result of the incident.

A month later, he, later than Sakurai, had begun to wake up.

Sakurai could easily avoid them for now. She had to return to the Ubuyashiki's as a finality and formality.