[Seiji's POV]
Noseki Village.
The description of the village was literally in the name. It was a village tucked in a narrow valley between the Kiso Mountains and at the edge of the Wisteria Forest that was used as a shield for the Butterfly Mansion.
It was the nearest village from the Mansion and due to its rather hidden location, the place was covered in fog through most mornings and evenings.
When we went there, the fog became a problem for us. But not for long though, just a split second before I realized I had overpowered eyes that could see through mountains.
Literally.
Since the village was not far from the mansion, it did not take long for us to reach there. The materials we were carrying were dragging us down a bit, but time passed even quicker since we had Rengoku with us.
The village was a rather small one, with around 200 villagers in total. But with all the injured and the dead moved there, we tripled that number.
There were many wounded Demon Slayers. The Mansion was already a hospital that housed patients but that number increased even more after the attack.
The place was abuzz with activity when we reached there. The fog hugged everything lightly. It was not suffocating nor did it cause total blindness, but it was enough, for example, to suppress the reach of lanterns.
The village itself was connected with the Demon Slayer Corps so everyone there was helping us. The uninjured Demon Slayers and some that came to help patrolled around the parameters, making sure no other attacks would come. Some Hashiras were there to help as well, though I didn't meet them exactly. I saw them nonetheless.
But still, the majority of the pillars were inside the village hall. They all suffered from injuries and had just come out from an intense battle. They were acting more as powerhouses that could be deployed in a moment of crisis, but other than that they were recovering.
I handed all the materials I was carrying to Shinobu and Rengoku when we reached our destination. They would go to the village hall where Lady Tamayo and the others would help them secure it.
Rengoku needed to be examined by Lady Tamayo as well, while Shinobu, as the doctor, was needed there.
On the other hand, I had my own next destination in mind.
I left the two on their own and circled around the village. The village hall was reserved for Hashiras and others who were grievously injured. But those with non-fatal injuries were made to rest and taken care of in the other houses.
The villagers were kind enough to house these guests who needed help. With a quick scan of the village, I headed towards one specific house.
..
"Seiji-san!!" Tanjiro flew out from his futon, crying tears of joy as he lunged for a hug.
"Sanjuro!!!" Inosuke lunged in soon after, monkey see monkey do I guess. He was not wearing his usual boar mask and after a year had passed, he looked just as innocent and juvenile.
I caught the injured Tanjiro with gentle arms before I spun and swiftly dodged Inosuke. This was because while Tanjiro was throwing himself at me, what Inosuke did was more like a tackle. I could also tell with a glance the injuries they had, and Tanjiro was much more severe, while Inosuke would probably walk his off in a week.
"Hello to you too, my fellow main character," I said. I don't know why I said that. I was just blabbering because I was not sure what my first words would be.
"You came back right when we needed you," he said and hugged me tightly, his feet dragged on the floor like limp noodles. Even now he barely had the strength to move.
I couldn't help the strained smile that spread on my face, "I didn't come back right when you needed me, if I had, none of this would happen," I said.
"It's you who made my return worth it. Thanks for staying so strong," I said and gently rubbed a hand over his head. What a good kid he was.
I have had my reunion with the Hashiras but I had ignored pupils for quite some time. Which was why I decided to meet them again first before entering the village hall.
You could trust Inosuke to ruin the moment with his vibe because he lunged at me from the back and grabbed me from behind like a wild dog seeking his fair share of attention.
"I heard you've been training for a year, so you must be pretty strong now. Fight me, Sakura!!" he said.
I sighed and grabbed his wrist. With an effortless twist and perfect technique beneath it, I spun Inosuke and tossed him back to his futon. He was struggling so I had to be a bit forceful, causing him to crash on the wall first before he draped down the wall and settled back into his futon upside down.
"Hahaha, I can't tell if you get stronger or not," he said with a laugh.
Of course, the gap between us was too wide so he wouldn't notice any changes.
My eyes moved away from Inosuke and landed on the small girl in the opposite corner of the room. She also had a futon of her own but she was sitting upright, her legs beneath the blanket. She was not loud like the two boys; instead, she was silently looking at me with her bright purple eyes.
"Hi, little Kanao," I said.
I put my hands under Tanjiro's arm and set him upright without my support. Then I moved towards my younger sister. She held out her arms when I got close and I gave her a big hug.
She had tears streaming down her face, "Big brother,"
"You did well, Kanao," I said, "I'm proud to have such a strong sister."
She tightened her hug. I let myself fall on the futon as well and I adjusted my position into a comfortable form so that she could hug me for as long as she wanted.
They had been strong in my absence. But every soul needs a stronger figure that they can rest on every once in a while. For kids, it was their parents; for others, it was God. Everyone had their own figure that they found peace with, someone who could make them feel safe and not have to be strong all the time.
I was that figure for these kids, most of whom had their parents taken away too early.
After all, I am Seiji Shigan, the strongest Hashira, the Pillar of Pillars.
The house they were staying in was a rather small one. It belonged to a widow who was still generous and kind enough to take care of these three, even though she was already poor.
Those little things really helped me realize what I was fighting for. The humanity in humans. The things that the demons and Muzan were trying to destroy.
I stayed with them for an hour. The beginning of the reunion was emotional, but after all the heavy drama was gone, they reverted to their personalities. Well, except for Inosuke, he was always himself in every situation.
I let them tell me everything they wanted to say. Like what they had been through the past year, the demons they fought during my time of absence and what they fought during the attack last night.
In the meantime, I was helping them and rewrapping their wounds.
I was no expert on medicine, but my eyes helped in figuring out exactly what part of their body was injured. Tanjiro and Kanao actually had some bones in their body that were still dislocated, so I fixed those.
"Kaigaku. He was filled with bitterness when I fought him. It's strange really, I never saw through him in all the times that we met and even trained together," Tanjiro said with unfocused eyes that were lost in the past.
I cut him off briefly, "This may hurt a bit," I said while sitting behind him.
"Wha-" he turned back to ask but I violently pushed at his back which released a small crack.
Tanjiro was surprised and in pain for a brief moment before he felt better instantly.
"Thank you Seiji-san," Tanjiro said.
"Don't mention it. The medics were probably in a hurry to attend to all the injured while they patched you up, it's sloppy. The warriors fought in the battle but in the aftermath, they fought their own. They must be under immense pressure and stress right now," I said while pulling the white bandage through his arms and back in a way that his body needed to be held.
Inosuke on the other hand, well he was a different beast entirely. The only problem he had was the flesh wounds. Other than that, his bones and the skeletal structure itself were in perfect shape and condition.
No surprise there, after all, he was someone who could dislocate his bones on command. He had superior control over his body due to his upbringing.
The kids did not even stay awake for long. It was early in the night when I came to them so after we had time together for a few hours, they went to sleep.
It was not even a conscious decision, their bodies desperately needed rest.
I arranged their futons in a neat row instead of them sleeping all over the place. But I did make some space between the boys and my younger sister.
And I sat on that space, watching over the three as they went to sleep one by one.
Inosuke was the first to fall, sleeping sideways on his futon. Kanao was the next as she slept while my hand was caressing the small bump on her head. She said it felt better when I did that. The pain was not throbbing with physical touch.
Tanjiro followed soon after. I waited a few more minutes until everyone went into a deep sleep. But just when I considered leaving them, Tanjiro suddenly flinched and became awake.
"....."
I watched in silence as the boy woke up covered in sweat. His eyes were wide, pupils shrinking as if there was something to fear in the ceiling. He clutched his heart which was pounding rapidly but when he caught the glimpse of my body, he calmed down.
It was like when you woke up because you fell from a cliff in your dream. But for Tanjiro, it was more than that. It was not quite a nightmare either because what he saw was real.
His dream was not an illusion, more like a reminder of what he went through last night.
"There is something bothering you," I commented after he calmed down, "Tell me,"
He tried to speak but then choked. He couldn't quite answer my simple question. It's like he himself didn't know what's bothering him.
"It's....it's nothing," he said and I raised my eyebrow.
Wrong observation. He did know what's bothering him but didn't know how to explain it. Or he didn't think I would understand it.
"Tanjiro," I said.
He remained silent. But only for a few seconds as I pressured him with my quiet.
"The dead," he said, his voice trembled like on the verge of tears, "The deaths are bothering me,"
"...."
"Seiji-san. So many people died last night," he said and tears started falling from his eyes, "They died right before my eyes and I couldn't do anything to save them, I'm just not strong enough,"
He clenched his fist hard, way harder than he should with his cracked wrist and broken fingers.
"And the demons were so cruel. They didn't care one bit as they took their lives," he said, now his voice was laced with rage, "How can they be like that Seiji-san? Weren't they humans too?"
Ah, I opened my mouth in silent realisation. Tanjiro was someone with a kind soul. Even now, he still thinks demons were worth redemption and that most of them were just unfortunate souls manipulated.
I thought his compassion for demons from the canon stemmed from the fact that his little sister was a demon. But I guess that was just his nature.
But what happened last night shook that very kind nature.
"We do not slay the demons because they have powers or because they look different from us Tanjiro," I said, "They no longer have the humanity that we do. They are no better than a corpse yet walking,"
"You're a good kid Tanjiro, you really are," I said, "But you need to realize that we are fighting a war against the undead, not living creatures. They have no morals, they have no guilt,"
But even after saying that, I could tell that he was not convinced and neither was he fixed. What I just told him, he probably told himself a hundred times already.
So I made a different approach.
"I understand your feeling Tanjiro, because I was the same way when I first became a Demon Slayer," I said, "Every time I was unable to save someone or I was too late to save them, I carried that deep guilt with me,"
"It got to the point that I became obsessed with speed. It's why I am now known as the fastest Hashira. That was way before I even became the strongest. I thought that if I was just faster, a little more faster, I would be able to save a life next time," I said.
"But how did you move on from that," he asked, desperately. His hands went to his chest again, tightly gripping the skin and fabric, "How do you stop this pain, this guilt?"
"The world is not good so it is cruel to good people. The whole burden of loss fell on your shoulder even though the ones who did it or the others in the same position would not even care. You always put the responsibility on you and mourn for things that were never even yours," I said.
I was sure that most people that died in front of his eyes were someone he really cared deeply about or had a deep connection with. But the loss of life was a loss forever. It was a priceless soul turned to ash.
If you truly cared, how do you cope with such loss?
"You don't fix it. You don't move on. There is no cure," I said, "That's why good people are the strongest in the world,"
His eyes widened and he looked at me. I gave him my most honest smile and for once, I let my eyes show vulnerability instead of searching for it in my enemies.
"Just know that you are not alone. Many Demon Slayers, and all of the Hashiras including me, and even Lord Ubuyashiki, we all feel the pain you feel. No loss of life is overlooked as statistic, we mourned for all," I said.
That was the best thing I could give him. I could not help him, but I could let him know he was not alone.
"That's why we are all fighting with everything we got. And we will continue fighting, even after centuries may pass. The Demon Slayer Corps has been fighting for over a thousand years, and we will do so for another thousand years if we must," I said and moved closer to him so that I could pat him on the head.
"Heh," I locked eyes with him, trying to smile but I couldn't quite get it right. The smile was not happy at all, nor content. Instead, it was angry, desperate, and determined.
"But I promise, you will not have to fight another thousand years. I will end this nightmare soon," I said.
There was a moment of silence where Tanjiro looked at me with shock and wonder. I couldn't read what he thought at the moment.
"But for now, remember the pain," I said and poked his heart with my finger, "Never forget it. Never forgive Muzan Kibutsuji,"
He nodded his head after a while and I was finally able to show a smile.
"Now get back to sleep, your body needs rest. Don't let the unsaved drag you down, but push you to reach new heights instead,"
After I tucked him in, Tanjiro slept.
And he never had the same episode again. He slept peacefully.
Not because the pain or his worry was gone, but because he was reminded he was not alone.
I and everyone else were here with him.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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Author : Although I said we will return to schedule this week, exam had defeated those. Give me this week again to catch up.