“Yuki! How are you feeling?”

“I'm feeling better today! One of the nuns gave me this book, do you want me to tell you what's it about?”

One of the characteristics of the disease is that you don't know when the infected is going to die. Some of them die in days, others in weeks, some even in just hours after they start showing the symptoms.

The fear of waking up in the next day to see that Yuki is dead has been making Y/N lose a lot of sleep-time recently.

“You know, I really like it because it remembers me from that time we played together! You know, when you were the princess and Kota was the dragon?” The little girl said, passionately telling the details of the book.

Maybe it's because she noticed Y/N's worries, but Yuki has been acting like everything is completely fine, the noticeable dark circles forming under her eyes makes it hard for Y/N to act like everything is okay, though.

“But I think Rengoku was a better prince! The one in this book is too-” She's interrupted by the sight of two guys carrying something seemingly heavy, covered by a white sheet.

A corpse. Someone died.

“What's this?” Yuki asked, frowning.

“…It's nothing, what were you going to say about the prince?” Y/N changed subject, forcing a smile.

“….Well, as I was saying-”

                           『••✎••』

Y/N closed the door behind her, letting out a tired sigh.

She wanted to stay for more time, but she can't expend too much time inside the room where the infected are, since they still don't know how the disease is spreading.

She quickly noticed Ichika, Hiro and Kota sitting on the floor around a big paper, several crayons scattered.

“What are you guys doing?” She approached them.

“We are making a drawing for Yuki! For when she gets better!” Ichika commented with a smile, pointing to a very poor-made drawing of them all. “We put you guys here too!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Shinobu is scary, but she's going to cure her, so she's not a bad person!” Ichika commented, pointing to a purple blob that was supposed to be Shinobu. “And Giyuu is kinda weird, but I guess that he's just shy!” this time she pointed to a blue blob.

“And I guess this is Kyojuro?” Y/N asked, pointing to a mess of scribbles in yellow and orange.

“Yep! His hair has a weird color, but it's fun to draw it!”

“I see!….and what are these blue thingies?” Y/N asked.

“Ninjas.” Kota responded with a straight face.

“….ninjas?”

“Yuki likes them.” Hiro completed.

“She doesn't! You guys just wanted to draw ninjas!” Ichika angrily exclaimed.

“Uh- Ninjas thing apart, I'm confident that Yuki will like it a lot!” Y/N said, stepping in before Ichika could get angrier.

“Uhm! I can't wait for her to get better!”

'Just where is this demon hiding?' Y/N thought, doing her best to not frown in front of the kids.

It was already sunset, and in that time of the day, she always does the same thing.

In the same forest and in the same cave, resides the greatest and mightiest upper moon three….

“Ugh- why are you here again?” Who's currently isn't very happy to see her.

“If my daily visits annoy you so much, all you have to do is tell me where the other demon is!” This was starting to turn into a routine.

“I'm not telling you.”

“I figured. So, what are you going to do today? Punch rocks again?”

“It's called training, though I know a brat like you wouldn't understand.” He said, scoffing.

“How rude! How could you say that to the person who's been keeping you company?”

“I would rather not have this company.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Go punch your rocks, I will quietly observe you from here.” Y/N responded, ready to sit on the ground and stare creepily at him like she always does. (In hopes that it makes him uncomfortable enough to just say where the demon is.)

Instead, he just stood there, staring at her.

“…. W-what? Are you trying to do a staring contest or something?”

Her nervousness turned into sheer panic as he suddenly started to walk in her direction.

“I was joking! Please don't turn me into an exception to the no woman rule-” She quickly blurted out, defensively raising her hands.

“Here.” He suddenly gave her an..... acorn?

“huh?”

“You said you wanted this stupid thing back, right? So take it.”

“.....HUH?!” She exclaimed so loudly that it echoed through the whole cave.

“STOP ACTING SO SURPRISED-”

“I MEAN- CAN YOU BLAME ME?!”

Akaza didn't respond to her statement, turning away to leave in grumpy footsteps, she started to follow him in response.

“You went looking for it? For real? Like- with your own hands? Am I dreaming?” She pulled her cheek and harshly let go. “Oh my god! I'm not!”

“Why do you talk so much!?”

“Does that mean we are friends now?!” She asked, ignoring his previous statement.

“How did you get to that conclusion?!”

“I mean, since you gave me an acorn, that kinda means you are stuck with me forever now!”

“No, it doesn't-”

“Well, it's not like you can kill me, right?”

“Ugh-”

“Hey, hey! Since we are friends now, can you teach me how to do this fighting spirit thingy you do?!”

“How do you know that?!”

“As I said before, I know everything!”

“But you don't know where the other demon is.”

“…. Yeah… I don't.” Before Akaza could smirk and commemorate the fact that he finally outsmarted her in words, she suddenly said : “But I know a lot of other things though!”

“Like?”

“Like what kind of person you were before you turned into a demon.”

“Huh?”

The sudden change of mood caught him by surprise.

It was a bold move. Revealing her past knowledge.

But since Muzan already knows about it, she might as well use it in her favor now.

In all her lives, she did her best to keep it a secret, but the situation is different now, there are too many lives at the stake.

“Well, weren't you never curious about that before? Why can't you kill women? Why do you hate weak people so much? And most important, how do I know about this weakness of yours in the first place? Don't you want to know?”

He won't kill her or hurt her even if she provokes him like that, so this is the best course of action.

Sure, she could just keep annoying him and hope he gives in some day, but that would take too long, and she needs to solve this as quickly as possible.

For Akaza, telling the location of the demon would be the same as going against Muzan in a way, so Y/N has to offer something that overpowers his need to follow his orders.

“Who…was I?”

After Y/N t̶r̶a̶u̶m̶a̶t̶i̶z̶e̶d̶  confronted him, he did start to have some random flashes of his past life, but he couldn't understand or make sense of them.

“…That's… that's bullshit, isn't it? There's no way you-”

“Well, don't you think it's a bit suspicious how your lord is so riled up over someone so seemingly insignificant like me?” She approached him.

“It's not like you have much to lose, right? Sure, Muzan might be a bit mad after, but he won't get rid of you, you're a precious asset to him after all.”

Making the consequences seem smaller than they are…

“I will tell what you wish to know, and it will be up to you if you want to believe in it or not.”

Slowly cornering him until any other options seem to be a waste…

“That doesn't make sense-”

And finally…

“Koyuki. Does that name rings any bells?” Throwing a bit of information.

His eyes widened at the mention of the name, he suddenly grabbed his head, squeezing his eyes shut like he was in pain. “Ugh-”

Y/N stared at him in silence, patiently waiting for an answer.

“I….” After some minutes, the pain seemed to finally have subsided. “I… don't know where he is, too.” He blurted out, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

“WHAT?!”

“He was just so annoying that I couldn't take it, so we separated ways-”

“AARGHHH- IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE THEN WHAT WILL I DO NOOOW?!” She grabbed her hair.

“.....were you telling the truth before?” Akaza asked, interrupting Y/N's panic attack.

“…. Yeah, I was. But it's not like it matters now since you dON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!”

“Stop screaming! I will help to find them, okay?!”

“How long will that take?! How will I know that you won't just run away after I tell you what you want?! You stinky scammer!”

“Scammer?!”

“Yeah! You made me think you knew where they were all this time! Scammer! You could have used more honest ways if you wanted me to spend time with you so much!”

“IT'S NOT LIKE THAT-”

“Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!”

“ARE YOU FIVE YEARS OLD?!”

“I won't forgive you! I won't forgive this insult!”

“FINE! You wanted to learn how to use the fighting spirit, right?! I can teach you while I look for the demon!”

Y/N stopped panicking to stare at him with a suspicious expression. “Really…?”

“I don't know if a human can replicate it though, but it probably won't hurt for you to train a bit anyway, you are pathetically weak.”

Y/N gasped in response, completely offended.

“no offense.” He added, like it would make it any better.

“Okay......Fine! We have a deal then!” She responded, reaching her hand out to him. “Handshake as a sign of this sacred contract?”

With a deep sigh, he took her hand.

“So… what do you want to know first?”