“Hey, I was wondering, instead of everyone searching outside together, why don't we separate?” In the next day, Y/N immediately put her current knowledge to work. “I mean, there's a possibility that the demon is hiding inside the village, I thought that maybe we could question the people?”

It would be too suspicious to directly affirm that the demon isn't outside, so the better course of action is for her to subtly 'suggest' a plausible plan.

“Separate, huh?” Shinobu thought, her smile growing wider as she said : “Okay, then me and Y/N question the people, and you two go search for it outside!”

“….Isn't this separation too biased?” Giyuu commented, sweat-dropping.

“You three already spent a lot of time together, am I right? While I was working so hard, taking care of so much people all alone, you guys all had fun together, all without me-” She faked a sad expression.

“Waaa, I'm so sorry, Shinobu! I promise I will stay right by your side!” Y/N grabbed her hands, exclaiming with a tearful expression, what an easily manipulated fool-

“Really? You will not leave my side for a single second?”

“I won't!” She nodded.

“Good.” Shinobu's grip on Y/N's hand suddenly got stronger. “S-Shinobu??”

“See? Y/N wants to stay with me, so it's not biased at all! So go on to look for the demon you two, shoo, shoo-”

'I feel like I got swindled somehow-' Y/N thought, blankly watching the two hashiras leaving.

Now, all that's left is to start the questioning process.

Maybe it's because she managed to 'activate' the fighting spirit, but Y/N has been feeling goosebumps all day, like there's danger around, but she can't see anything suspicious when she looks around her.

In the way to the treatment center, she harshly bumped into the elder. “Oh! I'm so sorry!”

“It's okay, I can see you guys are quite busy.”

“Well, I guess you could say tha-”

“Lovely day, isn't it?”

“…Yeah?”

“I'm on my way to do a walk through the garden, feel free to join me any time.”

“Thanks for the offer…” She awkwardly said as the lady left, has she always had this creepy vibe?

Could she be the demon? But it doesn't make sense, for what Y/N knows, the disease started to spread around a month ago, but the elder lives in the village for way longer than this, if she really was the demon, why would she wait so long to start killing the people? The dates simply don't match.

With this, she brushed off the uncomfortable feeling and went back to the treatment center to question the rest of the infected people.

“Shinobu! I'm back, and I brought the medicine too!” Y/N approached Shinobu as she was speaking with one of the infected, but they suddenly started to cough loudly.

Shinobu quickly grabbed the medicine away from Y/N's hand, examining it with a frown. “That isn't enough! Y/N, can you bring more?”

Y/N nodded, quickly leaving the center to go grab the medicine.

As she exasperatedly looked around the storage, she once again felt the familiar creepy vibe, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, she reflexively turned and raised her hands.

“Do you need help with something?” She immediately recognized the sweet and soft voice of the elder.

'That's bad! I almost hit her since she appeared so suddenly behind me!' Y/N exasperatedly thought, awkwardly lowering her ready to attack arms.

“So? Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, no, thanks! I was just-”

'…wait. Didn't she say that she was going to take a walk through the garden? Why is she here, then?'

Y/N bit her lip, the sick person unfortunately would have to wait. “Why… don't you join me for tea? I would love to talk more with you!” She forced a gentle smile.

.

.

.

“Here!” She gently offered the tea cup to the elder.

'I put some wisteria medicine in the middle of the ingredients. If she is the demon, she won't drink it, or she will show a reaction to it.'

Y/N patiently waited for the elder to drink the liquid, cold-sweat forming on her forehead as the lady quietly brought the tea cup to her lips.

And then….

“Oh! How nice, you are excellent at tea making!” No effect.

Y/N sighed, she didn't even notice she was holding down her breath.

So, the elder isn't the demon, she's just your average creepy old lady.

“I'm glad you liked it! It's unfortunate, but I have to leave now, since I still need to help Shinobu with the sick.” She politely bowed and left the room, though she tried to solve this as quickly as possible, she really hopes that the person is still okay!

                          『••✎••』

“Jeez, why did you take so long?” Shinobu commented with a frown, taking the bottle from Y/N's hands.

“Sorry, I got lost!” She decided against telling her that she was brewing tea for the elder, since she would probably be mad.

“Y/N!” A small creature suddenly tackled her into a hug.

“Yuki? You weren't supposed to be running around!”

“Everyone keeps asking me to rest, but I'm not tired! I want to play with Ichika and the others!”

“I'm sorry, I'm kind of busy right now, so I can't-”

“It's fine, Y/N.” Shinobu nonchalantly said, delicately flicking the syringe with the medicine before sticking it in the sick person's arm, Yuki slight shivered with the sight. “We have been investigating and taking care of the infected since morning, I guess it should be fine for you to rest a bit, I still need to take care of the people here though.”

Y/N turned to look at the window, it was already sunset.

“Let's go then, Yuki!”

“Yay!” The kid loudly commemorated, grabbing Y/N's wrist and pulling her along.

“Where are we going?”

“To our room!” Yuki happily exclaimed, opening the door to show a big a room with a big number of beds.

There were a lot kids Y/N didn't know running around, but she immediately identified Ichika, Hiro and Kota sitting in their beds with bored expressions.

“ICHIKAAAAAA!” Yuki loudly exclaimed, letting go of Y/N to run in the girl's direction, tackling her into a hug with so much force that she almost fell off the bed.

“YUUUUKIIII!” Ichika hugged her back with the same energy.

“I MISSED YOU A LOT!”

“ME TOO!”

The other kids stopped playing to stare at the two girls screaming at each other, they couldn't tell whether they were fighting or not.

“Guys, you are embarrassing us-” Hiro awkwardly approached them.

“Shut up, Hiro! Don't mess up our heart-warming reunion!” Ichika angrily kicked his ankle.

“See? I told you she would be fine.” Y/N commented, approaching the kids.

“I'm so happy! Thanks, Y/N, I love you!” Ichika happily said, hugging her.

“Ah, me too, Y/N! I love you too!” Yuki also hugged her.

“…I'm just doing this to participate!” Kota said, entering the hug, and Hiro, influenced by the rest of his friends, also went to hug her.

The heart-warming moment didn't stay for long, since the other kids in the room suddenly exclaimed : “ICHIKA IS HUGGING HIRO!”

“HAHA! ICHIKA LIKES HIRO!”

“I-I DON'T!!” Ichika said, breaking away of the group hug to grab her shoe and run after the kids with it on her hand.

“Y/N! Let's go play! Let's play!” Yuki said, pulling Y/N. “Yeah, let's play now that Yuki is finally back!”

Ichika walked back to them with heavy breaths, her face completely red. “Yeah… huff… let's huff- let's play-”

Maybe it's because Y/N was in a room filled with people, but now that they are outside, the goosebumps are back.

Except, that they are way stronger now.

It was already night, the sounds of crickets the only thing she could hear, but there was nothing suspicious.

And even so, the closer they got to the garden, stronger the bad feeling got.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Her heart was starting to hurt, her stomach was churning, ugh, why didn't Akaza tell her about these side effects before?!

Ba-dump.

Every cell in her body is screaming danger, why, WHY?! Where is she looking wrong? Where is the danger?!

“Y/N? Are you okay? You look scared…” Yuki asked with a frown.

'Giyuu and Kyojuro will be coming back at any moment, maybe it's better for us to wait for them instead of playing now…'

“Guys, why don't we go look for Giyuu and Kyojuro?” Y/N said, forcing a gentle smile. “So we can play together, just like before?”

That was a lie, she wanted to find them, so she could feel safe.

“Ah! Good idea!” Ichika exclaimed, taking Y/N's hand and waiting for her to guide them back.

Y/N turned to walk back inside, but Ichika suddenly froze in place.

“Ichi…ka?” She worriedly looked over her shoulder, her ears ringing so much that she was afraid her eardrums were going to burst.

Ichika stood there with a blank look, a thin line of blood slowing coming out of her mouth, before her small body fell lifeless in the ground.

A gut-wrenching scream escaped from Yuki's mouth, making Y/N snap out of her trance.

“You're getting smarter. Unfortunately, it would be bad if you were to reunite with the hashiras now.” A low voice said.

The voice came out from Hiro's mouth, entirely different from his normally childish one.

His hand was covered with blood. Ichika's blood.

On the floor, the kid had a big wound in her stomach, a puddle of blood slowing forming underneath her.

“Ichika!” Yuki tried to run to her, Y/N reflexively grabbed her and pulled the kid to stay behind her back.

'Hiro's the demon? But- That doesn't make sense, he was under the sun many times! How could he- No- I need to save the kids first! But-' She unsheathed her sword, though her hands were trembling on the hilt.

“Oh? Will you have the courage to cut down the kid that you spent so much time together?” He opened his arms, his eyes that were once filled with an innocent light now devoid of any emotion.

“.....In situations where other lives are in danger, my emotions are irrelevant.”

“How cruel!” He quickly ran up to her, long and seemly dangerous nails growing on his hand as he tried to slash her face.

She quickly cut his arm with the sword, he crouched and tried to take an impulse to jump on her face, but quickly jumped back when she attempted to stab his back in response.

The blade harshly stabbed the ground instead.

“….Wow, you really are setting out to kill me-” He nonchalantly commented, staring at his severed arm as he waited for the regeneration take place.

“Why did you attack Ichika first?” Y/N asked, holding down the urge to cry, tears would only hinder her now.

“Huh?”

“We both had our backs turned to you, you could easily eliminate me, so why did you attack her first?”

“Humans taste better when they die in complete despair! That's why I was using such an inefficient elimination method in the first place! But then, you four had to come here, and mess up everything!”  His voice started to fail, scarily alternating between the deep and menacing one and the childish one Y/N was used to hear.

“Since you didn't break even after I killed Ichika, seems like I choose the wrong child.” He commented with an innocent smile, silently stepping in Ichika's head.

“STOP! DON'T- DON'T DO THAT TO HER!” Yuki angrily exclaimed, Kota holding her, so she wouldn't try to go in his direction.

“She's already dead, why does it matter what happens to this lifeless body?” He tilted his head, a confused look in his face. “Hey, Y/N! Between Yuki and Kota, who do you like more? Which one should I kill for you to feel hopeless?”

“idontwanttodieidontwanttodieidontwanttodie-” The panicked whispers coming from Kota made Y/N tremble.

“Enough playing.” Hiro's expression turned cold as he lunged at Y/N, throwing both of them almost all the way to the other side of the garden.

“Y/N!!” Yuki's face was far now, Y/N hissed from the pain on her back as she kicked the stomach of the kid on top of her.

“Seraphic breathing, first form : absolute-” She was about to cut him down, but had to change the direction of the attack when Hiro's severed arm that she thought had disappeared lunged at her, she managed to cut in half before it could pierce her.

“Huh? How weird, normally they always die from that…” Hiro said, coldly staring at his chopped off arm on the floor.

'The arm that I cut before didn't disintegrate? And it even attacked me-' Y/N exasperatedly stepped away. 'That means that if I cut any of his limbs, they will try to attack to me too- I would be multiplying the enemies-'

“Did you like my technique? Flesh manipulation! I can freely control my flesh, even if it's not attached to me~”

'If that's his blood art, then what is the disease?' Y/N frowned, nothing was making sense anymore.

Firstly, if this demon could walk in the sun, then why does Muzan didn't consume him yet? How come he managed to stay undetected even while around three hashiras? Y/N couldn't find the answer to anything.

“You don't have any medicine with you now, right?”

“Huh?”

“Fighting with you is a waste of time.” As soon as he said that, the familiar metallic taste appeared in her mouth.

Vomiting blood? When did she get infected?

“…You know, the temple was always the best place to hide! I can control my flesh even if it's inside other creatures, and since they were always distributing food to the people, it was easy to tamper with it!”

Y/N didn't respond to his affirmations, coughing loudly as droplets of her blood splashed in the ground.

“Thanks to that, I can easily eat people from the insides out without having to get my hands dirty! After I finish devastating this village, I will go to the next, then the next, and then the next-”

She started to go through her pocket. “Oh? Don't tell me you really had medicine with you? How boring.” He frowned.

Y/N didn't have medicine with her. What she did have was a bit of Shinobu's poison that she gave her to use in case of emergencies.

But it was meant to be used in demons, not for people to drink. And even so, she didn't hesitate to gulp down the liquid.

She will feel the effects later. Just like a human dies if they consume rat poison, a poison meant for demons is definitely dangerous, but even so, she had to get rid of the piece of him that was inside her body first.

“Haaah, so annoying.” He sighed, once again lunging at her.

Y/N was now concentrating into parrying his attacks, since she can't defend herself by cutting his limbs anymore.

He started to pick up his speed, the attacks getting harder and harder to defend.

Y/N wasn't saying anything because if she lost concentration, she would stop seeing the faint after-image that appeared before he attacked.

She could see that he was starting to get frustrated, after all, both consuming her from the insides out and using his severed limb in a surprise attack didn't work, how annoying.

“Ugh-” Y/N was starting to feel dizzy, is the poison already taking effect? Hiro's image was starting to multiply.

Hiro was ready to attack her as soon as he noticed she put her guard down, a rock harshly hitting his head and interrupting his attempt.

“Leave- Leave her alone!” Kota exclaimed, throwing another rock.

The demon looked back forth at the little kid and at the weakened Y/N, backing away from the girl with an annoyed sigh and running in Kota's direction.

He jumped in the kid's direction with his mouth open, ready to bite his little head away, Y/N quickly appearing behind him and pressing her sword against his mouth, pulling him back and making them both fall to the ground.

He started to flail around in her grasp while aggressively biting the blade, his back against her. “RUN AWAY, YOU TWO!”

Kota was ready to run, but Yuki was paralyzed in fear. “Yuki, we have to go!”

“N-no-”

“YUKI!”

“You- Ugh-” Y/N tried to talk, but he kept trying to headbutt her nose. “You aren't the real Hiro, right?”

“GRAABH-”

“If you can manipulate your flesh as you please, then theoretically, you can manipulate your appearance too.” Y/N coldly affirmed, her grip never easing.

His growls stared to sound more animalistic, being found out was really making him that mad?

“It was still the real Hiro until yesterday at least, so, what did you do to the real one?”

He managed to break free from her grasp, her back harshly hitting against the ground as he wrapped his hands around her neck.

“When I ate him, I had access to a lot of his memories.” He suddenly started to grow to the size of an adult, his appearance distorting like he was melting, there was no sight of Hiro in him anymore. “Kids are so cute, right? He had a crush on that Ichika girl, if I had left them be, then maybe they could've had married when they grew up.”

He approached his face to hers, a cold smile in his face. “Well, at least they can be together in hell now, right?”

Don't cry. Tears will only hinder you.

“If you have his memories, then do you remember what Ichika said some time ago?” She quietly reached out to her sword. “The one who takes the sword out will be the king.” She stabbed his head, the blade crossing through his skull and stabbing her own shoulder, both of them now stuck in the ground.

“Are you crazy?!” He started to try to move away, but besides the sword being already quite profound in the ground, her grip on the hilt was so strong that her knuckle was white.

“I don't care, even if we have to stay here until sunrise.” You could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't joking.

He kept trying to bite her face or to scratch her with his claws, but the sword across his head and eye made it almost impossible to move properly.

“I- I can't m-move-” Yuki cried, Kota approaching her and harshly slapping her face. “MOVE!”

She looked shocked as he grabbed her arm and started to pull her with him. “We have to bring help! Keep running and don't look back!”

And they finally left, leaving Y/N alone with the demon. “DAMN IT! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! YOU BITCH! YOU DAMN WHORE!”

Y/N couldn't hear his insults or screams, everything sounded like a buzzing.

She couldn't hear the crickets anymore, nor smell the grass that surrounded them.

Blood. It all smells like blood.

“UNTIL A WHILE AGO YOU COULDN'T EVEN MOVE JUST AFTER SEEING THAT YUKI GIRL GETTING SICK, AND NOW YOU CAN GO AND STAB YOURSELF SO EASILY?! GIMME A BREAK!”

This demon probably also has a story.

Just like any other demon, he most likely suffered when he was human, and ended up being turned when he needed help the most.

If Y/N kills him with one of her breathing forms, then he will be able to go to heaven.

But she doesn't want that.

Does that make her a hypocrite?

She's so mad. She can't let go of this ugly feeling.

So much from an angel, right? She can't wait to see him burn.

“JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS, I WILL- UGH-” Something stabbed him.

He looked down, seeing the recognizable syringe Shinobu uses to treat the sick stabbed on his thigh.

Kota and Yuki were standing beside them, trembling in fear. “A-are you sure we won't get in trouble for stealing this?”

“This is more important! Now give me another one!” Kota exclaimed, Yuki tearfully handing him another syringe.

“DAMN IT! I WILL KILL YOU BOTH TOO!” He reached his arm out to attack them, Y/N grabbing his wrist. “DON'T MOVE!”

Kota stabbed another syringe in him, the demon's skin slowly turning purple. “It's working!”

“DAMN IT! DAMN IT! ᴅᴀᴍɴ ɪᴛ! ᵈᵃᵐⁿ ᶦᵗ!” And he crumbled, disappearing like he was never there in the first place.

Y/N's arm fell limp in the ground, her breath heavy.

“Y/N! H-Hold on! I will-” Yuki grabbed the sword's hilt, trying to pull it out from her shoulder, the pained screams Y/N couldn't help but let out weren't helping the kid calm down.

The sword finally slipped out, the girl falling into her butt.

Yuki silently looked at the bloodied blade on her lap, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.

She loudly cried, hugging her knees and trembling like she was freezing to death.

Y/N used all of her strength to stand up again, limping in the direction of Ichika's body.

“Y/N?” Yuki sniffed, running after her.

She silently crouched beside her body, moving away the hair strands from the kid's face.

There was no way Ichika would survive, her wound was similar to the one Kyojuro received in the original timeline.

“Ichika… this is all a joke, right?” Yuki said, slightly shaking her limp body. “You and Hiro planned this to scare me, right?”

No answer.

“Please, tell me that this isn't real!” Her tears splashed on Ichika's face. “You can't die! I don't want to be alone! Is it because I got sick before and scared you? I'm sorry! I-If you wake up, I promise I won't do it again!” She hugged her body, crying even more loudly than before.

It's funny how easily happiness can be broken.

Just yesterday, they were playing and laughing like sadness wasn't even a real thing.

And now, it took less than a second to lose someone.

Y/N can't get used to death. Every time she loses someone, it hurts just like the first time.

The difference is that she can't erase it this time.

If she had identified who the demon was sooner, then Hiro and Ichika wouldn't have to die, and Yuki and Kota wouldn't have to suffer.

Who cares if there was no way of knowing since it was probably constantly changing appearances, she still had the responsibility of finding it.

But since she can't erase this mistake, she will have to live with this regret forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.

Forever.