Y/N? I'm sorry, I was too hasty in contacting you and ended up making you pass out…

Are you okay now?

I'm truly sorry….

Y/N's eyes slowly opened, she identified the ceiling from the butterfly mansion.

“Ah. You're awake.” She heard a voice, immediately recognizing Goto (The kakushi) staring down at her.

Y/N sat up, her mouth trembling as soon as she realized her voice wasn't coming out.

“Ah! Wait a bit-!” He handed a glass of water to her.

The girl exasperatedly gulped down the liquid, and then spoke up with a strained voice : “Hey….”

“What is it?”

“I'm really….” Her voice still sounded weak.

“Really…?” He pushed her to keep talking.

A loud growl came from her stomach. “I'm really hungry.”

Goto's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, but he still managed to respond politely : “…. I will bring something for you to eat, I was supposed to call Shinobu when you wake up anyway…” He sighed as he got out of the room.

She looked around, noticing Tanjiro sleeping on the bed beside hers, she remembered that he took seven days to wake up in the manga, now she kind of wondered for how long she has been sleeping.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes. 'Ether. Are you there?'

Yes.

'They saw Akaza. What do you think it will happen?'

It's going to be okay. I won't let anyone hurt you.

'How comforting.'

“Y/NNNNNNNN-!!” The door opened with a loud thud, the three kids, Kanao, Aoi and Shinobu entered, followed by Goto with a troubled expression.

The kids immediately tackled her into a hug, crying loudly.

“Okay, everyone! Let's give some space for our patient!” Shinobu politely said, clapping her hands to call their attentions.

Subsequently, she did a quick check-up in Y/N's condition.

She didn't really participate in the fight directly, so she didn't actually receive any particularly bad wounds besides some scratches and bruises here and there, so it was confirmed that she only passed out from exhaustion for 1 day.

'Mitsuri and Tokito will wake up tomorrow, and I will have to wait for Tanjiro to wake up too….'

“Oh, Y/N… uh, I think there's something I should tell you…” Shinobu spoke up with an unsure expression, but was interrupted when two kakushi suddenly opened the door.

“We apologize for interrupting, Lady Shinobu. Is the criminal here?”

“…Huh?”

Last time, Shinobu managed to use her authority to at least let Y/N stay in the butterfly mansion and have some freedom, but things are different now that she committed an infraction for the second time.

With this, like a true criminal, they tied Y/N with a rope and dragged her to the main state.

The thing is…. in this point of the story, Ubuyashiki's health was already deteriorated to the point of him being unable to attend in any trials, and with this, until a trial could be done, she would have to stay there in the main mansion.

And it sucks.

In the butterfly mansion, she already had unknowingly used her charm to be on friendly terms with everyone, even the kakushi who worked there, but the kakushi in this mansion are different people who only know her for 'the girl who tamed two upper moons'.

And so…

“Excuse me, do you know where-”

“AAAAAAAAAAH-” The kakushi she tried to speak with fled in fear.

Basically, everyone is scared shitless of her.

She mopped over to her room. (she was grateful that they at least didn't lock her up in a dungeon or something, though that also might be because they are scared of her)
“Ugh…. this is the fault of that stupid basketball-”

“Stupid what?” Akaza appeared on the window, making her jump.

“Nothing! Who's a basketball? Definitely not you! Ha…haha…”

Despite her joking tone, she quickly sighed and leaned against the wall with a dejected expression.

“You knew this was going to happen, no point in getting depressed now.” Akaza commented while entering the room, despite his words, you could see genuine concern in his expression.

He's right.

'Shut up Ether, nobody's speaking with you.'

“Yeah… I knew but… Haaah, I didn't think they would find out that soon… what should I do now?”

'Is this another failed timeline? I know that demons like Daki, Gyutaro and Akaza deserved better, but if I need to lose everything else just to be able to let them live, then maybe I should just….'

“Ugh… Argh!” Akaza started to angrily scratch his hair like he was troubled, and then said : “Look, tell them that I kidnapped you or something.”

“What?”

“Yeah, say something really terrible, like I manipulated you and made you go along with me, anyway, just blame me.”

“…. But then, what will you do after? Muzan will probably kill you if you go back, won't he?”

Akaza avoided eye-contact.

'…really? He's willing to get in so much trouble just to help me…? And… and I was thinking such terrible things a second ago…' She felt a pang of guilty in her heart.

Y/N bit her lip. “Akaza. I'm not going to lie.”

“What?! Are you cra-”

“No, I'm the one who put us in this mess, so I will take responsibility for it until the end.”

“You- You don't NEED to take responsibility, you already take responsibility for plenty of things already-”

“No way! You're my friend, I would never abandon you like that!”

“Look, I'm glad, okay? I'm REALLY glad you think that way, but if you need to put your life in the line for it, then maybe it's better if we-”

“Even if I lie in that trial, there's no guarantee I will get away with it anyway, so-”

A slight knock to the door was heard, Akaza gave a small unsure look to her before disappearing again.

It's the Ubuyashiki kid.

Y/N slightly opened the door, and just like Ether said, Kiriya was standing there.

“Hi?” She carefully said.

“Greetings.”

After this, they stood there in an awkward silence.

“Is there something you need to ask me or…?” Y/N asked, Kiriya jolted in response.

“I was just…. I came for inspecting your condition.”

“…. In other words, you were worried about me.”

“No!!” He got red. “I mean- yes, but-”

'Wow, I made an Ubuyashiki flustered. I could put that on my curriculum some day.' Y/N thought, staring at the kid stumbling on his words.

“Anyway.” He cleaned his throat. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I'm more than fine! Do you want to come inside?”

“Oh. I don't have permission for that.”

He wants to come inside, though. He's curious about you.

'In that case…'

She grabbed his arm, pulling his arm and making him enter. “Ta-da! Now you're also a criminal!”

He looked dazed for an instant, but smiled at her after a while, Y/N almost had a heart attack at how cute his smile is.

“Uuuh… what should we do now?”

“I will leave it to your choice.”

“Then.....”

.

.

.

“UNO!” Do you remember the card deck Y/N had? They were actually a normal card deck that she painted over to make a fake UNO, she was planning to teach the people on the butterfly mansion how to play it, but never found time.

Now, the only ones who knew how to play were Akaza (who she taught in the middle of the battle against upper moon 4) and Kiriya.

After Y/N said uno, Kiriya stared blankly at her, he still had 7 seven cards in his hands as he put all of them down to reveal an entire +4 sequence.

“Wha- how is that possible?!”

“You made too many of these +4 cards, it's easy to accumulate them.” He said.

'Ugh, playing with smart kids sucks.'

“Kiriya-sama! Are you there?” A kakushi suddenly opened the door, and froze in fear after seeing the scene. “Wah! K-k-k-kiriya-sama-! You can't!”

“Do you want to play too?” Y/N suddenly asked.

“What?”

“Cards. Do you want to play? Maybe if there's more people, it will be less easy to accumulate the +4 cards.” She commented.

“It makes sense, but you still should throw some away.” Kiriya completed.

'As expected of the person who tamed an upper moon, even someone as smart as Kiriya was enchanted-!' The kakushi misunderstood everything.

Though, because he couldn't go against his superior (and because he was afraid Y/N would curse him or something), he ended up caving in and going to play too.

And after a while… “UNO!”

“+4” Kiriya immediately said.

“YOU MONSTER-!” The kakushi exclaimed, he got absorbed in the game to the point that he forgot Kiriya was his master and he probably shouldn't call him a monster.

“Hey, Haru! Are you there? You went to look for the master and disappeared, you shouldn't lack off in the….job(?)” Another kakushi entered the room, and froze when the three turned to stare at him.

'Huh? HUH?! The master, the demon tamer and Haru?! Playing?! Together?!'

“Ah, great! More people!” Y/N suddenly said. “What's your name?”

“It's… A-Arata…. please spare my life-” He started to tear-up as the girl approached him with a smile.

And after some MORE time… “What kind of sorcery is this? Why is it so addictive?”

Everyone ended up falling in the uno curse.

The worst part is that more kakushi started to appear to look for their missing colegues, only to end up stuck in the room too, and after a while, the place was getting quite crowded.

Though, everything ended when Lady Amane herself entered next, she got suspicious when the house suddenly seemed strangely empty, and her son wasn't anywhere to be seen too.

She didn't say anything, but the kakushi all left one by one while staring down, Kiriya also exasperatedly got up and walked over to her.

“I apologize.” He bowed.

'Wow… so pretty…' Y/N stared at her in awe.

“Y/N.” She suddenly spoke up, making Y/N snap out of her trace.

“Uh! Y-yes?”

“A hashira reunion will be held in three days for us to discuss how to move on from here, we will take advantage of the opportunity to also decide about what to do with you.”

“Okay…” She nodded as Lady Amane left.

Kiriya politely bowed to Y/N and turned to leave, but suddenly stopped.

He slightly turned to look at her, and then said : “Y/N, I… I hope you live.”

Her eyes widened, and then she smiled gently : “Thank you. After this ends, let's play together again, okay?”

He smiled back, nodding silently with his head before leaving.

“Phew… I was so nervous! Lady Amane is so pretty that I lost all my words…” Y/N said, laying down the futon on the floor and trying to sleep.

'She has no expression, so I can't tell how she feels… I wonder if she thinks I'm some kind of evil genius who's manipulating her son…' 

She's confused about you.

'Ah, I forgot you were there.'

How hurtful. But back to Amane, she was happy to see her son have fun, but is still unsure about you.

'Happy? Really? I totally couldn't tell! I wish I were able to be THAT expressionless-!'

You don't need to. Part of the reason why so many people stay around you is because of how expressive you are anyway.

'Yeah… but this 'expressive' part of me is only causing trouble now…'

Do you regret bringing Akaza with you?

'No. He deserves to be happy. Like everybody else in this corps.'

Even if you end up being the only one unhappy?

'….'

I apologize. I am making things difficult, aren't I?

'yes. you are.'

....Don't worry, something's changing. I can see it.

Y/N squeezed her eyes shut, trying to send the hint that she was going to sleep now, Ether didn't say anything else for the rest of the night.

In the next day, she opened her door to see a pile of candies and random snacks in front of her room. 'what the heck… what's all that.?'

The kakushi left it there. They felt sorry for treating you the way they treated before.

'Is that so?' She crouched to analyze them. 'But I wasn't offended or anything… they didn't need to…'

Of course they needed to! It's only right for them to realize their mistakes and praise how great you are!

'Ether, you're letting your obsession show again.'

Sorry.