Chapter Text
Earlier
A foreign man walked into a general store in the small village of Himekawa, just north of the Butterfly Estate. He was reading a map that showed a pathway to the Butterfly Estate drawn out for him that ran from the village to it. He also had a small list of people written on said map, which contained Zenitsu, James, Kaigaku, and Nezuko, as well as one more name that had been crossed out already.
As he walked in, he noticed several people milling about and checking out items for sale, most of which was food. The store owner, an older man manning the counter with another younger man, noticed him and was surprised to see a foreigner so deep in rural Japan, but greeted him politely nonetheless. “Oh, good morning. Welcome to my store. Do you need anything?”
“Yes,” said the foreign man in fluent Japanese, surprising the store owner. “I can find exactly what I’m looking for in this store.”
“Excellent,” the store owner replied. “If you need any help, just let us kno-“
The store owner was then cut off by the sound of bullets before falling onto the ground, having been shot three times by the foreign man. The younger man at the counter screamed in fear, “Ho-… Ah-… Holy shit! What the fuck is wro-?!”
The foreign man then shot him twice, killing him as well and covering the wall behind him with blood and brain matter from a headshot. The other four people in the store all ran out, panicking and crying as chaos swept over them. The foreign man was not concerned with them at all, and soon holstered his gun before pulling out a knife and walking over to the two men. “I can at least get some good food.” He then began to cut into the store owner’s arm, slowly slicing through the skin, the muscles, and then the bones before it came completely off. Once the arm was cut off from the body, he began to sink his teeth into it, devouring the flesh and blood within.
Just as he ate all five fingers and ripped off a piece of the hand, several villagers began shouting outside, with one voice yelling out, “He’s in here! He shot the store owner and his son! Get that monster before he gets away!”
“God damn it,” the foreign man said to himself in English. He then put the partially-eaten arm down and quickly began to reload his revolver as the villagers outside banged on the door. Once he was finished, the door was busted down, and several men charged in with farming blades as improvised weapons. He responded by firing his gun four times, shooting three of the men and killing one.
Another man outside yelled as the foreign man ran out of the store, pointing his gun at the crowd to frighten them, “Holy shit, he’s got a gun! Get away!”
He then hopped onto his horse, which was tied down next to the store, before pulling out a knife and cutting the rope used to tie it down and commanding the horse with, “Canter! Canter!” As the horse began to gallop away, a man tried to attack it, but the foreign man stabbed his arm with a knife, causing the man to recoil in pain. The foreign man said to himself as he sped away from the village, the residents powerless to stop him without guns of their own, “That’s one target down. Now I gotta get to the Butterfly Estate…”
…
Present
Chiyo and Rinji were racing down the road as fast as they could when they saw a man on horseback speeding towards them in the opposite direction. Chiyo pointed at the man and asked Rinji, “Hey, is that him?”
The man said nothing as he pulled out a revolver and aimed it at the two of them, prompting Rinji to pull out his own gun and yell, “Chiyo, get down!”
Rinji and the man then exchanged gunfire, emptying all six rounds of their firearms. Chiyo pulled out her gun and also opened fire on the man, taking aim at his horse first to take it down. The loud cracks of bullets being fired and then flying through the air caused many of the birds in the trees nearby to fly away, startled by the deafening sounds.
When the gunfire ended, the man crawled out from under his now dead horse and yelled at the two of them in English, “You bastards killed my God damn horse!” He had been shot several times, but he was still standing despite bleeding from the bullet holes. He then ran to the shade within the forest as quickly as he could despite his injuries.
Rinji, who was covering up a bullet wound to the abdomen with one hand, said to Chiyo, “Help me get into the woods! I need shade to heal!”
“Got it,” Chiyo replied as she holstered her gun and ran over to help Rinji walk into the woods. “What about that guy?”
“He’s just running. Looks like he’s an American demon, so he’ll need to heal in the shade like me.” A trail of blood followed them as Rinji finally reached good tree cover from the sunlight and began to slowly heal from his bullet wound. As he did, he saw Chiyo’s crow come flying down and told it, “Go back to the Butterfly Estate and tell them we need help!”
The crow replied to him, “Caaw! Understood!”
“And tell them to send someone to our location and have the rest track down that guy! He should be in the woods somewhere!”
“Caaw! Will do! Will do!” The crow then flew away as fast as he could to tell the Butterfly Estate of the incident and to get help.
Rinji laid down next to a tree and coughed up blood as Chiyo pulled out a set of small bandages and began to pack his abdominal wound with them to slow the bleeding. “Agh, fuck…”
Chiyo, deeply concerned for him, asked him, “Do you feel anything healing?!”
“A little bit,” he replied. “And of course this happens in the middle of the fucking day, so I’d have to wait too long for night to come.”
…
Back at the Butterfly Estate, Shinobu and Aoi were discussing Tanjiro’s awakening in the former’s office. “I’m glad he’s finally awake,” Shinobu expressed to her. “Not just for his sake, but for Kanao’s as well. She’s been so worried for the past two months.”
“Tell me about it,” Aoi nodded. “How far along are you and her in your pregnancies now?”
“About nineteen weeks for both of us. It’s funny, actually. We both got pregnant around the same time.”
“Do you miss being out in the field and fighting demons?”
“Of course,” Shinobu smiled. “I’m still a demon slayer and a Pillar, but right now, being a mother is the most important thing. I’ll go back to hunting demons as soon as I can once the baby is born. Me and Giyu are working out a schedule for watching him or her.” She then turned back to her desk and began to write up a medical report regarding Tanjiro’s current condition.
“That reminds me,” Aoi then asked. “When are you and Tomioka-sama getting married?”
Shinobu froze upon hearing that question, setting her pen down. “Aoi…”
“What’s wrong?”
“I know it’s not common for women to have children out of wedlock,” Shinobu explained to her. “And society doesn’t look kindly at those who do, but… We probably won’t get married until after the baby is born.”
Aoi, confused, asked her, “Why?”
“I want to work some things out with Giyu before I do that,” Shinobu admitted. “Honestly, we’ve both been so busy that we haven't had a lot of time together, and I’m concerned it’s hurting our relationship right when we need to be together the most.”
“But what if you end up a single mother as a result? What will other people think?”
“That’s a question I’ve asked myself plenty of times. Admittedly, if the worst happens, I might end up one anyway if… Well, you know. Also…” Shinobu then took a deep breath and told Aoi in a quieter tone of voice, “What I say next is to not leave this room.”
Aoi nodded, “Yes.”
“The Demon Slayer Corps is in negotiations with the Japanese government to plan for a major operation in the future,” Shinobu explained. “We don’t know when, but the Pillars have been discussing a plan of action during our monthly meetings, and as of this month, we will have a representative from the Imperial Army. We all feel as though we can end the war within a year or two, although we are not one-hundred-percent certain.”
Aoi was shocked. “An end to the war?!”
“Correct. Again, nothing is in stone yet, but we feel as though with some assistance from the government, we can defeat Muzan. With recent events in Yoshiwara and the Infinity Train Incident, the government is finally waking up to the true danger demons pose to Japan.”
They then heard a knock at the door, followed by Giyu’s voice on the other side. “Shinobu, can I come in?”
“Sure,” she replied.
As Giyu walked in, he saw Aoi and asked Shinobu, “If you’re, um… Not busy, can I speak to you alone?”
Aoi then got up from her chair. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Once her adoptive sister was gone, Shinobu turned to her boyfriend and asked him, “What do you want to talk about, Tomioka-san?”
Giyu replied to her, “You’re never gonna stop calling me that, are you?”
“Force of habit, Giyu,” she replied, changing up how she referred to him.
“And there you go and change it… Anyway, it’s about, um… Us…”
“...Yes?” Shinobu was worried about Giyu’s tone of voice, her lighthearted expression now gone. “Giyu, what’s wrong?”
“We need to spend more time together. We’ve barely seen each other since January, and…” Giyu paused as he tried to come up with how to phrase what he was feeling. “Well… I miss you, Kocho.”
“Ah, I see… I miss you, too, Tomioka-san.”
“We also need to discuss what would happen if either one of us dies after the baby is born. If you intend to go back to active duty once our child is born, we need to have a plan in case… Well…” Giyu was visibly uncomfortable with the possibilities laid out before them. “Just in case we both die.”
“I can tell it’s not something you like to think about, and I don’t like to think about it either.” She then laid a hand on her abdomen. “I want to raise this child with you, and when this war is over, I would love to have more children with you, Giyu, but… I know there’s a good chance one of us will be killed, or maybe even both of us. Even so, neither of us can afford to retire, not when we are so close to victory. If I have to, I will die to make sure our child lives in a world where Muzan won’t threaten him.”
“I agree.” Giyu, thinking about the other two couples among the Pillars with children or expecting children, then asked her, “Have you spoken to Kanroji, Iguro, Colby, or Tokito about how they’re planning for such a scenario?”
“Only Mitsuri-chan,” Shinobu explained. “She tells me that when her baby is born, she and Iguro-san are gonna do everything they can so she doesn’t get pregnant until the final battle, since we’re expecting a big confrontation within a year or two. It, uh… Let’s just say it won’t be easy, since those two have sex nearly every day, even with her being pregnant.”
“Do they use condoms like we did?”
“No, not at all,” Shinobu shook her head. “Look, I’m not gonna police them about it like I do to Nezuko-chan and Zenitsu-kun or Kanao and Tanjiro-kun. They’re both adults, and older than me at that. Those other two pairs, though… They’re older, but they’re still adolescents, and having Kanao get pregnant now wasn’t the best thing to happen. Nezuko’s younger, although not terribly so, and I really don’t want her to get pregnant, at least not until Muzan is defeated. I don’t really give a shit what happens after that.” Shinobu shrugged. “For all I care, Mitsuri-chan can go on to have nine more kids once we win.”
An amused Giyu commented, “With how much they fuck, I wouldn’t be surprised…”
“But like I said, it really should wait until after that final confrontation.”
“Agreed.” Giyu then sighed and prepared himself to ask her another question. “So, um… There’s something else, Shinobu.”
“And that is?”
Giyu then took a hold of Shinobu’s right hand, surprising her. “I don’t want our child to be born out of wedlock. I know we haven’t been together terribly long, but I’ve been in love with you for years, and I know you have with me, too.”
“I know what you’re about to ask, and…” Shinobu thought to herself as she felt a wave of conflicted feelings hit her, “My heart is telling me to marry Giyu, but my mind is telling me to wait… Which one do I listen to?”
“Will you marry me, Kocho Shinobu?”
“Giyu… I-”
“Caaw! Caaw!”
“Huh?” Shinobu turned around to find Chiyo’s crow perched on a windowsill, having found that the window to the room was wide open.
“Emergency! Emergency! South of Himekawa on the road to it! Sotozaki Chiyo and Rinji need help! Caaw! Armed American demon coming here! Coming here!”
“Oh shit,” Shinobu muttered. She turned to Giyu and told him, “We need to go out there and help them.”
“We?”
“I’m coming, if only for medical purposes.” She then got up and walked out of the room, Chiyo’s crow following her. “Hurry it up, Tomioka-san!”
“Ah, right!” Giyu then got up as well, trailing behind Shinobu as she walked into her bedroom and grabbed her sword and her gun. “You’re gonna fight while pregnant?”
“I don’t want to, but if it comes down to it…” She then opened the cylinder of her revolver to see if it was loaded before closing it up and holstering it. “I’ll be ready.”