Festivities

                                    

                                          
You both stayed in your tight embrace, holding one another in fear of letting go. 

"Yoriichi, I'm so sorry," you uttered, your voice cracking with each word as tears flowed down your face like streams. 

"Shhh... Y/N, don't apologise." He reassured you as he stroked your hair like when you were kids.

"No, Yori, let me apologise." You said this as you walked to a more secluded place. You turned to face him before bowing deeply. 

"The reason I went off those days to kill a reckless amount of demons was because I knew my time was about to end." You tried to explain, your hands shaking in anger at your actions. 

"I wanted to contribute something more before I reached 25. I was scared of my existence being meaningless. (Of my reincarnation being meaningless.) I didn't inform anyone. I abandoned you, father, my own husband, and the rest of the slayers for my own selfishness." You refused to hold your words back because, for the past 10  years, you have never forgiven yourself. 

The guilt and regret crept within your heart as you thought about how similar your actions were to Kokushibo's.

"I am deeply sorry for my actions; I would never blame you if you killed me. However, please let me..." You then mouth the next few words. 
"Get revenge on IT." 

A moment of silence was left between you and your brother. You could sense the trepidation in his heart and the conflict in his breathing; however, you opened your eyes to tears falling to the ground and splattering. 

"Y/N, look at me." Yoriichi commanded. You instantly went to face him, where he cupped your face in his hands. 
"How could I ever want to kill you? I haven't blamed you, admonished you, or done anything in the past decade."

You saw his hurt expression, one of the few times that he let his negative emotions be expressed as anything but quiet ennui. 

"I'm not saying that." 

"Y/N!" He yelled, causing you to fall silent. "You must have had a horrible time. I wasn't there to stop you; I wasn't there to help you; I wasn't there to stop you from becoming a demon."

"That day, I saw you standing over his body crying. I didn't see a demon; I saw my dear sister, who had lost her partner. I saw a human."

Those words resounded in your mind like an echo. Human. He saw a human. A person. Not a monster, not a murder. But a human. 

Turning to see his face, you couldn't help yourself but be overcome with relief. Relief in the eyes of your brother. That you were still a person.

You felt like you had been crying too much lately. But you let it happen again. 

———

"Are you okay now?" Yoriichi said as he returned, holding a dango. He sat next to you on the bench near a type of stage in the centre of the festival. 
"Wait... can demons even eat this?"

"We can; it just doesn't do anything for us. We aren't ghouls." You replied as you took the confectionery and started eating. 

"Ghouls?"

"Don't worry about it; we won't have to deal with them... ever." 

Both of you slowly began eating your dango in silence, not one that felt awkward due to a lack of words to say; the silence was comfortable.