Akira lay on the rooftop of the Butterfly Mansion, hands behind his head as he stared up at the moon and stars.
"I wonder if the Upper Ranks and Muzan started talking about us…" he muttered.
Selena's voice echoed telepathically. "Probably. He definitely knows about you after your fight with Akaza. And now you killed an Upper Moon, and Erika used her vampire powers in that fight, too. I'm pretty sure Muzan is curious about us."
Akira sighed. "Well, I guess that's inevitable."
Their battle with Upper Moon Six, Daki, and Gyutaro had ended well. None of the demon slayers lost their lives or limbs… though normal people had inevitably been caught in the chaos. Now, Akira rested on the roof, simply watching the stars.
If he could use proper magic here, he might have flown into the sky like he usually did. But in this world, he settled for just lying here.
"I wonder when Erika will wake up," he muttered again, this time with a worried expression. "I'm worried about her; she hasn't woken up since the fight."
"It's just been a day", Selena replied in an exasperated tone. "Not even a day, just sixteen hours. She's sleeping because she went through a device reconstruction and used a lot of her blood in that fight. She'll wake up soon".
After the battle and after drinking some of Akira's blood, Erika had simply collapsed from exhaustion. Her newly reconstructed Device now used her blood directly, and she had stopped the explosion that would've destroyed the entire district. It made sense that she was still asleep.
Akira groaned. "I can't believe I missed her device reconstruction. I really, really wanted to see that."
Well, Selena said smugly, I recorded it, so you can watch it whenever you want.
"No," Akira frowned. "I wanted to watch it in person. And I was right there…"
"Too bad you missed it then. Some things are…" Selena suddenly paused. "…Oh. Seems like Erika-chan is waking up".
"Huh? Really? I have to be there for it! I can't miss it!" Akira leapt to his feet, dropped from the rooftop, and slipped through the window into their room. He quickly walked to Erika's bedside just as she began to stir.
Erika's eyelashes trembled. The last thing she remembered was the fight… drinking Akira's blood… then everything fading into darkness. As her eyes slowly opened, the first thing she saw was Akira hovering over her with a deeply worried expression.
"Oh, you're finally awake," he said, relief washing over his face. "I've been worried."
Still groggy, Erika murmured, "How long was I out…?"
Akira made a deliberately troubled face. "It's been two months."
Erika instantly jolted fully awake. "What?! I was sleeping for two months!?"
Selena's voice snapped in telepathically. "Erika-chan, he's joking. It's just been like sixteen hours".
Erika let out a tired sigh. "Seriously… what is wrong with you? Is that really the first thing you say to me?"
Akira shrugged. "I'm sorry, but come on, how often do I get an opportunity like that? It's once in a lifetime."
"Whatever… I'm tired," Erika mumbled, realising that's just like him, then she realised something. "Wait, the fight. What happened after I passed out?"
"Well," Akira said, "nothing that important. You just passed out, the demons were defeated, and we came back to the Butterfly Mansion to rest."
Erika frowned. "No, I mean the people. What happened to them? How many casualties?"
Akira paused before answering. "There were a few… around nine people passed away, and about thirty were injured."
"I see…" Erika whispered, eyes dimming with sadness.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me," Aoi's voice called. "I'm bringing dinner."
"Sure, come in," Akira replied.
The door slid open, and Aoi stepped inside and nearly dropped the tray when she saw Erika sitting up.
"Erika-san, you're awake! Akira-san, why didn't you tell us immediately!?"
"She literally just woke up," Akira tried to explain, but Aoi was already gone to alert the others.
Within moments, the room was filled. The three little girls, Aoi, Shinobu, and even Kanao, all crowding around, all talking at once, all clearly worried about Erika.
Akira muttered under his breath, "…Since when did she become that popular?"
Selena answered in his mind. "She's always been popular. You just didn't notice".
Since Erika was the only one who had been unconscious after the battle, everyone had been anxious about her condition. It took a long time before they calmed down, and in the end, Shinobu had to forcibly usher everyone out so Erika could rest properly.
After everyone finally left, Akira let out a long sigh.
"…How do you always make friends so easily?"
Erika smiled softly. "It's not that hard. You can do it too, you know."
Akira frowned a little. "I don't know about that. I can count the number of friends I have on… like, two hands."
"You just need to try," Erika said gently.
Akira waved it off for now. "We can talk about that later. First, are you fine?"
"Sure. I'm just a bit tired, but I'm fine."
"Not about that," Akira said quietly. "You seem sad."
Erika blinked, genuinely surprised. "You… can tell I'm sad?"
"Oh, come on. Even I can tell that much," Akira muttered. "And I know you. So yeah, I can see it."
Erika lowered her gaze. "I'm not sad… just a little mad at myself. If only I hadn't hesitated, I could've saved everyone."
Akira sat down beside her on the bed, listening quietly as she continued.
"If only I fought seriously from the start… if only I had been stronger… I could've saved everyone. So I'm mad at myself and sad for the people I couldn't save."
Akira didn't respond. He wasn't good with emotions, not like her. He didn't care much when random people got hurt or died. But he did care that Erika was hurting, and he didn't know the right words to comfort her. So he simply stayed by her side, making sure she wouldn't feel alone.
After a long silence, she whispered, "I don't know what I should do… What should I do, Akira?"
Akira exhaled slowly. "I think you should remember it. Remember those people who died that day. Feel sad about it, that's normal. And in the future, get stronger so you don't repeat the same mistakes. Then you can save a lot more people."
Erika's eyes widened slightly. "I thought you would tell me to forget about it… or tell me not to care about random people."
Akira scratched his cheek. "That's what I would normally say. But what you're feeling is normal human nature. I'm… not human. I don't have feelings like that."
"Don't say that," Erika said immediately. "Back then, you protected me and Haruna from the werewolves. You almost sacrificed your life to save us. Why did you do that, then?"
"Because I thought my life wasn't that important compared to others."
Erika frowned. "Aren't you contradicting yourself? How can you do that if you don't care about people?"
"I was talking about you and Haruna… well, mostly you. I don't know much about her anyway." Akira looked away. "At that time… I didn't want you to die."
"…Why?" Erika asked quietly.
"I wonder why, too," Akira admitted. "I just felt like doing it."
"What about now?" she asked.
"I'd do the same."
Erika hesitated, then asked, "What would you do if you could only save me or a thousand random people, or yourself? What would you do?"
"That's easy," Akira replied. "I would save you."
Erika's heartbeat stuttered for a moment. Sure, it might sound romantic, but she was actually more worried about him turning to the dark side like a certain chosen one, but she kept her voice steady. "…Then what if the choice was between saving yourself or a thousand random people?"
Akira answered immediately. "I'd save the thousand people."
Erika frowned lightly. "But… didn't you say you don't care much about random people?"
"Sure, I don't," Akira said bluntly. "But I'm not selfish enough to abandon that many people. If the number were small, I wouldn't care too much… but thousands? Even I'm not that heartless."
He shrugged, then waved his hand as if brushing away the topic.
"Anyway, enough about me. Let's talk about you first."
Erika opened her mouth, wanting to respond to several things he just said… but in the end, she swallowed her words. Later, she decided.
"As you can see," Akira said dryly, scratching his cheek, "my morality is all over the place. Even I don't understand what I would do in those situations. I'd probably just do whatever feels right at the time."
Both Erika and Selena, who was listening silently through telepathy, had the same thought at the same time.
"Didn't you literally just say you wanted to stop talking about yourself?
Why are you still talking about yourself then?"
But neither of them said it out loud.
Akira continued, "So… please stay normal for me too."
Erika blinked. "What do you mean?"
"If you want to stay by my side in the future," Akira said casually, "then I want at least one of us to be a normal person. That way, we can complement each other, right?"
"Huh?"
Erika froze, eyes widening.
Inside her mind, she screamed, "Selena, WHAT is he saying?! Does he even realize what he's saying right now?!"
"Calm down, Erika-chan", Selena's voice echoed in her mind. "I'm sure he meant it in general. He isn't the type to think too much before speaking, so relax".
Hearing that, Erika finally managed to steady her breathing.
"…Alright. Then what did you mean?" she asked aloud.
Akira nodded. "I mean, like in this mission, if I do something bad, you can tell me, right? I don't know about the others, but I'll listen to you."
He tapped his chest confidently. "And I can make unhinged decisions when necessary, too. So we can balance each other out."
"…I see," Erika said softly. "That makes sense."
"Yeah." Akira leaned back a little. "That's why it's okay for you to remember those people. It's normal. Just… remember them, and think about how to avoid it next time."
Then he let out a long sigh. "Honestly, I seriously don't think I'm good at consoling people. I'm terrible at this."
He looked at her, then suddenly brightened.
"But if you're still sad… how about going inside Panchan?"
"…What?" Erika stared blankly.
Akira reached into his inventory and pulled out the massive Panchan costume.
"Go inside it. I think you'll feel better."
Erika looked at him like he had grown another head, but in the end, she crawled inside.
The interior was soft, fluffy, warm… and faintly smelled like Akira.
Surprisingly, her shoulders loosened a little. "It is relaxing. Why is that…?"
"Well," Akira explained, "vampires and dhampirs like coffins, right? And you sleep with like an army of stuffed dolls. So this works like a fluffy coffin. Makes sense."
"…It does feel better, actually," Erika admitted.
"Good," Akira said with a small smile. "As long as you're happy."
Then, to her shock, he wrapped his arms around the Panchan suit, hugging it tightly.
"Wha…!?" Erika yelped from inside.
Akira lay down on the bed, still holding the entire costume like a giant plush toy.
"That'll make you feel better, right?" he said matter-of-factly.
From inside, Erika's heartbeat thumped loud enough for him to hear.
"B-but…!"
"Oh, come on. You always hug me when I'm inside it, right?" Akira muttered, rolling onto his side with the doll in his arms. "I don't know how to cheer you up… but I can at least do this."
He didn't say anything else after that.
The room fell silent, except for the sound of Akira's steady breathing
and Erika's racing heartbeat inside the Panchan suit.
Erika eventually calmed down inside the Panchan suit, and after a moment of silence, she spoke softly, trying to change the subject.
"…So, what is our next course of action?"
No answer.
She waited a moment, then asked again, "Akira?"
But still nothing.
Before she could call out a third time, Selena's telepathic voice echoed in her mind, "He's already asleep, Erika-chan".
"…Really?" Erika thought back, startled.
"Yes", Selena replied. "Completely out".
Erika puffed her cheeks inside the costume. "He should at least free me before he goes to sleep…"
"Well, he hasn't slept since yesterday", Selena said. "He must be exhausted. And… you're secretly happy, right?"
Erika's face turned scarlet. "N-no!"
Selena's tone turned teasing. "Ohhh, I get it. You want him to do this without the Panchan costume, right~?"
"S-Selena!!" Erika screamed in her mind.
"Fine, fine. I won't say anything". Selena said in a mischievous voice, "I'll leave you two to it. Goodnight".
"Wait…" Erika tried to call out, but Selena had already severed the connection.
Left alone, with Akira still hugging the Panchan suit tightly in his sleep, Erika sighed inside the fluffy interior.
Maybe because she had slept for so long before… or because of other reasons…
Erika couldn't sleep at all that night.
But at least, Akira slept soundly.