The snowy morning scenery was especially enchanting. The cool, crisp wind flowed into the lungs with each breath, clearing the mind completely.
"Hanako, Shigeru, there's no need to pack things like that."
Nezuko wiped the faint sweat from her forehead. Even just tidying up a few things had left her slightly out of breath.
After bundling the clothes and setting them aside, Nezuko subconsciously looked toward Yuko in the corridor.
The snow-dusted straw hat and the katana had been placed together at the side of the hallway. That wine-red, softly wavy long hair fell down her back to her waist, and her delicate profile carried a faint, beautiful curve of a smile.
Suddenly, Nezuko's eyes widened slightly, and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye without her noticing.
How strange…
Why did she feel so sad all of a sudden…
It felt as if the person before her was terribly exhausted… terribly burdened…
It was as though she had seen a scene like this somewhere before…
In a daze, the snowy white before the house rapidly faded from Nezuko's vision. An orange-red sunset spilled down instead, dyeing Yuko's hair an even more vivid shade.
It was as if a voice echoed beside her ear.
"Miss Yuko…" Nezuko murmured, and the sunset reflected in her eyes quickly vanished.
"Hm?" Hearing the call from behind, Yuko turned her head back with a hint of confusion. Had she… introduced herself earlier?
She should have, right?
She smiled and asked, "Is something wrong?"
The bewilderment in Nezuko's eyes quickly faded. After hesitating for a moment, she walked over and sat down beside Yuko in the corridor.
Yuko looked at her in slight confusion, thinking Nezuko wanted to take the child back. She carefully supported the baby from underneath, preparing to pass him over.
"You seem very sad, big sister…" Nezuko looked at her with concern, her eyes faintly glistening with tears.
To feel sad for someone else's sadness…
Yuko blanked out for a moment.
She suddenly remembered why she had fallen in love with this anime in the first place.
Because the people in it—no matter what their personalities were like—each expressed their kindness in their own ways.
The corners of Yuko's lips lifted slightly as she shook her head with a smile.
"No, I'm just a little distracted."
The worry on Nezuko's face did not ease at all. Just as Yuko forced an unnatural smile and was about to say something to smooth things over, Nezuko spoke.
"If you're feeling tired, maybe you could tell me about it."
The smile on Yuko's lips stiffened for a brief instant, her eyes widening slightly.
"If you feel tired, then why not stop and rest for a bit?"
Nezuko's voice overlapped with the words her elder brother had once spoken before his death.
"When I feel upset, I always share it with my mother and my brother," Nezuko said gently.
"When sad things are shared, they don't feel quite as painful anymore."
"Ah, of course, if you don't want to, that's fine too," she hurriedly added at the end, flusteredly waving her hands.
Yuko felt her heart stir slightly. Her fingers, resting on her thighs, tightened and loosened repeatedly.
Nezuko's eyes sparkled with anticipation as she looked at her, even leaning her body forward a little.
"I…"
She couldn't say it.
She couldn't bring herself to tell a twelve-year-old girl that she would be facing danger… she couldn't say it.
A fierce struggle raged in Yuko's heart. In the end, it was as if her mind short-circuited for an instant—she blurted out the first sentence, and then her mouth raced ahead of her brain as she finished telling everything.
So much so that after she was done, Yuko couldn't even imagine how she had managed to say it all out loud.
She clenched both hands tightly and lowered her head, not daring to look at Nezuko.
...
After a long stretch of silence, just when Yuko could no longer bear the suffocating atmosphere and wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear, Nezuko suddenly grasped her tightly clenched hands.
"So that means… if I stay behind, I'll be a great help to you, big sister, right?"
Looking at those childish hands, Yuko hesitated before speaking.
"It's very dangerous. You could die…"
The story had already been changed by her actions. Originally, aside from Tanjiro, who had been lucky enough to be out at the time, the rest of the Kamado family would have met with disaster.
So she couldn't be certain whether things would still play out the same if Nezuko stayed behind alone.
"But if you hadn't warned us, our whole family would have died anyway, right?"
Nezuko's voice was gentle—so gentle that Yuko didn't even have the nerve to lift her head and face her.
"I want to help you. That's my own choice, so… please don't feel guilty about it."
Yuko's expression shifted slightly with emotion as she stiffly raised her head to look at her.
Nezuko curved her eyes and gave her a gentle smile.
Yuko stared at her in a daze, feeling her nose sting and her chest feel unbearably heavy, as if a massive stone had suddenly been pressed down on her heart—an indescribable suffocation.
Nezuko moved closer on her own initiative, gently hugging her and softly patting her back.
"There, there…"
Tears overflowed in Yuko's eyes.
...
That heavy stone had always been there.
Humans are social creatures—no one can survive alone.
Because of emotions.
People need someone they can confide in.
When that person is lost, a human can only bear all kinds of emotions alone. Especially the negative ones—over time, they may grow numb to them, but that does not mean those feelings disappear.
They simply lie dormant, waiting to be triggered again at some point.
...
When Kamado Kie returned from the forest holding her second son Takeo by the hand, what she saw was the two of them locked in an embrace.
And the demon slayer miss was even crying… Could it be that Nezuko had bullied her?
Kamado Kie asked with concern, "What's going on here?"
Yuko came to her senses belatedly and quickly let go, her ears tinged red as she wiped away her tears.
"It's nothing. Some sand got into my eyes."
Takeo still had his axe slung over his shoulder. When he saw Yuko's stunning appearance, his cheeks flushed for a moment. After shaking his head, he curled his lips and said, "It's obviously because big sister made you cry."
Yuko had just finished crying. A person who had lived for hundreds of years really had no face left to argue back.
The gentle expression on Nezuko's face froze for an instant, veins faintly bulging at her temple.
She enunciated each word tightly,
"Tao~"
A chill ran down Takeo's spine. He immediately blurted out,
"I—I'll go inside and help pack!"
And he darted straight into the house.
Though Sister Nezuko was usually very gentle, when she got angry, she was the most terrifying— even scarier than Mother.
Kamado Kie frowned slightly, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"Nezuko, you shouldn't bully a guest, you know."
"Mom—!" Nezuko exclaimed in mild frustration.
Kamado Kie gave a light cough.
Yuko hurriedly explained, "No, Nezuko didn't bully me."
Kamado Kie covered her face and chuckled softly. Of course she knew that was impossible—she had just wanted to tease her daughter a little.
"Uh…"
Seeing Kamado Kie stifling her laughter and Nezuko puffing out her cheeks, Yuko felt her head ache slightly.
"Mother, I have something I need to tell you."
Nezuko's serious tone made Yuko's body, which had just relaxed, tense up again.
Kamado Kie looked at her in confusion. "Hm? What is it?"
"I want to stay behind."
"Eh?"
---
Currently at chapter 327 for advance chapters
https:// ko-fi.com/rabi08