♣︎•3rd POV•♣︎

The moon illuminates a glowing ring around its round figure as a flight of birds flashes by. Stars pokes through the thin layers of grey clouds, and the snoring of people lightly tells a tough day. The dark, chilly night whispers through cold winds.

Birds snuggle between each other, feeling the warmth and love of family. Something some people had never felt from anyone.

The half-black and half-white kitsune mask lays on the side of Yashimi's tsukue as her body faces the wall. Her long, dull, snowy hair spreads on the bed, almost like butter being spread on a toast.

Hot breaths escape through her nose.

A tall figure with a pair of plum red eyes swiftly made his way to the room where a soundless Yashimi lays asleep and untouched.

She had been feeling a bit less paranoid from the appearance of Kibutsuji Muzan because of the company of Tomioka Giyuu.

With light footsteps, he strides his way through the estate. It's surprisingly small, yet the figure did not let his guard down. Anyone can detect his sense if they had a good sense of feeling presences or touch.

The shoji quietly opens and closes with no thud or sound. The night crickets are asleep, and so is the moon as it is now covered with clouds.

Her face shines dully with the lantern's dim light, slightly hiding the features of her face and darkening her shadows from behind.

"Oh, Tsuyazouki Kishiyaki, how you have forgotten about me. You even forgot what you swore to me in your past life."

Muzan speaks with a tone that can send a shiver down to your spine if you were there, lacing with sarcasm. "Your gorgeous face is too perfect for anyone to have it. It's just too perfect."

His hand fists inside his pocket as his free hand reaches out to her cold, relaxed face. He slightly bends down, a small, clear curl up on the corners of his lips.

The sight in front of him is truly perfect. "A face as perfect as yours should be with me. Not with the face of a weak swordsman." Muzan says, a tone of disapproval and disguist, cupping his chilly hand against Yashimi's.

Or is she even Yashimi.

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☆•Yashimi POV•☆

My whole body wakes up, alerted and ready to do hand-to-hand combat. But as I'm about to make a move, I feel a pressuring feeling that someone is here.

I resist myself to get up. Instead, I lay down as if I was still sleeping peacefully.

Suddenly, against the warmth of my skin, an icy touch of someone's palm cups my cheeks.

I snap my eyes open. My eyes meet red orbs, staring at me. Warm and kind beind it. "Huh? What is.. where am I?" I say in my head. I sit up and look down. I'm wearing a dark royal blue kimono with a black obi with crescent moons as designs.

"Don't be silly, Kishiyaki." That deep voice says, his hand averting away from my skin. I pull myself away from him.

We're inside a dimly lit room, and we're sitting on a bench. The room was big, with wooden walls, designed like a normal house.

"Who-.. who are you?! And where am I!?" I turn to him, still silent with my voice and taking a few steps back. I try heightening my sense, but they rather seem calm.

My body is calm. "And I can't speak?! How come it feels like he's heading everything I say..?"

This man is definitely Muzan, but Muzan isn't sweet like him. There's just no way in hell that that's Muzan.!!

I look to my side, not moving an inch. "Whatever do you mean, Kishiyaki? We're inside the infinity castle. Where else would we be?" He says knowingly. He makes his way to me, grabbing my hand and walking us outside.

"See?" He turns to me with a securing, soft, and small smile. Infinity castle? What..? Outside of this medium-sized room are confusing dire rooms of staircases.

Most stairs are upside down. Some are definitely defying gravity.

"Don't be stupid now, hm?" He leans closer to me, lips close to my ear, and his hot breath against my ear. "I'll be back, so don't try anything this time."

And with that, his tall figure disappeared without a slight movement or sound from anything. "Why am I so calm over this??!" My thoughts panicks, but my body still stays calm. Even the pounding in my chest doesn't punch hard.

I touch my face. "MY FACE!!??" I scream in my thoughts. "Where is my kitsune mask!" I turn around to the bench we had just sat on, but it's nowhere to be found.

"I.. this must be a dream! How do you escape a dream.!!" I look at the kimono that wraps around my somewhat chubby figure. "How..!? I have to get back to Tomioka-sama!" A blushing wave washes over my cheeks.

"I can't believe I'm thinking of him when I'm literally trapped here. The hell is up with my head." I scold myself silently. "Anyways, the objective, right!" I rumble my head to get it organized.

"Right.. uhm.. I have to.. ehr," my eyes dart at everything it can stare at. My heart feels like it has started to beat faster, and so did my breathing. 'What the..??! WHAT IS THIS??!! Why am I feeling this way?!!'

My hands travel from my thighs, face, and to my hair, gripping on it tightly. My head feels so tight it's as if it is a heavy rock, unmoving.

My vision is getting blurry every second? Minute? Has it already been an hour? Now my head feels like I'm carrying 500 kilos of whatever is heavy.

"Ah! Dammit..!!"

My neck and face start to form sweat, and its glistening crystal water leaves an uncomfortable stain on my skin. I feel like the food from yesterday finally wants to come out, but through my mouth.

My lungs feel like their getting suppressed.

"Haha! Muzan-sama!!"

A voice echoes through my head. My body freezes. "Mu.. Muzan.. -sama...?" The word comes out as a silent hatred curse. My body begins to tremble.

'Why do I feel this way? I haven't gotten any proper conversation with him.. what's wrong with me now?!'

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♣︎•3rd POV•♣︎

(12000 years ago.)

"Muzan-sama. What do you do outside of the infinity castle?? I wanna know!!" A voice filled with so much childish and curiosity-seeking tone says.

Kishiyaki and Muzan walk along the endless hallways of the infinity castle, hand-in-hand. A calming uplift on Muzan's mouth only appears on special occasion, but when Kishiyaki is around, that same smile never seems to leave his salmon-pink lips.

A royal purple kimono with lavender floral designs wraps around Tsuyazouki Kishiyaki's rectangle-like body shape, accompanied by a tuscan sun yellow obi covered in hanabishi patterns.

Whereas the infamous Muzan Kibutsuji wears his usual white suit that makes his hourglass body stand out, and the waves of his hair energetically curled up as if his entire being is naturally drawn to her.

"Not.. much. I usually try to find this beautiful flower." Muzan says as they stop walking. "But honestly, all I need is you. Don't leave me, Tsuyazouki." Muzan's muscular hand that's covered in his suits cloth, his voice gentle and smoothing.

"I won't, Muzan-sama."

----

(800 years ago)

My breaths become shallower by the second as my hand grips on the kimono on my breast, making it wrinkle. My chest feels like it's stabbing itself from my insides, and a blockage appears in my throat, trapping the air inside.

Sweat forms on my forehead and face, just like how the air around the grass saturates turns into droplets of water. My body unequally shakes like an earthquake. The food from my stomach almost erupts like an impatient volcano, wanting to explode.

My head's thoughts hurl around and echo through the entire room, sweat dripping from my face to the ground. The quiet place eerily eyes at me, as if an invisible being pierce their eyes through my soul.

My knees shiver underneath the kimono as the deep awareness and hints stabs at my stomach. 'How could I have not known this!?' My thought scolded me as if like a mother lecturing her child for being irresponsible, and that's what I am.

I'd been irresponsible.

"I was really Muzan's.. lover."

The words cut me like some kind of tanto that pierced through my heart unexpectedly.

-----

(400 years)

"Muzan-sama will live with me in here? Forever?"

"Yes. Forever. Under everyone's attention, they won't convince us otherwise, Tsuyazouki."

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(200 years ago)

"Can't I go outside?" I asked, sadness rolling in my body as I'd known what he'd say. Judging from his footsteps, the way he's trying to suppress himself, it was all too familiar.

"No. Not today, okay? Tsuyazouki." He said, his voice seemingly and reluctantly trying to be positive. "Why not?!" I fasten my speed closer to him.

"You always say not today or maybe tomorrow! Why don't you,"

A slam against my cheek snaps my head to the side. The sparkle in my eyes disappears as a burning sensation kicks in, and I let my finger lightly caress the red tint.

I turn to him, and a shaky, cold breath escapes through my mouth. "You-.. You've done it again, Muzan-sama." I say, my eyes shaking from.. fear, perhaps.

His hands immediately wrap around me, trapping me into a disgustingly comforting embrace, and he buries his face into the crook of my neck. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry, Tsuyazouki. Please.. forgive me."

He repeats over and over again. The word sticks to my mind. Clashing and colliding through my brain. My pupils stop shaking as I'm stuck back to reality.

"You know how much I love you. I'm just trying to protect you. Please.. forgive me."

'He's gonna repeat this. Forever.'

-----

The memory flashes through. 'A memory..? From the past. From my past life?!' My eyes blinks, and blinks, and another one. I can't stop the blinking. 'What if what Tamayo-sama had said was.. Oh, Kami-sama.' The hand from my chest travels up to my mouth.

'I can't believe it. My relationship, my body, my lips, and my life??! It had been accompanied by that man!!?? Were those my other past.. lives?! Had he planned to trap me forever with him?! What kind of sick joke is he thinking?!'

An arrow hits my head. "Right..!" I push my hand away from my mouth, letting the somewhat fresh air replace the choking feeling, a reminder of my suffocation. "I need to get out of here. If this really is all just a dream—which it should be—I just have to hit myself."

I look back at the medium-sized room where we sat on very earlier. "A little pain won't hurt me." A shaking sensation on my shoulder whispers a warning for me.

"Wake up!" A voice screams. I look around, but no voice reflects through the open hallway. "Was that.. Tomioka-sama?..! Never mind that."

I readied myself. "Okay.. Yashimi, you got this. You'll wake up and see Tomioka-sama."

"Tomioka-sama."

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★•Giyuu POV•★

I managed to sprint towards her room the moment I heard the shoji close with a quiet thud. I was about to ignore it when my stomach twisted in knots. 'What if that man had come back? What if he's kidnapping Fujimura now?' The thoughts run around like a rolling coaster. I would've never forgiven myself.

"Fujimura-san, wake up!" My hand shakes the sweaty small figure laying on my futon. "Fujimura-san!" I call out her name again.

When I slammed the shoji open, I knew an unfamiliar presence had just been in here. The moment my eyes darted towards Fujimura, I just knew something had happened to her.

She was groaning, sweating, and seemed to be in agony. An eternal agony unless I woke her up.

Her body immediately sits up, her hand on her chest, and her other arms gripping on mine. Her breaths are heavy and long, and her dilated eyes are full of flickering fear and a state of panic.

I immediately wrap my hands around her as she chokes out a silent sob. I stroke my hand on her warm back. "Breathe. Breathe, Fujimura." I comfort her as she covers her face on the crook of my neck.

"Muzan.. he- he-.." A hiccup cuts her sentence. "No, no, please. Don't talk right now. We'll discuss it once you've calmed down." I say, her hands secure their grasp on my loose demon slayer corps uniform.

"It's Muzan. Tamayo-sama wasn't lying..!"