A hardly normal day at the Demon Slayer Corps. 

-linebreak-

"I haven't harmed your husband, yet. If you don't quit the current case you're currently on, for every week you continue to work on it I'll break one of your husband's fingers. If you want him back unharmed you must act immediately," Uzui readout loud, wincing at the breaking fingers part or just at the letter in general.

 Shinobu rests her head in her hands, shaking her head. Shame runs over her as she can feel eyes starring at her, burning into her skull. She feels tears prickle in the corner of her eyes. I messed up, she laments, I messed up and now he's gone, he's hurt, and it's all my fault. 

"So... T-Tomioka-san has really been kidnapped?" Mitsuri stutters out, her voice is unsure as she twiddles her thumbs, the corner of her eyes glittering with tears. Squeezing her eyes shut, she nods, lip quivering.

"What about his interns? They'll be worried about him," Oh she had forgotten about them, his interns, the 4 children who were practically like a second family to him. Tanjiro, Nezuko, Inosuke, and Zenitsu, weren't here when she got the letter, and they probably didn't know, they probably thought he was just late. That just made her feel particularly guilter as if she couldn't feel worse. 

"Their dumbasses will want to be on the case," Sanemi scowled, "Well, I'm sure any of our interns would do the same,"

"Better question, who's gonna tell them?" The only answer was silence.

 After a few beats of silence, the youngest of them all spoke up. "Shinobu obviously,"  Muchiro dryly states, starring at the older woman.

"Tokito!" Mitsuri gasped, leaning back in her seat. "You reap what you sow, I told you to quit it,"

"He told you to quit the case?" Uzui raised a brow and silently, feeling everyone look at her, she nodded with shame.

"...Yeah,"

"Even I would have quit the case," Sanemi muttered, his head propped up with his hand.

"We should probably try and establish a timeline on when this happened, you said that he was going to see Sabito-san and Makomo-san, right?" She slowly nods, she had honestly forgotten that, were they okay?! Oh god, if something happened to them Giyuu would be devastated, but if whoever did it, didn't, then both of them would be devastated. 

"Then what happened to them?" With bated breath, she shook her head as all eyes fell onto her. She didn't know, she didn't know anything, how was she supposed to know this she hadn't even thought about it? God, she felt so useless, this is so hopeless, it's-

"I know..." Mitsuri, thankfully, cut in, raising one of her fingers as she spoke. "Oyakata's son, Kiriya, he called them and one of them answered but they were with the other so they should be fine. They'll be coming here when I'm not sure when." She let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. Okay, that's fine, that's good, that's fine, it's fi-

"Don't think I should have to remind you but if anything ends up happening to them because you want to involve them in this then their blood is on your hands."  Sanemi started, pointing at her as he did.

She could only glare. "You're acting like I expected this?!"

"I'm just reminding you," She just shakes her head, wishing that Oyakata-sama was here to direct the meeting but he wasn't, having gotten sick last minute that he couldn't attend so for now, it was just them.

"So since they're here and never saw Giyuu then he must have been taken before he saw Sabito-san and Makomo-san which means..." Mitsuri can't seem to finish her sentence but with a heavy heart, Kyojuro finishes it for her. "They've had him for possibly a multitude of hours, how long we can't, exactly be sure."

Shinobu feels her chest tighten, who knows what they did in those hours? Wait, an idea perks up in her head that makes her chest swell with pure cold dread. An idea she hadn't twigged as possible until now.

He had that whole confession this morning because he knew this was going to happen. She clenched her teeth, no, oh god please no. Don't make this worse than it already is.

But that wasn't even the start of it.

"Shinobu..." Kyojuro lets out a heavy sigh before he starts and she already knows that this isn't going to be good. "I know I said before that if you want to work on this case you should but..." He fiddles with the hem of his sleeve. "You shouldn't, not anymore even if you want to you, you just shouldn't." One of the few people she had supporting her continuing working on this case had told her to stop just like Giyuu had a few days before he got kidnapped. 

She isn't going to survive this meeting.

-linebreak-

Right after the meeting, she went straight to her office, not being able to will herself to face anyone. The door slams shut before anyone can ask her anything, Aoi, who she hadn't known was in the room, jumped at the noise, darting her attention towards her with a wide expression. Shinobu ignored her and started to pace for the next hour with no stop in sight. 

Aoi watched as the older of the two, paced back and forth in a seemingly endless line, her shoes clicking against the floor harshly against every step. It had been an hour since the news, an hour and a half to be exact, an hour and a half of watching her current mentor pace back and forth with her brows furrowed, lip curled, hands folded behind her back as she tried to burn holes into the ground below her. While she couldn't entirely blame the woman after everything that happened, it was frustrating to listen against the clacking of her shoes, enough that it made her hand twitch and her frown deepened even further. If she ever got her hands on who did this to her, personally, she'd make their life a living hell and even more.

As the pigtailed teen watched her turn sharply on her heels, she sighed, getting up from the chair she was sitting at, and stood up, smoothing out her clothing as she walked towards the older lady.

Her footsteps being a little heavier than she would have been pleased, Aoi walked next to her path, reaching forward to tug at her clothing when she eventually reached her. Shinobu paused when she tried to more and couldn't then, sent a glare at her who was undeterred by it no matter how long she held it. With a pout, folding her arms over her chest, she narrowed a similar glare at her mentor.

"I know you're upset but the pacing isn't going to solve it, neither is not talking about it," She just rolls her eyes and walks towards her desk. She grabs the lip bomb on the desk and screws off the cap and goes to apply it as Aoi stares at her with deadpanned expression. 

"You've applied that thing 5 times in three hours," Aoi said, then tacted on: "I highly doubt you're okay if you keep on doing that or that it'll solve any of your problems. 

"It's relaxing okay?! And it smells good!" She slammed the cap of the lip bomb and threw it into the drawer of her desk, slamming it closed with her hand. She fell back into her swivel chair, sliding back with a huff of anger, expression pinched in the middle. She tipped her head back, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. 

Lazily, she rolled around in her, ignoring Aoi's scolding despite how much she shouldn't. She hadn't felt like doing much today, well after she had gotten the news, of course, there wasn't much she could do after all. She spun around looking over her desk until something caught her attention, Aoi having left the room a few minutes ago.

She scoots closer to the desk expression softening as she grabbed a photo in a frame on her desk. It was a picture of the two on honeymoon, she knows it is, it's one she took herself, it isn't the best but it isn't the worst at the same time. They were on a bench in a park in the place they had ventured to, having stopped to end up getting ice cream and she ended up taking the photo after she was done with her's by accident, getting him with ice cream smeared against the side of his cheek. Personally, she thought it was adorable and he hadn't been against her putting it on her desk but she promised she wouldn't show anyone, but of course, she did but he didn't need to know.

"I miss you," She thumbs over his face on the photo. "dollface..." She whines her lips curling into a frown. She holds the frame close to her chest, hugging it tightly as if it were to disappear if she let go. She's not sure how long she had been like that but eventually, Aoi had walked into the room.

"Tanjiro and Nezuko want to see you," Is the first thing the twin-tailed girl says when she walks into the room, kicking the door closed with her heel.

"Of course they do!" She stands up almost immediately from her seat, placing the picture carefully back on the desk.

"You'll have to tell them eventually," Aoi reminded her.

"I have to tell all 4 of them,"

"That you do,"

"I'm not sure whether or not I should gather them all together or tell them separately, I mean the man they work for has just been kidnapped because of me, and if I were them I wouldn't have some pretty things to stay." She's sure no one has anything nice to say to her, anything, why would they?

She felt like she was floundering on a sea of anxiety, no matter how hard she tried to swim, flail her arms, her head only managing to barely breach the surface as another wave pulls her down. 

She should have quit this case, but yet, she isn't.

-linebreak-

I  stared down the door leading to the entrance of the Demon Slayer Corps,. No turning back now I guess, not after that call I got. Sabito got a head start, walking towards the doors and pushing them open before I could even take a step forward, I followed him walking into the lobby and taking a second to look at my surrounding's. Nothing much has changed as expected.

We walk towards the front desk and sitting the seat is a teen, he has black hair as myself except it was cut into a blunt bob, thick locks of hair cut into a fringe across his forehead, hiding his brows. He stared up at me with moon-eyed, eyes that looked as if layers of the colors black and midnight purple were folding onto each other, I couldn't see what he was wearing below his head, nor did I frankly care due to the situation at hand. 

"I'm Makomo," I answered, then gestured to the man at my side. "he's Sabito, we work here." He stared at them blankly then turned towards his laptop situated at his side, the clicking of keys filling the silence of the lobby. My boyfriend let out a sigh of what only could be taken as frustration and leaned forward onto the desk, his hand pushing down the screen till it clicked when making an impact with the keyboard, the teen managing to slip his hands away before they could get smashed. 

With an expression of unimpressed, he spoke slowly and carefully as if talking to a child, which in some sense he was. "We're here because something happened to Giyuu Tomioka, and he was coming to see us when he went missing, we're his friends." Don't say that, you know what better, we know better, you know him, we know what he's like. 

The teen blinks up at us, then his face grows a sudden flush, prying his eyes away from us. "Oh," He looks embarrassed. "Right, right. Look," He points at the elevator while looking back at them. "everyone is in a meeting at the moment, my father is out-" I can kinda see the resemblance. "-so you'll have to wait till another day to speak with him, also for them to be dismissed from the meeting."

"Is it alright if we go visit his office?" He looked towards his laptop and opened it, scrolling and then clicking on something, skimming over most likely an email, then turned towards us, nodding. "As long as you don't touch anything, then yes,"

With confirmation, me and Sabito headed towards the elevator, clicking a button and waiting a few seconds until it opened then silently stepped into pressing another button as the sliver doors shut closed before us. Shuffling we waited until we heard the irritating click of the elevator as the doors slowly slide open. 

Without directions, we walked towards the familiar office of our frien          d, the one that belonged to our shared mentor, Urokodaki, an office that was originally going to be given to Sabito along with the position Giyuu currently held if it weren't for the fact that he wanted more freedom in his case and by default it was given to Yuu-san. It's been so long since I've been to that office that I can't help but wonder how much it changed since I last saw it, is it as boring as I remember or did he change it up? 

I'll find out when I get there.

As we walk towards his office, a man with hair only comparable to flames spotted us. With a brisk pace, he walked over towards us, hand outstretched once he reached us, red and golden eyes looking duller than I remember. "You must be Sabito and Makomo," Briefly, I nodded at him, Sabito taking his hand and shaking it. I noticed his hand had a slight tremor to it, his expression made him look as if he aged a few years. 

"I'm very sorry for your loss," 

Your loss, I wanted to say, but the words stuck to my tongue like honey. He isn't lost, he can't be, if you think he is then you don't know Giyuu; you don't know what he's like. 

I know what they had told me, I know what they had told Sabito but I also know you. You never were one for jokes, that was us, but when you were they never landed quite right, so I had half the mind to expect to open the door and to see you standing there, worn with age and slight worry, thin but not so thin, and most importantly, surprised to see us. So with trembling hands, not from anticipation or excitement, I turned the handle and lightly opened the door.

The room was frighteningly empty. It felt like a place that had just recently been vacated as if I had come by a shop after hours, a place too quiet for its own good. I almost expected to smell the crisp scent of salmon cooking over the fire, enough of a scent that it'd make the back of my eyes burn just from the memories it held alone. 

"Yuu-san?" The only thing that answered me back was silence.

Painful silence.

"I'm very sorry," The man who wore flame reminded me.

I turned towards him, extending my hand out to him, warily, as if I were brandishing a knife in my other hand, he took it and shook it and I could confirm for real that there was a slight tremor in his hand. "I look forward to working with you,"

"I..." He hesitated, the tremor in his hand growing stronger. "I'm afraid we won't be working together, ever..." I nodded, lips pressing into a thin line as I wrenched my hand out of his.

It looks like we'll be doing this all by ourselves...

-linebreak-

The first thing Giyuu is aware of is that his eyes are closed, so he opens them. 

His head is spinning, his head hurts, and a velvety black darkness crowds around him, it's practically impossible to see anything. Where am I? Is the only thing he can ask himself, what happened? 

Tomioka's body feels heavy, like lead, yet despite that, he tries to move his body around. And he succeeds, not by much but he manages to move it. He can only move his hands by an inch, his arm, legs as well, he's stuck, strapped down to what he's managed to conclude is a chair. He can hardly move at all.

His breath quickens, panic thrums through his veins as he looks around the darkroom, nothing becoming clear. What's going on? Where is he? What happened? He was supposed to be with Sabito and Makomo but he wasn't? What happened? Why isn't he there? This doesn't make any sense!

Then, his body freezing tensing, he sees movement in front of him. His heart is pounding in his ears.

"...So... A leftie, or a rightie?" He does his best to blink away the grogginess, looking around as his eyes start to settle to the darkness around him. A light briefly flickers in distance, until it engulfs him completely. He blinks, feeling his eyes burn with searing pain as he tries to regain his bearings. A distant, low chuckle reaches his ears and he grits his teeth, squirming under whatever material is holding him down.

Where are Sabito and Makomo? Are they okay? I was supposed to meet them so what happened, he asked himself as he struggled, tiring out after only moments later. He huffed, brows furrowing. A figure slips out behind him, and he jumps, they grin at him, giving him a small gave. "Hello there, it's nice to finally see you awake, it was getting far too boring with you asleep,"

Confusion still swirled in his mind, as he tugs at his manacles, he feels like he's out of breath like this is some strange dream, he hopes this is a dream.

Please be a dream. 

"What... What's going on?" He blinks rapidly, everything is still hazy. There's a cloud in his mind, a fog, a haze around what happened beforehand, whether it'll clear up he isn't sure but the more he struggles the weaker he gets. The person before him just swirls a knife in their hand not sparing him a look. "What do you think? I kidnapped you."

Yeah... That makes more sense now that he thinks about it. Not entirely, but it does make sense.

"Why me?" The raven-haired man prompted, leaning forward in his seat as his head tilted to the side as he spoke."Would you rather it be your interns?" His captor casually said with a shrug.

Giyuu felt his pulse race, curling his hands into fists until they turned white he gritted at them, his anger managing to seethe through. "Touch them and I swear I'll-"

"What? You'll get me? Sorry boy, but your uh, kinda trapped there if you didn't notice," As they speak, they make the move to walk around him in the chair he's strapped to, occasionally reaching forward to taking a strand between the pads of their finger which made Giyuu jerk away as if their hand would burn him. "Though it was an idea, the blonde or the redhead, I mean either way they'd be hellbent on getting either one back, you know what's going on between the two right?"  

Leaning away from him, the demon slayer nods. "I'm aware,"

"So you'd get why I'd snatch one of them, maybe they'd have some kind of relationship reveal it'd be interesting honestly, but not as interesting enough if I took you instead,"

"That sounds like something you'd see in a romance novel," His captor nodded in acknowledgment, then pulled out a pocket knife, swinging it around their fingers with ease, grinning at him with teeth that were unnaturally white.

"Let's see how many bones I can break with JUST a hammer!"

-linebreak-

With a sigh, Shinobu draped the duvet covers over her, cuddling closer to her pillow as tears burned in the corner of her cheeks.

Her sisters would be staying with her since it was deemed unsafe, they'd be sleeping in the guest room, but that didn't matter. From now and who knows how long anytime she'd go home she'd be greeted by an empty house and an even colder bed.

She didn't want to go home anymore.

A/N: Inspired by this randomly generated plot blurbed:

When her husband, Giyuu Tomioka, is kidnapped, Shinobu Tomioka finds herself thrown into the center of the investigation. Her only clue is a ugly as helllll blade.