lumberlady | Prismatica IC Contact

[His only surviving sister, but he doesn't usually come forward with that statement terribly often. That she's his sister at all is more than enough, anyway, so he doesn't bring it up, only nods.]

[His expression stalls, and his whole posture tenses for a moment. He'd forgotten Konoha had met Giyuu and Shinobu... He closes his eyes.]

...Shinobu-san didn't make it. Giyuu-san lost his arm, [He waves his right hand absently.] ...he and Shinazugawa-san were the only pillars to survive. [It kills him that so many people so much more skilled who fought and suffered so much longer were lost. That even in dying, Muzan took so many.] Shinobu-san played a huge, irreplaceable role in Muzan's defeat, she and Tamayo-san developed the medicine we gave Nezuko. It's what... turned me back, and it's ultimately what made Muzan weak enough for us to defeat him.

[Konoha is strangely grateful, in that moment, that he just answers her. There have been plenty of people she’s met in Lunatia, in the Circle, who seemed to want to or think they ought to shield her from harsher realities, as if her positive nature and tendency towards smiles meant that she couldn’t handle such things... instead of that simply being the way she decided to handle things.

The world could be cruel, and unforgiving. People die. Bad things happen.

But the world was still beautiful despite. Still worth loving and living in.]

... Ah. Miss Kocho did seem smart... But I’m sorry.

[Sorry that so many had to die to do what needed to be done. That he had to see it. Live it.

What would Giyuu do, now that he had lost his sword arm? Would he finally rest? There’d been something about him, when she’d watched him work the fields, that made her wish he could have a simpler life. Maybe now... ? Tanjiro, too...

And so she resolves to smile again, soft and subtly. Takes his hands again, even if he couldn’t feel one of them.]

Do you want to pray? I have some incense... and I need to today anyway.

[He intones something vaguely affirmative, to acknowledge her apology even if he didn't necessarily feel right accepting it. It wasn't like he was all Shinobu left behind. Kanao, Aoi, the triplets... Inosuke hurt far more from the loss of Shinobu than he did. It wasn't that he didn't hurt, far from it, Shinobu had taken them all in more than once. She'd been the one to create the final medicine to cure his sister. To cure him, when Muzan's final ploy was to turn Tanjiro into the King of Demons. Without her, they never would have succeeded.]

[He shallows his breathing to keep from crying again, because he's really had quite enough of it. As prone as he was to cry for others, it did no one any good, for as much as some days he wanted to just never get out of bed and cry about all the hardship and unfairness in the world.]

[He jolts when Konoha takes his hand, seeing her take his left and not feeling it. He looks up to her, taking a moment to digest her question before curling the fingers of his right hand around hers.]

...that would be wonderful.

[It's not something she can fully understand. It's not her world, not her friend, her comrade... But she has to say it anyway. Shinobu and Giyuu had been in her life only briefly... but she was still sorry. Still had wished for better for them.

So she smiles for Tanjiro, because he's still here. Even if she's sorry for him, that he is here, and not back in his world where he belonged, with his once-again-human sister.]

Mmm... I bought some new incense, it smells really nice.

[She takes him by the right hand to lead him into the house, to the small altar placed in the corner of the main room where she silently lumbers down to her belly, reverently reaching into a small drawer to pull out matches and sticks of incense. Carefully arranged across the surface are bromide cards the Prismals had produced several series of depicting the Moonblessed who contributed to certain missions and activities... and amongst the faces of those that have left Lunatia, those who said they were dead in their worlds...

There's two familiar faces from the Demon Slayer corps, which Konoha gently moves to the forefront, next to a few fractured pieces of thick eggshell nestled on a piece of soft silk. The remains of what she'd thought might be a child, but instead... was just a flower. She didn't know what else to do with it.]

Here... My husband prays the way jinba of the mountains do, but I learned the human way, so...

[So she hands him the incense, letting him take the lead.]

[He sits on his knees beside her, watching her sort through her bromides, and remembers he has one of Zenitsu. He frowns slightly at the broken piece of egg shell, shoulders going tight. That was one thing he really didn't know how to react appropriately to-- he could never understand Konoha's grief over bearing a flower as opposed to the child she so desperately wanted.]

[He claims the incense as it's offered, and realizes he can't light it without setting it down, because he only has one hand. It frustrates him for a moment, but he places it carefully in wherever it's meant to burn to light it. He's... learning a lot about how to just ignore his left arm, already, which makes him glad he's right-handed. His attention goes from the incense to the bromides, and he shifts them so Shinobu's slightly overlaps Giyuu's.]

...Giyuu-san never smiled much, I imagine you knew that about him. When I woke up-- I was unconscious for three months after it all... When he came to see us, he'd cut his hair because he couldn't pull it back one-handed, and I got to see him really smile.

[If they're ever able to return to their worlds on purpose, if they're able to bring anything with them... Konoha would have to choose her bromide collection. The carefully collected cards that contained the captured images of the people she's cared for, that have helped her, that she's learned from, that she's loved. ... Never mind the lewd flavor text the Prismals put at the bottom of the cards, it's the pictures she wanted.

There's a moment after she hands him the incense that Konoha realizes- how inconsiderate of her. He only had use of one hand now, but... Even though she almost takes it back to light it for him, she sees him manage, and... he was going to have to get used to moving like that now. So she stops herself from helping, even if she can't help but hover a bit ready to help if needed.

Until he moves to the bromides and her gaze follows, softening. There had been something sharp in Shinobu's undercurrent that put her a bit on edge, picked up on the woman's dislike of animals that had slightly overlapped with her appearance, but... she'd seemed strong. Dedicated. Intelligent.

And apparently, she had her to thank for Tanjiro still being alive, for him being able to return his sister to normal, so.

She lights incense for her, placing it carefully beside Tanjiro's.]

He didn't, did he...

[The most she had ever seen was just the slightest hint of a twitch upwards in the far corners of his mouth, and it had been so quick she almost doubted she'd seen it at all. ... Still, it had been something she treasured.]

I'm really glad that maybe... he'll get to hold something other than a sword now. He actually did really good with a hoe, you know?

[That earns a laugh out of Tanjiro, because he can't picture it.]

Really? I mean, not to say I don't believe he'd be good at field work, I just only ever saw him with a sword... [Now he's wondering what it will be like for him after it all. He was in the Corps longer than Tanjiro, but started at the same age... Would he be able to adjust to a normal life?]

[Would Tanjiro be able to readjust?]

[He nudges the corner of Shinobu's bromide.]

...Shinobu-san was a little scary, at first. But she took really good care of us, even when she first wanted to kill Nezuko and didn't like that I was traveling with a demon without express permission. Even when I was on "trial"... She still was the first to ask about the situation, and I'd broken my jaw really terribly so she gave me water with painkillers in it. She's really a very kind person... [A beat, and his brows knit together.] ...she was.

Edited 2020-08-20 02:42 (UTC)

Mmm, really. I'd wager all that swordwork actually makes someone pretty good at farming, if you ask me...

[It built up muscle, you had to learn patience with repetitive motions from training, it gave you an eye for details and the ability to react quickly if something went wrong... right? She thinks she's on to something.

But that aside... she nibbles softly on her bottom lip as she watches him move the bromide, the image of the young woman captured by Prismal photography, the mysterious little smile on her face hard to read to someone like Konoha, who had only known her a short time. By what Tanjiro says, though...

Her hand moves to find a place on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. Reassuring. Konoha might not have been treated kindly by the local temple monks, who viewed jinba as a lesser form of life than humans, but she'd still grown up with a countryside mix of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. Which meant-]

Someone who helped that many people... I'm sure their next life will be a more fortunate one.

[He smiles, closing his eyes and leaning toward her just enough to acknowledge her hand on his shoulder. He hadn't really had the time to mourn Shinobu when he heard of her loss, even though the crow calling out that she had died reduced him to tears for a while. They hadn't had time to stop, He and Giyuu had already fought their way through Akaza, he was just glad that Kanao and Inosuke had the small satisfaction of taking down the demon who killed Shinobu (and her sister, but he didn't feel right bringing up Kanae).]

[He draws in a slow breath and smiles at the bromide, then, nodding.]

...I think Kanao is taking up potionwork like she did, to follow in her footsteps, too. Continue her legacy, as it were... I don't think she died with regrets. I hope not, at least.

[It's enough, and Konoha's hand just stays where it is for now, her thumb absently stroking along his upper arm as they sit there and the thin trails of smoke from the burning incense curl into the air and drift across the bromides of people lost, the cracked remnants of the egg she'd carried in lieu of the foal she'd longed for.]

Kanao is her apprentice... ?

[She doesn't consider herself an expert on loss, even with all she has lost, but.

It's just nice to talk about it... to let it out, and take a moment to mourn rather than carry the burden along.]

Mmn, [He agrees simply. A tsuguko was... something specific to the Slayer Corps, he was pretty sure, but apprentice was a pretty close equivalent.]

[He... doesn't like to consider himself an expert on loss, but the fact of the matter was he really sort of was. First all but one of his family members, then several of the family he found on his journey to restore his surviving sister. He didn't really think about it very often, probably because it was just... horribly depressing to consider.]

[He's quiet, though, closing his eyes and just sort of breathing in the incense and the atmosphere. Konoha was so nice to be around, she was gentle and kind and he felt safe being honest with her. It wasn't so much that he was dishonest as a rule, but Konoha was much easier to share things with than probably anyone else he'd met in Lunatia.]

...Shinobu-san was the only pillar in the corps who couldn't cut off the heads of demons, but she developed poisons lethal to them. She was unbelievably impressive, and frequently thought incapable because she was so small. [A chuckle, and he smiles warmly at the bromide-- his eyes are a bit glassy, but the smile is genuine.] I know I never wanted to get on her bad side. [It does feel nice to talk about it, he thinks.]

[Despite the misfortune that had dogged her birth, the hard living and the scars of war... Konoha was still able to smile. And knowing that it was hard for others, for those who'd had it worse than her... She'd always striven to smile even more. When her husband had told her that her presence was like the sun to him, calming and warm, bright and illuminating...

That's all she'd ever hoped to be. So if she could do the same for her friends, for Tanjiro...]

She showed me her sword, when she came over for dinner with Tomioka-san... She sat right there.

[She motions to one of the cushions around the sunken hearth, the same one Tanjiro has likely sat upon before.]

I thought it was a really weird shape... like a hornet stinger instead of a sword. She seemed a bit angry with Tomioka-san for telling me about the Demon Slayer Corps, so she didn't tell me much, but... I guess that explains that, huh?

[He laughs, scrunching his nose up a little as he does.]

Like a hornet's stinger... That's pretty on the nose. She and Giyuu-san argued a lot, but I think it was mostly friendly? It was sort of hard to tell.

[He spends a good while looking at the cushion Konoha points to, taking a moment to visualize Shinobu sitting there, heckling Giyu to her right in her usual pleasant tone of voice. He closes his eyes, smiling, and falls silent to just imagine it.]

Mmm... It was really hard to tell... I tried to help, but. I didn't know her well enough to give any useful advice, I don't think...

[Their problems seemed to have been born... potentially years ago? Over some sort of misunderstanding? ... And now they'd never be able to set it right with each other, would they? It's a sad thought, and she tries to turn it just a bit lighter, smiling at a different memory.]

Actually, when I first met her I accidentally called her "Miss Tomioka", because when I first met Tomioka-san it was during this time when some of the Moonblessed had been spirited away... and when I said my husband was missing he seemed to know how I felt...

[A slightly embarrassed laugh slips out, and she raps a few knuckles against her temple.]

That was my mistake for assuming, but... I think I made her really mad!

[Tanjiro laughs pretty honestly at that-- God, what a thing to call her. Miss Tomioka, he can only imagine the way her eyes would widen and she'd just smile, correcting the statement with that light, sweet tone she used when someone was in trouble. He quiets down after a while, still smiling and eventually setting a hand over his heart.]

...Giyuu-san has lost a lot of people, but I don't think he's ever been married.

[He tilts his head and looks at Konoha sidelong, smiling softly.] That's the thing about Shinobu-san... She's always a little angry. I think it's what kept her going for so long.

[Tanjiro is imagining Shinobu's reaction... pretty much exactly right, and even though she'd been mortified at the time... now he's smiling, and even though the words he says are a bit stark...]

... Then I'm glad there's no need for her to be angry any longer.

[Her hatred of demons, her words about what they took from people... that had been clear to Konoha back then. And if the demons were gone, now that Tanjiro had succeeded in his mission...

Konoha smiles back.]

Say- Do you know what kind of food she liked?

Edited 2020-09-02 14:44 (UTC)

[He's a little startled by the way "there's no need for her to be angry" hits him, and he sucks in a startled little breath when his eyes well up for a minute. He presses the back of his good hand to his mouth and holds his breath, scrunching his eyes closed for a few seconds before setting his hand back down and smiling with a wobbly little affirmative sound.]

We really couldn't have succeeded without her.

[He mulls over the question as a distraction, and winds up turning to her with a sort of confused expression.]

I..., you know, I'm not sure. How awful is that? She housed us and looked after us so many times.

[Through it all Konoha just waits, gives him the space to work through that moment while she just radiates warmth beside him. Maybe it had been presumptuous of her to say, but... if the other woman had helped the mission she devoted herself to succeed, if the demons she despised so bitterly were gone, if her revenge was complete...

Then surely she could rest peacefully. Konoha had to believe in such things.

Had to reach forward and carefully rearrange the egg shell fragments on the altar.]

I don’t think it’s awful... some people are private. And not everyone talks about food as much as we do...

[A little joke, at their “expense”, with a small smile.]

How about I make what we had last time they visited me, then? She liked that well enough.

[He's a little embarrassed, but only a little-- he's never been the sort to think crying was shameful. He mostly just feels bad that he's cycled in and out of tears so many times in Konoha's house just today (honestly, Tanjiro, how many cues to you need to take it upon yourself to watch a good tearjerker movie and cry it out, damn).]

[He leans into her shoulder again and nods, looking down at his knees.]

I know... Giyu-san likes cold soba? Or at least well enough that he let me talk him into an eating contest with it. [A quiet laugh.] How ridiculous of me, really.

Miss Kocho told me he liked salmon, so I made ishikari nabe... she seemed to like the tofu and vegetables a lot...

[If Konoha has her way... Tanjiro will be letting out at least a few more tears before she lets him go. It would be better that way. Just get it out.

So for a moment, she puts aside the idea of standing up to cook and instead lays her head atop his.]

So who won the contest?

[He can't just say that and then not tell her?]

Salmon daikon, I think is his favorite. I could see Shinobu-san really liking both tofu and vegetables... She probably likes complex flavors.

[A beat, and he kind of chokes up a little because he has to correct himself again.]

Liked. I'm really bad at this.

[But then he laughs, even if he's smudging his hand over his eyes.] I think I did, but I also don't think he's ever tried speed-eating before, and I was sixteen and also a bottomless pit. So it felt sort of like he let me win.

[He says he's bad at it, but. Konoha just shakes her head and nuzzles against him.]

Give it time.

[Sometimes that's what people needed, whether it was for mourning, remembering, or using the right tense when talking. With a last little squeeze of his shoulder, she does start to rise, a new mission in mind. A farewell meal.]

When you get back home, then... you can challenge him again, and see who wins this time.

[... They both only had use of one arm, so it was still a fair fight.]

[They are both one-armed wonders, it's true. Though he cheated a little and at least still has an arm, even if it's beef jerky.]

[He leans back against her nuzzling, and turns to watch her as she stands, shifting like he's considering following suit. He's not sure what she's getting up for, so he's sort of questioning her without saying anything.]

[As tempting as it is to try and convince him to just stay put and let her do the work while he's mourning... Well, she can't imagine Tanjiro would allow it. And if she were in his place... She'd want someone to keep her busy.

So she smiles, gesturing for him to follow her up.]

Come on... I need your help in the kitchen to whip up some complicated flavors.

[He's gotten too used to mourning on the go, as it were. He's never really had the time to sit and properly grieve so he's... admittedly pretty terrible at it now that he does. So he's a touch confused when he follows her to his feet, wandering after her until it clicks what she's meaning when she says complicated flavors.]

[Ah.]

[He's fine for a while, until he abruptly stops being fine and probably winds up sinking to crouch on the floor in Konoha's kitchen and sob into his kneecaps, likely apologizing the entire time. But at least they eventually have food they can eat.]

<3

lumberlady - 2020-09-15 15:19 (UTC) - Expand

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zutsuki - 2020-09-15 21:07 (UTC) - Expand

Prismatica IC Contact

SPOILERS for kny manga; i should have added that at the start of this thread whoops

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omg sorry I lost this...

mood tbh, no worries <3

i think we can wrap it soon anyway! much cooking and crying to be had

👍

<3

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