It was night.
Yoizumi sat with his sister on the veranda, eating the sanshoku dango that Kanzaki Aoi had given them.
With one pure white dango left, Yoizumi held it high above his head, level with the moon.
"Nezuko, look, it's just like the moon, isn't it?"
"Mmm~," Nezuko nodded her little head, picking two konpeito, one red and one pink, from a jar she was holding.
Nezuko stood on her tiptoes, raising her small hands, trying to get them close to her brother's dango.
Two stars appeared beside the moon.
Seeing this, Yoizumi softened his gaze, his sapphire eyes gently watching his sister.
The dango he held high lowered itself, right before his sister's eyes.
"Mmm-hmm~," With a konpeito in each small hand, encircling the white dango, Nezuko made a muffled sound.
Yoizumi, understanding his sister's meaning, was slightly taken aback.
Nezuko said:
"This is us... the red konpeito is Tanjirou, and the pink one is me."
"The white dango is Yoizumi."
"We are the stars, and we will always, always stay by the moon's side."
"Nezuko, why am I the moon?" Yoizumi gently stroked his sister's soft hair, asking softly.
The moon didn't resemble him at all.
Hearing this, Nezuko smiled in response, her bright pink eyes narrowing.
"Mmm... Mmm. Hmm!"
"Brother's breathing technique, the color of Snow, is as beautiful as the moon!"
"..."
Yoizumi's expression softened as he gently pulled his sister into his arms, remembering a certain night in the past.
In the past, Nezuko had also said something like this... "If I had to use something to describe Yoizumi-ge..."
Nezuko thought for a moment, then unhesitatingly pointed to the high-hanging moon.
"It must be the moon!"
"The moon?" Tanjirou, standing nearby, looked at Yoizumi then at the moon, puzzled, unable to find any common ground between the two.
Yoizumi was also puzzled as to why Nezuko would say that.
"Because, when I first met Yoizumi-ge, he didn't talk, and there was always a sense of distance."
"Just like the moon, always hanging high, unreachable, only silently emitting a faint glow."
"But..." Nezuko smiled gently, taking Yoizumi's hand, her beautiful pink eyes looking straight at her brother.
"Now, Yoizumi-ge is gentle, always quietly taking care of everyone, and everyone likes you very much."
"Isn't the moon the same?"
"It's gentler than the sun, and although the light it emits is faint, it's enough to let people see the path beneath their feet."
"So, Yoizumi-ge is the moon~"
"Eh~ I see, now that I think about it, it's true!" Tanjirou nodded in sudden realization, his black and red short hair blowing in the night wind, a cheerful and lively smile on his face. "Then we are the moon's stars!"
"I, Nezuko, Mom, Takeo, Shigeru, Hanako, Rokkuta."
"Everyone is Yoizumi-nii's stars!"
"The stars will stay with the moon and never separate!"
Taking a deep breath of fresh air, Yoizumi lowered his gaze to his sister's carefree, childlike smile, silently suppressing the bitterness in his heart.
He slowly hugged Nezuko tightly, resting his chin on her head, closing his eyes to hide the pain in them.
My remaining stars... please don't get lost again...
"Mmm..."
Nezuko didn't know why her brother suddenly hugged her like this, but she obediently snuggled into Yoizumi's arms.
It was just that her brother's chin was a bit painful against her head, but for the sake of the two jars of konpeito, Nezuko forgave her brother.
"Nezuko, let's play with the bamboo-copter," Yoizumi said, releasing his sister and smiling.
"Mmm~"
Nezuko waved her hands in agreement... A week passed in a flash.
"Take a break."
Yoizumi put down his nichirin blade and said to everyone.
"No! Snow Pillar, I can still go on!" Murata's parted hair, usually styled with camellia oil, was now soaked with sweat and plastered to his forehead, his clothes were drenched.
Even though his hands, gripping the wooden sword, were trembling, he didn't want to give up.
A week had passed, and he still couldn't last more than 5 seconds; it must mean he wasn't working hard enough!
"Right! Me too!"
Although his body had reached its limit, Komi Kata even suspected that if he relaxed, he would black out and collapse to the ground.
But now was not the time to be idle; there were powerful enemies waiting ahead!
"Snow Pillar! We can continue!" One after another, the team members spoke up.
"...I understand," Yoizumi said slowly, once again holding the wooden sword upright in front of him.
Actually, they weren't making no progress at all; it was Yoizumi who was gradually increasing the difficulty, creating the illusion that they hadn't changed anything.
Of course, it wasn't their fault for not realizing it; mainly, after a week of continuously being easily knocked away, they had become somewhat numb.
For instance, right now... Murata fell to the ground, spinning, kicking up a cloud of dust, and a crater appeared on the ground.
He shakily got up, his arms supporting him on the ground trembling like corks, and loud applause reached his ears.
Murata made a bitter face, looking with his dead-fish eyes towards the source of the sound.
Nezuko, wearing the adorable braids Yoizumi had done for her, sat in the shadow of the veranda, enthusiastically clapping.
Every time Yoizumi knocked someone away, Nezuko would give her brother a loud round of applause.
Murata sighed.
"Nezuko, my dear sister, you are very cute, but... never mind... because Snow Pillar's attack was already upon him."
"Hmph... I can't anymore..." Yoizumi knocked him away again, and this time Murata flew even further, embedding himself in the earth in a spread-eagle shape.
Murata could not get up again.
Nezuko's applause grew even louder.
For a moment, Murata wanted to cry.
"Is this hell?"
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