To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

44 • Sympathy For the Damned

"And what do you think of that?"

"I cannot understand." Her answer remained the same. She killed demons because she was a demon slayer. She killed demons because she wanted to protect humans from their destruction. "But can I even say we are not the same when we share the same level of intellect? When demons used to be humans?" Inori pursed her lips as they finally reached the entrance of the graveyard.

"We can't coexist because we are prey and predator, and predator and hunter."

"Even so, do you ever feel sad for them, my child?" Kagaya asked as stopped at the first grave. He reached his hand out, brushing his hand over the dust gathered on the headstone. "Do you ever feel like they could've gone to the stars had someone just lent a hand? Do you feel sad for them because they can't go to the stars?"

"I cannot say," she answered, and they took another step forward, stopping on the second grave. Akihiro Masato, the headstone read. "I have seen a lot, and I have heard a lot more." The wind blew softly again, and Inori caught the leaf before it could land on Kagaya's clothes.

"Demons used to have people they love, and they used to be loved too." She twirled the leaf between her thumb and index finger as they walked to the next grave. "Those people often come to me. They bowed until their heads touched the ground, apologizing to the people the demon had killed. They knelt at my feet, begging me to stop them...to end the demon's crimes."

But back then, she wasn't a demon slayer, she was just someone struggling to survive a dance. And the deceased demon slayers flocking around her would berate them for that exact reason.

"Mothers, fathers, siblings...wives and husbands...children and lovers...friends and enemies..." Inori let the leaf go, and it was blown away by the wind. They walked past more graves. "They come to me, telling me the demon's real names and the story of their lives. The tragedies and emotions that turned them into demons."

They walked to the next grave. Hideyo Tomoya, the headstone read. Kagaya placed his hand on the headstoned, muttered their name, and continued walking. "I don't know if I like it," she admitted. "I don't know if I like knowing so much." Whether it be about the story of people's lives—dead, alive, people she had met, people she had never met, demons—or knowledge that was supposed to be confidential, Inori didn't know whether she wanted to know everything.

"I kill demons, then I wonder if it was a demon whose story I know. Then, I start questioning myself." But she was still a demon slayer. She was still one of the pillars. Her blade couldn't waver even if her mind did, no matter how seemingly impossible it seemed to be. "Just who is evil and who is good? Just who is right and who is wrong? If I didn't know so much, maybe I could stop overthinking things like this."

"That is because you are a child...a very kind child." Kagaya's voice was soothing, and Inori turned to look at him. He was still smiling so gently, taking one step forward after the other, seemingly soothing the dead, reminding them that their lives were worth something, that someone still remembered them.

"I cannot hesitate, both my mind and my blade...neither of them can hesitate." Because at the end of the day, she was still a demon slayer. "That's why no matter how much I know or whether or not I pity them, I will decapitate every demon that hurts humans."

"Then, my child, why do you think that demons cannot go to the stars?"

Inori shifted her gaze back toward the ground. She could feel the wind picking up, blowing her hair and nerves away. "The stars are just another word for the afterlife, for heaven, at least that's what I think." Kagaya took a step forward, and so did she. "Nobody alive, or dead in the living world, knows just what exactly the stars are. My answers are nothing but my philosophical thoughts."