Secret of the Spider Lily

Chapter 23 - Forgotten Memories

All of the demons open their eyes to find themselves surrounded by what looked to be an empty void. Once they took a closer look, they realized there were many memories floating around. They soon recognized this was the inside of Yuki's mind. They looked closely, and only saw memories from her early childhood, or from after she became a demon slayer

"So... what exactly are we looking for?" Douma asked, looking around at each of the memories, reaching out to touch one of them.

"We are looking for a memory where she's hiding books," Tsuara explained, looking at him. Her eyes widened in panic when he tried to touch on, and quickly pulled his hand away, "Also, don't touch anything in this space. You'll only be causing her harm. Understand?" she asked, giving Douma a cold look.

"Isn't that the point of us demons? To cause pain to humans?" Douma replied in a teasing tone, reaching to touch another one.

Akaza quickly pulled Douma away, and gave him an extremely cold glare, "She said don't touch anything, so keep your hands to yourself"

"You're such a buzzkill Akaza. Just let me do what I want"

"Tsuara has a task to do, so stop trying to interfere!"

"Both of you need to keep your mouths shut. You're distracting me" Tsuara calmly stated, looking back with an annoyed glance.

"Sorry. I'll keep him from being a distraction" Akaza bluntly stated, pulling Douma away from everything.

"Good. We cannot have Tsuara lose focus now. We have to find these books at all costs." Muzan calmly spoke, walking up to Tsuara from behind, before standing beside her, "Do you think you'll be able to find it?"

"I should be able to, however we'll have to dive deeper into her mind. These are memories she remembers a lot, either because they are recent, or cherished childhood memories. In order to find the more locked away memories, we'll need to dive deeper" She spoke, swiping through the memories carefully.

"Are you sure we'll be able to find them there?"

"I'm positive. Give me a few minutes to search deeper in her mind. I'll let you know if I find anything of interest."

"Alright. I'll keep Douma and Akaza busy"

Tsuara nodded and deeply focused, making her hand glow to dive into suppressed memories deep in the subconscious of Yuki's mind. As she looked, there was a certain part of her mind that was closed off. She walked over to that space, and was quickly met with a massive amount of demonic power.

Tsuara was caught off guard by the sudden change in atmosphere, but continued through that space. She walked for what seemed like an eternity, until she came across a single memory locked behind a mental barricade. "What is this...?" She muttered, holding out her hand to dive into the memory.

Yuki woke up at her desk, finding she had fallen asleep. She saw one of her books on her desk, skimming through it and absorbing all the information. She smells food coming from her kitchen, but before she went out, she put her books in the secret compartment in her bookcase.

"So that's where she hid them..." Tsuara muttered, watching the memory carefully. She reversed the memory to double check which book she saw Yuki pull, before letting the memory play. She debated about pulling out, but she could hear Muzan speaking through her head.

"Don't pull out of the memory yet. She needs to suffer for not submitting in the first place."

Tsuara wickedly smiled hearing those words, and let the memory continue to play, "Time for you to pay for causing us all this trouble, Yuki"

She let the memory play, and saw the family having dinner together. Things looked peaceful. Things looked happy. She watched for a while, and soon heard a knock on their home door.

Yuki's mother looked up at the door, then looked to her husband, "Were you expecting guests honey?"

"No, I wasn't" The father replied. "It was just supposed to be the three of us tonight. I'll go answer the door to see who it is, and what they need."

Yuki sat at the table, watching her father answer the door, and her eyes lit up in horror as she watched her father get slaughtered in front of her eyes. She let out a deafening scream as she called out for her father. Her mother screamed at her to run, before drawing her blades to fight Muzan.

Yuki ran to her closet & hid, praying that Muzan would leave her home. She hid in the closet for what seemed like hours even though it was no longer than 10 minutes. She thought he had left, and left her hiding spot to look around. As soon as she came out, she got ambushed by Muzan.

He severely injured her, almost to the point of death. This moment was so vivid in her mind, even if it was suppressed, but Tsuara watched as the memory became incredibly hazy and muffled. She was confused why things became this blurry, but only assumed because she was losing consciousness at this point.

Tsuara wanted to know what was hidden after this moment, and used her blood demon art to clear the memory to view it.

Tsuara watched as a girl stepped into the door. A girl who wore a demon slayer uniform and carried two nichirin blades. She looked identical to Yuki. They were identical twins.

The girl charged towards Muzan, her eyes filled with a fury and sadness, screaming at him as she attacked. Muzan easily stopped her and disarmed her, pinning her to the wall.

"That's enough! If you don't want me to kill your sister right here and now, you'll listen to every word I'm about to tell you, Kori."

Kori's eyes filled with horror as she looked down at her unconscious sister, "S-She's.. Not dead...?"

"She is very much alive, but her life is fading quickly. I can save her, and make sure she lives... for a price..."

"W-What kind of price?" she asked, her eyes still locked on Yuki's body.

"I think you know what price you'd have to pay." Muzan spoke, beginning to trail his hand towards her neck.

Tsuara watched everything that was happening, but began to think to herself. Something stuck out to her. It almost seemed... familiar to her.

She watched as Kori got turned into a demon. Muzan turned around and gave Yuki a tiny portion of his blood as well. The more she watched, she started seeing Kori's demonic transformation, but watched as everything started to become static.

She was confused by why, but things quickly shattered around her as the world of memories broke into thousands of glass shards.