To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

13 • The Pillar Meeting

"Does the Blue Spider Lily really not exist?" Obanai asked. "Kibutsuji seems to really believe it does, so maybe cultivation isn't the only way for it to bloom."

"That's hard to say," Inori admitted. "The doctor grew a few more before his death, and those flowers could've died or spread around. I can't be sure. Either way, making that flower bloom requires a lot of effort and conditions, and one of those conditions is the sun." She pointed her finger at the open door.

"The Blue Spider Lily seldom blooms, but when it does, it blooms under the sun for only a few minutes."

"So, it's safe to say that neither Kibutsuji nor any demons under him will ever find it," Shinobu concluded, to which Inori nodded in response.

"I noticed your house and village were surrounded by wisteria," Obanai said, recalling all the wisterias he saw even though it wasn't blooming season yet. "Did the dead teach you how to do that? What kind of spirits did you communicate with?"

"Well, there are a lot of them, so I can say everything," answered the girl. "There were doctors and nurses who taught me things about medicine and first aid. There were poets, artists, nobles, and even royalties. There were martial artists and samurais. There were even a few criminals and yakuza, at least the ones that were just bored and meant no harm." Because even if most of the dead couldn't touch her, she was still protected from the malicious ones. "Then, there were demon slayers, pillars from various eras and with various breaths."

"And you learned them all?"

"I learned what I could, and I learned what was taught to me," she answered Sanemi, offering him a simper. "Most were eager to teach me...anything so I can survive that dance." They were brash, but they were kind, and above all, they wanted to help. "I never held a sword until recently, but the techniques are familiar."

If she could adjust the weight of her swords to be the same as her dancing staves, then she could pretend she was back in her backyard, practicing a dance that had been engraved into her body and mind. She didn't need to start from zero. She already has the foundation.

"The information about Muzan and the upper moons," she said, lifting her head to look at the scroll in Kiriya's hands, the scroll she had written with trembling hands because she was just so angry. "They're all things the dead have told me about their encounter with the upper moons."

"I will read it." Kiriya opened the scroll. "Starting from the demon, Nakime, or more known as the Biwa Demon. While she does not seem to be an upper moon demon, she is one of Muzan's favorites." Inori was very subjective when she wrote that, and it showed.

"Her blood demon art is the ability to fully control the Infinity Castle, a place where Kibutsuji Muzan probably often disappears to." Clenching her fists, Inori tried to steer her mind away from what had happened inside the castle. "She can create rooms, summon windows, and change the exits and layouts of the castle by strumming her biwa. Her ability is not particularly deadly, but it is effective to stall time or keep someone captive. Hoshizora-sama said she was held captive in the Infinity Castle as well."

"I want to know how you managed to escape and what happened during your time there." Obanai pointed his finger at Inori. "Judging by the time you disappeared and Shinazugawa found you, you were held captive for ten to twelve days."

"I don't know much about the Infinity Castle since I was trapped in one room, and the castle shifted too quickly when I escaped for me to learn more," Inori admitted, more than glad to be talking about her escape rather than what had happened during her stay. "There were many dead demon slayers, most of them being former pillars, and they gave me directions. I didn't pay attention to the castle. I ran when they told me to run, jumped when they told me to jump, and dodged in whatever direction they told me to move. All the way to the exit, and even when I was confronted by Lower Moon Six. That was how I escaped."