Breath of the Void

Breath of the Void: Chapter 21

The older woman braided the girl's hair as she hummed, smiling when the child-sized demon looked up and beamed at her. Nezuko certainly was different than any other demon— she almost reminded her of Onui or Tasuke at times.

It was interesting.

"How long do you think we have?" she asked softly and the girl stopped her humming, blinking and looking up at her with a tilted head. Musashi smiled. "I'm just thinking aloud," she told the girl, patting her head.

A rustling of fabric made Musashi look up before Shuten dropped from above. The Oni had a self-satisfied look on her face as she held two jars of sake in hand.

"Good moonlight, darling," Shuten greeted as Nezuko perked. When the two first met, Nezuko had seemed to have been drawn to the elder being— and Shuten remarked that Nezuko, having cut the ties to Muzan, was more Oni than Demon. Of course, it could have just been the fact that without Muzan holding onto her, Nezuko's natural instincts to respect and revere an Oni had kicked in.

Musashi waved lazily as Nezuko hopped off of her lap, trotting to Shuten and reaching up. The younger demon pat the Oni with a hum and Shuten pat her cheek in return.

"Yes, yes," she said, walking back to the engawa and sitting next to Musashi. "Another demon showed up at Kaguya's home."

"Oh?" Musashi asked as Nezuko climbed back into her lap. The oni nodded, pouring a dish of sake before handing it to Musashi. She took it as the Oni poured one for herself.

"Two, actually," she said after a moment. "A woman and a boy. Tamayo or something. Docile, and here to help, I suppose," Shuten hummed, drinking from her dish. Musashi nodded slowly, drinking as well.

"I don't remember him talking about another demon, but perhaps he knew one," she said simply. Shuten just nodded and the two fell into silence.

"So have you figured out what you're going to do?" she asked after a moment. Musashi hummed a bit.

"Sort of. Himejima and I have a sort of plan, but it's iffy at best. Hopefully, Muzan is as prideful as we suspect," she said with a sigh. Shuten scoffed.

"I'm sure he is. Prideful brat."

"Isn't he... older than you?"

Shuten shrugged. "Who knows. I hardly know when I was born, just what year my legend started picking up speed."

"Fair enough."

Musashi finished her dish and Shuten took it from her, both women turning as the front door slid open.

"I am here!" The Flame Pillar's voice called into the house. Choruses of 'hellos' came from the children from where they were playing, along with a gruff 'welcome back, brat' from Shinjuro. Musashi hummed, leaning back on her hands and turning to glance into the house, seeing a flash of red and orange.

"Welcome back, Kyojuro," Musashi called, "We're out back."

"OH!"

Footsteps sounded from inside before the Flame Pillar appeared from another room, grinning as usual.

"Hello, hello! I'm back!" he said happily as he sat down next to Musashi. Shuten waved lazily, humming as she drank more.

"Welcome back," Musashi hummed, "Guessing Mitsuri got back up on her feet?"

Kyojuro nodded, leaning over and kissing her cheek. "Yup, Mitsuri was able to get on her feet and take over the rest of the patrol," he said, nodding. Nezuko gave Kyojuro a toothy grin as well as Musashi leaned on him. The demon crawled into his lap and he pat her, humming.