"Two sides on every coin,
The heads and the tails.
Two sides of the same coin,
The successes and the fails.
In all things, there must be balance,
In all things, duality must reside.
The shield which blocks the lance,
On a coin, each a different side.
The light must come before the dark,
And the night arrives before the day.
Though at times it is cold and stark,
When warmth comes, then shall we play.
Without knowing hate, you cannot know love,
Nor can there be sorrow without joy.
Although this life is very tough,
We must press on, every girl and every boy.
Pain cannot live where there is no relief,
And, if it's all that you know, sorrow is not there.
Without a servant, one cannot be chief,
And without hurt, for others you cannot care.
Until you know this simple truth,
Until you can see the whole coin,
You cannot recognize life's worth,
And for nought have you been born.
There are two sides on every coin,
The heads and the tails.
So must it be with all in this life,
Duality and perfect balance, all entails."
➻
It was nighttime, everyone seemingly asleep. Kagome had tried and tried, but she couldn't fall asleep herself. The loud thundering outside was the cruel culprit.
After a long while of sleepless hours, and the storm continuing, Kagome decided to go outside. If she couldn't sleep, she may as well as enjoy the lovely view of the lightning.
After she opened the back door, Kagome realized that everyone was not indeed sleeping and there was at least one other person that was up. And the person seemed to have the same idea as Kagome.
"Hello, Kanao. Was the thunder keeping you up as well?" Kagome asked and took a seat on the dry wood floor. She watched as Kanao flipped a coin. The bronze circle doing flips in the air until finally falling back down into Kanao's hands.
"No, it wasn't, " Kanao replied.
The rapid tapping of the raindrops on the roof sounded like nails tapping against glass. The grass and flowers showered in the lovely natural water.
"Oh. Well um, was it something else than?" Kagome asked, keeping the uncomfortable silence at bay. Even though she asked, Kagome was just expecting Kanao to say that she just enjoyed watching storms or something. What she wasn't expecting was Kanao to say,
"Yes..." Kanao paused as if pondering whether or not to continue, "...I occasionally have nightmares."
Kagome stared blankly and blinked, and Kanao stared blankly back and blinked. Then once what Kanao had said and what it implied finally registered, Kagome's mouth opened. Preparing to apologize she brought her head down, smacking it hard against the wood beneath her.
"Ow, " she yelped and brought her head up to hold her throbbing forehead with her palms, attempting to soothe the minor pain.
A big crack, like the crack of a whip, echoed followed by an equally as big stripe of purple.
Kanao continued to stare blankly. Kagome, once her head ceased to hurt, remembered what she was initially trying to do and bowed- without hitting her head- towards Kanao while saying,
"I'm so sorry for asking."
This time, Kanao didn't reply and instead turned to look towards the beautifully painted sky. Streaks of luminescent blues and purples appearing in quite literally a flash, lighting up dark night.
Kagome, taking this as Kanao not accepting her apology, rather than the truth which was that Kanao just didn't know how to reply, stood up and bowed one final time before heading back to her room.
➻
"Kagome, you're wrapping the bandages too tightly again, " Aoi snapped, annoyed for having to correct Kagome once more. The other girls in the room tending to the other injured demon slayers all giggled, amused by Aoi's annoyance.
Kagoms looked and saw that the arm of her patient had turned a purplish-blue color because of her incorrectly tight wrapping.
"Ah, sorry!" She said as she hastily unwrapped the bandages so that she could rewrap them the correct way. The male demon slayer gave her a closed-eyed smile while rubbing his neck with his undamaged hand, claiming it was alright even though the lack of circulation was beginning to cause him pain- though not nearly as much as his injury underneath the bandages. While Kagome was busy fixing her mistake, Aoi went to the medical supply room to put away the medicine she had Kagome apply to the demon slayer's wound.
The room was large, containing all of their medical supplies. There were ceiling-high shelves with jars sat atop them and cupboards too. Aoi used the latter that they kept in the room so she could reach one of the tall shelves. After putting the jar she that had been carrying away, she noticed that some of the jars were getting to the point of having to be refilled. Sighing, she began the tedious task of figuring out what all needed to be refilled.
"Let's see....We should have enough zolpidem...fentanyl...doxazosin...." Aoi mumbled the names allowed as she went through each labeled jar, deciding which ones needed to be refilled or replaced. She made a mental list and left the room to inform Shinobu that they needed to restock some of the medicines as well as some other supplies.
➻
"Thank you for telling me, Aoi. Be safe during your trip to the market, okay?"
"Yes sensei, "Aoi said with a quick bow and left the room. She headed towards the room Kagome was currently in- helping patients- to ask her if she would like to come with. Aoi figured that Kagome hadn't really left the estate grounds for quite a while so she would enjoy going on a little outing. Aoi was right because when she asked Kagome, she immediately replied with,
"I would love too, thank you so much for inviting me sensei!"
Kagome loved going outside. While she could still go outside even when at the mansion, it wasn't enough to quench her thirst for discovering new things. Though it did for a little while at least.
"If you're ready then let's leave now, we still have work to do once we get back."
"Okay sensei!" Kagome said enthusiastically, excited to see a new town and it's inhabitants.
➻
Their journey to the town was quick and silent. Kagome too busy memorizing their route to say anything while Aoi- not that she was much of a talker anyway- was too busy making sure they were going the right way.
The town was large, larger than the lilliputian village that Kagome had grown up in. Many types of people were everywhere.
"Stay close to me, okay Kagome? Don't wander off, " Aoi ordered once they entered through the tall wooden gates.
"Understood sensei, " Kagome complied, acknowledging that they both knew full well that she was directionally challenged so if she got separated from Aoi, she'd be as lost as a crane that got separated from the rest of it's flock.
Aoi led the way through the town as they stopped at multiple shops to buy what they came to get.
While traveling throughout the town Kagome analyzed everyone they passed. It wasn't that she was necessarily scared that any of them were going to hurt her or Aoi. It was just a habit that she had unknowingly picked up. Not that it was a bad habit, actually it was rather good because then she could be more aware of her surroundings.
While they were passing through the market, Kagome glanced at a stall. The elderly lady behind it looked to be selling little nicknacks. One of the items caught her eye, so she stopped and tugged on Aoi's sleeve- since she was shorter than her- and asked,
"Sensei, can we stop at that stall? I see something that I want to buy."
Kagome was about to point at it, but realizing that that was rude she instead nodded towards the direction of the stall, successfully informing Aoi as to which one she wanted to stop at.
"I suppose we have enough time. However, make it quick because we still have other items to get."
"Thank you sensei!" Kagome said as she smiled and started walking in the direction of the greying woman.
The old lady smiled at her two potential customers. Aoi stood behind Kagome, not really looking at any of the items laying out before her. Kagome picked up the small silver object that had caught her eye earlier and handed it to the kind old woman.
"I would like this please, Ba-san," Kagome said then began to dig in her pocket for her money.
"I've had that small rusty coin for too long so I'm happy that someone finally wants it. Oh! You know there's a story behind it."
Kagome stopped for a moment to listen as the wrinkly old woman began to tell her tale. Aoi's ears perked as well.
"It was about 40 years ago and during that time I was still married to my first husband Yamato. You see his great uncle had been a coin collector. Now his house had been burned down. Everything was burnt, luckily the whole family was out during that day though. When the fire was finally put out and he was looking for anything that wasn't destroyed, he found the coin. Now he found it quite peculiar because every single coin in his coin collection, and if I remember correctly it was about, no it was exactly 366, melted. Oh, he was crying for days because he would have to start his coin collection all over! Anyway, he didn't want the coin anymore. He had originally found it on the road with no one around to claim it. He picked it up out of curiosity and decided to keep it once he noticed the poppy carved into it. Apparently, he had had it for 10 years but decided to get rid of it after the fire because he wanted to start all over," the old lady let out a laugh and continued, "he was originally going to sell it but my husband at the time, the one I mentioned, decided that he could have it. That's how it found it's way into our house and has been collecting dust ever since. My husband didn't take it with him after our divorce so it stayed in my jewelry box. Until now of course! Please do take care of it." The old lady finished with a smile. Kagome, having had taken her money out while listening to the story, gave the older lady the money that she had brought and smiled.
"I'm sure the person I give it to will take very good care of it."
"You two young ladies have a lovely day!" The woman said and waved as they began walking away to continue their shopping.
"You too."
Kagome put the newly bought coin into her pocket with her leftover money and began to follow Aoi to their next destination. As they got farther away from the shop Aoi grumbled under her breath,
"Great, that story was really long. Now we have to hurry so we can make it back on time."
"But sensei, you could've stopped her at any time to tell her that we were in a hurry, " Kagome said, having heard Aoi's mumbling. Aoi blushed in embarrassment and began to walk faster, leaving poor Kagome behind. Kagome began to walk faster too, trying to match Aoi's quick pace but couldn't because of her short strides. She only caught up once she was practically running.
"Sensei, please don't walk so fast! I can't keep up!" Kagome pleaded as she dodged the people on the bustling street. Aoi sighed and slowed down, allowing Kagome to take a break.
"Sheesh. No need to run away just because you're embarrassed."
➻
Once they got everything, they started to head back. Both of them had bags filled with a variety of things. Luckily, they were right on time.
"Kagome, earlier you said that the person that you give the coin to will take good care of it. Who's the person that you're giving it to?" Aoi asked curiosity, remembering what Kagome had said.
"Kanao. You see, I think I made her mad at me so I'm hoping she'll forgive once I give her it, " Kagome replied, her smile turning into a frown and her eye's looking at her shoes.
...Oh, it was for Kanao. Well, if Kagome picked out a coin for the same reason that Aoi thought she did, then Kagome was going to have more things to apologize for.
➻
"Kanao, I'm sorry for what I said last night. Please accept this gift as my apology, " Kagome said with her head down as she held out the miniature box out in front of her.
Kanao silently took the box and opened the lid. Inside was a big silver coin with a flower carved into it.
"I noticed that you always keep a coin in your pocket and flip it all the time."
Confused, Kanao stared blankly at Kagome.
"...I figured that you liked coins," Kagome added, becoming unsure.
"..."
"...was I wrong?"
"Kanae gave me the coin so that I could have help making decisions, "Kanao replied then put the coin back in the box, "You don't need to apologize for anything."
"...oh. Oh! Well uh, you can keep the coin anyway."
"Thank you."
"Kanao, " Kagome paused and closed her eyes then quickly asked, "canIbeyourfriend?"
Kanao said nothing, not really knowing how to reply. Yet she didn't flip her coin.
"You see I've never really had a friend and you seem nice and you're the only person at the estate that's around my age and yeah," her eyes were still closed, fearful of Kanao's potential answer.
Kanao still didn't know what to say so she took her new silver coin back out of the box and flipped it. It did a couple of flips in the air before landing in her hand. She slowly uncovered her hand, and Kagome kept her eyes closed, awaiting her answer.
It was tails.
"...yes, you can be my friend...you're my first friend too, " Kanao replied slowly.
Her eye's widened when Kagome's eye's snapped opened and she leaned forward to wrapped her arms around Kanao's larger frame.
"Yay! Thank you, I'm so happy!" She said with a smile fresh in her face.
Kanao tensed at the sudden contact, but slowly relaxed. It wasn't necessarily her first hug or anything. Rather, she wasn't expecting it.
After a couple of seconds, she wrapped her arms around and hugged Kagome back.
➻
Chosha Secrets:
Kagome's favorite foods are any kind of mochi and dango simply because of their texture.
Two sides on every coin, The heads, and the tails. Two sides of the same coin, The successes, and the fails. In all things, there must be a balance, In all things, duality must reside. The shield which blocks the lance, On a coin, each a different side. The light must come before the dark, And the night arrives before the day. Though at times it is cold and stark, When warmth comes, then shall we play. Without knowing hate, you cannot know love, Nor can there be sorrow without joy. Although this life is very tough, We must press on, every girl and every boy. Pain cannot live where there is no relief, And, if it's all that you know, sorrow is not there. Without a servant, one cannot be chief, And without hurt, for others, you cannot care. Until you know this simple truth, Until you can see the whole coin, You cannot recognize life's worth, And for nought have you been born. There are two sides on every coin, The heads, and the tails. So must it be with all in this life, Duality and perfect balance, all entails. -Two sides of the same coin by Doug Buchanan.
I hope you enjoy this little book of mine!
Feel free to point out grammatical errors,
you grammar nazis.
The updates will be random.
However, I'll make sure that
I won't take month-long brakes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer, the poem I used
or the title art.
I only own my characters!
Also, because I'm adding an oc or I guess multiple ocs the plot will be changed accordingly.
I want to make this as
realistic as possible!