#knyverse

Akaza brings her to Muzan 80 years prior to the story’s main timeline. Muzan believed her to be a descendant of the doctor he killed and that she had information on the blue spider lily, but had no direct proof to confirm it. So, while she was walking at night, Akaza retrieved her without any questions.

Sakura isn’t sure, but she’s aware that her ancestors had many special treatments that were passed down with each generation. Muzan asks her if she knows or not – he doesn’t want a ‘possibility of its existence’, he wants answers.

Sakura admits she’s never heard of the blue spider lily. Muzan wants to kill her, but he’s reluctant to do so due to his past mistakes. He’s desperate for a lead and this girl could quite possibly be his second chance at conquering the sunlight. For now, even a pathetic human was a better lead than nothing.

Muzan also knows that Akaza doesn’t eat or kill women and leaves her in his care. He tells Akaza she must travel with him and their assignment – on top of wiping out the Demon Slayer Corps – will be to find the blue spider lily. He keeps her human so she can continue her work during the daylight for now, but warns her that she can’t afford to make mistakes or he’ll kill her.

In the beginning, Akaza orders her around a lot, however he’s not cruel. Sakura stands up for herself, though. She’s not a doormat, so they’re butting heads all the time in the beginning of their ‘mission’. He appreciates how strong-willed and tough she is.

At one point in time, Akaza uses Sakura as bait to attract some low-ranking demon slayers so he can eat (she isn’t aware those are his intentions until he kills them, she was just going to them to ask for directions because he told her to). He plays it off, but she’s really upset about it. He doesn’t promise anything, but he never uses her like that again. When he’s hungry, he goes hunting alone.

In the cold months, he’ll hunt animals for her or catch fish. She’s very grateful for it and always invites him to eat with her. He refuses.

The first time she’s sick, he feels uneasy and doesn’t understand why he’s so anxious. While she’s sleeping, he’s constantly pacing around her. She’ll wake up and he already has water for her to drink. ‘Why are you being so kind to me?’ she asks. He doesn’t answer. She’s only sick a handful of times, but he hates it when she coughs. He yells at her to stop because it bothers him so much. They bicker about it, but she ends up falling asleep and he goes back to his pacing.

She still does her work during the day which exhausts her as they have to travel at night, too. Akaza, after a few weeks of her doing this, carries her on his back  so she can rest at night unless he needs her. Muzan, being a demon for so long, disregarded that part of her needs (or maybe he just didn’t care). When dawn comes close, he’ll find a nearby cave and she’ll walk to a nearby town to get some clues from any doctors/healers/ANYONE there about the blue spider lily.

During the summer, they stumble upon a village festival. Sakura is happy to join in and they both go around in the night. She plays festival games while he receives a bunch of nervous stares. One of the stands gives her a mask to wear. She puts it on Akaza even though he growls about it. Fireworks start up. Sakura remembers the fireworks in her village and expresses how much she misses them. She takes his hand in hers and he feels the urge to grip it tightly, but pulls away from her and walks back to the cave.

That night after she’s gone to sleep, he feels a bit of regret, wishing he’d held her hand. He’s overwhelmed for the rest of the night, overthinking.

He reads through her journal – apparently she was carrying it back when he kidnapped her. She used to write about the boys in her village, how she can’t wait for her birthday, things so boring and ‘human’ to him. He goes to the present day. She writes about nobody knowing what a blue spider lily is, about how she misses her family, about how she’s thankful that she’s travelling with a demon that’s capable of being kind on rare occasions. He closes it. 

Once, while Akaza was summoned by Muzan about their progress, he was nervous about the repercussions she would face. Muzan was pissed they didn’t have anything, but Akaza told him that he firmly believed they were on to something substantial and apologizes on her behalf. After Muzan dismisses him, Akaza returns to her. She welcomes him in and he realizes his feelings for her are much stronger than he anticipated. He doesn’t understand love, but he definitely wants to protect her.

But Sakura doesn’t feel that hopeful. During the day, she often cries her eyes out. Because something like the blue spider lily just doesn’t exist today. It can’t. It’s so absurdly impossible to find that she doesn’t even bother asking. By now, it’s been three years. She wants out, but she knows that she doesn’t have a real future even if she escaped. Muzan would find her at some point and, if he didn’t kill her, he’d make her go try and find it again. Maybe he’d torture her or turn her into a demon. She didn’t want to experience that. It’s hopeless to her. But she keeps smiling at Akaza and making him believe they’re really on to something. She’s afraid of dying. She’s afraid of facing Muzan with nothing to show for it.

It gets lonely on her own for so long, so I’m sure even without reciprocating his feelings, Sakura yearns for human affection and allows him to hold her. She needs it after going through all she has. But she’s dreading the day when she has to tell him that there’s no flower. There probably won’t ever be one.

She wakes up to him snuggling her and calls his name. He backs off, but she immediately coaxes him back to her. She kisses him.

After a few months with absolutely NO LEADS (not even fake ones), she sits with Akaza and is ready to tell him the truth. He stops her and tells her VERY SERIOUSLY they’re going to find it. She argues that nobody knows what it even is. It’s hopeless. Akaza says that Muzan knows it exists, so it has to be somewhere. Even if they have to travel outside of Japan. She’s going to find the flower and Muzan will be able to conquer the sunlight.

‘After that,’ he says, ‘I’ll keep protecting you. Lord Muzan might even give you his blood and make you a demon.’

‘I don’t want to become–’ Akaza grabs her hand before she can finish. She doesn’t speak again and goes to bed. Obviously, deep down, Akaza knows there’s no flower either. He knows. But he would never outright think it because his loyalty to Muzan is unwavering. Whatever Muzan believes to be true, he will believe, too. It’s why she’s still here after all.

They find somewhere safe from the sun, she goes out in the daylight, he stays behind until nightfall, he hunts. When he returns, he crawls into her arms while she sleeps. He knows she doesn’t love him, but it feels good to be close to her. They both find something soothing about it.

Five years. FIVE YEARS. Nothing. Muzan hasn’t called for them yet. Five years is just a speck to him after being alive for as long as he has. Akaza is thankful for it. Sakura is safe.

And she’s older. 23 years old. He thinks about how she could have been married to some nobody with a nice dowry. She could have had one or maybe two children by now. It’s dark. She barely has the energy to go to villages and ask around anymore. Akaza usually doesn’t make her unless she hasn’t done it in a while. She’s not the same. She doesn’t smile as much anymore. But she walks with him at night now. Daylight makes her eyes hurt.

They’re confronted by demon slayers. She warns them to stay away, but they never listen. She still cries when he kills them and never stays around when he eats. While passing by a large village after no hints or clues about the blue spider lily, they see fireworks again. They stop to watch them and he involuntarily reaches for Sakura’s hand.

He tries to kiss her, but she pulls away from him.

It’s not unusual for Akaza and Sakura to be confronted by demon slayers. However, the crows that accompany them have given the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps some intel that a human girl with pink hair is accompanying an Upper Moon. Ubayashiki gives demon slayers permission to kill her along with Upper Moon Three. 

They’re surrounded by demon slayers. Akaza can sense a group behind them, attempting to flank them and attack. But he’s under the impression that they’re still willing to save Sakura and kill him. He kills the group to his front and prepares to kill the rest until he hears Sakura scream. She’s being held by a demon slayer, a blade to her neck. The Pillar in their ranks tells him to surrender. Of course, Akaza laughs at the thought. He mocks them until one of the demon slayers threaten to kill her. He bluffs, asking if they’re really willing to kill their own kind. He says that he’s kept her this long to lure out any idiots. It’s an easy way to get food. 

They don’t believe him. They know that he has other intentions for her. Something that has to do with Muzan. They stand firm. Either he dies or she does. Akaza hesitates. He looks at her then to the group of twelve – half with their swords directed at her and the remaining towards him. They demand he surrenders so they can cut off his head. He senses more behind them. Reinforcements – that’s new. They’re getting closer. Less than twenty.

Akaza was fast. He could kill them and–

Another Pillar approaches from behind and Akaza dodges effortlessly to avoid the attack. He was fast, but not fast enough. The reinforcements are attacking in a group after Akaza strikes the Pillar down. The Pillar, holding his gut, yells out beyond the cries of his fellow demon slayers.

‘Kill her! Then kill the demon!’

Akaza’s feet never touch the ground as he goes through several demon slayers’ bodies, severing pieces of them into the trees or splattering them on the ground. One slices into his arm. Akaza retaliates by breaking his jaw. A blade breaks against his ankle. Akaza is fast. Akaza is fast. Akaza is–

He kills the man behind Sakura. His head lopped off like a flower’s. The Pillars, the weaklings, everyone. They’re all dead.

Sakura is crying. She’s holding her neck. Her eyes are on him as she reaches out . There’s blood on her fingers.

Akaza’s body feels heavy. The Pillar with the original group laughs, shortened by a few heavy coughs. ‘It serves her right. Turning against her own kind – it serves her right!’

Akaza stomps on his head.

He scoops her up. She’s pale, unable to speak. He looks at her then to the gaping wound where his hand used to be. He didn’t even realize it was missing. That didn’t matter. The wound was closing fast.

He holds her closer. ‘Sakura-san,’ he says, ‘Sakura-san, I’m giving you my blood.’

Blood drips over her face. She turns away and Akaza holds her still, forcing her mouth open. ‘You’re not dying like this. Lord Muzan still needs you! You need to stay! Keep your damn mouth open!’

Her hand weakly pushes against his forearm. He’s growing manic as he makes her ingest his blood. He reopens his wound. She needs more. A little more. He makes sure it enters through her wound just to be absolutely certain.

He kills the occupants of a cave that were camped out overnight and takes over one of the beds for her as dawn creeps closer. He sits there with her resting in the back of the cave, clutching her journal. Dawn breaks. Her legs twitch. Her back arches. She gasps.

She’s covered in sweat. The wound on her neck is covered by a black band tattooed over her neck, just like his. She looks at him, out of breath. He can see her fangs as her mouth hangs open.

‘Sakura-san–’ She ignores him, running to the fresh bodies.

She immediately grabs hold of a severed arm and begins devouring it.

Akaza walks over and squats down as she continues to eat. He drops his hand onto her head and combs his fingers through her tangled hair. A bone crunches and she moves on to the next piece of her meal. Akaza continues to stroke her hair adoringly. She’s alive and safe because of him. He protected her. That’s all he needed.

It takes a week or two of one-sided conversations for her to start speaking. She doesn’t remember anything.

A year passes. Sakura is different. She happily kills demon slayers and hunts humans with Akaza. She eats with him and stays awake in the night. She doesn’t cry anymore. She smiles all the time and listens to whatever he says.

They walk out of the forest with the lights of a village glowing in the dark. A night market or festival, maybe. Akaza ignores it. Sakura stops and stares.

‘Do you remember?’ he asks, when he realizes she isn’t following him. ‘As a human, you liked going to them.’

‘Akaza-kun, how many humans do you think are down there? I’m getting hungry.’

Akaza regrets it. He hates looking at her for too long. Seeing her eat pisses him off. Seeing her kill whatever weak humans that cross their path pisses him off. He rereads her journal obsessively. He shows it to her, explains that she used to write a lot as a human. She smacks it out of his hand, saying that she has no idea what he’s talking about. She wants nothing to do with whatever her human self wrote about. He destroys it.

Muzan meets her in-person. He appreciates her devotion to the cause and praises Akaza on his choice to turn her into a demon. He dismisses them to continue their search and kill as many of the Demon Slayer Corps as possible.

They go out at night: eat, kill, search. Sakura picks fights with him constantly. Akaza wishes he’d let her die instead. She never wanted this and he went against her anyway. Why did he do it? If he hadn’t underestimated the demon slayers and– she’d still be alive and human.

Death would have been merciful. And he took that away. 

Time passes. The feelings of regret wither away. Sakura’s clinging to him more and more. She’s happy to be in his company. Akaza doesn’t care.

He enjoys finding strong opponents and fulfilling Muzan’s plans.

She dies at his feet by a Flame Pillar – Rengoku’s – blade. Akaza manages a retreat after killing him, but not without taking a sword through his chest. He leaves behind three other demon slayers. Muzan is utterly disappointed by his failure. Akaza feels numb.

They’re summoned to Muzan’s fortress with the remaining members of the Demon Slayer Corps. His head is cut off. He can hear his father’s voice. He can feel Koyuki’s warmth on his skin. Muzan’s cells are tingling in his body. It’s not worth it anymore. They won. But he can’t go where Koyuki and his father are.

Someone stands beyond his vision. Pink hair. Akaza walks slowly towards her then breaks out into a run and grabs hold of her. So many apologies he’s already given. So many mistakes he’s made. He’ll apologize again for her. He was selfish. He took her life away and left her to die without caring at all.