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Rumor has it…
Shinazugawa Sanemi liked Tomioka Giyuu.
This was an open secret, not only among the Pillars but throughout the entire Demon Slayer Corps. Although, obviously, neither of the two involved seemed to realize the feelings the Wind Pillar harbored for the Water Pillar.
To begin with, Sanemi didn't treat Giyuu well; he was quite rude and brusque with him. On the other hand, the black-haired man's social skills were rather limited, so he struggled to read the room when he and Sanemi were alone together for any reason.
Now, how did this rumor originate? Or how did other people realize Shinazugawa Sanemi was in love with Tomioka Giyuu?
Some say it was Uzui Tengen, remarking to his comrade-in-arms Himejima Gyomei how the white-haired man's heart raced whenever he saw the quiet and composed Water Pillar at meetings, or how his heart skipped a beat when he heard that he would risk his life for the demon child Nezuko. "Seriously, Himejima-san, I thought he was having a heart attack."
Others say it was the Wind Pillar's own best friend, Iguro Obanai, while accompanying Kanroji Mitsuri and Rengoku Kyojurou at a restaurant. "Seriously, Kanroji, if I didn't know him well enough, I'd say Shinazugawa is in love with Tomioka." Oops, looks like someone spoke a little too loudly.
The more adventurous claim that the rumor was started by a group of random hunters who were accompanying the two Pillars on a mission. According to them, the Wind Pillar was seen watching the Water Pillar sleep in a rather uncreepy manner.
Add sarcasm to "creepy."
They say that after that mission, those closest to the blue-eyed Pillar never left him alone with the other man for a single moment. Well, who would have thought Tomioka Giyuu would have friends?
And when all these rumors reached the ears of each and every Pillar (except for two, we know who), they gathered to discuss… what they would do with this information.
"So, Shinazugawa likes Tomioka," said the Insect Pillar, Kochou Shinobu. As the head doctor of the Demon Slayer Corps, she was a very busy person, but even she had heard the rumors about the two in question.
"Yes," a chorus of voices was heard in the room. The only "No" came from the Serpent Pillar, who refused to believe that his best friend was in love with his self-proclaimed number two enemy (the first being Muzan).
"Shall we do something?" asked the Love Pillar. "Perhaps bring them together?"
"Yes," Uzui Tengen nodded enthusiastically.
"Or perhaps, first we should make Shinazugawa realize his feelings," Rengoku Kyojurou raised his voice, setting aside the plate of food in front of him to join the conversation.
"Do we even know if Tomioka feels the same way about Shinazugawa?" The voice of reason, Himejima Gyomei, offered his perspective.
“I doubt it. That guy is incapable of falling in love” Iguro Obanai ranted against him.
“Iguro-san, don't speak of him like that. Tomioka-san is a very kind person” Kanroji scolded Iguro, who hid his face in embarrassment.
In the end, they all agreed to help the two lovebirds get together. They would leave them alone at "meetings" or mistakenly invite them to meals. Himejima even convinced Oyakata-sama that Tomioka and Shinazugawa needed more missions together to "improve their relationship."
Of course, Tomioka Giyuu found this extremely odd.
Don't get him wrong, there was nothing he wanted more than to get along better with the other Pillars and be friends with them, especially Shinazugawa, but this was just absurd. And he didn't even understand why they were doing it.
"Did something happen?" Murata asked calmly, standing beside him. Giyuu had invited him to lunch after months of not seeing each other. Giyuu raised an eyebrow at the question. "That's like the third time you've sighed, and you haven't even eaten yet." Giyuu glanced at his plate, which he'd barely touched.
"The other Pillars have been acting strange for weeks," he said, picking up his chopsticks and starting to eat. He exhaled a sigh of satisfaction; his salmon was delicious.
"Define strange..."
"They leave me alone with Shinazugawa." Murata watched his friend eat. The blue-eyed man's last comment suggested the Pillars were already making a move and perhaps wanted the two boys together.
"Just ignore them. They'll get over it," he said, and they continued eating.
Now, don't misunderstand Murata. The kanoe respected Shinazugawa Sanemi; he was a Pillar who, despite everything, was very reliable in his work. But he didn't like him for Giyuu. Yes, he had heard the rumors; yes, he had been one of the demon slayers who saw the Wind Pillar watching Giyuu sleep, but he also knew how Shinazugawa treated and spoke to Giyuu.
He simply thought his friend deserved someone better.
Giyuu was quiet and kind, a man of few words, not at all ostentatious or arrogant. He needed someone who understood and loved him without him having to ask anything, someone who knew what he needed with a simple glance.
Giyuu needed someone like Sabito. “Oh, Sabito-san, why did you have to leave us so soon?” the raven-haired man thought. Well, if Sabito wasn't there to scare off unwanted people, Murata would have to gather the heavy cavalry, his few friends, and ruin the Pillars' plans.
Oh, Murata, you won't have to.
A black shape crashed into them while they were still eating. Giyuu's beloved kasugai crow, Kanzaburo, had crashed into them trying to deliver a message.
"Caw, message, caw, meeting, caw, emergency," the poor bird delivered its message wearily, once its master gently picked it up.
"Emergency meeting?" Giyuu asked. He knew his crow sometimes delivered erroneous messages, so he wasn't sure.
“Caw, true message, caw, all Pillars summoned to an emergency meeting” Murata's crow, Hiro, had flown towards them and perched on his hunter's shoulder, taking his food.
"Well, that concludes our meeting," Giyuu said to Murata, who smiled and told him not to worry, then waved goodbye.
Giyuu picked up Kanzaburo and quickly left.
It was unusual for them to call an emergency meeting; the most recent one had been the Kamado family meeting, and well, a demon slayer traveling with a demon was an emergency. So Tengen didn't know what to expect when he was summoned once again.
Once everyone was there (he was surprised to see Tomioka arrive so quickly), Oyakata-sama soon appeared with two of his daughters.
"My children, I apologize for summoning you so suddenly, but something has come up that even I couldn't have foreseen," said Oyakata-sama, causing the Pillars to exchange confused glances. Meanwhile, the man turned to one of his daughters and whispered something to her; the girl moved and then returned with another person behind her.
"My children, this is Sabito," Oyakata-sama said, introducing the man. He had light hair, violet eyes, and a scar on his face. He wore the standard demon slayer uniform with a white haori over it. Tengen thought there was nothing unusual about him except for his hair. Oh, wait, are those gold buttons?
"Sabito claims to be from another dimension. He fell a few hours ago, and we've been talking. We think his information could be useful to us."
"What do you mean, you fell?" is that really what you’re asking, Rengoku?.
"I fell from the sky and made a hole in the roof." Tengen hoped it was a joke.
"What do you mean, from another dimension? How do we know you're not lying to us?" Shinazugawa finally asking the right questions for the first time in his life.
"Because in my world, I'm the Water Pillar." Everyone turned to look at Tomioka, who remained uneasy in his position, staring at the newcomer as if he'd seen a ghost.
Tengen wanted to focus on the rest of the conversation, but Tomioka's pale face (paler than usual) worried him a little, not to mention that the sound of his heartbeat was becoming more erratic with each passing second. And well, Tengen was concerned. So he didn't hesitate to jump in when the dark-haired man's heartbeat almost stopped completely, and he caught him before Giyuu's head hit the garden stones.
“Tomioka fainted”.
They were all now in a room that Oyakata-sama had provided and made available to his people so that not only the unconscious Water Pillar, but also all his children, would be comfortable. Poor Giyuu had been laid on a futon; Shinobu was at one side taking his pulse and checking on him, while young Tokito was on the other, fanning him with a fan no one knew where he got it from.
Sabito was there too, at the head of the raven-haired man, gently brushing strands of hair away from his face with his calloused hands, asking Shinobu more than once how Giyuu was doing.
Across the room, Shinazugawa glared at him as if he wanted to kill him, making the other Pillars uncomfortable with the murderous aura radiating from the Wind Pillar.
"He's waking up," Tokito's voice rose above the whispers of everyone present.
Immediately, everyone gathered around, surrounding Tomioka to watch him awaken, his blue eyes taking in all the faces above him. "Too many people," he muttered.
That was all Shinobu needed to kick (literally) everyone out (except Mitsuri; Tengen would have claimed favoritism if he weren't worried) and remain inside alone with Tomioka… and Sabito.
"Tch," Sanemi gritted his teeth. "Why does that guy have to stay? They don't even know each other."
"Maybe they do know each other," Tengen said, "otherwise Tomioka wouldn't have fainted."
"Maybe he was hungry. I'll go get him something to eat," Kyojurou exclaimed. Tengen doubted that was the reason, but he wasn't going to contradict his friend.
"His name sounds familiar, but I can't place it," Muichiro said uncertainly. Everyone looked at him in surprise. Where could he have heard the name Sabito? The kid could barely remember his own name.
"Tch, I don't care about any of this," Shinazugawa said. Seriously Shinazugawa if you keep grinding your teeth, they're going to break. “I'm leaving."
"Why are you so upset, Shinazugawa?" Tengen mocked. "Are you jealous?"
"Fuck you."
"Shinazugawa, there are children and ladies here," Himejima scolded the Pillar. He was about to apologize, but just then Shinobu left the room.
"Alright, but it seems his blood pressure dropped. Too many emotions," she explained, looking at her companions. "I'll go get him some tea." She started walking, but stopped and turned around. "Don't bother him, especially you," she said, pointing at Shinazugawa, Iguro, and Uzui. Uzui felt offended.
When the small figure of the Insect Pillar disappeared into the corridors, the other Pillars crowded around the shoji screen, only peeking inside the room, and looked at the Pillar and the newcomer with curious eyes.
"Are you okay?" Tengen asked the dark-haired man, who still looked as pale as before, though at least his pulse had stabilized.
Giyuu watched them like a lost fawn searching for its mother, before nodding slightly at Tengen's question. Sabito, beside him, had teary eyes, and the atmosphere was thick with something Tengen couldn't quite put his finger on. Sabito and Giyuu exchanged glances that suggested they wanted to talk, but neither dared to speak first.
And Tengen gradually realized that they, the Pillars, were superfluous. Oh, for himself, Sabito and Tomioka radiated such a charged romantic tension that Tengen felt like the third wheel in a relationship. And he was never the third wheel in a relationship. He was so proud of the Water Pillar in those moments. You've grown so much, Tomioka.
"What are you doing? I told you not to disturb him!" Everyone turned around when they heard Shinobu's voice walking down the hall. She was accompanied by Kyojurou, who was carrying a tray with several onigiri and a steaming cup of tea.
"We wanted to see how Tomioka-san was doing," Mitsuri excused herself.
"Oyakata-sama has adjourned the meeting, so we should all get back to our duties," said the Flame Pillar.
"I was just about to leave," said Tengen, before giving Tomioka a thumbs-up and calmly leaving.
Everyone watched the Sound Pillar leave; it was odd, but Shinobu didn't dwell on it. She took the tray from Rengoku and handed it to Giyuu. "Oyakata-sama wants to speak with both of you after you eat," she said with a gentleness Giyuu had rarely seen. "Afterward, you'll go to my estate for another examination." Giyuu nodded, looking like a lost animal.
With that, Shinobu left the room, closing the shoji screen behind her and blocking the view of all the Pillars who were watching them curiously.
Since he still didn't want to speak, he took an onigiri and put it in his mouth, chewing gently.
Giyuu was incredibly embarrassed at that moment. He had fainted in a meeting, and in front of the Master and the other Pillars, doubly embarrassing. Besides the fact that someone must have picked him up and carried him to that room, they had seen his face while he slept and had seen him with teary eyes when Shinobu opened the door.
God, he felt so ashamed. The only thing left for him to do was resign from his position, go as far away as he could, settle on the top of some mountain, and eat roasted chestnuts until the end of his days.
Until he felt someone take his hand. Sabito was looking at him with glassy eyes as he stopped him from eating.
"You're going to choke if you keep eating so fast," he said softly.
Giyuu put the food back on the tray and brought both hands to Sabito's face, running his fingers over his cheeks, his nose, his scar. "Is it really you?" he whispered. Sabito looked at him as if he were the most important thing in the world. "I should ask the same thing," he said, also cupping his face in his hands and pressing their foreheads together. Giyuu trembled at the contact.
They stayed like that for a few more minutes, enjoying each other's closeness, until both their stomachs growled with hunger. They finished eating the onigiri, and Giyuu drank the tea Shinobu had prepared for him, feeling calmer afterward. Sighing, he thought it was going to be a long day.
It was mid-afternoon when Shinobu finally had some time to herself. This was supposed to be a productive day, but between the meeting and everything that happened afterward, Shinobu had no desire to work on her new poisons, at least not until tomorrow. Although, of course, if she hadn't spent the entire afternoon chatting with her teammates, things would have been different.
After they left Tomioka with the newcomer and everyone got ready to go their separate ways, Shinobu was surprised to find herself being followed by some of her teammates. Mitsuri, Tokito, Rengoku, and Iguro followed her to the Butterfly Estate like lost ducklings searching for their mother. She understood Tokito following the crowd, being the youngest and constantly lost in his own thoughts, and Mitsuri was her friend; there were some things only girls could understand.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" she asked the two men when they all followed her to her office. They both shook their heads, gossips. Shinobu sighed in defeat.
"You have to admit we all want to know a little more about what happened there," Rengoku said, well he almost shouted next to Tokito, who, poor kid, covered his ears from the noise. "You were with them longer. Did they say anything to each other?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing," Shinobu said, sitting dramatically in her desk chair. "All they did was exchange glances."
"Do you think they know each other?" Mitsuri asked excitedly.
"Sabito is from another dimension. I doubt they know each other," Shinobu replied to her friend.
"But they seemed to know each other," Iguro said. "Tomioka was staring at him like he was a ghost before he fainted” and that scared everyone, yes, including the one who had just spoken.
"Oh, that," Tokito stood up and spoke excitedly. "I remember now," he said as if he'd had a great revelation.
"What did you remember?" Shinobu asked patiently.
"It's from when I went to see Tanjiro," he said. Oh, so it's not important. “ sometimes stays at the Water Estate, you know. And one day I went into a room by mistake and found Tomioka praying.” Maybe it is important after all. “He was very kind. He told me it was a shrine for his sister and his best friend who had died. His name was Sabito."
"Oh."
"Oh."
"So they do know each other," Rengoku said.
"A best friend who comes back from the dead and the first thing he does is look at you like you're the most important person in the world," Mitsuri exclaimed excitedly. "It sounds like a love story written by someone who has nothing better to do with their life, ahhh!" She jumped for joy. "How romantic!"
That had been a couple of hours ago. The five of them, well the four of them, had continued talking for quite a while longer, trying to figure out if there was something more between Tomioka Giyuu and Sabito, but none of them could think of anything else on the subject, so they all ended up leaving. Exhausted, she decided she would sleep a little before going out on patrol, but she groaned in defeat when someone knocked on the door.
"You told me to come see you," said the Water Pillar when she opened the door with his usual smile. He was accompanied by Sabito.
"Yes, I told you," she replied. I shouldn't have said that, and let them in.
Shinobu gave him a thorough physical exam, finding nothing unusual. Both his pulse and blood pressure were normal, but she still drew blood for analysis "I don't want to miss anything" and then dismissed them. They both stood in the middle of the room, seemingly wanting to talk but neither wanting to interrupt the other.
She found it endearing.
"Is something wrong?"
"Um… Sabito and I will be sharing the title of Water Pillar… at Oyakata-sama's request," Tomioka said, sounding a little nervous.
"Oh."
"I'm eager to work with this version of you, and with Giyuu," Sabito said, giving a slight bow. She nodded at what they both said, but then, wait, what do you mean Giyuu? When Sabito straightened up from his bow, which lasted a few seconds, he smiled broadly at Tomioka, who was staring at him as if he were the only person in the room, and then, to Shinobu's dismay, he smiled back.
A wide, affectionate smile that made her want to sneeze.
Both of them.
Smiled.
Widely.
And affectionately.
Shinobu stood frozen in the middle of the room, even after they said their goodbyes and left. She had never, NEVER seen the Water Pillar smile like that. Only when they got together for lunch and caught up on their lives, but even then it wasn't the same kind of smile that Tomioka Giyuu gave the salmon.
They looked like a couple completely in love. Aaaaahhhh.
She had to tell Mitsuri, she told herself before running off on her small feet and writing a letter to her best friend.
A couple of days later, Murata was walking through the market doing some shopping. After several missions in a row, he finally had a couple of days off and he was going to make the most of them. That is, until he overheard a few things.
"I heard there's a new Water Pillar. Is it true?"
"I heard he's actually Tomioka-san's husband. They've been living together for a few days now."
"Husband? What happened to the Wind Pillar?"
"I heard Tomioka-san rejected him after Shinazugawa-san confessed to him."
“I saw him training the other day. He looked like he wanted to kill the training dummies. Could that be why?”
“Well, it doesn’t surprise me that Tomioka-san rejected him. He always treated him horribly.”
“Yeah, the other day Tomioka-san gave me a sweet after a mission and said, ‘Good job.’ He’s so kind, I almost cried.”
“I saw him smile the other day. It was like all my troubles disappeared.”
“Yeah, he was with someone. He was tall with salmon-colored hair. I saw them; they seemed very much in love.”
Murata stopped to listen to every word he heard from that group of gossipy hunters. But how could Tomioka-san get married? He was sure that if Tomioka Giyuu were to get married, he would be invited. So, with a determined stride, he headed toward the Water Estate, completely forgetting about the things he had to buy.
When he finally arrived, he gently knocked on the door. He wasn't so upset as to make a scene; besides, Giyuu didn't like loud noises, and he was his superior, he couldn't behave like that.
"Oh, Murata, it's good to see you," Giyuu said when he saw him. Murata could sense something different about him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Hey, what's this about you getting married without inviting me?" Murata crossed his arms, still standing in the doorway.
"Get married? Where did you get that idea?" Murata was about to reply when someone else appeared behind Giyuu.
"Oh, I knew I heard a familiar voice. How are you, Murata?" Sabito walked calmly toward them, greeting Murata like an old friend, then resting his chin on the blue-eyed man's shoulder and hugging him from behind. Murata short-circuited.
"A ghost!" he screamed before fainting.
When Murata regained consciousness, he was in a different room. His boyfriend, Nozomi, was fanning him and a cool cloth was on his forehead, and Sabito was grinning at him like a fox up to no good.
"Don't get up so fast, you took a nasty fall," he said, smiling. As Murata sat up, he snatched the fan from Nozomi and threw it at his face, hitting him on the nose. "Ouch!"
"You're real."
“Of course i’m real”
More recovered, Murata was told what had happened a few days ago, after the last time he saw Giyuu, and how he and Sabito were now sharing the duties of the Water Pillar. "Ushio and I just wanted to see Kanzaburo, but Sabito-san gave us a terrible scare," Nozomi said. Sabito laughed beside them. "I heard Tomioka-san got married, I came to confront him." And they continued talking.
"By the way, Sabito-san," Murata stopped in his tracks. The three of them had been called to lunch and were now walking down the hallway. "We need to tell you something."
"Shinazugawa likes Tomioka-san," Nozomi blurted out before Murata could soften the blow.
"Oh, I heard that rumor too."
"It's not a rumor, it's true," Murata said, and Sabito's aura changed completely.
"Yeah, and he's a jerk. He treats Tomioka-san horribly and says mean things to him even though Tomioka-san is an angel... blah..." Murata silenced him by covering his mouth with his hand. Sabito's aura had gone from angry to that of a serial killer.
"That son of a..." Sabito cracked his knuckles, then smiled in a way so chilling that even a demon would turn on its heels and run to hide in the nearest hole.
"Well, I was thinking of sabotaging the Pillars' attempts to reunite them, but since you're here..." Murata, you're quite the loose tongue, we support you, King.
"We need a plan."
Shinzaugawa Sanemi liked Tomioka Giyuu.
That was his best-kept secret for years.
A crush that hit him hard from the first moment he saw him. Kanae, always so kind, tried to help him talk to the blue-eyed boy many times, but to no avail. And when she left, Sanemi was sure she took that secret to her grave.
So why was he hearing rumors about him confessing to the Water Pillar? He didn't remember doing anything like that, did he? The thought of doing something he didn't recall made him anxious. He didn't remember getting drunk or sleepwalking. No. Sanemi was certain he'd never confessed.
So where did that rumor come from?
Is that why Tomioka doesn't look at him or speak to him anymore?
Ever since they last saw each other, Giyuu hadn't let go of the pink-haired guy who'd appeared, and they went everywhere together. Was fate finally getting its revenge for all the insults he'd hurled at the blue-eyed man in such a crude and cruel way? Was karma real?
Sanemi was debating whether to forget his shopping list and run to hide at the Wind Estate, or head straight to the Ubuyashiki mansion and ask the master to assign him every distant mission he had available so he wouldn't return until everyone had forgotten about that rumor.
But he hadn't counted on Giyuu and the other guy heading straight for him at that very moment, and Sanemi had to be brave.
"Shinazugawa-san, it's good to see you," Giyuu greeted him, his eyes sparkling. Sparkling eyes? What kind of world was Sanemi living in?
"Yes, hello, what do you want?" Sanemi tried to sound rude.
"You already know Sabito," i wished i didn't. "Oyakata-sama decided that we would share the title and duties of the Water Pillar”. Oh.
"I'm very excited to work with you all, but especially with Giyuu." He smiled at him, and Giyuu smiled back. It was the most beautiful thing Sanemi had ever seen in his life, if only it didn't mean he would never receive a similar smile from the boy in front of him.
"Likewise," Sanemi managed to say.
"We have to go now," Sabito said, putting an arm around Giyuu's waist and turning him around, making the albino jealous. Was he doing that on purpose? They were already quite far away when Sabito turned to look at him and made an obscene gesture. Yep, he definitely did that on purpose.
Several weeks had passed since Sabito arrived in this world, and thanks to his knowledge, some events had been prevented and lives saved. Ahem, Rengoku, ahem. Right now, the Pillars were gathered at a restaurant, cheerfully gossiping about the love lives of three people who weren't among them at that moment.
"So, are Sabito and Tomioka dating?" asked the Stone Pillar, Himejima Gyomei. The poor man had missed the most important events due to a mission that had kept him busy lately.
"I heard they got married," said the Love Pillar, Kanroji Mitsuri, happily, while sampling a delicious dessert.
"I don't think they got married. Tomioka would have invited us," said the Snake Pillar, Iguro Obanai.
"I doubt Iguro-san will be invited," the Mist Pillar, Tokito Muichiro, attacked his comrade, while bringing a dango chopstick to his mouth. The comment left the two-eyed man speechless.
"Hahahaha, he's right," the Sound Pillar, Uzui Tengen, laughed at the shorter man, who threw a piece of food in his face.
"And what about Shinazugawa?" asked the Flame Pillar, Rengoku Kyojuro.
"Well, I'd say he lost the war, wouldn't you say?" the Insect Pillar, Shinobu Kochou, offered her humble opinion.
"Should we bring him something to eat?" said Mitsuri, "to cheer him up."
"Remember, he doesn't know we know his little secret," Uzui advised.
And so they continued talking, unaware that other demon slayers were listening, sparking another wave of rumors that would spread faster than a demon being slain.