fictional spring

An ethereal voice suddenly sounded.

【Breath of Insects. Dance of Butterflies—Teasing】

The thin blade cut through the quiet moonlight, while tearing the air, it also pierced the skin of the strangely shaped [ghost].

And the ghost's expression changed from panic to laughter.

"What, seeing how fast you are, I thought you were such a powerful person," the ghost sneered, "This kind of wound will heal immediately..."

Before he could finish his words, his body began to become paralyzed, festering from the punctured skin, and his whole body seemed to turn into a puddle of mud in an instant.

The ghost looked at his body in disbelief: "Why...how is it possible...!"

He raised his face to look at the girl holding the sun wheel knife. The girl's haori clothes were rippling under the moonlight, and the arcs blown by the wind made the gorgeous butterfly wing patterns on the haori shimmer. .

Butterfly Shinobu put the Japanese saber back into the scabbard, turned around and looked at the ghost: "Although there is no way to cut off the ghost's head, my sword is different from other people's."

Her voice and tone were obviously soft, but it fell into the ghost's ears, but it was colder than the moonlight.

As the only [Pillar] in the Demon Slayer Team who was unable to cut off the demon's head, Butterfly Shinobu hid the toxin made from wisteria flowers in his Japanese sword.

Although the amount required to kill different levels of ghosts is also different, Butterfly Ninja will stay in the Butterfly House to adjust the proportion of toxins whenever he has free time, so as to achieve the purpose of killing ghosts more conveniently and quickly.

After mentally calculating the time it took for the ghost to disappear completely from being exposed to the toxin this time, Butterfly Ninja had a new idea about the dosage of the ratio.

But before returning to the Butterfly House, she had another matter to settle.

Under the tree only a few meters away from her, there is another [ghost].

It was a ghost with the appearance of a girl, and there were very few mutations. Except for the pupils in the eyes, there was almost no difference from humans.

But Butterfly Shinobu could still smell the [ghost] smell on her body—even if the smell was really weak.

It's so faded...it can't be smelled at all at a distance.

Butterfly has seen and killed many ghosts, and she often asks them a question.

She asked them, "How many people did you eat?"

Some ghosts would lie and say they only ate a few, and some ghosts simply didn't answer her, but without exception, they couldn't restrain their most instinctive impulses.

[The urge to eat people. 】

They don't know what restraint is at all, and they no longer know what mercy is. The moment they become ghosts, they abandon everything that belongs to human beings.

[Ghosts are not humans, they are all monsters. 】

——It’s a heartless monster.

Speaking of it, it was a complete accident that Butterfly Ninja met these two ghosts this time.

She saw them on the way back to Butterfly House after completing the task, and as [Zhu] of the ghost killing team, how could she watch the evil spirits passing by under her nose?

When Die Die Ren was killing the strange ghost, the girl-like ghost just stood under the tree. She neither ran nor attacked, but shed tears silently.

[It looks sad. 】

Butterfly Ninja suddenly wanted to ask her that question again——

"How many people did you eat?"

Butterfly Ren's big, hollow purple eyes were almost eerily unripe under the moonlight.

Of course, the questions she asked were also weird—who would ask a ghost such a question?

"I..." The girl-like ghost opened her mouth, her pale but beautiful face was covered with tears. When she opened her mouth, Butterfly Ninja could see more features of the [ghost], for example, there were changes in it. The fangs of the trend.

Die Die Ren suddenly felt very boring, she thought, she would probably say that she only ate a few, or just jump over.

However, the girl's body does not have the unpleasant smell like other ghosts, and it can even be regarded as the weakest one among the ghosts that Butterfly Ninja encountered.

"I... didn't eat people," she said.

Butterfly Ren was stunned when he heard this sentence.

——*——

Butterfly Ninja once had an older sister, who was a beautiful and gentle girl, who would call her "Little Ninja" in a sweet and soft voice while hugging Ninja, and would say to her at night when the moonlight was bright: "I have a wish. .”

The girl named Butterfly Kanae hopes to see the peaceful coexistence of humans and [ghosts] one day.

Although the rest of the Demon Slayer Squad are unwilling to believe that her wish can become a reality, but every time she sees her sister talking about it with a smile, Butterfly Shinobu will always say to her: "It will definitely be possible."

Only Butterfly Shinobu believes from the bottom of her heart that Butterfly Kanae's wish can become a reality.

Butterfly Chanae has always worked hard. She became the [Style] of the Demon Slayer Squad at a young age. Although she is a woman, her strength is not inferior to that of any male column, and the degree of hard work is the same.

Because Butterfly Kanae said: "As long as you have more power, you can save more people, and it is possible... to save more ghosts."

But she held such a beautiful and dreamy ideal, and died in the hands of ghosts.

Butterfly Ninja still remembers the scene of her sister's death to this day. She cried heartbreakingly and asked her what kind of ghost the other party was.

【It's a... a golden iron fan with a weapon, a ghost with white oak hair, a blood-splattered head, and a carefree smile on its face. 】

That is the ghost who killed Butterfly Kanae.

Butterfly wanted to avenge her sister, so she put away the carefree look of her sister when she was alive, and began to learn to smile gently like her sister, and also like her sister, and even worked harder than her sister.

But until Butterfly Ninja also became [Insect Pillar], she still couldn't find the ghost that killed her sister.

Butterfly Kanae's death created a very contradictory Butterfly Ninja. On the one hand, she hated ghosts, but on the other hand, she wanted to fulfill her sister's wish, the wish of "let humans and ghosts coexist peacefully".

So Butterfly Ninja has been asking about the ghosts she met, and has always hoped that she can meet the ghosts that her sister is looking forward to meeting.

Butterfly thought, [If I could meet a ghost that would not eat people and choose to starve to death, I would be willing to take care of it, with a loving heart until the end. 】[1]

But tonight, she seems to have met.

The ghost of a girl with black hair, black eyes, and a pretty face seems to have just become a ghost, and hasn't even eaten anyone...

If it was her, would she refrain from eating people?

"My name is Butterfly Shinobi," Butterfly Shinobi laughed, and greeted her through the moonlight: "It's [Insect Pillar] from the Demon Slayer Squad."

The girl seemed a little surprised, leaning against the big tree behind her, but there was no sign of fear on her face.

"I know Ghost Slayer Squad," she said softly, "and I know what Pillars are."

Butterfly still smiled, nodded and said, "Yeah."

"Are you going to kill me here?" she asked.

Butterfly tilted her head: "Don't make me sound like an executioner who just beheads people regardless of right and wrong. We only kill evil spirits."

The girl pursed her lips tightly, tears fell silently, she didn't know if she thought of something, or a certain sentence of Butterfly Shinobi hit her.

"Although you have become a ghost..." Butterfly Ren was about to say something, but was interrupted by her.

"No," the girl looked at her, changed the weak attitude in Die Die Ren's eyes, and said to her almost stubbornly: "I haven't become a ghost yet."

Butterfly blinked her eyes, and suddenly realized that the girl in front of her was different from the other ghosts she had encountered.

Ghosts prey on humans and become cruel simply because they no longer have a human heart—because they don't feel human anymore.

But the girl in front of her obviously couldn't accept her identity as a "ghost".

Butterfly nodded following her words: "Yes~ you haven't become a ghost yet."

Die Die Ren's appearance was clearly perfunctory, but the girl's emotions calmed down. Seeing her silent, Die Die Ren said, "What are you going to do next?"

——Looking for a place to hide during the day, and running out to eat people at night when I can't control myself, weeping, revealing the true face of a ghost...

Butterfly couldn't help thinking about this maliciously again.

The girl said: "...I don't know."

She seemed to remember something, and her eyes fell on the place where the previous ghost disappeared, "He may have other ghosts come to me..."

Butterfly asked: "He? Who is he?"

The girl was unwilling to answer.But at least Butterfly Ninja can see that for her, this [he] must be someone who needs to pay attention.

"So," Seeing that she didn't say anything, Die Die Ren didn't get angry, but instead stretched out his hand to her: "Would you like to walk with me?"

The girl stared blankly at her palm, and after a while, she put her hand on it.

He is clearly a ghost, but he denies his identity, and even though he knows that Butterfly Ninja is an insect pillar, he still holds her hand.

Die Die endured looking at the back of her pale hand, and suddenly felt that she was really naive.

[Naive...almost stupid. 】

But in the eyes of others, why wasn't the Butterfly Chanae so stupid and naive back then?

——*——

Butterfly Shinobu didn't bring the girl back to Butterfly House. Although she was willing to take care of each other, it didn't mean that other people in Butterfly House were also willing.

What's more, bringing a ghost back to the Butterfly House without fully understanding the specific situation of the other party is also irresponsible to the other members of the Ghost Killing Team who came to the Butterfly House for treatment due to injuries.

So Butterfly Ninja placed her in a house on a nearby mountain, and sprinkled wisteria flower poison around the house.

It used to be the house of the forester, but after the forester left, the house was abandoned.So there were no people around at all, even if she ran out, she would not see other humans.

Butterfly Shinobu told the girl before leaving that if she stepped out of this room, with her strength, even if she was infected with a little bit of wisteria poison, her whole body would definitely fester.

"So you must remember to stay in the room obediently and never go out." Butterfly said with a smile.

What surprised Die Die Ren was that even if he was treated like this, the other party showed no sign of anger, but nodded: "...Thank you."

Butterfly's smile froze for a moment, and then covered it up without leaving any trace: "You're welcome."

——If it is a ghost who wants to deceive people, it is absolutely impossible to say such things as if nothing happened after being locked up and completely cut off the possibility of cannibalism.

For a few days after that, Butterfly Shinobi didn't go to see her, the poison of the wisteria flower can last for a long time, and there is no need to worry about her running out of it, it's just...

Butterfly Shinobu always felt a strange feeling in his heart.

[It's as if I'm suffering from something. 】

So after completing a mission, she went to the mountain to see the girl again.

Open the door and you can clearly see the small space in the whole room. The girl is curled up in the corner. She is leaning against the wooden wall, hugging her calf and burying her head on her knee.

Seeing such a scene, Butterfly Ren greeted softly: "Good evening."

The girl huddled in the corner slowly raised her face. Her face was bulging with blue veins, she opened her mouth soundlessly, and spit out white water vapor from her mouth. The sharp teeth in her mouth were particularly eye-catching.

Die Die silently looked at those animal-like pupils that stood up, looking at her as if she was about to pounce on her at any moment.

"Late...good evening," the girl struggled to pronounce a few syllables: "Butterfly...Miss."

She was still huddled in the corner.

Die Die endured silence for a long while, then suddenly walked towards her, knelt down in front of her, and stroked her head.

Butterfly Ninja suddenly remembered: "I don't know your name yet, what's your name?"

Perhaps due to the impact of hunger, the girl's thinking ability has weakened a lot, and her eyes have become ignorant. After a while, she opened her mouth: "Muyue," she said word by word: "Muyue Yuan."

"Muyue," Butterfly Ninja hugged the girl in his arms, and said softly, "What a good name..."

——Also, a very good kid.

Ghosts who would rather starve to death than eat people do exist.

Even though Die Die Ren held her in his arms at this time, she only needed to open her mouth to bite off her flesh, but the girl still clenched her teeth.Tears and sweat mixed together, wet Butterfly Shinobi's feathers.

But Butterfly Shinobu suddenly felt very happy, and could even be called relaxed.

Because ah...

[Sister, did you see it? 】

——*——

Later, Butterfly Shinobu stayed with her in the mountains all the time. In fact, it didn't pass a few days. After all, a ghost who doesn't eat people... how could he survive?

When Gen Mutsuki disappeared, Butterfly Shinobu still hugged her, just like she hugged Butterfly Kanae back then.

Butterfly Shinobu always thought that she would never cry again, but when she saw the girl disappear into her arms, leaving only a pile of clothes, she heard the sound of something falling.

She buried the girl's clothes with her sister and sat in front of their grave for a long time. Butterfly forgot what she was thinking at that time. She only knew that after a long time, she would not die even if she saw I even saw... the enemy who killed my sister.

White oak hair color, the top of the head looks like blood...golden fan.

Fierce hatred surged from the bottom of Butterfly Shinobi's heart, but it was also mixed with sadness. Her eyes were full of real hatred: "How can a ghost like you understand it?"

Reminded by Butterfly Ninja, he finally remembered the Butterfly Kanae he had killed, and Tong Mo still had a smile on his face.But when she said that the kind of non-cannibal ghosts that her sister expected really existed in this world, the smile on Tong Mo's face seemed to freeze.

"You said... what's her name?"

Die Die could see his abnormality, but had no intention of repeating it again.

The expression on Tong Mo's face disappeared in an instant, and he asked, "Where is Yuan Muyue?"

The weird silence suddenly spread, but Butterfly Shinobu suddenly laughed, but she understood something in a flash.

He is obviously a heartless ghost who can even remember the names of people he killed with his own hands, but when he heard the girl's name, he let go of all disguises.

"You will never know." Butterfly Ren said, "Because you can't go to where she is."

When being swallowed by Tong Mo, Die Die Ren suddenly remembered what she said before she disappeared.

The girl clearly didn't even have a clear consciousness, but she still asked her: "I didn't become a ghost, did I?"

Butterfly endured and said to her, "Yes."

The girl who got the approval spoke intermittently: "From a human... to a ghost, this process... Seimei-sama said... is born."

"I'm... still in...becoming," the girl explained to her stubbornly, "I... didn't eat people...so..."

"So," Butterfly Ren said, "You are still Yuan Muyue."

Always.