Akira and Erika were flying quietly through the night sky, well, "flying" in the sense that Erika was doing all the flying, while Akira dangled below, carried by her ribbons like luggage. At this point, she'd long grown used to handling, so she didn't even comment.
"Are you sure we're going to the right place?" Erika asked, glancing down at him as she glided over the treetops.
Akira crossed his arms, well, as much as one could while being suspended by ribbons. "Well… probably. I'm not sure either. There's no GPS in this world, and the crows are useless; they don't know the location either. So we just have to find it the plain old way: looking for landmarks."
Right now, they were searching for the Blue Spider Lily.
As soon as they returned to the Butterfly Mansion and heard Tanjiro's explanation, Akira dragged Erika out immediately, completely ignoring the idea of resting.
Erika sighed. "We really should've rested for at least a day. You're still not at full health."
Akira shook his head.
"I'm fine. But we have to get the Blue Spider Lily soon. I'm sure we can use it as a great weapon against Muzan."
Erika sighed, tightening her grip on the ribbons.
"Well… I hope we can find it soon, then."
They searched for a long while, gliding over forests and ridges.
Then, finally, they spotted it.
A mountain silhouette, eerily similar to Tanjiro's description.
Akira pointed. "I think this is it."
"Are you sure?" Erika asked as she descended.
"Well," Akira said, "we just have to land and have a look."
They touched down near a lonely house tucked against the mountainside.
A quiet, abandoned home.
A place frozen in time.
Erika looked around. "Is this… Tanjiro's house?"
Akira nodded. "Probably. Look, even the graves of his family are exactly where Tanjiro said they would be. So this should be the place."
Erika glanced around the quiet mountain slope.
"So Tanjiro said the blue spider lily should be in the mountain behind his house, right?"
"Yeah," Akira replied. "He said it's near a weird rock. So I guess we just walk until we see a weird rock."
And so the two of them began walking into the forest behind the house, following the path Tanjiro described.
Erika frowned as they moved deeper into the trees.
"I don't get it. Tanjiro's family was killed by Muzan, right? So that means Muzan was here. Why didn't he find it?"
Akira answered casually, "Well, from what I heard, the flower only blooms three times a year, for a very short amount of time, and only in the daytime. So it's possible that when Muzan arrived, it simply wasn't in bloom."
Erika froze. "…Then why are we here at night? Shouldn't we have come during the day?!"
Akira shrugged. "As I said, it only blooms three times a year, and only briefly. Even if we come here tomorrow morning, it's almost impossible to catch it in bloom."
"Then… how are we going to find them?" Erika asked.
"With my Mystic Eyes of Truth," Akira said. "Unlike the Mystic Eyes of Reason, the Mystic Eyes of Truth have new special powers. Sometimes they act almost like an appraisal skill; if I focus, they show me a plant's name and properties."
Erika stared. "So… you can see the identity of anything? Why don't you use that all the time?!"
"That's because I almost never use it," Akira replied. "It would be boring if I knew everything about something right away, right?"
Erika sighed.
"Well, I don't know how it works, so I can't say anything about that."
"I can let you try it," Akira offered. "We can use vision sharing. Want to see how it looks?"
"Let's do that later," Erika said quickly. "Seeing through your eyes is exhausting for me."
"Okay," Akira nodded. "First, we need to find the legendary flower."
So the two of them continued walking deeper into the quiet forest, guided only by moonlight and instinct as they searched for the elusive flower.
Erika asked, "Are you sure we're going the right way?"
Akira replied, "Well… probably…"
His tone didn't inspire much confidence.
Inside, Akira wondered if he should add a map function, something that worked in every world. How would that even work? Maybe a universal landmark scanner? A reality-anchored coordinate grid?
As he was thinking through a dozen ideas at once.
"Don't worry, brother. I'll work on it", Selena said telepathically. "For now, just walk straight."
"Walk straight? What does that even..." Akira began to think, but before he could finish the thought, his foot slipped on something.
"…Wah!"
He fell forward.
Thankfully, Erika caught him by the arm before he face-planted into the dirt.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine…" Akira muttered, embarrassed.
Erika crossed her arms. "Seriously, we're on a mountain. A mountain. It's dangerous if you zone out like that while walking."
"Sorry… I was just thinking about something else."
Erika sighed. "Seriously…"
"Why not just hold hands while walking?" Selena suggested casually.
"Oh, that's not a bad idea," Akira said aloud.
And before Erika could react, he reached out and took her hand.
Erika froze for a moment, her face warming, but she didn't pull away.
"…Let's just keep walking," she said quietly.
They walked in silence through the forest until the trees thinned and a clearing revealed a strange, unmistakable rock formation.
Akira pointed. "Look, Erika. This is probably the rock Tanjiro told us about."
Erika studied it. "Yeah… it looks like it. But where's the plant? I don't see anything that looks like a spider lily."
"We just have to look," Akira said.
He activated his Mystic Eyes of Truth. His pupils glowed faintly, scanning every plant.
Then he pointed at a simple, unimpressive patch of greenery.
"That should be it."
Erika squinted. "…That looks like a common horsetail weed."
"Maybe that's why Muzan couldn't find it," Akira said, shrugging.
He approached the plant and placed his hand on the ground.
He activated Rewrite, something he could now do even without his armor.
Suddenly.
FWOOM!
Every plant around them burst into bloom at once, petals unfolding in vibrant waves.
Dozens of colors lit up the clearing, painting the night with soft radiance.
And from the horsetail-like plant…
A delicate blue spider lily bloomed.
Its petals shimmered under the moonlight, rare, ethereal, unmistakably beautiful.
Akira turned to Erika with a small, satisfied smile.
"See? That's the blue spider lily."
Erika looked closely at the plant and said, "Yes… It seems like it."
Then she looked around at all the blooming flowers surrounding them and whispered, "This looks beautiful…"
Akira nodded. "It is beautiful."
Without warning, he lay down on the soft grass, surrounded by glowing blossoms, staring up at the night sky. "I just want to stay like this," he murmured.
Erika sat beside him, watching his profile illuminated by moonlight. "…You always liked the stars, right? Is it because of your family? Or something else?"
Akira didn't answer immediately. His eyes stayed fixed on the sky.
"I don't know," he finally said. "It always felt like I belonged there."
Erika blinked. "…What do you mean by that?"
Akira exhaled lightly and continued, "I don't know either. I always feel like going to the sky… becoming one of the stars. I just like stars. It's as if it were ingrained into me. Not just in this life, even in the previous one."
Erika went quiet for a moment, then lay down beside him so their shoulders almost touched.
"Your previous life…" she said softly. "You never told me much about it."
Akira said, "Well, you heard about it from my sister, right?"
Erika nodded lightly. "A bit… but I want to hear it from you too."
Akira let out a small breath. "Well, it's nothing much. I lived like a lab rat, and I died randomly. It was nothing special."
Erika turned quiet. "…How did you die?"
"I don't know," Akira answered bluntly. "One minute I was opening a door, then I just died. It was a bit random… and a completely boring way to go. That's why, at least in this life, I want to die a cool death."
Erika turned her head toward him with a very What are you even saying expression. "What do you mean by that?"
Akira shrugged slightly. "Well, death is inevitable. That cannot be changed. So I want to die a cool death."
"Don't talk about your death like that," Erika stared at him as he'd malfunctioned. "Don't say weird things. I'd be sad if you died."
Akira said, "You will?"
Erika's eyes softened. "Of course I will. What would you do if I die?"
Akira replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Well, I will die too."
Erika sat up slightly, startled. "What? Why!?"
Akira looked at her like she had forgotten something simple. "Did you forget who owns my heart? If you die, my heart will stop working too. So I'll die."
"…Oh." Erika blinked. "That's… true."
But then she frowned. "Wait. You can probably survive without a heart somehow, right?"
Akira thought for a moment. "Well… it is possible. I could do that."
Erika leaned closer. "Then what would you do if I die?"
Akira didn't even hesitate.
"First, I won't let you die. Second, I will pull an Otto Apocalypse and get you back."
Erika asked, "Who is that?"
Akira said. "He's a villain from a game in my previous world, though a lot of people like him."
"Villain?" Erika echoed. "And people… like him?"
Akira nodded. "Yes. But he's not really a bad guy."
A dry voice echoed telepathically in both their minds.
Selena butted in telepathically, "He spent 500 years manipulating nations, rewriting history, experimenting on humans, even children, sacrificing countless lives, betraying allies, controlling the world, and ultimately risking the world itself… all to resurrect a single person. How exactly is he 'not a bad guy'?"
Akira puffed up his cheeks defensively. "Well, it's cool to do it, right? I'm pretty sure girls find it romantic, right?"
"No," both Erika and Selena said simultaneously.
Erika also answered honestly. "That may sound dramatic, but I don't think the person he's trying to save wanted him to do all that."
Akira shrugged. "Well, he's a selfish person. He did what he wanted. And I would do the same. So it's better if you don't die… or I will travel to the ends of reality to find you and to get you back."
Erika looked at him, then quietly shifted her gaze to the moon above.
"Well… I'll try not to die, then," she sighed.
Akira turned his head slightly. "Good."
A moment passed in silence before he asked, "Then what would you do if I died?"
Erika answered without hesitation.
"If you die, I will kill you."
Akira blinked. "…I see."
He looked back up at the sky as if nothing strange had been said.
"Well, the moon is beautiful tonight."
"It is," Erika replied softly.
And so the two of them lay there, side by side, staring at the night sky. Surrounded by flowers, the forest was quiet around them, the cool air brushing their faces… sleep eventually overtook them without either realizing.
Maybe they were exhausted.
Maybe the moment felt too peaceful.
Either way, they drifted off beneath the stars.