You sat by the water. His flame designed Haori and her butterfly shaped hairpin in your hands, tears falling from your eyes.

You said you'd protect them

You promised

But now here they are, dead, gone and not coming back.

You'd gone with Kyojuro on the Mugen train, stayed with him after promising him you'd both get out alive and go home, but he was killed, the only fatality was him. You cried with the others.

Then Shinobu, you had promised you'd find her after the battle, that you'd stay with her afterwards, but Doma killed her and when Kanao told you, you broke down in tears.

So now here you sit, Kyojuro's Haori and Shinobu's hairpin, tears dripping on them as you cried. You hated being human, you hated being alive but most of all you hated yourself, you hated yourself for not being there, for not being able to save them, for letting them die when you could have done something.

You cried out in pain, a strangled sound as you held the blade of your Katana to your throat, you couldn't live like this, not without them.

And then you did it

All going black

Once your consciousness awoke, you felt grass brushing your face and warm air,

as well as two other presences around you, not quite human, not quite demon, more... Heavenly but very, very familiar.