Genya finally realized he was crying. He hurriedly wiped his face with a hand.
Sumi asked no further questions as she put a supportive hand on his back and gave him the medicine that Shinobu had prepared.
In the bed next to his, Tanjiro still hadn’t woken up. Why’s he still asleep at this hour? Wake up already and ease the tension in the room. He sent this prayer at the peacefully sleeping face, but Tanjiro merely let out a contented sigh.
“Is it bitter?” Sumi asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Do you want some more water?”
“No.”
The conversation ended there. Genya was flustered.
“Did you have a fight with your brother?” Sumi asked him hesitantly.
“Huh?” He stared at her blankly.
“In your sleep … you said, ‘I’m sorry, brother.’”
His face froze, and the girl abruptly changed the subject.
“Thank you so much for helping us earlier.” She bowed neatly.
“Oh … sure,” Genya answered vaguely, glad at least to avoid the topic of his brother. He let his eyes wander the room aimlessly. “How’s that angry Demon Slayer now?”
Sumi lowered her eyes. “He’s calmed down considerably. He’s in bed now. He’ll be transferred to a proper hospital tomorrow. They’ll decide how to treat him from now on.”
Genya wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Yeah?” he muttered and then followed with a question. “Are you okay? I mean, not hurt or anything?”
“What?” She frowned.
“I heard that glass shattering.”
“Ohh.” Sumi smiled, understanding at last.
They didn’t look the least bit alike, but he felt like it was his baby sister smiling at him. His heart throbbed painfully in his chest.
“Thanks to you, we were all fine,” she told him. “Aoi and Naho came to thank you, but you were asleep.”
“Yeah? That’s great then.” Genya sighed.
Sumi stared intently at his face without blinking. Just when her direct gaze was starting to make him nervous, she asked tentatively, “Is the Wind Hashira your brother?”
After a second, Genya nodded silently. The lukewarm breeze that came in through the open window toyed with his cheeks unpleasantly.
“Did Kocho tell you that?” he asked in a hoarse voice, and Sumi shook her head.
“It was the name. And you also look very much like him.” She probably didn’t mean anything in particular by these words. But they pierced deeper into his heart than he’d expected. They really did look alike … Enough that a stranger would think so looking at them.
And yet …
“You just don’t give up. I don’t have a little brother. Just quit the Demon Slayer Corps.”
This was how his brother had greeted him when they met again at long last. He had sweated blood, sacrificed so much, and finally gotten to speak to his brother. And yet, all he got from Sanemi were a cold stare and a hard rejection.
“I’ve only seen the Wind Hashira a handful of times,” Sumi continued. “And I’m too frightened to go near him, so I can’t really say for certain.”
“H-he’s not scary!” His voice was unconsciously rough, and Sumi flinched.
Coming back to himself, Genya apologized and covered his mouth with a hand. He couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t want the girl with the same name as his little sister to misunderstand his older brother.
“Sanemi’s actually a super nice guy. He looked out for us kids and kept us safe forever. I mean, even our mom relied on him. And …”
He paused for a moment, and Sumi waited for him to continue.
“When he smiles, his face is … amazingly kind,” he declared, squeezing the words out.
Sumi’s eyes reflected him quietly, eyes filled with a deep mercy. Eyes so kind, it almost made him sad.
This girl had seen her family killed by demons, been rescued by Shinobu as an orphan, and now earnestly nursed Demon Slayers back to health in the Butterfly Mansion.
As if urged on by those eyes, Genya haltingly began to tell the brothers’ story.
He told her how their dad was good for nothing, how he had been hated and stabbed and killed. How Genya and Sanemi had somehow lived as a family as they supported their mother. How one night, a demon came to their house and killed their younger brothers and sisters. How Sanemi had saved him when he was on the verge of being killed by that demon. How when he went outside, he found his brother covered in blood, and the dead body of their mother. How the demon who killed them all had taken on the form of their mother—and how, after fighting desperately to protect their family, his brother had laid hands on their beloved mother.
And how he had cursed that same brother. Called him a murderer. When he said it out loud, it sounded like it had all happened to someone else. He was honestly fed up with how foolish and beyond help he had been back then.
“He’s never forgiven me,” Genya concluded, “for the terrible things I said, for stomping all over his feelings.”
“Genya,” Sumi said softly.
“He won’t talk to me.”
He wouldn’t even acknowledge Genya as his brother. He’d even told him to get out of his sight.
“And yet I …” He sighed.
He dreamed of his brother back when he was nice. He’d even dreamed that morning that Sanemi had come to see him, so girlish in his pointless dreaming. He knew that this was exactly what he deserved, but his brother’s cold eyes frightened him nonetheless. His ever-increasing number of scars frightened him. His words of rejection frightened him.
Were they really no longer brothers? That hateful night … Genya squeezed his hands together anxiously.
“It’s all right,” Sumi said, almost in a whisper, and gently placed her own small hands over his. They were so warm. “As long as you’re still alive, you have the chance to make things right.”
His eyes flew open, and her lips stretched out into a smile.