Demon Slayer: Starting with the Kingdom

May you, butterfly, always be safe and sound.

After making her wish, Mitsuha, who was huddled in the basket, opened her eyes and saw the butterfly turn around and stare at her with a mischievous grin.

"Look at how devout Xiaosanye looks, what wish did she just make?"

"Don't ask. Wishes won't come true if you say them out loud."

Using her only functional right hand, Mitsuha pushed her face back, her eyes lifeless, and said coldly:

"Also, don't stare at me with that weird grin, it's disgusting."

Normally, Mitsuha would never use such vulgar language.

But tonight was different.

Under the continuous influence of the butterflies, she, who had temporarily decided to let herself go, seemed to have revealed her true nature a little.

"Hey~ I didn't realize you actually believed in gods and ghosts, Mitsuha?"

"I believe it because gods really exist."

Yoriichi's image flashed through her mind, and Mitsuha's tone was absolutely certain.

Yes, gods must exist.

Yoriichi's older brother is the most powerful proof of this.

"Okay, okay, it exists..."

Showing no intention of arguing with Mitsuha about this, Butterfly pointed to the enormous ema (wooden plaque) stand in the shrine courtyard not far away, covered with countless wooden plaques, and suggested with a smile:

"So, Miss Mitsuha, who believes in the gods, shall we write another wooden plaque together to increase the success rate of our wishes?"

After a brief moment of thought, Mitsuha nodded in agreement, and then offered a reminder:

"Correction, the formal name for this act is 'ema'."

Its origin lies in the ancient practice of offering live horses to deities in prayer. Later, as times changed, it gradually simplified into the practice we see today, which only requires offering a statue, painting, or even a wooden plaque of a horse..."

"Okay, okay, Miss, please stop reading..."

Taking two wooden plaques and a writing brush from the shrine maiden, and handing one of them to Mitsuha behind her, Butterfly walked straight to the stone bench beside her and sat down, muttering to herself:

"They kept lecturing me about science all night long, I'm so tired of it..."

Upon hearing the sound, Mitsuha immediately propped herself up from the basket, looking extremely dissatisfied.

"Who was it that told me to have fun? I've only given you a brief introduction, and you're already finding me annoying, huh?"

"ha?!!"

With a sound even louder than Mitsuha's, Butterfly immediately put down the basket, stood up, stared directly at Mitsuha, and loudly retorted:

"Little Clover, which ear of yours heard me say you're annoying?"

"You may not have said it, but your attitude has always been the same!"

"Alright, alright! Is that how it is? Then I'll settle the score with you for tonight!"

"Okay! Come on!"

"Um, ladies..."

"Move aside! We can talk about this later!"

With a casual wave of her hand, she chased away the shrine maiden who was cautiously trying to stop her. Butterfly stood on one foot on the stone bench and, in front of Mitsuha standing in the basket, began to aggressively count her fingers one by one.

"First of all, when we were playing the goldfish catching game, we were just one fish away from completely overtaking that kid in first place, but then you suddenly released the fish because your hand slipped! What do you mean by that?!"

"Tell me! Did you just take pity on that little brat because he was crying and whining, and did it on purpose?!"

"You still have the nerve to say that to me?!"

When Butterfly dared to bring up this matter, Mitsuha was furious.

"You clearly have two hands, but your hands shake so much you can't even catch a fish. In the end, you made me, a patient who can only move one hand, help you out. Butterfly, don't you feel ashamed?!"

As she said this, Mitsuha grabbed her immobile left hand with her right hand and punched the butterfly in front of her hard.

"Okay! Let's not talk about this!"

Skipping over the topic of goldfish catching, Butterfly started counting on her second finger.

"Then let me ask you again! When we went to play haiku relay later, didn't you do a good job with the first few lines, Mitsuha?"

Why did you suddenly stop playing afterwards? Are you throwing the match?!

"You really think I'm a great poet, don't you?!"

Then, grabbing her left hand, she punched Butterfly hard, and Mitsuha roared:

"Those two people were clearly hired by the shop owner. They were both there against me, and they came prepared. How could I possibly win against them?!"

"After all, the game was supposed to be played in pairs, right? Butterfly, why did you just stand there and leave me to face them all by myself?!"

"Because I've never been to school! I can't answer that!"

The butterfly replied loudly and confidently.

Mitsuha choked on her words, and it took her a long time to manage to squeeze out a sentence.

"You...you still think you're right?"

Seemingly finding Mitsuha's gaze suddenly a little piercing, Butterfly blushed slightly and continued loudly:

"What? Is it not allowed? Your Dr. Butterfly has only read medical books since he was a child. He doesn't understand the intricacies of those cultured people. Does that make you feel ashamed, Miss?"

"I didn't say that!"

"You may not have said it aloud, but your eyes say it!"

"Don't give me that nonsense!"

For some reason, the butterfly's words sounded familiar, so Mitsuha immediately interrupted the spell and forcibly changed the subject.

"Next! In that game of pitch-pot we played before, I clearly instructed you so carefully on the angle and force to throw it, so why did you still manage to throw Butterfly off course?"

"Who understands any of what you're saying! It's always about going a little to the left, a little to the right, or needing more strength! Who knows exactly how much 'a little more' you mean, Miss?!"

"A little bit bigger is freshman year! A little bit! A little bit! Ah! I've already made it perfectly clear! That guy I met in the ring toss game before, didn't he understand perfectly?!"

"That's because his brain is just as abnormal as yours, Little Sanye!"

Upon hearing this, Butterfly immediately became angry.

"And that last arrow in the target shooting competition! Little Sanye, tell me! Did you shoot it wrong?!"

"What do you mean I have a problem! I told you to veer slightly to the left, not that much!"

"So! Who knows exactly how much 'one point' you're talking about? Just tell me, didn't you make yourself clear?!"

"So you're blaming me now, huh?"

"Isn't this your fault?!"

After a heated argument, the two stopped and stood there, panting, staring at each other with wide eyes.

Chapter 26 I'm sorry, Mitsuha

"Excuse me, ladies, could you please stop arguing? Good friends shouldn't fight..."

Seeing this, the priestess who had been unable to get a word in edgewise weakly offered a reminder.

Just when she thought the two people in front of her might start fighting each other at any moment, she saw Mitsuha and Butterfly suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! What?! I always thought you were so quiet and gentle when you spoke, but it turns out you can be quite good at arguing..."

"Hmph, same to you..."

Turning her head, she glanced at the butterfly who was laughing through her tears, and said softly:

"What? Now that you've seen my true colors, are you feeling disillusioned?"

However, although her tone sounded calm, if you listened carefully, you could still faintly hear the tension hidden beneath.

Clearly, she was actually very afraid that the butterfly would give an affirmative answer.

However, this is an answer that the butterfly in front of you will never give.

"Absolutely not!"

With absolute certainty and without the slightest hesitation, Butterfly stepped forward, picked up the basket again, sat back down on the stone bench, and said:

"On the contrary, the Mitsuha you right now is the one that feels most real to me..."

"What, are you saying I was hypocritical before?"

Turning his back to Mitsuha, he shrank back into the basket and asked jokingly.

"It's not hypocrisy, it's falsehood."

Her expression turned slightly somber, and Butterfly sighed softly, whispering:

"In the past, Mitsuha, even the smiles on your face often felt fake to me."

Before tonight, I had almost never seen you laugh from the bottom of your heart.

She always has this stern, pampered look on her face. Whether she's happy or sad, she keeps everything bottled up inside. I wonder when she'll finally suffocate herself like this…

"That's it..."

Both of them fell silent for a moment.

A gentle evening breeze blew by, and Butterfly once again picked up the horse-shaped wooden plaque. After thinking carefully, she picked up her brush and wrote a sentence on the back of the plaque—

May you always be happy, Mitsuha.

Perhaps the butterfly should be associated with peace.

But as a highly skilled doctor, she knew Mitsuha's current physical condition better than anyone else.

Mitsuha is doomed.

So all she could wish for was that Mitsuha could be happy during the last part of her life.

And that's why she risked bringing her out tonight.

Suddenly, Butterfly felt someone fiddling with her hair behind her. She instinctively tried to turn around to look, but Mitsuha suddenly pressed her hand down.

As she spoke, Mitsuha finally took out the butterfly hairpin she had gotten from the ring toss game and carefully inserted the butterfly hairpin into the hair.

With a simple gesture, she discerned the shape of the hairpin. Butterfly paused for a moment, then smiled and said:

"I was wondering why our young lady would suddenly be interested in such a mediocre little thing. Is it a gift for me?"

"Your name is Butterfly, and besides, you're the only friend I have. If I don't give it to you, who else can I give it to?"

Mitsuha asked in a very straightforward manner, then looked her up and down before nodding in satisfaction.

Seemingly unable to bear Mitsuha's sudden change in attitude, Butterfly subconsciously avoided her gaze.

She looked up and her gaze fell on the green leaf hairpin in San Ye's hair.

Since the two met, Mitsuha has always worn this hairpin, which is not particularly exquisite and is even somewhat plain, and has never changed it.

From her perspective, this is somewhat unbelievable.

This hairpin must have some special meaning for Mitsuha.

"This is the only thing my mother ever gave me before she passed away."

Noticing the butterfly's gaze, Mitsuha offered an explanation.

She raised her hand and removed the hairpin, her long hair falling loose.

It was a time when the bright moon shone high in the sky, and amidst the shrine, the courtyard, the stone benches, and the swaying shadows of the trees, there stood a beautiful woman in a kimono bathed in moonlight...

This should have been a beautiful scene, but it was all ruined by Mitsuha's drooping shoulders and her face hidden in the shadows.

When we were little, my mother always compared the three of us siblings to green leaves.

With her head bowed, her fingertips gently caressed the three green leaves on the hairpin's tip. In a low, slow voice, Sanye spoke softly:

"She always said that I am the middle leaf, with my two older brothers on my sides. Only when I pull them together can the three of us siblings work together to support the future of the country."

At that time, I was overjoyed by my mother's attention, but I never imagined that this responsibility of being a 'supporting role' would be so heavy, that even if I risked my whole life, I could not fully bear it.