Tanjiro had heard of the Nature Hashira long before he ever met her.
Moriko Akiyama.
A Hashira since seventeen, an experienced doctor, close to both Shinobu and Kanao, and someone who had apparently known Giyu Tomioka since Final Selection.
Naturally, Tanjiro expected someone calm and dignified.
⠀
Instead, he heard a crow enthusiastically yelling from the Butterfly Mansion.
“MORIKO! MORIKO! MESSAGE!”
⠀
A woman rounded the corner with a Kasugai crow perched happily on her shoulder.
“I hear you, Tsubaki.”
⠀
Tsubaki cawed directly beside her ear.
Moriko didn’t even flinch.
“Yes, sweetheart. Very important. I understand.”
⠀
Tanjiro blinked.
Zenitsu whispered,
“She talks to her crow like it’s her baby.”
⠀
Kanao, completely unsurprised:
“That’s Tsubaki.”
⠀
Tsubaki immediately rubbed her head against Moriko’s hair.
Moriko scratched beneath her feathers.
“See? She agrees.”
⠀
Then Moriko noticed Kanao.
Her entire face brightened.
“Kanao!”
⠀
Kanao immediately softened.
“Moriko.”
⠀
Moriko hugged her like she’d done it a thousand times.
Inosuke pointed.
“YOU KNOW THE FLOWER WOMAN?!”
⠀
Kanao calmly corrected him.
“She’s the Nature Hashira.”
⠀
“FOREST WOMAN!”
⠀
Moriko stared at him.
Then at Kanao.
“Is he always like this?”
“Yes.”
⠀
“HEY!”
⠀
Moriko sighed.
“Forest Woman works.”
⠀
Tanjiro introduced himself politely.
“Kamado Tanjiro! It’s an honor to meet you.”
“I know. Shinobu complains about you.”
⠀
Tanjiro went pale.
Moriko grinned.
“I’m joking.”
⠀
Then she noticed Nezuko staring at her red flower earrings.
Moriko immediately crouched.
“You like them?”
⠀
Nezuko nodded excitedly and gently touched one.
Moriko smiled.
“Pretty, aren’t they?”
⠀
Tsubaki cawed.
“Yes, yours are pretty too.”
⠀
Tanjiro decided immediately that he liked her.
⠀
Unfortunately, so did Zenitsu.
“AKIYAMA-SAMA! ARE YOU SINGLE?!”
⠀
Moriko recoiled.
“Good Lord.”
⠀
“ARE YOU?!”
“Yes.”
⠀
Zenitsu practically sparkled.
Moriko continued:
“But you’re making Shinobu’s poison collection considerably more understandable.”
⠀
Kanao quietly laughed.
⠀
Meanwhile, Inosuke circled Moriko.
“You don’t look strong.”
⠀
Moriko looked him over.
“You look portable.”
⠀
“I AM NOT PORTABLE!”
“Travel-sized.”
“FIGHT ME!”
“You have three cracked ribs.”
⠀
Inosuke froze.
⠀
Moriko pointed toward the mansion.
“Bed.”
“NO!”
“Lord Inosuke has three cracked ribs.”
⠀
Zenitsu started laughing.
Moriko looked at him.
“Left ankle.”
⠀
Zenitsu immediately stopped.
“…What?”
“You’re limping.”
⠀
He vanished inside.
⠀
Tanjiro stared.
“How did you know?”
“Doctor.”
⠀
Then Moriko looked at him.
“You’re the one Giyu defended.”
⠀
Tanjiro brightened.
“You know Tomioka-san?”
⠀
“Since we were thirteen.”
⠀
Kanao glanced at Moriko.
“He gave you those earrings.”
⠀
Moriko stiffened.
“Kanao.”
⠀
“You keep his letters too.”
⠀
“Kanao.”
⠀
Tanjiro could practically smell the embarrassment.
He wisely said nothing.
⠀
Tsubaki, however, cawed loudly.
⠀
Moriko slowly looked at her.
“Don’t you start.”
⠀
Tsubaki happily nuzzled her cheek.
⠀
Kanao’s lips twitched.
⠀
A crash suddenly came from inside.
“I AM THE KING OF RECOVERY!”
⠀
Moriko sighed.
“Inosuke.”
⠀
She disappeared into the mansion.
Seconds later:
“PUT ME DOWN!”
⠀
Moriko walked past carrying Inosuke under one arm while Tsubaki remained perfectly balanced on her shoulder.
⠀
Nezuko clapped.
Tanjiro stared.
Kanao didn’t react at all.
⠀
She’d known Moriko and Tsubaki for years.
This was exactly what she expected.

I took 3 weeks to write this guide, please use it when writing Moriko in stories, au’s etc! It’s a google doc unfortunately because I exceeded the Reddit word count

If you have questions please ask! I sectioned it and made it nice and pretty for you to look at

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KaiLP9XQxpIHEfkOq\_L\_hjOdB4ZTqXAfM1CcNxhIG7k/edit?usp=drivesdk

GiyuMori aka WaterLily time!! I love them a lot, their relationship is so deeply rooted in symbolism and the way they care about each other

Before you read it’s recommended to listen to HER by JVKE FT Annika Wells (while reading please)

It pretty much describes their relationship and how their lives changed so much after becoming closer.

Moriko was seventeen when she became the Nature Hashira.
⠀
Giyu had known her since they were thirteen, since Final Selection, when they’d somehow fallen into the habit of staying near each other without ever discussing it.
⠀
So when Moriko found him waiting for her after the announcement, she wasn’t surprised.
⠀
She was surprised when he held out a small wooden box.
⠀
“What’s this?”
⠀
“A gift.”
⠀
Moriko stared at him.
⠀
Giyu shifted slightly.
⠀
“For becoming a Hashira.”
⠀
Inside was a pair of simple red metal flower stud earrings.
⠀
Moriko’s expression changed instantly.
⠀
Her fingers hovered over them without touching.
⠀
“Giyu…”
⠀
“Kanae told me.”
⠀
Moriko looked up.
⠀
He continued, quieter.
⠀
“She said flowers are important in your family. That the women in the Akiyama family have flowers connected to them.”
⠀
Moriko’s throat tightened.
⠀
Kanae had told him about Miyuka’s carnation.
⠀
Miwa’s sweet williams.
⠀
And Moriko’s red spider lily.
⠀
Giyu had remembered.
⠀
Not only remembered.
⠀
He’d gone looking for something that represented her.
⠀
“They’re supposed to be red lilies,” he admitted. “I don’t know if they’re accurate.
⠀
Moriko laughed softly.
⠀
“They are.”
⠀
Giyu’s shoulders relaxed.
⠀
She immediately put them on.
⠀
“How do they look?”
⠀
He looked at her.
⠀
And that was precisely the problem.
⠀
Moriko had been important to him for years.
⠀
At thirteen, she had been the girl who stayed beside him during Final Selection.
⠀
Then his friend.
⠀
Then the person he instinctively searched for whenever he entered a room.
⠀
But somewhere along the way, those feelings had quietly rooted themselves deeper.
⠀
Watching her stand there at seventeen, newly named a Hashira, wearing the flower earrings he’d chosen specifically for her…
⠀
Giyu realized they weren’t going away.
⠀
“You look pretty,” he said.
⠀
Moriko blinked.
⠀
Then smiled.
⠀
“Thank you, Giyu.”
⠀
His chest tightened.
⠀
He wanted to tell her.
⠀
He almost did.
⠀
Instead, he looked away.
⠀
“You earned them.”
⠀
Moriko would continue wearing those red flower earrings for years.
⠀
And she wouldn’t learn until much later that Giyu hadn’t given them to her simply because she’d become a Hashira.
⠀
He’d given them to her because, by seventeen, Moriko Akiyama had already become someone precious to him.
⠀
He just wasn’t ready to say how precious yet.

Moriko’s relationship with Shinobu wasn’t always what it was now, it was rocky. Shinobu hated Moriko’s guts.

When Moriko was around thirteen, she spent nearly every spare hour training with thirteen-year-old Kanae for Final Selection.
⠀
Kanae had become more than a teacher to her.
⠀
Miyuka had died when Moriko was only three, so although Moriko still remembered pieces of her mother, much of what she knew about growing into a young woman came from other people.
⠀
Kanae was one of them.
⠀
She fixed Moriko’s stance, braided her hair out of her face, wrapped her blistered hands, and constantly reminded her that being strong didn’t mean destroying herself.
⠀
But Kanae wasn’t the only one Moriko was quietly shaping.
⠀
Even then, Shinobu was always watching.
⠀
Not because she cared about training.
⠀
But because Moriko was always there.
⠀
And worse, Kanae was always paying attention to her.
⠀
Unfortunately, little Shinobu was not impressed.
⠀
“Nee-san!”
⠀
Kanae looked up from where she was wrapping Moriko’s palm.
⠀
“Shinobu?”
⠀
“You said we were going to spend time together!”
⠀
“We are. I’m almost finished.”
⠀
“You always say that!”
⠀
Moriko immediately looked guilty.
⠀
Shinobu crossed her arms.
⠀
“She’s always here! Every time I want to do something with you, you’re training Moriko!”
⠀
“Shinobu,” Kanae warned gently.
⠀
But Shinobu was already worked up.
⠀
“She keeps taking away my sister time!”
⠀
Moriko went very still.
⠀
Then, quietly, she started gathering her things.
⠀
“I can go home.”
⠀
Kanae frowned. “Moriko, you don’t have to.”
⠀
“It’s okay.”
⠀
Moriko looked at Shinobu.
⠀
“Sorry.”
⠀
That took all the wind out of Shinobu’s anger.
⠀
She hadn’t expected Moriko to apologize.
⠀
“For what?”
⠀
“For taking up too much of Kanae’s time.”
⠀
Shinobu suddenly felt awful.
⠀
Kanae gently stopped Moriko before she could leave.
⠀
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
⠀
Later, Kanae explained to Shinobu that Moriko wasn’t trying to take anyone away from her.
⠀
Shinobu sulked through most of it.
⠀
“I still don’t like her.”
⠀
Kanae smiled.
⠀
“You left medicine beside her sword yesterday.”
⠀
“She needed it.”
⠀
“You saved her the last dumpling.”
⠀
“I wasn’t hungry.”
⠀
“You sat beside her when she had a fever.”
⠀
“Someone had to make sure she didn’t die.”
⠀
Kanae laughed.
⠀
Shinobu’s face went pink.
⠀
“I don’t like her.”
⠀
“Of course.”
⠀
The next morning, Moriko found another tiny jar of medicine beside her practice sword.
⠀
There was a purple butterfly drawn on the lid.
⠀
Moriko never mentioned it.
⠀
But she used it.
⠀
And when Shinobu watched from a distance, she learned something she didn’t have words for yet.
⠀
Moriko didn’t just fight.
⠀
She treated wounds.
⠀
She cleaned cuts.
⠀
She reset joints.
⠀
She stitched torn skin with steady hands that never shook.
⠀
Before she was ever a Hashira, Moriko was a doctor first.
⠀
And Shinobu, whether she admitted it or not, watched everything.
⠀
Years later, they were both Hashira.
⠀
And Moriko was still there.
⠀
Even when she shouldn’t have been.
⠀
A rope demon had sent one of its razor-thin cords toward Shinobu’s neck during a joint mission.
⠀
Moriko saw it first.
⠀
She shoved Shinobu aside.
⠀
The cord tore across Moriko’s ribs instead.
⠀
Now the demon was dead, and Moriko sat inside an abandoned building cleaning the wound herself while Shinobu glared at her.
⠀
“I am a doctor.”
⠀
“So am I.”
⠀
“I’m the Insect Hashira.”
⠀
“I’m the Nature Hashira.”
⠀
“That has nothing to do with medicine.”
⠀
“I was treating wounds before you became a Hashira.”
⠀
Shinobu’s eye twitched.
⠀
“Give me the cloth.”
⠀
“I can do it.”
⠀
“Moriko.”
⠀
“I’m fine.”
⠀
Shinobu froze.
⠀
For a moment, Moriko wasn’t an adult sitting across from her.
⠀
She was thirteen again.
⠀
Blistered hands hidden behind her back.
⠀
I’m fine.
⠀
Shinobu suddenly remembered the garden.
⠀
You keep taking my sister away.
⠀
“…I was horrible to you.”
⠀
Moriko looked up.
⠀
“What?”
⠀
“When we were children.”
⠀
Understanding crossed her face.
⠀
“Oh.”
⠀
“I treated you like you were stealing Kanae from me.”
⠀
“You were little.”
⠀
“So were you.”
⠀
Moriko went quiet.
⠀
Shinobu took the cloth from her hand.
⠀
This time, Moriko let her.
⠀
“I never understood why you kept coming back,” Shinobu murmured as she cleaned the cut.
⠀
“Because Kanae was teaching me.”
⠀
“No. I mean after that.”
⠀
Moriko glanced at her.
⠀
“After I yelled at you. After I was rude to you constantly.”
⠀
Moriko thought for a moment.
⠀
“Because you were Kanae’s little sister.”
⠀
Shinobu frowned.
⠀
“That’s it?”
⠀
“And because you needed someone.”
⠀
That silenced her completely.
⠀
Moriko said it as though it were obvious.
⠀
“I knew you were jealous. But I also knew you loved her.”
⠀
Shinobu stared down at the bandages.
⠀
All those years she’d thought Moriko was forcing her way into their lives.
⠀
But when she actually looked back…
⠀
Moriko had always been there.
⠀
Not just as Kanae’s student.
⠀
But as a doctor.
⠀
The one who noticed Shinobu’s scraped knees before anyone else.
⠀
The one who corrected her clumsy bandaging without mocking her.
⠀
The one Shinobu secretly learned from, standing just close enough to watch how Moriko tied sutures, how she cleaned wounds, how she decided when something was serious and when it wasn’t.
⠀
Even when Shinobu pretended not to care, she was learning.
⠀
When Shinobu was angry.
⠀
When she was scared.
⠀
When she was grieving.
⠀
Moriko was there.
⠀
Even when Shinobu snapped at her, Moriko came back the next day.
⠀
And Shinobu, without realizing it, had started doing the same thing.
⠀
Leaving medicine where Moriko would find it.
⠀
Adjusting bandages she pretended not to have noticed were loose.
⠀
Copying techniques she insisted she “just figured out.”
⠀
Even after Kanae died, Moriko stayed.
⠀
And Shinobu kept watching.
⠀
And learning.
⠀
And today, without hesitation, Moriko had put her own body between Shinobu and something that could have killed her.
⠀
“You’ve always done that,” Shinobu whispered.
⠀
“Done what?”
⠀
“Protected me.”
⠀
Moriko blinked.
⠀
“You’re important to me.”
⠀
The answer came so simply that Shinobu’s throat tightened.
⠀
She carefully tied off Moriko’s bandage.
⠀
“I used to think you were stealing my sister.”
⠀
Moriko smiled faintly.
⠀
“I know.”
⠀
Shinobu leaned against her shoulder.
⠀
Moriko didn’t move away.
⠀
“…I was stupid.”
⠀
“You were ten.”
⠀
“Still stupid.”
⠀
A quiet laugh escaped Moriko.
⠀
Shinobu closed her eyes.
⠀
Kanae had once been the reason Moriko entered Shinobu’s life.
⠀
But somewhere along the way, Moriko had stopped being Kanae’s student.
⠀
She had become the girl who stayed beside Shinobu when she was difficult.
⠀
The girl who remembered her medicine.
⠀
The girl who fought beside her.
⠀
The girl who, without ever making a show of it, taught Shinobu how to be a doctor long before she ever became the Insect Hashira.
⠀
And Shinobu had spent years believing Moriko was taking away her sister time.
⠀
Only after losing Kanae did she understand the truth.
⠀
Moriko had never been trying to take family away from her.
⠀
She had been quietly becoming part of it.