The Green Haired Stranger
"Ren-Rengoku-san. That's enough… please stop the bleeding with your breaths… isn't there a way to plug the wound up?" Tanjiro's choked-up voice cried out as he was flustering to do anything to help the dying Flame Piller.
"There isn't," Kyojuro said calmly as blood dripped down his wound. "I'm going to die very soon. I'm going to talk while I still can, so hear me out."
"Are you okay?" A voice rang out behind Tanjiro, and the boy swiftly turned his head to the voice, surprised that he was unable to hear a single footstep coming behind him. "I was walking nearby and smelled the smoke and blood. I came as fast as I can." The voice came from a young, green-haired man who had distinctly Western features, a black uniform, and an ivory sword at his side.
"Who are you?" Tanjiro cried out as tears fell down his face. "Wait no, please, give us time for Rengoku-san's words… he… he gave his life to protect everyone on this train."
The man looked to the remnants of the Mugen train with the blank expression he had before, except his eyes widened a centimeter. "You protected all of this train's passengers? That is quite amazing... A person like you deserves another chance to do more great work. Will you be willing to give me a chance to save you, Rengoku-san?"
"How? My wounds are fatal. Once this hand disintegrates after touching the sunlight, I will bleed out completely," the Flame Hashira said with a saddened smile.
"Your heart is still beating. It is possible that you will not survive, but will you give me this chance?"
"Yes…. YES! Please, do what you can to save him!" Tanjiro exclaimed, "Please, Rengoku-san. You must have loved ones back home or even people who look up to you that wouldn't want to see you dead."
At those words, Rengoku closed his mouth that was trying to protest. He remembered his younger brother that was waiting for him at home. Hopefully, his father was too.
"You are right… Please, kind stranger. Please try to save me."
"I will do my best, Rengoku-san. That is your name, correct?" At the man's question, the Flame Hashira nodded. "You can rest now. Close your eyes and sleep." And as soon as the man said those words, the Hashira closed his eyes peacefully as if he was charmed by the Lower Moon One.
The green-haired man nodded and came closer to the dying man. He took a small dagger that was at his waist and cut his palm to the three young Demon Slayers' shock. And to their even greater shock, before they could stop him, the man dripped his blood into the Flame Hashira's wound.
Immediately, the three boys drew their swords at the green-haired man.
"What the hell is that?" The boar head Demon Slayer yelled. "Are you a demon? Are you trying to turn him into a demon?"
"How dare you do that?!" The yellow-haired demon slayer exclaimed angrily. "How dare you defile Rengoku-san's body with demon blood!"
"Wait!" Tanjiro yelled to his comrades even as he held his sword up. "If he was a demon… how would he be able to survive underneath the sun?"
The other two demon slayers turned to look at Tanjiro with shocked expressions.
The man shook his head. "I am not a demon. You gave me your trust; please give me some space to finish."
With that, the boys looked at each other with worried expressions but nodded.
The sun started to touch the Upper Moon Three's hand that was still embedded into the Flame Pillar's abdomen and it disintegrated. The green-haired man's eyes widened slightly at the sight but he quickly brought the dagger to his own stomach and slashed it open. The onlooking demon slayers took in a sharp breath at the sight. The man then sliced at a part of his intestines and took out a part of it.
Zenitsu yelped in surprise and disgust, blood flowing away from his face. "Wha… what the hell?"
Holding his intestines in one hand and taking a needle and thread out in the other, the man stitched the Flame Hashira's remaining intestines with his own. As if he has demon powers, Rengoku's intestine fused together with the stranger's own flawlessly. His skin also started to close up slowly, and it was aided by the stranger cutting up more of his own skin to stitch it to the open, fatal stomach wound.
Tanjiro couldn't believe his eyes when the man's injuries were also mending together almost immediately as well.
"The last part… I think I'll have to lay him face down," the man muttered. After laying the Flame Hashira's body supine, the green-haired stranger moved the Hashira's coat out of the ways, cutting open Rengoku's back and exposing what was remaining of his spine.
"It seems like it would be easier to replace everything rather than just his lumbar spine… Ah, but the spine is a bit…" he sighed, but the stranger reached toward his back and tore through his skin in order to rip his own spine out.
It took a second for the man to move again, his spine and skin surrounding it repairing almost instantaneously. He went back to work immediately, taking Rengoku's remaining spine out and replacing it with his own. Again, the skin, muscles, and bones around the Flame Hashira's new organ was fusing together immediately.
"How is that even possible, you monster?!" Inosuke pointed angrily at the man, demanding an answer. "There's no way in hell that this isn't a power of a demon!"
The man ignored the outcry and nonchalantly started cleaning his dagger on his bloodied clothing and put it away. He gently turned the Flame Hashira onto his back and checked for his breathing and pulse and the corner of his lips turned upwards into a small smile, the first emotion that the man has shown this whole time the three boys have seen.
"As I said before," the man said as he finally directed his attention to the boys, "I am not a demon. This power came from the goddess."
Tanjiro blinked in confusion. "Are you a priest? Which goddess are you talking about?"
"Not any goddess that humans know now, especially in Japan," the green-haired man spoke while shaking his head.
"What does that mean?"
"I come from a land far away, a continent that no longer exists. The goddess can be said to have died, but then reborn within me now."
This confused Tanjiro even more. But he looked to the Flame Hashira that was lying down peacefully on the ground, the open hole in his stomach now closed up as if it has never been even touched.
"Is Rengoku-san okay? Is he alive? How did you even do—"
Tanjiro's sentence was cut short as he passed out from exhaustion.
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"It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ubuyashiki Kagaya and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving one of my children. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name, Doctor?" The leader of the Demon Slayer Corps asked the green-haired man that calmly and willingly came blindfolded and masked to the secret household of the Ubuyashiki household.
"The pleasure is mine. My name is Eisner Bereto. I thank you for the kind words but I am no doctor."
"Then how was it that you were able to treat such a fatal wound? Could you tell me how you were able to do so?"
Bereto took a sip of green tea that the host's wife graciously put out for him. Setting his cup down, he started speaking. "Many, many years ago, my father passed away due to a fatal wound and I was determined to gain the knowledge and power to save people who suffered from such injuries. And it was not my own powers—it was from the goddess."
"And you say that you are not a doctor?"
With a small smile, the green-haired man shook his head. "I have been called a healer, a professor—I have held many titles but I would say that I am currently a wandering mercenary."
"Mercenaries usually only do things for money or treasures. It is not my intension to question your motives negatively, but what were you expecting something from saving Kyojuro?"
"I am a mercenary, but money does not matter to me. I was moved by Rengoku-san's willingness to protect the three young boys and the passengers on the train with the cost of his life so I decided to try to see if I would be able to save him."
"And your methods? Would you mind explaining them?"
"I wouldn't mind, as long as you explain what the hand that was protruding through Rengoku-san's abdomen was. As soon as sunlight touched the hand, it immediately disintegrated into ashes and disappeared."
The Demon Slayer head's smile turned sorrowful.
"That… was the hand of a demon—the hand of an Upper Moon Demon, one of the most strongest demons in existence. Demons kill and consume humans for their energy and the only way to defeat them is to cut their head with a special sword or have their bodies touch the sunlight. Otherwise, they have supernatural strength and powers. They do not age nor die normally. They have lost their humanity after they have been turned into demons."
"Is that why those boys were asking if I was a demon? I was not sure if it was supposed to be an insult or not," the mercenary asked. "In any case, their powers feel familiar."
"Oh, how is that?"
"You have asked for how I was able to keep Rengoku-san alive even with his injuries, and it has to do with this. I do not age. I cannot die normally. And although this is my first time that I have done this kind of procedure, I believe that Rengoku-san will have some of these characteristics as he has taken my blood and organs."
Kagaya's mouth thinned into a line. "These characteristics… are they harmful to him or toward any other person?"
"These characteristics mean that he will gain superhuman strength and an inability to age. He will not be invincible, however, as my father died even though he had the same powers. However, I do not know how similar he will be to my father as he has received blood from the goddess' daughter while I have received blood from the goddess, which in turn Rengoku-san received from me."
"Who is this goddess that you are talking about? I would like to know more." Although Kagaya's eyes were blinded by his disease, his eyes were shining as if a child wanting to learn more.
"The goddess Sothis… she is not a living being—not anymore at least. Over two millennia ago, she came to this earth and taught the humans how to farm, how to craft, and various other ways to survive. She had many children who taught even more humans how to do so. However, a tribe of humans who wanted the goddess' power to themselves killed her and most of her children, taking their bones and fastening them into weapons. This sword you see on my waist," Bereto pointed to the ivory sword on his hip, "is made from the goddess' spine. Furthermore, her heart was placed into me the day that I was born by her surviving daughter—the daughter that gave her blood to my father. She believed that this blood and the goddess' heart will be able to revive the goddess within me, and it worked. It has been almost a millennium, but I have been roaming the earth after my homeland disappeared into the sea."
"Then that means that you are almost a thousand years old? How interesting," the Ubuyashiki said out loud but mostly for his own benefit. He looked at the green-haired foreigner and gave a small bow and smile. "Thank you for sharing your story with me, Eisner-san. With what you have said, there are many things that I have to ponder about now. As you have seen, demons have been roaming throughout Japan, killing and eating innocent humans for their own gain. Would you be willing to help us defeat them?"
The mercenary nodded a little, giving the leader of the Demon Corps a small smile.
Bereto gave a bow to the leader in return. "I am moved by you and your organization's determination to protect humans at the cost of your own lives. I would be happy to assist you to the best of my abilities."
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Author's Note:
Not my best idea but I just wanted Kyojuro to live and wanted to write a crossover between Fire Emblem and KnY. I don't believe that I will make a follow-up chapter to this so it's going to be a one shot unless I think of any good ideas.
Basically, I made Byleth's ability to be immortal and able to use his own body parts to heal others. Kind of stretching his capabilities but I'm the author so *shrugs*
:))
Thank you so much for reading!