walk steady on this cruel world's path

By: Aviantei

Part Fourteen:

"Soft Rain Showers"

Someone shook my shoulder, and I awoke with a gasp, trying to catch my breath. My dream had been another nightmare, though it hadn't been as bad as the night Zenitsu had come to comfort me. Still, having another bad dream so soon after the last one wasn't a good sign in the slightest, and I was surprised that what I'd woken up from hadn't gone as far as the one from that night at Butterfly Manor.

"Rairi-kun…?"

The soft call of my name reached me, and I at last recognized Shimizu leaning over me in the dark. Right, we'd stopped for the night while traveling to our next destination, sharing a room in a rest house that had been kind enough to let us stay. I could still feel the pressure of Shimizu's hand on my shoulder, and her worried expression made my chest ache.

"Sorry," she whispered. "You sounded like you were having a bad dream, so I wanted to wake you up. Zenitsu-kun asked me to look after you, so…"

"Don't worry about it." I shook my head, letting myself sit up. Ah, I'd worried Zenitsu enough that he was looking out for me, even when we weren't in the same place. Sheesh, what kind of senpai was I? "I…I have nightmares every now and then, and they're not fun. So thank you for waking me up." It wasn't an ideal situation, but having someone else around did help me feel better, so I mustered up a smile. "Sorry for disturbing you."

Shimizu squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Rairi-kun. I'm glad I could help out, even just a little." She spread open her arms. "Would a hug help?"

I paused for a moment, then nodded, leaning forward into Shimizu's embrace. We hadn't changed from our uniforms (occupational hazard and all that), but she was still warm to the touch, and it was easy to relax into the hug. I rested my forehead on her shoulder and focused on my breathing while her hands patted my hair. Come on, I know I said that I was jealous about the head pats, but it would have been nice if I were getting them in a less pathetic situation.

If I could still have thoughts like that, then I was fine. Sighing, I sat back up, receiving Shimizu's gentle smile when I looked to her. "Feeling better, Rairi-kun?"

"Yeah." I wound my braid around my fingers, grateful for something tangible in my hands as I felt over the gemstones in my barrette. Right by the side of my futon was my katana, ready should I need it. "Thanks for waking me, Shimizu-chan. I…I don't know what all Zenitsu told you, but my dreams can hit me hard sometimes. That one wasn't so bad, so I'm okay, but I…" I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "Shimizu-chan," I said, my voice even quieter than before, "do you ever worry that you being around might make things go wrong? Like…that because you got involved with people, they might end up hurt?"

Shimizu gasped, looking at me with worry and—oh, great, I made her cry again. It wasn't as intense as back at Final Selection, sure, but I still felt guilty about it regardless as a few tears leaked down her cheeks before she scrubbed them away. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders again, and I stiffened before trying to rub comforting circles on her back.

"Rairi-kun," she said, her voice clear, "I know what you mean. I promise I do. But you don't need to worry about that. Because you've improved the lives of the people around you, just by being here. I know my life's better because you're around, and Zenitsu-kun adores you—once he found out we knew each other, he was so excited to talk about you! And while he's not as obvious about it, Kaigaku-kun cares about you as well, or he wouldn't have been so insistent on taking you to the Wisteria House that time." Shimizu kept her arms tucked around my neck but pulled back enough that I could see her expression, filled with warmth. "Yes, sometimes we're responsible for hurting other people. And sometimes people get hurt for reasons outside our control. But even if that happens, you deserve to be here anyways." She tapped my forehead with her knuckles, almost like she was scolding a puppy. "I'm in your care, remember?"

Unable to give any other response, I nodded. "Right. Whether it's a good thing or not, I have people counting on me. I can't go letting them down, huh?" I was the senpai of Kaigaku and Agatsuma Zenitsu, the successor of Kuwajima Jigorō, and the friend of Urokodaki Shimizu, Kamado Tanjirō, and Hashibira Inosuke. Even if I said it was for their own safety, none of them would let me leave without a fuss. I exhaled. "Thank you, Shimizu-chan. I needed to hear that."

"Of course." Shimizu sat back, her hands lifting up the edge of her futon as she scooted closer. "When I was a kid and I had bad dreams, I'd end up crawling into my older brother's bed, and he'd hold my hand. It was like the nightmares couldn't reach me anymore." Once our futons were lined up at the sides, Shimizu flopped back down into the blankets, her fingers resting on the edge of mine. "I don't know if it'll do any good, but you're free to hold my hand if it helps you sleep a little easier."

While all the gay thoughts had been blunted behind the general icky feelings that clung to me after a nightmare, it was time for my panromanticness to come back in full force! I deflected it by falling back onto my futon, face planting into my pillow. For the sake of not worrying Shimizu further, all following screams were internal as I fumbled to take her hand (fuck, her skin was soft, even if her palms and fingers had callused from wielding a sword all the time) in the dark.

"Thanks, Shimizu-chan," I said, or at least a muffled approximation of those words.

In response, I got a delighted giggle. "You're welcome, Rairi-kun."

"Rairi-kun, left!"

"Thanks!"

Following Shimizu's warning, I twisted and swung my katana, managing to block the incoming strike of the demon's claws. It looked delicate at a glance with its thin frame, but its hand had plenty of force behind the blow—typical demon fare. In comparison to other demons I'd fought, it didn't have the strongest attack by a long shot, but it was agile enough that neither of us had managed to catch up with it yet to land a killing blow.

The demon flipped backwards and away from my sword, landing on its feet as its kimono swayed around it. Its face and skin tone had warped enough to make its species clear, but that wasn't even the most obvious part about it, oh no. This thing had triangular ears atop its head, and a long tail poked out of the back of its clothes. In other words, it was so a cat.

"Nyahaha! You two think you can catch up with me?" The demon cackled, looking beyond amused as it leapt out of the way of Shimizu's incoming attack—Water Breathing's Seventh Form, the Shizuku Hamon Tsuki. "You may be Demon Slayers, but I've already eaten tons of people! I'm way stronger than you."

"Wanna fucking bet?!" I shouted, already beyond having lost my patience after chasing this—this stupid cat around for the last twenty minutes! "If you're so strong, then you shouldn't mind taking my sword to your neck!" It just had to be this kind of opponent, didn't it?

"No thanks! You can't even catch me; why should I bother to let you try to kill me?"

I breathed in hard enough to send sparks off around me. I haven't been this pissed off in a long time, kitty cat. You wanna fuck with me?

"Rairi-kun, don't let them get to you!" Shimizu called, and it was for the best that we'd gotten this mission together, because I would have snapped otherwise. "I know it's frustrating, but we're a team, so we can handle this. Now—Ichi no Kata: Minamo Giri."

Like Thunder Breathing, Water Breathing's first form was a basic slash augmented by the style's element—and Shimizu looked just as much like a goddess in the moonlight while she performed it as always. The sight alone was enough to do a hard reset on my brain, and I got my breathing back under control a few seconds later. For real, losing my cool in the middle of battle? With our lives at sake?

Get a grip.

Shimizu's latest attack also missed as the demon dodged out of the way, but it spurred me into action. An opponent that was too fast for me? Whenever I knew full well what my sword style was capable of?

"Ichi no Kata: Hekireki Issen."

I wouldn't say that my speed was anywhere close to what Zenitsu could now pull off—but being speedy wasn't all there was to it. You had to be quick, but also had to have the awareness of where your opponent was, of where they would move. And in the split second after dodging Shimizu's attack, the demon didn't have much elsewhere to go but out of the way—and I targeted that space as I launched forward, my sword at last catching purchase. I'd landed a hit, slashing through the demon's side and rending a nasty gash through its gut. The demon screamed, even as its wound started to heal.

"Good," Shimizu said, lifting her sword into a different form, and I read her intention loud and clear: Keep going. "San no Kata: Ryūryū Mai."

More water flowed from her blade in a motion that was tricky to predict. Since the demon was still recovering from my strike, it couldn't twist out of the way, and Shimizu managed to lop off both the demon's forearm and the top of its tail in one swift movement. Desperate, the demon dropped down to the ground on all—well, fours wasn't the most accurate word just then, but you get the drift. However, I was in range, and I'd been watching where the demon went, so I was able to stab my sword straight down through its spine, prioritizing a capture over aiming for the kill and having it slip away.

Of course, it wasn't like I couldn't score a win from this position. "Go no Kata—"

"Please, no! I surrender! I surrender!" It was the first time I'd heard a demon beg, and my breath stuttered enough to prevent my Netsu Kairai from forming. Still, I didn't need a full technique to kill it at this point, since it wasn't trying to escape anymore, and I adjusted my hold on my sword to pull the blade down like a guillotine—only for Shimizu's sword to block mine. I looked up at her, still keeping the demon pinned down.

"We can't not kill it," I said. "It's murdered people. This isn't like what's happened with Nezuko-chan."

"I know, Rairi-kun," Shimizu said, and I was relieved, if not still confused. She seemed satisfied that I wasn't about to move my sword further, as she pulled her own katana back. "It's better for the demon's souls if we defeat them and set them free. But if they surrender, there's no need to make it painful for them, right?" Shimizu breathed, and I could only watch transfixed as she moved.

"Mizu no Kokyū—Go no Kata: Kanten no Jiu."

There couldn't have been a bigger difference between our style's fifth forms. Netsu Kairai was all about the power, and it was often meant to serve as a decisive blow. Shimizu's Kanten no Jiu—it was simple, elegant, the water itself seeming more like a rain shower than any of the previous ocean's waves I'd seen, and, when the demon's head fell away from its body, I almost thought I heard it sigh in relief.

"Our fifth form," Shimizu said, sheathing her sword and pressing her hands together in a prayer, "is one that gives the target a painless death. It's something we can use on those who surrender." The moonlight created a halo around her, and I nodded before pulling my sword out of the demon's now empty kimono and stepping aside to also pray for its soul. "It's not a move we get to use often, so I didn't want to waste the opportunity."

"Thunder Breathing doesn't have any moves like that, so I guess I never thought about it." Not to mention I wasn't sure that we could develop a technique like that, given our element, but it was nice that Water Breathing users had that option. I squinted into the night. You either got an actual breather between missions or your Kasugai Crow was bringing you more work right away; there was no in-between. Lucky for us, I didn't see any sign of Tadashi or Tanaka ready to announce another mission. "It looks like we get to rest this time. Ah, thank you for your hard work today, Shimizu-chan."

"Mmhmm. Thanks for your hard work, Rairi-kun. Maybe we'll get to keep working together."

As fate would have it, we did end up getting to keep working together. Based on what Tadashi and Tanaka told us, demon activity had been higher than the norm as of late, so there had been some discussion about keeping Demon Slayers operating in pairs for a bit—which didn't leave me any complaints. With two of us involved, it was easy to finish up missions, and we managed to sustain nothing more than minor injuries. The consequence of that was we kept getting missions, and there wasn't an opportunity at all to swing back by Butterfly Manor to see how the boys were handling their training.

They did write to us, though—or, to be more accurate, Zenitsu and Tanjirō wrote, and they'd include notes on what Inosuke wanted to say, since he couldn't write himself. Over the past few weeks, it seemed like they'd all at last gotten a grip on Total Concentration: Constant, and they'd managed to score regular victories against Kanao. Their injuries would be healed soon, which meant that they were field ready by the time the letter got to us. The one bit of bad news they had was that Nezuko was still sleeping a lot to recover from using her Blood Demon Art at Natagumo-yama, but otherwise she was doing fine.

"I'm glad to hear that they're doing alright," I said, putting the letter down on the table after Shimizu and I finished reading it. Our travels had brought us to a town connected to a railway, which put it on the more "modern" end of things, with a lot more people out and about in Western clothes. I was still fascinated by the interesting cultural situation that was developing in this era—and also grateful because it let me have access to things like coffee. Shimizu and I had sat next to each other at a café as a break between missions while we read. "Since they've been training, I'm sure they'll be fine." Or so I tried to convince myself as I realized that the boys' release from medical care was doubtless going to dump them right onto the doorstep of the impending Plot.

God, where are we in the larger narrative structure? For a Jump series, the manga itself wasn't very long, but I only have so much context to work with here. Are we still in the TV anime? Fuck, wasn't there some movie greenlit, too? Ugh, I was just ending up hating this whole situation all over again. I just wanted my kōhai and friends to be safe!

Shimizu seemed just as lost in thought, and she had her thumb pressed up against her lips with a serious look on her face. And while I was just glad for her company as a friend, could I have a moment to appreciate how a few months of traveling together had made it possible for me to see all sorts of new sides of her? Amen.

"What's the matter, Shimizu-chan?" I asked, working on folding up the latest round of letters and tucking the paper inside my uniform jacket with the latest messages from Kaigaku and Sensei. It wasn't conceivable to keep all of them with my traveling lifestyle, but I at least liked to have the most recent ones on hand as a reminder of home. "You don't like the coffee?"

"Huh? Oh, no, coffee's fine, coffee's great." Like she was trying to prove a point, Shimizu picked up her drink and downed the rest, letting out a satisfied sigh afterwards. "Super good. Just thinking about stuff." I raised an eyebrow, and Shimizu's fingers toyed with the handle of her cup. "This is going to sound silly, Rairi-kun. But if I asked you to come with me somewhere that wasn't for a mission, would you?" I'm not even going to bother to tell you where my brain went; by this point, I'm sure you could guess that it's gay. "No, wait, that's not quite right. But do you trust me, like, enough to listen to me if I asked you to do something that doesn't make sense?"

"Of course I trust you," I said, feeling mild offense at the fact that she even had to ask. I couldn't be too mad, since I knew well enough that sometimes our brains just liked to dump paranoid thoughts on us, but still! "We've been fighting side by side for a while, and I trust you with my life in the most literal way possible." The corner of Shimizu's mouth twitched a bit, and I wondered if I'd maybe sounded a bit dramatic there. Well, it was the truth, so I wasn't going to take it back. "So, uh, yeah. If you needed me to do something, I'd trust you and help out. You just gotta let me know what it is. So spill."

"Well, it's—"

"Oh, what a surprise!"

The voice that interrupted us could be described as two things: deep and boisterous. Shimizu and I both jumped, and we looked up in unison to observe the person. For starters, they were tall, and we both had to crane up our necks to look them in the eyes. With golden blonde hair that had red tips at the ends, eyes of the same bizarre color combination, and a white, red, and gold flame-stylized haori over their Corps uniform, I was able to discern that this person was both a) a Flame Breathing User and b) a Major Character™ that I'd managed to not see the design for before I ended up here.

And then Shimizu squawked, "Rengoku-sama?!" confirming that both my assumptions were true.

After all, that meant that the man before us was Rengoku Kyōjurō, the Demon Slayer Corps' Flame Hashira, and that could mean nothing less than that some serious shit was about to go down.

[Author's Notes]

Yup, it's Mugen Train time, baby. Let's fucking go.

Thanks go out to chibianimefan26, Kilster, Kamen Rider Evol, ILikeFoxes828, MatchaGreenTea567, Taikutsu-II, A Normal Reader, YoshidaYukia, Eduard970, 0404617, GabMC123, and DolphinLover125 for the favorites and follows! Y'all also have also contributed to my stats breaking all sorts of records last month, and I am forever grateful and in awe, because I so didn't expect this whenever I started to work on this random idea in my head last year.

Anyways! I felt that it had been some time since Shimizu got some love, so here's some time focusing on her before we roll into the next arc! Note that at least a week or two have passed in the interim with a handful of missions since Rairi and Shimizu left Butterfly Manor.

Also, if Shimizu had a Hinokami Kepputan move set, her finisher would definitely be Kanten no Jiu. I've been trying to pick Rairi's finisher for a while, but I haven't been able to narrow it down. That said, since the Gakuen version of Rairi (which I'll eventually write some day) is the head of the Disciplinary/Ethics Committee, their Gakuen alt would 1000% fight with a clipboard.

While I know he probs won't be in this version of the game, I'm willing to bet that Kaigaku's finisher would be Netsu Kairai, since it's one of the most forceful moves, but I could also see Dengō Raigō considering it's the last attack he uses in canon. We'll have to wait for Hinokami Kepputan to get an endgame update to see, though.

As mentioned before, Punk Trash Noiz did in fact publish another walk steady one shot. This title is "you gotta be so cold," and it's Kaigaku's POV from the second chapter of the main story! I've basically accepted it into the continuity of this fic, so do go ahead and read it if you're interested! Noiz has been an amazing beta for this fic, so they deserve all the love!

It's time for a Taishō Era Secret! Since there's such a low number of Demon Slayers, it's common that people will be assigned on solo missions. This is in the interest of covering as much ground as possible, since the Corps works to protect most of Japan. Of course, this has it's downsides, and the number of Slayers lost at Natagumo-yama supposedly lead the Corps to try and assign more regular group missions where available, though plenty of other Slayers are still running around solo to respond to demon activity as quickly as possible. Rairi and Shimizu were mostly sent out together since they were already in the same place and mission distributions worked out that way. Logistics on this sort of thing is hard!

Next Time: Oh, shit, a Hashira mission is bad news; fuck, not the Protag Squad; and Rairi runs their mouth, as per usual. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[07.01.2021]