The whole world shift in one breath.

From one blink to the next, Zenitsu's vision is covered in horrors he'd never laid eyes on before. Dead corpses, mutilated bodies, flesh of rotten humans. The stink, oh the stink.

He wretches. Clamping a hand over his nose and his eyes tear up. What was this? What was going on? How... How could any of this be real, and the dead-

They looked so familiar, they-

"Interesting," he hears; the demon's whispering voice breaking him out of his momentary stupor. "So, this is your biggest nightmare little child."

Zenitsu doesn't know what to say. "Where," he stutters; frantically looking around, trying his hardest not to gaze upon the corpses strewed at his feet. "Where are you?"

All the confidence he had so desperately accumulated in his brief moment of bravery had suddenly forsaken him; falling out of his pockets as fear slowly began to drown him all over again. "Where are you?" he screams; backing away from the hideous sight in front of him and stumbling upon a puddle. A red puddle. When his eyes finally fall onto the floor.

Oh God

He was going to be sick.

And then-

They moved. The corpses. The dead, they – He wanted to scream, cry, maybe curl up and hide in a corner till someone finally came to save him because-

The corpses, the too familiar corpses of people... People he knew. They were... Oh God.

"Please," he muttered; taking a clumsy step back, hands still shakingly holding onto his sword as bodies came to. "Please stop. Please."

From the very corner of his eye he could see him. Gramps, he could see him. But... How could it be him. He'd buried him. He'd buried them all.

"Please." The pleading in his voice being drowned out by the groans and echoing suffering all around him. Drowned out by the foul stench of the dead, and Zenitsu couldn't help it. Couldn't help the tears that streamed down his bloody cheeks as if to add a new testament to his suffering. "I can't... I – I can't fight you... Please Nahara-san," Because the young woman approaching him was definitely the fair maiden of their village. Nahara-san. How cruel. For someone to bring her back for her to-

Nothing that came out of his mouth seemed to resound with her and in a split second she was upon him; arms slashing wide and mouth gnawing for the taste of his flesh.

Yelping, he stumbled back even further, only to-

Screaming, Zenitsu jumps away from the man who'd come up behind him; one hand abandoning his sword to press against the deep cut inflicted on him by - "Kaigaku-senpai?" The words don't come out louder than a whisper, but they come out none the less, breathless and unsure and his uncertainty making the demon laugh even harder, the blonde teen tries his best not to cry.

Zenitsu couldn't see the demon, couldn't see anything outside of the horrible vision in front of his eyes, but he could hear him, hear him loud and clear.

"Stop this!" He screams; eyes still refusing to rest on the old man charging at him. Jumping into the air, he tries to put some distance between the animated corpses and himself, but – something is in his way, because with a harsh gasp he found himself colliding against a tree truck.

A tree truck he can't see with his eyes

Oh

Oh

Illusion. This was all an illusion wasn't it, but-

How could illusions hurt anyone? How could the demon make his dead family hurt him? How?

Kaigaku-senpai attacks again; this time flanked on either side by Mori-san and gramps, making Zenitsu's poor attempt to avoid head on confrontation impossible.

He takes the hits; as non-vitaly as possible, but he takes them.

Gasping, the blonde crumbles to the ground, wounds bleeding as very real injuries pile up to make even the ability to stand on two feet impossible.

The demon is still laughing again and Zenitsu could feel the agonizing desperation of hopelessness crawling itself into all corners of his mind. He couldn't win this. That was obvious. How had he for even a second thought-

No, don't even go there.

Clenching sweaty palms around his sword even firmer, the blonde teen took a deep steading breath and tried to keep his eyes on every illusion in front of him.

[ NEVER GIVE UP]

Gramps had said that to him. Had said it over and over again, and gramps... Gramps always looked out for him, even in death, so... There must be a trick to all this, right?

How could illusions hurt him? How had he yet to see the demon? How?

In hindsight, it should have been obvious, but Zenitsu honestly didn't care about hindsight or other such bullshits. If he survived this, he was going to kiss every freaking wisteria tree in the world. That was a promise, but-

For now,

Oh

He knew... It was so obvious when he took real time to think about it.

The demon, he was hiding behind the illusions, wasn't he? That's why the attacks were only coming from one direction. He was playing with his mind and while he was distracted, the demon would strike him down. It was so obvious now and yet... Just because he knew now didn't mean he could fight it. Just because he knew didn't mean he could suddenly fight a full-fledged demon with a demon art this powerful, and he was already bleeding all over the place.

Zenitsu could honestly die here, today, right here and now. He could die.

….

Or he could not

He doesn't know where the idea strikes him, but between running away from deadly illusions and trying to keeps his vital organs from spilling out from body, a brief moment of past event suddenly flares up behind his eyes, and Zenitsu almost faceplants at the jarring memory; barely stopping himself from halting in his run, but-

He remembers.

A time, a time Kaigaku-senpai had been kind. Before Zenitsu had become a serious contender to replace gramps too, Kaigaku-senpai had been kind. Willing to help him out albeit reluctantly and sometimes even dishing out sincere advice.

'You can still use the breath of thunder to defend yourself even if you can't fully wield it as a weapon yet,' his senpai had said once; leaning against a tree as he observed Zenitsu fail yet again at getting even the basic of the forms down.

'What do you mean senpai,' he'd asked; eyes brimming with frustrating tears and bottom lips wobbling.

His senpai had sighed. 'Come here.'

He did and Kaigaku-senpai reached out for the blonde's training sword; covering Zenitsu's smaller hands with his own larger once. "You don't need to control electricity to let it out," he muttered; fingers sparkling lightly where they were resting atop of Zenitsu.

"I don't understand senpai," His eyes had been wide with wonder watching the lightning sparkle and crackle between them, and Kaigaku-senpai had chuckled. It sounded nice and Zenitsu found himself smiling back in happiness.

"Let me show you-"

That memory.

It was probably one of the most pleasant memories he had of his senpai. Swallowing down the bitter emotions that suddenly snuck up on him, Zenitsu came to a screeching halt and whirled his body around to face his assailants.

Kagaku-senpai might be gone now, but-

Affirming his stance, spreading his feet apart and taking a deep breath, Zenitsu closed his eyes.

Kaigaku-senpai might be gone, but what he taught him, it was still there and Zenitsu just needed to time it right. Just right.

"I see you've stopped running!" The demon's voice was drawing near and with it the animated-illusionary corpses. "Good, it's time to die!"

'No,' Zenitsu thought; eyes still firmly closed as he tried to listen for every movement, every tense muscle, every heartbeat.'No, it's not over yet.'

And with that he let the burning feeling dancing through his veins buzz all across his skin and sparkle into something dangerous, heaving a giant crackling nightmare of lightning thunder across his entire body and the demon illusions didn't have a chance to get out of his personal space before the lightening surrounding his body like a shield snapped at their feet; burning them up and making the demon hiding behind them scream in agony.

Zenitsu's eyes snap open and he manages to witness the giant of a demon stumbling back away from him; burned flesh healing up slowly, but the shock in his face lingering.

The blonde would have laughed himself hoarse if-

Dropping down to his own knees, Zenitsu heaves a choking breath; blood trickling down his chin as rivers of red, paint the ground under him scarlet. "Damn it," he hisses; arms coming up to his chest futilely to stave of the blood loss, but how could he stop all that blood, how could he – His vision begins to darken and Zenitsu knows without a shadow of a doubt that if he loses consciousness here, he might never wake up again, so he shakes it of as feebly as he can; coughing painfully the whole time.

The demon seems to have gathered himself in that little time it took for Zenitsu to not die, and the teen finds himself cursing the unfair ability of healing. How was that right, he could have won if, if life had just been fair? The monster probably realized it too, because he started to laugh again. His body was still stuttering to a stop every other step, but the malicious glee that had been burning so fierce in the beast's heart had again been rekindled. "You did well brat," he smirks; Zenitsu can barely keep him in sight. "But it's too bad that your body wasn't designed to be better-"

There are no more room for words after that, and the demon advances on him. Zenitsu was ashamed to say that tears started to fall again. He was scared, terrified. This was his final moment and he didn't want it to be. Didn't want to die like this. Not before he'd done everything he'd promised himself to do. Not before he avenged his family, not before – and yet... This was it. Still; gripping his sword tighter, he raises his head high. His body is still shaking something fierce and his eyes are too blurry from being abused with tears and his nose is stuffy from the snot dripping down his face, but – for everyone that ever believed in him, even a little – he was going to keep his head high. He wasn't going to die a coward. Never.

The demon must have seen something in his face because he grins and nods down at him, and maybe that should have been enough, and, it is, so he breaths and puffs out his chest. It was goodbye-

Or he thought it was but in the next second; just as the arm was about to strike him down, another body collided with the demon, feet first and the giant of a monster flew away with that single blow to where the eyes couldn't see.

Jumping once and then twice to steady himself, Obanai-senpai came to a stop in front of him, his back turned.

"I'm sorry I'm late kid."

"Obanai-sen...pai?

Obanai-senpai, because damn him! It was his senpai, turns around to stare at him with the blankest of expressions. His left eye is shadowed in blood, his lip is busted, and his uniform is torn in several places. "I was held up," his senpai says. "Lower moon three was giving me some trouble, I apologize for not having made it to you in time."

"I-" Zenitsu doesn't even know if he is sobbing or laughing or doing a mix of both, because oh God, he was here. His senpai, his mentor – he was here, and he wasn't going to let Zenitsu die and-

"I'm so-sorry for what I said earlier!" He screams; one hand coming up to rub at his tear stained face. "I didn't mean to tell you that – I... I was just angry senpai! And... and... I didn't want to die before I got to say... I'm - I'm sorry senpai!"

Each word is wretched out of his lungs in a chaotic wave of emotional instability but whatever he must have spluttered must have had some semblance of coherency because the mismatched eyes facing him soften at the corners and the blankness of Obanai-senpai's expression eases up a bit. "I believe you brat. Now get yourself together. I didn't have the chance to defeat the lower moon before I figured you were in trouble, so we're about to face two demons rather than one."

Zenitsu nods. "Okay. Okay."

Obanai-senpai nods back, and then a shadow falls from the sky; landing gracefully on the destroyed ground under him, and he is quickly followed by the giant leaping back into the fray.

The snake pillar shifts himself just so, his body now covering Zenitsu's own from view. "So, you found me again," he mutters; voice both dull and wholly unimpressed.

The demon glares. "You will not get away from me this time snake pillar."

His senpai swings his sword around; fingers nibble and casual. "I wasn't planning to. Just needed to make sure my student hadn't died a grizzly death while I was busy ending your miserable life." The demon snares at that; left eye glowing with a prominent number.

"You won't be laughing when I am done with you," he hisses; chest fully bare except for the several tiny knifes strapped to a belt crisscrossing his shoulders and waist. "I will get my number back! By killing you, I shall prove that the newbie has no right to rise above me in rank! Has no right to be the number two when I'm still here!"

Obanai-senpai sighs again. "If you didn't like it you should have killed it." Tensing his shoulders, he aims his sword at the short demon's chest. "Now I'll be taking your life if you don't mind.


Obanai is finally here to save the day. Maybe Zenitsu won't get more trauma than he already has this time ;)