He was quiet. Babies were supposed to be loud menaces, constantly crying and screaming if they weren't sleeping. But his kid, he was so quiet and calm, like a lull- holy wow, Giyuu is a genius. Cradling his son closer against his chest, he felt his chapped lips twinge in slight pain from the stretch of a smile.
He had the perfect name for his kid.
"Nagi, nice right?" he asked with a small poke to his son's stomach.
The only response he got was a wide yawn.
"Sleepy?"
The bundle squirmed in his hold, small fingers with sharp nails catching on to the tattered remains of his haori and kneading as a cat would. He was getting thinner, Giyuu noted with worry. His arms were slowly losing their baby pudge, which wasn't ideal at all. While on the run getting any kind of food or milk was hard. Adding on that was the constant vigilance he had to maintain for some lackey of Muzan's catching up to them. With the way things were going, Giyuu suspected it wouldn't take much long before whatever was left of his luck ran out and he had to confront a demon with no way to effectively defend against it. Muzan wasn't going to leave Giyuu's Nichirin blade with him of course, he wasn't a dumbass, sadly.
He needed to decide what they were going to do next. Head off to some remote mountain and make their little home? Sounded nice but he knew he was in no capacity to do so. His mangled leg aside, he had no idea how he was going to raise Nagi alone with no guidance at all. He could probably wing it but he didn't want to harm his son by being an incompetent parent.
Add onto that, they couldn't travel during the day, not when it risked Nagi getting hurt by the sun. At night, it was the threat of the demons that kept him from venturing long distances through unknown territory.
As if damned by the Gods themselves, Giyuu's nose picked up a sudden influx of putrid scent that had alarm bells ringing through his head. Nagi squirmed around like a worm wrapped in clothes, feeling the sense of unease and fear oozing off his father's body.
"Shh, you're fine, don't worry,"
Rubbing a hand soothingly over his small back, Giyuu took a quick inventory of the stuff they had. A rusted sword he had foraged from the trash heap they had stumbled upon, a few stray berries, a bundle of nappies and some clothes a kind lady had given them and finally a milk bottle he had purchased using what meager money he had on him when he ran away from Muzan's mansion. He briefly wondered if he was going to die here and Nagi will get taken to be the next Demon King. A small foot kicking against his abdomen had his focus drawing back to the present and to what he needed to do.
Strapping Nagi securely against himself in a makeshift sling, he gathered their meager but necessary belongings, stuffing them in another makeshift sling using one of the clothes he had previously swaddled his son in. He picked up the sword, it was better than nothing though it was as useless against a demon as a bread loaf against a rock.
"I'll keep you safe, don't worry," he whispered to his son, caressing his face before fully covering him with cloth, leaving only a slight opening for air. Holding tight onto the sword's rugged hilt, he cautiously made his way out of the little cavity in the mountainside both of them had been camping out in.
The sun was gone and the forest was covered in darkness so impenetrable, Giyuu only had his sense of smell and hearing to guide him. He inhaled deeply through his nose, nearly gagging in reflex to the onslaught of the rotting smell. The demon was dangerously close by the strength of the smell.
Checking that Nagi was securely strapped for sure, Giyuu broke out into a sprint, well, as much of a sprint as could manage in his condition. What a pain. Literally.
To his right, he heard a slight rustle of leaves in the distance. It could be a random animal or even the wind but he wasn't taking any chances. Pivoting on his toes, he dashed off to his left, trying to make as much distance between them and the demon. Avoiding it was the safest strategy he had. Fighting would most certainly lead to their collective demise, which he wasn't going to risk at all.
He had to keep Nagi safe, at all costs.
The putrid scent persisted even after Giyuu had traveled a decent amount of distance. His leg was screaming in agony by this point, his makeshift bandage getting splotched by fresh red in multiple spots. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he tried to maintain a steady pace.
He couldn't risk getting caught, especially not if the demon was sent by Muzan.
Nagi wailed, scaring Giyuu out of his wits.
He cursed, sensing the surroundings stilling to an eerie quietness save for his son's cries, before the snapping of twigs and creaking of wood bending increased.
If not before, now the wretched spawn of hell knew for certain they were in the vicinity.
Nagi was sobbing, hard. Giyuu had no idea what happened. Did he get irritated by the constant jostling? Did the horrible smell scare him? Did he get hurt?
Shoving the sword through his belt, he used his now free hand to hold Nagi against him, shushing and rubbing his back while struggling to maintain pace and not stumble down to the forest floor.
"It'll be okay; I'll keep you safe,"
He knew they were empty reassurances, knew he stood no chance against a demon in his current state.
A self-deprecating chuckle huffed out past his trembling lips. Once a hashira, pledging to protect the whole populace and now he was barely able to protect his kid.
Using his thumb he rubbed the big, rolling tears off Nagi's face. The chest-shuddering sobbing was now reduced to heavy sniffles and occasional cries, "What happened, hmm? Are you scared?"
A sharp growl came from somewhere behind them, making Giyuu duck instinctively, successfully avoiding a lashing arm that would've smacked his head off his shoulders.
He cursed out loud, his hold tightening around the small body in his hold.
He hadn't expected the wretch to sneak up on them this fast! He panicked, his thoughts went haywire. Nagi was in his dominant arm, the sword uselessly hanging off his belt. He had to evade the demon's next attack all the while trying to make some distance between them.
He was going to die, he thought with an all encasing feel of dread. As if to agree, his leg gave out.
Losing his balance, he tumbled down roughly to the ground, trying his best to protect his baby from any injury. Small hands dug into his shoulder, a shrill scream right in his ear making his head split up in pain.
The demon raised his humongous palm above its flattened head, bringing it down upon the pair on the ground. The earth shuddered with the impact, a crater forming where his palm hit.
But there was no feeling of warm blood against his hand as he had expected. Trying to sense the presence of his prey in the dark, he focused on feeling for motion around him.
A sharp inhale to the right of where his palm had indented the ground had him grinning in triumphant. Without giving them any time to react, he used his thumb and forefinger to smack the human, hard.
A satisfying scream and thwack of an impact had him salivating; a warm meal after so long.
Giyuu wheezed through the pain, it hurt so bad. Nagi was quiet. He couldn't see his face due to the darkness of the moonless night. He didn't feel nice about the unresponsiveness from him all of a sudden.
In his peripheral he saw the huge shape of the demon ambling towards them at a leisurely pace, probably thinking they were dead. In a last-ditch effort to save their lives, he threw his body off to the side, trying to gain a bit of momentum, to run.
But what he didn't register was the lack of level ground on his side, the ledge that led down into the deep dark valley. The one he conveniently threw himself off of and proceeded to fall.
The rawr of rage from the demon was the last thing he heard before his head smacked hard against a rock jutting out off the mountain relief.
Urokodaki Sakonji was making dinner when the loud rawr of a demon pierced through the quiet surroundings. He sighed tiredly. Why couldn't they just give him some respite from their human devouring antics?
Taking his sword off its holder he left to slay another one of these regular menaces. He thought retirement would bring him some peace, some rest, but noooo. These vile creatures just had to destroy a peaceful evening.
He started ascending the mountain with practiced ease, lost in his thoughts. Nearly halfway to the place where he presumed the demon was, his nose caught the metallic scent of blood, followed by a shrill cry.
A crying kid? This late in this area? His place was ways away from any major roads or pathways, so hearing a kid crying near this unfrequented path spelled all kinds of wrongs.
Slaying the demon comes later, he had to first check on the injured. Rushing through the rocky slopes, Urokodaki made his way to where the incessant wailing was coming from. There was another scent, a strangely familiar one that he quite wasn't able to place due to the overpowering scent of the blood and sheer wave of anguish and worry wafting off from the source of the cries.
The nearer he was to his destination, the more the scent bugged him. He had a slight inkling to whose scent it was but that was- it was impossible. Not wanting to raise his hopes high only to get them brutally squashed, the tengu masked man darted over rocks and overgrown weeds, making haste towards the high pitched wailing.
Though when he did reach the place, he wasn't ready for the sight he was confronted with. He recognized that yellow-green haori. The source of the cries was a haphazardly swaddled baby lying on the chest of-
Urokodaki rushed to his protégé's side. His supposed-to-be dead protégé. His breath involuntarily hitched in his chest, a wave of tears springing up to his eyes. With a shaking hand, he held the other's wrist, half-crying half-laughing when he found a pulse. A weak one, but it was there.
"Giyuu?" He gingerly ran his hand through his back from the dead student's hair, trying to feel where the source of bleeding was. Almost immediately he felt a long gash on the side of Giyuu's head, blood gushing out freely and staining the rock his head rested on in a deep crimson red.
Surprisingly enough, the baby was now quiet. His eyes were half-lidded, resting calmly on Giyuu's torso.
Urokodaki didn't want to disturb him but he had to patch his protege up as soon as possible. He was alive- for God's sake, he was alive! He wouldn't let anything take Giyuu away from him anymore, not when he had found him again. He checked for other injuries, took note of them before unwrapping the makeshift sling off his student and wrapping it around his back. He securely deposited the child inside, soothing him when the baby fussed at being disturbed from his rest. Tearing off one sleeve of his haori, he used it as a bandage to wrap around Giyuu's head, picking him up in his arms, adjusting him so his head rested comfortably in the crook of Urokodaki's neck, getting proper support.
The demon would be dealt with tomorrow, for now, his only focus was on treating his student and his surprise, little look-alike.
A not-so-human, surprise, little look-alike.
It's been months, more than a year since he had gotten any news about Giyuu after his kidnapping at the hands of the first demon. More than a year since he was declared dead to the world. Now, like some weird miracle, he was here, in his arms, living, and breathing and warm. Though that last one was quickly changing due to the sheer amounts of blood he had lost and was losing.
Darting through the rocky slopes and tall trees, Urokodaki took a moment to appraise his student's physical condition. He was light, nearing the brink of malnutrition as it appeared with hollow cheeks and a dull, deathly pallor to his skin. His leg was hanging off weirdly, stained with blood oozing through dirty bandages. That's going to be a rough one to treat, Urokodaki thought with a grimace, fearing the infection that would've set in long ago.
The child strapped on his back let out a laugh when a particularly high jump had the sling moving, rocking the baby inside. The sudden, joyous laugh worked like a cleanser, making his focus snap away from the negatives and to the sheer joy he felt on having his kid back. Holding the limp body firmly against his chest, Urokodaki vowed to himself to never fail his kids again, whatever it may take.
TBC
Y'all don't know the near-fatal levels of cringe I had when I saw and went through my old fics. My mangled children whom I love to hate ugh