Sabito smells the wisteria - sweet, yet musky - before he sees it.
It hangs down from every branch, violet petals swaying in the breeze. It's gentle and beautiful, despite its poisonous nature. Sabito supposes that it's similar to demon slayers - or rather, their breathing styles - in that way.
When he tells Giyuu as much, he calls him, in less rude terms, a wannabe poet. In return, Sabito smacks him lightly on the back of his head.
When they finally arrive at the top of the mountain, the sun is setting. Two identical children greet them with polite smiles.
Sabito shivers, trying not to pay attention to the way that they seem to stare into his soul. Although Giyuu tries to hide it better, he looks vaguely constipated thanks to the half-twisted expression he's wearing.
After a while of chatting, the final slayers arrive, and the two children describe the task. They must survive for seven days and seven nights, then make it to the top of the mountain before noon on the following day.
Sabito glances around at everyone, most of whom look horribly nervous, and tries his best to spare a few smiles for anyone who looks his way. Giyuu rolls his eyes when Sabito does the same for him, but his shoulders visibly relax, and the latter huffs out a breath of laughter, counting it as a job well done.
Sabito and Giyuu, as always, travel together.
The first demon appears before them within minutes of their entrance into the deep forests. It calls them a coward for traveling in a pack, but the word barely leaves their tongue before Sabito is already in front of him, cutting off its head.
He pauses, spares the demon a quick apology, and ignores the odd look Giyuu sends at him for that.
Afterwards, they run into several more demons, which Sabito is admittedly looking for on purpose. He makes sure to go slow enough that Giyuu can keep up, though, and the boy doesn't do more than offer halfhearted complaints about how their goal is to survive , not kill as many demons as possible, so they continue on their way.
By the seventh night, they've run into just about every slayer who'd entered to forest, all without coming across even a single human body.
"You did hunt them all out on purpose," Giyuu points out. Sabito shrugs him off with a cheeky smile.
They're both beginning to think that they might've taken care of every demon in the forest when it happens.
The ground rumbles, trembling from beneath them, and any birds that had stuck around til then scatter. Giyuu sends Sabito a wide-eyed look, and the latter responds with a reassuring smile that only serves to make his friend look even more nervous.
"We should go," Giyuu tells him. "We don't have to kill them all."
Sabito wants to argue, but begins to acquiesce anyway, if only to get that look off Giyuu's face. Before he can, though, the demon steps into the clearing.
It's the biggest one he's ever seen in his life .
"Oh," Sabito lets out. "Shit."
The moment he utters the words, the demon's eyes fall upon them. It stares at them with a narrowed gaze, before Sabito sees recognition flicker within them.
That , he decides, cannot be good.
"Urokodaki's kids," the demon says, sounding far too pleased with itself. "I was wondering if he was going to send me any more fresh meat."
Before Sabito can ask what that means, the demon swipes out with its arm, and he's forced to leap out of the way. Unfortunately, Giyuu stands stock still, terrified, and he gets clipped.
He falls to the ground with a cry of pain, and the moment Sabito sees the demon's eyes light up with something like sadistic glee, he knows what he has to do.
Without a second thought, he leaps onto the demon's arm and uses it as a makeshift staircase. The demon startles, but its expression quickly contorts into something like a mouthless snarl, and it attempts to swat him like a bug.
Sabito leaps into the air and slashes down. When he misses, he jerks backwards, backflipping off the demon's hand and going at it again.
"You pesky bug!" the demon hisses. "Get off of me!"
Oh yeah, sure, I'll do that and let myself get murdered. Great idea, pal.
Sabito doesn't think he says the words aloud at first, but judging by the way the demon growls, he thinks he might've been wrong with that assumption.
The demon becomes more reckless with its anger. But it also becomes quicker .
It takes everything Sabito has to avoid being crushed. It's not until Giyuu cries out for him and draws the demon's attention that he finally gets an opening.
He leaps into the air, blade at his side, and swings.
The blade crashes down
and
it
shatters .
Sabito barely has a moment to think before he's snatched midair, and he's staring face-to-face with the demon.
He's met with the sudden realization that he will not make it out of this alive. But someone else can.
"Giyuu," he says, calmer than he feels. "Run."
"But—"
"Now," he tells him. "Run and don't you dare look back."
Sabito hears nothing in response. He can only hope that the boy listens to him as the demon lifts him into the air, dangling between his fingers, and tears off his arms.
He bites down a cry of pain, though a strangled sound escapes his throat.
"You were strong," the demon tells him. "But not strong enough."
The last thing he sees before his vision goes black is a gaping maw, and his own blood splattered on sharp, white teeth.