^ Chapter 25 - A Hashira's Duty ^
Nezuko blinked once as she and the blonde-haired man with the pure smile stared at one another for a second or two, before he slammed the palm of his hand into her throat quicker than she could react and nearly choked her as he lifted her up off her feet. He then reared back and launched Nezuko like a bullet with such ferocious strength and speed that she blew past Zenitsu and Inosuke, her body skipping once across the ground next to Kyōjurō and Tanjirō, before she was finally stopped when she struck a tree back first and almost obliterated it.
"Nezuko!" cried out Tanjirō as he whirled around towards the direction she came from, Kyōjurō turning his head and remaining surprisingly calm as they watched the blonde-headed man stroll towards Zenitsu and Inosuke.
They only had a split second to turn and just barely caught a glimpse of the man before he gripped the tops of their heads and with two harsh pull-downs he smashed their faces and upper torsos into the ground. Rocks and dirt exploded outward from both impacts, and when the dust settled, Zenitsu and Inosuke were totally motionless in the miniature craters their bodies had formed, both having been knocked out cold by the man's brutal attack.
"Kuku, there we go, no more distractions!" the man laughed as he stood back up and wiped his hands clean, his smile widening as he closed his eyes.
Tanjirō's veins popped out from under his skin and he became enraged almost instantly, his demon transformation occurring in the blink of an eye while he gripped his sword tight enough to turn his knuckles white. Before he could attack the man, Kyōjurō placed a hand on his shoulder and held him back with such monstrous grip strength that it actually caught Tanjirō by surprise.
"Control your emotions. Your sister will recover and your friends have only been knocked out." said Kyōjurō as he lessened his grip, patting Tanjirō's shoulder a couple of times. "I understand your feelings right now, but the worst thing you can do is let your emotions take over."
"Y...Yeah…" uttered Tanjirō in a strained tone, the Hashira's words of wisdom overriding his rage and reaching the rational side of his brain.
Tanjirō took a few breaths to help calm his heart beat and slowly but surely, his demon transformation began to settle down, his appearance eventually returning back to normal once he had gotten his emotions back to where they should be. The man opened his eyes finally once Tanjirō had calmed down and he walked a little closer, smiling brightly at them while allowing the two swordsmen to see him better.
His eyes were completely white, making him appear blind, which added on to the growing list of surprises this man had given to them so far. His presence was indistinguishably human, and he even had the appearance of one to back it up, yet the strength that he showcased by flinging Nezuko that hard and smashing Zenitsu and Inosuke into the ground that ferociously was anything but. Tanjirō tried to use his sense of smell to detect anything worthwhile about the man, but was taken aback by the startling conclusion that this man, whoever he was, had no scent. It was as if the man's presence didn't exist at all to his nose, which was a first for him.
"Goodness me, will you look at that! A disgusting mongrel and an impure, standing side by side! Truly today is a day of surprises!" said the beautiful man jovially, his statement catching Tanjirō off guard with his happy yet undeniably vile he sounded. Just then he recognized the man as the same person he had bumped into when they had first boarded the train, and he audibly gasped at the realization. "And your swords...so delicious looking!"
"Who are you? Are you one of the Twelve Kizuki, or another demon that serves Kibutsuji?" questioned Kyōjurō while keeping a hand resting steadily on the hilt of his sword.
"I know him, Rengoku-san! We bumped into him on our way to find you!"
"I don't need to tell you mongrels who I am, not yet anyways. All I know is that I've come here for one thing, so unfortunately I can't take the time to devour you." stated the man with a smile as he rocked back and forth on his feet. "Though if you insist, depending on how badly my friend wants to kill you, my name is Michael~"
"Michael? And what do you mean by friend?" Kyōjurō demanded while narrowing his eyes before a resounding boom came from behind, followed by the ground shaking beneath his feet when an unidentified object struck the earth at top speed.
Keeping his hand on his blade hilt, he whirled around into a kneeling position beside the Tanjirō, his wide open eyes staring into the smoke and debris left behind by the impact. Without even seeing what had caused the small crater to form, his senses told him almost instantly what kind of being was hiding within the cover of the dust. It made his heart race, but he kept his composure despite the surge of adrenaline and pushed his thoughts about the first person to the side in order to focus on the newcomer.
Eventually the dust and smoke cleared, revealing a muscular young man with his fist and feet planted into the ground within the crater, his gaze settled on the two slayers. His skin was bright green-tinged white, and he was wearing a short sleeveless dark purple-pink haori, baggy white pants, and a chain of red beads around each of his ankles. Strikingly, his hair was a bright pink and covering his body were a series of intricate, thick dark blue lines, and his blue sclera that looked like cracked glass. For Kyōjurō, the only part of this newcomer that mattered to him was the yellow eyes with the Kanji for "Upper Moon Three" tattooed between the two of them staring right through his soul.
A moment of silence persisted between the two opposing sides before, in the blink of an eye, the man's image faded and he reappeared almost right in front of him, his fist reared back, veins bulging from his muscular arms, ready to sock Kyōjurō with overwhelming force. The Hashira reacted instantly, his eyes wide open like two camera lenses as he drew his blade within a fraction of a second, his lips parting ever-so-slightly as he murmured the name of his technique.
"Honō no kokyū, Ni no kata: Nobori en ten."
Kyōjurō's blazing sword, consumed by his breathing style's own flames, surged upward through the arm of the man and out in an ascending arc that created a heatwave that made even Tanjirō flinch a little. His attack caused the demon to barely flinch as he instantly halted his attack, backflipped several times before landing back on his feet several meters away with a slight smirk on his face.
He lifted up his wounded arm, which had been cleaved through by the Flame Hashira's sword from the knuckles down to the base of his elbow, and healed it almost instantly without even so much as batting an eyelash. Kyōjurō stood up and took a defensive stance, with Tanjirō standing right behind him with a shocked expression on his face. This Upper Moon had moved faster than anything he had ever seen before, and he was equally as surprised when Kyōjurō had managed to match the demon in speed and deflect him with an attack of his own.
"Nice blade." remarked Upper Moon Three with a wider smirk as he licked some blood away from his hand, flashing his fangs at the Hashira.
"So this is an Upper Moon...quick regeneration, and there's an immense sense of pressure and dread…" thought Kyōjurō as he took a steady breath to calm himself, his eyes darting back and forth from one point on the demon's body to the other.
He was already examining his opponent, trying to find and locate weaknesses, anything that could give him an advantage, while keeping himself firmly planted in front of Tanjirō in order to guard him. As a Hashira it was his duty to protect those below him, and he wasn't about to skirt those responsibilities now in the face of the enemy, even if it was an Upper Moon.
"What purpose or relationship does that man hold to you and Kibutsuji? Is he another Kizuki?" questioned Kyōjurō in a bid to extract any information from Upper Moon Three.
"Doesn't matter. Don't let his presence get in the way between you and me." Upper Moon Three responded while lowering his arms back to his side.
"This is our first time meeting and I already hate you."
"Is that so? I really hate humans, especially the weak ones. When I look at weaklings, I just feel disgusted."
Tanjirō ground his teeth together anxiously out of anger at how the Upper Moon was talking about humans, which only made his previous feelings as a result of the treatment of his friends and Nezuko double in intensity. Rather than stand there acting useless however, he glanced back over his shoulder to where his sister had been launched and found her hunched over at the foot of a tree, still unconcious.
He didn't have to go over and check on her, since he could see her from there, but it pained him nonetheless to see how their victory had so quickly turned in yet another engagement with the appearance of the blonde man. He hoped that his unconscious sister would be able to wake up soon, so that they could both assist Kyōjurō in dealing with the new problem that's come out of nowhere to oppose them. A man who had no scent that was able to knock out Zenitsu and Inosuke without any trouble whatsoever, and one of Muzan's Upper Moon's, how much worse could it possibly get?
"It looks like you and I have very different perspectives on a lot of things. And since you've avoided my questions, I've taken the liberty of deducing that the other person doesn't come from Japan, and that he's certainly not working for Kibutsuji either." stated Kyōjurō with an apathetic expression, a slight breeze blowing between him and Upper Moon Three. "There's something else going on here too, something that I have yet to figure out for myself."
"I see. I have a wonderful proposal then for you, Hashira. How about you become a demon too, and see for yourself?" asked Upper Moon Three while offering an open hand of invitation to Kyōjurō.
"Or he could join and submit himself to salvation~! You can leave behind your miserable, human life and join my Father's plan!" added on Michael with a giggle, the demon rolling his eyes slightly while widening his stance a little.
"No chance, to either option." Kyōjurō stated flatly.
"Aww, rude, kuku."
"I know your strength just by looking at you. You're a Hashira, right? Your battle spirit is quite polished...you're at the precipice of achieving supreme territory."
Kyōjurō steadied his hands on his blade and checked to ensure that Tanjirō was still behind him, before he quickly nodded his head once he was sure that the demon or Michael wouldn't interfere. Catching the signal, Tanjirō immediately darted away to where his sister was to check on her like he wanted, and came to find that her condition was more or less fine.
He let out a sigh of relief and stayed kneeling by her, growling in a low tone under his breath as he sent daggers right at Michael, who noticed his gaze and waved at him like they were friends. He'd make that bastard pay, but only if and when Kyōjurō would allow it. Just seeing the way the Flame Hashira was standing told him enough that he was in control of the situation, and if he interjected, it could only break his concentration. Tanjirō knew he had to wait for his turn to join, so until then he would remain by his sister's side and protect her.
It didn't seem as though the person named Michael was going to step in and do anything at the moment, which was true since he had even been able to come over to his sister, but couldn't drop his guard because of one simple assumption. Anything could happen at this point, and he needed to be ready.
"I am the Flame Hashira, Rengoku Kyōjurō, and I could care less about this so-called 'Supreme Territory' that you speak of, or about becoming a demon." Kyōjurō said, once again standing firm with his decision and his beliefs.
"And I'm Akaza. Kyōjurō, I'll tell you why you aren't capable of crossing over into Supreme Territory." said the Upper Moon before he pointed an accusatory finger at Kyōjurō, his eyes shrinking slightly while his other hand balled up into a fist. "It's because you're human. Because you'll grow old, because you'll die. Forget what that crackpot said and become a demon, Kyōjurō. If you do, you can continue to train for a hundred, even two hundred years. You can become stronger."
"Out of all the demons I've met up to now, this guy's smell is definitely the most similar to Muzan's...it's even denser than Rui's, or the train demon's…!" Tanjirō as he tightened his fingers around his sword grip, to the point a vein was bulging out.
"Growing old and dying is part of the beauty of the fleeting creature called a human being. To insult and degrade us in such a way is a sin of itself." stated Kyōjurō, with Tanjirō's eyes coming to rest on the Hashira's back when he began to speak in such a meaningful and powerful manner. His voice wasn't raised and from what Tanjirō could smell, he wasn't feeling infuriated at all. This was the truth, a belief he wholeheartedly supported. "Because they grow old, because they die...they are tremendous, loveable, and precious. What they call 'strength' isn't a word that is used in regards to the body."
Kyōjurō widened his stance a little and angled his sword upward a tiny bit as the wind caused his flame-like haori to flutter and flap behind him. His hair too was blown around by the breeze, giving him the appearance that he was on fire as he spoke of what he truly believed in, which made Tanjirō even more amazed at what an amazing person Kyōjurō really was.
"I will say it over and over again, regardless of how many times you ask me. You and I have different moral values and codes." Kyōjurō affirmed without moving an inch. "No matter what kind of motivation I may have, I will never allow myself to betray those I consider friends, whether it be to become a demon, nor to join this 'salvation'."
Akaza narrowed his eyes and his wide grin shrunk in size, his eyebrows also rising up briefly as he unclenched his fist momentarily, before he merely shrugged and shook his hands lightly. He then took one sharp step forward and entered a wide stance, his left calf muscles developing large, bulging veins from how much pressure he was putting on them. Keeping his left arm bent next to his body he thrust his right arm forward, palm open and facing Kyōjurō, he took on a stance taken from a hand-to-hand combat style he must have learned as a human.
Under his breath he uttered the words that would make any Demon Slayer who heard them freeze and consider their options, especially with Akaza being one of the Upper Moons, who were revered to be the greatest enemy to Hashira aside from their master himself. A bright, glowing tealish blue and red compass stylized like a snowflake appeared on the ground beneath his feet, his body being the direct center of the compass, with each branch possessing the numbers one through ten in archaic Kanji.
"If you won't become a demon, then I'll just have to kill you! Kyōjurō!" exclaimed Akaza with a wide smile, baring his fangs at the Flame Hashira.
With an absurd amount of strength he then bolted towards Kyōjurō by launching himself forward off his back foot, the glowing compass dissipating behind him in the wake of his leap. Kyōjurō reacted in kind by dropping his sword down and took a harsh step towards Akaza before he was consumed by his flames and surged forward to meet his opponent head on.
Tanjirō was left awestruck with the display of physical speed and strength that the two adversaries showcased to one another as they fought, with streams and bursts of fire exploding out from Kyōjurō's sword with each technique he used, ass opposed to Akaza's sheer physical prowess.
He could only catch glimpses of them here and there between their movements and the flames produced by Kyōjurō's Flame Breathing forms, reminding him again of just how much of a force of nature the Flame Hashira was. He wondered if in his demon form he could even begin to hold a candle up to the highly skilled swordsman.
"Wait, what am I doing just sitting here?! I gotta find an opening so I can help Rengoku-san!" Tanjirō thought as he made sure Nezuko was shielded by trees and shrubbery, in case the sun began to arise, which he was fairly certain it would at some point. Once she was taken care of, he remained kneeling with a hand on his sword, ready to intervene at a moment's notice. "Come on Rengoku-san, just say the word! Say the word, and I'll prove to you I'm Tsuguko material!"
Kyōjurō's blade struck Akaza's body and fists, doing only minimal damage to the Upper Moon since he'd just heal the wounds, before attacking again and keeping the Flame Hashira on his toes. After getting slashed through the ribcage when he avoided a blow meant for his neck, Akaza dashed to the side, bringing Kyōjurō's gaze along with him until he watched the Upper Moon soar up into the air and flip himself upside down with a thrilled expression on his face.
He found his feet rooted to the ground somewhat, with his heart practically beating out of his chest from the adrenaline coursing through his veins. This was the first fight that he'd ever been involved in where he had felt this much weight on his shoulders. The gravity of the situation was so heavy that he was certain this Upper Moon was going to draw every last bit of his strength out of him, and even then, was it going to be enough? And what about Michael? Why was he letting Akaza do all the fighting? What was he planning?
"Of all the Hashira that I've killed up to now, none of them were ever Flame Hashira, and none of them ever agreed to my invitation. Why is that, Kyōjurō?" demanded Akaza loudly as he reached the peak of his ascent into the sky, his glass-like eyes staring directly down onto Kyōjurō. "As someone who trained in martial arts, I find them hard to understand. Why must you deny the chance of growing stronger and perfecting your craft?! You're going to decline at some point, Kyōjurō! It's just unbearable! Just die while you're still young and strong! Hakai satsu: Kūshiki!"
Akaza punched the air around him in a quick and coordinated manner, the strength of his blows created several powerful shockwaves that rocketed towards Kyōjurō like blows from a shotgun. Maintaining his serious, wide-eyed expression, Kyōjurō widened his stance and gripped his sword with both hands as a stream of fire then emerged from the blade when he began to swing it upward.
"Honō no kokyū, Shi no kata: Sei en no uneri." he said calmly while spinning his blade in a circular motion, creating a wall of fire that blocked all of the bone-crushing shockwave bullets with ease.. Once he successfully deflected them, he brought his sword down low again and flicked his eyes over to Akaza after the Upper Moon landed back on his feet a few meters away.
"The attacks reach me when he fires into the empty air with his fists, and he's moving at a fraction of the blink of an eye. If I keep letting him fight me at a distance, it'll be dangerous for me to cut his head off." thought as he ducked down and in a blur of yellow and red he was right underneath Akaza's arms, blade ready to decapitate him. "I'll have to get in close! Right beneath him, too close for comfort!"
Akaza made a remark about Kyōjurō's reaction speed while he leaped backward to avoid the Hashira's blade cutting his neck, the two immediately exchanging furious blows with one another yet again. Kyōjurō's mastery of swordsmanship showed brightly like a giant spotlight as he landed cut and slash after slash onto Akaza's body, drawing out his thick, red blood with each wound.
"Your wonderful sword style will be lost, Kyōjurō! They'll be lost once you die! Isn't that sad?!" exclaimed Akaza as his arm was cut clean through from his hand down to his bicep, the wound instantly healing itself in time for him to throw another punch at Kyōjurō.
""Nobody would be sad if they're human! It's just natural!" bellowed Kyōjurō as his blade scraped against Akaza's arm, deflecting the blow and creating a shower of sparks around them that added to the grandeur of his flames.
Tanjirō meanwhile was eager ready to jump the gun, his hand twitching around his sword hilt. He was amazed with Kyōjurō's skills as a swordsman, but he knew that if there were two of them fighting, then they'd stand an even greater chance of defeating Akaza, even if he was one of the feared Upper Moons.
His eyes darted back and forth between the two fighters, waiting, waiting, waiting, until finally Akaza separated from Kyōjurō's fiery assault to regroup, leaving him completely open for an attack. This was his chance, now was the time to strike! Tanjirō picked his knee up off the dirt and drew his sword an inch out of the scabbard before Kyōjurō's blazing eyes immediately turned his direction, piercing right down into his soul.
"Don't you dare move from that spot! It has to be you that they're after!" Kyōjurō barked sharply, Tanjirō gasping when he immediately rooted himself to the ground from the fierceness behind his words. "As long as I'm here, they can't take you without my interference! Standby, soldier!"
"What did I say about giving your attention to anything outside the two of us, Kyōjurō!? Give it all you got! Focus on me! Hakai satsu: Ranshiki!"
"Honō no kokyū, Go no kata: Enko!"
Kyōjurō's fiery passion and emotions were unleashed in the form of a huge flaming tiger created by a series of powerful, rapid sword slashes that wowed Tanjirō with how bright and vibrant they were. His flames met Akaza's powerful horizontal shockwave punch head on, creating a devastating explosion of fire and smoke that burned the dirt around them, while blowing all the air back in the surrounding area and making Tanjirō's hair flap around wildly.
Tanjirō braced himself against the fierce wind produced by the two attacks meeting one another, until they dissipated and revealed a growling Kyōjurō and a still grinning Akaza. While the demon was essentially unscathed, Kyōjurō's clothes had some marks on them, with some of his exposed skin having a few blemishes here and there as well.
"Please reconsider Kyōjurō, I would hate for your sword skills to disappear with your death!" pleaded Akaza while he dusted himself off and resumed his stance.
"Again, I deny! I will never let go of the beauty of being human!"
As they began their duel once again, Michael on the other hand remained standing where he was with his trademark pure smile plastered still on his face, the fireworks of the spectacle doing more than just entertaining him. It made him wonder if there could be more fights like this that he could witness, and that there could still be some hope for the demons in Japan.
Perhaps some of them could be considered applicable for salvation, he'd just have to wait and see.
- Several Hours Earlier -
Shinobu hummed happily to herself as she went around through the various infirmary rooms of the Butterfly Mansion's hospital section, checking up on some of the slayers who were still being treated there for their injuries. Those she and the rest of the girls were focused on the most were the people that were rescued from Natagumo Mountain, since they were nearing the last stages of being returned to their original human selves.
She was happy that they were so close to making a full recovery, but aside from that, she was happy mostly because of the memories that kept replaying in her mind over and over again. Even though Tanjirō had been gone for just a little over a couple of days, she had already found herself missing his company more than she thought.
"It's embarrassing to admit, but you really did leave a lasting impression on me, Tanjirō-kun…" Shinobu thought with a slight blush as she walked down the hallway from the last room, clutching her clipboard close to her chest. She hurried her walking a tiny bit so as to not run into anyone while she looked like this and eventually reached her office, the one place aside from her bedroom where she felt safe by herself. "Ah, god...why did I have to fall so hard for him…"
She hid her face behind her clipboard for a few moments before she took a breath to calm herself down and lowered it, her gaze drifting over to her equipment that she'd use to perform her almost daily routine. She saw the awaiting vials of readily prepared wisteria poison and kept her eyes focused on them for a second or two, her fingers gripping her clipboard a little tighter.
Shinobu closed her eyes as bade memories of the past flashed through her mind alongside a reprisal of her anger, the drive to continue where she had left off rearing its head. But then she recalled Tanjirō's smile, and the way he looked at her when he pleaded with her to stop.
"Sorry...but not happening…I have a promise to keep for a special someone." she murmured to herself as she opened her eyes again and smiled softly.
Shinobu then set her clipboard down on her desk and sighed as she stretched her arms above her head and plopped down into her chair, leaning her head back and looking up at the ceiling. It was nearly dark outside and this had been her last run through the rooms to all the patients for the day, so this was the last bit of rest she'd have before she would retire to her room for the night.
It seemed like only yesterday that she had been sitting in this room talking with Tanjirō when he was here, and even when he wasn't there, she could still feel his residual presence there, warming her. She smiled again to herself as she then stood up and left her office, closing the door behind her, before walking back to her bedroom. Once inside she began to strip off her clothing piece by piece, starting with her butterfly hair pin that held her hair back. Her wavy hair dropped down to her shoulders once she removed the pin and she smiled softly at it, using a thumb to rub the face of its left wing, before she walked over to her nightstand and gently placed it down on top.
"Need to get the bath ready…" she told herself, pausing in taking off her clothes to enter her bathroom and start the water. She waited for a few seconds and watched the water pour out of the nozzle before turning back and returning to what she had been doing, picking back up where she had left off. "Off you go. Thank you again for being with me today, Nee-san…"
Shinobu carefully removed her sister's precious butterfly haori and draped it ever-so-lovingly on a hanger built into the wall next to the door, before sitting down on the edge of the bed to remove her footwear. Once that was taken care of she stood up and unbuckled her belt, sliding it off from around her waist and throwing it over her shoulder, then began to unbutton her uniform top.
"I wonder if the next time he returns here, hopefully not in the companionship of his friends if they had been injured, I could invite him to my room…" she thought as she slipped off her uniform top, then proceeded to her hakama pants. "It wouldn't be the first time that he'd been in here...especially since during that time we...kissed…"
It took a few minutes for her to actually make it through unchanging because her eyes kept drifting over to her bed, which made her stop and think back again to when she had been on top of it with Tanjirō with the first ever kisses that they shared.
Eventually she was able to conquer that obstacle and enter the bathroom, the steam from the warm bath she had drawn having filled up most of the room already, which immediately made her sigh in relief. She turned off the water and grabbed the edges of the tub, easing herself into the warm water and sighing even more as a pleasured smile appeared on her face once her naked body dipped below the surface.
"Haaaa...this feels so nice...every time…" she murmured to herself in utter ecstasy, the warm air washing over her face as she relaxed once the ideal position had been found. Her arms hung off the sides of the tub and she was leaning her head back against the tub, with her body mostly submerged in the bathwater, save for ample chest. "I'll never get tired of these baths…"
Her eyes drifted upwards to the ceiling as she sat there in the tub, leaning back more as she picked her legs and feet up in order to rest them on the opposite side of the tub on the edge. Water dripped off her toes onto the ground as she let out another slow, relaxed breath, her face around her cheek bones turning slightly red from hot air coming up from the warm water. She was in utter bliss.
As she sat there in complete silence, her boobs resting just above the waterline, again she found herself once again thinking of that morning after she and Tanjirō had kissed those several times. He had been inside of her room alone with her, and there had only been a mere door between the two of them when she had decided to take her bath. A door that could have easily been opened by a curious young man who had just gotten his first taste of a young woman's lips.
"How would I have reacted...if he had decided to enter the bathroom while I was still inside…? He would have seen me naked, just like this...oh, what am I kidding, Tanjirō would have definitely fainted even if he had~" Shinobu thought with a light giggle as she closed her eyes, a smile spreading across her face.
The more she thought about that particular memory, the more she recalled how even in the midst of their kissing, Tanjirō never appeared to falter or shy away from her at all. In fact, it seemed as though she was the more embarrassed one of the two while he was able to maintain himself fairly well, especially since there had been a time when she was literally lying down on top of him.
Now she started to doubt her previous statement with a growing blush, which spawned a fabricated memory from her imagination of Tanjirō actually opening the door when she was bathing that day and not fainting. Shinobu imagined those eyes looking at her as she sat in the tub, completely naked and exposed, and she felt her body start to get warmer than the water she was resting in.
Shinobu sat up a little bit as her cheeks turned another shade of red darker and she pulled her arms inward, only to have one of them brush against her boobs and cause a high-pitched, cute-sounding yelp to escape her lips. Her eyes shot wide open at the sound she made and she instantly hugged herself below the water, her entire face turning red when she glanced down and saw that her imagination thinking up that lewd scenario in her mind had caused her nipples to perk up.
"What am I doing...I've become such a mess!" Shinobu told herself as she cupped her face with her hands, shaking her head side to side in embarrassment. "The next time I see you, I'm going to make you take responsibility for these feelings, Tanjirō!"
Tanjirō's heart was almost beating out of his chest with a complete and utter helpless feeling settling on top of his shoulders when he witnessed the scene before him once the dust had begun to settle. Large burnt scars had been made into the impromptu battlefield next to the ruins of the Infinite Train, with the passengers they had rescued cowering away in safety so as to avoid any of the fighting. Hardly any one of them wanted to watch what was unfolding, even if they could that is.
The battle had been as brutal as it had been swift, with Akaza standing across from Kyōjurō with that same confident grin on his face as a huge gash across his chest immediately healed almost instantly. Exasperated breaths could be heard coming from the direction of the two men, but their source wasn't the Upper Moon.
"Don't die on me now, Kyōjurō. I was just starting to warm up, you know." Akaza said with a laugh while dropping his smile for a moment, his hands coming to rest at his sides.
The heavy breathing was coming from Kyōjurō, who from battling the Upper Moon with everything he had, he was standing across from him with blood stains on his left shoulder and the right side of his abdomen. Cuts and gashes were visible through his clothes, and there was even half of his femur protruding out from his right thigh, which was causing blood to run down his leg beneath his pants and soak through his footwear to create a puddle at his feet. He could hardly move that leg without pain shooting up through his nervous system, which forced him to balance himself on his other leg.
His mouth hung open slightly with more blood dripping from the left corner of his mouth, a deep laceration across his right cheek, and most noticeably from his forehead over his bashed left eye. Kyōjurō couldn't open it any more even if he tried to, and it was starting to get harder to maintain his breathing because of the handful of either cracked or broken ribs he had sustained from getting beaten around by Akaza's gut-wrenching punches.
But even though he had sustained all of these injuries, he still stood strong in the face of the angel, ensuring that he remained as an obstacle between Akaza and Tanjirō. He wasn't going to let him and Michael take away the person who he had grown to see as another younger brother, as well as a trusted comrade.
"Rengoku-san, Rengoku-san, Rengoku-san…!" Tanjirō thought frantically as he bared his fangs, not so much as a threat, but as a way to try and hold back his voice from coming out. He'd only ever felt this helpless before once in his life, and that had been when he had returned to his home and found his family slaughtered. Throughout the whole fight he had witnessed, he was lucky enough to catch glimpses of it here and there with his eyesight, and if he focused he could catch even more. "There hasn't been a single opening for me to jump in...I...I can't jump in! Rengoku-san is in a completely different dimension compared to me! Even with everything I've done, all the training I put myself through...against such powerful opponents, I still feel too weak! I can beat a Lower Moon...but this guy, being an Upper Moon...I..."
"Even if you fight with the intention to sacrifice your body, it's all pointless, Kyōjurō. The wonderful slashes which you attacked me with have already completely healed." Akaza said while dragging his fingers along his chest, where there had formerly been a deep gash through to his lungs. "But how about you? Your left eye is smashed, your ribs are broken, and your organs are wounded. You can't recover from this anymore. if you were a demon, you would be cured in the blink of an eye. All of this would just be a scratch. No matter how much you struggle, humans can't beat demons."
Kyōjurō continued to breath slowly, trying to conserve his breathing as best as possible. It was impossible to maintain a constant state of Total Concentration Breathing any more, but that didn't mean he still couldn't do it one last time. He'd lost vision in his right eye, and he could feel that some of his organs had been damaged from his ribs getting broken, as Akaza had said, but that was hardly concerning to him because of what he knew was at stake if he gave up now. With what remaining stamina he had left, he had to ensure the safety of his comrades and give Kyōjurō a fair chance of escape.
Regardless of what, he was going to kill this Upper Moon here and now, that was why he had taken the oath to serve in the Demon Slayer Corps. If he could still breath, he was able to fight. If he was able to fight, then there should be no way in hell that he wouldn't be able to decapitate this Upper Moon!
As he thought of this, the ground began to spark and flicker with flames that seemed to appear from thin air, first illuminating his legs and the hemline of his haori. Slowly but surely they began to grow in size and intensity, soon becoming a raging inferno around the Flame Hashira as he slid his left foot back and widened his stance, making a silence wheeze as he brought both arms up across his chest, angling his sword up.
"I will fulfill my duty as the Flame Hashira! I won't let you take that boy away! Hmn!" Kyōjurō exclaimed as the fires continued to grow even bigger, surpassing the limits of a normal inferno to consume even more of the area around him. The heat was beginning to build both around and inside of him, his one good eye was wide with passion and belief, and his heart started to beat faster and faster. "In a single moment, I'm going to hollow out most of the surrounding area...this will be my finishing attack! I will secure victory here, no matter the cost!"
"What wonderful fighting spirit...you have so many wounds, yet your drive, your fortitude. And your stance has no openings either." Akaza said as he felt his own blood begin to boil, his eyes widened as his warrior's soul started to shine just as brightly as the literal pillar of fire that was forming around Kyōjurō. "You really should become a demon, Kyōjurō!"
Kyōjurō then opened his lips ever so slightly as he began to suck in his final breath, feeling his chest crack a little as he forcefully expanded his lungs while battling back his own pain. Stars were appearing in his vision but he clenched his jaw muscles and kept pushing himself to keep inhaling.
As he did this his heartbeat practically doubled, to the point he thought it was going to shatter through the rest of his ribs and leap out of his chest. His grip tightened around his blade at the same time, until his knuckles turned white and he felt the interwoven fabric actually dig into his skin. After a few moments of this the air began to shimmer even more around him, not only from the heat of the flames he was producing around his body as he prepared his strongest technique, but from his sword as well. Then, before Tanjirō's very eyes, the shimmering blade began to emit steam as the red flame design-emblazoned bade started to shift colors, becoming a deep crimson red that emanated such tremendous power that just seeing it sent a shiver up Tanjirō's spine.
"Zen Shūchū! Honō no kokyū…!" bellowed Kyōjurō once his blade turned fully crimson as his right eye widened even more, the blood seeping over his left eye sizzling and steaming as it started to evaporate, revealing a bright yellow flame-like mark had come into existence over his ruined eye.
Akaza's eyes widened when he witnessed these two actions play out and he immediately dropped his smile, his body dropping down to one knee as he readied his next attack. In that split second, he saw what he thought was impossible to attain for somebody like Kyōjurō occur right in front of his eyes, with just the sight of the crimson red nichirin blade causing even his heart to skip a beat. Play time was over.
"Jutsushiki tenkai, Hakai satsu: Misshiki."
"Ku no kata: Rengoku!"
Akaza disappeared when he had used his legs to propel him forward in an explosive jump, while Kyōjurō was consumed by a raging fireball when he brought his blade down right at the exact moment the two met. A deafening tremor was created by the impact of Kyōjurō's technique against Akaza's, with the flames the former produced shooting outwards and upwards in a brilliant display of power that made Tanjirō flinch away from the heat.
With the dissipation of the fiery inferno came the humongous cloud of dirt and smoke that had been created as a result of the blast. Because of that, Tanjirō couldn't see either combatant, and had to painfully wait for it all to clear so he could see what had become of the Flame Hashira.
Eventually, the smoke dissipated with the air and the dust finally began to settle down as well, until Tanjirō was able to make out Akaza and Kyōjurō standing toe to toe against one another. What made it all the more horrifying for Tanjirō was the sight of Akaza, who had half of his head and upper torso lopped off, the flesh singed and burnt by Kyōjurō's crimson blade, with his right arm completely rammed through Kyōjurō's abdomen and out of his back.
"Aaaaahhhh!" yelled Tanjirō mentally as he saw the scene in all of its terrible glory, his heart becoming twisted and mangled inside of his chest when he saw Kyōjurō spit up a copious amount of blood.
"You'll die! You're gonna die, Kyōjurō! Become a demon! Tell me that you're gonna become a demon!" shouted Akaza right in the Flame Hashira's face. "You are one of the strong ones! You can't die, not yet!"
"Kyōjurō."
The Hashira's eyes widened as he was suddenly taken back to his youth, where he was sitting in a room he remembered spending so much time in before with one of his most special persons in the whole world. Sitting up under the covers of a futon in front of him was his mother, with her semi-long black hair tied loosely at the end of a ponytail, defined facial features, and her blazing eyes.
Resting next to him at the foot of her futon was his younger brother, who was sleeping so quietly that they could barely hear his adorable sounding snores. Young Kyōjurō responded to his mother when he was addressed, and she turned her body in order to look at him with a firm, but soft expression.
"Think really hard about what your mother will ask you now. Do you know why you were born stronger than other people?" she asked in a relatively soft tone, the young Kyōjurō blinking a few times.
"Uh...um...I don't know!" he replied back, not sure how to answer her question.
"To save the weak, and to protect those younger than you. People who were born and blessed with greater abilities than others have to use their power for the world, for the people." explained Kyōjurō's mother as she looked down at his younger brother, smiling a little at the tranquil expression he had on his face while sleeping. "Hurting others with your power, which was gifted from the heavens, and soiling your clothes is unforgivable. It is the obligation of those born strong to save the weak. Your mission requires you to fulfill your duty...don't ever forget that."
Kyōjurō's memories ended with the vision of his mother bringing him into a gentle embrace, telling him that she didn't not have much longer to spend time with him. He remembered her telling him how proud she was to have given birth to and helped to raise a strong child with such a gentle heart. She called his birth a blessing, one that she'd gladly go through again if she wanted to.
With that lasting impression of his mother, Kyōjurō's jaw muscles tightened and veins bulged out from his right hand as he gripped his blade tightly once again, the crimson blade simmering with heat as he then slashed down onto Akaza's exposed neck and buried the blade deep into his flesh in the middle of his head regenerating.
"K-Kaaaghhh!" he gasped loudly, his eyes widening in shock as the black ooze and his flesh started to bubble from the heat of the blade. "He still has this much strength?!"
"It's the same story for me...it was an honor to have someone like you give birth to me." Kyōjurō thought as his eye widened even more, his teeth grinding together briefly before he let out a powerful war cry right back at Akaza's face as he kept driving the blade deeper through his neck.
Akaza tried to retaliate by rearing one of his arms back and throwing a punch right at Kyōjurō's head, intending to kill him with a single concentrated blow to the temple. When he tried to do so, the Hashira brought up his other hand and stopped his fist without even flinching by grasping on tightly to his wrist, stopping Akaza's fist just a few inches close to his face. Then with monstrous strength that made Akaza gasp in shock again, he held onto his arm and prevented him from pulling it away, no matter how hard he tried.
"He actually stopped me! What unbelievable strength! Despite the fact my right hand has pierced through his solar plexus!" thought Akaza in disbelief as he tried to remove either arm, but found himself unable to pull away. Kyōjurō was sucking in his breath just enough to keep the arm skewering him from getting pulled out, and his monstrous grip strength was preventing Akaza's other arm from getting away either. "I can't pull my arms away! And it's already getting close to dawn...I have to kill him quickly and hide myself in the shade!"
Kyōjurō growled deeply as his hand began to shake from how hard he was holding onto Akaza's left arm, while his sword continued to go through his neck little by little. Akaza let out a deafening roar that was matched by one of Kyōjurō's own, the two men screaming at one another at the top of their lungs as they each contested for victory through their sheer strength of will alone.
"Rengoku-saaan!" yelled Tanjirō, who finally after deciding enough was enough, he rushed straight at Michael from behind Kyōjurō with his blade at the read, his sights gunning from the rest of the Upper Moon's neck.
"Shit, shit, shit! Dawn is coming, the sun will shine here! I gotta run, I gotta get outta here!" Akaza thought frantically as his eyes rapidly went back and forth between the brightening horizon and the fast approaching Tanjirō. "Get outta heeeerree!"
"I won't let you go until I lop your head off!" roared Kyōjurō back as his scorching hot crimson red blade cut through half of Akaza's neck, right at Tanjirō was upon them.
"Mizu no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Minamo giri!"
With his powerful leg muscles, Akaza planted one foot heavily into the ground and shot himself upward as quickly as he could to avoid Tanjirō's water-infused blade from cleaving through what remained of his neck. The technique cut through flesh, but to Kyōjurō and Tanjirō's dismay, he had only managed to succeed in severing both of Akaza's arms off from the elbow and wrist down, as well as split Kyōjurō's blade into two halves, with the blade remaining stuck in the Upper Moon's neck.
Landing quickly with space between the slayers, Akaza then darted for the cover of the forest trees as the sun kept rising over mountains in the distance. He had to get out of harm's way as soon as possible, for all of the strength he possessed as a member of the Twelve Kizuki, the sun was still the strongest among them because of it merely existing. As he ran he removed the Flame Hashira's blade from his neck and healed himself, turning his head back to glance at them over his shoulder and growled to himself. That person will just have to take care of things in his place.
"Oh, so he's running away now! That's unfortunate~ I thought I would get to see him turn into ash, kukuku."
A chill ran up and down Kyōjurō and Tanjirō's spine when they were reminded of Michael, who had still been there watching them the entire time. Kyōjurō turned his head to try and see where the man's voice was coming from, but all he was met by was Michael socking Tanjirō straight in the jaw and then immediately turning to kick him right in the gut to send him flying back into a nearby tree.
"Gyyaaggkk!" sputtered Kyōjurō loudly as blood flew out from his mouth, his body falling down onto the dirt at the base of the tree right onto his stomach with a loud thump. He then began to writhe in pain when the adrenaline he had left his body, flame-like mark over his ruined eye leaving a sizzling, burning sensation behind that didn't make his suffering any better. "K...Kamado…! Shit…!"
Tanjirō coughed a little from the punch he had received from Michael, having recovered from it in a rather quick manner and leaped away a few meters from the man with his eyes blazing in fury. First his friends had been brutally knocked out cold, then his sister had been punted around like she was some pile of garbage, and now these two had severely wounded Kyōjurō? All bets were off now.
"You bastards…! You have to be serving Muzan, aren't you?! You were just with an Upper Moon!" shouted Tanjirō angrily while gripping his blade, the blonde-haired man laughing at him light-heartedly. That made Tanjirō even angrier, with his demon transformation taking place and giving him his long curled horns and longer, beast-like hair along with growing out his fingernails into claws and turning his fangs into more pronounced ones. "It's true, isn't it!?"
"I wouldn't say I'm serving that mutt, kuku, but that doesn't mean I'm above helping him out when I'm told to, after all~
Kyōjurō managed to turn his head despite the pain and watch as the sun fully emerged finally, it's light reaching them in order to truly illustrate the carnage they had wrought on the earth around them. Michael's blonde hair seemed to glisten in an angelic manner as he stood opposed to Tanjirō, his pure white eyes closing when his smile widened as he took in the sun's warmth.
"With that distraction out of the way though, I can get to what I was here for~" Michael said as his traveler's clothes turned into a dark black ooze, morphing into white priestly robes with long sleeves that obscured his arms completely from view.
Tanjirō didn't even give him the time to continue his sentence as in an explosion of debris caused by his foot digging so deeply into the earth, he rushed Michael with his sword held back and began to aggressively attack him. Michael laughed happily as he ducked and weaved through the slashes and jabs, even when Tanjirō used some of his Water Breathing forms.
Back and forth they went, with Michael dodging every single attack Tanjirō tried to land on him in his frenzied state, before the younger slayer finally managed to get a grip on his emotions after remembering Kyōjurō's words from earlier. Letting his emotions take control wasn't the right thing to do, especially not when he was fighting someone who clearly had more experience fighting then he seemed to let off.
"Calm down Tanjirō, calm down...you gotta fight with a clear head! The quicker you take this guy down, the quicker you can get to Rengoku-san!" thought Tanjirō as he changed his stance slightly, keeping his gaze on Michael for anything the foreigner might do.
"Oh dear, does the filthy scum actually think they can hold a candle to me? Oh dear, that's rich~!" Michael said when he noticed Tanjirō's determined expression, his laughter like stone grinding against stone to the slayer. "I'm sorry, but I'd rather not waste any more time than I need to, kukuku."
Once he stopped laughing, his pure smile then turned into one highly menacing and evil before, with just as much agility as Akaza or Kyōjurō, he vanished and appeared once again right in front of Tanjirō. His eyes widened and he reacted off pure instinct in order to barely dodge Michael lunging at him with his right hand, who's fingers had turned into the same pitch black ooze that his clothes had turned into earlier.
Leaping backward to try and avoid the man, he grunted as Michael kept reaching for him with his blackened fingertips, his smile widening and turning more malicious by the second until he started to believe that this wasn't even a demon. The lack of a scent, his monstrous strength and speed, the sunlight not affecting him, and this strange black ooze. Every single thing was a red flag to him that set off warning bells in his mind to stay away.
"Kamado...no...no!" rasped Kyōjurō in a weak voice, his jaw muscles clenching as he watched the slayer try to avoid being touched by the man as much as possible.
"It's too late for you...just accept your fate!"
Michael then sprouted his giant, magnificent metal angel wings and surged forward with an extra burst of speed that caught Tanjirō completely off guard. In the blink of an eye, Kyōjurō watched with a horrified expression as Michael grasped Tanjirō's face firmly with his hand and held him up in the air with just one arm.
He let out a muffled yell from beneath his palm and tried to break himself free by swinging at his wrist, but Michael easily stopped him with his other hand and laughed as the corners of his mouth stretched from ear to ear, his lips opening slightly to reveal several rows of razor sharp curved teeth.
"Purgatorium…~" he uttered in a wretched voice, before the black sludge on the tips of his fingers then phased through Tanjirō's skin and entered his blood stream.
Within a matter of moments of entering him, Tanjirō stopped struggling all together and immediately became motionless, just hanging there from Michael's hand without giving off a single hint of consciousness.
Michael then set Tanjirō back down on his feet, his face returning to his normal, pure smiling expression, and let go of his head in order to reveal what had become of the slayer. He looked half alive, half dead, with a glossy appearance to his eyes and a blank appearance on his face, as if he were in some kind of sleepwalking trance. His demonic transformation returned mostly to normal, with his hair remaining shoulder length, and his horns turning into their smaller form.
"That was certainly a task...mayhaps I should have just handled things myself, instead of letting that piece of trash try to do it." Michael said as he looked towards the forest where Akaza had run into to avoid the sun, a snicker escaping his lips. "Oh well, I'm sure that mutt will take care of it for me. I got the real prize anyways, kuku."
He looked down at the younger slayer and smirked a little as he glanced up at Kyōjurō and walked his prize over to the fallen Kyōjurō, who was staring up at him with a mixture of pain and rage in his gaze.
"Is there anything you'd like to say before we go, Tanjirō?" Michael asked with a joyful smile as he placed a hand comfortably on top of Tanjirō's right shoulder, the slayer staring into Kyōjurō's one eye.
Tanjirō wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say, all he felt like doing was turning his back and walking away without so much as saying a word. At the same time though, he felt as though he had to, since this person in front of him seemed to be in pain, and that he should at least say something to help ease some of it.
"I'm...sorry." he replied in a low tone, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword before he felt a breeze blow past them, his hanafuda earrings waving around back and forth slightly. He frowned slightly at the earrings and he reached up to them, before he removed both of them from his ears and squatted down, placing them on the ground right in front of Kyōjurō's knees. Not sure why he was doing this, he blinked a few times, but shook off the strange feeling soon after. "I don't...think I'll be needing those any more. Not where I'm going at least…"
"Kamado, you have to...snap out of this trance! You're being con-gyaghk!" grunted Kyōjurō loudly when Michael kicked him right in the jaw, sending him twisting over onto his side with a loud thump.
"Come along now, Tanjirō, say what you want to say to the trash, and then we can be on our way. There's a certain mutt that will be very pleased to know I've secured you."
Tanjirō held his gaze with the fallen Kyōjurō, the Hashira's one eye looking up at him as his hands dug into the charred soil beneath him. His blood was pooling out from his wounds beneath him, soaking the front side of his clothes all the way to his chest as he desperately tried to get back up, to try and reach Tanjirō to save him. It was his job as a Hashira, he could not falter!
He yelled mentally at himself to get up, to find strength that he didn't have in order to stand up and take hold of his blade. Push aside the pain, the weakness! Flame up your heart! Harder and harder he tried, but no matter what he did, his body was incapable of responding properly anymore. This fruitless struggle was seen by the unblinking eyes of Tanjirō, who watched the Hashira silently without moving an inch. After a few moments it seemed as though he was going to turn around and leave with Michael, turning his back on the Hashira and the Demon Slayer Corps for whatever future waited for him in the clutches of the angel. The silence was unbearable for Kyōjurō, until finally Tanjirō's left eye began to shed slow and steady tears without any prior reason or notion.
Even Tanjirō himself seemed perplexed by the tears as he blinked and lifted a hand up to wipe them away, his gaze looking at his fingers and the wetness they had now from doing so, before he cleaned them on his clothes.
"Kamado...no…! I...have to...get...up!" gasped Kyōjurō as he dug his fingers deeper into the dirt, grunting heavily as he tried pushing himself up with one arm. His elbow buckled and his cheek hit the dirt, jarring him slightly and making his vision start to grow blurry as the blood loss started to get to him. He needed to breathe to slow everything down, he just had to breathe, even if he was starting to lose consciousness. "I have...to fulfill...my duty...!"
Tanjirō and Michael had already left the scene by then, leaving Kyōjurō to suffer through his own pain as he slowed down his breathing and kept trying to get back up. His legs weren't responding any more to his brain's commands, and his arms were starting to lose all feeling either. Eventually the state of his body reached a point where he couldn't move any of his limbs, and was left on his stomach in a puddle of his own blood beneath him.
"I...I have...to...protect..."
Once the Kakushi had arrived on the scene of the train accident, the word of what had happened there spread like wildfire to the rest of the Hashira wherever they had been. Most of them were shocked, and a handful acted out in anger towards anything that was around them in the immediate vicinity.
They felt enraged and betrayed, but the one who was hurting easily the most out of all of them was the Insect Hashira herself. When a crow had come by the Butterfly Mansion that morning to bring her information regarding the Infinite Train's wreck and the disappearance of Tanjirō, she had become a wreck almost instantly. She refused to come out of her room, and didn't even bother responding to Aoi or any of the other girls when they tried to coax her out. Those who were injured seriously enough to require immediate medical attention were transported by the Kakushi to the mansion, and the girls did their best they could without their chief medical practitioner.
Even though they didn't say it, they could feel the kind of pain that Shinobu had been plaguing her very soul. Zenitsu and Inosuke had to be returned to the mansion as well, thankfully not for anything too life-threatening, but for injuries that still needed some time to heal. Neither of them could say or tell what happened after the demon possessing the train had been killed, the last thing they remembered was Tanjirō and Kyōjurō sharing some sort of brotherly embrace.
When they came to, the Flame Hashira was lying down on his side in a pool of his own blood with a heavily maimed and charred landscape around him.
The strangest thing that either of them spoke about was how Nezuko, Tanjirō's precious sister, was left completely alone beneath the shade of the treetops when the morning sun had risen up well above the horizon. Zenitsu and Inosuke knew more than anyone that Tanjirō would never even dream of leaving behind Nezuko by herself, but that hardly mattered to the Hashira who hadn't spent time with the Kamado siblings yet. Sanemi of course was the same as he had been earlier, and Obanai was right there beside him with their joint views.
Nothing could be said or done to try and change their minds when they all met one another in an impromptu meeting, and it seemed as though Nezuko was going to be punished with her life. Giyū couldn't interject at all either, because he knew that the next person on the chopping block was going to be him, due to his role in the siblings joining the Corps. Before any punishments could be made though, it was Shinobu who spoke up among their ranks by saying they couldn't just disregard the testaments of Zenitsu and Inosuke.
There was another factor too, one that they refused to talk about at that time because of the emotions still running high among them. Mitsuri, being Shinobu's friend, backed up her claim, and their little meeting came to a close without too much conflict and bad blood. Of course, since then, Shinbou had once again resigned herself to her room to try and deal with her most primary concern...the loss and disappearance of Tanjirō.
"Why, of all things...did I have to lose another person I cared about…" she though to herself as he tears freely rolled down her cheeks and fell onto her hands. They were nestled in her lap, holding something tightly between them, a few objects that had been left behind at the scene of the accident. "Why must life be so cruel to me…"
For a brief moment she unclasped her hands, glancing down at them to see Tanjirō's two hanafuda earrings resting between the palms, slightly bent but otherwise still perfectly fine. They had been found lying in the dirt next to Kyōjurō's body, like they had been placed there rather than dropped or discarded, which to Shinobu had meant that either Tanjirō himself had placed them there, or someone else had. What the other Hashira failed to fully recognize was that even though Tanjirō was a demon, she knew, just like Inosuke and Zenitsu, that he would never even think twice about attacking another person whom he cared about. And he wouldn't just leave behind two belongings of his that she assumed were highly important to him, because he wore them all the time, even while sleeping.
Something didn't sit right with her, and she desperately wanted to find out the truth because she wasn't sure if she could take the pain of losing a loved one again. Her sister's passing had already done so much damage to her, that if the same happened to Tanjirō, the first person she had truly loved outside of a familial bond, it would ruin her.
Then, suddenly, a soft knock on the door was heard. Shinobu almost didn't hear it because of how soft it was, but she had, and she raised her head up towards her bedroom door while still holding Tanjirō's earrings. She expected it to be Aoi or one of the girls trying to check up on her again, however no voice followed up the knock. Another soft knock was heard a couple of seconds later and, sensing that it was a different person, she got up off the bed and wiped her eyes with her arm as she went to the door and opened it.
Standing there in the door frame with sad eyes and air of sorrow hovering around her was Nezuko, the smaller girl lifting her gaze up to Shinobu's as she stared silently into her eyes. For a moment, Shinobu didn't know what to think or say. Nezuko decided for her a couple seconds after the door opened for her by reaching for Shinobu's hand that held her brother's earrings. At first Shinobu thought that Nezuko was trying to take them from her, and it seemed like she was really going to do that when her hands wrapped around Shinobu's one hand, before a new round of pain entered her heart.
"Mmph…" mumbled Nezuko quietly as she held the hand with her brother's earrings, her gaze lowering itself from Shinobu's eyes. "Mmph...mmn…"
"N...Nezuko…" Shinobu uttered with a lightly quivering lip, before she kneeled down and instantly hugged the young girl. She wanted Nezuko to feel how she was suffering too, that Tanjirō's disappearance hadn't just affected her, and she felt as though her message had been received when Nezuko wrapped her smaller arms around Nezuko's neck in a careful embrace. "I-I'm so sorry….so...sorry…"
"Mpphmn…"
Shinobu and Nezuko remained there in that silent embrace for what felt like an eternity, with the both of them eventually shedding tears because of the agony their hearts were in. Both of them could understand what the other was feeling, it allowed for their tears to flow unrestricted without anything to hinder them.
"N...Nezuko...tonight...tonight you can stay with me…" Shinobu said with a sniffle as she managed to pry herself from the young girl, trying to put on one of the best smiles she could manage. She used her thumbs to take away Nezuko's tears and held her head by her cheeks just behind the bamboo muzzle. "Is that okay...with you?"
"Mmmphn." Nezuko replied with a slow head nod, making Shinobu smile a little more as she stood up.
"I'll be right back...I'm going to check on someone, okay? You can stay here until I come back…"
Shinobu then handed Nezuko her brother's earrings, something that made Nezuko mumble thankfully to her from behind her muzzle, before she was then left there in the Hashira's room. Down the hallway walked Shinobu, her arms hanging limp by her side as she lost the smile she had put on for Nezuko's sake due to her own sorrow still being present.
It wasn't a long walk from the living side of the Butterfly Mansion to the hospital quarters, and she knew exactly where she was going, so she didn't waste any time getting to her destination. There were rooms set aside for those who were in a more serious condition than others, the ones that required the utmost best care because of how grievous their injuries were. At the moment, only one room was taken up, and it was one that only Shinobu had the pleasure of visiting now after the other Hashira had come and gone.
Once she reached the room, she took a deep breath and slid her fingers into the groove of the door handle, pulling it open in order to step into the single bed room. There was but a simple metal-frame bed placed next to the one window in the room, a dresser set up next to it. Its lone occupant was currently resting beneath the white covers of the bed, a somewhat peaceful expression on their face.
"Hello again, Rengoku-san...it's me, Shinobu." Shinobu said softly as she walked over and sat down in a stool next to the bed, a sigh escaping her lips. She knew that her words fell of deaf ears, but she felt as though that somewhere inside of the Flame Hashira's head, her voice was being heard.
When his body was discovered at the battlefield, Kyōjurō had lost such a vast amount of his blood that the Kakushi who brought him back to Shinobu while he was still somewhat breathing could only describe it as a miracle. Both she and Aoi had to work in tandem to stop the bleeding and patch up Kyōjurō's injuries the best they could, and after several long hours they had been successful in doing so, which brought them a sense of relief.
The only issue was that even when his health had begun to stabilize, Kyōjurō would not and couldn't wake up. He didn't respond to any external stimuli, whether it be pricking his fingers with a needle or speaking to him directly. His one good eye when opened manually by Shinobu failed to dilate when given light from a lantern or other source, and every so often his breathing would become irregular for a brief tenure of time before returning to normal.
"Rengoku-san's in a deep coma as a result of the trauma his body sustained...to see a Hashira reduced to such a state is heartbreaking…" Shinobu thought as she lowered her head, her hand gently resting on Kyōjurō's exposed right hand.
Kyōjurō felt relatively warm, which was at least a good sign to her because it meant he was still alive, but what good was it to them if he was unable to wake up from his coma? He was one of the strongest Hashira, so seeing him become so crippled really made her wonder just what happened to him.
What had happened to Kyōjurō, Tanjirō, and their companions beside that train? She was certain that some kind of battle had to have happened, but between who was anyone's guess. She could try to interrogate the passengers to see if they knew what happened, but the chance of the trauma related to what happened to them causing amnesia was high. If a battle had broken out, they'd want to hide themselves and avoid the conflict too, which meant even if they could be a worthy witness, there was a chance they didn't even see anything at all.
"Which means one thing...Rengoku-san is the only person who truly knows what happened after they defeated the train demon…the only one who knows the truth about what happened to Tanjirō."
A/N Well here we are again everyone, the new and improved chapter 25, now with Akaza back to where he belonged! Part of why I became dissatisfied with this chapter was because of how I replaced Akaza with my OC, Michael, in a pivotal moment in Rengoku's character development, especially since we all know what happens to him at the end. Adding OCs can be dangerous of course because they could take the story away from the MCs, so Im going to make sure I try to do that! I still have big plans in store, so I hope you guys are still just as excited as I am to see them come into fruition! Plus, having this make Akaza's meeting with Muzan better (since its actually what happened after all), and it focused on them more than our guys in the shadows. They'll have their time some time soon.
Thank you guys for sticking with me and waiting until I was able to do this and get this out for you all...I appreciate it a lot.
Chapter 26 will follow after this at some point, so just stay tuned for that! For now, leave a fav, follow, and review on this new Chapter 25 and tell me what you think with the additions! Personally, I feel better about this, so there is tat! Anyways, until next time!
Translation(s):
Honō no kokyū, Ni no kata: Nobori en ten
- Flame Breathing, Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun
Hakai satsu: Kūshiki
- Destructive Death: Air Type
Honō no kokyū, Shi no kata: Sei en no uneri
- Flame Breathing, Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation
Hakai satsu: Ranshiki
- Destructive Death: Disorder
Honō no kokyū, Go no kata: Enko
- Flame Breathing, Fifth Form: Flame Tiger
Zen Shūchū
- Total Concentration
Honō no kokyū, Ku no kata: Rengoku
- Flame Breathing, Ninth Form: Rengoku
Jutsushiki tenkai, Hakai satsu: Misshiki
- Technique Deployment, Destructive Death: Annihilation Type
Mizu no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Minamo giri
- Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash
Purgatorium
- Purgatory