Kyojuro smiled as his vision faded away, taking the hallucinations of his mother with it. He knew this would likely be traumatic for the young demon slayers but he hoped they would continue protecting others as they all seemed to be both talented and compassionate. As he slowly bled out, he gradually stopped feeling the pain from his wounds. For the first time he could remember, he was cold. His last conscious thought was a fervent hope that Senjuro, his darling little brother, would be alright.
Rengoku Kyojuro died to the sound of the sobs and shouts of the young slayers.
Kyojuro woke up slowly. He was confused about many things, including how he was still alive and why he was in an alley in a modern-looking city.
Kyojuro stared around himself, noting that he wasn't too far from the entrance of the alleyway and therefore could see people as they passed by.
He could see people. He could… see…?
His hand was slow and shaky as he raised it to his face confirming that yes, his left eye was fully functional once more.
"What…?" he asked the air quietly. "I should be dead? I am dead, I must be…"
Concluding that this was a weird final hallucination as he died, Kyojuro accepted his circumstances and lay back, waiting for the total darkness of death to claim him.
It seemed to take a while so Kyojuro watched the people walking by to pass the time. They were odd, to say the least. First of all, their clothes and accessories were like nothing he had ever seen before. Most of them also had odd metal (or maybe glass?) items with them which they either held in their hands or stared intensely at as they went past. Oddest of all, many of them looked like demons. If there weren't calm civilians all around them and a total lack of the scent of demons, Kyojuro would have thought these people to be demons. They weren't though, Kyojuro was confident of that fact.
After about a quarter of an hour passed, Kyojuro decided this probably wasn't a hallucination and slowly stood, feeling somewhat disconnected from his body in a way that he wasn't used to. Brushing the dirt from laying on the ground off of himself, he noted that he was in his standard hashira uniform, cape included. He also had his sword on his side, which was a definite comfort. Pressing on the spots where his injuries had been, he confirmed that all of his injuries seemed to have been healed. Kyojuro inhaled deeply, preparing himself to go out in this strange world.
Kyojuro exited the alley, still reconnecting to his body and how it moved. He glanced around when he entered the street, seeing a myriad of bright pictures plastered all around him which hadn't been visible from the small portion of the street he had been able to see from the alley. Not too long after he exited onto the sidewalk proper, a mother-son duo that appeared to be lizard people passed him by.
"Hello!" Kyojuro called out to them. "I seem to have found myself here but I do not know where here is! Can you assist me?"
The mother stiffened, drawing her son behind her protectively. "I might be able to. Who are you, though? A hero or some sort of villain?"
Kyojuro blinked at this question before thinking back to his life that he had dedicated to keeping people safe. "A hero!" he replied confidently. "If you do not feel comfortable helping me, I can find someone else! I would not want to impose!"
Hearing his proclamation, the woman relaxed somewhat, shaking her head. "No, no, it's fine, I'm just a bit paranoid. I can help you if you need it. What, exactly, do you need help with?"
Kyojuro beamed at her. "I have no idea where I am! I was on a train to Tokyo and now I am here!" Not wanting to worry her unnecessarily, he left out that the train had crashed and he had died. "If you could tell me where I am and what day it is, that would be greatly appreciated!" Kyojuro added the bit about the day as he was sure that any sort of healing that would have been as effective as it seemed to be would have taken quite a while and he wanted to know how long exactly it had been.
The woman made a little humming noise and pulled out one of the same glass/metal contraptions Kyojuro had seen so often among the people in this city. Tapping on its surface, it lit up. She turned it so he could see words and numbers written on it, glowing at him from the glass. "It's 9:05 PM on the eleventh of July. We're in Musutafu. Do you need anything else or is that everything? If you're hurt, I can tell you where the nearest hospital is or call an ambulance or something?"
Kyojuro felt his smile freeze at the date. That couldn't be right, could it? Hearing the woman's question, he broke out of the momentary stunned state he had been in. "No, no, I'm completely unharmed, haha! Thank you very much, Miss…?"
"Iguchi. I'm glad you're not hurt. If that'll be all, I need to get my son home before it gets too late," the woman said, patting the purple hair on her young son's head. Said son hadn't stopped staring intently at Kyojuro throughout the entire conversation.
"Safe travels, Iguchi-san!" He chirped at the woman before dropping down onto one knee to be at eye level with her son. "Make sure you keep your mother safe, Iguchi-chan. That's the most important job a son can have. Also make sure you listen to her as she will be doing her best to keep you safe as well!"
The boy nodded hesitantly. "You… have a sword. Swords are cool."
"Haha! Yes, I do have a sword! Should you want one, you should make sure to show your mother how responsible you can be!" At this point, Kyojuro glanced up at the mother and smiled conspiratorially before turning back to the boy. "With her permission, you can use a straight stick to practice your forms. You need to practice a good deal before you can use a real sword or else you may hurt yourself!"
The boy nodded enthusiastically, stars in his reptilian eyes. "I'll be super responsible! What's your name, hero-sama? I want to buy your merch!"
Kyojuro blinked at that, deciding to ignore the last part and answering bombastically, "I am the Flame Hashira, Rengoku Kyojuro!" He stood after he had answered little Iguchi-chan's question and nodded respectfully at both the mother and the child. "I'd best be on my way, then, and stop taking up your time. Good day!"
"Good day, Rengoku-sama!" the pair echoed before turning and continuing on their way. Kyojuro watched them go for a few moments before turning and walking the opposite direction.
He had no real direction, just wandering with the idle hope of finding something that looked familiar to him or an unpopulated area where he could practice his forms and regain some more concrete control over his body that still felt off-kilter even then. He looked at the pictures hung up all over the city as he walked, trying to glean some additional information from them. Many of them showed an assortment of people in colorful uniforms performing incredible tasks. At one such place, a screen showed many of the people lined up on a stage. Scrolling words along the bottom proclaimed that someone called "Endeavor" had been announced number two hero once again. Kyojuro watched the words for another minute before deciding that he didn't understand enough of the information to truly gain anything from staying there any longer.
Moving on from there, he came to a place about a mile later where the buildings began to be further apart and hints of nature began shining through. By then, he was beginning to feel in tune with his body once more but he could tell it would still be a while before he was fully back up to snuff.
Kyojuro continued walking, breathing carefully to feel the flow of his blood throughout his body. Eventually, he reached a house in an upscale neighborhood whose massive backyard already had large patches of singed grass. Kyojuro chuckled to himself. What luck! He could practice his forms and wouldn't have to be concerned if he burned the areas around him as someone else had already done so! This was truly the best option he could have hoped for!
Kyojuro looked at the house and was fairly confident that no one was in the section facing the backyard. First of all, the lights were off and secondly, he recognized the general structure as a series of training rooms from his own home and the homes of several of the other hashira.
Breathing deep and evenly, Kyojuro began moving through his fighting forms, one by one. The forms were familiar, moving from the first form of Unknowing Fire to the second one, Rising Scorching Sun, and so on. He lost himself to the flow of power through his body, finally, finally feeling fully in control once more.
About a half an hour later, so around eleven at night if Iguchi-san had been correct and his own internal clock had stayed consistent, Kyojuro heard what sounded like a car or other sort of vehicle pulling up to the front of the house. He stood still, listening as the door of the car opened and slammed closed followed by stomping footsteps and the opening and harsh closing of the front door.
Kyojuro knew it'd be most proper and polite to let the owner of the manor know he was using their space but as he wasn't intending to stay much longer and he wasn't quite up to talking after he had begun processing just how close to death he must have come after his fight with Akaza. He still wasn't completely convinced he hadn't died which was part of the issue.
Deciding to leave well enough alone, Kyojuro went to finish his practice routine. Before he finished even two moves, there was a loud crash coming from inside the house shortly preceding a bout of loud yelling.
Kyojuro stiffened reflexively, used to these sounds being the indicator for demon attacks. He hadn't run across any demons in this area, however, so he was hesitant to rush in like he normally would. Instead, he crept closer to the back sliding doors cautiously. Suddenly, the lights in the training room flashed on. Kyojuro ducked down, sword firmly in his hands as he knelt beside the slats in the doors, cape splayed behind him.
Peeking inside while doing his best to stay out of the light, Kyojuro watched as a massive man dragged a small boy by the wrist into the room. Another young boy followed behind them hurriedly, shouting at the man, demanding him to let the other boy (evidently called Shouto) go.
Kyojuro's mind, now in full fight mode, quickly categorized the people in the room. The man was tall and muscular, wearing odd clothes and with flames flickering around his stony face as if he were constantly using a breathing technique. Both boys, on the other hand, were rather small and obviously related with their red and white hair and delicate, rounded features. Their similarities extended even further to the large number of bandages wrapped around their bodies and the terrified yet resigned expressions on their faces. Something about this situation rubbed Kyojuro the wrong way and it wasn't just the fact that he felt like he recognized the man from somewhere.
It wasn't until the man threw the smaller boy onto the floor and the older boy stood defensively in front of him with his arms spread that Kyojuro realized. These were not children terrified of intruding monsters but children terrified of a monster that lives within their own house alongside them. It was also then, as the man stood with his arms crossed towering over his children (they looked similar enough that they were probably his children) that Kyojuro remembered where he had seen him before: he had been the 'number two hero' the people on those screens had been talking about. Kyojuro frowned. This didn't look like a hero to him.
Faster than one might expect for someone of his size, the man (Endeavor, was it?) struck out at the older child. As the boy fell, Kyojuro's mind shaded the white in his hair yellow and suddenly Kyojuro was in his own house watching his precious brother Senjuro be knocked around by their father. His blood boiled in his veins as he stood and prepared to enter the room.
The man scowled at the two children sprawled on the ground before turning and walking over to grab a practice bokken from the weapons rack on the wall. As he did so, Kyojuro quietly snapped the lock on the back door and slipped through. Before the taller man was able to turn around, Kyojuro was already behind him, already halfway through his attack.
It connected.
The room was dead silent as the previously flaming man dropped first to his knees then onto his front, making two distinct thumps in the quiet of the night. Kyojuro turned back around to the stunned children.
"Sorry about that," he said, smiling once again. "Are you two alright?"
