Author note: Before we begin with the latest chapter, apologize for the long delay in this chapter. A lot of personal things have gone on in my life, I won't go into detail but things have been very busy since April. Most of my attention has been directed toward other issues such as school, work, and family. Thank you for your patience, apologize for the long wait. Hope you enjoy it.
Revamped. 6/22/23
"Nezuko, what's the matter? We need to hurry before the sun rises."
It was with these soft-spoken words that Ume exploded with emotions that she couldn't even balance. Fear, shock, horror, rage, relief, and just utter confusion flashed through her eyes at the same time. Ume only blinked slowly. She wasn't sure if she was seeing and hearing things, but she was certain that Tanjiro, the Demon Slayer who successfully beheaded her brother, was holding her in his arms next to a familiar-looking little wooden box that was wide open.
Nezuko? What's the matter, Nezuko? Why is he asking me… if she's okay...?
She blinked and blinked.
It took her a moment to fully recollect all that had happened. The vivid images crept into her mind, almost harmonious imagery of blood, agony, tears… Ume remembered the gruesome battle with the Demon Slayers, the decimated district of Yoshiwara, burning to ashes. Agony. Swords. Fighting. Crimson blood. Fire. The resounding crunching of the neck bone. Crimson blood raining from her and her brother's severed neck bone. Her mind wanted to sink back into the darkness. And then sheer silence.… The pitch-black abyss that bordered Heaven and Hell. Gyutaro entering Hell without her….her hysterical pleas, those strange memories…
A dozen needles danced their way across her forehead. I'm back….. I'm alive… but—
"Nezuko," Ume's thoughts fell short when she felt a stare burning into the back of her skull. A piercing stare that only one person she knew could bestow. She hesitantly looked up to see a pair of burgundy eyes peeking through the curtains of auburn hair soaked with blood and sweat. For a fleeting moment, Ume caught a glimpse of Tanjiro regarding her with a smile, a beautiful smile. Ume felt her chest tighten—that smile looked so genuine, so sincere. Tanjiro looked utterly happy. His eyes looked at her with a pleasant softness. The feel of his warm arms around her was comforting, tender. They held her close and it reminded her hauntingly of Gyutaro.
And Ume was utterly terrified.
"Get off me!" Ume swung her right arm back, the back of her fist colliding with Tanjiro's cheek, in an infinitesimal moment, she caught the glimpse of his red eyes widened—a momentary shock and confusion—before it narrowed down to palpable pain again. This small reaction was enough for Ume to tell that Tanjiro didn't expect her to react this way in the slightest.
Before Ume knew it, she leaped away, a good twenty feet into the air, creating a miniature shockwave in her wake, the ground and dirt and Tanjiro becoming uplifted from where she was.
The second Ume's feet touched the ground, the sashes of her belt sprang alive in a heartbeat, stretching out from around her waist like the tentacles. She tore off the muzzle and braced herself, her fingers flexed instinctively for an impending fight. Her heartbeat elevated in adrenaline as her senses intensified tenfold.
"Do not touch me, you damned bastard, do not—"
Ume cut herself off when her eyes snagged the vast landscape encompassing her.
What is this cruelty?
From the starry sky, the cold breeze brushing on her warm, soft kimono, the muzzle she tossed to the ground, the wafting aroma of iron-filled blood, the sounds of humans conversing and crying amongst each other in the distance, the devastated landscape scattered everywhere. In the far distance, familiar, bloodied faces blurred together and their battered forms huddled, filling up her field of vision. Three weeping women trying to support his heavyset frame surrounded the bloodied Hashira as they descended. A tall man with mismatched eyes and a small snake coiling around his neck departing a rooftop. The yellow-haired brat with two bows tied in his hair… the pretty-faced brat with the boar mask, both boys barely hanging onto consciousness carried by masked individuals sprinting out of her sight…..
She and Tanjiro seemed to be alone, sequestered amongst the rubble. Still, she couldn't seem to stop her mind from thinking: about who else could be out there, lurking in the dark, just beyond the corner of this seemingly safe little spot. That Accidental Demon. That snake man she saw on the rooftop, even the yellow-haired boy or the boar-headed boy could resurface for all she knew. Anyone could come at any moment. She had to be quick, judging by the altered position of the moon, she had a few precious hours before the sun rose..
Then Ume heard a wet cough.
Tanjiro was crouched on one knee, bloodied. One broken Nicchirn blade stabbed into the ground for support. She could see the black blade glint as it was struck by the faint moonlight. Ume couldn't help but recall the moment that he was seconds away from beheading her with that very blade, only to just collapse into such sickening coughing fit that she genuinely believed that he would just drop dead.
He was in a far worse state now. Crimson blood dripped down the boy's jaw from his lips and the other cuts and red marks on his face. The two broken fingers on his left hand were swollen purple, his deep shoulder gash bled, and judging by the way his breathing was labored, there were more injuries that she couldn't see.
It was beyond her, but Ume felt a pang of phantom guilt slither up her chest as she watched Tanjiro wince in pain as he tried to force his trembling body to his feet, wheezing and groaning through his labored breaths. Ume quickly swatted the foreign feeling off. She had to remind herself that Tanjiro was still the dangerous enemy. Same person that took off her brother's head.
Ume had to kill him right here and now. She couldn't risk him alerting his allies to her location. She wouldn't take the chance.
She had to fight.
She had to. Not only for an opportunity to escape. But to avenge Gyutaro and even moreover appeasing Master Muzan. To do something useful for once in her life. Showing this brat, his friends, and that Hashira that she lured in, that she was given the Upper Moon status for a reason.
A low growl hummed from her throat. She balanced herself, her stance widening, readying her aim for the sashes to lash at her prey. It would be a single swipe across the throat in such a quick fluid motion that there would be no time to react.
For a fleeting moment, Ume stared at him, trying to decipher just who was this odd specimen in front of her, fully expecting him to spring up at any second.
She had to act with high caution.
Any other random slayers she knew she could dispose of, but this boy in question was none other than Tanjiro and it was exactly why she found it so disconcerting that this young boy who was capable of going beyond his human limits and is now seemingly helpless on his knees.
Ume could imagine it. By the time anyone finds his corpse, she would be long gone, far away from the sun's rays in one of the remaining buildings shrouded in darkness…perhaps Master will hear of the incident in Yoshiwara and she would encounter him again. He would surely be devastated that Gyutaro is gone, but perhaps he would help her in her time of need..
"You…?" Tanjiro was the first to break the silence that Ume expected to go on forever. His voice was soft and frayed, barely over a whisper, and Ume hardly caught it. Tanjiro lifted his head and deadlocked his gaze with her. He was pulling at the blade, trying to pry it out of the dirt as if to wield it. "You're not Nezuko..."
Silence.
Overwhelming silence clouded them as Ume suddenly stopped, every fiber in her body paralyzed at that name. A flash of disgust crossed her face. She clenched her hand tightly, her nails digging into her palms. The thoughts were bitter in her mind, leaving her mouth twisted in anger.
Nezuko…That one single name had cut deep, sending a fleet of images before her eyes. Those blank dark pink eyes glared down at her. The leaf-patterned kimono stained with crimson. The vine-like pattern on her skin. That ugly horn protruded out the side of her head. The bright pink blood flames roasting her flesh….
Terror. Pain. Frustration. Humiliation. Memories.
Ume let out a hiss as Tanjiro's hushed voice continued to ramble. "What have you done?" He muttered in a gravelly voice, eyes wide with disbelief sweeping across Ume's frame. "You're not—"
"SHUT UP! How dare you accuse me of such nonsense!" Ume screeched in acrimony, but all four of her obi were trembling. Her voice cracked a little. But right now, the torrent of unbalanced emotions radiating from her was too much.
Rage. It all came down like an avalanche on her, building layer by layer.
But, it was more than that. Something that oddly rose above all those intense emotions was this one single emotion she knew like the back of her hand. It was betrayal. It was resentment. It was hurt.
Ume had already accepted the rage and resentment over the fact that Tanjiro had slain her brother, but she did not fully understand why she felt betrayal. Maybe it was because she had hoped that the merciful kindness that Tanjiro demonstrated to her and her brother still existed somewhere deep down. Perhaps it was because she never expected Tanjiro to be the one to play sick mind games such as this. Nevertheless, this pain she was feeling was too hard to comprehend. She had experienced all forms of betrayal before and she knew of the heart-wrenching consequences. Perhaps this was why she could feel the bile at the back of her throat as she heard the voice of the Demon Slayer again.
Ume regarded Tanjiro, pinning him down with a glare and stalking him up in a hostile confrontational manner. "How dare you address me by that name!" Ume snarled darkly, steel hostility threading behind her words. "My name is Ume! Of course, I'm not her! Are you blind? Why would you even consider that, moron?"
But Tanjiro only responded with a persistent silent stare that urged her to look at herself.
And in an instant, everything stopped.
It was such a strange feeling; to feel her burning blood rushing through her veins only to freeze solid; to hear her thunderous heartbeat pumped with adrenaline come to a screeching halt.
Don't fucking tell me...
Another fleeting glance at Tanjiro's horrified expression confirmed her suspicion.
Ume swallowed hard, the foreboding fear stole all semblances of heat from her trembling body. She peered at her hands, at her red-pinkish stiletto nails. She was no longer tiny, scrawny Ume in her dirty, tattered kimono and messy white hair. She was not the willowy Daki with her long white and green hair held back in a ponytail full of kanzashi hairpins with her uniquely stylized pink-yellow sashes.
Instead, she was now adorned in a soft light pink kimono with a red and white checkered hanhaba obi that contrasted with a tattered dark haori. She looked over her shoulder and lowered her gaze to see that her hair was now a flowing black and orange mane reaching just below her waist.
That was when it all made terrible sense. The reason why she saw those strange memories that did not belong to her. The reason why she was engulfed in that inferno of pink flames. The reason that she had returned to the world of the living. The reason why she awoke in this boy's arms.
Her prayers were heard. The prayer she had made in the void, the promises that she could vaguely remember speaking of atonement in order to be with her brother, and the exchanges she was willing to sacrifice, had led to her soul being placed into the body of the Accidental Demon.
"I can never face Master in this form…" Ume muttered in a hushed tone that hardly conveyed the true horror she felt at that moment.
Why? Why this girl specifically? And for what purpose? What purpose does she have in this brat's body? What does any of this have to do with Gyutaro? What purpose is this? Her mind was a vortex of confusion.
What is this cruelty?
"Nezuko,"
A small voice intruded Ume's mind, her train of frustrating thoughts halting upon the intrusion. She stiffened when she recognized the voice belonged to the Demon Slayer approaching her. "Where is she..." Tanjiro had made it up to his legs, propped by his blade, and limped forward towards her; his left leg seemingly fractured.
"What…?" Ume breathed out almost incredulously, not believing what she was seeing. She was utterly confused about how this brat approaching her was still living and breathing. Tanjiro winced, whatever movements clearly aggravating the injuries he had sustained from their battle. He momentarily closed his eyes, trying to fight through the pain coursing through his body.
"Where is she….?" He slurred out.
Internally Ume willed her shock and fear to subside and straightened herself and her obi. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, still retaining her brusque tone. "How should I know? The last time I checked you and your team of misfits killed us, remember? You saw me die moments ago."
Tanjiro gritted his teeth. "Then how are…you here?"
"You tell me! I don't know! I don't even know why I'm even here!"
Tanjiro took another step toward her. It was a clumsy step, more like an unsteady lurch with his flimsy blade lifted up slightly, with a steel expression.
"…I..." He slurred. From the way his eyes were hazy, Ume knew that she had physically exerted himself and wouldn't be able to stand up much longer. As he staggered closer, Ume caught a glimpse of the amount of aggression presented on his bloodied face. He was almost trembling with anger at this point. "I won't let you get away with this…!"
Tanjiro continued to ramble on weakly, his words barely audible.
"What have you done to Nezuko…?"
Suddenly, Tanjiro stumbled forward, losing his footing.
Two sashes caught him just in time before he hit the ground, snaking under his armpits. Ume found herself standing over him, though she didn't remember moving a foot. Tanjiro coughed, sweet-smelling blood splattering out from his mouth and onto her pink kimono. She felt her disbelieving frown deepen. She knew she should've killed him by now, but she was simply too shocked to do anything in response.
"…where is my little sister…?"
Tanjiro could barely choke the last few words out. Then, he reeled forward, shoulders slumped.
Ume sighed as she reeled an unconscious Tanjiro into her arm's reach. She fought to keep him upright, watching a stream trickling from his shoulder wound and other cuts, dribbling down to form a tiny pool beneath him. Crimson blood, the source of life, seeping profusely from his wailing injuries.
Oddly enough, the sight of it brought a phantom sting that took hold of her heart, so painful and sudden that it almost made her lurch forward in a physical reaction.
Ume gave him a quick once over, checking to make sure he was still breathing. He was, but hardly. He was so incredibly immobile that one might mistake him for a dead person if it wasn't for his faint pulse.
When she realized what she was doing, Ume groaned audibly, averting her eyes away apprehensively. Dammit, what am I doing?
It was strange: on one hand, there was still this burning desire to slaughter smoldering in Ume's chest like a pile of hot coal, at the mere sight of this boy; she despised him for killing her one and only family in this cruel world. He was a natural mortal enemy of her kind. The very catalyst to how quickly her grand plan went up in smoke. The brat that cost her everything in the end.
But on the other hand; dousing that hatred was that small, nagging semblance of her that she still remembered the boy's sincere actions and words to her and her brother. Even after all the cruelty and agony, she and Gyutaro inflicted upon the group of Demon Slayers, Tanjiro still showed her such kindness that she never encountered before. A special kindness that left Ume with an unwavering debt that she had to pay back somehow…
Ume released her long breath that she didn't even know she was holding in.
Fuck it.
So, before she knew what she was doing, she was hauling Tanjiro on her back, two of her three obi fastening him as a means to ensure that he doesn't fall off. Her third obi enfolded that wooden box and took hold of it and she began to trek forward. His head hung to the side, remaining completely lifeless.
The moment she began to walk forward through the ruins of Yoshiwara, she registered the scene around her in horror. Nothing but endless miles of rubble and smoke and blood. With immense guilt, and horror embroiling in her dimmed eyes, Ume looked on at the aftermath of the battle.
The aftermath of her failure.
The buildings were reduced to rubble and the ground was strewn with debris and abandoned belongings. Their final showdown had devastated the entire city and even the Kyogaku House was nowhere to be found. She swallowed a hard lump that formed in her throat.
The once lively and bright home that she was born and raised in for her entire life with her Big Brother.
It was gone. Everything was gone.
All because of her own actions.
…Forgive me, Big Brother.
Ume shut her eyes to hold back the stinging tears that threatened to spill.
As she continued to trek through the graveyard of her home, Ume took in a slow breath. A gust of cold wind blew bitterly over her face. Everything felt terribly cold. She felt herself sinking into the darkness, she could still feel the bloodied body clutched tight to her back. He was warm, warmer than any other human, a calm, soothing heat that transmitted through her fabric and into her. His warmth contrasted with the cold night air swirled around her.
Oddly enough, it comforted her in a small sense. The feeling of one single sign of life in this unrecognizable wasteland, the feeling that she wasn't completely alone in this world. Even if it's this particular human. At least it was someone familiar.
Perhaps that'd be enough for her.
Hot prickling tears welled up in her eyes, but Ume fought to hold them back. Crying was a bad habit of hers, there is no good in crying. Her brother would not want her to cry.
Ume tore away her gaze to look onward. She saw that all of Tanjiro's allies were long gone, and there was just a large flock of masked figures scattering the area. She squinted. They seemed to be cleaning the area with brooms and bags to collect items. At first, Ume believed that another group of Demon Slayers, but then she saw their attire of all matching black uniforms with the head and face covers that masked their identities. They stood apart from regular Demon Slayers.
Most likely a bunch of assistants.. Ume surmised.
Despite the acid in her stomach clawing its way out and despite her heart warning her to not go in. All the signs of the foreboding warning alarm her body was sounding—Ume ignored all of it and rushed towards them.
Just drop him off, and leave. Go look for your shelter..Ume told herself. I'll just hide somewhere.
"Oi, get a medic! It's an emergency!" Many heads looked in Ume's direction and the quiet group erupted with controlled chaos at her command.
One ran to them; a tall, male with large bronze eyes peeking out of the mask. Momentarily the man was staring wide-eyed at her rising obi before his attention was snagged by the bloodied Tanjiro on Ume's back. "How is he? Is he still alive?"
"He's alive, but barely. !" Immediately the bronze-eyed male led her both to a nearby spot under a remaining eave of a skeleton of a house where another masked individual with medical supplies resided.
"Here, help him. He's losing a lot of blood and his pulse is faint." With that, Ume unfastened her straps of obi around him and the male took Tanjiro from her grasp and laid her on the ground carefully. Immediately, a medic came rushing to provide first aid and tended to Tanjiro on the spot.
Ume glanced over her shoulder to look Alright, I'm done. My shelter can't be that far from here.
Though Ume promised herself to move, she found herself watching the forming pool of blood oozing from his wounds. Ume swallowed back a hard lump in her throat, her eyes flickering from the boy's sweaty pallid face and back to his accumulating pool of blood that spread through the dirt at a fast pace.
With smooth, careful movements, the medic wrapped a series of bandages around his shoulder wound and his lower leg and broken fingers, trying to move his limbs as little as possible. In seconds, dark red blood percolated through the whiteness of the bandages of his wounded shoulder.
"How is he?" The bronze-eyed male asked.
"It's bad," the medic said, expression dark when he saw the severity of Tanjiro's injuries. "I'm surprised he's even alive. He's losing so much blood. This shoulder gash, broken ribs, a fracture on his leg, and possibly internal bleeding. He might not even make it back to the base."
Ume felt her heart sink at the severity of his words. That same sick feeling of guilt she felt when before with a vengeance, twice as potent as before. Is he going to die because of me...?
She stood simply frozen in place, eyes slightly narrowed. For a moment, she couldn't move, her body solidified into frozen stone. Highly conscious of a certain feeling blooming right in the center of her chest, and yet with each slow pound of her heart, the guilt grew until it was practically searing.
No.
One of her obi extended out of her belt and snaked around Tanjiro, as though it had a mind of its own, roped itself around his bandaged shoulder, then to his bleeding wounds on his legs, arms, thigh, and shoulder like a blanket to a shivering person.
Slick blood seeped into her sash like water to a sponge, an array of hard thin strings from the inside of the fabric piercing through the outline of his flesh and then it suturing the wound until it closed. In an instant, the flow of blood ceased.
An odd sensation, akin to a static shock, rushed through her and straightened up her spine. The sensation lasted no more than a split second, yet somehow, it felt so intense that Ume felt as if someone had poured an entire bucket of warm water all over her.
Upon hearing that, Ume looked up from Tanjiro's battered form, only to be met with pairs of wide eyes staring at her, immense disbelief and shock ricocheting off on their features.
Then Ume realized what she was doing.
Dammit, she cursed, hating herself.
Her eyes took a swift glance to the night sky; the silvery full moon slowly sinking down the navy blue night sky, the sparkling stars fading. A near-complete astronomical twilight warning of the inevitable sunrise.
Just one fragile hour left and all because she once again wasted her valuable time by focusing on this helpless brat now in her arms. Another moment of weakness. She had assumed she would never even bear any inkling about helping Tanjiro or any Demon Slayer for that matter, but that was clearly not the case.
"Nezuko-chan, you're…stopping the bleeding..you stopped the bleeding! Keep it up, please!" The medic was scrambling with a package of medical supplies. Ume did so, but also hastily severed it from her belt. The obi remained as tight as it was before. Ume took a step back, still reeling from what she just did.
What the hell? Why am I doing this? Something is terribly wrong with me. No..something is wrong with this body. I need to get away, far away.
But just as Ume turned on her heel, her heart sank into the pit of her stomach when she saw it in the distance.
The tiniest glimpse of a bright orb of gold slowly bleeding the faintest strip of orange into the backdrop of brilliant darkness.
For the first time in 126 years, Ume caught a glimpse of the eve of a sunrise. The deadliest adversary to a demon.
It was as hauntingly beautiful as it was utterly terrifying. The sight took hold of her soul and was refusing to let go.
Someone snatched her arm from behind and yanked her so hard that she didn't even have time to react.
"Nezuko!"
Another urgent voice called out behind her, and Ume had to remind herself to turn around. A masked female with shining teal eyes who had managed to release out the box from her obi's grip held open the door. "Please get inside. The sun is coming."
