さようなら; 𝑲𝑵𝒀! 𝑼𝑷𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑺 [✓]

二十四 ;

"[l/n] [y/n]," a raspy voice called out from behind you. your eyes widened at the familiar voice, you spun around, your hand reaching down to grab your sword. but you were too late, the moment you turned around, he was already in front of you, with the blade aiming for your hand. you shift your hand away, pushing yourself out of the way, the sudden movement caused you to lose your balance and fall to the sandy ground.

you winced as you felt a sharp pain on your wrist where he was able to lay a deep cut. you quickly pushed yourself up, unsheathing your own sword. "that was suppose to cut your hand off," the wind hashira spat, staring at you in disgust.

your heart dropped when you realise he had come with the intention to kill you. well, even if ubuyashiki told him not to, he wouldn't even listen. and he was honestly the last person you would want to go one on one against.

breath of flames, second form. rising scorching sun.

speeding forward, you swing your sword up, trying to knock the sword out of his hand. but he countered with similar speed. breath of wind, fourth form. rising dust storm. sanemi unleashed a series of slashes, his eyes glaring holes into yours as he aimed for your vital organs. breath of flames, fourth form. blooming flame undulation. you swung your blade around your body, protecting yourself from his attacks.

"disgusting. you're tainting kyojuro's breathing style. what a disgrace," the pillar spat, poison lacing his voice. you faltered for a second but quickly kept your composure. "don't bring him into this."

"huh?! what gives you the right to say that?" he yelled in pure frustration, "don't act like you give a shit about his death. aren't you working with the demon that killed him? fucking pathetic."

breath of wind, first form. dust whirlwind cutter.

breath of flames, third form. blazing universe.

in an instant, the gap between the both of you was gone as your sword clashed together, creating a dust of smoke to errupt from the ground. "don't talk like you know what's going on," you spat back, using your blade to push down onto his, preventing him from unleashing another attack. breath of flames, first form. unknowing fire. you lifted your sword up, turning it to the side. this allowed sanemi to lift his own sword above his head as he used another technique. breath of wind, second form. claw-purifying wind.

you let out a gasp of air, trying to maintain your breathing. you winced at the pain on your shoulder where sanemi had managed to land an ugly slash on you. the cut stretched from your shoulder blade to your chest, blood seeping through your uniform. you looked up to see the wind pillar's state. you had also managed to lay a hit on him, blood spilling out of the deep cut across his exposed chest.

"you getting bold now huh?" he smirked, using the back of his hand to wipe the blood that dripped out of his mouth, "how annoying."

"you came at me first dumbass."

"yeah, and i'm not leaving until you're dead."

breath of flames, first form. unknowing fire.

breath of wind, fifth form. cold mountain wind.

once you were close enough, you pushed yourself down, sliding against the dirt. you brought your blade forward as fast as you could, successfully slashing the pillar's ankles. though before you could fully cut them off, he had jumped out of the way, using his injured leg, he swung a kick to your head. you instinctively brought your hand up to block it, but despite having layed such a deep cut on his ankles, the impact of his kick sent you flying back, hitting against a tree.

a sharp pain shot through your spine, blood spilling out of your mouth. you forced yourself up, trying to keep a tight grip on your blade, though that kick you tried to block cost you a broken left wrist. you took a second to get your breathing in check, while keeping a sharp eye on sanemi's movements.

with a crazed look in his eyes, he sped towards you, "i'm gonna send you to hell you damn bitch!" he slammed his blade down as you brought yours up to block his hit again. swinging your leg forward, you landed a kick to his rib. his grip loosen for a split second, you used that moment to slip under him, going behind him, you used the handle of your blade and slammed it down onto his back. the wind pillar let out a pain grunt at the sharp pain shooting up his back, despite that, he bend over, using his leg, he swiftly knocked you over.

you immediately pushed yourself up, but winced in pain when you felt something pushing through your abdomen. you grit your teeth, looking down at the blade that had penatrated through your flesh. ignoring the pain, you swung your blade from the side, cutting sanemi's stomach, a large horizontal slash appearing on his bleeding skin. he quickly pulled his sword out of you as you stumbled away from him, clutching onto your wound.

"you're so fucking weak," sanemi spat, though he was doing no better. with a large cut on both his chest and stomach that was bleeding severely, accompanied by a broken rib cage. while you had a shattered wrist, a deep cut on your shoulder that caused you to lose quite a large amount of blood and a stab to your abdomen. both of you were in bad shape, though neither had the spirit to stop, knowing that if they did, they would just get killed.

"have you seen yourself?" you countered, "you're just as weak as i am."

breath of wind, seventh form. gale - sudden gusts.

the pillar jumped into mid air while swinging his blade at a blinding speed, creating gale- forced winds. you've seen him use this move before when you observed his trainings back then, and this was definitely one of the most dangerous ones. you've seen him use this on demons and it instantly ripped them to shreds.

breath of flames, fourth form. blooming flame undulation.

you quickly swung your blade in a circular motion, bright red flames surrounding you, blocking the pillar's attack. as you prepared to block another one of his attacks, the flames around you cleared and the pillar was no where to be seen. you looked around your surroundings, trying to find him, but to no avail. did he run away? no, sanemi wasn't the type of person to back out from a fight he started.

was this some kind of trap? it most probably is one. but it's not like he could do much with all those injuries. you brought a hand up to your abdomen, holding onto it as you controlled your breathing to stop the bleeding. something kyojuro had taught you.

you really needed to tend to these wounds as fast as you could, turning away from where the village was, you decided to head back. but a thought crossed your mind just as you took the first few steps. what if sanemi hid himself for a reason, he knew you would go back to where douma and kurai was to get help. was that what he wanted? so he could track you down and take down the two demons? if that's what he's trying to do then you couldn't possibly drag kurai and douma into this mess. maybe you should go to the village and hope to get some help? you winced at the sharp pain spreading through your entire body.

blood from your mouth started dripping onto the ground below you. you can't waste your time here, you're gonna bleed to death by the time you make a decision. letting out a pained sigh, you turn back around and made your way to the village.

next chapter :
just an old story
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