fire & water (TanjiroxReader)

Chapter 69:Pink Hair

Tanjiro's POV
    ...M-my... my senses... what's going on with them? I can't... regain the control I once had over the things tethering my soul to the present. My hearing... it's drowning in a melodic ringing that won't stop the one-note line of it's chorus. My sight...; blurry from the dithering tears that peer over the edge of my eyes, just barely keeping themselves from tipping over into rivers. Even my sense of smell is messing up, the only aroma swirling through my nose... Is that of (y,n)'s blood.

    (y,n)...?

    Raising themselves out after unintentionally allowing my blade to clatter to the ground, my arms went to catch her immediately, but the touch of her body doesn't feel like anything whatsoever. A blank space of where there should be a sensation, a hiccup, and an echo of the reality which my mind is supposed to be thriving in. I've gone numb from the shock, nearly being paralyzed from the head down.

    Under the spell of disorientation, the remaining sliver of my attention has noticed my sister's moved my comrade and I away from the fight, and even jumped in front of us to shield us away with her claws from the other attacks still proceeding to come in all directions of the battlefield. She keeps looking back at us and grumbling in distress, nearly getting too distracted to continue fighting. Her eyes are coming up in a foggy image for the main receptor of my vision, but somewhere off in this black out of my mind, I witness the most worry she's ever had to bear.

    Cottonmouth overtakes my tongue and makes it seem like I've never consumed a drop of water in my life, and each breath seems like sandpaper burnishing at the lining of my throat, yet I still find the vigor to even faintly gasp out to the warrior in my arms- all I can catch across these plains of my hearing is the pitiful tone of my voice cracking under pressure, stress digging its knee into my back.

    This is so surreal to me. The warm blood running over my hands that's trailing from her wounds, the steadily increasing weight of her as her legs are drained of the strength to continue holding her up. How did this happen- the ambush of two crescents that could put her in such a critical condition? A moment where anything could happen, yet it what THIS that occurred! ... How did I let this happen? I saw it happen right in front of me... and I couldn't even do as much as sense that the attacks were coming. 

    "(y-y,n)...? Can you... can y-you hear me?" I tried again to mumble her name from the lips of anguish that control every word my heart speaks, precariously kneeling down to better cradle her in my support. The grasp that was previously holding my sword went to grab her right hand, squeezing her dirty palm in hopes that; if she's not awake, she'll at least know I'm still here with her. My breath wallowed out as she cracked her weary eyes open, the shine in her orbs showing even up to this point, clear through all the pain she must be in. Those monotonous eyes slowly gained their focus back on the world, going from the sky, then to the ground, finally being drawn to my watering red view after some time of becoming lost in the worried strings of my expression.

    As she tasted the mood of the atmosphere, my significant other opened her mouth for a split second, trying to make it past the blood streaming from her lips. I piped up almost instantly to stop her before she could strain herself, working overtime to cajole my voice into a more gentle timbre that won't inflict any worry.

    "Don't talk-!... You'll only be wasting y-your energy-"

    "Tanji..." I timidly hushed into silence when my (h,c)-haired comrade murmured out a fracture of my name at a wispy and quiet level, somehow gathering it up in her to sport a weary smirk. Her legs shifted while she moved against  the leverage holding her up from the ground. She tried to stand, but she faltered, driving me to better the way I'm cradling her and be sure she won't fall over.