Icy Flames- Rengoku Kyojuro-Demon Slayer/ Kimetsu no Yaiba

13

The woman before the little girl had no cheeks, jagged skin hung under her eyes exposing the inside of her mouth. It looked as if two torn slits went up on both sides of her face up to her ear. Her teeth were easily exposed to the air, the inside of her mouth was red with irritation. This woman looked horrendous.

"Watashi, kirei? " the woman asked coming closer to the girl as she moved her left arm from out behind her brandishing a pair of silver scissors. Swiftly she charged towards the girl, only to be deflected by my blade as she looked from the girl now to me, asking me the same question as to the girl, "Do you think I'm pretty?"

Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder. Though in this world we live in, certain features are biologically more aesthetically pleasing and she wouldn't meet those standards it was possible that she was really beautiful when she was human.

"Everyone is beautiful," I answered calmly while pushing her back with my sword. Tiny, delicate frost crystals cling to her weapon in the wake of it kissing my blade. Without hesitation, she charged around me to slash the kid, until I quickly grabbed the kid. I put the child down on the ground while glancing down at the wound on my shoulder. A mere nick of her blade and it stung like hell.

"Watashi, kirei?" she asked once again.

She was persistent in getting an answer from me on the question pertaining to her beauty as she slowly walked towards me.

I quickly looked around as the children with no sign of life in their eyes followed her. Some of these children had caked blood around their kimono and some seemed to have had their mouths slit from ear to ear, resembling her own disfigurement. Was it possible she asked these children the same question and regardless of their answer, they met their fate?

I rose from the ground and put my blade up. It was getting more clearer by the moment, regardless of the answer, you will die.

"Run," I told the girl as she quickly made a dash going back into the village.

She quickly dashed forwards again to try and attack the girl and was deflected once again. She was strong and quick. Why was she determined to get this girl and not me considering I answered her question...was it because she was direct and I wasn't...if that is the case...

"No," I said blankly staring at the woman.

The woman's expression turned from a soft gaze to a hostile glare. Her focus was no longer on the girl but now on me as she attempted to slash at me with her scissors only to be pushed back again from me. My sword was raised and my expression was suddenly serious and focused.  I charged towards her to get a clean slash at her only for a child to get in her way and protect her.

Crashes and clanging echoed throughout the area. 

I had to relax: inhale and -

My eyes blinked as my breath became visible, the vapors lightly in the air. As she charged, it was clear as day what needed to be done: to cut the thread of fate keeping her bound to this world.

"Total Concentration Ice Breathing Seventh Form- Diamond Dust."

With a swipe of my blade, the terrain of the fog changed immensely into that of a frozen landscape. The skies above were an unholy mixture of shale-grey clouds and a pasty streak. The area was locked in a constant vacuum of super-chilled air, making those unfortunate and who wasn't the caster unable to move.

Swiftly, I dashed through the children whose motions were very much slower than before. Before she can lift her arm to attempt to attack me, I can see her limbs freezing. The ice slowly crept up her limbs to her body slowly encasing in ice. Soon her eyes were locked in fear before seeing what was her fate-her head falling from her body as her body imploded into shards from the impact.

She couldn't utter the screams she wanted to emit but she only felt the burning sensation before her body turned to ashes. As slow as everything seemed to her, it all happened in an instant. This village will finally get the peace it deserved.

Although this callous winter was stifling this part of the village with its icy breath, the moment a layer of orange light radiated from the sun hit the children, it was as if they were mere works of art, displayed.

"She s-save us...."

"She saved us ...Kuraokami," another village mumbled as she dropped to her knees.

Looking at each and every one of them, I can see the shock and the sadness that filled their eyes. But the consensus of peace was present. Though they could see that with every second that the sun reached higher in the sky, the bodies of their children who were victims of the Kuchisake-onna would slowly turn to ashes and vanish entirely, yet the sculpture of their features remained giving them one last image of their child.

A mixture of tears and praise reverberated through the streets. This village that went under this attack for three months wanting nothing more than the killings to stop, finally got their wish.