𝕊𝕚𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤 - { ᴅᴏᴜᴍᴀ x ꜰᴇᴍ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ }

12 - { ʙʟᴏᴏᴅꜱᴛᴀɪɴᴇᴅ ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀꜰʟʏ }

Kanae POV:

After I introduced myself, I looked up at her face to see her gaze on my katana. I immediately swept a hand over my haori, hiding the sharp weapon within the long fabric. Throbbing pain shot up my arm, and I winced, realizing that I had accidentally slightly cut myself on the sharp edge of the hairclip that I had been tightly gripping nervously.

As I surveyed the strange woman in front of me, I noticed multiple signs that she had been out here for at least several hours. She had somewhat muddy knee-high sneakers and a freshly picked poppy in her hair, along with the dirt in her fingernails.

"Ne, (L/N)-san, what brings you out to a deserted field like this one? There's nothing for miles around but forest, if my memory doesn't fail me." Starting to get suspicious, I swiftly moved myself behind her in an attempt to scare her.

The woman was obviously not pleased about the lack of space between us and attempted to harshly push me off of her, causing me to step back as an evasive maneuver.

"I am searching for a certain type of rare plant that I have yet to find. Have you heard of a flower named the 'blue spider lily', by any chance?" The woman explained, arms stiffly crossed as she lifted her chin up. I frowned at the seemingly familiar name, my suspicion fading away.

"Ah, apologies for the misunderstanding, (L/N)-san." My black hair shifted as I tilted my head slightly in curiosity.

"The blue spider lily, you say? I have only heard of that flower in children's storybooks, although you can prove me wrong if, no, when you find it." My mouth stretched into a smile for the mysterious woman before glancing over my shoulder at Shinobu, who had been unusually silent.

However, she was gone.

 My smile immediately vanished and I unsheathed my katana, expecting an attack to come from anywhere. I moved closer to (Y/N) and flitted my eyes around, searching for even a small movement that wasn't ours.

"(L/N)-san, stay close to me and don't question the sword, I'll explain later." I whispered, and suddenly heard a muffled yelling in the direction of the forest. 

There I saw Shinobu, fearfully kicking and crying, in the arms of a tall blonde demon. The demon had a wicked grin, one hand covered over Shinobu's mouth which prevented her from wriggling out of the tight grasp of his other arm.

"Ooh! You both look so tasty, I haven't eaten a demon slayer in such a long time~! My name is Douma, by the way. What's yours?" The demon squealed happily, squeezing Shinobu with his blue-tinted fingers. I gritted my teeth and prepared an attack strategy. 

"Kocho Kanae, the Flower Hashira." I tried to maintain a confident tone while answering, but his unnerving smile seemed to effortlessly read through the facade.

'This is not good, I don't have the skill to fight an Upper Moon alone! I can't use breathing techniques just yet either, I might hurt Shinobu if he uses her as a shield!' Not taking a second of my vision off of the rainbow-eyed man, I closed the distance between us in a second and dashed to his left side.

In a flash, he had moved from my reach and threw Shinobu into a thick pine tree multiple yards away. After hearing a sharp 'crack' and a scream, I knew that she hit the tree so hard that it had broken her back. I winced, hating to hear her yell in pain.