✾ ❃ ✾
Naminé Yamada wishes to kill demons.
Followed by the nightmares of her past, Naminé dedicated her life to strengthening herself mentally and physically ever since the death of her mother, hellbent on avenging her somehow. Though it seems that...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You're Naminé's sensei?"
The words slipped from Tanjiro's mouth just before he felt an elbow violently shoved into his sore back, cutting off any air supply as he gasped for oxygen. Iguro knelt close enough to hiss against his ear, "Mind your tongue, traitor. Don't speak so casually to one of the great masters."
"You are Kamado Tanjiro? The one that Naminé wrote to me about."
The master's voice no longer sounded soft as leaning grass, but more so like a grand mountain as it encompassed the entire yard. The elder shuffled over to where Tanjiro lay barely breathing, forcing his eyes to meet the master's intense, copper gaze--surprised by what he saw behind them.
All he could find there was fury.
"I cannot forgive you for putting that girl in such a dire situation that she felt it necessary to throw her own life away in order to have you laying here like some drying worm beneath the sun. Are you not a capable enough slayer that you are unable to protect those you claim are precious to you? Every one of your companions is being treated for their injuries currently. Your own sister is a gods-forsaken demon that you carry around like a caged bird. Naminé could very well be on her death bed, as we speak."
Every offense stabbed like blades.
Himawari sneered as she turned on her heels.
"If you have any shred of respect left, sever all ties you have with my pupil."
Quickly averting her gaze towards the Pillars, she tipped her head towards the Insect Pillar. "Shinobu, I will require your assistance with--"
"You're wrong."
Himawari stilled.
Tanjiro looked ahead even as Iguro dug his elbow deeper into his back, tearing muscle that was already on the verge of snapping apart--but he didn't care. In that moment, Tanjiro didn't even grasp the pain as his anger intensified towards the former Pillar, adrenaline flooding through his veins as he grit his teeth and snarled at the woman.
"Even if you're her master, you have no right to speak on mine and Naminé's bond when you've never seen it for yourself! Until the day comes that Naminé tells me herself to leave her side, I won't let anything come between us. I know that I failed her back on the mountain. I haven't been able to get the image of her in that awful state out of my head this entire time--it feels like the guilt is eating me alive!" Tanjiro bit down on his cheek as a rush of those black veins and glassy eyes swarmed his mind. So close. Even right now, she was so close to death. All because he failed to kill off Rui properly and she felt there had been no other answer to saving their lives but by sacrificing her own.
How wrong she was. He would be sure to tell her once he made sure she was no longer in harm's way.
"I'll spend the rest of my life regretting that she felt there was no other way out of that situation. That I wasn't strong enough to keep her from facing making that kind of decision on her own--I'll always regret it!" His eyes met the Earth Pillar's once more when she turned to face him. "But we made a promise to endure whatever the future throws at us standing beside one another. To always be brave for the other no matter what we face . . ."
