Caught By Flames (Kyojuro Rengoku x Reader)

29 : Upper Moon One

"Hm? Sure. Maybe I can avoid the same mistake."

You chuckled lightly, "It's simple really, and quite easy to avoid. The reason is because... I had gotten angry during both fights. The first one, my father had caused, and the second Akaza himself made me mad."

"Hm... seems simple enough..." you smiled at his plain words.

With a glance at the sky, you stood up and placed your crow in the soft grass a soft distance away. By the time you returned, Kokushibo had already taken up a defensive measure, standing up with his blade drawn. You took out your weapon and swung it around your body to test out the feel once more.

"Remember, I don't plan on killing you, but I won't hold back. I expect the same treatment. Treat me as an enemy, Michikatsu-san."

He hummed, "That's hard when you call me by my human name."

"Oh, okay. My bad, Kokushibo." You smiled sweetly making the man turn his gaze away from you. He was glad you weren't scared of him and that you wanted to fight... but something seemed off about this fight. Did he prefer battles to the death?

Without warning, you both disappeared and reappeared rapidly, too fast for the human eyes to process. You both had done damage to one another, but of course, he had the upper hand due to his regeneration, but your drive remained as you both each struck each other with the intent to kill. You just stayed as far away from his neck as possible so you didn't disrespect your family's wishes.

You jumped into a tree and vanished, forcing Kokushibo to look around frantically for you. He felt your presence from behind and immediately slashed, but you weren't there. It confused him, but surprisingly, he was somewhat proud he had a relative this strong.

You surprised him by placing your foot to his face, using it as a springboard to disappear into the sky once more. He then noticed how close the fight between you two had gotten to the crow you laid in the grass earlier. He then looked up remembering the direction you had flown in, it was the opposite of the bird's.

'So she's still conscious about her surrounds. What a strange girl...' the demon though and jumped into the air to follow you. He saw you standing on top of a tree staring at him with a small but forced smile. He could see clearly all the minor cuts he had given you, but nothing was fatal, and he was striking with the intent to kill. 'This girl is nothing short of extraordinary, I wish she would be smart and choose the winning side here... but she seems too stubborn for that... what a troublesome existence...' he ran towards you at incredible speed and struck you down, only to see you use your own blade against herself to prevent a life threatening blow. You placed your left hand on the sharp part of your blade and used the dull part to keep from being sliced in half.

You didn't even flinch, which was unusual since it was a deep cut. "Why did you sacrifice your hand?" He asked while the stalemate was still on going.

You shrugged with a grin, "I had a building fall on me, losing the feeling of pain in my hand was a result of that, might as well use it to my advantage."

He hummed once again, storing that information somewhere. After a moment, he jumped back and landed on the ground, you following closely.

"Can you still fight?"

The wide smile that stained your expression made him smile in return as he attacked once again.

The two of you exchanged blows until right before dawn when you told him to go. It was clear you couldn't fight against him yet, not if you wanted to kill him, and truthfully, you didn't want to kill him. You were on the ground, feeling a bit dizzy. He had given you some major cuts, but most were small and didn't do much... but you were covered in blood and felt cold. Weak, cold, bloodied... how nostalgic...

You could hear your crow, but ignored it as you continued to tiredly stare at the dawning sky. Soon, you saw it hurriedly fly into the sky above you and towards the village. 'Now everyone is going to worry...' you thought as you tried to sit up. Successful in the attempted, you slowly used trees to prop you up as you returned towards the swordsmith village, hoping it wasn't too wrecked.

When you got there, people were already moving, and the village did indeed look completely destroyed. Despite two upper moons showing up, causalities were very low, which surprised you, but many were bloodied and injured in some way. You walked out from the woods slowly, and fell to your elbows, immediately moving to get back up. It didn't take long for someone to notice you, "There's someone else injured over here...!" You hear someone shout distantly as your feet wobbled under you.

A blurry group of people walked up to you, and you hear the harsh scolding of your crow, "(Y/N)-sama! You should have stayed there! Look at the blood you've lost! What if there is a demon that can track people?! If you keep risking your body like this, one day it'll fail just like your left arm!"

You smiled and gave the angry bird a soft pat on the head, "I used the irreversible damage done to my arm as a way to keep me safe, if not, I would have been sliced in half, Ruyaki." That was the name you gave your crow. Ruyaki.

"Even still! Hmph!" The group sweatdropped, one of them picking you up to carry you back to the butterfly estate. It was Gotou, the kakushi who was explaining everything to you as someone else you didn't recognize carried you. Ruyaki also spoke to you so you would feel more comfortable.

"You're so cute~ Ruyaki~" you chanted. "Thank you... for informing me of the... current situation..."

With a bitter sweet attitude, your crow laid on your head and dozed off to sleep. "You're lucky to have such a kind crow, (Y/N)-san." The kakushi said thankfully to you. It was as if they practiced the line over and over just to have it perfectly synchronized for this moment.

"Yeah... he's really sweet~" they could tell something was wrong simply because of how you ended each sentence. It was drawn out and sweet sounding, no matter what it was you said. It made you sound delirious and sick, which you probably were.

After a few hours of the kakushi's walking, they finally made it to the butterfly estate and saw Kyojuro with a bandage around his head. As soon as they tried to hide you from him you shouted sweetly, yet calmingly, "Hey, Kyojuro!~" you sang. He smiled and faced you, almost immediately dropping it.

"Weren't you just at the village?! How did you get so injured?!" He shouted.

"Two moons~ and then BOOM Upper Moon One was in front of me~" everyone stopped, but your crow only 'tsk'ed.

"One hell of a risky fight I tell ya, ONE HELL OF A RISKY FIGHT, (Y/N)-SAMA!" it squawked in your ear making you flinch.

"Careful, dumbass, my ears hurt...~" you whined and shooed the bird away to give the report of what happened.

A/N: BRUH, CHAPTER 205 OF THE MANGA UWAHHH!! THE LAST CHAPTER ;-; KILL ME PLEASE- IM SO SAD BUT SO HAPPY AT THE SAME TIMMMMEEEE.

Sorry.

I had to.

I'm not okay right now at 2 am reading this chapter.

I'll go. Byeee~

P.S. hope you enjoyed!!