Nezuko and I ran after Giyuu-san, relying on the silvery crescent in the night sky for light. As soon as the honey candy disintegrated in our mouths, Giyuu-san penned a letter to Urokodaki-sensei, explaining everything and where he was taking us. He pinned it to the door and soon after told us to get ready. More than likely, we’d be back to our home in less than two days.
Nezuko and I were keeping up pretty well with the older slayer. I remember when we first made the trip from our homes to meet Urokodaki-san. The Trio didn’t have to say anything, but I could tell they were a bit concerned with how often we had to stop and rest. We weren’t used to it like them yet.
Giyuu-san looked over his shoulder. He was checking up on us. I did my best to smile reassuringly. We’ve only been moving for about eight hours, so we had about two hours before we had to begin looking for a place to stay for the day.
Nezuko had a small smile, and a glint in her eye that I missed so much during the year we trained with Urokodaki-san. Her long hair was tightly bound in the style our mother used to wear, the ribbon oto-san gifted her still adorning her long bangs. Her newly fashioned pink haori was tightly wrapped around her shoulders. I couldn’t help but grin. My baby sister looked better than ever, and so happy.
“Oi.” Giyuu-san still moved steadily ahead of us, but had slowed down to a considerable pace. He was so close that his red haori seemed to cover us as it fluttered with every single step he took. I glanced at Nezuko, which she returned with a worrisome look at the older slayer's back.
So, it wasn’t just me then. Something was wrong.
Giyuu-san was noticeably tense, taunt like a thread tightened round a spool. I scanned the surrounding forest. Even with my significantly improved eyesight, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It was quiet. Normal. I took a deep breath.
There was only the fragrant scent of the flora and the wind. I caught Giyuu-san’s eye, and silently shook my head no. The slayer turned the other way, and Nezuko did the same. She couldn’t find anything strange either.
Giyuu-san grit his teeth and placed a hand on the saya of his sword. His other hand twitched, ready to grip it by the handle if need be.
I swallowed, the bitter taste of anxiety flooding my mouth. There was something certainly wrong, because there’s no way all three of our instincts could be off. Could it be a demon of some sort?
I clicked my tongue. No. Nezuko and I are demons, I’m sure we’d be able to tell right away with our enhanced senses. And Giyuu-san is one of the Hashira, one of the strongest Demon Slayers in the entire corps. There’s no way he’d be this concerned unless it was something serious and severely dangerous.
I drew the night air deep into my lungs again. I had to keep searching. It’d be better to be prepared rather than risk the other’s lives.
Again, only forest. But there was something strangely bitter-sweet in the air. I tried again, making sure to hone in on that unfamiliar scent. There must be something that I’m missing.
Again, the scent of maple and oak filled the air. However, there was something out of place. Pine, bitter and unforgiving, and foreign in this part of the forest.
“Move!”
Giyuu-san launched himself back, knocking Nezuko and I onto the ground. There was a flash of green light right where Nezuko and I’s head were. Just a second later, and we would have been decapitated. And there was a man, standing in the center of our path.
White ruly hair. Scars criss-crossing his face, from his temple to his chin. Pine swirled around us, drenching the forest with each blow of the wind. I gagged, suppressing the need to vomit. There was no way I’d puke when I just had real food after three years. There was just so much rage in a single man. His cold eyes flicked down to mine over his nose, his mouth in a sneer. His sword clinked in his hand.
He was a demon slayer.
And judging by the way Giyuu-san stood protectively between us, he was one of the Hashira. One of the Pillars that held up the entire foundation of the Demon Slaying Corps.
He twirled on his heel, the symbol for Kill embroidered on the back of his clothes. Giyuu-san cursed under his breath, sword drawn sometime in the chaos. He nudged Nezuko closer to me before taking a step toward the stranger.
The angry man curled his lip, like a rabid dog. He flicked his sword with a twist of his wrist, it’s tip pointed at Giyuu-san’s throat like an arrow to the x. “I didn’t take you for a traitor, Tomioka.” He spat the words out as if the very words passing through his mouth poisoned him. “To think you’re actually protecting the enemy. If that’s not treason, then I don’t know what it is.”
Giyuu-san shifted on his feet, eyes trained on the man. “These demons are good, Sanemi-san.” He repositioned himself, his feet sweeping up a circle of dust around him. I recognized it as the first stance to our Water Breathing Technique. Giyuu-san spoke calmly, trying to reason with him.
“They’re different.”
Sanemi-san just stared at Giyuu-san, his face hard to read beneath the scars and the shadows of the forest. Everything was still. Even the wind has calmed, as if Nature was holding her breath.
The scarred slayer began to shake. His breath shivered, before bursting into the air. He was laughing. A cruel sound, echoing through the forest unforgivingly. He lowered himself into an unfamiliar stance. “Well then, Tomioka,” he spoke quietly, “I guess I should just kill you alongside the demons then.”
There was a flash of green and blue light. Giyuu-san and Sanemi-san were locked against each other. Their swords were a few millimeters from the other’s throat, the metal screaming. They inched back and forth. One step forward. Another backward. Another forward.
Something tugged on my sleeve.
I glanced backwards. Sometime in their exchange, I had pulled Nezuko behind me. My arm was raised to the side, keeping her from moving forward. Nezuko’s wide eyes darted from my own to the pair. She pointed to the forest, hands steady despite her panic.
“Onii-chan, we need to go!”
I spared one more glance at Giyuu-san. He was holding his own against the other slayer, eyes hard. The scarred slayer shifted. His foot dove into Giyuu-san’s mid-section, propelling him back.
Giyuu-san flew back into a tree. He coughed, red flecking the air. His brilliant blue eyes met mine in a cold frenzy, like a tsunami against the shore.
“What are you two still doing here?” Giyuu-san threw himself onto his feet. His fingers were a vice around his katana.
“Run!”
Giyuu-san’s command sprung me into action. Giyuu-san grabbed the collar of Sanemi-san’s haori, who had begun to advance on us like a mutt with rabies. It was the last look I had of the two before I yanked Nezuko in front of her and pushed her in front of me.
Being demons, we had enhanced senses, which included our eyesight. But with how full the moon was tonight, even with our regular human eyesight we would have been able to maneuver around the forest without much difficulty.
I followed after Nezuko. We were maybe 40 feet away from the pair, but we could still hear the clash of their katanas in the night. I listened in closer.
The pair were on equal footing. We were far enough that I couldn’t hear anything but the loudest of exchanges. And the slight trek of an animal moving past the flora.
An animal?
“Nezuko!” I grabbed Nezuko by the back of her haori, and yanked us sharply to the side. There was a burning sensation from the top of my shoulder to the bottom of my ribs, as if someone dragged a flame through me.
In a single moment, I scanned our situation. I glanced at my wound, obviously regretting it instantly. My arm, though not completely severed off, was hanging away from my body alongside my entire left side from my shoulder to my ribs. Essentially, I sliced in half almost completely. And behind us, a girl with a butterfly clip pinning her hair up in a side-pony had landed elegantly on one foot. She was beginning to turn to us once more, sword angled to take Nezuko’s head.
I grit my teeth. I planted my foot down and threw Nezuko to the other side, throwing myself into the Butterfly girl’s trajectory instead. Nezuko flew somewhere, luckily far from the girl and hopefully would take the chance to run. To run far. Please don’t come back for me. Please-
“Run away Nezuko!”
The girl’s sword slammed into my other shoulder. I was taller than Nezuko, but the move would have certainly been fatal for my baby sister. I silently thanked the Gods.
The sword passed through my shoulder, cutting off my arm, and sliced my back up pretty deep. However, it wasn’t deep enough to completely cut me in half, since it left my chest intact.
Meaning I could still move.
I jumped. The girl was still in motion from her last swing, but her reflexes were inhumanly fast. She reangled her sword, aiming for my hips from the bottom up.
My leg was cut off. I ground my teeth through the pain and used the timing to kick the bottom of the handle of her sword with the tip of my other foot. It flew up and away from her, somewhere in the sky above us.
In the next moment, I was on the ground, nearly cut in half two-ways and missing a leg. Butterfly girl was staring down at me, eyes empty save my own face reflected in them.
God, I looked horrible.
The girl dove to me, her white cloak concealing her hands. She was too close, and too fast. Her cloak rippled, and she stabbed my neck with something. For a second, I was fine. I didn’t feel the fire of the demon-slaying nichirin blades. But then I felt something move through my body.
It wasn’t like fire. No, it was like water. Water slowly filling my lungs. Frozen ice sloshing through my veins. My eyes are cloudy. Foggy. I can’t see anything. I gasped for breath, and the smell of Wisteria gently filtered through the haze.
I was a demon. Even if I was different, it still made me feel sick by merely inhaling it. Now it was inside of me. Filtering through my body, poisoning me with it’s beautiful form.
Was I going to die?
I could feel my consciousness slipping. Didn’t I just wake up from a dream?
Yorichii-san.
Oto-san.
My family.
“Nezuko.”
I don’t want to leave you all alone. But it looks like I have no choice.
“Forgive me.”
And then, then it was dark.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hey guys! Author here! First off, Imma start this off with a question, and then an explanation. I know some people hate these author inputs so I try to keep it to a minimum. Y'all can skip this if ya want, but it's pretty important.
So, I planned to make this fanfic as close to the bones of the manga as possible. But, obviously if I change one thing it'll lead to a whole nother scenario that's not in the manga, so this fanfic ain't gonna be a splitting image of the anime. I have a crazy imagination, and believe me when I say I sometimes spend hours daydreaming and just chilling in my own mind. Which brings me to my question.
Who do y'all ship?
Now, I'm pretty supportive of everyone. You treat me right, and I'll treat you right. That's my life motto and I abide by it. I don't give a fawk about what religion you are, what race you are, or whether you like 🐥,🍆, all of the above, pots and pans, or whatever. I can say this with the best of intentions. I moderately dislike everyone, but I hate people who 💩 on other people just for their beliefs, especially when what the person believes in isn't hurting anyone. Now, for my readers, I like most of you. Y'all chill, fun, gorgeous af people who take the time to read my daydreams, so thank you for being incredibly supportive. Now I'm asking you to do the same for your fellow readers. Treat everyone with respect, including their personal beliefs. I'm a 17 y/o short Asian girl, so I really shouldn't have to tell intellectually-capable people how to treat others.
Tell me who y'all think should be together. I'm fine with any reasonable recommendation, so don't be afraid! This is a FANFIC. It's FICTION. In the next few chapters, I'll pick out whatever y'all say, but I won't reveal the pairings until, well, until it happens.
Now, for my explanation.
I'M SO SORRY! I know it's been a while since I updated. I have every intention to finish this story, so don't worry about that! I absolutely love reading all you comments and please trust me when I say you absolutely make my day! Honestly, I've been having personal issues at home and with myself, so I was kind of out of it for a while. I had no motivation to do anything at all. I'm doing better now, so don't worry! I'll be updating AT LEAST once every two weeks, so please continue to support this story!
Thank you, and I'm sorry for the wait!