⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰
Y/N COUGHED, COVERING HER MOUTH with her sleeve as she ran with no time to stop. She'd been full-out sprinting for the better part of an hour, near as she could figure, determined to get to a less exposed area where she could find somewhere to sleep during the days and kill demons in the nights.
Her lungs burned, and each step brought her closer to stumbling, but she couldn't stop. It was terrifying to think that she might die if she dared to slow her desperate race, and despite her constant turmoil, Y/N wasn't ready to die. Not yet, anyway.
Finally, her lungs burned with such intensity that she slowed just a little, clutching at her chest and breathing in sharp, pained gasps as she attempted to make her way up Fujikasane with a slightly greater degree of stealth, so she didn't alert anyone, human or demon, to her presence. By now, the sun had risen fully into the sky, hung in the thin balance between early and midmorning. Y/N estimated she had ten hours to find an ideal hiding spot and get some rest before night came.
An unnatural rustle had her skidding to a stop in a swirl of dust, her eyes darting around as her hand drifted to her blade. The sound had to have been caused by something other than an animal given its volume, so it was either another slayer, or-
"Oh!" a head popped out of the branches of the tree above Y/N, hanging upside-down like a bat and nearly startling her to a scream (though she reined in her fear just in time). "That's the cute girl from the start!"
Movement blurred right before the girl on the ground, and she stepped back at the last second to avoid being hit by the black-haired boy who jumped from the same tree, looking upwards and reprimanding in a tired voice, "You shouldn't say such things, Sabito."
The first boy, Sabito, laughed. "I was only joking, Giyuu, you know that! Hey, down there, what's your name?"
It took a moment for Y/N to register that Sabito was the pink-haired boy from the opening, and Giyuu his apologetic-slash-done friend who'd attempted to apologise for him. Something about their dynamic that Y/N had now viewed on two seperate occasions told her that they were close, obviously having had several months or years to bond.
She shook herself from her observations, unable to stop herself from putting on a smile. "Oh, I'm Y/N. Nice to meet you."
The epithet Sabito had associated with her name, cute, floated in her mind, and this time it took some effort for Y/N to pull herself back to the moment at hand as Sabito threw himself from the tree in a practiced flip move that landed him solidly on his feet like a cat. He gave another of those smiles as he took a step closer to her, his pearly eyes warming with the movement.
This time, at closer quarters, Y/N noticed the jagged scar that arced over the left side of his face, running from his ear to his mouth, and something about it struck her with a peculiar sense of deja vu.
"Y/N," Sabito repeated, tilting his head just slightly to the side, some of his curtained hair that wasn't tied back falling in his eyes. "Do I ... know you?"
Now that he mentioned it, the feeling that had been nagging at her since she first saw him began to bother her again. Something did seem inexplicably familiar about him, everything from the way he stood before her (wide stance, feet spread apart but body resting ever so slightly more on his left hip) to the small curve of his smile (a lilt of his lips that pulled just a little more to the right) seemed just vaguely like someone that she had spent her whole life watching.
But she was sure she'd remember someone as unique as Sabito, and she noticed Giyuu watching the whole exchange with a look bordering between perplexion and bemusement, so she simply fired back, "Do I know you?"
Giyuu gave an audible sigh, addressing both Y/N and Sabito aloud for the first time. "Do either of you possess a single intelligent cell in your bodies?"
Y/N couldn't help it. At those exasperated words from someone she'd just met, and the realisation that this was the conversation being had, of all things, in the middle of a trial that could very well get them killed, she snorted loudly, fully sheathing her half-drawn sword and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Giyuu!" the other boy whined, coaxing another laugh out of the girl as she shielded her eyes from the sun to look up at the tree. "Just because you say those things to me doesn't mean you can-"
"You both repeated the same question at each other," Giyuu pointed out, though the slight twinkle in his dark eyes let the subjects of his teasing know it was a mere joke. "I don't know how you define 'intelligent Demon Slayers', but I wouldn't go with that."
Sabito sighed, deeply, turning back to the newcomer. "Don't worry about him. Like we said, I'm Sabito, this is Giyuu, we're from Sagiri Mountain."
"Oh." For some reason, Y/N felt a tinge of disappointment. "I don't think I'd know you then, I'm from Yoshiwara, in Asakusa."
The pink-haired boy whipped to look in her direction so quickly the fox mask tied to the side of his head almost flew right off. His eyes were wide, and for the first time, he wore an expression other than kindness or happiness.
He looked afraid.
"Yoshiwara?" Sabito repeated slowly, as though he didn't dare to say the name properly.
Y/N fixed him with an odd look. "Yeah, in the eastern-most ward."
He stared at her with horror and realisation, eyes sweeping up and down her. "You ... I ..."
"What?" Y/N raised an eyebrow, but quickly dropped it, her expression matching his as he spoke again.
"You're Y/L/N-san's daughter, aren't you? Your parents own a ramen shop, and you live on the street with the anti-Demon temple."
All the breath rushed from her lungs in a spike of internal pain, and she didn't know whether to be afraid or confused, settling for gasping out, "How the fuck do you know that?"
Sabito looked down, fiddling with his hands, pulling them in and out of each other. Suddenly, the gesture seemed so ridiculously similar that she didn't know how she hadn't noticed it earlier. Sure, he'd grown a lot, and his manner had changed significantly, but he was still ...
"Oh, shit, Sabito," Y/N breathed.
Though she only said his name, something had changed, and even Giyuu recognised it, as the two teenagers just stared at each other.
"What's going on?" the black-haired boy broke in, an external party to whatever was happening to each other.
"Sabito," Y/N repeated, her e/c eyes not leaving his. "You're the orphan. You were my best friend."
Giyuu whipped around to look at his friend, as if for confirmation. "You- you never said where you came from, I just assumed that-"
Sabito remained silent, his gaze having dropped back down to his hands fidgeting in the way he had since he was a child, because Y/N had known him that long.
I forgot him, she thought to herself, a pang of emotion as she remembered him. I forgot him.
Just as she was reaching out, to apologise, maybe, or say anything that would make Sabito go back to the joker he'd been moments before, he turned away, retreating back to the tree. "I'm going to get some sleep before it gets dark. Y/N, you can join us if you want. Or not. It doesn't matter."
The words hit a little harder than she would've expected, but all she could do was accept Giyuu's pitying look and climb up into their tree, settling on a wider branch and trying to get to sleep.
Those violet eyes never leaving her mind the whole time.
⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰
thank you for reading this
book and i hope you enjoy it!
~ jazzi