Iguro felt the fresh clean air of the outside after finally escaping his hellhole of a prison for the past twelve years of his miserable life.
His feet touched the cold wood tiles as if he had stepped on ice, his hangs clinging to the pillars of wood that held the house as he passed through the rooms from the outside, his teeth shaking as the cold winds passed by him again.
It certainly was hard for him to not look down at the height between him and the other roofs or the ground, the goosebumps in his body stressing him knowing that a wrong step could potentially kill him.
The only way he could go down through each floor was the fact that the rooftops had been designed in a triangular shape, so he just had to find the less slippery path with Kaburamaru's help.
"HE'S GONE!" The scream came with the sound of something shattering from the inside.
Iguro felt a shiver run down his spine, before taking a deep breath before carrying off to his escape, ignoring the nausea that was building up by his thoughts.
Did they get her? He hoped that woman hadn't.
"Remember to run away as soon as midnight strikes."
Obanai shook his head, getting rid of the thoughts and focusing on Kaburamaru's trail instead.
After reaching the second rooftop, a sudden trembling came from the inside, the impact of whatever it was had destroyed the third floor completely.
Iguro did his best clinging to the roof, never letting go of the tiles even with all of the winds, concrete and wooden planks that fell from the third and fourth floor.
Until he saw his serpent standing so close to the edge, his eyes widening as a piece of wood hit him.
"Kaburamaru!" Obani shouted, grabbing his snake in mid-air and protecting him as they both fell to the rooftop of the first floor, the loud bang being enough to alarm the others.
His white haori got dirty as they rolled down with a few more things. One of his arms was not able to move like he wished, to grab something so that he doesn't fall and never recovers.
In the end, the friction of his body stopped him from sliding off the roof, instead it left him just at the edge, with most of his body dangling off in the air.
He took one deep breath, then coughed on another as the wound of that fall stung on his ribs and arms.
With trembling hands, Obanai tried to get up again, his snake slithering up his arm, wishing to help him get up faster but it was no use, he had never felt pain just as he had never felt love. Everything was new to him, his skin was probably just like that of a newborn baby, with no experience and no way to resist the tears from falling out after falling at such height. Yet he wasn't going to let a broken rib get on his way from letting him live.
If this was what came from the outside, he would take it, this and a hundred times more.
I just want to live.
To see the world.
He limped to see what was at the edge.
The night, the endless stars in the sky like a million of white dots shining brighter than the jewels their mothers and grandmothers and sisters wore. No, nothing was certainly as majestic as the moon shining in the sky like a bright lantern of hope for him.
But as he passed the endless sea of stars and the pathways of the gigantic mountains that surrounded them, he found the forest, the hundreds upon hundreds of trees that were taller than the mountains, and that seemed to never end as the darkness creeps in surrounding those far away trees and shadow, not letting him see the rest of the path to the freedom he had wanted for so long.
But then his yellow and turquoise eyes spotted something flashed in the dark, in the ground.
Something that started to get illuminated by the moon the closer it came.
His eyes widened at the sight of such a unique color of hair, the black fading to pink as bright and lovely as the kimono she wore that was crafted with so many flowers that could also match the light green color from her eyes.
He almost got the feeling she wasn't a human, instead a pretty maiden that had descended from the heavens.
She stopped as soon as her green eyes met those heterochromatic ones of the boy dangling off the edge of the roof.
~~~~~~~
"HE'S GONE!" The snake roared as she threw Giyuu to the wall, her back meeting the shattering glass that would've cut deep inside her had it not been for the demon slayer shirt worn inside her kimono.
Her face on the other hand had a big yet shallow cut running to the left side after a shard fell on her.
She almost would have lost consciousness again had Giyuu not reacted in time to protect her head.
The loud sound should be enough to alert Rengoku-San.
Now it was just up to her to survive whatever the demon tried to do for the next ten minutes.
Her blue eyes noticed the huffing and grunting in her enraged expression as the demon's fingers twitched, dreading to kill her this instant.
Instead the demon slithered her way to her, suddenly stopping as the demon's eyes shifted to the side when the sounds of the family's shouts became apparent.
She hissed, making Giyuu wonder why the sudden stop.
Is Rengoku-San here? He came so fast...
The answer came in the form of an action as the demon plunged all of her fingers from her right hand inside her chest, slowly tearing away her skin halfway and then ripping out the rest in a second.
Blood was splattered on the ground, quickly covering up every part of the room before they started to shift into shapes and crawl away inside the holes of the walls, the doors and every other opening they could find.
Giyuu tried to stand up, only to feel something holding her down, her fatigue running low and the room shifting around like the infinity castle's walls.
She didn't see anything that was put on her, Giyuu tried to shut her ears, maybe the blood demon art was some kind of sound type of art, but nothing changed.
Her eyes widened in realization as she took a deep breath, and suddenly, demon Tanjiro flashed before her eyes.
The smell.
Giyuu held her breath but it was for nothing, and in the end she felt her body losing all of her senses, quickly becoming nothing but a puppet. Just as before, the fear of that monster came back and sucked her into the dread of losing her loved ones.
"Flame breathing: First form," In the blink of an eye, Shinjuro stood next to the demon's head, ready to cut it off. Giyuu's eyes widened at the familiar voice.
"Reng--" The sight became hazy,
No no no
Without her warning, he took a deep breath.
Time stopped as the demon's blood art began to work.
"Ruka."
'SLASH'
With just one slice , the power that it carried had easily shaken the entire room, and not long after that, the room started to fall down on them.
The family of women quickly headed out of the floor, running to the forests, hiding in the closets, pushing away the others to fend for themselves, someplace, doing something that would let them survive the wrath of the demon.
Meanwhile the demon itself had been cut in half, by a lucky event.
The distraction had saved her at the right time or else her head would have been gone by now. Instead it was just her torso.
The swordsman was still standing, just this time, grief and horror was painted on his face.
She smirked in delight, only wishing to know just what kind of nightmares that hunter would have seeing the light in his eyes flickering as the minutes went by.
When the lower half of her body was attached again, she slithered out of the place.
"I'll kill these two after getting my energy back." The snake demon said as she brought out her second kind of blood art before spotting a boy in white dangling of by the edge of the house, the white snake on his back noticing her faster than his owner.
And when he did, the boy's look as the color washed off his face fulfilled her entertainment even more, bringing out the twisted bloodlust inside of her that wanted to be fed on his fear.
"And after I get to eat my treat first."
~~~~~~~~~~
"What... is that..." Mitsuri spoke, the color of her face as the snake on the top floor slowly crawled down the roof. She opened her mouth to reveal the long snake-like tongue with sharp and white fangs that could rip both of them apart with ease.
Obanai stood there frozen in fear as the demon took its sweet time to enjoy the boy's despair.
"Get down! Get out of there!" Mitsuri was finally able to snap Obanai out of his fear.
"I... I can't. I don't- don't know--" Mitsuri extended her shaking arms as she noticed the demon on the second floor, gaining up pace as the boy lost interest in her.
"Quickly! I'll catch you!"
It was on the first floor now, slithering her way to the boy whose trembled legs were standing up.
His long black hair had slipped by the demon's fingers as the boy jumped to the girl's arms.
"Kuh!" Mitsuri backpedaled yet didn't fall off, to her surprise, the boy's weight was lighter than that of all of her three little brothers combined.
Her focus came back as she met the demon's eyes, and in a quick second, Mitsuri headed to the inside of the woods while carrying Iguro in a bridal style, his hands wrapped around her neck, watching her back, warning her of how close the demon was.
"Blood demon art: blood spirits."
All of the snakes made out of blood suddenly started to run away in different directions, no, not run away.
They began to chase down the rest of the family one by one, the more they could eat the stronger she could get and kill those two slayers after eating Obanai.
"Left, turn left." Obanai whispered as the demon quickly gained up to them.
"Ah! Alright!" She did, finding a steep path between the woods that she could pass by but the demon would have a hard time doing.
"How did you know?!"
"Kaburamaru told me." He said as the snake slipped out of his kimono.
"That's so cool."
"He says to watch out for the trees."
"Wha-I AH!" Mitsuri dodged the tree in front of her.
"Don't get distracted"
"R-ight.. Sorry" She was glad the boy was facing the other way.
~~~~~~~~~~
Get up... Get up..
This isn't real... This isn't real...
Shinjuro looked at his wife, her blood running out of her mouth as she started to lose the light in her red eyes.
A month had already passed where he had called the best doctors in his town, but none of them could tell him what his wife's disease was about.
He tried and tried again to help her, to not stress her wife and pay others to work for her. She was still weakened by the disease.
It was four months after this, and the thought of his wife dying so soon shattered his heart in a million pieces.
This isn't real...
Shinjuro stood upon the green grasslands of his garden, his boys playing in the fields with smiles on their faces.
He couldn't help but smile at the sight of them, both being his absolute pride, the reason he fought for so long.
"KYOJURO!" The boy looked back at his father with a smile, not noticing the demon behind him until it was too late and his heart had been ripped of his body.
"YOU-" The demon with the number three carved on both of his eyes, snickered as he enjoyed tasting each and every part of his son's body while he could only watch in horror as something pulled him back from killing that upper moon, as if chains had been tied to every part of his body.
This isn't real, this isn't real!
They are alive!
They are still alive!
"They can be saved dammit!"
They can be saved, this time they will.
The wills of the Rengoku weren't so weak as to be lost in a single illusion. He quickly gripped the hilt on his hands like he had done it a thousand times, getting as far away as he could from the smell, little by little making his real body move away from the area.
The harder he pulled on those imaginary chains, the easier it was to control his body.
One step at a time, his resolve was only strengthened by the sights of his loved ones dying, the more the illusion tried to get a hold of his fears, he confronted them head on.
In five minutes, his mind came back to reality, quickly covering his nose from the smell and looking around the area where the family was screaming in fear as blood snakes came towards them.
"HM! Alright Tomioka, I'll let you handle the demon--" His eyes turned back to the sight of the girl laying on the floor as her eyes and fingers twitched.
Inside her illusion, everything was pitch black, an empty room, an empty box.
Her body stiffened as he finally caught the image of someone.
"Giyuu-San. How have you been?" The voice whispered as he sat on a red chair with golden cravings, his hand holding his head who had a wide grin printed on it.
"Do you enjoy being here?"
She stepped back as the blood red eyes stared into her souls, finding her answer even without the need to say it.
"I'm glad you do!"
"Because when I kill them all again, I wonder what kind of face you'll make."
"Will you try to kill me again? Nee-San?"
_____________________________________________________________
AN:
Just because people live doesn't mean I wont make it worse for them. So hop on the "Giving Giyuu pain 24\7" train.
Okay it might not always be like that but you see angst just comes naturally.
Obamitsu will obviously be here, I cant, those two need more screen time and im ready to give them dammit!
Enjoy the "Sanemi fighting Inosuke as Kanae watches" pic to relieve any angst
Im sorry, I though today was monday.