Sanemi's pov
"Fucking hell Mitsuri give me the fucking bandages!" I yelled out at Mitsuri while holding a cloth to Shinobu's wound.
"No! Let that bitch bleed out! She deserves it!" Mitsuri yelled out and I grabbed shinobu's other hand, making her hold her cloth on her stomach before going to Mitsuri "give me the bandages!" I yelled out and tried to take them away from her.
I took them away from her and quickly rushed to Shinobu, quickly bandaging his wound. "I can't fucking believe you did that! I get that you are mad but this won't solve anything so get yourself together!" I yelled out and Mitsuri just groaned and looked away.
"O-Ow.." Shinobu mumbled and I stopped bandaging her wound "sorry, is it too tight?" I asked and Shinobu slightly nodded.
"Sorry, I'll loosen it up a bit" I said and did so. Shinobu looked down, tears streaming down her cheeks "stop.."
"What?" I said and looked at her "she's right.. I don't deserve it.." Shinobu mumbled and I let out a groan, continuing to bandage her wound "just shut up already, both of you, you" I pointed at Mitsuri "stop being like this, I get she did something horrible but yelling won't change anything and you Shinobu, stop listening to her, stop letting yourself get controlled by your fucked up mind and focus on surviving"
Both Shinobu and Mitsuri kept silent after. "Come on, let's go back, I am with you two for half an hour and I am already losing my mind"
Muichiro's pov
I groaned and sat down on the ground "my legs hurt so much!"
"Stop whining, Muichiro! Come on! Get up! Let's race to the-" Nezuko said, standing me up "huh? Race?? You can't be serious, I can't barely walk now, my legs feel like jello"
"Geez, Shinobu said your stamina is great and that you don't get tired much"
"Yeah that was a while ago, let me remind you that we were locked up in that stupid shelter for months, I couldn't just run around in there" I said and Nezuko shrugged “fair”
I smiled and looked over at Tanjiro who was still grabbing his back in pain. I stood up and went over to Tanjiro “hey.. are you sure you’re okay..?” I asked for the thousand time today.
“Mui, stop asking, I told you I am okay, I just need to walk it off” Tanjiro said and patted my head. “If you say so..” I mumbled and hugged him. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me as well, gently patting my head “should we just wait here or look for them?”
“hmm.. I think we should stay here for a bit, if they won’t come, we’ll look for them” Nezuko suggested and I nodded in agreement.
…
As we waited for a bit, we all quietly chatted, still carefully looking around just in case something wanted to attack us again. Suddenly I noticed that Kotetsu was oddly quiet and sitting a bit further away from us.
I stood up and went over to him, placing my hand on his shoulder “hey, you okay, Kotetsu? You’ve been really quiet” I said with a worried tone, noticing tears in his eyes.
“I.. I miss mama” he mumbled quietly. My eyes softened and I sat down next to him, wrapping my arm around him. It has been a while since she turned into one of the monsters but it must still hurt to think of her.. mainly when he’s still a child.
“hey.. it’s okay to miss her, no matter how long it has been.. I miss Genya too, I still cry sometimes when I think of him and that’s okay.. just don’t hold it back.. and promise me that every time you miss her you’ll come to me, promise?” I said and he slightly nodded “thank you, Muichiro.. you remind me a bit of her..”
My eyes widened “oh, I do?” he nodded “mhm.. she was really nice.. always making sure I am okay and holding me when I was crying.. you are just like that..”
I smiled and pulled him into a hug “and I’ll continue acting like that as long as you need me to, I won’t let anything hurt you, don’t worry”
He nodded and buried his face into my neck. We sat there like that for a bit until I heard Nezuko yell out “Guys, you’re here! thank god you’re okay!" She ran over to Mitsuri and hugged her. Mitsuri just patted her head and didn’t say anything.
I picked Kotetsu up and walked over to them, being glad all of them were okay but then I turned to look at Shinobu who was holding his side, her hoodie soaked with blood.
"S-Shinobu, your hip, are you okay?!" I said and she turned to look at me with a confused look, slowly nodding. It was like.. she wasn't sure about what to say, she was acting really odd.
"She's fine, I stopped the bleeding, it just hurts, right?" Sanemi said and turned to Shinobu who nodded once again.
"Okay.. are you sure you're okay, Shinobu..? You are a little pale.." I said quietly and she just looked down, mumbling "don't act like you care"
"What..? Shinobu, I do care.. what makes you think that I don't..?" I asked and she didn't answer. She just turned around and started to run away.
"Shinobu! Come b-" I yelled out but got interrupted by Sanemi "stop yelling, are you trying to get us killed?!"
"Sorry.. I.. why did she run away..?"
"Well, thank god she ran away, I hope she fucking dies" Mitsuri mumbled and Nezuko punched her into her shoulder "don't say that!"
"Stop fucking yelling, let's go to the hole. She ran away and we won't run after her, if something really does happen to her, it's better that it only happens to her and it doesn't put all of us in danger" Sanemi said and began to walk away and everyone followed him.
"Is no one really going after her..?" I thought to myself and looked towards the direction where Shinobu ran away "she'll die alone.. she's already hurt.."
"Muichiro come on, they will leave us here if we won't hurry!" Kotetsu said and pointed towards the direction where everyone else left. I nodded "you're right, let's catch up with them"
…
"We're here" Sanemi said and stopped in front of the giant hole. My head spun as I looked down, my legs immediately started shaking "how.. how will we get down there..?" I mumbled and Sanemi took out a bunch of ropes from his bag.
"Tanjiro, tie this somewhere, I'll go first" Sanemi said and threw one end of a rope towards Tanjiro who barely managed to catch it.
Sanemi tied to rope around himself "tie it like this when you go down, I will do down and find a place for us to all get down to, then we'll see how much we have left"
"But.. What about me..? I-I can't do it alone" Kotetsu said quietly and clung onto my hand more "it'll be okay, we'll figure something out, don't worry" I said and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Okay, once I get down, you all will go down slowly, once someone is half of the way down, another will go, understand?" Sanemi said and everyone nodded.
Sanemi got on the edge of the hole and made a small jump which made him fall down a bit, then slowly started to slide down. We all anxiously waited for Sanemi to yell out something or tug on the rope to give us a signal and soon enough, we heard him, a faint voice calling out "you can get down! I am supporting it here!"
"Who's going next..?" I said and looked over at Tanjiro "I think you should go together with Kotetsu" he said and I nodded.
"Okay buddy, you will have to hold onto me as tight as you possibly can, okay? I will tie a rope around us so it'll support you a bit but you still have to hold onto me, alright?" I said and Kotetsu nodded as I picked him up into my arms.
Tanjiro wrapped a rope around me and Kotetsu and cupped my cheeks, kissing my forehead "please be careful, okay? It seems like it'll be a long way down so please, take as much as time you need to just.. get down safely, okay?"
I nodded and caressed his cheek "I'll be fine, Tanjiro, don't worry" I reassured him and he nodded.
"Come ooon, go down already! I will freeze to death if I just stand here!" Nezuko yelled out and I chuckled "fine fine" I replied simply and grabbed onto rope.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before making a small jump back. "It's fine Muichiro, just focus on your breathing, don't look down.. just slide down, it'll be okay.." I thought to myself but once I opened my eyes, all I could focus on was the height under me.
"Muichiro, are you okay?" Kotetsu said and I shook my head, my breathing starting to get out of control. My palms began to sweat and I started to feel weak.
Kotetsu's eyes widened as he reached his hands towards my face, making me look into his eyes "look at me, don't look down, okay? Just make small moves.. just like Tanjiro said"
I nodded and took one more deep breath, slowly sliding myself down and keeping eye contact with Kotetsu, refusing to look down again. "There you go, just like this.. you are doing great"
After a couple minutes I heard Sanemi calling "I see you, Muichiro! Just a couple more meters and you're down!"
And soon after I heard that, I was finally standing on the ground. I sighed and Sanemi unwrapped the rope I had around my body, letting Kotetsu finally get down as well.
"I can't believe I was being comforted by a kid.." I said and covered my face, being extremely embarrassed. "It's fine, Muichiro, fear of heights isn't anything fun.. no need to be embarrassed" Kotetsu said with a smile and I smiled back.
…
We waited more and more for everyone to get down, everything was going smoothly until it was Nezuko's turns.
"It's taking her a lot of time.." Tanjiro said and I nodded "she's probably just scared.. give her more time.." I said and he nodded before calling out "Nezuko! Are you okay!?"
There was no answer for a while until we heard sobbing "I-I can't move!" She yelled out as her sobs got louder.
"What do you mean you can't move?! Are you stuck?! Scared?!" Tanjiro yelled out in panic and Nezuko replied with "scared! I-I can't do this anymore! I-I can't!"
Before anyone could say anything else, Nezuko screamed and fell down. Luckily she managed to catch onto the rope again in time and had just a couple meters left.
"my hands!! It hurts so much!!" She yelled out as Sanemi got under the rope and yelled out "Nezuko it's fine! I am right under you, I will catch you if you need me to, just slide down!"
Nezuko managed to collect herself after a while and started to slide down while wincing in pain. "There you go Nezuko, you're almost down!" Kotetsu yelled out and soon after, she managed to get down.
She was shaking violently, her hands bleeding really badly from how she caught onto the rope. Tanjiro rushed over to her and took a look at her hands, immediately saying "we need bandages now!"
Mitsuri opened her bag and handed Tanjiro bandages which he wrapped Nezuko's hands with. "It's okay Nezuko, you'll be fine, you did great" Tanjiro said and Nezuko nodded, tears freely sliding down her cheeks.
"Do we still need to go more down..?" Mitsuri asked and Sanemi looked around "well.. yes, we are not at the end but other there" he pointed to his right "it looks like we can walk down, we still need to be really careful"
We all nodded and began to walk towards the direction he pointed to, seeing a way down "this is odd.. it looks like someone was already here and made this.." Mitsuri mumbled and Sanemi nodded "it does.. come on, we have to hurry" he said and began to walk while we all followed behind him.
…
After a while we finally got down, looking around everywhere and pointing out flashlights to all directions, suddenly seeking an odd wall with rocks placed perfectly next to each other.
Sanemi walked towards it and touched the wall, suddenly pressing his hand on a rock that seemed to open something.
Soon the wall began to open and we saw a white hallway leading to somewhere. "What is this.. does someone live here..?" nezuko said and Sanemi shrugged "looks like it.. let's go inside.. stay alert"
Once we walked inside, the door behind us closed, making it impossible for us to leave now.
As we walked, the walls turned into glass that made us able to look into the other rooms. Then we saw it.. we saw people in those containers filled with green water.
"Do they.. experiment on people here.. i-is someone making those monsters?!" Mitsuri yelled out. "It looks like it.. fuck this is not what I expected"
Suddenly the hallway closed up on us, making the room smaller before some kind of gas was being put into the room through vents.
All of us started to cough violently. My vision started to blur as I dropped on the floor, watching everyone else drop down seconds after me.
I looked to my right, seeing Tanjiro laying there, I reached for his hand and before I knew it.. I passed out
...
Word count : 2314