'I feel weird...I can see my blood. Where is my family...? Blood..?'
Hitomi asked herself as she glanced towards the front of her and she saw the bodies of her family not moving and by the temperature of their blood they're cold. As dim moonlight shines in, it is ironic that it used to be a symbol of good luck for her.
Because the moon being out represented another day being with her family.
It was kind of sad that back then it was just a thought that came across her mind every now and then but now....
Drool starts forming from her mouth as she gazes at the sight in disgust. She still can't move her body but the smell is terrible. She couldn't stand it, it's so gross.
The more she stares the more that she gets disoriented.
'Who are these people? How did I get here? Why is mom dead? What's happening?"
She starts shaking as tears flow out and she's crying even though she doesn't know why. Not a sound even escapes her throat as she stares at the corpses through blurry eyes. Her whole body felt numb.
She tenses as the sound of feet approaching startle her as they are coming closer and closer.
Without her even needing to blink, someone appears in her line of sight. His face is shadowed so she can't see him well. He looks around then his gaze meets hers.
Fear suddenly invoked itself onto her. She didn't know what would happen to her. She can see those glowing red eyes staring right at her. Her body started to shake as she just looked at the man in fear. To her surprise instead of glowing red eyes, she was met by bored looking marigold eyes. She didn't even notice when the man came closer.
He was talking and she couldn't hear him at all. She saw an irritated expression appear on his face. He places his hands on her ears. She surprisingly didn't flinch at the touch of the man as he carefully slid his hands off of her ears. Suddenly she could hear everything that she needed to. The crickets outside, the heartbeat of the man in front of her, her own heart beating and the.... the absence of other noises.
"Are you alive or is your corpse drooling?" he asked her. His voice sounded like wind fading into the distance. She found that calming despite his rude tone.
She continued to stare at the man without saying anything. That's all she could do. His face moved more into the moonlight and she could see most of his features now. He had ginger hair and looked to be in his early thirties and held a bored look. She saw that he had a classic bamboo hat and on his neck held a big scar but didn't have enough time to process it as his marigold eyes continued to stare back into hers and then he proceeded to pick her up like a bag of potatoes and walk out.
The first thing Hitomi noticed was that it was snowing. She glanced back at the corpses and for some reason she didn't want to leave them.
She wanted to stay with them.
Her body tensed again and she tried squeezing and wiggling out of his grip but the weird man stopped and let out a sound discomfort before Hitomi felt her body being swung forward and she crashed head first into the snow and blacked out.
The man stared at her body for a bit, picked her up again the same way and continued walking. He did pause when he felt liquid on his clothes. He stayed silent but kept walking.
~⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊~
He didn't know how to feel. He looked at the two bodies in front of him. His chest tightened as the strong scent of blood lingered all around him as he ran towards Nezuko and Rokuta's bodies.
"WHAT IS...WHAT...HOW...HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! WHAT HAPPENED?" He yelled.
He looked at their house and like the world decided to torture him and rip his heart apart he saw the bodies of his family. The ones he ate with, the ones he slept with, the ones that he loved. Covered in blood.
He checked on all of their bodies and looked around and didn't see one noticeable person.
"Hitomi! Where are you?! Hitomi!" He yelled trying to get her attention if she was there. He checked around the house but there were no traces of her except a blood trail that led from the genkan (entryway) to the hall on the back leading outside in the back of the house. It looked like someone's blood trailed towards it then it was dragged back. Unfortunately Tanjiro couldn't tell if it was actually dragged towards the genkan or the back of the house. This caused the already panicking boy to spiral.
'Was she taken? I can't smell her anywhere. Her body isn't here! I can't even tell if this blood is hers or not. It's like her scent is completely gone! I have to go-' his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Nezuko groan.
She was still alive. Not taking the risk of her dying he picked her up and began running.
~˚ʚ♡ɞ˚~
'My head hurts . . .'
Hitomi woke up with a small groan. She slowly made herself get up but jolted back down as a giant pain spread through her body the moment she got up. After catching her breath she looked around and didn't recognize the place. Her head was hazy but she knew enough that this wasn't the original place where she was found.
She was in a smaller room that had a small dresser and sliding door to her right. She was in a futon with a big blanket. She slowly moved her hands to feel her body and felt bandages wrapped around her torso and back but then I noticed that I was dressed in a light blue shirt and pants that had the buttons on the shirt exposed for visibility on the bandages.
She tried to remember how she got here but it was met with haziness and a very painful headache. She didn't even hear when the door slid open and the same stranger greeted her rather rudely.
"So finally got your beauty sleep? I figured you'd recover faster"
Hitomi just stared at him without saying anything. She felt super tense again since she has no idea who the man is and why she was here. Her head feeling really cloudy didn't help either.
He was holding a tray with a kettle and two tea cups. Judging from the steam coming from the kettle he just boiled that.
"Are you gonna say anything?" he said quickly, snapping her out of her trance.
"..."
"This is why I hate kids they're always so quiet around me"
"Why would I talk to a kidnapper? I don't know your name or where I am and I feel really weird and I don't remember what just happened . . . what was I saying again?" She questioned.
'Geez did I drop her too hard or was it the fact that he was there?' the man thought before he heavily sighed and fully entered the room, plopping right beside her on a mat that Hitomi didn't realize he put there and put the tray beside him.
"Well number one I am not a kidnapper in fact you should be thanking me for saving your life. Number two my name is Akio and you are at my home and number three you feel weird because you just experienced something that will take a while to overcome and I think it'll-"
"What are you talking about?" Hitomi asked, looking at him as if he said something really strange.
"You don't remember, do you?"
The white haired girl shook her head and looked down.
'Well that explains a lot. Now on to my next theory, well only one way to find out' Akio thought as he shrugged then pulled out a small box from his kimono.
"Catch" He threw the box at her and she quickly caught it. The girl opened it to find a pretty purple flower and looked up at him confused. For some reason the smell was messing with her nose.
He held a skeptical look and then pulled out the flower and held it in front of the confused girl. He shook it which confused the poor girl even more. He then turned to face the tray and tipped the kettle over towards one cup, filling it with steaming hot water then turned to the other cup and did the same. They stared at the cups in silence as in less than two minutes the clear water turned a transparent lavender-blue.
Akio helped Hitomi sit up (with some weak struggle from the girl) and handed her one of the cups. Hitomi stared down at it seeing her distorted image but something caught her off guard about it.
'Were my eyes always this . . . red?'
She ignored it and took a sip of the tea. It tasted weird. She drank it nonetheless since it would be rude not to.
"Well kid let me tell you the real reason why you're here. There are human-eating monsters called demons. On the night I found you, you were attacked by one"
'Ah . . . so that's what happened but why can't I remember anything? I feel dizzy'
"And I'm starting to question if the Corps can even handle it anymore. Look, I'll drop you off at the nearest village and you'll probably get taken in by this nice couple with a big family"
'What is he saying? My chest hurts . . .'
Akio paused his words as Hitomi started making choking noises and she fell to the side. Patches of lavender printed on her skin as she glued her eyes shut and made quiet gasps of pain.
Akio didn't help her. He didn't want to. His eyes showed a sliver of darkness as he reached for something that the girl couldn't see but she did see his mouth move and heard bits of pieces of what he was saying to her.
"Actually, . . . since you are . . . of them . . . . out . . . misery"
Akio then paused to see the lavender patches on her skin were wearing off and her breathing relaxed.
"What the- I?"
He glanced at the half drank tea that lay beside the fallen girl.
"Could I be wrong?" he thought out loud as he laid Hitomi down on the futon properly and cleaned up the knocked over tea.
He then looked at her hair which was white and brown which wasn't like that before.
"No I'm not. I can't be"
~⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊~
Tanjiro was shaken up to say the least.
After everything was dealt with by a demon slayer named Giyu Tomioka. Nezuko was turned into a demon but the boy promised to turn her back into a human.
While holding Nezuko's hand he stopped in front of his house and told Nezuko to wait there. The bodies of his family were still there. He starts burying them and goes deeper in when he sees a pool of blood that by the smell belongs to Hitomi but he couldn't do anything to find where it went.
He looked at Nezuko as he stepped outside and guilt washed over him.
He failed to protect his family, he failed to protect Hitomi and she's missing, he failed to protect Nezuko and now she's a demon.
'I failed her. Hitomi could be a demon but be all alone in the world and I wasn't there for her. If I was smart I could have searched for her but I didn't. I'm so stupid. I'm a failure...her body is gone so either she's alive or a demon could have wanted to eat her separately. What have I done...Hitomi I'm so sorry'.
Nezuko looks at him with concern. Tanjiro didn't want to burden her with his failure so he just plastered a fake smile on his face. Nezuko, seeing right through that, patted him on the head much to Tanjiro's surprise. He straightened his resolve as he finished cleaning and burying the rest of their families bodies and took her hand.
'I can't keep on thinking bad thoughts. Hitomi is definitely alive and I will find her and turn Nezuko back into a human,' the boy thought as he turned to Nezuko.
"Let's go," he said as they began running through the mountain.
~˚ʚ♡ɞ˚~
Hitomi wakes up feeling better than the last time she woke up. Unfortunately she doesn't exactly remember what happened to her before she passed out. She sat up properly with only a quiet hiss escaping. She looked around and didn't spot Akio so she scratched her hair in confusion. She decided to go back to sleep since she had nothing better to do.
.
.
"Hey, kid wake up!" Akio yelled in her ear.
She jolted up so fast that she got dizzy again and had to calm her heart down.
"What is it?" she groaned, still feeling super dizzy.
"Before I can drop you off at the village you have to get something for me. It is in a cabin down the mountain. It has those purple flowers that I showed you all over it. You think you can go get it for me?" he asked.
Hitomi looked at him and then tilted her head.
"Wait, why can't you just do it? I mean you are an adult right?" the confused girl asked Akio as he stilled and before Hitomi could notice he recollected himself.
"My . . . knee! That's right, my knee isn't the same as it used to be. I can't do that and you are practically healed you can. So can you?" Akio quickly explained. Hitomi felt skeptical but he did help her.
"Alright"
"Really?"
"Yeah"
"Okay well I'll just leave these for you so change and if you need help just ask" Akio informed her as he pointed to the dresser then left, closing the door behind him.
Hitomi stared at the door for a bit before turning to the dresser and working up the strength to slowly stand up, wobbling a bit and using the wall as support as she made her way over to it. She opened it to reveal a white hakama with a dark salmon under cloth wrapping it. Also because of the cold weather there is a long brown haori. This had Hitomi wondering what happened to her old one. She'd have to ask Akio where it went. There were normal white tabi socks and a pair of zōri(sandals) with pink straps. Hitomi gasped at the sight of the clothing as they were so unexpectedly pretty for a grown man to just have lying around but she perished the thought as she saw a name stitched into the collar of the hakama.
"Kiyo?"
Hitomi zoned out but then shook her head and started getting dressed. It was a lot hard for her because of the pain in the body causing her to jolt in pain at the slightest mess up in her movements.
Once she comfortably got on the clothes she walked to the door and pushed it open, only wobbling slightly. She had no idea where anything was so she ended up lost until Akio found her wandering like an idiot and dragged her to sit down at a wooden table with a long stick on it.
"Obviously you still have some difficulty walking so use this walking stick and here's some water since it's a pretty far walk" Akio explained to the girl as she stared at the stick and picked it up.
"So what exactly am I looking for when I get there?" Hitomi asked as she stood up and headed towards the entrance.
"A bag that has basic supplies like a blanket, water satchels, and some hunting tools. Is that too much for you?" the older man asked her as he opened the door revealing the cloudy sky and fresh snow.
Hitomi hesitantly nodded her head and began walking out as she looked at the paper Akio gave her with directions since it makes no sense to send her completely by herself without a map.
Hitomi understood the map fairly well and began trekking down the mountain. The sun was out and not too bright telling the girl that it was at least midday.
Her dim eyes brightened up a bit when she stopped zoning out and caught a glimpse of a snow white rabbit. It scurried away before she could do anything but it made her heart feel warm in the cold of her environment.
She stopped and looked around.
This was weirdly calming to her.
~˚ʚ♡ɞ˚~
Hitomi's current outfit.