The two Hashira, and the special descendant of the sun stood next to each other, prepared to fight until they could not anymore. The enemy, a tattooed, melancholic demon, stood a few feet across from where the trio stood.
"I may be a woman, but I can sure as hell cause some damage." Airi spat. She reached her palm to her forehead before looking at her hand once more. The crimson blood dripped delicately from her face down to her hand. Akaza's glare slightly changed, his soft smile dropping into a frown, when she mentioned being a woman.
"You seem pretty surprised about the injury there," Akaza mocked, "Are you sure you can keep fighting, darling?"
Darling. Giyū's eye nearly twitched from a sudden irritation enveloping his mind.
"You held back on me, I'm curious." Airi replied, her eyes glaring daggers that impaled into the demon. She coughed, blood dripping slowly from her lips. She wiped her lip with her thumb. Her use of her tenth form did not kill her, since she has worked on its full mastery; however, it still internally hurt her regardless. She bled out from the inside.
"That's only because of my philosophy, light pillar." Akaza smiled, his mouth closing into a lipped smirk.
"What philosophy could you possibly have? You want to brutally murder these two, and yet when I want to murder you, you hold back on me..." Airi trailed off, before realizing the demon's reasoning. When Airi released her Dance of the Gods, Akaza only defended himself and simply scratched her. He threw her off of him, with full opportunity to kill her right then and there. It all crashed like waves against the sand in her complex train of thought.
Her eyes widened, and she let out a light gasp, "You're hesitant to kill me because I'm a woman."
"Took you that long to realize that?" Akaza cocked a pinkish brow, "You don't matter. I'm willing to have you be the exception."
"You— I'm just as feminine as the rest." Airi rebuked, fiddling with her golden blade anxiously, "You would be breaking your precious ideology if you tried."
"I don't have to kill you. I can immobilize you, break your legs, gouge out your eyes, and let you go... I can even kill your comrades right in front of your pretty, honey eyes." Akaza taunted, stepping forward toward the trio, "That wouldn't break my loyalty to her."
Her. He was a force to be truly reckoned with.
"Fine, have it your way. You can try to land a hit or two, but you will be the one to cross over." She hissed, flipping her blade with it's grip. By "cross over", Airi firmly believed that Akaza will die first. He will die first, without a doubt.
The room was filled by a quiet tension. No one made a sound, nor a move, for multiple seconds. Time was ticking slowly. The seconds were counting down until the next strike.
"Giyū-san..." Tanjiro mumbled under his breath, sweat pouring throughout his skin. Airi took a glance to her right, where Giyū stood in a complex stance. He was in deep thought, his eyes as void as they ever could be. Airi felt a small wave of concern fill her mind, but she quickly shook away the thought.
She's known Giyū for many years, she knows what his eyes look like. But she couldn't help but notice that his eyes looked void of any life at all.
Giyū could only file through his thoughts.
'I don't want to wield my blade to the best of my ability, and I don't like joining fights where the opponent swings at everything for the fun of it. But right now, I met someone so strong that he over-whelmed me for the first time in a long time. I quickly understood that his senses were finely polished and trained.
I'm not worried about Airi. He won't kill her. I will die to protect her no matter what. My sealed senses were slapped awake and dragged out to a place where the strong face off. The moment we call an extreme life-or-death struggle, is a matter of how much one can stretch their true ability. I understood that.'
Giyū's train of thought diminished the moment his mark scattered across his cheek. Navy blue hues dawned the left side of his face, like waves in a vast sea.
Airi smiled, because now she had someone to fight for.
The room remained quiet, but Giyū charged forward, his steps against the floor completely silent. His movements were elegant against the demon, as if he was walking on water. He was so quick, far surpassing the demon now, that he successfully swung at Akaza's striped neck. The Demon Slayer mark has truly awakened Tomioka's ultimate potential.
"Well, if that's the case. Tanjiro, it's three against one. Let's go." Airi commanded, her voice strict, yet lighthearted. They began sprinting toward the opposite side of Giyū and Akaza, who were quite occupied in a one-versus-one duel.
The remaining two dashed into the fight like the speed of light itself. The fight broke out, now three against one. There was truly power in numbers.
Airi grasped the role of support as she quickly landed slices all over Akaza. She was agile naturally, and very rapid in her blade swings. Her double-edged katana did two times the amount of cuts than a normal Nichirin blade.
However, since she wasn't as physically strong as everyone else, she could only hinder Akaza's attacks rather than go for his head. She was fully capable of taking off a demon's head, but Akaza was far past that of a normal demon. She had given up on the idea that she could kill him without killing herself.
She knew she stood no chance if she tried to land a hit on his neck. Thus, she desired to blind him, to heal, and to get as many hits as possible in before she gives out entirely.
Tanjiro was nervous. He was extremely worried about his comrades, and his own life. However, as he was about to execute his Dance of the Fire God forms, a calloused hand grabbed his blade and held it in place. Akaza aimed for his blind spot.
"Your flanks wide open, Tanjiro!! Its coming!" Akaza taunted, as the demon concentrated his strength in a full swing onto Tanjiro's torso.
Tanjiro's crimson eyes widened as Akaza held the blade within his overpowered grip. Tanjiro had used a great deal his strength to strike the demon at his neck, and yet...
It was all perceived in slow motion. The hands of the grandfather clock seemingly slowed down.
Airi had assumed the worst when Tanjiro's blade came to a halt by Akaza's own hands. She broadly assumed that Tanjiro would be dead, given how fast and lethal Akaza threw his punch.
Tanjiro focused his weight onto his hands that remained at the blade's grip. He lifted his body up in just enough time to avoid Akaza's lethal blow, with his abs being slightly scratched. The boy successfully dodged the strike.
Tanjiro's eyes lacked their natural spark, as if Tanjiro perceived a different reality than everyone else. If Tanjiro had not dodged the swing, his life would have been taken.
Tanjiro saw through reality. And only he could describe it.
In contrast to Akaza's taunts and the incredibly quick dodge by Kamado, two more blades aimed for the demon. On the other side of Upper Moon Three, a golden blade and a sapphire blue blade were at full swing toward his neck. Giyū was calm, his blade ready to break flesh and bone. Airi was about to strike and create an opening.
Akaza flipped back immediately once Tanjiro backed down. His rapid physical movements only bestowed him a few scratches from Giyū and Airi's blades.
The dragon of Water created a beautiful illusion in Airi's eyes.
Giyū kept performing his Breath of Water forms one after another, but Akaza refused to bring his guard down. Akaza has developed a sense of anticipation for Giyū's attacks. It was an incredible, bloody mess.
Akaza immediately rushed towards Giyū's face, "Looks like you've used all your water forms already."
Giyū's eyes could only widen in an utter shock at how quick and powerful Akaza truly is.
"That's enough, Giyū. I'll end this now," He swung his fist immediately, but Giyū countered, "I'm amazed at how you lasted this long!"
Akaza had no intentions of focusing on Airi.
She ran out of close proximity of the fight, and prepared to leap into the air and strike Akaza in a downward cut. An attack from the sky might change around Akaza's status quo. Airi wanted to shake up the fight.
In all honesty, she didn't want Akaza to lie a single finger on Giyū.
"Don't you DARE TOUCH HIM!"
"Breath of Light. Seventh Form: Striking Luminosity!"
"Aren't you pretty, light pillar." Akaza mumbled under his breath with a psychotic smile.
Airi struck down from above, but her blade stopped immediately. She was right.
She couldn't cut through Akaza's flesh anymore. She wasn't as strong as the beginning of the fight. The blade only infiltrated through half of his upper arm, and it completely stopped from going any further.
Airi struggled to release her blade from Akaza's skin, but the demon could only let out a thunderous fit of laughter at Airi's misery. Airi was far smaller than Akaza in stature, so Akaza could instantly kill her right now.
"Aw, you're so cute." Akaza cupped Airi's face with one hand and squished her cheeks forcefully, "But you should leave this to the boys for now."
By cupping Airi's face, Airi could manage to remove her blade from his grip and force herself away from the Kizuki.
However, once Airi removed herself on her own accord, Akaza instantly focused his attention back to Giyū. He aimed to pierce through Giyū's solar plexus.
How familiar.
"NO!" Airi screamed out. Her scream almost matched that of a child having a temper tantrum. She didn't want to see this sight in front of her eyes, and yet she couldn't do anything about it.
Blood spattered everywhere. It was all over Giyū's uniform and Akaza's muscular toned arm.
It was demon blood.
Tanjiro had sliced completely through Akaza's attack in the middle of it's execution. Airi hunched over in complete shock at how fast Tanjiro moved. It was inhumane.
Airi looked over at the young boy, who's eyes screamed nothing but vengeance and no mercy.
Akaza's eyes shifted to Tanjiro, who appeared in front of the two men in the blink of an eye. Tanjiro's aura wasn't normal, and only Airi and Akaza sensed it together.
"Technique Deployment. End Style: Chaotic Blue Metal After-Glow."
The attack got a lot faster in those moments. Airi managed to break through her chaotic mental state in those moments and join back into the fight.
The thought of losing Giyū right in front of her was a thought that would have utterly destroyed her. She knew she had Tanjiro to thank.
The fight was so quick, and it only lasted for a little longer.
——•——
Airi couldn't look at Giyū, for he was coughing up blood against the wall. Akaza had random, sporadic blows going in every direction. One had caught Airi in the eye. Tanjiro was seemingly out of commission.
"Shit." Airi let out from under her breath. An overwhelming stinging greeted Airi's left eye, and she forced herself to close that eye. The cut struck her from her eyebrow to the bag of skin under her eye.
"Remember what I said about gouging out your eyeballs? Here's your chance to run while you can. Or, you could become a demon." Akaza taunted, his steps slowly approaching Airi's fatigued body. She was seemingly the last person who could stand a fight.
Her lungs stung, for they were as dry as the desert. She gasped for as much air as she could muster to breathe.
Why was the demon so powerful?
Airi was a Hashira. She defeated hundreds of demons throughout her career over many years. She was young, and at the prime of her years.
Shouldn't it be easy to defeat this demon? Why wasn't she winning?
Her mind was a haze. Her vision was slowly dimming, with black hues filling the edges of her leftover eye's peripheral vision. She finally realized that she couldn't see from one eye. It was completely shut.
She looked down, refusing to respond to Akaza's taunts. She looked at her bleeding hands and her calloused palms. Her grip was so tight on her sword that the scabs were already forming from the fight.
She refused to look up and show her face. There was a lingering fear in her eye, more so than her determination to win. She thought she was going to lose. She covered her injured eye with her palm in hopes to remove the stinging that scattered all over the fragile skin.
"HANATA! REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!" She heard his masculine, yet velvety voice. Hearing Giyū's encouragement nearly made her smile under her fatigued facade. She was snapped back into reality once again.
She fixed her slumped posture and stood up straight, holding her eye and covering it with the palm of her hand. She could feel the warm, crimson liquid dripping down her skin.
"My name..." Airi insinuated. She removed her palm from her eye, displaying her closed amber iris and bloody left side of her face. She pointed her double-edged Nichirin Blade directly at Akaza, who could only smile in response.
"My name is Airi Hanata. I AM the Light Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. I AM a child blessed by the light of the gods themselves. And I AM the eldest daughter of the Hanata family. You will be slain by my blade and sent back to Hell."
——•——
Author's Note:
This chapter was so half-assed I am so sorry. If I'm honest it is so DIFFICULT to write about fights.
Stay safe. <3