XXI
V e r m i l l i o n D e c o r a t i o n s
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Third Person p. o. v
"Nice, man... Protecting the humans like the saviour you are in their eyes. Bet you're showered with love and gratitude." Gyuutarou said as he stared at Uzui protecting the remaining people in the room.
Uzui huffed, "Well yeah. I'm a flamboyant, elegant, ladies' man so of course. I even have three wives." He stated as Mashiro readied her sword.
Gyuutarou paused, "You got three wives now? You're kidding me right? Riiight? Unforgivable!" He dug his nails on his face, sliding down leaking blood. Then he glanced at Mashiro, "Bet you're one of them. You're soooo lucky, aren't you?"
Mashiro chose to stay silent. A character like Gyuutarou is a puzzling type of person to talk to- to convince.
"Blood Demon Technique: Splatter Sickle"
Blades of blood attacked Uzui. He blocked them but created an explosion leading him and the two people to the first floor. Mashiro decided to go after Daki.
"Breath of Snow, Eighth Style: Call of the Ice God- Intensified"
"No you don't..." Gyuutarou sent another wave to Mashiro, cutting her off from reaching Daki.
With a fair amount of difficulty, Mashiro evaded and blocked Gyuutarou's attacks, not without receiving injuries herself. Gyuutarou scratched himself again as he grew frustrated more and more with Mashiro.
"Breath of Snow, Fourth Style: White Crescent"
Mashiro elegantly dashed forward to Gyuutarou, successfully reading the movements of his attacks, but as she was just a meter apart from him, she was punched to the ground where Uzui was and was caught by him. The Sound Hashira put her down as another wave of Gyuutarou's Splatter Sickle attack came down upon them from above.
Judging from the sound, the people from the upper floor have escaped... Uzui thought as he threw small bombs. Mashiro and Uzui cut them down creating an explosion towards their enemies.
"Ordinary means won't do a trick." Uzui smirked as the two Hashiras stared at a ball of sash belonging to Daki, unwrapping themselves and revealed Daki on Gyuutarou's shoulders, protecting him.
"Well the two of us are one after all." Gyuutarou spoke sickly and continued to praise the two Hashira's 'wonderful life', "You two are veryyy different, man. Different from all the Hashiras I've killed till now. You're special people when you were born... I envyy that, man..."
"Huh? Talent?..." Uzui blinked.
"What do you mean?..." Mashiro's voice resounded in the building, her dull eyes boring into the sight of the two siblings as if daring them to speak more for their lives.
"Do I look like I have some kind of talent?" Uzui darkened his eyes, veins branching out as he wore a creepy grin, "If that's how you see someone like me, then you must have had a wonderful life."
Mashiro glanced to her partner. She knows that he was just the same as everyone else- Normal but only slightly different in various ways. She knew that he was hinting to some other Hashiras who were stronger and he acknowledges that too much. He is as awesome as any other Hashira.
"Living for hundreds of years yet you chose to lock yourself up in this kind of place? I'm not surprised you don't know how the world functions. This is a huge country swarmed by many amazing guys." Uzui continued, "There are strange guys who became Hashiras just two months after picking up a blade, and some who can even match a demon's strength without the need of a weapon... And you say that I got chosen? Don't mess with me! How many lives do you think slipped through my fingers?!"
Mashiro held an arm out in front of Uzui, interrupting him, "You were always the guy I looked up to the most amongst the Hashiras, Tengen. Don't doubt yourself. But it is true... Neither of us live wonderful lives."
"Nghhh..." Gyuutarou grunted, "Then explain why you two are still alive. My 'Blood Sickle' is full of deadly poison. But you still haven't dropped dead yet, riiight?"
"I'm from a family of shinobi. I developed some resistance so poison won't work." Uzui answered.
"The shinobi went extinct in the Edo Era- don't lie to us!" Daki yelled.
"I've been trained to consume all sorts of poisons for every meal I ate two years straight three years ago. But I guess most parts of my body is still decent against them." Mashiro blinked.
Daki twitched her eye, "What kind of sane person would digest poison each time they eat?" Mashiro gave her an obvious look,
"Me."
Uzui stayed silent. Sweat was dripping down his face as his posture was slouched slightly.
"Hm? Hmm? Hmmmm?" Gyuutarou observed Uzui, "Hee. Hee, hee, hee. Looks like the poison is taking it's effect on him slowly and steadily... The whole 'not working' thing was a bluff, wasn't it? How laaaame. Hee, hee."
"No, it's not working at all. How about a dance for you? I'm in perfect shape, and I can eat a hundred tempura bowls flamboyantly!" Uzui stated with a smile despite his sickly look.
Mashiro didn't look convinced so she hopped and did a full kick to Uzui's head, forcing the Sound Hashira to crouch down on his side, blood trickling down his face faster. Gyuutarou and Daki wore a slightly dumbfounded expression at Mashiro's actions to her ally.
"Here, have this gift. This particular poison likes to mess your mentality a little."
"Don't worry, it's only making me sweat. I haven't lost my mind yet."
Mashiro stayed silent to Uzui's words making him grow a few more veins. Not even a blink of an eye yet, Mashiro and Uzui was already engaged in an exchange of blows from their weapons. The two Hashiras would occasionally switch their opponents.
Breath of Snow, Seventh Style: Whirlwind Frost
Mashiro's technique cut Daki's limbs into tiny pieces. Before getting to her head, Gyuutarou threw a Blood Sickle attack at Mashiro. This time, Mashiro evaded it all, moving quickly, sweat beginning to form finally as a few veins began to appear around her body.
Even the layer of red in her eyes grew, the usual colour of gold growing smaller.
Uzui and Mashiro was a duo to recognise. They rarely saw each other fight, but could tell their fighting styles just by getting to know each other... Uzui lifted Mashiro up by pushing her back so she could kick Daki away. Gyuutarou gave continuous attacks as Uzui threw small bombs again. Uzui sliced them over to Gyuutarou while Mashiro to Daki. Gyuutarou dodged while his sister wasn't as lucky. Whilst Gyuutarou was occupied with Uzui, Mashiro sliced Daki's head easily again.
"Why am I the only one receiving cuts all over the place?!" The sister whined, having difficulty to attach her head as Mashiro continued to slice her sash and limbs. Gyuutarou grew even more annoyed with the snow haired woman and kept her away from his sister.
After a few moments more of this, Inosuke and Zenitsu announced their arrival. Tanjiro appeared from the floor above, landing in front of Uzui and beside Mashiro.
"Some of your underlings came, but there won't be a happy future for you, man." Gyuutarou scratched his face, "You're all gonna die so don't give me your sparkly eyes."
Mashiro smelt the extreme fear Tanjiro was emitting and glanced at him. Then Uzui began to spout some words,
"We will win. We are Demon Hunters."
Daki shouted, "No you can't! Those two Hashiras- your last ray of hope is slowly dying of poison!" This made Tanjiro glance at both of his superiors with concern.
"Our jobs is to slay demons, not lose to them." Mashiro added, letting out a huff. The poison was slowly decreasing her stamina, "We won't ever lose to demons- we won't succumb to death just like that."
Uzui gave an excited shout, "We'll win easily, you dumb underlings! There may be poison in our bodies but we're just running high! Don't look down on us humans!!"
"You're more stupid than I thought. I hope you'll realised what you've done wrong after we win." Mashiro closed one eye.
"That's right! These boys are our prized 'successors'!! They won't run away! They got guts!"
"They're not your normal Demon Slayers. They're closer to becoming Hashiras than most. Better start acknowledging them soon..." The female Hashira patted Tanjiro's head.
"Even if our limbs are cut off, they'll come back biting at you!!" Uzui continued, "And I've already figured out how to defeat you guys! Just cut your heads off at the same time! You'll both die simultaneously! That has to be it! I have no reason to split you guys apart and take the weakling sister alive! Haaahh! You guys are so easy!"
Inosuke laughed, "I see, how simple!! Of course we're gonna win!!"
Mashiro chuckled silently, That's the 'Kyojuro Effect'...
Mashiro gave a small kind smile to the demons, putting them slightly off guard, "I hate to kill, especially since demons were humans originally. But I have to. I have to bring an end to you before you bring any more for others." The siblings' dead heart tingled a little, they both knew that the cells belonging to their lord was the cause of it- well, mostly...
As Mashiro spoke those words, Tanjiro couldn't pull away from the colour of her eyes. It looked strange. Very strange. He wondered what the vermillion colour meant. He wondered why it was red...
It was too eerie for the colour to remind him of blood instantly.
~ • ~
Muzan stood before the dying woman. Her raven hair soaked with blood, her eyes crimson compared to her original soft yellow hues.
Muzan showed no hint of regret in his face, but in his cold, dead heart was a very small ache of the sight. He stared as he watched the red colour disappear and a brighter colour taking over.
The woman chuckled lightly even though her throat hurt so damn much. Her lips moved, "... Co-... Come here." She twitched her fingers, gesturing him to come closer to her.
Muzan hesitated before finally deciding to come closer to her, kneeling down. She used all her energy to lift her hand up and tapped his nose twice. She smiled as she choked out her last words...
Muzan has never grieved over a life he killed before... But this life was too precious to him and too annoying for him to handle...
~ • ~
That scene suddenly played in Mashiro's head in the middle of fighting Daki in the roofs along with Inosuke and Zenitsu. Most of the sashes and the blood slashes were after the Snow Hashira. But Mashiro was okay with it, as long as the enemy wasn't paying attention to the two demon slayers alongside her then they would be okay.
Even though it was okay with Mashiro, it definitely wasn't alright with Zenitsu and Inosuke. The blood slashes kept finding new areas to inject it's poison in the two's superior, speeding up the process and tearing down Mashiro's resistance to it. Mashiro knew that the poison was catching up to her, but not once did she yield to the pain. She already exceeded her limit.
Unbeknownst to her and her two allies, the tinge of her eyes had already lost it's original hue.
Mashiro was now in the state where her movements were automatic. Her power and speed increased significantly as if she was never inflicted any pain or poison.
Right now, her eyes didn't belong to her.
She moved fast towards Daki, slicing her sashes and deflect any blood attacks directed towards her like it was just practice.
Something about her changed... Daki narrowed her eyes, Those eyes...
"Mashiro-chan!" Zenitsu called after her.
"Hey!! Snow bastard! Where the hell did you get all that energy from?!" Inosuke yelled, swinging his two swords, trying to catch up to the older woman.
Mashiro didn't reply. She lightly took one step with her right foot, disappearing right after. Before anyone had time to blink, Daki's head was thrown in the air away from her body with Mashiro standing with ease behind her. Just a few moments before, Tanjiro and Hinatsuru got caught up by Daki's sashes attacks. Tanjiro could smell that something was different about Mashiro.
"Go help the other Hashira, Tanjiro! Mashiro-chan has it under control!" Zenitsu told him.
Tanjiro couldn't shake off the feeling about the Breath of Snow user but turned away and gestured Hinatsuru to get away from the battle whilst Tanjiro deflected the sashes to make way for her safely.
"Breath of the Beast, Eighth Fang: Pig Assault!"
Inosuke darted forward, catching up to Mashiro not caring about the attacks coming his way, only to see Daki's head apart from her body in the air.
"Show off!!" Inosuke shouted to Mashiro but was interrupted by Tanjiro's voice,
"Inosuke!! Take the head far away from the body!" Inosuke huffed at this, jumping high catching the head and running away quickly as he said,
"You don't have to tell me that!!"
Mashiro on the other hand, kicked and beat the body, throwing it up into the air before slicing it up into smaller pieces like earlier in the night before a voice interrupted her-
"Don't let your dark side take over you. Don't allow it to... Or else you'll allow him to take over." Mashiro blinked, not realising what she had done so far.
Her eyes stung, her body ached and felt like it was burned alive, her throat dry of any more noises that she could emit. Blood kept oozing at all places of her body, staining her uniform and haori red. The original yellow hues began to appear back slowly.
Then she a click of someone's voice. Before she knew it, Gyuutarou had sliced two big and deep cuts on Mashiro's left side of her waist. The demon then kicked her down to the bottom of the building using the heel of his right foot before running over to receive his sister's head.
With her body all bloody, in pain and poisoned. Mashiro passed out from the overwhelming moment.
Unfortunately-
She stopped breathing.
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Strike day three! Well... Mashiro's dead... Is she?