Chapter Five
「Seize」
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"A girl with a gold, starry hair clip. That sounds flamboyantly familiar, don't you think?"
Breath of Stars, Fifth Form: Leo's Lion.
(Y/N) darted forward at the mention of her hair piece, slashing her nichirin sword in an X formation at the two Demon Slayers, her blade leaving it's signature starry trail. Never mind, she decided. I can't play with them as training dummies. They're after me; I have to dispose of these two quickly.
Was this why her demon companions kept pestering her to stay inside? Was the Demon Slayer Corps actually tracking her, a human? She inwardly scoffed at the thought. It didn't matter, anyways. If she could take on four different Lower Moons at once and come out the lone survivor, then surely, she could take on these two Demon Slayers.
The two barely managed to dodge her surprise attack, jumping apart in opposite directions and allowing the girl to fly past them. Her cross attack had left a single, shallow cut on both slayers' arms that would've been deadly if they were a second too late.
"You're right, Uzui-san! She's the one!" the flame-haired one yelled, wide eyes unchanging. "She's a breath user, too."
"Then we must beat her flamboyantly and take her to Oyakata-sama," the one named Uzui declared, lowering himself into a battle stance. "Breath of Sound, First Form: Roar."
"Breath of Flame, Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun!"
With one attack right after the other, (Y/N) found herself first dodging the blades and explosion of the first attack, and then backing away further at the slicing upwards flames of the second. Their movements are clearly visible, she noted in the see-through-world, but the flame user's were a little more transparent in her eyes.
"I can already tell you two are stronger than any other Demon Slayer I've fought," she remarked nonchalantly.
"That is because we are Hashira," the flame user explained after he finished the slice of his first attack. "We're part of the top nine strongest Demon Slayers."
"I see," she replied. "But it's no use," she shrugged, "I can see the both of your movements as clear as day." With little to no motion at all, she already prepared for an attack to deter the two people.
Breath of Stars, Eleventh Form: Aquarius' Water Bearer.
Darting around both Hashiras, she saw an opening on the sound user, Uzui. While they both tried to catch up to her movements, she dashed towards the opening, only for her blade to suddenly collide with the blade of the flame user. Using this moment of collision to his advantage, Uzui bolted around to land a hit from behind.
In a moment of quick thinking, (Y/N) ducked and slid her sword downwards, deeply cutting open the leg of the flame user, but allowing Uzui to cut into the upper area of her non-dominant arm. While the sound user was still landing, however, the girl manage to send a ruthless kick to his ribs, cracking some and sending him away in the process.
"Breath of Flame, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
Ignoring his cut leg, the flame user sent a series of slashes at the girl, marking her body with multiple, but very shallow cuts. It was a distraction, the girl figured. His was move was fruitless when she already sensed the incoming attack of Uzui, allowing her to move away from the proximity of the flame user and block the attack. With this extra time, she attacked low and deeply swung multiple cuts into both legs of the sound user.
"Look at you," she lightly taunted at him as he held himself up against a tree. "Weak legs and broken ribs—you can barely even stand." An incoming attack from the left, she sensed, and blocked the flame user's attack.
Breath of Stars, Seventh Form: Libra's Scales.
Her downwards ring attack sent the flame user back, and she darted with more spirals towards him, landing multiple cuts on his arms.
"It's fruitless," she apathetically continued. "Tell me, slayers, why are you after me, anyways? I'm human."
As she focused on the Flame Hashira before her, she barely got time to react to the incoming attack she suddenly sensed from behind. This Uzui guy still continues to fight, she thought, and she quickly twisted her body to face him. She was in time to block the entirety of the blow; however, his blade managed to cut a gaping hole at the side of her waist. While she hissed in pain, Uzui answered her.
"You were seen defending Kibutsuji Muzan," he spewed, readying for another attack. "That's enough to flamboyantly investigate you, don't you think?"
It was weird hearing Muzan's entire name coming out from another person's mouth, she admitted to herself. She spent so much time with the demons, that just saying his name felt like a privilege to her.
"That's my private life, don't you think?" she asked back, mimicking his words and tone of voice, her stoic face still unchanging.
"It saddens me that such a pretty girl like you was with a vile man like him," Uzui added.
Breath of Stars, Sixth Form: Virgo's Maiden.
She twirled her body and her sword all around her, ignoring her stinging waist. Her blade collided multiple times with the weapons of the other two and pushed them back as a form of defense. She was beginning to run out of breath, but she figured both Demon Slayers were in a worse state than her. She could still go on for more.
"Breath of Water, First Form."
(Y/N) gritted her teeth from annoyance and shock. A new person's coming from the side.
"Water Surface Slash."
She jumped back, only to see a third Demon Slayer with tied black hair dash in front of her, slashing in a straight line with his blue blade. He missed where he intended to jab, but managed to cut through the front of her legs. Upon reaching the ground, she stumbled slightly due to the fresh pain in her legs, only to jolt forward towards the new slayer when her back was harshly met with the hilt of the flame user's sword.
The last thing she saw was the water user's hand come down to hit a vital point on her neck before she blacked out.
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"(Y/N)-chan!" Douma beamed, bursting through the front shoji screen of the girl's house. "I brought you something!" he exclaimed, waving a small box of food in his hand while he hoped for a head pat. However, all he saw was Kokushibou and quick flashes of Akaza.
"She's not here," Kokushibou stated promptly, pacing inside the household of his student, confused as he didn't sense her presence anywhere near at all—and he hadn't sensed it since he got there.
"Oh! Maybe," Douma quivered nervously as he placed the box down on the tea table (he wasn't very fond of the weird frantic feeling bubbling inside of him). "Maybe that man took her out somewhere again?" he suggested, though it was obvious that he, himself, doubted it.
"That man was the one that told us that she shouldn't be going out often in the first place, so that can't be the reason," Akaza countered loudly from another room in audible panic. He was bursting through every room in the house over and over again in a desperate attempt to find the (H/C) haired girl (was he doing this because his leader wanted the girl alive, or because he genuinely worried for her?—he shook that thought off).
The three demons suddenly turned their attention to the front of the house, where the shoji screen slid open once again to reveal the very man they just referenced. He glared irritably at his disarrayed lackeys, who froze in their tracks. Did he actually bring the girl outside? Was he here to return her now?
"What's with all the turmoil?" he grunted, and the sinking weight of realization finally settled within the three Upper Moons: the demon progenitor had nothing to do with her sudden disappearance. Douma hastily squeaked.
"She's not here, Muzan-sama."
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The ropes burned, the stones burned, her wounds burned—everything burned.
(Y/N) couldn't even lift herself off of the ground with the way the ropes that tied her dug into her wounds. They didn't just bound her hands and feet—they practically tied the rope around her entire body, rendering all her limbs useless. It seemed they didn't even bother to treat or bandage her cuts and gashes. They just tied her. She felt vulnerable under the harsh sunlight as she laid face first on the rocky ground.
"My my, she's awake!" a female voice exclaimed in above her. She tried her best to crane her head up, but her sore neck could only go so far. "Here, I'll help you sit up," the female offered.
Feeling two small hands grab her, (Y/N) winced in pain as she was pulled into a sitting position, the ropes on her waist moving against the large gash here. Her head throbbed from the pain, her blood loss from the fight momentarily darkening her vision. Finally looking up, the (H/C) haired girl saw the female—who had purple-tipped hair and a butterfly-patterned haori—that helped her crouching before her with a gourd in her hands.
"Drink this," the unknown female offered. When she saw the tied-up girl lean back in distrust, she offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, this is just painkiller-infused water." She smiled again when the girl before her reluctantly drank from the gourd.
"Oi, Kochou-san," another voice called. Looking up in the new voice's direction, (Y/N) saw a rather interesting figure with heterochromatic eyes and a snake wrapped around him. "You shouldn't help her," he advised coldly with a finger pointed accusingly at the bound girl. "She's dangerous, after all."
When the female with the gourd, who (Y/N) now knew was named Kochou, backed away, she finally took in her surroundings. She was on the ground in a garden, facing the opening of a mansion before her. Standing right outside the mansion with their backs facing the opening were nine figures, including Kochou. Two figures, who she identified as Uzui and the flame user she fought, were sitting on the ledge, covered heavily in bandages (it seems they couldn't stand, she noted). The water user that knocked her out was standing with the bunch, too.
These nine must be the Hashira, she concluded, sensing their power and strength.
"We should just kill her," one suggested. This one had white hair, scars all over his body, and eyes wide with distaste for the (H/C) haired girl on the ground before him. "It'd be much easier."
How hypocritical, (Y/N) almost visibly scoffed. They swear to protect humans, but want to kill me.
"Um, shouldn't we let her speak first before doing anything rash?" another female voice popped up (and she believed the (H/C) haired girl was way too cute to be siding with demons). This Hashira was easy to remember, (Y/N) noted, with her abnormal pink and green hair. "Oyakata-sama hasn't arrived yet, after all."
"We should kill her flamboyantly for almost killing us," Uzui added from where he was sitting. "Her strength is obviously tied to the demons!"
"Mhm!" the bandaged flame user agreed loudly. "The Demon Slayer traveling with the demon, I can come to accept, but not her!"
(Y/N) lets out a sigh. Muzan-san and the rest are definitely going to be mad at me when I return home, she thinks, if I can even return home.
"She hasn't even spoken for herself yet," Kochou tried to excuse. "Please at least wait for Oyakata-sama so we can question her."
The (H/C) haired girl still remained silent for now, allowing the Hashiras to talk amongst themselves about what they should do with her.
"Everyone," two synchronized voices called out meekly.
Despite the loud arguing among the Hashiras, all nine, including the two bandaged ones, heard the voices and turned around to bow low towards the opening of the mansion. The two figures that spoke, who (Y/N) noticed where short, white-haired identical twins, opened the screen from the inside of the mansion. The spoke in unison once more.
"Oyakata-sama has arrived."
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【大正の秘密 | TAISHŌ SECRETS】
► If the water user didn't interfere, (Y/N) had a high chance of winning the fight.
► Besides seeing bloodshed, she gets weird joy out of taunting whoever she's fighting when they're weak.
► The Hashira nor Kakushi didn't bother tending to her injuries in any way, so the ropes that bound her are sticking to her fresh wounds.