(y,n)'s POV
"(Y,n)??? (y,n)?!" I could hear Tanjiro calling my name somewhere off in the distance, and after each attempted yell his voice got closer. I turned around to locate him, effortly standing up with a whimper. My try at standing was ultimately futile, because right afterward gravity plus my exhaustion forced me back down to my knees.
Small tears of pain budding from the corners of my eyes blurred my vision as I coughed up a concerning amount of blood, it was becoming especially hard to breath because of the intense burning sensation flooding my every sense. The effect of Dragon breathing was always worse when I used my ninth form.
"(Y,n)! What happened?!" I finally caught sight of the burgundy-haired slayer, who was dodging the last few dwindling flames.
"The demon-" I was interrupted by another sharp pain in my lungs and throat, followed by more blood. Tanjiro bent down next to my struggling form, sympathetically patting my back for comfort.
"... got away." I mumbled while slowly sitting up and straightening my back out, doing my best to clear my airways. I was still processing what'd just happened, it all went down so fast that I don't think I could give a good description of what occurred.
*Flashback*
I collided with my opponent once again and blocked his claws with the hilt of my blade, letting flames twirl around us with a dangerous curiosity for our surroundings. All I needed to do was distract the demon for a few more minutes. The sky was already telling me that sunrise was nearing by how the dark atmosphere was shifting to one of royal purple and bright orange, meaning that my plan was about to become successful!
With how aware I was of the pink-haired demon, it wasn't hard for me to notice something that would give me a well needed advantage in this powerful match; he wasn't guarding his lower half one bit.
Seeing a perfect opening to make a move, I flipped back and shifted gears completely. I leaned low to the ground when making a very large slash that stretched up his stomach diagonally. To my surprise, this caused my enemy to let down his guard greatly, to a point where he was only able to block the next quick attack I threw at him without any backlash.
Woah, this was better than just letting him die in the sun; this was an actual opportunity to kill the demon!! I couldn't let this chance go to waste! Without waiting another moment, I twisted my body around and drew my sword behind me with both hands, bringing the blade over at an incredible speed.
And this is the moment when I finally kill this bastar-
"-Well well! It seems I'm back in the battle!" WHAT THE HELL!?! I was shocked beyond reason when the red-haired demon jumped in between my foe and me, bearing her claws with a crazed grin. Most of her kimono was almost absolutely burned away, and her skin had a painful array of blistering burn marks from the heat of the fiery attacks.
Shit, she was still here!?!
The instant she stepped in the amber-eyed man raised an eyebrow, putting on an especially conniving smile that made me look at him in a stunned panic. What was he planning?
"Perfect, just the shield that I needed~" huh???
"WAIT WHA-!!!" She screamed in fright when he suddenly grabbed her by her neck and held her in place, right where my sword was going. By now it was already too late for me to halt my blade's movement, and I was forced to decapitate her instead against my original intentions.
... How could he just betray her like that...?
"Sorry I have to leave things on such a cliffhanger, darling~. If daytime wasn't nearing so soon, I would have more time stick around-" The man's sentence was cut short as he threw the now headless body of his former quote on quote "ally" to the side and snapped his fingers after winking, in that moment the dragon that was hovering over him burst with a flash of light and a hell's gate worth of fire, drowning out the area in a blast of spectacular flames. A glass shattering *BOOM* was let as the final war cry of the dragon, but I was too focused on keeping myself alive to worry about my cruelly abused ears.
For once luck was in my favor, because I had just enough strength to counter the blow and was spared by the feast of the blaze. The material of my sleeves was partially singed by the flames, and my skin endured a few burn marks too. The bright side was that I wasn't fried like gourmet tempura!
I waited for the flames to subside before lowering my weapon and dropping my defense to the point where I could calm my senses, allowing the flaming form behind me to flicker out without destroying more of the forest. I looked around whilst wearing a befuddled expression and heaving heavy breath after breath, seeing that I was the only one standing out in the open.
"Dammit... he got away again..."
*End of flashback*
Tanjiro gently took my arm around the back of his neck and hoisted me up onto my feet, letting me support most of my weight on his body. "Thanks Tanjiro..."
"No problem! Let's just get you back to the butterfly estate as soon as possible!" The boy smiled at me while hiding a reassuring spark in his eyes, gently squeezing the hand of the arm that wasn't draped around his neck. Together we started to slowly walk forward, and we were equally too worn out to go any faster.
To my right I could see the abandoned shrine, or what used to be of it. All that was left of it after the battle was the stone foundation and a few toasted wood planks, the rest of the structure had been totally destroyed in the fiery battle. Heh, seems that shrine couldn't withhold against everything.
As my head lolled to the side a little each time I took a step, it was then that it hit me; The demon had both survived and escaped with the exact attack I'd promised myself not to let him get away with. And that... was my strongest attack.
... Fuck.
I really didn't expect this mission to turn out like this.
Shinobu's POV
I idly walked through the morning streets of the Amber village; snacking on a simple onigiri while using the directions given to me from one of the villagers to navigate my way around. I was mainly in search of where they kept the town records, I'd been to multiple buildings already but; none of them had proven to be the place I was looking for.
Last-night's mission had gone relatively smoothly, my target was just your run-of-the-mill demon. The mediocre foe wasn't anything a pillar such as myself couldn't handle. To me my mission felt more like a side task, with my main one being the search of information on (y,n)'s family. I needed to know just what was going on within the (l,n) bloodline, not only for the sake of my curiosity but for the (h,c)-headed girl.
Might I mention that this was for the purpose of the background interrogation of (y,n) from each of the Hashira, though I doubt I'll find anything that would be useful to that subject.
I was continuing down the same direction of the path when a large opening in the closely built buildings caught my attention. The dirt road split apart to go through this opening, and it lead to a slightly larger building behind the rest of the street. Bamboo surrounded the place in a crest shape to make a serene frame around the important looking building, and there were old paper lanterns hung around the area to attract people to its entrance.
"Hm, I was told that the historian's place would look something like this. This must be my stop!" I muttered happily, walking up the dirt path and entering the building. At first glance, this place could've been mistaken to be an entire library by the look of things. There were loads of shelves stacked to the very top with hardcover books and scrolls, with a lot of them varying in size.
The smell of herbal incense hung heavy in the air, sidling around while hiding timid hint of a floral scent mixed in. The aroma brought back memories of when my older sister would stay up all night in her room, creating and testing out different remedies while disregarding her need for a goodnight's rest.
Just like old times.
"Ah, the first visitor of the day! What can I help you with ma'am~?" A young woman peaked her head out from behind one of the shelves at the sound of the front door opening, politely introducing herself with a bow and delightful smile. She had mid-length dark brown hair and eyes of a similar color, worn in a popular fashion was a blue kimono patterned with bright pink Tsubaki blooms.
"Hi, I'm curious to see if there's any possible history on... the (l,n) family."
"The (l,n)s... Oh! I know just where their files are, give me a minute!" The woman ran off into one of the aisles of shelves, I could hear the rustling of paper-against-paper as she most likely searched for the information I'd asked for.
"I'm really sorry if this isn't exactly the best history telling you've had! Usually my father is the one running the place, but since he's off traveling, for now I'll just do as good as I can to give you the perfect service that you need!" The brown-haired villager walked back over to me with a large scroll in her possession, perking up as she led me over to a small table on a tatami mat.
"Oh that's quite alright!" I laughed and lightly shrugged, watching as she opened the scroll and smiled brightly. She scanned the contents of the paper with curious excitement, but as she continued to read her happy persona was quick to drop to be replaced by a solemn frown. What could be on that scroll that made the woman's mood change that drastically?? Was it really that bad...?
"It... was the (l,n) family you wanted to know about... right?"
"Yes, I'm ready to hear everything there is about them." I nodded whilst taking on a determined face, it wasn't hard for me to tell by her pensive glance that she was wary to fill me in on everything.
"If you insist. Do you... have any preferences for tea?"
*Timeskip*
I slowly stepped out of the building after thanking the historian's daughter for her service, but that was all I could really do in the dazed state that I was in. I leaned on the wall of the building for a strong foundation as my legs threatened to break under the pressure of the atmosphere's mood. I... was mortified...
I wearily looked down at the scroll in my hands, hands that were shaking beyond my control from how much dreadful shock I was in. I could feel my breath getting uneven with each waking moment that I recalled what I was just told, and I almost dropped the paper entirely from how off-put I was.
Was this all true?
I hastily opened the scroll, reading word for word again, again, and again. Though it was only a replica of the original copy, it had all of the same things written down. It was all so detailed, and it explained so many problems that were left unanswered. Things that none of the other pillars or even master Ubuyashiki could answer.
I closed the scroll to avoid seeing anymore of what I'd already read, weakly covering my mouth with my hand. How was (y,n) going to react to this? How would the Hashira take action if they found out?? ... I... was wrong earlier...
I wasn't ready to hear what I heard.
*Later*
(y,n)'s POV
I walked beside Tanjiro on the way back to the butterfly mansion, Shinobu's estate was slowly coming into view after the long hours of traveling.
"You know, if you think about it, I guess this mission wasn't too much of a failure." I looked over at my squad member with a chuckle, catching his attention after such a long time of being mostly quiet. I forgot the entire reason we went off on this journey was to kill the red-haired demon, the male that'd interrupted our battle was simply an extra problem.
"You aren't wrong, we did slay our initial target. This is just a win-lose resolution!" He laughed when scratching his neck slightly, turning his gaze back to the upcoming mansion.
"Hey, isn't that Shinobu?" Tanjiro shielded his eyes from the bright sky, squinting hard at the large building. My heart skipped a beat when he said that, it really was the insect pillar!!
The woman was standing at the front of her estate, calmly watching the skies overhead. She did say that she'd be back after her mission, so could she have possibly gone to the village I'd mentioned in the timespan that she was away?
"Hey, I'll meet up with you later Tanjiro! I need to talk to Shinobu!" I gave him a wave and began running forward to the estate, not giving a damn about the sharp pain in my leg muscles. All I was worried about was if the Hashira had really found information on my family, and I couldn't wait to hear what she might've discovered!!