Chapter Text
Shinobu and Mitsuri started down the path, away from the butterfly mansion.
“Aren’t you excited!? I wonder how many lives we’ll save! I heard that Morioka has great noodles! Oh and did you know that…”
Mitsuri went on and on and wouldn’t stop. Shinobu was impressed by how much she knew about the city they were heading to. Every time she thought Mitsuri was going to stop talking about all the things they were going to do there she only continued further.
“I’ve only seen how bright it is in paintings-” Mitsuri was cut off by Shinobu.
“Mitsuri! Remember our mission is to kill the demon and save as many lives as we can. We can’t waste time eating noodles,” she informed her.
“Oh… well that’s just what Mr. Rengoku and I would do when we went on missions,” Mitsuri commented, chastised.
Now Shinobu was starting to feel bad for snapping and killing Mitsuri’s excitement. After a little bit, she broke the awkward silence. “We might be able to eat some noodles afterwards, but for right now we put the people first, got it?” She didn’t look at Mitsuri while she spoke.
“Really!?” she squealed.
“Sure.”
-
They arrived at dusk. Mitsuri was in awe. The city had so many lights that lined the sides of the streets. She had only seen stuff like this once in her life, while she was in Tokyo with Mr. Rengoku. They’re lucky to have seen it at night time
“Wow this is so cool Shinobu! I haven’t seen this many bright lights in forever!” Mitsuri said, looking at all the shops.
“Don’t get distracted now, remember why we came here.” Shinobu reminded firmly.
I bet you’re fun at parties, Mitsuri thought.
“Notify me immediately if you see something unusual,” she continued, looking around intently.
They entered the more isolated part of town, and at this time not many people were up and about. They kept walking and walking until the streets reeked of piss and liquor.
“Are you sure the demon isn’t somewhere else?” Mitsuri said, looking around at all the trash and drunken men.
“My kasugai crow said that it was more downtown. Apparently it’s reportedly killed quite a few people,” Shinobu said, staying vigilant. “God this part of town is disgusting.”
A man who reeked of booze tripped and stumbled right up to Mitsuri, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. “Hey how ‘bout you come home with me tonight pretty lady?” He slurred his words as he grabbed her arm and reached for the hem of her skirt.
Mitsuri pulled away from the man’s pathetic grip and stepped back from him. “I think I’m just fine, thank you,” Mitsuri responded to the man.
The persistent creep still followed, but to Mitsuri’s surprise, Shinobu stepped in between them. “She said she was fine.”
“Hey! Can’t you see I’m trying to have a conversation here?” The drunk man shouted at her, showing very pugnacious behavior.
“I’ve had enough of your shit,” Shinobu unsheathed her sword and sliced at his arm, only a cut though, nothing too harmful. The man staggered back, dropping his bottle, and clutched the small wound. He removed his hand and looked at the tiny cut.
“Shinobu! We can’t do that!” Mitsuri said, not concerned for him, but for all the trouble Shinobu could get in.
“Don’t worry it’s just a scratch, let’s go,” she turned on her heel and walked the other direction and Mitsuri followed.
The man pursued them again, but soon fell on his knees clutching his arm, “Arg! What the hell did you do to me?!” The cut had turned an ugly green and kept swelling up. Mitsuri cringed at the poisoned cut Shinobu had inflicted.
“Don’t look back, we have a demon to find.” Shinobu kept on walking and guided Mitsuri with a hand on her back.
They heard a pop in the distance followed by a blood curdling scream.
“I thought your poisons weren’t harmful to humans,” Mitsuri said, a bit shaken up.
“My wisteria toxins aren’t harmful, but I’ve made other ones for cases like these. If he can’t keep his hands to himself, he shouldn’t have them at all.”
Not soon after the whole ordeal, there was a high pitched scream from the direction they were heading. They both stopped, then started sprinting at full speed. Mitsuri tried to keep up as much as possible with Shinobu, but the other girl was fast.
When they got to the origin of the scream, there was a demon standing over a woman whose clothes were covered in her own blood.
Shinobu and Mitsuri drew their swords without hesitation and were about to go in.
“Ah-ah-ah!” The demon picked up the woman by her throat. “One move and she’s dead.”
He was obviously low level but rather strange in appearance. He had long straight black hair that went down to the waist and was well maintained. His clothing looked really heavy and not colorful at all. The only colorful part about him was his separately painted nails.
They both froze in their tracks. “Is she still alive?” Shinobu asked, her voice stone cold.
“Ehhh…” The demon looked at the limp girl, and spread her eyelids open, to see there was still a little light in her eyes. “Only if you stay right where you are. If you move I’ll snap her neck. Now-”
Shinobu, disregarding all the demon's warnings, dashed at him with inhuman speed. She closed the distance between them in less than a second. Her blade struck the pale skin of the demon multiple times in very quick succession. She used a special kind of poison that set in immediately. His skin burned and he dropped the woman. Shinobu caught her before she could hit the ground, and scurried away to Mitsuri’s side.
The demon was screaming and seemed like he wanted to peel his own skin off. He scratched at his skin, especially where the blade struck him. His sharp claws dug deep into his own cheek, pulling down and ripping apart his flesh. Blood ran down his chin and throat. He threw up more blood and eventually fell to the ground, completely drained of any bit of life he had left. The demon’s body burned away slowly into ash.
Mitsuri, still standing there with her sword, could barely believe it. “How…”
“This girl needs medical attention!” Shinobu looked at the girl who had a gash on her leg that was still bleeding. “We need to stop the bleeding.”
“What can I do to help?” Mitsuri asked, feeling useless, that she contributed nothing to the hunting down or killing of the demon.
“Hold her leg up.” Shinobu ripped a part of the girl's sleeve off and tied it around the base of her leg as tight as she possibly could. “Could you tie this tighter?”
Mitsuri tightened it and the bleeding slowed down tremendously. “Where’s the nearest hospital?” She asked, picking the girl up.
“I saw one near the center of town, follow me.”
Shinobu sprinted through the streets where they originally came from. When they got there the lights were still on. They rushed inside and found one of the nurses who saw the wound and the girl. “Come with me,” the nurse told them. They followed her into one of the rooms where Mitsuri set her down on the bed. More people rushed into the room to operate and stitch the wound.
Shinobu and Mitsuri sat outside the room waiting for further news. “She’ll be okay right?” Mitsuri asked.
“I don’t know, she’s lost a lot of blood.”
There was a long heavy silence. “Was that… necassary?” Mitsuri said, not looking at Shinobu.
“Was what necassary?” Shinobu asked, already knowing the answer.
“That man that we encountered in the streets. Was doing that to him really ok-”
“Was it okay what he tried to do to you? Who knows if he would’ve tried to do that to someone else, someone who doesn’t have the strength to defend themselves like a demon slayer!”
Mitsuri was at a loss for words. “Yeah you’re right.”
“I also think that the demon back there wasn’t the one we were sent here for. That thing was way too weak. Why would two hashira’s get sent for a demon like that? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe they sent the wrong people?”
“No. The master doesn’t make mistakes like that. Not that big anyways. I think we continue searching after tonight.”
A while later the nurse came out to update them on the girl’s condition. “We managed to stitch the wound up and stop the bleeding. She most likely would’ve died if it weren’t for how tight that makeshift tourniquet was. Overall we estimated that she lost about two liters of blood. We still don’t know if she’ll pull through or not. She’s not conscious yet but if she does wake up, recovery is projected to take a while. There’s possibly months of physical therapy in her future. Would you like to see her?”
Mitsuri was about to speak until Shinobu answered first. “No thank you, we should be going now.” She stood up, and walked towards the exit.
Mitsuri followed her out the door. “What are we doing?! We’re just going to walk away like nothing happened? Not even try to check up on her before we leave?”
“She’s gonna ask a whole lot of questions when she wakes. How we saved her and who we are? We can’t just hand that information out to anyone.” Shinobu kept on walking.
Mitsuri grabbed her wrist. “What is wrong with you?! You commit actions like there are no consequences! What if that man bled out and died after we left? You would get kicked out of the corps if you were caught! Or worse, executed!”
Shinobu stopped, staring at the white knuckled grip that bound her wrist and prevented her from leaving. She gave a little tug but Mitsuri didn’t let go.
Shinobu sighed. “I don’t want you getting hurt,” she confessed, then realized what she had admitted and continued. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
Mitsuri let go of her arm, after a beat. “Come on, let’s go find somewhere to stay for the night.” She turned away, her face a bit pink from such close proximity with Shinobu.
Shinobu stood there and watched Mitsuri walk off down the road. Mitsuri couldn’t care less if Shinobu followed her or not, not with how she was feeling right now. This time, Shinobu would be the one following Mitsuri.
~
They found an affordable inn not too far from the hospital.
“Can I get two separate rooms please?” Mitsuri said, putting money on the front counter.
The attendant lifted an eyebrow at her abruptness. “Sure thing,” he turned away and gestured at a young woman. “Kyoka will show you to your rooms.”
“Wait-” Shinobu managed to get out before Mitsuri turned to follow Kyoka. “Why did you get two rooms?”
“I figured you would want your own,” Mitsuri replied, moving to actually follow Kyoka down the hall.
Kyoka stopped at the first door. “This is room one, miss.”
“Thank you!” Mitsuri said with a bow before entering. She took off her white haori and hung it on the nearby coatrack near the entrance.
Shinobu motioned for Kyoka to wait for her and followed Mitsuri inside her room.
“So we’re going to sleep in two separate rooms?” Shinobu asked.
“I don’t see why not.”
Shinobu, too tired to continue, just agreed. Without another word she sluggishly left the room and followed Kyoka further down the hall.
“And room two, miss,” Kyoka gestured. Shinobu thanked her quietly and watched her leave.
She closed the door, and immediately turned off the light and laid in bed. She was too exhausted to put on the night kimono they offered on the bedside table with all that had happened. She shoved her face into a pillow. Once again she failed to protect another innocent soul. Sure there’s always the possibility that she pulls through and makes it, but even if that girl does, she’s going to have to live with the trauma of the horrifying attack. Shinobu being Shinobu, blamed the whole thing on herself and didn’t think of anything else other than how she could’ve been better and done more. Shinobu felt the first of the tears well up in her eyes and she silently cried herself asleep.