Chapter Text
“You’re weak,” the demon stated matter-of-factly.
Y/n bit into her lip, stifling the pain coursing through her body. Pulling herself up from the ground, she acknowledged her injuries; her right ankle broken, her side aching, and head bleeding. Blood dripped in her eye, but she swiped at it with her sleeve.
She forced herself into a defensive stance, “I will not stand down to you.”
Y/n was on a mission, having joined the Demon Slayer Corps a year ago. Throughout her career of demon slaying, had she ever come across a ranked demon, nonetheless an upper moon demon. It was a surprise to see him standing over the very demon she was sent to kill; the sight of him with the blood of his own kind dripping from his fists imprinted deep into her thoughts.
The demon smirked slightly, he too asserting a fighting stance. “I told you, I do not eat women.”
His eyes squinted at her as y/n remained tense with anticipation. “You have snowflakes on your haori,” he remarked.
Y/n slackened with confusion.
He grinned once again, saying, “You should never let your guard down around me.”
The world went dark.
When y/n awoke, she stared up at the wooden beams she knew all too well of, the infirmary. She blinked groggily, moaning at the throbbing and pin-pricking pain all around her body.
“Y/n?”
“How long was I out?” she asked, lazily glancing to where Aoi stood. She held towels in her arms and she reached to place one on her forehead. The towel was cool against her feverish head. She didn’t notice how hot she was.
“Four days.”
Y/n attempted to sit up, but her side protested in a spurt of pain.
“Stop moving,” Aoi demanded. “You were just fighting Upper Moon Demon Three only a few days ago,” she said.
“Oh,” she said, staring off into space. The memory of it hit her in a bolt; blood dripping from tainted fingertips.
“For joining the Corps only a year ago, you’re sure here a lot.”
Y/n gazed down at her hands; bandages wrapped all around them.
“Are you trying to become a hashira?”
Y/n nodded, absorbed in her thoughts.
Bloody hands, piercing eyes, and a comment on her snowflake haori floated around in her headspace. Her face twisted in rememberance, attempting to connect piece to piece. She could vaguely feel Aoi's stare, but ignored it until she left her side. Y/n came to a conclusion: the demon had spared her.