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The water estate was empty, a blank void unclaimed by its current owner. The only signs of life were from the previous Hashira and the bare minimum for a person to survive. It was overall a horrible reflection on the man known as Tomioka Giyuu, the current water pillar. Most of the time it was left unused and bare by the man, only making use of it when he wasn’t on missions. Although with everything he had gone through one would think it would be worse.
The water Hashira was known to be cold and arrogant in the face of his peers. He was often the topic of many judgmental conversations and would never be caught smiling. None of this was true, the man just didn’t talk much and preferred to work alone resulting in the image the others have created for him. It didn’t bother Giyuu though (Who was he kidding? Of course it bothered him. It was only so long before the mask cracked…) and he continued the quiet behavior.
A well kept secret, well not really, is his eleventh form. There were only ten well known ones, and even then they were difficult to master and hone to a complete control. The water Hashira had created one of his own once he mastered the first ten- truly earning his rank (Not like he would ever think that.) It was called ‘Lull’ or ‘Dead calm’ and it was downright suicidal to use it to much. It involved the user dropping his or her (Or their!) heartbeat to an almost inhuman beat in order to relax the body completely allowing them to move faster than the average human eye.
To anyone but the water Hashira there were ten forms.
To anyone but the water Hashira (And his mentor) the mismatched haori was a horrible style choice.
To anyone but the water Hashira the water estate was his home.
And to anyone but the Hashira himself assumed he was fine. (He wasn’t)
Tomioka Giyuu was a shattered puzzle to all but himself, and no one felt the need to put him back together again. Well until the fateful day that the leader of the corps decided to step in.
-
Ubuyashiki Kagaya was the leader of the Demons Slayer Corps. That was the first thing that came to mind when you heard of his name.
Ubuyashiki Kagaya cared for each one of his Hashira, and it pained him so much when one was killed in action(he kept count of every single person who had attempted into the ranks or had died in action… and somewhere on that list a ‘Sabito’ was hidden between all the other names)
Ubuyashiki Kagaya took notice of the one and only water pillar, unable to stop the growing worry for the man(He was twenty-one but so much of his childhood had been stolen like so many…)
Ubuyashiki Kagaya took pride in his amazing intuition and he knew that Tomioka Giyuu would not survive past twenty two if he continued his downright suicidal path. He knew something was going on with how Giyuu acted with each mission. (He just wanted to give the poor child a hug)
But after all that Ubuyashiki Kagaya was disappointed. He was disappointed that only he had seemed to catch onto the mans suicidal behaver. Perhaps his path had started at the very beginning of his reign as water Hashira and he watched as his colleagues died and were replaced by others close in age to himself. (That was a lie, he knew it had started way before)
The one thing Kagaya would not stand for was standing around waiting for the pillar to kill himself. It was blunt, but it was true. Normally he wouldn’t intervene in his students'(Childrens) lives and just be a guide for them but he would not stand by this time(Like he had so many times before hoping someone else would notice.) (No one did)
Maybe it was the fact that Giyuu had such a childlike face that made him so protective of the swordsman.
(Maybe it was already a lost cause when he first joined the ranks)
Either way Ubuyashiki Kagaya would make sure Tomioka Giyuu would survive to his thirties.
(If the man wanted to or not was out of the question)
Who knew that meddling in this would affect the rest of the world as well.
-
Giyuu flinched in surprise as Kanzaburou crashed into his window, the bird had grown in age and was starting to make mistakes but refused to retire. Giyuu didn’t want to force anything onto the poor crow that knew him so well as the guilt would eat him alive.
“Hashira meeting! In ten- no fifteen minutes!” Kanzaburou chirped after his owner opened the window, having forgotten the exact amount of time. Giyuu’s face softened into a soft smile, only seen by his crow.
“Thank you Kanzaburou.” Giyuu thanked his crow. The crow was an important part of his life, and was the only piece of Sabito he had left. Sabito had named Kanzaburou often electing to call the bird ‘Buro’ instead of the whole length. Giyuu to had called Kazaburou by a nickname, but that faded when he lost his best friend (Whom he was still mourning)
Kanzaburou landed in his hair, perched on the edge of his ponytail. Kanzaburou blended in nicely and none of the other pillars had noticed his crow was with him almost all the time. Of course they also didn’t notice a lot of different things about him, like his eleventh form. He didn’t purposely hide it- it just never came up (And he didn’t want to deal with the inevitable questions)
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that Sabito’s death date was approaching but Giyuu had a bad gut feeling about the aftermath of this meeting. He had always had a good sense of things that would happen, paired with good instincts, so the urge to skip the meeting was something he was internally puzzled with. Eventually he decided the consequences for not going would be worse and booked it to the pavilion where the meetings were held.
“Finally here Tomioka-kun?” A snide comment from the insect pillar was directed at him as soon as he entered. It was ignored, as Tsutako once told him to ignore bullies. (And Shinobu Kocho was a bully)
What he wanted to say was ‘Where's your sister?’ but he stayed quiet, not wanting to cause unnecessary drama. Luckily Kagaya, the master, walked in preventing any more talk.
“Greetings master.” Giyuu murmured, his voice hidden by the other pillars louder and more prominent remarks.
“Thank you, my children, for gathering here. I have come to the conclusion for a better training regimen for the lesser ranks. I will be having each of you record your heart rates during upcoming missions.” Kagaya said, carefully putting his plan into motion. He would send Giyuu against a demon he would use his eleventh form against. When he announces his heart rate Kagaya planned on making a scene about how unsafe it is. Knowing his Harshira they would fuss over Giyuu and his suicidal tendancy’s would come to light.
He received nods from the crowd.
“I will be assigning a specially trained snake that picks up on heart rates to each of you. The snakes will report the high and low heart rate to me and the other Harshira.” Kagaya explained as he pulled out nine snakes. The only one excited seemed to be the serpent pillar Obanai Iguro, who currently had his own snake around his neck.
Giyuu overall didn’t seem to notice what he was doing, and that was his hope. At the end of this hopefully he will have more people keeping an eye on him.
Giyuu Tomioka was confused, why did the master require him to do this activity? He was nowhere near as physically fit as the other Hashira. He didn’t even deserve to be a Hashira. Sabito would be a much better choice.
Kagaya had each one of the Harshira pick a snake up, until it was his turn. Perhaps it was Giyuu’s imagination, but he could sense a bit of an odd aura around Kagaya. But he might be hallucinating and so he ignored it. (Perhaps if he questioned it the whole situation would have ended differently?)
Giyuu let the snake take its place on his neck, its body cold and slimy. Giyuu didn’t know how Obanai did this all day, but he didn’t mind as long as the snake didn’t eat Kanzaburou.
The Harshiras were all dismissed to their own missions, each being assigned one at the same time to get the data.
Each one headed out, prepared to embark on another mission but this time with a snake.
-
Giyuu was perched on a tree, straining his hearing for any signs of life. He had been assigned to a demon who seemed to have a blood art that was quick and deadly. He assumed he would most likely need to use Dead Calm to prevent any injuries.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by a demon walking through the woods. It sniffed the air, and the two of them made eye contact. Both were silent for a few seconds, quickly analyzing the other before the demon stomped on the ground like a small child. This action made tiny pebbles rise off the ground, Giyuu assumed the demon would send the rocks flying at him. He had wished this time he was wrong, but it seemed he was right.
The tiny rocks seemed to be individually controlled by the demon, as they came towards him with the intention to hit and distract him so the demon could kill him. Before that though, Giyuu jumped down from the tree and prepared to use Dead Calm.
“Water breathing, eleventh form-” He watched the rocks come flying towards him, “Dead Calm.”
The world slowed, the same for the rocks, and Giyuu quickly dashed forward and beheaded the demon while slashing the rocks out of the way. The world returned to normal speed as Giyuu let out a soft breath, as his heart returned to normal speed he could hear it in his ears. Giyuu ignored that too, and left the demon which had been killed with no chances of killing anyone else with anything left over.
He returned back to base a day later, turning in the snake which he had forgotten about.
-
“Kanzaburou, do you want more seeds?” Giyuu asked the crow, watching as he perked up at the idea of more seeds.
“Yes!” The crow chirped, very happy that Giyuu had remembered they were running low. Giyuu was just about to head into town when a very chipper Mitsuri Kanroji came running up to them.
“Kanroji-san..?” Giyuu tentatively asked, waiting for her to explain what she needed.
“Master is calling everyone back to hear the results! He couldn’t find your crow though, so I came to tell you.” She exclaimed, a bit too excited for his taste. He couldn’t help but see Tsutako in her, and he hadn’t decided on how to feel about that yet.
“Alright.” He offered no more words, silently walking to the meeting point. Kanroji followed him, babbling about who knows what as he had quickly zoned out.
The two made it just as Kagaya entered. They quickly took kneeling positions with the rest of the Harshira.
“Good afternoon master.” Giyuu murmured, and was once more overshadowed by others.
“Hello my children! The snakes have reported back on the high and low of each Harshira. I will be reading out loud each person’s high and low!” Kagaya said, way to chipper, “Well not me, someone else. Hinaki will you please read the names out loud for me?”
“Yes father. The names proceed like this:
Shinobu Kocho with a high of 145 beats per minute and a low of 87 beats per minute. Tengen Uzui with a high of 186 beats per minute and a low of 91 beats per minute. Mitsuri Kanroji with a high of 167 and a low of 87 beats per minute. Kyojuro Rengoku with a high of 201 beats per minute and a low of 89. Gyomei Himejima with a high of 134 and a low of 88 beats per minute. Muichiro Tokito with a high of 176 and a low of 84 beats per minute. Iguro Obanai with a high of 179 and a low of 88. Sanemi Shinazugawa with a high of 167 and a low of 90. And finally Giyu Tomioka with a high of 189 beats per minute and a low of…” Hinaki paused.
“Dad I think this is wrong…” She slowly said.
The Harshira turned to look at Giyuu with confusion and interest.
“It’s not. Read it.”
“Giyuu Tomioka has a low of 27 beats per minute…” She hesitantly said.
Shock gasps and concerned looks found their way to Giyuu.
“Mind explaining?” Kagaya asked Giyuu, and he took a breath.
“It’s the eleventh water breathing form I created. It’s called Lull or Dead calm, it requires me to drop my heart rate to the lowest possible in order to move faster than the human eye.” Giyuu said, calmly and obviously not seeing or not caring about how deadly it could be.
“Tomioka-kun, if you use that too much it could kill you.” Shinobu found herself saying, her concern was clear.
“I’m aware.” Was the blunt reply, which only raised more questions.
“Why would you use this form if it’s deadly?” Mitsuri asked.
“My life isn’t that valuable, and if I can use it to save others then it’s worth the sacrifice.” Was Giyuu’s monotone reply. Once again this only made everyone more concerned.
“Your life isn’t valuable..?” Sanemi pondered, “That’s bullshit! You think you’re better than everyone here!”
Giyuu stayed silent.
“Tomioka-kun, are you suicidal?” Shinobu spoke up, having put the pieces together.
“No.”
“Then why are you willing to throw your life away?”
The two looked at eachother, and everyone else was silent- trying to wrap their heads around the new information.
“Because I’m not that valuable.”