Chapter Text
An easy mission was just what you needed. The day had been awfully slow, and training by yourself was kinda boring. To be fair it was supposed to be your day off, however, more often than not your free days would line up with Sanemi’s so you would always end up sparring. But Sanemi was busy on a mission, he was supposed to arrive at his estate yesterday but it ran a bit longer than expected and should be arriving by tomorrow the latest, at least that’s what Sorai told you.
Either way he had left after an argument and he’d made no further advances to try to contact you, the message was clear, he didn’t want you around when he came back.
So when your Kasugai Crow showed up apologizing and telling you your help was needed for a quick mission, you couldn’t help but feel a bit of excitement.
The mission was 5 minutes away from your estate, so on the short run over you got the details. There had been a few very recent disappearances related to an abandoned hospital in the village, mostly teens, who would traditionally use the place as a drinking spot.
There weren’t many cases reported yet, which was a good sign. Based on the knowledge available, this was probably a new demon, taking a few easy victims sporadically while staying in a specific spot that gave them the upper hand.
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The village was very pristine, it was honestly a bit robotic. Even the interactions with the citizens who accepted to answer a few of your questions seemed a bit… reserved.
The hospital had been abandoned 5 years ago however the disappearances started a month ago, three teens had gone missing by now, a pretty low number compared to your usual missions. This was the perfect moment to strike the demon, time was of the essence here.
Luckily the hospital wasn’t a huge structure, so roaming around wouldn’t be that hard and neither would it be getting a feel for the rooms and structures that could be functional in battle.
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The civilians said most teens would hang around what used to be the physical therapy area located on the third floor of the main wing, it made sense, it was a pretty open space with a few interesting contraptions from back in the day. The only thing left to do was wait, so you took it upon yourself to inspect the zone.
The place was a bit thrashed around, things were out of place, and there were signs of fresh movement, like dust missing in certain areas, and trash that looked to be newer than the surrounding one. Something moved in the corner of your eye and you immediately reached for your sword, your hand hovering over the handle, after a few seconds a mouse ran out of the ruble, you let out a sigh.
The mouse ran around the room, you watched from a distance, no need to get all familiar with it, yes, even demon slayers have silly fears. It finally found an exit spot, a small vent, and so it went. As soon as it was out of sight you heard a squeak, and you felt the room grow cold and the air get thicker, your hand flew to your sword, this time actually unsheathing it. The forest green hue of your blade glistened in front of you, the moonlight giving you just enough light to properly work in this room.
Suddenly something grabbed you by the ankles from behind and pulled you, not having enough time to react, your nose took most of the fall immediately bleeding, great. You quickly flipped your body and slashed around your ankles, freeing yourself from the grasp of what you now knew was the demon. It quickly hid entering the same vent the mouse had gone through, its body almost evaporating into it, interesting.
Blood was still dripping from your nose, not a worrying amount but definitely something you should take care of now before it got worse; which made you realize, you were healing a bit slower than normal.
The vent echoed and that’s when you saw a cloud of black smoke coming out of it, which soon enough gathered itself into the form of the demon. Its whole body was black, mist surrounded it, probably around 2 meters tall, and then you looked at its face. Your eyes widened as you noticed a number seven on one of it’s yellow eyes, what the fuck is one of the twelve kizuki doing here.
Something had felt wrong the entire time you were trying to dig up information on the disappearances… were the townspeople lying? Or did they have no idea of the real truth?
There’s no time to solve this mystery now, it can, and it will wait, because right now you had to figure out what the fuck was your game plan. Hashira always look ready on the outside but on missions like this when the plan was never to come across something so powerful it wasn’t odd for a bit of chaos, at least internally.
You planted your feet steadily, both hands on your blade, “What are you doing here?” the demon just showed a mischievous smile and giggled. It knew you didn’t expect such a strong opponent, and it was going to use every second that he had available while you adjusted to this change for its benefit.
A gust of wind pushed you back, sending you flying until you stopped, well, more like the wall stopped you. Something cracked, and your body went cold before pain consumed you, you fell on your knees using every ounce of strength you had to get your breathing in check, just enough to make the pain bearable. You slowly got up, your whole body trembling, this was gonna be a long job.
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This was insanity. Hours had passed, and the demon still stood strong in front of you, meanwhile you could barely see straight. Looking out the window, sunrise was probably in two hours, where you even gonna last that long?
The demon had flung you around the room with those strange wind attacks, and your healing seemed to be getting slower. The only thing you could assume was that the mist surrounding it had some sort of effect on the human body, hindering your ability to heal. Honestly, with someone else present this wouldn’t be that much of a big deal, you could still heal, however, alone, this definitely took a toll on you.
By this point you had lost a lot of blood, had a few broken ribs, a broken leg, a broken nose, and something really did not feel normal in your back. You moved forward with determination even if your vision had black spots all over, there’s no time to show weakness in front of a demon.
You had fought so many demons and come out victorious, but this time you were truly afraid of what would happen in the next few hours. Not only that, but you were having trouble predicting its attacks and whenever you got close to slashing its head off it would vanish into smoke, appearing somewhere else and landing a hit on you.
Your mind couldn’t help but wonder what if this was gonna be it, and that led you to thinking about Sanemi. You two had fought the last time you saw each other, granted you often fought, it was nothing new you’d been friends for years and still you rarely saw eye to eye on many topics, but this time he had had enough of you.
He could never understand why you would act so recklessly on missions, always going head first into battle. It seemed funny to you, he was describing his exact fighting method, so why was it fine and acceptable when he did it but suddenly when you did, it was “messy”, “immature”, and “stupid”. He decided to add the cherry on top after a yelling match and straight up tell you that you were gonna die fighting if you kept that up… Would he ever respect you as a hashira? Would he ever understand that you two were equals?
Your breath quivered, your fingers tightened around the hilt of the sword, you grounded yourself, Sanemi can’t win this argument.
You stepped forward concentrating on your breathing, the demon snickered, you clearly looked like you’d been through a lot, it saw no way for you to win this. You raised your sword, after all, sometimes being underestimated is the best advantage.
As you got near it, you saw the perfect opening, you jumped and slashed at the same time, your sword making contact with the demon's neck at the perfect spot. You had to put your whole body strength into the move to even make the sword budge a centimeter, your body felt like it was being massacred from the inside, everything hurt, but you couldn’t stop now. You yelled as your sword made its way across the demon’s neck, the demon quickly gathered itself and grabbed you, one hand on your neck the other one on your right arm trying to push it back. You could feel yourself losing oxygen, and you knew that as soon as you cut its head off, you had to focus solely on staying alive. Blood made its way up your throat, inevitably coughing it up you saw as it landed on the demon’s arm, you were so close, just a few more seconds and you’d be done with it.
Finally, you felt your sword give in, it sliced through, and you flew backwards, the demon produced a strong wind cloud as it began to vanish, some sort of last minute self-defense. What you didn’t see coming was the fact that that gust of wind would send you flying directly at a metal shelf, you felt every single nerve in your body fire up, this had to be some sort of sick joke. You landed on your knees, your feet were too weak to hold you up, but apparently so were your hands as you melted onto the floor. You painfully turned up so that you could control your breathing properly, you didn’t know what happened, if it was the blood loss, the pain, or just your mind playing tricks with you, but your legs were unresponsive. You couldn’t help but laugh, yeah sure you’re not dead, but you’re not far off from it either.
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A sharp string of pain made you open your eyes and yell out. You were being moved by a group of kakushi, when did you even pass out? The pain kept getting worse as they slowly did their best to move you without putting you at risk, you could see it in their eyes, you were going to be a tough case for them. You kept twitching, every touch was a new sensation of pain, a new wave of torture, tears fell down your cheeks. You felt a sharp sting on your arm, and you grew dizzy, they had sedated you, thank god.
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Your eyes slowly opened, you were now being wheeled into the butterfly mansion. Your legs were still unresponsive, and you panicked, how could you not? “FUCK” you kept trying to move, but they wouldn’t budge, the kizuki panicked as well, they knew you moving around wouldn’t help so they held you down. Your panic quickly went from panic to anger, from anger to sadness, you stopped fighting against the hands that held you down “Please… my legs… I can’t” you choked on a sob. “Don’t worry miss, the Insect Hashira is on her way here”
Heavy and fast footsteps were getting near, that wasn’t Shinobu at all. That’s when you saw it, a flash of white hair on your peripheral vision. “Where is she?” you heard him say, he was mad, it was obvious. You tried to lift your arm, the kizuki held you down “Mister Shinazugawa, here!” the kizuki said, you smiled up at him as a way of saying thank you. Moving your neck felt like trying to move concrete, but you did it anyway, Sanemi was coming towards you “What the fuck happened to you?” a breathy laugh left your lips “guess I fight messily”. His eyes visibly softened, and his mouth cracked open just to be cut off by a calming voice, Shinobu. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I must take her away right now.”
Sanemi could tell you were mostly out of it, there was blood all over you, even your eyes were bloodshot, you had definitely pushed yourself over the limit. He was nervous, you looked weak, and frail, he’d never seen you like this. His eyes left yours to take a look at Shinobu, you couldn’t hear what he said, but you saw Shinobu nodding her head as she shooed him away. “Hi there” she finally addressed you “Seems you got quite a beating, you can’t really move from the hips down can you?” you replied with a soft no, fear was bigger than pain at this moment; Shinobu’s next words would define your future “I’ll see what I can do for you”.
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It had been two hours since Shinobu took you to a private room, no updates yet other than one of the butterfly girls telling Sanemi that you’re stable.
He was starting to lose his patience, he tried to put the pieces together, but it didn’t add up, your crow said it wasn’t a high rank mission so what the fuck happened out there then… He couldn’t help but think back on the argument that you two had before he left, he’d fucked up big time. Sanemi was never one to be truthful with his words when it came to explaining his feelings. How was he meant to explain to his best friend of 5 years that seeing her harm herself (in the same ways he did during combat) stressed him out. And it wasn’t because you were unpolished or a bad image for the demon slayer corps… he just didn’t want to lose you.
He leaned back and rubbed his hands over his face, you’d be okay, he knew it, you weren’t one to give up easily. But even so, the fear sneakily snaked up on him as he felt his eyes water as he looked at the floor.