The Butterfly That Saved Him-A GiyuShino Story

Chapter One: Mount Kumotori

To my brother, who pops into my room every 40 minutes and asks me for the update. Thanks for sharing my Demon Slayer obsession. 

"Tomioka Giyuu! Start running west. West! Head to Tokyo with Kochou Shinobu! Kumotori Mountain! KUMOTORI!" Giyuu's crow, Kanzaburou, screeched into his ear, talons digging into his shoulder. Giyuu watched as the crow took flight, soaring through the sky with his midnight black feathers glistening in the sunlight. 

     His crow had grown old since he had joined the Demon Slayer Corps, and therefore wasn't the most reliable. Kanzaburou often misheard missions, but Giyuu could only hope that he had heard right this time. His mission was with the Insect Hashira, Kochou Shinobu. He sighed quietly. Well, there was nothing to be done. Instinctively, he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, then broke into a run.

    After half a night of traveling relentlessly, he arrived at the base of Mount Kumotori at midnight. A crescent moon contrasted against the dark night sky, stars sprinkled overhead. The air was crisp, and Giyuu saw his breath in a fleeting cloud of mist as he began to hike up the mountain.

     "Ohayou, Tomioka-san," a voice said from behind him. Giyuu recognized her voice before he saw her. Kochou Shinobu. She wore the Demon Slayer uniform, along with a butterfly-wing patterned haori which faded from white to pale turquoise, then pink. Her hair, as usual, was knotted in a bun and fastened with a butterfly clip. A funny feeling came over him, like a fluttering in his chest. He pushed it away.

     Giyuu turned and continued hiking up the snow-covered mountain, and Kochou followed him. "Tomioka-san? Can you at least answer me please?" He didn't reply. "That's exactly why no one likes you, you know," Kochou added. Giyuu paused abruptly, causing Shinobu, who was right behind him, to stumble back, holding onto a boulder to keep herself from skidding down the steep slope. "I'm not...I'm not disliked by people," he replied, not looking at her but resuming climbing. He didn't know what else to say. Was he disliked by everyone? He didn't think so.

     No one directly showed their disapproval of him except for Sanemi and Obanai, who didn't get along with him for reasons known only to them. A smile pasted on her face now, Shinobu added, dusting snow off her haori, "Well, I'm sorry. You haven't even realized that people don't like you, then? That was uncalled for, please forgive me." Giyuu ignored her. Now she was just trying to irritate him. Her and her relentless teasing.

     Giyuu stopped when he reached about halfway up the mountain. The atmosphere seemed heavy, and something was out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. There was a pungent scent, like a decaying corpse. He didn't move, and his hand found his sword, his haori lifting and swaying in the wind as his body automatically fell into position, preparing for attack. Shinobu straightened behind him, and he could sense her tension as neither of them moved a muscle, waiting.

     An awful, wailing shriek rang in his ears, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. They had been told before their mission that a Twelve Kizuki, or one of the Twelve Demon Moons, resided on this mountain. The Twelve Kizuki, the strongest of the demons, which received the Demon King's blood, boosting their strength to abnormal levels, by far surpassing normal demons.

     He did not know if this was an Upper Rank or Lower Rank, and he cautiously climbed upwards. He stopped suddenly about four feet away from the edge of a cliff, the ridge overlooking snow-capped evergreens and a field of white. 

     Shinobu came up next to him, and they stood side by side as the shriek sounded again, and this time he could tell where it was coming from. The steep valley that the cliff overlooked. It echoed off the rocky area, sending chills down his spine.

     Before he could do anything, a blur of fangs and claws launched itself at him from behind. Giyuu whipped around, slashing its arm clean off, knowing it would only stall the demon as it regenerated. "First Form, Water Surface Slash," he said to himself quietly, then dashed full speed at the demon, promptly slashing its head off in one powerful strike.

  The decapitated demon head fell to the ground, seven red eyes with bright yellow pupils, curved scars across its face. Giyuu watched as the demon slowly disintegrated, black powder dispersing into the air. Soon, all that was left of it were the rags lying in a crumpled heap on the snow.

     Next to him, Shinobu was still battling, and Giyuu could barely see what she was doing as her sword flew in all directions, making several cuts across a demon's body. She stepped back, and the demon's veins popped, and it staggered back as the poison infiltrated its body. Trembling, it fell, purple spots appearing on its face and hands. Wisteria poison. Lethal to demons. He'd always thought her medical expertise was incredible.

     "I may be the only one of the Hashira unable to decapitate a demon, but I've created a poison instead. Quite impressive, right? Oh, forgive me for being careless," Shinobu said, smiling, as if continuing a conversation she'd been having. Obviously, it had been one-sided. "You can't hear me, since you're dead, right?" How did she say that in the same sweet voice, as if meeting an old friend? Not even a hint of anger could be detected if you didn't know Kochou and only heard her voice.

    She looked up and her gaze met Giyuu's. Not for the first time, he saw an unflinching, blazing fire within those amethyst eyes. Her smile was only a mask, holding back the inferno raging inside.

     "Tomioka-san," she began. "Neither of them-" she gestured to the disintegrating demons-"were part of the Twelve Kizuki, right?" Giyuu nodded. The Twelve Kizuki had a mark engraved in their eye, or eyes, with their rank number and the words, 'Twelve Kizuki.' The demon they had come for was still out there. Shinobu, being a new addition to the Hashira, did not know everything there was to know about demons.

     "Tomioka-san, did you just respond to me? I don't mean to be rude, but are you possessed?" she asked, a teasing smile springing to her lips as she came up next to him and began poking him relentlessly. Giyuu sighed. Here we go again. "Most likely, the Twelve Kizuki is down there," he said tonelessly, staring down at the valley. 

     Shinobu finally stopped poking him, and her hand moved to her sword. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?" She shot up into the air, spreading her hands and gliding from one branch to another, down into the valley.

     She looked over her shoulder, still airborne. "Is that your attempt at catching up with me, Tomioka-san?" In response, Giyuu broke into a run, then flipped over the cliff and began scaling it, climbing down as fast as he could. A few minutes later, he'd arrived near the bottom, and since there was a lack of footholds now, he leapt off the rock and landed in a crouch on the ground. Shinobu was already there, tapping her foot impatiently.

    Noticing that he had arrived, she took off running, looking over her shoulder to see if he was following. Giyuu shook his head and followed her lead. They had to find that Twelve Kizuki.