A New Beginning

Stars

"You aren't real." 

"Why not? I mean, you are here aren't you?" His eyes burned like the flames of the sun, painted in the blood of those he ate.

"What makes you think that you are alone?" 

"What makes you think you are the only one with a grudge that could last more than a lifetime?" 

~~~~~~

"Wake up! Tomioka!" 

Her eyes opened instantly, looking around her to notice they weren't in the room anymore. 

"You are awake now, good." Shinjuro let her down before continuing, "You'll take care of that snake demon, I'll go ahead and make sure everyone is safe." 

Currently there were only three people heavily injured, not counting Obanai, as Shjnjuro had taken care of most of the blood snakes that had gone for the family. 

"They are currently on the east." 
"Alright." With that Giyuu grabbed the sword the hashira had been holding and quickly headed to the east, while Shinjuto had already disappeared to take care of the blood snakes. An irritating task considering the snakes would keep regenerating again and again, all of them never exceeding past a few scratches for the Flame hashira had cut them off instantly. 

"Third form: Blazing Universe." 

With one swing, he was able to strike down one of the giant snakes that had collided with each other to make themselves massive against him. 

Another strike, and then once more, Shinjuro was easily fighting off the snakes, carefully managing to save all of the fifty women without any deaths on his part. 

Meanwhile on the other side of the mountain, the snake demon seemed to have the time of its life as she played around with the kids, catching up to them immediately and scaring the girl's spirit. 

She was strong, very strong indeed, but what a pity that she didn't have the stamina to keep up with her chasing. 

She must taste very delicious. Oh what a wonderful meal I'll have.~ 

"She's catching up, we need to run faster!" 

"I..." Mitsuri took a deep breath again as the weight of the boy finally pulled her down. 
"...can't, I'm sorry..." Obanai let himself go of the girl, flinching as the pain in his feet still wasn't recovered enough. 

"Come on, just a little more." Obanai said as he grabbed her hand. Mitsuri took another breath before looking back at the forest, the snake demon was just a few meters away from them. Cold sweat ran through her as those slit pupils turned to look at them, her mouth wide open as the saliva ran down her chin. 

The quick jolt of fear made her get up again, and soon both of them had started running without anyone daring to look back. 

Just the Kaburamaru hissed a warning and Obanai looked back at the snake before pushing Mitsuri off the road. 

"Eh?!" Mitsuri was pushed down into a deep rolling hill with almost no end, her last vision being that Obanai had been grabbed by the neck. Even Kaburamaru had been pushed with her to be saved against the demon.

His mind was blank, the fear running through his body made him tremble as his weak fingers tried to push away one finger from his neck, which only made the demon want to grip his neck even more. 

His little hands tried to reach out for something else instead, the dagger. Without any hesitation, his face reddening out of lack of oxygen, he tried to stab the demon's eye, who quickly grabbed his hand and crushed down his bones with ease until he let go of the dagger.