| 6 - Adversity |

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The sound of your panicked breaths reverberated through the once silent forest. As of the moment you were running towards your home, taking a shortcut through a pathless forest.

Spotting a nest perched on a tree, you approached it, jumping upward onto the branch and laid down Ranpo in it, letting it rest as you decided to spare him of all the danger incoming.

Breath of Light, 7th form. Prismatic Maneuver.

You turned the two hour journey into 30 minutes, jumping over trees as fast as you can, not bothering about conserving your energy.

Finally, you ran out of trees to jump on, indicating that you've arrived at your destination. You ran towards the direction of the shrine, as your heart sank at the lack of light that you were sensing.

"It's not there. Father's light isn't there!"

Tears escaped your eyes and your steps became inconsistent. 

"Not father's..."

"Not mother's..."

"Please God, No."  You thought as your senses became disoriented. As you arrived at your home, you tripped over an overgrown root and slid through the ground, scratching your knees and your right elbow.

You groaned in pain, trying to get up hastily. "M-Mother...? F-" You gasped as you finally seized your surroundings. Corpses of settlers from the first village scattered around your home covered in dried blood. 

"W-What happened?" You mumbled in fear.

"W-Wait.. This isn't the time to be distracted by my emotions... I must expect... The worse..." You stood up and squeezed your right arm with your left hand, slowly walking towards your dwelling. The door was right in front of you, and all you had to was slide it open. 

With shaky hands, you took hold of the door's handle and pulled it rather slowly, revealing your family's dismembered bodies lying around the house in different places. You took a deep breath, bottling up the emotions gnawing at your head and walked through the bloodied estate. 

"There's father's..." You mumbled to yourself as you found your father's corpse, lying down near the dining table with a stab into his heart but his hand was intertwined with your mother's, who was also lifeless.

But before you could look for more of your family's remains, you sensed Seijuro's faint light somewhere outside the garden. You headed towards his location and slammed the door open, finding your little brother clutching onto the nichirin sword.

"Seijuro!" You cried out as you raced toward him, spotting the huge gash across his chest. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw you, and clutched your hand rather tightly when you reached him.

"(Y/n)-ane... K-Kill me." He whispered, handing you the sheathed blade.

"What are you talking about?! You're all I have left!" You scolded him as tears once again fell from your (E/c) orbs. "Don't tell me to do something like that! That's just cruel!"

"T-The demon's blood... He g-gave me his blood..." He managed to breath out. "I... Don't want to be a demon... So please... I want to die as a h-human..."

"I don't care if you're a demon! Just don't leave me, please! Everything... I'll give everything to you! Anything! The shrine, this sword, none of them matters if I can't share it with any of you!" You hugged him close as you started to sob, leaning onto his shoulder lightly. "Seijuro..." You whimpered.

"Onee-san, look at me." You sniffled, doing as he told. "I'm sorry... F-For everything... I love you so much, (Y/n)-ane." He lifted his shaking hands which were holding the yellow hairpin that you left for him to break. "I wish I could bring this with me to heaven. It'll remind me of your pretty and gentle smiles, even though I kept on acting like a jerk towards you. Nee-san, I'll go to heaven right?"

"Of course you will! You'll be with mother and father." You insisted with a forced smile as endless tears flowed down your face.

"Akito and Akira..." A tear slid down his cheek. "T-They were devoured by the d-demon. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything... The villagers... Tried to take over the shrine last n-night- and father fought them off-" He coughed out blood. "-And the d-demon suddenly appeared." You breathed out once again, trying to control the swirling emotions slowly trying to eat you.

"Seijuro, are you in pain?" You asked him with a soothing voice. He nodded in response, leaning onto you.

"Just do it already, nee-san. I don't hate you. I never did. I hated myself for not being strong enough... If you were the one left here, you could've-"

"Shut up! Quit yapping about how useless you are! You're my little brother, so how on earth can you be anything but useful and talented? You idiot!" He mustered a laugh. "Here you are trying your best... But where was I?"

"It's not your fault, nee-san. We all know that." He smiled but grimaced as he felt another wave of pain hit him. He gave you a look that made you frown in dread. "I'm feeling it's blood... Have an effect on me.. So.."

Your tear fell on his cheek, sliding down onto his chin as it mixed with his blood. You shakily sighed and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "I love you, Seijuro. Tell mom and dad, as well as the twins that I love them too." You smiled sorrowfully.

"I love you too." He whispered, closing his eyes as you unsheathed the sword and aimed it at his front. He heard this and stiffened. "I don't like pain, nee-san."

"I know. Just relax and you'll feel nothing." You said in a calm but cold voice as you swiftly impaled your own brother straight through the heart. His face twisted in pain for a second but he let out a relieved sigh afterwards. 

"T-Thank you... L-Live, for our s-sake." He breathed out as he slowly went limp in your arms.

His warmth and his light completely disappeared as he lost his life. You clutched onto him like a lifeline as you bawled out your sorrows rather loudly. You let out a blood curling shriek as the pain of losing the most important people in your life was too much to bottle up inside your heart.

You then heard a batch of footsteps inside your house. You looked behind to see residents of the first village with shocked and fearful expressions on their faces. You clicked your tongue, not wanting to deal with them at the moment. "Leave." You commanded.

"We knew it... You're all demons!" One of them shouted.

"W-What are you talking about?" You hissed. "Now's not the time for jokes! If only you hadn't been so greedy, my father would have had the energy to fight back! The demon managed to kill him because of you!"

"Yes... And we'll kill you! You're the demon who killed him! Get her!" 

One of them approached you and started pulling you away from Seijuro's corpse. You screamed profanities toward them as you struggled carelessly, not wanting to take out your anger towards them. But as you caught one of them pick up your sibling's body, and nonchalantly threw it inside the house, you kicked the person holding you where the sun don't shine and ran towards them angrily.

"Let him go! Leave! Don't soil our house with your filthy feet!" You snapped.

"You think you can order us around, demon?" They laughed in chorus. "Hey! Do it."

You could only watch in horror as they threw a burning oil lamp inside the house, immediately igniting it. You used both hands to grip your face, as the bottle of your emotions broke at their actions. 

"It'll be alright, sweetheart. We'll have a lot of fun after th-" You threw him a hard punch, cracking his jaw and dislocating it. His companions heard this and they looked at you in terror as you poised yourself walking towards them.

"A lot of fun indeed..." You mumbled to yourself as you picked up your nichirin sword. "Nichirin swords are supposed to behead demons... Right?" They tried to run away from you, but due to them setting fire to your house, there were no more paths they could probably use, unless they wanted to burn to death.

"This sword has been perched on top of our shrine longer than when I was born." You informed them menacingly.

"Maybe, just maybe... I'd put it to good use?"

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|| 𝓘𝓵𝓵𝓾𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓼 || Tomioka Giyuu x Reader || Kimetsu No Yaiba ||Where stories live. Discover now