Within Her Eyes - Kimetsu No Yaiba

2. Giyu and Hashimoto

'This is no time to cry,' Tsukiko thought drying her eyes. 'I must bury them.'

Tsukiko had forgotten about the demon slayer whose sword she had stolen until he spoke. The sound of his voice contrasted against the sound of her world cracking and startled her.

"Where did you learn that?" Giyu had approached her and retrieved his sword quite roughly. He had thought Tsukiko to be some clumsy airhead, but this turned out to not be the case.

Tsukiko's head shot up to face his blank expression. Sighing, she stood up, "Kouki's family are renowned swordsman. If I wanted to marry him, I had to learn."

Tsukiko moves past Giyu to begin burying the dead. She stops in her tracks as he grabs her sleeve. "Why do your eyes look like that?"

"You ask a lot of questions for someone so quiet. If I tell you, will you promise to help me bury them?" She needed the help desperately and didn't want to be left alone in case the demon came back. Giyu nodded at her question. He was curious as her eyes were something he had never seem before. "I was born this way. Something about a blessing from the moon."

Giyu made good on his promise and helped Tsukiko bury her family and the Tsunoda's. He made no mention of the silent tears that streamed down her face in the night. When they were finished, Tsukiko covered her eyes again and stared up at the moon.

"There is a mountain two days walk southeast from your village. At the base you will find Hashimoto Tsukiya. He can train you to become a demon slayer." Giyu spoke once more before vanishing into the night.

He could stay no longer with Tsukiko. He had lost half of a day in his journey.

"Yes," Tsukiko said aloud to herself and the moon. The moon made no reply to her as she spoke, "I will become a demon slayer and protect others from tragedies such as mine."

Tsukiko wasted no time in gathering the supplies she needs for the journey. She stuffed her haori, Kouki's letters, and food into the basket her father used to carry firewood in from the forest. Lastly, she grabbed the sword she had used to train in case she had to protect herself on the trip.

Tsukiko almost laughed at her situation. Almost.

She had spent her life preparing to marry Kouki and now she had killed him. The home she so loved was now ruined for her and she couldn't bear to live there anymore. In the course of a night her life was completely uprooted.

On her way out she looked in the mirror. The dark purple kimono she wore was now stained with red. Tsukiko's hair had managed to stay in place despite the work she had done to bury everyone with Giyu. Only the makeup around her eyes had been damaged from her crying but that was hidden under the cloth.

On the outside it almost looked like nothing had happened but on the inside, she raged with emotions. Pushing past them, Tsukiko set off for the mountain.

The journey had taken two days like Giyu said it would. Along the way Tsukiko had washed her makeup off in a river but her hair managed to remain. She took some comfort in the memory of the day before her life was changed forever.

Tsukiko didn't sleep her entire journey. Every time Tsukiko went to close her eyes she was haunted by the sight of death. Her head would bob on her walk but the image of her parents and the Tsunoda's would wipe away her willingness to sleep.

By the time Tsukiko reached the mountain she was exhausted. Luckily, the retired demon slayer lived at the base so she wouldn't have to climb the mountain as the sun rose to find him. She did have to hike through the woods when the path ended. At first Tsukiko had thought that she was lost but her good eyesight grabbed onto the light in the distance and she followed it.