《• ʀ ᴇ ʙ ɪ ʀ ᴛ ʜ •》[ ᴍᴜᴢᴀɴ x ᴏᴄ ]

C44: ☆The New Tomorrow☆

Scars, long line of scars and an almost permanent scowl on his face.

Shinazugawa Sanemi. The Wind Pillar. A demon slayer who strongly hates demons and with an extreme devotion towards Oyakata-sama, Ubuyashiki Kagaya.

Naturally, he doesn't care about Nao but because she was the sister of 'Oyakata-sama', it was his duty to keep her safe.

The timing was almost impeccable. Nao couldn't help but cry. He doesn't care about her, she knows this. Nao isn't the least bit offended. She grew up almost isolated and she was just one of the many civilians he needed to protect from the demons. As a pillar with many responsibilities and a territory to protect, he was by no means obligated to help her and yet the moment he saw her on that stall, he dragged her by the wrist and into this restaurant, fuming and apoplectic.

Ah.. was he going to help her? Of course.

..Because she was her brother's sister. That line of thought almost sounded bitter. No. It was indeed bitter and filled with doubts and heartache.

Back then, she would have been proud to say that she was Oyakata-sama's younger sister. However, things have changed.

Nao has no right to claim anything anymore. She was a traitor afterall.

"Oyakata-sama said you were abducted." The sudden voice of the win pillar abruptly knocked some sense into her, alerting her that she was not alone.

Nao meekly nodded, unable to say anything. But was she really abducted when she came willingly and trusted that person to keep her safe? It was almost laughable. Nao was even doubting her own words and experience. She was confused and at the same time, enlightened to what had really occured.

"That person.. is a demon." Nao ended up saying but she did not have the courage to continue. It was as if there was something preventing her from talking and spilling the whole story. Guilt, shame and regret.

There was a mixture of emotions running through and she was not ready. She was still not ready. She was so determined to go home and escape that Nao never stopped for a moment to address her feeling and they were now bubbling to the surface, all the pent-up frustration and anger.

She couldn't help but shake and tremble from where she was sitting.

From an outsider's point of view, it almost looked as if the Wind Pillar was bullying her and making her cry but the truth was a different matter altogether.

Nao would frustrated... so, so frustrated that she wanted to scream and shout until she couldn't make a sound.

Goodness. She couldn't even utter his name or think of his name. She was so afraid that she would crumble just by saying it, let alone thinking those five letters.

"Crybaby. People would think that I'm bullying you or something. "Touching.

"I'm sorry. "She forced out, wiping the tears from her eyes yet no matter how many times she wiped them, the tears wouldn't stop coming.

Her chest felt so heavy but she should be happy. She was almost there. She was almost safe.

"Tch. Here! Now stop crying!" A handkerchief was shoved towards her face. How unexpected.

Nao did not stop crying despite that.

"Oi!" And sure enough, people were now looking them, staring and whispering to each other about the 'scary man' who was 'harassing' the 'poor girl'.

If times were different, Nao could have laugh but everything has changed. She felt so drained, so empty and so, so hurt that the only thing she could do was cry silently.

Time must have passed while she was curled inside her own shell, weeping for her broken heart. The outside world just seem so far and out of reach. If it was possible, Nao would prefer to stay hidden and away from everyone.

But at some point, someone would have come to take her away from the darkness, to pull her away from the walls that she made to barricade herself in.

There was a touch of pure ice against her wet cheeks and a then there was warmth.

Nao almost sighed. The sensation was strangely familiar and relieving as if she was being held to a familiar chest. A hand was stroking her hair without missing a beat, gently, kindly and softly.

Nao would have never expected to feel this kind of warm sensation again. This familial feeling that only one person was capable of doing.

With instant recognition, her lips parted and formed into a relaxed smile, a name leaving her lips before she was once again enveloped by darkness.

♤♡◇♧

It was almost kind of him. Helping her and providing her the support she needed when there was nothing else she could have done but weep and cry like a child because of her situation.

But Sanemi wasn't kind. He knows this. He only lives to serve the Oyakata-sama and to kill demons for as long as this body would allow him.

Being the eldest among his siblings, he still knows how to comfort someone when they were down. But there was never a need to do that until now. He has long thrown away what little sentiments he had for the family he lost and for the only brother of his who lived.

He was a sinner who used to be weak and powerless. He killed his mother because she killed her children. It was almost a kindess to end her suffering, knowing that she murdered her beloved family and his little siblings. If Sanemi didn't came, what would have become of him and Genya? Of the villagers who were powerless against a flesh eating monster?

Sanemi snarled, shaking the thoughts away. It happened and it was in the past. If he was powerless before, the only thing he needed to do was to grow stronger and hunt more demons, kill them and make sure that what happened to his family, would never happen to someone else's again.

It was simple afterall. Demons were at fault here. He would have never lost anyone so early if it weren't for them. His family, his siblings thay were killed, so many demon slayers who fell and the many scars his body carried... It was all the doings of those demons.

He knows that he would have eventually lost people to death but they could have live a longer life, grow old and have their own children and family instead of ending up in a demon's stomach.

Even faving a single demon was enough to make people freeze due to fear. Getting eaten by one, being killed by one.. there were no words that were enough to describe that.

Sanemi has been a demon slayer ever since he killed the rabig dog who took away his mother and siblings. All those years of killing demons and traveling alone to hunt them.. Sanemi has never seen a person survive an abduction because demons always kill their prey. They hunt humans to eat them, not to kidnap them and keep them as a pet.

One and a half year. That was a long, long time. What happened in that span of time to make this woman cry as if the world was ending?

How did she survive?

How did she escape?

Was she really abducted.

"That person... is a demon." Of course. He was told it was a demon. All of them knows it was a demon who took her.

So who was this demon? And why did they kept her alive for so long?