Chapter 2: The Second Step
Giyuu raced against the storm at his back to the mountain top, the heat from his racing heart now worrying him as it had begun to sear the flesh of his cheek enough to produce steam against the thin and cold mountain air. He did not know why his body had started to quite literally burn up this way, however he did know the signs his body was projecting; the ache of his hands tightening on the handle of his blade, the rapid breaths that steamed the night air, and the blood thundering through his veins. All of these things he knew very well and so ran harder, too worried to realize he'd already surpassed his normal top speed. He knew what they meant, what awaited him at the top of the mountain. His vision blurred as he came to a cliff with no clear way to scale . Rather than waste time, Giyuu's instincts urged him to hump the three dozen feet to the next cliff and jump once more, only to see a half destroyed home off in the distance. He landed and used the complex footwork of the Ninth Form Splashing Flow to throw himself forward avoiding any tree or boulder in his path by launching himself over or around them while keeping his forward momentum. He stepped out of the forest surrounding the ruined home, and the sight that greeted him almost made him falter.
After all, it's not every day you see a demon, most likely only recently turned based on the lack of blood around her mouth, step in front of an attack meant for a human. Let alone two, both humans in this case having multiple slash marks on their bodies. In the instant Giyuu had to take in the sight in front of him, he saw an older sickly man, most likely the two girls father, with pale skin and black hair holding burgundy tips, his eyes carried defeat, but the blood stains on his wounded arms and the broken axe he still cradled showed he'd done his best to fight back. He had managed to harm the demon, something Giyuu took note of for later as he turned his attention towards the laying in the arms of a teenage girl with the same hair, only flowing down between her shoulders in a ponytail rather than the man's shorter hair, and eyes with a healthy tan on her sliced skin. Her arms had cuts, however what took his attention was the large claw mark on her back revealed that she'd most likely used her body as a shield in the same way the young demon was doing now.
Speaking of, the first thing he noticed about the young girl turned demon was her slitted and pink eyes, in them he saw the madness all demons carried, supplemented by their insatiable hunger for human flesh, however what truly almost took his breath away was the steel will Giyuu saw within, tempered by the bright flames of her desire to protect the humans behind her as she used her body to protect what was most likely her family. Her long hair was matted by the blood she'd shed even as her claws bounced of the hide of the grotesque demon impaling her with one of its hands and laughing as he raved at the top of his lungs about ruined art. Giyuu had seen enough, his own rage began to burn in tandem with the heat searing his cheek in an intricate series of lines unknown to him as he sped up once again to crossing a hundred feet in a single bound to bring his sword down on the arm still impaling the young girl, before bringing his blade around to the grotesque abomination's neck with all of his momentum smoothly transferring into the Eighth Form Water Basin, choosing to protect the civilians rather than go into a battle with them as collateral, catching the monsters gaze for a second before it launched itself backwards away from his blade and into one of the many pots scattered around the clearing the mountain home resided in. He took in the many corpses littered around the lawn, all sliced into pieces cleanly by an axe still embedded into one of their heads from where it had finally broken. Only one was sliced into ribbons, most likely by the demon girl he carried under one arm as he jumped back and placed her trembling form in front of the two injured civilians. He took only a single moment to see what she would do when faced with such massive amounts of blood pooling from the girls back and sickly man's side, only to see her begin to cry as she dragged herself closer to her family and kneeled in front of them with her arms spread to meet his own slightly wide azure eyes. He offered a single nod and a small smile that baffled the new demon enough for her arms to fall to her side as the arm still implanted in her sternum was pushed out and the hole left behind began to slowly close. He offered her words that he'd wished he was strong enough o say to every victim of demons, he'd already decided that this one was special, and that she would have a chance to prove she could fight her new nature.
" Don't cry.", he whispered to the three on the ground as he kneeled in front of them. "Don't despair.", he continued as three pairs of eyes widened to lock onto his own. "Now's not the time for that.", the words seemed to hit both girls at once as they flinched back in unison, as the older man stared at him with gratitude for saying the words he could not in his battered form. "I know you're devastated. Your families hurt, and you've become a demon.", Giyuu said, focusing on the pink eyed girl in front of him, while keeping the other demon's shaking pots in his peripheral vision. " I know it's painful. I know you want to scream. I understand.", he said to all three as the shaking finally stopped around them and a hysterical laughter resounded through them. " If I had gotten the message sooner, perhaps this wouldn't have happened. But there's no way to turn back time.", he stood once more keeping his gaze on the three as the demon crawled backwards to wrap her arms around the two injured humans and sob even louder. " So feel it. Feel the rage. The pure rage of not being able to forgive these demons will become your answering drive to take action!", he growled out as his azure orbs met with the misshapen demon. "If you want to protect your family, your resolve can't be fragile! It must be as strong as steel, you must not falter, not even for a second. Otherwise you can kiss your family goodbye.", he finished before the water hashira and scaled demon raced toward each other, the heat pouring from Giyuu's heart seemed to be satisfied as it finished whatever it was doing to his left cheek, and spread out along his body through his veins, the pounding of his heart only speeding up as the heat spread.
He ignored it as he jumped towards his foe, ignoring the heat, ignoring the awed eyes of the two human and one demon staring at his back, ignoring his crow cawing out four words as it sped off towards where the hashira were gathered for a formal meeting with that would give any demon slayer pause as he spun his blade and body around in countless rotations that built up momentum in his blade once more, slashing through the aquatic monsters sprouting from the pots that shook once more, preparing to unleash the Tenth Form Constant Flux onto the demon as the opening to what he felt would be the longest combination of forms of his life as he stared at the kanji in the eyes of his opponent, who brought his fist to meet the hashira's blade…
Upper Moon Five …
"Upper Rank Five spotted!", hiis crow cawed out again and again as it sped away from the two warriors about to clash, flying towards its human's peers in a desperate bid for reinforcements. Giyuu knew his companion crow would not make it in time. The storm Giyuu raced against would reach the mountain only a handful of moments after dawn, which itself was still an hour away. It would block the mountain passageway from humans for the next week, and the only shelter around would be the half destroyed home behind him. There was little hope for his survival let alone victory; Giyuu did not have Sabito's talent with a sword, he did not have the sheer strength of the large and kind stone hashira Gyomei Himejima, he did not have the intelligent insect pillar Shinobu Kocho's blinding speed, nor the flame hashira Kyojuro Rengoku's unstoppable vigor. He didn't have the love pillar Mitsuri Kanroji's desire fueled raw power, nor the snake pillar Obanai Iguro's cool calculated blade work to see him through the battle. He did not have the endless and passion for freedom of the sound hashira Tengen Uzui to drive him forward, nor the ditsy and forgetful mist hashira Muichiro Tokito's sheer potential for the blade, and he did not possess the wind hashira Sanemi Shinazugawa's sheer destructive potential. All he had was his own training, his conditioning, and his honed understanding of water breathing…
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"You have to live!!!" , Sabito's words echoed in Giyuu's head as the demon was forced to sacrifice both arms to save it's half healed neck from being sliced through, stunned silent from its laughter by Giyuu's domineering technique. "It doesn't matter if you think the world would have been better if you weren't alive. All of these what ifs and what could have beens are meaningless because you are here. You are the water hashira. You are alive! Go forward, Giyuu. The secret to ending this war lies ahead of you, but it must be protected, nurtured, and taught. You must save her, Giyuu.", the dead man's voice finished as the upper moon jumped back to summon more sea monsters to aid it, the beat of his heart still speeding up in his chest, beating a tempo of war and fury through the water hashira's soul as Giyuu grit his teeth and lunged forward with a roar.
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…but maybe it was enough to protect this one thing from the demons.
As the two began their deadly dance, neither saw the half transparent pink haired teenager kneel in front of the awed family of three. They didn't see the naked awe in three sets of eyes over the beautiful swordsmanship of the man who protected them. They didn't see the gratitude that was shown in the eyes of their tired frames as they relaxed for the first time in the hour the sickly man had fought the demons back for his daughters safety, feeling safe once more in their own home. They stared at the broad shoulders and tall frame of their raven haired azure eyed savior as he raced forward against the beast, blood flying from his simple and elegant blade as he cut down another dozen sea monsters in a single stroke. The spirit took a single glance at the warrior protecting them and smiled before turning back towards the family, mouthing three words before disappearing in the next gust of wind and snow, leaving the three to rest and behold the battle before them in peace…
' You're safe now' , the teenager had mouthed to them before vanishing into the morning wind, leaving them in capable hands.