Breakable Heaven || Sanemi Shinazugawa x Female Reader

Chapter Fifteen: Unexpected

'And here I was, hoping that I'd somehow be able to stall for some more time until I reached my sword,' I thought in response to what Akito said, finally managing to reach the aforementioned item with my foot, before swinging my leg up, in hopes that I'd manage to cut off the rope.

Of course, those kinds of moves only happens in one's imagination, and my sword only hit the thin wall and nicked the rope slightly - if I wasn't in a terrible circumstance, I'd probably be laughing at myself.

"Now, now. You must know that resistance is futile at this point, my little one," Akito said sweetly, the glint in his eyes saying otherwise, as he took a step back, seemingly enjoying the way I tried to escape.

Akari volunteered, saying, "Akito-sama, should I tighten the ropes? It looks like it's beginning to get a bit loose."

On the other hand, on top of my frustration, it was starting to get on my nerves that Akito was underestimating and playing with me.

It hurt my pride as a person, and as part of the Demon Slaying Corps.

But, if I play my cards right - and with the correct taunting, I might be able to leave this place alive.

Hopefully, I'd be able to fool this demon.

I gently tested the ropes, my face showing no emotion other than calmness (even though my heart was beating rapidly at this point), and tried to check if what Akari said was true. It turned out she was, as I could actually slip one hand out since it had already started to loosen on my wrist part - though I won't allow them to notice that I could already begin to break free.

"I know that the world is often unfair, but tying my wrists are too much of a handicap on my end, don't you think?" I started, slowly trying to slip one of my wrists out before I continued, "Are you that scared of a simple demon slayer like me?"

Though Akito had his back on me at that moment, I saw him visibly flinch at my words as if I struck a nerve.

A few more and maybe I'd get him to untie me himself - that is, if I'm incredibly lucky.

When Akito turned to face me once more, he seemed more dangerous than he did a while ago. I felt myself shrink back in fear, before righting myself and staying still. The gap in strength and power between us was incredible, and he knew that very well.

"So it seems, that a demon such as myself would be," he paused to chuckle dryly before he continued, "scared of a demon slayer. The one who's not even a hashira."

Stay still, [Y/N], the goal is to make it out of this place alive.

I mustered my strength as I smirked and said in response, "It would seem so, seeing how I'm bound in ropes and you're over there, right?"

The answer I got was a gash on my shoulder, and I didn't even have enough time to process what was going on. All I saw was that Akito lifted his hand and waved it in my direction, and then the next second, my shoulder was bleeding and throbbing painfully.

'Wind blades?' I thought as I glanced at the affected area, before lifting my gaze to Akito, who looked absolutely pleased with himself.

That, and something else. He may not have been lying at all - it seemed as if my marechi blood was indeed beginning to affect him. Of course, I needed to use this to my advantage.

I quickly slipped out my wrists from the loose ropes and tore off a section of my clothing, before pressing it into the wound so that it would be soaked in blood. I tried not to react to the pain but the gash was deep enough that I couldn't stop myself from hissing in agony. 

Akito began to realize what was going on, and I hastily threw the bloodied piece of cloth in the other direction - and as though he were a wild dog, he chased the bait I threw, allowing me time to grab my sword that was lying nearby on the floor.

I scrambled over to the far side of the room, the farthest I could get from Akito. Akari yelped, "Akito-sama!" as she hurried to stand beside her master, disregarding me altogether.

At this point, the gash on my shoulder was beginning to become unbearably painful, but I could only think that at least he didn't my right one, otherwise I would be unable to hold my sword at all. I held it defensively in front of me and saw that Akito was beginning to become even more intoxicated because of my blood.

He then lunged in my direction, and I barely had time to evade his attack; I managed to swing my sword neatly, though I wasn't able to penetrate his neck deeply enough to decapitate him.

"Breath of shadow, first form, obscurity."

I quickly dashed from one corner of the room to another, all the while dodging the wind blades that Akito sent my way. But between his inebriation thanks to my blood and my breath of shadow form, the demon had difficulty detecting where I was.

A loud banging from the outside of the room caught our attention, and Akari quickly dashed out of the room, presumably to check what the ruckus was all about. I quickly shifted my gaze back to Akito, who was ready to attack once more, even though he looked absolutely disoriented.

I prepared to attack once more, until a loud crash came through the door, followed by a woman's scream - which I could only surmise came from Akari. Temporarily distracted by the crash, I was unable to catch sight of Akito's attacks towards me, and I ended up slammed against the wall. I could feel the pain shoot up my spine, and for a moment I couldn't move at all. My eyesight blurred for a split second as I felt my head make contact with the hard surface, and just as I have begun to forget, the pain in my left shoulder surged as well, and I almost dropped my sword.

I managed to roll over to my side as I saw Akito leap for me in my peripheral vision. Before the demon could grab me, however, he was suddenly flung forcefully to the side of the room where he fleetingly stilled, and I could only look up at the figure who did that kind of damage to a powerful demon.

"I arrived just in time, don't you think, [Y/N]?" a thankfully familiar voice said, though somehow I couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment that it wasn't a certain white-haired male.

It was utterly unexpected and caught me by surprise that it took me a few seconds before I was able to speak, "Rengoku-san?"

[Author's Note]

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though it took me soooo long to write it and it's mostly action scenes hahaha though I promise to make it up to you in the following chapters! Enjoy the holidays and remember to keep safe, everyone!