𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 | TOMIOKA GIYUU

01 | BOND

akari watched as her brother sabito trained with urokodaki-san.  the birds chirped happily and the sun shined brightly. it was another peaceful day for the peach haired girl.

as usual, she was falling behind in training. choosing to watch her friends train until their palms bleed from the comfort of master urokodaki's house. maybe it was the fact that she was too afraid to face her fears. she didn't think she was ready to face a demon, let alone kill one.

it wasn't that akari wasn't strong enough, urokodaki-san could sense her power. it was the fact that she wasn't persistent ane brave enough. especially after the death of makomo, her childhood friend in the hands of a demon. akari would much rather spend her day collecting vegetables and woods, as well as making food than training with her master. she was scared of failing, she was scared of dying.

as she stir the big pot of soup, she watched three figures returning from the woods, urokodaki-san, sabito, and giyuu. oh, giyuu. she can go on and on about tomioka giyuu. from his sapphire eyes, to his black hair. akari loves everything about the guy. she was pretty sure that she was in love with him, it was honestly pretty obvious, even master urokodaki knows.

it felt like destiny for giyuu and akari. the boy would show akari his softer sides, offering her his calm smiles and sweet touches. they were often found wandering around together, even as far as doing chores together with giyuu's eyes fixated on her.

"welcome back! i made soup for dinner" akari smiled, welcoming her tired friends.

"woah, it smells amazing!" sabito exclaimed, taking a seat in front of his sister.

"thanks akari" giyuu said, patting the younger girl on the head.

—

master urokodaki announced that it was time for giyuu and sabito to face the final exam. akari was scared, she had a bad feeling about all of this. but how could she tell her nii-chan that? especially when he was so excited to finally become a demon slayer.

"nii-chan, please be careful." akari said, plopping beside him.

"mhm, i will." sabito smiled, hugging his sister. "be good okay? train hard. i know you can do it." sabito smiled. she was the only family that he had for a long time. it was just the two of them for a long time and today will be the first time that they went seperate ways for a long period of time

"giyuu is looking for you. you should go tell him goodbye." sabito said, laughing when he saw his sisters blushing face.

"giyuu-kun!" akari yelled, running towards the black haired boy. "please be careful and don't forget to take care of yourself."

"i will. please wait for me here." giyuu said, a shy smile on his face. he can feel the butterflies in his stomach as he noticed her pouty smile. giyuu wasn't sure if he would ever get used to this feeling, just seeing her face made his heart full. he wonder if this was what his sister spend so much time talking about: love.

—

giyuu watched with utter devastation as sabito tried to kill the hand demon. he knew in his heart that they couldn't defeat this demon, they weren't strong enough. not yet.

"sabito— sabito! we can't!" giyuu screamed, trying to help his best friend by slashing the demon's arms. "we have to run!"

as cowardly as it might seem, it was the only option to survive. the demon was too powerful for them.

"no! we have to do this! i'm doing this for makomo!" sabito screamed, jumping as high as he can to reach the demon's neck.

terror filled giyuu's eyes as he watched the demon crush sabito's head. giyuu ran, he ran from the demon, he ran from what's left of sabito, he ran from the guilt eating him up from the inside.