𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐬 - 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐮 𝐊𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐮 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖

The boy ran across the forest, the sounds of leaves crunching under his boots filled the air with a noise that could be heard even though I doubt he was still close to us. Running at that speed? With all those wounds? And not to mention, he's carrying a whole body! He continues to amaze me over and over, with his strength, his speed, his stamina- it's spectacular! I truly envied his overflowing stamina, especially compared to my own- i was but a water droplet compared to his fountain.

We remained silent for a while, Shinobu was speechless. And after what just happened, I can't say that I'm any different. And until we could barely hear the sound of Tanjiro running, we just stood there and said nothing. 

"Isn't that against Corps rules?" Shinobu asks Giyuu, who kept up his strong and silent demeanor, not a single word leaves his mouth. And I don't know how this escalated so quickly, but what happened next was definitely not what I expected. They started to fight. And the defeaning sound of silence was accompanied by the sound of their swords clanging against each other, the iron being put to an impossible situation. Little sparks of fire flew, like a small firework fizzling off.

But I trust that nothing bad will happen, so I lept off into the air, leaving Giyuu and Shinobu to handle this situation themselves. It wasn't like they were going to hurt each other or anything- they were able to differ the right from the wrong. What Giyuu did, however, was quite ironic. Protecting a demon? It truly wasn't the right thing to do, but I hope that he would be able to explain himself when the time comes.

I jumped from branch to branch, making sure I stepped in all the proper places. Behind me, I could hear Shinobu and Giyuu going in my direction as well. And they were keeping up very well too. Shinobu on the rustling branches the same way as I, and Giyuu on the ground. Soon enough, Shinobu arrived close to me and I stopped jumping for a while to wait for her to catch up, so that we got to get there together. As she reached the branch behind me, we lept into the air, and I heard her tease Giyuu.

"Ah, is that how you plan to keep up with us, Tomioka-san?"

The reason Shinobu was able to catch up to me quickly even though I had left about 20 seconds earlier, was simply because Shinobu's extremely fast, and I'm not very fast. My strength is mainly on my upper body, honing it to be able to cut through a demon's head and being able to fight for hours. Shinobu's strength was mainly on her lower areas of her body. She would be able to run for hours, and kick a person hard enough to plunge a hole through their bodies. She's incredibly fast, too. (Although the fastest among the 10 of us remains to be Tengen.) However, she's not strong enough to cut through a demon's head, instead using a toxin to help her kill demons.

She's incredibly smart too.

I kept low, watching out for the boy with the scarred forehead and his demon sister, while Shinobu jumped into above to take a bigger look. 

"I don't mind you trying to stop me, but don't forget about the other one!" she exclaimed to Giyuu, who was still running on the ground, referring to his unexplained actions of protecting and defending a demon- and the boy- even though he knew it by heart that it eas prohibited, and goes against the Corps rules. Especially since it was really created to destroy all demons. 

Giyuu leaps onto the air, just as high as Shinobu was, as she stared in surprise. And at that moment, I quietly envied their ability and their unrealistically strong legs- I wish I had been born gifted with leg strength like that. And my lack of stamina and experience was not something to be proud of either. 

'Oh! There he is.'

 I caught sight of the boy, a huge wooden box on his back and his unconcious sister lay asleep on his arms. He looked severely injured. Just as I was about to stop him, a figure swopped down on him like a falcon chasing after its prey- black hair tied in a ponytail, a little white cloak and matching boots, and a short skirt instead of the usual hakama pants, much like Kanroji-san. She wore a pink and green butterfly ornament, like the one Kanae used to own. 

'Kanao-san.'  

Word Count: 771