Eye Patch Girl (KnY)

All The World's a Stage

4 remaining.

—
–
-
–
—

"Obanai, take care of yourself! Please!! I'll deal with him!" Himo desperately shouted to him as she realised his eyes were slashed and bleeding into blindness that even her abilities could not heal him from in the future, while his pet snake could indeed help him see without his own eyes, she desperately didn't want to lose anyone else who, while cruel and cold to her in the past and sometimes still, was someone she fought by and wanted to help him survive. "Don't worry about me, you've always done that, now it's our turn to help you!"

Her eyes widened at his sudden change, usually he was cold to her, even when she tried to bring him food or even befriend his pet snake, he simply never clicked with her. Yet here he was, helping the both of them fight and even speaking reassuring words. Himo gave a slight grin and Obanai felt she was doing so even if he couldn't see her. While he didn't show it, she and the rest of the Slayer Corps felt like a family who truly cared for him. "...Be careful, but if you think so, I trust in you, and Obanai—thank you. Even if it might be the last thing I say here." He chuckled softly at her sudden appreciation and they ran after the demon lord together.

One with the spirits of the dead and one with a serpent guiding them. They fought while Tanjiro recovered a bit more and caught up, their strokes both cutting Muzan and again shaking his confidence in if he could survive or even escape this fight alive long enough to get help. Obanai stabbed right into his neck, the demon lord realised and shrieked in anger, cutting the Snake Pillar further. Himo healed it but he was still blind besides his snake and disoriented. "Wait! Take these, combine your sight in tandem with the crows!" Tanjiro caught up to them and held one of the papers that had the sight of the crows. Obanai fumbled around for it as they were dropped but managed to grasp one from the ground and stuck it onto his forehead.

For nothing of course, one attack crushed Tanjiro's lungs from the inside and slaughtered most of the crows in the skies. Himo was heartbroken and her bone strings went to prick the crows. When he thought they were dead, the birds instead rose from the dead and gave him quite the fright. Oyataka back at the headquarters felt like he was being given a splitting headache and being relived of one at the same time, his nose was bleeding and he knew the crows were dead but they still gave him clear images from the ground, it didn't take long until they flapped their wings and circled back to the fight despite being very dead. Muzan had a new mouth splitting his chest open with teeth lining it, she smiled and wiped the dripping blood from the corner of her own mouth that was healing rapidly. "Nice mouth, now eat shit with it and die."

She really did reflect Tamayo, the annoying woman who refused to die despite all his efforts to track them down, expectations she managed to break and exceed as a result and now the two acting the same.

"Twenty-five minutes until dawn, make your moves however because they won't matter once we're finished." Again, that smile that told him she wasn't simply a singular person, she spoke for all he'd killed in his life. Another block of her blade and she leapt back with another smug grin with borderline murderous eyes. His breath was starting to get heavier as the aging drug Tamayo, Shinobu, and Himo had jointly created lowered his stamina ever so slowly. "Twenty-four minutes, keep going and at this rate you'll burn yourself without the sun so you'll be doing my job for me!"

Inosuke dropped down, blood spattered everywhere on him but he was alive, her heart was so relieved it felt like it could've just passed out on the spot. "You really got be good back there, you almost killed me... One is missing an arm, and another's missing a leg, they're out of range of Soot's healing but I saw the corpses, they're the buddies I ate with...Give back the arm, give back the leg, give back the lives and if you can't do that then you'll die a million times over for it!!!"

'Still pronouncing my name wrong even after all this time...welcome back Inosuke.'

"Himo! I can hear Tanjiro's pulse, help him!" Zenitsu yelled to her as he dove into the fight with the demon lord himself. Himo gave a determined nod and quickly picked her way over to him through the cracked ground and shattered buildings, she thought while trying to heal him as best she could with any cuts mending and his lungs reconstructing themselves. Inosuke said how the others had stopped being healed once she'd left, it was risky and dangerous for her own health even as a demon but despite the risks she stretched her abilities to the max, the extra bone strings shot out to find their targets and latched on to deliver healing at new rates.

Himo's breathing quickened, she clutched her chest as the new power being used began to take its toll, oxygen being blocked from her lungs and her limbs hurt, she realised she was suffering a small part of the pain the others had as an exchange for their quickened healing. Muzan sensed the pillars managing to stand up again even with their wounds, their injuries fixing themselves quicker than he could inflict them and sharply glared towards her collapsed figure briefly, although couldn't keep looking away for long as Inosuke and Zenitsu kept him occupied well enough. "Pests...pests, all of you, no matter how many times I try to cut you down, you all just get up again...I couldn't even kill one of them thanks to that infuriating boy...and then that girl simply healed them."

"Are you alright?" Tanjiro held a hand up to hers as he shakily sat up, she nodded but clearly was being pained at the very least. He worried, seeing so many others be lost in their fights hurt so much that the possibility of losing her might break him. Throughout his journey as a slayer, he never once wanted to think about a world where they would part. "I'll be fine, the pillars will join you soon, just make sure he can't escape and I'll be okay in the end. Make their pain worth it." Himo pointed at Muzan still fighting with an expression that very clearly meant pain that made his heart hurt for her, Tanjiro gave a reluctant nod and left her alone to fight.

Her body was pumping so much adrenaline it was hard to process anything else, but she stood up while the other pillars arrived and had to smile, everything would be alright and it was ten minutes until sunrise where they'd win. Maybe everything would turn out alright in the end and she'd be happy with the ability to start a life without the stress of needing to kill demons, the stress of needing to stay alive. Everything should be worth it, just for this moment.

A few more minutes, everything would be clear and a victor would be decided, she rushed over to help the medical staff begin preparations and instructed the lower rank slayers readying their lives. Things would be worth the suffering she'd gone through! Together they'd be free, they could finally be free of fear and live for once! Everything would be...alright.

Sighing contently, she faced the fight still going on and breathed slowly, warming herself while wind nipped away at them. Things would be over soon.

But then—

A hand was going through her chest and her neck began to hurt, spitting blood, she was made aware that Muzan had punched an arm straight through her chest and had decapitated her for good measure while he ripped out her heart. Everything froze, they were about to win, right? So why did everything and everyone around stop? Things were going numb and her vision fell to the ground and began to go dark, slowly ebbing away like a play's curtains closing, her life as a story was ending. Everyone fell silent as they realised what he'd done and Muzan gave a shaky laugh, then began laughing even more. Even Tanjiro couldn't move to protect or help her because they were all frozen in shock.

Everyone felt as if time stood still, she'd been so distracted with helping everyone else she didn't notice Muzan had been gunning for her the whole time. To kill the only healer was to weaken the entire team. The others were still human. She shrieked and tried ripping herself away, but still, he held on even when she stabbed and did whatever it took, struggling became limp, and then silence.

"I've always wanted to do that...You and your family have annoyed me longer than anyone has ever been able to. And I have ended it...finally! FINALLY!!"

"Wrong."