Slayed Hearts (Demon Slayer AU - Bakugou Katsuki x Reader)

Ch.5 - Hesitance

Ch.5 - Hesitance

Spring brought a cool breeze through the night air, making the strenuous work feel less exhausting (and sweaty). Even with the constant cooling breezes, you struggled to move aside or dig underneath the rubble that was now this village.

A year had done it in for this place. Before it had been possible to rebuild this place should a new group of people come and decide to live here. But after a blazing and dry summer, a rainy and stormy fall, the long and heavy winter, and now a timid spring, the village had been reduced to simple piles of rotten wood, crumbled rock, and decaying materials.

The bodies you had found throughout the time had been moved to an area outside of the ruins and given proper burials. Most of the people you couldn't recognize due to the death they had suffered from. Demons had really had a feast here... as the people were more like shredded meat than actual bodies of the dead. You stopped counting long ago how many pieces you found, only making sure that the part had a comfortable resting place and prayer sent their way in the afterlife.

The people were not the only things that had been reduced in this village either, as the resources that you had been scavenging were running very low. Firewood was harder to come by, and food was scarce. It seemed that between you hunting the animals in the area and the demon activity, the natural wildlife suffered greatly.

Speaking of demons, the number had also decreased. In any other circumstance, this would be a good thing and something any slayer would want to celebrate. But seeing as you needed a constant flow of demons into the area for a very specific and important reason, it made you worry if you couldn't find any more with ease.

That worry had turned into your search tonight. To see once and for all if it was time to move on, or if this place had enough resources for you to live off of for a few more weeks. You knew you'd need to leave eventually but now felt premature.

But if the resources were diminished, you'd have to put your own worries aside. What came first was Bakugou's treatment. And if you ran out of materials for his injections or 'food' to give him, you didn't know what would become of the treatment, or him.

You sighed as you failed to move away a large piece of wood blocking a section of one of the last standing houses. You needed to check it, as you wanted to see if this place held any hidden supplies. But the piece of wood had once been half of the roof and thus it made a perfect barrier between the destroyed half of the house and what could be a surviving piece of this village.

You huffed and lowered your head. You'd need to think of another strategy to get through this since manpower was not working. Your blades were a possible option, but your lavender-blue nichirin blade was pretty dull aside from the top and your pink blade was already fragile. The wrong use of it, or striking it against something that wasn't a demon, might end up shattering the blade. The pink nichirin had seen and fought many enemies, but you refused to let it retire yet.

As you were brainstorming what to do, a fist suddenly struck the fallen wood. Splinters of wood flew through the air and you instinctively covered your face to protect against anything that could harm you.

You sighed in irritation after the wood stopped flying and looked at the ash-blonde who had suddenly decided to join you. He looked at you with a heated glance, only to raise his lips to give you a smirk.

The hole he had punched through revealed the other half of the room. It was still fairly damaged, but at least looked somewhat preserved. There was also nothing burned on this side of the room, so it gave you some hope that there might be untouched supplies beyond the hole that someone decided to create.