Waking up wasn't something that I wanted to do seeing as everything hurt, even the ends of my hair were hurting but I cracked my eyes open. I saw a white ceiling, white walls, a wooden floor and curtains that seemed to be around the bed that I was laying on.
"Careful, wouldn't want you to hurt yourself more than you already are," A voice said and I turned to see the elderly woman from before sitting there before I passed out. She must be the doctor that Haku had gone to fetch, which meant that I was in her clinic more than likely.
"How long.....How long was I passed out?" I asked as I forced myself to sit up hissing in pain, my hand going to my stomach that was bandaged up.
"Only a day, it's coming up to eight o'clock in the morning now," She answered.
"I see.....The girl, Hana is she okay?" I questioned.
"Yes, you tried to warn me about her shoulder as you passed out but I couldn't see anything wrong with it. She had insisted that she had an injury that made her pass out and the blood on her kimono proves that but whatever elixir that you used on her must have worked wonders since there is only a scar left now" The woman said and my eyes widened. All I had done was use an elixir to clean the wound....That mystery could wait for now.
"Thank you for looking after my wounds, I can pay for your services" I said as I moved to put my feet over the side of the bed.
"There is no need for that, you did most of the work yourself. Heat sealing such wounds was stupid" She said with a hard glare.
"Yet that is the only reason that you are alive right now, you also have five broken ribs and you had a dislocated shoulder that I had to put back into place" She informed me.
"Again, thank you but I should be going now" I said as I got up gritting my teeth and letting out a breath from the pain coming from my wounds.
"I wouldn't suggest moving around too much but seeing as you have those elixirs of yours and you're part of the Demon Slayer Corps I can't see you sitting still. Make sure to clean your wounds, including the burns once a day and replace the bandages at least once every two days to stop infection" She said before pointing out where my box was and my clothes were sitting on top of it since I was only in my undergarments. Quickly getting dressed I was grateful to notice that all of the blood was gone from them and the buttons on my jacket had been mended. Pulling my box on my back I once more thanked the doctor before bowing and leaving the building. Walking outside it was like walking into a different town seeing how lively the villagers were at such an early hour.
"Akatsuki, you're up" A voice called happily and I turned to see Haku standing there with Hana by his side, her hand clenched in his tightly.
"Yeah, I was about to leave" I said and their eyes widened.
"Already? I haven't even gotten to thank you yet" Hana said and I nodded before Kuro swooped down and landed on my shoulder.
"More south east, more south east to meet up with a group of demon slayers to recover" He cawed.
"As you can see, I have new orders so I must be going" I said before turning to leave.
"Wait, before you go can you please tell me your first name? I wish to name our first son after you when he is born" Hana said with a hand on her stomach, making me smile behind my mask. I knew that there was something different about her aura, there was a second smaller aura around her stomach that I hadn't realised last night since I was preoccupied.
"Hikaru my first name is Hikaru," I said before I continued to leave waving goodbye over my shoulder as Kuro flew in front of me.
"Hikaru, a fitting name for someone who fights against man-eating demons," Hana smiled. See, the name Hikaru means Sun.
It felt like I had been walking forever and I was sweating badly, even after putting on a balm that numbed my wounds it still hurt like hell. Finally it seemed as if I got to the place I needed to be in, there was a large house on the hill and there seemed to be two people out the front fighting. That wasn't what got my attention though, it was the fact that one of them seemed to be protecting Nezuko's box while the other was trying to attack it.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" I roared out my eyes blazing behind my mask as both of them turned to me.
"Hikaru?" Tanjiro asked and I looked up.
"You have five seconds to tell me what fuck happened before I lose it" I snarled out taking in deep breaths trying to calm myself down. First I had nearly died again, second I was in so much pain I could barely think and now thirdly some guy in a boar mask that I was sure I saw at the Final selection was trying to kill one of the two people that I saw as family. Unfortunately my body didn't seem to share the same thought line as my legs gave out and I sat on the ground.
"Just rest" Tanjiro said and I saw the boar guy continue to kick blondie. Now that I looked at it, the scaredy cat was wrapped around Nezuko's box. It made me see flashbacks of when I got to the Kamado house that night to see Nezuko trying to protect Rokuda making me shutter as Tanjiro lost his temper and took off towards the boar mask guy punching him straight in the stomach and I could see the ribs break making my eyes widen.
"He broke his bones!" Blondie screamed in shock, it seemed he had rather good hearing.
"Aren't you a member of the Demon Slayer Corps? Don't you get why Zenitsu refuses to draw his sword? It's because Demon Slayer Corps members can only draw their swords for combat" Tanjiro lectured.
"But here you are giving him a one-sided beatdown! Is that fun for you? You're the lowest of the low" Tanjiro insulted.
"Oh, so that's why? My bad, in that case let's fight barehanded" Boar man laugh coughed. From his aura he was actually enjoying himself even if he did have broken ribs but surprisingly he didn't have a shred of anger or hatred.
"No, I don't think you get it at all, first we're not meant to fight all together" Tanjiro said holding his hands up before the Boar guy ran towards him and tried to attack him.
"Fighting barehand doesn't make it any better," Tanjiro said.
"Listen to me!" He protested while dodging the other guy who I had to admit was pretty agil, fast and flexible. Finally Tanjiro had enough and started to fight back while I made my way over to Zenitsu I guess and the normal human boy near him.
"Actually, has Tanjiro broken the code too? He did break his bones" Zenitsu muttered while the boy tried to clean his wounds, making me sigh and gently push him to the side and to see Zenitsu's wounds.
"He is lucky that all he got was broken ribs, if it was me he would have been dead by now" I answered even if he wasn't talking to me. This seemed to make him freeze before trying to pull away, making me grab his chin in my hand.
"I'm trying to see your wounds so stop moving" I glared and he nodded his head fastly while holding still.
"Oi wild boar man, if you keep on moving around like that you are going to splinter your ribs and then they will enter your lungs before killing you" I warned as I saw him bend himself in half backwards after praising himself. On the other hand, the three children, two boys and one girl that seemed to be siblings, were having a reunion which made me smile behind my mask.
"Listen to Hikaru," Tanjiro scowled. The fight continued to happen before Tanjiro grabbed the other boy by his shoulders and pulled his head back making me wince. I knew what was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty after all. Both me and Tanjiro had pretty hard heads but his was harder than mine.
"You need to calm down" Tanjiro yelled before bringing his head forehead into a perfect headbutt making a large crack sound making me wince and Zenitsu to freak out.
"That sound! Are your skulls fractured?" Zenitsu asked.
"No, Tanjiro barely felt a thing and the other one will have a concussion, you have pretty good ears don't you?" I asked, looking at him and he nodded still freaking out this time about the boar guy being a girl which he obviously wasn't. I mean even without my eyesight or seeing his aura, the guy wasn't even wearing a shirt. His was the opposite of his body though being rather femine in fact it reminded me a lot of my own face.
"What the hell? You've got a problem with my face or something?" The guy asked.
"What a creepy guy, his body is buff but there's a feminine face sitting on top of it" Zenitsu insulted making me scowl.
"Why the hell are you staring at my face like that?" The guy demanded.
"I-I'm not!" Zenitsu lied before scrambling away and hiding behind the young girl.
"We don't have a problem with your face, after all you aren't as feminine as Hikaru, he has been mistaken for a girl many times over. It's small, fair and I think it's nice though not as nice as Hikaru's" Tanjiro complimented.
"I'll kill you! Come at me!" The guy growled.
"Let me get up and I'll help you" I swore as I started to stand up cracking my knuckles making Tanjiro take a few steps back and look sheepish.
"Hey big forehead, let me tell you my name" The guy grinned, finally something to call him other than the boar guy.
"It's Hashibira Inosuke," He announced.
"How do you write that?" Tanjiro asked and I walked over, slapping him on the back of the head. It was obvious that Inosuke wasn't exactly cultured in reading and writing just from the clothes that he wore.
"Write? Write....I don't know how to read or write. Although it's written on my waistband..." Inosuke said before trailing off, it seemed the concussion was finally getting to him as he passed out and started to foam from the mouth.
"Seriously Tanjiro? I have warned you about how hard your head is, you're going to kill someone one day with a headbutt" I scolded before making my way over to Inosuke, wincing as I felt the pain go up a notch. The numbing balm was wearing off again.
"Sorry Hikaru, are you okay?" Tanjiro asked and I hummed before opening up my box to get out what I would need to treat Inosuke.
"Are you okay Tanjiro? Who is he?" The young girl asked.
"Yeah I'm fine and this is my friend Akatsuki Hikaru," Tanjiro introduced but I didn't look up.
"Amazing! Can I touch your forehead?" She asked and Tanjiro indulged her as he lent down for her.
"We should get to work burying the bodies" Tanjiro said sadly once the excitement had dimmed.
"I'll help you once I have finished up here" I offered but he shook his head.
"You're injured, don't try to hide it so just see to his wounds for now and then rest a bit we can take care of it from here" He told me, making me sigh but nod nonetheless.
