Road to Hashira

-07-

"Keuk, is my jaw broken?! It's definitely broken right?! I can still feel the sting!!" 

"Akemi, stop shouting, you'll cause an avalanche!" Eiko breathes a long, irritated sigh after scolding his friend whom he has gotten tired of paying respects unto. 

Nevertheless, Akemi continues to complain while touching his beat-red cheek. 

Erina and Hikaru follow closer behind Tomioka now while the two friends chatter nonsense at the back. Hikaru carefully stares at Tomioka in awe and wonders how the Kinoe is so calm and unaffected by the silly noises around them, and is the only one comfortably trekking up the snowy, mountain terrain amidst cold and hail. 

"Tomioka-san, how long have you been slaying demons?" The timid boy suddenly speaks.

"Not long..." was Tomioka's cold reply. 

"How are you so accustomed to the snowy mountains?"

"I lived around here..." He barely takes a look at the lad now at his side.

"Lived... Then your family-..."

"Enough talk..." Tomioka immediately cuts him off.

"I'm sorry..." Hikaru falls silent for a while, until he once again becomes honest with his feelings, "Tomioka-san, I was asking you questions, because I really want to know how to become strong like you."

Tomioka's eyes stayed dead ahead. 

"My parents died when I was a baby. Then, I lived with my grandmother and an older cousin..." He felt a little hesitant this time. "Then one day a demon-..."

Tomioka suddenly stops walking, and everybody follows suit. Nobody could hear anything but the cold gale continuously pushing against them. 

"To-!" Tomioka covers Hikaru's mouth and gestures everyone to stay low and quiet. 

"Oy, oy, oy, what is it?!" Akemi spurts in a whispering voice. 

Suddenly, a white, burly image appears in front of them in a curtain of hail. Tomioka grits his teeth. (DEMON!) But before he could do anything, Akemi jumps in front of him.

"IT'S A DEMON, WHAT ARE YOU STAYING THERE FOR?!" Akemi unsheathes his blade and slashes down at his target. However... 

"W-what?!" The humongous white demon catches his blade and throws him away. "Ack!" 

The demon gapes its mouth and blasts a terrifying roar that echoes through the mountains, shaking the very ground below their feet. 

"This is bad! Everyone, get back quickly!" Tomioka retreats with the rest before they could get hit with a resulting avalanche. Soon, they find themselves far below their original position, but this time the snow has gotten deeper because of the debris. One could not even hold an equal footing. 

Erina was in a daze as she looked around the havoc, she was shaking all over, whether due to fear or cold, it could be both. 

"Behind you!" Tomioka rushes to save her out of the way when the demon appears behind her as a shadow. "Are you alright?!" 

Erina nodded but she was still shaky. 

"Force yourself to get up! Fight if you can, retreat if you can't!" Tomioka leaps away from her to confront the white demon. 

Soon, Erina was also found by her colleagues. "Kobayashi-san, are you hurt?!" Eiko reaches his hand out to her and picks her up from the snow. Hikaru follows after Eiko and seemed to be concerned as well.

"I-I'm fine, where's Sato-san?" 

"Mmmhhfff hhmmm!!!" His head was buried in the snow. 

Tomioka has engaged with the white demon and it stood to the height of a bear. It was also covered in fur. Dull claws are on each of its hands and feet. It had an intimidating whitened glare and it had tusks jutting out of its frothing mouth. It roars once again before charging towards Tomioka. 

(A straightforward attack... This might not be the one I'm looking for...) Tomioka narrows his eyes, puts his hand on the handle of his Nichirin blade, and breathes audibly. "Water breathing fourth form - Striking Tide!" In that critical moment, Tomioka delivers multiple slashes against his ominous target and lands behind it. When he sheathes his sword back, torrents of blood gush from his victim's oversized body. (It's too weak...) 

When the others arrived, they were astonished to see that there was nothing more to watch but a bloody mess tainting the snow-white ground. Soon, the pieces of the white demon crumbles into ashes. 

(A-amazing, I could barely even get close to that monster! So this is Tomioka Giyu's power!) Akemi's legs started to shake and he felt really embarrassed. 

Tomioka walks through them blatantly. "Don't be at ease... We're not done here..."  As soon as he said that, Eiko notices a smaller figure standing high above them from the slope they fell from. 

"Dodge!" He shouts and pushes his comrades away. As everyone was shocked, Eiko stood strong even with icicle spikes all over his body. 

Tomioka takes him immediately and dodges from the second flurry. "Kobayashi, take him and get out of here quickly! Notify the corps to pick up the rest of you!" Tomioka throws Eiko toward Erina who catches him without fail. Then, following Tomioka's orders, she takes Eiko down the mountain. 

"You've taken out my snow guard, how irritating. I'll tear you all to shreds." The demon waves his hand in the air and more icicle spikes appear around him, and with one sway, he fires them all at the three swordsmen. 

(Dodging and blocking these many spikes shouldn't be that hard for well-trained slayers, but I'm sure that being pricked by one of these would freeze the area and prevent proper blood and heat flow. A lot of these things would immediately kill if the person's not lucky. Dammit, Eiko...) 

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"Kaw! Reinforcements! Reinforcements! Kinoe Tomioka is requesting for medical reinforcements in the snowy mountains! Quickly!" 

"Tomioka-san?! I can't believe it, I knew they shouldn't have sent him with a team! He's way too careless and selfish!" Despite Shinobu's inner complaints toward Tomioka, she immediately packs her medical supplies and her sword to join the reinforcement. "Seriously, that guy! No one can rely on him for teamwork!"

"Heading to the snowy mountains, Shinobu?" Kanae appears behind Shinobu as she packs her bag, wearing her ever so elegant and graceful smile. 

"That idiot Tomioka can never bear a team! He couldn't care less for others and would immediately take action without notifying a single person!" 

"Oh my, does he really worry you that much?" 

"Of course he does! He's such an id-..." Shinobu snaps and turns to Kanae. "NO, IT'S NOT THAT! YOU CAN'T EVEN DEPEND ON THAT GUY TO NOT CAUSE HIMSELF ANY TROUBLE WHEN HE'S OUT ON A MISSION!" 

"Ara ara~ you really are so worked up when it comes to him, aren't you, Shinobu~?" 

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"