Road to Hashira

-09-

"TOMIOKA-SAN! TOMIOKA-SAN! WAKE UP, TOMIOKA-SAN! PLEASE, PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES, GIYU!!!" 

(T-this voice... I feel so light... Am I still dying?) Giyu felt hot tears drop on his ashen face. (That feels nice...) 

"He's waking up! He's breathing again!" 

"Kochou..." Giyu could barely see a thing, but he recognizes that shrill, loud voice. She looked angry, very angry, but her deep violet eyes were watery. 

"DON'T YOU GO DYING OFF ON YOURSELF LIKE THAT, IDIOT! DIMWIT! YOU SELF-CENTERED FREAK! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU DARE CLOSE YOUR EYES AGAIN!" 

Giyu chose to ignore her insults as her expressions said otherwise. "T-the others..."

"They're all safe, Eiko too. It's thanks to your quick thinking and efforts, Tomioka-sama." 

"Good to... hear..." Soon, Giyu once again falls asleep as they carry him on a stretcher. 

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*A few minutes earlier* 

"Water breathing... eleventh form... Dead Calm!" Giyu instantly slashes all of the incoming projectiles which completely overwhelmed the demon that it could barely react.

"M-my spikes... h-how did you... cut them... all of them... that's impossi-!" In a blink of an eye, he looks up at an upside-down Tomioka standing behind his body. "You... you monster!" Soon, the demon's head and body crumble with the snow with one last shriek.

"I am to demons, what demons are to humans..." Tomioka also fell down on the snow. The other two came to help him up. "So that's the power... of a Kizuki (Specifically, lower rank three, non-canonical of course)." 

Shortly after, reinforcements arrived, and as soon as Shinobu saw Tomioka unconscious on the snow, she wasted no time to check on him; battling tears before she finally broke down when she couldn't feel a pulse.

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*Three weeks later* 

Giyu slowly opens his eyes to the morning light. He was lying on a soft bed in the Butterfly Mansion. Carefully, he sits up on his bed and checks his arms and body. Looking to his right, he finds Shinobu sleeping with her cheek and arms on his bed and the rest of her frame on a chair. He was surprised at first and couldn't say a thing.

"Ah, you're finally awake, Tomioka-san." Kanae appears behind the entrance and greets him with a smile. He looks at her, before he glances back at Shinobu, still asleep. "Ara ara, that girl is amazing I tell you. She wouldn't leave your side for even an hour hoping that you'd wake up any time."

"I see."

"She also always replaced your bandages, changed your clothes, washed you, fed you, and changed your-..."

"I get it, I get it, I owe her too much now." Tomioka was embarrassed for a moment, but he kept on watching Shinobu sleep silently. "She really is amazing, and cute." Giyu smiles warmly.

Kanae beams and looks over at Tomioka. "She's not yet ready to get married you know~?"

"Huh, that's not-..." His eyes slightly widen. 

Kanae draws back and tilts her head. "Ara, you two sure are very interesting whenever you think about each other. Shinobu's always worried and a lot angrier whenever she thinks of you. While you, Tomioka-san, you show some very unique expressions whenever you're around her."