Broken Wings- Shinobu x Fem. Reader

Chilling Affairs

The old woman's home was dimly lit, yet the essence of life was all around them. The three of them all sat in a triangle formation, with Shinobu at the top. Tanjiro's face was decorated with confusion, his eyes darted from the older woman to Shinobu. Finally, after what seemed to be forever Shinobu spoke.

"Everything that we said out there was true, we are demon slayers."

The old woman chuckled, setting her cup down onto the floor beside her, "You know that is not what I meant, I am aware of who you are," She looked to Tanjiro, "Who both of you are." The tension was high enough that Tanjiro felt as if he could cut it with a knife. Tanjiro felt itchiness in the back of his throat, 'Great. Just my luck.' he thought as he awkwardly picked up the cup of water placed neatly in front of him. As soon as he parted his lips to welcome the water, a crashing noise interrupted him instead. Shinobu was in front of him, eyes squinted at the old woman. Tanjiro searched for what made the noise, and yet the delicate cup he was about to drink out of was shattered into small, unequal pieces. The old woman didn't seem upset, but instead slightly agitated. Why Shinobu had swatted the cup out of Tanjiro's hand, he still couldn't comprehend that.

"Is this your take on a joke?" Shinobu scoffed at the woman, before shifting her weight to a more intimidating stance, "Last time I checked, jokes are supposed to be funny."

The old woman sighed and stood up, "I was testing y-" Before she could even finish Shinobu rushed to her side and gracefully appeared on top of her, pinning her on the ground, blade at the woman's neck"

"Bullshit."

Tanjiro stood up, he was still at a loss for words, he didn't understand what was happening at all. This made him frustrated. He was painfully aware of how advanced Shinobu was compared to him. He had to figure out what agitated Shinobu enough to make a scene in this woman's home, and he had to do it quickly. He traced back, first the woman welcomed them into her home, the woman was under the impression that Shinobu was his older sister, and that her leg had been injured in the battle. The woman knew of their demon slayer status, and that she offered them food and shelter at no cost. He looked back at where Shinobu was sitting, her food stayed untouched and her drink remained full, almost as if no one had been there to begin with. He then glanced across the table to where the older woman sat, there was no food nor drink near her area. Strange. Crash. He turned to face Shinobu and the woman, and found that Shinobu was back a few paces from the woman. The old lady's frame was slender, but not frail. The old woman was holding a broken bottle in her hand, using it to defend against Shinobu. That must've been what the crashing noise was.

"Why couldn't you just play along." The old lady yelled, anger filled the room, the candles started to flicker left and right around Tanjiro. "We don't need your cursed existence here. The more you fight back the more they come back. You were doing so well until you decided to smash my nice china ware. You could've just died so naïve and beautiful."

Shinobu was breathing hard, she was holding her side. 'This was bad. Who does they refer to?' These questions ran through Tanjiro's mind as he staggered backwards, he was met with a wall. He didn't realize how cramped the room really was. Then it hit him, the food and drink must've been poisoned of some kind. Tanjiro had taken a few bites of his food but none of his drink, yet he felt fine.

The old woman was still on her tangent when Shinobu fell, hard. First her knees buckled inward, and then her jaw hit the floor. Tanjiro winced as he heard a crack noise come from her direction. Fear danced across Tanjiro's face. He rushed over to Shinobu's lifeless, heavy body. The woman let out a surprised half laugh. He flipped Shinobu to look at the side she was hiding, and there it was, a shard of the bottle was injected into her side. While the glass was sure to hurt, Tanjiro noticed it wasn't logged deep inside of her skin, in fact it seemed to barely be stuck in. Tanjiro glared at the woman, tears pricking at the sides of his eyes.

"What have you done?" Was all that managed to come out of his mouth, he was still holding Shinobu's body when he felt it drop cold. Her body suddenly got heavier and colder. Tanjiro started to panic, wondering what would become of Shinobu, or even him if he didn't act fast. Almost like clockwork the door blew wide open, and a gust of cold air washed throughout the entire room, hushing any candle that might've still been lit. Both Tanjiro and the old woman looked to see what appeared at the doorway.

Cold yet cool eyes, a figure like none other, hair that set perfectly on the body. Dressed in tight fitting clothing, decorated in blues and greys, but the most intriguing thing about them was their slightly pointed ears dressed with all sorts of patterned jewelry, the one that stood out the most was a simple yet delicate butterfly cuff that laced around the whole left ear.

They walked through the door, Tanjiro shuttered. He slowly put down his Shinobu and exchanged her for his sword. He mentally and physically was in no shape or form to fight this being in front of him, or even the old woman for this matter. He looked to his right, the old woman frozen in fear, visibly frightened. As the being walked through the room, right before they reached a parallel point to the old woman, they let out a sharp arm in her direction. Ice blew around the woman trapping her in a rough, yet clean icicle prison. When the older woman was trapped, elegantly the being walked over, meeting the woman face to face. Blowing in her face before looking back at Tanjiro. She was out cold.

Tanjiro stood in front of Shinobu, he didn't think there was anything he could do. What could he do? If they wanted Shinobu and Tanjiro dead, they easily could. Tanjiro breathed in, he had to focus on his training and all the different types of breathing he could do to assist him in this situation. But right before he was able to take a deep breath, he felt a cool breeze go right by him. He opened his eyes in shock to see them gone. He turned around to face Shinobu, and to Tanjiro's surprise the being was holding her ever so gently. He watched as she caressed Shinobu's face ever so gently, yet the more they held Shinobu, the paler Shinobu's skin grew. Yet Tanjiro noticed that the mysterious being could also recognize that. Yet instead of putting her down, they went through the poisons attached at Shinobu's waist, they picked a slightly grey murky one, opened it and forced it into Shinobu's lips. Tanjiro felt powerless, he wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing in this situation, if he were to fight the mysterious person he could risk dying and losing Shinobu completely. What did he have to risk if he let the being do their work?

Shinobu let out a rough cough, spitting up blood with every wheeze she did. Only then did they put Shinobu down, and only then did color start to go across Shinobu's skin again. As Shinobu began to blink open her eyes she desperately looked around the room, she noted several strange things, 1) an ice prison to the right of her, 2) Tanjiro standing multiple feet back, his sword in his hands, 3) the door wide open bringing in chilling airs, and lastly 4) The open vial of antidote that laid open at her side, the lid formed a butterfly at the top, that was the only way Shinobu was able to detect it as her own.

Tanjiro started shaking his head as he met Shinobu's gaze, tears coming out like a waterfall, he sprinted to her side and gave her a warm hug, "That's fine, and all. But can we please close the door and light a candle or two first?"

She narrowed her eyes while still in the embrace, Tanjiro lacked the knowledge to know what each of her vitals did. Not to mention, he was standing too far back to have done anything. 

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Happy holidays all! My gift to ya'll is this! Have fun with this angst! I don't even know if it counts as angst......