Icy Flames- Rengoku Kyojuro-Demon Slayer/ Kimetsu no Yaiba

23

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It has only been a day and I could see the stark differences between this region and the one I was residing in. The streets were livelier and warmer than those of the north. Walking through these streets, however, felt the same as I was casually greeted by the residents of the area while I did some mindless shopping for a simple apple before going back to headquarters to receive news about the next mission.

"She really is beautiful...I heard many people attempt to court her and she politely lets them down...ahhhhh~!"

"I don't even stand a chance, especially now she is the new Hashira!" one whined as I smiled in his direction and walked off.

A chance is taking a gamble. Falling in love and becoming lovers is pure luck. These suitors of mine, who fall in love on some biochemical level knowing there is a chance it won't work out. It's ingrained in everyone that if they take such an enormous risk on someone with their heart that it might not pay off. As a person devoted to protecting, I couldn't afford for my heart to fall prey to such emotions...

Though it was already enticed by Kyojuro Rengoku and honestly I didn't know why. Those mesmerizing eyes haunted mine.

Once I paid, I went towards headquarters. It was another summoning of the Hashira before we were to depart on our separate missions. Another time I would get to see-

"...SET MY HEART ABLAZE MITSURI!" that voice I knew all too well boasted.

The apple in my hand dropped onto the gravel. It felt as if my heart stopped. He was there in close proximity, confessing his feelings to who I knew as the Love Hashira. She simply gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth out of shock but her lime green eyes were filled with elation. She was the type of girl anyone would like...the type of girl I never could be and his gaze was unwavering towards her.

I lowered my head as the tears welled in my eyes, but didn't flow. My hand went up to my chest, rubbing the sore spot above where my heart resided. Deep down I knew this was bound to happen—-after all Rengoku was a very peculiar man.

But why was I feeling like this....these feelings were foreign to me. It surprised me greatly how I found the act --unpleasant.

My eyes shock with astonishment, and I felt like my heart was slowly being compressed as I looked at them laughing.

How close they were yesterday during the meeting and now this and her blush and shock...explains it all.

This was an unfair game. It went in unfair ways...I got strung out on the winning and lost. Every thought about him from then until now was won. Every win would trigger cascading waves of pleasure, rippling endorphins. But looking at how he looked at her with caring eyes filled with determination and how stunned she was with a tinge of pink on her cheeks...it was clear that I had lost.

This feeling was self-destructive.

I don't like feeling it. As I looked at them, it was as if my heart and my mind betrayed one another—while my mind told me to abandon whatever thoughts and feelings I had when thinking about him, and my heart urged me to pursue on and to learn more.

However...

Just like I had many male suitors it was only natural for those in the Demon Slayer Corps to get suitors and I bet he had plenty of them...he just happened to have chosen who he liked.

"Best to brush it to the side and focus on the task: kill demons," I thought cynically and critically.

It was just best to keep my distance from him from now on...