With a Flame in my Heart [Rengoku x Fem Reader] -DISCONTINUED-

Eight - はち

Y/N snapped awake, safe and resting on Kyojuro's shoulder. He was still sleeping peacefully. She turned around and saw Tanjiro open his eyes. He was grabbing Nezuko' opened box, and Nezuko was relentlessly shaking him.

"Nezuko? Nezuko!" he yelled, hugging his sister. Nezuko pointed to her bleeding head, and it regenerated quickly. Tanjiro smiled and patted her head. Y/N smiled briefly, but then she remembered that Kyojuro was still sleeping.

"Tanjiro-kun, how did you realize how to wake up?" she asked.

"Well, Nezuko seemed to burn the rope connecting me to that boy... Why are those children connected to us, anyways?" he wondered. "Nezuko, can you burn the ropes? I have a bad feeling about cutting them with my Nichirin sword for some reason."

Nezuko 'hmphed' and held out her hand in the direction of Y/N's wrist. Pink flames, harmless to humans of course, burned through the rope on her arm. She did the same to Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Kyojuro, yet they didn't wake up yet. Umi and Tanjiro looked at each other and nodded.

"Music Breathing, Sixth Form- Percussion, Reversed!" Y/N yelled, and stabbed her sword with incredible force into the metal ceiling of the train. The air around the ivory-gold sword rippled and the metal was torn open, making a hole that was five feet in diameter. Y/N jumped up and landed on the roof, and Tanjiro followed close behind. They both saw a human-like figure in the smoke. It turned around and revealed a pale man who was missing a hand. He wore a train conductor's outfit and stood directly in front of where the smoke came from. His hair was around shoulder-length with magenta tips. Two strands were slightly longer, maybe four or five centimeters longer, and the ends were teal. His eyes were blue, one of them resembling a goat eye and the other engraved with the kanji for Lower One. He had strange square patterns on his cheeks that almost looked like square tears that faded from green to yellow. He laughed.

"A Hashira? And the boy with hanafuda earrings? Why, they came right to me! Oyakata-sama will be proud!" he said in a dreamy voice, holding his hands up to his cheeks in delight. The Demon Slayers readied their fighting stances. The pale demon giggled.

"By the way, my name is Enmu. You know, just so you catch that! You can know who killed you!" he said. A hand flew up from the hole Y/N created on the roof of the train and attached itself to the arm with no hand. Enmu held out his hand and the mouth on it smiled a toothy grin. Y/N made a disgusted face. She ran towards the demon, but the hand spoke one word.

"Sleep."

Immediately, Y/N blacked out and found herself at the Rengoku estate. She looked around and saw the older Senjuro run towards her. She immediately raised her sword and cut off her head, pushing her back to reality. Enmu made a disappointed face.

"How come you're able to do that so quickly? Committing suicide takes a lot of guts, you know. What would you do if you accidentally cut off your head while you were awake, huh?" he said in a light voice. Tanjiro growled.

"Don't tease L/N-san like that, filthy demon!" he yelled, and ran with his sword in hand. Enmu chuckled.

"Sleep."

Tanjiro's eyes rolled to the back of his head, but quicker than Y/N could see, he was back and fighting. He kept running towards Enmu, and Enmu kept telling him to go to sleep. Y/N was fed up. She couldn't bear to see Tanjiro kill himself over and over again, no matter if it's in a dream or not. 

"Music Breathing, Third Form- Sixteenth Notes!" she yelled, and made small, quick slashes that cut off Enmu's hand. She picked it up and stabbed it, throwing it on the ground and stepping on it.

"I hope you know that that thing is really disgusting."

Enmu sighed. "I have another mouth, you know. Besides..."

He pointed to his injured arm and the hand regenerated in a few seconds. The mouth on it opened to say something, but Tanjiro came in to attack.

"Water Breathing, Tenth Form- Constant Flux!" The same giant water dragon from the fight with Rui accompanied him. He ran towards Enmu and the dragon opened its jaws.

"S-sleep!" he yelled in a panic, but Tanjiro kept going. He awoke fast enough that it looked like he never fell unconscious.

Tanjiro slept again, but this time he was in front of his dead family. They spoke to him.

"How could you do this to us? We're your family!" his mother said.

"You couldn't even protect that friend of yours that always visits!" Takeo yelled.

"Onii-chan... how could you? I thought you loved us!" Hanako said with tears, while Rokuta cried. Tanjiro was frozen. Then he caught a glimpse of his father. He didn't have the gentle face he usually had. Instead, he was scowling at Tanjiro.

"I can't believe I have a child such as this one. I wasted my life. My death was all for nothing. I expected you to be the responsible elder brother. Instead, you left them to die," he said in an ice-cold voice.

'They would never say this... they're my family. No way would they say this!' Tanjiro thought. He brought his blade to his neck and made a quick slice.

"How dare you insult my family!" Tanjiro yelled at the surprised Enmu. Y/N made a determined smile.

"Good to see you're back!" she called. Tanjiro nodded.

"My family would never badmouth me like that!" he shouted over the wind, and made enough rotations with his Water Breathing technique. The dragon roared and bit off Enmu's head. Y/N was so surprised she dropped her sword. The dragon dissipated and Enmu's head fell to the ground, miraculously not rolling off the train's curved roof. His headless body fell to its knees and landed on the roof. Enmu's face was in a state of shock. His head rolled around to face the Demon Slayers. Tanjiro sighed in relief, but his relief was short-live. A disgusting tube of flesh grew from the base of his neck. It connected with the roof of the train and grew larger and larger. Enmu's head was now towering over the Demon Slayers, perched on an intestine-like bundle of flesh that was merged with the train.

"Wow, congratulations! Sadly... that isn't enough to beat me, for I am a Twelve Kizuki! That body wasn't my body. It was a deception! It's so easy to understand that a toddler would get it! While you all were dreaming peacefully, I fused with this train!"

On that cheery note, the head sank into the train. Y/N picked up her sword and sheathed it, her mouth open wide.

"So, Inosuke was right," Tanjiro said feebly. Y/N nodded weakly.

Y/N and Tanjiro were standing on top of a demon.