2nd Chances

Final Part (1/2)

They won, it was over, the demons would no longer lurk in the shadows and feast on the innocent.

Their threat was forever eradicated from history.

Giyuu smiled as he looked at his surroundings, the others were all safe and being patched up by the many Kakushi. He looked to the other pillars as they all shared their heartfelt moments with each other.

Obanai and Mitsuri were proclaiming their love to one another as they were separated to get their injuries treated.

Kanae was helping Sanemi over to get medical attention as they watched Genya get his arm treated properly.

Uzui while slightly injured was helping coordinate the surviving slayers and Kakushi instead of getting treated immediately.

Rengoku was getting his wounds assessed as he sat on the ground next to Muichiro who had requested to be carried in even on a stretcher to see them.

Gyomei laid against a wall of one of the many destroyed buildings, his body unmoving. He had finally found peace and went to reunite with his children in the afterlife.

Giyuu looked to Tanjiro who had been reunited with his now human sister. They hugged each other as his other friends watched on.

The slayers were safe, they were receiving medical assistance from the helpful support members of the Slayer Corps.

They did it, they won, their cheers were loud and triumphant as if to revel in their victory.

He smiled weakly knowing they were safe, those years he worked and suffered all culminated in this moment.

His legs lost all their strength as they buckled underneath him.

He dropped to his knees as his blood dripped bit by bit onto the floor.

All his strength had long been depleted, he had been running on fumes for the longest time, only now was the blood loss and fatigue catching up to him.

He felt it once more, death's calling.

It's soothing lullaby beckoning him into it's cold embrace once more.

Giyuu forced himself to stay awake as the purple eyed woman he loved so much came into view and ran over to him.

His vision blurred in and out slightly as she came closer and closer.

His body swayed lightly as it became increasingly heavy with each passing second.

"GIYUU!" She screamed as she ran over and dropped to her knees in front of him as she helped hold him up.

He looked down at the her, a bittersweet sensation coursing through him. He did it, his little butterfly was safe.

Shinobu hugged onto him tightly as she looked up into his eyes.

He was dying, it was inevitable.

Giyuu could only feel saddened that he would leave the love of his life so soon.

All eyes were on them, the two pillars were right in the middle of the battlefield and wreckage.

The cheers stopped and the talks ceased as they watched the small woman hold onto her dying lover.

He grabbed onto her shoulders lightly with the last bit of his strength he had left.

Even in his dying moments his only thoughts were of her.

Although his final words were not audible to the others around them it was easy to know what he said.

His expression showing one last smile as blood trickled from the side of his mouth.

"Shinobu.....I.....love.....you"

Her eyes trembled as she held onto him.

The light in his eyes faded as his hands ran down her sides before resting limply on the ground.

Giyuu Tomioka, a pillar to some, a savior to others, a good friend to those who knew him, and a loving husband to one, had taken his last breath.

His body slumped onto her as he exhaled one final time.

It was completely quiet, no one dared move as his final moments played out.

The only noise that could be heard throughout the battlefield was the sounds of her screams as he died.

Her wails for him were a sobering thing to hear, a reminded of the price they paid to stop the demons.

It wasn't meant to be, not in this life, not in the last.

The universe was cruel, something so easily remembered in moments like this.

This was the price of victory.

There was nothing anyone could do as she gripped onto his lifeless body tightly.

This was reality.

He was gone.

Her voice stopped coming out as she gasped for air, Shinobu had no breath left to scream with, no tears left to cry with.

All she had left were her blood stained hands and his lifeless body.

Her life ended here.

It had died in her arms.

He had died in her arms.

It was gone.

He was gone.

Her love taken by the cold clutches of death.

Nothing mattered anymore, she could no longer feel anything, her heart lay barren and broken as the world's bright colors dulled.

"I'll be right by your side when that day comes." His words replayed in her head.

Her thoughts ran blank as she held him.

No matter how hard she tried to deny it, he had left her alone, he had broken his promise.

Now she would forever be alone.

His warm touch, his smiles, his words, his love, everything now stripped away from her.

The world came to a stand still as she held him in her arms one last time.