Blood in Flame and Water

Last Embers

Summary:
"RENGOKU-SAN!! "

"YASHA!!!"

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Notes:
Blood & Injury

Might be slightly repetitive in wording

Rengoku getting beat tf up (broken ribs, punctured lung, popped eyeball...)

Tanjiro having a crisis

Inosuke having scar head canons

Akaza being a douche

Cliff hanger
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With a sudden gasp from air, Tanjiro's blurry burgundy eyes snapped open. Panting for air, the young boy inhaled deeply through his nose and let it out his mouth in a puff. There was an ache in his ribs that told him they were indefinitely bruised, if not hairline cracked. Nonetheless, Tanjiro raised his arm to rub at his eyes, clearing the blurriness and the dust from them until his cheeks were raw red and wet from tears. Gritting his teeth, he slowly and carefully placed his elbows underneath his torso, pulling himself onto his side so he could brace himself on his knees. His ribs screamed in protest at the new position, but he ignored them in favor of placing his hands spread on the ground to push himself up into a slumped seiza style kneel. His arms quivered, ready to give and send him spiraling face first into the ground again.

Unfortunately or not, all thoughts surrounding his aching pains and ribs were pushed to the back of his mind when his eye caught a glimpse of a furry brown lump off to the side. Head snapping in that direction so quickly, Tanjiro felt the air between the vertebrae in his neck pop. The scream in his throat rolled off his tongue before he could even realize it was there in the first place.

Adrenaline forced him to his feet, and the first few steps he stumbled as his knees gave way, but he forced himself onward towards the seemingly and hopefully at the very least, unconscious Inosuke. Collapsing at his friend's prone side, Tanjiro quickly turned Inosuke over to his back so he could lay flat. Pressing his ear against Inosuke's scarred chest, a breath of relief gutted his lungs as the sound of a beating heart reassured Tanjiro that his friend still had his life. Yet it wasn't as strong as it should be. It was weak, the complete opposite of Inosuke.

(Zenitsu had once confessed to Tanjiro that he had exceptional hearing. Just like Tanjiro had his nose, Zenitsu has his ears. He explained to the eldest Kamado that he could hear people's thoughts, emotions, and even their personality based on the sounds they produced unconsciously. He went on to describe each of them, being Tanjiro, Inosuke, Nezuko, the girls at the Butterfly Estate nursery, and even Shinobu-san. Zenitsu explained, Inosuke particularly, that he had a strong heartbeat. Like a taiko drum used in ceremonies. Inosuke in general was just loud; his body was loud, his heartbeat was loud, his thoughts were loud.)

It was odd to Tanjiro to hear Inosuke's heartbeat weak, off putting even. Fearing for his friend, Tanjiro brought deft hands to his friend's neck, checking for… he doesn't know, but something. Hands carded over ribs that seemed nothing short of bruised, but not irreversibly so. The teen's sides were scratched and bruised, but nothing seemed out of place, until his fingertip skimmed past a hot and sticky liquid.

Sucking in a breath, Tanjiro quickly pushed Inosuke back onto his side. The wound from before where the conductor's needle had pierced through skin and muscle was once again open to dusty air. The crash from the train or the extensive battle between Inosuke and the train demon's tendrils must have stripped the bandage Tanjiro placed over the wound off. Now it was leaking blood steadily, staining the ground and the dust coated skin in the sticky red liquid.