𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚍𝚍 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝙾𝚞𝚝 || Demon Slayer

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 - 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝙱𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚜

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

❝震える手は掴みたいものがある それだけさ❞

𝚘𝚛

❝𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 

𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐛, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥❞

- 𝙶𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎, 𝙻𝚒𝚂𝙰

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Hinode Atsuki

The thread that the boy with burgundy hair failed to cut continued to head towards him. He shifted his body, avoiding majority of the attack but still received a nasty gash on his face. His abrupt switch in direction caused him to be thrown harshly to the side before rolling to a stop. He looked at his broken sword in shock and fear but still shakily stood up while clutching the damaged weapon.

My siblings and I watched him calmly as he stood there, panting, sweat clinging to his skin. Rui sent multiple attacks but, yet again, the boy evaded them. Still, these attacks were clearly taking a toll on the Demon Slayer even though my brother was holding back.

Rui paused his attacks and said, "Well? Do you still refuse to take back what you said earlier?" Silence and gritted teeth was the answer of the burgundy boy. "Fine. In that case, you'll get slashed to ribbons."

A finishing blow from Rui was sent towards the Demon Slayer. It was an attack he definitely wouldn't be able to dodge. I suppressed a smile I could feel rising to my cheeks at the thought this horrible murderer was about to be dead. Beautiful red blood splattered as the threads came in contact and cut deeply into a body. But it wasn't the boy, it was a demon girl.

A demon? She came out of the box on his back and... took the blow for him! Why?!

She was wearing a pink asanoha patterned kimono tied with an obi that had a red and white ichimatsu pattern. Her haori was plain black. The girl had long black hair with orange tips plus a little pink ribbon tied near her temple. Her eyes were also pink, matching the kimono and ribbon. What stood out most about her appearance was the bamboo muzzle she wore.

"Nezuko!"

The Demon Slayer caught the girl, Nezuko-san, and quickly rushed off to the side, hiding behind a tree. I stared in shock while my sister voiced what us three siblings were thinking. "A girl emerged from the box he carries. But she seems to be a demon!"

My sister and I looked to our brother to see him shaking with wide eyes. "Hey you... Is that... That girl..." He raised his quivering hand before continuing. "Is she your sibling?"

"So what if she is?!"

"Siblings... siblings. The sister's been turned into a demon." I went closer to Rui and cautiously held onto his hand as he spoke. He barely seemed to notice me, nor my sister when she tried to get through to him.

"R-Rui?"

"Yet, he is with her. The sister protected the big brother. Risking her own life... That's a genuine bond!" His grip tightened as he took a step forward. "Like mine and Atsuki's... I want it!"

Younger Sister panicked, hurriedly speaking to Rui. "W-wait a minute! Wait a minute! Please! I'm one of you older sisters! Don't abandon me!"

"Shut up!" Faster than my eyes could track, Rui's threads sliced right through our sister. Her cry of pain sent a pang to my heart. I squeezed Rui's hand in surprise and... fear. Fear of him. Trees fell down along with her body which was now in four pieces. He had completely ignored her...

"None of you, except for Atsuki, ever managed to fulfil the roles you were given. Never. Not once," Rui said while pulling me closer to himself, his eyes narrowing on our sister. "Atsuki was the only one to truly care about the rest of the family and not just herself. Unlike the rest of you, as you demonstrated moments ago."

In other situations when Rui has lashed out, I've immediately scolded him and comforted the one that was victim to his temper. At that moment I couldn't bring myself to stand up against him. Besides... he wasn't exactly wrong. I'd always ignored it but the other members of our family sometimes didn't seem like they cared for each other.

But... didn't Mother at least love me? I loved- no- love her.

"W-wait. But wasn't I one of the older sisters that you wanted? Please let me make it up to you!"

"In that case, go kill those people wandering all over this mountain. If you do that, I'll forgive you for what just happened."

Younger Sister's body was already back together so she picked up her head while replying, "F-fine. I'll go kill them!" She ran off into the forest, carrying her teary eyed head with her. I was tempted to follow her but I stayed with my brother.

The two of us were already close together so he put his mouth to my ear and whispered. "Atsuki-chan, I still love you, but I need you to bring me that demon girl if the boy won't hand her over peacefully." I nod my head and go further into the trees so that I can sneak towards the siblings.

"Boy... Boy, let's talk. Come on out. The thing is, I was really moved. Seeing the bond you two share gave me the chills. I doubt there are any words in this universe that can describe how moved I was. However, your fate now is death by my hand. Wouldn't that be too unfortunate, though? But there's just one thing. Just one thing that will let you escape that. Your sister... Give your sister to me. If you hand her over without a fight, I'll at least spare your life."

"I don't understand what you're saying!"

"Your sister will be my sister. Starting today."

The boy argued with Rui about how he, and his sister, would never agree to that. My brother calmly responded even though the Slayer raised his voice, anger and disbelief in his voice. Eventually the boy threw the box off his back, leaving it and Nezuko-san behind the trees, and came out to face Rui once more. I took this as my chance and rushed closer to Nezuko-san.

"I'll never hand Nezuko over to you!"

"That's okay, I guess I'll just kill you and then take her."

"I'll cut off your head first!"

"That's the spirit! I'd like to see you try. That is, if you can actually defeat a Twelve Kizuki like me!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Word count: 1046

Published: 6th of January, 2023

Edited: 3rd of October, 2024

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━