My Missing Piece {Uzuren}

41

Thoughts on sad Rengoku? I feel bad for him :')

Picking up with the splinter of Kyojuro's blood demon art

———————

At this point in its journey, the splintered flame tiger was being followed by three kasugai crows. A fourth had flown off a while ago. The feline-esque fire either didn't notice them there, or didn't care, because it just just kept running along. It was fast, but the demonslayer headquarters was still a long ways away.

Behind it, a long trail of smoldering paw prints part the ground in half. Passerby, which there were very few of, scrambled to get out of the way whenever they came across the sentient flame. Fixated on its destination and its quest, this honō no tora leapt over a large bush, subsequently setting a few leaves on fire. The crows cawed in distress, two landing to stomp the small flames out with their claws. They knew better to try to stop the blood demon art, and they'd already had one of them fly ahead to warn the master and the hashira, so there wasn't much else they could do beside do their best to prevent any fires from breaking out until someone more capable showed up.

Passing yet another subtle landmark: a large, pale wisteria tree, the flame tiger turned sharply left, it's 'paws' skidding on the petals strewn across the grassy landscape.

"I want Tengen.."

Unable to create thoughts of its own, the splinter kept repeating the three words over and over. The plea was quiet, barely audible if said aloud. It sounded pained, like it was the dying wish of a trapped, suffering being. This pounded urgency into the flickers of flame that made up honō no tora's form, forcing it to run faster, to twist around the obstacles in its way quicker.

"I want Tengen.."

There was another use to remembering the phrase than just as something to boost its motivation, or to remind itself what its objective was. Whenever the flame tiger repeated it, it could see faint image of the sound pillar. Now it knew what this 'Tengen' looked like, and it knew where he was. It also knew through its link with its littermate (sibling) that Rengoku was slowly loosing himself, so armed with these four tidbits of knowledge, it sped up even more, sending the kasugai crows into a state of panic. The sun would be coming up soon, but since it was just made of fire, that wouldn't be a problem.

———————

Akaza sat opposite to Rengoku in the cabin, watching him closely. They'd had to leave honō no tora outside on a patch of sand, because the fire demon absolutely refused to be within ten feet of it. As it turned out, the flame tiger was extremely difficult to just leave somewhere, as they'd tried to get it to sit on a rock, but it had melted straight through that in a matter of minutes at its regular temperature. It was possible for it to cool down enough to sit on the rock for a bit, but to do that, it would have to get bigger, and it wouldn't fit between the trees at that size. So now it was laying on its back in a circle of black, smoking sand that would soon melt into molten glass.

At least in his more compliant state, Akaza had been able to get Rengoku to eat. That was a plus. At least he wasn't starving anymore.

"Kyojuro, are you okay?" His voice betrayed genuine concern. The fighting spirit of the demon had decreased substantially, and he was acting odd.

The younger demon was sitting with his legs crossed, staring blankly at the floor in front of him. "Not really."

"You seem to be mad at your demon art; is it because it killed that slayer?"

"Partly."

Letting out a disappointed sigh, Akaza got up and walked outside. It would seem taking Rengoku out of the demonslayer corps hadn't taken the demonslayer corps out of Rengoku. The cover granted by the canopy of leaves above him was enough to allow him to move around during the day, for which he was grateful. Standing by honō no tora, Akaza analyzed the cracking flames closely. It looks different. It's orangeish, but hasn't gotten any bigger. Is it's strength linked to Kyojuro's fighting spirit somehow? (It is not, it's more closely related to Rengoku's emotions/mental state)