A/N: This chapter is 3 days late, so I'll post the next chapter as fast as possible as an apology 😪😅
TW: G0re description
Muichiro wandered throughout the village, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his sword with deathly strength. Everything around him seemed completely abandoned, not even a stray cat was left within the village; it was utterly ransacked.
Soft gushes of wind caressed the back of Muichiro's head, the breeze grazing the skin of his neck with its cold fingertips. The boy shuddered, snapping his neck around so quickly that he heard a small pop.
"This place is so freaky..." He muttered, his expression slightly disturbed. Noticing that he couldn't sense a demon this side of town, the mist hashira decided to head back over in the same direction as Y/n.
Maybe she's found something less depressing than I have.
...
Muichiro walked silently for around 5 minutes, the padding of his shoes making no noise against the dusty ground. Nothing about the village changed for the next few miles as far as he could see... Until he took a turn down the pathway and was met with a shock that ran all up and down his body.
After the shock passed, it only took a few seconds for him to notice it. The pungent stench of death.
His stomach muscles clenching, Muichiro took a hard left and sprinted towards the smell of corpses. What he saw would have made any normal person vomit and run away... Fortunately, Muichiro wasn't a normal person. He was a hashira.
7 mangled bodies.
7 mangled bodies hung up on thick black spines, their limbs positioned in the air like puppets suspended mid-performance. As Muichiro breathed in, he didn't taste the metallicness of blood, only the bitter taste of rotting flesh. These bodies were old and decaying.
A violent kill, but not a recent one... The mist hashira observed. Taking a step forward, he reached up to close the eyes of one of the corpses; a young girl wearing a flowered kimono. To his disgust, her flesh simply fell apart as his touch. It split apart beneath his fingers, foul with decay and rot, so much so that the hashira could not even offer her the dignity of resting with closed eyes.
"Disgusting..." He muttered, his voice low as he wiped his fingertips clean of death's grease. "This demon is so disgusting, it can only be an upper rank."
...
In the distance, far out of the mist hashira's reach, a young girl in a red frock giggled.
"Wow mirror-girl, you really have some sharp-tongued friends! To think that the mist-boy would speak about my artwork so rudely... I was simply trying to have a little fun, that's all!"
Y/n panted, barely able to register the demon-girl's words. Blood seeped from her stomach and forehead, the thick black spikes produced by the child's blood demon art were formidable.... Not to mention impossible to slice through. Alone against this enemy, all she could do was defend; attacking seemed impossible as she stood there in the moonlight, clutching at her wounds.
Wait a second... Was she just talking about Muichiro?
"How can you hear him?... He's all the way on the other side of the village!" Y/n hissed through her gritted teeth at the demon-girl, who was standing virtually unscathed infront of her.
With a mad giggle, the demon replied.
"Wow, you're dumber than I thought! Haven't you realised it yet?" A few more spikes shot from the ground, sending Y/n flying into the air to avoid them. Her attacks were so fast, so random... Almost as if she controlled the earth itself.
Control the earth itself?...
With a pang, Y/n realised.
Her eyes widened and she couldn't help but drop her jaw; Tsukimono's laugh trilled in her ears as dread crept up her spine.
"Oooh, I take it back! You seem to have figured out my little party trick!" Gleefulness shimmered within the demon's eyes as she watched Y/n take a step back.
This demon... Y/n's blood ran cold. This demon must have somehow merged itself with something underneath the village. That's why she could see Muichiro so far away, and why I couldn't detect her... This girl- Tsukimono- isn't the main body!
...
"Y/N, GET DOWN!"
Muichiro hurtled from a tree into the air below, his body twisting into a striking form.
"MIST BREATHING, 3RD FORM: SCATTERING MIST SPLASH!"
Tsukimono's head hit the ground with a thud, and her body disintegrated. Y/n barely had time to register what happened before Muichiro breathed a sigh of relief; however, the battle was not over.
"MUICHIRO, BENEATH YOU!" Y/n yelled out as a wave of black spikes shot from the ground, impaling Muichiro's leg from multiple angles. The hashira screamed in pain, sweat dripping down his forehead and fists clenching. Suddenly, another spike emerged from the ground; it was aiming straight for Muichiro's head.
"Mirror breathing, 3rd form: Blade of distant reflections!"
Y/n's blade twisted in her hands as she struck, forcing all her strength into the tip of her katana. A roar of determination escaped her lips as she felt her arms burning, the thick spike almost impossible to slice.
What the hell? Is this obsidian or something?
"AAAAAAAAGH!" The mirror hashira screamed, her blade still unable to cut through. All she could do was block the strikes with the hilt of her blade, feeling the needlelike tips cut her again, and again and again until finally she couldn't block them anymore.
The spikes have changed... They're stronger and harder to fight now. Did slicing Tsukimono's neck do this? Have we angered the main body by destroying its minion?
Muichiro was still stuck. His leg impaled, he could only twist and turn upon his stake, forced to watch as Y/n was battered by the blood demon art infused spikes until she dropped.
Once she can no longer block them, we will both die. Muichiro furrowed his brow as red liquid dripped down his calf. No... I have to get free before her strength fails. I can't just stand here and wait to die.
"Y/N! I HAVE AN IDEA!" Muichiro cried out as the other hashira danced sluggishly between the attacks. "WE HAVE TO COMBINE OUR TECHNIQUES!"
The mirror hashira's ears pricked up as another black talon flew past her cheek.
Could that work? Who knows, all we can do is try...
...
The next chapter will be published on: 20/10/23
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Mirrors | T.Muichiro X Reader
Fanfiction"I think I've fallen for you, Y/n." The mist hashira whispered. Muichiro looked at her, waiting for her answer. His stomach was tied up in a nervous knot as he watched her eyes light up. The mirror hashira blinked at him. A gentle smile appeared on...
