My Brightest Flame (Rengoku X Reader)

Chapter 24 - I'll Kill You

A/N: I have added new chapters! Chapter 17 and 18 are completely fresh chapters, and the ones that were originally there have been moved up to 19 and 20. Thanks for reading!

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Air left y/n's lungs for a start, her breathing pattern shattered. It had been tough to maintain it for so long and she desperately urged her body to recover its oxygen so she could recover fast. She needed to get constant breathing back, it was one of the few things that gave her a chance to fight back. Apart from that, she was convinced that her ribs had shattered, maybe they hadn't, but it was hard to move for a moment. Y/N cringed as she moved forward onto her knees, noticing that she was crushing Kyojuro. Her body jerked as the pain stabbed her, it was so intense that she believed that maybe it wasn't only possible shattered ribs, her body may not even fully recover from this. She could feel the damage he had done to her organs, some of them struggling to keep up as she tried to keep them working.

"Y/N?" The flame hashira looked to her in horror, not expecting her to be awake and definitely not expecting her to be jumping in during the middle of the fight. Agony deafened her, but she was able to look back and see he was mostly fine. That was good, even if she wouldn't make a full recovery from this, at least he would be okay...Within seconds, Akaza made it in front of them. Y/N registered his expression for a moment, he was... concerned? Since when did a demon ever feel concern for a human?

"I am so sorry, miss. I promise you weren't my target." He approached carefully, reaching out to help her up. But just as he was close to touching her, her sword was against his neck in a flash. He only barely managed to dodge in time, backing up in shock at the speed of the woman. Only then did he recognise the weapon, she was another demon slayer. She never offered him the chance to speak as she continued to attack, though none would ever land. The pain slowed her down and she knew that this demon had plenty of opportunities to fight back, but he would only block the hits that y/n attempted to make. Why wouldn't he fight back? It only made her angrier as she pushed herself to strike faster. He would constantly try to back himself up, trying to keep his distance and hopefully stop her from assaulting him. But whenever he'd think he'd gotten good distance, she'd close it and keep swinging. It was a good job he was a demon, because if he wasn't, he wouldn't have noticed how she had motivated him to turn his back against his main opponent. He avoided another close call just in time as Kyojuro blade met his neck for barely a second. He stopped a distance away from the two, feeling the wound on his neck for a moment before it healed like it was nothing.

"Interesting method...Who are you?" Akaza's eyes were wide with interest as he watched the woman, who did nothing but glare at him. She was angry at him, but he wasn't sure why. All he knew was that the way she looked, like he was the worst thing on the planet, unsettled him. He hadn't even done anything to this woman, he hadn't even touched anyone with her blood type...

"I am the soon to be galaxy hashira, y/n l/n!" Y/N declared, pointing her sword at him. "And I will kill you, that's a promise." She frowned, suddenly noticing that her sword wasn't in the best condition. It had chipped, blunted and definitely wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. If she had noticed sooner, what could she have done otherwise? There was no time to waste at that point, she couldn't just quickly grab a random sword.

"That's funny, you don't look like a hashira to me." He teased, stretching his arms out with a smile. "Your sword is chipped and you're not even wearing a uniform, you really believe that you will be able to kill me like that when even the flame hashira is having a hard time?"

"Y/N, I'm glad that you are here but please, go help the others." Kyojuro looked to y/n with complete fear. It was the first time she had ever seen him truly afraid..."I can handle him." His request was so gentle and supportive, y/n almost agreed to do as he said. But as she was about to agree, the image of hugging Senjuro as the devestation of his death destroyed his family. She couldn't listen to him, as much as she wished she could.