𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝑰 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 [𝕘𝕚𝕪𝕦𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕠] (KNY)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝟣𝟥: 𝒮𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈

Author POV:

Half an hour of intense battle later, Shinobu was starting to grow worried. Backup should've arrived by now. Was her crow hurt?

She gritted her teeth as she struggled to block Douma's attack with her katana. 

Shinobu POV:

The clones were driving me crazy, and he was slightly faster than me. Speed was one of my only advantages. Him outspeeding me was crazy for a demon and it made me feel defenseless, like I had lost a hand. 

My body was inflicted with cuts, scratches, and one particular stingy wound on my left leg. Everything throbbed with pain, but I did my best to keep standing, to keep him here until sunrise.

I wanted desperately to check on Tomioka again. But I couldn't so much as spare a second to even look at him. Douma kept me on my feet, blocking every single attack furiously. Tomioka's wound could be infected by now. It was a forest, for goodness sake. There were probably bugs and dirt everywhere. 

Douma let out another peal of maniacal laughter. "Give up yet, darling?"

I gritted my teeth. "I'm not your 'darling'." I aimed a kick at him, but he dodged easily. 

Actually, by now I should've died. I should've been on the floor, bleeding out, or getting devoured. The only reason Douma hadn't killed me yet was that I was too fast at dodging. Even if my brain didn't process what had happened, my body reacted by itself. And my training was too good, too secure, for my body to even think about getting stabbed.

However, ten minutes later I could tell even he was done playing games. He was a demon; he fought for blood. For female blood too apparently. I was taking too long for a good meal. I could tell, from the way his eyes flashed everytime I successfully dodged a lethal blow, from the way he stopped laughing and wasting time doing elebarote tricks. 

My body was wearing out. Every part of me hurt, even if it was somewhere that hadn't been touched yet. I felt so, so tired. Unnaturally tired. Hashira training should have enabled me to go on like this for hours more. But for some reason, I just wanted to lie down and never wake up again. 

I dipped my fingers into my pocket for another poison I could use on Douma, but instead my fingertips touched something wet. 

Horrified, I looked inside my pocket and realised one of my vials had broke and was spilling in my pocket, drenching the fabric and seeping onto my leg. 

I quickly took out the broken bottle and for a second, couldn't even process the lable. 

It was Thallium. A dangerous poison that put the victim in a brief but deep sleep from just contact. 

I cursed. So this was why I felt so tired, so drowsy, like there was a heavy weight dragging me down. My training enabled me to stay awake, but I knew the poison was putting a huge damper on my stamina and strength. As if I wasn't losing this battle hard enough already. 

For the first time I'd ever fought a demon, I thought desperately, I need help. 

A/N: thanks everyone for supporting this book! by the way, if you think it's boring, nobody ever told you to keep reading, so don't waste your time hating~