sᴀʏ ʏᴇs ᴛᴏ ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ || ᴛᴏᴋɪᴛᴏ ᴍᴜɪᴄʜɪʀᴏ ||

004 - gone wrong

THE SOFT DROPS of cold rain collide against Kaori's soft cheeks, the small sounds of crickets waking her up. She fluttered her eyes open, not feeling any pain from her body as she scanned herself.

Her burnt scars weren't there anymore, it was completely healed without any marks. Even though the blue and swollen bruises were still present on her arm, she didn't feel bothered by it.

The bleed from her forehead seemed to stop gushing too, there were some small scratches but it was completely healed.

'What the...' She raised her eyebrows, standing up and surprisingly feeling a slight strike of pain that ended quickly, 'Is this because of that blue glowing potion?' 

Kaori smiled reassuringly, her eyes warming as her cheeks flushed another hue of red. 'Papa has saved me... once again...'

She looked around, trying to search for the tall six-eyed figure but she couldn't spot him anywhere.

Weirdly, she has always had a keen sense and she could figure out if Kokushibo was around her or not. It was just something she learned each night she spent with the demon.

'Where is he?' She pouts, looking around. As the raindrops started falling faster and harder, Kaori sighed.

'Where did he run off to? I didn't even get to thank him... but I should go back now... It's raining and I might get sick...' She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself to keep herself warm.

'I'll just... sneak inside my room window and lock the door from the inside...' Kaori sighed, bracing herself as she started walking back to the house. While walking there, the rain started falling faster so she was forced to run back.

However, when she saw that the front door was open wide and how she could sense a faint somewhat aura of Kokushibo inside her house - that's when she panicked. 

'Oh no! Did he figure out about, papa??'

She bit her bottom lip, running towards the front door and into the house. The image that she was imagining wasn't the same as what was happening inside the house, it was quite the opposite for her, 

'No...'

Kenji was kneeling, both of his hands were chopped off as blood splurted out from his fresh injury like a red fountain. Just like that, his head got sliced from his neck, blood splattering to the walls.

Kokushibo stood in front of the corpse as it fell. Kaori's eyes widened as her pupils turned small, vibrating. Her breath hitched as her eyes watered at the gruesome sight.

"Papa..?"

Kokushibo slowly turned around, his eyes softening when he saw Kaori trembling. He was holding Kenji's severed head up by his blonde hair, his eyes were gouged out and blood streamed down his chin as tears.

"Oh... Kaori"

Kokushibo dropped the man's head, letting it roll away from him as he turned his body completely to face Kaori. His clothes have a few splatters of blood on them, gripping his bloody katana.

"Are you feeling better? You shouldn't be moving right now..." He exclaimed, scanning Kaori up and down - glad that her serious injuries were healed correctly.

Kaori didn't reply, frozen in place as Kokushibo started walking towards her - his hands covered with blood. Kokushibo wiped his hands using his kimono as he cupped Kaori's cheeks.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his eyes showed concern. "Why are you so pale? Are you still feeling sick? I can-"

Kaori took a big step backward, her eyebrows furrowed as tears ran down her pale face. She gritted her teeth, clenching her palm into fists as she glared at the uppermoon.

"What have you done, papa!?" Kaori screamed. Kokushibo flinched when the girl avoided his touch, startled at her sudden reaction.

"I killed him for you. I don't want him hurting you anymore. I don't want to see you cry and beg because of him..." He stated calmly, staring at Kaori who was already crying by now.

"I don't know who you are anymore..." Kaori sniffled, taking a few steps back as her heart pumped with anxiety. She scrunched her nose at the scent of the blood of her father.

"How could you be so calm after brutally killing him... You're not the same..." Kaori muttered as Kokushibo's eyes narrowed, he was starting to feel nervous.

"Kaori, calm down." He reassured, feeling an urgent feeling in his cold chest when he heard the girl's breathing start to pick up. "It's not a big deal-"

"How is it not a big deal!?" Kaori yelled, startling the cold demon once again and silencing him.

"You killed my biological father!! Who am I supposed to live with now!?" Kaori yelled as Kokushibo stayed silent, she was right, he didn't think this far ahead as his mind before was blinded with hatred and anger.

"See, you don't even know what will happen next." Kaori continued, clenching her fists when she stared at the stoic look on the demon's face.

"I'm leaving," Kaori stated, running outside before Kokushibo could say anything else to her comment, her vision was starting to get blurry due to the tears piling up and then spilling.

"Wait, Kaori!"

She shut her eyes as she ran and ran, but then, she stopped. She quickly realized that the ground below her was starting to crack. In the end, she falls under the frozen surface. 

Turns out, she was running on top of the frozen lake that was melting slowly because the snowing weather had slowly come to an end. The water was freezing cold as she struggled to swim back up, her legs feeling numb.

"Help!!" She shouts but the aquatic surroundings she's currently in muffled her shrill voice away - keeping it in the cold waters. She was starting to choke the water down, her vision getting blurry.

From below the water, she could see the faint color of a black-haired figure with red tips looking down at her, crouching down. Her eyes started slowly closing as she watched the figure lowering his head to the water's surface.

'I'm sorry,' She cried, 'I don't want to live in this world anyways...'

Just as the figure was about to act, he jumped back when a bright beam of blue attacked him. It took a couple of minutes before someone jumped inside the cold body of water.

'Who are you? Why are you swimming this far to save me?'

It was a man with jet black hair, wearing some sort of uniform and a mismatched-patterned haori over it. He had deep sapphire irises that held no sparks.

'Who are you?'

He grabbed Kaori's wrist, swimming back up to the surface as he brought Kaori along with him. 

When he reached the surface, he helped the girl up to the surface before going up himself. Kaori started coughing out the water she choked on as the man stood up. Kaori turned to look at him, he was good-looking for sure.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his voice smooth and chilling. Kaori observed the man, examining his outfit and attire but she didn't find anything intimidating. 

Kaori didn't reply to the man as he extended his hand for the girl to take, "Do you want to grow stronger?"

Kaori was shocked by the next sentence that came out of his mouth, "The guy before is a demon, he isn't human. Let me ask you again, do you want to grow stronger?"

'I know that... so it is true... papa told me that there are people who hunt demons down and kill them' Kaori gulped, her eyes filled with determination. "What should I do to become stronger?"

"Come with me. I shall take you as my apprentice, my tsuguko." He kept his hand extended.

"Let me introduce myself. Giyuu Tomioka, the Water Hashira."