Kitty - Sanemi x OC x Tengen

Ch. 8: Poison

"MIYUKI!" He was three roads away from her, "THERE ARE THREE LOWER MOONS! GET OUT OF HERE."

She quickly pressed her palm against the ground. Assessing her surroundings, checking for demons around her, analyzing how many there were, how their footsteps sounded and how agile they were.

She quickly rushed to where he was, "you're right, there are three of them. But lower moons 2 and 3 are new. I defeated the ones before them." She informed him, "and I'm not leaving!"

"Then you must stay where I can see you!"

"You're already wounded!"

"This is nothing." He said, but she knew that a few of his bones were broken because of the incident with his father the previous day. "But they seem much stronger than their predecessors."

Kyojuro fought like a true Hashira.

But when one of them attacked her, she froze in her feet. All she could see was Douma's face and she almost dropped her sword.

"SWING YOUR SWORD!!!!!" She heard Kyojuro run to her but she couldn't comprehend anything - is this what I've become? I can't even fight a demon? Why am I doing this? Should I just give up? What if Kyojuro san sees me like this? Have I become this weak? Can I even fight-

She heard a slicing sound in front of her as Kyojuro shielded her, and her eyes went wide as he groaned in pain. He'd shielded her from the attack and was severely wounded in the process.

"NO!" She screamed in fright. He was not dying on her watch, especially not because of her.

Her hands trembled as she gripped her sword - which form do I use? What do I do? How do I effectively slash all three while protecting Kyojuro san-

"They're nothing before you, Miyuki." she heard him whisper and her heart calmed down, "don't think about me" he sat on his knees, digging his sword in the ground to hold his body up. "You're stronger than you think you are. Don't feel bad about this. I put myself in the way."

"I-I can do this."

"You know I'll die here if you don't kill them, right?" He chuckled through the pain.

He watched her quietly move away from him and grip her sword as she faced the demons. Her body went numb as she exhaled into total concentration.

The Flame Hashira barely saw her after that. His eyes had to actively keep up with her to see her movements and when she used her sun breathing, he understood why his father called the other breathing techniques a cheap copy of the original.

She came back running to him as soon as she was done and checked his wounds first. "Wait-"

"No, wait-" she checked his wounds again. His shirt was damp with his blood, but she couldn't find any further bleeding. She tore his shirt to examine his wound, "woah, easy there." His eyes went wide as she looked at him in disbelief.

"You're not that badly wounded!" She realised that he'd used total concentration to stop his bleeding, "you're fine!"

"I'm sorry." He smiled at her in fascination, "I had to get you to move."

"But you-"

"You tore my shirt. If someone saw that, they'd think you're trying to get all over me."