Heart Of Fire; Veins Of Ice | Kimetsu No Yaiba Fanfic (Kyojurou's POV)

Chapter 5

He takes the cup of water and takes several sips, as the man keeps the vial of Wisteria essence back in his and motions for him to lay down once he's done.

"Rest." The man seemingly speaks in disjointed words, as if not used to speaking their language.

"Where am I?" He asks, as he lays down on the bed as he says, not seeing a point in not following his orders. He ties the blindfold over his own eyes, as he catches a glimpse of the man being extremely surprised at that, with a small smile at his lips.

"A cottage....in.... mountains. It's closest....Seishin village," The man speaks again. His accent is somewhat off, but he does not comment on that. Kyojuro rests on the bed, as he places a hand on his wound once more.

"Need to finish with it. Apologies," He hears his voice, deep, warm and lulling in spite of his speech. He wonders how the man was going to heal his wounds, which he had been certain were almost fatal, but he lets the man do what he can. After all, if breathing could help to stop him from bleeding out, what else was there that existed?

He's silent, as the fire cackles and warms the room. It's the only sound, other than the few exceptions of him breathing heavily from the pain, as he feels the man bind his wounds with bandages, It would take much time to heal, but he's eager to try out his breathing once he is done with it. Not only that, he had so many other questions as well, such as how he got here, what happened to Tanjirou and his two companions, how the other pillars would react.

"I never caught your name," He spoke, voice strained as he asked his healer.

"Masahiko." His answer takes time to return to him. Kyojurou knows it's probably a fake name, but he can't entirely rule out the possibility that it's been a long time since he had seen another person as well. The man then reaches for his arm, rolling up his sleeves, his touch light, and yet firm, as he sets his arm on an arm rest.

"Might be uncomfortable," He listens quietly to what Masahiko says, as he feels needles being inserted into right arm. It seemingly strikes a chord within him, as the spot where he inserts the needle which previously felt heavy, seemingly lightened his arm, and dulled the pain in his wounds. He blinks beneath the blindfold, wanting to know what sort of technique could provide such relief, but he decides not to distract him.

Masahiko continues inserting the needles along his arm, his touch tender and never invasive, as he does what he needs to, and whatever he does, is done with utmost care. He falls asleep after what he counts to be the fifteenth needle in his arm, senses clear and relaxed, as pain dulls itself with each needle.

Masahiko removes his blindfold once he senses that his patient has relaxed, as he continues to trace the pathways of chi flow along his arm, and works to freeing those pathways.

In his eyes, he sees two distinctly different energy flows within his patient's body, one cold,  corrupting and tainted, while the other was pure and warm like the flames burning in the fire place.