Finding You

chapter 6

It was so dark. Shinobu couldn't see anything. One side of Shinobu's both Haori and kimono slipped off, revealing her right pale shoulder. She was becoming paler and paler one of these days and it was clearly not a good sign. Panting, she fasten her pace, but that too, was clearly not good enough. The night has fallen down already, and the wind blew. Hisses and whispers went past Shinobu's ears, but she was just only hallucinating. Or so she thought.

The demons came after her, that was obvious, but it was easier this time taking out the demons. It was easier, not easy. Now that Shinobu thought about it, how did she even survived? After she passed out the first time, she woke up at the foot of the forest, where she took the first step. Someone must've saved her. She wished she could find them and repay them.

The Insect Hashira beautiful, lovely face was bruised and cut. Blood dripped down to her neck, then her clothes. Shinobu couldn't careless. The injuries she obtained now seemed like a child's play compare to 4 years ago, but it hurts still. Her body was drained out and dirty, the mixture of blood, sweat and mud was stained on her Haori and kimono, making it looked disheveled and supposedly not so good. Even though she looked and felt terrible, she was proud of herself of how far she had progress.

Demons after demons came at her, jumping, crawling, hissing, any kind of doing to devour Shinobu, but she was having non of that. Swinging her sword, she took out all of them, or at least the ones that came at her. Stopping for a moment, she quickly brushed her long hair back. It was getting longer and longer, but Shinobu didn't really care. Her only goal is to reach Tomioka, and Tomioka only.

Suddenly, Shinobu heard footsteps. Slow but steady footsteps. The leaves crunched and crunched as the anonymous person moved. Shinobu wasn't that dumb to realise that it was a human. Of course some of the demons were smart, but the ones in this forest wasn't. They're hot for blood and are eating monsters. Definitely wouldn't be sneaking around and being smart, they would just jump straight ahead and taste the blood.

Nevertheless the Insect Hashira stayed on her guard, or at least she was trying to, due to the fact that she was extremely tired and hurt, and moved forward. There was no way that she was far away from her goal. She started since the morning, and she still hadn't reached to the other side yet, so she must be close. The footsteps were getting louder, easier to hear and more confident. It wasn't quavering footsteps, it was strong and confident ones.

At this point Shinobu couldn't care about the demons anymore, not after what she saw.

Shinobu's purple, dark-in-the-night gradient eyes widened.

Her small mouth, without lipstick, gaped open. She didn't care about those stuff anymore, not after what happened anyway. After what happened with Tomioka.

She blinked, then dropped her sword.

It was Tomioka. Those were Tomioka's confident footsteps, those were his trademark steps. He looked as handsome as always. His hair was short and it looked so beautiful on him. Giyuu's plain, serious face looked so good, so... Memorising. Just then, Shinobu felt an ache. She just realised how much she missed him.

The Water Hashira's head whipped around upon hearing the loud thud of the Insect Hashira's sword. Shocked eyes met with the same surprised eyes. Tomioka eyes widened so much that it hurts. There was no way that was Shinobu. There was no way...

Tomioka's eyes traced Shinobu's small battered face, down to her high, perfect nose, over her grazed cheeks that was stained with both the old blood colour and new fresh wounds. It was painful, looking at Shinobu like that. His eyes noticed Shinobu's hair. How gorgeous. She did it. She grew her hair out, huh? Beautiful. Everything about her was, and is still beautiful. They stared at eachother painfully, realising how much they missed eachother.

Tomioka couldn't move. He was overwhelmed with shock. He knew, both him and Kochou knew how dangerous it was to stand in that forest, gaping at eachother unguarded, but both of them cannot move at that moment. They froze like that, heart aching by just looking at eachother.

"Argh!"

A high octave voice screamed. Not even a millisecond later blood was shed and a demon's head dropped to the ground. Tomioka. Tomioka's blade was stained with the bright, red blood. The bright moon reflected on the sword, bringing out the colour of the red liquid like a deadly toxin. He panted and panted while sweating profusely and shaking violently. Luckily he reacted extremely fast. Giyuu was a Water Hashira after all, but if he was a second late, things would be terrible.

Hoping not to see what he thought just happened, Tomioka's head slowly turned around.

Oh no. Shinobu was laying on the ground, with blood damping the grass. Damping her clothes. Damping her.