Don't Leave (Kimetsu No Yaiba)

Candy 6

"Kukukuku..." chuckled the demon. "You? A demon, protecting a human? Moreover, that boy's little sister is a demon too, yet she's not eating him." He chuckled once again with a large disturbing grin. "What's this, what's this? I've never seen anything like this before. You all must be mad. Real mad!" He dashed to you, but was stopped by the old man halfway with a harsh kick to his stomach. However, the demon resisted and scratched the old man's shoulder blade, before shoving him straight to a wall. "Die, woman!" The demon sprinted at your direction and flung his claws above you.

With no mercy in his eyes, he shoved his claws down, but millimeters away from your eyes, a leg kicked his head aside, causing it to crashed to a wall and went through it. Through the hole in the wall, you watched the demon's head dashed towards a huge tree and landed harshly on the trunk, followed by a short ax which was thrown at him and struck his hair, gluing him on the trunk. You breathed in relief, before slowly turning back to your left. There, Nezuko stood quietly with a sadistic look on her face; frowning as her pink eyes glowed in anger. Beside her was Tanjirou who was responsible for throwing the ax. He puts on a worried face. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Thank you." you gave him a reassuring smile when the demon behind you grew arms from the sides of his head and bounced to your direction, but (luckily for you) only to be punched by the old man. For the final blow, you hoisted your palm at the demon as an order for your butterflies, then they immediately zoomed towards him and sliced him repeatedly. No mercy, no forgiveness, no breaks. Blood sprayed to the walls and to the floor, soiling the leaves pillow and your blanket too. As the butterflies did their work, Tanjirou shut his eyes, and didn't even bother to look. The slashing and the gutty noise were too eerie and too sadistic for him, his kind heart was not the type to handle these situations.

Finally, the butterflies were done. You twisted to Tanjirou with a sad look on your face while your butterflies flew back to your head and turned back into hairpins. Nezuko traced your eyes and looked at her brother. Without any expression, she stepped closer to him, then gently brushed her hand through his hair. It took several seconds for Tanjirou to slowly open his eyes. "I-Is it done?" He asked nervously.
You nodded.
"Mm.." Nezuko hummed.

Tap... tap... tap...
The three of you slowly turned to the old man; the stranger who had rescued you all from upheaval. You scanned the stranger from up till bottom, aware that he was hurt, and that he was definitely 100% a human. Despite of it, you did not sense any threatening tension from him, unlike when he first came in the house and started a fight with that hungry demon who attacked you. What does he want?

"So you are the boy who Tomioka was talking about, huh?" He started, focusing on Tanjirou. "He then turned to Nezuko who was staring at your wings with sparkles in her eyes. "And she is Nezuko-chan." he huffed. "She sure is impressive. But she still lacks power."

Tanjirou was not panicking, nor did he attempted to raise a weapon at the old man. Instead, he walked up to him without any hostile manner. "Tomioka?" He asked. "You mean... the demon slayer I fought when I was making my way to the hospital?"

"Yes." The old man nodded. "He was my student. It was I who made him a Pillar. He wrote me a letter regarding your state, and admitted that he was interested in forming an alliance." The stranger pulled out a scroll tied up with a red ribbon from his yukata, then showed it to Tanjirou as proof. "Tomioka asked me to take care of you and your sister; to keep you safe from the other demon slayers out there. But...." the stranger averted his head to you, and pointed his pointing finger at your direction. "She was not mentioned anywhere in the letter."

You flinched, feeling a little bit frantic. All that time, the old man didn't say anything about you. So, you were never included in his plan. You are just an outsider who happened to stumble upon his path.

You and the stranger stared at one another, silence conquering the scene. The silence broke once you spoke to the man with assurance. "Tanjirou just saved me from dying out of hunger. We had settled the matter, and I never planned to stay here any longer. You can pretend we never meet once the day gets darker."
The stranger sighed understandably. "Very well then."

"Miss, wait!" Tanjirou exclaimed. You turned to him, only to see him making a sad expression. "You're not going to join us? You haven't even tell me your name!"

You smiled kindly, in a motherly way. It was also very hard for you to leave as Tanjirou might be the first and the only one who'd accept you as a man-eating demon. And who knows when you will cross each other's paths again. Probably never. But it was too dangerous for both you and Tanjirou to be together as demon slayers and other demons would be out for a hunt. Under the old man's care, Tanjirou would be safe and Nezuko's existence would be kept as a secret. But for you, the old man was not a choice.
You had to go.

<To be continued>