Burn to ash

Houzuki

    He walked with a purpose, not even a moment of hesitation in his step despite the dark night that surrounded him. Anyone could see that he was well armed with a beautiful sword at his side and the gleam in his eyes. The uniform under his cape, identified him as a demon slayer. For a moment, he paused, as he's noticed something and his hand twitched, ready to draw his blade as a woman, no a girl no older than 20 cautiously stepped out of the dark shadows that lined the street. Her hair was as dark as the deep depths of the ocean and long like en endless river. Even in the dark, her skin glowed a soft white, never have been kissed by the sun. Flawlessly smooth, not a blemish in sight. Her form was petit, small, more so as she had her arms wrapped tightly around herself, as if that would protect her from the world. She was a beautiful girl, dressed in a kimono with floral hoozuki* flowers printed on the delicate fabric, all the while she wore a pure white outer layer with a bright red underside. He had to admit, she was a beautiful bride, a beautiful girl, if not for her eyes. The whites of her eyes had darkened to a deep purple and her irises a bright yellow. How beautiful she must have been as a human. How lucky her fiancé must have felt being able to marry her but maybe not, as it's clear her marriage may have been to cover up their mistake, the prominent bulge of her belly. Round like the moon, ready to burst like an overstuffed oinarisan* Her breath was ragged and the veins around her eyes bulged, throbbing. She clenched her belly and winced in pain ever so often.
    " Are you so foolish as to appear before a Hashira on your own demon?" His voice held the authority that's expected of any esteemed Hashira. His eyes burned  liked a  blazing fire, burned with hatred for her kind. Otherwise, his red eyes would have been mesmerizing. His eyes followed her every movement as she kneeled down to the ground, her hands forming a delicate triangle with her fingertips touching, and her head bowed down, her forehead barley touching the ground.
    " Please. Please kill me before I hurt anyone else. But if you are able, I beg of you to save my child." Her voice trembled as it should for a person pleading for death. Even in this stage, she form, was elegant as if she's bowed in this way hundreds of times. Any one would have been able to figure out where this girl has come from, not mention the reports the demon slayers had received not to long ago. She was the missing Oiran from the entertainment district.
    " Your child will most likely be born a demon. It is something that your Muzan has been attempting for years now and all offspring of former humans have been demons. When I kill you, the one in your womb will die with you." The Hashira spoke as he drew his gleaming blade to shimmer under the moonlight. The girl cried silent tears but nodded to the man as he stepped closer, keeping a watchful eye on her.
    " May you live prosperously with your child in your next life." He whispered a single prayer to her before he swung his sword. Her head rolled a ways away and her body slumped. He watched as her head, still crying started to disintegrate into dust and expected her body to do the same. Kneeling down beside the body, he brought his hands together and closed is eyes to offer another prayer but a cry broke out in the darkness of the night. A shrill cry that pulls at your heart and strangles your mind to freeze you in your steps to face the cry. He opened his eyes to face the body of the deceased demon to find it still there, not disappearing, as if it's clinging onto life in hopes of saving the child in it's belly. The screams of the unborn child drew the attention of the once sleeping village and the Hashira could see various windows lighting up with life. It should be impossible for the child to still be alive, more so, impossible for it to cry in the womb of a woman but so should the existence of demons be impossible. Unable to leave the body and child, he made a decision that may change the course of future for the demons slayers. He dug his blade just below the belly revealing the small body of a child. As soon as he cut the umbilical cord that attached the baby to it's mother, the body burst into a cloud of dust leavening behind nothing but the kimono that a beautiful woman once wore.
    Without thinking, he wrapped the crying child in his cape and it;s mother's clothing, covering the child in an attempt to muffle it's cries and jumped onto the roof tops away from people who might look out their window. He stiffened and reached for his blade as he felt the grasp of a small hand on his finger but to his surprise, he did not feel the harsh teeth of a demon or the deadly claws of it. the baby, grasped at his finger, pulling it closer to it's self as it sniffled and whined in discomfort. It looked up at him with eyes resembling nothing of it's demon mother and its face was painted bright red from it's previous cries. It looked up at him so innocently, just like any new born would, like his newborn had. What he should do is kill it. No one knows what it may turn into one day. It may hide its fangs now and come to kill him in the coming days but as the baby grasped at his finger, weakly in its hands, he couldn't bring himself to draw his blade. No. He couldn't because the baby, it smiled up at him like he was the sun of it's tiny little world.
    " What will I do with you." He sighed but decided the best course of action would be to report back to Oyakata-sama and though he may be ridiculed for being soft or unwilling, perhaps, someone there will be able to do the deed that seems impossible to him.
He laid it down on the tile of the roof to readjust and wrap the baby. First doing his best to wipe away the blood with his already dirtied cape then laying it down on the kimono belonging to it's mother, finding that the baby is a girl. He did what he had watched the midwife do just a few days ago and tightly swaddle the newborn. Wrapped in the beautiful fabrics, a thought came to him. Though in the coming days, it may mean nothing but perhaps, this child, who was unfortunate enough to be born in such circumstances, deserves a name.
"Houzuki" Like the kimono that her mother wore, the kimono that will keep you warm. A name that fit her origin.

*Hoozuki(鬼灯): japanese/Chinese lantern flower : fun fact, Hoozuki is written with the characters 鬼(oni-demon) and 灯(Akari-light) and is used for guiding the dead back to visit their family for obon(a day to honor the dead loved ones)
* Oinarisan: Inari sushi
>_< Btw: Hoozuki (Ho-o-zu-ki) is the correct way of writing the name of the flower but her name is Houzuki (Ho-oo-zu-ki). When pronounced, they sound pretty similar and really doens't change the meaning of the characters used but my reason for this will reveal it's self later on.