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

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And yet, Himura watches over the demon slayer's corpse with cold, calculating eyes.

So does Masahiko, who stands by her side.

"His corpse hasn't disintegrated." She comments, as she makes her way over to the door of the room, and locking it, she pulls down a set of steel blinds over the room, leaving the three of them in this small, surgical ward. This is nothing new, but it fills her heart with a thrum of excitement. She never grew attached for specific reasons, but this, this was a sign.

"Your love and care for him is genuine. Almost beautifully so as well. Now tell me, is he the anomaly that you identified?" She speaks, even to the mourning, grieving man.

"Shut your mouth." Masahiko-san is fiercely protective, even for a dead man.

She shrugs.

Making her way over to his corpse, she finishes up the work done by the others, sewing together his wounds and stitching together flesh and skin. He should have died so much earlier, and yet he persisted. She can see his tenacity, outlined in the flesh and blood he has spilled. He has defied death so many times.

It is against the law of nature, but it is an admirable act.

To deny fate, to carve out his own destiny, she can see what he reminds Masahiko-san of. The crow had left, with false news. She wonders what it is like to die surrounded by strangers, individuals he had barely gotten to recognise or remember deeply in his heart, despite all he could have done had he chosen to leave. One choice had changed so much in the path of his future.

"Your eyes guided you to this path. To this man. It is normal to feel pain, to feel so hurt for his suffering. But these were his choices. Not yours, His ideals are noble, painfully self- sacrificing, but he did it because he believed in them to the very end. But he still died with regrets. Not everything is within your control, Masahiko-san," She speaks calmly, as she binds the wounds of the corpse tightly with bandages.

Now that most of the blood had been drained from the corpse, it was far easier to put it back together.

"I believed...I wanted him to live..."

The air is cold, gradually gaining warmth as the sun rises over the village, a new beginning to the end of a long dark night. She shouldn't get too poetic either, as Kyojuro hadn't lived to see dawn either.

She turns her gaze to the corpse.

"Then believe."

A cold wind fills the air, as she draws her own blade at this new presence.

She finds herself staring at a long, white haired woman, who stands over the demon slayer's body. Liquid bronze drips from her eyes, trailing down her skin, but her gaze is focused, and with a scarred face, she raised her hands and placed them over Kyojuro's chest. It carried within its bleeding, dripping gaze eyes that had seen too much, laced with the brink of the point of no return.

It takes clarity to reign in the pain and agony, carried by wading through the gates of the Abyss, forcing them open and defying fate. With her host now dead, she should not be able to last long, except here she still stood. Ice freezes the liquid bronze, which drips lovingly over and pours onto the demon's slayer pale skin, staining it a colour which would leave marks forever. She had overcome death once, dragged her host through the depths of insanity and entropy out into reality. Now, she would do it once more. Not for her, but for the demon slayer named Rengoku Kyojuro.

He had been filled with so many regrets, as he gave his dying breath. And now, she would grant him the second chance he so wished for. And with this, she would no longer make the same mistakes as she had before.

The snow demon stares at her, as Himura's lips break into a smile. It is a velvet smile, drawing in its prey, with all knowing insight and knowledge, she knows what this human woman speaks of. She knows, she knows so well, because she had to open them up once more to wade her way through the waters of the infinite, endless black sea, through the gates of oblivion, and deny her own fate...

It is against the laws of nature.

It is an unlawful, an ungodly corruption of the mind and the soul.

It is T̸͉͍͓̒̈́r̵̢̼̟̓̓̒u̴͍͙̟̓̽͝e̴̢̻̟̓͝͠ R̵̝̪͙͌͒͒ë̴̦̼́̚̕͜s̴̙̦͚̒̿͋ù̵̢͎̟͋̾r̸͇͎̘̽̽r̸̙̒́̕͜e̸͖̫̻͌́͘c̵͚̫͆͐̾t̸̡͚͕́̿͘i̵͔̞̦͆͛̾o̸̼͙͇̔͊̾n̴̡͚͋̔̔

"It is only fitting that you are the one to bring him back."

A/N: Arc 1 complete. 

Will be taking a break from this story for quite some time, not sure when I'll resume it as of now...