丨Soar丨 Kimetsu no Yaiba x OC｜

Chapter 49

"CAW! It's three in the morning! CAW CAW!" Hachi hovered above Chizuko.

It's summer now... There are at least two hours until sunrise. Chizuko gulped, would this be the last two hours of her life? She glanced around, counting the sixteen members that fainted. She was too busy dealing with Kaigaku that she didn't have the chance to tend to anyone. To add on to that, the slight headache accompanied with cramps in her eye worsened the situation.

Not to mention that Chizuko was trembling. The hairs on her limbs stood, extra doses of adrenaline was gushing throughout her veins, warning her of catastrophic danger. Chizuko could barely remain standing, it wasn't because of the horrible gashes on her, but because of the supreme and overpowering strength emitting from the demon that came in tsunamis.

She knew from the bottom of her heart that this wasn't a battle she could win.

"I see... Akaza was telling the truth about your health," Kokushibo broke the silence, "I can see that you are taking a lot of medicine. You are around fifteen years old right? You have developed your own breathing form in such a young age, and are one of the few swordsmen capable of wielding multiple breathing styles... It would be ill-mannered for me if I do not draw my sword. Tell me... What is your name again?"

His blade is made up of eyes, Chizuko's repulsion peaked as she studied Kokushibo's peculiar weapon. Tearing part of her haori, Chizuko tied it tightly around the deepest wound on her shoulder, she has to find a way to protect everyone.

"Fox hashira-sama!" Yoshida, Katou and Hayashi, who Chizuko met at the edge of the forest, came running to her all of a sudden, "W-We've come to help!"

"Stay back!" Chizuko forced her quivering hands to grip the hilt of her katana, "Take your fainted friends with you and stay behind me! Retreat if you can!"

"Oi! Don't you see we're still here? Who said you're allowed to leave?" with Kokushibo dominating the whole scene, Kaigaku felt entitled to mock his former colleagues, "Not even the Fox hashira can make it out alive! You fools came back to rescue her? What do you think you are? Shields?"

Kokushibo observed Chizuko with his six eyes, the pair in the middle narrowed. There is something special about her blood, there is something...

That lord Muzan has been looking for since centuries ago but has never found.

Chizuko's heart was sinking, she couldn't conjure a well-organised escape plan. Squeezing her eyes shut, the familiar figure draped in a flowing, flaming cape flashed before Chizuko's eyes, "I will fulfil my duty! I won't let anyone here die!"

Rengoku-sama.

More memories flooded in.

"All done, Chizuko-chan," smiling gently, Shinobu cut the remaining bandages on Chizuko's arm after stitching the wound, "be more careful next time, alright?"

"Chizuko-chan!!" Mitsuri giggled, looping her arm around Chizuko's shoulders, "Let's go for ramen together! My treat!"

"Get out of the way!" Sanemi shoved Chizuko to the side, blocking the attacks of several demons on his own.

Giyu glanced backwards at Chizuko before they headed up the steep and narrow road winding up a mountain, "You can hold on to my sleeve if you feel scared, Kocho said you have a fear for heights."

"Oi, Suzuki, don't just stare at the floor," Uzui slapped Chizuko on the back, "your different coloured eyes are flamboyant, approved by the most flamboyant person in the world! So chin up, have some confidence!"