The night was dark and long, the wind was harsh against my haori as I ran, piercing the night air like a hot knife through butter…
"Giyu San… how long?"
The man running alongside of me was as aloof as ever, not turning once as we hurdle jumped over tree stumps and entered the snow covered forest, the trees were denser and we could move faster hopping off trees, the scent was growing stronger, whatever it was isn't too far away now.
"Not too far now, don't you feel it?" Giyu asked as we continued running.
I tensed my leg muscles as we landed on the forest floor, immediately we stood facing in opposite directions, it was uncanny, anyone who saw us would think we're brothers. I wore a similar haori to him albeit darker and completely blue with white checkers, my hair was long but neatly cut, dark like his, my entire life I've spent looking up to Giyu San, and my life's dream came true when he made me his tsuguko just a couple months ago. My name is Arakawa Itsuya.
I learned just like Tomioka San did, under Urokodaki San at Mount Sagiri, but I'm not like the others, it made me feel weird, made me feel like what I had was inferior, of course I hated demons, but I joined the demon slayer corps because of Giyu San. When I was 13, he saved me from the hands of a specific demon that had terrorised our village, the way he was calm and focused, confident and cool, made me yearn to be like him, that's why I sought out Urokodaki sensei.
Maybe I am weird. I heard about how so many hashira a slayers list their families to demons, and here I am, just doing it to feel like I'm something.
…
…
There was a sudden change in the atmosphere!
"Giyu San! It's coming from below!" I jumped and so did Giyu, seconds before a demon barrelled upwards from underground, launching itself at us, aiming to kill. Ugly, hideous, its body was morphed and twisted, its face was the epitome of beastly ugliness.
"Itsuya, deal with it, I'll run ahead, there is far more danger where we are going."
I nodded and before I could process he was gone, darting away mid-jump, sighing I looked down at the creature as the momentum stopped and I started to fall, I slowed my breathing and tensed my upper body while relaxing my lower body, taking in and exhaling air in a perfected pattern, achieving what we slayers called total concentration…
"Mizu no Kokyu: Ni no Kata!" "Water Wheel!"
I slashed down at the demon, exhaling as I dropped further, rolling in air, becoming a wheel of despair, an arc of dark purple Nichirin before cutting the demon into two half's.
Before it could have time to think, I pumped my legs and dashed forward, ducking under the demons wild swing, before drawing in breath again.
"Hachi no Kata! Waterfall Basin!"
I jumped high in the air, releasing my pumped legs and slashing once again vertically, releasing the crushing weight of multiple waterfalls onto the demon, this time as my attack hit, I spun my katana and changed technique…
"Ni no Kata! Lateral water wheel!"
I swung my katana in a destructive circular arc, slicing the head off the demon letting it land in two halves on the snow covered floor, dyeing it crimson as the demon's remains disintegrated leaving behind nothing, I landed, and released the air I was maintaining before once again pumped my legs and ran in the direction my master had ran off to.
I maintained my total concentration breathing like it was second nature as I barrelled through the forest, and I was rewarded for my perseverance when I spotted Giyu San in the distance, holding onto a girl's hair- huh?
I dashed forwards and landed just behind Giyu San, and that's when I realised the girl he had grabbed was a demon, when I looked closely there was a boy roughly thirteen or so, sobbing holding a hatchet, and Giyu San was berating him…
"Stop that pathetic grovelling, if it was the least bit effective your family wouldn't be dead!"
I shuddered as he continued, I hadn't yet seen Tomioka San so conflicted and… angry, especially at a stranger.
"How can a weakling who can't take initiative in such a situation heal his sister? Hunt down the enemy!? Don't make me laugh! The weak have no rights or choices, their only fate is to be relentlessly crushed by the strong! The demons might know how to cure your sister, but don't expect the demons to respect your wills and wishes! Naturally I have no respect for you either! That's reality."
The boy had lifted his face from the ground, eyes wide, face streaking with tears, red from being covered in snow, beyond exhaustion, but Giyu San continued, as I stepped forward to intervene, he raised his hand and I stepped back…
"Why did you throw yourself over your sister earlier? Was that your way of protecting her?"
The boys eyes were shaking in their sockets torn between anger and despair, grief red raw from losing his family…
"Why didn't you swing your hatchet? Why did you show your back to me?" Giyu san pointed his sword at the boy… "All those blunders led to your sister's capture!" The girl continued to struggle in his grip.
"I could have skewered her along with you!
Even I felt something off…
Giyu Sam was berating him to enrage him, and I could see in his angry expression which was exchanged for the usual calmness that he saw something in the boy, and with that Giyu San began to point his blade at the girl…
Suddenly the air whistled as a rock flew but Giyu San slashed it out of the way… thwack!
The boy ran kicking up snowy rolling to pick up his hatchet. He ran behind a tree, throwing another stone which Giyu San dodged before the boy began charging, his eyes full of rage, arms pulled back, but as he got closer, the hilt of Giyu san's sword slammed him to the ground.
That was when I realised where was the hatchet… I disappeared from my spit in an instant and dashed in front of Giyu San, reaching my arm out and catching the hatchet, millimetres away from hitting the hashira in the face. He hadn't even flinched.
"That was slower than I expected Itsuya, although I didn't expect that from the bat, he faked holding the hatchet as he had already thrown it at the same time as the stone when he ran behind the tree… smart… he fought with all he had…"
Suddenly the demon girl broke free from Giyu san's grasp, "Itsuya San, subdue her."
The girl charged at me, and I felt sorry but years of instinct told me to never feel for a demon, I sidestepped her charge, breathing out before chopping her neck with my hand, putting the demon girl to sleep.
I sighed as I looked at the fallen siblings, "did you even get there names, before you berated them?"
Giyu's eyes rounded as he put on a clueless face, I face-palmed before resting both the siblings on a tree, and stepping back, slightly miffed at my master's idiotic expression. It made me realise how a certain white haired man felt when talking to Giyu.
"You sigh too much Itsuya."
I nodded before picking up the hatchet that I dropped when subduing the girl. And threw it next to the boy and waited for the two to wake up, sitting on the floor following what Giyu was doing, beginning to meditate.