Murata didn't know what happened.
Everything happens so fast, he didn't have time to process any of it.
One moment, he was trying to inflict damage to the demon.
The next, all he sees is fire and fury.
Kusabimaru shot like an arrow from a bow, instantly carving a path through the air.
The black katana was wrapped in vigorous red sun-hot flame, born out of thin air as it leaves trail across its path like a red comet in the sky.
The gorgeous flame grew so hot and so bright that it illuminated everything in its course until it embedded itself deeply in the demon.
Puchi!
Kusabimaru strike true and stabbed itself right in the middle of the demon forehead. The flame instantly enveloped its whole head. Murata, who was the closest witness, could even hear a sizzling sound of flesh being burn to crisp.
"GAAaaHHHh!"
The demon head threw backwards from the force of the strike. Intense pain erupted from his brain as the blade seems to touch the pain nerve system.
It was so sudden and so agonizing that the demon couldn't hold his balance as he was carried by the force of the strike backward.
Warm liquid splashing from his wound with some of it landed on the side of Murata's face, which were easily cauterized by how hot flame is. The demon instinct has turned into self-preservation than hunting, baring his teeth and claws, as he withdrew his hand and covered his head.
"W-What?" Murata was stunned.
"What was that!? So fast!"
He blinked his eyes, visions a little blurry, as his breathing was disrupted; leaving him panting in exhaustion.
'A Katana? And it... can fly?' Murata's oxygen deprived brain went into shutdown.
Suddenly, he was hearing footsteps sound and subconsciously looked in that direction.
Giyu wasted no time in rushing over, his messy ponytail flapping in the moonlight as he jumped over Murata.
He adjusted his posture in mid-air, hand on his Nichirin blade, as he uses gravity to help deliver the final blow.
Murata raised his head, the scene reflected in his pupils. It was a sight that he will never forget in his lifetime.
Giyu puts his entire weight as he swings his sword. The next moment, he was behind the demon kneeling as he puts his sword back in its scabbard.
Time seems to freeze until the sound of the sword completely sealed itself.
Click.
As if on cue, the demon head slid off its body with Kusabimaru still intact as they descend and stabbed the ground.
Blood erupted from the severed neck, raining a bloody mess that surprisingly didn't land on either swordsmen.
The demon couldn't comprehend its death. He was just about rampage and destroys everything in his vicinity, and the next he was seeing his body without its head slowly turning to ashes.
'Damn it... I can't... I can't DIEE—'
His thought were cut short as his head followed its body and disappeared into the wind.
...
Murata stared blankly at the back of Water Hashira slowly stood up from his kneeling posture then at the black katana stabbing the ground.
His adrenaline rush seems to be over as he lost strength in his legs.
The dark clouds covering the moon slowly rolled away, revealing the bright moonlight shining down on him, as if to say 'Congrats, you still alive, plebs.'
Tanjuro finally catch up with Giyu.
"Huff..." White steamed overflowed from the corner of his mouth, which quickly blown away by the wind.
'It seems my weak body needs more time to recover.'
They arrived at the town just in time to see Murata's last stand against the demon. Seeing that neither of them can reach there in time, Tanjuro decide to use Yōkatotsu to stall the demon then let Giyu, who was faster than him, finish the job.
It worked as they successfully killed the demon and saved the guy.
Tanjuro went to retrieve Kusabimaru from the ground and silently flipped the blade to clean it from grim and blood then sheathed it back to its scabbard.
Click.
The sound woke up Murata from his dazed as he took in the newcomer. He saw the man putting the flying blade back in its sheath.
'Is he... a new Hashira?'
He looked at Tanjuro and wondered in his heart. He turned his head to looked at Giyu standing next to him.
"That's right!" Murata suddenly remembered as he quickly put away his sword too. He stood up and pointed at the direction of the ruined house.
"Over there! There's someone trapped under the rubbles!"
Tanjuro and Giyu looked at each other and nodded.
---
---
"Hmph."
Giyu lifted the beam that was pressing down on the woman easily. His expressionless face doesn;t reveal the enormous effort it took to lift that beam up.
But it does reveal the deadpan indication in his lusterless pupils at Tanjuro, who was resting a little far away.
Tanjuto noticed Giyu's gaze and he helplessly waved his hand and shrugged his shoulders.
—'What can I do? I'm just a sickly weak old guy.'
—'I have to leave the heavy lifting to the young and powerful Hashira.'
Giyu didn't believe every single word silently exchange between them, but choose not to argue about it.
"Cough cough cough!!" The woman coughed before she passed out. Her face was pale due to her loss of blood. Two lines of tears streak down the sides of her face.
Her legs that was pinned under the beam were grotesque. Almost the entirety of her right leg were crushed and mangled while her left leg seems to be injured from her knee and down to her ankle.
Murata pulled her over with as much care as he could muster. Gently placed her on his back and carried her out to meet her children.
"Mom!" The two children immediately surrounded Murata, their eyes filled with worry as they watched their being carried.
Giyu set down the beam he was holding seeing as it wasn't needed anymore, then he reached out to let the kasugai crow that he noticed circling in the sky to land on his arm.
The crow flapped its wings and perched steadily on Giyu's arm and opened its beak to relay its messages.
"Caw! Oyakata-sama has issued an order! Caw!"
"Tomioka Giyu!"
"Please escort Kamado Tanjuro to Ubuyashiki's residence! Caw!"
---
---
Unbeknown to the two swordsmen, a woman wearing a dark purple and flower-patterned kimono with a beige belt was observing them at the end of the street.
Her pale skin reflected the moonlight, giving her an ethereal look of an angel. But her purple misty eyes told a different story as the sight of the man in dark red haori, dark red hair in a high ponytail, and a pair of Hanafuda's earrings on his ears seems to trigger something in her mind.
Beside her,
A young boy in a light blue-grey kimono with a serious expressions accompany her, though his eyes would occasionally steal a glance at the woman next to him.
'Tamayo-san is beautiful even when she's spacing out! ❤'