A woman with long black hair walked slowly along the dirt road, a colorful haori fluttering in the wind.
She had a calm and gentle expression, but her gaze was firm, fixed toward the village.
Kanae Kocho, the Flower Hashira, and Shinobu's older sister.
My body froze.
I knew what that night meant, her fate was sealed.
Death was on its way.
"..."
Now I finally had the answer about the timeline I was in.
I just needed to step back.
It was the right thing to do...
I had already seen this event before, in the fragments of the story I knew, interfering would be... dangerous.
But the memories came back, my mother's face, my father's hands, my sisters' screams , all burning inside my mind.
And when I realized it, I was already moving.
I ran back to my base, grabbing whatever could be useful: bombs, chains, daggers.
'That's stupid...'
I prepared the strongest wisteria poison I had.
'I could die, damn it...'
It wouldn't be enough to kill an Upper Moon, but maybe it could delay him.
'I... just... need to leave...'
Then, I heard it.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
A distant sound, something like an explosion, and right after, the screams.
'It started...'
I took a deep breath.
The steady breathing filled my lungs, calming my heartbeat.
'Fuck it!'
When I slipped through the shadows of the village, the ground was already covered by a thin layer of ice.
The houses creaked under the weight of the frost, and at the center, the scene revealed itself:
A white field, with frozen flakes spinning in the air.
And in the middle of it, two figures clashed in battle.
On one side, Douma, Upper Moon Two: Pale golden hair, multicolored eyes, with a wide and empty smile, disturbingly cheerful.
Each swing of his fan left behind a gust of cold air that turned the ground into crystal.
On the other, Kanae, moving like a dance.
Her flower-patterned haori contrasted against the white frost, and the blade of her katana traced graceful arcs, like petals being cast into the wind; her attacks were elegant and colorful.
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Third Person POV
"Ah… how adorable you are," Douma said, spinning his fan between his fingers.
"It's almost a waste to kill you~"
Kanae didn't respond.
The air leaving her lips turned into dense vapor.
"First Form: Flower Breathing: Nejibana!" she murmured.
The ground around him lit up with a pink and white trail, following the path his blade had taken.
Kanae spun in a fluid and beautiful motion.
Her blade cut through the space ahead, but Douma dodged easily, smiling.
"So pretty... and so slow~"
"I particularly like the belt, I'll get one for myself~" he mocked, snapping his fan open.
The freezing gust hit the ground, scattering shards of ice everywhere.
Kanae was thrown against a wall, coughing up a mouthful of blood, which continued to drip from the corner of her lips.
Douma sighed theatrically, as if bored.
"Hashiras are so disappointing these days…"
"I hope that at least you are delicio—"
That's when the first dagger flew.
It whistled through the air, cutting Douma's cheek as he barely dodged.
His smile faded for a moment.
He touched the wound, and noticed the slight burning.
"Poison?..."
"Ha..."
He rubbed the wound with his fingers, and then licked them, groaning as he did so.
"How rude~"
The affected area was immediately healed, the small cut on his cheek closing almost instantly.
Another dagger came right after, from a completely different direction, forcing him to spin his fan to deflect it.
"Oh, so you're not alone?" he mocked, launching a gust toward where the blade had come from.
The attack destroyed and froze an entire row of houses, but nothing was there.
Two more daggers arrived.
One embedded itself in his shoulder, the other grazed his neck.
"Good aim"
"Shame it lacks power," Douma commented, casually pulling the blade out of his body.
"I hope you're all having fun, because I am!!"
With a wide grin, spreading his fans upward as if he were performing in a theater.
Kanae seized the moment, attacking again.
Her forms grew more and more beautiful, but each movement seemed to cost her more strength.
"Fourth Form: Beni Hanagoromo!"
She advanced, delivering a strike that curved and twisted grandly, but the air was too cold, breathing it was slowly destroying the Hashira's lungs, the attack came out slow, and was again, easily dodged.
Douma's Blood Demon Art spread, flower-shaped ice flakes, shining under the moon.
Kanae staggered, coughing blood.
"You're already so weak, dear," Douma smiled.
"Let's finish this, so I can deal with the other rats~"
Kanae simply took a deep breath, maintaining her stance, a continuous line of blood flowing from her lips and nose.
─── ◆ ───
First Person POV
It was time...
The chain whistled through the air, wrapping around Douma's arm.
He looked at it, curious, clearly amused.
"Oh, what's this?" he asked, pulling hard.
"Come on, come out, little rat…"
What he pulled, however, was a metallic sphere.
He held it curiously, spinning it between his fingers.
"Eh? A ball? How cute~"
The sphere then began to smoke and crack along several lines of light, glowing intensely.
"Oh…" Douma tilted his head to the side, still smiling.
"That's bad~"
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
Light and smoke took over the village, covering the frozen field with a thick blanket of dust.
Before he could recover, I was already beside Kanae.
Her body was weak, she was staring in confusion at the place where Douma had exploded.
She seemed surprised when I lifted her onto my shoulder, but did nothing to stop me.
"Who... are... you...?" she whispered, barely having a voice.
"That doesn't matter much right now," I replied, adjusting her weight as I moved.
The smoke dissipated in a gust of cold air, and Douma appeared in front of us, laughing foolishly.
"Found you~" Douma said, his voice filled with false sweetness.
"And I brought a gift!"
He raised his fan, preparing an attack, but I had already moved.
I pulled my wolf-fur cloak and threw it at his face.
Douma sliced it into pieces in the blink of an eye, still smiling.
"So desperate…"
But the smile vanished when thick lilac smoke spread through the air.
"Tch... wisteria," he wrinkled his nose, fanning the air away.
"What a horrible smell!"
The casual swing of his fan created a gust that dispersed the smoke, but to the Upper Moon's surprise, we were no longer there.
He looked around, still smiling, but clearly irritated, the ground freezing with each of his steps.
Douma began releasing gusts of wind that destroyed what remained of the village, but nothing.
Then the first ray of sunlight crossed the horizon.
Douma pouted, snapping his fans shut.
"What a shame… just when it was getting fun."
He lightly kicked a stone, which rolled down the hill, and walked away, humming.
─── ◆ ───
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