Chapter Text
“Sir! Are you alright?” Shinobu rushed over to a man clutching his clearly busted nose that was pouring blood down his face. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, and helped him into a sitting position from where he was kneeling on the ground.
Giyuu gripped the hilt of his sword as he trailed behind Shinobu. A slight pinch settled between his eyebrows as he took in the sight of the village, while the insect pillar tended to the older man. The village was a wreck of tipped over carts, broken building parts, and a few mildly injured villagers. He didn’t need the bright moon light of that particular night to see that a fight had just gone down.
The water and insect hashira had just finished up a mission a few miles over, when Shinazugawa’s crow looking terribly disheveled showed up. It squawked something about Shinazugawa having some difficulty with a demon nearby, but the creature was so out of breath it’s heaved out message wasn’t fully clear to them.
The appearance of the town was starting to paint a clearer picture, however. A picture that was causing Tomioka’s stomach to twist uncomfortably. There was no sign of Sanemi or a demon for that matter. Just the aftermath of the violence.
“Pinch it like this,” Shinobu’s voice rushed into Giyuu’s consciousness. She was helping the injured man stop the incessant bleeding of his nose, and Giyuu couldn’t help but callously wish she would hurry up. They needed to find Shinazugawa. If he was injured, they needed to reach him before the demon could inflict irreversible damage. The urgency was causing Giyuu to grind his teeth together.
“Fuck,” the man hissed at the pressure inflicted on his throbbing nose.
“There you go. The bleeding should stop soon,” Shinobu said with a smile that Giyuu noticed had tight, tense lines around it.
“Thank you, ma’am,” the man responded nasally.
“It’s no trouble,” she continued lightly. “Can you tell me what happened here?”
“The hell if I know!” the man said through gritted teeth. “Some strange white haired idiot was chasing a goddamn monster! They blew right through here wrecking fucking everything in their path. That creature knocked me clear across the street!”
“Do you know where they are now?” Shinobu pressed. Her smile wavered just slightly.
“That white haired freak was chasing it into the woods just there,” he gestured with his free hand in a vague thatta way gesture.
“That wasn’t a monster!” a middle aged woman shouted as she limped over to the two hashira. “It was the demon from the swamp!”
The man scoffed, but both Giyuu and Shinobu turned to the woman still approaching them.
“It’s that demon that’s been killing our children who venture to play down by the swamps. Please, you have to help us!” she said desperately. “Please, I’m not crazy! This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it! Please!”
“We need to go,” Giyuu firmly murmured just loud enough for the hashira next to him to hear. He had no intention of standing around when another one from their ranks was undoubtedly fighting for their life.
Shinobu’s eyes crinkled closed as she flashed her smile at the shaken woman. Waving a friendly hand she said airly, “Thank you for the information, ma’am! You don’t have to worry about that demon anymore.”
She had begun moving away as she talked, and it was obvious she shared Tomioka’s sentiment. Usually neither of them would’ve been too concerned with their fellow pillar’s ability in taking down a demon, but the way his crow had acted added to the disheveled village was stirring an urgency in both of them.
“For Shinazugawa’s sake, this demon better be an upper rank,” Shinobu said in her easy tone as they both broke into a run in the direction the man had pointed at earlier. Deep gashes on the ground helped lead them in what Giyuu hoped was the right direction. “I was looking forward to getting back to the butterfly mansion and finally getting some rest. So let’s hope this demon is worth our time!”
The hidden undertone of a threat wasn’t lost on Giyuu.
Giyuu couldn’t blame her for being upset even if her tone said otherwise. They had both been on a series of missions together and only one chance to sleep during the grueling several days and nights. This was supposed to be the last one beofre they could go home and recover their stamina, but the message from Sanemi’s crow altered their course.
Not that the water hashira wasn’t equally as tired as the other, but he was honestly more worried than anything else at the moment. It wasn’t like the wind pillar to struggle on missions. Tomioka couldn’t think of one time that he’d ever received a crow to come and help him with anything. Not that he was particularly close to Shinazugawa, but he certainly didn’t wish anything bad to happen to him.
He didn’t want him to be hurt…
“Let’s just get this over with,” he replied to Kocho while trying to keep his face and voice it’s usual monotone. Getting all on edge wasn’t going to make him anymore useful to Shinazugawa no matter what condition they were going to find him in.
***
A string of curses gushed from Sanemi’s mouth as he bolted through the woods hot on the demon’s tail. The bastard had been so much fucking bigger then he’d expected. A whopping eight feet and bulky to boot. A sickly green color with vines and goop from head to toe that made it smell like dog shit. The earth underneath them shook with the force of its running footsteps. In its hand still clutched a dangerous club that had caused insane amounts of damage to the village they’d blown through.
Sanemi was cursing himself for letting the thing get the jump on him still. It had swung its club when the wind hashira had entered the swamp to try and hunt it down. He had barely been able to doge the wild blow, and it just grazed his shoulder. If the demon had gotten a hit dead on, it would’ve shattered his shoulder and every bone connected. There already was an obvious bruise forming from where it had managed to make contact. Even if Sanemi had kept his shoulder intact, the impact had the demon’s desired effect enough for him to run away.
Embarrassment and rage mixed together to run hot in his veins. It was so unlike him to be caught off guard like that and even more so to be struggling to keep up with the damn thing. His shoulder didn’t feel like excuse enough for this humiliating situation. Sure he’d been going from mission to mission without stopping for over a week now, but he hadn’t felt like he was tired enough to return home yet. Just maybe he’d pushed himself more than he should… Regardless the only thing that was going to redeem his ego was taking this bastard down!
“Turn around and fight me, coward!” he yelled trying to see if he could goad him into stopping this chase.
Suddenly a familiar white haori flew down from hidden in the trees. Shinobu managed to land right on top of the monstrous demon, catching her arms around its neck. While that move might’ve taken down any other unsuspecting demon, Kocho hadn’t taken into account how slimy this one was. Without her usual grace, she plummeted straight off and landed unceremoniously on her face.
With a poorly concealed curse, she shot back up to her feet and began a pursuit of her own. Her face flushed with embarrassment at the failed move, and she scolded herself for not taking into account her own exhaustion that she blamed to be the cause of her fall. She would need to be more careful and aware of her own limitations at the moment.
“Fuckin’ slippery son of a bitch, huh,” Sanemi’s loud panting voice sounded just behind her.
Her lips pinched together as she chose not to retort because the only thing she wanted to do was bite Shinazugawa’s head off. If he hadn’t screwed this up so badly, she wouldn’t be in this obnoxiously embarrassing situation. How had two hashira failed to bring this thing down already? She couldn’t think of a more humiliating turn of events than the insect and wind hashira faltering behind a lug of a demon.
“The hell are you doing here?” Shinazugawa called out to her as he urged himself faster to be in stride with her.
Before she could decide if she was going to speak to the frustrating man heaving next to her, Tomioka was hurtling his body out from the opposite direction as them and right in the demon’s path. He was meeting the demon head on, and wrapped both his arms around its middle to attempt to tackle it to the ground.
His arms slipped around all the slime and gunk coating the creature’s thick core, but he somehow managed to cling on. He dug his heels in to get the monstrous thing off balance for at least long enough for his fellow hashira to catch up.
With a hand as big as Giyuu’s face, the demon grabbed him from the back of his haori to force his grip to fail or risk breaking each and every finger. As soon as the hold was loosened, the demon swung its club square to the side of the water hashira’s face!
The blow was so powerful it flung Giyuu far to the side and crashing into a tree. Desperate hands tried to soften his impact into the unforgiving bark, but to no avail. The only thing he managed to do was to keep himself on his feet.
“ Goddamnit , Tomioka!” Sanemi found himself yelling out to the disoriented looking dark haired man. His feet faltered ever so slightly as he had half a thought to stop and see if the water hashira was seriously injured. He quickly decided against it as the priority that made the most sense was killing the demon first.
“I’m fine,” Giyuu’s faint voice called back to them as they were rushing passed him.
“I’m-,” he took a teetering step after them before promptly falling flat on his face in a limp puddle on the forest floor.
Sanemi could hear Shinobu suck air sharply through her teeth before a quick eye roll.
“For fuck’s sake,” the white haired man cried out in frustration.
“Quick, Shinazugawa!” Shinobu’s violet eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. “Throw me!”
Too tired and out of any coherent thoughts of his own, Shinazugawa didn’t question it. Using the last bit of energy he had left in him, he grabbed both of her extended hands. Spinning them both in two wide circles, he threw her in the middle of the third swing letting her small body soar like a bullet towards the demon.
Whipping through the air, Shinobu drew her sword. “Insect breathing butterfly dance,” she called out right before she finally caught up with her target. Using a series of quick jabs, she injected her poison all across the demon’s back and shoulders.
Allowing herself to fall with as much dignity she had left to her feet, she sheathed her weapon all while watching the swamp demon slow down drastically. The poison was quickly taking its effect, and it was on its knees in a few painful seconds.
To her shock, Shinazugawa was still running. He zipped passed her and over to the demon, who had begun crawling on its hands and knees still trying its best to escape its inevitable fate. With a loud cry, the wind hashira walloped the demon's head from its shoulders in one arching blow. The head went flying so far with the force of it, that it exploded against the trees in its path.
Doing her best to get her breathing under control from having run so hard, she watched the wind hashira trot back towards her. She squinted her eyes at him ever so slightly as he came into hearshot. “That was entirely unnecessary,” she said, trying to keep her tone as light as she could manage with the irritation so heavy in her chest. “The demon was not going to survive my poison.”
Shinazugawa shrugged, annoyed. “That bastard had it coming,” he answered shortly in his gruff way.
There was no point in arguing with him, and she knew that all too well. Keeping a sigh to herself, she turned back to jog over to where they’d had to leave the water hashira.
Sanemi felt his stomach sinking when he noticed it didn’t look like Tomioka had moved in the slightest from where he fell. His face was pressed into the hard dirt and his arms sprawled out above his head. If it wasn’t for the blood pooling under his head, Sanemi would’ve thought the way he’d initially tumbled was hilarious.
He reached Tomioka’s still frame before Shinobu. With a carefulness she had never observed from the usually rough, callous wind hashira, she watched him gently roll the other man over to his back to get a better look at the wound. He hissed to himself as he rotated Tomioka’s face so that the moon light could illuminate the injury being covered by the shadows of the trees above them.
Shinobu’s nose crinkled in sympathy as she finally reached them and caught full sight of Giyuu’s face. The skin was split on his forehead and led into his hairline. It was bleeding quite badly, and she knew that she’d need to administer stitches there before anything else. The whole right side of his face was a mess of purple and red as bruising was already taking place. She ran her fingers across his jaw and cheekbone to check for any fractures. The flatness of his cheek already told her that his cheekbone was undoubtedly broken, and she frowned slightly at feeling the mess of bone under his skin. His jaw seemed intact, thankfully, and the last thing she looked for was to make sure his teeth were all still there.
“He’s probably concussed,” Shinazugawa told her as she finished her initial examination.
Slowly she let her eyes drag from Giyuu and to the know-it-all crouching next to them. She blinked at him once before turning back to the hashira in need of her medical expertise. Her hands were the tiniest bit shaky as the lack of sleep was clearly taking a toll on her body, but she was planning on powering through to stitch up that nasty gash on Giyuu’s forehead.
“He needs stitches now. His head is bleeding too heavily for me to put a simple bandage on,” she began as she reached for her medical supplies she kept in a pouch on her hip. “I’ll need you to hold him down just in case he wakes up during the procedure.”
Sanemi nodded before he swiftly moved to where he could effectively pin both of Tomioka’s arms down at his sides. He rolled his eyes and adjusted his grip. “Stupid fucking bastard,” he grumbled while watching Shinobu wash her hands off with the little water she had left in her waterskin. “His reaction time was so fucking slow. The way that demon caught him right in the face like that was goddamn embarrassing to watch.”
“I don’t know if you’re the one to cast judgment right now, Shinazugawa,” Shinobu said in that airy, yet passive aggressive, voice she used often with him. “Tomioka and I have been working for almost a whole week, and I don’t believe he was able to get any sleep the solidary chance we had to rest. He was at least able to catch up to the demon once.”
The white haired man bristled. “Yeah, well the damn thing was slowing down when you two got here,” he argued with a huff befitting of a toddler. “I was about to get it before you and fucking spacey over here got in my fucking way!”
She hummed in response but didn’t say more as there was no point. Shinazugawa was the most bullheaded of the hashira and honestly anyone she knew. Besides, she was too preoccupied with threading her needle and cleaning the blood off the water hashira’s face to continue a pointless argument with the immature man.
The gip he had on Tomioka tightened just slightly, when she began stitching up the gash. Sanemi focused on keeping the unconscious man still instead of watching Shinobu work. It wasn’t that he was squeamish or anything like that. He just didn’t want Tomioka twitching and fucking up the straight stitching. It would be such a hassle if Shinobu had to start over.
Giyuu didn’t move at all except for a small groan that came from the back of his throat. The noise had Sanemi squeezing his biceps in effort to make sure he would shift around any. But it didn’t make much of a difference as Tomioka laid eerily still during the entire procedure. His face was so much paler than usual and it made the purples of his swelling bruises stand out sharply in contrast. If it wasn’t for his chest slowly rising and falling, Sanemi would’ve thought he was dead.
Sanemi didn’t realize how tight he had been squeezing Tomioka’s arms, until it was time for him to let go. There was a nagging uneasiness settling in his stomach that was becoming difficult to ignore. Something about how limp Tomioka was still laying wasn’t sitting right with him.
Questions for Shinobu of whether or not Tomioka was going to be alright, died in his throat. He didn’t want to sound like a weepy mother. Surely the water hashira had suffered his fair share of injuries, and a blow with a club more than likely wasn’t the worst out of them. He stuffed those words and feelings back somewhere in his mind, and bid them stay there and leave him alone damnit.
“He’s going to need to ride on your back,” Shinobu was saying, effectively catching his attention. She finally looked away from her clean work on Giyuu’s face, and up to Sanemi.
It was only then that he noticed how drained the insect hashira’s appearance was. Her smile was incredibly weary and her under eyes puffy. There was no doubt that all three of them were long overdue for a break.
Ignoring his own exhaustion that was taking over where adrenaline once was, he nodded and shifted around to make it easier for them to get Tomioka settled on his back. Once his unconscious body was draped over the wind pillar’s back with his arms dangling around Sanemi’s neck, Sanemi wrapped his arms underneath his thighs in a sturdy hold and moved to his feet.
Without a word, Shinobu began leading the way with the boys right behind her. Even though Tomioka was completely dead weight on top of him, Sanemi was shocked by how light he was. They were close to the same height, but Giyuu’s haori did its job of hiding his figure. A fleeting thought entered Sanemi’s head of whether or not Tomioka was eating properly. A thought he quickly shook away. It was none of his business what fucking Tomioka was doing. Didn’t fucking matter to him anyways.
Shinobu jolted to a halt in front of them, and reached for her sword. “Shinazugawa!” she warned just as a demon jumped out from the shadows in front of them.
“Mother fucker!” he cursed and took a quick step backwards while his mind was tossed into a panic of what the hell he was supposed to do! Would it be safe to set Giyuu down so he could help Shinobu? Did the insect hashira have enough energy left for a battle alone?
‘Fuck!’
Before he could make any sort of a decision, the demon was already on the move towards them.
“Blood demon art!” it growled while throwing its body up in the air. It landed with its fist slamming into the ground. “Earth shattering quake!”
Shinobu was on the move to the demon trying to reach it before its art could be used against them. She didn’t even make it two steps forward before the ground underneath the three hashira split open with a thunderous cracking! A gasp pushed itself breathlessly from her mouth as she plummeted down into the chasm.
With nothing but air and falling rock under Sanemi’s feet, he instinctively reached back and yanked Giyuu over so he could wrap himself around the unconscious man’s head and torso. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop them from falling, but he silently hoped he could protect Tomioka from suffering further harm.
Their bodies were bounced around roughly among the dirt and rocks tumbling downwards with them. The last thing Sanemi felt was his head slamming up against a particularly large rock before darkness swallowed him along with the earth.