A joint mission between Hashira was not the most typical thing in the corps. First off all there were not too many demons that required the presence of more than one of them, if Oyakata-sama send them in pairs against a Twelve Kizuki was mostly as a preventionary measure than real necessity, unless it was one of the top upper moons; second of all because they were of more use elsewhere than in groups and there were not enough Hashira or high ranking demon slayers to care for all Japan.
The fact that three of them were sent together was a bad sign from the beginning.
Mitsuri was excited as she always was, and a little worried at the prospect of the fight. Shinazugawa was furious about having a joint mission with Kanroji and Tomioka of all people but was so bloodthirsty that he would have accepted to go with pretty much anyone at that point, and Giyuu… Giyuu was tired, he had hardly slept since the mission the night before and even if he had, he never had good quality sleep.
Suki had ambushed him as soon as he got home, entangled in a yukata of his and hugging Sumoki close to her chest: she was silent and shaking and Giyuu knew that he was not going to sleep anytime soon. That was always the way with her nightmares, they came, shaked her up and catapulted her back to what it used to be, almost as if she had been sent commanded all over again, and Giyuu could not do much, the only thing he could do was spend time with her and distract her until sleep came back and she felt safe so he had made tea and they had sip on it quietly for a good amount of time until she calmed down and went back to sleep, still entangled in his yukata and hugging Sumoki to her chest.
Senjuro had woken up a few minutes later with a wave of pain from his heat that was already almost gone but not just yet. He was barely beginning to grasp how to produce the right scent but he could not do in when in pain or in danger or in fear so Giyuu had had to intervene with his own scent to calm him down what had latter provoked a steam of tears from Senjuro who was exponentially more sensitive while in heat and still did not believe that he could actually be loved without shouts and punches and mean words.
Giyuu had been there for him to listen to his problems and his fears as he always was and even if showing any kind of emotion was not really at the reach of his hand at the moment he tried as hard as he could to be empathetic and hold him close, to support him, and he seem to understand and appreciate his best efforts, even if his best efforts were not nearly enough to cure all their pains. But wounds like the ones Senjuro, Aiko and Suki had could not be cured in one day and many times could not be cured solely by loving them harder, they had deep, deep wounds that were not physical just like Giyuu’s wounds could not be healed that simply either. That did not mean that Giyuu’s love did not help, it certainly did, even if he would never recognize it, and that did not mean in any way that Giyuu would stop loving his children because he thought it was useless. He would love them as hard as he could, even if that meant giving everything out, even if it meant dying for them, or even worse, if it meant continuing to live for them. He would do it, he would do it every single day of his life.
Aiko had driven herself into a meltdown at lunchtime. Akio’s meltdowns were always draining and he had come to have a feeling of dread towards them. The screaming, the crying, the kicking, he was not made for it but he had to be brave and face it, he did not have many other options. Or he had but he would never take them, his option was giving up on Aiko or giving her to someone else and he did not trusted those ‘mental doctors’, he was almost sent to one, he had asked around… or Sabito had, and nothing good came out of it, people that was sent to those places never came back out and Aiko deserved much more than that, he would find a way, he did not know which one yet, but he would. That was the reason he read and re-read the notebooks of the past Water Hashiras, many of them had been very interested in medicine and in the way omega’s body worked, maybe trying to understand themselves in a world that rejected them, maybe in a way to help others or to make others understand that they were not some kind of bizarre creature or nature's mistake.
So when Oyakata-sama’s letter had come to him he was sleep deprived and bone tired but it somehow felt like a swap of fresh air. He hated seeing the destruction that demons left behind but he was not feeling like being home at the time. Senjuro’s heat would wear off by the time he got back, it was a three day mission at the very least, and both Suki and Aiko had a piece of clothing that he had left them with his scent imprinted on them, they would not feel alone or unsafe unless they actually were and Amane had promised to sent a letter to make sure everything was fine.
So Giyuu put his uniform on, got his nichirin strapped to his belt, by his side, kissed his kids on the forehead as he always did and ran out in the general direction of the Love Estate where they had agreed to meet. Shinazugawa was already waiting for them, leaning against a tree trunk with a hand resting on his nichirin sword and he looked at Giyuu up and down upon his arrival, judging or at the very least severely analyzing him.
‘Hypocrite,’ Giyuu thought, Sanemi complained when he was stared at but he seemed quite engrossed in staring at Giyuu. He did not say anything, though, he did not have the energy to keep a conversation going, let alone start a conversation by himself, so he let Shinazugawa observe him as much as he liked even when it made him feel self conscious. He had more important things to think about and, if he did not, he did not have the energy required to think in anything referring to Shinazugawa.
Kanroji appeared at the door of her Estate not too long after he arrived; she was smiling big and her cheeks were blushed. Shinazugawa sighed moodily and started walking down the road as if they had made him wait for hours instead of a few minutes, maybe too anxious to kill a demon, maybe turned off by the company he had to endure. Giyuu settled on the second option, it seemed to be the most plausible one. He was sure that Iguro did not receive that treatment and if he did, he would spit it right back. Giyuu could not, for the life of him, imagine Iguro from all people taking any shit from anyone, just as much as he could not imagine Shinazugawa doing it either so they might have had some kind of agreement to be able to befriend one another… or maybe they were like that just towards him that was another very viable possibility.
They ran throughout the night and rested a few hours under a tree when Kanroji asked them to give her a moment to eat. They all knew it was going to be more than just a moment so they decided to stop and catch some sleep too. Giyuu had no appetite whatsoever but Kanroji fumbled around with her food until they all ate. After everything that had occurred in her past, she did not feel comfortable eating in front of two men if they were not eating too, except maybe Obanai because Obanai did not feel comfortable taking off his bandages so he would never eat in front of them and Kanroji understood him, she understood what it was to be constantly judge and she would not wish it upon anyone, let alone Obanai.
“How is Senjuro doing?” Kanroji asked once she finished her meal.
“Good,” Giyuu replied, not really sure about what he could disclose and what not, at the end of the day it was Senjuro’s privacy and he wanted to respect that. Kanroji seemed disappointed. “I could take him to your estate if you want to see him, he is really thankful for your help,” he added.
“Oh, I would love that, he is such a sweet child,” she said, animated all over again. Giyuu congratulated himself, saying that had been a good decision, the right decision, and he was ninety percent sure that Senjuro would like to go to see Mitsuri. He had been very happy last time so he had no reason to believe otherwise… and maybe that also helped, having someone else apart from Giyuu being kind to him even when Giyuu was not around. As much as the meeting with his father had gone even better than he had ever expected, it had caused a lot of trauma to resurface and a lot of heartache that Giyuu was trying to address but was not sure how. Mitsuri might be able to help with that, she was gentle and kind and she loved Senjuro, she sure would do some good.
Shinazugawa kept looking at him as if he had something to hide… and he had. Maybe he knew about Aiko and Suki, he probably knew about Aiko and Suki but was choosing to not say anything in front of Kanroji which was a good sign, it meant that Iguro had asked him to keep it quiet and Shinazugawa was actually honoring his friend's request.
They arrived at the right location some hours after dark. It was a swampy area, the moon barely touched the ground and white fog was rising up from the muddy waters and obscured their vision but Giyuu could make out a bunch of fallen logs in concentric rings that surrounded a big tree stump that was in the center of the swamp. Perched in that tree stump was a humanoid figure, he could not distinguish it well enough but was pretty much sure it was the demon.
Something slashed the air really close and really fast and the three of them took their nichirin swords out of their saya. Shinazugawa was the fastest of the three and his katana cut through what looked like a flimsy wet root. But it was useless to stop the attacks because they were beyond jumping distance from their attacker and they all knew it, they would exhaust themselves fighting and the demon would end up devouring them three.
Kanroji’s whip-like katana bent and twisted around them, slashing a couple of roots. The demon seemed to be able to manipulate nature but could it only manipulate living nature or death nature too?
“Are you going to participate or we brought you for a fun fucking ride,” Shinazugawa screamed at him, furious, while easily slashing through another wet root that was probably aimed at him.
Giyuu did not even flinch, though, not for the root and definitely not for the scream.
The fog grew increasingly thicker by the second and seemed to be gobbling them up… and Giyuu knew, he suddenly understood why so many demon slayers had died and so many people had died there. The roots were not the only thing controlled by the demon, the roots were simply a distraction. Yes, it could kill them and that just made things easier to the demon, but that was not the important thing they should be looking out for, the fog was the important part. That fog was also controlled by the demon, maybe it was the same demon, maybe it was some other, but it had special properties and it was something more than one demon slayer may have overlooked.
Giyuu did not know what special properties it had but they sure were not something good and demon slayers were nothing without their breath so that fog took their best offense and defense and made it useless, with the roots they would become breathless and sooner or later they would have to breath in the fog and then… certain death, probably.
“Try not to breathe in the fog,” he said, leaping towards the nearest ring of logs, but it was not a ring, Giyuu discovered upon further observation, it was a big spiral figure that had the tree stump as the center.
"Tomioka-san!" Kanroji yelled after him before writhing in pain, she had breathed into the fog, Giyuu’s prediction had been confirmed, and soon Shinazugawa and Giyuu would have to breathe as well, but at the moment they were both holding their breath and would continue doing so for as long as they could.
However, Giyuu had a long run ahead of him and with unsteady footing, but Giyuu knew how to fight on unstable terrain, so he kept leaping from one log to the next, inching closer and closer to the center with each step while wielding his katana to stop the demon's attacks that kept coming at him, twisted roots rose from the water and tried to catch him, hit him or make him fall from the logs into the muddy water… maybe even cut him in halves, he was sure they could do that, but he was quick enough to dodge them or cut them off
He soon discovered that the fog was even thicker the closer he got to the center of the spiral, Giyuu could barely see the attacks coming towards him when they were millimeters from his face and he no longer had enough air to continue without breathing. He could not even see Kanroji and Shinazugawa on the shore, fighting off the demon's attacks, he could only hear some groans coming from them and pray that they were not too badly injured.
Giyuu thought in every option he had, there were not many. He could go back to the shore which guaranteed to get them killed and many more after them, he could keep going and try to endure the pain or whatever was the effect of that blood demon art and maybe cut that demon’s head off and probably die along with it or he could try to cover himself in so much scent that he would be breathing a lesser amount of contaminated fog. He could use his own powers as protection which guaranteed that Shinazugawa and Kanroji would know that something was off about him, and if not know at least highly suspect, which could also mean that he would soon either be killed, that would be the easier solution, or his powers would be stolen from him and if there was something he did not want was that. Using his powers at that moment could jeopardize the entire human population of Japan, could mean the end of the demon slayer corps, could mean that he was dooming the human race to utter destruction.
There was only one option that he could take where the only one harmed would be him; so he took it.
Breathing was never that complicated, it felt like trying to inhale with a pillow over his face, as if the air was not air but something solid, heavy, dense. It was even painful and felt like nothing had entered his lungs at all. He had as little air as before he inhaled.
His muscles convulsed and it felt as if they were twisting in their places, he was not even sure how he managed to land in the next log correctly on his feet instead of crumbling into the water. It was not desperately painful, no, it was a bizarre kind of pain and the worst part, to Giyuu at least, was that his body felt out of his control and that was not a good indicator because if he was not in control then his scent could get out of control, his powers could get out of control, even his physical appearance could get out of control; everything he had so carefully kept hidden.
The strange pain was most definitely not the only repercussion of the fog and his lack of control was probably more closely related to the new effects he was being subjected to.
Time became a weird concept, the world seemed to stretch and contract at the same time and each leap seemed to last a second and an hour. He felt like flying and every landing was heavier and less elegant than the one before. The movement of the logs in the muddy water made him dizzy and he still was not sure how he had managed to stay upright... was he still upright? he did not feel his feet, had he lost them?
Giyuu looked at the water below him, funny swirls of color moved lazily around and Giyuu was not sure what he was doing there. The fog had lifted, or changed, and colorful smoke surrounded him. It seemed as if the source of the pretty smoke was his own body and he liked it, he liked the smoke and the pretty katana trapped in his hands.
Something inside of him made him leap into the next log and the next one and the movement really made him want to throw up but he did not, he leaped into the next log dodging the demon’s attacks by sheer luck.
‘Whirlpool,’ he thought, his stance was perfect due to years of hard training, muscle memory at its finest, and his nichirin sword cut through something like it was butter and he lost his footing and fell backwards into the funny colored waters with a splash and into oblivion.
He hated to admit it even only to himself but Tomioka was impressive, and not mildly, no, he was really impressive. He was fucking insane too, but Sanemi was not one to judge others sanity.
He hated the guy with passion but the more he thought about it the more it bothered him, like a small bump poking him over and over again in the same spot in his foot. The first time it was barely a minor pinprick but over time it got worse and worse until the irritated skin split open or was covered with more and more layers of hardened skin to protect itself. Sanemi had always chosen the second option but the annoyance was not diminishing the more he ignored it, rather the opposite.
Seeing Tomioka doing literally nothing while him and Kanroji tried to fend off the demon irked him to no end but Tomioka was not doing nothing, he was actually analyzing the situation, the exact thing Sanemi hardly ever did and that analysis might as well saved their lives because by the time Tomioka took off from the shore, Kanroji was already suffering the first effects of the strange fog and soon she became completely useless.
Sanemi was not sure why he, of all people, had decided to actually trust in Tomioka’s judgment and not breathe in the fog but it had been the right call even if he was not going to last much longer.
Sanemi cut through another wet root before it could get to Kanroji and looked into the heavy fog, he could not distinguish Tomioka anymore, there was no way he could know if he was dead or alive, the only thing he could do at the moment was trust in his abilities as a Hashira and if he had to say it, there was obviously a reason why Tomioka had been a Hashira for longer than him and Kanroji.
And as he thought of that, the fog began to lift and the root’s stopped coming and in the middle of the swamp there was a humanoid figure with a fish tail and no head, the head had landed in the muddy waters below them with a plop. In front of the demon was Tomioka, his feet barely in the tree stump, swinging slightly from left to right until he lost his precarious balance and fell backwards into the water… and did not resurface.
“Tomioka!” he screamed, because it was a swamp, yes, but Sanemi was sure that the Water Hashira could swim in more than just cristal clear waters.
“Go get him,” Kanroji said, still dizzy and crouched on the ground but a little bit more present than a moment before.
And Sanemi obeyed, jumping from log to log as fast as he could until he stood in the tree stump where the demon used to be but was not anymore. Sanemi reached into the water and tried to grab something, anything. His hand closed around another hand and he hoist whomever it was up and towards the tree stump in which he was kneeling down.
Tomioka was limp and unresponsive and Sanemi feared the worst. They could not lose a Hashira, not when three of them were sent to the same location to avoid casualties. Maybe they should have done more, maybe instead of complaining to Tomioka that he was not helping he should have gone after him when he jumped to the first log, but he had not so the only thing he could do was take Tomioka in his arms and run to the shore where Kanroji waited for them, still crunched up in pain.
Sanemi laid him carefully on the ground, next to Kanroji who placed her index and middle fingers on the side of Tomioka’s neck checking for his vital signs. Something was wrong though, and Sanemi could tell from that distance, he could hear the sound of his breathing and it was not normal breathing.
“I think he inhaled too much of that fog,” Kanroji said, “I hope it goes away now that the demon is dead,” she added.
“Are you feeling better?” Sanemi asked, looking straight at her face.
“Oh, yes, much better,” she said with a little smile, “but I think he breathed a lot more than me and I still have some effects. I am still dizzy and fighting to stay focused… and I think I am heading towards a rut” she said, looking at Tomioka as if she wanted to drill a hole in him with nothing but the sheer pressure of her gaze.
Suddenly everything he could see were a pair of emotionless eyes, Tomioka looked somewhere between surprised, confused and scared. It was the most emotion Sanemi had ever seen coming from him and he felt desperate to calm him down, those expressions, or maybe any expression, looked unnatural in Tomioka’s usually blank face.
His breathing kept making some wheezing sounds and he was seized with a horrible coughing fit… It sounded wrong, and there was not much they could do out there, they had to take him to a doctor, Kocho would have been his first choice but they were too far away from the Butterfly Estate to get there in time.
“Tomioka-san,” Kanroji called, positioning herself so that she was the only thing he could see, “you need to calm down, breathe slow and deep, the demon is dead,” she said. Her voice was mellow and calm, like the voice one would use while talking to a scared child.
“Nee-san,” Tomioka whispered but his throat was hoarse and it almost sounded like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed against each other.
Tomioka had a sister? He did not know that, which hardly came as a surprise since he barely knew a thing about him, but then again, Kanroji seemed surprised too, so maybe he was not the only one out of the loop. Considering Tomioka’s social life with the Hashira, they might be the first ones to know that Tomioka had a family, which was stupid, since of course he had a family, he was not fucking Momotarō, he did not come from some fucking giant peach.
“We should take him to a doctor, Shinazugawa-san,” Kanroji said, worried and surprised, “he is either seeing things or does not recognize me,” she added.
Sanemi was glad that Kanroji was the one making the decisions, so he simply picked him up as if he weighed nothing and he did not weighted much, Tomioka was surprisingly light, he would be able to take him all the way to the closest town with no problem, Kanroji could probably take both of them if she wanted but Sanemi was not sure if she was feeling specially ready after the fog she had inhale. At the end of the day the only one that had kept his breath long enough was Sanemi which, to his own mind, did not have too much merit since he was not the one that slashed the demon’s head off.
“Sabito!” Tomioka’s cracking voice interrupted him, the mere sound of it was painful, Sanemi could not imagine what Tomioka must have felt when producing it, “be careful, or I swear I will vomit,” he pleaded.
“Yes, sorry,” Sanemi said, not sure if he ought to play along or correct him. He decided that playing along was less risky, Tomioka could get combative if he thought himself in danger or surrounded by strangers.
“We should go to Urokodaki-sensei, he will know what to do,” he said.
Sanemi knew nothing about any ‘Sabito’, he had never heard of him, but he was fairly sure that Urokodaki was the retired Hashira that had trained Tomioka and the Kamado brat. Sabito might as well be another one of the children who learned under his tutelage.
Damn, Tomioka might have a friend in hiding. That would surely close Kocho’s mouth one day.
Tomioka’s head lolled into his chest and he took a well deserved nap on the way to the closest town and did not wake up until they stepped out of the wooded area surrounding the swamp a good couple of hours after the fight thanks to Tomioka’s elderly crow who had lead them in circles.
Sanemi had cursed that crow to exhaustion, even Mitsuri was frustrated after passing by the same rock for the third time but they had not had any other option than to trust the stupid crow since Sorai had left to inform Oyakata-sama of the new developments and Urara had gotten hurt with one of the wet roots that the demon used to attack them and could not fly.
Tomioka’s body twisted a little in between his arms and when Sanemi looked down found his emotionless eyes open and void as they always seemed to be. His face was blank except from the light frown that held his nose slightly scrunched.
“Tomioka, are you with us?” Sanemi asked.
“Where are we?” Tomioka asked too, ignoring him as if he had said nothing at all.
“We just got out of the woods,” Kanroji replied.
“This is not the way we came in,” Tomioka said, his voice was still raspy and hoarse but it was way better than a few hours ago. The blood demon art was finally wearing off.
“What do you mean it is not the way we came?” Shinazugawa asked, swearing to roast that crow and eat it if it had led them in the wrong direction.
“We came in from that direction,” he replied, pointing East.
“I am going to fucking kill your crow,” Sanemi said, menacingly.
“Kanzaburo barely remembers who I am, why would you let him lead you anywhere?” Tomioka asked as if the kasugai crows were not there for that exact task.
“Correction, I am going to fucking kill you, feed your remains to the crow, and then kill the fucking crow and eat it myself,” Sanemi said, fuming but still holding him gently, Tomioka did not look ready to walk anywhere. Tomioka did not look too fazed by his declaration, either, he had gone back to his default annoying usual self… which was somehow reassuring. “Where do we walk now then, map man?” he asked.
“If we go north for two days we should get to the Stone Estate,” he said, pointing ahead of them. “That is two hours from Kanroji’s and… three hours and a half from your Estate?” he said, not one hundred percent sure about distances anymore. He was spot on though, the Love Estate and the Wind Estate were almost the same distance from the Stone Estate but in opposite directions.
“What about you, though? As much as I want to, Kanroji will not let me abandon you somewhere around the Stone Estate,” Sanemi said, truth be told, he did not feel comfortable abandoning Tomioka to his own devices in the state he was at that moment either, not after holding him completely unresponsive and limp in his own two arms.
“I think I will be better tomorrow and the Water Estate is not that far away,” he replied, not too worried about his own health.
“If you do not get better enough we are taking you to the Butterfly Estate, Shinobu-chan will know what to do,” Mitsuri said, patting Tomioka’s head as if he was her cat.
Sanemi felt Tomioka’s entire body tensing up as she patted his head, still as a wooden plank, and stayed just as tense for a good amount of time before he finally began to relax against him again. It was strange but oddly fitting of him, Tomioka seemed to shun people and physical contact just as much as he shun communication most of the time and Sanemi could not help but think about everything that Obanai had told him, about the way Tomioka had taken care of him with actions and little details but not with conversation or physical comfort.
Maybe they did not understand each other, as if they were talking different languages, but somehow Senjuro did, Senjuro and Tomioka’s daughters did, and if he was to believe Kanroji and Kyojuro and Obanai and everyone else who knew Senjuro personally, and he did, he had to believe that Senjuro was a very physical person, he basked in hugs and loved to talk, but somehow he like Tomioka enough to willingly stay at his Estate and to call him ‘haha’ which was a whole different rabbit hole he was not sure he wanted to dive in.