Chapter Twenty-three - First Day Outside
Two days later - Muichiro's pov
I sat on my bed, nervously fidgeting with my fingers. I really didn't want to go outside, I was scared that someone would get hurt or worse, die.. I couldn't bear the thought of losing someone again.
"Ready?" Tanjiro asked when he peeked into the room. I slowly shook my head and looked down at my lap "I am really scared.. I don't want to go outside again after.. you know.."
Tanjiro nodded understandingly and sat down next to me, grabbing my hand into his "hey, I am sure we'll be fine, Sanemi seems to know more about this than any of us. He's very skilled too and now that you are feeling better, you can fight too, I might not be the best at it but I can fight too.. and I am sure that with the help of others, we'll get through it, okay?"
"What about Yui.." I mumbled and Tanjiro looked down. "I am sure we won't be out for a while. I fed him a lot now so I am sure he'd be just fine for a couple days" he replied and I gave him a tiny nod.
"Alright, thank you, Tanjiro" I smiled a little and he did too, about to kiss my cheek but I grabbed his chin and pressed his lips on mine for the first time.
He melted into the kiss, his hands roaming around my cheeks and neck while he continued to kiss. Once he pulled away, he immediately smiled once again and said "finally, you don't even know how long I've been waiting for this"
I chuckled "mhm, honestly.. me too.. I feel like this was a good time to finally do it.. I still feel bad for Genya but.. I think you're right.. he'd want me to be happy and move on" I smiled after finishing the sentence and Tanjiro smiled even wider, hugging me tightly.
"Come on you two, let's go" Sanemi said and we both nodded. Tanjiro grabbed my hand and led me out of the room. As we got closer to the door, I felt the fear rise again. I grabbed onto Tanjiro's hand tighter and started breathing a bit heavily.
"Hey, it'll be okay, all we have to do is keep quiet and look around, I am sure everything will go well" Tanjiro said, trying to calm me down but it didn't help much "I know.. I am just.. scared"
"I know you are but try to relax a little, okay? I'll be right next to you the whole time, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to anyone" Tanjiro said with a smile and I smiled back "okay.. I'll try.."
Once we got to the door, everyone was waiting there, prepared with their bags and weapons. Kotetsu walked over to me and grabbed my hand. I held his hand tightly, knowing he must be scared too.
I looked over at Mitsuri who was eyeing Shinobu the whole time, she didn't take her eyes off of her and Shinobu didn't seem to mind, she just stood there, making eye contact with Mitsuri from time to time which made her cheeks redder and redder.
"Let's go," Sanemi said and everyone nodded. He opened the door and we all walked out. The second I was outside again, I felt chills run down my spine. The city looked even worse than last time.
Kotetsu clung onto me more, clearly scared, so I decided to pick him up and hold him in my arms instead so he feels a bit safer. He wrapped his arms around my neck and held onto me as we all began to walk.
The big hole wasn't far away from our shelter but it was still quite a bit of walking. As we walked, the cold weather started affecting everyone. Everyone was trembling from the cold even though we all had warm coats on us.
Suddenly Mistruri sneezed and Sanemi immediately stopped and looked around. We all stopped and I wrapped my arms around Kotetsu more tightly. Just a small sneeze from Mitsuri was such a loud noise now and we knew that we had to be extremely quiet.
Suddenly we heard loud footsteps coming our way. I immediately put Kotetsu down and took out my katana. We all took out our weapons and looked around, trying to find the direction where the footsteps were coming from.
I looked to my right, seeing a big monster coming our way. It had his arms and ran really fast, it was very similar to a gorilla but it was a human form. Sanemi immediately ran over to it and we all did too.
Shinobu laid her bag down and took out a bottle with liquid and a cloth hanging from it. She took out the lighter and lit up the cloth "WATCH OUT!" she yelled out before throwing the bottle at the monster. The bottle immediately exploded, making the monster catch on fire.
The monster started to scream and aggressively throw his arms around itself before charging at Tanjiro and taking him into its hand. "Tanjiro!!" I yelled out as the monster threw him at one of the buildings. His body slammed into the wall and he fell down onto the cold ground.
"Shit! Another one is coming!" Sanemi yelled out and looked over at me "get Tanjiro and try to fight the second one! We'll meet here once everything is safe again!"
I nodded and ran over to Tanjiro, helping him stand up "Tanjiro, are you okay?! Does anything hurt?!" I said in panic. Tanjiro stood up, grabbing his back in pain "I-I'll be fine, let's go" he said and I nodded, leading the monster somewhere else.
Then I heard a yell. I turned around to see Kotetsu running behind us, desperately trying to catch up with us while the monster ran right behind him, trying to grab onto him.
"Kotetsu!" I yelled out and ran towards him, immediately grabbing him into my arms. I quickly dodged its attack and tried to slice its arm off but instead, my katana got knocked out of my hand and onto the ground far behind me.
The monster raised its arm and I closed my eyes, preparing for the worst but suddenly, I heard something fall onto the ground and a loud scream.
When I opened my eyes I saw Nezuko in front of me and the monster's arm on the ground. I immediately went to grab my katana and told Kotetsu to run over to Tanjiro.
Nezuko distracted the monster by running around it and dodging its attacks with ease, which impressed me, she has awesome reflexes.
I jumped up and slid his second arm off before landing on the ground and slicing his leg off, making it fall down onto the ground. With that Nezuko slides his head off into multiple pieces.
We both stood there, panting before looking at each other with a smile. "You said you can't fight" I said and Nezuko crossed her arms proudly "I surprised myself too" she chuckled and I did too but the happiness died down quickly when the monster suddenly started to form into something again.
Its chest started growing more arms and grew in height. Me and Nezuko backed off as the monster continued to grow, looking like a human centipede now.
I was horrified, this was one of the scariest things I ever saw. I was frozen in place while I stared at it. It was clear Nezuko was terrified too but soon snapped out of it and charged at it.
The monster rushed over to Nezuko and started to make circles around her, slowly making it smaller and smaller but Nezuko managed to get out of it in time before it was too late. I snapped out of my thoughts and rushed over to help.
I was about to slide it in half but it noticed me and slammed me into the ground. The second my back hit the ground, I couldn't breath. The monster got on top of me and let out a loud scream, its saliva dripping onto my face slowly.
Nezuko quickly shoved the katana through the monster's head. Right after she shoved the katana into the dirt so the monster was unable to attack while I sliced its body into many pieces, soon cutting its head off as well.
We didn't celebrate yet, not knowing if it'll grow another form but luckily the monster soon began to disappear. Nezuko let out a sigh and stumbled a bit but I caught her "are you okay?" I asked worriedly and she nodded "my stamina is horrible, I haven't been this active in a while" she chuckled and I helped her sit down.
I chuckled "but you did great, I dare to say that you are very skilled with katana, are you sure you never did this before?"
She shook her head "no not really, only my and Tanjiro's father used to do something similar so I watched him.. wait.. where's Tanjiro and Kotetsu?"
My heart sank and I immediately looked around, not seeing them anywhere. "Let's look for them," I said and Nezuko nodded. She stood up and we both looked around, desperately trying to find both Kotetsu and Tanjiro which luckily didn't take long.
We found them in an alley. Tanjiro was sitting on the ground and Kotetsu sat next to him. "Tanjiro!" I yelled out and fell into his arms "are you okay? Are you hurt?" I said in panic and he shook his head "no no I am okay, sorry I couldn't do anything, my back is killing me"
"No no it's okay, I am just glad you're okay, what about you, Kotetsu?" I asked and Kotetsu smiled "I am okay" he replied simply.
"Okay good, Tanjiro can you stand up?" Nezuko asked and Tanjiro nodded, shakily standing up and grabbing his back. "Are you sure, Tanjiro? Maybe it's broken o-" I asked worriedly, thinking of everything that could go wrong but Tanjiro interrupted me "don't worry, it's not broken, if it was, I wouldn't even be able to stand up right"
I nodded "okay.. if you say so" I grabbed his hand and we both headed back to the place where we all separated.
Once we got to the place, we didn't see Shinobu, Mitsuri or Sanemi anywhere, only a couple drops of blood and black liquid, we just assumed that it was the blood of one of the monsters.
"Where are they.." Kotetsu said and grabbed onto my hand. I pulled him closer and said "don't worry, I am sure they just hid somewhere or had to run a bit far away so they could kill the monster easier"
Kotetsu gave me a small nod and we all sat down on the ground, deciding to wait for a bit and hoping that they would just come back.. but they didn't.
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Word count : 1828
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