Crimson Winter

[Hiroto's POV]

Blood…

There's so much…

I stood still, looking at Nezuko on the ground in front of the door, covering Rokuta.

I want to scream, but no sound comes out.

Tanjiro besides me see's this and makes a sound that breaks my heart completely.

"AGHH!!" It was a cry coming straight from his soul, a cry that doesn't sound humane, as he drops the basket and runs up to the figures.

I wake up from my shocked state, eyes full of water, and I grab the axe next to the firewood.

"Nezuko! *huff puff* What happened?! What's going on?!" Tanjiro shouts, kneeling next to the prone Nezuko, faced down.

I run up beside him and look down, feeling my heartache as much as the day father died. No. Worse.

I look inside the house, my eyes begin to shake and my legs tremble. I stumble inside the house, gripping the side of the door.

"M… Mom? Takeo… everyone… no…" I stutter at the scene in front of me. The sliding doors inside were broken down, blood seeped into the wooden floors and the tatami mats. Crimson decorates the walls and the lifeless bodies of my family. Takeo and Shigeru are laying on each other, Takeo's eyes look at me dead in the end. Lifeless. His eyes seem to tell me, he was hoping for help. Hoping for someone to save them. So dim. So Void of life.

I walk over to Takeo and grasp his lifeless face, muttering "T... Takeo? Please... Say something… Take.." the words caught in my throat as I grab my chest in pain, I can barely see from the tears covering my eyes.

I look over to the corner and see mother shielding Hanako behind her, both with their eyes closed. Blood all over their bodies. "Mom… Hanako. No, please… let this be a dream…" I say as I bang my head against the floor.

*THUMP* "AGGGHHHHH" I yell out all of the pain that was building, clawing its way out of me. Griping my hands so tight that my fingernails dug into my hands, bleeding.

I could hear Tanjiro's voice behind me, and he falls onto his knees next to the door. "Mom…" *gasp* Tanjiro tries to breathe. "Takeo… Shigeru… Nezuko… Rokuta.."

I slowly get up and wipe my face to clear it of tears, my hands still covered with blood, smearing my face. I walk to Tanjiro grasping his shoulders.

"Tanjiro, we need to find someone, find help. I can see Nezuko moving a bit. We have to go. We can't stay here, we need to help Nezuko first before it's too late." I said towards Tanjiro, as he wipes his eyes.

"Nezuko" Tanjiro's course voice says.

"Yes, that's right. We need to help Nezuko." I said, standing and pulling him up. I walk up to Nezuko and pull up her unto my back. The body of Rokuta underneath shows itself more and it made me falter. 'Why him too… he was so young, so innocent.' I thought to myself. I carry Nezuko onto my back as Tanjiro comes up behind me.

"Tanjiro, we have to get her to a doctor. She might survive if we do so! Take the axe with you." I said handing it over to him, it's only going to slow me down if I carry her with the axe.

We started running back down the path that we can from, as the snow starts building up around us and falling down. The blood from Nezuko's head drips unto my shoulder and unto the ground, coloring the snow red.

"What did this big brother? Was it a bear?" Tanjiro asks while running behind me.

*huff puff* "I'm not sure Tanjiro. It might've been, but I'm not sure." I respond, not fully concentrating on talking, but rather on running. As I jump over a fallen dead tree I almost tripped along with Nezuko but managed to balance myself.

*huff puff* 'It's so cold...her body is getting colder' I thought to myself.

"Big Brother, it's getting harder to breath *huff puff* my lungs hurt from the cold," Tanjiro says while gasping for breathing at the same time. All of this running through heavy snow is making it hard for us to traverse through.

We've been running for almost 20 minutes down the path and it's getting harder for us to endure. The cold weather, the snow, and the forest make it harder for us to continue on. I grit my teeth as I force myself to run, I need to push myself further or Nezuko might not make it.

We make it up to a cliff-edge where we often walk on towards the village. There's a steep drop towards our left if we're not careful. As we keep on going I could hear Tanjiro behind me.

"Brother, I saw her move her hand," Tanjiro shouted, happy at the chance that Nezuko is still moving.

I can feel her moving. Nezuko then starts moving her body upright looking straight up to the sky.

*grroowll*

I can hear a low, throaty growl coming from her. She must have been hurt bad, I thought.

*grrrrRRRRR* The growl gets louder, as Nezuko grips unto my shoulders with her nails. "Nezuko?! What's wrong?! Stop shaking me!" I yelled out to her as I try to keep myself balanced.

*GRRRRR* "ahhhHHH... AGHHHH!!"

Nezuko keeps shaking and growling on my back, I turn around to try and see what's wrong, but that was my biggest mistake. When I turned around my footing slipped off the ledge of the cliffside and I stumble off the cliff.

"BROTHER!! NEZUKO!!" I hear Tanjiro yell, as he dives towards us to try and grab me, but the snow that piled up gave way from under him as he starts falling along with us.

"AGGHHHHH" I yell as we start falling towards the ground.

As I land with my back facing the ground, I braced for the impact. But I didn't feel any pain, just numbness. 'The snow broke my fall, it was the snow that caused me to fall in the first place. Ironic' I thought to myself. Tanjiro lands beside me facedown, taking in a mouthful of snow.

I sit up, shaking the snow off of my haori and look around. "Nezuko?" I started looking around worriedly. Where did she go? I focus my eyes as best as I can to try and find her. Tanjiro also gets up and starts looking for her. I look around and see her standing next to a tree, her pink kimono covered in blood and her hair, dangling on her face.

"Nezuko! Are you alright? Try not to move too much." I said as I start running up to her. "Don't try to walk, you don't have any shoes on you'll damage your feet." I walk up to her as I neared her, and when I was about to put my hands on her shoulders, she looked up suddenly.

Her face was full of popping veins, fangs were growing from her mouth as her pupils dilated to that similar to a cat.

*GRRR* "AHHH" Nezuko yells as she lunges at me with her mouth open trying to bite me. I push her back as I try to fight her. 'WHATS WITH HER STRENGTH?!' I thought to myself.

"Nezuko what are you doing?!" I yelled as she keeps trying to grab me. I tripped on a rock behind my foot as she falls onto me.

"Brother!!! Catch!" Tanjiro shouts as he throws the axe towards me.

As I turn to look at the axe, I thought to myself… 'Tanjiro… your aim is so bad!" The axe flies above both me and Nezuko as it lodges into the tree next to us. I put my palm unto Nezuko's forehead to keep her from trying to get close and biting me as she wrestles on top of me.

But then I could see past her, the snow on top of the tree was loosening. Thinking quickly, I look to the axe to my that's lodged into the tree and I kick it. "Come on you bastard, fall!" I yell as I kick the axe again, this time causing the tree to reverberate, and loosen the snow towards us.

As it falls, I push Nezuko with all my might off to the side and roll away. The moment I rolled away the snow fell onto Nezuko who was about to jump towards me. I run back to the tree, around the snow pile on Nezuko, and grab it again. I made sure to put the cover back onto the axe as I don't to accidentally cut Nezuko. I pull Tanjiro behind, trying to catch my breath.

*huff puff* "Tanjiro stand behind me, be careful. I don't know why, but something's wrong with Nezuko. It might be a concussion, but is there ever one this bad where they try and bite you?" I said, incredulously.

Suddenly, Nezuko launches herself from under the snow, towards me while baring her fangs out. As I prepare myself to catch her, Nezuko swings a hand towards Tanjiro catching him in his chest and sending him flying into a tree.

*THUD* "Gack!" Tanjiro coughed out as his back slammed against the tree.

"Tanjiro!!"