Chapter 2

(A/N: Sorry if this chapter is a little short. Also, I forgot to mention it in the first chapter, but I'm just going to say that there may be an AU element in this story. There is something that I don't think would exist in Demon Slayer that exists in this story. So yeah, that's all.)

______________________________________________

As Kobayabi's eyes adjusted to the darkness, fear manifested as well.

Beyond the open door, a long hallway he always walked through appeared.

His vision zoomed down the corridor, and at the end, he saw it.

A demon.

A demon built like a tank.

Its back was turned, but that did not hide the thing below it.

It was a woman.

His mother.

She was laying on her back, her face as pale as the moon. Her eyes were closed. The expression on her face was not one he had seen before.

The demon made another chomping sound, this time leaning over even more, and then Kobayabi's mother's body moved.

Once he realised there were blood splotches on her body with ripped pieces of flesh, Kobayabi felt a chill race down his spine.

Then, the demon turned its neck.

The first thing Kobayabi noticed was the line of blood running down its face like streams of water. He felt the irritating urge to rub his own chin.

However, the demon's bloodshot eyes jabbed onto Kobayabi's soul like knives. Its teeth were sharp as if it carved human teeth into a protruding amalgamation.

A thought passed his head as the demon's mouth stretched to horrifying limits.

He could feel its teeth digging into his head, chomping down into his soft brain matter.

Kobayabi stood still as the demon faced them, knees bent, its hands gripping the wooden flooring.

It was only a single call from his father that most likely saved his life.

"Run!"

This may have brought back his son, but it wasted valuable time.

Time he could not afford to lose.

Sadly, he would pay dearly for it.

Using its knees and arms as force, the demon launched itself like a springboard.

In a split second, it reached the door and found itself on Rakota.

Kobayabi froze again as he watched his father scrambling to prevent the demon from getting a bite. The demon snarled in return, its attention focused on Rakota.

'Run!'

The word spoke inside Kobayabi's head again,

and finally, his body responded.

Glancing at his father one more time, his legs shot off the ground, and he ran in a random direction.

As this happened, Rakota was not strong enough.

An opening appeared, and the jaws of the demon sliced a piece of flesh away from his neck.

Soon, he felt his life starting to drain, and his body slowing down, yet when he turned his head, ready to accept his fate, he smiled.

Kobayabi running away was the last thing he would see before shutting his eyes.

There was no sense of direction when Kobayabi ran.

His instincts were a major part of this retreat. But, his quick gaze on the moon set him on a course to nowhere.

"Damn it!" He shouted, keeping a constant yet slow pace, making sure not to run into a tree, "Why did I run? I couldn't do anything,"

Tears began to move, 'Father told me to run, he knew better,'

'Yet, I would've helped him anyway, but that act would have killed me,'

The clothes on his body shook around, his boots were the loudest of the bunch.

He looked around.

Though he was afraid of the dark, the demon was a bigger problem.

"Don't like this, don't like this," He kept on telling himself as he dashed through darkness, "I don't like this,"

A while later, he had to stop.

His eyes found themselves on the moon.

The only beacon in the surrounding darkness.

"I have to find a place to hide," He said, keeping his neck craned, "Where can I hide?"

Just then, his heart began to pound.

He tried running his right hand through his hair, but that was not working.

'Oh no,' He thought, tensing up, 'Did I-'

Before his question was finished, the answer was already there.

As he lowered his arm from his head, something sped past him.

There was no way Kobayabi could have kept up with the apparition, but he knew one thing.

It was right in front of him.

The demon was facing his direction, and munching sounds came from it.

So the only thing Kobayabi could do was keep his eyes glued on the demon.

As its grey features came into play, shock crept slowly towards Kobayabi.

The demon's eyes were staring someplace else, though its hands were holding something and its mouth grounded and chomped.

However, what caused Kobayabi to freeze was what it was holding.

A hand.

The fingers were being devoured one by one until the demon began with the hand.

A lower part of the arm was attached to the hand as it was being held by the Demon.

But it was not the fact it was devouring an arm, which in itself was disturbing.

The bone-chilling thing was the clothing on the arm.

It was ripped off.

Ripped off...

It only caught Kobayabi's attention just then.

When was the last time he had looked at his hands?

Slowly, his head lowered, seeing a red trail on the ground, leading all the way back to...

His arm.

Or, what's left of it?

Kobayabi saw his shoulder, his upper arm, and then his elbow, but after that, there was nothing. Just a stump, with a red liquid dripping out of it like water from a pipe.

The only thing he could do was wrap his left arm around it, and begin to scream.

His scream had a pattern to it. It would start, but then would interrupt itself with Kobayabi's cries of pain and restart again.

There was nothing he could do but stare in absolute terror.

Next, he heard the demon speak.

"Ya know, I was gonna kill you to prevent my position getting spoiled to those slayers," It said, swallowing the last of Kobayabi's arm, "but you have a great taste that I cannot resist,"

Once the demon locked its eyes on Kobayabi, the kid was sprinting away, his arm spewing blood on the ground.

"Might as well run yourself exhausted," The Demon spoke, "It will be a benefit to you either way,"

Soon after it said that it jumped again, following Kobayabi like a predator chasing after a bleeding prey.

While the demon thought he would bleed out Kobayabi thought differently.

Despite the burning and irritating sensation on his wound, he still ran, wanting to get out of there.

'Not here, not now,' He thought, looking up and seeing the moon, 'I don't want to die!'

However, his mindset could only hold his tired body for so long.

The demon kept up, 'This kid is entertaining, perhaps I'll have some fun before I end his miserable attempt at surviving,'

---

Not so far away, was a house.

Inside, a woman sat at a workbench, working on something intently.

It was quiet until she began to hear the soft patting of an approaching entity.

She shrugged it off until she realised that it would not stop.

"What the hell is going on out there?" She shouted, slamming her right fist down on the bench.

The woman stood up, her left hand having a glove over it. Though under it, a sheath with a sword in it was at her side.

"This is going to be a pain," She muttered, stepping to the door and sliding it open.

She stepped outside, unfazed by the cold weather blowing against her haori.

Her head turned to the sound of the footsteps, and in the distance, she saw a figure.

That figure turned out to be Kobayabi still running, his arm stump leaving less blood.

The woman raised an eyebrow but saw the kid's right arm was gone.

Once Kobayabi saw her, he tried to react. He tried to shout, but the exhaustion and pain were too great, and he only slowed down to a crawl as he approached the woman.

She was about to speak, when she sensed something a few feet behind him, dashing.

At that, she smirked.

As Kobayabi fell to his knees, she saw the demon right behind him, ready to tear off flesh from bone.

The woman was at the demon in seconds and raised her left arm for a punch.

The demon saw her hand that was not really formed into a fist, so it never worried.

It began to once the hand drilled into the demon's cheek, causing it to fly a few feet.

"Tch," She said, staring the demon down, "this will be annoying,"

Kobayabi stood up with difficulty while using his left arm, and looked at the woman.

The sheath was the first thing that caught his eye.

'Perhaps she can save me,' he thought, breathing heavily and gripping his right arm, 'She was able to punch that demon,'

Said demon stood up, visibly annoyed, "Oh? Another human to prey on? My my, it must be my lucky day?"

The woman's right hand went to the handle of her sword.

She got a response from the demon, who charged at her.

Kobayabi noticed her breathing in.

Then, she dashed forward.

Something would be heard that would notify Kobayabi of one thing.

"Flame Breathing! First Form: Unknowing Fire!"

Once she shouted these words, her right arm pulled the blade out of the sheath.

it was too quick for Kobayabi and the demon to see, though only a heated flame made its presence as it followed the sword's path, lighting up the area around it.

By the time the sword met the end of its life cycle, the woman was past the demon.

Just as the demon moved, its vision fell.

For the time it spent realising it was beheaded, the demon dissolved at that pace.

Kobayashi remained in awe at the spectacle.

The woman breathed out, held the katana to her side, and flicked her wrist.

That caused the sword to spin, and some blood to fall onto the ground.

As it made a full rotation, she somehow caught it again and placed it back into its sheath with a satisfactory slide.

"Bloody demons," She muttered, adjusting the sheath with her right hand, "at least that annoyance is over,"

"Tha...Thank..." The woman turned around after hearing this, seeing Kobayabi in a bad state.

"Oh, forgot about you," She said nonchalantly, "the demon's done. You're safe."

She saw Kobayabi's relieving smile before he fell onto his left side, unconscious.

Just then, the woman noticed his wound.

'Oh right,' She thought, walking to him, 'helping him would be decent enough,'

Without breaking a sweat, she was able to pick Kobayabi up and place him on her right shoulder with one arm.

Not without seeing his face, however.

'This kid looks familiar,' The woman thought, before letting out a laugh, 'must be his grandson, that idiot.'