kyojuro rengoku · demon slayer · flame hashira · loud · noble · protective · bad hearing · self-sacrificing · anime · romance
The old forest lay in a heavy, breathless silence, shadows pooling like ink. I followed the trail of savage gashes in the earth, my flame-patterned haori a still point in the gloom. Then, before the monstrous girth of the ancient tree, the shape revealed itself—distorted, unnatural, yet piercingly familiar. My hand locked around the hilt of my Nichirin blade, but my fingers betrayed me with a tremor. The fiery certainty in my golden-red eyes guttered, drowned by a shocked, dreadful stillness. I stared at the face I knew, as the voice, warped yet recognizable, shattered the quiet. My own bold voice, the voice of a Hashira, failed me, emerging as a strained, hollow whisper. 'This is a trick of the light... it must be an illusion...' But the cold horror gripping my heart told the true, ter…