Kanae POV:

After I introduced myself, I looked up at her face to see her gaze on my katana. I immediately swept a hand over my haori, hiding the sharp weapon within the long fabric. Throbbing pain shot up my arm, and I winced, realizing that I had accidentally slightly cut myself on the sharp edge of the hairclip that I had been tightly gripping nervously.

As I surveyed the strange woman in front of me, I noticed multiple signs that she had been out here for at least several hours. She had somewhat muddy knee-high sneakers and a freshly picked poppy in her hair, along with the dirt in her fingernails.

"Ne, (L/N)-san, what brings you out to a deserted field like this one? There's nothing for miles around but forest, if my memory doesn't fail me." Starting to get suspicious, I swiftly moved myself behind her in an attempt to scare her.

The woman was obviously not pleased about the lack of space between us and attempted to harshly push me off of her, causing me to step back as an evasive maneuver.

"I am searching for a certain type of rare plant that I have yet to find. Have you heard of a flower named the 'blue spider lily', by any chance?" The woman explained, arms stiffly crossed as she lifted her chin up. I frowned at the seemingly familiar name, my suspicion fading away.

"Ah, apologies for the misunderstanding, (L/N)-san." My black hair shifted as I tilted my head slightly in curiosity.

"The blue spider lily, you say? I have only heard of that flower in children's storybooks, although you can prove me wrong if, no, when you find it." My mouth stretched into a smile for the mysterious woman before glancing over my shoulder at Shinobu, who had been unusually silent.

However, she was gone.

 My smile immediately vanished and I unsheathed my katana, expecting an attack to come from anywhere. I moved closer to (Y/N) and flitted my eyes around, searching for even a small movement that wasn't ours.

"(L/N)-san, stay close to me and don't question the sword, I'll explain later." I whispered, and suddenly heard a muffled yelling in the direction of the forest. 

There I saw Shinobu, fearfully kicking and crying, in the arms of a tall blonde demon. The demon had a wicked grin, one hand covered over Shinobu's mouth which prevented her from wriggling out of the tight grasp of his other arm.

"Ooh! You both look so tasty, I haven't eaten a demon slayer in such a long time~! My name is Douma, by the way. What's yours?" The demon squealed happily, squeezing Shinobu with his blue-tinted fingers. I gritted my teeth and prepared an attack strategy. 

"Kocho Kanae, the Flower Hashira." I tried to maintain a confident tone while answering, but his unnerving smile seemed to effortlessly read through the facade.

'This is not good, I don't have the skill to fight an Upper Moon alone! I can't use breathing techniques just yet either, I might hurt Shinobu if he uses her as a shield!' Not taking a second of my vision off of the rainbow-eyed man, I closed the distance between us in a second and dashed to his left side.

In a flash, he had moved from my reach and threw Shinobu into a thick pine tree multiple yards away. After hearing a sharp 'crack' and a scream, I knew that she hit the tree so hard that it had broken her back. I winced, hating to hear her yell in pain.

When Douma reappeared several feet away from me, he flicked out two sharp golden fans from his pocket and ran towards me. One of his weapons was headed straight towards my right hip, so I jumped up and aimed my sword at his arm. I gracefully twisted my body to face the katana just above him as I aimed to cut the arm off.

"Flower Breathing, Sixth Form: Whirling Peach." I muttered, shifting and spinning my body repeatedly while swinging my sword. Douma's arm, along with his fan, fell to the ground next to him. However, the victory was short lived as I swiveled myself around to find that he was gone.

"Boo." His nonchalant voice appeared next to my ear, and I attempted yet again to turn around. The next thing I know, I'm laying on my back on the hard earth.

"Ne ne, Kanae-chan, that was impressive! I did not think you were skilled enough to cut off my arm!"

I utilized the strength in my shoulders to kick myself off the dirt into a standing position, and prepared another attack as I childishly stuck my tongue out at the demon. He laughed in response, and fanned himself as if he were bored.

"Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!" One strong blow swept towards Douma, and he gracefully blocked the attack with his fans.

"Blood Demon Art: Frozen Lotus." He delivered a forward strike with one of his fans, and multiple shards of ice hurtled towards me. Once the katana had penetrated through them, I noticed that alongside the icicles, razor sharp lotuses had formed. Noticing that they were dangerously close to my eyes, I quickly threw myself into a backflip and shredded them with my sword.

'So that's what his Blood Demon Art is...I do hope my crow's calling for backup, there's no way I can do this alone.' I gulped and calmed my uneven breathing. The demon looked at me expectantly, evidently waiting for me to call out another breathing form. When the silence wasn't broken, he shrugged and decided to attack instead.

"Blood Demon Art: Wintry Icicles." Douma grinned at me proudly before suddenly manifesting several sharp blades of ice that shot in my direction. I snapped back from my thoughts, focusing on the Upper Moon standing before me.

"Flower Breathing, Second Form: Honorable Shadow Plum!" I yelled out and repeatedly swung my katana, sending out several defensive slashes towards the blonde demon's icicles. I couldn't dodge the entire attack, however, and a sharp blade of ice stabbed me in the left shoulder.

I winced in pain as I felt a burning sensation shooting up my arm, only to realize that the ice was so cold it was giving me internal freezer-burn. For the first time since I started fighting the demon, I tore my vision away from his wretched face. I regretted it immediately after seeing blood dripping down my arm, soaking my ripped white haori.

"So? Do you like my Blood Demon Art?" Douma asked me, clasping his pale hands childishly as his emotionless rainbow eyes stared into my livid pink ones. I shivered, a numb feeling washing over the left side of my body and quickly spreading to the right. I tried to move, with no success. I was paralyzed, and if I couldn't move for anytime soon, I would loose consciousness from blood loss. 

'I already feel faint...' I put all my effort into one last attempt to move my body, yet not a muscle moved.

"I'll take your silence as a yes." The demon chuckled, peering over my shoulder to the tree where he had thrown Shinobu. He looked back at me with a cold glint in his dull rainbow eyes, and I started to panic at what could've happened.

Before I knew anything had even happened, Douma had walked towards me, taken the blade out of my hands, grabbed ahold of my shoulders, and swiveled my body to face Shinobu.

My eyes filled with tears as I stared at my younger sister slumped over against the tree, a bloody kunai knife lodged deep in her chest. Next to her was (Y/N), the strange (e/c) eyed woman I had met a mere thirty minutes beforehand.

The standing female reached down and twisted the weapon out of Shinobu's body, killing her slowly and painfully. The dying girl screamed in agony, and I broke down in tears for the second time.

"Nee-san, it's okay..." She reached her hand out towards me, and I wanted so badly to be able to reach back and place her warm hands in mine. However, the sole thing I could do was stand there, paralyzed, as my beautiful baby sister, whom I swore to protect with my own life, was brutally murdered in front of my eyes.

"Are you going to kill her?" The woman sounded bored, which infuriated me even more than I had been before, if that was possible.

"Not yet, I think that I'll wait until after she watches me eat the younger butterfly girl." Douma casually explained, as if he were trying to decide which clothes to wear.

"No..." I painfully whispered out. The male snapped his head towards mine so that his disgusting face was only inches away from me.

"What was that, little butterfly?" The tall demon smiled at me gleefully.

"Fuck...you." I resentfully spat those words through my teeth with as much energy as my weak and dizzy body could manage. Douma frowned and stepped back, snapping his fan over the bottom half of his face.

"Why that's not very nice, is it Kanae-chan? You know, I've changed my mind about keeping her awake, she's mean." The Upper Moon huffed, and the last thing I saw before completely blacking out was Douma, his face half covered by the bloody golden fans.

Word Count: 1605

~ Taisho Era Facts ~

- Autocorrect kept trying to change Kanae to Kanye, and it was extremely frustrating to write. Every. Single. Time.

- This is the author's first time writing a fight scene in a book, so thoughts?