40 Nightmare
Eira's head was clouded with the horrible nightmare, the train rattled a little as she stood silent, Rengoku and Kaze discussed something while they turned their heads to the 3 tied up in a corner. Eira had told Kaze that she was fine but she had lied. Her whole body felt uneasy, the same emotion she had consistently felt since she stepped foot on the train. Her mind was so clouded that she couldn't even sense any auras, all of them hidden by the confusion in Eira's mind. There was no time to waste, demons were no doubt on the train, yet Eira was paralyzed in her position, that vision of Ali distraught her so horribly that she couldn't shake the traumatising image out of her head. Guilt. All she felt was confusion and guilt. Eira was in her own world of thoughts.
"Why? Why can't I get over it?" Eira closed her eyes and let her clouded mind delve into her thoughts. Her heart beat slowly and her fingers trembled slowly. It had been about half a year since the incident with Ali, yet her unbearable guilt wouldn't go away. The nightmares of her mother had slowly gotten rid of themselves, but she worried that the nightmares would replace themselves in the image of Ali. She hated that possibility. That possibility she would have to endure those horrid nightmares again, this time in another form, she didn't want to relive the cruel moments of cold sweat, sudden gasps and being paralyzed with fear in the darkness of her room. Eira shuddered.
"I watched both of them die. I couldn't do anything to help Ali. I couldn't do anything to help my Mother." Eira felt her stomach twist and her heart drop at the thought. Was she useless? Eira's hands clenched as her mind constantly overran with vicious thoughts that tore her self-esteem apart. She desperately wanted to be stronger, it was her whole goal, to protect people, but she had failed so many times.
Eira's eyes opened when a firm hand grasped her shoulder, her eyes immediately locked on Rengoku who stood in front of her. His expression was firm and his orange eyes sharp as they stared at her. His grip got slightly tighter.
"I trust you and Kaze to explore the carriages towards the engine room. Eliminate any demons and take any passengers to safety. I will be going in the opposite direction." Rengoku's strong and loud voice worked alongside the strict orders. Rengoku's voice pierced through Eira's confused mind and almost instantly wrangled her back into reality, away from her thoughts. The bright orange aura meshed with Kaze's calm purple close to her, Eira took a deep breath and nodded as she stared at Rengoku. Rengoku dashed towards the end of the carriage and swung open a door, he raced down the carriage as he left Eira and Kaze.
"Are you sure you're alright? You look a little pale, and I mean more than usual" Kaze fistbumped Eira's shoulder as he stood next to her, Eira looked at him, a glimpse of genuine worry in his dark eyes. Eira took a deep breath and looked back at him. Eira's eyes sparkled as she looked at his kind eyes, soft expressions and empathetic smile. Kaze reminded her of her older brother, both were dependable, calm and patient.
"Yeah. Sorry, that dream was a lot to handle." Eira wanted to vent it all out to Kaze, but she wouldn't want to put that burden on Kaze's shoulders. Kaze comforted Eira with a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, those dreams were something else, my dream was about my old friend coming back and I felt so happy. But you have to remember it was a Blood Demon Art right? It wasn't real so whatever it was, it wasn't real." Kaze's words struck Eira like cold water.
"Yeah…" Eira pretended like the words hadn't just hit her like a truck, she slowly nodded and both of them started to run towards the engine room as Rengoku instructed, as they moved between carriages, whichever passengers they found they would ask to move down towards the back of the train where Rengoku was. Eira and Kaze thought innocent civilians would be much safer in the hands of an experienced Hashira than them.
"We're getting closer to the engine room. We haven't found any demons yet… Isn't that weird?" Kaze turned back to Eira as his hand gripped the door handle to the next carriage. Eira also found it strange.
Suddenly, several gruesome brown auras appeared into existence right behind Eira. Her mind immediately sensed them and her whole body turned around, from the train's wooden boards, gross purple flesh sprouted as if it was growing. They slowly turned into large tentacles that wiggled and thrusted at Eira. Before they could even reach her, Eira unsheathed her sword and sliced through 3 of them simultaneously. Kaze simply stood back trusting in Eira's ability, as Eira swiftly chopped the several tentacles into sushi-like pieces, her blonde hair turned in unison as she spun around to continue towards the engine room.
"Well, I guess I jinxed it." Kaze laughed as he opened the door, the wind raged as they stepped on the narrow metal beam that connected the carriages. As they opened the next door, Enmu stood in the middle of the carriage. A sinister smile on his face, Eira's eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the figure. She couldn't see his aura at all. He was there, a demon, a living thing, but his aura was non-existent. No colour, no emotion, it was even worse than Ali's grey aura, there was no aura. Kaze gripped at his sword quickly, Kaze wasted no time, he dashed forward and unsheathed the emerald green sword.
Enmu lifted his hand, and on the back of his hand, a grotesque mouth lay, the mouth slowly licked its lips, it had all the features of a mouth, teeth, tongue saliva. Enmu put his palm to his mouth. The mouth slowly smiled.
"Go. To. Sleep." The mouth on the back of his hand spoke slowly. Eira and Kaze both saw a blur in their vision before they both fell into sleep almost immediately, Kaze's body became lost of motion and his body slammed into the ground, his sword rattled as it flew to the other side of the carriage.
Eira slowly opened her eyes, the sun shone on her face, the warm sunlight welcomed her back onto the beach. Her heart dropped. She grabbed at the grainy sand on the bottom of her. Her head shot side to side, she knew it was a dream this time.
"How do I wake up?!" Eira's voice was lost, she tried to scream but she couldn't. Enmu's Blood Demon Art replicated whatever the victim's perfect world was. In Eira's perfect world, there was no anger or sorrow, there was no yelling. Eira felt a tap on her shoulder, she quickly turned around to see a haunting figure. The same disfigured version of Ali stared right at her, their faces inches away. Eira's eyes filled with fear and her heart beat fast.
Eira woke up.
Eira's breaths were short and she scrambled to find something to grab, her grip on the wooden seat was tight. Enmu looked directly at her, it hadn't even been 5 seconds and Eira had already awoken from his Blood Demon Art.
"How interesting. You didn't even uncover the secret of how to escape my dreams. Your inner guilt is just so powerful that even the sweetest dreams are turned into horrible nightmares." Enmu's foot is placed on Kaze's back. Enmu ruthlessly launched Kaze towards the end of the carriage with a violent kick. Eira flinches as Kaze's body thumped at the end of the carriage, the furthest point from her, between her and Kaze stood Enmu.
"Tell me. Who do you miss more? Ali or your Mother?" Enmu spoke softly. Eira's eyes widened as Enmu spoke.
"How… How do you know that?!" Eira's fists clenched and words came out aggressive. Eira grabbed her sword and propelled herself towards Enmu.
"Seventh Form! Blistering Icicle" Eira held his sword close to her body.
"Go. To. Sleep." Enmu's hand spoke again, Eira's body became lifeless and she fell into a deep sleep again, her body collapsed from the powerful form she held onto the cold wooden floor.
The beach. Warm, beautiful, waves crashed as Eira slowly opened her eyes.
"No… No!" Eira hugged her own body, a gruesome sound of screeches and flesh being torn mixed together to create a symphony of horror. Eira's head almost snapped at the speed she turned left. The disfigured Ali stood far away, his dirty and sharp nails stabbed at Eira's brother's corpse over and over.
"Or… should I make it your mother?" Enmu's voice cackled as her brother's lifeless body transformed into a very much alive mother of Eira. Eira's face went pale, the dream had gotten every feature of her mother correct, down to the eyelashes. Ali's hand slammed into her mother's face, blood splattered everywhere as her mother's face exploded. Eira wanted to scream so loudly, but her dream didn't allow her.
Eira awoke, her eyes full of tears and her whole body shivered with fear. Her mouth agape in shock as her hands weakly gripped her sword. Enmu laughed, his body filled with such pleasure seeing Eira suffer so badly. Enmu's foot was placed on Eira's head, and he applied immense pressure. His body tingled as he heard Eira's increasingly fearful screams. Enmu's sadism was his flaw, he would delay killing someone to the very end just to see their suffering. He was so caught up in Eira's vulnerable state that he didn't realise that Eira wasn't the only one in the carriage.
Enmu's skin crawled with goosebumps and his eyes widened. Kaze's feet sent tremors as they violently smashed at the ground, he sprinted aggressively at Enmu.
"Go. To-" Enmu's hand desperately tried to send Kaze into sleep, Kaze's body tensed and flexed, his arms felt as if they would burst with power. His grip on the sword was so tight it would break a coconut.
Shadow Breathing. First Form. Blunt Darkness.
His whole body filled with oxygen and he slammed his foot into the wooden boards, the green sword, filled with both Kaze and Ali's ambition, swung so violently it tore through the air. A flying slash decapitated Enmu, half the seats in the carriage suffered from Kaze's powerful attack, splinters flew everywhere as the slash tore through everything that came in its way. Enmu's head flew right off and hit the floor. Kaze immediately went to Eira, who was lying on the floor, her eyes wide and her face pale.
"Eira! Get up!" Kaze shook her in hopes of getting her out of this state of shock. Eira slowly came back to her senses, her tear-stained face slowly turned towards Enmu's head, her blue eyes shone as she felt relief.
"Did… Did you think I'd die that easily?" Enmu laughed villainously, his eyes narrowed as his ego burst like an inferno. "This is nothing but a puppet. My real body… Is this whole train!"
Eira's heart dropped as she heard this. No wonder, it all made sense to her now, that was the reason why she felt uneasy on the train, it was the reason why Enmu had no real aura in the first place. The train was his body, the uneasy feeling came from the aura of the train. Enmu's body grew tentacles just like the ones before, the purple flesh wriggled as his laugh echoed in the carriage.
"Eira. I need you to find wherever his weakness is, find it and slash it. Until then I'll hold him off." Kaze spoke little words before he stepped in front of her to cover her. Tentacles shot at Kaze, he parried them and slashed them.
"Go!" Kaze looked back at Eira. Eira found her feet and scrambled at the floor, her body shook off the immense fear from the dreams as she remembered what Kaze said. They weren't real. Eira's heart still dropped at the idea of her mother being killed by Ali, it was so… vivid.
For now, she had to find wherever the weakness was.
