23 Awake

In the middle of the night, an hour before the rise of the sun...

Waking up, Kiyomi immediately grabbed the wooden sword that she put by the side and hurriedly put on her clothes as she ran out of the door and up the mountain without any explanation.

Her beating heart was loud and speedy. Sweat dripped from her forehead.

'How did I forget this?!?! I demand an explanation, System!!! Did you seal my memory!?!'

Hearing the commotion, Tanjiro, and Saburo woke up groggily, just to find the empty bedding laying beside them.

Running with all her might, Kiyomi can reach her home within five minutes, saving the rest of the 55 minutes that she usually spends with Tanjiro, walking back home.

The snow under her foot collapsed as she stomped on the ground with unmatched force.

'Please be alright... please be alright... Muzan... If you kill my family... I swear to make your life a living hell!'

The surrounding forestry got more and more familiar as Kiyomi approached her home.

'According to the original anime, Nezuko was still alive when Tanjiro found her laying on the ground! Kie and the other's bodies should have been cold when Tanjiro said Nezuko's body was still warm, and according to thanatology, Muzan should have only come around a few hours before sunrise!'

The average living human being has a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. But when a person dies, their body begins to cool, at a rate of about 1-2 degrees every hour.

However, the weather of the snowy mountain can accelerate that by a lot.

Seeing the wooden house intact and without the smell of blood lingering in the air, Kiyomi could almost hear the clock to the time of her family's deaths ticking.

Just as she was about to run into the house, she saw a shadowy figure wearing a fedora and a matching suit, with plum-red eyes that were shaped like a snake's slit.

Contemplating for a moment, she decided that the best way to stall for the sunrise is to confront Muzan and prevent him in any way she can from nearing her family.

Walking up to Muzan, Kiyomi was just about to talk before she realized... that she didn't know how to start the conversation with him at all!

But the good news is that Muzan was the one to relieve her embarrassment:

"...Kiyomi, was it? What are you doing here?"

Responding perfunctorily Kiyomi started alertly at Muzan's eyes:

"I... live here with my family."

Realizing that Kiyomi is the only one to still have affection for family, Muzan decided that he would educate this ignorant child:

"Family is only a small drop of water in the long river of time after you become a demon. You should learn to let go, little one."

Keeping up with her plan of stalling for time, Kiyomi knew that she would eventually have to fight with Muzan, but before that, every second she stalls forgives her family a bigger chance of living.

"Are you going to kill them?"

Not bothering to even lie, Muzan replied with a fake smile on his face:

"Of course. Unless you would like to do the honors?"

Trembling and furious, Kiyomi immediately attacked with the sword that was in her hand.

"Do not talk like that about my family! Breath of the Moon: Third Form, Loathsome Moon!"

With two swings that can easily overcome the speed of a Hashira, two gigantic crescent slashes, from which a storm of smaller crescents spread, rushed towards Muzan, who was only a few feet away.

Before the crescent slashes even formed, the snow on the ground was swept away by the wind that was generated by the speed of the swings, creating a huge cloud of snow mist, which disrupted the sight of both Muzan and Kiyomi.

The snow stuck from the leaves of the trees also gathered in the cloud of snow mist, making it an incredible scene to behold.

*Crack*

A sound and resounding cracking of wood spread out through the entire forest.

Her eyes widening in shock, Kiyomi quickly retreated a few meters out and away from the huge cloud of snow mist.

With a few glistening pieces of snow still on her hair, she looked down at her hand to see the wooden blade in her hand had shattered into pieces.

The shattered katana sent small pieces of splinters into her delicate palm, squeezing out a few drops of blood.

Throwing the shattered and useless blade onto the ground, Kiyomi used her eyes to search in the cloud of snow mist for any sight of Muzan.

*Clap* *Clap* Clap*

Three rounds of applause had sounded out from all around Kiyomi, the sound waves being reflected from the trees and echoed in the air.

Sweating, Kiyomi got ready to attack with her fists and claws, even knowing that it would be pointless, as she was best in sword techniques, not fist techniques.

Walking out from the snow mist, intact, Muzan seemed especially pleased:

"Very fast. Too bad, you're still weaker than those Hashiras. But with more of my blood, you'll be able to become even stronger than them."

Getting a bad feeling, Kiyomi used all her strength to dodge to the right while using her hands to cover both sides of her neck.

Too bad, beyond the response time of her brain, Kiyomi only felt an acute pain in her left hand as her neck got punctured once again.

This time, along with the increase in strength, the blood of Muzan also brought upon her a powerful paralysis.

"Just watch, Kiyomi. You can do nothing about it. The most I can do is getting you some company."

At this moment, the door to the small house opened and Nezuko, who was still wearing her usual brown haori, came walking out.

Due to the loud wind created by the offensive of Kiyomi, it woke up Nezuko, who had trouble sleeping when Tanjiro and Kiyomi didn't come back for the night.

And because of the dim lighting, Nezuko could only hear the painful moans of Kiyomi, at which she immediately ran in that direction:

"Kiyomi nee-san?"

Wanting to shout out to warn Nezuko, Kiyomi could only watch as she got closer and closer:

'Nezuko! No! Stop running! NEZUKO!!!'

When Nezuko was a few steps away from Kiyomi, Muzan directly injected blood from Nezuko's head.

Ignoring the fact that Nezuko got her injections from the head due to the fear and pain she felt in her heart, anger rose from the bottom of her soul.

As Nezuko fell to the snow next to her, Kiyomi watched Nezuko's dead eyes as both squirmed with pain.

Kiyomi could only make short and simple noises as she cried at her powerlessness against the plot:

"Uh~! uhuuuhu~!! uhhhhh~ ~!"

Like the first time when her slayer mark appeared, Kiyomi's heart started to speed up at an incredible pace and her body heat melted the snow near her at an even faster pace.

About to get rid of the shackles of paralysis as she watched Muzan knock on the door of her home, Kiyomi regretted her impulse when she attacked Muzan, if she had stalled a few more minutes, maybe they wouldn't have died.

'No! What am I thinking about! I can still save them! Come on, I can do this, COME ON!!!'

Just as the door was about to be completely opened by Kie, a sword swing rushed out, and an expressionless youth wearing a haori that's split down the middle into two different patterns: the right one a solid red, and the left one geometrically patterned with squares of green, orange, and yellow, swiftly passed the paralyzed Kiyomi who was lying on the ground and rushed towards Muzan.