"Mr. Rengoku~ Are you alright?"
Seeing Doma's figure rushing towards him, Kojuuro Rengoku managed to take a breath and struggled to raise the sword in his hand, but felt his body grow cold and weak. He plunged his Nichirin Sword hard into the ground, which was the only thing keeping him from collapsing immediately.
"Oh my, Mr. Rengoku, with such a heavy injury, you shouldn't be moving around," Doma squatted down beside him, his brow furrowed in extreme worry. "Humans are fragile creatures. They die very easily, so you must take good care of your body."
"Cough, cough..." Kojuuro Rengoku opened his mouth, but before he could speak, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. He could only endure the intense pain and try to regulate his breathing to quickly recover some of his strength.
"Eh—" Doma looked at the deep, diagonal wound on his chest, then suddenly raised his fan to cover the lower half of his face. His numbered, colored eyes instantly filled with tears. "Ah! Mr. Rengoku is badly hurt. If you don't get treatment in time, you'll die!"
"But I don't know how to treat human injuries like this... What should I do?" Doma slowly stopped his tears, a troubled expression on his face, and placed his closed fan beside his cheek.
Kojuuro Rengoku finally regained some strength and said in a hoarse but steady voice, "Why didn't you kill me?"
"Hmm?" Doma tilted his head in confusion.
Kojuuro looked up, his still-bright and spirited eyes fixed on the "Upper Moon Two" engraved in Doma's rainbow pupils. "You are an Upper Moon demon. Why didn't you kill me, a Hashira, just now?"
"Ah, of course, it's because we're friends! Killing a friend is a very wicked thing to do, isn't it?" Doma showed a brilliant smile and tilted his head to the other side, looking completely innocent. "Although I did hesitate last time we met. But Mr. Rengoku was trying so hard to protect me, even bandaged my wound, and said encouraging words to me..."
"It was a really strange feeling!" Doma said, his eyes sparkling. "I feel that although Mr. Rengoku is a bit silly, you're very interesting and cute! It would be too much of a pity if you died."
"And Mr. Rengoku kept saying my eyes are beautiful!" Doma cupped his cheeks and smiled, revealing the sharp fangs in his mouth.
"No, looking at them now, they're not that beautiful!" Kojuuro Rengoku said bluntly.
"Eh?" Doma's face fell instantly, a hurt expression on his face.
"Because the numbers in your eyes are completely disharmonious!" Kojuuro said directly.
Doma blinked his eyes, nodded in complete agreement, and then sat cross-legged on the ground. "Right, right? You think so too, Mr. Rengoku? When the characters were first carved in, I was sad for a long time too."
"Mmm~ Let me think... I was sad for about half a day. A miracle, really." He counted on his fingers, seriously calculating the time.
Kojuuro Rengoku blinked his eyes, feeling more and more that the demon before him was mentally immature, like a naive and bewildered child. Such a temperament would be cute in a human, but for an Upper Moon demon... it meant he was unpredictable, and perhaps could cause even greater destruction.
"Cough... What exactly do you want to do?" he coughed lightly and asked in a low voice.
Doma looked up, and after a moment of confusion, he had a look of realization. "Ah—I'm worried about you, Mr. Rengoku! It's only human to care for an injured friend, right?" As he spoke, he showed a worried expression again. "Mr. Rengoku, you can't go on like this. You really will die!"
"I don't want my friends to die. That would be too sad." Doma thought with a sad expression. He really couldn't bear to let Mr. Rengoku die; that would be too much of a pity. So he showed an expectant expression, "Hey, Mr. Rengoku~ Would you like to become a demon too? That way, you won't die."
"Absolutely not!" Kojuuro Rengoku refused with extreme firmness.
"Sigh! As I thought," Doma pouted and muttered to himself. "You Demon Slayers are so stubborn."
"This is a matter of responsibility and belief. It is a bottom line that must not be trampled upon!" Kojuuro's voice was low but still full of spirit.
"But, you know, you're very cunning, Mr. Rengoku," Doma said, tapping his chin with his fan. "You can't give up your life easily. You have to live with all your might... that's what you told me last time." He imitated Kojuuro's tone and tilted his head to look at him. "But Mr. Rengoku doesn't cherish his own life at all, even though it's a very precious thing."
Kojuuro was silent for a moment, then suddenly showed his usual bright smile. "That's right, that's what I believe!"
"But for me, there are some things more important than life!"
"If I were to lose that will and conviction, even if my body were to survive, it would no longer be me!"
Doma blinked his beautiful eyes, feeling as if the person before him had once again become a scorching sun. A hint of emotion surged in his heart, but it was something he couldn't understand. He tilted his head in bewilderment, tapped his head with his fan, a puzzled expression on his face. It's hard to empathize with, but it's certainly dazzling. Doma savored it for a moment, then slowly pushed the feeling to the back of his mind and sighed with a dejected look.
"Then, is Mr. Rengoku going to make his friend watch you die? How cruel."
"Friend?" Kojuuro Rengoku tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, staring directly into Doma's eyes. "I want to know, Mr. Doma, have you eaten people?"
Doma instantly dropped his dejected expression and said with a grin, "Is there any demon who doesn't eat people?"
"Oh my, that's not right! There actually are some, ahaha..." he then covered his mouth and gave an embarrassed laugh. "But I'm not one of them~" he said, waving his hands up and down.
"Then I'm sorry, but we will not be friends!" Kojuuro Rengoku's eyebrows shot up, and he said with extreme seriousness.
"Why?" Doma asked, puzzled, his eyes once again welling with tears. "It was Mr. Rengoku who unilaterally declared we were friends in the first place, and now you're denying this relationship on your own..." Doma showed a heartbroken expression and cried, "Mr. Rengoku, you're a big liar who plays with people's feelings!"
"I'm so sad, sob, sob, sob—" he covered his face and wept loudly.
(￣△￣;)
Kojuuro Rengoku stared at him blankly. Wait... what... I made him cry? He's crying so hard... A strange sense of guilt welled up in his heart. His actions did seem like he was toying with someone's feelings... And there was an awkward feeling, as if he had accidentally snatched a child's candy... He suddenly felt like he was a terrible person!
Kojuuro Rengoku shook his head hard, nearly choking. After coughing a few times, he finally managed to shake off the strange thoughts from his mind. "I am sorry for deceiving your feelings!" he said in a low voice. "But you are a man-eating demon, and I am a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. We can only be mortal enemies!"
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