Five Giyushino drabbles borne from one-word prompts
(Because I’ve had this sitting in my docs for half a year now and forgot to post them)
Shinobu is tenacious in her fighting; she’s graceful, fleeting— dancing between enemies in a blur of translucent wings, just as her Breath would suggest. She is a Butterfly girl, after all, and so she is airy and elegant by association.
Giyuu is reminded, however, as she stabs through the skull of a demon child with a viciousness at odds with the smile on her face, that wasps are insects too.
They are both insomniacs. Although that is hardly a surprise, it comes with the job description. They’re nocturnal hunters, prey turned predators in the long-winded fight to eradicate demons. Nights are bloodied and tense and full of grief. Mornings are spent buried in the clutches of sleep.
Even so, there is a serenity to be found together, sitting on the cracked roof of the Butterfly estate, a cacophony of stars the only eyes to watch them in the dark.
The law of existence is that it is lawless.
A universe that created demons has no room for sympathy, nor care for the fragility of human emotion. It is discord under the guise of order. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. A demon in a human’s skin.
Cruelty litters the outside world, but it becomes the foundation of the Infinity Fortress’s walls. There is no room for closure between these twisting corridors.
“Caw! Caw! Kochou Shinobu is dead!”
Existence is lawless, and Giyuu is reminded of that for a third time in the middle of a demon’s lair, with only a crow’s piercing shrill to deliver the blow.
Shinobu has been trying to pin the flow of Giyuu’s Breath for ages.
He does not thunder in a rolling wave as other Water users do, nor does he hold the mystery of deep open waters. And, despite coming from the same teacher, he does not bring the respite of a sunshower as Tanjiro does.
Originally she had deemed him a pond—still, silent—but that did not stick; because while he ignores even the most basic socialization, Giyuu does not stand idly. He still flows along, determined as the other Hashira to meet their shared goal.
It isn’t until they hop moss-soaked rocks over a stream that she has her epiphany.
Ah, she realizes, watching the freshwater break through rocks, I suppose he’s the smooth trickle of a creek.
He’s just leaving the Butterfly estate after a particularly nasty fight, his side still sore from the burn of poison when one of the girls approaches him.
He only barely remembers her name, Aoi, because she was the one who had treated him, (despite Shinobu being the poison specialist, he hadn’t seen her in the building at all that day). The girl all but shoves a warm bag into his hand that smells like sugar and honey.
“Lady Shinobu heard you were here and asked me to give these to you,” she glares, the look had made him nervous at first, although now he’s learned that she is simply in a perpetual state of indignance, “as an apology for not being there to treat you. They’re leftovers. Have a good day, Tomioka-sama.”
He chews on the bread rolls as he walks to his estate.
Thank you for reading :)! I have another giyushino oneshot in my docs from a while ago. It’s like 1k words and a modern au, but I have no idea how popular gsh is anymore so if anyone wants me to post it, I will. Otherwise it’s staying in my Google doc.
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