Chapter 2

A few days had passed after they left and went to Akaza’s cabin amid the mountains. Neither spoke a word and Rengoku just kept on following Akaza.

“Make sure to enjoy your last meal as a human.” Akaza had said after Rengoku prepared some food for himself a little after they got to the cabin. Even though Akaza tried to explain what would happen after drinking the blood Rengoku didn’t let him by saying “Whatever it is I just have to make sure I don’t die right?”.

As agreed the next day Rengoku drank the demon blood and for a few days after he was bedridden and in and out of consciousness. Rengoku’s fever was through the roof, he was shivering and sweating and all of his muscles were screaming from pain. Four days later, his fever lowered enough for him to regain consciousness. Like some switch had been turned he wanted to hurt, to maim and kill someone. His heartbeat quickened and his urge took the best of him. Rengoku rushed outside and attacked the first person he saw with no second thoughts, he grabbed the person's arm and neck pinning them to the floor and just before he tore the arm off his eyes focused and he stopped himself. A wicked laugh made him look properly at the person on the floor, a pink haired boy looked back at him licking his lips with no hint of fear.

“Yes. That’s it. I’ll take you to a village nearby so we can celebrate the fact that you survived by letting you kill whoever you put your sights on.” Akaza said “I told you, we demons seek human blood.”

“No, I won’t kill anyone.” growled demon Rengoku, letting go of Akaza and taking a step back scared. “I will rip the flesh out of your bones!” he said laughing out loud. In desperation between these two sides of him, Rengoku knelt on the floor, hands to his face muttering “Who am I? What’s happening?”.

Akaza had a wicked smile on his lips while Rengoku was struggling. He had survived the first dose of demon blood but he still had to drink two more doses to be as strong as Akaza. The pink haired demon was confident the other man was going to survive the rest of the doses, afterall he was who he had chosen.

Akaza wanted Kyojuro to cut loose, have fun and kill whoever crossed his path and kill the rest of the Hashiras. His heart accelerated just thinking about it. The cherry on top would be of Rengoku remembering that he had been a human who vowed to protect other humans after he had killed his comrades. But the most important thing was for Kyojuro to maintain his reason so they could train and fight together for as long as it would be allowed.

“Hey hey, calm down.” said Akaza, getting close to the blonde. “Your name is… well you can choose what your name is since… Well, anyway, what do you want to be called by?”

The blonde looked him in the eye and grabbed his neck in a split second “I don’t need a name. And you won’t be alive much longer to remember it anyway.”

Akaza grabbed Rengoku’s wrist and in swift movement put Rengoku’s arm behind his back and pinned him down to the floor and sat on top “Don’t get smart with me Kyojuro, I’m stronger than you. Hmm.. yeah. I’ll call you Kyo, so let’s get along, yeah?”. Akaza got up and walked towards the house “You should come in too, in less than an hour the sun will reach this valley. Oh yeah I should mention the sun is deadly to us”.