Chapter 10: I’m Dying!?

For those who wants timeline check. It's the 21st of 'January' in the shop world. Bleach is around the first three episodes, Demon Slayer is a year behind if nobody caught that last chapter. Cyberpunk edgerunners Gloria is still alive.

WARNING:GORE(don't expect much of this)

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Cobalt woke up groggy. His usual time is waking up at six to brush his teeth, shower and make breakfast. Then exercise, now training, with Gyomeis training regiment for a more sturdy body. He's done usual 20 minutes before 9:00 am, giving him enough time to shower the sweat away and get ready for the day.

The usual morning customers is either Mitsuri and Iguro if they aren't on a mission, Tengen would replace them if busy, or Muichiro. Muichiro is a odd case as he mostly goes for water or a chocolate bar. They never really have full conversations before and usually say small greetings.

Today however was different. Around 9:40 am no one had shown up. "Guess it's a slow day today. I still have to wait for Rebecca and her brother to come in with that vendor. I guess I can do some sword training. Don't need Kaburamaru and his pet on my ass." Let it be said he would never actually say that to Iguro to his face, but he sure as well will alone.

Going to his room he grabbed the wooden sword given to him and went outside to train. "I'll pull from Gachapon later. Not like I'll get anything good."

Getting into a stance he started his five hundred vertical swings. Iguro seemed to hold him at a high standards and made him swing five hundred times for both vertical and horizontal swings. If it wasn't for his shops snacks, he would sore for days.

*swing*

Looking back, he never noticed anything wrong. He woke up in the shop already made, world born from his image. Yet something or someone is purposely trying to give him nothing but the bare minimum. To drive him out?

*Swing*

Was it the one behind the messages? It couldn't be the Narrator from before, he was more supportive and playful with him. He's pretty sure that stupid coin and message was from him. Bastard.

*Swing*

Than he finds out he has powers. Was suppose to sell items with credits. Trade stuff for credits. Not start with literal nothing maybe! God, what other secrets is hidden from hi-

"Oh my~. I find this odd door and it led me to a open field?"

Cobalt heard a voice behind him and turned to see a figure standing in front of his shop. It as was a women in provocative clothes. A black dress that leaves her stomach up to her to her collar exposed with purple lines out lining it. At the end of the dress was purple plumage of feathers or fur, Cobalt couldn't tell. Wearing a cape and stockings he believed he found himself another medieval character. A seductress?

"Oh hello there ma'am. Welcome to-"

D....t…..er

"Eh?" Cobalt stopped when a voice ranged t around him. It was close, but he was pretty sure it was only him and this women. Strangely, it felt familiar to him. Was he going crazy?

The women stared at Cobalt before giving him a smile. "Oh are you the owner of this area. I must say how lovely it is. Tell me, are you the one who left that door in the ally way?"

"Ah no. You see this place is special, that door you found is-"

DON'T TRUST HER

*Ba-dump*

Cobalts entire body tensed up. Cold sweat formed over his forehead and he felt adrenaline course through him. His pupils shrunk to tiny dots. Without his doing, his body jumped a few feet away from the women. The wooden sword in his hand slightly strained from the death grip on it.

The women blinked before a much darker smile spread. "Ah what a reaction~. You seem to not know me so I assume you sense my bloodlust. How…interesting. Tell me something little knight."

The women…no monster started approaching Cobalt with slow but methodical steps. The grass under her seem to flatten before she can truly step on them. A obsessive aura leaked out of her similar to a snake coiling, ready to launch.

"W-what do you want?" He held his wooden sword in a kendo like position, trying and shakily control his breathing. Just what the hell is going on!?

She suddenly stopped. Now grinning sinisterly, she vanished into thin air. World stilled, almost frozen time. It was like she nerve existed.

"What color is your guts~?" A airy whisper echoed behind him. He only turns to see a pair of dark eyes before everything turns red.

Meanwhile

"Ah! I can't believe I missed training Cobalt today! I hope he's doing well by himself." Mitsuri exclaimed jogging back to her home. Iguro matched her pace next to her. "We had a mission to investigate a potential lower moon demon. We can't ignore that. Though it did end up being just a slightly above average demon."

She nodded solemnly before brightening up. "I'll make him some pancakes as a gift! He's been working quite hard and should get a reward for it! Lets hurry back and-." Both their watches blared loudly.

Mitsuri squealed and tripped but Iguro caught her before she can fall. The watches are pulsing with red lights and loudly playing a alarm. "What the hell is this? If this is a joke from him I'm gonna-."

The watches holographic screens forced opened.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

SHOPKEEPER COBALT IN CRITIAL CONDITION! SHOP IN DANGER!

COBALT SUFFERS A SPLIT OPEN STOMACH! GUTS ARE SPILLING OUT!

SURVIVAL RATE: 20%…18%…16%

Both Mitsuri and Iguro stared at the screen. Mitsuri eyes were vacant , showing absolute confusion and distraught. Iguro helped her stand and put his hands on her face, forcing her to look at him. "Mitsuri! Focus! Look into my eyes! We have to go help him! I'll go on ahead since I'm faster between us. You go to the butterfly mansion and get medical help. Understood?"

She drew in a labored breath but nodded. She placed a hand on his cheek, with tears in eyes, said. "Pleas take care of him Iguro. He doesn't deserve to die like that." Confident, he nodded. His snake nodding as well. "Don't worry I'll deal with whoever did it. Just be quick with it okay?"

Mitsuri, now more determined than shakened, gave him a quick hug and rushed to the mansion. He himself bolted to her home to reach the door. "Just what did you let in shitty merchant." He growled out, rushing to save his student.

Meanwhile with Ichigo, he was running back in his soul form with Rukia on his back. There watches also blaring the same message. They just dealt with Orihimes brother and now this!? "Dammit, this timing can't get any worse! What the hell happened!?"

Rukia had a glare in her eyes. "I don't know! Drop me off at the candy store and make it to Cobalt. I'll get someone to heal him but you have to make sure he doesn't die Ichigo! Feed him his own sweets if you have too!"

"Shit. Fine! Be quick about it!" He started hopping to the candy store to leave Rukia. Both knowing they are on a time limit.

Sidereum Nox

Gore warning: look for this message for the end.

His body felt like he was falling through air. His ears were ringing and no matter how far he looked, the sky was never ending. Why…was he on his back? Wasn't he training?

His head slowly drooped to his right, spotting half a stick held tightly in his hand. Oh. He broke it. Iguro is gonna be mad at him. Hopefully it involved more swings without the spars. Naw, that bastard will be quick to take the chance to beat him. Just you wait, I'll catch up to you soon and beat you one day.

Yet no matter how much he tried he couldn't move.

Eyes void of emotion, void of human light, looked down over his stomach. All around him was red. Down to his legs to the grass around him bled red. It smelled like metal all over. Yet despite the gore fest happening around him he noticed a hand playing with his loose intestines. Simply going over and just playing with them. Ah he remembers now. A flicker of deep hatred sparked in his heart. His voice failing to curse out his assailant.

Following the hand, it was connected to the women from before. She had a wide smile and eyes lovingly staring into his guts. "What a pretty color you have. Clean from disease and healthy to boot. You took care of them so well little knight." He coughed a glob of blood when she did a little tug.

"Oh your getting colder. Well guess that's it for you. Don't worry I'll be by your side to the end. Oh, I never gave you a name. It's only fair I give you that right? A name to carry with hate down to hell."

Still playing with his loose intestines she leaned over till her face was inches from his. "My name is Elsa the bowel hunter. It's obvious as to why. I just can't help it. Something about cutting open people stomachs is just so fascinating. To watch them spill out perversely with a beautiful color. It's just great~."

Cobalt didn't know how he was still alive, but deep within he knew why. It's to spite this bitch until his last breath. Elsa seemed to know too as she gave him a amused grin. "Oh? Are you trying to survive? Doesn't this hurt? So unbelievably painful that you just wish to pass on? Maybe I should of played with you before cutting you open. To see what witty banter you come up with as you pathetically fight to survive. Oh well. It's time to pass on."

He dug her hand deeper into his stomach. Never breaking eye contact, never losing her smile. "Now you'll feel everything go darker. And darker. And darker. Until your de-."

Gore Warning: End

*BANG*

Her head snapped to right from a small projectile, followed by a mop like pole slamming into her ribs launching her away from her prey. She hissed as she felt flames licked and kiss her stomach, burning her badly. Righting herself, feeling her healing kick in, was gonna address the new arrival when strings wrapped all over her.

"Oh?" She hummed in slight surprise as she couldn't break out. The harder she tugged the more it dugged into her skin. Following the sting she met with another women with white hair that changed color it the light. String shot out her gloves and held fastly around her.

"Gloria can you stitched him up?" Lucy locked her gaze on the women in her strings. Gloria gritted her teeth and started pulling out meds from her person. "Shit I can't. You gonna have to do it with your strings. Fuck he lost too much blood, we have to take him to a hospital!"

Rebecca glared in disdain at the freak tied up. She held up two sidearms colored green and pink. "Ight bitch, i don't know who the fuck you are but you fucked up!"

In quick succession, she began to unload both mags into Elsa. Each bullet tore into her and jerked her body around from the force she didn't not cry out. Rebecca made sure to empty them until all she made were a bunch of clicks.

Elsa was riddled with holes and leaking all over as she fell to her knees with her head limped down. Lucy scoffed and retracted her strings letting the body fall onto the ground and quickly went to Cobalt. She slightly gagged at the sights of his stomach but shoved it down.

"We need to put his intestines back into him and do a quick stitching for now until we can give him proper aid. I'll inject him with some a Beautie and hypercoagulin. Thats all I can do for now." Gloria explained, slowly returning the organs back into the body. She can't go to quick and make him lose more blood. She'll have to find anti biotics as well. Hopefully the regenerative sweets can replace blood.

Rebecca reloaded her guns when she noticed something. "Wait…didn't I shot her in the head. How the hell…" She glanced back at the body, only to realize it was gone.

"That wasn't very nice you know~."

A sickly sweet voiced said behind her before a sharp pain stabbed into her lower back. Rebecca stifled a curse, whipping around with cheeks bulging and launching a Dragon Rage point blank at Elsa.

A brief explosion engulfed her, her body being cascading away, though she quickly righted herself. Her eyes now had red pupils in the center coldly stared at Rebecca then quickly dodging a bunch of strings send by Lucy.

Rebecca felt something was stuck in her back but that only fueled her growing resentment over this bitch! "Keep fixing him up Luce. I'll fend this ugly ass cockroach off."

Else huffed, now holding two daggers in hand. "Now now, I pride myself in my looks. It's quite useful when drawing in my prey." Her smile was that of a sociopath, something she also prided herself in. "It's no use saving the little knight. I do give him credit for able to block my first strike but a wooden sword is no match for my fangs. How unfortunate."

Rebecca whipped out her two guns and started blasting once more. Elsa deflected some bullets away but felt some enter her stomach and arms. "Quite the weapons you got there. I can feel little bits of metal in me but I can remove them later. Now, let me see your bowels!"

She vanished almost in a instant and appeared mid swing at Rebecca. The short girl gritted her teeth knowing her guns were ineffective and tried to charge up another dragon rage shot. "I won't make it in time!" She thought, watching in slow motion as the blade reached closer to tearing her stomach open. Lucy cried out her name, sending strings to pull her back, she doubted it will reach in time.

Fuck was this how it ends?

"Serpent Breathing third form: Coil Choke!"

A blade seeped through Elsa throughout her body. She deflected a slash to her neck but quickly lost a arm as it detached from her body. A deep gash formed over her own stomach and a cut was dealt to her leg nearly removing it. Clicking her tongue and jumped away gaining distance from this new threat. Her wounds recovering as fast as they came.

A young man with black hair and a black and white haori stepped infront of Rebecca, half his face covered in bandages. A albino snake circled his neck softly hissing at Elsa. "More help is on the way. I'll make sure she can't escape back to her world, make sure he survives. I can't look at Mitsuri knowing I failed her."

Rebecca didn't know who this guy was but she'll take all the help she can get. Turning to Lucy and Gloria she ran over. "We gotta move it. Let's bring him inside and feed some shit to him to help heal his ass. Shit is bout to hit the fan! Also get this thing out my back!" The two ladies agreed. With Lucy strings she made some basic stitching to his stomach to hold it together until proper medical care can be made. Making a stretcher out of stings they placed him ontop of it and rushed to the shop.

Elsa hummed, her arm stopped bleeding and pointed a fang with her other one. "I'm impressed. I never seen anything like that before. If I were to guess, your sword art is based off decapatation. How wicked! Tell more more about it."

Iguro glared in disgust. "I don't have to tell you anything. To me your nothing but a another demon to fall from my blade." He raised his blade as his body coiled to launch.

Else grinned wildly. Her sharp canines glinting. "Oh your gonna be much fun. Ill do you a favor and take you seriously. I'm quite curious to see a snakes guts as well!"

The two burst off the ground and clashed blades! Despite only having one arm she held steadily against his, showing that her strength wasn't diminished at all. Soon they fell into a deadly dance, striking and slashing at each other without letting them get a inch. Elsa did a slash at Iguros eyes, only to be blocked and met a slash of his own.

Jumping over the swing, she kicked off his back and landed next to her discarded arm. Holding her fang in her mouth, she grabbed the limb and placed it over her shoulder. Steam raised as it reconnected, moving it around just fine as if it never was removed.

Iguro clicked his tongue. "Her regeneration isn't as good as demons but while she can't regrow limbs, she can recover from wounds just as fast." Analyzing his opponent he gathered what he got so far. Inhuman strength and speed, incredible reflexes, a healing factor, and a sharp daggers.

"Are you a assassin? Some kind of demon of your world?"

"Oh? What a interesting guess. Though your close on assassin I'm far from being related to the a demon. If you let me cut you, ill tell you what I am!" Her piece said, she blitzed behind him to split him in half.

Iguro dodged away and prepared his next technique when he stopped. His snake hissed something to him. Elsa raised a brow amused. "Don't tell me you lost your nerv-." Her instincts flared to life and bolted from her spot as the area she was in cratered.

Looking around she noticed she couldn't see who attacked just now. Yet her instincts told her that a dangerous foe appeared. "Another friend I assume? I can't see you but I know your there. Isn't two on one a bit unfair for little ol me?" She side stepped away from a another attack her eyes straining to catch a glimpse of something. She sight a scent but it vanished as quickly as it came.

Iguro glanced at Kaburamaru who locked onto the space where Elsa dodged at with his tongue out. He can tell he can see whoever joined in. "Are they a ally?" His snake stared for a bit before nodding.

What they don't know is that their invisible ally/enemy is Ichigo in his soul form. He glanced at the large area covered in blood and clenched his sword angrily. "What the hell is going on? Why did she attack Cobalt? I can't communicate with snake man, but I want to capture her if possible. Shit what to do?"

He glanced over and noticed the albino snake staring at him. He waved his hand and saw it following it with its eyes. This is gonna be silly. "Hey uh snake! If you can hear me try to tell that guy to capture her. We need answers to why she attacked in the first place." God he felt stupid. There no way the snake will understand hi-

Kaburamaru hissed into Iguro ear, communicating in the way they developed over the years of knowing each other. Iguro narrowed his eyes before sighing. "Fine. I also want to know what happened. But if she proves to be too dangerous I'll kill her."

Ichigo gawked. That actually worked? Didn't snakes have no form of communication other to make noises to fend off predators or something.

"Ah whatever! Lets just get it over with!" Raising his oversized Zanpukatō he rushed at Elsa as fast as he could. He swung his blade in a wide arc, using its long reach to lightly slice her stomach. Elsa sense the attack and barely dodged it only to meet to yelp as both her tendons in her legs to be cut by Iguro. "This is getting annoying."

Depite not having function to her legs she still rushed to Iguro rushing to slice him open, only for the invisible attacker to block her. "I played with you all long enough!" Her tendons regenerated almost instantly. Iguro took a kick to the stomach blasting him away. She quickly turned and blocked a overhead strike from Ichigo. "You can't hide your killer intent from me. Every swing you make I can practically smell the intent!" Ichigo growled and put all his strength onto her. Her knees buckled a bit. "DO IT!"

"So strong!" He thought recovering his footing. His snake hissed and growled. "Hold her still! Serpent Breathing Second Form!"

In a burst of speed, he sprinted behind her and his sword blurred through the back of her neck,cutting her spinal cord. "Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head!"

Being disconnected from her body, she fell like a puppet without it springs. "Shit! I was careless!" Aiming to regenerate the damage, she lost focus on the second foe. "Just stay down!" He crushed the pommel of his sword on top her head, forcing her head to dig into th ground. Like that she went limped.

Both of them lightly panted watching her slightly for any sign that she would get back up. They waited about five minutes before they relaxed.

"Ichigo!"

"Iguro!"

The both turned to see Rukia running to them with a man with a bucket hat with a black car on his shoulder. Mitsuri, Shinobu, Muichiro and surprisingly Gyuu ran to there position.

Shinobu looked around and saw the pool of blood near by. "Is he?"

Iguro shook his head and pointed at the shop. "I don't know but they took him inside. Help if you can."

She nodded and ran into the shop, behind her the bucket head followed behind while the cat hopped off and sat staring at Elsa.

"Is she the one who attacked?" Gyuu asked studying the subdued form. "Yeah. She had regeneration of a demon but looks like she can't regrow her limbs. Yet every slice was almost instantly recovered. Shes knocked out."

"Oh Iguro your stomach!" He blinked at Mitsuri before looking down to see a thin red line over his stomach. His uniform sliced open. "When did she… her kick!" His eyes widened. When she kicked him, she tried to cut open his stomach! If it wasn't for his ally…

"It seems I got careless. How shameful." He growled, berating himself. Gyuu studied her for a bit, before reach down and started remover her weapons. The two daggers in her hands, patting her down for any others. "Hm?" Behind her cloak he reached under and pulled out two Kukuris. One was like her normal daggers but resembled more like animal teeth. While another was a big white one with great weight.

"Why didn't she used these?" Gyuu mumbled and took them aside. Muichiro stared blankly at her. His had normal katana out, as if waiting for her to wake up any second now.

Rukia took Ichigo slightly away from the group to talk. "Did you knock her out?" She asked glancing at the downed body. He nodded glaring at it. "She regenerated every attack the snake guy did like nothing. She even reattached her arm just as fast. If it wasn't for the fact she couldn't see me, it would've went worse." Rukia grimaced and looked over with a cold look. "Your body is ready at the door. Come on, we'll come back and see how Cobalt is doing." Ichigo nodded. He felt exhausted from both Orihimes brother fiasco and now this. This substitute reaper business is becoming too troublesome.

As he went to get his body looked down to see his robe slightly cut around his left rib. What ever she was he was confident in saying…

She's not human.

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Dun dun dun! Don't expect much gore warnings in the future. I wrote it to fit Elsa's character. That was my first fight I ever wrote so it isn't the best I know.

Also the author of Demon Slayer made a ranking based on who's the fastest with Iguro being ranked sixth out the nine. The fastest being Tengen if I remember from the list. In the Hashira training arc, despite being sixth he definitely has the most agility which despite Elsa having a advantage in being faster and stronger, he isn't no slouch either. After all he a Hashira who fight demons faster and stronger then him daily.

Have a good day~