Chapter Text
When you become a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, your always trained to be ready for everything. Shinjuro Rengoku, The Flame Hashira, has always been ready for any challenge that comes his way. Nothing has ever fazed him.
….
….
…..
……..Until, his beloved wife, Ruka, almost died giving birth to their son.
Ruka, his beautiful wife, became ill half way into her pregnancy. Unfortunately, it also seems she had passed that sickness onto their newborn son.
Shinjuro grumbles as the memories of her pregnancy start to surface in his mind as he rushes home. The Hashira tries to repress the memories by taking a drink of Sake that he picked up on a mission in a nearby village. He knows he shouldn’t be drinking, Ruka wouldn’t be happy he is drinking. The last time he got this drunk was when he drank himself stupid on their first date. He was so nervous around her that he just kept drinking.
Ruka said that he practically spit poetry while he was drunk. She refused to tell him what he said that night, but she said he set her heart ablaze.
Shinjuro softly chuckles to himself and rubs his head as he starts to remember how he and his wife.
It was his first mission as the flame hashira and Ruka……Ruka had saved him.
He was on mission to kill a demon rumored to have killed many women and children in a village located near a mountain. It took him two weeks to get to the village. The Flame Hashira found the demon on the first night there and felt with him pretty quickly. He let his guard down thinking he had dealt with the demon causing the problem.
He should have known by how weak that demon was, that there was another, more powerful, demon lurking nearby.
It pounced on him when he lowered his sword. Shinjuro tried to turn and slice its head off, but he wasn’t quick enough. The demon had sinked its teeth into his shoulder and knocked his sword just out of reach. The demon raised his claws and swung at him. Just when the hashira thought he was done for, a broom came out of no where and whacked the demon right off of him.
In his shock and slight blood loss, he stayed on the ground for a solid minute wondering what just happened. He didn’t have to wonder for much longer when a woman…a beautiful….beautiful woman leaned over him, clutching a broom in both her hands. She gazed worriedly at Shinjuro and asked quietly, “Are….are you alright?” She was so quiet, that Shinjuro almost didn’t hear hear her.
He stayed on the ground and just kept silently staring at her stunning dark red eyes. He didn’t know why he didn’t respond to her, but he just couldn’t. He wanted to ‘Thank you for saving me’, but all that came out was “You…..H-Hi….”
She just blinked at him and gave him a small smile. Shinjuro could hear his heart hammer against his chest and feel his face start to burn. It didn’t last long when he saw the beautiful woman look up and give a look of horror. Thats when he heard a demonic growl off to his side.
He had completely forgotten about the demon and the mission for a moment there. He quickly grabs his sword and scrambles up. He gets into position and starts his flame breathing technique. After concentrating again he easily defeats the demon with his third form.
Shinjuro pants heavily as he watches the demon turn to ash. He holds his still bleeding shoulder and turns back to the woman, “Are you o-“ his sentence dies there as he stares at those endless dark red eyes. Those same dark red eyes seem to sparkle in amazement and curiosity. Her hold on weapon of choice, her broom, seems to tighten as she walks up to him.
After a moment she thanked the hashira for saving her and her village. She took him to her home to patch him up and make him a bed for the night, he tried to refuse but she would not take no for an answer. There in her home, she told him her name…..her name was Ruka. Hearing this important information he tells her his name and she graces him again with that small wonderful smile again.
By morning the pair stared at each other for a moment and then bid each other goodbye…..five minutes passed and they bid each other goodbye again.
“You should get going Rengoku-San,” Ruka says quietly, “you have to travel a long way home.”
“Y-yeah…yeah…I should…” the flame hashira stutters.
Ruka bows and turns to go inside. He also turns to make his way down the steps of Rukas home and goes into thought on the reports he’s going to have to make when he gets back to the corps. Shinjuro was so deep in thought he didn’t hear the quick footsteps approaching him. What he did register was a soft pair of lips on his cheek. He feels his whole face turn red and hears a pair of footsteps quickly running away.
He quickly turns to call out to Ruka, but his words catch in his throat again. He sees one of her dark red eyes peak out from behind her front door and a bit of her now face which now sports a light pink hue on it. They stare for a moment before Ruka slides the door shut.
He stays there on the steps for god knows how long before he’s broken out of his trance by his crow. The Master would like to meet him immediately, he wants to hear how the mission went. He lets out a shaky breath to calm his fluttering heart and starts to make his way down the steps quickly.
Even after some time had passed, he could not forget Ruka. He started visiting her village regularly, claiming to have found some stuff that he liked and wanted to bring home. His visits to her and her village started to get more frequent. After he finished every mission and report to headquarters he would go see Ruka.
Not long after their many many meetings Shinjuro ask Rukas father for her hand in marriage. The hashira thought he was gonna pass out when his soon to be father-in-law finally gave him a nod of approval.
Shinjuro smiles fondly as he remembers his proposal to his beloved wife.
The hashira proposed to Ruka that night at a festival her village was having. She smiled a smile he had never seen before, it was so big a bright just like the fireworks that were going off behind her.
Shinjuro takes down a demon that tried to get in his way. “Weakling.” He growls out and continues to run back home to his recovery wife and sick infant son.
He starts getting a headache as more memories start to appear in his mind.
After a few of years of settling in to their newly married life together, Ruka had become pregnant and everything was great. They were both so excited to have their first child, but when her pregnancy reached the half way mark….that’s where the problems started.
As Ruka started showing more, things became harder for her. She had started becoming very weak and easily tired. On some days, she looked paler than normal. Ruka tried reassuring her husband that this was normal for pregnant woman. He was worried, but choose to believe his wife.
Not to long after that talk, Ruka started to become sneeze more frequently. Still she reassured her husband she was alright. Shinjuro became less unsure, but still chose to believe his wife. Then came the coughing.
She had started coughing more than half way into the pregnancy. “It’s just a cough my love. I’ll be fine” she told him. He should have called for a doctor right then and there but his wife was being stubborn.
The Flame hashira scoffs at this, ‘and she says I’m the stubborn one’ he thought while cutting through a forest so he could get home quicker.
She was going to be ok he thought. Shinjuro thought she would get better after the birth of their child. They just had to wait for the birth and everything would be ok……but the universe had other plans for him and his wife.
‘I should have called the damn doctor right then and there’ Shinjuro growls and takes a big drink of the Sake and beheads a demon in the most brutal way possible, “Get out of my way!” He quickly makes his way down the path leading to his village. He growls angrily as the more painful memories surface.
Rukas sickness was getting worse by the day and she was three months away from giving birth. She could hardly get up from her bed at that point. That’s when Shinjuro hired a doctor to be at their home all day so that if anything happened or if he wasn’t there a medical professional could help her.
One day, his crow came to him and told him he needed to go home immediately because Ruka had gone into early labor due to the stress and sickness her body was enduring.
He had dropped everything and rushed home as fast as he could. Shinjuro had gotten home right as Ruka gave birth. The baby was smaller than a normal baby, but the doctor reassured the parents that it was normal for a premature baby to be smaller than a full term baby.
The baby was a boy. The infant had Shinjuros yellow hair and his skin color, but he had Rukas face shape and nose, no doubt that he probably has her eye shape too. Shinjuro gently helped his wife sit up and helped her hold their little baby boy.
Ruka gave a weak smile and held their small baby and gave their son a name. She had taken a deep shaky breath and named him Kyojuro. She gave him a kiss on his little forehead, “My little flame” she uttered. Tears streamed down Rukas face as she slowly looked up her husbands face. He held her and their son close, but began to notice something was wrong. Ruka started having problems breathing and skin had gone deathly pale.
Shinjuro starts calling out Rukas name when he sees her start to pass out, then he desperately starts yelling his wife’s name as he has to catch their tiny son as she goes limp.
All Shinjuro remembers is holding their tiny son as the baby cries while the distraught hashira watches the doctors try and bring his beloved wife back to life. He swears he saw her stop breathing at one point…..but the doctors managed to revive her. Her body had gone into shock from the amount of stress her body went through with the sickness and then the early birth of their child.
What should have been the happiest day of Shinjuros life, almost turned into the worst day of his life.
The doctor required Ruka to be on strict bed rest for couple of weeks to let her body heal.
Shinjuro made sure to hire the best home nurse for his infant son and his sick wife. Then he threw himself into missions to forget that traumatic experience of almost losing his wife.
He started to become a lot more aggressive and more brutal towards demons on his missions. He didn’t care about the screams of absolute agony they gave off. Hell, he’s pretty sure he inflicted a few demons with some trauma before he killed them.
But after each mission he’s started to pick up alcohol due to the scary memories of seeing his wife almost die. At first it was once after a couple of missions, now it’s every mission.
What caused him to start picking up alcohol more, was when his sons home nurse informed him that his son has developed a cough…….the same one Ruka had.
‘Why? Why was the universe so cruel to him? What had he done to anger the gods??’ he thought as he quickly made his way home.
He knows he should be home bonding and taking care with his sick newborn son, but he can’t help but get angry every time he looks or thinks about the infant.
Those angry thoughts about his son started going deeper and getting darker. Those thoughts want to keep blaming Kyojuro for almost killing his wife and causing both of his parents trauma. Even though the hashira knows it wasn’t the baby’s fault. Ruka has tried to get him to hold his son, but he comes up with every excuse possible not to touch the infant. So he has just started to avoid his baby son and just told the nurse to figure something out if something happened and to not bother his recovering wife.
Unfortunately, something did happen.
While out on a mission his crow had informed him the Kyojuro was getting worse and he needed to go home. His mission was passed to a different Hashira and he made his way home.
It took him two days but he was almost home. He was hesitating to go inside but he does not know why. Dark thoughts start to surface making him let out a shaky sigh. ‘What if something happened to Ruke?’ ‘What if something happened to the baby?’ Ruka would be devastated if anything happened to Kyojuro.’ ‘It would be his fault if something happened to his son.’ He shook his head and drank the last of his sake.
Shinjuro could feel that his whole world was starting to collapse before him. The hashira did not think anything could help him or his family get their happiness back.
Little did he know, everything was about to get worse.
He stares at the night sky for some courage and then stumbles his way to the front door.
The hashira clumsily takes off his shoes and ‘quietly’ makes his way to his and his wife’s room first. He opens the door to their room and can see his lovely wife resting. He makes his way over to her and gently gets on his knees. He brushes the hair out of her face kisses her cheek then her neck.
This stirs Ruka awake and she slowly opens her eyes. Seeing her husband she closes her eyes and smiles sleepily, “Welcome home dear.” She whispers. Shinjuro closes his eyes in relief to hearing his wife’s voice. He whispers back, “Hello..my….my love.” She sniffs and then frowns. She sits up and gently puts a hand to his cheek, “You’ve been….drinking haven’t you?” He nods his head against her hand. He opens his eyes to stare into his wife’s tired ones, “Please stop drinking Shin…everything will be ok.” He hesitates but nods. He gently lays his wife back down as her medicine she takes starts to kick in again. She closes her eyes again, “Please,” she whispers softly, “go check on the baby dear….and tell Kaoru to go…..home for the….day.” He slurs, “Yes….my love.” He makes sure his wife is comfortable before he clumsily gets up and makes his way out of the room. He closes the door to their room and heads for his sons nursery.
“Kaoru…you can go home now…” Shinjuro slurs out. When Shinjuro doesn’t get a reply he growls and whispers under his breath, “Stupid insufferable woman.” He whisper yells, “KAORU!!” He stumbles down the hall, “I told you I-“ he stops a few feet from his sons room. A soft glow from a candle can be seen coming from the baby’s room. Usually the warmth from candle brings comfort, but all he feels right now is cold….and dread.
Shinjuro puts his hands on the hilt of his sword as he feels himself sway from the alcohol. He knows this feeling, it’s the feeling when he senses a demon near by. But this feeling is heavier than normal…much heavier.
He slowly makes his way to his sons room and the smell of blood starts to invade his nostrils. The flame hashira gently opens the door and mentally prepares himself to see one or two dead bodies.
Shinjuro was prepared to see the blood that is splattered all over his son’s nursery and what was left of his sons home nurse on the floor. What he wasn’t prepared for, was a demon sitting on the floor holding his baby son.
The demon sits with his back towards the hashira. Shinjuro notes that the demon is wearing a purple and black hexagonal patterned kimono and black hakama pants. He has a white sash tied around his waist and a katana attached to the left side of his hip. Shinjuro also notes that the demons black with red tipped hair practically reaches the floor and that’s not the only hair that catches his attention.
There in the demons arms he can see the small mop of yellow hair that belongs to his baby son. He thought the demon was holding the corpse of his son just to piss him off until he heard the smallest of coughs and whimper from the infant in the demons arms.
Shinjuro tenses when the demon sits up a little straighter.
“Welcome home….Hashira.” The demons deep voice sends a big warning shivers down the hashiras spine and he raises his sword.
His breath catches in his throat when the demon turns his head towards him and six eyes locks onto him. Yellow cracked eyes surrounded by the red flesh in the sclera stare at him with what looks like disgust and disapproval.
What unnerved Shinjuro the most about those six eyes that were staring into his very soul, was the black Kanjis in two of the demons eyes. The Kanjis that read ‘Upper One’.