Chapter Text
Kyojuro didn’t see the point in bad days. Sometimes his fellow slayers would complain about having a ‘bad day,’ that it was just a particular rough one and they were unhappy with it. Kyojuro supposed he understood the sentiment well enough; things could go wrong. Very wrong, in a lot of different ways, and yes, it was upsetting. But he just really didn’t see a point in dwelling on such things. Yes, a bad thing happened, but it didn’t necessarily have to mean it ruined the whole day. It was a whole day! A lot of good things could still happen!
However…
Kyojuro had come to the conclusion that he was well and truly experiencing his first bad day that had absolutely no positive element or spin.
It was just a routine mission. Or really, it should have been. The demon he tracked had a few victims, and while any deaths were a tragedy, it wasn’t a kill count so high that he was concerned about the strength of the demon. No, he could likely find it by the end of the night, and kill it during a short fight with little fuss.
He was not expecting a Blood Demon Art like this.
But to be completely fair, who would ever expect a Blood Demon Art like this!?
The demon, she really was nothing special. Not a particularly good fighter, and she’d panicked as soon as she realized what, who, Kyojuro was. The only hit she’d managed to land was a shallow slash of claws on the shoulder with her cat-like claws.
He really should have paid attention to that detail more.
Her entire demeanor had changed the second she landed that strike, and while the shock was not enough to make him falter, Kyojuro did think it was strange. While the claws had broken the skin, and blood already stained his uniform, it was just a flesh wound, and not one painful enough to hinder him in any real capacity.
“Gotcha,” she declared with a triumphant glint in her slit-pupiled eyes.
“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Kyojuro said as he pulled his sword back for a decapitation. It’d be relatively easy now that she’d completely let her guard down. “An injury like this won’t—!”
The world tilted, Kyojuro stumbled on his feet, and he realized his mistake a fraction of a second later.
Poison? Had her claws been laced with poison? Surely not! Surely if that were the case it would not take effect so quickly!
Unless it was a Blood Demon Art…
Still, it did not really matter! His job was to slay the demon, poison in his system, or no poison! Perhaps if he killed the demon, her Blood Demon Art would dissipate. It was rather common that that was the case. And even if it didn’t, he still needed to slay the demon regardless. Surely the poison would not be fatal so quickly, not for a demon as weak as this, and he could seek medical aid. And… even if it did kill him, one less demon in the world was still a victory! This just felt like a rather foolish and anticlimactic way to die.
He took another step towards her, breath in his lungs, sword raised, and—
And the entire world shifted.
His vision blurred, his body went weightless, and suddenly the ground was much to close, and everything else was much too high. His stomach lurched, his entire body suddenly felt so foreign, and Kyojuro cried out.
Or well… He tried.
The sound that came out of his mouth was not his voice. It wasn’t a voice at all.
A high, piercing yowl, definitely not a noise that any human should make; that they could make!
“Oh…” The demon loomed over him and held a hand to her cheek as she cooed. “You are absolutely adorable. Maybe I should use my Blood Demon Art on more slayers, if you’re all this cute. I almost want to keep you rather than kill you.”
Kyojuro blinked, and a wild, frenzied fear built up in him. Why was the demon so big? Had she grown? Was that her Blood Demon Art? Because she reached out with hands so large they could easily scoop him up.
The fur along his spine and tail bristled as a hiss built in his throat.
What…?
What!?
He tried to stumble back, but he tripped on too many legs, and thick swaths of fabric. A panicked glance down revealed not the legs he had been used to seeing his whole life, but—but paws and fur! Along with the familiar Corps uniform bunched around him, now much, much too large for this tiny, feline body.
No. No, no, no, no, no.
This could not be happening. This could not be real. What kind of Blood Demon Art was capable of this!? Of something so absolute? So terrifying?
The demon’s hand got closer, and some new instinct had Kyojuro lashing out, catching the skin of her fingers in sharp claws. She hissed in annoyance and yanked her hand back, but that was all the opening he needed to wriggle his way out of his too-big uniform that was definitely not tailored for the body of a cat, and sprinted.
“Gonna make this difficult, are ya!?” the demon demanded, though she made no move to chase him, which was… concerning for a number of reasons. “Do you really think this is just going to wear off?” She cackled, the noise echoing through the forest. “Gonna live out the rest of you days as a fucking cat!? What a great and noble end for a Hashira like you!”
Kyojuro’s ears flattened, and though it took a few moments to get completely used to running on four legs, thankfully his body adjusted quickly enough. A part of him wanted to go back, screamed to go back, because the demon was right. Never mind his duty, what the fuck was he supposed to do about this? He was—He was a goddamn cat! A Blood Demon Art had turned him into a fucking cat!
But going back was a death sentence. Despite the way it made his stomach curdle to leave his sword behind, what else could he do? Sure, he might have claws and teeth that could deter the average human, but a demon? It was laughable! Letting her get her hands on him would mean death.
“I’ll find you, Hashira!” she called. “Don’t think you can hide from me forever! I never let my kitties go! And I doubt you’ll come to enjoy the life of a cat! Death might be a mercy!”
No. No. There had to be some way to change back. Blood Demon Arts were not absolute. Even if it did not wear off on its own time (and it might, she could just be bluffing about that in an attempt to goad him into facing her), there were ways to break them. Killing the demon often worked well enough, but obviously he could not do that like this. So what were his options? Going back to the Corps? Yes, that probably would be the best course of action… Shinobu was something of a genius when it came to dealing with Blood Demon Arts. It wasn’t long ago that she created an antidote to deal with that spider demon’s poison on Mt. Natagumo.
Yes! Yes, that was it! He just needed to get to Shinobu, and then—
And then find some way to explain that he was a cat…
Fuck. No. One problem at a time. Just get to Shinobu first, and he could worry about trying to communicate then.
Because surely she could fix this.
Still, for right now, all he could do was run and put distance between himself and that demon, because if she caught him, none of his plans for fixing this would matter in the least. He’d be dead by the end of the night.
Why had he been so stupid? Against a demon like that, he never should have taken that hit, and if he hadn’t taken that hit, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now!
But… she did not put much effort into chasing him, so it was simple enough to lose her in the forest, and Kyojuro had to admit, being so small probably helped. He was able to slip beneath underbrush, squeeze places no human possibly could, but none that changed that he would really rather not be a cat right now.
Nor could he just abandon his sword and family’s haori in the woods, but it could be days before he even got to Shinobu’s, given the state of him. He couldn’t leave them here, exposed to the elements, or for any random passerby to just take them. But that demon was likely still there with them…
He would have to linger in the area until morning, and then figure out something to do with them. Stash them somewhere? But where? He wouldn’t be able to get them far, and that was if he was even able to move his sword at all.
Kyojuro took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down and cease his racing thoughts, but even breathing felt different in this new, tiny, foreign body, so it did very little to ease his nerves.
But there was nothing he could do except wait.
So he curled up under the brush, his tail wrapping neatly around his body, and just focused on breathing.
This could be fixed. He just needed to get to the Corps, and somehow tell someone what had happened. He could do that. He could.
It couldn’t be that difficult.
Just breathe.
Just… breathe…
The demon stole his fucking clothes!
Kyojuro huffed in irritation and lashed his tail as he prowled the area he’d encountered her in, hoping maybe he’d just gotten the exact location a little wrong and they would turn up, but no such luck.
At least he found his sword.
But why take his clothes, and not his sword? Was it in an effort to prevent him from being identified? Kyojuro could admit, if he turned up at any Hashira’s estate with his haori in tow, they might not put the exact pieces together, but they’d realize something wasn’t right. But the same would be true of his sword.
Except Kyojuro could not carry his sword. Well, he couldn’t exactly carry his haori either, but it’d been a lot more likely than a cat toting around a katana. Never mind that it was nearly physically impossible, the second anyone saw a cat with a sword like that, they would take it.
That didn’t change that he couldn’t just leave the blade out in the open. So with no small amount of effort, he took the hilt in between his jaws, and began the long and arduous process of trying to drag it somewhere it would at least be halfway hidden and protected from the elements. Kyojuro was certain he looked ridiculous; the hilt barely fit in his jaws, and he had to throw his whole body into the motion to tug it even a few feet. It was not that the sword was necessarily heavy (though it felt far heavier than it ever had in his human hands), but considering it was now at least twice as long as his whole body, it was an incredibly awkward process.
Still, he managed to drag it into some bushes, easily out of sight of anyone who might walk through this patch of forest, and hopefully covered enough that it would remain dry during any rain or harsh weather.
It was not ideal, but it was the best he could manage like this.
This was… humiliating.
Scratched by a low level demon, became a cat, could barely even move a sword.
Once he was turned back into a human, no one would ever let him live it down. He just prayed his father somehow never found out about the whole ordeal.
But… there was nothing Kyojuro could do about it now, and he’d done all he could about his sword.
Now he just needed to get to Shinobu.
He traveled all day, but it was difficult to tell how far he got. He did his best to avoid any towns, as he had seen the way stray cats could be treated, and the last thing he needed right now was an injury, should the wrong, cruel person get their hands on him. He also suspected he moved slower than he did as a human. He was so much smaller, and breathing techniques did not exactly work as a feline.
Still, all he could do was walk, and try to get to Shinobu’s in a timely manner. Maybe he could even stow away on a train to cut the trip short…
But he did need to search for somewhere to sleep tonight, and, if at all possible, find something to eat. He was starving, but obviously he could not buy food anywhere like this, and despite how much he hated being hungry, Kyojuro was not certain he could stomach eating any scraps he found or even hunting down a mouse and eating the thing bloody and raw. Unfortunately, he would need to eat to keep his strength up, as he was already weak enough in this body. He could not compromise himself further by starving himself.
He did not have time to think very hard about it, however, as an unfortunately familiar demonic presence washed over him.
Kyojuro expected his fur to stand on end, his ears to flatten, his tail to lash, as he had come to realize that he could not exactly control those reactions when he was spooked, but… nothing of the sort happened.
Perhaps because he knew, deep down, Akaza did not intend to hurt him anymore.
But that did not change that he was a cat right now, and he wasn’t sure if Akaza’s strange attachment to him extended to animals. For all he knew, the Upper Moon might kill him just for the fun of it.
Kyojuro slowly turned around to see Akaza staring at him from down the dimly lit road.
The demon tilted his head, the moonlight reflecting in eerie eyes, and dread coiled deep inside Kyojuro as he realized he had never seen such a blank expression on Akaza’s face. Surely he wasn’t so cruel as to kill random animals he happened across. Surely—
“Oh, what are you doing out here?” Akaza crooned in an uncharacteristically soft voice as he gingerly approached Kyojuro and squatted down in front of him. “You’re such a big, pretty boy.” He held his hand out, as if he were asking for Kyojuro’s permission to—
To pet him!?
What the fuck!?
When Kyojuro made no move to hiss, or bite, or scratch (mostly because he did not know what to think), Akaza’s eyes lit up as he smiled. “You’re going to let me pet you?”
A soft hand landed on Kyojuro’s head, and Akaza ever so gently ran his fingers behind his ears.
How could those hands be so kind and caring when Kyojuro had seen the destruction they could cause?
When Kyojuro still did not move, Akaza settled down in a more comfortable position on the road. “It’s been a long time since a cat’s let me pet them,” he said. “I think they can tell I’m a demon, don’t like it very much. But not you! You’re so brave.”
Admittedly, Kyojuro could do without being talked to as if he were a toddler, but the fingers digging into his fur felt so damn nice, and he could not help but lean into the touch as his eyes slitted in pure bliss.
“I was out here looking for someone,” Akaza prattled on, but Kyojuro supposed that was no surprise. The demon was very chatty, so of course that would extend to anyone who would indulge him. Even a cat. Kyojuro wouldn’t be surprised if he talked to himself.
“He said he would be working a mission in this area the last time I saw him,” he continued. “I’ve been looking for him since last night, but I can’t find him anywhere.” He sighed and shook his head. “Perhaps he already moved on. He is a very good slayer, after all! A shame, because I wanted to see him…”
Was Akaza seriously talking about him? Well, Kyojuro couldn’t be that shocked, considering how obsessed with him the demon was. Of course he’d start rambling about him to random cats. It was just… so supremely ridiculous that he was the cat Akaza had decided to strike up this conversation with.
Was the universe just messing with him at this point? Turning him into a cat, and rather than letting him be lucky enough to run into someone that he genuinely trusted, tossed Akaza his way?
But maybe Kyojuro shouldn’t be picky. After all, someone who knew him was better than someone who didn't. They were his best bet for getting out of this situation. At the least, Akaza could get him to Shinobu’s much quicker than Kyojuro could get there on his own.
“You know, you kind of remind me of him!” Akaza said. “Your fur is almost the same color as his hair. And your eyes… Say, I’m gonna call you Kyojuro!”
Okay, yeah, this definitely had to be a fucking joke the gods were playing on him.
“Of course, Kyojuro would never let me touch him like this,” Akaza lamented. “I bet his hair is as soft as your fur.”
Kyojuro almost wanted to bite him for that comment, because no, he damn well wouldn’t let Akaza touch his hair, but… he didn’t want the petting to stop, so he restrained himself.
Maybe this was a good thing. If Akaza already saw the similarities, maybe it would not be difficult to get him to realize the truth.
No, it shouldn’t be that hard at all! For once, maybe Akaza could be useful to him.
And Kyojuro could get out of this situation as soon as possible, and get on with his life as normal, even if he’d have to deal with the humiliation of Akaza realizing he’d been turned into a cat.
Yes, he could get this taken care of in no time at all!