A.N: I have no excuse as to why this is so late, however, I still need time to think about what to do about the massive fight scene as I am new to writing fanfiction so this would be my first attempt to do a siege and assault at this scale. So to give me some more time to think I decided to skip over that for now and write what happened after.
P.s. This chapter overrules "IT is loose" or at least certain sections do.
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The Kamado Mountain
The dark vale that covered the sky was always littered with these bright lights that burned above the mountain. On top of this mountain, a sweet small home that contained 6 people, 5 kids and 1 adult. Normally an average person would be sleeping at this time of hour but there was one person that was outside making snow angels. This individual was a 4-year-old Nezuko Kamado.
Nezuko was truly an innocent soul as she couldn't understand the world around her other than a place to entertain her curiosity. She used to be able to do this with her older brother, Tanjiro, but now he would be out with their father in the forest doing something. Something that the male kamados wouldn't tell her, like come on she was 4 already, she was old enough to understand the world around them. Like how the bright burning lights in the sky are fireflies or how the clouds were made out of flying sheep.
Nezuko stopped flapping her arms to make the snow angel and sat up with her cheeks puffed up like a balloon. She was BOOOOOOOOORED and freezing, it was bloody winter and she couldn't go to sleep, it wasn't her fault that she would sometimes sleep in the daytime. Then suddenly a light bulb lit above her head as an idea popped into her head, whenever Tanjiro and their father went they would normally go in the same direction. So Nezuko got up from her spot and ran in the direction that they had gone.
The snow had this enchanting look to it, while also holding its own beauty itself. A grove full of flowers, varying from colour to size was beautiful but the snow's pure white and how it covered everything in its reach, how its untouched completion made everything seem so beautiful.
But Nezuko did not understand such a thing as she ruined the snows even placing and even grabbed some snow to make it into a ball and threw them into trees to see the snowfall from the leaves of the trees. She continued to defile the snow and the trees for minutes until she saw some light penetrating the wall of trees that blocked her vision.
Finally, she stopped her rampage in favour of sneaking up to the kamado males. As she quietly approached the light she could hear the sound of something crashing against something else. Slowly she peeked her head out of the wall of trees and saw three people surrounded by a circle of fire that and inside the circle was no snow, just grass.
"Three?" She thought, the man that Nezuko didn't recognize was wearing a red haori and had really long crimson hair tied up. The man's hair colour was so similar to Tanjrio's and their fathers, so she thought that this could have been a cousin of theirs that she didn't know. She started to move to one of the closer trees but then suddenly she heard something snap and being the little girl she is she screamed and looked down. Hidden beneath the snow was a twig, she breathed out a sigh knowing that it was just a twig but she suddenly realized that her cover was blown. Nezuko looked up and saw that the man that she couldn't recognise was now in front of her.
Now that he was closer she could see him more clearly. The man wore a red haori over an orange nagagi with black hakama and a katana carried at the left side of his waist. But the thing that caught her eye the most was the Hadafuda earrings that he wore, the same one that her dad has and most of all the scar on the left side of his forehead.
"Hello little one, my name is Yoriichi Tsugikuni, whats yours." The man said as he kneeled and stretched his hand out to invite her into a handshake.
She was going to say her name and shake his hand, but something stopped her from reaching out and speak. FEAR.
Suddenly she realized that the world around her stopped, the snowflakes had stopped falling and the fire that illuminated their world stood still. Suddenly a headache emerged from her head, as soon as the headache came the world around her started to disappear and in its place came pain and only pain.
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1 month and 1 week since Tanjiro left with Kanao| Uknown location:
Nezuko's eyes suddenly shot open as excruciating pain exploded into her head. But in reality, it was more like something exploded out of her head. Nezuko had apparently been on her knees as she suddenly fell to her side as all her energy had been drained from her.
Her eyes threatened to shut and normally she would accept such an inviting scenario, but something in the back of her head told her to STAY AWAKE to KILL HIM!! She didn't understand why she had such vial thoughts were coursing through her mind as this was something her father and Tanjiro had thought her never to do.
But that would change when her hearing came back and she heard the voice of a man that made her blood boil in rage, "He'S aLIve?!?!"
Nezuko's eyes darted around the room looking for where the sound came from. Then she saw him, the man that had been tormenting her for a week now? She couldn't tell how much time had passed because no sun came through here, where ever here is. But one thing was certain the man responsible for sending that monster to her home and killed her family was here. He was just standing there, his eyes staring out into the distance as he kept saying, "he's alive?"
Seeing that he was dazed she knew this was the perfect time to strike and end this bastard. Suddenly adrenaline bumped into her blood as her memories returned to her, her family all gone, and all she could do at that moment was watch as she felt like she was choking on her own blood when that upper 1 demon injected her with that red liquid. But what was worst wasn't that she could still hear them screaming, no, it was the fact that she could nothing but watch them die. That feeling of helplessness fueled her rage and helped pump her with adrenaline to push her exhausted body beyond its limits.
With incredible speed, Nezuko leapt towards the man with her right arm pulled back ready to slash the guys head with her claws. She was so close to slashing his head to pieces but as her hands neared his ugly head spines shot out like whips from his back and impaled her throughout her body.
"How is he alive?" He said with a shaky voice, in a matter of fact he was shaking all over. But the one thing that annoyed her the most was that he wasn't even looking at her, she was just a fly compared to him and so he doesn't even acknowledge her.
Though before she could even move her body the spinal tentacles wiped her around the room smashing her into every wall in the room. While she was being flung around the room and being torn apart, he was talking to himself.
"How can he be alive, its been centuries. Is that how he was able to use that accursed technique of his? No no no no no NO!! It must have been his ghost, that's the only reasonable scenario, Kokoshibo killed that MONSTER himself!!" The man screamed and from that, his spines ripped Nezuko into 8 pieces, which scattered all over the room.
Pain, that was now the only thing she felt. She could scream in agony, if only she had her jaw. While she may be in pieces she could still feel all of her body parts, it was a benefit and curse that came from being a demon. She, to her eternal horror, would have to live with knowing that she was now a demon. Nezuko wanted nothing more than to kill this nameless tormentor, but the pain was just too much, to the point where she passed out from the pain.
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The Infinite Fortress:
Muzan couldn't believe what he had seen, that monster was still alive. While not physically he was still alive spiritually and interacting with the living. This Monster had essentially achieved immortality. Muzan was in such rage that he made whatever was impaled by his spines split into 8 pieces that all landed with a thump.
Suddenly Muzan realised what he had done, he looked at all the pieces that were left of the girl. Crimson blood leads to each part of her body as they twitched with what he could only assume was pain. This brought a little amount of joy to him as he watched a family member that the Monster cared for turn into a demon and was now in pain. But for some reason, this girl was not affected by his curse and his ability to have a hold on all demons.
Muzan walked over to the girls head and looked down on her as if she had just offended him. Though in a way that was true as she had passed out from the pain and so he wouldn't be able to continue to look into her memories.
"You should stop resisting, the sooner you show me everything the sooner you can die and see your family," Muzan said, he turned around and then walked towards the two open sliding doors.
But as he was a few steps away from leaving the room with a child torn into pieces behind he stated, "And the sooner I can kill that Monster you call a brother."
Then with his inhuman senses, he felt a presence behind him. A presence of absolute hatred, a hatred that equalled if not surpassed Muzan's own hatred for the original Monster. Muzan turned his head to get a glaze at the source of this hatred and no sooner did he turn his head did he see a hand centimetres away from his eyeball. As fast as he could he sidestepped the attack, which caused the attacker to collide within a dozen rooms across from the one he was in.
Muzans eyes widened in shock as he had just been attacked by something he barely had time to react to. His mind immediately came to the conclusion that the Monster reincarnate had found a way inside his infinite fortress. But as his eyes were shaking in shock he suddenly realised there was only one thing behind him in this room. Muzan turned his eyes with blazing speed to see if she was still there and to his surprise, she wasn't.
"Impossible." The demon king stated in shock, suddenly he heard a wooden plank crack under immense pressure put on it. With blinding speed, the Muzan turned his head to the side to look at where the attacker had landed. To his surprise, he saw the girl standing there, but that is not what surprised him. It was the fact this 12-year-old was now in a woman form that looked to be a representation of what she would look like in her prime. Her body was covered in what looked to be tattoos of vines with leaves and a single horn that was on the side of her forehead.
Before Muzan could utter another word Nezuko lounged at him. Though sadly for her Muzan was no longer taken off guard by her attack as instead of sidestepping he grabbed her hand and using her momentum lifted her before turning around and slamming her down onto the wooden floor to force her through the ground.
Muzan looked at the hole he created and saw the newborn demon in a creator of wood and splinters. He was about to drop down there as well but noticed that in his hand was the girls severed arm, a long strand of blood still connecting to the girl below him. Without a second thought, Muzan discarded the arm by throwing it further into the room before dropping down. As soon as his feet collided with the wooden planks the floor splintered and broke causing another creator below the demon king.
"Maybe I shouldn't have ordered the execution of your entire family." This sick pale man said as he walked up to Nezuko. He then grabbed her hair and lifted her to eye level, though to his disappointment the girl's eyes were shut once more.
"It truly is unfortunate that I couldn't experiment with your entire family, but I guess you will have to do," Muzan said with a twisted sense of humour, though suddenly Nezuko's eyes shot open and she pointed the stub of her now severed arm at Muzan. He found this humerus as he thought that she was helplessly trying to defend herself, while he was right about her trying to defend herself but he was dead wrong when he thought she was helpless. He would regret this to his dying day as crimson flames burst from her stub. Luckily Muzans inhuman body saved him from getting showered in fire, though he did not escape unscathed as the flames licked his chest leaving a massive mark on his immortal skin.
Muzan had dropped the girl in favour of getting as far away from the source of the flames. He looked down to his chest and saw the mark the flames left him, but his eyes started to shake because when he tried to regenerate the burn he wasn't able to. He couldn't believe it, this has only happened to him once. When he fought that Monster when he fought moYoriichi Tsugikuni.
Upon the sudden realisation of the true danger, he was in Muzan's head shot up from his chest to the demon girl that had the ability to stop demon regeneration. Once he lifted his he saw claws about to rip his eyes out, but fortunately for Muzan his fear had heightened his sense and so he was able to dodge the attack with incredible speed. If it wasn't for his newfound fear of the kamado family he would have realised that he clearly outmatched Nezuko but once again instead of staying and fighting he decided to run leaving the fire that surrounded the platform to create a hehe sound.
Though unfortunately for the most dangerous demon he was not alone, as when he looked behind him he saw the girl chasing after him. Her eyes were bloodshot and are zeroed on him so as he tried to escape she was always behind him. But the problem was that she was somehow catching up to him, Muzan the most powerful demon to ever exist is being out speeded by this monster. It got to the point where she was about to become in arms reach, which meant she would be able to throw her blood with enough power that no matter how fast they were going it would touch him and therefore burn him.
So Muzan breathed in a deep breath and screamed to the top of his lungs, "Nakime!"
Suddenly a sound resonated throughout the fortress and in front of Muzan a door opened, behind the door was a girl sitting down with a biwa in her hands. Though the problem was that it was a few Kilometres away, the reason for this is because upper rank 4 was able to see how close his pursuer was and so it showed that he needed to gain some distance or else number 4 wouldn't be able to close the door in time.
With a sudden burst of speed, Muzan left Nezuko in the dust, though not for long as she also picked up the pace. Though sadly for Nezuko because of Muzan's sudden acceleration she had allowed him to gain enough distance. Because of this in less than 5 seconds, they were able to clear the 1km and Muzan was able to escape Nezuko's grasp.
As Muzan passed through the door it slammed shut and so when Nezuko smashed through the door it didn't lead to Muzan instead it only leads to an empty room. Nezuko dropped to her knees as liquids fell down her eyes and she releases a pain-stricken scream.
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The Infinite Fortress
The door shut with lightning speed as soon as Muzan had cleared the doorway, but before he did he dared to look back. To his horror, the entire section was engulfed in flames and there in the middle of the inferno was the girl. Her clothing had tears all over it and through the tears, he could see markings and not a second went through his mind that he didn't recognise a demon slayer mark. The fact that it throughout her entire body had explained how she suddenly grew so powerful. Even after the door had shut he couldn't forget how these monsters were getting so close to killing him. But then he realized that these new monsters had to be related to the original MONSTER, therefore with new resolve, Muzan knew what he had to do to preserve his existence.
"kill her," he said in a whisper so quiet that it was barely hearable, let alone understand.
All twelve upper moons and the 4 generals, plus one, (technically there are 2 extras but they only counted the one) looked confused as their lord had just come through a door that lit the room as if the sun had just been welcomed into the fortress. Some of them thought that it was actually the sun and tried to protect themselves, but instantly realised upon seeing what was on the other side of the door was just another part of the fortress. And then came the part where Muzan had just shot through the door destroying the table with maps of japan and some flags on the map. Then he stayed there with one knee on the ground and then remained there for a minute where the plus one demon tried to get Muzan attention to only get a barely hearable response.
"Aah, sorry sir but I didn't hear that." Said plus one with a nieve voice.
To his immediate regret plus one felt his neck gets squeezed to a pulp, causing his head to roll down the war room, or what was left of it. As soon as plus one's head stopped rolling he said, "That isn't really nice, sir."
"I want her and her entire family dead!! Not a single one of his descendants must be allowed to live! Do you understand me?! They must all die!" Muzan said with so much anger, but to the well trained they could hear the fear in his voice.
"If that is your wish then Akaza with a team of demons will hunt the girl." Kokushibo, the upper moon one and the supreme general of the demon army, said with a monotone voice not portraying any hesitation to kill this girl who was related to a Sun breather.
"Hey! I don't need any of those weaklings with me, they'll just slow me down when I'm hunting down that girl!" Akaza declared to Kokushibo.
"Very well, but Daki will accompany you in your hunt!"
"Tch, whatever as long as she doesn't ruin my fun!" Akaza said with some annoyance, but this was another upper moon while he would prefer to do this alone he could at least tolerate her.
Kokushibo was about to turn around and speak to lord Muzan but then a voice announced itself in the room stating, "What about Tanjiro Kamado."
Muzan immediately turned his dead to gaze at the demon general that spoke. The voice came from the demon general named Zaheer, upon becoming a demon general he leads his army throughout japan cutting a swath through the demon slayer corp and so far he has known no defeat. But what he liked most about this demon was his respect for authority, as right now Zaheer was on his knees and his head on the ground, so Muzan finally stood up and said "Speak."
Zaheer lifted his head but stayed on his knees as he said "Upper one has eliminated the boys family and the sister, through you, have divulged that the boy has gone with a girl in a demon slayer uniform. So we must assume that the boy will be heading to the demon slayer corp HQ."
"And your point?" Muzan said annoyed as he had no patience to let the man explain everything.
"I humbly ask you, the great king of demons to allow me to lead a company of your grand army to assault the HQ of the demon slayer. Through this assault, I WILL be able to kill the last of the Sun breath user." Zaheer said as he once again bowed his head in wait for the response of Muzan.
While normally Muzan would kill anyone that dared to ask him to give or lend anything that belonged to him, the way his demon general spoke stroked his ego and because of that he decided not to kill him, instead, he said, "Very well, Kokushibo, ensure that this assault goes smoothly as possible."
And with that Muzan decided he had enough and decided to leave, leaving Akaza and Daki to hunt Nezuko, while the others planned the assault. With all the gears now moving Muzan couldn't help but smile knowing that the Kamado line was going to end.
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1 month and 2 weeks since Tanjiro left with Kanao|The Infinite Fortress
She couldn't think anymore, her mind hurt so much from being torn apart and being put together, while not being able to sleep. These bastards had been relentless but if they thought she was helpless as this place of infinite rooms kept tracking her, though she was anything but easy prey. As they would later find out when she burned a pack of these demons except for one, he used his fist to somehow destroy her flames by either destroy the ground the flames burned or blow them out with the gust of air that his punches caused.
While she may not have been able to see the sunrise and sunset, she could somehow feel the sun outside of this endless domain. Through these 6 senses, she was able to deduce that she had been here for about a week or so. 1 week since that the number 1 killed her family, this thought was the only reason why she was able to stay awake, she would not sleep until she made upper moon 1 or its master pay for what he did. And she would be able to act her justice as her burn marks on demons allowed her sense of smell to direct her to her weakened prey.
But first, she needed to get rid of this lone wolf that hunted her, while her headache caused her to lose her ability to think probably her instincts took control and she started to cut her wrist every minute or so. This continued for around an hour as she ran at full speed in a very large circle until at least every room, door, plank and wall were at least covered in her blood. Once she was satisfied with her work she finally decided to take a rest. Well, saying she willingly wanted to land face-first onto the wooden planks of the floor at top speed causing the wood to split and eventually stop her would be wrong. But it achieved her inner instincts goal and so she waited for the hunter to approach. Until then she would lay there unmoved and complete content in after a week finally have a well-deserved nap.
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This prey had truly proven to be more formidable than Akaza, upper moon 3, predicted, she was not strong enough to challenge him directly but instead, her blood demon art proved to be an annoyance. The worst part of it was the fact that he had no idea what causes the fire one moment it is a normal room, the next it is an enraged furnace that burns demons and prevents them from healing. Akaza bore witness to the effects of these flames when Upper moon 6 suddenly burst into a ball of fire and the next thing he noticed was that even when she healed she was not complete as these flames had left scarring. Daki was lucky that she is one of the upper moons and so she would recover but the lesser demons would not as the flames had burned them to the bone and they could not heal.
Now after suffering such injuries, Akaza was the only one left chasing this infuriating prey and the fact that she has been growing faster and therefore stronger with each passing minute did not help. While she was not as fast or strong as him she was still able to get away from him as whenever he got close she would just use her blood art to help her escape. He once tried to run straight through the flames, thinking that the fire acted in the same way as normal flame. But as he got even close to it the flames seemed to come to life and reach for him like a raging forest fire.
And so this hunt continued to persist for days, but through this Akaza was able to analyse his opponent. As he was running at top speed furiously in search for this slippery eel, that instead of giving Akaza a head-on fight to test their strengths she would run away dripping with blood. That last part had him confused, she's a demon, therefore any damage that was dealt with her body would heal. Even those inferior demons healed in seconds, so then it must be a consequence of her using the flames? But that also didn't make sense to Akaza, as he knew that demon blood art had limitations but to have a consequence when using it, now that didn't seem right. He then thought upon the fact that she had not been feed, but that also didn't seem right as while she is indeed bleeding, evident from the blood that he was following, she wasn't slowing down but instead becoming faster to the point where she was scarcely coming closer to his speed. So, the thought lingered in his mind as he turned a corner into a hallway filled with rooms, until he thought, "Her bloody demon art is related to her blood, not the cause of it. Could it be"
Unfortunately, Akaza was cut out from his thought as a door ahead of him opened up. As soon as his eyes were able to see what was inside the room, no room was the wrong word, inside this cavern of rooms was hundred, if not thousands of separate rooms distancing each room a hundred metres away, with wooden bridges connecting the rooms. But what caught his eye the most was his prey in the middle of the cavern dripping in blood and on a platform unconscious. Though what angered him was seeing that his prey, the prey that he had been hunting for days, was surrounded by inferior demons.
Without a second thought, he slammed his right foot into the wooden planks and launched himself into the open door. With blinding speed, Akaza raced forward towards his prey trying to ensure that none of these inferior demons took his prey from him. But as he zoomed past rooms and platforms he was suddenly hit on the face by something liquid which caused him to sop on a balcony overlooking his prey. He moved his hand to wipe the liquid that dared to stain his face, but as he wiped his face he could see that it was the same crimson liquid that he had been following. Then suddenly he noticed the blood covering the walls, the floor, the doors and the ceilings, all over the place blood was spilled, but this wasn't some light drops of blood, it was like a massacre had occurred. But this wasn't right, there were no signs of battle, just blood.
His eyes widened with the immediate realisation of what his prey's blood art is and he knew at that moment not only that he fucked up, but that he and everyone here had fallen into a trap. With a deep inhale he screamed, "IT'S A TRAP!!!!"
Everyone turned towards Akaza alarmed by what he said, then Akaza could feel an enormous presence and when he looked up he saw Muzan and he saw the king of demon's eyes widened with fear. Before anyone could do anything the girl's eyes opened with rejuvenated strength and closed her hand into a fist, immediately igniting the blood.
Soon the entire section that they were in was engulfed in flames that consumed everything indiscriminately. From the flames screeching wails could be heard and Akaza would be damned if he were to join these inferior beings to hell. He IS an upper moon, he IS RANKED 3RD AMOUNG THE STRONGEST BEINGS ON THIS EARTH AND HE WOULD RATHER KILL HIMSELF THAN DIE TO A TRAP LIKE THIS!
Akaza slammed his right foot onto the floor summoning his demon blood art and as soon as it activated he immediately launched punch after punch in front of him, behind him and above him. He used his airstrikes to form an uneven dome around himself, but this would not last as the flames grew stronger and were soon crushing his makeshift dome. Akaza realised that if he stayed here any longer he would be overwhelmed and die a pitiful death.
"TECHNIQUE DEVELOPMENT: DISORDER!" Akaza screamed out, he looked at the spot where he last saw Muzan and launched as many punches as he could into what he could only describe as being on the surface of the Sun. Soon he saw a small opening in the flames that lead to a room untouched by flames. But the problem was this gap that he created was only small enough to fit a small child. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to make it larger as because he was concentrating all his effort into making this small hole he had given up on maintaining the makeshift airstrike dome. Upon seeing the dome collapse without his assistance, Akaza squatted down and launched himself into the hole surrounded by flames.
As he went through the hole the flames burned and tore his skin, but that was as far as it was going into his body, for now. When he was halfway through the hole his momentum was dropping drastically and when he realised that he was not going to reach the room a thought crept into his mind, "You're going to die."
With that single thought, Akaza was fueled by an enormous fear, but instead of being overwhelmed and paralysed by fear he used this emotion to force his mind to search for a way to survive. His eyes and mind searched everywhere for an answer, though soon both his eyes and mind came to the same conclusion.
There is no way to survive.
As he had looked around flames had blocked his vision, all except the door that now seemed to be unreachable. So with no other option, Akaza did the only thing that he could do, accept his fate. He closed his eyes and waited for the flames to consume him.
"THUMP"
Immediately Akaza's eyes shot opened as soon as he heard and felt his feet slammed into something. Without hesitation, he launched a single powerful punch towards the hole widening it slightly. Then propelled himself towards the room at full speed and this time he made it.
He landed gracefully into the room, but not without kneeling on one knee because of the pain from his feet that were touched by the flames. Akaza was tired and in so much pain that he wanted to faint right there and then because the pain would not go away due to the wounds not healing.
"GET THIS MONSTER OFF ME!!!!" Akasa heard from not only his ears but also his mind as he looked up he saw Muzan outside of the infinite fortress in a forest. But most of all he saw his prey, no this was no longer prey, she is a demon and she was on top of Muzon with her arms dug into the ground holding Muzan in place. At first, Akaza didn't understand why she was doing this, but then he could see a ray of light passing over a mountain in front of the door that the infinite fortress was in.
Muzan had seemed to have realised this too as he suddenly created spine whips that stabbed and torn at her back. But this proved to be a fatal mistake as she created flames from the blood that had been released. Causing Muzan to lose the strength to control and maintain his spinal whips. Muzan tried to pull her off him but Nezuko had torn off her fingers and using the same technique as one of the upper moons, she used her blood to move the fingers further into the ground to get a better hold on the ground. He tried to tear her in half with his spine whips but that had caused the flames. So using his connection with the demons he said "GET OUT HERE AND KILL THIS MONSTER!!!"
Akaza felt the call to do their creator's bidding but with the sun looming over the mountain no one dared to risk their lives. As soon as Muzan saw his demons do nothing he screamed at them and immediately their blood began to crawl out of their body. Some vomited blood, while others started to bleed from their eyes. It hurt so much but Akaza was able to keep his head up to see that the sun was about to pass the mountain and kill them all. With the last burst of energy, Akaza launched himself towards the door and slammed it closed.
They heard his scream and with each second their blood tortured them with terrible pain. Then suddenly it stopped and so did the pain. Akaza then heard the sadistic maniac say, "What a beautiful scream."
Akaza looked at upper moon 2 with a disgusted looked and in exchanged Demo looked terrified. But then he noticed that Upper moon 2 wasn't the only one that was terrified, it was every demon in the room. Akaza felt a chill run down his spine causing him to turn around. As soon as he turned around he felt his entire body freeze as there before he was a shadow, a shadow with something protruding from their head, a horn on the same side that the demon that attacked Muzan had. Then the shadow slowly walked away from the traditional Japanese door.
"What the F**K was that," Akaza said dumbfounded by what he just saw.
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1 month and 2 weeks since Tanjiro left with Kanao| Demon Slayer HQ:
"Oyakata-sama, if you will just give me 2 weeks I could-"
"I am sorry Shinobu, but even if I give you a month you will most likely not find her by yourself," Oyakata said to Shinobu as she kneeled on the pebbled ground of Oyakata's garden. Upon hearing that her request had been denied again her smile slowly began to fade and a frown was starting to form.
"If Kanao is still alive then you must give me the chance to look for her, I have the right to look for my sister," Shinobu said lifting her head from its previous bowing position and stared at the demon slayer corps leader with a blazing determination that would make Rengoku smile bigger than humanly possible.
"I am truly sorry Shinobu but with the increase of demons and demons now ambushing our slayers, I can not allow you to travel alone." He said once more, but he still had that stupid smile, how could he be smiling when she was begging him to allow her to find her sister that has been missing for a month now. Yet still, he smiled.
But he was right though, demons were now travelling in packs hunting down slayers and recent reports state that these ambushes have been dangerously close to their HQ. This made it imperative to have slayers travel in packs, unfortunately, there were no other demon slayers in HQ or anywhere within a day travel to assist her. But that didn't matter, her sister, her last family member was missing and by whatever deity existed she would find Kanao dead or alive.
Shinobu stood up and said with anger, "If you will not allow me to go, then I qui-"
"That is why I have asked Giyu Tomioka to come and travel with you in your search for Kanao," Oyakata said to Shinobu with a massive smile plastered on his face, now she understood why he was smiling. She felt a vein in her head bulge as she saw the joke that he just played with her and hated that she was the punch line.
"Giyu-san had finished a personal investigation I had sent him on and was kind enough to join you in your own investigation," Shinobu said nothing, Giyu said nothing and Oyakata was just smiling while an awkward silence filled the garden.
Shinobu as of now hated Tomioka's guts, personally, she didn't have any problems with him. But because she was mad at being toyed with she had to release it or focus it on a target and she couldn't target Oyakata, so poor Giyu is the only other target in a one-mile radius (As the servants hide away in closets).
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Giyu wanted to begin the search immediately but Shinobu wanted to collect some casual clothing. This then incited Giyu to question why she needed spare clothes, which then caused Shinobu to make a joke that he was an ape that only had one piece of clothing, which then cause Giyu to say that she was right and that she was unorthodox to wear more than the demon slayer uniform. After Giyu said that Shinobu gave him a look that was unfamiliar to him.
As soon as she heard of such an unholy thing she commanded her 3 little angels of a servant to clean the water Hishira. While they are angels, Giyu at that moment saw them as nothing but demons as upon Shinobu's orders they started to drag Giyu to the bathhouse where they washed him without mercy. By the time they were finished Giyu at the end of it was sparkling clean, as well as his clothes, but it was also nighttime.
He couldn't understand Shinobu's logic, while he does have only one pair of clothes he does clean himself and his clothes weekly, hell he even took a bath before he met Shinobu.
Once he was out of the bathhouse the 3 little girls brought him to Shinobu where she then inspected him. She looked over him and once she was done she said they could go now.
After a few minutes of silence as they ran on a dirt road towards Kanao's last known location, Giyu decided to speed up to Shinobu. Giyu then caught up to Shinobu and asked, "Why did you force me to take a bath?"
"Because I refuse to travel with a pig that does not wash," Shinobu said without hesitation, not caring if she hurt his feelings.
After a second Shinobu noticed that Giyu had stopped, subsequently causing her to stop. Now she didn't know what he was doing as Giyu was looking around trying to find something. This continued for about 10 seconds before Shinobu grew tired of whatever he had been looking for as she said in a seemingly calm and happy manner, "Giyu what are you looking for."
What he said next completely rattled Shinobu's mind as he said, "The pig that you mentioned."
Shinobu looked at Giyu with her eyes widened and her mouth slightly agape. She is a smart person and so to hear suck a dumb answer made her brain go into overdrive and then collapse. The blood cells that were in her brain heard what Giyu said and so they dropped the oxygen that they were carrying as they knew that her brain was going to die and so decided that the brain was a lost cause. The neurons inside Shinobu's brain upon hearing the clueless ape's answer decided that it was their time to meet God in heaven. In conclusion, Shinobu's brain was dead and the only thing she could have her mouth say was, "What?"
"You said that you are travelling with a pig." He said again looking around to try and spot it.
"But I don't see the pig that you mentioned," Giyu said with no change in facial features, no change in body language, and 100% confidence in what he was saying.
Now that Shinobu knew the logic behind that stupid answer she was now fully capable of burning Giyu alive.
"Oh Giyu, this is why no one likes you," Shinobu said with a smile on her face.
"I'm not disliked by people," Giyu said with an emotionless expression as he thought that she was only saying that because she was wrong about travelling with a pig or that she was lying to him and he had discovered the deception.
"Well, I'm sorry. You haven't even realized that people don't like you, then? That was uncalled for. please forgive me," Shinobu said, not with a worried look, but instead with a much bigger smile than before.
Giyu felt as if he was just punched in the face and then the attacker saying it was an accident. Normally he would accept it as an accident and while he was oblivious to most things, he was not oblivious to what an insult. So in retaliation, he said the only thing that he could think of to insult her, "Shorty."
A vain almost popped her forehead as while they were quite a distance away from each other she could still hear the insult being thrown at her. Shinobu was normally good at keeping her emotions at bay but today was mentally draining and now not only has she been insulted but her pride as being a woman was now damaged. This caused her mental stress bar to break and start marching up towards the idiot that stood in front of her.
"You listen here you little-."
"Little?" Giyu said, questioning her choice of words. This wasn't meant to antagonise her, it was just an error he picked up from her sentence.
But Shinobu, already over her limit, couldn't help but let her anger seeth through the mask that she always wore. She started to speed walk towards Giyu and said, "You ignorant caveman, I am going to-"
She stopped in her tracks and cut herself off when she saw that he wasn't paying attention to her anymore. Instead, he was looking around like an oblivious buffoon, causing her to say, "Now what are you looking for?"
"There's no sound," Giyu said.
"What about-" She cut herself off again, as she realised that she allowed her bottled up emotions to get the better of her. Shinobu was finally able to regain her senses as she noticed that not only was it silent but Giyu had his hand on the hilt of his blade. This caused her to grip her blade and focus on her hearing. She soon heard rumbling coming from her left, it seems that Giyu heard this as well because they both drew their blades at the same time. But a new sound echoed louder than the rumbling, she heard what could only be described as multiple small consecutive explosions going off.
Both Shinobu and Giyu jumped away from each other with great speed as the sound of explosions seemed to be nearing them ever so closer. Thanks to their quick thinking they were able to dodge a massive explosion in between the Hashira. While they may have jumped a great distance away from the blast, the shock wave was still able to push them further away from each other.
As soon as they landed spikes made out of earth suddenly shot out from the dirt road. But thanks to their reflexes they were able to avoid getting impaled by the large spikes. While they dodged the spikes, dozens of demons started to pour out of the forest and charge directly at them.
Shinobu could clearly see the demons charging headlong at them, but what she couldn't see was the demon that was creating the explosions. It was obvious that these demons are organised and so they wouldn't risk a long-range combatant in close quarters combat with Hashiras. So she looked all around the forest in front of her, but before she could scan it completely she heard the same sound of tiny explosions. Out of instinct, she jumped to her right avoiding another explosion. Then another explosion caused Giyu to jump back as well.
But because of these explosions both the Hashiras were able to triangulate where they were coming from. Further in the forest stood a that was slightly higher than all the rest. But that small height allowed the bomber to have a clear view of them.
Shinobu looked at Giyu and both seemed to agree on a single Idea, they had to fight. Not only had these demons gotten through the wisteria flowers but they are most definitely organised, therefore they could not allow these demons to roam freely.
They both leapt into the demons to close the distance but just before they could reach them another explosion went off. This time only Shinobu was forced to jump back as it seemed that the attack was focused on her. But it didn't matter as she used her superior speed to cut and poison them, bringing down all of them in less than 5 seconds.
Shinobu then looked up to the demon on the tree ready to jump and face it, but as soon as she looked up there was no one there. They focused her eyes to look at all the trees around the tree that the demon was on, but still nothing. So she turned around to see Giyu who seemed to be struggling with his portion of demons. She wanted to giggle at him but there was something wrong with the demons he was facing. Shinobu couldn't put a finger on it until she focused on her eye and saw that the demons attacking Giyu had segmented metal plates protecting their body, including their neck.
Before Shinobu could join Giyu a demon attacked her from behind causing her to do a backflip and stab the demon again. The demon fell to the ground again but Shinobu didn't care because the demons that she had once poisoned were now getting back up. Before Shinobu could engage in combat again an explosion erupted from in front of her. This surprise attack only allowed him a split second to jump. Immediately after avoiding the attack Shinobu looked at her surroundings and saw that there was now a shadow at least 20 meters away from her. As soon as Shinobu landed she got ready to leap at the shadow and engage in combat with the demon.
But as she put pressure on her left leg to launch herself, she slipped. This made her look at the cause of her embarrassing slip up. What she found was absolutely demoralising as she saw her lower left leg covered in dark red, dry, and leathery skin. This explained why she couldn't feel the pain from such a severe burn, it was because the blast had destroyed her nerve ending therefore all sense had been cut off from her leg.
Before she could contemplate on what to do about the damage she heard rumbling sounds. She immediately realised that earth spikes were going to appear. So Shinobu went to jump out of the way towards Giyu to try and regroup. But when she tried to avoid the attack she had instinctively used her left leg to jump. This caused her to slip up again, thankfully using her fast mobility she was able to bring her right leg under her and jump.
Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough as spikes had shot out of the ground and penetrated her right leg. Thankfully she was able to move her right leg to avoid most of the spikes, but one of the spikes stabbed into her leg and because of her momentum the spike tore a massive wound into her leg.
She tried to maneuver herself to land gracefully but again she tried to land on her left leg causing her leg to give out from the added pressure. With the velocity that she launched herself with to avoid the attack and with her leg giving out, she started to varied off course and tumbled right into a tree. With a massive thud, her back crashed into a tree, causing Shinobu to not only lose grip of her sword but also lose all the air in her lungs and try and gasp for more.
She tried to push herself up but the only thing she could do was collapse back down to the ground. She tried not to scream in pain, but she couldn't help tears fall from her eyes and whimpers escape her mouth.
"KILL HER!!" a female screamed out from the forest, suddenly she heard the sound of groundbreaking as Shinobu lifted her head to see the demons that she had put down had gotten up and were now lunging to kill her.
Shinobu knew what would happen next, she would die here and now. While she didn't want to die here because she hadn't avenged her older sister or found her younger sister, she was not nieve enough to hold hope that she could fight with both her legs out of commission, with her back in so much pain and without her sword. So she accepted her fate, but she would stare death in the face as these demons charged her. She was in so much pain but her eyes did not wavier and blazed with so much anger. In Shinobu's last defiant act she screamed out releasing all her pent up anger, sorrow, pain and regret into the faces of the demons.
Without a second thought, the demons tore Shinobu to pieces, grabbing her arms and legs then tearing them off, while some demons buried their claws into her stomach and chest and ripped off everything they could. In less than a minute Shinobu was just a pile of bones and hanging flesh.
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The end
A.N: hahahaha, I finally did it!! I finally killed Shinobu, I have waited to do this since the very beginning. To me, Shinobu is a useless character and should have never been made into a Hashira. Thanks for reading, see ya in the next chapter.
Now how many of you believed me and truly thought I killed Shinobu like that, be honest now.
So obviously the last part you just read was just me pulling some strings and I want your opinion on how you felt with how I described her death because sooner or later I am going to have to do this type of scene for real so I want your input.
Now since I wouldn't end the chapter like that, here is the rest of the story.
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Or that's how Shinobu thought it would end for her but luckily for her, she had a partner. In a blink of an eye, Giyu had leapt in between Shinobu and the demon and said, "Water breathing: 11th form: dead calm."
At first, nothing seemed to happen as the demons seemed to ignore Giyu, but just before they passed him their head fell off their shoulders causing them to turn to dust. Giyu not wasting any time grabbed Shinobu and hoisted her over his shoulders, then proceeded to run into the forest but not before being able to grab Shinobu's Nichirin blade.
Giyu ran into the forest because of that bloody explosion demon that kept attacking Shinobu. So by running into the forest Giyu thought that the demon wouldn't be able to get a clear shot at them while they ran back to HQ. They couldn't run back to the butterfly estate as that meant they would have to travel along the pat, which would be a clear sight for the bomber.
While Giyu was right about the demon having difficulty in tagetng them with her explosions he had forgotten about the demon that could bend earth. In an open field, the sound of the earth rumbling and the groundbreaking was a dead giveaway, in the forest however was a different story.
As Giyu ran with Shinobu on his shoulders he could hear the familiar rumbling sound, but due to the trees causing the sound to bounce off the trees, Giyu wasn't able to get a fixed location of where it was coming from. So for a few minutes of running Giyu had to dodge spikes, flying bolder, and quicksand to avoid certain death. Normally this would be easy, as this was what Urokodaki Sensai trained him with. But this proved more difficult as carrying Shinobu and ensuring that he didn't drop her and get hit by the attacks and traps was proving to be draining.
Though in the back of his mind he couldn't help but comment that for someone as small as Shinobu, her weight was still quite noticeable.
Nevertheless, Giyu tried desperately to avoid getting hit but it was inevitable as a small boulder hit him on the side of his head. This caused him to lose balance, in his attempt to regain control a column of stone was fired at him like one of the logs that his teacher used. This time Giyu wasn't able to dodge this. So trying to mitigate the damage this attack would do Giyu placed Shinobu in a cradling position. Then he jumped at a certain angle to be able to land on the column and push himself off it. He was able to do a flip and land, but due to his momentum, he was forced to slide. Unfortunately, he slides into a tree root causing him to fall, but he refused to let Shinobu experience any more pain, so he tucked her into a ball and wrapped himself around her. They both tumbled and hit tree after tree, the only difference was that Giyu was taking the brunt of the force while Shinobu only felt the aftermath.
When they came to a stop, Giyu unfolded his arms to reveal Shinobu still relatively unharmed from the tumble. Shinobu was finally able to see Giyu after enduring so much punishment and she could see deep cuts and purple skin, but if Giyu was in pain he certainly did well to hide it as he still had his blank expression.
Shinobu looked around to find that she was placed down next to a tree and that they were now being surrounded by demons. These demons wore metal plates as armour but the most interesting thing was that some demons had just arrived and stood on the trees. Then in a wide-sweeping motion parts of their metal armour detached from their body and warped around themselves to form a shield, while some others formed metal spikes.
This was when she realised that they weren't just organized, they had prepared just for the two of them. The demons Shinobu had faced must have been either been resistant against Shinobu's poison or they had a blood art that completely negated her poison. While Giyu was faced against demons that defended themselves with Iron armour, that they could move with some simple hand gestures and with how fast the metal warped and moved to the demons will it wasn't a surprise that with the numerical advantage, each metal plate on them could become what ever they wanted and that the metal was probably thick enough to stop Giyu's attack, then it was understandable why he had difficulty with them. Either way, they were backed into a corner and both injured, more so than others, she thought as she looked down on her legs.
Her legs are so badly wounded and burned to the point where if she didn't use total breathing concentration to block all blood going into the wound she would have died. See how they were surrounded and she was the only one that couldn't fight she saw only one option, "Giyu you have to leave me."
Giyu had his back facing her but while Shinobu couldn't see his face she could see how his hand had slightly tightened around his and Shinobu's blade. Shinobu took this response as a refusal of her request to abandon her, so she insisted, "These demons were prepared and organised for us, for all we know they are attacking HQ or the butterfly estate. So please just leave."
But her demand was once again ignored as this time there was no physical response, this annoyed her as the more time he wasted on protecting this living corpse the less likely he will be able to protect the butterfly estate or rescue Oyakata. So in frustration, she tried to yell but due to her weak state all she was able to do was a whisper when she said, "I've already accepted my fate, so, please protect everyone in the butterfly estate on my behal-"
"Shut up!" Shinobu was so shocked that she actually forgot that she was injured and tried to stand, obviously she failed but now adrenaline was pumping through her blood as she didn't understand why Giyu suddenly broke his calm personality.
"We are Hashira, the pillars that hold up the entire demon slayer corp. We are the sword and shield that guard the world against these demons. Even if we are on the brink of death, even when there is no hope we must continue to fight, SO DO NOT LOSE HOPE AND IF YOU HAVE, THEN LET ME SHOW YOU WHY WE ARE CALLED HASHIRA!!" Giyu screamed out with so much rage and hate, that while Giyu didn't turn around she could still feel his gaze and unwavering conviction to prove to her that they will survive.
This rage and hate-filled aura covered the surrounding area, which caused one of the demons to get spooked as he raised his hand to launch the spikes he had made from his armour. But one of the demons said, "stop, we can't attack without the comman-"
The demon was cut short as he and all of his team heard, "Flame breathing: Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!"
With blinding speed, a sword sliced through their necks turning them into dust. Then demon slayer landed on the ground and slide towards Giyu, the demon slayer stopped sliding right next to Giyu and said, "I'm ashamed that because of my tardiness I had unknowingly allowed you two to get this badly hurt."
Standing beside Giyu was a man with long bright yellow hair with red streaks akin to flames, and from what Shinobu was able to see he wore a Hoari with a white-yellow gradient pattern and red flame-like ridges at the end. This was without a doubt Kyojuro Rengoku, the flame Hashira.
But the Rengoku didn't get all of them as some of the demons left standing started to get ready to attack the Hashira in front of them, with or without their commander they could not stand idle by anymore. Though while they were focused on the enemy in front of them they had left themselves wide open to attack from behind.
"Hinokami Kagura; ninth form: Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance." a voice came from behind the demons, but before any of them could react their heads had also been removed turning them into dust.
"You arrived here earlier than I thought, I expect nothing less of you, Tanjiro Kamado," Rengoku said to the boy who had just slide beside Giyu just like the flame Hashira.
"Thank you Rengoku, but I had to leave Kanao and Suna behind to deal with the rest," Tanjiro said a bit ashamed that he was forced to leave her, unknown to anyone here Kanao had actually yelled at him to leave her and to stop being stubborn.
As soon as Kanao was mentioned Shinobu with every fibre of her being she pushed herself to get up and with her left leg she was able to stand up while leaning on the tree and said, "Where is Kanao?"
But before either Rengoku or Tanjiro could react something speeded past them and into Shinobu. Upon reaching Shinobu the speeding being stopped and wrapped its arms around her in a loving embrace, as soon as Shinobu saw the butterfly hairpiece she hugged her back with her left arm, before finally succumbing to her wounds as she fell into unconsciousness.
"Kocho!?" Kanao said as her voice quavered.
Immediately Tanjiro went next to Kanao and helped her place back on the tree. There Tanjiro is able to check her vitals and see that she was just unconscious, but, "We need to get her to a hospital, she was able to stop bleeding long enough for her veins to seal up but without treatment, she will soon lose her legs."
Giyu accepting the responsibility started to walk towards Shinobu as he said, "I'll get her to the butterfly estate, its hospital of the-"
Giyu stopped as he had collapsed as well but immediately as he was falling Rengoku caught him. But when he grabbed Giyu he felt a liquid substance coming from his clothing, retracting his hand to reveal blood.
"Tanjiro, Kanao, bring both of them to the butterfly estate, I'll head to HQ to ensure Oyakata-sama is safe," Rengoku said as he tried to lay Giyu on the ground to leave it to Tanjiro and Kanao. But before he could fully place Giyu down Tanjiro had stepped in front of him and said, "Rengoku, you take them to the butterfly estate, I'll head to the HQ."
Rengoku looked at Tanjiro and was about to protest but as he looked at his face Rengoku could immediately tell there was something wrong. While Tanjiro was smiling he could feel that it was just a facade and the eyes that are now staring at him showed nothing but the burning surface of the sun. But for the little amount of time he had spent with this group he couldn't help but feel that Tanjiro was as strong, if not stronger than himself. So being the optimistic man that he is, he nodded and with a smile he took both Giyu and Shinobu in his arms.
"I'm coming with you, Tanjiro," Kanao said as Rengoku grabbed Shinobu.
"No, you should be with your-"
"From the way your muscles flex, to how your nose twitched as soon as we got closer to HQ, and how your heart pounds right now. Muzan is here and you want revenge." Kanao said, immediately grabbing Rengoku's attention.
But before he could say anything Kanao continued, "Tanjiro, you heard Tamayo say that it was meant to only be used as a last resort. You already used it once in the underground base, if you use it again you may-"
And before she could persuade Tanjiro she was cut off by a strike to the back of her head. This caused Tanjiro to catch Kanao as she fell and say, "Thank you, Suna I don't think I could have done it."
In front of Tanjiro stood Suna who sheathed her blade as she said, "I'm just glad she was solely focused on you, fulfil your promise to me and end this war."
Suna said as she glared at Tanjiro, while she has grown to care for this 13-year-old she knew for a fact that he was born for a greater purpose and she wanted to see it to the end.
With that said, Tanjiro put down Kanao and moved one hand into the sleeve of his Haori. When he retracted his hand, there was a veil half-full filled with purple liquid that had a light glow. But before Tanjiro did anything else he said, "Don't try it Rengoku."
Suna turned around to see that Rengoku was crouched down lowering Giyu and Shinobu. Seeing what the pillar was trying to do Suna tried to draw her blade, which was stopped by Tanjiro's hand.
"Shinobu and Giyu are strong individuals, but even they will succumb to their wounds. So, please bring them to the butterfly and let me fulfil the purpose I was put on this earth to do, to kill Muzan." As Tanjiro said, Rengoku could swear he could see a full-grown man behind Tanjiro. No, Rengoku, the fire Hashira, had been deceived, what he had preserved to be a 13-year-old boy was actually a man. With that realisation, Rengoku lifted himself up and smiled.
"Then when this is all over I expect to see you in the end, there is a restaurant that has the most delicious food, something I must show my new Tsuguko," Rengoku said with a smile as he, then looked to Suna who had grabbed Kanao in her arms and nodded to Rengoku who immediately started to run.
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Now the story is over 10K words, am I going to stop now? NO, because I have been thinking of this chapter ending for ages and I will not cut it out because I have gone over my personal word limit. So here is the ending of the chapter.
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Demon slayer HQ
The demon slayer HQ is simply a fenced off garden with the Ubuyashiki house to the side of the garden. It wasn't huge, nor was it majestic, simply a simple house next to a beautiful garden. But sadly this garden of Eden was covered in the body of a snake, this snake waiting patiently while it scanned if there were any traps and traps it found. In the rooms, under the flooring, in the very trees planted in this garden were explosives and caltrops, tringle like spike traps.
While the body was disarming the traps outside, the head of the snake was looking at a weak man, a wife and 2 kids. The wife and kids looked normal enough, except for the way they dressed, now that Zaheer found it odd. But what really drew his attention was the man's demeanour. Even though his sworn enemy was standing right in front of him he expressed no hatred or ill intent, but instead what he got was, "How are you doing tonight?"
The way he said it as well, no malice, no annoyance that his house was practically being raided and dismantled before his last good remaining eye. Muzan had heard from locals that the lord of this land was suffering from something that would kill him soon, and now that he could see the damage Zaheer could confirm this fact. In 2 years he will have lost his ability to see and then in the next year his life.
Because of this fact, Zaheer could only feel one emotion in this situation... respect.
This dying man and his predecessors while having this curse had been leading the demon slayers in their relentless assault on the demon world and for that Zaheer could hold nothing but respect for the man.
While Zaheer grew to respect the man there was another reason why he and the leader were sitting down in a closed-off room with his family bounded to the wall. Zaheer while wanting to just talk to the man also needed something else, the location of where the Nichiren blades were being created. Because how would the demon slayers hope to fight against them without their primary weapons, therefore rendering any future demon slayers helpless. As Sun Tzu once said, "the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
It would mean the absolute victory of the demons and the uncontested control of the world. But as expected the demon slayer leader, no, Ubuyashiki Kagaya, wouldn't give the location, however, he did say something that truly threw him off. "What are you fighting for?"
While the normal response from the lesser demons would be that they just wanted to kill people, Zaheer wanted, "Order."
"Order?"
"Yes, have you ever heard of a man called Guru Laghima?"
"I can not say I have," Ubuyashiki said with a smile as he wasn't afraid, but instead, he was smiling because he was genuinely curious.
"Guru Laghima was a Buddhist monk who as legends say had achieved not only immortality but also the ability to untether himself from the natural world, however, another source says that he was not immortal but instead he was able to live the rest of his life without the need to ever touch the ground again," Zaheer said with a monotone nature, but hidden withing was the joy in being able to express his beliefs.
"Truly fascinating, however, I do not see how this relates to your goal of order." Again Ubuyashiki said with a smile, something was truly wrong with this man, but Zaheer could not understand what it was that unnerved him specifically.
So Zaheer continued, trying to see what this man was made of, "I said 'legends say' because there are no records of the man as if someone was trying to remove him from history, but one of the few remaining pieces of Guru Laghima is, 'new growth can not exist without the destruction of the old.'"
As soon as Zaheer finished his sentence he could see a new light burning bright within the demon slayer leader's remaining eye. Before Zaheer could say anything his counterpart said, "So by following Muzan you believe that he will help you bring chaos into the world which you believe the natural order is disorder."
Zaheer finally got his answer in what was disturbing about this man, it wasn't the fact that this man was potentially suicidal but also the fact that this man had been analysing him. What caused Zaheer to jump into a fighting stance was when the frail man decided to stand up.
However, it took a while for the enemy leader to stand as he is after all in pain. But not even once did Zaheer let his guard down when the man struggled to stand, as this was still the enemy leader and he was caught off guard once, and he would not let that happen again. Though Zaheer would immediately drop his stance as Ubuyashiki said, "With how your running things now, you certainly will bring chaos and disorder into this world, right Muzan?"
"You're certainly right, with your help Zaheer I will be able to bring the world back to its original state, back to the natural order of disorder," Muzan said standing in the doorway, but he showed no outward emotion in saying these words.
Zaheer was absolutely shocked to hear his lord appear before him, as a natural reaction Zaheer got to his knees and bowed his head. This however didn't allow him to see his lords face, because once again his lord had come to him in another form that wasn't his male form. Instead, it sounds feminine and childlike?
As Zaheer continued to look down he could see a piece of clothing and orange-tipped hair that was familiar to him, however, this familiarity did not bring comfort to the demon but he could not put his mind into recalling where he had seen this form before.
While Zaheer pondered Muzan's new form, said demon lord was now in front of the demon slayer leader, a person that shared the same blood as the immortal being, and yet Muzan is disguised by the decaying corpse in front of him. However, this corpse seemed to not notice it was a corpse as it dared to speak to him.
"I knew you would come to my home, though I find it good that you come to me as a little girl," Ubuyashiki said as he continued to stay seated and smiled at the demon lord.
"And here I find a half decaying corpse and another soon to be dead family. I'm disappointed, Ubuyashiki, after living for thousands of years I find the family that has been a thorn in my side, reduced to this. I don't know whether it would be a worse fate to leave you here to rot or kill you." Muzan said, both smug and curious about the two decisions he had before him. Though he wished he was in his male adult form instead of this girl form, however, he needed this form as a safety measure.
"Whether you kill me or not does not matter, because the demon slayer corp has already achieved and surpassed your one true dream." He said with a small smile.
"Ooh, and what would that be?" Muzan said with a nearly unnoticeable smirk and because of Ubuyashiki's eyesight degrading there was no way that he would be able to see this small hint.
"Your dream of eternity, because you are merely flesh and blood, and while you may be immortal even you can not destroy an idea." Upon hearing this Muzan's expression darkened.
"You're talking nonsense."
"Am I? While thousands of unfortunate children have died, their thoughts, their wishes, their desire to defeat you will live on for eternity. The idea of 'never forgiving those who have taken the lives of people's loved ones away senselessly' is eternal. And you have not been forgiven." Ubuyashiki said as he stared, with his one good eye, into the soul of Muzan.
But Muzan refused to allow this corpse to berate him like this, so in response Muzan, with blinding speed, kicked Ubuyashiki in the chest. Ubuyashiki suddenly felt his entire body break through the door frame and slam right into the tree in the centre of the Ubuyashiki house.
"So what, not one of your so-called Hishira could defeat me, I am-" Muzan said as he walked towards the now destroyed door frame that lead into the inner garden.
"indestructible?" Muzan snarled at being interrupted and predicted by this bloody corpse, who for some reason was now getting up, obviously, his legs were shaking and threatening to collapse, but it was the thought that he was defiant against him that made him mad.
"But you're not indestructible. Because while you have been trampling over the tiger countless times and the tiger could do nothing back to you, you made a terrible mistake." Ubuyashiki said with an unwavering voice as he stood straight with his back against the tree.
"And that is?" Muzan said as he glared back at this zombie.
"You awoke the dragon." And with that Ubuyashiki pushed with his right leg to slightly jump out of the way.
Muzan was confused, why the hell did this corpse jump out of the way of nothing? However, his answer would be immediately answered by the door shattering to pieces.
While Muzan couldn't see who it was, Zaheer could. Tanjiro Kamado, their original target, was flying like a projectile towards Muzan. In a desperate attempt to save his master's life Zaheer released a jet stream of air at Tanjiro.
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Tanjiro could see dozens of demons surrounding the estate, but that didn't matter to Tanjiro as all he could focus on was the scent of Muzan. While there was a second scent with it, it didn't matter as Tanjiro just zoomed past the demons as they were too slow to do anything to him. Upon reaching the door Tanjiro just cut it to pieces as to not stop his current velocity.
There in front of him stood Muzan, while he had the form of a girl with his/her back towards him it didn't stop him from launching himself at this monster at lightning speed. Tanjiro eyes zeroed in on the monsters neck and in a millisecond used the Transparent World to study his muscles and future actions, with a deep breath Tanjiro caused his Nichirin blade to turn crimson red and was about to perform the 13th form. In a few more milliseconds Tanjiro would have Cut Muzans head off but a sudden blast of air knocked Tanjiro to the wall of the room.
'NO' Tanjiro thought inside his head as his focus was shaken, but this wouldn't stop him as he regained his footing by orientating himself onto the wall and launched himself at Muzan. Tanjiro could see that because he had been delayed by a second, Muzan had enough time to summon his spine whips but it wouldn't matter, because as long as Tanjiro was focused he would be able to finally end this was that he had started.
"Hinokami Kagura: 13th form: Solar cycle..." Tanjiro thought, however, his focus was completely shattered as Muzan was able to do one other thing. Muzan was able to turn around and face Tanjiro head-on. While to a normal person, this singular move would not be devastating to them, but to Tanjiro it was. Because facing him right now was Muzan in the form of his beloved sister, Nezuko.
But while Tanjiro was heartbroken seeing that his sister's form was being desecrated by this monster, Tanjiro hardened his resolve and went for the killing blow. With a quick deep breath, Tanjiro changed his black blade into crimson red. Then as soon as Muzans neck was in range, Tanjiro moved his blade in a sweeping motion. However, upon the blade making contact with Muzans neck, there was a loud thud.
There was a second where time and space seemed to freeze and in a second Tanjiro couldn't help but let a tear out knowing that he failed again. At least this time it would be the last time he failed, as he suddenly felt pain surge just under his heart. However, this wasn't emotional pain but physical, as he looked down and saw one of the spine whips impaling his chest.
Suddenly Muzan spun Tanjiro around and slammed him onto the Ubuyashiki tree, causing Tanjiro to drop his blade. Tanjiro didn't make a sound, not a scream, nor a peep, anyone beyond Tanjiro and Muzan would have thought that the boy that landed a hit on the demon's creator was already dead. But this was not the case as Tanjiro's heart was still beating but as Muzan pinned the boy to the tree, Muzan could feel the body becoming cold and the beating of the heart fading.
After a few more seconds of silence, Muzan, while already impaling Tanjiro who was now forming a pool of blood under him, stood in a defensive stance. Because Muzan couldn't believe that he had actually succeeded in finally ending the line of these monsters. However, upon finally accepting that he had in fact succeeded Muzan let his emotions slip, "Ha... haha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, FINALLY!! IT'S OVER, THE BLOODLINE OF THE MONSTER IS OVER AND THAT ACCURSED BREATHING TECHNIQUE IS ERADICATED, HAHAHAHAHHAHA, WHAT WERE YOU SAYING ABOUT WAKING A DRAGON UBUYASHAKI?! NOW THE LAST DRAGON IS DEAD AND I HAVE FINALLY ACHIEVED IMMORTALITY, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
When Tanjiro was slammed into the tree he noticed someone laying on the ground, even though he felt pain pulsing through his veins Tanjiro was able to muster enough energy to move just one eye to look in the direction of the person. Upon looking at the man Tanjiro couldn't help but feel even more of a failure as he is, as the man looked upon Tanjiro with both his good and bad eye in utter horror.
He couldn't understand, he foresaw a boy made from the sun drive the demon king away. So why was this happening?
Tanjiro returned his eyes to the demon form of his sister and he couldn't help but release tears from his dying eyes as he saw Muzan laughing in the form of his sister. It was just too much for Tanjiro's heart to bear, and with that Tanjiro closed his eyes and accepted fate.
Like what could he do, he had dropped his Nichiran blade and even if he had it the whip was extended far enough from Muzan that his blade wouldn't reach. He was a failure, he failed to save entire villages, he failed to truly free Kanao from her shell, he failed to rid this world of Muzan, and most importantly he failed to save his family from demons. As his body died, Tanjiro's last thought was about how he failed to save them, and with that Tanjiro's heart cease to beat.
"Oni-chan." Muzan stopped laughing as he heard his voice utter such a disgusting word.
"How interesting, I guess I haven't fully absorbed you yet, no matter," Muzan said as he retracted his spine whips.
Then continued to say, "your brother is dead, no one can save you no-"
Naturally, Muzan wouldn't be able to finish his gloating as his last spine whip was the one that impales the boy and the body was still attached. This wasn't what stopped Muzan actually, in fact, Muzan had intended to have the boy's body brought to face him as he made the little girl look as her dead brothers face, as it would now be pale as the moon itself, his eyes devoid of the sun that burned through them and the warm smile that Nezuko remembers, which were now Muzan memories as well. What stopped him from continuing to gloat was the fact that everything he just thought of was absolutely wrong. Tanjiro's skin wasn't pale, it was alive and burning hot. His eyes were wide open as they stared at Muzan with the burning anger of a giant blue star. But what through Muzan off was the fact that his entire face was covered in a flaming mark spreader from the scar on his forehead and to top it off was the smile of a man trying to hide the fury of the Sun itself and by the gods, Muzan could feel an aura the equivalent of the Sun.
Muzan stared in horror as Tanjiro's eyes turned completely crimson, and they started to glow. Before Muzan could respond he was head-butted with the speed of light, this caused his face to cave into his skull damaging a part of the brain. With Muzan now slightly dazed Tanjiro's hands shot into Muzans chest and penetrated all the way to his heart. As Muzan regenerated the damaged brain he could feel something within his chest was draining the blood from his body. He suddenly realised what was happening and his hands launched towards this MONSTERS hands to pull it out. Suddenly he received another headbutt which destroyed his face, but Muzan expected this and so made his skull thicker, but that didn't stop the excruciating pain the headbutt caused. Then he felt his destroyed face getting burned, an incredible fear surged throughout Muzans body, because of this Muzan focused all his healing into a single eye.
"Damn this body." Normally these attacks would have little effect on Muzan as he had multiple hearts and brains scattered throughout his body, so even if one was damaged the others would be able to take the load of the damaged brain and heart. But this wasn't a normal situation. When this demon girl had forced him into the suns light he would have died, if it wasn't for the fact that Muzan had entered the girl's body and made it his temporary vessel, and if wasn't so weakened he would have absorbed the girl's body and made it his own, but as usual she resisted and now he was being forced to coexist with this body without being able to mould it to his liking. Because of this Muzan only had one brain and one heart and both of them were being assaulted.
"finally," Muzan said as the eye healed, though he would be wishing he was still blind as he could see the horror unfolding before him, Tanjiro's mouth was opened as wide as it could be and in its place, a miniature sun was being formed. Muzan quickly disconnected every vein and organ, even the spine whip, that was connected to Tanjiro's hands and as soon as this was done Muzan tore himself off Tanjiro. But it was too late, the miniature sun shot a beam of plasma into the Muzans centre forehead.
To say Muzan was in pain would have been an understatement, Muzan was in so much pain that his whips were spasming and destroying everything around him. This pain was being echoed throughout the entire demon army, from the lowest of demons to the upper moons themselves. This also included Zaheer as he screamed on the floor in pain, but this was only a small portion of what Muzan was actually feeling. With the demons distracted Ubuyashiki had been able to get to his feet and free his family, but now they were stuck as the spine whips were swinging in every direction.
While the pain was unfathomable Muzan could feel something was being taken away, but he didn't know what. Muzan pushed through the pain and entered his memories and found that every memory of NEZUKO KAMADO was being extracted, but that wasn't all, he could now clearly see memories on every demon weakness and the infinity fortress was being taken. In a desperate attempt to save his memories and himself, Muzan opened his mouth and formed his own ball of energy, usually, he would have just used his shockwave energy blast, but due to the brain assault, body restrictions, and blood drain, Muzan decided that it would be best to focus his attack in a single blast. And it worked, with this single attack Muzan had destroyed the MONSTER'S head!!!
But the little joy Muzan got disappeared as Tanjiro's head grew back instantly. Suddenly another miniature sun appeared in his mouth, but before he could return the favour back to Muzan a continuous gust of jet wind slammed into Tanjiro, fully dislodging Muzan from this DEMON.
Zaheer immediately grabbed Muzan, which proved to be easy because of the small figure of Nezuko's body, and started to head towards the door. Muzan using the last of his mental fortitude yelled "Open the infinity fortress." Suddenly the front door of the Ubuyashiki house opened and on the other side instead of the garden, it was an endless mess of rooms, stairs and hallways. Upon seeing this Zaheer wasted no time in running to it.
But they would suddenly be stopped by the sudden shift of gravitational force. Zaheer suddenly feeling the sudden shift jumped and launched a continuous jet of air to stop them from "falling". After ensuring that they would not fall he looked in the direction of the source of gravity, which was now below Zaheer, that seemed to overpower the very Earth's gravitational pull. Upon looking down he saw Tanjiro, who was now standing with one hand extending towards them and another that had seemed to have been morphed to extend all the way to the floor and if his eyes were not deserving him in his hand was Muzans heart where flesh was starting to form on it. But Zaheer couldn't care less as the only thing on his mind was escape.
Zaheer tried to increase the force of his air jet but instead of moving towards the door, he found himself being pulled in.
"General, grab the rope!!" Zaheer looked up to see 2 demons dropping down a rope, however the further they lowered the rope the more it seemed the demon holding the rope was struggling. The demon wrapped the rope around his arm and his entire body seemed to increase in muscle mass, but this only ensured the demons fate. Because he had wrapped the rope around his arm he was immediately pulled down as he lost footing. Zaheer had to change directions slightly to avoid the hunk of muscle falling down towards the miniature sun that was creating this massive gravitational pull.
Zaheer watched as the demon screamed as he fell. Before the demon could even touch the miniature sun the demon started to vaporise against an invincible barrier. First his feet, then his legs and finally his head. To Zaheer, this was both fascinating and terrifying, for one this newly formed demon was able to activate a demon blood art so powerful to actually kill a demon, and this is why it was terrifying, the fact that he could kill demons was an absolute nightmare. Zaheer would not allow himself to die like this, with the manifestation of chaos in his hands he couldn't die.
However, his fate would be sealed when the Tanjiro pushed the miniature sun at him. Zaheer immediately felt the increase in gravitation force and no matter how much power he put into his air jet he couldn't slow or stop his descent into the sun. And so Zaheer accepted his fate and closed his eyes as he knew he was going to die.
Or was he, as suddenly he felt something stab into his heart. Zaheer looked down to see Muzan's finger impaled into his chest, then he felt it, a burst of unlimited possibilities. His entire body felt alive, no, it felt like it was going to explode. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Muzan had given Zaheer some of his blood and with this newfound power, Zaheer's mind was able to dramatically understand the nature of air. And so he instead of increasing the output he instead gathered all the air surrounding him and compressed it. Soon the air turned into plasma and Zaheer let it build. Upon releasing it Zaheer was able to create a blast which he then launched a burst of jet air towards him propelling him to the door at a drastic speed. This final act took place in less than a second. But in the 2nd second the door slammed and the connection to the Demon slayer HQ was lost, though they couldn't care less because they had made it out of there alive and that's all that mattered right now.
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Meanwhile in the Demon slayer HQ
While Zaheer was fighting against the artificial gravity that Tanjiro was creating, Ubuyashiki had thought that he and his family would be flying into the miniature sun, but instead, they were unaffected by it. So he tried to direct his family out of the room, but then a demon came flying from the door and into the sun, turning into dust. This demonstration of power caused his family to halt for a second and because of this, they are able to see Tanjiro launch the sun towards them and could also see Zaheer heading towards the sun. Suddenly in a blink of an eye, an explosion occurred and the door had closed, but that didn't stop the miniature sun from reaching the door and upon coming into contact with the door a massive explosion destroyed the entire estate.
Ubuyashiki knew that he wasn't going to live a full life, but he would have liked to see that monster brought down with his very own eyes. He would have liked to know for certain that his family could live a full life. He couldn't help but feel regret for having his son sent away and now having him live the same life he did.
"Oyakata-sama!!" He could hear a voice echo in this field of pitch black and as he stared off into the darkness all he could think about was if this was all there was after death, just nothing.
"Oyakata-sama!!" again he could hear the voice again though this time he could hear the voice more clearly. And for some reason, it sounded like Rengoku. Now that he thought of it he could feel his hand grazing on the wooden floor of his home, now knowing that he was still alive he decided to get up and then fall back to the floor. However, Rengoku was able to catch him as soon as he had lost footing.
"Oyakata-sam, are you hurt?" Rengoku said with pain in his voice.
"I am fine my child, though I must ask how bad is it?" Ubuyashiki said as he pointed to his face.
The silence was the only response he received and immediately he knew his answer and responded with "I see."
"I'm sorry."
"There is no reason to be sorry, it was going to happen eventually. However, would you be willing to be my eyes for a while?"
"OF COURSE, IT WOULD BE AN HONOUR!!" Rengoku said with a yell of pride and joy as he served his master.
"Can you describe what has happened? Beginning with you entering the estate." Ubuyashiki said as didn't understand the full situation. But before that Ubuyashiki pointed to the wall and Rengoku immediately placed him on the wall where he would sit down to rest his injured legs.
"At the butterfly estate, I was able to deal with all the demons except a massive demon who went by gigantomachia. I was able to find out that he was the reason why they were able to get into our territory as this demon had completely destroyed an entire section of the wisteria forest wall that we planted around our estates. But then he started to scream and run away, if he hadn't I think everyone in the butterfly estate would have died. Before I was able to shadow the demon a sun appeared and seemed large enough to consume the entire Oyakata estate."
"Sun?" Ubuyashiki said as he cut off Rengoku.
"Yes, a massive spherical burning inferno that produced tremendous heat covered the entire estate, to ensure that you had survived I came here to investigate, however the closer I got the brighter it became, and yet burning heat was soothing. And when I came close enough to touch this sun on earth it disappeared. When I entered the garden everything seemed to be perfectly normal, in fact, I think the planets actually became healthier, although I also found dozens of ash piles near the front of the door and as soon as I opened the door I found you and your family." Rengoku said as he finished his report.
Before Ubuyashiki could ask more questions they heard coughing coming further into the house. Ubuyashiki heard Rengoku draw his blade and start walking and then he could hear the sliding door opening that headed into the middle of the house.
"Tanjiro!!" Rengoku said as he could now hear Rengoku sprint towards his friend.
"Rengoku can you please check his eyes?" Ubuyashiki said calmly but with a hint of sadness in his tone, as he could tell that Rengoku had formed a bond with this boy and now that bond could be shaken to its very core.
"W-what?" Rengoku said, for the first time since he became a Hashira, in a wavery voice.
"Please check."
Again, silence filled the entire estate there was no gasp, no sigh, no scream, just silence. Ubuyashiki already knew what this silence was caused by but he needed to confirm it, and if not by his own eyes then by the eyes of another.
"Rengoku please describe." Again silence, he didn't like how silent Rengoku was but no matter how he was feeling right now Ubuyashiki needed confirmation.
So Ubuyashiki would ask again but before he could utter a word Rengoku spoke, "Demon eyes, though his skin is normal he has a flame mark that is moving around as if it was actually fire."
"Is there more?"
"Yes, there is a girl next to Tanjiro no older than 13, no, 12 years old."
"Please check her eyes." And once again silence. Ubuyashiki hated these two children now cursed with the blood of this monster, but once again he needed to confirm it.
"Rengoku p-"
Immediately Rengoku cut Ubuyashiki sentence with a single word that shocked him to his very core, "HUMAN!!"
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A.N: Initially this chapter was meant to be only 10k words but I was not satisfied with how that would end things and how short the action was. Then came the ending and the 10 drafted final acts of this chapter. I was really contemplating killing a few characters off but I decided to save their demise for later and therefore I had to change the entire chapter again.
I hope you enjoy it, this year has been a total mess. Till the next chapter, whenever that is lol.
16298 words