"My little girl is growing up so fast." The chief of the village said as he wiped a tear from his eye.
Tokiyama Ishimoto, the Village chief and the strongest in the Koga village.
He was a man with a muscular, but lean build and looked rather charismatic. He had deep black hair and steel blue eyes that seemed to shine with power.
He was offered the position of Hashira, but ultimately declined as he didn't want to be bossed around. Although he didn't flat out reject the offer and was willing to work along them.
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He then formed the DSIN. It stands for Demon Slayer Information Network.
Currently, he was outside with a few shinobi along with Masako as they were preparing to send Yui off.
She was dressed in a small purple kimono that that was lined with cotton. Around her waist was a black wool obi that held her black cloak closed around her.
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"Do you have everything you need? Some money, some rashions, hygiene products, spare clothes?" Tokiyama asked.
"Yes dad. I've also packed some weapons in my pouch and yes I have the tanto on me." Yui asked as she sighed. She knew he was just worried, but was slightly troubled at how careless he thought she was.
"Alright, then I won't hold you longer, but remember to send letters back home and come visit." He added.
"I think she'll be fine. After all, she's a trained and strong kunoichi." Masako said with a smile. She looked towards Yui and raised her eyebrows in a questioning manor before receiving a nod from the latter.
"Good." Masako said.
"Well then, I guess I'll be going." Yui said as she took a deep breath and looked out at the vast plains that's cut off by the forest.
She looked back at her father and mentor with a smile as she waved goodbye to them. They waved back at her with smiles on their faces as she ran off to begin her journey.
'If I wanna get somewhere, I should go look towards the beginning.' She thought seriously.
…
(A Day Ago)
"So who's Seikichi?" Yui asked Shinobu as they gathered at the Butterfly Mansion.
Seikichi was gone on a mission after he was cleared for duty.
"Hmm, I guess for this, you should know the entire story." Shinobu said.
"Seikichi is a Demon Slayer under the tutelage of Tengen. We found him and a little girl who seemed to be the only survivors of the Toshikawa massacre. Unfortunately he was blinded and tortured by the demon so he was barely alive when we found him."
Both Masako and Yui had a slightly shocked expression on their face. That massacre was relatively well known because there wasn't anything other than a few bodies that were eaten.
Everyone was just killed for fun. The casualties amounted to a bit over two thousand.
"After getting him treated he was able to recover extremely fast. We found out he had a nice amount and quality of RC cells already active in his body. Without breath techniques or anything they were already active.
Once he came to, he was only worried about three things. His family and the life if his best friend and his family. As it would turn out, the demon you ran into could very likely be his best friend, Kyoshi Fuji.
At the moment, his only desire is to gain power, defeat demons and take care of Kyoshi's little sister, Hinā."
As this explanation came to an end, Yui seemed very disturbed, but composed herself.
"So the girl in the backyard must be…?"
"Yes, she's in the back playing with our helpers." Shinobu answered.
"You can understand why it doesn't seem right to withhold this information from him right?" Tengen asked.
"Yeah, it seems wrong, but in the end nobody knows how he'll react knowing his friend has become a demon." Yui answered.
"Besides, the decision is final. We keep this away from his ears till we can confirm some things." Shinobu said.
She looked towards Yui and asked what she'd do to help with this situation.
…
"I said I'd go out to look for him, so I should do this with all my might!!" She shouted as she sped through the forest.
…
"So what are we gonna do about Tanjiro and that demon Nezuko?" Kyoshi asked as he sat at a table looking at samples of blood from other demons.
He wore black pants, a black shirt and over it he wore the white lab coat he was given. His hair was still in a ponytail which didn't seem to go so well with his outfit, but he didn't mind.
"Hmm, why do you ask?" Muzan questioned as he sat at a different station performing a few experiments himself.
"I don't know. After hearing about those other demons epic fail a week ago, I've been kinda interesting in them. Those two should have been able to kill them quite easily." Kyoshi answered.
"They should have, but reality is often disappointing. They might have allied with a few people to take down the demons sent after them, but I feel like it's something else."
Kyoshi smirked.
He spun aroundin his chair as he looked at Muzan.
"I can probably go look into it if you'd like." Kyoshi said with a tone so condescending, he almost impressed Muzan.
"Hmm, then how about…"
"Of course this is only if you'd tell me you guys little secret." He interrupted.
"Should've known there'd be a catch." Muzan mumbled while Kyoshi laughed.
"Hmm, if I told you this secret what would you do with the information?"
"Eh? Depends on the info." Kyoshi replied as he scratched his head.
"What if it's something bad? What would you do then?" Muzan asked as he glanced at Kyoshi.
"I don't know. Depends if it's something I'd see as bad." He replied.
Muzan sighed as he turned around.
"Fine then, we found something out about your family and best friend from when you were a human. It would seem Seikichi has become a demon slayer." Muzan confessed.
"…wow. I haven't heard that name in a while. Seikichi. Are you sure?" Kyoshi said as he seemed to remember Seikichi. He had a calm yet gentle expression and his tone was unbelieving.
"From what Habuki and Keiko reported to me, that is indeed the truth." Muzan said.
"I see. Then that's fine!!" Kyoshi said as a grin appeared on his face. He flexed his claws as veins appeared on his arms and a vicious aura could be felt around him.
"I look forward to settling an old score!!" Kyoshi commented.
Him and Seikichi were like rivals, always competing to see who was better than the other. In fact they became friends from seeing who can carry more water on their shoulders.
"I see. If you want to know more I suggest looking for Tanjiro and Nezuko. Those earrings on the boy are special to the DSC so he should be quite useful to you." Muzan said.
Yes, he was manipulating Kyoshi to go meet Tanjiro and Nezuko. He didn't do this to put him in a bad position or make him a pawn, but he wanted to fulfill both him and Kyoshi's wishes.
Kyoshi would knows the secret and finally not be bored all the time and Muzan would be able to gain more information about their strength.
He never made Kyoshi go out to fight people and in fact he never made Kyoshi do anything. He let Kyoshi do things he suggested and Muzan would help along the way.
The only time he asked Kyoshi for assistance is if he saw Kyoshi was bored or as a favor which Kyoshi could decline at any time he wished.
"So I should go looking for them huh? I guess I'll head to Tokyo then." Kyoshi mumbled. He cleaned up his station and as he got ready to leave he bid farewell to Muzan.
As kyoshi left, Muzan sighed as he sat down in his chair.
'I might be able to make a breakthrough, then my new vision could be seen and us demons would finally be able to enjoy the warmth of the sun again.' He thought as he got back to experimenting with a heavy sigh.
…
"So they want to try recruiting another demon? Geez, they should be call the Demon Recruiting Corps instead." Toshiro said as he laid on the roof of a tall building and looked down on the people walking the streets at night.
"Well, it should be quite interesting to work with a demon other than Masako for once. Actually, I wonder how she's been. Maybe 2? No 4. It's been 4 years since we last saw each other." He murmured with a grin.
He raised up and stood up as he held onto the tip of his hat. His body slowly started vanishing into a red mist before fully disappearing.
…
Nagasumo Mountain
Currently Tanjiro and Nezuko were running in a forest as they were being chased by other demons.
'This is so strange. Aren't demons territorial?! Why are so many chasing us and not fighting each other?!!' Tanjiro thought.
He looked to his left and ducked under a demon that jumped at him. Nezuko jumped and with an upward kick, she obliterated the head of the demon and with quick precision, she stabbed the heart of the demon and crushed it.
*KABOOM* *KABOOM* *KABOOM*
An explosion rang out and it started a chain of explosions. Nezuko and Tanjiro were both surprised by this and looked behind them.
Tanjiro took another step and felt himself falling forward. Quickly he put a hand out and flipped himself forward dodging the two boulders that would have smashed him.
He started to focus as he breathed stably and dodge the tripwire and tags on the ground, trees, rocks and more. As they ran through the forest further up the mountain, they dealt with less demons.
'A cabin!!' Tanjiro thought as he picked up Nezuko and sped up. He started jumping off trees and got to the cabin easily.
He took a breath as they sat down on the floor.
"We'll take a small rest here. It's frustrating we were taken iff our original path though." Tanjiro said with a slight laugh.
'I wonder what those explosion were tho. Is this place occupied by someone?'
….
"What should we do?" Itsumu asked his mother as he, Mayumi, and Koyuki looked out at the rest if the forest from the second floor window.
"Hmm, we wait. If they cause problems to the house we'll intervene. We've already got a nice supply of food after all." Koyuki, the mother spider demon answered.
The other two nodded their heads as they looked out the window and watched as the other demons quickly ran away from the area of the cabin.