~~~~~1907~~~~~
Tanya and Rengoku ran forward. "Hopefully father returns soon. When we find them we will have to take out as many as we can, but make protecting the innocents around first." Tanya frowned "I already know that." she did not like being given commands by this eternally smiling boy. Unlike generals in her previous life, this guy had given Tanya no reason to even think he can lead, much less give her commands!
They both came to a mostly destroyed street "are we too late?" Tanya asked but they both saw something and heard it as well. "Help! Someone, anyone!" the two saw a man in an officer's uniform on the ground with his shoulder being bitten into by a gray-skinned man. "HEY GET OFF HIM!" Rengoku yelled as he took out his blade. "So much for a surprise attack," Tanya muttered. The Demon growled and jumped away. It attempted to run but Rengoku was faster and actually got in front of it. "What the hell!" the demon yelled only for its neck to be off along with its head. As the demon started dissolving Tanya helped the man that was attacked sit against a semi-torn wall.
"T-thank you," he said as he looked at the two. Tanya crossed her arms "what happened here?" she asked sternly. The man looked at the ground "t-there was this group of odd-looking people, one of them had a cloak on. At first, we thought it was a gathered gang of thugs so we went to warn them to get out of the road…but they went crazy. It's all a blur after that. We tried our best to make sure citizens got away. But those…things chased after those that did run. I don't know where they are." Tanya and Rengoku looked at each other "do you know where they went?" the man nodded "five used the roofs, four went south towards the shrine, three went north to chase after my partner who was helping people escape….the last one was the thing you took down."
Rengoku patted him on the shoulder "Do not worry we will take them down and save who we can. Oh, and THANK YOU, for your service" before the man could ask who they were he was knocked out by Rengoku. Tanya sighed "there is no way of telling where the five who took the roof went. So we should go after where we know people went." she smirked "how about we use this to settle out little spar bet that was interrupted? Whoever slays the most demons wins."
Rengoku rubbed the back of his head "I am not sure that is the best thing to do…but I am IN!" Tanya grinned "great I will take the ones at the shrine. Since you already killed one anyways. It will at least make us even. Then we go hunting for the other five." Rengoku shook her hand to agree and the two ran off. "GOOD LUCK!" he yelled, she did not yell anything back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'"S-stay away!" a man yelled as he held his daughter and wife close. "Hehe, why would we do that? You three look so delicious~" a demon with red skin said as he licked his lips. The other two were gray-skinned, one being bald and the other being a female with short hair. "And after this guy tried to save you? Oh, you must be extra delectable~" the female one said. The man looked at the officer who had tried his best to protect them but now laid dead with his eyes remaining open.
The bald one cracks his knuckles "screw waiting around let's just…wait move!" the three demons suddenly jumped away, the bald one just barely moving out of the way of a sword slash that could have cut his neck. Standing in front of the family now was a man with long yellow and red hair. "HELLO THERE! I am sorry but I must take you all down now." The three demons growled as they tried to size the demon slayer up.
Rengoku knelt down and closed the eyes of the officer "you did your job well. I will finish it for you." he looked back at the man holding his family and said "make sure your child cannot see or hear anything!" he then got into his fighting position. The red-skinned one gritted his teeth and stood in front of the other two demons "this isn't even a Hashira, I doubt even high ranked. All three of us can-" before he could finish Rengoku was already in front of him "-finish…" the last thing the demon heard before his head rolled to the ground off his body was "first form; unknowing flame!" The other two demons backed away and watched agape at what happened. "Well." Rengoku pointed his blade at the two demons "who is next?!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tanya finally made it to the shrine "hmm, where are they." she slowly made her way in, no one was around not even shine helpers or priests. Her hearing helped though as she instantly turned around and countered a claw attacking coming from a male demon "guh!" he jumped away. Tanya went to go slash at his neck, "huh?" but then instantly jumped back to dodge what looked like a sharp rock. "Dang it, my blood demon art missed Gunner!"
A female voice said that came from on top of a tree in the shine. She had her arm out that looked more like a cannon and a few sharp pieces of rock on the branch next to her. "What the hell are you demons doing?" Tanya looked over and saw two demons step out of the shine. One was large and had four arms. The other looked like a regular demon with his hair shaved around the sides. He looked familiar but Tanya could not remember why.
"You idiots, this girl isn't even a demon slayer! She doesn't have the uniform." the four-armed demon shouted. The lead demon 'gunner' as he was called put his hand up "she may not be, but that sword is definitely a Nichirin one. We have to be careful." Tanya sighed "look I don't know what the hell is happening or why you are here. But if you could kindly have your necks be cut by my blade that would save me a lot of time." The claw demon ground its teeth "you dang human!" he ran at the demon. Tanya smirked, gunner's eyes widened "wait!" but the demon had gotten too close. "Fourth form; Blooming flame undulation" as the demon got close Tanya spun her flaming blade around cutting away all the demon claws followed by its neck and head.
Seeing this happen the female one loaded her arm cannon "why you…blood demon art; arm fire!" she shoot the sharp rock but Tanya quickly got away from it. Once the clawed demon had fully disappeared into black smoke Tanya smirked and looked around at the others "so, who is next?" Gunner looked at the four-armed demon "she may not be a demon slayer, but she is likely training to be one. Keep your guard up, and try to trap her in one of the armcannons' shots." the four-armed demon just scoffed "I take order from Anson, not you." it whispered as it approached Tanya.
'Two against one. At that one has four arms on top of being large in size. Now I wished I had sent Rengoku here instead.' Tanya held her blade out. She looked up at the demon in the trees. She had to get up to them first. And she had just the idea. "Imma eat you up right after I kill you!" The four-armed demon yelled and it ran at her. Just what she needed. "First form; unknowing flame." she used this to cut away at two of the demon's arms, which was a success but she still had to parry the others. The ones she cut away quickly grew back. Meanwhile, the arm cannon demon was having a hard time getting a clear shot on Tanya "come on, come on, stay still" she muttered.
Tanya noticed how impatient both demons were getting. It was then she used her plan. She jumped up to make it look like she was going for a neck strike of the four-armed one. "Got you now!" the arm cannon demon shouted. But Tanya pushed off the large four-armed demon who then got hit by the sharp rock through its stomach instead. "Watch it…oh crap." Tanya had used the momentum from the jump to get to the arm cannon demon who could not reload in time. "Second form; rising scorching sun!" she slashed upwards, she just barely sliced through the demon's neck. Both she and the demon landed on the ground. 'N-no…" the female demon said as it began to dissolve.
Tanya looked over at the four-armed demon which was currently fuming as it clenched all four of its fists. "It is not my fault neither of you saw that coming. Now…" she looked over at the lead demon, Gunner. "You. tell me why you are here and maybe I will let you two go." she of course had no intention of that as she still wanted to beat Rengoku in their bet. But getting more information could not hurt. "i-I um." Gunner stuttered on his words. The four-armed demon yelled out "don't ignore me brat!" it yelled as it ran at her. 'Damn it,' Tanya was forced to use the water wheel to counter the first blow, and then alternated back to first form flame breathing to match the four-armed demon in strength. Meanwhile, gunner blinked 'two breathing styles at once? How?'. Gunner held out his palm. He needed a bit of time to collect energy first before he could join in the fight for now.
Tanya was able to counter each blow of four-armed demons' strikes. But that's about it. She could not cut off its arms like before, and more than that her arms ached. 'Damn it if this keeps up I won't be able to cut it neck.' she thought to herself. Gunner smirked, his hand glowed 'its ready.' he then shouted "blood demon art; blight blast!" a large red beam shot out from his hand. Tanya's eyes widened she was too busy defending against four arms to deflect or dodge. "Unknowing flame!" a large shout was heard as the beam was cut in two by another flaming slash and deflected into nearby bushes and trees. The four-armed demon backed away.
Tanya made a 'tch' noise and said "I don't need your help." meanwhile, Rengoku laughed "sorry I just had to step in. I wiped out my three demons quickly and saw you needed help when I got here." Tanya grumbled and thought 'of course he did.'
"Whatever, take on this four-armed one for me. I want to personally take on that demon for attempting to blast me away" Tanya said, leaving out the fact she was too tired to keep up with the four-armed demon for much longer. Rengoku and her switched positions, him now facing the four-armed one and her now facing Gunner. "Whoever takes me on does not matter, I will wipe you all out!" the four-armed demon ran at Rengoku, who quickly countered with his flaming strikes.
The two exchanged blows, but Rengoku pushed the demon back by cutting off an arm. "Grrrr, damn redhead!" it shouted after its arm grew back. Rengoku ignored the insult and continued their fight. Tanya meanwhile was approaching Gunner. The demon gulp "d-dang it! I still need more time to charge!" he ran further into the shine to buy himself more time. "Hey get back here!" she yelled. As she got closer the demon she was chasing aimed his hand backward and activated his demon art, but she was able to easily dodge it since it was not charged as much. "Stay away from me!" he yelled but was ignored.
The chase continued for another minute, "I got you now!" Tanya yelled as she was right behind him. But Gunner quickly turned and aimed his hand point-blank at her. "Blood demon art; blight blast!" he shouted with a grin thinking he other. Tanya took her blade and shouted "fourth form; Blooming flame Udulation!" the moment he fired his blast the now flaming blade not only deflected the blast up and away from Tanya, but also cut through the demon's arms. "Ahhh!" he yelled as he backed away and tripped while holding his arm. Tanya stood above him "need to take him out before his arm regrows!" she took a deep breath in, preparing to use another technique. When her hearing picked up on something above her. She was forced to jump back and block the attack of energy iron barbs with her prepared attack.
"Who the hell did that?!" Tanya yelled in an angered tone. She watched as after the iron barbs disappeared and a man she recognized, with slicked-back brown hair, a scar over his left eye. Unlike last time she met him he was now wearing a black and gray Yukata and blue colored pants of sorts. She gritted her teeth. 'Of course, he was reincarnated as well.' she knew this mans name, but only because his daughter's name was burned into her mind as the one responsible for her second death. 'Anson Sue. I don't see his daughter with him. More than that he is a demon as well…' she thought to herself and gave a large grin. 'Give me a reason to kill him yet again.' Anson looked at the demon behind him and said "stay there and don't do anything." he then looked back at Tanya, the young girl made him remember his own daughter. "I would rather not kill a little girl, please leave and I promise I will not kill you. More then that, we will leave." Tanya just raised her blade up, he already knew what was coming and made more iron barbs appear "let this be your final warning…if you survive. Blood demon art; endless iron rain!"
Meanwhile back at The entrance of the shine, Rengoku was still fighting the four-armed demon. The demon had regrown two of its arms, it chuckled "the boss is here. That means that another girl is in trouble now." it said as it licked it lips. Rengoku tilted his head "Tanya? She will be fine. But I do suppose I should go help her. And this fight has been going on for too long." he got his sword ready for another strike. The four-armed demon clenched all four of its fists "please I human like you could never beat me. Maybe I will break all your arms, and drag you over to watch as the boss rips apart, Tanya was it? Maybe force you to watch as I eat her as well!" the demon maliciously laughed. Rengoku kept his smile, but his tone changed with the next thing he said "is that what you think will happen? Seems I have no reason to hold back anymore." The four-armed demon opened its mouth "sorry hold back?! Grrrr, I will tear that smile off your face!" the four-armed demon punched forward with four of its fists.
Rengoku tilted back, and yelled "Flame breathing, sixth form; fire that pierces the sky!" he yelled loudly, he jumped and made one large slash upwards as he did. A sorta flame pillar resulted from under him after he was done. His feet landed on the stone pathway of the shrine. Various body parts of the demon's upper body fell next to him, half of the demon's torso, all four of its arms, and finally, its head, which clunked on the ground and the demon's face in shock. Rengoku just started to run off where Tanya and the other demon had gone, without saying another word to the four-armed demon. As the demon's body was disappearing it thought to itself 'that…that flame breather could have wiped me out this whole time? Why didn't he till now? More than that…that girl had managed to keep up with me as well. Had she not been focusing on more than one demon she might have gotten a lucky cut through my neck as well….I stood no chance from the beginning…I am sorry Anson.' the demon's head along with the rest of its body was gone.
Meanwhile, Tanya was still busy dodging and deflecting the assault of many iron barbs thrown at her. Two of then nearly went right into her head but she just barely managed to dodge =, the two pierced hard through the stone behind her. She breathed in and out, trying to catch her breath. 'Damn it all, that fight earlier took most of my energy, I can barely keep up with his attacks.' she was tired, really tired, and her arms and hands ached. 'Nows my chance!' Gunner thought as he raised his arms to fire his fully charged blight blast. But Anson put his hand in front of the demon. "No. its over. We are leaving."
Tanya Groaned and gave a vicious sneer, her more rational side told her to let them go. But she really really wanted to kill him now. "Like hell, you're leaving." she very weakly raised her blade and was about to charge at Anson and Gunner when Rengoku stood in front of her. "No, we should let them go." Tanya blinked up at him. "H-huh? Why?! He's right there! You just wanna win our bet!" she yelled as she had only killed two demons and he killed five now. Anson sighed and clenched his fist "if you are here that means Reen is gone right?" Rengoku assumed that was the name of the four-armed demon and nodded.
Rengoku then turned to Tanya and said "the reason we should let them go is that that man is something someone like my father would have trouble taking on even without fighting anyone else beforehand." the blonde girl was confused, Beings X and Z had told her that there were powerful demons under Muzan, but did not alliterate much on what they were. Anson knew what the demon slayer meant and opened his left eye where his scar was it read 'lower 6' he then said "I am a member of the twelve Kizuki. Even though I am of the lower 6, I get the feeling you two won't last that long against me."
Tanya gritted his teeth 'great, Being X likely gave him some bull shit power boost again to use against me!" Anson looked up at the sky "however, it won't be long till the sun is up. I can't risk you two managing to hold off till then. Or until the man you mentioned comes. If he is a Hashira I definitely won't be able to finish him off before the sun comes up. So…" he patted Gunner on the arm "we are going. I hope we do never meet again demon slayer and trainee demon slayer." the two demons left, they were gone before long.
Tanya looked down at the ground, she knew she needed to get stronger, if that Twelve kizuki are of the strongest of the demons and she could not even beat the weakest of them. She stood no chance as she was against teh others, much less Muzan himself. She looked at Rengoku and said "well I guess this means you win. I am too tired to try and find the other five if they haven't even left already." Rengoku's smile widened even more then usual, something which she had no energy to get mad at now. "GREAT! I will have to figure out what I want. But do not worry, it will not be something bad. I respect the right to say no!" he said proudly, once again, Tanya did not have the energy to get angry.
"Whatever let's just go back." Tanya managed to say as she hobbled to leave, but she was suddenly picked up by Rengoku "w-what are you doing?! Put me down!" she suddenly found the energy from the surprise of it as her face flushed red a little. "You said you were tired and I have enough energy left to get us both back!" he did not even address the fact that he picked up without asking, that or he just did not seem to realize. Tanya grumbled, she punched him in the arm, softly as she did not have much energy. "Fine. carry me back. But if you yell once I am cutting your head off!" Rengoku nodded and began the walk back to his house. Not to far after they left the shrine Tanya felt her eyelids droop a little. She absentminded leaned head against Rengoku's shoulder and promptly fell asleep.
A little while later, as the sun was rising they made it back. Rengoku had taken his time as to not wake Tanya. When he entered the yard he saw his younger brother waiting for him, he also saw a bunch of stuff all over the ground, a basket next to them as if it had been thrown. "Senjuro…" he said, quietly for once. His younger brother looked up at him "Kyojuro…its mom."
~~~~~1908~~~~~
Tanya destroyed another training dummy, her flame breathing skills improved despite her 'teacher' had neglected to teach either her or Senjuro anything for over a year. Not that she could blame him. She looked at the blade in front of her. She remembered when she learned of Ruka's passing. She felt a little sad having made a little connection with the woman, but of course, the family was devastated. Senjuro had only recently stopped crying. While the flame hashira, now former flame Hashira. Turned to drink and left the demon slayer corps. He hated it now and cursed them, especially his eldest son Kyojuro.
This of course meant Tanya had no one to teach her flame breathing, thankfully Kyojuro had told her about the book that had all the information she needed. And he would occasionally stop by to train with her after a mission. She made a 'tch' noise when the thought of the eldest son Rengoku came up. She could not conceive of the reason why, but even after the loss of his mother and the constant berating from his father whenever he was around, Kyojuro Rengoku kept up his smile. Both his smile and overly enthusiastic personality stayed strong throughout all of it. While his smile was not present during teh funeral, unlike his father and brother he did not weep or cry. At least not when everyone was looking to Tanya's knowledge. Even the other student Kyojuro took on that had recently become a demons slayer, Mitsuri Konroji, said she's never seen him not smiling.
It made Tanya mad. While she hardly, if ever, felt a feeling of loss even during her time in the empire's wars. She saw her fellow soldiers when they were sad, she knew that no matter how many they lost they cried and cried as if never getting used to the loss. The only exceptions were the generals at the top. Suddenly, Tanya felt unable to move, she grumbled and said "what do you two want?!"
Moments of silence passed before Being X's voice spoke up "I did not want to speak to you. She did. But…trust me it is best you wait for her to stop giggling like a little fangirl", Tanya was confused 'a fangirl? What the hell?' Being Z spoke up in the feminine voice "I heard that both of you! Anyways, Tanya! You can always help the man trying to be a tough manly man by comforting him~" She narrowed her eyes, one of the few things she could do in this frozen state. "No," she said simply. Being Z made a pouting noise "oh don't be like that. Just talk to him, please? I promise I will make it worth your while." being X suddenly spoke up "hey you can't just do that!" Tanya sighed and said "fine, but in exchange, I want a guaranteed victory in the final selection."
Once again Being X spoke up and said "hey you can't just do-" "done!" being Z cut him off and suddenly time was unfrozen. As Tanya went to 'comfort' Rengoku Being X grumbled "Z….what are doing" the other godly being whistled "nothing~" he grumbled once more, he hated sharing a plain with Being Z.
Meanwhile, Tanya was approaching Rengoku, who was sitting on the porch, smiling of course. He was also wearing his father's Haori nowadays "HELLO MISS KOCHO! I see your training is coming along well so far. You might even be able to make it to next year's final selection." he said this proudly, somehow ignoring the large mark on his cheek. Tanya did not ask, she already knew it was likely from his father throwing an empty rum bottle at him. She sighed "yeah that's great, look we need to talk Rengoku." she said as the man nodded "Okay! What about? Do you need more help with your training? Have a question about the final selection? Or perhaps want to discuss dinner? I think we should get Senjuro for tha-"
"None of those things!" Tanya yelled and rubbed her temple, she sat next to Rengoku. He looked at her and rubbed her chin "oh? Then what?" Tanya sighed "just something else…" Rengoku waited for her to say what it was. But Tanya in her head was thinking 'what do I even say? I have no idea!' she historically had a terrible bedside manner, hell when Senjuro was still crying every day about his mother dying she'd yell at him when she was trying to sleep. What the heck was she supposed to say now?
"um…Tanya? You've been silent for almost a minute now. Are you okay?" Rengoku still smiled as he asked this. Tanya gripped her pants 'screw it' she thought and said in a very stern, and blunt manner "Rengoku, why the hell aren't you sad? Or mad even? How the hell do you keep smiling? Your mother is dead, your father berates you and is constantly drunk! And your brother would cry whenever you weren't around." he remained silent, but said nothing. Which only pissed Tanya off, she grabbed his collar "Listen here, I've always hated your smiling always enthusiastic self. You're loud, obnoxious, and annoying. But what I hate more is this. Have you even cried once? Or-"
"Yes," Rengoku said right away, still smiling, but Tanya could tell his tone was now somber and calm. "Tanya, I know it's dumb to say but I have to keep smiling and remain positive. It's what my mother would want. I have to keep dealing with my father because my mother would never want me to abandon him, even when Senjuro grows up and possibly leaves. I have to keep smiling for him as well. And you." Tanya gritted her teeth "no, don't include me in your bs." Rengoku closed his mouth and stood up. "I suppose I will go then so you can cool down. I apologize if I angered you."
Rengoku got up and walked away. Soon he came to the gate but he stopped as he was about to open it. He took his blade and countered another slash that came for him, seeing Tanya on the other end. "What are you-" before he could finish Tanya slashed at him again, forcing him away from the gate. "Consoling people has never been my strong suit. So screw that. Rengoku, fight me. Use this to vent out all your frustrations and sadness, Cause I ain't letting you leave until you do." she then shuttered and said "even if I have to watch you do it." for once she saw Rengoku physically frown, even at the funeral his face was neutral at best. "Are you sure about this Tanya? I might not be able to hold myself back."
Tanya nodded. She held her blade out. Rengoku's smiled again, but this time it morphed into a large toothy sneer "then I am about to go all out, both in this fight and with everything I need to get off my chest! Tanya Kocho, defend with everything you have!" Tanya gives her patented evil-like smile "I was planning on doing more than that."
The two rushed at each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A-are you two okay?!" Senjuro asked as he had only just come outside as the fight was finishing. On the floor in the middle of a somewhat on fire training ground laid Tanya and Rengoku. Both had a few cuts and bruises, and of course scorch marks along their body and clothes. "We are fine Senjuro! Thank you for checking!" Rengoku yelled at him "o-okay I am going to get the first aid!"
After the boy ran off Tanya looked at Rengoku and said in between breaths "really? Still?" Rengoku looked back at her from their laying down position "I can still keep positive for him. And now I hardly need to force myself to do that, got most of my beef out now." Tanya smirked. She was amazed that throughout all his yelling, and a few tears in his eyes, Rengoku was still able to keep up with her fully. 'I bet his crying was the only reason we tied this time as well, normally that would piss me off, but his fight helped me relieve some stress as well.' Tanya thought to herself.
The two sat up "thank you Kocho, really. I needed that." Rengoku said as Tanya shrugged and rubbed her bruised arm "no problem, I needed this as well." Rengoku got up and offered her his hand to help them get up, which she took. "We can do that any time. It will, after all, help me train more for next year's final selection. So there is a plus for me as well." Tanya said after letting go of his hand when she got to her feet. She of course now knew being Z was going to ensure her success at the final selection, but she knew being X would most likely still make it hell for her.
Rengoku rubbed the back of his head but nodded. Senjuro came out with the first aid they had, thankfully their father had drunk himself to sleep and did not hear everything. After getting patched up the three went inside to eat dinner, Tanya was going to head to the final selection next year, and she was going to pass no matter what. After all…
She only had 18 years after that to succeed.