~~~~~1909~~~~~
The final selection was finally over, all night required now being over. The group of Six managed to make it to the gate with the sunrise signaling the end of the final night. Granz and Viktoriya breathed in long but much-needed sighs of relief. "Thankfully we survived." the girl said as he brushed her usually clean but now most definitely dirty and ruined hair. Weiss gave a large stretch, he still had managed to stay less wounded than the others, though he had procured some cuts and bruises due to being the mainline of defense over the last few nights.
Tanya grinned widely 'seems that the defensive area was the smart move.' she figuratively patted herself on the back, since doing so physically would probably look weird to the others. That and her torso wounds had not fully healed yet. She looked over and saw Mary crouching and holding her hands together. "Oi, what are you doing?" she shouted over, causing the girl to shake her head and say in a somewhat stirred voice "I-I am saying a prayer for those who did not make it. For Kami to guide their souls" Tanya did roll her eyes, but she did sorta expect this.
"Hmm, now that she mentions it, the six of us seem to be the only survivors." Willibald pointed out as no one else had come down the mountain. "Six out of thirty people made it back alive. Ironically making it a thirty percent pass for this final selection." he seemed to not like that drop-off rate but did only in the tone of his voice. His look in no way conveyed what he felt. The others, barring Tanya and Willibald, gave sad looks at this knowledge. Granz and Viktoriya even joined in the prayer with Mary. after that everyone waited in silence for the announcement to officially be made.
Eventually, the six were stood in a line, covered in their bandages from before. The two girls from the beginning of the stood before them. "Congratulations on passing the final exam, and on your first day as officially Demon slayers." the two spoke once more in perfect unison, which no one gave weird looks to anymore, compared to what they saw in the final selection it felt normal. "As some of you may be aware, the Demon Slayer Corp has ten main ranks." the two would then begin switching off as they spoke the names of each rank "Mizunoto, Mizunoe, Kanato, Kanoe, Tsuchinoto, Tsuchonoe, Hinoto, Hinoe, Kinoto, and Kinoe."
The six present listened along as they did not want to disrupt the girls from their explanation. "In addition to that there is the Hashira, which one can become if they are a Kinoe, have slain at least 50 demons, or have slain a member of the Twelve Kizuki. But becoming Hashira should not be your sole goal, for the goal of the demon slayers is to protect others. Before we get to the last thing you need to do before heading out." the two girls clapped their hands, suddenly six Crows landed on the shoulder of each survivor. Tanya seemed a little annoyed as the crow flapped around on her shoulder but eventually, she managed to get it to stop. "These are your Kasugai crows, take good care of them as they will be your main form of communication between the corps and they be how you find out about missions." the two moved slightly, where a table with many ores sat "a Nichirin sword of yours will be forged at the swordsmiths village from the ore you pick here. So choose wisely."
The six of them all walked forward and looked over the table, while the others were figuring it out Weiss seemed troubled. He looked at the two girls to a question about his weapon, "Hey, what if I already have a Nichirin sword that I like?" he takes out his thickly laid sword with the chain attached to the handle. "We would still recommend picking an ore." that was the simple response they gave. He sighed and put his sword away and looked over the ore.
Tanya meanwhile was thinking as she looked over the ore. 'Does it matter which I pick? They all look the same. Is it a sorta test?' she racked her brain for something that at least at first glance seemed so simple. After a while, though all six had managed to pick an ore, which they handed over so that they may be sent to be forged into swords. With the final part done the two girls bowed to the six of them "we once again congratulate you in your passing, we wish you luck and good fortune in your missions to come." the six of them, even Tanya, felt obligated to bow back saying "thank you" quietly under their breaths.
The six traveled together for a little while before Weiss stopped in the path "this is where we go our separate ways. I plan on heading to my master to give him the good news… well I suppose both of them." The others seemed saddened to see him go so soon. Tanya was as well but was able to hide it better, she walked up to Weiss and held her hand out "thank you for your help Weiss. Try not to die out there." the man gave a wide smile and shook her hand "same to you litt- I mean Tanya." he managed to catch his words. He shook everyone's hand to say goodbyes and waved back as he walked down a left path away from the others "goodbye everyone, hopefully, we see each other on a mission sometime." he soon was out of sight.
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The rest of them made their way with Tanya to the butterfly mansion, Granz and Viktoriya because Urokodaki said he would be there when they made it back, Willibald because he wanted to have his arm properly checked, and Mary for similar reasons. having to take a stop to stay at a village for the night. No problems arose the next that stopped so they made it there faster than when Tanya left originally.
'I just need one guess…' Tanya already had a feeling about what was about to happen when she walked through the gates of the mansion. And as she predicted she was instantly brought into a large hug by the eldest Kocho sister. "I knew you could do it, Tanya!" the aforementioned girl grunted a little and in a slightly muffled voice responded "yeah, but I was wounded badly on my side and shoulder. You're making it worse!" she was brought out of the hug as Kanae thoroughly looked her over from top to bottom, Tanya felt like she was being looked over by an overly concerned parent, though this time they actually had a reason to be concerned. "Oh my, you…" Kanae looked over at the other four. "...and your friends seem like they need help."
Aoi and Shinobu looked over all five of them, repatching their makeshift bandaging and treating what they could. "Well, I am glad that you passed Tanya." Shinobu said as she finished up the last of the patchwork. "Oh, and do not worry about your uniform, I made sure they knew….to give you the proper one." Tanya looked confused by what Shinobu meant, but then she remembered Mitsuri's uniform and shuttered, "thank you."
Willibald thanked them for helping him, his arm was still in an arm slang though thankfully it was not broken it just needed a little bit of time to heal. "HEY!" he froze when he heard the loud shout of a very familiar man. "Oh no…" suddenly he felt a large his to his back causing him to stumble. He looked back to see the scarred face of Sanemi Shinazugawa. "Hello Sanemi, I trust you are doing well. How is Genya?" the wind Hashira's face contorted a little "don't talk about him. I just heard from Kanae you were here so I came over to say hi. And how the hell did you get a broken arm?!" Willibald sighed, he should have figured Sanemi would be here since he was with Kanae Kocho, and yet he was ill-prepared to deal with him now. "It is not broken0 OW!" he yelled as Sanemi squeezed his wounded arm. "bULLSHIT!"
While Willibald was busy being somewhat abused by his senior wind breather Granz and Viktoriya were hugging their master and grandfather, Urokodaki. "I am so glad you two made it back, I admit I was more than worried that at least one of you would not." Giyu, who was there as he had bandaged over her cheek from a wound he got on a recent mission, nodded, showing his worry in his own way. "Thank you master, but…I only survived because a stronger person helped me. And we only ran away. That hand demon…he is still there." there was a moment of silence between them.
Giyu narrowed his eyes, he felt a tinge of shame when the memory of the hand demon came back to him. The shame he felt when Sabito had to save him was fresh in his memory, never leaving him even after his recent rise to the position of the water pillar amongst the Hashira. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see his master "it is fine." he turned back to his three students, "it will be alright, just surviving is enough for me." the three nodded back at Urokodaki, proud of themselves for making him happy.
Eventually Tanya made, more so hobbled, her way outside. She looked miserable, by that was just because she just found out that her own shotty patchwork of her wounds had led it to become a little infected. 'Luckily Shinobu said it was not bad, which given the time period I guess is a very good thing.' when she first heard she was worried she was doomed but seems the younger Kocho sibling had even better talents in pharmaceuticals than the eldest. The antibiotics she put Tanya on would need to be taken for a little while and until they were finished Tanya could not be cleared for field missions. The only bright side to this was every other new demon slayer at the mansion, except Mary, was pretty much in the same boat as her.
Tanya was about to go find a shady spot to relax when she heard a family, overly-enthusisic voice yell. "HELLO TANYA KOCHO, CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING FINAL SELECTION!" there she saw Rengoku, though had crutches and had various bandages around his body. Next to him was Mitsuri who was also wounded but not nearly as much. And finally some strange man Tanya did not reconize amongst them, he had a white Haori with black stripes and bandages over his mouth though he himself did not seemed injured like Rengoku or Mitsuri. But of course, the snake draped around her shoulders.
Tanya walked over to them. "Oh my I am so glad you became a demon slayer Tanya. I wonder how cute you will look in your uniform." Mitsuri held her cheeks as they flared pink, Tanya chose to ignore that cute comment and looked at the man in crutches. She smirked and crossed her arms "the mighty Rengoku, arms, and legs in a cast? Did a demon somehow manage to wound you that badly? I am disappointed." at this Rengoku just gave a large hardy laugh. "Indeed, it was a tough battle. But, the demon was slain which is all that matters."
While Rengoku himself did not seem bothered by Tanya's comments, he in fact seemed to have his spirits slightly raised. But the man with a snake on his shoulders did not seem to take to kindly to that. "Hey, short little brat, speak with the new Flame Hashira with more respect!" the snake on his shoulders hissed at the blonde girl. Tanya's mouth fell to a frown "short?! Brat?! You might be the first person in a while who is almost as short as me!" the two glared at each other. Rengoku stood in front of Tanya, Mitusri in front of the other. "Iguro don't yell and insult Tanya after just meeting her she is my friend and she just passed her final selection." the serpent breather, Obanai Iguro just looked slightly away, his face bandaging covering a little blush on his lower cheeks. "Fine, but she still is a brat."
Tanya was annoyed by that interaction, but she looked up at Rengoku. "So flame Hashira huh? Seems I missed something when I was away." the yellow-red-haired boy rubbed the back of his head "yeah. Senjuro was quite happy about it, I wanted him to come here so he could be with me while I recovered by he insisted he stay with father…" the smile on his face faltered a little, which she caught quickly. "Let me guess, your father did not care that you now hold his previous position?" Rengoku nodded. Tanya gave a large sigh, "well screw him…oh, and congratulations Rengoku." thankfully that last part seemed to restore the brighter smile on the boy.
Meanwhile, Mary was just sitting on the balcony, just out of earshot of everyone else outside. "What are you doing now?" Mary nearly jumped off the balcony when she heard a soft voice near her ear. She saw the eldest Kocho sibling, Kanae smiling down at her. The flower pillar sat down next to her. "Well? Forgive me but you seemed lonely by yourself out here." Mary's eyes narrowed a little and she looked down at her hands "its nothing, maybe I should have gone to my master's place like one of the other people who passed did." she looked at the others in the yard and garden who was smiling and talking with the ones that trained them. Kanae patted Mary on the head "do not worry, I am sure he will be quite excited to hear you passed. After you heal up and get your uniform and sword you can head right on over." Mary knew she was right, and nodded.
The next day the five new demon slayers received their uniforms and were getting changed into them. The Kakushi that delivered them was outside, he adjusted his glasses trying to ignore the glare he felt Shinobu giving him. Giyu looked at her and asked "why are you staring at him like that?" she just turned her head away "I have my reasons." Mitsuri giggled, knowing the exact reason why. She wondered if it would happen again today.
The first out was Willibald and Granz, the former's uniform being slimmer as to fit a more agile style. "You look good Granz." the boy nodded at his master. Willibald meanwhile was patted hard on the back by Sanemi. "Now all we need is a couple of scars on ya and you will look the part of a true wind breather Koe." Willibald chuckled nervously "I hope you are joking." he looked at Sanemi, and then at Kanae who gave a shrug 'he isn't kidding is he?!' he turned his head slightly towards the wind pillar, hoping Sanemi did not intend to inflict the scars himself.
Next was Tanya, she had the standard uniform on, with the white Haori Rengoku gave her over it. "Kyaaaa! Tanya, you look so adorable in the uniform!" Mitsuri yelled along with Kanae who ran over and gave the girl a large hug. "Now I worry the demons will wanna eat you up for being so cute!" Kanae said as she huddled her littlest sister close. "S-stop calling me that!" Shinobu tried pulling on "Onee-sama stop huger her so hard, her wound is still healing!" Rengoku laughed hard "haha, it does fit you quite well Kocho, I am glad they did not give you the other uniform."
Just then two loud feminine yells "AHHHHHH" came from inside. The doors were pulled over, there stood a blushing Mary and Viktoriya. Their uniforms were much like Mitusuris, short skirts and revealing chest windows in all. Tanya received second-hand embarrassment, 'thankfully Shinobu acted on my behalf before I got one as well.' The Kakushi adjusted his glasses "the uniform is quite good is it not? I especially made it for-" he stopped when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder, this time not Shinobu's but Urokodaki, whose mask only added to the intense aura coming off. "You especially made it for what exactly?" the two girls ran up to him and grabbed him as well. "I-i-if I had known y-you wanted the other uniform I would have done so. The other butterfly slayer told me to do so for her younger sister." he looked over at Tanya. "Though I suppose it would not have done much anyway." Tanya's veins popped hearing that.
After being beaten into submission the man agreed to make some 'adjustments' to the uniform for Viktoriya and Mary. both did prefer the skirt but had it be made slightly longer so that it would be less revealing. He also extended the top part of the uniform and allowed them to better hide their chests. Mitsuri was saddened by this as she thought she would have someone else with a similar uniform as her, but she was quickly cheered up when Obanai said "she looked good either way." something he said before immediately running up a tree.
After that came their swords, the man with a strange mask appeared before them and delivered them. His name was Hotaru, "oh I cannot wait to see all the interesting colors the Nichirins swords take." he seemed overly excited. Willibald became Green, as expected. Viktoriya's and Granz swords became the expected colors as well, the former light pink for her more proficient style in flower, and Granz blue. Mary's became yellow, but instead of pure yellow, it became so akin to royal yellow in color. "Interesting, that much be a result of your breathing style being derived from thunder breathing!" Mary smiled and was happy that her unique style was acknowledged.
Finally, Tanya, whose Nichirin sword at first just turned red. Expected as well with her more proficient usage in flame breathing, but then something changed. The blade became more of a pastel purple. "Huh, weird…" she said quietly. The others seemed intrigued as well. "Never seen that color before. What does that mean?" Rengoku said in curiosity, something that no else seemed like they could answer. 'Of course, I am the odd one out. I swear if this is a cursed color being X…' she was a little annoyed. But nothing like Hotaru was as he shook and suddenly jumped at Tanya, only being held back by Giyu and Sanemi "it was nearly perfect, Red, green, yellow, and pink. Red would mean you all matched your trainers in one way. What teh heck did you do to make it turn pastel purple?!"
It took a while to calm Hotaru down, he left mumbling to himself things that everyone was glad they could not hear.
That night they all had dinner at the butterfly mansion, as food filled the tables and everyone was in their seats talking in between bites. Tanya for her own part was sat between Rengoku and Viktoriya. Mary was sitting across from her was slightly miffed that she had arrived at the table late so she could not sit next to Tanya, not that she would admit that out loud. "Iguro try this, it's a fish dish from Russia I helped make." Mitsuri tried to put the chopsticks that held a bit of the fish to his mouth, "i-I don't need you to feed me."
Meanwhile, Sanemi had a similar situation where Kanae was poking him on the cheeks while the man himself was blushing a little bit. "Stop it Kanae, I already admitted that you won." he grumbled as Kanae ate down the length of noodles she had in her mouth "ah, if only you hadn't bite down when we got close." she teased to which the wind pillar just crossed his arms and began eating more of what he had on his plate, trying not to acknowledge her teasing. Which just spurred her on to poke him more. Shinobu looked at Giyu who was between her and his master. "What? Not hungry?" the silent man just nodded. She was not happy with that answer "idiotic, we work tiredly to make this you know? At least show your appreciation by eating it." Giyu looked at her and shrugged, he ate it "it's good." it was no salmon daikon, but he enjoyed it.
As Viktorya talks with Granz, Aoi, and Mary about how she is going to see Arya in the village tomorrow Tanya patted her mouth with her napkins. "Hey Tanya, you okay?" Rengoku asked as he turned away from his conversation with Willibald who had gone back to eating. She nodded "yeah, I am just not a big conversation person." she said mainly because she felt she had little to nothing to talk about. The flame pillar smiled more "really? If I recall wasn't it you who challenged someone to a sword fight for not talking about something?" he said in recollection of that one night, she sighed and looked at him with a furrowed brow "just because I did that does not mean anything."
Rengoku seemed unsure of that and chuckled slightly "well I figured you wanted to talk about that interesting color your sword became. If it were Mitsuri it would be because of romantic attachments, or her femininity." Tanya was not sure how to react to that, since when did he know about color theory? "Well if my Uniform is anything to go off of, I doubt its because of Feminity." she felt Rengoku pat her on the head "whys that? I think your uniform fits you much better then the other one, but it does not take away from your female gender at all."
Tanya really was not sure how to take that, she felt her cheeks heat up for a moment and she could tell they were some shade of red or pink. "W-what ever, my theory is that the color is cursed, sorta like how the Hotaru guy mentioned the black color of Nichirin swords is considered a bad omen." she quickly changed it back to the original subject. "It is possible, but we have no reason to think that." Rengoku seemed confident that Tanya's unique sword color was not cursed in any way. She sighed "I suppose we will have to see if it is when I am cleared for mission duties."
Mary had turned her attention away from teasing Viktoriya with Granz and Aoi. she side-eyed Tanya and Rengoku as the two talked, she had noticed that Tanya's cheeks were from after just one comment. She wanted to join in their conversation but lacked the confidence to just do so. It was Viktoriya, who in an attempt to get attention off of her said "a-are you two talking about Tanya's sword?" with that the four joined in the conversation, even Mary though she only contributed minor comments.
Overall, it was a lively night for everyone.
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Two and a half weeks had passed, Tanya's infection was finally fully healed. Granz and Viktoriya were good as well, and Willibald's arm was perfectly fine. Mary was still around, claiming that she wanted to train to be able to blow out one of the larger gourds. Which she had managed to do a couple of days ago. Urokodaki left to go back to his home, while Giyu went on a mission shortly after that. Obanai and Mitsuri had managed to land a co-operative mission and left a week ago, Sanemi had left on a mission as well four days ago, as he had taken enough days off to spend with Kanae.
"All right Tanya, you'll be receiving a mission soon, I am sorry we won't be able to see you off for that," Kanae said as she patted Tanya on the head despite the many time she had been told not to. "Yeah yeah it's fine, I am sure you and Shinobu will be done before I am done with my first mission if I had even started it by then." Kanae smiled she knelt down by Tanya "I am going to ask next time if I can take you along with us, imagine that, the three Kocho sisters slaying demons together." Tanya just gave a small nod, as she knew it would mean a lot to her older sister if that were to happen. But unlike Shinobu who was not only Kanae's Tsuguko but also a Kinoe, Tanya was still the lowest rank into demon slayer corps, she wondered if she would even be allowed on the dangerous missions the two go on.
Tanya walked back inside the butterfly mansion after she and Aoi saw the two off. Aoi went back inside to check on newer patients they got yesterday. She saw Rengoku swinging his sword in the air, he had been training to regain his strength after not moving for a while. He saw Tanya walking over and approached as well, he could walk now but everyone once in while did so with a limp as his left leg had not been fully healed.
"You doing alright? If you push yourself to many my sisters, especially Shinobu, will berate you since you aren't fully healed yet." Tanya said as she crossed her arms and looked him over. Rengoku seethed his sword, shouting loudly "OF COURSE, I would never go against their suggested excises unless I had to, which I currently do not." he gave a small thumbs up to Tanya, who rolled her eyes. "Well, I will leave you to it then."
As she turned to leave Rengoku looked up, remembering what Mitsuri had told him when they were finally able to talk after their mission in Tokyo. Yet he was unsure if now was the right time, he was still healing and Tanya was likely going to go on a mission soon. He shook his head, he might as well get it over with, what would be the harm. "Kocho please wait, I have something I need to discuss with you." she turned back to face him, her arms still crossed.
He opened his mouth to speak when he was cut off by a crow, his crow, suddenly flying above him along with Tanya's crow who just landed on her shoulder "attention, a dangerous demon has been reported in a fishing village near Tokushima. A Hashira is requested to go along and to head out immediately!" the two looked at each other, with particular confusion as Rengoku had not been cleared for missions yet. Tanya saw the crows of the others flying around the yard of the mansion to find their owners. 'A mission that requires a hashira? Why is it my first mission then?!' Tanya thought to herself as she gritted her teeth, she could tell this was going to be rough.
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Two days earlier
An iron door is opened, three people walk into a room, a large man with a puffy mustache. A blue-haired man with glasses, and a crew-cut man with an eyepatch. They stared down at a commander who had a pistol in his hands which he had used to shoot himself, his body laid against a table. "Lieutenant lehrgen. Report." the large general said as he took a puff from his cigar.
Lehrgen adjusts his glasses "we found him dead an hour ago General Ruderkodia, he left this note." he handed the note to the general who looked it over, placing his thumb over it, he slammed the note down on the table. "Janoi, what of the reports from last night?" the man with the eyepatch cleared his throat "just as before, all five men we sent into the village were found dead in the house in question. Three of them had been killed by iron barbs, and two by bullets."
The general turned to face them. "Is Weiss still asleep?" he asked this to Lehrgen who nodded "yes, I do not think he will be much help though. I may not understand who these 'demon slayers' are, but before Weiss came back all six of those 'demon slayers' that had made their way here over the last couple of months have been killed, that's to say nothing of the ones before that." a few moments of silence passed. Ruderkodia spoke once more "Lieutenant Janoi, tell the men to prepare for a lockdown of the village, Lieutenant Lehrgen contact the village elder to let him know our intentions. I have a letter to write." the two soluted and left.
General Ruderkodia, after writing and tying up the letter to his old crow's legs put out his cigar. "It has been a while old friend, think you can deliver this?" the crow nodded and fluttered off and out of the base. He lights a cigar and puffs out the smoke "what a headache, thought I would never send him a letter again after leaving the corps."
the crow was delivering a letter that stated the following:
Dear master Ubuyashiki, I pray you are still in good health.
I know demon slayers have been sent here but none have survived, I fear the village, as well as my soldiers, have been dealing with demons led by a member of the Twelve Kizuki, if it is higher or lower moon I do not know. Please send a Hashira as with a handful of Demon slayers as soon as possible.
Thank you in advance
-Kurt Ruderkodia, former Stone Pillar