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Kugisaki Nobara smoothened her breathing with much difficulty. Panicking at this moment wouldn’t do her much good. The same couldn’t be said for her teammate, her other half, her ridiculously awkward partner, who was currently sweating up a storm. They had been in this life threatening situation for going on half an hour, just watching, waiting for back-up. Upper Moon One was not ten feet away from them, blocked by latticework and pillars, and the both of them knew they were not nearly enough to defeat him alone.
Kugisaki Nobara and Shinazugawa Genya were the only current Demon Slayer’s who could not use breath attacks. They were placed under Himejima Gyoumei’s guidance and with him they honed the skills they had been able to acquire to match each other with ease, though they didn’t exactly get along splendidly back then. Under Himejima the two honed their skills together so much that they were stronger together than apart . (And he fixed their little spat with life-threatening situations. What a good master.)
Genya nudged Nobara with his hip, nodding at the sudden entry of the Mist Hashira, Muichirou. He tilted his armed hand at her, telling her silently that he would use this to his advantage to shoot, so go behind a different door. Or pillar. Either way, Nobara moved. Not before tapping his arm thrice and jutting her chin out to Muichirou, telling him that she would get the Hashira out of the sticky situation he had found himself in, pinned against one of the pillars. Genya nodded, then waved her away.
The Upper Moon was talking to Muichirou, but Nobara really couldn’t bring herself to care. Demon’s loved to talk during a fight, for whatever reason, and she learned to tune them out a while ago. Instead, she moved closer and watched as Genya aimed.
“...means that you can only go so far…”
Genya fired.
Nobara moved.
“...don’t you think so, as well?”
Upper Moon One disappeared, probably reappearing behind Genya. Nobara willed herself not to look back, and snatched Muichirou's sword in her hands. The metal shifted into a metallic grey color. She started to pull it out, ignoring the pained gasp that left him.
Gods, this thing is really hard to remove!
Something fell to the floor. Nobara grit her teeth and continued pulling.
“GENYAA!” Muichirou’s cry had Nobara turning her head, and she winced as she witnessed a second arm, holding a sword, hit the ground, joining the gun arm. She turned away quickly, muttering, “Fuck, fuck , come out!” Muichirou started pulling with his own strength as well. They both trembled with the effort, Muichirou more so as it was literally impaled through his shoulder.
“I have no reason…” Nobara heard the Upper Moon One say. “...to let a fake demon like you live.”
“Fuck-!”
Roaring winds and the sound of a blade rang out, and suddenly Shinazugawa Sanemi, Genya’s precious older brother, was crouched in front of Genya, pushing Upper Moon One back and away.
“How dare you dice my little brother up, you fuck-eyed bastard!” Nobara heard Sanemi snarl. “You’re dead!
Dead
!”
With the sounds of battle raging, Nobara and Muichirou managed to yank the sword pinning him down with a wet squelch, tossing the sword to the ground. (Apparently, Upper Moon One’s blade is ‘ fucking disgusting.’ )Nobara ripped her haori into streds, creating makeshift bandages and started stitching and wrapping Muichirous shoulder. A bang went off. Sanemi had Genya’s gun.
Himejima-sama entered.
Nobara could practically feel relief oozing out of her. If Master was here, they had nothing much to worry about. A few moments later Sanemi was a couple pillars away from them, stitching up his own wounds. Once Nobara finished with Muichirou’s wrapping she grabbed his arm and snatched up his sword, rushing to Genya.
“Hey, uh, Nobara? You mind… giving my torso a good… shove?” Speaking of Genya.
“Genya!! You’re alive?” Muichirou stepped back as Nobara went to him. “You’re gonna… put your body back together?”
Genya winced, then nodded. “It’s gonna be tough though… Say, The upper moons… hair is over there. Can you uhh… get it for me? So I can eat it… I wanna fight to the end… like aniki… and Master…”
Muichirou nodded. “Alright. We’ll fight together to the very end. Nobara?”
She grunted, and gave up trying to push Genya’s torso. (He’s fucking heavy !) Instead she kicked his legs closer and brought him his arms. “...Yeah. To the very end. But if you give me some of that hair, the end will come a lot sooner than you think it will.”
Genya grinned at her. “We’ll just have to buy some time.”
Muichirou looked a little confused, but he still went over and grabbed the hair that had fallen in Upper Moon One’s scuffle with Himejma-san. He brought it back over to the duo, handing some to Nobara and feeding the rest to Genya. “Genya? Are you okay?”
It was taking a lot longer for Genya to digest the hair. Probably because it was so concentrated with Kibutsuji. “Pull yourself together, Genya. Just hang on.” The encouragement was definitely helping, Nobara mused. She pulled out her straw doll, tying the hair around its neck and torso, tucking into the straw for best results.
“Nobara?” Muichirou had turned to Nobara. “What..?”
“I’m just waiting for Genya to finish digesting. I don’t want to ruin the effects for him.”
Muichirou probably didn’t understand at all, but he nodded anyway. Instead he nodded to his sword, “Can you tie my remaining hand to my sword? I don’t have the grip I want with just one hand.”
“Yeah, hang on.” She grabbed the scraps she used earlier as a bandage to firmly tie his hand to his sword. “There.”
“Thanks.”
Genya slowly sat up, groaning. “Okay, okay. Wow. That was a lot.”
Nobara grinned ferociously at her partner. “You think you’re up for the usual, big guy?”
Genya grinned just a ferally back, his newly acquired demon fangs enhancing the look. “Of course. Alright, Muichirou-san, here’s the plan...”
As Muichirou went out to start on his part, Genya shoved Upper Moon One’s left over blade down his throat.
“Wow. You could never be a sword-swallower. You suck at that.”
He flipped her off, then took a deep breath. He turned to her. “If we die, its not because you couldn’t do it quick enough. We know this, now get to it!”
Genya ran off and Nobara didn’t even allow herself a deep breath before she plunged a nail deep into the right leg of Upper Moon One. A large spike immediately spurted from Upper Moon One’s leg, nearly severing it off with the sheer size the small nail had transitioned to. Muichirou gasped and yanked his- now red- sword out of Upper Moon One and jumped back as quick as he could manage.
“GET BACK!” Genya shouted to Sanemi and Himejima-san as he aimed for Upper Moon One’s head, removing his sight so he didn’t know where the nail came from. Nobara quickly drove another into his chest. The Upper Moon shrieked when the nail turned life sized in and out of him.
“The fuck???” Sanemi bounded back to where Nobara was hammering. “What the FUCK ???”
Nobara snatched out her nichirin saw, and pressed it to the demon's neck. “You fuckers better protect the shit outta me because I’m not strong enough to take this off in a single slice like you monsters!!”
Himejima-san, Sanemi, and Muichirou immediately began slicing and dicing the eyes and arms of the Upper Moon to keep him from her, Muichirou touching blades with them turning their’s red too. Himejima-san leapt back to touch his axe with Nobara’s saw. Genya crouched in front of Nobara, directing the Upper Moon with clawed swipes away from their general direction every time he got too close for comfort.
The three watched(because Himejima-san was blind) in awe and confusion(minus Genya, who was used to this) as messy slices appeared onto the Upper Moon’s neck, and finally, a whopping ten seconds later, his head flew off. Jagged and messy, but off.
The Upper Moon had not died silently, but the demon slayers had not watched quietly either, crowding around Nobara with absolute confusion.
“What the fuck was that!?”
“That is an interesting technique, Nobara.”
“Good job.”
“No no, you guys are missing the point ! What the FUCK WAS THAT???”
“Her technique, clearly.”
“Back off, shorty! Clearly my ass! What kind of technique-??”
“Holy shit, I did that. Can I pass out now?”
“I’ll carry you until you wake up.” Himejime-san lifted his student, pride washing over him. “Though it’s not over yet.”
“Right, we still have to take out the big bad, right Genya?”
“Haha!”
“Kugisaki Nobara! Himejima Gyoumei! Shinazugawa Sanemi! Tokito Muichirou! Shinazugawa Genya have defeated Upper Moon One! No casualties!”
On their way to their next mission, as grave as it was, the five of them were undoubtedly in higher spirits than when they had started.