Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kanao’s perspective

Location: Forest near a small town

“Is Tanjiro-Sama, okay?” Kanao heard the Demon with the Kanji for ‘6’ inquire once she got out of the box that the Thunder Breathing user had been carrying on her back, looking at the box that held the young Demon King with some concern.

“I have no clue. He has been asleep for the past few weeks, almost like he did after….” Hanako tried to explain uneasily before stopping after a moment. Currently, she sat next to her sister and laid next to the older Kamado. Thankfully, the last few weeks that it took for the group to reach their new mission allowed the young girls ribs to mostly heal, though too much physical activity can still cause pain to her.

“Our brother spent about a year asleep the last time he was like this. Sufficed to say, it’s… a bit disturbing to see him not acting at all.” Nezuko explained, also looking at the box that contained her brother with unease.

“Actually, what even is our mission? Schrill only said that this mission apparently needs your skills.” Genya asked Kushi, who was setting up a campfire for the group to use for the night with Inosuke.

“The mission is to simply gather intel. A lot of children have been going missing in a pretty popular town that focuses on art and we are heading there to figure out if a Demon is behind the disappearances.” She explained as the Naginata user placed a fallen stick back onto the pile before them and Inosuke finished securing it to make sure that the forest around them doesn’t potentially burn.

“Besides, even if the mission does end without a Demon being in that town, we might still be able to help out the situation a bit.” The Ice Breathing user added in his own thoughts, causing a small smirk to appear on Kushi’s face.

“Do you know what the place is called?” Nezuko asked, making Kushi hum for just a moment.

“I think it’s being called Shibuya thanks to a family that lived over there back in the Edo period. It has become a popular place for those who want to express creativity, though it has been leaning more to the side of fashion for a good while now.” The Dragon Breathing user told them, getting Susamaru to speak up excitedly.

“Oh~! Do you think that we could take a few things from the village? I mean, she could certainly get a change of outfits.” Susamaru spoke up and pointed at Satoko, with the Demon with the kanji for ‘3’ in her eye chuckling a bit nervously as the group turned to her, though Inosuke and Genya quickly looked away at the state of her clothes. Thankfully, those two weren’t perverts, especially since Satoko’s civilian clothes have almost been torn to shreds at this point, though enough of her kimono and pants remained to cover her private parts comfortably.

“Would… appreciate….” Satoko says before getting up and heading into her own box for privacy, which nobody could blame her for. Honestly, Kanao was surprised that she even came out of her box at all, though the Slayer supposed that it was simply to see if she was needed to make the campfire.

“Who knows, perhaps we it might help the both of you think of a name for yourselves.” Hanako spoke up, referring to the two Spider Demons that have now joined their group. Though, this caused them both to flinch a bit uncomfortably and honestly, Kanao couldn’t blame them since the abuse from the current Lower moon 4 caused them to forget their names, even if they took up a different one after their Demonic transformation.

“Maybe….” The Demon with the kanji for ‘5’ in her eye spoke quietly, hugging herself as she shrunk down into the size that was apparently her true height when she was turned. Being entirely honest, it disturbed Kanao, as this was simply evidence that some of the Demons, she and others have killed may have been only children and that thought has been stuck in her head ever since Mukago gave her guess about Susamaru’s age when the Temari Demon was turned.

However, as Kanao looked at the Demon’s eye and looked at the kanji within the eyes of the other Demons in the group, she was left confused. After all, why was it that among the 5 Demons with them, that none of them possessed the Kanji for ‘4’, especially if their kanji numbers held the same weight that it did with a member of the Twelve Kizuki. A possibility could have been that Tanjiro held that position, but his position as a Demon King and having no kanji within his eyes disproved that theory almost instantly.

Looking down at her coin, she flipped it. Heads, she would point out this odd fact and if she got Tails, she would keep quiet. With that, she flipped that coin and once she caught it…

The Thunder Breathing user frowned when she got Tail.

“Can you 4 keep an eye out for the night? We are going to be needing sleep right now.” Kanao heard Nezuko speak, turning her head to the Demons that were currently out of their boxes.

“Sure thing. Besides, I’m surprised that you didn’t need us to watch over everyone sooner since you humans aren’t built for night like we are.” Mukago says with a smirk on her face.

With that, the humans within the group got into their Futons and slept a whole night for the first time in a good while as the Demons kept an eye out. However, no one noticed a Demon with a kanji in its eyes looking at the group for just a moment with a look of consideration and then disappearing.

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Shibuya Crossing

“What are these!?” Hanako asks in excitement as she looked at some large vehicle in the distance, with Nezuko also being a bit curious once she spotted them. In all honesty, they appeared to almost be like bigger versions of those car things she briefly saw back in Asakusa.

“Those are trains. They are used to travel across long distances with a large number of people at once.” Kanao’s spoke up, taking Nezuko by surprise until she saw the coin in the girl’s hand. Seemed that she flipped it before deciding to speak up once again.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. For now, we should focus on trying to find out what the hell is going on here.” Genya points out, causing Kushi to nod her in agreement.

“Genya is correct. Since we have a few hours before night falls, we’ll split up and try to cover as much ground as possible. Once you get all of the information that you can, meet up at the hotel we passed by, and we can go over what we have found.” Kushi orders everyone, getting them all to nod their heads. With that, the group split up and Nezuko mainly listened into different conversations, but none of them were talking about missing children.

“But why? Certainly, kids going missing should be that talk of the town, even if it’s in hushed whispers.” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family couldn’t help but think in confusion as she walked down the street, but she ended up bumping into someone and caused them to drop a vase onto the ground and it shattered instantly.

“Oh, I’m so sor-.” Nezuko began to apologise before the person she bumped into grabbed at her haori and began to shake her in a mixture of terror and rage.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU BITCH!? YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO US BOTH!?” The man screamed right in her face, taking the teenage girl by surprise. What was this man’s problem?

“Hey, calm down. It’s just a-.” She tried to calm him down as she grabbed at his arms and got him off of her haori, but the absolute rage and terror in his eyes only became a hundred times more intense as he pulled back from her.

“JUST A VASE!? WELL GUESS WHAT YOU BRAINDEAD IDIOT, THAT VASE JUST SIGNED OUR DEATH WARRENTS WHEN ‘HE’ FINDS OUT!!” He continued to scream before then attempting to punch her, but Nezuko easily sidestepped him before grabbing hold of his arm and made use of her opponent's momentum to flip him over her back and slammed him into the ground before quickly restraining him. However, as the 2^nd born child of the Kamado family did so, she was left a bit confused at the crowd of people who were looking at them both with pity while looking at the shards of the vase like it was a severed head.

“You said ‘when he finds out’. What do you mean by that?” Nezuko shook her head before focusing on the restrained man beneath her and asking curiously, to which he tried to spit at her but failed miserably.

“It doesn’t matter… the second it’s night, that art obsessed freak will make our deaths excruciating and will probably turn our corpses into unrecognisable ‘pieces’.” He told her with a voice of pure defeat, telling Nezuko that he was talking about a Demon.

“Excuse me Mrs….” She heard a new voice speak up, catching the Kamado’s attention as she turned her head and saw a young girl that looked to be around her age with short black hair and a flowery designed kimono.

“I think it’s best that you come with me. It is getting late after all.” The girl told Nezuko, making her look up to see that the sun was going to set soon, and she could tell that she would be unable to the hotel that the rest would meet up at until it was too late… that, and her intuition was screaming danger at her once she put together that there is a Demon nearby.

“Very well. I thank you for your kindness.” Nezuko told the young girl as she followed her into a small house, looking at some burning incense curiously before returning her attention back to the young girl.

“Don’t worry, I am very much aware of Demons, Slayer-San. The incense burning outside is from Wisteria, so they tend to avoid my home at night.” The girl explained, causing Nezuko to smile at her, honestly impressed with the use of Wisteria that would deter Demons from a long distance.

“You’re certainly resourceful. I’m Nezuko Kamado, can I ask for your name?” Nezuko introduced herself before asking, making the young girl smile at her and nod her head in acknowledgement as she grabbed some food for the both of them.

“Of course. I… don’t really have a last name because of a mistake I made, but you can call me Sayo. Now then, feel free to ask anything you need to.”

???’s perspective

“Shit, shit, shit! That fucking bitch, if she is targeted first, then- AGHK!” The young man who Nezuko bumped into frantically began to shove any necessary items for survival from his room into a bag as he prepared to run, but a sudden tentacle wrapped around his throat and slammed him into a wall.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT! HOW DARE YOU BREAK ONE OF MY MASTERPIECES!!” He heard a furious voice scream at him from two mouths, causing him to open his eyes and stare in absolute terror as he saw the Demon before him.

The Demon appeared to be humanoid at most with its bizarre physiology, taking on the form of a pale white, abstracted, grotesque humanoid figure with a muscular upper torso that has no arms and resembles that of an armless statue growing from a porcelain vase, similar to a djinn, also possessing multiple infant-like hands that line its back. However, the Demon’s face was even more distorted, with large green mouths located where one would expect to see its eyes, and his actual eyes are located vertically from one another on his face; one eye appearing in the constantly open bottom mouth and the other is seated at the centre of his forehead. Something odd though, was how the Demon possessed the kanji for Upper rank on its forehead eye and the kanji for ‘5’ in its mouth eye.

“I-I’m sorry Gyokko-Sama! I-!” The man tried to explain, but the tentacle around his throat began to squeeze and cut off his air supply.

“YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE EXCUSES, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD! I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD BE COMPITANT IN ALLOWING ME TO FINALLY GET THAT SAYO BRAT, BUT YOU FAILED AND DESTROYED MY ARTWORK!” The Demon named Gyokko told him furiously, veins across his head bulging, eyes seemingly ready to pop and spitting as he yelled.

Grabbing another pot with his many arms, Gyokko used it to trap the man within a vase shaped water construct, making the man panic within his prison as his lack of air and water prison was already killing him quickly.

“You aren’t even worthy of being used as material for another one of my art pieces.” Gyokko declared before teleporting through his pot and left the man to drown within his own home…

A fate that he was doomed to the second that the pot was destroyed, and the entirety of Shibuya knew it….

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

“Excuse me Mrs, but can I buy that kimono over there?” Hanako asks a woman near a counter, pointing at a kimono that was magenta in colour, but possessed a blue and white coloured wave pattern rising up from the bottom of the clothing and reached up halfway. It was fairly simple, but Hanako could tell that its fabric was a bit more durable than normal, even if not to the same extent of her haori or uniform.

“Of course, little one. Though, why are you on your own?” The woman asked curiously, to which the young Kamado was about to mentally laugh at the question since she had the box containing Satoko but stopped when her nose picked up on something.

“What is… hold on… is it coming from this woman?” The Mist Breathing user thought to herself in confusion, now becoming a bit wary of the employee.

“Oh, my sister’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to get her a really nice gift.” Hanako told the woman with what she hoped was a convincing smile. Her sense of smell was weaker than Tanjiro’s and it always has been, but she could still pick up on the smell of emotions like her brother when she is close to someone, though she couldn’t figure out what emotion the employee of this shop was feeling.

All she did know was that the emotion was setting off her danger senses and she needed to get away as soon as possible.

“I see…. Perhaps you can make something personally in the future. There is an artist school nearby that you could potentially learn from and if you don’t have the time, they are currently allowing people to make requests on different masterpieces for their students to make. They even stay open at night.” The woman suggested and that sent Hanako’s danger senses blaring in alarm.

“Whoa, that’s really interesting! I might see if my big sister can let me visit there sometime soon!” Hanako said before quickly giving money for the kimono and taking it and getting out of the shop as fast as she could. She didn’t know what the woman was trying, but she did know that this entire town may know something about the missing children if the worried and pitying looks sent her way was anything to go by. Wait a minute… could it be that these people were actually….

“Working for the Demon that took the children? Muichiro and Giyu told me and Nēchan that some people give humans to Demons in exchange for favours or to be left alone for a while.” The Mist Breathing user thought in horror to herself as she walked down a road, looking up at the sky to see that it was beginning to get dark.

“Hey Satoko-Chan, do you feel like you can safely come out?” Hanako asked the Demon within the box, keeping her voice low to avoid any ears trying to listen in on her. As a response to her question, she heard the female Demon within tap against her box once, indicating that the answer was yes.

Now knowing that her friend can come out, Hanako quickly hid in an alleyway faster than the normal human eye could hope to track and hid deep within, quickly allowing her friend out as she quickly grew to normal size.

“Here you go. I hope that it’s to your liking.” Hanako told the kanji eyed Demon, getting a gentle smile in return and receiving a pat on her head.

“Thank… you…. it… lovely….” Satoko assured her, making the young Demon Slayer smile a bit as she passed the kimono she bought to her friend. With that, the Demon removed what little remained of her previous kimono and put on the new one, with the clothing thankfully fitting the gentle Demon’s true height perfectly, though Hanako made sure that nobody saw her friend as she changed.

“Hey, Satoko-Chan… did you notice anything weird when you were in the box?” The Slayer asked her friend, knowing that her Demonic body enhanced all of her senses above that of a human, so it was possible she heard something that Hanako didn’t.

“Whispers… children… gone… common…. Culprit… known….” The Demon was able to struggle out as the two left the alleyway, looking around their surroundings and saw that most of the people were already gone for the night. Being honest, it was disturbing how quickly this place almost became a ghost town within the few minutes the pair were in the alleyway.

“So these people are actually giving children to the Demon? But… why?” The Mist Breathing questioned in horror, unable to comprehend such cruelty towards simple kids.

“World… cruel…. Some… humans… worse….” Satoko tried to explain through her jumbled speech but got out what she needed to before than pointing at her fangs to get her message across.

“I know that. But still….” Hanako assured her friend but grabbed hold of the sleeves of her haori as this reality made her uncomfortable. After all, her parents would rather suffer a million deaths than use one of their children to save their own skins and her brother fought every single one of his cells to keep her and Nezuko safe, so the current situation was both disturbing to the young girl and really come to terms with.

“What… now…?” Satoko asks, with Hanako knowing that the gentle Demon was trying to distract and draw her attention away from her current line of thoughts.

“I think we should investigate a bit more. That woman tried to direct me to an art school, so it might be the Demon’s main lair and we could potentially get vital intel on what it is exactly.” Hanako decided, her voice a bit unsure but her decision was solidified by the encouraging look that the kanji eyed Demon sent her.

“Then… will… follow….” She assured the young girl, making Hanako smile in gratitude. With that though, the Mist Breathing user reached into a pocket on her uniform and drew out some paper and a pen, quickly writing down a message and waited for a moment until Ukogi flew down and gently landed on her shoulder.

“Hey Ukogi. Thanks for coming down so quickly, but can you give this letter to one of the others? We may have discovered something important about the Demon we are hunting, and we need to investigate immediately, especially since this area has short nights.” Hanako asked her little friend, who began to chirp in a way that the young girl sadly couldn’t understand, but the tone of the chirps and the little she could detect from the Sparrow’s scent told her that he was fine with the request. With that, Hanako gently tied the message onto the Kasugai Sparrow’s leg before the little guy flew off to look for one of the other team members of the Squad or one of the more experienced Slayers tasked with watching over the group.

It took a bit, and the now seemingly empty town created a sense of dread, but the Demon and Slayer pair eventually found the apparent art school, and it was truly the only way to describe it. The building was surrounded by a large stone wall that allowed only one path of entry and might possibly be around 5 times as big as the mansion where Hanako was attacked by that Lower moon with the black cloud-based Blood Demon Art, and it possessed a truly a beautiful looking white colour scheme with purple outlines and the occasional flower pattern that was coloured green. In fact, the colours and shape of the main were somewhat reminiscent of the many pots she saw throughout the entire town.

“Territory… here…. Presence… cruel… strong…. Get… others…?” Satoko confirms after stiffening up for a moment and then asking just a moment after, making Hanako smile at her.

“Yeah, that’s probably the best idea. Especially since the others wi-.” The Mist Breathing user was about to agree, but she froze up in terror after taking a sniff of the air, freezing up as she did so and….

“Sorry about the mess, though you won’t be making complaints about it any time soon.”

“I’ll even leave that girl alive as a bonus for you.”

“When and where the Demons originally came from is unknown outside of the identity of the first Demon and the progenitor, Muzan Kibutsuji….”

“N-Nēchan… he…. He…. He’s here!”

“Hanako…!” She snapped out of her panic attack when she felt Satoko’s tight grip on her shoulders, making the youngest surviving Kamado to gasp out in shock while clutching at her chest as her heart began to beat at a barely controlled pace.

“I’m… I’m okay- Aaaaggghhhhh!!!!” Hanako tried to say but stopped as she vomited onto the ground as she began to feel nauseous as the potent smell coming from the building completely overwhelmed the poor Slayer.

However, before Satoko could possibly pick up Hanako and get them both out of there and away from the potent smell of blood and death, both of their heads snapped upward when some kind of giant goldfish like Demon that possessed the size of an Ussuri Brown Bear suddenly turned around the corner and slammed its massive body into the pair and sent them both crashing through the stone wall that surrounded the school.

“What the!?” The Slayer cried out in pain before quickly standing back up, just barely jumping to the side as the fish Demon slammed a giant human like arm covered in scales onto the ground, cracking the earth from where Hanako previously stood with little issue.

“Blood Demon Art: Nature’s Wrath Root Binding!” Satoko declared as she used her claws to stab into the palms of her hands and allowed the blood to freely flow and fall onto the ground, allowing her to take control of the roots buried within the ground and sent them straight at the enemy Demon and successfully bound it.

“Mist Breathing First Form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze!” Hanako yelled out as she made use of the opportunity to quickly thrust her blade forward and successfully decapitated the Demon. However, instead of the body falling limb and beginning to disintegrate, an extra arm on the Demon’s back reached and grabbed hold of the Demon Slayer and began to squeeze.

“GAAAGGHH!! But how!? I decapitated it with a Nichirin Blade!?” The female Slayer thought in shock, the head beginning to regenerate somewhat, though at a slow pace. However, Satoko was not idle as she jumped forward and kicked off of the pot on the back of the Demon and used her claws to destroy the extra limb and save Hanako.

“Won’t… die…. Perhaps… different… weakness…?” The kanji eyed Demon suggested to Hanako, causing the Mist Breathing user to nod her head at the suggestion while getting the pace of her breathing under control again and fighting against her light-headedness.

“Our best shot. Can your instincts sense any potential weak spots?” The Slayer of the pair inquired as she got into a defensive stance as the Fish Demon broke out of its bindings and finished regenerating the skull and teeth of its head.

“Pot… odd…. Try… there….” The female Demon said, making Hanako nod her head before seeing the Demon charge forward. As it got close, Satoko used her Blood Demon Art to make more roots grow out of the ground and sent them flying forward at their opponent in an attempt to shatter the pot, but both girls were surprised when skull of the still regenerating head opened its jaw and a powerful stream of water shot out and destroyed the roots instantly, with Satoko just barely dodging but still lost her left arm from below her elbow in the process.

However, as this was happening, Hanako ran to the side and jumped forward and over the Demon, giving her the opportunity to destroy the pot and she took it while also cutting off an arm that attempted to grasp her as well in the process. Because of this, the Fish Demon began to disintegrate from the spot where the pot once was and quickly destroyed the rest of the Demon in an instant.

“Something… off… correct…?” Satoko questioned as she walked to Hanako curiously, getting a nod once the Mist Breathing user to a sniff of the air.

“Yeah… that was definitely a Demon, but something about its scent was… odd. It also was different from what I smelled earlier.” The female Slayer mentions, tilting her head curiously when two new voices spoke up in unison from behind both girls.

“That’s because that little guy so happened to be a part of my Blood Demon Art. And you destroyed something I actually put effort into!” The voices spoke in perfect unison and with the same tone and everything, but once they yelled at the pair, a sudden pressure appeared and forced girls onto their knees.

“I-I can… barely breathe…!” Hanako thought in terror as the oxygen in her lungs almost felt like they were ripped right out of her body, the pressure being more potent than when her brother detected Muzan but somehow, its nature was less… imposing somehow.

However, before Hanako could hope to possibly stand up and get out of there, she saw multiple octopus like tentacles come out of another Vase that was held by a small white hand and shot out towards the two girls, but Satoko was quick as she made use of her Blood Demon Art Nature’s Wrath: Wood Locking Wall technique to surround Hanako with a dome made from the roots in the ground to protect her, blocking the Slayer’s view. However, Satoko’s scream as she was likely grabbed by the tentacles were just barely heard over the sound of the tentacles slamming against the wood and it was all Hanako could hear for the next hour as the Blood Demon Art of Satoko held strong.

“Tch. The sun is rising soon. I’ll be sure to get you soon brat.” She heard the Demon speak before she could only assume that they disappeared when she felt no sign or hint of his presence anymore. Soon after that though, the wood created by Satoko’s Blood Demon Art quickly burst into flames and disintegrated, allowing Hanako to leave and see the sun rising from down the street.

Guess that Blood Demon Arts also can’t survive in sunlight.

“Satoko-Chan, where are you!?” Hanako yelled out in the hopes that the kanji eyed Demon may say something but was given no response. Her friend was truly gone….

And it was all her fault for deciding to investigate when she should have at least gotten one of the-!

“Hanako!” She heard a yell from behind, causing her to turn around and see Inosuke. However, with her mind having gone through the whole night without sleep, the strong smell of blood and death still reaching her nose, her PTSD attacks and now the guilt of losing her friend finally became too much for the Mist Breathing user, passing out in exhaustion. But not without hearing her Ni-Chan’s voice speak within her mind.

“It isn’t your fault Hanako.”

But it truly was….

Chapter Text

Kushi’s perspective

Location: Sayo’s house

“Is Hanako okay?” Nezuko asked Inosuke as he exited the room that currently had Hanako in it, drawing Kushi’s attention as she entered the living room of the small house.

“She should be fine. She isn’t really hurt, but she was clearly pushed to her mental limit and honestly… her sense of smell, the signs of PTSD she showed back at Asakusa and the powerful Demonic presence she was close to makes it easy to understand why.” The Ice Breathing user explained to the eldest daughter of the Kamado’s, causing Nezuko to sigh in relief, though the Water Breathing user was still clearly tense.

“Did she tell you anything?” Genya questioned, causing the more experienced Slayer to nod his head.

“Yeah. It wasn’t much, but she said that the Demon who attacked her and kidnapped Satoko had some kind of tentacle ability and could summon Demons that can only be killed by attacking a pot on their back instead of their heads.” Inosuke told them, and not even a full moment afterwards, the sound of a plate shattering rang out across the room, drawing everyone’s attention and making them all turn to Mukago, who was the one to drop the plate.

“No way… out of everyone, it had…. We need to leave, now!” Mukago told them all, shocking everyone due to the amount of sheer terror and desperation in her voice.

“Whoa, calm down! What’s going on?” Sayo asks as she came downstairs and looked at Mukago questioningly, though Kushi didn’t blame her as she saw the civilian girl quickly hide behind the Demon Slayers of the group, mostly hanging behind Nezuko since she knows the Kamado the best.

“Something about Shibuya felt familiar, but I couldn’t remember what. Now though, given how there is a pot around practically every corner in this place, on top of a Blood Demon Art able to create Demons with pots on their backs? We are in the fucking territory of the fucking Upper moon 5! Who, might I add, happens to be one of the most twisted and sadistic assholes that you could ever conceive of encountering and is really easy to piss off!!” The former Lower moon 4, making sure to stress that last bit, though it only confused Nezuko slightly while the rest of the Slayers and Demons in the room were honestly a bit terrified.

“So, another one of the Twelve Kizuki? I know that Rui was tough, but if we are to call in a Hashira or two, surely it would be-.” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family began to speak but was cut off by Inosuke.

“Calling in the Hashira might not even help. According to the combined speculation of Kanae and the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, it may take the combined might of 3 Hashira to beat a single Upper moon. The fact that throughout the entire Corps’ history, not a single Demon Slayer has ever killed an Upper rank as well only adds evidence to their belief.” The Ice breathing user tells Nezuko, only getting a nod from Mukago as well.

“He’s right. Hell, the current line-up of the Upper moon Demons hasn’t changed for over a hundred years at this point in time! Rui might be able to give the Upper moon 6 a fight, but Upper moon 5 is a superior to number 6 in almost every way.” The kanji eyed Demon said to reinforce the power of the Upper moon, to which the Demon that with the kanji for ‘5’ in her eye spoke up.

“I… think I heard Rui mention his Upper moon counterpart before. Isn’t he the one obsessed with pots that he makes?” The former Spider Demon questions, causing Sayo to raise an eyebrow in curiosity at this before realisation set in.

“Wait, so you mean to say that the pots surrounding the entire town were made by this Demon? What would even be the point of that?” She questioned, though it was Susamaru who groaned as she put her hands on her face.

“I personally don’t know, though he was a sadistic ass. Apparently, he somehow amalgamated people and Demon together in a way that leaves them alive but moulded in a way that isn’t natural in the slightest.” The Demon with the kanji for ‘2’ in her piped up, causing Mukago to nod her head.

“She isn’t wrong. The bastard enjoyed showing off literal people statues and saying crap like ‘You lot will never be worth anything, even if I were to help you and I can give these worthless beings meaning as my masterpieces’.” She provided more knowledge to the Demon’s character, but Kushi was admittedly a bit surprised when Kanao spoke up, though it disappeared when she saw the coin in the palm of the Thunder Breathing user.

“Is there anything solid that you know about his abilities?” The Slayer questioned, causing Mukago to hum a bit before shrugging her shoulders.

“Can’t say I know anything outside of a theme. The Upper moon 5 is fish like in appearance and his powers have a fish and water-based theme to them. Only thing I can say for sure is that he seems to travel through… pots….” The kanji eyed Demon tried to explain, but her slowing down as she explained that powers of Upper moon 5 caused everyone to come to a horrifying realisation as she got to the Demon’s main method of travel.

“If what you are saying is true, then that means he can come out of any pot that he has spread throughout the entirety of Shibuya.” The Demon that had been forced to act as Rui’s sister states in horror, covering her mouth in shock at this horrifying reality.

“Which makes sense. Shibuya has a very small timeframe where the sun isn’t exposed to the town, so he must need another way to get around if Muzan were to summon him or to hunt down his victims. Like the missing children….” Kushi looked over everything and pieced together the mystery, though she noticed how Nezuko’s eyes widened in complete and utter horror for a moment.

“Is something wrong Nezuko?” Inosuke questioned, making the Kamado nod her head grimly.

“Yeah. Back when I was investigating, nobody was actually talking about the missing children and even looked at me in pity when I bumped into a man and caused it to shatter, making the man go ballistic with both terror and rage. I think this entire place is aware of the Demon but are giving the Upper moon children to save themselves.” She told them, causing Genya to scowl in disgust.

“Fucking bastards. So, because of them, countless kids are dead, we have need to deal with the 5^th most powerful Demon after their original king, said Demon can appear anywhere throughout the whole town and not even calling in the Hashira may be enough to survive. What’s more, the asshole has Satoko with him and who knows what kind of ‘masterpiece’ he is trying to turn her into.” The Breathless Slayer states in barely contained anger, practically outlining only a few of the things that have put the Squad at a disadvantage.

“Well, we are still going to do something. Heck, the bastard probably won’t expect us to take the fight to him and we can save Satoko while we are at it.” Nezuko proposes the idea, causing the Demons and the Slayers to turn their attention to Kushi, causing the teen who was pretty much the group’s leader to sigh and think things over.

“It’s certainly not the safest idea… but it is our best. Sayo, can you please look after Hanako and Tanjiro? We are going to need everyone here if we are to even survive.” The Dragon Breathing user questioned, causing the civilian girl to nod her head.

“Of course. Just be safe out there and good luck.” She told the group, causing them all to nod in their heads with a small smile while Kushi wrote a message requesting for the help of any Hashira that can come and sent off Schrill to deliver the message.

“All right you lot. Into the boxes so you don’t turn into ash.” Genya told the Demons, to which Susamaru stuck out her tongue at him for a moment before Mukago smacked the playful Demon over her head to knock her out and they all got into their respective boxes, allowing the Slayers to put a box on their back before leaving.

Kagaya’s perspective

Location: Ubuyashiki house

“Hm? It appears that we have received a message.” Kagaya heard his wife, Amane, say with a bit of surprise in her voice and catching the head of the Demon Slayer Corps’ attention.

“A message at this time? Could it be that the encounter will have to take place now?” The man thought to himself but kept his composure as he knew his wife was reading the letter, at least until he heard her gasp of terror, and his heart sank. Even if this wasn’t concerning the eventual trial around the Kamado’s and the Demons they are traveling with, he wished that she didn’t read what she did. Not for the first time since the curse that has plagued his family took his sight and pushed his father into taking his own life, Kagaya couldn’t help but damn it for preventing him from reading the letter and keeping his wife from the apparent horrors of its contents.

“Honey, please, tell me what is wrong.” Kagaya pleaded to his wife, feeling her presence approach him, allowing the cursed man to reach out and place his hand on hers.

“Dear… the new Slayers under Inosuke and Kushi’s care have entered the territory of Upper moon 5, being Shibuya itself!” She told him, causing the leader of the Corps to frown.

“In that case, inform Gyomei and Giyu of this information and send them to save those children. Also, I think it’s time we call in those already affected by the Kamado’s.” Kagaya told Amane, causing his wife to nod as she quickly sent out Kasugai Crows to inform both the Stone and Water Hashira’s of the situation before calling in a couple of Lower ranked Demon Slayers to seek out those who have crossed paths with the fledgling Squad.

Hopefully, those children would survive, and the Kamado boy will live to see another day despite the uniqueness of his situation.

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Artist school

“Okay, this is just… plain gaudy.” Susamaru says once she got out of her box and looked around their current environment, and honestly, Nezuko had to agree. While over the top, at least the outside of the building appeared to be somewhat modest, but the inside was just a mess of what she assumed to be art spread out everywhere. First off, like with the entire town, there were many pots spread throughout just the entrance room alone and she assumed that was going to be the case with the rest of the building. Next was all of the golden statues spread throughout the area, usually taking the shape of odd amalgamations or what appeared to be people mashed together in impossible ways, actually causing Nezuko to feel a bit sick as she imagined actual people in the state that the statue depicted. The final thing that made the Slayer agree with Susamaru though was how the walls were lined with gold or rare looking metals in varies shapes and patterns.

“So unflashy. This one is clearly compensating for something if this gives it joy.” Kushi comments as she puts her ear on the wall, causing her to scowl a bit.

“Well, I can hear what I assume are the Demons that the Upper moon 5 can create. Inosuke, can you use your sense of touch to find out where the Upper moon and Satoko are?” The Dragon Breathing user asks, causing her friend to nod his head before her thrusted his open palm onto a wall and frowning after a moment.

“I can’t detect anything outside of similarly shaped Demons. Though, I think that I have found Satoko, but we need to be quick.” Inosuke warned them, causing Genya to draw out his gun and smirk a bit.

“In that case, let's go save out friend.” The Breathless Slayer says, briefly looking over to Susamaru curiously and got a nod from the playful Demon, who held out her arm and allowed the Slayer to eat a bit of her flesh and consumed it, allowing him to gain his own Demonic form.

However, as the group made their way through the building and either avoided or killed the patrolling Fish based Demons within the building to try and find Satoko, Nezuko couldn’t shake a feeling of dread….

Hopefully her siblings are okay.

Sayo’s perspective

Location: Home

“Hey brat! Get your ass out here right now!” Sayo almost jumped when she heard a yell from outside, causing her to peak out of a window and was surprised to see a small mob of people outside of her home.

“Is something wrong?” She heard the voice of the Demon Slayer named Hanako question her, causing the young girl to look at the recovering fighter.

“Some people are outside and given what your friends have figured out… I don’t think they have good intentions. You stay here through.” Sayo ordered the Slayer and ran out of the room that held her and her brother’s box before another word could be said and she knew that the younger girl wouldn’t be able to follow due to being delirious from just waking up and overcoming the shock that knocked her out to begin with. However, as she got to the living room of her home, the door was knocked down and she saw a fairly large man standing there with an axe.

“Tch. There you are you little shit.” The man scoffed when he noticed her and began to slowly walk towards her, causing Sayo to slowly walk back upstairs while making note of how the rest of the mob were waiting outside, assured of their victory.

“What is it that you want from me?” She asked him, hoping to buy time for… something to save her. Thankfully, the man began to talk, but he didn’t stop moving for a moment.

“Because the boss wants you for food. He happens to enjoy eating children the most, but he hasn’t gotten you in the few weeks you have been here thanks to that stupid incense of yours and Drystan shattering his pot when he was supposed to sneak it into your home.” The large man told her, to which Sayo began to turn around to try and reach the room with Hanako in it to perhaps grab her weapon when the large man reached out and grabbed hold of her arm and tossed her, easily restraining her.

“Also, don’t think we are unaware of the girl upstairs. Once we bring you to Gyokko, feeding you both to him should get him off of our backs for a while.” The man told her with a smirk on his face, causing terror to consume her as she attempted to pull away. It was almost as much as the terror she felt when Gyomei saved her from that Demon and she betrayed him, picturing him as the one who killed everyone when he-.

However, the both of them were surprised when a large explosion went off outside, sending the mob that was waiting for the man with the ace flying and knocking them all out.

“The fuck!?” The man called out in shock as he let go of Sayo’s arm to turn around with both hands on his axe when a large figure suddenly appeared before him and struck his chest, making the man spit out blood and collapse onto the ground, unconscious.

“Such pitiful souls. I pray that they may one day atone for the countless lives they took.” Sayo heard the figure speak, making her widen her eyes in shock at the familiar voice that she hadn’t heard in 10 years.

“Dad…?” She asked shakily, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked up at the figure. The man was still a giant and hulking figure, but he became much more muscular than he was back when she was 4 years old and was standing at 7'2½" tall. He had the same spiky black hair and the scar running horizontally across his forehead that was gained when fighting the Demon that killed the other children, with his milky white eyes having not changed to demonstrate his blindness. As for his clothes, he was wearing what Sayo felt safe in assuming must have been the uniform of the Demon Slayers at this point, with bandages over his shins resembling kyahan and white zōri with an olive-green happi draped over his shoulders. The collared frame of the happi contains the kanji for the Japanese Nianfo/Shin Buddha chant from the top-down, along with the separate kanji all over cloth at the back. He also sports a large-beaded necklace around his neck and was carrying ojuzu in his hands, which were currently in a praying position.

“Sayo? Is that actually…?” The man who she now knew was Gyomei began to question in shock, causing Sayo to practically leap at the man and wrapped his large frame into a hug as much as she could.

“Dad! I’m so sorry!! If I- I didn’t-! Please forgive me!!!” She pleaded to him, tears flowing down from her eyes with no sign of stopping, unable to process that this moment has not only come, but she didn’t know how to express her regret for her past mistakes. However, she was almost snapped out of it when she felt tears drop onto her head and was pulled into a gentle hug by the man who raised her and the other children back at the temple.

“There is nothing that you need to apologise for young one. You were scared and young, unable to understand how your words could be interpreted and unable to clarify what you truly meant. So let out all of your grief and allow the past to remain in the past.” Gyomei assured her as his giant hand soothingly rubbed her head, causing Sayo to put her head on his shoulder as she cried nonstop in the gentle embrace of the giant of a man until eventually losing all of her energy and falling asleep.

She was just happy to have her father back and to be forgiven even if she didn’t deserve it.

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Artist School

*BANG!*

Out of nowhere, an explosion went off, the booming noise echoing through the corridor for a few moments and the smoke created from the powerful explosion began to disperse and reveal 3 fish Demon badly damage, but quickly regenerating their limbs.

“Now!” Inosuke yelled out to Nezuko and Kanao, causing both female Slayers to charge forward as the head for their own respective Demon while Genya lifted up his gun and pulled the trigger, firing a bullet that destroyed the pot on the Demon that his fellow Slayers weren’t going for.

“Water Breathing Second Form: Water Wheel!” Nezuko yelled out as she leapt forward and spun vertically in the air, Water flowing from her blade and shattering the pot on the Fish Demon’s back in an instant, all while the sudden sound of Thunder boomed throughout the corridor followed by a streak of yellow before stopping and revealing Kanao, showing that she had used the First Form of Thunder Breathing to destroy the pot on her Demon’s back.

“You two doing, okay?” Kushi asks as she walked forward with a concerned look on her face.

“Yeah…. I also think… that was the… 8^th one we killed since getting in.” Nezuko says, breathing a bit heavily for a moment before regaining control of herself and started using Recovery Breathing to conserve her strength as much as possible.

“Are we close Inosuke-San?” Kanao inquired the Ice Breathing user, breathing a bit heavily as exhaustion was hitting her much harder. Idly, Nezuko couldn’t help but wonder if her fellow Slayer was even trained in maintaining Total Concentration Breathing for long periods of time like her and Hanako.

“Satoko should be just at the end of the corridor, but I still haven’t felt the Upper moon 5.” He told them, clearly on edge as he looked at each of the surrounding pots suspiciously.

“If it’s any consolation, the bastard is arrogant to the point of only seeing Muzan as any being besides himself worthy of respect. In short, he’ll announce his presence to us, especially when you consider the number of pots, we destroyed.” Mukago told them, making Genya smirk a bit.

“Well, if he bitches and complains about it, then that is his problem and not ours.” The Breathless Slayer told the Demon, making Susamaru laugh a bit.

“He’s right! Besides, it has been fun destroying the pots! They are like giant moving targets thanks to those fish Demons!” The Temari Demon laughs out with a large grin as she tosses a Temari ball inbetween two of her hands, keeping her extra 2 sets of arms away for the moment.

“But… are we going to be, okay? This is a Demon even stronger than….” The Demon who was forced to act as Rui’s mother commented nervously, very uncomfortable with the idea of fighting not only a member of the Twelve Kizuki, but one much stronger than the very Demon that tortured her for some time.

“If need be, the both of you can simply hide and only interfere when we need you.” Kushi says as she put away her bow and drew her Naginata before they continued through the corridor, keeping an eye out for any more fish Demons as they moved along, though they thankfully didn’t find anymore and found themselves in front of a large door.

“This is it. Satoko should be right through this door.” Inosuke told them as they stood before the door, looking over at the Demons in the group.

“Because of how the Upper moon 5 travels, I can’t feel him with my sense of touch, so can your Demonic instincts… feel him or something?” He questioned, causing the Demon who formerly took the role of Rui’s sister to role her eyes.

“Us Demons may be able to detect each other’s presence more easily than you humans, but it isn’t an omnipresent awareness. The only exception might be Muzan and if a Demon has gotten to know a specific presence.” She told him with a bit of a frown and a tone of annoyance, causing the experienced Slayer to flinch a bit.

“Sorry for coming off as insensitive then….” The Ice Breathing user said shyly, causing Mukago to chuckle a bit.

“Don’t worry, even a few new-born Demons make that mistake. For now, though, does it look like we can open the door?” The kanji eyed Demon asked curiously, with Nezuko trying to push open the door, quickly realising a small fact about it…

“Wait a minute, this isn’t a door! It’s a painted wall to make it look like one!” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family told them in annoyance, causing Genya to scowl.

“So, the bastard took advantage of his pot schtick to prevent other humans and Demons from getting to places he doesn’t want us in. You think one of the bombs your dad gave you has enough force to blast through?” He asked Kushi, who hummed in thought.

“Perhaps? Though, I don’t know how…” She tried to estimate before pausing and looking as Susamaru, who was humming happily as she tossed a Temari ball up and catching it with one hand. For some reason, Nezuko felt a shiver run up her spine and she didn’t even need her intuition to know that her teammates also felt the same sense of dread that caused it.

“Hey, Susamaru, come over here for a minute.” Kushi called out, catching the female Demon’s attention as she walked over, with something being whispered into the kanji eyed Demon’s ear that made her grin like a mad woman.

Once Kushi was done, a bomb was placed in the Demon’s hand and after just a moment, she tossed the bomb so hard at the wall, that not only did the concrete wall get pierced through with ease and exploding upon impact, completely pulverizing the wall instantly.

“Hey~! Satoko, ya in here~!?” Susamaru called out giddily, skipping along through the created smoke before freezing, with Nezuko seeing what caused her to freeze and gasped in horror at what she saw.

“What the hell!?” Genya yelled out once he saw the state Satoko was in, the poor Demon girl having her limbs rearranged into different places, her head taking the place of her right arm while pained tears flowed from her eyes, her left arm replacing the spot of her head and her right leg stealing the spot of her left arm and so on and so forth, with the four misplaced limbs having the hands or feet stuck inside a plant pot. However, the most horrific part of Satoko’s practically mutilated form wasn’t the many gardening tools such as Scythes stabbed through her body that caused blood to freely flow out, nor was it how her body slowly attempted regenerate and put her body back together correctly, but it was the silent screams that were unable to escape thanks to a Sai that stabbed itself through her throat and the tears flowing from her eyes.

“Hang on, we’ll get you-!” Nezuko called out to her friend and began to run forward, but stopped and fell onto the ground when a sudden Demonic presence appeared from nowhere and easily overwhelmed her…

And if the following thudding sounds were anything to go by, her friends were also affected to some level.

“Oh~! Seems like I have some guests that want to have an early peak at my latest masterpiece for nature.” Two copies of the same voice spoke with a sadistic glee, to which Nezuko forced herself to turn her head and saw a clearly mutated looking Demon appear from a pot near Satoko, though his misplaced eyes quickly fell on Nezuko.

“You…! You’re the little brat that destroyed one of my masterpieces with that worthless scum!” The Demon stated with anger before disappearing into the pot he appeared to be attached to and coming out of another right next to Nezuko, using one of his many to reach out and grab the girl’s throat and began to choke her.

“I WORKED HARD ON THAT ONE! I MAY HAVE ALREADY TAKEN CARE OF THE OTHER SHIT, BUT I’LL BE TEACHING A BRAT LIKE YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DESTROY MY WORK!!” The Upper moon 5 yelled at Nezuko with spit flying out of his mouth and landing on the Slayer’s face. However, Nezuko couldn’t help but feel shocked and then realisation as she put together who the Demon was talking about. When she bumped into that man when she was investigating yesterday, she truly signed his death by causing him to drop the vase he was carrying around.

“Get… away…!” She heard a yell and was honestly taken aback when flaming strings were sent out and cut off the powerful Demon’s arm. Not wasting the opportunity and taking advantage of the Upper moon’s shock, Nezuko quickly grabbed her sword and swung out, but once the blade made contact with her opponent’s neck, the well-crafted weapon shattered on impact.

“Tch, so you are one of the Demons who turned traitor. Oh?” The Upper moon spoke as he looked at the Spider Demon with the kanji for ‘5’ in her eye, completely unfazed by the attacks as his severed arm almost instantly regenerated and replaced the limb, but he quickly noticed a certain Demon barely getting onto her knees.

“Ah, Mukago! Muzan-Sama was convinced you were killed, though turning your back on him and us was probably a worse fate. Perhaps I’ll send you to our master in a little that… well, you will look nice despite the not so pleasant experience for you. Hahahaha!” The Demon began to laugh as he taunted the former Lower moon before drawing out a pot.

“Fuck… you… Gyokko…!” Mukago growled out, sending out her shadow in panther shape as it charged at towards the now named Gyokko, or more specifically, his shadow. However, the Demon’s two mouths twitched into a smirk each as multiple tentacles suddenly sprouted out of the pot, shifting in a way where the shadows of each tentacle wrapped around the Panther shadow and restrained it with ease.

“How pathetic. You do remember that you were only a mere Lower-AAAGGGHHH!!?” Gyokko began to mock Mukago before suddenly screaming in pain when a sudden large root rose up with wooden stake shaped end that was shoved into the back of the Upper moon, catching him off guard and making him scream in pain while causing the pressure he was putting on everyone to disappear.

“Now…!” Satoko screamed out to them, holding out a bloodied arm over a pot with soil and a small plant in it that had grown and elongated so it could attack the Upper moon, revealing that she had used her Blood Demon Art to help.

“Eat this bastard!” Genya yelled out as he drew, much to Nezuko’s surprise, a fully intact Nichirin Wakizashi with what appeared to be veins and hardened flesh covering it and swung forward to take Gyokko’s head and was able to actually cut into his neck a bit and drew blood.

Quickly standing up with the understanding that this may be their one chance to actually win, Nezuko leapt forward and swung her own blade and took the risk of using the Hinokami Kagura.

“Hinokami Kagura Second Step: Clear Blue Sky!” Nezuko yells out as she leapt up and lashed out with a 360° slash, with Nezuko seeing Kanao run in and perform the 5^th form of her Breathing style to help, Nezuko’s blade cutting into the Demon’s neck slightly as well, but Kanao’s shattered upon contact.

“Ice Breathing Fourth Form: Freezing Clouds!/Dragon Breathing Third From: Dragon Scale Crane Wings!” Inosuke and Kushi got up and yelled out their techniques only a moment later as they charged forward, to which Gyokko began to grunt in genuine concern and attempted to go down into his pot but froze as Mukago’s shadow made contact with his while Genya bit into his shoulder to help even a small bit.

With the opportunity presented, Inosuke used his technique to perform a wide slash that began to freeze Gyokko’s skin a bit while Kushi drew her Cleavers and spun them around before swinging them both at the Demon, all Slayers determined to use this one chance to take the Upper moon’s head and for a moment, it looked like it would work…

Until Gyokko suddenly leapt out of the pot and away from the Slayers, quickly slithering and hiding within the shadows of the area.

“You damn brats! I didn’t think I would actually feel even momentarily pressured into using my true form. However, while I don’t need it for you lot, I suppose that you deserve a reward. So prepare yourselves, for in a moment, you shall bear witness to my perfect, beautiful form!” The Upper moon told the group from the shadows, everyone grouping together and getting into a defensive circle while Nezuko was barely able to stand.

“This isn’t good…. My heart feels ready to burst out of my chest, my lungs feel like they are only a moment away from popping like a balloon and I feel so hot, my vision is beginning to blur. We also lost out chance to win when… wait a minute….” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family thought to herself as she thought over the situation, but her intuition suddenly screeched at her and made her look up to see a small fish falling down towards the group.

“Get back!” Nezuko cried out as she used what little strength, she had to push Kanao, who was the closest person to her, out of the way while everyone else scattered just in time as the fish breathed in and began to shoot out thousands of needles, but one thing left Nezuko a bit confused as she watched the attack.

“I can… track this just fine.” She whispered to herself in surprise, but quickly snapped out of it as she used the remainder of her strength to take in a breath and perform one last technique.

“Water Breathing Eleventh Form: Dead Calm.” The Slayer stated calmly allowing her body to effectively move on its own to a degree as her blade lashed out and was able to perfectly block every last attack, but collapsed after the final block.

“Oh? Seems like you are the first that needs to go kid.” She could barely hear the Demon’s words as her vision began to become blurry, but she was able to make out something charging at her from above.

“Mist Breathing Seventh Form: Obscuring Clouds!” Suddenly though, Hanako’s voice yelled out as a mist began to fill the room, with Nezuko feeling a small body charge into her and knock her out of the way while Gyokko slammed a fist into the ground Nezuko was once standing on, many fish materialising on the spot she stood.

“Oh? Another little brat, and the once I couldn’t get before. Well, it’s not like you will make much of a difference when anything hit by my fists are turned into fish. And even if you little shi-.” The Upper moon began to speak cockily when two things happened at once and stunned Nezuko. The first was Tanjiro suddenly kicking open the box currently on Hanako’s back, disappearing in a sudden burst of speed ripping off both of Gyokko’s arms instantly. The second was the Demon’s head suddenly getting sent through the air when a familiar figure appeared crouching on the ground and slashed through the Upper moon’s neck with ease, looking up with his one eye and instantly spotting the Kamado’s.

“Aniki!” Hanako exclaimed happily, causing the Water Hashira to smile at the siblings for a moment while Tanjiro immediately ran over to his sisters with a look of concern within his dark pink eyes, purposefully stomping on Gyokko’s severed head and crushing it as he practically teleported right in front of them.

“Mmm! Mmmm!? MMMMM!!” Their brother tried to speak through his muzzle, though no one could really understand what he was trying to say outside of the fact that he was undeniably concerned about Nezuko and Hanako as he looked at them. Seeing their confusion, Tanjiro pointed over to Satoko, who's regeneration was still attempting to put her body back together correctly and then at Nezuko and Hanako with their visible injuries.

“Calm down Tanjiro. Your friend there will be fine thanks to her regeneration and your sisters just need some time to…. Get back!” Giyu tried to assure the Demon Kamado as he approached the 3 siblings but yelled out in alarm as he spun around and used the Sixth Form of Water Breathing to deflect an axe and spiked flail that attempted to pulverise Tanjiro’s head.

“Tomioka, why are you protecting a Demon?”

Blood Demon Arts

Tanjiro's number 5 Demon (Name unknown/Spider Mother)= Puppetry flame webs

Abilities= This Blood Demon Art was created due to this Demon’s natural abilities being reawakened and combining with the powers developed and granted to her by Rui’s blood. Because of this, she kept her standard ability to make web like strings that can attack to a target and allow her free manipulation over the body so long as the strings are attached, even increasing the physical power of a person caught by the webs and allowing it to function even if the target’s body moves in an unnatural way and is able to create little spiders with a similar biology to her that can connect the strings and remain somewhat hidden. However, with Tanjiro’s blood in her system diluting Rui’s and freeing the Demon from Rui’s influence, the former Spider Demon has developed pyrokinetic abilities that her dormant original Blood Demon Art possessed, allowing her to set her strings on fire for greater damage and can harmlessly or painfully affect those that she actively choses while still keeping the power to create small spider like Demon minions that can create these same webs. (Potential growth of this Blood Demon Art is moderately high).

Genya’s absorbed Blood Demon Arts

1. Blood Roots= Granted to him when he consumed the flesh of Satoko, Genya is able to infuse up to a few drops of his blood within his gun and store it inside his Nichirin bullets. When imbedded into the target, Genya is able to use the blood stored within the bullet now inside his opponent to grow roots from within the opponent's body, though it is only enough to restrain two of the limbs of the hit Demon and can be overpowered by a drastically stronger opponent. (Potential growth of the Blood Demon Art is moderate).
2. Koketsu bullets= Granted to him when he consumed the flesh of Yahaba, Genya is able to fire a bullet that is attached to a Koketsu arrow that only he can see, though powerful enough Demons and humans are able to detect the presence of the invisible arrow despite being unable to see it. Genya is able to use the arrow to control the direction of the bullet without decreasing its speed, though it should be of note that Genya can only control one of these arrows at a time and can fire a Koketsu arrow without a bullet attached, though it is unable to affect drastically stronger opponents. (The potential growth of this Blood Demon Art is incredibly low).
3. Moulting weapons= Granted to him when a bit of the Spider Father’s blood unknowingly entered Genya’s mouth during his failed decapitation attempt, Genya can cover his Nichirin weapons in demonic flesh by detaching his cells and coating them along them. With it, the durability and attack potency of the flesh coated Nichirin Weapons is greatly enhanced and can repair some damage to his Nichirin Blade so long as it isn’t broken, though doing this will slow down the effectiveness of Genya’s own regenerative abilities. (Potential growth of this Blood Demon Art is low).
4. ???= ??? (Gained from consuming Gyokko's flesh)

Chapter Text

Giyu’s perspective

“Himejima, if you put down your weapons and give me a moment to explain, this will make sense.” The Water Hashira told the giant of a man, who frowned a bit as his muscles tense and Giyu couldn’t help but sweat. While the idea of him and Muichiro potentially being stronger than Gyomei had entered his mind since they gained their respective Marks, it was one that he didn’t want to test.

“He! Leave Tanjiro-Sama alone buddy!” Another Demon called out as she stood in front of the Demon Slayer and the Kamado siblings, but before Giyu could speak, Gyomei spoke.

“Little one, why do you refer to a Demon in such a way and why do you defend it?” The Stone Hashira questioned gently as tears began to flow down from his eyes, with the response confusing the Water Hashira. This girl was clearly a Demon, so how is it that Gyomei can’t… hold on….

“She… doesn’t have a Demonic aura at all. But how, especially when I can feel Tanjiro just fine.” Giyu thought in confusion as he looked around with his one eye critically and noticed an interesting detail. The Demons that seemed to be with the Kamado siblings were all wearing a necklace while Tanjiro wasn’t and what he suspected may have been the young Demon’s lay shattered on ground with a cut string a few Centimetres from Gyomei.

“Hey! That ‘it’ you are referring to is my Ni-Chan! And he hasn’t harmed anyone and has fought to protect humans!” Hanako yelled at Gyomei with a fury that honestly surprised Giyu a bit, though he would be lying if he said that the Stone Hashira’s comment towards Tanjiro didn’t at least get on his nerves.

“I don’t care who you are, but if you think we’ll stand by and let you hurt our brother, then you have another thing coming.” Nezuko growled as the middle child of the surviving siblings forced herself to stand in front of her siblings, though Giyu thought he saw something on the young girl’s arms but shook his head and focused back on his fellow Hashira.

“Ah…. The both of you have become obsessed with a creature that possesses your family member’s face. It appears that I will need to kill-.” Gyomei began to speak and while Giyu knew the man had good intentions as he spoke, red hot rage began to boil beneath the surface of his skin at the threat towards the girls and Demon who he has grown to see as his own little siblings.

However, he didn’t need to express his rage, for Tanjiro unleashed the full weight of his demonic presence on the Stone Hashira, stunning the giant of a man and forcing him onto a single knee for a moment as the Demon Kamado stepped forward with a threatening growl. Thankfully, everyone else was relatively okay, only tensing their muscles a bit thanks to Tanjiro’s Demonic aura only being directed at Gyomei, though even Giyu couldn’t stop the cold shiver that ran up his spine as the young Demon passed by him with glowing dark pink eyes and a barely restrained bloodlust and hate consumed the entire room.

“GGGGRRRR!!” Tanjiro growled through his muzzle as he grew into his actual height, biting into the bamboo as cracks began to form on it, but he quickly snapped out of his rage induced trance when he heard a whimper, drawing everyone’s attention as they all saw two of the other Demons in the group collapsing onto the ground and breathing heavily as if they were experiencing a panic attack.

“Guess those two must have been the Demon victims of Lower moon 4 that Kanae and Mitsuri mentioned. I think I recently got a message from the siblings about these two in particular recently as well.” Giyu thought to himself and was unable to stop himself from feeling amused as he saw Tanjiro begin to panic and immediately ran over to the female Demons that are panicking and brought them into a hug and soothingly rubbing their backs, with Nezuko and Hanako quickly following their simple-minded older brother.

“Is he…?” Gyomei began to speak in a voice filled with shock and awe, looking in the direction of Tanjiro as if he did something completely impossible. Then again, Giyu himself had certainly reacted in a similar way when he first met the Kamados, especially thanks to the many times a Demon has barely forced themselves away from family in the past. The situation surrounding Yae and her father, Matazo, briefly flashing within his mind as he thought about that day 2 years ago.

“Helping them? Yep, and the rest of the Demons here are loyal only to the Kamado.” Kushi replied with a smirk as she walked forward, the rest of the Slayers also stepping forward.

“She ain’t lying. Besides, the stubborn brat and the Demons he saved have helped us save people quite a bit.” Genya spoke up next, seeming a bit uncomfortable doing so but his voice clearly held conviction that seemed strong enough to take the Stone Hashira by surprise.

“Tanjiro-Kun has even saved my life and resisted Marechi blood. You’ll have to go through us if you wish to harm him.” Finally, was a girl wearing yellow, who even went as far as to hold out her broken blade in a defensive position in front of Tanjiro, with the Demon Kamado looking at the situation cautiously and curiously. Gyomei took a moment to feel out the presence of everyone before standing up and relaxing his guard a bit, though the other Hashira kept a firm grip on his weapons still.

“I assume that Oyakata-Sama is aware of this… unique situation?” The giant of a man questioned cautiously, causing Giyu to nod his head.

“Indeed. I believe Hashibara and Uzui here have evidence of this.” Giyu responded, looking over at the two caretakers of the Kamado family’s Squad, who both smirked.

“Tomioka-San is correct Himejima-San. We were given direct orders by Oyakata-Sama to not harm Tanjiro unless he unjustly attacks a human or attempts to consume one, with the rest of the Demons here having his approval in regard to their continued existence.” Inosuke explained as he walked over to another Demon that was shifting her body, snapping her left arm a bit as if to help her relocate the limb after she was turned into a misshapen mess.

“Thank… you…. Tanjiro-Sama… save… me…. Pure… heart….” The final Demon, who he assumed was Satoko based off of how she was talking, explained with a bit of a struggle.

Looking over the Stone Hashira, Giyu could clearly see that Gyomei was uneasy, but their attention shifted to a Kasugai Crow that flew through an open window and cawed into the large room the many Slayers and Demon were in, its following announcement echoing through the room.

“Caw! Gyomei Himejima and Giyu Tomioka! Direct order from Oyakata-Sama! You are both assigned with the duty of bringing the Demon named Kamado Tanjiro to the Headquarters of the Demon Slayer Corps and any Demons allied with him! Caw! The Slayers in charge of watching over these Demons are to also be escorted before the Master! Caw!” The crow announced to everyone, instantly causing Giyu to take his eye off of Gyomei and walked over to the Kamado siblings as the 3 began to successfully calm down the panicking Demons. After all, even though Gyomei may not be happy with the presence of the many friendly Demons, he knew that the gentle giant wouldn’t defy this order.

“Come on, we should be able to arrive in just under a week if we set out soon at a steady pace.” Giyu informed everyone as he finished looking over the siblings, looking over to the rest of the Kamado family’s Squad to see if they were also injured.

“Don’t worry. Us lot are just fine, and the boxes are for these Mukago, Susamaru and those 2 are near the entrance while Satoko’s should be back at Sayo’s home.” Kushi informed the Water Hashira, causing the powerful Demon Slayer to nod his head as they all left the now desolate Artist School and got all of the Demons into a box, Satoko and Tanjiro sharing the Demon Kamado’s for the moment. Though, he was confused on why the Stone Hashira decided to bring this Sayo with them after they picked up Satoko’s box and got her in it, but he chose not to comment. After all, they seemed to have something personal concerning their past given Sayo’s somewhat tense posture and he had no place in asking about it.

Gyomei’s perspective

Time skip: 5 days

Location: Unnamed Forest

“Mmm?” Gyomei heard the sound of one of the new Demons he was travelling with approach him and Sayo as the young girl slept on his lap while covered by a Futon, everyone else sleeping peacefully in tents while the Demons mainly talked to each other surprisingly quietly despite their nature within the otherwise peaceful night. Honestly, the only reasons Gyomei refrained himself from drawing his weapons was the surprisingly calming sound of crackling from the campfire before him, the presence of the child he was reunited with next to him once more and the reminder of the order given by Oyakata-Sama through a Kasugai Crow.

“What is it that you want?” The Hashira asked the Demon suspiciously as he heard the Demon stop moving. While Gyomei was blind thanks to the fever he had as a child, this merely meant that his loss of one of the 5 basic senses all humans and Demons possessed forced his remaining 4 senses to heighten, giving him an enhanced sense of hearing in particular that was different from Tengen. After all, the Sound Hashira’s enhanced hearing was more obviously suited to combat and assassination given his lifestyle prior to joining the Corps for redemption, allowing the former Shinobi to predict his opponent's movements and find people more easily through his MST and Echolocation abilities respectively while Gyomei himself had developed his hearing to easily detect lies should he pay attention and somewhat ‘see’ the world’s layout through sound.

“Mmm. Mmmm?” Hearing the 2^nd sound, Gyomei now could tell that this Demon was the Demon Kamado of the group and approached him for some reason, and with this mental confirmation, he could hear and feel the presence of every other Demon looking at him suspiciously despite doing well to seemingly ignore the Hashira, with the exception of the Demon he initially thought was a young human girl a few days ago, as she spoke up.

“Tanjiro-Sama is asking how you know Sayo.” The Demon who had been playing with a Temari ball with one of her fellow kanji eyed Demons explained to him, causing Gyomei to openly frown at the question but ultimately deciding to answer.

“I was the one to raise Sayo along with other children. Because of a Demon attack though, many of those all of the other children died with the exception of one and Sayo here.” He told them, deciding not to give the full context and instead gave them the summery of what happened.

However, Gyomei was honestly surprised when he heard the gasps of shock coming from the Demons, many of them becoming uncomfortable and even heard tears dropping onto the ground from the male Kamado.

“I’m… sorry to hear that our kind has caused so much pain for you.” One of the two Demons who he hasn’t learnt the name of yet told him with a tone that was genuinely sorry, and he couldn’t detect any deceit from her. As if she truly was apologetic for the actions of her kind….

“I… want to say that if Muzan wasn’t the one in charge of most Demons, it wouldn’t have happened. Then again, even with a much kinder Demon King in charge, I doubt everyone one of us would stop killing and eating humans. Even ignoring the hunger that usually claws at us as a motivator.” Gyomei now heard the voice of the one called Mukago tell him, with her choice of words catching the Stone Hashira’s attention.

“What exactly do you mean by that? I am aware that some of your kind keep their previous rationality enough to potentially leave a family member alone and that your kind seem addicted to human flesh, but you make it sound like you have little say in the matter to both.” Gyomei inquired, being a little curious to know more about these Demons. While the Corps has been fighting the man eaters for nearly as long as they have existed, there is actually very little they know outside of ways to fight Demons or repel them.

“Well duh! Muzan shoved a curse into us when he turns a human, so he can kill us by simply desiring it or if we say his name, so even though many of our kind despise our ‘King’, we have no choice but to listen to him. Only reason why we are alive right now is Tanjiro-Sama broke his curse and freed us from it himself. As for the hunger, our very cells crave human flesh and blood normally, so think about those drug addicts apart of your race but we have practically no way of breaking free from it. Not permanently anyways.” Susamaru tells him with an eyeroll, talking like this is basic facts that he should know.

“Actually, now that you mention it… I haven’t felt hungry in a good while. Heck, I ate humans before Tanjiro-Sama saved me, but I feel… full despite not even drinking a drop of blood. Does that make sense?” Now the voice of the other unnamed Demon spoke in confusion, and if he recalled correctly, this one called the first unnamed Demon ‘Mother’ uneasily at some point. Though, her confused statement was interesting.

“Fine… I… hungry…. But… blood… appeal… not….” Now the one called Satoko said through some struggle, and the honesty of this statement genuinely caught him off guard. He could feel and hear the honesty within the somewhat jumbled sentence.

“Meh, Tanjiro-Sama has proven that a lot of what we know is going to be tuned on its head since he is a new Demon King….” Susamaru spoke dismissively, though the title that she associates with the Kamado boy caused Gyomei to freeze up and cause him to lose focus with his enhanced hearing and for his mind to retreat into his thoughts to process that single part of the Demon girl’s sentence. He had been travelling with a 2^nd Demon King!? Why would Oyakata-Sama, Tomioka or Kushi and Inosuke allow such a thing if this new fledgling Demon held even the slightest amount of potential in become a 2^nd Muzan? It was too great of a-.

“Mmm.” Gyomei found himself snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a small hand touch his head and rubbed it, allowing him to clearly hear the concerned sounds of the Demon King known as Tanjiro Kamado.

“Mm. Mmmm. Mmmm!” The young Demon tried to communicate through his new muzzle and clearly had no intention of taking it off, though the Stone Hashira could tell that the Demon Kamado appeared to be trying to either reassure or encourage him in some way. Afterwards though, the Kamado appeared to grow tired as he slowly shuffled over to his box, picked up and walked over to his sisters’ tent and got in while closing it. The small snoring sounds coming from the wooden object telling the gentle giant that this new Demon King fell asleep within.

“They… appear to almost be human despite their humanity being robbed. They have also revealed new information about their kind that I had never known and appear to have genuinely been victims of circumstance….” Gyomei thought to himself in wonder, now listening to the other Demons seemingly having fun talks while clearly keeping an eye out for hostile Demons, Gyomei himself and their new King that was resting within a small box. Then suddenly, a new question appeared in his head….

“You lot. Why did you become Demons in the first place? If you do not mind me asking at least.” He questioned the female Demons, causing their sounds to become uncomfortable as they shifted about in place.

“Honestly? We either don’t feel comfortable sharing our stories with or can’t remember everything. But one thing that we all have in common is that we didn’t become what we are today by choice and were forced to by Kibutsuji. Hell, Susamaru and um… number 5 here were turned as little kids. Sadly, they are not uncommon victims of being turned by Muzan.” Mukago told him tensely and gave him a good scope of the kinds of Demon victims out there and muttering the last bit under her breath, horrifying Gyomei into silence. Just how many Demons killed by the Corps throughout the many generations and even himself were innocent children or victims, effectively becoming prisoners in their own bodies thanks to Muzan’s cruelty and their own cells?

“I pray that you all are now safe within the afterlife and your next ones are truly happy for the injustice committed against your souls. And… I pray that these Demons, who cling onto their humanity, may have a fair trial tomorrow.” Gyomei thought to himself as he placed his hands together in a prayer and began to shed tears for the Demonic souls that were forced to turn as innocent youths or were left with no choice in their previous lives. He also gave a prayer for the good fortune of the Demons he has been travelling with the past few days, as while he was still unsure about them, these new truths have certainly affected the Stone Hashira and so has made him resolved to judge them fairly when they encounter the other Hashira.

After all, he was admittedly blinded by the fact that his current travelling companions were Demons until now when they are in fact people that have clung onto their humanity despite the odds or are seeking redemption for the actions they were forced to make.

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Demon Slayer Corps HQ

“Alright, I need you both to listen to what I’m about to say.” Hanako heard Giyu speak up, drawing her attention instantly as she lifted a bit at the intense look within one of her big brother figures only eye.

“Most of the other Hashira absolutely despise Demons and so, they won’t see Tanjiro and your new Demon friends as people, but monsters that need to be put down. Because of that, they will likely dismiss almost anything you say because of ‘bias’ or twist the narrative if given the chance.” The one-eyed Slayer explained to the sisters as he knelt down in front of them, with Gyomei opening a door and entering to both wait for them and likely join the other Hashira.

“What!? But why!? They don’t know Ni-Chan, so why would they do that without even seeing what he looks like!?” Hanako asks in surprise, causing Giyu to sigh sadly.

“Hanako… almost everyone in the Corps have lost a friend, loved one or family member to a Demon and have seen a recently turned Demon eat their own family in the past. So, while it is frustrating, they are going to be controlled by their emotions and will need a large supply of solid evidence to convince them all.” He gently told her, allowing one of his rare smiles to cross his face to help her.

“Wait, then why did you have the others leave and take the rest as well? Wouldn’t the sight of multiple good Demons and the words of our team help?” Nezuko questioned, causing the more experienced Slayer to nod his head in agreement.

“Which is why they need to stay away for a bit. The master has a plan for your brother’s victory in this trial, so trust him and your friends when the time comes.” He told them, causing the sisters to nod while Nezuko got Tanjiro’s box off of her back and held it close to her chest.

With that, the three walked through the door and entered an almost vacant garden with the exception of themselves and looking ahead, she saw both Gyomei and Muichiro standing with 7 other people, though she was honestly taken by surprise when she realised that she recognised both Kanae and Mitsuri-San with these people.

“So Tomioka, these are the little Slayers that are protecting a Demon. Now then, I think we can immediately get to punishing them.” One of the people, who had a snake wrapped around his neck and shoulders, says coldly as he pointed at the two while the snake began to hiss as if expressing its agreement with the sentiment.

“I agree! Protecting a Demon is a direct violation of the Corps’ rules! It would be for the best that we lop off th-!?” Another man with yellow and red coloured hair began to yell his agreement with a smile that reminded Hanako a bit of Tanjiro’s before the attack, though she was quickly disgusted by the comparison since the man wanted to kill her brother despite him fighting his very cells at every moment.

However, the man was cut off and every one of the people who she assumed were also Hashira, were all surprised when a stone was thrown at the smiling man’s head hard enough to cause it to bleed a bit.

“Be quiet. The master specifically said that this was a trial, so we should wait for him.” Muichiro told him with a small glare as he lightly tossed another stone in the palm of his hand, earning some odd looks from the many older Demon Slayers, as if this wasn’t normal of Muichiro.

“Ara-Ara~. I must agree with Muichiro-Kun though, especially since I would like to see the little Demon with these two.” Kanae spoke up next, keeping her knowledge and encounter with Tanjiro and the others a secret for now, but it earned a bit of a scoff and frown from a surprisingly short woman that looked a lot like Kanae, except that her hair was not only much shorter in length, but it also turned purple near the ends while dark, purple-coloured eyes. Her clothes were also very similar to Kanae’s, except that this person’s haori was a basic white one and she had a single white, turquoise and light purple coloured butterfly ornament fastening her flat yakai-maki bun instead of Kanae’s two pink and green ones that were on the sides of her head.

“Oneesan, this is a Demon we are talking about. Who knows how many people it has killed and the lives those two allowed to die as a result.” The shorter woman, who was apparently Kanae’s sister, spoke with a clear venom and distrust in her voice, sending a distrusting glare at both the Kamado sisters and making Hanako angry.

“Hey! That ‘it’ you were referring to is our big brother! Don’t treat him as if he isn’t a person!” She yelled at the older girl, causing the 2^nd tallest of the gathered people to frown and cross his large arms.

“I’d be quiet before you make things worse for yourself, kid. You are already an unflamboyant sight as is.” The man stated to them seriously, to which Giyu stepped in front of the siblings.

“Enough Tengen. Muichiro is correct, Oyakata-Sama specifically requested for us to come together for a trial. Because of that, these two and their brother will not be harmed.” Their older brother figure warned the larger Slayer with a one-eyed glare, causing a chuckle to be heard from behind the sisters.

“Saaay… this seems interesting!” Hanako heard the voice speak in a way that convinced her that the person behind her and her family was somewhat unhinged and turning around to get a look at the person only solidified this belief.

The person standing slowly walking towards the Kamado sisters and Giyu was a tall and muscular man with spiky long white hair and large pale purple eyes. His face and body are covered with scars, and he had a crazed expression with a large grin, his eyes almost looking ready to pop right out of their sockets, though he appeared to oddly have no eyebrows. For his clothes though, he was wearing a green-tinted version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform, unbuttoned to expose his chest and abs with a white long-sleeved shirt over it with the kanji for kill etched on the back, white buckles around his shins and tabi socks with a pair of white zōri with green straps.

“Well, seems like have some brain-dead brats! News flash you dumbasses, but Demons and anything related to those monsters will be nothing but a blight on this world!” The yelled at them and at a speed that Hanako could barely see, the scarred man leapt forward towards her sister, almost snatching the box containing Tanjiro from Nezuko had Muichiro not leapt forward between the vicious man and his family, grabbing the man’s outstretched arm, and tossing him over his shoulder right next to the other Hashira.

“What the hell was that for brat!?” The white-haired Slayer demanded of the more experienced Mist Breathing user, who actually glared back and to Hanako’s surprise, she saw some red markings suddenly appearing on Muichiro’s face.

“For the last time, Oyakata-Sama specifically requested for a trial you stupid wolf. Plus, these two are my sisters and I won’t let you hurt them.” He openly admits, taking all of the gathered Slayers by surprise besides Mitsuri, who began to cover her mouth with both hands and let out a muffled squeal.

“I didn’t know that you had siblings Tokito! Even so, your family has gone directly against the Corps rules by not only sparing the Demon within that box but carrying it with them! Who knows how many people have been killed by the beast!” The smiling Hashira stated with a tone of clear disapproval, enraging both Kamado sisters and causing Hanako’s slightly older brother figure to scowl a bit.

“They are not my sisters by blood, but they are my family and Tanjiro is included in that.” The young Hashira warned as he actually placed a hand on the handle of his weapon, with the white-haired Hashira grinning while he actually drew his own weapon.

“Sanemi, don’t. Muichiro and Giyu are correct and honestly-.” Kanae began to intervene but stopped when the now named Demon Slayer scowled a bit, though he appeared to calm down slightly when he looked at the female Slayer.

“Don’t say anything Kanae. Your dream might be a nice one, but it is only that. Besides, I’m only going to prove that these dumbasses are being nothing but delusional fools and knocking both Muichiro and Tomioka off of their high horses!” Sanemi exclaimed at the end at he slashed at his own arm and created a cut that caused a fair amount of blood to freely flow from the self-inflicted wound without being life threatening.

“MMMMMMM!!!!!!” Hanako was almost caught off guard and likely would have jumped out of her own skin if it was physically possible once she heard the muffled, but very pained scream of her older brother from within the box, causing Nezuko to almost drop it in shock while Muichiro and Giyu scowled.

“Ha! The little shit is already hungry I see! Come on Demon, why don’t you show these two your true colours so we can kill you all fo-!?” The Hashira began to speak as if her brother’s screams of pain were instead confessions for crimes he didn’t commit, but almost as soon as the mention of killing them left Sanemi’s mouth, a sudden unease came over the entire garden and everyone besides, Hanako, Nezuko, Giyu, Muichiro, Gyomei (though he was clearly straining a bit to stand), Mitsuri and Kanae to collapse onto the ground and began to breath heavily, though even the ones not currently on the ground couldn’t stop an uneasy shiver from running up their spines.

“Wh-W-What the… hell… h-hap-happened!?” The one with a Snake wrapped around him gasped as he struggled to breath and fell out of the tree, he was in.

“My big brother. Even as a human, he was always protective of our family and as a Demon… well, let’s just say he makes his displeasure at threats to us much more physically known.” Nezuko explained with a small smirk, walking over to some shade so she can place down the box holding her brother and let Tanjiro out.

Once he was safely in the shade created by the roof of the surrounding building, Tanjiro opened the door to his box and slowly crawled out, his pink eyes glowing with righteous fury and veins bulging across his face. There was also a bit of drool dripping from his muzzle and his body was shaking as if every cell in his body was in pain, but it was being overwhelmed by pure, unrestrained rage.

“Onii-Chan, it’s okay. We are safe and we aren’t going to get hurt.” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family assured the eldest child of the family, causing Tanjiro’s rage to cool down until the bulging veins were completely gone and with it, the pressure that had covered the entire garden.

“Mmm.” Tanjiro hummed in concern as he looked over Nezuko with concern clear within his Demonic eyes and sniffed at her a bit, appearing to gag for a moment before shaking his head and focusing on his task once more.

“KKKKKYYYYYYYAAAAAA~! Tanjiro-Kun’s concern for his sister is incredible!” Mitsuri was unable to stop herself from gushing in awe, making Gyomei stop praying for a moment as he raised an eyebrow as he turned his head in the direction of the pink haired Hashira by following the direction of her voice.

“You have already been aware of the boy?” He inquired, causing the Love Hashira to laugh a bit nervously and sweat a bit, but Giyu spoke up.

“Let’s just say that we either kept a detail or two about the encounter with both Upper moon 3 and 1 a secret or outright fibbed a little. For example, the boy that we reported helping us that day just so happened to be the Demon Kamado before us now.” Giyu explained while smirking a little, catching all of the other Hashira off guard at not only the reveal that the Demon boy actually helped humans and even saved 3 Hashira and a retired one.

“Tch. It’s bound to be a trick.” The one with the snake dismissed while looking at Tanjiro with a suspicious look, with Hanako being able to smell a strong emotion from both the small man and his snake but couldn’t figure out what. However, this dismissiveness proceeded to earn him a sigh from Kanae.

“Iguro-San, the boy had hours to eat 3 Hashira and a retired one that couldn’t fight back and were potentially too wounded to do much, even if they could do so. Shouldn’t that be enough to prove that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone at least?” The woman questioned with an unimpressed look, causing the dual colour eyed man to flinch a bit, though the whatever emotion he was feeling only grew in potency based off of his scent.

“I’ll have to say this. These siblings may not be flashy, but I can admit to being impressed.” The 2^nd tallest Hashira states as he actually looked over the Kamado siblings more critically and smirked a little bit.

“Mmm….” Tanjiro made a discontent muffled sound as he looked over at Muichiro, Giyu and Hanako in concern as he looked at the sunlight that kept him away from the people, he considered family. Then, his eyes lit up as if he came up with a genius plan, with his aura shifting a bit.

However, this sudden shift caused long honed instincts against Demons to flare up within each Hashira, but only one acted before they could properly think. Whether or not it was because they just so happened to be the physically closest to Tanjiro at that moment or their negative feelings towards the Demon Kamado prevented them from even wanting to stop could not be answered at a mere glance. But it did not the most important detail…

“TANJIRO!!” That the Nichirin Blade of Sanemi Shinazugawa lashed out and took off the head of Tanjiro Kamado. However, this wasn’t the important detail, but what lead to it for you see…

“GGGRRRR!” The important detail was that, as his head flew in the air and spun around, a sudden pillar of solid blood burst out of the lethal wound and connected with the decapitated head of Tanjiro Kamado and pulled it back so that Tanjiro’s hard head smashed right into the Hashira’s, causing Sanemi to fly back and slam his back into the ground while his forehead bled, and he entered unconsciousness.

“Mmmm…!” Tanjiro let out a muffled growl as he jumped out of the shade and into the sunlight, summoning his tendril to grab Nezuko and hide her, as well as Giyu, Muichiro and Hanako behind him as he grew in size and looked at the Hashira with suspicion, clearly ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

“What the fuck….”

Chapter Text

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: Demon Slayer Corps HQ

Danger! Sword people were dangerous! Mean scar man even attacked him when he was simply going to bring his family into the shade so that he doesn’t scare them! And because of sword people, he had to break his promise and it hurt to do that! He could smell their fear the whole time through Mean scar man’s delicious blood.

However, Tanjiro quickly grew confused when the scent of confusion momentarily replaced fear from his family while most of the sword people seemed to be consumed by terror while the two kind ladies he met before seemed more surprised and impressed and the crying giant as well. But he couldn’t focus on it for long as his precious Imoutos grabbed him from behind and pulled him into a hug and began to make noises that he couldn’t make out. The sounds were familiar, but the Mean scar man’s blood was so hard to ignore, that he was now having a difficult time truly understanding his precious family like he did all the way back to when he woke up after that MONSTER attacked their old home.

“Big brother, you scared us half to death!” Hanako cried out as she held her Demon sibling close in a tight hug, feeling him tense up further for a minute before he quickly positioned himself so that he held her gently in his arms while keeping a critical eye on the people that could have hurt her and Nezuko.

“He is standing in the sun…. But that should be impossible for a Demon! He needs to be killed before he can fall into Muzan’s hands!” The one with a similar, but much angrier scent than Kanae spoke up with clear panic in her voice as she drew her weapon, causing Tanjiro to growl out a warning as he perceived this action as a threat to his sisters, but calmed down slightly when Giyu stepped in front of them.

“And do you really think you can kill Tanjiro? He has conquered the sun, Shinobu, so our Nichirin weapons are useless against him since they only have the power to kill Demons by decapitation thanks to their stored-up sunlight.” The one-eyed man tells her calmly, causing Muichiro to speak up next.

“And besides, he fought off two Upper moons for a time. Sufficed to say, he will need a powerful regeneration to accomplish such a feat and I doubt the poison carried around in your sword is going to do much against a Demon with that kind of power.” His younger brother seemed to point out, making the short sword user flinch a bit.

“Well, what are we supposed to do? That is a Demon, and it needs to be killed with it able to stand in the sun.” Another short person with a snake on him said with scorn in his voice, but Tanjiro was sure that he smelt something when the dual-coloured eyed man turned his attention the eldest Kamado but couldn’t figure it out because of that damn delicious blood!

“But he hasn’t done anything Iguro-Kun! Even now, he’s ignoring the Marechi blood from Sanemi so he can protect his sisters!” Kind pink and green haired lady said, making Tanjiro even more uncomfortable with the situation. He knew that she was strong since she protected his baby sisters from the bad spider thing, but the idea that she wasn’t close to him so he could repay his debt and protect her from the mean sword people unsettled him.

“Ah…. What… oh, you piece of shit!” Mean scar man yelled out as he slowly recovered from the blow to his head and began to sit up but was almost immediately pounced on by Muichiro as the young Slayer glared down at the adult male with his weapon pointed at his neck.

“Don’t even try it. You’re lucky that I don’t take your head for trying to harm my brother.” The young teen growled out but is pulled back by Kanae.

“Now, now, I think Shinazugawa has learned his lesson for the time being.” She states calmly, getting Muichiro to reluctantly step back but the amnesiac boy did not put away his blade, nor did he stop glaring at the downed man as he stood back up and growled.

“Even so, something should be done about the Demon Kamado! He had attacked Sanemi only moments ago and with him out in the sun, some kind of countermeasure must be taken!” The one with hair that looked like it was on fire spoke, yelling as he dropped his smile and looked directly at Tanjiro with a glare.

“Are you kidding me! Tanjiro only acted when he was attacked!” Nezuko yelled out, to which the man wearing a headband crossed his arms and spoke up.

“And yet he was drooling only moments before that and clearly threatened us all as well.” The large man stated with a frown, but this caused Gyomei to speak up at last.

“I must disagree. Despite losing his humanity, the boy only reacted when his family was threatened despite us clearly talking about his death up to that point and the smell of Marechi lingering in the air even now.” The gentle giant said, but he did not stop praying as tears fell from his eyes.

“So what? Demons are manipulative beasts that twist the narrative to their advantage and exploit our kind. This is clearly just another example of it out in the world.” Iguro countered the gentle giant’s statement, and if only for a moment, Tanjiro could clearly smell absolute terror from the snake man as he continued to watch the Demon Kamado with suspicion.

“My, it appears like I have missed out on a fair bit. However, my children, I must ask that you calm down.” The familiar voice of the gentle man called out to everyone, with a calming presence overcoming the area that even made Tanjiro’s demonic instincts calm down a little as he turned around and saw the sickly man walk forward with his two kids with a similar sent to the last pair of children he saw with the man. Quickly though, everyone began to bow, including his sisters after a brief moment, which confused Tanjiro. What was the point of it and why did he feel a surge of anger and disgust when he briefly thought of copying the action?

“Before we begin, I wish to apologise for being late. I had to take care of a few things before I could arrive.” Ubuyashiki spoke calmly as he children gently guided him forward, eventually stopping their walk forward and getting the sick man to sit down.

“Yes Oyakata-Sama!” The Hashira all spoke at once.

“Oyakata-Sama, it is a relief to see you once more. I wish for your continued good health and happiness.” Giyu was quick to speak up after the greeting while making sure to place himself between the Kamado family and Muichiro and the remaining Hashira, causing the sickly man to chuckle lightly.

“I am pleased to hear all of you have returned to me once more without change within our ranks, my children and that you are all unharmed. I also thank you for the kind words, Tomioka.” The sickly man says peacefully with a calm smile on his face.

Taking the potentially limited calm atmosphere, Tanjiro sniffed at the air and found it a bit easier to understand the emotions within the air now. The blood from Mean scar man was still messing with him, but he could now tell that everyone felt respect to the sickly man, though the fear, hate and scorn directed at him did not change, and made it almost impossible to smell the love from his family and the support of the kind ladies….

“I’m sorry master, but I must ask this now. Can you be so kind as to explain the situation surround the Kamado siblings and ask for permission to execute the Demon with them.” Sanemi was quick to speak up, though his tone of voice had a great amount of respect and anger in it, though it was perfectly clear where the two separate emotions were directed.

“Ah yes. My apologise for keeping a secret for so long, but I have known about the Kamado siblings and the circumstances surrounding their brother. After hearing status updates on Tanjiro from Muichiro, Giyu and Sakonji Urokodaki for the past two years and having personally met the young child myself, I have decided to accept Hanako, Nezuko and Tanjiro. So, I must ask that you all do the same.” Kagaya explained calmly and with an apologetic tone of voice, taking many of the Hashira by surprise.

“Forgive me master, but I must Flamboyantly oppose this request! Not only can I not accept Demon Slayers who works alongside demons, but the Demon is now too great of a threat to let go.” The one wearing the headband and had a similar scent to Kushi was quick to speak up and oppose the request.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you Oyakata-Sama, but us Demon Slayers were formed to take out the monsters that have harmed us and countless others so our kind can live somewhat peacefully. A Demon momentarily ignoring their instincts to not harm their family may be possible, despite how insanely rare it is, but like any other, he will eventually cave and attack them or one of our members unprovoked. It’s better to stop him now before it is too late.” The short woman that smelled a bit like the trees around the… what was that building owned by the old lady called again? Oh well, it likely didn’t matter much, but she smelled the disgusting smell trees that he wanted to avoid, though he didn’t really get a sense of danger from that smell.

“We are Demon Slayers Oyakata-Sama. Not only can I not believe in the existence of a ‘good’ Demon, but the brats defending the monster before us are spitting upon the very titles that we carry with pride. I must ask that the Kamado girls, Tomioka and Muichiro for their blatant violation of our rules.” The one with the snake with him spoke, with the reptile letting out a hiss that could almost be mistaken for concern had Tanjiro’s nose not confirmed that the scaley animal was genuinely concerned about the short human.

“Master, you have my respect from the bottom of my heart, and you always will! However, I can’t understand what you’re thinking with this request, Oyakata-Sama! Thus, I must oppose your decision with all of my strength!” The one with red and yellow hair yelled out, showing his own opinion of the discussion.

“I have already given my thoughts Oyakata-Sama and they have not changed in the slightest. So again, please punish these fools and allow us to kill the Demon that is standing in the sun!” Sanemi yelled out, not changing his stance in the slightest.

“Are you kidding me!? You exposed my brother to Marechi blood, and not only did he not attack you, but he only acted at all when you threatened us with death and cut off his head, and even then, Tanjiro’s top priority was to defend us! Even Giyu and Muichiro, your fellow Hashira, are defending us and have seen that our brother won’t hurt anyone!” Nezuko cried out angerly, standing up as she glared at the man, earning her a growl.

“Will you shut it you stupid brat!? Tomioka is nothing but a high and might bastard and Muichiro can barely remember his own name half of the time!” The man yelled as with a scowl as the veins on his face began to bulge in rage and the insult to his family caused Tanjiro to growl in rage as not only did he allow his Demonic aura to seep out again in warning because of it, but his muzzle began to crack once more from how hard the Demon Kamado was biting into his muzzle.

However, the yelling caused a new voice to sigh, one that Tanjiro recognised almost as soon as the sound reached his ears and instantly caused the young Demon to perk up happily, even if the sounds from the person did not sound happy.

“So, this is the current generation of Hashira. I must admit, I am severely disappointed with the way that you are acting.” The voice spoke out, its owner revealing himself as Urokodaki as a woman with white hair wearing a salmon-coloured mofuku kimono with an ombre to orange at the top with flower patterns with a dark indigo haori with numerous blue butterfly-patterns pushed him forward on a wheelchair.

“Mmmm!!” Tanjiro cried out happily as he put down Hanako and ran over to the old man, almost leaping into his arms before remembering his injured state, so he instead settled for stopping at his side and hugging him gently, causing his Ojii-Chan to gently rub his head.

“Hello Tanjiro. Sorry, but we’ll talk later with the others, but for now, this old man needs to have a word with the younger generation.” The old man told him gently, causing Tanjiro to nod after a moment once he put together what the sounds meant and walked back over to his sisters and put them behind him once more.

“Ah! You must be Urokodaki-San! My father actually spoke highly of you a few years ago during his time as a Hashira!” The one with hair that looked like it was on fire spoke up with surprised recognition in his voice.

“Oh? So you are one of Shinjuro’s boys. You certainly look like a Rengoku at least. Well, that matters little at the moment, especially given your lack of trust to those among your ranks.” Urokodaki spoke with some surprise in his voice, but quickly turned his attention back to the topic he wished to discuss.

“And what exactly do you mean by that?” The 2^nd tallest out of everyone there questioned with a slight edge to his tone, making Urokodaki’s scent become even more upset.

“The fact that you have such little faith in my student and Muichiro. Admittedly, the Hashira don’t need to get along for the Corps and each other to survive, but your trust in each other’s judgement should be solid and not venomous as I have now witnessed. It also explains a few things about Giyu though.” The retired Water Hashira spoke before whispering quietly to himself at the end, causing Sanemi to scowl at the words that were clearly spoken.

“So what? You mean to say that your generation would allow each other a pet Demon if-!” The Hashira began to yell but cut himself off when the former Slayer let out a sudden but strong burst of power.

“Do not call Tanjiro a pet, boy. And while you are correct that my generation certainly would be holding a trial at least like you all are now, we trusted each other without fail. So, let’s say that I alone was vouching for Tanjiro’s continued existence and my old comrades were in your places at this very moment, they would have heard me out without their bias and emotions controlling them, which you are failing to do now.” The elderly man told them calmly and with full confidence in his words, but this caused the man with the snake to speak up.

“Funny that you are the one speaking of bias. Those girls are the Demon’s sisters and you, as well as Muichiro and Tomioka have clearly gotten attached to the monster. While you may be a former Hashira and those two are a part of our current line-up, I can’t trust such blatantly skewed views on such a matter.” The man spoke up as a counter argument.

“I’ll give you credit since I do have my own bias to this situation. However, unlike you, I have evidence of Tanjiro ignoring humans and defending them. In fact, didn’t Giyu just reveal to you that the boy has saved 3 of your current Hashira and healed their wounds?” Urokodaki easily countered the dual-coloured man’s point, causing the woman who smelled of poison to speak up with a frown on her face.

“Forgive me if I sound disrespectful, but you have to understand why we are so disbelieving. A Demon will always harm and kill humans and now we have one standing out in the sun. Such a thing makes the boy too much of a threat.” She told him, but it merely caused Urokodaki to scoff a bit.

“And yet Tanjiro has not only refused to consume human flesh and blood for 2 years, has been watched over by two of your fellow Hashira with them deciding that he is a friend, but had saved my life from Upper moon 3 and held off that Demon and Upper moon 1 long enough for Giyu and Muichiro to arrive. Add on to how you yourself have witnessed the boy ignore Marechi blood to protect his family and is still ignoring it at this moment, and that should be proof enough that he is a good person at the very least.” He stated, causing the short woman to flinch since she couldn’t argue against those truths.

“Even so, you can’t expect us to accept this without some kind of countermeasure and a punishment ready in the scenario, or rather the inevitability, that the Demon brat eats someone. I’ll admit that he may be the one flamboyant Demon in existence for fighting his hunger for so long, and I might have cautiously allowed this with your arguments, but a Demon immune to the sun is also immune to our weapons and needs to be dealt with before it can harm anyone.” The man with a headband stated with a frown and crossed arms, drawing Urokodaki’s attention.

“Outside of you saying that Tanjiro eating someone is inevitable, you bring up a fair point. Which is the reason why, in the unlikely scenario that the boy does, we will not fight against his execution and myself, Giyu, Muichiro, Nezuko and Hanako will slit our bellies and commit seppuku to atone.” The man told them with complete confidence in his words, catching the Hashira that desires Tanjiro’s demise off guard and making them look at the Kamado siblings and both Muichiro and Giyu, who nodded in agreement. However, none of them noticed Tanjiro tensing and the fire that seemed to ignite momentarily within his almost glazed over pink eyes.

“Tch, so what if an old fossil like you and those dumbasses will commit seppuku!? If you all want to, then you can rot for all I care! It doesn’t mean a damn thing when that thing eats someone!” Sanemi yelled out with a scowl, causing the one with fire like hair to speak up after he finished eyeing Tanjiro.

“I’m afraid that Shinazugawa is correct! Oyakata-Sama, while I can somewhat understand your desire for this Demon to continue living and the arguments presented, the death of any humans he consumes will be irreversible! The dead can never come back, no matter how much we may wish it!” The Rengoku yelled out passionately, causing Kagaya to hum in thought for a moment.

“That is correct. None of us can truly guarantee or confirm that young Tanjiro will never attack and consume a human. However, you cannot prove that he will attack humans.” The leader of the Corps told them, taking the Hashira off guard with the counter argument.

“Up until now, Giyu, Muichiro, Sakonji, Nezuko and Hanako have been telling us nothing but truths from their respective experiences with our new Demonic friend for the last two years, both in a calm environment and even in combat. And not only has Mitsuri already vouched to him having saved her life on two separate occasions while Kanae has personally interacted with him, but 5 people have bet their lives on him.” The sickly man told the Hashira, further shocking them at the fact that even more of their members have had extensive interactions with the Demon and that Tanjiro saved the life of the Love Hashira twice.

“And as a reminder, our report about the encounter with Upper moon 3 and 1 was slightly altered. In reality, Tanjiro had fought at least one of them on his own for a while and potentially held them both off at once. After our very brief fight with the Demons, it was Tanjiro who dragged us to safety and treated our wounds to the extent that our lives were no longer at risk of dying.” Muichiro spoke up now to hammer in the point further, making Mitsuri nod her head.

“He’s right! It was actually the first time he saved me, and I couldn’t harm him after such an admirable deed!” She confirmed, the confirmation seeming to hit both Rengoku and Iguro in particular in some way.

“So, in conclusion, if you wish to reject young Tanjiro’s existence, you must offer evidence concerning him harming humans unjustly and something greater than their promise. If you still disagree, there are a couple of other people that have their own thoughts that they would wish to share regarding this particular subject.” Kagaya told them, but his choice of words had caught a certain woman’s attention.

“’Harming humans unjustly’? Why do you say that specifically Oyakata-Sama?” Kanae asked curiously, but before the master of the Corps could speak, the Wind Hashira acted quickly with an accusation.

“So, the piece of shit has attacked humans! Oyakata-Sama, that should be reason enough to kill the monster!” Sanemi yelled out, but this caused Hanako to speak up as she stood up and glared at the man.

“My brother hasn’t harmed a human! Even when he was being turned, he kept me safe from the cold after…!” She furiously opposed the twisting of the narrative but froze up and began to shake and breath heavily as her mind wandered back to that night 2 years ago.

Seeing this, Tanjiro and Nezuko quickly hugged their little sister and despite the possibility of coming off as rude, the two Hashira and retired Water Hashira of the formed family quickly got to her and formed a group hug. However, Tanjiro was a bit confused as to why he could smell one of the still kneeling Hashira seemed to become uncomfortable once him and his family began to hug.

“I shall get into my choice in words in a moment you two. However, I have a couple of people gathered that have their own experiences with the Kamado family and they can give their opinions without bias. But before that, you young ones may come out now.” Kagaya spoke up once again, turning his head a little to make his voice clearer to whoever he may be addressing.

“Tanjiro-Sama!! Are yooo…. What the heck!?” The concerned voice of Susamaru cried out as she practically ran through the door that she was waiting behind, moving forward but stopped as she saw the Demon Kamado in the sun. Afterwards, she took a moment to process this information and screamed in shock and began to panic a bit, though her presence certainly got a reaction from a certain Hashira.

“A fucking Lower moon Demon!? How many more of these abominations are here!?” Sanemi yelled out in rage, and it was abundantly clear that the only reason he did not stand up and decapitate the kanji eyed girl was the looks he received from the found family, Kanae and the presence of the master.

“Not a Lower moon asshole. But in terms of any other Demons on Tanjiro-Sama’s side and including myself and Susamaru here, there are 5 of us.” The voice of Mukago spoke up, walking forward with the rest of Tanjiro’s Demons walking forward proudly.

“These lot are Demons who young Tanjiro has freed from the control of Muzan Kibutsuji. And I have some people who many of you trust that can share their opinions on their own existence and those who will not be clouded by bias.” The master of the Corps told them, causing everyone but Giyu, Muichiro, Urokodaki, Mitsuri, Kanae and Gyomei to be taken by surprise.

“Except… me…. Turned… Tanjiro-Sama….” Satoko shyly explained through her hampered speech, making the one with flame like hair to widen his eyes in shock.

“He turned a human!? But the only beings capable of such a thing are Muzan and potentially one of his Twelve Kizuki members!” Rengoku yelled, even standing up and turning to glare at Tanjiro with a frown and causing the pink eyed Demon to growl out a muffled warning.

“W-Wait! Tanjiro-Sama didn’t even mean to! He simply wanted to help Satoko-Chan when his blood entered one of her wounds, making the blood react to that desire and turn her!” The Demon with the kanji for ‘5’ in her eye exclaimed, clearly terrified, and worried.

“Listen here fire head, my brother has the gentlest heart that anybody could have, and he saved Satoko’s life!” Nezuko told the Hashira with a glare, making the man with the snake speak up while his serpent hissed almost venomously at the Kamado.

“And how exactly is that any reason to excuse the transformation? She has undeniably eaten someone as the likely hood of their being another Demon who hasn’t eaten a human is practically impossible and as for the others, they clearly have the aura of Demons that have consumed innocent lives and have been alive for a while. So, at the very least, if I should somehow genuinely believe your claims about your brother, those 5 should be killed immediately.” Iguro stated without a bit of compassion directed towards the Demons, but this caused Giyu to speak up.

“Not exactly. While the letters sent to me and Muichiro confirmed that 4 of the Demons have eaten humans, we have given those with a… questionable past a second chance should they desire it.” The Water Hashira argued gently, hesitating for a moment as he looked over the 2^nd largest person in the area, who flinched a bit at the accurate assessment.

“It is true. So long as someone is able to keep an eye on them like we would with a member with a questionable past, I see no reason as to why they can’t be given a 2^nd chance since they took the opportunity.” Kanae spoke up cheerfully, expressing her own agreement to the idea.

“While it may seem… hypocritical for me to say this, I don’t think that is a good idea. I know that I normally support those who wish to change and have demonstrated the Flamboyant desire for it, but this is far riskier. After all, Demons are undeniably addicted to human flesh and blood.” The headband wearing man states, causing Gyomei to speak up once more.

“But can they be blamed for it? According to those poor souls, the desire to consume humans is built into their cells and they were under constant watch and threat from their progenitor after being turned against their will and stripped away of their memories of the past. So shouldn’t the fact that after tasting human flesh, that these victims of circumstance should be allowed the opportunity to atone for denying their very cells and taking the first opportunity they had to leave Kibutsuji?” The praying man questioned, thought this made the woman who smelled like poison to perk up.

“Alright, let’s say that I believe their word about practically having no choice but to eat humans because of their body structure and their King for even a moment. How exactly did you lot apparently ‘escape’ Muzan?” The short woman questioned suspiciously, making the kanji eyed Demon with the number ‘6’ in her eye to talk.

“Tanjiro-Sama’s blood. To make a long story short, he was somehow turned into a new Demon King when exposed to Muzan’s blood and can create his own Demons separate from our previous asshole of a King and take them away should we agree to it and given his own blood.” She explained nonchalantly, making the man with the snake frown.

“All you just did was give us even more of a reason to kill this brat. If there is even the slightest chance that not only would he eat a human, but also become as powerful of a threat as Muzan while being immune to the sun, then he must be eliminated. Even more so if his blood may allow you lot to walk in the sun as well.” Iguro claimed, turning his head to glare at Tanjiro as the Demon boy began to yawn and shrink down to the size of a 5-year-old, but was still clearly on guard in case anyone attacked his Demon friends.

“I must agree with Iguro! Even to this day, the Corps has been unable to slay an Upper moon and Muzan is undeniably much stronger than his Demons! The fact that through the Demon Kamado, we face the potential threat of another set of Muzan and Upper moons that may all be immune to the sun far outweighs any good they can possibly do, assuming that they genuinely wish to help us!” Rengoku expressed his own agreement, getting the woman who smells of poison and Sanemi to nod their heads.

“Killing Demons is a part of our jobs. Hell, the Kanji for our very weapons states this and makes those idiots a disgrace to the Corps and all of its efforts!” The scarred man yells out, causing Muichiro to shake his head.

“You really are a dumb wolf. The Kanji on our blades says ‘Destroyer of evil Demons’, not ‘Destroy all Demons’. So, if anything, wouldn’t that make all of you a disgrace to our organization, especially since these lot are not evil and the few that have done bad things against their will took the opportunity to be free and now seek redemption.” The Mist Hashira countered the argument, making Mukago nod with a smile.

“He does have a point. Besides, us good Demons have always existed. The problem is that you lot or Kibutsuji killed us off so quickly, our existence seemed more like a fantasy than anything else. Doesn’t help that any Demon who would wish to defy Muzan was quickly found out and killed using that curse.” The former Lower moon states, her tone becoming bitter as she scowled at the end.

“Wait, a curse? What do you mean by that?” The headband wearing man asked, to which Gyomei spoke up as his enhanced hearing picked up the 5 Demons’ unease.

“According to them, Muzan places a curse within the very cells of all his Demons, allowing him to kill them with only a thought or should they speak his name, even in the presence of those who know it besides the Demon King himself. Which is even more horrific when you consider that all he Demons here were children when given Muzan’s blood and turned against their will.” The gentle giant informed them, actually horrifying all of the other Hashira besides Giyu, who was already aware of that information.

“And before you say anything, kids are actually some of Muzan’s easiest targets for a potential Demon. Susamaru was turned when she was 10 and I… I myself was turned before I was as old as her and then….” The one with the kanji for ‘5’ spoke up once again, beginning to tear up and pant as she was showing signs of a panic attack. Noticing the distress of the actually very young Demon, Tanjiro quickly grew into his normal size and ran over to her, pulling the kanji eyed Demon into a hug as he rubbed that back of her head soothingly, eventually getting the girl to fall asleep in his embrace as she shrunk down to the size of a girl around 7 or 8 years old.

“That’s…. How could anyone do such a thing!” Mitsuri spoke in horror, almost everyone being stunned into silence at the statement and the proof now presented to them.

“Given everything that bastard has done, does this really seem all that farfetched?” Nezuko asked with a scowl, though the question seemed to have an effect on the stunned Demon Slayers in the area as a single question floated through their minds.

“How many Demons have we slain that were actually children?”

“I can see that many of you still have a strong opinion on this topic. So now, I would like to bring in those with experiences with the Demons gathered. You may all show yourselves.” Kagaya spoke calmly, causing some of the slide doors to open and reveal the rest of the squad, Kaigaku and a good number of the people they saved through the sibling trio from that mansion and Sayo.

Though, Tanjiro was able to smell Gyomei’s sudden emotional shift in his scent once the older Demon Slayer revealed himself, with contempt clear on Sayo’s scent as the girl glared at Kaigaku.

“What the!? Kushi!?” The large man with the headband yelled in shock, making the Dragon Breathing user rub her head nervously before composing herself.

“Hey dad. And yeah, I have some experience with these lot.” She said, speaking confidently while the woman who smells of poison looked at Inosuke in shock.

“Inosuke-Kun!? You actually….” She was unable to finish her sentence, clearly too stunned to process everything.

“Hey Shinobu-San. But yes, I kept quiet about my new friends and honestly… I don’t regret giving them the chance!” The Ice Breathing user told her confidently.

“Genya!? What the fuck!?” Sanemi practically screamed his head off as he addressed the scarred teen, who flinched at the volume of the yell.

“Hey Sanemi….” The Breathless Slayer stated nervously, looking away from his older brother but refused to move the spot he stood on.

“You see, when we discussed the idea of putting our Slayers in Squads more often, I took the opportunity have these lot watch over the Kamado family at the same time and tasked them with informing those who they saved of the possibility of being brought here for this trial. Go on children, why don’t you share your experiences.” Kagaya informed the Hashira before the addressing the Squad members, who all bowed to the man besides Aoi. At least until Kushi hit the boar head wearing girl over the head and made her show respect to the Demon Slayer Corps’ master.

“Well, Oyakata-Sama, I can confirm that Tanjiro-San hasn’t eaten a single human during our time together and in fact has saved our lives many times, directly and indirectly through the Demons he has converted into his own.” Inosuke told the man, turning his attention to Kanao and motioned for her to speak up, causing the yellow wearing girl to do so.

“Back when Susamaru was under the control of Muzan, she nearly killed me in battle with the aid of another Demon. However, Tanjiro saved my life by kicking away her attack and has shown concern for my wellbeing many times since then.” The Thunder Breathing user stated, speaking nothing but the truth and the Hashira knew it.

“They have also helped me fight a number of times. You see…” Genya began to explain before stopping and looking over at Sanemi, Gyomei and Kanae for a moment. All 3 widening their eyes as they realised what he intended to do.

“A while back, I was attacked by a Demon, and I consumed their flesh as I fought back. In doing so, I gained Demonic traits and a few abilities like a lesser version of their regeneration and Gyomei-San helped calm me down from it. If I can use a Demons power to help the Corps and stay in control of myself as a human, I know these lot either will never harm a human or will work hard to make up for the lives they took.” The young Shinazugawa spoke confidently, shocking everyone that was unaware of this power and allowing Kushi to continue.

“I have observed the Demons within our group the whole time and honestly, I can confidently say that they are some of the most Flamboyant people I know! They have proven to help us many times and I am willing to trust them with my life.” The former Kunochi said, taking the man who was now clearly her adoptive father off guard.

“Hell yeah! They are like wolves considering that they kind if they consider you a part of their pack and are ferociously protective!” Aoi spoke confidently, getting a few odd looks from those who haven’t met her before.

“Well… we haven’t had as much experience with this group as them, but I can confidently say they are good people! The Demon boy actually ran into me when I was trapped in a mansion with other Demons because of my rare blood, which is apparently called Marechi. He was admittedly drooling when he came across me, but he ran away before I could even do a thing and I now know it was too keep me safe.” One of the people who the Squad helped, Kiyoshi, told everyone, getting one of his little siblings to speak up next.

“Not only that, but the other Demons kept us company within boxes that they were in while we were waiting for our brother to be saved!” The girl, Teruko, stated happily and causing her other brother nod in agreement.

“They even warned us when the lingering scent of our brother’s blood seemed to be getting the better of them and actually calmed us down when we were getting really worried. Heck, they even stopped us from heading into the building our big brother was trapped in ourselves.” Shoichi added in as well.

“*Sigh* I ran into the Demon brat and actually attacked him when I thought he was a normal Demon. He did nothing but run from me and dodge my attacks whenever I tried to decapitate him. After those lot stopped me and I saw that him and the rest of the Demons were not to be hurt, I spent time around the group, and I can definitely say they are good people and deserve a chance.” Kaigaku sighed before giving his own thoughts and motioning to the Kamado sisters, Kanao and Kushi as he referenced being stopped, making sure to look away from Gyomei and Sayo as the man’s scent was covered in a silent fury, but also a little bit of… hope? However, Sayo’s scent was still consumed by a rage that was targeted specifically at the Thunder Breathing user.

“As for me, I didn’t really get the opportunity to interact with them much. However, back when I let them stay in my house in Shibuya, they were all incredibly polite and even when Susamaru broke something, she did what she could to clean it up and wouldn’t stop apologising for nearly an hour. Heck, on our way here, they kept on eye out while the rest of us humans slept during the night.” Sayo took the opportunity to speak once she controlled herself but turned back to glare at Kaigaku and making the Slayer flinch back at the look.

“Now then, I do think that you should think over the thoughts of our guests here. If there is anything else you may wish to share, I suggest you do so now.” Kagaya told the Hashira before addressing the humans and Demons next to him, actually causing Mukago to speak up.

“Yes actually. If I’m correct, none of you even know a single detail about Kibutsuji’s appearance, correct?” The former Lower moon inquired, causing Rengoku to respond.

“What of it, Demon?” The Hashira questioned with a frown, telling everyone what they needed to know in that moment.

“As much as I’m not proud of it, I was a previous Lower moon 4, Susamaru was a Demon notable enough to be given minimal missions by Muzan and Tanjiro-Sama was turned by the other Demon King. I’ll let you do the math from there.” She states with a small smirk, and the Hashira only needed a moment to put together what she was talking.

“The fuck!? You two had those brats this whole time and never shared such important intel!? I should kill you both right now!” Sanemi accused as he stood up, making Tanjiro get between the scarred man and his family, the glare the Demon gave only gave almost as much of a suffocating presence as his brief flare of Demonic power. After seeing that the man wouldn’t try anything for now, Tanjiro then turned his attention to Hanako, who was beginning to have a panic attack going off of her quick and panicked breathing and gently brought his baby sister into a hug.

“My sister watched the bastard kill our family and turn our brother, asshole! So, we didn’t ask but the last time we tried, she nearly passed out from a panic attack!” Nezuko yelled at the man, who took a moment to look at the youngest Kamado and flinched a bit. However, when the other Hashira looked like they were about to speak, they silenced themselves at the sound of Kagaya shushing them, giving him everyone’s attention.

“I do ask that you leave the young girl alone considering the trauma that Kibutsuji has inflicted on her, my children. However, as you can see, the Demon progenitor that we have been fighting for countless generations has finally shown his tail to us and perhaps for the first time in his life, has encountered an obstacle he could never have predicted. Do you understand my wishes now?” The master of the corps asks of the Hashira, who all appeared to be truly stunned but Sanemi appeared to recover first.

“Forgive me master, but I cannot! Letting a human to live is one thing, but fucking Demons!? Especially ones who have admitted to eating humans and another that has conquered the sun!? Well, let me prove to you that they only deserve death, right now!” Sanemi yelled as he lifted up and showed off his still cut and bleeding arm to Tanjiro’s Demons, but the reaction was not one anybody expected….

*BBLLAARRGG!!* For each of the Demon’s faces quite clearly began to become green and quickly puked out any contents within their stomachs, running over to the side to not only get away from the very blood that caused this reaction, but also to not dirty the building out of respect for Kagaya. However, this rush to get away caused Susamaru to slip on a bit of vomit that was already on the ground thanks to one of the other Demons, making her collied into Mukago, then Satoko and the two Demons that were forced into Rui’s twisted family as they all fell into the sun light.

“They’re also immune to the sun!?” The one who was apparently Kushi’s father yelled in shock as he watched the Demons on the ground. Though, despite the monumental ability they now apparently had, the reveal was almost completely destroyed by the fact that the 5 Demons were on top of each other and were now covered in vomit to varying levels.

“While I can assume that the sight isn’t exactly the best, I do think the fact that all 5 running away from Marechi blood is the final thing that needs to be discussed today. Please my children, share your thoughts, though I feel safe in saying that Giyu, Muichiro, Mitsuri and Kanae are sticking to their initial intentions of supporting our Demon friends.” Kagaya states, a bit of amusement in his voice as he talked as he quickly got sounds of confirmation from the named 4. Though his voice did take a sympathetic not when referring to the Demons now standing up and covered in sick, with Tanjiro moving over the them as he took off his haori and began to clean them as best as he could with it.

“Their Demons Oyakata-Sama. That is answer enough.” Sanemi scowled out, still determined to have the sun resistant Demons executed.

“I… still don’t believe that there will be many good Demons and I doubt many of their claims…. But I can admit to being impressed. So long as one of us is watching these lot, I’ll sceptically allow it.” The woman that smelled of poison states her somewhat changed opinion, uneasily watching the gathered Demons, and ignoring the beaming smile she got from Kanae.

“These poor souls have either kept a tight grip on the last shreds of humanity in them or took the first opportunity to the path of redemption. They have my support.” Gyomei says, instantly confirming that the group have won the trial, resulting in the Kamado sisters cheering as they brought Tanjiro into a hug, confusing the young Demon on why they seemed to be so happy as Giyu, Urokodaki and Muichiro joined in.

“I must still Flamboyantly oppose this, master! However… if they can prove themselves to me, then I’ll allow this.” Kushi’s father loudly stated his disapproval but softened his voice and quickly added that last bit as he saw the shocked and sad look in his adoptive daughter’s eyes.

“I’m sorry master, but Demons are undeniably the enemies of humanity and the Corps! This is an undisputable fact and to invite so many… it would spit on the faces of those who gave their lives in this long battle against Kibutsuji!” Rengoku loudly states his disaprovel, though Tanjiro was confused by the man’s uneasy smell. It was like whenever he looked at the Demon Kamado, the Hashira could only see something else, and it was something the swordsman did not like at all. It wasn’t exactly fear, but Tanjiro couldn’t place what emotion the fire head man was feeling through his scent, at least not accurately.

However, with nine of the incredibly powerful swordsmen and swordswomen giving their vote, it only left the Hashira with the snake left. However, Tanjiro already instinctively knew the answer as he smelled the short man’s terrified scent and how it increased as he looked at the Demon Kamado and his Demons.

“No way. Demons are nothing but vile abominations that manipulate and twist families for generations and now they’re targeting you all for the exact same tactics.” Iguro states, though they all knew the result of the trial once Gyomei gave his own support for the Kamado family.

“I see. I thank you all for being honest with your votes, but with the votes coming in with 6 of you vouching for their continued existence, 1 that is willing to change his mind and 3 against, it seems like our new Demon comrades will now be allowed to live and aid the Corps in the future. Kushi and Inosuke, I would wish for you both to continue watching over this fledging Squad for a while longer and to keep me updated whenever Tanjiro coverts Demons or humans into his own, as he has my permission to do so. However, in the case of a human, he will only be allowed to if they give the young boy permission.” Kagaya told them, taking everyone by surprise with the request and permission for future Demons and humans to be turned by Tanjiro.

“Of course, Oyakata-Sama!” Both experienced Slayers say as they bowed to him in respect, though Tanjiro quickly shifted his attention from them as he noticed Kanao smiling at him. Why was the coin girl happy?

“Excuse… Oyakata….” The voice of Satoko spoke up, struggling to speak properly once again but succeeded in gaining the man’s attention.

“What is it young one?” The master of the Corps asked gently, successfully making the Demon girl relax a bit.

“Others… here… won’t… happy…. Okay… protect… selves…?” The girl was able to get out, causing the sickly man to nod his head with a small smile.

“I am aware of that child. And yes, should you be attacked first, you will be allowed to fight back and defend yourselves. Though, I ask that you either restrain any Slayers that attempt to kill you or knock them out so that they can be properly punished.” He confirmed, making the Demon with the kanji for ‘3’ in her eye to nod with a small smile, happy to know she can protect herself and her new friends from unearned attacks or assaults still.

“Now then, while it is a week early, why don’t we all start the Hashira meeting with you all gathered here. Shinobu and Kanae, if the both of you wouldn’t mind?” Kagaya asks them, making the sisters nod their heads.

“Of course, Oyakata-Sama.” They say at the same time, with people wearing clothes similar to the uniforms nearly everyone had coming out and approaching the citizens and the Squad of Slayers and Demons, clearly becoming uneasy around the Demons of the group.

“Hold on, that jerk needs to pay for beheading Ni-Chan!!” Hanako angerly yelled, fighting against the pulls of the masked people as she tried to move towards Sanemi.

“Tch. I’d like to see you try something brat!” The man yelled at her with a maniacal grin on his face once again, to which he was hit by a stone that was kicked over at him by Nezuko so hard, that it caused him to bleed a bit.

“Oh yeah! Well, I can promise you that when I get the chance, I’ll rip out your spine and strangle you with it!” The usually kind girl yelled as she struggled against her own set of masked people trying to drag her away, with one walking over to Urokodaki in the meantime and beginning to wheel him away.

“It’s alright you two. He’ll be punished later, but for now, you should go and recover from the encounter with Upper moon 5.” Giyu told the sisters, who reluctantly calmed down and began to leave with the masked people, with their older brother figure deflecting the yells of shock and confusion that came from his mention of the powerful Demon for the moment so that they can focus on the following meeting.

“Oh, one last thing Nezuko, Hanako….” The master called out to the Kamado siblings, drawing their attention as they stopped following the masked people who were leading the rest of their team and wheeling Urokodaki along with the group so they can listen to the man.

“The next time you see her, please, give Tamayo-San my regards.”

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

“I’ll admit, that was more chaotic than I was initially anticipating.” Urokodaki said as he was wheeled along with the group, causing Genya to sigh a bit.

“I mean, we do have a sun immune Demon King with us right now. It was bound to get chaotic since a 2^nd Demon King and Demons immune to the sun were thought to be impossible until now. Also, I want to apologize for how my brother acted back there.” The scarred boy said with a nervous frown and rubbing the back of his head.

“Wait, that scarred jerk is your brother!?” Susamaru shouted in surprise, completely oblivious to how her yell made a Kakushi that was walking somewhat close to her jump away from her in freight and kept a greater distance. Nezuko also didn’t notice the way both of her siblings scrunched up their noses in disgust as they looked at that Kakushi in disgust.

“Hey, Sanemi is a good guy! It’s just… for those who were around before the shit involving that spider abomination, you should realise why he was acting that way around Tanjiro.” He explained a bit slowly, causing those who knew about his past to flinch a bit in response.

“I guess I can understand why he was that way with Ni-Chan then….” Hanako spoke up, clearly not being comfortable given the situation with the eldest Shinazugawa.

“Look, I can understand where your brother is coming from, especially since he has likely seen a lot of Demons hurt their former families. But just because of that experience, it doesn’t give him the right to decapitate my brother when he was doing nothing.” Nezuko was quick to speak up and express her own thoughts on the situation. Just because she can understand why he acted that way did not mean that she was going to forgive him easily, or any of the other Hashira that were trying to kill Tanjiro at the end. The ones that changed their minds she’ll keep an eye on, but they were better off than Genya’s brother, Kushi’s dad, the snake man and the one with fire looking hair.

“Actually, are any of you humans hurt? After all, we had to survive a battle against an Upper moon and you can’t regenerate like us.” The Demon who was forced to play the role of Rui’s mother asks curiously, purposefully ignoring the shocked looks the Kakushi sent their way.

“Yeah. We should be thankful that fish noodle was so arrogant, otherwise I don’t think we would be here.” Inosuke told her, causing Kushi to nod her head before looking at Nezuko with a smirk.

“Which reminds me, you did a great job at defending against those needles he shot Nezuko! It was quite the Flamboyant accomplishment!” The Dragon Breathing user told the younger girl, causing the 2^nd oldest of the Kamado siblings to blush in embarrassment.

“Thanks. But I’m not sure how I did it. I mean… my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest and I felt so hot that I felt lightheaded, but for a brief moment, I felt a hundred times stronger than I ever thought possible.” The female Water Breathing tried to explain, not noticing the look sent to her by Urokodaki, or Tanjiro looking at the elderly man in confusion due to smelling something in his scent.

“Hey, surviving against an Upper moon is insane! After all, I don’t think a Slayer ever killed an Upper rank until now that their members only changed due to a stronger Demon replacing a previous Upper rank.” Mukago shared the little bit of information to improve Nezuko’s mood, causing Urokodaki to speak up no.

“Your friend is correct. While the Demon Slayer Corps may have been unable to kill an Upper moon until Giyu accomplished this feat, Hashira and on a rare occasion, lower ranked Slayers have survived encounters with the Demons. That experience alone is equal to 5 years-worth of training on its own, so you are all stronger than you were 6 days ago and aren’t the same people as before.” The former Water Hashira explained to the Slayers, cheering them all up just before Nezuko saw the Butterfly Estate and saw the boy who she briefly interacted with when she visited Ojii-Chan waiting outside. If she remembered correctly, he was named Zenitsu.

“Oh, you are all the ones that Onee-Sama sent! Come on in so we can have a look at any injuries you all may have.” The boy explained as he motioned for the group to follow and the Kakushi took the opportunity to run the moment they no longer needed to stay, with the boy now guiding the group clearly keeping his distance from the Demons.

“Mm. Mmm!” Tanjiro made muffled sounds the moment he heard about injuries, drawing everyone’s attention as he walked over and carefully picked up Hanako.

“Ow! Ni-Chan, what are you doing!?” Hanako yelled out in pain, making Tanjiro let out a concerned whining sound, but looked at Zenitsu and motioned his head to Hanako and walked over to the clearly scared teen.

“Um… what is he trying to do Inosuke?” The fidgeting boy asked the Ice Breathing user, getting Inosuke to laugh a little.

“It’s nothing bad. It’s just that none of us really got hurt but Nezuko, so he is probably trying to tell you that. So take Hanako-Chan here and tend to her, I’ll go look for the girls and start everyone’s rehabilitation training.” The experienced Slayer told Zenitsu, who nodded his head and while he was clearly not comfortable around Tanjiro, the young Demon only smiled behind his muzzle and gently placed Hanako on the ground and gently nudged his sister to the other boy.

“You can trust him Hanako. He was the one in charge of my care while I was here and he did an excellent job.” Urokodaki assured the young girl and looked over to Nezuko as he spoke, assuring her as well.

“Yeah! Monichi can be weird around ya, but he’s nice! Even helped teach me how to properly repair my stuff so I can continue using them and helped get that poison out of me!” Aoi yelled out confidently, which allowed Nezuko to fully relax while Zenitsu had Hanako follow him so he could check on her injuries.

“So… what… do…?” Satoko spoke up next, pointing herself and the other Demons, who all clearly look confused on what to do. Well, everyone but Tanjiro, as the Demon Kamado began to shrink down and crawled into his box once more to sleep.

“Honestly… I’m not too sure. My best advice is to wait for Shinobu and Kanae to come back so you can learn about what you are allowed to do and to avoid any injured Slayers in here. Thankfully, they should already know that you guys aren’t to be harmed without going against the master’s orders.” Inosuke advised before then moving to look for the people he mentioned earlier, causing Genya to sigh a bit.

“Well, good luck with the training.” The Breathless Slayer says as he begins to walk away from the group, to which it was surprisingly Kanao who spoke up.

“You aren’t joining?” She quickly inquired, causing the scarred boy to shake his head while still continuing to walk.

“Does that have anything to do with him eating Demon flesh?” The Demon with the kanji for ‘6’ in her eye asked Kushi curiously, getting her to nod her head.

“You are correct. Not only can Genya not use a Breathing style in general, but he can’t make proper use of Total Concentration Breathing to increase his power. Thankfully, Gyomei-San taught him some alternative that gives a similar boost to Total Concentration Breathing and further substitutes a Breathing style with his consumption of Demon flesh. Now come on you lot, it’s time some of you finish your Total Concentration Breathing Constant training or get started with it!” The former shinobi explained with a shrug before beginning to walk after Inosuke and everyone began to follow.

“Look, I know a lot of you may want to go out into the sun more, but can you not do so for a bit? I just don’t want any of you to potentially get hurt since we don’t know how this Sun immunity thing works.” Nezuko quickly asked the Demons of the group, making Susamaru whine a bit.

“Aw! But I want to play in the sun again and I now have the chance!” She said sadly, quickly sitting on the ground with a pout.

“As much as I want to… I think Nezuko is right. I mean, I can’t be the only one that has a feeling of something being… wrong when I was walking in the sun.” Mukago spoke up next, making the good Demons look at each other.

“Me… too…. Better… prepare… if… goes… wrong….” Satoko was quick to express her own feeling, to which everyone begins to nod their heads in agreement.

“I’m proud to see that you are still a caring person Nezuko. Now go after the others, I’ll look after your new friends and your brother.” Urokodaki urged her, causing the girl to grin a bit as she quickly gave her grandfather figure a hug and then ran after the others.

Hanako’s perspective

Time skip: 3 months

“I win!” Hanako yelled out in victory as she was able to grab hold of a cup of medical water and put it on Zenitsu’s head since he kept on doing so for her, who smiled at her and clapped his hands in congratulation.

“You did really well Hanako-Chan. It took everyone else nearly a month to beat me in both the reflex and full body tag training,  yet you did so in only a few weeks once your ribs were fully healed.” The boy praised her, causing the youngest surviving Kamado to rub the back of her head in embarrassment from the praise.

“I just had a lot of advantages compared to everyone else when they started.” The Mist Breathing user stated, to which she heard some foot steps heading to her and saw Tanjiro tackle her into a hug.

“Mm! Mmm!!” Her older brother cheered lifting her up into the air for a bit before placing her down on the ground. And based off of what he just did, Hanako clearly knew that her brother was proud of her.

“Tanjiro! Can you help us please!” the yell of Kiyo gained the attention of the Demon Kamado, who nodded his head with a smile clear on his face despite the muzzle he was wearing and followed the little girl and Sumi and Naho out of the room.

“You know, when I got told about multiple good Demons, I couldn’t believe it after seeing what they do to so many people. But your brother and the Demons that follow him are really something.” Zenitsu comments to Hanako, who couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Yeah, Ni-Chan has always been super kind to the point where you would need to hurt our family for him to get slightly angry and hold onto it. It actually makes me happy to see him like this again after we have been fighting so much.” The young girl comments with a small smile, which became bigger as she saw her sister walk in, slightly exhausted but clearly still filled with plenty of energy.

“Hey Imouto, did you beat Zenitsu?” Nezuko asked as she walked over to the both of them.

“Hey Nēchan! And yeah, I was just able to win a few minutes ago!” Hanako told her, causing her older sister to rub her head affectionately.

“That’s incredible Hanako, especially so soon! I’m guessing that her Total Concentration Breathing Constant training will start next?” The older Kamado asks the Butterfly boy, who nods his head.

“Yeah, though I’ll be leaving it to Kiyo, Sumi and Naho for the same reasons why I did with you and the others.” Zenitsu explained, looking away with a blush on his face, which confused Hanako.

“Good. Now Hanako, want to grab something to eat?” Nezuko says with a firm tone, though not forceful. Once she spoke to Zenitsu though, she turned her attention to her sister and asked the question curiously, causing the younger Slayer to look up with a big grin on her face!

“Yes please! Do you think I can try Ramen though? I haven’t had it and Aoi has made me curious.” The Mist Breathing user asks, causing Nezuko to nod her head with a smile as she lead her sister away to the cafeteria of the Butterfly Estate.

Chapter Text

Hello everyone! Sorry that this isn’t a normal chapter update for this story and for this story having not been updated for a while. If you have been reading some of my other stories, then you would probably know the why, but for those only interested in this one, I’ll be brief. For a while, I have been thinking about some deceased family members and with me having grown attached to the Demon Slayer cast, I couldn’t focus on writing my serious stories where they run the risk of dying, so I focused on a more light hearted story while writing. I also have a new niece and helped my sister with her a bit, so I also had less time to write in general, though I still have plenty of free time in that regard.

Anyways, time to focus on the reason why I wrote this chapter. I have recently been reading some other stories on this site, with the writers of those stories receiving fan-art from their readers based on the story and found an old comment from someone who used the name of FanficAddict who wanted to potentially draw fan-art based on my Demon Tanjiro. So, for anyone who wants to do so for this story and any others in the future, know that you are free to make fanart on any of my stories if you want! My only request is that you leave a link to it so I can check it out since I don’t use or have an account on something like Tumblr or Twitter and I’ll be sure to share it at the end of a chapter and credit you with either your name on this site or one you may use on something like Twitter. One final thing, but some sites I am unable to access. So if possible, mainly try to share it on Twitter since I can access that site fairly easily and if you can only share your fan-art on Google images and I can’t find your name, let me know if I used your fan-art at the end of a chapter.

Thank you all for reading and I look forward to seeing what any of you may make and share! Until next time and I hope you all have a good day!

Chapter Text

Susamaru’s perspective

Location: Butterfly Estate

“Hahahahahahahaha!!! It feels so amazing to be out in the sun!!” Susamaru cheered out in glee as she ran around the back of the Estate that was owned by those Kocho Hashira girls. The only thing that slightly bummed her out about this miracle was that those Hashira siblings tried limiting her and the other Demons that served Tanjiro-Sama inside because they apparently felt uncomfortable in the sunlight compared to her master and tried taking their blood.

Now, despite Susamaru’s natural childish nature, she did understand to some extent why those siblings were doing that. Some distant, foggy part of her mind could recall how a human’s skin could apparently experience bad things in some way if exposed to too much sunlight or something of the like and will turn more and more pale when away from a light source. But she was a Demon! Even if her regeneration was just on par with a Lower moon, even newly turned Demons were subconsciously aware of the state of their cells when healing from an injury of any kind, so what is there to be afraid of?

“Mmm.” Quickly hearing the muffled sound of her new and far kinder master, Susamaru turned around with a grin on her face, summoning one of her Temari when she saw the 2^nd Demon King a few feet from her and also standing in the sun without the same paranoid fear that the others seem to have, all while noting how the incredibly powerful was in his child looking height right now. Probably to conserve energy after those meanies screamed about killing his sisters and not feeling safe yet without him being aware of everyone.

“Hey Tanjiro-Sama! Do you want to play for a bit?” The Demon with the kanji for ‘2’ in her left eye questioned as she tossed the ball up into the air and caught it in her palm, hoping that her master would say yes. A moment after, the young Demon seemed to understand her intentions, as he nodded rapidly in an excited manner and running around in a circle before stopping, which made the female Demon giggle happily. At least she won’t have to hold back against her master like she would with the humans of their group, particularly Hanako-Chan since they are practically the youngest out of everyone.

“Hahaha! Almost got ya Tanjiro-Sama!” The female Demon yelled out in pride as he last toss flew by her master’s head, but the Demon King dodged just in time and caught the ball with his tendril, making sure nothing was broken as best as he could for that older Kocho girl.

“So, you are some of the Demons that are apparently ‘good’.” Suddenly, Susamaru heard a voice filled absolutely with venom speak as multiple pairs of footsteps approached the playing Demons, causing the Temari Demon to turn around and look at 5 average looking people wearing the Corps uniforms and swords sheathed at their hips.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Susamaru questioned with a bit of a glare and tensed her body a bit, not needing their answer to know what these idiots were after. Tanjiro also quickly caught on, initially looking confused on why the humans were talking to the pair, but a single sniff of the air and detecting his Demon’s tenseness was all the 2^nd Demon King needed to know what the atmosphere meant.

“Simple, we’re here to get rid of you freaks! I don’t know what kind of Blood Demon Art you placed on the Hashira and the master, but we’ll free them and get paid a lot of money for rescuing the Corps from you abominations!” The one that appeared to be the leader said with a smug and greed filled smile, getting cheers from his lackeys to show their agreement, which only filled Susamaru with disgust.

Sure, Demons by nature were more violent, many of them drawing out a human and other Demon’s suffering when consuming them, but Susamaru was sure that 70% of it at least was because of Kibutsuji and now that she was free from Muzan’s control, she can admit to feeling dirty after the many things he made her do. But she was not blind to the fact that countless humans were either just as bad than most Demons, but in many ways were even worse.

After all, what excuse do humans have to justify cannibalism, slavery, discrimination, and rape when most of them haven’t been brainwashed or had their very cells demand for human flesh and blood and cutting off alternate food sources? And in her eyes, these bullies were no different.

“Are you… are you braindead? We’re immune to the sun ya idiots! That means even your little swords mean nothing. Tanjiro-Sama here is a literal Demon King!!” The number 2 of Tanjiro’s Demons said incredulously, unable to understand how these humans actually thought they could win, and even if they somehow did, they would be severely punished by a lot of people that would be out for this group’s blood and instantly discover who they were.

“Oh, I think enough of this will take care of that.” The only female out of these idiot spoke with a smirk that reminded the Temari Demon of a Lower moon she encountered a few years ago before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a Wisteria flower, with her companions doing the same.

“Mmm….” Suddenly, Tanjiro made a muffled sound that Susamaru was sure expressed the fact that he was both unimpressed with these humans and to show that he wasn’t affected at all by a simple flower as a Demon King.

“Look, you’re just wasting all of our time. Now scram before things get ugly.” Susamaru spoke up for her fellow Demon, to which one of the 5 Slayers with brown haired scowled at her.

“Why you little bitch!!” He screamed at her before trying to throw a punch with the hand that held the Wisteria flower in his hand, but faster than he could react, Tanjiro’s tendril moved at speeds that surpassed lightning and wrapped around his throat, cutting away most of the Slayer’s air supply and lifting him up into the air.

“So, what do we have here?” A voice that was slightly familiar spoke out, taking Susamaru by surprise as she instinctively jumped to Tanjiro’s side as an incredibly tall man seemed to appear next to her from thin air. Looking him over, the Demon with the kanji for ‘2’ in her eye recognised that he was actually Kushi’s dad thanks to that meeting from a few hours ago.

“Ah! U-Uzui-Sama! Thank kami you’re here! These Demons attacked me and my comrades!” The leader of the group said quickly before Susamaru had a chance to speak, but before the female Demon could respond, the Hashira merely scoffed at him. Meanwhile, Tanjiro used his tendril to throw the restrained Slayer at the feet of his comrades, being able to smell the powerful human’s intentions and seeing no reason to push himself anymore now that he was getting very sleepy.

“Don’t try to bring me down to your level you unflashy idiots! I saw and heard the whole interaction and due to the orders of Oyakata-Sama, these two had every right to defend themselves and it is clear to me that the Kamado went for a knockout at worst! In fact, I’m impressed with their patience with dealing with fools like you.” Uzui said with a frown and letting his presence for a fight be known, utterly terrifying the Slayers that were bothering the two Demons.

“R-Run!” One of the idiots with green coloured hair screamed as he and his partners in crime began to run. However, not wanting to deal with them again and feeling petty after they interrupted her game with Tanjiro, Susamaru slipped off the top of her kimono to grow her 2 extra sets of arms and soon after doing so, spawned a Temari ball in 5 of her 6 hands and threw them at the fleeing Slayers, hitting them in the back of the head hard enough to knock them all unconscious.

“Huh. Surprisingly flashy for a Demon.” The Hashira spoke up with a small amount of respect in his tone, walking over to the unconscious humans as he took away the Nichirin blades and Wisteria flowers held by the Slayers that went against the orders of the master of the Corps before tying them up and doing something to each of their hands.

“What is that… supposed to…. Why does something fe-AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Susamaru began to yell out, but quickly began to slow down in talking as her skin began to feel tingly. Soon after though, as her brain began to register a sudden and unexplainable sense of danger, Susamaru felt her flesh ignite with fire that was so hot, her regeneration had no hope of healing her body before she died within a minute at best.

Overwhelmed by the pain as she was, the girl who was turned into a Demon at an incredibly young age passed out, her world turning to black and unable anything but the flames that covered her body.

Time skip: 1 day later

“Ugh…. What the hell happened back there?” Susamaru questioned as she rubbed the back of her head in pain, everything around her looking super blurry and anything she could hear was muffled. The young Demon also idly noted that she was wearing the clothes that some injured humans had over at the Butterfly place.

“Ah, it seems that you are finally awake. You’re lucky that Tanjiro used his haori to cover your body and protect you from the sun and Tengen getting you inside as fast as he did.” She heard a vaguely familiar voice reach her through her ringing ears, causing the Demon girl to turn her head to look in what seemed to be the source of the voice and given that she now saw a blurry figure, Susamaru assumed that she was looking in the right direction. After spotting the figure, the kanji eyed Demon began to blink away her blurry vision and after a bit, she succeeded and saw the smaller Kocho sibling putting away a vial filled with blood inside of a small box that held other vials of blood in them.

“Wha…? Wait, I’m not dead?” The Demon inquired in surprise while she was a little confused about everything, even with her senses beginning to fully recover.

“Still on the fence on if that would be a bad thing or not. But no, though with how quickly you were burning, your fellow Demon and Tengen acted fast, though you have been out for nearly a whole day. Understandable considering the burns you had to heal and the fact that your flesh was melted off to the point that some bone was exposed.” The female Hashira initially whispered the first sentence in the hopes that the female Demon wouldn’t hear her, before then informing Susamaru, making the girl sigh in relief and ignoring the initial remark. Seemed like she owed Tanjiro-Sama one for saving her life from certain death once again.

“Wait, how did I burn up out there? I thought I was immune to the sun like the others?” Susamaru asked, confused on why that happened. She spent hours in the sun completely fine, so what changed? However, the question makes Shinobu sigh as she turned to look at the kanji eyed Demon with a bit of agitation and annoyance.

“Well, it was something that we all discovered after you almost died. You see, after experimenting with blood samples I took from you and the other Demons on your side and exposing them to varying levels of sunlight, I discovered that everyone of you besides your muzzled king are more sun resistant than anything. So going out into the sun for about 3 hours or so for you will overwhelm your resistance to the sun while another of you Demons like Shizen-San, who seems to have the highest resistance to the sun out of you kanji eyed Demons, would last 7 hours in the sunlight.” The young woman explained with some annoyance in her voice before picking up the box holding the different samples of blood.

“Huh? But why does Satoko-Chan have so much more time in the sun than me!?” The Temari Demon asks in a bit of annoyance, feeling a bit cheated.

“I don’t know why that is the case and I don’t control something like that. My best hypothesis based off of the last few hours of testing each of your blood samples is that since Shizen has the Kamado’s blood in her without Muzan transforming her beforehand, she has the best potency of Tanjiro’s sun immune blood in her system since it isn’t diluted by having to fight Kibutsuji’s blood in her body like it did when he turned you into his Demon. The others of your group will be visiting in a few minutes, so make sure you don’t break anything while you are all in here, I need the equipment in here for my research after all.” Shinobu said with some bite in her words before opening the door to the room and closing it behind her, leaving Susamaru to her thoughts and one couldn’t help but stand out in her mind.

“What’s that lady’s problem?”

Chapter Text

Spider Demon (Mother)’s perspective

Location: Butterfly Estate

“Here you go girls.” The spider themed Demon spoke with a gentle smile to the 3 little girls that occupied the Butterfly Estate the group of Slayers and Demons were staying at, using her webbing to reach some medicine bottles the young Demon did not recognise or could identify and brought them down to the Butterfly girls, one of the 3 taking it with a happy and thankful smile on her face.

“Thank you so much!” One of the girls, Sumi if the kanji eyed Demon was remembering correctly, said with a bright smile.

“Um, by the way. I’m sorry if this comes off as rude at all, but what is your name? I don’t think you have told anyone before now.” The girl named Kiyo asked politely, causing the Demon that was forced to act as Rui’s mother to flinch and that made the 3 butterfly girls concerned.

“No offense girls, but we don’t have a proper name yet.” Another voice that the spider Demon was very familiar with spoke up, drawing attention to another of Tanjiro’s Demons, specifically the one that was forced to act as Rui’s sister and had the kanji for ‘6’ in her eye.

“Huh? But why?” Naho asked in confusion, causing the other spider Demon to also flinch a little but quickly rubbed the young human’s head.

“Well, to put it simply… me and her were treated badly by someone for a very long time and forced an identity on us. Add on the memory loss that comes with being turned into a Demon most of the time, and we lost our old names while our new ones…. Well, let’s just say that is something we wish to forget about entirely.” The kanji eyed Demon explained as gently and simply as possible, which the Butterfly girls seemed to understand if the concerned looks they sent to each other and then the two Demons said anything.

“Hey you 3. Don’t worry about us, besides, didn’t you need that to help one of the Slayers still recovering here.” Tanjiro’s number 5 Demon reminded the girls, making them widen their eyes, remembering what they were doing up to now.

“Oh yeah! Sorry, but we got to get going! Hopefully, we can help you both get a name later!” Sumi promises the 2 Demons as she and the other two Butterfly girls ran off to one of the rooms that currently house a batch of injured Slayers or the still recovering Hanako.

“Hey, um… I don’t know how to-.” The lower ranked Demon began to speak nervously, but was stopped when the Demon forced to act as Rui’s mother cut her off.

“Save it. I already know what you are going to say and I don’t forgive you.” The Demon with the kanji for ‘5’ in her eye responded coldly, making the other spider themed Demon flinch, making her feel a little bit bad and so she continued.

“I know why you didn’t do anything when the rest of that fake ‘family’ and especially Rui were upset, but you didn’t need to join in, even if it was only through the use of your words. I don’t hate you and for the sake of the others, I won’t let our past get in the way of protecting those I genuinely feel comfortable calling family, but you will need to work hard for forgiveness.” She further explained, walking away from her fellow victim of Rui.

“Blake. I decided that my name would be Blake. Thought you should know since we are in the same situation in that regard and thought I could help you.” The spider Demon who now got herself a name spoke sadly, looking away from the still unnamed Demon and walking away, fully aware that the reaction she gained was because of her own actions, even if it was influenced by her fear of Rui.

Heading outside and now making use of her time in the sun for the day, the spider themed Demon went to a set of trees that provide enough shade for her to be mostly untouched by the sun and relax by a small stream a bit away from the Butterfly Estate but still in the general area of the Corps.

“Dammit. Why did any of that have to happen to me? And… just who are you?” The kanji eyed Demon began to ask question everything, wondering why it is that the universe and the gods was cruel enough to turn her into a Demon and fall into Rui’s spider web of cruelty and control. But what caused her heart to hurt is that as she stared down at the reflective water of the pond before her, and saw the figure of a black-haired boy wearing a marron coloured haori in the reflection instead of her own, the reflection’s mouth moving as if the person it was showing was trying to talk to her.

“Huh. Didn’t think that anyone else used this place to calm down.” A new voice spoke out, causing the spider Demon to look up and see a female Slayer that was honestly a bit bland looking compared to her colourful friends and fellow Demons. Only real noticeable thing about her besides the fact that she was wearing a version of the Demon Slayer uniform with a white tint to it was the oddly shaped sheath that held a Nichirin sword with the same shape inside it.

“Only really discovered this place yesterday and found it calming. When did you discover this spot?” The good Demon responded to the comment, returning her attention to the pond while idly questioning the Slayer.

“About a month or so ago after a… particularly scarring mission thanks to a Demon that could control someone like a puppet. The name is Ozaki by the way, the current Tsuguko of the Serpent Hashira.” The now named Ozaki introduced herself with a gentle smile as she walked over and sat next to the Demon not noticing the slight widening of her eyes.

“No, you’re probably over thinking things. Besides… I doubt anyone from that mountain survived given how paranoid me and Rui were.” The kanji eyed Demon thought a bit bitterly to herself, dismissing the idea that this girl may have been one of the puppets Rui gave and she directly controlled.

“Don’t have a name. Can’t remember my human one and the identity I used up until Tanjiro-Sama gave me his blood was not only forced on me, but it lead to… a lot of bad things in all honesty.” She explained to the Tsuguko of one of those cruel Hashira, not wanting to go into much detail, especially after the brief talk she had with Dau-Blake.

“I’m sorry to hear that. But hey, at least you are away from the one who did that to you and you are now surrounded by friends! Even if some idiots decided to go against Oyakata-Sama’s wishes and attack you here. I do apologise for the actions of my kouhai, even if they are… no longer my kouhai now that i remember their expulsion from the Corps. But hey, if you need some help coming up with a name for yourself, I’m more than willing to help out!” Ozaki points out and weakly chuckles at the end, actually earning a snort of amusement from the Demon.

“Thanks for the offer and sentiment. But… why are you being so kind to me? I’m still a Demon and I am willing to admit that I was one that both ate and killed people plenty of time in my handful of years as a Demon.” The kanji eyed Demon questioned and then confessed to her past wrong doings, to which the Slayer merely shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, most of the Hashira and the Master approve of you and your little group and I trust their judgement. My teacher may not, but he is at least tolerant to the situation given that most of you are still killable if it comes to it and you are being observed by 2 Hashira at all times at the very least.” The human decided to explain why she was ultimately okay with the Demons first before then looking at the good Demon with a small smile.

“Besides, I believe in second chances. After all, I was a thief who even killed people before and now I’m a Slayer defending my kind. So, it would be a little hypocritical of me to not allow you the chance to redeem yourself, particularly when you were forced to do horrible things by Kibutsuji or may have been turned unwillingly.” Ozaki admitted, surprising the spider Demon a little.

“I see…. Have any ideas for a name that I could use?” She inquired, making the swordswoman hum as she thought over any ideas.

“Well, I don’t really know you too well at the moment, but… how about naming yourself after your Blood Demon Art? Should be fairly simple, right?” Ozaki suggests, making the nameless Demon hum in though before looking at her hand.

Activating her Blood Demon Art, spider like threads quickly spawned and connected inbetween each of the Demon’s fingers and formed a web above her palm before quickly igniting them, seeing blue fire dancing harmlessly across the threads before a name came to her.

“Blaze…. I think I will use Blaze.” The now named Blaze says with a small smile, deactivating her Blood Demon Art, earning a clap from her human companion.

“That’s a really beautiful name!” The Tsuguko exclaimed happily, clapping her hands a little bit, and genuinely earning a laugh from Blaze.

“Hahaha! Thank you Ozaki-Chan. Hey… is it okay if we can meet up back here and talk again in the future?” Blaze questioned the Slayer, who nodded her head happily.

“Sure thing Blaze. Though, I should probably get going before I’m late for my training session with my teacher. Still got a long way to go before I’ll properly be able to use Serpent Breathing at its full potential like he can.” Ozaki agreed before telling her that she needed to leave, shivering a little bit at the thought of her Hashira teacher. Seemed like he was just as terrifying as a teacher as he was back at the trial.

“Sure thing. And I hope that you do well in your training.” The kanji eyed Demon said with a small smile before standing up once more, Ozaki doing the same.

“Then it is a deal.” The Serpent Breathing user says as they both shook hands and walk away to their respective destinations, Blaze to the Butterfly Estate and Ozaki to her the Serpent Hashira’s own Estate.

But as the kanji eyed Demon approached the Estate owned by two Hashira, Blaze still couldn’t help but wonder who that human she saw in the reflection of the pond was and… why did she feel guilty interacting with Ozaki?

Chapter Text

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: Butterfly Estate

“So… what… do…?” Satoko’s muffled voice asked, causing Tanjiro to snap out of his sleepy daze and look around curiously. He was currently in the isolated room that his Imoutos were in, separated from most of the others because the people in the main room that were hurt were incredibly rude.

Standing up and growing to just below his normal height, Tanjiro quietly walked over to the window of his Imoutos’ room and peaked out, quickly spotting a small collection of his Demons outside in the middle of the night.

“Don’t look at me! Susamaru practically dragged me out of my bed, saying that I would want to be here.” Looking a bit more to the side when the other familiar voice spoke, Tanjiro saw Genya standing off to the side with his arms crossed and an annoyed scowl directed at the Temari Demon, wearing only a pair of pyjamas.

“You might not be a Demon like us, but I thought you would love to join in! I’m just curious as to where Mukago is though since she asked me to grab ya.” Next to speak up was Susamaru, looking around the area with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t worry, I’m here now. And hey Genya!” The former Lower moon spoke as she walked over to the gathered group, drawing the attention of the watching Demon king, the group of Demons and the human capable of gaining Demonic traits.

“So, considering the fact that Blake and myself didn’t start this, on top of Satoko-Chan being confused and Susamaru dragging Genya here, you were the one to gather us all up.” The next to speak was Blaze, who was lying on top of a giant web she created inbetween two trees, making an educated assumption.

“Yeah. It’s mainly something I have been thinking about and I kind of need to know if it is anything you all have noticed. And since you become a pseudo-Demon by eating Demon flesh, you showing up is actually perfect Genya.” Mukago answered, making everyone curious while a part of Tanjiro grew ever so slightly agitated. Not in a rageful manner, but more… concerned? It wasn’t something the Demon Kamado could put into words, and idly he knew it wasn’t something his past human identity would be able to either.

“Wait, are you talking about the change we felt like we were both experiencing?” Blake now spoke up in surprise, causing Genya to raise an eyebrow in curiosity while Tanjiro began to feel something… odd in his chest.

“The hell are you talking about?” The Breathless Demon Slayer questioned, causing the Demon with the kanji for ‘6’ in her eye to sigh a bit.

“Well, to put this bluntly… I was a coward before Tanjiro-Sama. To the point where I… got people hurt or did nothing to help others for my own benefit. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if that was a trait of mine that persisted from my human life!” The female Demon explained, even yelling a bit in frustration towards herself. Taking a moment to take in a deep breath to calm down, she continued.

“But ever since I gained Tanjiro-Sama’s blood, I felt stronger. Not just physically, but… emotionally, I guess. All I can say is that before Tanjiro-Sama saved me, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I would have begged Upper moon 5 to spare me at any point before that.” The latest of the kanji eyed Demons admits shamefully, noticeably looking away from Blaze while doing so.

“And it ain’t just Blake. Back while I was one of Muzan’s Demons, I was a coward that would hide away from a Slayer who’s presence felt close to the level of a Lower moon, even when that presence is more along the lines of a Lower moon 6. Yet ever since getting Tanjiro-Sama’s blood, I have been much more confident and loyal, being snarky towards Gyokko despite the horrible position we were all in, even though Upper moons had been far more dangerous than Hashira who so many eras.” Mukago adds on, making the other Demons look surprised and look thoughtful while Genya’s eyes took on a look of slight recognition.

“Now that ya mention it, I think I understand what you mean. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to fight a Hashira or even a proper Lower moon just a couple of months ago, but ever since getting Tanjiro-Sama’s blood… well, you all have seen me working through my fear to help against Rui and Gyokko in what little way I could.” Susamaru spoke up a bit shyly, looking at her left wrist to see her veins through the skin with a thoughtful look.

“Even… me…. Never… fought… before…. But… pushed… to… help…. Feel… in… veins…. Thought… it… new… nature…. Hierarchical… now….” Satoko then shares her own feeling through her broken speech, causing Genya to sigh.

“Well, seems like you all are experiencing a sort of reversal of when I discovered my own abilities.” The young Shinazugawa said, drawing attention to himself as a result. Seeing the looks, the human continued on.

“Long story short, a bit before the Final Selection, I was attacked by a Demon and I consumed some of its flesh, which allowed me to discover my ability to gain Demonic traits and later on learn about me gaining a version of their Blood Demon Arts when used with my gun or Wakizashi when this insane group was formed. Anyways, when that happened for the first time, I was consumed by so much rage that I barely could control myself and Himejima-Sama found me in that state.” The Slayer continued on before flinching a bit as he got to that part of his story, clearly not looking back on that part fondly.

“Let’s just say that he mistook me for a Demon initially and I only lived since he knocked me out first instead of going for an immediate decapitation. Sufficed to say, Nemi wasn’t too happy when he eventually learned about what happened. Anyways, the point is that when I first ate a Demon’s flesh, I felt something making me more aggressive and Kanae’s theory was that it was because of Muzan’s blood since he… well, I have seen what he does to kind people when turning them.” Genya finished, the comparison causing Tanjiro to tense as a voice that was disturbingly similar to his one whispered in the back of his mind.

“Are you doing the same thing as that monster?” The uncomfortable voice questioned the Demon Kamado, causing the eldest child to quickly, but quietly, run out of the room and go outside, sweat dripping from his face and breathing becoming heavy as he moved as fast as possible.

No! He couldn’t be as bad as that vile bastard!! Not after he hurt his Imoutos so much, harmed his family and…! And…!

“They’re slipping away….” The voice spoke an ugly truth. The faces of his sisters remained crystal clear within the young Demon’s mind, even a few memories of them from when he was apparently a human. Heck, after waking up and meeting his new brothers and Ojii-Chan, he began to remember the family lost they lost, but now… it was slipping. He could no longer remember the faces of his deceased brothers or mother. Even Oto-San’s face was becoming blurred within his mind.

Realising this, the fact that he was such a horrible brother that he was forgetting his family, Tanjiro fell to his knees with tears continuing to flow from his eyes, despair consuming his soul at the thought.

“Tanjiro?” Looking up in the direction of the familiar voice, the Demon Kamado was able to see and recognise Kanao, who was wearing a set of pyjamas provided by the butterfly ladies in charge of the building, through the tears that was making his eyes blurry.

“MMMM!” Practically launching himself into the confused and surprised girl’s arms, quickly gripping onto her clothing as he buried his face into her shoulder, unable to stop the tears that were practically pouring out of his eyes.

“What the…?” Kanao clearly spoke up in confusion, her scent making it clear that she had no idea what to do for Tanjiro. Feeling her move, the young Demon looked to the side and saw the Slayer reaching into her pocket and drew her usual coin, looking at it thoughtfully. Almost as if she was pleading to the small object for an answer to her current situation.

“Mmm?” While still having tears in his eyes and still upset at himself, Tanjiro couldn’t help but try to speak through his muzzle, pointing at the coin at tilting his head curiously.

“You… want to know about my coin?” The Thunder Breathing user questions the young Demon King slowly and curiously, causing Tanjiro to nod his head. After doing so though, the female Slayer’s scent shifted in a way that the Demon Kamado wasn’t able to properly understand though.

“I simply use it to make decisions. Nothing more, nothing less.” Was the young girl’s answer, making the young Demon stare at the small object held within Kanao’s hand.

“Help her.” The uncomfortable voice spoke to Tanjiro once more before it completely disappeared, making the Demon King’s eyes glow with determination.

“Mmm!” Acting faster than Kanao could react, the poor Slayer was left stunned as Tanjiro took the coin from her and looked it over. Soon after, he pointed at her chest, with the Thunder Breathing user realising that he was specifically pointing at where her heart would be, before then pointing at his ear and showing the Heads side of the coin.

However, before the swordswoman could try to understand what Tanjiro was trying to communicate to her, she was taken aback as she saw him flip the coin, stiffly seeing it spin in the air until gravity began to bring it back down, but couldn’t see what the result was as the young Demon King jumped up and grabbed it in the air. Then, almost as if the world’s fate would be determined by the result, Kanao watched as the Kamado opened the palm of his hand, revealing the coin to have landed on Tails.

Seeing the result, Tanjiro made a muffled sound of displeasure, making it clear that whatever he wanted to happen through the coin landing on Heads, he wasn’t happy with it landing on Tails and being denied. But as Kanao reached out to take the coin back from the teenage Demon, she was unable to stop herself from gasping in shock as he once more flipped the coin, as if doing so broke all logic that was in the world before now.

This pattern went on for a short bit of time, with the coin continuously landing on the Tails side. After a full minute though, the coin eventually landed on Heads, causing Tanjiro to jump up into the air with a happy little cheer, clearly delighted at getting the result he was trying to get this whole time.

“Um… what were you… doing…?” Kanao finally questioned, completely out of her element, even as the 2^nd Demon king returned her coin and placed it in the Slayer’s hand. Seeing that he didn’t understand his message, Tanjiro hesitantly reached up to his muzzle, hesitating for a moment before pulling it away from his mouth for a moment and began to speak.

“Listen… to… heart.” Were the 3 simple words that left Tanjiro’s lips while he had a gentle smile on his face before putting the muzzle back on, turning away to return to his sleeping sisters, feeling a little better as he genuinely helped someone.

Not noticing Kanao starring at his back with eyes that were wide with both shock and wonder, nor the blush on her face.

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train station

“What kind of beast is that!?” The voice of Aoi yelled out as the group arrived at something called a train station, looking at a large metal thing that Nezuko was left stunned by. It wasn’t like when the recently made Slayers first visited Asakusa, but this ‘Mugen Train’ was something the country girl would have been unable to imagine only 2 years ago.

“It’s a train, similar to one I mentioned to you back while we were training at the Butterfly Estate Aoi-San.” Kanao responded as he returned to the group with 7 small pieces of paper, snapping Nezuko out of her thoughts a bit and looking at the Thunder Breathing user in surprise.

“Huh. Now that I think about it, she has been more talkative since last week.” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family thought to herself before smiling at her fellow Slayer with a happy look, glad to see her improve since they first met.

“Oh yeah! I think I remember you mentioning it at some point. Still, I thought I would only ever see something like this in one of the books Ni-Chan would read to me back when he was human.” Hanako was the next to speak up, smiling at the incredible invention while Aoi huffed, before tilting her head a bit to the side, walking forward with her usual confidence and now no longer hiding behind the backs of the rest of the group.

“Can it fight?” The wild girl questioned, causing Muichiro to turn his distant gaze and look at he dual swordswoman with a look that both Kamado sisters knew was the Mist Hashira’s way of expressing the phrase ‘Are you an idiot?’ without needing to say a word.

“It is only useful for getting a large number of people from one point to another. While us Slayers can run faster than it can move, we will grow exhausted from the strain it will put on our muscles, so it is still helpful. So no, it can’t fight and if it can, it would be too weak to do so.” Kanao adds on, helping Aoi understand the man-made creation a bit more while making sure that she won’t draw too much more attention to themselves.

“Besides, that is not why we are here.” Muichiro comments, walking forward and leading the group onward to the actual train itself.

“Why… come… here…?” Satoko questioned, her and Tanjiro being the final members of this group line up. And speaking of the young Demon King, he was walking outside of the box by Hanako’s side, allowing himself to be pulled along by his baby sister while glaring at everything around them, as if the very environment was a threat.

“Well, me and Hanako effectively have a 2^nd Breathing style that we can’t use much based off of our family’s Kagura dance. I asked if Muichiro and Giyu if they could check with others about it when they told us one of the Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku, who is the Flame Hashira and how his style seems close to the Hinokami Kagura. Though, they never let us meet the man until today.” Nezuko answered the Demon with the kanji for 3 in their eye, making Muichiro speak up.

“That’s because he would have slain your brother simply because of the Corps rules. He won’t try anything so long as he and his Demons don’t unjustly attack a because of Oyakata-Sama’s orders, but we still kept you all away from him since he was one of the Hashira that stood firmly in killing Tanjiro.” The Mist Hashira answered, making both Kamado sisters freeze up before looking each other and frowning. Already the Flame Hashira is not seen kindly by the two, even if they could understand why he wasn’t exactly happy when initially learning about their brother.

“Mmm.” However, both Hanako and Nezuko snapped out of their thoughts when Tanjiro made a noise through his muzzle, lightly tightening his hold on Hanako’s hand a bit and reaching out his arm to pat Nezuko’s head, making the youngest sibling of the 3 to giggle.

“Thanks Ni-Chan. We’ll be okay with you and Aniki here.” Hanako told her Demon brother, making Aoi jump forward proudly.

“And don’t forget about me! With the Queen of the Mountains here, nothing will be able to harm this pack!” The wild girl yells out with a clearly toothy and wide grin beneath her mask, making Hanako giggle once more while Nezuko shakes her head fondly at her friend’s antics.

“Come on before you draw attention to us. After all, time is precious.” Muichiro ordered, causing the group to focus on him and straighten up as they followed him onto the train.

“Where… fire… man…?” Satoko questions as they walked down one of the cars that made up the train, occasionally drawing odd looks from the civilians because of Aoi’s appearance and the muzzle in Tanjiro’s mouth, but they were mostly ignored thankfully.

“Look for the man like an owl.” Was all Muichiro said in response to the Demon’s question, Tanjiro jumped in surprise and almost fell over when everyone heard a loud yell upon entering another one of the train’s cars.

“Tasty!” The voice that Nezuko vaguely recalled from the trial yelled out, repeating the word many times as the group saw the Flame Hashira’s distinct fire like hair in the distance, sitting down on one of the train’s seats.

However, as the group approached the man, they saw him turn his head with a fierce glare, ready to move at a moment’s notice and draw the Nichirin Blade he had hidden within his haori, causing Muichiro to glare in return as Nezuko witnessed as a set of red coloured patterns appear on the young teen’s cheeks and another on the left side of his forehead, while his own hand shot the handle of his own sword. Thankfully, this current exchange was going unnoticed by the civilians on the train since the group were near the end of the car’s left side, while everyone else was more on the other side.

Grabbing the handle of her own hidden blade and feeling everyone in the group tense up, Nezuko sized up this swordsman in case he actually tried attacking her brother or Satoko. The Hashira was a young adult male standing at 5’10” tall and possessing a muscular-athletic build. He had long bright yellow hair with red streaks akin to flames along with two shoulder-length bangs and two chin-length bangs on the side of his head, black forked eyebrows, and golden eyes that fade to red with white pupils. As for clothing, he had the standard issue Corps uniform with a paler brown tinted colour to it, consisting of a brown gakuran jacket, a white belt around his waist and tattsuke-hakama pants. Over this, he wore a haori with a white-yellow gradient pattern and red flame-like ridges at the end and a pair of red kyahan with yellow flames erupting from the bottom-up, with pale brown tabi socks and a pair of white zōri with red straps. As for his Nichirin Sword, it was currently sheathed in a white and grey coloured sheath, but it was drawn just enough for Nezuko to see not only the kanji written on it, but that the metal of the weapon was coloured black with a red flame pattern along its blade.

And for a few tense seconds, the group stayed like this. Everyone ready to draw their weapons at a moment’s notice while Satoko prepared to dig her claws into her palm to use her Blood Demon Art and Tanjiro stepped forward, using his body to try and block his sister’s from view while veins began to bulge on his head, a clear signal that he was also ready to attack if the swordsman tried anything.

“I must admit, I did not anticipate this scenario! Especially you being here, Tokito!” Rengoku said, taking a moment to make his body less tense while letting go of the handle of his concealed weapon, crossing his arms over his chest while gaining a large smile on his face.

“I only came to make sure you didn’t do anything to my family, fire man.” The younger Hashira says as he lets go of his own weapon, the markings that had been on his face a few seconds ago fading away and leaving no trace that they were there, with the Flame Hashira flinching at the comment so minutely, that Nezuko almost missed the action.

“We promise you that we will not hinder you mission.” Kanao spoke up, bowing to the young adult.

“Given your glowing reviews from Kushi and Inosuke, then I know that you will be able to uphold that promise!” The tall swordsman says, his faze briefly shifting once more to Satoko and Tanjiro while his smile became a little more strained, making Nezuko glare at him.

“That applies to all of Rengoku-San. Especially when a few of us may not even be here without my brother’s presence.” The Water Breathing user says with a strained smile and a bulging vein on her head, not allowing her friend and brother to be hated (and potentially killed because of it) for something they never asked for and were defying their very instincts to continue being good people. She already dealt with assholes slandering her siblings’ names in the past, and she wasn’t about to tolerate it now, particularly from a man with the influence to do irreparable damage to Tanjiro and the rest if blinded by his own biases.

“Rengoku-San, we came here to ask you about something.” Hanako said, trying to step forward, but was stopped as Tanjiro put himself in front of her, still attempting to hide his youngest sister from view. Seemed like their brother remembered how this Slayer wasn’t exactly kind to any of them just under a month ago.

“Oh? What is it Kamado?” The Flame Hashira asks, shifting his attention to the youngest in the whole group, while looking at Tanjiro’s actions curiously and critically, likely searching for any signs of attack and thus the ability to draw his sword and strike.

“Simply put, our family seems to have had a Breathing style passed down through the generations that we called the Hinokami Kagura. We can use it, though not as easily as when we used Mist or Water Breathing, but it and the god we prayed to with the Kagura was related to fire, kind of like your Fire Breathing. So, we were hoping that you may know something about it.” Hanako continued on, briefly glaring at the man for looking at Tanjiro as if waiting for him to suddenly attack, which regained the swordsman’s attention as he briefly frowned before nodding.

“Well, I can’t say I have heard about a Hinokami Kagura before… but it may be connected to something that always stood out to me about my family’s Breathing techniques.” Rengoku says thoughtfully before he sat back down on his seat while everyone else began to sit down as well, with Muichiro sitting by his fellow Hashira and everyone else sat down on the opposite seat or the ones on the right side of the train car.

“What… mean…?” Satoko asks, briefly causing the human to tense before making himself relax again, his smile being a little strained.

“Simply put, my ancestors apparently took my family’s style being referred to as Fire Breathing, especially in kanji form, as an insult of some kind! It is something I do not understand myself, but in the olden days, dating back to the Sengoku era, there was a brief mention of a Slayer that sparred a Demon and he was disgraced in the eyes of the Corps, only being spared from committing Seppuku due to the kindness of the Ubuyashiki leader of that era! Records of the man was all but erased, only vague mentions of him exist in the records of Demon Slaying that have been passed down by my ancestors!” The Hashira answered the question, and despite his distrust of the female Demon, it was clear that he was at least trying to be respectful and fair now.

“I think I heard of rumours about such a thing from the cultivator that trained me. According to those rumours, he completely disappeared from the face of the continent after his disgrace.” Kanao, surprisingly, spoke up, widening her eyes a bit at that information.

“Indeed! If I were to make a guess, then perhaps this man was an ancestor of yours, Kamado, since the Kagura you mentioned seems to be a Breathing Style that has been passed down for a long time! And assuming that he was also a practitioner of what is now referred to as Flame Breathing today or some branching style of it, then given his actions all that time ago, that is probably why my own considered our style being called Fire Breathing an insult!” The Flame Hashira praised the Thunder Breathing user, even clapping a little bit at her knowledge before continuing on with his explanation and hypothesis.

“Nēchan… do you think that Demon was Tamayo-San?” Hanako whispered to Nezuko, gaining the older sister’s attention as she honestly thought over such a possibility.

“It’s definitely possible. We’ll ask her about it the next time we have the chance to send a letter.” The older sibling responds, taking a chance to look at Rengoku, who appeared to be unaware of the whispered conversation.

“Hey, I’m a bit curious! But which of you two is stronger!” Aoi questioned loudly, making Rengoku hum in thought.

“Well, there are certainly many factors to consider regarding that topic! For example, while my Flame Breathing is superior to Mist Breathing since it is one of the original 5 styles of the Corps, which consists of Water, Flame, Thunder, Wind and Stone Breathing, and the branching Breathing Styles are naturally weaker than the original ones that they branch from! However, Tokito here has awakened a new power that hasn’t been seen by the Corps in the past, so the outcome is certainly up for debate!” Rengoku answered cheerfully, just before the train lurched forward, giving those with no experience with the vehicle a bit of a scar and almost causing Tanjiro to fall had Kanao’s hand not shot forward to grab his arm.

“What the!? This giant piece of metal is alive!” Aoi yelled out, and would have stood up and drawn her swords had Kanao not sat the wild girl down and began to explain things to her in a way that the Nature Breathing user hopefully understood.

“I suggest you all prepare yourselves! A Demon is likely on this train as we speak and has been responsible of a number of disappearances on this vehicle! It is the reason I was sent here to begin with, but it should be simple with our numbers and two Hashira here!” Rengoku warned, gaining Muichiro’s attention as he looked around, his hand drifting over to the handle of his weapon while remaining on guard.

“Probably a Lower moon…. I can’t easily feel their presence after all.” The Mist Breathing user comments as a man approached the group, almost shambling along before looking at everyone with a tired look that made Nezuko’s intuition scream.

“Please, allow me to inspect your tickets.” The man said with a tired voice, with everyone handing their tickets to him as he punched a hole into each one.

But as Tanjiro jumped up from his seat and snarled at the man the moment this process began, catching Nezuko by surprise, she couldn’t hope to do anything before a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her and she fell into a deep slumber, not even realising what had happened. Nor did she hear the sound of bodies collapsing onto the ground.

Chapter Text

Muichiro’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train (Dream world)

“AAAAGGGHHHH!!!” Snapping his head to the side at the sound of a woman’s scream, Muichiro bore witness to a fairly large Demon with green skin grab a man’s neck and lifting him up into the air, making Muichiro get off of his seat and instantly draw his sword, Rengoku only a moment behind but him and the rest were too slow compared to the Mist Hashira himself.

“Mist Breathing Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash.” Muichiro spoke, feeling the Mist that appears with the use of his Breathing techniques and charging forward at a speed that proved how deserving he was of the title of Hashira, getting below his opponent before delivering a slash upwards that not only sliced off the Demon’s arm that was suffocating the woman, but took the beast’s head clean off its body, causing its corpse to collapse onto the ground before quickly turning to ash.

“I must admit Tokito, you have certainly improved greatly since the last time I saw you in actual action!” Rengoku praised the Mist Hashira, stepping to the side as the Kamado siblings all ran over to him.

“That was incredible Aniki!” Hanako cheers as she jumped forward and almost tackled Muichiro into a hug, making the older teen blink in surprise before smiling slightly.

“Thank you Imouto.” Muichiro said while returning the hug a bit, with the Hashira spotting Tanjiro growing to his usual size and bringing into everyone into a hug, causing the Mist Hashira to move into the warmth provided by his siblings.

This… was something he could always keep.

(Especially with Yuichiro gone)

Enmu’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train (Real world)

“I punched their tickets and put them to sleep just like you asked. Please put me to sleep soon too. Please, let me see my dead wife and daughter. Please… I beg of you….” As Enmu stood on top of the moving train, feeling the wind crashing against his face, he couldn’t stop the sadistic grin that appeared on his face as he saw through the hand detachment of his. It was a newer ability granted to him thanks to the generous blood donation given to him by his lord, meaning that he could effectively use his Blood Demon Art at a greater distance and granted the Lower moon 1 to see and hear things without needing to be within that specific location, making it so much easier to recognise Slayers as they got onto this train and subduing them long before he began to feast on his victims.

“As you wish. You did well. Now, sleep and meet your family in your dreams.” Enmu spoke, willing the detached hand to use his Blood Demon Art on the conductor many years ago. To be honest, deciding to spare this man was such a good idea, as not only was this human and the others under his command so desperate for any form of happiness, that they willingly condemn the rest of their kind for a few blissful hours of happiness. Seeing the body of the pathetic human collapse, Enmu had the eye turn around to stare to stare at the other humans under his metaphorical thumb, ignoring the girl that began to speak and interrupting her almost instantly.

“In a little while, the sleep will deepen, so wait here until then. Malevolence or any signs of Demons will awaken Demon Slayers with good instincts. When you close in to tie them up, be careful not to touch them. I, on the other hand, must remain in the front car for a little while. Until then, do your best while I prepare my preparations and you may have sweet dreams too.” The Lower moon spoke with a malice filled grin on both his real body and the hand duplicate that he was using to communicate with his human puppets, who all nodded in understanding.

“All right.” The Demon heard his 4 minions inform him through the hand duplicate, to which a smile appeared on Enmu’s face as he began to giggle in sadistic delight, allowing the hand to disintegrate.

“It doesn’t matter how strong a Slayer is or if you have one of those two Hashira that awakened that little power that Muzan-Sama warned me about. A human’s motivation comes from the heart, the spirit. All that is needed to take you all out is the destruction of your Spiritual Cores, and just like that, and even if there existed a human that could actually kill my lord, and they shall be reduced to a breathing corpse that is easy to kill. Admittedly, this task can be a pain to go through on my own, but with my proxies being human, your instincts are far less likely to defend you Slayers and with how a Spiritual Core is even more frail than glass, anyone can destroy them if given the opportunity.” Enmu says, holding out his arms in front of him as the veins on his head began to bulge in sadistically excited glee before he began to giggle.

Oh, how he will love to show those Slayers their precious dreams become nightmares!

Kanao’s perspective

Location: Dream World

“Ojii-San, I have someone here I want you to meet.” Kanao called out to her mentor, drawing the attention of the elderly man who had been reading a book only a moment ago, but he certainly didn’t mind the distraction with the large grin that appeared on his face was anything to go by.

“Ah! Kanao, it has been a few months since I last saw you! You must be working incredibly hard as an official member of the Corps if you only sent me a couple letters dur…. I… suppose that this is the Demon boy you mentioned?” Her teacher and grandfather figure, who was named Jigoro Kuwajima, said with a wide grin, standing up as he put down his book and walking over to his student before noticing Tanjiro standing behind her, the little Demon tilting his head to look at the man curiously before taking a sniff of the air.

“Mmm!” Tanjiro hummed out cheerfully, closing his eyes to try and show off the smile beneath the bamboo muzzle he stubbornly keeps on himself.

“He is. And he has been helping me a lot.” Kanao confirmed, feeling a little tense. This was the man who practically raised her and did his best to undo the scarring that was left by her abusive family, even confronting them himself and having them arrested for child abuse, child murder, partaking in slavery and potentially even taking part in brainwashing based on how reliant Kanao had been on the words of other people to do a thing. But… Tanjiro saved her life and has even helped her follow her heart a bit. She didn’t want to choose between them.

“Well…. I trust your judgement and after you sent those letters, I got in contact with Urokodaki, who explained things a bit more to me. I’ll… give him a fair chance, so if I react negatively to him when the Kamado boy does nothing wrong, then I apologise ahead of time.” Jigoro said, forcing himself to relax while Kanao smiled in relief, looking down at Tanjiro as he raised his hand to grab her hand and squeezed it to provide comfort.

“Thank you Tanjiro-Kun. Ojii-San… could we have some Ramune? The journey to here was long and I am honestly thirsty.” The younger Thunder Breathing user asks, causing the retired Thunder/Rumble Hashira to blink in surprise at her making an active request without the guidance of someone else to influence her before smiling and laughing.

“Hahaha! Of course. My granddaughter deserves her favourite drink after all of the hard work she has done after all.” The swordsman cultivator says before beginning to walk to the house that Kanao spent most of her life in, with said girl and the Demon who helped open her heart walking after the man.

And as time flew by and the day came to an end, Kanao hoped that she could experience this day, every day.

Aoi’s perspective

Location: Dream World

“Come on Pack! We have a Demon to slay!” Aoi yelled, jumping down onto the ground, with Kentaro following along the fastest out of her friends, the wolf cub stretching a little since he had been stuck in that box until the group all entered the cave they were in.

“Tanjiro-Sama!” Sana cried out, the wolf girl who had the most traits of their animal out of anyone in the pack ran forward and picked up Kentaro before nuzzling into him, with the tiny wolf returning the action while his tail began to wag at lightspeed in his happiness.

“Hold up! None of us an keep up that speed like you two or Aoi-Chan!” Nahoka cried out, making Kentaro perk up as he saw his little sister running over to them, with him jumping out of Sana’s arm and catching the bunny girl when she leapt into his waiting arms, holding her close when she did so.

“So Aoi, do you feel the Demon anywhere?” Bezuko questioned the boar head wearing girl, making Aoi laugh out loud as she grinned at the Otter girl.

“I don’t need to! The beast is nearby, so I don’t even need to use the Sixth Form to detect it, but it must be strong for that to happen! Where is Komo anyways?” The leader of the group questioned, her attention quickly taken when she felt Kentaro pulling her arm a little before pointing upwards, Aoi following the direction and seeing Komo flying up in the air.

“I’m here Aoi-San.” The owl girl spoke, keeping as quiet as she usually did while her wings flapped in the air and she looked around the cave with her incredible eyesight.

Suddenly, the gathered group were taken by surprise when the lion boy, Mui, was sent flying out from beneath the ground before landing on his feet, the other member of the Komoda family landing on his feet and glaring at the creature called a train soon crawled out of the hole made, the massive beast staring down at the lion boy with a single glowing red eye that shun on the group, a row of sharp teeth being shown as the beast grinned and drooled and had eight long, armoured spider like legs that shockingly held up the vile abomination’s weight.

“Aniki!” Nahoka yelled in surprise, jumping put of her brother’s arms while everyone got ready to fight, drawing the attention of the train and Mui, who widened his eyes in surprise before shaking his head and focusing on the current threat, but he clearly was more determined to win now that they were here.

“Alright everyone, let’s go!” Aoi yelled as she drew her serrated swords and charged forward with her pack right behind her, determined to win and help the additional family of her pack members.

And these days were undoubtedly the best in her life.

Satoko’s perspective

Location: Dream World

“Kazumi-Kun!” Satoko yells out happily, running with the warmth of the sun on her skin, as she leapt into her fiancé’s arms, who in his shock, just barely caught her and held the now human tightly in his arms, as if afraid that she would shatter like glass out of nowhere or will drop dead.

“Satoko-Chan…. You’re… alive!” Kazumi spoke in shock, feeling himself tear up before tightening his hold on his love.

“I am. I’m so sorry that I left, but I couldn’t be here because of so many reasons, such as me having been a Demon until recently and I didn’t want to risk hurting you or our families.” The former Demon explained, tearing up herself before Kazuko lifted her head and wiped away her tears with a sad, yet still happy smile on his face.

“It’s fine Satoko. Come on, let’s go home.” Her love told her, making Satoko nod her head as they both walk back to their home village.

“Agreed. But eventually, I would like you to meet the people who helped me.” Satoko said, feeling a bit excited to have her fiancé meet the others, especially Tanjiro-Sama.

That will be a day she looks forward to.

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Dream World

“Aneki!” Smiling happily and ignoring the exhaustion of her body as she saw Rokuta running over to her happily, grinning at her as her 5-year-old younger brother hugged her leg.

“Hello Rokuta-Chan! Have you been a good boy for Okaasan?” Hanako teasingly questioned her baby brother, who laughed as she rubbed his head before she picked him up into her arms.

“Yep! Ni-Chan even played with me and taught me how to move really fast!” Rokuta says with a wide grin, causing Hanako to return it.

“Come on dear. Your sister, as well as Muichiro-Kun and Giyu-Kun will be coming back in a couple of hours. They apparently have a surprise waiting for us when they get back.” Her mother yelled out from the house that the family had been living at ever since Tanjiro had become a Demon and Giyu sparred him.

Curious about what her mom meant, Hanako nodded her head before heading into the house and meeting up with the rest of her siblings, Shigeru and Takeo still working hard to become strong enough to become Demon Slayers while Tanjiro used his Demon strength and those tentacles of his to help their mother carry multiple boxes into the living room.

And seeing her family after so long… Hanako could almost thing that this was a Dream.

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Dream World

“Wait… why am I?” Nezuko questioned, her head feeling a bit foggy as she looked around at the forest around her, but that… couldn’t be right…. She was on a train with….

“Wait… what’s a train? And why is my head filled with the idea of Demons? They were just horror stories grandma would tell us to behave before she had passed away.” The eldest daughter of the Kamado family thought to herself, beyond confused. Why was her intuition screaming at her as if a Demon was right above her, waiting to consume her?

“Nezuko!” Hearing a voice that almost felt alien despite how familiar she knew it was, Nezuko turned around in a hurry, as if she couldn’t believe what she heard, and her chest began to hurt while tears began to well up in her eyes as she saw Tanjiro walking over to her in the snow, a confused look on his gentle face.

Not even properly processing everything and no longer caring about the odd way her intuition was screaming at her as if she was in danger, for she ran straight at he brother and leapt into his arms and cried her heart out, confusing him before her Onii-Chan recomposed himself and began to rub calming circles on her back and whispered sweet nothings into her ear to calm down the distraught girl.

“O-Onii-Chan! I… I….” Nezuko tried to speak, but stopped in favour of burying her face into Tanjiro’s shoulder as she cried, as if she had just witnessed and unbelievable miracle occur.

“It’s okay Nezuko. Let it all out.” Her selfless and pure brother told her, allowing them to stay into this position until eventually, the younger sibling fell asleep in her brother’s warm embrace.

She may not understand why her intuition was screaming at her… but Nezuko wanted to enjoy this moment for a long time.

Muichiro’s perspective

Location: ???

“Are you really going to be an idiot about this Muichiro?” Out of nowhere, Muichiro snapped his eyes open and saw that he was in a forest.

“What…?” Muichiro questioned, not only unaware of where he is and why this sunny forest looked so disturbingly familiar, but that voice….

“I know that you forgot us and perhaps it is for the best. But if you die young like this, I’ll never forgive you!” The voice yelled out, and Muichiro turned around and attempted to grab a sword that was not at his hip when a hand touched his shoulder, revealing person with shadows covering and latching onto their face standing in front of him. but what especially caught Muichiro off guard was the sudden sense of safety this strange person gave him, as well as tears welling up within his eyes.

“So please baby brother…. Don’t die like an idiot to that monster!” The person yelled out, tears dripping from their darkness covered face before their figure began to fade, but not before saying a few last words to the stunned Muichiro.

“You already know how to break free. After all, you are a Hashira.” They said, the shadows disappearing to reveal a face just like the Hashira's own, causing Muichiro to widen his eyes as memories flooded his mind, but one person within these lost memories stood out to him in that moment.

“Yuichiro…. Thank you Ni-Chan.” The Mist Hashira said with a sad smile before wiping his eyes with his tears, seeing cracks form along his body before they shattered to reveal the young teen within his Slayer attire once more, with his blade by his hip. Seeing it, he drew the weapon… before slicing open his own neck.

After all, while a dream is nice… you must always face reality, no matter how painful.

Chapter Text

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: Dream World

Huh? Where was he? He knew that he smelled something wrong, but… wait, where were his Imoutos!?

“Onii-Chan!/Ni-Chan!” turning around at a speed that almost caused the young Demon to rip off his own head, Tanjiro was left briefly confused at the sight before him, but shook it away as his heart was filled with ecstatic joy as he knelt down and allowed both of his baby sisters to jump right into his waiting arms, easily lifting them up their tiny bodies.

“Mmmm!” Tanjiro spoke through his muzzle happily, enjoying the hug he quickly enveloped his little siblings into and began to nuzzle into them affectionately.

“Ni-Chan, are you going to follow us soon? Ojiichan is gathering everyone for a get together!” Hanako asks him, causing Tanjiro to become confused. Weren’t they on some really long metal thing that was moving? Oh well, he trusted his Imoutos and they knew more than he did, so perhaps he was remembering wrong.

“Come on Onii-Chan! I want to show you something before we meet up with the others!” Nezuko called out, tugging on his haori’s sleeve, and making the older sibling snap out of his thoughts before looking at her curiously before nodding his head, making both of his precious sisters cheer ecstatically before he put them on the ground and allowed them to take his hands, putting up no resistance as they dragged him along.

Eventually, after a couple of minutes of walking that almost seemed to pass in an instant, Tanjiro found himself by a beautiful lake with his Imoutos, Nezuko using some wooden thing that wasn’t a wooden sword with some weird thing that was like Blaze’s threads when they weren’t on fire. But despite not understanding what it was or even knowing what it’s called, he knew that his baby sisters were happy playing with it and bringing weird creatures out of the water, so he was happy to just watch them have fun while keeping a slight eye out for any danger. However, he quickly focused on both of his sisters when he heard them yawn in exhaustion, causing the young Demon to smile fondly behind his muzzle as he stood up and walked over to them, gently picking them up so as to not disturb their rest before then placing them into the safety box and closing it quietly for them. However, before he could place the box on his back, Tanjiro made a muffled yell of surprise as the ground beneath him suddenly began to break and caused him to fall into the water beneath him, but before the young Demon could even try to swim up, he was caught in a whirlpool and dragged down into the depths, with words being whispered into his ears by a vaguely familiar voice while a green blur passed his sight.

“Wake up Tanjiro…. Your sisters, the real Nezuko and Hanako, are in danger.”

Tanjiro’s(?) perspective

Location: Mugen Train

“Mmm. MMMMM!?” Groaning a bit as he woke up from a slumber that he felt like he had been trapped in for years, Tanjiro began to slowly open his eyes tiredly. However, as he did so, panic quickly took over as the Kamado felt something in his mouth, making him jump up in a as he grabbed the object, surprised as he easily tore it off and saw that it was a muzzle made from bamboo.

“What the…? Wait, Hanako!?” Tanjiro began to question to himself before suddenly, memories began to rush at him, from his illness, that red eyed man attack his family and Hanako being hurt, making the eldest child look around as anxiety began to build.

“What’s going on!? Who are all of these people, where am I and-!?” Tanjiro began to think to himself in a panic, looking frantically until he laid his eyes on Nezuko, making the eldest child of the Kamado family pause as he took in her appearance. His sister looked… older. Her clothes were far different from when she went down to the village in his place not too long ago and while she slept, he could clearly see a sword by her hip.

“Nezuko! Come on and-! Agh! What is that scent!?” The young teen called out to his sister as he reached out to shake her awake and hopefully be told about what on earth is going on! However, this idea was stopped as a potent smell of blood and death began to assault his nose, causing him to stumble back and almost jump out of his skin when a man with fire like hair suddenly stood up and moved as if he were a mere blur, grabbing the throat of a young girl who had a rope tied to each of their wrists and lifted her up into the air with a tight grip.

“Just what is going on!?” Tanjiro yelled out in terror, feeling himself slowly growing more overwhelmed as he began to breath heavily while clutching his chest as his heart began to beat at a speed that convinced the young teenager that the organ was about to burst out of his chest.

Suddenly though, Tanjiro screamed out in pain as he fell onto his knees, a splitting headache taking over him as his vision began to fade in and out of darkness repeatably, feeling something from within his mind clawing at his head and almost drowning him out. But as Tanjiro fell into unconsciousness once more, only one thought crossed his mind, and it was a thought that was not his own.

“Protect… Imoutos!!”

(?) Tanjiro’s perspective

“RRRAAAGGHHH!!!” Roaring out in strained effort, Tanjiro collapsed onto his hands and knees as he breathed in heavily with sweat dripping from his face from the effort needed to escape the whirlpool.

Standing up with a growl while releasing his aura a bit, the Demon Kamado looked around before he calmed down a bit as confusion began to take control. He wasn’t with his Imoutos anymore, but within giant moving thing again? How did he get back here? Actually… now that he thought on it, how did he leave to begin with?

However, the young Demon didn’t get much more of a chance to think as the scent of death came charging at him, making him turn around and glare at his surrounding as he saw apart of a wall turn into a fleshy substance with a blue eye forming on it only a moment later to stare at him. Feeling a sudden sense of danger, the eldest child of the Kamado family looked away as the feeling began to weaken a bit, but a moment after this, the entire area turned into flesh before multiple tentacles made out of flesh suddenly shot at him, causing Tanjiro to summon his tendril to use its speed to slice through the pink fleshy constructs like a hot knife through butter before they could even hope to reach him.

Snapping his head to the side, Tanjiro growled in pure rage as he saw a fleshy tentacle heading towards Nezuko, but it never got the chance to touch a hair on her head as the young Demon King appeared in front of his sleeping sister faster than lightning and slashed out with his hands while a pink aura coated them and quickly formed into and energy that took the shape of larger and longer clawed hands that covered Tanjiro’s own. As a result, not only did this completely slash through the flesh with no difficulty, but it created a little shockwave that blew off that piece of the area, not noticing how a bit of the attack resulted in a part of Rengoku’s leg got caught in the crossfire and cut into him.

“Mist Breathing Fifth Form: Sea of Clouds and Haze./Flame Breathing Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!” Soon after this was accomplished, two voices yelled out and Tanjiro was left to witness a thick mist suddenly zoomed through the area and slashed apart all of the other tentacles trying to grab the other sleeping humans while a bright moving fire soon followed, twirling around, and protecting those next to it with its brilliant blaze! Because of their efforts though, the place they were in slowly turned back to how it originally looked before everything began to look fleshy.

“M… Mui!” Tanjiro cried out happily, drawing the attention of his younger brother and earning a smile that contained far more open warmth than it usually did. However, Tanjiro suddenly felt dread consume him as he realised that the muzzle wasn't in his mouth, making him frantically look for it before spotting it on the ground, causing the young Demon to quickly pick it up and put it back on.

“I see. Seems like the Demon I was sent to hunt down had used that conductor in some way to put us under the effects of a Blood Demon Art! Most likely having our tickets be used to activate their Blood Demon Art on us without needing to get close!” The fire man spoke loudly, drawing Tanjiro’s attention to him as he reached into his cut pocket and drew out 2 halves of his own ticket and showing them off. Looking down for a moment, Tanjiro saw the girl who had a rope binding her wrist to the swordsman’s own unconscious on the ground and the material sliced in half.

“It appears I owe you an apology Kamado! You realised what was happening and attempted to defend us all, while I ended up endangering everyone by attempting to strike you down due to my own biases and what I considered to have been an inevitability! I hope that you can forgive me for my foolish mistake!” The yelling man said, with Tanjiro being able to smell the sincerity of his words and so the Demon Kamado nodded his head in acceptance. However, he watched the tall man reach into the pockets of all their friends before pulling out the tickets before then tossing them up in the air and slicing through the pieces of paper easily with flames accompanying the sword swing, instantly reducing the Demon infected items to ash.

Not even a moment later, everyone’s eyes snapped open, including the 3 humans who had a rope attached between them and Hanako, Aoi and Kanao respectfully. The ones who had been connected to Aoi and Kanao immediately shot, desperation clear in their eyes as they tried to strike the two waking up girls with an awl held in their hands, but they didn’t get far since Muichiro appeared before the 2 and struck them in the gut hard enough to knock the air out of the boy and girl and instantly making them both pass out from the pain, glaring at their unconscious bodies with contempt.

“What the heck happened!?” Aoi yelled as she jumped out of her seat, with everyone standing up quickly as they looked around the now fleshy looking train car, but it appeared that they were safe for the moment.

“The Demon had used a subtle tactic to capture us in their Blood Demon Art and used these people to likely kill us without bringing out our instincts against a Demon. Was likely how they also killed any other Demon Slayer sent on this train before us.” Muichiro answered the question, lightly kicking the body of one of the people working for the Demon currently attacking everyone.

“So, will you attempt anything as well?” Rengoku spoke up, drawing the group’s attention as they turned their heads to look at a tired and pale looking young man taking off the rope that connected him and Hanako, tears dripping from his face as he lightly cried.

“I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry.” The young man spoke through his tears, with Tanjiro being able to smell a horrid sickness from this person.

“Why did you help the Demon behind all of this?” Muichiro questioned with a glare, quickly walking in front of the confused Hanako as if this man would hurt her. Was that something bad about the ropes that connected them?

“I have Tuberculosis and desperate to get away from the pain… I did horrible things, even if the pain stopped for no more than a few minutes. It would be best for you all to not get close in case it spreads to you all.” The boy said, causing Tanjiro to hum a little sadly. He didn’t really understand much of his words, but the Kamado could smell his sadness, acceptance, and the illness that pushed him into doing bad things as clear as day.

“Are you okay mister?” Hanako questioned behind Muichiro, making the sickly boy nod his head at her with a sad smile.

“… I am. Thank you and please, be careful when you face Enmu.” The sickly boy said, making fire man nod his head before looking at everyone.

“If the Demon has transformed this train car into what it currently is, it is likely he’ll soon do so with the other train cars. You all spread out among the 8 train cars and defend everyone while me and Muichiro take care of the Demon ourselves.” The swordsman ordered, causing the Mist Hashira to speak up.

“I’ll face him alone. I know how to escape his Blood Demon Art if I’m caught in it again and with your speed, you can provide support to everyone as needed more easily than myself.” Muichiro counters, making his fellow Hashira blink in surprise before a large smile spread onto his face.

“Very well then Tokito-Kun! Spread out everyone!” The fire man spoke out with a commanding presence, but stopped when Satoko walked over to the sickly boy and began to speak.

“Can… help… rid… illness. Tanjiro-Sama… will you…?” The Demon with the kanji for ‘3’ asks through her jumbled speech, confusing everyone before Tanjiro gained a light in his eyes and he nodded his head with a smile. As a result, he cut into his palm with his claws to draw blood and made Rengoku widen his eyes in surprise before they furrowed and he frowned in disapproval, meanwhile, Muichiro just looked surprised but did nothing for now.

“Kamado, don’t!” He tried to warn, but it resulted in Nezuko and the rest of the ground to stand in his way.

“Calm yourself. Unlike with Satoko, back when he didn’t even know it was possible, I know Tanjiro will leave the choice completely up to him.” Muichiro assured his fellow Hashira, who watches everything with a frown but sighed and forced himself to calm down.

“If you want, my brother seems willing to turn you into one of his Demons, but only if you want that.” Nezuko observes with a small and reassuring smile, making Hanako grin.

“Not only that, but you won’t be like the ones from the stories you have heard or seen from the one that dragged you into this situation!” The youngest of the 3 siblings explained, causing the boy to widen his eyes in surprise before he began to lightly laugh with some tears leaking from his eyes.

“If you believe in that, then…. Thank you for this second chance, truly.” The boy said before nodding at Tanjiro, making the young Demon grin happily before holding out his bloodied hand and causing the boy to kneel down and allowed the blood to enter his mouth and flow down his throat.

Soon after, a Demon transformation began. However, not too much ended up changing of the former human, but his skin interestingly grew a little healthier, but his skin colour can easily be mistaken for a sickly human still. Then, the obvious signs of a Demon began to appear, from this boy developing a set of claws from his nails, some of his teeth began to elongate into sharp fangs and green coloured markings appeared on his skin, a green line going from both of his eyes and downward to his chest until they disappeared and were hidden by his clothing. The final thing of note was that the boy’s dull grey coloured eyes turned into a lively green, with his pupils being replaced by a black plus sign looking shapes.

“You… okay…?” Satoko questioned of the boy, making the newly born Demon nod his head slowly while taking in a few deep breaths.

“Yeah… I’m fine now. Much better than a few seconds ago in fact.” The boy said before quickly composing himself and standing up with a smile.

“Thank you so much for this second chance Tanjiro-Sama. I will make sure you don’t regret helping me.” The new born Demon said, speaking from the heart as he bowed to the Demon Kamado, only earning a pat on his head.

“Well… I suppose this will help our situation. What is you name young one?” The fire man spoke up, clearly not liking the situation but ultimately holding back his distaste with them all currently in danger. However, the Demon with no kanji in either of his eyes simply nodded his head in acknowledgment of the swordsman’s words before speaking.

“My name is Paean Yume, Slayer-San.”

Chapter Text

Muichiro’s perspective

Location: Top of the Mugen Train

“Oh? You’re awa-.” The Demon Muichiro had found standing on the top of one of the train cars spoke in curious surprise, attempting to greet the Hashira but he didn’t get the chance to complete his sentence. This is because the Mist Hashira did not care for the Demon’s words when, with its Blood Demon Art, could keep everyone trapped in a dream and feast on the sleeping passengers and his allies. Idly, he was a little disappointed. Muichiro himself gained his rank through slaying multiple Demons and until a few months ago against Upper moon 3 and his ancestor, the Mist Breathing user had never encountered a member of the Twelve Kizuki and after experiencing them and hearing stories from the other Hashira about their fights against Lower moons to gain their titles… well, he was very underwhelmed.

However, annoyance began to enter the Mist Hashira’s mind as he felt the Demonic presence of the Demon not slightly deteriorate and could still hear the various blade techniques of his comrades below despite the wind against his ears. Due to this, he turned around and witnessed a pile of flesh rise up from the top of the metal train car and connect to what should have been the deteriorating head of the Lower moon 1 looking at him with a bloodied and cocky smile.

“My, my. You are certainly one rude little brat if you didn’t even let me finish. And based on your expression… yes, you must be struggling to understand this magnificent sight aren’t you!” The Lower moon yelled gleefully, mistaking Muichiro’s blank face for the inability to comprehend what he was seeing, and taking great pleasure in it, even blushing a little.

“Huh? Oh no, I’m just wondering how you got even uglier than you had before. Besides, I have seen you Demons merge with objects to not get decapitated, so I know you can still die, so I’m not too concerned.” Muichiro comments, placing his hand to hold his chin while smirking ever so slightly while remembering his first mission. That was possibly one of the few times the only surviving Tokito was at risk of dying since he had lost the memories he only just regained.

“You are quite the arrogant and prideful little one.” The Demon stated in a way that expressed pity, shaking his head at him in a sad manner before opening his eyes with a mad grin.

“Since I have fused with this train, all two hundred passengers on this train are now food for me to grow stronger. They’re my hostages, and you’re wasting time speaking to this false head? Will you really be able to protect every single one of- AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!” The Lower moon continued, but their little monologue was cut off by one of the most horrid screeches Muichiro ever heard while the Train car he is standing on top of jumped into the air slightly before landing on the ground again, making the Mist Hashira’s smirk become actually noticeable.

“It appears like you forgot my comrades. Every single one of them is easily capable of overpowering and killing you and one of them is a fellow Hashira. On my own, I could potentially keep every single Train car full of passengers safe from the inside and Rengoku is able to run faster than myself, so he can definitely travel between every car without issue and protect everyone.” The Mist Hashira informed the Lower moon before leaning forward with a grin on his face that appeared to disturb the Demon.

“And then add on a few Slayers from a group that survived your deceased Upper moon 5, and there is no way that a single human shall even be touched by a revolting being like you.” Muichiro declared with full confidence, making the Demon’s false head scowl as it created multiple fleshy tentacles from the sides and top of the train car itself before sending them straight at the young teen.

“Hehehe. Well, even if I were to believe every single word you said and that you were somehow correct, such as a direct contradiction like myself not being an Upper moon to be a replacement for Upper moon 6 while that vile woman got promoted, you appear to have forgotten something. You are all humans and thus you shall get too tired to keep up your defence and with the fact that I have fused with the train, simply slashing at me will do nothing. Face it boy! I shall feast upon all of these passengers and I shall delight in the nightmares I will give you all! That is the power of I, Enmu, the Lower moon 1 of the Twelve Kizuki, a future Upper moon and the one blessed by my mas-!” The head began to brag, but was instantly sliced into nothing but chunks of flesh that flew away in the opposite direction of where the train was going by Muichiro, who used Mist Breathing Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash to easily slice apart the tentacles and the Demon head.

“You really are a disgusting freak.” The experienced Slayer stated before looking at the roof he was on.

“Mist Breathing Second Form: Eight-Layered Mist.” Muichiro continued on, using the technique of Mist Breathing to slice open the roof of the Train car before jumping in, quickly spotting Tanjiro, the yellow wearing girl, Kanao if he was remembering correctly, and the new Demon all slashing apart any fleshy tentacle that got close to the various domes of wood. Feeling out the situation and detecting a Demonic presence from the wood, it wasn’t difficult to deduce that this was Satoko’s doing and using these wooden domes to further defend the sleeping civilians was honestly a good idea, especially since it also allowed those with a bit more of a wider attack range to freely move about.

“I need Tanjiro’s help. Can you two hold the ground here?” The Hashira told the group, drawing Tanjiro’s attention as the young Demon seemingly focused his full attention on the Mist Breathing user but this idea was disproven by his tendril slicing through the growing flesh tendrils on the roof with the same ease that Muichiro cut through the copy of Enmu’s neck.

“We’ll be fine without Tanjiro-Sama! Or rather, Slayer-San here will.” Paean told the Hashira, with the Mist Hashira allowing some tendrils to get close to him from behind to check how true this statement is.

“Thunder Breathing Second Form: Rice Spirit!” And the Tokito wasn’t disappointed as he felt five arched slashes accompanied by lightning slice past him and slice through the tentacles with ease at an impressive speed. Perhaps this girl could swing her blade faster than Hanako.

“Good. Tanjiro, follow me!” Muichiro nodded at the two before ordering the Demon Kamado and jumping up back onto the top of a train car, his new brother following after him with a muffled confirmation.

“I know it may have been tough, but could you at all smell the enemy Demon? Or at least the direction of his scent?” He asked the eldest Kamado, who took a moment to process the question before nodding his head and pointing towards the front of the train, making the Slayer scowl, and hit the side of his head.

“Really Muichiro? Why the hell didn’t you think about the front of the train was acting as the Demon’s head and neck? It would at least be a reasonable guess.” The young swordsman thought to himself in annoyance. Surely Giyu would have thought of something like this had he been here instead.

However, Muichiro did not have much time to react as the Demon suddenly sprouted a large pile of flesh that took the shape of a bowl and from nearly every direction, a large collection of eyes holding the kanji for ‘1’ appeared, and just like that, the Demon used its Blood Demon Art and caught both Tanjiro and Muichiro (And thus, the Mist Hashira missed the utter scream of agony that was silenced as soon as it was heard).

“You worthless brat!!” Immediately upon entering the dream, Muichiro heard a mockery of his gentle father’s voice scream at him, the man’s head effectively coated in blood thanks to a gaping wound on it as he threw a cup at his head hard enough to break on the Hashira’s head. However, what other defilements of his family the Demon could think about using was never shown, as the Tokito raised his blade to his neck and sliced it.

Snapping his eyes open and taking stock of the situation, which consisted of an effected Tanjiro that was still falling to the ground while unconscious and the many eyes surrounding him, Muichiro now activated his Mark as the Blood Demon Art was activated at the same time, but unlike with the tickets or the other times, the Blood Demon Art had no effect. Because of this, the Mist Hashira had the time to close his eyes and took in a deep breath of oxygen.

“Mist Breathing Fifth Form: Sea of Clouds and Haze!” The Tokito cried out in anger before snapping his eyes open, with the Demon unable to take advantage of this as the Mist Breathing user charged forward and an incomprehensible level of speed, and unleashing a series of sword slashes in rapid succession that sliced apart every eye before any of them had a chance to see his movements and even if they did have that ability, the Mist that accompanied each of Muichiro’s movements would stop such a possibility.

Though because of this, the only living Tokito was unable to see any of the eyes go blank, as if their owner went into unconsciousness.

“Mist Breathing Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash.” Muichiro called out, intent on this being the last technique of the battle as he used it to charge forward at an incredible speed on top of each Train car, and arriving within the locomotive, where a conductor was. However, before the man could react to the new presence, Muichiro slashed at the metal floor beneath him, revealing a large neck bone and a sudden burst of blood as the Mist Hashira casually cut through.

“No!! What have you done!? Now I can’t ha-.” The conductor yelled out in a combination of anger and horror, but he was knocked unconscious by a single punch to the gut from the Demon Slayer, who scowled at the unconscious man.

“What a fool.” Muichiro simply said before turning around and jumping back onto the train cars and running along them, catching Tanjiro’s body before it could fall off the train and witnessed his eyes slowly opening.

“Are you okay Tanjiro?” The Hashira questioned his new brother, who made a muffled groaning noise that made Muichiro relax and smile. But then confusion and a slight bit of concern began to take over as he sees not only were Tanjiro’s eyes were different, which were now dark red eyes with white pupils that appear lighter around the lower section of his irises instead of the pink eyes with silts that the Hashira had long grown used to. And then it only grew when panic and fear practically overtook the Demon’s eyes as he grabbed at his muzzle and ripped it off and tossed it to the side, breathing heavily as if he was experiencing a panic attack.

“Tanjiro, what’s wrong?” He questioned again, widening his eyes at the series of questions that left the Demon’s mouth.

“WHO ARE YOU!? WHERE AM I!? WHERE’S HANAKO AND NEZUKO!? ARE THEY SAFE!? WHY DO I HAVE FANGS AND CLAWS AND….” Tanjiro yelled out, his terror perfectly clear and the only reason why his yelled-out questions stopped is because he began to take in many stressed and deep breaths as his panic overwhelmed the poor boy.

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Train car

“Water Breathing Second Form: Improved, Lateral Water Wheel!” Nezuko cried out as she jumped forward and performed a horizontal spin instead of vertical one that is usually used for this Water Breathing technique, allowing her to clash against the flame covered blade swing of the sleeping Rengoku, who attempted to slice of Satoko’s head. And while she was quickly overpowered by the strength of the Hashira and sent flying to the side hard enough for a window of the train to crack, the momentary delay caused by the clash allowed Satoko to lean back and only lose a few strands of hair from the manipulated Hashira’s attack.

Acting quickly, the Demon girl manipulated the wooden floor beneath the demonic flesh that oddly had stopped attacking a bit ago, creating some wooden pillars that were sadly cut through and burned easily by the might of the Flame Hashira, who then decapitated Satoko a moment later, much to Nezuko’s horror and the shock of the Demon with the kanji for ‘3’ as her head flew up in the air and rolled across the ground.

However, as Rengoku’s unconscious body began to walk forward once more, looking ready to indiscriminately attack anything in the area, the flesh throughout the train began to disintegrate and the Hashira’s closed eyes began to open, looking around in brief confusion before relaxing as he saw the surround Demon flesh slowly vanish while sheathing his blade, a sign that one of the others had killed the Demon on the train. But he quickly tensed and widened his eyes when he saw Satoko’s severed head on the ground being picked back up by her stumbling body and reattached while Nezuko was struggling to stand back up.

“Young Shizen, young Kamado! Are the both of you okay?” Rengoku cried out as he ran towards them both, and after seeing the Demon of the pair hiss a bit in pain while her head reattached to her body, he looked over at his fellow Slayer, who would be unable to regenerate any wounds she has.

“I’m fine, at worst I just got a bruise at the back of my head. Glad to see that you are awake again though, having to make sure you didn’t destroy the wooden domes created by Satoko and stop you from decapitating her for that single minute was hell.” Nezuko assured him, rubbing the back of her head a little but hissed a bit when she did touch the bruised spot. Well, at the very least it wasn’t bleeding.

“I’m glad. And I’m sorry to you Shizen-San! Sadly, my inability to get used to Demon comrades properly made me a liability in this mission, especially since my instincts considered your defences and yourself a threat!” The Hashira spoke softly as he held out a hand to help the Kamado girl up, which Nezuko accepted, before shifting his attention to the Demon girl, bowing to her in apology.

“It… okay…. Instincts… hard… ignore….” Satoko assured him gently with a small smile, though she grimaced and hissed as the cut that severed her head had scarred her flesh, but with some concentration, the scar faded until it disappeared entirely.

“Even so, had it not been for your sun resistance, you would undoubtedly have perished and the blood of the innocent would be on my hands. I hope I can make this up to you in the future.” The Flame Hashira spoke sincerely, placing a hand on her shoulder with a soft smile.

“Huh. Seems you aren’t too bad.” Nezuko spoke up with a bit of surprise, but ultimately smiled at the man.

“Ha! I’m glad your opinion of me has improved compared to the start of out mission! Still, while my actions while unconscious may have been understandable but would have claimed the life of an innocent, I see that this is now the same case with your brother, young Kamado. And while I don’t approve of him turning young Yume, I can tell it was with good intentions, and considering how I previously advocated for his execution, I will set aside my own thoughts in the matter. Meaning that as far as I’m concerned, so long as the rest of your Demonic friends pass the test of Iguro, all of the Demons that have sided with your brother are official members of the Corps!” Rengoku spoke to her honestly while crossing his arms with a large smile while yelling out his support, taking Nezuko aback in all honesty, and for just a moment, she was sure she could see Tanjiro back when he was human smiling in the Flame Breathing user’s place.

However, right then, Nezuko’s intuition absolutely screeched at her in a way that was far worse than it ever had against Rui or Upper moon 5 and what ever was causing this reaction in her, Rengoku seemed to have picked up on it as he spun around and looked up at the roof of the train car. And not a moment too soon, as a loud banging noise could be heard from up above and whatever caused it applied enough force to momentarily make the vehicle jump up in the air and made both Nezuko and Satoko lose their balance.

Soon after, the roof was blown through as 3 bodies fell down into the compartment. 2 of which Nezuko instantly recognised, consisting of a currently headless Tanjiro who seemed to have the left side of his body blown off while the other recognised figure was Muichiro, who was glaring at the 3^rd figure who was crouching down and observing everyone curiously, smiling as they got up and walked out of the smoke created by their entrance.

But as the Water Breathing user observed this figure, she couldn’t help but scowl and growl as she saw the kanji in their eyes, revealing them to be…

Upper rank 3. This was the same Demon that had caused the injuries which permanently crippled Ojiichan.

Chapter Text

Akaza’s perspective

Location: Forest

“Akaza.” Upon hearing his name be spoken, the Upper moon 3 straightened up and following his instincts, turned around, now looking away from the corpses of Demon Slayers that he just fought in favour of looking Muzan Kibutsuji in the eye, the Demon King taking his regular appearance.

Acting quickly, the 4^th most powerful Demon alive bowed down in front of his master. It wasn’t something he usually needed to do in the presence of the Demon King, but after that failed mission a couple of months ago, the martial artist knew that he was on thin ice.

“The Demon boy that bested you back then is not to far from here. Head south from this location and you’ll eventually find train tracks for the Mugen Train. I have no faith in Enmu, so go and bring the child to me and you shall be forgiven for your failure.” Was all the Demon King said, giving no hint as to if he read his subordinate’s mind or not before walking past the Upper moon 3 without looking back.

As soon as he felt his master leave, Akaza stood back up on his feet… before slamming his fist into a boulder next to him, instantly shattering it and sending the fragments flying with the force, causing the stone pieces to fly through the air and easily pierce through the surrounding trees and other stones.

“Finally. It’s time to make you pay for that humiliation, you little shit!” Akaza exclaims excitedly with a mad grin, his blood singing and crying out in excitement, both for a good fight and for revenge. Taking a brief moment to recompose himself, the Demon then launched himself up into the air and above the surrounding trees, shattering the ground beneath his bare feet from the force of the jump and allowing the Upper moon to look around, the grin that previously was on his face returning as he noticed the train tracks and thus the train his master informed him about 330 shaku ahead of him. And as he saw the Battle spirits on that train, even being able to recognise 2 of them, his excitement grew! Admittedly, most of them are only a bit stronger than Daki, but the ones that stood out surpassed almost any Hashira he had ever seen in his life!! Only beaten by the 2 that awakened to those Marks that apparently got a reaction from Kokushibo.

“This is going to be fun!!”

Rengoku’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train car

“My, my. It appears that I got quite lucky, finding the humans on board the train with the greatest Battle spirits all at once.” The Demon that just appeared spoke as he stood back up on his full height, smiling a pleasant smile that betrays the Upper moon’s aura of malice.

“But it appears that we have 2 that do not belong.” Soon after saying this, the Upper moon declared as he dropped his smile and looked right at Satoko and the currently headless Tanjiro.

Acting faster than expected the Demon who has killed who knows how many humans leapt forward and was about to throw a punch that would pulverise Satoko’s skull until…

“Water Breathing Third Form: Flowing Dance!/Mist Breathing Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!/Flame Breathing Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun!” All 3 of the Slayers responded and struck, with the Kamado lass using the flowing and quick movements of her Breathing style’s Third Form to evade the blow while moving their Demon allies out of the way, which only succeeded thanks to Muichiro making use of his own technique to perform a powerful and swift circular slash that created a powerful enough blast of wind with the movement to slow down the Upper moon 3’s strike and allowed Rengoku to slash upwards, a trail of flames accompanying his weapon slicing through the limb from the knuckles up to the elbow.

In response, the Demon now moved his attention away from the good Demons and flipped around in the air, balancing off of his uninjured arm while reattaching his damaged limb in the same instant, before then kicking out with both of his legs.

“Destructive Death Leg Type: Crown Splitter!” Akaza thought to himself as he performed his kicking technique, rising both of his legs in a reverse, rising axe kick that struck both of the Hashira, causing the one he encountered with Kokushibo all those months ago to spit out a few droplets of blood while the new one gasped out in pain. But a simple pair kicks wasn’t the end of the technique, as the Demon then utilised his Blood Demon Art to create a powerful shockwave through both limbs that sent Muichiro flying out of the Train car through the hole in the roof of the train car while the one that had used those Flame Breathing techniques was sent flying towards the other side, yet the Hashira quickly slammed his feet onto the ground and only skidded back as a result of the strike.

“Impressive! I knew that you were strong, and from what I can tell, you lack that Mark that Muichiro did! And yet you possess such excellent blade work!” The Demon congratulated Rengoku before pushing upwards with the arm he was balancing on, flipping up in the air and landing on his feet once more and soon began to clap, looking at the Demon Slayer as the man himself wiped away some small trickles of blood from his mouth, not once taking his eyes off this dangerous opponent.

“Hm. From what I can tell, you comrade should get back here in 3… no, make that 5 minutes. So, we should have plenty of time to talk. And as for you girl, I suggest you don’t try it.” The Demon said, looking past Rengoku for a moment, likely seeing something to make his guess that human eyes couldn’t before warning Nezuko from behind him, with Rengoku noticing the poor girl shaking badly, struggling to breath while in such a close proximity to the Upper moon.

“What are you doing here Demon? And why prioritising weaker foes than yourself?” Rengoku question the Demon, hoping to draw attention away from the young Kamado and was mentally pleased by how the 2 questions seemed to have easily accomplished that goal.

“Well, besides an order from my master, I just happened to notice a collection of strong Battle spirits and I just had to see the warriors they belonged to. As for your other question….” The Demon continued on, taking a few steps forward as he did so. But before anyone could react, the Upper moon swung out with his left arm to the side, his raw strength alone easily shattering the wood created by young Shizen and easily caving in the skulls of the innocent that were hidden within instantly.

“Weakness of any sort absolutely disgusts me. To the point where the very cells within my immortal body crawl, and most humans embody weakness, and are thus the ultimate blight. Add on those 2 being traitors, and well… I’m sure that you can do the math.” He finished speaking before liking the blood on his hand and even humming in delight at the taste. Damn, seems one of the 2 killed had blood on the rarer end.

“You bastard! Just because someone is weaker than you doesn’t mean that their existence is a blight! Everyone starts off weak and needs to be protected, as Muichiro, Rengoku-San, myself and even you started off as a normal human! Or as you declare, ‘weak’!” Young Kamado cried out at the Demon, who turned to actually look at her and smirk at the sight of the mask hanging by the girl’s hip.

“Ah, so you were one of the students that Sakonji spoke of. And you were even apart of that little group that held off Gyokko until Giyu arrived. In that case…” The Demon continued on, making Rengoku tense up, prepared to leap forward at a moment’s notice.

“Why don’t you and the Hashira back there become Demons? To survive an Upper moon, no matter the circumstances speaks volumes of your spirit alone and with the teachings Sakonji gave you, it would be a shame for you to never reach your full potential. And as for you Hashira-San, it is clear that your Battle spirit has been developed to the edge of perfection and while you may not have as much growth remaining compared to the girl, there is still a lot that remains untapped while you are human. Because as a human, you will be cursed to grow old and whither until you eventually die, meaning that you will never be able to reach a state of perfection no matter how far you go, but as a Demon, you can continue to grow long after your human life should end for hundreds of years and leave your mark on the endless stretches of time.” He offered the two, positioning himself in a way where he held out an offering hand to them both.

“That is where you are wrong once again Demon. Growing old and dying are the very reasons that human life possesses beauty and meaning to them. It’s precisely because we age and die that the human life holds value and nobility. And in regards to strength…” Rengoku was quick to respond, drawing the attention of the Demon as he spoke. But mid-way through the Hashira’s speech, Kyojuro leapt forward in a blaze of flames.

“Flame Breathing First Form: Unknowing Fire!”

“That is a word that hold little meaning to the flesh!” Kyojuro yelled out as he unleashed a singular horizontal slash directed at the Upper moon’s neck, who grinned and leapt back response, the blade and flames passing by harmlessly.

“I see! Technique Development Destructive Death: Compass Needle!” The Demon yelled, and the very moment that he landed on the ground again, the martial artist bent his knees in a half-crouch position, extending his right arm with a half-clenched fist facing his body and bending his left arm with an open palm. And as soon as this happened, a giant glowing snowflake like symbol appeared on the ground and glowed with an ominous blue aura.

“But before I kill you, I demand to know your name Hashira! I am Akaza, remember it well!” The now named Akaza yelled as he delivered a punch that countered a downward sword strike from Kyojuro effortlessly, forcing the blade to strike down to the side.

“I am the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku! The one who shall make you pay for all of the innocent blood you have split! Flame Breathing Seventh Form: Phoenix Rebirth!” Rengoku yelled out in response, performing a series of strong slashes with his blade that caused the fire produced by Flame Breathing to take the shape of a rising phoenix that slammed into the Demon, and while it couldn’t actually inflict damage as expected of a Breathing style, the flame construct forced Akaza out of the train car and onto the top.

“Young Kamado, get to the others, stay close and defend the passengers from any stray attacks!” He was quick to take advantage of the little time to order his kouhai, snapping her out of her surprise as she nodded and looked at Satoko, with the young girl quickly grabbing the Demon Kamado’s still headless body and running.

“Why isn’t the brother regenerating?” Kyojuro couldn’t help but think to himself, but shifts away his attention as he saw Akaza jump up and as he could be seen through the hole and the Demon punched the air, and it was only because of his honed instincts that the Flame Hashira could raise his blade and stop an invisible strike that held almost as much force behind as the kick from earlier, but he only stopped a single attack before another invisible attack struck him in the head and another in his gut, causing the swordsman to stumble back while coughing out a bit of blood.

“Flame Breathing Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!” Rengoku cried out, performing the defensive form of his Breathing style to perform a series of slashes in a fluid circular motion to defend himself from the barrage of unseen attacks, with this only being possible thanks to the trail of flames forming a barrier for him.

“Flame Breathing Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun!” Immediately going on the offensive, Kyojuro fluidly shifted his blade downwards before jumping upwards, then slashing upwards in an arcing vertical slash, cutting into the chest of Upper moon 3 as the Demon leapt back and as soon as the 2 landed, Kyojuro knew many things.

One, this Demon was playing with him, not considering the Hashira an actual threat to his life despite seeing him as strong. The 2^nd thing was that if they had any hope of killing this Demon, then Kyojuro needed the help of either Tanjiro or Muichiro, but for whatever reason, the eldest Kamado seemed incapable of truly helping in this conflict at the moment while Muichiro will need some time to catch up with the train as one of the slowest runners among the Hashira. And lastly, for every moment that this Demon remained on the train, whether he is in one of the train cars or stands on the top of one, the sleeping victims of Lower moon 1 will be killed by a single attack. So if Kyojuro had any hope of overcoming 2 of these problems…

He needed to find a way to force Akaza off of this train.

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train

“Aoi-Chan!” Nezuko cried out as she and Satoko ran into the 2^nd train car after leaving Rengoku-San to fight Akaza on his own, almost tripping when the entire train shook and nearly fell off when a loud explosion went off and she saw the metal roof above her bend, as if a boulder suddenly landed on top of it.

“Bezuko! What the hell is going on!? I felt the freak flesh guy die and now there is something else far stronger than even the train Demon we’ve been fighting so far!” Aoi yelled out as she ran over, with Kanao and Paean coming in from the other side of the train and approaching.

“There’s an Upper moon here! Specifically Upper moon 3 and he’s far stronger than Gyokko!” Nezuko told them, causing the wild girl and Paean to look confused, Kanao to flinch a bit and for Satoko to shiver. While that Demon was quickly taken out by Giyu, it’s variety of abilities was deadly and none of the swordsmen that were there were foolish enough to believe they would have survived that fight if the mutated Demon wasn’t so arrogant.

“Where… Hanako…?” Satoko questioned with concern in her voice, not noticing how Tanjiro’s currently immobilised body twitched at his youngest sister’s name being spoken.

“She’s on the other side of the train.” Kanao told the other, but before any of them could react, the top of the train car was destroyed, with Rengoku having his back slammed into the ground as the Hashira coughed up more blood.

But all of them barely had time to react before Akaza shot down after the swordsman, throwing down a punch that would have instantly shattered Rengoku’s skull had he not flipped backwards, but the following shockwave produced by the failed follow up attack caused the Hashira to get sent flying back to the end of the train car and slam into it, requiring a moment to steady himself and stand back up, a trail of blood flowing down from the left side of his head. In fact….

“Blood Demon Art Nature’s wrath: Wood Locking Wall!” The collection of weaker Slayers and Demons would have been knocked out right then and there had Satoko been a single second too slow, just barely creating enough of a wooden dome in front of them to take a good bit of the explosion’s force and only send them all flying back instead. Sadly, despite the domes over them, every single one of the passengers sleeping within them inside the train car were easily killed, as the shockwave instantly shattered all of the domes and the sleeping civilians were either killed by that same shockwave or the splintered wood flying about with enough speed to pierce their flesh.

“Flame Breathing Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!” Rengoku cried out as he charged forward, unleashing a flurry of sword swings that caused the fire of his Breathing style to manifest as a construct in the shape of a roaring tiger, that charged forward with the Hashira at the Upper moon, who couldn’t help but grin.

“Disorder!” Akaza cried out as he stood in the spot where he was at, before then tossing out a flurry of punches that were coated in the destructive blue aura of his Blood Demon Art that struck the Hashira’s Flaming Tiger, which powered through and roared until the two warriors right in front of each other.

“Flame Breathing Eighth Form: Combustion Thrust!” Kyojuro cried out, thrusting forward with his blade as the flames manifested in a ‘>’ shape, stabbing right into the chest of the grinning Akaza as the Hashira pushed them past his allies and into the next train car.

“What are we supposed to do with a monster like that!?” Paean questioned in shock, causing Nezuko to remember that he was just newly turned by her brother and that he probably hadn’t been in a fight before.

“Rengoku-San told us to protect the passengers from stray attacks, so that’s what we’ll do. Aoi, me and Kanao will try to provide support where we can. Paean, you find Hanako and if anyone could get hurt, you try and get them out of the way. And Satoko, please keep Tanjiro safe and use your Blood Demon Art to contain the shockwaves and Akaza on the top of the train cars, no matter by how little.” The second eldest Kamado said, drawing everyone’s attention before they nodded, the plan being as effective as any of them could hope it could be.

“HAHAHAHA!! Finally, time for the Queen of the mountains to show her stuff.” Aoi laughed a bit through her mask before charging after 2 incredibly powerful fighters, everyone else but Satoko and Paean following soon after.

“Nature Breathing First Form: The Wind’s Sword!” Aoi cried out as she moved around the limited space of the train car, her yell surprising the 2 fighters as she moved in an unpredictable fashion before appearing behind the Demon and unsheathed one of her swords, before slashing it forward at the Upper moon’s neck.

Sadly though, this was not meant to be, as Akaza easily jumped over her attack with a backflip, but Rengoku took advantage of his opponent currently being in the air as he slashed upwards with another Rising Scorching Sun, but the Demon easily twisted his body in such a way that he would instead only receive a light cut to his throat that instantly healed.

“Destructive Death Air Type.” Akaza spoke before once more punching the air, causing Rengoku to quickly shift to defence while Nezuko jumped up and over Aoi.

“Flame Breathing Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!/Water Breathing Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!” Rengoku cried out, performing the defensive form of his Breathing style once more to create a barrier out of flames that blocked the unseen attacks, while Nezuko slashed down with her own technique, creating a trail of water that was able to block the few attacks that would have struck Aoi.

“Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash.” The calm voice of Kanao spoke, before a flash of electrified yellow rushed past each of the Slayers and went for Akaza’s neck, who reached up to catch the katana.

“Thunder Breathing Fifth Form: Heat Lightning.” But before the Demon could catch the blade, the black-haired girl with yellow tips shifted her attack to slash upwards, slicing through 3 of the Upper moon’s fingers and lightly cutting Akaza’s nose, before Upper 3 quickly created some distance by leaping back and carelessly crushing the skull of a severed head on the ground.

“Oh? Seems like we do have some extra contenders.” Akaza spoke in amusement as he stood back up, but narrowed his eyes at the 3 female Slayers.

“I will warn you lot now. I do not like fighting women, but if you interfere…” The Demon began, losing the smile on his face before unleashing his aura and Nezuko couldn’t stop the horrid shiver that ran up her spine, her intuition screaming at her as if she was having the skin on her back slowly peeled off. And she did not need to turn around to know that Kanao and Aoi were facing a similar sensation.

“You’ll get yourselves killed. Whether by a stray attack or by my shockwaves, that will end up being your fate.” Was the warning the Upper moon gave, and it was clear to even a blind and senile man that his words held nothing but the truth in them.

“If you can get past me, but unluckily for you Demon, so long as I live and breathe, that shall never happen.” Rengoku spoke as he stepped in front of his lower ranked comrades again, pointing his Nichirin Blade forward.

Not giving a response, Akaza merely turned his glare to the Flame Hashira before launching himself forward with a leap, the force produced by the simple action by itself causing the train car to be launched in the air and taking all of the Slayer by surprise.

“Destructive Death Crushing Type: Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow.” Akaza spoke as he seemingly teleported above the unbalanced Rengoku and brought down his clenched right fist to the Hashira’s chest, the power held within it clearly being capable of piercing through the swordsman.

Seeing this, Nezuko’s heartrate began to accelerate, this single moment looking like an eternity to her. While she didn’t like this man after his initial insistence of killing Tanjiro and disregarding her Demon friends, she could at least understand why that mistrust was there with how many Demons he likely saw devouring their own family. But once he realised that he was wrong in his assumptions, he not only apologised, but outright expressed his belief her friends and brother were effectively his comrades now. And no matter how much she may initially deny it, this man for all intents and purposes, may as well be an older and more mature version of his brother and is the kind of person she could easily envision him becoming had their positions been switched.

And so, when Nezuko saw the image overlap that of Rengoku and her body experienced a sudden explosion of power, she barely noticed before she acted.

“Water Breathing First Form: Water Surface Slash!” Nezuko cried out as she practically flew at the Demon and prepared a horizontal slash that was accompanied by flowing water coming out of her blade, with the Upper moon 3 Demon lazily lifting his left arm, expecting the Slayer’s weapon to get caught in his flesh at worse. So when the technique actually completely severed the limb, it was only because of instinct and experience that Akaza maneuverer his body, causing him to lose his legs instead of risking losing his head.

With the attack now having failed to slay the Demon, the train car slammed back onto the ground, with all the fighters quickly recovering and face each other once more, though Akaza stared at Nezuko in surprise before he began to chuckle.

“Well, well. Seems Muichiro wasn’t the only Marked one that had been on this train.” The Upper moon spoke in amusement as he placed his hands on his hips, confusing Nezuko and she almost jumped out of her skin when Aoi yelled out right behind her.

“What the heck is that Bezuko!?” The wild girl yelled as she pointed at the Kamado’s neck, causing the girl to look at the window to her side and widened her eyes in shock as she saw a red coloured, vine like pattern rising up from beneath her uniform and up the left side of her neck to stop right beneath her eyes, with the vine pattern spreading out at various points to varying lengths.

“So, this Mark isn’t something bound only to Hashira. Kamado, I’m going to rely on you to provide me some backup.” Rengoku mused before informing the girl, snapping the female Slayer out of her shock, and nodding her head to the Hashira, the both of them standing side by side in preparation for the next attack of the Demon before them while Aoi and Kanao stepped back, ready to provide a distraction or coverage at any time. But then they were all taken aback when Akaza began to laugh, as if he was among old friends he hadn’t seen in a long time and was reminiscing on good memories.

“Well, this has certainly been much more amusing that I could have ever expected! You Slayers are certainly the most surprising collection I have met in all my years as a Demon. And given how cramped this space is, I think we should get some fresh air.” Akaza spoke quite casually before suddenly punching the ground beneath him, once more causing the train car to tilt upwards for the Slayers and get sent flying into the air. But that wasn’t it, because when the Upper moon landed on the roof while they were all airborne, the Demon then kicked off and with a single glance through the window…

Nezuko saw the train get sent flying off of the tracks. They were about to crash.

???’s perspective

Location: ???

“Hm. Seems like things are being quite lively out there.” A shadowed figure spoke from atop a his throne on a pile of bones, looking down at the ocean of blood before them to access some form of awareness of the outside world. Then, looking to the side, this individual saw a collection of 7 blood orbs floating by him and with a sigh, lifted his hand while extending a finger, before bending it in a ‘come here’ motion.

Soon after doing so, one of these blood orbs flew away from the others and showed itself proudly before the sitting person, the orb having the kanji for ‘4’ written proudly on it. And with this orb presented to him, the shadowed figure extended his arm and dug his claws into the orb, establishing a connection.

“There is a collection of people that I want you to save. Go to this area and protect those Slayers, even if it costs you your life.” The person spoke in a dark tone, and while a voice did not speak in response, they already knew that this chosen of his would follow through with the order, and so he quickly let go of the orb and allowing it to float back to the others, sighing a little before then looking down at the thrones beneath him and smiling fondly at the sleeping figures on them.

“I don’t really understand why either of you would ever care for humans besides Nezuko and Hanako and I doubt I ever will. But I will make sure they will be fine since neither of you would want those people hurt.” The figure spoke as he stood up from his throne and walked down the steps made out of bones, just enough to see the faces of 2 Tanjiros on the thrones. One of which looking like the teen ever since he was turned into a Demon, though this one had currently shrunk down to the size of a 5-year-old and was using his own clothing as a blanket while the other looked exactly like the boy on the night were their lives were turned upside down.

“Now then, let us help you calm down for when you control the body again.” This person spoke while walking over the Tanjiro that looked like a teenager, stepping into a red light that revealed him to be another Tanjiro, though this one looked like he was 18 years old based on his height of 5’9” and wore clothing very similar to the Kagura dance uniform that his late father, Tanjuro Kamado, did whenever he performed the Hinokami Kagura.

Now within range, the older looking Tanjiro held out a clawed finger and dug it into the skull of the sleeping Tanjiro, implanting some information. Not outright putting in the memories of their mentally youngest member over this last year, in fear of frying the poor boy’s brain, but provided some general knowledge, such as them being Demons, their sisters being Slayers and Muzan as some examples.

But as he implanted knowledge of Akaza, an idea came to this older looking Tanjiro, before he smirked and implanted a suggestion into him for when he takes control again. And as soon as that is done, this 3^rd Tanjiro walked back up to his throne and sat down, once more accessing the body’s senses to get an idea of the situation in the outside world, but did not take control. After all, that was not the purpose that he was created for, no, rather he was made to be the guardian of his childlike self and the original identity and he’d only take over if there was absolutely no other choice.

But as he felt things out, this Guardian Tanjiro couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement. Things were about to get interesting after all.

Chapter Text

Rengoku’s perspective

Location: Derailed Mugen Train

“Flame Breathing Seventh Form: Phoenix Rebirth!” Rengoku yelled out as he performed his technique, blowing straight through the bottom of the train car while it was upside down, allowing him and young Tsuyuri, Kamado and Kanzaki to escape from the derailed train before it crashed, all of them landing safely.

“You all okay?” The Hashira was quick to ask the young Slayers, but before any of them could confirm their physical state, Nezuko widened her eyes in surprise.

“Behind you!!” She cried out just in time, causing Kyojuro to spin around and use the flat side of his blade to block a strike Akaza as the Demon leapt forth, managing to deflect the punch but it wasn’t enough to come out unscathed, as the Upper moon was able to successfully punch out the swordsman’s left eye.

“AGH!!” Crying out in pain, it left the experienced Slayer vulnerable for a single moment, but it was all the Demon needed knee Rengoku in the gut, causing the Flame Breathing user to cough out blood.

“Water Breathing Second Form: Water Wheel!” However, Nezuko was quick to react as she ran and leapt forward, into the air and performs a front flip, releasing a singular vertical slash in a circular motion that was able to slice through the arm of the Upper moon when he tried to press his advantage.

“Water Breathing Combination Form: Whirlpool, Flow!” Not stopping for even a moment, the young swordswoman made use of the Third Form’s footwork to get into Akaza’s personal space and then used the twisting movements of the Sixth Form to spin up and attempt a decapitation, but the Upper moon easily leaned back with an impressed smirk.

“You two, check on the civilians and our comrades!” Rengoku yelled at the 2 unmarked Slayers before charging forward to press for an advantage.

“Flame Breathing First Form: Unknowing Fire!” The Hashira cried out as he effortlessly spun around Nezuko and preformed a singular horizontal slash that was able to take off both Upper moon 3’s arms, but this ultimately mattered little as the Demon instantly regrew the lost limbs before landing on the ground.

“Destructive Death: Disorder!!” Akaza yelled out as he once more unleashed an intense flurry of punches that created large shockwaves at the 2 Slayers.

“Water Breathing Eleventh Form: Dead Calm./Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!” However, the Slayer duo was able to make use of their defensive techniques, with Nezuko being able to actually deflect over half of the attacks away harmlessly from the group and any that would have broken through and struck the Marked Slayer was blocked by Rengoku, who performed a series of slashes in a fluid circular motion to defend himself and the others from the barrage of attacks.

“Nature Breathing Fifth Form: Legendary bite!” Aoi cried out as she leapt forward from behind Akaza, bringing her swords down at his neck in a way that was reminiscent of a Dragon’s bite, but it only took off some hair when the Upper moon ducked beneath the attack.

“Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash.” Kanao though was quick to act, travelling at an impressive speed that allowed her to close the distance but instead of attacking, she used the technique’s speed to grab her friend and get away from a swiping swing of Akaza’s arm just in time.

“I said to look for the other and civilians!!” Rengoku yelled to the young girls before him and Akaza got into a clash of high-speed slashes and punches respectively while Nezuko leapt back, breathing a little heavily.

“But-!” Aoi tried to yell back against the order, but as Rengoku kept Akaza in place by stabbing through both of the Demon’s arms and spared a glance to her with the older Slayer’s remaining eye, he cut off the wild girl.

“YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO KEEP UP!! YOUNG KAMADO IS ONLY KEEPING UP WITH THE MARK, AND EVEN THEN SHE CAN ONLY PROVIDE SUPPORT!!” The Hashira yelled out, but before he got a chance to continue, he had to move leap away to evade a kick from Akaza that surely would have shattered a few ribs had the attack landed.

“Water Breathing Third Form: Flowing Dance!” Nezuko cried out as she moved as if she was water itself, practically dancing in a flowing pattern that was able to slice into Akaza’s wrist.

“Go help the others! Flame Breathing Third Form: Blazing Universe!” Rengoku once more ordered the two girls, who reluctantly obeyed the command as they headed to the fallen over train while the Hashira himself jumped into the air and performing an arcing downwards vertical slash aimed at the Upper moon’s neck, but the Demon leapt back and evaded the attack with a grin on his face as the attempt only left a wound on the martial artist’s chest that instantly healed.

“Oh, this is perfect! Looks like I was right to assume that we could all use some fresh air!” Akaza cheered happily while spreading out his arms, before then quickly getting into a stance while the 2 Slayers watched carefully.

“So let’s enjoy this night. Destructive Death: Eight-Layered Demon Core!” The Upper moon yelled out as he once more launched a series of punches in a manner similar to his Disorder technique, but this time, he only unleashed 8 punches in exchange for far greater power that allowed for larger and more destructive shockwaves that easily kicked up dust and cracked the ground without even touching it.

“Flame Breathing Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!” Rengoku was quick to act, his sword technique once more creating a flame construct in the shape of a charging tiger that was able to withstand 7 of the mighty blows, but the last one broke through the flames and stuck the Hashira in the gut, causing the young man to cry out in pain with blood now leaking out of his mouth.

“Water Breathing Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust!” Young Kamado yelled out as she charged forward, thrusting her blade forward at the Demon and struck, water manifesting upon the blade making contact with the hand that Akaza used to grab the blade that quickly stabbed into the limb and helped push the Upper moon back from the Hashira.

“Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow, Slide!” Continuing on with the attack, the younger fighter tried to create more distance for the Hashira by moving at an incredible speed, making use of the light explanation Kanao gave her about Thunder Breathing’s fundamental technique, inhaling a large amount of oxygen to increase the pumping of blood through her entire body, focusing it on her legs, and releasing it all to charge forward in a flowing manner that covered her whole body in a water construct that took the vague shape of a slithering snake, that allowed the girl to move at a speed that she shouldn’t and aimed for a decapitation when Rengoku realised something.

“She’s slowing down!” Kyojuro thought in worry, knowing that at her current speed, Nezuko would be killed if Akaza went for such a strike. But why was she… of course, Giyu and Muichiro mentioned that they had to put in effort to increase the time they could keep those Marks active and if the eldest human Kamado just awakened it, then her sudden burst of strength would likely only last as much as an adrenaline boost at best.

“DAMMIT! DAMMIT! I NEED TO SAVE HER!” Rengoku mentally yelled, the world practically moving in slow motion… when a memory came back to him.

Flashback: 13 years ago

Location: Rengoku Family Estate

“Kyojuro…” A sickly, but still strong and gentle voice spoke, causing the 8-year-old Kyojuro Rengoku to look up from watching his sleeping baby brother to look at his mother, Ruka Rengoku, who was staring at him in a way that he knew she only did when talking about something important.

His mother happened to be a young woman with defined facial features, such as her sharp nose, long eyebrows, and pale complexion. She had large dark red eyes with circular white pupils, and a small mouth, with semi-long black hair tied loosely at the end in a ponytail. As for clothing, she wore a typical white and light blue coloured kimono.

“Yes mother?” Kyojuro asked of her in confusion, his full attention on her, which was an impressive feat for a child.

“Think hard about this question I am about to ask you. Do you know the reason as to why you were born stronger than those around, including a few adults?” The older human asked of her son, who hummed in thought and tried to think of an answer for a few seconds.

“Um… I don’t know!” After failing to answer a few times, answered honestly and loudly, but kept the volume down to not wake up baby Senjuro.

“The reason why is so that you can help the people that are weaker than yourself. Those born with more natural talent than others must use their strength for the good of the world, for other people and especially your comrades and the people that are willing to give their life for you. It is unforgivable to use the power one is granted with by the heavens to hurt others and empower yourself.” Ruka explained to her child gently yet firmly, now beginning to smile gently at him.

“That is why your father’s blood, The Rengoku Family, has hunted demons for generations before even its golden age during the Sengoku period. And becoming Hashira is our pride. Like your father, I know that you will become a great Hashira. Bear the flame in your heart. Burn evil Demons and shine gently on human beings. Hold your heart a flame like the sun. Become the Flame Hashira." She told the young child, who looked mesmerised before gaining a fierce fire in his eyes and nodding his head while filled with determination.

“Got it!” Kyojuro told his mother, earning a brief smile that quickly went away before she reached out an arm and brought her youngest son into a gentle hug.

“I won’t be able to live much longer Kyojuro, so I won’t be able to help you on your path. But know that I am so happy and proud to have been the mother of such a strong and kind child.” Ruka told her son, tears welling up within her eyes and silently rolling down her face.

“I am counting on you, and soon enough, many others beyond little Senjuro shall as well.”

Flashback end

“Flame Breathing Esoteric Art! Ninth Form: Rengoku!” Acting quickly and moving at speeds that the Flame Hashira was barely able to register as being faster than he should be capable of, Kyojuro assumed while gripping his blade tightly with both of his hands, feeling his beating heart practically ignite with the power of the sun and travel across his entire body, before then dashing forward at an extremely high speed as flames coated over his whole body and formed the shape of a roaring Japanese dragon.

Seeing this attempt, Akaza widened his eyes in surprise and was just barely able to pull back from a chop attack he was about to deliver to Nezuko, but was unable to evade the attack as in a singular motion, the Flame Hashira was able to grab the back of Nezuko’s haori and pull her away with him, and slash through the Upper moon’s neck, the completed action of the attack creating a large pillar of fire and destroying many of the trees of the forest right next to the Slayer.

“You okay?” Rengoku asked the Kamado girl, who looked at him in surprise.

“Rengoku-San! You have the Mark!” Nezuko yelled to him in surprise, causing him to widen his eyes a bit before looking to a puddle of Akaza’s blood that was just enough to let him see his reflection, allowing the young man to note a single rising flame designed Mark that began at the bottom of his right cheek and went up to cover his eye just above his eyebrow.

“Dammit!! You actually nearly got there!” Spinning around at hearing the Demon’s voice, Rengoku saw Akaza holding his head in his hands and placing it back onto his severed head, leaving the Hashira to wonder how the Demon survived for a moment until he saw a stand of snapped flesh instead of cut flesh.

He missed by a few inches and as a result, Upper moon 3 was still alive.

“Destructive Death: Air Type!” As soon as he reattached his head, Akaza yelled out as he punched at the empty air and sent multiple invisible attacks at the Flame Hashira, but before the swordsman could react…

“Mist Breathing Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!” The voice of Muichiro yelled out as Rengoku’s fellow Hashira landed in front of the Flame and Water Breathing users and performed a powerful and swift circular slash that blocked the invisible projectiles.

“Muichiro….” Nezuko spoke with exhaustion in her voice while Kyojuro walked to stand by his fellow Hashira, truly being the pillars of humanity that will keep those weaker than themselves safe in this moment.

“Rest Imouto. We’ll handle this.”

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Mugen Train car

“That… last… one?” Hanako heard Satoko question her as the young girl struggled to lift a heavy piece of metal off of a group of people before they were dragged out by the Demon girl, just over half of the people just dragged out were sadly already dead.

“Yeah. Just create a barrier for us while I keep them alive and asleep.” Paean answered before he began to hum his song again, which was somehow keeping the civilians asleep and healing their wounds to an extent all at once. Which was perfect, considering his name.

“Alright. Come on Satoko, we need to find the others!” Hanako yelled out to her friend, but before the older girl could respond, something crashed through the side of the train car and made everyone tense in preparation for a fight.

“Nahoka! Sana! New guy!” The familiar voice of Aoi cried out though, causing the group to relax as the dust cleared to reveal the boar head wearing girl, with Kanao quickly jumping down to look at everyone.

“Have you saved everyone over here?” The Thunder Breather questioned the group, before looking at the injured civilians and how their minor cuts and bruises quickly healed to the point of not leaving behind a scar.

“As many survivors that we can find. But where are the others?” Hanako answered her friend, but asked the question worriedly as she saw that the 2 Hashira, Nēchan and Ni-Chan weren’t there.

“Tokito-San was punched off the train earlier and Nezuko and Rengoku-San are currently battling an Upper moon. I have no clue about Tanjiro though.” Kanao answered, causing horror and fear to grip at the young Kamado girl’s heart before she ran off, following the scent of her sister in the hope that Nezuko was still okay and that she knew where their brother was.

“Nahoka, get back here!” Aoi cried out before running after her friend in concern, while Kanao remained behind to use her speed to look for any survivors that may have been missed.

Muichiro’s perspective

“Mist Breathing Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash!” Muichiro yelled out as dashed forward at Akaza and performed a singular slash that just barely slashed into the Demon’s chest before pulling back his right arm and throwing a punch, but the attack was parried by Rengoku as the Flame Hashira flowed up with a counter, spinning around to get behind the Upper moon as flames covered his weapon.

“Flame Breathing First Form: Unknowing fire!” The older male yelled out before performing a single horizontal slash aimed at Akaza’s neck, who merely glared at the man without making a single sound before dropping to the ground to evade the strike, even if it cut off his legs.

But as a Demon, the wound mattered little as the Upper 3 thrusted his severed limbs at the swordsman before suddenly regenerating at incredible speed, the tactic being effective in delivering a double kick to Rengoku, before in the same motion, Akaza pushed himself back up to evade a swing from Muichiro before holding up an arm that began to be coated in a blue aura clearly holding a lot of power.

“Destructive Death Crushing Type: Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow!” Akaza yelled out as he punched down at the teen, with Muichiro barely having the time to react and jump backwards to evade the deadly strike, causing it to strike the ground instead, destroying the earth beneath him enough to uproot the ground and create large stone pillars while producing a shockwave powerful enough to send both Hashira flying backwards and skidding across the ground.

“Mist Breathing Sixth Form: Lunar Dispersing Mist.” As Muichiro flew in the air and into a forest, he looked over his shoulder to see that he would crash into a boulder, causing the prodigy child to shift his position and deliver a multitude of slashes in a somersaulting motion, obliterating the boulder to the point of making it look like it never existed.

Then, as soon as the Mist Hashira landed on the ground and began to turn around to head back, he was suddenly struck in the face by an invisible attack, causing the child to spin around while blood began to drip from his mouth. But as soon as Muichiro regained his footing, he widened his eyes in surprise as Akaza appeared before him in a crouching position with a serious look on his face before striking with an uppercut that the Slayer just barely avoided, but he was sent flying back by a few feet the shockwave the attack still produced, but the teen was able to quickly regain his footing in the same moment that his foe charged forward.

“Mist Breathing Second Form: Eight-Layered Mist!/Destructive Death: Eight-Layered Demon Core!” Both the Mist Breather and Demon yelled out in the same moment, both unleashing a flurry of powerful 8 slashes and punches respectively, with Muichiro being able to deflect each of the punches by either slicing through enough flesh at the Upper moon’s wrist to divert the strike or slicing through the limbs with precise cuts. However, as the 2 prepared for a final strike on each other, Muichiro went for an overhead slash and to his shock, with a single backhanded strike…

“Bell Splitter.”

Muichiro’s pure white blade was snapped as easily as one would with a twig, with only a third of the sharp metal remaining.

“Farewell.” Akaza said before going for another punch that would have surely crushed the Hashira’s head and splattered the remains across the floor and tree, had Rengoku not appeared when he did, performing his Breathing style’s Third Form to sever the Demon’s arm mid attack.

“Flame Breathing Eighth Form: Combustion Thrust!” Rengoku then immediately followed up, thrusting his blade forward while striking Akaza in the throat, and causing the 2 of them to move away from Muichiro until Akaza’s back was slammed into a tree.

Glaring back in defiance, Akaza then aimed a chop and swung at Rengoku’s head in an attempt to slice it in half, but the Flame Hashira leaned back just enough to cut a part of the swordsman’s head and make the right side of his face bleed a bit. This action also caused Rengoku’s blade to be pulled out of the Upper moon 3’s throat, all while Muichiro continued to observe the battle as he thought to himself.

“So Urokodaki was right…. Akaza’s attacks really are drawn to our weak points. So even Onii-San and his defences would eventually be overwhelmed and with me being slower now than both Kyojuro and Akaza, I was unable to keep up and it would have cost my life without help.” Muichiro thought as he watched Rengoku continue on the offense, which seemed to be making Akaza fight more defensively, likely because someone fighting offensively gives him less of a chance to strike weak points.

“But I can’t remain out of this fight!” The Tokito thought to himself with full conviction, shifting his stance as he prepared to provide support once more.

“Mist Breathing Seventh Form: Obscuring Clouds.” Muichiro said as he charged forward, quickly covering both Akaza and Rengoku in the mist of his technique as the Slayer moved in specific ways to keep up his technique, smirking in amusement as Akaza swung an arm out to strike a mist construct that looked like himself, with his comrade taking advantage to strike at their foe and was able to sever the Upper moons arms a number of times and even cut the neck again with a series of flame covered blade swings.

“Destructive Death Leg Type: Flying Planet Thousand Wheels!” Eventually though, Akaza grew frustrated and decided to end this little part of the battle, as he quickly kneeled down before performing a kick in a flowing motion which struck Rengoku at the chin and send him flying through a tree and far above the trees.

“Kyojuro!” Muichiro yelled out to the airborne Hashira, and it was only because of pure instinct that he spun around and saw Akaza charging right at him with a fist raised high, and it was also purely because of those instincts that the Mist Hashira raised the handle of his blade to block the blow and get sent flying until his back slammed into metal.

Heck, because of it, Muichiro was able to realise that he was now back at the Mugen Train as he lifted his head, watching the Upper moon walk out from the shadows the forest of trees created with a smirk and more relaxed than he had been before.

“I must admit, you have improved greatly than you had with our last encounter kid. A shame that Muzan-Sama likely won’t tolerate me leaving anyone alive, because with this kind of growth, I would have spared you! Regardless if you will turn or not, unlike Kyojuro. Though, I suppose I’ll have to apologise to Kokushibo for your death.” Akaza praised the Mist Hashira, and even began to clap in a good-natured manner as he saw Muichiro pull himself out of the train car he was smashed into, and after kneeling for a moment, stood back up with a glare while raising up his broken weapon in defiance.

“I won’t die tonight.” Was all Muichiro said while Akaza smirked, before the Demon charged forward at incomprehensible speeds while Muichiro used his Seventh Form once again to try and confuse his opponent and evade, and while it looked like the Upper 3 was confused, each of his jabs and kicks are only avoided skin of Muichiro’s teeth.

“Mist Breathing First Form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze!” However, a voice that was familiar to Muichiro cried out, causing his eyes to widen in horror, with that emotion being the only thing that was preventing him from calling out to Hanako and demand that she stays away. But he felt that horror turn to surprise as Hanako’s blade flew by the older child’s head and stabbed straight into Akaza’s face, the force briefly causing the Upper moon to stumble back.

“Get it Muichiro!!” Hanako yelled out urgently to her adopted older brother, who snapped out of his shock and quickly reached out for the weapon that may have just saved his life and will now make him properly armed again, dropping his broken blade in the process.

And as he grabbed the handle of the weapon while placing his feet on Akaza’s chest to make pulling out Hanako’s sword easier thanks to the additional leverage provided against the closing flesh, and as he got a bit of the weapon out, Muichiro looked in horror at the wide smile that filled with blood lust on Akaza’s face.

“You’re flank’s wide open!!” The Upper 3 Demon yelled as he pulled back his arm and threw his fist forward, and as the blow approached, Muichiro barely had the time to process his surroundings and how his death was now guaranteed.

Could Kyojuro arrive on time? No, wherever he landed, his fellow Hashira was still trying to arrive to their current location. Hanako? The poor girl was now weapon less and if Akaza desired it, she would die, with the only reason she might survive this night being the Demon’s seeming reluctance to fight girls if his reaction to Mitsuri was anything to go by. Tanjiro? Muichiro couldn’t even sense his adopted brother and when he last saw him, the eldest Kamado seemed to have something happened to his mental state, so he not even be capable of helping to begin with. So if Muichiro wished to live, he had to focus and dodge!

And that was exactly what he was able to do, as suddenly, Akaza’s body looked as if it became transparent, allowing the young Slayer to see the Demon’s muscles and organs beneath his flesh, even the way his blood vessels moved. But not only that, but the only living Tokito was now able to perceive the Demon’s movements as slow while his own further increase, allowing the Slayer to leap backwards while freeing the weapon he shall now use to fight. The only damage that the evaded punch caused being a cut that was barely able to draw a drop of blood on his chest and tearing apart a section of Muichiro’s uniform to reveal his chest beneath.

“Destructive Death Leg Type: Explosive Flurry!” Grinning at the sight of the Slayer still able to fight, Akaza once more charged, but this time, it was still something Muichiro could easily perceive and with whatever he was currently doing to see the Demon as a transparent being, it made dodging each kick a simple task despite them all being perfectly drawn to the Hashira.

“Mist Breathing Second Form: Eight-Layered Mist.” Once more, Muichiro began to swing his blade in a flurry of multiple fast paced and perfectly placed slashes that struck Akaza at only the most effective areas for Muichiro, but allowed him to easily slice through the Demon, even cutting his throat despite not taking the Upper moon’s head.

“Hm. I think I can get used to what I’m seeing.” Muichiro mused to himself while smirking at the stunned Demon, who widened his eyes in surprise before glaring at Muichiro seriously as he turned to look at the Slayer.

“So, you’re able to see into that world. Hahaha…” Akaza spoke as if he knew what he was referring to, causing Muichiro to tighten both of his hands on the handle of his blade, only for the teen to be shocked  when the Demon before him began to laugh.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Alright then!!! Let’s see how a human can use the Transparent World!!!!” Akaza yelled out excitedly as he shifted into a new stance that he hadn’t used until now; his body being covered in a light blue aura as all of his muscles tensed.

“No you don’t!!” However, Muichiro shifted his attention to the yelling voice as he saw Rengoku rejoin them in the battle and charge at Akaza with all of his strength in an attempt to stop whatever was happening, making the Mist Breathing widen his eyes in horror.

“Kyojuro, stop!!! We need to back away!!!” Muichiro yelled to his fellow Hashira as he ran to his comrade, with the Flame Hashira stopping. But Akaza was not idle during this time.

“Destructive Death Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow!!!!!!!!” Akaza yelled before unleashing his new technique on his 2 foes, creating an omni-directional barrage of countless thin and sharp shockwaves that held unspeakable power behind each shockwave that was easily cleaving through any train cars the were reaching, reducing stone to ash and out of the corner of his eye, Muichiro was just able to see a green blur grab Hanako and a just arriving Aoi and pulling them away from the rang of the attack successfully, keeping the girls safe.

However, for Rengoku and Muichiro, it was a miracle that the 2 of them were able to survive the attack with the use of their Fourth and Third Forms respectively, as the technique Akaza used not only held far more power than he had ever used up to that point, but each of the shockwaves felt like they were dealing a hundred blows at once. In fact, in this moment, Muichiro doubted that even Giyu using Dead Calm would come out unscathed if this technique was used.

Because of this, it should have been no surprise as the 2 Hashira were left kneeling on the ground with Muichiro using the borrowed sword to provide himself support, the 2 practically bathed in their own blood as a result of their injuries.

“I have to say, this has been the most frilling battle I have ever had in all my life!! Now come on you two, become Demons while you still have a chance to live!!!” Akaza yelled out, practically giddy to see the 2 swordsmen still alive after that attack. And while all Muichiro could manage was a weak glare, Rengoku began to shakily stand back onto his feet while glaring at the Demon while growling in anger, but the Flame Hashira could do little else. But then…

“Get away from them!!” A familiar voice to Muichiro yelled out, drawing all 3 fighters’ attention, to which they were greeted with the sight of Tanjiro leaping at Akaza and actually knocking the older Demon over while wrapping his hands around the Upper moon’s neck as an attempt at strangulation, the young Demon king’s claws piercing their foe’s neck.

“Get off you little-!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!” The martial artist Demon began to threaten the eldest Kamado, but cut himself off as he began to scream in absolute agony while red marking seemed to spread from the Upper moon’s neck quickly before glowing.

But before Muichiro could process what was happening, Akaza quickly kicked at Tanjiro, blowing off the upper half of his brother’s body and causing the chunks and torn clothing to fly into the air in a hail of blood, before the Upper moon quickly stood up onto his feet and running into the forest while continuing to scream.

The last thing the Mist Hashira was able to process though before falling unconscious, was Tanjiro slowly regrowing the upper half of his body, and as a result, he did not notice his adopted sisters and their friends approaching the 3. Nor did he notice something following Akaza.

Muzan’s perspective

Akaza’s mindscape

“Tch. How annoying of this brat.” Muzan growled out in annoyance as he walked through a desolate dojo building that had blood staining the walls and brutally beaten corpses spread throughout the corridor, annoyed that he was having to do this.

It hadn’t been something he was expecting to be a problem all those months ago when he learned through Rui’s eyes that some Demons beyond the Kamado brat and Tamayo were actually going rogue, which included a Demon filled with potential like Susamaru and an outright Lower moon through Mukago, but it was a genuine threat to his rule that made finding Tanjiro Kamado that much more important. Sadly, finding the brat was difficult given how Muzan’s awareness was spread about amongst the literal thousands of Demons he had spread across all of Japan, and he currently had no Demons that had an ability that can easily let him narrow down the location of the Corps’ headquarters, so that was currently out. But now, that little shit was trying to take one of his strongest 3 Demons!?

He didn’t exactly know how the Kamado child was doing it, but he was somehow severing Muzan’s connection with other Demons, but with Akaza, it appeared like the Demon Progenitor could actually stop this process this time. How exactly, he currently didn’t know, but he can’t focus on that for the time being. After all, if Akaza regained his human memories, then he’d rebel and become a valuable asset to the Corps with all of the information he has access to and the fact that only himself, Kokushibo and Doma will be able to put one of his favourite Demons down.

“Hm. How pathetic.” Suddenly though, an unfamiliar, but also somehow familiar voice called out from behind him, causing Muzan to look over his shoulder before narrowing his eyes at the sight of Kamado Tanjiro. Though curiously, he appeared to be an adult here and possessed a far different aura from what he did back on the night he turned the child or the state he seemed to be left in according to the memories he saw of that Shinobi he made into a Demon or Yahaba.

“You aren’t the brat.” Muzan stated the obvious while turning his body fully face the insolent brat, causing Tanjiro to chuckle.

“You are both right and not right, though I doubt you care for such a thing. But if you think I’ll allow you to take a valuable asset like this from my other selves or our sisters, you have another thing coming Kibutsuji.” The Tanjiro, likely an alter of the little shit based on his words and Muzan’s own knowledge of such a subject, said as he began to step forward, causing Muzan to growl.

“I suggest that you know your place. I’m already in a bad mood as is.” The Demon King warned, though he had no intention of letting this boy leave alive.

“Thought you’d say something like that. So…” The younger Demon responded with a confident smirk while holding out an open palm, causing a faint pink aura to cover the hand before it spread out and took the shape of a flawless katana.

“Let’s get to the point. Hinokami Kagura!” The boy said before yelling out and charging forward while covering his weapon and himself in fire, to which Muzan responded by glaring while manifesting his back whips and sending them forward to slay his foe.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, a single owl with the kanji for ‘4’ in its right eye watched over Akaza, who was resting deep within a cave, continue to scream bloody murder to the heavens, but it made note of something specific amongst the Upper 4’s screams. And that was a single name…

“KOYUKI!!!!!!!!”

Chapter Text

Rengoku’s perspective

Location: Demon Slayer HQ

“Seems like we have another Hashira wearing an eyepatch! Wonder if it’s going to become a flashy trend amongst us at this point.” As soon as Tengen entered the garden that was used for their meetings, the Sound Hashira instantly made note of the cloth that covered Kyojuro’s left eye, which was darker red in colour and had a flame pattern on it.

“Actually, that begs the question. Where is Tomioka?” Sanemi asked with a growl as he looked around, seeing that everyone besides Muichiro and Tomioka was currently there waiting for Oyakata-Sama.

“Since Muichiro-Kun is recovering at the Butterfly Estate, Giyu chose to stay there and wait for him to recover and check up on the Kamado siblings.” Kanae spoke up in order to answer her boyfriend, who only scoffed at the answer, but made no further comment.

“How come you know about this?” Obanai questioned curiously from up on his usual perch on a tree branch.

“Tomioka-San asked me and Kanae to tell master about this once he arrives for the meeting.” Shinobu explained to the Serpent Hashira calmly.

“In that case, I pray that Tokito awakens soon, both for his sake and his family.” Gyomei spoke up as he got into his usual praying position and allowed tears to flow down from his eyes.

“Um… are you okay by the way Rengoku? Shouldn’t you also be recovering?” Mitsuri then spoke up in concern for her old mentor, who just responded by giving her his signature large smile, easily ignoring the slight pains in his chest from the broken ribs he sustained from fighting Upper moon 3. Truly, Recovery Breathing and the medical skills of the Kocho sisters are beyond incredible.

“I am fine Kanroji! Between the two of us, I was far less injured than Muichiro overall! And besides, I doubt I would be here if Shinobu and Kanae didn’t believe that it was okay for me to be here!” Kyojuro assured his friend and fellow Hashira, who smiled a bit in relief, all while the older swordsman was actually thankful for the loss of his left eye, as it allowed the Flame Hashira to more easily ignore the disapproving glare that he knew Shinobu was sending his way.

“I am happy to hear that you are all hear.” Hearing the calming voice of the master, the Hashira all turned around and kneeled before Kagaya as their sickly master was supported by his wife to arrive before the collection of swordsmen.

“And it is a pleasure to see that you are still well master!” Kyojuro was quick to speak and greet their Oyakata-Sama, who smiled in the Flame Hashira’s direction.

“Thank you Kyojuro. Are you doing well with your injuries though?” The Ubuyashiki head spoke as calmly as ever while lady Amane helped him sit down.

“Indeed! Though I must admit, my recovery came along a bit faster than anticipated according to Shinobu!” The Flame Hashira confirmed with a smile on his face still, but commented on the unusual part of why he was here, causing Shinobu to nod her head.

“It is true. It was actually quite similar to how Tokito and Tomioka healed faster than Mitsuri during their shared encounter with Upper moons 3 and 1.” The Insect Hashira confirmed and commented on the similar situation of the Mist and Water Hashira from a few months back.

“Wait, does that mean that you unlocked that Mark that they did Rengoku?” Tengen commented with some surprise in his voice as he looked at his best friend, who nodded his head. And soon after that action was done, the Hashira’s comrades began to quickly ask questions, but were almost instantly silenced by the soft clapping of Oyakata-Sama, quickly gaining everyone’s attention once again.

“I can understand that you all have questions you wish to ask Kyojuro with the little information we gained on that Mark last time. But for now, I think that it should be saved for later in this meeting.” Kagaya spoke calmly to his Hashira, and while a quick glance showed that Sanemi and Shinobu disagreed, they ultimately held back their tongues and nodded in acceptance to their leader’s words.

“Now then, Kyojuro, can you please inform us about what happened on yours and the others mission to the Mugen Train?” Oyakata-Sama then directly asked of the Flame Hashira, whose smile grew a bit wider as he nodded his head.

“I can actually agree about that. After all, where the fuck did the new Demon come from?” Sanemi then commented on the new addition to the Demons on the side of the Corps, earning surprised looks from everyone besides Rengoku, Shinobu, Kanae and the Ubuyashikis.

“So, they got another Demon. Tch, and I suppose they are being allowed to live.” Obanai mused while scoffing, to which Kyojuro frowned a little.

“Please don’t speak of young Yume negatively Obanai. Had it not been for his Blood Demon Art, myself, Muichiro and many of the injured civilians would at best, be in far worse condition than we are now.” Kyojuro spoke up and spoke to the man who grew up with him ever since his father brought that dual eye coloured man to the Corps so many years ago, who merely sighed and nodded his head, while Sanemi scowled at seeing another Hashira supporting the Demons now within their ranks.

“As for the report, I won’t be able to provide everything in regards to the battle with the Demon on the train, so you’ll have to ask for Muichiro’s side of things when he recovers. But upon getting onto the train, it wasn’t long before Muichiro and the Kanoto ranked Slayers consisted of Nezuko and Hanako Kamado, Aoi Kanzaki and Kanao Tsuyuri, as well as their Demon comrades in Tanjiro Kamado and Satoko Shizen arrived. Due to my instincts and their connection to the two, there was some initial tension, but it was clear that we would be able to put that aside and work together.” He then went on to explain the mission, but as he did so, Rengoku did hesitate a little, feeling a little ashamed as he remembered his next action.

“However, I quickly made an error in judgement. Turns out, the Demon that had silenced Slayers we previously sent to the Mugen Train was not only the Lower moon 1, but had manipulated a collection of humans. As a result, the conductor that was checking our tickets triggered the Lower moon’s Blood Demon Art on us and young Tanjiro realised this as it was happening, likely because of his instincts and his sense of smell. Shamefully, as he tried to swipe at the tickets, I mistook this as an attack and drew my blade, leading to us all getting caught within the spell.” After getting past the hesitation, Rengoku admitted to the shameful mistake, clearly taking every one of his fellow Hashira by surprise, but Oyakata-Sama merely nodded his head.

“Such a problem within those circumstances is to be expected Kyojuro. Besides, from what I can hear of your voice, it is clear that you regret your actions beyond practicality, so don’t let it consume you my child.” Kagaya spoke reassuringly to the swordsman, who smiled at the kind words of his leader.

“Got to agree there. Heck, while I get along with that Susamaru kid now, I can’t deny that there have been times where I go for my cleavers on instinct around her.” Tengen then spoke up and pat Rengoku on the back, causing Sanemi to growl.

“Are you fucking kidding me! How many of you idiots are befriending Demons now!?” The Wind Hashira growled out, but a single look from Kanae caused him to scowl and calm down.

“Thankfully though, Tanjiro was able to quickly snap out of the spell, which put all of us into a dream based on pleasant memories based on my experience. Muichiro was also able to find a way to break free as well, with myself and the rest being freed from the effects because my ticket was destroyed by the Demon Kamado and I took care of our comrades’ tickets.” Seeing that he could continue, Kyojuro continued on with the report of the mission, to which Shinobu raised a curious eyebrow.

“But what happened to the humans working for the Demon?” The poison user questioned with  a frown.

“All but one was instantly knocked out and restrained once we all awoke. The one that didn’t try to continue their attack was young Yume, who was consumed by despair because of his illness causing him great pain at all times.” The swordsman explained to her, and it was clear based on Kagaya’s sigh that due to his family’s curse, the head of the Ubuyashiki family could sympathise with the young lad’s circumstances.

“Wait, isn’t that the name of that new Demon!? That brat turned a human again!!” However, that did not last long as Sanemi yelled out in a rage and stood up.

“Shinazugawa, please calm down. Allow Rengoku to finish his report and then we can ask questions.” Gyomei spoke up with an authoritative tone, causing the younger Hashira to scowl before kneeling once more while apologising to Oyakata-Sama for his actions just now.

“But yes, he is. Tanjiro realised that he could help Paean by turning him and presented the offer. However, the decision was entirely young Yume’s own and he made use of his new abilities to keep the civilians out of the fight while healing the injured.” Once the stage was given to him once more, Kyojuro continued on with the report, causing quite a few reactions filled with confliction or outright disgust at the confirmation that this time, the Demon King that was currently at the Butterfly Estate turned someone consciously unlike what many have begrudgingly accepted about Satoko, even if the new Demon chose to be turned.

“Afterwards, Muichiro went to deal with the Lower moon while the remainer of us defend the civilians, as the Demon somehow combined with the whole train. At some point, he likely got young Tanjiro to help him find the new weak point while we successfully protected everyone. Sadly, I was put under the spell again while defending young Shizen so she wouldn’t drop her Blood Demon Art from defending everyone, and because I was still not used to fighting with a Demon, my body ended up striking against our comrades as much as it did against the Lower moon. Thankfully, she was sun resistant or she would not be with us right now despite young Nezuko defending her and my instincts didn’t endanger anyone else since Muichiro successfully killed the Demon soon after.” Rengoku informed them of that final part of the battle with the Lower moon battle, taking even the master by surprise at Kyojuro falling to the Blood Demon Art a 2^nd time, even if it was in defence of a comrade.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself for striking at the Demon girl. As you said, it was entirely because your instincts were in control.” Tengen told his fellow Hashira while planting a hand onto the shoulder of his friend, causing Rengoku to give the former shinobi a grateful smile.

“Thank you. But with the Lower moon dead, me, young Shizen and Nezuko were about to look for the others in the other train cars when Muichiro and Tanjiro were punched down to where we were, with the Kamado now incapacitated, due to Upper moon 3.” The Flame Hashira thanked his best friend before continuing on with the report, with the information of the 4^th most powerful Demon alive appearing on that mission causing them all to tense.

“Quickly into the encounter, Akaza, who is the Upper moon 3 that Tomioka and Muichiro told us about in the meeting after the trial, ended up kicking Tokito off of the train, leaving me and the others to defend the defenceless within tight spaced Train cars, with the innocent protected by barriers that created by young Shizen that the Upper moon could destroy with no effort. And sadly, this meant that there was no way for me to prevent there from being casualties to begin with, and I’m sure that the Kakushi have told you all about the loss of life.” Rengoku continued on, but as he reached the end, there was a moment of silence for those that perished amongst them all. Eventually though, Sanemi appeared like he needed to make a comment and he couldn’t hold his tongue for much longer.

“And I’m guessing that those Kamado brats and everyone else was deadweight.” The scarred swordsman said with a scoff, to which Rengoku shook his head negatively.

“That isn’t true. Without the help of young Nezuko, Tsuyuri and Kanzaki, I would have been dead long before Muichiro returned to help thanks to Akaza’s blows constantly making the train cars fly up into the air whenever he wanted. Especially when the eldest Kamado girl awakened to the same Mark that Muichiro and Tomioka have access to.” The Flame Hashira denied that idea before explaining things, with the last bit of information surprising his fellow Hashira,

“So that kid got an upgrade. Wonder if it has put her on our level with how much stronger it seemed to make Tokito and Tomioka.” Obanai noted while musing, causing Rengoku to smile.

“While Nezuko couldn’t use that Mark for long, I have no doubt that she can keep up with any of us in physical abilities. However, after she awoke to that power, the Upper moon struck the side of the train car we were in and it caused the whole thing to derail, but we thankfully came out of that unharmed and the injuries the innocent sustained were manageable for young Yume’s Blood Demon Art. With that, I had young Tsuyuri and Kanzaki search for young Shizen, Yume and Hanako to help the civilians while Nezuko and I fought the Upper moon as the strongest amongst our group. Sadly, her lack of experience with the Mark became apparent, as it quickly deactivated mid attack, but before she could be possibly killed, I awakened to it myself and saved my comrade. Soon after, Muichiro showed up and we fought against Akaza until he unleashed a technique that nearly killed us both and Tanjiro attacked. I don’t know what the young lad did, especially since he didn’t either, but it forced the Upper moon to run and from there, the mission ended and you know the aftermath.” Focusing back on the report, the pillar finished the report, causing his fellow Hashira to adopt their own thinking looks as they all thought over this information.

“I see… Kyojuro, do you know how you awakened to the Mark?” Oyakata-Sama asked of the young swordsman curiously, causing Rengoku to shake his head.

“Sadly no master. All I know was that in the middle of the fight, as I was desperate to protect my comrades, I suddenly felt like I could fight a hundred copies of myself and come out unscathed.” The now one-eyed swordsman apologised while shaking his head negatively, but then Mitsuri spoke up.

“Maybe it has something to do with Tanjiro? He was there when Giyu and Muichiro awoke there Marks and he was in the same area as Rengoku and Nezuko when they achieved it.” His former student suggested, causing Kanae to hum.

“It’s possible. Perhaps these Marks essentially make a human as close to a Demon as possible while not becoming one? After all, Giyu, Muichiro and now Rengoku quickly recovered from some serious injuries.” The Flower Hashira suggested, causing those amongst the Hashira were either still uneasy about their new Demonic comrades or outright hate them to scowl, likely preferring to not awaken to the Mark if that was the case. But if it was, to help protect others, Kyojuro knew that even Sanemi would bitterly swallow that pill, so long as he still remained human. Actually becoming a Demon or something that blurs the line between them would be too much, which did make the fellow elder brother wonder how the Shinazugawa reacted to Genya’s power.

“I think, it is now time to share some new information.” Kagaya mused to himself, drawing the attention of the Hashira.

“What do you mean Oyakata-Sama?” Gyomei questioned their leader, who merely nodded his head.

“You may explain to them dear.” The Ubuyashiki head told his wife, who nodded her head before then looking at the strongest of the Corps.

“After extensive research and digging up on old records, we have discovered that during the Golden era of the Demon Slayer Corps, all the way back in the Sengoku period, the same generation of swordsmen who nearly claimed the life of Muzan Kibutsuji with the aid of the first Breathing style, all manifested Marks similar to the Markings of a Demon.” Lady Amane informed them all, causing them all to widen their eyes in shock before some gazes drifted to Kyojuro, who despite his surprise, focused on a different detail.

“Didn’t my family’s records mention only a single user of the first Breathing?”

“To think that those old tales were true.” Shinobu muttered in shock, especially as she now began to process the fact that 3 amongst their ranks, and now a lower ranked Slayer, had access to a tool of the strongest era of the Corps.

“Question now is, why was the Mark hidden until now? Based on Tokito and Tomioka, having access to that power would be nothing but beneficial.” Tengen brought up, drawing everyone’s attention again.

“Because many have tormented themselves over why the Marks haven’t manifested on them to. That’s why.” The matriarch of the Ubuyashiki family answered before taking out a small, worn-down book from her kimono.

“Most of the details regarding the Marks are unclear. Perhaps the reason is that they didn’t consider it important at the time, or perhaps the information was lost in one of the many times that the Corps approached near destruction.” The woman explained before opening the book until she found a specific page in the book

“But the only clear records we have say this. ‘When the Marked one arrives, the Mark will appear on others around that person as if in resonance’. These are the words written down by one of the swordsmen of that era.” Lady Amane read from the book to the Hashira, allowing them all a moment to take this in.

“But I’m confused now. If we needed to wait for some kind of Marked one, then how did Tokito and Tomioka awaken them and now Rengoku?” Obanai spoke up and questioned in confusion, causing Kagaya to sigh sadly and drew attention to him.

“During our search for the Marks, we found old records of a Slayer that betrayed the Corps and became a Demon, with the little information we found fitting the description we have of Upper moon 1. And these records also predate to the Sengoku era.” Kagaya informed the gathered Slayers, and Kyojuro didn’t need to look around to know feelings of his comrades, because he was sure they all felt the same things on this matter. From anger, disbelief, horror, betrayal, and shock, all at the news that a Demon Slayer from the Sengoku era, the generation that previous generations tried to mould themselves after, had betrayed the Corps and become the 2^nd most powerful Demon in history.

“And if the Upper moon 1, the apparent ancestor of Tokito, really is from the Sengoku period, then he would be a Marked one. As a result, being around him and surviving allowed Tomioka and Tokito to manifest their own Marks and being around Tokito while reaching certain conditions likely spread it to Kyojuro and the Kamado girl as well against Upper 3.” Gyomei said to get the facts together, getting them all to nod.

“So all we need to do is apparently be in a tough fight around someone that has that power? Just sees to simple.” Sanemi scowled out as they all took in the information fully.

“Maybe, but currently it seems to be a boon for us. Right now, awakening to it should be our top priority.” Shinobu said, getting everyone to agree before Mitsuri gasped in horror, drawing attention to herself.

“Wait, didn’t Giyu and Muichiro say that the Upper moon 1 told them that awakening to it would kill them at 25!? If he really came from that era, do you think he was actually telling the truth there!?” The Love Hashira questioned in worry, to which Amane spoke up in response.

“I’m afraid so. No matter the source we dug up from the records of that era, each one supports the idea that the Mark will kill those who awaken it at the age of 25, assuming they live to that point to begin with. And this is something that will happen without exception.” She informed the Hashira, who widened their eyes in horror and Kyojuro could feel his comrades’ gazes on his back. But he barely registered this fact as he took in his apparent fate.

He didn’t regret awakening this power since it allowed him to defend the others from Upper moon 3 and will still protect others with his enhanced physical power. But the facts that made it stung was that awakening it wasn’t an active choice for him and that he now had a little over 4 years left of his life, assuming it wasn’t cut short even more. That meant that he may not even be able to see Senjuro as a young adult for more than a few months, depending on if it would kill him on his birthday or not.

And what was worse is that Nezuko and Muichiro, two children forced by circumstances into this war, were now victims of the fate Kyojuro now shares with them.

“I can understand that this information is a lot to take in, my children. As a result, I shall end this meeting now for you all to have the time to think things over and calm down. And do not worry, I shall bear the responsibility of telling Giyu and Muichiro of this news and they will explain this to Nezuko.” Oyakata-Sama informed the Hashira before lady Amane helped him to his feet and walk him back into the building, leaving the strongest swordsmen of the Corps alone.

“To think that something so flamboyant would come at such a cost.” Tengen said with a low growl at the disadvantage of what would otherwise be a great boon.

“I see…. But in that case… what about me? Dammit!” Gyomei growled in frustration, gaining understanding looks from everyone. After all, who know what the Mark would do to the 27-year-old man if he gained it.

“I shall get going. I would like to spend some time with my family for a bit, and since my family has records since the end of the Heian era, I might be able to dig something up.” Rengoku told the others as he stood up, gaining understanding looks and nods of acknowledgement as he left.

And while things were a bit uncertain… there was no doubt about it. Rengoku will still fight for the weak, with his heart still set ablaze like always!

???’s perspective

Location: Infinity Castle

*BING*

“What…?” Rui spoke in surprise as he finished adjusting his kimono after killing a couple of Slayers, looking around and finding himself in the Infinity Castle, a place he quickly became familiar with only a few months ago despite being brought here before the Lower moon meeting.

“I see. So an Upper moon has been slain. They are truly a disappointment despite having Muzan-Sama’s blood.” The Spider Demon mused as he saw a female Demon using her Obi sashes to manoeuvre about the area, before looking up and raising his hands to send his threads to two large buildings before walking back a bit.

And as the Demon finished walking back and the threads launched him up into the air, Rui’s hair moved away from his eyes to reveal his new rank…

Upper rank 5