Chapter Text
The slit of the moon lit the night, glaring down from where it hung above the horizon. Akaza revelled in its glow, enjoying how fast he could glide through the both the light and the shadows it cast alike. There had been none of this when Muzan had been alive. Only after he had been freed from the old Demon Kings constant influence had he been able to experience the simple pleasures of life once again.
He found himself enjoying these small freedoms more and more as each day passed. Somehow, his life had gained a rich quality it had decidedly lacked when he had served Muzan. It made him question how well the old demon king had ruled. Surely that had to have been a better way that the fear Muzan had used to keep them all in line. Most of the morons he had to work with had been too paralysed to ever perform truly good work, but then again, Akaza would have struggled to put them to work on anything useful.
Akaza had only taken on two Kizuki himself, despite knowing other progenitors had gathered large crowd's to their banners. Personally, he found himself entranced with the two that he had chosen, and had little want to bring in any more. They almost seemed like one soul in two bodies, with the way they fought as one.
It didn't happen often. Certainly not every time they drew blades. But, sometimes, when they were pushed to the absolute limit, something magical would happen. It would be an all consuming and deadly change and while using it, the two were able to defeat nearly every foe they came across.
Nearly, however, wasn't what Akaza was after. No, he needed them to be better. He'd seen the power of the current Hashira, and they all seemed to draw power from a mark only those who had mastered the breaths could use. The only fight in recent memory Akaza had fled from had been one such wielder of a mark, against a thunder breather, who’d moved with a speed that could eclipse lighting. The thought of him still made Akaza’s flesh boil in rage.
But his two servants didn't seem able to use the power, and that frustrated Akaza greatly. Not knowing the criteria for bringing forth the power it made it impossible to bring about the change in his moons. As a state of affairs, that could not be allowed to continue.
Landing with silent, catlike grace, Akaza observed the confrontation occurring. His two Kizuki were doing well, having already killed two demon slayers each, but there were still two remaining standing that might be more trouble. Interestingly, one of them had the mark he was looking for.
A brash, arrogant looking youth. Lightning mapped across his face in a cruel trail, and it seemed to spark under Akaza’s enhanced vision. He watched as the boy pushed his companion aside, before unleashing a beautiful attack towards his two moons. The yellow glow of his fighting spirit lit up the night in a blinding flash as he shot forward, slicing vertically upwards and into the meat of Sabito’s chest.
Interesting, that this foe had so quickly diagnosed the flaw in the pair's dependent fighting style. Yet more work that Akaza would need to do in order to make sure his servants were as strong as possible. He would need them to be ready to face the others, and soon. Kokushibo kept rising in power as each day passed.
Giyu didn’t hesitate to move forward, into the gap the attack against Sabito had caused, but he lacked the aggressive tendencies of his other half. He lacked Sabito’s instinctive ability to force his opponent into an disadvantageous position, and was also hampered by fighting with an ill fitting, stolen blade. Both this, and worry for his fallen companion robbed him of his usual grace and power.
The thunder breather shot backwards, away from the onrushing demon, before flying back in with deadly speed. In a matter of seconds, the boy had landed five slices deep into Giyu. He forced the demon to the ground, before flitting away and lining up for a final strike.
Akaza made to step in now; he could ill afford to loose his only two Kizuki at this stage. Before he could, a deep, rumbling voice cut across the night. All the hairs on Akaza’s arms stood upright in shock, as a mountain of a demon appeared in a rush of pink flames.
In his hands, he already held an axe and flail weapon. It seemed to have its own gravity, as he swung it menacingly in a lazy circle. The ground seemed to shift under this new demons presence alone, and the tremendous weight of authority he stepped with.
“Kaigaku!”
The voice held enough anguish to drown nations, and never before had Akaza felt so desperately longing for someone to call his name with such fervour. The cry was completely at odds with what Akaza saw, coming from a seven foot, muscle bound demonic frame, but something about the demon's face was deeply compassionate. A profound sadness shone out despite the lines of fresh blood carved into his face, which flowed down like rivers from eyes devoid of iris or pupil. His face was almost regal in bearing, and it was clear he could sense every presence nearby, despite only the Kanji to denote him as Waxing One shining out of his eyes.
The demon slayer turned to stare at the newcomer, his mouth agape at the sight of him. The silence stayed as the two looked at each other. The only noise breaking the silence was the second, blond, demon slayer who was crying in hurried sobs. The tension grew to thick as the pair continued to stare at each other, in enraptured awe.
The boy, Kaigaku, broke it first. “Mr. Himejima?”
“Yes.” The demon stepped in and stopped swinging the mace instantly. Although something of that mass should not be able to stop swinging so fast, it only took one revolution for it to become perfectly still in his hands. The strength implicit in the action was almost as threatening as the ease with which he had been swinging such a tremendous mace.
Akaza could hear Kaigaku swallow, even from the roof he was stood atop. “What happened to you?”
Waxing One knelt before the boy. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” Tears began to run down his face and drip onto the ground, taking on the appearance of blood that still ran from open wounds on his face.
This seemed to anger the boy, who angled his blade, ready to attack. “I saved myself. I didn’t need you help!”
“You were very brave, and I commend you for it. But I wish I could have aided you.” The voice was filled with such heartbreak and sorrow it tugged on Akaza’s heartstrings.
The boy spat back with fire in his voice. “What don’t you understand? I didn’t need you! I still don’t!”
The boys words hit Akaza with the force of blows. He felt his own anger begin to grow at the insolence of this child. How dare he turn away someone who had clearly worked so hard for him? Finally, he decided to take action himself.
With a crash, he landed inside the meeting. “Accept his apology, boy. He’s gracious to offer weak scum like yourself anything at all.”
The mace crashed through where Akaza had been standing an instant later, causing the demon to flip away from the blow. In another instant, the second strike nearly split him in two, but Giyu stepped in to defend his master. While unneeded, the action was appreciated. The ball was deflected and flew within a hairs width of the pair.
For his part, Sabito launched forward to attack this new threat. He made it a mere two steps before the weight settled in. In an instant, all the demons present felt as though someone had dropped the weight of the world on their shoulders. It pinned them in place - compressing the dirt into the ground as they struggled to keep knees from buckling.
It didn’t take long for Akaza to realise he wasn’t going to escape from the hold easily. “Why would you fight against us when there are Demon Slayers right there?”
The giant looked on at the three he pinned in place with even more tears running down his face. “Does it not hurt you to fight against innocents?”
Akaza grinned. “Innocents? Demon Slayers? I don’t know if you are up to date but…”
“These two are but boys. What could they have done?” The anger was starting to build inside the large man, showing in the ripple of muscles under his loose clothes.
It didn’t phase Akaza. “He’s from your original life, right? I know a little of how those fancy marks work, and something about that doesn't add up.”
The air went ice cold. “Who are you, Demon King?” The giant asked.
“I am Akaza, former Waxing Two to Lord Muzan. I can offer you freedom from your current master if you bow before me.”
“I am Gyomei, Waxing One to Lord Kamado. You would not be able to defeat me, left alone the one I serve.” His voice was ice cold, filled with the passion of someone who had been confronted with a truth he didn’t want to contemplate.
Akaza laughed. “How arrogant for a mere moon to think they stand a chance against me. I think I might teach you a lesson!”
With that, he deployed the first part of his blood demon art. The snowflake shone out, its ethereal blue mimicking the light of the moon as it shone down above them. What he saw took his breath away, as a number he had only seen from other Waxing Moon’s who served Muzan lit in his vision. Then, he understood within a moment that he was going to be unable to dominate this fight like he did so many others.
He watched as in his minds eye, images of Gyomei shot forward, around him. Like the reflections of a mirror inside a mirror, each one grew smaller as they moved away from what Akaza considered likely for his foe to do. In this state, he could perceive every link in the chain that linked his opponents weapon, and where every spike of the mace stood stuck deep into the ball of Nichirin. The world slowed, and broke down into an understanding of relative strength for Akaza - a state he only entered against the most dangerous foe’s.
Drawing on his immense demonic strength, Akaza shot forward like an arrow from a bow. While the weight on his shoulders may be great, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop a demon who had been training for more than two hundred years at this point. Within a moment, Akaza planned his course of action and leapt.
He pushed off from the ground in an arc that should have brought him soaring above his foe - the hardest kind of target to hit for a weapon like the mace - only to find his momentum inverted. While he had placed a tremendous amount of force in jumping upwards, in order to counteract the weight of whatever technique Gyomei was using, he hadn’t pushed much forward to prevent himself overshooting where he needed to land to run down the chain to strike.
Now that lack of forward momentum came to work against him. The mace flew out in a low circle, before shooting past Akaza’s feet. A tugging in his gut was all the warning he got, before he began to fall backwards through the air, and down towards the mace. In a moment, he understood how badly he had misjudged his foe, but Gyomei wasn’t finished yet. With strength that could have shattered mountains, the giant dragged the ball forward. The chain snapped taught before its momentum reversed through the air.
Akaza felt the same swooping in his stomach, and his momentum changed again. Gyomei hadn’t even moved yet, but still Akaza was being thrown around like a doll. A familiar fierce joy started to beat in his chest. As he flew, he struck out with several blows, causing shock waves to ripple out towards Gyomei. The effect dragging him forward ended as the mace swung up into a complex pattern to deflect all the blows in a row.
Taking the opening, Akaza flew forward, striking out with a reverse, rising axe kick. Gyomei finally stepped, but not back as Akaza had envisioned. Instead, he stepped in, dropping the axe half of his weapon and punching into Akaza’s leg as it fell. The bones and muscle cracked instantly under the strength of the blow, forcing him back. In the same instant, one handed, Gyomei manipulated the falling axe by the length of chain in his off hand to swing up and cut clean through his back leg.
The joy fell away into something closer to dread. There was only one other opponent he had ever faced who had moved with such speed and clarity in battle. It wasn’t a confrontation he liked to think on much. The images of Kokushibo standing over him with his blade drawn were interposed on the sight of Gyomei effortlessly swinging the axe back up into his hand. In a moment, Akaza regenerated his injuries and leapt back. Gyomei clearly followed his movement, but didn’t use whatever power was allowing him to move Akaza so freely to prevent his escape.
Sabito made to jump forward into the lull, from behind where Gyomei was facing. Without changing stance, or direction, the giant demon crashed the mace into the floor directly in front of the young Kizuki. The very ground shattered into a spiderwebs pattern, and the weight that had lapsed for just a moment reasserted itself.
“I would advise not trying to face me just yet, young one.” It was almost gentle, how Gyomei threatened the new demon.
Akaza scoffed. “You’re far too soft. Why aren’t you fighting properly?”
The answer wasn’t immediate. “Do you mean why didn’t I kill you when I had the chance? Because it wouldn’t be fair to these two. How can I judge them for your crimes, when I don’t even know what they are? My master, and my teacher, have taught me that it is my goal to prevent the loss of innocent life. Right now, they are both innocent, and under the sway of a progenitor, thus innocent of wrongdoing .”
“So you spare, and allow me to go on killing just to protect my Kizuki?”
“That is an apt way of putting it.”
“But they themselves have killed. They were Demon Slayers before I changed them. To protect them is completely illogical.”
“I am not my master. I cannot read you intentions, or your character. I can only buy time for him to arrive.”
Akaza scoffed. “What a good servant you are. Why don’t you claim his throne for yourself? You clearly have the strength!”
“No, I don’t. Nor would I want to.”
Gyomei opened his mouth to say more, but a flash of lightning cut him off. In an instant, the demon spun and intercepted the flying Kaigaku. Inside the space it took for Akaza to blink, the demon had wrapped the Demon Slayers blade inside of his chain, and dragged the point of his katana into the dirt. Strangely, the blow had been aimed for Akaza, and not the towering Gyomei.
Kaigaku scoffed. “You just proved yourself unworthy to live - protecting demon scum.”
Gyomei looked down at his lost child. “Why such scorn for one who has been forced down a path so similar to your own?”
“Similar to my own?”
“Forced to kill to survive. Where is your compassion? The boy I raised would have understood.”
“The boy you raised died long ago, monster. Probably at the same time you did.” He spat into Gyomei’s face, before tugging his blade free.
Gyomei stepped back, and dropped both ends of his mace. “I won’t fight you.”
The feral grin that overtook Kaigaku’s face distorted the youthful appearance into a visage of hatred and scorn. “Then let me put to rest the last remnant of my past!”
Akaza frowned as the boy began to slash and cut wildly. Despite being over seven feet in size, and broader than two men put together, Gyomei wove through the strikes with the grace of a dancer. The imprints of lightning rang out, becoming less and less stark against the ever lightening sky as dawn began its inexorable approach. Clapping both his hands, he ordered his two Kizuki to follow him, and fled into the fleeting darkness.
No sense being caught in the sun in order to watch a family matter, after all.
It was several weeks later that Akaza summoned his servants again. They needed time to hunt and recuperate the strength they had used to fight the group of Demon Slayers, and it got frustrating to have them underfoot. Eventually, however, Akaza decided that he needed to confront them about their performance, and called out to them to attend him.
The next night, the pair knelt before Akaza in the forest. He glared down at them, considering how best to deal with the threat Gyomei and the mysterious Lord Kamado presented.
Gyomei wasn’t under Kokushibo’s thrall. Instead, he served some master Akaza had never even heard off. Somehow, this was worse than if he was working for Kokushibo; at least he was a known quantity. He was the only other Kizuki who had set themselves up as a Demon King in Muzan’s absence. The other members of the Waxing Moons had sworn themselves to him, or vanished not long after Muzan died.
A small part of him wished for the old days, where demons all fought for the same master. Back then, there had only been one demon who was strong enough to stop Akaza in a direct fight. Now he had to fear attacks not only from Demon Slayers, but from other Demon courts as well. The situation was gradually becoming less and less sustainable. It took a lot for Akaza to fear confrontation with another foe, but whoever controlled Gyomei must be a monster in combat. Just keeping the giant under control would be past Akaza, and may even be past Kokushibo, if the pair ever met.
Shaking his head, Akaza returned to the problem in front of him. The duo were strong, and had taken weapons from the Water Breathers they had killed. But something was missing - they were still far too rigid in combat. There was none of the intuitive joy that made Akaza so dangerous to confront, despite that being one of the things he was sure he passed down to his creations.
It had taken a while to uncover that about himself. He had only made seven demons in his life, so far, and each one had been a skilled combatant before he had turned them. Even though he could train his demons to fight, he much preferred those who had gained skills while living as humans. Something about the struggle to better oneself while on such a tight time constraint bred a kind of tenacity the other demons he had worked with had sorely lacked.
Still, it was clear something needed to change in these two. And there was only one way to train the kind of reflexes and skill that he wanted, when he himself was unable to use Breath Styles.
Akaza leapt towards the kneeling Giyu, his foot aimed directly for his head. The demon reacted with impressive speed, parrying the blow with a half drawn katana, without even having chance to get to his feet.
Sabito, predicable, was on the attack in an instant. He slashed down towards the foot, attempting to sever the weapon so close to his lover. Unfortunately for him, Akaza was more than ready for the rash attack and had a counter planned.
The sweeping attack was knocked aside, cutting past Akaza and up above both of them.
It just characterised the pair perfectly, Akaza thought. Giyu reacted with skill and precision, but played second fiddle to Sabito due to his low self esteem.
Akaza would free him from this weakness.
Moving with blinding speed, Akaza flowed forward into Sabito’s open guard. He landed three blows, each of which would have been deadly to a human opponent. The strikes caused rippled shock waves to sound out behind Sabito’s body as he desperately tried to regenerate the burst and rupture organs, and shift his bones back into place. Pathetic.
Drawing back a fist to strike a debilitating blow, Akaza was amazed to find Giyu on the attack. The blade swung towards Akaza’s neck, forcing him to abandon his strikes against Sabito.
It was the work of only a moment to fend off the strikes, and return onto the attack. But against Giyu, Akaza found he couldn’t land hits. Somehow, though his blade didn’t seem to move, it was always in place to divert attacks and force the Demon King to defend from potential counter attacks. It was like he drew Akaza into his own world, where nothing existed for the pair but the rush of battle.
Then Sabito was there, using his own ultimate technique. Giyu dropped back to allow him space to move, as Sabito used Spring’s Riptide to pull Akaza into going to the false opening. This was one of a few planned manoeuvre the two used, as the effect of being transferred from Lull into Spring’s Riptide always disoriented foes. The transition from no fighting energy into the choppy wash that was being trapped inside of Sabito’s technique could be incredibly jarring.
Akaza didn’t seem affected, however, as he blocked each of the seven cuts at the end of the attack with precision and skill that mortal hands wouldn’t have been able to replicate. Each cut, even falling with the strength of an ocean, was stopped dead in the air. There wasn’t even the chance to use the recoil of being stopped dead to move into the next hit, as Akaza was perfectly timing his parries to leave the blade with no momentum. It was as precise as defence got, even amongst demons.
Seeing how their attack had failed, Giyu tried to step in. He moved to parry the return blow he saw Akaza wind up to strike with, but one stomp of Akaza’s feet shattered the ground and prevented him from making it in time. He staggered as he watched Akaza hit Sabito with a blow that would shatter rock, throwing him from the fight and crashing up against a tree with a sickening, wet crunch.
Giyu went to run to him, but Akaza stepped in with a punishing kick that buckled Giyu’s knee.
“You will watch as I show you what happens to weakness in my Kizuki.” The voice was devoid of the usual joy Akaza showed in combat, instead being cold and commanding. The chain between them - the chain of Demon King to subject - snapped taught, and forced Giyu to kneel and watch what his lord would do.
He grabbed Sabito by the robes, and smashed blow after blow into him. Blood splattered onto the ground, as Sabito desperately tired to regenerate from the barrage of strikes. No demon would be able to heal from such extensive damage quickly, however, and whatever progress he made was quickly undone.
The thuds followed by wet crunches continued as Akaza began to speak. “You are weak, and allowing that weakness to spread to your partner.”
Another blow landed, shattering Sabito’s jaw as he tried to form words.
“You will learn the price of weakness.” Another hammer blow, into the sternum. It shattered under the force of it, causing Sabito to vomit blood over onto Akaza’s arms.
The telltale snowflake of Akaza wielding his Blood Demon Art appeared, searing into the ground. The very air started to tremble as Akaza prepared to strike with his final attack - one that would sunder Sabito down to his very essence. It was very clear, Giyu realised, that Akaza was not going to allow Sabito to continue living after this.
The choked cry he let out caused the Demon King to look at him.
A strange sight filled Akaza’s vision. He stopped seeing Giyu, and instead the sight was replaced by that of a short haired youth. He had tears in his eyes, as he stared past where Akaza stood.
Following his gaze, Akaza saw an image of a beautiful young women laid on a futon. Her face was beaded with sweat, and creased in obvious pain. Something about the sight moved Akaza’s heart, and he felt a single tear escape his eye.
It ran down his face, and landed on the forest floor. The sensation snapped Akaza back into the present, as he looked at Giyu, kneeling and looking on at the beaten and battered Sabito.
Akaza dropped Sabito to the ground.
“You both have one year. Acquire the Demon Slayer Mark, or I will kill one of you. Do not disappoint me.” He turned and stalked away, release Giyu to rush to Sabito’s side.