Chapter Text
The wind sings serenely as it flows gently through the trees, ruffling Tanjiro’s hair as he descends the mountain, another demon successfully slain.
He hums a slow tune his mother sang to him as a child as he walks, the crunch of fallen autumn leaves under his feet as he walks. Nezuko shifts inside her box, causing Tanjiro to pause.
“Nezuko? Did you want to come out and walk with me?” he asks, waiting patiently for her to respond. He waits a few heartbeats, and hears the door to her box creak open slowly, then shut as she grows to her full size, grinning at him as she joins his side.
They continue their journey, keeping an eye on the sky as they head east back toward Headquarters. Tanjiro’s mind wanders, going over the battle he just fought moments ago against a demon that had been terrorizing a local bath house.
His nose crinkles in disgust as he thinks about all the poor people who were tormented by the perverted demon, preying on them in a most vulnerable state. Truthfully it hadn’t been a difficult demon to kill; any one of the lower ranks could have taken it out. Tanjiro must have simply been the only one low enough and close enough to handle it.
Tanjiro had been training with Zenitsu and Inosuke when his crow announced his new task, and he set out immediately. Inosuke had insisted on joining with his usual competitive streak, but his own set of orders were given to go to the south and take out a demon near his old mountain. Zenitsu had been left alone, much to his unbridled joy.
As reported, the demon had been hiding in a bath house at the top of an eastern mountain. An ugly creature with greasy seaweed green hair and fish scales the color of akebi.
Tanjiro’s nose immediately shrivels as he gets close to the bath house, keeping a watchful eye on the woods around him as he enters the building, the stench of the demon getting worse each step he takes.
He follows the stench of rotting flesh and fish to the back of the house, zeroing in on the skinny, bent over creature. Noticing Tanjiro’s entrance, it turns, slowly rising to its full height, sneering at him as it edges closer.
“Look at what we have here. Another pitiful demon hunter come to my doorstep, delivering themselves to me on a silver platter. What an honor it is.” it says, giving a mocking bow as it gnashes its teeth.
Tanjiro tilts his head, confused. “What makes you think I’m the pitiful one here?”
Before the demon can respond, Tanjiro darts forward in a burst of speed, slicing cleanly through the demon’s neck like butter.
Turning, he watches as the demon rages, slowly turning to ash as it screeches about how unfair a move that was, and how it barely had time to ready itself for the attack.
Tanjiro sighs, shaking his head as he begins walking through the bath house, checking for bodies that need burying. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it, he finds nothing.
Making his way out of the building and back down the trail, he wonders briefly if he should take the scenic route or the faster route home, not quite in a rush to return, but also desiring a hot bath and the comfort of his friends.
Tanjiro startles back to himself, a familiar scent attacking his nose suddenly, and he draws his sword, making Nezuko jump in confusion. “B-brother?” she asks haltingly, still not quite used to speaking aloud.
“Nezuko, get behind me, something else is-” he begins, his sentence breaking off as the source of the smell suddenly appears in front of him. Tanjiro’s blood turns to ice as he recognizes the demon as the one who killed Rengoku.
“Akaza.” he grinds out, glaring at the creature in front of him.
Akaza grins, pleased. “Well well well. Look who I found. Long time no see. I’ve been looking for you. I’m surprised a weakling like you has survived this long.”
Tanjiro’s crow flies above them, torn whether he should immediately go for help or wait for the boy to fight. He’s been training hard the last two years; all he needs is to win this fight and he becomes the newest Hashira.
“We were all weaklings once.” Tanjiro spits, holding his katana out in front of him, readying himself for the inevitable. He will end Akaza here tonight. Death is not an option. Not if he’s still to turn Nezuko human.
“Weaklings make me sick.” Akaza purrs, grinning at Tanjiro. “It is the law of nature that they be weeded out.”
“You may not remember, but when you were a baby, someone once helped and protected you as well. Which means you were once a weakling as well. The strong protect the weak. When the weak get stronger and help those weaker than themselves, that is the law of nature!” Tanjiro shouts, stepping forward into a kneel, readying his body for Zenitsu’s Thunderclap and Flash technique.
With a burst of speed that cracks the earth beneath him, Tanjiro cleaves through the space between them, raising his sword. “Hinokami Kagura, firewheel!” he shouts, jumping at the last second to swing his body into a spin, cutting off Akaza’s arm before the demon can take a step.
There. As long as he can cut off his arm, he can cut off his head, Tanjiro thinks, landing in a crouch behind the demon. Before he can stand, Akaza is suddenly in front of him, his leg kicking outward, foot aimed for his face.
“Hinokami Kagura, mock sun rainbow!” Tanjiro shouts, jumping out of the way in the blink of an eye, jumping over Akaza with a burst of flames, landing neatly on the other side.
Akaza blinks, blood suddenly flowing down his face at the slash Tanjiro had managed to land. Words Rengoku had spoken all those years ago suddenly ring through the demon’s head. “This boy is not weak. Do not insult him.”
Akaza bursts into laughter, bent over at the waist. “Indeed! You certainly aren’t weak. You’ve earned my respect!” he shouts gleefully, jumping into a fighting stance.
“Technique Development!” Akaza cries, summoning his compass needle. “Let us begin our little reunion!”
He shoots toward Tanjiro, fist aimed for his stomach. Tanjiro sucks in a breath, jumping to the left just before his fist could land. Akaza flits after him, aiming for Tanjiro’s own neck only to be blocked by the blade.
They are a blur of movement, sudden bursts of flames from Tanjiro’s and sparks as Akaza’s fist collides with his blade. Tanjiro curses, dropping to the ground with a swift kick, aiming to sweep Akaza’s feet out from under him, only for the demon to jump and avoid it, backflipping into his fighting stance, a wicked grin on his face.
“My, my! You’ve certainly gained some skill these few years we’ve been apart. Perhaps I should offer you the same deal I offered Rengoku! Join us as a demon, Tanjiro Kamado. You’d certainly be a formidable demon. Perhaps with some hard work you could become an upper moon like myself!” the demon cries, arms spread wide in invitation.
Tanjiro spits, leaning into a crouch. “You’re insane if you think I’d ever made a deal with a demon. Upper three, at that. What a joke.” He shoots forward, blade aimed for the neck, only for Akaza to deflect the hit and aim one of his own with his foot. Tanjiro jumps backward, but feels the force of the hit graze his torso and falls into crouch.
Akaza doesn’t give him a chance to recover and darts forward, fist pulled back to strike, but suddenly the air is full of pink flames, and Tanjiro watches as if in slow motion as Nezuko’s foot connects with Akaza’s head, kicking the demon away.
It’s not enough to decapitate the demon, but it stuns Akaza momentarily as he backflips away a few paces, frowning at the intrusion. “Well, I hadn’t expected another demon to be working for the slayers. Who are you, girl? Why are you helping this child?”
Nezuko frowns at the man, standing in front of her brother as Tanjiro gets back onto his feet.
Apparently incensed at being ignored, Akaza flies toward them, fist aimed at Nezuko’s head as he shouts, “I asked you your name, girl!”
Tanjiro sweeps her to the side, swinging his sword forward. “Hinokami Kagura, sunflower thrust!” Akaza dodges to the right, and lands a kick at Nezuko, sending her flying backward into the trunk of a tree. She lands with a grunt, struggling to her feet to rejoin her brother.
“Nezuko!” Tanjiro shouts, turning slightly to check on his sister, only to find Akaza’s face suddenly inches from his own. “Oh, so her name is Nezuko, is it? Who is she to you? Lover? Sister? Friend?”
“Hinokami Kagura, burning bones, summer sun!” Tanjiro shouts, shooting toward the demon. Akaza meets him head on and they impact, sending Tanjiro sailing backwards, crashing to the ground with an “oomf!”
“Nice moves.” Akaza hums. “You’ve trained well to reach this level. My compliments. All things considered, Kyojuro did good work. That night when you were just rolling on the ground you were a total weakling. Nothing more than a weed.” His arms sweep outward. “But look at you now! Your growth is stunning!”
His hip cocks as he places a hand on his hip. “I’m glad Kyojuro died that night. He might not have been able to grow any stronger, because his worthless values made him want to stay human.”
Tanjiro feels his blood boil, staring at the demon. Rengoku’s face flashes in his mind, spurring the boy into a rage. “What did you say? You- you don’t say another word. Don’t talk about Rengoku!”
“Why? I’m praising him. You and Kyojuro.”
“No, you’re just casting insults. You only spit on everyone.” Tanjiro growls, getting to his feet.
“You misunderstand, Tanjiro. I only despise the weak. I only spit on weaklings..”
Tanjiro grunts, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “Again with the talk of weaklings. I can’t forgive your way of thinking. Your days of doing whatever you want are over!”
Akaza’s eye twitches and he doesn’t move. Tanjiro watches in bemusement, wondering why the demon has suddenly fallen silent. He’s glaring at Tanjiro like an insect, some sort of internal battle brewing behind his eyes. Taking the opportunity while the demon is distracted, Tanjiro moves to engage, only to stumble suddenly as Akaza strikes to his left, hitting nothing but thin air.
They both stare at the empty space beside Akaza, Tanjiro utterly confused. Akaza turns his head to glare at Tanjiro, and growls, “Tanjiro, you really are unpleasant.” With that, he jumps at Tanjiro. “Destructive death, crushing type!”
Tanjiro flings himself backward, flashing through the air as they meet strike against strike, another blur of flames and sparks.
He’s incredibly fast! Tanjiro thinks, panting as they face down each other. No, not just fast… this feeling, this accuracy… it’s-
He has no time to finish his thought as Akaza suddenly strikes from below. “Destructive Death, leg type, flying planet, thousand wheels!”
Tanjiro leaps to the right but the blow still hits, and he coughs out a mouthful of blood as he wheels around to face Akaza. Even if he manages to predict his moves and block his attacks, his power is too amazing. He can’t seem to reduce the damage. His technique has unparalleled precision, it’s like a magnet pulling him toward all of Tanjiro’s vitals. There must be a reason. Something from what he’s done or said in the past… think!
Akaza’s leg shoots outward in an arc toward Tanjiro, and the boy sweeps out of reach. “Hinokami Kagura, solar heat haze!”
His blade swings downward toward Akaza’s neck, wobbling as it seems to elongate longer to reach the demon’s skin. Akaza dodges just in time, watching as Tanjiro lands into a crouch. Akaza’s throat spurts blood and he laughs maniacly.
“Ha! How’d you do that? I was sure I dodged that! It looked like the blade of your sword got longer! Interesting technique!”
Ignoring the demon, Tanjiro swings his blade forward with another cry. “Hinokami Kagura, dance!”
Akaza’s hands snap up and slap together on Tanjiro’s blade, stopping it in its tracks. Tanjiro struggles to free it, rearing his head back and snapping it forward to headbutt the demon, to no avail.
“Good headbutt!” the demon cries, grinning at the boy’s struggle. Even with a kick to his chin, the demon doesn’t let go. Tanjiro is on the edge of panicking, when pink flames erupt around them, causing the demon to let go with a shout, the flames burning his skin.
With a growl, Akaza wheels to face Nezuko, who’s grown herself into her demon form, red vines snaking over her skin and her single horn sticking out of her head proudly.
“You brat! I’ll cut you down myself and give you to the master as punishment for your treachery!” Akaza shouts, shooting toward Nezuko.
Tanjiro watches as his sister shoots forward, meeting Akaza in the middle with a boom, pink flames exploding around them as they grapple. Akaza’s fist collides with Nezuko’s waist, but not before her leg connects with his sternum, and they both go flying in separate directions.
Tanjiro shouts for his sister, sprinting toward them as the demons regain their feet, once again meeting in the middle with an explosion of pink flames and powerful strikes.
With the last two years of developing her own demonic skills going up against demons with her brother on missions, Nezuko has increased her speed and strength tenfold to what she had been when they went up against Daki.
Tanjiro watches them battle, racking his brain for a reason why the demon is so accurate with his hits. How he could possibly know each time where to hit and where a hit is coming from.
A flash behind his eyes and he remembers a comment the demon made years ago. “You have developed your fighting spirit to the domain of supremacy”. That’s what he had told Rengoku. Another conversation drifts through his memory, this time with Inosuke.
They had been discussing how Inosuke always knew where a hit was coming from, and he had told them it was a “tingle”. He had said their intent, whether to kill or not, seemed to tingle on his skin where the hit was directed. However, he had said if someone had no intention of harming him at all, it was harder to tell where that person would appear. That’s how the old lady at the inn kept sneaking up on Inosuke. She had no intention whatsoever of hurting the boy.
Is that what Akaza is doing? Reading their intent to kill, thus reading where the attack will hit? Like how he can predict moves by smell… is there a way to throw off his compass?
He comes back to himself as Akaza lands another hit on his sister, throwing her back. He springs forward, aiming a blow of his own, only for his blade to be caught by the demon. Akaza sneers, whipping his arm outward, aimed for Tanjiro’s waist, only to be knocked backward, releasing his blade as Nezuko’s foot slams into his chest, sending him flying backward several feet.
Suddenly everything clicks. A conversation ages ago between him and his father as they sat together, discussing his father’s Hinokami Kagura dance. He had told young Tanjiro about the changes his body would go through as he learned the dance, and mentioned something called the Transparent World, and how he would only be able to enter it when his body is at its absolute limit.
His memory kicks forward to just before his father died, and he remembered watching his father stand against a large bear, his scent never changing, even when he’s forced to chop its head off. His scent was calm and even the entire time.
At the time, he had only been focused on his father and how he had just gone up against a huge bear without a scratch. His childish fear had overwhelmed him that day, but now he thinks he understands what he was getting at.
Just how his father was able to keep his emotions calm and collected while taking down the bear, despite being the weaker of the two, Tanjiro can now turn off his fighting spirit and appear as calm as a tree to avoid Akaza’s hits.
Suddenly Tanjiro is staring at a slow motion view of Akaza and Nezuko, and he can see through them. He stares in awe as he looks through Akaza’s body, observing his muscles and heart and brain. This was how he had taken down Hantengu all those years ago, when he found the demon hiding in his heart.
Now, with the ability to enter the transparent world, Tanjiro can move faster and more accurately detect where Akaza’s hits are coming from, and also attack without the other reading where his own attacks will land.
Nezuko’s flame powered fist connects with Akaza’s face, but it’s no good as his own fist punches into Nezuko’s chest, throwing her a few hundred feet. Tanjiro shouts for her, panicked when she doesn’t immediately move.
He fights to stamp out his anger, desperately trying to turn off his fighting spirit again while Akaza is still distracted, willing his body to calm.
Just as Akaza leans into a crouch to go after his sister, Tanjiro sprints toward him, his blade aimed for his feet. Without hesitation, the blade swings through the demon’s legs, knocking him forward, throwing him off of the attack.
Akaza’s feet reappear and he twists around in alarm, staring at the boy with surprise. He hadn’t even realized Tanjiro had been on the move for the attack. He does a double take and looks closer at the boy, looking into his eyes. This boy… he seems as though he’s completely invisible, absolutely devoid of all emotion. Every fiber of his being is screaming at him to end this boy here and now.
“Okay, no more playing around.” Akaza says grimly, dropping into his fighting stance. Tanjiro watches him approach in slow motion, watching as he approaches, but he can see every muscle, every nerve, every vessel.
Internally, Akaza is panicking, not picking up a whiff of Tanjiro’s fighting spirit at all. As if he’s attacking thin air. Meanwhile, Tanjiro is moving in slow motion as Akaza’s fist swings outward in an arc. Tanjiro easily drops, dodging the attack, and swings his blade upward, catching the demon by surprise, slicing cleanly through his neck.
Akaza stares into space in complete and utter shock for a few heartbeats, then his hands shoot up, catching his head, moving to put it back on his shoulders. Before Tanjiro can move, a thin, long dagger bursts through Akaza’s forehead, throwing it out of reach of the demon.
Tanjiro watches in astonished relief as the head begins to disintegrate, but something isn’t quite right. The body is still moving, not turning to ash at all. Tanjiro and Nezuko watch in grim bemusement as the body stands there, then Tanjiro shouts in alarm as the neck begins to grow outward. “He’s regenerating his head!” Tanjiro shouts at Nezuko, jumping to his feet, regardless of how heavy his limbs have become.
The body drops into the signature fighting stance, chopping forward with blinding speed, missing Tanjiro with his fist but kicking the boy with his foot, sending him sprawling to the right.
Tanjiro watches in alarm as Akaza’s scent begins to change, and he realizes that the demon is changing his form to adjust to the decapitation, trying to make his weakness something other than decapitation.
Tanjiro’s body floats for a beat, and he realizes he’s losing consciousness. His head falls to the grass, the world turning dark.
Nezuko shouts in alarm, darting toward his brother to stand in front of him like she did the very first day. “My brother!” She shouts. “You will not harm!”
Tanjiro comes to just as Akaza moves to attack, and opens his eyes just in time to watch his arm be tugged backward by- nothing?
Akaza’s body freezes, standing there in the field, half pointed toward his sister and himself, half pulled away from them.
They watch as the demon seems to grapple internally, his head beginning to slowly start to regenerate. Tanjiro struggles to his feet, Nezuko helping him up as she keeps one eye on the frozen demon.
The body seems to decide, darting toward Nezuko. Tanjiro swings his blade forward, only for it to fly from his hand, his grip unable to close around the handle. Instead, he swings his own fist forward, slamming it into Akaza’s face.
He can see the buildup from Akaza, realizing he’s about to use his Annihilation Technique he used on Rengoku, and grips his sister by the waist, swinging her around and shielding her body as Akaza attacks, just barely catching the smile that flits across the demon’s face.
An echoing boom rocks the land around them, and Tanjiro feels his body knocked forward, the blast agony against his back.
Tanjiro looks back, astonished to see the demon’s body torn apart. He did it to himself? But why? For a moment, the scent of gratitude had come from the demon, but Tanjiro has no idea what caused it to happen. Something when he had been decapitated happened, causing him to change his tune.
His body begins to regenerate, and Tanjiro prepares himself for another fight, but the body suddenly drops to its knees, and the regeneration stops. Ever so slowly, the body begins to disintegrate.
He had won. Tanjiro had defeated Upper Moon Three.
Nezuko gasps, looking off into the distance. Tanjiro notices one second after and ushers her into her box, closing the door just as the sun’s first rays peek over the horizon.
Tanjiro drops to his knees, heaving against the onslaught of pain, his body overworked and suddenly exhausted. He leans forward, forehead touching the grass, and suddenly he hears someone shouting his name.
He looks up in time to see Muichiro sprinting toward him, fear and worry evident on the normally straight faced hashira. He skids to a halt on his knees in front of Tanjiro, his hands dancing in the air as he takes in his friend.
“What happened? All we were able to get out of your crow was that you were in trouble and to hurry before it flew away!” he says, helping Tanjiro remove the box from his back so he can lay down, resting his head in the hashira’s lap, uncaring for the moment about status. They’d become close these last two years, so it’s nothing new anyway.
“Your timing is abysmal.” Tanjiro jokes, coughing up a mouthful of blood, causing his friend’s eyes to pop out of his head, head twisting in fury as he wonders where the hell the kakushi were.
“Tanjiro, what happened? The demon you were sent after was a low level, why does it look like you were attacked by twenty of them?” Muichiro asks, his hands probing the elder’s chest, checking for breaks.
“Upper three.” Tanjiro chokes out, his head lolling to the side as he looks up at his friend, smiling at the sight of him. “You are a sight for sore eyes, though.” he slurs, his hand weakly covering his friends, then the world goes dark.