The Good Demon [KNY]

Part 58: The Coward's Bitter End

The combined attacks of the four of them made Hantengu fly back. Unbeknownst to them, there was a dropoff ahead, and Hantengu, Tanjiro and Nezuko plummeted off the side of a cliff.

"Guys!!!" Genya yelled and stopped barely at the edge. Righty stopped for a different reason. He tripped amd crashed to the ground, he had overexerted himself by pumping so much energy into his axe.

Tanjiro slowly rose to his feet, staggering momentarily due to fatigue. He saw Hantengu running towards fleeing villagers, trying to eat them to heal his damage.

Tanjiro growled and ran forward, he had to do something, even if he was unarmed.

"TANJIRO!!!" Tanjiro heard someone call his name. It was Muichiro, up on the cliff. He was holding the blade of Yoriichi. "HERE!" Muichiro threw the sword, and Tanjiro caught it.

Using the last of his strength, Tanjiro ran forward and beheaded the demon. He watched its head roll to the floor... Tanjiro stood in place, catching his breath. His eyes widenned when he saw a glimmer on the horizon. The sun was coming up, and Nezuko was in the open!

Tanjiro ran towards Nezuko to warn her about the sun, but she ran towards him, farther into the open.

"NO NEZUKO, GO TO THE SHADE!!!" Tanjiro ran into her to drag her into the shade of a tree.

"Uuuuu! Uuuuu!!!" Nezuko grunted and pointed past him. There he was the body of Hantengu still running, it was not the original body he had killed. He began to turn to stop the demon, but he soon heard the sizzling of his own sister in the sun. He wailed amd held her close.

"Shrink, Nezuko!!! Get smaller!!!" He grew to hysterics. He was faced with the ultimatum of letting Hantengu live or letting Nezuko die.

"I can't carry her. I'll be too slow to catch up to Hantengu! He'll get to the villagers!" Tanjiro was frozen. He couldn't make a decision.

So Nezuko made it for him.

Nezuko kicked Tanjiro up in the air, sending him away from her and towards Hantengu.

Tanjiro's last sight of her was her smiling up at him, as she sizzled away in the sun.

Tanjiro landed on his feet with a mewfound will.

"Sniff him out. The real one." Tanjiro glared at Hantengu with tears in his eyes. Hantengu was closing in on the villagers. "Find the true body!" Tanjiro a feeling he had never felt before, and suddenly he could see through its clothes. Then through its skin, then through the flesh. He used this new sight to look deep into the body, past the bones and other organs, and into Hantengu's heart. Curled up there was the true body.

"There!" Tanjiro jumped high into the air and landed in front of Hantengu, shielding the villagers from him.

"ATONE FOR YOUR SINS!!! WITH YOUR LIFE!!!" Tanjiro roared and sliced Hantengu in half, distroying the origional body within in the process.

With that done, he fell to his knees and began to cry. He got the demon but sacrificed Nezuko in the process.

"Kamado-dono. Hey, Kamado-dono." One of the villagers he saved shook him. "Look." The villager pointed behind Tanjiro. Tanjiro turned around and froze.

Nezuko was alive. She was standing in the sunlight.

"M-Morning..." She said. It was her first word in years.

...

"WAH!!!" Righty jolted awake. "I blacked out, what happened!?" He looked around. And saw what happened. "Am I crazy or is Nezuko out in the sunlight?"