KNY Plot Rewrite

Chapter 25 - Strings

Rui uses she/her pronouns

*

"H—Help..."

The rot that seeped in between trunks and roots may have stained everything except smells that were closest, but the weak desperation the Slayers Tanjirou faced—their weak cries, the wet tear tracks down their cheeks—was palpable enough to make his stomach churn.

They attacked. A wide swing of a blade clipped the trunk above his head, and swung again, and again. It was aggressive and sloppy, the Slayers grimaces, winces, and cries paired with each movement. Mr. Murata was much more focused, but instead of slicing towards flesh, the brown blade soared above.

Snap. The smell of rot bursted. Mr. Murata leaped to and fro, slicing at nothing when more audible snapping occurred.

The allies crumbled to the ground.

"I figured it out!" He said, just as Tanjirou shoved one of his allies into a tree who folded like paper and slid down the trunk. "Mizunoto, can you see the strings attached to their limbs?"

Tanjirou's eyes flew open when he did in fact find a shining thread above the Slayer. The moment his blade snapped it in two, the Slayer fell face forward with a pained groan.

"Oh, yeah! The strings are controlling them, right?"

"Yep! Help me cut through them!"

Tanjirou leaped towards another bleeding ally, when his arm threw back and almost tore itself from its socket. White spiders crawled all over his sleeve, his nose wrinkling at the awful combination of vinegar and decay.

He cut through the thread and shook off the spiders, but they scuttled away before he could slice them apart. They ran towards the half-unconscious bodies, and the bodies immediately rose awkwardly, unnaturally. Chest first, then arms, then legs (like reanimated corpses from horror stories).

A draft of wind wafted by, smelling so terrible, Tanjirou shoved his hand over his nose and pinched it. The corpse-like stench was strong, almost as strong as Muzan's, and he couldn't track down the spiders anymore. The rot then fell down like a vinegar waterfall from the heavens, coming from a girl with white hair and a white kimono.

She floated—no, stood on top of threads glinting in the moonlight. Her uncovered eye looked down like a void, face as stony as a white mask. "Mother should be able to take care of all of you easily. I'm getting worried for no reason..."

Breath of Water: Water Wheel—

The child vanished, the threads under her bare feet snapping from Tanjirou's blade. With her, the overflowing, powerful decay. He landed, trying to track down the Demon's trail, but he was tugged back again. This time, his sword hand was first, his other hand scratched uselessly at his sleeve before it was taken too. The spiders kept crawling and crawling—

Breath of Earth: Eruption.

Mr. Murata leapt off a tree and swung up. It was powerful, like an exploding volcano, and all the threads may as well have burned to a crisp from the spouting lava.

"Come on! Get your head together, Mizunoto!"

"Sorry!" Tanjirou said, slicing through the spiders and cutting through the threads that kept taking over the allies. But the more they cut, the more spiders would crawl out and take over the fallen bodies. Mr. Murata grabbed the back of his haori and tugged him in the opposite direction. "Wh—"

"Clearly this isn't working. We need to change tactics—find the source of these spiders and threads." He said quickly.

"Oh, okay. That makes sense."

Tanjirou wasn't used to this. After years of having to take the mantle of leadership to help those he was supposed to protect, now someone else was the one making the calls; all he had to do was follow them.

Eight years was how long Mr. Murata spent slaying Demons, right? The difference between the two was so large...

(It was also nice not having to think of everything by himself for a change.)

Tanjirou skidded to a stop when metallic warmth wafted close by, cutting through the rot with its sharp tang. Mr. Murata also slowed to a stop, confused.

"What is it? Noticed something?"

"I... I smell blood. Over there." Tanjirou pointed to their left, but it only made Mr. Murata even more confused.

Another presence swept by from that direction and almost slashed his arm off had Mr. Murata not deflected it. The thing that attacked them slid to a stop and fell back, sobbing quietly. She wore the Demon Slayer uniform, and her blade was stuck straight through the chin of a decapitated head. Strings, thicker and whiter than the ones they've seen before, wrapped around her wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, and neck.

"Ozaki? Are you—" Mr. Murata cautiously stepped towards Ozaki, but she shrieked when her blade immediately raised to defend herself.

"No! No, Murata! Don't come closer! I'll—I'll kill you if you do! Please!"