Ascend The Multiverse|多元宇宙を昇る [Kny x Black!Reader x Countryhumans]

Twenty Eight| 二十八

Where Tanjiro returns, Urokodaki gets a surprise visit and you leave

A/N: Finally! The Final Selection arc is coming to an end. Unfortunately for Tanjiro and Nezuko, you will be leaving with Kokushibou so that they get experience in the demon slaying field. Meanwhile, some unexpected guests show up at Urokodaki's doorstep. English and Swahili are in italics.

Or

I write a heck-long of a chapter in order to close an arc.

Enjoy.

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One week had passed, but it felt like months to Tanjiro.

He wobbled on his stick which he used for support while walking down the dirt road. The blue coloured kimono with white clouds was extremely dirty from all the demon slaying and surviving he had to do in Mount Fujikasane. Panting heavily, he really wanted to sit down and sleep on the road but that would only delay his return.

The two pieces of his warding mask had been tucked inside his white slingbag hanging across his chest. Unfortunately, it had broken when he encountered a rather hostile demon during the last day of the Final Selection. It was not that bad; only the top left corner had completely broken off. Still, he felt guilty to break the warding mask carved by his cultivator Urokodaki.

Luckily, he did not get that badly hurt during the event and used his survival instincts to live through the seven days. Though it was rather disheartening that out of all the potential demon slayers he had seen, only himself and four others lived. Five if he had been able to catch a shirtless guy with a boar head for a mask.

Minus the minor altercation between an aggressive looking man with a buzz cut and a messy clump of black hair attacking one of the young twins of the event, Tanjiro could confidently conclude there were no other issues with the Final Selection. Now his main focus was to return back to Urokodaki's cabin and wait for Nezuko to wake up with the help of Sakonji, [Name] and Uppermoon-san.

'I was so naïve. None of the demons were even in a state to be able to talk. All they did was try and attack me right away.' He remembered how he had been asking demons for any information but ending up to kill them once he realised after a while that their mindless hostility made them incapable of reasoning. 'Sorry Nezuko. I never got to ask them how to turn a demon back into a human.' A brief memory of his dear sister as a human appeared and disappeared in his mind, her eyes and kind smile the most memorable part.

His elongated shadow trailed beside him as he walked, the warm setting sun shining from his left. Mount Sagiri appeared to be so near yet so far. He estimated to arrive in the late evening if he was fast enough. But what Tanjiro really needed was a bath and a nice rest on a futon instead of the rough branches of trees he had endured for seven days.

𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛...

Tanjiro had finally arrived in the familiar environment in the secluded area. Due to his exhaustion and hunger, he had collapsed twice along the road leading to Mount Sagiri where Sakonji resided with [Name] and Uppermoon-san living in another house in a nearby hill. From the distance, he saw the glimmer of light inside the cabin from the closed windows and stood a bit to catch his breath.

'I made it. Nezuko...Urokodaki-sensei...[Name]...Uppermoon-san...'

Suddenly, the door was kicked down which startled him. He could see someone stepping out. At first he assumed it was [Name] before a familiar flowery scent of a loved one forced him to stop in his tracks. His eyes widened when the figure of his elder sister walked out of the cabin casually, focused ahead at nothing. "N-Nezuko...?"