"shinazugawa, stitch up your stomach. I'll send him off while you do that."
Gyomei said. His voice was serious. It sort of frightened the wind pillar.
"Sure. Sorry about that."
The demon could see the pillars muscles, bones, and everything.
Outstanding.. his body has been refined to it's utmost limits. It's been three hundred years... Since I've found someone like this... The air. As he prepares to fight. It's drawn towards him.
An interesting fight this will be.
Shit. Where is everyone?!
I looked around, i couldn't see anyone.
Okay (y/n).. don't lose hope. You can do this! You just have to listen out for someone.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"ahh"
"That's it."
I ran in the direction that I heard the scream. Only to find misturi and obanai fighting a demon.
"ARE YOU GUYS OKAY? DO YOU NEED HELP?!"
"WE'RE GOOD (Y/N)-CHAN GO HELP THE OTHERS!"
"YEAH, TAKE 3 RIGHTS 2 LEFTS ANOTHER RIGHT AND THEN ANOTHER 4 LEFTS AND YOULL FIND THE OTEHRS. STAY SAFE (L/N)-SAN."
"THANK YOU, OBANAI, MITSURI. PLEASE KEEP LIVING!"
I ran in the direction obanai had pointed me. And only 2 rights into I encountered a demon.
"UGH I DONT HAVE TIME FOR YOU."
Breath of wisteria seventh form.
I swung my sowrd in a circular motion, which would block any attack the demon could try on me, and sliced their head off in return.
I then ran out. I really don't have time for this. I need to help the others.
Another right and I found a room with 4 demons. All playing games. As soon as I walked in, they turned to me and attacked.
"UGH, COULD YOU NOT DO THIS RIGHT NOW?!"
Breath of wisteria seventh form.
The demons were dead. I kept running. Two lefts later I ran into someone
"AH EMA!"
"(Y/N)! DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE OTHERS ARE?!"
"YEA-"
before I could finish explaining dozens of tiny zombies broke down one of the doors.
"I'll tell you once we get rid of all these little ones."
"Alright!"
Muichiro was trying his best to take the blade out of his shoulder. And with enough work, he did it. But his condition was awful.
His whole body was in agony, for the first time in a while, he was crying from the pain. His hand was gone.
Im in such bad condition, I won't be of any use with all these wounds! It'll take several hours to stop the bloodshead. I wish I was blessed with the physique like tengen. That would make this so much easier.
But I have to defeat upper moon one. I have to lessen the burden. If I'm gonna die anyway I might as well do something useful. I'll do it for you oyakata-sama, (y/n). Then we'll watch clouds togther.
Muichiro was running to the fight, before coming across genya.
"Sorry to be a bother but.. can you give my torso a good shove?"
"Genya?! You're alive? Are you going to put your body back together?"
"Well uhh.. upper moon 1's hair is over there. Can you get it and uhh help me eat it? I want to fight until the end.... I'll protect aniki... I don't wanna let him die."
"Alright... We'll fight together. To the very end."
"I see, so you have gotten your mark. How unfortunate."
"Unfortunate?"
Asked the beaten up stone pillar.
"Based on your looks.. I'm guessing your age is about 27.. more or less"
"And whats wrong with that."
He asked. Swinging his weapon around.
"I will lament your loss...
Every single marked person... Dies before reaching the age of 25.
Even if your mark appears... And increases your power.. in the end you're only borrowing living time."
Neither of the two had any distinguishable facial expression.
"You're past the age of twenty five. And for you mark only now... You are probably going to die sometime tonight. Your body. Your technique. You have devoted every day to get to this point. And now you'll vanish. Don't you think that's regrettable?"
"No."
"No?"
"Everyone who has been marked knows this story. Even if the mark never appeared, As long as I am part of the demon hunters, there's no guarantee that I'll see the next sunrise."
"So you knew.. you all knew."
"What is there to regret about my life now? You can't become a pillar with that kind of half-hearted resolution."
The demon still had no expression.
"But I wasn't talking about something as meaningless your life..."
"Your excessive insults. Are making my body seethe in anger."
"Why can't you understand.. you fool. By becoming a demon.. you can preserve your body.. preserve your techniques..."
Gyomeis face was full of anger. How dare this demon talk to him like this. Even consider that he would join his side. It truly disgusted him.
"There is nothing to understand. We humans find that living and dying as a human being preserves out dignity. Don't you dare force your pathetic worldview and call it supreme."
"Oh."
Gyomei had calmed down a bit.
"I realised this after we spoke just now, but you told a lie."
The demon looked a bit puzzled.
"Heh... What are you saying? I did not lie about any-"
"There must've been an exception. There must've been someone who lived past the age of 25 after receiving their mark."
Kokushibo looked stunned. Angered. Confused.
"You seem disturbed. Looks like my understanding hit the bulls-eye... Am I ri"
The demon went into to attack. But gyomei still held his ground. Though, it was obvious he wouldn't be able to defeat him alone. Anyone would be useful right now, sanemi, (y/n), giyuu any pillar. But it got him thinking.
My life can't be meaningless. I've helped people right? I've helped so many... I can't even remember all their names.
'gyomei-sama!'
I turned to see two little girls. It was (y/n) and shinobu.
'hello to you two. How are you?'
I asked, kneeling down to their eye level.
'we're good! Right shinobu?'
'mhm mhm! We wanted to give you something!'
(Y/n) pulled a bit of paper out of her pocket. And handed it to me.
'what is this?'
'juet open it silly!'
I opened the paper, only to see a giant thank you on it, along with a picture of the kocho sisters, the (l/n) siblings and me.
'why would you make this?'
'We wanted to say thank you for saying us'
'yeah, we are very grateful for you, and everything you've done for us.'
at this point I was tearing up a bit, I didn't deserve this.
'thank you, both of you.'
Sanemi had stitched up his stomach, and had ran into battle.
Even this man has a mark... It seems all pillars of this generation has a mark.
Thought kokushibo.
Even though the two pillars were using completely different breath styles, and were using completely different weapons, they still were able to coordinate.
"GOOD THING WE DID THAT PILLAR TRAINING HUH, HIMEJIMA-SAN!"
"Mhm."
"Genya, are you okay?"
"Genya pull yourself together. Just hang on!"
Genya had eaten kokushibos hair. And now he wansnt responding.
Genya could hear a voice. But it wasn't muichiros, it was something entirely different. He was recovering at an extremely fast rate though.
All this, from just eating some hair. My blood is circulating even faster.. this feels good. There's one more. The blade fragment that broke off the demons sword... If I eat that then...
Ghaaa! This voice
'how many pillars have you killed? Make sure to keep stalling them.'
I-is this voice muzan?!
The demonification is moving so fast I can hear his voice. What's gonna happen to my body?
I see now, these two are most likely the most powerful demon hunters, especially this man.. this is a warrior with a peerless body, it doesn't even matter that he's blind .
Thought kokushibo.
"Ema! How are you holding up? You still doing okay?"
"Yeah Im doing okay (y/n), I think I need to rest for a few moments. All those demons really hurt my stamina."
(Y/n) nodded at ema, sitting down with her as well.
"(Y/n)... Can you promise me something."
"It depends what."
" Can you promise me that you won't leave me alone."
"..."
"(Y/n)?"
"I'm sorry. But I can't."
"Why not? Please (y/n)! I don't know what I'll do if you leave me alone."
The ginger had grabbed onto the pillars haori. Her eyes were glossy.
"I can't control if I die during battle, its miracle that I've even made it to
This age. Every day is a blessing, ema."
"I see.."
'Hey... Are you okay?'
I looked up to see giyuu, standing there awkwardly.
'its hard... My brother is gone.'
Giyuu had now sat down next to me, and had done something completely uncharacteristic of him. He rubbed my back, it was sweet how he tried to comfort me.
'its, its going to be okay. You have people... Friends to support you.'
'thank you giyuu... You're a really good friend.'
I gave him a hug, at first he tensed up. But slowly he relaxed into it.
'we're friends?'
'of course! Why wouldn't we be friends?!'
'... Thank you.'
The fight with upper moon wasn't going the best, muichiro and genya were still fixing themselves up. Sanemi and gyomei were quite injured at this point. And kokushibos blade was around 3 times his size at this point.
Kiriya believed in the four though, wanting to send giyuu and tanjirou straight to muzan. But that doesn't mean the 4 weren't losing hope.
Breath of moon ninth form, descending moon.
This attack had gotten sanemi in the back quite deep.
"SHINAZUGAWA!"
Breath of moon tenth form
"DON'T WORRY HIMEJIMA-SAN, FORGET ABOUT ME!"
Piercing phase slash ivy moon.
A wave of crescent moons was about to engulf sanemi, but luckily muichiro was there to save the day.
"TOKITOU!!"
"I WON'T LET YOU DIE! IF YOU CAN STILL WIELD A SWORD THEN KEEP FIGHTING, KEEP FIGHTING FOR SOMEONE!"
The encouraging words did help sanemi think about how he wanted this to end.
Genya would be safe, his brother would find a wife of his own. And he would become an uncle. Heck he might marry (y/n) or something. But as sanemi was hoping for the best outcome, genya watched from afar. Doubting himself
Can I do this? Can I be useful..? Or... Wil the demon just notice me again and slice me up.
Aniki... Aniki... I don't wanna let you die... I can't afford to screw up now! Himejima-san.... Tokitou-san.... AGH FUCK! IF ONLY I WAS STRONGER! IF ONLY I WAS A PILLAR.
The more I want to help the more my body freezes up. I'm scared... I'm scared of failing you aniki... Why am I so weak? But like tanjirou said
The weakest have the most opportunity to improve.
I'll do it! I'll do it! I have to. All I have to do is eat the sword.
Think of victory , I will not let master, my friends or aniki ever die! I wanted to save the sword incase I get diced up again, but spineless ideas are out of the question. Don't lose that aggressive attitude!
Genya ate the sword.
Breath of rock fifth for
Breath of moon sixteenth form
Kokushibo just wouldn't stop, he had so many forms that it was starting to confuse gyomei. He was just so fast, that he couldn't attack, he couldn't predict what the demon was going to do.
He must be using some Divine power, what can't I see that he's seeing?
Asked gyomei to himself. But he wasn't going to give up, he had people go fight for. Oyakata-sama's children, (y/n), even himself.
Anything a demon can do, a human can Do. Gyomei just needed to observe.
Muichiro needed to get inside his attacks. Even for a moment, if he could just stop upper moon one's movement. If he could do that, himejima, or shinazugawa could get his head.
His bleeding was getting worse. He needed to hurry while he could still move.
"SHINAZUGAWA!!"
gyomei had yelled out to sanemi after he understood muichiros plan. Sanemi looked at the two and understood. The three backed off and went for kokushibo.
GET IN,
GET IN,
GET IN,
GET IN!
PUSH THROUGH THE ATTACKS
GO UNDER!!
GO UNDER HIS ATTACKS.
Gyomei hit kokushibos arm clean off. And muichirio stabbed him in the gut.
This wounded child. Barely managed to dodge my attacks.. even if they were slowed down by the Juzu bead that doesn't mean... Could it be that his eyes are actually seeing the same world I'm seeing?
It must also be true for the strongest man. He only began seeing this world in the middle of our fight, and to top it off, this man took my eyes into account... And manipulated his blood flow to throw me off
Kokushibo went to attack, and muichirio was determined to stay there. Even if he were to get diced up.
Genya was still watching from a distance, the words muichiro had spoken to him earlier were playing in his head.
Genya, you have to shoot. Dont you dare hesitate, even if I'm there, shoot us both down. Don't hesitate.
So genya was done being a coward.
He shot.