The group of six divided in two. Lefty and Mitsuri rushed the justice demon while Righty, Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya ran to the mass of swirling wood that the true body of Hantengu was hiding in.
Mitsuri flew forward in a blur, shredding the wood dragons to pieces. She was even faster than before. On her chest was a small, clover shaped mark.
Lefty joined her and sprouted dozens of blood tentacles from his back. Each tentacle had an axe-like blade at its end. In a blur, they tore through the tree dragons. Whatever happened, they needed to draw its attention away from the others that went after the demon's true body.
Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya were climbing up the trunk that led to where the true body of Hantengu was hiding. The mass of wood shook violently to try and shake them off.
Righty was fighting on the ground. The justice demon knew he was the biggest threat to the original body, so it sent thousands of vines to keep him busy. Whatever happened, they had to kill Hantengu!
Genya and Nezuko were making no progress. Nezuko was shaken off and grabbed by vines while Genya could barely maintain a good grip. Out of desperation, Genya bit down on the tree and ate some of the wood, imbuing his body with demonic essence. Using this inhuman strength, he blew through the trunk with his bare hands. Righty let out a pulse of heat from his body, incinerating the vines. Both of them jumped to break open the wood core holding Hantengu.
Tanjiro jumped high into the air and readied his blade.
"Dance of the Fire God: Flame Waltz!!!" Tanjiro yelled as he unleashed multiple vertical and horizontal slashes down on the core holding the original body of Hantengu, Right as Genya and Righty jumped to join him.
When the core opened, they found that Hantengu was nowhere to be seen.
"HUH!?" They all thought in sudden shock.
The three of them began looking in all directions, trying to see where it went.
"THERE!!!" Genya yelled. He pointed to the tiny body of Hantengu scurrying away.
"DON'T RUN AWAY FROM US, YOU BASTARD!!! FACE YOUR CONSEQUENCES!!!" Tanjiro screamed.
Genya pulled a tree out of the ground and flung it at Hantengu. The demon was soon showered with tree trunks. Nezuko ran in and tried to slice him with her claws. These attacks only terrified him more, and he tripled in speed.
Righty charged his axe with as much energy as he could, hoping to throw it with all his strength.
Tanjiro blasted forward, the speed was akin to Zenitsu's thunderclap and flash. In an instant, he brought his blade down on Hantengu's neck, making him shriek.
"I'm pitiful...!" Hantengu whimpered.
"CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!?!?!!" Hantengu grew huge, so much so that Tanjiro's blade was buried in his neck. He reached forward and grabbed Tanjiro by the sides, hoping to crush him in his gargantuan hands.
"DON'T YOU BULLY MEEEEEEE!!!!!" He screamed and went to smash Tanjiro. But in the knick of time, Genya grabbed both of the hands, stopping them from closing. Just as he did this, Nezuko showered Hantengu in burning blood, making him roar and loosen his grip further.
"You're logic's fucked up, you piece of shit!!!" Genya roared and pulled the hands apart. He was so strong due to the demon essence that he tore Hantengu's arms off. Hantengu shrieked in pain, letting out a booming, gutteral roar.
And finally.
CRASH!!!
Righty's axe flew right into Hantengu's head. Caving in the top of his skull and splitting his forehead in half.
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?"
"You're not crazy..." Genya muttered.
----------
Mitsuri and Lefty were back to back, tree dragons closed in on all sides. Despite their overwhelming power, they themselves were no match for the justice demon's infinite malice.
"GYAH!!! I can't do this!!! I'm sorry everyone! I'm actually gonna die here!" Mitsuri wailed. She was too exhausted to continue.
"Hang on! I'll protect you!" Lefty was bleeding profusely from head to toe, he could barely even muster a tentacle. Yet he wasn't going to let Mitsuri die.
Right as the jaws of the wood dragons would've come down, they all crumbled to dust.
"Huh?" They both said in surprise. They stood still until the dust cleared.
"OH FUCK YEA!!!" Lefty jumped with joy. "THEY FUCKING DID IT!!!" He screamed. He was suddenly hit with a wave of pain. "Oh that's it, I'm dead." Lefty had done enough fighting for one day. He slowly began to fall back.
"Watch it!" Mitsuri caught him and slowly fell back with him.
----------
After a small period of gasping for breath, they rearranged themselves into a more comfortable position. Lefty laid down while Mitsuri sat on her knees. Lefty was using her thighs like a pillow.
"Oh this feels nice..." Lefty whispered.
"I hope you're okay." Mitsuri said.
"I'll be fine." Lefty sighed.
They were quiet for a moment.
"You're pretty strong. Ms. Kanroji." Lefty said quietly. "You got five hundred of those tree dragon things. I only got three hundred." Lefty went. "Normally I steal the show in the end, but someone stole my thunder for once."
"You're forgetting something." Mitsuri put up one finger.
"I am?" Lefty raised an eyebrow.
"I saved you only three times. You saved me two hundred times." Mitsuri said.
"Oh." Lefty went.
"There were two hundred points where I slipped up, but you were there to protect me." Mitsuri hammered the point in.
"I'm doing my job. It's my job to protect you guys." Lefty muttered.
"Well, I think you're a hero." Mitsuri smiled. "Over this past week, I learned that you're a great person. You protect everyone you can
"I have a question to ask you, Lefty...." Mutsuri whispered.
"...Mhm?" Lefty opened his eyes.
"Would..." her face lit up in a flash of red.
"Would you be my boyfriend?" She asked.
Lefty's eyes were wide for a moment. And his heart was beating fast.
...
...
...
...
...
"Nah." Lefty sat up and got up onto his feet.
"Huh? Really?" Mitsuri was shocked by his answer.
"Yea. No thanks." Lefty turned to her.
"W- Wha- Wha..." Mitsuri looked like she was going to cry.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT lemme explain!" Lefty turned and got on his knees in front of her. "It's not you, it's me." Lefty said.
"H-huh?" Mitsuri paused, tears still in her eyes.
"Okay here. If we talk biologically, you're nineteen and I'm sixteen. But if we talk chronologically, the I am one thousand and sixteen and you are nineteen, which is super weird. But If we talk logically, then Akai became me and Righty three months ago, making me three months old to nineteen years old you. Which is SUPER DUPER weird." Lefty tried to explain his points.
"B-but Righty and Aoi-san are together!" Mitsuri stuttered.
"Well then I have another point. There's another strong guy in the corp that I know loves you, you just don't see it yet." Lefty said.
"R-really?" She looked more hopeful when he said it.
"Yes. Really." Lefty got on his knees and held her hands. "What I'm trying to say is that you will find love, Mitsuri. But it isn't me." Lefty said. "So don't cry." He smiled.
"O-Okay!" She smiled back.
"I just rejected a girl... There goes one for the bucket list."
Lefty reached into his pockets and pulled out a small medical kit.
"Now let's get you patched up." Lefty went to patch her wounds.