This was not happening.
This could not be happening.
Muzan took an unsteady step back, his clawed hand ghosting over his neck that had just been cut. He could still feel the separation between new and old cells.
No one had come that close to his neck in...
Years... centuries even.
It made no sense - It made no sense! He had killed the girl! Finally, he had disposed of her, he watched the blood leave her body. He had heard the boy scream before falling back into his good little docile self.
But the girl had been dead!
Now... now she was a demon. She was a demon whose steps moved like the feet of a dancer and whose sword always found his flesh. Her eyes burned with a terrifyingly familiar fire and Muzan knew these moves... he knew that look.
Yoriichi. It was like looking back in the past except for this time his foe was of his own blood. No matter how he struck her, how much pain she endured, her skin knit together and her moves went unhindered.
The blood connection she had with her brother... the demon blood... it affected more than Muzan had predicted... she had been transformed into a demon! Why!? How was this possible!?
Anger ran through his veins turning his icy body warm with fear. No, no, no, he could not die here! He would NOT die here!!
Nezuko saw Muzan's desperation. He had fallen into that natural panic, fight or flight... and Muzan was a coward so there was no chance he would fight - he would try to escape.
Nezuko jumped away from another attack, grabbing a bit of the fallen medication that Lady Tamayo had handed them all, rolling it around in the palm of her hand as she glanced at the monstrous demon.
"You escaped once," she growled. "Not this time."
She charged again. Dancing around the attacks as she gripped the medicine and lunged for Muzan. She would force this down his throat and force him to remain weak. Force him to fight as he forced so many to suffer and cling to life.
She wrapped an arm around his throat, jumping on his back and grappling him.
Muzan took that as well as expected. He thrashed and clawed, his attacks ripping into her skin like cold knives. It was strange, they hurt but there was no fear as her flesh was torn apart, only a calm serenity because she knew those wounds would heal.
Muzan's blood had infected her years ago, she'd been inhuman for so long that wounds had lost their weight. Now, it was like wounds didn't even phase her.
She wrestled with him, struggling to force the medicine down his throat but despite all of her new strength, her foe was still Muzan. They flailed and contested for moments that few out like years with neither side giving away. Nezuko felt her blood pour from her wounds and as rage boiled in her chest her eyes narrowed.
"YOU CANNOT CONTEND WITH ME!" Muzan screamed as he threw Nezuko off of him. She slammed into the earth and let out a sharp cry that turned into a hiss of anger.
"NEZUKO!" that was Zenitsu. She recalled that voice and when the flash of yellow caught her eye she smiled to see all of the demon slayers still standing, bloodied and weakened, some with missing limbs and all covered with thick scarlet. Zenitsu and Inosuke still stood, defending themselves from Muzan's frantic tendril attacks.
"WE KILL HIM NOW!" Nezuko roared. "MUZAN! YOU'RE DYING TONIGHT!"
Her rage bubbled over into a flame and like her roar fed the fire of spirit, her blood burst into brilliant pink flames that curled over Muzan's skin like hungry tongues.
Muzan screamed in agony and pain, anger filling his gaze as he contorted in the flame.
"You INSECT!" Muzan hissed as the fires died away.
Suddenly, Muzan was toppling forward, a familiar demon pinning him down; Tanjiro. The flames didn't devour his flesh, they didn't even warm his skin - their only enemy was Muzan and so that is what they fed on.
"You die tonight," Tanjiro's voice was soft and raspy, strangely foreign in the air and just barely carrying over the crackling flames to Nezuko's ears.
Nezuko had no time to rejoice at her brother's reverted mind or cry over the bright gleam in his eyes that was familiar. Her hand tightened around Lady Tamayo's tablets and like a bullet, she took off. With help from Tanjiro she finally managed to pry Muzan's jaws open and stuff it down his gullet.
Perhaps in another life, she would've been disgusted, but this was her reality and all she wanted was to cause Muzan suffering.
Muzan screamed. It was a roar and a shriek, a call of anger and terror and fury all at once as he grabbed Nezuko's face and knocked Tanjiro aside before throwing Nezuko after him. The siblings both caught themselves and stood up lightly. Tanjiro was growling as he stared at Muzan, nothing but rage in his eyes. Nezuko finally managed to tear her attention away from her foe and take in her brother's visage.
He seemed so much more human now, he stood straighter, his eyes were sharper, even as a growl filled his chest he looked so much like the brother she remembered.
"Tanjiro," she breathed.
He glanced at her and she saw the ghost of a sad sort of smile on his lips.
"Nezuko..."
They looked at each other for a long moment, taking in each other's visages after all this time. It was strange, almost dream-like.
"KILL HIM!" ... That was Sanemi.
They both glanced back at Muzan who was stumbling to his feet, and how he was completely barraged by sword attacks. Muzan was panting now, dark veins spreading under his pale skin like spider webs.
"You... you bugs. You pests... You cannot stand against me," Muzan panted as he stumbled away from the attacks, his own retaliating tendrils slowing as growing as sluggish as he.
"We cannot kill him like this," Tanjiro breathed softly. "Even if we manage to kill him a hundred times over he can regenerate... steel and claws do nothing..."
"Then... what?" Nezuko asked as she drew her own sword.
Tanjiro slowly pointed at the eastern horizon with a dark sort of gaze. Nezuko followed his finger and saw the glowing blue on the horizon.
"Dawn..." Tanjiro breathed. "The sun alone can kill him."
Nezuko felt her cells contort at the memory of sunlight.
"We're demons," she managed, the weight of the situation crashing down on her. "The sun could kill us too."
"It'll kill him," Tanjiro nodded slowly. He gave Nezuko a long look and she nodded solemnly. That was all that mattered in the end, wasn't it?
"No matter what happens, we stay together," Nezuko vowed as she tightened the grip on her sword.
"Together," Tanjiro nodded.
They looked back to Muzan and with demonic screeches, charged.
Nezuko's sword glowed with strange pink light as she enacted her blood art again, the pink flames burst out of her wounded body and following her like an aura of death.
Tanjiro was beside her, he watched Nezuko unleash her blood art and allowed himself to peer within his body - to the skills he never dared to reach out to in fear of Muzan. He copied Nezuko's movements and in a moment found himself radiating brilliant orange flame-like the sun. It brought a rush of euphoria and power to his head as he realized what power he possessed, a laugh almost danced on his lips as he followed his sister into battle.
They charged Muzan and burst through his meager tentacle defenses. They dodged and weaved in a colorful display of fire and blood, exchanging blows with the demon lord and defending demon slayers as they made their own attacks.
They herded Muzan to the center of the rubble as the sky grew lighter, all of their desperation and fury being funneled into one final fight, one final stand.
A stand that had to last until dawn.
"Can they make it?" Yushiro asked as he looked at the distant flashes of orange and pink that stood out like spotlights in the night. He glanced over at Tamayo who clenched her jaw and nodded.
"They must," she murmured.
"Morning is coming," Yushiro murmured. "My Lady, we should hide."
Tamayo glanced over at the white line forming at the edge of the seen world and smiled, something ancient and cruel in her expression as she envisioned Muzan burning in those bright rays.
"Not yet, I wish to see this to the end. Muzan cannot be allowed to escape. He will die today."
Yushiro nodded at his Lady's words.
Nothing else needed to be said.
(Short chapter, but a lot happened sooooo, hahaha.
Hope you liked it, have a great day/night)