Chapter 19: The battle of the north and south
In the north side of Japan, two men are on a standoff with one of them seeking for a revenge. The tall burly demon male looking down on the more skinnier male demon in front of him.
"I won't go easy on you boy." Gyomei stated
"I don't intend to lose this time Himejima san. I will win."
"Time to end this once and for all."
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On one side are the former stone pillar, Himejima Gyomei, leader of the demons squad he's leading. On the other side are the demon king, Kamado Tanjiro. He may be defeated by Gyomei before but that's when his mind are not straight. Now he's ready and his eye stare are more deadlier than before. His blade are glowing bloody crimson red. The atmosphere is so heavy, its like standing a few kilometres under the sea. It was silent before they took a real deep breath.
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"Dance of the fire god, Scorching crimson mirrors!"
"Stone breathing, first form: Serpentinite bipolar!"
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The dance has begun. Both sides shows no weaknesses yet both are fast and elegant catching each others hands. Their aura alone is enough to kill the weakest demon. With the flame wall still intact keeping them within the boundaries. Sparks flying everywhere and their movement was reduced to a blur.
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"You're getting faster boy. I'm impressed." Gyomei praised
"Save it Himejima san. We still have unfinished business between us!" Tanjiro retorted
"Well then, lets end it here." Gyomei suggested
"Stone breathing, fifth form: arcs of justice!"
"Dance of the fire god: Solar halo dragon dance!"
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Once again, the motion of both opponents are blurry with a visible red sparks flying across the skies. At this point, the hunter forces had retreated while fighting the near invincible demons. They all watches the fight between two men with the dark blue sky in the background. They are in awe to see how different their levels are compared to those two.
It has already been an hour since they've started the dance. Tanjiro burned with determination squeeze in every last bit of an attack to defeat his senior mentor. But Gyomei ain't gonna let that happen. As Tanjiro jumped shot him from behind, the man had already set a trap.
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"Blood demon art: Jagged cliff."
"Oh shoot!" Tanjiro thought
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Tanjiro was still in the air when suddenly two stone walls emerged from the ground with the face of it jagged and sharp slowly closing in on him. He spins mid air to keep away from the walls only to be brought down by a chain on his back. He's back where he started with half his body aching in pain. He rolls himself facing upwards. But before he could even get up, he felt an immense pressure on his neck and got lifted up high in the air. He look down to his opponent's nonexistence eyes while trying to lose the grip on his neck but to no avail.
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"Young man, i'm impressed on how much stronger you've gotten since we last met."
"Let. Me. Go." Tanjiro strained
"Unfortunately for you, this is where your life ends. Goodbye, Kamado Tanjiro."
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Tanjiro struggling for his life feels the grip on his neck getting stronger and stronger until..........splash. His head explodes into millions bits and pieces leaving his headless body dropped to the ground. The spectators hunters was in shock watching the man that had saved them killed right before their eyes.
'
"Tanjiro!!!!!" They all shouted
"Rest in piece young man. You're strong but, you're still just a mere mortal." Gyomei said
"You bastard! What have you done?!" Murata shouted
"Kill them all." Gyomei instructed
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"Tanjiro, wake up. The fight isn't over yet."
"Father? Yorichi san?"
"You know, when the first breathing style was invented, i had nothing to go against but myself. And so i created all thirteen form by myself. And i hope that one day, someone who uses it are able to do the same."
"Wait, i can do that?"
"Why not my son? Now go, your comrades needs you."
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"Hmm?"
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As the hunter forces are under heavy attack, Gyomei was walking away from the body but realizes something was wrong. He looked back to see the body standing up without a head. Then, cells after cells are grown on top of the neck creating a new head with the addition of a horn on the right side of his forehead. Tanjiro has awoken from the dead.
'
"So you're one of us then? How pathetic that've must been." Gyomei said in disdain
"Himejima san. Time to end this."
"Dance of the fire god, fourteenth form:"
"Hmm? This is troubling." Gyomei thought
"Blood demon art: Stone fortress."
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As Tanjiro was winding up for an attack, he emits a large amount of heavy aura around him. Gyomei sensed it took a defensive move covering himself in a multilayer stone dome. Not only that, he had strengthen his technique so that the stone are harder than diamond. Unfortunately, that was not enough.
'
"Dimensional slash."
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Tanjiro swings his blade 180 degrees at an inhuman speed breaking the sound and light barrier. He literally slash through the dimension creating a ripple effect slashing everything in a kilometre wide radius. The rock solid dome fortress was cut in half and some of the invincible demons was fatally wounded by it. The hunter forces was lucky to survive it. Tanjiro walks over the pile of rubble to see his mentor body slowly disintegrating into dust. He sheath his blade back into its holder and kneel down to pray.
'
"May your soul finally rest in piece now Himejima san." He sadly said
"Help! Over here!" Someone shouted
"Time to finish the job." Tanjiro said standing up from his position
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"We're getting absolutely hammered here!"
"Keep on slicing! It will work eventually!"
"Hey, who's that?!"
"A girl?"
"Is she bleeding?"
"Help her dammit!"
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At the south side of Japan, fifty seven hunters are having difilcuties on dealing with the initially only three demon now multiplied into fifteen under the cover of darkness. That's until they see a figure flying above them shedding what looks to be red blood. When she landed, she raised her hand into the air and formed it into a fist.
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"Blood demon art: exploding blood!"
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Suddenly, the red blood glows pink and every hunters and demons who was in contact with her blood has now burst into flames. The hunters seems fine but for the demon, they were paralyzed and are now immobile. The hunters of course take this opportunity to slice it as many times as possible. The girl looks back and smiles to see it worked as intended. After that, she jumped in to help them get rid of it for good.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield are three figures fighting one another. Loud bang and shots were heard and the sound of steel cutting through flesh and blood splatters all over the ground. Two men fighting against one powerful woman.
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"Oi Genya! What's the big idea here huh?!"
"Nemi, please don't push yourself too much."
"Ara, you two really are a sibling. How cute."
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The two men are turned out to be the Shinazugawa siblings. Before, they have a really unhealthy relationship between siblings as the older one constantly scold the younger one for joining the hunter forces. But despite having this, Genya who was Sanemi younger brother insist on getting in and survived the final selection. Now he's part of the elite despite not able to master any breath styles but instead turns to firearms. Deadly to both demons and humans.
Meanwhile, the woman they're fighting are one of the brother's lover who have apparently died long ago. Now she was back but not for love. After almost killing the older sibling, aka her ex-lover Sanemi, the younger brother had came to the rescue and are now in the fight to defeat what basically a witch.
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"Blood demon art: Dawn of the springs."
"Wind breathing, first form: Dust whirlwind cutter!"
"Take this bitch!"
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As the chaotic battle continues, Genya was shooting all of his bullets using both the poison and his special blood demon art bullets to hit her but missed a lot. Sanemi was trying to nail her right through the technique while avoiding the bullets ricochet from the ground. Not only that she was really fast, she was also very smart being able to deduce their movement quickly before responding to their attacks. This made her impossible to kill in a straightforward match.
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"Ara ara, Nemi kun. Already out of breath are we?"
"Oi! Over here witch!" Genya shouted
"Now now Genya kun, its rude you know to call a woman a witch." Kanae pointed out
"Then which one do you prefer?! A slut?!" Gebya rebutted
"Looks like i have to teach you a lesson then." Kanae calmly said
"Blood demon art: Flower field of serenity."
"Watch out Genya!" Sanemi shouted
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The ground surrounding Kanae suddenly changed into a landscape of flowers and vegetation. Genya didn't have time to react landed right inside the zone and immediately both his leg are entangled in plant roots. The flowers also gave off a sweet scent, immediately Genya thought of it as poison. He pulled out the blade he had on his back and cut away the root and some of the flowers.
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"Hey, don't destroy it." Kanae frowned
"Wind breathing, second form: Claw- purifying wind!"
"Blood demon art: interweaving roots."
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After Sanemi attempted to surprise attack Kane had failed, Genya pulled him back to reconvene with his older brother for their next move.
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"This is not working. We need a plan." Genya said
"As far as i know she has both defence and offense under her control. Plus she's freaking smart as hell." Sanemi said
"Is that why you love her in the first place?" Genya questioned
"What? No! Focus you idiot." Sanemi rebutted
"Hmm, what should we do? We need to trap her somehow." Genya suggested
"And how do you proposed we do that?" Sanemi questioned
"Oh boys. What are you doing there whispering like?" Kanae butted in
"Wait, is that? Nezuko?" Genya said
"Who?" Sanemi asked
"She's laying down her blood. Looks like she's setting us up a trap." Genya explained
"Alright, all we gotta do is push her in the right direction correct?"
"Lets do this Nemi."
"Wind breathing, eight form: Primary gale slash!"
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Sanemi went ahead to unleash a powerful circular torrent to force his opponent to move. Genya coming from the side started to shoot with his double barrel shotgun at the speed of a revolver reloading after every two shots. This pushes Kanae further back and she tried to attack them but her spell was broken before she could conjure it up. Sanemi and Genya alternately attacks from different angle pushing her back further and further until they eventually stopped.
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"Is that what you've all got?" Kanae asked unaware of her situation
"Well, i ran out of bullets." Genya claimed
"And i, am definitely not fit for this." Sanemi said underneath his breath
"Aww, that's a shame. Don't worry, i will help you end your life." Kanae said cruelly
"Well, you should look where you're standing bitch."
"Huh?" Kanae surprised
"Blood demon art: Flaming tornado!"
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Suddenly, the ground beneath Kanae lit up a blood pattern in a form of a spiral. Before she could even move, it was too late. A massive column of bright pink fire came from the ground burning her up like in a incinerator. Her screams are high pitched and screeching so loud everyone could heard it in a mile radius. When the fire show is over, her body is severely charred and she kneel down looking at the ground.
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"She's down. Lets fin-" Genya got cut off
"No, Genya. Please leave us for a second." Sanemi said
"But Nemi-"
"Go and finish the other demons. Leave her to me." Sanemi insisted
"Ah, okay. I understand." Genya left
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After Genya grabbed Nezuko, they both went to attend the injured hunters as the invincible demons had already been defeated. Sanemi approach the charred woman who used to be his lover. He kneel down right in front of her to face her on her level.
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"Kanae?"
"What do you want? Nemi." Kanae sound disappointed
"Why did you do it?"
"I didn't have a choice. I was at first gonna kill myself but then, i thought about you."
"If so, its still wrong and you know that."
"I know Nemi kun. It was just, i feel empty without you." Kanae started to cry
"Don't cry. I too felt the same way. I love you and when i heard about your death, i was devastated." Sanemi wiping away the tears
"Really?"
"Yes, i was. And at that very same day i hunted down a hundred demons just to drown the sorrow."
"Oh, Nemi. Kakh, looks like i'm gonna die very soon."
"Kanae, i won't forget you no matter what. But your sister is waiting for you."
"Shinobu?"
"Yes, she's waiting for her sister to return."
"Nemi, could you do my final request?"
"Whatever you want, i will do it."
"Please, end me already. I have live long enough to know more about you."
"Alright, i will do it. Maybe in the next life we met, when there's no more demons around, we would get married together."
"Aww, how sweet of you Nemi."
"Right, please close your eyes."
"Alright. Good bye Nemi kun. Until we meet again in the next life."
"That's my promise to you."
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Sanemi got up from his position while Kanae stayed there with her eyes closed shut. Sanemi took out his blade once more and put it against her neck. He close his eyes and quickly did the deed. He opens his eyes to see the body crumbles into dust. He kneel down once again and hold her hand one last time before it was gone. He cried out aloud and tears bursting out form his eye glands. Everyone watches him with sympathy for his lost.
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And that concludes the battle of the north and south, but it was not over yet as the east and west still are under attack by the demon. It was up the rest of the pillars to finish it once and for all.