The hate clone, Zohakuten took the initiative in the battle by sending 4 dragons made of wood after them. Mitsuri immediately cut them apart, with Giyu and Isekai following up to deal the first strike. Unfortunately for them, Zohakuten got them off of him by using a sonic screech, an ability from Urogi.
"He has their powers, too...?!" Giyu questioned, half-surprised. He knew that this was louder than when he fought Urogi. "Was it always this loud?!" Isekai yelled, trying to let Giyu hear him. The latter nodded, and jumped sideways to avoid the radius. Isekai did the same, and drew out his gun to fire the drugged bullets. He didn't load it with nichirin ammunition, thinking he had no reason to, so he had no way of killing him, and even then, like all of the other embodiments of Hantengu's emotions, he couldn't die unless the main body was killed.
"We don't need to kill it, since we can't anyway! We need to hold out until either of these happen: Either the two of them reach the demon and kill him, or we fight dusk till dawn!" Isekai said, conjuring a double-edged spear made of his Chaos magic.
Blades of Torment (A sturdy yet sharp double-edged spear colored a bright purple is conjured from the user's hands. It can be combined with certain attacks, such as Infernum.)
The morale of the two Hashira at the scene was increased, and they stood by for battle. The three of them then charged at Zohakuten, who sent more wooden dragons.
On a road...
"There has to be a hospital here somewhere...! I need to hurry, I can't let Masachika die!" Tanjiro thought, aware that the former's life was on his hands. Sabito and Makomo were following him, asking him what was wrong. "Masachika's badly hurt right now! I gotta hurry to the hospital, or his life ends tonight!" Tanjiro responded, moving even faster. The sounds of their feet hitting the ground as they ran towards the hospital was beginning to attract demons.
One leapt out of a bush and tried to finish off Masachika, but Makomo immediately halted the demon by beheading it. "Keep running, and don't stop! We'll keep them off of you, Tanjiro!" Makomo and Sabito said as the three kept running towards the hospital. Neither of them knew how much time was left before Masachika perished, but they knew that they had to try.
Elsewhere away from the intense duel...
Genya and Murata were still in pursuit of the slippery Hantengu. Genya was carrying Masachika's sword, using it in his stead. They both tried to make blows to the neck by using obstacles to boost themselves forward, but they never decapitated him.
They hopped off of walls, lamp posts, and climbed on kids' playgrounds. Eventually, Hantengu jumped onto Genya and started yelling words of resentment. Out of sudden fright, Genya instinctively used Masachika's sword to cut off Hantengu's head, and the battle was over. Or so they thought. The headless Hantengu kept crawling away, as if he didn't just get decapitated. "WHAT THE FUCK?" was Genya's first comment. They picked up the head as they tried to catch up. Murata read its tongue. "Resentment" was what it said. "Genya, when we first encountered that demon in the alley, what did its tongue read?" Murata asked, waiting to check if they actually killed the correct demon.
"The tongue read 'Fear' on it. Why do you care?" Genya asked. "Dude, we chased the wrong demon! This thing's tongue says 'resentment', not 'fear'!" Murata responded, now in despair knowing that 3-4 weeks' worth of running and swinging to kill Hantengu became pointless. "No, we didn't chase the wrong demon, we decapitated the wrong demon," Genya replied, aware of what's happening.
"What do you mean?" Murata asked, interested in his words. "See how it's still running from us? That thing would be fighting us without worry if it didn't have a form of link to the actual body. If my conclusions are correct, the actual thing's hiding somewhere inside!" Genya explained, coming to his ultimate conclusion.
"Alright, man. I hope you're not wrong...!" Murata agreed, hoping that Genya's conclusion wasn't incorrect. "We have two ways to finish this: We either cut off the head of the actual thing, or we hold it in open fields till dawn," Genya said. Murata nodded, and was ready for the final part of the chase to begin.
Near the hospital...
Tanjiro, Makomo and Sabito were able to see the hospital, and a car passed by them. The window opened, and Urokodaki was there. "You three need a ride the rest of the way there?" he offered. They agreed, and got in, and laid Masachika down comfortably. Urokodaki hit the gas, and soon enough, within four minutes, they reached the hospital. Tanjiro threw open the doors, calling for a doctor. "Doctor, we need a doctor! Someone from the Corporation's badly wounded!"
Within 4 seconds, an available medical group came out. They threw a blanket over the patient's body, asking how this happened. Tanjiro told them the whole spiel of events. When they arrived to a hospital room, the three were told to wait outside. Conversations between the doctors could be heard as they tried to save him.
"The kid's heartbeat is normal, and there's no more blood leaking out. But this is a huge wound. It's likely he'll survive, but it's still possible for him to fall. Get the cauterizing materials and the stitching materials! We have to mend this wound or he's going to die!"
"Here you go, sir."
"Good, good... just loop right there, wrap it here... and done!"
The doctor came out of the room and gave them the news. "Good news, you four. The kid's quite beat up, but he won't die. It's good that you brought him here when you did. Had you been a few minutes later, he'd actually be dead. The bad news is that he'll have to be here for about a week. What happened to him?" the doctor asked, wondering how Masachika was this badly wounded.
"We were in the middle of fighting a demon, and some really tough one appeared out of nowhere and impaled him with a single Blood Magic attack. We're Corporation members, except for Mr. Urokodaki," he explained. The doctor nodded and went back into the room to monitor Masachika's condition.
Back to the chase...
Genya looked at his phone while chasing the demon through a tunnel, and the time read 5:09. "Murata! We have to get him out in open field! It's 5:09 right now! Our stamina's going to eventually wane and our bodies will wear down; we haven't rested or showered in a month!" Genya said, both concerned about the mission and themselves.
Soon enough, they got out of the tunnel in a bit later than half an hour, and the time now read 5:41. The sun could be seen rising already, and it began to frighten the headless demon. Within 5 more minutes of chasing, the sun was 3/4 of the way out, and the sun's rays hit Hantengu. Unfortunately, there were hikers walking along the road, and he tried to eat them to regain his body.
Genya was getting desperate at this point, so he drew out his pistol and tried to fire. The bullets hit nowhere where the actual demon was. After eight rounds, he ran out of ammunition, and he had no reloads to go with. He knew only Murata could stop him at this point. He yelled at Murata to try. "TRY TO KILL HIM! YOU ONLY HAVE ONE SHOT BEFORE ANY OF THEM DIE... BUT JUST TRY!" Genya yelled. Murata transformed his sword into its bow form, pulled an arrow out, and began profusely sweating as the hikers were trying to run.
Murata pulled on the string and let it rip. It struck into the heart of the body, and when the arrow hit the ground, a tiny head was stuck to the arrow's tip. The headless body fell down as if it died, and it began to fade into ash. The hikers stopped running and looked behind to see that the demon was fading. When they saw it happen, they took a deep breath of relief. It was 6:00 AM. The sun had fully risen, and the demon fully faded.
With Zohakuten...
Zohakuten had Giyu impaled on a tree branch, and Mitsuri was fully incapacitated. Isekai was still standing, but could barely run as it is. He tried to move, but his leg slipped due to fatigue, and he was left kneeling on one leg.
Zohakuten scoffed, then reprimanded him for harming the "weak and innocent" person he knew as Hantengu. "Weak and innocent my ass..." Isekai muttered, coughing up blood. He had already used a high end of his power, yet he couldn't hold him off. As the demon manipulated the flora around him once more to create 3 wood dragons to kill all 3 of them, suddenly, the dragons stopped moving.
Isekai looked up at Zohakuten, who had no expression. He just stood there, eyes open, but not moving. Then, suddenly, just like the dragons, he began to fade into ash. "...huh...?" Isekai questioned as he looked at where Zohakuten was standing. He looked at the two Hashira, who were still alive. Giyu was still jabbed by the branch, and Mitsuri was still buried beneath some rocks. Yushiro and Yuichiro arrived and saw what happened. Zenitsu and Nezuko followed up after, a little horrified by the aftermath.
Yuichiro started by pulling the rubble off of the school nurse, then hauling her towards a comfortable spot where the Tsunan Snow Festival was being celebrated. The festival had already ended, and the vendors there were just cleaning up before leaving. Yushiro and Nezuko took care of Isekai, and Zenitsu cut off the branch that impaled Giyu. "Thanks, kid," Giyu thanked him as they both walked off back into where the festival was celebrated.
Four remain.
The End of Part II
To be continued...