"[Foolish.]"
Sabito's eyes looked back at Kanae for a moment, she certainly had just the right words to describe the situation they were in, or at least that's how it sounded. In reality though he had no idea what she just said.
It didn't sound Chinese or Korean, so far the only two foreign languages he had heard from a few visitors. But this kind of lenguaje, he doesn't even know how she just phrased the word.
"What?" Even the demon stopped laughing, twisting his head to the side with his face increasing in wrinkles as if he had just received an insult, and by the sound of it, it must have been.
Kanae's eyes widened, her hand tapping her mouth in an instant.
"Hey say it again..." The demon scowled.
Kanae instead focused on another thing. "Sabito-san, did you feel the moment Shinobu and Iguro-san got separated?"
The other shook his head.
"This must be a demon blood art."
As soon as she said those words, the demon leaped at her.
She saw it coming, almost as if it was a forethought, Kanae moved her body to the side, not a hit was touched by the demon. Then with ease and not a single speck of hesitation, she raised her katana up and sliced the demon's head instantly.
Sabito stayed there, or rather he was left there to just witness it.
"The swordsmen, they are growing weaker."
He remembered those words coming from Urokodaki after Makomo had left for another mission.
In the last batch, a year ago, the number of students that had survived was so low that news spread about it like wildfire.
Urokodaki's student survived for the first time. A few remembered the kids and the fact that they had always died, but many, especially cultivators, still remembered Meiji's best Water Hashira.
To think even the students of such a man had died...
That is until the last batch, making the rumors really run around.
"There was this one tall kid that looked so weird! He didn't even have sleeves and wore all black! The girls by his side, they were all almost naked!"
"Urokodaki's student really passed? You mean those kids with fox masks? What?! I thought those kids were just stories made up!"
"There were even two children! A kid close to Ten and another of twelve! How? How did the other fifteen or sixteen year olds not survive but they did?!"
"Oh and that one boy! You know! The one trained by Fujimura-sama!"
Those were the rumors running around when he first went to the village to get some new uniforms for Makomo.
The kids were getting weaker, but those who survived...
"I got accepted as a tsuguko! From Himejima-san!" Makomo had not left the man when she first saw him, and even if it took a lot of effort on her part, eventually they got close enough to let her train under him.
"Uzui-san is already a Kinoto in just eight months!" Giyuu had told him through the letter, though she sounded happy about him, she couldn't hide her envy when she was faced with him. Her pout seemed to grow and her eyes softened, like she was getting mad at something, but not at them.
Maybe, if was being more careful, if he could know her more, he could say there was a bit of self hate.
"I heard that the small boy from the selection is now being taken care of by Kuwajima-sama."
"Kuwa...Ah! You mean the infamous roaring hashira?! Now way!"
"And also... the little girl that wears the checkered red haori, no, not her, yes! The girl from that selection..."
"I've heard she is being given tasks next to Hashiras even though she isn't anyone's tsuguko."
"What!?"
"What's even crazier... She is also always called by Oyakata-Sama every month."
"For??"
The gossip ended there.
Sabito wished he could find out more about them.
About who those kids were, why did they survive? How the hell do Shinobi exist in this era? Who is that Fujimura person? Why was ten year old in the selection?
Who was Giyuu?
Who was she? Why is she so close to them?
Easy, Giyuu was just a lucky kid that got to train with a teacher no one has ever heard of... A girl who found two talented people while on a mission with a hashira... And someone who... read him like a book.
Someone who spoke cryptic.
Someone who knew what was happening, from small events like someone's favorite food to even big news like the one time a small hurricane had appeared. As though she had read the future.
Read the future...
His lavender eyes faced up, carefully watching the girl with two butterfly pins on each side, now tying her long hair into a ponytail.
"I expected a mutated demon around here, but not one who could have powers." Sabito said with a low voice.
"Must be from all the students that died in the last batch."
"There were... 76 right?" It was almost three times as big as the other batches, even theirs with only 23 students.
"And only 8 survived." Kanae finished his sentence. "They would have been so lucky if they had you no?" She said while smiling.
"You flatter me too much!" Though he enjoyed those compliments to a whole. "Koucho, you have also helped a lot of wounded students here."
They both started to act out. Their minds relaxing, thinking that the demon they killed was the one with the blood art.
"Oh no! Sabito-san you have done a lot too! I would have definitely died of boredom without no one except Nobu to talk to these past few days!" Kanae tried to hide in her laughter but a few chokes escaped her breath.
"But without Koucho-san I must say I couldn't have survived Obanai's second meal!"
The two of them burst out laughing, remembering that one soup they had left him to make, and then the laugh died down as they still found themselves inside the mist forest.
Sabito clicked his tongue. They had been too careless thinking that was the demon with the blood art.
"The mist should have dispersed..." Kanae muttered under her breath.
"GIYUU!"
His eyes widened, his pupils started to shake. Sabito turned back around so fast Kanae had flinched, thinking he had almost snapped his neck.
"Sabi--TO-SAN!" He had left like the wind upon hearing Iguro's scream in fear.
No NO Stupid! Giyuu isn't allowed here! How the hel did you fall for that?!?
Sabito slapped himself awake but the screams just came again and again. From all directions, now with more people. Makomo, Shinobu, even Kanae which he had left-
SHIT.
The demon had won.
Sabito and Kanae were separated, and he must have done the same with Iguro and Shinobu to make the hunt more easy.
These kinds of demons where they once slayers really had to deal with no? A smirk creeped around his face while the cold sweat came.
He put on his fox mask and sheathed his sword out. If this was how it was going to be, he might as well start learning now.
Focus, think clearly like the water, just like how the old man taught you to do.
He took a deep breath in, his lungs expanding as the cold air entered and slapped him into a clear state of mind so that he could use all of his senses to his advantage.
"Let's kill this thing."
...
One of his lavender eyes moved to the left.
'Slice'
A scent of blood entered his nostrils, only to be filled back again with the mist.
Dammit!
An unknown voice cried out in his mind.
I'll deal with that kid- no. That monster later.
He thought before moving away from the mist prison for the boy.
That... that lackey of Muzan-Sama... he was right! Dammit why the hell was he right?!
The demon said as he looked back to find the other kids, all separated through the forest. All in carefully watching their surroundings even for the smallest movement.
He couldn't even get five meters close to them.
They are all dangerous! Tch! What a hassle!
He wanted to rip them to shreds right now and then go back to Kibutsuji to obtain his prize.
Maybe he could finally see that face of surprise in that man's eyes! The demon laughed as he thought about the way that lackey would be punished by Muzan.
To say such things to him, such as THAT! Who does that BRAT think he is!
He could still remember it clearly when he first met him.
"Pathetic. But just enough about him will do." That brat grabbed his face, the pain of turning into a demon still resided in him, and he had just been grabbed like a muppet by that brat's hand that dug long nails into his cheeks.
"Muzan-Sama, this pathetic demon of yours will suffice."
He said with a kind smile, but even he knew it was twisted to sound like the demon king himself would always have such pathetic failures.
He even acted like he was better than him, even when he looked far FAR weaker than him.
A twisted scowl came from the demon king's face, before turning back to face another direction and letting that brat handle him.
"Listen very well."
His voice changed from a light silly one to a deep and heavily threatening one.
"Act weak enough to be trapped by the hunters you will meet soon. "
"Whatever you do, you must kill. Single. Kid."
A pair of eyes glowed behind the dark veil.
"Especially these that I'm about to tell you...
....
"A pair of sisters with butterfly pins, any kid wearing a fox mask, an albino, a kid with blonde hair and red ends, a kid with a snake, and a tall one wearing sleeveless clothes." The demon ranted off the kids from the top of his head.
Only the albino and the sleeveless kid were not present, even though they should.
Maybe in another batch, he thought.
His eyes peered to the one girl, the smaller one with no sword on her hand. The grin on his face grew even more.
I'll play with her before eating her up.
He stood up from his branch, ready to go inside the prison, only for something to bite him in his feet.
"GAH! What the hell!" A stupid snake bit his ankle.
A stupid snake with white scales.
"Second form: Venom gangs of the narrow head."
The katana that came at blinding speeds had been just a second away from cutting him. These kids really could be true dangers if they grew.
Which is why I will eat them all up now!
The demon moved his head away from the katana, then kicked the boy's guts back into a tree. He will have to take care of that tiny kid later.
Right now it seems that the snake kid wanted to die first.
The demon raised his hands, a sharp blade regenerated from the palm of his hand, and then swung it at him while he was still recovering from the hit in his head.
"Dammit!"
Iguro was able to swiftly evade the oncoming blade that had sliced down the tree in an instant, thankfully that will be heard by everyone. Hopefully.
The next two slashes were stopped easily by his katana, though a few slashes hit his cheek, making his bandages fall out and reveal the scar on his face.
What was worse, the demon was backing away. He needed to get close to him or else he wouldn't be able to see from his right eye. Not when Kaburamaru has been thrown into another tree at least.
He backed away to find his friend.
"Blood demon art."
"Elastic."
Iguro looked back at the demon, his neck growing longer and so did his arms and legs, growing more and more until his head looked like it was being held like a balloon. Until its hands moved around like serpents everywhere.
Until he grew so tall that the demon didn't even need the branch anymore.
He has to make a run for it and get the others.
"Shit-" The hands like those of spaghetti tried to catch him, he ran around and below everywhere but those things never got stuck inside the branches because their flexibility seemed endless.
Then, he stepped out of line from the branches.
It got him.
The arm grabbed him back though all the branches, his head hit so many things, he tried to hold on to the trees but it was impossible, the hand was pulling him like it would be fine with ripping his leg off. He knew he couldn't win.
Shit! Why do such things exist here?!?
"Are you ready to fight thousand year old enemies?"
Makomo's words came to him. So this is what she meant. He held as hard as he could to the tree, but it wasn't worth it, his muscles felt like they were going to be torn apart.
The fear of that snake woman came back.
Iguro closed his eyes.
He wasn't ready after all. He probably never was.
Mitsuri... I'm sorry.
He let go of the tree.
Sabito dammit, you were right. I'm not a man.
Urokodaki did so much for me... and so did Rengoku-san...
And...
The light of the moon shined in the blade his hands still held. The memories coming back to him, how he would train day and night in that monstrous mountain.
He never let his katana fly away from his hand.
"You will escape."
Right... Iguro wanted to escape that place, he did his best to run away even with a body that was far weaker than it is now.
The stars were shining so bright just like the first time he had seen them.
The night when he felt alive.
He wanted to live, to really live. That's why he was here.
And if thousand year old enemies where getting in his way of living...
'Slash!'
He cut off his hand before another came, then suddenly fell into the hard rocky floor with slippery moss everywhere. He might die here but he won't dare to be eaten by that demon.
He won't be killed by a demon.
Not now.
Not ever.
Another hand was coming next to him, all the pain in his body was aching like hell, his breaths were dying for air even though there was plenty everywhere, but either way he still put his sword in front, ready to fight until his death.
Then as the hand reached closer, his eyes spotted something moving from the mist.
'SLASH'
"Tch, so it grew huh?"
Kaburamaru was now thrown next to him, the poor snake tried to lock his wounds while his vision remained foggy.
But his mind knew exactly who was in front of him.
"You did great, Iguro. You madman. Heard from Kabu how you acted out before he could touch Koucho's sister."
Even without seeing him, he sensed that a smile was coming from him.
"Did...is- she...fine?" Iguro asked
"Yeah. She is fine."
Sabito took a deep breath in to make his next move, but not before talking to him once more.
"A real man protected her after all."
Iguro, even in such a weak state, couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his words.
He really just said that huh...
-----
"Why not all of them?"
"Hm? I've listed enough haven't I? Seven hashiras and a genius. Though that fox kid would have died anyway. He was too stupid, what I care is his friend he instead is an easier pray than anyone else... pft! Ahahahaha! Such a joke, and to think it became a threat."
"Still. More of those pests could be dealt with inside that fucking wisteria prison those imbeciles had made... Bastards, every kid must die in that place."
The unknown man smiled at the king.
"I know. I understand. But you see, the rest are gifted children, Muzan. Gifted with so much strength and power. It would be a waste to kill them."
He turned his eyes to him, still glowing in the night.
"Rather, for such people. I want them to be turned into demons."
_______________________________________________
A/N
Hey! One more chapter in the same week bc sorry for those two weeks of nothing.