My whole body is aching! It's so painful! Tanjiro panting for air. Hinokami Dance breathing is taking a heavy toll on his body right now. Grabbing the wooden box on the way. Tears is falling down as he's in so much pain.
I want to scream from the pain! Deal with it! His breathing is rapidly getting faster. He's trying to hold onto the pain, putting up a brave front. His sprint is getting slower and slower. He is out of stamina.
Deal with it! Deal with it! Deal with it! Deal with it! Deal with it! Deal with it! He's been telling himself to hold on while carrying his little sister in his arm. Nezuko open her eyes slowly. Her wounds had already been healed by her healing ability. She just sits on her brother's arms in silent. She looks sad.
Does this mean I'll have to quit the Demon Slayer Corps? Even if she's my little sister, there's no way they'd let one of their swordsmen travel with a demon! Tanjiro is thinking what will happen to them in the future. Both of them will be hunted by the Corps if this keeps going. He didn't want that. How he's going to find Muzan and his cronies to revert her sister back to normal?
Without him knowing, someone has been following them from branches to branches on top of the trees.
Klang!
"I see you're dead serious, Tomioka-san. Who would've thought a Hashira would ever defend a demon?" Her face changed, she looks quite a bit serious. To Doffy, she's just irritated. Damn, I didn't knew that guy's a Hashira too.
Tomioka just stand there, answering nothing. "Whether you're dead serious or not, I'm not going to join you in stalling for time. So, good day to you." She jumped high in the sky, which is an inhuman thing to do. Far from the reach of Tomioka.
Travelling by the trees, she went ahead to Tanjiro's current location with Tomioka on her tail, chasing right behind her right on the ground. "Is that your attempt at catching up with me?" She teases him.
"I don't mind you trying to stop me, but don't forget about the other one!" She told both of them while flying in the air, below the full moon. Completely forgetting about Doffy who is out of everybody's sight.
"Is that a challenge?" A voice stunned her, looking in her front, a man dressed completely in black suit and a pink feathered jacket showed up on top of her, standing just couple feet from her who's in the air. How? Could a Blood Demon Art able to make him fly?
Coming back from her daze as how this demon could float, he proceeds to attack him which he easily evade. He flies freely on the air like a bird. Flying upside down even, as if he's born for this. Threads wrapped her out, immobilizing her.
She has no strength to do anything to do something about those threads. Since born, she had no physical strength at all. Doflamingo pushed her lightly in Tomioka's direction. "She's all yours!"
Tomioka jump high as he could, catching his colleague at the same time. "Not much of a challenge. Are you sure that this brat a Hashira, not some impostor laying around?" Tick marks show out from Shinobu's forehead and yet she could make a smile on her face. She's offended.
"Protecting a demon, preventing other demon slayer to do their jobs and in cahoots with one. I wonder what reaction the other Hashira would have if they heard about this. By the way, you look a lot younger than me, you know." She spoke in a scary tone masked with her sweet smile, just like Nami when she's pissed. She hates it when someone called her a kid. Not to mention that Doffy looks younger than her, what the heck?
"Where are you going?" Doflamingo is leaving, to where?
"Didn't ya heard? She said, 'the other one' You know what that means?" Doflamingo counters back with a question.
"She's not alone." Tomioka solved the question.
"Bingo. Keep her busy, I'm going to check on the kid." Doflamingo then vanish into thin air.
Back with Tanjiro
Don't stop running! Keep moving! You gotta run as far away as you can! Tanjiro keep telling himself countless times as a motivation to keep running. For the safety of his sister, he'll do anything. Afterwards, a girl out of nowhere falls from the sky and kick Tanjiro square in his back, causing him to fall, dropping the wooden box and his own sister away.
Not good! What happened? It was all I could do to just keep running! Nezuko! A girl came closer to Nezuko with a demon slayer outfit with "Destroy" in the back.
A Demon Slayer! Raising her sword, she swings it to Nezuko's neck. Tanjiro pulled the girl's cape, causing her to fall on top of himself, saving Nezuko.
"Run Nezuko! Run! Make a run for it! Don't get caught no matter what! Hurr-
Bam!
Before Tanjiro could finish his sentence, the girl drop her foot on Tanjiro's neck, knocking him out for good. She gets up and continues to chase Nezuko instead. She swings her blade once more over Nezuko, but the blade miss as Nezuko shrinks herself to the size of a child.
She shrunk and turned into a child. She stops chasing her as she were distracted by that. After that short daydreaming, she chases Nezuko again.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
She swings her blade over and over and over but nothing hit Nezuko as she keeps n dodging, not bothered to attack the girl back. All she's doing is running away. Not a single attack. But why? Curiosity is growing in her head.
No need to ponder. My only job is to slay this demon as I was told. She bounce the curiosity off her head.
Back to Tomioka and Shinobu
"Tomioka-san? Are you listening, Tomioka-san?" She inquired whether he is listening or not.
"Since the purpose of my attack was to slay a demon, and therefore justified, I don't believe it could be as a violation. But what you're doing is against the Corps rules. You're preventing me from slaying a demon. Just what are your intentions here?" She seeks answers while doing her best to struggling to free herself from Tomioka.
Tomioka looks as if he wants to die already. He can't handle Shinobu as he thought earlier. "Don't you have anything to say? This is your final warning. Give me a reason at least." Shinobu said.
(Tomioka I want to die look)
"If I'm remembering this right, it was two years ago." Tomioka opens his mouth to speak his reasons and defend himself.
"Please don't start some long, rambling story from that far back in time. Are you just being spiteful? Are you still angry that I pointed out how people don't like you?" She just being mean right now.
Crack!
That broke Tomioka's heart. It turn out that the chit-chat is just a distraction so Shinobu could prepare a hidden weapon. A small knife came out of her shoe located on her heels. She raised her heels up, preparing to poke Tomioka's eye using it. Tomioka were caught off guard and can't react fast enough.
"Message! Message! I have a message from headquarters! " A crow from the headquarters stops their confrontation.
"Tanjiro and Nezuko are to be taken into custody and brought back to headquarters, caw!"