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Tanjiro had done it, he had succeeded in defeating the demon but it left him damaged. He had drawn power from a memory in his past, utilizing a technique his late father had mentioned to him. This technique was able to cut through the demon's head when nothing else could but it left a strain on his body. Now, he was lying on the floor, writhing in pain from all the injuries he had sustained during his encounter. His blade had been destroyed during the fight so all he was left with was a hilt he could use to drag himself towards his sister, Nezuko, who was released from her constraints. He was her big brother, he had to protect her no matter what so he couldn't afford to let fatigue get the best of him now. He desperately clawed the ground with his hilt dragging himself forward one inch at a time until his vision became blurry and his ears began ringing loudly. He was feeling the intense backlash of using his father's technique, he almost wanted to give up right there and just sleep off the pain but he couldn't stop now, not until he knew Nezuko was safe.
Tanjiro froze in fear once he smelled the ever growing stench of blood emanating from the Lower Moon he was just fighting. He was too afraid to turn around, questions were flooding his mind regarding how the demon survived his father's attack. That's when he realized that the corpse didn't burn up like the rest. It had remained lifeless despite its decapitation but the fact that it didn't burn up like the rest meant that the demon was still alive.
The body began to walk towards Tanjiro, manipulating several strings to control the removed head. The head began to taunt Tanjiro, "You thought you defeated me? Poor kid, how delusional could you be? I cut off my head with my own string so that you couldn't." Tanjiro still pressed forward, fighting through the pain to reach his sibling. "Enough. I'll kill both you and your sister. I haven't been this enraged in a long time." The Lower Moon reattached his head to his body, blood vessels emphasized from irritation. Using his demonic powers, his arms turned to a blood red color as he formed strings of the same color. He was going to enjoy carving up Tanjiro
The Demon stated his attack, Blood Demon Art: Murderous Eye Basket, as he stretched the threads tied around his fingers. A dome of sharp strings formed around Tanjiro, making the boy's heart beat rapidly. He was resisting the urge to panic and kept himself under control. However, he was at his physical limit and could barely lift his arm.
The demon prepared to close the stringed cage on Tanjiro, reducing him to minced meat until his heightened senses alerted him to a distant sound in the distance. He looked around curiously, trying to figure out if it was an animal or not. His question was soon answered as he witnessed a green giant zoom towards him so quickly he had no time to react.
The Doom Slayer slammed Inosuke's blade into the throat of the creature, effectively decapitating the demon as it's head was knocked away like a baseball. Unfortunately, Inosuke's blade also met a similar fate as the blade snapped like the other and spun away. The Slayer was immeasurably disappointed as he looked at the broken blade in his hands and angrily squeezed it to let out his frustration. However, the hilt shattered in his hand as the crumbs of the blade fell to the floor. The warrior let out a deep, exasperated sigh due to his disappointment and shook off the remaining bits that stuck to his gauntlet. So this is what he had to work with in this dimension, how pathetic.
Tanjiro looked towards the decaying corpse of the demon he had just fought. Despite their battle, he did have pity to spare for the demon despite his feelings towards them. He reached his hand out towards the dying demon but his train of thought was interrupted by the warrior bringing his foot down in front of Tanjiro, concerned for why a demon slayer would be reaching out to a demon whatsoever. The Slayer got on one knee and leaned towards Tanjiro. The boy looked up to see the man's helmet in his face. The warrior was giving Tanjiro a wide-eyed skeptical look through his visor, he did not have time for demon sympathizers if this boy was one.
Tanjiro was intimidated and couldn't bring himself to say anything except, "Thank you, sir. I- I was just-..." Tanjiro couldn't even finish his sentence, the Doom Slayer intimidated him far too much. They both heard the muffled groans of Tanjiro's sister a few meters away which caught their attention. The Slayer stood up, unaware of the girl's presence. Tanjiro cried out to his sister as he began crawling towards her once more.
Nezuko is a small girl just slightly younger than Tanjiro, having long, black hair which turns orange at the ends with a pink ribbon on her head. She wears a pink kimono with a long, dark brown jacket covering her. Lastly, she wears a bamboo gag tied around her head to keep her mouth shut. The warrior watched as Tanjiro used himself as a blanket to protect her. The Slayer watched for a moment until he was blinded by a static flash and he could vaguely depict an image through the chaos in his mind. The flash faded as soon as it arrived, leaving him only with a headache which made him put his hand on his helmet instinctively. Just what the hell was that? What did he just experience?
Tanjiro caressed the girl's hair as he explained, "It's alright, Nezuko, your big brother's here. You don't have to worry anymore." The Slayer felt compelled to check on the girl as well. He didn't know why, he had no reason to, it was as if some dormant instinct was instructing him to do so. He walked over before he knew it and crouched down to inspect the girl's injuries. She was cut all over and profusely bleeding. He didn't have any supplies on him to help her with so she was going to have to wait.
Tanjiro was sweating an incredible amount, more so than before because he can smell the demonic bloodlust radiating off of the Hellwalker. If this man knew that Nezuko was a demon, her life is as good as over and everything Tanjiro would've fought for would've been for nothing. The boy introduced, regardless, "This is Nezuko, my sister, she got tur- caught up in my fight against that demon and I was trying to save her. Thank you for saving us."
The warrior said nothing in response. Realizing the situation was safe, he stood back up and looked around to see if he could catch any traces of other demons but found nothing. That's when he heard something moving quickly through the forest and going directly towards him (or so he thought). He didn't know why, but he quickly grabbed both Tanjiro and Nezuko and leaped away from the incoming target as an individual zoomed past where they were. By that time, the Slayer had landed on the floor and placed the siblings down. This caused Tanjiro to cough uncontrollably as he was not ready to be manhandled like that.
The individual is a woman with gradient purple eyes and hair that is tied back with two large bangs reaching to her shoulders. Her hair is black and fades to a dark purple at the ends, being tied up by a large butterfly ornament. She wears the standard demon slayer uniform underneath her white jacket which is stylized to resemble that of a butterfly. She turns to the Slayer with a gentle smile on her face and asks, "Excuse me, could you step out of the way? I'd like to do my job." before raising her sword.
The Slayer stared at the woman, confused by what she meant as he had already taken care of the threat. The woman seemed to catch onto the Slayer's confusion as she elaborated, "Oh, I'm not sure if you know this but that little girl there's a demon. That's who I was trying to hit, I'm sorry for the confusion. My name is Shinobu Kocho, Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps."
Tanjiro's heart sank into the Earth once the woman revealed that Nezuko was a demon. He squeezed his sister tightly, turning as pale as his sister as he slowly lifted his head up towards the Doom Slayer. There it was, he could feel that same demonic hatred emanating from the Slayer. This time, he could feel it in full force as his presence sent shivers down his spine. It was as if the whole world turned black and all he could see was the fiery, red aura of the Doom Slayer in front of him. The warrior slowly turned around, growling, before facing them both.
The warrior began raising his arm to strike the girl down, extending his doom blade. It doesn't matter if it gets the job done or not, the bottom line was that there was a demon in front of him and it needed to be killed. Tanjiro struggled to speak, he couldn't form words as his teeth chattered. He was begging himself to stop being scared and say something in retaliation but he was also internally begging for the warrior to stop. When all else failed, Tanjiro clung to his sister tightly and winced, anticipating the worst.
As the Slayer brought his arm down, he was blinded once more by another static flash until he could see the vague image of a girl from his past. He couldn't recognize who she was but this made him stop once he could see again. His arm began trembling, why?! Why couldn't he follow through with his swing?! She's a demon, she needs to be killed, so why can't he do his job?! It was like his entire body was stopping him from following through, it was that same dormant instinct again stopping him from killing Nezuko.
Tanjiro opened his eyes to see the Slayer had stopped in his tracks, arm shaking as he was resisting the urge to follow through with his swing. Tanjiro was able to mutter, "Please, she's all I have left. My family's dead. Yes, I know she's a demon and you hate them but she's not like the others! That's why I'm on this journey, it's so she can regain her humanity and be the person she once was!" Tanjiro struggled to speak, his voice breaking into a high-pitch every other word. That was how terrified he was. Tears soon swelled up as he was about to cry.
The warrior gave in, he couldn't do it, not after seeing Tanjiro's face. He dropped his arm in defeat and retracted his blade, clenching his fists tightly in frustration at the prospect of going against his principles. Shinobu watched in awe and commented once she saw the Slayer drop his arm, "I take it that you're not going to kill the demon? What a shame, I suppose I'll have to turn you into the Demon Slayer Corps after I kill her myself."
The Slayer spun around, bringing his foot down as he glared at the woman after hearing her statement. Shinobu flinched upon seeing the green giant stare at her. She couldn't see through his visor from where she was at so she was only met with the darkness of his blue visor staring directly at her. She assumed a fighting stance as she threatened, "Are you going to get in my way? That's going to be two strikes if you stop me from killing the demon. It's against the Corps rules."
The Slayer didn't budge from his position as he continued guarding the two siblings behind him. Shinobu let out a sigh as she said, "Don't say I didn't warn you." The Hashira zoomed forward in an attempt to kill Nezuko. However, her mistake was severely underestimating the Doom Slayer as the man moved out of the way and pressed her against the cold dirt, pinning her down so she wouldn't be able to move in a fraction of a second. It was fast, too fast for her to process as she had to blink several times to acknowledge what had just happened. Tanjiro was also amazed as his jaw slightly dropped, amazed by the swift reaction of the Doom Slayer. It was as if that man had practiced that maneuver hundreds of times in his life.
The Hellwalker was never a stranger to violence, he would dispense his own brand of justice to anyone he felt was worthy of it. That much, he remembered. However, it was a waste to beat the life out of a young woman who shouldn't even be in this field of expertise. So far, all he's seen is children killing demons. What are the adults in this world doing? Sitting on their asses? They should be the ones fighting, not the children!
A small blade emerged from the heel of the sandal Shinobu was wearing. She brought her foot closer to stab the Slayer but the puny blade dinked off his durable armor. She let out a slight gasp upon realizing this, giving up on resisting as she was simply far too weak to resist. It was a curse for her to be this short, her peers would often make fun of her for it. Shinobu calmly teased although she knew she was in no position to threaten, "That would be strike three: attacking a Hashira."
Inosuke finally caught up to the Doom Slayer as he stormed in, screaming. He looked around to see the warrior pinning a young woman to the floor with Tanjiro and Nezuko, injured, sitting next to him. Inosuke questioned, "Whoa. What the hell is happening?!" He then looked towards the floor to see the broken fragments of his remaining sword as he screamed, "YOU BROKE MY OTHER SWORD?! DAMMIT, WHY DO YOU KEEP BREAKING MY SHIT! I'M GONNA HAVE TO BREAK YOU ONE OF THESE DAYS, JUST YOU WATCH!"
Shinobu jokingly said to the Slayer, "I assume you know each other?" The warrior continued with his silence as he pondered what he was going to do now. In that moment, a crow's voice cried out from the forest, spinning around in circles above everyone else as it announced, "Message! Message! I have a message from headquarters! Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the unidentified demon slayer are to be taken into custody and brought back to the headquarters! I repeat! Tanjiro, Nezuko, the demon, and the unidentified slayer are to be taken into custody and brought back to headquarters!"
The Slayer looked towards the two siblings next to him with the boy shrugging his shoulders out of confusion. The warrior assumed he was the unidentified slayer in this case that the bird referred to. How the demon slayer corps is aware of his existence is beyond him, but perhaps, it might be there where he could receive the answer as to where he is and what's going on in this world. He'll follow along for the time being.