𝙼𝚢 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚖 || 𝚃𝚊𝚗𝚓𝚒𝚛𝚘 𝚡 𝙵𝚎𝚖!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙴𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚢

"Oh, what's the matter, Toshikuni?"

"You've made a huge mess."

He... he found it... the blue spider lily!! Great job Hantengu!!

The old woman raised a brow at the boy who was practically shaking in his spot. "Well, you seem to be having fun. Is the book really that go—"

The older woman didn't finish when something invisible seem to whip at her face, taking her whole entire head with it. There was a maid next to them carrying a tray with tea.

The maid turned around and saw the body fall to the ground and red began to flood everywhere. Her blood ran cold.

"M—Madam? Y-Your head... wh—where did it g-go?"

"There's no need to search for it anymore if I've already found it! Not only one, but two of them!" Muzan graveled in excitement. "Even for a thousand years in creating my own kind... even if I didn't want to... there's TWO of them!!"

Muzan began to shift into his original form, he grew taller and taller, as he did, the maid was shaking in fear. She'd never seen this before.

"If I eat that little wench, I'll be able to conquer the sun! Since she's a demon slayer, I'd be getting rid of a powerful one! Their organization would be weakened!!"

"GAHHHH MONSTER!! MURDERER!! SOMEONE HELP—!"

As soon as she began to run, her head too had been taken. After a thousand years of searching, it has been found. Both Y/n and Nezuko were going to have the demon battles centered around them now.

But since you have mastered Dance of the Fire God as well as Galactic Breathing, he had to get rid of you first. And it he did, he'd become more powerful than any other creature. And finally be the perfect one.

"It's time..." he smirked to himself. "And I guess Ayame finally used her dragon form... good... everything is falling into place."

┌───͙⊱••✩••̩̩͙⊰•───┐

"My my, we lost another one." Douma started as he'd just arrived to the infinity mansion with the other remaining uppermoons left. He grew a sad yet happy smile. "How unfortunate."

Akaza was around and rolled his eyes. The demon with the string instrument strummed and the last demon showed up. They all looked upward to see Muzan Kibutsuj fiddling with his test tubes and scientific trinkets that even some of the uppermoons didn't really understand.

He placed one down as he was aware of them all staring at him, to which he enjoyed. "Do you all know why I've summoned you here?"

"I'd assume it's because of Hantengu's untimely death. Along with the other one?" Douma mentioned, breaking the couple seconds of silence after Muzan spoke. "Truly depressing."

"Not quite."

"Oh?"

Muzan folded his arms onto the table and leaned over on it, staring at the demons lower than him.

"Not only about the fact that one of the uppermoons have died because of them being weak, but because I have been informed that the blue spider lily has been found."

Their eyes widened. Akaza snapped his head upwards more and everyone's ears perked up, their attention growing more.

"Where is it?"

"That's the issue though." Muzan started. "The problem is, is that since the Galactic Breathers found Y/n. The only thing to keep her alive was its contents. They made it into the medicine I needed."

"So she IS the spider lily itself?"

"Indeed." He nodded to them. "And I need her."

"But what about the Kamado sister?" Kaigaku asked. "She's the demon who conquered the sun."

"Yes, she's important too; however," he paused for a moment. "Y/n is far more powerful. Almost as good as a Hashira. Not only that, but she's got Ayame on her side."

"Damn." Akaza said to himself.

"Ayame had used her blood demon art. You all must know what that means."

Douma gasped and clapped his hands excitedly. "It's really time isn't it!"

Muzan rolled his eyes. "Ayame knows it too. She knows what's started."

A figure began to walk forward from behind the other uppermoons. A smirk on his face like he knew what was to happen. His hair was a pristine as snow, eyes as red as flames, and a pair of horns that sat upon his forehead, imitating a dragon.

Douma clapped excitedly practically jumping up and down. "This is gonna be exciting! I've missed you, Tatsuo!"

"I've had enough sleep for a while now." He grumbled in his dark, raspy voice. The intimidating aura surrounded his body.

"So, let's kill a little star."

┌───͙⊱••✩••̩̩͙⊰•───┐

And this is when the shit had really started to come out.

A special training session had begun. All those who were ranked lower than Pillars, they were all trained with them, every single one.

Ever since you heard about this happening now, you knew something was up. Ever since Nezuko was able to conquer the sun, the demons attacks and appearances had stopped.

It was like the 'calm before the storm'. The Hashira had taken to night shifts and day training now. Ayame had helped along with them, but she'd been a part of their meetings more recently and you've noticed this. Not only was it just the lower ranks of the demon slayer corps that were being pushed past their limits, but all of the Galactic breathers had come together to train along with them.

The Hashiras had taken to training you most of all, you couldn't understand why, but your determination to defeat Muzan and the uppermoons made you able to do what they wished of you.

Although; it was very very difficult.

"It's hell. Absolute hell." Zenitsu mumbled.

"But, the whole part of getting better is training with someone stronger than you!" Tanjiro reassured. "Confronting the strong will make you use your breaths more efficiently and make you even stronger than before."

"EXCUSE ME!! IF YOU'RE GONNA BE THAT FORWARD AND POSITIVE THEN I'M ENDING OUR FRIENDSHIP!" Zenitsu shouted loudly in frustration towards the red head. "YOU'RE LUCKY THAT THIS IS YOUR LAST COUPLE OF DAYS SINCE YOU WERE HURT THE WORST DURING THAT FIGHT! DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M FEELING?!"

Tanjiro waved Zenitsu off of himself. The amber eyed boy began to stomp off towards the exit.

"Hey!" Tanjiro called back to the boy with hair of golden sunshine. "I forgot to say thanks."

"For what?"

"Back in the fight, I couldn't use one of my legs. I was able to decapitate the demon later on thanks you your Thunder breathing trick you taught me before. I mean, I obviously wasn't as fast as you, but thank you. This is why having connections with others is really helpful." Tanjiro smiled. Causing the blonde to stop in his tracks.

"I'm sure everything you learn during Hashira training will help you reach a great future." Tanjiro practically had flowers dancing around his figure. That same kindness and energy radiated towards Zenitsu.

He smiled to himself. "Awww you dumbass! You think that'll change the way I feel?!"

Oh he's definitely better.

Out of no where, Tanjiro's crow flew right into his head, causing him to yelp. The crow cawed loudly as the red head waved his hand around and gripped onto the new scratch on his head.

"What are you doing here!?"

"LETTER FROM OYAKATA-SAMA! RAWHH! READ IT NOW!"

Tanjiro looked at him in confusion and curiosity. "Letter? For me? I wonder what that's about."

┌───͙⊱••✩••̩̩͙⊰•───┐

"COME ON NOW YA BUNCH O' SISSIES! WHAT WOULD YOUR MOMMIES SAY ABOUT YOU LICKING THE DIRT RIGHT NOW?!"

Yep, Hashira training literally felt like shit.

Uzui was the first one of the day to train everyone. His consisted of initial hazing, more so known as stamina training. Mitsuri would later deal with flexibility, Muichiro dealt with quick sword movements, Obanai dealt with sword skill revision, Shinazugawa with infinite pounding training, and finally there was Gyomei training with muscle improvement.

Even so, when it seemed like all the lower ranks were the only ones gaining anything, the Hashira's were also able to improve by faces waves and waves of swordsmen.

Since the fight, Mitsuri, along with Muichiro and you, they had discovered something called the demon slayer mark, which appeared when their bodies went into a sort of mode where they had lost complete control of their emotions.

Ayame had gone into more depth about it, but this has only happened for certain Galactic Breathers. When she described what had happened to you while fighting Takashi, they could somewhat understand what she was talking about. Muichiro helped add detail to this, making more sense.

You, along with Mitsuri, Muichiro, and Tanjiro will continue to train to stay in the 'mark state'. The determination of the demon slayer along with the Galactic breathers was so high, it made training seem more motivating, so they were working towards being the best of the best!

Except for one man.

"That's what the letter said?" You asked. The burgundy eyed boy nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind that I brought you along."

"Of course I don't!" You reassured. "I haven't seen Tomioka-san for a long time, I figured I'd say hello to him anyways."

Tanjiro and you had reached the front of the door and knocked softly, calling out his name a couple times. That was until you decided to open the door yourself and poke your head through with a wide smile.

There you saw the dark haired, water pillar sitting on the ground, was he staring at the wall?

"Hey Tomioka-San." You beamed his way, taking him by surprise. Why are they here? Why is she taking to me?

"Heard about the training?"

"Yes."

"Oh so you have heard already. Nice."

You and Tanjiro sat down directly across from the Water Hashira and smiled his way.

"I'm gonna be able to return to duty in about four days. So, I wanted to ask." Tanjiro started. "Could you train me when I'm out?"

"No."

You blinked in confusion as to why he wouldn't. Tanjiro did the same. "Why not? I smell anger from your body, why?"

Giyuu kept his hardened gaze. "It's because you didn't master the breath of water you needed to become the Water Hashira."

Tanjiro rubbed his hand behind his neck bashfully. "I'm sorry about that. I've talked about it with Urokodaki-San before. It's not rare to change breathing styles or create an offshoot of one. And water breathing is one of the basic ones, so there's a lot of branches from that."

"That's not what I'm talking about." He came in; holding his head down and looking to the floor. Avoiding your eyes. "Someone has to be the Water Pillar because the seat is vacant."

You raised a brow at this. "It's vacant? The Water Pillar seat? But, isn't that you, Giyuu-San?"

He huffed to himself and kept his stoic expression. "I'm not the Water Hashira." With that he stood up and began to trudge towards the door. "Go away."

The two of you sat there, watching as he confused to the door.

Unfortunately, I can't move anymore. I want you to talk to Giyuu, but I can't do it anymore.
The time we have now is very important. I wish for everyone to work as one. Would you be willing to talk to Giyuu?
I want Giyuu to stop turning his back on us and face everything all alone, but be together with the rest of us.
Could you have a serious talk with him?

Tanjiro had accepted his request. He informed you about it and you were willing to help out. With times like now, it was important to have everyone working together as one.

So the two of you talked about full things all afternoon with him. Giyuu just couldn't understand why, but you both just kept on talking to him.

Eventually, Giyuu had given up after what was now four days of you both getting to talk to him and know him better.

The three of you stopped at a bridge over a gentle river that flowed slowly, little fishes and minnows swam along without a care in the world. There was the gentle sound of the wind rustling the trees nearby.

"I never actually passed final selection." He finally spoke.

Tanjiro tilted his head. "The one on the wisteria mountain?"

"Yes, back then, there was a boy who's family was killed by demons. Much like me. His name was Sabito. I went to selection along with him." He explained.

Both you and Tanjiro knew somehow who he was talking about. Back when the both of you had been training with Urokodaki and trying to cut that boulder. You saw them, both of them.

"I was thirteen. We had gotten along right away because we had lost our family to demons. Not to mention we were the same age. He had a strong sense of justice, and he was kind." He hesitated to speak the next sentence. And you could plainly see the pain that began to erupt throughout his expression, despite keeping that stoic face.

"He was the only one that died in final section that year." He continued. "He practically defeated every demon during that selection. I was injured by a demon who attacked me in the beginning. Then he saved me. He entrusted me to another boy, and then ran off to help a voice who cried for help."

"When the section was over, I was selected for surviving seven days. But I couldn't defeat a single demon, and I was bailed out. So can I really say that I passed the test? I'm not worthy of gaining the title of the Water Pillar. I'm not worthy of standing with the others. I'm not like them, I never should've had a place among them."

You stood there, listening to that story, and you understood now why. You knew his pain. After the fight in the entertainment district, when Ayame found you, you were afraid that you were the only one that lived. You couldn't live with yourself if that ever happened.

Tanjiro just remained there with you. His eyes becoming glossy as his story touched his soul deep inside. Giyuu-San...

"Both of you just go to the training. I'll never get the mark... maybe Sabito would've if he were still here." He huffed. "Don't concern yourself with me anymore. It's a waste of your time."

And with that, he began to take off down the bridge in the other direction.