A/N: sorry if the writing in the previous chapter was weird. I'm a little new to this. I try my best to be realistic, but not I'm not perfect. Thank you very much to my readers.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. They belong to Takahashi Rumiko and Gotoge Koyoharu (yes, names backwards again). I also do not own the above image.
Miroku was falling through darkness. He vaguely saw something beneath him and steadied himself for impact, which came two seconds later when he crashed to the ground.
Coughing, he scrambled to his feet and rubbed the dirt out of his eyes. Then he saw where he was.
It was definitely not where they had been a few minutes ago...
The bright, sunny weather had changed; it was now damp and overcast. The sun was low on the western horizon. Late afternoon already? He looked around and saw he was standing on a hill overlooking a wide, shallow valley that he had never seen before on all his travels.
Well, that was a bother. One moment they were walking along the hill, discussing their journey to Mount Hakurei, and the next minute sucked into the sky.
He turned, picked up his monk's staff which he had dropped, and started calling frantically. "Sango? Sango!" Where did she go—
"Yes, I'm here" she answered, walking up from his left. She dusted the dirt off her skirt and adjusted the straps that held her weapon of choice, a giant boomerang, strapped to her back. "Where are we?"
"I don't know. Everything's different. Hey, there's Kirara."
The two tailed demon cat ran up and leapt into Sango's arms and mewed worriedly.
"Oh, poor Kirara" Sango said gently, smoothing her cat's ruffled fur. She turned to Miroku."So, Hoshi-sama, what do we do now?"
"Hmm." Miroku surveyed the landscape again. It seemed there was a large town somewhere to the west. "Kirara, take us up."
The demon cat mewed and jumped down, transforming from a small domestic-sized cat to about the size of a tiger. They both climbed on her back and Kirara leaped into the air, her demon energy keeping her aloft. She flew westward, and soon they were near the village.
Miroku frowned. The village looked strange. It was very large and brightly. The houses had wooden or tiled roofs, and the streets were wide and paved. It was more like a small city.
"Odd." He said. "Let's land and take a look around."
Kirara landed on the outskirts of the town, so as not to startle anyone, shrank back to her normal size, and hopped onto Sango's shoulder again. Together they walked into the town.
Immediately Miroku noticed everything was different. Stores had brightly painted signs with words he didn't know, and were lit with strange lamps. People's clothes and hairstyles were different. Although most of them wore sandals, Miroku noticed some wearing shoes like Kagome's.
"We must be in Kagome's time." Sango said apprehensively. Several people were looking at them strangely.
"No, not quite."said Miroku. "Kagome-sama said in her time the streets were made of stone, and everybody wore shoes like hers." He looked around. "I think..."
Sensing danger, he spun around. At the same time he saw a boy about as old as Kagome rush out of an apothecary. He had red hair, reddish eyes, and wore hanafuda earrings. He also wore a black uniform of some sort, a green and black checkered haori, and carried a sword.
Miroku held out his staff; behind, Sango readied her boomerang Hiraikotsu.
The boy approached cautiously, clutching his sword hilt. "Who are you ?"he demanded. "I can smell an oni near you!"
Smell? An oni? "We are humans!" Miroku yelled back. Damnit, there were still demons here?
The boy suddenly turned and ran down the street. Miroku considered ignoring him, but he wanted to find out more and chased after. He heard Sango following behind. She must also be curious.
As soon as they were out of the town's limits the boy suddenly stopped, turned, and drew his sword. Instead of being silver the blade was jet black. Like Inuyasha's sword Tetsusaiga this sword also exuded a strange aura, but not demonic. Almost opposite, in fact—
"Who are you and why are you here?"the boy asked again.
"We don't mean any harm." Miroku began. "We are just lost."
"Then how come I smell a demonic presence?"the boy said sharply, brandishing his strange sword.
"That's Kirara." Sango said hastily, putting her cat down. "She's a two tailed cat yokai."
The boy blinked. "Yokai ?"he repeated.
"Earlier you said you detected an oni. Was it actually Kirara?" Miroku asked.
"Well..." the boy sheathed his sword, knelt down and held his hand to Kirara, who sniffed it suspiciously. "I've never heard of yokai, only oni... and Kirara doesn't seem to be dangerous..." he smiled as Kirara rubbed her head against him. "Where are you from, anyway?"
"Um..." Miroku began.
Luckily the boy continued talking. "If you're lost I can take you somewhere to stay the night. It's getting dark, and the oni will be out soon." He stood up and smiled. "My name's Kamado Tanjiro, by the way."
"Oh, um, I'm Sango, and this is Miroku." Sango explained.
Tanjiro beamed. "Nice to meet you. Now just follow me and I'll take you to see Kocho-San."
He started walking into the woods and Miroku and Sango followed quickly, the rings on Miroku's staff ringing with each step.
"You seem to know about oni." Tanjiro said cheerily. "So are you also Demon Hunters?"
What the heck? An oni kari?
Sango gave a start. "A what?"
"Oh, since you knew so much about it, I thought you were." Tanjiro laughed. "The Demon Slayer Corps (Kisatsutai) are an organization dedicated to hunting down the oni. I'm one."
Oh, that explained it. He glanced at Sango, who seemed in a gloomy mood. She was probably thinking about her brother Kohaku...
"So how do you know about the demons?" Tanjiro asked presently.
Miroku wondered how to answer. "Well, I'm a monk, so I know how to combat evil yokai"
Tanjiro started at him excitedly. "Oh, no wonder! I've heard of monks who could battle evil, but I've never met one. I thought all monks were old and prayed all day."
"Not where I come from." Miroku smirked. "There are priests and priestesses who travel back and forth through villages, exorcising evil spirits."
"Where are you from?"
Miroku named the the city closest to their village and was surprised to see Tanjiro frown in confusion. Surely they weren't that far away?
"Never heard of it." Tanjiro said after pondering for awhile. "Maybe you could name a mountain or something?"
It sounded like a stupid idea to Miroku, but he gave it a try. After trying the names of different rivers and cities, he mentioned mount Hakurei instead.
Tanjiro's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Hakurei? The only mountain I know called Hakurei crumbled away hundreds of years ago!"
Oh no. Panic started to set in. Miroku had suspected something like this. "What year is it?"he asked cautiously.
Tanjiro, equally cautiously, said "The fifth year of the Taisho Era."
"And when was the Sengoku Era?"
"About five hundred years ago."
Sango, who had not been paying attention earlier, suddenly yelped. "You mean we're stuck halfway between our time and Kagome's!"
"Calm down." Miroku whispered. "Kagome said she's from 1996, so we can't be that far."
"But how did we get here?" she hissed back. "We didn't go down the well-"
"Well, maybe the power of the well was distorted or something..."
Tanjiro just stared at them. "Are you guys ok?"
"Yeah, we're good, just figuring stuff out." Miroku answered rapidly.
"Ok. We're here now."
Before them were the gates to a mansion. Tanjiro entered and, going across the courtyard, rang the bell in front.
"The flowers here are strange" said Sango. "So much wisteria, too. It's a natural demon repellant."
The door was opened by a small, plain girl with her hair in pigtails who lit up on seeing Tanjiro.
"Hello, Naho!" Tanjiro said cheerily. "Here are the herbs Kocho san wanted, and these are my two new friends, Miroku-san and Sango-san. Please tell Kocho-san to come see them. We'all be in the sitting room." Naho squeaked and ran off.
Tanjiro smiled. "Please come this way."he said, leading them down the hall. It was decorated finely by silk hangings and vases of flowers, but not the kinds Miroku was used to. They passed a girl wearing a uniform like Tanjiro's, but with a skirt. As she went by Miroku saw a word emblazoned in white on the back of her shirt—滅, destroy.
"That's the symbol of the Demon Slayer Corps." Tanjiro explained. He opened a sliding screen and lead them into an elegant sitting room. Miroku and Sango sat down on the purple cushions to the left (by the side door), laying their weapons aside, (Kirara hid under the table) and Tanjiro sat opposite, taking off the box that was tied to his back. Strange how Miroku hadn't noticed it before. Now that he had he could sense a weird aura inside, like a yokai's but more twisting and fiery.
"What's that large bone thing you're carrying, Sango-san?" Tanjiro asked. "It seems to be made of demon bones."
Sango smiled, running a hand down Hiraikotsu's lovingly honed edge. "This is Hiraikotsu (boomerang bone), my main weapon. It's forged from the bones of defeated demons."
"Really? Where did you learn to do that?"
"Um..." she glanced nervously at Miroku, who shook his head. This would be tricky...
Luckily they were interrupted when the door opened and in came one of the most beautiful girls Miroku had ever seen. He could feel himself blushing as she approached. She was slender, pale, and had black-purple hair tied up in a bun with two pieces of hair framing her face. Her eyes were large and radiant, tinged a brilliant shade of purple.
After staring a few seconds Miroku felt Sango elbowing him (hard) and recollected himself. He saw the girl wore a uniform like Tanjiro's , only dark purple, and a haori patterned like butterfly wings.
She smiled and bowed towards Miroku and Sango. "Hello, I am Kocho Shinobu, the Insect Pillar."
Of course neither of hem knew what that meant but it was clear she commanded a certain amount of respect. Miroku introduced themselves and explained how they got lost while on a trip. It sounded plausible enough.
"You are welcome in Butterfly Estate." Kocho said sweetly. "So who exactly are you?"
Before Miroku could reply she went on. "You appear to be a monk. That's rare. I thought they were all busy praying in monasteries. And what do you do, Sango-san? You seem to have some experience battling demons." The light smile on her face was the same, but Miroku could sense the danger behind.
"I'm a yokai taijiya (yokai exterminator or hunter)." Sango answered.
Tanjiro and Kocho both stared at her.
"I better explain" sighed Miroku. Hope they don't find out about my Kazana (wind tunnel). He explained how they were pulled into the sky and went forward in time, trying not to sound stupid, which was impossible.
When he finished Tanjiro was gaping at him and Kocho had an unreadable smile that somehow frightened Miroku more than Naraku did.
"What an interesting story."she said. "You're very good at lying—demon!"
She moved so fast Miroku barely had enough time to dodge and pull Sango aside—he felt something graze his arm. Turning, he saw Kocho land lightly on the other side of the room. Her sword was drawn; it was thin and long and shone purple—
Instantly she attacked again in a swirl of purple. Miroku knew he was defenseless against such speed—all he could do was hold out his staff as he shielded Sango—
Tanjiro leapt in front of them. "Kocho-san stop!"he yelled.
Kocho froze mere inches away, sword posed to strike. "Move, Kamado, or I'll kill you too."
"They're humans, I swear! I can smell it! And they don't mean any harm!" Tanjiro pleaded.
"Oni can regenerate, right?" Sango said suddenly. "I can prove we're not demons!" She drew her sword—everybody flinched—and cut her hand. Blood trickled out, staining her sturdy yet elegant hand red.
Kocho did not speak for a few seconds until she's was satisfied Sango was not going to regenerate. Then she laughed and sheathed her blade. "Alright, I believe you. Ara, ara, you two are quite interesting! You call yourself a Demon Exterminator and yet you couldn't dodge my attack!"
Sango scowled. "That's because this idiot was in the way." She elbowed Miroku, who just sighed in relief. She may look delicate, but this girl was much faster (and much more dangerous) than him. It was such a pity though. Why'd he have to get off on such a bad start with such a pretty girl...
At this point Kirara came out from under the table and had to be explained. The inquisitive cat started scratching at Tanjiro's box. He looked startled and would have moved but the box opened and out crawled a tiny girl, who grew to the size of a twelve year old. She had long, red tipped black hair, pink eyes, and wore a dark coat over a pink dress. Tied over her mouth was a piece of bamboo.
Miroku and Sango both leapt to their feet. This was definitely a demon. The little girl looked at them and crawled behind Tanjiro.
"This is my sister Nezuko" Tanjiro rapidly explained, patting the girl's head. "She got turned into a demon."
"Oh, how?" Asked Sango with concern."She's so cute!"
Tanjiro explained how demons could only come out at night and ate people, and that anyone who ingested or got demon blood in an open wound would turn into one.
"That's how she became one."he said sadly. "My family were all killed by a demon, and only Nezuko survived."
Miroku saw Sango stifle a tear. Her own family and clan were all dead, and her little brother was controlled by Naraku. Poor Sango... he wanted to put his arms around her and never let her cry again...
"But Nezuko doesn't need to eat humans to survive." Tanjiro said hastily, probably sensing the tense atmosphere. "She just needs to sleep." Nezuko was now chasing Kirara around.
Suddenly he jumped up. "Where's Agatsuma and Hashibira?" He asked.
"I don't know."said Kocho. "They went out a awhile ago..."
Oh no! Things are happening so fast ! What's going to happen next? I know what you're thinking—now she's gonna go write about what happened to Zenitsu and Inosuke. Nope, sorry. Next up are FOUR fandoms, set in the greatest shonen show of all time...
I just randomly guessed the year cuz Demon Slayer is kinda vague. If anyone knows please tell me. Oni Kari and Kisatsutai are the actual words used for Demon Slayer and Slayer Corps. Same for Yokai Taijiya for Inuyasha's Demon slayers. So confusing.
All Italicized words are either the original Japanese or a translation for those who don't know what it means for ease of reading. Hoshi-sama means mater monk. Haori is the the of jacket they wear in Demon Slayer. The word "demon" from now on will only refer to the oni of Demon Slayer. Sorry if this is all very confusing. Vote if you think I could do a better job.
See you on the bright side!