Warnings: Blood, fighting, Inosuke
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"Beat it!" Tanjiro shouted to Teruko.
The demon beat one of his drums twice just as the room changed. The room turned 180 degrees but he was able to land safely on the ceiling which was now the floor. Kyogai beat the drum on his abdomen 4 times, yet Tanjiro was able to dodge all the scratches which could've split him into 4 pieces if they had hit him.
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Tanjiro's POV...
The drum on the right shoulder meant the room would rotate right. The left drum would turn the room left. Drum on the right leg meant the room would move forward and drum on his left leg would mean backward.
The worst one was the one on his stomach. The scratch.
I could somehow maneuver in the room by observing his movements, but as the beats got faster, it became increasingly harder to follow them.
I tried to close the distance between us but the demon beat the stomach drum again, and the scratch forced me to return. Tamayo-san may have treated my wounds, but my ankle sprain still hadn't yet fully healed. It was a pain to run and jump continuously to fight him.
Water comes in all shapes and sizes. In a measuring cup, it's square. In a vase, it is round. Sometimes, it can smash a rock and spread its pieces all over. That's how the Breath of Water works. It can change itself according to the opponent.
A scratch traveled its way toward me across the room, but I managed to dodge it.
"Screw you!" the demon shouted. "You're so annoying. I want to eat the marechi now!"
Three scratches and seven more turns. I barely had any time to think, so I decided to distract him.
"Hey, what's your name?" I asked him.
The demon seemed a bit startled. "Kyo...gai."
"Kyogai. You have an amazing Blood Demon Art, but I'm afraid you can't have the rare blood." He was distracted for a second by my words.
I rushed towards him, shortening the distance. "Breath of Water, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!" The opening threat connected my sword to his throat and I beheaded him in one swift slash.
I landed outside the room, barely managing not to fall. Kyogai's head fell on the floor with a pool of blood underneath it.
Oh, right. I had to take a sample of blood.
I took the knife out of my haori and threw it on the now-fading demon's body. It extracted the blood automatically after piercing the demon's body. Yushiro's skill for making such objects was impressive.
"Meow." A ginger-white-brown cat appeared suddenly, startling me.
"You're here to help me deliver this to Tamayo-san, right?"
Surprisingly, it nodded. I guess he did understand me.
"You're the best," I petted him and put the knife inside the bag he was carrying. "Here you go. Be careful on the road, alright?"
However, he meowed again and disappeared, never reaching the road. It was probably Yushiro's spell.
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"Zenitsu, don't you think we're going in circles?" (Y/n) asked the scared yellow human.
"Right!?! I thought so too!" he exclaimed with tears in his eyes. "What do we do now??"
"Zenitsu-san, why don't you chill out for a second and use your brain instead of panicking?" Shoichi said.
"I am using my brain, but I am too scared to use my brain," he sniffled.
"Does that even make any sense?" (Y/n) asked with dotted eyes.
"I don't know, I'm too scared to thi-" Zenitsu's sentence was cut off as the room suddenly rotated 90 degrees so the door was now the floor. The three of them fell through the door that connected to the balcony of the third floor, falling out of the building.
"Woah-" (Y/n) barely managed to land on her feet and was able to save Shoichi with her arms, but sadly, Zenitsu's head connected to the ground as there wasn't another (Y/n) to save him.
"Are you alright?" she asked Shoichi. He nodded.
"I'm alright, but the same can't be said for this guy," he, still a bit shaken up, gestured towards Zenitsu, who now lay unconscious on the ground. She kneeled, laying Zenitsu's head on her lap and checking for any injuries. It turned out there was a big gash on his head.
"My, there is a huge wound on his head." She sighed and took out her first aid pouch from her haori. "If I don't treat it, it might get infected. I guess he has a mild concussion."
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(Y/n) finished putting the bandage on Zenitsu's head and laid him on her haori after taking it off.
Well, both of them looked matching now. (Y/n) had bandages on her head too because of her concussion.
"RUSHING IN LIKE A BOAR!" A weirdo broke down the mansion's door with his head and started running around, jump scaring the girl.
"Can you calm down, Mr. Boar?" she asked politely. "You've been running around uselessly for what must be half an hour now."
"HA?" The shirtless man with the pig mask shouted. "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A BOAR?"
"You literally just compared yourself you a boar when you said 'rushing in like a boar'. You're blaming me?"
"My life, my rules. Why do you care?" he ran towards the girl headfirst, trying to attack her. She shifted away from the man.
"You're a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, aren't you?" she asked for confirmation, although she was almost sure he was looking at his swords.
"WHAT'S A DEMON PLAYER CORN?"
The girl facepalmed. "Leave it."
"YOU," he drew his swords and pointed at (Y/n). "I am the mighty Inosuke Hashibira. I challenge you to a fight to see who's the real King of the Mountains!"
She looked at him with a deadpan look. "No, thank you. I'd rather not be the King of the Mountains."
"Are you too scared?" he laughed at her.
"You know what? Screw it. I don't care." She unsheathed her golden sword and rushed towards the boar. He did the same.
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" An angry voice stopped them dead in their tracks before they could land a single hit.
It was a livid Tanjiro, accompanied by Teruko and Kiyoshi.
(Y/n) had been strictly warned by Urokodaki not to do anything reckless which included fighting with a sword against a certain pig-masked creature, and Tanjiro lectured her twice every week on her recklessness. She cringed and sheathed her sword, being caught red-handed once again doing something stupid.
"Onii-chan! Teruko!" Shoichi ran towards his siblings and hugged them tight. "Thank god you're safe," he said with tears in his eyes. Tanjiro smiled and left the kids during their emotional sibling moment.
His expression changed once he looked at Inosuke to a glare. "May I know your name and why exactly your swords are drawn?"
"My name is Inosuke Hashibira and I challenged golden-sword girl here to a fight. You got a problem with that?" he cackled. "If you want to challenge her to a duel first, fight me!"
"Right. Now, listen to me. If she even gets a single scratch from a pig like you, you will regret all of your life choices." He looked at him with an angry face that could make even Haganezuka nervous.
"HAHAHA! FIGHT ME IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT!" he shouted. "Wait, I sense a demon. Are you carrying one?" he pointed at Nezuko's box which Tanjiro was carrying. "I'm going to stomp it to death in the sunlight!"
Naturally, Inosuke threatening the two things he loved the most did not fare well with Tanjiro.
Inosuke ran towards Tanjiro to take the box from him, but Tanjiro landed a punch on his chest. Inosuke fell back and crashed into a tree. A cracking sound came from his abdomen.
"YOU CRACKED HIS RIBS!" Zenitsu shouted, awakening from the dead.
"It's an offense to draw your swords against a Corps member," Tanjiro glared at him.
Inosuke lay flat on the ground, coughing and laughing at the same time from the impact, causing (Y/n) to question his sanity.
"So that's the case," he laughed. "I'm very sorry. Why don't we have a fistfight then?"
"That's... not what I meant. Members fighting against each other is an offense."
Inosuke ignored the talking sunshine and tried to punch Tanjiro twice. Tanjiro barely deflected his attacks.
"I didn't say barehanded was fine-" Inosuke kneeled a bit and attacked from below Tanjiro's normal attack range, kicking him.
He then spun on one hand, almost kicking Tanjiro's face off. "I TOLD YOU TO LISTEN TO ME!"
Tanjiro landed a kick on Inosuke's shoulder, causing him to stagger. That didn't stop Inosuke as he landed a punch on Tanjiro's face, his flexible attacks resembling an actual boar.
"Guys, can you stop?"
"I'M AMAZING, RIGHT?" Inosuke shouted. He lowered down once again with his head coming through backward from his legs.
"It's only going to make your injury worse," Tanjiro said. "Although I wouldn't care if it did," he thought.
"NOTHING COMPARES TO THE MOMENTARY PLEASURE I FEEL WHEN MY INJURY WORSENS!" he ran toward Tanjiro again, trying to kick him from below five times. Tanjiro deflected two of his attacks.
Tanjiro finally had it and headbutted Inosuke with full force. "PLEASE. CALM. DOWN!"
Zenitsu gasped, acting as a commentator. "That sound! Did he crack open his head?"
"I'm sure it did, Zenitsu. I accidentally connected my forehead to his stone head once and I suffered in pain for a week," (Y/n) gave a weak smile. "All we can do is hope he survives."
Inosuke staggered backward, his pig mask dropping to the ground. Zenitsu gasped once again. "Hold up, is he a girl? His face..."
"What about it? Do you have an opinion about my face?" His face contained blood dripped down from his forehead down to his nose in two streaks.
"He's just never seen a buffed, shirtless body with a girly face, that's all," the girl said on behalf of Zenitsu.
"How dare you call me a girl? I'M THE KING OF THE MOUN-" Inosuke suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious.
"I'm surprised he lasted that long. I respect him," she said. "I wouldn't last 2 seconds."
"Now that's dealt with, (Y/n), are you alright?" Tanjiro approached the girl. "Did you get hurt? Did you see any demons? When did you meet this guy?"
"Woah, woah, that's a lot of questions. I'll answer one by one."
"Right. I'm sorry."
"Well, I didn't get hurt, I did kill one ugly demon, and I don't know why Inosuke approached me. He seems very energetic, doesn't he?" she said, trying to make him less angry.
"I guess that's reasonable. Are you sure you didn't get hurt?"
"I'm not! Stop worrying so much. Did you kill the drum demon? I don't feel his presence anymore."
"I did."
"That's great!"
Behind the scenes, Zenitsu was a bit jealous of the duo's closeness.
"Now, what are you supposed to do with him?" Zenitsu looked at Inosuke, breaking Tanjiro and (Y/n)'s conversation.
"He probably has a concussion because I headbutted him so hard," he said. "We should let him rest for now."
"That makes the three of us with concussions now!" (Y/n) laughed.
"What happened to you, Zenitsu? How did you get hurt?"
Zenitsu sighed. "I fell from the building."
"Expected."
"What do you mean by that?!?"
"Anyways, there are a few corpses in the mansion. We need to dig their graves and bury them. Meanwhile, Inosuke can rest," Tanjiro said.
"Corpses?!?" Zenitsu exclaimed.
"You'll naturally find corpses where there are demons, Zenitsu," the girl sighed.
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Guys, 20k+ reads already??? My book isn't even that awesome. I started writing this to merely feed my Demon Slayer obsession 😭❤
I promise I'll try uploading chapters a bit more often... but I can't right now. I had my periodic exams last month and I already have finals the next 😓 My school year ends midway through March though, so do expect a bunch of chapters by then! I know I give a lot of excuses :(
P.S. Wattpad is simply not letting me attach photos (that or my internet is crap), so no meme for this chapter 😔