Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba. All rights respectfully belong to Koyoharu Gotoge.
Author's Note: The image above belongs to its respective owner, @Shiropan777 via Twitter.
A group of demon slayers were traveling on foot together, preparing themselves for the worse to come. Why was this happening? Well, no one has reported back confirming the death of the demon roaming Mount Kaikoma. Every slayer sent grew quiet and not a single person has exited the mountain for a couple of weeks.
Yet, between all of this, you could hear the certain wails of a CeRtAiN demon slayer, clinging to the others in a CERTAINLY annoying way. Tanjiro was about to reassure Zenitsu again until a loud voice cut in. Inosuke shoved the auburn haired boy to the side and chopped Zenitsu over the head with the side of his hand.
"Cut crying like a baby you over-sided worm!"
Zenitsu's lip trembled a little as he stifled a sob, his head hurting like crazy. "Are your stupid or something?!" He shouted while clutching the back of his head. His yellow hair, cut short to his shoulders, was super dirty from their long trip that started at the butterfly estate belonging to the insect pillar, Shinobu Kocho.
"Now, now boys," hissed a dangerously irritated voice. The three of them turned to see Shinobu with her regular smile, but a vein popped out of her forehead, suggesting that she was not in the mood of bandaging the trio up if they knock each other out over a ridiculous fight. "Don't forget your most recent stay at the estate. The reason you were stuck there for almost a month is because you guys engaged in a battle and then turned one another (more like Zenitsu thanks to Inosuke) into a pulp. We don't want to repeat that series, right?"
Everyone in the group swore that the pillar was leaking poison from her mouth as she gave off an eerie aura. The only person unfazed was Kanao; as her Tsuguko, the teenager was used to the venom that would always slip from her master when she became sharply pissed at someone.
Kanao turned to Tanjiro and stared at him for a few seconds before turning her attention to the water pillar, Giyuu Tomioka. Ever since her ability to express herself was realized, the slayer no longer needed a coin to decide if she should talk or remain quiet when she had a question. Instead, the coin she was given by her adoptive older sister, Kanae Kocho, was buried somewhere around the former flower pillar's gravestone.
Kanao had seen fit to giving Kanae back the coin, thanking her. After, Kanao went to the blossom tree planted by the first Flower Breath user and expressed her gratitude before leaving on her next mission.
"Tomioka-sensei," started Kanao to catch his attention.
The dull faced hashira turned his head and nodded as he gestured for Kanao to continue.
"Why do you believe that Ubuyashiki-sama would send so many slayers to one location? Do you believe that we'll encounter a couple of uppermoons?"
Giyuu took a few seconds to think before replying, "There is a possibility. Or, simply based on the description, there may be multiple demons working together, each possessing a demon blood art. Though, the second thought is severely unlikely. Why do you ask?"
"No reason," stated the Tsuguko as she speed up her pace to match that of Shinobu.
Meanwhile, all the way at the back of the group, Kanroji and Iguro were gazing at the pasture of agriculture before them, occasionally glancing at one another to pass the time. Suddenly, Kanroji decided to break the awkward silence when one of the Kasugai crows interrupted everyone's thoughts.
"Caw! Ready your swords. Mount Kaikoma is less than a couple meters away! Caw!" The crow continued its pestering until Shinobu shot it a death glare. She pulled out a couple of sharp knives from her pocket and flashed them hap-hazardously at the circling figure.
"My aim has been off balance lately. Maybe I can get a little practice in today," she smiled. The crow instantly shut its mouth and flew to Tanjiro's side, as if the boy carrying a demon around was the safest person to be near. Tanjiro noticed the crow and pulled Zenitsu's sparrow, out of literal thin air to give the crow a buddy to chat with. On the other hand, Tomioka was eye-balling the knives that the insect hashira had pulled out.
They appeared to be made of the same material as the knife hidden in the sole of her shoe. Coincidentally, that was the same exact knife that almost pierced his forehead if it weren't for the announcement passed around by all the Kasugai crows. (Lol, if you watch the series RWBY, you'll understand that the main character's uncle is named Qrow so I feel like Imma make a whole lotta errors with that. Also, did you know? A group or flock of crows is called murder while a group of ravens is known as unkindness? In addition, in certain traditional beliefs, if 6 crows land together, than they symbolize death. Imagine that in Demon Slayer. Doesn't sound too odd, right?)
Kanao noticed her master's malice intentions and reached out to pull lightly on her butterfly patterned haori.
"Master," called the girl.
Tanjiro turned his head to see Kanao; gazing at her face, he picked up tints of worry. The red eyed boy smiled but soon blushed as Kanao turned away from Shinobu to look at the path ahead. Their eyes meet for a second until Tanjiro pulled his gaze away and quickly turned around. What he didn't realize was that Zenitsu had suddenly stopped, so the two ended up colliding. From there, the chain reaction began, Kanao seeing everything happen in slow motion due to her sharp vision.
Tanjiro and Zenitsu turned into a ball of bodies and the two tumbled into Inosuke. Obviously, unexpected, the boar masked slayer was knocked off his feet and the trio ended up as a bundle of corpse rolling down the slanted path. Finally crashing into a tree, they were all beaten up, adorned with scratches and cuts.
"Oww," mumbled Zenitsu from beneath Inosuke. Tanjiro was spiraled out next to the two as he grumbled, "Sorry."
Everyone in the walking group stopped to get a good look at the scene before them. Kanroji, Shinobu, and Iguro were all stifling a laugh while Kanao and Tomioka went to help them out. Kanroji finally let a small giggle slip which caused the whole entire group to burst out in laughter instead of Giyuu. Even Kanao couldn't help but scuffle as she helped to pull Tanjiro off the ground.
The contact of their hands caused the two to enter a noticeable blush. Flustered slightly by embarrassment, Tanjiro laughed out loud with everyone else. Suddenly, an abrupt, 'Mft!' caught each slayer off guard as Nezuko crawled out of the box Tanjiro uses to carry her in. He took off the box and placed it on the ground as he watched Nezuko's actions.
Evidently upset for being startled from her sleep, Nezuko gave off a slight pout but was quickly distracted when Zenitsu called out her name.
"Nezuko-chan! Gomen!" Nezuko looked at Zenitsu, clearly not understanding a work he said, but she approached him and gently pat the top of his head. This made the lightning slayer smile wide, seemingly forgetting that he had just been toppled by Inosuke and Tanjiro.
"Ara-ara," said Shinobu as she walked to Tomioka's side. She lightly poked Tanjiro in the back before saying, "Watch where you step next time. Your lucky none of you broke a bone before a battle."
"Yeah," Zenitsu muttered, an aura of jealousy smacking him across the ace as he saw Tanjiro and Kanao still holding hands; AND STILL PLAINLY BLUSHING IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!!!!!
Shinobu noticed his resentment to Tanjiro and poked him in the side as well. "You too Zenitsu-san. Why did you stop so suddenly?"
Zenitsu turned to face the path again as he said, "I thought I heard a scream coming from up ahead."
Suddenly, everyone realized that they had reached their destination. The thicket of trees caused the group to eye the shadows warily. As quick as sound, a loud scream bounced off the mountain range and echoed into the entrance of Mount Kaikoma.
Zenitsu began to shake violently as the Hashiras, Kanao, and Tanjiro dashed in the direction of the voice, desperate to find who it belonged to. Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Nezuko were left behind as they stared at the sudden burst of speed produced by everyone.
Once the six were out of sight, Zenitsu composed himself and pointed to the box Tanjiro uses to carry his demon sister around. Understanding the gesture, Nezuko shrunk to the size of a child and crawled in so that Zenitsu could quickly transport her around. He pulled the box onto his back and started to think.
Suddenly, an idea popped up. Traveling on the ground was slightly more dangerous so Zenitsu used his body weight and pushed off the ground. He landed in the nearest tree and decided to use higher ground to get around. Inosuke wanted to copy but he decided not to since he didn't have the proper momentum to shift his weight equally. Instead, he pulled out both of his swords and charged straight into the forest of trees. Zenitsu turned out to be one of the lucky slayers who practiced weight distribution when placed on thin ropes.
'I guess all those years of running up trees to avoid gramps and training was worth the while, eh?'
Building the same pressure in his feet, Zenitsu hopped into the next tree and so on as he maneuvered throughout the forest.
Meanwhile, the six who dashed off decided to split up. Tomioka went with Shinobu (much to her reluctance) and called the West before disappearing in flashes of blue and purple. Iguro claimed to partner with Kanroji and the two split ways with the rest, covering the East.
In which case, this left Tanjiro and Kanao alone together, continuing South. They remained completely silent until...
"I forgot Nezuko!"
"Huh?" Kanao turned to see Tanjiro frantically patting his body as he searched for the box that normally was strapped to his back. Kanao skidded to a stop and reminisced the event before the six had ran off. "She must be with Zenitsu and Inosuke."
Suddenly, Tanjiro noticed that the two hadn't followed pursuit and furrowed his brows. Kanao giggled quietly but Tanjiro noticed as he shot her a look that asked, 'What?'
Kanao smiled and said, "Well, at least you know your sister will be safe. As long as she has Zenitsu there to protect her, I'm confident he won't fail in saving her life."
Tanjiro smiled as well, both from the comment and Kanao's bright face. He grinned and said, "You're right. I shouldn't worry so much."
Instantly, as if on cue, a loud scream came from the West. It sounded a lot like...
"Master!" Kanao somehow put on a burst of speed as she headed in the direction the shriek. Tanjiro struggled slightly to keep up with her as she jumped into the trees and sped thrugh the branches.
>A Couple of Minutes Before<
Shinobu had already thrown multiple knives plastered with poison at the demon before her, but he seemed to only require five seconds before adjusting his blood and overcoming the poisonous effects. 'I guess it's a good thing Tomioka tagged along,' she thought.
Shinobu jumped out of the way of an incoming attack and switched positions with Giyuu as she pulled out her sword. The chamber sequence in her sword's sheath clicked so that she had access to the wisteria poisons. At the same time, she pulled out small plastics that contained a special liquid the insect pillar personally designed herself. Tomioka jumped to her side and glanced at the things she had in her hand.
"What's the next move?" he asked.
Shinobu was slightly shocked but she stated, "Slice the legs. If I can catch him from behind, I can inject poison in his lungs, spinal cords, head, and throat. From there, you can go for the neck. This liquid should imoblize him but not for long so every second counts."
Not explaining anymore, Shinobu crouched into a bent stance and whispered, "Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag!"
She was completely lost from sight in a streak of purple that left a small trail. Tomioka only obligated by her command and followed behind whispering, "Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
The two closed the gap between each other and the demon but before landing a solid hit, an obsidian eye appeared on its forehead as the demon muttered something under his breath. A large flash of light blinded Shinobu and Giyuu as they both dropped their swords. Their breathing styles were canceled out as they used their forearms to block their vision in order to prevent potentially going blind.
"Agh!" they shouted as something weird started to latch onto their bodies. Shinobu tried scraping it off but the material components seemed to be absorbed by her skin. Giyuu on the other hand attempted to shake whatever it was off, but failed terribly.
Suddenly, another flash was seen as the demon disappeared from his original spot.
After being knocked unconscious for a minute or so, Shinobu blinked rapidly and grounded her feet as she thrust her sword into the ground. Using it as support, the pillar drew her body off the floor and stood to her full height. She looked around for Tomioka and felt her feet bump into his limp body on the ground. (OmG, I'm literally dying here while typing this because in another anime called A Certain Scientific Railgun, there is another person called Shinobu. Her full name is Nunotaba Shinobu and she is like some scientist who does experiments and works with a couple of artificial clones along the way. What keeps me so confused is that the both of them are around the same age, have black hair, and THEIR NAMES!!!! Like, BRUH! I have enough confusion already!! LoOk HeR uP aNd YoU'lL sEe WhAt I mEan!!! BRRUUUHH!)
Shinobu reached down to shake Giyuu awake but landed on something weird.... wait....
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Shinobu left Giyuu on the ground and looked for the nearest river, completely ignoring the fact that she had warned the whole mountain of her location. As she stared at her reflection, she almost flipped. 'No way, this can't be happening.'
She had short hair, but not like her normal short hair. Her figure all together was different as well. She looked like, "THE OPPOSITE GENDER?!"
Shinobu clutched her sword and ran to where she had left Tomioka. Her eyes landed on his body as she noticed that he was awake and thoroughly examining himself. Her face almost went dumbstruck as her jaws dropped. Tomioka had longer hair that reached his mid back. It was still in its regular ponytail but the strands that normally stuck out of the top of his head were neatly brushed down. His figure was not that of a male's but more of a... "FEMALE?!"
Tomioka looked up to see Shinobu and his eyes went wide. She was not herself, rather, the opposite...
"What happened?" he asked. Shinobu suddenly approached him with a death glare as she muttered, "We have swapped genders, YOU DIMWIT!"
The insect pillar landed a hard hit to Tomioka's head as he clutched it in pain. "Oww!" he complained. A voice caught the two off guard as Kanao could be heard shouting, "Master!"
At the sight of the gender swapped hashiras, Kanao miscalculated her footing and slipped off the branch she was trying to land on.
"Eekk!" she squealed. She didn't hit the dirt though as Tanjiro swiftly ducked underneath the branch and caught her in his arms.
As he grounded his feet to a stop, he noticed Tomioka and Kocho both standing there befuddled. Their appearance caught him off guard as well as he lost the momentum in his feet. Quickly, Tanjiro ducked into a barrel roll so that Kanao wouldn't hit the ground. Swiveling his body, Tanjiro ended up landing hard on his back, getting the wind knocked out of him, with Kanao on top, securely holding him by his neck.
The two suddenly blushed as Kanao jumped off and offered a hand to help him up for the second time that day. "Sorry," she whispered with embarrassment.
Tanjiro accepted the offer and said, "No worries, that wasn't your fault."
The two were eye to eye until an intentional, sarcastic cough brought the two back to reality. "Hate to ruin the moment, but can someone explain, WhAt ThE fUc* has happened?!"
Shinobu seemed to be panicking while Giyuu just stood there, examining his new body more. Noticing this, the insect pillar slapped his hand away from his midsection as she began lecturing, "Don't you dare do that. So help me, I will kill you!"
Tomioka, understanding what he was about to do, looked away and started blushing mad. Shinobu was caught off guard by this. She started to blush as well as she noticed that Tomioka was somewhat beginning to look, what's the world... attractive?
'UGH!' the insect pillar internally yelled while deadpanning her expression and facepalming. 'WHY...!'
"M-Mas-ster?" stuttered Kanao in complete disbelief.
Shinobu turned to her and stated, "Blood demon art," while rubbing the crevice of her eyes. 'Wrong terminology, I'm a HE now. UUGH!'
Suddenly, Zenitsu came jumping from out of the trees, startling everyone at first. Kanao almost drew her sword on him, mistaking the slayer for an actual demon. She quickly jabbed her sword into the ground and jumped out of the way to avoid any sort of collision. At the sight of Zenitsu carrying Nezuko's box, Tanjiro lit up and ran over to thank the yellow haired breath user but another numbskull wasn't being cautious as he came storming along the path and right into Zenitsu.
"Why is it always me?!" the lightning slayer started to complain.
Silence fell upon the group as everyone got a glimpse of Shinobu and Tomioka both the same on the inside, yet horribly different on the outside. Shinobu was still emitting the poisonous like aura, but her height was different and her physical features were no where near the original. She appeared more... masculine. Tomioka on the other hand could easily pass as your modern day, high school, teenage girl with his new hair style and obvious growth in some areas; just to clarify, definitely not meant for boys!
It appeared that Inosuke wanted to laugh while Zenitsu was exchanging glances between Tomioka and Shinobu.
"Don't ask," finally commented the two pillars as Iguro and Kanroji appeared from out of the shadows. Everyone was standing around, nothing more to say. Abruptly, another voice knocked the group from their thoughts as the demon from before appeared.
"Looks like you two are enjoying the new change," he chuckled.
As everyone turned, they caught sight of a demon way messed up versus any they had ever battled before. Quite surprisingly, you could make it out as a female or male, but judging by the voice, everyone came to the conclusion that the demon was a 'he.'
Tanjiro drew his sword before the demon started, "Bad choice boy!"
The same blinding light from before erupted from the ground as a sap like material attached to everyone.
Nothing can be heard as the blinding light caused everyone to fall unconscious once more. The first person to wake and draw her sword was Kanao, but as her vision adjusted to the dim lit ground, she caught sight of something that was completely wrong. In summary, Tanjiro was no where to be seen, Nezuko was on the ground with a sword in her hand, Iguro, Kanroji, and Inosuke appeared as the opposite gender, Shinobu and Tomioka reamined the same, Zenitsu appeared to have been unaffected, and Kanao herself, had changed superiorly.
Kanao looked at her hands to notice her nails had grown sharp and her outfit had changed. This can only mean one thing though... She was a demon. Letting out a high pitched shriek, she accidentally startled everyone from their sleeping state.Panicking, the everybody jumped to their feet and started fumbling with their swords. The first person to notice Kanao's change was Shinobu. The pillar almost shouted herself as she examined her Tsuguko carefully. (Somewhat imagine Kanao's appearance to be close to what I have as my profile pic.)
A loud, 'Mft!' was heard before the box that usually houses Nezuko during the day opened. The thing is, who was in the box?! All the slayers turned to see a demon with red streaked hair appear.
"WHAT THE?!" Instead of Nezuko, Tanjiro crawled out. Nezuko caught sight of this and began shouting, "Onii-san? Are you a...?"
"DeMoN?!" finished Iguro. Everyone's jaw hit the floor as a 'WTF' moment took over the scene.
"I'm a slayer!" Nezuko's outburst caught mostly everyone's attention as she was indeed, wearing the corpse uniform. Zenitsu almost passed out again as Inosuke began to complain.
"How come Monitsu hasn't changed?!"
Zenitsu noticed his appearance was the only one unaltered out of the nine. The befuddlement still hurt as each person slowly began to realize the changes they undertook. Suddenly, a whole bunch of random statements can be heard across the mountain range, each shouting something completely unrelated.
"Hey! Look at this! I'm taller than Tomioka-san!" (Shinobu)
"WhAt In ThE wOrLd Is GoInG oN?" (Iguro)
"Fantastic, just fantastic..." 'Now she's going to bully me even more than before...' (Tomioka)
"Whimps!!" (Inosuke)
"Umm, master...!" (Kanao)
"Mft, mft!" (Tanjiro)
"Huh?!? Does this mean..." (Kanroji refused to finish her statement.)
Zenitsu quickly covered his ears as his sensitive hearing hurt like he*l. "SHUT UP!"Once more, silence fell and everyone quickly shut their trap.
Author's note: Well, here you have it. Sorry if it wasn't what you might of expected. If you would like to know the demon's blood art and why Zenitsu didn't change, than I'll do my best to have next chapter up before next Monday, June 15, 2020. Until then, heres the break down and have an amazing day, night, or evening depending upon your location.
-Kanao and Tanjiro stayed the same gender but became demons-Zenitsu's appearance stayed the same-Kanroji, Inosuke, Iguro, Tomioka, and Shinobu switched to the opposite gender-And Nezuko swapped places with Tanjiro. She's now a Slayer!!!!Until next time! <3~MidnightStallion12 Out! (Word Count 3773)