Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba. All rights respectfully belong to Koyoharu Gotoge.
The artwork above rightfully belongs to its respectful owner, @gomiko_art via Twitter.
Author's note: Hope you liked last chapter! Here's the next one! Enjoy!
Previously: 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.
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.'
Once more, silence fell and everyone quickly shut their trap.
Zenitsu looked around at his surroundings to notice that his appearance didn't undergo any differences compared to everyone else. It's true, he felt something change, but he couldn't quite identify what. But in the meantime, he needed to help out with the others before they start shouting again, with the addition of his hearing loss.
Shinobu still seemed to get a kick out of annoying Tomioka as she poked him sharply in the back. "Tomioka-san," she continued with a new inspiration to give the water pillar hell in his life. "How do you like being tiny? Is it fun having to look up to me now?"
"Kocho..." Tomioka tried to say something but Tanjiro had waddled up to him; pulling on the pillar's haori, the demon obviously wanted something from him. Tomioka ignored Shinobu's pestering to see what Tanjiro needed.
The auburn haired demon pointed to the bamboo muzzle with one of his sharp fingers before letting out an evident, 'Mft,' of dislike.
Tomioka crouched down to Tanjiro's level and helped him remove the muzzle that constrained him from speaking.
"Th-than-k yo-ou To-Tomiok-ka-san!" Tanjiro smiled as he now has the ability to talk freely. His word association was not as sharp though as he stumbled over his sentence. Obani seemed to have a different view, however, in removing the muzzle.
The snake pillar drew his sword as he said, "How do we know those two won't start craving human blood and begin attacking the innocent?" He timidly waved his nichiirin sword and pointed it at Kanao and Tanjiro, but didn't have the same scary aura with his new body form.
Still, no one laughed as Shinobu stepped in front of Kanao and Tomioka pulled Tanjiro behind him. Slightly confused by all the ruckus, the two of them clung to the hands of the pillars protecting them, simultaneously peering past their haories to get a view of the serpent like sword. (In the process, they somewhat shrunk in size so they are about half the height of their original body)
"Just like before, I know Tanjiro will not hurt anyone. If he does kill an innocent person, I will commit seppuku and behead him," Tomioka said firmly.
Shinobu brought herself to make the same vow. "If my tsuguko ever harms an inoccent person, I will kill her myself and commit seppuku as well."
Hearing this shocked Iguro, causing him to slightly hesitate in accepting the oath the two pillars stated. Kanroji accepted their leisure instantaneously and placed a hand on Iguro's shoulder, signaling him to stand down and comply as well. Noticing her action and intent, Iguro slid his sword back into its sheath and nodded.
Shinobu turned to face Kanao as she grabbed the flower user's sword and handed it back. "Can you still use a sword?" she asked slightly worried.
Kanao nodded as she strapped it securely to the hook of her clothes and attempted to make a full sentence. "I c-ca-an Ma-maste-er." Stuttering caused the young girl to sheepishly smile as her words didn't sound as fluent as they normally would.
Shinobu only beckoned her head in approval before turning to see Nezuko slightly confused and Inosuke perfectly fine. Despite having the body parts of the opposite gender, he appeared to have adjusted rather quickly. In addition, his hair was longer (Kind of reminding her of Aoi's) while his slayer uniform had altered a bit to cover more skin. Thankful for this, Shinobu went to address Nezuko and asked, "Do you know the motion of each form?"
Nezuko shook her head quickly, showing her new enthusiasm for being a temporary, sword wielding, demon slayer (as she already has been accepted as a member of the corpse). "Onii-chan wrote everything down in a journal and I read through it so I know the footing and movement of each water breathing form!"
Nezuko pulled Tanjiro's sword from its covering and gave it a few swings to get the gist of it. When she examined the blade though, it was not black but rather a vibrant violet.
Surprised, she asked, "What does this color mean?"
After getting a better look at it and talking over it, everyone drew the conclusion that it might be a special color suited to Nezuko only. They examined Kanao's blade and made the theory that slayers who have had an influence of demon blood will have purple nichiirin blades, but her weapon was still a light pink, proving everybody wrong.
"Who knows?" started Kanroji, "This may lead to a new breathing form over time!"
Nezuko seemed fascinated as she realized, "Onii-chan doesn't have a sword now though!"
Noticing that Nezuko was right, Shinobu had a risky idea as she pulled out multiple plastics with the same liquid she was planning on using before.
"Take these. If you need a fast escape, pierce the plastic and throw it onto the ground. Do not inhale the dirt that flies up and get out as soon as possible," Shinobu instructed as she handed the demon version of Tanjiro a whole bunch of poisons she designed.
Tanjiro made a gesture with his head but it was difficult to understand what he truly meant. Shinobu remained assured though as she said, "Well, I guess we should get a move on in killing the demon roaming this mountain I guess."
When she heard no response, she noticed that almost everyone was gone, leaving on Giyuu and Zenitsu behind.
Giyuu looked around as well before asking, "Did they already leave?""I assume so, but I didn't even hear a single footstep," claimed the yellow haired slayer.
"Whatever," scoffed Shinobu, giving off her regular smile. "They must already have a plan in mind so we should focus on ourselves and finding the demon in this mountain." But, noting felt right as she would have at least expected them to say something before running off.
Meanwhile, Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Kanao were wandering around. Within the blink of an eye, they were beside a river and no one else was around. Suspicious, they took cautious steps but with all the mist and dense fog, it was almost impossible to see three feet in front of you.
Kanao and Tanjiro used their abilities to revert to a normal height, but they stayed quite as they trailed behind Nezuko, curious.
Apart from getting turned into a duo of demons, nothing else seemed to irregularly change. It took some time to understand what Nezuko was saying, but they were able to make out most of the dialogue and associate terms to create reasonable statements.
A sharp yell suddenly echoed through the fog, giving Nezuko a fright as she quickly turned to make sure that Shinobu's tsuguko and her older brother will still following her.
With a small gesture, she said, "Let's go."The two demons nodded and ran with her along the path to the source of the voice.
On the other hand, Kanroji was tailing Iugro asking a whole list of question relevant to the purple blade Nezuko had. Inosuke wasn't paying attention to a word she was saying as he looked around.
'Wait, that looks familiar...'
"Hey!" he called out, loud enough to catch the attention of the Hashiras. "We're walking in circles. We've already been here."
"How can you be sure?" questioned Iguro with doubt.
"Because I banged my head on that tree right there when we got separated from the rest," reasoned Inosuke as he used the sword in his right hand to point at a pink flowered plant. No doubt, the blood-good Japanese tree had an enormous dent in it that was not made by a natural occurrence.
Sighing, Iguro asked, "What do you have in mind now?"Not answering, Inosuke jabbed his swords into the ground and outstretched his arms on either side of him. His enhanced sense was touch, kind of having a lay off of sonar. "Seventh Form: Spatial Awareness," he whispered.
Concentrating and searching for any disruptions in the air, he caught on to every little thing that was roaming the mountain. From the smallest of flies to the largest of trees. He could make out the others as well as about seventy-five lower ranked demon slayer members to say the least.
Only about a handful appeared to be okay as the rest seemed to be in a state of distortion. In the process, he could also identify about ten demons.
The one they were looking for in specific was not too far away. Inosuke stood up and pointed to his left. "That way," he claimed.
Trusting his words, Kanroji and Iguro followed him through the forest and into the shadows.
Not too far away as well, Shinobu and Giyuu were head to head with a different demon than before.
This demon though had pale skin and blue hair. Her kimono was designed with stripes as she tried to back away into the thick fog behind her.
"Tell me," Shinobu started with her poisonous voice. "How many humans have you devoured?"
"It's none of your concern you monster!" she screamed. Shinobu's surprising speed caused the demon to trip over her footing as she started to panic.
Giyuu had already figured out her tricks with the mist as that was her demon blood art. She can rearrange the particles that encompass the mist, enabling her to alter the location of someone, kind of like teleportation.
Shinobu caught on as well and used her quick forms to stop the demon from entering the mist where she would have the opportunity to escape. "That's an ashamed," she whispered in the demon's ear from behind. "I was hoping we could be friends!"
The demon refused to listen to Shinobu any longer. Noticing this, the insect pillar let out a sarcastic sigh and mumbled, "Butterfly Dance: Caprice."
She lunged forward and stabbed the demon in multiple areas including the head, lungs, and throat. It took a moment for the demon to register what had just happened as she began shouting, "Stupid Tatemu! His demon art is so useless!"
The mist demon abruptly started to cough up blood and her veins became noticeable as a sickly color took over. Finally, she dropped to the ground and remained motionless.
Giyuu gave Shinobu a sadistic look as he said, "Did you have to be that hindering about it?"
Obviously offended by that, she retorted, "You know, such comments are the reason why you are disliked by everyone."Zenitsu stared at the for a second before re-concentrating on his sword. For some reason, he couldn't recall how to use it, leaving the demon up to the pillars to take care of.
'What is going on?' he wondered. 'Why can't I remember the first form...?'
A distinct idea came to mind as he lowered his stance and said, "Fifth Form: Heat Lightning!"
A single flash of thunder could be seen as he sliced down a couple of trees to his right. Surprised and startled slightly, Shinobu stopped poking at Giyuu and turned to see Zenitsu just as surprised.
"..."
Zenitsu whispered something practically inaudible as he examined his blade.
"What happened?" asked Shinobu.
"I know all the forms except for the first one, just like Kaigaku..."
Giyuu and Shinobu still didn't get it but they assumed it had to do with the altering demon.
"So you did change, but not your appearance is what your saying?"
"Yes," answered the lightning slayer.
"I wonder..." began Tomioka as he turned his head to get a look at the dead demon on the ground before them. "Tatemu must be the demon from before right?"
"Possibly," simply responded Shinobu. It was true though, despite changing, her agility and speed actually stayed the same. But, her strength hadn't improved one bit as she still felt too weak in he arms to decapitate a demon.
Somewhere in the misty forest though, Nezuko was dashing around and behind boulders to block incoming attacks. Kanao still had her strength and speed from before, but her agility and reaction time was lacking. Still, the flower breather didn't back down as she charged straight at the demons before her.
"Fif-fithth F-form: Pe-eoni-ies of Fu-futili-lity!" From her sword, came nine slashes that were directed in random directions, each landing minimal damage to the two demons in front of her. The strikes weaved back and forth, but only made a couple of deep gashed in one of the demon's skin, which healed real quickly. Frustrated, Kanao was about to transfer into another form until a hand pulled her back behind a tree trunk. She turned her to see Tanjiro pointing at Nezuko.
Despite having control over the sword, she would have hit Kanao in the process if Tanjiro hadn't dragged the girl away from the main target spot.
"Sixth Form: Whirlpool!"
Nezuko combined the movements of the third form while twisting her lower and upper body to create a tornado made of water. Multiple slices were produced, cutting the arms and legs of the same demon Kanao managed to land a few hits on.
Kanao dashed in before the demon could regrow her limbs and yelled clearly, "Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!"
Despite her efforts to catch both demons, she only managed to behead the immobile one. The young demon girl turned to ashes fast and disappeared from sight almost instantaneously.
As quick as sound, the other demon lunged at Kanao and tapped her sword with hardly any effort. Surprisingly, Kanao's sword jutted backwards and pierced through her right shoulder. However, the relentless attacks didn't stop there. The demon took the opportunity to swipe at the hilt of Kanao's sword.With startling pressure, the blade of Kanao's sword was embedded in the nearest tree trunk, pinning the girl to it as if she was a paper being thumb tacked to the wall.
Jitting her teeth in pain, Kanao thrashed around to try and break free, but that would be at the risk of cutting her arm off. Kanao stopped for a moment as she felt a lot of pain in her shoulder.
"What do you think your doing?" the demon unharmed asked as he faced Tanjiro and Kanao. "Aren't you two demons? Why are you working with a slayer and wielding swords?!"
None of them brought themselves to answer as he realized, "Oh I get it now. You are slayers which means that you have already been in contact with Tatemu."
He turned to Nezuko and quickly advanced on her. Thinking fast, Nezuko crouched low and said, "Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow - Turbulent!"
With hardly any footing, Nezuko manage to dodge out of the way, but the demon took no hesitation in striking at her stomach. She felt his nails scratch along her front as a gash appeared in the demon slayer uniform she was wearing. Small trickles of blood began to stain her pink kimono and the bleeding was not stopping despite using concentrated breathing.
The demon turned and looked at his work to see Nezuko slightly faltering and Tanjiro at Kanao's side, trying to draw the sword from her shoulder carefully. The demon finally spoke as he stated, "You are quite the unfortunate group huh? Every slayer to face me has suffered a terrible death, and so will you three!"
He threw his weight to one side and met an incredible speed that allowed him to dash past Nezuko before she had the chance to bring her sword forward. The demon was aiming at Tanjiro, but stopped short when he saw the red eyed demon with Kanao's sword.
"First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
Tanjiro managed to duck behind the demon and build enough momentum to create a concentrated diagonal slash. In spite of this the water seemed to angle away from his neck in a different direction.
"Do you know what type of bargain your playing at kid? I have the ability to shift trajectory projectile, making me almost impossible to touch!" The vector demon tried to re-angle the sword Tanjiro had, but missed and instead, hit a plastic.
About four of the liquid pouches filled with poison were in the air. Tanjiro had thrown them up while the demon before them was explaining his demon blood art.
"Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust - Curve!"
Tanjiro punctured multiple holes in the plastic and jumped to a further distance. The four packets filled with poison hit the ground and caused a sweep of purple colored dust to cloud the area. Startling fast, the poison reached a far diameter that caused the arrow manipulation demon to hesitate in continuing his attacks.
Instead, the demon turned tail and ran into the shadows of the forest, leaving no trail behind.
Tanjiro was desperate to chase after him, but he turned to Nezuko and Kanao with deep gashes and blood stained clothing. He decided to help tend to their wounds instead.
The red haired demon ripped some cloth from his uniform top and helped Nezuko first. Kanao, being a temporary demon, had the ability to heal her body. She managed to stop the bleeding and was trying to concentrate on closing the injury.
Nezuko promptly took care of the cut on her stomach and used the torn cloth as a bandage to hold pressure and keep it from bleeding more.
A couple of miles off, Iguro was using his small body size to dodge between attacks. Two demons were present, the one from before and another one that survived off of literal brute strength.
Kanroji was about to jump in as well, but something strange caused her to pause and ponder.
'What is that...?' She couldn't figure out what that sudden chill meant.
Before she was remotely aware of what happened, she felt herself go faint and fall unconsciousness.Inosuke noticed this and called out to catch Iguro's attention. Specially a bonus, Inosuke seemed to act more sympathetic to others with his new look and... everything that went with it. (Hey, at least his face matches his body now! LOL! Please, no one take it the wrong way.)
Iguro retreated back and gestured for Inosuke to drag her far from the battle field. Inosuke was about to follow his command with no objections, but suddenly, Inosuke collapsed as well.
"I don't know what it is," started a voice, "But my art has no influence over this one."
A third demon emerge from behind a thick tree trunk as she looked to her companions.
"Useless as ever," commented the demon that had a structured body and incredible strength.
'Great, there's three of them at once and each have a demon blood art,' thought Iguro trying to pick out the weakest of the bunch. 'The one female might be the easiest since she cannot even fight back with her blood art...'
In the meantime, Shinobu, Zenitsu, and Tomioka were searching for the others until...
"GWAHH!"
"Itai!"
"Are you two okay?!"
From the shadow of the moonlight, Giyuu could assume that Zenitsu was perfectly fine as he peered down the ditch the two pillars must have fallen into. Meaning that Tomioka was stuck with Kocho in a ditch. That realization dawned on him as he noticed something or SoMeOnE broke his fall.
"Sorry!" he apologized quickly as he jumped off of Shinobu's back. The two of them had fallen down a 50 foot hole in the ground, which was not placed there on purpose from the obvious added detail.
Shinobu slowly brought herself up to stand and looked up as well to notice that the lightning slayer managed to dodge around the hole and remain on leveled ground. (So, funny quick story, I had a fire drill in my school and as per procedures, everyone was supposed to evacuate to the field. But as we were going back into the building, obviously when the drill was cleared, I was not paying attention to the ground and I fell into a hole. I made it look so obvious as I crawled back out and my whole class cracked. Ugh! Teenager YEARS!!)
That could only mean one thing, she was trapped in a hole, with Tomioka, and they were slightly cramped together since the circumference of the hole wasn't really wide.
Sighing in discomfort, Shinobu leaned her body weight on her feet and collected enough momentum to jump out of the hole. Thanks to her concentrated breathing and focused balance, she managed to successfully get out and landed a little past Zenitsu before turning in surprise.
Tomioka had tried the same, but due to his new height, he didn't have the same distance of latitude. He fell back down as Shinobu realized that he was not used to the shorter height and additional weight in some areas.
'Here they go again!'
Shinobu scoffed loud in her throat and giggled, "Ara-ara Tomioka-san. Are you struggling with your new height and being shorter than before?" she asked with mischief all over her tone.
Once more, Shinobu verbally bullied the water hashira about how tall he was and why nobody will ever like him. Giyuu appeared to give up as he simply plopped down at the bottom of the hole and thought.
Zenitsu on the other hand was searching for something that might help fish the pillar from the ditch until he felt the earth beneath him shift and subtly move. He hopped a couple off feet away and noticed that the ground was not acting normal as it shifted like ocean waves. Coming to the conclusion that is was a demon who could manipulate surfaces, Zenitsu drew his sword and observed the motion of the landscape.
>A couple of minutes before<
Tanjiro was leading Kanao and Nezuko along a lengthy path, placated with rocks and dirt. The mountain seemed to have been home to a village, but nothing was left of the place when they quickly scoped it out. The whole thing was abandoned and probably evacuated due to all the demons roaming around.
'I wonder how many more we are going to encounter.'
As Tanjiro took a deep breathe, he picked up six scents, four were familiar and the other two reeked of blood. He could make out that out of the four familiar scents, three belonged to Iguro, Kanroji, and Inosuke.
By now, Kanao was fully healed as she noticed Tanjiro's movements.
He pointed and everyone understood that the others were that way as well. Nezuko nodded and the three headed in the direction where they would unexpectedly run in to a couple of troublesome demons.
Meanwhile, Iguro dodged between the trees and managed to haul Kanroji and Inosuke to a safe distance. His new body didn't effect his movements as much as he pulled out his sword and hissed, "First Form: Winding Serpent Slash!"
Obani rotated his body and a circular strike formed, slashing at the female demon first. His serpent rotated too and the demon was encased in a white flash that caused her to fall to her knees. Her head started to fall to ashed but that allowed an opening for another demon to attack. The one that relied on strength was about to punch the serpent pillar's head from his shoulders until a shout can be heard and everything was drenched in blue tides.
"Third Form: Flowing Dance!" Nezuko's sword wavered like the tide currents as she cut the arms off the demon before he could reach Obani's head.
His arms grew back almost instantly though surprising the hell out of Nezuko.
"Do you want to know why my art is rare," started the demon that manipulated everyone's powers and appearances.
Their surroundings feel silent as he began explaining.
"I have the control over something called Parallel Universe. The theory goes that phenomenal events occur when two alternatives cross and merge accidentally. The special part of my ability is that I can cause these phenomenons with the flick of my hand."
(Real quick, there is a theory out there that talks about crossed alternates, but I used Parallel Universes instead. This theory goes by a different name and is overlooked, but I did some digging into it when my cousin explained the basis of the theory itself. It pretty much explains events that we see which never happened when you look back. For example, in the first movie of Lilo and Stitch, over half of the population stated that Nani needed to climb onto the stove in order to drag Lilo from her hiding spot, when asked. But when you look back at the movie, it turns out she climbed on the counter and pulled Lilo out from the cabinets. Pretty weird right? That is the base theory of this story though so it may get a tiny bit complicated in the next chapter.)
Everyone seemed confused as the demon looked up and laughed sadistically, "My name is Tatemu and I am among the most powerful demons that reign next to the Twelve Kizuki or rather, Demon Moons!"
Author's note: And done!! I am actually staying to schedule which is surprising. LoL! Anyhow, hope you enjoyed! Until next time guys! I hope to have next chapter before Friday of this week! And OMG Wattpad, why do you keep giving me so many problems today?! 😝
~Midnightstallion12 out! (Word Count: 4,235)