A pale man with dark black, glossy hair and a katana was shaking as he looked around wearily, scared out of his mind that someone would attack him. Tanjiro noticed his fear, so to spare him the humiliation of screaming, he gently held his hand by the mans face. He yelped and whipped around, his dark black eyes relaxing once they met Tanjiro's dark maroon ones.
"Y/n L/n and Tanjiro Kamado here to help. Rank Mizunoto" Y/n introduced himself and the other boy. He didn't bother introducing Inosuke.
"M-mizunoto?" the stranger asked. "Mizunoto?!" he asked a little louder. "Not Hashira?! It doesn't matter how many Mizunoto come! It's useless! Theres no point!"
Just then, Inosuke thought it would be an amazing idea to slug the man in the face, catching everyone off guard.
"Inosuke?!" Y/n scolded in shock, mostly trying to hold back laughter.
"Shut up and explain the situation!" Inosuke barked. "If we're gonna talk about useless things, allow me to bring up your existence!"
"We... we got an order, so the 10 of us came up the mountain! Not long after that... the members... began killing each other!" the man explained. Suddenly, a few men and women risen from the ground, their faces imitating those of corpses. A couple of them raised their swords and started charging the small group. Y/n yelped and ducked as a woman swung her blade at him, but she didn't stop there. The e/c eyed boy started scuttling off into the forest, trying to lose her.
"Y/n!" Tanjiro screamed as his blade clashed with another. "Don't go too far! Stick by me!"
"Are they idiots?!" Inosuke screamed. "We're not allowed to fight each other!"
"Their movements aren't their own! They're being controlled!" Tanjiro theorised.
"Then I'll cut 'em up!"
"No, don't do that! They're alive!"
"Where's the other boy?" the stranger asked and looked around, lowering his sword.
"Huh? Other boy?" Tanjiro asked and turned to him. "Do you mean Zenitsu?"
"Is that his name? The one with h/c hair and e/c eyes? Golden katana? Your friend, ne?" the stranger briefly described Y/n.
"H/c...-" Tanjiro pondered before stopping. "Y/n's right-" he pointed in a direction to see him... very much not there. He stared at the bald spot where Y/n used to be blankly, quietly contemplating what happened. "hE'S GONE??" Tanjiro shrieked.
"HAH?!" Inosuke screamed and head butted a tree for whatever 'Inosuke' type reasoning he had. "What do you mean?!"
"Gone! Vanished! I need to go find him! Just sit tight Inosuke, yeah?!" Tanjiro called after his comrade before running into the forest. "Oh! I nearly forgot!" He turned around temporarily. "The threads! Cut the threads!" he informed them before continuing his search.
--
"Hah... I think... I finally..." Y/n grasped his chest and leaned over. He had been running for nearly 10 minutes straight at full speed to avoid the woman. "Fuck..." he panted for air desperately, taking in all the oxygen he could.
"Stop breathing like that" a gentle and soothing voice spoke from the shadows. It had a twinge of mystery, but sounded light for the most part. "Panting like a dog. It's unattractive" despite it's naturally kind sounding nature, it was easy to spot the monotone and numbness behind it. Y/n gripped the hilt of his katana, ready to attack.
"Who's there?!" He barked, looking around.
"Up here" the voice spoke. Y/n obediently looked up to see a young boy who appeared to be floating. No, not floating. The moon reflected on something thin glistening under the boy. Maybe webs? Nevertheless, it's a demon. He was trained to kill demons, which is exactly what he was gonna do.
"Give me a break! I was running!" Y/n argued instead of actually being useful.
"Arent you a demon slayer? Isn't breathing your whole thing? Or is that uniform fake? Are you actually a demon, hm?" the demon teased, his monotone voice not shaking.
Y/n turned red with embarrassment. "For your information, I have asthma" he lied ((unless you actually have asthma)) and crossed his arms. "What are you even doing up there? Come down"
"Do you think I'm stupid?" the demon scoffed. "You would try to kill me" he spoke quietly and paused. "Then again, you wouldn't be able to kill me anyway. Alright, I'll bite" the demon slowly lowered himself to the ground, gently placing his feet onto the grass which was damp from dew. He was quite petite. He had pale, almost white skin and interesting circle patterns on his face. His hair was choppy and fell over one eye. He had a kimono on, with spider web patterns along the hems. He had no shoes, he was walking around barefoot. "I am Rui" he introduced himself. "What may I call you?" he asked.
Y/n remained quiet. He wasn't about to give the enemy the advantage. Besides, he was busy thinking about something that Rui had said. What did he mean by 'you wouldn't be able to kill me anyway'? Was he that powerful? Surely not. He's just a kid. Plus, if he really were that powerful he'd have tried to off Y/n.
"It's rude not to reply" Rui muttered, clearly getting irritated. He eyed the boy in front of him up and down, taking in his combination of e/c eyes and h/c hair, f/c haori and golden katana. His eyes soon fell on the flower that Y/n had gotten as a gift from Nezuko. "What flower is that? A sunflower?"
No response.
"I'll call you sunflower then" Rui continued talking. "But back to what I was saying previously. You wanted to kill me, ne?" he outstretched his arms, exposing his body. "Go ahead. Do your worst"
Y/n's eyes widened in shock. He slowly raised his blade and made his way over to Rui. He brought his blade up to the demon, who only smiled creepily.
"I'll make this quick" Y/n whispered and closed his eyes. He placed the blade up to Rui's neck, his palm on the dull side to help push the katana through his neck. "Breath of gold, 7th form: glistening ra-" he was interrupted when Rui smacked him in the face with his fist.
"You're too indecisive" the boy spoke calmly and stood over Y/n, who was lying on the ground. "Weak" he continued and placed one foot on his back, pressing down. "Slow" Y/n gasped in pain and lack of air. "And you call yourself a demon slayer?" Rui snickered mockingly, glaring daggers at the other boy. "And here I thought I was going to have a worthy opponent"
"Get up! Get your katana! Get it now!" Y/n yelled at himself and reached his arm out to grab his katana. He successfully grabbed his sword again and a look of hope crossed his face. "Breath of gold, 3rd form: Golden glow!" he screamed and swung at Rui. A warm glow washed over the forest. Y/n used this to his advantage and grabbed the demons kimono, flipping him over onto the ground. He straddled him and pressed his katana up against his neck, threatening to cut it off. Sweat dripped down the e/c eyed boys frowning face, his eyes illuminated slightly from the remaining glow. Rui stared up silently, a blank expression painted on his face. Y/n didn't bother to think about how calm the demon was being. He didn't stop to think about what he would do if it lived. He raised his sword and used his palm to put it against the dull side and slam it into the demons neck, hoping to cut it off cleanly. He closed his eyes and forced the sword into Rui's neck. There was a loud clang. Y/n's eyes opened in horror. The katana wasn't going through. He did it again. Nothing.
"I'm disappointed, sunflower" Rui spoke calmly. "You were so close"
Out of nowhere a thin wire wrapped itself around Y/n's wrist, jerking him up into the air. The sharpness and thinness of the wire dug into his skin, making him bleed. He stood on the ground to minimise the deepness of the cut, but Rui didn't let him. Another wire wrapped around his ankle, then his other arm's shoulder, waist and finally neck. By the end, Y/n was trapped in this wired cage. Blood was dripping from his wounds and onto the ground. His blood stained haori barely shielded him from the wires that were cutting his s/c skin.
Rui slowly stood up and gazed up at the boy who was hanging up in the air as if he were a prize. "I thought I was going to kill you, but now I'm second guessing" he muttered and used a wire to get to Y/n's level. "You were with a group, ne? Something tells me that you're going to come in handy. For now you will just serve as a living, breathing trophy"
Y/n squirmed around under the constriction of the wires, trying desperately to break free. He moved his arm despite the restraints on his wrist, his wounds growing deeper by the second. "I've gotta do something! Use your head! Think! Think!!" he yelled at himself internally and moved his other arm to hold the sword with both hands. Rui didn't allow that. He snatched the katana away and forced the wires to tighten. Y/n screamed in pain. The demon placed the sharp end of the sword to the human boys neck, tapping it with the blade.
"You know, you're almost adorable when you're not thrashing around like an animal in a cage" Rui mused and dropped the sword to the ground and breaking it by stepping on it, rendering it useless. As if mocking him, Rui lifted the wire up to Y/n's level. He turned away to a different direction. "I'll be taking my leave now. Be good for me" and with that, he took off.
--
Tanjiro desperately trudged through the forest, suddenly spotting a familiar boar head. "Inosuke!" he called out. The boar turned to him.
"Monjiro!" he yelled and just about managed to dodge an attack.
"No! Run! Get out of here!" a girl their age yelled desperately. "I'm being controlled! I've never been this powerful!" she swung her sound, a loud whoosh following it.
"I couldn't find Y/n! I'm getting worried!" Tanjiro spoke, dodging the attacks.
"Never mind that! Now pay attention to this!" Inosuke barked.
"We musn't kill them! Let me think!" after a long pause, Tanjiro finally spoke again. "I've got it!" he ran around a tree, trying to get the webs in a knot.
"Hah?! Stop messing around!" Inosuke screamed, but stopped when Tanjiro threw her into a tree. "Hahhaha! That looks like fun!" he cackled and did the same with another. "Did you see that?!"
"Sorry, I'm a little preoccupied!"
The two threw a couple more people into the tree's. Inosuke was about to throw the last one, but just before that, the webs forced everyones head to the side violently, breaking their necks and killing them instantly.
"Dammit! They're all dead!" Inosuke cursed.
"Lets go" Tanjiro ordered softly and continued walking. "Y/n, please... please be okay..." he prayed under his breath.
"Hey! This way!" Inosuke urged and started running in a certain direction, Tanjiro at his tail. A large monster-like demon with no head emerged from the wood. Tanjiro covered his mouth with his hand in horror. "What do we do?!"
"Stay calm! Use the kesagiri movement!" Tanjiro demanded.
"YAAAAH!" Inosuke hollered and ran forward, but he was stopped suddenly, wires forming around his wrists. Luckily, Tanjiro came to his aid.
The red haired boy crouched on the ground. "Jump, Inosuke! Juuump!" Inosuke did as he was told and stepped onto Nezuko's box, launching himself in the air and successfully slashing the demon.
He landed on the ground and turned to Tanjiro, before running up to him and giving him a big hug. Well, he thought it was a hug. What it actually was, was a way to throw him in the air towards the mother of the puppets.
He grinned widely at Inosuke's genius and glared at the demon in front of him. She desperately looked for a way out, but she relaxed. She outstretched her arms, as if allowing Tanjiro to kill him. He gripped his sword tighter. "Breath of Water, 5th form: blessed rain after the drought" he whispered and gently cut the demons head off. He quietly gazed after the demon as her head came clean off and fell to the ground.
"One of the 12 kizuki are here... beware..." she muttered.