Chapter Four
「Restriction」
꧁꧂
"You got this, (Y/N)-chan!" Douma cheered from the side as he cooled himself with his gold fan.
The said girl grunted, trying hard to stay focused despite Upper Moon Two's constant yelling. She narrowed her eyes and focused on slowing her breathing. The world then darkened before her, and she entered the see-through-world. She carefully studied Kokushibou's movements, connecting an opening to a form.
Breath of Stars, Seventh Form: Libra's Scales.
In a mad dash, she bolted to the Upper Moon and decreased any of her unnecessary movements to get to the opening in time. With her sense of auras, she began to be able to sense any opening threads of attack, as well as see them with the see-through-world. With a dark, glistening, and starry trail, her body spun in a vertical flip, marking a balanced spiral of attack. Practically the moment after Kokushibou swung his sword down, she managed to slice halfway through his open arm—which, frankly, was way more than she's ever been able to do—before the demon used his other hand to push her back so she fell to the ground.
"You're getting better," he remarked simply, tucking his sword back into his sheath (he never really liked the idea of being the cause to her injuries). "Let's stop here and treat your wounds?"
Before the girl could even attempt to stand, she felt the arms of Douma scoop her up and bring her close to his chest. He happily trotted with her in his arms to the inside of her house, where he made his way into her room.
"Why didn't you bring Rui-kun along this time?" she questioned, turning her head upwards to face the demon.
"Oh! Um," the Upper Moon stuttered. The girl narrowed her eyes at him, noticing his rising panic. "He's busy with a new family member." (Y/N) scoffed at his obvious lie, but let it slide for the time. He carefully placed her down on her futon, and the girl sensed his relief when he she stayed quiet.
Kokushibou waltzed in seconds later, carrying a roll of bandages for her cuts. He knelt by her futon and gently took hold of her arm, beginning to wrap her wounds. He's never this gentle with anything else, she noticed. After every training session with him, she always sensed caution within his aura when he treated her injuries.
"Thank you, shishou," she expressed, to which Upper Moon One only nodded at.
"Y'know," Douma piped up, holding his closed golden fan to his lips to show he was thinking. "That man told us to tell you that you should stay inside your house, and go out less often nowadays."
"Why?" the girl asked.
"You," Kokushibou began to answer, "were spotted with him in Asakusa."
꧁꧂
Kamado Tanjiro was pushed down to the burning, rocky ground.
"W-wait!" he gasped for air desperately. "There's something I forgot to mention," he breathed out, ignoring the pain in his body.
"You're not allowed to interrupt Oyakata-sama," the Mist Hashira scolded quietly. The other Hashiras shared a similar annoyance with the Kamado boy, who just ignored him and continued speaking.
"Kibutsuji Muzan was accompanied by a human girl when I saw him," the boy reported, immediately catching the attention of all the Hashira, as well as the Master, Ubuyashiki. "I thought he tricked her by pretending he was human, but," he trailed off, remembering the horror he felt when he first saw her. "Even though she was human, she stood between Kibutsuji and me, and she had a scent of other powerful demons all over her!"
"What would a human girl be doing with the demon progenitor?" the Sound Hashira pondered aloud. "Sounds flamboyantly false."
"Perhaps she was brainwashed," the Stone Hashira cried, hands clasped together in a prayer. "What a poor soul."
"Tell us what she looked like, boy," the Serpent Hashira demanded intensely.
"Well," he started. Tanjiro let out a shaky breath and proceeded to describe the girl he saw, from her hair color to random little features he remembered. The others in the meeting listened to his words intently, mentally noting the characteristics he described. "The most notable thing on her, I suppose, was her gold, starry hair clip," he finished.
"Interesting," Ubuyashiki analyzed, a finger on his chin as he thought of his next command. "Then, if any of you are to stumble into this girl, you will bring her here."
With a respectful affirmation from every Demon Slayer in the meeting, Tanjiro was excused and finally sent on his way to the Butterfly Estate.
꧁꧂
(Y/N) didn't think she was ever going to get used to the sudden feeling of falling at the twang of a biwa.
She wandered aimlessly through the twists and turns of the Infinite Fortress for awhile, waiting for whatever it was come her way. In the area, she sensed a total of five other demons—not counting Nakime—and they all seemed pretty powerful.
Another twang, and she found herself on a platform with the biwa demon and another female demon. The unfamiliar demon, who also had an unfamiliar aura, turned to look at the (H/C) haired girl. All it took was one little sharp glance from the woman, however, and (Y/N) could immediately tell who it was.
"Why are you a woman? Is it your current disguise?"
"You can still tell it's me despite my change of aura?" Muzan questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I can tell just by the look you gave me," she explained. "I'd like to think I've finally come to figure you out."
"I'm afraid you've gone brain-dead if you actually believe that," he snarled at her. "Do you have your nichirin sword on you?" As an answer, the girl turned her body to show him the sheath attached to her hip. "Good. Nakime," he called to the biwa demon, who replied with another twang of her instrument.
With a turn, (Y/N) found the five demons she sensed previously on a platform below her, all looking confusedly up at her and their leader. With a bored sigh, she made her way to the front of the higher platform she stood at, and lowered herself to sit idly at the edge, legs swinging back and forth.
"Lower your heads and crouch down," Muzan glared at the five demons. "Prostrate yourselves."
(Y/N) suddenly felt a rush of air brush through her, as well as the exponentially increasing auras of fear emitting from the demons before her. All five of the demons present on the lower platform immediately bent down to the wooden floorboards.
"P-please forgive us!" Lower Moon Four begged rapidly. "Since you've assumed a different form and aura—"
"Who gave you permission to speak? Don't presume to voice your worthless thoughts," Muzan scowled (and (Y/N) almost scoffed at his pride and self-proclaimed authority; what an egotistical bastard, she thought). "Answer my questions, nothing else."
"Rui was killed," he continued.
What?
Rui was—
A deafening white noise, and suddenly the girl couldn't focus on the rest of the meeting. Everything around her drowned into nothingness whilst her own brain couldn't even function the information she heard. Even the begging screams for forgiveness from the Lower Moons before her did not reach her ears as a sinking feeling clouded the entirety of her body.
Rui is dead?
She didn't like this new feeling. It felt heavy, repulsive, and unfamiliar, like it was clawing her from the inside and eating her alive. She wanted to get rid of it, and she was sure to tear the feeling itself into shreds.
The feeling of fingers delicately threading through the hair on top of her head, however, managed to snap her out of her thoughts, and she jolted. She looked down to find the Lower Moons (all alive, to her surprise) cowering and crying in petty fear. Lower Moon One was no longer present, she noticed. Towering right behind her siting form, she found Muzan, who's hand laid gently on her head as he glared down at the Lower Moons like they were pieces of worthless scum (which, she agreed, they were). The way he treated her versus the lower demons, it seemed, was remarkably different.
"Since the rest of you remain incompetent," the demon progenitor insulted, "I'm sure you know what's next." He had no intention to kill the Lower Moons himself, the girl soon realized. Muzan suddenly looked down at her and met her gaze, his lips twisting up to form a sort of half-smirk in her direction, voice becoming slightly playful as he spoke to her.
"I'll let you have your fun with them, (Y/N)-san."
His fingers trailed away from her head and he walked off, disappearing at another twang.
The human girl paused for a moment, the cogs of her mind turning to process his statement before it hit her. She sharply turned back to the front to face the second platform before her, where the remaining four Lower Moons stood at, all glaring up at her and ready to kill her for their lives. How unfortunate, she thought of them as she reached for the hilt of her sword. Their battle spirits are so high, and they're all going to die.
She's killed demons before, of course—ones that were simply in her way while she was out strolling and planning a murder—but she's never actually tried to fight a stronger demon like a Lower Moon before. Her three Upper Moon trainers didn't count, but these demons before her did, and this free chance felt downright exhilarating. Killing was always the only thing she ever felt any joy doing, but she's never gotten this amount of excitement before when she killed humans or demons—she's never felt this elation in her core. Quickly forgetting about the death of Rui, the rush and tingle for bloodshed inside her moved her body forward on it's own.
"With pleasure, Muzan-san," she grinned wildly.
꧁꧂
(Y/N) sighed at the feeling of the sunlight hitting her skin. Due to her demon friends (no longer just acquaintances, she remembered), she tended stay up and go out during the nighttime more often than day. But because of their very sudden constant nagging for her to stay indoors, however, she chose to go out at a time when none of them could stop her: when the sun was out.
She decided she would train on her own at a nearby forest, where she'd have more space to breath and focus on her attacks without destroying anything important. The quietness and alone time to herself would help her improve on her own, she figured.
At least, that's what she hoped for before a sword came hurling in her direction. She sensed it coming, and was able to sidestep her way out of its direction. It ended up hitting a tree, attaching to it. There were two other humans in this forest, she sensed.
"My apologies, I thought you were a demon in the day!" a voice boomed.
(Y/N) turned to the direction of the voice, only to find the two beings she sensed—one with flaming yellow and red hair, and a taller one, with white hair that was tied back (and dear God, she thought, they're so tall). The shorter of the two quickly made his way to the impaled tree, pulling his nichirin sword out and tucking it back into its sheath.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, voice still stuck in a shout, and he suddenly leaned in to come directly face to face with the girl.
"No," she answered simply, leaning a bit back from his closeness.
"Good!" he shouted once more, and he returned to the side of his companion.
Demon Slayers, she recognized. What fun; they'd be perfect training dummies.
The taller slayer remained quiet for the entirety of the conversation, for the shine of something in the girl's hair caught his attention. He cupped his own chin with his fingers in wonder.
"Hm," he hummed aloud thoughtfully, scanning the girl before him. "A girl with a gold, starry hair clip." His eyes were trained on the gift she remembered Muzan bought for her on her birthday, and the Demon Slayer turned towards his comrade. "That sounds flamboyantly familiar, don't you think?"
꧁꧂
【大正の秘密 | TAISHŌ SECRETS】
► (Y/N) refers to Kokushibou as 師匠 (ししょう/shishou), meaning master or teacher.
► If you asked her, she'd deny it, but (Y/N) did see Rui as a little brother, even if she herself didn't realize it.
► The slayer with the yellow and red hair thought (Y/N) was a demon because—
► [ERROR]
► [DATA REDACTED]