13 Chapter 13

"The hell." Kyoshi said as he saw the demon girl come from the box. She jumped from the box and dashed towards him with some lackluster speed. She threw a punch at him that he slapped away before she kicked. Kyoshi grabbed her leg and threw her back, but she gained her footing and stood next to her brother.

"You demon, return-"

"I didn't take it." Kyoshi interrupted.

"Whatever you're looking for should be with that other demon, but you've been messing with me for so long he probably already snatched somebody up. Oh, if you're looking for a girl, don't bother. You've wasted so much time she's probably dead." Kyoshi said, waving his hand dismissively.

He heard footsteps from behind him and turned around to see some human running this way.

"Bruh are you stupid? You brought a human to confront a demon?" Kyoshi thought with a slight chuckle.

"STOP, KAZUME DON'T GET ANY CLOSER. HE'S A DEMON SO STAY BACK!!" Tanjiro yelled.

'Damn it, what to do?' Tanjiro thought.

"Honestly, you telling him to stay back is pointless. If I wanted to, I could rip him to shreds before you guys could even regester what happened." Kyoshi said lazily.

'Damn it, do I leave this demon here and go after the other one? Then again I can't let this guy go, he might hurt somebody. Also, Nezuko…' Tanjiro looked up towards Nezuko and saw her on the defensive.

'She isn't a human anymore. She's a strong demon who can protect herself.' He thought.

"Nezuko, protect Kazume while I go hunt the other demon!!" He shouted as he ran off.

Nezuko grunted with a nod as she ran over to Kazume.

"…I'm literally not even hungry. I already ate today." Kyoshi said with a sigh.

"H-how can you-"

"H-h-h-how can you monsters eat humans so easily without any remorse or guilt?" Kyoshi interrupted as he finished his sentence in a squeaky voice.

"Yes I've heard the same questions multiple times and I've given a reasonable answer to it yet when I pose a question of my own you people act like it's the hardest question in the world to answer." Kyoshi said.

At first his eyes were normal, but seemed annoyed and worn out with everything, but now he was glaring.

"Would you like to answer my question? Let's make it a game, if you answer my question with a reasonable answer I'll go help that boy fight the demon, but if you can't answer it, then you die." Kyoshi said with a grin.

"No."

"You're so lame. What about you? Why's a demon traveling and protecting a human?" Kyoshi asked as he started walking towards them. Nezuko made some grunted noises and she was growling with her claws in front of her.

"You behave like a wild animal. Humans are already so prejudiced and racist towards our kind and then there's you. A perfect example of what they're telling others we are. Animals with no common sense and decency." Kyoshi said with a sigh.

"Your boyfriend even put a muzzle on you. You know what that means? You're seen as an untrained and violent animal. Imagine having a boyfriend that's a whole demon slayer and he still doesn't trust you." Kyoshi said as he laughed at the thought.

"S-she's not like you dis-"

"You disgusting, vile, repulsive animals. Yes I know. I've heard those lines over my years of being a demon. So let's talk about it. What'd a demon do to you that made you how you are?" Kyoshi asked as he stopped about 5 meters in front of them.

"…M-my girlfriend. The bastard came from nowhere and took her. O-one minute we're walking happily and the next that damn thing took her!!" Kazume said as he dropped to his knees crying while pounding at the ground.

"I see. I've only been in this village for a day so I might not know the specifics, but from what I hear a girl goes "missing" every night. Usually lower demons like him and her need to eat at least 3 times a day to gain and replenish energy." Kyoshi said.

"So basically that means he starves himself till it's nighttime, then takes one girl. Although it's faint, I can hear about…three demons that the boy is over there fighting, which means after starving themselves for a whole day they split one person between themselves. It's like a poor family splitting a piece of bread." He added.

"…" Kazume looked up towards Kyoshi with slightly widened eyes before he started crying again.

"B-but why? Why did it have to be Satoko?!?" He yelled.

"That's a nice name, but in truth it's never chosen who we eat. It's always who we happen to come by or who fits our taste. The same way you humans have a certain way you like your pork we demons have a certain way we like our humans." Kyoshi said.

He looked away from Kazume and towards Nezuko who seemed dazed before Kyoshi spoke.

"And you, how many people have you eaten. For your boyfriend to be carrying a "human eat monster" around on his back he sure has a hatred towards us other "human eating monsters". Is he biased because you're a girl?"

"Mm mm" Nezuko grunted with a head shake.

"So you can understand what I'm saying? I wonder if you can talk." Kyoshi said as he reached for her muzzle.

She slapped his hand away while glaring at him as he took a step back.

"So you're into that type of stuff? My auntie would probably like a demon like you." Kyoshi said, only receiving silence.

"Alright well I'm leaving since I don't have anything to do here anymore. Your name was Nezuko right? I'm Kyoshi, have a nice time being an obedient pet to your owner." He said waving his hands as he got ready to leave.

"Wait!!" Kazume yelled.

"You humans really are dumb. Just because I'm not hungry doesn't mean I won't kill just because I can." Kyoshi said.

"I wanted to know. Why can't you demons just be vegetarian? Why is it specifically humans you have to eat?" Kazume asked.

Maybe it was because they had this chat or it could have been his deminior, but Kazume and Nezuko didn't seem threatened by him at all. Although he's still a demon, he seemed reasonable.

"I don't know, it's a thing with our biology. Let me ask you this though, humans kill innocent animals every day to eat their meat. Unlike us carnivores who can only eat meat, you guys are omnivores which means you can eat plants and animals right?" Kyoshi asked.

"So why do you guys kill innocent animals when you don't have to do it to survive? At least we kill people because we literally have no choice or we'll die, but you guys enjoy committing murder so much you made it a sport and normalized it. But hey, we're the bad guys, I can't criticize you." Kyoshi said before vanishing.

He felt the aura of that other demon disappear and he hadn't found anything in this village, he planned on going somewhere else before going back. At least not empty-handed. He also had a crazy story to tell everyone.

"Nezuko!!" Tanjiro yelled as he ran up to his sister.

"Are you okay, that demon didn't hurt you right?!" He added while checking her face for injury. She shook her head and he sighed in relief.

"Hey where'd that other demon go?!" He yelled as he looked around.

"He already left after talking to us." Kazume said.

"Talking? About what?"

"I think it was just about his ideology. It was basically about how they do what they have to to survive since it's the only way. He also said something to your girlfriend abo-"

"Eh, this is my sister."

"…oh, well I think he was hitting on her. Oh wait, he also called her an obedient pet and said you were her owner. He kept comparing to some type of dog and it seemed like he was trying to manipulate her. He also…"

Kazume continued to tell him about what Kyoshi was saying to them in detail. Tanjiro seemed to be off in another world as he listened to what Kazume said. Although he didn't realize it before, he was treating Neuko like some locked up dog.

Although the muzzle was put on by another demon slayer, he could have taken it off by now. He knew she wouldn't attack a human and that if she felt like it, she could probably bite through the bamboo, but she didn't. There was still doubt though. Even if it was small, after all she's still a demon.

'But she's my sister first.' Tanjiro thought as he reached for the muzzle. Before he could lay a hand on it, Nezuko grabbed his hand, stopping him from taking it off.

Tanjiro understood that she did this to show that his words didn't bother her and to say that they can't let the words of a demon sway them.

Clenching his hand into a fist Tanjiro looked towards Kazume before suddenly remembering something. He dug into his haori and pulled out a black cloth that had multiple hair pins and ornaments inside them. All used by young women.

"Do me a favor and hand these out to the people who've lost their kids to the demons. It's the only thing that I could find on him." He said.

Kazume saw the big red bow and started tearing up, but held them back. He had to accept that she was gone now and present these things to the families in this town.

"Thank you!!" He said with a deep bow.

"It's only my job." Tanjiro said as he started leaving for the exit of the town with Nezuko beside him.

'In the end I still couldn't find anything out about Muzan.' Tanjiro thought.

*Cow* *Cow*

"TAN-GI-RO, HEAD TO ASAKUSA, TOKYO FOR YOUR NEXT MISSION!!" A crow yelled.

"Ehh, I just finished up here, I have another mission already!!" Tanjiro yelled. He stomped out of the town and walked down the dirt path on his way to the big city, Tokyo.

Mt. Myosumi

Seikichi had been waiting a whole day for the "lower moon" demons to appear, but they never did. The other demon slayers were already called back, but Seikichi was too embarrassed to return so he just ran off somewhere else. He was headed to go see Hisa.

He needed a place to cool down and relax anyway.

***********************************************************

A/N: Just for clarification, Kyoshi can walk out in the sunlight, but he doesn't know that. He thinks he was only able to be in the sun when he was first turning because he wasn't fully a demon.

He believes that after Muzan gave him blood, he became a full demon and the sun would kill him. I'll explain why he can walk in the sun sometimes later down the line. Feel free to ask any questions.

avataravatar
Next chapter