16 Chapter 16

These are the demon slayer ranks from weakest to strongest: Mizunoto → Mizunoe → Kanoto → Kanoe → Tsuchinoto → Tsuchinoe → Hinoto → Hinoe → Kinoto → Kinoe

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As the village was in sight, Kyoshi slowed down and walked towards the gates. As he got closer he could tell this village was far from regular. There were a pot of strong people in there based off their aura, but only a few stood out from the rest.

The majority of the people he saw had the aura of Kanoto with maybe two or three of them at Tsuchinoto. As he got closer to the village gates he noticed four men standing there.

They were clothed in the stereotypical ninja clothes with the clan crest on their left shoulders and their chest. At a glance Kyoshi could tell they were well equipped and trained.

Still though, they did have openings and naturally human weak points.

"Stop right there traveller. What business do you have here?" One of the men asked as Kyoshi stopped in front of the gate.

"I've been kicked out from my house by my family. I don't have anywhere to stay so I've been traveling from place to place only surviving off the kindness of others." Kyoshi said with a slight bow of the head.

The guard in front of him slightly bowed back for good manners, but was still suspicious. The place they're situated in doesn't have a road and the boy was also carrying a sword.

"Boy, are you a swordsman?" The shinobi asked.

Kyoshi took his sword from his waist and showed it to them while the blade was still sheathed.

"Yeah, I was kicked out because my talent wasn't as good as my older brothers, but I can still kill demons!!" Kyoshi said. He changed his tone to make it sound like he was desperate in convincing himself that he was strong.

"So you're a demon slayer. Did the corp send you here undercover or what?"

"Eh, Demon Slayer? Corp? I only killed demons because they tried to kill me. What corp are you talking about?" Kyoshi asked.

"…Let's bring em in. You're still suspicious so we'll have to interrogate you first." The shinobi said as he and another guy guided Kyoshi into the village. They also had to take his sword away.

…

"Ma'am, I'm reporting about a kid who seems to be 15 in the interrogation room. Apparently the boy was kicked out from his home because he wasn't talented with a sword, but from what he says he's killed demons as a mercenary for money." A shinobi said to Masako.

"A 15 year old boy already killing demons for money? Where is he right now and did you confiscate his weapons?" She asked as she stood up from her desk.

"He's in the interrogation room, but apparently he doesn't know what the DSC is." The shinobi answered.

'Good, the wisteria in that place should've repelled him if he was a demon. Then again he could be a half breed like me.' She thought.

"Tell them I'm on my way down there." Masako said. The shinobi nodded and vanished from the room. Masako left her office with a small notebook and walked down the hallway, made a right turn and walked down another hallway before unlocking a door that leads to a staircase.

She closed the door and locked it before walking down the stairs and finally making it into the basement. There was a door that opened up to the the room he was being held in while they waited for Masako.

"The boy's in there right?" She asked, receiving a nod from the other shinobi. She opened the door and walked into the room and saw Kyoshi sitting there with his eyes closed.

'No scars, either he's strong or he's just started killing demons for money. It seems like he's hiding his aura too.' Masako thought.

"First off, what's your name?" She asked as she opened her notebook and flipped a few pages getting ready to write with a pen.

"My name's Kyoshi. I abandoned my family name." He answered.

"I see. When were you kicked out and from what village?" She asked.

"I was kicked out a year ago and from the village east if here. It's been a while so I forgot it's name." He said.

"…I see. You kill demons right? How can you kill demons with that sword, but not know of the Demon Slayer Corps?"

"My family didn't really tell me anything since they didn't think I'd be worth it like my brother, but in the beginning they still gave me a sword. I don't know anything about it. Is there something wrong with it?" He asked.

"Not really. Were your parents Demon Slayers?"

"Umm, I don't know. If they had demon killing blades then I guess they at least worked with them."

"And your brother, did he make it as a demon slayer? If so by what name?"

"I don't know."

"Instead of doing something like this why didn't you try something else for money? In Shinjuku I'm sure there's 'places' that kids your age would like to work for 'fun'."

"What are you talking about?"

"…A brothel for women to go sleep with a man. Why didn't you try one of those instead of something like this?" Masako said with a sigh.

"I have absolutely no idea what a brothel is?" Kyoshi answered.

"I see…so you started this mercenary thing a year ago as well?"

"Yeah."

"How good of a swordsman would you say you are?"

"Umm, I'm pretty good I guess."

"Why do you want to kill demons?"

"For money."

"How long do you plan on staying here?"

"Just the night."

"Isn't the night the best time to go out and make some money?"

"I've made enough for now. I just want to sleep for now."

"I see. Well then, I guess we can give you a place to sleep. Travelers do pass here often but this is just protocol nothing too crazy." Masako said as she stood up and closed her book.

"Although I would like to talk to you in the morning about a business proposal I'd like to offer." She added before walking out of the room.

'He seems like the type to solely focus on money so this should be something he'd want to here.' Masako thought.

…

'Too bad for her, I don't care about business.' Kyoshi thought as he was handed his sword and straw hat. Later that night he was given directions to an inn that they let travelers rest at.

After getting there and paying the stay fee, he went up to his room and laid on the bed. It wasn't as good as his normal bed, but meh it'll do.

He grabbed his bag and pulled out his notebook that held all the things he's done and a pen before flipping a few pages.

"So Tanjiro and Nezuko." Kyoshi said as he started drawing their faces from memory.

"A demon traveling with a demon slayer. The demon slayer himself is nothing special. He's pretty dumb for yelling while doing a sneak attack and I guess he's stronger than a regular demon." He noted.

"The main concern however should be the demon he travels with who's also his girlfriend I'm assuming. At the moment her strength and speed are mediocre at best. The bottom rank lower moons can take her out, but her behavior is weird."

"Not only does she protect humans, but she follows the orders of a human like an obedient pet. It's almost like she was hypnotized or something. If this type of hypnotization works on demons I wonder if my Kakugan gan undo it?"

"Seeing as I'm able to also put people under suggestive thoughts, take control of them, and make people see illusions. I wonder if I'm able to make a demon slayer my lackey?"

"Of course this is only if their will is weaker than mine. My final question is weather I'd be able to break that hypnosis or can I overwrite it with my own?"

After that Kyoshi closed the notebook and put it back into his bag before laying down and sleeping. Although he didn't have to sleep with the type of control he has over his body, he can knock himself unconscious.

…

—Demon Slayer Resting Facility—

"Well although my training has been coming along I still feel very weak. I still can't beat my master." Seikichi said as he sat his tea cup on the table.

Across from him was Hisa. A very short and old women who didn't seem to have much time left in the physical plain of existence.

"You're not thinking about this the right way Seikichi. The Sound Hashira seems to be very proud of you and even speaks of you arrogantly. He said not to tell you bet there were a few times where he felt he would loose." Hisa said.

"Really? He always seems so high and might when I fight him. Plus whenever we're fighting he always says he's still holding back."

"What if he's lying and do you go all out?"

"He might be lying to keep up his appearance, but I do go all out. It's just that a lot of his moves require big cleavers so I've had to take some time to make my own techniques."

"See!! You even made tour own techniques how can you be so unsure about yourself?" Hisa said while laughing.

"I see. I never did think of it like that."

"It tends to happen. With great people around you, you start thinking what you've done isn't nearly as great as theirs. My daughters daughter had the same problem and then she ran off from the family." Hisa said.

"At least she's living a good life with the man she loves and hopefully has kids." She added with a laugh.

'Damn it. How can I tell her she died just like her mother? To those damn spiteful demons!!' Seikichi thought as he tried to hide the sadness in his eyes.

The Demon Slayer Corps knew what family Hinā and Kyoshi were from the moment they saw the blanket Hisā was wrapped in. It was covered with the wisteria crest and that crest only belonged to one family.

The Fuji family.

After Chiyō ran off with her soon to be husband away from the Fuji family, she settled down in another village were she got married and had kids.

That being said, when the first born son was three years old, she found out he cheated on her and she kicked him out.

Later down the line she found out her mother and father died to bandits who raped her mother and cut her fathers body into small pieces before throwing them down a river.

Years went by and Chiyō got over her depression, but those bandits weren't fine.

Later on those bandits all died to what looked like a demon attack. All but one. Muzan had turned a one of the bandits into a demon after they tried to rob him and that demon was later imprisoned for five months by Muzan.

Once it broke out it went after the closet village which honestly wasn't even close since Muzan imprisoned the demon inside an extremely small cave inside a mountain.

It just turns out that was the first village he saw. Then the rest was how the Toshikawa tragedy happened. The one that took his friends and family away.

'Damn it Muzan Kibutsuji!!' Seikichi thought as he prepared himself for a quick nap before departing the next day.