The Sixth Demon

Hiroto stood back up and could feel his body aching from having been thrown. He looked to the side and saw Genya rushing in to fight against the spear Demon.

Genya stood in front of the spear Demon and started to mutter, "All were great arhats, well-known to the assembly. Among them were elder Sariputra…"

"What? The Amida Sutra? That's one devout man there." The spear Demon said, rushing up to flash at Genya.

*swoosh*

"Huh?" The Demon muttered, as his spear went through the air but missed his target.

Genya appeared behind the Demon and shouted, "I'll cut you again and again until you die!! Fucking shitty bug!!" Bringing his sword around in an arc, he slashed towards the Demon neck.

*clack* *bzzz* *KACHA*

The sound of a staff hitting the ground and the following lightning attack hit Genya, who was paralyzed from the attack.

"Hold on, Genya!" Hiroto shouted, before propelling himself towards Sekibo.

"Tsk, so damn annoying," Sekibo said, before switching targets to Hiroto. When he was about to summon lightning again, Hiroto made his move.

Hiroto increased his speed and just when he was closing in on Sekibo, he grabbed the sheath in his left hand and threw it towards Sekibo's hand that carried the staff.

*clang* The sheath his and knocked the staff off course for a momentary distraction, but that was all that was needed.

Narrowing his eyes, Hiroto used, 'Dance of the Fire God, Solar Heat Haze' and brought his sword down towards Sekibo with a haze covered slash.

Sekibo raised his staff to protect himself and saw the attack miss. But, just as he was about to launch his counter attack, *shik*. Blood spurted out from his face, as a thin bloody line grew from the middle of his head down towards the neck.

"Huh… How…" Sekibo muttered. Hiroto didn't waste another second, as he brought his sword back down horizontally to fully decapitate Sekibo. However…

*whoosh* *BOOM*

Hiroto dodged out of the way of a spear that was aimed at him, causing a hole from its impact.

Hiroto backed off and studied his opponent, looking over to the side and saw Genya who was launched over with a missing leg.

"Hm, that kid over there was way too weak. He just wouldn't die no matter how many times I stabbed him, so might as well make it so he can't move." The spear Demon said, bringing his spear to a stance with the one working hand. "But… to think that you were here. 'That person' should graciously reward us once we bring back your corpse to him.'

The spear Demon made his move, rushing towards Hiroto and thrusting at him. *clang* Hiroto deflected the strike and moved in closer.

The Demon then turned and sent a kick backward towards Hiroto, who blocked the kick with his arms, causing him to skid back a few steps.

"Don't think that just because of your clever trick I still can't fight at my full strength." The Demon said, flourishing his spear and sweeping it at Hiroto.

Just as Hiroto was about to jump over it, he heard a shout.

"Aaagh!!!" *THUD* The wall next to them started to crumble, as the tip of a sword was pierced through it.

Hiroto and the spear Demon glanced over to the wall and saw it crumbling down, with Tanjiro on top of a Demon that had split off from these, with it having wings and talons.

"Ah! Brother! Genya!" Tanjiro shouted, taking his sword out of the Demon's mouth.

"Damn, damn." Sekibo's voice came from the corner of the room, as he tried to hold his head together after it was split in half. "He's trying to take over. I won't let him!!"

Hiroto narrowed his eyes, and thought, 'Trying to take over? Are they trying to split again?' He looked towards the spear Demon and saw the light in its eyes seem to have changed to that of reluctance.

"Ahh! It's Burning!! What the fuck is this!! I can't regenerate!! It's like burning alive!!" Karaku's voice came from a floor below them, as the body which was sliced in half started writhing in pain.

"Shut up!" Sekibo shouted. "You don't think we know that?!

Nezuko then jumped up into the hole and stood behind Tanjiro. "Tanjiro!" Hiroto shouted, "We need to finish this!" Hiroto then rushed forward and started attacking the spear Demon again, who slashed at him.

Hiroto slid under the attack, and brought his sword upwards from below, severing the Demon's arm entirely.

"Aghhh!! It burns!!!" The Demon yelled. Tanjiro then moved forward with Nezuko to finish Sekibo off.

*whoosh* From below them, Karaku grabbed a fan with the right side of his body and swung it upwards, destroying the entire floor above, the floor that everyone stood on.

*BOOM* Being launched into the air, Hiroto, Tanjiro, Genya and Nezuko were sent to the forest next to the building, crashing through the trees and its branches.

*thud* *crack* *smack* Falling through the tree, Hiroto was hit by its branches as he tried to stabilize his fall. Twisting his body around, he stabbed the sword into the tree to slow down his fall.

*thud* Landing at the base of the tree, he regained his senses and looked around.

"Tanjiro! Nezuko!" Hiroto yelled out. *thud* *thud* Tanjiro and Nezuko landed on the ground a few trees next to Hiroto, who breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Ahh! Fuck! Dammit!" Genya's loud voice came, as he was crashing through the treetops and hitting every single branch down on the way, before crumbling onto the ground. *THUD*

Hiroto ignored him and looked over to the now-destroyed building that they were just fighting in. From it's crumbling ruins came the 4 Demons, each supporting one another.

"Damn, it hurts so much! Why aren't I regenerating!!" Karaku shouted as the two parts of his body were being dragged out, leaving a bloody trail behind.

"How the hell should I know?! Didn't that person warn us about that kid beforehand? Remember what happened to Akazu?" Sekibo said, dumping the left half of Karaku onto the ground, as the two halves of his face hung to both sides.

"Brother!" Tanjiro shouted. "I can smell a fifth one!"

"What? A fifth one?" Hiroto said, turning towards the 4 Demons that came out of the ruins.

"Grrr." A growling sound came from behind them. Turning around, Hiroto saw Genya's eyes turn black, as he started to drool and fangs grew out from his teeth.

Genya eyed down Hiroto and said, "You… *pant pant* You already killed an Upper Moon, this one will be mine! I'll become a Hashira after I kill these guys first!"

"Wait! Genya! Head straight northeast!!" Tanjiro said as he smelled the scent of a Demon hiding in a bush. "The fifth body is hiding somewhere close to the ground!"

Genya turned to Tanjiro and eyed him down, but then saw the eyes of pure innocence within him. Not knowing how to react, he decided to just follow the directions and started to run off.

Hiroto turned to Tanjiro and Nezuko and said, "You guys, stay back. Now that I have more space, this is going to be easier."

"What? But, brother-" Tanjiro tried to voice out but was then interrupted.

"No buts. I don't want to see you two getting even more injured than now." Hiroto said, turning around to face the 4 Demons again.

"It's all your damn fault!" Karaku shouted as the right half of his body stared in hatred towards Hiroto.

'Breath of Silence, Seventh Form: Mystic Footsteps'

Hiroto began to run forward, mixing his feet with one another he ran in a pattern.

'Dance of the Fire God, Fake Rainbow' Hiroto then started to zigzag in his path as he neared the Demons.

"Don't toy with us!!" The spear Demon shouted, jumping forward and sweeping his spear in a wide horizontal arc.

The flying Demon flew above Hiroto and nosedived towards him, preparing to claw at him.

Hiroto twisted and rotated his body as the attack came, causing it to hit an afterimage that dissipated like a haze.

*clack* Sekibo slammed the bottom of his staff onto the ground, sending a lightning attack towards Hiroto, who dodged and weaved past them as they hit his countless afterimages.

"What are you guys doing?! Just kill him already!!" Karaku shouted, as the left side of his body lifted his fan and brought it down towards Hiroto, sending the countless rubble forward, as though they had been shot out of a cannon.

*boom boom boom* The rubble crashed into the trees and ground, leaving behind large holes in its path. However, when each of these attacks was about to hit Hiroto, they seemed to have missed and hit his afterimage instead.

"Wha-" Karaku muttered but was stopped short. All of the Demon seemed to have frozen, as they heard a voice behind their ear.

"Behind you," Hiroto whispered into each of their ears. Each of the Demons then turned around but saw no one.

"Sorry, I lied," Hiroto said, as his voice came behind them once more. However, before the could react, *shik shik slash* Blood spurted from each of the Demon.

"Gah!" Aghhh!" Gack!" "Fuck!" Each of the Demon shouted as various body parts started to separate from their body.

But then, just as Hiroto was about to finish the job and slice off their necks completely, Sekibo seemed to be silent and still standing.

He then grabbed towards the heads of Karaku and the flying Demon, twisting and crushing their flesh. *crack* The bodies began to shrink as if it was being absorbed into Karaku's body.

Rushing forward in an instant, he arrived at the crumbling body of the spear Demon and crushed him apart, absorbing him down entirely.

Hiroto was frozen, as he watched this Demon having seemingly killed the other's and absorbed them. 'What the? Wait, it's body… It's changing.' Hiroto said.

Just then, Karaku stood still, as his body began to go through many more changes. The clothing changed, and from behind his body came a ring with 5 drums attached to it. On it was the kanji for the different emotions that were written on the Demon's mouths.

His appearance seemed to have gotten even younger, similar to a kid. It was a combination of all the Demons so far, minus the first one that Hiroto encountered as it snuck into their room.

Before Hiroto could move, the Demon disappeared towards the direction Genya had run off to. Hiroto turned and saw that Tanjiro and Nezuko seemed to have disappeared.

"Dammit, where did they go?" Hiroto said, before running towards the same direction.

Running through the forest, Hiroto sensed that he was getting closer.

*bum* The sound of a drum behind the hit came from in front of him. Running into a clearing, Hiroto then saw the tree's growing out of the ground, as the head of several wooden dragons appeared and launched itself towards Tanjiro who was in the air.

"Tanjiro!" Hiroto yelled, but then saw Nezuko jump through the air and grabbed him.

*clack* One of the wooden dragon heads bit down and severed Nezuko's leg, which regenerated back instantly.

*thud* "Gh!" Nezuko and Tanjiro landed onto the ground clumsily.

"Nezuko, you okay?" Tanjiro said, looking at Nezuko who was panting on the ground.

Hiroto ran forward and said, "What the hell happened? Why are you two here?"

"We thought that, since you had the Demon covered we would go and help Genya out. When we were about to kill the little Demon, that sixth one appeared." Tanjiro said, pointing to a little version of the Demon they first encountered, being protected by the wood that grew from the ground.

"Savages who torment the meek." The Demon with the 5 drums on it's back said. In each hand, he held a piece of wood that had a blade on each end.

"Spite, Enmity, nothing but hatred. For those who bathe in pure evil." The Demon said.

Hiroto narrowed his eyes and saw Tanjiro freeze up from the pressure that the Demon was exerting.

*bum* The Demon hits a drum on it's back, causing the wood to surround the shrunk Demon.

"Hold it!" Tanjiro shouted.

The Demon glared back at Tanjiro, releasing his choking aura that caused Tanjiro to sweat bullets. Hiroto patted Tanjiro back to reassure him and whispered, "Tanjiro, this guy's on a whole different level."

"What?" The Demon said, glaring hatefully towards Hiroto and Tanjiro. "Scum. You don't like what I'm doing here? You." The Demon pointed towards Hiroto and said.

"You're a Hashira, and look at you, you evil shitheads. You're tormenting the 'weak'. Right? You things were just trying to cut the 'small weakling' tiny enough to fit on my palm. This is pure injustice. Only a savage would do that." The Demon said, gripping the blades in his hands.

Hiroto stood up and walked in front of Tanjiro, saying, "What the hell are you talking about? I'm not even a Hashira yet. You want to talk about injustice? Then how do you explain all of the humans you Demon's killed and eaten? That's the real injustice!!"

"Not a Hashira? Don't kid with me! I saw what you did to the others. So what, now you're trying to lie and pretend you're weaker than a Hashira? You scum." The Demon retorted, his complexion getting worse from anger.

The five wooden dragons head loomed over the Demon, as it stared back at Hiroto.

"There's no use in talking," Hiroto said, lowering his body.

"At Least I'll get to eat some high-quality meat." The Demon said, hitting a drum on his back. *bum*