the calming flame

upper rank 6 tore through the flesh of the towns people, he looks around to see there were no more people left in the town but he then saw Muzan walk towards him "Banda," he mutters from his pale, sickly lips while his white cloak sways slowly, Banda swallows his fear "master Muzan... what brings you here?" he asked with Muzan's red eyes piercing through him "now if I'm correct, I sent you out here to find that blue spider lily, didn't I?" he asked sternly "well yes master but you see those demon slayers arrived and they nearly had me be-" Banda then began to have blood pour slowly from his mouth, his skin having purple lines appear throughout him as Muzan took control "pardon? are you telling me you're not strong enough!!" suddenly as Banda blinks he was facing Muzan eye to eye, Muzan having beheaded him "now listen closely so your feeble brain can comprehend it because this assignment is important, go kill the leader of the demon slayer corps and you might be able to stay as a upper rank." then he places Banda's head back on his body with his purple look fading away "y-y-yes master Muzan." Banda then began to dash away from Muzan who then saw a lone survivor, hiding away from the king of demons but Muzan seemingly teleports over to the survivor, his white cloak flowing in the wind still and he looks down on the boy who looked to be only in their teenage years, fear in their eyes but Muzan saw the boy had only one arm, a broken leg and a wounded eye, Muzan then extended out his finger, he makes his fingernail elongate and it turns a mix between purple and a light blue "tell me young man, are you ready?" before the boy could answer Muzan pierced the boys head and sends his blood throughout the boy's body.

Sora sighs as he tries to get some sleep, "Kichi, you awake?" he asked the sleeping Kichi who was deep in his slumber "figured as much, still can't believe that even with that immense power up I still couldn't beat master Ubuyashiki." Sora said as he then crossed his legs and sit on his bed but then a thought occurs to Sora, (I'm too weak...) so he stood up and began to walk out of the manner, but Akira noticed him wander about but after the act he did to help Dai made him decide to not interfere.

Sora looks at the training dummy as he grabs a wooden sword, *THWACK, SMACK* he strikes the dummy with speed and power, repeating the blows each time he thought the strike wasn't good enough *THWACK, THWACK* he noticed the wooden blade started to get worn out and so he quickly dropped the sword, noticing the damage he applied to the dummy and smiles "my, that's some damage." a voiced said, then Sora turned to look at where the voice came from and he was met with Takano who was sitting perched on a thick tree branch, Sora pays close attention to Takano's eyes to notice there are no pupils in Takano's eyes, his eyes only being red with no writing on them. "are you not going to kill me?" Sora asks as he grips the blade on his side tightly "I'm not going to kill you, don't worry km working with you guys but that Iide guy doesn't take to kindly to me so I'm usually kept in a windowless room filled with wisteria." Takano jumps down "but I've got another room where I hide that they don't know about, really easy since they don't check if I'm in the cage." Takano then walks over to the dummy and high kicks it right in the head, slamming it to the ground "ooh you must that demon Dai was telling me about, well it's nice to meet you." Takano lifts his foot off of the dummy and turns to Sora "Dai... is he the one with purple hair and two swords?" Sora nods "did he say good things?" He asked as he puts the dummy back into its

standing pose "all he said was that we had another demon on our side, thought it was just me and Kichi." Sora holds his wrapped hand out and so Takano shook his hand.

Takano then watches Sora continue to practice on the dummy, as if he was going to fight Sanda again "you know if you want to fight that leader again, gonna have to use that bandaged arm of yours more often." he states while Sora continues to pummel the dummy with more strikes from another wooden sword, the strikes getting faster "demons don't expect a demon slayer to have a blood demon art." Sora didn't listen to Takano and just kept on wailing "just a suggestion." he muttered, Takano stood up, slowly walking past Sora "I think someone could do with some training from an actual demon." he said, slowly getting into a stance but Sora didn't want to fight, but Takano didn't care and just wanted a good fight, he lunges forward at Sora but before Takano even realised, his arm had been sliced off but as he looks at Sora, he noticed Sora had already unsheathed his blade from his scabbard and Takano instantly retreated away from Sora who sheathed his sword "tch, nevermind." he instantly regenerated his arm and walks away from Sora who continued to stand there, he then takes off his cloak and takes a good long stare at it, he walks over to a small boulder and sits on it but he then he felt... confused, would his wife want him to keep fighting? Sora asked himself this question over and over until morning broke but his sleep was interrupted by the loud bellows of a roaring hashira.