Chapter 15. Natagumo arc (part 3)

At a certain place in Natagumo mountain,

there was a red haired boy running as fast as he could.

He was Tanjiro,he was currently looking for the demon responsible for all this.

"The demon should be near,I can smell it"Tanjiro thought as he increased his pace.

After running for a few minutes,

He saw a demon.

This demon had the appearance of a young boy. His skin is white, with red dots. His hair is light pink and bears resemblance to spider legs. The sclera of his eyes are red, while his irises are pale blue.

Due to holding the position of Lower Rank 5, Rui has the kanji of Lower Rank Five engraved into his left eye, signifying his ranking of Lower Rank Five.

Currently,this demon was in mid-air,standing on the webs he himself created.

"Oh,human,your companions are the ones who are killing my family,then I,Rui,shall kill you as well"

Saying that the demon attacked Tanjiro with his webs,Tanjiro was caught off guard and was about to get hit.

Suddenly,the webs were stopped by someone,it was Nezuko.

Nezuko jad stopped the webs and saved Tanjiro's life at the crucial moment.

Tanjiro processed all this as he attacked Rui with all his strength.

"argh" Tanjiro let out a voice filled with pain as his skin and muscles were cut by the threads.

Tanjiro,thus,didn't dare to recklessly charge forward.

"You have a good sister,give her to me,I'll make her my sister from this moment" Rui said as he restarined Tanjiro.

"I will never do that,and you can never have a real family" Tanjiro said it plainly in an attempt to taunt Rui.

"What did you say,you lowly human!!" Rui manipulated his webs so fast that Tanjiro couldn't even see what was happening.

As soon as he tried to defend himself and discovered that nothing happened to him,he soon fell into confusion.

"What is this demon trying to do?" just as he thought that,blood dripped on his blade as he looked up in the air.

He saw Nezuko hanging in mid-air,webs cutting her skin.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro shouted.

"Don't worry,she won't die so eaisly,she is a demon"

Rui said nonchalantly.

After that,Rui started attacking Tanjiro with his webs yet Tanjiro was trying to defend himself from them,getting injured in the process.

A few minutes passed and the fight continued.

Rui is a quasi-calm individual, rarely raising his voice, and talking with everyone, demon or slayer, with a reasonable tones and vocabulary, though his low and guttural tones constantly imply repressed anger and annoyance. Every time he spoke with Tanjiro during their duel he remained somewhat civil in speech, never once insulting him or calling him a name.

Tanjiro was getting weaker and weaker.

Tanjiro knew that of he made even the slightest mistake,then he'd die.

Currently,his entire body was bleeding,his body was trembling and his lungs were hurting.

He felt his hands going numb.

He could feel power slowly leaving his body.

He could feel the fear of death in himself and he saw the demon.

The demon who didn't get tired even after fighting for so long.

This made Tanjiro loose even more hope.

But just as he thought of death,another thoight followed.

"so what if I die?"

"I'll be die fighting!"

"Hmph,pathetic human" Rui scoffed in disdain as he kicked Tanjiro in staomach which swnt Tanjiro flying to the bushes.

"Cutting Thread Rotation" Rui said in a low voice.

Cutting thread rotaion was a technique tht he came up with.

In this technique,creates a rotating wheel of threads, that upon reaching the opponent will cut them to pieces.

"Total Concentration: Water Breathing: Tenth Form - Constant Flux."

Tanjiro shouted as he rotated his body to deal a finishing blow to Rui but Tanjiro mid-way saw something.

He felt as if he was in-front of his home.

In front of his father,beside his brother.

"Tanjiro,Harada,breathe" Tanjuro, their father said to them.

Then he saw his father dancing the entire night.

He recalled the Hinokami kagura.

Suddenly,Tanjiro came back to the present moment,he changed his breadthing form.

At the same time,Nezuko opened her eyes and used her blood demon art for the first time.

Her blood ignited.

Her blood drops on Tanjiro's blade also did.

Tanjiro's balck blade turned red.

Rui felt as if a fire dragon was charging at him with full power.

*shiii*

The sound of a slice resounded.

All of Rui's threads were torn apart.

Rui's head was severed as it fell on the ground but....he didn't turn to ash.

"It's a good thing that I servered my neck by my using my own threads,otherwise I wouldn't have survived" Rui thought.

Tanjiro fell on the ground.

He didn't any energy left in him.

He now knew that he will die.

..........

In the middle of a forest.

There was a red haired youth,covered in blood as he tried to move his body which was lying on the ground.

Near him was a girl strung in mid-air by some kind of threads.

The threads were so tight that her entire body was bleeding.

These two were Tanjiro and Nezuko,they were fighting a demon named Rui.

He was a member of the lower moon of the demon ranks.Currently he was holding his head in his hand.

"Due to switching from water's breadth to sun god's breadth,my entire body has gone limp,is this the end?" Tanjiro asked this question to himself.

After seperating from Inosuke,Murata and Zenitsu,he had encountered Rui just as he wanted.But maybe he underestimated this demon quite a bit.

Just as Tanjiro had lost all hope,he saw someonego past him and

*slash* directly cut the head of Rui,a lower moon.

This person was Giyuu Tomioka,he was the one who gave him the address to Urokodaki san.

This meant that the hashira have now come.

They were all safe now.

Thinking that,Tanjiro started to relax his body as he thought

"wait...Nezuko is also a demon,Giyuu sanay not kill her but other hashira can and most probably will."

He shouted "Run,Nezuko,Run!!" hearing him,Nezuko started running.

"Tanjiro,I won't anything happen to her,at least not here" Giyuu-san saod this as he reassured me.

"I believe you,Giyuu-san" Tanjiro said as he fell unconscious.

......

After an unknown amount of time,Tanjiro opened his eyes.

He was being held down.

His hands were tied with roped and some strange people surrounded him.

"Giyuu-san in among them,does that mean that they are the Hashira?" Tanjiro thought.

Near him he saw his elder brother Harada,who was completly calm even in this situation.

"I remember what happens,a hashira named Sanemi stabs nezuko to see if she can really resist the temptation pf human blood and flesh" Harada thought.

Even if he didn't know what would happen,he wasn't stupid enough to get away from a Hashira's grip.

In front of them was Kagaya Ubuyashiki.The leader of the demon slayer corps.

Centuries ago,a demon spawned from their family due to which their bloodline was cursed.

Nobody could live for more than 30 years in this family.

"Harada Kamdo,Tanjiro Kamado and Giyuu Tomioka,you three have commited the crime of giving a demon a shelter" Sanemi said furiously.

"Keep calm,Sanemi" Kagaya sama said.

"Former Hashira,Sokonoji Urokodaki has sent me this letter,it says that this demon,Nezuko has never eaten a human or drank human blood until this day,if she were to ever eat a human,then Giyuu Tomioka,Harada Kamado,and Sokonoji Urokodali will be the first to kill her and then they'd commit seppuku"

Kagaya sama said calmly.

"I don't believe that a demon cam ever resist the temptation lf human flesh,or even blood."

Sanemi said, "Forgive me Kagaya sama" as he made his was to Nezuko who was currently inside her box,in Kagaya sama's room.

He cut his arm,and then waited,but Nezuko didn't come out,so he unsheathed his sword and stabbed Nezuko who was currently inside the box.

Tanjiro got furious as he saw this but was quickly put down by the Hashira.

"Oi demon,if you don't come out,then I'll stab you a thousand times!" Sanemi shouted as he stabbed again.

Nezuko,at last,gave up and came outside of her box.Since she was a demon,her injuries had already healed.

"Mhm" she murmured as she looked as if she would cry any moment.

Sanemi then cut his hand with his blade.

"here demon,take your meal" Sanemi said.

"Mmm" Nezuko seemed to control herself with everything she had.

"Hm!" She turned her head away.

This shocked all the hashiras present at the moment.

Harada was calm all this time.

His bones were broken but he didn't care much about them.

Kagaya-sama looked at Nezuko,then Sanemi and said in a slightly unpleasant tone

"Are all your doubts clear now,Sanemi?" he asked.

The rude and scary looking Sanemi said with respect "Yes,Kagaya-sama" as he made his way outside of the house.

"Nezuko Kamado,Tanjiro Kamado,Harada Kamado will be sent to the butterfly mansion for recovery."Kagaya-sama said in a tone filled with authority.

The Butterfly Mansion —also known as the Butterfly Estate— is the manor that Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho lives in. The manor is often used as a recovery base for injured Demon slayers.

"Yes,finally I'll have the chance to learn constant breadthing" Harada,even though he was injured,couldn't help but be excited about it.

........

After a few hours...

We were taken to the Butterfly mansion.

There we met Inosuke and Zenitsu.

"Oh,so this person is your older brother whom you always talked about?" Zenitsu asked.

"Yes" Tanjiro said.

"My name is Harada Kamado and I am Tanjiro's older brother" Harada said.

"Ah,I heard something about a rehabilitaion training,right?" I asked Zenitsu expecting a funny reaction.

"ah,I don't know anything about it,I don't think my body is ready even now,I think I need to rest for at least a few weeks before going to my next mission or any training"Zenitsu said as he turned away from embarrasment.

Although Zenitsu was hesitant,but Inosuke,Tanjiro and Harada were looking forward to the rehabilitation training.

To be continued.....