Chapter 50 : Exposed

[A/N: I'm back and I don't have any excuses. Well for the poll result is in favour of finishing the story in demon slayer world so that will be it. And please read my Marvel fanfic.]

.......

kai isaki stood petrified, staring at the claw mere inches from his heart. He couldn't help but gulp in dread, if Haruto had not pulled him away at the last moment, his heart wouldn't have been beating in his chest. Haruto than pushed him inward the room.

"Well I guess that proves my words."

Kai did not have any words to reply, he really would have died just before the best day of his life. He couldn't help but shudder again staring at the beastly claw. But although his legs were trembling in fright, he still moved himself in front of Tsutako to guard her. Before they could say anything more, the demon broke open the door, looking clearly upset for missing his target.

"Tsk missed it. Well no worries you won't survive the next one."

The demon grinned a ferocious smile, his scarlet eyes staring all the people in the room and finally stopping at Haruto. 'So he's the one I smelled earlier. Bastard! trying to steal food from my territory. I should teach him a lesson first.'

Haruto looked at the demon in front of him carefully, he could clearly feel that the demon was weaker than him, that's why he didn't panic and act earlier. He looked toward the Tomioka family, Giyu was already limp on the ground, looking at the demon in front of him with horror in his eyes. Well that was expected since he saw a demon for the first time, he still hadn't trained to become a demon slayer nor has he seen his comrades killed by demon mercilessly. So in present he was just a normal boy polar opposite from his future counter part. On the contrary, it was Tsutako who surprised Haruto a little. Although the girl was pale and trembling with fright, she firmly pulled her younger brother behind her to protect him.

She's really a admirable sister. Haruto respects her courage, since he knows he didn't have it in him. Haruto slowly took kanao's hand and pointed her toward Tsutako, urging her to go there. Kanao obediently listened and walked toward Tsutako. Upon getting close, Tsuatako immediately placed Kanao behind her back.

Haruto took a deep breath and slowly took out his blade getting ready to fight but Tsutako called him in hurry, making him turn his head toward her.

"Ha-haruto, you should back down, that's a demon. We don't know what it might do."

"it's okay, I will take care him."

Tsutako didn't seem convinced but seeing Haruto's confident gaze, she swallowed up her words. At the same time a screen appeared in front of Haruto's eyes.

---*---*---*---*---*---

<Name: Nakazai Daisuke>

<Demon level: Elementary demon>

<Abilities: Immortality(Inferior), Stretchy Tongue, Regenaration, Danger Warning.>

<Weakness: Sunlight, Wisteria, Curse(from Muzan Kibutsuji), Nichirin Blades.>

---*---*---*---*---*---

Although the demon and him were both elementary demon. Haruto was at the peak while the demon was just a normal one, so Haruto was not too worried. Then without warning Haruto dashed at full speed and swung his blade at the demon's neck. But the demon directly dodged backwards, going outside the house, seemingly expecting the attack, no more like he already knew Haruto would strike there.

Having lost the target, the blade fell on the house's wall instead, breaking it without any resistance and a big hole was made in the wall.

*Roar*

The demon roared angrily, glaring at Haruto who was robbing food in his territory. Haruto didn't say a word and hurriedly followed the demon's figure, holding the hilt of his blade tightly in his hand and the tip of the blade touched the ground. As he moved, the tip of the blade rubbed against the ground and brilliant sparks burst out.

"You bastard!"

The demon was getting more enraged seeing Haruto ignoring him, he stuck out his tongue and stared at Haruto. Almost the next moment, his tongue jerked out fast. In seconds it was in front of Haruto, lashing out like a whip, Haruto hurriedly swung his blade to cut the tongue but

*Clang*

There was a metal-like vibration sound, when the tongue and Haruto's blade collided and the blade could not cut through the opponent's tongue.

"it's hard."

Haruto was surprised and couldn't help but speak out. The demon hurriedly to withdraw-ed his tongue following the clash and jumped backward, covering his mouth with both hands. Obviously, although the blade could not cut off the demon's tongue, it sure hurts like hell. But seeing Haruto ready to attack again, the demon couldn't help but shot his tongue again. But this time, instead of striking with his blade, Haruto grabbed the tongue with his hand and pulled the demon toward him. When he almost collided with the demon, Haruto pierced with his blade this time.

A bloodstain appeared on the demon's neck but it still saved himself by reacting within a hair's breadth and dodged the blade by tilting his head backward completely. Then the demon immediately shed his tongue like a lizard's tail and bounced back, fear visible in his scarlet eyes.

"Why the hell, do you have a nichirin blade with you!"

The demon roared. Haruto eyes hardened, his expression was now fully focused, this demon was obviously weaker than the demon he faced at the shrine but this one's ability was too crafty to deal with, the demon dodges even before he swing his blade making it hard to make a fatal blow.

'Fuck! it's cheating using the Danger Warning ability. It's like a rip-off version of spider sense.'

Haruto muttered in his heart annoyed but his eyes were burning with greed staring the demon.

...

Giyu stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him. He had always felt that Haruto possessed immense power, though it had remained just a mere feeling until now. The extent of Haruto's strength made his whole worldview change drastically, as he saw Haruto's heated fight with the demon. The strength behind each exchanged blows was capable of breaking trees like nothing and they didn't even seemed to be going all out yet.

Beside him, Tsutako also observed the battle with disbelief. "The friend of my younger brother is truly out of world," she mumbled, her thoughts echoing Giyu's inner thoughts. Even Kei was speechless seeing the battle. Only Kanao was there without showing any surprise but if one looks more carefully than they would be able to see hints of concern in the depth of her eyes.

...

Unfazed by the gaze of Tsutako, Kei and Giyu, Haruto remained focused on the demon before him. His attention was fully directed towards the the demon. In comparison to the demons he had faced previously, this fight was completely different from the others. It wasn't merely the demon's strength that posed a threat, but its uncanny reaction time that allowed it to consistently evade fatal blows, all thanks to it's Danger Warning ability. Haruto was even more greedy for the ability now. But despite inflicting deep wounds with his Nichirin Blade on numerous occasions, Haruto found the demon frustratingly slippery. Its ability to anticipate and evade danger was getting frustrating as time passed.

Haruto frowned under his bamboo hat, realizing how hard it was to beat the demon. 'It's really cheating using the ability' he muttered to himself.

"Damn brat," the demon muttered in frustration, its confidence waning in the face of Haruto's continuous attacks. Despite narrowly escaping fatal strikes time and again, its body was getting new wounds with every one of their confrontation, each wound serving as a prove to Haruto's superior strength compared to him. And what's made him even more frustrated was that Haruto remained unscathed from their battle. Since the demon was inferior in everyone other than his reaction speed, so he was not able to strike Haruto even once.

Thoughts of retreating came to the demon's mind but it couldn't understand why Haruto, a fellow demon, was siding with the humans. 'Humans are just meant to be food for us, why the hell is he protecting them!' it growled inwardly, the demon's gaze shifting towards Giyu, he could sense the rarity of his blood. Eating such a person is almost equivalent to eating dozens of people.

But the demon realised that he won't be able to touch the boy with Haruto blocking his way. Reluctantly the demon backed away, trying to get away from the continuous attacks of Haruto. Looking at the demon who wanted to escape, Haruto's face was cold, he clenched the hilt of blade tightly and bent his body like Zenitsu.

*boom*

He stepped on the ground with all his strength and shot towards the demon like a bullet. And at this moment. The demon didn't hesitate anymore and started to flee into the distance. Haruto swung his blade from different direction mixing with feints but the demon would always dodge it narrowly. It seemed that none of his attacks could hit the opponent.

"You can't kill me, stop doing useless work!"

The demon roared angrily, hoping his words will stop Haruto from making any more attacks.

"The nerfed version of spider sense is really good," Haruto murmured softly, acknowledging the demon's ability to predict fatal attacks. Yet, he couldn't help but wonder: What if, even if you know the danger, you can't avoid it with your body capability? An idea sounded in his mind.

Haruto used his Splitting ability he gained from the battle of shrine,

<Splitting : Split a body that is exactly the same as host, with strength and abilities host.>

Then the ability split-ted two additional identical bodies beside him. Now encircled by three indistinguishable Haruto, the demon momentarily faltered before realizing his mistake of hesitating  and started running quickly into the distance. With a cold glint in his golden eyes beneath the hat, Haruto muttered,

"Do you really think I will let you escape?"

Haruto's voice barely audible above a whisper. In the blink of an eye, the three Haruto pursued the fleeing demon in three different directions, swiftly closing in on their target. Couple of seconds later, the demon halted, with a grimace realizing that he has no choice but to face Haruto is he wants to escape.

"You and I are of the same kind, why are you chasing me so hard??" The demon roared in frustration.

Haruto's gaze hardened as he retorted softly, "I've never considered myself similar to you demons." With those words, the three Haruto launched a coordinated assault, overwhelming the demon with their synchronized attacks.

Even with one Haruto, the demon was already finding it hard to dodge, relying entirely on the Danger Warning to avoid it, So when the three Haruto attacked together, the demon's Danger Warning ability was predicting fatal strikes from every side, making the demon even more desperate. If it weren't for the Danger Warning ability's high proficiency in predicting the fatal attacks, he would have been killed long ago. But he couldn't avoid getting more wounds as time passed by.

"If you want to kill me, I won't make it easy for you.!" the demon roared defiantly, grasping the seriousness of its plight. He understood that prolonging the fight would only hasten his death, as its danger warning ability couldn't predict every attack, particularly those that weren't immediately fatal.

Aware of the demon's plight, Haruto concentrated his attacks on the demon's legs, inflicting severe wounds that threatened to cut them entirely. With each passing moment, the demon's mobility slowed down, its death drawing ever nearer.

In a last-ditch effort to change the course of the battle, the demon lunged forward, hugging one of the Haruto's body tightly, his tongue transforming into a lethal whip aimed at Haruto's head. But in a swift counterattack, another Haruto's body swung his blade, the demon tried to jumped backward but the body it was hugging leaned forward, getting the tongue pierced in his head to stop the demon's movement for a moment. While the demon was about to sever his tongue again, a blade passed through his neck.

As the demon's headless body collapsed to the ground, bathed in the warm rays of the sun, a sense of peace washed over the demon. Its consciousness faded into oblivion, the comforting embrace of the sun offering peace in its final moments.

With the demon's death, Haruto breathed out a sigh of relief, his tense body slowly relaxing and a new screen popped out.

<Ding, congratulation to the host for killing a demon and gaining ability 'Danger Warning'>

<Danger Warning : The ability warns the host if it detects a fatal attack towards and shows attacks path.>

Haruto couldn't help but grin, now he don't have to worry about dying without knowing why. Then looking at the two bodies with one intact and other one with a hole in his head, Haruto chuckled and stopped his ability with a thought. The two bodies slowly turned into golden light and slowly dissipated. While Haruto was relishing in his gain, a voice made his body freeze.

"Ha-haruto is that you?"