Mugen Train Arc: Ending in a Dream

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Tanjiro was still unsure of what the plan was "I cut the demon's neck, but It just revealed its new body as the whole train." he said with a shaky voice, Kanao held his hand to help him calm down even if just a little bit. Kyojuro cleared his throat "there are eight passenger carts on this train, Tanya and I did massive damage on our way here. But the demon will recover soon." Tanya continued with where Kyojuro was going with this "Kyojuro and I will cover the back five carts, and Nezuko and Zenitsu will handle the other three. You two along with boar boy will look for where to take down the demon for good."

Tanjiro knew the plan was good, but he was hesitant. "But the demon has no-" Kyojuro lowered his head to stare Tanjiro directly in the eye and up close. "No matter what form a demon takes, it has a head." he stood up straight, "Young Kamado, I am trusting you to take care of the demon while we protect the passengers. We will be looking for the weakness as well while we are back here." Tanya looked at Kanao "and I am counting on you to make sure both of the boys don't get reckless." both slayers nodded, and both Tanya and Kyojuro speed off to defend the passengers.

Kanao looks at Tanjiro and sees the look of amazement on his face. "That attack was from Rengoku and Tanya. They are amazing," he said in terms of how it shook the whole train, with just two people. "That's the strength of the hashira, always pushing themselves" Kanao smiled a bit, thinking of how all three of her older sisters are or have been Hashira. She thinks back to Kanae's words in her dream "I have big shoes to fill." Tanjiro nodded with a confident look "they trusted us to take care of the demon. So let's show them we will be strong like them one day." Kanao nodded, and the two ran through the cart hand in hand. 

When Tanjiro and Kanao got closer to the front of the train Tanjiro shouted out "Inosuke, we need to-" Inosuke's voice yelled out from the roof "yeah I know! Bug eyes and shorty told me!" Tanjiro was surprised, wondering when the two got to Inosuke. "Despite their demands of me, they still managed to be cool." Inosuke thought back to Kyojuro and Tanya standing over him less than a minute ago, he did not even notice them at first. 'The hashira, I will reach their level one day' Inosuke thought as he ran across the roof of the carts. "Thanks to my amazing seventh form, I found them at the very front of the beast!" Tanjiro knew 'beast' for Inosuke meant the train. "That's amazing! Kanao and I will meet you there!" 

Inosuke ran across coals, towards the Locomotive. He could sense flesh, even though he lacked the same sense of smell Tanjiro had, even he could smell it. "Fourth fang…" with a slice and dice, the roof of the Locomotive was cut off, and bits of strange demon flesh blew off the train with it. The head conductor was shocked to see this, "h-hey what are you doing?! You aren't allowed to be here!" Inosuke ignores the conductor and looks at the operational system of the steam engine. "This seems the most suspicious!" he raised his two swords up, but suddenly many flesh hands pushed out towards Inosuke. Despit being grossed out he manages to cut away a decent amount of "there's too many!" as more of the flesh hands came for him. "Flower breathing, first form; Orchid blossoming!" Kanao cut away a large portion of the hands, 'I won't abandon my friends again.' she had a frustrating brow look. Tanjiro finished the rest off.

"Are you okay Inosuke?" Kanao asked while Inosuked huffed a bit "yeah! It's not like you saved me or anything!" he was too proud to admit it. The conductor was just watching in shock. Tanjiro sniffed a bit "he's close." Tanjiro lowered himself a bit, the smell was the strongest right below them "Cut here Inosuke!" Inosuke grunted loudly and shouted out "don't give me orders, I'm the leader!" Inosuke did it anyways, revealing a long boney line under the floor. 

"The neck…" Tanjiro raised his sword. Enmu thought 'they are getting too close!' Tanjiro took a deep breath in, "Eighth form; waterfall basin" he slams it down into the neck only for it to be blocked by the strong growth of flesh. "He blocked it?" afterward Enmu let out a large screech that could be heard by anyone conscious on the train. As more flesh grew Tanjiro grabbed the conductor and the three slayers jumped and landed on the coal. "It's covered!" Kanao says as she witnesses the bone covered by the flesh, all in a large fleshy bowl. Enmu calmed himself down, 'i've hit hot water now, but I can finally sense Wakuraba going for the hashira, I sense two other demons as well. But one of them is helping humans! That other demon better take them down! I cannot afford more obstacles getting in the way of absorbing all these humans!'

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"Another demon! A lower rank as well!" Kyojuro shouted as he stared down Wakuraba, who was sweating heavily. 'Two Hashira's at once?! After he took my eyes Zettour said I just needed to distract the Hashira, but I thought he was going to take care of the other one!' Wakuraba gripped his fists, his eyes had regrown and he had kept the caboose door open in case he needed to scram. 'Master Muzan won't forgive me if I ran away. But I'm the fastest of the lower ranks! If I can even injure them that might give Enmu or Zettour enough of an advantage.' 

Tanya held her Katana out, "we should take care of this quickly, who knows how long until more weird tendrils come out." she started down the demon, who was even more freaked out 'w-why does this one scare me almost as much as lord Muzan!?' as both Kyojuro and Tanya gripped their Katanas, Wakuraba acted. Suddenly at a fast pace that left after images, Wakuraba was all over the cart. "Hahahah! Good luck keeping up, humans!" Wakuraba tried to fake confidence, he was certain the Hashiras were stronger than him, so he just had to be faster than them.

Tanya and Kyojuro just stood back to back, but neither was worried. "Another demon centered around being fast, though this one is a bit faster." Kyojuro nodded, agreeing with Tanya. His sword clashed with a hit while hers did as well. 'The attacks were only milliseconds apart! How could they both tell?' Wakuraba gritted his teeth as he continued attacking from second to second. Tanya covered Kyojuro and he did the same for her. After a full minute of this Wakuraba was certain his claws hit something besides swords, and soon flesh tendrils shot out near the hashira. 'Nows my chance!'

Wakuraba went for an attack while the Hashira seemed focused on the tendrils. 'Wait' he saw Tanya's focus was still on him, she trusted Kyojuro to protect her from the tendrils. Both used simultaneous techniques. "First form; unknowing flame!" Kyojuro in mere a mere second cut away all the tendrils. While at the exact same time Tanya went for her attack "fifth form; Blossoming magma" Wakuraba was blown all the back against the railing outside the caboose. While his arms regrow, he notices neither Tanya nor Kyojuro had any injuries. 'I never hit them. I thought as was fast, but even with other distractions these two left no openings.' as if Kyojuro and Tanya formed a near impenetrable defense together, Wakuraba decided he had no choice. And he lept off the train.

'I can't die, this is all Zettour and Enmu's fault!' he had jumped off far and high. Tanya walked up to the end of the train. "I cannot let you get away," she said coldly as she brought her katana back, and took a breath in. "Keshin breathing, seventh form; Elenium air strike." right before Enmu landed on the ground, a line of purple flames went right through his neck from behind. "What?" his body and the head rolled hard against the tracks. Wakuraba saw Tanya not even give him a second glance, she had taken him out with a long-range attack, and he did not even see it! His body started to disappear as he watched the Mugen train continue down the tracks. "Those two could easily take care of Zettour and Enmu, why, why were they back where I was?!" Wakuraba's head was gone, he cursed out Zettour for leaving him behind.

"That was astounding Tanya!" Kyojuro praised his girlfriend, Tanya gave a small smile "if you had not taken care of the tendrils he might have gotten away. So thank you." it felt weird to actually trust someone. 'That was also the first time I've used that form outside of training.' Tanya sighed, seeing more tendrils grow and start to go for the unconscious passengers. So it was back to work for the Hashira.

Zettour was staring down Nezuko and Zenitsu, who he could tell seemed asleep and yet fighting able. "Well, a demon helping the humans?" Nezuko just growled at him, while Zenitsu took a deep breath in, ready to attack. Zettour grinned "I can tell you've never eaten a human little demon, I don't think-" Zettour moved as a Tendril nearly got him. Zenitsu and Nezuko went to protect the humans. He ran out to Nezuko, "blood demon art" he was about to use blight blast, but Zenitsu got in his way. "You're a fast kid." Zettour's hand regrew. 

Zenitsu seethed his teeth as breath came out. "Stay back Nezuko." he arched forward a bit "first form; thunderclap and flash!" in the same way he took out the tendrils Zenitsu sped around Zettour. But the former lower moon demon dodged, only getting an ear cut off. 'Interesting, he's even faster than Wakuraba. And so young as well.' Zenitsu made many Zig-zags around the cart. "If only we weren't fighting in close corridors your movement would be less predictable!" this time he dodged perfectly, and grabbed Zenitsu's feet. He planned on crushing the boy's leg 'I remember Tamayo's demon-turning secrets. With demon powers, his speed would be faster than even the upper ranks!'

"Mrnn!" Nezuko ran at Zettour, he was knocked all the way through two doors into the other cart. Zettour looked back, Zenitsu was hunched over, back and ready to attack. "That kick…" Zettour felt how strong it was. As he stared at Nezuko a thought crossed his mind if Nezuko never went through the curse removal, how was she able to resist Muzan's influence like he, Tamayo, and her assistant were able to? 

Zettour grinned widely, "I had first planned on killing the boy and forcing the girl to go feral. But now…" Zenitsu was prepared to defend while Nezuko was prepared to attack. But Nezuko grabbed Zenitsu's collar, as she saw Zettour cut off tendrils that were about to grab humans in the other cart. She was confused, while unconscious Zenitsu still had his hand by his Katana. "You two just stay alive. I'll see you around.." he fired a blight blast, once again destroying tendrils that were this time behind Nezuko. When she turned back Zettour was gone. "There are still more," Zenitsu said as more tendrils grew out. For now, the two of them focused on the tendrils. Above them Zettour was sitting on the roof, twirling Wakuraba's eyes in his hand. He sensed the lower three demons died while he fought Zenitsu and the demon girl. The eyes were still in his hands though. "That girl and that boy, yes, I must have them on my side if I want to take down Muzan. Heh."

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Tanjiro, Kanao, and Inosuke prepared to jump into the flesh bowl that hid the new neck of Enmu. but suddenly a pillar of flesh popped out and eyes showed out of them. A flash went off "it's this, everyone cut your necks when you're in the dream! You'll wake up if you do!" Tanjiro managed to shout out as he fell into unconsciousness. He cut his neck, as did Kanao. "Gotta get-" both were knocked out by the flash this time. As if the demon did not need to say the words "go to sleep" to make them fall asleep.

Once again Kanao and Tanjiro wake up. Quickly before it can make Tanjiro fall asleep again Kanao cuts the eye. "Go Tanjiro!" she cuts another. Tanjiro jumps off the coal, and Kanao is forced into unconsciousness but gets up. While Tanjiro falls into the bowl, trying to use the opening Kanao gave him, more eyes open up and force him back to unconsciousness. "Wake up!" he cut his neck again. "I can't wake up with my eyes open." it happened once again still. "Wake up" and again. "Wake up!" 

He held his sword to his neck "don't hesitate, do it!" Kanao ran into the bowl "Tanjiro don't!" the boy's eyes open wide, and suddenly Inosuke grabbed Tanjiro's arm and pulled the blade away. "It was a trick! Don't die so pointlessly!" Inosuke let go of Tanjiro's wrist. "I am wearing the hide of the mountain king, so the eyes are too scared to put me to sleep!" Inosuke boasts while he cuts up some more eyes. 'Of course, thanks to Inosuke's mask, the eyes don't know where to look' Tanjiro stood up, and he saw the conductor running towards Kanao with a knife. "I won't let you take my dream away from me!" Tanjiro pulls Kanao out of the way, getting stabbed in the abdomen. 

He quickly knocked the conductor out. "Tanjiro are you okay?!" Kanao asks frantically, she can see the bleeding on his uniform. "I've been better" suddenly a mass of tendrils burst out, "leave him!" Inosuke shouts when Tanjiro picks up the conductor. "I won't just let him die!" Inosuke just cut away Tendrils, Kanao and tanjiro as well. Getting their way out. The large bit of flesh grew out and higher than before.

Tanjiro placed the conductor down and stepped between Kanao and Inosuke. With a large number of tendrils standing in their way, Tanjiro knew they had little room for error, everyone was relying on them! "Kanao, Inosuke, we have to attack together, use our breathing styles together!" Inosuke huffed "what a great plan! As the leader, I approve!" Kanao nodded "I'll be ready, we have got this." she seemed determined. 

The three went unto action, dodging tendrils and cutting many ones after the other. Large ones, small ones, all three of them worked in near-perfect unison. Even running on them as they attacked. 'Just like Tanya taught us, move as one unit, one mistake could spell the death of us!' as they fell down between high-up flesh mounds more eyes popped out. "If we fall asleep here we won't have stable footing when we wake up!"

Inosuke yelled and started cutting the many eyes, thinking the demon was too scared to put him to sleep. "Follow me damn it!" he fell down as flesh hands closed around the neck "second fang; slice!" he quickly cut an opening to the neck bone. "Fifth form; Peonies of futility!" Kanao cut away all the eyes in the way, giving Tanjiro a clear path to the neck bone. 

Tanjiro gripped his katana. He needed this to be perfect, Kanao and Inosuke had both worked hard to give him this opening. 'Father, guide my blade!' a hot fire comes from his breath as the same abrupts from his sword. "Hinokami Kagura-" his slash makes a three-sixty degree around the neck bone "-Clear blue sky!" along with the bone Enmu's head is cut much to the demon's shock. He gives out a screech as the train starts to move wildly. He tries to grab the humans, but Tanya and Kyojuro quickly cut all the arms away before they can harm the unconscious passengers. And soon, the train goes off the rails.

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Kanao was able to get Tanjiro safely to the ground, with his wound and the use of Hinokami Kagura Tanjiro could barely breathe much less stand. "Hahaha! The flesh was bouncy!" Inosuke shouts excitedly. Tanjiro's head is held up by Kanao, he asked quietly "inosuke, could you help the conductor?" he asked, as the conductor that stabbed him was trapped under a train cart. "What? Why?! He stabbed you!" Kanao spoke this time "it is because he is human, that we can't let him die." Inosuke huffed "his legs are crushed!" Tanjiro winced and tried to say more clearly "then he has already paid his comeuppance." though Inosuke still did not get it, he went to help the conductor, saying he would still punish him for hurting one of his underlings.

Enmu's slowly disappearing remains stared at Tanjiro and Kanao, trying to make his way over to them. 'I combined myself with a train, I could have eaten all these people as I did before, but even with Muzan's blood I failed.' he crawled a bit more. 'It is their fault! Those two Hashira's made it impossible for me to fully heal, I could never fight at full power! And that blonde boy was so fast even though he never fully broke my spell!' he then thought of Nezuko and Zettour. 'Those demons helped the humans! Why has lord Muzan not punished them? And where did Wakuraba go?!' as his eyes were left he thought about the upper ranks, and how none have changed for hundreds of years. How they always are the ones that kill the Hashira. 'Was I never going to be good enough to be one?' his eyes were gone, and Enmu was gone.

Kanao brushed Tanjiro's hair, she kissed the top of his forehead. "Thank you for protecting me, if I was paying more attention you would not have gotten stabbed." Tanjiro gave the best smile he could, which at the moment was a small one "I am just glad you're safe, Kanao. You're precious to me." Tanjiro found it hard to talk, so Kanao just continued brushing his hair while his head laid in her lap, which relaxed him. "T-Tanya-nee?" Tanjiro opened his eyes, seeing both Kyojuro and Tanya now standing nearby. "That was well fought, Young Kamado," Kyojuro said with a wide grin.

Over near where Tanya and Kyojuro had left most of the unconscious humans after getting them off the train Zettour spotted Zenitsu and Nezuko, he grinned. "Enmu, I never liked you, but you've helped more than you can imagine." he was tempted to grab Zenitsu and Nezuko while the two hashira's were off somewhere else. "Wait" he senses large energy, "an upper rank?" he nearly fell over "no, three of them." Zettour senses the three upper ranks split off, but one was still heading in this direction. "Damn it, the demon girl will be fine. And I care not for the other humans, but if that blonde hair gets killed before I can turn him into a demon that would be inconvenient." 

he held out Wakuraba's eyes and grinned "but perhaps, this is my way to get in with an upper rank. I suppose I'll start this early" he started walking towards the direction he sensed one of the three upper ranks. While he walked, flesh started to form slowly around Wakuraba's eyes.

"Young Kamado, you're still injured!" Kyojuro shouted the obvious. "Kanao, are you okay?" Tanya asked, to which Kanao nodded but she was still a little flustered. While Kyojuro started to instruct Tanjiro in recovery breathing, Tanya shivered a bit "it feels like it's gotten very chilly all of a sudden." Kyojuro told Tanjiro about the broken blood vessel, and to focus and breathe. Failing a couple of times, Kyojuro puts a firm finger on Tanjiro's head "focus." Tanjiro takes careful breaths, and soon the bleeding stops. "Perfect you've stopped the bleeding." Tanjiro nods, while he still feels in pain, he no longer feels blood exiting his body.

"You've learned total concentration constant. That is the first step, but there are probably ten thousand steps before becoming a hashira." Tanjiro understood what Kyojuro meant, and he believed that Tanjiro had the potential to become a Hashira. "We both will become a Hashira!" Kanao tried to not sound nervous when saying that. Tanya ruffled Kanao's hair, something she could only really do because Kanao was sitting so Tanjiro could lay his head on her lap. "I am sure you two will. That being said, I'll make sure Shinobu and Kyojuro don't go easy on your training!" she was serious, but Kyojuro laughed "I am sure you will!" 

Kyojuro jerked his head over when all four of them heard a crashing noise, as the dust cleared another demon appeared. The demon grinned, staring down at the four of them. In a split second, two attacks came, ones that Tanjiro and Kanao did not see until both the fist from the first demon was right near Tanjiro's face. And three ice shards near Kanao's head. Kyojuro quickly cut right down the middle from the hand up to the arm. While with purple flames Tanya quickly protected Kanao from the ice. 

The first demon's arm quickly healed back. "Nice sword, and attack" he spoke to Kyojuro. "Oh no-no, and here I thought I would take out one of the girls before Akaza-san got all uppity about it." a second voice said, appearing from the train, fanning himself with a war fan. The air got even colder as he got closer. "Kyojuro." Tanya's eyes shook, "both of them, are upper ranks." she could feel it based on their presence of power. With a rare serious look, Kyojuro nodded "I know." both Hashira stared down the upper ranks. 

The one facing Kyojuro had 'Upper 3" while the other had a rank right above, at "upper 2" Tanya was not sure they could take on one upper rank, let alone two! 'I should not have used so much energy to help get the people off the derailing train.' she and Kyojuro used a lot of continuous techniques to get anyone off in trouble while the train was in the middle of crashing. Being Z had not warned her, 'tch, two upper ranks, this is bullshit being X!' she knew she had to face one eventually, but not so soon after being a Hashira. 

She was going to suggest finding a way out, maybe leading them on a chase till sunrise. She was pretty sure sunrise was not too far away. "T-Tanya-nee. S-Shinobu-nee. She-" Kanao stuttered out as she stared at "upper 2" she gulped back "d-didn't she say the demon that killed- that killed Kanae was." Tanya's eyes widen, the rank, the clothes, the cold that followed the demon. "He's the one that killed Kanae." her stare of worry because an intense glare. "Tanya!" Kyojuro shouted, "don't worry Kyojuro, we just have to wait out at least." she still had her reasoning ability, she still thought the sunlight was their best option. 

Upper two, Doma smiled "well what is it my eyes spot here?" his fake grin widens "two butterflies? One with similar looks to the first, and another with a golden hue." Akaza seems a bit annoyed "can you focus here!? I want to talk with the man there, and your voice is distracting!" Kyojuro gets more on guard when Akaza referred to him as the man he wanted to talk to. 

Doma laughed, he pulled out what looked like a butterfly pin, one that looked similar to Kanao's hairpin. "I suppose I should go about expanding my collection Akaza-san, so you can focus on him." Kanao and Tanya had focused on the pin in Doma's hands, and he said gleefully "and maybe this time I'll get to consume the butterfly before it is saved by the sun."