Mission with Mitsuri

Being tackled continuously by the four other residents of the Butterfly Mansion, I was pleasantly surprised with the growth of the Aoi, Sumi, Kiyo, and Naho. Kanae on the other hand looked near the exact same as she did before I left.

Welcoming the Kamado family with open arms, the Butterfly Mansion became a rambunctious place with a bright aura. Happily spending my time mingling and having the Kamado family get accustomed to their new home.

In my seclusion that is the Butterfly Mansion, everything was interrupted by my crow, Salvia, flying through a window, landing on a table in front of me.

"Ubuyashiki requests your presence."

Scrunching my eyebrows, I heave and then take Rokuta from my lap and give him to Nezuko who held a small pout.

"I'll be right back."

Saying that, I make my way toward Ubuyashiki. Entering his domain, Ubuyashiki is sitting on his porch with crows surrounding him, chirping at one another. Tilting his head towards me, Ubuyashiki's soothing voice emanated.

"It's pleasurable to once again be exposed to you Kōri to Kokū Hashira, but others would not feel the same way." Looking away in supposed disappointment, Ubuyashiki continues. "I want you to regrow you're standing here amongst the Demon Slayer ranks. Prove to the others why you deserve to stand where you are. You say that you fought with Him to a standstill, but Hashiras like to see proof of such actions with their own eyes. Make it impossible for them to refute and maybe, we can finally act like a family again. It's beneficial to both you and I, so the missions I'm sending you on, even if they may be simple, please complete them."

"It would be an honor."

Upon looking back up from my bow, Ubuyashiki was staring straight into my eyes with his natural small smile. Salvia then proceeds to land on my shoulder, and I take it as my que to leave.

"Make sure to show special care to Mitsuri Kanroji, she's been rather down since you've left."

Hearing that as I leave, I nod to myself. By the next morning, I decided to follow Ubuyashiki's words and head over to Mitsuri's Nest, where I found her sitting on her porch looking to the clouds.

Hearing as my own steps ring out against the stone path, Mitsuri's head whipped towards me. Showing a large smile in a moment's notice, she runs towards me. Instead of trying to punch me, Mitsuri instead engulfed me in a hug.

"So, why're you here?" Mitsuri asks cheerfully.

"Why for no other reason than to see the most beauteous of my teachers who I've heard has been down while I was gone." I answer just as cheerfully.

Gaining a slight twinge of pink on her cheeks, Mitsuri quickly composes herself and retorts. "Why of course I would be down whilst you were gone. As a teacher, it's my job to worry over my dear disciple and the longer you were gone, the more I was worried."

The entire time she was saying this, I was still in her embrace, so I could feel as her heart palpitated briskly. Placing my hand atop her head, I begin to stroke it.

"Thank you for worrying about me and not changing even after you learned what I could become."

Shyly casting her gaze downwards, breaking eye contact with me, I hear Mitsuri murmur, "No problem."

Breaking the hug with Mitsuri, I comment, "Since I've neglected you for so long, in return I shall do whatever you ask of me, no matter what it may be."

Shooting her head up, Mitsuri has a slight twinkling in her eyes, thinking of all the possibilities. Nodding her head, Mitsuri suddenly grabs the collar of my uniform and pulls my head incredibly close to her own, only a few inches away from it becoming a kiss.

"Then let's hunt Demons together."

Surprised about her request, Mitsuri seems to realize what she was doing and releases me whilst pushing me away. Taking a blindingly cute pose as she waited for my response, I nod my head. Ubuyashiki was also quick to agree when I had asked him and now, I was on the road with Mitsuri, heading to an open plain of land where a demon was said to have been spotted multiple times while carrying bodies of humans from towns surrounding that plain.

"You remember our agreement, right?" Mitsuri asks in time with the chirping of the birds.

"Yup, I will continue hunting demons with you until we fight and destroy a Lower Moon."

Skipping happily forward, Mitsuri constantly starts small talk and by the time we had reached our destination, we were having a full-blown philosophical conversation, both laughing by the end of it. Walking across the grassy plain, night quickly approached and with it, so did the Demon.

Waiting for the Demon to leave from the sole tree that lay at the middle of the grassy plain, I instead jumped backwards quickly and watched as vines emerged from the grass, grasping at the empty air where Mitsuri and I had stood. The vines then seem to look around for a moment and then shoot outwards in our direction. I continue to dodge the vines, but Mitsuri fights them head on.

Watching as Mitsuri futilely attacks the vines that dodge her own attacks, I turn my head back to the tree hollow and see two pale blue eyes staring right back at me before showing a small emotion of fear and hiding away quickly. Doing so however, allows for Mitsuri to cut through the vines that were chasing her and then extend her blade to cut the ones that were chasing me.

"So, it's in there?" Mitsuri asks.

Nodding my head, I closely watch the tree hollow and see as the demon peaks back out with fear apparent in his eyes. The Demon then sticks both his arms out of the tree hollow, almost as if he's surrendering.

Walking out of the tree hollow, I can now see that it's a short young man with incredibly pale skin, his face decorated by a thick line of dark green under both his eyes and across his nose that ran up vertically into one another, shorter horizontal line on his forehead. His eyes were cat-like in shape, the pupils slit and the irises pale blue with a white ring around the sides, the kanji for "Six" engraved onto the one on his right.

Breathing out in disbelief, Mitsuri shouts, "There's no way that we encounter a Lower Moon on our very first try!"

Shrugging my shoulders, the Demon then starts to speak, shaking in place.

"I don't mean you any harm." The Demon begins, shakily breathing in and out, "The people I kill are only to keep myself alive and to meet the requirements that He set in place."

Smiling widely at his supposed claim, my smile grows slightly menacing. "Being a Lower Moon isn't just for show now is it. If you say that it was all to stay alive, then you would have done just nicely as another mob demon."

"B-But Lower Kizuki get benefits that other Demons don't get." The Demon hesitantly begins. "C-Certain protections you could say. N-Not like you'd understand though, since you-you're not a demon."

"You know what I just thought of?" I ask cheerfully while looking at Mitsuri. "What if I checked the powers that I actually possess as a demon."

"You never tested them before?" Mitsuri inquires.

Shaking my head, Mitsuri cutely puffs out her cheek and flicks her hand forward. Turning my attention back towards the Demon in front of me, I take a step forward and immediately thorny vines shoot from the grass, encasing me in a prison that slowly wrings closer to me.

"I'm sorry, but I felt threatened when you took a step forward. You can't blame me, right?"

Chuckling in the prison that the demon had made for me, my eyes change from their normal color to the black and white combination. Cocking my fist backwards, I punch the forefront of the vine prison, causing my hands to open as the thorns pierce through my skin. The moment that my fist pushed forward into the vines though, the entire prison exploded outwards, showering the area around the demon with his own vines, even scratching his own cheek.

"You… You're a demon."

Watching as his pupils begin to violently vibrate and his entire aura change, the demon gains an entire ensemble of spiked vines behind him.

"My name is Kamanue." Confused by why he suddenly said his name, the vines shot forward, and his words continued. "And as a Lower Kizuki to Master, it's my mission to eradicate you."

As the vines grew closer, almost like an instinct inside my own body, my muscles began to wriggle around, growing before recompressing themselves. This process continued several times before the wave was almost atop me. At a near impossible speed, I position my body into a punching position and then slingshot my fist forward. Hitting the head of the vine spear, we hit a standstill for a few mere moments before the vine spear gives in.

My punch proceeds to go through all Kamanue's defenses until it eventually reaches him. Hearing the sickening crack of his ribs, Kamanue vomits blood before rocketing backwards, straight into the tree hollow where he had originally hidden. Watching as tree nearly uproot itself under Kamanue's impact, I flash towards the tree and peer inside to come across Kamanue pouring a consistent stream of blood from his mouth with his back engraved into the backside of the hollow and surrounding him was a blackish-red colored halo.

"My name is Kamanue." Kamanue mumbles. "And as a Lower Kizuki to Master, it's my mission to eradicate you."

Peering into his eyes, I could see that they were lack-luster, almost as if he was being possessed. His eyes then move slightly and meet with mine, regaining a bit of their original glimmer.

"What are you?"

Choosing not to answer the demon, I grip his head, slightly clenching it until I felt my fingers start digging into his skin. Finding sudden disgust in what I was doing, I relax my arms, feeling as my fingers remove themselves from his flesh.

Shaking my head clear, I look down, only to find a multitude of small vines wriggling upwards, trying to reach Kamanue. Putting my hands in prayer, I unsheathe my katana and then use 'Water Breathing Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After the Drought', as if a way for me to pay for putting him in that state.

Cleanly cutting through the tree alongside Kamanue's neck, Kamanue's head fell to the ground, staring blankly through the opening of the hollow, to the sky that held an enumerable number of stars.

"Beautiful"

Being the last words that Kamanue would ever utter, I stood in calm silence with only the sounds of the cicadas breaking through. Walking out of the tree, my eyes land upon Mitsuri who was standing perfectly still, mouth agape, as she looked to the tree.

Waving my hand in front of her face, Mitsuri broke from her stupor and immediately breathed, "How?"

Stoking my chin with my hand, I answer, "I have no idea, but when Kamanue's attack was approaching me, I felt my muscles expand and contract a multitude of times and the aftereffect being that my punch was much stronger."

"You forcefully increased the density of your muscles." Mitsuri concludes, like she had made the discovery of the century. "That's incredible."

Looking down at my fist, it appeared as though my Blood Demon Art was something akin to muscle augmentation. Turning myself back into a human, I feel as my muscles begin to turn less dense, almost as if they were becoming atrophied.

Looking to the moon, I felt a sharp poke in my side which led to me staring at Mitsuri in annoyance.

"Since we're done with our mission now, you'll head back to your precious girlfriends, right?" Hearing as Mitsuri's jealously oozes from her voice, I decide to tease her a bit.

"Aw, is my Mitsuri jealous that other girls are going to be spending time with me?"

Snorting out, Mitsuri turns her face to hide her growing blush. "Of course not, that'd be unbecoming of the Love Hashira to feel something such as jealousy."

"Well, I'm just saying, if my Mitsuri truly did become mine, then she wouldn't have reasons to be jealous anymore, right?"

"Eh?!"

Receiving a punch on the arm for such a comment, the two of us head back to the Demon Slayer Headquarters, and with it also came a surprising information.