Military Co-operation: A night by the fire

~~~~~1909~~~~~

Tanya and Rengoku stood there staring at their crows, having just gotten a mission that required a hashira. Tanya was especially worried 'a hashira being required likely means a demon of the Twelve Kizuki is most likely going to be there! I only just became a demon slayer what the hell?!' the thought that Being X was most definitely behind this. She looked over at Rengoku, who had called his crow down and petted it. "UNDERSTOOD! I will head out as soon as the other demons' slayers here are ready." with that his crow took off and landed in a tree nearby. 

Tanya glared at Rengoku, was he an idiot? He was still injured. "Hold it you, my sisters still haven't cleared you for combat! You have not fully recovered," she spoke to this since if Rengoku was too injured to go, she could have her crow go off and find a new mission. Since without a nearby Hashira she, as Mizunoto would have enough of an excuse not to go on this mission. Rengoku rubbed his chin, "I don't know…YWOCH!" Tanya lightly hit his knee twice, he already felt the pain, she grumbled "see Idiot?" 

The flame pillar chuckled "I guess, I suppose another hashira could go." Tanya smirked, she could avoid this mission, at least that was until her crow cut in. "Negatory! The leader had no other choice but to specifically send the crow of Kyujuro Rengoku due to all other Hashira being on a mission of equal or higher importance. If the danger had not been too high or the missions the other pillars were had been of lower importance they would have been requested instead!" Tanya's eyes went blank, she realized Kanae left just under an hour ago, meaning even if she had been around it was Tanya would have to go anyways! 'Damn you being X, you did this on purpose!' she cursed the higher being in her head, for now. 

That was how Tanya and the rest were roped into a dangerous mission with a recovering Hashira. 

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It was now nighttime, the six of them set up camp with tents, Rengoku managed to get a fire going. They sat around it, most had finished eating by that point, with only Viktoriya and Rengoku still eating. "This was great! Who made this delicious food?!" the excitable flame pillar asked, while everyone's eyes landed on Mary and Willibald. Mary sheepishly rubbed the back of her head "d-don't look at me like that I just followed Koe's instructions." Willibald just nodded, not adding anything else. 

Tanya shrugged "well you two did great in my opinion, so don't sell yourself too short." she had a nasty feeling in her mouth, still not used to complimenting the greatest adversary from her old life. Mary seemed to get more nervous after hearing Tanya complement her "t-thank you miss Kocho, I will try to make something good again for you…and the others of course!" she quickly added the last part, Viktoriya giggling at the poor girl obvious nervous blushing. "YOU TWO DID AMAZING! I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO IT!" Rengoku shouted loudly, while Tanya made a loud shushing sound, its night time now and she did not want to attract demons right now. 

Eventually, everyone started to go to bed, Granz offered to take the first watch since he was the least tired. With the exact order after that being Tanya, Viktoriya, Rengoku, Mary, and Willibald. Tanya went inside her tent, and after a while finally managed to fall asleep. But it did not last. 

Her eyes opened, she did not hear the sound of the fire flicking. She also found that when she sat up and looked outside the crack in her tent the fire was frozen, along with Granz who had stood up but was not moving. She narrowed her eyes, she looked to her right and sure enough, two nutcracker soldiers, one blue and one red were standing there. "What do you two want?" she asked in an annoyed and tired tone. The blue one wept slightly and with a feminine voice said "oh X I told you we should have waited till morning Tanya is tired!" the red one grumbled and shouted, "SHE WOULD BE GRUMPY ANYWAYS!" 

Tanya was too tired, but she always was to do with these two, to begin with so actually being tired just made it worse. "Hey, did you two have the other Hashira busy on purpose?" she was quite cross right now and just wanted a straight answer. Being X spoke up "yes and no, the other hashira were going to be busy with missions regardless we, or rather, I just had the ones that were already on missions be delayed." the girl muttered 'of course' to herself. She laid back down and through a blanket over herself "whatever, just leave me alone. I wanna sleep and I can't do that with two pests keeping me awake." 

Once again Being Z wept "how am I a pest as well?! Being X is the meanie." Tanya did not gratify that question with a response. She just tried to ignore them, for a while no response came, she thought they left. Suddenly Being X spoke up once more "on this mission there will be people you know from your old life, both allies and enemies, one of which you will not see coming. Oh, and Mary's father will be there as well." Tanya's eye twitched, which meant Mary would have to find out the truth of what her father is now. She did not want to deal with the valkyrie attacking her again after the work she put into making her subordinate to her! Though if she slew Mary's father before she knew none would be the wiser. Finally being Z spoke up "before we go, I am sorry Tanya, I can't say what for just yet, but I am sorry." that gained Tanya's attention, but she now heard the flickering and crackling of the fire. They were gone, she clenched her fists 'I won't accept your apology if it's another situation like Reiner'. 

Soon it was Tanya's turn around to take watch, she took a seat by the fire and poked the burning wood with a stick to make sure it stayed strong. Nothing of note happened till she heard footsteps, she looked up to see Mary standing there, rubbing her eyes. "Hello miss Kocho, sorry if I made you tense up," she spoke tiredly. Tanya shrugged "it's fine, go back to sleep and wait your turn." Mary sat down across from the other girl despite being told to go back to sleep. "Sorry I just woke back up, takes a while for me to fall back asleep so how about I keep you company for now?" 

The two sat in silence, only the sound of crackling fire filling their ears. 'This feels awkward, should I say something?' some sweat went down Tanya's forehead, but how was she going to talk to someone she at one point killed. Mary did not know that, but since Being X confirmed that her father was going to be there she could not help but feel Mary would have a repeat fight with her. And while Tanya cannot say she hates the other girl right now, she still does like really like her after all their fighting. 

It was eventually Mary that spoke up, "s-so, you knew Viktoriya, Granz, and Rengoku before all of this right?" she was trying to make small talk, sounding as nervous as one possibly could. Tanya nodded "yeah, Viktoriya and Granz were students under a previous water hashira, he trained me for a bit as well, but much like with my sister's flower breathing it did not stick." Tanya smirked, she was so angry back then when she struggled to master even one breathing technique. "As for Rengoku, I trained with him to master fire breathing, it was at first his father training me, but…well I don't really want to go into what happened with that whole issue. Still though, doubt I would have come this far without either of them." 

Mary's eyes narrowed, hearing how highly spoke of the three sleeping slayers made her feel calm but also a little sad. Tanya would then ask a question in an attempt to convey any interest in the conversation with the other girl "how about you? How was your training?" Mary was surprised but happy that Tanya asked about herself. "Well, My master was a former thunder hashira, he had to walk around with a stick since one of his legs is gone." Mary smiled a little "he was a very understanding man, he pushed me but always made sure I got back up and tried again when I failed. He even helped me develop my own unique style. Blessed breathing." Mary's eyes narrowed once more "towards the end of my training some black-haired boy was taken in by the master, he kept wining and complaining. Disrupting me and the other student. He even kept dotting and creeping up on me." she clenched her fist, Tanya did not hear her mutter "annoying Zenitsu" 

Tanya put her finger by her chin 'should I ask about blessed breathing?' she did not really want to, after all, she was certain Being X had 'inspired' Mary to learn or make. Instead, she asked a simpler question "why do you slay demons?" it seemed simple, Mary quickly answer with great Vigor "to avenge my father, and ensure no one else has to lose someone to those things." the conviction was just as strong as when she fought the girl in front of her in the old world. A moment of silence passed before Tanya spoke again "and what if one of those demons was someone you knew? What then?" at this Mary seemed to freeze, not having a clear answer. She would try to give one, but she could only mutter "I…uh…" 

Tanya then would speak with her own answer "I would kill them." Mary seemed shocked by this, not expecting such a cold answer from the person who asked the question. "B-but why? If you knew them and they were truly close friends why would you do it?" Tanya looked straight at Mary through the fire "because it is what we do, slay demons. They may be your friend now, but even if they will not kill you they can and will can others to consume them." Mary shook a little and was about to shout, but she remembered people were still sleeping and did not want to wake them. 

Mary swallowed her voice back a bit, she waited to think of a response to Tanya's blunt one but she could not do so easily. She looked at Tanya "what about Viktoriya? Or Rengoku? Surely you would at least hesitate?" Tanya shook her head "if anything that would only spur me to do it more. I would not want anyone to have to live while being a demon." she was aware of the irony in her words, with her 'devil of the rhine' title. "If that idiot Rengoku got turned into a demon he would not accept me letting him go. And I am sure none of the rest, Viktoriya, Granz, and Koe would want to live as a demon either." she looked straight ahead at Mary "would you?" the questioned girl shook her head quickly, she would not want to become something she deemed responsible for her father's death. Tanya nodded, but she was still sure that despite this Mary would still hesitate later when they encounter her father. 

Eventually, Tanya needed to sleep and her time was up, Mary offered to take next and that she would wake Viktoriya up after. The blonde-haired girl shrugged and went back to her own tent. When Mary was left by herself she stared into the fire, having thoughts of her own. 'I still think Tanya is really amazing but, she has to be lying right? There is no way she would kill her friends if they became demons, at least not easily, right?' she could only have herself to answer that, and she felt like she already knew what the answer was. Even if it made her uncomfortable. 

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The next day everyone had eaten breakfast, made by Willibald of course, he made it during his time as night watch since his time was close to sunrise. After they had eaten and packed up the six of them headed for the village the crows had instructed them to go, it took another hour of travel before they made it to the gate. There they saw two individuals, one with an eyepatch that Tanya did not recognize, and a blue-haired individual she did. 'Lehren…' the sigh above on a fence outside the village read the name 

Takoi Village  

When the six of them approach Lehren walks forward "hello, I assume you are the 'demon slayers?" suddenly Rengoku ran up and quickly took the man's hand to shake. Lehren had not extended it to be shaken but yet it was anyways. After some aggressive hand shaking Rengoku would say "YES WE ARE, HELLO SOLDIER OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY, I AM KYOJURO RENGOKU! The flame pillar." after his hand was finally let go Lehren adjusted his glasses and in a very held back manner said, "hello Mr. Rengoku." his hand still felt sore, He looked at the others, who just gave him a shrug. 

The eyepatch one, Janoi walked forward. "I apologize for having you all come here, if what our general says is true then we understand that demon slayers do not normally work with the government and that you aren't even known by them. I hope you have been informed of the situation, and know we do not plan on getting in your way. But help where we can." he gave a respectful bow after that. Granz them walked forward to ask "hey, is this general of yours the same guy who trained Weiss?" both Janoi and Lehren were shocked to hear that they knew Weiss. Lehren gave a small nod "Yes I believe so, Weiss is here in fact." the group smiled, even Rengoku who had no idea who Weiss was, thought that was because he almost always was smiling. 

The two of them led them through the village as they had to pass through to make it to the military base. As they passed they did not notice much destruction, which was a good thing. But they did notice that many of the villagers had a dejected look, or just looked tired. "Just walking through makes me feel they have lost a lot…" Viktoriya says quietly, the others remain silent. Mary prayed to herself for all the lost souls, and that she would avenge them all soon. 

After more walking, they made it to a hill and walked up the path of it till they made it to the top. There they saw a base made of metal and wood, various lookout points, the flag of Imperial Japan flying on top of it all. There were of course soldiers walking around, the few they passed seemed to be on edge. After Lehren and Janoi talked with the one at the gate they were all allowed in. they entered inside, 'eh, I guess this is only a minor base so it is not that big. Then again it's not like I can compare it to the empire." 

As they walked inside the others had their own reactions "it's so big, bigger than the butterfly mansion." Viktoriya said with sparkles in her eyes, as growing up with her adoptive grandfather in the mountains gave her very little to compare it to. Though Tanya still felt that at best this base was as large as the butterfly mansion. Granz was equally amazed. Willibald seemed to have no reaction. Mary just seemed as concerned as to when they entered the village, as she was paying attention to the people inside. All the soldiers were on edge, some of them looked like they had not slept in days, weeks maybe. She pitied them just like she did the villagers, and spoke a small prayer to herself. 

"Yo! Great to see you all again!" Weiss shouted as he approached the group, he looked at Rengoku "ah, and great to see a new face, I am Weiss." he held his hand for Rengoku, who shook it eagerly and firmly. "Yes hello, nice to meet you, Tanya and the others talked about you before. I am Kyojuro Rengoku!" the others, except Tanya, played catch up with Weiss. This was only his second mission, he came here shortly after his first. He was quite excited to be able to defend his home village, even though he wished he returned under better circumstances. 

Tanya suddenly felt uneasy, like something was about to make her feel 'like an underling.' suddenly a deep booming voice shouted "that is enough Weiss! Stop regaling them with stories so that we may focus on the situation at hand." immediately Weiss tensed up and stood in a straight line position with his hands to his side. Tanya looked over, sure enough here he approached. Kurt Von Rudersdorf, or Ruderkodia as he was known in this world. He still seemed to enjoy smoking from large cigars as he had one in his hand as he approached. 

Tanya felt sweat going down her head, it felt strange seeing one of her former generals in a Japanese army uniform, his was decorated with badges and medals. She looked around and saw much like Weiss every soldier in his line of sight and went into a straight and respective pose. 'Even here he commands absolute respect, of course. Just his voice and presence got everyone's attention.' she sighed heavily 'better him than Zettour I suppose.' the six demons slayers stood in front of the general, he looked them over "I suppose you are what we have, for now, so try not to die." he turned around and motioned with his finger "we will explain the full situation inside." the six of them, even Rengoku, followed without hesitation, not wanting to think about what would happen if they did not follow him inside. 

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elsewhere

Inside a cave, some fire flickered. A small collection of demons sat beside each fire that was burning. "Hey Anson, you doing okay?" the demon, Gunner asked as he sat next to the older former human. Anson shook his head "no, but I never am." he was busy remembering the people they killed two nights ago, and how they would do the same this night as well. He hated it, he hated every moment, but he feared Muzan more than his own conscious now. Which only made him hate himself as well. 

Gunner smirked, "well if it makes you feel any better sir, thanks to you we did not have to kill as many this time." Anson sighed and smacked the other demon in the shoulder. "It doesn't. And stop calling me sir…" he opened his eyes to reveal three scratches in his left eye. Where 'lower 6' was. "I am no longer a member of the Twelve Kizuki. Whatever 'ranks' we demons have no longer applies to me." he could still remember the day Muzan stripped him of the rank, the only pain he had that matched that day was the one he felt when he had originally been turned into a demon. When he wished he had died instead, both times. Gunner wanted to say something, but he knew there was nothing he could do to cheer his 'boss' up. 

Suddenly all the demons were in the cave, eight counting Anson and Gunner. Nine, with the new demon who had arrived. The demon had walked in wearing a thick cloak that shielded it from the sun's rays. All the demons shook as it entered. It ignored all of them and walked up to Anson and spoke "Sue, I ordered you to wipe out the military. But only five died." moments of silence passed before Anson responded "must have forgotten." suddenly his eyes widened as his arms moved on its own, they summoned many Iron barbs which pierced into Anson himself. The former lower moon collapsed to the ground, coughing in pain but still very much alive. 

The cloaked demon walked to the middle of the cave for all the demons there to see and hear him. "Listen here, I have a plan I need to enact that requires one more night. But now more demon slayers have arrived, one of which is a Hashira, I can't have that interfering. None of you will be able to beat a hashira, but I only need one more night before my plan is complete. So make sure you keep them distracted and away from the military base." the clocked demon looked back at Anson "and if my plan is interrupted in any way, I will make all of you walk out into the sunlight. Am I understood?" Anson very shamefully nodded. 

The cloaked demon chuckled "good, not that you have much of a choice thanks to my blood demon art." the demon moved further into the cave, this would be a fun night for him.