Crimson Field (3)

Muichiro, Makomo, and Sabito were breathing heavily in front of the entrance to a huge cave at the side of the mountain near its peak. It had taken them longer than expected to get here, a lot of the demons may not have been real but they were still able to injure them, thus, they had to stop and fight off some of them.

On the way there they saw a LOT of dead bodies, and all of them were real. Way more than Ginko said went missing, they found at least seventy-three bodies with demon slayer uniforms on and over ninety Nichirin swords. The grass was soaked in blood, they were still wondering why the demon behind all of this didn't eat any of the bodies that they encountered, it was practically free food for a demon.

Muichiro wasn't that tired but he wondered if he has enough energy to kill the last demon, and the chances of it being a Lower Moon was almost one hundred percent. Muichiro was sure it wasn't am Upper Moon but you never really know. This world is different from the original story so he just had to hope for the best.

"Let's go, we are finishing this mission tonight. We have four hours until dawn, the demon might end up running away so let's say we have three hours to kill it." Muichiro said looking into the cave. "How do we even know it's in here and not at the foot of the mountain sitting on some tree humming to his heart's content?" Sabito said bluntly.

"We don't. Let's go." Muichiro said in his usual flat tone, he looked at Sabito and then jumped into the cave. Makomo looked at the stunned Sabito and shook her head following after him, she had gotten used to how Muichiro acted but it seemed like Sabito was a completely different story.

Sabito stood there for a good few seconds before he sighed VERY loudly and follow in after them, they ran down the cave and found nothing out of the ordinary. It looked to be a normal cave, Muichiro groaned thinking it might no lt be here. He couldn't feel any auras of anything down here, just cave, cave, and more cave.

Then the cave split off two ways, "Who is going with who? Should we even split up?" Sabito asked. Muichiro sighed, he was sure he said something about splitting up in scary situations but he can't remember.

"You two go that way, I'll go down here." Muichiro said walking down the middle tunnel, Sabito shouted at him, "Hey! You can't go alone...!" he stopped when he didn't see Muichiro anymore.

Sabito sighed to himself, "It's already, he's strong. Let's go down here, if the demon isn't here then we will go and help him, and if it is he will probably come to us, no." Makomo said.

"He'll probably forget we were even here, or why," Sabito said walking down the other tunnel, Makomo said nothing. She knew what he said was very possible but she had a bit of faith in Muichiro.

With Muichiro

Muichiro walked down the tunnel for a good few minutes seeing nothing, he wonder if maybe Sabito was right and the demon isn't even here. Luckily, all those thoughts were immediately thrown into the water when he saw a huge metal door at the end of the tunnel.

'Hm, it looks too old, I don't even know if I can open it. Cutting it is obviously a no-no, *sigh*, times like this I wish I had a useful system to help me out.' he thought.

[I know right, any idea where I can find one]

'Shut up.'

[Hahahahaha]

Muichiro sighed, again. He seriously needed to find a way to unlock the system functions, even if there's only one as long as it is useful he would be content with that.

He walked up to the doors, his hand ran across the rusty metal. Muichiro frowned a bit wondering why there was even a door here, if it was this rusty it must have been here for a long time. He thought for a bit and knock on it making a "dong" sound, he did this several times for a minute.

Muichiro took his sword and held it with both hands, his grip tightened as he took a deep breath.

[Mist Breathing. Second Form: Eight-Layered Mist]

He slashed eight times at the door, when the slashed connected, the door exploded into fog that subsided quickly after, "Knew it." Muichiro walks past it and found himself in a huge open section of the cave. He frowned at the sight in front of him.

There were many, and he meant MANY chains hanging from the ceiling with bodies attached to them. There were metal tables with all sorts of tools covered in blood, he saw a stack of Nichirin swords at the side next to another stack of haoris.

There was a man in the middle of the of it all, he had black hair wearing a green and yellow haori. The man was looking down, "How? How did you know the door was fake?"

Muichiro tilted his head and said, "When I knocked on it with the hilt of my sword I felt no vibration, and only Nichirin swords work against blood demon arts." "Oh, I see. You are a smart one, smarter than the offer scum before you. But, you are scum never the less!"

Muichiro stepped forward and took his sword out of its sheath, the man raised his hand into the air making mist over the area, it gathered above him with seconds.

[Blood Demon Art: Mist Construction!]

The mist dispersed revealing dozens of swords that shot in Muichiro's direction, in turn, Muichiro dashed forward. When he was only a few inches away from the barrage of swords he swung his.

[Mist Breathing. Fifth Form: Sea of Clouds and Haze]

He unleashed dozens of his own slashes cutting almost all of the swords that exploded into fog when they were cute. At the end of it all, Muichiro was standing there with a few cuts around his body.

The man chuckled and stood up, "How nice, it seems you really are strong, a Hashira maybe? No matter, you can't beat me anyway."

"And why is that... whatever your name is." Muichiro was very calm even in this situation, he stood there completely unfazed by any of this. He has already gotten a good read on how its blood demon art works and how to counter it.

The demon smiled and opened his eyes revealing, "Lower Moon 1" on them, "Because I am the strongest of the Lower Moons. Rejoice, boy, for you and your friends will die by my and my wife's hands!"

With Sabito And Makomo, Sometime Before

Sabito and Makomo wondered upon a huge area at the end of the tunnel after a while of walking, they started to think that they should have gone with Muichiro since it didn't seem to have a demon here.

Sabito frowned and started to walk faster, "We should have gone with Muichiro, we could be faced one of the Twelve Kizuki for all we know. He just joined the corps he has no experience with these kinds of demons."

Makomo followed close behind him, "Are you worried about him?" "Of course I am, he is a talented member of the corps. What if he dies because of our bad judgment."

Makomo smiled and shook her head, "It's okay to say you are fond of him, you know. He's a good kid, and he's strong. I'm sure if we were wrong he can hold off the demon for a bit."

He sighed and abruptly stopped dead in his tracks, "Hm?" Makomo stopped as well and they looked around, they stood in the middle of a large area. Sabito frowned and looked at a woman with brown hair sitting on the opposite side of the cave.

Makomo watched her closely "She's obviously a demon." Sabito nodded and they both held their swords. The woman stood up, "So he was right as always, three strong slayers finally came. What a happy night it is!"

Sabito dashed forward while Makomo trailed closed behind, from what she said there was another demon there. So Muichiro was mostly likely also facing another demon, Sabito was going to kill her quickly since they probably only had 2 hours before sunrise. Allowing them to get away wasn't an option, and they had no intentions of wanting to be trapped in a cave with two demons.

The woman smiled, she took a set of needles.

[Blood Demon Art: Poison Needles!]

The needles turned black and started to float before they shot at them, Makomo sped up while Sabito slowed down slightly allowing her to get in front of him, he sidestepped while Makomo jumped over all of the needles. A few cut her but she ignored it and dove at the woman.

[Frost Breathing. Fourth Form: Dance of the Frost]

She spun her body vertically while still in the air and released a powerful downwards slash to the demon, the woman raised their arm and Makomo cut it off. She landed on the ground in front of her and say something engraved into their eyes, "Lower Moon 2"

{Frost Breathing. Fourth Form: Dance of the Frost: The user leaps into the air, while airborne, the user spins their body vertically to create a slash}

She released a slash but they vanished and appeared on the roof of the cave, "Hehe, hahaha! You think your so strong, huh?! I'll show you strength."

Hundreds of needless came out from her hand, each one covered in a black liquid and floated in the air.

[Blood Demon Art: Poison Needle Rain]

Soon after, each and every needle shot down, Makomo and Sabito stared at this sight with a frown, 'Looks like this is going to take a bit, huh.'

Makomo looked at her arm that was cut by one of the needles from earlier she frowned, it was poisoned, the poison seems to take into effect fast. When in her bloodstream her body will be completed immobilized in thirsty minutes, and that's if she uses breathing to slow it down.