Chapter 11: Midnight Raven

Meanwhile, somewhere that wasn't accessible to humans or Scarlet. A group of demons were standing around as Muzan was also there, however he was using a woman's body as he was preoccupied with other tasks.

This place was known as the Dimensional Infinity Fortress, it was not telling where exactly this place was located. But it wasn't out of reach of a certain person, Queen appeared within the dimension. She glanced around as she saw the hostess body Muzan was using. She simply walked past the demons and the upper rank demons as well, Muzan turned to face Queen as he noticed her.

"It's good to see you Muzan. Or at least see you have a body to host while you're away in the human world." Queen said as she stopped half way. "It seems you're missing a few demons..."

Muzan scoffed as he faced Queen. "No one asked you for your input Queen. Why are you here? I don't need your help, I have everything planned out."

Queen smirked as she laughed. "Please, if anyone knows that twisted psychotic Grimm inside and out.... it's me." She walked a bit closer to Muzan as she was now standing in front of his hostess body. "I'm the one who's put this entire plan together. Besides... I need you to stall and play with her a bit more while I, change some things with the next part of the plan."

"Now you listen here-" A demon with four arms and had several spikes on his back stopped talking as Queen and quickly sliced his head off.

Muzan watched as the head fell onto the floor, he then looked at Queen again. "I've been doing just that, but she somehow manages to out smart my demons."

Queen sighed as she slid her sword back into its holster. "You need to be one step ahead of Scarlet, you wouldn't want her to know where this place is would you? Besides, if she does somehow find this place... you have an army, while she... well she's just herself of course." Queen was silent for a moment as she closed her eyes. "Of course, she could just kill every Slayer Corps member and Harshira if she wanted to. That wouldn't leave you any one to challenge if she did that."

Muzan scoffed as he looked at Queen. "Fine, then what is it you suppose would be a better idea then?"

~~~

Shinobu teleported behind Scarlet as she smug look on her face. She grinned as she looked at the Grimm girl for a moment, she then noticed Hero on the defense as she giggled a bit. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you.... yet." She drew her sword out as she quickly swung it, the blade was up to Scarlet's neck as the Hashira looked back at Scarlet with almost no emotion shown on her face. Just a smile from ear to ear, she looked into Scarlet's eyes for a good minute.

Scarlet just stared at Shinobu in the eyes as she still seemed to be a bit weak from her fight Akaza. "What do you want Hashira? Came here to kill me?" She kept her gaze on Shinobu as she slowly brought her hands up, she dropped Black Rose which distracted Shinobu. Scarlet noticed this as she smirked and gut punched Shinobu hard.

Shinobu skidded back a bit as she didn't expect to be punched so hard, yet the punch wasn't as strong as it was originally supposed to be. Sure Scarlet had fully healed herself from her fight with Akaza, but her strength wasn't fully restored just yet. "Well, that was completely rude of you. Didn't give me a handicap or time to answer your question." She dusted herself off as she smiled again. "Now then, I was going to answer your question. But since you pulled a shitty stunt like that and punched me back, I guess I'll have no choice but to kill you... Demon or not, you're never going to get another chance like that to lay a finger on me."

Scarlet scoffed as she looked at her hands. "Damn it... I may have healed from the battle, but my strength isn't fully there." She clinched her fist tightly as she glared at Shinobu. "Fine then, but you'll find it hard to beat me." She was lying through her teeth obviously, in her current state of strength. She'd be beaten to a bloody pulp, she knelt down and picked Black Rose up off the ground as she held her scythe tightly.

Shinobu smirks as she waited for Scarlet to make the first move. "By all means, don't let me stop you from making the first strike." She was toying with her now. Almost as if she used the uno reverse card crowing herself as the alpha predator and dethroning Scarlet to the level of prey.

Scarlet glanced over to Hero. "Get away from this area."

Hero looked over to her as he didn't object to what she had said. He scurried off to the other side to get a good view of the fight, whenever it was about to start that is.

Shinobu giggled a bit as she eyed Scarlet . "Well now, if you're not going to make the first strike.... then allow me to do you the honors of starting it for you." She drew her sword towards her front as she had a sly grin on her face and licked her lips. "Mmhm, this would be a perfect move..."

Scarlet was curious on what the Hashira was talking about, she stood on guard as she waited to see what exactly she would do first. But she could smell Tanjiro and Nezuko's scent getting closer to the location as well as two others one was Inosuke's scent and the other scent she wasn't too familiar with, but she had a hunch it belonged to Tanjiro and Inosuke's friend Zenitsu. She could've sworn she overheard Inosuke tell Tanjiro they'd meet up with him elsewhere, maybe there was a sudden change of plans? Either way, she needed to think fast and stall for a bit more time.

"Insect breathing, Dance of the bee sting. True Flutter!" Shinobu said as she took one step forward and dashed towards Scarlet like a bullet traveling at fast speed that the naked eye couldn't see.

Scarlet watched as she noticed Shinobu vanish, she may have lost sight of her. But she could still smell her, and that was one thing that made her different from the Hashira and the Slayer Corps, well, Minus Tanjiro and Nezuko. Her eyes scanned the area around her as she could smell how close Shinobu was, eventually Scarlet used her semblance to stop time around her.

Shinobu was frozen in the time freeze, she couldn't move any parts of her body. Scarlet scanned the area again as she was searching for her, the smell grew stronger and stronger as Scarlet had gotten closer to where Shinobu was at. "Ara Ara, I found you."

~~~

"Are you suggesting I send an army of my best demons?" Muzan asked as he looked at Queen. "You're going to leave me with very little to give orders too."

Queen snickered as she looked at Muzan. "Oh come now, we all know that they wouldn't be much help to you when the Slayer Corps and the Hashira come in and kill every last demon."

Muzan growled as he wanted to kill Queen where she stood. "Tch, this isn't the deal we had Queen."

"And I care why?" Queen asked curiously. "Akaza almost had her dead, but she out smarted him. If you had more demons around, other than him, Scarlet would be dead." She turned around with her back turned to Muzan. "Besides, if you don't finish the job.... I could always have others do it."

"Tell me something then, why don't you just take care of her yourself?" Muzan asked. "Are you afraid she'll damage you again like last time? Please, spare me the sob story. In her current condition she is in now, she wouldn't stand a chance against you."

Queen quickly turned around as she aimed her flintlock at Muzan's forehead. "I'd advise you to choose your words wisely next time Muzan. Or you'll be the one I kill instead, it'll save the Hashira and the Slayer corps less time having to hunt you down."

"You don't scare me, I'm the demon king." Muzan said as he hissed.

Queen lowered her flintlock down as she smirked. "Oh trust me, I'm very well aware of you being the demon king. In fact, you've yet to meet Scarlet's mother. If you should be terrified of anyone it's her."

Muzan raised an eyebrow up as he was confused. "I thought she killed her for good? What's the meaning of this?"

Queen chuckled a bit. "Why do you want to know how she's alive? For all I know, she could be dead still. Everyone feared her, even those who aren't from her world." She slowly walked around Muzan. "Salem was feared throughout Remnant as the all powerful witch who couldn't die. But Scarlet proved everyone wrong of course, of course... Salem was brought back by a certain God of Death. Only to be killed again by Scarlet"

Muzan watched Queen walk around him as he wondered if she had brought Salem back from the dead or not. "And this time around?"

Queen stopped as she turned her head towards him. "It was me who did just that, I yanked Salem out from an alternate timeline and dropped her into my world.. I had made sure I filled her in on everything and who Scarlet was, so she rained hell upon the others in my world. And now she rules over every last human and spirit."

Muzan was about to say something until one of the lower class demons came forward and knelt down onto one knee. "My lord, our spies have informed me that a Hashira is currently in combat with that girl. Tanjiro and his friends are getting closer to the scene as well."

Queen smirked as she moved away from Muzan. "It's your call, do you want to risk losing everything you worked so hard for? Or do you want your squad to try and capture Scarlet once more?"

Muzan closed his eyes as he thinks for a moment, he wasn't sure what would be the best choice. But taking out the Slayer Corps and Scarlet at the same time would be way easier for him. "Fine... I've made my choice."