Mount Natagumo arc: Hinokami & against corps rules.
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Zenitsu stares up at the night sky, unable to move due to the poison running through his system. He phases in and out of consciousness. Suddenly though in his view came to a woman slowly falling towards him, from his point of view it was if she was an angel coming down towards him.
"Hello there, are you okay?" Shinobu spoke towards the barely conscious boy in a soothing tone, as she usually does. 'I saw many spiders with human heads, and slayers in the process of being turned into them. Their blood works well but he seems the least affected which means he was poisoned more recently.' she smiled a little more 'I do not see the demon responsible for this either, likely means at the cost of his own body he managed to take it out.' she took out a box with a syringe in it. 'The fresher poisoned blood will speed up the antidote. Better to get it done before the Kakushi get here so all these slayers can be healed.'
Kanao was further along in the forest, she had been running in the direction Tanjiro was tossed towards but found herself lost. "Left or right?" she was unsure of which direction to take assuming he was even down either of them. "Tanjiro could be in danger, but what if Inosuke is in greater danger?" all these choices were too much for her, the coin would have made it easier. 'The coin' she was downtrodden, unable to make a simple decision and it hurt. 'Tanjiro or Inosuke could die and all because I am incapable of deciding what to do!'
'Follow your heart.' Those words rang in her head, it had both Tanjiro's voice and Kanae-nees' voice. She held her hands together, and she made a decision. So Kanao took the left-most path. "Please be okay Tanjiro. Please."
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"Second fang, Slice!" Inosuke shouted as his sword went into the body of the father spider, but barely made a dent. "Grahhhh!" the large demon once again tossed him aside. "Why can't I kill h-" Inosuke was forced to run as the demon nearly stomped him to the ground. "Ah!" he just barely dodged a swing from the left arm but he felt the air rush past him. He started running even before the large demon started chasing him again. He grunted out air as he ran. His mouth sank under his mouth, fear started overtaking him.
Inosuke could not stop running, he could hear the father spider getting closer. 'I can't even cut his skin much, how the hell am I supposed to fight him?!' he ran between the trees to help avoid the demon but it did not help. 'He would have come up with a plan, and she could execute it along with him!' for once he thought he needed help, that he was not strong enough. Taznjiro and Kanao were of course the two he thinking about. The three of them together could beat this demon.
A sentiment though that left Inosuke feeling irked "grrr, why the hell are this running through my head!" he slid his feet on the ground and came to a full stop. 'I don't need their help! I am the strongest there is!" he turned around and faced the father spider who was now by him. "I'll take you on right now!" he sliced twice at the demon, but it moved out of the way and struck its fist down at him.
Inosuke was quick, not only pivoting out of the way of the strong punch but managing to use the demon's arms as a launching point to get to a higher point of a tree trunk. And then jumped off that to attack the father spider's head from above. He cuts down with one blade but it is blocked by a meaty arm. But it cuts deeper, surprising the father spider. "I…" Inosuke starts hitting the sword with his other sword digging it deeper into the arm. "Will cut through this! AH!" he hits and hits until the sword cuts through the whole arm. The large demon screeched as Inosuke celebrated "Haha! I knew I didn't need any help, I just needed to hit harder!" the demon then turns and starts running away. "Hey! Where are you going? Get back here and fight me!"
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Tanjiro stared at Rui, the spider demons 'lower 5' kanji staring back at him. 'He was the twelve Kizuki?' he still stood in front of Nezuko, his arm held out as the Rui started to walk towards them. "Not that you know who I am accept my deal and hand me your sister," Rui demanded again. Tanjiro clenched his teeth, he kept Nezuko against a tree and walked out to face the spider demon "I will never give you Nezuko!"
"How bothersome." Rui then uses webs to pull Nezuko out from behind the trees and into his arms, the demon girl growls at him as she is held by one of his hands. "Now that see I can grab her at any time why don't you just give it up already?" Tanjiro stumbles a bit but still runs at Rui. "Let her go!" as he quickly approaches, Nezuko uses her claws to slash up Rui's face, though he seems undeterred by it. When Tanjiro is close enough and jumps toward him that is when Rui launches more webs his way, cutting him a bit and causing the already injured boy to fall to the ground.
Tanjiro struggled to get back up, he noticed Nezuko was not in Rui's arm. 'Nezuko, where did she go?' he pointed the blade out and blood fell on it. He looked up, horror filling his face when he saw where the blood dripped from. Nezuko was upside down, being stung up by webbing that cut into her skin. She was in pain and a lot of it. "I have to teach her, otherwise she will not learn." the claw marks on Rui's face finished healing as he spoke. "And if she continues to misbehave, I might just leave her up there in the sun to get burned a little." Tanjiro could not take it, the way that Rui spoke so coldly about harming his sister filled him with more rage than he ever felt before.
"Let Nezuko go!" Tanjiro tried to slash at Rui but was easily cut up a little more by the threads produced by the spider demon. While on his knees Rui kicked Tanjiro up into the, he had a rough landing on a bush, he coughed as blood came out of his mouth. "So weak, can't even defend yourself from me." Rui held his his arms out and grinned. "Come on than, give me your best shot."
Tanjiro takes the bait and Rui effortlessly avoids the slash, punching the slayer twice. Tanjiro spins around and his broken blade hit Rui's neck. "Huh?" though his sword is broken he still had enough to cut up Rui's neck, Tanjiro could not get the blade through. "My body is more durable than my threads. You lack the strength to finish me off." with couple more hits he sent Tanjiro flying back and crashing into the ground creating a small crater.
Nezuko started struggling in webs, growling at the Spider demon some more. "Stop that." Rui made the threads squeeze Nezuko more, making her painful screams louder. "HRnnrmmmm!" she loud out a painful yell. "STOP!" Tanjiro yelled as he finally managed to get up on his feet. "Hmm? Is she unconscious already?" Rui was staring at Nezuko as she hung unconsciously from the webs. 'She is different from the rest of us, I wonder why?' he would turn his attention back towards Tanjiro. He would tug on web thread before launching a barrage of them the slayer's way.
'Just gotta focus.' Tanjiro gripped his broken sword, "total concentration…" as he run and had the breathing technique ready he started cutting away the webs, the sword edge blade still knocking them away. "Hmm?" Rui was not sure how he could manage it. As he moved between the threads he finished the form while also knocking away more threads. "Water Breathing, Tenth form; Constant flux!" as he slashed the water formed itself into the shape of a dragon. While a collection of webbing threads were near Tanjiro cut them all away. 'I am doing it, if I can keep going I can beat him!'
Rui stared with an unimpressed look. "Did you really think these are the strongest they could be?" suddenly Rui's blood started fusing with the threads, turning the web red. "Blood demon art," the red threads started amassing around Tanjiro. "Cutting thread cage." the threads started closing in on Tanjiro. 'These threads are stronger than before. I can't cut through them and I cannot get away. Am I going to die here?' the threads got closer, and Tanjiro could stop it. As the fear of death kicked in, his life flashed before his eyes.
He saw himself as a child, dancing, and Nezuko smiling and laughing with him. His sickly father smiled at them. At another point, he saw his father dancing between torch poles lit up in fire. He was dancing perfectly. His mother explained that this was a dance to pray to the fire god Hinokami, to protect them. "But mom, how does dad move like that despite his body being weak?" his mother just smiled.
At a later time, while laying on his father's lap, he got what seemed like an answer. "Tanjiro, there is a type of breathing that when used, makes it so you could move even when your body feels it should not." Tanjiro was not sure what any of it meant. "I am going to my best to pass down the Hinokami Kagura to you, along with these," he said referring to his Hanafura earrings.
Tanjiro's blade was suddenly covered in fire, and instantaneously cut away the red threads. "That's it. keep going," he said to himself as the fire on his broken blade cut away the threads more and more. Making it to Rui who seethed his teeth. "This boy!" he brought out more and more threads, colliding with Tanjiro's sword. They exchanged attacks while both moving between the trees. Tanjiro smells it, and sees it, 'There, the opening thread!' Rui in a desperate defense fire webs at Tanjiro to try to force Tanjiro to dodge so he can have more breathing room. Tanjiro kept going 'I'll finish this, even if it means I get cut up in the process!' the threads closed in on him as he closed in on Rui.
"Nezuko, Nezuko get up." Nezuko heard the voice of her mother. "If you don't your brother is going to die!" she heard the voice more as she felt her cheeks touched. Nezuko's eyes open as she grips the threads by her hand 'Blood demon art…' suddenly pink flames ran along her blood on the threads. Rui only saw it when it was too late.
They singe his threads, and him a little as well. Tanjiro emerged from the flames unharmed by them. "The threads don't hurt him?!" no room to dodge Tanjiro's sword smashing into Rui's neck. He felt the heat abrupt 'I have to stop this before he kills me!' he thought. Tanjiro kept going, and soon witnessed his sword cut through Rui's neck. As he falls to the ground, next to Rui's seemingly motionless body he thought 'I did it, thank you, father…'
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The spider sister ran down the hill, some tears in her eyes. "I messed up." she gripped her head "out of all our family members I was the only one that never messed up before this." she thought back to the family, there used to be many but all of them except the four, her, mother, father, and older brother remained due to the rest being left outside to burn. Many of them due to her own reporting to Rui. now, their Mother and older brother were dead, and she had no idea what had happened to the father, or if he was still alive even.
She spotted two slayers, 'i'll kill them all first.' when she got close enough, one of them noticed and pushed the other out of way. Murata gets trapped inside the web ball created by her. "H-hey, what is this?" Murata yelled, he tried cutting away the but found himself unable to. "Oh you'll find that from the inside it is quite hard to cut through. Not that you'll live long enough, as soon you will be nothing but liquid." the Spider sister said this maliciously just as acid started filling the inside where Murata is. "Don't worry Murata I will get you out of there," Koya shouted as he tried swinging at the demon, only to be easily knocked aside. "Now for you."
But before she could trap the other slayer someone came in quick, forcing her to move. Shinobu's smile met her and without another word she went for the demon. She dodged away from a few webs and kicked the demon a few times in the chest before landing on top of the demon. After a few moments of silence brought by the demon's obvious fear of her Shinobu spoke. "Say did you kill any humans?" she spoke softly, almost sympathetically. The Spider demon thought maybe she could make the slayer feel bad for her.
"Not because I wanted to, I had to or I would be punished." she managed to make tears fall down her face. "I did not kill much of them." Shinobu tilted her head "you know, I just so happen to see on my way over here a bunch of cocoons. All of them filled with the melted bodies of my fellow slayers. That was you wasn't it?" the demon's eyes widened, she was caught. "Hmm, Don't worry." she placed her hand on the demon's stomach. "I will cut you open, torture you, make you feel all the pain you inflicted upon them." the demon's eyes widened. "It will be a lot of pain, but you will not die from it because you are a demon. After that, we can be friends."
The Spider Sister was not having it, she launched more webs at Shinobu. She gracefully moved out of the way. "Seems you are not interested in being my friend, oh well." She dodged away from more attacks and the demon lost sight of her. She saw Shinobu above her "Butterfly dance; Caprice" as butterflies surrounded her and the demon, one landed on her finger as blood spitting out of various places on the demon's body. When she noticed this she stared at Shinobu's sword, I see. She lacks the strength to cut demons' necks. I can beat-' suddenly she felt pain everywhere as she coughed out blood. They died on the ground Shinobu giggled "did you assume you were safe? Bear in mind some slayers use poison, like me." she and Koya cut Murata free, who had almost all his clothes melted by now clearly embarrassing him. Shinobu then asked them if they saw which direction the demon came from.
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"Finally!" Inosuke shouted as he finally found the father spider on a brach, his arm not healed yet. "Why don't you come down here? Wallowing about your hand?! Don't think I can…t?" he witnessed as the Father spider's body changed, it became darker and had rougher skin, and his arm was healed.
It fell at Inosuke, nearly crushing him like it did the ground. Inosuke stared at the demon, who kicked him away. After a rough slide Inosuke did not run "I…Ain't scared of you!" he ran and then jumped at the demon. "Fourth fang; slice n' dice!" this time instead of embedding into the arm both of the swords shattered on the arm. Inosuke could only watch as a fist came towards him and punched hard. Inosuke went flying back, crashing against the ground many times. He could not move, he felt himself be picked up by the head. The hand began to squeeze on it. "I…won't..die" he gasped for air breath under his boar mask. As it squeezed more Inosuke spat out blood, it dripping out of his mask. But before his head could be fully crushed he spotted a purple blade cut through the hand causing him to be dropped to the ground.
Tanya stared as the demon stumbled back, waiting for its hand to heal. She stared back at Inosuke "stay back." the barely conscious boy could not even offer his usual protest, which she was thankful for. 'Sadly…' she watched as the demon's hands fully healed. 'I won't be able to test all forms on him, my first form went through him like butter but I can get a few out. She pulled Inosuke back as the demon went to slam both fists on them. She held her sword up, her total concentration still ongoing. For the first time, she was upset to be facing an easier enemy. Well, easier for her.
The demon rushed at Tanya. "Keshin breathing." her blade started to cover itself in purple flames. "Fourth form; Eclipsing tide." in a one-slash movement, a large purple flame erupted the first big slash made the demon move back to avoid it but that was what Tanya wanted as a second smaller but precise slash cut away at the father demon many eyes. "GRAHHH!" the demon stumbled back, only one eye was spared due to the awkward angle Tanya had to jump at to reach them. In anger, Father spider tried to slam a fist down at her. She spun the blade "fifth form; Blossoming Magma" with the tip of her sword out she thrust her blade to meet the fist, and it collided with an explosion that looked to take the shape of a newly blossomed flower.
With another arm also now gone the large demon attempted to flee. "Of course, he runs." she rushed forward, "third form; lively Miasma bud" with two slashes towards the legs, one being cut off the large demon fell over. Tanya used the boost it gave her whenever she successfully slashes off a limb to instantly get into the next form to finish it off. "Sixth form; Ash and they fall." with multiple slashes Tanya not only did she cut off his neck but also cut his head up into different pieces. From where Tanya slashed ashes fell on the body as it disappeared. "Well, some of those could use some work."
Inosuke was in awe, a demon he could barely even injure, dealt with by this small girl. "You! Tatye! Fight me!" Inosuke somewhat remembers her name, but still got it wrong which irked her. "No, don't have the time to waste." this unintentional insult did little to stop Inosuke. "I said fight-" his own rage blinded him and he did now see Tanya move behind him, she kicked his leg before knocking him out with a hit to the back of the neck. She placed his unconscious body against a tree, something for the Kakushi to get later. And moved to hunt the rest of the demons.
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Nezuko fell to the ground and Tanjiro managed to crawl his way to her. They both were conscious but had many wounds, Tanjiro especially. "We are alive, that is what matters," Tanjiro said as he hugged Nezuko close. 'Those flames were hers, is that why I was unharmed?' he thought of her demon art. His eyes filled with fear, as he saw Rui's body move "how? I cut off his head." he spoke quietly as he had not the energy to speak, to begin with.
"I cut off my head you idiot." Rui was far more than mad. He placed his head back on the neck it was severed from. "I don't care about either of you now. I am just going to cut you limb from limb!" he held up his bloodied hands, red threads surrounding the siblings "Murderous eye basket!" Rui shouted as the chain of webs closed in on them. Tanjiro closed his eyes, but no pain came. He opens them to see the threads falling, Tomioka standing in front of him. "You did a good job back there, well done," the water hashira said in praise. Tanjiro can't stop his tears, grateful.
"You people keep popping up like the pests you are." he glared at Giyu as a circulation of red webs appeared in front of him. "Blood demon art, cutting thread rotation!" the large collection of threads the hashira. "Water breathing, eleventh form…dead calm" Tanjiro blinked 'eleventh? But there are ten forms.' the red thread instantly was cut away, no movement even seemed to come from Giyu when they were. "What? No, I'll just do it again." Giyu though simply walked up, and in the second Rui blinked, he was dead. Giyu's sword cut through his neck.
Rui's head rolled on the ground, but his body kept going for a bit, trying to reach Tanjiro and Nezuko. But it fell before it could. 'I never could find the connection as they could.' Tanjiro looked sympathetically at Rui and placed his hand on the body as it disappeared. 'I remember now, even though I am dying.' Rui thought back to when he was a human, obviously before he was a demon. He had always been a sickly boy, and could not even go outside into the cold. One day though, Muzan came to him and offered to make him stronger. Which he took. He had to eat humans though, and he could only go outside at night for the sun would kill him otherwise.
His parents were in shock. One night his father came in and tried to kill him with a knife, his mother did nothing to stop it. And he acted on it quickly, killing both his parents. "They should have accepted you like this if they truly had loved you" that was what Muzan said, and to live with what he had done he forced himself to forget his family. He made a false one though, to try and remember his previous life. But it was never the same, he never felt a true family bond. He did though, his actual family. His mother cried and apologized for now giving him a strong body, and he remembered his father saying he would join them in death. "I can't even see you again," he said as he was now dead. "That is not true Rui." he heard his real mother say. "We will be with you no matter where you go" he heard his father say. Overcome with emotion he hugged them and cried. He apologized over and over for what he had done.
Giyu stood on top of Rui's clothes. "Don't feel bad for him" he spoke plainly, but despite everything Rui had done to him and Nezuko, Tanjiro still felt bad. "Get off, please." he looked up towards Giyu. "demons are not fully evil. They are tragic creatures, all trying to survive because of what Muzan did to them." he thought back to all the demons he faced, how most cried when they died. Giyu was actually about to get off, but he spotted a particular insect hashira rushing forward, ready to pierce Nezuko with her sword. Giyu guarded them, making Shinobu jump and flip over him. She spun on the ground, "my my, Tomioka why did you stop me?"
Giyu said nothing he just stepped forward. Tanjiro stared at Shinobu, recognizing her and Tanya and Kanao's older sister. Shinobu had a vein pop due to Giyu's lack of response. "Tsk, tsk, Tomioka so immature of you to ignore me after preventing me from killing a demon. That is against corps rules." she smiled at him "this is why no one likes you, you know?" she said this teasingly, while she knew Sanemi and Obanai hate him, she cannot actually speak to if the others do. Tanjiro was completely shocked she just said that. "I…am not disliked." Giyu's uncertainty with his own reaction was a little amusing to Shinobu "oh my, you did not even know. Sorry, you had to find out this way."
Shinobu looked at Tanjiro, she recognized him as one of the boys that trained with Kanao under Tanya. "Excuse me, Kamado was it? You are aware that is a demon you have there right?" Tanjiro held Nezuko closer "s-she's my sister!" Shinobu gave a sympathetic look, she wondered though was this why he did not want his sister looked at before? Did Tanya know as well if so?"I am so sorry, I will use a gentle toxin that will be painless when it kills her then" it was a threat despite how sweet her voice sounded.
"Kamado go." Tanjiro did just that, weakly picking up Nezuko and both siblings started to run. Giyu tried to stop Shinobu, the girl was quick and nimble. It would take careful maneuvers to catch her. Luckily for him, she would let her guard down when jumping from tree to tree.
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Tanjiro had been running for a little while, but suddenly collapsed. His lung felt like they were on fire and she could barely stay conscious. Nezuko knelt by him, petting his arm. "I am fine Nezuko do not worry." his sister seemed unsure, while she had healed he did not. The two heard footprints and Tanjiro pulled Nezuko closer. They saw a familiar face, "Kanao." Tanjiro weakly breathed out.
Kanao stared at Tanjiro. She had been feeling worthless for a while, it had taken her far too long to find him. She ran into Shinobu earlier who told her to wait for the Kakushi and take them to Tanjiro but she followed her. She puts her hand on her chest, and she feels tears fall down her head. "Tanjiro!" she ran up and hugged him, feeling guilty. Tanjiro blushed a bit when she did. "I took too long, if-if I had been able to decide where to go I could have helped you!" she wailed out. "I don't know if Inosuke is fine, he could be dead and it was all because I did not stay with him!" tears continued to fall down her head.
Suddenly Nezuko put a hand on the crying girl's head. "Nezuko is right Kanao. It is not your fault" Tanjiro says as he lifts her head a bit so she can see he is alive and smiling. Kanao blushed now "but, I could not even do anything. If not for my master and sister, I would not have found you at all." Tanjiro continued to smile "you are helping me right now, just by being here. And I think we both know Inosuke is too stubborn to die to a demon like that." Kanao, though still crying smiled now as well. She hugged Tanjiro close "Kanao, promise you'll protect Nezuko." he says as he feels himself slip out of consciousness.
"Of course, nothing will happen to her I promise," Kanao said without hesitation, patting Nezuko while still hugging Tanjiro. 'This smell…' Tanjiro thinks about Kanao's scent, he could never figure out what it was till now. 'She smelled so odd, except this one sweet smell she often smelt like around me.' as he fades into unconsciousness, he finally figures out what it is. And if Kanao had the same sense of smell he did, then she would know Tanjiro felt the same at this very moment.
"What am I looking at?" Tanya said as she looked at the sight before her, Shinobu was held underneath Giyu's arms, her own hands stuck under it as well. What had happened with the other hashira while she made her way here? "Ah, Tanya! Tomioka is breaking corps rules you see. Because he is preventing me from killing a demon. He then tried to justify it with a boring story just because I told him the truth that no one likes him!" Tanya looked at Giyu, who nodded, looking annoyed by the last comment Shinobu made.
'Damn it I should have figured when I saw that boar earlier she remained calm though, she could take control of the situation. "Do you know which direction they went? Maybe I can still catch them." she figured Giyu had not told Shinobu, but her adoptive sister was smart. If she did not offer to go after the demon. "Nonsense, I shall go with you." it was a mix of sweet and threatening. Tanya gulped, she could tell Shinobu was already suspicious of her. Suddenly a small but sharp blade appeared out of Shinobu's shoes. And it came flying up towards Giyu's eyes.
"CAW CAW!" the crows started cawing, making Shinobu stop inches away from Giyu's face. "The demon, known as Nezuko Kamado, and the slayer, Tanjiro Kamado. Are to be taken into custody." without more words needing to be spoken, immediate hostilities ceased between Giyu and Shinobu. Tanya and the other two left to search for the sibling assuming the Kakushi had not found them already that us. The three hashira walked in silence, but Tanya knew whatever was about to happen, it was not going to end well, at least not easily.