Chapter 8

—Infinity Castle—

Today was the day Habuki and Keiko would fight against Rui and Kamanue for their place in the lower ranks of the 12 Kizuki. They stood inside the infinity castle with the 12 Kizuki along with Muzan and Kyoshi watching them.

The first to battle would be Habuki and Kamanue. They stood one a big platform while everyone else spectated on a different platform. The rules were that you can move around anywhere you pleased in the infinity castle and you could use demon blood arts.

But the only way to win was to kill your opponent and return their head to the center platform.

"You may begin when the first tune is played." Muzan said as he watched the two face off with Kyoshi at his side.

Habuki stood in a boxer-like stance while Kamanue stood there, seemingly unguarded. You could tell her was nervous though. Small beads of sweat on face and you tell he's clenching his teeth. While it may not seem like much to the upper moons and Muzan.

Habuki was emitting a terrorizing aura while he stood there with his guard up. His face was calm, but his eyes were serious like a predicament watching prey.

Nakime stroked her biwa with the large bachi pick and as the sound reverberated throughout the fortress Habuki ran forward. While running he put his right leg over his left which made it seem like he was tripping, but at the same time he bent his knees and shot forward.

His body was rotating midair and once he was close enough to Kamanue who didn't even see the attack coming, he whipped his right leg around and kicked him in the jaw.

Kamanue's neck could be heard fracturing as his body went sliding across the platform. He regained his footing and his neck healed as he looked at Habuki with both anger and frustration.

'I couldn't even keep track of that speed. What can I do? Should I run? No, that'll just prove to master Muzan that I'm a weakling.' Kamanue thought.

As he was thinking, Habuki ran forward, then his body started flashing around, creating afterimages of himself. He was closing in on Kamanue, who saw the obvious pattern of going left to right and just as he predicted, once close enough Habuki came from above with his feet and smashed them into the floor.

Kamanue was able to jump away just before the attack landed, but Habuki wasn't going to let him breathe. Once he hit the ground he dashed forward like he did in the beginning and tried to kick Kamanue who ducked and rolled away.

"Stop running you coward. Aren't you ashamed of your performance in front of everyone?!" Habuki said.

"S-shut up. You don't know how I feel or what I've got on the line here!!" Kamanue yelled.

"You idiot. We both have our lives on the line. You know what, I planned on putting on a show since master Muzan and my nephew were watching but I'll just end this quickly." Habuki said.

The blue tattoos on his body glowed and he started breaking apart into small squares as they vanished. Kamanue looked around him in a panic before running around the platform, seemingly not wanting to stay in one spot. Habuki re-emerged next to him and kicked with a force so strong he produced a blade of air.

Suddenly, Habuki's face flinched in pain as he looked down at his left foot. There was some black spike shooting up through it. It was Kamanue's Demon Blood Art: Spike Bomb

It worked by him dropping his blood in a certain spot and whether it be timed or remotely controlled when the opponent got near them he could detonate them as he pleased.

Habuki yanked his foot from the spike and just as it was healing, Kamanue whipped his hand out and blood shot from it. In the next moment they turned into black spikes shooting towards Habuki. He jumped to the side and immediately he jumped upwards as another spike was revealed.

"So you covered the platform." Habuki muttered to himself. He used his demon blood art and transported himself to stand perfectly balanced on a black spike.

"Now try to get next to me. Even if you do, you'll get impelled so give up!!" Kamanue yelled.

"Uncle Muzan, he sounds like a villain that's about to die from arrogance." Kyoshi said as he leaned over the railing and looked at the fight.

Habuki burst out in laughter as even Muzan was a bit amusing, by the analogy although he didn't show it. Habuki calmed himself before using his demon blood art again and appeared on a small platform outside of the main one.

He dashed towards Kamanue who prepared to run away and before he could land on the next area, Habuki used his demon blood art to appear in front of him and punched him square in the face before using it again to land on another platform.

Kamanue shot across the platform and smashed into another one. He dug his claws into the platform since it was turned vertically and he didn't have footing. Habuki used his demon blood art again and delivered an uppercut to Kamanue.

He used it again and kicked him in the back, he used it again and kneed him in the stomach. While he was in the air he grabbed him by his shirt and threw him towards the center platform which messed up the blood on the platform.

Finally he used it again to reappear on Kamanue's back as he grabbed his head and quickly ripped it off. He placed it on the platform and bowed slightly as he started turning into ashes.

'The way he fought was rather cowardly, but his tactics were nice.' Habuki though.

Stairs appeared leading up to the spectators platform and Habuki walked up to them. With the stroke of her biwa, Nakime made Rui and Keiko appear on the platform.

…

Keiko blood demon art: Vocal Maiden would give you the impression that she was a rather weak demon that was usually used only for support, but you'd be wrong. She's smart so even if her demon blood art would ultimately put her in a kind of support situation she could get around it.

As she stood there looking at Rui her palms started morphing to form a mouth on them. Rui stood there with a calm look on his face and waited for the signal to begin. As Nakime stroked her biwa Keiko started the fight with a dash.

Rui stood there, waiting for Keiko to get close enough and when she did, Rui waved his hand and webs shot out from it. Keiko immediately made mouths on her feet and used her demon blood art to shoot herself into the air.

Once she was above him, she used it again and a low pitched sonic wave shot out of her hands. Rui made a blanket of webs over him that took the brunt of her attack, but Rui himself had to dash out of the way as the blanket he made was smashed into the platform.

Keiko landed and looked at Rui who managed to dodge her attack. After receiving more of Muzans blood, her demon blood art evolved. Not only could she use this attack from any part of her body, but she can switch the two attack types.

The control type, crushing type, and piercing type.

As of now she used the crushing type since she knew the control type probably wouldn't work on Rui and the piercing type was her trump card.

In her left hand she started charging a sonic wave and with all the strength in her legs she dashing forward. Once again Rui shoots out a net of his webs hoping they would slice her into minced meat, but just like before Keiko shot herself into the air.

Predicting this, Rui quickly shot thin webs towards her. She used her right hand and shot a sonic burst towards the webs completely repelling them and quickly she used the charged sonic burst and shot it in his direction.

The range was wider and Rui dashed from his spot, but Keiko predicted that. She used a sonic burst from her feet and dashed towards him while he was running. Suddenly she was pulled back and slung into the platform.

Her body fell through it till she was able to cling onto another platform nearby. Hanging from one of Rui's threads was one of her feet. When he ran, he predicted that she would go after him and shot a thin thread from one of his toes and used it to keep her away from him.

The spectator watching noticed that what she did was similar to what Habuki did in the first fight, but she was outwitted when it mattered.

'If her ability is able to shoot bursts of air, then I don't see how that would kill me. The impact would hurt from blunt force, but that's all.' Rui thought to himself as he waitin the platform.

Unbeknownst to him, Keiko hadn't come up yet. Instead she made her feet have small sucks on them so she could walk on things like walls and she was currently right under him at the bottom of the platform.

She switched over to her piercing type and put her hand against the platform before shooting a high pitched burst of sound from her hands. Rui's body urged him to dodge, but didn't know where so he jumped upward to get a better viewpoint.

Unfortunately he was still in range and the attack hit him directly. His body suddenly went stiff and his eyes widened which gave Keiko enough time to use her crushing type and shoot herself through the platform and right towards Rui.

As she was fly towards him Rui gained clarity, but before he could swing his hands, Keiko grabbed him by the shoulders with her nails digging into him and put her feet on his chest as they started falling down.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

She started shooting consecutive balls of sound at his chest in the same place. He felt the force smashing into him making his heart rate increase, his vision started to blur and he started coughing blood along with some coming from his nose.

*KATHOOM*

They smashed through the platform and continued falling through more and more as she kept going with her beating towards him.

'Damn it, where's my big sister?!' Rui thought. Weakly he grabbed her ankle with the little movement he could make with his forearms and sent three shart threads through her leg.

Keiko winced in pain before Rui cut her ankle off of him and did the same to the other that had regrown. Keiko regrew her feet and used her crushing type to fly. Rui wrapped webs around her leg and crushed it before slamming her into one of the platforms.

As they were both regaining their footing, all of the previously complacent platforms started moving. Rui was sent tumbling off of his current one, but was caught by another. Keiko started climbing them trying to get out of his sight so she could plan another surprise attack.

Rui saw her trying to run and shot webs at her to capture her, but she shot a burst of air at them and kept going. Rui already started healing and in a frustrated state he started jumping through the moving platforms.

"Ugh." Keiko was suddenly pierced by a red string and seconds later, four more shot through her stomach easily. They wrapped around her waist and before she could react, Rui shot past her, pulling her body with the blood red strings.

As he ran up the platforms he waved his hand in all directions while Keiko was being whipped through the air and getting slammed through all of the objects. As he got closer and closer to the main platform, he jumped with all his might and twirled his body in the air, making the string follow before slamming her into the floor.

She laid there in her own pool of blood with the webs Rui used, wrapped around her waist like a leash.

Up in the spectators platform everyone watched in silence. Muzan glanced at Kyoshi who's veins were coming from his hand and his nails had elongated and started digging into the railing. Habuki was also clenching his fist with a stressful look on his face.

Rui walked towards Keiko who was still laid out. His hands were blood red and he clenched his teeth. His kimono was destroyed in the chest area and you could see that he was healed nicely so he was perfectly fine. Almost like this battle never happened.

"Idiot."

*KABOOOM*

Time seemed to slow down for everyone there besides Muzan. Rui's body was sent blasting through structure after structure as he was hit with that last attack. He released the webs around Keiko on impact and she got up perfectly fine.

It was her Demon Blood Arts final attack: Oto-uchi-haretsu.

Throughout this battle she's been giving indicators that she can only use one type at a time, but it was a fake out. She saw that for the crushing type he would shield himself and for the piercing type he would dodge so she let herself get into a situation where he didn't have time to dodge or block.

Then she unleashed her final attack which was a mix of the crushing and piercing type. With the power behind it, she knew he would feel like a human that was just run over by a steam engine and his organs wouldn't look too good.

Although she knew that she also knew he most likely wasn't dead. So finally she followed the holes in the structures and found his body laying on the platform. She moved his hair from his neck and swiftly swiped her claws across his neck.

Beheading him.

His disgustingly mangled and bloody body started to disintegrate and Keiko quickly ran to the center platform and sat it down. While Kyoshi and Habuki were relieved, Muzan was rather unsatisfied. Keiko was only able to win because of trickery. Trickery a Hashira wouldn't fall for.

He glanced over to Kyoshi who was hugging Habuki and Keiko and felt something in him stirring up.

"Habuki and Keiko, you are now lower moons 6 and 5." Muzan announced.

"Yes sir!!" They said with a deep bow.

Habuki was put up to 5 because of his martial prowess and tactics on the battlefield although the demon he was fighting was relatively weaker than him. Keiko was put at 6 because of how close the match was, but she still came out as the victor thanks to her wits.

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Chapter was kinda meh to write but that's because I fucked up on match making for fights, but meh. This isn't a main fight.

I just needed to get this out the way to get i to a timeskip.