the calm village

Sora wakes up with his left arm in bandages, he wiggles his fingers to see if he could still move his hand "don't worry you can still move your hand, I wouldn't take that away from you." Sora quickly takes off the bandages to see his arm blue with a mouth and eye on the arm "oh so you can talk still." Sora grabs a nearby sewing needle "I'll be quiet." Sora puts the needle down "alright, now let's just seal you back up." Sora grabs the bandages and wraps his arm back up. "hey Sora are you ready to head to our next stop?" Kei asked, "yeah I'm ready Kei." Sora replied, he stands up and grabs his sword and scabbard.

Sora fastens his belt and prepares to head out with Kei "wait before you leave I have a student that I want you both to take along." Akira shows them his student, Dai Etsu, who wore Akira's cape like haori as a gift from him, their hair a dark blue, eyes a grass green, his weapons were two regular nichirin blades with their colours being a bright white, scar on his cheek and prayer beads around their neck. "hello there, I'm Da-" "yeah, yeah whatever, now just come along and we'll show you the ropes." Sora interrupted Dai which baffled him (did he just interrupt me? I'm next in line for becoming the next dawn hashira, this piece of scum) Dai holsters his dual swords "be safe with him please." Akira asked, "don't worry sir, we'll make he doesn't get scratched." Kei told Akira, the three continued down the path.

Dai tries to enter the conversation but he just stays silent "so kid, what's your story?" Sora asked, "oh I'm just here for the money I guess, heard some slayers and I asked to join next thing you know." Dai replied trying to act cool "and the two swords?" "well since Mr Akira had his special sword I thought I'd be more extra." Sora sighs "you know just because you have two swords, that doesn't mean you hurt the demon twice as much." "I- I know." Dai quiets down (sheesh, this kid and his attitude) the demon talked about Dai to Sora

(hey demon what's your name can I ask?) Sora kindly asked (its Kichi, that's all you'll get out of me)

Sora feels his hand pulsating like it has a heart inside of it "is everything good?" Kei asked looking at Sora's discomforting face "huh? oh yeah, I'm fine, just felt weird." Dai feels strange as he looks at Sora's arm but ignores it nonetheless. "we've gotta take a rest, maybe at the next village we should just enjoy it and let Dai here fight whatever demons there are?" Dai is angry, "well I think I should personally get some rest, after all, I need my beauty sleep." Dai starts to inflate his ego, Sora looks in disgust "kid the best-looking person here is Kei." Kei blushes "oh stop." the two stop arguing, baffling Kei "don't stop the compliments keep them coming." the three keep complimenting Kei until her face is a bright red.

the three arrive at a bustling village, people smiling alongside each other, all except one

a woman who stands out in the crowd with a mole above her lip, a brown kimono, a scar on her hand, a bracelet around her arm and her eyes a pale grey.

Dai notices her looking directly at him, shaking him and starting to make him lose his grasp on his swords, Sora nudges him "hey kid, everything alright?" he asked as he sees Dai sweat "y- yeah..." Dai sheaths his swords, then a man passes them, wearing a long cloak covering their shoulders all the way down to his feet, a traditional Hannya mask, straw hat with wind chimes around the rim, muscular build, the sword was wooden, long grey hair, the demon slayer uniform and a colourful haori that had red, black, blue, white and it was in some sort of collage "hm?" the man looks at the three in confusion, Dai looks at the man's sword and mocks the man "you fool, you're using a wooden sword when you're meant to use a nichirin blade?" Dai laughs but Kei and Sora look at him like they are trying to stop him "how pitiful, you must be so weak that you have to use that sword!" Dai continues to mock the man "uh Dai." Kei tries to talk to Dai "oh shut it you." the masked man walks away towards the village "hey! I'm not done mocking you, get back here right now!" Dai pulls out his two swords (dawn breathing 4th form: red horizon!) Dai swings his sword in a vertical form and swings it at the masked man "Dai no!" the two shout (this fucking idiot) Kichi said to Sora "whatcha gonna do about It!?" Dai shouts as he continues to swing his swords but then *clack* the masked man blocks Dai's attack with his wooden sword leaving Dai in shock "you know just because you use two swords doesn't make you more powerful," the masked man then pushes Dai away and then slams the bottom of his hilt into Dai's head *BONK* Dai falls back "it more or less makes it more challenging and makes you a bit weaker." the man talked in a soothing voice, like he could send you to sleep at any moment "Dai you num skull!" Sora pulls him back and whacks him on the forehead, "I am so sorry for his stupidity, please forgive him." Sora bows down to him and the same for Kei, the man ignores them and walks towards the village, placing his wooden sword between his belt "such a nuisance." the man said under his breath as he walked off.

"Dai you idiot, do you have any idea who that was!?" Kei asked, "yeah I do, some random mask-wearing freak." Kei and Sora are ashamed "let's just go to bed." the three lie down in their futons, but as they try to sleep they hear the sound of wind chimes clinking around, Dai and Kei both get up and open the window to have a look at the noise

"is that the masked freak?" Dai looks at the masked man in disgust. a person with a knife walks behind him, the knife covered in blood "leave me be, you scum." the man said shocking the murderer "well I'm sure you heard me a long time ago, now meet your maker!" the murderer jumps at the man but he slides away, dodging the man's attack "pitiful bastard!" the man slams down his wooden sword into the killers back *WACK, THWACK, WACK* he keeps bashing his sword into the killers' sword "you bastard! taking away innocent people's lives, do you think others lives have no meaning!?" the rattling of the man's wind chimes grow more frantic and louder, "that noise..." Kichi starts to shake, waking up Sora "ugh, what's wrong with you?" Sora whispers to Kichi "i-i-its..." Kichi stutters as he tries to speak "spit it out already or I'll cut you off." Kichi finally finishes his sentence "it's him, the water hashira!" Sora realised who he was talking about, that man, his Hannya mask flashing through his head "shit, he was the one who destroyed Dai with just that wooden sword." the masked man sighs "you again, though I killed you for good." the man finished battering the murder until he was near death, he aims his wooden sword at the window "Kichi the body snatcher." the man jumps through the window, knocking Dai and Kei back "Hey dickhead, what do you think you're doing?" Kei yelled "I'm finishing off a demon." he pointed his sword at Sora, with Kichi's blue arm showing "wait!" Sora shouts but the man brings his sword towards Sora, but he grabs his sheathed blade and clashes it with the masked man "sir please hear me out!" the man's movements start to grow quicker (what the hell? he's too fast) Sora tries to look for a way out of this "you dare lend your body to this demon!?" Dai grabs his two blades and rushes the hashira "back off!" Kei focused on her breathing (thunder breathing 3rd form: thunder swarm) Kei starts to move like lightning throughout the room, striking the hashira's sword from all directions but the man somehow blocks all the attacks. Dai charged the man, Kichi knocks the man out of the room and onto the dirt floor "thanks Kichi, now let's try and stop this man." he wraps Kichi up in the bandages.

Sora unsheaths his blade from his scabbard and focuses on his breathing (flame breathing 3rd form: blazing universe!) Sora spins down to soften the impact "you call me the monster, yet you try to kill another slayer!" Sora scolds the man "I'm not killing you, I'm killing him." he points his sword at Sora's arm "well you see, I need this arm to fight." Sora continues to scold the man but then the man's wooden blade falls off to reveal a nichirin blade (he was using... just his scabbard?) Sora tightens his grip on his sword (Sora, careful) Kichi tells him, (I'll need to use flame breathing at its best to fight this man, let's hope I don't drop dead) Sora focused his breathing and calms down (flame breathing, 6th form: flame serpent!) Sora charges at the man and as the man tries to land a hit on Sora but he keeps moving like snake in the grass and as the man tries to land a hit every time Sora moves around he strikes the man with the dull side of his sword "you twerp!" Sora then quickly switches his form (flame breathing 6th form: burning ash!) Sora seemingly disappeared right in front of the man and then appearing behind him as he was ready to knock him out with the handle of his blade, man, changing his forms so quickly, but jokes on him!) The man calms his breathing (water breathing, 7th form: drop ripple thrust) the man thrusts his sword forward ready to send his sword straight through Sora's neck until (flame breathing, 4th form: blooming flame Undulation) Sora spins his sword in a circular motion like a flame being swirled, sending the blade to the ground "*huff* come on sir we are *huff* both demon slayers, we need to stop fighting!" Sora tries to catch his breath but it seemed the masked man was just fine, Dai and Kei both watches from afar "Sora do you need help!?" Kei asked grabbing her sword but Sora grew angry at the question "I'm fine! just stay back, if any of you get hurt I'll only have myself to blame!" Sora replied, trying to focus on the man, Sora can feel his lungs burning up; like the flame breathing was the one who set them on fire. Kichi wakes up and already sensed how much danger Sora's in, he tries to think of how to help and so he thinks of only one thing "Sora, I'm going to have to help." Sora is confused and so to talk to Kichi he knocks the masked man back "Kichi I thought you hated me?" "I'm only helping you because I don't want to die either." the man swings his sword into Sora's arm and digs it in deeper "blood demon art: bloodshot!" Kichi shouts before shooting bullets of blood at the man but he easily deflects them, Dai and Kei are in shock but the Sora passes out due to fatigue, falling to the floor "good, now this will make it easier." Kichi grabs the floor and pulls the unconscious Sora away from the masked man, dragging him through the dirt "blood whip!" strings of blood shoot out from the hand and wrap around a fence post, then Kichi grabs the strings of blood and pulls him forward "why does he have to go unconscious now!?" the masked man grows closer with the rattling of his wind chimes growing louder and louder (water breathing, 1st form: striking tide) the man lifts his sword horizontally slashes it down but then *CHING* his strike is blocked by Kei with her face looking furious "back off." her eyes had a menacing look, almost like she was ready to slice the mans head off like thunder striking the ground, (why does the air feel so thin) he thought as he looked at Kei, behind his mask was a fearful face that was quivering "you think I'm scared of you? pffft." he looks to the room where Dai was but he disappeared and as he looks down he sees Dai, his two blades at his throat "listen to lightning girl you piece of trash." The man walks over to his wooden scabbard and sheaths it "fine then, good luck with the lower rank by the way." he walks away but after he's out of their sight he grabs his chest hyperventilating at the strength of Sora.

Kei grabs Sora and looks at his left arm and she's met with Kichi, mouth and one eye on the arm "you, demon, is he still alive?" Kichi can still feel a heartbeat "yes he's alive, don't worry and just get something to cover me up, the sun's coming up!" Kei quickly grabs the bandages and wraps Kichi up, shielding him from the sun.