the lady of smoke

"Tachibana, you just had to save that man didn't you." Tachibana points her naginata at Iide as he tries to move in close on Sora "the man has been through enough, so back away you careless beast." Iide grows mad "careless!? what the hell do you mean by that? I care for many people just not him." Iide grabs the handle of his sword and so Tachibana swats him with the handle of her weapon "don't you dare think of it!" "ow! you old hag!" Iide moves his hand around frantically to try and numb the pain "old hag? I have you know I'm only in my 40s! and I look great for my age, plus you haven't got a husband and a child do you? probably not because you're a sad little man." the two kept arguing endlessly which caused Kichi to wake up "for hashira you two, do a shit job at killing demons." Kichi responded to stop the quarrel "shut it! I'm surprised we haven't executed you two." Akira walks in with the thunder hashira, Nishinara Tadao, the man had short blonde hair, hazel eyes, a haori that had a yellow colour with hints of red stripes that spiralled, nichirin blade was sheathed in an indigo scabbard with white spots that ran down it "this meeting better be good, my daughter is getting married tonight." Nishinara walks over to Kei "so you are the one that wishes to be the next thunder hashira, heard you killed a lower rank and I want to say I'm proud." the man brings a smile to Kei's face "thank you, sir." Kei shook the man's hand with what strength she had left, Akira walked over to Dai with a look of disappointment "I was worried for you, you know, but I'm glad that you're okay." Dai sighs "thank you, Mr Akira, I'm also sorry for breaking one of my two

rds." Akira's disappointed look turned worried "oh no."

the next day

"YOU WHAT!!?" Sora and Kei look over to Dai being scolded "Woah calm down man, just a sword." Dai's words only enraged the man even more "just a sword.... DO YOU HAVE ANY WHAT A SWORD IS??" the man starts to roll the sleeves of his kimono up "a sword is a piece of art, every fault of it hammered out, made perfect for the right swordsman and it's not just SOME TOY TO PLAY WITH!" the man scolding Dai was his swordsmith, Okamaru Ryu, he wore a tengu mask, soft yellow kimono, hairy arms, hands that had scratches and blisters on them, dark red hair and had his fists clench "geez calm down ya old geezer, I don't need a lesson on it all I need is a new sword." Okamaru raises his fist and was ready to have it strike Sora's face but then Kei and Sora hold him back "Sir we are so sorry for our friend's behaviour, please forgive this ignorant boy." Kei said trying to hold Okamaru back "Ignorant? at least I know not to fight a demon all by myself." Kei looked at Dai and then smiles villainous "Sora hold me back please." Sora sighs as he grabs onto Kei as well "I have you know I killed him with ease!!" Dai lay there without a care in the world.

later on, they all calmed down "fine, I shall make you a new sword." Okamaru lowers his head, takes off his mask and wipes his brow before placing his mask back on "thanks geezer." Okamaru clenched his fist but then eases as he walked off, ready to make a new and better blade. "Dai you can't just be like that to your swordsmith." "what are you gonna do about it?" Kichi grows out the nails "it won't be me doing it." Dai acts cool but deep down he's scared of Kichi "all right then, but I warned you." Sora lies down on the bed and looks at the ceiling, Kichi looks around in boredom "Sora give me, control for a minute please." Sora sighs and hits Kichi "Ow!" Sora proceeded to fall asleep on the bed "well now that he's out for the count, Kei, how are you this fine evening?" Dai asked sweetly "well I'm okay, bored but okay." Kei responded, tired out of her mind "well that's good to hear, I'm doing amazing, as always." Dai smirked, "have you ever been hugged as a child?" Kichi asks "obviously... I think." Dai pauses for a minute "well that's him out for a bit, nice one demon." Kei praises Kichi, Sora snores as he slept with Kichi trying to bear it. Kei fell asleep with ease and she looked peaceful as she slept all except for Dai, "Hey kid, you still awake?" Kichi mutters as he tried to not wake up the two others "*sigh* yeah, I'm awake." he said in a soft and moody tone "good so I'm not alone, well now that I'm stuck with this idiot I guess I'm not alone but hey you get my point." he said with a smile "Yeah, I get it." Dai and Kichi both kept talking all night until Dai asked Kichi a personal question "Kichi, what was it like when you were human?" Kichi paused as he tried to think about it "well, I had it rough, I was small, arrogant and a jerk to others." Dai kept listening in excitement "I thought I was better than everyone and that I could get away with anything until I was on the verge of death but after that everything is a blur." Sora wakes up and then wraps up Kichi "you two had a good chat?" he asked sarcastically "were you listening the whole time?" they all paused "possibly." he responded calmly "just shut up and get to sleep, we've got a long day of training ahead of us." Sora yawns and then covered his mouth "well guess I might as well train since I can't get back to sleep." Sora grabbed his sword and then finds a dummy, practising his swings.

Dai peeps at him training (why does he always train every chance he gets, guess he's just trying to be cool like me) Dai thought, Dai then tries to get some sleep, "Kichi, we were having a nice talk and you interrupted it." Sors sighs "Kichi I do not care at all." Kichi frowns, Sora kept practising until Tachibana appeared, sitting on a boulder "hmm, your form could use some work." Sora looks confused "huh? its flames breathing, I can't do anything about it now can I?" Sora replied "I can make it move like water breathing but I just gave that up." Tachibana smiles and walks over to Sora "instead of doing that, just use it how it was meant to be." Sora grows frustrated with Tachibana "Don't tell me what to do you old hag!" Tachibana smirked villainous as she hoists her arms over her back to grab her naginata "I mean... sorry miss!" Sora bowed down in a hope that Tachibana accepted his apology "good, I forgive you and now just, focus and fight me." she whips out her naginata and looks Sora down, she charges at them, spinning her spear in a circular motion but Sora deflects it with sparks flying from the clash, Sora slides his sword down the blade of the spear (smoke breathing, 1st form: igniting smog!) she then calmed her breathing and slows down, Sora looks baffled at why she's slowing down but then she spun her spear vertically and in return, Sora quickly turns his sword towards his chest to block it *CHIIIING!!* as Tachibana looks at Sora in an approving look "impressive demon arm, now you're getting it!" Tachibana boasts as she sticks her spear into the ground and then uses hand to hand combat.

she swiftly strikes Sora in the chest, multiple times *BAM! BAM! BAM!* her movements were quick yet somehow still slow, like a foggy cloud covering the shine of the sun, as her body moves like water Sora is met with a quick strike to the shoulder *BAM!* Sora jolts as an overwhelming sensation filled his shoulder and his arm "h...how?" he asked but then Tachibana aimed for Sora's knees *SWOOOSH!!* Sora falls over as Tachibana goes to grab Sora's sword as it flew through the air.

she aimed the sword at Sora "still needs some work, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it." She helps up Sora and then sat down with him on the porch, she brought over sushi and tempura.

"Ms Nori, what was it like to become a hashira?" Sora asked as he slowly ate the sushi "well it was easy for me, just had to kill 50 demons or kill a member of the 12 kizuki." "what option did you go for?" Sora asked as he wipes his face "oh I went for the more challenging one and killed 50 demons." she ate the tempura swiftly "wow, why not the 12 kizuki?" he asked with a confused tone "well because, back then I was nervous, I thought if I were to fight them I'd die for sure but that wasn't the case, but can you blame me we all get nervous from time to time and I think sometimes we need to know when we've met our match." Sora was stunned at those words, ever since he joined this whole thing it was just to kill Kaori, he didn't care what happened to him or who he was facing.

"yeah... I guess you're right." Sora thought about it like someone just asked him what's the meaning of life "you okay?" she asked with a kind tone in her voice "yeah I'm fine, everything is a-ok!" Kei peers from a corner with Dai behind her "wow, that's one of the few times Sora smiled." Kei mutters "damn really, must be some sad bastard." Dai then hears a knock at the door and swallowed his fear as he walks to it "please, please, please, please don't be Okamaru..." he kept mumbling under his breath, *fumble!* Okamaru forced the new sword against Dai's chest "*huff* your new *huff* sword!" the sword was perfect, not a thing wrong with it "wow... thank you Okamaru." Okamaru started to walk away but then Kei runs up to him and apologises quickly for Dai "I am so s-" Okamaru stops Kei "it's alright, he's a teenager, a cocky one but that's alright, I can't really expect him to be the kindest to me." they both look at Dai who had a fixed gaze on the sword, he then puts the sword on his right side.

Dai walked past the two as he walked down the hall "evening." Kei and Okamaru watch him leave their sight.

Dai passed many people in the halls, all of them wondering where he was heading to "Dai." Akira looked at him, concerned about him "Akira sir, is there a problem?" Dai asked his master "is everything alright, you look... bothered." Akira states "everything's fine old man, don't worry." Dai smiled at Akira to assure him "alright Dai if you say so." Akira walks away and Dai then walked outside, the sun shining down on him "Dai where on earth are you going?" Dai looked behind to see Kei "geez, can a man not go to a nearby village and go get some food to eat?" Dai looks worried as he hoped Kei would believe him "just tell me." she demanded, "to kill a demon, after all, I'm a demon slayer, therefore, I should do my job." Kei hops down "well I wish you luck on your journey." she pats him on the shoulder leaving him confused "you're.... not coming with me?" he asked baffled "I'm sure you've got this." Kei said before returning inside. "y-y-yeah! of course, I do." Dai then waited for his crow to tell him where to go "CAW!! north! northeast!" Dai then started to move northeast "finally! I'm gonna kill a demon and everyone's gonna praise me!"

Dai arrived at a shrine in, the dead of night, he looked around the place to see where the demon is "hello, any demons around?" Dai asked the empty shrine "hmm, guess not." he kept searching around but found nothing until "hey kid, what brings you here?" he looks behind to see a human man with a smoking pipe "oh I'm looking for a demon to kill, nothing to worry about." the man looked confused "kid... are you ok?" he asked with concern "yeah I'm fine." Dai said as he continued to search the place.

Dai grew angry as he kept looking around "HEY DEMON!!" he yelled which caused the man to drop his smoking pipe "COME ON OUT AND KILL ME!! I'M RIGHT HERE!!" then suddenly as he continued to yell, the demon showed itself *THUD! THUD!* the demon seemed as tall as two adult males stacked on one another, they had two goat horns on their head, a tail that seemed to have a mind of its own, blood-red eyes that had no pupil or irises, spikes protruding from his elbows, his face was oddly beautiful with its soft look and he had blood around his mouth as well "I heard you called for me?" he asked Dai, looking down on him "yeah! I've come to kill you!" the demon sighs "sorry kid, I don't work with Muzan anymore, I'm more of a peaceful demon now." the demon walks over to a step and sits on it "hey old man you should have told me there were demons around here!" the man was confused "but he hasn't hurt anyone, he's completely fine." the man saw Dai running to the demon and so he quickly grabs him "who do you think you are!?" "I'm Nishi Seiji and that's my friend Takano Takeo!" Takano grabs an apple from a tree and bites down into it "that doesn't explain the blood?" Takano wipes his mouth "oh I was eating corpses, don't worry." Takano then sense an aura, which grabbed his attention "kid come with me, I sense a demon over here." Takano runs into the nearby river but Dai is hesitant about following him nonetheless he still follows him.

Takano looks around, slowly "Wait if you can sense them, tell me how tough he seems?" Dais said catching his breath "I wanna say she's... tough." Dai sighs as he grabs his dual blades (Dai if you want to be the next dawn hashira you need to overcome your fear) he told himself, as the two get ready they see a woman with red hair, purple eyes, a long draping cloak covering her chest, two spots on her cheeks, baggy scrappy pants and a pole she held in her hand, the pole looked like a shoot of bamboo and once she opened her eyes read "lower rank 1'

Takano sighs "so you must be," he then rolls his eyes forward to reveal his eyes and it read 'lower rank 1' and it was crossed out "my replacement..."