Chapter 17 : 17th Stance

After a couple of minutes of arguing between the Kasugai Crow and Yuko, Takeo finally went on his way down the mountain. Since it was urgent he increased his pace and was moving extremely fast.

'North-North East', he thought, before he ran in that direction with Yuko and his Crow in tow.

His speed left a blur, much to the surprise of some farmers outside, and some kids playing outside of their village when he passed them.

From Dawn to Sundown, time quickly passed but Takeo was still moving and regulating his pace to make sure he didn't falter.

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After a couple more minutes, he finally reached an eerie large village. By the time he got their, it was already dark out meaning the demons came out to play....

Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!

Hearing a couple of distant noises, Takeo moved into the village.

BANG! BANG! BANG! CRACK!

The sound became louder and louder...

Before he knew it, he was in the village square. All the nearby shops were closed, they may have looked clean, but the smell of blood still lingered in the air.

TAP! TAP!

BANG! BANG! CRACK!

Hearing a couple of footsteps behind him, he turned his head to see a woman's head being bounced onto the ground, like a ball, with a-lot of force by some silhouette in the darkness.

But then the silhouette stopped bouncing the head, and looked up at Takeo's direction.

Placing his palm on his sword, Takeo was prepared for everything, but suddenly the demon spoke....

"Who are you? And what are you doing in my village?", before it stepped forward.

It had a long, purple scaly skin, a whip-like tail, the head of a human, but the parts of a lizard, with long green hair that looked like moss. It seems like only 1 of his eyes could see properly, as an 'X' was drawn on his left eye-ball.

"...", Takeo didn't answer his question as he continued observing him.

"So you're not going to answer my questions?", the human-like lizard stated, before it's body began to morph for some reasons.

It was getting taller and taller, it's muscles grew in size, it's tail got longer and it's skin looked harder.

'Blood Demon Art', Takeo thought as he looked at it's transformation, before he drew his blade.

Now noticing his sword, the demon said, "So you're a demon slayer?", 'But then why is his uniform white', the demon thought, 'Who cares, I'm still gonna kill him'.

The two looked at each-other until the demon began to chuckle, "kekeke~", "Your eyes are reall-", before he could finish....Takeo had vanished from his position.

Wanting to test his strength, Takeo materialised right in-front of him, before he moved his arm with supernatural speed, and slashed the demon in various directions on various points on his body....cutting off both of the demons arms and legs with precision.

<Blizzard Storm>

SLASH!!! SLASH!!! SLASH!!!!

'He really is weak', Takeo thought, as he noticed even with his harder skin, he could still cut through him very easily.

Instead of then immediately finishing him, Takeo waited for him to regenerate before he'd then continue some more to fill his boredom, 'Let's trick him a little bit', he thought, before he smiled under his mask, and walked away pretending he thought the demon was dead.

Seeing this, the demon took the bait and thought that Takeo was a newbie, as he thought he didn't know that only cutting his head could kill him.

'What an idiot', he thought, when he was the actual idiot, as when he regenerated and charged at Takeo from behind.....the suffering had just begun.

Turning around, Takeo looked at the demons incoming attack. Instead of dodging, he turned his body in the direction of the attack and guarded it with his sword.

CHING!!!

The sword sounded as it collided with the hardened skin. 'He's so strong.....', the demon thought as he looked at Takeo, but what happened next completely surprised him.

With his right arm being blocked by Takeo, and due to his surprisement, he lost his focus and didn't protect himself with his left, meaning he was open to an attack on his stomach.

"Never lose focus~", Takeo said lowly, before he moved his sword away from the demon's arm, before he thrusted it upwards, into his stomach....quickly impaling him.

SWOOOSHH!!!!

It wasn't over however, as Takeo quickly brought out his sword and begun to hurl sword attacks at the demon.....

SLASH!!! SLASH!!! CLANG!!! CRACK!!!

For the next 8-9 hours, the demon was punished until the sun rose.

Whilst he was being constantly cut up, he looked at Takeo with anger but also helplessness, 'All I wanted was to get stronger to prove Muzan I deserved my position in the Twelve Kizuki', before he then recalled how he was kicked out and his eye had been scarred.

He looked at Takeo like he was a monster....his cold eyes shook his soul until he just wanted to die already.

Even though he was one of the weakest in the Lower Ranks, he was still capable to kill a couple of demon slayers....but him and his bad luck caused him to meet Takeo.

Right before the Sunlight touched his skin, Takeo swiftly cut off his head, before he went to look around the village for survivors.

'I wasted a-lot of time', he thought, as he only just realised the rising sun, 'I must've really enjoyed punishing him'.

After exploring for a bit, he found a couple adult corpses but nothing more.

'There have to be more corpses....or they're hiding'.

Just as he thought, in a basement inside a house, numerous people were all on the floor asleep. Ranging from the elderly to Children, they had came here to hide from the demon.

They were asleep until they heard the front door open...

CREAK!!!

When some of them woke up, they woke up everyone else but they made sure to stay quiet. They all looked at the stairs, before they heard....

TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!

Walking down the steps and entering the basement, Takeo was met with the sight of numerous people who looked at, scared.

Due to him torturing the demon, he was completely covered in blood, even his hair was stained.

Seeing this, the kids began to cry, "Waaa!!!", "Waaa!!!".....

"Haaa!", he sighed before he said, "It's safe to come out now....it's been take care of", before he left the basement and out the house, knowing if he'd stayed longer it'd be troublesome.

He immediately left the village after that.

Whilst he was walking away, his Kasugai Crow appeared before it gave him another mission, straight after the one he'd just completed.

"CAW!! CAW!!!", "TAKEO! HEAD SOUTH-WEST! HEAD SOUTH-WEST! PEOPLE ARE BEING HYPNOTIZED TO ATTACK EACH-OTHER DUE TO A DEMON!".

"Alright, Alright", he said. 'Hopefully he's stronger than that guy, I didn't even get to, or need to use the Flame-Thunder Breathing Style', he thought, still not knowing or noticing that he'd tortured a Lower Rank Kizuki, even if it had previously been kicked out.

Whilst he was walking away, the villagers finally stepped out of the house after deliberating after a bit. When they opened the door, they were met with the sight of blood splattered everywhere, and close by, were the corpses of "former" villagers.

Quickly closing the door, they kept all the children inside, not wanting to see such a sight, before they cleaned every thing up.

Now noticing why he'd been covered in blood, they thanked Takeo, even though he was already far away. However, some wished for him to never come back to the village, being ungrateful out of fear.

On a dirt road, Takeo sneezed a couple of times. When he wiped his nose he thought, 'Someone's talking about me....I can't tell if it's something good or bad', 'Ah, who cares...', he thought before he yawned and stretched a bit