Final selection arc: horrible encounters

~~~~~1909~~~~~

"Welcome to the final selection that will decide if you are to join the demon slayer corps or not, and thank you all for making the trek here," 

The two grey-haired girls spoke in perfect unison. The participants in this year's final selection stared at the two as they waited for them to continue. "In the final selection, you must survive seven nights on Fujikasane mountain, as you can see wisteria flowers surround us. These flowers are poisonous to demons and keep them trapped inside." they kept speaking at the same time, but everyone understood exactly what they were saying. "The flowers stop blooming beyond this point, inside there are many demons that demon slayers have trapped inside. They are quite hungry. Survive the seven nights and you will have officially passed the final selection. We will fill in what happens when we see who passes." 

Some of the participants looked around, some worried, some scared. Others are just impatient. Tanya narrowed her eyes 'I don't have to worry about passing, I just have to be on the lookout for any tricks.' her eyes looked at the others, Viktoria was trying her best to give a confident look, likely to calm down Granz who was visibly shaking next to her. Wilibald had a neutral face, he was not worried in the slightest it seemed. When her eyes landed on Mary she seethed her teeth, as she could see the girl was praying 'of. Course. Whatever the beings only favor you for now.' she even looked at Weiss who was one of the few people who grinned and radiated unearned confidence. 

Everyone started entering the gate the two girls made the announcement it was time to start, which correlated at the exact time the sun fell and the moon was high above them. The Final selection has started. 

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"Fourth form; Blooming flame undulation!" Tanya yelled as she instantly cut through the neck of a demon that tried to attack. Her, she looked back and winced "only three hours in and five demons have attacked me Being X is just annoying me with this." she kept moving forward, she just had to get till the sun rose. Then she could relax until the next night. 

"Help please!" Tanya froze as she heard yelling, she went over and hid behind a tree. She saw another participant laying bloodied against the ground, and two demons standing above him. "P-please leave me alone!" he begged the demons. But one of them, a female one with sharp teeth ignored him and instantly cut through his chest with her hands alone. The man gasped and sputtered, the demons watched as he died. The male demon, with tusk-like teeth sticking out grinned "finally, the last one we killed had barely any meat on those bones." the female one growled, "I killed him so this time I get to take my pick first!" 

Tanya was just going to walk away, following Aoi's advice to avoid fights where she could. But then she heard a familiar "hey!" now standing near the two demons was Mary sue, holding her Nichirin sword out. The two demons grinned and got up from their last target to their new one. Tanya did not plan to interfere, she was however curious how Mary fought as she did mention earlier that she made her own breathing style. It could come in handy to know just in case they ever came into conflict. She smirked widely 'plus if she dies I get to watch it in full view. Won't that be therapeutic?' 

"My my, this girl looks like a cute one. Maybe we play a little bit with this one before we kill her." The female teeth one said with a wicked look. The tusk demon huffed "fine. But in that case, I want to kill her." Mary kept a serious face as she said "I doubt you two can kill me." the two demons snarled and ran at Mary with impressive speed, as they did Mary closed her eyes and took deep breaths in, small sparked appeared on her blade that looks more white in color "Blessed breathing, second form; light to blind the wicked!" she made a small slash in front of her, her eyes still closed, suddenly in front of Mary, a large blinding light appear. 

"GAH! What the hell?!" the two demons yelled as they attempted to cover their eyes. They were too late to covered their eyes, by the time the light dispersed Mary was already in between them. "Blessed breathing, fourth form; divine smite. multi formation!" as she said this she spun and made a large white lightning strike that cut through the demon's necks. 

Meanwhile, Tanya was clenching the tree she was hiding behind so hard the wood cracked a little in her hand. 'Blessed breathing?! What kind of asinine name is that?!' she knew it, she knew Being X made Mary a demon slayer for a reason and that reason was to fuck with her! 'Still though, that second form was useful, she even closed her eyes beforehand so that she would not be affected by the light.' she hated that she was complimenting her arch-nemesis like this. 

"Kill her brother!" Tanya looked back when she heard the female demon shout that. She saw Mary pinned against a tree and her sword on the ground. The Tusk demon holding her with his hands around her neck. The female demon was fading and had only just managed to shout that out before she disappeared. Seems Mary, while she was able to cut through the neck of the teeth demon, only cut half of the tusk demon's neck. Mary gasped as she tried to pull the demon's hands off her neck who increased his hold on it. "You little bitch! I'll kill slowly for what you just did to my sister!" The tusk demon yelled as he squeezed a little harder on Mary's neck. The girl struggled in its hold 'n-no I messed up! I can't even speak his hold is too tight!' she thought in a frightened tone. 

Tanya watched as this happened 'well- I guess she isn't as strong as you thought Being X. HAH! Looks like your previous ace in the hole is going to die before long.' she smirked as she felt great relief. She could just continue to watch this, but she felt…wrong. Something about watching the demon-killing Mary made her stomach churn. 'Maybe I should just leave if it- hold on!' she had been so focused on watching the life drain from Mary and the slight guilt that she failed to notice one thing. The Tusk demon's neck, the part that was cut by Mary's attack, was not healing, at least not as fast as demons normally heal wounds. 'Is that the result of her breathing style?' she had very little sympathy for Mary, but she could not lie to herself that if Mary could impede demon healing that would help her in later fights. 

Mary had stopped struggling by now, she could barely breathe. All she could see was the angry maddened look of the demon choking her, her hearing had ceased only because ringing was all she could hear. She started thinking back to that night when her family was attacked on the road to their village, how her father had told her to leave with her mother to the united states before he went to distract the demon that so the two of them could get away. She remembered how she left a note on her mother's bed the day before they were to go on a ship heading for the united states and left. 'Dad was right, I should have gone with her' 

Mary's clouded thoughts were cut off as she saw the tusk demon's head fly off, the grip on her neck loosened and she fell to the ground along with the rest of the demon's body. The ringing sound in her eyes soon stopped as she coughed and gained back her ability to breathe. "Ah, thank you…" she looked at her savior and saw Tanya putting away her blade. "Tanya, you saved me?" she asked in a surprised tone. The blonde girl said nothing she just offered her hand, Mary took it to help herself get up. 

Tanya then handed back Mary's sword "Here, and don't mention it." Mary took her sword and sheathed it as well. She could tell the look on Tanya's face was a conflicted one. She wrapped her fingers around her other hand "like I said thank you for saving me, b-but I will admit I did not think you would have come to my rescue, to be honest, I thought you hated me." 

Tanya crossed her arms, 'well, she is not wrong.' she thought to herself, she looked at the currently downtrodden Mary. she sighed "even if I do hate you, which I am not saying I do. I would have saved you anyway." she narrowed her eyes, she had only saved Mary because she thought her breathing style would be helpful to her in the future, which is ironic considering the name of it. But she did not want to say that out loud, so she told a half-lie "someone once told me I should use my skills to protect others, that way if I die, the I would have died for a reason." she gave a glare to Mary "if you truly want to avenge your father you'll have to survive the final selection, so stick with me. But just so we are clear, I may protect you where I can but you better hold your own weight. Got it?!" 

Mary nodded quickly and said "y-yes Miss Kocho!" she said that so absentmindedly, it felt as though Tanya carried some sort of authority. Tanya started moving, and Mary followed as well. As they moved along, Mary felt a warm sensation on her cheeks, she put her hands by her cheeks. Her cheeks were flushed red, 'Tanya is amazing. I will try to keep up with her if I even can.' she looked at the girl in front of her and smiled. If Tanya was with her she would be alright, she was sure of it. 

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"Keep up Vouren!" Viktoriya yelled as she was running a little bit ahead of the boy. "You are just a lot faster than me!" Granz yelled back as he tried his best to keep up. His eyes widened "Viktoriya look out!" suddenly a demon hoped from out of the trees at the long-haired girl. She took out her sword and parried the incoming attack. After she hit the demon away she swung forward "fourth form; Crimson Hanagoromo!" she slashed and turned and twisted before cutting right through the demon's neck. "Phew that was close, thank you for the heads up." she wiped her forehead. 

Granz was finally able to catch up and nodded, who looked around "hmm, still no one else. I wonder if the others are okay." he was of course specifically thinking about Tanya and Mary, even Wilibald. Viktoriya patted him on the shoulder "I am sure they are alright. It's seven nights I am sure we will run into them eventually." Granz nodded once more, he was sure they were alright, he just hoped he and her would-be alright as well. Suddenly she felt the ground shaking, they froze "d-do you feel that?" Granz asked as the ground shook some more, they heard heavily stepping noises. Viktoriya nodded. 

They turned and saw a Large demon, it had many hands and looked quite large both in scale and in width. "Well, seems more demons have fallen to me, how wonderful." they botched stared in horror as they saw this new large demon holding what was likely an already dead participant, open its large mouth from under its many hands, and swallow the body whole. "W-what is that thing?!" Granz yelled as he stared in horror. The demon giggled and laughed and suddenly two of its hand shot out to them, they tried to run away but the hands approached them faster. The two had no choice, Viktoriya cut away the hands heading for her with first form flower breathing, Granz his with second form water breathing, but just barely. 

The demon's eyes beamed with glee as during this he saw the fox mask hanging from the back of Granz's head. "My my, another one of Urokodaki's brats for me to feast on. How amazing!" Granz's eyes widened, "what do you mean another?!" the demon snickered "Urokodaki is the one that trapped me in this god-forsaken place, I've been here for over thirty years! Since it is his fault I am here I decided I would kill each and every one of his students that came here." he pointed at Granz's head "that fox mask is how I know it them, if he did not want his students to die he would not have given them that warding mask, to begin with. Hehehehhahahahah!" 

Granz stood still, shaking. That means this demon, this gratuitous thing here was the one that killed Sabito. He shakingly looked at the hand demon, he knew he was no match. He could not get away, he looked at Viktoriya who was shaking as well 'but that doesn't mean she will have to die. She may not be wearing a warding mask, but he will definitely kill her.' he did something he imagined Sabito would do he stood in front of Viktoriya "Viktoriya, get out of here, he wants me." she stared at him and opened her mouth "Vouren no! Gra-" the boy stomped his feet on the ground and loudly said "no time to say no! Just get out of here!" he specifically cut her off because he knew if his friend mentioned she was Urokodaki's adopted grand-kid the demon would kill her first for sure. 

Viktoriya clenched her blade and ran off before she could change her mind. The hand demon outstretched one of his hands after her to try and grab her, but Granz stopped him with his blade, managing to cut off the arm with it. "If you want to kill a student of the water cultivator then focus on me demon!" he yelled out to ensure the demon's attention was fully on him. The demon shifted a little and chuckled "you? You do not stand a chance boy!! The only one of that man's brats that even did was the last one." he chuckled more deviously this time before saying "but his strikes were not strong enough to cut off my neck, so I crushed his head!" 

Granz gulped a little, he already knew he stood no chance. But he just had to hold the demon off, holding out till morning was a pipe dream but he could at least hold out long enough that the demon would not be able to catch up with Viktoriya. "So you killed Sabito is that it? I stand no chance. But sabito would beat me up in heaven if I died without even fighting back." he held his blade out, he was going to focus on a defensive strategy. The demon shot three hands at Granz, he raised his blade and shouted "sixth form; whirlpool!" he used the large flow of the twisting pool of water to counter the three hands, but a fourth hand came from below him. "From below?!" he just barely was able to dodge. 

After Granz landed on his feet he started running around the demon, he saw the gaze follow him like a tiger stalking its prey. 'Perfect, he is focused on me. Viktoriya can get away perfectly fine now.' suddenly two more arms threw themselves at Granz. "Fourth form; striking tide!" he yelled and defended himself, however, once again hands came from the ground. This time more than he could defend against. He managed to stop two of them but the others hit him up into the air. "Err, dang." he saw two more hands flying at him. "Second form; water wheel!" he was able to block one, not even cutting it off. But the second one maneuvered around his attack and punched him hard in the stomach. He coughed up blooded and went flying to the ground. 

Granz had fell unconscious, he woke up a few seconds later though as he felt himself be picked up. "Huh? What…" he was barely able to say, he saw both his sword and fox mask were on the ground he once laid. He looked and saw the hand demon holding him. 'I…am I really about to die? Viktoriya, Master Urokodaki, Giyu, Sabito, I am sorry I could not make it.' he quietly accepted his fate. The hand demon's eyes became gleeful again "another final selection another water brat for my stomach." Granz closed his eyes, he was going to die. 

Suddenly he heard the demon yelling, a few seconds later he felt himself impact the ground. "Huh?" he open his eyes and rubbed his back. He saw that man who arrived just before the final selection had started, he recognized the military coat and arm guards. "Hey, you okay? You looked like you needed help." the man before held a large sword, a thick Nichirin sword, Granz had not seen one like that before. "Y-yeah thanks for the help." Granz picked up both his sword and Mask. he could barely stand as well. 

"My name is too long, so just call me Weiss." The man said as he kept his eyes on the demon who was fuming that his next meal got interrupted. "Oh, name is Vouren Granz." the demon moved four arms at the two. Weiss smirked and lifted up his thick blade "stone breathing, first form; serpentine bipolar!" he turned and slashed at all four arms, instantly cutting them all off. Granz was amazed by Wiess's strength, as he had barely managed to cut one arm at a time himself. 

The hand demon growled and pulled away at its own skin "you…ahhh!" before the demon could do its next attack Wiess used the same first form stone breathing as before, but aimed it at the ground, causing it to crash in on itself and forcing the demon to fall. Weiss turned to Granz and yelled "run. Now!" the two instantly ran off as the hand demon tried to stabilize itself "no, get back here! Damn it!" 

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Tanya and Mary were still walking around, they had not run into any more demons so far. Tanya rubbed her chin 'I think it is only a few more hours now till sunrise. If we can last till then we can find a good spot to hold out for the next night. If there even is such a place she thought to herself, it was a mountaintop so there must be someplace like a cave. Though that would leave them more vulnerable if the next night they are trapped inside. Plus it was likely during the day caves would be where demons would hide. 

Suddenly Tanya stopped, 'i hear a sword clashing with something.' her heightened hearing picked up on the sound being near them, but still too far away for any normal ears to hear. "U-um, miss Kocho, why did you stop? Is there a demon nearby?" Mary looked around confused. Tanya shook her head, obviously only she heard the noise. "Come, there is someone that way." Mary was not sure how Tanya knew that but she followed regardless. 

Eventually, the two came to a small space between trees, where they saw a skinny demon facing none other than Wilibald. The demon had to regrow its arms and one of its legs. "Oh, that's Koe, we shoul-" Tanya held a hand up to Mary and motioned her to watch with her. "I want to see how he fights" she whispered, "we will only interfere if he needs help." Mary nodded, also thinking to herself 'Tanya is so awesome she does not even like to interfere in others' fights unless she has to. So cool!' she had a hard time looking at the fight instead of Tanya. 

"What's the matter demon? A few seconds ago you regaled me on how you would kill me in a split second, and yet it was you who had to back away." Wilibald said as he still had his blade pointed at the skinny demon. The demon sneered "dang human, you should no your place. Being eaten by me will be an honor, and the only honor you will ever get!" Wilibald sighed and then held his sword tighter "wind breathing, first form; dust whirlwind cutter!" in an instant he dashed forward at the demon who just barely had enough time to block with its arms, both of which were cut off. The demon attempted to back away but he would not let them "sixth form; wind mountain mist!" he made a large upward arching slash that combined with the wind, instantly cutting the head off the demon. He looked down at the demon "seems this is your last honor, to be beheaded by my blade." 

Wilibald heard clapping followed by Tanya and Mary coming out of hiding. "Sorry for not helping, but it seems you did not need it," Tanya said with a large smirk, seems even here her former subordinates were capable fighters. Wilibald chuckled "do not worry about it. I am just glad to see a couple of familiar faces." 

The three were just sitting around for a little while, figuring that it would be sunrise before long so they could just hang out here. An hour later, Tanya raised her head, "I hear something coming this way." Mary and Willibald looked at her, the latter looking particularly impressed with the girls hearing. "Wait it's-" Tanya instantly run in the direction of the noise. A few moments later they saw her carrying a weakened Viktoriya. "Are you okay?!" Mary shouted as she helped carry Viktoriya over to a rock with a smooth surface so she could sit down. 

Viktoriya held her arms "i-i ran into two other demon slayers, we stuck together for a while, but we were ambushed by a group of demons, I managed to get away…" the tone she used made it clear that she was the only one that got away. Tanya's eyes mellowed "and what about Granz?" Viktoriya seemed to shake more "w-we got separated near the beginning. Even then I had to run while he held off a large demon. I-i don't think he made it." 

Tanya's eyes flared 'Vouren is gone once more.' she was angry of course, but right now even someone as socially inept as her could tell Viktoriya needed comfort more than a yelling commander. Tanya however heard more footsteps, many footsteps. "Crap, Viktoriya, how big was the group of demons you ran away from?" she yelled as had to stand up and grip her sword, Wilibald did the same while Mary kept by Viktoriya.

Suddenly demon started surrounding the area around them, not as many as Tanya thought, but there was at least ten. A demon stepped out slightly from the rest. Cold air came off his skin, Tanya could feel that the cold night became even colder when he stepped closer. "Ah, I see one of our treats got away and brought us to more treats. Isn't that great everyone?" all but one of the demons seemed to shout out in a vitriolic excitement. Viktoriya stood up and took out her sword as well "sorry, seems I led them here." she could just barely stand from the looks of it, unlike Tanya and others she did not have a little rest before now. 

Tanya looked around, ten demons versus the four of them. Really just the three of them since Viktoriya was not rested enough to fight and they would have to defend her. Tanya smirked "Treats are we? Well treats are earned." so got her sword out as did Wilibald and Mary did the same. "So come and get it, but know this, before the sun even rises, each of your heads will roll on the ground." the cold demon chuckled and motioned the other demons to step forward to deal with the four humans. 

Tanya's eyes widened as one right behind the cold demon stepped out. He had grey skin, such as the norm for demons. He had a large pudgy face and brown hair, with a little bit tufted over his forehead. Tanya gritted her teeth 'I knew Being X was going to pull a fast one on me when I got Being Z to agree to a guaranteed pass in the final selection. But this?! Damn you being X!' she was furious, for one of the demons, the demon she saw, was none other than Rhiner Neumann. 

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Meanwhile, Tokyo. 

Mitsuri held her face where a bullet grazed it. "W-who did that?" she winced, thankfully it only grazed her cheek so she was not harmed badly, or worse, killed. "Dang it, I missed my chance to kill one of that man's subordinates!" a demon, Hairo, yelled from on a rooftop near the exploded chapel Rengoku and Mitsuri were inspecting. 

Rengoku had managed to find where the demon was by following the trajectory of the bullet, the two stared up at Hairo from below. Rengoku narrowed his eyes and whispered to Mitsuri to "stay here." Hairo goes to reload his sniper rifle but sees Rengoku is gone. "Huh?! Where did that damn demon slayer go?!" he looked to his side and saw Rengoku already next to him. "So fast!" Rengoku swings his sword, "First form; unknowing flame!" he went to cut the demon's neck, but only managed to get the demon's arm, causing him to drop the rifle. 

Hairo growled in anger, his arm grew back quickly. He calmly said to himself "everything has led to this day." Rengoku barely heard it, however from this close, he was able to see the writing in Hairo's eyes ' Lower two ' he relaxed his sword, the two stared at each other for a little bit but hairo is the one who speaks first. "you…I have never forgotten what you've done to me Rengoku, the shame I felt that day! I will kill you for all that!" Rengoku of course looked confused, he has never encountered this demon before today. "Huh? Kill me for what?" he asked with a confused look that went with his smile. 

Hairo's mouth opens agape he clenched up a little "did…did you forget me? After what you did you just forgot?!" Rengoku's thick eyebrows narrow "I have never met you before in my life!" The demon can not believe what he is hearing, filling with rage he shocks Rengoku by shooting himself in the mouth. He did this to calm himself down. 

Rengoku was about to ask why he did that, but suddenly he heard another explosion, this time larger than the one at the chapel "what? Another one?" Hairo started to laugh maniacally and said in front of Rengoku "hahaha, I set up explosives all over the big city of Tokyo! Each one bigger than the last!" Rengoku's eyes widen, he has never heard of or seen a demon such a large way of attack before. This was bad, he had to take care of this demon quickly, even if he was one of the twelve Kizuki. Hopefully, before more of the explosives go off.