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Chapter Text

Picking up Rokuta, Kamado Nezuko lifted the sleeping child onto her back. Her little brother had begged her to take her on a walk through the snow, but he only managed to walk for about half the path he decided to take before he got too tired to keep going. He was getting a bit better about that, but he was still a child, after all. When he got older, he’d be able to actually keep himself awake. But, for now, onto her back he went.

Trudging through the snow, Nezuko made her way back up to her family´s house. She lived in a family of charcoal farmers that, for whatever reason, had decided to live halfway up a mountain. Well, the house had been in her family for several generations at least. When it was built, it was probably even farther away from civilization. Which really made her question what on earth her ancestors had been thinking.

Hiking her way up towards the house, she turned towards the path that led to the road running up and down the mountain. Continuing her hike, she saw her older brother, Tanjiro, heading down the path with a basket almost as big as him strapped on his back. He, like all the men in her family, had reddish black hair and the reddish eyes that all members of her family had. With his hair up in a ponytail, he was almost the spitting image of their late dad. The only difference was he looked much healthier than their dad ever had.

“Nii-chan!” She shouted at him. She saw a smile split his face open.

“Hey Nezuko! How are you?” Tanjiro asked.

“I’m good! Rokuta fell asleep, so I’ve got to carry him back up to the house. See?” She shifted Rokuta on her back, angling him towards Tanjiro. The hair of her little brother had fallen into his face, giving him bangs for a moment. “Are you headed down to the town?”

“Yeah. Mom is sending me to sell the last batch of charcoal and to get supplies for New Years. I should be back up by tomorrow.”

“Alright. Well, you stay safe, okay? No falling into any snow drifts or getting attacked by any bears,” Nezuko told him.

“I’ll be fine. See you soon!” he said, walking down the road towards the town.

Turning back up towards the top of the road, Nezuko hiked until the house was in sight. As Tanjiro had mentioned, it was going to be New Years soon, so the entire family had been working extra hard to try and make enough money to come up with something to celebrate with. Mostly, they just made charcoal and wood, but she and Mom had sometimes gone into town to repair and make clothes for a shop in town. Nezuko wasn´t as good at needlework as Mom, but she still liked sewing. It involved working with pretty fabrics and it made her money, which was always useful.

Anyway, now that the New Years celebration was just tomorrow, everybody had stopped rushing around. She liked their home when it was like this. She liked the quiet moments of the isolated life they led.

Tanjiro was taking the last of the charcoal to sell in the town, and hopefully find some other work while there. After he had sold all his charcoal and gotten all the work he could, he would buy rice and vegetables for new years dinner. Maybe even meat, if he made enough money. The rest of the family, though, had simply gone back to their normal routines. Hanako and Shigeru, her younger sister and brother, were probably keeping warm inside, Mom was probably inside keeping an eye on the two of them, and she could hear Takeo, her other younger brother, chopping wood nearby.

Walking up to their house, she slid the door open and stepped inside. Sure enough, Hanako and Shigeru were in there being watched over by Mom. Looking up at her, Mom said, “Oh, Nezuko. Could you keep an eye on the two of them? I need to find Takeo.”

“Alright,” Nezuko said. “I’m pretty sure Takeo is somewhere nearby chopping some wood.”

Nodding, Mom walked to the door and headed out to look for him. Nezuko walked over to her younger brother and sister. The two of them were making origami with some old sheets of paper that they had smoothed back out. The paper was frayed at the edges, and the old lines where it had been folded were still visible, but it seemed to be keeping the two of them entertained.

Once the two of them noticed her, however, they immediately lost interest in the paper. “Nee-chan!” Hanako cried out. She and Shigeru practically collided with Nezuko as they jumped up and ran to hug her legs.

“Hey Hanako! Hey Shigeru! How are you?” she asked.

Hanako and Shigeru both looked up at her with sad puppy eyes. “Mom wouldn't let us go into town with Tanjiro!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes!” the two of them shouted at the same time. Nezuko chuckled a little at this. Maybe it was just that both of them were so childish, but it sometimes seemed that the two of them shared a brain.

Crouching down to pull Rokuta off of her back, she said to her siblings, “Well, he’s got enough to deal with without having to drag the two of you back up the mountain once you’ve gotten tired.”

Both of her siblings settled into a pout. “Oh, don’t be like that. What would you like to do while we wait for Tanjiro to come back?”

The faces of her younger siblings lit up at that. “Tell us one of Dads stories!” Shigeru shouted.

The smile on Nezuko’s face fell a little at that. She loved her dads stories, but anything related to him tended to bring up bad memories. Even early in her life, he had been very weak and unhealthy. By the time she got old enough to realize that he was going to die from his sickness, he was only a few months away from death. Her memories of him weren’t necessarily bad, but it was painful to be reminded of him.

The smile quickly returned to her face, though. The stories made her siblings happy, and she had learned to put on a brave face for them.

“Alright,” she said. “Which one would you like to hear?”

“The one about the Hinokami saving our ancestors!”

Ah. Well, she really liked that one, so it wasn’t so bad. Hanako and Shigeru shook Rokuta awake and told him that Nezuko was telling one of Dad’s stories.

She began the way their dad always had and began telling har siblings about the mystical history of Mount Kumotori. As the highest mountain in Tokyo, it had attracted a kami of fire. This kami was a minor kami, only being a simple aide to Amaterasu. He was so minor that many mortals who met him simply believed he was one of them. Eventually, he fell in love with one of the mortals and married her. One day, his wife became pregnant and he left to hire her a midwife. However, a roaming demon came upon his wife while he was away and killed her. When the fire kami returned and found his wife dead, he swore to hunt down and kill all demons who might put any families through what he had gone through.

Not long after the Kami left the mountain, an ancestor of the Kamado family came to the mountain and settled there with his wife. The two of them worked as charcoal sellers, and while they didn't have an easy life, they were happy. Working hard, the two of them managed to live a simple life.

However, one night a demon came to their house to kill them. While their life had made them strong from woodcutting and hiking up and down the mountain to sell charcoal, they were no match for the demon. Suddenly, there was a flash of light as bright as the sun and the demon's head was lopped off in a single blow. As its head tumbled off its body, the demon burst into flames and crumbled apart as if it were made of ash. The two charcoal sellers turned to look at the person who had saved them and saw a swordsman wreathed in flames. It was the fire kami, who had returned to his old home. Their ancestors immediately invited the kami into their house for dinner and to rest.

Despite saving them, the fire kami was despondent, for he believed that he simply couldn’t do enough to fight demons. After all, it was simply good luck that he had found them in time to save. Hoping to properly honor the kami, their ancestors promised to pass down a dance that would mimic the fighting style of the fire kami so that his impact wouldn’t be forgotten. This dance would become the Hinokami Kagura, or the Dance of the Fire God, which was still practiced by their family.

During her retelling of the story, Mom and Takeo had come back inside. Takeo had sat down to listen to her tell the story while Mom had gone to work in some other rooms. Mom, Tanjiro and Nezuko had an unspoken arrangement. She wasn't as good at sewing as her mom or as strong as Tanjiro, so her job was to take care of her younger siblings and keep them from bothering Tanjiro and Mom too much. Though calling it an arrangement might be too generous. It was more just the rhythms that her family had naturally fallen into after Dad had died.

Her siblings made her tell more and more of dads stories since she and Tanjiro were the only ones who remembered them with any clarity. They had loved Dad and loved anything that reminded them of him. Plus, they were too young to really remember Dad’s final years, so their memories of him were untainted. Nezuko’s memories of him may have been painful, but she had loved his stories. They were fanciful, but that may have been why she loved them. They were an escape from reality that was hard to come by with their lifestyle.

Soon, nightfall had come and snow was falling heavily. Mom and Nezuko had tried to clear some of the snow on the path out, but there had just been too much of it. The two of them had given up and headed back inside to keep warm and keep the rest of the siblings occupied. The younger Kamados had been worried about Tanjiro, though.

“Nee-chan, do you think Tanjiro will be able to get up the mountain?” Shigeru asked, tugging at Nezuko’s sleeve.

“Don’t worry about him,” Nezuko said. “Worst case scenario, he has to stay in town or while heading up the mountain.”

“Do you think he’ll stay with Saburo?” Takeo asked.

Saburo was a villager that lived halfway up the mountain by himself. He had lived alone after his wife and child had been killed by a bear. The incident had driven him a little off the deep end, and he had managed to convince himself that his family had been killed by a man eating demon. Everyone else who lived in town quietly shut up and let him talk about how dangerous the demons were. Nezuko had only gone into town to work alongside Mom, and Tanjiro never paid much attention to gossip. Still, it seemed that the town had miraculously avoided spreading any malicious rumors about him.

Saburo had been a friend of the family, but they hadn’t really kept in touch. Dad’s death had forced the Kamados to work much more, and Saburo had become withdrawn after his family's death. Still, he probably would be willing to let Tanjiro rest there.

After considering it for a moment, Nezuko said, “I don't know. He might have to stay there for the night.”

Mom stood up. “Well, it’s getting pretty late. All of you should get to sleep,” she said.

The youngest Kamados started begging to not be sent to bed, but Mom wouldn’t have any of it. Standing up, Takeo guided Shigeru and Rokuta to their room while Nezuko guided Hanako to their room. Mom headed to the door to get some snow to put the fire out.

Suddenly, somebody outside knocked on the door.

Hanako, Shigeru and Rokuta all lit up at the sound. “It’s Tanjiro!” Shigeru shouted. The three of them rushed past Nezuko and Takeo to get to the door, but were stopped by Mom.

Mom looked at the door with confusion. “I guess he decided to hike through the snow,” she muttered to herself. Walking to the door, she slid it open.

Standing behind the door was a man wearing a black, western style suit and a white hat that clashed with the rest of his outfit. He didn’t seem to be very tired, and looking out through the doorway, Nezuko couldn’t see anyone who might have carried him up to their house. How, she wondered, had he gotten up to their house?

The man looked at Mom from under the brim of his hat. His eyes were a muted pink and… unsettled Nezuko somehow. It was hard to describe, but there was something about them that put her on edge.

“Is this the Kamado family residence?” the man asked.

Mom answered after a moment of silence. “Yes. I’m sorry, can I help-”

Suddenly her head was just gone. Blood spurted from her neck as she fell backwards, splattering over the Kamado children. The youngest of the Kamados screamed in horror. Takeo tried to put himself in front of them, but Nezuko just stood there numbly, staring at Mom’s body.

The man in the suit turned to face them. His pupils had become black slits that ran up and down the middle of his eyes. His suit had gotten drops of blood on it, except for his sleeve, which was covered in blood. Belatedly, Nezuko realized that blood must have been Mom’s.

“What are you?” she asked him shakily.

The man smirked a little, then drove his hand into Nezuko’s forehead. She felt her body start to convulse as blinding pain wracked her body, then was dropped to the floor. Laying there, the pain almost blocked out Takeo screaming her name and the following screams of her siblings.

"~"

Hurt-

Everything hurt-

Hungry, tearing into meat-

Not enough-

NOT ENOUGH-

"~"

Nezuko awoke with a start. She was lying on the ground, face turned up towards the sky. She could feel snow seeping into her clothes, making them wet and cold.

What- what was she doing out here? Had she fainted while getting wood? All she could remember was some weird, violent nightmare. And what smelled so good?

Pushing herself up, Nezuko looked down and saw blood staining her kimono. She stared at it in shock for a moment, then started trying to wipe it off of her with her hands. Her efforts were fruitless and only really accomplished covering her hands in blood. She shoved her hands into the snow and managed to wipe them off, though that still left the stains on her kimono.

Stumbling a bit, she pushed herself up and looked around. She was in the woods that covered Mount Kumotori, but she could still see the roof of her house nearby.  Starting towards home, her eye caught on a pile of green, bloodstained cloth just at the edge of the clearing that surrounded her house.

In a moment of stunned recognition, she realized the cloth pile was Tanjiro. Turning towards him, Nezuko shouted, “Nee-chan! Nee-chan, are you alri-”

As she got closer to Tanjiro, she saw the wounds that covered his body. It looked like  chunks of flesh had been ripped out of his body. Through holes in his blood soaked clothes, she could see his bones.

Halting in her tracks, Nezuko stumbled back for a few steps and started to hyperventilate. She- she hadn’t done that, right? She wouldn’t! She wouldn’t hurt her brother! Anyway, he was much stronger than she was, she couldn’t have killed him even if she had tried. And she hadn’t! This- there must have been a bear or something that attacked them!

Trying to steady her breath, she turned back towards her house. Tanjiro was dead, but maybe her siblings or Mom had survived the attack. If they were alive, they would need a doctor.

Walking to the house, Nezuko got to the door and slid it open. What she saw shocked her. Mom was lying down on the floor right in front of the doorway. Looking into the house, she could see Takeo’s body slumped over Shigeru and Rokuta. Hanako must have tried to run away, because her body was halfway to her bedroom.

Leaning against the doorway, Nezuko slid down and began to shake. Hugging herself, she rocked back and forth, crying.

Her family was dead. Her mom, brothers and sisters were dead. They were all dead.

What the hell had happened here?

She tried to remember what had happened last night. Tanjiro had been late, so everyone assumed he would stay the night at Saburo’s house. They had been going to bed, but then a… man in a western suit had come to the house. He had killed Mom and then done something to Nezuko. She must have blacked out for a while, because the next thing she remembered was unbearable hunger, Tanjiro coming home, and then-

And then she killed him. She had… killed and eaten him. Her fourteen year old brother.

How could she do that?

Nezuko felt sobs rack her body while she hugged herself. Eventually she wiped the tears out of her eyes, then felt a pain in her palms. Looking down at them, she saw that she had driven her fingernails into them. Pulling them out, she noticed they were sharp and pointed. She did a double take and looked at them more closely. They hadn’t always been like that, had they? She never had filed them down into any weird shapes, so they couldn’t have gotten like that from her. While looking at her hands she noticed something moving on her hands. Glancing down at them, she stared in shock as the cuts in her hands closed themselves.

How had that happened? Cuts didn’t just heal like that. What she had just seen was impossible, but as she ran her fingers over the palms of her hands, she couldn’t feel any pain.

She was a demon.

She immediately scolded herself for that childish conclusion, but then thought about it. It seemed ridiculous, but what Dad had told her about demons in his stories did line up with what was happening here. He had said that demons could heal themselves, and that they often changed to look more monstrous. Maybe the man in the western suit had been a demon and he had turned her into one. It might have been a stretch, but it was the best guess she had right now.

Dad had also said that all demons were driven by extreme hunger that could only be satisfied with blood. That they would kill and eat people, even their own family.

“Wow,” she had said at the time, “those demons must be really sad.”

“What makes you say that?” Dad had asked curiously.

“I mean, they have to eat people or they just starve to death? That’s the worst thing I can think of!”

Her dad had paused for a moment, like he was considering what she had just said. “Yeah, I guess they would be sad, wouldn’t they?”

So she was a demon, and she had killed Tanjiro. What was she supposed to do now?

She remembered that Dad had also mentioned Demon Slayers, warriors who would hunt down demons and kill them. Were those real too? If there were demons, then there would probably be some sort of group dedicated to fighting them. They were probably hunting down the demon that had turned up at her home. They would probably kill her once they found her. Maybe that was for the best.

… No.

No, she had to make this right. She couldn’t do that if she was dead. Picking herself up, she looked into her home one last time, then turned and ran into the woods.

Chapter Text

Dragging her legs through the knee deep snow, Nezuko continued to run without any real purpose. She had long since left her home atop Mt Kumotori, and the thickly clouded sky had darkened even further once night had fallen. Snow had begun falling when she started fleeing what remained of her home, and the ankle deep snow had quickly risen to her shins, then to her knees. She had to constantly brush away the snowflakes pilling up on her head and shoulders. She wasn’t exactly headed in any particular direction. Her only real goal was to get away from the scene of her - crime - family’s murder, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to what she had to do. She had to make what she did right, but how? Her mind was racing, but it was racing in circles, refusing to come up with any useful answer.

She had managed to travel a distance that, if she took the time to think about it, really should have been impossible. After she had left her home, the hours had begun to blend together, but even with how long she must have been running, she shouldn’t have been able to cover the ground she had been able to cover. Actually, the fact that she had been able to run for hours without rest through growing snow banks would have been shocking to her if she stopped to consider it.

In addition to the endurance certainly abnormal for a twelve year old girl, Nezuko probably should have frozen to death by now. Despite the cold weather and growing clouds that had surrounded her mountain home before she left, it hadn’t occurred to her to grab any additional clothing. She had now run several miles in nothing but a thin kimono that had been soaked through by half melted snow and had been torn at by stray branches. Hypothermia and the related effects of exposure should have set in long ago. Again, she wouldn’t consider this until much later, at which point she would give up on trying to understand it and write it off as just how things were now.

Eventually, she slowed down her pace. Not because she had grown too tired to keep running, but because a gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach had flared up. It felt like some wildcat had been sewn into her stomach and was now trying to dig its way back out. She almost doubled over in pain, and stopped, waiting for the pain to subside. It didn’t, but she eventually got used to the pain enough to stand back up and look at her surroundings.

Despite how it was now the dead of night and the snow clouds were blotting out any hint of moonlight or starlight, the forest she found herself in was bright as day. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to put it. It was more like the forest was dimly lit by some unknown source. Her field of vision was a bit limited, but she could still make out much more detail than she should have been able to. She couldn’t make out the ridges of a tree’s bark, but she could still see individual twigs and leaves instead of vague clumps of branches. It confused her, but right now, she had better things to be doing than looking this gift horse in the mouth.

Sweeping her eyes back and forth through the forest, she noticed a house halfway up a hill. Calling it run down would have been a compliment. One of its walls seemed to have collapsed, and many of the boards that made up the remaining walls and the roof were missing. A tree had begun growing against it, plugging up a hole left by a missing board. It looked pathetic, really, but it still had a roof over it. Eager to get to any form of shelter from the snowstorm, she began the uphill hike towards it.

Without any warning, a blood curdling scream ripped its way through the forest. It was quickly followed by a loud, sadistic laugh, then an ominous silence. Nezuko called out, “Who’s there?!” before slapping her hand over her mouth. Idiot! She thought to herself. Why would you call out to the man who probably just killed someone?! Her eyes swept the forest, trying to see if the thing that had surely heard her was now intent on chasing her down.

Eventually, she laid eyes on a bloody scene that must have been the cause of the sounds she had just heard. A man in a black kimono was lying face down in the snow. His back and the surrounding snow had a series of bright red stains that she quickly recognized as blood. If he had lost that much, then he was definitely dead. Standing above him was something that looked like a man but that couldn’t have been a man. his skin was deathly pale, and his hands were covered in blood and had black talons instead of fingernails. What settled any doubt in her mind that this thing wasn’t human, however, was the curved bone spike which, while the thing wasn’t facing her, she was certain was protruding from his forehead.

It’s a demon, she thought. Just like when she first came to the conclusion that she was a demon, she mentally berated herself for such a childish notion, but this time, she quickly accepted that what was in front of her was, at the very least, not human. She curled in on herself and pressed her hand on her mouth down even harder, hoping that the thing hadn’t noticed her yet.

Despite her efforts, he whipped around to look at her with bright yellow eyes that had deep black slits for pupils. Glaring at her with eyes filled with hate, he opened his mouth to shout at her. She expected some distorted version of a human voice to exit his mouth. Instead, he just shouted at her in a loud but normal enough voice, “What the hell are you doing here?! This is my damn turf!”

After shouting at her, the demon seemingly vanished, leaving nothing but a flurry of disturbed snow in his place. Nezuko didn’t even have a chance to whip her head around and look for the thing before he roared at her from behind, then brought his fist down on her back. She let out a scream and collapsed to the ground. She tried to get up, but found that her legs weren’t willing to comply. She couldn’t feel anything in either of her legs, or in anything below the point where her back had been hit. The demon kicked her, sending her flying several feet through the air. She eventually hit the ground, gouging a path through several feet of snow as she landed.

The demon appeared over her, brought his leg up, then brought it down hard on her forearm. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt the bones in her arm snap like twigs. The demon then crouched down and struck her across the face, sending a handful of teeth flying. It then hit her again, then again, then again and again. Eventually he either got tired or bored of hitting her and grabbed her by the collar of her kimono, lifting her up out of the snow but holding her low enough to look down on her.

The demon above her began to rant about his turf and how he didn’t want to see her again, but Nezuko was now in a haze of pain, and processed little of what he said. Her head lolled to the side, giving her a clear view of the man the demon had killed. No- no, he wasn’t even a man. He was still just a boy. His face hadn’t yet been covered by the falling snow, and from what she could see, he looked even younger than Tanjiro had been when she- when she-

Suddenly, she felt a pain so intense in her back that it cut through the haze that had fallen over her mind. Around the broken stretch of her spine she felt what was closest to several knives buried under her skin were dragging themselves around. She paid it no mind, though. Looking at the dead boy filled her head with an all consuming rage that blotted out any other thought. How dare this demon kill someone so young? How dare he kill someone so casually?

“Hey! Are you even listening to me?!” he shouted at her. Lifting her up to face level, he shouted, “ I said that if I ever see you here again, stealing my food, I am going to-”

That was what finally pushed her over the edge. Food? Food?! Was that all this demon thought of people as?! Food?! He had murdered a boy for what? A snack?! He needed to die, she needed to kill him, she needed to eat-

The demon was interrupted in the middle of his threatening rant against her by Nezuko driving her clawed hand into his gut. He coughed up a disgusting glob of blood and let go of her in his shock. She landed on her feet and hit him again. The demon clawed at her face, leaving a cut that ran through one of her eyes. In retaliation, she kicked at the demon, and he went flying through the air into a snow covered, leafless tree. He struggled to pick himself back up, grabbing at the tree to find some sort of handhold.

She charged at the demon, covering the distance between her and him in what seemed like no time at all. The demon raised his arms to try and defend himself, but he didn’t manage to block her in time. Her foot connected with his head, and it tore free of his neck, flying away from the two of them and landing a short distance away in the snow.

Blood spurted from the stump of what had been the demon’s neck onto Nezuko’s face. The scent wafted up to her, and she shuddered, feeling drool spill over her lips. This was the first time she had been exposed to the scent of blood while largely coherent. It was overwhelming. It smelled so good. It reminded her of a particularly harsh winter where her family had been keeping themselves fed on wild nuts and berries. When Tanjiro had caught and killed a wild boar, it had taken everything in them to not tear it off of the spit holding it above the fire as it cooked and to eat it half raw.

She felt the same thing now that she had felt then. An urge, a compulsion, even, to tear apart what was in front of her and force mouthfuls of it down her throat, fueled by a gnawing hunger at the pit of ehr stomach. It was tainted by a pair of faint notions at the back of her mind that were united in that she shouldn’t do what she was about to do. She couldn’t tell if they were doing it out of a moral sense of wrongness or some sick kinship with the demon in front of her, or if one was doing it for one reason and one was doing it for the other, but she didn’t care much.

The body of the demon picked itself back up and tried to charge her despite not even having a head. She effortlessly kicked it back against the tree and lunged at it like a hungry dog. Her first strikes were against its wrists, cutting through tendons and ligaments. Now that the arms of the demon could do little more than bat against her, she tore deep into the gut of the demon, ripping out chunks of flesh. She ignored these chunks at first, just tossing them to the side after ripping them out, but the smell of the blood and flesh began to crowd out every other sense. Her vision blurred at the edges, and a ringing filled her ears. Her sense continued to deteriorate, and some faint part of her was concerned by that, but the rest of her just didn’t care, and she kept tearing into the body of the demon-

And she was just so hungry.

“~”

Nezuko woke up with a start. She was curled in on herself on a wooden floor. Not knowing where she was, she pushed herself up to take a look at her surroundings. She was in a wooden shack with a ragged roof and walls that she could see through, giving her a view of the sky where planks were missing. Still, she didn’t know where she was or how she had gotten here. She tried to remember what had happened, but all she could come up with was a weird memory that seemed more like a-

It struck her, then, what the gap in her memory meant. She had been weak and let that new side of her win and take over.

Not knowing what she had done, her imagination latched onto the last time she had been weak and ran wild, coming up with horror stories stitched together from the first time and the snippets of what she remembered from this time. She curled in on herself, clutching at her arms, and began to hyperventilate. The strange and terrifying impression that the walls were physically closing in on her settled on her mind.

Her claws sunk through the sleeves of her kimono into the flesh of her arm. The sharp pain managed to shake her out of her panic, giving her the clarity of mind needed to actually think. Her memories of the time that she had forgotten were coming back, but they were coming back slowly. Wanting to get an answer as soon as possible, she picked herself up and walked over to the doorway that led her out of the rundown shack.

Looking down the hill the shack had been built on, she gasped at the scene before her. A short distance downhill, the remains of the demon she had run into were spread all over the snow covered ground. The headless torso was missing an arm and was covered with wounds that seemed to have half healed. Strange wounds that looked like bite marks covered the limbs and gut area of the demon. Probably left by her, she thought. The head of the demon was laying in the snow a short distance away. An arm had apparently grown out the stump of what remained of the demon’s neck. It had been broken in two places, and a short bone spike was protruding from the flesh of the demon’s arm.

Suddenly, the arm attached to the head moved. Nezuko stared in silent shock at it as the broken bones of the arm snapped back into place and as the arm tried to drag itself away. That it was still moving, yet alone alive, was shocking. It seemed to be dragging itself towards a cluster of trees that were creating a spot of shade. The forest was growing brighter, and while the doorway she was looking out of was facing away from the eastern horizon, she knew that the sun was rising. She watched the head continue to struggle towards the cluster of trees as the first rays of sunlight settled over the clearing.

Suddenly, as the sunlight touched the motionless body of the demon, it burst into flames. The fires spread to cover the entire body, and she heard a sound that reminded her of burnt logs collapsing under their own weight as the body of the demon began to crumble. The sunlight made its way to the head of the demon, and it let out a blood curdling scream as it was covered in flames. It thrashed around in pain for a short moment, then collapsed as its body finally collapsed into ashes.

Nezuko stared at the ashes that had been the demon’s body in shock before she noticed the sunlight approaching the doorway that she was standing in. She recoiled from the approaching light violently, hiding herself behind the ragged walls of the wooden shack. Rays of light made their way in the gaps between individual boards. They missed her, but she still curled in on herself to get away from them. What had previously just been a sign that she should have been up by now was now something that was a quick way to a painful death. If it had killed that demon, then it could certainly kill her.

Eventually, her fear subsided. The sunlight had gotten into the wooden shack she had taken refuge in, but none of the rays were close enough to her to be an immediate threat. As long as she didn’t get anywhere near them, she would be fine. Now calm enough to actually think, she wondered what on earth she was supposed to do now. She didn’t know where she was going, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, and she obviously didn’t know much about her new demonic body. She mulled it over in her mind, trying to come up with some solution that let her at least try to make up for what she had done.

Suddenly, she remembered the boy that the demon had killed. He had been wearing a strange black uniform with a white kanji on the back. She didn’t remember what it was, but she did remember that in addition to the strange uniform, he had been clutching a sword in his hand. It was easy enough to add together. He had been equipped to fight, suggesting he had intentionally sought out the demon to kill it. Really, he even had a uniform! The only thing that made sense was that he had some sort of employer, an employer who wanted him to fight demons. If there really was some sort of organization dedicated to fighting demons, like in the stories her father had told her, then these demons could be fought successfully.

She hadn’t known what she was supposed to do after killing Tanjiro.  She didn’t know how on earth she was supposed to make what she had done better. Maybe she couldn’t. Maybe she would die without doing enough. But after what she had done to her family, after killing the inheritor of their legacy, she owed it to her family and her brother to try. Even if it killed her.

Now armed with direction and purpose, Nezuko shifted onto her side. She would wait for the sun to set, then exit her shack and bury the boy. Once that was done, she would take the sword he had been equipped with and begin her search for others of her kind. For now, though, she would sleep through the day and wait for the chance to make things right.

Chapter Text

Nezuko stood over the lump in the ground that marked the grave she had dug. It was messy, and she had nothing but her hands to dig with, but at least it was deep enough to keep the animals from getting to the body. She didn’t know the man’s name, so she had torn off the back of his kimono. It was marked by the kanji for destroy in white, so it should be recognizable enough as a grave marker. It also looked like it had been part of a uniform, so anyone who found him might be able to identify him from that.

She had taken more than just the kanji on his back. Looking down at the sword she held in her hand in awe, she lifted it up to her face and drew it out of its scabbard. It came out almost silently, both from her delicate speed and the wool she could see lining the inside. The blade seemed to shine in the moonlight and looked almost new, without any damage on it at all.

She had never held a sword before. The only blade she had even seen was the one on the ax her family used to chop wood. If she had to use this to fight demons, she wouldn’t do well. Still, most, or at least some demons were probably stronger than the one she had just fought. If she wanted to make up for what she had done, she would have to use every advantage she had. She might as well be swinging around a sharp metal stick, but it would still be better than nothing.

Turning to head away from the grave, she stopped as her eyes settled on the dark spot in the snow left by the ash the demon who attacked her had become. She wondered about him, about what he had been like before he was a demon. He had killed people, sure, but he must have just been a normal man before this. It was hard for her to imagine a normal man willingly doing this sort of thing. She had killed her own brother, after all, and…

Nezuko’s heart hardened after she thought about what she had done. It didn’t matter if he would have killed people normally, the important thing was that he had killed people. That couldn’t be forgiven. She turned from the stained snow and walked into the forest, intent on finding more of her kind.

“~”

Nezuko looked over at the town from her spot on a hills outcropping. The town itself was normal enough, with the people wandering between buildings, either for their jobs or for fun. It was late, and plenty of people were either partying or drunk. The only notable thing about the town was the demon here.

She couldn’t see the demon. There weren’t any obvious signs, like one cackling on a rooftop, but she could smell one. There was a scent of rotting meat coming from the town she recognized from the first demon. Noone in the town seemed to be noticing it, so she was probably only smelling it because she was a demon. There was definitely one here.

Looking over the town, Nezuko wondered what exactly she should do. Should she barge into town and fight the demon or wait until she saw it and try to ambush it? She had only ever fought one demon before, and she had no idea how she had won that fight. It was probably a good idea to try and get some idea of what she was dealing with before she got herself involved.

She stared at the town for a moment longer, then shook these thoughts out of her head. Every moment this demon lived was a moment it might spend killing someone. She couldn’t wait when it came to this sort of thing. Even if she had no idea what she was doing, she still had to try to stop the demon as soon as possible no matter the cost.

Approaching the town, she found a building nobody was paying any attention to and tried to climb it a few times. Being a demon might have given her strength and speed, but it apparently hadn’t given her any skill. She stared at the roof she was trying to reach with resentment, and jumped for it, more out of frustration than anything else.

Instead of reaching the eaves of the roof, Nezuko flew over them and landed on top of the roof. She stumbled for a moment, then caught her balance. She stood still, then looked over the edge of the roof at the ground. The building was more than three times her height, and she had never been unfit, but that sort of jump should have been beyond her. She knew that being a demon made her stronger, but this was far more than she had expected.

Staring at the edge of the roof for a little longer, she turned and began to head further into the town towards the demon. She could smell the general direction of the demon, as weird as that sounded, and as she got closer, the smell only got stronger and stronger. She slowly moved closer and closer, eventually finding the source of the scent.

Oddly enough, what she was led to was a footpath empty of any demons. The source of the scent seemed to be a boy and a girl walking down the path, their way lit by a lamp that was playing with their shadows. They seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, laughing together as they walked towards nothing in particular.

Nezuko frowned at the two of them. The scent was definitely coming from them, but neither of them looked like they were a demon. Was one of them a demon that had disguised themselves to get into the town? Could demons even do that? She was new to demonkind, and had no idea what was and wasn’t possible.

As she wondered, the shadow under the girl began to grow. She had, at first, simply considered this a trick being played by the lamp the man was holding, but if she had been paying more attention to it, she might have noticed it growing darker and wider than should have been possible.

Suddenly, the girl dropped like a stone into the shadow, giving a quiet yelp as she did so. The boy turned to look at her, then stopped as he stared into empty air. He said something, but Nezuko wasn’t paying any attention to him. Instead, she was tracking the shadow that had swallowed the girl. It moved quickly to one of the walls lining the path and went under it like some scurrying rodent.

What was that? It was definitely the source of the demon scent that she had picked up on outside of town, but that didn’t explain to her what it was. Was that something all demons could do? Could she learn to do it, or was it something that only certain demons could do? Was-

“Satoko!?” the man shouted at empty air, cutting through Nezuko’s haze. It didn’t matter what exactly the shadow was at the moment. What was important was that it had taken a girl.

She pushed herself up and began to run after the shadow. She leapt from one rooftop to another, chasing after the shadow. It darted along footpaths and under fences and walls without any difficulty, speeding through the town. As it turned the corner onto yet another road, it began to slow down, like it had been afraid it might be seen and now felt that it could take the time to eat the girl it had just taken.

Nezuko leapt down from the rooftop and landed on the road below. She drew her sword from its sheath and stabbed it down into the shadow. She felt the point sink into something, then covered her face as the shadow exploded outwards. It splashed over her like water, smelling just like the demon she had come here for. She saw, for just a moment, the pink and white kimono of the girl come to the surface of the shadow. She grabbed the kimono and pulled hard, dragging the girl out of the dark muck.

A hand shot out at the girl, trying to drag her back in. Nezuko managed to pull the girl far enough away from the grasping hand to keep her safe, the arm grasping at empty air. The girl coughed up black water as the demon rose from the shadow. He was as ugly as the demon from the mountain had been, with three white horns protruding from his pale white skin. Light clothing made of purple and black cloth clashed with his entirely red eyes which, despite not having any pupils, she could feel boring into her.

“Are you okay?” she asked the girl she had pulled out of the shadow.

“Yeah,” she began after coughing up a final mouthful of water, “I’m fine-”

Suddenly, the pair of them were cut off by a horrible screeching noise. Looking over at the Three Horned Demon, she saw the teeth of his lower jaw rotating like the wheel of a cart. The demon was clearly furious with her, and while it didn’t scare her, she was still unnerved by his display.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nezuko saw a dark spot on a wall begin to grow in size and to darken. She realized what was happening just in time and grabbed the girl, jumping high just as a pale hand lashed out at the empty air she had just been in. She landed on the tile roof of a nearby building as the torso of another demon emerged from the shadow. He seemed identical to the other demon except for some minor changes in his clothing and having only two horns.

“Dammit!” the Two Horned Demon screamed at her, “What the hell are you doing!? That is our food, not yours!”

“Calm down, my duplicate,” she heard a voice say from behind her. She whipped around to see another demon, this one with only one horn on his head. He called the Two Horned Demon his duplicate? That might explain why the trio of demons looked so similar, although she still didn’t know how they had become duplicates.

“No!” the Two Horned Demon shouted back. “No, I won’t calm down. That girl is already sixteen! I can smell the flavor being leached out of her by the minute! You know this, dammit!” he continued. “Girls are no good if they’re any older than sixteen!”

Nezuko stared at him for a moment, then hardened her glare. She had fully expected her kind to be violent and hateful, but to have it on display for her to see was another thing entirely. It infuriated her. Her kind disgusted her more than anything she had seen before.

The One Horned Demon sighed loudly. “Look,” he began, turning to her, “You can’t have all of her. Maybe we can let you have one or two of her limbs, but-”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” the Two Horned Demon shouted. “We have a blood demon art! We can just take what we damn well please!”

With that, he shot out of the shadow on the wall at Nezuko like a bullet. She pushed the girl to the side, managing to keep her from being grabbed by the demon, but he managed to grab hold of her in particular. Below her, she could feel a wet shadow begin to form around her feet. The demon plunged into the shadow and dragged her with him, and though she tried to grab a handhold, she still fell backfirst into the shadow and sunk into it like a stone.

“~”

The One Horned Demon sighed deeply as his Two Horned Duplicate dragged the demon girl into the Swamp, with his Three Horned Duplicate following close behind. He looked down at the girl the three of them had been hunting. A man had come out of a nearby house and was now tending to the girl. The demon began to sink into the Swamp, hoping to approach the two of them without being noticed.

He paused for a moment, though, once he caught a whiff of the girl’s aged scent. His Two Horned Duplicate had been right, she was past her prime. He might as well have been eating cloth. The demon who had saved her, however, was an entirely different story. She couldn’t have been any older than thirteen, and while demons were far from the tastiest of food, her youth would certainly make up for that. Why waste his effort on this old meat when he could have a ripe meal without nearly as much effort?

Smiling, the One Horned Demon resumed his sink into the swamp, though this time with an entirely different purpose in mind.

Chapter Text

As The Two Horned Demon dragged her down through the murky swamp, Nezuko thrashed uselessly. Her sword was still stuck in her hand, but the demon had mangled her arm too badly for her to use it. The Two Horned Demon hit her over and over in his rage, simply tearing out chunks of her. In her desperation, she drove her clawed hand into his eyes, and he recoiled enough for her to put her legs between her and him and kick him. A lot harder than she thought she could, because he went tumbling away from her. It looked like his chest had been deflated, and he was coughing up disgusting globs of blood. She looked at her surroundings. She seemed to be immersed in a dark, murky swamp that stretched as far as she could see. Bubbles and little bits of debris surrounded her, and though she was immersed in what seemed like water, she could still breathe.

“What the hell! Why do you even have a nichirin sword?! Did you kill a demon slayer?!” The Two Horned Demon screamed at her, grabbing back her attention.

“What- what's a nichirin?” she asked.

“Dammit! How are you this stupid!” the Two Horned Demon shouted back. “Nichirin blades are what demon slayers use to kill demons! You should know this! You stole that sword from a demon slayer you killed, right?!”

The sword was called a nichirin blade? And demon slayers used them to kill demons- were these swords and the sun the only thing that could kill demons? Was that why the demon at the temple survived her attacking it?

“My duplicate, kindly do us all a favor and shut up,” Nezuko heard. She whipped around and saw The Three Horned Demon and The One Horned Demon emerge from the darkness.

“Oh f— you! Why don’t you have the girl?! She’s going to go stale!”

“Yes, she is. But this girl isn’t. Can you smell her? She can’t be any older than 13, much younger than the girl up there. We can eat our fill here and then leave her out in the sun to burn.”

The Two Horned Demon paused and turned to look at Nezuko. She could feel his eyes and the eyes of the other two demons on her.

“W-wait,” she said. “Demons can’t eat other demons, can they?”

“Well, let's find out,” replied The Two Horned Demon.

The demons dove at her. She tried to swing her sword at them, but they were too fast, and she didn’t really know how to use her sword, . The one horned demon closed the distance and drove his arm into her gut. Nezuko let out a scream as he tore a handful of her guts out of her. The other two teamed up with him, tearing into her arms. She swung up her sword, but it was simply swatted out of the way. The One and Two Horned Demons left to finish the chunks they had torn out, but The Three Horned Demon began to circle around to attack her again. Her sword arm could barely move, and the rest of her body was too damaged to put up any fight. The demons were going to keep ripping chunks of her to eat and then leave her to burn in the sun. That was it. She was going to die.

Nezuko!

Nezuko!

… What?

Nezuko looked out at a stretch of darkness. It didn’t look like the swamp she had just been in. It was like a flat plain had been stripped of all light except for a small bubble surrounding her. There was someone standing right in front of her-

Tanjiro was standing right in front of her.

Nezuko! Please, you have to get up!

“T-tanjiro? Wh- how?” she asked. She felt her eyes begin to water. “Tanjiro- Tanjiro I’m so sorry, I just- I couldn't- I didn’t want to-”

I know, just please, you have to stay alive!

“I don’t- my fault- I’m sorry, I-”

What? No, it’s not your fault- listen, just stay alive, please!

Tanjiro… wanted her to stay alive? Why would he-

Tanjiro wanted her to stay alive. If he wanted her to, she would stay alive. She owed him that.

Nezuko’s eyes snapped open to the sight of The Three Horned Demon diving towards her. She felt her arm tingle and saw her veins bulge. She felt the blood that had been spread throughout the swamp and across the demon's faces. She felt it begin to bubble. And then she felt it set on fire.

The three demons burst into flames, particularly the one and two horned demons who had been eating her flesh. They began to gag and vomit pink flames. Nezuko looked at them in stunned silence. She had done that? How? She didn’t have any time to ponder this as The Three Horned Demon dove at her, arms outstretched. She felt the wounds covering her arms simply be filled up by new flesh, and swung her sword at his neck. Mid swing, the blood coating the blade burst into pink flames, letting her cut through his neck like it was paper. He began to crumble apart, starting at the neck, with his body turning into chunks of ash which quickly dissolved.

The other demons were still covered in the fire from her blood, but the fire would only last so long. Nezuko began swimming towards the two of them as they were trying to swat off the fire. The One Horned Demon tried to swipe at her, but he missed, and she drove her sword into his chest. He dug his claws into her arms, trying to weaken her grip on her sword. She pulled her sword out of him and stabbed it back into his chest over and over. But the flames that had covered The Two Horned Demon had gone out, letting him drive his claws into her back and pull her off of his duplicate. He swiped at her, leaving gouges in the chest and belly; she responded by swinging her sword up in a blow that cut through his lower jaw. The one horned demon recovered from his burns and began charging towards her.

Nezuko tried to get her blood to set on fire again. She remembered the hot spring above her house, and how it felt when she had just gotten into the waters to take a bath. The remaining blood on her blade and her clothes began to bubble, but there was simply not enough fire to do any damage to the two demons. She needed to have more blood on her blade. She cut The Two Horned Demon’s hand off and drove her blade into her stomach.

She drew the blade out and slashed into The Two Horned Demons chest, then lighting the blood that had gotten stuck in his wound. He tumbled away, clutching at the massive burning gash in his chest. The One Horned Demon kept charging at her, arms outstretched. As the blood on her sword burst into pink flames, she swung the blade at his neck, cutting his head clean off.

She turned towards The Two Horned Demon, who was clearly panicking. After taking a good look at her, he turned and started to flee into the darkness, kicking up bubbles and random bits of cloth. She was about to pursue him, but then she saw what the bits of cloth were.

They were little hairpins and colorful ribbons, like those that would be worn by a child.

He had eaten children.

He didn’t get to run.

Nezuko bolted after him, quickly closing the distance. He noticed her and tried to change directions, but she clawed into his shoulder and left him tumbling. She turned around and kicked him up, with him suddenly hitting what looked like a ceiling made of dirt. He jumped off of the ceiling and tried to tackle her, but she kicked him again, caving in his chest. She grabbed him by the collar of his sleeveless shirt and kicked up, ramming him into the dirt ceiling. She pulled him back, then rammed him into the ceiling again and again. The dirt crumbled open, and Nezuko forced The Two Horned Demon through the gap in the dirt, then broke the surface after him.

As she dug herself out of the dirt, Nezuko saw The Two Horned Demon doubled over in pain, desperately trying to draw in breath. She lunged towards him, and he brought up his arms to try and hold her back, but she just bowled him over and started hitting him over and over.

Nezuko felt her stomach churn with hunger pains and felt drool spill over her lips onto The Two Horned Demon. She looked down at him. At the terrified expression that plastered his face. At the blood spilling out of his mouth. At the blood that coated her hands. She felt her head start to ring, and as she looked at the demon, one thought went through her head.

She was just so hungry.

Nezuko drove her hand into the demon’s gut, and as she heard him let out a blood curdling scream, she pulled out a bloody chunk of flesh. It was surprisingly smooth, so it was probably an organ. Maybe the liver. Blood was dripping out of the points where her claws were cutting into the organ. She drove her teeth into it and ripped off one bloody chunk, then another and another. Soon the organ was gone, but she was still hungry. She tore out another chunk of flesh and wolfed it down. Then another. And another. Soon she was barely chewing the chunks, just tearing them out and swallowing them. She was operating on autopilot, just giving her body what it needed to make up for the energy lost with her regeneration and that thing she had done with her blood.

Nezuko heard The Two Horned Demon screaming, but she didn’t really care. Why should she care? He had eaten children. He deserved this.

A small corner of her brain thought that seemed coldhearted, but that part of her mind was small and quiet and alone.

Soon the ringing in her head cleared, and she recoiled from the demon. His gut had been torn apart, and his arms and legs had been similarly wounded. She scrambled away and grabbed at her sword(she didn’t remember putting it there, she must have dropped it during the haze that had set on her mind). Standing up, she shakily pointed her sword at The Two Horned Demon. Suddenly, he drew in a shaky breath and Nezuko, in a shock, swung her sword at his neck, cutting his head clean off. After it tumbled to his side, it began to burst in sparks and crumbles to ash, along with his body.

Nezuko felt the bile rising in her throat, and as she clutched at her stomach, she doubled over and threw up. She hadn’t eaten anything but The Two Horned Demon, so the vomit was a bloody mess filled with stringy bits of flesh.

After her stomach refused to give up anything more, she stood up and leaned against the wall next to her, trying to collect her thoughts. Back there… Was that like when she had killed the temple demon? Why had that happened? She… had been badly hurt. Did she have to eat the bits of him to fuel her regeneration? And the thing she had done with the blood, what was that? The horned demons could go into the swampy… place, but she couldn’t do anything like that. Could each demon do something different? But if that was the case, why couldn’t the demon at the temple do anything special? He was just a man who could regenerate and had to eat people. The horned demons had a lot of hairpins and ribbons in their swamp, so it seemed like they had eaten a lot of people. Did demons only get powers if they had eaten a lot of people? And why didn’t the demons die after the blood they had eaten set on fire, or when she had driven her sword into them?

The Three Horned Demon had died after she cut off his head. The same thing happened with the other two demons. Did she have to cut the heads off of demons to kill them? That was going to complicate things. She didn’t really know how to use a sword. She had just been swinging her blade in the general direction of the demons she was fighting, and hitting the neck every time was going to be difficult. The whole blood exploding into flames thing would help, but that had come completely out of the blue. How was she supposed to use that?

As Nezuko pushed herself up, she took in a deep breath and began to collect herself. The exploding blood let her cut through the three headed demon with relative ease, and she had been able to beat these demons without having any experience. She could practice summoning the fire and practice using it. Skill with the sword could be learned from experience with fighting demons. She could do this.

As Nezuko pulled herself onto the roof next to the alleway, she saw a crowd forming around the girl and the boy, with a man that had a bag(probably a doctor) at his side guiding the pair of them into a building. The girl had some nasty looking cuts covering her arm and a bruise on her head, but with proper medical care, she would live. Nezuko had saved her and who knows how many others the demon would have killed. She had prevented all that death.

As Nezuko turned towards the forest and began running over the rooftops, she thought maybe. Maybe there was hope for her.

Chapter Text

As the sun set, Nezuko’s eyes snapped open. She had been forced to sleep under a fallen tree away from the sun, and sap had stuck chunks of dirt and leaves to her dress. Roots had pushed into her back, and bruises would have formed if she were human. Still, Nezuko didn’t really want to get up. She had just nearly been killed and eaten by a trio of demons and had a… vision of Tanjiro. She wasn't quite ready to face the world yet. Rolling over, she tried to close her eyes and get a little more sleep, but her body wouldn’t comply. She felt awake and restless. It was almost uncomfortable to stay still. Still, she tried to resist waking up, tucking herself into her haori. Still, she felt restless and uncomfortable. Feeling the frustration rise in her throat, she let out a yell and threw her sword as far away from her as it could go. It hit a tree and, still being in its scabbard, comically bounced off and tumbled across the ground.

Breathing deeply, Nezuko felt the anger seep out of her. What was she doing here? She had spent an entire day sleeping. She didn’t need anymore rest. She was just being lazy. Why couldn’t she be more like Tanjiro? Looking back, she couldn’t think of any time he had acted unhelpful, even for a day, and he had never really complained about having to work. And here she was, throwing a hissy fit because she couldn’t sit around doing nothing. Tanjiro would never-

Tanjiro. She had seen Tanjiro.

Suddenly the events of last night came crashing over her, and she slumped back against the ground. Hugging herself, she tried to blink away the tears gathering at her eyelids. Taking in a few shaky breaths, she managed to get herself under control.

What… What had that been last night? Was that real? She couldn’t see much, but it felt so real. And right after seeing Tanjiro, she had been able to set her blood on fire. What had that been? The Two Horned Demon had mentioned the three of them had some blood demon art, and the One Horned Demon had called him his duplicate. Was that what the blood demon art was? The swamp place and being able to split themselves into three different demons? But that was nothing like her being able to set her blood on fire. It could be that blood demon arts were just random powers that had no connection with each other. She only had a sample size of 2, so that made as much sense as anything else. Had that vision of Tanjiro… Caused that? That was like him, always helping everyone around him even if they hadn’t asked for it. Even if they hadn’t needed it.

Even if they hadn’t deserved it-

So, her brother was haunting her and was helping her get stronger. That… sounded far fetched, but made as much sense as her being a demon that burned in the sun and could set her blood on fire. If that vision of him was real, then… How? If that was his… spirit, or whatever, why was he still here? Shouldn’t he have passed onto the afterlife? Had he chosen to stay behind and help her? Why? She didn’t deserve his help, she had killed him! Why was he helping her get even stronger? She just… didn’t get it.

For a while she just sat there, trying to understand why he would be staying behind to help her. She was dangerous enough without the fire blood; if she ever ended up losing control, she could kill someone-

The girl.

The girl from the town. Nezuko had rescued her and hadn’t killed her. She had been carrying her and hadn’t felt any of the hunger. So she wasn’t a constant danger to everyone around her. And she had only been overwhelmed by the hunger after the Horned Demons had hurt her really badly. It was the same when she fought the first demon she had met. Again, she had only blacked out after she had her ribcage and spine crushed. It seemed like she needed blood to heal herself. So she only lost control after she was wounded and attacked people.

The fire blood had practically saved her in the fight against the Horned Demons, and they were probably stronger than most demons. So if she ran into regular demons, it should make the fights incredibly easy. She would have to practice with her blood demon art and her sword, but with enough time, she would probably be able to fight most demons she ran into without being wounded too heavily. Tanjiro was trying to protect people by making it so she could fight and kill demons without losing control of herself and hurting someone. That had to be it.

Sitting with her thoughts for a moment, Nezuko pushed herself up. Brushing off the leaves and dirt clinging to her kimono, she walked over to her sword and picked it back up. Standing still for a moment, she tried to figure out what to do next. She should probably head to somewhere demons would be. After some thought, she came up with an idea of where that would be- Somewhere with people, but isolated enough that news of any death wouldn’t lead to discovery. Maybe she could patrol some roads that cut through forest and had demons waiting along them for some random traveler.

Before she went anywhere, she should probably figure out how to use her blood demon art. She had just been splashing it around or sticking it on her blade. She had almost been killed by the Horned Demons. There wasn’t any point in finding demons if they would just kill her and keep on killing. So she needed to practice using her blood.

Nezuko unsheathed her sword and looked at the sharp edge. It was covered in little chips and scratches, but it didn’t seem like the fire her blood had covered it in had done any damage to it. Raising the blade to her forearm, she hesitated for a moment, then cut into her arm. Blood spilled out of the long, thin cut and began to gather on the blade. Soon, the cut snapped shut, leaving blood dripping off of the blade and all over the ground. Nezuko lifted the blade and adjusted it in her hand, trying to have the blade facing forward. Satisfied, she swung the blade towards a clump of trees, flinging small drops of blood into the treeline. The drops set on fire and burned into the trees, somehow staying alight for much longer than they should have, given their size. Still, there wasn’t enough fire, and the spread of her blood drops was too random.

Lining up the blade again, she cut into her arm and tried to remember how she could somehow feel the blood bubble right before it lit on fire, and the strange, almost instinctive feeling of knowing what she was supposed to do with her blood. Cutting into her arm again, she watched the blood spill out of her arm and onto her sword. Blinking, Nezuko looked at the sword for a second time. The blood wasn’t dripping off of the blade. There was the same amount of blood on the blade, but it was clinging to the edge, with small trails of blood flowing towards the flat end that ended in little bulges that stopped just short of falling off the blade.

Huh. Was that part of her blood demon art, or was that something all demons could do? Thinking it over for a moment, she decided it didn’t really matter. Leveling the blade, she tried to feel it and then… Moved? Pulled it? If she had to describe it, that was the best she could come up with, but that didn’t really describe it. It was a feeling so alien no human words had been made for it. Pulling the blood, she saw the droplets move backwards up the trails and gather along the edge. Then she held the blade straight in the air. The blood shifted down a little, but then corrected itself, returning to its even spread.

Raising her sword again, she tried to decide what to do with this. If she could get the blood to keep its shape for an attack, then she could rely on her blood more. Readying her sword, she imagined the blood flying off the sword in a controlled arc. Swinging her sword, she felt the blood rush towards the point and fly off the edge. Halfway through the air, the blood set itself on fire, lighting up the small clearing between her and the trees. Splashing against the trees, the arc of blood burnt deep scars into the trees.

Looking at the fire on the trees, Nezuko tried to hold back a laugh, then gave up and let out a string of laughs like a child who had just discovered something great an old toy could do. She had done it! She could actually use her blood in a fight, she would actually be able to hold her own against demons, and oh no she had just set fire to half a dozen trees.

Breaking out of her celebration, she whipped around and looked at the fires. The blood fire had spread all over the trees, creeping up the trees to cover even more of the wood in flames. Panicking, she tried to picture the fire quickly going out. The fires roared angrily like some wild animal that had been badly hurt. It rose and fell, like someone was trying to kill it, which Nezuko supposed she was. Slowly, though, it receded completely. Running toward the trees, she looked at the damage. The trees had been burnt beyond recognition, with huge burns stretching across the whole tree. Any branch not thicker than her forearm had collapsed under its own weight, and clumps of ash surrounded the tree where they had fallen. When she touched the burns, they crumbled away, revealing a good inch of ash had formed on the worst spots.

Yeah, that was probably good enough to fight demons.

Stepping back to her original spot, she continued to practice her blood demon art for half an hour. Soon she could send her blood flying twenty feet before it ended up falling to the ground or losing its shape. She tried to make different shapes with her blood, but couldn’t make anything cohesive, and as time went on, she felt a faint gnawing in the pit of her stomach. Not wanting to press her luck, she sheathed her sword. She should probably head to somewhere isolated, somewhere with people but far away enough from the authorities that no one would notice a few people going missing. If she heard about a string of animal attacks, then she could head that way to see if the attacks were really caused by demons. Turning to leave, she headed into the forest.

“~”

After several months of traveling across the country, Nezuko had lost track of where she was. Her family never really had enough money to travel or any real reason to, so she didn’t recognize any landmarks that could indicate where she was. She couldn’t exactly ask someone where she was for obvious reasons. She also had lost track of how long it had been since she had been turned into a demon. She thought it had been 93 days, but it could have been anywhere around 90 days. Or maybe it had been around 100 days. She didn’t really know.

She hadn’t run into a lot of demons, but the few she had run into hadn’t really been a threat. None of them had been like the Horned Demons; none of them had any sort of blood demon art. They hadn’t really expected to be attacked by a demon, either, so they hadn’t been prepared for her. All in all, nothing had put her at risk of dying. Still, she had felt the hunger gnawing at the bottom of her gut. All the fighting she had gone through had been exhausting, and she had been trekking across the country for several months. She tried eating one of the demons, but that had been revolting, even as a demon, and only pushed down the hunger. She couldn’t put it off any longer. She needed to eat something before she ended up hurting someone.

Hunting with the almost magic sense of smell and hearing she had gained after becoming a demon, she found a deer very quickly. When she found it, it raised its head like it could smell something wrong in the air. Before it could run away, she jumped at it and lopped its head off. The body spasmed briefly, like it was trying to keep itself on its feet, and then collapsed.

Dragging the body away, she set up a fire with her blood. She only needed a small amount of blood for her fire. Really, she had to use a small amount or she was going to burn down half of the forest. Once she got the fire started, she started cutting into the deer's leg. Her family tried to hunt when they could, but even when they did find an animal Tanjiro or their parents had always been the ones that cut it. She had only ever smoked it or stored it, so the cut was messy. There were chunks of hide she had to individually cut off and thick sinews to cut out, but eventually she managed to get a rough chunk of meat out of the leg. Using her sword as an awkward meat spit, she started to cook the meat.

Trying to keep the cooking even, she turned the chunk of meat above the fire. When the fat dripped off into the fire, it jumped and snapped at the meat. The small amount of blood she had added kept it from getting too close to the meat, but she still had to limit it. While fighting demons, she had made it a point to try and spread out the blood in her blood arcs. It weakened the concentration of the flames, but given how strong the flames already were it didn’t matter much. She had wanted to try some other things with her blood, but as she had gotten hungrier and hungrier, it had gotten harder to control her blood. She had also slowed down as the months dragged on. She had even struggled to regenerate, with one cut lasting for a full day. That had been one of the main things that forced her to give up and hunt for something to eat. There wasn’t any point in her getting herself killed and letting the demon she was fighting kill more people.

Half an hour passed. It was hard to not just rip it off the sword and eat it raw, but she held herself back. She probably couldn’t get sick, but she still didn’t want to eat something that was raw. It just felt wrong, like doing that would be letting something important in herself die. Eventually the meat smelled cooked. Pulling the meat away from the flames, she put out the fire so it wouldn’t end up spreading. She didn’t have any chopsticks on her, so she had to just pull the meat off the sword and hold it with her hands.

Hesitating for a moment, she sunk her teeth in and tore out a chunk. It tasted amazing, with her already starved body demanding more. Chewing through the tough meat, she swallowed and ripped out another chunk. Then another and another. Soon the meat was gone and she was licking bits of grease and blood off of her fingers. Nezuko wondered what to do with the rest of the deer. It was too big to carry with her, and she didn’t have a bag to carry any smaller cuts of meat in. Any more thought was swept away by a wave of hunger. Picking up her sword, she stood up and walked back towards the deer.

Cutting out another chunk of meat, Nezuko brought it back to the fire to cook it. The gnawing in her stomach hadn't gone away, but that was probably because her body just hadn't processed the meat yet. Sitting there, it felt like forever had passed. She felt drool almost spilling over her lips, and she could smell the grease, fat and blood drip into the fire. The combination wafted into her nose, and it got even harder to not eat the meat raw. Soon the meat was done and she was ripping it off her sword to eat it.

As she ripped through it she bit into a chunk that was… different. Stopping dead in her tracks, she looked at the chunk. She must have not cooked it for long enough, because there was a pink, raw bit in the middle. She could see a little bit of blood leaking out of the meat. Sitting there for a moment, Nezuko broke her composure and tore out the bloody piece, swallowing it whole. Practically shoving the rest of the meat into her mouth, she frantically licked the blood off of her fingers and hands. The blood tasted salty and metallic, and if you asked her she couldn't tell you about anything that had even tasted half as good. Soon she had eaten every bit of meat and licked off every drop of blood.

Sitting there for a moment, she drew in deep breaths, trying to collect herself. What she had eaten wasn't enough, and she could still feel the hunger pains from not eating for months. She needed to eat more of the deer if she was going to last. Cooking it got rid of all the bloody chunks, and those chunks were the only parts that tampered her hunger pains.

Picking herself up, Nezuko walked over to the deer. A lot of the blood had spilled onto the ground and dried up, but most of it was still in the deer and warm from its body heat. She could smell the scent of the blood wafting up from the deer's body. Getting on her knees, she brought her sword up against the deer and sunk it into the already uncovered part. Sawing it back and forth, the sharp blade easily cut through the meat and she pulled another piece out. Raising it to her mouth, she hesitated for a moment- Just a moment- then bit into it. She felt the blood seep out of it. A bit of the blood spilled over her lips, dripping down her chin. Ripping it apart, the chunk was soon gone.

In a sort of hunger fueled daze, Nezuko reached for the deer and ripped out another piece. A bit of hide was stuck on, and when she shoved it into her mouth, she could taste fur. Ignoring the hair in her mouth, she swallowed and tore out another piece. Eating this one too, she tore out more and more. Still, she felt hunger stirring her gut. She had to hold herself back from just burying her face in the deer and tearing out mouthfuls of meat.

Eventually, her stomach was filled to bursting, and she forced herself to stop. Hunger still scraped her stomach, demanding something she refused to give it, but it had lessened now. Looking down at her hands, she saw that they were covered in blood. Dirt and leaves had gotten stuck in the blood, caking her hands in a brown-red mixture. Trying to rub off the blood, she wiped her hands on her kimono. All that accomplished was getting her kimono smeared with blood. Soon, her face and clothes had been stained with the remains of the deer.

Water. She needed water to wash herself off. She needed- she needed to get the blood off. Maybe there was a river or lake nearby.

Picking herself up, Nezuko grabbed her sword. Stumbling for a few steps, she righted herself and grabbed the sheathe she had dropped when cooking. Wiping the blood off on her kimono, she sheathed the sword. She didn’t know where any rivers or lakes were, but she knew water ran and gathered downhill. Wanting to wash off, she began walking down the hill. She assumed she would reach something to wash in quickly, but it took much longer than she had thought it would. She had to wander for hours to even hear water flowing, and it took even longer to find anything that was more than a trickle. Once she found a river big enough to bathe in, she dropped her sword, stripped off her kimono, and waded in.

She was a mess. Dirt and bits and pieces of plants had gotten stuck to her skin. Blood had stained her hands and mouth from feeding on the deer and had spilt down her arms and neck. The dirt was easy enough to brush off with all of the water, but the blood was another story. There was plenty of water, but it was cold, and she had nothing to clean herself with but her hands. Even with all of that in mind, the blood was harder to clean off than it should have been. It seemed to cling to her skin- Or maybe it was the other way around, with her skin somehow clinging to the blood.

No matter how thoroughly Nezuko scrubbed at her arms and face, there was still some trace of blood remaining on her skin. She could see the dots of red, and even when she couldn’t, she could feel it there. She stood there, in waist deep water, for hours, staining the water. Eventually, she felt that the sunrise was only an hour away, and gave up. It was almost funny, in a way- Like something out of a story. She would never be clean, no matter how much she tried. Stepping out of the river, she stood and waited for her body to dry, then put her kimono back on. She scooped some water out of the river with her hands to clean off some of the dirt, but the worst of it would stay where it was. Nezuko began to run away from the river into the forest, ready to resume her hunt.

Chapter Text

Resting for a moment, Yushiro listened to the world around him. He had been turned into a demon several years ago by Lady Tamayo, but he could still remember what it was like to be human. Frankly, he didn’t care much for his time as a human, but the memories did put his new powers into context. It would never cease to amaze him how strong he was and how heightened his senses were. He could hear just about everything around him, and even in complete darkness he could see as well as if it was day.

Taking in a deep breath, he turned and began to run down the path. He didn’t have the time for sightseeing. Lady Tamayo had sent him to get some medical equipment that was being sold a few kilometers away from Asakusa. Asakusa did have stores where such medical equipment could be bought, but Lady Tamayo wanted him to go far afield to get the equipment. He supposed she was just trying to keep any possible sightings of him far away from where the two of them were truly living. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but given who they were fighting, it was a reasonable concern.

Dashing down the path, he tried to pick out the individual noises he could hear. Branches being broken by some kind of animal. Water running over rocks about a quarter mile off. Someone chatting in a cabin. Something clicking.

Wait, something clicking?

Turning towards the sound, Yushiro saw a girl with a flaming sword leap at him from the side of the road. Rolling over, he dodged her clumsy strike and threw a blow against her gut. The girl, with both her own momentum and the force of his punch, tumbled and landed on the ground. Her sword and scabbard landed a few feet away from her.

Yushiro took a second look at her sword. Looking at it, his muscles tensed up instinctively. That sword… There was something different about it.

As he stepped forward to pick it up, the girl got up and lunged at the sword. He threw a kick at her, and something in her broke when his foot hit. Instead of falling over, she backpedaled and corrected her stance, then dug her fingers into her arms. When she pulled them out, he noticed her fingernails were sharpened at the tips. The blood on her fingers burst to life, wreathing her hands in fire.

Humans couldn’t do that, and besides, that blow should have shattered her ribcage. If she were a human, she wouldn't still be standing. This girl was a demon. A lot of thoughts flashed through his head, but as the girl stretched her arms towards Yushiro, the most prominent one was, why is this girl attacking a demon if she is one herself?

Bringing his arm up, her claws sunk into it. The fire jumped from her hands to his arm, burning painfully. Gritting his teeth, he hit her in the gut again. Coughing up blood, she tried to hit him again. Dodging her blow, he broke her arm with a blow from his elbow. Letting out a cry, the girl kicked him back. Stumbling back, he threw himself back at her.

They traded blows for a while. The girl lashed out at him and he blocked or dodged her attacks. Fights with demons tended to be protracted, but she couldn't regenerate as fast as him, so she was slowly being worn down. She seemed to realize that, and her attacks gradually became more frenzied. Soon, she jumped back to try and let her body regenerate. Yushiro let her go. He was hurt too, but he regenerated fast enough to jump back in before she was fully healed.

As their wound regenerated, the two looked at each other. The girl had black hair that hung loose down to her hips with orange at the tips. Bits of dirt and branches had gotten stuck in it. Her kimono was shredded and covered in blood stains. There were also faint red stains running down her chin and her hands. He noticed she wasn't holding any sort of fighting stance, so she couldn't have any real training.

But then how did she get that sword? His train of thought kept coming back to that sword and how tense it made him. But what was so unique about it?

Shoving the thought aside, Yushiro brought his attention back to the girl. Eying him warily, the girl held her broken arm close to her. Her eyes darted between him and her sword, lying a few meters away.

Looking at him, she did a double take and stared at his chest. Letting out a short laugh, she smirked to herself. Confused, Yushiro looked down at his haori. It was ruined, to be sure, with tears and blood stains covering it, but he couldn’t tell what she thought was so funny about it-

Blood. Her blood was staining his haori.

Suddenly, pink flames burst to life on Yushiros shirt. He could feel the fire scar his chest, and he tried to rip off the burning parts of his haori. Just out of the corner of his vision, he saw the girl dash towards her sword. Grabbing it, she turned and lunged at him. Blind from pain, Yushiro swung his arm upwards and felt his hand connect and hit her. He didn't see what happened, but he heard her scream in pain and hit the ground.

Ripping off the burning parts of his haori, he threw himself to the ground to put out the flames that had gotten on his chest. Once the flames had been put out, he slowly stood up and looked down at his chest. Burns criss crossed his chest, and most of his haori had been burned off.

He liked that haori. It had been a gift from Lady Tamayo. Well, she had just gotten it for him because his old one had gotten too damaged to sew together, but it was still something she had gotten for him!

Turning around, Yushiro stepped towards the girl. She was lying on the ground, clutching her elbow. Glancing around, he saw her arm a couple meters away, slowly crumbling like a carved piece of wood that was being burnt into ash. It was still stubbornly holding onto her sword. So that's what he had hit.

He didn't have anything on him that could kill demons, but he couldn’t just leave her here. If he did, she would just recover and kill more people. If he waited until daylight came, he was liable to be burned as well. But beyond that, he didn't have any options for killing her.

Looking at the sword again, he felt an involuntary tensing of his muscles. There was something different about it, but he couldn't tell what. It didn't look abnormal, but it still unnerved him. Crouching down, he brushed off the ashes of her arm, picked up the sword and inspected it closely. It was clearly well used, with nicks and chips running up and down the edge. The edge itself had also heavily dulled. He imagined that if the girl tried to use it, most of the cutting power would come from the sheer force of the blow, not the sharpness of the blade. Either she had been holding onto this for a while, or she had picked it up off of someone who had.

Come to think of it, why was a demon even attacking him in the first place? Was she trying to hunt? No, that couldn’t be it. She had ambushed him and likely would have been able to tell that he was a demon faster than he could tell she was a demon. Was she being territorial? That might explain it, but most demons wouldn’t have a sword on them.

Mulling over the situation in his head, Yushiro noticed the girl trying to pick herself up. She kept slipping in the fallen leaves and branches that covered the forest ground. Noticing him stepping towards her, she stopped struggling and lay there, glaring at him from the ground. Her eyes were glassy, probably from the pain of losing an arm. Still, he could see the anger behind her eyes.

“Where did you get this sword?”

The girl blinked at his question in confusion. Or maybe it was just a haze of pain.

“Wh-what?” she asked.

“This sword. Where did you get it?” he repeated. The girl still struggled to answer the question.

“A- a boy had it”, she said.

“You killed a boy to get this sword?”

“No- no.” The girl seemed opposed to the idea, which was strange for a demon. “He- he was already dead. A demon killed him.”

Yushiro stood there, mulling over this information. Well, that explained where she had gotten this sword, but it didn't really explain the important part.

“Why did you attack me?¨

The girl took in a deep breath and tried to collect herself. “You´re a demon. You kill people. You need to die. We- we all need to die.” The last bit was half whispered, almost just to herself.

“How many demons have you killed?” he asked.

The girl lay on the ground, muttering to herself, seemingly trying to remember. He heard her say something about those three counting as one, as well as listing off a series of demons by their features.

“Eleven”, she finally said.

Yushiro was impressed. If she was telling the truth, that would mean she had killed far more demons than he ever had. Maybe even more than Lady Tamayo had, although he didn’t know much of the finer points of her life before she met him.

“So you’re a rogue demon.”

“What does that mean?” the girl asked.

“It means you don’t work for- for him.” He almost said Muzans name, but he stopped himself halfway through. In the haze of pain the girl was in, she might repeat his name, activating the Kibutsuji curse. Then she would die, and Lady Tamayo couldn’t try to recruit her. Yushiro didn’t know how many rogue demons there were, but there couldn’t be many. Getting one killed because she repeated what he said would have been a disaster.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Him. The demon king. The man who made all demons. I’ve been told he wears a western style suit.” At this, the girl flinched in recognition. Evidently she did remember him.

“No. No, I don’t work for him”, the girl said. “I’d rather be dead.” She said this with hatred dripping from every word.

She could be lying, but he doubted it. Lady Tamayo told him that if he ever met a demon who worked directly for Muzan, he would be able to sense their aura because of the amount of blood he would have given them. He couldn't sense any abnormal aura, so she probably hadn't been given any more blood by him than normal. Weighing his options, he decided to take a gamble.

“How would you like to help kill him?”

At this the girl's eyes shot open, losing the glassy quality they had before.

"I don't work for him either. I work for someone else. She's another demon who wants to kill him. As far as she knows, she and I are the only demons who are actively trying to fight the king of demons. You joining us would be very useful."

The girl looked at him cautiously. After all, this was probably the first time she had even heard about any demons that didn't work for Muzan. Soon, though, she seemed to decide this was her best option. She stood up and watched her new hand form from the stump that had been left of her old arm.

"Alright", she said. "I'll work for you."

"Good", he said. "My name is Yushiro."

"Just Yushiro?"

"Yes. Just Yushiro”, he said with some exasperation.

"Huh. My name is Kamado Nezuko."

Chapter Text

Nezuko and Yushiro ran along the road in awkward silence. Well, she assumed it was only awkward for her. The lime haired man seemed to be indifferent to her presence at best. After their violent meeting, Nezuko figured he would probably kill her to keep himself and his Lady, whoever he meant by that, a secret. Maybe he wouldn't have, but she didn't really want to try and find out.

After she had agreed to work for them, some cat Yushiro had called Chachamaru had appeared, and he had stuck a note in the pack it had on its back. While waiting for it to return he questioned her about her past. He seemed to be trying to catch her in a lie or find out anything suspicious about her, but he seemed satisfied with most of her answers. He also administered some medicines to her and to himself. He said that they were made by his lady for demons in case the two of them ever had to fight other demons. He didn’t explain how it worked, but after he injected it into her arm, her arms and ribcage stopped hurting. The injection probably healed up any remaining cracks in her bones.

The cat had returned surprisingly fast and Yushiro announced that it was time to leave. The two of them ran back down the road she ambushed Yushiro on. He said that they were headed towards a town called Asakusa, which was where he and his lady were living for now. The two of them ran at a pace Nezuko could barely keep up with. Yushiro seemed annoyed that she couldn't keep up, but he agreed to slow down.

Soon the two of them could see Asakusa. It was a sprawling city that was nothing like any city that she had ever seen before. There were electric lights in every window and brightly colored banners that advertised shops and restaurants. She could even see metal rails running through the roads, though she couldn’t tell what they were for.

Yushiro halted just on the city's outskirts. “Alright,” he said, speaking for the first time since they started traveling. Turning to face her, he pulled out a piece of paper with a strange, elaborate eye drawn onto it. "Stay still."

Before Nezuko could ask what she was staying still for, he stuck the paper to her forehead with a needle he pulled out of nowhere.

"Ah! What was that for?" she shouted. She tried to pull the paper off, but he grabbed her hands.

“Stop that. It’s to keep you hidden,” he said.

“Hidden?” she asked incredulously. “How is a piece of paper going to keep me hidden?”

“It- I-” Yushiro sighed in frustration and took in a deep breath. “Please tell me you know what a Blood Demon Art is.”

Nezuko racked her memory. That term seemed… familiar. The horned demons had said something about her and them having one of those, right?

“Yeah, those are powers that demons have, right?”

Yushiro let out a sigh. “Okay, that actually is what a Blood Demon Art is. Yours is what you did to your sword when you attacked me, correct?”

“Yeah, I can set my blood on fire,” she responded.

“Right. Well, my Blood Demon Art is these papers. I use them to affect what other people see. I can improve people's vision, change what things look like and even turn things invisible. Which,” he said, tapping the paper on her head. “Is what this is for.”

“Oh. Wait, don’t-'' She was about to ask if he needed one, but she looked at him and saw the paper that was pinned to his forehead. It had an eye symbol in the middle of it, with odd looking leaf patterns in each of the corners. Given that he had mentioned they could improve vision, she guessed she could see it now that he had pinned one of the papers to her own head. “Ah, nevermind.”

At this, Yushiro let go of her hands. “Now, could you please follow me? We need to get to the house.”

The two of them walked into the city, weaving their way through the thick crowds. Sure enough, the papers worked like Yushiro said they would and no one batted an eye at the two of them. Nezuko kept stopping to look at the bright lights and to breathe in the scent of all the people and foods that flooded the streets. She had spent her whole life in the mountains, only coming down to the town at the bottom of the mountain to sell charcoal. Even then, the town didn't have any electricity and was lit entirely with candles and lamps. The electric lights that lined the streets were completely alien to her. Yushiro got tired of reminding her to keep walking and grabbed her hand again, simply dragging her along whenever she stopped.

The two of them walked together to the outskirts of the city where the lights were much dimmer. This was probably where people actually lived as opposed to just where all the shops were. Yushiro seemed to know where he was going, so she just followed him without question. The two of them walked down a maze of paths, tuning one corner after another.

"So, who is your lady?" Nezuko asked in an attempt to fill the silence between the two of them.

Yushiro paused for a moment. "She is a demon who works as an at home doctor. When people want a higher level of care than they can get at a hospital, they go to her."

Nezuko understood the concept. She could imagine her family hiring such a doctor to visit them if they had the money, given just how far removed they were from the rest of civilization. "How did you meet her?" Nezuko asked.

Again, he hesitated for a moment. "I was dying. I was born with haemophillia, a disease that prevented my blood from clotting. If I got bruised or cut, even a little, I could die from internal bleeding. One day, when it was very icey, I fell down some steps and broke my arm and several ribs. My Lady found me lying there, with my arm and chest swollen to the extremes. I could barely breathe or move. I was to fargone to heal normally, so she turned me into a demon to let me live.”

“She… turned you into a demon?” Nezuko asked.

“Yes,” Yushiro responded. “Is there anything wrong with that?” Given the expression he wore, it was clear he’d prefer it if there wasn’t.

“No, it’s just-” she really should have asked this right after they met, but he had just taken off her hand, and she had wanted to be cautious. Still, she couldn't work for someone just as bad as her. Taking in a deep breath, she steeled herself and asked, "How many people have you killed?"

Yushiro seemed to recoil from the question, then smacked her upside the head. "No one! My Lady is a doctor, she does blood drives and drinks the blood from those. So do I."

"Blood drives?" Nezuko asked l, rubbing the side of her head.

Yushiro sighed again. That seemed to be a habit of his. "Doctors need blood for transfusions. We pay people to give blood, but we always get more blood than we need, so we have enough to drink."

After he explained that, he turned, grabbed her hand and dragged her along. She wasn't really in the mood for more conversation, and she had the feeling that he wouldn't be interested in talking either.

The two of them rounded a corner and approached a building that looked more like a mansion to her. It had two stories, a massive courtyard with cherry blossom trees and electric light shining out of every window. In front of the house, there were more cherry trees, each with a single one of Yushiro´s papers affixed to it. More of these papers covered the roof and walls of the building, with a few papers evenly distributed on each wall. This must have been where Yushiro and his lady lived.

Yushiro walked up to the door, then turned around and said, “Make sure that you do not offend Lady Tamayo in any way, understood? Frankley, I couldn’t care less about you. I’m just bringing you here because you could be useful to her. Am I clear?”

Nezuko looked at him for a moment, stunned by his bluntness, but quietly muttered that he was clear. With that, he turned back around and knocked on the door. A woman's voice answered, “Enter,” and he opened the door, stepping inside.

The building was spacious, with the door opening into a long hallway that branched off into many other rooms and separate hallways. Following Yushiro, the two of them soon arrived at a lab. A woman with flowing black hair in a bun and a purple kimono decorated with red flowers was looking down into a microscope.

As she heard the two of them enter, she straightened her back and turned to look at them. When she saw Nezuko, she stared in shock, then walked over and started fussing over her. Turning to Yushiro, she asked him, "Yushiro, what on earth did you do to her?"

Sputtering, he responded, "It's not my fault! She attacked me!"

Turning away from him, she asked Nezuko, “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah, I’m- I’m fine,” Nezuko awkwardly muttered.

“Alright. We need to get you cleaned up. Let’s draw you a bath, alright?”

“-”

The woman guided her to a bathroom and provided her with soap, a towel and a set of clothes to change into once she was clean. After she left, Nezuko pulled off her clothes and lowered herself into the metal bathtub.

Almost immediately, she began scrubbing off the mixture of blood and dirt that caked her body. She could see her layers upon layers of this mixture be washed off, turning the water a cloudy shade of reddish brown. The hot water and soap she had been given made it much easier than she had thought it would be. Soon she moved to raking through her hair with her fingers, undoing knots and cleaning out any clumps of dirt in her hair. She had to pull out several twigs that had somehow gotten stuck in her hair. Soon she had managed to clean her hair as well. She spent the next couple of minutes cleaning her face and digging dirt out from under her nails. Eventually she had managed to clean herself completely.

For a while, though, she just sat there. The bath had cooled from too hot to just pleasantly warm. She could feel how much cleaner and smoother her skin was. She could lie her back against the smooth wall of the tub, a sharp contrast from the lumpy ground she had been sleeping on recently. She could just tune out the world and allow herself to relax for a moment.

Eventually, though, she pulled herself out of the tub. It would be rude to keep her host waiting, as she probably wanted something from Nezuko. Carefully stepping out, she dried herself off and slipped into the clothes she had been given. The clothes the woman had given her were plain white, like what Yushiro was wearing. She probably kept a few sets of clothes around to give to patients. After wiping up the water she had tracked out of the tub, she stood up and looked at the mirror that was affixed to the wall of the bathroom.

She was a bit taken aback by how she looked. Her eyes were an unnatural shade of pink, and her pupils were slit like some wildcat. Her teeth were different, too. All of them were sharper, and her canines were even sharper and longer. As a child, she had a habit of grinding her teeth in her sleep. She had eventually grown out of the habit, but by then, her canines were almost nubs. Still, even these had grown beyond what was normal. Her hair was abnormal as well. The tips had, for some reason, turned a bright orange. It was weird she hadn’t noticed before, but she hadn’t really been paying attention to her hair, and she hadn’t really had a mirror on her.

The weirdest thing, though, was how young she looked. It had been at least two years since she was turned into a demon, so she should have been 14. Still, though, she looked as young as ever. Was this some demon thing? Was not aging part of being almost impossible to kill? She supposed immortality would probably be something that would get lumped in with being a demon. Maybe she could ask Yushiro’s lady about it. She probably understood being a demon better.

After staring at her reflection for a moment longer, Nezuko turned and left the room.

“You took a while,” Yushiro said.

She jumped a little at his sudden appearance. “Sorry, I just wanted a minute to myself”, she replied.

“Well, come on. You’re wasting my lady’s time,” he said as he began walking down the hall. Following him, the two of them soon arrived at a living room where the woman was waiting. Yushiro guided Nezuko to a spot on the floor facing the woman, then sat down next to the woman.

The woman smiled pleasantly. “I don’t think we’ve properly met. Yushiro here mentioned your name in the letter he sent me with chachamaru. Kamado Nezuko, correct?” Nezuko nodded to confirm. “Good. You can call me Tamayo. It’s nice to meet you.”

Tamayo extended her hand and Nezuko awkwardly shook it. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

Letting her hand go, Tamayo said, “Yushiro told me some interesting things about you. Would you mind answering some questions of mine?”

“No, I can answer them,” she replied.

“Excellent.” Nezuko saw Tamayo slide her finger across her forearm, then settled her hand on her arm in an awkward looking position. “Could you tell me how long you’ve been a demon for?”

“About two years,” Nezuko answered.

“How did you become a demon?”

It was a very personal story, but for some reason, she felt very comfortable telling it to Tamayo. “A man in a black, western suit came to my house. He- he turned me into a demon after he killed my family.”

“Do you know his name?”

Racking her brain for a moment, Nezuko came up empty. “No. Yushiro said he was the- King of Demons or something? What does that mean?”

“I can tell you after you answer my questions. You don’t work for him, do you?”

“No,” she responded forcefully. “He killed my family. I wouldn’t ever work for him.”

“Alright, I understand," Tamayo said. “Now, understand that this next question is just something I have to ask.”

“How many people have you eaten?”

Nezuko remained silent for a moment, then said, “One, my brother Tanjiro. I might’ve- might’ve eaten a bit of my family after they were dead.”

Tamayo seemed to consider this response for a moment. “Just one?”

“Just- just one? What do you mean, ‘Just one’? I-”

Then it hit her again. Usually she could get by without breaking down, but sometimes what she had done just hit her all at once.

Tanjiro. She had murdered her big brother.

As Nezuko felt her eyes brim with tears, she hugged herself and tried to keep her tears from spilling out too much. Her vision swam with tears and bright colors- were those flowers?- as she tried to bring her emotions under control. Raising her head, she saw Tamayo grab a cloth and wipe off her arm. It came away red with blood.

“I’m sorry if my question was insensitive, it’s just… unexpected for a demon this strong to have eaten so few.” Seeing the confusion on Nezuko’s face, Tamayo explained herself. “Blood isn’t just something demons need to consume for food, it’s also something they need to get stronger. If they consume a lot of blood, they can get stronger and eventually gain a blood demon art. So, you having eaten only one person and already having a blood demon art is… unique.”

Nezuko, wiping away the tears in her eyes, took in this information. “Could Tanjiro have been different? Maybe his blood was just stronger?”

“It could be, but his blood would have had to have been incredibly strong. Perhaps if I ran some tests on your blood, I could find out,” Tamayo replied.

“I’d be fine with that,” Nezuko replied. Glancing at the bloodied rag Tamayo had at her side, she asked, “What happened to your arm? Are you alright?”

Tamayo smiled apologetically. “I’m fine. I’ll heal. I had to make sure you weren’t lying. That’s part of my blood demon art. If I expose my blood to the air, demons are unable to lie. I have to be cautious with this power, though, because it could kill a human if they were exposed to it.”

Nodding in understanding, Nezuko asked, “Who is the King of Demons?¨

Tamayo´s apologetic smile fell from her face. “The King of Demons is the first demon to ever exist. I´m not sure where he came from, but all demons, except for Yushiro, were created by him. His only goal is power. Being over a thousand years old, he has become far too powerful to confront directly. He’s created an elite rank of demon, the Twelve Kizuki, who work directly under him. He has given them an incredibly high dose of his blood, making them far more powerful than any demon you have ever faced. I don’t know much about them, but I have never heard of one of them being killed by any demon slayer. Alongside them, he has a small army of less powerful but still incredibly dangerous demons who he dispatches on missions not important enough for the Twelve Kizuki. All in all, he is far too powerful for anyone to beat him as is.”

After this grim assessment, Nezuko asked, “If he’s so powerful, how can we hope to actually fight him?”

“I’m hoping I can… level the playing field, so to speak. I’ve spent my time free of his influence testing samples of his blood I’ve found in people he has turned into demons. I believe that, given time, I could create a medicine that could turn demons back into humans.”

At this news, Nezuko was too shocked to speak for a moment. However, she quickly recovered from this shock. “You can?! That- that’s amazing! How developed is this medicine?!”

“Don’t get your hopes up. The blood I gathered from these demons was very diluted, and my research has been very slow.” At this, her spirits fell for a moment, but she snapped back to attention when Tamayo said, “That’s where you come in.”

“You are a remarkably powerful demon, Kamado Nezuko. You’ve only eaten one person, but you have still generated a blood demon art. You’ve killed eleven demons despite only being alive for two years. Me and Yushiro both are powerful in our own right. I have significant knowledge of demons, and Yushiro knows how to fight well. Together, we could train you and make you much stronger than you are right now. Eventually, you might be strong enough to fight a member of the Twelve Kizuki. If I could get a sample of their blood, I would have a much purer sample of the blood of the King of Demons. That would go a long way towards helping me develop a cure for demonhood.”

After little thought, Nezuko responded, “I’ll do it. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. This King of Demons, whoever he is, needs to be stopped. To have gotten as powerful as you say he is…” She felt her hands tremble, imagining how many people he had forced to kill their own family. How many those demons had killed. How many he had killed himself. “He needs to be stopped.”

Smiling a little at her response, Tamayo stood up. “Excellent. We have a guest room we’ve never really used, you can sleep there. I’ll have Yushiro show you there. Until tomorrow, you should rest. After that, him and I will begin-”

At first, the sound was minor. The jingling of some bells and the laughing of a child that had simply faded into the faint background of constant noise that Nezuko always heard as a demon. It had gotten a bit louder, but she had been focused on what Tamayo was telling her. Now though, the noise was too distinct to not notice.

She heard something wishing through the air. She saw Yushiro tense up at the sound. He jumped up to protect Tamayo with his body. She heard a tree be broken in half like a twig. She heard a child-like laugh of glee.

And then she saw the wall explode inward.

Chapter Text

As the wall exploded into splinters, Nezuko could see temari balls patterned white, blue and yellow punch through the wall and ricochet throughout the room. Red arrows seemed to fly just ahead of them, and whenever they hit a wall, a bell ringing could be heard from inside them. She narrowly avoided being hit, but Yushiro wasn’t so lucky. One of the temari balls darted by him, then, as the arrow in front of it turned to point towards him, turned and slammed itself into his head. His head came clean off, splattering flesh, bone shards and blood all across the room.

Diving for her sword, Nezuko grabbed it and pulled it out of its sheath. She brought it down on one of the temari balls, cutting halfway through it. She could see the temari ball bleed like it was a living thing. It was much harder to cut through than she would have expected from a thread ball, and she only managed to cut halfway through. When her sword was firmly in the temari ball, however, it jerked to the side, bringing her arm with it. She heard it pop out of its socket and cried out in pain. While being jerked around, several other temari balls slammed into her. Fractures spread through her ribcage and limbs. She could feel one of her ribs drive itself into her lung.

Clawing into her sword arm, her blood surged and then burst out of her arm. The blood sprayed out of her arm, splattering onto the temari balls and walls of the room. She had learned that trick a while ago, and it had saved her repeatedly. She made sure to direct the blood away from Tamayo and Yushiro, but the rest landed just about wherever and burst into flames. The temari balls were immediately covered in fire, while the fire on the walls spread in an oddly veiny pattern. Soon the temari balls had either burnt up or had been cut into pieces by her, and she extinguished the blood fires.

Suddenly, a childlike laugh of glee rang through the air. Whipping her head up, Nezuko looked through the massive hole in the wall. Beyond it, a man wearing a necklace of blue beads and a yellow kimono was standing next to a girl with black hair and orange highlights that matched her kimono. The girl was bouncing a temari ball at her side, and the man was angling his hand towards the house, almost like he was waving. After looking closer at his hand, she could see that there was an eye embedded in each of his palms.

The girl laughed again. "You were right, Yahaba! This is where the fugitive is hiding!"

Yahaba, as the girl had called him, looked more disgruntled than happy. "Of course I'm right, Susamaru. I just wish you hadn't been so messy about this. You’ve gotten dust all over my kimono."

"Oh, don't be so stuffy. Besides, your kimono looks just fine to me."

Susamaru grabbed the temari ball she was bouncing and threw it hard at Nezuko. Lighting the blood on her sword on fire, she swung up the sword and cut through the temari ball. The two halves were set on fire by her blade and were burnt to ashes.

"Lady Tamayo! Are you okay?" Nezuko shouted.

"I'm fine," she replied. She was injecting Yushiro with a syringe full of the same stuff he had injected her when they first met.

Yushiros neck was already regenerating, but after the injection, the regeneration process seemed to jumpstart. Little tendrils of flesh extended out of his neck and stitched themselves together. Soon he had regenerated his jaw and he started yelling.

"This is my fault, Lady Tamayo!” he shouted. “It was my idea to bring the girl here! These demons must have tracked her here! My hidden technique is still imperfect, I can only keep so many people hidden at once!”

“Anyone who hurts you… I hate them! I can’t ever forgive them!”

“Hey! A little help here?!” Nezuko shouted back at him.

As the rest of Yushiro’s head regenerated, he jumped up and put himself in front of Lady Tamayo.

"Go help her, Yushiro," she said. "I'll be fine, just buy me some time."

At this, he stepped up to Nezuko's side. The two of them sized up the other two demons.

"I'll get the man, you deal with the girl," he said to her. "Be careful with her. I think the man is the one who makes her temari balls change direction, but the girl is still dangerous."

"Enough talk!" Susamaru shouted. "Let's fight!"

She took off the top half of her kimono, leaving her wearing only a black band of cloth around her chest. Four extra arms ripped themselves out of her sides, and a temari ball formed in each hand, stitching herself together out of the girl's flesh and blood.

As she curled back her arms to strike, the girl shouted, "What fun this is! You two will have the honor of being killed by one of the Twelve Kizuki!"

Nezuko remembered what Lady Tamayo had said about the Twelve Kizuki. They were the demons who worked directly for the King of Demons. The girl's blood could help make Lady Tamayo's cure. That blood… she needed to get it.

Stepping into a makeshift fighting stance she had taught herself, Nezuko jumped forward with Yushiro. He pinned one of his papers to his forehead and disappeared. For a moment, she thought he had left her, but when she looked down, she could still see his footprints leading around Susamaru towards the cherry blossom trees, where Yahaba had taken refuge. He probably didn't want to get hit by one of Susamaru's temari balls again.

Dashing forward, Nezuko lit her sword and cut through the first volley that was thrown towards her. The blood fires quickly burned the temari balls to ashes, but Susamaru simply formed more and threw them at her. The new volley dodged around her blows and slipped into any openings in her stance to slam into her, shattering bones wherever they hit. Grimacing from the pain, she spun her sword to scatter her blood fire onto the temari balls. They were quickly covered by fire, giving Nezuko the space to swing properly and cut apart the next volley.

Suddenly, the red arrows ahead of the temari balls vanished and the temari balls flew off in every direction. Looking up at the trees, she saw Yahaba’s arm limp at his side as he tried to jump away from Yushiro, who was striking at him with a series of kicks and punches.

Susamaru was also staring at the two of them, and Nezuko realized that this was her chance. Dashing towards her, she raised her sword and brought it down diagonally to split her at the elbow. Seeing her blow at the last moment, Susamaru only just managed to move her neck out of the blow's way. The blow cut through her left shoulder and lopped off the three arms on that side.

Nezuko turned her blade upwards and swung her sword again, but her sword arm was grabbed by the girl and held down. Looking at her arms, she stared in shock as she saw that all of the arms she had cut off had regenerated in the blink of an eye. All of the demons she had fought had needed at least a few moments to heal, and this girl had grown back multiple limbs in just an instant?

“Oh, what fun this is!” Susamaru shouted. Her right arms braced back and delivered a trio of punches that broke bones wherever they landed. Nezuko jumped back to put distance between herself and this girl.

“You filthy wretch!” she heard Yahaba shout at Yushiro. “Get away from me!”

Looking up at the treeline, she saw Yahaba summon one of his red arrows in the middle of Yushiro’s chest and throw the demon away from him. Yushiro flew through the air and collided with Nezuko, sending both of them tumbling backwards.

Shoving Yushiro off of her, Nezuko stood up and tried to assess the situation. Her wounds were healing, but so were the ones Yahaba and Susamaru had taken. Susamaru had regenerated her arms, and Yahaba had healed his broken arm completely. Her bones still hurt from being fractured, and Yushiro was still stumbling up, so he couldn’t be in too good of condition either. If this became a drawn out battle of back and forth blows, the two demons they were fighting could just wear them down over time, then use Nezuko’s sword to kill them or just leave them out to burn. They needed to wrap this up quickly or they were going to lose.

As Yushiro stood up, Nezuko said, “Lady Tamayo asked you to buy her some time. What does that mean? Is she planning something?”

“Yes, she is,” he replied. “We still need to kill at least one of these two demons, though. What she’s planning will likely only work once.”

“Alright,” Nezuko said after a little thought. “Should we swap demons?”

“Sure. Try not to let him put too much distance between the two of you..”

After he told her this, Nezuko cut into her arm and charged towards Yahaba with her sword at her side. If she could at least distract him, she could give Yushiro an opening to deal with the girl. Swinging her blade towards him, her blood began to surge towards the point of her blade.

Just as the blood was about to fly off of the point, Yahaba pointed his arm towards her, and the eye on his hand formed the shape of an arrow in the place of a pupil. Just as she realized what that symbol meant, she felt her sword arm jerk backwards and twist painfully. Looking back at her arm, she saw one of the red arrows wrapped around it. If it kept twisting her arm like that, it was going to break or be dislocated. Thinking quickly, she flipped herself in the direction the red arrow was twisting her arm. When she landed, the red arrow had loosened enough that it just tore off her sleeve.

Another arrow appeared in the middle of her chest and she felt herself get yanked into the sky. Flying towards the sky, she suddenly began to hurtle back downward. She tried to move her legs to cushion the impact, but it wasn’t enough. When she hit the ground, her legs shattered and her vision went white with pain. There was no time to adjust to the pain, though, as the arrow quickly threw her to the side and slammed her into the ground repeatedly.

Flying high into the sky again, she saw the blood that had been splashed all over the ground and got an idea. Reaching out to her blood, she felt it move and jump towards Yahaba. Drops of blood landed on his face and kimono. After turning his hands to look at the blood on his face, he turned his face up towards her to shout at her. Before he could, though, the blood on his face and kimono lit on fire.

Only a small amount of blood got onto him, but the blood that had gotten on him burned deep into his skin. Screaming, he batted at his face with his arms, trying to put out the flames. The red arrow in Nezuko’s chest vanished and she crashed back towards earth. When she hit the ground, she felt her legs break again, but they healed fast enough.

Once she could stand, she charged towards Yahaba. Seeing her, he summoned several of his red arrows and shot them out in her direction. Most of them flew off towards nothing, but the one that did hit was too late. Her sword cut through his neck before the arrow threw her backwards. His head tumbled off his body as he fell to his knees. The arrow in her chest dissipated and she skidded to a stop.

Yahaba was shocked into silence for a moment before screaming in rage. “Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit! You damned child! I was so close to capturing The Fugitive! Do you even realize what you’ve taken from me?!”

“If I’m going to die,” he shouted at her as his body began to crumble into ashes, “then I am taking you with me!”

The air cooled for a moment, then a dozen of the red arrows sprouted from her chest. Nezuko stared at them in horror for a moment before the arrows kicked in. She was thrown through the air, slamming into the ground and walls. Cracks spiderwebbed through her bones. Her organs felt like mush from all of the impacts. Just survive, she thought to herself. She had already cut off Yahaba’s head. He couldn’t last much longer. She would have time to regenerate once he was dead. Maneuvering her body through the air, she managed to shift her arms and legs between herself and the ground. They practically shattered from the constant impact, but they managed to keep her torso and head intact.

Suddenly, Yahaba’s screaming stopped as his head finally crumbled into nothing, and the red arrows still lodged in her chest dissipated. Still flying through the air, she fell to the ground and tumbled for a few feet before skidding to a painful stop.

She lay there for a moment, trying to let her body heal. She needed to get up and help Yushiro and Lady Tamayo, but everything hurt too much to move. She just needed a moment to heal. Her bones snapped back into place, cutting through any flesh that was in the way. A rib that had lodged itself in one of her lungs pulled itself back into place, and she felt her punctured lung practically reinflate.

Pushing herself up, Nezuko looked over at Yushiro and Susamaru. Yushiro had been beaten back from Susamaru and had been badly wounded. For her part, Susamaru seemed all but unhurt, and held a temari ball in each of her six hands, ready to strike at any moment. Right now, the two of them were sizing each other up, but neither seemed willing to attack first. If Yushiro needed help, she wasn’t sure she could actually provide it. Yahaba had exhausted her too much for her to be useful, and between the two of them, she was the only one with a Nichirin sword.

Lady Tamayo stepped out of the ruins of her house. She had pulled up one of her sleeves and had clawed into it. Blood was dripping down the back, and a faint red and purple mist was flowing along the ground.

“Susamaru, do you know what kind of man Kibutsuji is?” she asked.

Nezuko didn’t recognize that name. Was that the name of the King of Demons?

Susamaru jolted, but quickly covered her shock. “What do you know? You’re just a fugitive!”

“Kibutsuji is a coward. He lives in constant fear of someone becoming more powerful than him. The only reason the Twelve Kizuki and all other demons exist is to act as a shield for him. Even then, he forces them to stay separate and to only gather at his command. He does all of this to prevent them from gaining enough power to challenge his position. Every act of his is meant to consolidate his power and erode everybody else's. Even you are nothing but a pawn to him. The second he has a reason to fear you, he will destroy you.”

Susamaru had clearly been angered by Lady Tamayo’s speech, but the last part pushed her over the edge. “Shut up! You have no idea what you are talking about! The Great One is not just some random demon! Kibutsuji-Sama is-”

A look of horror dawned on the girl's face for some reason. Suddenly dropping two of the temari balls she was holding, she covered her mouth with her two empty hands and began to hyperventilate.

Lady Tamayo almost seemed sad as she looked at the girl. “You’ve said his name now. You know what this means. The Kibutsuji curse should come into effect at any moment now. I pity you a little, but,” she said, sighing deeply, “farewell.”

Glancing around in a panicked manner, Susamaru turned away from Lady Tamayo and towards the sky. “Please! I’m begging you, please forgive me! I’m sorry, I won’t say anything mo-”

Abruptly cut off, the girl doubled over and began to choke. Dropping her remaining temari balls, she clutched at her stomach as her veins and skin began to pulse in a dark black color. Whipping her head around desperately, she locked eyes with Nezuko for a moment. Her orange retinas were surrounded by bulging, red veins that ran through the whites of her eyes. Tears were pooling at the edges of her eyes, and she seemed to be begging Nezuko for help.

Suddenly, a pair of massive, scarred green arms burst through her chest, with another forcing its way out of her jaw. Blood spilled from her wounds, and her jaw had visibly been broken by the arm forcing its way out. Staring at her, Nezuko watched in shock as the arms that had forced their way through her chest wrapped around her and the arm that had forced its way out of her mouth grabbed her head. The arms all crushed whatever they were holding, turning Suamaru’s body into a bloody pulp. After crushing every part of her body, the arms crumbled into ashes.

A shocked Nezuko turned towards Lady Tamayo. Noticing her attention, Lady Tamayo explained, “This is the effect of the Kibutsuji curse. It’s placed on all demons to prevent information about him spreading. Whenever someone says his name, they are destroyed by the curse. Aside from sunlight, nichirin blades and wisteria flower poison, nothing beyond this can kill demons. I used my blood demon art technique to get this girl to say his name, but this is all his doing.”

As Nezuko turned her attention towards the bloody remains of Susamaru, she said, “Well, at least you have blood from one of the Twelve Kizuki, right?”

“This wasn’t one of the Twelve Kizuki.”

“... What?”

“The Twelve Kizuki each have kanji on their eyes to indicate their rank within the Twelve Kizuki. These two,” Layd Tamayo said, “didn’t have any kanji that would indicate they are part of the Twelve Kizuki. Besides, they were both far too weak to be one of the Twelve Kizuki.”

…Too weak? Nezuko had almost every bone in her body broken by Yahaba alone, and these two were too weak to be part of the Twelve Kizuki? With this information, Nezuko’s imagination of what actually meeting one of the Twelve Kizuki would be like produced terrifying images.

Crouching down, Lady Tamayo used a syringe to draw up some of Susamaru’s blood. “At the very least, this will have some notable amount of Kibutsuji Muzan’s blood.”

“That name… you keep saying it. Is Ki-”

“Stop,” Lady Tamayo swiftly ordered her. “You may not work for him, but you still are a product of Kibutsuji Muzan. That’s probably how these two tracked you and Yushiro here. I should be able to remove the curse from you, but it will take time.”

Surveying the destruction, Lady Tamayo said, “We will probably need to leave here soon. If these two could find us, more are likely to follow.” After saying this, both she and Yushiro turned to head into what remained of the house. “Come on. We should take stock of what was damaged.”

“One- one moment,” Nezuko said. Lady Tamayo nodded in assent and entered the house with Yushiro. Nezuko walked over to the remains of Susamaru. Even with most of her body destroyed, she was still moving a little, trying to reach for one of her temari balls.

Somehow, a voice emanated from the bloody mess at Nezukos feet. “My- my temari,” it weakly called out. The voice sounded like that of a sickly child, and she came to the depressing conclusion that the girl really had been just a child. Someone who had been manipulated into worshiping this King of Demons(Nezuko was fearful of even thinking his name) with promises of strength and power.

Grabbing Susamarus temari ball, Nezuko set it next to the arm that had been reaching for it. “Here’s your temari,” she said.

The arm felt the ball, then solved it playfully. Giggles emanated from the rest of what remained of the body. Nezuko instinctively knew that day was going to break soon, and stepped towards the house. Before she could leave, the voice emanated from the remains of the girl's body.

“Come play,” it cheered. “Come play with me someday.”

Blinking back tears, Nezuko walked away to the shade inside the house. That girl… she had been made by the King of Demons to murder people on his behalf. She had treated him like a deity, and he had discarded her like nothing. This man- no, this demon- he had to be stopped. He had to face consequences for everything he had done, to humans and demons alike.

As the faintest hints of sunrise began to creep into the sky, Nezuko promised to herself and to her family that she would set this right and see this demon dead if it killed her.

Chapter Text

About a week after Susamaru and Yahaba had attacked them, Tamayo, Yushiro and Nezuko all left the house that they had been living in. Tamayo had assumed that more of Muzans servants would come, so they had hurriedly left for a second house that she had rented for emergencies. Most of what they had taken there had been research Tamayo had gathered on demons and her medical equipment. The rest had been burned to hide any trace they had been there.

The house they had gone to was far south of Tokyo, in the suburbs of Yokohama. It was smaller than the first house, but was still massive by Nezuko’s standards. When they arrived there, Tamayo began working on Nezuko. Her blood had apparently been abnormal, and seemed to be more potent despite her only receiving a small amount of Muzans blood. She didn’t fully understand what Tamayo was talking about, but it seemed to interest her, so it must have been useful to her research.

Tamayo had also removed the Kibutsuji curse from her after a couple of weeks at the new house. She had encouraged Nezuko to say Kibutsuji’s name casually, and had told her to use his given name instead of his surname. The Kibutsuji curse may have been something to make him safer, but he also enjoyed the power it gave his name. He wanted to seem mysterious and untouchable. This was one way, if only a small way, that they could chip away at his sense of power.

Tamayo seemed to know an awful lot about Muzan. She wasn’t just stating facts about him, she was dissecting his personality and his motives. She made it a constant point to highlight how fearful he was. The hate in her voice when she spoke about him made it seem less like she was just some demon insulting him and more like she had a personal grudge against him.

Nezuko had tried to find out more about her past, but Tamayo had never talked much about it and she hadn’t felt comfortable prying. She had tried to talk to Yushiro, but he had shut down all conversation about the subject. She wasn’t even sure if he knew why she wasn’t under Muzans control. In the end, she decided the fact that Tamayo was working against Muzan was more important than why.

Both Tamayo and Yushiro had dedicated a lot of their time to training Nezuko. Yushiro’s training tended to be more combat related and was much more grueling. He didn’t know how to use a sword either, but he did know some martial arts. Nezuko wasn’t a great student, and Yushiro wasn’t a great teacher, but she still managed to learn from him over time.

Tamayo, meanwhile, spent her time teaching Nezuko how to use her blood demon art and how to use her other demonic abilities. She had taught her how to use her blood demon art with more finesse and precision. Her blood fire spread easily and quickly, so she didn't need to use as much blood as she had been to achieve the same effect. She got better at manipulating her blood fires, making them jump and lunge at her command.

Tamayo had also been able to answer her many, many questions about being a demon. No, Blood Demon Arts were almost never alike. Yes, demons never aged. They could alter their appearance to look older, which Tamayo taught Nezuko how to do, but they never would die of old age. Yes, the Wisteria she had mentioned could kill demons was a flower.

She had also been able to answer most of her questions about the Demon Slayers. Nezuko had heard passing remarks from demons about the group, but she wasn’t really striking up conversations with them. Tamayo hadn’t known much exact detail either, but she could tell her the basics. They had existed for hundreds of years in one form or the other, and had always been meant to fight demons. They fought with nichirin swords, strange blades that somehow soaked in the power of the sun, giving them the ability to kill demons if used to cut off the head. They also had supernatural levels of speed and strength that put them on par with most demons.

Between training, Nezuko helped around the office. She had learned hard work in her life before she was a demon, so doing the chores alongside Yushiro wasn’t that hard to get used to. Her knowledge of sewing could be applied to stitching wounds, but she didn’t trust herself around patients with open wounds. There was just too much blood.

Overall, though, she often felt a little useless. Tamayo had been able to set up a doctor's office pretty quickly, and Yushiro knew enough about medicine to help her, but Nezuko was something of a dead weight. Her help around the office was certainly useful, but that was about all she could offer. Her refusal to get close enough to a patient to hurt them meant she couldn’t do anything to help them, and she didn’t know how to do anything but stitch wounds anyway. Her blood was valuable to Tamayo’s research, and that was definitely important, but it still felt like she could be doing more. She needed to be doing more. Every day Muzan was still alive was a day more people were killed and more demons like her were made.

About a month after they had arrived at the new office, Nezuko approached Tamayo with an idea. At the time, the woman had just gotten back to the office after an at home doctor's visit, and was relaxing with a cup of tea. Human food tasted and smelled deeply repulsive to demons, but tea was basically hot leaf juice, so it probably didn’t count.

“Lady Tamayo?” Nezuko said.

Tamayo looked up at her. “Just Tamayo is fine, Nezuko. Do you need something?”

Nezuko sat down facing her. “Actually, I was wondering if I could do something for you.”

“Oh?” Tamayo said. “What were you thinking of doing?"

“You've mentioned that there were demons that worked directly for Muzan. You called them the Twelve Kizuki, right?” As Tamayo nodded in response, Nezuko continued. “Well, you said that they had a very high concentration of his blood. If I got some of their blood, that would be a great help to your research. I was thinking that I could leave here and hunt for them.”

Tamayo's expression rapidly shifted from surprise to contained but still noticeable skepticism. Ignoring this, Nezuko pressed on with her pitch. “I can't be of much help here. I don't know anything about medicine, so I can’t really help you with your patients. You already have a large amount of my blood for your research, so you don't need me to stay here for that.``

“Are you sure you could actually succeed against one of the Twelve Kizuki?” Tamayo asked her. “You struggled with Yahaba, and he wasn’t even one of them.”

“I’ve gotten a lot stronger since then. I’ve picked up a lot from Yushiro, and you’ve helped me learn about my powers. I can get experience fighting weaker demons out there, instead of just doing drills and sparring for practice. Anyway,” Nezuko added, “out there, I can at least protect people from demons. In here, I'm just a glorified blood bank.”

Nezuko stopped talking, letting Tamayo mull over her suggestion. She tried to avoid fidgeting, though she couldn’t help but fiddle with her thumbs. Honestly, she was a little worried that Tamayo would say no. Nezuko could probably leave without her permission, but with Tamayo’s permission, she would actually have a goal out there. She could actually do something tangible against the demons. Even if it was dangerous out there, she had to at least try to do something.

Eventually, Tamayo broke her silence. “I suppose I have gathered enough blood from you already. It’s in a freezer now, and I don’t need constant fresh blood from you. And Chachamaru could be sent after you to collect any blood you do find.”

Tamayo looked up at her, making eye contact. “Nezuko, I need you to understand just how dangerous this would be. You would be fighting demons far more powerful than anything you’ve ever faced and that wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. This would not be something casual to do. This would take all of the strength that you have. Are you able to commit to that?”

Nezuko immediately nodded at her question. “I know there are risks to this, but I still have to try. Even if it only means Muzan is brought down a single minute sooner, it will still have been worth it.”

Tamayo maintained eye contact, studying Nezuko and considering her response. After a moment, she stood up and tucked her hands into her sleeves. “I'll have Yushiro get you a pack for your travels. You'll be able to leave whenever suits you.”

Nezuko stood up as well. “Of course. Thank you for this opportunity, Tamayo. I won’t let you down.”

Yushiro was surprised that she had decided to leave, but seemed glad that she was going. He was probably happy nobody but him would be spending any time with his lady. The bag he had packed her contained some of the medicines Tamayo had produced to aid the regeneration of demons, alongside some more standard medical equipment. Most important, though, was a knife-like device apparently meant to extract blood from the Twelve Kizuki, should she manage to find any. Yushiro demonstrated how it worked on himself, showing her how to extract blood and informing her that its use would summon Chachamaru. He began to dive into a complicated, long winded explanation on how it would do that, but she decided to simply take him at his word for it.

When she left, she simply headed off away from civilization. When she had been a wandering rogue demon, she had aimlessly traveled from place to place, hoping to pick up on the scent of a demon. Even though she actually had a purpose now, her strategy was more or less the same. She imagined the Demon Slayers, wherever they were, probably hunted for demons in the same manner she did. Sure, they probably had informants, but for such a violent role, her own experience hunting demons had been fairly tedious.

Heading towards nowhere in particular, Nezuko managed to stumble upon a handful of demons sprinkled throughout the countryside. They had all thought she was a Demon Slayer, and had all been completely surprised when they found out she wasn’t. None of them had really put up a fight.

Nezuko had taken little time to get used to being back outside. Her back had been incredibly sore after going from a comfortable mattress back to the knotted branches and roots of nature, and she could never manage to go to sleep without a crick in her neck when she woke up.

Still, as a demon, her sores dissipated quickly. If they got bad enough, she could just grow more clothes to cushion herself. Tamayo had taught her that she could grow clothes out of her skin. It worked by her cutting off a bit of skin, then making the skin grow in the shape of the clothes she wanted it to. It would adopt whatever color and texture she could think of. The thought of wearing her own skin had been a bit unsettling, but she decided to go along with what Tamayo had told her.

Nezuko had decided to make her new clothes mostly the same as the clothes she had worn as a human, although a bit bigger. She knew she was supposed to be a bit older than she looked, so she grew her body until she looked about 14. Apparently, that counted as the flesh manipulation all demons were capable of. It was a bit odd, but helpful. The brown and pink kimono were a comfortable reminder of home. It was a bit weird to feel the clothes via her skin and to feel her skin via her clothes at the same time, but she got used to it eventually.

One thing she hadn’t grown out of her skin was a replica of the earrings Tanjiro had always worn. When she had left her home, it had been in a panic and she hadn’t even thought to grab his earrings. They had been family heirlooms passed down for generations, always being worn by the eldest male. The image of the rising sun on them represented the sun kami that had saved their ancestors so long ago, and had been deeply important to their family.

She had wanted to make a replica of them, at least to remind her of her brother, but it just felt wrong. Those earrings had represented the heritage their ancestors had passed down with the Hinokami Kagura, a dance performed to honor the sun god by the eldest male. She had murdered the person meant to perform the sacred dance. Wearing even a replica of those earrings would be an insult to everything they represented.

Several months after she left the Yokohama area, she had picked up the scent of a new demon. The scent had been particularly strong, and she had picked up faint traces of it even from miles away. It was so strong she wondered if it might not even be from one demon, but from several.

There was also the possibility of it being one of the Twelve Kizuki. Nezuko wanted to avoid getting her hopes up over nothing. After all, there were only Twelve Kizuki spaced out over the whole of Japan. Still, the scent was incredibly strong, and the odds were she was going to run into one of them eventually. Regardless of if it was one of the Twelve Kizuki, it was the best trace of a demon she knew of right now, and she had to hunt down and kill every demon that she could find

Eventually, she came to a small mountain and began her ascent up it. Just before the dawn began to break, she came to a randomly placed mansion. Surrounded by thick forests and only connected to civilization by a single winding path, it seemed strangely well maintained. Its white walls and blue roof tiles hadn’t been tarnished by the weather. All of the plant life was a fair distance from the mansion, but it didn’t look like it had been clipped back. It was more like the trees and weeds had been unwilling to approach the mansion and had kept themselves at bay. In the faint light of the pre-dawn, the building seemed almost magical.

Regardless of what the building looked like, it was certainly where the scent was coming from. It was impossible to tell if there was only one demon or if there were multiple.

Nezuko retreated deeper into the woods. It was never a good idea to fight when it was almost daytime, and she didn’t have any idea what she was dealing with. If there was a demon in this house, she would know nothing about its strengths or weaknesses. She also had no idea what the house looked like on the inside, so she should probably try to prepare herself for surprises jumping out from around a corner.

The only way Nezuko could find out what she was dealing with was waiting for the demon inside the house to show itself, so she decided to rest in the woods until the demon left to hunt. Perhaps she could ambush it on its way to hunt for food down the mountain.

Finding a fallen tree, she tucked herself under it and covered herself in her kimono. If sunlight could reach her here, the kimono would burn, but give her enough time to get to shade. Shifting until she was comfortable, Nezuko drifted off to sleep just as the first rays of dawn came over the horizon.

“-”

As dusk settled over the mountains, Nezuko’s eyes snapped open. She had gotten used to her demonic habit of waking the second the sun was low enough to let her move freely. Her sleep had been peaceful. She never had any dreams as a demon, which she was a little thankful for. Given her current lifestyle, she expected her dreams to be filled with snapshots of her family and of the people she had arrived too late to save. As a demon, she didn’t really need to sleep, but it helped use up time during the daylight hours she couldn’t move during.

Dislodging herself from her sleeping place under the fallen tree, Nezuko stood up and dusted off her kimono. Kneeling down, she grabbed her sword by the mouth of the scabbard and the crossguard. She stood still and tried to take in her surroundings. One of the few but useful things she had picked up from Yushiro, she focused her senses and picked up on any variations from the norm.

Her sense of smell was completely overwhelmed by the scent coming from the mansion, so she had to rely on her hearing. Yushiro had taught her to calm herself and absorb her surroundings, waiting for some part of her environment to change. Honestly, he had probably just taught her that because her practice of it meant she wasn’t bothering him. Still, it had served her well, and she was grateful for it. She listened to the simple ambience of the forest. Running water a short distance away. Birds flying between trees. Wind rustling the branches of trees.

Suddenly, she heard a child scream and a demon laugh.

Whipping her head towards the noise, she began to run towards it through the trees. Branches tugged at her clothes and scratched her face, nearly to the point of wounding. Emerging in the clearing surrounding the mansion, she saw no doorway that the demon could enter through. Dashing around the side of the mansion, she saw the blurred form of a demon with a child in an orange kimono dashing inside.

Drawing the sword she was carrying at her side, Nezuko cut through the palm of her hand and lit her blood on fire. Right before she was about to bring the sword down on the demon, the sound of a drum beat rang from the doorway and the demon carrying the child vanished from view. In its place was a hallway well lit by paper lanterns that lined the walls.

Halting just at the doorway, Nezuko gaped numbly down the hall. What was- she sighed at herself internally. She knew full well what this was. A demon with a Blood Demon Art was inside this mansion, which meant things didn’t have to make sense.

Nezuko tried to step forward, but found her feet unwilling to let her move forward. If she was right about this place and one of the Twelve Kizuki was inside, did she really stand a chance? She had almost died to Yahaba, and she had been fighting with someone to help her. Now she was fighting on her own, against at least one demon, probably more, inside of a mansion that seemed to shift its rooms and hallways to the demon's will. Could she really hope to beat them?

Nezuko shook her head violently. What on earth was she thinking? She had to fight these demons, even if her chance of winning was slim to none. A child's life was at stake here. Even if she could only kill one of the demons, that could save dozens that the demon would kill and eat down the line. When she weighed herself against all the lives she could save, she didn’t deserve to hesitate.

Steeling her resolve, Nezuko stepped forward into the unknown mansion to face whatever horrors the building had in store for her.

Chapter Text

Stepping into the mansion, Nezuko’s pace quickly turned into a run through the halls of the mansion. The hallways randomly sprawled in whatever direction, and had little in common. They were a random collection of features, being made of a variety of woods or of paper walls. They were lit either by paper lanterns strung up on the walls or light emanating through paper walls. Some weren't lit at all, and she could only see in them thanks to her demonic sight.

At first she threw open any door she came to, quickly scanning whatever room was behind it. However, this method slowed her practically to a crawl, and she abandoned it in favor of just running down the halls and listening for any sound of a demon. This was faster, but the demon she was looking for was still far away from her and difficult to get to.

The hallways of the mansion were arrayed in a random, haphazard manner, and all she could hear was echoes that were faint and impossible to place. She could trace the demon by scent, but the winding hallways made it hard to make her ways towards the demon.

Eventually, though, Nezuko was bound to stumble across something. The scent became stronger and closer. The echoes became more clear, and she could make out individual voices. She slowed down, not wanting to be heard by the demons she was approaching. Eventually, she could hear them just one room ahead of her.

There were three voices in total, all angry and condescending towards each other. Aside from them, there was the whimpering of a child, faint but distinct from the angry bickering of the demons. The three of them seemed to be arguing over who would get to kill and eat the child. Nezuko’s blood boiled at this conversation, but the details of it caught her attention, and she paused to listen in on it.

The first demon shouted at the other two, “Have you forgotten that this is my mansion?! You two are guests here, and you will act like it!”

“Oh, please!” the second one shouted back. “We don’t need to treat you like some sort of god! You were turned out of the Twelve Kizuki by Him for being too weak! You don’t need to be fed by us on a silver platter. I deserve this Marechi far more than you do!”

Nezuko almost gasped at what the second demon had just said. One of the demons had been one of the Twelve Kizuki? Sure, the second demon had said he had been kicked out, but he had still received a lot of blood directly from Muzan. His blood still probably had a lot of Muzans cells in it. That had to amount at least to something for Tamayo’s research.

Interrupting her train of thought, the third demon shouted at the other two. His voice was muffled, like he had something stuffed inside of his mouth. “Why should either of you two get the Marechi? I was the one who caught him!”

"Oh, shut up!" the first demon shouted. There was the sharp sound of a drum beat, and then the sound of tatami mats and wood being ripped apart. The demons screamed at each other loudly, and the child screamed even louder. Remembering that there was a child in the same room as three man-eating demons, Nezuko threw open the sliding door and took in the carnage before her.

Four massive claw marks cut through the floor, almost splitting it in half. There were three demons in the room, just like she had thought. The first one she saw was a tall, fat demon with a pair of small horns protruding from his skull. The next one was on all fours and had unhealthy looking purple skin. A bloated, abnormally long tongue spilled out from behind his lips. The final one had dark hair and would look normal enough if it weren't for his red eyes and the five Tsuzumi drums protruding from his body. He was clutching at a wound at his back, where Nezuko assumed a Tsuzumi drum had been. One Tsuzumi drum identical to the ones on his body had rolled towards a child wearing an orange haori. For a moment Nezuko wondered if the child had tried to fight back, but the Tongue Demon had blood on his mouth. He probably had been the one to wound the Drum Demon.

Dashing towards the child, Nezuko dodged past the demons in her way. She could have fought the demons, but her immediate priority was getting the child out of harm’s way. Grabbing the child, Nezuko began to run towards the door on the opposite side of the room.

The demon with the oversized tongue noticed her and shouted in rage. His tongue whipped out, extending across half the room. Ducking, she felt the blunt force of the tongue rip through her left arm. The child she was holding let out a cry of pain, and then a drumbeat rang out.

Suddenly, the noise the demons had been making stopped. Turning around once she got to the door, she saw that all of the demons had vanished. Turning towards the child, she saw that he was holding the Tsuzumi drum that had rolled towards him. Apparently it still had power, even when not connected to the demon. It must have changed where the demons had been.

Before Nezuko could ask if the child was alright, she was almost doubled over by a mouth watering smell. Dropping the child, she stumbled away from him. Clutching at her mouth, she began to hyperventilate, taking in more of the scent of the child's blood. What was this -wonderful smell- she needed to get away from this child -she needed to eat- she couldn’t hurt him-

She couldn’t make out his exact words, but she heard the child call out to her. As she whipped her head to face him, he recoiled from her. Drool spilled over her lips, and she began to step towards him. She just barely managed to keep herself from going any further, shaking from the effort. Pushing himself away from her, the child backed up into the Tsuzumi drum that had been connected to the demon. Grabbing it, he hit it once and the room changed into a poorly lit hallway.

Falling over, Nezuko crawled over to one of the walls and propped herself up against it. Taking in slow, deep breaths of unpolluted air, she eventually calmed herself down. She could hear quiet shouting between indistinct voices in her head, but those were slowly fading.

Taking in another deep breath, she mentally kicked herself. She had almost killed that child! The last time she had that little control over herself was when she had fought the horned demons. That had been over a year ago. She was supposed to be better at controlling herself now, what had happened back there?!

Rubbing her head, she remembered what the demons had called the child. Marechi, they had said. Tamayo had mentioned that Marechi was a kind of blood humans could have that helped demons become stronger, much stronger than normal human blood. Perhaps whichever of the demons had been a member of the Twelve Kizuki hoped the Marechi blood could get him back in.

If the child’s blood was Marechi, then that would explain her reaction to him. If she got near him again, she wasn’t going to be able to control herself. That meant this child was stuck in this mansion on his own, with no way to defend himself from the demons hunting for him.

Nezuko halted her train of thought for a moment. No, he wouldn't have no way to defend himself. Well, maybe he couldn’t defend himself in a traditional way, but he still had the drum. It had still changed everyone’s positions when the child had hit it. Even if he couldn’t fight the other demons, he could still get away from them. She could hunt the demons down and kill them, then lead the child out of the mansion or just let him leave on his own time.

Pushing herself off the wall, she stood up and began to run down the hallways. The noise of the demons echoed too much and was unfocused, but the smell of the demons was strong enough to lead her to them. Rounding a corner, she almost ran face first into the fat demon. Jumping back away from his lunge towards her, she drew her sword and cut clean through his neck. His body stumbled forward for a few moments, then collapsed and began to crumble into dust.

After the first demons she ran into, she spent what felt like hours trying to find another. The mansion was massive, and the layout of the house changed twice while she was traveling through it. The sound echoed too much to be of any help to her, and while the scent of the demons could lead her to them, they were still located behind winding hallways that split off in whatever direction they pleased.

Eventually, she reached the Tongue Demon. Seeing her, he shot out his tongue towards her. Drawing her sword, she brought the blade down and cut several feet of his tongue in half. The blood on her blade lit up, and the fire began to travel down the demon's tongue. Screaming in pain, the Tongue Demon ripped off most of his remaining tongue before the flames could reach his mouth.

“You bitch! You’re the one who stole the Marechi, aren’t you?!” he shouted at her. “I am going to drink your brains out of your skull through your ears, you little-”

Before he could complete his sentence, a sliding wooden door behind him burst open. Whatever force that had been applied to it had split it in two, and left the splintered remains cartwheeling into the wall opposite to it. Through the doorway, a demon burst out.

No- no, this wasn’t a demon. He had a boar’s head, but he didn’t have the scent of a demon. He must have only been wearing it. The only other things he was wearing were a pair of black pants and a matching pair of sandals. His chest had been left completely bare. In each hand, he held a sword identical to hers, except they had both been heavily chipped. It looked like the chipping had been intentional, as the chips were evenly spread along both blades. The chips were so big it looked more like someone had cut half circles into the edge of the swords.

Laughing maniacally, he charged down the Tongue Demon and jumped up in the air. Each of his swords were brought down on either side of the demon's neck, which the jagged blades ripped through effortlessly. The head of the demon comically popped off, then somehow screamed in pain before his body began to crumble apart into dust.

Landing on the ground, he dashed towards Nezuko and brought up his swords toward her neck. Nezuko only just managed to bring up her sword in time to block his blow.

The boy with the boar's head looked at her blade with interest. “Ooh. A demon with a demon slaying sword? I’ve never seen that before. How interesting!”

“I don’t want to fight you!” Nezuko tried to shout at him.

The boy laughed at her. “Well, you’re going to have to! You are going to be another one of my stepping stones to higher places!”

Taking a step back, the boy attacked Nezuko with both of his blades in rapid succession, almost like a whirlwind. He kept his stance low, constantly striking upwards towards her torso and neck. She only just managed to keep herself from being decapitated, and if she had been any slower she would certainly be dead. Every blow that landed on her limbs and torso tore through her flesh, with the jagged blades ripping off small chunks of skin as they went.

Slowly retreating backwards, Nezuko tried to come up with an idea of how to fight him. Killing him was completely off the table. He was human, after all. And a demon slayer, to. The blades he wielded had an aura about them that her demonic instincts seemed to recognize as dangerous, so they must have been Nichirin blades just like hers was. If she concentrated on trying to talk some sense into him, she was liable to get killed by him instead. Besides, he didn’t seem that interested in being reasoned with. If she could just put some distance between herself and this boy, then she could-

Interrupting her train of thought, her back slammed into the wall she had unknowingly been closing in on during the fight.

Laughing at her situation, the boy brought up both of his blades towards her neck. Catching one with her sword, the other one had to be stopped with the arm holding her scabbard. Pinned against the wall, the swords slowly inched closer to her neck. The boy twisted the sword lodged halfway in her arm, causing immense pain.

Desperate to put any distance between the two of them, Nezuko kicked at his chest hard. Something inside of him cracked loudly. The effect was immediate, and the boy went flying backwards. Putting his feet on the ground, he tumbled through the air for a moment, then skidded to a rough stop. Standing, his back was bent forward, dangling his arms loosely at his side.

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Nezuko shouted down the hallway. “If we could just talk-”

Nezuko heard the boy hack up something stuck in his throat, then laugh at her. “Hurt me? Are you kidding?! This is going to be the best fight I’ve had in ages!”

He charged back towards her as if she hadn’t done anything to him at all. Whatever had broken inside of him apparently slowed him down at all. The two of them traded blows with each other for a while, with the boy very much on the offensive and her on the defensive. Slowly inching backwards, Nezuko was scanning the boy for any sort of opening. He was just as fast as she was, and she couldn’t actually use her sword on him. Maybe if she could wear him down with light hits, she could get far enough away from him to deal with the final demon.

Eventually, Nezuko found the opening she was looking for. The boy had extended his right sword too far forward. Bringing her leg up, she brought it back down and pinned the sword to the floor. The other sword swung towards her, but she blocked it with her blade. The chips in the sword gave her blade purchase and let her keep the sword in one place. Undeterred, the boy kicked at her chest. She felt small cracks spread through her ribs, but she was strong enough to hold her position.

Swinging her scabbard at his chin, she made contact and knocked the boy back. Concussed by the blow, he let go of both of his swords and left her the opening to keep bludgeoning him.

After Nezuko delivered a final kick to his head, the boy collapsed backwards. Approaching him cautiously, she wanted to check on his health. She had hit him a lot, and she was worried that she might have even killed him.

Before she could get close enough to check on him, the drumbeat sounded through the house again, and the area she was in once again changed from a dark hallway to the doorway of a simple office lit by a single paper lantern. While Nezuko may have been glad that the child with the Tsuzumi drum could keep himself safe, the timing of his escapes was more than a little annoying.

Pausing for a moment, Nezuko tried to place the scent of the final demon. While she could place it, another scent emerged. It was faint and mixed with the smell of half rotten hay and dead vermin. She must have been very close to whatever was giving off the scent. If she wasn’t, the smell would simply be too diluted to notice. Focusing her senses, Nezuko ultimately placed the origin of the scent about a few feet away from her, hidden in the rafters of the office. 

Pulling over a desk that had been shoved into the corner of the office, Nezuko stood under the origin of the smell. Sliding her sword into her belt, she drove her hands into the ceiling. Securing her grip, she ripped several wooden planks out of the ceiling. A man almost cocooned in straw fell through the newly made hole, fell onto the desk she was standing on, then rolled off and hit the floor. He had a gash in his forehead and a horrific tear in the arm just below his elbow.

The man, trembling, looked up at her and tried to scramble away. His intact arm had a knife in its hand, and he swung it at Nezuko wildly. “Get away from me! Get away!” he screamed at her. She didn’t know how long he had been up in the rafters, but any amount of time that he had spent in those conditions must have been traumatizing.

Speaking calmly, Nezuko said, “I don't want to hurt you, alright? You need help. I’ve got bandages in my bag-”

“You’re- you’re one of them .” the man said. He had backed himself against a wall and shakily held his knife out in front of him. His fear crazed eyes darted around the room, searching for some sort of exit. The only way out of the room was the doorway Nezuko had entered through, which probably didn’t help his nerves.

Slowly pulling her sword out of her belt, Nezuko set it at her side and kicked it away. Raising her hand in front of her, she said “I- I am a demon. But I want to help. Your arm is hurt, right?” lowering one of her hands to the medicine bag at his side, she pulled out a length of tourniquets. “The cut is probably infected by this point. It needs to be treated and bandaged. I can do that, if you could…” Nezuko gestured at the knife in the man’s grip.

The crazed look in the man’s eyes died down, but Nezuko could still see the fear in them. “Wh-what?” he managed to stutter out.

Nezuko sighed quietly. “Look, you need help. I can offer it to you, but you need to accept it for it to matter.”

The man considered what she had just said for a moment, then let the arm holding his knife fall down at his side. Nezuko approached him and knelt down next to his wounded arm. Before she could bandage it up, she would need to treat it. The man had stains on his clothes that looked suspiciously like rat droppings, and he hadn't made any effort to cover his wounds. Rolling up the man's sleeve, she inspected the cut. Thankfully, it didn’t look like the cut had become infected. She didn’t want to take any chances, but at the same time, she didn’t have a lot of options to deal with it.

Setting her pack to her side, she thoroughly wiped off the wound with some rubbing alcohol on a cloth, then pulled out a sewing needle and stitching thread. Hesitating for a moment, she began to stitch up the cut. It was uncomfortable to be this close to fresh blood, but this wound had to be stitched up. After the first couple of stitches, her hands became more steady. In the end, the stitches were a bit tight, but they were neat enough and held together. Pulling out the tourniquets, she tightly wrapped up the wound and tied off the bandage.

Bringing her attention up to the gash on the man's forehead, she used a bit more rubbing alcohol to clear the blood away. She wasn’t good enough with a needle to stitch up skin this shallow. Eventually, she stumbled onto an idea. Pulling a small knife out of her bag, she stabbed it into her hand and lit the blood that covered it. Letting the blade heat up, she extinguished the flames and raised the knife to the wound.

“This is going to hurt,” Nezuko warned the man.

Before he could ask what she meant, she pressed the side of the blade to the gash, trying to cauterize it. The man grit his teeth and squirmed, but took it without complaint. Pulling away the small blade, she saw that the wound had been sealed. It would leave a mark for a while, but it would heal. It was better than getting an infection, anyway.

“What’s your name?” Nezuko asked the man.

“Uh… Ito Masao,” he responded.

“How did you get here?”

Masao looked at her with some suspicion, but ultimately decided to tell her. “I was heading to visit some family nearby. Something attacked me while heading to them and dragged me here. I managed to get away, but the house kept changing. I found some straw, and figured that would be a good place to hide. The house changed some more, and I guess I wound up in the attic.”

“Where’d you get the knife?”

“My family wrote me a letter about how there’s been a rash of disappearances in the area. I was a little worried, so…” his voice trailed off as he gestured at the air with his knife. “What about you? Why aren’t you… you know…”

“Murder happy?”

Masao struggled for a moment to come up with a more polite version of what she just said, but seemingly came up empty. “Yeah, that.”

Nezuko thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t come up with an answer. “I don’t know. I just am.”

Masao’s expression was blank for a moment. “That’s… that’s not really that comforting.” The two of them sat in awkward silence for a moment before Masao asked, “How do we get out of here?”

Nezuko considered his question for a moment. “There’s a child trapped in here.”

Masao snapped to attention at this news. “A child? What?!”

Nezuko motioned for him to be quiet. “If you can get to him you should be safe. Have you seen the drum demon?” Masao nodded, and she continued. “The child has one of the drums the demon had. It changes the layout of the house and where the people in it are. You’ll have to keep physical contact with him to avoid getting separated, but you should be safe until I can kill the drum demon, then the two of you can get out of here.”

Nezuko asked Masao, “Are you able to stand?”

He hesitated for a moment, then pushed himself up. “Yeah, I’m good.”

The two of them began their search down the hallways. Nezuko took the lead, heading down the winding hallways towards the scent of the - marechi - child. Masao held onto one of her sleeves so that they wouldn’t be separated if the child hit the drum again. He lagged behind, probably hoping to give himself a head start in case she decided to attack him. If she was in his place, she would be doing the same.

Eventually, the smell of the child's blood got so strong that drool began to spill out of the corners of her mouth. Stumbling, Nezuko righted herself and leaned against the wooden wall of the hallway.

“You need to go forward on your own,” she told Masao.

Masao panicked for a moment, then asked her, “Is the kid close?”

Nezuko quickly nodded. “Yeah, I’d say so. Probably just down this hallway. Go.” She said that last word with extra weight behind it, worried that she could only hold herself back for so much longer.

Hesitating for only a moment, Masao let go of her sleeve and worked his way down the hallway. Nezuko took in slow, controlled breaths, trying to calm herself down. She felt hunger tear at her gut, begging her to hunt and eat the Marechi. Voices whispered in the back of her head about how powerful she could become if she just did what she was supposed to and hunted. Her breathing became more ragged, and she dug her claws into her arms.

Finally, she heard Masao open a door and say something. Her mind wasn’t focused enough to make out any detail, but she could hear the relief in his voice. A child responded, and the voices at the back of her head screamed at her that this was the Marechi, kill him now, you fool, hunt, eat, kill-

The door Masao had opened slammed shut, and the Tsuzumi drum the child had beat once. The air cleared, and Nezuko staggered to her feet. Picking her sword back up, she began to head towards the scent of the final demon.

Eventually, she finally found the drum demon. He had opened the door to a living room and just entered it when she attacked him. Lunging towards him, her sword cut into her palm and lit itself as she brought it in an arc above her head.

The drum demon had been muttering to himself under his breath for a while now, but when he saw her, he shouted at her, “Vanish from my sight, you vermin!”

Seeing him hit the Tsuzumi drum protruding from his left leg, Nezuko panicked for a moment, worrying that she would have to hunt him down all over again. Instead of changing the room, though, the drumbeat shifted the floor. At least, that’s what it felt like. Gravity began to pull her backwards, and her forward charge slammed her into the floor face first. Falling backwards, she drove her hand into the floor to hold herself in place. The drum demon hit one of the Tsuzumi drums on his legs, and the room rotated to the right. Her hand was ripped out of the floor, and she flew across the room into the wall.

The Drum Demon just stood there, seemingly unaffected by the drumbeats. Hitting more of his drums, he sent her flying through the room, slamming into the walls. The walls bruised painfully, but there wasn’t the same force behind his blows she had experienced fighting Yahaba, and she didn’t break any of her bones. She quickly figured out how to rotate her body and land on her legs whenever she was flung against the floor, walls or ceiling.

After being thrown halfway across the room, Nezuko saw the Drum Demon hit the drum protruding from his stomach. Suddenly, a trio of massive claw marks ripped through the wooden flooring towards her. For a split second, she stared at the advancing marks in shock, but then twisted her body in between two of the claw marks. She felt the invisible claws whip by her, but managed to avoid the worst of the attack, although she still felt one of them cut into her calf.

The Drum Demon left Nezuko with no time to catch her breath, however, and flung her into another wall. The attacks had lost the effectiveness they once had, however, as she had gotten used to being thrown around by them at this point. A much more dangerous problem was the claw attacks. Because of their high speed and how she was constantly flying through the air, it was hard to always completely dodge them. Still, even these were manageable threats.

The biggest problem, she decided, was actually getting close enough to the Drum Demon to kill him. The way it was going currently, he could just keep her at arms length away forever.

Eventually, Nezuko began to notice a pattern in the shifting of the room. Each Tsuzumi drum seemed to do something different. Whenever the Drum Demon hit the Tsuzumi drum on his left shoulder, the room rotated to the left, and whenever he hit the one on his right shoulder, the room rotated to the right. The Tsuzumi drum just below his ribs was obviously the one responsible for the claw attacks. She hadn’t been paying attention to which drums he hit when the room rotated backwards, but one of the Tsuzumi drums on his legs had probably done that.

Slowly, Nezuko began to work her way towards the Drum Demon. The shifting of the walls barely affected her anymore, and even the claw attacks had lost the threat they once had. She dodged around the cabinets and drawers flying across the room. Her current goal was getting close enough to the demon to get her blood onto him, then kill him while he was on fire.

The Drum Demon was slowly growing more angry, muttering about her under his breath. His muttering eventually grew to shouting at her angrily. “You stupid wench! Do you realize what you are taking from me? I need this Marechi to prove to him I’m worth something!”

As he shouted at her, his bright red eyes shifted around in their sockets. Blue irises appeared with brown scar tissue cutting through them. One simply has a sideways slit pupil running through it, the other had the kanji for, “Lower Moon 2” under the scars.

The Drum Demon began to rapidly beat the Tsuzumi drums on his shoulders and belly. The room shifted violently, flinging Nezuko against the walls. She managed to land most of the landings, but only just. The room shifted so quickly and often that she was often suspended in the middle of the room, simply floating and tumbling in place before being thrown in some new direction. The claws were now coming in groups of five, widening their area of effect. Often, she was forced to twist her body midair and dodge the claws, having to just ignore whatever wounds they caused.

One of the drawers slammed into her and spilled open its contents. Dozens of papers flew out of it, scattering onto the floor she was falling towards. Landing with extreme force, she slipped on a pile of papers and almost fell onto her back. Catching herself at the last moment, she jumped to the side, carefully setting her feet on the few uncovered spaces of floor. The Drum Demon halted for a moment, apparently shocked by what she had done, and she took her chance to charge forwards.

Cutting into her palm again, Nezuko swung her sword towards the Drum Demon and, once halfway across the floor, let the blood rush off of the blade. The Drum Demon noticed what she was doing and beat the drum on his belly, sending a volley of claw attacks towards her. It didn’t matter, though. She jumped to the side and, once she saw the blood had made contact with his skin, lit it on fire. The Drum Demon roared in pain and tried to wipe away the flames, but to no avail. Swinging her sword upward, she cut off his head in a single, clean blow.

His body began to collapse into ashes, and she extinguished what remained of her fire to stop it from spreading. Taking out the small knife-like instrument Yushiro had given her, she drove it into one of the arms of the demons before it crumbled to ash. The small vial inside of the knife filled up with blood, and she pulled it back out before the blade could get damaged by the heat of the crumbling demon.

Regarding the demon that had now been reduced to nothing but ashes, Nezukos head popped up as a small cat appeared out of thin air. Looking at the brown and black spots of its fur, she recognized it as Chuchamaru, the small cat that had been at Tamayo’s office.

Fiddling with the knife, she pulled out the small vial and delicately put it inside the padded container on the cat’s back. Scratching behind its ears gently, she watched it walk away and vanish into thin air.

Looking over at the ashes that remained of the Drum Demon, she wondered why he had paused when the papers scattered onto the floor. Maybe they had some significance to him in his past life. Glancing over at them, she saw they had fragments of a story written on them. She couldn’t tell what the story was about, but the paragraphs she could make out were well written. Perhaps he had wanted to be a writer, and had become a demon before that dream could pan out.

Sensing that the sun was still far off, Nezuko tucked her sword into her belt and began to make her way out of this mansion. The scent of the child was all but gone, and she assumed that he and Masao had made their way out of here. Eventually, she found an exit, and saw how close the sun was. Deciding to stay in the mansion until the sun set, she turned around and noticed the smell of the Demon Slayer with the boar head.

Careening around a corner, he charged forward, cackling at the top of his lungs. Panicked, Nezuko kicked upwards and connected with his collar. Sliding up, her foot hit his chin and threw his head into the roof above the two of them. Falling down, the boy collapsed onto the floor and stopped moving. For a moment, Nezuko panicked, worried that she had killed this demon slayer. Thankfully, she could hear him breathing.

Behind her, there was a shocked gasp. Whipping her head around, she saw a boy that she hadn’t noticed before standing at the edge of the clearing. Wearing a yellow kimono that matched his hair, he looked ridiculous. His panicked demeanor and hyperventilating didn’t help with this at all.

When she made eye contact with him, he flinched backwards, then fainted and collapsed onto the ground. The only thought swirling through her head was a simple question, directed at no one in particular; What even was her life anymore?

Chapter Text

Crouching down, Nezuko tended to the boy wearing the boar’s head, trying to figure out exactly how serious his injuries were. Pulling off the boar’s head, she saw his oddly clean face and short hair that was almost blue in color. Given how deformed his jaw looked, it was definitely broken, and it looked like his collarbone and a couple of ribs might have been broken as well. She couldn’t exactly tell if he had gotten a concussion, but if she had hit him into the ceiling hard enough to break his jaw, then he probably did have one. Nezuko had picked up some medical knowledge from Tamayo and Yushiro, but she didn’t know how to treat any internal wounds. Her best option right now was to get him to a doctor. The only question was how to do that.

Looking out the doorway that ended the hall she was in, she saw that the sun had already risen on the yard in front of the house. The boy with yellow hair still lay there, after he had passed out dramatically. A small brown sparrow she hadn’t noticed before was flying around his head. It seemed a bit silly to her that she was assuming this, but it almost looked like the sparrow was trying to wake the boy.

Regardless of whatever the bird was doing, the yellow kimono of the boy with yellow hair could definitely have covered her from the sun while carrying the boy with the boar's head. However, the boy with yellow hair had been standing at the edge of the clearing when he fainted. By the time Nezuko had crossed the clearing to him, she would have been burned to a crisp by the sun.

Pushing herself up, she turned back down the hall. There was probably a closet or some scattered blankets deeper in the mansion she could cover herself with. Remembering the boy with the boar's head, she turned back around and hooked her arms under his shoulders, dragging him with her.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Nezuko whipped her head up to see the boy with yellow hair stand back up. She was about to call out to him and ask him to carry the boy with the boar's head to a doctor, but then she noticed something odd about him. Despite standing steadily on his own two feet, his eyes were closed and his head seemed to be looking at the ground instead of looking at her. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have said he was asleep.

Before she could figure out what was going on, the boy with yellow hair dropped into a fighting stance and grabbed the sword at his side. Stepping back, Nezuko began to pull her sword out of her belt. She didn’t know what was going on with him, but his sword made it clear that he was a Demon Slayer. If she could avoid getting killed, she might be able to convince him to get his comrade to safety. Not all Demon Slayers could be as unreasonable as the first one she had met, right?

The boy with yellow hair took in a deep breath and, after a flash of light and a noise as deafening as a thunderclap, he shot across the entire clearing. Nezuko could barely make out his figure, and only just managed to raise her sword up to protect herself. He swung up towards her neck, and she barely held back his blow. His sword cut into hers, and she could see hairline cracks spread through the nearby area of her blade. It wasn’t enough to break the sword, but the force of the blow still shocked her.

Looking down towards the boy with yellow hair, she saw that he really wasn’t awake. His eyes were shut and his face was impassive. Even in a world of man-eating demons, this was a shock to her. How on earth could somebody who was asleep have that much strength? How could somebody who was asleep even fight at all, let alone with the speed the boy was fighting with now?

The boy with yellow hair jumped back away from her and returned to his stance, holding his sword at his hip. Shooting forward in a flash of light and noise, he clashed with her again, pushing her back. This continued for a while, with the hallway being as bright as day with the boy’s constant attacks and Nezuko slowly retreating deeper into the hallway. She didn't know how the boy was fighting like this, with his lightning fast strikes. The boy with the boar’s head had been strong, but nowhere nearly as fast as this. She didn’t have the time to consider it with that much depth, but it still shocked her.

She quickly noticed that the boy with yellow hair only repeated the one attack over and over. A crouch with his sword held low at his hip, then a straight dash forward in attack. Maybe it was the only attack he knew. Whatever the reason for this was, it worked to her advantage. The narrow hallway meant that he could only ever attack her from one direction. In one of the rooms or wider hallways, he might have been able to dodge around her and attack from several angles, but here, she only had to defend from one direction.

As the boy with yellow hair jumped backwards again, Nezuko lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar of his kimono. Pulling him forward, she dropped her sword and grabbed his by the hilt, keeping it at his hip. The boy struggled with surprising and impressive strength, but in this awkward position, he couldn’t raise his sword to strike at her.

Crouching down, the boy with yellow hair shot forward in another flash of light. Nezuko was slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway. Nothing felt broken, but the force of the attack definitely hurt. The boy jumped backwards again, likely trying to shake her grip. Nezuko drove her foot into the floor, cracking the thin wooden floorboards covering the earth beneath the two of them. For a moment, the two of them were caught in an almost amusing tug of war over the boy’s sword that neither of them had the strength to win

Nezuko shouted at the boy with yellow hair, “I don’t want to fight you!” She had no idea if he could actually hear her in this state, but she had to try to reason with him. “That boy over there, behind you- he’s hurt badly! He needs a doctor!”

Seemingly hearing her, the boy with yellow hair paused at this for a moment. His body was still very tense, but he had stopped tugging at his sword. He tilted one of his ears towards the boy with the boar’s head. Maybe he had enhanced hearing, given that he could just as well as she was with his eyes shut tight. After a moment, he tilted his other ear towards her and simply listened to her for a moment. What he was listening to, she couldn’t tell, but that seemed to be what he was doing. It was almost unsettling. His impassive face shifted just barely to one of concentration, then softened into faint surprise.

After a second or two, the boy with yellow hair brought up his leg and kicked Nezuko in the chest. The kick broke one of her ribs, and in her surprise, she let go of the hilt of the boy’s sword. She had dropped her sword to grab the boy, and for a moment, the only emotion she felt was panic.

Instead of bringing his sword down on her, however, the boy with yellow hair turned around and dashed away in his standard flash of light and sound. When she looked up at the hallway, she only saw an empty hallway. The boy with yellow hair must have grabbed the boy with the boar’s head and carried him off. To where, she didn’t know. Hopefully a doctor.

Nuzuko rolled onto her back, groaning loudly. The pain from her bruises and broken bones would fade in a moment, but damn if it didn’t hurt right now. Looking down the hallway again, she saw that the boar’s head the boy that attacked her in the mansion had been wearing. It must have been left behind by the boy with yellow hair. Pushing herself up, she walked over to the boar’s head and picked it up. It smelled awful, and even in the dim light of the hallway, she could see the dirt and stains on the fur. She wondered if it was important to the boy, as he had seemingly taken to wearing it constantly.

If those two boys had been Demon Slayers, then her first encounter with the Demon Slaying Corps had been… eventful, to say the least. Tamayo had mentioned that Demon Slayers were superhumanly strong and fast. Still, Nezuko had been expecting humans with the strength of demons. The boy with the boar’s head fit the bill for that, but the lighting attacks or whatever they were of the boy with yellow hair was something she hadn’t been expecting. The two of them also hadn’t seemed very professional, with one seeming more likely to faint than to fight, and the other being incredibly aggressive. Were all Demon Slayer as… unique as those two had been?

Turning her head towards the doorway, she saw the sunlit yard surrounding the house. The footprints the boy with yellow hair had left behind were clearly visible, though the strides the boy had taken spaced his footprints far apart. The sparrow she had seen flying around his head had flown off, probably to follow him to.. Wherever it was he had gone.

Suddenly, she felt an urge to follow the boy, regardless of the burning sunlight. It had been months since she had left Tamayo’s office, and she hadn’t exactly had an opportunity to talk with anyone after that. Her family had been large and all had a deeply personal relationship with one another. They could always trust each other with whatever was on their mind. She wasn’t used to the kind of silence she dealt with now.

When she had first become a demon, the isolation had been easy to self impose. She was a danger to others, and it wasn’t safe for her to be around them. The most interaction she had with people was them calling out to her, either to get her to stay or thank her, before they realized there was something not quite right with her. After meeting Tamayo and Yushiro, though, she regained a fraction of the emotional connection she had lost after her family died. It wasn’t on par with the connection she had with her family, but it had still been something. After leaving Tamayo’s office, it had been hard to go straight back to zero contact with anyone after that.

At the same time, though, following the Demon Slayers could be dangerous. They were… Well, Demon Slayers, after all. She didn’t know if they would believe that she didn’t want to fight them, and they could probably summon backup to fight her. Even if they just had her captured, they could easily change their minds about keeping her alive. She probably could be of some help to the Demon Slayer Corp, but if they decided to kill her, she couldn’t be of any help to anyone.

Looking back down at the boar’s head in her hand, Nezuko weighed her two options. Wait until the sun had set, then leave to hunt for another demon, or follow the footprints of the Demon Slayer and try to convince him not to kill her.

Turning down the hallway, she picked up her sword and scabbard, then began to walk deeper into the mansion to find somewhere comfortable to sleep. She didn’t know what to do about the Demon Slayers, but she could figure it out at night. Eventually, she found a bedroom with a closet stuffed full of blankets and covers. Pulling them out, she clumsily piled them into a makeshift bed and slipped underneath, then fell asleep almost immediately.

“~”

Snapping her eyes open, Nezuko pushed the blankets off of her and stood up. She had learned a while back that, with how restless she was as a demon, there was no point to just laying down where she was. Almost as an afterthought, she packed up the blankets and tucked them back into the closet. There may not have been anyone living in the mansion anymore, but it felt good to be doing something productive.

After she had packed everything back into the closet, she looked at the boar’s head. She had set it in the corner of the room she had slept in. She stared at it for a moment, then walked over to it and picked it up. Carrying it at her side alongside her sword, she worked her way out of the mansion. Coming to the same thin hallway she had seen the boy with yellow hair, she stepped outside into the dark yard surrounding the yard. Even just with faint moonlight, her enhanced vision let her see the footprints left behind by the boy with yellow hair. She regarded the footprints, hesitated for just a moment, then began to run alongside them.

The cool night air whipped Nezuko’s hair behind her as she wondered what she was supposed to do once she found the two Demon Slayers. The boy with yellow hair probably had taken his comrade to a town to get medical treatment, which might complicate things. She wasn’t exactly able to just walk into town, so her options would be to leave and forget about the Demon Slayers, try to sneak into the town, or wait until the two of them had decided to leave the town.

It was just as likely that the two Demon Slayers had gone to some sort of base run by the Demon Slayer Corps. The demon slayers probably didn’t have the money to just scatter fully staffed doctors offices throughout all of Japan. Still, she had never heard of someone talking about demons or Demon Slayers as if they actually existed, so they probably had someplace to rest and heal away from the public eye.

Still, it didn’t really matter where the Demon Slayers were staying if they decided to kill her the second she showed herself. Once she caught up to the two of them, she would probably have to observe them from a distance. Depending on how she felt about them when she found them, she would either introduce herself or leave. Maybe this entire thing would turn out to be a waste of time, but it was worth at least trying. If she could convince the Demon Slayers to not kill her, she could try to team up with them. They probably had informants spread throughout the country, at least keeping an eye out for what seemed like a demon. If they let her tag along, she could find demons much faster than she was right now, and even finding a demon only one day sooner could save a life.

As Nezuko kept following the footprints on the dirt road, miles and miles passed. She was impressed that the Demon Slayer with yellow hair could cover this kind of distance, but with his lightning dashes, or whatever that had been, she should have expected this. It was taking so long to catch up to the Demon Slayer that she actually became concerned that she would have to find somewhere to spend the day or just abandon her search altogether.

However, she did manage to find where the footprints led before the sun had begun to rise. The footprints eventually came to what seemed to be a mansion. A large black flower symbol decorated the pair of wooden doors that seemed to serve as the only entrance. Tree branches covered in purple blossoms spilled over the high stone walls that surrounded the building, or whatever it was that was behind them.

Nezuko couldn’t see over the walls and could only faintly hear behind them, so she walked into the forest surrounding them and quickly scaled one of the taller trees. Looking over the wall, she saw a courtyard that surrounded a sprawling, single story building. Lanterns filled the courtyard with light and gave off the overwhelming scent of incense and a flower she couldn’t quite place. She couldn’t see anyone in the yard of the mansion, though light shining through the sliding paper doors made it clear that the building was lived in.

Deciding to enter the mansion to try and search for the Demon Slayers, she leapt down from her tall tree to another one that was almost leaning onto the wall. Before she jumped from over the walls into the courtyard, she felt her muscles tense, like her body didn’t want to get any closer to the wall. She paused at this, worried about what it meant. The only time this had happened had been when she almost walked into the sunlight. Given that walking into the sun would have resulted in her burning to death, it was probably important to pay attention to what her body was telling her.

Looking more closely at the walls, she remembered what Tamayo had said about a certain type of flower. Wisteria, she had called it. It was a purple flower that grew on trees and was one of the few things that could actually kill demons. Apparently it could be used to create poisons that, if injected, could halt a demon’s regeneration and cause their cells to fall apart. Basically, any demon exposed to the poison would start to dissolve. The flowers on the branches of the trees seemed close enough to Tamayo’s description of Wisteria, and it seemed to grow here easily. If whoever lived here had easy access to a flower that could make demons dissolve, then the flower scented incense emanating from the lanterns in the courtyard seemed a lot less innocent. She didn’t know if burning Wisteria made the air toxic to demons, but she wasn’t eager to find out.

After some consideration, Nezuko decided to just stay where she was until somebody showed themselves. The forest surrounding the mansion seemed thick enough to keep her from getting burned when the sun rose, and people were more likely to be up and about one the sun had risen.

Sitting on one of the branches, Nezuko waited for hours for somebody to leave the building. She saw a few people poke their heads out or step outside momentarily, but not enough to notice her. She didn’t make herself known, but she couldn’t quite say why. If she had to guess, the reason was probably something along the lines of fear and anxiety. As sunrise neared, Nezuko jumped from tree to tree, finding a space deeper in the forest that was well shaded and still let her see the mansion.

Sitting there, she wondered why she was making it a point to seek out the Demon Slayers at all. They were demon slayers, after all. The odds that they would kill her were higher than the odds that they wouldn’t. Besides, what could she actually gain from interacting with them? She had been finding demons fast enough as is. After leaving Tamayo’s office, she had found almost half a dozen demons before she even found the mansion with the Drum Demon. If she got the Demon Slayers to let her join or… whatever it was she wanted them to do, she would probably have to just sit around, waiting for orders to come in from whatever amounted to their management.

There was a thought in the back of her head, nagging her and telling her the real reason she had followed the Demon Slayers. You’re lonely, it said. You’re desperate for someone - anyone - to talk to, it said, even if it gets you killed. She tried her best to ignore the thought. There was a reason she was here instead of hunting down demons. An actual reason, not… this one. Still, once the thought had made itself known, it got harder and harder to just block it out and ignore it.

Nezuko sat there for hours, weighing her options. She decided to stay where she was, waiting for the Demon Slayers to show themselves. Eventually the sun rose. The tree she had perched on protected her from the sun, and, as she thought, the tree branches were thick enough for her to safely walk along the forest floor if she wanted to. From where she was, she couldn’t see over the walls, but she could hear the faint voices of those inside the mansion waking up and moving about inside.

The voices in the mansion, which had previously been quiet enough, suddenly began to shout at each other. Nezuko couldn’t make out the entire conversation, but she could hear an old woman and a boy telling someone else to rest, and another person ranting at the top of his lungs to them about fighting and stepping stones and-

Oh. Oh, for fuck’s sake. The boy that had the boar's head was up and about already?

Confirming her suspicion, and much to her annoyance, the voice that had been shouting at the other two slammed open one of the sliding doors of the mansion and let out the same cackle she had heard him let out in the mansion of the Drum Demon. If demons could dream, that cackle would certainly echo in hers.

Coming to the two massive wooden doors of the walls surrounding the mansion, the boy that had the boar’s head slammed them open and stumbled outside. Despite bandages covering his chest and jaw, the boy seemed perfectly fine. He carried his dual swords at his side, and strode towards the forest with purpose. She must not have hit him as hard as she thought she did.

Stepping foot into the forest, the boy that had the boar's head shouted at the top of his lungs, “Demon! Show yourself so I can fight you!” Apparently, despite knowing she was in the forest, he didn’t know exactly where she was.

Nezuko heard the massive wooden doors open again, and looked up to see the boy with yellow hair step outside the walls. He seemed much less eager to hunt her down. He wasn’t holding any sort of weapon and apparently hadn’t changed out of the pajamas he had slept in last night. The same sparrow that had been with him at the mansion had flown over the wall and was circling above the two Demon Slayers, tweeting at the two of them in an almost panicked manner.

“Inosuke!” he shouted at the boy that had the boar’s head. “Come back inside, we don’t know where the demon is-”

The boy that had the boar’s head, apparently named Inosuke, turned around and shouted, “Shut up, Monitsu! You knew the demon was out here, now tell me where it is!”

“That is not my name, and I literally just said I don’t know where the demon is-”

The boy with yellow hair, who apparently wasn’t named Monitsu, cut off mid sentence as he looked up into the treeline and made eye contact with Nezuko. Once he saw her, he flinched backwards and started shaking the same way he had when he had first seen her. Thankfully, he didn’t faint again. She probably wouldn’t be able to deal with him in the middle of the day in the middle of a forest, where he could actually move around.

Inosuke followed his gaze and saw her perched in the trees. A wide, cocky smile split open his face as he pointed one of his swords up at her and shouted, “You! Get down here and fight me!”

Deeply regretting her decision to follow the Demon Slayers, Nezuko tucked the boar’s head into the tree branches that surrounded her and jumped down to the forest floor. It was better to be down here than up in the trees, anyway. There was enough shade to protect her from the sun if she decided to run away. Up in the trees, meanwhile, she would get fried trying to jump away from the two Demon Slayers.

Lifting her head, she got a better look at the two Demon Slayers. The one with yellow hair was exactly as she had expected him, with simple pajamas and no real injuries. Inosuke, however, was a bit of a surprise. She didn’t know exactly how hard she had hit him, but he really shouldn’t be up and about so soon. There was also the fact that he was talking to her at all, which shouldn’t have been possible with his broken jaw. She saw some bandages and him, but they seemed very light, and his jaw had barely been wrapped at all.

Raising her hands, Nezuko asked, “Look, could we please put our swords away? I already told you, I don’t want to-”

Ignoring what she had said, Inosuke charged towards her, cackling madly. The yellow haired boy shouted after him, “Inosuke, stop! I think it’s serious!” She didn’t have time to cringe at his word choice, as Inosuke was almost on top of her in an instant. Bringing his swords down, he just barely missed her as she jumped to the side. He kept coming after her, slashing his blades in wide arcs through the air. She kept backpedaling, jumping away from him to give herself space and a moment to think.

While aggressive, Inosuke had clearly been slowed down by his injuries. His attacks in the mansion had been chaotic, but they obviously had skill behind them. His attacks now were shaky, and his arms both kept closer to his chest. Nezuko could hear his breathing seemed ragged, and if she looked a bit closer at his stance, she could see he was angling one of his shoulders away from her. It probably hadn’t healed as much as the rest of his body had. His recovery may have been miraculous, but it wasn’t complete.

Nezuko kept retreating deeper into the forest, keeping herself just out of reach. Whenever she was about to back into a beam of sunlight that made it through the foliage or into an area of shade that was too light, her demonic instincts warned her, and she turned one way or another. Inosuke landed a dozen light hits on her when she did that, just barely cutting into her limbs or torso. Still, her regeneration healed them almost instantly, and none of the blows were close enough to her neck to be worrying.

Stopping abruptly, Nezuko charged towards Inosuke, ducking under his swords. Too close to him to be blocked, she slammed her fist into his chest. Coughing up blood onto her back, he brought the hilts of his sword down on her back, trying to bludgeon her. Undeterred, she brought up her second fist into his jaw.

Recoiling from her attack, Inosuke swung one of his swords towards her neck. Nezuko raised her sword, still in its scabbard, and got her sword lodged into one of the rough half circles that ran up and down the edge of the blade. Having recovered from her blow, Inosuke swung his free sword towards her. She brought up her arm to block his attack, and while the sharp, jagged blade dug into her arm, it couldn’t cut through it and reach her neck.

Inosuke began to pull his sword out of Nezuko’s arm to strike at her again. Tearing through flesh as it went, his sword was fully pulled out of her arm and brought to his side, leveling it directly with her face. Realizing what he was about to do, and desperate to end the fight, she slammed her head into his.

Stumbling backwards a few steps, Inosuke broke out into laughter and stumbled back forward, seemingly to stab Nezuko. Instead, though, he collapsed onto her and let go of his sword. Looking at his face, she saw that his eyes had rolled back into his head. Apparently his body had just given out after the fight.

Working her arm under his legs, Nezuko picked Inosuke up, carrying him in her arms. He was much bigger and heavier than she was, but being a demon, the weight amounted to next to nothing. Looking at the mansion, she noticed the boy with yellow hair. He had apparently ran back inside and gotten his sword. He now held said sword unsheathed in his hands, with the scabbard lying on the ground next to him. The light brown sparrow was still flying around his head, still tweeting loudly.

Nezuko stood where she was for a moment, then began to march over to the boy with yellow hair. He crouched down into the same stance she had seen him take at the mansion after he had passed out. He was shaky, but wore a determined expression.

Nezukos shouted at him, “For the last time, I don’t want to fight anybody! This guy- Inosuke- he needs help!”

The boy with yellow hair hesitated at this. He seemed torn, probably between the side of him that believed her and the side of him that believed what he had likely been told about demons by every other Demon Slayer. Eventually, he knelt down to his side and picked up the scabbard that he had dropped. Sheathing his sword, he held it at his side as he ran over to her.

As he reached Nezuko, she told him, “I can carry him, I just can’t get him to the mansion. You need to take him inside there.”

“Why can’t you-”, the boy with yellow hair began to ask, before looking at the mansion and seeing both the wisteria spilling over the walls and the sunlight that shone on the small stretch of grass in between the forest and the walls. “Oh, right.”

Hooking his arms under Inosuke, he turned around and began to jog back to the mansion. The light brown sparrow, which was probably his pet, trailed behind him, seemingly keeping an eye on her. The boy with yellow hair stopped halfway through the forest, then turned back towards her.

“Thank you for… you know, not killing him!” he shouted to her.

Nezuko didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded stiffly. Turning back around, the boy with the yellow hair went back to jogging and reentered the mansion, leaving her line of sight. From where she stood, she could hear him and an old woman inside of the walls speaking, then enter the mansion itself. After that, all she could make out was the occasional noise that sounded vaguely like a word.

Mulling over what had just happened, she decided to find somewhere to rest. The mansion wasn’t going anywhere, and she had seemingly decided that she wasn’t either. Again, she tried to convince herself to leave, but again, she couldn’t make herself.

Coming back to the tree she had been watching the mansion from, she carefully climbed back up and nestled herself into the branches, wrapping her kimono around herself. She settled back into her previous position, keeping an eye on the mansion and listening for anything interesting happening inside. Nezuko sat there for hours, keeping herself in near total silence to better listen. It didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t hear anything from inside the mansion, but it still gave her something to focus on.

Anyways, it helped her take in the sounds of the forest. While searching for demons, she had always been running after a faint scent or sleeping through the day because she didn’t have anything better to do. She rarely spent time listening to the world around her, and now that she was, it was… pleasant. It was relaxing to just let go of thought and just exist. She got why Yushiro had been so abnormally calm when he showed her how to do it.

She spent hours perched in her tree like this, silently listening for anything out of the ordinary. She probably could have used her time better, but she had already introduced herself to the Demon Slayers, so she might as well go all the way. The noise coming from inside the mansion had died down, so she couldn’t hear anything. The only thing she could see from her tree was the sparrow that had been with the boy with yellow hair. It occasionally flew out of the mansion and above the walls, though it never dared to go beyond them. It circled just within the perimeter of the mansion, seemingly searching for something. If it actually was searching for anything, then it was probably her, although she didn’t think a bird could be that smart.

Eventually, the sun began to set on the mansion and forest. Nezuko made her way forward to a tree she could see into the mansion from. The noise from inside the mansion changed as the boy with yellow hair talked to someone, trying to convince them not to worry about him. One of the mansion’s doors slid open, and the boy with yellow hair stepped out into the courtyard

An old woman that was comically short exited behind him, holding his sword in her hands. She had a short debate with the boy with yellow hair, which ended with him relenting and grabbing the sword as he headed to the double doors of the walls surrounding the mansion.

Pushing them open with his free hand, he stepped out and walked towards the forest. He was headed towards Nezuko, though this was probably due to her being in the same direction she had been in yesterday. She prepared to drop down to the forest floor and bolt away, although his speed did worry her.

As he stepped into the woods, the boy with yellow hair dropped the sword at his side to the ground. With nothing on hand to protect himself, he shouted into the woods, “Hello? Girl from yesterday? Are you still here?”

He seemed to be calling out to her, though she didn’t know exactly why. He was probably just curious. Being a Demon Slayer, his knowledge about demons was probably almost exclusively about how to fight them. The thought of a demon he didn’t have to fight was probably one he was curious about.

After some thought, Nezuko jumped down to the forest floor. Looking up, she saw some distance between the two of them. The boy with yellow hair was clearly startled by her sudden appearance, but still tried to seem friendly. Dropping her sword, she walked over to him and eventually was standing in front of him an arms length away.

Unsure of how to start the conversation, Nezuko lifted the boar's head she had been holding in her non sword hand and said, “Your friend dropped this.”

The boy with yellow hair looked at the boar’s head for a moment, then chuckled to himself, saying, “He’s not really my friend, but he’ll probably appreciate that.”

“Hm,” Nezuko murmured awkwardly as she handed the boar’s head over to him. “He’s Inosuke, right?” As the boy with yellow hair nodded in response, she continued, “He called you Monitsu, but you mentioned that wasn’t your name, right?”

The boy with yellow hair groaned a little at that. “Yeah, he can’t say people's names right, apparently. My name is actually Agatsuma Zenitsu. What's yours?”

Slow to respond, she said, “Kamado Nezuko.”

“Right, right. You’re a… demon, right?” Zenitsu asked.

Instead of responding, she silently raised one eyebrow, as if to ask if he couldn’t tell already. Zenitsu blushed a little, embarrassed at his own question. “Okay, fair. But… why aren’t you… like most demons?”

Feeling a little frustrated with herself for her inability to answer his question, Nezuko responded, “I don’t know. I just… am.”

Zenitsu considered her answer for a moment. He opened his mouth to ask her a question, then paused, as if reconsidering for a moment, then asked his question anyway. “Do you know if there are any other demons like you?”

Nezuko was about to tell him that yes, there were other demons like her. She wanted to say so, if only to feed the conversation. However, at the same time, she didn’t know how he would react to knowing that there were more of her. Tamayo and Yushiros existence was dangerous enough without a group dedicated to killing demons hunting for them. It wasn’t her place to tell anyone about the two of them.

“No, I don’t think so,” was her immediate response.

Zenitsu frowned at this, spending a long time considering it. Nezuko wondered if he thought she was lying or if he was just wondering what to say next. His expression was cold and hard, as if he was frustrated by her response. Eventually, though, it softened and he moved onto his next question.

“Have you… killed anyone?”

Nezuko felt her stomach churn at this question. She tried to give some sort of response, but felt unable to get any sound out of her throat. Deciding that any lie she told him would be blatantly obvious at this point, she nodded silently as tears crept into her eyes. Zenitsu seemed taken aback by her crying, and stepped forward. She stepped back, hugging her sides tightly and keeping her eyes on the ground. Zenitsu was apparently at a loss for words at her breakdown.

“Agatsuma-sama?” the old woman called out from the front of the mansion.

Zenitsu whipped his head back to see if the old woman had come around the corner. She hadn’t, but he was probably still nervous about being caught not killing a demon he had found.

Turning back to face Nezuko, he said, “Look, I’m sorry about my question. I didn’t mean to be rude.” He looked behind him again, then said, “I’ve got to go, but I’ll be back to ask more questions, alright?”

As she nodded, Zenitsu turned around and walked to the end of the wall, turning the corner and entering the walls of the mansion. Watching him for a moment, Nezuko turned towards the forest and ran back to her tree. Climbing it, she returned to her perched position.

Within a few hours the sun rose again. With the thick tree cover, she could have left at any time, but she never felt the urge to. As awkward and short as the conversation with Zenitsu had been, it had been a breath of fresh air for her to talk to someone. Besides, their conversation had been fairly one sided. She hadn’t gotten to ask him any questions, and she was still curious about the Demon Slayer Corps and the two Demon Slayers she had met in particular. She could afford to wait for a little more conversation.

Hours passed. Nezuko couldn’t hear anything from her tree, and the people in the mansion didn’t exit to the courtyard. Eventually, though, the sun set on the mansion. Zenitsu exited the mansion again, with the old woman again urging him not to. Exiting the mansion, he headed into the forest in her general direction. She jumped down from her tree and walked over to meet him.

Zenitsu held a small bundle of cloth at his side. As he approached her, the stench of meat in the bundle wafted over to Nezuko. Raising the bundle, he handed it over to her, saying, “I brought you something. It’s not a lot, but it was all I could sneak out of the mansion.”

Gently taking the bundle, Nezuko slowly unwrapped it to reveal a small amount of cooked meat. If she had to say, the meat smelled like pork. It had clearly been picked out of someone's meal, as bits of rice were still stuck to the individual pieces of meat.

Raising her head, she asked, “Why?”

Zenitsu seemed puzzled by the question. “Well, you’re hungry, aren’t you? It seemed like the decent thing to do.”

Nezuko looked back down at the meat in the cloth bundle, wondering how to phrase her next sentence.

“I can’t eat this,” she ultimately settled on as her response.

Zenitsu’s expression clouded over with confusion. “What? Why?” he asked her.

“Cooked food - demons can’t eat it. Our bodies reject anything that isn’t raw or rare meat.” Nezuko shrugged apologetically and handed back the cloth bundle.

“Oh...” Zenitsu looked down at the cloth bundle. “You know what, I probably should have guessed that.” He awkwardly set down the bundle, probably not wanting to take the risk eating meat that had gone cold. “How have you been… feeding yourself?” he asked.

“Wild animals. Deer, mostly. At first it was just…” She cut herself off before she could complete her sentence, not wanting to touch on that part of her demon hood. “Nevermind. Not people, just… nevermind.”

Zenitsu seemed panicked after she refused to elaborate on what she ate at first, but calmed down after she said she hadn’t eaten people. That honestly confused her, given the circumstances.

“Why do you trust me? You seem like you actually believe what I’m saying, but… why? You have no real reason to.”

Zenitsu hesitated for a moment, then responded to Nezuko’s question. “I have a… very good sense of hearing. I have since I was a child. I could hear conversations going on next door and the like. Anyway, one of the things I can hear is if… someone is being honest.” He paused, then, seeing her lack of objection, continued. “When you told Inosuke that you didn’t want to fight him, I could tell that you were being honest. And I can tell that you’re being honest right now, so…” he trailed off awkwardly, probably conscious of how strange his story was.

Nezuko stared at him blankly for a moment, then shrugged and said, “Okay.”

Zenistu quirked his head to the side, surprised by her deadpan response. “That’s it?”

“I’m a demon capable of regrowing entire limbs that can only survive by eating bloody meat and who can’t go into the sun without bursting into flames. I think I can stomach the idea of you hearing lies,” she replied to him.

He considered what she said for a moment, then chuckled to himself. “You know what, fair enough.”

After that, the conversation became a more natural back and forth between the two of them. Zenitsu asked Nezuko about her travels as a demon, and she asked him about the Demon Slayer Corps. She mostly just summarized her travels across Japan. It occurred to her that he probably knew that he had lied to him about being the only rogue demon. Still, she wasn’t going to bring it up if he wasn’t, and he never did, so it never got brought up.

Her questioning of him mostly just confirmed what she had already suspected about the Demon Slayer Corps. They were a centuries old organization that hunted down demons and that had a massive fortune at their disposal. They weren’t recognized by the government, which was aware of them, but allowed them to operate regardless.

Zenitsu also explained to her what “Total Concentration Breathing” was. Apparently all Demon Slayers were taught a breathing technique that enhanced their physical abilities. Each Demon Slayer adapted the Total Concentration Breathing to themselves, using whatever form happened to suit them best. Zenitsu used Thunder Breathing, although he wasn’t good at it. He could have fooled her, but she decided to take his word for it. He denied knowing about the sleepwalking thing he had done at the mansion, which confused her, but she was willing to just move on with the conversation.

Eventually, he went back inside the mansion to rest, leaving her with a promise to return tomorrow. This repeated over multiple days, with Nezuko and Zenitsu talking with each other. While the conversation was, at first, dedicated to the useful knowledge they could give each other, it soon devolved into simple small talk. Most of the conversation was about the Demon Slayer Corps and Nezuko’s travels as a demon. He talked about the old man that had trained him, who sounded really intense, and she talked about the occasional interesting demon she had run across.

One day, as the sun began to set on the mansion and surrounding forests, Zenitsu came out with Inosuke dragging his feet behind him. Nezuko could hear the two of them talking, with Zenitsu emphasizing to Inosuke how he couldn’t make any sort of scene.

Jumping down, she stood at the base of her tree, not approaching the two Demon Slayers. Inosuke seemed uhc less aggressive than he had been when she had come face to face with him previously, but her memory of him kept her rooted where she stood. Still, he lacked a sword or any sort of weapon, so she let Zenitsu lead him to her. The two of them halted, close enough to talk to Nezuko, but still a healthy distance from her. Zenitsu gestured towards her, and Inosuke sighed deeply.

Taking in a deep breath, he said, “Kamaboko Nekuzo, I'm sorry for trying to kill you.” When he refused to continue, Zenitsu elbowed him and he groaned, though he did continue. “Twice, and for trying to kill you when you were trying to be peaceful.”

Nezuko thought about what he had said for a moment. “Three times.”

“What?”

“You tried to kill me three times,” she corrected him.

Inosuke grumbled to himself, probably not wanting to apologize to her, but Zenitsu glared at him until he did so. “Fine! I’m sorry that I tried to kill you three times!”

Nezuko smiled to herself. “Apology accepted. I’m sorry I knocked you out three times.”

“Huh? Oh, that’s nothing. Just some concussions,” he responded.

Processing what Inosuke had just said, and seeing Zenitsu’s lack of reaction, Nezuko concluded that all Demon Slayers were insane.

“So… you’re not an evil demon?” he asked, breaking her out of her shock.

Nezuko sighed and responded with a simple, “No.”

Mulling over her response, he asked her, “Can I still fight you?”

“Inosuke!” Zenitsu shouted at him as Nezuko laughed at the rude Demon Slayer.

Her and Inosuke did spar, although without swords. He was satisfied by this, and proved to be just as good at fisticuffs as at swordplay. He came out every day to spar with her after she had talked with Zenitsu. This went on for just under a week, with the three of them establishing a simple report with each other.
One day, they came out during… Well, the day. The sun had just risen, and when they came out, the two of them seemed a lot more… muted, for lack of a better word.

“Are you two alright?” she asked them.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Zenitsu paused for a moment, seemingly working out how to phrase his sentence. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” Nezuko asked.

“We’ve gotten a message from the Demon Slayer Corps. Apparently there’s a mountain to the northeast-Mt Natagumo- where a bunch of Demon Slayers have vanished. The two of us are supposed to head there and investigate the area to see what’s going on. So, I guess this is goodbye.”

“Wait, couldn’t I come with you?” she asked.

Both Demon Slayers were surprised by her suggestion. “Well- I mean, you can’t, can you?” Zenitsu said. “We’re Demon Slayers. Our whole job is to kill your kind. Even if we’re not going to kill you, we’d have to report you to the Corps. Besides, why would you want to come with us?”

“Well, you're supposed to report me to the Corps, but you don’t literally have to, do you?” Nezuko was surprised she had to explain to the two Demon Slayers that they could just not tell anyone about her, especially since they hadn’t told anyone about her yet. “And as for why…”

This was where it got complicated. From what she had been told by Zenitsu and Inosuke, the mountain they were headed to could be where one of the Twelve Kizuki was living. The Demon Slayer Corps probably wasn’t just handing swords to teenagers and sending them on their way, and it sounded like several Demon Slayers had gone to the mountain. If they had really just disappeared, then something serious was probably going on there. She had spent long enough just lazing around outside of the mansion. She had a job to do that needed to get done.

At the same time, she couldn’t just tell them why she was looking for one of the Twelve Kizuki. She was after them for their blood, and if she told these two about that, she would have to explain the cure for demonhood that Lady Tamayo was working on and, by extension, Lady Tamayo. Zenitsu could apparently tell when she was lying, so he should believe that Lady Tamayo had good intentions, but this information probably wouldn’t be something he would keep secret from the Corps. Even if he trusted what Nezuko said about Tamayo, whoever was in charge of the Corps might not. She didn’t have the right to risk her and Yushiro’s safety.

After a brief pause, she said, “You said that several Demon Slayers had vanished around Mt Natagumo, right? That sounds like the work of a powerful demon, maybe even multiple demons working together.”

“Demons don’t work together, Nekudon,” Inosuke told her matter of factly.

“Usually not, but they sometimes do. The point is, Mt Natagumo sounds really dangerous, right? I’m not saying you two are weak, but if several other Demon Slayers couldn’t handle whatever’s on the mountain, then it might be a bit more that you can handle. I’ve spent a lot of time fighting demons, and I may not be stronger than you two together, but I could at least help.”

Well, that should work. It didn’t reveal anything about Lady Tamayo, and her concerns about the danger were genuine, so it would pass by Zenitsu. She was being deceptive, which he might be able to pick up on, but this way seemed the most likely to be believed by him.

Nezuko watched the two Demon Slayers mull over her suggestion. Zenitsu was probably weighing the logic of what she had said against his basic knowledge of demons. Even if he believed that she had good intentions, he had still been taught for who knows how long that any and all demons were inherently evil. Inosuke… to be fully honest, she wasn’t sure if he could mull stuff over. All she had seen and heard him talk about was fighting and various times he had been fighting. Still, he did seem to be considering what she had said, or at least considering something, with some depth.

Suddenly, Inosuke’s eyes lit up and a smile split open his face. “Wait here, underlings! I have an idea!” Saying that, he turned back around and ran towards the mansion.

“... Did he just call us his underlings?” Nezuko asked Zenitsu.

“Did he just have an idea?” he asked her.

Nezuko laughed a little at Inosuke’s expense. “Well, what do you think about me going with you to Mt Natagumo?” she asked Zenitsu, trying to get the conversation back on topic. His eyes flicked away from her, considering her suggestion.

“I mean, it makes sense. Even if there aren’t multiple demons at the mountain, having you there couldn’t hurt. I’m not sure if this could be a repeat thing-the Corps would probably take notice-but just once would probably be safe. After that, we would probably have to part ways, unless you wanted to get found out by the Corps.”

“Do you think Inosuke would object?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “I think he’s fine with you being around. He’s obsessed with getting stronger, and I think that to him, being a Demon Slayer is just the fastest way for him to do that.”

“Huh. What about you? Why did you join the Demon Slayer Corps?”

“Ah…” Zenitsu hesitated for a moment, only responding in a quiet, embarrassed manner. “My sensei agreed to pay off some debts I had racked up if I agreed to become his student.”

Nezuko stood in silence for a moment. “How old were you when he started training you?”

“Fifteen.”

“And by the time you were fifteen, you had racked up debts so massive you couldn’t pay them off?”

“Oh, shut up,” he told her without malice. “I should probably follow Inosuke and make sure he doesn’t do too much damage with his idea.”

Zenitsu turned back towards the house and ran inside, shouting after Inosuke. Nezuko, instead of returning to her tree, headed just to the edge of the forest, where she could see the entrance to the mansion, but still had enough tree cover to protect her from the sunlight. Under half an hour passed before the two Demon Slayers emerged from the mansion.

Inosuke, wearing his boar head, carried a bundle of clothing under his arm which he had probably been given by whoever ran the mansion. The old woman Nezuko had often seen inside the walls of the mansion stood at the doorway, nervously looking around at the forest. She performed a ceremony with a flint and steel, which sent Inosuke into a fit. He apparently didn’t know that the woman was trying to wish him luck, and Zenitsu had to drag him away.

The two started down the road leading away from the mansion, with Nezuko tailing them from the tree line. After they got far enough away from the mansion that it disappeared from their view, the two of them turned and headed into the forest towards her.

Inosuke approached her with a grin on his face that stretched from ear to ear. He held the clothes he had gotten from the mansion in his hands, shoving the loose pile into Nezuko’s arms.

“Put them on,” he told her.

“I-I’m sorry?”

“Put them on! Wrap them around your arms and face. It’s to cover you from the sun,” he explained to her.

“Oh,” she said as she looked down at the clothes in her arms. They weren’t exactly made to cover every inch of skin, but Inosuke had grabbed enough for her to improvise with. When she had the time, she could probably cut the clothes apart and sew them back together in a way that covered her properly.

“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think about this,” she told Inosuke.

He quirked his head. “What, were you just going to run after us at nighttime?”

Nezuko struggled for words for a moment, then admitted, “Yeah, basically.”

This time, it was Inosuke who laughed at Nezuko’s expense. After that, she got dressed in the clothes Inosuke had gotten her, wearing them around the kimono she usually wore. In the end, her efforts were effective, and she could walk into daylight without burning up. Her, Zenitsu, and Inosuke then turned north and headed to Mt Natagumo, not knowing exactly what the three of them were getting themselves into.

“~”

Pouring tea into the small ceramic cup in front of him, Kagaya smiled to himself at his own achievement. Perhaps it was somewhat pathetic for the head of the Demon Slayer Corps to be proud of pouring himself a cup of tea. Still, his wife, children and servants hadn’t been there to help him, and a blind man doing anything for himself was impressive.

Well, perhaps that was demeaning to other blind men. Kagaya was, after all, uniquely new to his condition. It was only just two years ago that he had woken up and not seen anything out of his right eye. Soon enough, his left eye fell to the same fate. The purple scars he had been so fearful of as a younger man had finally spread to his eyes, as if they were intent on taking every last thing from him. The purple patches had first appeared in teenage years, starting on his arms and appearing all over his body in scattered patches. They started sapping his strength and deteriorating his health quickly. His vision had started to fade before he was even 20 years old, and after his vision finally left him, he could hardly navigate his own home.

He remembered being terrified of the spreading patches, desperate to stop their spread. Of course, he knew that they couldn’t be stopped. None of the firstborn males in his family were spared the illness, and none had lasted very long. His own father had died in his early thirties, despite his massive fortune and personal medical staff. Still, desperate men have a way of convincing themselves the impossible is achievable, and he had searched for something, anything that could even slow the effects of the illness.

When the illness had finally taken Kagaya’s sight, his reaction had been oddly muted. He supposed that once it had happened, it seemed much less like an encroaching horror and more like a simple, new fact of life. His small army of servants certainly helped with managing his condition. His duties as head of the Demon Slayer Corps had always been administrative. His job was to act as the brain of the corps, not its muscle. He had his servants commit his orders to paper for him. His wife and the servants that he trusted more handled his finances however he told them to. All in all, the practical impact of him losing his sight was next to nothing. He would have liked to have not lost it at all, but if so many of his children in the Demon Slayer Corps had been willing to be crippled in their war on demonkind, he could bear his blindness.

As he lifted the small teacup to his lips, Kagaya’s train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a bird flying into the small room he was in. Its small feet landed to his right as its voice called out, “Message for Master Ubuyashiki!”

Ah, this was one of his kasugai crows, he thought as it called out to him again, “Message for Master Ubuyashiki!”

“I heard you”, he told the crow. Taking a short sip from his teacup, he set it back down on the mat in front of him and asked, “What is the message?” The kasugai crows always carried a written copy of the messages they were ferrying, but they seemed to enjoy reciting their messages out loud, and most Demon Slayers let them.

The message was from one of the Wisteria Mansions that were spread throughout the countryside. As Kagaya sat where he was and listened to the long, winding message from the old woman who ran the mansion, his expression changed from the casual smile he always wore to one of confusion, finally settling on shock.

Moving his arm, he reached towards the kasugai crows and grabbed the metal cylinder tied around its neck that held the paper copy of the message. Pulling it off the crow, he pushed himself up and slowly shuffled to the doorway. He had to find a servant, or perhaps his wife, to make sure that the Kasugai crow had recited the message correctly.

The old woman who had written the message to him didn’t seem to understand the weight of what she had sent, but Kagaya did. If she was right about what she had seen, then what she had seen could change… everything.

After the message the old woman sent had been checked, he would need his wife to pen a letter to one of his Hashira. Actually, two might be better. If a pair of his children were really letting one of Muzans demons travel with them, then they were either incredibly foolish, or they had stumbled upon something truly remarkable. He could not take any chances that might allow such a golden opportunity to pass the crops by.

Chapter Text

Behind Master Ubuyashiki, two Hashira sat. One, Kocho Shinobu, wore a white kimono that turned pink at the ends over a black dress shirt. Alongside her outfit, she wore a thin, placid smile. While her master wore a similar smile, their demeanors could not have been more different. His smile was genuine and warm. Hers, on the other hand, was more like a mask. She seemed cold, and anyone who didn’t know her could be forgiven for thinking that she simply didn’t feel anything.

The second Hashira, Tomioka Giyuu, wore a mismatched kimono. One side was a deep red, while the other was a boxy yellow and green pattern. The same mistake made about Shinobu was made even more often about him, though for another reason. His face lacked any noticeable expression, and he made it a point to stay distant from his fellow Hashira. He appeared emotionless, and nobody made it a point to try and prove otherwise.

The two of them had been called away from what they had been doing. Shinobu had been studying medicine texts left to her by her sister. Giyuu, meanwhile, had been hunting for demons. He had, over two years ago, been hunting a demon that was believed to be one of the Twelve Kizuki. He had failed to hunt it down, the demon had managed to massacre almost an entire family of villagers, turning the last one into a demon. This was a shocking failure for a Hashira, both to him and to the Corps. Despite how long ago it had been, he was still driving himself hard in an effort to clean off the shame of his failure.

Master Ubuyashiki spoke to the two Hashira sitting behind him. “A manager of a Wisteria Mansion has reported that a pair of Mizunoto that had been staying there are now traveling with a demon.”

This news shocked both of the Hashira, bringing an expression of surprise to both their faces. Demons didn’t travel alongside humans peacefully, certainly not Demon Slayers. It was unheard of. What the manager of the wisteria mansion had described just wasn’t possible. Despite this obvious fact, their master seemed completely serious about what he had just stated.

Continuing, Master Ubuyashiki said, “We have records of the two Demon Slayers. They both received orders only a day ago to travel to Mt Natagumo, an area of suspected demon activity. It’s believed that the demon may have traveled with them. While the truth of the manager’s claim is in question, it is worth investigating. If you find the demon, you are to capture it alive. If you do not find it, then search the area for any other demons in the area and kill them.”

The two Hashira, despite their loyalty, almost objected to this. A peaceful demon went against everything they had learned while serving in the Demon Slayer Corps, and not killing a demon they found went against everything the Demon Slayer Corps was meant to do. Still, loyalty and rationality won out. If a demon had been willing to travel alongside two Demon Slayers, then it might not be loyal to the King of Demons. That, if it really did exist, would be a true asset to the Corps.

“You two must go to Mt Natagumo and do this. You are both dismissed.”

The two Hashiras bowed until their foreheads nearly touched the floor, then stood up and turned to leave down the hall. Giyuu could have left immediately, but Shinobu would need to pick up her medicines, as well as her Tsuguko. While walking down the hall, she turned to Giyuu and made an attempt at conversation.

“Have you thought about what Master Ubuyashiki said?” she asked him. “A demon that travels with two Demon Slayers. Perhaps demons and humans can finally get along, hm?”

“Don’t be absurd, Shinobu.” Giyuu curtly responde. “I don’t mean to disrespect Master Ubuyashiki, but I doubt that the manager of the wisteria mansion really saw a demon. As long as demons live, they will kill and eat humans. As long as they kill and eat humans, we will be here to hunt them down.”

“~”

Zenitsu, Inosuke and Nezuko traveled through the entire day to Mt Natagumo. They had to cover a massive amount of distance, but all three of them were faster than the average human, and all had a much higher endurance than the average human. With both of these factors combined, they made good time, and could see the mountain in the distance before the sun began to set. Nezuko stripped off the extra layer of clothes Inosuke had gotten for her to keep her safe from the sunlight and ran the rest of the way in the kimono she had grown for herself. She didn’t have to, but the heat from the extra layer was unbearable, and now that the sun had set, there was no real need to wear them.

Mt Natagumo, when they finally reached it, was an intimidating sight. The scent of a demon was clearly emanating from there, and the closer the trio got, the more obvious the individual details of the mountain became. In addition, the tree branches often moved back and forth. It was hard to tell if this was from wind or from demons moving through the trees, but the imaginations of the trio ran wild with what they saw.

As they approached the mountain, Zenitsu suddenly said, “Wait! Let’s stop here!”

Inosuke and Nezuko stopped and turned around to face him when he said this. “What? Why?” Inosuke asked bluntly.

“I’m scared, alright!” Zenitsu shouted at the two of them. “It was easy to just say, ‘oh, let’s go to the mountain full of demons’ in the daylight when we were far away from here, but now that it’s right in front of us, I’m freaking out!”

After finishing his rant, he collapsed onto his rear and curled in on himself, then began to cry violently. Inosuke and Nezuko both looked down at him with disbelief.

“Oi, Zemitu, what’s your problem?” Inosuke asked him.

“Problem?! Are you saying I’ve got a problem?! I haven’t got a problem, you’ve got a problem!” Zenitsu all but screeched at Inosuke. “You’ve got no sense of self preservation! You just charge headlong towards whatever seems the most dangerous so you can use it as a stepping stone or whatever the hell!”

Having said his piece, he shoved his face back into his arms and resumed crying. Inosuke looked at him with a vague expression of disbelief, then sighed and turned back towards the mountain.

“Come on, Mezuka. Let’s just head up the mountain without him,” he said to her.

“Wait,” she told him. Inosuke was clearly frustrated that she wasn’t going to head to the mansion with him, but there was something she needed to do first.

Zenitsu was completely oblivious to the world around him. With his face tucked into the crook of his arm, he could be mistaken for a child throwing a fit. Nezuko, however, could hear his breathing. His breaths were shallow and panicky, like he had just nearly been drowned. If she thought about it, she understood why perfectly. His job was to hunt down demons. Literal man eating demons. Every day, his life was under threat. Really, the odds that he would survive until retirement were slim. And now, he had arrived at a mountain where several Demon Slayers had just vanished into thin air. It wasn’t hard to put together what he was afraid of.

Nezuko remembered how she had first reacted to meeting a demon after she had been turned into one herself. She had been alone and terrified. The circumstances had forced her to abruptly come to terms with the amount of violence now in her life, but it had taken until the Horned Demons for her to really accept it. Zenitsu, meanwhile, hadn’t been in circumstances that extreme, and was probably unaccustomed to violence. The fact that death was hanging over his head constantly was apparently not lost on him, and he clearly hadn’t learned how to cope with it.

Hesitantly approaching him, Nezuko crouched down in front of him. “Zenitsu?” After he refused to respond, she spoke more forcefully. “Zenitsu, look at me.”

Lifting his head slightly, Zenitsu exposed his eyes, already red from tears. Making eye contact with him, Nezuko continued. “What was your final test?” He seemed confused by her question, so she clarified for him. “Your final test as a Demon Slayer. You mentioned it to me, but you never explained what it was. What was it?”

After a beat of silence, Zenitsu responded to her question. “A group of Demon Slayer trainees- we went to a mountain that was covered with wisteria trees. At the top of the mountain, there were a bunch of demons trapped there by the wisteria. We had to survive a week up there to pass.”

… Okay, the more Nezuko learned about the Demon Slayer Corps, the more it disturbed her. Still, she didn’t have time to address that right now. Besides, she could work with what she had just been told.

“Alright. Well, you survived that, didn’t you?”

Zenitsu shook his head. “That - that was just luck. I didn’t kill any demons, and I don’t know how I-”

“Yes, but you’re still here, right?” Nezuko interrupted. “You survived a literal mountain full of demons.” She gestured behind her at Mt Natagumo. “Isn’t that exactly what we’re dealing with here?”

She let Zenitsu mull over what she had just said for a moment before she continued. “You’re capable, Zenitsu. You had a mountain full of man-eating demons hunting you down day and night, and you survived. You are capable of surviving against all odds. You have made it this far. You can make it a bit further.”

It took a moment for Zenitsu to respond to what she said. He buried his face back into the crook of his arm, and it seemed like he was about to return to his crying fit. Instead, he inhaled deeply, steadying his breath. He wiped the tears on his face off onto his sleeve, then pushed himself up onto his feet.

“Thank you for… that, Nezuko,” he said to her.

She stood up and smiled. “Of course.”

The two of them turned and walked over to Inosuke, who had been impatiently waiting for them. They rejoined him and began to walk towards Mt Natagumo.

Very quickly, the trio was forced out of their casual pace. As they approached, they saw a boy in black clothes with a sword in his hand was stumbling away from the mountain. He was clearly exhausted, barely being able to stand upright and holding his arms limply at his sides. Still, he seemed desperate to put as much distance between himself and Mt Natagumo. Even from here, Nezuko could hear his ragged breaths, and the boy nearly fell over several times.

Eventually he did fall over, tripping and landing face first in the dirt. The trio ran to him, with Nezuko only pausing to change her eyes to something that could pass for those of a human - the boy wore the uniform of a demon slayer, and it would probably be a good idea to let him think she was one of his comrades. When the trio finally reached his side, he was still trying to pull himself forward along the ground. His attempts failed miserably, and he didn’t manage to move himself at all. Nezuko knelt down in front of him.

“Hey, are you alright?” she asked him.

The boy could barely come up with a response through his heavy wheezing. In between gasps and pants, he said, “I’m fine - only just got away - get me out of here -”

Suddenly, the boy flew backwards, as if grabbed and pulled by a giant, invisible hand. Within seconds, he had flown halfway back to Mt Natagumo. He screamed at the trio as he flew through the air, begging them to help him. However, there was already too much distance between them, and they could only stare in shock as he was pulled into the trees.

Nezuko stared at the spot where the tree branches had broken and let in the boy. Well, there was no doubt that there was a demon here now. And one with a Blood Demon Art, too. What had just happened… did the demon have a Blood Demon Art like the arrow demon she had fought at Lady Tamayo’s office? But she had been able to see the arrows that had been used by him. Even if the demon here didn’t use arrows, she should have been able to see something. Was it physical, then? Something connected to the boy?

Interrupting her train of thought, Inosuke shoved his boar’s head over his face and began marching towards the mountain. “I’ll lead the way, underlings! Follow me!”

Hesitating only for a moment, both Zenitsu and Nezuko followed Inosuke up Mt Natagumo. Marching down the dirt path that led up the mountain, the trio walked into the trees, trying to not be disturbed by the atmosphere of the forest.

The thick pine trees that covered the mountain threatened to spill over onto the narrow dirt road that the three of them were traveling along. A truly massive amount of spider webs were strung in between the individual branches.The bright full moon that hung in the sky above them only just managed to light up the forest. Even then, the many tree branches that hung in the air created shadows that obscured the views of the trio, giving the forest many areas that the imaginations of the trio could fill in with whatever they pleased.

The first thing Nezuko once she entered the forest noticed was the odor. Up and down the entire mountain, the odor of demons permeated the air. When she had suggested to Zenitsu and Inosuke that there might be multiple demons at the mountain, she had mostly just been trying to convince them to let her tag along. However, it was starting to look like that might actually be the case here.

The second thing she noticed was how quiet and loud it was at the same time. There was no sound of wild birds or other animals. Instead, there was a quiet but constant noise of something skittering along the forest floor. There was also the faint sound of creaking, almost like a drawn out version of the sound a loose floorboard made. To top it off, there was what sounded like, and what probably was, the sound of people crying and whispering to themselves. All in all, Mt Natagumo was far more unsettling than it had any real right to be.

Inosuke kept the mountain from being too quiet with a constant stream of chatter. Neither Nezuko or Zenitsu made much conversation with him, but he didn’t seem to mind. The trio slowly made their way up the mountain, despite how it kept getting progressively creepier. Eventually, they saw a boy with black hair wearing the uniform of a Demon Slayer wandering in between the trees. He was hunched over and moving swiftly from tree to tree, seemingly trying to avoid being seen. The three of them made their way over to the lone Demon Slayer.

Coming up behind him, Nezuko placed her hand on his shoulder. He whipped around to face her, panic in his eyes. He nearly took off her head with his sword, and she was worried that he had somehow recognized her as a demon, but he relaxed once he saw her face. He stood stock still for a moment, then collapsed against a tree, a smile of relief on his face.

“You're not one of them. You’re not - not one of them,” he repeated. He took in a deep breath, then rubbed at his eyes as if deeply tired. “Who are you three?”

“I’m Nezuko. This is Zenitsu and Inosuke,” she said, gesturing to the two Demon Slayers standing next to her.

“Murata. What rank are you all?”

Nezuko panicked for a moment at what he said - she could obviously pass as a Demon Slayer, but she knew nothing about the ranks of the Demon Slayer Corps - but Zenitsu stepped in to fill the silence.

“Mizunoto. We’re all Mizunoto,” he said.

Murata stared blankly at Zenitsu for a moment, then broke out in quiet, hysterical laughter. When he finally stopped laughing, he said, “So they want more of us to get ourselves killed. Oh, that’s just perfect.”

He resumed laughing until, out of nowhere, Inosuke punched him in the face, breaking his nose. “If you’re going to keep whining, then just shut up! Tell us something useful, or don’t tell us anything at all!”

“Inosuke!” both Nezuko and Zenitsu shouted as they grabbed inosuke and dragged him away from the Demon Slayer he had just attacked.

“What the hell is your problem?” Murata screamed at Inosuke.

“Shut up and tell us what happened here!” Inosuke screamed back.

“I don’t know what -” Murata tried to breathe in deeply through his nose, but ended up snorting in blood. Coughing it up onto the ground, he eventually said, “That damn crow told us to come here. I was with a group of ten Mizunoto. We made our way to the mountain, and then, halfway up, everybody drew their swords and started killing each other. I don’t know why they did that, I was busy getting away without being killed.”

The trio stared at him in shock. “Were they who you were referring to as them? The other Demon Slayers?” Zenitsu asked.

“Yeah. I don’t know how many demon slayers are like that here, but I saw a few that I didn’t recognize from my group. We must not have been the only ones called to the mountain,” Murata replied.

Suddenly, the faint creaking that Nezuko had heard coming from further up the mountain came from all around the cluster of Demon Slayers. Murata whipped his head towards the sound and pushed himself up, holding his sword out in front of him.

“That noise -” he said in between panicked breaths. “That’s the noise I heard before everybody started killing each other.”

Inosuke, Nezuko and Zenistu all drew their swords and turned to face the noise. The sound of creaking only grew louder and closer, like whatever was approaching was the one making the sound. Out of the trees stepped a group of Demon Slayers. All of them had been badly wounded, with blood dripping down their faces or leaking out of cuts in their chests and limbs. They were all hunched over, like they barely had the energy to stand upright. More importantly, though, was the fact that every one of the Demon Slayers held a nichirin sword in their hand.

One of the Demon Slayers, with blood spilling from a nasty cut running across his forehead and blank, lifeless eyes, lunged forward with his sword outstretched towards Inosuke. Giving out a characteristic cackle, he dodged the Demon Slayer’s attack and brought up his sword to cleave through the Demon Slayer.

“Wait!” Nezuko shouted at him.

Instead of cutting through the Demon Slayer below him, Inosuke tilted the pointed end of the sword up and brought down the hilt of the sword on the back of the Demon Slayer, knocking him to the ground.

He turned towards her and shouted, “What is it, Nekudon!?”

“We can’t hurt these people!” One of the Demon Slayers lunged at her, and she brought up her sword to block his blow. “Some of them might still be alive! I don’t think they’re doing this of their own free will! Their movements are unnatural, like they’re being physically forced to do this! Besides, it makes no sense for them to do this!”

By now, three of them were fighting one or more of the Demon Slayers with varying degrees of success. Most of their efforts were focused on deflecting sword blades and then physically shoving them away from them. Zenitsu had passed out and fallen to the floor, while Murata was holding off several Demon Slayers trying to kill him. They all looked silly, but it was better than accidentally killing someone.

Inosuke shouted at Nezuko in frustration. “Well, what do you want me to do, then?!”

“Just hold them off and don’t do anything that could kill them!” she shouted back.

One of the Demon Slayers swung his sword towards her chest, and she blocked it with her sword, then kicked her foot out to trip him up. As he fell forward, the moonlight caught on something hanging above him. Looking closer, she could see that it was actually a series of threads attached to him at several spots - the head, the elbows, the wrists, the knees.

Nezuko swung her sword almost casually through the air, cutting through the threads. The boy immediately collapsed, falling face first to the ground. Looking up, she saw that the threads disappeared into the tree branches, seemingly leading to nowhere.

Only considering what she saw for a moment, she shouted to the Demon Slayers she was fighting alongside, “Cut through the air above them! There’s threads connected to them- cut them and they just collapse!”

Hearing her, the others quickly began to follow her instructions. Inosuke catapulted himself through the air, cutting through several sets of threads at once, while Murata circled around the Demon Slayers he was fighting to cut through the threads connected to them. Nezuko, for her part, repeated what she had done the first time, knocking over Demon Slayers and cutting through their exposed threads. Soon enough, all of the Demon Slayers that had attacked them had been dealt with and now were lying on the ground.

The trio took a collective moment to rest themselves. Murata had been fighting and running from the Demon Slayers roaming Mt Natagumo for who knows how long, and Inosuke, while not exhausted, had fought hard, and had traveled through an entire day without rest to get here. Nezuko, meanwhile, took her time to study the Demon Slayers. She could hear a few of them groaning in pain or breathing faintly, though most were probably dead.

The main thing she was focused on was the severed threads. It was hard to tell what they were, especially since they were in the process of turning to ash. Probably something made out of demon flesh, but most Blood Demon Arts had, for lack of a better word, a theme. If she could figure out what the treads were, then she might have a better idea of what the demon’s Blood Demon Art was. She was having trouble identifying them, though. Sewing thread, maybe?

Interrupting her train of thought, she noticed strange looking spiders crawling over the Demon Slayers lying on the ground. They had white bodies, with a trio of red spots running down their abdomens. There were a massive amount of the spiders, and it looked like they were crawling over all of the Demon Slayers. They all had threads trailing behind them that she could just barely make out in the moonlight.

Realizing what they were doing only at the last second, Nezuko watched as the threads the spiders had trailing behind them attached to the Demon Slayers and shot into the trees, like they were being held by invisible hands. The Demon Slayers stood back up in an unnatural, jerky manner, and began to attack her, Inosuke, and Murata.

“It didn’t work, Mazuko!” Inosuke shouted at her. “What happened?!”

“It’s the spiders!” Murata shouted to him. “This mountain is crawling with them! I had thought they were just normal spiders, but they must be attaching the threads!”

Inosuke cut the threads connected to one of the Demon Slayers, then spent the short pause in fighting that he had bringing his sword down on any of the spiders that he could see. “So we just have to kill all these spiders, then?”

“There are too many of them!” Nezuko said. “There must be dozens of them here alone. We have to kill the demon controlling them to-”

Suddenly, a bright flash of light lit up the forest, and a crack of thunder ripped through the air. Zenitsu, who had been lying on the ground, shot up into the air and ricocheted through the forest, cutting through the threads connected to the Demon Slayers. Whenever the spiders reattached the threads, he just came back around and cut through them again.

Inosuke and Nezuko resumed fighting against any Demon Slayers Zenitsu missed. Murata stared at him, but an attacking Demon Slayer quickly forced him out of his shock. 

Inosuke cut through the threads puppeting another Demon Slayer, then drove his swords into the ground. “So you need to find the demon controlling the spiders? Fine!” he shouted at Nezuko.

Kneeling down on the ground, he stuck out his arms and became completely silent for a moment. He seemed to be fully concentrating on something. What he was concentrating on, Nezuko couldn’t tell, but it was still a far cry from his normal behavior. She circled him, fending off any Demon Slayers that approached him.

After a short few moments, Inosuke shot back up and pulled his swords out of the ground. Pointing one of his swords uphill, he shouted, “There! The demon controlling the spiders is that way!”

“How the hell do you know that?” Murata asked him.

“My senses never lie, idiot!”

Nezuko thought about what he said for a moment, then made her decision. “Alright. Murata, come with us. If we want to end this, we need to find the demon poppeting all of these Demon Slayers. They can keep at this forever otherwise, and we can’t. We’ll follow Inosuke and kill this demon, then clear the mountain of any other demons. The Demon Slayer Corps must know about what’s going on, and they’re probably sending better help than we can give the Demon Slayers. The best thing we can do is keep them safe from anything that might hurt them.”

“What about Zenitsu?” Murata asked.

As he asked his question, a small group of puppeted Demon Slayers approached the trio. Moments after she noticed them, Nezuko was almost blinded by a flash that made its way towards them. As the flash passed over the Demon Slayers, the treads holding them up fell apart and they toppled to the ground. Looking at the flash more closely, she saw Zenitsu pause on a tree before launching himself off of it back the way he came.

Lowering her gaze to look at Murata, she asked, “What about him?” He stared at Zenitsu’s trail before nodding in agreement.

Inosuke, Nezuko, and Murata began to head uphill towards the demon puppeting the Demon Slayers. The three of them ran at full speed, only stopping to deal with the occasional lone Demon Slayer being puppeted by the spider threads. Inosuke had ended his usual chatter, being all focused on getting to the demon. With the ever present smell of demons covering the mansion, Nezuko couldn’t tell if they actually were getting any closer. She didn’t know how he had been able to locate the demon puppeting the Demon Slayers, but he had no reason to lie, and she was willing to believe that he could.

As they ran up the mountain, the voice of a girl rang through the forest. “Get away from me! Don’t come any closer!” she shouted.

Turning towards the voice, the three of them detoured to investigate. They could just barely see the outline of what seemed to be the girl through the trees, and it sounded like she was being attacked by something. She could have been a surviving Demon Slayer or a random girl that had been allowed to wander up the mountain by the demons living here. Either way, they were in a position to help her.

“I said don’t come any closer, dammit! Get away!” the girl shouted, her voice sounding more desperate than before.

Nezuko was confused by what the girl was saying. Was she talking to them? Why would she be telling them to get away from her? That didn’t make any sense, especially since she was moving closer to them.

The girl finally came into view. Both Inosuke and Nezuko halted where they were and looked at her in shock. She wore the black uniform of the Demon Slayer Corps, and had a bloody Nichirin sword in her right hand. Her dark black hair was up in a ponytail, and she was clearly scared out of her mind, as her face was twisted in fear, and shiny tears streamed down her cheeks. It was easy to see why, as in her left hand, she held a human head that had been bloodily severed from its body.

“Why?” the girl croaked out at them through her tears. “Just - just get away! I don’t want to hurt you!”

“~”

In the middle of a clearing in the forest that covered Mt Natagumo, there was a demon sitting on a smooth boulder. She was the “mother” of the demons that lived at Mt Natagumo. She wore a white kimono with red cloth lining the edges. Large blue spheres held her braids of white hair together. Her face, which was as white as rice paper, had red dots scattered over that were connected by thin red lines. The lines and dots formed patterns on her forehead and between her eyes. The largest pattern curved up from her lips towards her cheekbones, forming the image of a smile. From her fingertips extended several thin threads, just barely visible in the moonlight. She pulled back her fingers to manipulate the individual strings, giving the impression that she was plucking at an invisible string instrument suspended in the air.

She smiled to herself. She could see through the eyes of her spiders, and she was confident that the Demon Slayers which were approaching her were as good as dead. She had plenty of dolls, and the Demon Slayer that moved like lightning was too far away to help them. He would be a problem to deal with, but he had no way to stop her dolls from continuing the fight. Eventually, he would be overwhelmed and added to her collection.

“Now, my dolls,” she said to herself, “Dance for me! Dance until your arms and legs fall off!”

“Mother, what’s taking you so long?”

“Mother” took in a small gasp and slowly turned her head to look at the demon the size of a child at the edge of the clearing. Her own appearance had been modeled after his after he had accepted her into his family. He wore a white kimono with a spiderweb pattern and had three sets of red dots on his face, though they were in a different pattern than the one on her own face.

“R-rui…” She began, but she was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

“These Demon Slayers should be dead by now, right?” he said to her. It was phrased as a question, but she knew fully well that he had meant it as a statement and as an accusation.

She tried to respond, but found that she couldn’t. It was like a stone had lodged itself in her throat. She could barely breathe, let alone say anything to Rui. All she could manage was short, shallow inhales through her nose. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. Her entire body trembled in fear at his presence, and her paralysis was only ended by his next sentence.</p>

“If you can’t handle this, I am going to get Father.”

“No!” she shouted at him, breaking out of her shock. “No, I - I can do this. I can handle this. I’ll keep you safe. Just - just please don’t tell your father, okay?”

Rui looked at her with a cold, unmoving expression. Finally, he simply told her, “You had better wrap this up, then.”

With that said, he turned away from her and calmly walked into the forest. Mother looked down at her hands. They were shaking violently, and the threads connected to the tips of her fingers had slackened. As she took in unsteady breaths, her shock and fear turned to violent anger. Anger at herself. Anger at the Demon Slayers who refused to die. Anger at the world that surrounded her. Anger safely directed at everything and everyone but Rui and his “family”.

Curling her fingers into fists, she pulled at her threads, putting her dolls on the attack.

“Just die already!” she screamed at the Demon Slayers, though they certainly couldn’t hear her. “If you live, I’m the one who’ll suffer for it, so just die!”

“~”

The girl shouted out in surprise  and pain as she jerked forward, dropping the head she had been holding. Above her, the threads that were pulling her along were clearly visible thanks to the moonlight. She was much faster than the Demon Slayers they had met further down the mountain, and in her shock, Nezuko almost let herself be impaled by her sword. Dodging to the side, she backpedaled away from the girl and halted a short distance away.

Out of the forest stepped two more of the puppeted Demon Slayers. Both of them were male, and had violently mangled arms and legs that had broken in several places. Their limbs now looked less like parts of the human body and more like tree branches that sharply twisted in every which way. They both were still holding their swords, which was likely all the demon puppeting them needed them to do.

They were both breathing, so they were obviously still alive, but both of the Demon Slayers seemed to be in shock, with glassy eyes, tear streaked faces, and voices that were incoherent muttering to themselves. One of them, however, was more aware of his surroundings than the other. His eyes flicked up towards Nezuko as he approached her. His jaw only moved a little and his voice was faint, but Nezuko could hear perfectly well what he said to her.

“End it. Please, just - just end it.”

Nezuko’s eyes widened in shock at what he said. She raised her sword into a defensive stance and saw that her hands were shaking like a twig in a windstorm. This was an entirely new aspect of demonkind. These Demon Slayers hadn’t even been eaten. They had their arms and legs broken, but they hadn’t died. They had been forced to kill their own comrades, to kill any person that had the misfortune of wandering into the forests of Mt Natagumo.

Nezuko’s mind was suddenly flooded with images of her brother. Of how she had killed him, and how he had begged for her to stop. The thought of anyone else being forced through the same thing shook her.

Breaking her out of her shock, Inosuke, who had apparently also heard what the Demon Slayer had whispered, charged forward with his swords outstretched and shouted to him, “Your wish is my command!”

“Inosuke, no!” she shouted at him.

Thankfully, Inosuke listened to her, and instead of cutting through the bodies of the Demon Slayers, his sword connected with the sword of the Demon Slayer that had whispered to her.

He turned his head to face her and shouted to her, “What do you want this time?”

“We can’t kill them! They’re still people, and they’re still alive! We have to find another way!” Nezuko replied.

Inosuke shouted something back at her, but her attention was forced to shift away from him. The Demon Slayer with the ponytail lunged at her, swinging her sword wildly. Nezuko backpedaled, nearly tripping over herself. Looking to the side, she saw Murata was dealing with the same thing. The threads connected to the girl jerked her forward, and an audible crack coming from her arms could be heard. The girl screamed in pain as she was forced to press the attack despite her wounds.

As she backpedaled, Nezuko looked up at the threads that connected the Demon Slayer to the demon that was puppeting her. She could just cut the threads, but that would only be a temporary solution. The spiders that roamed through the trees would just reconnect them. Her fireblood wouldn’t be any different. It could burn the threads, but the spiders would still be present. She could kill any spiders that approached the girl, but if she did that, then she couldn’t find and kill the demon that was puppeting her.

Nezuko traded blows with the girl, then cut through the threads holding her sword arm. It would only slow her for a moment, but she couldn’t just run away forever. She had to either leave and deal with the demon puppeting the Demon Slayers, or she could try to help the trio of Slayers in front of her.

The sword of the girl shot forward towards Nezuko and cut into her arm. Wincing in pain, she jumped backwards to give herself some breathing room, then reached out to the blood on the girl’s arm and lit it. The threads holding up her arm went up in flames almost immediately. Unfortunately, so did her arm. The girl screamed loudly as the pink flames burnt all the way to her shoulder.

Horrified by what she had done, Nezuko reached out to her blood again and tore it off of the girl. It landed on a nearby tree. Almost immediately, said tree lit up like a torch. The flames raced up to the highest branches, and they burned until they fell to the forest floor as ash. A pair of the threads that were connected to the girl snapped from the extreme heat. Now, one side was dangling in the air without any support, leaving her bearing more resemblance to a drunk than a puppet.

The trio of Inosuke, Murata, and Nezuko were left staring at the tree. She didn’t know what thoughts were running through the heads of the other two, but she knew what was running through her own. The threads that had been puppeting the girl were clearly being moved through the trees. She had seen the spiders that were attaching the threads descending from the treeline, so they must have been traveling between the branches. A little while ago, she had been thinking that there was no way for her to keep the Demon Slayers safe from the spiders. Now, she had an idea as to how she might.

Raising her sword to her arm, Nezuko drew it across, covering her blade with blood. Murata looked at her in shock, but she didn’t really have the time to deal with him knowing she was a demon right now. She swung her sword at a nearby tree, launching the blood off of it. It landed on the tree, and she pulled on it. While racing up the tree, small amounts of it shot off towards other trees. When it had reached the point she had meant it to, her blood had spread itself over a fairly large area.

Reaching to it, she lit it and watched as the forest canopy turned into a blaze. It was hard to keep it where it needed to be- as branches broke off under the strain of their own weight, she had to move the fire to the actual tree to keep the fire from hurting anyone. Regardless, it was working. In between the crackles of the fire, she could hear the quiet screeching of spiders as they were caught by the flames, and the Demon Slayers attacking the trio fell to the ground as their strings snapped. The forest would be clear soon enough, or at least clear enough that the former puppets could be protected.

Nezuko clenched her fists and the fire raging through the pine trees was put out. Any risk from the fire was gone now. Turning around, she saw Murata staring at her in shock. His face was slack, with his mouth hanging wide open, and it was hard to tell any details about what he was thinking, but she could fill in the blanks.

Well, he definitely wouldn’t be fighting alongside her now. “Stay here,” she told him, hoping he would listen. “Inosuke and I will go find the demon that was puppeting them. Until then, you need to keep them from being hurt by being forced to move.”

Murata stared at Nezuko, then nodded stiffly, probably in shock about what had just happened. Now that she was certain that the wounded Demon Slayers would be safe, she and Inosuke turned and began making their way towards the demon controlling the spiders.

“~”

Mother screamed and screamed and screamed. Despite her demonic constitution, she even managed to scream her throat raw, but the act brought her no calm. Her dolls had been unable to halt or even hurt the pair of Demon Slayers slowly making their way towards her. How had that even happened, anyway? That girl was clearly a demon, but what was she doing with Demon Slayers? It didn’t really matter, though. The point was, she did have more dolls, but there were only so many of them, and they were mostly just the same dead or dying Demon Slayers that these two had dealt with so easily. She had to kill them, and she had to kill them quickly, but she had no idea how.

After quieting herself, Mother raised her hands to her temples and drove her fingernails into her skin. Blood slowly leaked from the cuts she had clawed into her head. The thought of failure was enough to paralyze her. Rui wouldn’t punish her personally. He had Father do that to her for him. She remembered the last time she had failed Rui. The pain, the humiliation. That… that couldn’t happen again. That could never happen again.

Slowing her breathing, she settled on what to do next. This Demon Slayer and the demon who had, for some reason, decided to accompany him, were too dangerous to deal with normally. She would have to use that doll, then. Her most precious, very last resort. Taking in a final deep breath to steady herself, she pulled on the threads extending from her fingertips and raised her largest, strongest doll from its resting place and readied it to fight.

“~”

Nezuko and Inosuke tore through the forest towards the demon. They didn’t meet any of its puppets or anything else that would slow them down, so it was just a straight beeline for the demon through the forest. They both ran in silence, with neither of them being that interested in conversation.

Up ahead, Nezuko heard something moving in between the trees towards the two of them. The creaking sound that had accompanied the movement of the Demon Slayer puppets accompanied the movement of whatever was ahead. Tree branches were snapped by it as it approached them, and a loud cracking noise implied that whatever was ahead had just pushed over a tree.

Inosuke shouted, “I’ll deal with this demon, Kenuko! Just watch me!”

“Be careful!” she told him, but he had already catapulted himself into the air.

With his swords raised above his head, Inosuke flew through the air towards whatever was approaching them. Nezuko, meanwhile, drew her sword, cutting into her palm as she did so. Lighting the blood now on the blade, she held her  now flaming sword at her side in case Inosuke needed any help.

Breaking through a line of trees, Nezuko turned her head up towards the thing that had been approaching them and held in a gasp. The puppet was massive, more than three times as tall as she was standing up. The only thing it wore was a pair of ragged pants, and its exposed, bulging purple skin looked decayed, with uneven gray splotches running up its body. Instead of hands, it had a pair of bronze colored blades, each longer than a human arm, that extended from its elbows.

One of the blades swung upwards toward Inosuke. Bringing down his swords, his blades connected with the massive bronze one, and he managed to, mid air, push himself away from the towering puppet. He landed on the ground and dodged backwards as the puppet swung at him.

“What the hell is this? This isn’t a Demon Slayer!” he shouted at Nezuko.

“It must be a demon!” she shouted back. “There are probably multiple demons living here! One of them must have gone out of line and been turned into this!”

She would have continued, but the puppet turned towards her and charged, swinging both of its blades at her. She jumped in between the two blades and swung her sword in an arc, cutting into the puppets left arm. Her fire blood could do a lot of damage, but she was suspended in midair and could only apply so much force. Her sword embedded itself about a third of the way into the arm, and when she landed both of her feet onto the ground, she couldn’t pull it out.

The puppet swung its right arm towards her, and she ducked under it, then let go of the sword and ran away from the puppet. It chased after her, clawing through the thick pine trees in its way. It favored its undamaged right arm, but was still fast and strong. It was slowly gaining on her. She may have been able to dodge in between the trees, but the puppet could just cut them down or run them over.

Suddenly, from the side, Inosuke jumped out and brought his twin swords down on the left arm of the puppet. With his brute strength and the arm already having been weakened by her attack, he cut clean through it. The arm crumbled to ash once it was no longer directly connected with the body, as did the bronze blade attached to it.

Turning back around, Nezuko darted forward and grabbed her sword now that it was free from the puppets arm. She then ran out of reach of the puppet’s remaining arm as it swung wildly at her and Inosuke. The two of them both ran a good distance away, stopping and standing next to each other so that they could plan.

Or, at the very least, so that Inosuke could shout some more. “It’s got no head! You said it’s a demon, but it’s got no head! How am I supposed to kill a demon that doesn’t need its head?!”

The now one armed puppet began to charge the two of them. It was a good distance away, but it was still fast. Nezuko’s mind raced for some sort of solution to the situation at hand. She might have been able to burn it like she did the trees, but if she did, she wouldn’t be of much use after the fact. Her eyes flicked up towards the puppet lumbering towards the two of them. Its one arm was held in front of it as a sort of makeshift shield.

Its one arm.

“Cut off its limbs.”

“What?” Inosuke asked her.

“It’s a demon, but its arm hasn’t grown back,” Nezuko pointed out. “I don’t think it can grow them back anymore. If we cripple it, then it won’t be able to stop us from destroying it.”

Just as she finished speaking, both she and Inosuke had to dodge to the side to avoid being killed by the massive puppet. Its remaining blade stabbed into the ground. Inosuke lunged with both of his swords, but the puppet kicked out at him, forcing him to dodge back. The two of them dodged around as the puppet aggressively pursued them. Its attacks seemed more desperate than they had when they first met it, with wild, unfocused swings replacing the more calculated attacks it had used when it still had both of its arms.

Inosuke, halting his backpedaling, charged forward at the puppet. However, halfway to the puppet, the small white spiders jumped onto him, attaching their threads to him. The threads were pulled in a dozen different directions, and he was left looking like a fly that had been caught in a spider web.

The puppet lunged towards him, blade outstretched. Now that one of the two attackers was helpless, the demon that was puppeting it was likely desperate to take advantage. Inosuke squirmed and pulled against the threads that bound him, but they were clearly too strong for him to break.

Nezuko dashed forward, just barely managing to outpace the puppet. Swinging her sword, it made contact with the blade of the puppet. Putting all of her strength into the strike, she couldn’t cut through the blade, but she could still deflect the attack. The only remaining blade of the puppet was deflected to the side, failing to hit anything but empty air.

Quickly swinging her sword through the air above and around Inosuke, cutting through the threads that held him in place. Turning back around, with her flaming sword, she brought her sword down on the remaining arm of the puppet. With both of her feet firmly on the ground, she could now strike with enough force to cut cleanly through the one remaining arm. Swinging her sword again, she lopped off one of the puppets legs just below the knee. The second leg she could only cut halfway through, but she didn’t think that the puppet could run anywhere with half of one leg.

“Now!” she shouted behind her to Inosuke. “Cut into its body - do as much damage as you can and it should kill it!”

Not needing to be told twice, he jumped over her and brought both of his swords down on the now armless puppet. He cleaved through the body, making a diagonal cut that ran from the right shoulder down to the left hip. The body of the puppet fell apart and quickly began to crumble to ash.

“Great job, Inosuke!” Nezuko told him. It was, really. The strength that must have been needed for that cut was impressive, and he had seemingly done it with little strain on his part.

Inosuke, however, stood in silence instead of basking in his achievement. “Inosuke?” she called out to him hesitantly.

He whipped around and pointed at her, shouting, “Anything you can do, I can do better, Nekuko!”

Instead of elaborating, he then charged her and grabbed her in a tight bear hug. Once he had a strong grip on her, he threw her high into the air. As she flew high into the air, she turned to look in the direction that she was headed. A clearing in the forest had become visible from where she was. A demon in all white was clearly sitting on a boulder in the middle of the clearing, with threads stretching from her fingertips into the tree canopy. This must have been the demon that had been puppeting the Demon Slayers and the massive demon that had just attacked them.

Looking at the demon for only a moment longer, Nezuko smiled to herself and cut into her arm, spilling her blood onto the edge. Inosuke was smarter than she gave him credit for. Lighting her blood and holding her sword at her side, she flew through the air towards her target.

“~”

Mother was frozen as still as a statue for a short moment. How quickly everything had happened shocked her. It was certainly something to process. Of course, processing what had just happened could only take so long. Once she understood it, her hands came to press against her mouth as her eyes widened in horror.

That was her strongest doll. It was her fastest, strongest, and most durable doll, and these two had destroyed it like it was nothing. Maybe not quite like it was nothing, but the point was that it had been destroyed. Now, she had nothing else left. She had maybe a few other dolls that she could get in between her and the two of them, but they were all the fragile, weak dolls that hadn’t been able to do anything but slow them. Slowing them down wouldn’t do anything, she had to kill them! If she didn’t kill them, then Rui would have Father punish her for her failure.

Through her spiders, Mother saw the girl that had set her sword on fire had been thrown into the air by the boy wearing the boar’s head. Looking up, she saw that the girl was flying straight towards her, flaming sword at the ready. The girl was going to kill her. The girl was going to chop off her head!

Her mind raced for some sort of way to defend herself, for some sort of way to stop the demon girl before she reached her. Her threads tensed, ready to move to her defense once she thought of something.

Then she thought about what survival would mean. Being alive for longer, yes, but being alive for longer in the system Rui had forced on her. More living out her days in terror, carefully measuring her every word and action against what she knew Rui expected of her. More beatings and more violence from Father.

Considering what did wait for her if she survived, Mother stretched her hands up towards the girl. The threads attached to the tips of her fingers quietly fell off and drifted through the air towards the ground. Defenseless, she allowed her eyes to drift half closed and calmly waited for her approaching death.

“~”

As Nezuko flew closer and closer to the demon on the boulder, she saw a flash of moonlight on the threads as they moved. She braced for an attack - perhaps a spider web forming in front of her or a Demon Slayer being thrown at her - but nothing came. Looking closer at the threads, she saw that they had fallen from the demon’s finger tips and came to rest around her. Her arms, instead of doing something that could have defended her, were now stretched towards her.

Her eyes widened in surprise. There must have been something that the demon was planning on doing. Every one of them that she had met had fought tooth and nail to keep themselves alive. Aside from Lady Tamayo and Yushiro, every one of them was motivated by primitive survival instincts that had been turned up to eleven. Why was the demon in front of her not fighting? Why was she just letting her kill her?

Nezuko only had a moment to think before she decided to afford the demon a simple courtesy. The blood fire rushed off of her blade, spreading out behind her. To an outside observer, it may have been reminiscent of a firework explosion, with the pink flames rushing off in every direction. As she reached the demon on the boulder, she made a single, clean cut through her neck, allowing her the small mercy of a swift death.

Chapter Text

Mother had never thought of death as a beautiful thing. It was death, after all. All living beings had an instinctive fear of death, and for demons, all of the animalistic survival instincts of mankind were amplified. Her willingness to let herself be killed was less out of a desire for death and more out of a desire to leave the family Rui had forced her into. Death was not beautiful, death was just a necessity.

However, she had been treated to what she would call a beautiful death. The girl who killed her had made all of the fire on her sword fly off of the blade, and the flames now had spread through the air above the treetops. It was certainly unintentional, but with the way the flames spiraled and writhed through the air, it looked like a living thing that was dancing in some strange and chaotic yet still mesmerizing pattern.

As Mother soaked in the beauty of her death, a memory suddenly pushed itself to the front of her mind. It was of a fireworks display. She couldn’t remember when it was or that many details, but she remembered that it stretched through an entire night and that she had never felt more at peace than she had felt then. There was also someone else there. A kind girl with long brown hair. She couldn’t remember her name or how she knew her, but she knew that this girl was important, that this girl cared about her. She wondered where this girl was now.

A darker, much more violent memory pushed itself to the front of her mind, but she quickly pushed it back down. These would be the last few moments of her life. Let at least these moments be pleasant.

Of course, these moments couldn’t last. Her body and head tumbled backwards, landing on the ground behind the boulder that she had sat on while manipulating her puppets. Her head rolled on the ground, then settled at an angle where she could clearly see the demon girl, now crouched on the ground with her sword held by her side.

The demon girl made no sense to her. She was a demon, which, given her actions, confused Mother to no end. Why would a demon kill another demon? Over territory? She had obviously traveled here, maybe even over a large distance. Why would she go find new territory where she would have to kill the previous occupants? Even more confusing was the fact that she had been traveling with a pair of Demon Slayers, and apparently had no objection to fighting alongside them. The Demon Slayers must have trusted her to fight alongside her, but why would anyone whose job it was to kill demons trust one?

Interrupting her train of thought, the demon girl stood up, sheathed her blade, and turned her head towards Mother. Her expression wasn’t kind, exactly, but not as harsh as she might have expected. She didn’t seem to be wearing the expression of anger or cruel joy so common among demons. If anything, she looked confused and sad.

Considering the demon girl for a moment longer, Mother decided to act. The fire on the blade of the demon girl could have made her last few moments hell. Instead, the demon girl had the blood come off of her blade to give Mother a simple, far less painful death. She may not be able to do much, but she could at least warn her of what she was in for.

“~”

As Nezuko looked at the demon that she had just killed and that was now beginning to crumble to ash, she saw that her lips were moving slowly, like she was trying to talk. Could a beheaded demon even talk? Lungs moved the air needed for speaking, but she had seen a demon talk without even an intact head or mouth, so lungs probably weren’t needed by demons to talk. She stepped forward to listen to what the demon was trying to tell her, but she didn’t really need to, as her demonic senses picked up on what she had to say perfectly.

“There’s a member of the Twelve Kizuku here. He’s very dangerous. Please,” she said, “Please don’t die.”

Nezuko stared at the demon for a moment, then rushed forward to ask her roughly a million questions. Kneeling down in front of the demon, she started to shout at her, “There’s one of the Kizuki here?! Which one? What rank? How many other demons are there?”

It was too late to get any answers, though. Even if she had asked her questions slowly enough to let the demon think, the demon had already begun to crumble to ash when she first spoke. Now, half of her head had already vanished. Nezuko stuttered, trying to think of something that she could ask the demon that the demon could actually answer, but her mind failed to come up with anything before the other half of the demon’s head turned to ash as well.

Looking at the pile of ash that now was on the ground in front of her and in her two hands, she struggled for a moment as to what to do next, before quietly telling the ash, “Thank you.” She didn’t know if the demon could still hear her, but it couldn’t hurt.

Kneeling in front of the pile of ash, she stood up and brushed the ash off of her hands. Thinking over what the demon had, she couldn’t help but almost feel excited. One of the Twelve Kizuki was here! Sure, he would be dangerous, but she had been able to fight a former member of the Twelve Kizuki without any real risk of getting killed. If she could handle that on her own, then with Inosuke and Zenitsu, she could handle this member of the Kizuki with as much ease. If she could gather blood from an active member of the Twelve Kizuki, then she would put Lady Tamayo’s research much farther ahead than it had been.

Her mood dropped a little at the thought of leaving Zenitsu and Inosuke. They would probably notice her drawing blood from the Kizuki, and she couldn’t risk being forced to reveal Lady Tamayo. Still, she tried to comfort herself with the progress the blood sample would make for Lady Tamayo’s research. Besides, she would have had to leave eventually. A demon traveling with a pair of Demon Slayers wouldn’t have worked forever.

Turning in the rough direction she knew Inosuke was in, she began to run down the hill to rejoin him, ready to hunt down this member of the Twelve Kizuki, not really aware of what she was getting herself into.

“~”

Two Hashira, Giyu and Shinobu, raced through the thick pine forest covering Mt Natagumo. The two of them had arrived only an hour before, and had already begun to scale the mountain in search for the demon that had traveled here with two Demon Slayers. Almost immediately, they found a large group of dead Demon Slayers. While they were searching for a demon that had traveled here, the mountain had been an area several Demon Slayers had already been dispatched to. It unsettled the both of them, but their goal was still just to find and capture the demon they had been sent after. This didn’t change that. They had run alongside each other in silence for most of the journey to the mountain. Now, though, Shinobu broke the silence.

“This really is a beautiful night, isn’t it?”

Giyuu gave a short glance to the moon lit sky and then turned his eyes back to surveying the forests, giving no response. Shinobu, after waiting a moment for his response, chuckled to herself and continued.

“Alright. Well, if you don’t want to make any conversation, then I’m going to search the western side of the mountain for the demon. I’ll signal to my Tsuguko to join me.”

Giyuu only replied, “You do that,” and let her turn away to search her portion of the mountain. He continued on his current path up the mountain, alert for any sign of demons.

“~”

Nezuko and Inosuke ran along the banks of the wide river that was leading them up the mountain. They had both met back up after Nezuko killed the demon that had been controlling the puppets and, not wanting to double back and lose their progress, had decided to continue on their path up the mountain. They didn’t know where they would find more demons, but it was as good a guess as any that they would be further up the mountain. Stumbling upon this river, they had decided following it up the mountain was at least something that directed their effort.

The mountain was largely quiet. The sound of thunder that had been echoing around the mountain, which was probably from Zenitsu, had faded, either due to distance or due to him not fighting anyone currently. With the… Puppet Demon now dead, there wasn’t any of the creaking noises that had accompanied her puppets. The two of them ran in silence, and the only noises were of the footsteps of the two of them and of the running river beside them.

Eventually they stumbled on another demon. They heard a gasp of shock from the other bank of the river and turned to see a demon. For a moment, Nezuko thought that the Puppet Demon had come back to life, but after a second, she realized that she was looking at a different demon. This one was smaller, and the patterns of her kimono and the red spots on her face were different. Her hair was also different, hanging loosely well below her shoulders. She was leaning against a pine tree, and was obviously shocked to see the two of them. She probably assumed that they were both Demon Slayers, which - well, at least Inosuke was.

Inosuke immediately began to leap across the wide river, jumping his way towards the demon across rocks that poked out above the surface of the water and cackling at the top of his lungs. Nezuko would have called out for him to be careful, but he could probably deal with a lone demon.

Suddenly, a shadow covered Inosuke and the surrounding river. Looking up, Nezuko saw a massive demon flying through the air. It had purplish - grayish skin and red spots connected by thin red lines running up its arms. Its face was obscured by the shadow and its thick, white hair, but it seemed like there was something lumpy and wrong with it.

Inosuke jumped backward, only just avoiding being crushed by the two fists the massive demon brought down when he landed. When the demon hit the ground, a small wave from the water he had landed in formed around him, almost flooding all the way to the banks of the river. Boulders that were beneath him were shattered by his blow. Out of the corner of her eye, Nezuko saw the copy of the Puppet Demon turn and run deeper into the forest. Bringing her attention back to him, the larger demon raised his head to face the two of them, exposing what seemed to be spider mandibles that flanked a jaw filled with oversized teeth and two, sphere - like eyes surrounded by similar but smaller eyes.

Raising one of his fists, the Spider Faced Demon screamed at the top of his lungs, “Get away from my family!”

Throwing forward his raised fist, the massive demon nearly hit Inosuke, who only just jumped to the side fast enough to avoid the attack. Nezuko drew her sword, lit the blood now on the blade, and jumped towards the massive demon. She brought down her sword towards the demon, hoping to cut through his face and put him on the backfoot.

The Spider Faced Demon swiftly brought up his arm to block her blow. Her sword buried itself in the arm, but it was so thick and durable that she failed to do any real damage to it. The blade didn’t even make it halfway to the bone before it stopped. He pulled back his other fist and hit her hard. Her sword came loose from his arm, and she flew over a dozen feet through the air. She fell into the river, tumbling several times before she came to a complete stop.

She lay in the water for a moment, her mind racing. Was this demon one of the Twelve Kizuki? He didn’t seem to have a Blood Demon Art, but he could have just not used it yet. He was also much stronger than any demon she had met before, even without using his Blood Demon Art, which could be explained by being one of the Kizuki. At the same time, though, why would he gather all of these demons around him? She might have been wrong, but it didn’t seem like this demon, or any other demons that lived on this mountain, wandered very far from the mountain. If they had, then Zenitsu and Inosuke wouldn’t have been told to head to this mountain specifically. They would have been told to head to some village or small city that Muzan had told the demons to attack.

There were only three times she had seen demons working together. Lady Tamayo and Yushiro’s situation was too unique to really count. There were the Horned Demons, but they didn’t really count either, as they had all been separate parts of a single demon. There were the two demons that had attacked Lady Tamayo’s office, but they had both worked directly for Muzan. If these demons weren’t out doing Muzans bidding, then what were they doing together?

She thought about the demon that had been controlling the puppets and that had let herself be killed, then thought about the second demon that had looked like her. No, not like her. It was more like someone had made a copy of the first demon, then made several mistakes on purpose. They were meant to look like each other. Almost like they were mother and daughter. If this massive demon was one of the Twelve Kizuki, he had the strength to force people into some sort of twisted game of family make believe.

Lady Tamayo had once mentioned to her that only Muzan’s blood could create demons, but since the Twelve Kizuki had a high concentration of his blood running through their veins, they could create demons if he approved. He would probably let his Kizuki live on a longer leash than most demons to keep them loyal. If creating a few more demons kept the Kizuki in check, he probably wouldn’t hesitate.

All of this thought passed through her mind in a short moment. The second her ribs were healed, Nezuko jumped back up to resume fighting the Spider Faced Demon. Inosuke had been agile enough to dodge the demon’s blows, but that could only last for so long. Dashing forward, Nezuko joined him, and the two of them practically danced around the massive demon, dealing small amounts of damage, waiting for some opportunity to put down the demon to present itself.

After the fight began to draw out, Inosuke turned and ran towards the banks of the river. Nezuko almost shouted out to him, but an attack from the demon forced her to dodge before she could get the words out. The demon, now able to focus all of his attention on her, was launching a ceaseless stream of attacks towards her. She was small and fast, but there was only so long that she could keep this up. She trusted that Inosuke had some sort of plan, but he would have to enact it soon.

Almost as if on cue, Nezuko heard a loud cracking noise, then the sound of a tree falling over. Glancing over towards the river bank, she saw one of the massive pine trees falling towards her. Dodging another blow by the Spider Faced Demon, she swiftly jumped back to put space in between her and the demon. The demon was about to chase her, but before he could, the tree fell on him. His legs buckled, and the tree threw up a small wave when it finally hit the ground. Once the wave settled, she could see that the demon was pinned down, with only his head and neck exposed.

A smile spread across her lips and, not wanting to waste any time, she cut into her arm and charged towards the demon. Lighting the new blood on her blade, she held her sword by her side to bring down on the demon’s neck.

“Nakuza, wait!” Inosuke shouted at her.

The water of the river splashed as the Spider Faced Demon stood up, lifting the pine on his back like a bible of twigs. The massive tree, which must have weighed hundreds of pounds, was swung by the demon like it was a twig. The end of the tree slammed into her, and she felt her ribs break all at once. Her feet lifted off of the ground, and she flew through the air, the wind whistling through her hair and clothes. She saw the ground grow farther and farther away. Looking at the river bank, she saw where Inosuke had cut down the tree that had fallen on the demon.

Shouting down at him, she said, “Inosuke! This is one of the Twelve Kizuki, Muzan’s personal army! Be careful! Do whatever you have to do, just don’t die, you hear me! Don’t die!”

At this point, she was probably too far away for him to hear her, so she gave up on calling out to him and turned to face the direction she was flying towards. She had flown across what seemed like half of the mountain, and was rapidly approaching a wall of tree branches. Bringing her arms close to her face and her legs close to her body, she curled into a ball to lessen the blow of the landing. Crashing through the branches as they cut at her face and exposed skin, she braced for impact against the ground below.

“~”

“Nezuko! Inosuke!”

Zenitsu wandered through the darkened forest alone. He had awoken from his sleep a few minutes ago, and he had no memory from that time. His confusion was not helped by the fact that, when asleep, he had traveled about half a mile away from the area he had first fallen asleep, chasing down scattered Demon Slayers that had been puppeted. Once all of the Demon Slayers had collapsed due to a lack of a puppeteer, he had landed both of his feet on the ground and had woken up.

Now, disoriented and not knowing where he was, Zenitsu wandered aimlessly, unintentionally furthering the distance between him and the other Demon Slayers. The puppeted Demon Slayers may not have still been a threat, but the forest was still creepy enough to have him on edge. Every shadow and every sound from a random bird or insect almost made him jump.

As he wandered in between the towering pine trees, a sharp noise rang out from just above his line of sight. Feeling above his head with his hand for a moment, he brushed Chuntaro, the small, brown sparrow the Demon Slayer Corps had assigned him for some reason. It chirped loudly. Unknown to Zenitsu, he was trying to communicate to him, trying to convince him that he needed to stop his whining and to strengthen his resolve. He, however, didn’t understand what Chuntaro was saying, and after a short moment grabbed him in both of his hands.

“Chuntaro! You followed me?! All the way up this creepy mountain?! You’re such a nice, cute bird!” The words tumbled out of his mouth as tears streamed down his face.

Zenistu felt a painful pricking sensation on his wrist, like he had slammed his hand onto a nail. At the same time, a branch broke, and he jumped and screamed at the sound. As he jumped, he let go of Chuntaro, who came to circle around his head. His eyes darted around, searching the trees for whatever had made said noise. He failed to see whatever had made the noise, which he calmed down significantly. Staring at a random patch of shadow that had been created by nothing in particular, Zenitsu’s expression shifted from one of frantic shock to one of frustrated anger.

“You know what?” he said. “I am getting tired of this damn mountain! I’m going to find the people I came here with and leave with them! If any demon or whatever wants to stop me, come out here and say your piece!”

The woods continued their ambient noise of wildlife and wind blowing, but nothing made itself known to him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought!” he shouted to the forest. Rubbing his wounded hand, he turned around and continued on his trek into the trees. He didn’t know where Inosuke and Nezuko were, but with newfound confidence, he would search for them regardless.

There was a small scuttling sound behind him, but he paid no attention to it. Out of his field of view, hidden in the bushes, a spider - like creature the size of a person’s head scuttled after its prey.

“~”

Inosuke dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a downward strike by the demon in front of him. After Nezuzo was thrown into the air by the demon, it had turned all of its attention towards him. He wanted to kill this demon, but Nezuko had already tried the only method that actually worked! She tried to cut off the damned demon’s arm, and it had barely even flinched! Now, he had to kill a sword proof demon on his own! The demon might have dropped the tree it had used to bat away her, but if it hit him, then he was still as good as dead!

The Spider Faced Demon swung its fist at him again, and he dodged again, taking several jumps backwards. When he came to a stop, he had gotten himself deep into the forest. The demon began to charge him, stepping out of the river and casually pushing a tree out of its way. The tree was uprooted as it was shoved aside, earth clinging to its roots as it went. He tried to charge forward to meet the demon head on, but found that he couldn’t lift his arms from his side. Or move any part of his body, for that matter. He badly wanted to move, but his muscles had gone slack, apparently not willing to comply with his commands.

When the demon was only just a few steps away from him, Inosuke finally dodged to the side. The demon’s two hands missed him by mere inches, only grabbing open air. The demon halted and turned to face him, beginning to charge again. Now, far from paralyzed, he turned around and began to run at full speed away from the demon.

Running as fast as he could, the sound of trees cracking and falling over came from behind him as the demon pursued him. Wind rushed by his ears as he pushed himself harder than he had in his entire life. Still, the demon wasn’t losing any ground, and if he slowed down for even a moment, it would certainly catch up to him almost instantly.

This was bad! This was really bad! He was fast, but the demon was still chasing him down, and it wouldn’t ever get tired. He had to find some way to lose the demon, but how? Inosuke darted in between several trees, hoping that he could duck out of the demon’s line of sight. What he would do then, he didn’t know, but maybe-

As he continued to run away from the demon, his thought process froze like a block of ice. He kept running, but after a short moment, halted with a loud scream.

“What the hell am I doing?! I am Hashibira Inosuke! I do not run from my problems!” he shouted, turning around to face the charging demon. “I run them down!”

The Spider Faced Demon threw forward its fist, but Inosuke jumped over the blow. Setting foot on the demon’s arm, he used it to jump forward and cut through one of the demon’s eyes. Roaring in anger, the demon threw a punch towards him again. Dodging again, he landed on the ground a short distance away from the demon.

Inosuke jumped again, slashing his swords through the eyes on the right side of its face. The demon roared in pain. Again, he jumped at the demon, then came down with the blade of his sword headed straight towards the neck of the demon. It brought up one of its arms to block the attack. Brute force drove his blade deep into the arm, but not deep enough to cut off the arm.

Screaming loudly, he slammed the flat back of his second sword against the sword lodged into the demon’s arm. The sword sunk a little further into the arm, and Inosuke hit it again. With each blow, it was driven deeper and deeper into the arm. Soon it was almost a quarter of the way through the arm, then a third of the way through. When the sword reached halfway through the arm, he hit it with one final, great blow, and it cleaved through what little flesh and bone still held the arm together.

No longer suspended in the air by his grip on his sword, Inosuke landed on the ground in dramatic fashion. He looked at the demon through the eyes of the boar’s head he always wore. The demon was clutching the stump that had once been its arm and roaring in pain. If its face of beady eyes and oversized teeth was capable of actual expressions, it surely would have worn one of shock.

He told the demon, “Nekeze couldn’t cut through your arm with just one sword. Well, that’s too bad, but guess what!” Holding his twin blades aloft so that the demon could better see, he said, “Look at them! Look at them! I’ve got two!”

He cackled loudly, but stopped when the Spider Faced Demon abruptly turned tail and ran away from him. Staring after it for a short moment, he shouted, “Hey, I’m not through with you yet! Get back here!” Standing up, he chased after the fleeing demon, ready to add it to the long, long list of stepping stones he had used to ascend as high as he already had.

“~”

Zenitsu marched up the mountain, head on a swivel. He had been unable to find Nezuko and Inosuke, or even Murata, the Demon Slayer that the trio had run into on the mountain, or any other sign of any life besides Chuntaro. This had only frustrated him more, and he had kept marching on despite not having any idea where they might be. The forest was no different than it had been before, with the only difference being more sounds of things scurrying about in the underbrush. He had occasionally jumped and whipped around to see that there was nothing behind him. The forest was still incredibly creepy. However, he was too frustrated by his circumstances to really care about it.

Another branch snapped behind him. Again, he whipped around to face the noise, fully expecting to see nothing. Instead, he saw a head with spider legs. Its pale skin was stretched tightly over its skull, giving it sunken eyes and cheeks. Small amounts of thin, black hair clung to its scalp. The head was attached to a normal, if abnormally large, spider abdomen and legs.

Zenitsu and the head stared at each other for a moment longer, both completely silent. The head took a short step forward, and he screamed in horror. He turned and ran away from the head as fast as he could, Chuntaro trailing behind him.

As he ran, he shouted to himself, “This isn’t real! This isn’t happening! I didn’t wake up! I’m still dreaming! Please let this just be some nightmare!” He repeated several variations of these shouts like a mantra as tears rolled down his face.

After running at full sprint for almost five minutes, he got so tired that he had to stop and give his body a break. He collapsed against a tree, clinging onto it for support. His breathing was ragged and desperate to pull enough air into his lungs. Chuntaro circled his head, trying to get his attention, but he was too exhausted to pay the bird any mind.

Eventually, Zenitsu caught his breath, and raised his head to get a view of where he had ended up. He had reached the edge of a clearing. The ground of the clearing didn’t show any sign that plant life had ever attempted to grow in the area. A large shadow was laying in the middle of the clearing with no obvious source. Trying to find where the shadow was coming from, he raised his head to scan the treetops. What he saw drew a gasp out of him.

Suspended above the middle of a clearing, seemingly held up by nothing but thin air, was a small wooden house. It was worn down, with the boards that held together the walls often missing or almost falling off. Around the house, Demon Slayers were suspended in midair by some invisible force. Some seemed perfectly normal, if unconscious, while others barely seemed human, having pointed spikes instead of arms, no hair, and deep, sunken faces.

Out of a door that was facing straight towards the ground, a head began to emerge. Its pale, gray skin was only interrupted by two strings of red dots that stretched across its face. As it kept lowering itself, it revealed that it didn’t have a normal body. Instead, where a neck would connect to a pair of shoulders, it connected to the body of a brown spider the size of a fully grown man. The legs of the spider were hairy, and ended with dark black spikes as sharp as the talons of a falcon.

As the Spider Demon continued to lower itself, it revealed that it wasn’t holding itself up with its legs. Instead, as its body cleared the doorway, it continued to move straight down through the air as if it wasn’t ruled by the laws of gravity. Once it got out of the shadow of the house, the light coming from the full moon revealed a thin thread hanging the spider by the end of its abdomen. Similar threads seemed to be stretched between the house and the trees at the edge of the clearing, hanging it where it was.

Zenitsu gaped at the demon as it descended through the air. It came to a stop halfway between the house and the ground, turning on in the air to look down at him. A smile split open its face almost from ear to ear, revealing a mouthful of paper white, needle - like teeth neatly lined up from one end of its smile to the other.

The demon laughed at him and said, “Well, well, well! Another Demon Slayer has made his way to my home! Really, you guys have been flocking here like flies to a pile of dung!”

Zenitsu kept staring at the Spider Demon suspended above the clearing. He couldn’t move an inch. He tried as hard as he could, but it was like he had been buried up to his neck in the ground. As he stood as still as a statue at the edge of the clearing, a simple thought was running through his mind. Nezuko had been wrong about him. How weird was it that a demon had given him a pep talk, anyway?

Well, it didn’t really matter, did it? She had been wrong when she told him that he was strong. For whatever reason, the few Demon Slayers he had met while traveling seemed to think the same thing about him. They talked about the weird ability he had to kill demons while dead asleep, about how strong he was. They seemed sincere, but were obviously very wrong.

He wasn’t strong. He wasn’t powerful, or capable. He was just some lucky brat that had managed to survive this long, no thanks to any skill or talent on his part. He had been sure of that fact since the Final Selection. Now, he was more sure of it than he had ever been.

Zenistu was silent for a moment longer, then shouted up at the demon, “You know what!? I refuse to even talk to… whatever the hell you are! Goodbye!”

His legs suddenly found it in them to move, and he turned and began to sprint away from the spider at full speed. The laughter of the Spider Demon echoed throughout the clearing as it called out to him, “You do realize that running is pointless, right?”

“Pointless?! What are you talking about?!” he shouted over his shoulder at the demon.

“You’ve already been bitten, right? Now that that’s happened, you don’t stand a chance!”

That gave Zenitsu pause. He had been bitten - well, pricked, anyway, by something on the mountain. Turning to shake his fist at the Spider Demon, he shouted, “What do you mean by -”

As he shook his fist, he noticed a dark purple splotch on his hand. Looking at it closely, he saw that there were several similar splotches spread all over his hand. The veins on his hand bulged with every heartbeat. On the outside of his wrist, an angry, purplish - reddish blister the size of his thumb had formed. Despite how bad it looked, the only thing that he felt was a faint tingling, like he had sat on it for too long.

Seeing how he was looking at his own hand, the demon broke out in laughter. “That venom - it’ll turn you into one of my slaves!”

The demon lowered a watch on a chain wrapped around one of its forelegs. The other foreleg reached across the body to open the metal lid, exposing the numbers of the watch. The face of the watch was lit up by moonlight, and Zenitsu could see that the time was about ten fifty.

“You see the long hand of the watch? When it goes around once, you’ll be scuttling around as a member of my spider den! In half an hour, you’ll be blacked out from pain! Once that happens, your limbs will shrink and turn into spider legs! When you wake up…”

The Spider Demon trailed off into laughter at Zenitsu’s situation. He, for his part, stayed paralyzed where he was until he noticed a small pack of spider heads were approaching him. Screaming loudly, he jumped away and resumed his flight away from the demon. He saw more spiders at the edge of the clearing and, panicking, he began to climb the first tree he reached. Practically flying up the tree, he came to a stop at the first branch large enough to sit on. The spider heads didn’t pursue him, letting him stay where he was, clinging to the trunk of the tree.

“You don’t have to be afraid, you know! You’ll lose all ability to think or feel anything once you become my slave!” the demon shouted down at him.

“That’s why I’m scared, you idiot!” Zenitsu shouted back.

The demon laughed at his fear. “Would you like another dose of poison, then? It’ll get it all over with faster!”

Zenitu’s response was caught in his throat, and he shoved his face back into the tree, trying to shut out the world. His body was wracked with sobs as the massive spider and the small horde of spider heads at the bottom of the tree waited patiently for him to become one of them.

“~”

“Zenitsu!”

“Zenitsu, get down from there!”

Zenitsu clung to the trunk of the peach tree, tears rolling down his face. The black haired boy had stayed with his instructor for over two months without trying to desert his training. However, he had eventually broken, and had run away. This time, he had tried to run through the peach orchards that were behind the small house his instructor and he lived in. However, his instructor had found him and chased him down.

“Dammit, how many times do I need to repeat myself?!”

The short, old man standing at the base of the tree was Gramps, his aforementioned instructor. He wore a dark yellow kimono with a triangle pattern similar to the one on his student’s clothes. Despite him having a wooden peg leg and needing a cane to walk anywhere, he carried himself with immense confidence. His bushy white mustache quivered as he shouted up the tree at his young pupil.

“Get down here right now!” he shouted up at Zenitsu. “Running isn’t going to get you anywhere, let alone away from me! Come down here, we’re going to continue your training!”

That managed to get a response out of him. He turned to face Gramps and shouted, “No! No more training! I’ll die if I have to go through any more of your training!”

“Oh, come on! This level of training is far from what would kill someone!” Gramps responded.

“Gramps!” 

“Call me master!” Gramps swiftly shouted back.

“But I love you, Gramps!” Zenitsu shouted to him.

Gramps, touched by Zenitsu’s honesty, stopped shouting at him for a short moment. Taking this opportunity to say his piece, Zenitsu continued.

“Look, I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me, okay?! You bailed me out of debt when my girlfriend ran out on me! You owe me nothing, but you helped me anyway! I want to make it up to you! I want to live up to your expectations, but I can’t! It’s just more than I’m capable of!”

As the clouds darkened and the sky rumbled, Gramps was silent for a moment. Eventually he spoke, trying to calm Zenitsu down. “Look, just come down here! You have potential, you just need to hone yourself!”

“Hone?! What do you mean, hone-”

Before Gramps could respond to his pupil’s shouting, the darkening thunderclouds finally let loose a strike of lightning. It arced down through the sky, connecting with the tall tree that Zenitsu was perched in. The excessive electrical power of the lightning bolt fried every leaf and smaller branch to ashes. Every inch of bark on the larger, thicker branches was entirely covered by deep electrical burns.

Zenitsu, meanwhile, was miraculously spared death by the lightning bolt. Instead, he was knocked out for less than an hour. The only adverse effect was his hair being turned an obnoxious yellow. While unconscious, he had a vision that was smacked somewhere between a fever dream and a nightmare.

“~”

“What are you still doing here?”

Zenitsu blinked at the Demon Slayer in training that was sitting on the boulder in front of him. His black kimono was tied loosely, exposing his chest. More notable, though, was the length of blue string tied around his neck. A small gold charm in the shape of a half moon was tied to the blue string. The Trainee was eating one of the peaches that grew on the trees that surrounded the two of them.

The Trainee swallowed the mouthful of chewed up peach muffling his speech and said, “Do you really need me to ask you twice? What are you still doing here?”

This wasn’t the first time they had a conversation in this vein. The Trainee in front of Zenitsu had been… frustrated by his continued presence. What the source of this frustration was, he couldn’t tell. He said it was because Zenitsu was below what was worthy of Gramps. Maybe it was as simple as he said. He had never been that good at reading people.

“To complete my training.”

The Trainee scoffed at what he said. “Really? To complete your training? Really?!”

The Trainee stood up and walked towards Zenitsu. “Aren’t you ashamed of how you act? You’re pathetic. Every day, you cry like an infant. You can’t advance your training. You’ve only ever ‘mastered’ one form-” He made sure to emphasize the air quotes on the word mastered “-and you seem incapable of even trying to advance your skills in other forms.”

Zenitsu was largely willing to let the Trainee in front of him walk over him, but he still tried to make some weak objections. “That’s not true! Gramps said that-”

The peach that the Trainee had been taking bites out of flew threw the air, slamming into Zenitsu’s face. He stood as still as a statue as the peach slid down his face.

“Don’t you dare call him that!” the Trainee shouted at him. “He is an extraordinary man! He used to be a Hashira in the Demon Slayer Corps! His time is more precious than jewels, and he is wasting it on you! He deserves the respect you are unwilling to give him!”

“You,” he continued, his pointed finger trembling with anger, “Infuriate me with your very presence. How you insist on clinging to Master like a patch of mold. How you siphon off his energy and time. How you fail even the most basic of expectations. You disgust me. If you had any sense at all, you would have left already!”

“~”

The yellow haired Demon Slayer perched on the tree branch slumped against the trunk of the tree. He had stopped crying as well, or even making any noise at all. After looking closer, the Spider Demon saw that he had actually fallen asleep. This was a genuine shock to him. Most Demon Slayers were terrified of turning into a member of his spider den, but they still put up a fight. This was… well, this was just plain underwhelming.

The Demon Slayer shifted, then began to tumble off the tree branch, falling head first towards the ground. He’s going to break his neck, the Spider Demon thought. Ah, well. He’ll still become one of my spiderlings.

As the group of spiders watched the Demon Slayer fall through the air, a distinct sound could be heard over the ambient noise of the forest. The Demon Slayer took in a sharp breath. At the same time, what almost looked like a cloud of condensation could be seen gathering around his mouth.

“~”

Gramps ruffled the now yellow hair on Zenitsu’s head. His pupil had woken up from his black out only moments before, and he had taken a much kinder tone with him. He felt it was only appropriate, given his student had just been electrocuted.

“Don’t worry, Zenitsu. Even managing to gain the skill needed to master a single form of any breathing style is worth celebration. Even if that is all you ever learn, that is fine. Hone that one thing to perfection. Make it so that the one thing you can do is as good as it possibly can be!”

He paused for a moment, considering what might best motivate his student. “Do you know how swords are forged?” When his pupil’s head shook from side to side, he continued. “A forgemaster folds the metal that makes up the sword repeatedly and beats it in on itself. This forces out every impurity, leaving only the purest of steel. Do you understand what I’m getting at here?”

Crouching down to look directly at Zenitsu, he continued, “You have potential, Zenitsu! But to realize that potential, you must hone yourself day in and day out! Improve yourself and that one thing you can do to the point of perfection!”

“~”

The eyelids of the falling Demon Slayer snapped wide open, revealing a pair of bright, glowing eyes. The Demon Slayer twisted midair and landed on his feet, then shot up into the air like a bolt of lightning, even being accompanied by a crack of thunder. Flying towards the Spider hanging above the clearing, his recently drawn sword at his side, it was clear exactly what he intended.

The cheeks of the Spider Demon inflated as his mouth filled with the product of his Blood Demon Art. He spat out an orb of thick, purple liquid that flew towards the Demon Slayer. The yellow haired Demon Slayer rolled up into a ball, and flew to the side, as if he had jumped off an invisible wall. The purple liquid flew through the air and landed on a tree, melting a hole that went straight through to the other side. The Demon Slayer fell to the ground and landed on his feet. He crouched down and held his sword at his hip, his face pointed towards the ground.

“You lot - get him!” the Spider shouted at the top of his lungs.

His spiderlings jumped at the Demon Slayer immediately. He jumped away from the spiderlings, landing a short distance away. He crouched down, with his sword at his hip and his face pointing towards the ground. This repeated a few more times, with the spiderlings jumping after the Demon Slayer, and the Demon Slayer always taking the exact same stance after he jumped out of their reach. Always the exact same stance.

The demon hanging above the clearing smirked. He realized what was going on here!  This Demon Slayer wasn’t just a coward, he was an idiot! Demon Slayers all knew a breathing style, but all styles had multiple forms. The reason this Demon Slayer always took the exact same stance was that he only knew one breathing form! He really wasn’t any danger to him at all.

The spiderlings jumping after the Demon Slayer shot out their tongues towards him. At the end of each tongue was a poison laden stinger like a harpoon that was tied by a rope to the ship. The Demon Slayer jumped away again. Most of the stingers missed or fell short, but two of them managed to impale themselves in one of his legs. The stingers fell out of his leg as he jumped further away, but the poison they carried still got into his bloodstream. When he next landed, he coughed up a glob of blood that splattered on the ground.

Smiling, the demon hanging above the clearing gleefully shouted at the yellow haired Demon Slayer, “You’re done for, you hear me?! You’ll belong to me in minutes, not hours! You! Are! Done!”

Now immobilized by his wounds and poison, the Demon Slayer couldn’t jump away from the swarm of spiderlings that jumped onto him. They climbed all over him like ants climbing over the corpse of some forest animal. They all stung him repeatedly, hoping to hasten his process of joining their ranks. The short panic of the Spider Demon hanging above the clearing had now completely passed, as the Demon Slayer below him was now as good as dead.

Suddenly, there was the same overwhelming sound of thunder that had been present everytime the Demon Slayer had used his singular form, and a bright light shone from in between the bodies and legs of the spiderlings. The spiderlings flew off of the Demon Slayer like twigs caught in a windstorm. The Demon Slayer, apparently still able to stand on his own two feet, was crouched again, preparing to use his singular form a second time. The air around him seemed to crackle with energy, and once or twice, an actual lightning bolt flashed around his body. The eyes of the Demon Slayer now burned like bright lanterns, and were both pointed firmly towards The Spider Demon.

Panicking, the Spider Demon filled his mouth with the acid produced by his Blood Demon Art. Spitting at the Demon Slayer, the purple acid flew through the air towards him. Instead of melting the skin off of his bones and then melting his bones, however, the acid landed on the ground, as the Demon Slayer had seemingly vanished. A trail of yellow light that almost seemed like lighting led to another part of the forest where, when the demon glanced over, it could see that he had dashed over to.

The Demon Slayer dashed away again to another part of the forest, then dashed away again and again, circling the demon hanging above the clearing. The Spider Demon spat its acid at him a few more times, but never managed to hit him. The Demon Slayer was farr faster than he had been previously. To hell with this! it thought. My spiderlings couldn’t kill him, but this idiot will belong to me in a few minutes, anyway! I’ll just wait him out!

The Spider Demon began to pull himself back up into the house that it had suspended above the clearing. Hoping to find some sort of safety, it reentered its house and settled in, hoping to just wait until the yellow haired Demon Slayer just keeled over. It wasn’t like it had any other options. Most of its spiderlings were dead, and the few still alive certainly couldn’t deal with this on their own.

The yellow haired Demon Slayer dashed one more time, stopping directly below the door of the house suspended above the clearing. He looked up, and despite his glowing eyes not having pupils, the Spider Demon could tell that he was making eye contact. The Demon Slayer crouched again, ready to dash up towards the demon and lop off its head. The Spider Demon filled his cheeks with acid again, hoping to melt off the face of the Demon Slayer.

Before the Spider Demon could do anything beyond that, the Demon Slayer below him dashed through the air with his breathing technique, the ground below him cracking like pebbles under a pickaxe. The air cracked around him like he was a living bolt of lightning with sound and bright flashes of light. The Spider Demon didn’t even get to use its acid before the yellow haired Demon Slayer cut his sword straight through its neck. The Demon Slayer crashed through the wooden wall of the house suspended above the clearing, wooden boards cartwheeling through the air, before eventually coming to a stop and falling onto the wall again.

The Spider Demon coughed up the purple acid that had been in his mouth. It began to shout at nobody in particular, “What the hell?! This idiot was the one that cut off my head?! This idiot?!”

The Spider Demon continued to rant as his body crumbled to ash and as he fell towards the ground. Hitting the ground, his head burst open like an overripe fruit into a spray of ash that covered the ground. The rest of its body had completely crumbled apart before even hitting the ground, raining ash over a large area.

The yellow hair Demon Slayer, meanwhile, had exhausted almost all of his strength to slay the Spider Demon. He was now lying on the single wall of the house that was facing towards the moonlit sky. No longer in the trance - like state that had saved him so many times before, his eyes cracked open and he became aware of the extreme pain he was in.

“~”

Inosuke scanned the forest, looking for the Spider Faced Demon. It had managed to get out of his line of sight, but he could still track it. It wasn’t that hard, really. Even for someone not as talented as he was, the trail of broken branches and half uprooted trees it had left behind itself was wide and obvious. Now, the only problem Inosuke was facing was one of finding exactly where the demon had gone. The trail it had left had ended abruptly, and the noise it had made while running away from him had stopped.

He was about to give up and just use the Seventh Form of his self taught Beast Breathing to find the demon when he heard a breaking branch above him. It hadn’t occurred to him that a demon that large could hide itself among tree branches, but when he looked up, he saw the demon comically perched on a large tree branch far above the clearing. The splintered stump of a much smaller branch showed him that the noise he had heard must have been from the demon shifting about.

Inosuke looked at the demon perched above him for a moment longer, then laughed at it. “Hah! Too terrified to fight the great Hashibira Inosuke, huh!”

He cackled for a while longer, finding the actions of the Spider Faced Demon hilarious. Eventually, though, he stopped laughing to figure out how he was going to kill it. He could just jump up, but that might be what the demon wanted. He could jump up and try to cut the branch, causing the demon to fall, but that would put him at as much risk as-

Inosuke slapped himself across the face. “No, dammit!” He pointed an accusatory finger up at the demon as he continued, “You’re trying to get me to use my head again, aren’t you! Well, guess what! Not going to happen, sucker!

The demon above him began to groan, seemingly in pain. Its skin seemed to stretch, like a set of too small clothes somebody had been squeezed into. As it let out one last roar of pain, the demon’s face split open, revealing shiny black skin. Blades cut through the skin on the demon’s arms. The rest of the skin was simply stretched until the point where it tore open. Reaching up, the demon tore away the remaining skin on his face that had been caught on his mandibles or some other sharp protrusion.

The Spider Faced Demon, having completed its transformation, dropped down to the forest floor. It was now a good three feet taller than it had been before, with shiny black skin covering its body. Dark black spikes lined its arms, and it had grown extra sets of beady blue eyes.

The demon drew back its fist and threw it forward towards Inosuke. He jumped back, dodging the blow and putting some distance between him and it. He considered the situation for a moment, but gave up halfway through. He had just gone through this pep talk with himself! He managed to get this thing to flee from him once, he could do so again!

He literally lept into action, jumping into the air above the Spider Faced Demon. Coming back down, he brought his swords against the raised fist the demon had raised to block his blow. Twisting through the air, he launched another blow towards the thing’s neck.

Before his swords could even land, however, the demon’s hand shot out and grabbed Inosuke by his neck tightly. He almost dropped his swords in shock. Undeterred, he thrust his swords into its throat, hoping to cause as much pain to the demon as possible and to get it to drop him. Both of his swords sunk into the neck, but only managed to bury themselves halfway in before they stopped sinking deeper. He tried to pull the swords back out, but they were stuck where they were.

Most shocking was that the demon didn’t react at all to the attack. It just kept staring at him, unflinching and unblinking. It wasn’t like the damn thing could blink, but it would have been at least a little comforting to know that he had managed to hurt the thing.

The Spider Faced Demon began to squeeze Inosuke’s head like a nut it was trying to crack open. His head in overwhelming pain, he began to claw at the arms of the demon, trying to get it to let him go. All his struggle accomplished was convincing the demon to squeeze harder. His arms and legs spasmed, then slackened, falling limply at his sides.

His vision swam as the demon, apparently in no hurry, continued squeezing his head. Colors bled together, creating strange shapes. The dark blue of the night sky and the green of the tree leaves formed an odd pattern that almost resembled a woman, for some strange reason.

No - no, wait. That was a woman. Not some blending of skyline and tree branches, an actual woman. What was she? A hallucination, a memory? And why did she look so familiar if he didn’t remember her?

Before Inosuke could ponder about this woman anymore, the demon holding him above the ground gave his head one last squeeze. The vision of the woman was blotted out by the pain. His limbs spasmed one last time, desperately trying to claw and kick at the demon holding him, until it let him go. All he managed to do was bat at the demon pathetically, and as the pain increased, his spasms grew less and less forceful.

Without warning, the pain his head was in abruptly relaxed, and Inosuke fell to the ground as he heard a muffled and distorted noise that sounded vaguely like a scream. It was hard to think right now, but he still, by some miracle, managed to land on his own two feet and collapse to his knees without much pain. No longer being squeezed like an overripe fruit, his head still swam like he had just stepped out of a hot spring, but he could see and hear his surroundings much clearer.

Turning his head to look at the Spider Faced Demon, he saw it clutching the stump of the arm that had been holding him aloft. A tall, black haired Demon Slayer in a mismatched Kimono with a blue sword stood a short distance away. He must have been the one who cut off the demon’s arm, but he didn’t seem to have exerted himself at all. If anything, he looked at ease.

The demon’s new arm burst out of the bloodied stump and it charged the new Demon Slayer at full speed, seemingly undaunted by his apparent strength. The Demon Slayer casually turned around to face the charging demon. Then, seemingly by magic, he appeared behind the demon with his sword stretched out post strike, covered in blood.

The Spider Faced Demon fell apart mid charge, its limbs apparently no longer attached to his body. Its head suffered the same fate, tumbling off of and rolling on the ground for a short while before it, along with the rest of its body, crumbled to ash. The Demon Slayer landed gracefully on the ground, wiping the blood clean off of his sword in one fluid motion, then sheathing his blade.

Inosuke looked at the Demon Slayer in awe, then shouted with what little strength he could muster, “Fight me!”

The newly appeared Demon Slayer glanced over at him, the only sign of expression being a slightly raised eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Fight me!” Inosuke repeated. “You defeated one of the Twelve Kizuki! You are truly worthy of being my stepping stone!”

“That wasn’t one of the Twelve Kizuki,” the Demon Slayer said while fiddling with some rope he had seemingly pulled out of thin air.

Embarrassed, he was actually quiet for a moment, before shouting back, “Well, I - I knew that! I was just testing you! Now I know you are truly a worthy stepping stone!”

The Demon Slayer, now next to him, said, “Before you fight me, you’re going to have to learn to keep an eye on your surroundings.”

The Demon Slayer then walked away, leaving him now suspended by the rope he had been fiddling with from a tree branch. Inosuke, feet suspended above the clearing, was shocked into silence, but almost immediately started shouting after him, “Get back here, you coward! Let me down so I can fight you!”

The Demon Slayer, however, ignored Inosuke and just kept walking away, no matter how loudly he screamed after him. Eventually, he would stop screaming, finding himself incredibly tired. Lowering his head in exhaustion, he would close his eyes and rest as a pair of men in dark uniforms that covered their faces approached him.

“~”

Zenitsu was currently busy feeling sorry for himself. Nobody reasonable could blame him for that, though. He had just had such a lovely dream. It was vague, like a dream from a half sleep during the depths of a fever, but he remembered the broad strokes. He had been strong and capable. Everybody had needed help, and he had been able to provide it. Everybody had loved him. That may have sounded pathetic, but given how similarly pathetic the story of his life had been, anyone who knew what his dream was about would sympathize.

Now, however, he was too busy laboring to so much as draw in a lone breath to have any dreams of grandeur. He had somehow woken up on top of the house suspended above the clearing that he had seen the Spider Demon lower itself out of. He couldn’t see the demon. Although, for all he knew, the Spider Demon was just barely out of his line of sight. He couldn’t move at all. Every one of his limbs felt funny, like they were smaller than they should have been. A haze had settled itself over his mind, and there was a faint humming in his ears that swelled from time to time. His eyes, meanwhile, stung whenever he opened them like he had been staring at something for too long. The poison of the Spider Demon was clearly doing its job.

Zenitsu’s body was shuddering with every breath. He was now exclusively using Total Concentration Breathing to slow the flow of his blood through his veins. He hoped to slow the progress of the poison he had been injected with. Calling it a hope might have been a bit generous, though. It was more of an instinct that managed to cut through the haze his mind was stuck in. It was an enormous effort that he barely managed to maintain.

He wondered if, in some small way, his fellow trainee had been right about him. He really was stubborn as he had said, clinging onto everyone and everything he met. He clung onto Gramps, no matter how difficult it had been. He had clung onto Inosuke and Nezuko the moment he had met them, despite one of them being as extreme and random as a windstorm and the other one being a literal demon. Now, he was clinging onto life, despite how hard and unpromising whatever remained for him was.

He drew in another shaky breath, feeling his breath rush into his body. His ribs ached, as did the rest of his body. Total Concentration Breathing involved breathing in a more complete manner. It was hard to describe to anyone who didn’t already understand it. It was like describing the color pink to a blind man. Still, it affected every part of the body. Much of his body wasn’t able to feel anything, but in his neck and torso, the sensation was like glass shards that had buried themselves in his muscles were twisting themselves with the goal of hurting him as much as they could.

Still, he kept fighting off the urge to just close his eyes and stop fighting to stay awake. No matter how painful it was, a single thought cut through the haze his mind found itself in. A voice shouting at him to not give up that, for whatever reason, he cared enough to obey.  It might have been because the voice reminded him of Gramps. He still felt obedience to his old instructor, and he definitely wouldn’t have wanted Zenitsu to give up.

Interrupting his train of thought, a strange, large, pink and purple shape entered his line of sight. It was large, and with the strange pattern that seemed to be spread across it, it looked like a giant, human sized butterfly. It swam through the air from one side of his vision to another, then began to approach him, growing larger. Eventually, the giant butterfly set down in front of him, revealing that it wasn’t a butterfly at all. Instead, some beautiful woman with strange purple eyes and hair tinted a similar color. Her kimono had a pattern that resembled those on butterfly wings, explaining how he had mistaken her for a massive butterfly.

“Yoo hoo!” she called out to him. “Are you still alive?”

Not able to respond to her, all Zenitsu did was draw in another breath. The woman standing above him noticed, and laughed quietly to herself.

“You are alive! I see you’re using your breathing techniques. Is that to slow your blood flow? That’s clever!” she said as she set down a large bag. Reaching in, she pulled out a syringe and a glass bottle full of a nasty looking liquid. Pushing the needle through the lid of the bottle, she told him, “This is an antidote to the poison working its way through your veins. It, with some more medical attention, will reverse the effects of the poison.”

Grabbing Zenitsu’s arm, she lifted it so she could better access the bulging veins running up and down it. Looking over, he saw that it seemed much smaller than it should have, a fact he would have found disturbing if he could think about the subject that deeply. She inserted the needle into his skin, and a dull pain cut through the numbness that had spread over his arms as she pushed the chemical into his veins.

The woman gently picked him up in her arms, then jumped down to the clearing in the forest. A small army of what he recognized as Kakushi were rushing around the clearing. Kakushi were the medical branch of the Demon Slayer Corps, made up of those who decided to abandon the Final Selection before its completion. He had often wondered if they would let him join if he hadn’t completed the Final Selection or if they would have turned him away. Now, he was thinking that the poison must have been affecting him more than he thought if he didn’t hear all of these people running around.

Anyway, they seemed pretty busy helping the Demon Slayers that had been poisoned by the Spider Demon. Those that had been suspended above the clearing were being cut down and given medicine. The few Kakushi who traveled with weapons despite not being actual Demon Slayers were dealing with those that were too far gone to help.

The woman carrying Zenitsu called out to the Kakushi, “I’ve found another one!” and a pair rushed over to take him out of her arms. They immediately began to wrap him in smelly bandages that must have been covered in some sort of medicine. As they set him on the ground, one of them said, “You’re going to be okay, you hear me? You’re in good hands now.”

Trusting their word, Zenitsu took in a normal breath for the first time in what had felt like hours. No longer kept awake by the extreme pain he had been keeping himself in, he let himself slip into a comfortable darkness.

Chapter Text

After crashing through an almost solid wall of tree branches, Nezuko slammed into the ground, then bounced comically into the air. The second time she hit the ground, she landed hard, knocking all of the air out of her lungs. Her arms and legs, which she had brought close to her to lessen the impact, unfurled, and she lay on the ground, waiting for her body to heal itself. A few broken bones snapped back into place, and once she had caught her breath, she pushed herself back up, still sore from the painful landing.

She had, after being thrown into the air by the Spider Faced Demon, landed in an entirely different part of the forest that covered Mt Natagumo. It seemed to be a fairly normal stretch of forest, lacking anything obvious to be afraid of. Now that the Spider Demon was dead, there weren’t any of her spiders or puppets rushing around and making noise, so the forest was also oddly quiet. Still, there was clearly a demon nearby. The scent of rotting flesh flooded her nose. She couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from or how far away it was, but she could still tell the general direction. She immediately headed towards the source of the scent, intent on killing whatever she found.

While running towards the smell, she wondered if Murata, Inosuke, and Zenitsu were still alright. She had been separated from all three of them at various points, and was worried about their safety. The three of them were all strong and skilled, but she was scared that they had found themselves in more trouble than they could handle. Still, there wasn’t anything she could do to help them right now. The best she could do was to find this demon, kill it, then make her way back to them as quickly as possible.

She wondered about what she would do beyond that. She had decided that she would have to leave the trio she had found herself a part of, but things were different now, right? It wasn’t like she could get the blood she needed for Lady Tamayo’s medicine now. The Kizuki had been the one that had sent her flying all of the way across the forest. She certainly couldn’t get any blood from it now. Without that worry, she wouldn’t have to leave so that she didn’t have to reveal Lady Tamayo and Yushiro to the Demon Slayer Corps. She could keep traveling with Inosuke and Zenitsu for at least a bit longer.

Nezuko cut off this train of thought. She was just coming up with excuses to keep traveling with the two of them. The only reason she had to be with them was to have them lead her to the blood of one of the Twelve Kizuki. She couldn’t exactly get the blood anymore, so there was no more reason for her to be traveling with them. She would kill the demon she was making her way towards, head back towards the two Demon Slayers to make sure they were alright, then leave them behind and never look back. It might hurt, but she had to do it. Anything that slowed her hunt of demon kind had to be avoided.

Eventually, she came close enough to the demon that the smell began to overwhelm her. This… confused her. A stronger scent meant that there was more of Muzan’s blood in an area. However, this scent was even stronger than the one she had smelled from the Kizuki. Really, the scent of the Kizuki had been practically non-existent compared to this scent. This didn’t make any sense to her. Was there a cluster of demons she hadn’t run into yet? Maybe another demon that was about as strong as the Kizuki?

Before she could come to some sort of understanding of what it was that she was approaching, a scream cut through the air. It was that of a girl, and clearly a scream of pain. It was from the same direction that she was headed, and, assuming that some Demon Slayer was being attacked by a demon, she raced forward even faster, hoping to save whoever had let out the scream.

Eventually, she reached the demon she had been running towards. The scene before her froze her in shock. Instead of a demon standing over a bloodied Demon Slayer, a demon was standing over another demon. The standing demon wasn’t exactly intimidating. He looked like a child with the white skin, white hair that fell over one eye, and a pattern of red dots on his face that all of the demons living on this mountain apparently had. Thin threads like the ones the Puppet Demon had controlled were stretched between the fingers of the demon, the only difference being that these threads had bright red blood dripping from them.

The demon kneeling in the dirt was the demon that had looked just like the Spider Demon. She was clutching at her face, trying to stem the blood seeping from in between her fingers. “R-rui-” she croaked out before she was cut off by the demon standing above him.

“You do understand what your role in this family is, correct?” the demon apparently named Rui asked the demon below him.

Nezuko stared at the scene for a moment longer, not quite understanding what was going on. She stared at the cuts on the face of the demon that looked like the Puppet Demon. The blood on the cat’s cradle of threads stretched in between Rui's fingers. Suddenly, the pieces all clicked together.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

The demon being hurt whipped her head around to look at her. Her expression was both of terror of the demon above her and shock at Nezuko’s sudden appearance. Rui, meanwhile, casually glanced up at her, apparently not concerned by her outburst. “I’m sorry, what?” he asked her.

“That’s your ally, right?! Why the hell are you hurting her?!” she shouted at him.

“Ally?” the demon said, with a hint of incredulity in his voice. “Don’t cheapen us by calling us allies. We’re family. Our bond is greater than that of any alliance. Actually, this,” he continued, gesturing to the demon kneeling below him, “Is a family matter. You have no right to interfere in something as personal as this.”

Nezuko gawked at him, not knowing how to reply to something so absurd. Eventually, she bluntly said, “No.”

This seemed to get more of a rise out of the demon in front of her more than anything she had previously said. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, and his voice took on a dangerous quality as he asked, “What do you mean, no?”

Apparently not worried about upsetting this demon, she continued, “I mean you aren’t family. This? This isn’t family. You give up your right to call this a family the moment you hurt any member of your family to keep them in line. I had a family,” she said, her voice cracking slightly with hurt and rage, “And calling this a family is an insult to them. This is just a pathetic fraud!”

Rui was deathly still for a moment, not uttering a word. The girl demon was just as still, apparently shocked by what Nezuko had said. The forest itself seemed to still as the silence continued, seemingly not daring to make any noise that might set off the demon.

Behind the demon child, a brown haired Demon Slayer slowly stepped out from the shadows of the forest. He seemed less fearful about the fact that he was in a demon infested forest, and more annoyed about said fact. When he saw Rui, however, he adopted a confident expression, apparently not intimidated by the small demon. He crept forward quietly but quickly, raising his sword above his head.

“Take it back,” Rui ordered Nezuko.

“What?” she asked, not quite understanding what he meant, but wanting to keep his attention away from the approaching Demon Slayer.

Said Demon Slayer approached even closer to Rui and began to swing his sword towards his neck. Suddenly, there was a flash of faint light in front of the Demon Slayer. He exploded backwards like a piece of paper that had been ripped to shreds and left to the mercy of a windstorm. Blood and small pieces of what had been a person splattered over the trees and bushes that the Demon Slayer had emerged from.

Nezuko stared at the bloody spectacle in silent shock until Rui spoke again, saying to her, “What you just said about my family. Take it back now, and your death will be swift.”

Nezuko was quiet for a moment longer, shocked by the violent display she had just been exposed to. The Demon Slayer had just been shredded by some invisible force! No… no, not quite invisible. That flash in front of the Demon Slayer must have been light reflecting off the threads of Rui. He must be able to use his own threads like blades instead of like puppet strings. Regardless of how, he had killed someone with next to no effort! All other demons she had fought- there had at least been some sign that killing took some sort of effort. This demon, however, apparently could kill without a second thought. She had never fought a demon with this kind of casual strength. Could she even survive to see him dead?

She steeled her nerves. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about this, especially not now that she was face to face with this demon. Replying to the demon’s demand, she said, “No. I’ll even say it again- this family of yours is a fraud!”

Rui was still for a moment longer, then pulled at the threads at the tips of his fingers. Suddenly, a flash of moonlight revealed a lone thread. It was cutting through the air towards her at high speed, apparently intent on making good on the threat of the diminutive demon. Nezuko jumped backwards several feet to avoid being cut in two. The thread missed her, cutting deep into the ground and throwing dirt into the air. The small demon casually flicked one of its wrists, and another thread whipped towards her. She jumped high into the air, landing on a tree branch. She leapt off the branch straight towards the demon, hoping to end the battle quickly. The demon flicked his wrist again, and another lone thread whipped at her. She swung her sword to meet it, planning on cutting through it easily and continuing her flight towards the demon.

Instead of being effortlessly cut through, however, the thread instead cut through her sword. It was so clean that, once the two halves of her sword separated, it looked more like they had never been connected and had instead been forged as two separate parts.

Nezuko stared at the remains of her sword in shock, only reacting to the thread when it was inches away from her own face. She twisted midair to try and avoid being cut, but the thread still carved off a good chunk of her face and shoulder. She landed halfway between the tree she jumped off of and Rui, digging a small trench into the ground as she went. After gathering the strength to pick herself back up, she noticed that she couldn’t see out of one eye. Feeling at it, she realized that part of her face was just missing.

She looked up at the small demon, now understanding why the demon that looked like the Puppet Demon had been so afraid of him. The anger on his face had vanished, and the cold, hard expression he had worn while looking down on the copy of the Puppet Demon had returned.

Speaking of whom, the copy of the Puppet Demon shakily said, “Well, if you have this under control, then…” She seemed desperate to get away from Rui, but unwilling to upset him by actually running away.

He was quiet for a moment, then simply said, “You may go.” The second the words were out of his mouth, she turned around and sprinted away from the scene.

Rui, all of his attention now focused on Nezuko, told her, “I’m only going to offer you this chance one last time. Take back what you said about my family, and I will simply hang you up to wait for the sunrise. The other option is I spend all of the time between the sunrise and now carving off pieces of you, so…” he trailed off, letting the weight of his threat sink in.

Nezuko stared at him in confusion for a short moment, then laughed to herself. “Really? That’s what you’re worried about? I’ve killed a member of this ‘family’,” she said with heavy air quotes, “And you’re worried about me being insulting?”

The small demon in front of her was unbothered by what she said. “If any member of my family let themselves be killed, then they failed in their role. The role of the parents is to protect the children, and the role of the older children is to protect their younger siblings. If they died, then they failed in their role. I won’t mourn a failure.”

The expression on Nezuko’s face shifted from one of tired amusement to one of disgust and anger. “If you really think that’s what family is about, you’re either delusional or an idiot. I won’t apologize for being blunt about what this lie you’ve helped construct is.”

Rui smiled slightly at that, then broke out into a face splitting grin. “Well, if that’s how you want this to be,” he said, pushing his bangs to the side, exposing his previously covered eye. Instead of a pupil, on the newly exposed eye there was a kanji in dark black that read lower five. “Then let’s see how well you do against one of the Twelve Kizuki.”

“~”

The “Older Sister” Demon raced away from Rui and the demon that had appeared and had tried to kill him. She needed to get away from here. She needed to get away from Demon Slayers crawling over the mountain like ants. She didn’t know what had happened to “Father”, but she was now in “Mother’s” part of the forest, and she hadn’t seen any of her dolls, so she must have been dead. There was no telling if her other “brother” was still alive, but she couldn’t count on it.

What was she supposed to do? What could she even do?! The Demon Slayer Corps must know about the family of demons she was a part of, and had already sent dozens of Demon Slayers here. They might have even sent a Hashira! What on earth could she do against someone so strong?! She had joined “Brothers” family for protection, not to defend someone else! She had a Blood Demon Art, but not a strong one, and certainly not one that could defend her against any but the weakest of Demon Slayers!

She considered running away from Mt Natagumo. She used to have an “Older Sister” of her own who had suggested that the two of them run away from the mountain. She had ratted her out to Rui, but she may have had a point. This mountain wouldn’t be safe forever. Even if they drove out this batch of Demon Slayers, there would be more. There would always be more. Besides, Rui was far from the best person to rely on for safety. While here, she had seen three members of this “family” be killed by their “Younger Brother”, either for trying to leave or for failing his expectations. Still, where could she even run to?

Interrupting her train of thought, a haggard Demon Slayer with brown hair lunged at her from the forest. The “Older Sister” Demon cast her Blood Demon Art, and a mass of spider silk burst out from the palms of her hands. It first caught the Nichirin Sword of the Demon Slayer, then enveloped the Demon Slayer himself. He struggled, but was unable to escape the newly formed ball of spider silk. More spider silk shot up to the canopy of the thick forest, then dragged the ball containing the Demon Slayer up with it. It stopped when well above the canopy. The spider silk would excrete a powerful acid that would eventually cause the Demon Slayer to dissolve, making him easier to eat. She wouldn’t be around for long enough for that to happen, though. She needed to get as far away from the mountain as possible.

Suddenly, a pair of feet hit her back and knocked her over. She landed face first on the ground. Looking behind her, she could see a short woman in a colorful kimono standing on top of her. In one hand, she held a sword that had almost all of the blade removed, leaving only a short stretch around the handle and another stretch of blade at the point. The woman raised the sword above her, pointing it down towards her.

Before the woman could impale her, the “Older Sister” Demon cried out, “Wait!”

Shockingly, the Demon Slayer standing on top of her actually listened, refraining from impaling her. Shocked that she hadn’t been killed yet, her mind floundered around for something that might convince the Demon Slayer to not kill her.

Eventually, she settled on pity. “I didn’t want to do it!”

“Didn’t want to do what?” the woman asked, quirking her head. There was something about her that didn’t sit quite right with the demon she was standing on top of. Still, she pressed on.

“I didn’t want to kill anyone. He- he made me do it. Rui, the demon that runs this mountain- he’s a member of the Twelve Kizuki. Rui, he made me do it!” she said. She was actually in luck here. The status of her “brother” as one of the Twelve Kizuki made the story she was convincing this woman of more believable.

Speaking of the Demon Slayer standing on top of her, she seemed to be buying her story. She was still unsettling, but she seemed to be pitying her- the idiot!

“Oh, dear!” she said. “That’s such a sad story! I’m so sorry to hear that! You know what,” she said, her expression shifting from one of pity to one that wore a small, placid smile without missing a beat, “I have an idea. Tell me how many people you’ve killed, and all is forgiven.”

This shocked the “Older Sister” Demon, who hadn’t even expected to be listened to, let alone allowed to live. Her mind faced as she suppressed the smile trying to spread itself across her face, trying to come up with some answer that the Demon Slayer standing on top of her would accept. It didn’t occur to her to question how strange this was, or how strange the Demon Slayer was acting.

Eventually, she settled on, “Five. Five people. But only because he made me!” she was quick to add.

The Demon Slayer laughed quietly to herself and said, “Well, we both know that’s a lie, don’t we?”

The mood of the “Older Sister” Demon dropped like a stone. “Wh- what? What are you-”

Cutting her off, the Demon Slayer said, “That cocoon hanging above us- that contains a person, doesn't it? I saw fourteen just like it on my way here from the western side of the mountain. There must be many more of them scattered all across the mountain, aren’t there?”

The demon she was standing on top of stared at her in silent horror as she continued, “Please understand, I only want an accurate number for the sake of your punishment.””

“P-punishment?” the “Older Sister” Demon asked.

“Well, as much as I’d like to, I can’t just let you off without consequences! You have killed at least fourteen people relatively recently!” the Demon Slayer continued, still wearing that placid smile of hers. “I think that I’ll cut out your eyes first. Then I’ll move onto your organs. I’ll have to take a few of them from you, but they’ll grow back! All of it will. Once that’s done, all will be forgiven!”

Now terrified of the woman standing on top of her, the demon used her Blood Demon Art, summoning massive amounts of spider silk from the palms of her hands. The spider silk reached up towards the Demon Slayer, trying to grab and cocoon her. The Demon Slayer, however, seemingly disappeared, reappearing a short distance away from her. The “Older Sister” Demon sent spider silk her way, but the Demon Slayer disappeared again.

Suddenly behind her, the Demon Slayer said with a voice tinged with fake sadness, “What a shame. It seems we won’t be friends after all.”

The “Older Sister” Demon whipped around, but the Demon Slayer disappeared again, though not before sinking her sword into her arm. All she did to her, however, was leave a small cut, which was weird, considering that all demons needed to be beheaded to be killed. Whipping her head around, she saw the Demon Slayer standing a short distance away from her. For whatever reason, she wasn’t moving at all. She almost seemed to be waiting for something. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, the demon cast her Blood Demon Art and sent a flood of spider silk towards the Demon Slayer.

Suddenly, an overwhelming thudding sound filled her head, and her vision swam like the ground she was standing on was shifting like water. A splitting headache fell on her, and she almost fell over. She tried to fight through it to fight the Demon Slayer, but she could hardly hold herself upright, let alone fight properly. She closed her eyes, trying to wait out this unexplained pain. When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t looking at a Demon Slayer standing in a dark forest anymore. She was in a strange stretch of featureless purple landscape. The pains she had been feeling had inexplicably disappeared.

A butterfly appeared out of nowhere and flew towards her. The “Older Sister” Demon gently stretched out her hand and let the butterfly land on it. Its wings had an almost hypnotic swirling pattern that didn’t seem to be consistent. Instead, it moved and shifted slowly, with colors blending into each other and separating with no apparent rhyme or reason. The sight was strangely calming for some reason she couldn’t explain.

The butterfly brushed its proboscis over her, and she felt a slight prick on her finger. Without warning, all of the pain she had been feeling before came rushing back several times worse, and the sight of the Demon Slayer and the forest returned. She keeled over and fell to the ground, paralyzed by pain. Her muscles felt like they were burning, and every blood vessel felt just as bad. The Demon Slayer was saying something to her, but she couldn’t make out a single word. The far ends of her arms and legs went numb, but the pain in the parts of her body she could still feel was only growing worse. The darkness and numbness only grew and grew, while everything else slowly shrank back.

“~”

Nezuko jumped through the air, narrowly avoiding a trio of threads sent towards her by Rui. Her earlier wounds had completely healed, but plenty of new wounds had appeared in their place. Cuts from near misses with the threads covered her, and while they were healing, the fast pace of the fight made it feel like every cut was taking an eternity to heal. The small demon using the threads, meanwhile, was completely unharmed. She hadn’t been able to get close enough to him to land a single blow, and she was too far away to get her blood onto him.

She was growing increasingly worried by the pace of the battle. The most challenging demon she had fought at her current strength, before arriving at Mt Natagumo, had been the Drum Demon. His blood demon art had been the most developed she had seen up to that point, and it had really been an annoyance more than anything. This, however, was unlike anything she had ever been up against. She was pushing herself almost to her limits, and the demon she was fighting didn’t even seem to be exerting himself. She had first hoped to gather his blood for Lady Tamayo, but now, she was most worried about not dying.

Another thread whipped out towards her. She ducked under the attack and heard a tree topple over behind her. The noise firmly reminded her that she couldn’t let a single one of the attacks land. If that happened, she was as good as dead. That thought kept her at a distance, where she would have time to react to any threads sent her way. At the same time, however, she couldn’t keep fighting like this forever. Eventually Rui would get lucky, and while she wasn’t sure of the exact limits of her regeneration, she was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be able to keep up with the steady string of attacks she was under right now.

Eventually, she saw an opportunity. A thread Rui had sent her way had cut down another tree, sending it falling down in between him and her. With his view of her blocked, she might be able to close the gap. It wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t have a lot of options right now. She dashed forward at full speed, the remains of her sword held low at her side. Several threads ripped through the fallen tree, sending branches, leaves, and other debris flying towards her. She dodged them easily and continued to charge forward through the impromptu smokescreen.

Grabbing the blade tightly, she drew the length of the sword across her palm, covering it in her own blood. Lighting it, she emerged through the cloud of what had been a tree, sword blazing. Before she could attack Rui, however, a thread whipped at her and cut clean through one of her legs. She fell forward, face planting comically into the ground. She slid on the ground for a short while before coming to a stop at the feet of the small demon.

Nezuko didn’t even have the opportunity to look up at him before he reared his foot back and kicked her in the ribs, sending her flying several feet through the air. She landed on a cluster of bushes and lay there in pain, waiting for her leg to regrow itself. The demon she was fighting appeared in front of her and hit her across the face, then hit her in the chest again. She was sent flying through the air a shorter but still considerable distance.

When she landed, her leg healed itself fully, allowing her to quickly pick herself up. Turning towards Rui, she charged at him again, her only real hope being that she could behead him before he had the opportunity to land too many more hits on her.

Before she could get within striking distance of him, however, there was a flash of light in front of her. A net of threads wrapped around her torso, cutting into her flesh. Instead of shredding her, however, they only caused shallow wounds to her, awkwardly binding her arms to her chest. The threads pulled on her, and she flew into the air, ending up suspended in the tree line. She struggled against the threads, but they held her too tightly for her to do anything but kick and squirm.

Both her flesh and clothes had bled heavily, covering her in her own blood. Reaching out,  she lit it on fire and covered herself in flames. Almost immediately, the threads burned away, and she began to drop to the ground. Suddenly, the threads wrapped around her non sword arm, just about the only part of her that wasn’t completely engulfed in fire. It pulled her through the air, throwing her towards a tree. Her blood fire quickly burned it, but by that point, she had gained too much momentum to stop. She felt a sharp pain in her back, and came to a violent stop against one of the tall pine trees that covered the mountain. Looking down, she saw a thick, sharpened branch covered in blood poking out of her chest just under her ribcage. Some corner of her mind wondered if the demon below her had sharpened it, but most conscious thought had been blotted out by the sheer pain she was in.

Raising her sword, she hoped to cut off the point of the branch and then pull herself forward. However, Rui’s threads wrapped around her arm. Rapidly tightening, they cut her arm to bloody shreds that fell to the forest floor. The same thing happened to her remaining limbs, leaving her paralyzed.

“There,” she heard Rui say from below her, “That should keep your regeneration busy until dawn.”

Looking down at him, Nezuko met his cold gaze. He calmly told her, “You’re going to burn up there for your insults to my family. I’m going to go see how many more members of my family have failed their roles.”

With that, more threads wrapped themselves around her, tying her tighter to the tree. He turned away from her and began to slowly walk into the forest. She struggled, trying to free herself, but without any limbs, all she could do was wiggle weakly. She lit her blood fires, but while they burned away the threads, they were too weak to do any real damage to the tree she was pinned to. Not having the strength to do any more, she slumped forward, too tired to even move.

Rui had been right in his assessment of her wounds. Even the cuts that covered her were taking far longer than normal to heal. Her arms weren't going to be coming back anytime soon. Her body had just been through too much tonight. She only had one thing left to do with her life, one thing that gave her purpose- aid Lady Tamayo’s research. With it, Muzan could finally be brought down. All of the death he might cause could be prevented. And at the most critical moment, she had failed. There was a member of the Twelve Kizuki in her sights, and she failed to get so much as a drop of blood from him.

She wondered what her family would have thought of her situation. Tanjiro would have wanted her to keep fighting, at least. That was the whole reason he had appeared to her early in her journey as a demon, to keep her fighting. Now that she had failed to keep doing that, she could guess he wouldn’t think too kindly of her. She didn’t have any idea about the rest of her family, though. Probably something along the lines of disappointment. Still, not like that could be helped anymore.

Nezuko reached out to her blood one last time, although this was more because she felt she had to at least try than that she felt it would work. She could feel it scattered over the ground, and she tried to make it move, but she could feel it barely budge. Whether this was a matter of it being too far away or of her being too weak, she couldn't tell.

Still stuck on the tree branch, she felt a small part of herself becoming more and more panicked. The sun must have been close to rising. Of course, close might mean another hour, but Rui probably wouldn’t have left her here if he thought she was going to get away. She had seen what the sunlight did to her kind, and without any shade or way to cover herself, there was no doubt about what would happen to her. The small part of her continued to grow louder and more panicked, but she tried to calm herself. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do about it anymore. She resolved that, at the very least, she could accept this with some dignity.

Suddenly, she felt a pain rip its way through her skull. It was like she had stepped out of a hot bath too quickly and all her blood had rushed to her skull, only several times worse. Her vision swam, and at the same time seemed to come clearer into focus. Any and all noise was blotted out by the echoey sound of her blood pumping through her. She could feel so much more. Feel the cuts in her flesh, feel the bits of blood and skin and bones scattered about the forest floor. She was so much more aware of everything.

At the same time, she felt a voice trying to make itself away to her over the din of her own heartbeat. The small part of her she had been hearing earlier had gotten much, much louder. She tried to push it back, tried to shut it out because she understood that there was something fundamentally wrong with it, but it was too loud to ignore. It repeated to her the same message over and over-

Get down from this tree and kill that little freak.

Reaching out to her blood again, she pulled and felt it surge across the forest floor towards the tree she had been strung up on. At the same time, the stumps that her limbs had been reduced to had blood rush to them, and new arms and legs grew in their place. The blood that had been drawn out of her cuts by Rui’s threads lit up in flames, burning through the branch she had been pinned to and dropping through the air towards the ground.

Landing, she whipped her head up towards Rui, setting him right in her sights. He turned around, at first casually. She could see his expression change from monotone indifference to slight but still present shock, something that delighted this new side of her. Dashing forward, she snatched her sword up from off the ground. Turning her full attention to Rui, she charged forward at full speed.

As she ran towards him, the blood that had been scattered across the ground by the threads that she had been attacked with leapt up towards her. She stretched out her sword arm and let the blood reach her sword, almost forming a sort of sheath along the entire blade. She lit her blood and her sword was wreathed in flames, looking more like a torch than any sort of weapon.

Rui pulled at his threads, and they appeared in between the two of them. She could smell his blood being spilt, and a red color spread along his threads from his fingertips. She didn’t know what that did to them- maybe they were sharper or would move faster- but it didn’t matter much to her. The threads whipped through the air towards her, surrounding her on all sides. They formed a pattern that reminded her a bit of the cat’s cradles she used to see children from her old town making out of thread.

The fire on her sword flared much brighter than it ever had before. It became white hot, with the only color hugging the very edges of the flames. It gave off a heat that she could feel on her face even an arms length away. Oddly enough, the feeling only added more giddiness to the strange mix of anger and joy this new side of her felt. On some level, she knew that this would only last so long, but it still made her feel strong. This new reservoir of power that had been left apparently untapped by her was now hers to exploit as she saw fit.

She swung her sword in an arc in front of her once, to spread droplets of fire onto the threads blocking her way forward, then twice, to actually cut through the threads. She shouldn’t have bothered, really. When they landed, the droplets of fire spread up and down the threads like… well, fire. They were quickly burned through, causing the threads to snap before her blade even touched them. She continued forward toward Rui.

The small demon in front of her continued pulling at his threads, sending more and more of them her way. She was able to casually cut through them, the heat radiating off of her sword almost splitting the threads before her blade met them. The occasional thread managed to reach her, but the wounds they left were shallow and quickly sealed themselves up. As more and more of them piled up, however, she healed from them slower and slower. The time it took wouldn’t have been noticeable to anyone who wasn’t a demon, but she could feel the extra split seconds it took to heal herself piling up. She would give out if she had to continue fighting like this much longer. This needed to be ended quickly.

Rui gathered a final cluster of threads and flung them towards her. The spiderweb they formed was easily ducked under by her as she finally reached the small demon. Raising her sword across her body, she swung it downward. The small demon was unable to do anything to defend himself as her sword finally reached his neck. There was a short flash of red, and his head came clean off.

Nezuko’s feet carried her forward on simple momentum, then, as her strange burst of strength faded, she fell to her knees. She lost the strength to even hold herself in this position and fell forward, landing flat on her face. She felt the same headache she had felt when her burst of strength appeared. It slowly faded, along with the malicious euphoria that had accompanied it. That was probably for the best. She had only ever been like that twice before, and both of those times made her dangerous. Well, more dangerous than usual.

As her mind cleared, she remembered the Kizuki right behind her. She had to gather his blood, otherwise this whole fight was pointless. She needed blood to send to Lady Tamayo for her medicine. With it, she could develop it so much faster. Without it, it might take who even knew how much longer. Any blood that might have been on her sword had certainly been burned away. The only blood she might be able to get would be directly from Rui’s body, which must have been half of the way to being a pile of ashes.

Letting go of her sword, she shoved her hands in between her and the ground and tried to push. Her arms shook like they were made of straw, straining themselves to their absolute limit. Her legs kicked at the ground, unable to get any purchase on the loose soil. After her burst of power, she seemed to have been sapped of any strength she had left. Maybe that was related to the burst of power, maybe it was caused by her wounds. Either way, she had to do something to get to Rui’s body.

Turning her head, she looked to see what state his body was in. Surprisingly, but thankfully, it was still largely intact. It didn’t even seem to have begun turning to ash. The only real damage that she could see was it obviously being beheaded. The head itself was lying only a few feet away from the body. If she could push herself off the forest floor, she might actually be able to get the blood she needed to send to Lady Tamayo.

The body shifted slightly, something Nezuko didn’t quite process when it first happened. It moved again, however, reaching out towards the head she had lopped off. She could hardly believe her own eyes as threads from the fingertips of the body wrapped around the head and pulled it closer. As the body stood up, it held the head at its side like a lantern. The eyelids of the head flicked open, letting Rui, who was somehow not dead, look down at her. His body raised his head and set it on his neck, where it healed. After that, he spoke to her.

“You really thought you had done something there, didn’t you?” he asked her in a cold but still condescending voice. “I cut off my head with my own threads. You surprised me with… whatever that was, but it doesn't seem to have lasted long. Pathetic.”

Nezuko desperately tried to move. She could feel strength returning to her limbs, but too slowly to save her. She raised herself off the ground, but only just. Not wanting to take any chances with her, Rui pulled at his threads, surrounding her with them. The red threads swiftly closed on her, too fast for her to properly react. All she could do was move one of her hands out from under herself, trying to reach towards the sword by her side.

Suddenly, she heard the wind above her whistle. The net of red threads that had been approaching her went slack, falling onto her gently before burning up. Lifting her head just enough to look at whoever it was that had just saved her, she saw someone in a strange looking haori. Split evenly down the middle, one half was a simple red, while the other was a mismatched pattern of green and yellow shapes. He held a long sword with a deep blue blade in one hand, leading to the shocking conclusion that she had just been saved by a demon slayer.

Rui broke her out of her shock by shouting at the Demon Slayer, “Dammit! This isn’t yours to interfere with! Get out of my way!”

He pulled at his threads, gathering them into a swirling, circular mesh several times his size. He threw them forward as a solid wall at the Demon Slayer, cutting through trees and anything else that stood in its way as it rotated towards the two of them. Before it could reach them, however, it simply fell apart. The only thing that Nezuko thought might have something to do with that was a short, sharp breath she heard coming from the new Demon Slayer. Did that have to do with the breathing techniques Zenitsu had tried to explain to her?

Before she could wonder anymore about her apparent savior, he seemingly disappeared and reappeared behind Rui, his sword held casually at his side. The small demon stared for a moment at where he had just been before stumbling forward, his head sliding off and landing on the ground. Rolling towards her, it ended up only a few feet away from her. The soon to be lifeless eyes stared at her in shock before the mouth moved to try and speak.

Interrupting the head, Nezuko pulled out the knife she had been given by Yushiro and stabbed the small amount of neck still attached to the head. Glaring at him, she said, “I don’t care what happened to you. I don’t care why you’re a demon. I saw how afraid you made your ‘family’. What you must have done to them- what you must have done to all of your ‘family’- I won’t ever forgive you for that.”

The glass vial in the knife quickly filled up with blood before all of Rui’s head crumbled to ash. The blade was slightly burned by the process, but the blood had still been gathered, and that was all that was important. Like clockwork, Chuchumaru showed up, and she quickly slipped the vial of blood out of the knife and into the bag on the cat’s back.

Looking up, she noticed the Demon Slayer staring at the cat, the confusion on his face only growing after it became invisible. He opened his mouth as if to ask something, then thought better of it and closed it. He turned his attention back to her, his expression hardening again.

Oh, right. He was a Demon Slayer. He slayed demons.

Nezuko stared at the Demon Slayer only a few feet away from her. He was definitely higher in the ranks than either Zenitsu or Inosuke, so his opinion of demons probably wouldn’t be as flexible as theirs had been. Letting him decide what her fate would be probably wouldn’t end well.

Then again… did she really deserve anything else? After what she had done? It wasn’t like she was needed anymore. With the amount of her own blood she had already provided and that last batch of Muzan’s blood she had just sent, Lady Tamayo wouldn’t be needing her anymore. What she had done against individual demons wasn’t something that she exclusively was capable of. She wasn’t special in what she had accomplished. Why bother fighting anymore?

The two of them continued to stare at each other, neither apparently willing to make the first move. This lasted for a while, with the silence growing awkward, before Nezuko pushed herself up off the ground. Her sword was within reach, but she made no move for it. Instead, she moved into a kneeling position and straightened her back, exposing her neck to the black haired Demon Slayer. She stared at him for a moment longer, then closed her eyes, waiting for him to land the blow.

The forest was silent for a moment. The Demon Slayer was probably surprised that any demon was so willing to let their life be ended. The silence dragged on, confusing her, but she had nothing but time now. She could wait for him a little bit longer..

Confusingly, she heard a sword click into its scabbard. Puzzled, she opened her eyes to see the Demon Slayer in the mismatched haori walking away from her, his sword sheathed at his side.

“W-wait,” she asked, “What are you doing?”

Stopping, he avoided her question and responded, “You need to run. There are Demon Slayers all over this mountain. If you wait any longer, you’ll be caught trying to leave.” Looking over his shoulder, he made eye contact with her and curtly said, “Go now.””

He turned away from her again and walked off into the pine trees. Nezuko stared after him in shock, not quite comprehending what he had done or why he had done it. Thoughts swirled through her head, wondering about what had just happened to her. Eventually, though, she picked herself up, grabbed the remnants of her sword, and did exactly what the man said- run.

The forest around her blurred as she sped towards the bottom of the mountain. The sound of the air rushing past her ears almost blocked out any other noise but failed to do the same for her train of thought. Her mind raced, wondering what she should do after leaving the mountain, if she should try to meet up with Inosuke and Zenitsu, even if she should try to find herself a new sword. Failing to reach any conclusions, she ignored these thoughts and simply continued down her current path.

She noticed that her strength had returned. That might have been more than a bit of an exaggeration- she certainly wouldn’t be able to keep up in a fight anytime soon- but the shakiness in her legs and weakness in her arms had all largely disappeared. Given the Demon Slayers apparently all over the mountain, she was grateful for that.

From behind her she heard the faint noise of cloth rippling in the air. Ducking down, she heard someone fly overhead. She just barely managed to halt her path forward and look forward to see something swinging towards her. She dodged backward, watching as the thing swinging at her just barely missed. Looking at it closer, she could see it was a needle filled with a vaguely purple liquid. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but she doubted it was anything good.

The needle was being swung at her by a girl who must have been about her age. She was wearing a clean, white cloak over a black uniform. She held a needle in one hand, while a sword in its scabbard was at her side. Her black hair was held up by a colorful, multicolored pin shaped like a butterfly. Most notable were her eyes- a shade of lavender, they seemed almost dead. If she had to guess, there were no emotions, no thoughts behind those eyes, just action.

The girl stabbed at her with the needle again, and Nezuko jumped backwards, hoping to give herself a moment to think. She raised her sword, but then remembered that she wasn’t fighting a demon. Killing her would only put her deeper in the hole she was trying to dig herself out of.

Running towards her, the girl quickly closed the distance between the two of them. Suddenly, instead of being where she was, she was right next to Nezuko, thrusting the needle at her. She only just managed to knock away the girl’s attack. Grabbing the girl’s wrist, she twisted her through the air. She landed face down on the ground, one arm twisted and pinned down. She planted another hand on the girl’s back, hoping she could keep her down long enough to come up with a plan.

Her muscles suddenly tensed painfully, and she found herself unable to move. Somehow, the girl she was holding down had gotten her sword free and had hit her in the neck. She didn’t know why, but she had been paralyzed by the blow.

Meanwhile, the girl took the opportunity to twist out of her grip. She practically flowed like water as she came to stand above Nezuko. The needle, which had remained undamaged by the entire fight, was stabbed into her neck. A cold sensation spread through her neck as she pushed down on the plunger, pushing whatever was in the syringe into her body. Nezuko’s muscles had untensed, but by that point, it was too late. Everything started to grow more dim, and it took far more effort than it should have to keep her eyes open. She fought to stay conscious, but it was a losing battle. She fell to the ground and caught herself, then her arms gave out beneath her as she was forced into a cold darkness.

Chapter Text

A sharp kick in the ribs woke Nezuko painfully. “It’s awake,” a gruff voice above her said as she lay coughing on the mated floor. Her vision was unfocused, but she could see a foot headed her way. Kicking off the floor, she dodged backwards as the foot connected with the tatami mats covering the floor. She tried to move to reach for something to defend herself with, but found her arms were bound behind her back by something cold and heavy.

Looking up, she saw a blur speed towards her before grabbing her by the neck and lifting her off the ground. She, as a demon, didn’t strictly need air, but the sudden lack of it didn’t help her already blurry vision. The grip around her neck tightened sharply as the man trying to strangle her said something to her. She couldn’t make out anything he said, but she could hear the hatred behind whatever it was he was saying. Assuming that the man holding her in the air was, in fact, not a man but a demon, Nezuko kicked at him hard. She felt her foot connect with him and he dropped her. She had meant to try and jump away from him, but he grabbed hold of her kimono before both of her feet were even on the ground.

As her vision cleared- whatever she had been put to sleep by must have been wearing off- she heard someone shout, “Now that was flamboyant!” and clap loudly.

The last thing she remembered was a girl stabbing her in the neck with a needle of some kind. Whatever she had been given must have been wearing off, as her vision continued to clear, she saw the person holding her wasn’t a demon. Instead, he was just a tall man with a scar covered face and white hair. The sword he held at his side made it clear he was, in fact, a Demon Slayer.

“I- I thought you were a demon,” she said.

The Demon Slayer laughed hard at Nezuko. “Really? You thought I was one of you?” he asked her. Faster than she could see, his hand was holding her above the floor again and his sword was being held at her neck. “How about now?”

“That’s enough, Shinazugawa,” a deep voice told the man holding her.

Looking towards the voice, she saw a collection of odd looking Demon Slayers. She assumed that the one who had applauded her was the tall, muscular one with what seemed like face paint around one eye. He wore what looked something like a crown covered in randomly sized jewels. His arms, exposed by his sleeveless shirt, were each wrapped in gold bands.

Meanwhile, a man even taller than the one who had applauded her stood nearby. A jacket with kanji was casually covering his shoulders and arms. A set of prayer beads were held in his hands and wrapped around his neck. His eyes were strange- they were completely white, and while he had a straight face, tears were spilling over his eyelids in a steady stream.

Shina… whatever, who was apparently the one holding Nezuko aloft, groaned in exasperation. “Oh, please, Gyomei, it’s a demon. We kill demons. It’s not hard to know what we’re supposed to do in this situation.”

“Maybe so,” the man named Gyomei told him, “But Kochou and Tomioka were told to bring it here alive by Master Ubuyashiki. If he wants it to live, then we are to let it live until he decides what should be done with it.”

The Demon Slayer holding her aloft let out a disgusted sigh before dropping her to the floor. “Fine. But my vote? The second he gets here, we just kill it.”

Left comparatively unattended, Nezuko took the opportunity to properly take in her surroundings. She was in a large, sprawling room with a tall ceiling, well lit by lanterns. There were people scattered all around the room, either talking to themselves or simply regarding her quietly. The one exception was a boy who seemed to be even younger than she was with blue hair and a kimono of the same color who was blankly staring at a wall.

She had to wonder who these people even were. They were clearly Demon Slayers, and seemed to be special in some way, but she didn’t know anything about them beyond that. Were they a special unit of Demon Slayers? A rank separate from everyone else? She could guess, but there wasn’t really any way unless she asked somebody, and she had a gut feeling that nobody would take too kindly to any questions from her.

Interrupting her train of thought, a raspy voice came from above her, saying, “I have to agree with Sanemi when it comes to this. It’s too dangerous to be kept alive any longer than it has been.”

Looking upwards, she saw a man in black and white clothes laying down among the rafters. The shadows created by the rafters gave him a creepy appearance that wasn’t helped by the live snake he had slithering around him. The lower half of his face was covered with tight but haphazard bandages that failed to obscure his eyes. He looked down on her with a hatred she had expected but was still surprised by the intensity of. If she had to guess, his career of demon slaying was personal for him somehow. Although, now that she thought about it, it was probably personal for all Demon Slayers. She couldn’t imagine why else someone would choose to involve themselves in this.

“Don’t be mean, Iguro!” a sweet sounding voice called to him. She looked at the woman who had spoken and quickly whipped her gaze away, blushing madly. The pink and green haired woman who had spoken in her defense was wearing an outfit that seemed to have been split down the middle, only just keeping… everything from spilling out. “She’s probably scared out of her mind right now!” Iguro seemed to consider responding, but decided against it for some reason.

“It’s not a she, Kanroji,” a man standing next to the woman corrected her. “It’s an it.”

Nezuko glanced up at him quickly, and saw that he stood out just as much as every other Demon Slayer in the room. His hair was a bright yellow and orange, matching his kimono. He, like many of the other Demon Slayers, wore a seemingly perpetual smile that he kept up despite the cold nature of what he had just said.

It wasn’t like he was wrong, though, was he?

Turning away from him, she saw the last two Demon Slayers in the room and had to hold in a gasp. One of them was a woman who looked like an older version of the girl who had stabbed her with the syringe, only with a more purple color scheme. She wore the same placid smile as the girl, but this one seemed… different. The girl’s smile had seemed to be all she could muster up. The woman’s smile, on the other hand, seemed to be like a mask holding something back.

The sight that nearly made her gasp, however, was of the Demon Slayer who had spared her in the forest standing right next to the woman. If it weren’t for his mismatched kimono, he would have been the most normal looking of all the Demon Slayers in the room. As it was, he was observing her with a neutral expression. She considered calling out to him, but that probably wouldn’t end well. All he had done when he had helped her was not kill her. He probably wouldn’t help her escape, and all she would do was get him in trouble.

“What do you think about this, Tomioka?” the woman asked him.

He was quiet for a moment before responding, “It’s not up to me, so it doesn't really matter what I think.”

Well, if he wasn’t going to involve himself in this situation, then Nezuko wasn’t going to involve him either. She and the collection of Demon Slayers continued like that, with her simply sitting in the middle of the room while the Demon Slayers mingled with each other, all keeping an eye on her. Eventually, however, a pair of heavy, wooden double doors opened and two young children stepped out.

In unison, the pair of them announced, “Master Ubuyashiki has entered the building.”

Immediately, all of the Demon Slayers knelt in a line in front of the doorway, with the lone exception of Sanemi, who grabbed her by the neck and pinned her down to the matted floor. Out of the now open double doors slowly stepped a man in a simple kimono. He walked with exaggerated caution and a slow pace. Why he was doing so was clearly shown when the light of the lanterns reached his face. His milky white eyes, paired with purple scars that covered the upper half of his face, quickly explained that he was blind. He sat down, just as slowly, and once settled, began to speak.

“You may be wondering why I brought you all here today. Any speculation about this was, in all likelihood, only further fueled by the presence of a demon,” Ubuyashiki said.

“Would you like to witness its execution, master?” Sanemi asked him.

“Thank you, Shinazugawa,” Ubuyashiki responded, “But the purpose of this meeting is quite the contrary.”

He pulled out a letter and handed it to one of the children by his side, who then walked over to the Demon Slayers and handed it to them. While she was doing so, he began, “A day ago, I received a letter from one of our Wisteria Mansions alleging that a pair of Mizunoto ranked Demon Slayers had been joined on their travels by a demon.”

This caused a stir among all of the Demon Slayers, aside from the woman who looked like the girl and Tomioka, who she assumed had been the ones sent to capture her. As they handed the letter between themselves, this stir only grew.

Ubuyashiki continued, “After determining where the two Mizunoto were headed, I had Kouchou and Tomioka here investigate the mountain and capture the demon, then bring her here.”

“Why?” Sanemi asked incredulously. “Why did you make them capture it instead of just killing it?”

“Because, Shinazugawa, this development is one that could be a turning point in our war on demonkind. Imagine, a demon that doesn’t obey the orders of Kibutsuji. How useful might that be to our cause?”

The stir amongst the kneeling Demon Slayers reached a breaking point with this. “While I hold you in nothing but the highest regard, I cannot abide by this order, Master!” the orange haired one shouted, still wearing his forceful smile. “That goes against everything the Demon Slayer Corps stands for! The only way to ensure that this demon doesn’t kill anyone is to behead it!”

“And yet there are three of our own who claim she fought alongside them against her own kind,” Ubuyashiki countered. “In fact, a number of Slayers claim that she saved them from death at the hands of other demons. I believe that, however much it violates what we have come to know, not every demon is ruled exclusively by their hunger.”

He turned his head towards Sanemi and Nezuko, then asked, “What is your name?”

“...What?” 

“Your name. You have one, do you not?” he repeated.

She stared at him blankly for a moment longer before replying, “Nezuko. I’m Kamado Nezuko.”

“It’s good to meet you, Kamado. I believe you already heard my name, so that should mean introductions are done with. How long have you been a demon?”

“… Almost three years now,” she answered cautiously.

“You met Kibutsuji Muzan when you were turned, correct?”

“Yes.”

Almost immediately, her response drew a series of rapid fire questions. “What did he look like?” “How strong was he?” “What were his abilities?” The questions subsided almost as quickly as they had begun, with the Demon Slayers seemingly being embarrassed at the fact that they had talked over each other.

Slowly, Nezuko answered their questions one by one. “He had on a western suit and hat. He was- well, he was fast, at least. I don’t think I really see that he could do anything beyond being fast and strong, I only really met him once.”

The Demon Slayers seemed more than a little disappointed at how little information she had been able to give them, although she really didn’t know what they expected of her. Ubuyaskiki brought the conversation back on track, asking her, “How many have you killed?”

Nezuko whipped her head around to look him in the eyes. She was silent for a moment, knowing how she was supposed to respond to his question but not quite able to. It took her a long while to gather the strength to respond.

“One.” Again, her response drew many reactions. She was facing Ubuyashiki, so she couldn’t see the Demon Slayers, but she heard them. There was surprise, suspicion, contempt. Even the man who had asked her the question seemed to doubt what she had said.

“Oh, bullshit!” she heard Sanemi shout down at her. His foot shot forward and connected with her ribs, sending her tumbling along the tatami mats that lined the floor. “When Master Ubuyashiki asks you a question, you tell him the damn truth!” he shouted at her.

“Shinazugawa,” Ubuyashiki said with a tone clearly meant to warn Sanemi against what he was doing.

“Don’t worry, Master,” he responded, ignoring the unspoken warning, “I understand what I’m dealing with here.” Turning back to her, he said, “You want to lie to us? To pretend to be better than you are? Fine. But those are just words.”

Raising his sword to his arm, he dragged the blade across his skin, leaving a shallow cut. Despite it not being very deep, blood spilt easily from the wound. The shock Nezuko felt at his willingness to harm himself was quickly washed away by the scent of his blood. It quickly flooded her senses, and she took an involuntary step forward before she stopped herself. She wanted to charge forward, to kill him, to finally eat, but she had just enough strength to hold herself back.

She was at war with herself, one half wanting to give in and finally begin to fill the emptiness within herself, the other half doing everything in its power to hold her back from doing that. She strained, both against her own urges and against the chains that bound her hands behind her back. She could hear Sanemi taunting her and a few of the other people in the room chiming in, but failed to actually process what they were saying.

It would have been so easy to just give in. To just sate the hunger that was always clawing at her insides. The scent was mouth watering, not just in the way anything was mouth watering when starved, but in a way that likely would have moved her to this even if she had been feeding. She vaguely remembered something Lady Tamayo had mentioned to her about Marechi, but couldn’t think of why that mattered right now. Every breath was labored, and she could feel drool building at the edges of her lips. The urge to satisfy her hunger was only growing more and more overwhelming.

As she continued to pull against her chains, she felt them begin to give way, then snap all at once. The shackles were still around her wrists, but no longer forced to hold herself back, she lacked the strength she needed to do so. She started to lunge forward, lifting her arms upwards to reach towards the man in front of her.

‘Nezuko, no!’

The voice was quiet, but it cut through the haze over her mind just enough for her to regain some amount of reasoning. The person she was charging was a human. She was trying to kill him. She couldn’t do that. No matter what, even if it killed her, she couldn’t hurt any human.

Nezuko swung her arm up to her mouth and bit down hard. She missed her arm, instead biting down on the manacle on her wrist, her teeth breaking on the hard metal. The sharp pain dragged her out of her hazeShe still wanted to charge down the Demon Slayer in front of her and rip off strips of his flesh to eat, but she could muster the self control to not.

The haze over her mind slowly receded, and she eventually felt safe enough to remove her arm from her mouth. Her teeth quickly regrew themselves, leaving her mouth undamaged. She looked up at the Demon Slayers in the room. About half of them had their hands on their weapons, with Gyomei in the process of pulling out a comical looking chain. All of them seemed to be surprised at her self control, except for Sanemi, who seemed to be more infuriated by it than anything else, and the quiet boy, who didn’t seem to care.

Ubuyashiki began to speak, and as her senses cleared, she heard him say, “While I cannot endorse Shinazugawa’s methods, he has managed to effectively demonstrate my point. This demon, while far from innocent, is capable of more self control than we may have given her credit for. We have found an anomaly. It would be a shame to waste this golden opportunity it presents us.”

“Kochou,” he said, seemingly addressing the Demon Slayer that looked like the girl who had attacked her on the mountain, “Your research into demonkind would be propelled forward by access to this unique specimen, and you have the greatest amount of time on your hands. The demon will be placed under your supervision and be housed at your mansion until we determine how best to exploit this new advantage.”

The Demon Slayer he was addressing only hesitated for a moment before she nodded, then stood and walked over to Nezuko. Before she could say anything to her, the woman quickly drew a syringe out of her kimono and drove it into her neck, beginning to add weight to her eyelids. Before she slipped into a familiar darkness, she heard Ubuyashiki whisper too quietly for anyone else to hear, “Give my regards to Tamayo.”

“~”

When Nezuko awoke, she was in chains. Manacles binding her by her wrists together were chained to a metal square set in the floor. Looking up, she saw that she was in some sort of basement constructed forming what she recognized as a cage. In front of her was a door of metal bars with a heavy lock on the front. The cage was set into smooth stone walls lit by paper lanterns and supported by thick wooden beams.

Outside of her cage, she could hear the bustle and chatter of people. Most of them were young men, and seemed to be generally stationary. She recognized the voices of Inosuke and of Zenitsu, the former being oddly subdued and the latter whining about some sort of medicine he was being made to take. The sound came from down a hallway made of stone and wood, and as a result, was muffled and echoey. The only reason she could make any detail out was the sheer volume of the conversation. Some girls were speaking to him. She heard one of them be called Aoi. She took a very forceful tone and sounded like she was moments away from forcing the medicine down Zenitsu’s throat. The rest, all unnamed, sounded very young and were trying to convince him he needed to take it in a more gentle manner.

She wondered exactly what the plan for her was. Ubuyahiki had said that the research of the Demon Slayer who had knocked her out could benefit from a “unique specimen”. What this meant, she didn’t quite know, but she imagined it would be fairly similar to what she had experienced when with Lady Tamayo and Yushiro. The only real difference would be the cage.

Speaking of Ubuyashiki, he had told her to give his regards to Tamayo. Did he know about her? He must have, but why would he let her know that? Was he trying to get her to trust him? Did he want her to send a message? She understood why he couldn’t just tell her he knew about a peaceful demon- the Demon Slayer Corps seemed to be loyal to him, but that loyalty probably had limits. Still, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with this information.

Not having much else she could do at the moment, Nezuko laid back down on the floor and simply listened to the mansion. People came and went without any real uniformity, with most staying where they were due to their wounds. The girl who had been talking to Zenitsu and the three girls who had been with her wandered throughout the mansion, taking care of the wounded. The noise quickly became mundane, with relatively predictable patterns. As the day dragged on, the noise grew quieter and quieter, with less and less going on. There was a conversation between Aoi and Kochou that she couldn’t quite make out but seemed tense. She could hear the word demon said a few times, so she assumed it was about her.

Eventually, the conversation ended and was followed by a pair of footsteps making their way towards her. With them, she could smell fresh blood. She considered standing as she waited for them, but decided that might seem ominous. She wanted the Demon Slayers to understand how little of a threat she was to them. Lying on the floor, she settled for just tilting her head to look at the doorway the two people were approaching.

The two people rounded the corner, revealing themselves to be a pair of girls not much older than she was. One was dressed in a plain, white uniform. The only variation was a blue sash around her midsection and a pair of blue butterfly pins holding her hair up in pigtails. She must have been Aoi, for the other girl was the one who had captured her on Mt Natagumo, still wearing her empty smile. She doubted that girl could have mustered up the emotion needed for the argument with Zenitsu she had heard moments earlier.

There was something… different about this girl. A sound, Nezuko decided. Something about her breathing. It seemed… deeper, for lack of a better word. Was this the total concentration breathing Zenitsu had told her about?

Aoi held a platter in her hands. From her place on the floor, Nezuko couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it smelled of blood. She pushed herself up expectantly until she saw the girl flinch at her sudden movement. Her expression was set somewhere in between disgust and fear. It was fair, really. She worked as a doctor. Her role in the Demon Slayer Corps revolved around the pain that demons caused.

“Sorry,” she quietly apologized, “I didn’t mean to startle you, Aoi.”

That only agitated the girl further, as she half asked half shouted at her, “How do you know my name?!”

Nezuko stuttered, “I- I heard someone say your name- I just- I’m sorry.”

Staring at her for a moment longer, Aoi eventually approached her cautiously. Pulling out a set of keys, she unlocked the metal door to her cage and stepped inside, before setting the platter on the ground and quickly retreating from the cage. The second girl stepped in as well, pulling out a small, narrow box. Opening it, she revealed an empty needle and syringe.

“Give me your arm,” she calmly ordered her.

Nezuko stood up and tried to do so, but her chains kept her from raising her arm. She strained for a moment before giving up. The girl stared at her for a moment before closing the distance herself. Grabbing hold of her arm, the girl pulled back Nezuko’s sleeve and stabbed her with the needle. She was completely silent as she did so, seemingly not caring about much beyond getting the blood, although caring might have been too strong of a word.

Wanting to fill the awkward silence between them, Nezuko asked the girl, “What’s your name?”

The girl looked up at her for a quiet moment, then pulled a coin from her pocket and flipped it. Catching it with one hand, she observed the side it had landed on- tails- and pushed it back into her pocket. Pulling the syringe out of Nezuko’s arm, she tucked it back into the box.

Not knowing what she had done to offend the girl, she quietly muttered an apology that went ignored. Both the girl and Aoi left the cell quickly, locking the door behind them. She walked over to the platter set on the floor. It had on it a small pile of uncooked, bloody meat that had probably been prepared only minutes before. Not being able to reach it with her hands, she nudged it closer to herself with her foot. Crouching down, she grabbed the first piece of meat and began to eat.

“~”

The days came and went, came and went. Nezuko could only track the days thanks to her demonic instincts and the regular visits of her two caretakers. She didn’t want to offend either of them, and had largely abandoned her attempts at conversation. Because of this, she still didn’t know the name of the second girl, although she had heard a few muffled words being used to address her. She was fed once a day, and blood was drawn from her once a day. Her schedule had become boring, although that did seem a bit childish of a word to use. Monotone, maybe. Just one thing after the other, ‘new’ each the same as the last.

However, there eventually was an interruption. One day, before Aoi and the other girl came to feed her and draw her blood, she heard a noise coming from down the hallway leading to her cell. It was echoey, but becoming clearer with each passing moment. As the source of the sound approached her, she pushed herself up off the floor to see a familiar, yellow haired face stumbling towards her.

“Nezuko!” Zenitsu called out to her. He had clearly meant to be quieter, but the hallway multiplied the volume of his voice. His presence here wasn’t going to be a secret for much longer.

“Zenitsu!” she shouted in reply. “What are you doing down here?”

Reaching her cage, he said, “Checking on you. Nobody would tell either me or Inosuke what had happened to you. All they would say was that you weren’t dead. Do you know why they’re keeping you down here?”

“I think they just don’t know what else to do with me,” she replied. “They’ve only been taking blood from me.”

“Ah, that’s probably for Kochou,” Zenitsu said. “She’s one of the Hashira, but she’s also a doctor. She’s really pretty, but also really creepy! She never stops smiling, ever!”

He gestured to his face, and as he did so, Nezuko saw his hands peeking out from his white sleeves. They had seemingly shrunk to the size of a childs. Looking at him more closely, he seemed to have shrunk in general, with the legs of his pants bunching up around his feet.

Curious, she asked him, “What happened to you?”

“What?” Zenitsu asked, confused by her question.

“Your arms and legs. Why are they like that?” she clarified.

He seemed embarrassed by the state of his limbs, as he shuffled and tucked his arms into his sleeves before answering. “I fought this really creepy demon that was just a spider with a human head, and he poisoned me. I was turning into a spider, but then the Demon Slayers arrived to help.”

“You were turning into a spider?!”

“Yeah.”

Nezuko was silent for a moment before saying, “Well, be glad all you’ve got is small limbs.”

“But it’s awful!” Zenitsu shouted, forgetting his previous embarrassment. He waved his arms about as dramatically as he could now. “I’m so short, and they make me take this medicine that’ll apparently help my arms grow back, but it tastes awful, and it feels like I’m drinking slime!”

As he continued to rant, a smile came to Nezuko’s face. It was nice to actually talk to someone. Neither Aoi or the other girl were willing to talk to her, and to be honest, they weren’t the friendliest of people. Which was fair, given what she was, but it was still nice for some actual conversation.

However, it didn’t last. The sound of the door at the end of the hallway opening startled the both of them, and Zenitsu looked for somewhere to hide before realizing that such a space wasn’t available in the smooth stone hallway. Giving up, he nervously straightened himself as Nezuko’s caretakers approached.

Aoi jumped at the sight of him and shouted, “What are you doing here?!” The other girl had a calmer but more threatening reaction, simply resting her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“Ah! Aoi, Kanao!”- was that the name of the other girl? -”I just… wanted to know how Nezuko was, and nobody was telling me, so I… found out!”

Zenitsu’s back was to her, but he was clearly nervous. His arms were gesturing jerkily, while his voice had an almost hysteric quality to it, like it was an active struggle to not break out into laughter. Still, he stood his ground, not apologizing for what he had done or moving from the cage.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” the girl who was apparently named Kanao calmly told him. “Leave.”

“Why? I just want to see her.” he said in defense of himself.

“You can’t. It isn’t safe!” Aoi snapped at him, clearly put on edge by the situation.

“Leave,” Kanao repeated, “Now.”

The placid smile on her face stayed in place, but she had moved her hand to grab the hilt properly instead of just resting her hand on it. Zenitsu stared at the sword, clearly scared. He turned his head to face Nezuko, seemingly unsure of what to do.

“It’s alright,” she said, trying to be reassuring, “I’ll be fine.”

He only hesitated for a moment before giving in and running back down the hallway, only slowing to scurry around the two girls. They stared at him as he reached the door and exited into the light, then turned towards Nezuko and approached, returning her to her previous monotony.

“~”

Another interruption occurred a few days after the first. She was lying on the floor, as she usually was, when the door to the stone hallway opened. She was confused by this, as she had memorized the rough time that her caretakers arrived, and this was much earlier than that. Had Zenitsu snuck in to visit her again?

Pushing herself up from off the floor, she saw the Demon Slayer that looked like the girl who had captured her walking down the hallway. If she remembered correctly, Zenitsu had said that her name was Kochou. He had also called her a Hashira, although she didn’t quite know what that meant. She didn’t know what she was doing here, either, and was only confused by her presence.

“I’ve been told to offer you something,” Kochou began. “A deal of sorts.” She clearly wasn’t very happy with what she was saying, although she maintained her placid smile.

“... Okay,” Nezuko said.

Kochou was quiet for a moment, then continued, “Master Ubuyashiki believes that you have more to offer us than your blood. He has proposed that we train you as… a Demon Slayer. You would follow our orders without question. You would only do what we told you to. And you would only ever leave the mansion on missions. Am I understood?”

“… Yes. Yes! Yes, I’ll do it!” she said after a short period of shocked silence.

“Alright. I’ll tell Master Ubuyashiki what you said.” the Hashira stated, clearly not happy with her response.

“Thank you. Thank you, I…” Nezuko trailed off, understanding she would be unlikely to convince the woman that she was sincere, but still wanting to make some effort to show how grateful for this opportunity she was. She settled on giving her the Dogeza- she kneeled down and bowed until her forehead touched the cold floor- the deepest sign of respect she could think of.

“Thank you. I won’t let you down,” she said from her position.

She couldn’t see from her position, but Kochou seemed to be genuinely surprised by her gesture. Apparently unsure of what to say, she turned away from Nezuko and walked back down the hallway. Her slow but loud footsteps echoed at her until the door at the end of the hallway opened and closed shut again.

She had maintained the bow for the Demon Slayer’s entire walk down the hallway, but when she heard the door close, she sprung back up in excitement. If she could be trained as a Demon Slayer, then she could actually start hunting demons again! She had been unable to do so for a while, and while that wasn’t her fault, the deaths that she could have prevented still weighed on her mind. Now, though, she would have the chance to make up for her absence.

Moving back to her position lying on the floor, she waited with a smile, hoping that Tanjiro would be proud of her.

“~”

The next day, at the same time her two caretakers usually came, Kochou came again. She unlocked Nezuko’s cage, entered, and unlocked the manacles binding her wrists. She brought her out into the mansion proper, which was apparently called the Butterfly Mansion and was owned by her. She was brought to a large room empty of any furniture, occupied only by Aoi, Kanao, and three young girls that she hadn’t met before. As she entered the room, it was explained what she was to do here.

“You will be trained here by my Tsuguko, Tsuyuri Kanao. She will keep an eye on you whenever you are not in your cage. I will observe you during training and ensure you do not try anything.”

“I won’t, don’t worry,” she tried to assure Kochou. Moving onto a question of hers, she asked, “Will I get a sword?”

“If your training shows promise, then one will be commissioned for you,” she replied.

After this, she began her training. The first exercise was described to her by Kanao, who explained, “The first test will be of your speed. Confined to this room, without any tools to aid you, your goal will be to catch me within a minute.”

“How will I know I’ve caught you?”

“You will have caught me if you can grab me by the arms,” she explained.

Nezuko nodded, then did a double take and asked, “Wait, so… the first test is tag?” When Kanao’s only response was to tilt her head quizzically, she said, “You know what, nevermind.”

The exercise began immediately afterwards. Nezuko was still for a moment, then lunged at the girl. Somehow, however, the girl all but disappeared from her sight, winding up a short distance too far away for her to reach. Again, she lunged for Kanao, who again dodged just out of reach.

Abandoning her previous method, Nezuko tried to run after Kanao instead of jumping at her, hoping that would allow her more control of her direction. Now, however, Kanao began to run as well. The girl she was chasing was much faster than she was and much more agile. Whenever she got close enough to grab at her arms, she simply dodged to the side, letting Nezuko careen forward.

Her speed really shouldn't have surprised Nezuko, now that she thought about it. She had been even faster when in the forests of Mt Natagumo. She also, now that she was paying greater attention, could recognize the breathing pattern she had heard earlier. It was hard to define, but it seemed to be deeper, more full. Zenitsu had mentioned it to her- it was called total concentration breathing, and while she didn’t understand it, she knew what it did. It made people stronger. Kanao was now doing the same thing. She considered trying to mimic it, but she hadn’t been trained with it. She probably couldn’t do it on the fly.

Suddenly, Aoi shouted, “Time!”

Halting, Nezuko turned to look at the girl. She had been holding a stopwatch in one hand, keeping the time. Turning her head, she looked to Kochou, hoping to gauge how well or poorly she had done. However, her face was the same as it always was- unmoving and all but emotionless. The anger present had dissipated, at least, though she might have just been thinking too deeply to be angry.

“Alright, let’s try this again,” Aoi said.

And they did. Ten more times in the span of as many minutes. Each time, Nezuko lost. She had thought that Kanao might get a bit slower as time went on. However, the exercise hardly seemed to tire her. Nezuko got closer and closer every time to catching her, but only just barely closer. Besides, she was clearly so far from catching Kanao that it didn’t matter how much closer she got.

After the tenth time, her observers apparently got tired of watching her fail. They switched over to another exercise, this one of reaction speed. Her and Kanao sat down in front of a table covered in clay cups that held some foul smelling tea.

“Your goal for this is to grab one of the cups and pour its contents onto me,” Kanao explained quickly.

Nezuko might have made some joke, but after her earlier failures, she wasn’t quite feeling confident enough to do so. She waited for a moment, trying to find some sort of sign as to what Kanao was planning. She waited too long, apparently, as after only a couple of seconds, she wound up with tea soaking her face.

This repeated several times. It was more than ten, at least, which meant that she had the chance to get a bit better at this exercise than the first one. The most difficult thing was reacting to everything that was happening. Kanao was much faster than her, too fast for Nezuko to keep up, but that might have been easier to deal with. Every time she saw one of her hands moving to block, Kanao began to move one of her own hands to another cup. She hadn’t yet needed to use the second cup, but if Nezuko ever got fast enough to block her, that would be a problem.

This exercise ended soon enough. It was apparently the only other thing that had been planned for her today. She had started the training excited and hopeful, and had ended it frustrated and wet.

As she wiped off her face with a towel, she asked Kochou, “Could I see Inosuke and Zenitsu?”

“No,” was the curt response she received in reply.

Disappointed but not surprised, Nezuko let herself be led back to her cage and locked in. As the door at the end of the stone hallway closed, she wondered where she was supposed to do now. The first impression the Demon Slayer Corps must have gotten of her hadn’t been very good. She wasn’t a bad fighter, but this was beyond what she was good at. She wasn’t really sure how important what she was learning to do here was in fighting demons, but it was what the Corps expected her to do, so it was what she was going to do. Still, with how poorly she had done this first time, she had to wonder how long it would take her to be able to do this. The Corps might have lost interest in her by the time she managed to do that.

She thought about Total Concentration Breathing. Kanao had been engaging in it when she was exercising Nezuko. She hadn’t really understood it when it had been explained to her by Zenitsu, and she still didn’t understand it after having seen it in action, but it clearly helped the Demon Slayers. It would help explain how strong they were, and how they were able to fight in the incredible way that they were. It must have taken massive amounts of time to master, and she didn’t have anyone to teach her, but it was her best bet right now.

She tried to remember the sound that Kanao had made when breathing like that. It was hard to describe exactly what about it was different, and all she knew was what it had sounded like, but she had to at least try to mimic it. It took a while, with her breathing often being simple, regular breathing that wasn’t anything like what she had heard. For a while, she thought she had gotten it, but she hadn’t felt any different, and then realized she was just breathing very deeply.

Frustrated, she gave up and tried the simple option. She reached out through her body, feeling at her lungs, her veins, her arteries, each and every one of them, spread all throughout her body. Having reached out to all of them, she grabbed at them, for lack of a better word, and she pulled.

Suddenly, Nezuko felt it. That… deep breath. Only it wasn’t just deep, it was thorough, feeding strength to every part of her body. She could feel so much more now- every one of her senses was amplified many times over. It was hard to put into words, like describing the color purple to a blind man, but she understood exactly what it was now. It was strangely calming as well. The amount of things that she was feeling was too much for her to be very focused on simple things like anger or sadness. All she felt was focus.

And then, just as suddenly, her body gave out. Maybe it was her inexperience, maybe she held in her breath for too long, maybe even her demonic body had limits, but she felt her throat and muscles seize up. She rolled over onto one side and just about coughed out her lungs.

Eventually, she recovered. She took in a deep breath, relived by the sudden presence of air in her lungs. She continued to breathe like that even if she didn’t really need to, worried that she might seize up again. She didn’t understand what had just happened in the slightest. She didn’t know much about total concentration breathing beyond what it let its users do, and she understood that what she knew about that was only scratching the surface.

She had never felt like that before. Sure, she had felt weak plenty of times before, but this was different. It was more like her body had rejected the act, or maybe like the act had rejected her body. It was hard to tell which. Part of her wanted nothing to do with this, and part of her wanted nothing more than to learn about this.

Nezuko sighed. It didn’t really matter what the different parts of her wanted. She still had to figure out how to do it if she wanted the Corps to let her serve them. Preparing herself, she closed her eyes, reached out to her body, and took in a breath.

“~”

It took a while for her to be allowed to see her friends. She understood why she wouldn’t be allowed to, and didn’t ask to see them after the first time, but they were eventually brought to see her. Well, Inosuke was. Zenitsu was still too ill to be up and about regularly. As Kochou had explained to her, the Corps wanted someone to keep an eye on her while she was on missions. The only Demon Slayers who were willing to do this, besides Kanao, were the two Demon Slayers who had fought alongside her before.

Inosuke had been oddly unenthusiastic about the training at first. Apparently, something had happened to his voice after fighting the Spider Face Demon. He had been too tired to do much more than grumble or mutter. That changed quickly, though. He was first given a “massage” Nezuko hadn’t been subjected to, although the massage seemed to be more like some form of torture. It had irritated him, to say the least, as had his failure to catch Kanao during the speed practice. When doing the tea exercise with Aoi, after getting too many cups splashed on his face, he had just flipped the table onto the girl and started screaming about stepping stones. It didn’t earn him any new friends, but it did Nezuko good to see him back to his usual self.

She, meanwhile, had two new exercises added to her day. One was a test of strength, with her hitting pillars carved out of stone. It was fairly simple, but it made sense to her. It was important for the Corp to know what she was capable of. More complicated was the training she was given with the sword. She was only handed a wooden practice sword, but her trainers made it clear how important this was.

The sword training was the most difficult. Up until now, Nezuko had simply swung it through the air and made it up as she went along. Her style wasn’t bad, but it was not at all what the Corps expected of her. If she wanted them to let her fight, she had to do what they expected of her the way they expected her to do it. It was something she could do, but it was far more complicated than she had expected. She was being taught about stances, and positions, and words she hadn't even heard about before.

Then there were the exercises she already had to do. Both the tea and tag exercises were too difficult for her to even stand a chance in, which was more than a little humiliating. It was hard to tell exactly how her trainers were reacting to her. Both Kanao and Kochou simply stared at her, silently observing. It wasn’t clear to her if they expected to already be able to do what they wanted her to or if they wanted her to be able to do this sort of thing eventually, but it was still stressful. She had to meet their expectations, but how could she do that if she didn’t even know what they were?

At least Aoi and the three smaller girls were warming up to her. Aoi had, at least, lost the constant edge she had when around Nezuko. The other three girls usually hung around the edges, bringing snacks and water to Aoi and Kanao, although they had been slowly closing the gap they kept between them and her. She hadn’t gotten to ask their names, but what she gathered was that the one wearing a blue sash with her dress was Nakahara Sumi, the one wearing a red sash was Terauchi Kiyo, and the one wearing a green sash was Takada Naho. It wasn’t much, but it was still nice.

The days eventually became routine. Nezuko woke, waited to be brought out of her cage, trained, was sent back to her cage, and practiced her Total Concentration Breathing for a while. Zenitsu, once he was well enough, came to join her and Inosuke in their training. His response to their routines was a bit… different from theirs, though.

“Are you kidding me?! We get to chase around pretty girls and try to grab them! They massage us! When we do the tea exercise, our hands touch! This is what Inosuke’s been so exhausted by?! This is heaven! I would have drunk that medicine with so much less complaint if I had known I would get this for it!”

She had apologized profusely for his behavior to the girls training them and to Kochou. He was a friend, but not one she was always proud of.

Anyway, she had been getting much better at total concentration breathing. She hadn’t used it during an exercise yet, but when practicing it in her cage, she was able to use it for much longer than she had when she began. She had even gotten better about dealing with her body’s reaction to it, although that was a work in progress. It wasn’t something she would be using in a fight for a while, but it was still a step forward. The exercises the Demon Slayer Corps were using to judge her were difficult, but she would overcome them.

Her sword training with Kanao had been getting more complex, but Nezuko still felt that she could be doing more. Much of her training wasn’t all that difficult, especially as a demon, but she was worried that it wasn’t enough for the Demon Slayers. Besides, if they let her out on missions and she wasn’t as strong as she had to be, people would die. With this in mind, she had intensified her attempts to learn total concentration breathing.

It was a very different thing to use total concentration breathing in a fight than it was to just practice it while lying motionless on the floor, and she knew it. She tried staying up at night, trying to improve on her technique, but her progress was minor. The main way she ended up learning how to use it was listening to Kanao while they were both training. She studied every slight difference in her breathing patterns, every change that occurred. She could tell that the Demon Slayer used total concentration breathing day in, day out, as she could hear it when she wasn’t immediately training her, and even when she went with Aoi to feed Nezuko and draw blood from her. She was far from that level, but she was getting better every day.

One day, she decided to try and actually do her sword drills while using total concentration breathing. It wasn’t all that like actually fighting with total concentration breathing, but it was the best option she had at the moment. She started breathing before the exercise itself began, and followed with Kanao’s movements as closely as possible.

Immediately, she could tell there was a difference. Her movements were more refined and steady, with her more egregious mistakes seemingly ironed out by her breathing. She listened to Kanao and tried to mimic her breathing as much as possible. It was difficult- her breaths were a lot more rapid than Nezuko’s- but it still helped to have something to ground her technique with.

She began to move in unison with Kanao as she demonstrated the sword movements to her. She still was nowhere near as good as her, but compared to the clumsy swings of her early techniques, the improvement was drastic. Continuing to follow Kanao’s example, she grew in confidence as the training session went on. The observers to her training were taking notice of her improvements, which only encouraged her.

Suddenly, every muscle in Nezuko’s body seized up at once. She desperately tried to move, but her body refused to do so. She collapsed to the floor, struggling to take in a breath. She was vaguely aware of her surroundings, with some clamor having apparently been caused by her collapse. Slowly, she gained the strength needed to pick herself back up. When she did so, she saw a chaotic scene in front of her. Zenitsu and Inosuke were both trying to tend to her, while Aoi and the other girls had either run off or were standing in the doorways leading out of the room, peeking around the corner at her. Kanao was standing still, her sword held at her side, regarding the scene with an expression that almost resembled concern.

Kochou, meanwhile, had drawn her sword and had it pointed at Nezuko. Her perpetual smile had fallen from her face, being replaced by an expression of pure hatred and contempt.

She could hear Zenitsu trying to talk down Kochou while Inosuke was quietly looking over her to see if there was anything wrong, but she wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying. All she was paying attention to was the sword being pointed at her. She had often wondered when she would end up on the receiving end of one- when, not if, because when she gave it any thought, she was certain that she would run into a Demon Slayer and that they would have reacted the way the Hashira in front of her was now.

Still, actually having a blade pointed at her was an entirely different thing. Her emotions were, to put it mildly, conflicted. She wanted to beg, she wanted to run, she wanted to roll over and let the Hashira cut her down without a second thought. There were a dozen different instincts within her, each telling her to do the exact opposite thing the others were telling her to do. When she heard Kochou say something about her cage, she quickly stood up, ready to be taken back.

Zenitsu, however, apparently had other plans, sticking out his arm to block her way forward. “No! She didn’t do anything wrong!”

“It’s a demon,” Kochou responded, “Of course it’s done something wrong.”

“That’s not a reason to put her in a cage!” he shouted back.

“Zenitsu, I-” Nezuko tried to interject, but he waved her down. She understood where he was coming from, but she didn’t want to cause any trouble for the Corps.

“It is dangerous regardless! It shouldn’t even be out here!”

“She’s only trying to do what you ask her, Koko!” Inosuke shouted at her.

Kochou, after realizing that he was talking to her, asked him incredulously, “What?”

“Weren’t you listening to her? She was trying to do total concentration breathing so she could fight better! Don’t you want her to do that?!”

Kochou considered what he was saying for a moment. She seemed conflicted, clearly wanting to put Nezuko back in her cage but not doing so for some reason. Maybe she had been ordered not to by Ubuyashiki. Maybe she, as a doctor, wanted to learn what a demon could do with this new ability. Maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever her exact reason, she slowly lowered her sword and slid it back into its sheath. Regarding Nezuko for only a moment longer, she returned to her previous position and stood there, watching her like a hawk as she continued with her training.

“~”

“The demon seems to be doing well, now that we know how to test its limits properly and that it’s begun using… total concentration breathing. It should be ready for missions within a month or two.”

Kochou delivered the report coldly. It might have looked like she was doing so in the same way she did everything to an outside observer, but to someone who knew her well, it was clear the smile she always wore was growing thinner and thinner by the word. She was not happy with this plan of Ubuyashiki’s by any means, and while she might not have had much in common with Shinazugawa, she did agree with him on what should be done with the demon. It wasn't safe to keep it around, much less around girls who had never fought anything in their lives.

“Good,” Master Ubuyashiki said. “How are the Demon Slayers who will fight alongside her?”

“Hashibira and Agatsuma are both recovering quickly, and should be able to go on missions before the demon. Kanao is as capable as ever, but has to keep an eye on it whenever it trains, and can’t be anywhere else,” she curtly responded.

“That is good to hear.” Ubuyashiki paused for a moment, silently considering something. He was entirely blind, but she still felt like he was picking her apart, trying to get some insight on her. He then asked, “Is there anything else, Kochou?”

Almost immediately, she blurted out, “This is a bad idea.” Her smile had completely fallen from her face, with her no longer having the patience to act. Seeing that he hadn’t made any move indicating that she should stop talking, she continued, “Keeping it alive? I understand that. We can gain something from that. But this? We can’t gain anything from this. This demon, it- it might be willing to bow its head and follow our rules for now, but all sparing it will do is sentence someone to death down the line. It doesn’t matter what it acts like now, it will kill someone eventually, and that blood will be on our hands because we didn’t stop it.”

Ubuyashiki waited, making sure that she was fully done with her rant, and then began, “I understand that I don’t understand.”

Kochou furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing what he meant. “What?”

“I mean I understand that I don’t understand what demonkind has put you through. Myself, I’ve only ever been involved in the Corps because of my family. I’ve never had to personally witness what cruelty demons are capable of causing, let alone suffer from it myself. However, for you, this is more than just your duty. This is personal.”

Her shoulders slumped, understanding that, in his long winding way, he was going to explain exactly why he was going to ignore her objections. She listened to him as he said, “I’ve never lost a sibling, and I can’t claim that I have ever suffered a loss as personal and as deep as you have. I know that, in the face of that, you have closed yourself off from sympathy for demonkind.”

“What I do understand, however, is that this demon has made no move against us. She has not attempted to escape or to harm anyone among the Corps, holding herself back whenever the urge arose. She has not yet fought us, and seems willing, even, to serve us. We have no reason to not use every resource available in our war on demonkind, and as I see it, this demon is one of those resources.”

Kochou stared at him expressionlessly. Everything within her wanted to object to his assessment of the demon, but she knew that he wouldn’t change his mind about something like this. Knowing that it would be pointless to argue with his at this point, she bowed wordlessly and turned around, leaving the meeting room. Ubuyashiki was far from a stupid man, and she usually trusted his judgment, but when it came to this… well, it was more than a little different. After Kanae, she understood demonkind as much as she needed to. She wouldn’t go as far as to disobey orders, but if that thing stepped even one toe out of line, she would put it down herself.

“~”

Nezuko had been pushed hard by Kochou. The very first day she had revealed her new skill had gone poorly. It was the same for the day after that, and the day after that, for over a week. The Hashira clearly wanted to know what her limits were before she was sent out to fight any demons on any missions for the Demon Slayer Corps. Nezuko had been able to use total concentration breathing for hours on end, although it was hard to gauge Kochou’s response to her progress. Still, even this ended eventually, as the Hashira either grew tired of drilling her or felt she had better things to do with her time.

Currently, she was in her cage and was practicing her total concentration breathing. Sitting cross legged on the floor, she slowly breathed in and out. She wasn’t able to use the form of breathing constantly, but she was getting closer to the level that she needed to be at. She did this every day to make sure that, if she did get sent out on any missions, she was strong enough to save people. It was tedious, but it was the only thing she could do.

It had been weeks since she first began using total concentration breathing, and it was getting easier and easier. The strange effect it had on her emotions at first had faded over time, almost like she had changed to resist it. She didn’t know what that meant, if it even meant anything at all, but she still held onto that fact. It felt important. She didn’t know why it felt important, but it did. Still, it couldn’t be helped.

Nezuko heard the faint sound of a coin being flipped and turned to look for the source of the sound. She saw Kanao kneeling down on the other side of the bars of her cage and recoiled from the sight, largely because she had been shocked into halting her breathing, and all of her muscles had seized up. Toppling over, she landed on the stone floor, trying to catch her breath. She found it after only a moment, and pushed herself up off the floor to look at her visitor.

“You’re getting much better at that,” Kanao told her.

Nezuko stared at her in confusion. She didn’t know what Kanao was doing here. Normally, she was only visited halfway through the day, and that was by both Kanao and Aoi, not one or the other. Her visit to Nezuko was especially surprising given that it was her. She had seemed like little more than an extension of Kochou, and she didn’t seem like she had been ordered to see her. If she hadn’t been ordered to come here, then what was she doing here?

After a moment of puzzled thought, she said, “Thank you. What- what are you doing here?”

Kanao took her own moment of silence, then replied, “I came to visit you.”

Not completely satisfied by her answer but assuming that this would be all the explanation she would get, Nezuko decided to move on with the conversation. “Your sword form- it’s very good. What is it?”

“Flower Breathing, but I’ve only been teaching you Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu,” she stated simply

“I… I don’t know what either of those things are.”

“Flower Breathing is a breathing style based off of Water Breathing. It’s meant to be adaptable, just like Water Breathing, but more precise. It gives a user without as much strength as other Demon Slayers the means to deal with stronger demons. Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu, meanwhile, is a more traditional sword style. It is built around adapting to the opponent of its users- good for fighting something as unpredictable as a demon, and a good building block for most breathing styles.”

Nezuko spent a moment taking in all of the information that she had been given, then asked, “What is a breathing style exactly? Zenitsu explained total concentration breathing to me, but I don’t think he mentioned breathing styles.”

“It’s really just a style of swordsmanship built off of total concentration breathing,” Kanao began. “It expands on the abilities gained from breathing and specializes them. Some forms focus on strength, others on speed. A Demon Slayer in training is trained in a more basic sword style by a retired Demon Slayer. Their trainer usually trains them in their own style, although they are sometimes transferred to other teachers if one style suits them better.”

“You sure know a lot about this,” Nezuko stated, now that there was a lull in the conversation.

“Shinobu and Kanae took me in and trained me as a Demon Slayer. There wasn’t much for me to do beyond learning how to do that.”

“I’m sorry, are you talking about Kochou?”

“Yes,” Kanao replied, although not without any hesitation. “She used to have a sister.”

“Oh,” Nezuko said, realizing what that meant. “I’m sorry to hear that. Were you two close?”

“Yes. My father sold me when my family fell on hard times. The two of them happened upon me while the man who had-”

Interrupting, Nezuko asked “Your father sold you?”

“Yes,” Kanao said emotionlessly, then resumed her story, “The two of them happened upon me while the man who had purchased me and bought my freedom.”

Nezuko wanted to steer the conversation back to the fact that Kanao’s father had sold her, but given how little information she had been given the first time she asked about it, she realized she wouldn’t be told any more about it. Hoping to learn about something she was already curious about, she asked, “Did one of them give you your coin?”

Kanao nodded in response and pulled out the coin Nezuko was talking about. “I don’t make decisions for myself. If I’m not being ordered, then I flip the coin. You asked me what my name was on your first day here, and I flipped to decide whether or not to tell you. Heads meant I would tell you, tails meant I wouldn’t.”

“Wait, you let the coin decide what you’re going to do?” Nezuko asked, not quite sure that she understood what the girl was saying.

“Yes.”

“But- but that’s a horrible way to live! Why would you choose that?”

“I don’t make decisions for myself,” Kanao repeated before continuing, “All I need to do is fight demons and help Shinobu in her research. Unless I’m in a fight, my own decisions don’t matter very much.”

Nezuko was at a loss at how to respond. She wanted to say something to object to Kanao’s line of thought, but she didn’t know how. It was such an alien way of thinking that she simply didn’t know how to counter it. Still, she felt she had to do something to convince her there was a better way to live.

After eventually settling on her argument, she asked, “Why did you visit me?”

“I flipped my coin to decide on it. Heads meant that I would visit you, tails meant that I wouldn’t visit you.”

“Yes, but why did you flip the coin?” Nezuko asked, attempting to guide the conversation. “You hadn’t been ordered to check on me, and you didn’t strictly need to, so why would you flip the coin at all?”

Kanao was apparently at a loss as for how to respond. She seemed to be considering what Nezuko’s point meant for her, although she couldn’t tell what exact impact it was having, if any. Continuing, Nezuko said, “This wasn’t like when I asked what your name was. You weren’t forced to make a decision. Even if the coin had landed on tails and you hadn’t visited me, it would still have been your decision to flip the coin in the first place, right?”

Nezuko was only met by further silence. She couldn’t tell if she had made any cracks in Kanao’s shell, but she felt that she was making progress, however minor. “Can I see that?” she asked, pointing towards the coin in the other girl’s hand. After a hesitant pause, it was handed through the metal bars to her.

“You can let other people make decisions about how you’re going to live your own life for you, or you can decide what your life is going to be like for yourself. Let’s try this,” she began, reaching her point, “Every day, before you do anything else, you flip this coin. If it lands on heads, you make at least some decisions for yourself. If it doesn’t, then you don’t. Does that sound good?”

Kanao nodded after a second of contemplation. Nezuko flipped the coin through the air- a bit harder than she meant to, as it hit the ceiling and bounced off of it. She had to topple over reaching for it, only just catching the coin before it hit the floor. She considered playing some sort of thick with it, maybe flipping it around to heads, but she didn’t know how to look at the coin that was in her hands. Besides, the whole point was to get Kanao to make her own decisions. If Nezuko manipulated the results of the coin toss, she would be defeating the point of the exercise. Bringing the coin over to the bars of her cage, she opened her hands and revealed the side the coin had landed on.

“Heads!” she said with excitement. “Wait, was heads you make decisions for yourself, or was that tails?”

“That was heads,” Kanao said.

“Oh! Good.”

Nezuko handed the coin back through the bars to Kanao. She stared at the coin in the palm of her hand, considering it. She eventually pocketed the coin, then asked, “When did you first meet Inosuke and Zenitsu?”

Nezuko smiled, and for the first time in a while, began to open up.

“~”

Midway through the day’s training, a kakushi interrupted with a message. Inosuke and Nezuko had both broken their swords at Mt Natagumo, and replacements had finally arrived. The two of them, alongside Kanao, were seated in a room well lit by lanterns. She could sense the sun-lit courtyard on the other side of the wall, but she was safe enough on this side.

She heard muffled shouts and the slamming of doors coming from the hallway. Somebody seemed to be very angry, while another person seemed to be trying to calm them down. Their efforts were in vain, as the first person only seemed to get louder. Approaching the sliding door to the room, they grabbed it and slammed it open. In the doorway stood a man wearing a red mask with a long nose and puffed up cheeks that covered his mouth and eyes. The rest of his head was covered by some sort of cloth wrap. On his back was a box that Nezuko assumed held her new sword, held to him by a leather strap. One of his hands held what she recognized as her old sword, while the other was pointing towards her accusingly.

“You!” he shouted at her.

“M-me?” she pointed towards herself, shakily.

“You!” the man shouted again, as if in confirmation. He rushed across the room and grabbed her by the collar of her kimono, lifting her up off of the ground. Shoving her broken sword in her face, he shouted, “You’re the one who did this!”

He dropped her, bringing his attention to the sword in his hand. “Look at this! You dulled off its edge, you chipped it all over, and to top it all off, you broke it in half!”

Nezuko stared at him from the floor, then hesitantly said, “I’m sorry?” It came out as more of a question than anything else.

“You ought to be sorry! This was one of mine!” he shouted, holding the sword delicately, like it was some broken toy from his childhood.

“Hotaru,” a voice said reproachfully, “There’s no need to be so aggressive.” Looking up, she saw a second man wearing a similar red mask. He was much more composed, wearing a much neater outfit, with a box on his back similar to the one the man shouting at her had. Turning to Nezuko, he said, “I apologize for him. This is Haganezuka Hotaru, and he’s very… passionate about his swordsmithing. I’m Kanamori Kozo- I keep him calm.”

Haganezuka, unhappy and grumbling, moved away from her to take a seat on the floor next to Kanamori. The pair of them sat down and took the boxes they had been carrying off of their backs. Opening them, they revealed one held a pair of swords matching swords, clearly for inosuke. The other held a sword that must have been for Nezuko. It was different from the first sword she had wielded- it was much longer and much more curved. She gently lifted it out of the box, admiring it.

“It’s a shobu zukuri,” Kanamori said.

“I’m sorry?”

“A shobu zukuri!” Haganezuka exclaimed. “It’s based off of an old kind of cavalry sword. Not many make it anymore, but your sword had to be strong to survive your strength! I spent days hammering it into shape with only the finest of nichirin steel! It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Nezuko nodded her head in agreement. “It’s a bit big, though, isn’t it?”

“You’re a demon. I’m sure, with your strength, you can handle the extra weight,” Kanamori said before Haganezuka could be offended.

She nodded, then asked, “What is nichirin steel? I’ve heard people mention it, and I know that it can kill demons, but I don’t know much beyond that.”

Haganezuka seemed to be insulted by her lack of knowledge, while Kanamori seemed more amused by it. “A demon who doesn’t know about nichirin steel… Very well. Demons can only be killed by sunlight and poisons derived from wisteria trees. Now, you can’t make every single sword used by the Demon Slayer Corps poisonous, so we absorb the power of the sun into the steel. Don’t ask me how, I won’t tell you” he said, sensing her question and raising a hand to wave it away, “But rest assured, it is effective.”

“Hey, you’re a demon, but you also use total concentration breathing, right?” Haganezuka asked her.

“Uh, yes?” Nezuko replied, more than a little confused.

Her statement had apparently excited him, as he rocked back on the floor and kicked his legs like a child. “Oh, that’s great! I’ve never seen a nichirin sword change color with a demon before! This is historic!”

Seeing her confusion, Kanao said, “Nichirin swords are often known as color changing swords. When held by a Demon Slayer who uses total concentration breathing, they often change color according to the breathing style mastered by the person holding them.”

“I haven’t mastered any breathing styles, though.”

“That only makes it more interesting! Maybe it will be based off of your blood demon art? Oh, I can’t wait to see!” Haganezuka said, only furthering the childish impression of himself he had given her.

Nezuko drew her sword, gently setting the scabbard on the matt floor. She held the sword almost reverently as she leveled it in the air. She noticed the color of the blade around the handguard begin to change. Looking at it closer, it gave off the impression that the blade was covered in some sort of smoke that was slowly dissipating to reveal a dark black background. This slowly continued until the entire length of the blade was a deep black.

She stared at it silently until she said, “It’s beautiful.”

Kanamori hummed to himself, seemingly not happy with this outcome. She looked up at him questioningly, and he said, “Well… black blades are rare. There isn’t much known about them, which is odd, considering how much attention the Corps pays to their equipment. Generally, though, they are considered a sign of bad luck. Most who wield them have… short careers, to put it politely.”

While they were having their conversation, Inosuke was unpacking his twin swords. When he drew them from their scabbards, they turned a unique bluish gray shade in the same way her sword had. Kanamori nodded in approval of his own work. Inosuke was wearing his boar’s head, so his attitude towards the pair of blades was more difficult to gauge. Eventually, he picked himself up and walked out of the room, carrying both swords with him.

“Probably off to go get a feel for his new swords. So,” Kanamori said, turning to face Nezuko, “A demon who serves as a Demon Slayer. That’s a fairly… novel concept.”

Having assumed someone would comment on this, she nodded without any objection. “Yes. I’ve fought demons before coming to serve the Corps, but this will point me towards more dangerous demons who need to be dealt with sooner. I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

The two swordsmiths regarded her for a moment, then Kanamori shrugged and said, “Well, I suppose there’s a first time for everything. At the very least, Hotaru enjoyed the challenge.”

Suddenly, from the other side of the wall, Nezuko heard the muffled but still noticeable sound of metal clashing with stone and froze, remembering Haganezuka’s poor reaction to her first sword’s condition. Everybody else in the room apparently heard it as well, as their heads all turned to look at the wall the noise had come from behind.

“What on earth is that noise?” Haganezuka asked.

“Well, uh…” Nezuko began, trying to stutter out an explanation, “When I first met Inosuke, he had a pair of swords like the one you gave him, but they were… serrated.” When the only reaction to what she said was apparent confusion, she continued, “Well, maybe not so much serrated as… intentionally chipped.”

“… What!?”

“~”

After the unfortunate incident with Inosuke and the swordsmiths, the routine of Nezuko immediately returned to normal. Right after getting her new sword, she had her first training session with it. It was a bit unwieldy, being far longer than she was accustomed to, but Kanao had taught her well, and she was able to quickly correct the mistakes in her technique. Meanwhile, still giving her a wide berth, almost all of the people who resided in the Butterfly Mansion came to observe her. Kochou was absent, as she had been from her training for a while, but everybody seemed to want to know how well she was doing.

At the end of her training session, she sat against one of the walls of the room. The break was mostly just to give Kanao time to decide what to do with her next. Wondering what exactly this would be, she sheathed her sword and gently set it down on the floor. Looking to the side, she saw the trio of your girls that she often saw around the Butterfly Mansion standing a short distance away from her. Aoi was standing nearby, like a parent keeping an eye on their children.

One of them- Sumi, if she remembered correctly- stepped forward nervously and asked, “You’re Nezuko, right?”

“Yeah. Your name is Sumi, right?” Nezuko asked in reply.

Nodding quickly, she then asked, “Can I see your sword?”

Wanting to entertain the girl, she nodded and picked up her sword. Gently, she drew it from its scabbard, which she set aside on the mat floor. She leveled the sword in the air, giving Sumi a proper view of it. The girl seemed enraptured by the blade, actually ahing at the sight of it.

“Do you know any breathing styles?” Kiyo, who had stayed back along with Naho, asked Nezuko.

“No, I only know how to use total concentration breathing,” she replied. She could tell her response had disappointed the trio, who had probably wanted a show. “You know, my family practiced a dance every year that reminds me of these breathing styles. The Hinokami Kagura- The Dance of Fire God. Every new year, the eldest male of the household would perform the dance from the moment the sun set until the moment the sun rose.”

The three girls were clearly interested in her story. “Could you show us it?” Sumi asked.

Nezuko hesitated for a moment. She didn’t remember the moves of the dance exactly, and she would likely have to make up certain parts. That wasn’t her main concern, though. The Hinokami Kagura had been sacred to her family. The person who was supposed to perform it was Tanjiro. If his blood was on her hands, did she really deserve the honor of performing it herself?

Oh, it was to entertain a few girls. What harm could it do?

Smiling, she said, “Sure,” and pushed herself up. She stepped towards the center of the spacious room, hoping to put as much room between herself and anyone who might wander into her blade. Aoi, seeing what she was doing, rushed forward and ushered the three girls to a corner of the room. Inosuke and Zenitsu both stepped back, while Kanao simply stood where she was, watching her.

Nezuko readied her sword. Looking at it, she determined that this was actually a better option than a normal sword for the Hinokami Kagura. Her father had used an odd, straight sword with six additional points branching off of the original blades. It was odd looking, but was also much longer than any normal sword. She had always wondered how he, in his poor health, had managed to wield such a heavy weapon at all, let alone for a full night. Regardless, this longer sword was actually a much better length for the dance than her previous sword might have been.

She began using total concentration breathing, feeling energy seep into every part of her body. She then slowly raised her sword above her head, then brought it down swiftly. Leveling it with her shoulders, she swung it through the air dramatically, cutting an arc that almost surrounded her entirely. Not knowing what exact move came next, she held her to her side and spun it in her hand- something that might actually be useful with her blood demon art. Bringing its spinning to a halt, she swung it in front of her, prepared to execute a spiraling motion in the space ahead of her she remembered her father doing during the dance.

As she cut through the air, sparks began to creep along the length of her blade. She watched, almost in slow motion, as these sparks grew and grew in number until they formed a bright, orange flame from the hilt to the point of the sword. As she moved her sword in the spiral, it seemed to leave behind it a trail of fire through the air. The end result was a small but impressive whirlwind of flame in front of her that part of her wanted to embrace and part of her wanted to recoil from.

Nezuko froze as still as a statue once her movement was completed. She stared at some nebulous space in front of her in shock, then looked down at her sword. The flames had disappeared, leaving her sword the way it had been before without a trace anything had happened to it. She regarded it with considerable shock, not having the slightest idea what had just happened. It couldn’t have been a breathing style- Kanao had mentioned to her that breathing styles could create flames, water, or whatever depending on what they were, but she hadn’t mastered anything beyond basic total concentration breathing. How could she have done what she just did?

The people who had been watching her had grown quiet. Straightening herself and glancing around the room, she saw they ogling her with varying degrees of shock. The only exception was Kanao, who was looking at her hands. She noticed she felt a growing stinging pain in both of her hands. Looking down at them, she saw bright red burns had covered her hands.

“~”

Kochou had immediately come out of her lab to see what had happened. Nezuko performed the same move as before, with the same result. She also showed her the burn scars on her hands, which had receded slightly but remained despite her demonic constitution. Nobody had been able to tell her why what had happened had happened. The suggestion that she had secretly been able to mast flame breathing was raised, but there were apparently differences between flame breathing and what she had done, so that theory was abandoned. She heard from Aoi that Kochou had wanted her held here for longer to study what had happened, but Ubuyashiki had forced her to drop the issue. Nezuko understood why she had tried to do that, but she was nonetheless glad that she was being allowed on missions.

She understood what she had been able to do, but she understood it might be useful.  The flames no longer moved further than the blade, and the burns she had received the first time she used the Hinokami Kagura had slowly receded to seemingly permanent but less noticeable burns. Still, the fact that they remained at all did give her a few ideas when it came to fighting demons. She hadn’t had the opportunity to actually test any out, but alongside her blood, she possessed a newfound confidence in herself.

In the meantime, she had decided to write a letter to Lady Tamayo. Ubuyashiki had, somehow, known about her. Despite this, he hadn’t done anything about his knowledge of a powerful, rouge demon. While he apparently hadn’t acted on what he knew or even told anyone, Nezuko still felt that it was important for her to know. She was only part way through when she made a breakthrough with her training.

She had been getting much better at the two main tests of her abilities. She didn’t know how important they really were, but they were the first things she had been expected to do, and she wanted to do everything she could to make up for her initial failure and prove her worth to the Corps. With this in mind, she spent as much effort as she could trying to succeed at the tests.

On the day of her success, she had used total concentration breathing for almost an hour before beginning the test. It gave her greater focus and speed during the test so that when it began, she could properly keep up with Kanao. The distance between the two of them was short and slowly closing. Slowly might not have been the right word- the both of them were running so quickly that, by comparison, the ticking of the watch Aoi held seemed slow.

Kanao tried to dodge to the side, but Nezuko saw what she was about to do and jumped at her, hand outstretched. Her fingers locked around Kanao’s wrist, and while her lunge had ended up with her skidding along the mat floor, she did not let go. She heard cheers from the people observing her at her achievement.

The two of them moved onto the tea exercise with the same attention being paid to them as earlier. If anything, it was even greater, as those living in the Butterfly Mansion had apparently been anticipating her success. She felt a little nervous, but focused mostly on the test. It began quickly, the both of them blocking each other’s reach towards the cups of tea. The two of them picked up the pace, each trying to reach around the other’s hands.

Finally, Nezuko managed to grab one of the cups of tea. She quickly brought it up from the table, splashing a few drops of tea onto her kimono. The awful smell drew her attention, and she wondered how bad an entire cup of it would smell. The thought of doing something so mean spirited to Kanao gave her pause.

Her hand moved through the air swiftly. She didn’t know if her opponent was allowed to stop her at this point, but she didn’t want to take any chances at this point. She raised the cup above Kanao’s head and brought it back down. Instead of dumping it onto her head, though, she set it down about as gently on top of her as she could.

The room was silent for a moment before everyone around her erupted into cheers. Kiyo, Naho, and Sumi all tackled her with hugs, knocking her over onto the mat floor. Everybody seemed eager to celebrate her success, although she didn’t understand exactly why they were so happy. Still, she was glad she had raised their moods.

Only a few days afterwards, she was sent on her first mission. She was called into a well lit room with Inosuke, Zenitsu and Kanao. She had been given a set of thick clothing that covered every inch of skin, ending at her neck. Her face was kept safe from any sunlight by a wide brimmed straw hat. Finally, she had changed her eyes to look like those of a human. If anyone stopped her while she was traveling, she would be able to pretend she was human. Everybody else was dressed in their usual outfits.

Kochou calmly sat in front of them. Her smile had returned for the first time in a while. Stiffly, she began, “There’s a train station that several dozen people disappeared from after departing. There is no current trace as to their whereabouts, and it’s safe to assume they are dead. While there is no confirmation that this is the result of demonic activity, we are all but certain that it is. This is a very serious situation, which means that we can justify sending you. Any demon that can do such a thing with such apparent ease is a serious threat. We are already sending a Hashira to deal with this situation, but he might need help with this, which is where you four come in. Besides,” she continued, pointedly looking at Nezuko, “If anything goes wrong, he should be more than capable of dealing with the fallout.”

She stood up and said, “Consider this something of a test for you. If you succeed, there may be more missions to follow. If not, we will take more of a… traditional approach to you. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly,” Nezuko said, “I won’t let you down.”

Chapter Text

Nezuko, Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Kanao had run all the way to the train station, and it had still taken them half a day. For everybody, it had been an exhausting trek, although with her demonic constitution, she took it fairly well. She even enjoyed the banter between the two boys, and maintained a fairly cheerful mood. Given this, when they arrived at the train station and Inosuke decided to throw himself against the train, she was the only one able to talk them out of getting arrested.

After the security guards decided to let Inosuke go, the four of them were able to get onto the train without any more trouble. She didn’t blame him for his awe. Even the town she had sporadic contact with was far from civilization, so the train was awe inspiring for her. The front was made of well maintained metal, and the cars were built out of beautiful wood with ‘Mugen’ emblazoned on the walls in gold letters.

Regardless, they were supposed to be seated next to Rengoku Kyojuro, the Flame Hashira. He was the orange haired one she had seen during her trial by the Demon Slayer Corps. He probably hadn’t been too excited to hear that she was now serving the Corps, but he was willing to at least tolerate her enough to fight alongside her.

The four of them moved further up the train, looking for Rengoku. He was too obvious to have been missed by them, so he must have just been closer to the front of the train. Nezuko wondered how he would react to seeing her. Kochou had given her an idea of how a Demon Slayer might react to her, but she wasn’t sure if that was how every Demon Slayer would be like her. Although, she guessed that it didn’t really matter much how he might react given she didn’t have any choice but to work with him.

“Delicious!”

The exclamation carried itself through the wooden door separating the cars the four of them were in from the next. The noise startled several people riding in the car they were walking through, while the group themselves was similarly startled.

“Delicious!” the voice shouted again.

Hesitantly walking forward, Nezuko grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. Looking through, she saw an orange haired head sticking out from the seats. He seemed to be eating something, as he was lowering a pair of chopsticks from his mouth.

“Delicious!” Rengoku shouted again.

Nezuko walked up to the Hashira, she bowed and said, “Hello. My name is Kamado Nezuko. This is Agatsuma Zenitsu, Hashibira Inosuke, and Tsuyuri Kanao. We’ve been sent to… travel with you.” She had to be a bit careful about what she said on a public train, so settled on saying that instead of ‘hunting and killing a demon’.

The only thing Rengoku said in reply was, “Delicious!”

“... Yes, you mentioned that already.”

“Delicious!”

One passenger, clearly regretting his seating choice, turned to look at her and said, “He’s been doing that for over an hour. This is his fifth box of bento!”

Hearing this, the four of them decided to get seated. A row was clear for them, probably having been reserved in advance. Nezuko sat next to Rengoku, waiting for him to start talking to her.

Eventually, he finished his box of bento and set it to the side. Turning to her, he said, “So, you must be the demon!”

She froze for a moment, hoping that nobody had heard what he had all but shouted. After whipping her head around to see if anybody had reacted to what Rengoku had said, she replied, “Yeah. The Corps sent me to… travel with you.”

“You know, you can just say fight. In my experience, nobody on a train cares what you have to say!”

Nezuko whipped her head around again, then, seeing he was right, continued, “Alright, we're here to fight with you. Do you know where the demon is?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue! Perhaps the demon isn’t on the train, but instead attacks it while it travels from one station to another.” Rengoku replied. “Regardless, I’m certain that it will show up soon enough!”

Nezuko nodded in understanding. Not knowing what else she might have been supposed to ask about, she sat quietly for a short while. Eventually, maybe hoping to break the awkward silence, Rengoku said to her, “I’m sure you understood my objections to your presence in the Corps, but it’s clear that my suspicions of you were unfounded. I apologize for being so opposed to your presence in the Corps.”

She shook her head at his apology, saying, “I was a demon. It’s your job to kill demons. I’d be more worried if you hadn’t been suspicious. It’s no big deal.”

Rengoku frowned while regarding her for a moment, then turned away. This time, Nezuko was the one to turn to him, asking, “Have you ever heard of the Hinokami Kagura?” When his response was only to raise one eyebrow, she continued, “Well, at the Butterfly Mansion, I used what seemed to be a breathing technique, only nobody knows what it was. I was doing a dance my family used to do, and during it, my sword… burst into orange flames. I was wondering if you knew what that might have been.”

“No, I’m afraid I’ve never heard of that dance of yours!” the hashira shouted in the same oddly enthusiastic tone he took to everything with. “However, the resemblance you say it bears to Flame Breathing is striking! Perhaps I could train you!”

“T-train me?” Nezuko asked, thinking she must have misheard him.

“Yes!” Rengoku said, nodding confidently, “Even if this dance isn’t Flame Breathing, your apparent talent in it suggests that you have some potential in the style. Learn under me, and you may yet become a proper Demon Slayer!”

Nezuko considered what his offer would mean for her. She was certainly strong and skilled, but it was important for her to get better at fighting demons, and chances were a Hashira willing to train a demon wasn’t all too common. She probably wouldn’t have this chance offered to her again, and it was on the table, she had to take it.

“You know what, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll take you up on that.”

“Tickets, please,” a man asked her. Turning to look at him, she saw a lanky man in a conductor’s uniform standing next to her. He seemed incredibly tired, like he hadn’t been sleeping well. Not sure what he meant, she turned to Rengoku questioningly.

“He wants to see your ticket,” he explained to her.

Nezuko pulled her ticket out and held it in front of the man. He pulled it from her hand, then used an odd looking device in his hand to punch a hole through it. A strange scent flooded her nose for a moment, then disappeared just as quickly.

The conductor stared at her blankly for a moment, then quietly muttered, “... Thank you.”

“~”

The young Demon Slayers had their tickets punched by the Conductor one by one. Kyojuro thought that only Agatsuma and Tsuyuri seemed to have even seen a train before as his own ticket was punched by the conductor. Regardless of that, they settled into their seats as the conductor moved on.

Suddenly, Kyojuro felt a presence in the next cabin. A demon, he concluded, although he did wonder how it had escaped his attention up until this point. He stood up, moved from his seat, and drew his sword from his scabbard. The rest of the Demon Slayers were too shocked by his boldness to make any moves of their own.

“Conductor,” he said to the man behind him, “This is an emergency, so please overlook the fact that I have a sword!”

Having warned the man, he ran to the end of the car and threw open the door, stepping into the next train car. At the far end, a strange shimmering was slowly dissipating. It revealed a demon at the far end of the train car with stone gray skin. Its head had a pair of faces that seemed to have been fused together, with one distorted eye being shared by both faces and the two mouths nearly connecting with each other. It bared its fangs at the nearby passengers, who all recoiled in fear from the beast.

“I wonder how I didn’t sense you before?” Kyojuro wondered out loud. “Perhaps that was a part of your blood demon art? Regardless, should any demon bear their fangs at an innocent, I will burn it to the bone!”

He shot across the car like a bullet towards the demon and, in a single swift strike, cut cleanly through the demon’s neck. Its head tumbled off and struck the floor, then began to crumble into ashes with the rest of the body. The cabin was quiet in shock for a moment at his feat. He broke the silence himself after sensing a demon in the next car, dashing to the door and throwing it open. Holding itself atop the seats on four long limbs was a green skinned demon, baring its set of insect-like mandibles at passengers. The four Demon Slayers stepped forward to take positions next to him.

“I’ll get it!” Inosuke shouted to the rest of them.

“Wait,” Nezuko shouted at him, “The passengers!”

Ignoring her, the boar headed Demon Slayer charged towards the green skinned demon without any restraint. Leaping into the air, he brought down his swords on the demon. However, before he could cut off the demon’s head, a pair of arms shot out from the demon’s torso at him. They, after a short series of blows, grabbed hold of him by the arms. Kyojuro shot forward and swiftly cut through the new arms of the demon, then grabbed Inosuke and pulled him out of harm’s way. He then whirled around and cut off the demon’s head.

The train car was silent, with even the Demon Slayers having been quieted by their awe. “That was… That was awesome!” Nezuko shouted to him. “I definitely want you to teach me now!”

The other Demon Slayers joined in, with Zenitsu shouting, “Me too!”

“Please take me under your wing!” Inosuke all but begged.

Even normally emotionless Kanao was excited, shouting, “I want to learn under you as well, Kyojuro!

“All right, I’ll teach all of you!” Kyojuro enthusiastically told them. “You’ll all be safe under my wing!”

“~”

The conductor who had been collecting tickets from the passengers rushed down the train car. On each side of him was row after row of unconscious passengers, having been put to sleep by the blood-laced tickets the demon had given him. The first ones he had put to sleep were the Demon Slayers at special instruction from the demon. He didn’t relish the idea of what was about to happen to them, or to the rest of the passengers, but it had to be done. He needed what the demon had promised him.

He pushed open the door and, seeing the hand of the demon, collapsed onto the wooden floor of the car. “I did it! I did what you asked of me- All of it! Please,” he all but begged the demon, “Please let me see them. My wife and daughter- Please.” He continued speaking, although most of what he said had devolved into gibberish meant to plead with the demon.

“You did well,” the demon told him. “You may see them now.” The conductor looked the demon’s hand in the eye as it told him, “Go to sleep, and dream a happy dream.”

He felt a sudden tiredness wash over his body, and as he collapsed to the floor, he felt a smile spread over his face as he knew who he was about to see for the first time in a long while.

“~”

“Uh.. Excuse me?” A voice asked the hand of the demon that had gathered everyone here.

It turned around to look at the source of the voice. The hand was neatly severed, like it had never been connected to an arm at all, with a hideous mouth stretched along its back and a single eye with the kanji for ‘Lowermoon One” right on the wrist.. As it moved, its fingers gave the impression of spider legs, scuttling delicately along the floor of the car. It turned to face five of the people it had gathered on the trains. All of them were young and sickly, with little color in their skin and thin frames.

The girl who had first addressed him asked, “What do you want us to do now?”

The hand smiled at her and responded, “You are to enter the dreams of the sleeping Demon Slayers. Go to the very edge of their dreams, and you will reach a wall. Cut through that wall, and you will be able to find their spirit core. Their spirit core,” it explained with great emphasis, “Is the source of their life force. If it is destroyed, they will die without any resistance. I’ve given you all rope. You’ll have to wait a little while for them to enter a deep sleep. Once they have, tie that rope around the wrists of the Demon Slayers, then tie the other end of the same rope around your own wrist. You will be able to fall asleep and enter their dreams this way.”

Having explained to them the exact details of what they were meant to do, the hand jumped all the way to the roof of the car, then scuttled over to a window and climbed out into the night. The five people watched it as it disappeared, then waited. After a while of waiting, they became convinced that the Demon Slayers had to have been in the deep sleep the hand had told them about, then proceeded into the adjacent car and tied themselves to the Demon Slayers.

“Be careful, okay?” a black haired man who had tied himself to a Demon Slayer girl wearing a thick coat and straw hat said to the other people. “Get in, find the spirit core, and don’t let yourself be seen by anybody in the dream.”

The people he was with nodded silently. None of them knew each other particularly well, so they had little to say to each other. They sat down near the Demon Slayers they were tied to, and began to count themselves to sleep- something the demon had told them to do when he had their loyalty- and slowly found it harder and harder to keep themselves awake. One by one, they fell to sleep, prepared to only have to wake up once more.

“~”

Nezuko slowly trudged uphill through knee deep snow. Flurries kicked up by bitingly cold winds blinded her almost entirely. All she could make out of her surroundings was the vague outline of skeletal trees, which wasn’t helped by the amount of snow that had piled onto them. It seemed more like she was surrounded by a crowd of dancing people than by any more normal scenery.

She struggled to remember how she had gotten here, wherever exactly here was. Actually, she struggled to remember anything from before she ended up here. It was like trying to remember the details of some fever dream she had suffered from not long ago. She could remember general strokes, but not much more than that. She had been with someone… no, with a group. She had been doing something important. Beyond that, there was nothing she could remember with any specific detail. She didn’t have much idea on what to do beyond continuing to march forward, her sword arm held in front of her to keep snow out of her eyes.

Suddenly, the wind ended and the flurries of snow returned to the ground. At the same time, an overwhelming sense of paranoia washed over her. She drew her sword and took a fighting stance, not knowing what was the cause of her paranoia but still on edge. Every one of her senses told her that something was wrong. However, as she slowly turned around to ensure she was seeing everything she could see, she failed to notice what was agitating her. A strange sense of comfort with her surroundings also began to emerge, like she had been here before.

“Nee-chan!” she heard a shout from nearby. Looking over her shoulder at the source of the sound, she saw a young boy with short, spiky, black hair and thick clothes holding the hand of another, even younger boy in a set of blue clothes. “Rokuta wants to go on a walk, but I’m busy. Could you take him?” the boy asked her as a sense of familiarity washed over her.

Nezuko dropped her sword and its scabbard to the ground and began to walk towards the two, then broke out into a run. She all but charged down the two boys and, once she reached them, tackled them in a hug and broke down into wails and sobs one might expect from an infant. Takeo and Rokuta, both confused by the situation, gently patted her on the back as they called for their mother and tried to wipe away the tears streaming down their sisters face. She could feel water soaking through her kimono, but she cared little as she clung to her brothers for dear life.

“~”

Kanao sat next to Nezuko. The both of them had just been with Kanae, who they had helped with a set of chemicals that needed to be made in a certain way. Nezuko had known a fair amount, though Kanao was still the one who had taken the lead. Now, the two girls were spending their free time together.

Kanao was largely silent, but Nezuko managed to fill the air with conversation. She seemed comfortable talking endlessly, even though she received no reply. Oddly enough, Kanao didn’t mind. She normally didn’t care very much about what other people did, to be sure, with most people inspiring indifference at best. 

Instead of being indifferent to what Nezuko was doing, however, she seemed to be… calmed by it. The girl had a strange effect on her. It was hard to label exactly what it was that she was feeling, but it was… nice. If given the chance, she might even enjoy getting used to this.

“~”

“I’ve been accepted as a Hashira,” Kyojuro began. He spoke with an even voice and betrayed no sign of the nervousness he felt. “I should be getting assigned missions soon enough.”

His father, who sat a short distance away from her, barely reacted to what he said. He was hunched over on a porch, and while he couldn’t see the bottle, Kyojuro could smell sake coming from him.

“... What?” his father slurred out after a short moment. “What, do you want me to congratulate you? Don’t think you matter because of this!” he suddenly shouted and gestured in Kyojuro’s general direction, revealing a sake bottle in his hand. “You’re worthless, same as me. Same as your brother. Same as everyone else.”

After his angry outburst, his father quieted down, took another swig of sake, and hunched back over, staring at nothing in particular. He didn’t really know how to respond to his father, so he stood up and walked out of the room. Strolling down the halls, he was unsure with what he was meant to do with himself. He had hoped he might get some reaction from his father, although he didn’t know exactly what reaction he had been hoping for.

“Onii-chan?” he heard a voice call out from behind him. Turning around, he saw a young boy that looked much like he did standing in the middle of the hallway. His short hair fully exposed his hopeful expression. From what he gathered, their father didn’t engage in much conversation beyond drunken shouting and insults with him, and he must have been excited to hear about their talk.

“Senjuro,” Kyojuro said to his brother, “It’s good to see you.”

His younger brother nodded quickly, then asked, “Was father excited about the news? Do you think if I…”

He trailed off, but Kyojuro knew what he meant. Their father had been the Flame Hashira before him, and had been a very passionate man for a long while. However, that had ended early into Kyojuro’s own career in the Demon Slayer Corps. He had never been able to pinpoint when the change had happened, but one day he had looked to their father and seen a drunk with a sword instead of an honorable swordsman.

He had to wonder if his drive to replace his father as the Flame Hashira was driven more by a desire to bring back the man he had remembered with pride. Clearly, though, that effort had failed, although Senjuro still seemed optimistic. He imagined his brother hoped to earn his fathers praise by becoming a Demon Slayer, something that was all but sure to go unnoticed.

Kneeling down to look his younger brother in the eye, Kyojuro said, “Father… wasn’t very enthusiastic about my prospects. But he stopped being enthusiastic about anything a while ago.” Smiling in an effort to keep his brother’s mood up, he said, “I’m still dedicated to seeing this through, regardless of what he thinks about it. And I’m of the opinion you should as well.”

Senjuro was clearly upset by this news, but Kyojuro’s assurances seemed to do him good. He straightened his back and smiled at his older brother, neither of them noticing the girl who had infiltrated the Flame Hashira’s dream.

“~”

The girl watching the Demon Slayer enjoy his dream was more jealous than anything else, but she was also nervous. Her presence was being masked by the dream, but the longer she stayed where she was, the more she risked being noticed. Now that the Demon Slayer was distracted by the illusion of his brother, she took the opportunity to dash away to the gate of the mansion the dream had conjured up.

Stepping out of the mansion, she had to sneer. The dream she had seen seemed more like an exercise in self pity than anything else. She had overheard the conversation the Demon Slayer had with the illusion of his father which clearly showed the daddy issues he felt he had. At the same time, he was spending his time living in a mansion. It wasn’t fair. She didn’t get any pity when she got sick, why should he get any pity when daddy dearest didn’t give him a pat on the back about his promotion?

She walked forward, looking for the edge of the dream that the demon had mentioned to her. The demon had given her an awl to use to destroy the spirit corp of the Demon Slayer, but that was located in the subconscious realm, and she had no idea where that was. It was beyond the edge of the dream, but she hadn’t found that, and if she couldn’t find that, how was she going to find the spiritual core?

Suddenly, the girl walked into what seemed to be an invisible wall. She stumbled backwards, nearly falling over, and rubbed at her bruised nose. Looking ahead of her, she saw the scenery stretched ahead of her despite the fact she couldn’t walk any further. She waved her hand ahead of herself and set her hand against an invisible, hard surface. Raising her awl above her head, she stabbed it into the invisible wall. Her awl sunk to the handle, and she tugged on it. The wall of the dream tore like it was made of paper in the face of her attack, exposing a completely different scenery to her view.

Behind the wall was a flat expanse of stone tiles that stretched on as far as she could see. In between the tile leaked bright orange flames that lapped at the air at random intervals. Heat leaked through the tear in the wall, and while it wasn’t enough to hurt, the heat was still intense. A wave of hot air brushed over her face, pushing back her hair and drying out her eyes.

She stood in shock for a moment, then stepped through the tear cautiously. The heat only got worse, but she could manage. She was careful to stay entirely onto the stone tiles, as while the flames they leaked in between them wasn’t ever present, she didn’t feel entirely safe around it. She continued deeper into the subconscious realm, looking back and forth to try and see the spirit core she had been instructed to find. The flames made it hard to locate anything, and the distortions of the air hardly helped.

Her eyes settled for a short moment on an odd distortion in the air, then whipped her head back to look at it more closely. Floating behind a flame was a perfectly round orb. It looked like it was made of glass without any reflections from the surrounding flames. Instead, an orange color was visible inside that moved slowly. The orb was entirely out of place in the mostly uniform subconscious realm.

She remembered how the spiritual core had been described to her by the demon, and what was described to her matched the orb she was seeing now. She turned towards it and walked forward, ready to break it open. Holding her weapon above her, however, she found herself hesitating to bring it down. It was one thing to nod her head and say she would do it in a train car, it was another thing to actually do it- to actually kill a person.

Shaking her head, she lifted her awl even higher above her head. This wasn’t just about killing this man, this was about getting her dream- The dream the demon had promised her. The happy, peaceful dream where she could just stop fighting. Steeling her nerves, she brought down the awl on the spiritual core with a yell, intent on shattering it.

“~”

Kyojuro had been having a restless sleep. That alone was abnormal for him, as he was usually a peaceful sleeper. His restlessness had been less a matter of dramatic moving about in his sleep and more a matter of slight shifts and the adopting of a more agitated expression. That may have been normal for most people, but he was certainly not most people.

The girl tied to him, meanwhile, was experiencing none of the restlessness he was. If anything, to an outside observer, she might have seemed more content than anything else. An informed observer might not have been surprised by this, given how close she was to success, but when juxtaposed with the state of the Demon Slayer next to her, it was an odd sight.

Suddenly, Kyojuro shot up and whipped his hand out to grab the girl by the neck. He, still deeply asleep, lifted her up off of her seat. His grip on her wasn’t strong enough to endanger her life, but it was easily strong enough to choke her as he held her above the car floor.

“~”

As the girl’s awl was only inches from the spiritual core, she suddenly felt something close around her throat, choking her. She was lifted up off of the stone tile that stretched as far as the eye could see by some invisible force. Her awl fell harmlessly from her hand to the ground as she felt the force around her neck constrict. She tried to claw and kick at whatever was holding her, but all her hands and feet met was empty air. Only inches away from her dream, she was unable to do anything but kick and writhe as it was ripped out of her hands.

“~”

“I’m fine, really,” Nezuko assured her mother as she looked her over, trying to find any visible sign that she was unwell, “I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure it’s nothing serious. I must’ve just had a waking nightmare.”

Truth be told, she didn’t know what had happened any more than the rest of her family had. She must have been daydreaming or something, because the last thing she remembered was wandering through the snow covered forests before she saw Takeo and Rokuta. She didn’t know how to explain the crying, but she was certain what had happened wasn’t serious.

“Are you sure about that?” her mother asked her. “I don’t want you to be up and about if you’re not feeling well.”

“Well, I am feeling well, so that’s that,” she responded.

Her mother chuckled, then told Nezuko, “Well, if you’re feeling alright, then I’ve got a few things for you to do around the house. Dinner’s going to be soon, and I want you to help your brothers and sisters prepare it. Rice crackers are coming, so tell your siblings that to get them working.”

“Rice crackers?!” Shigeru shouted, his head poking around the corner.

“We’re having rice crackers?” Hanako shouted from behind the screen door.

“Well, I guess you don’t have to tell them anymore,” her mother told her. Addressing her siblings, she told them, “Yes, but only if you prepare the rest of dinner. Nezuko, could you help them?”

“Of course,” she replied.

Picking herself up off of the floor, Nezuko walked into the kitchen to handle the cooking of the food along with Takeo. The rest of their siblings handed them prepared ingredients, as that was all their mother felt comfortable with them handling. They settled into an easy rhythm as they chatted happily between themselves. She had missed this…

Waited, missed this? Why would she have missed this? She couldn’t have been gone for very long, otherwise she would have gotten sick from the cold. Why would she have missed her family if she had only been gone for an hour at most? She tried to remember what had caused to miss this, but came up empty of any real reason. That bothered her, though she didn’t know why.

“Nii-Chan!” Shigeru shouted at her. “If you’re in charge of making the rice crackers, can I be in charge of eating them?”

“You can’t just eat all the rice crackers, genius,” Takeo told him.

“But I want to,” Shigeru whined.

Nezuko smiled. As she walked into the next room, forgetting about what she had just been confused by, she was glad that she was with her family, where she was meant to be.

“~”

The man stood behind a tree, listening to the sound of the girl with her family. It was nice. His own family had left him a long time ago, and he had forgotten what a happy family sounded like. The ease of conversation, the playful ribbing, the happy voices. It all had slipped from his mind after so long.

He felt a sudden discomfort in his throat and coughed once before devolving into a fit of coughs. He almost doubled over, the crook of his arm pressed against his open mouth to muffle the noise. Phlegm mixed with blood came out of his mouth, staining his sleeve. He had been living with tuberculosis for a long while now, but he had always been too physically weak to get used to what it did to his body.

Eventually, the coughing subsided and he straightened himself back up. He didn’t have time to reminisce, he just needed to do what the demon had told him to and get this over with. Pushing himself up, he began to walk deeper into the dream to find and destroy the demon girl’s spirit core.

His march through the snow was difficult, with it coming up to his knees at times. It wasn’t actively snowing, but the dream of the girl had an ever present layer of it covering everything. His sickness made him weak, and the cold weather only made advancing even more difficult. Still, he advanced, having little choice in the matter. Eventually, he ran into the wall of the dream and cut through it with his awl.

For a moment, he thought he had somehow been mistaken about where the wall was. However, he could see where it had torn open like paper. On the other side of the wall was a stretch of forest that seemed identical to the one he was standing in. Same skeletal forests, same snow covering every inch of ground, same hills rolling hills in the mountainside. Her spiritual realm must have been identical to where she grew up.

After gawking at the forest for a moment, he stepped through the tear in the wall. Soon enough, he saw that it wasn’t completely identical. It was snowing hard and just as windy. More notably, though, random stretches of trees were, instead of just being leafless, were burnt and covered in black ash.

The sick man wondered what had happened here. The layer of snow was heavy, hiding any traces of fire beyond the burnt trees. More trees seemed burnt than intact, which certainly wasn’t comforting to him. He could see faint footprints in the snow, as well as random trails that failed to have any uniform shape. Both were slowly being filled up, but were still visible.

That would probably only make things more difficult for him. The demon had said that nobody else should be in the subconscious realm they were entering, but it probably didn’t care much about them. It wasn’t like he had much choice other than to keep going, though. He had to find the and destroy the spirit core no matter who might try to stop him.

He walked for a long time. He didn’t know where the spirit core was, and he didn’t know if there was a limit to how big the subconscious realm was, so he might be wandering aimlessly for hours on end. The snow never broke unless it was to let through a tree, so he was given no indication as to where the spirit core might be. He grew more and more frustrated as time went on, worried the girl might realize she was in a dream and try to wake up.

Suddenly, a snap cut through the whistling wind and sound of falling snow. It wasn’t one of a branch being broken, sounding more like a piece of wood in a fireplace giving out and breaking. Whipping around, he saw nothing in the forest. If he had to guess, the sound had come from around one of the burnt trees, though he didn’t know what would have made the noise.

The crack came again, this time from a different tree. Whipping his head around, he was able to see the spark of fire dissipate. He stared at the spot for a moment before the spark appeared again, this time being strong enough to last. The fire clung to the side of the tree for a moment before flaring up, engulfing the entire tree in flames. They swirled around the tree like a whirlwind, growing larger and larger.

The man stared at the tree for a short moment, before walking backwards away from the tree. Soon enough, he turned around and broke out into a desperate run. Every step sent pain through his body, but he knew that he had to get away from the flames. He heard them roar behind him, and felt a sudden heat on his back. He dropped down, burying himself in the snow as the source of the heat shot over him.

Lifting his head, he saw a figure wrapped in fire land several feet away from him. Between the flames, he could see what looked like skin blackened from the constant burns it must have been suffering. It turned to look at him, cracking loudly whenever it moved one of its joints. He couldn’t see any eyes or other facial features, but he could tell it was looking at him.

The flames covering the figure swelled for a moment and roared, then the figure charged at him. He picked himself up out of the snow, then turned tail and fled as fast as he could. He felt the heat approach him again, and dodged to the side. The figure crashed into the snow but quickly recovered, picking itself up and resuming its pursuit. The next time it lunged at him, he was unable to dodge away quickly enough. It grabbed a hold of one of his arms, its fire spreading up him. He screamed as the flames burned deeply and as the second hand of the figure shot toward his face.

Suddenly, he felt cold water being splashed over him. The sensation was a relief to his burns, while the figure let go of him and turned to face whoever had gotten themselves involved. The man, meanwhile, thrust his arm into the snow, trying to relive the pain he had been feeling.

Looking up, he saw someone wrapped in cloth and with a basket on their back attacking the fire covered figure with an ax, hacking off large amounts of what looked like charcoal, and periodically dumping large quantities of snow on top of it. Eventually, she got it down to a torso being held up by one arm. The pink flames around it were much more cautious, apparently sensing their own weakness.

“You… Idiot.” The sick man stared at the fire in shock as he realized that the voice he had heard had come from it. It seemed to be addressing the person who had saved him as it continued, “You know why he’s here. Do you want us to die? Do you honestly think that will rewrite what happened? No. Our death won’t change anything. Why not live-”

Having apparently grown tired of the fire’s ranting, the person swung their ax, lopping off the head, then took to breaking the rest of the figure’s body into chunks of charcoal. After it had been reduced to nothing, they prodded the ash and charcoal, looking for sparks.

He stared at them before a wave of cold swept over him. The rush of the chase must have been wearing off, as he suddenly felt about as cold as he should have, dressed lightly in a forest surrounded by snowdrifts. The person who had saved him noticed his plight and walked over to him. They took off one layer of their jacket and offered it to him. As he slipped it on, they also took off the scarf wrapped around their face to offer it to him.

Looking at them, he gasped in surprise. Under her scarf was the same face on the girl whose dream he had infiltrated. She stared at him without any emotion, dark bags under her eyes and tiredness etched into her face.

“Are you going to take it?” she asked him.

“What?” he asked her.

“The scarf. You’re clearly cold. Are you going to take it?” she repeated.

He stared at her for a moment longer before nodding and taking the scarf from her, wrapping it around his face. The girl turned from him and began to walk uphill, her ax resting on her shoulder.

“I’m going to my cabin. Would you like to come?” she asked him.

After a moment, he told her, “… Yeah. yeah, I’m coming.”

He began to walk uphill after her towards her cabin, unknowingly heading directly towards the spirit core of the girl.

“~”

Nezuko had returned to the meal being cooked after calming Shigeru down. Her youngest siblings were a bit immature, but that was one of the few luxuries they could be afforded in their life. She wouldn’t hold it against them, not for the whole world.

Right now, she was busy tending to the fire. Takeo was old enough to handle the meat being cooked, but not quite open enough to handle an open flame. It was quite a thorough meal they were having- rice, meat, pickled vegetables. She absentmindedly wondered if they were having some sort of celebration she had forgotten, as they usually wouldn’t have this much of this good food on hand. Still, she was more focused on tending to the fire.

“When do you think Nee-chan’s going to be back?” Takeo asked from above.

At the mention of her brother, Nezuko felt her throat close up like someone had wrapped their hand around it. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, could hardly even think. Eventually, she managed to turn her head and shakily ask, “Tanjiro?”

“Yeah, from town. When do you think he’s going to be-”

Takeo turned down to look her in the eye, then stopped as he saw her shock. “Nezuko? Are you alright?”

“Tanjiro- he is- is he- is Tanjiro-” she stuttered out, barely able to talk properly. She didn’t know why she was in such shock, and certainly didn’t have the ability to ponder why at the moment. She simply stuttered out word after word, unable to form a sentence.

“Nezuko, the fire!”

She looked to her sleeve, and saw that in her shock, she had let a small part of it fall into the open flame of the wood stove. Immediately, she pulled it out and smacked on the flame until it eventually went out. Looking at it, she saw that a thankfully small amount had actually been burned. In fact, it hardly seemed damaged at all.

“Are you alright? Did it burn you?” she heard her brother ask her. She slowly shook her head, and he told her, “Alright. Be more careful, okay?”

Nezuko was quiet for a moment, then nodded in confirmation and returned to tending the fire. What was that? Why had she become so shocked by the mention of Tanjiro? She searched for some explanation, but came up only with vague, dark thoughts that she decided to stop searching for. She focused all of her attention on caring for the fire. The fire writhed in the stove angrily, glowing brightly. It seemed to be much stronger than it should have been, given that its fuel had begun to decline.

As she reached for another log to feed to the fire, she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a sudden spark. It was in the ash that had gathered at the bottom of the stove, and of all things, it was a bright pink. She whipped her head around to look at the place the spark had been. The ash was still for a moment before another spark appeared, then another, this last one being able to sustain itself.

Suddenly, the flame bloomed violently and rushed straight out of the stove and at her. Instead of engulfing her, it split into a pair of what looked like wings, spread around her and came to meet again behind her. The flames swirled around her, somehow managing to avoid burning her while they did so.

As the fire roared around her, she saw something begin to appear out of the stove. A clawed hand began to emerge from the flames lazily, then another. Suddenly, both shot out and grabbed her by the kimono, pulling her closer to the fire as the rest of the thing pulled itself out.

It looked horrible, with what looked like vines tattooed into its skin. A curved horn almost as long as the handle of an ax had punched through the skin of its forehead. Sharp teeth were neatly organized in its mouth, clearly meant only for killing. Its pupils were slit like a knife had been stabbed into its iris, which was as pink as the flames that surrounded the both of them. Most disturbing of all, however, was that despite how horrible and monstrous the thing looked, Nezuko couldn’t help but notice the reflection of herself in its features.

“Wake up!” it shouted at her.

“Wh- What?” she whimpered out.

“Wake up!” it repeated, just as angrily. “This isn’t real, it’s just a dream! We need to wake up now! Tanjiro is dead! Our family is dead! We need to wake up now and kill the demon doing this now!”

Once the thing finished shouting at her, the sphere of flame collapsed in on the two of them. Strangely, it didn’t burn her. She only felt herself changing. Her clothes lengthened. Her senses sharpened, as did her memory. When the fire cleared, she was wearing the same clothes as she had been when she first appeared in the dream, and remembered everything about what she was supposed to be doing on the train.

“Nii-chan!” she heard her brother shout at her.

Looking up, she saw him standing in front of her and felt a wave of emotion was over her. It had been so long since she had seen him, but her mind had etched his face into her memory. She knew it was probably just that this was a dream, but he was exactly how she remembered him. Exactly how he should be. Young, cheerful, full of life. She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want him to go away. But as the version of Takeo her dream had conjured up panicked and asked her if she was okay, she knew she had to leave. She had something she needed to make right.

Picking herself up, she pushed past her brother and ran out of the house. She ran past the shouts of her siblings and her mother, not wanting to leave but knowing that she had to. She headed towards the forests that surrounded her family’s home, remembering that she had dropped her sword. She didn’t know where the demon was, but she knew that she would need her sword to fight it once she found it.

As she ran further and further away from her home, she wondered what had even happened to her. The… other Nezuko, she settled on calling her for the moment, had said this was a dream, but if that was the case, how on earth was she going to get out of it? She shook that thought away. This was a situation where she could only deal with things one at a time. She would find her sword, then decide how she was going to get out of this dream.

“Hey Nezuko! Where are you headed?”

She stumbled for a moment as she ground to a stop. She stood stock still, then slowly turned on her feet to see her brother.

“~”

The man followed the path of the girl, shivering as he went along. The extra layers of clothing the girl had given him helped, but it was still freezing. She didn’t seem to be bothered, though. Maybe she was just more used to the cold, but she was able to march up a steep, snow-covered hill with a heavy weight on her back. Even if she was just more used to the cold, her endurance was impressive.

Eventually, the two of them came to a cabin hidden by some trees on the side of a hill. The girl grabbed the door of the cabin and pulled it open, gesturing to him to get in. Once he did, she followed and closed the door behind her. The cabin was small, dedicated to little beyond what it had to be. There was a stack short of wood against one wall, a furnace that heated the cabin, and a small chest of what was probably clothes.

“Sit by the fire and warm up. You probably need it after being attacked,” she told him as she began to empty the basket of wood on her back.

He did what she told him and asked, “What happened here? What was that thing?”

“That was the demon,” she told him. “It’s been getting deeper and deeper into the forest, but it hasn’t reached the cabin yet.”

“What are you, then?”

“I’m… what’s left of Nezuko,” the girl responded, failing to elaborate any further.

The man stared at her, then turned his attention to the fire. He took his hands out from under his coat and held it up to the flame, hoping to warm himself enough to not lose any fingers. The fire was more than enough to do that, with a welcoming warmth being given off by it. He felt his muscles relax as he grew more and more comfortable. He looked at the fire, and gasped as he saw an orb bigger than his own head with a strange, swirling, dark pink pattern within it resting in between the burning logs.

“That’s what you’re here for, right?” he heard the girl ask from behind him. He turned to look at her. She was wrapping a new scarf around her face, seemingly getting ready to head back out into the forest.

“… yeah,” he said simply.

“Well, there it is. The firewood is getting low,” she remarked. “I’m going to head back out and find some more.”

“Wait,” he called to her. She paused for a moment, waiting for him to ask whatever it was that he was going to. “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Why are you just… letting me destroy the core?”

The girl regarded him for a moment, then said, “You were about to be murdered. Even if it kills me, I wouldn’t let that happen again. Besides, out there?” she said, gesturing to the door. “The demon is getting closer and closer to this cabin and to that core. It will get here eventually. I can delay that, but… it’s better for that core to be destroyed than for that demon to get the opportunity to twist it.”

With that, she stepped out of the cabin and into the snowy forest, closing the door behind her. The man, left to his own devices, stared at the spirit core for a moment, then pulled out the awl he had been given. He raised it just above his head and held it there for a moment before he realized that he didn’t want to do this.

He had come here to destroy this girl’s spirit core, to murder her, and she had helped him. She had saved him, given him shelter, and led him to her spirit core. She hadn’t been ignorant to what he planned, as the demon had said she knew what he was going to do. He couldn’t imagine why she would just let him do this, unless she was serious about being willing to save him, even if it killed her.

The man stared at the core for a moment longer before letting his hand fall to his side. He could stay here. For a little while, at least, he could just stay here and let the fire warm him. He had nothing but time now, and if this was how he was going to spend it, no harm done.

“~”

“This isn’t fair,” Nezuko told Tanjiro.

She wasn’t looking at him, but she could tell he was staring at her. This wasn’t Tanjiro, not really. It was just a dream, but she could still say to him something she might not get the chance to ever again.

“What isn’t fair? Is Rokuta getting on your nerves again?” Tanjiro asked her.

“I mean this,” she said, gesturing to everything around her. “It should be real. You should still be here. Takeo, Rokuta, Shigeru, Hanako, Mom- they should all still be here. You should still be alive and smiling and happy. You should still be living in our old house, enjoying life. You should still be alive.” under her breath, she muttered, “But instead, I am.”

She turned to her brother, looking him in the eye. He was exactly the same as when she had seen him as he headed down Mt Kumotori to sell charcoal for their family. Behind him, she could see the rest of her family approaching. She had to wrap this up quickly, or they might talk her into never leaving.

“I shouldn’t be here. You should be. All of you should be. And I can’t make up for what I did or change it, but I owe it to you to try. I’ll remember you. All of you. But I have to go now. There’s something I have to try and make right.”

With that, Nezuko turned from her family and began to walk towards the treeline. As she heard Rokuta call out to her, begging her not to leave, she broke into a run, blocking out what she was hearing. She didn’t have the right to stay. She needed to get out of this dream and kill the demon who had trapped her in it before it had the opportunity to hurt anybody.

She charged into the forest, heading to the spot she had first appeared here. Searching the area for a moment, she saw the black grip of her sword poking out from under the snow. Grabbing it, she picked it up and found the scabbard nearby. Once she had done that, she began to look for the demon.

That was more difficult than she had assumed it would be. She would normally just follow the scent of the demon until she reached whatever demon she was tracking, but this scent seemed to be both faint and present everywhere. It was like the demon had spread its blood all over the forest, leaving her to wander about aimlessly.

Nezuko paused for a moment. The other Nezuko had referred to this illusion as a dream. Was that literal? If she was actually asleep, then she had a much greater problem than she had before. She might have been able to escape from this illusion if it was only an area that was being affected, but if she was unconscious, there wasn’t anything she could really do about it.

Standing still as the realization sunk in, she suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew that something was wrong, she knew what was wrong, and she knew that a demon was responsible for it. She was, as far as she knew, the only one in her small group who knew something needed to be done, and she was incapable of doing anything.

Behind her, she felt… someone. She could sense him, but he felt different from most people. There was something that almost seemed to be missing, like he had trained himself to not give away a certain part of his presence. She felt conflicting emotions about him. Part of her seemed to find him oddly familiar, like a friend she had forgotten after some time. Another part of her recognized him, but as someone who terrified her to her core. She was frozen, either unable or unwilling to turn and face the man behind her.

The man was quiet for a moment before saying, “There is something that needs to be cut for you to escape this illusion, Kamado. You know what it is.”

With that, a gust of wind blew up a column of snow, and when it cleared, she could sense that the man was gone. She whipped her head around to look at the empty clearing behind her, but saw nothing to show her where the man had come from or gone. There weren’t even any footprints, like he had never even been there.

Who on earth had that man been? She could understand the presence of the other Nezuko- she seemed to be the demonic parts of her given form, and she wouldn’t have been surprised to see a similar version made of what little remained of her humanity, but that man? She didn’t know him. The recognition she felt with him wasn’t something she could explain, but she was certain that she had never met that man before. And what did he mean by there was something she needed to cut? Was there a rope, or some demon in the dream she needed to defeat, or-

The meaning of what he had meant came to her all at once. It shocked her, certainly, but it made sense, and it wasn’t like she had any other options. Slowly, she unsheathed her sword and raised it to her neck, ready to cut through it. She hesitated for a moment. Did she need to cut all the way through it? Did she only need to do some damage to herself to wake up? Would this even work, or would this just kill her?

Nezuko steeled her nerves. Even if this would hurt her, she was a demon. She could take it. Besides, she had to at least try to get out of this dream. It might not work, but there were people the demon might hurt if she didn’t stop it. She couldn’t worry about what might happen if she did this, she had to worry about what might happen if she didn’t.

Pressing her hand against the flat back of the blade, Nezuko cut into her neck in a single, violent motion. She felt blood spurt out of her wound as her mind started to grow hazier than it really should have for just one cut. Swaying for a moment, she collapsed to her knees, and then to her side, burying herself in the snow as darkness overtook her senses and she began to wake up.

Chapter Text

Nezuko awoke with a start. She whipped her head around, and her eyes landed on a pale, sickly looking man sitting right next to her. She looked around her, trying to see what was going on with the rest of the cab. Everything was blurry for some reason, and as she lifted a hand to her eyes, she realized that they had been filled with tears. Wiping them away, she looked at the cabin again and saw that everyone else in her group was in the same position, with someone tied to them by the wrists. Kyojuro stood tall, holding the girl tied to him by her neck.

Looking at her wrist, she saw the rope tying the man to her. She lifted up her clawed hand to tear off the rope, but something held her back. She could tell that, for some reason, ripping through the rope would kill the man she was tied to. How she knew that, she had no clue. Maybe it was one of the few gifts that being a demon had given her. Regardless, it wasn’t a difficult problem to work around.

One fingernail grew into a claw, and she stabbed it into her palm. Pulling it back out, she held her fingernail above the rope until a single drop of blood fell down onto the rope. Lighting it, she watched the blood fire burn straight through the rope. She didn’t know if that would have a different impact than just breaking the rope, but she had to destroy it somehow. Looking at the man, she could tell he was still alive. His heart was still beating, he was still breathing, and she could see he was slowly waking up. There was something wrong with him, but she hadn’t caused it.

Now that she was certain her blood fire wasn’t going to kill anyone, she moved to the rest of her group, burning through their binds one by one. She had hoped that they would wake up immediately, but they took their time. Maybe they had been in a deeper sleep than she had, or maybe her being a demon had helped her wake up faster.

Looking down towards the other end of the cabin, she wondered where the demon was. She didn’t know what the people were doing here, but they clearly couldn’t be why everyone had fallen asleep and was probably having the same kind of dreams that she had been having. Even if humans could do that kind of thing, she had smelled a demon in her dreams. There had to be one involved in this somehow. She could smell one, but only faintly. She might have to search the entire train to find the demon.

“This is your fault!” Nezuko heard someone shout from behind her. Turning around, she almost recoiled from the sight of the girl that had been tied to Kyojuro pointing a white awl at her threateningly. The rest of the people that had been tied to the Demon Slayers were doing the same, either wearing expressions of rage or desperation.

“I don’t want to hurt you-” she tried to say before the girl interrupted her.

“You already have, you idiot! If you don’t die, then he won’t give us our dreams! Why,” she shouted, tears beginning to stream down her face, “Couldn’t you have just stayed in yours?!”

With that, the girl charged Nezuko. She brought her hand down on the neck of the girl in the same way that she had been attacked by Kanao when they first met. She apparently remembered it well enough, as the girl collapsed to the floor of the car. Looking up to see the other three people charging her, she repeated the same move until everyone in the car had fallen.

Turning to face the man who had been tied to her, she saw that he wasn’t attacking her. In fact, he was still sitting down, only staring at her sadly. He tried to say something, but was interrupted by a violent coughing fit that doubled him over. He covered his mouth with his hand for a moment, and when he pulled it away, she saw that it was covered in blood. She realized what had been wrong with him

She hadn’t heard much about tuberculosis or any other similar diseases, but her father had been killed by something that was at least similar. He had disguised it well, but even as a child, she could tell how extreme of pain he was in. He, at least, had people who loved and cared for him. If he hadn’t she could imagine how easy it would have been for him to give up. These people must have all had something similar, and must have all been offered a way out by the demon. It had probably wanted them to murder her and the Demon Slayersin their sleep somehow, but with what they must have been going through every day, any way out was one they would accept.

The man stared at her for a moment longer, then smiled sadly and said, “The demon’s up at the front of the train. You’ll find him there. The rest of your friends should be waking up soon, so they’ll be fine. Please,” he said, with a strangely genuine tone in his voice, “Don’t die.”

Nezuko stared at him for a moment, then thanked him and moved to one of the windows of the train car. She looked at the rest of the Demon Slayers for a moment, then decided that if the demon was so far away, they would probably be safe. She pulled down the window and lifted herself up out through it. Reaching the roof of the train car, she could smell the demon much more clearly. The man had definitely been right about where it was. She began to run up the train towards it, her drawn sword in hand.

Eventually, she came near the front of the train. A few cars down from the coal car was a short man with black hair wearing a black suit, standing completely upright despite the high speeds. He turned around, revealing his pale face and an irritating smile. His eye had black kanji instead of pupils- One that read “Lowermoon”, and another that read “One”. He turned to face her casually, apparently not worried that she was here.

“Well, you’re up early,” he said with a strange, dreamy voice. “I don’t know why you’d resist such a pleasant dream. You could still go back to it, if you’d like. Or was it not good enough? You know, I could bring back your father next. Would that satisfy you?” he asked her.

Glaring daggers at him, she charged towards him, ready for whatever tricks he might pull. At least, she thought she was, but then he raised his hand in front of him. Most demons looked weird, but this hand was genuinely disturbing to look at, with an eye set into the wrist and a mouth filled with teeth stretching across its back. The mouth moved in a disturbing way as it told her, “Go to sleep.”

Suddenly, Nezuko felt herself doing what the hand told her to. Her muscles started relaxing and her mind started to get fuzzy, like she was lying down on a futon after a long, hard day. She tried to fight, but the effect of what was probably the demon’s blood demon art was too strong. Her knees buckled as she fell forward toward the hard roof of the train.

“~”

Enmu looked at the girl as she collapsed. She was a demon, he noticed, which complicated things. The rest of the Demon Slayers were normal humans and could be killed in normal ways, even the Hashira, but a demon? He’d probably have to keep her trapped in her dream while he waited for the sun to rise. He would be fine, with the train to protect him, but she would burn.

He sighed to himself. It was a real pity that he had to show her a happy dream. He always loved to peer into people’s dreams as they changed from pleasant paradises to unforgiving nightmares. Their expressions were always divine as they shifted from joy to horror. To keep her trapped, he would probably have to forgo that. And she had such a deep well of horror to draw from, too! But it couldn’t be helped. He turned from her, watching the locomotive pull along the rest of the train.

“~”

Nezuko slowly trudged uphill through knee deep snow. Flurries kicked up by bitingly cold winds blinded her almost entirely. All she could make out was… She did a double take. She knew where she was. This was the dream the demon had shown her of her family. But she had woken up from that dream. How was she back here…

Of course. If the demon could put her to sleep without even being in the same train car as her, he could put her to sleep while she was right in front of him. She remembered something about his hand. There had been an eye and a mouth on it, and that was the last thing that she remembered before she had woken up here. That must have something to do with her waking up here. If she could just avoid looking at it, then she should be fine. That might be difficult, but she had to try.

Raising her sword to her neck, she slit her throat open and collapsed to the ground once again, ready to kill the demon once she found it.

“~”

Enmu felt something on his back, then turned around to see the demon girl picking herself up off the roof of the train car and charging towards him. He raised his hand again, and ordered her again, “Go to sleep”. She did, but almost immediately, she picked herself back up and resumed her charge. Again and again, he put her to sleep, and again and again, she woke up and charged him.

He struggled for a moment to understand what was going on before it struck him. The only way for someone to escape one of his dreams was to kill themselves. If she was escaping his dreams so quickly, then she must be killing herself as soon as she woke up in her dream. The kind of willpower needed for that, even from a demon, was impressive.

Enmu smiled at this. He had been disappointed that he wouldn’t get to show her the kind of dreams he liked to, but it seemed he would have the opportunity to after all. He needed to incapacitate her, and just showing her the same vision over and over wouldn’t cut it. He would get to have fun with her.

“~”

Nezuko was wandering through the snow, Rokuta held on her back. He had fallen asleep on a walk with her, and she had picked him up. He had been the one to actually request the walk, but he had gotten too tired to keep walking the path he had been the one to choose only halfway through.

She pulled Rokuta off her back, set him down on the snow covered ground, and grabbed her sword. Now that she knew that she was in an illusion, she was in her normal clothes, with all of her possessions on hand. Pulling the sword out of its sheath, she raised it to her neck as her brother began to shout behind her.

“~”

Nezuko stepped out of the kitchen, carrying a plateful of rice crackers in her hands. The rest of the food had already been brought out by her siblings, and smelled amazing. The smell of meat, which was a rarity in their life, wafted to her nose, causing her mouth to water. Her siblings greeted her cheerfully, inviting her to eat with them.

She set down the plate of crackers gently, then stood up and looked at the inviting scene in front of her. Nezuko grabbed her sword and brought it to her neck. The illusion of her siblings shouted in fear and shock, some begging her not to do it, but she shut them out as well as she could. She couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

“~”

“Thank you, Nezuko,” the man leaning on her shoulder managed to say. His voice was fraught and weak, but kind and gentle. “You know, you really didn’t have to take yourself away from your sewing. I could have just waited for Tanjiro.”

Nezuko halted where she stood for a short second. She recognized that voice. It had been a long, long time since she had last heard it, and she only remembered it faintly, but she did remember it. Once she heard him, how could she not recognize the voice of her own dad?

“Is something the matter, dear?” he asked her.

“N- No. No, everything’s fine,” she reassured him, then began to walk again.

It was one of the most selfish things she had done in a long while, but she stayed in this dream, knowing full well that it wasn’t real. She wanted so badly to stay here. The demon had made good on his promise. He had really brought her dad back. She wanted to talk to her father, to tell him she was sorry for what she had done to her family, to at least see the face of her father one last time.

No… no, this wasn’t her dad. This was just some illusion the demon had conjured up to trap her so he could kill the rest of the Demon Slayers. She couldn’t afford to stay with this illusion for any longer.

She slowed her pace forward, then stopped entirely and grabbed the illusion by the shoulders. Gently pushing him down to the snow covered earth, she grabbed her sword and once again raised it to her neck. The illusion of her dad leapt up and tried to stop her, but she recoiled from him. Stepping back too far, one foot went off the edge of the cliff and she tumbled backwards, falling swiftly to the ground.

“~”

Nezuko spasmed, her muscles seemingly not under her own control. Blinding pain wracked her body, like thorn covered vines were being dragged through her veins. She tried to move, but her body refused to when suffering such torture. Slowly, the pain began to ebb away to a still extreme but less overwhelming level.

Now having the energy to take in her surroundings, she glanced around at her home. The walls were covered in blood, like someone had taken a bucket full of the stuff and splashed it all over the walls. Light was leaking into the room, but even that was bright red, making it hard to tell the stained parts of the house from the clean ones.

A man stepped into her field of view. She recognized him- recognized Kibutsuji- but she was powerless to do anything. It wasn’t like her muscles were frozen in place, it was more like something was blocking her control over them, like she wasn’t actually present in this dream, and instead watching something that had already happened through her own eyes. Similarly, she felt fear. Fear more overwhelming than anything she had ever felt before. It was watered down by how she was disconnected, but she could still feel a single thought overriding all others- I don’t want to die.

“You’re going to die here,” the King of Demons sneered. “You’re weak. Pathetic. I’m giving you the greatest opportunity you can hope for, and you are too feeble to take it.”

His foot met her stomach and Nezuko flew across the room into the nearby wall. It was weird, once she thought about it. Kibutsuji had taken her mom’head off with one hand. If he wanted to, he could reduce her to a stain on the wall. It was like he was angry with her, but still didn’t want to kill her. He sneered with her in both disgust and annoyance.

“But, you still have potential. I know what value your blood line has, and I am willing to work with what I have. So,” he continued, one of his fingernails extending into a sharp black talon, “I’m going to offer you something.”

… No.

“With the amount of blood in your system and how weak you are, you will die. And then you will be of no use to me.”

No, no no.

“I can remove a small portion of my blood. You will be weak, but you will still become a demon and live to be useful.”

No, no, no, no, no.

“You can die, and your bloodline can end here, or you can accept me and live. What will it be, child?”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-

Nezuko felt her head stiffly slide on the floor backwards, then forward. Backwards again, then forward again, over and over. She desperately tried to stop herself, but the memory of what she had done refused to be changed. Kibutsuji smiled at her, then drove his claw into her forehead. She felt blood flow through her veins out of her, and she felt the hunger within her lessen slightly, but then he withdrew the claw. The hunger still tore at her alongside the pain of her transformation.

Standing up, Kibutsuji told her, “You need to eat if you’re going to survive life as a demon.” walking away from her for a short moment, he returned and dropped a small, bloody corpse in front of her. At the sight of it, drool spilled out of her mouth. The King of Demon’s regarded her for a moment, then turned and left the house as Nezuko reached out with one hand towards the body.

The hand stopped reaching forward for a moment, then, as Nezuko finally regained control over her body, her claws flew to her neck.

“~”

“How could you?!” Nezuko heard someone scream at her. Looking up, she saw her mom standing a short distance ahead, face and body covered in blood. Her mom eyes welled with tears as she asked, “How could you just kill my son and live? ”

Nezuko was silent for a moment, staring at her mom. Her mind had become as frozen as ice, leaving her uncomprehending of what was going on as she dumbly opened and closed her mouth over and over. Her throat felt tight, like a hand was squeezing around it. She felt tears begin to well in her own eyes as she tried to say at least something to her mom.

“I- I didn’t mean to-”

“Didn’t mean to? You murdered my son! How could you not mean to?!”

The scene shifted, with her mom dissolving into smoke. The next person to appear before her was her dad, this time as bedridden as he had been at the tail end of his life. Unlike her mom, he looked at her with nothing but hate in his eyes as he spoke to her.

“They were happy. They were living without hurting anyone, without interfering with anyone else. They were living the peaceful life that they deserved. And then you,” he said, shakily pushing himself off his bed to his feet and stepping towards her, “Destroyed their happy life. You let your mother and sisters and brothers be murdered by a demon, then chose to join his ranks.”

“No,” Nezuko said, quietly objecting to what he said. “No, I didn’t- I wouldn’t-”

Her dad struck her across her face, quickly shutting her up. “You did. He offered you a way out of consequences, and you jumped at it like a starved dog. I did everything I could when I raised you, but you still turned out like this.”

The scene shifted again, and the next person to emerge from the smoke put her heart in her throat.

“Why?” Tanjiro asked her.

From all around her, Nezuko could hear the rest of her siblings crying. She wanted to turn to them, to comfort them, but was frozen in place by the sight of her brother. Blood spilled from his neck and too many other places where she had torn off parts of him in a bright reminder of what she had done.

“Why did you kill them?” he asked, tears welling in his eyes. His expression was twisted with anger at her and despair at what she had done to her siblings. “You got to live when we didn’t, and you killed me, but why did you have to kill them?”

Nezuko tried to respond to him, but found that she couldn’t. Everything he had said was true- She had just stood by as her mother, her brothers, her sisters were murdered by a demon. When it was her turn, he had offered her a way out, and like a coward, she had jumped at the opportunity. No hesitation, no resistance, nothing.

Steeling himself, Tanjiro told her, “You don’t deserve this. You don’t deserve to be what remains of our family. You don’t deserve to be our legacy. You lost that right long ago.”

“Shut up,” Nezuko shakily said.

Her brother stared at her in shock for a moment before he exploded in anger. “No! No, you don’t get to tell me that! You have to listen to this- To what you-”

“I said,” she screamed, raising her clawed hands to her throat.

“~”

“- Shut up!”

Now awake, Nezuko leapt through the air at the Dream Demon. She had covered enough distance that the demon didn’t have time to put her to sleep like he had before, and her sword cut cleanly through his neck. She landed on the roof of the train car, just behind him, and turned to chop off one of his arms.

“Shut up-

She swung her sword at the demon’s leg, cutting through it. The strike was sloppy, only going through because of how sharp her blade was and how strong she was, but it didn’t matter to her. She just had to hurt this demon.

“- Shut up-”

She raised her sword again and cut through the demon, her blade entering his body at his shoulder and exiting at his hip.

“- Shut up!” she screamed at the demon one final time.

Nezuko panted above him,  then fell to her knees and began to sob. She kneeled on top of the train for what felt like a few hours but was probably only a few seconds. She might have stayed there until the sun rose and burned her away if it weren’t for a familiar voice.

“Well, I didn’t expect you to make it this far- Actually, I didn’t expect you to wake up at all!” the Dream Demon told her.

She looked up at the decapitated head of the demon which should have crumbled to ash by now, but hadn’t. Instead, the demon smiled at her in the dreamy way he did everything. The roof of the train car both of them rested on bulged in one part and changed from flat, black metal to dark pink flesh. It grew and grew, stretching out until it was long enough to reach out and touch the head of the Dream Demon. The arm of flesh and the head grew together until the flesh could raise the head off of the roof and into the air.

“I know, you probably think this is still a dream!” he told her. “Well, it’s not. You are wide awake! You don’t know what’s going on, do you? Well, don’t worry- I’m in a good mood, so I’ll tell you. That wasn’t my body.”

Nezuko stared at him until he explained. “Not my main one, at least. That right there,” he said, motioning towards the remains of his corpse she had left alone, “Is nothing more than a puppet of flesh and bone. I have moved beyond that. While you and your comrades slept, I fused myself with the trai! My body now stretches its entire length!”

Nezuko continued staring at him with growing horror as he continued, “I wonder, with more than two hundred people spread over so many cars, how long will it take for me to eat them all with you trying to stop me?” He giggled as the arm and head sunk back into the roof as she processed what he had just told her.

After only a moment, she turned and ran to the side of the train car. It was hard to do anything, but she didn’t have the right to feel sorry for herself. People were in danger. Flipping over the edge and kicking in a window, Nezuko saw that arms of flesh were reaching out of the walls towards the still sleeping passengers, ready to pull them in and devour them. She drew her sword, cutting into her palm as she did so, and scattered her blood all throughout the cabin. It lit, and the flames pushed back the arms, but some still made it through. She cut through them easily enough, but more and more appeared. Her flames began to falter under the weight of so much flesh, and every new arm got closer and closer to the passengers.

The demon slowly grew more and more panicked. There were at least two dozen people in her. All of their lives were in her hands, and she was just going to let them die. She had failed to get stronger, failed to train hard enough when the Demon Slayer Corps had given her the chance to redeem herself, and by failing, she had murdered all of these people. All of these deaths-

Nezuko stopped dashing about the cabin for a moment- Even this short moment could get people killed, but she had to take it- And took in a deep breath. Strength flowed through her, and as she felt it do so, she jumped back into action. She cleared the entire cabin in under a second, cutting through every arm of flesh as they reached towards the passengers. Turning around as she reached the end, she dashed back across the cabin, cutting down the new stumps of flesh growing into arms, and kicked open the door. There were more people that needed to be protected than just those in this car.

Before she could move onto the next car, she heard the arms regrowing. Turning around, she saw that they were already almost at the passengers. She had to protect everybody on the train, but this one train car was already in danger. She couldn’t afford to leave and made the decision to turn back around to keep protecting the passengers. Before she could do that, she heard the crack of thunder behind her and the door to the next train car get kicked down. Zenitsu shot past her like a bolt of lightning and ricocheted around the car, cutting down every arm of flesh in his way.

From behind her, she heard Kanao order her, “Get onto the roof and go to the front of the train.”

She turned her head to see the girl in the next car, incredibly protecting the entire cabin apparently with little effort. Her sword flowed through the air like water, cutting down every lump of flesh before it could grow into an arm. An odd pink trail followed her sword, like flower petals were shedding off of it. With her clean movements and the odd effect of her breathing form, she looked like a dancer in one of the plays her family never had the money for but still saw people dressing up for.

After staring at her for a moment, Nezuko followed her orders, grabbing the edge of the roof and swinging herself onto it. A few cars behind her, she heard someone burst through the windows of the train and looked to see Inosuke doing the same. “Nakuzu!” he shouted to her. “The orange said we needed to behead the train! I was right! It really is a monster!”

She was about to ask what he meant by that, then remembered what the Dream Demon had told her. This train was now his body, but it still must have the same weaknesses every demon had. It had to have a head, and if it did, it was probably at the “head” of the train. Turning to look at the coal car, she remembered the iron car at the very front of the train.

“Kanao told me to do that, too!” she shouted back to Inosuke.

“The orange didn’t tell me to do that! He didn’t tell me to do anything! Nobody tells me what to do!” he objected, but still ran beside her as they approached the head of the train.

Arms of flesh rose from the walls of the train and towered over its sides as the two of them drew closer and closer to its head. Slits in the flesh appeared and pulled themselves open to reveal bright blue eyes with black kanji instead of pupils. They all swiveled to look her in the eye, and she felt herself suddenly grow tired, falling into a deep sleep. Just as suddenly, she woke back up. She caught herself before she could fall to the roof, then cut into her hand again. Lighting her blade, she swung at the arms, but again, one of the eyes put her to sleep. Again, she woke back up, and again, she was put to sleep, over and over. Before she could make any move against the arms, she was always forced back to sleep.

Literally jumping into action, Inosuke leapt into the air, spinning his swords around him. Every eye facing the pair was cut through as he shouted at her, “Don’t look at the eyes, genius! Get a hold of yourself!”

Nezuko turned up to look and saw him land next to her. She stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out how he hadn’t been put to sleep by the eyes. Whenever she made eye contact with them, they quickly forced her to sleep, and Inosuke had been flying through the air in between them. How had he managed to avoid that? She looked at his mask and…

His mask. The eyes may have been looking at him, but they weren’t looking at his eyes, they were looking at the eyes of his mask. If eye contact couldn’t be made, then the Dream Demon couldn’t use his blood demon art. She didn’t know that for sure, but it would explain why he hadn’t done anything about Inosuke.

Looking down at the roof for a moment so she didn’t make any eye contact, Nezuko grew something over her eye. It was hard to describe- She could feel the film spread over her eye and see her vision slowly blur, but it was hard to put to words the act of making it appear. Looking up, she saw that everything was clear enough to know what she was looking at, but exact detail had been lost. She could see the arms of flesh and the blue spots she knew were eyes, but they had no effect on her.

One of the arms fell down towards her, and she dodged out of the way. The eyes might not have an effect on her anymore, but the arms would still beat her to death if they had the chance. Raising her flaming sword above her head, she brought it down, cutting through the thick arm with ease. Another arm rushed at her, and another, and while it was hard to dodge with her newly blurry vision, she still managed to, cutting through both of them. Both her and Inosuke slowly made their way to the head of the train as the Dream Demon did everything in his power to stop them.

Eventually, the two of them reached the engine car. Inosuke jumped high into the air and brought his swords down on the roof. When he landed on it, it fell open like a box and he landed on the floor. Nezuko jumped in after him. The demon said that his head was at the head of the train, but there wasn’t anything all too different about this car from what she imagined it would be like. There were a few levers, a few buttons, and an open, roaring furnace, but nothing to indicate the demon’s neck.

“Get out!” she heard someone behind her shout. She whipped around, ready to cut down some demon, but instead, she saw a person wearing the same uniform the conductor had. “Don’t interfere with my dream!”

In her shock, she froze, giving the man the time to drive something sharp into her gut. Looking down, she saw he was holding the  same white awl that the people who had been tied to her and the Demon Slayers had attacked her with. He must have been another man working for the Dream Demon. She brought down her hand on his neck, and he collapsed to the floor. However, he had bought enough time for more arms of flesh to reach out from the walls of the train car and grab ahold of her. They pulled her into the air above the train as more and more arms began to circle her.

The blood on her sword flowed up her arm to the arms of the demon and lit up, causing them to let her go in their pain. She fell through the air towards the train, landing a couple cars behind the engine car. She ran back to it, and looked over the edge to see Inosuke driving his swords into the floor. He tore away the metal to reveal pink flesh and white bone beneath it. Looking at the segments on its surface, she realized she was looking at the Dream Demon’s neck. She leapt into the air, ready to behead the demon, when more of its arms burst out of the floor and covered it up. Inosuke burst into action, dicing the arms up and again giving her a clear view of the neck.

Falling through the air, Nezuko took in a deep breath and raised her sword above her. As she brought it down, orange flames as bright as the sun burst into life along its blade, burning her hands. Good. If they could do that to her, she knew they could keep the Dream Demon from pulling any more tricks. She cut into the demon’s neck in one clean blow, severing it completely.

As she landed, the entire train seemed to roar in pain. It suddenly derailed, with the engine car being thrown into the air. Nezuko, Inosuke, and the other man were all thrown out of the car. In a last desperate attack, massive arms burst from the sides of the train and attacked the duo. Both of them managed to survive the attack, with Inosuke ripping through any arms with his swords and Nezuko flinging an impressive amount of blood at them, lighting them on fire.

Eventually, both of them hit the ground painfully. Nezuko laid on the ground for a moment before blinking hard. Opening her eyes, she saw she had managed to remove the film over them on the first try. Pushing herself up, she turned towards the wreck of the train. It sprawled over the ground, the remains of the demon slowly burning off of it. Unsurprisingly, all of the passengers had been woken up by the crash, and were already pulling themselves out of the wreck. She could see Kanao and Zenitsu helping the steady stream of passengers to the ground.

“Well done!” she heard the energetic voice of Rengoku tell her. Turning to look at him, she saw him beaming down at her, with an expression that looked oddly close to pride. “This could have been a disaster if you weren’t here! You really have earned yourself a place in the Corps!”

Nezuko stared at him blankly as tears began to well in her eyes. Rengoku’s smile faltered a little as she shook her head, desperate to correct his mistake about her. She began to stammer out, “I- I chose this- I chose-”

Before she could finish her confession, the Hashira looked over her shoulder and dashed to just behind her in an instant, sword raised in front of him. Something collided with his blade, sending an explosion of light and sound into the air. Nezuko turned away, covering her face with her arm, before looking at what had caused the explosion. Standing on the other side of the gap between the train tracks and the trees was a man with white skin covered in black tattoos dressed only in pants and an open vest. Bright pink hair made it hard to take him seriously, though the fact she hadn’t even been able to see his attack helped with that.

He was crouched into a fighting stance, one arm sticking out in a striking motion. As he raised his head to look at her and Rengoku, Nezuko gasped. Instead of a pupil, each of the demon’s eyes had a single kanji in the middle. One read, “Uppermoon”. The other, “Three”.

Chapter Text

“Impressive,” the Uppermoon complemented Kyojuro. He stood a short distance away from the Hashira and Nezuko, facing them down without a hint of fear. “I’ve fought many Hashira before, and even they had trouble keeping up with me. What’s your name, warrior?” he asked.

“I am the flame Hashira Rengoku Kyojuro! And you, demon?” Kyojuro responded.

“My name is Akaza,” the pink haired demon replied.

“Well, Akaza, it’s dishonorable to try and ambush someone the way you just did,” Kyojuro told the Upermoon, apparently unfazed by his status.

“Well, despite being a demon, I can sense the weakness of your comrade. I’ve never seen a Demon Slayer who was also an actual demon, but she is still not nearly worth my time,” the Uppermoon said dismissively, stepping out of his fighting stance. “I only needed to make sure she didn’t interrupt my offer.”

“Your offer?”

The Uppermoon smiled and began to talk like he was reading from a prepared script. “I can tell you’re strong, Kyojuro. Your fighting spirit has been polished by years of drills and combat. You are near perfect, but you’re not quite there. Do you know why? Because you are human. You will grow stronger and stronger, and then one day, your body will begin to fail you. You will age, and decay, and that beautiful strength of yours will fail you. You will be reduced to a once proud spirit chained to a pathetic body. You will become weak.”

“Weakness,” Akaza continued, “There’s nothing more that I hate than weakness and the weak. Those without the strength to stand up on their own two feet disgust me. But I do not hate you, Kyojuro, and I don’t want to hate you. Your spirit and your strength are worth preserving.”

Extending out one hand, he said, “Accept me as a demon, Kyojuro, and reach your perfection.”

Nezuko stared at the demon in horror. He was offering to turn Kyojuro into a demon? A nightmarish image of what that might mean entered her head. He had been able to, with only two other Demon Slayers, casually keep two hundred people safe from a demon that could simply reach out from the walls at them. When he exerted himself, he must have been more powerful than anything she had seen before. As a demon, he would be all but unstoppable. If he accepted-

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I have to reject your offer!” Kyojuro shouted in reply, interrupting her panicked train of thought.

Nezuko calmed down, ashamed that she had thought he would stoop so low as to become a demon, and listened as Akaza asked him, “Why? You would condemn yourself to such a short, meaningless life?”

“I’m afraid I have to disagree with you about that. Life is only meaningful because it’s short. Every day, every hour, every second- Once they’ve passed, you can never get them back. You must make your own meaning out of every moment. Besides,” Kyojuro concluded, “I’ve no desire to live a life where I buy every moment by stealing them from others.”

The Uppermoon sighed to himself and said, “What a pity. If you won’t join me, I’ll have to kill you while you’re still strong. I can’t stand to think of you wasting away with age.”

Both of them disappeared and the clearing between the train and the forest was still for a moment before there was a midair explosion of light, sound, and fire. It was followed by another, then another, then by so many that filled so much of the air that she couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. In the middle of the clearing, she could see the Hashira and the Uppermoon trading blows. Both of them traveled so quickly through the air that she could only see flashes of them as they fought. Slowing down only just enough for her to see, Akaza jumped through the air and landed a distance away from Kyojuro. As his feet touched the ground, a series of glowing lines resembling a snowflake extended out from under him. He sent a series of punches into empty air, and Kyojuro cut his sword through the air in the same way. As he did so, light and sound burst into existence, like he was cutting through invisible projectiles. The Uppermoon dashed forward and rejoined battle with the Hashira, abandoning his long range strikes for more personal attacks.

“Wh- What’s that?” Nezuko heard someone behind her ask. Turning around, she saw Inosuke pointing at the battle dumbly. He was, for the first time she had ever seen, at a loss for words as he stared at the two combatants speeding around. Zenitsu and Kanao were, apparently, still busy helping people evacuate from the overturned train.

“Kyojuro. He’s fighting one of the Uppermoons,” she told him.

She half expected him to break out of his stupor and start calling the Uppermoon a stepping stone for him to fight, but even his enthusiasm apparently had limits. “What… What do we do?” he asked.

Nezuko wanted to jump up. She wanted to fight, to join the battle, to do something, but she knew just how out of her depth she was. “We can’t do anything. If we join the battle, all we’ll do is force Kyojuro to look out for us. For now, the best thing we can do for him is stay out of his way.” She couldn’t see if Inosuke was struggling with what she said from his face, but he didn’t make any move to join the fight. That helped her know she had been right- If even he wouldn’t join a fight, it really would have been hopeless to do so.

The fight dragged on for a few minutes that felt like hours. The fight was almost beautiful, with fire from Kyojuro’s sword and light from Akaza’s fists filling the air. The two combatants took their fight to every inch of the clearing, even retreating into the forest for a moment, bright lights flashing from in between the trees. They returned from the forest to the clearing, and as the Hashira made one more powerful strike at the Uppermoon, they parted from each other.

Akaza dramatically flew through the air away from the fight, while Kyojuro only took a few unsteady steps backwards. As he came to a stop, Nezuko saw, with shock, why. He was covered in wounds from head to toe. Blood leaked out of his mouth and from his forehead. His grip on his blade remained strong, but one arm was bent at a ugly angle. He hunched forward protectively around his ribs, ruining his until then perfect stance. In a few short moments, the strongest person she had ever met had been crippled by a single opponent.

The Uppermoon, meanwhile, was almost completely unhurt. A few wounds remained but were quickly sealing themselves. The only exception was his arm, which had neatly been cleaved in two from his knuckles to his elbow. Raising it into the air, almost showing it off, he watched it and said, “Look at it, Kyojuro. Every ounce of strength poured into these wounds.” Like he timed his healing, the two halves of his arm snapped back together, healing like they had never been cut through in the first place.

“In the moment you wounded me like this,” Akaza said, turning to face the Hashira, “You were the closest to perfection you would ever be. Already, I can tell you’ve been wounded beyond repair. Your arms will not heal properly. You’ll never breathe quite right again. So much strength, and it will all be wasted!” Extending out his arm again, the Uppermoon asked, “I have seen your talent, your spirit! Accept me and become a demon, Kyojuro, and we can fight forever!”

Kyojuro stood in the same spot for a moment, panting, desperately trying to draw air into his lungs. Slowly, he pushed himself back up into a fighting stance, raising his sword above his head. His forceful smile returned to his face as he shouted, “I knew when I became a Demon Slayer, I would die fighting! I swore to defend humanity, and I refuse to let my last act be to abandon that duty!”

As he ended his speech, flame spread along the length of his blade while he crouched down. Nezuko felt something- An aura stretching out from the Hashira. It was warm in a forceful but not hurtful way. It was like charcoal was being piled onto a fire inside of her, warming her spirit. She could feel her confidence swell as he readied himself to fight Akaza. The Uppermoon apparently felt it too, grinning in excitement.

“Such spirit- So wounded and you still carry yourself forward! I can’t stand the thought of it wasting away! Die now, Kyojuro!” he shouted as he crouched down, lines of light extending from his feet again. “Die while you’re still young and strong!”

Almost faster than she could see, a wide pillar of flame erupted towards the demon from Kyojuro, writing and twisting like a raging dragon. It charged down the Uppermoon, engulfing him in its blazing heat. Nezuko and the Demon Slayers watched in awe as the battle between the two reached its victorious end. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the pillar fell apart and dissipated. Nezuko looked at the clearing, trying to make out what had happened. Kyojuro had kicked up massive amounts of dust and dirt, blocking the view of the battle. The clearing was deathly still for a moment as the dust settled, revealing the shocking scene. Kyojuro, his sword still held above his head, stood as still as a statue. Akaza crouched down in front of him, stoney faced and meeting the Hashira’s gaze. Just below his face was his arm, covered in blood and sticking straight through Kyojuro’s stomach. Nezuko stared at the two of them in shock as blood leaked from the Hashira’s wound.

The stoney expression of the Uppermoon struggled to stay in place, then fell away entirely as he began to shout, “Give in, Kyojuro! Say you’ll become a demon! Say it!” He seemed genuinely desperate in his request, like the thought of Kyojuro dying offended him as much as it did her.

The Hashira glanced down at his wound for a moment, then snapped out of his shock and brought his sword down on the demon. Before the Uppermoon could react, it was buried in his neck. It stopped not even halfway through- Nezuko knew how tough demon skin could be, and she had never tried to decapitate someone with a broken arm or a hole in her stomach- But the shock that Kyojuro could do anything at all was visible on Akaza’s face. The demon pulled back a fist and moved to take off Kyojuro’s head, but as his first flew through the air, Kyojuro caught it mere inches from his face.

Nezuko stared at the two of them, then finally realized she should do something. Drawing her sword, she shouted to Inosuke, “Pin him in one spot!” He got the message, snapping out of his own shock and sprung through the air at the demon. He raised his own swords over his head, ready to stab down into the Uppermoon. She, meanwhile, ran over the ground, ready to throw her sword against the demon’s neck once she reached him. Drawing her sword against her palm, she let the blood on her blade and charged forward as quickly as she could.

Suddenly, Akaza just wasn’t in the same spot. The space he used to occupy was empty, with only the bloody stumps of his arm remaining in Kyojuro’s hand and gut. Looking up, she saw Akaza in the air, flying backwards. She blinked at him, once, as he landed on the ground and turned towards the forest. He was running, she realized. She stared after him for only a second, then ran towards him. She knew she couldn’t catch up to him, but she had to do something. He didn’t deserve to leave unscathed. Stopping, she pulled back her arm and took in a deep breath. Orange flames spread along the length of the blade, and she threw it forward as hard as she could. It flew through the air like a blazing arrow through the air and buried itself in the demon’s back.

“Get back here, you coward!” Nezuko shouted after him. “You don’t get to just run away! You brag so much about your strength, but you- All of us demons- Only ever fight Demon Slayers in the night, when nothing can stand against you! But Kyojuro did! He stood against you, so get back here and fight!”

The Uppermoon only spared her a single glance over his shoulder before he fled past the treeline. She wanted to charge after him, wanted to drag him back, but she heard Kyojuro collapse near her. Turning to him, she saw him kneeling on the ground, taking in long, shaky breaths. She ran over to him and looked him over. The arm Akaza had forced through his gut had gone under his ribs, meaning it had missed the most important of organs. However, as it burst into ashes, blood began to seep out of the gaping hole it left behind. He didn’t have much longer, maybe only a few minutes. He tried to say something, but she shushed him- She felt ridiculous, shushing someone so much more important than her, and even with a hole in his chest, it managed to bring an amused smile to his face, but helping him came before anything else.

Looking down at the Hashira, Nezuko considered her options. The Demon Slayer Corp wouldn’t arrive soon enough to save him, and even if he was alive when they did, he would have lost too much blood to help. She desperately tried to remember her time with her family on the mountain, when they had to forgo visits to the doctor and they had to tend to themselves, but the worst they ever had to deal with was Tanjiro dropping an ax onto his leg. This was much, much worse than that. She didn’t know how to deal with the damaged organs, so all she could do was stop the bleeding. Even that was beyond what she could do, though, with the nature of the wound.

She paused, a horrific idea entering her head. She tried to push it down, but the reality of the situation forced it back up. She didn’t have the skill or knowledge to deal with a wound this serious any other way. “Give me your sword,” she told Inosuke. He hesitated for only a moment, then handed her his sword. She cut her palm on the tip and rubbed her blood onto the back of the blade. Looking it over, she drew most of the blood back into the cut on her hand. She didn’t need much for what she was about to do. Lighting her blood, the small amount blazed as brightly as the sun for a short moment, then went out, leaving behind nothing but red hot steel. Looking at the wound, she could see with detail each vein and artery, pumping blood out of Kyojuro with every heartbeat.

Sliding her fingers into the chips of the blade to get a better grip, she lowered the blade into the wound and pressed its back against one of the blood vessels. Kyojuro hissed in pain, but understood what Nezuko was doing and stayed still. She brought the sword away and looked at the wound. The open blood vessel had been sealed- By an angry, red, burn scar, but still sealed. She moved onto another blood vessel and did the same, then another and another. While she did this, she heard Kyojuro’s breathing change. Recognizing it as total concentration breathing, she could see the flow of blood out of his wounds slow and eventually stop. She far from understood how, but was still grateful that it had happened. The two of them managed to reduce the bleeding to next to nothing. She didn’t know if that would be enough, but for now could only hope it would be.

Setting Inosuke’s blade to the side, Nezuko sensed that the sun had risen. Turning to look towards the horizon, she saw the overturned ruin of the train was shielding her from daylight. She made no move to run to the forest or for any other shelter. Even if she didn’t burn, she knew what was waiting for her. Just more time she had stolen from her family. Staring at the edge of the train, she decided to at least face her death head on. No more taking any outs. Just taking what she deserved.

As the first rays of daylight reached towards her, she felt someone pull her down by her arm hard. As her face scraped against the earth, she turned and saw Kyojuro pushing himself off the dirt despite the extreme pain he must have been in. Pulling off his haori, he draped it over her just as the sun rose over the train. Realizing what he was doing, she tried to resist, but found she didn’t have the will to do it. Once any option presented itself, she doubled back on her commitment and took the out. Losing her composure, Nezuko curled in on herself and sobbed as sunlight covered the clearing.

“~”

Nezuko had her first dream since becoming a demon once she returned to the Butterfly Mansion. She couldn’t remember any details about it- It was just some dark, half remembered picture of darkness and blood and screams. When she woke, she was almost grateful for the dream. She was unlikely to forget what she was, but it was good to have a reminder. Once the Tsuguko arrived, she and the rest of the Demon Slayers had been brought back to the Butterfly Mansion. In the chaos of caring for Kyojuro, she had been forgotten. Once she had been able to make her way to her cage, she stepped inside and closed the door. The first person to find her had been Kochou. The two of them didn’t exchange a single word, with Nezuko’s back to the hallway and Kochou standing just outside of the cage. Eventually, the Hashira locked the door and walked away. Good. At least she knew one other person understood just what she was.

From the doorway to the hall, she heard Inosuke and Zenitsu arguing with Kochou. Nezuko didn’t bother paying attention too closely to the conversation, but the Hashira seemed to get her way. Whatever had happened, the two of them left soon enough. The Butterfly Mansion had been reduced to quiet rushing about. Kyojuro was still being tended to, and all energy was being devoted to him by Kochou and the girls of the mansion. With him being the obvious priority, she was left to her own devices for a few days. Her routine, if it could be called that, was simple- Just waiting for one day to end so that she could do the same the next day

One day, she heard the door at the end of the hallway open. Down the hallway came two sets of footsteps. If she had to guess, Aoi and Kanao had gotten around to her. Still facing away from the door, she heard them approach her and open the door to her cage. She could hear both of them step inside as Aoi set down the platter of meat and began to speak. “Rengoku’s going to live. Shinobu said that your decision to cauterize his veins made it hard to patch up his wound, but he wouldn’t be alive to operate on if it weren’t for you,” the girl told her.

After a moment of silence, Nezuko realized Aoi expected a response. “She’s the one who actually saved him. I could have killed him,” she quietly said.

The two of them were quiet for a moment before Kanao said, “The girls were wondering when you’d be returning to training.”

“I won’t.”

“Why?” Aoi asked her. “You’re fast, you’re strong, you’re probably better than most Demon Slayers. The girls love you,” she added on. That more than anything got her attention. If the girls of the mansion, little girls who couldn’t have been older than Hanako was when she let her die, thought well of her, then they might think well of any demon, and that only meant they were going to get them hurt because of her.

“It was a mistake. Both the Corp’s and mine,” Nezuko insisted. She was about to tell them about what she had done, about her she really was, but she felt the words catch in her throat. Even knowing just what she was, she was still too cowardly to tell anybody else about it. The two of them stood behind her, staring at her back for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Eventually, they turned and left her, leaving the cage door open after them. Once she heard the door to the hallway close behind them, she pushed herself off the floor and dragged the bars back into place.

A routine quickly formed after that. The two girls would bring another platter of food she would eat without any enthusiasm and try to strike up a conversation. She would only give simple answers and wait for them to get bored and leave. Eventually, they stopped trying to talk to her altogether. That was fine by her. It was better for everybody involved if they let a wall form between them. One day, weeks after she returned, a new set of footsteps accompanied the girls. It was slow and heavy, like the footsteps were made by a wounded adult. Raising her head to see who her new visitor was, Nezuko almost gasped as she saw Kyojuro walking down the hall towards her. She stared at him dumbly before scrambling off her back and taking a kneeling position, bowing down to the floor.

“There’s no need for that, Kamado! I think after the train, we’ve moved past those formalities,” he told her. She pushed herself up off the stone floor, though she still kneeled in front of him. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to follow through on my offer to train you. I’m not dead, but the wound that Uppermoon gave me was too serious for me to use total concentration breathing, and therefore, to continue as a Hashira.”

“You’re retiring?” Nezuko asked.

“More or less. I’ll take up training Demon Slayers, but the best days of my career are over. Still, thanks to you, I’m still alive to have a career.”

Nezuko wanted to object, but there was something about the way he said it. The passion he put into every word seemed infectious, like him just saying it made it true. She felt her words get caught in her mouth, and could only say, “I’m glad to hear it.”

He smiled at her, then turned to face Aoi and Kanao. “Could you two give us a moment? I need to speak to Kamado in private.”

After some hesitation, the two of them turned to leave. Kyojuro turned back to Nezuko and kneeled down to her level. The perpetual smile of his was still present on his face, but it was more muted alongside the rest of his demeanor. “At the train, you mentioned to me that something was your fault.”

She froze at that. She knew a confrontation about this was inevitable, but she still dreaded it. Before she could say anything in reply, though, Kyojuro continued, “I don’t think that it matters.”

“Doesn’t matter? How could it not matter? The actual King of Demons and he asked me  if I wanted to be this and I just said yes!” she confessed. “How could that not matter?”

After a moment, he continued, “I know. But we already knew you were a demon, and we let you into the Corps. When you said that you had only killed one person, I believe everyone but Ubuyashiki assumed you were lying, but we still let you into the Corps because we trusted his judgment. We knew that you had blood on your hands and that you could never hope to wash it off.”

“But that doesn’t mean you should stop trying,” Kyojuro said. “The dead are dead, and we can’t do anything to change that. But we can avenge them. We can do everything in our power to honor their memory and to make them proud. We owe them that, at least.”

Nezuko thought silently about what he said. She had let her family die and had ended the Kamado line herself. That couldn’t ever be changed. But she had known she had done that before she knew that she had accepted Muzan and demonhood. She had already promised herself that she lived for her family and her brother. Wallowing in self pity wouldn’t live up to that promise. She lived because they didn’t, and she owed them every bit of life she had stolen from them.

After a moment, she asked, “What should I do now?”

Smiling, Kyojuro replied, “Get back to training. I am effectively retired, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a say in the Corps. Once you are needed for a mission, I will arrange to have you sent on one.” Standing, he promised her, “Your story is far from over, Kamado. See it through.”

“~”

Akaza stood below a balcony that led into an expensive mansion. Inside, he could hear people talking amongst themselves at some sort of dinner party. More importantly, though, was the room just behind the balcony. A single boy was in there all on his own. From what he could hear, he was flipping through the pages of a book much too thick for his age. The Uppermoon hesitated to enter the building. The Hashira he had fought was certainly dead, but he had kept him from killing the other Demon Slayers. That failure had humbled him. He could pride himself for having fought such a capable opponent, but letting the rest of the humans and that demon live was humiliating. That demon… The face of anger as she shouted insult after insult after him as he ran into the forest was etched onto his face. He felt anger at her rise in the back of his mind with the fact that a girl- a demon, sure, but still a girl- Had landed the last blow.

He felt the blood in his veins shift against his will, and decided he had spent enough time brooding. Leaping to the balcony in one bound, he stepped inside the room the boy was in and knelt before him. “I went to aid Lowermoon One, as you instructed. While there, I killed the Flame Hashira.”

“And the blue spider lily?” the boy asked.

Silent for a moment, Akaza replied, “I’ve been unable to find it or any evidence of its existence.”

Turning to him, rage flashed over the face of Kibutsuji Muzan. Every muscle in Akaza’s body tightened, crushing blood vessels and organs without any concern. He was frozen as still as a statue in his kneeling position as blood seeped out of every hole in his body, unable to move a finger as the King of Demons began, “That is not good enough, Akaza.”

“Do you think killing a mere Hashira is special? The lowest of the Uppermoons has killed seven of them. A demon triumphing over a human is as special as a firestorm triumphing over a shack. You are, aside from the menial tasks I assign you, meant to do two things- Annihilate the Demon Slayer Corp and their master, and find the blue spider lily. You’ve killed Hashira before. Were they not replaced by others like one weed being replaced by another? Nothing short of burning the field down to the roots will do, and all of the strength my servants can muster is unable to do even that.”

As quickly as it had appeared, the rage vanished from Muzan’s face. He was always good at containing his emotions. “Leave now, Akaza, and hope I forget about your failings.”

He followed Muzan’s orders quickly, leaping out of the window to the ground. He quickly put distance between himself and his master. He knew just how well his mind could be read by the King of Demons, and he hated that- Hated how vulnerable and weak it made him. Once he was certain he was far enough away to not have his thoughts eavesdropped on, he changed course and ran towards something he had left behind on his path away from the train wreck. He had actually left it only a short distance from the wreck, and though there were miles and miles between him and it, he covered them before even an hour had passed.

The sword the demon girl had thrown at him was buried halfway into a tree. Reaching underneath his vest, he felt at the spot where it had pierced his chest. A thin white scar had been left behind by the piece of burning metal when it had been lodged in his chest. The flames that ran up and down its length had done something to him. Every instinct in his body turned him away from rational thought and towards getting the sword out of him, getting rid of it, getting rid of the pain. Once out, he had thrown it as far away from him as he had the strength to and only ran faster. By some miracle, Muzan hadn’t sensed the wound, meaning that his opinion of Akaza was only as low as it usually was, but the fact the wound was still there agitated him.

He stared at the sword, taking in and letting out measured breaths. Suddenly pulling back one fist, he sent a blow through the air at the steel. The sword stubbornly refused to shatter, and he reared back his fist for another blow, then another, then another. The sword still refused to shatter, only chipping whenever he struck it. With the speed of his blows, it was broken in seconds, but even this time dragged on, like the length of steel was mocking him, mocking his weakness. Rearing back his arm for one final blow, he finally broke the sword, sending its halves tumbling through the air. He stood where he was, panting and trembling in barely contained anger.

Eventually, Akaza found the strength to speak and promised the demon that had insulted him, “When I meet you again, girl, I will end your pathetic excuse for a life!”

“~”

Kanao walked across the wooden boards leading from one building to another. She was caught in a rare moment where she had nothing she needed to be doing- No katas to drill, no chore to do, no chemicals to help Shinobu make. The walk was interesting, certainly. The gardens of the Butterfly Mansion were filled with plants and insects, and she made a mental note of them as she walked by. Normally, she would have waited by somebody until they found something they needed her to do, but she felt the odd urge to walk about. Not to go anywhere in particular, just walk about. She wasn’t sure where this urge came from, but followed it regardless. Perhaps Nezuko had some hand in it, with her odd confidence in Kanao.

Nezuko had been distant recently. Even after Rengoku convinced her to leave her room, she only ever did what she was ordered to and what she had to. She almost reminded Kanao of herself, devoting herself to her drills and training over everything else. Nobody could break her out of her state, and even though she wanted to, she didn’t know how to. Nothing seemed as simple as it was before. She felt too many things, and didn’t know what to do with any of them.

Suddenly, she heard a scream from the other side of the mansion. Recognizing the voice as Aoi’s, she drew her sword and ran towards her. She wondered exactly what was going on- With the wisteria surrounding the mansion and open daylight, none but the most desperate demons would attack the Mansion. Rounding the corner, she saw that the cause of the noise in fact wasn’t a demon. Uzui Tengen, the Sound Hashira, was carrying Aoi on his shoulder and Naho under one arm. Sumi and Kiyo stood next to each other a short distance away, crying after them.

“What’s going on?” Kanao asked.

“Kanao! He’s taking me-” Aoi called out to her before being interrupted.

“Quiet, you!” Uzui shouted over her. Turning to answer Kanao, he said, “I’m taking her for a mission.”

Satisfied he had given enough explanation, Uzui turned away and continued walking towards the gate of the Butterfly Mansion. Aoi reached out to her with one hand and said, “Kanao! Help!”

Kanao took a step forward, then froze in place. Aoi was being taken by Uzui for a mission, and she couldn’t interfere with a Hashira’s mission. That went against what she had been taught by Shinou and Kanae about being a Demon Slayer. Unless a Demon Slayer broke one of the rules of the Corp, she had no right to interfere. Still, she felt an urge to help her sister. She was taught with indecision, literally shaking and fingers grasping at the air. She had been asked to help, but even if she had flipped the coin to decide on if to help her, a Hashira’s mission took-

The coin. Almost desperately, she thought back to when she had flipped it once she had woken up. Nezuko had suggested the practice to her two months ago, and while anything she said was far from an order, Kanao had still taken to her advice. However, once she remembered which side the coin fell on, the hope inside of her fell- Tails. The coin only told her to act on her own impulses when it landed on heads. She stared after Uzui as he took Aoi and Naho, standing as still as a statue.

“You can let other people make decisions about how you’re going to live your own life for you, or you can decide what your life is going to be like for yourself.”

Kanao remembered Nezuko as she told her that- The earnestness in her voice and belief behind her words. The belief in both what she said and Kanao herself. As Aoi and Naho cried out her name and reached for her, she, for the first time in what had only been a few years but felt like an eternity, made a decision. Dashing forward, she grabbed Aoi and Naho by their extended arms and dug her heels into the ground. Glancing towards them, she saw they seemed just as surprised at what she did as Uzui apparently was. He turned to face her, clearly shocked at this violation of her otherwise passive and obedient behavior. She lowered her head to face the ground, not wanting to look him in the eye.

“What on earth are you doing?” he asked her, too surprised to be angry yet. She found she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer him. Maybe she didn’t have the strength to or couldn’t decide how to answer or just didn’t know herself. Before she had to give any reply, though, Sumi and Kiyo involved themselves.

“Attack!” they both shouted. Jumping much higher than either of them should have been able to, they landed on Uzui and grabbed him tightly, trying to restrict his movements. He could have easily thrown them off, but while he was willing to force them to go on missions, he was still bound to the rules of the Corps and was reluctant to do anything that might hurt them. She heard a shout and the faint whistling of the wind as Inosuke threw himself through the air at the cluster of Demon Slayers. Whether he knew what was going on or only saw the chance for a brawl wasn’t clear, but she was still grateful for his interference.

“Oh, to Hell with this!” Uzui shouted as Inosuke flew towards him. The Hashira somehow managed to escape the grip of the girls as they and the boar headed Demon Slayer fell into a pile on the ground. Looking up, Kanao saw him standing atop the gate of the Butterfly Mansion’s walls, still holding Aoi and Naho. “I am a Hashira, and both of these Demon Slayers fall under my-”

“What the Hell are you doing?!” Zenitsu shouted at the man. Turning, Kanao saw him rushing towards the pile of girls. He must have followed Inosuke. Helping them up, he asked, “What’s going on?”

“He’s kidnapping them!” Sumi told him.

“What?!”

Uzui was clearly not used to being questioned like this. A tick visible from where she lay was visible on his forehead, and in between the grinding of teeth, he managed to growl out, “These two girls are needed for a mission to track down an Uppermoon of the Twelve Kizuki. Both of them are Demon Slayers, and as such fall under my authority!”

“Naho isn’t even a Demon Slayer!” Kiyo shouted up to him. He looked at her and, seeing she wasn’t wearing the uniform of the Corps, reluctantly dropped her. She fell through the air and was caught by Kanao, who had picked herself up and dashed forward.

“Fine. But I still need a female member of the Demon Slayer Corps for this mission, and I’m taking this one for that.”

“Why do you need a female member of the Corps specifically? Where is this mission even going?” Inosuke shouted at him.

“The red light district of Yoshiwara.” After a moment of horrified silence from the small crowd gathered in front of him, he tried to explain, “Okay, that does sound bad-”

“Shinobu!” Niho, Sumi, and Kiyo shouted in unison. She wasn’t at the Butterfly Mansion at the moment, but Uzui may not have known that. Shinobu had a certain reputation among the Demon Slayer Corps- Not as the strongest or most skilled Hashira, but the most intimidating. The nature of her breathing style and her demeanor meant most people, even within the Corps, were afraid of her, including, apparently, other Hashira.

“Okay, fine!” Uzui said, dropping Aoi as well. As she fell to the ground, he insisted, “I still need Demon Slayers for the mission I’m heading to! If I can’t find someone else to follow me on this mission, I will take her!”

Before she knew what she was saying, Kanao said, “I’ll go.” The crowd of young girls and Demon Slayers stared at her, even more shocked than when Uzui had announced the nature of his mission. She was just as shocked as they were, but continued, “I’m Shinobu’s Tsunguko, but that only means I can’t be ordered to do anything by someone that isn’t her or Master Ubuyashiki. I can go on missions without her. And I’m just as skilled as any other member of the Corps.”

Apparently inspired by her, Zenitsu shouted, “I’ll go with her!”

“Me too!” Inosuke chimed in. “I never back down from a good fight!”

Uzui stared at them, sighed quietly, then, attempting to regain his image, told them, “Very well! I accept you as volunteers for this mission! All of you, ready yourselves for the journey to Yoshiwara!”

Chapter Text

Nezuko had been in the middle of katas with her new sword when she had been summoned by Uzui Tengen, the Sound Hashira. Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Kanao had all volunteered for the same mission- How that had happened hadn’t been explained to her, but it didn’t matter. Uzui seemed like a less cheerful Kyojuro. He was, at least as a Demon Slayer, better than everyone else in the room, and he knew it. He looked down on everyone, which she would have understood if he limited himself to looking down on her, but he seemed to think everybody except for Ubuyashiki was beneath him. Still, if there was a mission she was needed for, she could keep her thoughts to herself.

“Now that I have you all here, the mission! The red light district of any city, especially one as big as Yoshiwara, is prime territory for demons. An area such as that attracts the poor, desperate for work, and the drunkard, desperate for a good time, making them good feeding grounds. Either they simply prowl the streets, or, if they’re better at disguising themselves, hide within a water business-” She didn’t recognize the term, but assumed that it meant a sort of inn, “- As a courtesan. Usually, these demons are more dangerous, so they are a high priority. My wives had infiltrated three of these inns they believe one of these demons is in.”

“Your wives?!” Zenitsu shouted from next to Nezuko, apparently offended by what he had heard.

“Yes, my wives-”

“No! No, nobody as freakish as you should have even one wife, let alone two!” he insisted. This was a side of him she hadn’t seen before, though not in a troubling way- More in a she never thought he could be this ridiculous. It was funny, in a way that would probably get him slapped.

“I have three wives, you idiot!” Uzui shouted at him.

“Like hell you are-”

Sure enough, he got struck by the Hashira, just below the ribs. As he doubled over and gasped for breath, the Hashira turned to the rest of them and asked, “Would anyone else like to interrupt?” They remained silent, and he continued.

“As I was saying, my three wives have infiltrated a number of water businesses within Yoshiwara. However, they’ve all stopped sending letters to me through their crows, and I’m worried something may have happened to them. You four will infiltrate those houses. Once you find the demon, unless lives are at immediate risk, contact me and I will slay it.”

“Why do you need all of us? This seems like a pretty simple mission to me,” Inosuke asked.

“Because I don’t know where the demon is. I need to be able to search several buildings built for discretion, and I cannot do that alone. I can certainly slay the demon on my own, but if I know where it is, I can confront it and do so without nearly as much collateral damage. Now, to Yoshiwara!”

“~”

Uzui snuck them into Yoshiwara in disguise- If anyone had seen them before and after they put on their disguises for infiltrating the flower houses, they might have been recognized. Once inside, they changed into another set of disguises. They started out with haori of bright colors and sat still as the Hashira continued disguising them, one by one. “All Geisha are expected to be beautiful- To be well dressed, to have elaborate hairstyles, to have a full face of makeup. None of you will have the time to advance through the ranks too much, but you will be expected to follow their lead. This will make it much easier to keep you from being recognized.” The process was long and drawn out, but eventually he finished. Once he did, she walked out of the small room she had been dressed up in to the main room the rest of the group was waiting in.

They all looked ridiculous, like men dressed up in women’s clothes for a play. Even Kanao had been made unrecognizable. White powder had been thickly applied to all of their faces, while their cheeks were covered in simple red circles of blush and their hair was done up in ugly pigtails. Inosuke seemed unbothered by the whole thing and Kanao was silently staring at Nezuko, but Zenitsu had another infuriated outburst. “Okay, you’re clearly not bad at this, so why do we look like this while she looks like that?!”

She was confused for a moment before turning to look at a small mirror set on a side table. She did look much better than all of them. Her makeup was more gentle, only highlighting the curves of her face, while her eyelashes had become more obvious. She remembered Uzui had applied something to them, though she had never asked what it was. Her hair had been gathered into a bun that spread widely on top of her head and was held together with a plain kanzashi. Many women in the town had worn the style- Marumage, they had called it when she asked. Reaching with one hand to touch it, she felt a fold of cloth that had been pinned to it. All together, she was wearing more makeup and jewelry than she had seen in her whole life.

Cutting through her surprise at how she looked, Uzui explained, “Because she is supposed to provoke the demon. Demons can, with their enhanced senses, detect other demons. Powerful demons can disguise their presence, even from other demons, but you,” he said, pointing to her, “Will not. Any demon you meet will be powerful but will still be a demon. If they recognize you as a demon, which they will, then they will confront you. They will reveal themselves, and then they can be killed.”

Turning to the Demon Slayers, he said, “Now, this mission should not take long, and you will not have the time to rise beyond the low ranks of the flower houses. If any customers do approach you, reject them. If they insist, you’re more than capable of defending yourself. Don’t hurt them in a way that makes you stand out too much, but keep yourself safe.”

With this final word of advice, they were taken by Uzui to the flower houses his wifes had infiltrated. He wore a disguise he had worn before in the red light district, and was easily let into the houses. The first was the Tokito house, owned by a middle aged couple who spoke comfortably with the Hashira, viewing him as a normal client.

“Well, I’m flattered you came to us with this offer first, sir!” the woman said. “Are all of these girls available?”

“Of course, ma’am,” he assured her with a charming smile. “Would you like to make a purchase?”

“Yes- What’s your name, girl?” the man asked Nezuko.

“Nobuko, ma’am,” she replied with the name Uzui had told her to assume

“Yes, you’ll do nicely.”

“Of course. However,” Uzui said, stepping forward, “I’m afraid she is a package deal with this one,” motioning to Kanao. He had decided to pair the two of them, as Kanao probably wouldn’t be able to blend in on her own. This gave the two owners of the house pause. After all, while Nezuko’s disguise had been meant to make her look like a prospective geisha, Kanao’s had not. Her off putting makeup and ridiculous pigtail sticking out behind her head wasn’t helped by her awkward silence.

“Ah… Are you certain that’s not negotiable?” the woman asked. “She’s quite homely, isn’t she?”

“Oh, certainly, but Kanako-” The name Kanao had been given by Uzui- “And Nobuko here have been friends since childhood. It would be cruel to separate them. Besides, ma’am, I’m certain that under your guiding hand, she would harden into a diamond in no time!”

While his wife was flattered by Uzui, the man considered his pitch, and relented, “Well, when the other one is such a steal, I think we can accept some baggage. We’ll make the purchase.”

The two girls bowed deeply to the two owners, then were taken to their separate rooms. After the girl who led her to her room left, she quickly set down the small amount of items she had been given for the persona. Once that was done , she sat down in the center of her small room. Slowly, she absorbed her surroundings like she had been taught by Yushiro. She listened to what was happening across the whole building. Customers entered and left the building, geisha entertained guests, the employees of the water business worked and chatted with themselves. Nezuko listened to it all, and waited.

“~”

Yakeo took a long drag from her kirseu as the new girl- Zenko, her name was- Sat down next to two other girls, forming a trio of shamisen players. She had been purchased by the ma’am of the Kyogoku house the previous day, mostly thanks to the man who had brought her. Apparently he was quite the charmer, and the old crone who ran the house was weak to flattery to begin with. Without much else to do, the geisha watched the girl as she raised her bachi to the strings. The trio began to play on their instruments, filling the room with a slow tune.

After a few strums of her samisen, the new girl raised her bachi high in the air and swiftly brought it down, then began to play the instrument faster than Yakeo had ever heard anyone play it. The energetic tune grabbed the attention of everybody in the room, interrupting conversations and even the playing of the other shamisen players. They all stared at her in awe and shock as the girl kept up the pace. Her face, already ugly with the awful makeup, was twisted in frustrated anger as she played harder and harder.

“Wow,” one of the other geisha said, “That new girl really is something, isn’t she?”

“Yes, if only it weren’t for that face of hers,” another chimned in.

“True. I can’t imagine any customer being interested in her.”

Taking another drag from her kiseru, Yakeo looked at the new girl again. Her left hand held the neck of the samisen while her fingers flew across the strings, jumping from one to the next without any difficulty or harm to the quality of the tune. Her bachi was held properly, with her pinky tucked behind the handle. She wasn’t just talented, either. A closer look at her face showed her that there was more on her face than just ugly anger. Well, maybe not more than anger, but there was a depth to it. She was outraged at something- If she had the guess, at the man who had brought her here and at the girls around her who clearly didn’t respect her.

“You know what, I think she’ll do well.”

“Do you really think so?” one of the geisha asked skeptically. “I mean, look at her.”

“I am looking at her. That girl is angry, but is doing something useful with that anger,” Yakeo insisted. “If nothing else, she’ll rise up just to spite the world around her.”

“~”

“Kanako, take these up to Orian Koinatsu’s room,” Kanao was ordered by one of the many geisha of the Tokito House who pointed towards a stack of colorful boxes. They held gifts from customers who didn’t understand the job of a geisha. She nodded obediently and grabbed the bottom of the stack, lifting it easily and beginning the journey to the Orian’s room. On the second floor, she arrived at the Orian’s room. Someone inside of the room noticed her presence and slid open the door. Kanao stepped in and set the gift down, then began unstacking the boxes.

“Wow,” she heard someone say behind her, “Did you bring these all of the way up here?”

Kanao turned to see a pair of young girls staring at her in awe. She had forgotten that most people hadn’t gone through the same sort of training that she had, and the woman who had ordered her to carry the gifts up had probably expected her to carry them over a few trips. Not being confident enough to say anything out loud, she only nodded in confirmation.

“These must be gifts from rich customers. She gets these all the time,” one of the girls told her. “Most of the time she just sells them to save for her retirement.”

“Most geisha who get gifts do the same,” the other girl noted, “Unless they’re nice looking. Remember that kanzashi that Orian Suma got from that anonymous customer?”

Kanao turned her head to face the girl who mentioned Orain Suma. Uzui had mentioned to her and Nezuko that Suma had been the one investigating the Tokito house for the presence of demons disguised as an Orian. She had gone silent recently, and Kanao hadn’t discovered any information about her, so anything she could learn related to her was valuable.

Noticing her interest, the girl continued, “It was this beautiful bira-bira kanzashi with a crest stamped onto the end. It looked like a snowflake whose branches ended in circles instead of more branches.”

That must have been a gift sent by Uzui. She recognized the description of the girl as being the symbol painted around his left eye, though she hadn’t known that was his personal crest.

“She didn’t wear that one much, since it reminded customers that she had other customers. Still, she really liked it.”

“She left it when she lost her footing, though, didn’t she?” the first girl asked.

“Yeah. I wonder why?” The girls turned back to her and, sensing that she didn’t understand what they meant by ‘lost her footing’, they explained, “When a geisha or girl at the red light district can’t pay their debts and runs away, people say they’ve ‘lost their footing’. Orain Suma hasn’t been seen in a while, and most of her clothes, jewelry, and money disappeared at the same time, so she must have-”

While the girl had been talking, a woman had been walking up to the room, stepping so gently Kanao could hear the cloth of her kimono dragging behind her. The woman stepped into the room through the door she had come in and ordered, “That’s enough, you two. No more gossip.”

Turning to face the woman, Kanao saw Orain Koinatsu standing behind her. She had seen her around the Tokito house a few times, but never talked with her. She wore her hair in a well maintained bun held up by half a dozen expensive looking pins. Her long furisode looked just as expensive. She didn’t have any makeup on at the moment, but Kanao noted she was still beautiful. She looked over to the stack of gifts that had been brought up and sighed in amusement to herself. Walking over, she picked out a box with a letter tied to it, then smiled to herself.

Looking at Kanao, Koinatsu asked, “Did you bring these up?”

She nodded while one of the girls told the Orian, “She brought all of them up by herself. All at once!”

“Really?” the Orain asked with surprise. Smiling, she said, “Well, then, I guess you’ve earned this.”

She pulled out a small bag she reached into, pulling out a few pieces of small, brightly colored candy. She handed them to Kanao, who accepted it with one hand.

“Ooh, konpeito?” one of the girls asked. “Orian, can we have some? Please?”

“No, I gave you some earlier, remember? You’ve had enough for today.”

Kanao grabbed one of the pieces of candy she had been given and, pocketing the rest, put it in her mouth. It was much sweeter than anything she had ever eaten before. Candy wasn’t something that had interested her before, and it wasn’t all too common in the Butterfly Mansion to begin with. It reminded her vaguely of fruit, but was so sweet it seemed like its real flavor was just that- Sweet. She rolled it around in her mouth for a moment before biting down. It broke apart easily, filling her mouth with its flavor.

Koinatsu laughed gently to herself at Kanao’s reaction to the candy. “You haven’t had many sweets before, have you?” As she shook her head, the Orian said to her, “Well, it was nice to meet you…”

After a silent pause, Kanao realized she was waiting for her name, and responded, “Kanako, ma’am.”

“It was nice to meet you, Kanako.” The Orian turned away from Kanao, and just at that moment, she remembered the reason she was here in the first place.

“What… What happened to Suma?” she asked nervously, not used to trying to pry information out of people less obviously.

“Why do you want to know?” Koinatsu asked, her friendly demeanor gone. She clearly didn’t appreciate people talking about what had happened to Suma, given how she had shushed the two girls. Her bringing the subject back up probably only seemed like her trying to gossip.

Kanao opened her mouth to say something, but didn’t know what to say that sounded true. None of her missions had ever required this sort of thing. They had only ever involved slaying demons alongside Shinobu or getting people out of areas where demons hunted, not trying to pry information out of someone. Nothing she had done had prepared her for this. Not her missions, not her training in the Demon Slayer Corps under Shinobu or Kanae-

“Sister,” Kanao blurted out. She hadn’t even thought when she said it, and stumbled over her own words as she tried to explain her outburst. “I- My sister- She-”

“She was your sister?” Koinatsu asked in surprise. She appeared to believe her, despite, or perhaps because of, her nervousness, and seemed much more sympathetic than she had just been. Kanao was still unsure of how to move on with the conversation despite the chance she had been given.

She remembered talking with Nezuko- How, when they talked, the two of them had been able to have what she recognized was a proper conversation. How it felt to actually talk to somebody, not just tell them things. Closing her mouth, she paused for a moment and said, “Yes. Suma’s my older sister. She stopped sending my family letters, so I came to the red light district to look for her. Nobuko came with me- She already knew a few people in the district, and helped me get into this house in the first place.”

Koinatsu pursed her lips, then relented, saying, “Well, if she’s your sister, you deserve to know. Nobody really knows what happened to her. She just disappeared one day, leaving most of her things behind. I’m a little worried about her, but the police were content with the explanation that she just left, and the ma’am didn’t care enough to go looking for her. She had already paid off her debts, and there were plenty of girls who might take her place. I’m sorry I can’t say more about what happened.”

“Do you know where she might have gone?”

After a moment of thought, Koinatsu suggested, “She may have gone to Kirimise- A cheap okiya. Only the cheapest, poorest geisha stay there. She might have run away with someone and stayed there, at least for a while. Nobody would care enough to go looking for her in that part of the district.”

Kanao nodded appreciatively and considered the situation silently. Geisha disappearing from the district was a convenient cover for any demon, since it was apparently common enough that nobody had suspected anything or cared enough to investigate. If a Demon Slayer on a mission had disappeared, then there was definitely a demon involved to some extent. The Demon Slayers who had come to the district would have to keep investigating to find out more, but Uzui’s suspicions had been right.

“~”

Inosuke walked down the hall slowly, carrying a wooden tray of food. Immediately after he had been bought by one of the houses, he had been put to work doing little chores around the house. He didn’t mind the work. He didn’t see the value of it, but interacting with the Demon Slayer Corps and people in general had taught him that most people wouldn’t stop doing something stupid even if he pointed out that it was, and the work was easy, compared to slaying demons.

He might have even enjoyed the cat and mouse game of searching for the demon if it weren’t for all that he had to wear. The feeling of the kimono’s cloth on his skin irritated him. He needed to pay attention to every detail his senses told him, and he couldn’t do that if he were being distracted by the feeling of the kimono rubbing against his skin! If it weren’t for the fact he needed to be in disguise, he would just strip down to his pants and be done with it. At least the people here had wiped off the makeup that had been clinging to his face. He had barely been able to think while wearing it.

“Have you heard anything from Makio?”

Inosuke briefly froze when he heard that voice speak. With how distracted he had been by his clothes, he almost hadn’t seen the two women who worked at the flower house walking down the hallway in front of him. He did hear them, though. Makio- That was one of Uzui’s wives, and the one who had infiltrated this particular house. He quickly stepped towards the voices and, once close enough to them, pressed his back against the wall closest to the voice, silently listening to the two girls as they talked to one another.

“Nothing new, no. I just went by her room to drop off a plate of food and left it by the door. She just told me that she wasn’t feeling well and that she didn’t want to talk.”

“She’s still not feeling well?” the first voice asked. “It’s been three days, and she still refuses to see a doctor.”

“I know. She may be a big earner, but the ma’am is still going to give her an earful if she doesn’t get back to work soon.”

As the conversation moved on, Inosuke thought about what they had said about Makio. If a demon had done something to her, a sickness would be the perfect way to disguise it. Even if there wasn’t a demon involved, he still had to contact her to learn why she wasn’t sending any more letters. The two women were walking away from him down the hallway, and one had mentioned they had just visited Makio, so her room must have been down the opposite direction. He stepped away from the wall and began to hurry down the hall.

“Inoko!” one of the voices called after him. He froze, frustrated by the interruption as she told him, “You’re going to run into a wall running like that. Just walk wherever you’re going.”

Taking a moment to calm down, he turned around and bowed towards the woman to show that he had heard her. The Sound Hashira had told him that his voice was too deep to disguise as a woman’s voice, so he couldn’t talk at all during the mission. Straightening his back, he turned right back around and slowly stepped down the hallway. Once he heard the two women walk around the corner, he went back to rushing down the hall as quickly as he felt like.

“~”

“You know, there’s no real point to being so stubborn,” the demon told Makio. “There’s no one who will come looking for you that could do anything, and I’m getting impatient. Soon enough, I’ll just eat you and move on to more interesting things.”

It was probably an empty threat. Probably. The demon had realized Makio was a Demon Slayer, and now that she had been recognized, the demon needed to know if anyone else was coming after it. It had bound her tightly with long stretches of silk made out of the demon’s flesh. There wasn’t any way for her to escape, so the smart thing for the demon to do would be to wait until she cracked. Of course, demons were violent and impulsive creatures, so the smart thing to do might not be what it decided to do.

“No? Should I repeat myself, then?” the demon asked, leaning closer to the captive kunoichi. “You’ve been sending letters out to someone. So was that other woman- The crybaby from the Ogimoto house.” Makio lifted her head to look at the demon in shock. It had discovered Suma? It obviously had, and if it had, it must have captured her, too. At least Hinatsaru seemed to be safe, but that still meant Suma was in danger.

“Ah, you know her?” the demon asked, noticing her distress. “Well, that’s perfect. Maybe if I involve her, you won’t be so resilient. I don’t want her to die just yet, but you humans can survive losing a limb or two. Tell me who you’ve been sending the letters to and who else has snuck into the red light district, or I-”

Interrupting the demon’s threats, steps approached the door to her room. Both of them paused to listen to the approaching noise for a moment before the demon spoke. “Not one word out of you. You shout or cry for help, and I will crush you,” it warned, threateningly tightening the silk wrapped around her body. With little other choice, she stayed silent as the steps grew closer and closer to her room.

“~”

Inosuke inched closer to Makio’s room. He hadn’t been sure which room was hers when he started, only knowing which hallway the woman had walked down, but there was something about this room. It felt wrong . Even with how distracting what he wore was, he could sense something wrong in that room. It reminded him of what he had felt when the Uppermoon had arrived at the train wreck, though much fainter. There must have been a demon in the room, either with Makio or searching the room while she was out. Either way, he had to confront the demon. Not having time to go get his swords and not wanting to give the demon time to react, he jumped forward and grabbed the handle of the door, throwing it open with one arm.

The room was a mess. Drawers and tables were overturned on the floor, while the bed meant for the women had been torn up by something. The rest of the room had been cut up too, with long, violent slash marks cut into the walls and floor. It looked like it had been through a battle, but nobody was in it. Not the Sound Hashira’s wife, not the demon he had sensed, nobody. As he looked over the room, trying to find some clue as to what had happened, he felt a faint breeze make its way through the air. The only part of the room that wasn’t closed off somehow was the doorway he was standing in, but the breeze was coming from inside the room, not the hallway.

Looking up, he saw a piece of the ceiling had been torn away, revealing a crawl space a smaller demon could easily fit through. Still sensing the demon in the space, he grabbed a bowl of noodles from the tray he had been carrying and threw it at the ceiling. It struck the wooden roof, startling the demon so much he could hear it thrashing about from where he was standing.

“I know you’re up there!” Inosuke shouted at the demon. “Come out here where I can see you!”

The demon ignored him and started to run away. A thumping noise began as the demon started to make its way down the crawl space, heading out over his head and into the hallway. He turned and started to chase after the noise- He thought about trying to enter the crawl space for a moment, but he didn’t have his swords on him and wouldn’t have been able to slay the demon. He could still follow the demon and find out where it was hiding.

“Oh, hello there!” a man said to him, drunkenly stumbling out of a room and into his path. “Care to show me a good-”

Inosuke grabbed him by the wrist and flipped him into a wall, forcefully clearing the path forward. The distraction created by the man might have been enough to lose the trail if it weren’t for just how loud the demon was being. It slammed against the wooden walls of the crawlspace as it dragged itself away from him, like a beacon of noise. Most people wouldn’t have been able to hear it, but being raised on a mountain had sharpened his senses to a fine point. He followed the demon relentlessly, intent on tracking it to wherever it was headed. However, something interrupted him.

“Somebody attacked him!” a woman screamed from the hallway behind him. Somebody must have found the man he had thrown out of his way. He had roughed the man up a little, but not any more than he had to. Still, the woman’s screams had alerted most of the house that something was going on, and they had come out in force to investigate. People stepped out of their rooms, talking, shouting, or shoving into one another as they tried to figure out what was going on.

The noise made it impossible for his already stunted senses to track the demon. He thought he heard it head down through the walls, but with all of the distractions, he couldn’t even tell that for sure. As the house bustled and drowned out any sign about where the demon had gone, it made its escape away from him.

“~”

Zenitsu wandered down the halls of the Kyogoku house. He hadn’t been able to find anything worth reporting to Uzui at the house- No sign of Hinatsaru, the wife the Hashira told him was working at this particular house, or of any demons. There was a slight fear he could hear in everyone that did make him nervous, but that alone wasn’t enough to help him in his search. It had probably been caused by the death of the old ma’am of the house- Apparently she had thrown herself from a window on the top floor a few days ago. Some man had taken charge of the house who he hadn’t met yet.

The days had dragged on into weeks, bringing him down from a state of general alert paranoia to a dull boredom. By this point, his progress in the ranks of the flower house interested him more than his mission. He obviously didn’t want to progress too far up the ranks, knowing what the job of a geisha was, but he was happy to spite Uzui’s low expectations of him. He had gained some popularity among the customers as a Shamisen player, giving him a comfortable place in the house.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a young girl crying. He spent a few moments trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, then started walking towards it. It probably had nothing to do with his mission at all, but he was still concerned about it. The crying was only coming from a short distance away, so it didn’t take him long to find the girl. She was inside one of the many rooms of the Kyogoku house where customers were received by geisha. He gently slid the door open and gasped at the sight before him. In the middle of the room was a girl wearing light purple clothes, hunched over and crying to herself. The room itself had been trashed, with shelves and expensive looking ceramics being tossed about and destroyed.

“What the hell?!” he shouted in shock, “What happened here?!”

The girl stopped crying for a moment to turn up to face him. Her cheeks already wet with tears, she started crying again at his outburst.

“Hey, I…” Stepping forward as he tried to comfort her, Zenitsu told her, “I didn’t mean to upset you. I wasn’t yelling at you, I was just shocked at what happened here. Is everything okay?”

The girl spent a moment longer quietly crying, then managed to stop herself. She pulled her hands away from her face and looked up at him with what looked like surprise, like she had expected him to keep shouting at her for no reason before glancing over his shoulder and freezing in genuine terror.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing here?” an angry, hate-filled voice asked from behind him. He froze just like the girl in front of him, just as scared as she was. There was a demon behind him. He could hear the wrongness in them- But it was faint. Much fainter than he had ever heard a demon be. Somehow, that made it even worse. He hadn’t noticed it at all until it had spoken just behind him. If it hadn’t done that, it could have been anywhere at all and he wouldn’t have known. He wanted to fight, but beside being scared as still as a statue, he didn’t have his sword on him. He wasn’t very good even with it, but without it, he was nothing at all.

“Orian Warahibime,” a shaky voice said from the doorway. He turned to see a pair of girls dressed like the one crying on the floor of the room, both just as scared as she was. One of them tried to speak up in his defense, saying, “This girl was hired only a couple of days ago, so she doesn’t know this is your room.”

“Why should I care why she did something so impolite?” the Orian asked the two girls, turning to glare at them. They cringed away, hiding as much of themselves behind the sliding door as they could while still looking at the Orian, like they were scared to let her out of their sight.

Snapping out of his shock, Zenitsu apologized to her, “I’m sorry I came into your room without asking. I heard a girl crying in here, so I thought I should-”

“You are the single ugliest thing I have seen in my whole life,” Warabihime interrupted, slowly turning to face him, her hate filled eyes boring into him like drills, “And believe me, that is saying something. Wouldn’t it be kinder if you just curled up and died?”

If he hadn’t been so terrified of the Orian, he might have shouted something in his defense. As it was, he just tripped over his words and quietly mumbled something incoherent. While he stayed silent, she stepped past him to the crying girl. She was still curled up on the ground, head raised to look at the Orian in terror. Faster than he could see, which was saying a lot, the girl had been grabbed by her ear and lifted almost off of the floor, her toes pushing against the straw mats to try and keep strain off of her ear.

“What are you doing, just sitting down and whining?!” Warabihime began to shout. I thought I told you to clean up this mess!”

The girl had started crying again, both from the shouting and the fact that she was being held so tightly blood was starting to leak from behind the Orian’s fingers. “I’m sorry!”

“I didn’t tell you to be sorry, I told you to clean up this mess, you brat!”

The girl cried while the Orian yelled at her for a moment longer before Zenitsu snapped out of his shock and grabbed her by the arm. She froze just as still as he had, though probably not out of fear. With a tone in her voice even more dangerous than when she had first introduced herself, she asked, “What do you think you’re doing?”

It took everything in him to not freeze again or cringe away from the Orian as he told her, “Let the girl go,” with as much strength as he could muster.

Zenitsu maintained eye contact with Warabihime for a brief moment as she tried to cow him through the sheer anger set in her eyes. He held firm for a moment before she let go of the girl. He was relieved for a moment before she swung the backside of her hand towards him. He was hit with a strength that no human outside the Corps had. This meant for sure she was a demon- Though he didn’t really appreciate that fact as he slammed into one of the screen doors and tumbled through the air. As he landed on the floor and slid until he hit a wall, the last thing on his mind, instead of anything about his mission or the demon he had discovered, was the hope that the girl hadn’t been scared too badly by what had happened.

“~”

“You need to stop, Warabihime,” Omitsu, the ma’am of the Kyogoku house, ordered the Orian. She was just sitting in her room in her full dress and with her hair all done up, like she had been waiting for her. Omitsu never saw her wear anything but that getup. For a while, she had only thought of this habit as a way to keep up appearances, or at worst, a little obnoxious. However, in the days leading up to the confrontation, she had come to understand just how unsettling it was to the girls of the mansion.

“Stop what, ma’am?” Warabihime asked. It was obvious that the Orian knew perfectly well what she was talking about, with a tone of voice that made it clear Omitsu was supposed to stop talking. The dim room was lit only by a single lamp, only making Omitsu even more nervous. Still, she persisted insistently.

“The disappearances! The girls losing their footing, disappearing, killing themselves! I know you’re responsible for it, and I’m not going to let it keep happening!”

Warabihime asked with fake pain in her voice, “You’re taking their side? Even after all they did to irritate me?”

“I didn’t want to think that this was anyone’s fault, least of all yours, but I can’t avoid this any longer! You’re responsible for this- I don’t know how, but I know you are!” Omitsu insisted.

Warabihime was silent for a moment, then abandoned her pretense of politeness, asking bluntly, “And who, you old hag, do you think is responsible for this house being as successful as it is? Whose earnings do you think let it prosper like it has?”

It took everything in Omitsu to not cringe away from the woman as her demeanor changed. While trying to compose herself, she remembered a story she had been told as a child. There had been an old woman who had run a teashop in the red light district that she had loved listening to. She had loved listening to her tales of the red light district, of the bright lights and exciting luxuries. The woman had been older than seemed possible to a young girl like her, but still remembered plenty of stories from her time in the district and was happy to have someone to talk with.

One of the stories she told was of an Orian named Yatahime that used to live in the district. She had been beautiful and had been the greatest asset of whatever house she worked for, bringing mountains of money from patrons. But her beauty hadn’t just brought wealth. It had brought fear. Everyone in the house she worked in knew that to cross her was to die. Every girl and employee- Even the master- All prostrated themselves in front of her. She may as well have been the one who ran the house. Omitsu had asked the woman if she had known the Orian, and was told that Yatamahime had actually worked in the district a few generations before she had- She had been told the story by someone even older than her. The Orian while she worked in the red light district, she had absentmindedly mentioned, was named Otohime. She hadn’t understood why she had phrased it the way that she had. Now, while she faced down Warabihime, who stared at her with such hatred and had cowed everyone in the Kyogoku house, she understood why.

One of her hands had been drifting behind her back to her obi, her fingers wrapping around the wooden handle of a knife she had snuck into the room from the kitchen. With a creeping sense of certainty, she asked, “Are you even human-”

And in less than a moment, she was no longer in the room. She blinked once, then twice before realizing just where she was. She choked down a scream as her feet dangled in the air, so far up that she couldn’t see the rooftops, even in the periphery, while looking at the thing holding her. Warabihime easily held her aloft with lengths of silk that she moved like limbs, wrapping around her chest tightly. Her legs kicked for a moment, pointlessly reaching for some foothold, before silk wrapped around them too, binding them together.

“You know, there is exactly one way people stay alive in this district- Keep your head down and keep your mouth shut,” Warahibime told her in a sickly sweet and gleeful tone of voice, like she was glad she didn’t have to pretend anymore. Her dress had seemingly fallen apart at the seams, forming the silk wrapping around Omitsu, leaving the Orian scantily clad in nothing but a set of undergarments. Her carefully styled hair had similarly fallen apart, flowing slightly like it was being blown by some unseen wind. Everyone of her kanzashi had somehow stayed in place, which a distant part of her mind noted was in character for the Orian.

The worst was her eyes- Even while Warabihime had been pretending to be human, they had been a sickly shade of yellow that Omitsu had been willing to lie to herself was just because of the lamplight. They had changed to an equally unnatural green. Instead of pupils, the Orian had two kanji in the middle of her eyes that read “Upper Six”- What that meant, she had no idea. Were there more of her? Were there ones even worse than her?

“That’s how the smart ones survive, anyway. You’re much dumber than I gave you credit for.” Seeing just how scared she was, Warabihime said, “Oh, there’s no need to worry! You’re much too old for my tastes. If it’s ugly or dirty, it never gets close to my mouth!”

The silk wrapped around Omitsu began to loosen as the knife she held was gently plucked from her hands. Realizing what was about to happen, she slowly shook her head, silently begging for a mercy she knew wouldn’t come. “Goodbye, Ma’am.” The silk unwrapped around her and she dropped towards the ground. The houses and lights of the district blurred by her while the rushing air filled her ears with so much noise she couldn’t even hear her own screams. All of it lasted for only a minute, and then it ended.

“~”

Daki, as Warabihime knew herself as, glared at the unconscious boy. He may have been dressed vaguely like a girl, but she recognized the disguise the moment she had laid eyes on it. Through the anger at his behavior, she wondered why he had worn it. He may have been investigating, looking into the string of disappearances she had caused. Of course, this was the red light district. Little information would have spread about their disappearances, and few people would have care to investigate the disappearances of a few whores. Of course, he might not have been investigating their disappearance. He might have been looking into the disappearance of the two women who had served in the Demon Slayer Corps, and if he was, there was only one group he could be a part of.

Interrupting her train of thought, the master of the Kyogoku house- Some man whose name she had never bothered to learn- Said, “Orian Warabihime…” He stuttered wordlessly for a moment before coming to his knees and bowing almost until his forehead touched the floor and asked, “Please, forgive her. We will be letting in customers soon. For the sake of the mansion, let me handle her punishment.”

Daki was silent for a moment before adopting a more cheerful tone, telling the man, “I’m sorry for my outburst. So many things have been leaving me out of sorts lately, I’ve developed a short temper. Please, don’t bow all the way down there for my sake.” He slowly stood, though he and the people who had come to gawk at the scene were still scared. Good. That was how she liked this house.

She turned to face the girl who she had been reprimanding before being interrupted and, with a hint of her anger slipping out from behind her cheerful mask, ordered her, “Clean this up before my customers arrive.” The girl, and the rest of the mansion, started scrambling to clean up the mess.

She walked past them and deeper into her room. Coming back to her thoughts about the boy who had confronted her, she concluded that he must have been a Demon Slayer. He must have been sent by whoever the two Demon Slayers she captured had been sending letters to. The thought that Demon Slayers were being sent in numbers to slay her made her happy. Muzan had been proud of her skill over the years as she killed Demon Slayers in droves- Even seven Hashira. More Demon Slayers would arrive for her to devour and earn the pride of Muzan with. She smiled to herself, eagerly waiting for the battle ahead of her.

“~”

Zenitsu groggily opened his eyes, waking from a restless sleep. This wasn’t unusual for him. He was used to his habit of nap-taking that he seemingly had no control over, though he hadn’t figured out how to make himself feel any less awful when he woke up. He slowly pushed himself up, rubbing at his eyes. Once his vision had cleared up, he looked at his surroundings and saw he was lying in a makeshift bed in what looked like a closet. A plate with two rice balls and a cup of tea on it lay next to him. With no idea how he had gotten where he was, he wondered to himself, “Where am I?”

“Zenko!” a young voice said from in front of him. He turned towards it and saw a trio of young girls he recognized from before he had been knocked out by Orian Warabihime. “How are you?”

He stared at the trio for a moment, mostly just taking the time to remember that he was called Zenko for the mission, before making an exaggerated rubbing motion on one of his temples. “Oh, my head! I must have been hit harder than I thought I was.”

One of the girls offered up a moist towel, which he pressed against the bruise on his cheek. He cringed a little at the pain, and one of the girls asked, “Does it hurt a lot?”

“It hurts a little, yeah, but it’s not too bad,” he reassured the girl. “Where am I?”

“A supply closet- The master wouldn’t pay for you to be taken to a doctor, so we brought you here.”

“Oh, thank you.

“It was the least we could do, Zenko,” the girl he recognized as being the one the Orian was attacking told him. The three girls bowed down to the floor and said, “Thank you for protecting me from Orian Warabihime.”

Zenitsu was about to assure her that any man would rush to help an upset girl, but remembered that he was disguised as a girl and changed what he was about to say to, “I was the oldest sister back in my family, so I’m used to standing up for people. Besides, anybody would have stepped in at that point.”

“That’s not true,” another girl said. “Most people here are too busy getting by to care about what happens to anyone else. You’re the first that’s stood up for us. Thank you.”

Zenitsu stared at her for a moment, surprised at what she said, before smiling and telling her, “You’re welcome.”

The three girls stood up and stepped towards the exit. “We’ve got to go work, and your injury will probably only give you a day or two or of freedom. For now, you should rest and eat.”

The three girls stepped out of the room and closed the door behind them. Zenitsu smiled after them, then started thinking about his mission. He had obviously found the demon, and though he hadn’t been able to slay it, Uzui did say his job was to find the demon and report back to him. Once he did, his mission would be over. He was feeling good about himself. Sure, looking back on it, his confrontation with the demon was a little embarrassing, since he hadn’t been able to do anything about the demon, but he would still be able to report on it. The demon would be slain, it wouldn’t be able to kill anyone else, and on a more visible scale, the girls who had helped him would be much better off.

Then he heard something behind him, the same faint wrongness he had heard from Warabihime coming from right behind him. There was a flapping noise, like cloth hanging in the wind, for a moment, and then everything went black.

Chapter Text

“Gone?” Kato, the master of the Kyogoku house, repeated.

“Yes, gone,” Fuka, one of the old women who managed the girls, told him. “All of her things have been left, and nobody knows where she went.”

Kato stared at her for a moment, then turned back towards the papers he had been reading before she had interrupted him. He took what he had been told in stride, like he had expected to hear this. Considering which house he ran, she wasn’t surprised by his attitude. “Take whatever she left and try to sell it. That pawn shop two blocks west of us- They might be willing to buy some of the things she left. That’s the closest we’ll get to what she owed us.”

Nodding, she asked, “Should I contact the police about her disappearance?”

“No!” he all but shouted at her. “We’re not going to find her, and we’re not going to get back what she owes us, so just forget about her!”

“But-”

“Forget about her!” This time Kato did shout, throwing over the table he had been sitting in front of and standing up suddenly. “I don’t care if you’re worried, or what you think might have happened, or about anything but selling what she left! It’s her own fault,” he hissed- Much less loudly than he had just been shouting, sure, but he still gave dangerous life to the truth by saying it out loud. “She agitated Warabihime. Everything in this house knows not to do that. Why did she do such a damned stupid thing like that?”

Fuka stared at him for a moment, then picked herself up off the floor and stepped out of the room. Everyone in the Kyogoku house was on edge after Zenko confronted Warabihime. They knew that there was something different about that Orian, something wrong with her. They all knew to keep their heads down, but every now and then there was a new girl or worker who hadn’t had the time to learn or someone who convinced themselves they could challenge her. It had only been worse recently, especially with the “suicide” of Omitsu. That had almost pushed Kato over the edge. Many people in the house had thought they were lovers, which they might have been, but at the very least they were close. When she died, everyone had known what really happened, but hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Still, after years working at the Kyogoku house, he knew how to move on. What else was there for them to do?

“~”

“I’m telling you, there’s a demon at the Ogimoto house!” Inosuke shouted to Nezuko.

The two of them had scheduled a meeting every week to check in on each other. Most of the time, they only told each other that they hadn’t found anything, so Inosuke’s claims were a first. He was perched at the edge of the roof of some building between the three houses they were searching, while she was standing on a small balcony, hiding under the eaves from the sunlight. Both of them were still wearing what they had been given by the houses, and an outside observer would probably have the amusing impression that a pair of geisha had started crawling over the rooftops.

Nezuko jumped back into the conversation, asking, “Were you able to track it down?”

“I already told you, there are too many people there! They all make too much noise, but I know that the demon was there! I heard something in the crawl space leaving Makio’s room!” he insisted.

“Okay, okay, I believe you,” she reassured him. “I guess we know for sure what happened to Tengen’s wives now. Kanao heard from one of the Orian’s that Suma had also disappeared. That just leaves Hinatsaru, right?”

“Yeah, in the house Menitsu is searching.”

After a hum of agreement, she asked, “Why do you think he hasn’t shown up yet?”

“Maybe he found a customer!” Inosuke joked, which Nezuko barely registered, only wondering what might have actually happened to make Zenitsu so late.

“Zenitsu has disappeared,” Uzui told them, causing them both to jump. He had, like magic, appeared on a rooftop facing the two of them. Once they had recovered from their surprise, what he had just said set in.

“What do you mean, he’s disappeared?” Nezuko asked, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

“Two nights ago he vanished. I’ve been keeping tabs on all of your houses, and I noticed he hadn’t appeared with the rest of the girls. I doubt that the master of any water business would allow him to stop working for so long, so he must have disappeared entirely, and if he did that without telling us, he must have been taken by whatever demon has infiltrated the red light district.” He turned to face them with an oddly subdued expression and said, “It was my mistake to bring you here in the first place. With what I suspected about the demon and your low ranks, I should have known not to involve you. I will take full responsibility for this. In the meantime, the three of you need to leave and head back to Butterfly Mansion. I trust Kanao can lead you there.”

Before they could ask anymore questions, Uzui disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Inosuke and Nezuko were left where they were to grapple with the weight of what he had told them. Zenitsu had been taken by a demon? If that was true, then the demon must have killed him. Her imagination began to spiral out of control, bringing up images stitched together from what had been left in the wake of other demons and herself. The thought of Zenitsu’s face among all of the bodies paralyzed her.

“Well, that’s bullshit!” Inosuke shouted, shaking her out of her shock. “To hell with him, we’ve got to find Zenitsu!”

“But…You heard what he said. He told us to go back to the Butterfly Mansion. We can’t disobey orders from a Hashira!” she objected.

“Well, he’s not here to stop us, is he?” he pointed out. “We can’t just leave Zenitsu in the hands of a demon!”

“I don’t… I don’t think he’s still alive, Inosuke.”

“Well then, we find whatever demon killed him and slay them. Do you want to just leave him behind?”

Nezuko was silent, not knowing how to respond. She knew that she had to keep fighting demons, and to do that, she had to do what the Demon Slayer Corps told her when they told her. Still, Inosuke’s words rang true. Abandoning Zenitsu wasn’t at all what she wanted to do, even if it was what she had been told to do. If Uzui was right- and he probably was right, having years more experience than both of them- he was dead, but he deserved better than just being left behind. He had risked his life fighting alongside her and had vouched for her when she was captured by the Demon Slayer Corps, being one of the only reasons she hadn’t been slain. He deserved better than this.

“Alright. What do we do, then? How are we going to find the demon?”

“If it took Zenitsu, then it must have infiltrated the Kyogoku house, but I heard it moving all the way over in the Ogimoto house. It must have found a way to move between houses while hunting.”

Nezuko gave it some thought, wondering how she would move between houses if she were hunting humans. “Uzui probably would have recognized the demon if it was just moving at night in disguise, so… Tunnels.”

“Tunnels?”

“Tunnels. A demon could move through them without exposing itself to the sun or being seen. You could follow the path you heard it take through the walls and find where the tunnel began, then take it to the demon’s lair.”

“Should we attack the demon together?” Inosuke asked cheerfully.

“No, not yet. Kanao mentioned a place that Hinatsaru might be staying. I should see if she’s there before anything else. I would’ve told Uzui, but he left before I could.” Nezuko paused, face scrunched up in confusion, then asked, “Wait, did you say Zenitsu?”

“Zenatsa?”

“No, you actually said Zenitsu. I mean, you said it right.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Inosuke said, oddly defensive about it.

“~”

Tengen jumped from rooftop to rooftop, quietly nearing the Kyogoku house- Zenitsu’s death was tragic, but it did mean that the demon was in the house he had infiltrated. The Hashira had waited until the sun had set. It gave up an advantage, but hunting down a demon as it hid from the sun in some lair was always more dangerous than fighting it on an open battlefield. Reaching the Kyogoku house, he gently slid open a window and let himself in. He had entered the building just before it opened, giving him the chance to walk down the halls uninterrupted. The girls and workers of the house bustled around in the lower floors, getting the house ready to start receiving customers while he silently crept though the upper floors..

He quickly reached his destination, the room where the master of the Kyogoku house did his paperwork, and silently moved inside. The man was holding a bloodied kimono, staring at it intently- Uzui had heard the ma’am of the house had died recently, and assumed this had been her kimono. He drew a small knife and pressed it under the man’s jaw, ordering him, “Don’t make a sound. Answer every one of my questions quickly and honestly, and you will live to see another day. Understood?”

The man, after a moment spent getting over his own shock, nodded twice. “Good,” he told the man. “Now, I know that there have been a string of disappearances in this house. Tell me what happened to Hinatsaru and Zenko.”

Trembling with the relief that he would at least not have to keep his terror inside anymore, the man said, “Hinatsaru got sick a few weeks ago. She couldn’t work and left for Kirimise. It’s-”

“I know what it is,” Tengen told him.

“Right. Zenko disappeared two days ago, after…” The man took another moment, hesitating to give up someone who held so much control over the Kyogoku house.

“It’s my job to deal with things like these,” he told the man. “The threat hanging over your head will be gone if you tell me who is responsible.”

“… Warabihime,” the man said. “People started disappearing after she arrived. Her personal room is in the south corner of the building, where the sun never reaches.”

Knowing where the demon was, Tengen immediately left and ran gently down the halls to the demon’s room. Throwing open the screen doors, he saw it was unlit and empty. The demon could have been hiding somewhere, but from this close, he would have sensed it, so it was unlikely. First things first. He turned away from the room and jumped to another roof, beginning the journey to Kirimise. If Hinatsaru had gone there, she must have feared the demon had found her out. She couldn’t have sent any messages without being noticed. Tengen would find his wife and make sure she was safe. Once he knew she was, he would hunt down whatever demon had hurt Suma and Makio and slay it with his own blades.

“~”

Koinatsu sat patiently as Kyoko and Takara- the two girls who attended to her- sculpted her hair with wax and arranged the wide array of jewelry she had been gifted by her customers or bought for herself. The two of them were getting very good at it. She was confident that both of them would be able to care for each other. She would miss them, she admitted to herself, but it couldn’t be helped. At least she could be sure they would be fine when they could no longer rely on her.

“That’s good,” she complimented the girls, “But I can do the rest myself. You can head on to dinner without me, but first, I have a gift for the both of you.”

“What is it?” Kyoko asked, ever curious.

“Is it more konpeito?” Takara asked excitedly.

Smiling, she told them, “No, these gifts will last you a little longer.”

She opened up a drawer and pulled out a pair of kanzashi, one silver and the other gold. They were some of her finer pieces of jewelry. She had actually bought these for herself as she started to rise through the ranks of the Tokito house, but soon wouldn’t need them.

“These are for you,” Koinatsu told the girls. They were both shocked by the gifts- She was generous with them, but that usually meant she gave them candy or ribbons to braid into their hair.

“Are you sure?” Takara asked. “Aren’t these special to you?”

“Yes, but I have plenty of kanzashi. You are both special to me as well, and I only have the two of you. Come on, let’s see how you look with them.”

She gave the gold one to Kyoko and the silver one to Takara, sliding it into their hair buns. Both of them took a glance at their new jewelry in her mirror, oohing and aahing at themselves. “Thank you, Orian Koinatsu!” they said in unison.

“You’re welcome. Now, hurry along to dinner.”

The two of them left the room, then both hesitated just at the doorway. They turned around and, in unison, told her, “I love you, Orian Koinatsu!”

“I love you too,” she told the girls, waving after them as they finally left her room for dinner.

She turned back to her mirror, hoping to add some final touches to her makeup and hair when she heard someone stepping on the straw mats behind her. She turned to see Kanako kneeling on the floor behind her. She was no longer wearing the kimono she had been given by the Tokito house, instead wearing a purple uniform of some kind with a knee length skirt of the same color and a white cloak. Odder still was the sheathed katana at her side.

“Kanako?” she asked. “What on earth are you wearing?”

The girl didn’t answer her question, instead pulling out a letter and sliding it towards her. “This should cover my stay, Orian.”

Koinatsu stared at the girl, having no idea how to respond to what she was seeing. She had so many new questions about this girl. Why was she wearing this strange outfit? Why had she entered the Tokito house in the first place? Most of all, why did she have a sword with her? These and a dozen more questions whirled around in her mind before she settled on, “Is Kanako really your name?”

The girl blinked and began to reach towards a pocket in her uniform before pausing. After some contemplation, she answered, “No. My name is Kanao. I’m investigating the… Disappearances that have been happening in the red district. Nobuko is, as well.”

“Is that what the sword is for?” The girl nodded in confirmation, and Koinatsu said, “Good. It’s good to know that even after I’m gone, the people I care about here will still be safe.”

She didn’t know why she felt compelled to tell Kanao this. Perhaps it was just that she wanted to tell someone, and she happened to be here. “I’m leaving the district. I’ve found a man I love, and we can support each other. It won’t be as luxurious as the district, but I’ll be happy.”

The girl didn’t seem sure how to respond to that, but eventually said, “I’m glad to hear it. Goodbye, Orian Koinatsu.”

She bowed her head to the Orian, then got up and left out the window, somehow jumping all the way to the roof across the road. Koinatsu spent a moment contemplating how odd what had just happened was, then turned back to her mirror and did the final touches to her makeup that had been interrupted by the girl. She heard the floor creak behind her, then turned to face the noise, expecting to see Kanao again.

“Yes? Did you forget something-”

She gasped softly in shock at the person behind her. Instead of the girl, a woman stood behind her. She wore almost nothing at all, just undergarments made out of black and red cloth alongside a length of brightly colored silk wrapped around her midriff. The same silk seemed to extend from her back, writhing like an unfelt breeze kept them in the air. The woman wore several sets of kanzashi in her lacquered hair that looked even more expensive than what she wore when she entertained the richest of customers. Despite how ridiculous the sight was, Koinatsu was terrified. She felt, somehow, that this woman was a bigger threat to her life than any alleyway robber. Something about her made her hair stand on end, and that was before she even looked at her eyes. There was a gleeful viciousness in those eyes she might have expected from a wolf or other hungry animal, not any sort of human, and that was without the kanji set in them.

“Yes, I did!” the woman answered. As the lengths of silk started to drift forward and around Koinatsu like the fingers of some hungry giant, she continued, “I forgot I need to kill off the competition if I’m going to stay the most beautiful Orian in the district. You’re a close second, Koinatsu- But not for long.”

“~”

Inosuke sat impatiently still on the floor, waiting for the other two Demon Slayers to appear. Neither of them had shown up an hour after they were supposed to. The Corps had managed to drill some patience into him, but he was still Inosuke. Eventually, he jumped up from his seat on the floor with a shout, grabbing one of the beams holding up the ceiling. Drawing back one fist, he punched a hole in the thin planks of wood and reached around. Soon enough, he found the swords he had stashed up in the attic the first day he had arrived here. It took a little effort to get the lengths of metal out through such a small hole, but he got them out eventually and let them fall to the floor. He stuck his hand back into the hole and reached around some more for something as important as any blade.

Dropping back down, he threw off his kimono and pulled on his boar’s head, then pulled the swords he had dropped out of the floor where they had impaled themselves. Someone screamed from behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see one of the girls that worked the house pointing at him, her hand trembling as she pointed at him. “Monster!” she screamed.

He cackled gleefully and turned towards her, charging past her as she shouted, “Make way for Lord Inosuke!”

“~”

Tengen landed on a rooftop next to Kirisime. If what the man had told him was true, she should be in there. Troublingly, he sensed the presence of a demon inside of the same building. It was faint, so the demon was either weak or hiding itself, which meant it probably wasn’t expecting a fight. Still, the thought of it trying to hurt Hinatsaru was worrying. She could take care of herself in a fight, but after Makio and Suma had probably died, he wasn’t going to take any more chances with his wife’s safety. He leapt across to Kirisime and landed gently, silently slipping inside the building. He slowly approached the presence of the demon, hand near his sword and ready to cut down whatever appeared. The presence seemed to be resting down the hallway, inside one of the water business’s rooms. He stepped up to the door and threw it open, hoping to strike down the demon as quickly as he saw it.

Instead of a demon inside of the room, though, he saw Hinatsaru. Silk sashes were wrapped around her chest, arms, and legs, like someone had tied her up with them. As she looked up to the sound of him entering the room, he saw another sash was wrapped around her mouth, gagging her. She was still wearing most of her disguise, still wearing her fine kimono and her styled hair. He pulled out his sword and cut through the sashes, and they crumbled into ash, releasing his wife. He caught her before she could fall to the floor.

Brushing what remained of the gag off of his wife’s mouth, Tengen asked her, “Are you alright?”

She spent a few moments coughing, then told him, “More or less. How did you find me?”

“I asked the master of the Kyogoku house where you had gone. What happened?”

Hinatsaru spent another moment rubbing at her throat before she said, “One of the women at the Kyogoku house is one of the Kizuki. I don’t know what rank, but that’s the only explanation for her strength and how well disguised she is. She calls herself Warabihime. I didn’t want to confront her on my own, so I drank some poison to make it look like I was sick-”

“You drank poison?” Tengen asked worriedly.

“It was just an emetic. Do you really think I’d drink anything that could kill me?” she asked incredulously. She continued, “Warabihime gave me a silk belt as a parting gift, but it was part of her. When I arrived here, it came alive and tied me up. She might have wanted to interrogate me- I’m not really sure.”

Tengen nodded at that and moved a hand to one of his pockets, but heard a crashing noise from far away at the same time as he started sensing the presence of a demon. It wasn’t close, which- given how clear its presence was- only meant it was strong. “You should probably go get that,” Hinatsaru told him.

“I’m not going to leave you,” he insisted, “Not again.”

“I’ll be fine, Tengen. You’re a Hashira. Your job is to protect people, and there are people who need protecting. Go,” she urged him.

He hesitated for a moment, torn between his role as a Hashira and his role as a husband. Eventually he gave in, leaning down to plant a kiss on Hinatsaru’s forehead. He gently lowered her to the floor and pulled out a few bottles of medicine. “These should help you recover quickly. I will wrap up the fight as quickly as I can. Unless it begins to drag on, you stay here and rest.” With that, he stepped back into the hallway and turned to the window he had entered, ready to find the demon and do his duty.

“~”

Kanao felt the aura of a demon and halted. She spent a moment trying to sense where the demon was before realizing that its aura was coming from the same direction she just left- the Tokito house. She turned back around and began to return to the house as quickly as she could, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. She dashed across the rooftops towards the building, trying to plan out the fight with the demon. When Inosuke and Nezuko had suggested staying to continue the investigation, she agreed more readily than she should have.

She had been trained as a Demon Slayer by Shinobu. One of the many rules was that she must always obey a Hashira. They had years of experience on her and knew how to fight demons better than she would. If they gave an order, it wasn’t just her duty to obey, but the right decision. However, when she heard the idea to stay, she took the time to weigh the decision herself. It made sense to her-with how the demon had hidden itself, it was important to know what exactly they were up against and how to confront the demon. It was more dangerous than leaving, but Demon Slaying itself was dangerous. When she remembered what Shinobu had told her, she reconsidered but stayed the course.

It was odd, reconsidering things. Before recently, all of her decisions had been decided by what she needed to do or what Kanae’s coin told her to do. Now, she flipped her coin every morning to see if she would decide things herself. Today, it had landed on heads, which meant she did. All of the new weight behind her actions was strange. Her mind kept returning to the piece of metal as it sat in her pocket, mulling over what it meant to her. There wasn’t any time for that now, though.

She swiftly reached the window she had left the Tokito house through and saw a demon wearing little more than colorful undergarments and a wrap of purple and yellow silk around her midriff. From it stretched out even more silk that moved like limbs. Right in front of her was another length of silk, wrapped around Koinatsu. It covered everything but the upper half of her face, leaving her eyes free to see Kanao and silently beg her for help. The rest of her seemed to disappear as the silk tapered off, with only the outlines of her upper torso visible. The silk looked normal beyond that, like any other sash you would find in a shop.

The demon glazed over to see Kanao standing in the window, revealing a pair of Kanji in place of pupils- One read “Upper”, the other read “Six”. Almost as soon as she saw those eyes, one of the silk sashes lashed out towards her. She jumped backwards as it cut through the window frame and wall, sending splinters and debris into the street below. She landed on the roof opposite the Tokito house and watched as the Uppermoon emerged from the ruined window. Koinatsu seemed to have disappeared, which meant she was probably dead.

“Well, well, well! What have we got here? A little Demon Slayer who’s gotten lost. Tell me, what rank are you?” Kanao ignored the demon’s question and drew her sword, taking a fighting stance. The demon was amused, only saying, “Not much one for banter, are you? I can live with that.”

The sashes stretching from her back lashed at Kanao again, trying to cut through her. She jumped back again and used the second form of Flower Breathing, swinging her sword at the oncoming sashes. Her sword struck one of the sashes, but all it did was bend for a moment before the silk retreated and whipped at her again. She spun her sword with the second form of Flower Breathing, deflecting the sashes as they reached for her. They were part of the demon, possibly being its blood demon art, and were as durable as should be expected. Even her nichirin sword didn’t do much, since while strong they were as soft as regular silk, too soft for her sword to cut properly.

Experimentally, she used the sixth form of Flower Breathing, dodging to the side and spinning to strike at one of the silk sashes. The sash bent for a moment, then split where her blade met it, blood leaking from the wound. They weren’t invincible, then. She wouldn’t be able to beat this Uppermoon, but she could fight it for long enough for the other Demon Slayers to arrive. Before she could put that fact to use, however, the sashes pressed together like sheets of paper and attacked as one. She blocked the attack with her blade, but the force of it knocked her off her feet. It reared back and attacked again, this time with enough force to propel her into the air. She floated there, above the roofs, before gravity took hold of her and she fell.

The sashes split from one another and attacked her. She, with some difficulty, spun in the air, using the second form again to deflect the attacks. It was difficult without her feet on anything solid, but she kept herself alive. She landed feet first on the ground and jumped backwards as the sashes kept attacking her. Eventually, she either got out of their range or the demon grew bored, as they stopped attacking her.

“My, my. You’re not bad at this. And not bad looking, either,” the demon complimented her. After a pause of thought, she said, “Well, I try to not eat anything as ugly as a low ranked Slayer, but I’m sure you’ll make a fine exception.”

“~”

Inosuke crawled along the first floor of the Ogimoto house, rapping his knuckles against the wooden floor. He listened for a moment, then moved on. Nezuko had told him that the demon must have been traveling through tunnels between the houses, and the best place to hide a tunnel was inside of the house, making it easy to slip in and out of. Of course, the demon couldn’t be seen, so it must have dug the tunnels under the house itself, beneath the floorboards. He rapped his knuckles against the floor again and listened for a moment, then moved on again. He continued doing this for a while until he heard an echo. There was a small space between all the floorboards and the ground, but his fine senses could tell the difference between the sound he heard above this section of floor.

“Excuse me!” an indignant voice called out from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see the ma’am of the house, unfazed by his odd appearance. “I don’t know where on earth you came from, but unless you have some sort of business here, you need to leave. You’re disturbing our guests!”

He laughed at her, then drew back once fist and struck the floor hard enough to put his arm through it. Grabbing one of the floorboards, he pulled until it ripped out of the floor and cast it aside. He did so again and again until he could see the opening of a tunnel beneath him. The ma’am had shut up, either in shock or not wanting to mess with someone who could punch through floorboards. The tunnel was only just too small for him, but he could fix that. Tying his swords to the end of one pant leg by a bit of rope he carried around, he flexed his shoulders in just the right way to dislocate them- even before becoming a Demon Slayer, he had little to do but improve his body, and was the single most flexible person he knew. Once the minor pain had faded enough, he dove into the tunnel like a fish into water.

The tunnel was dark, even for his incredible senses, but only went one way, so it was easy to navigate. With his swords dragging behind him, he didn’t need to worry about cutting himself and could move without a care. Eventually, he felt a breeze on his face and assumed the tunnel was ending. Sure enough, he felt the walls of dirt around him vanish around his shoulders. It was dark, but he could see crisscrossing stretches of fabric that looked like parts of a spider’s web, bringing up bad memories. He couldn’t see a demon, but could sense its presence, so pushed himself out of the tunnel while he had surprise on his side. He flexed his shoulders again, pushing them back into place, and grabbed his swords, ripping them off of his pant leg.

Landing dramatically on the ground, he shouted, “Fight me, demon!”

Nothing answered him. He stood there with his swords raised towards the darkness. He could sense the demon, but couldn’t see them or hear them moving around him. It didn’t make any sense for a demon to just stay still while he threatened it. Maybe it was still in the tunnels. He lowered his swords, a little disgruntled, then moved to investigate the place the tunnels had led him to. It looked like a giant half sphere the demon must have dug into the earth, with the stretches of fabric with a ugly pattern being hung up for… Some reason.

He stepped towards one of them to try and figure out why they were here. In the dim light, he had to lean close to them to make out any detail. Each looked like some sort of image, with a pink background behind the image of a woman. It looked like every woman was wearing fancy clothes and a full face of makeup. He looked at another, then another and another, seeing the same sort of woman on each. They all looked a little different, wearing clothes of different patterns or colors, but were more or less the same. He kept looking at the images sewn into the cloth, trying to understand why they would be here at all.

Inosuke looked at yet another, walked past it, then did a double take and looked at it again. Inside of the silk was Zenitsu. He was still wearing the same kind of kimono everyone working in the mansion wore, but the makeup had been cleaned off of his face. It was clearly him. If he was here, then that meant every other image was of an actual person. They must have been people the demon had kidnapped just like Zenitsu. Why, he didn’t know. Maybe they had already been eaten, and he was just looking at the demon’s guts. Maybe the demon wanted a fresh meal without having to hunt for it. Whatever the reason, he drew his swords, ready to Zenitsu out.

“What are you doing here, you stink bug?” a voice asked from behind him. He turned around to see a writhing, wormlike sash coming out of one of the dirt tunnels. It had a pair of bulging green eyes near the front, with an ugly mouth full of human teeth just below them. “Nothing as ugly as you is supposed to make it down here!”

“You’re one to talk, you-” He struggled for a moment with what to call it before settling on, “- You demon worm!” He had seen a lot of demons, but this was genuinely disturbing to look at.

Apparently it didn’t like what he had to say about it, and more sashes appeared from the tunnel it had come out of. They lashed out at him, trying to cut him down. It would have been ridiculous that the demon was trying to kill him with fabric, but he had seen enough demons to take it seriously. He jumped out of the way at the sashes shot forward, burying themselves in the dirt. They pulled themselves back out, throwing dirt into the air as they did. They lashed towards him again, and he twisted himself out of the way. He started to swing his blades towards the belt, but saw the outline of a woman inside of it. He wasn’t sure exactly what would happen to the woman inside if he cut through the part of the sash she was in, but odds were it wouldn’t be good.

He waited for a brief moment as the sash whipped past him, then brought down his sword on the demon worm. It struck the sash right as the image of the woman passed him, and the worm tore apart under his blade. As the fabric it was made of fell to the ground, a woman tumbled out of it like she had been wrapped in it. Now that he knew he could free the people the demon had captured, he lunged for the sashes stretching across the demon’s lair. One after another, more and more people fell to the ground. Most of them were probably bruised, but the fall wasn’t long enough to kill any of them.

“Dammit, you stink bug!” the worm shouted at him from its place hovering around him. “Why won’t you just die?!”

While it was busy shouting at Inosuke, he turned towards it and lunged for it. It held itself several feet above the ground, but for him, that was no trouble to jump. He swung his sword for its neck- Well, what seemed like its neck- And tried to cut through it. However, the worm only bent under his sword like a blade of grass in the wind. It flapped around for a moment, then pulled itself away from him and lashed towards him. He blocked it with his swords, but as more and more sashes attacked him, he had to jump back. He cut down the sashes that got closest to him, keeping the rest at a healthy distance. He would have lunged to attack them again, but they had spread themselves out. If he attacked one, the others would move to do the same. Anyway, the main sash- the ugly worm looking one- had pulled away from him and was waiting to see what he would do. He thought that was the sash he would have to cut to kill the demon itself, but that had been made difficult.

The worm, with a smug glee in its voice, told him, “You don’t even realize that you’ve already lost, do you? Or are you fine with me just taking back the women you’ve freed?”

He heard a few sashes moving away from him and remembered the people he had freed. All of them were still lying on the ground where they had fallen. He could just free them all over again, but the demon might just decide it wasn’t worth the effort to keep them alive and just kill them. He struggled with himself for a moment, then let out a cry of frustration and turned to run for the women, hoping to protect them from the worm. He heard several sashes start to fly towards him, and readied himself to turn around and try to defend himself while still running for the women.

Suddenly, he heard a small group of things whistling through the air. They struck the sashes reaching for him, and he heard them flail for a moment before falling to the ground and crumbling into ash. He paused for a moment, trying to understand what had happened, then turned back around and cut down the single sash still remaining. “What the hell was that?!” he shouted to the darkness, turning to the area the things had come from. He could hear a pair of footsteps moving around in the area he had been running towards.

“Thanks for the help!” a woman shouted to him.

He stared in the direction of her voice for a moment before asking, “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Suma, and this is Makio!” a second voice responded- those were the names of two of Uzui’s wives. They must have been found out and taken by the demon. “Are you part of the Demon Slayer Corps?”

“Yes!” he declared. “My name is Hashibira Inosuke-”

Interrupting him, he heard one of the sashes flapping behind him and dodged out of the way as it lunged for him. As he spun and cut it down, Makio shouted to him, “We should probably put off introductions until we’ve killed this thing!”

Inosuke silently agreed with her and went back to fighting the sashes. The Demon Worm had pulled itself and the rest of the women it had captured back to the furthest reaches of the larder, though it hadn’t left entirely. He wanted to mock the fact that it didn’t think it needed to flee, but as he heard more and more sashes enter the larder, his giddy optimism was replaced by a more cautious attitude. He and the two other Demon Slayers were at a stalemate with the sashes, neither of them making any progress. He cut down the sashes as they got closer while the other two used their knives to keep them from gathering in too large of numbers, but the sashes kept coming.

To make matters worse, something grabbed the sword in his left hand and pulled it out of his grip. He swung around, ready to cut down whatever sash had taken it from him. Before he could, though, there was a sudden, bright flash. He saw a yellow head of hair before the light blinded him and heard someone draw in a breath before the sound deafened him. As his vision started to clear, he saw Zenitsu flying back and forth across the demon’s larder, cutting through the demon’s sashes and releasing the women it had captured. They fell to the ground a bit more roughly than they had when Inosuke freed them, but he got the job done. With him dashing about, he was able to briefly see the larder, with silk sashes coming out of holes dug in the earth walls and stretching across the open air. It was an intimidating sight, but it would have been a little more intimidating if he hadn’t just seen the sashes cut down like paper.

“Is that a friend of yours?” he heard Makio asking once his ears had recovered.

“Yeah, he had gone missing, just like you!” he shouted to her, mostly because he couldn’t hear himself if he didn’t.

Inosuke, Suma, and Makio jumped back into the battle with the sashes. Slowly, the three of them started whittling down the sashes while the booming of Zenitsu’s breath style filled their ears. As he fought the sashes, he wondered to himself about the booming. There was something odd about it- He was too busy to do anything but notice it, but he did notice that there was another boom. Not one that came after Zenitsu started jumping about, one that happened at the same time. He couldn’t tell what was making the sound, but it seemed like it was coming from outside of the larder. Anything that could make a noise that could be heard through all of the dirt between them and the surface must have been incredibly strong, though he didn’t know what.

Suddenly there was another boom, this one strong enough to shake the walls of the larder. Everyone, the Demon Belt included, stopped and turned to the roof, feeling dirt fall down on them. They all stood there- or in the Belt’s case, floated there- waiting to see if the earthen roof would collapse on them. Eventually the ceiling seemed to explode, throwing even more dirt onto their heads. All of them looked up to see a shape falling down through a new hole in the roof- Inosuke could feel the wind on his skin, meaning the tunnel must have led straight to the surface. For a moment, he could make out the shape of a muscled man holding a pair of blades before the shape seemed to vanish. He could see Uzui dashing about just slowly enough to make out, cutting cleanly through the belt in a dozen different places. After a moment he landed back on the ground and the belt fell apart. Neat slices of it fell to the floor and crumbled to ash, while the women it still held fell out and landed on the floor either softly or with a thump.

The Hashira stood from his place kneeling on the floor and turned to face his wives. They both stared at him in surprise. Suma broke the silence first as tears started to appear in her eyes. She rushed forward and threw her arms around her husband. Makio joined her quickly while Uzui wrapped his arms around both of them. He eventually told them, “I had almost lost hope that you were still alive.”

“We hardly thought we would survive, either,” Suma admitted.

“I was only captured a few days ago,” Makio told him. “I tried to get a letter to you, but-”

“Hey, Tenten!” Inosuke shouted at them. They turned to face him, looking like they somehow forgot him as he continued, “Was this the UpperMoon?”

After a moment, Uzui said, “No, it was much too weak for that.”

“Then we haven’t got time for any of this lovey-dovey stuff! Nekuza and Kankako are still up there, and they’re gonna need help!”

Looking a little amused, the Hashira lifted his wives onto his shoulders and stepped forward, grabbing Inosuke by the arm to his loud displeasure. Turning to Zenitsu, he asked, “You, thunder breather. Can you get out of here on your-”

Answering his question before he could ask it, the yellow haired Slayer shot towards the hole in the ceiling like a bolt of light, bouncing off the sides once or twice before reaching the street level and dashing off towards the demon. After a moment of silence, Makio asked, “Was that boy asleep?”

“~”

Nezuko staggered as the crack of thunder broke her concentration. She had been running through an alleyway towards Kirisime, the house Kanao had suggested Hinatsaru might have been in, and nearly hit a wall as she caught her footing. She had heard that crack a dozen times before- that was Zenitsu. He must have still been alive, alive and fighting a demon. Maybe even the Uppermoon they had been sent here to find. At the same time as she halted, the smell of a demon wafted towards her, strong and rotten. She turned to go and join the fight, but remembered Kitisime. If Uzui’s wife was there, she might need help. But if she went to help her, she couldn’t help fight the demon. Making one decision meant putting off the other to the point of abandoning it and the people involved.

She was split between the two choices until the night grew quiet. Without the distinct crack of thunder breathing, she had no way of knowing Zenitsu was still fighting or even alive. The scent of the demon, meanwhile, was as strong as ever. She could either help someone who might need it or help someone who did need it. Jumping up to the roof, Nezuko grabbed the eave and swung herself up, running towards the scent of the demon.

“~”

Kanao’s blade clashed with the sashes over and over. She was slowly retreating across rooftop after rooftop, trying to hold the UpperMoon in place. She was not trying to beat the demon because it was possible she couldn’t. She had never clashed with an Uppermoon, and wasn’t sure she was able to win this battle. The best thing to do was distract it while Uzui and the other Slayers followed the sound of their fight. For now, she was doing well. The Uppermoon seemed to be toying with her, not fighting with the force it could have. With how well it was already fighting, that was concerning but worked in her favor for now.

Something appeared out of the corner of her eye. Thinking it was an attack, she jumped back as another silk sash flew through the air. However, it struck the Uppermoon instead of the Demon Slayer, sinking into her flesh like clay into clay. As it did, the demon froze, her sashes freezing mid strike. Kanao held her position, not sure if this was a trick of some kind, before slashing at the nearest sash. As she swung her sword, the demon jumped away, landing on the roof of a house on the other side of the road. A smile split its face as it cackled, “A Hashira! A Hashira has come to die here!” The black in her hair left like it was wrung out, with it transforming to white tipped with green. “Oh, the Master will be so pleased when I deliver another head to him!”

“What is all this racket?!” an angry voice shouted. She turned to see a man stepping out of one of the houses and walking down the road towards them. He looked like a manager of some kind and acted like it as he shouted, “You two are disturbing our customers!”

“What are you rambling about, you idiot?” the Uppermoon asked the man, half angry and half indignant that anybody was bothering her. “This is above you.”

“Sir, you need to leave. It isn’t safe,” Kanao told him.

The man didn’t seem to take either of them seriously, only pausing to take offence that they were commanding him. He opened his mouth to speak again, but the demon apparently had no patience left. She saw a few sashes begin to swing towards the man and jumped. Placing herself in front of the man, she braced for the impact, but when the sword met her blade, it didn’t struggle and try to push her back, it bent. It was sharp, but wasn’t made of stiff metal. The soft silk- or flesh that seemed like silk- bent around her blade. One end of the sash cut into her collar, the other into her abdomen and leg. Neither end did enough to kill her, but she staggered under their weight. Then the entire street seemed to explode.

Tile and wood split before the sashes, sending splinters and shards spiralling. Sections of roof and wall began to slide, then fell away under the pull of gravity, sending dust and parts of themselves into the air as they collided with the ground. Screaming came from the houses not all at once, but one by one as people emerged from shock and joined those already wailing. In the businesses and homes, she could see people. The lucky ones were staring in shock at the holes in their walls while the unlucky ones were dead or screamed at the ones who were dead. Tables toppled over the edge, chests had been cut in half and their contents spilled out, a bit of rug had fallen out and now swayed gently in the wind. The demon view the scene with disinterest. After sparing her another glance, it turned and jumped to another roof, then began running. Where it was going, she didn’t know.

After a moment, Kanao’s trembling legs gave out from under her. She fell to her knees and would have collapsed completely if she didn’t stab her sword into the ground, using it to support herself. Slowly, she used the control over her body that total concentration breathing gave her to slow her blood flow. As she pulled bandages out of her pouch and applied them, she tried to plan her next steps. However, as she began, her train of thought was derailed by someone crying out. Then another, and another. All their voices seemed to make their way into her mind, crowding out any thought she tried to put together. Something she didn’t recognize stirred in her as she bound her wounds. Turning behind her, she saw the man clutching the bloody remains of his left hand- she hadn’t even noticed he was hurt with everything else going on.

“Get back inside. Make sure nobody else comes out here,” she told him. After a moment, he stood up and started shouting that it wasn’t safe. She, meanwhile, jumped for the nearest roof and ran after the demon.

She caught up with it quickly. It wasn’t running across the rooftops with much urgency and didn’t seem to expect her as she leapt behind it. The demon seemed to sense her at the last moment and ducked out of the way as she swung for its neck. The sashes twisted towards her while she dodged around them and kept swinging at the demon. The orian retreated, surprised by her attacks for a moment before two more pairs of sashes grew from her back. The now eight sashes moved to kill her, but Kanao defended herself with her sword, using just enough force to push the sashes away. When she was done, all of them had been pushed to one side of her. In one clean motion, she stabbed her sword down into the sashes, pinning them to the roof. They tried to pull back to the demon but were stuck. The two of them kept at this tugging match, neither overpowering the other.

After recovering from its shock, the demon smiled. “Well, well, you’re a lot more interesting than you seemed. A lot more aggressive, too. Was it something I did?” she asked mockingly. Kanao felt the odd urge to respond. It was like when she was confronted with the sight of Uzui taking Aoi and Naho- She didn’t understand why she wanted to intervene but still did.

The stalemate was broken when the tiles her sword had pinned the sashes to broke. It just couldn’t stand the force it was under, and when it broke, the sashes managed to pull themselves loose. They dueled with her for a moment before retreating all the way to the Orian Demon and burying themselves in the roof. They ripped upwards, sending a screen of clay shards, splinters, and dust into the air. Half of the sashes shot through the screen, while the other half were held back. Kanao dueled with them while waiting for the screen to clear and for the demon to come into view. Before the dust had settled, though, she heard wood breaking beneath her feet. She jumped out of the way as they tore up through the roof towards her. They were all blocked by her as they attacked, with half of them restrained by the roof. Frustrated, they thrashed and sent even more debris into the air. With little left for her to stand on, she jumped off the roof to another across the street.

The Uppermoon had lost sight of her and was thrashing wildly. Knowing another chance like this might not come, she leapt towards the demon and slashed at its neck. Her sword connected, but instead of splitting in two, it bent. Transforming into a stretch of silk in front of her eyes, the neck bent unnaturally under her blade, keeping her from cutting into it. She locked eyes with the Orian, its head now sideways as it snarled at her. “You brat! Someone as low as you could never kill me!”

The Orian clawed and slashed at her, forcing her back to the other roof. The sashes rose above the head of the demon and layered over themselves in a criss-cross pattern that came down on Kanao’s head. She narrowed her stance, making it so the least of her was vulnerable, and stuck her sword above her head through a gap in the pattern. As it came down, she struck it with the flat sides of her blade, nudging the sashes just enough that they didn’t even touch her on their way down. As they hit the roof and the demon stared at her with a dumb look on her face, she charged towards it while it was still surprised. In defense, it sprouted another sash and moved it to defend its neck. She might have been able to cut through it if it weren’t for the pattern on it. Instead of the usual purple and yellow pattern, it had the image of a woman she recognized.

Koinatsu was woven into the silk, looking like she was sleeping. Kanao didn’t know if the woman was really in there or if it was a trick, but she didn’t want to risk it. She set her feet on what remained of the roof and tried to retreat, but the sashes she had just dodged flew through the air towards her. Lashing around her, they tightened enough to keep her from moving at all. Her sword was wrapped by several sashes, keeping her from cutting through her bindings.

The Uppermoon smiled gleefully at her and said, “You’re much more impressive than you seemed. I think I’ll put you away for now and decide what to do once I check on my larder. If it’s intact, I’ll keep you for a while. If not, once I kill the rest of the Slayers, I’ll eat you to cele-”

“~”

Before Daki could complete her sentence, something connected with the back of her head. She was aware of it for only a brief moment before she went flying through the air. She hit the hard tiles of the red light district roofs twice, then collided with some power lines. The electricity burned her for only a moment before flying across to another roof and hitting it again and again as she spiraled through the air. She eventually came to a stop, catching herself before she could go any further. Save her jaw, all of her head had been destroyed by whatever had hit her. In only a moment, she had healed completely and she pushed herself up to see the person who had attacked her. The Demon Slayer she had just defeated was lying on the roof, catching her breath, while another Slayer was attending to her.

No… no, not another Slayer. She wasn’t wearing a uniform, and Daki could smell her, could smell Master Muzan’s blood in her. That was a demon. A demon that had just attacked her and was wielding a nichirin sword.

Master Muzan had told her about the traitor only a few weeks ago, after she had killed that nosy Ma’am. He had visited her to congratulate her for killing so many Hashira, and during the visit had brought up the traitor.

“Daki,” Muzan said as she rested her head on his lap, “There’s been a demon that went against my will.”

She looked up at his face, surprised that any demon could disobey him, let alone that one would choose to disobey him. “Like Tamayo, she’s working with the Demon Slayers and killing my Demons. She wears a pink kimono and has black hair that ends in orange. If you ever find her, I want you to capture her for me so I can be the one to kill her. Can you do this for me?”

“Of course!” she assured him. “Anything for you, Master Muzan!”

“You… it’s you! You’re that traitor the Master was talking about!” she screamed at the rogue demon.

Chapter Text

“Are you alright?” Nezuko asked Kanao.

The Slayer was badly hurt, with a line of bloody wounds travelling up her body and bruises caused by the sashes lashed around her. She struggled to bring air into her lungs with each breath but managed to reply, “Yes. I can fight-”

Nezuko cut her off, insisting, “No, you’re too badly hurt. You need to sit this out.”

After a shaky breath, Kanao told her, “Total concentration breathing lets Demon Slayers control their body functions precisely. These wounds will only slow me down for a moment.”

She wasn’t sure of what to say next. Kanao wasn’t the kind of person to brag about what she could do, so she would definitely be able to fight, but seeing her struggling to even breathe made her want to keep her as far away from harm as she could. Still, it wasn’t like the demon would be taking a breather. She settled on telling the Slayer, “You need to be at your best for this. Take that moment and gather your-.”

“ You! ” the demon howled, interrupting her. Nezuko looked up at her and saw she had flown through the air and landed on another roof, splitting the tiles where she hit. She could see kanji in her yellow eyes that read, “Upper” and “Six”. “It’s you! You’re that traitor the Master was talking about!”

Nezuko froze as she heard that. Muzan and the demons knew about her? She spent a moment panicking about it before steeling herself. The other Uppermoon, Akaza, must have told Muzan about her. There wasn’t anything she could do by worrying about it. Hoping to keep the Orian on the back foot, she leapt across the gap between the roofs. However, before she could even draw her sword, a pink blur entered the corner of her eye. She twisted in midair to try and put her sword between herself and the attack. However, she wasn’t fast enough, and the pink blur struck her in the gut. She managed to see it for a moment and notice it was, of all things, a silk sash before it sunk into her. Her vision blurred as the silk spun through the air, cutting deeper and deeper into her until something gave way and she went flying off. Nezuko spun wildly through the air until she hit a roof with enough force to smash through it. She entered the building’s attic and just as quickly left, breaking through the other side of the roof and hitting another building. This one was able to stop her, and after a moment lodged in its walls, she fell to the street.

She couldn’t feel her legs. Looking down, she could see that her hip and everything below it was just gone . The rest of her body  wasn’t much better off. Most of what she could feel was broken or bruised. One of her arms had been cut to the bone by something, though she couldn’t remember what- maybe the silk, maybe a shard of tile- and the other was twisted at a disturbing angle. Her sword had, miraculously, not left her grip, but she could hardly move, let alone swing a blade. Everything hurt. Worse than when she had been beaten by the first demon she met, worse than when she had been torn into by the horned demons, even worse than when Rui had pinned her against the tree. Every inch of her body felt like it had been snapped or crushed or torn somehow, and somehow the pain below her ribs was even worse. It didn’t feel much better when her body began healing her as bits of bone were dragged back into place through skin and muscle. The pain dragged on and on, like her body couldn’t keep up with everything. She looked up and saw a bright pink and white blur appear at the edge of her sight. Her vision swam and, in spite of her best efforts,  couldn’t make out any detail as a haze fell over her mind. A directionless rage bubbled up from deep inside of her and started demanding she stand.

Suddenly, everything stopped hurting. The pain that plotted out every other thought was gone. Her vision cleared up and she saw the Uppermoon standing a short distance down the street from her. The haze that had descended on her mind cleared and she thought with perfect clarity.

And she stood .

“~”

Daki landed gently on the dirt streets that ran through Yoshiwara. Half of her sashes had been drawn back into her body since only a few were needed anymore. It had been easier than she thought it would be to deal with this demon, and now all that was left for her to do was stuff her in her sash and present her to Master Muzan. The traitor, or what was left of her, was lying on the ground after being thrown through a building. She moved about sluggishly- she probably didn’t have the strength to heal herself properly, so she was just left lying there in pain.

Chuckling, she said, “I bet you’ve never had to fight like this, have you? I’ll be merciful and stuff you into my belt and get this over with. Demon on demon fighting- it’s just a waste of time.”

As she spoke cheerfully, something odd happened. The rubble the demon had been half buried in was pushed aside as she rose smoothly from the ground, her sheathed nichirin sword in hand. Her kimono had been cut through partway and was dangling around her waist. Vine patterns began to appear on her skin, crawling along it like on an old wall. A curved horn grew from her forehead as if her body was tired of looking like a human’s. The demon stood and stared at her with deep, deep hatred in her eyes. She stood. How was she standing? She had been cut clean in two, but was standing. How? It had only taken Daki a few moments to reach where she landed. She couldn’t have healed. Healing from that much that quickly was beyond most demons, was beyond anything but a Kizuki- beyond anything but one of the upper ranks!

Before Daki had the chance to understand it, the demon leapt towards her, one leg reared back for a kick. She braced for the attack and whipped one of her sashes at the demon. The reared leg was cut off with little effort, and she smiled as it went spiraling away from the girl. Before she could celebrate, though, she was struck in the face. Toppling under the weight of the blow, she was pinned to the ground underneath the girl’s foot. It raised to slam down on her again and again, snapping any bones beneath it. That was the leg she had just cut off. Not even a moment, and the girl had grown back an entire limb. This shouldn’t be happening! She was an Uppermoon, the strongest of all demons- this should not be happening to her!

As the girl raised her foot again, she shouted, “Don’t you dare touch me!” Her sashes thrashed and cut the girl apart, catching her mid-blow. Her head and all of her limbs had been severed. Daki scrambled back, then jumped away and shot three of her sashes down the street at the girl while one was held back in case she needed to defend herself. No more playing with her prey- she would wrap this up quickly.

Instead of the traitor being reduced to bloody shreds, though, she caught the sashes. Daki blinked, taking a closer look at the impossible sight. She hadn’t healed herself- not quite. Long trails of blood stretched between her body and the many parts that had been cut off. The blood should have just splattered on the ground, but instead connected her. It was like her blood had been pulling her body back together and had stopped, then moved her limbs to catch the sashes. Both her hands and one of her feet were holding back the sashes while the last leg held her upright. Somehow, no matter how hard she pushed, the traitor hardly budged. Her head was hanging in the air almost casually, like it was being carried by an invisible hand, and lolled to look at her with hateful eyes. Before Daki could do anything- attack, retreat, or some third option- she felt something grow warm on her cheek.

All at once, her senses were overwhelmed by a bright, angry pain. It burned into her face and arms, burned to the bone like it was tearing into her. She screamed and batted uselessly at her face, trying to wipe off whatever was burning her. Looking at her arms, she saw bright, pink flames sticking to her like paste. Then it began to jump around. It jumped from her arms to her legs, to her chest, to every inch of skin it didn’t already cover and kept burning. It seemed like another angry demon trying to rip her apart and devour her. She staggered, overwhelmed by pain before she collapsed to the ground. Looking up, she saw him. He stood over, watching her burn with disinterest. The torch he had lit her with had been tossed aside and he waited, watching her lose strength, watching her slow down with a hand rested on the sword at his side. He turned away from her, not out of horror or disgust but to check the road around him, looking for someone.

And then the traitor charged her down.

“~”

Nezuko let go of the sashes as they crumbled to dust under her flames. She spent a moment admiring the view before she pulled her flesh back together. She struggled with the task for just a moment, like she was fitting puzzle pieces together by the wrong sides, before righting her body with a twist. She smiled gleefully as she watched her flames grow and cover the other demon. The Uppermoon, for all the strength she was supposed to have, had crumpled in a moment and was now writhing in the dirt. She lunged at the Uppermoon, kicking her in the gut and sending her into the air, then dashed to the place she was falling. The Uppermoon landed with a crack, landing in a broken heap. The flames had been extinguished by her flight but had left black burns that covered her skin. Nezuko grabbed what was left of her and lifted her like a toy, then threw her with only a fraction of her strength. She smashed through the first building she hit, then the next and the next and the next.

Nezuko had never felt so alive! She could feel life and strength flowing through her without end, and she could sense everything! She could hear everything in the entire district, could feel people running through the shaking of the ground beneath her feet, could see even the smallest cracks in the walls around her. Nothing was slowing her down anymore. Nothing was holding her back anymore. No more choosing to be weak. Now, she chose to be untouchable. She drew her sword and sensed the sun inside of it, sensed the warmth and strength inside of it, sensed how small it was. She remembered, vaguely, that this was supposed to kill her. It was so faint. So weak. This was supposed to hurt her? She pushed heat and strength through her veins. It glowed beneath her flesh, faintly at first, then brighter and brighter until her flesh peeled away and revealed her fire. It cut across her skin every which way and flowed from her hand to the blade, covering it until it was as bright as a torch. This… this was strong.

Smiling appreciatively, Nezuko turned back towards the Uppermoon, now trying to push herself up and off the dirt. In only a moment she was standing above her and brought down her sword. The Orian just managed to dodge out of the way, landing on a nearby roof. She had healed only partly, her skin a patchwork of burns and healed skin. The four sashes in the Orian’s back all slashed at her while another four grew out of her back. She cut through the sashes easily, then swung her sword wildly. The flames rushed off the sword and jumped at the Uppermoon. She managed to raise her sashes before the blood hit her, and as they lit up, severed them from the rest of her body. They fell to the road and crumbled to ash as they laid there. Her blade was now without flame, but was still a blade.

Leaping through the air, she swung for the Uppermoon’s neck. Without the sashes to block her, she landed a hit, but the neck transformed into another sash as she hit it and bent. Nezuko tried but couldn’t cut it hard enough to sever. Giving up, she pulled her sword back from the neck and swung for the body. She had better luck, sinking her blade into the Uppermoon’s chest. Of course, it wasn’t the sort of blow that would even slow down a demon, so the only response from the Orian was for her to sprout a new set of sashes. She tried to pull her sword out, but the wound had already sealed and seemed to be clinging to it. She didn’t have time to jump away before they wrapped themselves around her arms. The Uppermoon seemed to have been learning, not trying to cut her up or even tear her apart but trying to hold her in place. She felt the sashes suck her in her arms and could see them inside the sashes, looking like nothing more than a new pattern on the silk.

Raising one foot between herself and the Orian, she kicked hard. At the same time, she undid the flesh and bone connecting her arm to her body, like undoing a knot in a rope. Her arms went with the Uppermoon as she went flying and would have crumbled to ash if it weren’t for the blood trailing behind them. Nezuko pushed heat through the blood until it lit on fire. The arms, now inside the Orian, burst like fireworks, covering her in flames as she collided with the nearby building. She broke through into the building’s first floor, screaming from broken bones and burns. Nezuko let her burn for a moment before putting out the flames and admiring her work. The Uppermoon had been reduced to a black husk lying on the floor without the strength to move.

Nezuko jumped down to the hold in the building and walked towards the Uppermoon, grabbing the sword and pulling it out of her gut. She looked at her, seeing her chest rise and fall as she struggled to breath. Raising her sword, she let it rest against the neck of the Orian for a moment before raising it, ready to kill the Uppermoon.

Before she swung, though, some scent reached her nose and pulled her attention away. She froze for a moment, then turned to see an orian looking at her in horror. Her red kimono had been pierced through the sleeve by a stray piece of wood. Blood was slowly dripping down the oversized splinter, drop by drop. She blinked once, like her brain had suddenly stopped, then lunged for the woman.

“~”

Kanao lay on the roof as the Orian Demon jumped away. She tried to push herself up and run after the demon, but pain ripped through the wounds in her leg and chest, pinning her back to the roof. No matter how she tried to gather herself, she found her wounds too severe to get up. Struggling against her wounds, she tried to raise herself and return to the fight. Her body, however, didn’t seem to agree. Her arms trembled uncontrollably as her breath heaved and a thin layer of sweat spread over her skin, but she needed to get up. She needed to stop the Uppermoon and keep it from killing anyone else. She needed to help Nezuko. It didn’t matter how difficult it was, she needed to do something.

From the direction she had seen the Orian jump, Kanao heard shouting and saw a flash of a bright light. Turning towards it, she saw a pillar of pink fire rising rising from between the roofs a few streets away. It went out quickly before another flash of pink light appeared a short distance from where the pillar had appeared. That was Nezuko’s fire- those were the flames that her blood demon art produced. She was still alive, and she was fighting the Uppermoon. She was a demon with as much experience and skill as most Demon Slayers. She had joined the Demon Slayer Corps to fight demons, and was now fighting a demon. As soon as she could, Kanao would rejoin the fight, but for now, it would serve her better to rest. With that understanding, she lowered herself back to the roof and let herself rest.

As she moved one hand to inspect her bandages, she noted how odd her behavior was. She had run after an Uppermoon without any plan at all and had resisted her need to rest to try and rejoin Nezuko in her fight. It wasn’t logical. Neither of those things did her mission as a Demon Slayer any good, and her actions seemed to go against the reality of her situation. It didn’t make sense. After a moment, she concluded that her bandages had been soaked through and gotten loose. They needed to be replaced. Reaching for her pouch again, she found she had just enough to clean her wounds and redo her bandages.

Kanao wondered as she treated her bandages why she was acting this way. She was reminded of when she had seen Aoi being taken by Uzui. She hadn’t needed to make a decision, and the coin flip she had been doing every morning as Nezuko suggested hadn’t told her to make decisions on her own. Of course, her coin had landed on heads today, but the point still stood. These decisions she was making weren’t built off of what she had to do or even what was best for her to do. It was like her actions weren’t controlled by her, but by some animal inside her that lunged in one direction or another, pulling her along. The concept was both familiar and foreign to her. She didn’t have the time to consider it in depth, but it was probably working against her mission. It probably should have been something she worked to stop, but stopping it didn’t interest her. She hadn’t been interested by much, of course, but this seemed different, like she was trying to move in the opposite direction. She gave her wound another moment to rest, then stood.

She could see and hear the battle between Nezuko and the Uppermoon as it trailed over the city. Leaping from the roof she was on to the next, she began running towards the fight. As she ran, she saw the trail left by the two demons. Smashed walls, debris, and burnt dirt and walls were dotted along the path. The Uppermoon had probably used its blood demon art to keep from being beheaded like it had when fighting Kanao, so the two must have been able to do little but trade blows. How widespread the burns were was a little odd- they must have been caused by Nezuko, and she had been much more conservative with her abilities in earlier fights- but the detail didn’t make much difference. She still needed to find her and rejoin the battle. Eventually, she found the two demons. One of the water houses had one of its walls smashed open. From the roof opposite the hole, she could see the two demons and a woman watching in horror. The Uppermoon was lying inside of the water house while the demon turned Slayer stood just inside the hole.

Kanao paused for a moment in thought. Why was the Uppermoon the one who seemed to be losing the fight? Nezuko was strong, but not strong enough to beat an Uppermoon or even put it on the back foot. Also, there was something odd about Nezuko. It might have just been the angle she was seeing her from, but it looked like something was poking out through her hair- maybe a splinter or shard of tile had been lodged in her forehead. Her sword, meanwhile, was held at her side almost lazily instead of with the trained grip she had been so careful to learn. Nothing on its own was too strange, but put together was confusing.

She had only a moment to wonder about the sight before any questions were answered by Nezuko lunging for the woman.

In an instant, Kanao was right behind the demon and her still-sheathed sword pressed against its throat. She pulled back hard, and the demon stumbled backwards with her. It thrashed wildly as her chokehold pulled it away from the screaming woman. She gave the Uppermoon a glance and saw it was cripple by shattered bones and burns. All those wounds could heal in only a moment and it would have likely attacked them both if it weren’t for the demon she was holding onto jumping backwards, trying to slam her into a wall. From her position just out of reach, she twisted enough so that instead of her being crushed, they both slammed their sides into the wall.

Shinobu had warned her about this and told her what to do if it happened. All demons were ultimately driven by their hunger. At times this drive became strong enough to replace everything else, and they simply chased down the nearest source of blood. She had given Kanao a vial with a wooden cap covering a needle. Inside the vial was a powerful variety of the same wisteria poison that coated Shinobu’s sword. Once it had been injected, the demon’s own heart would pump hard enough to spread it through the entire body in only a moment. After that, it would burn the demon strongly enough to melt it from the inside out in seconds. She needed to use it.

The demon thrashed at her with both its hand and sword before dropping the sword and grabbing at her with only its hands. With her position just behind its shoulder blades, it couldn’t quite reach her but could claw at her shoulders and scalp.

She needed to use the poison.

The arms grabbing at her bent unnaturally and reached far back enough to grab a fistful of her uniform each. Kanao was pulled hard enough to throw her over the head of the demon and onto the ground.

She needed to use the poison.

The demon lunged at her and she only narrowly blocked it, shoving her sword between its teeth. The two of them struggled for a moment as the demon grabbed the blade and tried to pull it out of the way. Its teeth sunk through the scabbard, meeting the nichirin steel beneath it. For the moment, neither of them could make any progress against the other and were left struggling against one another.

She needed to use the poison.

One of the demon’s hands left the sword, pulling back for a strike with claws bared. One of Kanao’s own hands left the sword as well, reaching into her pouch and pulling out the vial. Dragging it against the ground, the lid eventually popped off and revealed the needle. It wasn’t very long, but it didn’t need to be. Putting her thumb over the plunger, she stabbed up towards the demon’s neck.

“~”

Nezuko was not even a moment away from the blood, from the first proper meal she had eaten in so long when something pulled her away. Her free hand clawed at her neck and found a wooden scabbard. Someone was on her back and was choking her with it- they couldn’t actually choke her, of course, but they were pulling her away from the woman, away from the blood. She tried to stab at the person on her back but found it was impossible to point her sword directly at them, especially with their grip digging into her shoulders. She pushed heat through the blood vessels in her back, but remembered that would burn the person on her back. If she burned them, the flames would consume their blood, and she needed their blood. Instead, she jumped backwards, hoping to crush them between herself and the wall. She felt them pull at the scabbard around her neck and twist until they both struck the wall. They would be hurt more than she was, but that thought didn’t give her much comfort now. All she wanted was to kill and eat this person.

Reaching behind her head, she clawed at the person on her back, trying to reach them. They managed to keep just out of reach until she stretched her arms farther than any human could go. Grabbing at them, she reached the shirt on their back and grabbed ahold of it. She pulled, throwing them over her head and onto the ground. She saw their clothing and recognized it as the uniform of a Demon Slayer, though slightly modified. There was something vaguely familiar about them- the ponytail her hair was in, the colourful hairpin shaped like a butterfly, her light purple eyes- but nothing that kept her from lunging at her.

The Slayer had only enough time to raise her sword, shoving it into her mouth like a muzzle. The two of them grappled awkwardly with one another as Nezuko tried to get the sword out of her way. The Demon Slayer was too strong to overpower. She bit into the sword, cutting through the scabbard with ease. However, the sword itself was sharper than her teeth and cut into her jaw as she bit down.

The back and forth struggle continued until she looked up. The position they were in was awkward, with both of them looking like they were upside down to the other. However, the Demon Slayer’s belly was still in reach. Nezuko pulled back one hand and pushed her nails further out, turning them into proper claws as she attacked.

“Nezuko!”

Nezuko blinked, and suddenly she wasn’t in the middle of the red light district, she was on top of a mountain. She had trouble recognizing it for a moment before everything came rushing back.

“Nezuko, please, you can fight this!” Tanjiro told her. He had been pinned under her when she tackled him only a moment earlier. She had woken up to him carrying her out of their home, and was comforted by him being there in the moment before the hunger began to claw at her again. He had shoved a wooden axe handle between her teeth and was holding her at arms length.

Her brother seemed to understand what had happened to her. They had been told stories about demons by both their grandmother and father when they were children, and Nezuko could have fit into one of those stories with frighteningly little trouble. Still, he seemed to have faith in her, in her self control. Even as her teeth were inches away from his neck, he believed that she could hold herself back.

Her mind wasn’t in a fog- that had cleared a while ago- but she wasn’t thinking clearly either. The desperate hunger was tearing at her painfully, driving the thought of anything else away. Still, she tried to slow herself, to control herself. It was hard to think through the loud, angry hunger demanding her attention, but she eventually managed to work her way through that. She tried to say something, anything, but the handle in her mouth kept any words from taking shape.

Something appeared on Tanjiro’s face. It was clear, like water, and rolled down to the snow below them. Nezuko thought it was one of the tears pouring from his eyes, but it had appeared right in the middle of his cheek, not at the edges of his eyes. Staring at it for a moment in confusion, she felt something wet appear on her own cheek. For a moment the two of them were calm, as she stopped struggling to bring her teeth to his neck and he stopped struggling to hold her away from him. They lay in the snow, processing what had just happened to them, what had just happened to their family, what had just happened to their home.

Before either of them could make the first move, the hunger that had been stirring her gut roared. It tore at her more and more until it was too painful to ignore and pushed out every other thought. Choking on the pain, Nezuko pulled back one clawed hand in desperate need of relief. She shoved her hand down and into Tanjiro, pulling out her first mouthful as he screamed.

Nezuko blinked, trying to clear the tears in her eyes. After trying to control herself, her body was wracked by sobs that stole her strength from her. She collapsed to the dirt road and curled in on herself, the pain stirring in her gut forgotten beside the pain in her heart.

“~”

Kanao saw the demon hesitate and froze, the vial only a few inches from the demon’s neck. The hesitation only lasted a moment, but that moment seemed to drag itself out as she waited for something to happen and the demon waited for… what, she couldn’t tell. They were both frozen there like statues as the world slowed around them.

That moment ended, and Nezuko began to cry.

Collapsing to the ground, Nezuko landed right next to her and curled in on herself. Sobs wracked her body so hard she seemed to shake the ground with her. Kanao hesitated for a moment, then put the vial away in her pouch- the lid had gotten lost somewhere- and grabbed the girl next to her. Not entirely sure of what to do, she pulled her next to herself and wrapped her arms around the girl. She wasn’t certain why, but it felt like the right thing to do at this moment. The two of them lay in the street for a moment, surrounded by the rubble of the red light district.

Before she had the chance to move, she heard a voice from above her, “Damn, you people are starting to piss me off.” Kanao looked up to see the Uppermoon standing atop a roof a few feet away. It must have been following them as they struggled with one another. All of the wounds she had seen it with, all of the burns and crushed bones, had all healed. More worryingly, there were eight sashes on her back again instead of the more modest four. As she drew her sword from the scabbard still in Nezuko’s mouth, all of the sashes slashed towards them and it shouted, “Why don’t you put yourself out of my misery and just die!”

Before the sashes could even reach her, they all fell apart and drifted to the ground like fallen leaves. Both her and the Uppermoon stared at them, not understanding what had happened, before another voice asked, “Does she often do that?”

Kanao turned to see Uzui, pointing at Nezuko with a bemused expression. He didn’t seem to know what had just happened with her and had no idea why she was crying on the ground, so his confusion made sense. The Orian demon interrupted them and asked, “You’re a Hashira, right? You just made things easy by coming to me. I’m going to kill you and-”

“Shut up. I’m not talking to you now,” the Sound Hashira told it, then continued, “Seriously, what’s going on with her? Is she going to be like this for the rest of the night, or is she going to get over whatever this is?”

The Uppermoon sputtered, then shouted, “Are you an idiot? I’m one of the Twelve Kizuki, and have killed seven of the Hashira. Soon, I’m going to kill an eigh-”

Midway through her tirade, a thin line appeared along her neck that red blood flowed out of. As its head began to slide, the Uppermoon stumbled for a moment, trying to keep itself upright. Eventually the head fell off and tumbled to the ground, soon joined by the rest of the demon’s body. After hitting the ground, the body kept moving while the head stared blankly at the Demon Slayers, only letting out a confused, “Huh?”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Uzui told Kanao, grabbing Nezuko by her kimono.

“Wait, don’t just leave!” the Uppermoon shouted at them. “I’m going to kill you for this!”

“No, you’re not. The demon I’m looking for is one of the upper ranks of the Kizuki, and you are far too weak to be one of the Kuzuki, let alone an upper rank.”

“Don’t give me that! Can’t you read? I’m Upper Six!”

“Then why is your head on the ground?” the Hashira asked.

The Uppermoon- although Uzui’s point had called into question if she really was an Uppermoon- sputtered for a moment, trying to string a sentence together before it began to cry. The two Demon Slayers watched the Orian Demon as it devolved into wailing, beating the ground through its fit. Slowly, however, they shifted from surprise to wary confusion. The Uppermoon was still beating the ground, still wailing. This dragged on and on and on, long after it had been beheaded. It shouldn’t still be crying. It shouldn’t still be beating the ground. It shouldn’t still be there. No demon was supposed to last so long after its beheading. They both had questions about the demon and how it was still alive, how it hadn’t fallen apart.

Those questions were, at least in part, answered when the demon shouted, “Brother!”

“~”

Uzui charged the demon, hoping he could finish the job before the demon had the chance to pull whatever trick it was going to try. His two swords were halfway to the demon when something began growing from her back. A patch of her pale flesh turned a sickly grey and grew, like something was pushing up through the patch. His two swords were only inches from the demon when the upper body of the new demon had formed. A pair of red flashes- he couldn’t be sure, but they looked like sickles made of stone holding sharp blades in place- moved to block his swords. He locked blades with the demon for a moment. It slowly kept growing from the first demon, its grey and mottled skin stretched over a gaunt body. From behind its greasy black and green hair, a pair of yellow eyes looked out with a pair of kanji in place of pupils. They read Upper and Six, making it clear who he was.

“My, my, my,” he slowly said in a low, creaky voice. “A Hashira? All the way out here?”

The Uppermoon and Hashira stayed there for a moment, neither willing to abandon the death lock they had created until the demon looked down at his sister. Her head was still on the dirt road, wailing like a child. Her brother, now completely out, sighed and kicked at Uzui. He blocked it without difficulty, but the short window it gave the demon let him grab his sister and leap away through the air. He reached the second story window of a building a short distance away and broke through with ease.

Uzui followed, ready to immediately resume the fight, but there were too many people. News of the ongoing fight hadn’t yet spread through Yoshiwara, so the building was still packed with workers and customers. Fighting the demon now was likely to get too many people killed, so he waited for people to flee the scene. Neither demon took the chance to kill anyone, with the brother simply picking up his sister’s head and setting it back atop her neck.

“There we go, Daki. You’ve gotta take more care of yourself, of your face. You’ve got such a pretty face, no? It’s such a shame when it gets dirty,” he told her.

Uzui looked around the room to see only a pair of people left, a customer and an orian. They were at risk with him resuming the fight, but they were at risk with the demons being alive. Hoping to end the danger, he swung his swords for the neck of the new demon. The Uppermoon whirled around and did the same with his own sickles. The Hashira managed to deflect them from his neck, but one still reached his head. Fortunately, the metal of his bejeweled headband was between him and the sickle. Instead of cleaving his skull open, it was blocked and only cut into his scalp. The two fighters were left standing with their backs to one another, only a few feet apart. Blood flowed out of the wound- it wasn’t bad, but was the sort of wound that bled a lot- down his forehead and dripped onto his eyelashes.

“Nice, man,” the Uppermoon told him, “You blocked both my sickles- well, the worst of both my sickles. And I was aiming to kill, too. Nice.”