Chapter Text
Kanae and Kaigau caught wind of another demon in the area and chased after it, the fog lessening a little and allowing the moon to peek through the mist. Judging by what they could tell from its noises and scent, this demon was a large monster.
Possibly a Kizuki…
They ran around until they came across a small stream, only stopping for a second to drink and dress Kaigaku's wound better.
“How are you feeling?” She watched as he washed his wound with the stream’s water.
“Tired, sore, but I can keep going.” He pushed his mask up and smiled at her.
Kanae nodded and helped him rewrap his arm. As they finished, Kanae smelled the demon they had been tracking again. “It’s close.”
Kaigaku quickly slipped the sleeve of his haori back on and closed his eyes to focus. “It’s moving slowly, carrying a lot of weight and hasn’t located us yet. There is a chance that we can catch it off guard.”
The two exchanged a glance before taking off down the stream again. Kanae wondered if Giyuu was okay, but pushed the thought down. He was a great fighter with alarming resilience, he would be fine.
The stench of the demon they were tracking was getting stronger the more they sprinted down the stream until a large shadow appeared up ahead.
“That’s it!” Kanae grinned and drew her sword.
Kaigaku remained silent behind his mask and held his sword tightly, making sure to coat the blade in as much gunpowder as he could.
However, both came to a halt as soon as they could see the demon in its entirety. It was a giant being made up of sickly green arms and hands that wrapped around its entire body, having no clear starting points. As it walked, the fingers and wrists glided over each other in a horrifying harmony.
“Well… that’s gross.” Kaigaku noted.
A small hump at the top of the monster’s head swiveled around to reveal two large yellow and red eyes upturned in excitement. “What is this? More things for me to play with?”
Kanae hated the way it giggled like a child. She grit her teeth and rushed Teoni, attempting to make an opening for Kaigaku to kill it.
“Flower Breathing, Seco--” She was cut off by one of the demon’s hands unraveling itself from the main mass and backhanding her so hard she went flying through the trees,
"Kanae!” Kaigaku screamed after her before jumping away from another swinging fist.
"Yep and apparently there’s a Kizuki here too. You might get your chance to kill one.”
He grinned behind his mask and sized up his opponent. Kanae had survived worse, she would be fine. Now, she no longer stood in his path of destroying all Twelve Kizuki demons.
Kaigaku remembered the face of his late friend and gripped his sword tighter before twisting around two more attacks and rushing the demon.
The green haired demon cursed as he continued to run through the woods, nervous sweat trickling down his gray brow.
The kids killed the fucking girl! Damn it, the boss is gonna tear me apart! I gotta get away before--
"And where do you think you’re going~?”
The demon halted in his tracks and stared up at the other demon in the tree who swung their pinstripe-wearing legs back and forth whimsically.
“I-I was lookin’ for more Demon Slayers to kill!”
They smiled down at him with a stone cold face. “Like the two you just ran away from once you saw that they killed our poor beloved rented sister~?”
The green haired demon gulped as the well-dressed demon touched down to the forest floor in front of him and clasped their hands together, showing that a blue eye had been implanted on the back of their left palm. The kanji for “dream” replaced a pupil. “Must I remind you what happens when someone crosses me?”
He fell to his knees in submission. “No, no! I can kill them! I just need more time, I swear I can--”
The green haired demon was cut off by the well-dressed demon swiping their hand across his face and decapitating him in a single blow. He grunted as his head hit the ground and quickly sprouted two arms from the side of his skull to keep him upright.
“OW!”
“Let that be a warning, little one.” They giggled. “Now go, kill every last Demon Slayer on this mountain!”
The body and head scampered off down the mountainside as the well-dressed demon turned around and stared directly at Nezuko.
“Now, did you like that show, little girl~?”
Kaigaku had faced demons plenty of times before, but nothing compared to his opponent now. No matter how he weaved around its seemingly infinite amount of punches, more and more would just leap out at him.
He unleashed move after move, but each explosion from his sword was getting smaller and smaller. Kaigaku had no time to re-sheath his sword to coat it in gunpowder again before he had to dodge another strike.
The black haired boy watched a particularly large fist fly towards him and jumped on it, running up the arm to get to where Teoni’s eyes were.
~~~
“So, Kochou, how do you know how to kill a demon with just your plain sword?” Kaigaku sat down on a mat in the Peach House.
The purple-eyed girl blinked. “Could you elaborate? And you can just call me Kanae.”
“Well, I have my gunpowder and that Tomioka guy has good hearing so what makes you special besides your strong legs?”
Kanae thought for a second before lying down on her back. Kaigaku cursed himself for thinking about how much she looked like his late friend. “Well… I… I can smell really well. I can even smell emotions and how many people a demon has eaten. I can also kinda smell, see, I don't know what it is, a line straight to the weak point of an enemy. I call it ‘the kill line’ and it connects from the tip of my sword to the demon’s neck. Does that make sense?”
~~~
Kaigaku tried to imagine the kill line as he raced up the demon’s arm, praying that he had enough gunpowder on his blade for his final strike. The sound of Teoni’s laughter rang in his ears, but he kept running, holding his sword at just the right angle to effectively slice off the demon’s head.
Closer, closer, closer, the kill line was in his sights. He imagined it pulling taut, connecting his sword to the demon’s mound of a head.
"You’re mine, Kizuki!” Kaigaku exclaimed as he swung his sword with all his might directly at where Teoni’s neck should have been.
He watched in slow motion as his blade struck the demon’s flesh and snapped in half pathetically.
A stray hand snagged Kaigaku by the leg and dragged him through the air before he had time to recover. He screamed behind his wooden oni mask as he was slammed down into the stream on his face. Teoni giggled as he lifted the poor Demon Slayer up and began to repeatedly slam him down again and again into the ground.
“Did you really think that a pathetic charge like that would have been enough to cut through all the layers of my flesh, little bug?” The demon giggled again.
The hand hoisted Kaigaku back into the air and he watched helplessly as his mask slipped off his face and splash into the stream, taking part of his soul with it.
"Look at what a poor, scared face you have there! Here, let me take care of that for you!” Teoni lifted Kaigaku high above his head and to the horror of the young man, two arms right below the demon’s eyes opened up to reveal a giant, gaping hole for a mouth.
Kaigaku tried to struggle as he was slowly lowered face-first into the demon’s mouth, but from the angle he was dangling at, it was useless.
I’m going to die, I’m going to die! I’m going to die without killing a single Kizuki demon! I can’t die yet, I still have to avenge her!
In a regular person’s life, this would be the moment where their lives would flash before their eyes. His mind drifted to his friend, his smile, his personality. If Kaigaku was going to die, at least he would get to see him again.
~~~
"Kaigaku, hide in here!” A faceless woman stuffed the child into a cupboard with a shrill, frantic cry.
“Mama, what’s going on? Where’s Papa?”
“Papa is holding the door. Now, you need to stay very quiet, do you understand me?”
The boy started to cry as his mother shut the door tight. Even though there was a layer of wood between him and the rest of the house, he could hear everything going on outside perfectly.
The door busted down, a man cried out an apology before a slashing sound reduced him to a gargling mess. The boy covered his ears and pulled his knees to his chest. Another man asked why his parents would run away from his show. The boy felt himself start to sniffle. He clamped his hands over his nose and mouth as more people entered the house. His mother wailed for her husband.
The boy sobbed as silently as he could while his mother pleaded for her life, only for those extra intruders to lunge at her and start to tear her apart while she screamed.
Screaming and slashing, screaming and slashing, screaming and slashing until the screams stopped all together.
~~~
Kaigaku blinked slowly as the demon’s mouth became bigger in his vision. The blood in his body rushed to his head. What memory was that? Kaigaku's family had abandoned him as a small child, this new memory contradicted that.
But it felt more real than anything else he had ever remembered before.
Kaigaku’s hair tickled the arm/lip of the demon, but a sudden fluttering sound followed by the sound of slicing flesh made him fall all the way back down to the forest floor face first.
Behind him, Teoni screamed in pain as a new arrival began hacking away at his armor of hands. Kaigaku, who still had the wind knocked out of him and his injured arm, weakly grabbed his mask and held it as tight as he could, no doubt tears spilling from his eyes.
He heard the demon die and his savior step over him with a sing-song voice that made his brain feel like it was floating. “Are you alright down there?”
Kaigaku felt her back hit a tree to stop her falling and she face-planted on the ground.
“Sorry, Shinobu, that must have been uncomfortable to you.” She wheezed to the box as she regained her senses. “Now, let's try to get back to--”
The girl smelled two demons nearby. One had a noticeably stronger stench, identical to the one that had gotten in Kaigakus face earlier. The second one was younger, but still had eaten plenty of people. She found her sword and started to race after their scents. Kaigaku was a strong slayer, he would be able to handle himself with that one demon while she dealt with the other two.
Trees zipped past her face as she pinpointed where her prey was standing. She came to a clearing in the trees to see the previous demon talking to a second demon with green hair.
“Like the two you just ran away from once you saw that they killed our poor beloved rented sister~? Must I remind you what happens when someone crosses me?”
“No, no! I can kill them! I just need more time, I swear I can--OW!” The green haired demon’s head was smacked off his shoulders. Kanae covered a gasp with her hand.
"Let that be a warning, little one. Now go, kill every last Demon Slayer on this mountain!” The well dressed demon laughed as the decapitated demon picked up his head and scampered off.
To Kanae's horror, the remaining demon turned their head to look dead at her. “Now, did you like that show, little girl~?”
How did they see me? Did they hear me coming? Smell me?
"Now, are you just going to stand there like an idiot, or will you make the event of your death entertaining for me?
Kanae gripped her sword and stepped into the clearing, eyes and nose searching for any sign of a threat. However, as she got closer to this demon, she gasped at seeing their face in its entirety.
Their left pupil was pale like the sky, but the right? The right eye had no pupil, only the words Lower Five inscribed on their eyeball.
"You’re a--”
“One of My Lord’s Twelve Kizuki Moons?” The demon laughed and bowed dramatically. “Yes, I am the demon known as Lower Moon Five of his majesty’s army. However, before your short life comes to an end, you may call me Tamayo.”
“Okay then, Tamayo, just be warned that I’m not easy to kill. I’ve already taken down plenty of demons, including those here on this mountain. Just because you’re a Kizuki doesn’t mean you’re invincible.” Nezuko smirked and held her sword at a threatening angle.
Tamayo snorted and covered her mouth with a hand. “Oh so you took care of that complete failure for us? How delightful, I might make your death a painless one just for that~!”
“Try me, eyeballs.”
As the two of them lowered into fighting stances, they stopped and looked to the side to see a young man appear out of the bushes. A Demon Slayer a little older than Kanae.
Kanae opened her mouth to tell them to run, but they winked at her and pointed his sword at Tamayo, who chuckled mischievously. “Don't worry, I’ve got this one.”
“No, wait, this one is part of the Twelve Kizuki’s! They’re harder to cut down, we need to work together!”
“And let you take the glory? I know you’re the one who diced up the other demons on this mountain, so leave a little bit for your superior, will ya?”
Kanae's two-toned eyes looked between the young demon slayer and the demon who continued to snicker. “My my~ what an interesting turn of events! You, young slayer, are interrupting this delightful conversation I was having with this lovely young lady.” She raised their hand in front of the Demon Slayer and Kanae could see an eye on the back of her hand snap open and shut. “I think I’ll teach you a little lesson.”
The young man’s eyes glazed over and he slumped to his knees like he was under some sort of spell. Kanae opened her mouth and almost moved to there side, but before she could move, Tamayo’s hand shot out a column of grey flesh that hit the young man’s head so hard it exploded.
Nezuko screamed and took a few steps back as the headless man went limp and slumped to the ground. Tamayo cracked her neck and turned to her unbothered.
“Now, where were we~?”
She crossed the space between them and swung her sword up, slicing off Tamayo’s eye-hand with one fluid motion, her smirk changed to a furious expression.
“Now what’s with this sudden change in behavior, little girl?” They jumped away from her before she could strike again and regrew their arm. This time, the eye was gone. “Oh look what you’ve done, you destroy the master’s gift to me.”
“You didn’t even give him a chance!” Kanae roared and sprinted to strike again.
Tamayo sighed as they effortlessly began to leap back out of the sword’s reach. “He was being rude.”
“You don't get to decide who lives or dies on a whim!”
“Uh, actually I do.” They stopped and stepped to the side, letting Kanae stumble forward. However, she twisted her body and reached with her sword.
Flower Breathing Sixth Form: Whirling Peach!
Her blade struck Tamayo in the back, severing her hips from their torso. Kanae was practically growling as she regained her balance and stood over Tamayo's top half as their face scrunched up in pain.
“I told you, I would strike you down just like the others.”
She laughed their pain away and put their arms behind their head. “Oh, did you really think that you could beat me with a single move? Deary, you are fatally mistaken.”
Kanae smelled her legs moving before she could register anything was happening. A kick from behind that would have absolutely broken her neck was tossed aside by Shinobu leaping out of his box at full size, eyes pulsing through the thinning fog and snarling from behind her muzzle.
However, at the angle Shinobu tossed the legs aside, she landed next to their torso and Tamayo quickly grabbed her legs and reattached them. “Oh so there’s more of you? Wait, is that a demon you’re traveling with? Oh how scandalous~!”
Kanae sliced at Tamayo again, who rolled out of the way and jumped back to her feet, stretching her legs and sighing. Shinobu’s claws grew into talons as she checked to make sure Kanae was okay.
The siblings stared at their opponent as Tamayo laughed and beckoned them forward. “You trained him well, what I would give to have minions as obedient as that girl. In fact--”
In a flash, Kanae realized that her sister was no longer by her side. She looked around and gasped to see that he was being held by Tamayo’s side, chains of grey flesh forcing her in a kneeling position. She thrashed around, but to no avail.
“I think I’ll add her to my collection~!” She laughed a stupidly charming laugh.
Kanae grit her teeth and dropped into a fighting stance again. “Give her back!”
“Incorrect, he is mine now, girly.” Her eyes darkened ever so slightly and her scent changed to a malicious one. “I want what I want and I get what I want. Think of this as me collecting interest for all the damages you have caused me tonight.”
Shinobu busted the chains around her arms and slashed Tamayo across the face, tearing through her skull and leaving deep rivets that would have killed any normal person. She didn’t flinch or even acknowledge the action.
Tamayo sighed again and with a flick of her wrist, Shinobu was thrown into the air and suspended by flesh chains that pulled and snapped her limbs. She let out a gargled wail of pain that broke Kanae’s heart, parts of her bones now exposed to the cool air.
Kanae screamed for her. “Put her down, you’re killing her!”
“Oh please, she’ll be fine. I just need to teach her some more obedience. Now, back to what we were doing--”
“Shinobu! Hold on, I’m coming for you!” Kanae looked for the nearest tree to shimmy up to cut down her sister.
Tamayo rolled her eyes and in an instant was in Kanae's face, her own skin healed already. “Why don't you just focus on the main event before I start to get annoyed, hmm~?”
Kanae leaped back and held up her sword, preparing to battle. Shinobu was a demon, she would heal in time.
But he’s like Yushiro, he heals slower because he doesn’t eat people. I have to finish this quickly to make sure she doesn’t suffer for too long! Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!
She charged and started to twist her body to build up momentum in her strike, catching Kanae off guard and making her leap back again with a twitching eyebrow. “Awfully bold, aren’t we?”
Kanae continued to slash at them, pushing her legs to move faster and faster to keep up with the demon. Tamayo's scent became panicked and held her arms out to the side like they were trying to fly. Kanae watched as their fingers grew to the size of tree trunks and shot around her to crush her small body.
She twisted her sword to slice them as they closed in to pummel her, managing to cut through half of the grey flesh columns, but to her horror, her blade snapped in two on the next one and she was struck in the head and torso, falling and rolling a good distance before she hit her head on a rock.
“Gramps, watch me! I got the first form down!” The boy ran into the small house handles trailing behind him. He couldn't have been older than twelve.
Sitting at a table sipping tea were two adults. One, an older man wearing a red clown mask and a baby blue kimono covered in clouds. The other, a beautiful woman with long black hair tied up with a red bow that matched the boy’s.
“Good job, Giyuu.” She reached over and messed with his hair.
The old man nodded and stood up. “Come, show me, boy.”
The three of them stepped outside the house at the top of the hill and Giyuu readied his weapon.
“Ready?” His Trainer asked him.
“Ready, Gramps!” His smile was brighter than the sun. Giyuu stood before a stray training dummy that was covered in holes from previous attempts and steadied his breathing.
“Stone Breathing First Form: Serpentinite Bipolar!” Giyuu hurled his sword at the dummy as hard as he could and twisted his arms, spinning the sword as well.
The adults watched the swords drill into the dummy and remove its head with frightening strength. Giyuu whooped and hollered as he dropped the rope and took his sister’s hands, spinning the two of them around while he danced
"I did it! I did it! I did it!” He twirled his sister around as the old man laughed.
"Yes, you certainly did, my boy.” Urokodaki waited for Giyuu to calm down before hugging him. “Outstanding job.”
Giyuu squeezed him tightly as he vibrated with excitement. His eyes drifted down to the bottom of the hill where a mountain of a man expertly swung around a flail and chain, decapitating a dozen similar dummies in one fluid motion.
The boy felt the excitement leave his body at the sight. Behind him, his sister called down to the man.
“Come on up to celebrate, Giyuu mastered his first form!”
The man turned his head in their direction and started up the hill without cleaning up his training grounds. Giyuu felt a sour taste in his mouth and let go of his Trainer.
“Actually, I want to get back to work. I wanna start mastering the second form now.”
Tsutako made a noise of protest, but Urokodaki shrugged and pat the boy’s head. “Very well then. We shall have a feast for dinner and celebrate later.”
Giyuu pulled away with a frown. “But I don't wanna celebrate! I wanna learn more! I can’t be the next Stone Pillar with only one mastered form! Teach me the others now!”
Urokodaki sighed and knelt down to his level. “Giyuu, I want you to listen to me. What is more important: knowing all the forms sort-of well and rushing through your training, or learning them one by one and taking your time?”
The boy kicked the ground. “... the second one?”
“Exactly. Don't focus on mastering every single thing I teach you. That is how you burn yourself out. Instead, take your time developing everything at the same time. You know one form, what about the others? Can you do any of the others?”
"I can do the fourth one.” Giyuu looked at his shoes.
"Then we will work together to help you learn the other three, but do not throw yourself into this. Take time to acknowledge your achievements and to let your body and mind rest. Let us feast and toast to this accomplishment tonight and tomorrow, we begin again.”
Giyuu nodded and picked up his swords with a determined look in his eyes. “I promise you, Gramps, I’ll master everything you throw at me.”
~~
Giyuu coughed as water pushed itself out of his lungs. Wiping his mouth, he opened his stinging eyes to see a young girl staring down at him.
“He’s awake.” The girl’s voice was deep and calm.
Giyuu made a startled noise and scooted away from the strange girl, looking around to see that he was still in the forest. Two other Demon Slayers wearing black and white masks over their faces closed in on him to examine his injuries.
“Wha--”
A boy with white hair and scars appeared standing over him. “You nearly drowned. Don't worry, Susamaru rescued and resuscitated you! Just sit back and let the Kakushi take care of you.”
Giyuu remembered the Kakushi from one of Urokodaki’s lessons. They were the medical staff and cleanup crew of the Demon Slayer Corps. And now they were tending to him.
“W-Wait! There’s more people on the mountain! At least two!”
The two non-Kakushi slayers looked between each other and the older one looked up. “Very well. My Tsugoku and I will go further up the mountain and retrieve any survivors.”
Giyuu breathed a sigh of relief as he let the Kakushi begin their preliminary examination.
Good, those two can go find Kanae and Kaigaku, I’m sure they’re fine but it doesn’t hurt to send in backup… wait a minute. Oh no.
He struggled a bit against the medical workers as his eyes opened widely.
THEY’RE GONNA FIND SHINOBU!!
Makomo flipped the black-haired man over and watched him clutch his cracked wooden mask tightly to his chest as he sobbed quietly.
“Sir, are you alright? Can you tell me how bad your injuries are?”
“I couldn’t do it… I couldn’t do it… I’m such a failure…” Kaigaku choked out between sobs.
Shinsou clicked her tongue and squatted down in front of him. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Agamatsu Kaigaku?”
“A pleasure to meet you, Mister Agamatsu, but I need to know the extent of your injuries.”
“I’m fine.” He wheezed and slowly got to his feet. “Just a few scrapes. I have a companion somewhere on the mountain, she needs my help—“
He stumbled and Makomo caught him, dropping her sword to help him lean against a tree. “Tell me the name of this companion and I shall search for her, alright? Medical help is on the way.”
“Kochou Kanae. She’s got short hair, purple eyes and a butterfly like haroi.” Kaiagku relaxed against the tree and stared at the discarded broken sword a few feet from him.
Shinobu’s eyes widened for a second before she retrieved her weapon and sheathed it. “Very well, stay here and wait for help.”
As she began to run deeper into the woods, Makomo remembered the scared little girl she had run into two years ago, the one who prostrated herself and begged for the Hashira to spare the life of her demon sister.
Does Kochou Shinobu still live? Do they travel together like Hisa said? How strong has Kanae grown during this time to manage to pierce the largest tree? Doesn’t matter, I must find her before the other’s do. They will kill Shinobu the second they see her.
“Makomo.” Someone called to her as she ran.
Susmaru ran alongside her. Makomo smiled politely at her and kept pace. “I thought you were managing the Kakushi.”
“They can handle it. My Tsugoku and I are scanning the entire mountain for more demons. You?”
“The same. I found one man back there by the stream and he has requested that I locate his companion.”
The man’s path started to stray to the side. “You go do that, we can rendezvous later.”
“Good luck!”
He said nothing more and vanished into the fog. Makomo pursed her lips and kept scanning the trees. She had to find Kanae before Susamaru did.
~~~
“I beg of you, please don't take my sister from me… she’s all I have left…”
“Get up!” Kanae had yelled and gripped onto the demon girl tighter. “Don't you dare show weakness to me! Women who do this get taken advantage of and killed! If groveling at the feet of death worked, then your family would still be alive!”
The girl sat back up, her purple eyes were nearly pulsating with fury. “Then I will find a way to change Shinobu back! I will find the demon who did this and slice off their head!”
“You are too weak! You were too weak to save your family and you were too weak to save your sister from her fate.Your weak resolve is what led to his transformation and subsequent capture by me. If you think that any demon would tell you how to save your sister then you are dead wrong. They wouldn’t respect your wishes for a second. And frankly, neither would I! It is the right of the strong to trample out the weak and that is what sets us apart.”
~~~
Makomo had watched the little light behind Kanae’s eyes shatter from her words and part of her regretted being so hard on the girl, but according to Hisa, Kanae used those words to push herself harder everyday of her training. She could only imagine how Kanae had changed during their years apart.