Tanjiro Kamado stood his ground, staring down the masked demon standing atop a massive boulder at the very peak of Natagumo. Behind him lay a tall wall of purple flames surrounding the entire clearing they were in, blocking out the possibility of escape, not that he had any intention of running away. From their short clash, he'd come to realize there was something different about this demon, though even now he was struggling to place his finger on exactly what, as if the answer was scratching at the back of his head yet at the same time just out of his reach.
It didn't matter though, one way or another she had killed six Demon Slayers in cold blood so there was no reason for him to hesitate against her. In fact, her having taken out all of them in one go was enough to beware of her presence already. "…Chihime." He said and though he'd already had her attention before then, something definitely shifted in her smell when he said that name, "That's your name, isn't it? It's the last thing that demon said after I'd slain her…" Once again, her smell shifted, and this time he was able to make out the anger she was feeling, further confirming his suspicions, "That's why you killed those Demon Slayers so indiscriminately after previously sparing their lives, no? As revenge for your friend…" She gave him no answer, nor did the scent of anger in her fade any slightly, but something told Tanjiro he was not too far off in his guess. "Regardless of your reasons though, the slaughter of humans is unforgivable, and besides…" His hand drifted down, taking a hold of his sword by the hilt, "…if there's anyone you should try and get revenge on, it should be the one who killed her in the first place, no…?"
For once, the demon known as Chihime seemed to agree with him as her smell shifted yet again. She jumped down from the rock, landing softly on the ground below some fifty feet away from him. Her hand grasped the hilt of her sword while the other held onto its scabbard, and just like that, she disappeared. Tanjiro's eyes widened as his Forescent flared at him, an image of his head being cut clean in half clear in his mind for a fraction of a second before he moved back, Chihime reappearing before him with her blade being drawn already slashing at her head. Even while knowing she was coming, her attack had come so close to hitting him it had actually cut a strand of hair off his hair. She followed the attack by swinging the katana over her head and slashing at Tanjiro again, but this time the boy drew his blade to intercept hers while it was still leaving his scabbard, using the draw to swing against his foe and push her back, which she used to flip back with the momentum.
Tanjiro closed the distance and tried to attack her before she could regain her bearings but the moment her foot touched the ground Chihime quickly ducked to avoid an overhead slash, already aiming to slice both his legs off with a low swing, only for the crimson-clad swordsman to reverse the grip on his katana's hilt while shifting his footing, stabbing it down on the ground in order to have it intercept her blade just in time. She tried to raise her katana again to attack but was surprised to find out Tanjiro had stepped down on it to keep the blade down before he ripped his own sword from the ground with an upwards swing she was barely able to move away while tugging the sword from under is foot from, the blade actually cutting a piece of cloth off her sleeve in the process.
Having his foothold misplaced for a moment, Tanjiro briefly lost his balance and that was enough for Chihime to take advantage of, closing in again on the boy with her blade already swinging at him. He still managed to raise his own sword to block it, but the blow still had enough power in it to send him stumbling downhill. She pressed him further, attacking with quick but powerful strikes and forcing Tanjiro to keep on the defensive while being forced further back down, which he soon realized meant she was pushing him towards the ring of fire enveloping the clearing.
He tried to fight back and regain the offensive in the battle but she pushed away his attacks and pressed him further down with her restless swings every time. The swordsman even tried locking blades and pushing her back, but quickly found Chihime's smaller frame hid a deceptive amount of strength on it as she kept her blade still under pressure, slowly pushing him closer and closer to his impending doom, his sinking feet on the ground doing little to stop her determined stride. With the ring of fire now less than ten feet away from him, he tried a desperate move and broke their blade lock before slashing at her, only for the demon to easily block his sword and locking their weapons together once again, continuing to force him even nearer to the ring, its flames licking at his back hungrily almost as if aware of his approaching presence. Only at that point though he would see the insignia at the bottom of her blade, recognizing the kanji as the same utilized in the Pillars' katana like he'd seen with Giyu. A curious but otherwise useless detail given his current situation.
Then, for a brief moment while he was looking at her blade, he saw Chihime letting go of her sword with one hand and opening it, leading to him remembering the motion she'd done twice before to ignite those very same flames, and right as she clenched her hand into a fist, he'd quickly grab onto her sword arm, using their blade lock push her down and flip over her back and get behind the demon in the same maneuver he'd once used to beat Kanao on the first time he sparred against her. He wasn't a moment too late as the closest section to the ring spat out a purple fireball at them, with Tanjiro taking cover behind his foe to let her take the full brunt of her own attack, himself being left only singed by the flames.
Expecting to get a chance to attack Chihime while she was still recovering from the flames, he let go of her arm and broke their lock to swing his blade at her back, only for her to intercept him beforehand with an elbow to his temple, sending the boy sprawling uphill from the blow. Despite that, Tanjiro rose fairly quickly, some blood falling down the right side on his sturdy head, leaving him dazed but otherwise unharmed. Rather than moving back at him as she had previously done, the demon instead only began walking up his way with her blade lowered, seeming completely unharmed by taking a fireball of her own making head-on, not even her clothes showing any damage.
"She's fast, strong, incredibly skilled and with a dangerous blood art to boot…" Tanjiro thought, breathing in with his katana already raised in preparation for her next move, "There's no doubt about it…a demon that can fight just like a Demon Slayer, breathing techniques and all…she's the real deal." Realizing the danger presented by his opponent though was all he could get before, with her foot hitting the ground, she would suddenly rush towards him, forcing the boy to move his blade to the side in order to deflect a stab at his chest, switching around to step past her and swing his body around to aim a decapitating slash which she in turn deflected upwards.
The swordsman moved in at his foe again with his katana swinging, but so did Chihime, both katana clashing and once again causing them to engage in a close-range exchange. Their steel struck against one another back and forth several times a second, producing a rain of sparks around them. For a bystander, it might have been impossible to even tell which one was attacking and which one was defending from how fast they switched between them, but amidst this controlled chaos, Tanjiro was giving his all at every turn to keep pace with his opponent. Her defense was near flawless, intercepting his every swing and slash, while her attack was relentless, taking control of the fight and not letting him retain it at any cost.
Blood was finally drawn when he was unable to fully hold back the demon's swinging blade and had it push back his block and graze his shoulder with its edge. He grit his teeth, breathing in between them to push her back and strike thrice at Chihime in quick succession, only for her violet blade to intercept each and every one of them. He followed up with a one-handed thrust of his sword which she easily sidestepped and attempted to counter to regain control of his fight. Tanjiro though thought ahead, letting go of his blade when it was fully extended and grabbing it with the hand in his already swinging left arm, his improvised attack moving to hit his opponent before her own sword could make contact, forcing the demon to abandon it and suddenly leap over his blade, flipping midair and forcing him to back up when she swung her blade upwards mid-flip, its edge sailing by inches past his nose. Hadn't his Forescent warned him of the attack, Tanjiro was fairly certain she'd have successfully slashed his face right off just then.
Even then Chihime still landed smoothly, bringing her sword in a horizontal swing with all the momentum created her spin against Tanjiro's own raised blade, the immense force behind the attack barely held back by his guard, and still having enough force to knock him off his feet and send the boy flying back, his back hitting near the top of the large boulder marking the peak of the mountain. The swordsman groaned at his painful situation before widening his eyes and suddenly rolling back up on top of the rock while the demon came flying down upon where he'd just been a moment ago, holding a reverse grip on her sword with two hands as she stabbed it into the boulder at the exact place he had been a moment ago, creating a large crack originating from where the tip of her sword made impact.
He attempted to close in distance in that brief moment her weapon was stuck onto the rock and tried slashed at her. His foe though reacted quickly, stepping back and letting herself fall down the side of her rock and out of his swing's range while still grabbing onto her hilt, before using it as a lever to jump and flip over Tanjiro, tearing her blade free of the boulder in the process to land behind the boy and swing at his back. He was not caught twice in the same trick though, and this time managed to deflect Chihime's powerful slash upwards rather than trying to block it head-on.
With the battlefield area suddenly being limited to the top of the rock they were both in, Tanjiro and Chihme reengaged in a close dance of blades, each of their swings carrying with them enough power to leave deep gashes along the rocky ground as they fought atop it. He initially attempted to gain ground on her, but quickly found this to be as useless a tactic as it had proved to be the last time as, even trying at his best to get past her guard, the best he could do in the situation was match her, and fighting on an equal ground was never a good idea for a Demon Slayer given how much easier it was for a human to make a fatal mistake as compared to a demon. That said, he attempted to switch up his tactics and stopped attacking entirely, instead focusing on keeping up his defense against her powerful offensive. With the surface area at the boulder's top being no bigger than that of a small room, the swordsman was attempting to give her the illusion of control while guiding the battle through careful footwork, making it seem so he was being forced to the edge of the rock.
As they reached said edge, Tanjiro would raise his blade when Chihime repeatedly began bringing down her own sword in repeated strikes against his edge, hitting with great force every time and progressively inching her opponent further back, "Not yet…" The boy thought to himself while holding back the Lower Moon's increasingly stronger blows, "Wait for the right moment…wait…" Then, she'd raise her katana again, gripping its hilt with both hands before bringing it down full force upon the Demon Slayer, "Now!" He exclaimed before swinging his own sword to deflect her slash while using that motion to swiftly move past the Lower Moon as she overswung. Chihime recovered quickly however and spun around with her sword swinging at Tanjiro, but he easily raised his own blade to block the blow, having prepared for such an attack, and following up with his own, a low kick at her knee that sends the demon off-balance just enough for him to use their blade lock to his advantage and push her off the edge of the rock and down a forty feet drop towards the ground.
Chihime began falling, but would barely get halfway down before stabbing her blade onto the side of the rock to stop her falling momentum and using it to push herself back upwards, running up the side of the rock back towards the Demon Slayer. He, however, would meet her halfway when jumping off the edge of the boulder himself, diving down towards her while pulling back his blade and breathing deeply. The demon though did not care one bit, and slashed straight for his neck, swinging with precision to decapitate her foe while he was still mid-fall. She could not have expected however for his blade to suddenly ignite with bright flames, intercepting her swing against its rain-guard with a sudden thrust, "Breath of the Sun, Seventh Dance: Piercing Sunlight!" Tanjiro declared while stabbing his flaming sword at her, a blow she narrowly avoided by moving her head quickly to the side, but still left a large scratch across the wooden mask covering her face. Since her tightly held blade was still pushed up against his guard though, she ended up being flung down to the ground hard, crashing down to raise a sizable dust cloud.
Not a moment later, however, did Chihime jump right back out of said dust cloud, skidding back down a good distance, dirtied but otherwise unharmed. She stared up at the cloud when it concealed the falling Demon Slayer for a moment before he burst right through it, spinning through the air towards her with his sword still engulfed in his breath's flames. "Breath of the Sun, Fifth Dance: Flame Chariot!" Tanjiro announced, bringing down his sword with all the force of its spinning momentum onto Chihime as he landed who, in turn, stood her ground and raised her blade to block the incoming attack with one of her hands held near the tip to better distribute the power of the attack.
The incoming blow though evidently still carried more in it than she initially expected as it struck her guard with enough power to break apart the earth beneath her feet, her arms pushed back and her feet sunken into the cracked ground but nonetheless taking the brunt of the attack as the flames began dimming in Tanjiro' blade. Noticing her strain however, the swordsman would suddenly break away from the blow just as the flames in his blade faded and suddenly swing at her side. Chihime, though surprised by this move, still raised her sword in its one-handed grip to block it. This time, however, she was unable to see through his feint as he changed the direction of his swing at the last moment and left her unable to defend herself.
With no ease in the slightest, Tanjiro had claimed first managed to get his long-awaited chance for a meaningful move in what had quickly become evident to be his hardest fight against a demon so far. Kamanue had been a pure battle of attrition, but this was far more intense, the fact that throughout this whole ordeal he still couldn't shake off the odd feeling he had from this demon making it all the harder. But finally, he'd managed to focus, and with it claim both the right hand and the katana of his opponent with a clean cut at the wrist, both literally and figuratively disarming her.
He did not give her long to process that fact either as he slashed at his foe's neck, forcing her to quickly back away from him before she could reclaim her sword with her remaining sword. Tanjiro though was quick in chasing her, intent on finishing it before she could get a chance to reclaim the weapon. As he approached Chihime, she'd swing with the stump of her hand and send some blood flying at his face, probably in an attempt to blind him with it in order to get past the swordsman. He just raised his blade in order to intercept most of the blood so it didn't hit his eyes, though some trickles of it still got past his blade and hit him on the side of his forehead around the area of his scar. Not that he cared though, as he was too concerned with closing in on the demon, his blade raised as he breathed in preparation for what would be the killing blow, "Breath of the Sun, Ninth Dan-"
He was interrupted when Chihime closed her remaining hand into a fist, and there was a blinding flash of purple as her flames ignited on his forehead, causing a sudden interruption in his technique as the fire burned intensely in his skin for a moment before it just faded, not even damaging his hair, but leaving behind a very painful burn around the area of his scar, unknowingly to him reshaping said scar into a darker mark of brownish-red coloration bearing a vague resemblance to a flame. It hurt, quite badly in fact, but it was not something beyond what Tanjiro could manage. Still, it gave Chihime an easy opportunity to attack, which seemed like she was going to do when she rushed towards him but once he tried slashing at the demon to keep her at bay, she'd simply jump over him, spinning in the air and landing next to where her blade had been left, placing a foot underneath it to kick the sword upwards and easily catch it with her newly regenerated right hand.
Tanjiro, though still covering his forehead in pain, was very much so stunned by all this. Only now he was realizing the fact that she had used her blood to create those purple flames of her Demon Blood Art. It explained the weird smell present on those flames as well as on herself. But beyond that there was still something to that demon's scent that he couldn't quite shake off. It felt like he was forgetting something so obvious, but he didn't know what. Not to mention, what really surprised him, despite showing herself very capable of killing several humans, there was a weird pattern to her actions that could actually be seen as a code of honor. After all, she had very clearly had the opportunity to kill him with her blood art there and she didn't take it. He'd been close to the ring of fire surrounding them, he'd felt its heat, there was no way in hell that tiny flicker of a flame was all she could do. Something told him that, if she really wanted it, she'd have set his whole head on fire and killed him there and then. But she didn't. Just like she hadn't struck him when he was still dazed by her attack, instead opting to evade him and retrieve her sword. For some reason, it seemed like she was very intent on having a fair fight against him. "…what the hell is up with this demon…?" He couldn't help but to wonder.
Chihime meanwhile didn't seem to be in any rush to attack him, apparently waiting until he recovered from the burn. Except waiting wouldn't really be the right word, seeing as even though she didn't attack him herself, she sure gave him motivation to get back up. She walked over to a nearby tree and placed her regenerated hand against its bark, igniting the blood in her sleeve and passing on those flames to the tree in order to completely set it on fire. She then swung her sword at it one-handedly, and carved a deep gouge onto the wood, causing the tree to begin tipping over downhill and towards him. To rush that process, she would them kick onto the stump of the tree mid-fall to send it hurling downhill, purple flames burning fiercely in the trunk as it made its way towards Tanjiro.
"...right, time to get back to it, I guess." The boy grunted, rising up groggily and stretching for a moment before he gripped his katana tightly and breathed in, turning towards the burning tree coming his way. His feet shifted and he breathed in, before rushing off uphill, his blade reigniting with flames as he went. "Breath of the Sun, Sixth Dance: High-Noon Flare!" Tanjiro announced as he disappeared into a burst of speed with a sudden flare right as the trunk was about to catch him, wisps of his bright flames flowing amidst Chihime's own purple ones before the entire tree was slashed apart in three, the purple flames fading as its broken pieces fell apart.
He would then reappeared in front of the demon who already had her blade raised and deliver a series of quick but powerful strikes that even she had trouble defending against, but managed to do so with only a few scrapes and scratches before blocking Tanjiro's final blow and being sent skidding back along the side of the slope. He did not give up though, and shot off after Chihime, not even letting the Breath of the Sun's flames bathing his blade to disappear before causing them to resurge in a more focused form as he went for another technique, "Breath of the Sun, First Dance: Waltz!" He cried out, slashing at her with his flaming sword and forcing the demon to back away herself, with him moving in close pursuit.
The two partook in a cat and mouse game around the mountain peak, with Tanjiro chasing after his foe brandishing his flaming sword while Chihime was for the first time forced to stay on the defensive, dodging and deflecting his seemingly endless series of sword swings while all the while trying and failing to keep her distance from him. She tried at one point to guide him back towards the flames, but this avenue was cut off with a flaming slash that nearly cost her a leg. The fight was eventually taken to the air too when Chihime took a chance she'd managed to back away from her foe and jumped up onto a nearby tree's branch, using it as a platform to get some air and hopefully gain some distance from him. Problem was Tanjiro did not give up so easily, and did much of the same, intercepting her mid-fall and forcing her to defend herself against his flaming blade while midair. With a powerful swing at her raised blade, he'd thus knock the demon back down to the ground, falling right by the rock marking the top of the mountain. She'd have to rise quickly though, in order to block a falling Tanjiro's slash with a swing of her own, except he'd use the clash of their blades to flip over her and land on the side of the rock, followed by shooting off back at her with a clean shot at her neck with what he fully intended to be a finishing blow.
He was caught off guard, however, when a moment before his swing landed, the demon would glance at him from over her shoulder, and he could've sworn that he heard her sigh from behind the mask, almost as in exasperation. And then, even though it had not been there a moment earlier, her blade had been raised before his own flaming one with its edgeless side. Rather than deflecting blocking it, however, it simply guided his swing past her with its own power while the demon moved to the side, breaking the lock and swinging around while maintaining the momentum built by his own attack as she raised her katana, its edge now glowing in a dark red coloration that seemed to be bleeding out of it to disappear into the air, "Dance of the Blood Moon, Second Step," He barely heard Chihime whisper from underneath her mask, finally breaking her silence, "Red Riposte."
A moment before she brought down the blade, Tanjiro's forescent would suddenly detect a very strong smell, causing him to very clearly visualize his own form being separated in two halves with a vertical slash across his torso, so what he did was use the momentum of his swing to toss himself to the side. Had he done so a moment later, his vision would've certainly been more than just that, as Chihime's sword swing, despite missing him, did indeed hit something. More specifically, with a thunderous sound, it had cleaved the house-sized boulder that marked the peak of the mountain clean in two while also leaving a deep carving on the ground that her sword swing had dug up. Despite all that, all she did was lower her blade and stare over at the astounded Tanjiro in clear frustration of having missed her swing even after being pushed to use a Breath Technique.
"She used the power of my own technique and redirected it with twice the power just there...that's crazy..." He thought, cold sweat running down the side of his forehead as he gripped the hilt of his katana, Waltz's fire long extinguished, "'Dance of the Blood Moon'...I've never heard of any breath style like that." Tanjiro mused silently, but he didn't have to think too hard to guess why. That technique had been made to parry and return a sword technique, not a demon's attack. It was not a Demon Slayer's style but rather a style made to kill Demon Slayers...
There was also something very unnerving to him with the 'Dance' as she called it in specific, seeing as it was very similar to his family's own 'Dance of the Fire God'. It wasn't just the name either, there were definitely odd similarities in the ways they fought he'd noticed throughout the times when their blades met, more so than he had when sparring with any of the Senses or even the Water Pillar. It was almost like her breath technique was somehow a bastardization of his own...except...mixed with something else. "This demon...just why is she wearing that mask...?" He seemed to wonder for the first time since meeting her, "Just...just who is she?"
He wouldn't get much time to ponder though as Chihime quickly returned to her attack moving in a blur to reappear in front of him, her blade thrusting right at his face. In his momentary distraction, he was not able to raise his guard in time and ended up with a scratch across his cheek from the deflecting edge of her blade. The demon pressed him further with a quick and focused attack administered to pierce his guard while pushing him down the mountain, but Tanjiro was able to hold his ground. That is, until he tried to counterattack by swinging his blade down on her, a blow Chihime easily switched her body to dodge before lashing out to grab him by the wrist, holding down the demon Slayer while already thrusting a sword at his chest.
Tanjiro managed to think quickly and twist his arm in order to switch it around and give him the chance to throw his katana upwards, allowing the boy to catch it with his other hand and barely deflect her own thrusting blade before lashing out with a slash of his own to give himself to yank his arm free while she was blocking and move off to open some distance. Despite that, he wouldn't get too far as Chihime shot off at full speed after him, forcing him to spin around mid-run to swing his blade and deflect her incoming slash, which instead cut into the ground, cutting its way up the side of a tree as she climbed it on sheer momentum before shooting off back down at Tanjiro again.
Despite her blow missing with the swordsman's quick dodge, it instead cut a tear into the earth and raised another dust cloud amidst which the two continued their clash of blades amidst, their missed swings splitting apart and reshaping the dust around them as they fought. Even then though, with the cloud quickly beginning to clear, Tanjiro lost his brief advantage of smell and she began retaking control of the fight once again, bringing down powerful blows against his guard before throwing a feint that he only barely blocked, not switching his footwork in time and therefore being thrown back by the blow, skidding and coming to a stop as his back hit the side of a tree.
He had little breathing time even then as Chihime shot out of the fading cloud dust with her blade once again bleeding red as it had the last time she used a breath technique, and he knew he had to move quickly, "Dance of the Blood Moon, Fourth Step: Cross Cutter." She murmured calmly as she reached him and proceeded to unleash two powerful intercrossing upward vertical slashes with her blade so quick one might have thought it was but a single swing.
The two swings however fazed through the surprised figure of Tanjiro as if he wasn't even then, and the demon would realize it was but an afterimage just in time to spin around and block her opponent's midair counterattack, "Breath of the Sun, Eighth Dance, Parhelion Rainbow!" He called out in between gritted teeth, shoving at her with his blade to push himself back and land some distance away on his feet. This though only earned him a moment's breath, as Chihime rushed off after him again with her blade readied. That single breath though was enough for him to pull off another technique, "Breath of the Sun, Second Dance: Crimson Horizon!" Tanjiro declared while unleashing a 360-degree flaming slash. The demon seemed to have seen that coming though as she suddenly went down into a knee slide, her neck bending back to allow his blade to narrowly fly over his head while her free hand sunk its claws onto the ground to quickly slow down her momentum and push herself to the side at the moment he ended his attack and leaving her in the perfect position to throw a kick at his sword hand. The blow landed, serving to not only dislocate his wrist but disarm the katana off his one-handed grip, the weapon sent flying downhill and bouncing off the ground, coming to a stop just by the ring of flames surrounding the clearing.
Tanjiro grit his teeth, and almost instinctively reached out with his remaining good hand at the katana's direction before pulling back as his arm was very nearly lopped off by Chihime's swinging blade. He had to suddenly fall back, relying on his Forescent to dodge around her attacks without a weapon to his aid. So, this was a bad situation. She evidently had returned the favor of taking his weapon away from when he cut her hand off, not to mention the intense pain in his wrist as his dominant hand was made near-useless, his even more painful forehead burn and him not having any unnatural abilities like her igniting blood to easily turn around the situation. While dodging around and trying to keep himself facing her back to difficult her attacking, he reminded himself that there was actually something he could do without his sword. That was what led to Tanjiro reusing his Parhelion Rainbow to try and get past Chihime once she spun around to swing at him and ended up met with his afterimage as he flipped over her.
Instead of giving himself the chance to rush off and regain his weapon as planned, Tanjiro instead would have the edge of his haori grabbed when he was suddenly mid flip when the demon reached out behind her head and swung around, throwing him at the opposite direction of his sword, namely uphill, leaving him sprawling at the landing before coming to a stop by crashing onto the unsliced size of the massive boulder. "Ugh...guess the same trick won't work on her twice..." He thought, grunting painfully after his rough landing. He would have to recover quickly though, as Chihime was once again rushing him, her blade bleeding red as it did when she used a breath technique.
"Dance of the Blood Moon, Third Step: Dark Impaler." The demon murmured, taking a single-handed hold of her blade by its pommel with her fingers pressed around the length of the hilt before she thrust it straight at Tanjiro, forcing the boy to jump and avoid being skewered, climbing the rock with his momentum and holding onto a crack on its side probably created by one of their earlier clashes, with his good hand to support his weight. Despite her blade having easily sunk nearly all the way down to the hilt into the rock, spreading multiple more cracks around the point of impact, Chihime showed she was not done yet, dragging her katana upwards to unleash with it a slash intent on catching Tanjiro further up the boulder while simultaneously dragging it off its rocky prison.
The swordsman pushed himself to the side to avoid the slash running up its length and slid his way down its narrow slope towards Chihime, pushing himself to flip over an incoming attack when he was nearing the bottom. Even then though, he was lucky to land safely, and after that was barely given a moment's reprieve when she attacked again, forcing him to back up along the length of the rock as her missed blade swings tear asunder the bottom of the boulder without the least bit of care for it, focused only on the human she was attacking. This meant Tanjiro was the only one who noticed when the destruction caused by her sword in the rock created more cracks that spread further and further upward, making it quickly seem as it was all going to collapse at any moment.
With that in mind, he'd dodge another one of her swings before flipping to the side, landing on the side of the boulder and running back down to the ground, on the process avoiding an upward slash that augmented the previous damage to the point where Tanjiro could tell that dam was about to burst. Chihime spun around with her blade swinging, forcing him to intercept her arm with his left hand by taking a hold of her forearm before using his busted right hand to take hold of her other wrist to prevent her from lashing out with her claws. She struggled against his hold for a moment, knowing it wouldn't be long until she overpowered him in strength and freed herself up to attack again, but Tanjiro kept his ground, sweat dripping down his forehead in his struggle as he waited for the right moment, keeping a discrete eye on the spreading cracks on the boulder above and the small pieces that broke off from it and fell to the ground.
All he needed was another moment to hold back Chihime, but her naturally superior strength already present in a demon plus the breathing techniques she used to further supplant it was allowing her to begin pushing him back further and further, glaring at him with her mismatched eyes from behind her mask. He knew she could easily switch up her stance and attack him given her position, especially with her Demon Blood Art, but he also knew she saw this as a chance to finally get a hit in after having to deal with his constant dodging, which was why she was playing to his game and trying to overpower him rather than setting him on fire or flipping over him to kick his head off., "Almost...almost..." Tanjiro thought in between gritted teeth, his bad hand burning in pain from having to hold her back. He knew it was only a matter of seconds before he lost this match of strength, and gave the demon her long-awaited chance to attack. Luckily though, the damage accumulated at the massive rock chose that moment to hit its limit, finally breaking apart high above and falling down in a rain of debris towards the two.
With the loud cracking sound of rock breaking, Chihime turned her gaze upwards and off Tanjiro to see what that was for a brief moment, but that was just the brief moment he had been waiting for. QuicklyTanjiro pushed her two hands to the side and, with all his strength, released a mighty headbutt at his opponent, his hardened skull crashing against the mask with enough power to spread a series of cracks originating from the point of impact across it, large pieces breaking off with her face quickly being uncovered as she was thrown back by the headbutt's impact. She'd try to rise up again, but be met with several raining rocks that fell on top of her, burying the demon under a pile of debris right at the bottom of the boulder.
As for Tanjiro, he had moved back at the last moment after headbutting her, letting go of Chihime, and allowing her to be buried under an avalanche of her own. That, as he already knew, was only a way for him to buy time though. Time he didn't waste as he quickly ran downhill to where his disarmed sword had been left, right by the demon's purple wall of flames. He could only be thankful it hadn't been tossed this way just a bit harder, or else he would have been left permanently disarmed. With his sword recovered, he would work then on fixing his wrist with a quick, painful pull that set his bones back in place, though it still left behind a large bruise in there. If given some more time he could use his own muscles to set it in place properly, but he really didn't have the comfort to do so.
Sure enough, no sooner was he done fixing himself that the pile of rocks in which he had buried his foe under exploded with a large cloud of dust and he took a deep breath in preparation to start off round two, closing his eyes to focus his own sense of smell and raising his sword at eye-level in a parrying stance. A blurry shadow would move through the cloud, bursting through the dust in a downhill beeline towards the red-clad swordsman. Tanjiro opened his eyes wide as his Forescent flared and struck down to meet Chihime's blade, their swords clashing with enough force to lower the wall of flames behind him for a moment. The boy had planned in fact to break their lock and spin around with a vertical swing aiming to catch her in the neck, except he'd take notice of his foe before him, and his eyes widened as his body suddenly froze.
Chihime, in turn, noticed him seizing and took the chance to once again disarm the katana off his hands with a quick maneuver, spinning around to slash his head off. Rather than dodging like he had done a thousand times before though, Tanjiro failed to move a single muscle as her swing stopped the moment her edge made contact with his neck, leaving a faint cut to the side of his throat and not even causing him to blink. The look on his face had caught her off guard, his eyes were impossibly wide, his mouth left half-open, moving as if trying to say something but not finding it in himself to let it out. It took her a moment for her to realize his reaction had come from her unmasked face, seeing as whatever remained of the mask after it was broken by his headbutting was left behind the large pile of rocks some ways up the hill.
It was an odd feeling, that. One unlike anything he'd ever felt before. It was as if he had laid eyes upon a living contradiction, a true paradox, the worst-case scenario. It made sense to him now, why he had felt so odd about her smell, how there was something he recognized in it. Even buried amidst the scent of blood and ash it should have still been something he should've been able to make out, but it was as if his own brain had been denying himself such a conclusion, knowing the realization would be too much for him to handle. But now, standing there face to face with it, he had nothing else left but to confront the truth. The wounds created by the fateful day in which he had lost his entire family had never truly healed, instead only stitched and covered, left to bleed out from time to time. However, at that moment, it was as if they had all suddenly burst open as fresh as when the realization of his loss had hit him years ago. They were dead, all of them. So how come his sister was standing right in front of him after being beheaded by a Demon Slayer before his very eyes...?
"...Nezuko...?" The boy managed to muster out quietly, unable to draw out much more than that in his near-catatonic state. He watched as the form of his sister widened the mismatched eyes marking her rank almost in recognition at the name for a moment before suddenly grunting, a palm rising against her head as in pain. Tanjiro watched, not knowing what to make of it or do, her sword being removed from his neck as she stared at him with an eye in between her fingers, grunting again before reaching out to him and shoving the swordsman aside, causing him to stumble slightly
She still kept her hand raised to her head, even as she stepped towards the ring of fire of her own creation, "Nezuko, wait!" Tanjiro called out, his daze broken by her shove and leaving him with more questions than answers. He dashed out in a hurry and tried to grab her shoulder to prevent Nezuko from stepping into the fire, but right before he could reach her, she'd turn around and strike him across the face with the back of her fist. He was sent sprawling roughly in the ground, blood dripping from the corner of his lip. Groaning, Tanjiiro would look up, and see his sister staring coldly at him from over her shoulder, any previous sense of familiarity in it by now gone.
After a moment, she'd look away, and wordlessly step into the ring of flame, her shadow persisting in it for a moment before disappearing, leaving Tanjiro behind with the enormous emotional weight of their encounter just then falling all for his shoulders to bear. He'd stare into the flames from his position long and hard, unresponsive to the world around him. After a while, they would fade by themselves, leaving him, once again, completely alone.
A/N: Geez, what a chapter, amirite? Talk about sibling squabble. Seriously though, this really is a big deal. After all, this has been built up literally from chapter one, from their separation to their reunion. I even named them nearly the same thing And now, after this arc, some things are gonna have to change for our main characters. Not just for Inosuke and Zenitsu, but now for Tanjiro too, seeing as his whole world has just been flipped upside down, but let's talk a bit about the chapter itself rather than just its consequences.
So, this whole chapter is Tanjiro vs Chihime, all leading up to the way it concludes with that mask being broken and the big reveal moment ensuing. I really hoped I managed to catch the shock on that one. The mask really has been an excuse from day one for the two to fight each other without any strong emotional attachments, though there is still some suspension of disbelief involved seeing as Tanjiro should, by all means, recognize her.
Going a bit further back though, a big reveal I've been waiting on this chapter to drop is Chihime's Breathing Style. It's one of my creation, the only one that will appear in this story. As most of you probably guessed from Tanjiro's thoughts on it, it's sort of a halfway ground between the memories Dance of the Fire God Nezuko retains in her subconscious and the Breath of the Moon taught to Chihime by Kokushibou, with some extra personal spin that differentiates it from either styles, and thus we have the Dance of the Blood Moon. It differentiates from normal breath styles since it is made to fight swordsmen rather than demons, thus having techniques such as a counter built into it through a riposte.
Sword fights are usually difficult to make interesting in a writing format, but I tried to use the surroundings as setpieces like the trees and the big rock to make it a bit more interesting. I also took reference from other sword fights in anime. SAO, despite how unappealing it is to me as a series, was actually a great help in helping me make the choreography more interesting. I might have ripped off a thing or two in the coreography used for one specific sword fight in the movie, its probably not too hard to find if you look for it.
What else...? Oh, some of you might've noticed how I remained the Breath of the Sun's go-to stab technique from Sunflower Lance to Piercing Sunlight. Yes, Sunflower Lance sounds cooler, even I have to agree, but this is not a meaningless decision. If I am not completely vague with why I'm doing this though, it'll be way easy to guess why, and even that is saying too much. So, hold on and bide your time, I'll get to it eventually...way eventually, actually.
Anyway, I'm wrapping up this chapter. Thanks to DownwardDive once again for giving me the idea of making Nezuko Kokushibou's apprentice, thus leading all the way to this chapter-long sword fight. If you're gonna complain about it, please do it to him.
So, the Reviews.
thestormwriter123: Nooooooooooo! Inosuke lost his most defining charectarisations!
I'm not sure how you're gonna make zenitsu capable of the thunder breathing style anymore seeing as it requires the use of two full hands...
Also , still waiting for tanjiro vs nezuko, it'll be a blast!
Good chapter, keep up the great work
Well, Gyomei adapted an entire breathing style so he could still fight while being blind, so really its not too farfetched to do the same. Especially when the likes of Inosuke developed one basically from scratch.
gogo bananas: I gotta say, this story is soooo fuckin good I love it so much
I love the character development for Zenitsu
gotta wonder how ur gonna even him out now tho
Thanks, I'm glad you're liking what I have for Zenitsu so far.
Guest: Ouch poor zenitsu's fingers
Yeah, that was probably quite painful.
FallohideDragon: Hello! I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore this fic, it's the first KnY fic I've read so far and I can already tell that few will match it. Your style, use of language and description, especially during fight scenes, is incredible! The detail is fabulous, I can picture every movement, every single emotion in my head and the charactisation is perfectly in line with the AU you've created, so thank you for that. I greatly look forward to the next chapter!
I do have one piece of constructive criticism, but I'll ask your permission to give it first, as I am unsure whether it is a technique you employ purposefully or not.
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN!
I'm glad you really enjoyed the story so far. Based on the way you worded the second paragraph though, I have a guess or two on what that criticism be. Still, I'd love to hear it. If fixing it would make the whole thing better, then anything goes.
EMSNaruto: Quit playing bro, give my mans zenitsu his fingers back you fiend
Yeah bruv, immafraid tha's gonna be a hard no.
cyberas: Huh Zenitsu's blade broke, that sucks. I liked that in the manga he was the only one of the three stooges that never had his blade broken, having that idea of being the most durable blade in his backstory. Zenitsu losing most of his left hand is interesting, and not the way I thought things would go. I was expecting Godspeed instead to decapitate Rui. I am pleased that they still lost though, it'd be weird for both of them to be strong enough to beat a lower moon. I don't know how you'll take his character, since this might make Zenitsu even more of a coward. I still love my favorite lightning boy though.
for a very brief review, I find that you sometimes make fight scenes drag out too much. In Genya, Kanao vs jojo spider dad I sometimes skim through some paragraphs because it dragged out too much. I do like how you're letting characters go in different directions.
To be honest, I took note of how his blade never broke, but never thought too much about it in regard to his backstory. I'm glad I managed to subvert your expectations favorably though. And regarding Zenitsu, he is still my favorite character in the actual series, so while this will naturally drag him back some ways back, his character arc here will be far bigger than those few missing fingers.
I'm sorry you feel the fights drag out too much, but that is not as much a flaw in my writing as I see it as it is a deliberate choice. This whole story, if not the series has a whole, can be divided by the characters interacting with one another and the actual Demon Slaying of it, and given the first one is the one that naturally happens more often than the latter, I feel like I can't skimp out on the latter. Kanao, for example, had the least to do in this arc of the Five Senses, so I feel those four thousand words of fighting are necessary to get a good idea of what she can do in a fight in relation to other characters and give her some cool moments.
Knighthunter911700: I just had to start reading this fanfic when it is at its biggest cliffhanger! I really like the take of what would happen differently to cannon and I can't wait to see the next chapter.
Well, I'm glad to have a new reader. Thanks for your support, and I hope the cliffhanger paid off for you.
lordpurgatory23: muah*
its a masstapeece
Wouldn't really call it that, but the sentiment is appreciated.
HamburgerLife: yayyy, happy 5 month anniversary!
Love the fight scenes, rlly the point of the anime's genre being adventure. Genya, still fab as always. Kanao, badass as always. Inosuke, adorable as always. Zenitsu, human as always.
Tanjiro...rip Tanjiro has no idea who he's fighting...
Thanks.
And indeed he didn't…well, now he does, but how that affects him is something you'll have to wait to see.
clone59yahoo com: THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE! I just came back from a grueling learning secession and I needed something precious to read.
You're always welcome. Good to see the misery from these characters helps you mitigate yours.
Guest: Noooi, why you got to do that to my boy Zenitsu?! But seriously though, amazing chapter! And amazing fight scenes!
Why? Really, the main reason is to develop his character a bit more and test his convictions. Again, something we'll have to wait to see after this arc.
Wrapping up for today, given the manga seems to be going into an epilogue as of the last released chapter, this might very well be the last chapter I write while Kimetsu no Yaiba is in publication. really curious as to see how they will put the ending notes on such a great series. And if you're also curious for what I'm gonna do on my end, please leave a review for me to reply in the next chapter. Got 200 of those as of posting this chapter, which I forgot to mention, but it's pretty cool. Not that it's nearly enough for me though, so keep 'em coming.
So, next time we'll get to the final chapter in the Natagumo Mountain Arc, tying up all loose ends and doing everything we gotta do before moving on...though I do have a surprise or two up my sleeve still. See y'all soon, Sky signing out.