The Burden of the Lower Moons
And here we are, at the first ever chapter I've written using the manga as part of the source material! Fingers crossed it turns out alright, and a quick shout out to LoneTaker, Noble Eight and groche9655 for their input on this and other chapters. And once again thank you my fellow readers for your responses as to whether or not I should continue by manga. Now then, onto the story!
A Few Months Ago: The Currently Burning Home of Lower Moon 4: Mukago
It was a terrible, saddening sight. Currently, a white-haired girl was on her hands and knees, helplessly watching her house burn. Given the darkness, one might have easily mistaken her for a regular girl with her red kimono, black sash and fur neck wrap. But closer inspection would quickly reveal her chalky skin, short horns, fangs, and red lines upon her face which denoted her as something other than human. Most striking of all, was the kanji for the phrase 'Lower Four' in her left eye which denoted her as part of the Twelve Kizuki's lower ranks.
This eye, just like her right, currently had tears flowing out of it at the sight before her. "But why, Lord Muzan?" She managed to squeak out, "what have I done for you to burn my home down?" 'It had so many memories,' she thought.
"Simple," said the figure standing next to her, a woman with the face of a man wearing a black kimono and sash with gold markings. His hair was done up in a traditional bun. "I've grown quite tired of your lack of results, just as I have with the rest of the lower moons."
"But my lord I-," she started to protest, only to be silenced by an intense glare from him.
"Are you disputing what I have said?" He asked in a tone that invited no argument.
"N-No, I mean I just-," she struggled to find the right words.
"You will remain silent until given permission to speak," said Muzan before signaling to another demon standing nearby. He wore the trappings of a swordsman and even had a katana on his waist which was covered with numerous decorations resembling eyes. Fitting, given that he himself had six eyes. "Bring her, it's time to gather the rest." The demon nodded in understanding before grasping her by the back of her kimono and causing the two of them to seemingly vanish into thin air.
The Infinity Fortress
"W-what," said another voice, "Mukago, you're here too?" The demon girl looked around to see another of her kind, a boy with black hair tied in four wolf-tails that ended with orange streaks in them. He was also set apart by the green symbol which resembled an anchor down the middle of his face and the white hakama with yellow sleeves he was currently wearing.
"Kamanue," said the surprised Mukago, wondering why lower moon six was also there. Wherever there was. It was like a maze in all directions with twisting and winding stairs, walkways, and hallways. And they didn't just go up or down but left, right, diagonally, sideways and every other possible way imaginable. The sound of a biwa string broke the two of them from their musings as the area they were in suddenly changed to a different location.
Looking around once more, the two noticed the other lower moons had also been summoned, all except one that is. But once again there was little time to think on the matter as the biwa sounded again, transporting everyone to a floating platform in what was likely the center of the fortress. Five lower moons in all, and not a single one of them knew exactly why they were there. "Lower your heads and prostrate yourselves," said a voice that was familiar to Mukago as she looked up to once again see Muzan in his female attire. He was accompanied by a woman on his right with long black hair that covered all but her mouth, grey robes and the biwa that was likely the source of what had transported them in the first place.
The fourth lower moon wasted no time in obeying the order, while the others looked on in confusion. It wouldn't last long, however, as a sudden, commanding impulse suddenly seized them all. The remaining four quickly bowed down to the one they now knew without a doubt was their master. "I have a number of questions that shall be answered," said Muzan, "Rui was killed, which brings me to this one question for the remaining lower five. Why is it that those of you within the lower ranks are so utterly weak?"
No one spoke in response to this, already knowing that potential punishment awaited any who so much as uttered a word without permission. "You should not be satisfied with simply becoming part of the Twelve Kizuki as that is merely your starting point. To gain more power by devouring humans, it is your starting point for becoming useful to me. The upper ranks of the Twelve Kizuki have remained unchanged for over a century, and it is always those demons in the upper ranks who dispose of the Hashira demon hunters."
"But what of those in the lower ranks?" Asked Muzan, "How many times have your positions been replaced?"
'That's easy enough for you to say, but we're…' thought Kamanue before instantly regretting it.
"'That's easy enough for you to say, but we're…..what? Go ahead and say it," said Muzan.
'He can read my mind,' thought Kamanue in disbelief as sweat rolled down his forehead and face, 'I'm screwed!'
"'Screwed', how so," asked Muzan, "go ahead and say it already!" Veins began to stand out on the head demon's face.
"Please forgive-GAAAAAHHH!" Kamanue's pleas were quickly silenced by a red, fleshy tendril jamming him in the neck far more quickly than even he could see. All he could do was cough up blood as he felt something being drained from him while being suspended in the air by his impaled neck. In another instant, the tendril threw him down, leaving him gasping in anguish and barely able to move. The other lower moons looked on in horror at the spectacle, fear gripping every single one of them as they all looked at the blood of their comrade which had splashed on them.
'What is happening,' thought another one of the demons who was characterized by short, dark hair, pointy ears with gold earrings and three 'x'-shaped scars on his face. His outfit consisted of a white neck wrap and lined, greenish yellow robes. He was lower rank 3, Wakuraba. 'Am I going to be killed, or worse? After all I went through to become one of the Twelve Kizuki, I thought I'd be able to do more and more!'
"Do you fear the demon slayers more than you fear me?" Questioned Muzan to the other demons.
"No, we simply-," Mukago tried to protest before getting cutoff by her master.
"Every time you run into a Hashira," said Muzan, "escape is the one and only thing on your mind."
"N-not at all," said Mukago as she tried and failed to hold back her tears, "I don't think of escape, I'll gladly put my own life on the line to fight for you!"
"Are you daring to refute what I just said yet again?" Questioned Muzan darkly. Mukago could only gape in horror as another tendril flew out like a striking viper and jabbed her in the throat, forcing her to the floor as she too was drained. Before long, the tendril was retracted as the lower rank 4 Kizuki laid there trembling, barely able to move as all the strength had left her.
'It's over,' thought Wakuraba, 'since our minds are being read, whether we agree or disagree he's still going to kill us, or do whatever he did to the others. And we can't possibly defeat him in battle, leaving only one option…..RUN!' The lower rank 3 Kizuki bolted like a bullet from a gun before landing and running, jumping, sliding and flipping his way through the many rooms, passageways and gaps that made up the strange fortress. 'I just have to make it out of here somehow, some way! Now that I've made it this far I-.'
The sights in front of him changed abruptly as he realized he was back where he was, or to be more precise, just above where he'd been. Adding to his confusion was the fact that he was suspended in midair with an incredible pain digging into his back as he was experiencing what felt like the very life being drained from him. "I'm relatively convinced now that the Twelve Kizuki are better off consisting of only the upper ranks. So I've decided to weed out the lower ranks a bit."
'H-how did he get me,' thought Wakuraba as he realized that it was Muzan's hand shoved into his back that was causing him pain, 'I didn't hear any sounds from the Biwa woman…..so why?' His remaining thoughts were lost in a sea of pain as the demon lord tightened his grip a bit before tossing his now mostly immobile body among his fellow lower moons. This left only two Kizuki bowing before Muzan.
"Now," he said, "do you have any last pathetic pleas or excuses for why I should let you retain my power?"
"I-I can still be of use to you," said lower moon 2, Rokuro as he stood up. Unlike the others, he looked much older with long dark hair, a beard and grey robes resembling a Gi. "All I need is a short reprieve and I swear I shall give you results!"
"And just how long of a reprieve are you asking for, specifically?" Questioned Muzan in a monotone voice. "Moreover, how do you intend to be useful? What exactly can you accomplish with your current skills?"
"I would need a share of your blood," replied Rokuro, "just a small amount and I will acclimate without fail! Then I will fight for you as an even stronger and more powerful demon!"
"And what makes you think you can order me to give you any of my blood," questioned Muzan, "you're beyond shameless. Remember your place."
"W-wait, you misunderstood me," said Rokuro in a panic, "I was merely-."
"Silence," said Muzan, "I misunderstood nothing. I am never mistaken about anything. I am the one who calls the shots for my word is absolute. You have no right to reject anything that I say for the right thing is whatever I say is right. You deigned to tell me what to do and under any other circumstances, you would deserve to die!"
Once more a pair of tendrils shot forth, piercing the second rank lower moon in the throat and abdomen, causing him to reel back in agony as he was drained. It only lasted for a short time, but to Rokuro, it was an eternity of anguish before he was dropped to the floor like a piece of garbage among the rest of the garbage. Now only lower moon 1, Enmu, remained. Unlike the others, he was dressed in a more flashy black, button-up waist coat with grey pants. His shoulder-length black hair had red streaks on the ends and his face had yellow blocky marks that went in a vertical line under each eye.
"Do you have anything you'd wish to say before I take from you as well," questioned Muzan.
"Well, let's see," said Enmu who'd been seemingly staring off into space the entire time before putting his hands together, "this is like a dream for me. For you to kill me with your own hands, and I am greatly enjoying the sounds of pain from the other demons! I feel blessed because I love to see others in despair and agony. Because it's like a dream, I thank you for leaving me for last!" He held out his arms in a gesture of acceptance for whatever was to come next.
Muzan said nothing as he once more jabbed a red, spiked tendril into Enmu's neck, causing him to gasp in pain. But instead of having something drained out of him, blood instead began to flow into him. The lower moon began to writhe on the ground in pain as a smile crossed his master's face. "That's what I like to hear," said Muzan, "so I'm giving you an ample share of the blood I've drained from the others. Though you might not be able to withstand such a volume and die, if you do manage to acclimate, you're sure to acquire even greater strength than before."
His explanation was met only with more pained groaning as numerous veins stood out on Enmu's body. "Make yourself useful to me then, kill the demon slayer Hashira! And more specifically, if you can kill the demon slayer wearing hanafuda-like earrings, I'll give you an actual sample of my own blood." He signaled the demon biwa woman then, who quickly strummed a few sharp notes on her instrument that caused a pair of sliding doors to appear beneath Enmu and open, dropping him back into the outside world. The demon lord then turned his disapproving gaze onto the rest of the lower moons.
"I hope you've all observed and learned from his example. Now to the other matter at hand, what I have done to all of you and more importantly, why I have allowed refuse like you to continue drawing breath. To put it in a way that you won't misunderstand, I have taken a large degree of the blood you've all acquired over the decades, rendering you far weaker than before. That is your punishment for the numerous failures I have observed. I have left you all alive for one reason, to end the life of a rifle-wielding demon slayer as no slayer who has gazed upon my visage shall live to see the next day. The one who brings me the head of this slayer, this 'Matagi', shall be rewarded with the remaining blood from their fellow lower moons, while the rest of you shall perish. Do not fail me again."
Once again, he signaled the biwa woman who strummed several more sharp notes on her stringed instrument, causing even larger sliding doors to appear and create an opening that the lower moons all fell through. The group of four all tumbled out on the ground outside, relief flowing into each and every one of them as they took in the night air. "We're….still alive," said Mukago as tears of joy mixed with her earlier tears of terror, "we actually have one more chanc-." She froze as she stared into the six eyes of the other powerful demon who'd accompanied Muzan, the one with the symbol for Upper Moon 1 in his eye.
"Remember, we're watching you," he said before suddenly vanishing. A number of them found out that night, it was still possible for demons to wet themselves.
The Present, Nighttime: Aboard the Mugen Train
"YAHOOOO!" Exclaimed Inosuke as Subaru simply put his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. "We're in the belly of the beast! Now the Real fight can begin!" 'If that fight is to keep us from dying of embarrassment anyway,' thought the Matagi, easily noticing the weird glances the rest of the passengers were throwing their way.
In all honesty he actually had been somewhat excited to ride on a train for the first time. The inside of the train car reminded him a little of a sit-down restaurant with booths on either side of them and a main aisle running between them, but without the tables. The arched wooden ceiling was also an unfamiliar sight. But the yelling of two certain slayers was killing the mood by more than a little. "Will you shut up!" Exclaimed the blond slayer, Zenitsu, as he tried for the umpteenth time to quiet the boar fighter.
"So the message we got says Rengoku is already aboard the train," asked Subaru, hoping to get things moving a bit, "do you happen to have his scent or anything?"
"I can already smell him," said Tanjiro, "he's very close actually, so we just need to look for a guy in a Slayer's uniform with flashy hair." 'Well that shouldn't be too difficult,' thought Subaru as he remembered the unique natures of the swordsmen and women who'd been debating whether or not to execute them not so long ago. One of said unique natures, was on display right now.
"TASTY!" exclaimed a familiar, and very loud, voice as the Slayers and just about everyone on the train, turned their heads in the direction of the noise. "Tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty!" Not hardly eight seats away from them sat the blond and red-headed Hashira they'd been looking for, stuffing his face with a pile of empty bento boxes next to him.
"Is that guy the flame pillar?" Asked Zenitsu, "he seems like he's just a glutton."
"That's him alright," confirmed Subaru as the three approached him, "kind of hard to forget eyebrows like those."
"Um, excuse me," said Tanjiro as he approached the Hashira, "Mr. Rengoku."
"TASTY!" exclaimed the Flame Pillar once again as he finally turned his eyes on the group.
"Y-yes," said Tanjiro with a sweat drop, "I believe we understand quite well already."
"And so does the staff by the looks of it," noted Subaru as he glimpsed the tired train maids hauling away an entire sack full of empty bento boxes, "maybe we should give them a break. After all, Tanjiro here needs to ask you some questions." That finally seemed to get the Hashira's attention as said younger swordsman took a seat next to him. Subaru and the others found their own seats shortly afterwards as their friend explained how he used the 'Hinokami Kagura Dance' against Rui.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Rengoku had no idea where such a technique originated from or how Tanjiro knew how to use it. He then proceeded to launch into a short explanation about the basic breaths which included water, wind, rock, lightning and of course flame while quickly mentioning that all other forms branch out from them. Given the way Subaru's Mountain Stride technique worked, it was likely his father got a number of his ideas for techniques from the breath of thunder style. Though he missed the rest of the explanation due to a disturbance of sorts.
"WOOOHOOO!" exclaimed Inosuke as he poked nearly his entire upper body out the window of the moving train, "it's so fast! I'm gonna get out and race this thing to see which one of us is faster!"
"That's dangerous you moron!" exclaimed Zenitsu as he and Subaru had to restrain the Boar Fighter from attempting such a feat, "there are limits to idiocy!"
"He is right about that," said Rengoku as he sat with his arms crossed, "it's especially dangerous right now since I don't know when the demon's going to appear."
"Wait," said Zenitsu as he took a double take, "you really think the demon is actually on this train?"
"It is," said Rengoku, "and it will most definitely appear some time soon."
"You mean the demon could show up here at any moment?!" Zenitsu yelled in what was becoming a very familiar frightened voice.
"Over forty people have disappeared so far in a short period of time," explained Rengoku, "and after a number of our own swordsmen didn't report back from any of the stations, it pretty much confirms that the demon is on this train. That's why they sent me here as a Hashira."
"That's it, I'm getting off!" exclaimed Zenitsu in a panicked tone.
"You gonna jump out the window with Inosuke then?" Questioned Subaru with a raised eyebrow, "or can you make this massive thing stop to drop you off in the middle of the deep dark woods at nighttime?" Zenitsu raised a finger to argue his point, only to realize that the Matagi was right about one thing. The train wouldn't just stop to let him off until the next station, and even if he survived jumping off uninjured, he'd be by himself in the middle of nowhere at the dead of night.
"The next stop can't come fast enough," said Zenitsu as his teeth chattered in fright. Subaru merely sighed at the blond Slayer's continued cowardly attitude before catching a glimpse of something at the door to the car. It looked like the head of Izayoi with his hand held up the to window. In it was a tag of paper that read: 'meet me in the cargo area'. 'I guess this ain't gonna be a quiet trip,' thought Subaru.
A Short Time Later: The Cargo Area
"You know I greatly respect your ability to sneak into just about anywhere," said Subaru as he stepped into the train car which was littered with numerous boxes, crates and other items, "but was there really any reason we couldn't have had this discussion in the car we were at?"
"Our discussion entails a degree of sensitive, and possibly illegal matters," said Izayoi as he stepped out of the shadow of one of the crates, "I doubt I need to remind you about the fact that it's technically against the law for you to be carrying that rifle here. It is also good practice for a shinobi like me to avoid the conductor of the train."
"Are you saying that because you're actually afraid we'll get arrested, or because you don't have a ticket?" Questioned Subaru.
"Shinobi don't need tickets," replied Izayoi with his arms crossed and his head turned to the side, "but that aside I have come with important information for all of you. We've received numerous reports over the last few weeks describing a handful of demons with markings in their left eye."
"The Twelve Kizuki," surmised Subaru with a hand to his chin, "any ideas on their current locations?"
"That's the strange part," said Izayoi, "the reason I raced to catch up to this train and find all of you was because every last one of our most recent reports places high demon activity in this area. Adding on to that, some of the surviving slayers said they were interrogated before the demons were chased off by reinforcements."
"Interrogated?" Repeated Subaru, "are they attempting to find the Demon Slayer Headquarters?"
"No, just a couple of slayers," replied Izayoi as he pointed to Subaru's rifle, "specifically, they're looking for a slayer who wields a rifle or gun of some sort. As well as one with hanafuda-like earrings."
"Well that certainly narrows it down," said Subaru, not missing the clear implication. It seems he and Tanjiro were on the demon's most wanted list. "I guess it means Muzan still wants me and Tanjiro dead for having seen his face. And now we're all on a train that's got a demon on it."
"You needn't worry," said Izayoi as he pointed to some of the pouches on his shinobi uniform as well as his Kusarigama, "I have brought excess supplies as well as a gift for one of the other slayers who boarded late along with me. Should it come to it, I will even engage in combat to assist you all."
"I guess that means we shouldn't sit around waiting," said Subaru as he began undoing some of the rug in order to reach the trigger and lever of his rifle, "let's find the demon on this train, then find the other Kizuki before they-," the sound of several creaks from the ceiling interrupted his train of thought as the slayer and shinobi both looked up, "-find us." As if on cue, the ceiling burst open as a demon with several 'x'-shaped scars on his face dropped through.
"SUBARU GENJIROU!" exclaimed the demon, "IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO DIE!"
And here we are, in manga territory for the first time! And I got to say it is a bit different, but what do you all think? Feel free to let me know in your comments and reviews as well as what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Subaru and the others must contend with the lower moons and other demons aboard the Mugen Train! 'Til then.