Relief, Recuperation, and Preparation
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter for Breath of the Rifleman! Got a bit of a shorter chapter this week as we wind down from the last arc and get set up for the next one. And of course I'd like to give the usual shout outs to Noble Eight, LoneTaker and groche9655 for their input and a shout out to all of you for your continued support. And since it appears we've no guest review questions to answer this week, let's dive on in!
Yoshiwara: Ruins of the Red Light District
The first sensation Subaru felt as he started to regain consciousness was quite a bit of warmth. In fact, it seemed to be getting warmer as a voice called out to him from the distance, growing ever closer until he could make it out. It was Azakeru, and she seemed to be more than a little agitated as she said the following words: "WAKE UP ASSHOLE! WE'RE ON FIRE!" That brought the Matagi too his senses as he sat bolt upright, noting that he was indeed on fire. But it wasn't regular fire it was Nezuko's red flames which only burnt, demons. Which part of his physiology was and now that he was awake, he had to agree with Azakeru. "Tell her to put us out already!"
The Rifleman looked around frantically, cursing under his breath as he tried to pat out the flames on his body until he found who he was looking for, little Nezuko in her child form. Seeing that he was awake, the demon girl lowered her hand and allowed the flames to dissipate before hugging the Matagi around the waist, mumbling an explanation of what she was doing through her muzzle. "So that's what you were doing," said Subaru as he examined some of his still slightly smoking wounds, "you were burning out the Upper Moon's poison. Well I think what you've done should be enough at the moment." The Matagi attempted to get up then, but quickly collapsed to his knees as fresh pain shot through his left leg.
"Ah, shit, I forgot," said Subaru as he examined his two left limbs, "my leg wound got reopened and made worse during the fight, and it hurts to make any big movements with my arm." Nezuko, thankfully, had a solution to that problem as she actually picked Subaru up, putting him in a kneeling position on her shoulders before heading off into the wreckage. Had he been more aware of it at the time, the slayer might've been mildly embarrassed that he was being carried around by someone the size of a young child, but he had other concerns as he looked at the wreckage surrounding them. Entire entrances to buildings had collapsed with some of the smaller ones having caved in roofs.
If Subaru had to compare it to anything, he'd say it resembled the descriptions of typhoon damage that the coastal towns would suffer from time to time. Thankfully, his eyes were still sharp enough to spot a human shape among the rubble and he quickly directed Nezuko toward said person. It turned out to be Tanjiro, also suffering from some of the effects of the demon poison as his breathing seemed to be shallow. Thankfully, Nezuko already knew the remedy and raised her hand up, dousing the swordsman with some of her blood that she lit on fire.
Unlike Subaru, Tanjiro didn't wake up immediately as the only part of him that was technically being 'burnt' was the demon poison in his body. "Lucky him," thought Azakeru, "in the future, let's try to avoid getting poisoned too badly so that your girlfriend doesn't accidentally fry us in the process of curing us."
"It's not like it's the worst pain we've ever been in," Subaru thought back, "I recall this leg recently getting skewered pretty good, so this is pretty tame in comparison."
"Which I'm certain is why you were going on in your mind about it feeling like your veins were on fire," Azakeru shot back, "either way it still hurts, so lets just use more pleasant cures when possible."
"I'll see what I can do," Subaru replied mentally as the color was returning to Tanjiro's body thanks to the eradication of the poison within his system. Not long after that, he also sat bolt upright as he tried to take stock of the situation. "What, where is, whoa," said Tanjiro quickly as he took a look around, "this whole place is a wreck."
"We're not exactly picture perfect ourselves," said Subaru as he got his friend's attention, "how are you feeling? Anything broken?"
"I wouldn't say broken," said Tanjiro, "I just pushed myself way past my limits when we, wait, the others!" The Demon Slayer shot up and started to run, stumbling only slightly as he noted his body was moving surprisingly well despite his injuries. "Wait, I had poison in my body, so how am I moving?" Nezuko raised her hand, mumbling a bit through her bamboo muzzle in explanation. "So you saved me with your blood demon art, I see. Thanks again Nezuko."
The demon girl closed her eyes in contentment as Tanjiro patted her head. The trio then got ready to start looking for everyone else, but it turned out they wouldn't have to go far as a familiar, and whiny, voice was heard from one of the piles of rubble. "Tanjirouuuuu, Subaruuuuuuu~!" exclaimed the voice of Zenitsu. The trio didn't take too long to find him thanks to the constant noise he was making. Even though he wasn't really buried all that badly, it was obvious his legs had had it for a good while.
"Guys, you're never gonna believe this!" Cried Zenitsu while sprawled out on his stomach, "I fell asleep somehow at the brothel I was gathering info at and when I woke up, my whole body was hurting, I'm covered in blood and dust and for some reason my legs are broken! Do you guys know who did this to me?!"
"Oh good, you're alright Zenitsu," said Tanjiro in visible relief as he still stood somewhat unsteadily on his feet.
"Did you not here I word I just said?!" Exclaimed Zenitsu through his tears, "I'm most definitely not okay! The only reason I'm not begging you to pull me out now is because I can hear Inosuke's heartbeat getting weaker!" The blond slayer indicated the Boar Fighter's location with a point of his finger. He too, was a bloody mess who'd coughed up enough blood that it could be seen through his mask. But even without that for an indicator, it was clear the wound through his chest and back most definitely needed to be looked at.
The two slayers and demon girl rushed over and examined his condition, noting that he managed to avoid getting any poison in his body during the fight, which made treatment thankfully pretty easy as Subaru extracted some bandages from his pouches and Tanjiro pulled out his healing ointment. The three of them worked quickly in wrapping the Boar Fighter's wound, and right about the time they finished, Inosuke gave out a cough. "What are you guys doing," he said groggily, "I'm hungry, so gimme something to eat already!"
"INOSUKE!" exclaimed Tanjiro as he and Nezuko gave the boar fighter a hug, confusing the dual wielder more than anything. That concern was quickly forgotten, however, upon the sound of even more crying. But this time, it wasn't from Zenitsu.
"Please don't die now Tengen!" exclaimed a teary-eyed woman with shoulder-length black hair and a dark sleeveless kimono-like dress that stopped above her knees. "We all managed to make it through and even win this fight! So please don't go now!"
"None of the antidotes are working against this demon poison," said another woman whose dark hair was tied in a short ponytail with lighter brown bangs on the front of her head. She was wearing a dress similar to Hinatsuri's, but with a vertical line design on them. "What can we do now?"
"The gods can be so cruel sometimes," said Hinatsuri as a few tears rolled from her eyes, "so terribly cruel."
"I won't forgive you if you let Tengen die!" Exclaimed the crying woman to the Heaven's above.
"Would you shut up for a bit! I think Tengen is trying to say something!" Exclaimed the woman with brown bangs to no avail as her fellow Kunoichi continued to wail. "That's it, I'm filling your mouth with rocks!"
"Hey, would you two quiet down please!" Exclaimed Hinatsuri as she watched the two struggle with one actually attempting to put rocks in the mouth of the other. As for Tengen himself, his thoughts were that of disbelief. 'Are you kidding me right now,' he thought, 'I actually got a chance to leave some flamboyant last words and I can't move my tongue enough thanks to the poison to quiet down my own wives. The fuck kind of irony is this-?'
His thoughts halted as he noticed all the noise had ceased. Glancing over, he saw the reason was the arrival of Nezuko Kamado in her child form with Tanjiro and Subaru right behind her. For whatever reason, the demon girl placed her hand on his arm where a mass of inflammation was occurring due to the poison. He was then literally inflamed by red fire covering his whole body as his wives, understandably, freaked out. "What are you doing!" Exclaimed his crying wife, Suma, as she grabbed Nezuko and held her at eye level, "at least wait until he's died before cremating him! Now you're big sister's really angry and gonna spank your butt-!"
"Hold up," said Tengen as he examined his body, noting the inflammation from the poison was all gone, "what in the world just happened."
"The Gods can be cruel," said Subaru, "but they also provide avenues of relief from time to time."
"What is that even supposed to mean in this context?" Questioned Tengen's wife with brown highlights, Makio.
"I guess we probably should've explained what Nezuko was doing," said Tanjiro as he rubbed his head sheepishly, "those flames of hers only burn things related to demons. She burnt the poison out of me the same way."
"He isn't joking," said Tengen as he felt his wounds, "the poison's gone completely." That was the best news his wives had heard all day as they all tackled hugged him crying tears of joy now.
"I'd still recommend not moving too much," said Tanjiro, "your wounds are still there and it'd be best not to aggravate them. But I'm glad to see that all of you are safe."
"Your wounds are pretty bad too," Tengen pointed out, "you'll die if you move around too much right now."
"I'll have Nezuko carry me around to look for the demon heads," said Tanjiro, "I can't be at ease until I confirm we beat them myself." He left no room for argument as he climbed onto said demon girl's back and let himself be carried away. Subaru knew he was also looking to collect the Upper Moon's blood, but he wasn't going to mention it in front of a Hashira until he was more certain of their acceptance of certain demons. So he took a seat while he waited and began tending to his own wounds.
Or to be more specific, attempted to tend to his own wounds. There was only so much he could do with one fully functional arm. "Here, let me," said Hinatsuri as she took the bandages from the Matagi and pulled out a couple of other materials to fashion a sling for his broken arm, "I do owe you and your friend one after all."
"Well I can't say I have a lot of objections to getting help from a pretty nurse," remarked Subaru as he pulled out a spare eye patch and pulled it over his eye.
"Think twice hunter boy," said Tengen, "I'm in your debt but don't think that means I'll let you sleep with my wives."
"Relax," said Subaru, "I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little. I've already got the love and affection of the most beautiful girl in the land, if you recall."
"Oh right, you're in love with his sister," said Tengen, getting some confused looks from the rest of his wives.
"She doesn't always look like a child," Subaru quickly dispelled whatever fears they were likely about to form, figuring it was best to nip such an issue in the bud now, "she used a new form recently and she's probably just drained at the moment. She's actually fourteen."
"You say that like it somehow makes your fondness of her any less weird," said a certain lazy sounding voice.
"Iguro," said Tengen as everyone turned to face the recently arrived Serpent Hashira, "you're running a bit late. Upper Moon Six is already dead."
"Hmm, I see," said Iguro, again lazily, "so you beat six, the weakest Upper Moon. If we put the six thing aside, you did manage to beat an Upper Moon, again, the six thing aside. Guess I should at least give you some praise or something."
"I don't really think I need any praise from you," said Tengen, tiredly.
"T-T-That's right!" Exclaimed Suma, "you're so incredibly late too! Were you actually even coming at all?!" Her answer was a loud hiss from the snake around Obanai's neck, causing Suma to retreat, hugging her husband to keep from trembling. Though it was a bit hard on the injured Sound Pillar if his pained grunts were anything to go by.
"But I still have to ask what you were thinking," said Iguro as he pointed at Tengen lazily, "losing your left eye and getting several injuries to your tendons. Even if this was a fight against an Upper Moon, it was still just Six. Your recovery is gonna take forever, so who's gonna take your place during all that time?"
"That's something you'll get to figure out," said Tengen, "look, I've fought as long as I could and I can't really go any further in this condition. So I'm retiring. Oyakata will probably understand and allow me to do so as well."
"Well I say screw that, because I won't allow you too," replied Obanai, "right now we've got too many new recruits dying off with no visible signs of growth and thanks to Rengoku dying, we've already got vacant spots that need new Pillars. You might be in bad shape but it's a lot better than being dead, so fight to the death."
"Hey I got an idea jack wagon," said Subaru as he shifted his position to better face the Serpent Pillar, "why don't you tell me your Upper Moon body count and then mouth off, because last I checked you haven't killed a single one of them and you don't get a say in whether or not a Hashira retires anyway."
"Oh yes, the demon loving hunter," said Iguro as he pointed his finger at Subaru, "one of my better pupils, Ozaki, had quite a bit to say about you. Two missions with you and each time she's come back wearing a different outfit. Care to explain why that only seems to happen when she works with you?"
"I don't know, just lucky I guess," said Subaru with a shrug, "I can't help it if demons are good at destroying her outfits. But I think it speaks to her skill or at least mental fortitude that she's still able to operate under those embarrassing circumstances."
"I concur," said Tengen, "more of our recruits are showing growth than you think. Not only has this demon loving hunter clearly improved, his friend that you absolutely despise is also growing."
"You're kidding me," said Obanai with genuine surprise in his voice, "that kid actually survived this fight?"
"Go see for yourself," said Subaru, "and while you're at it, I hope you brought some Kakushi. We're gonna need a lot of stretchers for this mess."
A Few Weeks Later: The Butterfly Mansion
In total, the damage caused to Yoshiwara's Red Light District was easily in the thousands to even a few million yen, not that any of them really had much control over that. Thankfully, only a few civilian deaths occurred at the beginning of the fight due to Daki intentionally aiming for them, while the rest had either minor injuries or were safely evacuated by Tengen's Kunoichi wives. As for the slayer's themselves, Tengen did his best tough guy act by standing up and walking out of the area with only his wives supporting him. The Kakushi didn't dare get close to him due to how peeved he seemed to be.
Likely because he wasn't kidding when he said he couldn't fight so well anymore. His left eye was the most obvious loss during the fight, but what was less obvious was the damage to his tendons. His left arm especially had been torn up pretty bad and even fully healed he'd never have full use of the hand for swordsmanship ever again. Funny enough, he mentioned that he would've lost it if Subaru hadn't put those two armor piercing rounds in Gyuutarou during the fight.
His right arm was still usable, thankfully, while his right leg had gotten some of its tendons sliced, meaning he'd never be able to leap around quite as well ever again either. He wasn't complaining too badly, though. He was just happy to be alive and was ready to enjoy retirement with his wives.
Zenitsu had to get his legs bandaged up and splinted for a little while, keeping him bedridden for a good week. Inosuke lost a good bit of blood from both the cuts on his body and the large hole in his chest and back from Daki's hand going through him. He'd been in and out of consciousness for the first few days and had been confined to his bed for even longer so that he didn't reopen the wound. An order which sometimes had to be reinforced by Aoi, Kumon or Shinobu when Inosuke decided to be stubborn and not listen.
Tanjiro was the most worrying case as he'd fallen into something of a coma after the battle. Apparently at some point during his fight with Daki, Tanjiro had entered some type of rage state that allowed him to push his body to its utmost limits and well beyond. He'd nearly ended the fight with it, save for the fact that he'd also nearly reached his life limit in doing so and all of that was before he helped Tengen against Gyuutarou where he received several poisoned cuts and put repeated strain on his body keeping up with the both of them. Thankfully, none of his injuries turned out to be life-threatening and he was expected to wake up any day now.
This left Subaru, who was proving to be something of an interesting case for the medical staff of the Butterfly Mansion. Every estimate they made for his recovery time was turning out to be an overestimate, which actually frustrated Aoi a bit as the Matagi was up and walking around in even less time than Zenitsu with the hole in his leg having healed up completely in just a few days as opposed to the nearly two week original estimation. The broken bone in his arm also healed up remarkably fast, with the Matagi not even requiring his sling in just under three weeks and regained full movement of his arm a week after that. His other cuts and bruises were also healed within a matter of days, making the total time for his recovery about a little over a month and the only reason it didn't take less time was due to a lot of extra testing to make absolutely sure he was ready to go back in the field.
He also got a mild complaint from Hidan about the fact that he'd broken the tank gewehr during his last mission as it had apparently been tricky to acquire the prototype in the first place. The hunter had simply responded by saying the barrel needed to be reinforced in order to stand up to repeated firings from the massive rounds it was using. Thankfully, Hidan was more understanding than Haganezuka, who'd more or less responded to requests to fix Tanjiro's chipped sword with letters that read 'Fuck you', 'Go die', 'Burn', etc. Truthfully, Subaru was wondering what the big deal was, given that some chipping should be his easiest fix yet.
But that would be a problem for when Tanjiro actually woke up. Until then, Subaru dealt with what he could while recovering, namely, explaining to Nezuko why there was a now a demonic presence to his being.
Flashback: A Few Days After Subaru's arrival
The Matagi was currently sitting in the room that had been granted to Nezuko, stroking said girl's hair while her head rested on his leg. The demon girl had gone back to sleep to heal herself after the Kakushi had shown up at the aftermath of the battle, having woken up only recently. Subaru had waited until nightfall to move so that he wouldn't get stopped by Shinobu, Aoi, or Kumon, again. Despite his insistence that he could walk around without any major issues, the Insect Pillar had still insisted he take another few days rest for observation and just to be on the safe side.
Under normal circumstances, he'd have used the patience he learned as a hunter to wait things out, but he didn't like the idea of keeping Nezuko waiting for any longer than he had too. Especially given the inevitable question he knew she had as the demon girl sat up and looked him in the eye. "Are you curious about what I think you're curious about?" Questioned Subaru. Nezuko's answer to this was to put her hand on the left side of his face, raising his eye patch in the process as she nodded in confirmation.
"I had hoped to give a proper explanation to both you and Tanjiro," said Subaru as he covered Nezuko's hand with his, "but given that we've got no idea when he's gonna wake up, I suppose now's as good a time as any." Nezuko nodded her head again, letting out a muffled noise of confirmation along with it. "Well the short version is, I'm apparently some kind of human/demon half breed. I don't know how or why, but recently a demon presence awakened inside of me during the Mugen Train battle and seemed to develop even further in Okinawa when I inhaled some demon transforming mist on Kume Island."
Nezuko gave a confused tilt of her head as she mumbled a few more muffled words. "The mist was alcohol fumes created by a demon named Shuten Doji. I asked Shinobu about it and she says demons like Upper Moons are capable of turning people into demons too and theorized that Doji must've used his blood in combination with a blood demon art. But it still doesn't explain Azakeru's presence showing up before even that."
"Mmmmph, mmmph," said Nezuko as she pointed at the scar on the Matagi's face.
"Oh, Azakeru's her name apparently," replied Subaru, "she's somehow living in my mind and can even wield a bit of blood demon art at the moment. But even she's in the dark about how she wound up in here in the first place."
"Mmmph, ummmf," said Nezuko as she touched the maple leaf shaped scar.
"You think it might've happened on that day," Subaru questioned as he ran his own hand along his scar, "I suppose in a weird way that does kind of make sense. After all, it was an Upper Moon that attacked our home at the time. Perhaps he got a bit of his blood on me in all the chaos." Nezuko nodded her head happily, pleased that Subaru had understood her implication before giving him a hug and resting her head against his stomach. "And yet you still love me anyway despite all that weirdness. Remind me again what I did to ever deserve a girl like you?"
"Mmmf," Nezuko more grunted than said in response to his question, getting a short laugh out of Subaru.
"Oh yeah, I helped your big brother when he got himself into trouble," recalled Subaru, "but that's what friends do, right?"
"Mmmph, ummmf, mmmmmph," said Nezuko in response.
"And yeah I guess I did help out every other member of your family when asked, and I did get you that pink kimono you've grown an odd fondness for," said Subaru, "but that mostly means I'm just helpful. What I'm really wondering is wouldn't you rather have someone who was handsome and charming and able to buy you lots of things?" His line of questioning was apparently starting to annoy Nezuko as she sat up and cupped his face with both of her hands.
"Mmmmph, ummmf, ummmmf, mmmmmph," she said with a now stern look in her eyes.
"Of course, you're right," said Subaru, "charm and good looks can't solve every problem, and you never needed a lot to be happy as long as I've known you. Guess I just feel like I let you down a little when you took that form against Daki to defend me." Nezuko's answer to this was to nuzzle her nose against his while also pressing their foreheads together. "I know you'll get control of it, and I'll get stronger so that you won't have to use it too often. We'll keep moving forward until you can walk in the sun again." This answer seemed to satisfy the demon girl as she went back to sleeping on his lap. It would be a couple of hours before he was allowed up by her.
The Present: Day Time
It was another fond memory for the Matagi, especially considering the fact that he just finished another session of that painful rehabilitation training. As before, he'd managed to pass all of the tests and had recently been cleared for slayer work once again. His repaired weapons had also arrived and appeared to be in working order, so Subaru was taking that time to coat more of his recently restocked ammunition with his latest mixtures of wisteria poison. He half glanced at a recent newspaper while performing this little ritual, noting that the Japanese government was no longer denying demon existence and had included numerous statements about the one's responsible for the destruction in the Red Light District as well as those responsible for stopping the demons.
'Wonder if this'll finally get the authorities off our backs for carrying weapons?' Mused the Rifleman as he picked up his Webley and began loading it. Personally, he saw the government's acknowledgement of demon existence as a bit of a weight off his mind as it hopefully meant they'd at least take more action in helping the Corp's recruitment drives, weapon stocking and funds in general. Izayoi's network would also benefit greatly with access to any classified government secrets concerning demons and with the proper resources, Tamayo could more quickly develop her cure and have a way to disperse it quickly throughout the Demon Slayer Corps.
Of course, that was all assuming the Japanese government was willing to help them. There was always the chance they'd simply turn a blind eye to the Corp's activities and tell them to keep the destruction to a minimum. But even then, it'd at least be less interference to worry about. And speaking of worries, Subaru looked up to see Shika flying in through the window with a message attached to her leg. "Didn't take them long to hear that I was back in top condition," said Subaru as he pulled the letter from Shika's leg, "any chance they gave me something a little more tame? I'd prefer to have Tanjiro awake and coming along with me if there's a chance of running into another Upper Moon."
Shika simply let out a low screech as the Matagi read the information on the letter. As expected, it was a demon slaying mission, but what was less expected was that it was all the way up in Hokkaido. 'Good thing it's July,' thought Subaru as he continued to read, 'It'd be completely frozen up there if it was later in the year.'
On the Train Ride to Hokkaido
His good mood had quickly soured upon reading the rest of the letter and learning that, apparently, Hokkaido was currently buried under two feet of snow with a severely lower than normal temperature for this time of year. And to top it all off, he was going to be meeting up with a Hashira for the mission. "I've said it before and I'll say it again," said Subaru, "the Corps are fucking slave drivers!"
Out of the frying pan and into, well a blizzard apparently. Now that he's had time to rest and recuperate, our fellow slayer's about to be thrown into a nasty survival situation. While he's getting there, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our slayer is joined by one of the more powerful Hashira and a couple of unexpected new allies. 'Til then.
