The Russian Winter Cometh

Hello everyone and welcome to a slightly longer than usual chapter for Breath of the Rifleman! As you've all probably guessed, I'm still working out the writing schedule a bit, but on the upside, I still managed to get this out about on time. So as per the usual, a quick shout out to LoneTaker, Noble Eight and groche9655 and the rest of you, my fellow readers, for your input. Now, since we've no review questions to answer, let's get right to the story!

Hokkaido: Unknown Matagi Village

Subaru didn't really like revisiting the memory of the day Nezuko became a demon as it was a reminder for both him and Tanjiro that they'd been elsewhere when their friends and family needed them most. Not that they really would've been able to stop Muzan at the time, but even that fact didn't keep them from feeling some degree of guilt. But the reason he was thinking back to that time right now, was something he'd, more or less, forgotten about. The fact that it had occurred during the day. The reason Nezuko hadn't died then was because it had been the middle of winter and exceptionally cloudy, to the point that no actual sunlight was able to reach her.

It had been extremely lucky for the three of them back then. Now, however, such conditions were working against him, his fellow slayer and the two natives as they were currently surrounded by demons on all sides while it was 'morning'. 'I can't believe I forgot about demons being able to move about during cloudly weather,' Subaru thought in irritation at himself, 'nothing to be done about it now, though.' It was indeed a tense situation as the group stood in a circle with their backs to each other as they and the demons seemed to be waiting for who would make the first move.

It turned out to be Isosange who struck the first blow as her slightly trembling fingers released the nocked arrow from her bow towards one of the closer demons. Whether it was intentional or not, the projectile managed to strike said demon in the eye, causing it to wail in agony as it clutched at the wooden fight began then as the demons clambered over each other to get at their prey while Subaru and Yae both opened up with their rifles, quickly shooting two demons each before moving back even more, cycling their weapons as they did so before firing again. Isosange was quick to nock another arrow and fire it off at a demon that got too close, striking it in the throat as it recoiled from the pain caused by the wisteria in the arrowhead.

"Everyone get down!" Ordered Gyomei as he swung his weapon, a Morningstar head on a chain, outwards and decapitated a demon before yanking it around in a wide arc, tearing through numerous demons as if they were made of wet paper before yanking the weapon back towards himself where he spun it once more before slamming it onto the head of a lucky demon that had managed to survive his initial powerful onslaught.

"This guy doesn't play around," Azakeru thought in Subaru's mind as the Rifleman got back up and fired into a few more of the demons that had started approaching them again. Yae kept herself in a half-kneeling position as she also reloaded and fired more shots from her Mosin Nagant, her fingers moving in a surprisingly fluid motion with the weapon's bolt action as she managed to fire in fairly quick succession. Isosange was having the most trouble as she had to nock and fire her arrows one at a time, a fact the demons seemed to pick up on as they concentrated more of their number at trying to get to her. This turned out to be a mistake as the approaching monsters were quickly decapitated by the axe head on the other end of Gyomei's weapon.

"My apologies in advance little one," said Gyomei as he grabbed Isosange and hefted her up with one hand.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Exclaimed Isosange before being dropped on the giant Hashira's shoulders.

"I believe you will have a better view for shooting your arrows up here," replied Gyomei calmly as he swung his chained Morningstar and tore the heads off even more demons with seemingly little effort.

"Fine, but don't jump around too much or I can't get a clean shot," replied Isosange as she nocked and fired an arrow at a 'lucky' survivor demon, nailing him in the eye. This move allowed the two slayers and Matagi girl to close their formation even tighter, letting Gyomei swing his weapon around more freely while the other three took shots at the demons that remained. The bout would last for another few minutes until the last of the demons were torn apart by a final swing from Gyomei.

"That seems to be all of them for the moment," said the Stone Hashira as he rolled his chain up, though he kept it out for the moment in case of another attack.

"How are you two holding up?" Questioned Subaru as he glanced at Yae and Isosange while reloading his rifle.

"What….happened…here?" Questioned Yae between breaths. Subaru had to remind himself that the other two weren't slayers used to dealing with this type of thing on a regular basis. "Why are there…..so many?"

"And where….did they all….come from?" Added Isosange as she leaned tiredly against the Hashira's head. The giant of a man didn't seem to notice, or if he did he paid it no mind.

"Gyomei," Subaru said as he turned to his fellow slayer, "you don't think any of the Upper Moons or Muzan might be around here, do you?"

"It's an unfortunate possibility," said Gyomei as he put a hand to his chin, "but at this point, we don't know enough to say for sure. We'll simply have to keep going, though this might be the point where-."

"Don't even think about it," said Yae as she shot a glare at Himejima before pointing at the leftover clothes of some of the demons, "I happen to know a few of the people from this village, good people, people that we just had to kill because they were turned into these demon creatures. If your about to suggest I turn back now and go home without any answers as to why this happened or who's responsible then you'd do best to shove it right back down your throats!"

"But you've more than fulfilled your obligation here," Subaru pointed out, "you guided us to the village and just helped us fight off a group of demons. At this point, we'd be needlessly endangering not only you but Iso as well if we let you follow along with us."

"Iso?" Said Yae with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, just a nickname I've been calling her in my head," said Subaru as rubbed the back of said head, "guess it finally slipped out."

"I don't mind it," said Isosange, who was still perched on top of Gyomei's head, "but if you send us both back, what'll happen if we're attacked by demons on the way?"

"You make a good point little one," said Gyomei, "I've actually considered such a possibility. Subaru could, in fact, escort the both of you back to your home village, however-."

"The problem is you'd lose your wilderness survival expert," said Subaru, "and while I could take Iso back, we'd still be putting Yae in danger."

"But I don't want to go back without Yae," said Isosange, "where Yae goes, Isosange goes."

"Guess that settles it then," said Yae as she put a final round in her rifle, "you guys are stuck with us. But if you think of doing anything disreputable." She closed the bolt somewhat forcefully on her rifle, the meaning behind it clear.

"I kind of already have someone I'm in love with," said Subaru, "and Gyomei was raised by monks in a temple. Even if that weren't the case, we've got way too many problems to worry about right for that to be a priority."

"Just giving you boys some extra incentive," said Yae before starting to pick up some of the belongings left over by the demons, "now help me clean some of this up. We need to send these people off properly before we head out." The two slayers merely nodded, having planned to do so anyway as they gathered what remained of the villagers and quickly dug a spot in the center where they deposited it all. Subaru had long ago stopped wondering how Urokudaki had made those graves so quickly when they'd first met, as he'd gotten rather good at digging them now himself.

Once that was done, it was left to Yae and Subaru to send them off in prayer as Gyomei, despite knowing far more prayers, did not know the traditional Matagi send off. "May you hear pleasant sounds in the next life," the two of them said as they finished their prayer. Little else was said afterwards as the group ventured out of the village once more and began tracking the remaining footprints and signs left from the attacking demons. The one upside to there having been so many demons, was that finding tracks proved relatively easy for the group as they pushed through the foliage and made their way onto a more secluded forest trail.

As before, Gyomei stayed in the middle with Yae leading in the front. But this time, Isosange stayed behind Gyomei while Subaru again pulled up the rear. They kept their eyes peeled and talking to a minimum in order to stay alert for the possibility of any more demon attacks, at least until Yae had an important realization. "I just remembered something," she said suddenly, "I think I might know where this trail is gonna lead us."

"And where might that be, young Yae?" Questioned Gyomei whose hands were once again in their habitual praying posture.

"There's an old military base around here that's used mostly for weapon storage these days," explained Yae, "I happened to hear about it while visiting one of the local bars in town a while back."

"You do that often?" Questioned Subaru with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm the legal drinking age," Yae replied, "and I doubt I have to tell you the kind of place I was in after my own demon encounter."

"We have no intention of judging you on such a matter," said Gyomei, "tell us, is this base inhabited to any degree?"

"I think they had a skeleton crew at most patrolling it that gets swapped out every few weeks," replied Yae as she tried to remember what exactly she'd heard, "ever since the Russo-Japanese war ended, it's been kind of obsolete. But we should probably be careful, just in case. I don't know if the government's approved of your actions yet or not."

"If they haven't, I've probably got a felony or two under my belt," said Subaru as they continued to walk.

"You're a criminal, Subaru?" Questioned Isosange, "you don't seem like one, even with the eye patch on."

"I'm one according to the rules I've had to break in order to do my job," replied Subaru, "sure I had to shoot into a crowd to hit a demon and I did resist arrest and assault a couple officers, but only because they were about to hit my friend, and legally speaking I shouldn't be carrying any of the weapons I currently have on my person in a public area, and then there's all the property destruction."

"Such things are of little concern so long as you're able to save lives," said Gyomei, "it was ironically thanks to all the destruction wrought by your battle with the Lower Moons on the Infinity Train that the Japanese government was finally forced to acknowledge the existence of demons. No doubt whatever small misdemeanors you've committed in the act of demon slaying will be forgiven, as will those inflicted by the rest of us."

"Let's hope they still see it that way if we happen to trash this place," said Yae as they arrived at the edge of the woods on top of a hill which overlooked a group of buildings with a large wooden wall surrounding it. The buildings themselves consisted of three barracks, a large storage building, parade grounds and a larger main building for higher ranking officers.

"That's a lot of stuff to put out in the middle of nowhere," noted Isosange, "is it because this place is closer to the Russian border?"

"If I had to guess," said Subaru as he pulled some binoculars out of his pack and began taking a look, "it might've been set up as part of a chain of bases for when war time breaks ou-oh that's not good."

"What do you see Genjirou?" Questioned Gyomei, "Is the base inhabited?"

"Unfortunately, yes," replied Subaru as he passed the binoculars over to Yae, "inhabited almost entirely by demons."

"Sh-er, he's right," said Yae, almost forgetting that Isosange was with them, "at least a few dozen of them if not more. And what's weirder, they don't all look Japanese."

"Are they perhaps Russians?" Questioned Gyomei, reviewing his knowledge of the local population of the area.

"Russian soldiers," affirmed Yae, "not that it makes a lot of difference when they become demons, but it's still strange that any Russian soldiers would be down this far unless they were retired or something along those lines."

"Regardless," said Gyomei, "we must still dispatch them so that the demons will no longer threaten the innocent."

"So, what are ya gonna do?" Asked Yae, "just walk right on up to a demon-infested military base and knock on the door."

"In a manner of speaking," said Gyomei as he allowed a very small smirk to tug at the corner of his mouth.

A Few Minutes Later

It had been stated before that Muzan Kibutsuji did not like demons gathering in large groups, the main reason being that they might unite against him. That was the first odd thing one would notice about these demons with how large of a group they were. The next odd thing one might notice about them was that their skin was on the bluer or whiter side in comparison to the normal grey skin that usually adorned a demon. Of course, the lone blind man approaching wouldn't be able to notice such details as he stopped in front of the large wooden doors leading into the military base, his body wrapped in his large green hakama, leaving only his head and hands exposed.

"Excuse me," Gyomei called out, "Is someone there?! I heard voices coming from this direction!" In response to his inquiry, one of the large doors opened, allowing a single demon to exit, this one adorned in the yellowish-brown uniform of a Russian soldier.

"And who might you be that has wondered out here so far, comrade," spoke the demon, his Russian accent rather heavy, "you appear to be, blind."

"I am a traveling monk of sorts," replied Gyomei, "I had a guide leading me towards the Russian border, but we got separated because of a wild animal attack. I've been lost ever since."

"Well you needn't worry anymore, comrade," said the demon as he reached his clawed fingers towards Gyomei's throat, "me and my compatriots are more than ready to lend you some assistance. Allow me to lead you-CHOP!" In the next instant, his head was separated from his neck and sent flying back into the fort from the force of Gyomei's ax.

"He's a slayer!" exclaimed one of the demons as they were about to leap down from the wall, only to suffer a bullet to the head which knocked him backwards. The other demon that had been keeping watch suffered a similar fate as a bullet came and hit him from a slightly different angle, lodging itself in his head.

"More of them are back in the woods!" exclaimed one of the luckier demons that had managed to take cover in time as several more rushed the gate where Gyomei was. But as they were about to reach it, the Hashira's chained Morningstar smashed right through the wooden door with incredible force, decapitating the unlucky few in front while tearing the limbs off of a couple in the back.

"Breath of Stone First Form: Serpentie Bipolar!" Said Gyomei as he reeled his Morningstar back in before throwing both ends of his chained weapon forward, each one spinning like a drill as they decimated the remainder of the doors and the demons behind them while the Hashira stepped into the base.

"Damn," muttered Subaru from his hiding place beneath an overturned tree, "and to think I offered him some explosives for that door. He could probably tear that whole place apart with his bare hands." It was a comforting thought as the rifleman took aim and fired at one of the demons that had managed to make it over the wall and was attempting to seek them out. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of running straight at them, making him an easy target for the demon slayer as the bullet sank into his forehead, rendering him motionless as the wisteria poison did its work.

The sound of another shot rang out from Yae's location, taking out a second demon heading towards them. She'd made the decision to climb up and secure herself in a tree several yards from Subaru's position, but not so far that the slayer couldn't reach her in time if things happened to take a turn. As for Isosange, she finally showed herself by stabbing a demon in the throat with her traditional Ainu Makiri knife. The little one had been concealing herself beneath Gyomei's large Hakama and now climbed up to his shoulders once more to provide a little additional support as the stone Hashira continued to swing his chained weapons with another breath style technique.

"Breath of Stone Third Form: Stone Skin!" Proclaimed the Hashira as he swung his axe around his body in several arcing pathways, carving up a large group of demons that had attempted to jump him all at once. "Now Breath of Stone Fifth Form: Arcs of Justice!" His transition was seamless as his axe was then swung around with the morning star following its trajectory from the opposite side, cleaving and smashing the unfortunate demons who thought they were safe by backing away from his last technique.

Isosange managed to fire off a couple of her arrows at some of the more distant demons, nailing them in the eye or throat to the best of her ability. Some of the smarter demons began to realize they were outmatched upon witnessing the Hashira's strength and turned to flee further into the base, while the less bright attempted to climb over the walls and escape out the back or sides. This would be a mistake for them as Subaru and Yae continued firing from their positions, landing one shot after another on the fleeing demons, albeit Subaru was the one who managed the longest range shots thanks to his slayer training. Though that didn't mean Yae didn't also land a couple of impressive long distant hits as well.

The situation would continue like this for another few minutes before Subaru and Yae determined that no more demons were escaping from the base. The sounds of fighting could still be heard within, but they were quickly dying down as the two Matagi kept their eyes on the former military compound for any sign of movement. After another minute, they spotted some in the form of Gyomei walking back out of the gate with Isosange still on his shoulders and waving in their direction. The sharpshooters took that as their signal to emerge from their hiding places and head towards the base at a mild jog.

"Did you get the rest of them in there?" Questioned Yae as they stopped in front of Gyomei.

"I killed everyone brave enough to come and face me," replied Gyomei.

"You mean 'we' killed every one of those monsters brave enough to face 'us'," corrected Isosange as she poked the side of Gyomei's head.

"But do not lower your guard just yet until we're certain this place is clear," continued the Stone Hashira, not even seeming to notice the Ainu girl poking his temple.

"Let's hope we can find some clues as to who's responsible for this mess," said Subaru as he and Yae slung their rifles on their backs and pulled out their revolvers. Yae had managed to acquire a Nagant m1895 revolver, figuring the extra firepower might be necessary if any demons surfaced again. Looking at things as they were now, she wasn't sure how happy she was that her intuition had been right. Either way, she'd made sure the revovler's bullets were also coated in wisteria before proceeding into the base and sweeping the buildings one by one.

Subaru did likewise on the other side of the base, slowly opening each and every door and looking through the rooms with his Webley at the ready. Isosange stayed by Gyomei's side as they worked together in searching their part of the base. Most of what they found were deserted rooms with a somewhat lived in appearance, with one of the barracks actually looking like people were still calling the building home. Stranger still, Gyomei and Isosange discovered that the food stores looked like they'd been eaten out of somewhat recently.

'Now why would demons be eating regular food,' thought Gyomei with a hand on his chin, 'their hunger has always been for human flesh. Even that little one, Nezuko Kamado, had a slight hunger for it.' "Hey guys, over here!" Called Subaru from the main building, alerting his fellow slayer and the Matagi girl who quickly joined him at the front door.

"Find anything interesting?" Questioned Yae as she looked inside, letting out a mild gasp at what she saw.

"You could say that," replied Subaru as he pushed the door all the way open, revealing what was once an office room that was now covered in a layer of frost with several large, snowflake-shaped ice sculptures in the wall or stuck in the tables. Even more were in the ceiling as the room itself had been rearranged to look more like, a throne room of sorts. The main giveaway of the design was snowflake style throne against the back wall which had a couple human heads stuck on the tips. They'd been frozen black from the cold to the point that one might not even have recognized them as heads if not for the officer caps on them.

"What in the world could do something like this?" Questioned Isosange as she looked around the room with a mild bit of nervousness to her movements.

"I imagine it is the progenitor responsible for the weather," surmised Gyomei as they moved about the room, examining some of the snowflake sculptures and the collection of Russian firearms located near the throne. "Demons are capable of developing something called a 'Blood Demon Art', strange powers which can take innumerable forms. This doesn't bode well. Only demons in the Upper and potentially Lower Moons are capable of creating other demons aside from Muzan himself, and while I don't know Kibutsuji's blood demon art myself, I recall Shinobu once mentioning a demon who supposedly wielded such a power. His name was-."

The Hashira stopped speaking before turning his head and 'looked' out the window of the building. "Someone is coming," he said, "and they've brought a large group with them." Subaru and the others decided it was best to go see for themselves what Gyomei was talking about and headed back out of the building and climbed up the ladders leading to the platforms erected next to the wooden wall.

"Oh that's not good," said the Rifleman as he pulled out his binoculars again to get a good look at the group which they now saw was coming down from the hill near the woods where they'd been earlier. "I'm seeing demons and, people with guns?!"

"Let me see," urged Yae before accepting the binoculars from her fellow Matagi and peering through them. "Oh no, those are Russian soldiers with them. And it's just like you said, they're human!"

"How can that be?" Questioned Gyomei, "The dream demon Enmu made use of humans because of the way his blood demon art worked. But you're telling me armed humans and demons are working together?"

"I think we're about to find out why," said Subaru as an unnatural sight, even by his standards, came lumbering into view from the back of the demons. It was a horse, but a paler one with unnatural red eyes and ram horns growing out the sides of its head. The creature's rider was an almost equally strange sight, with skin so pale one might mistake her for a corpse, especially with her long flowing white hair that fell down her shoulders. She was dressed in a Russian general's military uniform and looked out at the base with an angered but calculating gaze.

"(Comrades! Why do I smell the foul odor of the filthy Japanese on our base?!)," shouted the woman in what Subaru assumed was Russian.

"(Only one of us is Japanese, Rusky)!" Yae yelled back, also in Russian, "(The rest of us are Matagi and Ainu)!"

"You speak Russian?" Questioned both Subaru and Gyomei at the same time.

"I picked it up from some of the other Matagi at the village," replied Yae as she and Subaru leveled their guns at the new threat, "we used to get a lot more Russians down here at one point, so I figured it'd be useful."

"(Who are you, and what have you done with my comrades)?" Called the apparent commander demon from atop the hill.

"(They're ash)!" Yae called back, "(we killed every last one of them)!"

"(Fucking bastards)!" Exclaimed the Demon Woman, losing what little sense of nobility, and patience, she had after hearing that statement. "(Do you realize who you've crossed?! I am the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov! And for such a foolish transgression, I'll rip every one of you motherfuckers to pieces and let my demons feast on your cunts! And when we're done, there won't be enough left to make dog shit out of you!)"

Subaru glanced at Yae, noting that she'd covered Isosange's ears during the demon's little Russian rant. "There was a lot of swearing in that last statement she just made," explained Yae.

"Does Iso even know that much Russian?" Questioned Subaru, oddly curious despite the situation.

"I've taught her some," replied Yae, "but you never know what a few of the other locals might've taught her. Anyway, long story short, she wants to kill us all."

"I could've told ya that," remarked Subaru as the demon raised her hand and conjured a straight sword made of ice. If Subaru's limited knowledge of foreign swords was at all accurate, she was now wielding a rapier which she pointed forward as the signal for her demons to charge.

"Here they come!" Exclaimed Gyomei as he leapt down and landed in front of the gate. Subaru and Yae were quick to begin firing at the charging demons, managing to down a couple before they got too close to the fort. But another issue quickly made itself known as the Rifleman say several of the gun carrying humans kneeling or standing in a staggered formation with their guns raised.

"Shit, get down!" exclaimed Subaru as he pushed Yae and Isosange over just in time as the log wall was pelted with 6.5 mm. rifle rounds from a number of Arisaka type 38 rifles as well as some 7.62 rounds from other Mosin Nagants.

"This is just great," said Yae as they all rolled over onto their stomachs, "we're getting shot at on top of the threat of being mauled by inhuman monsters."

"Just stay low and crawl to whichever area the gunfire is least severe," said Subaru, "we'll have to change locations every time we fire."

"But we can't just kill people," said Isosange over some of the noise, "that's the path to becoming wen kamuy!"

"Trust me, if they're collaborating with demons, they're probably wen kamuy already," replied Subaru as he began crawling along the wooden platform towards the left side. Yae signaled for Isosange to head down closer to Gyomei as her arrows wouldn't have enough force at the distance they were shooting to bury themselves too deeply in the rifle-bearing soldiers. As for the two hunters, they both moved around until their backs were against the wooden wall. Then, as soon as they heard a minor lull in the gunfire, both sprang up and returned fire.

The soldiers reacted in surprise as three to four of their number fell, likely not expecting the same range on the Matagi's rifles as they had before returning fire. 'Those are some jumpy soldiers,' observed Subaru as he took cover again and hugged the wall while changing position, 'I know it's cold out here, but they can't be shaking that mu-oh. So it's like that is it.' The slayer decided to test his theory and popped up during another lull in the shooting and fired off a couple of rounds before taking cover again behind a part of the wall that had a large enough crack for him to peer out of.

He'd managed to hit another one of the soldiers, purposely wounding his leg. As a Matagi, he didn't like making a living being suffer, but if his theory was right, the soldier's suffering wouldn't last long. And it unfortunately turned out to be as he suspected as one of the soldiers attempted to drag their wounded comrade away from the battle, only for said person to be skewered by the demon woman's rapier while she shouted at him to pick his weapon back up. 'They're not doing this willingly, that crazy demon lady's forced them all into it.'

If that was the case, then he knew what he could at least try to do. The Rifleman popped up again and fired off a shot at the commanding demon. But instead of the sound of a bullet hitting flesh, he heard the sound of a ricochet. The Slayer's eyes widened as he realized the woman had guessed his intentions and formed a chest plate made of ice over her upper body. "(Pathetic yellow monkeys! I was shot like that once before and didn't die! Now experience the power of my authority over the elements)!"

The Lady Romanov waved her hand then, creating several other chest plates of ice armor over her fellow demons as the second group began to charge at them. Gyomei had been making short work of the demons before, but now he was required to use more of his strength against the approaching demons as Subaru and Yae attempted to give him a bit more cover by headshotting some of the others. But they were quickly forced back behind the wooden wall by more shots from the remaining Russian soldiers as Anastasia waved her hand in the air once again. Giant snowflakes began forming over her head before being flung in arcs at the base.

Subaru and Yae were forced to split up and run down the wooden planks as the frozen projectiles tore into the area they'd just been, one even breaking a hole in the wall while another broke parts of the wooden walkway. Gyomei had to grab Isosange and run as several of the projectiles landed near her while also impaling some of the less fortunate demons. "Himejima, heads up!" Exclaimed Subaru as he tossed the Hashira one of his grenades, "your throwing arm is better, pull the pin and toss that out towards the Russian snow woman!"

"Here, let me," said Isosange as she pulled the pin, knowing that it'd be difficult for Gyomei to do so while holding both his weapon and her with the same arm.

"You have my gratitude little one," said Gyomei as he stopped and listened for a moment, pinpointing the sound of the Romanov woman's shouting and the continued gunfire. He then arced the explosive over the wall at high speed where it landed among the group of soldiers after a few moments in the air. By the time they noticed, it was too late to move as the grenade exploded, wounding several of the clustered soldiers and causing the demon horse to rear back, ending the ice barrage as Subaru and Yae took the opportunity to shoot back at the remaining soldiers who, for some reason, hadn't been granted ice armor.

The assault was enough to make the last of the soldiers begin retreating and attempt to head for cover. "(Cowards)!" Exclaimed the Ice Woman as she whipped her hand back towards them, impaling several with more giant iceflakes. "(The empire will never be rebuilt if you run at the sight of merely four people! For those who still live, watch and be inspired)!" She kicked her horse's hindquarters then, driving it into a charge as she unslung the rifle that she'd kept hanging on her shoulder, an Avtomat 1915 assault rifle.

She leveled her rifle at the area Gyomei was at as the slayer was preoccupied battling the ice-armored demons, waiting for a good shot at her target. "Breath of Stone First Form: Serpentine Bipolar!" He declared as he threw both sides of his weapon forward, each spinning like drills as they tore through the closest demons. Though some in the back survived due to the ice armor while a few others attempted to attack the Hashira from behind. "Breath of Stone Fourth Form: Volcanic Rapid Conquest!"

He again swung both sides of his weapon along their chain link, hitting several of the demons surrounding him and allowing for much needed breathing room as the remaining maneaters backed away. But this break also left the Hashira exposed as Anastasia grinned wickedly and pulled the trigger on her weapon. At the last second, however, an arrow caught the side of her head, nearly going into her eye as the demon woman shouted in surprise as her weapon went skyward while firing off several shots in its magazine. "(Little bitch)!" exclaimed Anastasia as she reaimed her rifle at Isosange, who'd been tossed to a roof by Gyomei so that he could fight more effectively, "(I'll freeze your skin off for that)!"

"(The fuck you will)!" Exclaimed Yae in Russian as a bullet from her own Mosin Nagant rifle hit Romanov in the head. It didn't go very deep, but it was enough to take the snow woman's attention away from Isosange as she barked an order for her remaining demons to converge on the Matagi girl.

"Breath of the Rifleman Third Form: Modified Bayonet Dance!" Exclaimed Subaru as he leapt in front of Yae, spinning around with his recently bayonetted rifle and decapitating the demons closest to her. One of the luckier demons attempted to jump on him from one of the nearby buildings, but he didn't anticipate Subaru's reflexes. "Breath of the Rifleman First Form: Soaring Thrusts!" The airborne demon was assaulted in his midsection multiple times by several jabs from Subaru's bayonet.

The force was enough to keep him airborne until his ice armor finally broke from the strain of being struck repeatedly as the bayonet stabbed him in the stomach. Subaru finished this particular demon off by unloading two rounds into his stomach before tossing his body into a few of the other demons. "We got this Gyomei, you focus on the head ice queen over there!"

"You have my thanks," said the blind giant as he stepped towards the apparent duchess.

"(I'll grant you this before you die)," said Anastasia as she drew her rapier and discarded her assault rifle, "(you're far stronger than the ordinary yellow monkeys that inhabit these islands. Know that you have the honor of dying by the hand of Russia's rightful ruler and eventual empress of the world)."

"I'm afraid I have no response to that," said Gyomei as he began twirling his Morningstar, "if you recall, mam, I don't speak Russian." Whether or not she understood what was just said, the Stone Hashira didn't know, but she seemed to take it as the signal for their bout to begin as she raised her hand and produced smaller but still deadly iceflakes that she sent flying at Gyomei. "Breath of Stone Third Form: Stone Skin!" Gyomei said as he countered her attacks with several slashes from his ax blade while swinging his Morningstar towards his opponent at the same time.

Romanov managed to lean her body back far enough to avoid the strike, though she was forced to end her current attack and instead urged her horse to charge forward as she herself slashed at Gyomei. The Stone Hashira deflected the strike again with his ax blade while swinging his Morningstar around towards his enemy's back. Anastasia was quick enough to deflect the spiked ball by striking it with her rapier, but the counter left her slightly unbalanced as Gyomei's ax came flying at her next. The apparent Romanov was just barely quick enough to swat it away with her rapier but couldn't reposition the weapon in time to block the Morningstar as it came back around and knocked her off her demon stead. She easily rolled back up to her feet with her weapon at the ready.

"(Don't dare think us being on the same ground means we are equals! You are nothing but dog shit to me)!" She snarled as she signaled her horse to charge Gyomei from one side while she closed in on the other. But her demonic mount never made it as bullets pelted its neck and head, causing it to rear up as Subaru tossed his rifle to Isosange and jumped on the beast's back, jamming his knife into the side of its neck. In theory, this might've been a good maneuver, but in practice.

"This is about the time I remember I've never ridden a horse in my life!" Exclaimed the Rifleman as the horse reared and bucked around the parade grounds in an attempt to throw its unwanted rider off.

"(You dare to harm Baranov)!" Exclaimed the Snow Woman as she and Gyomei clashed weapons a few times, "(I'll eat you all alive and spit out your filthy bones)!"

"It appears you still don't seem to grasp the fact that neither of us knows what the other is saying," grunted Gyomei as he backed up to get some distance before tossing his Morningstar at his opponent. But the Russian woman was ready and leapt into the air before raining more razor sharp iceflakes down on the Hashira. Gyomei countered these once more with his Stone Skin technique before throwing both of his weapons towards his opponent.

"(Now you're not even aiming right)," mocked Anastasia until Gyomei slammed his foot down on the chain.

"Breath of Stone Second Form: Upper Smash!" He said as the rebound from the chain caused both the axe and flail to close in on the demon in a pincer attack. Noticing at the last second, Anastasia conjured a second ice rapier and crossed her arms to block both weapons with her own. The maneuver was successful, but her weapons cracked and fell apart in the process due to the sheer force of the twin impacts.

That proved to just be a minor annoyance, however, as she formed an ice spear and charged at Gyomei. "Breath of Stone Fifth Form: Arcs of Justice," said Gyomei as he swung both his ax and flail, striking multiple times in quick succession. The barrage brought Anastasia to a halt and even began to push her back as she was forced to parry the ax and flail again and again with her spear. The Stone Hashira quickly capitalized on this situation by altering the trajectory of his flail at one point, causing the chain to wrap around the spear and allowing Gyomei the chance to yank the weapon out of its owner's hand.

The Snow Woman howled in anger as she charged forward while forming another ice rapier, closing the distance between the two of them in hopes of reducing Gyomei's range advantage with his weapon. The Hashira had fortunately prepared himself for such a scenario a long time ago when he selected his weapon and quickly pulled the ax handle back to himself to parry Anastasia's offensive strikes before leaping back and pulling his flail to him as well. The move nearly clipped the duchess, who just managed to duck her head in time. "(Just die already you yellow ape)!" Exclaimed the frustrated Duchess as she reached and drew a Nagant revolver from its holster on her hip.

"Breath of Stone First Form," said Gyomei, having not stopped his movement while his opponent was reaching for her firearm, "Serpentine Bipolar!" Both ax and flail came spinning towards the demon at high speed, faster than she was able to raise her gun and thus, suffered the pain of both weapons impacting against her hard enough to crack her ice armor while the ax bit into her leg. '(What is this metal),' she thought, '(and why does it slow my regeneration)?' "Breath of Stone Fourth Form: Volcanic Rock-Rapid Conquest!"

Gyomei swung his ax and flail in wide arcs towards the duchess, with the flail hitting with enough force to knock her over before the ax cut off her foot. Seizing his opening, Gyomei swung his flail downwards towards the demon woman, who held her rapier up with both hands to block the strike. But the Stone Hashira had anticipated this possibility and as it struck, he swung his ax in behind it, striking his own flail and increasing the force of its impact against Anastasia. The blow was enough to snap her rapier as the flail hit home against her ice armor and cracked it.

But Gyomei didn't let up as he swung his ax the moment he pulled his flail from the downed demon, striking her again before hitting the top of the ax with the flail. He repeated this attack again and again and again, cracking his opponent's armor and cratering the ground ever so slightly with each impact. '(This),' thought Romanov, '(this can't be happening, not again). She glanced over at Baranov, noting that the boy Matagi had leapt off and dropped some kind of explosives on him. And his regeneration was no longer working properly.

'(Fire and torture, just like that time),' she thought as flail and ax continued to pummel her body, '(that time when I, when she-)?' What was this? Why were her memories seeming, off? "Svetlana," said a voice she recognized, "Svetlana, I need some help over here. I just had an idea for another great prank." 'That name,' thought the Snow Woman, 'why does that name sound so familiar?' Images began to play across her mind then, like pieces to a puzzle that had always been there but she was never willing to solve.

And as they became more clear, she remembered why she hadn't wanted too solve it. She saw herself playing with a Russian girl that looked exactly like her in a large, immaculate palace in a snowy country. She'd help the girl pull pranks, watched her occasionally pack rocks into snowballs, run around the throne room with unending energy, make snide remarks, and help other people laugh. The reason she'd been brought into the palace in the first place was her striking resemblance to the Russian girl, right down to the curves of her face and her long brown hair.

She'd been made that girl's double, a decoy, should the need ever arise to mislead their enemies. At the time, she hadn't understood as she was just a little girl herself. A little girl that looked almost exactly like Anastasia Romanov. Her name, her real name had been Svetlana, and to the Grand Duchess, she'd been practically another sister to her. She'd been taught all of her mannerisms, habits, favorite subjects, hobbies, foods, and pretty much anything else she'd need to imitate the Romanov girl.

But Anastasia often had differing ideas about the duties of a body double. She'd have her take her place for lessons on occasion when she wasn't feeling up to it, they'd blame each other back and forth for something the other did, confound people with the most amusing games of hide and seek, put on entertaining performances and comedies. It had been such a wonderful life, and then Lenin came and had the Romanov's put under house arrest. From that point on, she was no longer able to see her dear friend until that fateful, horrid night.

She'd tried sneaking onto the estate before and had often been chased off by the guards or caught and kicked out. But on this night, she'd hidden in a truck that was loaded with strange cargo to avoid one of the patrols. Svetlana had been lucky that the soldiers weren't paying much attention when they loaded the back, but her luck ended when she failed to get out of it before it started moving. Svetlana had feared for her life almost the whole way until they hit a bump at one point, lifting up part of the sheet to reveal a cold, dead hand.

Svetlana didn't know what compelled her to pull the sheet the rest of the way off, but when she did she was horrified to discover that it was Anastasia and her brother Alexei, both still partially alive. They'd been shot several times and Svetlana could barely see any life in their eyes. That was just the beginning of the nightmare, however. She'd been conflicted on what to do at the time. Try and help her nearly dead friends or run? And by the time she decided the soldiers showed up and managed to capture her.

She'd been bound to a nearby tree as the soldiers attempted to dispose of the bodies with corrosive chemicals. Despite her pleas, they didn't realize Anastasia and Alexei were alive until it was too late. The sound of the two Romanov's screaming in agony tore at her ears, threatening to drive her insane as she pleaded with the soldiers to let them live, saying they were just teenagers that had nothing to do with how the Romanovs had ruled or the decisions they would make. But the soldiers stuck to their orders and proceeded to burn what was left of the bodies.

That had been the final straw for her as the weight of the horror broke Svetlana's mind. She didn't remember much of what happened next but when she regained a degree of her senses, she had one of the soldier's Avtomat rifles in her hands, its barrel smoking with one of the soldiers laying dead on the ground. The other one, brave soul that he was, had apparently run off. Svetlana hadn't known what to do at that time, so she just ran.

It was during that time that her mind kept faltering, rejecting what she'd seen as she tried desperately to tell herself that it had all been a nightmare. She was practically a wild animal by that point, stowing away on a boat that headed towards the Japanese island of Hokkaido with the simple thought on her mind, 'I have to keep running'. But as she got off the boat and trekked into the wilderness, she realized that her body was giving out from the lack of food and little water. Not that she was sure she cared much about living at that point as she collapsed in the middle of nowhere. And then he appeared, a man that she thought might be Rasputin given how he smelled of death, but what he offered her was a chance at life in the form of a little blue flower, which she consumed hungrily.

The next thing she knew, she felt pain and anguish as her mind and body underwent a pain that she never would've believed was possible, destroying what little remained of her identity as the images of her and Anastasia meshed together in her head. When she next awoke, she was strong, powerful, and beyond human. Taking that as her chance, she'd used her newfound abilities to blackmail and force others under her cause while also finding more of the strange blue flower and giving small amounts to her most loyal followers. She'd seen that time as her hope that she, now believing herself to be Anastasia Romanov, would have her revenge on Lenin, make Japan suffer for the Russo-Japanese war, and make all enemies of Russia kneel before her.

And now, here she lay, realizing how monstrous she'd become in that pursuit while also noting that at some point during the Japanese man's onslaught, her head had come off. "Prosti menya Anastasiya, kazhetsya, nam oboim pora pokoit'sya s mirom now," said Svetlana as she closed her eyes before disintegrating into ash.

By this point, Subaru and the others had finished mopping up the other demons and soldiers, the ones who hadn't run away or been killed by the snow woman, and gathered around at her final words. "What, did she just say exactly?" Questioned Subaru as Isosange handed him his rifle which he immediately began checking.

"If I heard right," replied Yae, "she said, 'Forgive me Anastasia, it seems like it's time for both of us to rest in peace.'"

"I guess this Anastasia person was very important to her," commented Isosange.

"Some believe that in their final moments," said Gyomei, "demons remember their former lives as humans. Either way, the battle is won and the time has now come to put all of the dead to rest." There was no argument as the group moved to retrieve the bodies of the soldiers who'd been killed and worked to bury them on the side of the parade grounds. As expected, the Stone Hashira offered his prayers as the other three stood by, offering their own Matagi and Ainu prayers.

They slept at the base that night, their built up exhaustion making the idea of further travel a bit far off. But in the morning, they would find that this, was only the first of three fiercesome battles.

Whew, and there we have it folks, the first of three icy terrors has been vanquished! Whoops, think I let a minor spoiler go there. Anyway, hopefully you all enjoyed this slightly more lengthy chapter this time around and as always, 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 heroes encounter their next snow wielder along the coast! 'Til then.