^ Chapter 35 - The Automaton ^


His internal clock waking him up, Tanjirō's brow furrowed somewhat before he let out a soft yawn and picked himself up from his futon in order to stretch his arms. His body wasn't stiff even in the slightest bit, and once he opened his eyes he sprung up to his feet and grinned to himself while looking off to the side.

Flinging open the side door to connect his room with the outside world, he took a deep breath of the fresh air mixed with the scents of the hot spring and put his hands on his hips confidently. Today was the day he'd try to find the so-called secret weapon that Mitsuri had whispered to him before her departure, and he couldn't be any more excited. Remembering the Love Hashira, he checked on Nezuko to see if she was safely within the shade first, before gently waking her up to tell her to get into her box, before he left his room to see if she had actually left.

Finding the rooms near his empty and seeing no trace of Sanemi's younger brother anywhere, he assumed that Mitsuri had indeed left when she said she would, and that he and Nezuko were currently the only occupants of the Onsen aside from the staff.

"Time to go look for that weapon then! At least, after breakfast…" Tanjirō said to himself when his stomach growled loudly.

As he walked back to his room he found his mind drifting to how for the longest time, without taking into account his trek to Muzan's side, he had hardly felt the typical hunger for human flesh and blood that he used to feel very early on in his life as a demon.

Perhaps it was a combination of training and well, as well as his personality that enabled him to conquer his base desires as a demon and come above them to be something greater than what a typical demon would be. He knew and accepted he was a demon, but he had never felt more human either. He was sleeping like one, eating like one, and loving like one too when it came to Shinobu.

"That actually reminds me...I was too flustered at the time because of the situation, but...my nose did notice something it hadn't detected before." he thought while he entered his room and began to change into his standard attire. Thankfully Nezuko was still in her box so he didn't have to worry about her seeing him as he changed, and he made sure to close the sliding doors again so nobody outside could catch him if they happened to be walking by. "Like Shinobu, there was this other scent I couldn't quite place...it felt familiar but unknown to me. I'm surprised I wasn't able to catch it until now, given my sense of smell…"

Leaving it for later, along with the strange situation of his swordsmith's disappearance, he then picked up Nezuko's box after he finished getting dressed and left to eat breakfast. It didn't take him long to eat, since he was already eager to search the village for the secret weapon, so once he was finally free from the Onsen he immediately got to work.

He assumed that the weapon, whatever it was, couldn't possibly be within the village itself because it was already chocked full of weapon forges and workshops, as well as the homes of the smiths themselves, which left only one viable option. The forest that was both part of the village and its natural barrier hiding it from the outside world was the perfect hiding place for a secret weapon. All Tanjirō had to do was find it, which was easier said than done.

Walking through the densely packed trees with both his eyes focused on the scenery and his sense of smell tuned in on the slightest changes in scent, he wandered away from the Onsen to escape its distinct stench. At the same time he thought about the different possibilities regarding the secret weapon, most commonly revolving around what it could possibly even be.

"Jeez, even from here I can still smell the Onsen...I hope this weapon isn't buried anywhere, then that'd be really hard to find!" remarked Tanjirō with a laugh, before he heard a commotion come from somewhere nearby. Turning his head and spotted a couple of people between the trees a few meters away from him, one being a rather young kid wearing a mask like the villagers have, and the other someone he also recognized like Genya. "That's one of the Hashira...what was his name, I know Shinobu-san mentioned him before...wait, I remember! The Mist Hashira, Tokitō Muichirō!"

Tanjirō rested his hand on his sword handle somewhat and adjusted Nezuko's box with the other before slowly walking towards the pair, curious as to what they were talking about here in the middle of the forest. The child was certainly the more animated of the two, angrily pumping his fists up and down, while Muichirō only stared blankly at him without saying anything to stop him.

"Go away! I'm not handing over my key, no matter what! And I definitely wouldn't show you where it is, even if you took it from me, or to use it!" exclaimed the boy to the Hashira, who only blinked in response to him.

"What are they arguing about? Eaves-dropping isn't really something I'd like to do, but if they're fighting I have to intervene. What to do, what to do…"

Muichirō decided for him when the youngest Hashira silently lifted up his right hand, the young boy not really paying attention to it as he continued to tell off the Hashira. Then, completely out of nowhere without the slightest indication of cause, he chopped the boy harshly on the side of the head with such force it bashed him straight to the ground.

The boy's body kicked up a cloud of dirt on impact and he grunted in pain, the Hashira continuing to stare blankly at him as he crouched down to pick him up by the cuff of his shirt. A split second later the Hashira's wrist of the hand holding up the boy was harshly gripped by Tanjirō, who was looking him dead in the eyes with mixed feelings of both shock and anger.

"What do you think you're even doing?! Let go of him!" Tanjirō exclaimed, his fingers tightening enough around Muichirō's wrist that the younger boy's arm began to quiver slightly.

"Your voice is so annoying...who are you again?" Muichirō asked while staring blankly into Tanjirō's eyes without so much of a single drop of emotion.

"He's not even flinching...and he doesn't remember me?"

"If you're not going to respond, let go of me."

Muichirō ducked down and rammed his elbow directly into Tanjirō's gut, knocking the window out of him almost instantly, but failing to knock him down off his feet or get him to let go of the boy's arm. This actually surprised the Hashira, who had always felt confident in his own abilities despite his young age, and he stared down at his hand that was still being held by Tanjirō.

Tanjirō himself brought his gaze back up to Muichirō's after the hit and growled, showing his fangs at the Hashira as he stood back up and stood his ground. It was right then when Muichirō felt a slightly familiar presence coming from his box, and that's when it finally clicked for him and he recalled the Kamado siblings and who they were for the most part.

It was then Tanjirō's turn to showcase his speed when he threw Muichirō's hand away when the Hashira attempted to reach for the box, distracting him long enough to swipe the masked boy from his grasp and get him to safety. Staring harshly at Muichirō for even daring to reach for Nezuko's box even

"Are you okay? Are you bleeding anywhere?" Tanjirō asked while dusting the boy off, the Hashira's blank stare coming to rest on the back of his head.

"G-get off me! I don't need any help!" yelled the boy after forcefully removing himself from Tanjirō, which surprised him. To receive a blow that harsh from a Hashira and see more or less fine afterwards, it certainly opened Tanjirō's eyes a little. "Go away!"

"But you don't really look so good! You need to take care of yourself, or at least let me!"

"I-I'm not handing this key over to anyone. Not even under torture. 'It' is gonna break any day now!"

"Have you ever been under torture?"

Both Tanjirō and the young boy turned their eyes towards Muichirō, who had wiped his hand on his opposite sleeve before staring at the two of them with his own cold, empty gaze. It was as if he was there with them physically, but emotionally in an entirely different place; a ghost in the shell of a boy.

Meeting and interacting with the other Hashira like Shinobu, Kyōjurō and Mitsuri had given Tanjirō wonderful friends and allies that he could count on if he needed him. He had gotten even more out of Shinobu of course, but before their relationship had become official, he knew that she was friendly and reliable. His opinion on Sanemi and Obanai were mostly set in stone, and it remained to be seen if those could change, Gyōmei had started to warm up to him, and when it came to Giyū he knew that despite his cold exterior nature he was also someone he could trust.

But this Hashira, the youngest one of the group at only fourteen years old, was something else entirely. From the few times he had encountered him before now, Tanjirō figured Muichirō was similar to Giyū in that they were both distant emotionally and was devoted to his job. The latter statement was true, that was sure enough, but calling Muichirō emotionally distant was putting it lightly.

"Not even adults can endure it, so it's physically impossible for you. it seems like you're just a dumb kid who doesn't know his place. And so what if it breaks? Just make another one." Muichirō continued while not even bothering to look at the kid as his eyes drifted off toward something else that caught his attention. "You know, in all this time that you've been grumbling and mumbling, do you know how many people have died?"

"This guy...does he even know what he sounds like right now?" Tanjirō thought angrily when the Hashira's words hit both him and the child like a boulder, the stark reality of the demon threat becoming exceptionally apparent once again.

"This is what happens when you get in the way of a Hashira. Unlike you people, a Hashira's time is extremely important. You'd understand if you thought a little. Swordsmiths can't fight. They can't save lives. Making weapons is all they're good for. Now, come on. Key."

Muichirō finally decided to address the young boy directly by looking down at him, even when he wasn't that tall himself, even compared to Tanjirō, and extending his hand towards him.

The boy shuddered at Muichirō's empty yet threatening tone, which finally pushed Tanjirō over the edge from passive inaction to protective action. Standing up he harshly slapped Muichirō's hand away once again, the Hashira not flinching at all to the action and giving him a look of slight befuddlement at his insistence with interfering with his schedule.

"What's this about?" Muichirō asked, his very tone causing Tanjirō to tighten his jaw muscles and ball his hands into fists several times over.

"This just doesn't sit right with me! Do you even know how to be considerate? Slapping a child, talking down to him like you're high and mighty?! That's just cruel!" shouted Tanjirō in response, his raised tone doing little to affect the Hashira's expression.

"Am I acting cruel? You-"

"Are correct! I don't disagree with what you're saying, but even so, swordsmiths have a very important and crucial job! They possess amazing skills that are different from swordsmen's! If they don't forge swords for us, we'll be left powerless without the blades we fight with!"

As Tanjirō was advocating for the importance of the swordsmiths to the emotionless Hashira, his words were making not only the young boy look at him in wonder, but an unseen observer lurking in the forests. Unfortunately, while they were appreciating the young slayer fighting for them, Muichirō had no desire to listen any longer.

"Sorry. I don't have time to talk about dumb stuff." he remarked before, at blinding speeds, he chopped Tanjirō in the side of the neck with just his hand and sent him tumbling over onto his side.

In the mere moments it took for Tanjirō's body to hit the ground and his vision to black out momentarily, Muichirō then took the key he was wanting from the boy and left without saying another word. The unseen observer made their escape before they could be discovered, touched by Tanjirō's words, while the boy quickly ran to his side and helped him up once he recovered from Muichirō's blow.

Finding out that the key the kid was so ardently defending had been given up made Tanjirō's shoulders droop after returning to his feet. Even without knowing the whole story, seeing that his attempts to rectify the situation ended up in the least desirable result ended up only making him feel as though he failed.

"I guess you didn't really have a choice with him...I don't really know the situation itself anyways, so it's not my place to grumble about it…" Tanjirō said to himself while rolling his head around, getting a pop from his shoulder.

"Oh, no! You stood up for a complete stranger like me...so I can only thank you for that." the boy replied with a bow.

"No, no, I couldn't be any use to you…" Tanjirō started to say, before closing his mouth and smiling a little at how earnestly the boy was bowing to him. He must have really touched him with what he was saying, and because of that he decided to just drop that matter entirely and focus on what was intriguing him more than his unsuccessful attempt to ward off Muichirō. "What kind of key was it, actually? The one you didn't want to give up?"

"It was for a mechanical doll, made in the likeness of a certain person from a long time ago."

"A mechanical doll? Really?"

"Yes. My ancestors made it, and it has one hundred and eight different movements."

"Whoa! One hundred and eight?! That's amazing!"

"Its power surpasses that of humans, including demon slayers, so it's regularly used as a training dummy."

The boy continued by telling Tanjirō about how the doll was a feat of construction and mechanical engineering on account of the time period when it was made, but it was certainly close to breaking with how many times it had been used. Before they could continue, the clanging of swords was heard from somewhere nearby as a fierce battle began between two combatants that had yet to be seen.

Knowing who they had just been with, both of them assumed who was who on either side of the battle, and following the boy Tanjirō came with him through the trees and bushes until they arrived at a small clearing in the foliage to an extraordinary battle. Muichirō was consumed by a storm of his own sword strokes as well as his opponent's who Tanjirō immediately recognized as the mechanical doll the boy was talking about. The way it moved looked so human, it took a glimpse here and there at the doll's segmented joints at the wrist and its tan, wood-like skin to know that it wasn't.

What surprised him the most was that the doll's likeness, for whatever reason, felt familiar to him in some way, from the long glowing hair bound into a single ponytail, to samurai plate armor strapped to their arms.

"That...is the mechanical doll my ancestors made long ago." the boy said as he and Tanjirō watched the Mist Hashira trade blows with the doll. When the fight slowed down somewhat as Muichirō separated himself briefly from the creation, he noticed how the doll possessed an absurd six arms, each wielding a razor sharp katana that glistened in the rays of sun peeking in through the tree tops above. "Yoriichi Reishiki…that's what my dad said it was called."

"This face...I swear I know this face...I just don't know when I saw it before." Tanjirō thought to himself while rendered speechless by the doll.

Without any sounds coming from its wooden body, except for the clicking of its joints and the gears inside that allowed them to move, it engaged Muichirō again and gave them a flash of its damaged face, where some of its inner workings and its fully painted eyeball were showing.

"Its arms...why does it have six arms? Isn't that overkill?" he asked the boy.

"Its arms? Well, according to my dad...this doll was modeled after an actual swordsman. They had to give it six arms, because they couldn't hope to replicate the person's movements with just two." the boy replied, his eyebrows furrowing beneath his mask as he watched the doll get beaten to the side by Muichirō.

"Who was that person, exactly? What did he do to get a combat doll modeled after him?"

"I don't really know all the details myself either, but it does date back to the Sengoku Era."

"S-Sengoku!? Are you saying that doll is over three hundred years old? How has it not broken after all this time?!"

The boy explained why to Tanjirō as the slayer paid even more attention to the doll than Muichirō, watching its six arms practically turn invisible during its fight against the Hashira in a manner that was inconceivable to him. A doll that was so expertly crafted by its engineers that it could surpass a human's strength, including six arms that gave it an even more deadlier appearance, astounded him.

It made him wonder just how skilled the original model for the doll was, if the boy's ancestors who made the doll had to give it all of those arms just to allow it to match, or at least get as close as possible to matching, their prowess with a sword.

"The only bad thing is that its construction is so superb, we can't hope to fix it if it breaks...that's not helped by the fact that my dad suddenly died recently, because of some heart complication or something." added the boy, his body shaking a little as he brought up those memories while looking at the doll. Even though he had barely scratched the surface of knowing what it was capable of, he still felt attached to it, because it was something he was connected with. It was the only piece of him that he had left. "So that's why I have to be the one to fix it. But I don't have the talent to fix blades or dolls…"

"So that's why you didn't want to give up the key…"

Tanjirō didn't say much else after that, the two of them remaining on the sidelines to watch Muichirō start to use more advanced tactics against the doll, who's clicking body countered with some of its own flashy movements. It was incredible to watch, and it reminded him how even though he was now a Tsuguko, he still felt like he had a long way to go to become proper Hashira material like Kyōjurō or Muichirō.

"This person training here, Tokito-kun...he's really amazing. He's younger than me, but he's so talented…"

"Well, of course! That boy is a descendant of the Sun Breathing users!"

Tanjirō and the boy whirled their heads around at the new, high-pitched feminine voice, finding nothing but empty air around them until they looked down and noticed a Kasugai crow had landed behind them.

Batting its eyelashes at them, the female crow cawed at them in a manner akin to laughing while referencing Muichirō, who they assumed was her chosen swordsman.

"He's a genius! Completely different from you, hahaha!"

"Tokito-kun's crow? If he's related to the original breath users, he must really be amazing...even though he doesn't use it."

"Shut the hell up! I'll gouge your eyes out!"

The crow than assaulted Tanjirō, biting him on the cheek hard enough to draw blood, and began to tug and pull as hard as her wings could allow her to, which made him yelp at the sudden attack. It hardly compared to anything he's felt before, the most pain he felt easily being when he was accidentally infected by Shinobu's poison, but it was still shocking nonetheless.

Its attack on him, however, allowed Tanjirō to suddenly have an epiphany when his eyes once again caught a glimpse of the mechanical doll's face and it instantly hit him. He had seen that face before, not in real life, but in a dream that he had. The dream that had awoken him during one of the first days back with Shinobu after his rescue from being Muzan's pawn.

"Wait, I remember now! The dream I saw! I saw him in a dream I had, the person the doll was modeled after!" Tanjirō exclaimed, his cry making the crow let go of his cheek and sit down on his shoulder instead to scoff at him.

"What? You're such a total moron. You're being so delusional that you make me laugh. How could you know a warrior from the Sengoku Era? How old are you?" questioned the female crow.

"I...I'm not sure…it probably sounds stupid now that I think about it…"

"No, no! Maybe it's a memory that was passed on? It's a common saying in my village. They say that appearances aren't the only things that are inherited." the boy said while waving his arms to get Tanjirō out of his funk and back to his normal self. "Living things pass on their memories too. For example, someone having memories of seeing the same scene when they first forge a sword, or knowing how to do something they've never done before. We call those inherited memories."

The boy went on to link his explanation of memories getting passed on to people from their ancestors with Tanjirō's recognition of the doll's face from a man in his dream, stating it must have been a memory from one of his own ancestors.

Of course the crow thought nothing of this and cawed at them in an obnoxious tone akin to Tanjirō's own crow, telling them it was ridiculous, but neither the boy nor Tanjirō paid her any attention. He actually smiled at him and laughed a little at him, and thanked the boy for his kind words, before asking for his name. Learning that the boy's name was Kotetsu, he introduced himself properly and shared a moment had been named before they were interrupted by the sharp cracking sound accompanied by wood getting split open.

Both of them whipped their heads back around to the fierce training battle taking place next to him and they managed to catch Muichirō finishing up a downward slash. Flying off away from the mechanical doll were pieces of its cloak and shoulder armor, which was enough of a shock for Kotatsu to make him turn tail and run away as if he had seen a terrifying demon.

"Ah! Kotetsu-kun! Kotetsu-kun, where are you going?!" shouted Tanjirō as he took off after the boy, following him into the trees.

His sense of smell allowed him to follow the boy wherever he went, and in just a minute he happened upon Kotetsu at a tree which he had climbed up to the lowest branch visible from the forest floor. The boy had his back turned from Tanjirō reminiscent of Zenitsu's brand of cowering, which included fresh tears rolling down his exposed cheeks.

Kotetsu had pulled his mask up and to the right, showing most of his face that Tanjirō couldn't see so he could wipe away his tears from his eyes. Tanjirō could smell the sadness and fear radiating from the boy and he knew that the further damage to the doll was the root cause for this spike in emotion from Kotetsu.

"Kotetsu-kun, come down! I'll help you with the doll in any way I can, so don't give up! You still have a future. You have to work hard so you can be better ten, twenty years on." said Tanjirō in a raised tone, loud enough for Kotetsu to hear him from up in the tree. "One day, you'll be able to do the things you can't do right now. You just have to try, and not stop pushing!"

"No...I can't...I know I'm just a pathetic guy. Everything is gonna end at my generation, and it's all my fault." replied Kotetsu in a shaky, defeated voice.

"Don't be too reckless."

Kotetsu turned at the sound of Tanjirō's voice coming from practically right next to him, only to be flicked hard on the chin by the swordsman as he hung from a nearby branch with just a single arm and a straight face.

This was the first time he had actually gotten a clear look at Tanjirō's face, now that he had his mask mostly off, and he felt fear at first from Tanjirō's eyes. He knew that they weren't a human's, and the Kanji written on them certainly proved that fact even more, but he could also see the sincerity and care in them.

"Please, don't ever talk about yourself that way. If you can't do it yourself, then someone else will do it. But you have to put in effort so you can pass it on to the next generation. So even if you can't do it, then your kids and grandkids might be able to, right?" Tanjirō explained to Kotetsu, his voice not only assertive but calm and caring. He sounded both like a parent sharing their wisdom with their child and an older sibling talking to their younger sibling. Tanjirō didn't even falter at all while hanging there next to him, and he made sure to never raise his voice to make it seem like he was reprimanding him. "I want to beat Kibutsuji Muzan myself, and I want to save my sister who got turned into a demon. I stumbled along the way, and turning into a demon myself wasn't part of the plan either. I could end up dying in one way or another without achieving these goals, but I believe someone will finish the deed for sure. Just like how I was rescued by the lives I connected with before my capture and transformation into an Upper Moon, those same lives will one day beat Kibutsuji."

Tanjirō then smiled at Kotetsu before using his other hand to hold onto on of the boys' looking at him with unwavering resolve burning in his eyes just like Kyōjurō. He told Kotetsu that no matter what, he'd help him in the time that he was there in the village, which only made him tear up even more and sniffle.

Rather than tears of sorrow, however, he was crying now with tears of renewed courage and happiness. Soon after that they were on their way back to where the mechanical doll and Muichirō were, the two sharing parts of their lives with one another and learning more about the other. Kotetsu told him a little about his family, and Tanjirō did the same, before giving him a little more background on what he had said about being captured and rescued.

It was during this discussion when Muichirō, who Kotetsu expected to finish his training much later than that, brushed by them without saying so much as a word.

"Huh? You're done already?!" Tanjirō called out in surprise, the Hashira pausing and glancing back at them with the same empty stare he always had.

"Yeah...it was great training. Who are...oh, right, I remember now." Muichirō replied with a slight sigh. He then brought his hand up and to Kotetsu's shock, waved around a sword from the puppet, with its wooden hand still gripping the handle. "I broke my blade, so I'll be taking this one."

As he touched the sword, it's metal quickly changed colors to what his original sword was before he tossed the old one at Tanjirō, hitting him on the forehead with the hilt, and told him to dispose of it for him. Then he walked away with his crow, leaving them alone without another word.

Kotetsu took off running again, this time towards the doll from where Muichirō had come from, and Tanjirō gave chase after him again while thinking of the Hashira's personality again. He couldn't sense or smell any sort of malicious intent in his actions, aside from his crow, she was definitely malicious toward him, so what else could be the reason for his detached actions?

He pushed those thoughts aside when he heard the wind pick up and his eyes looked up through the trees, seeing the sky start to darken with clouds rolling in. He smelled the air and sure enough, within a matter of moments, it began to drizzle on him as he came upon Kotetsu and the fallen puppet. Its once spotless cloak had become marred by slashes and cuts, the samurai armor it wore on its shoulders had been cut off, and one of its six arms had been broken, most likely where Muichirō had gotten his new sword from.

As the rain drops pelted Kotetsu's hair and clothes he remained motionless while staring down at his ancestors' creation, the reality of its near-destruction at the hands of the Hashira hitting him harshly. Tanjirō walked up to him, sensing the boy's wavering resolve, and placed a hand gently on his back while looking at the visible facial components of the puppet.

"Kotetsu-kun. Let's just make sure before you jump to conclusions...it might still be able to move."

"R...Right."

Together they lifted the puppet off the ground and stood it back up on its feet, the cranks and gears inside of its body clattering and twisting as they did. Eventually the puppet was standing on its own two feet under its own power, or the lack thereof since it was an inanimate object, and after searching through the figures robs Kotetsu found a reset switch and flipped it.

Several wooden pops and snaps came from within the puppet's body and after a few seconds he assumed the worst, before with a whirring noise it lifted its five serviceable arms and took a wide combat stance. Tanjirō smiled happily and pumped his fist into the air, while Kotetsu remained silent as he looked upon its broken face.

"It's still moving, Kotetsu-kun! Those few seconds of it not doing anything worried me a little bit, but it's okay!" Tanjirō exclaimed, then he looked to the young boy for any kind of response. What he got wasn't anything spectacular or joyful, it was quite the opposite. Instead of relief, Tanjirō smelled the fiery scent of determination and anger coming from the youth. "Kotetsu-kun? Are you okay…?"

"It is moving, Tanjirō-san, and how I feel isn't important. Right now, I want you to train. Become stronger than that shitty indifferent jerk!"

"Right now?! But I thought-"

"It doesn't matter. I'll help you with all I've got, so please! Train with my ancestor's puppet!"


^ Butterfly Mansion, Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters ^

"So you think there's something that can be examined from your battle with Upper Moon Three, Rengoku-san?" Shinobu asked while sitting across from the Flame Hashira in her office, her haori draped over the back of her chair.

"Hmn, that's right. Thinking about it now, after the fact, I've come to realize that I have fundamentally changed as a swordsman." Kyōjurō replied as he looked at his hand and closed it into a fist.

He'd finally gotten used to seeing with only one eye, since his other one had been rendered blind by Akaza, and he was unable to part his eyelids any more. It made him focus even more in his training on anything he was facing, because now that he had lost half his eyesight, his senses had to be sharpened even more.

Losing an eye and undergoing the whole ordeal of entering a coma had reminded him of his own mortality, a fact that he always knew and accepted, but recognized now, even more so than ever, that at any moment his life could be cut short. Knowing he still had others that counted on him, it made his blazing heart burn even brighter and inspired him to push past his limits even further.

"What do you mean, Rengoku-san? Outside of losing your eye, you practically look the same as usual…" remarked Shinobu with a frown, her response drawing a laugh from him.

"That's understandable, Kochō-san, but believe me when I say this...there is a whole other world that any one of us has yet to obtain." replied Kyōjurō, his smile fading, as he looked Shinobu dead in the eyes. This change in tone and personality told the Insect Hashira that whatever he told her next was dreadfully serious, and required her utmost attention. "If you'd listen to me, I'd like to divulge to you everything that I know about my experiences, and what I learned from my family's records."

"Of course, Renogku-san. Don't hold back, tell me everything. I'll listen to every word."

"Good, because this will probably change your entire view on what it means to be a swordsman."

Shinobu crossed one leg over the other and rested her hands in her lap, mentally preparing herself for what Kyōjurō had to offer to her in information. What she didn't realize upon Kyōjurō starting his explanation was that she was woefully unprepared for what he told her, with even her own mind turning into mush trying to comprehend his words.

She knew that he was exceptionally strong, arguably one of the strongest slayers in the whole corps and wholly deserving of his rank, but to hear him speak of how he fought the Upper Rank Three of the Twelve Kizuki was something else entirely. Gravely injured and with one eye gone, she couldn't even begin to imagine the scene of him holding the demon by the hand and slowly cutting through his neck with his sword while being impaled by his arm. It was at that point that Kyōjurō added a twist to the story, an extra layer of spice that turned the recollection on its head.

"The change I felt came when I used my most powerful technique...I felt the entire world slow down around me, and everything sharpened to the point it seemed as though I could see everything." Kyōjurō said as he once again looked down at his dominant hand, opening and closing it a few times. He remembered clearly the rush that his body got in that moment, when it felt like everything was on the line and his next breath could be his last. "I felt a burning in my chest too, a burn that was hotter than anything I've ever felt. It sounded like drums were pounding in my ears, but at the same time it was utterly silent. To put it in simpler terms...I felt like I was on the verge of death, but more alive than ever."

"Is that the moment when you felt that mark appear over your damaged eye, and your blade turned crimson red?" Shinobu asked, with Kyōjurō nodding his head.

"Exactly. If I had to make a guess on what my body was feeling at the time...I'd say that my heart was beating at a rate of at least 200, or possibly more."

"For someone of your age? Over 200 beats per minute?"

"It's just a theory, but I believe there is a relationship between having a near-death experience and this phenomenon of having high body temperature, as well as the heart rate. What's obvious is that I never used to have this mark, and now I do because of that fight."

Kyōjurō pointed at his closed eye and the flame-like tattoo imprinted on his skin, Shinobu rubbing her chin as she examined it some more and racked her brain to come up with a possible solution. Not having any information on the causation of such a thing and with no evidence found yet in records, this mystery couldn't be solved by the two of them in a matter of minutes.

She also couldn't shake this odd feeling she got either. Looking at Kyōjurō's mark somehow reminded her of Tanjirō's birth mark, the one he claims to have gotten when hot coals spilled on his face when he was an infant. Whenever he returned from the Swordsmith village, she had to ask him again and figure out more in order to see if the two of them could meet with Kyōjurō and try to take apart the mystery piece by piece.

"On my own I'll continue to look into what sort of things I'm able to do now because of this mark, but again I can clarify: ths mark, whatever it does, has enabled me to surpass the limits that I thought I had almost reached prior to my meeting with Upper Moon Three." Kyōjurō said as he stood up and slipped his haori back on, Shinobu taking that as a sign their discussion was nearing its end. "I'll be sure to share this information with Oyakata-sama as well, because if there is something to be found here, we may have just found another weapon capable of taking the fight to Kibutsuji."

"Goodbye Rengoku-san, and...let me say that it really is good to have you back. It was quiet with you around." said Shinobu with a soft smile.

"Hmn! It's good to be back, I assure you! Now, I'm off!"

Kyōjurō waved goodbye to Shinobu before he left her office with the flap of his haori, the burning hot member of the Hashira departing from the Butterfly Mansion soon after to get an audience with Ubuyashiki.

With him gone and Shinobu left alone by herself once again, she sighed and absentmindedly looked around the small, rectangular room for a brief moment. A little more than half of the things inside the office weren't actually her's, they had belonged to her older sister Kanae when she had been the chief practitioner at their home, and Shinobu was only her assistant. Many, if not all of the techniques and practices that she employs today for the Corps she had learned from her sister.

Remembering those times when she stood next to Kanae as she taught her out to mix different herbs together to make medicines and other things brought a smile to her face, at least until her worst memory came crawling back from the depths of her inner psyche. The smug look, the empty laugh, the eyes. It all came back to her as she happened to drop her gaze onto the vials of wisteria poison that she had in her office, the very same ones that she hadn't touched in the months since Tanjirō had asked her to leave alone.

She still made it for usage with her stinger blade, since that was her secret weapon in her fights against demons. It was the trump card she used to supplant her lack of physical strength compared to the other Hashira. And in that moment of looking at the poison, and the memories of her sister's death swirling around in her mind, her resolve weakened.

"I...I'm sorry, Tanjirō…"


^ Jade Chamber, Five Days Later ^

Níngguāng was currently embroiled in her work, looking through trade documents and agreements that had been placed on her desk by secretaries when she heard the doors to her abode open downstairs. Not expecting any visitors for that day, she closed her eyes and sighed to herself.

She knew this day would eventually come, and if the information she had received had been accurate, she knew exactly why the perpetrators entering her home were there. Setting down her pen she leaned back into her chair and rested her elbows on the desk as she listened to the intruders draw closer and closer to her. Mixed in with the footsteps was the sound of porcelain hopping on the hardwood floor, clinking in between each one of the light footsteps. Up the stairs they came until Níngguāng was staring right into the eyes of two of the Upper Moons, Hantengu and Gyokko. The pot demon laughed as it hopped towards her, with the cowardly Hantengu hanging back by the staircase with his entire body trembling from head to toe.

Níngguāng was sure it was an act, she hardly thought of herself as someone equivalent to Muzan, but if they proved to be troublesome she felt confident in her abilities to ward them off.

"Hyo! Nice place you got here, too a while to finally find it, but we're here!" Gyooko said with a chortle as he positioned his pot a few meters away from Níngguāng's desk.

"She looks k-kind of scary with those eyes…" murmured Hantengu, his words doing little to change Gyokko's confidence.

"What do you lot want? If you're here to discuss business, get to it. Other than that, leave, or I'll be forced to remove you myself."

"Hyo! Feisty aren't you? If you can call yourself a demon, you should at least know who you're dealing with! Hyo hyo!"

"I do, now get on with it, Gyokko."

Gyokko's mouths actually twitched a little at Níngguāng nailing his name without even flinching, her crimson eyes piercing right through him like the cold gaze of a person of business. She wanted to get straight to the point and not beat around the bush, quick and efficient.

He had to hand it to her, she certainly looked as though she had earned the repudiation her business deals had earned her. Judging by what kind of strength he was sensing from her, she certainly wasn't a slouch either, so even though he was an Upper Moon, he had to tread carefully. Gyokko had already been reprimanded by his master before being allowed to leave on this mission with Hantengu, he didn't want to mess up a second time.

"We know that you hold huge swaths of information about everything and anything inside of Japan. So I'll get right to the point...tell us where the Demon Slayer Corps get their weapons from, and we won't slaughter you. Hyo~!"


"Blow to the head from the right. Neck. Right breast. Left flank. Right thigh. Right shoulder. Incoming!"

Tanjirō's mind raced as he ducked back from one of Yoriichi Reishiki's five swords, his body turning in midair as he struck back at the puppet and chipped away at its defenses. In the few days he had spent squaring off with the mechanical puppet, Tanjirō had come to realize several things.

Firstly, his assumptions about the combat prowess of the doll had been several underwhelming because Kotatsu had revealed to him on the first day the puppet's abilities could be fine tuned and tweaked. By rotating its finger joints in specific ways, the doll could be adjusted to cover the weaknesses of the person who trains with it so that said person could better themselves from sparring with it. In essence, it meant that Muichirō had actually wasted his time.

The second realization that Tanjirō had was that the doll itself was such an impressive feat of mechanical engineering that even for himself, a former Upper Moon Six who had given the likes of Shinobu and Kanao trouble, it was a task just to keep up with it. Yoriichi Reishiki did not hold back, and quickly proved itself as a force of nature in its own right. It actually scared him to think how powerful the puppet's model had been when he was alive, and wondered how they could have died.

Lastly, Tanjirō had undergone a transformation in the way he fought. Rather than use his eyes to look for the line of interval in his opponent, his nose had taken up that duty, and it was through his sense of smell that he could detect what his opponent was going to do before they even did it. As a result, his swordplay, separate from his breathing techniques, had been fined tuned even further than before.

"Go for it Tanjirō, go for it! Give it all you've…" he thought to himself as he went in for the kill, his blade mere inches away from the puppet's neck. At that moment, he hesitated and his eyes widened when the image of Kotetsu crying popped into his head again.

"Cut it down! I don't care if you break it, I can fix it for sure!" exclaimed Kotetsu, his voice cutting through Tanjirō's doubts right to his heart, urging him on to finish what he had started. "Tanjirō-san, you can't be too nice. If you hesitate now...though, honestly, I don't want him to die because he's so nice. I want him to become stronger than everyone else!"

Tanjirō's blade swept through the right side of the puppet's neck, before striking something hard and rigid inside with a loud metallic pang and bouncing back out. He yelped as jitters ran up and down his arms, his sword unable to take the force of the blow and breaking in two.

As the end piece flew off to the side Tanjirō landed on his rear a few feet away from the puppet and he grunted somewhat, his shaking hand dropping his sword hilt in order to recover from whatever he had struck. Kotetsu ran over to his side to make sure he was okay too, until they both heard a cracking noise coming from the puppet and turned their attention to it.

Starting at the base of its necks large, jagged cracks appeared in its polished wooden skin, before the entire head itself burst apart and fell off to the back and front, revealing that inside the interior of the puppet was not only a complicated organization of gears and cranks, but something else entirely.

"Whoa! It's a sword! It has to be at least three hundred years old or more!" exclaimed Tanjirō as he jumped to his feet and got a closer look at the withered fabric of the sword's handle. It certainly looked aged, and he had to wonder how the sword itself had been undamaged up until then, even though its vessel had been under so much punishment from the training it sustained. "A sword that dates back to the Sengoku Era...that's incredible!"

"Tanjirō-san, you can take it. I don't really have a use for it, so you can take it! As a reward!" Kotetsu said, Tanjirō whirling his head around and shaking his head vigorously.

"No, no, no! I can't! That doll took years' worth of sword blows, and it just happened to break when I used it. I shouldn't just take it!"

"Tanjirō-san, you need a new sword anyways right? Go ahead and take it! I own it, so I get the say."

"You can't!"

"Metal forged during the Sengoku Era is of really good quality. Take it."

Unable to win the argument against the firebrand of a youth, Tanjirō gave in and removed the blade from the puppet, then sat down on the ground close by with Kotetsu soon joining him. Both of them wanted to see the sword's condition, but as soon as Tanjirō unsheathed the first inch of its blade they both fell into despair at the sight of rampant rust that plagued the weapon.

Kotetsu apologized to Tanjirō for hyping him up about the ancient weapon, and he assured him that it was fine and it was to be expected, but before they could resolve the issue on their own, heavy footfalls came towards them from the forest. Turning to the sound they noticed a hulking figure approach them, their rippled body soon emerging into the sunlight of their clearing and revealing itself to be none other than Tanjirō's own swordsmith.

Utterly shocked at Haganezuka's sudden appearance, as well as his new toned figure, Tanjirō was even more surprised when in a mystified tone the swordsmith requested that they leave the sword with him and that he would, as he worded it, take care of it. Not knowing what he meant, they entered an argument as they grappled with one another for control of the sword. Haganezuka refused to say anything else but those four words while grabbing at the sword with all his might, and Tanjirō begged of him to say something, before they were thrown off with impressive force once the man ripped the blade away from them.

"Boys, word of note, Haganezuka's weak point is his sides. Go for these parts and he's putty in your hands."

Kanamori then appeared behind Haganezuka, the more even-keeled swordsmith immediately dropping him to the ground after tickling his sides for a few moments. Tanjirō smiled at the appearance of Inosuke's swordsmith and the two shared a greeting with one another, before Kokatsu introduced himself and cleared up the air after Haganezuka's rampage.

"Since Haganezuka-san falls limp when you tickle him, I'll do the explaining. Please forgive him Tanjirō-kun, he was training in the mountains." said Kanamori, which made Tanjirō's eyes widen in realization over his swordsmith's new bulked up form.

"Training? For what?" Tanjirō questioned as they took a seat around the sword.

"When he heard about what happened to you, and thankfully you are back, he got so distressed that his sword couldn't protect you, he went off on his own to work himself to the brink." Kanamori continued, his head turning towards the curled up Haganezuka with a light chuckle. "He went with the hope that when you did come back, he could make a strong enough sword that would protect you. Of course, he won't be honest about it though."

"To think he'd go that far for me...I honestly thought he didn't like me because I kept breaking his swords…"

"On the contrary. Because you keep asking him to make blades, he always has something to work on. I think he's happy for that. Since every other swordsman hates him, and he's lost a lot of clients because he has a hard time dealing with people."

Haganezuka then recovered from his tickle-induced stupor and leaped back onto his feet, his muscles bulging outward as he took a fearsome stance and addressed Tanjirō directly with such a heavy voice it felt as if the air itself around him had solidified.

"I will deal with the rusted blade, Tanjirō-san. Allow me to refine it with my Nichirin polishing skills that have been passed down the Haganezuka line for generations. I promise to not fail you again, not this time."


A/N Hello everyone, it is I, once again! With another chapter! Yeaaa, sorry that there haven't been more uploads, I've been taking the time that I have off from work and from school (which will start up again next week *cries*) for myself and have let myself take a load off from writing.

I've still been thinking and such, of course, its just that two periods of non stop uploads can leave a guy a little drained and in need of R and R, you know? But enough of that! Things are gonna get spicy in the next few chapters, I'm sure! We all know what should be happening next! And we all got to see Muchirō properly now! Glad some of you guys enjoyed the parts with Mitsuri last chapter too, I hope, haha XD. I'm still experimenting with some things in my head about what to do in the future, but I'm close to a decision. I want to differentiate this story from canon, and I feel as though I have done that so far, especially with big things like Tanjirō being a demon and going to the dark side briefly, as well as his relationship with Shinobu, but yea! That's author stuff the readers like you get to see on the page later on!

Until then, thank you so much for reading my story! Leave a favorite and a follow if you haven't already, and please be sure to leave a review too! I miss all of you! :))