^ Chapter 36 - Attack on the Swordsmith Village ^


"So that happened yesterday. And I heard that it's gonna take three days and three nights to finish. That's why the polishing will end the day after tomorrow." Tanjirō said while in the middle of chewing on some food, the swordsman talking out loud with Genya, the only other person in the room with him. And even still, the younger brother of the Wind Hashira looked like he did not want to be there at all. "He said his methods are so severe that people have died from them. I'm honestly kinda worried for him. He even told me not to check on him during the whole process, but I still feel like I should..."

"I don't care! Don't talk to me like I'm your friend! Now finish eating and get out of here, dammit!" Genya shouted back at him, the scarred swordsman's eyes wide with irritation.

"But we're friends, right? I thought so at least." replied Tanjirō, perplexed.

"No we're not, dumbass! I don't care if you're the Flame Hashira's new Tsuguko or you were once an Upper Moon, you still broke my goddamn arm! Don't tell me you forgot!"

"You hit a girl, Genya. I had to do what was necessary. Plus you were completely at fault to begin with."

Genya yelled at Tanjirō loudly to not call him by his first name, his tone and the way his already angry-looking eyes turned even more bloodshot connecting him even further to his older brother. Despite his remarks and curses, Tanjirō remained steadfast in his attempt at being friendly with Genya and offered him some of the rice crackers he was munching on, which only infuriated him even further.

Right then during his yelling trade, Tanjirō noticed something. In the back of his mouth, where his molars were located, there was one missing. For whatever reason, seeing him without a tooth in such a particular spot gave him a funny feeling that attracted his curiosity.

"Did you get into a fight Genya? Why is one of your teeth missing?" Tanjirō asked inquisitively, the hot-headed slayer immediately clamming up and losing all of his fervor.

"It's fine. It's not something you need to worry about."

In a matter of moments Tanjirō was forced out of Genya's room when the mohawk-haired slayer refused to talk with him any longer, causing him to wonder why the Wind Hashira's brother was just as angry as him all the time. Shrugging soon after he returned to his room and the awaiting Nezuko, the two siblings laying down with one another to go to bed early.

He wanted to wake up in the early morning tomorrow in order to get Kotetsu over there so that he could see Nezuko himself. The thought of the young boy meeting his younger sister brought a smile to his face, before he eventually drifted off to sleep with Nezuko in his arms, the memories of years before as well as the faces of those he cared about accompanying him in his dreams.

On the path leading away from the onsen that he and Genya were staying at, a lone smith was musing to himself about tomorrow while he walked down the steps back towards the village proper.

"I took too long to bathe. I gotta get started on work early tomorrow…" he said before he came to a stop. With the glow of the near midnight moon coming through the leaves, he could see just far enough ahead that resting on the cobblestone steps was a single unclaimed painted pot. "A pot…? That's strange...who'd leave a pot like this here…"

The man reached his hand down towards the darkened opening of the pot, curiously thinking about what he could do with such a finely made piece of craftsmanship, before he was suddenly sucked down head first into the pot at break-neck speed. A wet, squelching noise came from the pot, followed by several loud pops as his neck and shoulders were broken in several places as he was pulled forcibly into the pot. The deeper his body was pulled inside, the louder the sickening pops became as his blood spilled out over the rim of the pot, staining his robes before and the cobblestone around it, before he fully disappeared inside.

Nothing happened after a few moments of silence, before the pot wobbled and then fell onto its side in order for a cascading torrent of blood and liquified remains to pour out of the pot like a waterfall. The broken, disfigured body of the man, with his limbs bent and twisted in such a way it would make the strongest of stomachs turn, lay on the ground in the pool, his mask staring upward with one of its eyes cracked.

"Ewww...ugh, nasty. The flesh of these hillbilly swordsmiths just isn't edible. No matter though!" Gyokko exclaimed as he appeared from within the pot, his pasty white, ghost-like body righting the pot back onto its base as his two mouth eyes licked and cleaned themselves of the blood dripping from them. "If we destroy this place, the Demon Slayers will be severely weakened, for sure! Hyo!"

"Hurry, h-hurry...we have to hurry…"

Gyokko turned his head and looked up to one of the nearby trees, spotting the cowardly and shivering Hantengu crouching on one of the branches with his fangs bared nervously. Seeing the demon act like that again made him wonder how in the world he managed to claim a spot among the Upper Moons, but he pushed it aside because they were both there to enact their master's will.

"Yeah, yeah, I know! But that doesn't mean we can't have our own fun! That lady did tell us where this place was after all, thanks to my efforts bringing us straight to her! And we left her a nice parting gift too, hyo!"

"R-Regardless, we have to hurry...if we get him angry, bad things will happen again! We have to hurry...hurry and kill them all...kill all those who defy him…!"


"You know you're always free to move in with me, right? My home is plenty big enough for everyone!" Mitsuri said as she happily cleaned up the dishes that her family had used for their late dinner. Her father had already excused himself and her five siblings so as to lay them down for the night, leaving the Hashira with just her mother. "I know this is our home and everything, but I miss you guys so much that I can hardly stand being away from you! I spend more time here than there!"

"We hear you, Mitsuri, trust me, your father and I do! And our answer remains the same, we're thinking about it. Something like that probably won't happen until the boys are old enough." Mitsuri's mother replied with a smile, the woman practically an older, more mature version of her daughter with more green in her hair than pink.

"But come oooooon! It would be so fun! You could meet with Rengoku-san's family and the others too!"

"Mitsuri, dear, there's something far more pressing that I'd like to talk with you about first over that…"

Mitsuri's carefree smile slowly faded from the change in tone of her mother, with her head slowly turning around so that she could look her in the eyes. The only time she ever heard that kind of tone from her mother was when she was either disciplining one of her younger siblings when they made a mess, or that something heavy was weighing on her mind.

And judging by the way she had said what she had said to her, whatever heavy subject that she was keeping from her was particularly large in size. She finished cleaning and dried her hands before going to her mother's side, the older woman than holding her hand gently and walking her through their family home to the back garden.

The water of their little outdoor pond twinkled with the light of the crescent moon above as they walked by it, Mitsuri's mother leading her daughter to a stone table and some chairs set up close by for them to sit at. Taking her seat, Mitsuri kept her gaze leveled on her mother as sat across from her and leaned her elbows on the table, her rather large breasts that Mitsuri inherited from her resting between them on the stone.

"So...what's bothering you, Mom? If it's something that I can help with, I'd gladly see what I could do!" asked Mitsuri with a smile, attempting to lighten up the heavy mood she could sense in the air between them.

Mitsuri's mother smiled softly back at her, appreciating her gesture, before reaching across the stone table in order to hold onto her daughter's hands. Looking into her eyes she wanted her to know, without her even saying anything at first, that whatever came next had to be taken seriously. So much so that Mitsuri could feel as though she couldn't let her usual optimistic personality get in the way of it.

Out of respect for her mother and what she had to say, she kept herself silent and nodded her head once, keeping her hands in her mother's while maintaining direct eye contact with her. Recognizing her daughter's awareness of the situation, Mitsuri's mother smiled warmly at her and gave a nod back.

"Mitsuri, my wonderful daughter...there's something that you need to know about yourself. Something that your father and I have not been entirely truthful to you about…" her mother started off, dropping her gaze somewhat with a tinge of regret in her voice.

"What do you mean, Mom? Does it have to do with my strength compared to my siblings?" Mitsuri asked.

"You're just as perceptive as your father...yes, it is. What you know from us is that your body is very, very special...part of that is what's allowed you to become the wonderful person you are today. You also know that your appetite is rather large, far outmatching all of your siblings and your parents combined."

Mitsuri nodded her head in agreement, her mother closing her eyes and sighing a little while mumbling a soft apology under her breath that was directed towards who Mitsuri believed to be her. Her mother squeezed her hands and looked her in the eyes yet again, tear droplets forming in the corner of her eye sockets.

"Mom? What is it? Why're you crying?" Mitsuri asked as her mother's emotions made her start to worry.

"Mitsuri, there's more to you than you had ever known, and we're so sorry for hiding this from you...but now that you're almost twenty years old...it's time you knew the truth…"

With tears now falling gently down her cheeks, her mother squeezed Mitsuri's hands a little tighter with nervousness and regret practically oozing from her body. Her father happened to come outside at that exact moment, and with a similar expression on his face, he and Mitsuri exchanged a glance that lasted only a few seconds because something that changed with her mother instantly drew her attention back.

Concern immediately morphed into shock, and in a literal blink of an eye, her entire familial world came crashing down around her, shaking her to her very core.


Tanjirō snored rather loudly in his sleep with his mouth wide open, his sister Nezuko curled up against the right side of his body. A figure entered his room without making so much as a sound and crouched down next to where he slept, looking at him with a blank expression before reaching out to pinch his nose and close off his nostrils.

The younger swordsman made a guttural, snorting sound when his body recognized one of his airways had been negated, before jolting awake and discovering the figure's identity was none other than Muichirō.

"Do you know the swordsmith Kanamori?" questioned the Hashira without so much as batting an eyelash.

"W-Whoa, Tokito-kun! Why'd you pinch my nose? I would've noticed if you had malice or something, but still!" Tanjirō asked in return, with Muichirō resting back on his legs and holding his hands in his lap.

"I wouldn't just pinch you if I had bad intentions."

"R-Right, ehehe...anyways, I do know him, but why? I think he's with Haganezuka-san."

"He's my new swordsmith. Where's Haganezuka?"

Tanjirō crossed his legs over to sit up properly and he put his hands on his ankles, smiling at Muichirō as he offered to go with the Hashira to find them. Muichirō of course was puzzled by Tanjirō's proposition, asking him what purpose his concern had, and if there was anything else that he had to do now that he was awake.

In his typical nice-guy fashion, Tanjirō responded to the Hashira's question with a saying that he held very close to his heart, taught to him many years ago by his own family.

"Helping other people also ends up being beneficial for you at the end of the day. And I wanted to go check up on them too, so nice timing!" Tanjirō stated, his eyes closing and his lips curling up into one of his warmest smiles yet.

"W...Wha?" asked Muichirō, his usually blank eyes widening as a little bit of life came back into them. "What did you say just now?"

"Huh? Oh, I said nice timing-ow!"

Tanjirō jerked back a little when Nezuko woke up from her slumber, her head unintentionally smacking into his jaw and cutting him off mid-sentence. He still laughed at her energetic awakening, the small girl pumping her arms up and down a little, while Muichirō looked at them both in silence, the general emptiness in his eyes returning now that the moment had passed.

Gazing at Nezuko didn't give him any inclination as to who she was, even though he could sense she was a demon like Tanjirō was, so he lifted a finger and pointed at her while saying aloud what a unique creature she was. Figuring he just didn't remember for some odd reason, even though the Hashira had encountered her on several occasions before. It could also be something that happened while he was gone, but before he could investigate or answer Muichirō, the two of them both felt a presence just outside the room that was steadily approaching them.

"Is someone here? Maybe a caretaker?" asked Tanjirō while his little sister toyed around with herself, resting her head on his lap while waving her arms around a little.

"Looks like it. They could have heard us talking." Muichirō replied, their eyes resting on the outside entrance to the room.

The door slid open from the other side and to their shock, the wrinkly, unkempt hands of a person they had never seen before emerged first, followed by the hunched over, shriveled up body. His ears were large and pointed, two curved horns were coming out from the sides of his oversized, bulbous head, and his fingernails were long and yellow, as if they hadn't been trimmed in a very long time.

In that split second of time it took their eyes to rest on the man, they immediately knew exactly who it was. Outside the door they wouldn't have recognized a difference between him and just another normal person, and it shocked them to think there was a creature capable of such deception.

They couldn't see the number of its eyes because they were inside out, but they realized without a shadow of a doubt that this was an Upper Moon. A moment passed by, not even lasting the blink of an eye, and the duo assumed battle stances. Muichirō was just a bit quicker than Tanjirō in drawing his blade, since the weapon had been right at his side, and with an emotionless expression his grip tightened around his sword handle.

"Kasumi no kokyū, Shi no kata: Iryūgiri." uttered Muichirō as his blade flashed when he drew it to perform a quick, faster than light slash that created a haze of mist around his body and arms.

Hantengu, the Upper Moon who he had attacked, moved even faster than his blade and leaped to the ceiling while yelping in fright, avoiding the Hashira's decapitating strike. Tanjirō didn't leave him any room to do anything but squeal at the cut across his ulgy face as he sprung from the floor, blade in hand.

His heightened senses were screaming at him to kill the Upper Moon, the smell of blood and miasma surrounding the diminutive demon was so overwhelming that it seemed as though the room was a solid red. Tanjirō's blade itself turned red as flames sparked to life around the metal, its battle damage doing nothing to deter him from attacking Hantengu.

"Hinokami Kagura: Yōkatotsu!" Tanjirō bellowed as he slammed into his room's ceiling, shaking the foundation and scorching the wood around his flame-embroiled sword.

Just like with Muichirō's attack, however, Hantengu had successfully avoided practically any sort of damage, with the edges of his clothes showing burn marks. The Upper Moon, to their confusion, only yelped and refused to attack them as he jumped down from his prior position to be behind Muichirō.

Nezuko was the third to lunge at the demon, her protective instincts coming out full force as her usually docile personality was replaced by anger and bloodlust in the defense of her allies. Her body grew back to its original proportions, if even a little more than that, with her eyes and the skin around her left eye socket developing a fractured appearance as she let out a muffled snarl. With a fierce kick to the gut, she sent Hantengu rocketing across the room into one of the opposite walls, his body fracturing the wood and creating a plume of dust.

"Whoa, that's new...did being in the presence of an Upper Moon trigger something in Nezuko?" thought Tanjirō when he saw the visible changes to his sister, who's breathing became more ragged as vine-like markings started to appear on her thighs. Whatever the reason, he felt a fierce, more animalistic emotion come from his sister, and his gut told him that he couldn't allow it to grow. "Nezuko, whatever is happening, don't let it take control! Tokito-kun and I can handle this!"

During this exchange in which Nezuko looked up to her brother, her innocent persona taking control again, the aloof Muichirō didn't hesitate to strike the recovering Hantegnu and slice his head clean off.

"E-Eek! I got cut uuuup!" he squealed as his bleeding head bounced away, while his body slumped over.

"He did it! He got his head! We-" Tanjirō thought at first before he felt a lump develop in his throat. The back of his head got an itch while watching Hantegu's rolling head, and for a split second a brief flash of what he assumed to be memories from his time as an Upper Moon. He saw a duo of demons, a woman and a man with the same eyes he had, the latter of which he watched himself pull out from the chest of the former. "Tokito-kun, don't lose focus! Stay alert!"

Warned by Tanjirō, Muichirō tensed up and steadied himself while watching Hantengu's head. Suddenly the bloody stump of a severed neck bubbled and hissed as muscle tissue and bone started growing rapidly from thin air. The head itself morphed and lost its wrinkles and ugly appearance, gaining a more youthful appearance complete with a full head of long black hair. As the rest of the body finished forming, a set of new clothes materialized as well, the newly grown clone planting his hands down on the floor and flipping back with the momentum he had while as a head.

At the same time Hantengu's headless body stood up straight and completely changed as well, the two distinct figures not reacting to Tanjirō pulling his sword out of the ceiling and rushing it down from behind. Muichirō, sensing Tanjirō's intention, gripped his sword and locked his eyes on the neck of the other individual, the two slayers aiming for a double decapitation of their enemy.

Muichirō's eyes widened when the demon in front of him produced a leaf-like fan with red tips straight from his hand itself, right from the flesh, and waved it downward once practically right in front of him. A single gasp escaped his lips before a powerful gust of wind spontaneously erupted from the fan and not only blasted him, but fifty percent of the room and building, away at blistering speeds. If not for Nezuko and Tanjirō's quick thinking to grab onto the jagged wall as the wind blew past them, they would have ended up like Muichirō, soaring off into the distance up and through the trees.

"Tokito-kun!" shouted Tanjirō as he looked back over his shoulder just as the Hashira's body vanished beyond the leaves. "Shit, he separated us! At least I still have Nezuko with me, the only issue with that though…"

He looked at his sister right next to him, seeing that more devilish form start to come back again after Muichirō's forced departure. A small, jagged horn had begun to grow out of her forehead and the cracked markings were also coming back around her left eye, matching the appearance of her eyes.

It greatly worried him to see his sister look this way, because it reminded him of when she had first transformed into her demon form a couple years prior. The animalistic attitude she portrayed, he didn't want to see that again. His only saving grace was that with his incredible sense of smell he was still capable of detecting the protective scent of his sister coming from her body.

"Stay yourself Nezuko, please, I don't want to have to rescue you from yourself now...not after what you had to go through to save me…" he thought once the wind died down and they were able to pull themselves back into what remained of his room.

The two Hantengus were now standing shoulder to shoulder, the one with the fan grinning a little while the second one with a perpetual scowl created a Khakkhara staff from his own flesh. The first with the fan laughed to himself while squatting down, fan in hand, gaze resting on their two opponents.

"Khehe, that was fun. Just took that little bean and tossed him out of here. Right, Sekido?" he asked, the angry demon snarling while looking down at him.

"There's nothing fun about this. I just feel pissed off at everything. Same goes for being stuck with you, Karaku." he replied, Karaku snickering to himself.

"Oookay then, good thing we're apart now."

Tanjirō tightened his grip around his sword while watching the two demons converse with one another, seeing that their eyes reaffirmed his suspicion on who they were. Like his eyes, tattooed into their pupils were their ranking within the Twelve Kizuki, the Upper Moon 4. That was two spots higher than his own spot, which would put the one, now two, demons firmly at the top of strongest demons he's known to have encountered outside of Muzan himself.

That itch in the back of his mind returned again, showing the same images of the two demons he didn't remember meeting before, the former Upper Moon Six demons he presumed, and he blinked once to send them away. Another image then decided to show itself in his brain, a moment in time that he couldn't make heads or tails of. These demons who had split apart from the original felt familiar to him, he just couldn't place it.

After another moment of silence passed between the two opposing sides, the slightest indication of Tanjirō tightening his grip caused Sekido to lift his staff and slam the tip back down onto the floor. With a crackle of thunder above a huge bolt of lightning came down from the heavens and struck the base of the staff, causing a wave of electricity to spread out and towards Tanjirō.

"Kekkijutsu - Tetsuchi Yoroi - Gōkei!" Tanjirō bellowed, his blood covering his skin from head to toe before the lightning hit him a split second later. Even with the protection it provided him, the sheer voltage of the lightning was still enough to paralyze him and send jitters running up and down his spine. "W-What the hell…! This lightning...it's strong! Not even my armor…!"

As Tanjirō was left at the mercy of the demon's lightning, a figure emerged from the shadows on the roof, looking down at them with an emotionless expression as they aimed what looked like a firearm at the back of Sekido's head.

Looking through the blinding light consuming him, Tanjirō squinted his eyes and made out the black mohawk the figure had and gasped. Genya didn't flinch as he fired the sawed off shotgun, the loud bang it made making Tanjirō jump and alerting both Sekido and Karaku to his presence. The buckshot pellets that he fired though reached them faster than they could react and with a flurry of blood, Sekido's head got taken clear off while the ricocheting bullets flayed Karaku's spine and neck.

"Whoa! He took both of them down in one shot! And it smells like a Nichirin Blade...is that ammunition made from one!?" Tanjirō thought in shock as he hunched over, his body hissing with steam from the lightning attack after it subsided.

"Missed one. I gotta take him out!" Genya told himself as he quickly holstered the weapon and reached for his sword.

"Whooa, dude, this is fun! Never felt that before!" exclaimed Karaku, looking at Genya with his head hanging from his disfigured neck and spine by a stretch of skin.
Genya landed as light as a feather on the floor between the two demons, sword fully drawn, gaze locked on what remained of Karaku's neck. Right then Tanjirō noticed a change in the scent coming from the two demons and he lowered the blood armor around his head, revealing his face for Genya to hear.

"Genya, no! No matter how strong your weapons are," he started with a shout, before Genya beat him to the punch and finished decapitating Karaku with his sword. The demon's head flew free and blood droplets were splattered all over the floor, staining the once spotless tatami mats. "You can't kill them like that! If you slice them up, they'll just split apart into more copies and regenerate! They'll get even stronger! They wanted you to cut them up on purpose!"

Genya's heart skipped a beat as, true to Tanjirō's words, the severed heads of the two demons immediately began to regenerate bodies, shifting their appearances to go along with them. The heads of Sekido and Karaku also began to regenerate from their necks, quickly leading to two demons turning into four.

"These demons won't care if you cut their heads off, that means their weak point isn't their necks!" Tanjirō thought as he covered his head again and growled to himself, clenching his free hand into a fist. Genya was surrounded by the four demons and he had to act fast if he was going to prevent them from tearing him apart. "Split into four, that's definitely some fast regeneration! Is it even that?! Nevermind, I gotta find a weak point! It's gotta be there somewhere, gotta find it, gotta focus!"

He took two hard steps towards Genya where in the blink of an eye, just barely faster than what his enhanced vision and senses could detect, a blur of feathers appeared in front of him before he was completely lifted up off the ground by his ankle.

"Mmmnghhhmm!" cried out Nezuko as her brother was taken away from her by one of the new demons, a man with similar hair and facial features to the original two, except with the addition of harpy-like attributes on both his hands and legs, which ended in razor sharp talons. "Uuuuu!"

"Kakaka, how delightful! Somebody finally figured us out for the first time in forever!" exclaimed the harpy demon as he soared higher and higher with Tanjirō in his grasp. "To think it'd be another demon though! That's just weird!"

"Gyah! Nezuko, you have to help Genya! You have to-!"
Before his body was wrenched to the left by the harpy demon changing directions, he watched as the fourth new demon, one with a spear that was similar to Sekido's in creation, impaled Genya upon its blade and lifted him several feet off the ground with it.

Nezuko could only watch in terror as her brother yelled at her to help Genya, before they disappeared above the thick tree tops, leaving her alone with Sekido, Karaku and the unknown fourth spear demon.

"Let...go of me!" snarled Tanjirō, his horns beginning to sprout as he swiped at the harpy demon's leg that was holding him. His sword only struck air when it switched legs on him, before grinning at him with his fangs bared.

"Do you really think you have time to pay attention to others? I may not be able to kill you, but I can sure as hell make you hurt!"

With a loud, ear-piercing screech, the harpy demon opened its mouth wide and unleashed a sonic scream that sent powerful shock waves against Tanjirō's body at point blank range. He felt his eardrums burst and blood pour out from his nostrils, even behind his armor, but he grit his teeth and maintained focus through the pain just long enough to attack again with his sword and sever the demon's leg off from the knee down.

The demon laughed at the superficial wound that he merely healed while watching his opponent's body careen down towards the trees and hit the first few branches at max speed. His Iron Blood Armor thankfully kept him totally protected from any sort of damage he could've sustained, and his healing factor fixed up his ears and any internal damage he sustained from the sonic scream.

Landing skillfully on his feet after his fall through the trees, he had no moment of respite when the disembodied leg he had taken with him from the harpy demon grew his head and opened its mouth again to deliver another sonic scream.


Muichirō darted and leaped through the gaps in the trees of the forest while on his way back towards the village, his body scuffed up and bloody from a few cuts he had sustained after his fall from above. Karaku's fan attack had launched him away clear from the village and out into the dense region of the forest it was constructed in, forcing him to spend no time on recovery because he had to get back as soon as possible.

"He really threw me out far...I wonder if that guy is still alive. He is a demon, after all, so probably." Muichirō thought as he ducked below a low hanging branch, the village coming ever closer. During his sprint he noticed the boy Kotetsu on his right and watched him run from a giant, misshapen fish demon currently chasing him.

"A demon and a kid. That kid...he isn't skilled in his craft because he's inexperienced. Saving him is a low priority." he thought while keeping his gaze on Kotetsu. The boy had a sword with him and was making some kind of feeble attempt to defend himself from the fish demon, but even that didn't stop it from continuing it's advance. "Judging from its presence, this isn't the real demon. It must be one of its summons."

"Gyooogh! Ghyoogh!" uttered the fish demon in a garbled voice, foamy water pouring out of its mouth as it lunged at Kotetsu and snatched him by the waist with one of its large hands.

"Ahh! No, no, no!"

"I have no reason to stop here. If the whole village is under attack, I need to prioritize saving the chief. I have to rescue those with the most skill."

"Helping people also ends up being beneficial for you at the end of the day."

Muichirō's eyes widened when Tanjirō's words from earlier entered his mind once again, bringing back some of that life back into them. Turning on a dime, his heart compelled him to dart towards Kotetsu and free the boy before he was injured by the demon. With one swift slash he severed the arm of the fish demon which was holding the boy and took a defensive stance in front of him, shocking Kotetsu.

"You're getting in the way. So can you just get out of here?" Muichirō said in a still somewhat cold tone to Kotetsu.

Taking his advice Kotetsu quickly got out of the way of the Hashira as he engaged the fish demon, slicing off the head of the cumbersome creature in a matter of moments. Rather than disintegrate and die however, the head crumbled and regrew from its neck, telling Muichirō that its neck wasn't it's weakness.

Quickly noticing a floral pot that was pretty firmly stuck to its back, almost like a shell, he took the next best guess and shattered it to pieces with his sword. A blood-curdling screech came out from the monster as it perished before his eyes, turning to ash in a matter of seconds.

"So it derived its power from that pot...it must've been created through a demon's Blood Demon Art." Muichirō deduced, before he felt Kotetsu latch onto him with tears coming from his eyes.

"Waaaaahh! Thank youuuu! I thought I was gonna die, but you saved me! I was so scared!" he cried, the Hashira prying him off his body and setting him down on his feet with a blank expression. "I'm so sorry for calling you a kelphead! I take it all baaaack!"

"You...called me a kelphead?"

"I'm sorry! I just hated you a lot!"

"Now's not the time for this. I'm going now, so just do whatever you want."

As Muichirō sheathed his blade and started walking away to continue his mad dash for the village, Kotetsu called out to him with two names that the Hashira was quite familiar with and made him stop in his tracks.

"Wait! Kanamori-san's under attack too! Haganezuka-san's been working nonstop on this new blade for Tanjirō-san...if we delay for even a second, we may be too late! Please..!"

"No, I-"

For the third time that night, Muichirō experienced something extraordinary he couldn't explain. In his mind appeared the faint, mist-covered image of Ubuyashiki from a time he could only barely remember.

From the vantage point he had, Muichirō deduced that he must have been laying down on his back in some kind of house, and sitting next to him was the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps himself, along with his wife. The Hashira's eyes widened again and he held the side of his head in astonishment as the hazy memory replayed itself.

"You may be confused right now, but just focus on survival. As long as you're alive, you can still do something." spoke Ubuyashiki, his voice as smooth and reassuring in the memory as it was in real life. "Your memories will definitely come back. Don't worry. Don't miss your chances. Things which may initially seem trivial might end up clearing the mist inside your head."

In barely any time at all, Muichirō had grabbed Kotetsu and hoisted him up onto his shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes. Then against the boy's wishes of even slowing down a bit the Hashira began sprinting towards the village in order to search for Kanamori and Haganezuka, wherever they may be.

"Is this right? I can't protect the whole village if I do this…no, I can. I was acknowledged by Oyakata-sama. I am the Mist Hashira of the Demon Slayers!"


Like a hot knife through butter Tanjirō cut through the clone of the harpy demon that was latched onto his shin, severing it in two and cutting it off before it could emit one of its sonic screams. Like its predecessors though, the two halves morphed into even smaller, more disfigured versions of the original that both opened their mouths and emitted a pair of sonic screams that struck Tanjirō at the same time.

Unlike the first from the original body, however, these two only stopped Tanjirō for a fraction of a second and hardly affected him, which made his lips curl upward into a confident grin. They had unintentionally revealed a weakness of their battle tactic, and he was going to jump all over it.

"I see now...his attack power has dropped! It seems they don't get more powerful the more they split up. I was only able to catch a glance but I saw the four primal emotions on their tongues." Tanjirō thought as he gripped his sword tightly, his hair parting some when his horns started to grow in response to the fire that was burning in his chest. He was growing more in tune with his demon half, to the point he was perfectly comfortable with loosening the restraints. He wasn't afraid any more of losing control, not after knowing he'd have friends to bring him back. "That means they're at their strongest when split into four. Which means if we split them up more...they'll get even weaker."

Without even flinching, Tanjirō impaled the two smaller clones with his sword and removed his blade, swiping the blood off to the right just in time to smell the harpy demon's presence appear right behind him. He whirled around and readied himself against the demon's sonic scream, tanking it far better than earlier thanks to his strengthened resolve, and the fact that his slow-burning demon transformation was making him stronger by the second.

"Wait a minute...those eyes! Well hell, it's that guy who killed the older Upper Moon Six! So they did rescue you, huh?" said the demon with a sneer, causing Tanjirō to narrow his eyes somewhat and stare him down.

"That's not me any more. There's no way you're ever going to make me go back to that."

Clicking his teeth the harpy demon attacked Tanjirō with a lightning-fast swipe at his chest with his talons, but with the loud scraping of metal his talons failed to make it past his armor.

Shocked at his failure to injure him, Tanjirō took the initiative and slashed at the harpy demon's head, cleaving clean through the middle just across his cheeks from one end of his mouth to the other. The demon's expression was frozen in disbelief as he watched Tanjirō draw his blade back and prepare the finishing blow, a whirlwind of flames erupting from the black metal to ensure his demise.

Things weren't going to be that easy when dealing with an Upper Moon, however. As soon as Tanjirō began his downward stroke, the harpy demon swerved clean out of the way and blew past him, completely avoiding danger and soaring up into the sky to go at him from a different angle.

"Dammit, he got faster! The building everyone's in is right there, but I can't just leave this guy alone!" thought Tanjirō with a snarl as he whirled around to keep his yes on his opponent. By now his demon horns had fully emerged and his hair had taken on that more savage appearance, but he still felt the same as he always had, just stronger. The flame in his heart was still burning, and that meant he couldn't give up. "Don't panic Tanjirō, stay calm! This is all you can do right now, so see it through! Nezuko, Genya, don't die! I'll be there as soon as I can!"


While Tanjirō was busy engaging the third harpy demon that had split off from Sekido, Nezuko was neck deep in an engagement with Karaku, her very own demonic transformation enhancing even further the more she grappled with him. The horn coming out of her head had gotten bigger and the vine-like markings had become more prominent on her more mature-looking body, with her strength increasing in conjunction with these changes.

Despite these changes, her opponent was enjoying himself while fighting her tooth, claw and nail for every advantage in their duel. She wasn't going to let him use his fan, and he wasn't letting her use her razor-sharp nails on him to dive him up.

"Kakaka! Keep it up, girl! Just a little more! You're almost there!" cackled Kakaru while letting his tongue hang out in a teasing fashion, the action only enraging Nezuko even further. She let this frustration show by her growing and gripping his right wrist even harder, enough for her nails to dig into his flesh. "Kakaka! Awww, what's wrong? You upest?"

"Will you just tear her apart already? You're pissing me off here." remarked Sekido with a growl, his indifference for his sibling clone showing.

"Bah, hands off! This girl's mine! You and Aizetsu can just fuck right off!"

"I'll finish her off."

Aizetsu, the clone with the spear currently embedded in Genya's gut, turned to walk towards them with a sorrowful expression on his face, before he found himself unable to withdraw his weapon. Puzzled, he looked back at Genya, only to see the slayer lift his head up with a maddened look on his face, bloodshot eyes and all, as he finished loading his shotgun and pointed the barrels right at him.

"I'm your opponent here bud. Try not to take your eyes off me!" shouted Genya before pulling the trigger and blasting the head clean off Aizetsu's body with another devastating buckshot from the right barrel.

Blood and brain matter was sent flying backward from the hit, and the demon's body seemed to slump a bit at the loss of his head. Seeing this Sekido berated his clone with a scowl, which made the headless Aizetsu twitch back to life and forcibly remove his weapon from Genya's body, causing him to gasp and spit up more blood as the sucking wound was now left to freely bleed.

His head then reformed and with a sorrowful stare the demon insulted the slayer for not dying immediately, he rattled off what he had done to him and what he was expecting to happen any moment now, thanks to removing his weapon. Contrary to what he expected Genya to do, the slayer began to recite the Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra with his hand and blade covering the wound.

"What? The Amida Sutra? That's one devout man right there, one that just won't die." murmured Aizetsu after twirling his spear around to clean it of blood.

"But that means he's still alive, so smash his head already, Aizetsu!"

"I know, I know, don't mouth off at me. I'll feel my sorrow surface."

Spinning his spear skillfully around himself like a master, he brought the three-pronged blade down towards Genya's head in order to finally kill him once and for all, but at the very last second the slayer disappeared into thin air. Surprised, Aizetsu then sensed the man's presence behind him and was unable to prevent him from aiming for his neck with his sword.

Unfortunately for Genya, the other clone easily saw what had occurred and with the tap of his staff against the floor, Sekido summoned another bolt of lightning that struck him full force. Aiming to stop the lightning, he took his firearm and fired a second buckshot from the other barrel, taking off Sekido's right hand cand making the demon snarl angrily at him for his inability to die.

Aizetsu was quick to respond once the lightning ceased by swinging his spear fast enough to create a small gust of wind and landed a blow with the pole right into Genya's rib cage, easily breaking several ribs from the hit. His body went flying into the adjacent room through the doors behind Aizetsu, the loud bang it caused drawing Kakaru's attention to the action.

"Kakaka! Damn, those guys look like they're having a blast! Because of that, I think I'm done with you, sweetheart." Kakaru said while staring Nezuko straight in the eyes, catching her off guard briefly before he lifted her up and simultaneously impaled her with a fierce kick right through her gut.

A fountain of blood shot out from her spine and a scream echoed out from behind her mouth piece, the resulting aftershocks of the blow making her body twitch and spasm in pain. It brought Kakaru great enjoyment to see her like that, and he even looked at Sekido with a wide grin and laughed.

"Sekido! After I wring her arms and legs off, stab her with the spear. Then pound her with lightning until she can't move."

"That was my plan from the beginning, you buffoon."

Sneering, Kakaru brought his baze back to Nezuko and started to tear off her right arm from the elbow down in conjunction with his and Sekido's plan. Suddenly Nezuko stretched her leg and showed off her flexibility by smashing her heel right into his jaw, olbitering his head with such force that another larger, more grandiose blood spready was shot upward like a firehose from the demon's neck.

Nezuko, ignoring her own pain, then wrenched what was left of her arm from his grasp and regenerated that wound, and then with her Blood Demon Art ignited his body with the scarlet flames produced by her blood. Screeching like a dying animal the surprised Kakaru could only watch as Nezuko then ripped his leg, the very same one that was stuck in her abdomen, clean off from the thigh and sent him tumbling backward on only one foot. To add the cherry on top, she took his fan away as well by tearing off the arm that was holding it and batted him away with the gust of wind it produced like a piece of garbage.

Not having any more of this mockery of his clones, Sekido took charge by stabbing his staff through Nezuko's neck before she could use the fan on him and zapped her with one of his strongest lightning bolts yet.

"That fucking moron should've torn you limb from limb at the start!" roared Sekido over Nezuko's muffled screams.

"What the hell are you...how are you even still alive?" asked Aizetsu of Genya, who was still reciting his prayer while methodically reloading his shot gun with two brand new ammunition cartridges.

"Khehehe...do you wanna know? My name is Shinazugawa Genya. You better remember that." murmured Genya as he painfully stood up, holding his Nichirin blade in one hand, and his firearm in the other. "Because that's the name of the guy who'll kill you right here, right now, bastard!"


Ever since her talk with her parents had ended, Mitsuri had shut herself in her old room not as some kind of message to them that she hated them, but as a way to be alone with her thoughts. She had so many things to process that she needed complete and utter silence just to even have a chance to do that.

There had been some tears, mostly from her mother, but she didn't blame her. What she had revealed to Mitsuri had been something so personal that if she had been in her shoes, she would have felt the same way.

"To think...that after all this time…I…" Mitsuri thought was looking down at her hands, opening and closing them slowly, before suddenly she was roused from her thoats by a loud cawwing.

"Attention, Attention! Caww! The Swordsmith Village is under attack!" screeched a crow as it landed on her window sill, flapping its wings erratically to put urgency behind its words. "Attention! The Swordsmith Village is under attack by Demons!"

"Wha-?! Now?!" stammered Mitsuri as she flew off her bed, quickly changing into her uniform and strapping on her sword to her belt. The ruckus she caused along with the crow brought her mother and father running to her room just in time to see her about to leap from her window.

Sensing them she turned back in order to look them in the eyes, seeing the worry in their gaze, before she gave them a warm smile and nodded her head. Without saying a word after that she then vanished out the window, joining the crow as it soared up into the sky to take her to the Swordsmith Village.

"If what I was told really is true, then...there's nothing I can do but accept it! I'll figure things out after all this! Tanjirō-kun, if you're still there, I'm coming!"


A/N IM ALIVE, SEE?! D: Im so sorry for being gone again! School and baseball! But I wanted to get this chapter out and I had some time, so here it is! The Swordsmith Village arc is getting into full swing, and I hope you guys can see all the new spins im putting onto this, especially with what happened outside the village itself! Not much else to say except I hope everyone is doing okay, and that I want you to know i love all you guys still! Really! I appreciate all ya'll guys!
I dont know when the next chapter will be out, I'll have to find the time to write it, but it will definitely come out! I guarantee it, just like how Big Bill Hell's Cars will guarantee they'll fuck your wife! XD
Anyways! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave and fav and follow, plus a review telling me what you think! Thank you so much guys!

Translation(s):

Kasumi no kokyū, Shi no kata: Iryūgiri

- Mist Breathing, Fourth Form: Advection Slash

Hinokami Kagura: Yōkatotsu

- Dance of the Fire God: Sunflower Thrust

Kekkijutsu - Tetsuchi Yoroi - Gōkei

- Blood Demon Art: Iron Blood Armor - Total