Assault of Demon Manifestations
Hello everyone and welcome to the next part of the Swordsmith Village Arc! The fight's getting underway now as Subaru confronts the killer of his family members, or at least part of him. Gyokko's also making a few moves of his own in this chapter which just might turn the village into a slaughterhouse. But before any of that, I'd like to give a quick shout out to groche9655 for one of his suggestions in this chapter (you'll know it when you see it) as well as the input from LoneTaker and Noble Eight. And for those wondering about the shortness of this chapter, it just made sense to me to end it right where it does. Now then, we've got no guest reviews this week it seems, so let's dive on in!
Nighttime: Swordsmith Village
If one viewed the village of the swordsmiths from a distance, it would seem more or less peaceful. But such an illusion would quickly be shattered by the sound of a building's first floor being blasted open by a cackling demon wielding a fan shaped like a maple leaf. "Oh it's been ages since I've faced an opponent using something besides a sword," laughed Karaku as he swung his fan again, blasting another hole in the wall where his slayer opponent had just been standing, "I don't know what you put on those projectiles, but they must be similar to that knife of yours."
"That's for me to know and for you to figure out, the painful way," replied Subaru as he sidestepped another wave of the demon's fan and ran forward, slashing him across the stomach before turning around to strike at his back. His blow was stopped, however, as Karaku caught his hand in midswing. A sudden surge of images flooded the Matagi's mind upon coming into contact with his foe's skin. 'What in the world,' he thought as the picture of a Buddhist hermitage passed through his mind, 'where is that supposed to be, or when, and why am I even seeing it?'
"Oh, now what's this," said Karaku as he used a less strong but still painful blast of wind from his fan to send Subaru into the nearby wall, getting a grunt of pain from the Matagi upon impact, "that presence just now, it felt like, us."
"Don't lump me in with the rest of you blood thirsty bastards," said Azakeru suddenly, "I've long stopped thinking of myself as having any relation to the rest of you."
"That voice," said Karaku, recognition crossing his features as Subaru got to his feet, "Azakeru, little Azakeru is that you?"
"Oh, so you can hear me," remarked the demon girl from within Subaru's thoughts, "good, that'll make it a lot easier for me to tell you how much I hate your guts."
"Now don't be like that little sister," said Karaku as he spun the fan with his fingers nonchalantly, "after all, this is something of a family reunion. Hantengu's been wondering where you got off too, when he's not busy worrying about everything else. How'd you wind up inside of that human?"
"You know damn well how," said Subaru, "it happened the same day you gave me this scar on my eye, after crushing my family's house with most of them in it!"
"Ah, so you are that little Matagi brat from over a decade ago," said Karaku, "I was certain I'd killed you too, or at least as certain as I could be with the sun coming up at the time. Tell me, how's your fath-BAMBAM!" The demon staggered back a step, grasping at his face where both of his eyes had been shot out.
"Kami only knows how he kept it together all these years," said Subaru as he readied some shinobi explosives, "but he passed that strength onto me, and now I'm gonna finish what he started, Breath of the Rifleman Fifth Form: Obsidian Snow!" The Matagi tossed the explosives at the demon, leaping back slightly as he fired his revolver again, hitting one of the orbs and causing a chain reaction which detonated them all. The blast was enough to obscure the room with smoke as the hunter took a moment to reload his weapon. As he was readying to fire again, however, a powerful blast of wind slammed into him, knocking him back painfully along with a good bit of the back wall.
'Ow, that one hurt a bit more than the others,' thought Subaru as he struggled to get back to his feet. "Subaru," said the voice of Tanjiro as he leapt down from the building he'd been in, "Genya just showed up to help so I came to warn you, don't cut off their limbs or head, it makes them multiply!" The Rifleman wanted to say he knew that already or had at least assumed that was the case until he noticed movement from within the dusty ruins of the building he'd just been in. 'I didn't cut off his limbs, but I did blow them off,' he realized before yelling back at his friend.
"Tanjiro get back, there's another one down here no-," Subaru tried to say before a figure flew out of the dust who very much resembled a male harpee with horns on his head.
"Kakaka, how delightful!" Cheered the newcomer as he grabbed onto Tanjiro's ankle with his birdlike foot and took to the sky's with him, "it's been forever since the last time someone figured us out!"
"Tanjiro," said the Matagi as he sheathed his knife and took aim with his revolver, taking his time so as not to hit his friend. He never got the chance to fire, though, as the remainder of the building was blasted open by Karaku with enough force to knock him off his feet.
"Don't think you can just forget about me, boy," said the fan-wielding demon, "especially now that I've gone through the trouble of remembering you, and your apparently still alive father. Tell me, is he really alright with you choosing the same path that got the rest of your family killed?"
"SHUT UP!" Yelled Subaru as he unloaded all six rounds of his revolver into the head and heart of the demon.
"Ow, this really is an irritating sensation," said the manifestation as he pulled one of the rounds out of his wounds, "not only do these bullets sting, I can feel myself getting sluggish."
"That's the point," said Subaru as he drew his knife and advanced forward cautiously.
"Oh, so you still want to fight," said Karaku with the same shit-eating grin on his face as he realized he'd hit a nerve with his earlier comment, "it appears pigheadedness runs in the family. I mean how ungrateful can you be, blatantly ignoring your Father's wishes. Even after he likely warned you about my power as one of the Twelve Kizuki. Surely his pathetic pleas warranted a bit of consideration."
"They did," said Subaru, "but I have to move closer if I want to beat your sorry ass to a pulp!"
"Oh really now," laughed Karaku, "then by all means, come closer!" The demon lashed out with an attack from his fan, directing the air pressure to come downwards this time. Subaru leapt out of the way just in time to avoid the attack which created a maple-leaf shaped crater in the ground before charging forward with his knife in a backhanded grip. Karaku attempted a horizontal attack then, which the Matagi also dodged by leaping before bringing his knife down right towards the demon's head.
Karaku was prepared, however, and caught the attack with his left hand before swinging his fan towards the Matagi. Subaru was thankfully able to react in time and caught the demon's wrist with his left hand as the two struggled for leverage. 'I won't be able to fully overpower him with brute strength alone,' the Hunter quickly realized, 'I'll need to resort to something else.'
"Come on, you've almost got it," taunted the demon detachment, "just a little further and you can plunge that knife right in my head!"
"Soon enough," said Subaru as he put his foot up and rolled back, sending the demon falling forward. He was either too stunned or having to much fun to keep his grip on the Matagi, who rolled back up and pulled out his revolver to reload. But as he was about to fire, Karaku whirled around with a swing of his fan, sending the Matagi into the wall of another building.
"Whoopsie, not quite close enough," said Karaku as he approached the slayer, "but don't fret, we can still have plenty of fu-what in the?" A couple of small orbs were suddenly thrown into the demon's face, exploding on impact and obscuring his vision with a stinging substance.
"Subaru Genjirou," said Izayoi as he tossed a rifle to the hunter, "take him out now!" The Rifleman didn't need to be told twice as he cocked the rifle, a Mauser Selbstlader, and opened fire. The confused Karaku just managed to get the stinging substance out of his eyes before several rifle bullets ripped into him, blasting off his head, right arm and putting several holes into his chest. 'They really do work better with short, controlled burst,' he thought to himself before accepting another magazine from Izayoi and loading it into the rifle.
"Tanjiro, Nezuko, Genya," said the Matagi as he kept his weapon trained on the enemy, "how are they?"
"Still fighting more or less in the same building you left them in," reported Izayoi, "but there's another problem. This is only one of the Upper Moon demons who was reported to be heading this way."
"Then where's the other-shit!" Exclaimed the Hunter as he swung his rifle and fired at a creature that had leapt off one of the rooftops at Izayoi. The rifle bullets succeeded in tearing it to pieces, leaving little more than body parts on the ground. What was strange, however, was what the creature was made of. "What kind of monstrosity is this?"
"A fish monster," explained Izayoi, "one of a number who've been sighted attacking villagers in several places. We don't have an exact count of them, but they're likely coming from the other Kizuki."
"I take it you're already hard at work evacuating everyone," said Subaru as he headed towards the building where Nezuko and the others were, "so now's probably a good time to send out word for reinforcements."
"Already done," affirmed Izayoi, "they should be arriving in just a few minutes."
"Hey, don't think you can just forget about me!" Exclaimed Karaku as he leapt back up, his body now fully healed, "You and I still have a lot fun ahead of us!" Subaru dodged to the side just in time to avoid a pressure blast that cratered the ground yet again in the fashion of a maple leaf. The Matagi fired back with his rifle, scoring a couple of hits before having to dodge once more, feeling the debris from another building smashed by Karaku's attack. 'He's figured out I'm trying to aim for his fan,' realized the Rifleman as the demon spun around to avoid some of the bullets that would've impacted against his arm before attacking again, 'I'll need to be a little more clever.'
"That's right, keep running around," taunted Karaku as he leapt into the air, "it'll make it more fun when I finally kill you!" Subaru didn't answer right away as he bobbed and weaved left and right, just barely managing to avoid each new crater that was blasted into the ground. He then made a sudden turn and headed right for the demon. "Now we're talking, don't forget how you boasted about beating the shit out of m-wah?"
Karaku looked down to see that he was stepping on several small, and familiar, black orbs. "I thought I'd start with blasting the shit out of you!" Exclaimed Subaru as he fired at the explosives on the ground. Karaku, yelling in both excitement and frustration, swung his fan in the Matagi's direction at the same time as one of his bullets hit the explosives.
The demon cried out as the blast engulfed him, though Subaru couldn't exactly celebrate his success as he was also sent flying through the air over several houses before crashing through the roof of a single story one, losing his rifle along the way. 'And it had been such a peaceful week too,' he thought groggily while trying to orient himself.
Before he could get up fully, however, the door was flung open to reveal yet another fish monster, this one sporting human arms and legs as it waddled towards him, razor sharp teeth and claws bared. The Matagi drew his revolver and was about to fire when a shot rang out, but not from his gun. The fish monster whirled around, snarling at a newcomer in the frame of the door before another shot was heard. This time, the bullet hit and shattered a small pot that had been sitting on top of its back, causing the creature to shriek in agony before it fell to the ground and dissolved away. "There you are Subaru," said Anita, the barrel of her Colt vest pocket pistol still smoking as she made her way in warily, "can you stand?"
"I'm not out of commission yet at the very least," replied the slayer as he managed to get to his feet, "but I do need to get back to the others. I've got something of a score to settle."
"Before you do that, here," said Anita, tossing one of the Beretta M1918's to him that she'd had slung over her back, "it'd probably be better if you had more firepower. Remember my little gift?"
"How could I forget," replied Subaru as he started for the door, "but I'm guessing there's a problem if Izayoi couldn't get the cart over here."
"Oh no huge issue," said Anita as the Matagi looked out the door to see even more fish monsters lumbering into the village, several of them half the size of the houses, "there just happen to be a lot of those scaly bastards out there. Though for whatever reason, hitting the pots on their backs seems to kill them."
"One medium-sized target on the back of a lumbering monster," said Subaru as he cocked the Italian SMG, "just another rough day at the range then. Stay close, just like Akari's Inn." Anita nodded as she held her pistol at the ready. The Hunter then moved quickly out the door, firing a short burst at the nearest fish demon. As explained, just destroying the pot was enough to make it thrash about for a moment before dying and dissolving away.
The Rifleman continued down the street, blasting the pot off of any of the fish demons who happened to notice them or cross their path. 'This is almost like training back home,' mused Subaru as he shot the pots off a few more mismatched hybrids, 'except the targets are swinging due to these lumbering stitched together monstrosities and not by ropes up in the trees.' Though there was one other minor difference that presented itself upon Subaru taking out another large fish beast, the fact that he didn't have a spare magazine. "Crap I forgot," said Anita as she fished around in a large bag she'd been lugging around with her.
As she did, though, several smaller fish demons leapt out from the corners and windows of the village houses, their teeth and claws dripping with blood and ready to sink into more human flesh. "Breath of the Rifleman Second Form: Bayonet Dance!" Said the slayer as he flipped the SMG's bayonet out and went to work using his now well-honed maneuver. Their attackers were quickly carved up by the spinning rifle, which had a Nichirin blade thanks to some planning ahead on Izayoi's part, leaving nothing but chopped up bits on the ground.
"And I was really looking forward to having sushi tonight," said Anita as she did her best to steady her breathing and not hyperventilate at yet another near death experience, "but I might just stick to the rice balls for a little while."
"We can have some for breakfast," suggested Subaru as he accepted another magazine from the American girl and loaded it into his SMG, "but we need to survive this first. Now you said the cart is still where we left it?"
"Yeah," said Anita as she finally managed to calm herself, "just around this corner." The Matagi nodded as they continued the rest of the way to said cart with Subaru eliminating any other fish creatures they happened to come across. And after what seemed like a much longer journey than it actually was, the cart came into view.
"Alright," said the Matagi as he slung the SMG on his back before jumping up into the cart and pushing open the coffin lid, "let's make some room in this thing for fresh Kizuki corpses."
About the Same Time: Near the Swordsmith Village
"Hurry, Hurry," cried the Kasugai crow as it flew ahead to lead the way, "everyone in the village is in imminent danger!"
"I know, we're hurrying," said Mitsuri as she ran at full tilt down the hidden trail, the passing trees and plants little more than a blur, "I'm honestly still shocked to learn that the Swordsmith Village was this close to my own district. To think, I could've visited those wonderful springs a bit more often."
"Are you not concerned," said one of two individuals running right behind her.
"About all of the carnage," continued the identical twin to the one who'd just spoken.
"Within the village," finished the original twin. They'd been speaking in haiku ever since the Love Pillar had met up with them along the way. Apparently, the two had a couple of interests in the Swordsmith Village that needed protection.
"Of course I am," said Mitsuri as she glanced back at the two following her, "that's why I'm running so quickly. Though I'm also surprised the two of you are keeping up, what were your names again?"
"I am Mukuro," said the first twin, who was in fact a boy wearing a black shade hat with a cape of crow feathers.
"And my name is Kuroko," replied the other twin, who was a girl wearing a matching outift. "We are the Saiketsu twins," the two said at the same time.
"Nice to meet both of you," Mitsuri said happily before turning her eyes back forward and picking up her pace anymore, "now here we go, time to save a village!"
Destroyed Slayer's Residence
"Good job Nezuko," said Tanjiro as he rolled up and off the floor. His sister had just stopped an attack by the staff of the anger aspect of Hantengu, Sekido, and then set him on fire with her own blood demon art. Genya was currently outside the building, dealing with the spear-wielding sorrow aspect, Aizetsu. Tanjiro had forgotten about his ability to gain powers from eating demon flesh until recently, but it was serving him well now along with the Browning Auto-5 Shotgun he'd recently acquired. 'If Nezuko can keep Sekido occupied, I should be able to take out the joy aspect, Urogi, without too much trouble.'
He turned to the harpe-like demon manifestation, noting he was still recovering his wings and was about to unleash one of his breath forms when a shape suddenly jumped up, its silhouette visible through the hole in the building thanks to the moonlight. "Hot damn, that looks like fun in there, let me join in guys!" exclaimed the now regenerated Karaku as he swung his fan downwards. Neither Tanjiro nor Nezuko had enough time to get up and move out of the way before taking the full brunt of the blow as a maple-leaf style hole was punched through the floor and went down to the bottom of the building.
Tanjiro felt his body shriek in pain as the pressure crushed him and Nezuko flat against the floor before pushing them through it. 'It feels like a boulder just landed on me,' thought Tanjiro as the dust began to settle. He tried his best to form a coherent thought, but the blow to his head and body had left him groggy as he drifted into unconsciousness while still on the floor. "Now that was a nice one," said Urogi as he spread his fully healed wings, "it took the fight right out of 'em."
"Did you kill that little brat with the gun and knife," said Sekido as he glanced at Karaku.
"Oh, the Genjirou boy," said Karaku, "about that. He kind of blew me up and ran off. I thought about chasing him down once my feet finished regenerating, but then I saw how much fun you guys were having and here I am."
"Stupid as always," grumbled Sekido, "let's hurry and finish this then. Because after that, we've got a reunion with our little sister to attend. It still pisses me off that we have to chase him down though."
"I think I can help with that," said a voice from the other side of the room. No sooner did the demons look up than the room was illuminated by the barrel flash of a rather large gun, the sound of its large mechanism working echoing through the night. The three emotional manifestations yelped in surprise as their bodies were peppered with a surprising number of bullets. While this was going on, Nezuko started to regain consciousness due to the sound of falling brass by her head. It took her a moment to register what was going on, but no sooner had she managed that then the shooting and noise suddenly ceased.
"Nezuko," said the Matagi as he stepped into the light and glanced down through the massive hole in the floor, "if you can move, grab Tanjiro and get out of here for a bit. I'll hold them off while you try and wake his ass up."
"You son of a bitch," said Sekido as his body slowly regenerated, "what in the world kind of bullets were those? Our regeneration is slower than normal."
"Wisteria-laced if you really haven't figured it out already," explained Subaru as he leveled his new weapon at the group of demon manifestations, "and this massive beauty here is known as a Bergmann MG15n.a., yet another reminder that the Germans can be some scary people when they want to be."
"Cool," said Karaku, "I was worried you'd done the smart thing, run off and left your friends. But I see our sister bonded with the kind of fool who'd lay his life down for friends and family."
"He's taken way better care of me than any of you pricks ever would've," said Azakeru, "maybe if you assholes actually tried acting like a family should've, we never would've been here in the first place!"
"I guess that's a matter of opinion," said Urogi, "so how about we compare notes on whose been a better family, after killing your current host and absorbing you back into our little group. There's no place like home after all!"
"You won't be taking any other families ever again," said Subaru as he tightened his grip on the LMG, "because I'm gonna shred you bastards over and over again until there's nothing left!"
And so, the battle continues as the Kizuki's assault on the village grows more and more lethal. Will help get there in time? And what are the memories Subaru's started seeing? We'll find out more about that later, in the meantime feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our heroes throw every weapon they've got against the Kizuki's assault. 'Til then.