^ Chapter 38 - The Mist Clears ^
Tanjirō and Genya were frozen in place, stuck to the ground by invisible roots that refused to let them go even for a second. An apparent sixth body had come out from hiding to protect the miniature Hantengu from harm, and compared to the previous emotions, this one was exhibiting such powerful blood lust that Tanjirō, even as a demon, could hardly stomach it.
The younger demon's intense emotions of anger and rage were so strong in fact, that he could only attribute it to one, singular sensation: hatred. As the demon lowered his arms and turned towards Tanjirō, that notion was made even more evident by the kanji on the demon's drums reading that precise emotion.
"You have got to be kidding me! Why's there a sixth body?!" thought Tanjirō as he lowered himself down, entering a more defensive stance over his fallen sister. She was in front of his shins, curled up slightly with a tired expression on her face because of all the energy she's exerted. Thinking of how he could protect her and deal with their new enemy at the same time, his nose picked up a change in the air, followed by his senses confirming what it found out. "Wait a minute...no, that's not a sixth body. I'm not sensing the other four demons anymore."
Off to the side, out of the hatred demon's peripherals, Genya was shuddering slightly to himself as he glared at its back. He hadn't quite figured out what had happened in those few seconds of time between Tanjirō attacking Hantengu and the new demon's appearance, because he was still hyped up on adrenaline. But as he got his breathing and heart rate back under control, and started thinking rationally, the puzzle pieces started falling into place.
The Hatred Demon wasn't some new body that had been created by Hantengu to protect him, it had been one of the original four demons, the one marked with the kanji for "anger". When Tanjirō's blade struck the tiny Hantengu's neck, Sekido had raised both his hands and, in a single second, drew them in. The joy and pleasure demons, Urogi and Karaku, were gone in an instant.
It looked as if he was twisting and crushing their flesh as he absorbed them both into his own body through the palms of his hands, with not even a single drop of their blood escaping. Then in another second, Sekido went to Aizetsu, who opened his mouth as if he was trying to protest, only to get absorbed without saying a single word. Sekido's body changed into the youthful demon that was now before them, the one bearing the emotion of hatred.
"He's a combination of all the demons minus the old fart, the one we think is the main body. He looks like just a damn kid!" Genya thought angrily while his firearm rattled slightly in his hand. He was quivering from frustration and at the terror coursing through his veins, an emotion that only fueled his anger more. "God dammit! Even at a time like this?!"
"P-P-Please...protect me...Z-Zohakuten…" uttered Hantengu in a voice so shaken up, he could hardly get his words out.
The new demon merely stared at the main body before he struck one of his drums, leading to the tangled mess of roots that had spawned next to him to curl and wrap around Hantengu, cocooning him in order to guard him from any and all threats until it was safe.
Tanjirō opened his mouth and yelled at Zohakuten to get him to stop, but was immediately cut short by a powerful glare from the demon. He choked a little on his own breath and stiffened up, baring his fangs and furrowing his brow just to get himself under control when assaulted by the almost physical wall of hate and blood-lust that came from Zohakuten.
Even Genya felt the demon's powerful aura, which took that of the four demons they were fighting before and amplified it to such an extent that it felt as though they were up against a literal force of nature, something beyond that of a demon.
"What, scum? You don't like what I'm doing here?" questioned Zohakuten with a growl, his gaze piercing right through Tanjirō's heart and soul. It was through sheer will and the fire still burning in him that kept him standing, the echoes of his idol screaming at him to not give in. This seemed to infuriate Zohakuten even more as he clenched his fingers tighter around the two curved claw-tipped tools in his hands. "Hey, you evil, vile shitheads. I'm speaking to you."
Tanjirō, Nezuko and Genya all reeled from the weight Zohakuten had behind his words, with the latter feeling it the most as he lost all feeling from the waist down, practically on the verge of collapsing.
"Heavy...his voice...the pressure...I can barely stand because my strength is leaving my limbs." thought Genya. His arms were virtually incapable of moving any more, and he knew that if he tried to take even a single step that he'd fall flat on his face.
It was now that both he and the Kamado siblings truly realized just who they were up against. It was common knowledge that when driven into a corner with little to no odds of surviving, an animal can sometimes release an exceptional amount of strength that they believe can tip the scales back into their favor. Humans are not the only creatures capable of releasing this kind of explosive strength.
Hantengu, known officially as Upper Moon Four, was driven into a corner countless times and every time that happened, his strong emotions became personified and split from him through his Blood Demon Art. That was how he won. The worse the situation got for him, the stronger he became.
Everything does have an end, however, and even after so many wins, a loss could still be possible at some point in time. And up until now, Hantengu and his emotions had yet to meet someone capable of matching them in sheer emotional strength. Yet.
"Wh...why are...we evil?" Tanjirō asked, his fingers coiled around his sword slowly tightening their grip. His sharpened fingernails were digging into the fabric of the hilt, ruining its craftsmanship, before puncturing the skin of his palm and drawing blood.
"You're tormenting the weak. You things were just trying to cut the small weakling tiny enough to fit on my palm." accused Zohakuten with narrowed eyes, his teeth gnashing out of anger while he held his gaze with Tanjirō. "That is pure injustice. Only a savage would do that."
"Small weakling, you say? Who...exactly are you referring to?"
Tanjirō's head lowered, showing off more of his prominent horns and long, spiky black hair that reached down past his waist to his thighs. The streaks of burgundy in his predominately black hair started to spread towards the roots, and the blood leaking from his hand increased in volume the deeper his fingernails plunged into his flesh. That blood began taking on a life of its own as it creeped up the hilt and handguard of his blade, going against gravity to cover the black metal with crimson.
At the same time this was happening, his skin also began to develop a dark red pigment as blood was pumped up from his veins to the top-most layer, forming his unique Iron Blood Armor.
"Your smell...it utterly reeks of human blood. You've eaten a hundred, two hundred...three hundred people. Maybe even more." Tanjirō continued while transforming, particles of blood physically taking off from his body and levitating in the air around him like miniature moons before spontaneously combusting into bright balls of orange and yellow fire. "And what did those people do to you? All of them. Did you just arbitrarily take their lives as payment!?"
A harsh pushback of air was created by Tanjirō's voice, the wind created by his tone stirring up dirt in the immediate vicinity around him into huge clouds, while the leaves of the trees in the clearing whipped back and forth. Nezuko was sitting up by now and looking up at her brother with wide-open eyes, and Genya was rendered paralyzed even further by the staggering aura Tanjirō was unleashing. Being called evil by Zohakuten had definitely struck a nerve within the young slayer as he raised his head up in order to meet the Upper Moon's gaze, his own tattooed eyes full of fire.
The sheer heat his body was giving off as his heart beat, urged on by his emotions and his will, went off the rails and caused his own blood to start boiling. Steam was forming from where his Iron Blood armor was exposed, and the flaming spheres of blood circling around him only burned brighter and brighter.
"After eating and killing all those people, you have no right to play the victim! You have a sick, twisted mind, and it's absolutely unforgivable!" Tanjirō bellowed as he took one step forward, cracking the earth beneath his toes, and made Nezuko jump when his katana was extended by his blood to become the length of an Ōdachi. "Evil demon...I'll cut your head off right here!"
Everything hurt, from the tips of his toes to his cheeks where the razor sharp senbon had pierced them. Even Muichirō's vision was starting to become disoriented, which only made the blurred environment around him in the water pot Gyokko had trapped him in even worse.
"The air left in my lungs...there's enough to get one attack out." Muichirō thought while he focused on one single point in his prison, lining up the tip of his sword with it. Then, with the last ounce of air that he had been saving in his lungs, he narrowed his eyes and thrust forward. "Kasumi no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Suiten Tōgasumi!"
With his breathing technique's most powerful forward-thrust, he stabbed the tip of his chipped blade into the wall of the water pot with all his might, desperately hoping to pierce the barrier and free himself. Like all of his previous attempts before, however, the water merely stretched and wrapped itself around it, nullifying his attack without any effort.
Bouncing his sword back into his gut, Muichirō grunted and grit his teeth as the darkness started to set in further along with the intense burning in his chest from the lack of air. All of his training as a Hashira had sufficiently prepared him to fight demons, but even he could do nothing when faced with being trapped underwater with no access to what he used to fight.
"I can't use thrusting techniques to break it. Of course, this is a chipped blade after all, but still...I can't. It's over." thought the Mist Pillar as his vision started to fade along with the strength in his body. "Thanks for cheering me on, Oyakata-sama. But I'm going to die now...so good luck filling up that second spot in the Hashira."
"Why do you think that, Tokitō-kun? Nobody knows what the future has in store."
Muichirō's eyes widened when those words entered his mind and, either from the lack of air to his brain or the distortion of the water, he saw a vision of sorts of Tanjirō standing right outside of his watery prison.
"What? Wait. Tanjirō never said anything of the sort to me before. So who said that…?"
At the same time as he questioned himself, Kanamori was blown back by an attack from Gyokko through the door of the shack, his clothes and exposed arm hit and left with several cuts of varying degrees of damage. The whimsical knife he had been using as some kind of way to defend himself had been chopped clean in two as well, leaving him virtually defenseless against the Upper Moon.
As he lay there on the floor of the shack just past the door, groaning in pain, Gyokko himself entered past the door frame and looked inside to see what all the commotion had been about in trying to protect the shack. To his surprise, it wasn't the chief of the Swordsmith Village at all, but another smith, Haganezuka, hard at work over a sword sharpening station, scraping away at a blade with such determination and focus that his forearms were bulging.
"This iron is phenomenal...this blade, it's...I've never seen such skill...astounding…" murmured Haganezuka without even flinching from the Upper Moon's presence.
"A young human, huh. His flesh looks younger than forty years old, so he can't possibly be the chief." mused Gyokko with a slight smirk as his separate eyes shifted from Kanamori to Haganezuka's back. "Hey, human, would you-"
"Who made this thing? If someone could forge a blade as astounding as this...then why would he leave this one character, but not his name...no matter, I understand...I really do…" muttered Haganezuka in a low tone, completely cutting off Gyokko in the middle of his sentence and shaking him to his core.
"This man…! That is some serious concentration! He's so immersed in his work that he hasn't even noticed I, the marvelous Gyokko!"
So astounding was Haganezuka's intense concentration that in the face of such a display of determination and focus, the Upper Moon was angered by him, this mere human, and clenched the teeth of his two mouths. All thoughts of the mission were thrown out the window as he was consumed by the desire to interrupt Haganezuka's focus, turning into a single-minded goal he would stop at nothing to accomplish.
Growling to himself, Gyokko created a new pot from his own flesh and unleashed a brand new creature, a nimble goldfish demon with just a single pair of legs and blade-like wings who's tips were red from its initial attack. Haganezuka hadn't even a sound as the fish demon cut and slashed through his clothes and mask, creating several lacerations that drew blood.
Kanamori cried out his friend's name while putting his hands on his body, fearing for his life, but he was thrown for a loop when Haganezuka's mask and disheveled headwrap fell away, revealing he had a rather handsome face framed by long locks of his dark black hair. Both Kanamori and Gyokko were taken aback by the sheer level of dedication the swordsmith was exhibiting towards sharpening the blade in his hands, regardless of the pain his body was experiencing from his injuries. His dedication and will were as durable as the most dense of ores, a testament to his own self-fortitude.
"The reason why he didn't carve his name on a blade this marvelous...is because of this one character…" Haganezuka continued to murmur, his lips quivering lightly as he clenched his jaw muscles even further to deaden the pain. His arms kept moving, kept scraping the blade against the sharpening block, working the metal to the perfect state he was determined to achieve. "His one sole purpose for making it. This blade was forged with nothing but that in mind!"
"He pisses me off...I could kill him here and now, and that would make him stop. But I really want to make this man abandon this blade! I want to kill his concentration above all else!" Gyokko thought angrily when another growl escaped his lips, the veins in his forehead bulging outward.
As the Upper Moon continued his self-made battle against Haganezuka's devotion, outside still trapped in the water pot, Muichirō was beginning to see the world darken right before his very eyes. His vision was fading rapidly and his body couldn't move at all anymore.
He didn't even want to hold onto the hilt of his sword, it felt so exhausting just trying to.
"You're the only one who can decide your fate." said the misty apparition of Tanjirō, who only continued to smile at the young Hashira just outside the water pot.
"There's no point in telling me that now. This is the end of the road for me, I'm going to die here." mentally replied Muichirō, who was already starting to resign to his fate.
"Things will definitely work out. Don't give up yet, someone will come save you for sure."
"Are you serious? I have to depend on someone else in the end? That's the worse-case scenario."
"You can only do so much when you're alone. That's why people have to work together and support each other."
Muichirō could only deny and counter the Tanjirō apparition's statements with some of his own cold, hard facts, the realities he himself as a person had accepted as truth. He believed that no one was going to save him, because they were all weaker than him.
If he really had wanted to escape from this scenario, he should have worked harder in the time before now, so that he would have had the strength needed. Even still, because of the mistakes he had made along the way, including overestimating his own apparent power because he was a Hashira, he had become trapped here by Gyokko with no chance of survival.
"You're not wrong Muichirō, but you're still okay, you know." replied Tanjirō with that warm, reassuring smile of his.
"But I'm dying because I made a bunch of mistakes...there's nothing I can do now but give up and-"
Muichirō's ears rang when internal vibrations within the pot struck his eardrums, his eyes widening a little with what little vision he had left to see Kotetsu repeatedly hitting the pot with a simple blade. He couldn't hear exactly what the youth was saying because of the way sound traveled through water, with only distorted blurbs of words reaching him from beyond the pot's walls.
Despite the mask covering his face, Muichirō could tell that the young boy was distressed, the blade in his hand continuing to strike the springy exterior of the water pot to no avail. He was desperately trying to free Muichirō, but if he couldn't break through with his own sword, what hope lay in the meager knife that Kotetsu had?
"There's no way you can free me, you have bigger problems to worry about. You have to protect the chief, even if it's impossible for you...you just have to run." Muichirō thought with a blank stare, before he noticed something appear just within his view behind Kotetsu. It was one of Gyokko's blade fish demons, the creature's bloodshot eyes fixating on the boy and running towards him on its small legs. "Oh shit! Behind you, behind you!"
As much as Muichirō tried to yell and shout at Kotetsu for him to turn around, he was too preoccupied with a new idea that he had come up with to notice the demon come within striking range. With several quick slashes that Kotetsu could hardly register, both of his arms and his right shoulder were hit with the fish demon's blades, easily cutting through his clothes and skin.
"Shit! What the hell are you doing!? Run for it! Now!" Muichirō shouted mentally with his mouth wide open, not even caring that he had expelled all of his air.
"Agh…! Shit, blood! That's my blood!" stammered Kotetsu as he stumbled back, holding his mask in a lopsided position when he had taken it off somewhat.
As he tried to stand up and defend against the demon, its diminutive size and agility let it easily get underneath the boy and pierre his abdomen with one of its blade fins. A gasp of pain escaped Kotetsu lungs, and Muichirō's eyes widened when he knew exactly where he had been hit.
"The solar plexus...he got stabbed in his vital point. He's dead. You can't do it, why don't you get it? Just cover your wounds and run for it!" Muichirō thought, hoping that Kotetsu would actually think and realize the only thing he could do was run. Surprising and infuriating the Hashira even more, Kotetsu held his chest and heaved himself painfully towards the water pot. "No! Don't get closer to me, don't try to save me! There's no way you can do it!"
Muichirō watched as the bleeding and suffering Kotetsu let go of the blade and leaned against the water pot, pressing his lips to the bubbling surface, and breathed as hard as he could into it. A cloud of air bubbles was pushed through the water into the space around the Hashira, surprising him. He sucked in the bubbles and immediately had air in his lungs, the amount just enough to clear up his vision and see Tanjirō's vision as clear as day.
"Helping other people also ends up being beneficial for you. And people are living creatures who can draw out unbelievable strength for someone else's sake, Muichirō."
"Yeah. I know." Muichirō's fingers tightened heavily around the hilt of his sword and his eyebrows furrowed, his vision sharpening. The breath he had received from Kotetsu would be used to further empower his sword, and with both anger and strength coursing through his veins, he put everything he had into his next attack. "Kasumi no kokyū, Ni no kata: Yaekasumi!"
His blade, like a hot knife through butter, tore through the water pot with eight consecutive slashes, one on top of the other at a different angle, dispersing the liquid prison and finally freeing himself. Landing on his knees and forearms, Muichirō coughed and hacked out water that was trapped in his lounges in order to get more air back into them. After getting enough out to stand up, Muichirō went to work removing the senbon needles from his body, taking the ones out of his cheeks and jaw first while cringing. As he did this memories of his past started to trickle back into his mind like water from a faucet. His father was a simple woodcutter, and as his son, he would help him cut down trees to help supplement their income.
"Kghn...nngh...the numbness...it's really bad…" Muichirō thought once he pulled out a needle from his cheek, wincing and choking slightly. It was a miracle that he could still move his limbs even when he had Gyokko's poison in his body, but he wasn't hardly focusing on that at all. "If I didn't get out of that water container just now, I would've...certainly…"
"Don't think about things too strictly, Muichirō-kun. The moment you regain yourself, you can get even stronger."
"Oyakata-sama...seeing his disease progress was so painful to watch…"
Muichirō groaned as the memories kept coming into his mind, the young boy Kotetsu capturing his attention immediately after all the needles were gone from his body. Taking him into his arms he rested Kotetsu's head on his lap, turning him over so he was facing upward at an angle that would allow him to breathe better with his injury.
He spoke Kotetsu's name to try and get a response out of him before suddenly rearing his blade back to kill the fish demon when it lunged at him, its body separating into several pieces mid air and disintegrating into ash a few seconds later. That motion was enough to make him cough and wheeze again, because of the lingering amount of water still in his lungs. They hurt every time he took a breath, but he persevered through it when more memories entered his mind.
His mother had caught a cold one day that progressed into bronchitis rather quickly. Unable to properly treat the condition, he could only watch helplessly when she ended up dying from it. His father didn't know that had happened, since he had left their family home in the middle of a storm to try and find medicinal herbs, and ended up falling off a cliff to his doom.
As Kotetsu made labored breaths, Muichirō's were locked on the young boy's mouth as he told him to forget about him and focus on helping Haganezuka in the hut. For whatever reason the tone of voice that Kotetsu was using with him reignited his memory, clearing more of the haze that existed within his brain.
"My parents died when I was ten...I was alone at age ten." he thought to himself, flashes of his youth just a couple of years prior coming back to him in pieces. The images formed together and his eyes widened even more, his head unconsciously shaking side to side. "No...No, I was alone at the age of eleven. I had a twin...his name was Yuichirō."
"Compassion is useless to humans. No matter what good you do for someone, it won't do you any good." murmured Muichirō's older brother as they walked together with huge stacks of wood wrapped up with rope on their backs.
Muichirō himself was a few steps behind Yuichirō, his expression softer than his brother's. They looked identical in appearance, with both boys possessing the same long black hair that faded to pale turquoise. The only difference between the two were their clothes, with Muichirō wearing a light grey sleeveless yukata with a white mist design, while Yuichirō wore a darker version.
"No, doing good for others will come back to help you. That's what dad would always say." replied Muichirō while adjusting the straps of his wood-carrying pack.
"The words of a man who died trying to help others are useless." barked back Yuichirō sternly.
"Why are you saying that? Dad was just trying to help Mom…"
"Herbs weren't gonna cure her once she reached that condition. It was extremely dumb."
Back and forth they argued about their parents and their fates, with Muichirō's brother firmly stating if their father hadn't left in the storm they would've only lost their mother. Muichirō cried out in defense of their parents, saying it was too harsh for his brother to say that, but Yuichirō held his ground and glared back at him with a snarky tone to his voice.
"I'm only telling you the truth. You're making too much noise, so shut up. You'll call a boar here on us if you keep running your trap." he said harshly, his younger brother closing his mouth and sniffing a little as a single tear dripped down his cheek. "The Mu in Muichirō is the 'in' in invalid. There's no point in having this conversation, the past won't change."
Muichirō remembered just how painfully frank his brother was, to the point that he started to realize he had turned into him when he had lost his memories. Living with him had felt like a living hell, because he wondered constantly if he was hated by Yuichirō.
It was that following spring after they had lost their parents that they had gotten a visitor to their lonely family home, a woman who he later would come to know as Oyakata-sama's wife and caretaker. She was extremely pretty, and Muichirō had thought she was the spirit of a white birch the first time he laid eyes on her. Unfortunately for her, she was turned away by Muichirō's older brother, even after she had told them both that they were the descendants of swordsmen.
Even though Muichirō was ecstatic at the idea of helping and protecting others as a swordsman, Yuichirō wanted no such thing, and exploded on his brother when the issue was pressed. He harshly berated him to the point that Muichirō shed a few tears and then refused to even talk with his brother, their own personal hell becoming even more bleak even when Oyakata-sama's wife kept visiting them. At one point Yuichirō had even poured water on her in an attempt to make her leave them alone for good, but she still retained her composure and left with dignity.
The fights they had with one another when the silence between them became unbearable were harsh, and it almost always ended with Muichirō crying and his brother saying nothing to him. This went into the summer, with the heat making the boys even more bitter outside of their general feelings towards one another.
It was during one of those hot summer nights when the door opened as they were sleeping and they were attacked by a demon. Muichirō woke up to his brother screaming after his left arm had been cut off from the bicep, his blood splattering over their beds. He was quick to hug his sibling as the demon approached them, his clawed hands colored a dark red, the same as his eyes.
"Shut up already, stop blabbering. You people are just poor woodcutters, you can't do anything for anyone. Whether you exist or not, nothing changes." spoke the demon with a sneer, his razor sharp teeth filling his mouth from end to end. It was enough to make Muichirō tremble in terror, his heart beating faster and faster within his tiny chest. "Truly worthless lives. Pitiful."
He remembered just how vile the demon's gaze was, exemplified by the deep red color that his pupils had. In that moment though, the fear that gripped his heart was something else entirely, an emotion that he had never felt before in his life. From deep within his body, the very pits of his stomach, an intense anger unlike anything he'd ever experience rocketed to the surface and manifested in a howl so fierce that it could rival that of an animal.
He blacked out after that and only came to when the demon was near death, pinned to the ground in various bits and pieces of flesh by several boulders, wooden stakes, and a few tools that Muichirō happened to find in their home. Even when the demon was in that much of a disfigured state, which included its splattered head and brains beneath the boulders, it was still struggling to break free. His struggling didn't last long, for the morning sun came up and reduced his body to dust.
Muichirō hardly cared though, his only worry was that of his brother, who lay dying in their family home All he wanted to do was reach his brother, but it took him several hours to get there, even when it was relatively close by. His body was as heavy as led, and by the time he had arrived back home, he had let go of the hammer and axe he had used against the demon and crawled into their home to find Yuichirō.
Thankful that his brother was still alive, he crawled closer towards him, only to feel his chest tighten at the empty gaze in Yuichirō's eyes as he murmured something softly under his breath. The end was near for him, and he was trying to get out what he could.
"Dear gods...Buddha...please...just spare my brother...un...like me...he's a really nice...kid...he just wants...to be useful...and I got in the way…" he murmured with raspy breaths, his brother tearing up as he listened. "I'm the only bad one...if you're giving punishment...just give it...to me...I knew the whole time...the truth...the Mu...in Muichirō…"
"...Is the 'In' in 'Infinity'." said Muichirō to himself as he slowly stood up, rising to his feet as his fingers gripped his sword so tightly the knuckles turned white. "If you ever do something to help others, you can bring out infinite strength. You really are a chosen one."
As the last words his brother ever spoke to him fully faded away, his body heat up from the inside out and his heartbeat doubled in intensity, leading to such a state of hyperawareness that unbeknownst to the swordsman, a mist-like tattoo began to appear on both his left cheek and the left side of his forehead. He didn't know what was happening, or how it was happening, but he felt stronger than he ever had before, and with this strength he was going to what was right.
Turning his head and staring in the direction of the shack, he exhaled slowly and took one last passing glance at Kotetsu. Examining him for a split second, and hoping he would live, he then walked towards the shack.
Inside Gyokko was furiously staring at Haganezuka's back, where even after he had taken one of the swordsmith's eyes and inflicted more wounds onto his fragile, human body, he would not stop sharpening the blade.
"This man! This insolent human meat sack! No matter what I do, he just keeps sharpening that cursed blade!" Gyokko thought, the small hands coming from the sides of his head balling their fingers up into fists. To his left he heard the injured Kanamori grunt as he started picking himself up off the ground after he had been tossed aside like garbage a minute earlier. "Ohh...speaking of killing, I think it's high time I-"
Warning bells rang in his mind as he detected a blade coming right for his neck and in a split second he vanished into his pot, reappearing in one at another corner of the shack. Emerging from the second pot, Gyokko was taken aback to see Muichirō standing in the doorway with his sword leveled towards him, veins bulging in his hands.
For one he was surprised the Hashira had managed to break free from the water basin, which should have killed him without any difficulties. Secondly he knew that he had taken a fair amount of his poisoned needles, which meant he shouldn't even be able to move, let alone stand on his own two feet.
Despite that, he remained mostly calmed and drew upon some of the information he received and knew on his own, recognizing the similarity in appearance of the marks Muichirō had to the ones Tanjirō possessed. As soon as the Hashira made the slightest motion Gyokko summoned a new pot and held it out towards him, unleashing a torrent of giant octopus tentacles that rapidly filled the interior of the shack. Kanamori made a cry, Muichirō's old blade snapped against the tentacles, and the shack was then ripped apart from the inside when the octopus limbs smashed through the roof and walls into the open air.
"Hyo hyo! How do you like the power of octopus flesh, hm? You can't cut through it like that!" remarked Gyokko with a chortle, a grunt coming from his right. He glanced over at the source of the sound and saw it was Haganezuka, who had landed on his shoulder hard. As quickly as he had hit the ground though he was back on his knees, blade and sharpening stone in hand, before he again started to scrape away at the sword as diligently as ever. "He's still sharpening that damn blade. Is he stupid? He's not sane for sure…"
Gyokko shrugged and laughed as he raised his gaze up to the towering mess of octopus tentacles before him, settling on both Kanamori and Muichirō, who were bound up tightly within the folds of the tentacles with no way of getting free. He smirked, assured of his victory over the Hashira despite his scary new aura.
That feeling of superiority was quickly supplanted by surprise yet again when Muichirō, quick as lightning, cut himself and Kanamori free from the tentacles and dropped to the ground as light as a feline. In his dominant hand was a brand new blade, forged specifically for him by Kanamori himself.
"You made this blade...for me. Thank you, Kanamori-san." Muichirō said once the color of the Nichirin metal turned to pure white.
"No, no...I just followed your first blacksmith's instructions and did exactly as he wrote…there's no need to thank me." remarked Kanamori with a cough, the man cringing slightly from his injuries. He knew he had a few broken bones from being tossed around by Gyokko like a sack of potatoes, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from sitting up to look at the Hashira.
"Right, Tetsuido-san made my blades first. He died from a heart attack...how fitting." murmured Muichirō to himself as he lowered the blade, veins bulging in his hand from how tightly he gripped it. The sheen of the metal from the moon's glow reminded him of his last conversation he ever had with his former swordsmith, and the words he had spoken about him. Remembering how he was the only one who really got him, who understood his predicament through all the swords he had forged for him, he smiled. "Tetsuido-san, I'm sorry. I really did make you worry. But now...I am fine."
Disappearing in a flash, his sword and body were consumed by a cloud of misk that masked his approach towards Gyokko. The demon's octopus tentacles stood no chance against the vengeful blade of the Hashira, who sliced clean through each and every obstacle in his path before coming within mere inches of the Upper Moon's neck.
It seemed as though he sliced clear through empty air once again when Gyokko pulled his magical disappearing act into his pot, emerging from a new one atop a nearby tree branch behind the Hashira. Laughing at his futile attempt, he sneered at him with his mouths and gloated.
"You minced up my octopus tentacles pretty quickly, but you can't catch up to the speed of my pots." Gyokko remarked, chortling again at Muichirō's expense.
"I wonder about that. Seems like your senses have dulled." murmured Muichirō while turning his head back towards the Upper Moon. "But that's probably because you've lived for hundreds of years."
Gyokko was confused by what he meant before he gasped as a rather deep gash suddenly appeared from his neck, gushing out blood down his chest for a couple of seconds before healing back up. Some of his tiny hands quivered as they balled up into fists while Muichirō just calmed turned around and pointed his sword at the Upper Moon.
"Next time, it's coming off, fuckface. I'm done playing along with your dumb pot games." he threatened Gyokko, the Upper Moon's mouth eyes twitching as his brow furrowed.
"Don't underestimate me, brat." he snarled back with his killer intent flowing right off his tongue like vile poison.
"Hey, it's not like I'm looking down on you. I'm just stating the truth. You're just gonna die when I cut your head off. Also, I'm feeling amazing right now for some reason. Why's that?"
"Your phrasing is insulting, you damn brat. And you've only lived for about ten years or so."
Back and forth the two of them bickered with one another, spouting insult after insult about one another's looks or the way they talked, with Gyokko managing to keep his composure even when Muichirō was really starting to get on his nerves. His superiority complex as an Upper Moon was the only thing keeping him level-headed, like a stone fortress unwilling to fall to outside attack.
That was the case of course, until Muichirō then lifted a finger up to his lips and started looking at Gyokko from a different perspective, a mischievous glint in his pale eyes. After examining the Upper Moon from top to bottom for a minute or so, which drew Gyokko's attention, Muichirō then cocked his head to the right and scratched his chin ever so slightly.
"I've been wondering about this...is that pot of yours deformed or something? The left and right sides are uneven. It looks kinda shitty." Muichirō stated matter-of-factly.
In an instant Gyokko snapped, the insult to the centerpiece of his artwork enough to send him clear over the edge as he entered a rage-filled trade that caused blood to literally burst from his veins.
Screaming in defiance of the artistic masterpiece that were his ceramic pots, he formed one from each of his ten miniature arms that lined his snake like body and pointed them all at his enemy.
"Kekkijutsu - Ichiman Kakkūnengyo!" he bellowed as a tsunami of fish armed with razor sharp teeth surged forth from his pots, threatening to overwhelm the diminutive Hashira.
His eyes darting around in all directions as he identified and pinpointed the most dense concentrations of fish in the wave approaching him, he then leaped up high into the air and didn't even have to take a breath as he delivered a series of powerful downward slashes reminiscent of geyser blasts.
"Kasumi no kokyū, Roku no kata: Tsuki no Kashō." he murmured while delivering each devastating blow, the fish getting cut up by the droves from his blade.
"Gah! He cut them all up like it was nothing! What happened to the poison in his veins, he shouldn't be able to have such attack prowess and range! It's unexpected, but no problem…" Gyokko thought as his lips slowly curled upward into three distinct grins. "The clayfish may be dead, but before they turn to dust, they'll spread percutaneous liquid poison...once it gets on him, it's all over!"
"Kasumi no kokyū, San no kata: Kasan no Shibuki."
Muichirō's feet barely touched the ground before he gripped his sword with both hands and unleashed a powerful circular slash that created a torrent of wind and mist that blew away both the poison and the fish before neither could touch him.
Taking advantage of the situation he ducked down and ran towards the stunned Gyokko, intent on bringing an end to their fight once and for all. With the swing of his sword he cut clean through the demon's neck, only instead of blood he was greeted by a mere empty husk of molted skin.
"Ugh, dammit. This is a pain in the ass. Stop dodging and running to the trees, please." sighed Muichirō as Gyokko's skin fell to the ground, the demon once again up in the branches behind the Hashira.
"You've convinced me, brat. I'm going to show you my true form now. You're going to be the third person ever to see me like this." said Gyokko with a chortle, while Muichirō only rolled his eyes and turned to face his opponent.
"Wow, that's a lot."
"Shut it. Once I get serious, I never leave anyone alive."
"Oooh, wow."
"Shut your worthless mouth, you retarded brat!"
Gyokko's snarl created a gust of wind around him as he finished his transformation process post-molting, his merman-like body coiled around the tree branch he was propped up on. Taking on a more muscular form with a normal size pair of arms and hair-like mane around his neck, his prior appearance looked tame compared to the monstrosity he had become now.
"These see-through scales of mine are harder than diamonds. I kneaded them together inside of my pot. Now prostrate yourself before my perfect beauty!" Gyokko proclaimed, expecting the Hashira to drop his weapon and quiver in terror of his almighty presence.
Muichirō instead stared blankly up at the Upper Moon with not the slightest bit of emotion in his eyes. It wouldn't be too far away to say that he was utterly disinterested in what Gyokko had become, and he was fully expressing it by his total silence.
Adding insult to injury were the soft chirps of crickets nearby, which made Gyokko quiver and ball up his fingers into fists angrily. Seeing the demon act in such a childish manner actually made Muichirō smirk a little on the inside, and the sense of satisfaction only grew when he was given another opportunity to annoy the demon.
"Why aren't you saying anything, you retarded puppet!? You really know how to get on people's nerves, brat!" shouted Gyokko at the top of his lungs, his two eyes turning bloodshot from how fed up he was with the Hashira's attitude.
"Well, you did tell me to shut up a while ago...and honestly, I'm really not that surprised about this...so-"
Before Muichirō could finish his quip he saw Gyokko's appearance flicker briefly out of view and appear right in front of him, fist poised to sock him in the face. A second later the ground was upturned by the Upper Moon's powerful blow and with a laugh Gyokko retracted his fist, the dust clearing away to reveal the rubble he left behind had been magically transformed into piles of squirming fish gasping for air.
Sensing his opponent's presence to the side, he lifted his head up and smirked at Muichirō who himself had taken to the trees, a portion of his uniform over his chest and his left sleeve having turned into fish as well.
"What were you saying about running to the trees?" questioned Gyokko smugly as he leaned back up, flexing his arms slightly while Muichirō wiped off the fish from his body.
"Nah, you're just stinky. My nose was gonna melt if I stayed close to you any longer." he replied, maintaining his aloof yet teasing composure.
Gyokko brushed aside his quip and let his two eye mouths do the talking for him as they both grinned, flashing their teeth at the Hashira while holding up one of his hands to let the scales sparkle in the moonlight. He gloated about his strength and speed, revealing his ability to turn everything his fists touched into fish, not even paying attention to Kanamori taking the focused Haganezuka away from the battlefield deeper into the forest out of sight.
After watching them leave out of the corner of his eye Muichirō then tuned back in to Gyokko right as he was finishing his exposition, asking if he was scared because his body was shivering slightly. Of course he was a little scared, he was fighting one of Muzan's strongest servants after all, but he wasn't going to let Gyokko have the satisfaction of knowing that.
"You can be as flashy as you like, but it's utterly useless if you can't even touch me, fuckface." retorted Muichirō with a smug little grin.
He then dropped down from the tree he was resting on and landed softly on his feet once more, taking up a stance with his sword held firmly in both hands. No more running away, no more tricks. It was time to end this once and for all.
And in that moment, a lifetime of struggle and pain entered his now clear mind. The seething rage that had consumed him when that demon attacked his brother. He had watched as his brother rotted and was consumed by maggots with each passing day, until he too was infested by those very same creatures. His body ached and the stench was unbearable. Muichirō knew he would have most certainly died if not for being rescued by Oyakata-sama's wife and her children.
Even though he had lost his memories, his body and all of the tribulations it went through remembered. His constant and omnipresent rage remained, never leaving him. That was why he would train himself to his breaking point, to when he would be coughing up blood.
"My sole purpose in life was to exterminate demons. To utterly destroy all of them. That is my goal!" Muichirō thought before he and Gyokko both ran towards one another, the end of their fight at the forefront of their minds.
"Behold! My beautiful and sincere seriousness!" announced Gyokko as his tail coiled beneath his upper torso like a spring and propelled him forward at sub-sonic speeds. "Kekkijutsu - Jinsatsu Gyorin!"
Muichirō was briefly surprised by how quickly Gyokko was able to bounce around him from tree to tree, with each impact he made completely shattering their wooden stumps and creating a lethal flurry of splinters and wood fragments.
He maintained his focus though and tried to time his sword slashed every time Gyokko came in for an attack, while managing to keep himself safe from his deadly punches. The Upper Moon laughed at his futile attempts though, always keeping himself just out of reach of the Hashira's blade so he could press the advantage. As he did he continued to gloat of his superiority and teased Muichirō by pondering how he would go about killing Muichirō.
Unbeknownst to Gyokko, however, the youngest Hashira had been reading Gyokko the entire time, biding his time and waiting for the right opportunity to show itself. That moment came when he intentionally left his blind spot open for Gyokko to take advantage of.
"Kasumi no kokyū, Shichi no kata...Oboro." murmured Muichirō in almost a whisper, his body slowing down drastically just as Gyokko struck him.
Expecting victory, the demon was sorely mistaken when the young boy's body dissipated into a huge cloud of mist that lingered in the air like a spirit. Gyokko was thrown for a loop at the sudden turn of events, his eyes darting left and right for any sight of Muichirō, before he saw him to his right and quickly turned around to attack him. Throwing a punch once more, he once again was met with a great cloud of mist, followed by the tree directly behind it exploding into a fountain of fish.
Front, back, left and right, Muichirō appeared all around the Upper Moon with a blank expression on his face with his speed seemingly as slow as molasses. As soon as Gyokko would go in for the killing blow, however, he'd merely dissipate into mist once again, until he was left angrily growling to himself at his inability to finish off his enemy.
"How does he keep disappearing?! This is getting annoying!" Gyokko thought before he started looking at his surroundings and lost some of his edge, his heart beginning to beat a little faster as a result. "What's happening!? Where did he go!? It's as if...as if...this whole place is enveloped in mist…"
As the dense clouds of mist created by Muichirō's constant disappearances rapidly filled the forest, the ground beneath Gyokko was obscured and the trees around him were turned into blurry shadows. He couldn't see anything past just a couple feet in front of his eyes, but he still had his sense to rely on.
For a brief moment Muichirō appeared from the mist behind him and he swung his arm back, only for it to hit nothing just like before. Growing more frustrated, the dead silence that had consumed the forest with the mist was broken by a light-hearted chuckle from Muichirō.
"Hey you. Yeah, you, fuckface." he said, the tone of his voice unnerving even to Gyokko. The Upper Moon was still looking left and right, trying to sense the slightest trace of the Hashira's presence, which to Muichirō meant he had him right where he wanted him. "Where did you get the idea that you were the only one not being serious?"
Gyokko's body then froze up when felt the cold touch of metal slide clean through the front of his neck and out the back, the small form of Muichirō appearing just behind him, virtually coming out of the mist itself. In an instant the mist blanketing the area vanished, letting Gyokko watch as his world turned upside down from his head falling from his body.
The swift beheading had come so suddenly without any warning that Gyokko still thought he had a chance to beat Muichirō and report back to his master. That notion was quickly dispelled when he watched the Hashira lower his blood-stained sword and say something Gyokko couldn't quite register. He only realized the truth once his head bounced once off the ground and tumbled a few more feet before coming to rest.
"H...He cu...He cut my head! He cut my head! He cut my heaaaad!" cried out Gyokko in his thoughts when he watched his body slump over with blood oozing out from his neck. "Impossible! Unbelievable! It can't be, it can't be! I lost!? To a child…?! Me?! This is entirely unnatural!"
Gyokko was right, it was an unnatural situation. Muichirō's seventh and arguably strongest technique of Mist breathing drastically changes the tempo of his movements to disorient the enemy. When he showed himself to Gyokko, he was as slow as a turtle, but when he hid, his speed was faster than the blink of an eye.
At his fastest, Muichirō exceeded the Upper Moon's speed. Even while wounded he had managed to defeat Gyokko, a truly incredible feat for a Hashira to achieve. The horn was beginning to sound for the end of the demons who opposed humanity, and with Gyokko passing soon, there was only one threat to the Swordsmith Village left to take care of.
Rather than accept his defeat with dignity, however, the once great Gyokko, Upper Moon Five of the Twelve Kizuki, began to scream and writhe in disbelief and rage while shouting to the heavens in denial. He was like a child who had not gotten what he wanted, resorting to throwing a tantrum just for the sake of throwing one. Insult after insult came out of his mouths as his body disintegrated, signaling his end, which only made him shout even louder.
Finally it became too much to bear and without making a sound Muichirō chopped up Gyokko's head with his sword into dozens of chunks of flesh, silencing him for good once and for all.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can you just burn in hell already?" he said ina snarky tone, now that peace had once again returned to the forest.
Hearing that the battle had finally come to a close, Kanamori left Haganezuka to himself and carried the sheath for Muichirō's sword with him in order to meet the Hashira as his tattoos faded away.
"Tokitō-dono, are you okay!? Did you defeat that demon?" he asked once he reached Muichirō, only to stop in his tracks at his rapidly deteriorating condition.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I feel great, actually. I have to go to Tanjirō now, he might need my help." Muichirō replied, with Kanamori shaking his head.
"You look absolutely horrible. Are you really sure you're fine?"
"I am totally okay. Nothing's wrong with me, I promise."
Despite Muichirō trying to deny Kanamori's claims, his condition only worsened as his body started to shiver and lose feeling from the feet upwards. His breathing turned ragged as well and in a matter of moments he started to foam at the mouth once the poison in his veins finally got into his bloodstream.
Muichirō then collapsed to the ground and dropped his sword, startling Kanamori and bringing the swordsmith down to his knees next to him in a frenzy. Crying out and pleading for Haganezuka to help, he cursed at his colleague when he didn't come to his aid. That's when he was scared nearly out of his own skin when a voice behind him suggested he put Muichirō on his side.
"Eyyagh! Young Kotetsu's ghost!" shrieked Kanamori at the sight of the bloodied Kotetsu, who was holding his right arm against his torso.
"No, I didn't die at all. I'm not a ghost." Kotetsu replied rather calmly, considering the situation.
"No, no, no, you're dead! You just have no idea you're a ghost!"
"No, I'm alive."
"But you got stabbed in your solar plexus, you should have bled out!"
Kotetsu, still strangely calm about his condition, explained to the older swordsmith that the blood predominately on his torso was actually from his arm. The wound was fairly serious, so he warned that it could be trouble for him if the bleeding was left alone.
When he looked down at his stomach to the tear in his clothes where he had apparently been gutted by Gyokko's fish demon, he reached inside and pulled out a specially crafted sword hilt that was stylized like a flame. Around the notch where the blade would fit through the metal had been colored black, and from there outward to the edges of the flame it was maroon with a bright red painted edge.
"I was saved because of this hilt I got sent to me from one of the Hashira, some guy who knew Tanjirō-san. There were instructions for it to be put on his new sword when it was finished."
"I...I see...but anyways, you said I should do this, right…?" Kanamori said after Kotetsu's explanation when he carefully rolled Muichirō onto his side so that he was no longer choking on the foam coming out of his mouth.
His breathing began to steady as his body relaxed, the paralyzing agent in the poison attacking only his limbs and not his internal organs, which left him immobile but under no threat of death. While laying there he started to drift off to sleep out of sheer exhaustion, but before his eyes fully closed he felt as though a warm hand was resting on his arm.
Muichirō didn't even have to look to see who it was, he could feel it deep in his soul. In a dream-like world that he was now in as he finally let sleep take him, his family was around him with nothing but smiles on their faces, including his older brother Yuichirō. After three years of pain and suffering, with his memories now fully restored, his omnipresent rage gave way for sadness and relief to take center stage, which led to him shedding tears for the first time since that dreadful night.
They were tears of joy.
A/N Howdy guys, it's me, after another month hiatus because of real life! Finally had some free time to finish this chapter for ya'll, which focuses of course on the Mist Hashira and his fight against that pot guy (who was he again?) XD. I really do wish I could work on this all the time for you guys, but of course I have to focus on school and baseball first and foremost, especially since I'm trying to graduate this semester.
Enough of that though, I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! That's one big fight out of the way, with the next chapter covering our best boy's fight with the angery demon, where we get to see just how powerful this new transformation of his will be! Gonna be awesome, I guarantee it! Unfortunately I gotta leave you here with this, at least it's not a cliffhanger! :D
Leave a fav and follow if you haven't already, and a review too telling me what you think! Would really like to know! Until next time though, which I hope won't be another month!
Translation(s):
Kasumi no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Suiten Tōgasumi
- Mist Breathing, First Form: Hanging Sky, Distant Mist
Kasumi no kokyū, Ni no kata: Yaekasumi
- Mist Breathing, Second Form: Layered Mist
Kekkijutsu - Ichiman Kakkūnengyo
- Blood Demon Art - Ten Thousand Gliding Clayfish
Kasumi no kokyū, Roku no kata: Tsuki no Kashō
- Mist Breathing, Sixth Form: Moon-Lit Mist
Kekkijutsu - Jinsatsu Gyorin
- Blood Demon Art - Deadly Scales of War
Kasumi no kokyū, Shichi no kata: Oboro
- Mist Breathing, Seventh Form: Haze