Knife of the Shinigami
Whew, hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter for Breath of the Rifleman! First off, a mild apology as to the lateness of both this and my Re:zero chapter which is still in development at the moment. I had a rehearsal and wedding to attend which was immediately followed by a stomach bug, it wasn't the food before anyone asks. But at last I got this one out at the very least and hopefully it'll have been worth the wait. As always, I'd like to give my usual shout outs to LoneTaker, groche9655 and Noble Eight for their contributions to this story. And, with no guest reviews, we've delayed long enough, so onto the story!
Outskirts of the Swordsmith Village
The sounds of sword slashes, gunfire and destruction obliterated the silence of the night as Subaru continually opened fire with his BAR light machine gun at Zohakuten. The Hatred Manifestation was currently protecting himself with one of the dragon heads which he kept in front of himself as the Matagi attempted to change his angles of fire. As for Mitsuri, she was gracefully spinning and flipping through the air, fighting off all four remaining heads as each one tried a different attack. The latest was another pressure attack which created several maple leaf craters on the ground, all heading for the Love Pillar.
'Breath of Love Second Form,' thought Mitsuri as she dodged around the attacks and swung upwards with her whip sword, 'Anguish Inducing Love!' She carved through the neck of another one of the wood dragon heads, causing it to fall apart as she continued to advance forward. Another head unleashed a mass of spear thrusts at the hashira, but she flipped into the air and unleashed yet another technique. 'Breath of Love Sixth Form: Kitty Paw Love,' she thought as she bent and twirled her body in the air at angles Subaru would've thought impossible to bend a body while also whipping her sword out for numerous slash attacks.
'My hamstring's hurt just seeing that,' thought Subaru as he dodged around a raining spear attack while returning fire at the head with his own weapon. By this point, the original five dragon heads which had been produced were now down to two, leaving the demon manifestation vulnerable. At least that had been the hope until he tapped a new beat on his drum.
"Blood Demon Art," said Zohakuten as he beat his back drums, "Karmic Wood of Avici!" More dragon heads were summoned, with even smaller dragon heads emerging from them like branches as they all stood poised to attack the two slayers. 'Seriously, more,' thought Subaru as he unloaded his BAR at full auto into the nearest mass of dragon heads. Even Mitsuri looked nervous for a moment at the new attack, but her resolve quickly returned as she executed another technique.
"Breath of Love Fifth Form," She said as she leapt into the air, somersaulting backwards with her body contorted at an angle where her leg could almost touch her head, "Lingering Attachment: Messy Nails!" She whipped her sword around in several directions beneath her, decimating the newly grown dragon heads and landing within striking range of the Upper Moon as she coiled her sword around his neck. 'Why am I even here at the moment,' Subaru almost thought, remembering very quickly that the Love Pillar hadn't been informed of a crucial detail. Cutting off the head of Zohakuten wouldn't do any good because he wasn't the main body.
Not that Mitsuri would get the chance to finish the job. As she was about to yank her sword taut, Zohakuten opened his mouth. Subaru leapt up onto one of the dragon heads as this was about to happen, moving his LMG to his left hand while drawing and firing his revolver, the only pause in his movements being the split second he took to aim. 'Maddening Scree-GAAAH!' thought the Demon Manifestation as he felt a bullet go into his eye, interrupting his technique as Mitsuri yanked her sword as hard as she could, causing the coiled metal to squeeze and cut into his neck.
In the next instant, his head came off and fell to the ground as a happy expression crossed the Love Pillar's features. Which were quickly replaced with an expression that said 'huh' as soon as Tanjiro shouted the following: "It's no good, cutting off that guy's head won't work because that's not the main body!"
"Say what now," questioned a now more nervous looking Mitsuri as the demon body raised one of its wooden weapons. The Love Pillar made to move back, but her worries turned out to be short-lived as Subaru leapt in, slamming his now empty BAR into the body and knocking it to the ground.
"The main guy is in that wood sphere over there," explained Subaru as he pulled his rifle from his back and indicated Hantengu's current location, "if we kill him we can end this-WHOAAAA!" His sentence was interrupted by the sound of a drum beat as the surface they were standing on suddenly went wild, throwing them both into the air. 'Shit, need to right myself,' thought the Matagi as he adjusted his position in the air, noting the presence of several dragon heads now reaching for him. Subaru managed to jump off the face of the first and stab his bayonetted rifle into the next one, sliding down for a brief moment with his blade carving into the wooden beast.
But as he was about to leap off, he was hit back into the air by a third dragon head, losing his orientation yet again as he spied several more dragon heads reaching up for him. 'Guess I really pissed him off,' thought Subaru, 'I need to try to right myself again.' A much more challenging task this time as some of the heads opened their mouths, readying their attacks as the demon slayer seemed to fall in slow motion. 'Shit not yet, I need to do som-MUFF!' His vision suddenly went black as something soft collided with his face and body.
He felt himself being pulled along then, seeming to fly through the air while vaguely hearing the sound attacks landing around him and just inches from where he was. Then he hit the ground and rolled as realization dawned upon him as to what exactly hit him, or in this case, who. "That was too close," said Mitsuri as she lifted herself off the ground, not seeming to realize she was straddling the Matagi, "are you alright?"
"Depends," said Subaru, his breathing quickened due to actually having access to air again and the realization that his face had just been in this woman's cleavage, "did Nezuko see what just happened?"
"Oh, Nezuko and Genya are fine," said Mitsuri as she sat up and pointed to where the two had been dropped by their respective dragon heads, "now we just need to-oh no!" She grabbed Subaru and rolled, shoving his face into her chest yet again to avoid a lightning attack from one of the dragon heads before she sprang back up. "We're not out of this yet, we need to handle the dragon heads while your friends work on that wood cocoon."
"Yeah sure," said Subaru as he stood up, fighting the blush on his face, "let's focus on that."
"Alright, let's go!" Exclaimed Mitsuri as she rushed back into the fray. Subaru was a little slower as he noted Nezuko looking in his direction, with a less than pleased look on her face.
"It wasn't my idea," said Subaru, "can we talk about it later, ya know, after killing this asshole?" Nezuko crossed her arms and thought for a moment before nodding her head. She, Genya and Tanjiro leapt into the fray then as the Matagi readied himself for a new approach.
"Is there even a way to categorize your luck with women," asked Azakeru, "first you got a girl who keeps losing her clothes, and now you get your face in the queen of cleavage's bosom, twice."
"When I said later I meant later!" Exclaimed Subaru mentally, "now help me find a path through those dragon heads. I've got something I want to try."
"Already on it," replied the demon girl as Subaru observed the winds swirling around the obstacles, leading straight to his target. 'I used this maneuver once while I was in Hokkaido before perfecting it even more with Muichirou. Time to see if all that practice paid off.' He lowered his stance a bit as he readied a powerful leap.
"Breath of the Rifleman Sixth Form," said Subaru as he leapt with ground-splitting force, "Stride of Yami No Kami!" His feet impacted with the neck of the nearest dragon head before he blasted off of it, shattering its wooden skin as he did the same to several others. After bouncing from one to the other for another moment while following the wind path, his enemy came into view. 'Now to complete the technique,' he thought as he again blasted forward, this time adding a spiral to his movement with his rifle extended forward.
Zohakuten had been too preoccupied with Mitsuri and the others to notice him until it was too late. Even as he raised his hands to block, it wasn't enough as the hunter impacted against him, his spinning bayonet tearing a fantastic hole in the Hatred Manifestation as the Matagi came out the other side and landed in a half-kneeling position. "W-What was, that," coughed Zohakuten, a look of actual fear on his face as his upper and lower half fell to the ground in separate pieces.
"A painful new breath form," said Subaru as he shakily got to his feet, feeling the pain in his body from the strain of leaping around like that as he wobbled a bit on his feet, "unlike Mountain Stride, this move uses multiple jumps for maneuvering and building up momentum while adding a spiral at the end to maximize damage. For a short time, the user is basically a ricocheting bullet." 'Downside, it hurts like shit afterwards due to the stress on the muscles,' he thought.
"I've about had it with you Genjiro-AAAAAACK!" The Demon Manifestation had attempted to get up, only for Subaru to shove his bayonetted rifle into his back, pushing him back down as the blade went all the way through his chest and into the wood underneath him.
"And I've been ready for you to die for years," replied Subaru as some of Zohakuten's blood got onto his hands. More images flooded his head again, this time more incoherent then before, feeling like they were coming from multiple people instead of just one. He saw a Daimyo's army, travelers being mugged, a dead woman still with child, a disintegrating family, and a horde of bandits. Subaru grit his teeth, doing everything he could to force the images out of his head as he let go of the rifle and stepped away from the manifestation, "it's about time we ended this."
"Subaru, over here," called Tanjiro as he, Nezuko and Genya were busy tearing at the wooden cocoon while also fighting against some of the vines. Kanroji was still busy dealing with the numerous dragon heads, keeping them off of the other slayers while Subaru approached his friends.
"Ah it won't open up," seethed Genya as he fired his shotgun into it, only succeeding in blasting off some bark, "screw it, I'll just have to do it like this!" He bit into the bark then, tearing off a good chunk and ingesting it thanks to his incredibly strong jaw muscles and teeth. As before, his eyes became a demonic black and his canines grew along with his strength. The shotgun wielder then tore off another chunk with his teeth before finally yanking with all of his enhanced might, tearing apart the entire root holding up the cocoon.
Tanjiro took the opportunity to try and cut open the main part but was stopped by the somehow still whipping vines which remained attached to the cocoon. Fortunately, Nezuko had a plan of her own as she threw out some of her blood and lit it on fire, burning much of the wood surrounding the cocoon. This also managed to light Tanjiro's sword on fire yet again, allowing him to use his blood burst sword to perform the following attack: 'Hinokami Kagura: Flame Waltz'! The cocoon was finally cut open then by two powerful, flaming slashes as the main body went shooting out into the air.
"No you don't you bastards," came the voice of Zohakuten as he raised himself off the ground enough to hit his drum, generating more wood from the ground which caught and began wrapping around Hantengu once again.
"Not this time asshole," said Subaru as he took and chucked his last grenade into the cocoon with the main body, the demon's eyes widening as he realized what was about to happen. The following explosion sent the rat-sized Upper Moon flying several feet into the woods where he picked himself up and began to scurry away.
"Quickly, we can't let him esca-WAAAAAAH!" Tanjiro was interrupted by the sound of Zohakuten yelling as the ground suddenly started shaking and producing several more dragon heads. The demon manifestation had finally regrown his legs and freed himself from the rifle impaling him, his rage now clearly present as he beat several of his drums furiously.
"DIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!" Yelled Zohakuten as several of the larger dragon heads opened their mouths and fired off bolts of lightning, air pressure and spear attacks. The slayers and demon girl all scattered, trying their best to avoid the onslaught raining down on them. It wound up only doing some good as Genya and Tanjiro got hit by some of the lightning and air pressure attacks while Nezuko and Subaru got hit by the sonic attacks and some of the spear attacks.
The worst hits Subaru got were through his left shoulder, his right side, two large cuts on his left leg, a cut on the side of his neck and one on his right arm. Nezuko actually had more than a couple of holes in her, though her demon physiology meant she'd already started regenerating. "I can't believe you avoided the brunt of that," said the Hatred manifestation as he tapped his drums again, "this time I'll finish you." But as the heads were about to attack again, Mitsuri came flipping in, slashing through several of them and preventing a second mass attack.
"You again," seethed Zohakuten, surprised she'd managed to slay his other dragon heads, "just die already!" The remaining heads fired a multitude of attacks then, raining them down on Mitsuri as the Love Pillar swung her sword and twisted her body in numerous, complex techniques which slashed through mass attack after attack. Even despite that, some of the attacks came close during the barrage, tearing apart her white hakama and placing a few cuts here and there. But Mitsuri still stood defiantly at the end of the barrage as she pointed at Zohakuten with a declaration.
"The Demon Slayer Corps is my home," she exclaimed, "and I won't allow you to take the lives of my friends or hurt them anymore! So don't think you can ignore me, because I am your opponent!" While her cute features made it slightly hard to take her declaration completely seriously, the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes made it clear she wasn't playing around, doubly so when some strange flower birthmarks appeared on her skin.
"Then you can all die together!" Exclaimed Zohakuten as he tapped his drums, ordering his dragon heads to continue unleashing more attacks. Mitsuri answered in kind, her speed and strength somehow even faster than before as she cut an elegant swath through the incoming attacks.
"This is our chance!" Azakeru yelled in Subaru's mind, "While she's holding this one back we need to kill the main body now, before he gets away!" The Matagi was about to question how they should find him when Azakeru used her Willow's Windpath to create a trail leading straight to her original progenitor. "As long as he's close I should be able to track him down, but you have to hurry, the sun is about to come up!"
Subaru didn't need to be told what the implications of that could mean as he bolted forward, his gaze lingering on Nezuko for a moment before he spoke in midrun. "We need to kill that bastard now, so hurry!" Nezuko and Genya were up at this point and fell in right behind him, their wounds mostly gone thanks to their regenerative abilities. Tanjiro also tried to follow but stumbled a bit due to an injured left foot he'd gotten from the recent barrage.
"I'll catch up," said Tanjiro, "just get going and take him out!" The three did as requested and raced after the shrimp of an Upper Moon. The blasted bastard was fast, though, which wasn't so surprising given what a coward he was. They chased him for almost a solid minute, slowly closing the distance but not quite fast enough for Subaru's tastes. 'My legs still hurt a bit from the earlier move and the cuts in it aren't helping. But if we don't end this now, things could get even worse.'
With his resolve set, Subaru set his feet in preparation. 'Breath of the Rifleman Fourth Form: Mountain Stride!' He thought as he rocketed forward, grimacing from the pain in his legs as he accidentally overshot his target slightly. Thankfully, he was able to plant his feet and stop in front of the demon, drawing his knife in preparation for stabbing the minitature monster. "HEEEEEYYYY!" Exclaimed the Upper Moon as Subaru's knife was about to impale him.
A sudden growth erupted from Hantengu as a gnarled hand seized his wrist. "Can't you see that I am pitiful!" Raged the Upper Moon as an eight foot, enlarged version of Hantengu sprouted forth and grabbed Subaru by the throat and arm. "Don't bully the meeeek!" Subaru was quick to draw his revolver and fired into the demon's midsection, but his torso was incredibly durable, causing the bullets to drop off harmlessly despite the close range.
Hantengu opened his mouth then, the symbol for 'Resentment' plain on his tongue. But before he could unleash the familiar sonic attack, the bottom of an entire tree slammed into the back of his head. The impact was enough to make him loosen his grip allowing Subaru to free his arm and slice the thumb off of the large hand holding his throat. He then dodged out of the way of Upper Moon Four swiping at him as Nezuko dropped in and slashed the top of his head, setting it on fire as she did so.
Genya leapt in next, stabbing his sword into the neck of the Resentment manifestation while Subaru reloaded his gun. This only enraged the demon as he swatted Genya aside with his now fully regenerated hands before opening his mouth for another sonic attack. Subaru foiled his attempt by jamming his entire Webley into the mouth of the Upper Moon, unloading all six rounds in an attempt to poison the body. "Subaru it won't work," said Azakeru in his mind, "that monster is just another manifestation, little different than the wood cocoon he was in earlier!"
"You're fucking kidding me!" Subaru thought back as he yanked his hand out, nearly losing it to the Upper Moon's jaws as Hantengu clamped down on his revolver. The Matagi jumped away to avoid his large hands, producing his sleeve pistol as he fired both rounds into the demon's eyes, blinding him. The demon thrashed about, panicking at the lack of sight as Nezuko leapt in and clawed at his neck, again setting him on fire.
Hantengu thrashed about wildly, trying to pull the demon girl off of him as he bumped into trees and the occasional large rock. Subaru readied his knife, looking for an opening among the Upper Moon's thrashing limbs. The moment he saw one, he charged forward and attempted to jam his knife into the main body. What he didn't see, was the cliff they'd managed to stumble over too during the melee.
He felt his feet leave the ground as the three of them went tumbling, falling several feet until they impacted onto the grassy soil below. Some of the impact on Subaru was nullified thanks to him landing on Urami, the name of the current manifestation, but Nezuko took the brunt of it as Urami landed on her. But the Resentment manifestation wasn't down for long as he threw Subaru into the cliffside and began running away. The Matagi coughed as he staggered to his feet, noting some of the wind was knocked out of him.
'My body's pretty beaten up, I have to finish this now,' he thought before noting a glimmer on the horizon, 'no, not yet! I still need just a little more time!' It was honestly conflicting, go after the demon and make sure he was dead or get Nezuko to safety before the sun came all the way up. It froze his feet to the ground in a moment that seemed to last forever as the conflict raged on inside of him.
'Mother, brother, sister what should I do,' he thought frantically as his eyes kept glancing back and forth between Hantengu and Nezuko. In the end, his heart won out as he moved to help the girl he loved. As he was about to help her up, though, she gave him a strange look, as if she was smiling a sad smile under her bamboo muzzle. It was as if she was trying to say 'it's okay'. She then gave the Matagi the biggest surprise of his life by kicking him high into the air away from her.
For a brief moment, all Subaru could do was fly through the air dumbfounded as his brain seemed to short circuit. It was a long moment as he tried to fathom why she'd done that until his body turned in the air to face Urami. And that's when he saw them, three swordsmiths loaded down with bundles of swords trying to flee from the Upper Moon, and failing as the demon was nearly upon them. "Damn it Nezuko," he cursed in midair as he righted himself, "why couldn't you have thought about yourself just this once?"
He knew he himself was being selfish to think that. After all, her kind and gentle nature was one of the things he absolutely loved about her and that it was her decision what to do with her life. Even so, she had to know what she was asking of him right now. Which was why the mass amount of anger he felt the moment he touched the ground, was as much directed at himself as Hantengu. "Breath of the Rifleman Sixth Form," he said as he shifted his stance, putting all of his strength into the next attack, "STRIDE OF YAMI NO KAMI!"
Urami stopped and turned his head at what appeared to be an explosion sounding behind him and immediately regretted it. Coming right towards him was a sight which terrified him more than he ever thought possible, even more than Muzan himself as he gazed into eyes of absolute fury, mistaking him for a Shinigami as he turned to run. But there was no chance to escape, as soon as he turned around he felt agony as the blade of death slammed into his back, driving into his heart as even the very handle entered his being. As the poisoned blade pierced the true body of Hantengu, he swore he heard a voice which simply said 'there is no more escaping for you'.
And then everything went white as a blizzard seemed to erupt from out of nowhere. The frightened Upper Moon looked around frantically, trying to make sense of what was happening. After a few moments, he realized he was in a snowy forest currently in the midst of a terrible winter storm. And something about it seemed familiar, while also foreign. One thing he was certain of, this storm was filled with utter fury.
"Well this is both convenient and annoying at the same time," said the voice of what sounded like an irritated girl.
"It's fine as long as he doesn't escape," said the voice of Subaru Genjirou, "but we need to finish this quick." Another blast of snow revealed two figures then, both of them staring down at the Upper Moon with stoney expressions. But the polar fury behind their eyes was unmistakable.
"A-Azakeru," said a frightened Hantengu, "you're alive, you're actually alive."
"Yeah no thanks to you, cowardly old man!" Exclaimed Azakeru as she grabbed the Upper Moon's head as if she was going to crush it. "I remember everything now, from your time as both a human and a demon and I'm as disgusted now as I was then. Even after gaining power all you can do is whine about how nothing is ever your fault, and now it's finally caught up to you! It's fitting that the one who finally ends you is doing it with the aid of your granddaughter!"
"But I, I mean I," Hantengu tried to argue, "I was just-."
"Don't even try," said Subaru, "I've seen the memories too. This, all of this, is on you!"
"No," said another voice as a shadow emerged from Hangentu's form, "it was I, Urami, who was responsible!" The much larger form of the Resentment manifestation reached for them, stopping upon Subaru jamming his knife in its throat.
"Azakeru finish it!" Yelled Subaru as he worked to hold back the emotional manifestation.
"With pleasure," said Azakeru as the memories started surging forward from her mind. It all began in the Muromachi period with a family of seven, soon to be eight. Hantengu was the grandfather and Sekido was the dour son-in-law married to his daughter. They bore him four grand sons that went by the names of Karaku, Urogi, Aizetsu and Zohakuten.
Azakeru was on the way to be the fifth child and had been expected any day. Then bandits came and attacked the village where they lived. The mother was taken hostage with several others by the bandit leader who offered Hantengu a deal. In a moment of weakness, Hantengu accepted only for the bandit leader to change his mind and end the life of his daughter before their eyes.
Amazingly, Azakeru was born safely after that despite what had happened. But the family was never the same again. Sekido became even more distant than before, Karaku ran away and wound up joining a Buddhist hermitage, Aizetsu was conscripted by the local daimyo to be a soldier in his army, Urogi broke down mentally and Zohakuten simply grew to hate Hantengu and Azakeru, blaming them for the death of his mother and saying they should've died instead. Likewise, Hantengu came to blame his entire family for what happened instead of himself and eventually abandoned all of them.
In a tragic twist, Hantengu became a bandit of all things and developed a split personality due to his deteriorating mental state. Over time, Urami was born, a separate personality that never took the blame for what he did, so neither did Hantengu. Then one day, he attempted to mug a man with red eyes and was promptly slashed. Amazingly, he managed to survive the cuts and became a demon while in prison due to some of the leftover blood from the man, escaping his own execution.
Afterwards he hunted down his family members and devoured them, forming the basis of his blood demon art of 'Emotional Manifestation'. From that day forward, Upper Moon Four Hantengu was born. "And at long last it's caught up to you," said Azakeru, "you can't run anymore nor can you deny who was really responsible for all of it. Honestly it's fitting that someone who grew stronger from your blood is the one to do it."
"That's right, isn't it," said Hantengu, "the day I attacked him and his father, some of my blood got into his eye. To think he not only survived but was able to manifest you in his mind."
"And he's taken far better care of me than you ever did," said Azakeru, "so for once in your life, don't run away from your responsibilities."
"There is no running away this time," admitted Hantengu, sounding older than he'd had the entire time, "I've no one left to blame but myself. I know you probably won't forgive me, dear granddaughter, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a poor grandfather and sorry for being such a coward. The only thing left for me to do now, is accept my punishment."
Azakeru nodded her head as the Upper Moon's body began to be absorbed into her hands. "No, no you can't," raged Urami as Subaru struggled to hold him back, "this isn't on us, we're demons, we have to feed! We're more powerful than ever before so don't just quit now-GAAAAGH!"
"Just shut up and die already," said Subaru as he plunged his knife even deeper into the Resentment Manifestation's mouth, silencing him as his form was also absorbed by Azakeru. When they were finally gone, the snowstorm of Domain disappeared, leaving Subaru there sitting on his knees. Azakeru had returned to his mind, knowing now was a good time to leave him be. 'I finally did it,' thought Subaru as he looked at the knife in his hand, 'Mother, brother, sister, I finally killed the bastard responsible for your deaths.'
And yet, all he could feel right now was pain as he slammed his knife down into the ground with tears streaming from his eyes, because it didn't matter! He'd always known it would take everything he had to kill an Upper Moon like Hantengu, but he never thought he'd have to sacrifice anyone to do it! 'Nezuko,' he thought, noting that the sun was high in the sky, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' There shouldn't have been any reason to hesitate, he should've taken her and ran from the sun, giving her no time to react to what was happening.
He knew she wouldn't have been happy with his decision, but at least she would've been alive. He was a hunter after all, he could've tracked down the bastard later. Instead, he hesitated and Nezuko wound up making his decision for him. Now here he was, broken down and sobbing as the whole reason for him and Tanjiro becoming demon slayers in the first place had disappeared into ashes. He'd tried being strong for the both of them for so long, tried being the fighter who'd help pull them through even the most difficult times.
But he couldn't do it anymore. At this point, even killing Muzan wouldn't matter because Nezuko was gone. "Tanjuro, Kie, Takeo, Hanako, Shigeru, Rokuta, Tanjiro," choked out Subaru, "I'm so sorry. Your daughter, your sister is dead because of a worthless hunter like-." He was interrupted by a pair of soft hands cupping his face as a girl brought her lips to his.
For a moment, he thought he was dreaming or seeing a ghost. Because the sun was most definitely up and to his knowledge they had yet to succeed in their mission of making her human again. But there was no mistaking the gentle eyes before him and the hands that held his face. "Good…..Morning…..Subaru," she said as she ended the kiss, the bamboo muzzle having fallen from her mouth, "why are…you….apologzing?"
"Nezuko," said Subaru as he grabbed onto her hands, "you're alright. But you're not human either."
"Nezuko's…..alright," she said with a smile as Subaru leapt forward and hugged her, his tears of despair turning into ones of absolute joy. If he was being honest, he really didn't care how she survived the sun or how she was talking now. Be it a miracle or some other strange happenstance, all that mattered was that Nezuko was alive.
"Nezuko! Subaru!" Came the voice of Tanjiro as the eldest Kamado sibling came bounding over to them, hugging both the hunter and his sister.
"She's alright Tanjiro," said Subaru, "she's alright." The slayer nodded his head in understanding as tears of joy also fell from his eyes. While it came at the end of a painful struggle, the three would remember this as one of the happiest moments of their lives since this all started.
At last, vengeance is Subaru's and Nezuko is okay! And at last the swordsmith village arc has come to an end, but what awaits our slayers next? And once again, my apologies for the lateness of this chapter, weddings and bugs tend to slow one's progress. But, hopefully this chapter was worth the wait so as always feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as both demons and slayers begin preparations for their next battle. 'Til then!