Final Selection

When Tanjiro woke up, he found himself in his futon. He quickly got up, neck slightly turning to see his master, with mask off, right besides him. The old man smiled at him, "It's nice to see that you're awake."

Before Tanjiro could utter a word. Urokodaki-san placed a wrapped-up paper tied with a single red string in front of him, "Consider it a gift, for passing my test." He told him before standing up and exiting the room.

The redhead blinked his eyes, not quite believing what was in front of him. So carefully, he picked the gift up with his hands before gently untying the red string. He opened it to find new clothes.

It's a kimono that looks similar to his mentor.

Tanjiro quickly got up and wore the clothes gifted to him by his master. His mask was besides his futon, so he quickly took it and wore it on the side of his forehead. When he was done, he went out of his room to find his master already in the living room with sword in hand and his tengu mask on his face.

"If you want to make it to the final selection, you better start running." The old man told him while throwing one of the nichirin blade that he owns to Tanjiro who stood there with a puzzled expression when he caught the sword.

He casted upon a confused look, "Isn't the final selection a week from now." He pointed out and silence filled the air.

"Tanjiro, please." He sarcastically said with an emotionless voice, "You've been asleep for a week. Today is the final selection."

Tanjiro blinked for a moment before yelling in shock, "Ehhh!" He stared at his master before quickly running towards the door.

Before he could slid the door open, an object wrapped in furoshiki was thrown at him. Tanjiro quickly caught it and when he realized what it is, he flashed him a large smile. He saluted at him and was about to run out the house when he stopped.

"Please tell Makomo and Sabito that I'm thankful for them helping me train!" He grinned before exiting the house.

"..."

The travel to Mt. Fujikasane was uneventful and by the time he made it, night had settled in. He was happy that his master had packed him three bentos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He had already eaten the last two bentos and he decided to eat the last when he's in the waiting area.

'I'm finally here.' The Kamado thought, as he walked along the path of the mountain.

He let out a puff of breath before letting out a smile.

The area was covered in trees that had wisteria flowers around them to the point they seemed to glow, giving the entire area a purple tint.

'It's amazing that there are so many even when they're out of season.' He thought to himself looking around, as he continued walking forward.

Not much later he saw a large staircase that might lead to the waiting area. Once he took the first step of the stair, Tanjiro exhaled loudly to calm down his nerves. With fire in his eyes, Tanjiro finally continued on his path.

When Tanjiro reached the top of the stairs, he saw a clearing where the others that were going to undergo the Final Selection were.

There were two red poles acting as a gate right after the stairs and a path made of rock to a small shrine a few feet forward with two other red poles acting as a gate for it. At each side of the shrine there was a set of stairs leading further up the mountain and several rocks at the sides of the clearing that some people were sitting on or leaning against.

'There are so many.' The red haired teen thought, looking around at the people gathered. 'They all seem to be around my age.'

Seeing that it hasn't started yet. Tanjiro went towards a unoccupied large rock. He sat on it and pulled out his bento from the green cloth. His stomach rumbled, telling the boy that he's really hungry. He pulled the lid open and took out a pair of chopsticks.

He clapped his hands and said, "Thank you for the food."

He slid his mask to the side of his face before dining in. While eating Tanjiro felt stares directed at him which he just ignored. Maybe they were just hungry, so they're looking at him like that.

He could offer them some, but his body needs all the nutritions it could get or it won't function nicely.

When he was done, he put back the bento box back to the green cloth with the rest of its empty brother and sister. He tied it neatly and his movements halted when his brain starts to decide whether he should bring this with him or not...

Finally, he decided to bring it since he does not want to waste those bento boxes and those bento boxes belong to Urokodaki-san.

He slid back his mask and slouched in his seat.

Seeing that he had nothing to do, he begins to study the other participants. Most of them were the same age as him or older. Most of those people were boys, but there were girls to.

Tanjiro nodded to himself. He knew that girls are strong, he even heard stories from many males that girls are really scary. One man even pulled him aside and taught him how to treat a woman right. It was a dare given to the man from his friends...

He was about eleven years old back then.

He's getting off topic here. Tanjiro shook his head to get out of memory lane. His eyes glanced at every participant before stopping at a raven haired girl wearing a pink kimono who was talking to a blonde haired kid, or it is the blonde who's doing the talking while the girl simply smiled politely at him.

The redhead quickly noticed how the girl's smile is kinda off. Her serene face seems to hide something deeper than what she portrayed on the surface.

From the distance Tanjiro can see how little the light in her eyes are. He noticed that the blonde haired boy bid sadly goodbye to the girl before walking away. Did the Kamado imagined it? Because he saw dramatic tears flowing from the blonde's eyes. He chuckled at the two teens interaction, quite amused at the scene in front of him.

He sat up when a new scent appeared in the air, "Everyone…" Two voices called out in unison making Tanjiro look towards to the direction of the entrance to the forest.

'Those girls… no, one is a boy.' Tanjiro corrected himself, noticing their scents.

Most people there probably made the same mistake when they saw the two, they looked like almost identical twins wearing the same purple kimono with flower patterns and a green obi, the only real difference between the two was the color of their hair, the boy having black hair and the girl white hair and a headpiece in the form of a wisteria flower placed on the boy's left side and the girl's right.

"We thank you for coming here tonight to the Demon Slayer Corps Final Selection." The two continued, still talking at the same time.

"There are demons imprisoned here on Mt. Fujikasane, captured alive by the Demon Slayer swordsmen, and unable to leave." The girl explained.

"That is because wisteria, which demons hate so much, blooms year-round from the bottom to halfway up the mountain." The boy continued.

"However, there is no wisteria from this point on, and so demons abound."

"You'll need to survive here for seven days to pass the Final Selection."

"And now, be on your way." The two finished in unison, giving a small bow.

Without exchanging words, everyone began to climb up the stairs to the testing area. Tanjiro sprung out of his seat on the boulder before joining in with the rest of his age group.

"..."

In a lot of ways, Mt. Fujikasane was almost identical to Mt. Sagiri, trees covered most of the area, the grass was high enough to reach a person's ankles, and large rocks were strewn around.

The two major differences Tanjiro could notice at first glance were that the air was nowhere near as thin as in the mountain he trained in and that there weren't any traps around.

He shivered, as he remembered all the dangerous traps that he was caught in.

Of course, even without traps, this mountain wasfarmore dangerous.

'Survive for seven days… that's all I'm going to think about.' The red haired teen thought, as he moved around the forest, making sure to pay attention to his surroundings. 'First, I'm going to survive tonight and scavenge some food. Once the sun comes up, the demons won't be able to do anything, so I'll rest. Besides I' m more active in the night.' He wasn't tired at the moment whenever night came, his body felt more energize than in the morning, so if he had to survive seven days then he'll have to get as much sleep as he can during the day, but he needs to find a spot that is shaded and a little far away from the forest.

His red crimson eyes caught the moon in its sight.

'So, I'll have to head east, I'm gonna make my way to where the sunlight will hit first!' With those thoughts, he began running in a straight line towards the east.

He had been moving for some time when his nose picked up a certain scent.

The Kamado immediately stopped moving and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He quickly leaped to the side when two demons tried to ambush him from above. Before those two demons could recover, Tanjiro quickly sliced their head when he leaped towards them.

When their heads fell on the ground. The red haired boy then send the two demons a prayer. He knew that not all demons chose to be like this, he knew that some demons are also victims like him and his sister.

After that he made his way towards East again. Deciding that he was going on a slow pace, Tanjiro quickly jumped up to one of the high branches of the tall tree before leaping off to another one. He traveled like this for an hour until he finally found an empty clearing with a small pond.

Tanjiro leaped off the branch and was about to land on the ground when a person suddenly appeared out of who knows where, "Ah!" He screamed before crashing to the stranger. He winced in pain a little bit before opening his eyes.

His eyes widened when lilac coloured eyes met with his own crimson coloured eyes. A blush appeared on his cheeks, "I'm so–" He quickly straightened up his back and was about to apologise when something collided on his back making him unbalanced.

His eyes widened when he was about to fall once again a little bit closely to the girl when his arms quickly shot down onto the grassy ground to stop himself from falling.

He sighed in relief before glaring at the one who collided onto his back. He didn't see that person because he entered the woods again, but he heard his voice.

"The mighty Inosuke will kill you weak demons!" Tanjiro felt a vein popping out on his forehead. He sighed again and was about to ask if the girl was alright when he realized their position.

Tanjiro was above the girl's body and if he hadn't had his arms supporting him up. He would have squeezed her with his weight; also, add the fact that he was a little to close to a girl. Both of them were sprawled on the ground and Tanjiro felt his face getting hotter.

Not wanting it to be awkward, he quickly pushed himself up. "Sorry!" He apologised while lending out a hand, "I wasn't watching where I'm landing."

The girl on the ground only smiled at him in response and Tanjiro felt his hand sweating a little bit since it was left hanging. What does the girl wants? Does she wants his help or not? Why isn't she responding?

Not wanting for her to stay on the ground forever, he leaned down to grabbed her right hand. He saw a brief look of shock on the girl's face before returning to her neutral look. Tanjiro pulled her up and once she was standing. He quickly said an apology again to her before running off towards the direction of the pond.

When Tanjiro was near the body of water, he cupped his hands together, so he could gather a decent amount of water to bring up to his lips and drinking it.

After he was done quenching his thirst, Tanjiro quickly moved on. He fixed his blade first before brushing up his hair and wearing his mask properly.

He then continued on his way towards east. While walking Tanjiro admired the beauty of the night sky, as he gets lost in his own thoughts. He stopped when his nose caught a new scent, one so disgusting that he covered his nose out of reflex.

"What's this rotten smell?" He thought out loud.

A second later, he heard someone yell and saw another participant running.

"No one ever told me! I never signed up for this!" He yelled as he kept running away while glancing behind.

Tanjiro quickly moved behind a tree and peeked around it to see what had that person running away. He immediately moved behind the tree, his expression morphing into one of horror and his breath becoming shallow.

It was one of the morphed type demons and he's eating another participant. Tanjiro watched as the demon swallowed the boy whole before turning to other participant who was still running towards Tanjiro's direction.

"What's this morphed demon doing here anyway?" The participant said out loud before tripping on the root of a tree. "They didn't tell us!"

The only word that could describe the demon was monstrous; his skin was green and he looked like a giant, fleshy, moving boulder with multiple pair of arms wrapped around himself and a few of those been used to walk instead of its legs, assuming it still had legs, there was no way to tell among the various arms that covered his body.

Screaming in terror, the downed participant got to his feet and made a run for it.

The demon didn't have any intention of letting him get away, though. He extended some of its arms forward and they seemed to merge together before shooting off against their target.

One of them caught the boy by his ankle and pulled him back, lifting him off the ground. Not wanting to waste any moment, Tanjiro took a huge leap towards the demon and cut off its hand that was holding the boy.

Tanjiro landed easily on the ground while the boy he just saved fell on his back a few feet from him, he quickly moved towards him.

"Stand up, we need to go!" The Kamado said helping the boy to his feet and the two began to run away.

It seems like he made the demon angrier, so he quickly pulled the boy he had saved back to him. He heard the boy yelp in surprise, but Tanjiro knew that the other boy was to slow. The redhead easily lifted up the boy before throwing him away towards the west.

He didn't know where the boy landed, but his faraway from this morphed demon.

He quickly jumped off the ground to dodge a hand that almost grabbed him. 'Water Breathing—' Using Total Concentration Breathing, he poised his sword to strike, as it was enveloped in water. He landed on the demon's hand and he begins to run up on it.

When multiple hands shot towards him, Tanjiro leaped to the air again. He then spun in mid-air while using his sword to cut off all the arms the mutated demon had shot against the participant. 'Second form: Water Wheel!'

Many hands fell on the dirt below. Once his foot landed on one of the demon's arms, Tanjiro quickly rotated his body forward, thus he rolled on the demon's arm to soften his fall. He then quickly stood up and sprinted towards the demon's neck.

He was about to perform another attack when a hand appear from his right side. Tanjiro quickly dodge it by back flipping off the large demon that he used like a spring board. He landed on the hard ground and a few meters away from the morphed demon.

"That move?" The morphed demon begun, its eyes widening. "You're one of Urokodaki's students. That's why the mask you're wearing seems familiar."

Tanjiro stared at the demon is shock. It knew his master and it seems like the demon's face morphed into a sadistic one. His eyes widened when he smell something coming from the ground that he was standing on. Tanjiro quickly leaped towards to the side when the demon's morphed hands shot up from the ground.

"Did you really think I would let you run away?" The demon asked, his tone conveying the smile that his arms covered. "You're one of Urokodaki's students and I hate that man very much."

"What's your deal!" Tanjiro yelled, as he dodged and sliced a hand.

"Hehe, he must have grown conceited after those cowards, numbers twelve and thirteen were killed." The monster said in a mocking tone, momentarily stopping his rampage.

"What? Twelve and thirteen?" The red haired boy asked out loud.

"The two little foxes that came here before you, they were the first to give me a good time." The demon elaborated. "The eleven brats before them already faded from my memory but I remember those two very well; the brat with the pinkish hair and the scar near his mouth, his blade broke when he tried to cut my neck." The demon's expression suddenly then turned into a sadistic look," But I had killed him and it was really good."

The demon then added, "Then there is the girl with the flowery kimono. She was fast, but I quickly teared off her limbs and killed her quickly." After the morphed demon's whole story, it started laughing.

Tanjiro stood there shock, his eyes widening. 'Makomo and Sabito were really–' He halted all his thoughts when anger overcame him. He slowly closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down when he realized that his breathing exercises wasn't working. His eyes were downcast and added the fact that his mask hid his face.

He looks menacing with a scary aura surrounding him.

Before the demon could attack again. Tanjiro disappeared in a blur before appearing above the demon's head. Its eye widened in shock and it send multiple morphed hands toward the redhead.

Silently Tanjiro took a huge breath, as he evaded all the hands by maneuvering his body in the air and sometimes jumping off or sliding on the demon's hands. When he was near the head, Tanjiro took a huge breath and he breathed in a lot.

Tanjiro focused his eyes when he saw the opening thread that will connect his attack.

"Second Form: Modified - Lateral Water Wheel!" He shouted and water appeared once again around his blade, but when he grew closer to the neck while slashing some of the demon's hand, he changed his breathing and the water around his sword suddenly combusted into flames.

Tanjiro quickly done a horizontal 360 spin the air and the fire in his sword followed his moves. The flames formed a small fire tornado around him and his attack connected towards the demon's neck.

The demon's head fell off, rolling a few times until it stopped on its side looking at its crumbling body.

Tanjiro landed on the ground, behind the demon's large crumbling body. He took another huge breath, as he tried to relax. He quickly pulled his mask to the side, as he felt himself suffocating. His right eye turns into a slit once again, so Tanjiro desperately tried to calm himself down.

His nose caught the whiff of human blood and demons at the same time. Their fragrance were surrounding him even if they were far away from him.

Why was he born with a good sense of smell again?

He took another calming breath and his right eye slowly morphed back to its original form. The suffocating smell of blood was now gone, but some still remained in the air.

Tanjiro quickly straightened himself up. He went towards one of the demon's fallen hands and he recalled his outburst from before and he almost got his anger consume him. He stared at the demon's hand and a sense of understanding came over him. He leaned down towards the hand to hold it, as he send a small prayer to it.

Once it had disappeared into nothingness. Tanjiro stood up and went back to his path towards east. While he was walking he heard the sound of children's voices and when he turned his head to look behind him. There was nothing there, but he heard them clear.

"Thank you, Tanjiro." A small smile appeared on the teen's face.

"..."

It has been three days since the Final Selection began, in that time a good number of candidates has died at the hands of the demons inside the wisteria prison, some put up a fight before being defeated, some got caught off guard and didn't have a chance to fight back, some tried to run but were caught by whatever demon was chasing them.

Of course, there were those that didn't die at the hands of the demons and have managed to stay alive so far, some having an easier time than others.

In Kamado Tanjiro's case, he was doing fine all things considered.

After his victory against the Hand Demon he continued moving east in order to be under the sun as soon as possible.In the night he was really active, but in the morning. It seems like the sun would drain his energy...

So, in the morning he would rest a lot under the shade and faraway from the might be possible secluded places that a demon can attack him. Tanjiro noticed that his skin was littered in red rashes whenever he was out in the sun for to long and they would disappear when he rested in a shaded place or night time.

"..."

'It's the last night.' Kamado Tanjiro thought, already moving even before the sun finished hiding. His sword was outside of its sheath, as he ran with his guard up.

While some would think that after defeating the Hand Demon the rest of the Final Selection would be easy, those people would have been wrong.

While certainly not as strong, fighting other demons for seven nights in a row took its toll on the red haired teen's body, not to mention that it rained during the fifth day, darkening the sky and effectively allowing demons to roam around during daytime, albeit not as recklessly as during the night.

While he rested as much as possible, he could only relax to a certain extent considering he was still in the demons' territory.

His clothes were covered in dirt and no critical wounds covered his body. His mind then recalled how he questioned all the demons, yet nobody gave him an answer. Are they really that afraid of that monster?

Demons have been attacking him from the last few days; however, luckily, there didn't seem to be many demons around this night, whether it's because the other participants killed them or they were aiming at some other prey was anyone'lllll, but Tanjiro wasn't complaining.

Even so, he didn't allow himself to be at ease, he constantly checked his surroundings to make sure there were no demons around and it's all clear. Surving on his own from three years made him learn things and add the fact that the mons—

He shook his head to snap his mind out of his memory lane.

'How much longer?' The Kamado thought, stopping for a second and placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath (he was maintaining total concentration for three days now. It was for training purposes!). 'If my memory serves me right, I should be close by now… eh?' Just then, he picked up a scent making him look up.

"Wisteria?" He thought out loud, looking at the flowers that surrounded the entire area and sighing in relief. "I made it."

Allowing himself to relax, he sheathed his sword and began to walk down the stairs to the clearing where every participant that passed should be waiting.

At the clearing that served as the entrance to the testing grounds there were only two people that arrived before Tanjiro.

The boy's face quickly turned red when he realized who the participant was. The participant was a girl with black hair tied into a side ponytail with a butterfly ornament, she had pink lilac eyes and was wearing a pink kimono; her left hand was raised and a butterfly was resting on top of her fingers.

Strangely, there didn't seem to be any dirt on her clothes despite both of his and her encounter on the ground—he started choking on his own spit at what he was thinking.

Also her small smile seemed too relaxed for someone that just survived seven days in that mountain. Tanjiro stared at the girl with half lidded eyes. There was something more to this mysterious flower. He maintained his eyes on her for five seconds before moving to the other participant who Tanjiro remembered from the waiting area.

It was the blonde and his face look serious. He was wearing a yellow haori with a triangle pattern, unlike the girl his clothes and face were covered in dirt but there weren't any visible wounds on his body.

Tanjiro worried about his mental health, though, as he saw him muttering something to himself non-stop. The blonde has certain mood swings. He felt a bead of sweat drop on his forehead at the blonde's quick attitude change from serious to worry.

Ignoring them for the moment, he saw a table placed near one of the rocks with medical supplies on top, approaching it he saw a note that said 'for anyone that needs them'.

Tanjiro wasn't injured, so he let it be.

The sun then began to rise and only one other person walked down the stairs.

He was another boy, around Tanjiro and the blond boy's height with inward-slanting eyes giving him an angered appearance, his black hair was styled into a buzz cut with a clump of messy hair left on the top of his head and a large jagged scar running over his right cheekbone from his ear to over his nose. He is wearing a purple, sleeveless yukata over a plain black shirt with long sleeves and white pants.

Much like the other two males, his clothes and face were covered in dirt but like the blond, there weren't any visible wounds on his body.

It looks like that's all of them.

The redhead wondered about the boy he had saved and he felt like it was his fault that the boy might have died. He was snapped out of his thoughts when two familiar voice spoke at the same time.

"Welcome back." They greeted in perfect unison, as the boy and girl that explained the Final Selection a week ago walked to stand in front of the small shrine; a table was set up with a light purple blanket covering something on top of it.

"Congratulations."

"We're pleased to see that you're safe." The girl and the boy spoke in turn.

"So? What am I supposed to do now?" The boy with the scar asked rudely. "Where's my sword?"

"First, we shall issue you all uniforms." The white haired girl began. "We will take your measurements, after which your ranks will be engraved."

"There are ten ranks in all…" The black haired boy continued.

"Kinoe" The girl said first.

"Kinoto."

"Hinoe."

"Hinoto."

"Tsuchinoe."

"Tsuchinoto."

"Kanoe."

"Kanoto."

"Mizunoe."

"And Mizunoto." The boy finished.

"Currently, you are at the lowest rank, Mizunoto." The girl informed them.

"And our swords?" The boy with the purple yukata asked again. His rudeness was aking Tanjiro a little bit irritated, 'Please be patient, kid.' He gritted his teeth to not shout out his thoughts.

"Today, we will let you choose the ore for your swords; however, the swords will take ten to fifteen days to complete."

"But first…" The white haired girl clapped her hands twice and suddenly everyone heard the sound of wings fluttering.

A moment later four birds descended from the sky, three were crows one landing on top of Tanjiro, the girl and the black haired boy's arm each while the blond boy got a sparrow, for some reason.

Tanjiro find the other boy and sparrow duo quite funny since the sparrow started to say that his owner looks like a wimp. Of course the boy didn't know what the sparrow said since he didn't know how to talk like a bird.

"We will now assign each of you your own Kasugai Crow." The girl said.

"Kasugai Crow?" Tanjiro repeated, getting over his amusement and looking at the bird perched on his arm.

The girl simply stared at the bird maintaining her smile while the boy with the scar seemed to glare at his and the blond looked dubiously at his own bird

"These Kasugai Crows can be used primarily for communication."

"Did you say 'crow'?" The boy with the yellow haori asked, looking at his bird. "Isn't this a sparrow, though?"

"Don't give me that crap!" The black haired boy yelled, scaring the blond and stopping any sort of answer they were going to give him.

He forced the bird off his arm and walked forwards while glaring at the two siblings.

"Who the hell cares about some stupid crows?" Without any warning, he hit the white haired girl on top of her head and grabbed her from her hair with his right hand so she was looking at him in the eye.

The white haired girl simply stared at him, not making any sound despite just being hit.

"I want a sword, you hear? Gimme one right now!" He ordered, still holding onto her hair. "The Demon Slayers' sword! The color changing sword!" Before he could go on, Tanjiro quickly stepped in to intervene.

"Take your hand off her!" The redhead said. "Or else I'll break your arm!"

The boy with the buzz cut glared at him with a 'are you serious?' expression while the blond seemed to debate whether he should do something and the black haired girl simply looked at the scene, her smile not wavering in the slightest.

"Who the hell are you?" The boy with the purple yukata sneered. "Let's see you try it!" He challenged.

The Kamado didn't answer, he simply took a breath and began to apply more force to his grip.

The black haired boy's expression quickly morphed into a pained one and he let out a grunt as the red haired swordsman did good on his threat, making him let go and take a few steps back while tending to his wounded limb, his expression a mix of pain and anger as he glared at Tanjiro.

Tanjiro stood on his ground, receiving the angry gaze and looking back with a stern expression.

"Are you finished chatting?" The black haired boy asked as if the two had just been talking about the weather.

When no one gave a response or argued, he removed the cloth on top of the table, revealing several pieces of ore.

"Now then, please select an ore." He said after walking to stand at the side of the table. "The steel for the sword that will annihilate demons and protect you will be of your own choosing."

The four walked up to the table and stared at the pieces of ore.

'They're asking us to choose, but how are we supposed to pick one out?' Tanjiro thought. 'I've never seen an ore before and I can't tell the difference anyway.'

"I have absolutely no fucking clue."The scarred boy thought out loud, looking from one ore to the other, trying to decide.

Tanjiro let out a loud sigh, as he watched the other participants choose their own ores. Before turning back to his own musing.

'Should I just pick one at random?' The Kamado wondered when his nose picked up on something.

Out of all the ores on that table, one had a scent that he found more pleasant than the rest; he is not completely sure if this means its better since his sense of smell hasn't led him wrong yet.

With a mental nod, he approached the table and picked up the ore that 'called out' to him.

To Be Continued...