Chapter 4: Into the Swamp
Tanjirou reached the town in question the evening of the next day.
As he walked, trying to locate the demon by smell, he passed by a young man looking haggard and smelling like his soul was ripped out of him.
Tanjirou looked on as he stumbled away.
"Kazumi-san looks devastated." he heard a woman talk.
"He was right beside Satoko when she was taken." another woman said.
"It's so unsettling that this happens every night."
"Yes. I hate this…"
"Always after nightfall, young girls are going to get abducted again."
The women looked truly scared and desperate.
Tanjirou turned and followed the man.
"Excuse me, Kazumi-san!" he called out, catching the man's attention, "I would like to inquire about the specifics of this situation. May I?"
The man stared for a moment, before he turned.
"Follow me, please." he said weakly.
Tanjirou fell into step with him.
"Why do you want to know? Are you police?"
"No. I am a member of the Demon Slayer Corps." Tanjirou replied seriously.
"I was walking her home when it happened. Satoko was here when she disappeared." he said pointing to a spot on the road, nightfall having fallen as they made their way there, "You might not believe me…"
"I believe you." Tanjirou said, "I believe what you've said."
He kneeled down and sniffed the road.
'Even though there are still some lingering traces of the demon's scent, there seems to be something else mixed in it…Seems very strange…' he thought, as he tried to pinpoint the demon's location, 'There!'
He got up and started running towards the scent.
"Why did you suddenly…?!" Kazumi-san exclaimed surprised by his sudden movement.
"The scent has gotten stronger! The demon has appeared!" he explained, leaping onto the rooftops.
He ran to a small alleyway and jumped back down to the road.
'Here! The demon is here. There are two scents. The scent of a demon and a human woman.' he looked around him, 'But I can't find them anywhere. The place where the scent is the strongest…is here!'
Tanjirou stabbed the road right below him.
"Yaahhh!" the demon screamed.
A swamp started forming and slowly a young girl emerged from it.
Tanjirou quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her free, jumping away from the demon, that emerged after her.
'A caster demon.' he realised.
"Where did you take all of the abducted women?" he demanded.
Suddenly the demon started grinding its teeth, before submerging once more.
"Kazumi-san, please hold her and stay by my side! As long as you are within my range, I will be able to protect you both." he said, passing him the unconscious girl.
He drew a calming breath and took a defensive stance.
'The demon might emerge from the ground or the walls. There's also the possibility that it might also emerge out of thin air from the sky. However, when the demon stays hidden, its smell does not vanish!' he closed his eyes, focusing, 'It's here!'
'Sun Breathing; Ninth Form…' he started, only to stop, as he noticed there were more demons, reaching out to grab him, 'Three of them! Don't panic. You can take them all.' he thought, 'Sun Breathing; Tenth Form: Shining Ray of Grace.'
The hit caused the demons to pull away, but not die.
'My strike was too shallow.' Tanjirou frowned, 'It didn't manage to hit their necks, because they stay close to the ground, inside their swamp.' he returned before Kazumi-san, 'The three demons smell the same. Demos generally don't work together. This should be a single demon splitting up into three. I need to protect those two and kill the demon. I might have to enter the swamp, or drag them out to do that.'
"Ah!" Kazumi-san called out.
'Total Concentration. Sun Breathing; Second Form: Azure Heaven.'
He cut off the demon's arm.
'Still too shallow. Sun Breathing; Twelfth Form: Flame Waltz.'
He struck twice, once vertically, followed by a horizontal slash.
The demon pulled back.
'I can't pursue them too far. I need to protect those two, so I can't swing my sword carelessly.'
"You bastard!" the demon with the two horns cussed at Tanjirou, "Stop getting in my way! That woman will go stale! That woman is already sixteen now. If I don't eat her quickly, she's going to lose that freshness!"
Tanjirou had a disgusted and angry look on his face.
"Don't fret, my duplicate." the one with the single horn spoke up from behind, "Oh well, never mind. There's always tomorrow night. I've already eaten a lot of sixteen-year-old girls from this town. The meat of every single one of them was delicious. I've already had my fill."
"Well, I'm still not satisfied! I want to eat more!"
"You monster…that girl you kidnapped yesterday night…Give Satoko back to me immediately!" Kazumi-san called.
"Satoko? Who are you talking about?" the body with the single horn replied, "If that girl's hairpin is in this collection, then that means I've already eaten her." it said, opening his uniform's coat to reveal several hairpins.
Kazumi-san's scent told Tanjirou that Satoko-san's hairpin was there.
"What have you done?" he said with a strange calmness.
"The ones killed are all women! If they continue living, they will become uglier and nastier…which is why I ate them!" the second body said, "You should be thanking us!"
"Enough." Tanjirou sliced the demon's mouth.
His mother's, Nezuko's, Hanako's and Shinobu's images flashed in his mind, quickly replaced by Kanae-nee's.
Suddenly, the third body attacked and Tanjirou managed to pull back just in time, the demon striking the wall.
'Sun Breathing; First Form: Waltz!' He cut off the demon's arm, 'This demon is so fast at sinking below the earth.'
The second body came at him from the wall.
'He appeared through the wall. Not good! He's too close!'
He quickly ducked under the demon's hands that made a scissors motion, as if to cut off Tanjirou's head.
A hand appeared from bellow him, Tanjirou barely managing to avoid it, finding himself between the first body and the hand of the third.
'Total Concentration…Sun Breathing; Fifth Form: Fire Chariot.'
He jumped in the air and found himself behind the first body, cutting its head off.
The other two bodies went under and Tanjirou followed them into the swamp.
"I'll be back! Try to avoid any swamp patches if they appear!" he called to Kazumi-san, "Tennouji, please guide them!"
'I'm inside the swamp. That means these are…the clothes and items of the girls it has kidnapped? It went so far as to kill innocent people like this! Unforgivable!' he frowned.
"Do you feel the pain, you little brat?" the first body laughed, "There is almost no air within this swamp. And also…your body being entangled by the darkness of the swamp feels very heavy, doesn't it?"
"You cannot move like you were above ground. You had it coming! How stupid of you just jumping in here like that!" the third body grinded its teeth.
'Don't underestimate me! Sun Breathing is a difficult breath to master. It is hard on the lungs. Each time I use it, it feels like all the air is sucked out of me. And also…I've trained with other breath users. I was taught by them and in different terrains. The air from the top of Mount Sagiri was even thinner than this. And also…I've got an attack that's able to unleash its power in water, too.' he thought, watching them shocked move freely in fast zigzags, inside the water, 'They're able to move within the swamp like that?! It doesn't matter. I'll kill it when it closes in. In an unsecure place like this with no secure foothold, the only sword style that's able to be used…creates massive and strong whirling currents through a fierce twisting of the upper and lower body…' he took the right stance and waited, 'There! That's the scent of the threads.'
The demons closed in.
'Total Concentration. Water Breathing; Sixth Form: Whirlpool.'
The two bodies got caught in the current, their heads cut off.
'The whirlpool forms a giant and sharp blade, destroying everything around it and slicing open anything caught in its way.' he thought, as he watched the last two bodies disintegrate.
Something caught his eye. He reached and grabbed a piece of cloth, then he kicked his legs and started his ascent out of the bog.
'Ugh. This is becoming unbearable. I need to surface!'
Suddenly he was spat out on the road women's clothing items and accessories, coughing as he tried to get air back in his lungs.
"They had such an oily scent, that reeked of decay. A putrid odor of evil." he rubbed his nose, as if to remove the scent from his memory, "Exactly how many people did it kill?" he wondered to himself before turning to Kazumi-san, kneeling before him and the young woman, "Kazumi-san. Are you okay?"
"…I've already lost my fiancée…Do you think I'd be alright after that?"
"Kazumi-san…no matter how much you have lost…you don't have a choice but to continue to live. No matter how severe of a blow you took…" he said softly.
Kazumi-san grabbed him by his haori.
"What do you know about any of this? You're just a kid!" he raged.
Tanjirou smiled kindly at the man, softly removing his hand from him.
"I'm leaving." he said softly, "Take this. I hope…Satoko-san's hairpin is still there. And could you please make sure this young girl makes it home safely?"
Tanjirou stood up and bowed in thanks to Kazumi-san.
And then he turned to go.
"I'm sorry!" Kazumi-san shouted from behind him, "I've said something that was overly cruel to you! Please forgive me! I'm sorry…"
Tanjirou turned and waved goodbye, before walking away.
Notes: 02/08/21 Edit; as batmanuchiha pointed out, Sun Breath's Twelfth Form should be 'Flame Waltz'. When I first looked into the names of the Breathing Styles, it was translated simply as 'Waltz' as well, and hadn't checked since. It seems that the forms for Sun Breathing have changed order, so if you are confused why they appear out of order here, it's because I haven't gotten around to correcting them. I might do it in the future, when the story has been completed.