Thank you all for being patient with me. I know it's hard waiting for chapters to be written and released, especially if it's months in between however I have been busy with life but I'm very grateful that my readers are for the most part very understanding and VERY patient with me. I hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Again if there are any misspellings, errors, etc. do please let me know.
It took Tanjiro a moment to adjust to the sudden shift of light; blinking as if he had just come out of a darkened house to a bright sunny day. Looking up at the sky, it was nearly noon. He had to be in a dream but it was still very disorienting. Before, he hadn't known it was a dream, but now? He felt a little nauseated from the sensation of being inside a moving train, to suddenly not; from night to suddenly day…his brain and body were confused. This dream, this world…it felt real. He swore he could feel the gentle breeze coming from the east on his face and in his hair. However when he tried to smell the air to get his bearings; expecting to smell the flowers that littered the garden and fresh air…all he could smell was leather, lacquered wood, musty air, and all the others that had been in the passenger car. It seemed that his nose couldn't be fooled this time in the dream; although it had been somewhat fooled within his own. He supposed it was harder to detect that you were dreaming in your own…dream…huh…no wonder that boy had such a hard time convincing him. Never mind, he had more important things to worry about; he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
He looked around the area. He wasn't sure who's dream this could be. It could be Zenitsu's…or Rengoku's. Inosuke might be a possibility, but unlikely. He looked around and saw that this was a front yard garden of a house. It was a very beautiful house, looked very respectable, and as Zenitsu would point out: "very expensive". He wasn't sure where to even start in this world, it wouldn't hurt to start with this house. He went up to the door and knocked on it. As he waited for anyone to answer, he got slightly anxious about waiting. It wasn't like he was simply visiting friends and had all the time in the world. For all he knew the demon could be attacking the others as he was standing here waiting for possibly nobody to answer a door that didn't exist. Pushing aside all the etiquette he knew and that came naturally, he tried the door handle and opened the door; to his surprise, it opened and he quietly stepped inside.
Inside the house was just as, if not so, more exquisite than the outside. Porcelain jars with beautiful landscaping artwork or patterns adorning them, jade and ivory carvings; large Nihonga artworks and scrolls adorning the walls. Some even depicting Demon Slayers fighting demons…this must be the right place. Resisting the deeply embedded habit to take off his shoes, he stepped inside and walked into the house, looking around for whoever this place belonged to. Perhaps this was Zenitsu's masters' house? Zenitsu did seem to be more partial to…expensive things. However, after walking around and listening, he could hear a familiar voice in the backyard. He made his way towards the voices and soon came up to Rengoku training (clearly) a younger family member with a bokken. Perhaps a younger brother? The family resemblance was…uncanny. He should have gone out and started to explain the situation to Rengoku, however, he found himself captivated with the training and how…nostalgic it felt. He missed teaching his younger siblings new things...he just missed them in general. He sighed and hoped that Rengoku's dream wasn't much like his own.
"Rengoku," he called out while stepping outside, "we need to talk; it's urgent." Rengoku turned to face him, Tanjiro half expected him to be upset at him for breaking and entering (what he assumed to be) his home, however, his smile grew all the brighter at seeing him.
"Ah! Kamado my boy," he said very loudly while walking towards him, "we were just talking about you!"
"But Rengo—" Tanjiro started but was silenced when Rengoku harshly slapped him across the back. While it was meant to be a friendly gesture, it knocked the wind out of him. He also wondered why it hurt so badly. 'I thought you couldn't be hurt in dreams.'
"Senjuro," he said addressing the younger boy, "this is my newest Tsuguko, Kamado Tanjiro."
"That's wonderful Kyojuro," Senjuro said with a soft smile. Kyojuro started to laugh as he started to slap Tanjiro's shoulder. (Much to his displeasure, it kinda hurt.)
"We'll make a fine Hashira out of him yet," he said with a laugh, "look how well Mitsuri is doing! Ah, enough about that though, Senjuro, continue your exercises while I talk with my Tsuguko."
"Um, alright," he said looking at his bokken a little nervously, "but what if I don't do it right?" It seemed that Senjuro while related to Kyojuro, was somewhat the opposite of him. While Kyojuro was loud and boisterous, he seemed to be quiet and meek; unsure of himself.
"If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask me. I won't be long, and we can continue training in a moment." With a small smile and nod, Senjuro turned away to continue his exercises. Tanjiro was just about to say something when he felt another harsh slap on his shoulder. For the briefest moment, he wondered why the pain didn't wake him up.
"Come Kamado," Rengoku said brightly, "let's sit over here while we discuss your training!" Tanjiro sighed, quietly wondering as he walked with him how he was going to convince Rengoku that all this was nothing more than a dream. Everything felt real. Was he going to have to resort to what the other boy had done? That made him feel sick to his stomach. It was bad enough fighting and killing demons, but killing someone you knew? Even if it wasn't real…he wasn't sure if he could do it. As they sat down on the porch, he quietly wondered how to explain the situation to Rengoku.
"You'll begin by moving in with my family and myself," Rengoku said loudly as he continued to watch Senjuro train, (At least that's what it looked like he was doing, his gaze was facing that general direction.) "then we'll begin our daily regimen of—"
"Rengoku please," Tanjiro said looking up at him, "you have to listen to me. There's something wrong here. This is all a dream."
"Now I know this is a lot to take in at once," Rengoku said with a smile in his voice, "but it'll be no different than your training with your recruiter! "
"No…Rengoku," Tanjiro said with more urgency in his voice.
"If you're worried about boar friend, don't worry! I'll make him my Tsuguko as well! I'm always up for a challenge! About the yellow one though. If he were human, I would, however, I have a vow to fulfill and—"
"You're dreaming," Tanjiro interrupted, trying to not sound like a crazy person, "All of this is a dream. We were on the Mugan Train, on a mission, remember?" Rengoku finally looked over towards Tanjiro and looked at him, he still had a large smile on his face, but the smile wasn't as bright in his eyes anymore and looked a bit more serious. "We were all sent on a mission to investigate why forty people went missing. Then after the conductor punched our tickets, we all fell asleep. This is all a dream induced by the demon who is responsible for the missing people. We're all in danger because the demon has recruited humans to enter our subconsciouses to mentally cripple us." There was an uneasy pause. Tanjiro wasn't sure if Rengoku believed him or not. After all, in his own dream, he thought his Demon Slayer life had been itself a dream. He looked over at Rengoku, who was looking towards another part of the house.
"Look I know this is hard to believe, but—"
"No," Rengoku said somewhat quietly, "no, I believe you."
"You…you do?" Tanjiro said looking over at him. It couldn't be this easy to convince him.
"I can see you don't believe me," Rengoku said with a small smile, "well…at first I had my small doubts, but when I spoke with my father," he paused and looked away, Tanjiro only could guess what he was going to say; that his father was pleased to see him maybe, "and it was just the same as usual."
"How was that?" Tanjiro asked. He almost regretted asking it, it felt like he was prying into a hurtful family affair. The smile was still on Rengoku's face, but there was a sudden smell of sadness in the air, strong enough that it must have been in the real world.
"No, don't tell me," Tanjiro said quickly, "forget I said anything. I shouldn't have pried." There was a pause in the conversation where they awkwardly watched the dream Senjuro swinging the sword. He looked over, smiled, and waved at Rengoku. He smiled and waved back, folding his arms afterward, and sighed.
"So," Rengoku said loudly, "how do I wake up from this?"
"Well, the only reason I woke up," Tanjiro said putting his thumb and forefinger to his chin in thought, "was because the one who entered my dream for some reason had a change of heart and decided to help me. He told me what to do and how to enter others' dreams. One of the ways to wake someone was to make them realize that they were dreaming, the other was to…um, kill them within the dream." Rengoku seemed amused at the last statement.
"Ha! That would have been interesting indeed!" Tanjiro couldn't help but smile as well, he knew he probably couldn't beat Rengoku.
"I still need to find the intruder in your dream," Tanjiro said, "but I think they might be—" he paused when the world seemed to dim and shake at the edges of his vision. He looked around, the world seemed…less sharp, less real. It seemed that Rengoku was beginning to wake up.
"I have to go," Tanjiro said as he stood up, "I have to do something before you wake up." He quickly bowed and ran out the open gate of the yard and down the alleyway.
'I wasted too much time with Rengoku,' he thought as he ran, 'now I don't know how much time I have to find the person in his subconscious. I don't even know how to—' he skidded to a halt when in the middle of the road was the only thing he could describe as was a tear in the air that lead to another plane of existence. As he was staring at it, the world seemed to grow even dimmer and fuzzier at the edges of his vision. He was running out of time. As much as he wasn't sure about the tear, he didn't have the time to question it further. He stepped into the tear and looked around. The area was vast, hot, and intimidating. The ground was on fire, but being near the flames did not burn. Being a dream, he did not question the lack of realism. As he looked, he saw in the distance a small red dot and below it, a green one. The green one…looked like the color that the girl was wearing that was being choked by the sleeping body of Rengoku. That must be her! He ran as fast as he could towards her. As soon as he reached her, he saw that she was conscious as she looked over at him. She seemed to be stunned on the ground as there was a deep invisible handprint gripping her neck. She was having a hard time breathing as foam had formed at the corners of her mouth, but other than that, she seemed unharmed. Above her was something fiery red, and seemed to be made of glass. Inside the redness, something seemed to be flowing around, like liquid flames. It also slightly pulsated in a steady rhythm as if it were breathing and alive. Was this Rengoku's Spiritual Core? Despite himself, he reached over towards it to feel it; it felt warm but not hot and he could even feel a slight heartbeat.
'Come on Tanjiro,' he told himself as he pulled his hand away, 'we don't have time for this. She needs help and we need to go.' He bent down to pick her up when he thought he heard something in the near distance. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the ground was breaking apart; it and the surrounding flames were gathering into a form of some kind. Something told him they needed to get out of there now. He picked up the girl and looked towards the entrance, not liking how fuzzy and dim it now looked. When the girl saw the state of the portal, she seemed to understand the urgency of the situation and her grip on him grew tighter. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but couldn't. Instead, she just pointed towards the portal and angrily looked at him. As he ran towards the portal something large and hot suddenly blocked his path. He had to jump back to not get burned (he didn't like how real that felt) and squint at the pillar of rock and fire that now stood before him. He barely registered that the girl in his arms was now sputtering and coughing. It seemed that the grip on her neck was now gone.
"Y-You id-diot," she sputtered out in a very gruff voice, "you tou- *cough* -uched the core! Yo-ou're never too touch the co-ore directly!"
"Why?" Tanjiro asked without taking his eyes off the forming fiery mass.
"That," she said pointing towards the now formed mass, "is why!" The mass now resembled a large intimidating Ka-Riu dragon, made of red-hot stone and fire. It glared down towards the two intruders and reared its neck back in preparation for an attack. Tanjiro barely managed to dodge the snapping jaws of the Ka-Riu, the sound reminded him of wet stones popping in a firepit.
"Just run, you idiot," the girl yelled in his ear, "forget about the subconscious guard, we need to leave now or we'll be trapped here for the rest of this guy's life!"
"Understood," Tanjiro said as he jumped over a claw swipe. As he ran towards the exit, he thought he could run through the fire on the ground since it hadn't hurt before, but now the flames felt just as hot as they would in the real world. He side jumped away from the flames but didn't realize the Ka-Riu was right behind him; only when he felt the blooming scorching pain in his back and went tumbling down on the ground scraping across the floor he realized how close it had been. He barely registered what happened when he saw out of the corner of his eye a wall of white-hot flames barreling towards him. He just had enough time to roll out of the way. He scanned the area quickly, seeing the girl was trying to get up and the Ka-Riu was charging towards both of them. As he got up and ran towards her to pick her up again, he saw the entrance was worryingly dim. He even wondered if they were already too late. Scooping her up again, he could feel the Ka-Riu charging towards them as it roared. Looking ahead, the portal was nearly nonexistent now. It was now or never. As he ran and jumped towards the fading portal, he half expected to pass right through it and land just beyond it. However, amazingly, they successfully went through the portal right just as it faded away.
He looked over his shoulder to see what happened but only saw the world going very indistinct and dark. He let go of the girl and was about to ask her a question but the shock of the ground suddenly disappearing beneath him made only a surprised gasp come out. He blindly grappled and kicked in the air, trying to get any form of baring, but as there was no wind flowing around him, and only the sensation of falling; he immediately felt dizzy and sick. When he slammed into the ground hard on his side, all the wind was knocked out of him. He slowly rolled onto his back to lay there and breathe in deeply, wondering if he broke his arm it hurt so badly. He experimentally raised his arm and rotated and moved it around. Everything seemed fine, like it never even happened. He sighed and closed his eyes. The pain was still there but nothing seemed physically broken. He breathed in deeply, now realizing that while he still could smell the lacquered wood and leather; he now could smell cold dampness and a muddy, earthy smell. Slowly sitting up, he looked around. It was dark, but there was enough light (how that was possible, he wasn't sure) for him to realize he was inside a cave. He slowly stood up, still hurting from that fall, and looked up. There wasn't any hole in the ceiling where he could have fallen from.
'This isn't the real world Tanjiro,' he smiled and laughed at himself, 'don't apply logic to this.' He stretched his back, noting the feeling of scorched clothing, and looked around. The cave he was currently in was currently relatively small and linear. He took in several sniffs in the air to get any ideas, but all he smelled was the cool, crisp smell of the cave with a hint of mold. There must be an underground river inside the cave then. He just picked a direction and walked. He had a pretty good idea of whose' dream this was, as there was only a fifty-fifty guess. Why a cave though, was anyone's guess. He walked around for several minutes, not finding anyone or anything, his eyes fully adjusting to the darkness. He tried several times smelling the air, but all he could smell was damp and clay. Slightly worrying; as he didn't have time to wander around. Hopefully, if he was thinking this right, Rengoku was now awake and could watch over them. He paused to look at the now branching paths, trying to decide where to go when he thought he heard voices echoing in the distance. He couldn't pinpoint the direction they were coming from, however. He closed his eyes and tried smelling the air again, hoping that he could smell something that would help him. Thankfully, there was a faint lingering smell of the others and of…himself? How could that be? He hadn't come this way.
Regardless, he now had a lead to show him the way. He followed the scent trail, hoping to find whoever this dream belonged to. Eventually, he started hearing sounds, human-like sounds. It sounded like someone was…singing something? He ran forward to hopefully catch up to whoever was in the cave, weaving between the stalagmites. He soon came upon a large open hall, full of wonderous stalagmites, stalactites, flowstones, and columns. He couldn't help but stop and look around. The caves he explored with his father and brothers were pretty, but nothing compared to this. As he looked around and walked, he bumped into someone.
"I'm sorry," he said out of habit, "I wasn't looking where—" The rest of his words quietly died in this throat when he saw who he bumped into. He had bumped into…himself…well, kind of.
"Oh, that's fine," the dream Tanjiro said with more…enthusiasm than was necessary, "no harm done at all!" Tanjiro looked up and down his dream self with the smallest hint of a grimace on his face. His dream self looked…well, somewhat silly. He was wearing only his black and green checkered but oddly sleeveless haori and dressed as…A tanuki, he was dressed as a tanuki; leaf, ears with his earrings, tail and all. The tanuki mask he was wearing (at least he thought it was a mask) made it look like he had beady eyes. That wasn't true, he didn't have beady eyes…didn't he? Well, whatever, he had a pretty good idea know whose dream this was based off…this.
"Um," Tanjiro started, trying not to stare too long, "I'm trying to find Inosuke," as soon as he said that, the dream Tanjiro's eyes lit up with adoration, "do you know where I can find him?"
"The boss," dream Tanjiro said excitedly, "well of course I know where he is! He's bravely tracking down the master of this cave to challenge and defeat it."
'Yeah, this is certainly Inosuke's dream,' Tanjiro smiled to himself, 'my dream self is talking like he would.'
"Look, um…Tanjiro—"
"Ponjiro," the dream one said with a soft smile. Tanjiro paused.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"My name is Ponjiro, pompoko." Tanjiro was very close in arguing this less-than-true fact but chose not to argue against dream logic; including the ridiculous appearance. He couldn't help but think he was stuck in the middle of a Manzai, forced into the role of the tsukkomi. He simply closed his eyes, took in a calming breath, and exhaled slowly.
"Okay," he said slowly, "could you please take me to Inosuke, Ponjiro?" He felt like he was back years ago playing a silly pretend game with his younger siblings when they were much smaller. It was odd but slightly nostalgic.
"Of course I can," Ponjiro said over excitedly pointing down a tunnel, "I was sent out to smell out the master of the cave! I will guide you to the others! Come on," he said with a very overly exaggerated wave of his arm, "follow me!" As Tanjiro quietly followed Ponjiro with a soft grimace, he couldn't help but feel slightly offended by this…exaggerated depiction of himself. He certainly did not act like this at all in the real world. He sighed; regardless, he needed help to find Inosuke to hurry and wake him up. As they walked, (Well…he walked, Ponjiro did this weird exaggerated skip-hop thing then randomly dashing ahead then striking a strange pose. 'Just don't look at him,' he told himself.) Soon enough he could faintly hear Inosuke proudly chanting in time:
"Expedition Team! Expedition Team! We're the Cave Expedition Team!"
"Oh thank goodness," Tanjiro sighed as he blindly rushed forward to catch up towards where he believed Inosuke was, "Inosuke! Inosuke wait up!" He could hear people marching up ahead, then pause when he had shouted at them; good they had heard him. He rounded a column, grinned when he saw Inosuke and Nezu—
Oh, Heellll no. No, she was NOT wearing THAT!
"What," He said very angrily, pointing towards the dream Nezuko, "on earth is my sister wearing, or should I say bearly wearing!? What, did I guess wrong, and am I in—" Inosuke turned to look at Nezuko.
"What's wrong Monchoro," he asked, annoyed at his stupid question, "it's perfect!"
"Perfect?" Tanjiro asked, he felt himself losing his temper and would probably completely lose it depending on what Inosuke next said.
"Of course," Inosuke said placing his hands on his hips, "no stupid itchy clothing to hinder movement! I don't even know how she could fight with all that extra stuff on her." Tanjiro ran his tongue over the top and bottom of his teeth as he mulled over what he'd said. He didn't seem to have any ulterior motive and didn't smell any odors that would point to any lies. He sighed and closed his eyes. Even so, he still didn't like it one bit.
"Anyway," Tanjiro said, realizing he got distracted, "we need to—"
"Boss," Ponjiro interrupted as he pointed towards Tanjiro, "this guy wanted to talk with you! I think he wants to join us!" Tanjiro looked over at Ponjiro. 'Where's a harisen when you need one?' he quietly thought to himself. However, Inosuke looked over at the two of them with interest while the dream Nezuko was quietly sitting, drawing circles in the dirt.
"Two Underling Number Ones is much better than just one," Inosuke said, "you, Hambatcho," he said pointing towards Tanjiro, "you're now Underling Number Four!"
"Inosuke," Tanjiro said a bit urgently, trying to get the situation back under control, "wait, you need…" but a sound made him pause and look up towards the ceiling. Something was crawling up there. It made him slightly nervous but when he saw a spot of familiar yellow, he knew what or specifically who it was.
"Boss," the dream Zenitsu said as he crawled down a large column, pointing towards one of the tunnels, "I found the master of the cave! He's asleep about a mile from here. I can hear him breathing from here even now." There was something different about this dream Zenitsu, more so than his own dream counterpart, however before he could dwell further on it his train of thought was interrupted.
"Good work Underling Number Two," Inosuke said as he turned towards the tunnel, "come on Expedition Team," he said with a wave of his arm, "we're moving out!" Tanjiro cursed under his breath, he was wasting valuable time. As much "fun" as this dream was for Inosuke, he had to wake him up somehow. However, it seemed that it was going to be hard to convince him.
"Inosuke wait," he called out as he tried catching up to him, "we need to talk! This isn't real, this is—"
"You can't distract the boss as he's leading us," the dream Zenitsu told him as if it was extremely obvious, "only speak up when you have something important to say." It was odd to hear him speak so…slowly as if he'd just woken up.
"I have something important to say Zenitsu," Tanjiro said a little short, turning towards him. Feeling a bit bad for snapping at him (he shouldn't he quickly thought, it's just a dream after all) he half expected to hear Zenitsu whine about 'how mean' he'd been to him. However, the dream Zenitsu chuckled.
"I'm Risitsu," he said while pointing towards himself. Tanjiro finally took a good look over at him. Well…he did kina look like a demonic squirrel now didn't he? Bucktooth and all. (Inosuke probably got that idea from that offhanded comment Zenitsu had said long ago.) It was strange to see such…exaggerated parts not only on himself but on Zenitsu as well; droopy eyes, longer arms, and…wait. He nearly did a double-take; this dream Zenitsu looked nothing like the real world one. This one's legs were...
"Oi! Underlings," Inosuke called out, "keep up!"
"Right boss," the dream duo called out and ran ahead to catch up, leaving Tanjiro behind. He sighed again, getting distracted over nothing again. However that did kinda bugged him, and Inosuke did have an uncanny ability to know things he didn't. It wouldn't hurt to ask, he supposed.
"Look," Inosuke said excitedly pointing towards something, "there it is!" As Tanjiro caught up with the group and looked towards where Inosuke was pointing, he flinched and instinctively reached for his sword. Ahead was…a strange hybrid creature. It was the Mugen Train only now alive, gently breathing with large metallic centipede legs. What was once its' headlamp seemed to be the main eye, now closed in its sleep. The other lights were eyes as well; very disturbing. It was absurdly long, coiled around stalagmites and so deep into the cave to the point where one couldn't see its end. Even if it was a dream, Tanjiro thought it was insanity to want to take it on.
"All right, let's go," Inosuke yelled out pointing towards the train, "it's time for a showdown!"
'Roger that, Boss!" the two underlings happily called out as they charged forward. Tanjiro realized that this was now or possibly never to make Inosuke realize this was a dream. Before Inosuke could charge forward, he quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Oi! What are you doing Underling?" he said looking over at him.
"Inosuke, this is a dream," Tanjiro said as he tugged on his arm, trying to make him listen to him, "this isn't real. Remember that we were—"
"I know that," Inosuke said pulling back on his arm in a huff. Tanjiro blinked, processing what Inosuke just told him.
"You do?" he found himself asking him.
"Well duh," Inosuke said putting his hands on his hips looking hard at him, not hiding his annoyance, "I always know when I'm dreaming! I always have good dreams, and this one is really awesome, but you're ruining it."
"But Inosuke," Tanjiro started, but was interrupted when the ground rumbled when the Train Monster ran past them and they both had to jump away to avoid the attack.
"You're making me miss everything," Inosuke growled out, "either help or get out of the way."
"You need to wake up now," Tanjiro quickly said before he ran off, "we're all in danger from the demon on the train!"
"I'll wake up when I'm good and ready," Inosuke said, now fully angry, "now get out of my way!" In an angry huff, he pushed Tanjiro to the side to charge towards the Train Monster, but when he did, he pushed him towards an underground sinkhole. He slipped and he was now sliding out of control towards the hole. He tried to stop sliding, but the ground was too wet and he couldn't get enough grip. Soon enough, he fell through the hole and into the darkness.
He fell a little way before landing hard on his rear, but instead of coming to a stop, he was sliding down something wet, like a small river. He continued to slide down in the dark, trying his best to stop with his arms and legs only to end up hurting his hands and feet in the process. However, he abruptly came to a stop when the narrow tunnel forked and he popped out the larger path. He tumbled a little way and came to rest in a crumpled heap. He slowly sat up and looked around. He was now completely lost. He sat more comfortably on the ground and just stared at the ground, feeling a bit disheartened. He sighed, now what was he going to do? He paused and closed his eyes, taking in a deep, calming breath.
'As long as Inosuke is aware it's a dream,' he thought to himself, 'then that's all I can hope for. I can only hope I have enough time to find the intruder before they find the Spiritual Core. Get up,' he told himself as he slowly rose from the ground, 'we've got work to do.' He groaned as he straightened his back, that fall hurt more than he realized. There was only one way to go, so he started to walk down the tunnel. After walking down a few tunnels, he eventually came to one where the path diverted into four possible ways. He folded his arms, trying to think of which way to go when he felt like someone was behind him. He turned and saw…
"Inosuke," Tanjiro said surprised, "what are you doing here? I…I thought you were fighting that…whatever it is." Inosuke didn't say anything. He was oddly still and quiet, not like the usually spirited person Tanjiro was used to. Tanjiro moved a bit closer towards Inosuke, tilting his head.
"Are you okay, did you get hurt?" He looked over his body, he didn't see any wounds on him. As this wasn't any normal dream he wasn't going to take any chances. He did notice that the mask looked a bit odd near the neck. As he looked closer, it was only then when he noticed that the mask blinked. He stepped back; this wasn't Inosuke. The smell was damn similar, but it wasn't him. The Not-Inosuke leaned forward to look hard at him; it was even smelling him. He didn't like how there was foam formed at the corners of his mouth. Now Tanjiro realized the reason the neck had looked so odd, there was extra fur that draped over his shoulders and down his back. It blankly stared at him as it smelled him; Tanjiro wasn't sure what was going to happen. But soon it just leaned back and just kept staring at him. Tanjiro was just about to ask something when both of them heard something down one of the tunnels. The Not-Inosuke suddenly went into a rage and ran past Tanjiro, grunting and roaring. Wondering what that was about and having no better leads, he followed the Not-Inosuke. It had run far faster than he had (it seemed to know these tunnels inside out) and lost sight of him, but soon he heard a girl scream out in terror and the creature roar.
"Get away from me you naked freak," the girl yelled out, "just leave me alone! You shouldn't be after me! I haven't even found the core!" That must be the intruder, the other girl tied to Inosuke. He ran forward, trying to catch up to them. The twisting tunnels made it difficult, however, and eventually, he realized he had lost his way again. He tried smelling for the girl, hoping that he could find her that way. Instead, he smelled fresh air. Curious about that, he decided to follow it instead. He soon came to a small opening that had a light beyond it. He passed through it and paused to look around.
This new area…was beautiful. It was a small underground pond surrounded by tall rimstone pools and clear, still water. In the middle of the small pond was a small island with a few trees, bushes, ferns, and moss, fed by the light that came down through the small opening high above. Nestled within the trees was the Spiritual Core. He couldn't help himself, he wanted to go look at the core. He crossed the shallow pond and went up to the core. The core swirled like smoke with cobalt blue and pine green to light turquoise. He looked around the area; it felt so…calm; safe. If this had been the real world, he would gladly lie down and take a nap. Rengoku's subconscious had been expected, like a mirrored reflection of who he was. Inosuke's was a pleasant surprise. Perhaps he didn't know his friend as much as he thought he did.
He looked at the core again. He was very tempted to touch it, but he had learned his lesson from Rengoku. He didn't want to summon any guardian to attack him. A sound derailed his train of thought and he looked up and towards it. It was the girl; she had stumbled onto him. She was looking very worse for wear. Her dress was torn in places, she had cuts on her face and arms, her bow halfway undone. She was breathing heavily, clearly exhausted.
"Are you all right," Tanjiro called out, wading back across the pond to see if she was, "you look hurt."
"That psycho naked boar," she panted as she adjusted her shirt, trying to cover as much skin as she could, "I don't know why the guard is active! We're not even in the subconscious! I don't know what's going on!" Tanjiro helped her up and she looked around, finally noticing the core that gently floated beyond the pond.
"Wait, there it—" her words were interrupted when the subconscious guardian, the Not-Inosuke, roared and charged towards the two of them. The girl gasped and hid behind Tanjiro. The guard was foaming and drooling as it was trying to get at her, but Tanjiro kept blocking it. Even he was surprised it wasn't going after him; perhaps it didn't see him as a threat and only saw the girl as one. Tanjiro could feel that the girl was pulling him towards the pond, but he was too busy pushing the guard away, trying his best to protect her while not getting bit at the same time.
'Damn it,' he thought, 'I know what she's trying to do. I can't let her get near the core, but I can't let her get hurt at the same time. What am I going to do?' Suddenly she let go of his back and charged towards the core, determined to destroy it.
"No!" Tanjiro yelled out. She was right next to it when he tackled her to the ground, aware that something fell along with them. She was struggling hard, but he quickly had her pinned to the ground. He undid her bow the rest of the way and tied her hands behind her back. He was slightly worried that the guard was going to attack her while she was down, but when he looked over at it, it was fussing over the Spiritual Core that had been knocked out of the air and onto the ground. It was gently looking over its surface, making sure there weren't any cracks or any form of damage done to it. He moved to look at it, but the guard moved it away from him as if he would try to damage or take it; like a little kid with a toy.
"I'm not going to do anything," Tanjiro said, raising his hands, "I just wanted to see if it wasn't damaged." He grabbed the squirming girl and picked her up, the guardian was glaring hard at both of them, still cradling the Core.
"We're going now," he said, backing away from him, "I'm sorry that the Core got hit. I hope it isn't damaged at all." As he was about to turn away, the guard slowly showed him the Core; still swirling the colors just the same as before. It wasn't damaged at all. Tanjiro breathed a sigh of relief with a small smile.
"Thank goodness it's okay," he sighed, then turned towards the girl, "I don't know exactly what would have happened if you'd damaged it, but I promise you, you'd have sorely regretted it." She only humphed in reply. He pulled her along as they left the area. As he dragged her along (as she refused to walk properly) he wondered what to do now.
'Perhaps now all I have to do is wait for Inosuke to wake up,' he thought, 'I caught the intruder, Inosuke knows it's a dream…I just hope he wakes up soon.'
"Gompatcho," Inosuke called out, making the two of them jump, "where have you been?!"
"Oh god, there's TWO of them now?!" the girl whined out.
"Huh?"
"Look, never mind that," Tanjiro said as he looked over towards Inosuke, "how did you get over here?" Tanjiro swore he could see him swell with pride.
"I told you Soichiro," he said with a laugh, "I can do whatever I want in my dreams! I just wanted to find you and bam! Here I am!"
"Oh, of course," the girl mumbled to herself, "no wonder the dream and subconscious are intertwined. We're in a lucid dream."
"Lucid dream?" Tanjiro asked looking over at her, both ignoring Inosuke's overly passionate recount of his 'awesome' defeat of the master of the cave.
"It's a dream when the dreamer is aware that they're dreaming," the girl scowled and looked away, "and sometimes you can control and even change elements of the dream, like environment or storyline. The subconscious and dream are one when it's a lucid dream."
"OI! Stop ignoring me!" Inosuke yelled out towards the two as he marched towards them.
"Inosuke, enough," Tanjiro said sternly causing him to stop approaching, "you had your fun; you need to wake up. Now." Inosuke looked stunned, bristled for a bit, then folded his arms in a pout.
"Fine." He said in a humph. The world around them suddenly became dim and blurry, much like in Rengoku's dream.
'That was fast,' Tanjiro thought as he looked around them. As the world faded around them, Tanjiro suddenly remembered something.
"Wait, Inosuke," Tanjiro said quickly.
"Ugh, 'wake up'—'wait', make up your fucking mind already, Kentaro!"
"Untie my arms," the girl said in a panic as she looked around the darkening area, "hurry and untie my arms!" Normally Tanjiro wouldn't accommodate such a request, but she was in such a state of panic and remembering what the girl had told him from earlier, perhaps it was best to do as she asked.
"I just wanted to ask," he said as he untied the girl's arms, "why on earth did we look like that? We looked so…different, especially Zenitsu. Why is that?"
"Huh," Inosuke said tilting his head and unfolding his arms, "What do you mean? What differences," he said, ignoring the blank look Tanjiro gave him, "I don't know what you mean by that, but Chuitsu…well, you'll soon see for yourself."
"What do you mean by—" but like when Rengoku woke up, the ground disappeared beneath him as the world went black. Again Tanjiro was falling in the windless darkness, however this time it wasn't as surprising. He tried to orient himself so he wouldn't fall onto his side or back, but this was harder than it seemed. He kept looking what he thought was down (or at least what his stomach told him was down, it felt like it was up in his chest) trying to see if he could see the approaching ground, however, he suddenly landed hard onto…something. It felt like ground, but it was still just as black as the surrounding area. As he slowly got up (he hadn't felt like this since the night at Lady Tamayo's house) he looked around.
The area was just as black as ink just like when Inosuke and Rengoku woke up, but the air—it felt heavy and stale. Like a house that hadn't been aired out in years, if ever. Did something go wrong? Was…was this what happened if someone was trapped inside the subconscious as the first girl had warned? No, it couldn't be; he looked around and didn't see the other girl that had been with him. If this wasn't that then…what was this? He walked forward, his footsteps were strangely quiet as if he was walking on those plush western-style rugs. As he walked, he wasn't even sure if he was making any progress. There were no visual markers, no way to tell if he was moving forward. He was looking around more so than usual. It was strange, but he felt like someone was watching him. He brushed it up to the fact that this place was so surreal and slightly disturbing that his nerves were just on edge.
"How did you get in here?"
Tanjiro nearly jumped out of his skin when the voice sternly but quietly asked the question very closely in his right ear. He turned towards where the voice had been; the figure stood out very brightly compared to the surrounding darkness. It was Zenitsu. Presumably what he had looked like as a human, but…also very different. This one was wearing a shirt that…well, he wasn't up on his western-style clothing, but knowing how Zenitsu always liked to talk about things from there and looked at magazines about it at any chance he got, it had to be something from the west. He did know the style of the pants though; corduroy trousers. Several people in his home village had worn them when they went to their factory jobs. He even had matching black…um…dress shoes? Isn't that what they were called? The clothes looked clean, but sort of hung loosely on him. To be fair though, this one looked much skinnier than the real world one, as if he'd been starved. (He made a mental note to never mention this to the real Zenitsu, he'd never hear the end of it and possibly go deaf for his trouble.) His hair, while it was usually somewhat stiff and as he had once described it himself, 'straw-like' and was cut…well a bit haphazardly, it still somehow suited him. This one's hair was…slightly more scraggly and more choppy as if someone had just taken a large pair of scissors and cut large chunks of hair. Even the lengths were off; there was a particularly long thin clump of hair on the left side of his face by his ear that was far, far too long. This one was just as pale as the demon one though, which was odd, usually, humans had a much pinker hue to them than a demon would. It was as if this one had never been out in the sun.
"I said," Zenitsu said in a very grim and low voice, 'How did you get in here?' " It was strange how this Zentisu was staring at him; his eyes were very wide and unblinking, Tanjiro didn't think he had blinked as of yet. The dark circles around the eyes didn't help, they only made his eyes look bigger. There was something somewhat familiar about them as well, he just couldn't place what.
"I not here to—," Tanjiro started, but paused when Zenitsu leaned in closer; that same blank, wide-eyed look on his face, "to do any harm. I got here because the demon on the train is using a blood-demon art that put us all into a very sleep. It used blood-fused ropes," he pointed to his wrist to show him where the rope was tied, but Zenitsu never took his eyes off his face, "to link us to other humans to invade our dreams and subconsciousness to try and destroy us from within." There was the smallest eye twitch from Zenitsu but said nothing to interrupt.
"The one that invaded my dream had second thoughts and woke me up, so I entered everyone else's dreams to wake them. It was the only way. Nobody can wake up otherwise." There was an uncomfortably long pause as Zenitsu kept staring unblinkingly at him with a stone face.
"Okay," he finally said, and finally leaned away from him. He didn't know why but Tanjiro felt a bit relieved when he did.
"So is that why I couldn't move…" Zenitsu slowly mumbled to himself while glancing to the side.
"Sorry?" Tanjiro asked. However, his question was never answered as Zenitsu's gaze was back onto him and just as stone-faced as before. There was another long uncomfortable pause; Tanjiro was quite the loss at what to do. This Zenitsu did not act at all like the one in real life, was this one like the guardian of Inosuke's? If that was the case, he preferred Inosuke's.
"You can stay," Zenitsu said not looking back over his shoulder, "I have to take care of something." Tanjiro was just about to ask what that meant when he blinked at Zenitsu was nowhere to be seen as if he just suddenly vanished. He looked around as he spun to see if he could see where he had gone but all he could see was the pitch-black world. He sighed, not liking how this was playing out. He tried walking again, hoping to eventually find anything. What felt like minutes of walking though, faintly in the distance, he thought he could hear the sound of something heavily snipping. As that was his only guide, he followed the sounds, and as he (assumed) got closer, the sounds changed as well. The snipping sounds weren't as 'clean' sounding, as if they were cutting something thick and heavy, and there were even snapping sounds…wet ones as well. He didn't like those sounds.
"You know," Zenitsu said while crouched down on the ground with his back facing Tanjiro; Tanjiro meanwhile quietly called out in surprise at nearly running into him. He hadn't even seen him on the ground, "It wasn't anything personal."
"What was?" Tanjiro asked, really not knowing what he was talking about.
"That night," Zenitsu said as he struggled to close the hedge shears, making a wet crunching sound as it did, "it wasn't anything personal, just to let you know. That's all."
"Where are we," Tanjiro finally asked trying to see what Zenitsu was hunched over, "is this a dream?"
"No," Zenitsu said as he again struggled to cut something, "it's not exactly the subconscious either, I don't know what it is, but it's shit all the same," he finally cut something wet, "I'm here most of the time."
"What do yo—" it was only now that he saw the blood pooling off to the side. He couldn't smell it, the air was so thick and oppressive here. He quickly moved to look around him to see what he was doing and he was horrified. On the ground was the boy in the sage green iromuji, gagged and now mutilated on the ground. Both legs had been slowly cut off from the feet up to his thighs to the point that they were now bloody nubs, the 'trimmings' still scattered nearby. He was missing his left eye, and now Zenitu was slowly snipping away at the right hand's fingers joint by joint.
"Stop it," he yelled as he pushed Zenitsu away, trying to see what he could do for the other boy, "what are you doing?!"
"Only what you'd do with any diseased pest that you would find in your home," he shrugged and looked down at the hedge shears, gently opening and closing them, then slowly standing up. Tanjiro found himself pulling out his sword as the two had a silent standoff. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation; what would happen to the real Zenitsu if he were to harm this one. One thing was sure though, as this Zenitsu looked more deadpanned at him and not so wide-eyed at him, he finally realized why those eyes were so familiar. Those were the same ones that stared back at him that night at the Butterfly Mansion.
Taisho Secret Time!
Nihonga paintings are Japanese paintings from about 1900. (the Meiji period)
If you're confused as to why Rengoku referred to Mitsuri, in the Manga it is revealed that she was his Tsuguko (Love Breathing is derived from Flame Breathing) and that's why she's the most upset at…what happens. :[
"In Japanese mythology, the Ka-Riu was a small dragon; seven feet long, that was scarlet-coloured, and in some versions made of fire." — wiki/Ka-Riu (Honestly this has the best clear, and longest description I could find; there are not that many sources to find out there.)
Manzai is a traditional style of comedy, like a double act. (Think of "Who's on First") and the Tsukkomi is the 'Straight-man' of the act, they'd hit the Boke, the 'Funny-man' with a Harisen, a big prop paper fan after they'd say something stupid or funny.
Risu is Japanese for squirrel… which also might give you a clue~
I was going to have a brief character discussion at the end of the chapter, but I think I'm going to save it for next time. :) I think it'll make more sense with the added context.
Tanjiro didn't like Inoske's dream and how he thought they looked "normal" to him; *Tanjiro will remember that.*
Oneironautics (/əneɪroʊnɔːtɪks/) refers to the ability to travel within a dream on a conscious basis. Such a traveler in a dream may be called an oneironaut.