Rui flailed his threads aggressively this time towards the dark redhead and the earth elementalist. Something what Earth had said agitated the pale demon into wanting more than to kill them outright than to torture them until their untimely demise.

Tanjiro and Earth were in sync. Their dodging patterns had improved as they kept maneuvering away from the threads every time. Every time a thread comes near them, they relied just as much on their instincts, wanting more to survive than getting sliced into mere bits like the last Demon Slayer.

Each time they get to Rui, the latter reeled in his threads and swerved them nearly enough they had to jump back and regroup with one another to take another opportunity to strike straight in his defenses. They're starting to get the hang on how the threads usually work, even if it's only what Rui is doing, they now know what to expect from the pale demon now.

'Got it! The acrid odor's starting to fade, so now I can detect the scent of the threads! With Earth here, we'll have a chance on taking him on now!' Tanjiro brought himself some good news.

'The sound of these threads are raising alarm bells! Just one touch and it's immediate death if we're not careful! I can sense the unpleasant smell around here starting to dissipate. Now Tanjiro can detect for the threads easier than before!' Earth mused. He had observed long enough to get used to dodging the threads and getting to know what they can do.

'They're smarter than I thought. They don't flinch back in fear.' Rui thought at their display of not showing any type of fear and showing their bravery in battling the demon. 'Well, not that it matters anyway.'

They remained in their spots for what seem to be like the longest time until the Demon Slayers took the initiative first. Tanjiro bursts in front and dodged a low thread that was on purpose. Earth pinpointed the sound of the next thread coming to his face and prepared for his next attack.

'Earth Breathing, Fourth Form... Hammer Earth Slash!'

When he brought his sword down the oncoming thread.

*Snapped*

"Huh?"

His sword snapped in half.

The thread had hit his face, but in the midst of getting attacked by the thread Earth managed to move his head, making only the part of his face oozing out with blood from the thread had hit him. Earth rolled along the ground and blood trickled down his middle face.

"Ow..." Earth weakly groaned and stared at his now broken sword. The blade cut out only leaving 2 inches of the remaining blade to be place there. "My sword... no way...!"

He heard Tanjiro crashed beside him and the similar thing had happened to his sword as well. It also snapped in half, much to Tanjiro's mixed expressions of disbelief and astonishment.

'Him too? Great... our swords are broken! Is there another way we can defeat Rui with a broken sword...?'

They stood back up, with Rui only looking at them from afar. Even with their swords broken, it didn't stop their purpose of bringing down the demon just yet.

Blaze breathed in and out slowly after killing the Father Spider Demon. Even with the swift recovery the power watch had gifted him, it did only to heal his physical wounds and not fatigue. He warily walked back to where Inosuke is at.

"I said some really mean things to him." Blaze sighed. "He's probably gonna hate me for it. What the hell's wrong with me..."

He felt like he was to blame for all the stuff he said towards the wild boar. Sure he was pissed off at the boar with his prideful attitude and uncooperative-ness. It was his anger that clouded his judgment and he felt responsible for being insensitive towards Inosuke, even if the latter is also insensitive to the party.

Once he went to return to Inosuke's spot, he find him stirring awake and held his aching head in pain. Also, there's another person in sight and Blaze almost recognized him from before.

The Water Hashira surveyed his surroundings with a stoic look. Some sweat beads were on his head after feeling the humid air around the vicinity.

"The air here is too warm." He said and wiped a few sweat off of his head.

'He looks familiar.' Blaze thought.

He took too long to process who's in front of him when Giyu finally spun his head around to be met with Blaze's curious eyes. He can't help but to feel like he met him somewhere before bit didn't remember when and where. His guess is that it was probably somewhere two years.

"Hold on... Are you...?" Blaze's memory finally clicked in his head.

"Mr. Tomioka?"

Giyu did a surprised 180 and looked at Blaze with widened eyes. He can hardly knew this boy before. Since he has been with missions with other Demon Slayers before, he find it very hard to recognize their faces. Giyu tried to remember who he is talking to.

And by only a few minutes later, he spoke.

"BoBoiBoy?" Giyu asked, back to his dulled expression.

"Y-Yeah." Blaze almost couldn't believe he's talking with the one that almost killed Nezuko two years ago, sent him and Tanjiro to train with Urokodaki.

"Where's the demon?" Giyu asked for the demon's whereabouts.

"What kind of demon?" Blaze hadn't a clue what he meant.

"The demon you're fighting." Giyu clarified.

"Oh. I took care of it." Blaze truthfully said. "I killed it."

Giyu almost couldn't believe him but the look on his eyes told him otherwise. He had taken note of his appearance and how much... warmer he is around him. Giyu might have suspected it was Blaze that is responsible for the damages caused around the forest. The burnt ashes on the trees are piling evidence that he did this.

'So it's him that took care of the demon. Had I arrived earlier, I would've dispatched the demon without getting themselves hurt.'

"BoBoiBoy." Giyu called for the fire elementalist. "Have you seen another demon around?"

Before he can answer, Blaze suddenly remembered the other demon he spared, Eiko. He almost blurted out his answer of revealing her whereabouts and that she is hiding in plain sight. Hopefully in Blaze's case. He had reasons why he'd make sure he wanted her to live.

"I don't know."

He had to lie. It'll get him nowhere but at least he'll redirect Giyu's attention towards him and not notice his suspicious motives about the demoness.

Giyu sighed and prepared to take his leave to search for the demons lurking in the forest. Blaze almost felt ashamed for not telling him where the demon is hiding.

'I can't risk telling him about it. Neither I would tell him about Rui. Even if I did, he'll be suspicious of me and will probably go on a hunt to find Eiko. I won't let that happen!'

'Oh yeah. I haven't checked up on Ino—'

Speaking of which, Inosuke stood up like his wounds are nothing to him at all and points his finger towards the Water Hashira.

"Hold up a second!" Inosuke exclaimed. "Fight me, Mismatched Haori!"

"Mismatched Haori?" Blaze repeated.

"You beat that Twelve Kizuki! And I'm gonna beat you! That's how I've drawn it up! If I can do that..." Inosuke did a backwards thumbs up and pointed them at himself with both hands. "That'll make me the most powerful of all!"

Blaze was dumbfounded. 'Has this boar's mind finally lost it?! Just because he arrived doesn't mean he had no evidence that he took care of the demon for us! A false accusation!'

"Go back to training, idiot." Giyu remarked.

The reaction Inosuke gave off is permanently flabbergasted, he lost all color of his own body and crumpled his pose.

"WHAT IN THE F#$%?!" Inosuke cursed and exclaimed.

"That was no Twelve Kizuki or anything close to one. You can't even tell that much?" Giyu said while equipping a rope and wrapping it in a circle. Even if he hadn't fought the demon Blaze battled, then he knew that the strength from that demon is incomparable to that of Twelve Kizuki since Blaze easily took him out.

Meaning to say, the Father Spider Demon was weak.

"SURE I CAN TELL! I NEVER THOUGHT THAT SCRUB COULD BE ONE OF THE TWELVE KIZUKI, EITHER! IT WAS TANJIRO AND TOTOITOY WHO SAID IT WAS ONE OF THE TWELVE KIZUKI! ALL I DID WAS REPEAT WHAT THEY SAID, ALL RIGHT?!"

In his rant and defense, he hadn't realize that he was tied up in the rope courtesy to Giyu. Blaze didn't even see him tying him up at all and gaped at Giyu.

"How in the world did Mr. Tomioka pulled that off?! He's really quick!" Blaze then give a quick turn at Inosuke. "And my name's not ToToiToy! It's BoBoiBoy Blaze!"

Once Giyu finished tying Inosuke up to a tree, he gave one last look at Blaze. The way he's giving him that look is filled with suspense and he's hiding something from him.

'You're hiding something from me, aren't you? But I know you have a reason to so I won't even bother.'

Blaze felt his body tensed up with those lifeless eyes Giyu is giving him. With that final note, Giyu begins to walk away towards somewhere where he can possibly find a demon to slay.

"Mr. Tomioka..." Blaze said in a low whisper. He had trusted that man in two years since they spared their lives back at Tanjiro's hometown on the outside. He wanted to follow him, but he can't leave Inosuke hanging like this.

"WAIT, YOU! COME BACK HERE!" Inosuke shouted after the Water Hashira.

"Stay out of battle if you don't realize how hurt you are." Giyu said. Even at a distance, Blaze is able to hear his words due to his enhanced hearing.

"Yeah. I agree." Blaze nodded.

"HUH?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! YOU'RE VOICE IS TOO SOFT, AND YOU WALK TOO FAST!" Inosuke complained with steam coming out of his mask and tried to squirm his way out of the rope that is binding him in place.

"I SAID HOLD UP A SECOND! UNTIE THESE ROPES RIGHT NOW! HEY! HEY! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!!!"

That one final shout made a number on his Inosuke's throat. Blaze noticed the sudden silence from Inosuke as he stopped talking and just stayed unmoving in his place.

Blaze walked towards near the boar and leaned towards the tree bark. "Mr. Tomioka's right, Inosuke. It's for the best for you right now."

The grunts Inosuke's making might indicate that he is just tired or is still mad about Blaze's angry comments. In truth, Inosuke had deserved but I was delivered harshly. But who can blame a person that couldn't handle enough stress lately just by hearing all of their nonsensical words? A sane person would.

Blaze made a side glance at the boar, all tuckered out and not moving for a single inch. The wounds took a grave tone on himself and his throat isn't acting so good with all the screams he committed.

"Inosuke?"

The mentioned boy didn't have the energy nor too exhausted to actually hear what Blaze had to say and stayed limp. Then, he passed out from exhaustion.

"Inosuke... I..."

Blaze swallowed a lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry." His answer was genuine. "I said those really mean things to you and I regret shouting at you like that. But how can I? I've been trying to resist the anger being put up inside me and I released them by doing it on you. It's my fault that you felt like this because of what I did and I'm all to blame for it. You can't really think straight and that's what happened. So... I'm sorry, Inosuke."

He huffed a sigh and leaned a bit further to the tree bark. Meanwhile, he haven't noticed his change of form until now. With his bearings straighten, he took note of his appearance and lastly looked at his watch. The labels were the same as Ice's.

"What the heck does these mean?" Blaze stared deeply to the words engraved on the watch's screen. "And what does it mean Third Tier? Does it refer to the fusion ability? I had no idea what any of these mean anymore."

After taking a gander at his watch, he heard multiple footsteps scuttling towards their spot. From the sounds of it, it sounded like someone is in search for someone else in particular. bLaze peeked his head around and widened his eyes to see Eiko searching for someone.

'What's she doing here!?' Blaze thought a bit perplexed.

When her eyes landed on Blaze, she hurried to his spot. "BoBoiBoy!"

It didn't take him time to register what's going on as Eiko wrapped him in a hug.

"Eiko, what are you doing here?" Blaze said while being hugged by the previous demoness.

"I heard voices and saw a bunch of Demon Hunters coming to where I was!" She sobbed. "I couldn't stay there because I don't want to get caught by one of them!"

Blaze returned the hug and reassured her. "Don't worry. You did good. But that's a risky move you did there! What if you get spotted?"

Eiko sniffed and removed herself to look at Blaze with teary eyes. Blaze head patted her. The thought of something that filled him with dread.

"Eiko, did you happen to see a man wearing a mismatched haori looking for you?"

She raised an eyebrow and shook her head as a no. "I don't think so. I didn't hear anything or seen a man like that."

That didn't exactly calm him down to a certain degree. Her wavering eyes caught note of his panicked ones. Whatever she had said worried her about Blaze.

"What's wrong?" She stopped her crying and it's her turn to be nervous with Blaze.

"If it's not much to ask but... will you please stay here and keep an eye out on my friend?" Blaze requested. "I'm going to look for my friends if they're out there fighting Rui or someone from this pretend family. If anyone spots you, hide in a bush and don't come out until you hear them going away. Understood?"

She nodded her head and obliged. If anyone can put her trust on, it would have to be Blaze. She'd never wanted any of this to happen in the first place. Better yet, she never wanted to become a demon in the first place and instead wanted a family to be in with; a loving family.

"Okay." Eiko wiped a few tears away and stood idle near Inosuke. She casted a look at the passed out boar and looked back at Blaze with a quiver on her lips.

"It's okay, Eiko." Blaze patted her on the head. "He's not gonna hurt you. You're just gonna stand guard until I get back with the others. I'll find you soon. I promise."

Blaze smiled sincerely. Eiko had her own version of her sincerest smiles towards Blaze.

"Thank you. Please. Be careful of Rui." She said in a low tone.

Blaze nods his head confidently and then sprinted off to where Giyu went, leaving the demon child alone with the passed out boar. She sat behind the tree, out of sight from anyone who can see her on the open. She trusted BoBoiBoy will the one who can bring down Rui and finally achieve freedom she desired.

If only things were this easy with her...


Shinobu stared into cyan blue eyes that belongs to BoBoiBoy Ice and back towards Zenitsu, still having a hard time breathing.

"Who are you?" Ice spoke ever since she arrived.

Shinobu closed her eyes then smiled. "My name is Shinobu Kocho. I'm a medical expert. And who might you be and this young man right here?"

"My name's BoBoiBoy. This is my friend, Zenitsu Agatsuma." Ice introduced his real name to the Insect Hashira.

Ice stayed silent afterwards and Shinobu still smiled at him. Her attention shifts to Zenitsu when he uttered a word.

"Gramps..."

"Who are you calling Gramps?" Shinobu asked, still donning a smile on her face.

"Just now, Gramps showed up... and told me not to give up..." Zenitsu said, barely a whisper above the rest.

"You shouldn't talk while you still have the poison inside of your system, Zenitsu." Ice leaned closer. "But you don't have to worry any longer. Lady Shinobu is here to help us."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, young man." Shinobu grinned. "And to your predicament, Agatsuma, you saw your life flashing before your eyes. According to one theory, the reason one sees such images just before death is because you're searching for a way to avoid death by going through all your past experiences and memories."

Ice was intrigued and asked. "Is that true, Lady Shinobu?" He watched as Shinobu pulled out a syringe with a serum inside designed for curing ailments.

She lightly shook her head. "Well, not that I can say for sure, since I've never experienced it myself." She flicked her syringe using her finger to see if it's functioning right. She then placed her index finger on Zenitsu's forehead and checked him.

"Right, you did a good job slowing down the poison's path with your breathing. If you hadn't been able to do that, you would've turned into a spider long ago."

Ice had a smile on his face. "But he lived. He lived because he's not ready to die yet. I'm really glad he went through it just to survive in the end."

Shinobu casts a look at Ice and sparked a new conversation with him. "How long have you two known each other? As hearing you say that, it sounds like you both just recently became best friends."

Ice replied. "Well, you're not that far off. Zenitsu and I had became best friends for only a few days. Even if we knew each other by that short span of time, Let's say he just reminded me of my other best friend."

Shinobu noticed his smile faltered and was replaced by a downward curve. It just made him look like Giyu, she thought.

"Oh, my... I apologize if I may have surfaced some bad memories." Shinobu's eyebrows dropped.

"It's fine. I'm over that." Ice sadly looked at the side. "I just don't want to be reminded about it."

Shinobu doesn't know why but all of this leading to something mysterious interested her. She wanted to find out more about BoBoiBoy and his past. However, it's not the time for it yet. She respected his privacy and dropped the conversation while going back to tend Zenitsu right away.

"I'll inject you with the antidote now, okay?" She took Zenitsu's arm as careful as she can and injected him with the antidote provided. Zenitsu winced in slight pain as the needle made in contact with his skin.

"Hurry! Over here, over here!" An unknown voice sounded off below them. Zenitsu and Ice turned their heads to see a bunch of people with their heads covered in samurai-like helmets and masks.

"Can we get them down?"

"Be careful, okay?"

"Why is there ice here?"

"Hey! Help me melt some of this ice that are trapping the others!"

"It's all good! Everyone's still alive!"

"Whoever did this must have done the same thing back at the forest! Looks like the casualty rate has been changed for the better!"

Ice listened to their comments and was happy to hear that some people are still alive including the ones back at the forest.

'Honestly, if it weren't for our training to get these new forms, we wouldn't have saved all the people back there if Fire wasn't there in the first place. I'm sure glad we got the right idea to train before going on this mission.' Ice thought with a somber look. If it means gaining a form that will benefit in saving people, BoBoiBoy will promise to help as many as he can, even if it means he'll sacrifice his own health.

Zenitsu felt a wave of fatigue wash over him and found hmself unable to keep his eyes open. He soon fell unconscious.

"Zenitsu, you rest well, buddy." Ice patted his friend on the hand, reassuring him everything will be okay.

"Hey, who are those people?" Ice asked to the Insect Hashira.

"They are our attendants and responsible for cleaning up the battlefield for us Hashiras. They provide us services for whatever needs we tell them to accomplish. For short, we are their masters. They are what's known as Kakushi."

"I see." Ice nodded in affirmation. "I guess that makes sense." He then looked at her one more time.

"Thank you very much, Lady Shinobu." Ice stood up and bowed in respect to the Insect Hashira.

"It's not me you should be thanking but to you instead. If it weren't for you giving him the courage to stay alive, I wouldn't have believed that he can actually hold out without it." Shinobu waved her hand.

"But Lady Shinobu... I still want to thank you."

She can never get rid of her smile off her face. That sight kind of unsettled Ice a bit but he tried to mask it off by scratching the back of his head.

"All right then! If it helps you feel any better, then go ahead!" She pocketed her medical equipment inside her haori. "I shall now place Agatsuma below the ground now. Would you accompany me in bringing him there?"

"Okay." Ice carefully lifted Zenitsu off the rooftop and gave him to Shinobu's open arms. She jumped to the ground and landed with a graceful display. She then proceeded to bandage up Zenitsu, making it look like she's actually mummifying him.

"Isn't that a bit too much, Lady Shinobu?" Ice caught up with her and asked.

"All the poison is making him bleed, dear BoBoiBoy. I have to make sure it doesn't spread any further than it was before." She stated. "Now, I shall proceed to assist any Demon Slayers I may find in the forest."

"Wait, let me come with you!" Ice said a bit louder.

"My, are you sure you want to leave your friend behind?" Shinobu asked with an unsure tone.

"It's not that I want to but I have to. I need to find the rest of my friends. They could be anywhere around this forest." Ice speaks, a bit determined.

Shinobu liked the look on his face then she agreed to let him come with her.

"You have my word, dear BoBoiBoy." She obliged. Her angelic face and her smile made Ice blush a light pink. "Do you think you can keep up with my pace?"

Ice smirked. 'Just where do you think I got my training for?'

"Yeah. Let's go."

The ice elementalist and the Insect Hashira went their ways in search for the remaining Demon Slayers. With Ice's hearing senses in check, it will be a valuable asset and a great help in locating them faster.


Tanjiro and Earth were heaving breaths after many times they dodged Rui's deadly threads. The Older Sister Spider Demon looked at them with a look that mimicked her brother.

'If this goes on long enough, we'll eventually get tangled up by his threads and be dead by a minute wasted!' Earth panted for air and looked at his sword. 'I can't believe our swords would get snapped! And those threads Rui is controlling... Don't tell me that his body is even tougher than that other demon Fire and Inosuke are fighting against?'

'Mr. Urokodaki, Mr. Hisashi, forgive me for my abrupt actions. Because of it, my sword had snapped and broke. I got carried away trying to defeat a Twelve Kizuki.'

A thread hurdled towards Earth and he didn't had time to dodge. Thankfully, Tanjiro helped him on that by pushing him out of harm's way.

"Earth! I know this is not the time to be moping around!" Tanjiro snapped Earth out of his trance and together they dodged more incoming threads. "If we can't slash those threads, our best bet would be to go right up in his face!"

He didn't like the sound of the plan, but seeing as how they continuously evading more or Rui's threads got them in a pinch. They performed their stunts of not getting slashed by the threads and nearly got to Rui if it weren't for the threads going in there way.

"It's pointless, Tanjiro! Even if we tried to get near to Rui, those threads will find themselves in our hides in no time, like they have a life of their own!" Earth panted. "He's even holding back at all even with his base strength, he's still overwhelming us!"

"Yeah, I know that!" Tanjiro frowned at the demon.

"Well? Do you still refuse to take back what you just said?" Rui taunted. "You there. If I were you, I'd convince the other to give up and run away if you both can. That's too bad now that you're going to die by my hand."

Earth and Tanjiro both glared intensely at Rui. Not backing down and not giving in to the fear he's trying to give them.

"No answer? Fine. In that case, both of you will get slashed to ribbons.

With just a flick of his wrist, Rui summoned two huge spider webs. Tanjiro and Earth widened their eyes at how fast the webs got to them.

'We can't dodge them all!' Earth thought and braced for the webs' impact. Time to have slowed down around them with the inevitable approach coming their way kill the Demon Slayers.

The sound of blood gushing out made everyone wide eyed except Earth. Realizing that the attack didn't come, Earth opened his eyelids to see the unexpected happened.

"NEZUKO!!!" Tanjiro yelled for his demon sister, She took the hit for them both and is bleeding profusely. Some parts of her body got almost severed when she received those hits for them. Tanjiro caught her as she is about to fall down and dragged her behind a tree.

"Nezuko! Nezuko! You protected us! I'm sorry!" Tanjiro apologized for he thought he got his sister in this state because of them.

"I can't believe it. Nezuko..." Earth covered his mouth. "She protected us. She..."

"A girl emerged from that box on that boy's shoulders. But she has the aura of a demon!" The Older Sister Spider Demon was shocked at the demon Kamado sibling protecting the two humans. She gasped when she saw Rui visibly shaking in pure shock.

'Rui's giving off a sound of clear wonder and amazement. Maybe he thought that Nezuko's a demon?' Earth mused.

"Hey, you...Is that..." He shakily pointed his finger towards the demon Kamado sibling. "That girl... is she your sibling?"

"So what if she is?!" Tanjiro shouted while trying to tend the almost severed forearm Nezuko had. 'The wound's so deep! Her left wrist is about to fall off! Hurry up and heal! Hurry up and heal! Hurry up and heal!'

Meanwhile, Earth stands idle in his place while positioning himself to be right near to Tanjiro and Nezuko and had a staring contest with Rui. He even glanced at the other sister demon to make sure she's not trying anything suspicious. Surprisingly, she done nothing all this time when they were battling Rui.

'Something is strange about that girl. She hadn't made one single move throughout the whole thing.' Earth then realized something. 'No! Stop it! Now's not the time to think about her right now! Nezuko's injured and I gotta make sure none of them try anything funny!'

"Siblings... The sister's been turned into a demon. Yet, she stays by their side." Rui said, still in his baffled state.

"R-Rui?" She asked nervously to her brother.

"The younger sister protected the elder brother and the other boy. Risking her own life... That's a genuine bond! I want it!" Rui almost yelled. His priorities were now to take Tanjiro's sister.

"You're... You're insane!" Earth heard his nonsense and didn't ever want to hand over Nezuko to him.

"W-Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Please! I'm your elder sister! Don't desert me!" The Older Sister Spider Demon cried out.

"SHUT UP!!!"

Rui lashed out his sister in annoyance and anger and swiped her in four pieces using his threads. The threads' strength also damaged what's behind her and knocking down some trees and stirring up dust.

"Just one swipe... can make that much damage...?" Earth's breath escaped him as he saw the scene and the sister's shredded body. "This is horrible... How could you do that to your elder sister...?"

"None of you ever managed to fulfill the roles you were given. Never. Not once." Rui glared at his sister.

"W-Wait." Her decapitated head spoke. "I was the elder sister you wanted, wasn't I?! Give me a chance to redeem myself!"

'He wanted?' Earth had noted what she had said. 'So Tanjiro is right. They're bonds to each other is truly forged. Rui had taken some demons to become his family in the first place. But ever since they never fulfilled their roles well because they were.. too weak?'

Rui wanted to tell her to go kill the people wandering the mountain. However, he vividly remembered the Mother Spider Demon, Eiko Yukino, and how she had betrayed Rui all for the sake of survival.

"In that case, I want you to go find Mother and bring her here. i have something I need to say to her about the thing the other boy told me. If you do that, I'll forgive you for what just happened."

"F-Fine..." Her body picked up her head. "I'll go find Mother and bring her here." She left the scene in search for their Mother.

'Dammit! She's going to the direction where Fire left Eiko! Should I go after her?' Earth looked back at Tanjiro. His eyes telling him not to leave his side. 'Hopefully, she went away and hid somewhere. Maybe Fire or Water found her. Crap! What's gonna happen!?'

"Boy..." Rui said. Tanjiro knew it was him he is talking about. "Boy, let's talk. Come on out."

'Boy? Talk?' Tanjiro thought in confusion.

"Listen there, Rui. If you're thinking of what I'm thinking, then you had another thing coming!" Earth gritted his teeth.

"I wasn't talking to you, other boy." Rui looked at him and frowned. "If you want to die that badly, then I'll do it if you insist."

"Earth!" Tanjiro whisper-yelled. "What's he talking about?"

"Something worse than you can imagine." He answered.

Rui continued. "The thing is, I was really moved. Seeing the bond you three share gave me the chills. I doubt there are any words in this universe that can describe how moved I was. But now the only thing left for you is death by my hand. It would be sad if it were to come to pass, right?"

"What in the world are you saying?" Earth knew where this is going and he didn't like it.

"But there's just one thing." Rui held up a finger and brought it near his mouth. "Just one thing that will let you both escape that. Your sister... Give your sister to me. If you both hand her over without a fight, I'll at least spare your lives."

His statement made them flabbergasted. How Rui explained that he wants them to hand over Nezuko is just... unfathomable to think about. Which gives them enough a reason to never hand her over to someone for the likes of him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Tanjiro's eyes are trembling.

"Your little sister will be my little sister. Starting today." Rui said.

Tanjiro brings Nezuko closer to himself and holds her tight to not let her go. "You don't actually think I'd ever agree to that! Not to mention, Nezuko's not a thing! She has her own feelings and will! There's no way she'll ever be your sister!"

"It's all right. No need to worry. Because I'll create a bond between us. I'm stronger than you. I'm talking about the bond of terror. I'll teach her what will happen if she defies me."

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS CRAZY TALK!" Tanjiro exclaimed, angry at this boy's inability to understand. "USING TERROR TO SHACKLE SOMEONE HAND AND FOOT IS NOT THE BOND OF A FAMILY! UNLESS YOU FIX THAT BASIC MISUNDERSTANDING, YOU'LL NEVER GET WHAT YOU DESIRE!"

Earth stared at Tanjiro for a few seconds. 'He's really serious about this family business. He exhumed a sound of boiling anger towards Rui.'

'I knew what's it like being in a family too. It's something that's precious and never to be treated as something horrible. What Rui is doing, isn't the act of what family should do! He's delusional!'

Rui remained unfazed. "So irritating. Would you mind not shouting? We don't see eye to eye, do we?"

Tanjiro dropped his box strapped in his shoulders and stepped out of spot to face Rui. "I'll never hand Nezuko over to you!"

He takes a stance. "Earth, make sure you have my back and watch out for his attacks! We'll take him down together!"

With that said, Earth smirked and puts his game face on. "You don't have to tell me twice, Tanjiro! I'm planning to!"

"That's okay, I guess. I'll just kill both of you and then take her."

"We'll cut off your head first!" Tanjiro declared.

Rui smiled. "That's the spirit! I'd like to see you try it." He put his hand on his face and revealed his other eye hidden from his hair. "That is, if you can actually defeat a Twelve Kizuki like me!"

His eye shows a number engraved on the Iris which labeled as LOWER FIVE.

"Family... A father has his role as the father, and the mother has her role as the mother. The parents protect the children, and the elder brother and sister protect their younger siblings. No matter what. At the risk of their own lives. The way I see it, if you don't understand your own role, there's no reason for you to live. What about you? What is your role? Your role is to relinquish your younger sister to me and disappear. If you can't do that, your only option is to die. Because you can't defeat me."

Earth widened his eyes after seeing Rui's eye. "A Lower Five... Tanjiro, you know what this means?"

He nodded and got the message clearly. "There's no doubt about it. This kid is a true Twelve Kizuki."

Earth looked down on his and Tanjiro's broken swords. "We're running out of options, Tanjiro. We saw how tough the threads are and we won't know how durable Rui's neck is at the moment. If it's stronger than the threads, we're gonna be in big trouble."

'I'm not sure if we can take Rui down with our swords in this condition! Only Fire has the appropriate power to end it if he's here! I hope the others are okay! Please be okay!'

"I don't like those looks in your eyes." Rui commented. "Glittering like that... What fools you are. Don't tell me..."

'Huh? The threads' sound pattern changed?' Earth didn't see this one coming.

"...you think you're going to beat me?!" Rui yanked his threads from somewhere behind. Turning their heads around, they look to see Nezuko entangled in Rui's threads while they weren't looking.

"Nezuko!" Both of them yelled after her.

'He must've used his threads to snuck up behind us while we're distracted by his taunts! How come I didn't see this one coming?!' Earth yelled and panicked in his mind.

Rui caught her in his arms and holds her in one arm and the other with his threads armed. "All right. I've taken her now. Now, do you recognize what your own role is?"

"Let her go!" They both lunged forward.

"But I told both of you I'd spare your lives, at least, if you didn't defy me." Rui reminded them but chose to go against it. Nezuko shapes her hand's fingernails into claws and clawed Rui's face to set herself free. However, he didn't flinch in pain nor give any reaction to her attack.

Tanjiro and Earth yelled their battle cries and sprinted to Rui. The latter flings his threads at them a bit faster than before. Thanks to their quick instincts, they stopped and backflipped away from danger. They recovered to see Nezuko not being held in Rui's arm anymore.

"Nezuko's gone?" Tanjiro asked dumbfounded. Not for long, blood oozes above and to their horror, Nezuko is hanging on some threads that binded her and digging into her flesh, making fresh blood to seep out.

"NEZUKO!!!" They cried out for the demon Kamado sibling.

"How dare you!?" Earth, despite keeping in touch with his emotions, had casted a look of boiling anger towards Rui.

"Stop that hollering. I'm sure that's not enough to kill her. After all, she's a demon. But it looks like I'll have to teach her a lesson after all. I'm going to let her bleed for a while. If she doesn't learn to be docile, I'll just leave her like that until daybreak... and let her roast a bit."

"You let Nezuko..." Tanjiro didn't think twice and ran again. "LET HER GO!"

"Tanjiro! You idiot! Don't go in recklessly!" Earth tried to reach out for him but it's too late. Tanjiro gets caught and hit by some threads. Only the minor ones hitting his haori and his uniform. He fell down on the ground harshly.

Rui made his way to Tanjiro and kicked his head that sent him flying and landed on a bush. Tanjiro coughed up blood by how much force the kick packed. Rui goes for a backward punch but Earth interfered and didn't let the punch connect to Tanjiro's face.

Thanks to his knowledge regarding in martial arts, Earth dodged some of Rui's one note attacks and barely escaped a surprise thread attack. Earth managed to score a few good hits to Rui's almost seemingly metallic face. When Earth's fist connected to his face, he felt like he hit a steel wall. He recoiled back in pain and checked his hand to see if there's blood on it. He got distracted by it and Rui took this opportunity to barrage him in an onslaught of attacks and sent him flying to a nearby rock.

"GAHH!" Earth vomited out blood. His eyes were almost bloodshot red from the hits he received by Rui. The latter then reached Tanjiro, lifted his hair up and was met by a punch to the gut, making Tanjiro tumble backwards.

"Look, you... I'm sure I'm mistaken, but..." Rui approaches Tanjiro. "You don't think that if you get close enough to me, you can chop off my head, do you?"

Tanjiro panted very hard for air. Earth is having a difficult time trying to get back up if it weren't for the blows Rui did to him.

"Fine by me. Here. Give it a shot." Rui gave Tanjiro a handicap and let himself get expose for decapitation. Tanjiro found enough strength to swing his broken sword but Rui dodged and jabbed him twice on the face. He rebounded back to direct his remaining blade on Rui's neck.

Somehow.

He did hit the blade.

The problem is.

His neck was hard as steel.

Tanjiro gasped at the revelation. 'The blade... won't go through!'

"Hmph. Didn't I tell you?" Rui said then heard something coming up behind him. He didn't turn around though and let it happen. As what happened, Earth managed to sprang up on his spot a delivered his blade at his base neck, only to be in the same predicament as Tanjiro's.

"Both of you have no chance against me."

The pale demon kicked Tanjiro and punched Earth from behind and sent them far enough to various small hills that created a crater.

"My body is more durable than any thread I manipulate. If you can't even slash those threads, the two of you don't have a chance in hell of slashing my neck."

Meanwhile, Nezuko squirmed and screamed for them both but due to her muzzle it only comes out as cries of desperation. As the smoke clears up, it revealed Tanjiro barely surviving the impact and Earth trying to make an attempt to get up.

'S-So powerful! His power is on a whole different level than any other demon I've fought! So, this is a Twelve Kizuki's... The power of a demon closely related to Kibutsuji?'

Nezuko continued her screams and struggles in her web trap, which gained Rui's attention.

"You're making too much noise. Quiet down a bit."

Seeing her trying to escape somehow, Rui manipulated his threads and further damaged Nezuko's limbs. The threads continued to dig deep into her flesh, making her scream in agonizing pain.

"STOP THAT!" Tanjiro shouted.

"DON'T HURT HER!" Earth yelled from afar.

"I'm your elder brother now. Enough of that infernal wailing." Rui said.

Earth balled his fists too hard, his knuckles almost turned white. 'Don't be deceived by his taunts! If you do, you'll have yourself wrapped around his finger!'

Nezuko couldn't handle the drastic pain and she passed out because of it.

"Did she pass out?" Rui lowered his arm. "Is she asleep? This demon has a unique aura. There's something about her that's not like the rest of us. Interesting."

The earth elementalist looked at Tanjiro. He looks like he's about to unleash his Breathing Form they didn't do back at the river with the Father Spider Demon.

'That's right! The most precise, final Form! I never get to finish it back at the river. Well. It's now or never!'

'Total Concentration!' They yelled in their heads and charged forward to the demon.

"You both still don't realize how futile it is?" Rui unleashed both of his threads in his hands and begins to battle them on a 1v2.

'Water Breathing! Tenth Form! Constant Flux!'

'Earth Breathing! Tenth Form!'

Tanjiro utilized his final and most powerful Water Breathing Form he can muster and rotated his body to form a literal water dragon on the edge of his blade and follows his sword's direction. The water dragon took on its form and roared.

Earth, on the other hand, also formed his own technique and dragged the blade on the ground and not for long, an almighty roar emerged underneath the ground, and a miniature sized earth dragon is seen following on the blade's direction. Earth's eyes glowed an ominous golden yellow before reverting back to brown.

'Mystic Earth Dragon Dance: Wyvern!'

Both of their swords clashed on the threads, and successfully slashed them off.

'We slashed them! We were able to slash the threads!' Earth thought with confidence and spun around, gaining more rotation in his body to augment his wyvern's forceful power.

'Gaining force with each rotation... This could be trouble, especially with two that can potentially hurt me.'

Earth drags his two aching feet all for the sake of decapitating Rui. 'I gotta make sure this form hits Rui! I need to close the gap between me and Tanjiro to Rui then we can defeat him! Even if this is a straight-forward tactic, it's better than nothing!'

As they were closing in on Rui, he had another thing in mind and remained calm in his place.

"Hey... You don't think these threads are at maximum strength, do you?" Rui extends his threads and coated it with blood from his hands. The entire line of threads became a crimson red or coated them with his own blood.

"Blood Demon Art... Cutting Thread Cage." The threads created together to form multiple red web cages to envelope the Demon Slayers trapped within.

"I have no more use for you two. Goodbye." Rui manipulated his threads to compress the space between them.

'No good! There's no time for me to slash the threads!' Earth worried with dread filling in his thoughts. 'These are giving off a totally different sound than the other threads!'

'But...! I can't die yet! I gotta...'

But there's no way they can avoid an impossible, guaranteed kill. Even if the odds were in their favor, they wouldn't devise a way to actually take on Rui knowing he has been fighting them with only half of his power.

'I gotta...'

'I...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

"BoBoiBoy..."

BoBoiBoy, no longer in his Earth form, was in a white canvas. The blinding light almost made it's way into his eyes. After moments of adjusting his eyes on this unknown void, his brown caught sight of those familiar brown orbs he had not seen in a long time.

"BoBoiBoy... how have you been..."

BoBoiBoy couldn't believe what he's hearing. The voice... The familiar white streak on his hair. It all felt so real now. It all came crashing down on BoBoiBoy. The memories of his family resurfaced.

The person in front of him...

"...my son?"

...is his father.

Amato.

"D-Dad...?" BoBoiBoy couldn't believe. It had been almost three years since he last seen his father.

"Come here, BoBoiBoy." Amato calmly gestured BoBoiBoy to come towards him.

And so he did.

"Dad..." BoBoiBoy embraced his father with tears leaking out his eyes. "I missed you! And everyone back home!"

Amato ruffled his son's hair. He noticed he almost reached his height, if only, on reaching his nose level. Amato patted him on the back and told him this.

"BoBoiBoy... Breathe." Amato adviced his son, which earned him an eager and curious look.

"Breathe? But Dad..."

Amato puts his finger on his lips. "I know what you're going to say."

BoBoiBoy quieted down his muffled sobs and listened to his father, even if he's not here physically.

"Right now, you're facing an enemy you have never seen before. The time when you fought with aliens will be different than fighting with demons, BoBoiBoy."

He landed his palm on his son's shoulder.

"Your original powers exist within you. Find me unbelievable to say it but have you noticed anything similar when you were training for your Breathing Forms?"

BoBoiBoy raised an eyebrow and tried to absorb much thought in his head. He thought about his training in the mountains where Urokodaki's home is at, the wisteria house where he achieved Fire and Water, then at times he almost transformed into his Secondary Tier element, Thunderstorm.

He connected the dots. "My powers... I had them the whole time?"

Amato nodded. "Of course, BoBoiBoy. How else would your breathing grant you back your First Tier elements like Earth, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Water?"

"No way! There's absolutely no way!"

The father of BoBoiBoy reached for his son's wrist and gestured it near his face.

"Have a look at your power watch, BoBoiBoy."

BoBoiBoy did as the asked and takes a look at the watch.

"There's nothing, Dad."

"That's the point."

"Huh?" BoBoiBoy is now confused.

"Your watch. It's not that you're finding your powers. It's more like it's transferring your powers in you. In other words, infusion."

BoBoiBoy gasped. It's a lot to take in but he knew deep down, he understood what his father is trying to say to him "And that's why you're telling me to breathe...?"

Amato nodded. "Go, my son. Tanjiro needs you, and control your breathing. If you master the correct way to breathe, you can do anything your mind desires."

BoBoiBoy almost stifle another sob. He got to see his father one more time, but he was afraid he'll never see him again for the last time in his mind.

"I will always be with you, BoBoiBoy. Take care... and goodbye... son."

BoBoiBoy reached out his hand to grab his father one last time before enveloping in a comforting hug he needed the most.

And after that, they separated and Amato flashed away slowly in a twinkling manner.

Now it's just BoBoiBoy left.

"Breathe..."

He deeply inhaled in air.

'Breathe...'

He inhaled more air.

'Relax yourself.'

He composed himself to balance his breathing pattern.

'Synchronize your mind, body and soul into one.'

Once he's feeling the energy within him, he snapped back into reality.

And formed a new technique.

Tanjiro had done the same as well. Changing his Tenth Form into a next-level Breathing Style.

Hinokami Kagura.

Tanjiro's water dragon shifted its liquid state into a form of a flaming dragon until it dissolved into a flowing fire that follows Tanjiro's movement. This technique is what's known as The Dance of The Fire God, which is closer to Sun Breathing.

On the other hand, Earth's appearance had changed. His eyes which were brown in colour had changed into golden yellow. His haori had a shimmering pattern of yellow earthquake patterns plastered.

He no longer had those injuries plastered in his whole body as they recovered in mere seconds. Unbeknownst to everyone, his watch glowed golden yellow until it flashed the labels.

Infusion complete. Secondary Tier and Third Tier transferred to host. Activating desired element.

EarthQuake.

"Quake Breathing, Tenth Form, Modified!" Quake's arms had morphed into stony pieces of fragmented tough rocks with lava seeping out from the gaps between.

"Mystic Earth Dragon Dance: Draconic Barrage!"Quake's sword's blade had equipped the shape of his Earth Dragon's claws and slashed the threads with little to no effort. It was mostly Tanjiro that had done the cutting down of the threads but Quake provided more firepower.

'The threads...' Rui is finally putting a lot of effort into making more threads around the forest to furhter his defenses.

But that doesn't stop them from trying. With Quake's Modified Tenth Form and Tanjiro's Hinokami Kagura Dance enabled, they rushed in forward with getting some cuts and blood to come along the way. Determination and adrenaline fueled their heart and soul.

'Don't stop! Just keep on running! If you stop running, it'll bring on the repercussions of forcibly switching from Earth Breathing to Quake Breathing! When that happens, I'll be rendered immobile! Tanjiro sure seems to be thinking the same idea like I am!'

'That's why we need to do this now! Run! My Dad is watching me from afar! I'll make sure we'll get Rui and this will all be over!"

Tanjiro and Quake let out their battle cries. They bounced and kept slashing on the threads while not even thinking of stopping. If they can defeat Rui, then this mission will be a success!

The Demon Slayers easily cut off the threads hindering their way, and not until they closed in the distance between themselves and Rui.

'These guys...!' Rui sweats nervously and jumped back to pull himself away from him being almost decapitated. They rushed and spun around each other to get on equal footing and gaining distance. They continued to do this when the Demon Slayers spotted the Opening Thread attached on Rui's neck.

'There it is! The Opening Thread!' They thought. 'This is it! He's vulnerable with the thread hanging there! We need to take him down now! Even if it means getting slashed by him at the same time!'

On Nezuko's side, she still appeared to be sleeping but her mind is still awake.

"Nezuko... Nezuko..." Kie Kamado appeared in Nezuko's void. "Wake up, Nezuko."

She gestured her hands near Nzuko's head. "You have to save your brother and your friend. I know you can do it now, Nezuko. Do your best."

Nezuko didn't respond.

Tears trailed down Kie's eyes. "Please, Nezuko. Or they will be killed, too!"

Having heard of that somehow, Nezuko snapped her eyes wide open and opened her palm that lit an ominous red glow.

"Blood Demon Art..." The blood on the threads began to react by Nezuko's spell. "Exploding Blood!"

She gripped her hand and that caused the threads to burn from the blood she just casted. The blood had transformed into red hot flames and exploded. The flames are now gushing down to Rui who is holding the threads in his hands and the flames exploded in front of him.

"NOW!" Tanjiro and Quake exclaimed and came out from the flames and dragged their blades to clash onto Rui's steel neck.

'No way! The threads burned and snapped!' Rui could not believe what he is feeling. He had overwhelmed them in the beginning.

But now the tables had turned. They overwhelmed Rui in the end. There's no denying statement that will prove this isn't true.

"The bond between Nezuko and me... can't be..." Tanjiro's blade, mixed in with Nezuko's Exploding Blood technique, started to glow. "SEVERED BY ANYONE!"

"RUI!" Quake digs his blade into Rui's neck and stated. "IT'S OVER!"

When the Demon Slayers' blades finally severed Rui's neck, Tanjiro's Hinokami Kagura Dance's attack released circular flames surrounding all of them then leaving small embers to be flown everywhere. Quake's Modified Tenth Form's dragon had let out an almighty, massive roar, making the ground tremble a little and the miniature Earth Dragon flew around the flames after Quake delivering the slash.

And thus, the onslaught has been ceased.

The Demon Slayers had won the battle.


[Massive shout-out to @NerdyGamer77 from Wattpad for providing the idea of BoBoiBoy Earth's Tenth Form! Please check out their latest book and please give them a follow for their wonderful support to this book!]

It's all thanks to the mentioned author above, I can finally think of where the story is going! And I'm really proud of how this turned out!

Out of all the chapters I released this is probably my longest chapter I have written before. In a word count that exceeded...

Wait for it...

OVER 9000!

I know. Overrated meme, that much?

I guess so. XD

And as always, thank you guys for reading this long chapter and I'll see you in the next one!

~ s a y o n a r a!