Four Emotions, Six Fists
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of the Swordsman and the Asura! We got an Upper Moon fight happenin' in this chapter and with luck what I've written is appropriately epic! But that's more up to y'all to decide whether or not it is, and don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Also, for those who haven't heard I got a new story going in the form of 'Spiral Flames In Lugnica', a My Hero Academia x Re:Zero crossover (which I'll hopefully be updating soon). Anyway I've prattled on long enough, and with no guest review questions this week, let's dive on in!
Nighttime: Swordsmith Village
Susamaru hummed happily to herself as she finished setting the dishes outside to be collected by the staff at the Swordsmith Village. "So how's your current sword feel," the Temari Demon asked as she closed the door to the room and went to sit back next to Tanjiro and Nezuko.
"The repairs are great," the slayer praised, "it's like I never chipped it at all." His sister nodded in agreement as she gazed at the sword curiously. It turned out Haganezuka had in fact repaired the damage to Tanjiro's sword after he received it but had refused to send it back until his training to be a better swordsmith was completed.
"Still a bit annoying," Susamaru commented while leaning her head on her hand, "that blade is your livelihood and how you protect lives. Sure you were recovering for a little bit so he didn't need to send it back immediately but to think he had it ready and refused to send it."
"I would be a little more upset with him, but I can't necessarily blame him either," Tanjiro replied, "it sounds like he was angrier with himself for the sword breaking than with me for damaging it. And in this case his stubbornness actually wound up being helpful. If we hadn't come here I might never have found the doll, made a new friend, gotten stronger or gained a new sword."
"Admittedly true but that's also a lot of lucky coincidences," the demon girl pointed out, "we didn't come here knowing any of that was going to happen. Honestly it feels like the world decided to give us a lucky break more than anything. Which is good because we needed one after Upper Moon Six, but also bad because it might mean the next pain in the ass is just around the corner."
"We will have to fight again eventually," the boy swordsman agreed, "but hopefully nothing will happen here with the village being as well concealed as it is."
"Muzan hasn't been able to find it for the last thousand years and even if he did it seems he still hasn't managed to destroy it," Susamaru pointed out, "so optimistically we won't be getting any surprise-." She and Tanjiro almost jumped at the sight of an unexpected occupant having entered the room. He'd slid the door open and closed so quietly they almost hadn't noticed him.
"That was a slow reaction," observed the stranger, "I wasn't moving that stealthily." He was obviously a slayer given his black uniform but unlike most slayers it more closely resembled samurai robes with baggy sleeves and pants. He also had long black hair with dark teal highlights in it that fell down his back.
"Oh, Tokitou!" Tanjiro said upon realizing who it was, "you didn't give off any malicious intent, so we didn't even sense you coming until you were here. Come to think of it, what are you doing here?!"
"I wouldn't come here with malicious intent," the one Susamaru now recognized as the mist pillar replied, "anyway, I'm looking for the swordsmith Kanamori. Do either of you know who he is or where I can find him?"
"We know him," Tanjiro replied, "but he's with Haganezuka right now, I think, and neither of us know where he is at the moment. Wanna go look for him with us?" Susamaru looked at her boyfriend sideways, certain he hadn't forgotten how the pillar had acted the last time they met.
"Don't you have anything more pressing to be doing," Muichirou questioned, his face as neutral as ever, "why are you so concerned about this?"
"Helping other people," the slayer said while glancing at his girlfriend, "also ends up being beneficial for you at the end of the day." Susamaru wanted to roll her eyes because she knew he was talking to her as much as he was talking to the hashira. 'I know you want us to get along and everything,' she thought, 'but I'd still like to at least smack him or get an apology first before being all buddy buddy with him.' Though now that she saw him in person she was beginning to understand what her boyfriend had been saying about him not being intentionally cruel.
The way he'd entered the room earlier was the biggest proof. As mentioned, he'd projected no malice whatsoever and that's why neither her nor Tanjiro had fully sensed him until he was right there. Even now he wasn't giving off any hostility. It was more like he didn't know any better when he was being rude. So she decided to try and give him a chance by speaking up.
"We actually planned to go looking for them ourselves as soon as we were done eating," Susamaru explained, "so your timing is actually perfect." Tokitou didn't answer at first. Instead his face twisted into a look that was between surprise and confusion.
"What," he said with wide eyes, "what did you say just now?"
"I said your timing was perfect," Susamaru replied with a raised eyebrow, "are you okay?"
"No, what Tanjiro said before, about helping people," Muichirou corrected, "I swear I've…heard those words somewhere before. Also, have I met that girl before, with the bamboo muzzle in her mouth? She seems really familiar." He crossed his arms as his face showed him thinking deeply. Nezuko, apparently deciding to be cute, crossed her arms and imitated him.
"Oh, uh, what's familiar about her," Tanjiro replied nervously, "maybe you've met someone wearing a similar-." He stopped as they all looked towards the door. A presence was there and not one that any of them recognized. The reason became clear immediately when the door was slid open and a demon came crawling in.
Even without seeing the number in his eyes everyone knew by his ability to get so close without being detected and their own instincts that this was an Upper Moon Demon. Unlike the last Upper Moon this one resembled an old man with a balding, misshapen head that sported two horns. He wore a kimono that was black on one side and had a crisscrossing flower pattern on the other. In less than the blink of an eye, everyone assumed battle stances as Muichirou made the first move.
'Breath of Mist Fourth Form,' he thought as the hashira seemed to glide forward at incredible speed, 'Advection Slash!' The speed of his sword draw was incredible and the movement made the blade seem hazy, or rather misty as it cut towards the demon. But as if to prove his status as an Upper Moon, the intruder leapt up at even greater speed and clung to the ceiling of the room. "EEEEEEEEEKKK! Stop it! Don't bully me!" He exclaimed in apparent terror as a cut appeared on his face from the pillar's attack.
'He's fast but not that fast,' the Temari demon observed, readying her lethal spheres as Tanjiro leapt up towards the ceiling with his own technique. "Hinokami Kagura," the boy swordsman muttered, "Shining Sun Stab!" He thrust his blade upward as flames seemed to swirl around the blade. Alas, the technique only succeeded in damaging the ceiling as the demon shot back down to the floor.
Fortunately, Nezuko and Susamaru were both there with the younger sister swinging her leg upward into the upper moon's midsection while the Temari Demon brought an elbow down on his head. The force and direction of the two blows caused the demon to flip forward several times before landing face first on the floor. Tokitou didn't waste this opening and swiftly brought his sword down on its neck, beheading their opponent. Tanjiro would've complimented the speed of the hashira's technique if not for one issue: their enemy was an upper moon.
"Tokitou, keep your guard up, this isn't over!" The boy swordsman warned as the rolling head suddenly sprouted a neck, arms, a body and even clothes before reorienting itself with a backflip. At the same time, a head also grew on the decapitated corpse. Tanjiro was only surprised for a moment before charging at the formerly headless body while Tokitou rushed at the former head.
He got no further than a couple of feet, though, once the demon raised a suddenly appearing maple leaf fan and waved it. A massively powerful blast of wind followed after that which rocketed the mist pillar out of the side of their living quarters, leaving a sizeable hole. It was so powerful, in fact, that Tanjiro and Nezuko would've been blown out too if the demon girl hadn't managed to grab the edge of the remaining wall while also holding onto her brother with her other hand. "You two okay," Susamaru asked as she climbed back through the hole in the building, having saved herself in a similar manner to Nezuko.
"We're alright," Tanjiro said, "but that attack sent Tokitou flying. I've got no idea where he went."
"He's way out of here, that's for sure," laughed the demon with the maple leaf fan. Upon closer inspection, the trio could now see that he was a younger version of the demon from earlier with a full head of long black hair, a light vest that hung loosely off his shoulders and baggy pants. "Just took the little bean and threw him all the way out, right Sekido?"
"Stop acting like this is fun, Karaku, it's infuriating," the now named Sekido growled back. He resembled his counterpart physically but wore a black robe with flower designs and held a monk's staff with a ring on top and multiple rings hanging on either side. "There's nothing fun about this. I just feel pissed off at everything, including being stuck with you!"
"Good thing we're apart now if that's the way you feel," Karaku replied in a teasing manner while spitting his tongue out. 'Wonderful,' Susamaru thought, 'is this gonna be a multi-decapitation too?' Before she could think much more about it Sekido banged the bottom of his staff on the floor, unleashing a surge of lightning that electrocuted all three of them. Susamaru grit her teeth against the pain as she willed her muscles not to lock up against the attack. Nezuko did something similar but Tanjiro wasn't as lucky, collapsing to his knees with severely hampered movement.
Karaku moved to use his fan again, but then a loud noise rang out followed by another in quick succession. Two sprays of pellets struck the demon's necks, decapitating Sekido and leaving Karaku's head dangling by a fleshy thread. "Oh dude," the fan demon said with a surprising amount of glee, "I've never felt a wound like this before, awesome!" The one responsible for the attack leapt down through the hole in the destroyed roof then, revealing himself to be Genya as he unsheathed his sword and sliced the remainder of Karaku's head off.
'That'd be great if he didn't possibly just make our problem worse!' the Temari Demon thought as she shrugged off her kimono top and sprouted her remaining two arms. "Genya," Tanjiro called, "you can't beat them by just cutting their heads off! If you slice them up they multiply and get stronger! They probably let you cut them on purpose!"
A fact that made itself known quite quickly as the two heads grew new bodies by the time they hit the floor. Susamaru quickly threw her Temari at them before they could attack and successfully nailed one, bashing them through the back wall but missed the other one. It moved fast, too quickly for Tanjiro to react as it clamped a bird-like foot around his ankle and took flight, lifting him into the air. "Kakaka!" Laughed the clone who they now saw had wings and birdlike claws for hands and feet, "how delightful, someone figured us out so quickly for the first time in forever!"
"Shit," Susamaru cursed, knowing she couldn't just leave Genya behind, or at least her boyfriend wouldn't let her. "Nezuko, help your brother! I'll help Genya!" The demon girl didn't need to be told twice as she raced after the swordsman, her body already transformed into its more demonic state that she'd used in the Entertainment District. The Temari Demon, meanwhile, turned her attention back to the three remaining enemies, summoning more Temari to her hands. 'Three on two isn't ideal but Tanjiro shouldn't take long to get back with help from Nezuko. So all we need to do is hold out until-SPLURGH!'
Her eyes widened upon noticing a terrible sight. Genya had been fighting the newest demon clone but it had ended badly. Now he was being held up in the air by a Yari spear that was plunged into his abdomen. "You are, depressingly weak," the fourth demon clone said before tossing the wounded slayer into one of the few remaining intact rooms.
Much like his brethren he had a black kimono on, though this one ended at his waist and he instead wore black hakama pants with rope-like accessories tied around his shoulders. And unlike the last three his mood seemed depressive. "Kakaka," Karaku laughed, now sounding like the other clone, "guess that leaves us with this multi-armed morsel, ay Sekido, Aizetsu?"
"Yes, and she pisses me off," Sekido seethed, "this is the damn traitor that we were informed about. She positively reeks of human scent."
"Better than the old grungy demon scent you're giving off," Susamaru shot back, "I mean seriously, you smell so bad you can't even stand to be around yourself."
"Kakaka! I can already tell this one is going to be fun," Karaku cheered, "you two stay back for now, I'll take care of her." He rushed forward then with his fan held high while Susamaru attacked with all six of her Temari. Karaku danced and dodged around them as he closed the distance, ready to bring his weapon down. But before he could it was knocked from his hand by one of the returning Temari which had taken shuriken shape.
The surprised demon wasn't able to adjust in time as Susamaru rushed forward, striking with all six fists. Karaku tried to ward the blows off but found his hands quickly restrained before he was pummeled back into rubble. "That's sad," Aizetsu commented as he rushed forward next, "letting yourself get hit by a demon who isn't even an Upper Moon is just sad." He thrust his spear at her in quick succession then while Susamaru responded by reshaping her Temari into tantos to deflect the attacks.
'Breathe, concentrate, let the air flow through your entire body,' the six-armed girl reminded herself as sparks flew from her tantos clashing quickly and repeatedly with Aizetsu's spear. The polearm clone seemed to get annoyed, or what passed for it, before attacking with his strongest thrust yet. But instead of fully dodging it, Susamaru just barely moved to the side, allowing the attack to take both of her lower right arms and part of her side. It did hurt a little but it also gave her an opening to move forward before Aizetsu could retract his spear and slam her open palm into his face, ramming his head into the floor with enough force that he nearly went down to the first floor.
"Are you trying to piss me off by being useless?!" Roared Sekido as he charged forward with his staff held high, ready to plunge the bottom end into the demon girl's head. But Susamaru reacted quicker than expected and raised Aizetsu's whole body up to block the strike. She felt it connect, the staff going through Aizetsu's chest as the lightning suddenly stopped.
Instinctively, she grabbed onto the end of the staff with her now regenerated middle right and middle left hands, keeping Sekido from pulling it out. "Seriously, you're really pissing me off now," the demon seethed as he tried wresting his weapon away from her.
"Kakaka!" Karaku laughed as he leapt in, his wounds healed and his fan in his hand once more, "now who's being useless?! But don't worry, I've got this!" He moved to bring his fan down on the Temari Demon then, but before he could his upraised hand was suddenly shot off by a blast from Genya's gun. Susamaru reacted in an instant, catching the fan with her upper most left hand before moving away and yanking both Aizetsu and the still stuck Sekido into Karaku's path.
"Genya duck!" She ordered before leaping back and swinging the fan at the trio. All three of them yelled in different forms of pain or excitement as they were launched through the remainder of the top floor into the distance.
"Not bad, for a demon," Genya commented as he reloaded his shotgun, his wounds from earlier not seeming to be bothering him. The six-armed girl counted it lucky that he'd been informed about her shortly after their arrival in the swordsmith's village.
"I've really been practicing Total Concentration Breathing," She replied while breathing slightly heavily. "And you're not bad for a guy who just got impaled." The Temari Demon wouldn't mention the whole truth to him, that she'd been steadily getting stronger ever since the Entertainment District. And it wasn't just because of her training but something inside of her had changed during that time. But it was an issue all of them could worry about later.
"Heh, don't underestimate me," he said, "I won't die to something as simple as a stab wound. Now let's go, we're wasting time." The duo rushed to the nearest hole in the building to try and get their bearings on which way the demons would be now. They didn't have to look far as the building next to them was suddenly flattened by a blast of wind that left an imprint of a maple leaf.
"Whoops," Karaku said as he walked back into the village from the edge of the forest, "guess it wasn't such a good idea to try an attack without a good line of sight."
"Then flatten all the buildings in a straight line in front of you, idiot," Sekido berated, "it's not like we're planning on leaving this place standing."
"Kakaka, nope, we definitely ain't!" The fan demon cheered before swinging his new fan downward. A path of large, maple leaf shaped craters formed on the ground in front of him then which also tore into the buildings. In a matter of seconds a long path of destruction was all that remained in front of the three demons. "Hahaha! Let's see them hide now!"
"Hiding wasn't the idea, dumbass," Susamaru said as she leapt out of one of the dusty debris clouds. The upper moon clones were about to react when all six of her Temari in varying blade forms came shooting out of the rubble at them from various directions. Karaku reacted by using his fan to blow away two of them while Aizetsu spun his spear to deflect another two. Sekido was the least lucky, only able to bat one away before the second one slammed into his face and basically took his head off.
"It's sad that you took a hit after yelling at us so much," Aizetsu commented, "her attacks aren't that unpredicta-BOOM!" The spear wielding clone was silenced by a shotgun blast from the rubble as Genya burst out and fired his second barrel at Karaku, also blowing his head off and knocking him over.
"We've taken their heads off multiple times and they're not dying," Genya seethed, "what's it gonna take to kill these bastards?!"
"More than you've got you little shit!" Exclaimed Sekido as he held his staff up, sending out several blasts of electricity that came down like lightning bolts. Genya and Susamaru both moved as fast as they could, staying just one step ahead of the lethal attack, though that was hardly the only problem. Aizetu and Karaku were both regenerated and back in the fight in short order with Karaku swinging his fan down and cratering the ground again.
"Kakaka! Oh this is the most fun I've had in the last few years!" He exclaimed, "try not to die so we can keep this going all night!"
"Will you all just eat a dick!" Yelled the two slayers as they unleashed their attacks. The combination of shotgun pellets and Temari worked to both injure and temporarily destroy the weapons of the two clones. 'That's two disabled for a moment until they regrow their weapons,' Susamaru thought, 'now where in the world is that douche with the spear?'
"This is so pitiful," Aizetsu stated in his usual sorrowful tone, having moved into a more advantageous position before swinging his weapon at Genya. Even despite having time to raise his sword to block the attack, one of the spears prongs still tore into his chest as the force of the attack sent him into the rubble. "I shouldn't have to be watching your backs like this. Are you guys even trying?"
"If you've got an opening just shut up and kill them already, Aizetsu!" The regenerating Sekido ordered.
"Fine," he replied before jumping up into the air, "Weeping Spears." The Temari Demon rushed forward as numerous spear thrusts rained down from the sky, some of them hitting so close as to cut into her skin. 'Not yet asshole,' she thought to herself as she threw her Temari upwards without looking and guiding them to where she last saw her opponent. One of them managed to hit or at least throw off the spearman's aim as the attacks ceased.
And just in time too because Karaku was already leaping at her with an attack of his own. The demon girl stopped and leapt to the right just in time, the ground cratering right where she would've been. "Kakaka, you're not safe yet!" He cheered as his leg shot out and slammed into her knee, causing her whole leg to buckle backwards.
The demon clone went to swing his fan again but Susamaru reacted unexpectedly, grabbing his wrist and using his arm to assist her in leaping upwards and flipping forwards, slashing his face with her clawed hands as she did so. The surprised upper moon didn't know how to react at first which was more than enough time for her to summon a chakram Temari to her hand and slice off his fan holding arm. By this time her injured leg had snapped back into place, just in time for her to leap up with her lower arms grasping Karaku's head for a nasty knee to his face. She jumped off of him just as a bolt of lightning came down, sadly not frying the fan clone but it didn't hit her either.
The slayer then continued to zigzag around the area, avoiding the lightning strikes until she realized one problem: she was being corralled right towards Aizetsu. "Now cease your sad resistance," he said as he used another Weeping Spear attack. Susamaru grit her teeth as she summoned all of her weapons, save for the one in her lowest right hand to deflect the onslaught. It still hurt a bit as she felt numerous cuts in her body and much like before she lost her two lower left arms and her middle right arm.
But she still had three arms and two feet, one of which she used to leap just enough into the air to slam her other foot down on the shaft of the spear as it passed by, embedding it in the ground. This not only caused a lag in his attack but slowed his ability to retract it, allowing her to leap forward and bury another chakram Temari vertically into the center of his head. She used the embedded weapon as a fulcrum then to flip over his body, completely slicing Aizetsu's head down the middle as she landed, freed her weapon while also grabbing the spear from his currently less operable hands. The girl didn't wait to see how successful her two attacks were and instead charged right for Sekido.
"It pisses me off how useless you all are right now!" the staff demon raged as he called down more lightning which Susamaru evaded while also regenerating her arms.
"Or maybe," she suggested as she repositioned the spear and clashed with Sekido, "you upper moon shitheads aren't as good as you think you are!" His response to that was a roar as the two repeatedly struck and blocked each other's attacks with sparks flying and electricity dancing around them. Susamaru had figured out now that he hadn't stopped his lightning earlier when his staff went into Aizetsu's body but rather his lightning didn't pass through anything made of his own flesh. That's why he'd only hesitated to attack her when Karaku was in the way and struck as soon as she was on top of him instead of waiting for him to move.
Which meant this next trick should work. As he brought down the bottom end of his staff once again, Susamaru switched the severed arm of Karaku she'd been carrying since ripping it off and used it to block the attack with her two upper arms. Her theory paid off as no electricity flowed through the limb, just as it had been unable to flow through the spear which she grasped with all four remaining hands and jammed it into Sekido's chest. The angry demon couldn't seem to believe what was happening as he was lifted off the ground by a roaring Susamaru who flung him into the rubble nearby.
"Whoa," came a voice from behind her as she turned to see Tanjiro and Nezuko had returned. Her boyfriend looked a little worse for wear with claw marks on his shoulder, arm and back. His ears were also bleeding. Nezuko looked better only because she was a demon but it was clear she'd had some trouble too. "Susamaru, that was amazing. Did you do all of this?"
"I wouldn't say quite all," she replied, smiling while waving the severed arm, "but I did do a good bit of this, impressed?"
"I'm just, I had been so worried," Tanjiro slightly stuttered, "looks like I didn't need to be."
"Don't worry, we get through this you can admire me plenty later," the Temari demon said with a mischievous smile. Tanjiro immediately went red in the face at what she was implying so openly, getting a laugh from Nezuko. Naturally, though, their troubles were far from over. Both the fan and the spear dissolved in the demon girl's hands as the upper moon clones rose from the rubble again.
More troublesome was the return of Urogi as he came flying down and landing among his brethren. "You got me pretty good, boy," he said, "I don't know what you did but it slowed my regeneration to a damn crawl!"
"What's he talking about," Susamaru asked with a glance in her boyfriend's direction.
"Oh, Nezuko figured something out," Tanjiro replied as he held out his blade which his sister then coated in her blood. It ignited in her signature red flames then as her blood demon art was activated. "A red blade from the increased temperature of her exploding blood, a blood burst sword!" Another figure burst from the rubble alongside them, Genya. None of them knew why but he looked especially demonic right now with fangs and even darkened eyes.
"You all just stay out of my way!" He seethed, "I'll be the one to kill the upper moon and become a pillar!"
"Heh, how about this," Susamaru countered while summoning her Temari, "there are four of us and four of them. Why don't we all just have it out?" The combatants then gathered on either side and, as if some unheard signal had gone off, all of them charged. Susamaru went for the flying one, Urogi, this time while Tanjiro headed for Sekido.
Genya clearly had a bone to pick with the spear wielding Aiketsu and Nezuko was fine taking on Karaku. The group scattered to avoid the initial barrage of attacks as they closed the distance. "Watch out for his sonic scream, it hurts," Tanjiro warned before they leapt away from each other to avoid another lightning strike. It was something she would learn about soon enough as Urogi dove at her, his speed proving to be fairly impressive in comparison to the rest of his brethren as he managed a cut on her arm. But she quickly countered by throwing her Temari at him, the orbs speeding along as he wove and twisted in the air to avoid them.
"Is that the best you can do," the flying clone taunted as he continued to avoid the Temari, "and here I thought having a projectile attack would afford you an advent-huh?" His eyes widened as Susamaru herself leapt off of an upraised section of rubble and came at him with bared claws. He reacted by shooting a sonic blast out of his mouth right at her face. To his surprise she was still able to move well enough to slash at him, which he quickly avoided.
'How can she still move like that after taking my sonic attack,' he wondered in surprise, 'even if she is a demon the paralyzing effect of the noise should've still affected her.' It would turn out to be a problem he'd have to worry about later, for in his distracted state he wasn't able to notice all six Temari closing in on him until it was too late. Two of them were chakrams that sliced off his wings while the remaining four were kunai that pierced his midsection in four different places before dragging him the rest of the way to the ground where he impacted with a good bit of force. "Ouch," Susamaru said as she rubbed her ears, "rupturing my eardrums temporarily to withstand the attack definitely worked but it still nearly threw off my balance."
And speaking of thrown she couldn't help but notice Aizetsu getting slammed into a tree, his own spear in his abdomen as Genya blasted his head off with his shotgun. Meanwhile, Sekido was seething even more as he and Tanjiro traded blows for a bit, only for the boy swordsman to avoid a near direct attack by mere inches before severing both of the clone's arms. He jumped away then as Karaku came flying into him, the demon having lost his fan yet again after Nezuko successfully tore his arm off to use it against him.
"Tanjiro quickly," she called before grabbing and tossing Urogi towards him, "take their heads off before Aizetsu regenerates!"
"Got it," her boyfriend replied as he held his sword high in a stance that was somehow very familiar to her, "Hinokami Kagura: Solar Halo Dragon Dance!" He launched forward in a zigzagging motion, his blade leaving a flaming trail behind him in the shape of a dragon as he gracefully cut off the heads of all three demons. It would turn out to be just in time as the fire around his blade dissipated shortly after the technique ended.
"Wow," the Temari demon couldn't help but say aloud. He really had improved, his movements were even more masterful than before and their precision was dead on. 'I think I'm going to enjoy admiring him later on, too,' she thought, again mischievously. It was a truly impressive moment of teamwork from all of them.
Yet the problem still somehow persisted. "AAAAARGH! What the fuck kind of attack was that?!" Yelled Karaku, "I'm not regenerating and it's like I'm burning alive!"
"Calm down you annoying asshole!" Sekido's head ordered, "our regeneration's working it's just slow as shit!"
"You shouldn't be regenerating at all," Susamaru commented before turning to Tanjiro, "this doesn't make sense. All their heads are cut off and they're not spawning any more clones so why is upper moon four still alive?"
"I don't know, I've been trying to work out how his power works the whole time," Tanjiro replied, "his abilities seem to revolve around the four primal emotions: anger, relaxation, sorrow, and joy. That's why there are only four of them and why they all act so differently. But if cutting all of their heads off at the same time didn't kill them then perhaps." He started smelling the air, his concentration completely focused as he worked to distinguish a single smell from numerous others.
"Of course," he realized, "none of them are the main body. There's a fifth body in hiding out in the forest!"
"Then I'll find him," Genya yelled as he rushed in that direction, "all of you stay out of my way!"
"Sure thing Genya," Tanjiro called back, "I'll find him and you can take him out! We can do this together!"
"Whatever just find him!" The shotgun slayer yelled back while still running full tilt into the woods.
"I already have, go Northeast and-," the trio was forced to dodge out of the way of lightning strikes as Sekido resumed his attack, having been the first to regenerate, "nuts, Nezuko, Susamaru, keep the demons off Genya!" The duo answered in the affirmative as they engaged the clones again. Because he was chasing what they hoped was the main body Genya couldn't deal with Aizetsu, so Susamaru engaged him by throwing her Temari. Nezuko engaged Karaku as before while Tanjiro went up against both Urogi and Sekido, quickly cutting the flying demon again with a flaming slash before he could get airborne.
Aizetsu, meanwhile, spun his spear and deflected her initial assault before running off into the woods after Genya. "No you don't!" Susamaru yelled as she pursued the demon. She caught a brief glimpse of Nezuko setting Karaku on fire as she raced after her quarry. "Let's see you outrun this!" She formed her Temari into chakrams again and threw them. Aizetsu dodged the first few but the third one managed to catch his leg.
"It's sad you still think you can win," he said while leaping off of his remaining leg and sending several spear thrusts her way, "even after using your best attacks we're still here, so just give u-UUUUGH!" His sentence was cut off as the remaining chakram bounced off the trees and embedded themselves in his body. Susamaru would've kept beating him down into the ground but it was more important to keep Genya protected so she ran after him. Turns out it might not have mattered.
Genya had found what he was looking for thanks to Tanjiro repeatedly yelling directions while holding off Sekido. Thanks to that he was able to locate the fifth body, which turned out to be the size of a damn rat. Shrieked like one too. But it had a head and that was all Genya needed as he swung his sword sideways, and was rewarded with the sound of snapping. Not snapping bone, however, but rather the snapping of his sword blade.
'Are you kidding me?!' Susamaru could've screamed right now. Even with whatever demon strength he'd suddenly pulled out of nowhere the guy couldn't generate the proper force to decapitate an upper moon. Worse, Sekido had caught up to him and was about to plunge the back of his staff into his neck. Susamaru summoned her Temari to throw but knew she might be just the slightest bit too late. Tanjiro, thankfully, wasn't as he used the flames of Hinokami Kagura to slash off Sekido's staff hand.
"Genya don't give up!" He yelled, "keep trying! We'll protect you until you get him so just focus on cutting his head off!" Susamaru slammed into Sekido then, sending him flying into a nearby tree.
"Try not to get killed yourself while doing it," she exclaimed, "keep your eyes open!" Tanjiro acknowledged she was right before turning, and nearly running into Aizetsu.
"Sadly you didn't listen well enough, Weeping Spears!" The spear demon said as he unleashed his attack. Before either Susamaru or Tanjiro could move, though, Genya leapt in the way. Numerous puncture holes were left in his body as the barrage ended yet he was still standing despite his injuries.
"Genya!" The boy swordsman yelled, afraid his fellow slayer was about to die as a result of shielding him from the attack.
"I…..I can't cut his head," he coughed, "so I'll give you the honors, just this once." Tanjiro would've said more but Genya turned and fired his gun at the approaching Aizetsu while Susamaru fought off Sekido. Knowing now wasn't the time to argue, he ran after the main body, quickly locating it thanks to his nose. Then, summoning the power of the breath of the sun, he swung with all of his might and slammed his sword into the demon's neck.
Nothing like a training session or two to turn one into a badass! Though annoyingly Upper Moon's don't die quite so easily, so is this one finally defeated? We'll find out, in the mean time feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Also, check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Lastly, be sure to stop in next time as Nezuko and Susamaru face the enemy of all demons! 'Til then.