Revelations With the Dawn
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of the Swordsman and the Asura! We got the exciting conclusion to the battle with Upper Moon Four today and it's something else, minus the part where it's a bit shorter than expected. But I don't think that'll take too much away from the enjoyment. And, obligatory advertisement, don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Now that's about all I got at the moment and with no review questions this week, let's get to the story!
Nighttime: Forest of the Swordsmith Village
Upper Moon Four let out a shriek of pain as he felt the breath of the sun infused blade cut into his neck. His yelling was so loud it hurt Tanjiro's ears and that was saying something considering he'd taken a couple of sonic screams earlier. But the slayer wouldn't be stopped by something as simple as loud yelling and continued to push his blade through the rock-hard flesh. At the midpoint, however, he felt the blade stop as the flaming blood of Nezuko's demon art suddenly went out, its power finally spent.
'Oh no, without Nezuko's power I don't have a red blade anymore,' he realized with trepidation as he tried and tried to push the blade further into the demon's neck. That would turn out to be the least of his concerns, however, as another presence came up behind him. Tanjiro smelled him before he saw him and realized that the scent, while similar, was not the same as the four primal emotions. But its killing intent was definitely there.
"TANJIRO MOVE IT!" Yelled Genya as he rushed towards the scene. It was too little, too late, however as what sounded like the beat of a drum signaled the next attack. And it was enormous, bursting out of the ground in the form of large, wooden, tree-sized dragon heads which would've eviscerated Tanjiro if Nezuko hadn't tackled him out of the way in time. It cost her a leg, temporarily, before the pair landed on the ground some distance away.
Six Temari went flying towards Upper Moon Four then but were deflected as another wood formation surrounded him like an orb. "Shit, that thing's tougher than it looks," she commented while thinking back to how this happened. It occurred the moment Tanjiro had slammed his sword into the main body's neck. The anger demon, Sekido, had moved quickly and absorbed Karaku and Urogi, the relaxation and joy demons, before moving just as quickly to absorb the sorrow demon, Aizetsu.
His body had changed then, becoming almost like that of a fit teenagers with black pants and a flowery sash along with black sleeves with white lines. His neck now had some kind of armor that looked like a ceremonial decoration and his back sprouted a wooden wheel with multiple drums on it, all of which were labeled with the kanji for 'hatred'. Like the others he had two horns on his head, short dark hair that spiked upwards, and in his hands were some kind of 's'-shaped weapons that resembled horns. "Spite, enmity, nothing but hatred for those who bathe in pure evil," he said.
"No, sto-," Tanjiro started to say before the apparent demon of hatred turned his glare on the boy swordsman. He stopped midsentence as the demon's murderous aura filled the area. It actually made all the slayer's present sweat a bit with the pressure being strong enough to make Tanjiro's heart hurt a bit.
"What is it, scum," the demon spat, his young voice surprisingly heavy, "you don't like what I'm doing here?" He grit his teeth then before continuing. "You evil shitheads, have no respect."
"Wh-What," Tanjiro managed to ask, "what exactly makes us evil?"
"You were tormenting the 'weak'," the hatred demon growled, "you were trying to cut the one so small he can fit in the palm of my hand. Such injustice is something only savages would commit."
"That small weakling," the boy swordsman said, anger now steadying his voice, "his smell, your smell, is coated in blood. You've eaten a hundred people, two hundred, maybe even more than that. I'll bet not a single one of them did a thing to you, you just arbitrarily took their lives as your payment! You have a sick mind to try playing the victim after killing and eating so many people! It's absolutely unforgiveable, that's why I will cut your head off right here you evil demon!"
"Let's see you try, scum," the hatred demon retorted as he struck the drums on his back again. A couple more tree dragons grew out of the ground for a total of five tree dragons that lunged at the group. Everyone took off in a separate direction with Susamaru throwing her Temari in their strongest shuriken form at one head while Genya fired his shotgun at another. Nezuko either evaded or kicked at her dragon head while Tanjiro tried to use breath of the sun but kept getting interrupted.
It was little wonder why. Not only where the heads surprisingly fast for their size, they all possessed the powers of the other primal emotions but cranked up even higher. Susamaru found herself dodging lightning strikes and maple leaf craters before getting her eardrums temporarily ruptured by a sonic scream attack. It was even worse for Tanjiro who took a direct hit from the same attack which knocked him out of the air where he broke through several tree branches on the way down. The Temari Demon was quick to move him out of the way when his dragon head started using its own crushing air pressure attack against him.
Genya was faring even worse as his dragon head succeeded in coiling around him and started squeezing the life out of him while Nezuko's arm wound up trapped inside the mouth of her opponent as she fought desperately to free herself. 'This is getting bad fast,' Susamaru realized as she continued to move Tanjiro out of the way, his body still somewhat paralyzed from the earlier sonic attack. She and the others had quickly deduced that the heads couldn't go past twenty meters, meaning she just needed to drop him off beyond that and rejoin the fray. 'Now's as good a time as any to pull out the trump card.'
She focused then and allowed the change to overtake her body. Once again two horns grew from her head and an eye symbol appeared right between them, once again her muscles bulged and veined up, once again she was armed with numerous weapons, one in each of her six hands. Her Asura mode was awakened once more, and her target was in sight. "Eyes on me shithead," Susamaru said before throwing all of her weapons at the dragon heads going for her, Nezuko and Genya.
It was two weapons for each head, and they impacted with enough force to destroy the top part of the dragon's faces, forcing them to let go and back off as the Temari Demon's weapons returned to her hands. She shot forward then, dodging around more lightning and air pressure attacks from the two remaining heads before throwing her six weapons behind her to destroy both of them. "Interesting, you're much faster now," the hatred demon remarked as she closed the distance between them in mere seconds. She rained countless punches down on the upper moon as he tried to block with his arms held up but to little avail.
As she went for his face, however, he opened his mouth to reveal the 'hatred' tattoo on his tongue, which was quickly followed by the most powerful sonic blast she'd felt yet: Maddening Screech. Susamaru nearly fell backwards from the force of it as her hearing went out, her body stiffened painfully as her muscles tightened reflexively to maintain her body shape and her head pounded with the worst migraine she'd ever had. But the demon girl grit her teeth against all of that, willing more energy to her regenerative power as she came back with a punch that was so strong it made the hatred demon's head spin a full three hundred and sixty degrees. He responded by beating his drums and reforming the damaged dragon heads to go after Susamaru who leapt back to avoid them.
"I have a better understanding now, how those idiots, Daki and Gyutaro, lost," the hatred demon noted, "but a villain like you is no match for the might of Zohakuten!"
"Spare me the victim act," the Temari Demon shot back while kicking away one of the dragon heads before leaping over another, "if you were really a good person you'd admit when you did something wrong!" She threw all six of her weapons at the upper moon demon who blocked them by coiling the body of the nearest dragon head around him. It was destroyed in the process but that meant there were still four dragon heads trained on her.
"I won't be lectured by a traitor, Resonance Bolt of Death!" Zohakuten proclaimed as the remaining dragon heads fired both sound and lightning attacks at the same time. They struck fast and were randomly aimed, forcing the other slayers to dodge as best they could while Susamaru, being near the center, wasn't able to escape the full brunt of the attack. She yelled in pain as lightning coursed through her body and powerful sound waves punished the insides of her head.
The asura girl collapsed to one knee then, breathing heavily as she tried to clear the static from her brain. Thankfully her regeneration worked pretty quickly for this sort of thing, but in this case it wasn't quite quick enough as Zohakuten landed in front of her and grabbed her on either side of the head. "But perhaps there is a way for you to atone, loathe as I am to admit it. Let me reconnect you with the one above all of us."
Susamaru felt more pain in her head then, as if some sort of dark, nasty tendrils were crawling around in her brain. "Susamaru!" exclaimed Tanjiro as he, Nezuko and Genya rushed over to try and help, only to be rebuffed by the attacking dragon heads. But the Temari Demon's awareness of that soon faded away as she heard an all too familiar voice.
"Susamaru," spoke the demon known as Muzan Kibutsuji, "that's right, your name was Susamaru. I'd forgotten it after Asakusa when you broke the taboo of saying my name in front of the enemy."
"Yeah, thanks for nothing dipshit," she thought back angrily, "I might've survived that encounter if not for your curse."
"You dare to speak to me in such a tone," Muzan said, his red snake-like eyes appearing in her mind and narrowing as the pain increased, "don't forget who granted you the power you wield now. I gave you a purpose beyond being an insect and you repay me by joining the demon slayers?"
"Damn right I did," the Temari Demon spat, "all I wanted was to play with my friends without worrying my parents but you turned me into an animal who forgot that desire and instead killed everyone I loved! Then you filled my head with lies and false promises so that I'd be your little puppet. Well guess what dickhead, I'm my own person now and if you don't like it, tough shit!"
"Such audacity," Muzan's voice spat, "you are one of my creations, now and forever. You are nothing else but mine to command. Perhaps I should remind you of that, turn and watch." Susamaru felt her eyes forcibly opened as her head was turned to what would be an extremely uncomfortable angle for a regular person.
What was more, the rest of her body was barely responding. It was difficult to even speak, meaning she could only cry out when one of the dragon heads suddenly sprouted a chain of smaller dragon heads like some kind of Russian doll. It seized Tanjiro's leg, clamping down on it so hard she was certain she heard something crack a little before reeling him in. It bit down and held him in its maw then, tight enough to keep him from moving but just gently enough that he wouldn't be crushed, or at least not instantly.
"Now," Kibutsuji's voice came again, "when all of them are captured, you shall kill them, one by one. You'll feast on their blood in atonement to me and I shall at long last grant your wish of becoming an upper moon. We happen to have an opening now as you no doubt recall." Maybe it was because of the threat to Tanjiro and the other's lives or the way he so casually said it, like he thought he knew what she wanted, that the Temari Demon's rage reached a level she hadn't thought possible.
She reached up suddenly with all six of her arms, seizing Zohakuten's arms and face. "…uc…..ff," she babbled at first.
"What was that," the hatred demon asked with a raised eyebrow before the pressure on his arms and face suddenly intensified greatly.
"I said," Susamaru growled between gritted teeth, "FUCK OFF!" She pushed and pulled with her four lower arms, putting all of her strength into yanking on the upper moon's arms. He might've thought about trying to counter this, but Susamaru's two remaining hands were used to jam her thumbs into his eyes, bursting them as she dug in as far as she could. Zohakuten yelled in pain as he staggered backwards.
"Listen up and listen good, Muzan Kibutsuji because I know you can hear me!" She yelled, "the gullible little girl who killed for you is dead! I'm not just the Temari Demon anymore, I'm Susamaru the Demon Slayer and I'll be damned if you think I'll ever let a coward like you tell me what to do again!" This moment of rage seemed to do the trick as the voice in her head ceased, leaving only a regenerating but still very angry Zohakuten.
"You dare defy that man," he bellowed before hitting one of his drums, "then you will die too, after suffering the consequences!" The slayer girl didn't understand what he meant at first until she turned to see the dragonhead with Tanjiro inside closing its jaws the rest of the way.
"Hold on Tanjiro!" Susamaru exclaimed as she readied to throw her Temari. Before she could, however, the dragonhead was suddenly sliced apart as a figure leapt out carrying the boy swordsman on their back.
"Whoaaaa," sounded the familiar voice of Mitsuri Kanroji, "that's a lot of big monsters, what even is that demon?!"
"K-Kanroji!" A surprised Tanjiro stuttered out, "when did you get here?!"
"Not as soon as I would've liked," she admitted before landing on the ground, "but I'm still glad I made it in time to help you and the others, now." She set her fellow slayer down then. "You've done amazing work, so rest up and let me take care of this big meanie." The Love Pillar turned and walked towards the hatred demon before pointing her strange, whip-like sword in his direction.
'That's right, Shinobu mentioned she has a unique sword that only she can use,' Susamaru recalled while eyeing the flexible blade. "Hey you! Your pranks have gone too far," Mitsuri declared, "so you're gonna leave my friends alone now or else!"
"Shut your mouth, harlot," Zohakuten spat back, "there's only one person in this world I take orders from." For some reason this comment seemed to alarm the hashira girl. Apparently she wasn't used to being so blatantly insulted. Not that she had a lot of time to worry about that as two of the dragonheads unleashed their combination sonic/lightning attack against her. "Resonance: Bolt of Death!"
Everyone warned Mitsuri to get out of the way but she stood confidently and countered with her breath form. 'Breath of Love Third Form,' she thought before leaping into the air, 'Lovely Kitty Shower!' Her blade was a lethal blur around her body then, unleashing curved arcs that sliced through everything coming at her. Unsurprisingly, the group stared dumbfounded at the sight for a moment.
'Holy,' Susamaru gaped, 'I knew she was strong, but what she did just now was faster than Tengen Uzui!' "And just so you know, that comment wasn't the last straw for me," Mitsuri said while readying her sword, "I'm angry now because that attack was aimed at my friends, too. That, is unforgivable." Zohakuten's response to this was to send his dragonheads after her all at once.
Yet Mitsuri appeared unafraid, leaping, flipping, and twirling gracefully through the air as her sword moved and twisted with her. It was more akin to watching a ribbon dancer than a swordswoman as she made her way up and over the necks of the dragonheads. When one unleashed an air pressure attack, she slashed upward with her second form: Anguish Inducing Love to slice it down the middle, when another barraged her with spear attacks she deflected them by flipping upside down using multiple extending whip attacks with her sixth form: Kitty Paw Love Breeze. Her continual success made Zohakuten even angrier as he unleashed another blood demon technique: Karmic Wood of Avici.
It spawned numerous smaller dragonheads from the bodies of the already existing dragonheads, all of which were poised to strike at the Love Hashira. Susamaru saw moment of what might've been panic on her friend's face before she leapt up and bent her body at angles that would be extremely painful for a regular person, unleashing yet another technique. 'Breath of Love Fifth Form,' the pink-haired girl thought, 'Wavering Attachment: Messy Nails!' A barrage of two-handed strikes from the air completely sliced the wooden creations to pieces while simultaneously closing the distance for the pillar.
In fact, she was more than close enough to wrap her whiplike love sword around the upper moon's neck. Despite this, he looked unconcerned while opening his mouth. Kanroji didn't yet know that cutting off his head wouldn't work and went to tighten her sword, hoping she was fast enough. Just as his sonic attack was about to erupt, though, a Temari came flying out of nowhere and lodged itself in Zohakuten's mouth. The surprised demon didn't have time to react as Mitsuri pulled her blade the rest of the way, slicing his head off.
"Yay!" Cheered the Love Pillar, "I did it!" It would be short-lived celebration, though, as Tanjiro shouted out to her.
"Kanroji! He isn't dead!" He exclaimed, "that's not his main body so cutting off his head won't work!"
"WHAAAATT?!" She exclaimed back before seeing Zohakuten's body standing back up, "oh crap." Even though his head was still regenerating he went ahead and hit his drums, causing the wooden dragons to regrow and start attacking. The group of demon slayers was forced to dodge out of the way of random attacks as the area was torn up with lightning, spear attacks, maple leaf craters and sonic blasts. "Okay, we need a new plan now!"
"We already have one," Susamaru replied as she ran up alongside the pillar, "his main body is in that big cluster ball of roots over there. If we can get to it and cut the head off, this whole mess is done. Problem is, there's an uber powerful asshole between us and it."
"Maybe, but if we can keep him where he's at," Mitsuri suggested. The Temari Demon smiled, already understanding where her comrade was going with this. The two split up then with Susamaru throwing her Temari in every weapon form she could think of at Zohakuten while Kanroji went for the wooden creatures. The hatred demon was forced to split his focus on defense and offense as the Temari Demon's continuous assault on him from one angle after another kept him summoning numerous lines of wooden protectors to counter the onslaught. On the occasions he was able to attack, the Love Hashira was there to slice up the newly formed dragonhead or cut through the attack, covering Tanjiro, Nezuko and Genya as they ran across the battlefield and leapt up onto the construct holding upper moon four's true body.
But even despite reaching it things weren't going to be so easy as the wooden limb moved and jerked, trying to throw them off. Genya, realizing they couldn't slice it open while it was doing so, bit a large chunk out of the demonic tree. Thanks to his unique internal biology, Genya was able to ingest the demon generated bark and acquire much of the upper moon's physical abilities. Abilities he used to rip the large branch in half, dropping the section containing their enemy on the ground.
It wouldn't go down without a fight, though, as the other branches whipped out at the slayers. Nezuko quickly handled this issue by covering it in her red flaming blood which also reignited Tanjiro's nichirin blade. He used it alongside his technique Flame Waltz to slice the wooden orb in half. The attack was successful but what it revealed was the distressing fact that the miniature demon was gone.
"You little piece of shit!" Tanjiro yelled upon catching the upper moon's scent and spotting him running into the forest, "stop trying to run from your responsibilities!" The trio rushed after him then with the boy swordsman continuing his rant. "I will make you take responsibility for every sin, every evil deed you've committed! You can't escape from this!"
Genya also expressed his aggravation by using his newly acquired strength to rip out and throw a whole tree at the demon. Which was quickly followed by a couple more. "You should go help them," Mitsuri called to Susamaru upon noticing the situation, "we need to end this now!"
"But what about you," the Temari Demon asked while dodging more attacks and retaliating with her own, "I can't leave you here."
"I just need to last for a while longer," Mitsuri called back while flipping and dodging out of the way of lightning bolts and sonic attacks, "but you need to find cover, the sun is coming up soon!" Susamaru realized the Love Pillar was right. They'd been fighting so long she'd lost track of time and hadn't realized the night was slowly disappearing. "You just leave him to me, I'll make sure he won't touch a single one of my friends!"
Strangely, she seemed to get faster after this declaration along with stronger, more precise attacks. Susamaru briefly glimpsed a mark on her neck that resembled a pair of connected hearts with angel wings but quickly dismissed it as she turned and headed towards Tanjiro and the others. "You better not die on us," she called back, not waiting for a response as she ran into the woods, following the scent of her boyfriend. They were still in pursuit of the demon who was surprisingly fast despite his size.
Worse, Tanjiro was trying to keep up with an injured leg, something the Temari Demon thought would be a hindrance until he suddenly planted his other foot and shot forward like a certain, annoying blond slayer. 'That was Zenitsu's technique, wasn't it,' she thought in wonder as she watched her boyfriend close the gap and swing his flaming sword into the upper moon's neck. He howled terribly as the blade was driven halfway into his neck. But just when Susamaru thought it might be finally over, their opponent pulled out one last trick.
"Can't you see how pitiful I am?!" Yelled the demon as he suddenly manifested into a much larger version of himself, "don't bully the meek!" He seized Tanjiro around the mouth and throat with his oversized hands, trying to crush him in his grip. Naturally Susamaru wouldn't allow that as she turned four of her Temari into chakrams and threw them.
The attack succeeded in slicing off his arms but he shrugged it off and opened his mouth. He was again stopped by Susamaru throwing a fifth Temari into his mouth which Genya then forced in even further with a powerful punch. Nezuko then leapt up and grabbed him from behind, setting him on fire with her blood demon art while Tanjiro grabbed for his sword which was still stuck in the upper moon's neck. As he was going to push it further, though, the demon jumped backwards off of a nearby cliff that Susamaru just now saw.
"Tanjiro! Nezuko!" Yelled Susamaru as Genya reached for them but was repelled by the latter's flames thanks to the demon power coursing in his veins. The slayer girl rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked over, anger rising within her as she noticed the now armless upper moon four was running away with Tanjiro's sword still stuck in his neck. But relief flooded her shortly after when she looked down and noticed her boyfriend and his sister were still moving. More good news came in the form of an injured Tokitou with Kanamori and Haganezuka suddenly arriving at another part of the cliff's edge.
The Mist Pillar threw down a tsuba-less sword, probably the one Haganezuka had been working on judging by his angry face, and yelled at Tanjiro to use it. Naturally, the young slayer didn't hesitate and grabbed the blade before once again performing Zenitsu's technique, but this time with his own spin on it. 'Waltz Flash,' Susamaru decided to dub the new move as she watched upper moon four's head get sliced off, 'yeah, that's a good name.' In all honesty she would've liked to stand there and admire the scene a bit longer, but one problem remained: the sun was coming up very soon.
Knowing this, and being an expert on hiding from it after years as a demon, Susamaru descended the cliff, using her weapons to slow her fall as she did so. The demon girl landed with a hard thud on her feet before making her way over to Nezuko, intending to get her friend to some nearby shadowed area. Tanjiro was on his way as well, before his sister suddenly surprised him by running towards him. The boy swordsman tried to ask what was going on as she attempted to get past him, frantically pointing behind his back. The curious Temari Demon looked over and swore.
Even with his head cut off, the body of upper moon four was somehow still moving, and towards a pair of unlucky swordsmiths who happened to be passing by. They were apparently trying to transport a large number of swords if the bundles on their backs were anything to go by, but now if something wasn't done quick they'd become a demon's meal. "What," Tanjiro exclaimed before looking over at the severed head and noting that it's tongue had 'resentment' on it instead of 'fear', "Oh no, that wasn't the actual body either!"
"Shit," Susamaru exclaimed before she and Nezuko grabbed the slayer, "there's no time, just go!" The duo flung him through the air with all of their might as Tanjiro stared back in disbelief. "We'll be fine, save the villagers!" The Temari Demon didn't wait to see if he'd protest before grabbing Nezuko and breaking into a run. "Get as small as you can, this is gonna be-."
But it was already too late. Even though the sun had barely peeked out from behind the mountains, its rays were already striking the Temari Demon, searing her flesh with an incredible speed. Susamaru grit her teeth and tried to run faster but the rays were only growing more intense. Eventually her legs became too fried for her to run and she collapsed, the last of her resistance gone as she screamed in pain. 'No,' she thought as she tried covering Nezuko with her body, 'not yet, I can't die yet.'
And it definitely felt like dying. Everywhere the sunlight even slightly touched was burning and smoking as if a fire had been lit under her skin. Her thoughts quickly became a jumbled mess, memories mixed with pain. She lost all track of time, unable to tell if she'd been burning for a few moments or a few hours.
She tried to control the screaming but now that it started it wouldn't stop. The one thought that the demon girl managed to hold onto was that she needed to stay on top of Nezuko, to not let her burn like she was burning. Fairly soon she wasn't aware of much of anything as darkness filled the corners of her vision. The last thing she was aware of, her body slid off of Nezuko's, all strength gone from it.
The Temari Demon felt a pull on her arm, as if someone was trying to drag her further, but that soon faded. "Tan….ji….ro," she coughed out, the pain now so intense she was beyond feeling anything, "I'm…..sor….ry. I love you…..so…much." She rolled over then with her eyes closed, somehow deciding that if this was her time to die, she'd at least try to look at the sunrise.
The demon girl waited a moment before slowly opening her eyes, glimpsing the sun in the far distance. As it rose, some of the rays struck her in the eyes, causing her to reflexively raise her hand to shield her eyes. 'So that's a sunrise,' she thought, 'it's been so long since I've seen one and….wait.' The Temari girl turned her hand over, noting that it wasn't smoking or burning up anymore.
She'd stopped feeling pain some time ago, she'd assumed it was because her ability to actually 'feel' anything had finally stopped working. The demon girl looked next to her then, noting that Nezuko had rolled off of her, the bamboo muzzle now gone. At some point, Tanjiro's sister had been trying to protect her from the sun. "We're not," the Temari Demon started to say before hearing the sound of a blade cutting through flesh. Looking over, she saw Tanjiro collapsed on his knees, crying, while the body of upper moon four was finally disintegrating.
"Oh, Kamado, Kamado!" One of the swordsmiths called as Susamaru stood up. Her boyfriend turned around again, his battered and tear-stained face not seeming to believe what he was seeing at first.
"Susamaru….Nezuko," he said, slowly approaching before breaking into a full on run. It would turn out not to be one of his better ideas as he stumbled and fell due to his injured leg. Thankfully, Susamaru and Nezuko were there to catch him as the three embraced.
"Good…..morning….everyone," Nezuko suddenly spoke, "are….you…okay?"
"Am I," Tanjiro asked as his gaze passed back and forth between the two of them, "I haven't been more relieved and happy in my life!"
"Join the club," Susamaru commented with a smile of her own, "I'm just glad I got another chance, to tell you I love you." They embraced again, being joined shortly by Kanroji, Tokitou and the others in celebration of their victory.
Later: The Village Hospital
"Tanjiro," Susamaru said, "remember you shouldn't be moving too much right now."
"Sorry, I was just making sure you were comfortable," he replied with a soft smile. The trio was currently sitting on top of the roof of the village's medical building. The group had discovered upon their return that the sun hadn't quite risen to be seen in this particular part of the village. Knowing that, Tanjiro had come up with the idea of both Nezuko and Susamaru watching the sunrise with him.
The Temari Demon was naturally thrilled at the idea but quickly noticed their side of the building didn't have much of a view through the window. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who you asked, her boyfriend had suggested going up to the roof. Expectedly the Temari Demon was against him moving around too much with his injuries but the boy swordsman had insisted he'd be fine. It was annoying because he knew watching the sunrise had been a dream of hers, one that had come to include him.
So, with a little grumbling, Susamaru and Nezuko helped Tanjiro up to the roof and sat there in as much comfort as they could. The Temari Demon leaned carefully against her boyfriend while Nezuko rested in her four arms, having grown a bit smaller after exerting so much power. Even so, the smile she gave off was radiant as the light of dawn came out and shone off the rest of the village. And even if it was an absolute mess down below and the night before an utter nightmare, Susamaru was certain of one thing.
She would come to remember this as one of the most beautiful sunrises she'd ever seen. A sentiment which would be shared by many, even one who hated the sun. For it was also on that day that it was discovered that two sun immune demons existed. And the King of Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji, would stop at nothing to acquire them. On the day of that beautiful sunrise, the wheels of fate were set in motion towards a battle which would change the shape of the world forever.
She's alive, she's alive! Oh thank goodness the sun immunity kicked in, but how did it get there? That and more shall be revealed in the next chapter, in the meantime, 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, don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Finally, be sure to stop in next time as both sides make preparations for a major conflict! 'Til then.
