[Smut in this chapter. I tried lol.
This was supposed to be the last chapter in Kyojuro's route, but it was already getting too long, so next update it is. As usual, thank you for reading!]
The overwhelming scent of blood assaulted my senses; scent so thick I felt like I was suffocating. Still, it was a very welcome and enticing scent to my demon nose that made my mouth water. The source? Piles of demon slayers torn to pieces – unrecognizable – as a white-haired Kibutsuji Muzan towered over them. A slaughter… that was the very definition of a slaughter.
More visions entered my mind's eye; A huge room, water littered with lotus leaves and flowers… and Doma-san fighting Shinobu-san. The scene suddenly changed to what looked like Inosuke and Shinobu-san's tsuguko, Tsuyuri-san. They were fighting Doma-san and the room was now covered in what looked like ice sculptures – Doma-san's blood demon art. Shinobu-san was nowhere to be found.
Then Kyojuro and Akaza-san, facing each other again. It's like their fates were tied and they just can't escape each other! But I wasn't there. Tanjirou and Tomioka-san were. I felt my whole being dragged over to the next vision and saw Shinazugawa-san, Himejima-san, Tokito-san, and Genya fighting Kokushibo. Almost all four of them were bloodied and wounded, not to mention exhausted. Being the upper rank one, Kokushibo is only second to Kibutsuji after all.
I saw once more the vision that I've been having since I became a demon – Kibutsuji Muzan fending off several demon slayers as dawn approaches. I now recognize several of the people attacking him – most of the hashiras aside from Shinobu-san and Tokito-san, Tanjirou and his friends, and Kyojuro. But I noticed new details which I don't think I've seen before; pillars of fire that seemed to be attacking Kibutsuji and the soil beneath him covered by thick frost. Frost? That could only be me, right? I'm going to fight! I'll be helping them. This means I –
"Y/N?"
"Y/N!"
"Y/N-san?"
Several voices shook me off my vision, and I found myself staring onto Kyojuro's worried face. His hand moved to my face, wiping away a tear that escaped my eye. "A vision?" Kyojuro asked, and I could only nod as my throat felt uncomfortably dry. "Judging by the way you looked earlier Y/N-san, it wasn't anything good, was it?" Shinobu-san asked, and turning to look at her only reminded me of how I barely saw her in my visions. My heart sank at the reason why that is – she's going to die in that battle. Maybe I should tell her? Sure, no one really wants to hear that kind of thing, but maybe knowing would help to change that.
"I think you're going to die." I said, looking at her. She calmly looked at me then asked "how?", Kyojuro reacting differently and exclaiming "what?!". Taking a deep breath, I braced myself and began telling them what I saw. "It's something I've been seeing for a long time – Kibutsuji Muzan looking very different and very powerful. This time, I saw him standing over demon slayers, all torn to pieces so cruelly I couldn't recognize a face." They both nodded, urging me to go on. I saw how everyone was in the infinity castle, fighting off the upper moons. And Shinobu-san, I uh… You were fighting upper moon two. I didn't see you again after that."
They turned to look at each other, and a silent communication passed between them. Shinobu-san hummed, "I see. We better inform Oyakata-sama then."
"Tsk, we might all as well become demons now. How many humans have you eaten, huh?" Shinazugawa-san said with a smile on his face. For such a big smile, it sure didn't look happy. Kyojuro just laughed, "Y/N-chan and I have been eating nothing but boars and deer, Shinazugawa!"
"Hmm, you say that but you'd probably foam at the mouth if you get a whiff of my blood." Shinazugawa-san won't relent and continued taunting Kyojuro who just stayed positive and answered him jovially, complete with his booming laugh.
Shinazugawa-san looked even more displeased at that. He turned his attention to me, looking on with the same fury he had on during our first meeting. "I can't believe you did this to Rengoku. You won't be satisfied until we're all demons like you, huh? Are you looking to compete with Kibutsuji? Want to build a demon empire, huh?" Going after me seemed to have been a mistake on his part. Gone was Kyojuro's cheerful attitude, and the room suddenly became a tad hotter.
"Shinazugawa. You know I would never hit you as we are both demon slayers and because you're a human. But don't mistake that as permission for you to treat Y/N like that." It was tense… as if they were fighting yet they were only looking at each other. "Shinazugawa, Rengoku, stop it. There are more pressing issues to focus our attention on." Said Himejima-san, and I was thankful for him since the two listened to him right away.
"Ahh, whatever. Still, I envy you guys, damn it. Why can't I bump into upper moons?" Shinazugawa-san complained, prompting the other hashiras to speak up. They were talking about the battle at the Swordsmiths' village when we were interrupted. "I'm very sorry for the wait. For the meeting today, I, Ubuyashiki Amane, will be attending in place of Ubuyashiki Kagaya." Turns out, his disease has gotten worse in a short span of time.
"I'm sure you all have heard this, but we now have a demon who has conquered the sun, and she is here. Kibutsuji Muzan has most likely altered his goals to go after her so that he can conquer the sun himself. The time for an all-out battle is approaching. A battle which Y/N-sama has been seeing in her visions." Everyone turned to look at me then, and I had to fight the urge to hide behind Kyojuro. She continued, "also, we have reports of strange marks appearing on Kanroji-sama and Tokito-sama during their battles against upper moons four and five. So, I would like to ask you two about how you got those marks and what the conditions are to obtain them."
I guess it shouldn't have come as a surprise how rich the history of the demon slayers truly was. Marks that makes them stronger – almost on parr with demons – appeared way back in the Sengoku era. The slayers then were so strong that they were one step to defeating Kibutsuji. Tokito-san relayed to the others his theory on how he achieved the mark; by having a heart rate of over two hundred BPM and an almost burning hot body temperature that was over thirty-nine degrees.
Getting those mark to appear is now of high priority not only to the hashiras, but to all demon slayers. "With that, we can move on to the next agenda – Y/N-sama's vision." Ignoring the bubbles of nervousness within me, I proceeded to tell the hashiras of everything I saw concerning what I assumed to be the all-out battle, sparing no details.
"In my vision, Kibutsuji Muzan didn't seem to be holding back at all. The fight would happen in the infinity castle, it's an endless labyrinth of hallways, rooms, stairs… basically a maze with no escape and it's completely under the control of the biwa demon." Shinobu-san raised her hand at that, asking me about the biwa demon. "Is she one of the demon moons?" I shook my head no. "She's not. It's just that her blood demon art made it very convenient to travel and is a secure place for Kibutsuji to meet with his demon moons. Ah, I probably should tell you about the demon moons."
"Upper moon one is a man called Kokushibo. He is the strongest and was very fast even among the upper moons. He was able to cut off upper moon three's hand without him noticing. In my vision, Shinazugawa-san, Himejima-san, Tokito-san and Genya would be the ones fighting him." Shinazugawa-san was not happy to hear the last name I said. "Genya? He's going to fight an upper moon? And the strongest of them, too?" At that Iguro-san wondered who Genya was and how Shinazugawa-san knows him. Those of us who knew of their relationship hesitated in answering, which was the correct choice as Shinazugawa-san angrily told Iguro-san to mind his own business. "So, demon, will we kill upper moon one?"
"I think so because I saw you and Himejima-san fighting Kibutsuji as well. I assume that's only after the upper moons are defeated. But… ah, you should know that he'd kill some of you. Ugh… not just some. A lot of demon slayers." I nervously looked at them, seeing if I should go on. Mitsuri-san chose that moment to somehow encourage me. "I think we should hear out who'd die… so ah, we could prepare and maybe change the flow of things." Several murmurs of agreement followed. "Hah? But you said you think so. You're not even sure?"
It was Tomioka-san who spoke up against Shinazugawa-san then, "I doubt her visions enabled her to see every single detail. Besides, the upper moons do act like some sort of guards to Kibutsuji. Y/N-san was right to assume that we'd only get to fight him after defeating his demon moons." Shinuzugawa-san grumbled something but stayed quiet after that so I continued.
"Of course, another reason I assumed that is because those of you who were fighting Kibutsuji was already injured and exhausted. Anyhow, among you, I didn't see Tokito-san and Shinobu-san fight Kibutsuji. I only saw Shinobu-san fighting upper moon two… then she was gone and two other demon slayers were fighting him instead." Shinobu-san asked me who'd be fighting after her, "Your tsuguko and Inosuke-kun. Upper moon two, Doma-san's blood demon art is similar to mine; ice. The room they were fighting in almost looked frozen."
"Upper moon three, Akaza-san was the demon Kyo-kun fought a while back." I turned to him at that, and he took over, telling everyone what he'd observed and what his blood demon art was. "The demon who almost killed you twice, huh?" Shinazugawa-san smirked, and all it looked to me was that he was looking for a fight. Kyojuro ignored him.
"As for Kibutsuji, he was displaying his full power. Tube-like appendages sprouting all over his body moved like whips and ripped apart the demon slayers that fought him. I don't know how, but somehow, he was driven out of the infinity castle where the majority of you fought him. I think it was because the only possible way to defeat him was to expose him to sunlight."
It was silent after that. All of them were in deep thought. Amane-sama soon excused herself and left, Tomioka-san trying to do the same but was stopped by the others.
"It seems like we have a lot of planning to do." HImejima-san declared, and I couldn't agree more.
It was decided that the hashiras – even Uzui-san and Kyojuro who weren't anymore – are to hold special training, not only to make the mark appear on hopefully several slayers but also to make everyone stronger and better equipped to fight the strongest of the demons. It was divided into several stages, each hashira assigned to help develop the slayers' skills. I was even roped into helping out when I'm hardly a fighter myself. I said so during the meeting, to which Shiunazugawa-san joked that the slayers could practice cutting my neck off, seeing no problem with that since I could grow my head back as long as they don't use nichirin blades. It was not a funny joke, and Kyojuro was so furious Himejima-san had to step in.
Kyojuro and I would train the slayers to have a higher pain tolerance. I don't understand how that would help, but it made sense to them. It was also emphasized that I use my blood demon art. Since I mentioned how mine was similar to Doma, and how he could fill a large room with ice, they thought it necessary for them to get used to fighting in that kind of environment.
And since training was designed in a way that the demon slayers can't move on to the next phase unless they passed the first one, the slayers we were to teach very slowly trickle in as we were second to the last phase. And seeing us seemed to either put them on high alert or just outright cry in exhaustion and fear. They weren't aware that they'll receive training from two demons. Kyojuro would just laugh at them saying how he's still a demon slayer and that we won't be eating them, then move on and start whacking them to "improve their pain tolerance."
Inosuke's arrival was really some kind of a blessing. He was already familiar with me and was very eager to fight me, telling me to "show me what you got, demon girl!" I think him being comfortable around Kyojuro and I was helping the others warm up to the idea of us training them.
Since there were two of us, we decided that we'll be taking turns; Kyojuro would do his thing with them one night, and then I'd fight them with my blood demon art the next. I got to say, this was probably the best training I've ever had for that. I didn't even know I could make small snow bunnies and make them actually move! Of course, they're useless in a fight, but they're really cute and help everyone relax whenever we take breaks.
"Ah, Y/N-nee! Here, I made tea for you. Where's onii-san?" Senjuro said, carrying a tray over to me. I shrugged at his question, not knowing where Kyojuro was. "Thank you for the tea, but shouldn't you be sleeping? It's the middle of the night… are we too noisy?" Of course, we were too noisy. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to exclusively train only at night at Rengoku-san absolutely forbids us to train inside the house, so training indoors in the morning is absolutely impossible.
Senjuro, pleasant as ever, shook his head with a sweet smile. "It's okay, this doesn't bother me." He then looked over at the demon slayers sitting out in the yard as they catch their breath and chat. Some were even playing with the snow bunnies that I kept running around. "Demon girl, come on let's go back to training!" Inosuke said, looking very energetic from his five-minute rest. The others started whining, but I agreed with Inosuke since time is of the essence after all. Kyojuro came back as we resumed training, carrying with him a deer he hunted. With Senjuro's help, he started preparing it for the slayers to eat.
When he was done cooking, Kyojuro can't help but jump into training with us finding it thrilling to fight me. I never expected to ever say this, but it was fun. After eating, we dismissed the slayers and they all dragged themselves to their accommodation. They had to stay at the only inn in town since Rengoku-san wouldn't even let them pitch tents in the yard! Good thing the Ubuyashiki family was gracious enough to cover the expense and rented out the whole inn for the duration of the training.
"Ahh!" Kyojuro plopped down the futon and playfully dragged his leg and arm over me, making them as heavy as possible. "Hey!" I complained whilst laughing. He pulled his limbs back, still feeling playful, then turned to his side to face me as I did the same. I truly never imagined my life going the way it did. "What are you thinking about?" Kyojuro whispered, hand finding mine and pulling it to his face letting me rest it on his cheek. He closed his eyes at my touch, looking like he was savoring a feeling he finds to be very pleasing.
"Is it odd that I'm thankful for becoming a demon?" I blurted out, surprising myself a bit. His eyes shoot open at that, visibly surprised as well. "It is odd. Not many people would be thankful for what happened to you."
"I mean, of course not about being a demon per se. I did lose two brothers as one was killed and the other wouldn't talk to me… for a very long time my life had no direction but," I smiled, trying to show through it the intense feeling gathering in my chest, "everything that's happened, even Kibutsuji Muzan himself, I can't help but feel like all of it brought me to you."
-NSFW-
A huge and bright smile broke out of his face at that, and his eyes… oh, I saw so much love and adoration in them and I hope he could see the same in mine because I feel exactly the same. And just like that, we knew words weren't enough anymore. Still, a whispered "come here," escaped Kyojuro before pulling me in. We've kissed so many times already, yet somehow this one felt different. I can't help but hold on tightly to what he was wearing, clinging on as if to ground myself since I felt like I was floating at the touch of his lips.
I was so focused on the feel of his lips; the taste of his tongue that I almost didn't notice his hand tugging at my sash. The knot had no resistance at all and fell at his light tug, feeling the kimono loosen. I shed it off myself in my desire for Kyojuro, him doing the same to his.
He started kissing me all over, from my lips to my neck, and to my chest. Whispering I love yous in between his lip's touches. Nibbling on the sensitive bud on my chest made me grip his hair a tad tighter, making him groan. A sound that shot a strange but welcome feeling straight down to my core. "Nggh, Kyo…" A hand traveled down to where I needed him the most, and Kyojuro whined, "you're dripping, Y/N." My ears, cheeks, and neck burned at what he said but it only strengthened the desire I feel for him… like throwing more wood into a fire that was already burning brightly.
A finger entered me, and I felt myself moaning into his neck as a buried my face further there… taking the chance to kiss and suck as his skin to hear him moan back. He moved his head so he could pay more attention to my breast, sucking keenly. I can't help but dig my fingernails into his skin, clutching his shoulder to keep him close as he suckles and licks.
He was so stiff and warm, nudging against my inner thigh and I gently wrapped a hand around to slowly pump. It only made him suck on my breast harder, then releases with a wet pop. "Y/N…" He begins to guide himself to where I needed him most, prodding and pushing in. A contented sigh escaped me at the incredible feeling of Kyojuro stretching me. He began to thrust, slowly at first as I adjust to the feeling. I pulled his close and nibbled his ear before whispering, "you can move faster, Kyo-kun." And he did. He was passionate about everything that he does – this included. I had to cover my mouth to muffle the sounds I was making, afraid of Senjuro or his father hearing. He buried his face to my shoulder, making me hear his sighs and moans which he was trying to suppress as well.
With a grunt, he suddenly moved to sit on his knees pulling me up and setting me on his lap – all without pulling out – my hands flew to his knees to balance myself at his relentless pounding. But it felt so good that I couldn't help but move my hips as he continued to pump upwards into me. He pulled me into an embrace and I can feel his heart pound against his ribs in how close we were.
"Ah! It -… ngh you feel so good…" He managed to say in between groans, and he managed to burry in deeper than ever before. A feeling that had my legs shaking… His legs twitched and I can't help but cry out as he held onto me tightly, before his warmth shot deep in me. Panting, he leaned forward to press his lips against mine, as if closing our act of love in a passionate kiss that says more than words ever could. Pulling away, he rested his forehead on mine as we both try to catch our breath.
We just finished cleaning up and was barely even dressed when Shinobu-san suddenly announced her presence and slid open our door, prompting Kyojuro to grab and cover me, his back towards Shinobu-san. "What is it, Kocho?" In a sing-song voice, Shinobu-san laughed and teased us, "Oh my. It seems like you two were really busy, I heard you both loud and clear from the gate! I guess that is to be expected from you, Rengoku-san. But poor Senjuro, he was a red as an apple." I can't help but cringe and whine. She took more pleasure from that, especially from the strangled noise that Kyojuro made.
"Why are you here?" Kyojuro asked once more. "Straight to business? Alright. I've been working with a demon – Tamayo-san. A cure is ready." My heart stopped. "Cure?" With my sash securely holding my kimono, Kyojuro and I both turned our full attention to her. "Yes. A cure to turn demons back into humans."