Argentum: Okay another chapter after the insanity of the last chapter. Thankfully no more random generation.

Slayer: You're fault for deciding to do that.

Argentum: I know… and I don't care.

Judan: Walked right into that one.

Slayer: Ugh…

Grel'Slyfer: Heh.

Ethan: Can I go back home yet?

Slayer: No can do slave!

Tanjiro: Slave?

Slayer: None of your concern!

Judan: Oh yeah… I forgot what you planned on changing in the redux story until now.

Slayer: It will be glorious!

Grel'Slyfer: Define glorious?

Slayer: No.

Argentum: Oy vey… okay that's enough! Ethan as today's guest you will start the chapter off!

Ethan: Sure no skin off my back… this time at least. Ahem, we here at the Dark Guard productions own nothing but ocs and reality building concepts. Everything else belongs to their respective owners. Now without further delay…

Everyone: Here's the story!

Hello= Regular talk

Hello= Thoughts

[Hello]= Radio

(Hello)= Telepathy/Mind reading

Chapter Fifty One: How I met some allies or… How I realized everyone who worked with Judan was insane…

After literally picking up the pieces of the battle our now largely expanded group had created a fire. Now we're all huddled around it as we tried to find a way out of here. Hunter said he had a way but it would take a little while to get it done, thankfully he for some reason carried an abundance of food on himself. When asked why it was actually the guy in armor, or Ethan as he had introduced himself, answered for us.

"It's because my boss is insane and full of paranoia." No one, not even Shirone or Mizore corrected the guy on his statement. In fact Hunter himself didn't even bother to say anything.

Well he did but it wasn't to defend himself. "You know how the old saying goes. Better to have something and not need it, then need something and not have it. Wise words in my professional opinion." As the guy with the guns and gas mask, or Tsukune, sighed along with Ethan, Shirone nodded in agreement while Mizore smiled in fond exasperation. "Hey my arena opponent." Turning back to Hunter I raised an eyebrow when he apologized. "Just got to say this, but sorry for beating you up like that and for breaking your sword. I had honestly thought you could handle it. However I needed to make it convincing as I planned how to deal with the twin Darkwraiths."

Seeing where he was coming from I accepted his apology. "Don't worry I get it, Darkwraith are no joke. Though I'll still need to repair my sword later, though I'm actually surprised you could cut through it by the way." Hunter looked at me, his red eyes appraising me as he hummed in consideration.

"Surprised you know what Darkwraith are. Then again I doubt those twins would've kidnapped your group if you didn't know about them."

I couldn't help but shrug at his words. "Well when you've been attacked by five of them you start to get an understanding of them. Though those twins were truly the trickiest of the ones we've met." Tanjiro next to me nodded in agreement.

"While I myself have only met one other. Those twins actually seemed to be a bit stronger than Ainvel. How many have you faced off with Hunter San?" He hummed before answering.

"While I've met three, I've only fought with two of them. Heh… while I say fight what I meant to say I survived two of them. Darkness and Night are truly no joke. Shadow on the other hand has been supplying me and my allies with weapons for a while now."

I couldn't help but interrupt when I heard that. "Wait… what do you mean supplying? Are you saying that you're actually working with a Darkwraith?" At his nod I couldn't help but look at him in anger fueled confusion. "Why in all of reality would you ever work with one of those monsters?!" The Voidwalker actually had the gull to snort at my question. "What's so funny?! So far every Darkwraith I've run into had tried to kill either me, kill my friends, kill my loved ones, or tried to steal from all of them!" He gave me a look of amusement before finally answering me.

"While it is true that a vast majority of the remaining Darkwraith are evil. There are still some good ones thrown in. Shadow just happens to be one of them. In fact if it weren't for him… well let's just say a number of my allies would be dead now." I couldn't help but scoff at his words.

"If there were good Darkwraith I probably would've been told. In fact I'm pretty sure this Shadow is just using you." He shook his head at my statement. Around us the others were in-between curious as to how our conversation would go, and wondering if they should stop our argument before we hurt one another.

"And just who would tell you about them?"

"Judan Kunai, he's basically become my sponsor." At his face of shocked confusion I had originally thought I got one over on him. Then he sighed and muttered something about stupid chaos before looking at me directly.

"Look friend… while I'll admit Judan isn't an enemy, and has in fact helped me a number of times. He isn't exactly a good person. In fact he only does what he wants or what Modaga wants. He couldn't care less about you or anyone associated with you." That actually brought me up short. I had no idea Hunter knew my benefactor. That's when I remembered something from a while back, back from where me and my squad first got out training weights.

"You're that rampaging Voidwalker he said he had to deal with!" He blinked at my statement before Shirone spoke up.

"Must've been when you took out the titan army when I was kidnapped Onii Chan. Judan did say you had annoyed him greatly with that." This time both Ethan and Tsukune nodded in agreement.

Sighing he raised his hands up in surrender. "Fair enough I suppose, doesn't change what that Arch demon is truly like though." Now that cut all of us short, in fact for a few moments I had to think heavily on what Hunter had just said. Trying to and failing to believe that what I heard was false. Eventually Nezuko recovered to ask the question we were all desiring to know.

"What do you mean by Arch demon? I mean what's the difference between someone like me and him?" Despite having revealed her status as a demon Hunter didn't even bat an eye.

Instead he answered her question and sated our curiosity. "Well just by looking at you I can tell that while you are a demon. You're pretty low on the totem pole. If I would hazard a guess… you're at least a fiend the second weakest rank. On the upper end is Judan, who is in fact the strongest form of demon. For context Len'Bul was a fiend knight." Nezuko for some reason looked a bit miffed at her rank but nodded in understanding.

That's when she asked the question we really wanted to know the answer to. "And do all demons eat people?" I for one wasn't relieved by his answer.

"Well I mean they can. It doesn't technically count as cannibalism if they eat people who aren't demons. Most of the time they simply don't because most people don't taste very good. Least that's what an imp told me once." I couldn't help but put a hand to my face while sighing. That's when Muichiro surprisingly asked a question.

"So what you're saying is that Judan could've eaten people in the past?" Hunter shrugged uncaringly. "You seem a bit too nonchalant about. Don't you care about the deaths of others?"

He gave a half nod before answering. "Honestly while I do care, I mostly just want to live my life with those I care about and be left alone. Sure I'll help if I can, but I'm not a hero or anything. Besides there's no point in wondering about how people died in the past. Simply learn from it and move on while trying to not repeat the same mistakes." While I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said. At the same time I couldn't really say anything against it. That kind of life style was perfectly understandable. Though I could tell a number of my team didn't exactly agree with him at all. But for the most part refrained from saying anything.

As for the one who did… "How can you say such things?! You have such strength yet you don't want to use it to help people?! Why?!" At Tanjiro's anger fueled question he simply looked at the kid.

"I've never said anything about not wanting to help; I just simply don't go out of my way to do so. If they're right in front of me then sure. If they're not then it's not my problem, I already have too much to deal with as is. And that just so happens to coincide with saving quite a lot of people as a byproduct." Tanjiro clenched his hands as Kanao put a hand on his shoulder. Looking over to Tanjiro Hunter sighed before trying to placate him. "Look… some people like you and your group chose to be the good guys. Going out and slaying monsters and saving the day. People like me were forced into the role, and by forced I mean quite literally. You see I was knocked out in an accident one day, and then I woke up in some strange clinic, got infused with eldritch blood, and then sent on my merry way to go and save the day."

Inosuke couldn't help but comment on that. "Wow that sounds like it sucked." Hunter sighed and nodded in agreement.

"It really did…" I couldn't help but understand Hunter's character more at that point. I could also tell Tanjiro did as well for he stopped giving him a hostile look. I mean sure for one reason or another we all chose to be demon slayers. Hunter however never chose to be in his current situation, yet he was still trying to make the best of his circumstances.

It would almost be admirable if he wasn't so paranoid.

Secrets and demons are revealed by this line break.

Having realized we had moved away from our main topic of discussion. Nezuko tried to get us back on track. "It think we got distracted there, I do believe we were talking about Judan being an Arch demon?" Mizore smiled at the demon girl before nodding in agreement.

"That is true, but what else do you want to know?" The yuki-onna seemed happy to change topics.

Looking at the purpled haired girl Nezuko asked something I couldn't help but be curious about myself. "Well… did he ever tell you how he became an Arch demon?" Mizore unfortunately had to disappoint the girl with a shrug.

"Sorry but he never told us about his origins. From what I gathered it wasn't pretty, and involved a few thousand years of bloodshed." That got Nezuko to laugh nervously.

"Heh heh… guess I won't try and become one myself then! Back to trying to become human once more for me." All of us couldn't help but give her unimpressed looks. This only got her to turn away and whistle innocently.

At this point the Tsukune spoke, though I was surprised by his question. "Eh… as a human with no enhancements myself beyond the equipment I carry. I got to say being human kind of sucks. So why would you like to turn back into one? In fact how did you become not a human in the first place?"

Nezuko thought for a moment before answering. "Well… we actually have someone where we come from that is either eating people or turning them into demons. I happen to be one of the "lucky" few that was turned into a demon. Unfortunately all demons created by Muzan have a strong desire for human flesh. I was lucky and was able to resist long enough to no longer need any to gain strength. Even so I still have some small part of me that wants to take a bite. So it was either becoming stronger to eliminate such a desire completely or turning back into a human."

The man in the mask nodded in understanding. "I can sympathize with that. Haven't experienced that myself but I bet that's a pretty terrible feeling to have." Nezuko nodded her head sadly at this.

"It is… but I've gotten pretty used to it by now. Haven't tried anything since I first was turned. Even then Onii Chan was able to snap me out of it relatively quickly." Tanjiro nodded his head gratefully.

"And thank kami for that! Though I still say your own will did most of the work." Nezuko shrugged noncommittedly at his statement, no doubt used to him saying that.

That's when leaping up to his feet Hunter stretched out his back. "Alright! Finally done! Really got to practice my portal creating. I've gotten so used to my artifacts doing all the work for me." He then turned to us. "Alright time to send you all back home." Genya sighed as he got up to his feet.

"Finally! I hate sitting around doing nothing!" Tengen nodded his head before yelling out his agreement.

"Agreed! What's more is that I need to get back to my wives! They must all be worried sick about me!" He then turned to me. "And depending on how long we've been here your own lovers will be worrying about you. For I doubt your Kusugai crow wouldn't have told them about this by now." I couldn't help but groan as Hunter looked at us apprehensively.

"Multiple lovers eh? Can't say I really approve but you do you I guess." He then directed all of us to gather in a circle. "Alright a bit closer, still not good at these kinds of spells." That did not fill me with confidence. "Alright don't mind the drop."

Zenitsu tried asking before anyone else. "What do you mean by drOOOO-!" We all yelled out in panic alongside Zenitsu as we fell through a portal that opened up in the floor.

There was only one thing I could think of as we fell. That's it! Imma kill him the next time we meet!

Secrets and demons are revealed by this line break.

Thankfully we didn't have to fall too far, but it was still far enough for Zenitsu to grab Nezuko, and for Tanjiro to grab Kanao. Both had instinctively held them while facing their backs towards the ground. No doubt in an effort to protect them from harm. Luckily or unluckily depending on who you asked, Hunter had teleported us over a lake. Unfortunately it was also nighttime and the lake was pretty cold. But fortunately it did break our fall as we landed in it.

Falling through the surface it took a moment to right myself up. Once I did I quickly headed for the surface, another thing to be thankful for was that everyone knew how to swim. So as we all broke the surface and sputtered out water we all stayed afloat.

Looking around Mitsuri was the first to yell out to everyone. "Is everyone okay?!" At our half groans half spitting answers of yes she sighed in relief. "Oh that's good to hear." Being the closest to her I patted her shoulder.

"Are you doing alright?" She simply smiled and nodded as I looked around some more. Once I saw what I wanted I pointed towards it. "The closest shore is that way! After reaching it I suggest our first priority is a fire, don't want to freeze to death thanks to wet clothes." Agreeing with me we all started swimming towards the shore. Once there I looked around and unsheathing my broken sword, started cutting branches for two fires. One would be by the shore and one a bit into the woods.

Curious Inosuke asked me what I was doing. "What's up with the two fire bundles Aniki?" Seeing how everyone else was also wondering what I was doing I answered, though I was a bit embarrassed to talk about my reasons.

"Well… we can't just leave wet clothes on our bodies, especially at night with how cold it's starting to get. So I'm making a fire for both us guys and for the girls. That way we can dry our clothes with some privacy."

Zenitsu of course was the first to catch on to what I was doing. "Yeah that's definitely for the best." Unfortunately there were two of us who didn't understand what the problem was.

Inosuke was of course one of them. "I don't see what the problem is! They're just wet clothes! Never bothered me before!" As I sighed at his words Mitsuri spoke up, at first I thought she was trying to convince Inosuke of the importance of dry clothes.

"Inosuke if you wear wet clothes in this weather you will get sick." She then looked at me. "Though I don't see the need for two fires, we're all friends here so I see no problem with drying out around one fire." Most of us couldn't help but look at her incredulously. "What? I take bathes all the time with everyone so what's the problem?"

I could see Tengen about to say something and cut him off. "Don't you dare." I then turned to Mitsuri. "As for you… It might be a time or cultural difference. But where I come from people don't just get naked in front of the opposite gender." At my words Nezuko, Tanjiro, and Kanao became bright red having now figured out what I was talking about. I swear those three are just too innocent.

Thankfully Genya actually came to my rescue. "He has a point Kanroji San. You three ladies should have somewhere at least decently private." After a moment she just shrugged.

"Still don't see the problem but if you say so." This got the two younger girls to sigh in relief. Didn't take much longer to create our fires, now us guys were sitting around waiting for things to dry. Though magic was useful in speeding up the process. As we sat I inspected my sword with a sigh. Now while I logically knew there was always a chance of this happening. The possibility of it actually happening hadn't occurred to me until then.

Next to me Tanjiro was also sighing at his own blade. "A lot of us are going to need a number of repairs after this." Muichiro nodded his head in agreement, his own sword while not broken in half. Was now too chipped to be usable. With a shrug Genya continued to work on his shotgun.

"I'm also going to need to restock, though for the moment feel free to use my short sword Tanjiro." The sun breather smiled at that.

"Thanks Genya." The scarred boy merely nodded as he snapped the shotgun barrel back into place.

Thinking on it I turned to Tengen. "How about you? Need to restock anything yourself?" The sound pillar shook his head with a smirk.

"Nope~! For unlike you rookies I have tons of explosives and other equipment inside my home! And before you say anything because I've been told this many times before. There is no hazard because I keep everything very secure~!" That statement took the wind out my sail, so instead I nodded in understanding. He then grinned at me. "You know… it's too bad you sent the ladies off. Would've been a great sight for the ey-omph!" He was cut off by both Zenitsu and Tanjiro punching the man in the gut.

Tanjiro then gave him a rather evil look. "One of them is the love of my life and another is my little sister! Not to mention Mitsuri is basically like a big sister to me! I'd be damned if I let anyone simply stare at them!" Next to him Zenitsu nodded in agreement.

"I agree with all but Kanao but she's important to Tanjiro and Nezuko so I care about her. However if we catch you trying to take a peek on either of them…" He unsheathed his sword a bit a rather dark expression on his face.

An expression that was mirrored by Tanjiro, and also to the side by myself. "Let's just say you'll be missing something. I hope we're crystal clear here?" Tengen for the first time that I've met him actually seemed scared, but covered it up with a laugh.

"Hahaha! Don't worry I completely understand! You won't have any trouble from me!" After a few more moments the two teens backed off, and I stopped glaring. As we turned back to the others I headTengen let out a sigh of relief.

Inosuke then summed up our thoughts perfectly. "Wow… you and Kotizu can be really scary sometimes Monjiro." No one even bothered to correct him on their names. Kind of realized it was a lost cause a long time ago. Shaking my head I looked up at the sky.

"You know… we probably should've discussed this before. But does anyone actually have any idea on where we actually are?" There was a pause before Zenitsu started freaking out.

"Gah! We're lost in the middle of the forest! We're all going to die in here-"

He was cut off by Inosuke smacking his head. "Stop being such a crybaby! I survived all my life alone in the mountains! And I turned out just fine." No one decided to even try and correct him on that one. "Just leave everything to me! I'll get us out of here in no time!" I couldn't help but smile at his confidence, because for once it wasn't misplaced. Or at least I thought it wasn't misplaced. To be the younger me had no idea just how bad he is at finding his way out of a forest.

Secrets and demons are revealed by this line break.

Argentum: Alright a shorter chapter but there wasn't much going on.

Slayer: And I'm out of the story until next we meet.

Judan: Unfortunately everybody now knows about my sordid past!

Grel'Slyfer: Not all of it old friend.

Judan: Never was your friend, and I hate you.

Grel'Slyfer: That cuts deep.

Tengen: Not flamboyant at all.

Judan: Ah who cares you overgrown firework!

Tengen: Firework?

Slayer: Ignore him his insults suck.

Judan: Better than yours Jackass!

Slayer: Hmm… whatever you say edgy demon boy.

Judan:…

Argentum: Okay! I think we should end this chapter before we kill each other. Tengen go ahead!

Tengen: Alright! This has once again been an extravagant Dark Guard production now flamboyantly signing off!

Everyone: Goodbye!

Judan: Okay time to kill you.

Slayer: Like to see you try! (Explosions)

Argentum: No! Not the studio!