Akatsugi grinned as he finally, finally sensed Douma's presence more or less right under him, bouncing around like a bug in a fire, and went to stomp through the hallway floor, but frowned and paused just as he raised his foot. Then he glanced over at the two bodies slumped over his shoulders. And the snake around one of said body's arms. Right.

Hmm. Truthfully, he didn't think he should leave them there but… Douma, who needed to be defeated. But he would never leave Koyuki like this…. Then again, Koyuki wasn't a Hashira or one of Kamado's demons respectively.

He contemplated for a couple of seconds before making a decision.

"Oi, Snake," he said to the white creature wrapped around Iguro's wrist. "Bite anyone who comes by. I'll be back once I defeat this guy."

There, that should be good enough. It was hard to care whether it was or not when The Usurper was right there.

He'd deal with the consequences later.

And with that, he jumped on the floor, channeling his blood art into his feet, and fell quite a distance to land on a wooden walkway over a lily-pad covered pond. Akatsugi couldn't say he was surprised. The blond psychopath always had liked his drama.

Ignoring the splintering going on under his bare feet, Akatsugi rose and took in the room. A girl… no, a guy with the face of a girl but dressed up like that boar guy (huh… yeah, later) looked to be protecting (or fighting?) the butterfly lady, who didn't seem to be doing too well. Hmm. He'd have to avoid them… not get rid of them or dismiss them as weaklings (was it sad that he had to remind himself of that?).

Kanroji had obviously been fighting Douma directly and seemed to have been doing a good job as she didn't look to have any frostbite on her, despite her revealing outfit. She did have a couple of cuts here and there, but otherwise, nothing. She also breathed heavily and looked about ready to collapse. Eh, he could take over from here.

Then his eyes found Douma. The psychopath already had two ice-golems out and he just stood, staring at Akatsugi as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

That just made the former Waxing Third grin widely.

"Took a while, but I've finally found you, Douma."

No one else there would probably have noticed the slight narrowing of the other demon's eyes, but as much as Akatsugi hated to admit it, he knew the Kizuki. He saw the expression for just the barest moment before the Waxing Second's face lit up and he spoke, grinning widely.

"Akaza! My friend! You're alive! What a wonderful day!"

Akatsugi sneered. Did he really think he was fooling anyone? "You have never been my friend. You are a usurper at best and a disgusting, lying murderer at worst, Douma." Not that Akatsugi was one to talk, but at least he always attacked people who could defend themselves. Mostly. "This time when I cut off your head, it's gonna stick."

"You cut me to the quick!" the other demon said, grabbing the robes over his heart. "And here I was so happy you are alive!"

"No you weren't," Akatsugi said dryly and unable to hide his anger. Everything about this man just ticked him off. "You can't feel things like that and we both know it."

"How can you say that?" the blond asked, tone so obviously false.

"Cut the crap," Akatsugi said, annoyed. "I'm here to prove, once and for all, that I'm stronger than you."

Douma smiled widely. "But you couldn't even sttay stronger than me when you sought out and ate strength!" Oh, he did not go there.

"Yeah, that's it," Akatsugi said, taking a stance and drawing out the knives designed to go around his knuckles so he could still use his fighting style, but with just enough nichirin sticking out on the end to make a decapitation permanent. "Destructive Death, Compass Needle."

"Oh, is that a new stance?" Waxing Two said, looking excited. "And actual weapons? I'm shocked! What are you—"

"Breath of Snow: First Form, Solitary Snowflake," the former Waxing Third said, and then he sped forward. To anyone else, he may have looked like he disappeared, but Douma had excellent instincts, unfortunately.

Akatsugi turned his punch into a slice – as he'd designed the strike to become, but the other demon ducked and only lost half of his head… and his hat. It fell to the floor with a thump, but neither demon paid it any attention. Akatsugi had missed the neck shot, even with his compass needle active. Just another reason he hated Douma.

The Waxing Second jumped backwards, landing closer to the far side of the room as his head regrew.

"Oh, you have gotten stronger, Akaza," Douma said with a smile.

"It's Akatsugi now," was all he could bother to say before he launched several attacks at the Waxing second. "Form Two: Dashing Flurries."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kanroji rush over to the other two slayers. Good. That meant everyone was out of the way and he could go all out. Apparently Douma recognized that as well because he sent mist and ice and all sorts of attacks at Akatsugi, who easily jumped, whirled and dodged. Eventually he ended up high in the air and grinned. (He hated Douma, but this was still fun.)

"Form Five: Hailstorm Bullets," he said, punching his arms and hands out as quickly as he could, ignoring the creak in his bones as his limbs blurred in movement. Combined with his blood art, spikes of blue-tinged force-fields rained down on Douma. He saw it coming, knew Akatsugi would be able to follow him, and so did the only thing he could.

"Demon Blood Art: Rime-Water-Lily Bodhisattva!"

Akatsugi grinned sharply as Douma used his ultimate move. He knew what that cost the Waxing Second.

"Oi! Kanroji," he called, "Be ready!"

He couldn't really spare a moment to check if the Hashira would be ready, though. If she wasn't, he'd just have to push himself to finish this once and for all, and he was fine with that – he just figured she'd want a piece of the killing blow and he had no issue giving that to someone so strong. Then he used his blood art from his feet to launch himself forward from his place in the air directly towards where he knew Douma would be as the Buddha statue made of ice grew, destroying a chunk of the wooden walkways below and sending a wave through the pond.

Douma knelt on his ice flower, breathing hard as he tried to recover from using so much power at once. Unfortunately, he did recover, at least enough to see Akatsugi shooting towards him. He waved his fan, releasing a White Blizzard Princess followed by a Vine Lotus, both moves Akatsugi had seen the Waxing Second use before.

But Akatsugi still had a card to play.

"That is truly a devastating attack," Kyojuro said as Akatsugi landed at the edge of the clearing he'd… well, created. "Especially with your blood art and new form combined!"

The demon grinned as he surveyed the damage he'd done. In front of them lay a large amount of felled trees and craters. They'd needed more firewood anyway. Two birds, one stone and all.

"I'd say I've doubled or tripled the destructive force of my long-distance attacks," the demon agreed, opening and closing his hand as he assessed the damage it did to him. Nothing he couldn't heal, but that would be something he'd have to keep in mind. He'd literally torn apart his own muscles. If he didn't have instant regeneration, that could have been a problem.

"I have to ask, though," the yellow-haired man said thoughtfully, cupping his chin in his fingers. "You stayed in place in the air without any kickback – or very little in any case. How did you do that?"

Akatsugi blinked. Ah, he hadn't explained that, had he? It was at least part of the reason why he'd torn his muscles apart and why he'd felt his bones creak during the attack. If he wasn't careful, he could break them. Not that that would be a huge problem, but seconds mattered in the fights they would likely be participating in.

"I can output force from any part of my body as part of my blood art," he said, pointing with his thumb behind him casually. "So I put force out from my back to hold myself in place. And from my feet. That way I stay in the air too. It's part of the reason why I can attack so fast on the ground even."

Kyojuro blinked and Akatsugi grinned smugly. The guy was impressed, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"I am curious," the Hashira said after a couple of seconds, his gaze turning thoughtful again. "Why do you not use that for aerial maneuvers?"

It was Akatsugi's turn to blink, but after a moment, he shrugged. "Most people I fight won't be in the air to maneuver around."

"Ah, but did you not say that the very demons we will be fighting are not normal?"

The pink-haired demon opened his mouth, but he realized he had nothing to say and closed it again. The Hashira… had a point. And it would give him something to work on. It shouldn't be difficult to figure out, even if Muzan attacked the next day, he could have more cards to play.

"I see your point."

Almost as if he'd jinxed it, Muzan attacked two days later.

The ice vines rushed towards him, but Akatsugi pushed air from his feet and hands in just the right combination to allow him to avoid it without dodging too far. Then he did so again, and again, all while continuing to speed towards Douma.

The Waxing Second hadn't been expecting that, but he was nothing if not an excellent fighter with amazing reflexes, even for a demon, so he went to cover his neck.

Exactly as Akatsugi had predicted.

Douma wasn't the only genius fighter here.

"Form Four: Frozen Heart."

The thing about demons was that they got so used to regrowing destroyed body parts that they didn't know what to do with body parts that didn't work. It wouldn't take Douma long to adapt – seconds at most – but for those seconds, he would be utterly paralyzed.

Hearts were still vital organs, even to demons. Otherwise, why would Muzan himself have so many?

Douma's eyes went wide because Akatsugi hadn't knocked him off of the ice lotus on the statue's shoulder. Comparatively, his palm strike had actually been fairly soft, as was the release of energy he put out. He'd had to practice his control on this move for hours almost every day since he'd come up with the idea, so he had perfect control.

Demons didn't protect their hearts.

The attack would have ruptured a human's heart, but for a demon – a Waxing Moon, at that – it would simply stop it's function.

And that was all they needed.

"Hyaaaaa!" Kanroji screamed as she launched herself up, her sword passing through Douma's neck from behind.

But she wasn't the only one.

The boar kid (he was pretty sure) came in and sliced the guy's head in two right down the middle as it flew through the air so he couldn't even talk. Smart kid. That, of course, only increased the shock in both of those rainbow-colored eyes.

Akatsugi reveled in it.

And then, the former Kizuki noticed a third sword, smaller, with no edge to it, but more of a round section, like a tube, sticking right into Douma's neck. That sword belonged to the smaller Hashira… the one turning into a demon… though he couldn't tell if that was one of Muzan's or one of Kamado's… Huh?

She looked so pale and sickly, sweating profusely, her hair half undone and falling around her shoulders, her eyes slitted and her expression so, so angry.

And she was bleeding onto Douma's neck, too. Purposefully, by the looks of it.

"What are you doing?" he asked. She was still human enough that her blood might give Douma strength.

She didn't even look up, expression fixed on the neck-stump in front of her… that had begun to grow back! Akatsugi cursed silently, but the woman didn't even look fazed.

"Stopping him… from regenerating. I'll bet… it's difficult to … adjust to… poison… without a… head."

Sure enough, to Akatsugi's surprise, wherever the blood touched, the skin turned green and began to disintegrate.

"Huh," he said. "Is that your blood art?"

She shook her head. "No. Just my… preparation."

Okay, he was impressed that A. she'd powered through the pain of transforming, B. she'd maintained her presence of mind to do so, and C. she'd actually come extremely prepared – using her own body, in the worst-case scenario.

"Aka...za…" Douma's voice from below came to him as the head finished disintegrating. And then the Buddha statue below them began to crumble. Instead of dodging out of the way, though, the small woman crumpled to a heap beside Douma on the withering flower. She'd literally put all of any power she had left into that final strike to make sure the Waxing Second stayed down.

Akatsugi could respect that. A lot.

Maybe he'd misjudged women all along?

"Shinobu!" Kanroji yelled. The momentum from her own strike had carried her past them and she'd descended with the boar kid to make sure Douma's head would be destroyed. Now she looked ready to leap up after the other Hashira again, but Akatsugi had it covered. He wasn't used to saving people, but… he could get used to it, he supposed as he scooped the woman's small body into his arms and leaped across the room, well away from the crumbling ice.

"Shinobu!"

"Kocho-san!"

Both of the other slayers rushed towards them.

Behind them, Akatsugi saw Douma's body disintegrate and nodded in satisfaction.

"She's unconscious," Akatsugi informed the humans. "She put everything she had into making sure Douma stayed defeated." He grinned as Kanroji stopped in front of him and bent over the Insect Hashira. "You Pillars are something else," he said. Then he looked over at the kid, standing there shifting impatiently from foot to foot, as if he didn't know what to do. "You too, kid."

"I wasn't good enough," he muttered, all energy fading from his body as he looked down.

"Inosuke-san," Kanroji said worriedly, looking over at him, though she didn't move her hands from checking Kocho's pulse.

"You survived a one-on-one fight with Waxing Two," Akatsugi said dryly. "I know from experience how hard that is."

"But I didn't win."

"You survived. You helped us win. That makes it your win."

The kid looked up, hazel eyes that looked more green in the light wide and shiny… wait, he wasn't about to cry, was he?

Akatsugi opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, a presence dropped from the corner where the former Waxing Third had come through, and onto the walkway below the hole in the ceiling. That drew everyone's attention.

Beside him, Kanroji sounded relieved.

"Obanai!"

But her cry of excitement stopped with a sudden gasp as the Serpent Hashira looked up, slitted, mismatched eyes practically glowing from the shadow his matted hair cast. Akatsugi could see he'd definitely gained fangs and scales around the side of his face. Scales had also replaced his eyebrows, and instead, he now sported sharp ridges.

He hadn't completed his transformation – not by a long shot (Akatsugi could smell that strange doubleness of delectable human and enticing demon) – but the mind was usually the first thing to go. That he'd held on for as long as he had said a lot about his own determination.

But everything had a limit.

The guy didn't have claws… which was actually not a good thing at this point because he also held his sword in his hand, probably holding onto it by sheer muscle memory… which also meant he could attack with it too.

What a pain.

"O-obanai?!" The pink-haired girl sounded heartbroken.

Those mismatched eyes held no recognition when he saw her. Instead, he opened his mouth to show off his fangs – a sign of aggression towards all of them – and a forked tongue sneaked its way out… above his other tongue? Below it? Akatsugi could definitely see he still had a human tongue too…

Even he couldn't understand some demon transformations.

Before they could really say or do anything about the situation, though, Iguro attacked.

xXx

Yushiro finally had it. He showed the Biwa Demon that Tanjiro had stopped in frustration, was fighting other demons that he'd come across and wasn't getting any closer to Muzan. It was the best he could do at the moment. Now it would be up to Kamado to get there in time.

But if anyone could do it, Kamado could.

(Not that he'd ever tell the boy that.)

And just as he thought that, he noted that the Waxing Second had been killed and breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe – just maybe – they could win this after all.

(He really should know better than to jinx himself.)

xXx

A second presence had made itself known in Tanjiro's mind. The first had been Kaigaku, he could sense that now. The second… he still didn't know, but he hated that someone else had had to use his blood too.

And then a third.

Genya.

And his was developing faster than all the others.

The situation was getting messier by the minute… but that was a problem for future Tanjiro if he survived.

Right now's Tanjiro kept running, senses fixed on the other progenitor. Finally, he wasn't growing more distant or staying the same frustrating amount of space away. Which probably meant Yushiro was involved. That took a load off of his mind. Now if anything happened, the other slayers would be alright and he could focus entirely on Muzan.

And he would.

He had eighty-some-odd lives worth of anger, frustration and karma to deliver.

He most definitely would.

xXx

OMAKE:

Shinobu managed to stand up, despite the excruciating pain she must be going through and eyed Douma, holding her sword out. He couldn't help but be amused... until she spoke.

"Hello. My name is Kocho Shinobu. You killed my sister. Prepare to die."

Why did he find that so... disconcerting?

xXx

AN: There was supposed to be fanart on this chapter, but I couldn't find it. Looked through my folders twice (part of why this chapter was late), so I apologize to anyone who sent me something that should have been in this chapter. Let me know if it was yours or if you have something you'd like to share!

Also, thank you to Found and Quathis for this, especially the idea for that little Omake from Quathis. LOL

Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)