Chapter 5
Even after being confirmed by Tanjiro himself, there was no celebration between the members of Fairy Tail, as they were all still too shocked and confused to even utter a single word.
Finally, after a long moment of uncomfortable silence, after Mira had paused the recording so that everyone could have time processing everything that had just happened, Lucy broke the silence, looking at Makarov as she asked.
"Master, do you think that Sabito and Makomo…?"
"Yes, Lucy." The third guild master of Fairy Tail nodded his head solemnly in confirmation, having a grim look on his face as he looked at the gently smiling Sabito on the scene "I do believe that both Sabito and Makomo… they were never really there. It must have been their souls that Tanjiro interacted with. They must have passed away some time ago."
"But… how was that possible?" Lisanna asked in confusion, as a heavy atmosphere fell upon the other members of Fairy Tail "Sabito even clashed blade with Tanjiro… and even Makomo tended to Tanjiro after he was knocked out… It couldn't be just Tanjiro's imagination."
"There are still many things that we don't know about their world, Lisanna." Makarov shook his head and said "And I don't think that it was all just Tanjiro's imagination. Sabito and Makomo could have been Urokodaki's past students, who lost their life fighting demons, but their souls continued to linger around after their deaths."
"So you are saying that they are ghosts?" Natsu asked, and Makarov nodded his head in confirmation, making him and Happy shudder while feeling a cold chill running down their spines.
"I think all that mattered is that they helped Tanjiro overcome Urokodaki-san's test. I don't know why, but I can't help but have the feeling that they have entrusted Tanjiro to carry on their legacies, to fight and defeat demons in their places. Sabito told Tanjiro to win, after all." Mira said while smiling softly, and many members of Fairy Tail looked at each other before nodding their heads to her in agreement. "Let's continue, I have a feeling that we will know for sure if they are really ghosts or not soon enough."
"Right." Natsu said, nodding as Mira grabbed the remote control and resumed the recording.
'The reason I won... was because I learned the sense of the opening thread.' Tanjiro narrated, as he continued to gaze at Sabito. 'When I am battling someone, and I pick up this scent or if, then I can see the thread. The thread is connected from my blade to my opponent's opening, growing taut the instant I see it.'
"Wait, you can do that!?" Natsu asked in surprise. From the start, they had known that Tanjiro's sense of smell was extremely sharp, possibly almost to the level of that of a dragon slayer. "How do you even do that anyway?"
"He might be able to detect a slight pause in his opponent's movement." Erza explained "It is a known technique of sword masters, striking in the split second when your opponent reveals an opening. It's a very difficult technique, requiring the swordsman to have a very keen perception of their surroundings, not just in their fight. I also don't think I have ever heard of someone that can do it with their nose as well." She said, her visible eye widening in amazement.
"To be able to do something like that with just his nose. His sense of smell might be even sharper than us dragon slayers." Laxus concluded while looking seriously at Tanjiro, to which Gajeel nodded his head in agreement.
"Heh, after my breathing training is done, I bet I can do that too!" Natsu declared confidently.
"You wish, flame brain." Gray responded while grinning smugly, making Natsu turn his head and glare at him.
'My blade is drawn toward it with great force and then we slash the opening.' Tanjiro continued to narrate, as he dashed toward Sabito and cut his mask with a swift strike of his blade, making it break down into two vertically, leaving the dark red haired young man standing there with his eyes widening in astonishment.
Hearing the sounds of footsteps, Tanjiro then turned around, widening his eyes to see Urokodaki walking toward him.
"Urokodaki-san." Tanjiro said as his master walked up and stood before the sliced boulder, staring at it with revelation.
"I had no intention of sending you to the Final Selection." The old man then said.
"OI! WHAT GIVES!" Natsu shouted in frustration, throwing his fists into the air "Didn't Tanjiro already prove himself and overcome your challenge, old man!?"
"Calm down and sit down, Natsu." Erza said firmly, slamming her hand on the table to make Natsu flinch and do as he was told "I am sure that Urokodaki has a very good reason for saying that. Let's hear him out first."
Tanjiro could only look at him in surprise, though he did not seem to have the mentality to argue with him "W-Why?"
He answered. "I didn't want to see children die anymore."
"O-Oh…" Natsu said in surprise, leaning back into his seat as he stared at Urokodaki with wide eyes. Even though the elderly man was wearing a mask, the members of Fairy Tail couldn't help but feel that the sword master had a sad look on his face.
At the same time, however, his words had also confirmed the situation of Sabito and Makomo, making some of them look grimly at him, no one more so than Makarov himself.
"I was sure you wouldn't be able to slice this boulder, but..."And then, Tanjiro widened his eyes in surprise when Urokodaki turned to him and pat him gently on the head "Well done, my boy! Tanjiro. You're... a remarkable kid!"
Hearing his master praising him for his hard work, Tanjiro couldn't stop sniffing as his eyes teared up, unable to hold himself back from crying anymore.
"Oi! Flame brain, are you crying?"
"No I did not! I thought you were the one who did, ice princess!"
Even though the two threw insults at each other, Natsu and Gray did not do any more than that, as they and the rest of Fairy Tail continued to stare at the scene as Tanjiro and Urokodaki embraced each other, finding themselves unable to say anything.
The older generations of the guild, meanwhile, couldn't help but also look at Tanjiro and Urokodaki proudly. Even though the scenes of their training were short, they knew very well that Urokodaki must have grown a bond with his student over the two years of his training.
"Make sure you come back alive from Final Selection. Nezuko and I will be waiting for you here."
"You bet that he will!" Natsu shouted energetically, his spirit burning as he stood up on his chair and put on foot on the table "Mark my word, Tanjiro is not going to just come back alive from the Final Selection… he's also going to crush it!"
"Heh, finally something we can agree on." Gray said with a small smirk, nodding his head in agreement with his short tempered rival.
"I know this is a bit harsh, but I can't wait to see what kind of challenges Tanjiro has to overcome to become an official demon slayer." Bickslow said with a grin, making the other two members of the Thunder God Tribe look at him. At the same time, however, they couldn't help but feel the same way, with Laxus pondering seriously at all the possible challenges Tanjiro would have to overcome.
One thing that they knew for sure, it was going to be unlike anything that they had ever seen.
A test that could very well cost their participants their life.
After that, the two returned to Urokodaki's house, with Urokodaki soon setting up some fishes and a pot by the fire after the two had sat down beside it, leaving Tanjiro to stare at it in surprise.
"Aw, it's a celebration." Mira couldn't help but say, smiling softly at Urokodaki as he stirred up the pot while holding a bowl in his other hand.
"I am feeling hungry now." Natsu said as his stomach grumbled loudly "Mira, can I have some fishes too please!"
"Me too! Me too!" Happy cheered, while Lucy could only sweat drop while smiling nervously at the two, remembering that they had already eaten so much just a while ago.
"You know what, Mira… bring out the foods and beers. Let's celebrate Tanjiro's graduation from his training together." Makarvo said, making the whole guild cheer and the beautiful barmaid herself giggle before giving the guild master a nod of her head.
Pausing the recording, Mira and her assistants then set out to serve the other members of Fairy Tail a sizable feast, setting up the tables with all sorts of foods and drinks before grabbing a cup for herself.
"To Tanjiro!" Makarov announced loudly with his mug in the air, making almost the entire guild shout loudly alongside him before they started digging in "Just don't go too ham, brats! We will have another celebration later when Tanjiro becomes a demon slayer!"
"Heh, you can bet on it, jiji!" Natsu grinned, as he and Happy chomped down their fried fish together. After drinking her beer, Mira then turned back to resume the recording, allowing everyone to watch while eating.
"What's the occasion? There's so much." Tanjiro couldn't help but ask.
"You have completed all your training, so we're celebrating." Urokodaki answered as he poured some soup from the pot into the bowl in his hand. "Don't be shy. Eat up."
With a big smile, Tanjiro took his bowl from his master, accepting it with both hands. "Thank you very much!" Saying that to Urokodaki, Tanjiro then picked up his chopsticks and dug into his meal, eating it with a big smile on his face.
'Tanjiro... there's nothing more I can do for you now." Urokodaki thought as he gazed at his student "From here on out, you'll be going through such hardship and strife. Your training will seem like nothing in comparison. So… at least for now, at least, you should rest well without a care in the world.'
"Yes, you should, Tanjiro-kun." Mira said with a small smile as she ate her own meal, a slice of the strawberry cheesecake that she had made for Erza, who was also eating her own slice in a delightful manner "You deserve it more than anyone."
Once they were done with their meals, Tanjiro went on to put on a loose shirt and started to carefully cut his shoulder length hair to make it shorter.
On the other hand, Urokodaki appeared to be folding a kimono with the same patterns as the one he was wearing, before suddenly he came to a stop, and asked Tanjiro without turning his head around to look at him.
"Tanjiro..."
"Yes?" Tanjiro asked as he turned his head around.
"Did you enjoy that hot pot?"
"Yeah! I haven't had such a feast in so long!" Tanjiro answered, nodding his head with a big smile on his face.
"A growing boy like you with a hearty appetite should get stronger the more he eats as well as grow bigger in size. But that goes for demons, too." Urokodaki said, turning his head slightly around to speak to Tanjiro in a more serious manner "Remember this, a demon is as strong as the number of humans he's devoured."
"Ugh… what the hell, old man!" Natsu's face went white after hearing that, losing all his appetite "Can you at least not tell us that now. We are eating!"
"You do realize that you are talking to a recording, right, flame brain!?" Gray asked, even though he and many members of Fairy Tail also no longer found their meals so delicious anymore, at the mention of human-eating demons. "And he's not talking to you."
"That reminds me of the time Mira-nee used to scare everyone that she would eat them in her sleep." Lisanna jokingly said, though no one but the older members found her dark joke humorous before she decided to clear the tension by asking her elder sister "But is that true, Mira-nee? Demons grow stronger the more humans they eat?"
"It depends. There are that type of demons, yes." Mira confirmed with a nod of her head "Some grow stronger the longer they live, while some have to train like us to become more powerful. However, the ones that can grow stronger the fastest are the type that only need to devour others to increase their strength. Doesn't matter if it is human or their own kind."
"I see." Natsu spoke up loudly, making Mira look at him before asking loudly for the whole guild to hear "Can we please not talk about humans and eating humans now, please? I want to finish my meal."
"Sorry, Natsu-kun." Mira said with a soft laugh, covering her mouth with her hand.
"So, the more they eat, the stronger they get?" Tanjiro assumed.
"That's right. There are demons who gain power, become able to transform their bodies and even use strange spells."
"Spells?" Evergreen asked in surprise "Their world has magic?"
"I think only the demons do. If magic can be learnt by humans, I have no doubt that Tanjiro would have learnt his own magic from Urokodaki by now." Erza assumed, though she wasn't entirely sure herself.
"So you're telling me that not only the demons are going to be strong as heck, they can also use magic as well!?" Gray asked, looking quite shocked "How can the humans of this world stand a chance against them?" He had known by now that demon slayers trained in special swordsmanship and techniques to fight against demons, but what about other humans? What are they going to do if they run into a demon and there's no demon slayer around?
"I guess we will see soon enough." Was the only thing that Makarov could say, though at the same time, he couldn't help but shiver at the thought of demons that had consumed thousands of people. There had to be demons just like the one Tanjiro and Nezuko had encountered earlier before meeting Urokodaki, the type that could be beheaded with a single kick of the younger Kamado…
But at the same time, just like there are mages more powerful than the rest, there had to be also demons that could take on the entire battalion of demon slayers with ease as well.
Urokodaki then stood up and went to the closet near the door of his house and opened it to reveal a fox mask, with the same design as the one Sabito and Makomo had worn, gazing at it longingly before he walked over to Tanjiro while saying..
"When your sense of smell becomes keener, you'll be able to tell how many humans a demon's consumed." Saying that, he handed the dark red haired young man the fox mask, letting him take it from his hand to examine it carefully.
"What's this?" Tanjiro asked.
"It's called a 'warding mask'. I've charged it with a spell to protect you from harm."
"Oh so there is warding magic in their world that humans can learn as well." Erza said with a nod of her head, admitting that she had been wrong with her assumption from earlier.
"Should come in handy for Tanjiro during the test."
"Warding mask..." Tanjiro repeated, as he looked down and continued to gaze at the mask in his hand.
The next day, as the sunlight poured into the house through a window, Tanjiro could be seen kneeling beside his sister, now wearing the clothes Urokodaki had prepared for them. His hair had also been cut short, with the style resembling the one that he had had before his training with Urokodaki.
"Nezuko..." Tanjiro whispered as he looked down at his siter, grabbing her hand as he continued to speak to her in a soft voice. "I'm coming back here no matter what, all right?"
"You better, Tanjiro, or I am going to head over to your world and kick your ass!" Natsu declared, having finished his mean and swallowed it with a lot of water, trying to forget the topic about demons devouring humans that they had earlier.
"He will." Mira said, as she everyone braced themselves up for what was about to come, having finished with their celebration "He has to."
The scene changed, becoming the scenery outside of Urokodaki's house, with Tanjiro himself standing before his master as he stood facing him. "Don't worry about your sister. I'll take good care of her."
"All right!" Tanjiro nodded with a smile. "Thank you very much!"
With that said, the boy set up and ran toward his next destination at full speed, doing so much faster than he could do before. Though, before he fully disappeared from Urokodaki's gaze, who continued to remain there and waited for his student to have left to return to the house, Tanjiro made a quick stop and turned back to wave his hand at his master, shouting loudly.
"Say hello to Sabito and Makomo for me!" With that said, Tanjiro disappeared, leaving Urokodaki standing there shell shocked.
"Tanjiro... How do you... know the names of those dead children?"
The old sword master's question sent a shiver down everyone's spine, and no one dared to make a comment about it. Makarov could only sigh longingly in sadness. For once in his life as he talked to his children, he had wished that he was wrong about Sabito and Makomo, but in the end, it had turned out to be right, and Urokodaki had confirmed his theory.
"Hey, come on guys. Cheer up!" Natsu spoke up loudly, trying to light up the spirit of the mage of Fairy Tail "At least we know that Sabito and Makomo are watching over Tanjiro, right? With them at his side, there's no way that he's going to lose to whatever challenges that he is about to face at the Final Selection.
"Natsu's right." Lucy couldn't help but say and nod her head at her fire dragon slayer friend in agreement. The Final Selection would start soon, and they all knew that they had to keep their spirit up to be ready to follow Tanjiro's journey.
It was around night time when they arrived at the Final Selection, with Tanjiro finding himself walking under a path flanked by trees with stunningly beautiful, almost glowing purple flowers.
"Oh wow…" Mira whispered in amazement as she looked at the tree around Tanjiro "Those flowers are so beautiful."
"Do we have those flowers in our world too?" Lisanna couldn't help but ask, looking expectedly at Levy who simply shook her head in response. "Aw~"
He already has his answer as they all look stunningly colorful and beautiful.
Eventually, after walking up the steps leading to a wide area, Tanjiro widened his eyes in surprise when he saw a lot of people around his age or older already standing around and waiting there. Much like him, they were also carrying swords with them, either on their backs or their hips.
"So these are the candidates." Makarov said seriously, as the members of Fairy Tail looked on and felt a chill running down their spines at the fact that not all of them would finish the Final Selection alive.
Joining the crowd, though not trying to strike a conversation with anyone as they all looked dead serious, Tanjiro could only look around and take in the sights of the fellow swordsmen that had traveled to participate in the Final Selection. The first of the many that he saw was an incredibly beautiful girl with light purple eyes, black hair tied in a side ponytail. At the same time, she was dressed in a pink kimono, not doing anything but looking at the ground with a sweet smile on her pretty face.
"That girl is going to be Tanjiro's girlfriend!" Cana suddenly said, pointing her hand at the girl as the scene focused on her face, making every single member of Fairy Tail look at him in surprise and confusion.
"Eh… why do you think that!?" Macao couldn't help but ask, as his friend Wakaba could only gaze at the brown haired girl in confusion while smoking his cigarette, wondering if all the drinking she had done had finally made her drunk and started talking nonsense again.
"I don't know. Call it a hunch." Cana said with a small smirk "Why else would the recording focus on her for so long? That girl doesn't look like she's worried about the Final Selection in the slightest as well. Trust me when I said she's going to make it through this test, become one hell of a demon slayer and Tanjiro's girlfriend one day."
"She's drunk, isn't she?" Wakaba asked in a low tone, so that Cana couldn't hear them while she continued to laugh loudly at her idea, to which his friend Macao could only shrug his shoulders in response.
Then Tanjiro looked at someone else, a young man with yellow hair and dressed in a matching colored yellow kimono. His face was smothered with some dirt but he looked dead serious.
"Wow, this one looks like he had just gone through hell or something rough!" Gray said as he eyed the blonde young man curiously "Wonder how his training with his master went."
"It can't be worse than the Final Selection, can it?" Lucy asked while chuckling nervously. She had a feeling that it didn't.
And finally, his eyes landed on another young man with a scar running horizontally across his face and dressed in a dark purple kimono. Unlike the others, however, he had an intimidating look on his face, looking as if he was about to chew his fellow candidates alive.
"And what's this guy's problem?" Natsu asked, scoffing.
"Wait… is it just me, or he seems to be the only one who doesn't have a sword with him?" Lisanna asked loudly, pointing out the fact. It was only then that everyone noticed it, having had their attention drawn to his face the whole time that they did not notice he did not have a weapon with him.
"You are right. Strange. Won't you need a weapon?" Erza confirmed with a nod of her head. "I don't know. Maybe his fighting technique doesn't require one."
"Guess we will see soon enough, if the Final Selection let us see anyone else besides Tanjiro." Makarov said thoughtfully.
"There are so many." Tanjiro mused as he walked through the crowd of demon hunters before eventually coming to a stop when he noticed a pair of twin girls standing behind a large wisteria tree, one with black hair and the other with white hair.
"Ugh… who are those two? They are so creep…" before Natsu could finish, Lucy had hit him lightly on the back of his head.
"Don't be rude, Natsu." She said sternly, making Natsu reach his hand behind him and rub the spot Lucy had just hit him, while the others simply laughed at the two. However, they couldn't help but admit that Natsu was partially right, because while the two girls were as beautiful as dolls, it was exactly the problem with them. They were just like two living, breathing dolls.
"Everyone, we thank you for coming here tonight. To the Demon Slayer Corps Final Selection." Two twin sisters said in sync with each other.
Then, the white haired girl continued, as her sister gazed around at all the candidates that had turned to look at them "There are demons imprisoned here in Mt. Fujikasane, captured alive by the Demon Slayer swordsmen and unable to leave."
"I see… so they will have to face demons for real for the test." Makarov said with a firm look on his face "I guess that's why one can lose their life in such, because if they are not ready to face a demon then they never will."
"That's so harsh, but I guess that's better than throwing them onto their first missions and not knowing what they will have to face." Gray said through gritted teeth, to which Makarov nodded his head in confirmation.
"You have to be ready to kill a demon, or it will kill you. Simple as that." Laxus said seriously.
"That is because wisteria, which demons hate so much, blooms year-round from the bottom to half-way up the mountain." The black haired girl then informed them in a monotone.
"So that's why there are so many of those flowers on the path leading up to the gathering place." Lucy said in amazement.
"Demons hate those flowers huh…" Mira said while tapping her chin thoughtfully "I wonder if it can be used to fight them in any other way." Surely one couldn't use it directly to send away the demons that they were fighting, but she did not doubt that someone within the demon slayer corps had figured out a way to use those flowers against demons, since they appeared to hate it so much.
"However, there is no wisteria from this point-on and so demons abound." The white haired girl then said.
"You need to survive seven days to pass Final Selection." Then the black girl followed, telling them the objective of the test.
"Right, so survive for seven days then… the objective itself is simple enough." Erza said.
"Alright Tanjrio, go for it!" Natsu cheered out loudly, and soon the rest of Fairy Tail followed his example as the dark red haired young man whose journey to save his sister that they had been followed steeled his nerve and stepped toward the twin girls with a determined look on his face, ready to take on any challenge ahead of him.
The Final Selection began, and soon, Tanjiro found himself treading carefully through the forest by himself, picking his hiding spot very carefully to make sure that he could watch his surroundings without blind spot.
"First… I am going to have to survive tonight. Once the sun comes up, the demons won't be able to do anything." Tanjiro thought as he looked around somewhat nervously, scanning the area around him very carefully to check for any sign of a demon.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. Those demons' mortal weakness." Natsu pointed out, reminding those who were just like him and forgot that the demons of the Kamado siblings' world were afraid of the sun more than anything, as it killed them instantly without leaving even a single trace behind.
"Good to know that Tanjiro and the other candidates will at least have some time to rest and regain their strength." Erza said.
Standing up, Tanjiro then continued running again, while thinking in his mind 'First, I will have to head east. I am gonna make my way to wear the sunlight that is going to hit first.'
"Smart." Makarov praised with a smile. "It's important to be able to make quick decisions like that."
Then suddenly, Tanjiro halted his running and came to a stop with his eyes widening in surprise, his hand instantly reaching up to grab the handle of his sword.
'This smell… It's a demon. And it's nearby. Where is it? Where is it coming from? I cannot pinpoint the exact direction of the scent.'
The mages of Fairy Tail held their breaths as Tanjiro continued to narrate while looking around. At the same time, they could also hear the sounds of footsteps running around Tanjiro, seemingly drawing closer and closer to the Kamado boy as he stood with his guard up.
Then suddenly, realization struck him, making him look upwards. "From above!"
A demon then appeared from above, jumping down and aiming toward Tanjiro. The dark red haired Kamado instantly reacted, rolling out of the way when the demon dove down on his very spot, causing the entire ground to explode violently and kick up a large cloud of dirt. After a moment, the cloud of dirt and debris dispersed, revealing a demon with grey skin, untamed hair, two curved horns on the side of his head and a long tongue sticking out of his mouth.
"So this is a demon." Natsu said, though his tone lacked its usual exciting energy at the seriousness of the situation.
"It looks strong." Gray chimed in, nodding his head seriously.
"Show it the result of your training, Tanjiro-kun!" Mira spoke loudly with one hand in the air.
Just as Tanjiro managed to pick himself up, his sword drawn and ready in his hand, another demon attacked him from behind. Instantly the boy spun around and raised his sword to block the attack with his blade before jumping away to gain some distance between himself and the two demons, as they looked at each other and started quarrelling for their prey.
"Good reaction!" Erza couldn't help but say. Not many swordsmen who had no actual combat experience could react as quickly to an attack coming from behind him as quickly Tanjiro just did.
"But two demons at the same time right from the get go? This is going to be rough for Tanjiro." Gajeel said seriously. Even though the two demons did not look like they would cooperate with each other to take on the boy together, it would still certainly be difficult for him to fight them both at the same time.
"Hey! Don't even grab my prey, man!" He said as he put his spiked elbow against his neck. "Get off of my turf!"
The other demon retorted. "To hell with you, just beat it!"
"That's my prey, you know!"
"Shut up!"
Then suddenly, they broke away from another and leapt toward Tanjiro. "It's first come, first served!"
As they got closer, Tanjiro used his sword to block their attacks one by one, sparks flying between them as his weapon came into contact with their sharp claws. As he landed on the ground, the more human looking demon then kicked him away, but it did not make Tanjiro falter as he simply gazed at them while standing firmly on his feet.
"Oh wow, I have a feeling that these two demons won't be too much of a problem for Tanjiro." Erza blurted out suddenly, speaking up what was in her mind before she could stop herself from doing so. Tanjiro's blocking technique and balancing were all amazing and flawless, so much better than how she had first started off.
'I am okay. Just stay calm and watch their movements. Remember the training.'
As the two demons charged at him again, Tanjiro allowed himself to be relaxed and consumed the air by inhaling using his mouth.
'Total Concentration!'
'Water Breathing!'
As he focused on his breathing, the sound of the threads flying through the air appeared in his field of vision, showing him the exact openings of the two demons.
"So if each one of those threads are an opening, then these two are full of openings, right?" Gray asked, pointing at the scene while looking at Erza, who nodded her head in confirmation, making the ice make mage smirk "Then this shouldn't be a problem for Tanjiro now."
'Fourth Form! Striking Tide!' As he said that, Tanjiro dashed forward, his sword emitting a water like effect as he decapitated the two demons in quick succession, leaving them gasping in shock before their bodies started to disperse.
"WOAHHHH! HE DID IT! THAT'S SO COOL!" Natsu cried out as Fairy Tail roared in celebration, cheering loudly for Tanjiro as he successfully killed the first two demons of his demon slaying journey.
"Wait… but what were those water currents? It couldn't be that Tanjiro's sword technique actually emitted water from his blade, right?" Juvia couldn't help but ask, looking at Erza who was tapping her chin in a thoughtful manner.
"I honestly don't know, but that water looked more like a special effect to me than actual water." Erza pointed out "Maybe the wizard who made this recording added it in to make the sword strikes feel more… unreal, matching the styles that the swordsmen are using?"
Tanjiro did say that his sword style was water breathing after all, with Tanjiro striking his sword in a motion as smooth as moving water. Moreover, the technique he had just used was the fourth form of the style, so Erza was excited to see how many more forms of the water breathing style there were and what they would look like.
"I guess."
"I did it... I did it!" Tanjiro said as he looked at his own hand, feeling amazed by what he just did "I've defeated demons! I've grown stronger! All that training wasn't for nothing!"
"It's not Tanjiro! Stop doubting yourself man!" Natsu said loudly.
"It was amazing, what he just did." Mira couldn't help but say. She didn't know swordsmanship as well as her best friend Erza, but she knew a strong and promising warrior when she saw one. Tanjiro's training had truly paid off. He could now protect his sister.
Then, Tanjiro turned his gaze to the weapon in his hand, which Urokodaki had given him during his training.
"If I slash a demon with the sword Urokodaki-san gave me, not even the bones are left behind huh."
Scene changed, coming back to the time when Urokodaki taught him about his sword' capabilities.
"A demon's weak spot is its neck! But you can't kill it with a normal sword even if you slash its neck."
"Then, how can we take it down?" Tanjiro asked.
"The sword wielded by the Demon Slayer Corps were forged with a special kind of steel. That's the way to kill a demon." Urokodaki explained as he brought the blade up to fully display it in front of him to see what it looked like. "They're called the Nichirin swords."
"Nichirin sword." Erza repeated, looking in amazement at the blade. She could tell that the sword was well tempered, and the blacksmith must have put their hearts and souls into it.
"So that's the special sword they need to kill a demon." Levy stated as she looked at Makarov, who had suggested the idea that a normal weapon would not be able to kill a demon even if someone used it to behead them.
"I wonder what makes the blade so special though. The steel must be the reason." Gajeel couldn't help but say. At the same time, he wondered what it would taste like.
Back to the present, Tanjiro sheathed his sword carefully before he turned around and kept on moving, though not before he had put his hands together and prayed to the two demons, who were now nothing but ashes on the ground.
"Rest in peace."
"Tanjiro-kun…" Mira said slowly. She could feel the young man's empathy toward the demon, a rare trace even for their world.
Was it because he understood their situation because his siter had also been turned to a demon? Or was it because he was just always like that, sympathizing with them because they used to be humans just like him? Mira couldn't help but wonder.
Before he could make it far, however, Tanjiro suddenly came to a stop, wincing as if he was in pain as his hand shot up and covered his nose.
"What's this rotten smell!?" He asked aloud, before hearing a scream and turning his head to see a boy wielding a sword running away as if he had seen something terrifying.
Instantly, the happiness the mage of Fairy Tail had felt earlier when Tanjiro struck down his first two demons disappeared and was replaced with dread. Whatever that was chasing that person with the rotten smell Tanjiro had just smelt, they couldn't help but have a feeling that it would be the most difficult challenge the older Kamado would have to face for the entire test.
"No one ever told me! I never signed up for this!" A person wielding a sword is seen crying and running away.
"What's going on?" Tanjiro whispered as he silently got closer, hiding behind a tree to take a peek at the surroundings.. His face, however, instantly morphed into a look of pure fear as he spun around and hid his whole body behind the tree, breathing harshly as he tried to calm down after realizing what he saw.
"What the hell is that thing?" Tanjiro asked in his mind, as the terrifying shape of a demon, a massive, deformed demon slowly moving to where the other demon slayer trainee had just run to.
"Wha-wha…." Natsu choked, his face growing green at the sight of such a terrifying creature. "That thing was a demon!?"
"Demons come in all shapes and sizes, but… it's my first time seeing something like that as well." Mira said in shock "Just… how many humans had that thing consumed?"
"Can Tanjiro really kill something like that?"
"He has to." Natsu answered Lucy's nervous question, having a determined look on his face as he gazed at Tanjiro.
Suddenly, the scene changed, returning to the place where the boulder Tanjiro had sliced was.
"It's them!" Lisanna said breathlessly, as she looked at the two familiar figures on the scene of the projection.
"Hey, Sabito..." Makomo asked her friend, who sat on a large boulder similar to the one Tanjiro had cut. "Do you think Tanjiro can beat that one?"
"That one?" Natsu repeated, looking quite confused "What are they talking about?"
"It is very possible that they are talking about the demon that they have lost their life to." Makarov said grimly, sending a shiver down everyone's spine as they looked sadly at Makomo and Sabito.
"So wait… you mean that they died to the same demon? That same demon?" Gray asked, getting everyone even more worried and anxious than before. They all couldn't help but get the feeling that Tanjiro would be facing it very soon.
"Very likely." Makarov nodded his head seriously.
Sabito shook his head and replied. "I don't know. No matter how hard you try, it's never enough. You know that well yourself, don't you?"
Makomo didn't answer and only looked down sadly.
"What the hell…" was the only thing Gray could say while gritting his teeth, having had his suspicion and Makarov's answer confirmed by Sabito's question and Makomo's grim expression. He knew the terror of having to face a powerful demon "What kind of a selection is this?"
"The one that will prepare you for the worst." Laxus spoke in a dead serious tone as he sat in his chair with his arms crossed on his chest "If you cannot survive this, what hope do you have when you face a demon later?"
"Laxus is right." Makarov nodded his head in agreement, having long accepted the harsh reality of the Kamado siblings' words.
"Although I see potential in Tanjiro, let's just see if he has what it takes to bring down that demon."
The scene then went back to the forest where the Final Selection was taking place, but instead of immediately focusing on Tanjiro, it focused on the other demon slayer candidate who was still running away. However, due to his emotional state, he did not notice where he was running, and tripped over the root of a tree, causing him to fall down.
"What's this morphed demon doing here anyway? They didn't tell us!"
Tanjiro widened his eyes when he finally saw the morphed demon fully, looking like a giant body with several large, bulging muscled arms wrapped around it, including the lower half of what appeared to be its human face. In its hand, however, were a dead candidate of the Final Selection, and as it approached its next prey closer and closer, the demon then lifted the corpse into the air before slowly lowering it down to the massive mouth with sharp fangs that formed on its body.
"GHR!" Natsu gritted his teeth in anger, as many members of Fairy Tail, especially the younger ones, tried to look away from the horrifying scene. No one dared to speak a word beyond that, having never seen anything like it in their life before.
As the demon finished devouring the dead demon slayer candidate, it began to grow even larger in size, gaining more muscle mass as well as arms on its already massive body. The wretched sight made Tanjiro want to vomit in disgust, his arms shaking.
The other demon slayer tried running away but the monster stretched many of its arms out and grabbed onto the boy's ankle, lifting him into the air before pulling him back with a menacing laugh.
Tanjiro gasped, pushing past his fear and gripping his sword tightly before in a swift motion, he leapt off from his hiding spot.
'Water Breathing, Second Form! Water Wheel!' The Kamado brother announced, as he slashed his sword in a vertical circle, unleashing a water wheel attack that sliced the arm of the demon clean off, causing it to drop the other demon slayer candidate.
"Nice one, Tanjiro!" Erza praised.
However, despite having its arm suddenly sliced off, the morphed demon did not look like it was in pain. Turning its gaze from the piece of its body on the ground while Tanjiro stood defensively in front of the other demon slayer candidate, it turned its attention to the mask the Kamado boy were wearing on the side of his head.
"Another sweet little fox has come to me." The demon then said in a surprisingly human male voice as it smirked at Tanjiro
"So it was really the demon that had killed Sabito and Makomo!" Natsu growled in anger as he glared angrily at the demon.
"Another?" Tanjiro could not help but repeat.
"Little fox cubs, what is the year of Meiji right now?" The demon then asked, as its cut off arm regrew while standing menacingly over Tanjiro.
"It's the Taishō Period right now!" Tanjiro answered for the demon.
"You don't have to answer that shitty demon, Tanjiro!" Natsu shouted "Just kill it before it gets to you and the other guy!"
"Tanjiro is just too honest for his own good, I guess." was the only think Makarov could say while chuckling a little. Honesty was like a double-edged sword. It could be a good but bad thing for someone at the same time.
"Taishō?" The demon's eye rolled back and let out a terrifying scream that caught all of them off guard. "Holy crap!" The demon cried while stomping the ground with its hand and scratching its skin so hard that blood started leaking out.
"Oi! What gives you crazy fucking demon!?" Natsu couldn't help but ask, as just like Tanjiro, he and the other members of Fairy Tail were caught completely off guard by the demon outburst.
"Language, Natsu!" Erza shouted to the pink haired dragon slayer, but she understood his anger. No one could after they had found out about what it had done. At the same time, however, she couldn't help but wonder why it reacted so angrily to Tanjiro's answer about the year though. Perhaps it was imprisoned in the mountain for so long it got angry after learning more time had passed.
"Time has passed into a new period! Again! Again! I've been held prisoner inside this place! AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!"
"Ah, I see." Erza nodded her head "I was right."
"But that means it's not just Sabito and Makomo… it has also killed a lot of candidates already." Mirajane gasped in realization, covering her mouth in shock and horror.
"Unforgivable! Unforgivable! Damn you, Urokodaki! Damn you, Urokodaki! Damn you, Urokodaki!" The demon screamed while trembling its limbs.
"This anger toward Urokodaki… it must be because he was the one that captured it and imprisoned it in this mountain." Makarov said grimly. He could not understand why he had wished for Tanjiro to fail, because he did not want any more of his students to die to the demon that had a grudge on him for capturing it.
"How do you know Urokodaki-san?" Tanjiro asked once more.
"I know him, all right! Because Urokodaki is the one who captured me! I'll never forget that day 47 years ago!"
"47 years?" Natsu gasped in shock.
"Just… how many that he had eaten during that time?" Lucy asked in horror. For some reason, she couldn't help but have the feeling that Sabito and Makomo were only students of Urokodaki that had been killed by the demon. She could only pray that her assumption was wrong.
"That's right! Back when he was still hunting demons! It was the Edo Period during the Keio Era." It said while its eyes twitching madly.
"Hunting demons? Edo Period?" Tanjiro repeats.
"You're lying! No demon has ever lived that long! The only demons in here should be the ones who've eaten just two or three humans! They don't live long because they're killed during Final Selection and they even eat their own kind!" The other demon slayer shouted, staring up at the deformed demon before him in horror.
"Wait what?... demons also eat their own kind?" Gray asked in shock, to which Mira nodded her head to him sadly in response.
"The weak are devoured by the strong. It is the principle of the world of demons, sometimes quite literally." The white haired barmaid said, recalling the time when she had to face a demon that she had later taken over. It was a powerful demon that had sought her out because it wanted to devour her, because he had inside her many demons. Mages with demons take over magic like Mira and others like her were the ultimate meal for demons that grew stronger by devouring their own kind, since it saved them the time of having to find so many of them.
"Yeah, but I've survived all the time." The demon explained while looking smugly "Inside this wisteria prison, I've eaten at least fifty of you brats."
"F-Fifty!?" Lucy gasped in horror.
"Is this a fucking joke? Why hasn't anyone, a leader maybe, killed this demon yet!?" Gray asked in anger.
"I have to agree with Gray there. This demon appears to have grown out of control. It has gotten so much stronger after devouring so many poor candidates." Makarov shook his head and said.
"Fifty?" Tanjiro repeated, couldn't believe what he just heard.
"That much?"
The demon then raised one of its hands and started counting up. "11, 12... 13. That makes you number 14!"
"Don't tell me…" Lucy gasped, covering her mouth in horror as the rest of Fairy Tail became dead silent.
"What are you talking about!?" Tanjiro exclaimed while breathing heavily.
The morphed demon chuckled. "The number of Urokodaki's disciples I've eaten, that's what. I promised myself to kill every one of his disciples."
"Don't tell me..."
"Let's see... The ones who particularly stand out to me... it's those two. Those two, that brat's hair was an unusual color. He was the most powerful. He had pinkish hair. A scar by his mouth."
"The other one was a female brat in a flowery kimono. She was small and lacking in power but she was awfully agile."
"That mask." The demon then pointed to their masks. "I can tell by the fox masks. I know the texture of the masks Urokodaki carved. The same style of carving he used for his own goblin mask. Warding mask, right? Everyone got eaten just because they were wearing them."
"DAMN YOU!" Natsu roared in pure rage, as he slammed his fist down the table between him and his teammates, breaking it into pieces. However, none berated him for what he just did, not even Erza, who was gripping her fists in anger as she gritted her teeth and stared angrily at the demon on the scene. Everyone could feel anger boiling within them, causing their magic power to pick up.
"I can't believe it…" Makarov muttered in shock as he stumbled back on seat in the center of the bar table, while Mira was trying to hold back her tears behind him "Urokodaki… you poor fool…"
Hearing that, Tanjiro gazed up angrily at the demon, who continued to laugh in joy as it towered over Tanjiro, who had also realized that the two wonderful people he had met were dead.
"They're here inside my belly. Urokodaki might as well have killed them himself!"
"When I said that to the girl, she was crying and fell into a rage."
"Shut up..."
"And right after that, she lost control of her movements." The demon laughed maniacally, as the scene switched to that of a shadowy figure of a little girl being torn pieces by pieces by the demon's arms.
"Shut up...!"
"I ripped off her limbs one by one, then."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU DAMN DEMON!" Natsu roared and almost threw himself at the demon, but his teammates, with Lucy and Wendy in tears, shot up and grabbed him before he could do that and destroy the wall the lacrima projector was projecting the recording on. "DAMN YOU YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SCUM! LET ME GO! I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!" He continued to shout in rage.
"Natsu! Calm down!" Lucy desperately called out to her dragon slayer friend while holding onto his torso "He's not here!"
"We can't do anything but watch, Natsu." Erza told him. Even she was struggling to hold Natsu back.
"Tanjiro will give it what it deserves." Gray nodded his head in agreement as he held his rival back, understanding the feeling Natsu was feeling better than anyone. "Now calm down and let's watch this together to the end."
With that, Natsu finally calmed down, albeit only a little and allowed his teammates to release him and allow him to sit down on his chair.
That one final statement was the last straw for Tanjiro.
"ENOUGH!" Tanjiro roared and threw himself at the demon, which thrusted its arms at him like whips. However, all that Tanjiro could see was red, as he charged blindly at the demon in pure rage while violently slashing off all the arms, losing the gracefulness in his strike that he had earlier.
"Calm down, Tanjiro. Your breathing is uneven. It's all right. Never mind us!" Sabito said, but his voice was unable to reach him. As a result of succumbing to his rage, Tanjiro did not pay enough attention to his surroundings and got smashed by one of the arms, sending him flying into a tree. The impact had injured his forehead, causing it to bleed and breaking his mask before knocking him as he fell to the ground with a dull thud.
"NOOOOO!" The mages of Fairy Tail shouted in horror at what they had just witnessed.
"Hehehehehe." The demon chuckled as it made its way to Tanjiro. "Another of Urokodaki's brats is dying. I wonder how he's gonna feel when another of his kids doesn't come home. I wonder what kind of look he'll have on his face."
"Come on, Tanjiro. Get up!" Natsu gritted his teeth as his fingernails dug into the skin of his palm, drawing blood from how hard he was balling his fists "Get up! You cannot be defeated like this!"
"Think of your sister, Tanjiro!" Mira put her hands together and prayed "You cannot leave her alone in this world.
"Oh man, I wish I could see it. I really do. After I'm done with him, I'll eat up the other brat too." With that said, the demon then shot its arm out and tried to grab Tanjiro, who then heard a call at the back of his head.
"Nii-chan!"
At the cry of his deceased brother, Tanjiro snapped his eyes open much to shock but also relief of the mages of Fairy Tail, couldn't help but gasp in shock before cheering as Tanjiro instantly flipped around and rolled backward to dodge the hand before it could grab onto him.
As even more arms started zooming onto him, Tanjiro brought up his swords and cut them all while swiftly maneuvering around the area, leaving the demon in shock at the fact that he could still move and counter attack so quickly.
"You can't defeat me just by slashing off my arm." Despite all that, the demon simply spoke to the dark red haired boy smugly, as his sliced off arms grew back in a matter of second and continued to chase after Tanjiro "Then again, even that pink haired brat couldn't slice off my head."
The mage of Fairy Tail gasped, when the scene changed to a shocked Sabito, whose sword was broken as he tried to slice off the demon's head.
"Kyaa!" Lisanna cried out in horror and covered her eyes when the demon's arm shot out and punched his face, blowing up his entire head.
'I can't just let this one go!' Tanjiro thought as he turned around and stood facing the demon after gaining some good distance from it "Before anymore lives are sacrificed to this demon… I gotta bring it down now!"
"Go Tanjiro!" Natsu roared as Tanjiro let out a battle cry and charged forward, using a variety of different sword forms of the water breathing techniques to cut down the demon's arms. The ground beneath him suddenly exploded, however, as multiple arms shot out from it and tried to grab him, but he was able to dodge them all in time by leaping into the air.
"No! This is not good!" Erza cried out in panic as she got up from her seat "He cannot dodge in midair like that!" Her words made everyone's face lose its color, realizing that would mean.
As the arm zoomed in on Tanjiro's face, the scene suddenly changed, becoming that of Makomo and Sabito as they talked to each other.
"Do you think he's going to lose, too? His neck is so tough after all." Makomo questioned her friend sadly.
"He may lose and yet, he may win." Sabito answered in a surprisingly calm tone. "Either way, there's one irrefutable fact. That Tanjiro... is the man who sliced the toughest, largest boulder of all."
The words Sabito said sent a chill down the spines of the members of Fairy Tail, as the scene changed back to that of Tanjiro who, much to their shock, used his head to flip around and get onto the demon's arm and then started running atop it.
"Go Tanjiro…" Natsu said in a low tone, before his tone started rising as Tanjiro slashed off all the smaller arms that grew from the demon's massive arm "GO TANJIRO! GO! GIVE IT TO THE BASTARD!"
He shouted, as the mage of Fairy Tail cheered alongside him, even Makarov and his always serious grandson Laxus, cheering for the older Kamado as he ran closer and closer to the demon's head to deal the final blow, with the demon realizing that there's no chance for it to dodge anymore.
'He got too close to me! Not to worry. My neck is tough! He can't slash it!' The demon thought. 'As soon as he fails to cut my neck, I'm going to crush his head! Just like I did to the other one!'
"In your dream, your fucking shit!" Gray shouted as he and everyone remembered the words that Sabito had said to Makomo, while water started swirling around Tanjiro's nichirin blade, as the boy let out a battle cry and slashed his sword horizontally.
"Do it now, Tanjiro!" At once, the mage of Fairy Tail roared, encouraging the young man to deliver the final blow.
'Water breathing, first form: Water Surface Slash!'
And so he did, Tanjiro slashed its neck off completely, leaving only blood to gush out where the neck used to be.
"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Came a triumphant roar so loud that the entire Magnolia town could hear, as the mage of Fairy Tail cheered as loud as their throats allowed them to the victory of Tanjiro over the powerful demon.
"He did it! He did it!" Natsu cheered as tears flowed down his cheeks, giving it to the emotions that had built up inside him as he jumped around with his hands in the air, celebrating it with Happy while the other members of his team celebrated among one another.
"Atta boy. You did it." Makarov nodded his head, smiling proudly at the dark red haired young man on the screen as he landed on his feet. Reaching out, the third master of Fairy Tail grabbed his beer mug and then held it in the air, pointing it toward Tanjiro before bringing it back and drinking the whole thing.
"Tanjiro-kun… you did it." Mirajane sobbed as she fell down to her knees behind the bar table and cried quietly while covering her mouth with both hands, knowing that Sabito, Makmo, and the other students of Urokodaki could finally rest in peace now.
Then suddenly, the scene changed, showing a black and white scene of dead people laying in the middle of the snow covered street or being splattered against the walls. A demon could be seen devouring a dead person on the neck, but his feast was interrupted when a person wearing a certain mask and wielding a sword at his side emerged from the shadow.
"W-what is this!?" Natsu could only ask, having calmed down along with the rest of the guilds as they turned their attention to the scene before them.
"Is that… Urokodaki-san?!" Erza asked in surprise, as the demon sprang on his feet and began attacking his new-found prey, but the masked person blocked the demon's attacks with slight ease. "Could it be that… this is the demon's memories?" She asked, before realizing that she was right when saw the demon's eyes. They were the same as the eyes of the deformed demon Tanjiro had fought.
"Why the hell do we have to see this!?" Natsu asked in annoyance as he crossed his arms on his chest. He would have said more if it hadn't been for Makarov, who raised a finger to tell him silently to be quiet.
Realizing that he would have no chance against the swordsman, the demon tried to run somewhere and hide from him, blood trickling down his bloody face from his earlier feast on the dead people. He breathed heavily and tried to run as fast as he could in the snow while Urokodaki only approached the demon calmly and slowly.
After running for a good while, the demon made a stop and looked behind his back. When he saw that Urokodaki was nowhere to be seen, he had hoped that he had managed to escape.
Little did the demon know, however, the masked person was standing on top of a roof behind him, overlooking the demon. When he heard the sounds of something descending upon him from above, he sprang around, only to be met with a slice to the neck, in the same motion as Tanjiro had done as the scene returned to when Tanjiro had sliced off the demon head.
"Like teacher, like student." Natsu declared while laughing triumphantly, an action many found themselves following along with him. Makarov and some others, meanwhile, chose to remain silent as they continued to watch.
"Urokodaki!" The demon exclaimed before he got his neck sliced off by Tanjiro, flying several meters back before dropping down near a tree. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" The demon cursed as he watched the remains of his body starting to disperse oh so slowly.
Tanjiro, however, only sheathed his sword while watching the body disintegrate.
"Dammit! To think the face of a demon slayer will be the last that I'll ever see..."
However, when Tanjiro turned his head around to look at the demon, his face wasn't that of satisfaction.
It was sadness.
"Tanjiro?" Natsu found himself utter in confusion, quieting down from his laughter before sitting heavily down his chair. It was only then that he remembered something very important about the demon of the other world. The rest of Fairy Tail once again fell into silence, having come to the same realization as Natsu.
"How did it come to this?" Tanjiro asked in a low tone, as he gazed at the demon longingly, who could only stare back at him in shock.
"I'm so scared. I'm so alone."
Then suddenly, the scene changed once again, becoming that of a child crying into a void of darkness surrounding him.
"Brother, where are you? I want you to hold my hand. Like you always do!"
As the child said that, Tanjiro slowly walked over to the demon's decaying body, with the only part that hadn't been reduced to ashes yet was the hand, with the palm facing upward.
"Why on earth did I bite you to death, big brother?"
"Huh?" But then, the young boy's human face disappeared, becoming that of the demon Urokodaki had chased down earlier. "Wait, who's this 'Brother' person?"
While the demon wondered what was in his mind, Tanjiro walked over to the demon with a somber expression on his face.
"What a sad scent." The boy whispered in a sad tone, before he grabbed onto the hand of the demon with both of his own.
To the mages of Fairy Tail's surprise, the demon's fingers returned the gesture, and tightened around Tanjiro's hands. And they continued to watch on, in silence and shock, as the demon's eyes teared up after seeing the act of kindness from the slayer that had slain him, as he started to disappear.
Scene changed once again, the demon ran into the light which turned out to be the human brother he had been wandering about, holding a lantern while walking forward. "Brother! Brother! Hold my hand, will you?"
The brother did what the younger brother had wanted and held his hand, as the demon turned back to his human. "You're hopeless, you know? Still such a scaredy-cat." And with that said, the two brothers walked together back to their home, as the hands Tanjiro had been holding on disappeared completely, leaving the boy standing there in somber silence.
The mages of Fairy Tail, were once again, left speechless.
End of Chapter 5
Note: Sorry for the wait guys! But here's the new chapter!
As always, I hope that everyone has had a good time reading! More will come soon! Make sure to leave behind a review once you have finished reading! Don't forget to check out my p/atreon for new chapters and exclusive contents the moment they are available! And join my discord channel if it is possible! (both links can be found in my profile page!)
See you in the next update!
