I haven't written in a while, I know, I'm just going through a phase of writer's block… I think. I just know that this isn't the first story affected by my writer's block or whatever is going on. I'm going to try and overcome this, and this chapter is one of my steps.

Now, I'mma just go reread the past chapters… and…

Right! Inosuke has an Ice-Type Blood Demon Art! "But why?" the people reading might be asking, "Why does he have a Blood Demon Art?"

Well, let's just say that I thought it would be interesting. I was also thinking about Polar Bears at the time, so I was like, "What if Inosuke had Ice Powers in this?" This is an AU after all.

So thank each and every single one of you for staying with me and waiting for the next chapter of this story! I'll try not to do this long wait again!

Onto the duel!

Chapter 9

Human/Demon Duel

"Can't we talk this out?!" Tanjiro questioned as he drew his sword while Inosuke looked on at him, still laughing hysterically. "We don't have to fight!"

"Screw that! I want to see which of us two hybrids are stronger!" Inosuke shouted as he began to run towards Tanjiro and lunged at him, with Tanjiro lifting his sword in order to block the slash. Their swords clashed, and Tanjiro realized that Inosuke's sword wasn't like the katana he wielded. Far from it! It was chipped with numerous gashes within the blade's edge. Whether it was like this normally or not, Tanjiro did not know. What he did know was that Inosuke was strong.

Almost as strong as him!

Almost.

With his own natural Blood Demon Art manifesting on his arms, he parried Inosuke's attack before punching him in the ribs with a Haki powered punch that sent Inosuke a few feet away. Insouke held his ribs, which had cracked if the noise Tanjiro heard was anything to go off of. But even still Inosuke laughed and got back into a fighting stance.

"It's powerful, your punches!" Inosuke said as he gazed at Tanjiro, while his own arms became coated in frost, similar to Tanjiro's steel coated arm. "But, I'm way tougher! Tougher than you!"

"I don't want to fight you right now! Plus your ribs are broken!" Tanjiro stated. "We shouldn't fight! Even if you're part Demon, you could die from internal bleeding since you're still partially Human!"

"That is a fair statement, but allow me to retort!" Inosuke said, before he stabbed the ground with the stolen sword he had, and began to beat his chest rapidly with his own fists as his upper body became coated in frost, before he stopped randomly, and then flexed as the frost, which had became ice in the process, broke off of him and Inosuke laughed. "I can heal myself by coating my injuries in ice!" He began to giggle as Tanjiro's expression became one of shock.

"No way, really?!" Tanjiro questioned, surprised by this.

"Uh huh, uh huh, yeah!" Inosuke said. "I'm King of the Mountains after all!" He picked up his sword and pointed at Tanjiro with it. "Back to the duel!"

"Wait, timeout!" Tanjiro said as he sheathed his sword, while Inosuke simply made a noise of confusion. "I want to ask you something!"

"What, what?! I want to fight you!" Inosuke shouted while lowering his sword.

"Is it possible that one of your parents was a Demon tamed by the Demon Tamer?" Tanjiro asked Inosuke.

"Huh?" Inosuke questioned. "What the hell is a Demon Tamer?!"

Tanjiro was surprised. "Wait, you're serious?!" Tanjiro said.

"Of course I'm serious! Never heard of a Demon Tamer before in my life!" Inosuke said. "I was raised by boars high in the mountains after all!"

"What?!" Tanjiro exclaimed. "You mean you're an orphan?!"

"Yeah!" Inosuke said. "I've lived with the boars for years until someone came onto my mountain and tried to kill me in the home I lived in! I almost killed him because he tried to kill me, until he stopped! And then I took his sword and came down here since he mentioned some shit about Demons not being able to walk in the sunlight! Proved him wrong!"

"You can walk in the sunlight?" Tanjiro questioned. "Then one of your parents must have been tamed by the previous Demon Tamer!"

"Previous?"

Tanjiro put a hand on his chest. "I'm the current Demon Tamer since the previous one passed away. They've said I am the Demon Tamer incarnate."

"That explains the weird Demon and Human vibes I get from you," Inosuke said. "You tame Demons… but how?"

"It's a process I haven't fully mastered yet," Tanjiro admitted. "But afterwards, it's said I gain the Blood Demon Art of the Demons I tame… though that applied to the previous Tamer."

"Hmph, let's test that theory out!" Inosuke said as he took a stance to prepare for getting hit by something. "Hit me with an attack of one of the Demons you've tamed!"

"But that's the thing!" Tanjiro began. "I've only tamed two Demons, and one of them was my sister who had just become a Demon!"

"What about the other one?!"

"Her Blood Demon Art isn't even an attacking one! It allows her to teleport to places she's been to, at the cost of hunger!"

"What the hell?! It's no wonder you haven't mastered it!"

"Well it's not my fault Demons have a mindset of 'kill now, talk later'!"

"I take offense to that!" Inosuke shouted as he picked up his blade, as well as another one that happened to be on the ground and pointed one of them at Tanjiro.

"But you're a half blood and you're actually talking to me!" Tanjiro shouted back.

"I still take offense!" Inosuke retorted as he stomped on the ground, which slowly became coated with ice, at least around Inosuke.

Tanjiro merely growled, a bit annoyed right now, but also slightly tired of yelling at Inosuke. "Fine, then let's fight if you're really eager to do just that!" Tanjiro said as he took a fighting stance again.

"That's the ticket!" Inosuke said, before he started to sprint toward Tanjiro with his sword getting coated in frost.

Tanjiro began to inhale, and focus on Inosuke, preparing a slash attack. 'I can't kill Inosuke, but I can injure him to the point he can at least recover!' Tanjiro thought to himself as he prepared to parry and counter Inosuke's attack.

Inosuke then shouted, "Demon-Beast Breathing!" He took one more step to stop himself while the ground began to get covered in ice while Inosuke went for a vertical slash despite being away from Tanjiro. "First Fang: Icy Claws!" Taking the slash, a two sheets of ice that looked as sharp as the swords they used formed as Inosuke slashed at the air, with it hitting the ice on the ground and then moving towards Tanjiro, which Tanjiro didn't expect Inosuke to do, but he could counter it.

"Water Breathing: Sixth Form!" Tanjiro called out, while preparing his blade and body for the attack coming towards himself, as well as the attack he was about to do. "Whirlpool!" Tanjiro then twisted his body violently as he smacked the ice with his blade, shattering it, while also jumping to make sure Inosuke didn't freeze him with the ice on the ground, before quickly entering another form. "Water Breathing: Eighth Form!" He slammed his blade onto the ground with enough force to make the ground crack as the ice broke and shattered as Tanjiro yelled, "Waterfall Basin!"

Inosuke wasn't entirely impressed by him deflecting his attacks, but he was impressed by the rapid movement and execution of moves Tanjiro did, so he smiled under the boar mask. "Yeah, yeah! Keep this up!" Inosuke said as he rushed in, skating along the ice with the two blades he wielded.

"Human-Beast Breathing!" Inosuke shouted, making up an attack on the fly while closing the distance between him and Tanjiro. "Second Fang: Slice!" He then slashed at Tanjiro with both of his blades, trying to cut Tanjiro in the chest while he recovered from unleashing the two Water Breathing attacks.

Tanjiro knew he couldn't raise his sword in time to deflect the attack, so instead with his Haki coated left hand, he raised it and managed to catch both of the blades in between his fingers, which stopped Inosuke's assault, before Tanjiro raised his other hand, still holding his sword, and delivered another punch to Inosuke's rib cage, sending him flying backwards until he hit a tree. Tanjiro lunged, while raising his blade. "Water Breathing: Fourth Form!" Tanjiro slashed at Inosuke with the blunt side of his blade to avoid any seriously fatal injuries. "Striking Tide!" He then cut Inosuke on his stomach, as well as his arms as well.

Inosuke grunted at this, before he kicked Tanjiro in the face, knocking the trainee off balance, before Inosuke continued to assault Tanjiro with a barrage of kicks. Tanjiro eventually grabbed Inosuke by his ankle, before slamming him into the ground, and then spun around while still holding Inosuke by his leg, before throwing him deeper into the woods. Tanjiro followed him immediately, with quick movements as he ran while the adrenaline flowed within his own blood.

"Come on dude, we're not gonna find a human but sitting right here," a demon said to his friend who said that they should just sit in a bush and look at a path the humans did travel on. "We should go hunt!"

"I'm playing this safe," the second demon said. "I don't want to die, even if it's inevitable." He licked his lips. "Besides, I want to knock them out and prepare a fire first! I love me some roasted human flesh!"

"Whatever," the first demon said, before they saw someone who looked like a demon with a boar head get thrown down the path with enough force that they barely saw him pass them. "...what the hell was that?!"

"A Demon with a boar head? We have new neighbors?!" The second demon exclaimed, before a boy with a fox mask and a blade ran down the path quickly as well. "What the hell?!"

"I swear, the Final Selections get weirder and weirder as time goes on," the first demon commented.

"Agreed," the second one said in agreement.

Inosuke slowly stood up from where he fell on the ground, and relocated one of his arms that he landed on when he hit the ground. He was getting quite excited fighting Tanjiro. This was the first challenge he had for a long time! He smiled under his mask.

He didn't want their fight to end.

But he knew it would have to end sooner or later.

For now, he picked up his swords, and looked up at Tanjiro as he ran towards Inosuke. Inosuke stomped on the ground again and stabbed a tree, and also the ground. "Demon-Beast Breathing!" Inosuke began, before the tree turned into pure ice, destroying the bark, wood, roots, and leaves, as well as the fungi and bugs that lived in or on it, while turning the ground around the tree into ice as well, which made Tanjiro slip, before Inosuke started to ascend as he manipulated the tree of ice and used his blade to rise into the air. "Eighth Fang: Icescape!" Tanjiro was surprised to see Inosuke ascend before he managed to regain his footing on the ice and began to climb on the nearby trees in order to follow him.

Inosuke smirked before jumping from the tree and prepared for another attack with his blades. "Human-Beast Breathing: Fourth Fang!" Tanjiro looked at Inosuke, having enough time to prepare his sword in order to block Inosuke's upcoming attack. "Slice 'n' Dice!" He moved his swords rapidly to try and break Tanjiro's guard, but it was still there. His training with Sabito and Makomo was paying off.

Tanjiro growled, before he took a deep breath, and then breathed smoke at Inosuke, as Inosuke entered it due to how sudden it was, before Inosuke hit the ground as he suddenly was at the ground floor.

"What in the world?! I was just in the air!" Inosuke said, before he felt Tanjiro as he delivered a kick and knocked Inosuke onto the ground. The air was knocked right out of Inosuke's lungs, and Tanjiro had put his sword next to Inosuke's throat, making it clear to Inosuke that Tanjiro Kamado had won this duel.

"My win," Tanjiro said, while taking several breaths, suddenly tired from using the Blood Demon Art of Lizzy. He had to improvise while using it, but it was worth it.

Inosuke merely grunted. "Fine… you win, for now!" Inosuke then said, "Now get the hell off of me!"

Tanjiro nodded, before he got off of Inosuke, who stood up as well. Tanjiro was still trying to control his breathing, now understanding why Lizzy described the drawbacks of using it as she did. "Man… she wasn't lying…" Tanjiro said to himself.

"It's obvious that was the other Blood Demon Art you were talking about," Inosuke said to Tanjiro while looking at Tanjiro, who looked back at Inosuke and nodded to the boar headed half-blood. "It's weird… but it's also unpredictable. I like it!" Inosuke laughed again, while picking up his swords. "I'm going to enjoy sparring with you!"

"What?" Tanjiro questioned. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Inosuke asked. "I'm going to travel with you from now on!" Tanjiro was surprised by this if the look of shock on his face was anything to go by.

"But we just met!" Tanjiro exclaimed.

"I know, and I don't care!" Inosuke said. "You're the only person who's bested me to date, and the only person who is just like me, able to use these superhuman powers!

"Now, let's go kill some Demons on this mountain, Tanjiro!"

…fucking kill me, please.

I WROTE THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IN ONE DAY, WHEN I PROCRASTINATE AND LEAVE EVERYTHING FOR FRIDAY AND SATURDAY! WHY IS THIS CHAPTER DIFFERENT?!

Well, regardless, this chapter is over since that's a good place to end it right now. I think I'm getting better at writing fight scenes, so I think that's a plus. If anyone would tell me their thoughts on the fight with Tanjiro and Inosuke in this chapter, I would love to know what people thought.

And I've also decided to give Inosuke his normal Beast Breathing (Human-Beast Breathing), and a brand new Beast Breathing style that's more focused towards his Blood Demon Art (Demon-Beast Breathing). I'm calling it Demon-Beast Breathing for now, unless anyone else has any better ideas.

First Fang: Ice Claws and Eighth Fang: Icescape are two of his moves for Demon-Beast Breathing, which I sort of made up on the fly like this whole chapter, but at the same time, put a little bit of thought into. I hope everyone likes these two moves.

While Inosuke is part Demon, and also still Human, I'm not going to make him overpowered. The same goes for our boy Tanjiro, the Demon Tamer. But for now…

Things should start picking up speed for this story!