Something feels... Off. Why does my head feel more elevated? The pillow wasn't this round and wasn't it? Were the thoughts of the young Kamado as she slept.
She continued to stay laying down sleeping until she felt that her hair was being tampered with, so she finally decided to get up.
"mmm!" A hum was heard as Nezuko slowly lifted herself and open her eyes.
"what?" She says her eyes disoriented a bit due to sleepiness. Rubbing her eyes a bit and looking around confused, her eyes finally land on her brother with his mask on and with noticable happiness that she is awake.
"mmm!" Tanjirou hums waving his hand towards his sister.
"Tanjirou!" She almost practically screams, while also pulling her brother into a hug. "what happened?" "why'd you leave me for so long?" "I thought you were gonna die!" Were things Tanjirou heard hugging her sister back, patting her on the back while doing so. "Never do that again" she says sternly earning a sweat from Tanjirou "I don't want to think I'm going to lose you." Tanjirou chuckled a bit and pats her on the shoulder while shaking his head yes. "Oh! Did you read the journal I left you?"
"hmmm!" Humming Tanjirou gives a thumbs up in confirmation. Before Nezuko could speak again Tanjirou holds up his hand, before pulling open a drawer under where the journal is. Finding some paper and using the ink pen left on top of the cabinets he starts to right down something...
Finished with what he wrote he hands over the paper to Nezuko.
Reading the paper over and obviously having a hard time due to Tanjirou being half blind he has to squint a lot. Even though he squints he still has a hard time with writing and reading.
"You met up with Sabito and Makomo?" She asks
"mhm" he hums nodding
"Did they try anything? Did they try to hurt you or something?" She asks worried for her dear brother. He shakes his head no. Grabbing the paper again he rights some more. Handing it over Nezuko reads it and sighs in relief. "Well I'm sure Urokodaki is awake after I screamed that you are awake." She says sweating a bit.
After getting breakfast and to the surprise of Urokodaki, Tanjirou liked the food that he made. It was strange to the very least , but he brushes it off.
Watching Nezuko leave along with Tanjirou beside him with his tengai on. Walking away from Tanjirou who is still standing there, he heads inside of the cabin.
Tanjirou still standing there starts to think about something. While he was dreaming he had learned somethings about his new self. Instead of dreaming about his family (which he had half forgotten, but are silhouettes) he had dreamt of something about demon blood-arts. It was strange to say the least for him. In the dream (which only felt like a day for him) Tanjirou was saying something that had triggered flowers to sprout from the ground. He doesn't know why specifically flowers, but the only connection he knew for this were the flowers he gave to a stone that had lettering to it. He didn't know who the owner of the stone was, but he knew it was important to him. Continuing the dream Tanjirou would've used those flowers to help out an injured person, again he doesn't know who this person was, but he knew they were important to him.
In that same dream dream he would've used those flowers to aid him in battle. Tanjirou didn't understand why he was healing someone with flowers of all things, and at that using them as a weapon as well, but he still remembered the words he would say to cause these flowers to sprout...
"blood demon-art: Spiritual petals" Tanjirou whispers. From the ground next to his feet a droopy yet elegant and purple flower arose rapidly. Picking it up he sniffs it... disgusting. Tanjirou thinks. The flower had a musky smell to it. Tanjirou with his enhanced smell could smell it even when he looks away from it, but he can withstand it. Breathing in and closing his eyes he feels the light weight in his hand to disappear. Opening them with surprise, but expecting this the flower seems to have disappeared.
"blood demon-art: vines retribution" Tanjirou says continuing on with what he remembers. A vine covered with the same droopy purple flower emerges from the ground. Tanjirou looks curiously at he thinks for a moment then looks at it again. The vine covered in flowers suddenly moves. It grows longer as it gets closer to a stick on the ground. Picking up the stick it comes back to Tanjirou. Grabbing it the vine goes back under the ground and disappears. Awesome! Tanjirou looks with glee at what he accomplished.
"Having fun?" A new voice appears. Hearing this Tanjirou turns around to meet the tengu mask man to which he new as Urokodaki. "I didn't know you could speak?" He says a little suspicious of him. Tanjirou quickly waves his hands from side to side dropping the stick. Holding up one finger as to say wait he quickly runs inside.
Coming back out with a piece of paper he hands it over to Urokodaki. Very badly written and sorta messy Urokodaki was still able to read it.
I can Only remember those words because of dream
Urokodaki read it. What did it mean? Has he learned those two arts from his dream while he was in a coma? He had questions, but knew it was simple.
"You learned these in your dream?" He says. Tanjirou nods. "interesting..." Urokodaki murmurs holding a hand to his mask. "Do you wish to show your arts to me?" Urokodaki says "I would like to see what your arts is able to do" he says. Tanjirou looks happily at him. He nods quickly before steeping back a little...
From then on it took almost the whole day for Tanjirou to show of his arts. He had about 5 in total moves. Urokodaki already knowing the first two moves which was the flower and vine one. The other 3 arts consist of.
"blood demon-art: delicate feeling" Tanjirou saying this a flurry of petals from the same flower would come flying towards where ever Tanjirou pointed. These petals seem to come from his back.
"blood demon-art: seeds spring" These seeds appear to form out of Tanjirou's palm. Throwing one down seems to cause a rapid growing of a tree covered in the same purple flower.
"blood demon-art: wisteria whim" A giant vine which again is covered in the flower would appear. This vine doesn't seem capable of moving fast, but fast enough to catch someone.
Interesting... Is what Urokodaki thought as he watches Tanjirou perform these moves. How can a new born learn there arts so fast? This is very interesting, I will notify Ubuyashiki of this.
"Thank you for showing your arts to me Tanjirou" Urokodaki says "but, you should get some shut-eye. It is almost night after all$ he says. Tanjirou agreeing with this after realizing the time takes of his tengai and mask and ties on his muzzle and walks inside the small little cabin.
A year has past since then. Tanjirou could never find the time to show off his arts to Nezuko, but never cared since he could get to see his sister every night working hard.
Tonight was different.
"look at you" says Sabito " Now you look like a woman!" He says congratulating her.
"Sabito!" She calls out "tonight I will defeat you in a duel and cut that rock in half!" She says to pump herself up.
Without a moments notice the battle has begun. Quickly Sabito lunges at Nezuko with great spread aiming for her neck. Nezuko dodges this, and says
"First form: water surface slash!" Saying this she sends a concentrated slash towards Sabito. Jumping backwards to to add space between them, Nezuko jumps towards him at an angle. "Eighth form: waterfall basin!" She screams sending vertical slash downwards...
She did it.
"Good job Nezuko!" Sabito says smiling at her "you can finally go to the final selection!" He says.
What? is what Nezuko thought. "but I'm supposed to cut the rock" saying this Nezuko watches as Sabito is suddenly gone and is replaced by the rock. Sliced in half.
"I did it!" She says "I DID IT!" She yells with joy. Turning around to go tell Urokodaki and Tanjirou she realizes that they are already there.
"I never intended for you to go into the Final selection" Urokodaki admits. Nezuko was about to say something until she is stopped by a hug. "but I am glad you were able to pass" he says hugging her tighter. Tanjirou soon joins in patting there backs.
Tomorrow is when the Final Selection is going to start. Since Nezuko didn't need to train to cut the rock anymore, Tanjirou finally had the time to show off his arts her.
To say the least she was surprised by this (especially when Tanjirou talked, but he explained the same thing to her like how he did with Urokodaki). She still was amazed by how her brother could do these things. She also really liked how it dealt with the flower that to her looks really beautiful. Later Tanjirou and Nezuko soon figures out that the flower was a flower that waved off demons. The flower was called wisteria. Tanjirou was confused by how he wasn't affected by it's affects, but shrugs it off and assumes that since he had an arts that dealt with the flower he was technically immune to the flower.
During this day Nezuko (along with Tanjirou) has been trying to convince Urokodaki that she should bring Tanjirou along. Sighing in defeat by this he agrees and grabs one of his robes covered in clouds.
"I have thought about this for after the selection when you bring Tanjirou on a mission with you, but it cannot be helped" he opens the robe to reveal some pockets inside of it for supplies such as food, meds, ink, and knitting supplies. All of which are empty. "I've already got the supplies ready" he says pointing towards a cabinet. Tanjirou and Nezuko excited gets it ready.
Being a little big on Tanjirou, he quickly thinks as he grows a bit for the robe to still be somewhat covering his hands. "It looks good on you big brother!" she says patting his head. She had a hard time as he is at the same height as Urokodaki.
"mmph!" He muffles relaying the head pat back at her sister.
The night was getting late. Tanjirou and Nezuko both fall asleep along with Urokodaki. Tomorrow the selection starts.
"Nezuko" Urokodaki says "This is a warding mask. This will help you during the final selection" he says giving the make over to Nezuko.
"We're on are way Urokodaki!" Nezuko says "be sure to say hi to Sabito and Makomo for me!" She says before running off with Tanjirou by her side.
Waving goodbye Urokodaki puts his hand down and wonders. Nezuko. He thinks. How did you know the names of those dead children?
Walking down a path that leads to a staircase. Nezuko and Tanjirou looks in amazement at how beautiful the trees were. Nezuko had take n one of Urokodaki's haori's since it tells someone else that they were trained by the water hashira or a former hashira.
"These trees are so cool! Right big brother?" Nezuko says. Turning around she looks at her brother who is caressing the flower tree. He looks over to her and nods in agreement. Making it up the stairs (which was a long way up) she comes face to face with about 30 - 40 people. Walking towards the crowd and waiting for further instructions she looks over to her brother in worry. They had been extra cautious about hiding the aura of him being a demon. Tanjirou had taken one of Urokodaki's swords so that it wouldn't look weird that a slayer would come here without one.
Tanjirou smelling Nezuko's worry simply gives a reassuring hum and pats her head. Calming down she looks around. Most of the slayers looked pretty normal apart from a select few.
A boy in a yellow haori with white triangles on it along with him having yellow hair. All the yellow on him reminded her of lightning, but more of a dandelion than anything else.
A girl with a butterfly ornament on the side of her head. She whore a white haori that has a tied pink ribbon keeping it closed.
and finally a man with a scar crossing his face ending on the bridge of his nose. His hair was in a mohawk style, and had only worn the demon slayer outfit with no haori on him.
"Greeting everyone!" A voice suddenly appeared. Turning around Nezuko, Tanjirou, and everyone else is greeted by the sight of two little girls (or at least two girls, Nezuko couldn't tell) "We thank you for participating in the yearly Final selection" The black haired one says.
"Mount Fujikasane is where demon slayer swordsmen have captured and trapped demons on" The black haired girl finishes.
"Demons hate wisteria" The white haired girl started "which bloom every day even out of season. They cover the mountain from it's foot to half way up the slope" The white haired girl explained
"However past that point demons are aloud to roam free, you must survive there for at least seven days." the black haired girl finishes
"If you do happen to survive, the. that would mean that you have completed the final selection" The white haired girl says. "Now go" She continues before everyone heads into the mountain.
Running down the mountain with Tanjirou by her side she suddenly stops at the noise of two hungry individuals.
"Hey! You go over there this is my prey!" A scratchy voice says.
"like hell I would I haven't eaten in ages!" The other said
"I haven't either so bug off!" The scratchy voice says.
Both getting tired of the bickering and silently agreeing on something they both pounce towards Nezuko.
"well whoever kills it first gets to eat!"
Nezuko silently panicking calms herself down. Concentrate. She says to herself.
Fourth style: striking tide.
Before they demons could get any closer Nezuko (with the help with her agility) successfully cuts there heads off. Nezuko looking around looks towards Tanjirou who was clapping for her. Nezuko let's out of breath and puts her arms on the air.
"I did it big brother!" She says smiling. Tanjirou walks over and starts praying. Nezuko was confused by this before figuring it out.
He's praying for the demon. She thought. Big brother is too kind. She thinks before joining him for a bit.
Walking down the mountain some more, both Tanjirou and Nezuko take refuge in a tree. Sitting in that tree they soon here a scream for help.
"Why is there a mutant in here!" A boy shouts. Jumping down and looking towards where they heard the boy, they soon see a demon covered in hands holding a dead girl in one of his hands. One of the demons hands soon reaches towards the boy. With quick succession Nezuko cuts it off.
"oh? How interesting" The demon says. "It seems that one of Urokodaki's little foxes has stopped by" his voice is laced with malicious intent.
"wha- How do you know Urokodaki!?" Nezuko yells towards the demon.
"Urokodaki was the one that put me in this place!" He says yelling back at the girl. "I've been here ever since the edo period" the demon says "what period is it now little fox?" He says
"Taishio" Nezuko replies frightened by the demon.
"Too long! Too long! All because of him I am stuck here!" The demon says "It's his fault. All of it is his fault!"
The boy (who was behind Nezuko) has since left Tanjirou and Nezuko as he was to scared to continue as she was scared by the sight of the demon.
Pointing towards Nezuko the demon says "you would be number twenty four!" He says.
"twenty four?" Nezuko says
"I have eaten all of Urokodaki's apprentices!" He says finishing with a laugh that shook Nezuko to the bone.
all of them? She thought. Then that means. Soon Nezuko realizes something. If what he said was true then he must've killed Sabito Makamo! She thinks angrily.
Filled with anger Nezuko lunges towards the demon who of which towers over her. Injuring the arms coming towards her to get closer.
She soon learns that this was a big mistake.
The hand demon, in glee by her anger. Punches Nezuko with one of his giant hands with enough force to knock her off conscious.
"Another one of Urokodaki's apprentices!" He says picking her up. "Oh how I would love to see his face finding out how she died" he says more maliciously. Chuckling he soon gets cut off when his hand gets severed.
Looking around the demon finds Tanjirou holding Nezuko. Placing down Nezuko resting her on a tree. Tanjirou standing up turns around and growls at the demon. He takes off his tengai and throws throws it beside Nezuko. What the demon sees is a boy with a sun mask and red begrudge hair tied into a ponytail. The demon had noticed that his aura seemed different. It certainly wasn't human, but still had a smidge of it left in him.
"Oh what is this?" the hand demon says "a demon protecting a human? How interesting" he says intrigued by the sight. Tanjirou not wasting any time starts attacking the demon. Reacting the demon throws his arms at the red haired boy. Tanjirou dodges the arm and proceeds to slash at the demon. Tanjirou couldn't use a sword and it was obvious to the demon.
The demon took advantage of this.
From the ground hands ride in an effort to grab and crush Tanjirou. Tanjirou with his enhanced smell could smell the scent of the hands from a mile away, so when the hands immerged from the ground Tanjirou had jumped. The demon soon realizes that the boy couldn't do anything since he was mid-air.
Stupid boy. The demon had thought. You won't be able to escape now, you are in a weak position. I'll make this fast and end the little foxes life as well. The demon thought. Sending a hand that coming full force at Tanjirou successfully grabs Tanjirou and starts crushing him.
Tanjirou groans in pain.
"Big sister" a voice ranged in Nezuko's mind. "You need to help big brother!" Hanako had yelled at her sister successfully waking her up just in time for her to swiftly cut of the hand demons grasp on Tanjirou.
"grr. How many times are you going to do that!" the demon says getting impatient. Both times while trying to kill one of the siblings one of them always saves the other by cutting off the hand. It had angered him.
Nezuko wanting to kill this demon so the souls that the demon had consumed. All of those poor souls. All of the heart break that must have happened.
With a hand being thrown at her she jumps up on it and runs along the arms towards the demons head.
The demon quick with his thinking launches more of his hands towards Nezuko before he feels something strange.
Why couldn't he move his hands?
"blood demon-art: vines retribution" is what the demon had heard. Looking towards where his hands were coming from he notices that they are being held back by a specific vine that is covered in wisteria.
wisteria? The demon had thought. It's disgusting! The demon screams in his mind. I can't stand the smell of it! It's to strong! The demon soon retracted all of it's arms before trying to make a run for it.
"blood demon-art: wisteria whim" Tanjirou had said. A great big vines covered in the flower had grabbed onto the hand demon.
Shit! This demon boy is irritating. I'm weakening. I can hardly move. He thinks in his mind as he slowly goes limp.
"first form: water surface slash!" Nezuko had yelled.
The demon could only watch as Nezuko cuts through (from what he thought was) impenetrable neck. The vines were gone. He could finally breath again, but he felt a little lite headed. His body was disintegrating.
Damn, these are the last tow faces I see before my death. The demon had thought.
Nezuko was giving a sad face towards. the demon.
Why is the girl making that face? The demon had thought. Why were both of them showing me sadness.
"big brother, big brother. I'm scared!" the demons voiced echoed in his mind.
"why don't you hold my hand like you always do big brother?" the demons voiced ranged again.
"Why did I devour big brother?!"
eh? who is this big brother? I don't seem to remember him.
The hand demon had subconsciously lowered his hand towards the boy. The boy smelling the sadness from the demon grabs hold of it.
The hand demon could finally rest in peace.
7 days later - morning
"welcome back" the black haired girl said.
"welcome back, being safe and sound is better than anything else" the white haired one said.
Only three other people survived? Nezuko had thought depressed by how low the number gotten. There used to be at least 20 other participants.
A convenience as well is the fact that the three other demon slayers had been the ones that had strict her attention the most.
The yellow haired boy wouldn't stop repeating the same lines over and over. I will die.
The butterfly ornament girl had been playing with a butterfly again.
and the mohawk guy was there as well wondering what he has to do next.
"You must first pay the cost for the uniform" the white haired said.
"there are ten ranks in total" the black haired one says. "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th. You are as of right now at the lowest level the 10th rank" The black haired girl finished.
"but what about my blade?" The mohawk asked
"today, you would fist need to choose a chunk of tamahagane alloy. Your blade would be completed within the next 10 to 15 days."
"also, from now on you would be given a kasugaigarasu will follow you all from this point onward" The white haired finished.
Crows had flown from the sky and had landed on each of the slayer (and demons) shoulder.
The yellow haired boy had received a... Sparrow? "Kasugaigarasu crow? Isn't this a sparrow?" He says, but the twins with different colored hair ignored him.
The butterfly ornament girl had been calm as always when. receiving her crow. Her crow just simply stood on her arms as she held it out.
Tanjirou with Kasugaigarasu crow pets it first thing when it lands. Tanjirou had food supplies and wouldn't you know Urokodaki had stashed some on there. Feeding the crow. the crow seems to caw! In glee.
"can I have some seeds as well Tanjirou" Nezuko asks holding a hand out. Reluctantly Tanjirou had given her four seeds to feed her crow.
"The kasugaigarasu crows are used to communicate between slayers and as well as receiving letters such as missions" the black haired girl explained.
The crows flying off out into the sky a certain someone's crow didn't have that safe of a launch.
"I don't care about some dumber crow!" The mohawk boy had said. He then punches the white head girls face and grabs hold of her hair.
"I want my damn blade now! The blade of the demon slayer corps. The blade of "changing of color"!!"
Nezuko who was about to interject the mohawk boys actions was soon interrupted.
Tanjirou with how quickly he was flicks at the mohawks head.
"ow. Hey what do you think your doing?" The mohawk attempts to give off a threatening vibe towards the boy who was covered by a tengai.
Even with it on the mohawk boy sense the stare the boy was giving. The mohawk boy soon let's go and grumbles to himself. Tanjirou opening his robe pulls out a napkin and wipes off the blood from the girls face before tossing it back. Ruffling up the hair a bit to fix it Tanjirou walks back to standing next to Nezuko
"are you done yet?" The black haired one asked standing next to the alloy.
"These ores will be forged in your sword and will be used to protect you and others from demons" The black haired girl said.
"These ores will be personally chosen by you as well" She finishes.
Walking up to the ores filled table Tanjirou sniffs the air as he couldn't decide. He soon finds one that had caught his attention. Picking it up he walks aways and stands next to the top of the stairs as to wait for Nezuko.
Nezuko definitely had a hard time figuring out which ore to use for her liking. Unlike Tanjirou she didn't have anything. No super smell, sight, or hearing. She stomps the ground a little bit in anger before seeing that the ores jumped up a bit. Stomping it again she grabs the ore she found was higher than the others and joined her brother going down the stairs.
The twins were interested in this technique that she had found. They got a laugh from it.
"How delightful" A strange man says petting his crow. "How pleasing it is for more people joining the demon slayers" He says reading a letter.
"I wonder what kinds of swordsmen they are" The man says...
