^ Chapter 4 - The Unrecognized Drummer ^
"Kaminari no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Hekireki Issen."
A flash of light filled the room when Zenitsu surged forward, lightning lancing across his body as he attacked the demon with a straight forward charge. Like a bolt of pure lightning, the demon couldn't do anything to prevent Zenitsu's golden blade from slicing clean through his tongue and neck, decapitating him.
The room was filled with a lingering echo similar to thunder after Zenitsu appeared again a couple meters behind the demon, looking like he hadn't even pulled his sword as all. The demon's head had flown off into the air after being separated from the body, and the air Zenitsu's dash had displaced rushed back into the empty space it had left while crackles of lightning came soon after, darting from Zenitsu to the floor and walls for a few seconds before dissipating. The boy, who had shielded his face from the dust in the room that had been disturbed, dropped his arm and gasped when he watched a fountain of blood shoot out from the decapitated demon's neck before its body crumpled lifelessly to the floor.
The click of Zenitsu's blade being fully inserted back into the sheath was heard soon after, followed by the thump of the demon's head landing back on the ground close by to his body and rolling over to his foot.
"Gah!" gasped Zenitsu, his eyes popping open as he woke up, blinking a few times as he wondered what had happened. He heard the head stop by his foot and he looked down at it, freezing in silence before the head started to disintegrate into ash. "Gyaaaaaghhh! It's dead! All of a sudden, it's dead!"
The boy's awe towards Zenitsu quickly turned back to his original feelings when the slayer became his whiny, cowardly self again. He looked at Zenitsu as he continued to freak out about the disintegrating demon ,jumping around a few times while shaking before the body of the demon fully disappeared. The demon was gone, like he had never even existed in the first place.
"Y...You...you…"
"My name is Shoichi…" the boy murmured.
"S-Shoichi-kun...y-you…" stuttered Zenitsu before he leaped forward, hugging onto the small boy who still had a blank expression on his face. "Thank you! You saved my life! I shall be eternally grateful to you for this!"
"U-Uh...what are you talking about…?"
"Did you say something?
Zenitsu lifted his head up from the small boy's chest, tears streaking down his cheeks. Shoichi, not wanting to deal with any more sobbing, shook his head and removed Zenitsu's hand from his kimono before standing up with the slayer. With nothing left to be said, and the threat the demon posed to them gone, they eventually left the room to continue their exploration of the house.
"Dammit! He sent me flying again!" thought the boar head-masked young man as he sprinted with his arms at his side down one of the house's hallways, his serrated swords jingling at his sides. His fingers tightened into fists while running, a growl coming from his lips. "It's been like this for the last three days, dammit! Making my way through a cramped building like this...it's just not my thing for crying out loud!"
He slid around a corner, bumping into one of the walls in the hallway before he continued running, always keeping his eyesight forward and his arms straight behind him. Low and always at the ready, he was truly running like he was a wild boar in his natural environment.
The boar headed man sprinted towards a fork in the hallway up ahead, the path either going left or right, and was prepared to turn right before a large hand appeared from around the corner and reached for his head. On a dime he stopped and leaped back with a few grunts, watching as the body the arm belonged to emerged from around the bend, it being the body of a large demon with a large, bloated body and fat lips, two small fangs protruding from his mouth. There were blood splattered on his chest and around his mouth, implying he had just had a recent meal within the house.
"Oooh...another one…"
"Oho...you dodged me." said the bloated demon, his eyes coming to rest down on the young man considering he was practically twice his height. Your flesh will be well worth gouging out!"
The young man's eyes narrowed behind his mask and he held his arms out and up in the air, exhaling a cloud of steam and air out from the nostrils of his mask as he emptied his lungs of all the air they had in order to relax his body.
"Self-taught…Kedamono no kokyū..." he murmured, hunching over and crossing his arms over to grasp his taped up blades with the opposite hands. "It's gonna be so worth it to shred such a huge target!"
He then rushed forward in the blink of an eye, the bloated demon laughing as he took a few steps forward with his arms outstretched like he was going to hug him. His hope of catching the boar-headed slayer and turning him into his next meal were quickly dashed when a pair of loud whistles came from the young man, followed by his arms cleanly separating from his body just below the biceps.
The demon's eyes shot wide open in shock at how quickly his arms had been cut off, and he stumbled back a few steps as his forearms fell to the floor on either side of the laughing boar-headed slayer.
"Flaunt your corpse...and serve as my springboard!" shouted the slayer as he crossed his blades around his body and swung them both out horizontally, cutting clean through the demon's thick neck with little trouble. "San no kiba: Kuizaki!"
As the demon's head flew forward over his shoulder, the young man planted his left foot into the bloated demon's chest and slammed his body into the floor. He then literally used the bloated demon's corpse as a springboard to launch him to the end of the hallway, and with a laugh he darted off the wall down the right path, leaving the deceased demon to turn into ash.
"Ahahah! Comin' through! Comin' through!" exclaimed the man while laughing still, his steamy breath shooting out of the boar's nostrils yet again.
The drum demon stalked the empty halls of his home, his heavy footsteps causing the wooden flooring to crack and bend under the weight of his body. He still held the perpetual fangs bared frown on his face, and his eyes were still rolled up into the back of his head. He growled to himself as he walked forward in search of his prey, the little boy that he had kidnapped because he had sensed the special blood he had inside of his veins.
"Marechi...marechi...if I can just devour some…" he spoke to himself as he walked, growling again. "Fifty...no, a hundred humans' worth…"
The drum demon stopped walking for a moment, hunching over slightly while clenching his fists more in frustration. On his back there was a darkened spot that stretched from one shoulder blade to the other in width, its size taking up half of his back over all. It looked like some nasty bruise, with some of his veins bulging out in and around the mark, similar to the ones that were centered around the tsuzumi drums protruding out of his body.
His eyelids trembled slightly as he ground his razor sharp teeth against one another ,his frustration rising as the scent of the so-called "Marechi" continued to evade him. His search for the special blood had proved unsuccessful up until then, he didn't want to lose it.
"I gotta search for more humans with marechi and consume them. That way….that...way…"
His right eye began to roll back into place, quivering and twitching as it did, while the demon covered his mouth with his hand while remembering days from the past. Finally, his right eye returned to its former position, where his pupil was revealed to have been engraved with the Kanji for "Lower Moon Six", before at some point it was crossed over by an X shaped scar.
"That way...I can reclaim my place among the Twelve Kizuki!"
As his scarred eye revealed itself, the demon was taken back to his memories, back when he had been part of the Twelve Kizuki. He was in the very house he stalked in the present, within one of its many floral mural decorated rooms, feasting on the corpse of a human he had hunted and killed. But something was off.
With each piece of skin and flesh he devoured, his portions were becoming smaller, and he was beginning to slow down. It eventually caused him to stop eating from the corpse all together and sit back, covering his mouth with his hand as if he were going to throw up. This had never happened before for the demon, not once. He had never turned down a human as a meal, their flesh was a delicacy, and it increased his power each time he ate one.
Yet, for some reason, it wasn't tasting, or even feeling the same as before. Was he beginning to not like eating humans?
"Kyogai."
The demon immediately felt a cold shiver crawl up and down his spin as he looked up from the corpse, seeing Muzan with his white fedora and a matching coat hanging over his shoulders standing before him in the room. He hadn't heard him enter, he didn't even sense his presence. The demon lord who ruled through fear over the entire demon populace had appeared before him, out of the blue.
"You can't eat any more?" asked Muzan in that cold, emotionless voice of his. "Is that all you really have to offer?"
"N-No. No, I'm not done!" the demon pleaded.
Muzan didn't buy his lie, and without even moving a muscle, two thin cuts in the form of an X were slashed across the demon's right eye over his Twelve Kizuki marker. He grunted and cupped the right side of his face with one of his hands, the wound refusing to heal when he willed it to because it had been Muzan to inflict it. The king of demons didn't even bother to look at him as he stood before him, keeping his gaze hidden behind the brim of his fedora.
"P-Please give me more time! J-Just a little!"
"I've had enough."
Muzan finally lifted his face up to show his angry and disgusted expression, his plum red demon eyes glowing slightly as he pierced straight through the demon and paralyzed him. Veins were bulging from his cheeks and face because of his anger, and his voice was dripping with dissatisfaction.
"I'm stripping you of your number. That's your limit, and you've reached it."
The demon's memories were filled with the words he had been told by the demon lord when he had first become a demon, once he had accepted the blood of the creator. The more humans a demon devours, the stronger that they would become. Once Muzan had seen the potential he had, he was gifted with another share of blood that had allowed him to join the ranks of the Twelve Kizuki.
The constant ridicule from the higher ranked members had always been a bother, but it had been worth it. The strength of Muzan's blood was mind-boggling, it allowed him to reach farther beyond his own former limits than ever before. He had been sure that he was never going to find his new limit, never again. The possibilities were infinite.
Or so he had been led to believe.
"Kiyoshi nii-chan! Kiyoshi nii-chan!"
The oldest brother of the three children gasped, his hand pulling away from the tsuzumi drum in his grasp as Teruko ran towards him with tears in her eyes. She ran into his arms and hugged him, Kiyoshi smiling happily with traces of tears emerging from the corners of his eyes as well as he embraced her.
Tanjirō meanwhile remained outside the room, covering his mouth and nose with his hands still while his other arm purposefully hugged his gut to try and hold himself back. There was no doubt that the intoxicating scent was coming from the young boy, and he feared that if he came any closer then something bad could happen. He smiled behind his hand though, thankful that he was able to not only find Teruko's older brother, but reunite the two siblings at the same time.
"Wh-Who's he?" asked Kiyoshi of his sister when he noticed Tanjirō, spotting his eyes and feeling immense terror was over him. "He's-!"
"A-Ah! Don't be scared, Kiyoshi-nii! He's a good person!"
"But Teruko-chan, he's-"
"I know he is, but he helped me find you! H-He protected me from the monster that kidnapped you!"
Kiyoshi gasped, looking from his little sister to Tanjirō, who by the way his eyes squinted slightly was smiling warmly beneath his hand. Kiyoshi had grown up knowing that monsters, like demons, could exist in their world, and that it was always bad to go outside after dark. He and his siblings had been outside regardless, after playing in the woods, and because of that he had been kidnapped by one of those very monsters their parents had told them about.
To see one standing there, not even trying to get near him and appear friendly at the same time was baffling. What's more, hearing his own sister tell him that this one was different than the one he had been taken by made it even more confusing.
Tanjirō could see the conflicting feelings playing across Kiyoshi's face and he took a chance, lowering his hand from his mouth and nose in order to allow the child to see his smile, even when it meant showing him his fangs and the drool as well.
"Your sister is right...I don't intend to hurt you, or your siblings either...however…" he wiped his lips free of saliva and grit his teeth slightly. "There seems to be...something about you that's...driving my senses nuts...it's…"
"It's...what?"
"He's hungry, Kiyoshi-nii, for...you know…" stated Teruko, her voice trailing off slightly, before it came bouncing back as she held his brother's kimono. "But he hasn't tried to attack me or eat me or anything! He's been holding back all this time! You can trust him!"
Kiyoshi again traded glances with his sister and Tanjirō, before he finally seemed to relax somewhat, albeit he still held onto his sister in a protective manner. Something that Tanjirō understood quite well and gave him a smile back.
"I'm trying to stay over here, so that I don't get any closer, but I can't help but ask...are you injured?" Tanjirō asked, Kiyoshi shifting a little uncomfortably before he switched sitting positions to push his right leg out, revealing his pants leg had been torn off above the ankle and left bloody, a slightly deep gash present in his shin.
"I'm...going to walk over, okay? I"m...I'm going to restrain myself as best as i can, okay? I...I don't want to hurt either of you."
"Mm, oh! Onii-san!"
Tanjirō raised an eyebrow at Teruko when she stood up and fiddled with the sash of her kimono, before she slipped the purple and white piece of fabric and walked it over to him. She held it up to him and Tanjirō's eyes widened at the selfless act, seeing so much of Nezuko in her that he couldn't help but smile and rub her head affectionately.
"Ehe...it's for you to cover your mouth and nose with...since I figured…"
"Thank you, Teruko. It's perfect."
Taking the small sash, he tied it around his head over his nose and mouth like a mask, and looked at Kiyoshi before he reached into one of his haori's inner pockets and produced a wrapped package held together by string.
"My Sensei gave me this ointment that's amazing at treating wounds and helping them heal. May I, Kiyoshi-san?" he asked, his voice a little muffled by the sash.
Kiyoshi shook his head side to side and Tanjirō placed the package on the floor next to the two siblings and opened it, taking the flat container out and opening that to reach the ointment inside. It gave off a soft berry-like smell, and Tanjirō dipped two of his fingers into it in order to begin spreading it around Kiyioshi's wound.
His hand was shaking however, and there were visible sweat droplets rolling down his forehead as he did, with his breaths starting to become slightly ragged. Teruko, who had been with him the longest, could tell despite her age that he was struggling with the smell of her brother's blood even when his nose and mouth was covered by her kimono's sash.
"You know...my Sensei wears an ogre mask all the time. I never once saw his face while i trained with him." said Tanjirō, wanting to talk so he could get his mind off the young boy's delicious smelling blood.
The small talk they had with one another about Tanjirō's master, Urokodaki, the one who had trained him to become a Demon Slayer, proved helpful for Kiyoshi by bringing a tiny smile to his face and helping to alleviate some of his worries. Once he finished applying the ointment he put the lid back onto the flat circular case and wrapped it back up before returning it to its storage pocket inside his haori. He had a spare piece of cloth with him, and he pulled it out in order to use it as a bandage around Kiyoshi's ankle, before he stood up and removed Teruko's sash from around his face to hand it back to her with a smile. Now that the wound was covered by the makeshift bandage, the smell wasn't bothering him as much, if at all, allowing him to be more relaxed and deal with the normal hunger he usually has.
She too felt and looked a lot better than before, thanks to being with her brother again, which brought him a sense of satisfaction for a job well done. The main mission wasn't finished yet though. He had a demon to kill.
"Feeling better?" he asked while Teruko put back on her sash around her waist. "That ointment makes everything feel better in just a minute or two."
"Mhm...I do…"
Tanjirō gave him a warm smile as he offered a hand to the young boy, lifting him carefully to his feet and supporting him for a moment so he could catch his balance. Once Teruko was standing up to take that job for him, he rubbed Kiyoshi's head affectionately like a father or older brother would, giving him a thumbs up as well.
"You did a wonderful job. Good for you for hanging in there on your own, Kiyoshi-san."
Kiyoshi's lower lip trembled slightly before tears began to roll slowly down his cheeks as he was finally able to let out some of his emotions of terror. No young kid should have to experience something like this, Tanjirō thought to himself, they should be allowed to grow up and to live their lives. To find love and to have a family with one another.
Not have to be scared of being taken by a demon and made into its meal, never to see what could have become of their life in the future, never to see their family and loved ones again. It's what made him want to become a demon slayer, because he considered all demons to be like their creator, Muzan.
"But now...that kind of thinking might not be what's best…" Tanjirō thought while lifting his hand off Kiyoshi's head, letting the boy cry a little more before he gripped his sword.
"Now...Kiyoshi-san…" Tanjirō started, his smile turning serious. "Do you think you can tell me what happened here?"
Kiyoshi sniffled once and shuddered, before he slowly nodded his head and dropped his gaze slightly as he allowed the memories he was purposefully already trying to forget to return. How scared he was, how worried about not being able to see his family again, it all came back to him.
"A monster dragged me away, a-and I nearly got devoured." Kiyoshi said, Teruko hugging her brother's arm a little more. "B-But...just then, other monsters showed up out of nowhere, a-and they started fighting to the death over who was gonna e-eat me."
Tanjirō nodded his head and listened to Kiyoshi's story silently and with interest, his sister tearing up at her brother's recollection. Learning that they were so close to losing him, her and her second oldest brother, it made her appreciate Tanjirō even more deep down.
"A-And then, the one with the tsuzumi growing out of him...one of the other demons clawed out a tsuzumi from his back! And when I picked it up and struck it, this room suddenly changed. And I somehow held on until now!"
Tanjirō frowned a little more when Kiyoshi mentioned the demon with the tsuzumi drums and he held one of his hands up to his chin, delving into his thoughts.
"So that was him...he mentioned marechi or something like that…"
"Yes, that's right! He kept calling me "Marechi"!"
"Cawwww!"
Tanjirō, Teruko and Kiyoshi all jumped when Tanjirō's crow had suddenly appeared out of thin air next to them on the floor, looking up at the two siblings while holding its wings out to the side.
"Cawww! It refers to the owner of rare blood!" the crow said again, before laughing in an obnoxious manner as Teruko retreated into her brother's arms and chest because of the bird.
"What do you mean by 'rare blood'?" Tanjirō asked, lowering his gaze slightly so his crow didn't exactly see his eyes as the bird glanced back at him, ruffling its feathers lightly. "And why would a demon care about that?"
"The blood of all living species can be categorized into types, idiot." the crow replied before it walked off to Tanjirō's right, holding its wings out to make itself look bigger or to emphasize the point it was making. "And the ultimate marechi...the more scarce the blood, the more uncommon...for a demon! A single marechi human has the same nutritional value as eating fifty! One hundred humans! For demons, marechi is a feast!"
Tanjirō's eyes widened in shock, instantly realizing why the scent of Kiyoshi's blood had been so potent and intoxicating to him before he was able to block out the smell with the fabric. Kiyoshi's blood was this special kind of blood that demons referred to as "Marechi", and upon smelling it, its why he could hardly focus through all of the thoughts of devouring its source that came into his mind.
If the crow's words were true, which he was confident they were because it was one of the intelligent crows of the Demon Slayers, then he needed to be exceptionally more careful from now on if he ever came in contact with marechi again. It had taken practically everything that he had to fight back his urges because of Kiyoshi's blood, and it had been from a small cut in his ankle. If and when he came across another human with marechi blood, where more of it was open to the air, he wasn't sure if he could tolerate it again.
"I wonder if Nezuko could tolerate it...she's been a demon for a lot longer then me…"
A scent then drifted into the room and Tanjirō naturally picked it up, his eyes shooting wide open as he was ripped from his thoughts. The tsuzumi demon was somewhere near, and he knew that if it came to them, Tanjirō would have to try and protect both Teruko and Kiyoshi at the same time.
If Kiyoshi were to get injured again, and he got another whiff of his blood, it wouldn't end up good for any of them. Even when he could feel it inside of the boy, smelling it was a whole lot worse.
"Listen. I'm leaving this room now."
"Eh?" gasped Kiyoshi. Tanjirō gave him a reassuring smile and patted him on the shoulder, before nodding his head.
"Calm down, it's all right. I'm just going to take down that demon."
Tanjirō then turned his gaze to the younger Teruko, who had already started trembling slightly, before he put a hand on top of her head and motioned to the tsuzumi drum from the demon sitting on the floor.
"Listen to me, Teruko. Right now, your brother is terribly exhausted, so you gotta look after him, okay? As soon as I leave the room, struck that tsuzumi and move out. Just like Kiyoshi's been doing until now, whenever someone tries to open the door or you hear something, strike that tsuzumi right away and make a run for it."
Teruko nodded once before bending down and picking up the drum, holding it firmly in her arms against her body as she and her brother sat down on the floor again to let him rest.
"I promise to come get you. I'll follow your scent." Tanjirō continued. "I'll call out your names when I open the door. You just have to hold out a little longer. You can do it, right?"
Finally, for the first time he's seen, Teruko along with her brother gave him unafraid and determined expressions, simultaneously nodding their heads once as their answer. Tanjirō returned one of his warm smiles back to them and nodded, taking a step towards the doorway to the first room before the one they were in.
He gave them both a thumbs up and then a wave. "You both are so strong! I'll be back, I promise!"
Tanjirō then turned back towards the entrance to the first room and frowned, hearing the approaching steps of the drum demon growing louder and more thunderous with each passing second. They then stopped, and Tanjirō tensed when the head of the demon slowly peered from around the corner to stare right at them with its blood red eyes.
With sword in hand Tanjirō dashed out of the room, running straight towards the demon without looking back. A quick command to strike the drum was all he had to say for the kids to do it, the bong of the tsuzumi echoing off the walls as the room behind him vanished entirely, its entrance now replaced by a completed paper wall that matched the rest of the first room.
The demon fully emerged from around the corner and entered the doorway, clenching his hands into fists and growling as he stared down the charging Tanjirō. He cursed and muttered under his breath as he lifted his left hand to the right drum and struck it twice quickly. The room spun in according to the direction the drum was assigned to, causing Tanjirō to have to spin in midair in order to land firmly on his feet in a kneeling position with his sword now drawn and glinting in the lantern light.
Tanjirō's eyes gazed up at the demon from the ceiling as it stepped through the doorway entirely, now inside the room as it then struck its stomach drum. The invisible three-clawed attack came at the exact same time and Tanjirō ducked beneath it, his hair feeling the rush of displaced wind blow by over him.
Another bong was heard, Tanjirō seeing it was the drum on the right shoulder this time, and as the room began to flip, he started to memorize the drums and their corresponding reactions based on what was occurring in the present and from what he saw previously.
"The tsuzumi on his right shoulder flips the room right!" he thought, leaping to what would be the next new floor before the demon hit another drum. "The left one flips it left!"
As the room spun once more back in the opposite direction, Tanjirō focused on the two drums growing out of the man's thighs and recalled what they did from memory. Right leg was forward spin, and the left leg made the present room spin backward. And lastly, the drum on his belly was what launched the claw attack.
Tanjirō leaped up to avoid another one of the demon's claw attacks, only for the demon to strike several of his drums all at once and set the room tumbling around Tanjirō in all three dimensions. He had to jump and stop himself from hitting a wall or floor too hard as he was knocked from one part of the room to the other with each tsuzumi drum strike, until he saw an opening.
When the floor was shifted by the room's rotation to one of the side walls, Tanjirō planted both feet firmly against it and leaped forward with a twirl, raising his blade with both hands high above his head. The thin white line was there, he could see it!
The demon tapped his belly drum again and Tanjirō grunted with a slight eye narrow before he was forced to spin himself to the side and avoid the claw attack that came next.
"Dammit, it's fast! The speed of the rotations and attacks is devastating!" he thought as the room began spinning around him again. "I've forced myself to not devour humans, relying on sleep to restore strength, just like Nezuko...I've been able to endure because I was the eldest son! Because I wanted to protect Nezuko!"
He landed against the ceiling and rolled over into a hunched over kneeling position, growling a little as he lifted his head up to the demon. He struck his belly drum, and Tanjirō once again had to dodge the attack, three deep claw marks being left behind where he once was.
"I've been fighting against my demon half, ever since I became one. I'm scared of not being able to protect Nezuko, that I'll endanger the both of us! And with this demon's technique, I can't get close! I can't...I can't…!"
"Water can change into any form. Pour it into a container, and it's a square. Pour it into a bottle, and it's round. Sometimes, it can even smash boulders and flow away as far as the eye can see. You too, can become that water, and change to whatever form you see fit."
Urokodaki's words swept into his mind like a river of wisdom, reminding Tanjirō of his Water Breathing techniques, and of what he did back in the city against the arrow demon. He looked down at his sword, seeing the reflection of his eyes in the black-colored blade, and he clenched his other hand into a fist.
"That's right...I can use the Water Breathing forms to counter this demon's Blood Demon Art...and...like water...I've changed into a new form. Being a demon...it's just a new form!"
Tanjirō returned to his feet, gripping his sword with both hands as he stared the demon down, expunging his fears and his worries.
"I can't stop running from it any more...I mustn't let it control me! Look straight ahead, and don't look back! Rouse yourself!"
Tanjirō dropped down onto his feet when the room had flipped around twice over, returning it to its original orientation, with the demon standing motionless across from him. He brought his sword back up again, remaining steadfast and confident. There was a reason why he had become a demon, if he did not know it. It was time to stop fighting like a human, he had to accept who he was, and use it to do what he knew he had to.
"I've done good up till this point...and I won't let it stop here!" exclaimed Tanjirō, baring his fangs at the demon as finally, the unconsciously self-imposed restrictions he put on himself were lifted.
Keeping his hunger at bay, he let his new demonic strength pour through his body, causing his eyes to grow more narrow and his fangs to grow sharper and longer. He wasn't going to pretend to be human any more, he wasn't Tanjirō Kamado any more. No, he was Tanjirō Kamado, eldest son of the Kamado family, transformed demon and member of the Demon Slayer Corps!
"Not today, or any time in the future! Beat me, strike me down, I won't ever give up!"
Zenitsu and Shoichi ran hand in hand through the house down one of its many hallways, searching high and low for any evidence or sign of Tanjirō within any of the rooms they passed.
"Where are you, Tanjirō…" uttered Zenitsu worriedly for his friend. "I can still hear that creepy sound...just be safe and sound, Tanjirō!"
"Um, Zenitsu-san, is it just me, or are we just going around and around in circles?" asked Shoichi when they passed by a familiar looking collection of pots to the side.
"I knew it! I was getting the same feeling!" exclaimed Zenitsu as they came to a screeching halt. "That's my boy, Shoichi! I knew I could count on you!"
They looked to a room on their left and Zenitsu gave him a light nudge towards it, shivering slightly at the terror of what could lie beyond those doors. "H-Hey, could you check behind those doors?"
Shoichi glanced back at Zenitsu with an ogre's expression that was just about fed up with his cowardice, Zenitsu's right eyebrow twitching slightly before he gripped his head and he shook it side to side.
"What the hell!? Alright, alright, just stop giving me that look! Fiiine, I'll do it myself!"
Zenitsu nervously cracked the sliding paper doors open and peered inside, silently whimpering to himself as he tried to make out anything suspicious inside of the darkened room. When he spotted nothing, he opened them wider and urged Shoichi to follow him, holding his hand again as they jogged towards the doors at the other side of the room.
"Come on, Tanjirō, where are you…"
Suddenly there was a bong of a tsuzumi drum and the entire room then twisted forward around them, the floor vanishing beneath their feet as it. They seemed to hover for a brief moment, before they started to fall rapidly towards the doors with Zenitsu screeching the entire way alongside Shoichi's cry.
Door after door slid open for them as they fell, until the last one opened up to a porch-like room that ended when a pair of paper windows were slid open to a bright world outside that blinded them both. It lasted only momentarily, their eyesight adjusting to the light before the scenery became green treetops and snow-capped mountains in the distance, followed by a bright blue sky above with little to no clouds to prevent the rays of the warm sun up above from touching the land.
The drum demon kept flipping and spinning the room with his drums, Tanjirō gritting his teeth and adjusting his body to each room change, landing better and better into a proper stance each time it occurred.
And every time the claw attack came, he saw it coming several seconds ahead of when he was picking them up before tapping into and allowing his demon abilities to work. Dodge after dodge, leap after leap, he continued to dodge and counter the motion of the room, leading to the demon to grow more and more frustrated.
"Dammit...I gotta consume some marechi! There's no time to lose!' the demon snarled, as he slapped his drums again, flipping the room and sending Tanjirō on the move again. "I won't let you have my marechi!"
"Hey! What's your name?" shouted Tanjirō as he used a lantern to swing himself to where the floor would be next after another tsuzumi strike.
"Kyogai." the demon responded, surprised a little.
"I'm not handing over Kiyoshi...the marechi to you! I'm not gonna give up!"
Kyogai grit his teeth and growled through them, as memories of his human past started to surface from the fog of obscurity that clouded his mind. He remembered someone, an older man, standing before him and telling him to give up. It made him angrier, enough to cause his veins to bulge out the sides of his head.
"I'm going to get my hands on some marechi...and reclaim my place among the Twelve Kizuki!"
Tanjirō gasped a little as Kyogai revealed his eyes, azure blue and feline in appearance with the slit pupils, with the right eye being the different one among the two with Kanji tattooed over the eye, and an X scar directly over that.
Two bongs of his drums, followed by more came in his awakened fury, Tanjirō quickly dodging and avoiding the attacks while the room shifted in position as well. The cabinets and storage containers in the room were cut and shred to pieces, causing mountains of paper to fly and spill out over the floor.
Kyogai began aggressively beating his drums, turning the room into a rotating, disorientating funhouse of twists, turns and the paper flying all over the place in the air, with Tanjirō smack dab in the center of it.
"Just give it up, will you?"
In the back of Kyogai's mind, he was back in his human body, staring down with empty eyes at the floor as a man stood before him reading some papers he had handed to him. It was raining outside, and the only light was that of the moon that was shining through the rain clouds in through the paper window walls and the open doorway.
It was his poems and writings that the man was reading, the hard work and dedication Kyogai had spent days working on to try and impress the man. Yet despite that, his master once again was telling him the exact same remarks he always gave back to him with everything he was given from Kyogai.
"Your writing is just so boring. Every last word is utter trash!" ridiculed the man as he dropped the papers to the floor right in front of the kneeling Kyogai, before stepping on them. "No beauty, no fragility, no impact. Why don't you forget about writing? It's just a waste of paper and fountain pens!"
Kyogai's right hand twitched and his heart sunk lower into the pit of his stomach at the words, and the sight of the man's foot treading all over what he had poured his soul into in a bid to try and earn the man's recognition. His ridicules started to dull and grow muffled, Kyogai's ears filling with nothing but white noise.
"You should just enjoy your hobby, playing the tsuzumi, as long as you're shut in here. Not that you have the skills to teach that, either!"
It was then when the man rubbed his foot deeper into his written work, before he walked by him without even so much as an apology. Kyogai shuddered and something snapped inside of him, his eyes turning blood red at the sight of his crumpled paper. He opened up his clothes to reveal a drum growing from his abdomen, and with a fierce strike, the man behind him was cleaved into fourths without so much of another word.
Kyogai's razor sharp teeth ground and grated together as the anger and frustration inside of him began to boil up, infecting and eliminating his quiet personality when he roared out in anger.
"Out of my sight, you damn insect!" he bellowed, throwing his arms up and out. "Shōsoku tsuzumiuchi!"
"He can strike those tsuzumi even faster?!" thought Tanjirō as he was swept over with a bad feeling in his gut.
With the crack of his shoulder joints, Kyogai's arms began flying around his body, rapidly striking all of his drums in quick succession. The room began to spin and oscillate around even faster than before, the papers that had been strewn about the floor swirling all around Tanjirō as he was kept trapped in the air near the center of the room, unable to reach a floor to give himself a solid base to stand on.
His vision was disorientated before, but now it was almost impossible for him to keep track of everything that was happening around him, even with his sharpened senses and vision.
"The speed of these rotations is making me dizzy! What an amazing skill!"
Tanjirō heard the shredding of air and wood and he looked left, seeing five claws of air rapidly flying towards him across one of the walls. He turned himself around and threw his body weight to the side, dodging the attack, and leaped off the ground when he was close enough to do so in order to evade another one.
At the same time the room twisted and oriented itself to allow the papers to hit the floor finally, creating a mess below Tanjirō's feet as he fell towards them. In a split second, he landed on his toes in a tiny gap between the mess of papers, catching himself. The act made Kyogai gasp and watch Tanjirō take tiny leaps back towards one of the back corners of the room, an area where there was more empty floor to stand on and not step on any of the papers.
Tanjirō glared at Kyogai for a brief moment before clenching his jaw and exhaling the air out of his lungs in a short burst before leaping up from the ground as another claw attack swooshed by him. A second one came, and Tanjirō twisted himself in the air with his momentum to avoid making contact.
"I can see it now...right before the claw attack...there's the scent of mold!" Tanjirō thought, before he gripped his sword tighter and focused solely on his hyper enhanced sense of smell.
At an incredible rate, he avoided every single attack Kygogai threw at him, not even wasting a single movement in his dodges.
Kyogai hesitated once again at seeing the young demon slayer avoiding his attacks, allowing Tanjirō to land on both of his feet and stare down his opponent.
"Total Concentration…Mizu no kokyū! Ku no kata: Suiryū shibuki - ran!"
As Kyogai began rotating the room yet again, using his enhanced speed and agility taken even further than before with his demonic blood, Tanjirō began to run at high speeds on the the very edges of his feet around the room in a total spiral, splashes of bright blue water left behind in the wake of every step.
"Minimize the landing time and area as much as possible...advance upon your opponent! And when the opportunity presents itself…you take it!"
The space around Tanjirō and Kyogai turned pitch black, his sense blocking out everything around him, as a single white shining thread appeared between his blade and Kyogai's neck. The opening thread, there it was!
"Kyogai!"
The demon gasped as Tanjirō leaped off his right foot into the air, flying right for him with his sword pulled back, cock and ready. He hesitated one last time at the call out of his name.
"Your Blood Demon Art was incredible!" shouted Tanjirō, before he spun to the side and swept his arms around as fast and hard as he could.
The nichirin blade struck Kyogai's neck and cleaved straight through it like a hot knife through butter, the air sweeping around them as blood flew out from his neck, while the decapitated head went upwards, tumbling end over end.
Tanjirō landed on both his feet and stood up, breathing in to get air back into his lungs, before slowly exhaling again to slow his heart rate down back to normal. He had succeeded, and he looked down at his hand, feeling his teeth return back to normal, as well as his nails which had grown sharper. The power he had felt was incredible to experience, but during that fight, deep down inside of his gut and in the back of his mind, he could feel the hidden darkness and hunger that came alongside with it.
If he wasn't careful and allowed himself to slip up even once, there could be no going back from there. All of the hard work he had done to become a demon slayer, everything he had faced so far to try and get closer to curing Nezuko...it could be taken away in a moment's notice.
"I should send a message to Urokodaki-sensei...he needs to know about what happened."
"You...boy…"
Tanjirō perked up and he turned his head, glancing over his shoulder to find Kyogai's severed head resting a foot or so away from where his body had fallen to the ground. The demon was looking directly at him, still alive for the moment until his body's disintegration began to occur.
"You're...not a human...yet you…"
"No...I'm not. I am a demon, like you. But...I choose to be different." Tanjirō replied, turning his body to face Kyogai's bleeding head, and put a hand over his heart. "Demons can be different...I've seen it. If I could have...I would have tried to help you too, Kyogai-san."
Kyogai was left stunned for a few moments, unable to respond before he felt his body begin to turn to ash, which meant his head would start to dissolve as well. He didn't have much time left, and he wasn't sure how to take Tanjirō's words about choice, but there was one last thing he wanted to be sure of before he left this world.
The one thing he had wanted to hear from anyone he had ever known, throughout his entire life. He just had to hear it only once.
"Answer me…" he spoke, ash particles beginning to drift away from his severed neck. "You think my Blood Demon Art...was incredible?"
"It was amazing, but…I can't forgive you for killing others. I'm sorry." Tanjirō replied, giving him a straight faced expression.
"I see..."
Half of Kyogai's head had dissolved into ash by then, and with the last few moments of his life, he kept his eyes focused solely on Tanjirō, watching him produced a special kind of dagger with a built in storage unit that allowed for blood to be sucked up into it once the blade had pierced the skin of a person, or a demon.
He heard Tanjirō give the small dagger filled with blood to a demonized cat wearing a strange looking symbol on a paper stuck to its chest, before the cat then disappeared without a trace. Eventually, Tanjirō walked past his body and when he didn't hear his footsteps, he assumed that he had been left alone to die.
He wasn't upset about that. The slayer was right about him killing people. If anything, he had deserved to die alone like this, without anyone there to comfort him. He was sure that he was going to go to hell for the people he killed and devoured.
"My...writing…" thought Kyogai, his mind drifting back to his memories once more, the night he killed the man who desecrated his writings. "It wasn't trash at all. At the very least, not to that kid. He saw fit not to trample on it..."
"Rest in peace. Kyogai-san...and from what I could see...you should be proud of what you wrote."
Kyogai's eyes widened when he heard Tanjirō's voice from behind, the slayer having stayed momentarily to offer a silent prayer to the demon. Tanjirō, even though the demon couldn't see him, then bowed and finally left the room. For the first time in a long while, in how many years, Kyogai felt human emotions once more as tears began dropping from his eyes and onto the floor.
He felt happy that he had finally been noticed and acknowledged, something he had strived to do throughout both of his lives. As a human with his writing and hobby drumming, and as a demon with his acceptance into the Twelve Kizuki, his expulsion, and his quest to rejoin their ranks.
"My writing...my Blood Demon Art...and my tsuzumi playing...have finally...been recognized…"
With the last few tears that fell away from his dissolving cheeks, he finally closed his eyes and accepted the embrace of death, now and forever truly satisfied.
A/N RIP Kyogai, you will be missed. Even when they killed people, Demon Slayer sure new how to pull a little at the heart strings with their backstories.
Not all demons are and used to be bad people, everyone. Wasn't quite sure if I should continue with this one some more or not, but I figured that it would be best to leave it off with Kyogai's passing, since he finally got what he had been striving for the whole time.
Just to say this again, at some point, Im going to stop uploading every day since i've been going at it constantly the past few days, so I hope none of you will be upset by that. Don't wanna spoil you guys :3
Pretty please leave a fav, follow, and review if you havn't already! :D If you don't you'll make Nezuko sad!
Then Tanjirō will have to headbutt you because of it!
Translation(s):
Kaminari no kokyū, Ichi no kata: Hekireki Issen
- Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash
Kedamono no kokyū, San no kiba: Kuizaki
- Beast Breathing, Third Fang: Devour
Shōsoku tsuzumiuchi
- Rapid Drumming
Mizu no kokyū, Ku no kata: Suiryū shibuki - ran
- Water Breathing, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow - Turbulent