^ Chapter 8 - Second Chances do Exist ^
"That way?" asked Tanjirō, looking at the direction Inosuke pointed as he fended off one of the puppet slayers.
"Mmn! Yeah, that way!"
Inosuke pulled his swords back out of the dirt before pointing once more in the direction of where he detected the changes in the air. He had been able to identify it as a person, most certainly the demon that was using their comrades as puppets.
Tanjirō smiled happily as he parried a swipe from another slayer and used his shoulder to push him away, apologizing to him at the same time before he jumped and slashed through the threads controlling him. The boy let out a light grunt when he hit the dirt, since he was still uncomfortably alive, and rested there as more of the small spiders skittered towards him to reattach their master's bonds to him.
"Amazing, Inosuke! Great job!" said Tanjirō, glancing at Inosuke and smiling at him, even though neither could see the other's face.
"Oooh…" murmured Inosuke, his chest getting that warm feeling before he snapped back with a loud grunt as he dodged a sword coming within inches of his face.
Tanjirō took a few steps back from their puppet comrades, Inosuke joining him with his swords out from his hips as they stared them down. If they kept playing around with them, then it wouldn't get them any closer to where Inosuke had located the demon controlling them. They had to get away from them, fast.
"We gotta take care of these guys or we'll never get anywhere!" growled Inosuke, looking from one puppet to the other.
"Dammit...what are we going to do…"
Tanjirō gripped his sword a little tighter, ready to fight off their comrades for who knows how many times its been, before Murata glanced at the two of them and straightened out his sword. There was only one way any of them were gonna be able to reach the demon, and as much as he hated it, this was the one way forward.
"Let me."
Zenitsu wheezed and coughed a little as he slowly walked up to a nearby tree, putting a hand against the bark and hunching over to try and gather his breath. He had been sprinting the entire time from when he first entered the forest, and now after who knows how long since then, he had practically expended all of his energy and was doubled over in exhaustion.
At the time, sprinting into the forest to look for Tanjirō and Inosuke so that he could be there to protect Nezuko was a great idea, but now he wasn't sure if it was anymore. He was alone and lost inside of the thick, foggy woods, with nothing but the brief rays of the moon's glow coming in through the leaves to give him any sort of indication where he was. At least, for the time being, he wasn't scared just yet and still had the adrenaline pumping through him.
"Ne...Ne...Nezu...Ne…" he gasped, his chest heaving with each breath he inhaled. "Whe...Whe...Wh-Whe...Whe...Where are you?"
He waited there with his hand still against the tree as he gathered his breath somewhat, wheezing a couple of more times before stretching his back a little before growling his way through another sprint into the forest, driven solely by the thought of cute little Nezuko in his mind.
"I'm coming for you, Nezuko-chaaaaan!"
"Murata-san?"
"Let me!" he repeated as he dashed in front of Tanjirō and Inosuke, intercepting one of his controlled dead comrades and blocking his sword strike. "Leave these guys to me and go on ahead!"
Murata then skillfully parried the sword and shoved away another controlled slayer, gritting his teeth while swallowing his feelings of terror and disgust at the situation in order to be the distraction that Tanjirō and Inosuke would need to hunt down the demon causing all of this.
Inosuke lowered his swords and stared at Murata, a confused expression on his face below the boar mask while he did. Wasn't this the same guy that was terrified a few minutes ago while telling a story, Inosuke thought.
"What kind of talk is that, Mr. Pissed-My-Pants?"
"I never pissed my pants you stupid boar!" barked back Murata, causing Inosuke to snarl at him. "I wasn't even talking to you anyways, so you can just shut up!"
Murata spun around a lazy swipe at him by another slayer and deflected a second one, holding the blade in place with his own while he glanced at Tanjirō. Sweat was beginning to speckle his skin, but he wasn't going to let the fear topple him, not this time.
"I know that wasn't my finest moment back there, but I'm a Demon Slayer too! I'll find a way to fend them off, now that I know I just need to slash the threads!"
Tanjirō watched Murata hold off two of his captured comrades and push them back once more, before slashing through the threads that were holding them up to remove them as threats momentarily. He admired Murata's selflessness, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling beneath his mask.
"There has to be people under even more control closer to the demon! So you two get going! Go!"
"Understood! We appreciate this!" Tanjirō said, before he sheathed his sword and turned around towards Inosuke. He then snagged the slayer by his arm and started running off in the direction that was pointed out a little earlier, his nose on high alert for the next wisp of the demon's scent. "Come on, Inosuke! Let's go!"
"Oi! Let go of me, dammit! I wanna pound that guy's face first!" Inosuke shouted at the top of his lungs. "Urraghh! Who does he think he is, calling me a 'stupid boar'?!"
"Would you shut up?! Just drop it and get out of here!"
As Tanjirō ran off with the fuming Inosuke into the sea of trees, Inosuke's voice could be heard echoing out his desire to punch Murata in the face once they returned. Murata shook his head and brought his attention back to his adversaries, facing them down with his hands gripping his sword and shaking slightly.
He grit his teeth and swallowed the last ounce of his fear, stopping his hands from shivering and grinned a little to hype himself up. As long as he knew about the threads, avoiding their lazy attacks and cutting through them would be a piece of cake. He just hoped that whoever the demon had trapped closer to her location would be enough for them to handle on their own with hopefully little to no difficulty.
A minute later Tanjirō let go of Inosuke and the boar slayer ran ahead of Tanjirō, still fuming about the insult he had received and how he was going to punch Murata if it was going to be the last thing he ever did as a Demon Slayer. Tanjirō smiled a tiny bit behind his mask at his frustration, but he wiped it clean since it wasn't right for them to talk about one another like this.
"Stop talking about that, Inosuke! Murata-san was trying to get us to go!"
"He called me 'a stupid boar', okay, Monjiro?!"
"It's 'Tanjirō'!" shouted back Tanjirō, annoyed in a heartbeat at his name's replacement again. He calmed himself down a split second later and motioned with a head nod towards the trees up ahead, the two following a path through the trunks and over the uneven hills and bumps within the forest. "So, anyway, we're heading the right way, right?"
"My senses never lie!" replied Inosuke confidently. "That demon is definitely-whooagh!"
Inosuke skid to a halt after digging his heels into the dirt, Tanjirō doing the same when they were met by another group of fellow Demon Slayers turned into human puppets. Only this time, the one they met was a girl who was in tears as she had her blade buried in the neck of one slayer on the ground to her right, and another in her left hand.
She was grasping his hair tightly as blood oozed out from a deep laceration that spanned across the entire front half of his throat. And all the while she was in tears, her eyes meeting theirs when they arrived at the scene.
"N-No...Don't come any...closer…!" she cried, hiccuping a little. "Please summon someone of higher rank! O-Otherwise, everyone will get killed! Please!"
Tanjirō's eyes widened in horror and terror gripped his heart yet again, as well as sorrow for the girl he was facing. Judging by her appearance, she had to be one or two years younger than him, at least sixteen compared to the eighteen years of age he had going for him. He could feel her emotions all too well.
With his right hand he gripped his blade, scooting his right foot back to enter a wider stance as he glanced up into the air above the female Demon Slayer and noticed the wider array of threads that were connected to her body. Trusting their previous experience, he was sure they could figure out a way to get her free from the spiders and their body controlling web fibers.
The scent of blood here was stronger as well, still fresh from the Demon Slayers this poor girl had been forced to kill. It stained the grass and the dirt around them, and there were even some splatters against the trees that by the looks of them were caused by the slashes of swords across flesh. The pungent stench stung Tanjirō's nose and he covered the mouth of his mask on instinct, forgetting that the stench could still reach his nostrils regardless of what he did.
"Dammit...to think that there were this many casualties...this demon...whoever they are…!" thought Tanjirō with a growl, as he started to feel his anger begin to rise. "Making our own comrades attack one another...that's preposterous!"
"We gotta cut through the threads again, right Gonpachiro?" asked Inosuke, resting one sword on his shoulder while the other was by his thigh.
"It's Tanjirō!" snapped Tanjirō, before he sighed and nodded his head. "But yeah, the threads. We can't risk hurting her or anyone else that might be alive."
"Please, don't come any closer to me…" the woman thought as she observed the two slayers when they started to engage her second group of puppets.
Through her spiders she had been able to hear the cries and screams of those that were killed by their own comrades and for the most part, she had kept quiet and didn't have hardly any reaction to it. That was only externally though, a part of her that she had always tried to repress allowed her to feel emotions that she shouldn't even have as a demon towards humans.
The feeling of sorrow for another person that you cared about, regardless of how acquainted you were, suffering or dying was a painful and tragic experience. So it came as a preposterous idea to her that for whatever reason, she could feel some kind of deep-rooted sadness within herself, related to something that occurred so long ago that she had vast difficulties remembering it.
Her crying episodes were most commonly related to this strange sensation that refused to stay buried inside of her mind, no matter how many times she tried to banish it. These episodes only grew worse with the abuse she received, the very thought of it enough to make her eyes squint and her hands make more aggressive flicks and changes in position and direction.
"I've got to do this so that way he won't get mad at me...if he get's mad at me, I'll get hurt again...I don't want to get-!"
"Mother?"
The mother demon gasped and her eyes widened in fear, her head whipping around to the source of the voice. It was the boy again, standing this time in the shadows of the trees surrounding the clearing just beneath the foliage. He was staring at her with that blank, unassuming expression on his face.
Over the years since she had been under his enslavement, she knew that this boy's face withheld such ferocious anger when provoked, as well as a deep-rooted hatred towards those that didn't perform what he asked of them, in the way that he asked them to be done.
"You can win, right?" the boy asked, the woman's hands shaking slightly.
"R...Rui…"
"Don't you think this is taking too much time?
The woman was utterly powerless, she didn't have the ability to speak nor think in the presence of the young boy. He kept his blank look while staring at her silently, before speaking in that calm voice again to remind her that she should try to hurry up. As an added threat, he told her that if she didn't hurry up and kill the intruders, then he would be forced to tell 'Father'.
Father, the second biggest threat to her after this small child named Rui. He was decided on by the boy to be the father of their family, and it was at every chance he got that she was abused by him in some of the worst ways possible. Demons don't care about human moral standards or codes, nor did they care about what humans do to one another when in a family or relationship. Just hearing the name was enough for her to open her mouth and finally start speaking, telling Rui that she could do it and that she'd be a good mother to him and the rest of the family.
"N-No! I can do it! I can do it, all right?" she pleaded, forgetting about the Demon Slayers for a brief moment. "I promise to protect you, I promise! P-Please, don't get your father!"
Rui could see she was absolutely terrified, her whole body was trembling from a sheer overload of dread at the thought of telling on her to the father. He made absolutely no visible reaction to her pleading, maintaining his emotionless expression as he examined her look and her the words that she said.
He wanted to see for himself if his mother would truly keep those words and accomplish her given task. As the mother she was responsible for taking care of the children, including protection, just like the father. Considering the mother is supposed to hold a closer bond to children of the family, he presumed that the person at the foremost front of wanting to provide and safeguard them from harm. That was her given job, and as long as she performed it, there was no reason to reprimand her.
The silence was unbearable, growing heavier by the second, before Rui's gaze seemed to softened in the slightest way and he turned his back on the mother demon to disappear into the forest.
"Hurry it up then." were his final words before vanishing, leaving the mother demon breathing heavily and scared out of her wit's end.
She couldn't pull her eyes away from where Rui had been standing just moments before, and her hands were still shaking terribly in fear. If she wanted to move her body made it physically impossible. She was utterly paralyzed, glued to the rock she sat upon.
"I...I have to...I have to hurry...I-I can't...I can't-!"
She shook her head and she violently snapped her wrists back, disconnecting the threads from her fingers and looking down at a collection of spiders that were crawling up the rock towards her feet. She frantically connected their threads to her fingers and took control of what they were connected to, her breathing quickening along with her heart beat.
"P-Please, die! If you don't I'll have hell to pay! I don't want to get hurt again!"
"Please, run!" cried the female Demon Slayer, her tears streaking down her cheeks. "Please!"
"Calm down, we'll figure out a way to-!"
Tanjirō's eyes widened when suddenly the threads that were connected to her body and limbs slackened and dropped away entirely, a gasp escaping her lips from the sudden freedom she now had. Squeaking slightly she dropped to her knees, letting go of her sword entirely while her dead comrades in the middle of being lifted up by the threads were released as well.
"Huh? What's going on?" questioned Inosuke. What they thought would be their next battle quickly devolved in a split second, when it seemed the demon in control of the situation let go of her captors without so much as a struggle. "Mnhg...this doesn't feel right…"
"Are you okay?!"
Tanjirō ran over to the girl's side and kneeled next to her, scraping off any spiders that were left on her clothes or body with his hand. Instantly she burst into an uncontrollable crying episode as she thrust herself into Tanjirō's arms, burying her face into him to cry her heart out. She didn't know who he was, what his name was, anything.
It didn't matter to her at all. She needed somebody, anybody, to just simply hold her as she came to grips with what she had been made to do against her will. Tanjirō was shocked initially, of course, but it didn't take long for him to let go of his sword and wrap his arms around this unknown girl to give her the hug he could feel that she deserved. He couldn't spend too long doing this for her though, they were still in the lion's den, in a hostile demon's territory.
"Hey, hey...I know what happened here is terrible...trust me, I've seen bad things tom but...we can't waste time." said Tanjirō as he gently pulled the girl from his arms. "Are you hurt? Can you stand up?"
"Y...Y...Y-Yes…"
"I need you to do something then. We have a friend of ours, another Demon Slayer, back the way we just came from. It's a straight shot. Turn and go. Don't stop until you get to him."
The girl was still crying and shaking, clearly not thinking entirely straight, but after Tanjirō put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes at such a close distance, she was able to barely see through the slits of his mask into his eyes. Seeing what she could of his eyes, as well as the firm but reassuring touch his hands had on her shoulders, it somehow managed to bring her back to her senses for a brief moment.
"Can you do that?"
"I...I can...but what if-"
"Watch out for these small white spiders, they attach the threads to your body...if you keep moving, and cut any threads you see, you won't be caught."
Tanjirō pat her on the shoulders and nodded his head, before helping her to her feet and stepping aside while pointing down the way he directed her to go. He pulled out his nichirin sword and motioned with his head again, the girl finally snapping out of her temporary daze as she grabbed her own sword and ran away from them as fast as she could.
Inosuke watched her disappear into the trees, before he sensed a great disturbance that was rapidly approaching them. His hands gripped his swords tighter and he widened his stance, growling loudly.
"Gonpachiro!"
"Tanjirō!"
"We've got something coming! Something big!"
"Nezuko-chaaaaaaaan!" called out Zenitsu, cupping his hands around his mouth before dropping them and breathing heavily again.
After running deeper into the forest, he had ran out of breath yet again and finally gave up on trying to sprint his way through the forest, since now he was even more lost than before. He had no idea where anybody was within the forest, he couldn't even hear anything outside of his own breathing and the sounds of the forest around him.
"Nezuko-chaaan! Where are you?" he asked again with a quivering lower lip. The terror had started to set in now and he collapsed to his knees in a kneeling position, rubbing his eyes as he started to tear up from his cowardice. "Nezuko-chan...Tanjirō...Wild Boar…Chuntarō...where did you all go…?"
Zenitsu started to cry even more now, using the back of his right hand to wipe away his tears as well as the slight traces of snot beginning to drip out of his left nostril. He had really messed up this time by letting his inability to be brave cause Inosuke and Tanjirō to enter the forest without him.
At the time he thought that they should have stayed with him and talked him into joining him, but after thinking about it more during his mad sprint through the forest, he began to see that they didn't have time to think about that. They needed to get into the forest to find out what happened to the fallen Demon Slayer they encountered, and to find what demon was inside that had been the cause of it.
His cowardice would have only slowed them down from doing their jobs as Demon Slayers, which made him feel even more terrible on the inside. In his wallowing he didn't hear a sound come from above for the first time, but as he sucked in a breath he heard a chirp come from atop his head and he opened his eyes.
"E-Eh?"
"Chu, chu!"
"Chuntarō…?"
His sparrow chirped once, before he turned his head to the side while still scowling as much as a bird could. Ukogi was still irritated by what Zenitsu had said to him before he had to follow him into the forest as fast as his little wings could carry him, and he wasn't afraid to still show it.
"Ahh! You mean you came after me? You're so adorable!" Zenitsu cried when he pulled Ukogi down into his hands and smothered him with his cheek. "Second only to Nezuko-chan, but still!"
Ukogi chirped and screeched out in his rather diminutive and cute voice, despite his gender, while frantically squirming between Zenitsu's hands and his cheek in an attempt to free himself from his grasp.
"I'm sorry for everything! For everything! We can look for Nezuko-chan! Yeah, let's go look for Nezuko-chan together!"
"Here it comes!"
"Alright!"
Tanjirō and Inosuke readied themselves as the thundering footsteps grew closer and closer to their position, the sound of trees getting knocked and pushed over following along with it. Finally there was a loud cracking noise before a tree collapsed into the little clearing they had entered upon meeting the female Demon Slayer and their fallen comrades, stirring up dirt in their faces and hiding the cause for a few moments. Suddenly the hulking form of a demon thundered into view, its arms from the elbow up entirely replaced by giant golden bone-like appendages that consisted mostly of a giant curved blade perfectly designed for cleaving through any obstacle in its path.
It's skin was a dark grayish brown, with veins bulging across its ripped upper torso and biceps, and its legs were covered beneath baggy and torn tan trousers of sorts with a black sash keeping them up around its waist. The most shocking thing was it's, or the lack thereof, head.
"This demon...it doesn't have a head!" gasped Inosuke. "What the hell is this about?!"
"How is it still alive without a head?!"
Inosuke grunted before they looked up at the impressive array of threads that were holding the demon's limbs and the rest of its body, with at least twenty or more. The moonlight reflected off each and every one, telling them that this had to be their strongest obstacle that they'd have to go through in order to reach their target.
"Who cares, I'll shred right through it regardless! Eaagh!" roared Inosuke as he leaped over to a tree and launched himself like a cannonball right at the demon puppet.
Without its head, the demon didn't make a sound as it moved as real as either them could and used its giant bladed arms to block Inosuke's swords, before throwing him back with impressive physical strength that was no doubt enhanced in some way or form by its puppet master. Insouke grunted after landing back on the ground, before he went with plan B and attempted to cut through the threads holding up the demon's body so that it would be easier for them to dispatch it.
"Coming throuuugh!" Inosuke one of the threads with both of his swords, and with a loud metallic twang his blades failed to cut through even one of them, the force instead causing his arms to rebound backward.
"Inosuke!" Tanjirō yelled as he leaped up and caught Inosuke just before the demon could impale him with one of its arm blades.
"Gyagh! Let go of me!" Inosuke growled once they landed back on the ground, Tanjirō doing so immediately before the two looked back at the demon.
"You couldn't cut through the threads?"
"They're tougher than the ones before, tough enough that I couldn't cut through it! Dammit!"
"We'll have to deal with it like this then, Inosuke. Get ready!" said Tanjirō as he grasped his sword with both hands, narrowing his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah!"
The two Demon Slayers darted off to the opposite directions of one another as the demon rushed and attacked them with a heavy downward smash, striking the ground where they stood and stirring up dirt and grass. Tanjirō landed on his right foot and attacked the demon, his sword getting deflected by the demon's left arm blade within a split second before it reared back with its right.
Tanjirō ducked under the swipe and quickly slashed at its gut, the metal cutting through only a fraction of its skin, far less than he expected. He grunted as he leaped away from the demon as it spun around to attack Inosuke when he went for its back, Inosuke gasping at its quick reactions and having to fight off its double swipe. Inosuke used the blades as a springboard to launch him over the demon and back down next to Tanjirō on the other side of the small crater the demon had made with its brute strength.
"Guh, that thing's got no weak spots! I can't slash something that's not there!"
"Calm down! We'll inflict a-wait, no!"
Tanjirō cried out desperately when the demon puppet lifted up its foot and stepped forward, completely disregarding the bodies of their comrades on the ground, and smashed the chest of one of the bodies inward with its large foot. The demon took another step forward, without the sound of the threads connected to it stretching or tensing up like what would normally happen as a puppet would move, implying the demon still had some kind of faint intelligence despite the loss of its head.
"I...It...hurts…"
Tanjirō's eyes darted to one of the Demon Slayers laying down on the ground near the demon, the boy's arms both bent in misshapen angles with a bone actually sticking out from the elbow of his right arm. Tanjirō felt a flutter in his chest, seeing another comrade was still alive and able to be alive, before the demon seemed to notice him and turned slightly towards him.
In the blink of an eye, the arm blade demon silently reared back and impaled the boy through his chest with the massive blade, killing him instantly and causing Tanjirō's right eye to twitch behind his mask. Seeing other Demon Slayers be used as puppets had already begun to get to him, but this had pushed him over the edge.
Any and all other emotions as well as his ability to know reason was pushed aside, replaced instead by a rage that overtook his body at the defilement of their comrades at arms. His fury had come upon him so suddenly that even Inosuke could feel the different aura that Tanjirō was releasing, one far darker and imposing than his usual aura. It even made him shiver by just how inhumane it was, but before he could even do anything, even say anything, Tanjirō took a single step forward before he vanished, creating almost a miniature shockwave in his wake, the ground and dirt becoming uplifted from where his foot was as he launched himself at the demon.
Moving too fast for the demon to react to initially, Tanjirō appeared in the air in front of the puppet demon and seemed to freeze in the air, his eyes blazing with fury behind his mask, as turbulent waves of water began to appear out of his blade and flow .
"Mizu no kokyū...Shichi no kata: Shizuku hamon tsuki!" he roared, as he ripped his sword up and stabbed his blade right into the center of the demon's chest.
The sword plunged deep all the way to the hilt, with enough force put behind the thrust to hurl the demon off its feet and back into one of the trees. With it pinned, before the puppet master or the demon could counterattack, Tanjirō's knuckles turned white around his blade as he planted his feet against the demon's chest and growled loudly.
"Mizu no kokyū, Shi no kata: Uchishio!"
With his sword still buried inside of the demon's chest, through sheer raw strength on account of his demon blood, Tanjirō brutally cut through the demon's body with his technique, the blade leaving out through the right side and through its arm while the explosion of water that burst out from his blade from the technique blasted apart the other half of its body.
Inosuke had remained practically motionless when Tanjirō initiated the one-man assault on the demon puppet, his eyes wide in surprise below his boar mask when the demon was defeated in just a matter of a few seconds. Even when he had felt Tanjirō's anger practically overflowing from his body, not once during the attack did he lose any skill or finesse in his attacks. Like water flowing through a river, he remained controlled and efficient, as if his anger had empowered his attacks to become far more deadly.
Tanjirō landed back on the ground in front of the demon, lowering his blade as its blood dripped off the tip before a loud creaking was heard. The tree he had slammed the demon into with his first technique had been cut clean through by his second, and with a squealing sound the tree fell over to the side and crashed to the ground.
For a few seconds, it was silent again after the tree had collapsed, before the demon Tanjirō cut down single-handedly began to disintegrate, turning to ash that blew away in the wind to nothingness.
"Don't ever...disrespect the dead…or dying..." spoke Tanjirō as his anger began to wane, now that the demon was dead. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths to help calm himself down, he didn't need his anger to influence any more of his actions on the off chance he did something he'd regret. The power he had felt in that moment was immense, but if it could only occur with the complete disregard of everything except for his rage, he wouldn't do it. Only for a last resort, if all other options failed.
"Inosuke, are you okay? I...let go of myself there, I'm sorry." he asked, turning back and glancing back at Inosuke. For a few moments Inosuke was silent. Then he threw his swords down to the ground and sprinted at Tanjirō, causing him to become confused and wonder what happened.
"Inosuke? What are-"
"If you can throw a demon back like that, I can do that with you too, dumbass!" he yelled loudly. Inosuke then wrapped his arms around Tanjirō, grunting and growling as his muscles bulged and veins bulged out from his head beneath the boar head.
Then with a loud roar Inosuke hunched over slightly before throwing Tanjirō up high into the air through the gap in the trees above them. He threw him up with such strength that he cleared the tree tops and continued to soar, the air rushing around his body as he to the sky.
Shocked at first, Tanjirō's eyes widened as his nose then picked up the scent of the demon clear as day. Without the trees or the wind within the forest disturbing it any longer, he was able to pick out the exact position of their target.
"So this is what that was about…" remarked Tanjirō, grinning as he turned around and held his sword at the ready, his destination in sight. "Amazing job, Inosuke!"
The spider demon mother sat there on her rock, totally motionless, with her eyes wide open and her mouth ajar. She was shivering, terrified. She had failed in her duty, her duty given to her by Rui. She couldn't even form the words that she wanted to say.
The slayers that she was supposed to stop as part of her duty as mother had defeated her puppets, even after she had released the human ones to use the special one that she kept as her strongest defender. They had defeated them without even trying, which only served to confirm all of the things that had been told to her by her family members.
She was weak. She was the weakest. She was a horrible mother that couldn't even protect the children of the family that she was constantly abused by for crying, or for losing her form, or for failing at the smallest of things.
"I-If I run...I'll only get beaten and abused again...they'll only hurt me more! They'll string me up and leave me to die in the sun!" she thought, gripping her head and shaking it side to side as she began to cry. "I just wanted to live on my mountain! They took it all from me! All of them! All they did was hurt and beat me and treat me like garbage!"
The woman then gasped when she felt a presence right over her and she looked up, seeing a figure right in front of the moon falling towards her. Through her tears she saw the checkered haori, the mask, and the sword held back ready to strike.
Tanjirō's eyes locked onto the demon, seeing her completely alone and defenseless in the clearing. She must have used all of her tricks, and hadn't even tried to set up anything around to protect her if she was attacked like this. This demon, who had used his comrades as their own personal puppets to attack one another. It all came to an end now, in this moment. With a deep breath, he expelled all the air from his lungs as his eyes narrowed, the line of connection appearing in his vision.
"Mizu no kokyū, Ichi no kata…!" Tanjirō thought, his fingers gripping his sword tighter as water spilled out from around the blade as he soared towards the demon. One quick slice, clean through the neck, that's what it would take.
The woman could see her death approaching, dressed in a checkered black and green haori, with a fox mask for a face. She was terrified, and couldn't budge. She was like a statue, affixed to the rock she used as a seat, unable to move, unable to breath.
"Think, you have to think! He'll kill you, he-" she began to think, before her eyes widened a little more through the tears and her hands stopped trembling, slowly pulling away from the sides of her head. That little voice in the back of her head began to grow louder, breaking free of all the restraints that were put onto it. "If...I die...I'll be released...I'll...finally have...peace…"
The demon's terror slowly faded and turned to acceptance, as she continued to cry not of fright, but of relief. She held her arms out as if to receive a gift and even purposefully leaned her head back to expose her neck for the perfect slice.
"Finally...peace…" she thought one last time, then closed her eyes for what she thought would be the last time.
Tanjirō saw all of this happen in slow motion as he fell to within a few meters of the demon, his eyes widening and a slight gasp escaping his lips. This demon wasn't going to fight back at all. She was willingly accepting her death, she wanted him to cut her down. He had thoughts of Kyogai, and of the Temari Demon, of how Muzan was responsible for all of the pain that demons went through from when they were first turned into demons.
Some had wanted to become demons for one reason or another. Kyogai became a demon, Tanjirō suspected, to be recognized by someone at least, even if it was in a negative light as a demon. His feelings were telling him to give this demon the death she deserved, yet at the same time, there had to be more if she was ready to accept her death without any struggle.
"Someday...the violence and suffering could end...and that demons and humans...could live alongside one another…" Tanjirō remembered in his mind, the vision of the woman flashing in his mind.
In a last second decision, he swiped his sword and cancelled his technique, flying past the woman and landing softly on his feet with little to no sound. A tiny little cut appeared on the demon's left cheek and she flinched a little, the sun-soaked metal of the blade burning a little, before she realized what had happened and opened her eyes.
"W...What…?" she asked herself, lowering her head and reaching to her neck. It was completely untouched, without a single cut in it. The only wound she felt on her body was teh small, almost nonexistent cut on her cheek that had already healed in the time it took her to realize that she was still alive.
"W...Why am...I...still…"
"Because...I wanted to ask you something…"
Her eyes widened and she slowly turned her head, glancing over her shoulder at Tanjirō, who was standing a meter or so behind her rock with his blade in hand. She watched him face her while sheathing his sword, the eyes of his fox mask fixating on her.
"Why...why did you want me to kill you…?" Tanjirō asked, taking a chance to see if what he hoped could happen would. "Why…?"
The woman was speechless. This slayer's voice, she had never heard someone speak to her in such a kind manner before. There was no malice or underlying threat, and his body posture right then betrayed any attempt to hurt her. For most of her life upon that mountain, through all of the beatings and injuries she suffered, it had become almost like a seventh sense for her to detect when someone in her supposed family was going to hurt her.
At the very least, it allowed her to at least prepare herself in the slightest way possible before she was hurt again and again by whoever it was that punished her. But not with this person. Somehow, this reminded her of somebody that she thought she used to know as a human, a person that she cared about. Somebody that she could confess what was troubling her to.
"T...They...hurt...me…" she said, stuttering slightly because she still had some doubts.
"Who?" asked Tanjirō softly, taking one step closer to the demon while holding his hands up. "Who are 'they'?"
"O...Other demons...a...family…"
Tanjirō's eyes widened and he remembered the boy he and Inosuke had seened earlier, connecting the pieces and figuring out that he must be part of the family she was talking about. Wanting to know more, he asked her who the other members of the family were, but she wouldn't find the will to speak to him again.
This was the chance of a lifetime, he couldn't afford to waste it by asking her these kinds of questions. He needed to identify the root of the problem, the biggest issue to be discovered. He could smell utter terror and fear coming from her, not even the slightest bit of malice. She was terrified of something, even more than him.
"This family...they hurt you...it...was bad, wasn't it?" he asked softly again, taking another step forward.
"Y...Yes…we...were forced...to be...a family...to...be his...family…" continued the female demon, her tears beginning to come back. "It...was just me...but...they came...I...was...made the mother…"
"Forced…" thought Tanjirō, before he took one last step closer to the woman, lowering his hands to his side with the hope she didn't take it as him threatening her. When she didn't react negatively to the motion, he asked her what this family would do to her, and slowly, with obvious pain, he heard the entire story.
She had been beaten and abused by the family she had been made to be the mother of, verbally and physically,because of her weakness and inability to properly fulfill that role. Tanjirō was horrified to hear how long this abuse had gone on, and he was able to understand by the end of the story how and why she wanted to die. Dying would have freed her from their control, from her pain.
"Did...you kill my comrades...out of hate towards humans...or out of fear...of the abuse you'd receive if you didn't…?"
The woman shuddered and she hiccuped lightly while crying, more of her long thought locked away emotions beginning to resurface when she had thought that they were gone. Her crying intensified and she slowly nod her head, Tanjirō raising an eyebrow as to which answer she was confirming before she gulped.
"The...pain...the abuse...I...hoped...I wouldn't get hurt...whenever we ate...he...forced us to eat...as a family...the humans...we captured...I...I grew...to despise it...all of it...I only...wanted peace…"
She covered her face with her hands as she began to cry without any restraint, with Tanjirō's heart breaking at how she wore all of her pain and suffering on the sleeves of her clothes. He could see all of it, months and years of untold suffering at the hands of this family of demons, and the "he" she kept referring to that forced it to come together.
He now knew that sparing her to hear all of this was the right choice, because now he knew that there was a chance. The sister's dream that he heard from the woman, it wasn't so much of a dream after all.
"I...can give you peace."
"H...Huh?"
The mother demon lifted her face from her hands, looking at Tanjirō and watching him reach up for his mask and slowly begin to lift it up from his face. In a matter of seconds her eyes grew wide open when she saw his eyes, and the slit pupils they possessed.
The person who spared her was a demon, and her senses soon confirmed it as well. Yet despite that, the more she looked into his eyes, surprisingly, all she could see in them was kindness. Again something sparked in her minds of that person she thought she had used to know as a human, how he used to look at her in the same way with gentle and kind eyes.
"I know somebody...that can give you peace." said Tanjirō, taking a step forward and stopping right before the rock that the woman sat upon, looking up into her eyes while he smiled.
"You...but…"
"I've seen you used your ability to kill my comrades...and for that I don't think I can ever forgive you for it, even if you had to do it to avoid being punished. But...one thing I do believe in quite strongly, now more than ever, is that for some people...second chances really do exist."
Tanjirō then took a chance and extended a hand out and up to the woman, offering her the chance for her to change her life. The woman couldn't comprehend what was happening, she was totally awestruck that she could only stare into Tanjirō's eyes in complete silence.
A demon's eyes that were full of so much kindness and trust, even when she had done the things that he had said. She had heard him say that he would never forgive her for killing those other slayers, even if it was, as he said, to try and prevent any more abuse from coming her way from those who hurt her. But for whatever reason, this person standing in front of her was willing to make that the past, to allow it to be water under the bridge.
"W...Why are you...being nice to me…?" she asked, still unsure if she could trust him.
"I met someone a few days ago, who told me of a dream...one where humans and demons could one day...coexist. And I can tell you that, while unknown to most...I'm living proof of that. And the people I can send you too...they are too. So...would you like to take a chance?"
Tanjirō moved his hand a little bit closer to her, waiting and hoping that she would take it. He wanted her to take it, because he wanted to desperately try and see if that woman's dream could come true. If he and Nezuko could learn to control themselves around humans, with Nezuko's case going so far as to learn how to protect them as well, then conceivably it was possible for any demon who was willing to try.
"Come on...take it…please…" Tanjirō thought as the woman moved her eyes from his face and his hand.
After a few tense moments of silence, the female demon slowly raised up one of her shaking hands and placed it on top of Tanjirō's, allowing him to gently wrap his fingers around her's and slowly pull her off the rock. She fell onto her feet and stumbled slightly, but Tanjirō caught her and helped her keep her balance.
The woman was a tad shorter than Tanjirō, and when he caught her, she got a close up of his eyes and for another moment she was completely frozen to the spot, her mouth even opening slightly.
"These eyes...such kind eyes...I...can remember now...when i was human...I think someone used to look at me with kind eyes too...it was someone who always treasured me...I wonder how that person is doing now…"
"Hey, are you okay?" asked Tanjirō, considering how intensely the woman was staring into his eyes, before tears welled up in her eyes and without a word she pressed her body against his and hugged him, His eyes widened at the action, and he didn't know how to react to it at first.
"...If...you can give me...peace...I...s-swear...I'll never hurt another human...I don't want...to suffer...any more…"
"...I promise, you'll get it."
Tanjirō closed his eyes and swallowed his feelings of resentment for the people she killed and put one arm around her to comfort her. She had hurt and killed people, most likely even before the Demon Slayers sent before him arrived on the mountain. She did it to appease the family that she was forced to be part of by one of the demons within it, someone that scared her so greatly that she did anything to try and ensure she wouldn't get abused.
That didn't stop the abuse from coming though, and he could only begin to imagine what kind of things were done to her on account of being able to heal from all of it because she was a demon. He could understand that, and sympathize with that. He also knew that he could never be able to forgive her for all of the humans that she killed, because those humans would never be able to come back, now that they were gone. Even still, as long as one was willing to make a change, then it was possible for anyone to change.
"Anyone...except for the monster that's ruined the lives of so many humans by robbing them of their humanity…"
"...I...trust you…"
Tanjirō pulled away from her to look down at the woman, smiling a tiny bit as he stepped away from her and looked around at the trees lining the clearing.
"Hello? Are you there? Tamayo-san's cat?"
A small meow was heard nearby and out of nowhere, the same cat that had collected Kyogai's blood from him after their battle appeared and strolled up to them. The female demon noticed the talisman attached to the necklace it wore, and watched as Tanjirō kneeled down next to the cat and scratched its head.
"This cat is a familiar of a friend of mine...he can take you to where she is." Tanjirō explained as he stood up and turned back to the woman. "She, and her assistant, were able to modify their bodies so that all they require is a minimum amount of human blood to survive, and they don't hunger for humans either. If you tell her I sent you, and you are serious about what you said...she can help you."
"But...what if…I…"
"Don't worry...I've got a plan for that."
Tanjirō bent down in front of the cat and took off the talisman from its necklace, before turning and holding the marked piece of paper out for the woman to grab. Unsure of what it would do, she took it carefully from him as she looked at the unique design imprinted on, and immediately could tell that it was something a demon came up with.
"This talisman was made by the assistant of my friend, and for this one, when the cat meows, it should turn you invisible. All you'd have to do is follow him back while staying invisible, and you should be okay." explained Tanjirō, giving her one last smile before he pulled his mask back down over his face. "Just remember to tell them that I sent you."
"W...What is your name…?"
"Ah! I almost forgot!" Tanjirō exclaimed before bowing out of embarrassment. "Kamado Tanjirō is my name! And...yours?"
"I...don't have a name…" replied the woman, lowering her head towards the ground. "I don't remember what it was...all I've known is…being the 'mother'..."
"Oh…I'm so sorry for asking."
Tanjirō stood back up straight before he looked back at the cat and motioned for it to join them, the cat strolling up to the woman's left side and glancing up at her. The cat then meowed and she gasped when the talisman turned her invisible in the blink of an eye, clothes and all.
"Remember, just follow the cat back, okay?" Tanjirō said to the invisible woman while resting a hand on his sword.
The woman couldn't think of what to say to him, after all of the kindness he had showed her even when she had hurt and killed so many of his comrades. She opened her mouth briefly for a moment, then closed it, before she looked at Tanjirō and with him unable to see her, she gave him a slightly dark look.
"There's a member of the Twelve Kizuki here…" she spoke softly, causing Tanjirō to gasp and his eyes to widen. "He's one of the family members...be careful."
She then grew silent and the cat soon scampered away into the forest, the invisible demon following it until both she and the feline familiar of Tamayo were out of sight. Tanjirō was left alone and rooted to the spot, his eyes slowly lifting up to the full moon above as his hand tightened around the hilt of his sword.
One of the twelve strongest demons below Muzan was there, on that mountain, and he could immediately guess that as a Kizuki, he had been the one to force this collection of demons together to serve him as his family. Only a Kizuki member would be able to inspire that much fear into other demons, enough to force them to cooperate.
"A member of the Twelve Kizuki is here...a genuine member of the Twelve Kizuki…here on this mountain!"
A/N Spider Mom you deserved so much better in the manga and anime, I hope letting her live is okay with all of you guys :( The poor girl got abused left and right by the family, so I hope that this served as a way to let her give what she desired.
Anyways! Favorite Natagumo mountain arc chapter so far! Really enjoyed writing this one! If you liked this chapter, please consider dropping a follow and a favorite to myself and the story, and don't be afraid to leave a review!
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Thank you so much for considering to read this story, and I'll see you guys in the next one!
Translation(s):
Mizu no kokyū, Shichi no kata: Shizuku hamon tsuki
- Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Piercing Rain Drop
Mizu no kokyū, Shi no kata: Uchishio
- Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide