^ Chapter 11 - Become Hinokami ^
Tanjirō reacted at the very last second and managed to move his body out of the way just in time to avoid being bisected by Rui's thread. The most he got out of it was a deep cut diagonally across his face over the bridge of his nose, which still stung despite being a demon.
He hit the ground with his shoulder and bounced once before coming to a stop, grunting as his blood oozed out of the cut and down over his lips, forcing him to wipe it away with his wrist.
He flinched a little and slowly picked himself up off the dirt, his eyes moving to his severed sword where it's once magnificent black polished blade had been reduced to no more than a three inch straight edge knife. Tanjirō's one surefire method of killing Rui had been made practically worthless, leaving him with just his demon body that still wasn't even on par with other demons because all he's done is sleep, like Nezuko.
Once Rui found out he couldn't burn him in the sun, all he'd have to do is cut him up into enough pieces to scatter around the forest or bury him underground, and nothing would prevent the demon from killing more people. That meant he could harm and or kill his friends. He could harm Nezuko. That thought alone was enough for him to grit his teeth and growl as he stood up, the cut across his face beginning to heal up as he gripped his practically useless sword tightly still.
Rui stared him down coldly from where he was still standing after attacking Tanjirō, his eyes not even blinking once as they held their gazes. A slight breeze blew through the trees, and there was a slight chirping sound from some nearby crickets. The air was so heavy that either one of them could probably grab the air particles with their bare hands if they wanted to.
The sister demon standing a little behind and to the right of Rui hadn't moved much either, choosing to let Rui fight Tanjirō rather than involve herself in their fight. She was still trying to wrap her head around how a demon could be fighting them as a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. A never before seen occurrence, it couldn't even be considered taboo since it was the natural inclination for demons to be the enemies of the corps.
"I don't know what I'm going to do now that my sword's been cut…" Tanjirō thought, wiping some more blood away from his face as the wound eventually healed entirely. He'd managed to calm himself down from his earlier outburst, so he wasn't as angry, but with the card he'd just been dealt, Tanjirō started to consider if he had to take the risk in order to fight on even ground with Rui. "I've accepted who I am, a demon...that's how I was able to overcome Kyogai...but now...will I really have to let myself give in…?"
Zenitsu's slow, whistling breath continued to fill the air around the hanging shack, his vision still totally blurry as a result of the poison, which meant he wasn't able to really recognize Shinobu by appearance even when she was standing on her tiptoes looking over him.
"Yoo-hoo~" she asked again, smiling still as she lowered her hand to her side. "Are you okay?"
Shinobu knew that Zenitsu obviously wasn't okay, one would have to be blind to not see the dried blood on his face and the purple skin splotches on his cheeks. She knew that they must be present on the rest of his body as well, underneath all of his clothes, and upon seeing the young slayer for the first time she immediately guessed it was from poison.
The way he was inhaling and exhaling air clued her in on how he had managed to slow down the poison's spread too. It pleased her that he was smart enough to figure out that his breathing was the key, which meant that for those just entering the organization there was still hope for them to achieve greatness and not die at a young age. By the time she would have reached him if he hadn't done what he did, Zenitsu may have already become one of the human-spider hybrids that she could see below them.
"...Gramps…" uttered Zenitsu weakly with a slight wheeze, causing Shinobu to raise her eyebrow and giggle a little.
"Who are you calling 'Gramps'?"
"Just now...Gramps showed up…" murmured Zenitsu, coughing a tiny bit before continuing to breath slowly. His eyes moved slightly as he looked at her, seeing nothing but a blurry outline of her body, with her haori just a big white splotch. "He told me...to not give up…"
Shinobu brought a hand up and held her finger up in an aha moment, smiling with her eyes closing again as she stopped standing on her tiptoes.
"Ahh, you saw your life flashing before your to one theory, the reason one sees such images just before death is because you're searching for a way to avoid death by going through all your past experiences and memories." she answered, before she sat down in seiza next to Zenitsu's body and reached for one of her haori's inner pockets in order to retrieve a small wooden carrying case. "Well, not that I can say for sure myself, since I've been lucky enough to have never experienced it myself."
Zenitsu watched with a pained yet empty stare as Shinobu opened the box to reveal a syringe with two twist-on needles in case she needed to use the same syringe again. She picked it up and twisted on one of the needles, then checked the contents of the syringe to make sure there were no cracks in the glass.
She then flicked the needle repeatedly so that the somewhat milky-looking substance inside the syringe entered the needle and leaked slightly out of the tip. Shinobu had guessed right that she'd need to bring her self-developed antidote for Blood Demon Art-based poisons, and since she hadn't encountered any demons that had the ability to use poison on her way there, she was certain she wouldn't have to use her personal supply on anyone else.
"Besides...Kanao and the Kakushi should be here any minute. I told her to bring more antidote with her on the off chance we needed more, and I can safely say I was correct." she thought, before placing her other index finger on Zenitsu's forehead. "You did a good job slowing down the poison's path with your breathing. If you hadn't been able to do that, you would've turned into a spider long ago."
Once she double checked that the syringe was ready, her purple eyes returned to Zenitsu's and she smiled warmly again as she gently picked up one of his shrunken arms. The sleeve of his haori slid down to his shoulder, showing just how disfigured his arm had become, with dozens of purple splotches, bulging veins, and his heavily shrunken hand that looked like that of a baby's.
Shinobu warned him she was going to inject the antidote into him so that the poison would stop, before pressing the needle tip against one of the larger veins bulging on his arm and inserting it. Zenitsu winced, the needle prick hurting more than it should, before he felt Shinbou start injecting the antidote into his blood stream so that it could begin doing its work to neutralize the poison.
"You should be proud of yourself to have been able to make it this long, you know." said Shinobu while using her hand holding his arm up to pat his wrist. "Mizunoto aren't usually that capable of holding their own against stronger demons, especially while inflicted with poison. You did good~."
Zenitsu's eyes widened a little at Shinobu's kind words, and he opened his mouth to try and say something, before his attention was drawn away by the sound of several voices coming from below. He turned his head and glanced down, seeing a dozen or so men and women in black uniforms similar to their own, as well as white and black face coverings that hid everything but their eyes, entered the clearing and began capturing and wrapping up the transformed humans in thick bandages like mummies. Some even brought ladders in order to climb up and reach the humans and lone slayer that had been dangling from the stands the shack was connected to.
He felt like he should know who these people were, but with his vision starting to fade and his body starting to grow tired from the antidote, he couldn't keep his eyes open and eventually closed them.
"Just rest now...you're not going to die...not any more." Shinobu whispered softly, smiling as she removed her syringe from Zenitsu's wrist and took off the needle, returning both components to their proper places in the box. She then closed it and returned it to its pocket inside of her haori, the woman then standing up and looking down at the work being done below.
Wings fluttering came from nearby and Ukogi finally arrived after being left behind by Shinobu, on accident of course, to which she smiled at the little sparrow and held a hand up for him to land on.
"Chu?"
"Yes, I gave him the antidote. He's going to survive, don't worry~" replied Shinobu with a giggle, her response causing Ukogi to bounce around and flap his wings happily.
"Chu, chu!"
Ukogi then lifted up from her hand and flew down towards Zenitsu, coming to rest on his chest as he looked at his slayer with a mixture of relief and slight concern. Thankful that he was going to survive, he gave one last chirp to Shinobu, to which she giggled again and nod her head. Satisfied with himself and his efforts, he nestled himself into the fabric of Zenitsu's clothes in order to rest.
"I'm going to have to be more careful of him now...the threads he's controlling...they have to be even tougher than the body of that demon from earlier." Tanjirō thought, his gaze dropping to his severed blade for a split second. "Forgive me, Urokodaki-sensei, Haganezuka-san!"
His instincts screamed and he quickly dodged one of Rui's threads again, his sense of smell and demonic awareness allowing him to detect the attack even when he couldn't see it. Tanjirō glared at Rui as he landed once on the ground, then had to run and slide below another thread that could have bisected him again.
"This isn't the time for apologies! I have to focus! Inosuke's depending on me!"
Once his feet hit the ground again and switched his sword from his right side to his left and dashed at Rui, intent on getting in close enough to use what remained of his sword. That plan was quickly dashed as more of Rui's threads were swung and thrown at him, ripping apart the ground and slicing the air where he would have been several times.
Tanjirō grunted as he ducked under a thread and tried to get closer one last time, before a thread came out of the corner of his eye in the middle of his body avoiding another, causing part of his shoulder to get completely lopped off.
"Gyagh!" he cried out as blood flew out from the severed section, the injury forcing him to retreat and abandon the idea of getting in close with those fibers flying around Rui. He cupped his hand over his shoulder, growled, and stared down Rui with his teeth still barred. "That hurt like hell!"
"You intrigue me...you're a demon, but you fight as if you're still human…" Rui murmured in that monotone voice of his. "Have you even devoured a human yet?"
"No, of course not! That's wrong!" Tanjirō shouted as he removed his hand from his shoulder, grunting again as the lopped off flesh began to grow back.
"You're still refusing to take back what you said too. Are you?"
Tanjirō clenched his jaw muscles more and took his stance again, pushing aside the pain in his shoulder to maintain focus on Rui and keep himself aware of any attacks. He left his silence be his answer to Rui, who narrowed his eyes ever so slightly in his stare down with the Demon Slayer.
"Fine. I'll slash you to ribbons."
Rui then pulled his extended hand backward harshly, tugging on the four threads connected to his finger tips in order to bring out a huge interconnected web of razor-sharp threads that closed in on Tanjirō rapidly.
"Shit, I can't dodge them all!" thought Tanjirō as he braced himself for the pain he knew he'd feel.
Suddenly the box door flung open and in the blink of an eye, Nezuko had thrown herself in front of Tanjirō in order to protect him from the thread. Her clothes were seamlessly cut through and the threads reached her skin, leaving deep lacerations across her chest, arms, thighs, and her upper neck that caused blood to spill out onto the dirt at their feet.
"Nezuko!"
Tanjirō caught his sister as she slumped over, blood continuing to drip from her wounds into the dirt before he carried her over to a tree and set her down at the base. He saw one of her arms was almost completely severed at the forearm and with shaking hands he tried to keep them together enough that they could start healing, apologizing twice over about how she had to protect him.
He remembered how she got injured in their fight against the Temari and arrow demons, and by now he should understand more than ever that Nezuko could heal herself because of who she was, it still felt like a knife through the heart to see his sibling get hurt so severely. Tanjirō had felt his anger spike at the sight as well, but again he stomached all of it in order to focus on his little sister.
"A girl emerged from that box on his shoulders...she has the aura of a demon as well!" said the sister demon before a whole new aura emerged next to her, coming from her brother.
With a glance she gasped at Rui, who's expression had turned from being stoic to one of utter shock with a single shaking finger coming up to point at the two siblings as Tanjirō tried to help his sister heal.
"H-Hey...you...that girl…" Rui stuttered, his eyes growing as wide as possible. "Is she...is she your sibling?"
"So what if she is?!" barked Tanjirō as he held her forearm and wrist tighter, more of her blood starting to ooze from the almost severed limb. "The wounds are so deep…! Her left wrist is about to fall off!"
Nezuko winced and grunted behind her bamboo mouthpiece as she experienced her own discomfort and pain from the wounds, her teeth gnawing a little into the wound as she clenched her toes tighter.
"Hurry up and heal! Please, hurry up and heal!"
Rui on the other hand was still completely shaken by the utterly selfless act of sibling love he just witnessed, his shaking hand having come up to his mouth to almost cover it. He even had to take a step back and make sure he kept his balance because of how shocking it was.
To see actual siblings before him, where one willingly offered to risk herself for the sole purpose of ensuring the other's safety, it was mind-blowing. And what's more, with both siblings being demons, it was to be expected that they naturally are averted and hateful towards one another, even if they were family, because it was common knowledge that demons don't like one another. Yet. somehow, Tanjirō and Nezuko were able to overcome those shortcomings and remain side by side with one another, even going so far as to protect the other from harm.
Several of these things he was mumbling to himself, as if he were some crazed lunatic that liked to hear himself repeat the same things over and over again. It was enough to cause the sister demon to glance at him with a worried expression and even ask if he was okay.
"The younger sister protected the elder brother...the younger sister...protected the older brother…" Rui said, repeating himself again without even replying to the other demon as he leaned forward somewhat. His eyes were focused solely on Tanjirō and Nezuko, so much that the world was practically invisible around him. "Risking her own life...that's a genuine bond! I want it!"
"W-Wait a minute! Wait a minute, please!" stammered the sister demon, taking a step towards Rui while presenting herself, arms held out to the side. "I'm your elder sister! Don't desert me!"
"Shut up!"
Tanjirō jumped and whipped his head around when she heard the demon girl shriek, his heart skipping a beat when he saw Rui cut apart her body with three of his threads into four clean pieces. A shockwave was produced behind the threads that blew back several of the trees behind her as her body parts fell to the ground right behind one another in the same manner they had been cut.
Her blood had been splattered in a wide arc around her cut up body, her individual body pieces twitching and contorting as she was struck with the suffering and torment of being severed into four parts. Rui retracted his arm and stared down at the demon with cold-blooded murder in his gaze, some veins even bulging out of his forehead and cheek because of his anger.
"None of you ever managed to fulfill the roles you were given. Never. Not once." spoke Rui in a darker tone than before, the sister demon's head quivering with tears emerging in her eyes.
"W-Wait…! I was the elder sister you wanted, wasn't I?" she asked, her voice even shaking. "Give me a chance to redeem myself!"
"In that case, go kill those people wandering all over this mountain. If you do that, I'll forgive you for what just happened."
Rui's tone was sharp and vile, like a snake's whose venom could kill. The girl gulped nervously as her body slowly pulled itself together. Eventually her body was able to come back together, clothes and all, and she walked slowly up to her head in order to pick it up in her arms.
She nodded once and then slowly backed away, leaving through the fallen trees to enter the forest once again before turning around and running until she was totally gone.
Tanjirō, while watching the whole ordeal, was shaking slightly from how much anger had been building up inside of him at the boy's treatment of what was supposed to be his sister. It made him seethe at the thought of somebody doing that to their actual sibling, and it made him even angrier to see how anybody, related or not, would treat someone else with such utter violence.
"You...let's talk." Rui said, his face returning to that stoic, emotionless mask he wore earlier while addressing the hidden Tanjirō. "Come on out."
"Talk? What could you and I possibly talk about?!" thought Tanjirō as he stared at Rui from beyond the shrubbery.
"The thing is, I was really moved. Seeing the bond you two share gave me the chills. I doubt there are any words in this universe that can describe how moved I was." explained Rui, who lowered his gaze and rested his right hand on his chest. He actually smiled a tiny bit as well as he recalled the moment from memory. "But now the only thing left for you, regardless of how it happens, is death by my hand. It would be sad if it were to come to pass, right?"
Tanjirō tensed his jaw muscles and hugged Nezuko, who had almost fully healed her injuries alongside his shoulder having almost healed up. His eyes remained glued to Rui, who had yet to convince him he was even worth trusting enough to ask if he could try and change, like the Mother demon had.
"But there's just one thing." Rui said while raising up a finger in front of his face. "Just one thing that will let you escape that."
He then lowered his finger and extended his arm out, until he was pointing exactly where Tanjirō and Nezuko were hunkered down, waiting for their wounds to fully heal.
"Your sister...give her to me. If you hand her over without a fight, I'll at least spare your life. Perhaps, I'll even consider letting you join my family."
Tanjirō's eyes widened as he stared at Rui, the words he was saying barely even registering with him because of how preposterous they sounded. Give up Nezuko? To this demon? The one that willingly abused and cut apart his supposed sister, and could be the one that did this to the Mother demon and everyone else who was in the family.
It was enough to make his hands shake and his vision start to turn red from rage, but again he tried to contain it and prevent himself from losing control. He wanted to stay in control of his anger, to use it to help him, not let it control his entire body.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Tanjirō replied, visibly struggling to contain himself. Still, Rui pressed him for what he wanted to happen after lowering his arm back to his side.
"Your little sister will be my little sister. Starting today."
"You don't actually think I'd ever agree to that...do you? Not to mention, Nezuko's not a thing!" fired back Tanjirō, holding his sister closer to his chest, enough to make her look up at him and hear his heart beat faster. She could feel just how passionate he was about her, and for that, despite the mouthpiece hiding it, she smiled a tiny bit. "She has her own feelings and will! There's no way she'll ever be your sister!
"It's all right, there's no need to worry. I'll create a bond between us, because I'm stronger than you. I'll teach what will happen if she defies me through a bond of terror."
"I've had enough of this crazy talk!"
Tanjirō's snarl came out loud and powerful, his barriers that prevented his anger from surfacing breaking for a brief moment. Talking of terror, of taking the last family member he had left, he couldn't stand to hear it any longer.
He had pointed his broken sword at Rui despite it being less than an actual threat, but he didn't care. He was tired of listening to Rui, of what he spoke of. It drove fiery hot needles into his body and ignited the fire inside of him, a fire so strong that he couldn't hope to keep it at bay for any longer.
"Using terror to shackle someone hand and foot is not the bond of a family! Unless you fix that basic misunderstanding, you'll never get what you desire!"
Instead of actually making an impact, Tanjirō's outburst only served to frustrate Rui slightly and make him frown at the slayer and sigh. He mumbled something under his breath about Tanjirō being irritating and shouting when he could speak normally, even if they didn't see eye to eye. Tanjirō eventually discarded Nezuko's box and stood up from the bushes he had hidden himself and Nezuko behind so they could heal.
With the right shoulder of his haori missing when it had been lopped off along with his original shoulder, he snarled at Rui as his fangs grew a little and his eyes became more inflamed with fury. Despite this, he was still trying to keep all of it at bay, for himself and for Nezuko. The struggle inside his own psyche had reached a point where he was clenching his left hand so hard his fingers were digging into his palm, their somewhat sharper tips as a result of his anger causing them to grow leading to blood dripping onto the ground next to him.
"I'll never hand Nezuko over to you!" he reiterated as he widened his stance a little.
"That's okay, I guess." muttered Rui, giving him an apathetic expression. "I'll just kill you and then take her."
"I'll cut off your head first!"
Tanjirō was treated then to a different Rui when the boy smirked at him and actually laughed a tiny bit as he lowered his head and cupped the left side of his face below his hair, looking at the ground at the same time. Something felt off, there was something wrong with Rui now that he had dropped his stoic personna for one completely different. Was he actually excited?
The alarm bells started ringing when an entirely new aura came to life around Rui, causing the air to appear to Tanjirō's nose as a deep, dark red of pure insatiable bloodlust. It was enough to make his body freeze up for a moment before he willed it to move itself again, even if only slightly.
"That's the spirit! I'd really like to see you try it…" muttered Rui before he pulled his hair back while lifting his head up, a devilish smile forming on his face. The removal of his hair showed Tanjirō his other eye, where engraved on the pupil was the black Kanji for "Lower Moon Five". "That is, if you can actually defeat a Twelve Kizuki like me!"
Tanjirō's heart got stuck in his throat when he stared at the ominous tattoo staring back at him from Rui's left eye, the infamous marking finally locking in all of the puzzle pieces in his mind. Rui was the Kizuki that the Mother demon had warned him about, he was the demon that forced all of the other demons on the mountain to forcibly become a family against their wills.
Seeing how he attacked the sister demon, and remembering all of the terrible stories of abuse the Mother demon told him before she escaped, it finally all became clear. Any thoughts about trying to redeem the demon standing in front of him, a member of the Twelve Kizuki no less, there was no chance of redemption. Anybody could have a chance, but for somebody as far gone as Rui, there was only one route left for him, and it was the same fate that awaited Muzan once Tanjirō was finally able to meet him again.
"Family...a father has his role as the father, and the mother has her role as the mother." Rui started to say, lifting one hand up to symbolize the parents, and the other to resemble the opposite. "The parents protect the children, and the elder brother and sister protect their younger siblings. No matter what...even at the risk of their own lives."
Rui then lowered his hands, dropping his arms back to his side as he stared at Tanjirō with his once again aloof expression that starkly contrasted Tanjirō's own anger-filled one. He wanted so desperately to prove this smug child wrong that he was physically hurting from it.
"The way I see it, if you don't understand your own role, there's no reason for you to live. What about you? What is your role, you may wonder? Your role is to relinquish your younger sister to me, and if possible, join her and become my new older brother. If you can't do that, your only option is to die...because you can't defeat me."
Sweat rolled down Tanjirō's forehead as he grit his teeth, his fingers flexing to relieve them of some stress they had from gripping his sword handle so tightly. Kyogai had been a former Kizuki, and he had managed to defeat him with some struggles along the way. But an actual Kizuki, the Lower Moon Five no less, this was an entirely different challenge.
Rui would prove to be the strongest demon he has ever fought, and he was certain that even with his demon enhanced speed, reflexes and strength, without the aid of his sword, it would be a task in of itself to be able to harm the kid.
"If that kid's neck turns out to be tougher than the threads...I don't think I'll have any other choice to...to…" Tanjirō thought, his sword shaking a tiny bit.
"I don't like that look in your eyes...glittering like that. What a fool you are. You honestly think you can beat me!?"
Rui then flung his arm back, revealing four of his threads that were previously unseen had attached themselves to Nezuko when she came flying out from where Tanjirō had sat her down. He cried out her name as she flew over his head before landing in Rui's outstretched arms, the boy then gripping her by the neck and holding her still as she growled and struggled to break free from his restraint.
Her struggling only made him tighten his grip, causing Nezuko to growl and shake a little even more while tugging on his sleeve with her sharpened nails.
"I've taken her now...now, do you recognize what your role is?"
"Let her go!" snarled Tanjirō while dashing right at Rui, driven by his sole desire to protect Nezuko.
"But I told you I'd spare your life, at least, if you didn't-"
Rui's sentence was halted by Nezuko growling as she brought one of her hands up and slashed through his face with her nails, clawing five deep gashes and drawing blood. In the blink of an eye, he swiped his hand at the charging Tanjirō and forced him to stop and roll backward underneath the five threads he attacked him with.
Once Tanjirō hopped back onto his feet, he aimed his sword at Rui and was surprised to see Nezuko missing from his grasp. She had vanished without a trace, and in those few seconds he didn't know where she could have gone until his nose picked up her scent. Nezuko was still here, but where?
"Where did you-"
A large glob of blood fell down onto his sword and splattered onto the ground, followed by several other streams and droplets that got onto his arms and the dirt around him. Tanjirō slowly lifted his head up and his heart stopped at the sight above him, which was so visceral and clear from the moon's glow and the celestial body itself in the background, he couldn't look away.
Nezuko, in the short amount of time that he had spent avoiding Rui's threads, had been strung upside down in the air between the trees by at least a dozen of the demon's threads. Her arms, her legs, her waist, and even her neck had the threads wrapped tightly around them, digging so much into her skin that copious amounts of her blood were flowing out and free-falling to the ground below. She grunted from the pain, since every little movement she made caused the threads to cut deeper into her skin, some even reaching down to her bones.
Tanjirō was utterly speechless, his mouth stuck in a wide-open empty gasp with his eyes glued to Nezuko's distressed expression and the obvious suffering she was enduring.
"I'm sure that's not enough to kill her. After all, she is a demon. But it looks like I'll have to teach her a lesson after all. I'm going to let her bleed for a while, and if she still doesn't learn to be docile..." Rui said before, with the flick of his wrist, he tightened one of the threads which was wrapped around Nezuko's shin. Nezuko let out a muffled squeal when the thread cut right through her flesh and bone with ease, slicing her foot clean off and letting it drop to the ground right in front of Tanjirō. "I'll leave her up like that until morning...and let her roast a bit."
Right then Tanjirō's heart beat once before freezing entirely as his body became as rigid as a boulder. His free hand twitched slightly and his eyes widened ever-so-slightly, before his pupils thinned out and his eyes developed a slight glossed over look.
The anger he had been trying so desperately to keep contained inside during the fight completely and utterly exploded, breaking down all of his barriers and releasing itself as a concentrated burst of bloodlust akin to a sonic-boom. The air getting pushed back was enough to even make Rui take notice, his hair and his clothes fluttering because of it, as well as his eyes widening a tiny bit too.
"Is he…" Rui thought as Tanjirō's head dropped and bobbed a little, his eyes staring straight at the dirt as his arms became limp for a fraction of a second. "Something seems to have-"
Suddenly Tanjirō was gone, disappearing as a green and black blur before he reappeared right in front of Rui, his eyes blazing with complete and utter rage and his clawed hand reared back for a swipe.
Rui gasped and barely moved his head back in time for Tanjirō to miss clawing his face into ribbons, his razor sharp nails instead gouging out part of his throat and sending blood shooting out to the side. Rage had overcome his sense of reason, his broken nichirin blade left completely forgotten in his other hand in his desire to harm the demon who hurt his sister. He had mindlessly left himself open for a counterattack, and Rui did so by launching his foot in a kick that sent Tanjirō flying back up into the air, only to land back first into some nearby shrubs at the foot of a tree.
Tanjirō grunted and sputtered and he spit up blood, but he quickly shook himself free of the pain and was about to lift himself out of the bush before Rui was there to backhand him with his fist to the right. He stumbled and collapsed to his hands and knees, snarling as he spit up more blood and only grew angrier by the second, to the point he could practically be considered feral.
"He's stopped fighting like a human...seems I made him lose all sense of reason…" thought Rui as his throat wound healed up in a matter of seconds. He glanced up when he heard Nezuko cry at him angrily, wriggling and trying to break herself out of the threads even when it caused them to only dig deeper into her flesh. "Stupid girl...you'll only hurt yourself more doing that."
Tanjirō roared as he attacked Rui with a blind rush yet again, the more experienced demon merely sidestepping his lunge and sending his palm smashing into the back of the slayer's head. Tanjirō grunted loudly and blood flew out of his mouth as he was sent flying once again, his body tumbling end over end until he struck a nearby hill and created a huge cloud of dirt and debris on impact.
"Mmppnngh! Mnghhpphnn!" screamed Nezuko, her eyes flared up with her own anger at her brother getting beaten around by Rui.
"Be quiet, girl. Your elder brother is handling a minor inconvenience." said Rui as he created some of his threads, ready to cut Tanjirō to pieces once he appeared from the clouds.
Inside of the lingering dirt cloud, Tanjirō was on his hands and knees, coughing up blood as his body tried desperately to keep up with the injuries he was sustaining by healing them. His head was spinning from the blow and his vision was fuzzy, but still he remained devoted to the single-minded task of attacking Rui. Until he heard a tiny voice in the back of his mind to stop himself from losing everything.
"This isn't you! You're not some mindless demon!" he heard himself yell, his teeth gnashing together as his fingers dug into the dirt. He wasn't a human, he was a demon. He'll attack and slaughter any one that got in his way. "You can't let this rage control you! You have to control it! For Nezuko!"
Kill, maim, punish, slaughter, devour. That's what a demon is, that's what a demon is supposed to do. They can never exist alongside humans, that was an impossible dream that could never be achieved.
"Tanjirō...wake up dear...you're not being yourself…"
Tanjirō's eyes widened when the soft and caring voice of his mother echoed inside of his mind, dispelling the shadow of rage that had settled over his consciousness. A tranquil calm fell onto his mind and, and he felt himself win back control of his body. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the rage still present inside of him attempt to assert its dominance.
Not this time. He grit his teeth and breathed through his nose several times, thinking about his sister, thinking about his goals, his ambitions, about what he still had to do. He wasn't going to let himself be controlled by his anger any more, he was going to make Rui pay on his own terms.
Tanjirō heard Nezuko scream again as Rui attempted to quiet her down by using his threads to further harm and constrict her, that cry causing Tanjirō to bite his teeth harder together and grip his right arm sleeve so tightly his fingernails cut through the fabric and dug into his palm.
"Calm down! Don't lose yourself! If you keep this up, you'll be playing right into his hands! You have to control it...and think!"
"Mnghhh! Mnnghhhh…" screamed Nezuko again, before her eyes grew slightly heavy and passed out, entering sleep rapidly to stop wasting energy and regain it.
"Did she pass out? No...did she fall asleep?" wondered Rui after watching her become limp and close her eyes, intrigued and confused by why she'd do that. "She has a unique aura...both of them do, actually. There's something about them that's not like the rest of us."
The cloud of dirt was beginning to settle and Tanjirō knew that as soon as he was revealed, Rui was going to attack him. He slowed his breathing down more, letting the anger roll and boil inside of him, but rather than let it control him, he tempered it, forging it into a tool for his own usage.
At the same time, he could feel that something was occurring with his body as he focused on his breathing, remembering the lessons taught to him by Urokodaki. His already sharpened senses grew sharper, he could feel his wounds healing at a faster rate than before. His fingernails remained sharp, as did his fangs, but despite the anger still coursing through him, he found it easier to utilize and control. Tanjirō felt his hair part somewhat on the sides of his head, and after a few moments, what he was sure were small black horns had sprouted out as a result of whatever kind of transformation he was undergoing.
"I won't let anyone hurt Nezuko like he did ever again...I'll never let anyone I care about get hurt again...I won't allow it...I won't allow it!"
Rui watched the cloud carefully for a few moments, his threads at the ready, before he saw the faint outline of Tanjirō's kneeling body and acted. He swept his arm diagonally across his body to send his threads screaming into the cloud right at Tanjirō, expecting to see his body's outline get cleaved into several bits and pieces.
Instead he saw Tanjirō's arm raise up to block the threads and with a loud pang similar to metal getting struck, the threads were stopped right in their tracks and actually wrapped a little around his arm.
"What?" Rui gasped, actually surprised his threads were stopped, before the cloud fully dissipated to reveal Tanjirō staring him down harshly.
With his left hand still firmly grasping his broken sword, he had lifted up his right arm, who's tattered sleeve had been ripped to shreds by Rui's threads, only to show Tanjirō's entire right forearm had turned to a dark shade of red that had almost a metallic glint to it.
The threads had failed to cut through this new skin of Tanjirō's, and in Rui's moment of hesitation, Tanjirō stood up and wrapped his shielded arm around the threads before pulling with all his might and a loud roar to couple with it.
"Don't you dare hurt my sister any more!" Rui was pulled harshly forward by Tanjirō, the boy gasping before Tanjirō reared back with his other hand balled up into a fist, his exposed fingers turning dark red as well. "Kekkijitsu...Tetsuchi Yoroi!"
"A Blood Demon Art?! How did he-!?"
Tanjirō then brutally socked Rui right in the face with his fist, caving in his nose and sending him launching back with such force that the threads wrapped around his other arm were snapped. Rui flew right into a tree harshly, gasping for air as some blood was spit out of his mouth, before he fell to his feet and stumbled a little from the head trauma. Tanjirō shook his hand a little and unraveled the threads around his other arm, finding them unable to cut through this new armored skin of his. He grinned to himself as he gripped his sword again while keeping his hands and forearms protected, since now he had a method of shielding himself from Rui.
"Let's try this again…!" he thought, a snarl escaping his lips as he readied himself against Rui, who had finally recovered from hitting the tree.
"You…!"
Rui launched several furious thread attacks at Tanjirō, who was able to dodge and deflect them now with far more ease than before thanks to his newly armored skin and his even faster reflexes and agility. Rui noticed the horns that had sprouted from the side of his head, and he growled to himself at being so foolish.
In his time waiting to attack, he had allowed Tanjirō to recover and even somehow mutate to develop his own unique Blood Demon Art. Trees and branches were felled left and right from Rui's threads, yet no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to make even a dent in Tanjirō's newly armored skin, causing him even further irritation. Eventually he was able to make it through Rui's thread barrage and he took the chance to try and decapitate the demon with his sword, only for the blade to stop dead at the base of his neck and hardly even make a cut.
"My body is tougher than any thread I could make...so don't even try!" said Rui as he launched Tanjirō back with a fierce punch to the jaw. Tanjirō yelled as he bounced off a tree hard and landed face first into the dirt, creating a small crater on impact and bloodying up his face with several cuts and wounds.
"Come on, concentrate! Control your breathing! Unleash the most precise, final Form!" he told himself as he took a kneeling pose, his hands gripping his sword tightly as he whipped his head up while baring his fangs and clenched his jaw muscles. "Zen Shūchū…!"
Tanjirō's foot dug several inches into the dirt before he launched himself forward from his position right at Rui, the demon lowering his hands and creating several threads for him. Water started to stream out of his broken blade during his dash, spiraling around and behind his body as he sucked in as much air as he could into his lungs to further boost himself.
"Still not seeing how futile it is?" Rui questioned as he started attacking Tanjirō once more with his threads, only to see the slayer skillfully cut through each thread that came at him with the raging water stream that had replaced his lost blade. "What?"
"Mizu no kokyū, Jū no kata!" Tanjirō thought, his water blade growing stronger with each consecutive slash as he dashed towards Rui. "Seisei ruten!"
The water flowing from and around his blade and body grew and took on the shape of a roaring water serpent with glowing eyes as he flipped around and cut down through Rui's threads, severing them entirely.
Rui narrowed his eyes and identified the threat that Tanjirō now posed to him with his breathing technique and his newly formulated Blood Demon Art. His initial assumptions of the slayer's power rapidly began to change inside of his mind as he kept attacking the rushing Tanjirō with his threads, drawing him in closer and closer until they were only a few meters apart.
"Hey…you don't think these threads are at maximum strength, do you?" he said, lowering his head as he crossed his arms in front of his body, his hands starting to turn blood red at the fingertips. Once they were fully red, as well as his threads, he then tugged his arms downward and pulled on the threads to unleash a giant interconnected barrier of webbing around Tanjirō that began to rapidly close in on him from all sides. "Kekkijutsu: Kokushirō."
Tanjirō's determined expression faded as the walls of bloody thread closed in, the moon's glow turning everything around him into a light shade of red, the color of his demise. These threads, if what Rui said was true, and he knew they were, wouldn't be cut through even with the tenth Form. He didn't have enough spin, enough momentum.
"These are giving off a totally different scent than the other threads!" thought Tanjirō while gritting his teeth, his heart beating faster and faster. "I won't be able to avoid this! I'm going to be cut up into pieces and scattered all over the mountain! Nezuko's going to be alone!"
When he was young, Tanjirō always used to dance and play with Nezuko outside of their house with their toys. They'd laugh and giggle at one another as he would try to copy and mimic the funny dance that his father would always do at the turn of every new year during a special ceremony.
During this particular time, Tanjirō's father watched him with a warm smile on his face while sitting in the entrance of their family home, his orange and black checkered haori hung over his shoulders like a blanket. His father lifted his gaze up and looked right at him, his older self, that was standing behind his far younger self and the child Nezuko as they danced and played. His eyes widened at his father's smile, an image he thought he'd never be able to see again in such a personal way again.
"Relax, Tanjirō...breathe." his father said in the same calm and caring voice he remembered him having. "Get your breathing under control...and become Hinokami."
The scenery changed almost instantly to the new year, where young Tanjirō was nestled in a blue blanket while sitting next to his mother in front of their home, the rest of his siblings around them. Tanjirō heard his mother tell him to watch his father, who stood in the middle of a small ringed off area made by a dozen or so lit torches. It was snowing and it was cold,but despite that, Tanjirō's father stood within the center of the circle dressed in ceremonial ritual attire, performing the same dance he did every new year.
The moon was above them in the night sky as well, peeking through the thin wispy clouds from which the gentle particles of snow fell, adding to the almost mythical aura that surrounded their home and the ritual that Tanjirō's father was performing.
"Our family works with fire, so to ward off injuries and disaster, we offer this dance to Hinokami, along with our prayers, on New Year's Day."
Young Tanjirō's eyes were wide in awe at the spectacle his father performed, unable to take them away from the fluent dance motions that he made, despite his age and the afflictions he had.
"Hey, Kaa-san…" he asked, taking his gaze away for a moment to look up at his mother, who had the sleeping Nezuko resting in a white blanket she had draped around her body. "How can To-san dance like that in the snow for so long when he's so frail?"
Older Tanjirō, who was watching once again from the outside like a ghost, was suddenly inside of his younger self laying down on his father's lap while he was resting on his futon under the covers. He could feel his father's frail, yet gentle hand stroking his hair as they talked with one another, which brought another feeling of nostalgia back that he never could think he could experience again.
"There's a breathing technique. A way to breathe so that you won't exhaust yourself, no matter how much you move."
"Breathe?" asked Tanjirō, looking up at his father with an inquisitive expression.
"Right. If you can master the correct way to breath, you'll be able to dance forever, too. The cold won't bother you, either." replied his father with his usual smile, before he became serious as he held Tanjirō's head gently. "Tanjirō, if nothing else, make sure this kagura and these earrings get passed down to you uninterrupted. That's what I promised."
Tanjirō steeled himself, his wavering grip tightening once again as he focused straight ahead through the blood threads at his target. Even when he thought his lungs had inhaled as much air as they could, he opened a tiny gap between his lips and teeth and sucked up even more air to fill them past their bursting point.
His water dragon was soon consumed by the roaring, bright orange and yellow flames of another world that surged to life and burned with such intensity that it made the air shimmer around his body. Rui's eyes widened at the sudden transformation, but he was certain his threads could hold true against this new form.
"Hinokami Kagura…!" exclaimed Tanjirō, the small remaining part of his sword giving off the slightest hint of crimson as he leaped forward off the ground and entered a tight spin, a funnel of fire forming briefing around him before he reached the wall of threads in front of him and slashed through them with all his might. "Enbu!"
A wave of fire was created by the vertical slash, dispelling the blood-enhanced threads surrounding him and allowing him to keep running forward once his feet hit the ground once more.
"He broke through?!" thought Rui in disbelief, before quickly acting by leaping back several dozen yards and summoning dozens of more threads to lash out at Tanjirō. He couldn't let him get any closer, now he could clearly see how much of a threat he was facing now.
Tanjirō ducked and weaved through the onslaught, his focus so crystal clear on reaching Rui that he didn't even bother to flinch once some of the threads managed to nick him and draw blood. He didn't care anymore, for with sharp hisses of steam the wounds were sealed up, his regeneration fueled by the burning desire that had awoken inside of his very soul.
Rui tried to stop him by forming an interconnected wall of thread that he then launched at him, but seeing a gap, he lowered himself and kept his sword behind him as he used his Blood Demon Art to coat his entire body in his protective skin armor before jumping at full speed. His armored body scraped clean through the threads, his clothes shredding even more, before he continued to run right at the retreating Rui.
"Don't stop! If you stop now, even with my body, switching all of these techniques and forcibly switching between Water Breathing to Hinokami Kagura will bring up all sorts of repercussions!" Tanjirō told himself, biting his teeth down even harder and sprinting even harder, creating an even larger trail of fire behind him. "You gotta do it now! You gotta protect Nezuko!"
Tanjirō let out a bellowing war cry, his fangs out to bare like a predator chasing down his prey, as he leapt and bounded his way through the maze of threads that were created to stop him. Steaks of fire were left behind left and right as he cut and slashed his way past them, his armored skin protecting his limbs and vitals from getting cut while he shrugged off any superficial injuries.
With one final jump through another wall of thread, his armored skin receded from his face as he was on top of Rui, who's eyes were wide with actual shock and fear of Tanjirō's newfound strength. The raging inferno Tanjirō had accumulated around his blade glowed brightly around them, illuminating Rui's pasty white skin, and gave off the appearance of Tanjirō being one with his flames.
"This guy…! What happened to him?!" he thought, before he started to retreat once more, forcing Tanjirō to chase after him around the clearing that Nezuko hung above.
They both used their agility and speed to their greatest extent, Tanjirō's demonic strength and his unwavering will to avenge all those that Rui had hurt and made suffer pushing him further and further beyond his limits. Slash and cut, jump and fly, he pursued Rui relentlessly from one tree and area of dirt to the next, drawing ever closer with each thread he slashed through with his burning sword of fire.
Rui swiped at him with his blood threads, and Tanjirō ducked under them with his sword held back, when finally it appeared to him in a split second of time. The thin white line of connection, from his blade to Rui's throat.
"I see the opening thread! You gotta take him down now!" thought Tanjirō as he swung his sword out at Rui while he was flying backward, trying to land that perfect hit. "Even if it means getting cut by his threads!"
At the same time, the sleeping Nezuko was experiencing her own dreams of the past, the one voice speaking to her in her mind becoming louder and more pronounced until, as if it were right next to her, she once again heard the gentle voice of her mother. She said her name so lovingly, so much out of care and compassion, that it replaced every single feeling of agony she was experiencing with warmth and love.
"Wake up, Nezuko." she said, appearing before the tangle up Nezuko like a ghost from the past. She gently held her daughter's cheeks in her hand, smiling softly with an underlying firmness. "You have to save your brother. He's ready for you, we all know you can do it now, Nezuko. Do your best, Nezuko."
She refused to wake up, giving back her tranquil expression to her mother as she kept sleeping. Her mother's smile dropped and tears started to form from her beautiful purple eyes, streaking down her cheeks as she continued to hold and rub her daughter's cheeks like she were still there with her, still there to comfort her.
"Please, Nezuko. Please! Or your brother will be hurt more!"
Finally, Nezuko's eyes shot wide open, taking on their demonic appearance as veins bulged from her forehead and her hand stretched out towards her brother and Rui. Her outstretched hand began to glow with a bright pink and scarlet hue, and soon enough, her blood that had trickled down the blood red threads suspending her began to glow brightly with the same bright pink and scarlet hue.
"Kekkijutsu…" she thought, feeling her power surge and build up as she pushed against the threads binding her. The pain no longer mattered to her, she didn't care. She wasn't going to let her brother get hurt trying to save her any longer! Once the power had built up enough, she closed her hand tightly, creating a bright flash of pink and scarlet light. "Bakketsu!"
With a scream of superheated air getting pushed back forcibly, her blood ignited into brilliantly hot and ultra-bright flames and rushed down the length of the threads until they reached Rui. He noticed the glow approaching him and all he had time to do was gasp as the scarlet-pink flames exploded right in front of his face, destroying all of his threads and causing him to lose his balance. In a last ditch effort, he planned for the worst and maneuvered one of his last surviving strands into place, hoping it wouldn't be noticed.
Tanjirō burst through Nezuko's flames with his sword held back, the line of connection still perfectly clear to him. The chance was there, he was going to take it. All of his desires to make Rui face justice were right there before him! Until with his keen nose, he smelled a slightly different scent that differed from Rui's and with a small little glance down below where he was set to strike, he noticed a singular red thread poised to sever his own throat. With a snarl, he launched his free hand forward, grabbing the thread with his armored fingers and yanked his whole arm back with as much strength as he could.
"No! He saw it! HE SAW IT!"
"URAAAAAHHHHGHH!"
Tanjirō tore the thread away, breaking it into several pieces, before he wound up his body and swung his flame-engulfed sword at Rui's neck, the burning hot metal clanging loudly against his tough skin and creating a fireworks show of sparks and flame. Rui's eyes shot wide open and he grunted loudly from the blow, his eyes staring directly into Tanjirō's burning bright red eyes, his white irises filled with desire and the will to win.
"I can't believe it…! All of the threads burned and snapped! He saw through my plan to sever my own head!"
"The bond between Nezuko and me…will never..ever...!" said Tanjirō, as his sword's blackened color bubbled and burned brightly with a deep crimson glow. With one final surge of strength, he wrenched his blade clean through Rui's neck. "Be severed by anyone!"
Rui gasped as he felt his head separate from his shoulders as Tanjirō's arm swept around them, the force of the slash creating a giant ring of bright crimson red, orange, and scarlet pink flames that exploded and incinerated all of the surrounding trees in their little clearing. Tanjirō landed on his feet and let his arms drop to his side, the flames soon dissipating, as he stared at Rui's headless body.
It collapsed after a few moments of standing still and his head then landed a few feet away a couple of seconds later, his eyes still wide in shock and disbelief. His threads holding Nezuko were dissolved by her fire and she fell towards the ground, and would have hit it too if it weren't for Tanjirō catching her.
Nezuko was exhausted and breathing slowly, her body's wounds slowly starting to heal now that she had been free, but she still had enough energy to look up into her brother's eyes and see him smiling down at her victoriously.
"I won, Nezuko...we won...our father saved me." he said softly as he hugged Nezuko close to his body. Nezuko let out a low muffled sigh of relief as she gently gripped his sleeve and accepted his embrace. "I'm not sure why I was able to unleash that attack with the kagura that's been in our family for generations...but that was what saved us!"
Tanjirō let out a steady breath of air as his body calmed itself down from the adrenaline that had been pumping through it, the two siblings taking comfort in their company while under the infuriated gaze of Rui.
"I was beaten by him...a Lower Moon...beaten by a weakling! I can't accept this!" he thought with immense feelings of rage as his body began to slowly turn to ash by his feet.
Tanjirō and Nezuko remained in one another's embrace, until he heard footsteps fast approaching his position which caused him to turn, only to see they belonged to Giyū as he emerged from the forest, ready for a fight. He stopped right in his tracks with a gasp when he saw Tanjirō standing there with Nezuko in his arms, their eyes meeting and instantly leading to the both of them recognizing one another.
"You...from when-"
"You're the boy...and his sister...Kamado Tanjirō…"
Giyū noticed Tanjirō's eyes and remembered the letter he had received from Urokodaki before he had been summoned with Shinobu to be dispatched to the mountain, so he wasn't as surprised as he could have been. He saw Tanjirō's broken blade next, and then his eyes drifted over to Rui's body and severed head a few feet away, his keen gaze spotting the Kanji tattooed onto the boy's eye.
"You...defeated a Kizuki…" uttered Giyū in disbelief, even having to blink once to see if this was not a dream.
"We both did...Nezuko and I…" replied Tanjirō with a weak smile, before his knees wobbled and they gave out. He collapsed to his knees and almost let go of Nezuko, but Giyū was there by his side to catch them both and ease them down carefully, his eyes drifting down towards Nezuko's eyes as he did.
She turned her head slightly and looked up into his face, and to his continued surprise, she didn't give him any sort of indication of malicious intent at all. Her eyes looked sweet and nurturing, and tired at the same time as well. Both she and Tanjirō were feeling exhausted after expending so much of their precious energy, with Tanjirō's demonic features returning to normal now that the battle had been won.
Giyū could see that Urokodaki was right as he watched the younger slayer's horns recede back into his head, and his fingernails and fangs return back to their normal size and appearance. And he couldn't help but break his usual stoic expression by cracking a small smile himself as he let out a sigh of relief at the knowledge that his hunch had proven itself correct so far as well.
"You did a great job holding out...both of you. Well done."
A/N WOW I loved writing this chapter! Especially the ending, of course the one that EVERYBODY loves. This was incredibly amazing, and my god this takes the cake as my favorite chapter so far. Also no cheating for Rui this time, Tanji deserved the victory on this one spider boi! :D Also HOW BOUT TANJI'S GREED INSPIRED BLOOD DEMON ART? XD I immediately had the idea for his art after looking at Nezuko's, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some notes from our boy Greed from FMA:B! Just an FYI on that, I think I got the correct translation, but if anyone can find the proper one, don't be shy to tell me!
Anyways, as usual, please! If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a favorite and a follow! Also please leave a review, telling me your thoughts and opinions! See you guys in the next chapter!
Translation(s)
Kekkijitsu - Tetsuchi Yoroi
- Blood Demon Art: Iron Blood Armor
Zen Shūchū
- Total Concentration
Mizu no kokyū, Jū no kata: Seisei ruten
- Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux
Kekkijitsu - Kokushirō
- Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage
Hinokami Kagura: Enbu
- Dance of the Fire God: Waltz
Kekkijitsu - Bakketsu
- Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood