Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer : Kimetsu no Yaiba or any of its characters/story.

V: Final Selection, Part Two

The huge doors opened, and two workers led the many to-be students to the base of the mountain.

Apparently, each captured Demon member was injected with several tiny chips that would give them a deadly electric shock that would kill them if they decided to try and escape the mountain. The many wisteria trees marked the invisible line where the boundaries were.

The potential students had to survive seven days with these mafia members in order to pass the entrance exam. Or at least, the second part. A written exam was already mailed to them and finished.

Kanao looked around. The people around her were gearing up, placing guns and knives in belts. She checked her own gear, and ensured that she had everything in her backpack. Shinobu made sure she packed equipment for any situation. Rope, cloth, nails, almost anything Kanao could name.

Throwing on a black jacket that had a small blue butterfly patch over her chest, she picked up her bag. A speaker started counting down to start the test. She took a deep breath, preparing mentally and physically for the brutal seven days.

"3...2...1… begin the test!"

She dashed off along with everyone else, up the mountain. Immediately sprinting off to the left, she began the climb.

/-/-/-/-/

Day One

Her legs moved on their own after a while as Kanao debated the best way to survive. Her training allowed her to stay awake for 2 days and nights without sleep, but she'd eventually have to rest somewhere.

So where?

She came to a stop, surrounded by trees. The ground was still a bit slanted, as she hadn't quite reached the summit of the mountain. Everyone would probably try to go there, and the Demons would obviously go for the larger group. It'd be better to fly solo for the most part.

She backed up against a tree, glancing around with her peripheral vision and listening for anything unnatural. Her hands were in her pockets where small identical knives rested, patiently waiting to be used.

Every rustle of leaves made her freeze. Even if it was only the wind, it could also be a person.

After flipping her coin, she chose to move once again.

.

She crouched next to a large tree, narrowed eyes looking around. Suddenly, she heard a swish from the right. Instinctively rolling out of the way, a thud sounded from the tree she was just beside moments ago. A black-handled knife was buried into the trunk, right where Kanao's heart would have been seconds prior.

Kanao whipped out her gun, loading it and getting ready to fire at anything that came her way. Another rustle, but this time more concealed, came from straight ahead. She saw the flash of the knife, and ducked to avoid it. Whipping her arm in the direction of the throw, she fired. Once, twice. But she didn't hit anything.

Cursing under her breath, she did a slow turn. Nothing else came her way. Keeping the pistol in her hand, she dashed off to another area.

.

That night, she climbed a tree. For about four hours, she sat concealed by the leaves, not moving. Eventually, she dozed off believing it was safe.

It wasn't safe.

A loud bang echoed, and Kanao saw blood. But it wasn't hers.

For underneath her tree was a fellow student, with a hole in his stomach and eyes unseeing. A tall man, dressed all in black, stood with a gun, a smirk on his face. That must be a captured Demon member.

Kanao held her breath, not knowing if the man could hear her heart beating quickly in her chest. She silently held up her gun, glancing to a branch of her tree that could take her to another tree fast. Looking back over, she saw the man walking away. Aiming at his back, she fired.

Blood went everywhere. The man fell, and Kanao could only watch as his chest slowly stopped moving. One thought occupied her mind.

I killed him.

Gods, I actually killed him.

She hadn't really wanted to just slay him like that, only incapacitate him. Her hands felt shaky. She got up and moved to the adjacent tree she saw earlier, and continued hopping from branch to branch.

Finally, when she thought she was far enough away, she hid in a hollowed-out section of a tree. Someone probably made it when they took the exam.

For the rest of the night, she stared ahead, unable to sleep and wondering why the nonexistent blood on her hands felt so real.

/-/-/-/-/

The Third Day

It was very cold and windy. The second day, along with half of the third day was spent simply knocking out any Demons she saw, and hiding in trees or behind rocks. She hadn't made any more kills.

Kanao shivered. She had dressed in layers, but was still cold. The wind whipped around her face, tossing around her ponytail.

She had come across a few other students while travelling from one area of the mountain to the next, but most had either been dead or in hiding. Since she didn't want to get shot by a startled person mistaking her for a mafia member, she didn't speak to anyone. Not that she would anyway.

One of her seven knives was lost, after breaking the blade. She had stabbed a Demon member in the thigh, but she hadn't realized he was wearing metal plating on his legs and body. Her blade bent, useless against it, and she had to outrun the man. Eventually she managed to, using the surrounding area to her advantage. It was one of the scarier encounters of her second day.

She hadn't managed to sleep more than about two lucky hours, so the constant sprinting was taking a heavy toll on her body.

Kanao opened a tiny bag of food, and ate it quickly. After a drink from her water bottle, she moved once again.

/-/-/-/-/

The Sixth Day, Nighttime

She lay face down on the forest floor, a foot on her back and the barrel of a gun pressed to her head. It was due to exhaustion and injury that a particularly skilled Demon member finally got the better of her.

On the fifth day, Kanao had sprained her ankle while leaping through trees. It had rained the fourth day, so the tree was still wet. She had slipped, twisting her foot.

Now, with her head turned to the side, she wondered if dying was okay. Not many people would actually miss her. Shinobu and the others at the Butterfly Estate would, but no one else.

This mafia member had known all the tricks she used, and even the tiny blade built into her boot was stopped before it could stab him from behind. Now, he grinned as he took her knife from her hand. The knife that had poison coating it's surface.

Okay. I suppose he didn't think of the ace up my sleeve for this situation.

She winced, gasping out as the knife plunged into her thigh.

"I'll let you suffer. You certainly deserve it, little bitch." With the knife still in her leg, she watched as the man left. But she wasn't done. Panting, she pulled the knife out of her thigh, sitting up and throwing it at the escaping man with a near-perfect aim.

It struck him through the shoulder, knocking him out. Apparently he isn't used to feeling pain.

She crawled to a nearby tree, and leaned heavily against it as she checked her leg. The wound wasn't horribly deep, but still dangerous. Kanao could feel the venom racing through her veins, and started to see spots of black.

Feeling around her mouth, she found the pill hidden in her teeth. The antidote to her own poison.

Her backpack was just out of reach, along with her water bottle. So she swallowed the pill without a drink, nearly choking.

There were bandages wrapped around her arms, but not because she was injured. It was for situations just like this, if she couldn't reach her bag. She took them, wrapping them tightly around her leg. Blood soaked through almost instantly.

Breathing shaky, she tried to stay awake. But eventually her eyes closed, and everything went black.

/-/-/-/-/

She floated in darkness, feeling cold and hot at the same time. Everything hurt. She could faintly hear a voice, calling out to her.

"Kanao!"

Waves of red danced across her vision, along with nausea.

"Kanao, wake up!"

She opened her eyes, resisting the urge to groan.

Familiar crimson eyes greeted her. She nearly sighed in relief. Tanjiro sat next to her, concern etched on his face. "I was running to a new spot when I found you unconscious against a tree. There was a Demon near you, also out. What happened?" He spoke quietly, as if he didn't want anyone to find them.

Kanao realized they were on a large and well-concealed tree branch, and judging by the light, it was around dawn of the seventh day.

She slowly sat up, trying to ignore the protest in her head and legs. Feeling around her pocket, she could find her coin. After flipping it (much to Tanjiro's confusion), she quietly told him about her fight.

Once she finished, she noticed he was holding his side. "You're hurt."

He shook his head, but she could tell something was off. She grabbed her bag, taking out the bandages. Tanjiro protested, but she moved his hand and examined the wound. A knife slash, not too deep but not shallow enough to close immediately.

She met his eyes in a silent question, and he nodded. Lifting the layers of his clothes up, she wrapped his injury carefully with the bandages.

He told her about his own encounter as she worked, and afterward they came up with a plan. They'd take turns watching while the other rests, and by the next morning they hopefully wouldn't have been attacked.

The plan worked, and Kanao internally sighed with happiness the next day when she heard the bell that signaled the end of the exam.

Waking Tanjiro, the two climbed down from their hiding spot and made their way down the mountain.

/-/-/-/-/

Sup. Was that good? I didn't mean to go on for this long.

Holy, I can't believe how many favourites and followers this story is getting. I'm a fairly new author with only 3 stories (including this one), but none of my other fics not nearly as much love as this one.

I don't have time to say too much now, but thanks for reading.