CHAPTER 40 - Marionette. The Bushido March
Tanjiro was surprised by her new strength. From his experience, Shinobu was more of a subtle fighter employing her thin blade. She hadn't been a person to blow off others with strong slashing and destructive attacks.
"That's some power." Yushiro remarked. Kanao agreed. She observed Shinobu's Flying Blade had strengthened since their previous battles.
Law was glad to see the lady beyond prepared to defend her home.
"You stay behind and let us handle this." Shinobu told him. She was concerned for the pirate Captain. As mentioned by Tamayo, there was a chance for Law's reduced yet dormant infection to spread back should he overexert himself, disallowing his immune system to hold off Gyutaro's Blood Demon Art.
"All yours." Law replied, without hesitation. He did want to fight, but more so than that, he wanted to see the Demon Slayers at work for once.
"We won't let you down, Law-san." Tanjiro mentioned, moving ahead with Nezuko and Kanao.
"Knock yourself out."
Law observed Tanjiro rush towards the horde of incoming zombies. Unlike before, Law trusted the boy's judgement despite him heading straight ahead into an enemy group.
All the zombies carried swords capable of wounding any mortal fighter with just a slash. Tanjiro breathed in closing his eyes right before he decided to attack. His previous experience battling two Lower Demon Moons and an Upper Moon, helped him control his actions better. He knew the swords were going to fall from three different sides; each of the three samurai would try to surround him so that he couldn't dodge their blades.
Tanjiro opened his eyes and found an opening between two of the samurais. He made a quick dash through the gap, right before the swords fell, and bolted left to lose track of the samurais' sights.
"First Form..." Tanjiro breathed.
The samurais expected him to attack from his last seen direction, preparing their blades to hack upon the first glance of the boy.
Their heads hurled high and bobbed rolling on the ground. They realised their folly when Tanjiro decided to attack from above instead. His previous lateral dash and high agility had helped him to create misdirection and trick the enemies of his position. The samurais expected him to attack from the last seen location. But it wasn't over.
More undead followed suit leaping in from behind. Nezuko covered her brother's back leaping over Tanjiro's position. She hacked her extended claws, slashing apart the incoming enemies.
"Teamwork. That was graceful." Shinobu observed. Kanao landed next to her. They both observed ahead towards the perpetual influx of Demons.
"I haven't seen these many Demons before." Kanao mentioned in concern.
"These are zombies, Kanao." Shinobu clarified. "They won't die if you hack their heads off."
Kanao looked behind to observe the zombies she had cut down. They were moving, despite their cut down bodies.
"The only consolation is they can't regenerate." Shinobu added. She hoped long for the salt to arrive. The solution against the undead army.
Tamayo, Aoi and the girls showed up after a while, bringing in the prepared recipes. Law appreciated their effort standing by the end of the hallway.
Meanwhile, Yushiro who had been holding off the zombies that had slipped past Shinobu and the others ahead. Law recalled the boy to his location. Yushiro nodded observing the salt ready to be dispatched. Tamayo with her enhanced strength carried the large wooden tub from the bathroom to the front.
Law was amazed by benevolent Demon's uncanny strength, being capable of lifting a heavy tub and that too filled with salt water almost to the brim.
"Get me stones, medium-sized." Law told Naho, the latter who nodded and rushed off to the side.
At the same time, a bunch of zombies that had been held ahead by Yushiro were free to attack the Mansion. Aoi and the girls panicked. Tamayo and Yushiro prepared to fight. Naho returned back getting hold of more than a dozen stones much to the convenience of Law's plan. As for the pirate Captain, he was prepared on his own end.
"What are you doing, Law-san?" Naho panicked.
"Don't fret, little Naho." he replied, crouching down and dropping the stones into the large tub one after the other.
"Room." Law enforced his Op-Op Fruit membrane, engulfing the zombies who were no more than five metres away from him and the big tub.
"Shambles." With a flip of his right-hand fingers, Law swapped the dropped stones replacing with the faces of the zombies, drowned inside the salt water. With no physical effort, Law had sucked out the shadows of the dead zombies, leaving them limp in the water. Without ado, he flipped the stones back with the lifeless bodies, back into the tub. Another batch of zombies rushed in and faced the same fate.
The people behind the Captain couldn't believe his ingenuity. Tamayo, who was a calm woman, couldn't help but express her bafflement.
"That was amazing, Law-san." Naho hugged him in awe.
"Look at them." Law described the zombies ahead who got notice of his malicious intents.
"And we had to do all the fighting." Shinobu remarked, sighing upon the ingenious doctor.
The zombies instead decided to attack the fighters near the gate. The ones that had slipped past Shinobu and the others decided to encircle them from behind.
"They won't give up!" Tanjiro bellowed, looking around.
"Alright, Kanao. You remember our training?" Shinobu beckoned.
"Right, sister. What are we going to do?" Kanao asked.
"We break out of this enclosure." Shinobu replied.
"Are you sure you want to do this? It might not be prudent for you to do a different breathing technique." Kanao was worried.
"It doesn't matter. We are getting out of here."
"If you say so." Kanao decided to trust her, taking a stance in the same direction along with her sister.
"On my go." Shinobu muttered, taking her stance. "I hope it works."
Kanao glanced at her in worry.
"Flower Breathing..." Shinobu gave the signal holding her broad blade, and making a deep breath.
"Fourth Form..." bellowed Kanao.
"CRIMSON HANAGOROMO!" yelled both at the same time, slamming their blades upon the big hurdle of zombies in front of them.
The combined attack annihilated the enemy resistance. The curve and twist attack and its aftermath led both the sisters leap high beyond the reaches of the remaining zombies. They landed near the Mansion, where Law and the others held their grounds.
Whilst the zombies were distracted, Nezuko took it into her power to punch through every last one of them with extreme prejudice. Tanjiro covered her back fending off the ones coming in through the gate, until both of them were clear of the crowd. They regrouped back with the others.
"I guess we are doing okay for now." Law mentioned in his laid back demeanour.
"That was some cunning trick that you had pulled." Shinobu appreciated his previous manoeuvre.
"How many are there?" Yushiro observed ahead, with no end to the zombies.
At that moment, Law felt a sudden difficulty in breathing. A similar instance he had felt two days back. He dropped on his left knee feeling the pressure, whilst grabbing hold of his chest.
"What's wrong?" bellowed Shinobu.
"Gah... can't breathe..." Law muttered, slamming his chest. Due to the sudden spasm, he couldn't employ the strength to summon a 'Room'.
"Aoi, Kiyo, Sumi, Naho... to the infirmary." Tamayo hastened, picking up the pirate Captain with her right hand. Law was baffled observing her pick him up with ease. He felt mortified to be carried around by a woman.
"No more of that saltwater flipping-and-drowning manoeuvres." Yushiro remarked, understanding the danger they were in with Law out of commission.
"Take these! We tried our best to find and make these before the bathtub was prepared." Aoi handed Yushiro and the other fighters, each a small bag.
"What's this?" Yushiro asked.
"Salt balls. I hope it helps."
"That was good thinking." Shinobu appreciated.
"Thanks, Aoi, everyone!" bellowed Tanjiro. "We will survive this."
"Thank you, everyone." Kanao waved her hands along with Nezuko, as Lady Tamayo and the girls carried off the Pirate Hashira.
"We are down a man but we now have the salt balls along with the saltwater." mentioned Yushiro. "There's five of us. And we must hold off as long as it takes."
The zombies stood observed and lined up at the distance. The defenders of the Butterfly Mansion expected an all out enemy attack.
"Tell me, Lady Shinobu. Can the sunlight defeat these zombies?" Tanjiro asked, expecting the undead beings to have the same weakness as the Demons.
"No, but the sun can kill the living people whose shadows were taken and put into these zombies. That's what Zoro said."
"That's messed up." remarked Yushiro, quite disappointed since he had hoped Tanjiro's assumption to be correct. "It's quite the contrary to what happens to Demons. The sunlight protects the humans from Kibutsuji, but here these zombies won't die but their human-shadow hosts instead?"
"No point in perusing the unnatural." Shinobu replied.
At the moment, something dropped in from above. Shinobu and her team went on guard.
"Hold it! I came here as soon as I got the message."
Everyone was relieved to find Giyu Tomioka responding to the emergency correspondence. They withdrew their guard except for Shinobu.
"Tomioka-san!" Tanjiro bellowed in jolly.
"Are you sure you are not a Demon, or a zombie?" Shinobu enquired.
"Hey, just because you don't believe that I don't have friends, doesn't make me any of those monsters. You should get your head checked once, Shinobu. You and your decrepit annoyance." Tomioka retorted.
"That's him, alright." Tanjiro said, with a nervous laugh.
"Well, I'm sorry. You haven't even realised that people don't like you, then? That was uncalled for. Please forgive me." Shinobu made a soft reply, with face of mock and pity. The soft reply seemed to take Tomioka by the nerve despite his previous hard retort.
"Eh!" Tanjiro couldn't keep his surprise of thoughts. He knew there was going to be a bloodbath between two Hashiras. Tomioka would no longer play the victim of the same tease.
"Tsk. You and your gums." Tomioka turned around with an unexcited face. "We fight the enemy and then, we talk." He said with conviction.
"That's so cool, bro!" Tanjiro bellowed.
Shinobu made a chuckle observing the two men. She was glad Tomioka was her ally.
"You are right for once. We fight and win. And then, we talk." Shinobu agreed.
TO BE CONTINUED...