As the Demon Slayer stared wordlessly at the scene, Gyutaro watched as Tanjiro tried to crawl over to Ume and Nezuko. "N-Nezuko!" he cried, before writhing in pain from overusing his Breathing. Ume, who was carrying Nezuko, went over to him, just as he managed to force himself onto his knees. "Nezuko!" Tanjiro breathed, reaching out to take the sleeping form of his little Sister into his arms with a relieved sigh, "Nezuko. *pant* You're healing up. Good girl" he said, while the older Demon woman went over to the green-haired young man and helped him up, "th-thanks Ume." He replied.
Before anything else could happen, Giyu spotted the butterflies that always preceded one of the Insect Hashira's attacks. Of course she was here. They were sent on this Mission together. The two Slayers grabbed their Sister's and shielded them from attack, but Giyu stepped forwards and blocked Shinobu from reaching the younger Demon girl. Said Hashira landed on the ground and spun to shed her momentum, before staring at him with a look on her face that he couldn't identify. "What are you doing Tomioka?" she asked, before turning to the two boys, "excuse me, boys!" she called. "Ah! Yes Ma'am?" Tanjiro replied automatically. "Those girls you're protecting are actually Demons. Please move away before you get hurt" the black and purple-haired woman called.
"No way. They're our Sister's and they have never once hurt anyone! So you're not killing them!" Gyutaro immediately replied. "Oh my! Your Sister's? The poor girls! Don't worry! I'll use a gentle Toxin, that won't cause them any pain. It'll be quick, I promise!" Shinobu said cheerfully, seemingly completely missing the part about them not hurting anyone. The Oldest Kamado grit his teeth. "Can you both move? Even if it's hard or painful, run as far away as you can. Get your Sister's away from here" Giyu said. "Tomioka- thank you!" Tanjiro cried, as Ume picked him and ran away. Gyutaro grabbed Nezuko and ran after them.
U*G.K
The two Kamado's ran, their younger Siblings in their arms. "What do we do now Big Brother? What if we have to leave the Demon Slayer Corps? Where will we all go?" Tanjiro asked. Tears welled up in his eyes, "what if they punish our younger Siblings for helping us protect Ume and Nezuko?!" he cried. "They won't. Our Siblings are just kids. Even if they were hiding Ume and Nezuko, they aren't Corps Members, so they won't be punished" Gyutaro replied as he ran. "Takeo is! And they could still force our Siblings to leave the Headquarters!" Tanjiro replied.
"The Master won't allow it. Whatever happens, our younger Brothers and Sister will be safe" the Older Kamado replied. Ume suddenly noticed something, and bent down to dodge just as a sword swiped where her head had just been. "Ume!" Gyutaro cried, glancing back as his little Sister caught up with him, "are you okay?!" Tanjiro cried. "Fine" she replied, continuing to run. Tanjiro glanced passed his Older Sister to see a girl his age wearing a white cape and a butterfly pin in her side-ponytail. And she had a sword. "Damn. Another Demon Slayer!" Tanjiro groaned quietly. For a moment, Gyutaro wondered if Sayuri had managed to get down the mountain with all these Demon Slayers around.
Then suddenly Gyutaro's legs were swept out from under him, and he went sprawling to the ground. Nezuko was flung to the ground a distance ahead of him. "Gyutaro! Nezuko!" Tanjiro cried, while Ume looked back at her Siblings worriedly. The Demon Slayer walked towards Nezuko, before Gyutaro grabbed one of her legs and pulled her to the ground. "Get up Nezuko! You have to run now!" he cried. The young Demon woke up, looking around. "Nezuko!" Tanjiro called from where Ume was still carrying him. She looked up at her Older Brother, "you have to run away! Don't let anyone catch you, especially not someone with a Sword!" Tanjiro cried.
The black and orange-haired Demon girl got up and started running. Gyutaro smiled, before the Demon Slayer kicked him in the face, forcing him to let go of her. Nezuko ran, as the girl tried to cut off her head. But the young Demon saw the blade and shrunk down to avoid it decapitating her. The Demon Slayer tried several times to kill their little Sister, but Nezuko dodged the swipe each time. Suddenly a Crow flew overhead, "Tanjiro and Gyutaro Kamado and the Demons Ume and Nezuko Kamado are to be taken into custody and brought back to Headquarters!" it cawed. All four Kamado Siblings blinked in shock.
"Gyutaro, a Demon Slayer with green hair, Tanjiro, a Demon Slayer wearing a checkered Haori, with a scar on his forehead! Ume, a Demon woman with white and green hair, Nezuko, a Demon girl with a bamboo muzzle! Bring them back! Bring them back!" the girl looked between the four of them and sheathed her sword. Gyutaro sighed. Well, this could either go really well, or really badly. Who was he kidding, it was only going to go badly. He looked up at the Demon Slayer girl, "I need to go get Ume and Nezuko's boxes" he said. The girl didn't say anything, but she didn't move to stop him either, and so Ume put him down and went to get the boxes.
At this point two Kakushi had come over, "I'm sorry Sir, but we have to tie you up" one woman said. He sighed again, "as long as no one hurts my Sister's, I'll cooperate" he replied exhaustedly. And so, Gyutaro was tied up, and practically fell unconscious right after, as he finally relaxed after a long night.
U*G.K
"Gyutaro. Wake up Gyutaro. Your Sister's need you. Tanjiro does too," a voice called out through the dark. 'Father,' Gyutaro thought, 'is that you?' "You have to wake up, or they'll kill Ume and Nezuko. Wake up Gyutaro! Right now!" Tanjuro Kamado's voice ordered insistently. Gyutaro jerked awake, looking around frantically for his younger Brother and Sister's. Only to find himself tied up, and lying in front of a group of people. Some he recognized, Kyojuro, and his Master. Both were looking at him with disappointment and something else in their eyes. But Gyutaro's brain was only focused on one thing and on thing only, "WHERE ARE MY SISTER'S?! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM?! I SWEAR, IF YOU SO MUCH AS TOUCH THEM, I'LL DESTROY YOU, FORMER MASTER'S OR NOT!" he shrieked furiously.
He gasped for air after his outburst, mentally cursing himself for losing his composure. But it was instinctive, an instinct honed from 10-years of dealing with the worst life had to offer. 10 years of having to fight tooth and nail just to keep the right to live. To protect Ume. And now, Ume's life was in danger again, so that he didn't care that these were the Hashira, or his Master's, or the fact that they were probably disgusted in him now. All that matted, were his younger Sister's, and the rest of his Siblings safety.
The woman with the butterfly hair clips spoke up, "I'm assuming you mean your Demon Sister's. Their fate is yet to be decided. The Master is going to do that. But I want to know, why would you not kill your Demon Sister's, and put them out of their misery?" she asked. "Because we don't need to kill them! Neither Ume or Nezuko has ever tried to at a human, and even protects them. Just like they both protected our Siblings the day that they turned! Neither of them even need to eat human flesh! Ume can use sleep and a small bit of blood to recover from any wound, and Nezuko doesn't eat humans at all, she just sleeps! Our job as Demon Slayers is to kill Demons that eat humans! So if they don't eat humans, there's no reason to kill them, right?!" Gyutaro cried, panting after his explanation.
"That's absurd. Everyone knows Demons eat people, it's a fact of life. If Demons could live without eating people, then the Demon Slayer Corps wouldn't need to exist!" a voice hissed. The green-haired Kamado twisted to look at where the voice came from. What he found was a young man laying in a tree. He had black hair, one green eye and one yellow, and a black and white-striped Haori. He also had a white snake wrapped around his neck and resting on his shoulders. "True. I have never heard of Demons that sleep at all, much less as a substitute for human flesh. Gyutaro, the Demon has corrupted your mind" Gyomei said sadly.
"Look, just ask Urokodaki! My family stayed with him for the last two years, and both of our Sister's were asleep the whole time they were there! He'll tell you that!" Gyutaro replied, really disappointed that his Master, who had trained him for 2 years didn't believe him. "So what if they were?! They're awake now, and they could hurt someone!" another man said, he had large muscles and jewelry all over him. "Except they haven't! Both Ume and Nezuko have had multiple chances to kill us and our Siblings. But they haven't even tried to hurt any of us! Not once! And they haven't attacked anyone else either! They've been fighting Demons alongside us, and helping us protect humans!" Gyutaro's throat was starting to get sore from the constant yelling, but he had to make them understand- that Ume and Nezuko weren't like other Demons!
"What was that? You said that they've been protecting humans huh?" a new voice asked. Gyutaro looked over to see a man with white hair and scars over his body. And he was holding Ume's box. Rage flooded through his body, hot and heavy, making his thoughts stutter to a halt momentarily. No, he had to stay calm. Unless he actually hurt their Sister's- the man stabbed through the box, and Ume's scream of pain rang through the air. Right. Forget staying calm. He was going to kill that man! He stood up, "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY LITTLE SISTER!" He screamed furiously. He ripped the ropes holding his wrists together behind his back apart with sheer physical strength and ran at the white-haired man.
The man tried to attack him with his sword, but Gyutaro kicked him in the side of the head with all his strength. The Demon Slayer slammed into the ground, dropping his sword and Ume's box. Gyutaro grabbed the box, ripped the sword out and tossed it away, "Ume! Are you alright?!" he cried. A pained whimper was his response. He glared at the white-haired man. "Master Shinazuwawa, we asked you to put that box down!" a couple of Kakushi ran around the corner. 'Shinazugawa? Isn't that the name of the family with the kids that my Siblings made friends with recently?' the green-haired young man thought. Then his eyes narrowed, 'what the fuck? He has 6 younger Siblings of his own, but can't tell the difference between someone who is a threat and someone who's not?
This guy's the kind of person who'd see a Mother Bear and her cubs, and attack to kill them when they were just walking along, and weren't a threat to him. But he attacks them anyway, because if they're provoked, they will be, turning them into threats himself. In other words, he's an idiot' Gyutaro thought as the man, Shinazugawa, stood up and glared at him. He glared right back, the rage still boiling under his skin, but he was able to control himself now, "try that again, I dare you" he growled. "Shinazugawa, please don't act out of line. You're clearly escalating the situation, when we should be trying to get answers out of this young man" the black and purple haired woman said with a frown.
She turned to Gyutaro, "Gyutaro Kamado, why are you and your younger Brother travelling with and protecting Demons?" she asked. He took a deep breath to try and calm down, then spoke, "My Siblings and I were out of the house. The only ones home were our Mother, who was sick, and two of our younger Sister's. We stayed at a Neighbour's house that night, but we didn't know that the rest of our family was under attack. When we got home the next day, we found our Mother Dead and our Sister's deathly injured. We tried to take Ume and Nezuko to the Doctor, but they transformed. They attacked us briefly, but didn't hurt us, and when we called out to them, they remembered us and calmed down. Ume could even speak right away, but with stutters.
Our Sister's never hurt us, or anyone. They don't even need to eat humans! They both recover from injury and gain energy through sleep. And Ume only needs a bit of blood sometimes, if sleeping isn't an option at that point. Neither of them will ever eat humans, or even hurt them! So you don't need to kill them" Gyutaro finished. The muscled man with the white hair scoffed. The woman smiled, "well, that sounds intriguing. Demons who don't need to eat humans! I'd love to run some experiments and see what makes them different!" she exclaimed cheerfully. The green-haired Kamado didn't know whether to be scared of what 'experiments' she meant, or relieved that the woman didn't outright reject his words.
Suddenly, two voices spoke up, and when Gyutaro looked over to the house, he saw two of Kagaya's children. Specifically, the two older white-haired girls, "the Master of the Mansion, has returned" they said simultaneously. Finally. The Master would sort this out, and then they could go rest. He hoped Tanjiro and Nezuko were alright, since they were the most injured out of the four of them. Kagaya walked out of the house, guided by his two daughters, until he stopped at the engawa, and smiled at them.
To Be Continued