The demon had regenerated its body faster than Kagami, Tanjiro, and Inosuke could react. The exposed spinal cord of its neck immediately was covered in a large wall of flesh and towered over the three of them threateningly. Hundreds of blue eyes with the kanji Lower Rank One stared at all of them from various angles they couldn't possibly hide from. All of their weaknesses had been exposed and Kagami was afraid they weren't going to make it out of it alive. It would've taken her over if she allowed it! Instead, when the demon tried to put her asleep again, like the many times it had done so far, she had placed her blade against her neck and pushed down.
Kagami's body had swayed unsteadily on the slippery red flesh that lined and walled itself on the car. When her eyes opened and was instantly brought back to reality, the grip on her sword tightened and she gritted her teeth, steeling her resolve. Whatever nightmares that will be forced upon her, whether it be of her father, mother, or her friends, she won't lose her nerve. Not again. Even with the demon powered immensely and using its Blood Demon Art, she will awake just the same!
Though, the instant her eyes greeted the world an awful clang pierced her head and everything went dark again!
How could she momentarily forget about the hundreds of eyes watching every single one of her movements? At least a dozen were possibly watching and waiting patiently for the tiniest flicker of her eyelids. She needs to keep her eyes closed, or at least off of the demon, or she'll just fall asleep again!
SLASH!
She's awake now, and no looking! Kagami kept her eyes trained heavily on the ground beneath her. No eyes greeted her, only the pulsating red and purple flesh that belonged to the Twelve Kizuki member trying to kill them all and feast on the innocent people asleep in the train cars. She just needed to get within arms reach of the spine and slice it off to defeat Lower One! Jumping high, her body reached into the air and she quickly found the make-shift train car made of the demon's flesh. As she fell through, the walls became nothing more than those hundred eyes.
Darkness overwhelmed her and she once again cursed at herself!
Kagami didn't mean to look into the demon's eyes! They were everywhere! Every time she would wake up, she couldn't help but look directly into one of those demon eyes. She fell asleep again, but it's all right! All she has to do is keep her eyes shut when she wakes herself up!
SLASH!
A gasp spilled from her lips at the blade sinking deep into her neck and her eyes popped open. Right in front of her face was an eye that was three times the size of her head. Before she could even blink or relax, her feet touched down on green grass and her eyes staring directly into the blue sky with black smoke billowing into the air. She failed!
Again!
SLASH!
Wake up! Wake up!
Kagami's body fell forward and she braced herself against the fleshy floor. She didn't have time to relax or even move a muscle. An eye popped out of the ground and blinked at her!
SLASH!
Come on! COME ON!
SLASH!
Your neck! Slash it! Wake up!
Kagami's breathing was becoming harder and harder to control. The fear she didn't want to overwhelm her had done so in just a few short minutes. She was trying so, so hard to keep her eyes shut when waking up but she couldn't see anything but a bright blue eye. The sky, the walls, not even the floor was safe to stare into. There was no shelter, no hiding, from the demon's invasive and prying gaze. No matter how hard she tried her eyes kept opening and she kept being forced asleep.
This is a dream! It's nothing but a dream!
She just needs to keep cutting her throat! There was no way around it! She just needs to keep going! With her eyes closed and her hands shaking holding the hilt of her Nichirin sword, she placed her blade on her throat. She heard slicing and slashing at the back of her head but she ignored it. She couldn't let herself get distracted with something as meager as that! With a loud, hoarse scream, she moved to press down-!
A horrified gasp spilled from her lips when rough hands grabbed her wrist. Her eyes flew open when it was pulled roughly away from her throat and pressed against something else. No, not something. Someone. Her eyes stared shakily at a muscular chest that took up her entire view. Her throat burned with shallow breaths and her lungs screamed for help. The fear of being placed in a dream again flitted through her head but she forced herself to concentrate on the human hand and chest. She recognized the fresh scars that adorned the abs of their body stretching from rib to rib, rib to back, and along the muscles of their arms. Their hand was calloused and, even though she couldn't see their face, felt familiar.
"You're not dreaming right now. Don't go falling for his trickery. You wanna look like a damn fool?" Their coarse voice spoke roughly to her.
Kagami slowly lifted her eyes as the person turned away showing her their back. "I-Inosuke?" She mumbled softly.
A maniacal laugh spewed from his mouth when he turned to face the mass of eyes looming all around them. He didn't hesitate to slash off the limb and stab it straight through its head. "I'm wearing the hide of the Mountain God on my head. I bet he's too scared to look me in the eye!" He boasted before disappearing in a flash. All around her she saw nothing but quick flashes of slash and slice of steel all around the once-regenerating meat. "I'm right, aren't I?!" He added letting the waves of blood and meat wash over them.
Tanjiro landed beside Kagami from above shaking just as much as her. He looked just as puzzled as she about how Inosuke was able to directly look into the eyes and somehow not be affected. "Or it's having a hard time telling which way Inosuke's looking!" Tanjiro quickly deduced out loud.
Inosuke faced the center of the makeshift fleshy train car. Where the spinal cord had been revealed was nothing but a dozen meat arms trying to conceal and protect it. "Okay! Now we just gotta cut this thing to pieces!" He exclaimed quite cheerfully.
They were so engrossed with making sure they weren't falling asleep or making eye contact with the demon's eyes they didn't notice someone watching them from the outside. Out of nowhere, the train engineer Tanjiro had saved before suddenly jumped down inside the car! His face was furious and his entire body was doused in a cold sweat! He suddenly took off in a run towards Inosuke with an ice pick brandished in his right hand! "I won't let you take away my chance to dream!" He screamed in a rage.
"Inosuke!" Tanjiro had exclaimed and moved faster than Kagami could react.
Kagami's eyes widened in terror seeing droplets of blood fly into the air. "Tanjiro!" She cried out at the hazy vision in front of her.
Tanjiro had flung himself in front of Inosuke protectively and took the ice pick to the gut. He immediately grunted and groaned out in pain, his face contorting in agony, but he grabbed the wrist of the engineer to keep it from digging any further. Kagami dashed forward and bashed the hilt of her sword against the engineer's head rendering him unconscious.
"Did he just stab you?!" Inosuke shrieked in confusion.
"I'm okay," Tanjiro moaned out slightly hunched over.
When he carefully grabbed the arm of the unconscious train engineer and began to drag him away to safety, Inosuke growled angrily, "Forget about that bastard!"
"I can't just leave him to die!" Tanjiro protested.
Kagami and Inosuke fended off the attacks of the limbs protecting the spinal cord as Tanjiro tended to the man. They were strong and extremely hostile. They were doing anything to protect its owner. "If we don't chop this thing's head off soon, the other's won't make it!" Inosuke quickly reminded him.
Tanjiro stood from the ground and nodded his head. "Let's hurry then!"
"Let's do it!" Kagami agreed slashing off an arm from the elbow up.
At the sound of their agreed plan to kill the demon taking hold of the train and its people as a team, the demon reacted ferociously. The walls loomed over them in large individual worms and shot out dozens of hands! They slammed into the ground hoping to squash them into a bloody mess! The three of them effortlessly dodged the initial attacks by jumping backwards multiple times but they just kept coming. Soon, there was almost nowhere for them to leap towards. They, instead, gripped their swords tightly and charged forward.
They all jumped over and around long limbs of arms and hands meaning to squish them. The ringing of steel and slashing of flesh was all she could hear in the moments that were to come. Specks of meat and droplets of blood sprayed into the air and littered the ground. Water spewed from Tanjiro's blade as fire and flame danced along hers. They protected each other's backs and kept the hands from twisting around to grab a hold of them.
"Inosuke! Kagami!" Tanjiro screamed above the pain. "Let's combine our strength. Once we've synchronized our breathing, we'll attack as one!"
Inosuke snorted at the idea but Kagami approved of it wholeheartedly. She and Tanjiro have done it twice before, combining their breathing, strength, and mind to perform what nobody else could. Adding Inosuke in the picture would make them even stronger!
Dodging the relentless attacks of the demon, all three joined together at the coal car. Almost immediately, the wormy flesh towered over them once again and whacked in their direction with its entire body. It slammed into the coal car, shattering it and spraying large as well as small pieces of coal everywhere in the air, but ultimately missed.
They had jumped high into the air watching the fleshy tendrils shoot into the sky for them. As one, they took in large deep breaths and flew down! They swirled around each one cutting deep and true into its meat. Blood sprayed over their clothes and hair but they didn't care. Inosuke twirled his swords around a couple tendrils slicing them into small bitty pieces. Tanjiro rode on one and drove his blade straight into another slicing it completely in half before hacking off his ride. Kagami's fire danced along her arms and legs pouring out of her sword when she sliced and slashed at every tendril. They writhed in pain at the flames engulfing their bodies but ended up torn. They continued falling and falling back toward the center killing and destroying every worm that entered their line of vision.
Kagami growled when the walls enclosed around them and revealed hundred more eyes!
No! If we fall asleep now...!
"Not today!" Inosuke cackled driving his blades into multiple eyes. He jumped from wall to wall gouging them out and forcing them to retreat back beneath the depths. "Come on! Follow the leader!" He gloated dragging his blades down a large wall and hopping off. With his arms planted at his side, his body diving straight down back toward the train like a thin, human missile, all hundreds of eyes directly on him, he screamed, "Beast Breathing. Fourth Form, Slice 'n' Dice!"
Embedding in the meat were multiple diagonal double slashes of both his swords. Inosuke sliced free of the spinal cord and exposed it perfectly to the real world!
Kagami and Tanjiro's breathing immediately synchronized. Their hearts, minds, and souls collided just as it had done twice before. Their heart beat became one and their thoughts of slicing the spine clean through was all they could think. She curiously noted his breathing changed from that of Water Breathing. It was stronger and powerful, but she liked it. Both of their bodies lit aflame with their swords raised high above their heads. Their red hot fiery flames mixed and burned together lighting brighter to the color of turquoise blue. It snaked along their arms, legs, and hair, trailing behind them in the air leaving smoke floating senselessly through! The heat was so powerful it felt like it was going to scorch her skin, but she won't back down!
Mother, father, guide my blade! Our chance to sever the bone with one strike... is now!
The angle of their blades and rotation of their arms were different but complemented well. They didn't hesitate nor falter when their bodies were just inches from the bones of the vertebrae. The power and energy they hadn't felt before thrummed in their hands as if they had handled it once in their lives. They trusted each other with the power and were not afraid to use it!
"Hinokami Kagura! Clear Blue Sky!"
"Dragon Breathing! Eighth Form, Flashing Strike!"
Tanjiro's fire created a beautiful perfect circle with his body acting as a star in the center. Kagami jabbed her sword deep into the bone with one final scream and let their blue flames that felt hotter than the sun explode all around them. All of the meat that had tethered and formed itself with the locomotive jumped and writhed in pain. A shriek of agony, a voice she wasn't familiar with but had the sense it belonged to the demon, pierced and wailed through the air suddenly. Hundred of hands jumped out of the meat that was bubbling and building high violently all around them! The entire locomotive and train cars that tagged along suddenly jumped in the air forcing their bodies to momentarily float! The bubbling and boiling flesh that invaded the entirety suddenly exploded in large masses of meat and blood. It shook and trembled the train worse and worse causing it to bounce along the tracks and ground carelessly!
"The train is going to tip over!" Kagami screeched in fear seeing the train tilting on one side still moving faster and faster on the tracks!
"Is everyone all right?" Tanjiro gasped but grunted holding his gut.
"You're the one still bleeding! Take care of yourself first dammit!" Inosuke cursed at him pointing at the stab wound that was still bleeding fresh blood.
Tanjiro tried to brush away their concerned gazes and choked, "We need to protect the other passen-!"
He didn't have time to finish speaking. Another jolt from an explosion, or something the train must've hit, forced it off the tracks completely. Everything moved in dreadful slow motion. The three of them, including the engineer, were separated among the chaos. Her feet lifted off the platform of the train and floated mindlessly in mid-air. The train rolled in the sky around them. Kagami gasped seeing the train suddenly above then below her. The ground approached her rapidly but nothing prepared her for the harsh screeching, earth shattering, and loud piercing of the metallic beast slamming into the earth. It bounced multiple times and slid dozens of kilometers away through the thick, dense forest! She yelped when her body slammed into the ground. The breath was knocked out of her and she did nothing to still the momentus rolls of her body. When she finally stopped, the train did as well.
Her hands grasped the ground tightly, mud and dirt caking in her fists, as her body agonizingly begged for air. She kept her eyes focusing on the hazy vision of smoke, dirt, and dust billowing into the air from the chaos and wreckage the train caused. She forced herself to breathe steadily, to refocus on Total Concentration, Constant, and calm her erratically beating heart. So much adrenaline filled her body it felt like it had no idea what was happening or what to do with it. Not to mention her skin burned like it was on fire!
"AAAHHH!"
Kagami thought she heard Inosuke screaming in the background. Her hearing was dampened and she couldn't tell if either he or Tanjiro were all right! She saw them fall out of the train but didn't seen them land!
"Sentaro! Pull yourself together! Arami, get over here! You see me bounce off that demon's flesh just now?" Inosuke seemed to be screaming at the two of them and boasting of his agility!
She weakly lifted her head, wincing at the agony in her neck, and coughed out, "I-Inosuke? Now's... n-not a good t-time!"
"Oh, right!" She heard him speak.
Kagami rolled her eyes and forced herself to sit up when she finally gathered her breath. Her entire abdomen ached and she felt she had broke something. It bothered her she was becoming extremely familiar to the pain and knew when a bone had been broken twice over in her body. Not too far from her, Tanjiro laid wounded on the ground with Inosuke hunched over his body. Ever so slowly, she crawled taking one knee at a time to them, but even that small act was almost too much.
"You got stabbed, right?" She heard Inosuke speak aloud grabbing his clothes in clenched fists. "How's your stomach?!"
Tanjiro laid limp in his grasp forcing himself to speak. "I'm-I'm all right. How about you? W-Where's Kagami?"
"I've never felt better!" Inosuke cheerfully answered. "Not a scratch on me! Origami is being a bum and taking her sweet time crawling to us!"
Kagami almost growled at him to shut up but doing so required too much energy. She was barely using what little she had to join them! Instead, she listened to Tanjiro weakly plead, "I... I don't think I can move now. Can you go help the others? See if anyone's hurt. The engineer... is he all right?"
Inosuke just stared for a moment in silence before exclaiming with a scoff, "Let him die for all I care!"
"We can't."
"Did you somehow forget he's the one who stabbed you in the first place?!" Inosuke growled at him matter of factly. "But you really wanna know, his leg's shattered, and he can't walk anymore. Just let him rot!"
"Then he's... already suffered enough, don't you think?" Tanjiro insistently but hoarsely spoke to the sour boar holding him. "Help him, Inosuke. For me."
Disgruntled groans and angry, haggard breathing spewed out of Inosuke's mask. As soon as Kagami reached them, Inosuke placed Tanjiro back on the ground and stood on his feet. Crossing his arms as some sort of rebellious act, he huffed out, "Fine! But only 'cause you asked. You are my underling. It's the least I can do as a leader! And after I've rescued him, I'm gonna pluck out all of his hair! HAHAHAHA!"
With his swords hefted on his back, Inosuke began to victoriously stomp away.
"You really don't need to do that last part," Tanjiro sighed out but he didn't listen.
It was finally peaceful and quiet. There was nothing to disturb the sense of calm that fell over them. Even though the anxiety from the thought of the injured and possible casualties on the train resulting from their battle plagued them, Kagami was using the time to control her breathing, to relax the tense muscles in her body, and just... hold still. The moment they got on the train they had been doing nothing but survive. She can no longer count the times she had to slit her own throat to save herself, and almost took her own life in the spiral of trickery the demon played on her. Listening to Tanjiro steady his breathing was soothing and helped her do the same.
Kagami sat silently with him and laid a limp hand against his. She used whatever strength left to give it a small, comforting squeeze. They've done it. They all did. A Twelve Kizuki, Lower Rank One, died at their hands after a long and almost ill-fated battle. Kyogai had been no match, her battle experience with him did almost nothing to prepare her. He had been a worthy foe, a difficult one to boot, but that demon was a Twelve Kizuki for a reason. She had never experienced such horror and fright but... they won. They finally won.
To celebrate, she let a small smile curl on her lips.
"You've mastered Total Concentration, Constant. That's quite impressive."
Kagami's eyes flicked opened to see Mr. Rengoku's face peering into her own. Her heart jumped inside of her chest and her cheeks flushed red seeing his handsome face but she didn't have the energy to look away in shyness. She was just going to take the compliment!
"You're one step closer to being a Hashira," He proudly stated running his golden eyes over both her and Tanjiro. "That's one step out of ten thousand, mind you!"
Kagami and Tanjiro could only give him confused and anxious looks at that assessment. "We'll... do our best," They choked out.
Mr. Rengoku's eyes merely scanned Tanjiro's body once when he spoke, "You're bleeding from the gut. Regulate your breathing. Take full control of it. Picture your nerves reaching all through your body." His voice had suddenly gone soft and stern keeping his gaze pointed on the boy. "Can you see it? The torn blood vessel?" He spoke as if he was his mentor. As if her were his big brother. His eyes stared scrutinizingly down at him who tried his best to calm his breathing through the pain of his stab wound. "Concentrate harder," He sternly commanded.
Kagami watched in awe as Tanjiro's shallow and desperate breathing turned heavy and slower. Then he gasped.
"That's it. Stop the bleeding," Mr. Rengoku instructed him. When Tanjiro failed for the first few seconds, gritting his teeth and glaring down at his wound, he placed a finger to his head and spoke a simple, "Focus."
Amazing, Kagami breathlessly thought watching Mr. Rengoku teach Tanjiro through the process of healing small wounds like his. It took quite a bit of time but through assurance and the best instructions, the wound in Tanjiro's side closed.
"Good. You've succeeded." Mr. Rengoku smiled proudly. "Mastering your breathing, it will open many doors for you. Now, it won't solve everything, but it will help. You will continue to grow stronger." He gave them a light hearted chuckle at their looks of amazement towards him. His voice was soft and soothing unlike the one he had been using on the train when they first met. It seemed to her that Mr. Rengoku really does see them as his potential Tsugukos. "As for the others," He loudly and suddenly declared quickly resuming to his loud disposition, "There are many who are injured, but they're safe for the time being. So don't strain yourself. Make sure to rest up. Both of you."
Kagami and Tanjiro, who had been startled at first, immediately relaxed. Staring into his warm and kind face, they smiled and sighed, "Thank you."
BOOM!
A loud boom that rumbled like thunder violently shook the earth underneath them from behind. Mr. Rengoku immediately turned around with a hand on the hilt of his sword. All trace of warmth and kindness disappeared leaving behind looks of hostility and suspicion. Kagami's fear instantly spiked in her chest hearing that vicious boom. Her heart leaped in her throat seeing dirt gathered in the air cloaking whatever was hiding within. She placed the back of her hand to her mouth choking back the coughs of the thrumming and overwhelming power, energy, and malicious aura. Whatever the hell it was, it was no ordinary creature!
Two glowing yellow eyes revealed themselves.
She held back a few whimpers as the dust finally cleared the area. Someone knelt where the boom echoed with a smirk spreading across their lips. Who was she kidding, that kind of power doesn't come a human being, not even a Hashira. A human and demon have different kinds of auras that separated them from being to being. Hashira auras were powerful but pure, demons were thick and overwhelming. Whatever knelt and stared at them from afar... was a demon.
That wasn't the only thing that she noticed about them. When she looked into their eyes, she swore she felt even God hide behind his throne.
UPPER RANK THREE