Night had completely fallen-Kagami and Inosuke were already out of time.
In the Ogimoto House, they were doing whatever it took to pinpoint the demon's location. Inosuke was having the time of his life bursting through the ceiling, floorboards, and walls cackling like a maniac.
Kagami raced around searching for the last remnants of the demon's aura from the day before. Demons always leave a trace behind. Human scents and auras fade after some time because they were always coming and going, mixing together to obscure someone's reading capabilities, but a demon's potent is much stronger than the average human. It would take some time before it completely disappeared. She is determined to find it before it becomes muddled.
Many of the courtesans screamed and cried when they came face to face with the boar-headed freak running around. They ran away from his intimidating and maniacal laughs watching from the sidelines as he continued destroying the floors and rooms. Kagami raced by them and blocked their auras out of her head.
It was harder than she thought. The entire house was nothing but human aura.
Then, the shift of the wind blew through her hair pushing her forward. It had been a while since it came to her aid, propelling her where to go and dodge, but she won't question it! It must be taking her to where the demon's traveling tunnel must be!
She raced forward but had to do a double-take where Inosuke had screamed victoriously in the air!
Kagami, confused, pushed against the insistent wind and ran towards him. "Did you find it?" She gasped grasping the hilt of her sword desperately but she knew the answer already. Where he stood was the strongest of the demon's aura she had encountered.
Pointing one finger down to the remnants of the floor, he exclaimed, "I found the hole leading straight to the demon's lair! That means I win, Kiriguri!" Kagami looked at him as if he were crazy! She didn't remember turning it into a game! "Alright, time to die, you bastard!" He then screamed before jumping up and diving straight into the hole.
Or, well, at least his head.
She watched his head fit inside the hole but the rest of his body was blocked by his wide, broad shoulders.
He popped his head out and cackled, "So I can only get my head inside, huh? Hehehe!"
Kagami had no idea what he was up to but the only mischief indication he gave her was the twinkling star popping next to his boar mask's lopsided eye.
"That might have stopped others, but it's not gonna stop Lord Inosuke! After all, I'm a man who can dislocate all his joints!" He screeched in the air before pushing his arms up above his head. His joints horrifyingly popped out of place with ease and twisted his arms and shoulders around as if they were broken. "In other words, as long as my head fits, I can go anywhere! Bet you can't do that, Orogami!" He teased her with a mock laugh.
Kagami only gave him a blank look, huffing, "I will find another way-"
Lup-dub!
Her breath... was suddenly ripped away from her in half a second.
Kagami quickly clutched at her heart that was writhing and beating in agony. She can hear the loud persistent pulsing of its beat inside of her head. She couldn't gasp for air, not even a quick catch of breath. Her lungs were in pain. Blood rushed to her head and all she could see were stars in her vision. It was fading in and out quickly and it took everything she had not to faint in the middle of the hallway. She couldn't hear the shrieking of the courtesans or Inosuke's annoying voice anymore.
Whispers... she could hear whispers in her head, but they were faint. They were barely audible as if someone was speaking through large gusts of breath they were exhaling. She couldn't hear them, not clearly. But, she caught a name. That name... forced a gasp out of Kagami's mouth and her eyes to widen in terror.
The wind was pushing her to him. Not the demon.
Kagami, even though she was momentarily weakened by her own heart, fled the Ogimoto House, mumbling then screaming his name. She grasped her hilt tighter, more fearful, racing through the crowded streets for him. She shoved through people, not caring about their remarks about her rudeness, trying to follow the light breeze of the wind showing her the way. Her breathing became erratic and all she could think, all she could say was, "Tanjiro... Tanjiro... Tanjiro!"
Inosuke was thoroughly confused and annoyed by Kamemi's sudden change in attitude.
She was about to remark to one of his stupid jabs-he loves it when she does that-when she nearly collapsed on the floor. Hunched over, grasping her chest with one hand, eyes wide open in terror, she stared straight into the ground. Her breathing became nonexistent, a cold sweat running down the side of her face, and her legs started to wobble uneasily. If she had fallen, he would've caught her easily even with his dislocated joints, but she didn't.
Instead, she fled the house screaming, "Tanjiro! Tanjiro! Tanjiro!"
What the hell was that supposed to be?! Inosuke thought with a loud harrumph. Would she rather be with that pip-squeak than with him?! What's the big deal?! No matter, he will find the demon and show her who is the strongest!
Pushing it to the back of his head, Inosuke crawled and crawled through the cramp hole with glee! He was going to find and kill the demon! After finally freeing himself of that stupid kimini-whatever Kamabaka called it-he was able to sense the demon's presence! More so in the tunnel! Haha! He will face that demon and kill it to show her and everyone else Lord Inosuke is a force to be reckoned with!
With light revealing itself at the very end of the annoyingly long tunnel, Inosuke burst out like a wiggling worm with a great roar!
But it quickly faded to a confused sigh. What... the hell?
He shot out into a large cavern covered in pink and purple flowered cloth. It hung and draped from every corner, twisting and turning different directions, and held the strangest pattern he's ever seen. Sleeping women, all different from each other, patterned the fabric.
Inosuke landed on his feet and popped his joints back in place. He walked close to piece of cloth hanging close to the ground to inspect it. At first, he thought it was just a regular human pattern but knew it was something else. Those were living humans somehow trapped within. The demon has the ability to trap them inside of a woman's belt.
Then, his feet rattled something on the ground.
His eyes fell to where he stood and scoffed at the sight. Hundreds upon hundreds of human bones littered the ground. With the ability to store humans in the belt, it also has the ability to take them whenever it wants and devours them? The demon had been feasting there in the cavern for a long time. Some of the bones split many cracks and splinters were hidden beneath dirt and new, fresh bones that barely have a scratch on them. That means the demon must've feasted just recently.
Inosuke found it pretty brutal.
Then, he glanced up to another piece of cloth. There, he stared blankly and boredly into Zeiristmo's stupid sleeping face. "What's he doing here?" He huffed.
"That's a question I should be asking you."
Inosuke gasped and turned at the sudden new voice in the room.
"How would you feel if someone started messing with your food? Dirty man! You reek of filth! Disgusting! Repulsive! You damn stinkbug!" A female voice loomed from the sashes of the belt swirling behind him. Then, two large eyes and giant pink lips formed at the very end of it growling at him in anger.
Inosuke, disgusted, screamed back, "Look who's talking, you worm! Gross!"
The belt didn't like that.
"You dare insult me, stinkbug?!" It scowled then launch itself at her.
With his swords instantly in the grip of his hands, he slashed and slashed at the belt persistently attacking him. One after the other, his jagged edged blade sliced clean through the fabric. Blood spilled from within and he continued to expertly slice them open. The belts would never be able to sneak up on him because he can detect their murderous intent.
"Wriggle! Wriggle! Wriggle! You're really grossing me out, Worm Belt!" Inosuke cackled jumping in the air and turning a full circle with his swords tightly gripped in his hands, slashing them around him like a typhoon of steel. Turning in the air, slicing another sash with ease, he taunted, "Look how sluggish you are! You got greedy and swallowed up too many humans! There's no way an attack from an overweight worm... can ever hope to land an attack on Lord Inosuke!"
He raced forward and started to slice humans free from the belt! One after the other, they slipped out of the openings and toppled to the ground unharmed.
"So lose some weight, and don't come back 'til you have!" He cackled again.
Sashes charged for him from different angles but he immediately jumped high in the air, avoiding them, and sliced them up. He noticed Worm Belt was distracted with something else and charged! With a roar, he sliced both swords out horizontally at the ugly face. Before they could make contact, it immediately went limp in the air and fell flat against his swords!
"Damn it! I can't slash it when it's flapping like that!" He cursed seeing his swords uselessly hold it like a paperweight!
Immediately, the sash twisted itself and surged for his head!
Inosuke, moving faster than he could think, acting on instincts as he always done, let go of his swords and shoved himself backwards! Narrowly missing his head being sliced, he kicked his feet out and slammed them into the hilts of his sword. He flipped backwards in the air and landed on his feet, his swords spinning back into his hands where they belong like boomerangs. He was growing increasingly annoyed by the belt and wanted it to die already!
He scowled under his breath, "Let's see you deal with Beast Breathing, Sixth Fang." He jetted out his swords and placed the jagged edge on either side of its ugly face, screaming, "Palisade Bite!"
"Slashing me is useless when I'm not even the main body, you fool!" Worm Belt cursed at him, "Never mind. The humans you saved are looking awfully vulnerable, don't you think?" Inosuke gasped and turned his head to see the three humans he saved started to get surrounded by the belt. "Not to mention I can recover from any damage you manage to inflict."
Oh, crap! I forgot! I've gotta fight it while protecting those humans, don't I?!
Inosuke immediately turned around and raced for the humans, gasping, "Damn it! I can't keep up! Annoying Worm Belt!"
Suddenly, the sashes were hit with dozens of weird, pointy black knives pinning them to the ground from behind him.
Confused, Inosuke turned and saw two women standing behind him. Wearing sleeveless dresses of red and blue, hair golden brown and black, one flashed him a smirk and the other had tears running down her face. They both held those black knives in each hand and faced off against the sashes.
"I gotta hand it to you. Worm Belt's a pretty good name!" The first woman chuckled smirking at him.
"Yeah, it's perfect for something so gross, and I'm so gonna tell on you! Just wait until Lord Tengen finds out!" The second one cried out holding her knife shakily.
They both surged forward and pulled out more knives from the belt around their dresses. They started to fight the Worm Belt like seasoned fighters with techniques Inosuke wasn't familiar with!
"We're gonna give you a hand with this freak, so fight the good fight, my boar-headed friend!" The first woman laughed pinning more than three sashes to the walls and floor at once.
Inosuke shouted above the noise, "Who the heck are you two?!"
"Both of us are Uzui's wives!" The crying one immediately answered him deflecting and dodging the sashes with whimpering cries. "I'm trying my best here, but I'm not much of a fighter! So please don't expect much from me!"
The first woman immediately punched her in her back, growling, "Suma! This is no time to be acting like a wimp!"
"Waaa, but Makio, I can't help it!" Suma, the woman Tamirjiro had been assigned to look for, cried out to the woman Inosuke and Kamanao had been looking for. "You know I'm a good-for-nothing, especially when it comes to fighting! I got captured! You can't expect me to protect everyone else who got captured! It's impossible! I'll be the one who gets killed first probably!"
Inosuke stood there just watching even more confused. They fought back and forth, Suma crying and Makio berating her, and all he could do was watch. Those are... the old man's wives? They were... not what he was expecting.
"It's a shame your friends don't think more like you," Worm Belt taunted with a smirk. "Now which of you should I eat first?"
Damn that thing! It's not the main body?! If that's true, I'm screwed! This battle's never gonna end! Inosuke cursed to himself slashing at the sashes coming at him from all sides. Even though they ripped, tore, and shredded, they still kept coming!
"Thunder Breathing."
Inosuke gasped at the sudden flash of bright yellow hair whizzing past him.
"First Form, Thunderclap and Flash. Sixfold!"
Inosuke's eyes widened seeing Zeniro suddenly explode with crackling, bright, white light! He felt the air come alive with energy, pins and needles jabbing into his skin, and the atmosphere buzz. Teeth gritting, eyes popping open to reveal nothing but glowing white light, Zenko surged forward so fast Inosuke couldn't see him! All he could watch was yellow light stream out of his body bouncing from sash to sash cutting them in half a second, six in total, to the sound of thunder booming overhead.
Spinning and falling softly on his feet, he exhaled a large breath between gritted teeth and stayed silent. Asleep, Inosuke should say! He was asleep, and not crying, whining, or being a giant baby! He was actually badass!
"Maybe you should stay asleep like this the whole time," He remarked down to him.
Makio, still fighting and slicing lashes, retorted, "Is he Demon Slayer Corps? If he is, then why is he dressed like a total idiot?!"
"Yeah! Good question!" Suma agreed.
They all continued fighting.
Inosuke continued slashing and slicing the belt, Zeronimo going lightning fast with thunder booming over their heads with every slice of his sword, and Makio and Suma helping free the trapped humans. Bizarre, the ceiling above them exploded with a loud explosion!
He turned his head upwards at the feeling of wind. The ceiling was nearly caved in; cracks ran along the sides like a spider's web, dirt spilling out like a waterfall above their heads, rumbling the earth so much around them. What could create such a loud explosion?! Inosuke had traveled a long time through the tunnel, he knows they're deep underground, so what the hell caused an explosion that could reach all the way down there?! He then realized it was only one swoop hit because someone knelt in the cloud of dirt near them.
The presence... it wasn't a demon's, yet it felt very familiar.
Slowly, the clouds revealed the old man!
He knelt on the ground with his dual Nichirin Cleavers raised around him. His eyes were trained solely on the Worm Belt staring terrified at him. He let out a deep exhale and ran his magenta eyes over the cave in one swoop. Inosuke could feel the power, the strength, radiating off of him! With just one attack, he was able to create a massive hole that deep underground! This... truly is the power of the God of Festivals!
He charged forward so fast Inosuke couldn't comprehend what the hell happened!
Attacking a hundred times in just a few seconds, all the lashes draping and hanging around the cavern fell to the ground in a hundred pieces! The humans trapped within weren't even sliced or scratched at all! Inosuke couldn't believe just by running his eye over the place once the God of Festivals unleashed a flurry of attacks without harming any of them, or any of the trapped humans! They all cascaded gently to the ground and slipped out of the belts still asleep yet alive.
Inosuke watched silently as the God of Festivals kept his back to them.
"Makio. Suma. Sorry I took so long," He spoke up to his wives not looking behind him. Then, he looked over his shoulder with a smile. "You both look as flashy as ever."
That compliment ran deep with the two women.
The God of Festivals walked forward and adoringly patted their heads with a soft smile. They both teared up at the gesture.
"You've been doing some flashy work here. You're my wives, I'd expect nothing less," He added with a chuckle.
At Suma's loud, annoying sobbing, Makio and the God of Festivals watched her with wide eyes as she clutched his arm. Then, he smiled down at her with care, his eyes sparkling, chuckling, before speaking, "All right!"
Inosuke gasped seeing him whip his Nichirin Cleavers around his body powerfully like sharp, steel nunchucks. He didn't falter nor hesitate at the sharp blades threatening to slice his skin or head off! The chains jangled and clang loudly, the steel blade singing in the air it whipped through, the golden amber color a blur as it continued to twist and rotate around him.
Then, he caught them with a smirk, exclaiming, "From here on out, things are gonna get real flashy!"