Chapter 3:The power of the sunlight.
"Honou no Kokyu!!Shiranui!!"With his breathing style,Tanjirou launched himself against the second upper moon,thus initiating the first real combat of the young solar swordsman.
Douma received a direct fiery cut on his chest,but it was enough to cut him in half.He didn't expect a frontal blow with another breathing style. Immediately tried to counterattack with a couple of cuts in the neck but Tanjirou was already far enough away to dodge the 2 tessen with ease and hide his presence with the selfless state and the mist formed by the evaporated snow and the flame breathing.
"Kekijutsu!!Kesshou no Miko!!"6 ice replicas were created from Douma and sent them everywhere to locate Tanjirou.After a couple of minutes the ice clones found him in the ruins of a shop,nevertheless.Tanjiro could destroy them with the flame breathing before they started to strike at him out.Unfortunately to him,Douma was already on the top of him,preventing him from escaping.
"There you are!!Kekijutsu!!Hasuhagouri!!"Douma created many razor-sharp ice sharps and threw them against Tanjirou at high speed.
"Kaze no Kokyu!!Senpu-sogi!!"The increased speed allowed him to avoid ice sharps and create a strong destructive cyclone,which changed sharps ́ direction and used the blood art to boost his breathing against the upper moon.
Douma could dodge the wind breathing easily but some of his own sharps and rest of the debris of houses destroyed by the wind were speared in his stomach and head.Tanjirou wanted to jump at the opportunity to take the initiative and with the rest of energy from his breathing in his Nichirin tried to make more cuts in his enemy.
"Kekijutsu!!!Tsuru renge and Kanretsu no Shirahime!!"In the last second Douma combined 2 of his blood art to create some frozen lotus,2 of them with a female humanoid figure,which blocked Tanjirou's cut. The problem for the young swordsman was that the impact created some little shivers,which were stuck both in him and in Douma,but the demon easily regenerated his injures to be fit again.
Without losing time,the remaining Lotus used theirs vines to try to catch or slice Tanjirou up.With difficult,Tanjirou cut and sliced all lotus,however,the ice shivers,the energy expended in his previous wave of attacks,the cold weather and the lack of rest by his trip started to give problems to keep the rhythm of the battle.
Douma noticed the tiredness in his opponent and with a sickly smile he lunged at him trying to deliver 2 blows that missed the target but allowed him to corner Tanjiro in an alley outside the house where they had been fighting
"This is the end for you little kid,you don't have to run or hide,and that's why I plan to repay you for all the problems you've caused me today, you damn bastard!!!Kekijutsu!!Itegumori!!!"He used his tessen to create a strong wave of cold wind and freeze him.
Tanjirou was nervous,there wasn't any other place to dodge the wind.If he jumped up he would be exposed to a frontal attack that he would not be able to dodge due to his body being numb from the cold and he could not block the wind because he did not have time to breathe.
"I can't give up"said in his mind"I can't lose this battle,I can't waste this life,I have to go back with my family,with Nezuko"He revised all his few options to counterattack,and suddenly,a memory from his father appeared on his mind,revealing a risky but perfect alternative for the situation if it works.Them he closed his eyes and took a big breath of air while he started to turn on himself and swung his katana in circles.
"Hinokami Kagura!!"Through the holy dance of Kamado's family,Yoriichi invoked the crimson flames of the sun breathing. The temperature increased quickly,melting the ice from his own body as well as using it as a protection against the blood demon art from Douma.With the recovered energy,Yoriichi used the acrobatics of the dance of the fire god to jump across the rooftops without breaking the dance to keep a safe distance and rest as soon as possible.
Douma had to admit that the dance of the man was something completely beautiful.He was sure that Giokko would even stop the battle only to see him dance until dawn,however,the flame,which accompanied him,created an enormous feeling of discomfort,like a burn on his skin,and that didn't let him even get close to deliver some kind of fatal blow.He doesn't also know why sometimes saw a child and sometimes a man,but the fear of his presence was comparable with the same presence of his master"Kekijutsu!!Kesshou no Miko!!"He stayed close to his opponent to follow him across the rooftops to corner him again with his ice replices.
Tanjirou noticed the action and changed his previous plan.He kept some of the movements to prepare a breathing and boost it with the solar flames"Mizu no Kokyu!!Minamo Giri!!"Water and crimson flames were combined in an horizontal slash,which impacted directly on Douma,cutting his left arm and a part of his chest,causing a loud cry of pain in the demon.
Unfortunately,the blade was stuck in ribs and couldn't complete the cut.Tanjiro started to coughing violently to the point of vomiting a large amount of blood.The ice from the splinter helped a lot to regulate his body temperature to make the Hinokami Kagaru,but concentrate the flame in the water breathing caused his lungs to become too hot and some hemorrhages to form.
With the little strength he had,tried to remove his Nichirin,but Douma took advantage of Tanjirou's proximity to catch him with his right arm,and be able to absorb him.Luckily for the young swordsman,his body still has some energy from the sun breathing and caused in Douma some strong burns by the contact with Tanjirou's skin,preventing to be absorb.He couldn't even take the blood that Tanjirou spat out,it worked like a powerful acid that did nothing but burn his organs ever more.
At this point both fighters were in check.Tanjirou was trapped by Douma's arm,he was so weak that he couldn't use so much force to free himself.His sword was stuck and there was no space to retire it or cut more.Douma was suffering from the enormous pain he felt.His own body lost his healing factor and the burn in his skin and organs just increased the pain.If he didn't let him go was because of the fear caused by a voice in his subconscious that desperately ordered him to kill him. He tried to bite Tanjiro on his neck to kill him but a strong headbutt from the aforementioned completely blocked the mobility of his head. No one could move anymore. Without any other option, he used his last ace up his sleeve.
"You can't scape fucking bastard!!!NOW DIE!!KEKIJUTSU!!FUYUZARE TSURARA!!"The clones spawned a lot of icicles,which were delivered with a lot of speed to impale both Tanjirou and Douma.
Tanjirou detected the movement behind him and noticed the blood demon art in his direction.He tried to walk away desperately but Douma's grip didn't let him move.
"NO!!"Shouted a voice in despair"Hana no Kokyu:ni no kata!!Mikage Ume!!"The icicles were reflected through many turn of her Nichirin,creating the form of a plum and destroying the clones.The main slash was delivered against Douma,forcing him to separate from Tanjirou and get away from him and his new, or rather, previous opponent"
"Kochou-sama!!"Tanjirou was surprised and glad to see the flower hashira when he was in trouble.He noticed that her injuries were treated.Although she will still need medical attention later,her appearance was so much better than before.
"Thank goodness I arrived on time,are you ok Tanjirou-kun??"asked worriedly,examining the physical aspect of the redhead.
Tanjirou nodded with a grateful smile"yes,don't worry,I'm just tired and with few cuts because of the battle,what about you??you looks fine now"
"Yes,fortunately I have a medical kit with me,so I could heal my injuries to recover some energy"quickly looked at Douma and couldn't stop her jaw from falling into socks"…wh-what happened with him??how did you damage him so much??
Tanjirou just signed,asking himself how he did it.He didn't use the sun breathing but the dance of the fire god with the water breathing.Nevertheless,it was impossible that it caused so many burns and injuries.
"Maybe the Hinokami kagaru works partially like breathings and has a passive effect against demons??"deliverted"To be honest I don't know,maybe it was just luck".
"Luck??I'm a Hashira and I couldn't give him even a single hit!!you know what??we will have to talk about that later,"
While they were talking,Douma was waiting to regenerate his injuries,or at least trying.His arm was recovered but the skin wasn't there,just bones and muscles slightly damaged.Some of the burns were healed,although other ones were still hurting him and the cut from his chest was partially closes,exposing some of his ribs,lungs and heart.The view was completely grotesque,adding the psychotic look he had in his eyes and his noticeably labored breathing only made him look quite terrifying.
Without losing time,he combined the freezing cloud and the scattering lotuses to create again a cold weather. The clones invoked lotuses from frozen lotus and threw many vines and icicles with lotus vines and wintry icicles,but Kanae could break them with her Nichirin and Tanjirou dodged them easily with the transparent world.
"So what is the plan now Tanjirou-kun??"
"The same we talk before,resist until dawn and if we have a chance,try to cut his neck.The Upper moon now is vulnerable,so it wouldn't be very hard to elude his blood demon art,but his aggressive behavior makes him more dangerous than before".
"Caw-Caw!!!10 minutes until dawn!!"
"…did just a crow sp-"
The conversation was interrupted by a blizzard made by 2 ice female figures from the cold white princess ,which thwarted between both and took them away from each other.Douma quickly sent one of the female figures and 3 of his ice clones to Kanae,while he and his other creations focused his strength on Tanjirou.
"I guess we are 2 again…"Tanjirou was still avoiding all the ice projectiles and blocking some hits from Douma's clones"Iwa no Kokyu!!Jamongan-Soukyoku!!"His katana performed a series of infinity-shaped movements, destroying some ice lotus and one of Douma's clones"Kaze no Kokyu!!Senpu-sogi!!"The cyclone of wind was used as a shield,provoking that the lotus and clones crashed into each other many times or with the female figure,destroying some of them and making some small ice shards.
"Kekijutsu!!Chiri Renge!!"
"Not this time"Predicting the same strategy,Tanjirou jumped out of the cyclone,leaving the fragments impacted in douma and focused on the remaining ice figures"Honou no Kokyu!!Shiranui!!"The fiery slash was enough to break and melt all the figures.
Douma moved to one side of the cyclone ,which only moved aimlessly until it collided with a building,he tried to make more clones as support,but he was besieged by several blows made by Tanjirou.All the attacks were blocked with his tessen, however, he did not realize that Kanae was behind him,easily cutting Douma's damaged arm. Tanjirou took advantage and also cut the other arm leaving the demon completely unprotected.
"It's now or never"thought in unison.
"Hana no Kokyu!!Shi no kata:Beni Hanagoroma!!"
"Honou no Kokyu!!Shiranui!!"
Both slash impacted directly on his Neck,each one on one side,starting to cut it.Douma, in a desperate act, decided to take out his last ace up his sleeve to protect himself from the attack and, in the process, try to flee when he noticed a light light appearing on the horizon.
"Kekijutsu!!Muhyou-uiren Bosatsu!!"The ice giant Bodhisattva statue separated both blades from Douma's neck and the lotus helped to keep Tanjirou and Kane far from him."Nakime!!"Without losing time the statue exploded and the upper moon jumped to cross a door that suddenly appeared in the sky.
Both Tanjirou and Kanae tried to follow him, unfortunately, the ice fragments flying in all directions prevented them from reaching the strange door that appeared and disappeared immediately.
Kanae now had a lot of difficulty blocking and dodging the fragments. Some had managed to get stuck in some areas of her body and this made her mobility more difficult and reduced her mobility.
"Honou no Kokyu!!Tsui no kata:Higan Shugan!!"An enormous pressure began to build up in his eyes, causing great painful redness in them, although it also allowed him to see the fragments in slow motion to avoid them.
Tanjirou also had problems with the fragments but their smaller size made it easier to get away from them.Kanae's voice diverted his attention and when he saw her his eyes opened completely.He could see how much of the blood was concentrated in her eyes, the cost of enormous pressure on the veins and arteries in her head.With her previous injury it could cause a strong hemorrhage in her brain and die.
"I can't allow it, not being so close".
At full speed Tanjirou ran against Kanae, gently pushing her,breaking the concentration and canceling the final form.With his last strength he hugged her tightly to cover her and protect her from the last ice splinters, which hit her back and legs.
She only watched in horror as he protected her from danger. She wanted to change her position to receive the damage, but after a struggle between them,the hail shower finally ended up causing Tanjirou to fall to the side, leaning on the side of his body to avoid getting stuck further the ice on his back and legs.
"I-I…"stuttering with tears in her eyes.
Tanjirou just could release a warm smile after had achieved his goal"I am very happy to see that you are well and that I was finally able to protect someone"was the last thing he could say before collapsing from exhaustion and loss of blood.
A/N:It was definitely a good idea to separate the search for Tanjirou and the fight, it was longer than I thought, although I couldn't add much of the story, but if I would do it,I would have the same problem of having a chapter that was too long again, and At the moment I want to keep the same number of words in each chapter.I hope you don't mind me using the Japanese names of the techniques, but I liked the way they sound in my head while I imagined the battle.Anyway, here I had a couple of discarded ideas such as Tanjirou copying some flower breathing postures thanks to the transparent world or turning Kanae into a demon but one was discarded for focus better on the elemental breaths, and the other because it would downplay Nezuko's role in the future (which will be vital to the plot with Muichiro and Shinobu), would you have liked any of these ideas at the end of the chapter? ? That's it for the October chapter, I hope you liked it and if you have any ideas, do not hesitate to suggest it in comments or private Messaging,and if I like it, I will use it giving your respective credits.
Without further ado, I say goodbye until November and we see us :)