Tanjuro and his Son climbed onto the top of the train, seeing a man standing there. He was obviously the Demon, so the two drew their Swords. The Demon turned to them, and Tanjuro could see the Kanji for Lower 1 in his eye. "So you're awake now?" he asked cheerfully. His voice was light and cheery, but something about it made Tanjuro's Parental Instincts scream at him. "Good morning!" he called, as he waved at them. "Why are you awake? Did I not create dreams suited to your every desire's?" the Demon asked. Tanjuro growled at him, "what kind of Father would I be if I abandoned my children to live in a fantasy?" he asked lowly.
The Demon smiled, and it wasn't pleasant to look at. "I could have given you all nightmares right from the start you know, like having to watch your children and Wife being slaughtered. But I'm a kind person. I always give people happy little dreams first. That way, their despair is all the sweeter!" the Lower 1 laughed in delight. Tanjuro felt his control slipping, and his human disguise melted away to show his enraged expression, fangs sharp and veins nearly bursting with rage. Tanjiro stepped back warily, out of the way of his Father's anger. Tanjuro didn't often get like this. In fact, he had only really gained this personality trait after becoming a Demon.
But it was never smart to get in Tanjuro's way when he did get like this. The Kamado Demon set his Sword ablaze with his flames, turning the black blade bright red. "Stay behind me Tanjiro," he muttered, before taking a deep breath, "Hinokami Kagura: Beneficent Radiance!" Tanjuro raced forwards and spiraled into the air, a trail of Solar Flames following his Sword. Before he could decapitate the Demon, he held his hand out to Tanjiro, who was running in behind him in a pincer move. "Blood Demon Art: Whispers of forced unconscious Hypnosis!" he cried.
Tanjuro saw a blue wave expand from the other Demon's hand and hit his Son. Tanjiro stumbled and started to fall off the train's roof. "No!" Tanjuro cried in horror, but he was caught by another wave, and felt exhaustion consume him. He could only watch in horror through his closing eyes as his Son fell to his death-
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"Daddy?" Shigeru asked, as he blinked his eyes open. Tanjuro found himself sitting with his family and eating lunch. Tanjuro blinked and shuddered. 'Was that a nightmare? Did I have a nightmare while I was awake? Maybe I am still sick' he thought, as he looked down at his children with a smile. Then his eyes widened when he saw Tanjiro happily talking with Nezuko. Tanjuro abruptly stood up. 'No! This is the dream! Tanjiro's in danger!' He thought frantically, bursting into flames. His children shrieked in terror and horror, but Tanjuro refused to allow the dream to hold him this time. He had to save his Son!
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The Demon's eyes snapped open and he caught himself. He frantically looked for Tanjiro- and found him fighting the 12 Kizuki by himself. Tanjuro let out a shaky sigh of relief, before grabbing his sword and joining the fight again. It seemed Lower 1 was more slippery than he thought. He aimed a slash for the other Demon's neck, but he dodged the attack by jumping into the air. He let off another wave of energy, and both Father and Son nearly lost consciousness again. But Tanjuro burned the dream away with a burst of fire, while Tanjiro was up as well a second later.
This repeated several times, until, when Tanjuro opened his eyes in his dream, he nearly gagged at the smell of human blood. The Demon gasped raggedly, as everywhere he looked was covered in blood, and another broken body. His children, the Shinazugawa children, his Wife, his Demons, the friends he had made- It was too much, and he felt his mind starting to collapse in on itself as he clutched his head- NO! Bright flames exploded from his body, burning the nightmare away and he woke up with a start, utterly furious. Tanjiro leapt out of the way as his Father blazed passed him in a fury of sunlit flames.
"That's enough!" he screamed, well and truly furious now. He performed Flame Dance and slashed the Demon into four parts, his head and chunks of body parts splattering onto the roof of the train. Still enraged, he set the pieces on fire and burned them until nothing was left but ash, which blew away in the wind. Tanjuro gasped in air to try and calm himself down, as his Son stood hesitantly behind him. "F-Father?" he heard a voice timidly ask from behind him, and Tanjuro turned and snarled viciously at the person, still too enraged to think properly. Tanjiro gasped and flinched back in fear. Tanjuro blinked. It was only his Son? Why did Tanjiro look so scared of him? He turned around, "Son-" he began to ask, when suddenly the train lurched like it had gone over a bump.
Tanjuro snarled when he realized that the other Demon's presence hadn't disappeared and was in fact getting stronger. The train started to become covered in pink flesh, as it lurched again. "What the-" Tanjiro cried in shock. "Did he merge with the train somehow?!" Tanjuro cried with wide eyes. "We have to do something! Are any of the other's awake yet!" Tanjiro called, as he saw huge tentacles of Demon flesh start to rise up in front of them. "I don't know, but if we don't get back inside, the passengers will be in danger!" Tanjuro replied, as they swung down and crashed through a couple of the windows to get back inside the train. The flesh had already started to spread there too, and they knew they had no choice but to try to protect as many people as they could until the other's were awake and could help them.
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Father and Son cut away at the Demon flesh, trying to keep it away from all of the passengers. But Tanjuro knew that they couldn't protect every car like this. What if the humans in the rest of the train had already been eaten? 'Damn it, what do I do?!' he thought furiously. Suddenly there was a massive burst of force that shook the whole train. Tanjuro caught his Son before he could fall, "are you okay?!" he cried worriedly. "Yeah! What was that?!" Tanjiro replied, standing up just as Kyojuro Rengoku appeared in a burst of flames. "Ah! There you both are!" he exclaimed. "Mr Rengoku!" Tanjiro cried in surprise.
"Where is my Daughter?" Tanjuro asked immediately. "She is currently working alongside one of your Demons to protect the passengers in the front two carriages. The other two are handling the Demon flesh in the third and fourth carriages. I will handle the last two. Meanwhile, you two will look for the Demons head. It should still be here somewhere, even if it has merged with the train. I will search for it as well. I hope you're both fired up!" Kyojuro cried, before turning and practically vanishing into the depths of the train. After a moment, Tanjuro frowned in determination, "let's go Tanjiro. Let's kill this Bastard once and for all!" he snarled. He didn't miss the way his Son flinched, but he decided to deal with it later.
They had at least 200 civilian humans to worry about. They had to kill this Demon quickly.
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The two Kamado's ran through the train. Tanjiro tried to sniff out the Demons head, but winced, "Father, I can't differentiate the scent of the Demon's head, from the rest of it's flesh. How do we find it?!" he cried. "I can sense it. It's presence is strongest at the front of the train, so that's where we'll go! We have to hurry Tanjiro! Or everyone will die!" Tanjuro replied as they ran. Walls of Demon flesh rose up in their way, before Tanjuro sent out a stream of flames that caused the flesh to shrivel up and blacken immediately.
They tore through the train, occasionally stopping to defend a few passengers along the way, but most of the flesh seemed to be busy trying to regenerate from burning slices and cuts. 'I guess Kyojuro already came through here' Tanjuro thought. Finally, they burst through into the final carriage. "I can smell the Demon's head now! It's right up their Father!" Tanjiro cried, pointing towards the head of the train. "Right. Are you ready Tanjiro?" the Kamado Demon asked. "Yes!" his Son replied firmly. "let's go!" Tanjuro cried, as they climbed out into the Coal loading area. "What are you doing here?!" the Engineer of the train demanded to know.
"Leave this area!" he ordered. But by the look in his eyes and the exhaustion on his face, he was in league with the Upper 1 as well. "You need to get out of here. Otherwise it won't end well for you" Tanjuro said firmly, a cold look on his face, very different from his usual expressions. The man edged around them and seemed to be leaving, but as Tanjuro began to turn his attention to the task at hand, the man lunged for him with what looked like an ice pick. "Father!" Tanjiro yelped, and moved to block the attack. Tanjuro's eyes widened with horror when the weapon went right through his Son's Uniform and stabbed into his stomach.
"Tanjiro!" he cried, grabbing the 13-year-old and moving him out of the way. He looked up at the Engineer with a dangerous glare on his face. But before anything else could happen, a pillar of Demon flesh burst up from under the metal flooring. It knocked the human away, and he hit his head on the metal wall. Tanjuro leapt back with his Son in his arms, away from the danger. As he landed in the coal, Tanjuro looked down at the situation. The Engineer was unconscious against the remains of the wall. Tanjiro had been stabbed in the stomach. And a huge pillar of Demon flesh was looming in front of them.
Could this night get any shittier?