Tanjuro swung his flaming sword at the tiny Demon's neck, before he suddenly had a feeling that trying to cut it's head off was a very bad idea. Instead, he moved to stab through the tiny neck. Before he could touch it, the tiny main body of Hantengu let out a nails-on-glass screech, and Tanjuro stumbled. 'He doesn't even have the flying one's powers, and it's still feels like it's clawing through my ears!' he thought, shaking his head and focusing on his attack, 'just behead it! This is the main body! Kill it! Quickly!' Tanjuro thought firmly. "Hinokami Kagura: Sunflower Thrust!" he cried, his sword lit red by flames.
As he moved to stab through the neck, time seemed to move in slow motion. He began to feel a presence building up behind him. One so heavy, even he couldn't help coughing for a moment. 'What is that? This presence! It's different from the other emotions. Just kill this one! And then no matter what it is, it'll die too!' Tanjuro thought firmly. "Lord Tanjuro!" Yukito cried, as the beat of a drum was heard. The Demon King turned to see what was behind him, but an explosion of dirt blew him away. Tanjuro desperately looked for the tiny main body of Upper 3, keeping himself from being blown away by stabbing his sword into the ground, before he saw the flash of red in the dirt.
He reached for it, "I won't let you escape!" he yelled, his hand wrapping around the tiny Demon just as they were blown away by the explosion. Tanjuro was once again thrown through the air, slamming across the ground multiple times, before a massive pain radiated through his arm. Finally he managed to stop himself, and he looked at his hand where he'd grabbed Upper 3. Only to find most of his arm gone and the Demon's main body with it. "Shit!" he swore, frantically looking around, as his arm regrew. He found it lose and trapped under a large rock, half of it crushed, but most importantly, Hantengu's main body had gotten out of his hand's grip and run off to hide.
Tanjuro clenched his fists in anger, before turning to look at the new Demon he could see being revealed through the smoke. "Lord Tanjuro!" Hakuji cried, leaping into view with Shizu under one arm. Yukito, Gyutaro and Ume appeared next. Tanjuro looked around, before his eyes widened, "where's Kie?!" he demanded, looking around for his Wife.
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Kie Kamado opened her eyes, finding herself hanging upside down in a tree. She was about to swing right-side-up and check out her situation, but she noticed a flash of red and gold out of the corner of her eye. That's when she noticed the man caught in branches of the tree next to her. Unlike her, however, he seemed to be only partially conscious with a head wound that was leaking blood. The smell made Kie's mouth water and she audibly swallowed before deciding to hold her breath as she worked on carefully getting them both down from the tree. She climbed over to the Flame Hashira and detangled him from the branches.
Then she hoisted the human over her shoulder. Now she had to be careful. A fall from this height would be nothing for her. But for him, it would probably kill him. Kie slowly climbed down, finding sturdy foot and hand holds that could bare both of their weight. As she climbed down from the tree, she felt her Demonic instincts detect a Demon. A pretty strong one, and not one of her Husband's either. Kie began to growl as she finally made it out of the tree. It felt slimy and disgusting. What should she do now? Try to run with the Flame Hashira?
She had to find help for him anyway. Kie decided to head back to the Village. The closer she got, the more she could smell fish, for some reason. Finally she reached it, before gasping and hiding in a tree. The Village was overrun with fish monsters. They didn't have Demonic presences, so they must have been created by a Demon. Over her shoulder, Kyojuro groaned, and blinked his eyes open. "Demons" he muttered. "A-are you o-okay?" Kie asked. "Yes, just a little dizzy" the Demon Slayer replied, steadying himself on the tree. "C-careful. You're head was h-hurt" she explained. He wiped the blood off of his forehead with his Uniform sleeve.
As screams rang out, the Flame Hashira stood to his feet, grabbing his sword, "where are we?" he asked. "We w-were blo-own back t-to the V-V-Vill-age. It's und-der attack" Kie explained. "Right. For the moment, we need to protect the Villagers. I understand that you are probably worried about your Husband Mrs Kamado. But right now we cannot let ourselves get distracted!" Kyojuro said firmly, looking at the Demon woman, "do you understand?" he asked. Kie nodded, "yes" she replied. "Good. Let's hurry and deal with these creatures then find the Chief!" the Flame Hashira decided, as the two ran off into the Village.
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"Lord Tanjuro, I understand that you're worried, but your Wife is a Demon too, and we have to deal with Upper 3 before any humans die or get hurt Sir!" Yukito said, as he tried to stop the Demon King from running off to find his Wife, while Tanjuro's prepared to fight off Hantengu's other clones along with Mitsuri. However, the new presence that he could feel wasn't like any of the other clones. "Fuck! Not him!" Hakuji growled. "What?-" Tanjuro began to ask, when a heavy presence fell over all of them. Tanjuro shook his head to calm himself down. Whatever this new Demon was, he was still stronger.
They had to kill it right away so he could find his Wife and deal with the other Demonic presence in the Village that he could feel. Then the smoke began to clear, showing a young man-looking Demon wearing gold plates and with several drums growing out of his back and circling his torso. Tanjuro knew, however, that this Demon was far stronger than Kyogai had been. "It's Zohakuten. All the bodies aside from the main one fused together. He's a lot stronger now. Be careful" Hakuji explained. Tanjuro grit his teeth, 'wonderful, just what we needed. It was a hard enough battle with all of the separate emotions, but now we have a super Hantengu form to deal with?!' he sighed, calming himself down.
'Calm down Tanjuro. Getting frustrated won't help you. You have to calm, down' he thought, going into his Selfless State. Tanjuro adjusted his grip on his Sword, "alright everyone. Get ready!" he called. Suddenly the ground rippled under them, and the entire section of forest practically exploded. "What the fuck?!" Gyutaro cried, grabbing onto Ume as they were thrown into the air. A massive, multi-headed wooden dragon reared up, heads writhing like snakes. Tanjuro and his Demons found themselves trying to avoid being crushed by the multiple heads as they fell through the air. "Don't worry everyone! I've got this!" Mitsuri cried.
Suddenly her sword lashed out, slicing through the wooden dragons, and allowing the Love Hashira to swing through the many reaching heads easily. Mitsuri twirled and flipped and ran the length of the twisting dragons as she sliced them apart. All of the Demons landed safely, as the pink and green-haired young woman wrapped her sword around one dragon's maw and tossed it around like a string tied to a rock. She slammed it into two other heads as she landed in front of them. "Don't give up everyone! Keep fighting! No matter what, we must defend the Village!" Mitsuri cried. Tanjuro blinked, his Transparent World had just activated.
He could literally see the young woman's heart beating rapidly inside her chest. Tanjuro then caught sight of something strange. He squinted at Mitsuri's neck, where he could see a faint glow beginning, growing brighter and brighter, before solidifying into a bright mark. He couldn't see clearly what it looked like from this perspective, but he could tell it was glowing with power, which was flowing throughout the young woman's body. Something seemed familiar about that mark, and Tanjuro absently reached up to touch his forehead. Mitsuri raced at Zohatuten once more, even faster than before, once more slicing through every dragon head.
Suddenly they started shooting out the same attacks of each of the clones. Starting with the lighting attack. "Miss Mitsuri!" Tanjuro cried. "Love-Breathing, Sixth Form: Cat-legged winds of love!" she cried, slashing through all of the lighting strikes, and dissipating them. Tanjuro was in awe, 'Wow. It's no wonder she became a Hashira' he thought. Another head began shooting out the wind attacks, trying to crush Mitsuri into the ground, but she somersaulted and dodged each one, as they left leaf-shaped holes in the ground. Tanjuro shook himself out of his shock, and turned to his
Demons, "we have to fight too!" he cried. "Right!" Shizu agreed, as all of them began to fight as well.
"No matter what, we have to win here!" Tanjuro proclaimed, sending out his flames to attack one of the wooden dragons, managing to doge a sonic screech from another head. "Hakuji! Where did the main body go?!" he called, as the former Upper Rank 3 sent out a punch that shattered one of the wooden dragons. "It's hiding in the forest! But I can't pinpoint it with Zohakuten here! His fighting Spirit is too strong for me to detect the lack of one!" Hakuji growled. Tanjuro grit his teeth, sending a flaming slash at one dragon and slicing off it's head. However, it just regrew.
"Attacking this thing is useless! We have to kill the main body! That's the only way to kill him!" Hakuji called, kicking a dragon away that was heading for Shizu. Tanjuro clenched his fists around his sword handle. They needed a plan, and fast!