In this chapter…I made a pun!
But you probably know who our four heroes are going to be facing.
I could have had Nezuko come along, but wisteria makes her sneeze.
But hey, at least it doesn't poison her!
For the fight, feel free to listen to Legend of Dragoon: Boss Battle 2.
Chapter 3: Hand to Hand Combat
The four heroes had arrived on Mount Fujikasane.
They noticed that it was surrounded by flowers.
It made their surroundings smell quite fresh. And lovely as well.
There were two children on the mountain. One had white hair, the other had black hair.
"Welcome to the final selection exam. This is where your skills will be tested." spoke Kiriya.
"We have imprisoned demons here past the marked point. Your objective is to survive them for a week." explained Kanata.
"What if they escape?!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
"You won't have to worry about that. The mountain is surrounded by wisteria flowers, and wisteria is poisonous to demons." answered Kiriya.
Zenitsu sighed in relief.
Wait, did she say a week?
His eyes widened in horror.
"I'm not going to survive that long!" exclaimed Zenitsu. He didn't think he would last a day, to be honest.
"If you find yourself over your head, you can leave at any time. You'll fail the exam, but you'll have a chance to try again. We'll keep a record as to how long you managed to last." explained Kiriya.
Reluctantly, Zenitsu went to the demon's den.
Tanjiro, Sabito, Makoto, and Squirtle followed suit.
"Good luck!" exclaimed Kanata.
Squirtle shook Tanjiro's hand before they went in.
He noted that Tanjiro's hand was sweaty.
"Yeah. I'm feeling nervous about fighting all those demons. But Urokodaki thinks we're ready." noted Tanjiro.
If so, he was inclined to believe him.
Fortunately for Tanjiro, things were way easier for him now that he had done his training.
It helped that he had brought Squirtle with him...and the demons couldn't decide who got to eat who.
He squirted the demons with water.
But much to his surprise, they became human again.
"Wait...you can purify demons too?" questioned Tanjiro.
Squirtle was surprised.
Perhaps he had inherited that from Tanjiro.
Tanjiro quickly evacuated the humans so that they didn't become demon snacks.
The two children noticed what was going on. Did the demon slayers bite off more than they could chew? Then again, they didn't have swords on them.
Tanjiro noted that there was no point in letting the demons in the exam get stronger. Even if the Demon Slayers didn't have to worry about them escaping.
The demons weren't nearly as threatening as the temple demon he had faced before. He had clearly grown stronger.
In a mountain cave, there was a demon who was getting ready to go on the hunt.
The sun had gone down, so now was a good time.
His name was Teoni, and he was a very big demon. And he also had a lot of arms.
He was not like most demons on the mountain. Most had only eaten one or two humans at most.
But not him. His hatred had allowed him to survive. He had eaten roughly fifty demon slayers.
As such, he was big and strong. He certainly was a demon to be feared. Perhaps if he wasn't imprisoned in the mountain, he could get himself into the Twelve Kizuki.
The demon slayers were careful to avoid him. There were some fights that they just couldn't win.
They did well against the normal demons though...mainly because they fought each other as well as the demon slayers themselves over who got to eat who.
Currently, he was lamenting his imprisonment.
Urokodaki had brought him here. Demon slayers needed to hone their skills, it seemed.
"I've been trapped here for too long! If only there was a way for me to escape!" exclaimed the multi-armed demon. That way he could get his revenge on Urokodaki.
"Darn it! I stepped on a flower! It was such a nice flower!" exclaimed a nearby demon slayer.
The hand demon overheard this.
Suddenly, Teoni had an idea.
What if he persuaded the demon slayers to destroy the wisteria?
If he did that, he would be able to leave.
Given how big and scary he was, he could intimidate the demon slayers into doing what he wanted.
"Why didn't I think of this before?" thought the demon. Granted, he was in no short supply of food here on the mountain (even if he was trapped there), but still!
He approached the demon slayer.
The slayer gasped in alarm.
"Good lord! Look at the size of that thing!" exclaimed the slayer.
He had never seen a demon that big.
Who would have thought that a demon could grow to that size?
Then again, there were a lot of things that he did not know about demons.
He was just starting out.
"Ah, demon slayer! I could use your help with something!" shouted the hand demon.
"Help...with what?" asked the nervous demon slayer.
"I need you to destroy the wisteria around the mountain!" exclaimed Teoni. That way he could go free and get his revenge on Urokodaki. He was going to savor every bite of him.
"Destroy...the wisteria?" questioned the demon slayer.
"If you do that, I won't eat you!" shouted the hand demon.
The demon slayer thought this over carefully.
On one hand, he valued his life.
But on the other hand, he knew that he would be endangering people if he did that.
Like those two nice kids.
He couldn't do that to them.
"I'm going to have to decline your offer." spoke the demon slayer.
"Very well. You had your chance." said Teoni.
He prepared to eat him.
Suddenly, he noticed Sabito, Makomo, Tanjiro, and Squirtle.
"What is this? Ah, perfect! Urokodaki's apprentices! I've been looking forward to snacking on them!" exclaimed Teoni.
It was his way of getting his revenge on them.
The fact that there were three of them was nothing short of exciting to him.
Immediately, he stomped over to the three of them.
In the process, he left the demon slayer that had stepped on a flower behind.
The demon slayer wasn't sure why he had left him, but he decided not to dwell on it.
"Uh-oh..." spoke Makomo.
"This can't be good." said Sabito.
"Once I've eaten you, I'll be sure to collect your masks!" shouted Teoni.
"How come?" asked Tanjiro.
"It's retribution for Urokodaki imprisoning me here!" explained the large demon.
"Oh. I get it." spoke Makomo. He didn't like their master, did he?
Immediately, Teoni attempted to slam into them with his hands.
He got the feeling that Urokodaki's apprentices would taste particularly good.
Makomo slashed off a hand, but it regenerated.
Sabito sliced off an arm, but it regenerated too.
Squirtle squirted him, but this didn't purify him. It seemed that stronger demons took longer to purify.
Teoni then leapt into the air and attempted to crush them.
"This is what I do, I sit on you, sit on you!" bellowed the hand demon.
Narrowly, they avoided being crushed.
"How do we stop him? He's too big!" exclaimed Makomo. It didn't seem like they were going to be able to cut off his head. Especially since there was a notable absence of a neck to cut through. He looked a bit like a Primeape. An evil Primeape.
She didn't think that they would be facing a demon this big in the final selection exams. And yet here they were.
If they survived, she would remind herself to thank Urokodaki for putting them through extensive training courses.
"I'm not sure..." spoke Sabito. They might be in over the head. It would be a shame if their demon slayer career ended before it begun, but sometimes things just didn't go according to plan.
They could try retreating, but given how much Teoni hated Urokodaki and the extended reach of his arms, it's plausible that he would catch them before they could do so. He was rather fast despite his size.
Squirtle had an idea.
"Squirtle squirt!" exclaimed Squirtle. Wasn't this mountain surrounded by wisteria?
Maybe if they looked hard enough, they could find wisteria they could use against the demon.
"That's not a bad idea." remarked Sabito.
Tanjiro patted Squirtle on the head. He was proving to be a big help.
"What is he saying to them?" questioned Teoni.
To his knowledge, all he was saying was his own name. He never understood why Pokemon spoke that way.
The three of them distracted him while the turtle Pokemon went to find wisteria.
"I'll crush you!" bellowed Teoni.
He dug his hands into the ground, then had them sprout underneath the demon slayer's feet.
Luckily, they dodged it.
Squirtle came back a few minutes later.
As it turned out, he had found a whole bunch of wisteria flowers.
"I guess now it's time to execute our plan." noted Tanjiro.
Sabito and Makomo nodded.
The three of them ran to where Squirtle was taking them.
"Where do you think you're going?" questioned the hand demon.
He began to chase after them...unaware that this was exactly what they wanted him to do.
However, he stopped when he realized that he was about to take a tumble.
"Whoa! That was a close one!" exclaimed Teoni.
If he had taken a few more steps, he would fallen off a cliff and into a field of wisteria.
That would have been the end of him.
Suddenly, he found himself being squirted.
Squirtle was attempting to knock him off the cliff!
"The demon slayers...they have me where they want me!" shouted Teoni.
This was not good for him.
Sabito, Makomo, and Tanjiro decided to assist Squirtle by pushing the demon.
The plan worked!
Teoni screamed as he fell into the flowers.
He attempted to grab the cliff with one of his hands, but Squirtle squirted it away.
It looked like this was the end of the giant demon.
"We did it!" exclaimed Makomo.
"I'm surprised what we can pull off when we work together." noted Sabito. Then again, their mentor told them what they could accomplish when they worked as a team.
"Wait, he's changing back into a human." noted Tanjiro.
Sure enough, he was shrinking in size.
As it turned out, he was a small boy when he became a human.
"He was a young boy when he transformed? That's horrible!" exclaimed Makoto. She couldn't help but feel bad for the poor boy. Who would have thought that he would have gotten turned into something so monstrous? Even if he did try to have them for his supper.
"I'm glad we managed to save him." noted Sabito.
Besides, this would make completing the exam a lot easier for the rookie demon slayers. They wouldn't have to worry about him anymore.
Luckily, the final selection exam went pretty smoothly after that.
None of the demons wanted to mess with the demon slayers that took down the strongest demon around.
As such, they were able to survive for seven days and seven nights without being attacked anymore.
The demon slayers met with the two children once the sun had risen.
However, Kaguya decided to visit the slayers himself this time.
"Father? You came to visit the demon slayers personally?" asked Kiriya.
"Of course. They went far beyond expectations and defeated a demon that rookie demon slayers could not defeat until now." explained Kagaya.
Up until now, the demon slayers had decided to avoid him.
Still, he was considering sending a demon slayer to deal with the big demon himself so that the recruits had a greater choice of survival. But now that wouldn't be necessary.
"Well done! By the way, I heard that you can turn demons back into humans. You should keep on doing what you're doing." spoke Kagaya.
It was most impressive that he could do that. But Tamayo did think that such a thing was possible.
Kaguya shook his hand.
"Man, I'm glad this guy is in charge." noted Tanjiro.
He didn't know very much about him, but he could tell that he was pretty charismatic.
"I'm glad we managed to stop him. What if he persuaded a demon slayer to torch the wisteria?" asked Makomo.
Listening to that made Kaguya realize the risks.
If that happened once, it could happen again.
He discussed it with his Hashira followers.
"That actually happened once. I don't know who did it, but it made the orphans under the care less trusting of each other." noted Gyomei. Something told them that one of their fellow orphans had done it.
He got the feeling the culprit had been intimidated by the demons into putting out the essence.
"Very well. We shall be revising the exam.' spoke Kaguya.
From now on, instead of using demons, they will be using Pokemon.
The Pokemon would attempt to capture the humans and take them out of the forest.
They could make the Pokemon faint to prevent this...but they couldn't kill them.
This would allow the demon slayers to hone their skills while preventing unnecessary death.
"I'm glad I brought them to Urokodaki." noted Giyu.
They were naturals at demon slaying.
As a gift, Sabito and Makomo got something a little extra for defeating the hand demon.
They got their choice of water Pokemon.
Makomo chose Mudkip.
And Sabito chose Piplup.
When their swords were ready, our heroes got their first mission.
Tanjiro would be headed to a coal mine to deal with the Shadow Pokemon there.
It seems it had been overrun.
Most likely there would be fire and rock Pokemon.
Luckiy for him, he was a water breather.
And of course, he had Squirtle with him.
Meanwhile, Zenitsu would investigate a village where women were going missing.
There had been puddles spotted where women had disappeared.
It could very well be the work of a water demon.
To be honest, Zenitsu didn't think he would return from that mission alive. Even if he had managed to survive the exam.
So Squirtle decided to give him a morale boost.
"Squirtle squirtle squirtle!" exclaimed Squirtle.
He handed him a water bottle that he had squirted in.
"This will give me the strength to fight demons? Thanks, little guy!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
He appreciated his help.
Maybe now he had a chance to survive the mission.
Squirtle gave the thumbs up.
He decided to drink it.
It tasted pretty good.
"Here I come!" shouted Zenitsu.
Well, now Tanjiro is officially a Demon Slayer.
However, I will be having Zenitsu face the swamp demon instead.
I want to be creative.