In this chapter, we'll get introduced to a Mankey...
A thieving Mankey.
A thieving Mankey has appeared in one of my fanfics before.
This one is more mature in tone though.
This chapter is going to be rather light-hearted. I figured I might as well since Muzan swallowed someone whole recently. It might not be as dark as the show but that's still scary, right?
Chapter 8: Be A Mankey
Inside Tamayo's house, Tanjiro was with Susamaru, Yahaba, Tamayo, Yushiro, and his sister.
"I have to admit, it's pretty impressive that you managed to take us down. We were members of the twelve Kizuki!" exclaimed Susamaru.
Though things might have turned out differently if she hadn't blurted out Muzan's last name.
'Actually, Muzan has been lying to you." explained Tamayo.
'He has?!" shouted Susamaru.
'Yes. He likes to play mind games with his subordinates. He figured that if he pretended that you were members of the Twelve Kizuki you would serve him with greater devotion." continued the doctor.
'He does?! Why did I ever listen to him?" asked Susamaru. It seemed that she had placed her loyalty to the wrong man.
'He makes his followers fear him. Hence the curse he placed on you and all other demons." explained Tamayo.
"I see..." nodded Yahaba in understanding.
'Wait, how do you know which demons are members of the Twelve Kizuki?" asked Susamaru.
"They have eye marks that indicate their ranks." explained Tamayo.
'You sure seem to know a lot about them." noted Nezuko.
"That's because I used to be a member.' spoke Tamayo.
"You used to be part of the Twelve Kizuki?!" exclaimed Tanjiro. The fact that she used to be one of Muzan's top subordinates was surprising to him.
Though to be fair, she did have a blood demon art.
"I regret being part of it. Though in my defense, I did try to avenge my husband. But Muzan was too strong for me. He crushed my hope into pieces." explained Tamayo.
If it weren't for Yoriichi, she would likely still be part of the twelve Kizuki.
"Since I had a powerful blood demon art and I was one of the first demons, he chose me to be upper rank 1. But after I defected the markings faded from my eyes." explained Tamayo.
She didn't know much about her replacement, but she heard he used to be a demon slayer.
"I'm glad you decided to rebel." spoke Nezuko.
"As am I." nodded Tamayo.
'Squirtle squirtle!" exclaimed Tanjiro's Squirtle. Did the twelve Kizuki have shadow Pokemon too?
"Yes. And they're strong. Their locks on their doors aren't going to be easy to break." warned Tamayo. Except perhaps, if you were a Hashira.
Squirtle kept that in mind. Chances are if he fought the twelve Kizuki, he would have to fight those shadow Pokemon too.
"By the way, if you want me to, I can give you some of my sweat." said Tanjiro.
'I'm not sure if it will cure my demonification." pointed out the doctor.
She had received an ultra high dose of Muzan's blood...which could have killed her now that she thought of it. Muzan didn't know how much blood he should give to a potential demon at a time.
"But I'll accept your offer." continued the woman.
Tanjiro gave Tamayo some of his sweat.
"I don't feel completely human...but I don't think I'll have to fear the sun anymore." noted Tamayo.
'It's a terrible thing to live in fear. I knew what it was like after losing my family." spoke Tanjiro.
"I know it all too well. Luckily Yoriichi showed me the light." spoke the woman.
He decided to give some to Yushiro as well.
"Just make sure I can still regenerate. Otherwise I might not survive another demon attack." noted Yushiro.
Tanjiro gave him a small amount of sweat.
"I suppose I should thank you." spoke Yushiro. No longer would he have to fear the sun.
'By the way, would you two be willing to provide me with blood samples? We might be able to cure demons like myself completely...and find a way to destroy Muzan." noted Tamayo.
"I don't want anyone to face what I almost went through..." nodded Susamaru.
She and Yahaba gave them blood samples.
"Wait...weren't we cured of our demonification?" questioned Yahaba.
Swablu nodded.
"You should still have some samples of Muzan's cells in your body. Have you noticed that you still have some of your demon strength?" asked Tamayo.
Susamaru tried summoning a temari ball...
...and succeeded.
"I guess I do!" exclaimed the girl.
Tamayo collected the blood samples from them.
"Keep an eye out for powerful demons, will you, Tanjiro?" asked the demon woman.
"Anything that will help cure my sister is welcome." nodded Tanjiro.
'Also, a word of caution, Tanjiro. You may have defeated those two demons, but Muzan isn't likely to give up so easy. He's going to likely send more demons after you. So keep your guard up." warned Tamayo.
Tanjiro nodded. At least it would make it easier for him to find powerful demons.
He waved farewell to Tamayo, Yushiro, Susamaru, and Yahaba.
"Mind if we stay here? This place is pretty clean." nodded Yahaba.
"Of course." spoke Tamayo. It seemed that the two of them weren't so different, even if they used to be enemies.
"Personally I'd like to return the favor to Tanjiro some day." remarked Susamaru.
'You may get your chance." suggested the former Upper Rank 1.
Shortly after he left, Tanjiro received another mission.
"To the haunted mansion!" exclaimed the crow.
"Another mission? That might be a problem. I was injured fighting a demon." explained Tanjiro as he wrote a letter to the Demon Slayer Corps. Sometimes that happened to demon slayers, though the demon slayers usually considered themselves lucky that they had survived the mission.
'For that reason, we shall be sending you help. Thanks for telling us this." read the letter.
He sighed in relief. He was glad that the demon slayer corps were understanding.
It would be more difficult for him to fight while injured, but at least the demon slayer corps were providing him aid.
He just hoped that he would recover soon.
Not being able to fight at full strength put him at a disadvantage. And Tamayo did warn him that demons would hunt him down.
Perhaps he should consider using a rehabilitation course. The demon slayer corps had them for getting injured demon slayers back in shape.
Meanwhile...
Zenitsu successfully found all of Wishiwashi's friends.
He was very happy.
However, Zenitsu was attacked by a swarm of shadow water Pokemon shortly afterwards.
It was surprising how aggressive they were.
Though it was a normal for a shadow Pokemon to be aggressive.
'They're coming from all directions!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
He began to sweat nervously.
Pichu was feeling scared too.
Suddenly, a shadow Tentacruel showed up.
Zenitsu gasped.
"What do we do?" asked Zenitsu.
He tried zapping Tentacruel, but he dodged.
Pichu used Tail Whip, but this had no effect on Tentacruel.
'Tentacruel's ability is Clear Body. Its stats cannot be lowered." read the Pokedex.
Tentacruel lunged at him with his tentacles.
Zenitsu gasped.
'This might be our last stand, Pichu!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
Pichu nodded. Which was a shame, since it seemed that Zenitsu's demon slayer career was rather short.
Suddenly, Wishiwashi showed up.
'Tentacruel?" asked Tentacruel.
Wishiwashi gathered together his friends, and suddenly they combined.
'Wishiwashi's abliity is Schooling. When it has a lot of HP, Wishiwashi forms a powerful school. It stops schooling when its HP is low.' read the Pokedex.
Tentacruel had heard about this Pokemon.
It was a fearsome foe indeed. Not even Gyarados would attack them.
By that logic, how was he supposed to win?
Then again, Wishiwashi did look delicious.
He fired acid at Wishiwashi, but the water Pokemon dodged it.
He then hit Tentacruel with Bulldoze.
"Tentacruel!" exclaimed the water Pokemon. Unfortunately, he was part poison type, so ground type attacks were something that he should be afraid of.
He fired a Water Pulse, but that was ineffective against other water types.
"I'm glad I decided to help Wishiwashi find his friends." remarked Zenitsu.
Pichu nodded. Otherwise they would have been overwhelmed.
Now Wishiwashi was coming to his defense.
The water Pokemon hit Tentacruel with another Bulldoze.
Tentacruel fainted.
Zenitsu then seized the opportunity to purify him.
The Tentacruel was grateful to be purified. And yes, he wasn't so cruel anymore. Though it would be best if they didn't provoke him.
Wishiwashi decided that he would become Zenitsu's Pokemon.
'I'm glad to have added help. But what about your friends?" asked Zenitsu.
'Wishiwashi!" exclaimed Wishiwashi. He could call upon them at any time.
Zenitsu caught Wishiwashi in a Pokeball.
Meanwhile, Sabito and Makomo received a gift from Tanjiro. He was glad that they were still alive, so he decided to give them a present.
It was drinking water.
'You think this came from his Squirtle's mouth?" questioned Sabito. It seemed that Squirtle was already with him.
"I don't think we should worry too much about that. It's pretty clean." noted Makomo.
Though it was a bit gross to drink something that came out of a water Pokemon's mouth.
Still, the water tasted pretty good.
Piplup didn't drink much. It hurt his pride to accept gifts from someone else.
But the water was rather tempting.
"Piplup, the Penguin Pokemon. Because it is very proud, it hates accepting food from people. Its thick down guards it from cold.' read the Pokedex.
Their next mission was to search for a demon slayer that had not reported back from hs mission.
It could be that he had been killed and eaten.
But hopefully this was not the case.
Perhaps he had been simply wounded in action.
Just in case, they had sent two demon slayers instead of one. Sometimes demons required more than one demon slayer to handle them.
Piplup and Mudkip assisted their trainers in searching for Inosuke.
Maybe they shouldn't dwell on what possible fate could have befallen him.
Luckily, it turned out he was alive and well.
The reason he hadn't reported back was because he was currently occupied.
He was currently searching for his mask.
'I wonder why he isn't wearing a shirt.' questioned Sabito. It was a good idea to have protection on your torso.
"I'm not complaining." replied Makomo.
"Where is that Mankey?" asked Inosuke.
'Is that your target?" questioned Sabito.
'No! But he stole my mask!" exclaimed the man.
He certainly was a mischievous Pokemon.
Inosuke had actually taken care of the shadow Pokemon sometime ago.
He had beaten him silly.
It didn't seem likely he would cause trouble anytime soon.
The Pokemon in question was a Machoke.
"Is that him?" asked Sabito, pointing to a tree.
He saw a Mankey wearing a boar mask.
'That's the one!" exclaimed Inosuke. He had some nerve trying to steal from him.
"Why would he want to hide such a pretty face?" questioned Makomo. It was beautiful in her opinion. Though it did make him look a bit like a lady.
"We have masks ourselves, don't we?" pointed out Sabito.
"True." nodded the girl with blue eyes. But they didn't wear them on their faces too much.
Mankey certainly was a fast Pokemon.
Catching him would not be easy.
But at least this wasn't a dangerous mission.
Sabito sent the demon slayer corps a letter saying they had found Inosuke.
Once they had recovered his mask, he should be ready to fight again.
That might take some time, however.
"He certainly is attached to that mask." thought Sabito.
"Maybe we need something to lure Mankey out." suggested Makomo.
She had tried offering Piplup fruit, but he refused.
It seemed that he would rather gather his own food.
But perhaps that fruit could be used for a different purpose instead.
Well, she could give it to Mudkip, obviously. But besides that.
"Let's hope this works." thought Makomo to herself.
On the way to the mansion, Tanjiro noticed Zenitsu, who was flirting with a woman.
"Will you marry me?" asked Zenitsu.
"I already have a fiancee." explained the young woman.
'Noooooooo!" screamed the blonde.
'What's the matter?" asked Tanjiro.
'I tried to marry this girl, but she's already engaged!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
Life was unfair.
"There there. There are plenty of fish in the sea." spoke Tanjiro.
"Funny you should mention that." remarked Zenitsu, recalling the Pokemon that he had obtained on his last mission.
Suddenly, Nezuko decided to open her box.
She had a good rest, but she wanted to stop and smell the flowers.
'You're carrying a pretty girl on your back?!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
'She's my sister, actually." explained Tanjiro.
"Hi?" asked Nezuko.
"You have one attractive sister." remarked Zenitsu.
Nezuko giggled.
'If you need me to carry that box, I'd be happy to!" exclaimed the blonde.
"Just as long as you don't get carried away." suggested Tanjiro.
'It's nice that he's treating a girl like myself with respect." noted Nezuko.
Perhaps the two of them would get along.
Suddenly, Zenitsu saw a Spinarak.
"Aahhh!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
"I guess his courage needs some work." noted Nezuko.
"To be fair, there are demon slayers that act this way after completing the selection exam. It really puts them on edge." pointed out Tanjiro.
He was well-adjusted, but other demon slayers weren't so lucky.
"Did you receive a mission to go to the haunted mansion too?" questioned Tanjiro.
'It's s-s-scary!" exclaimed Zenitsu.
Though to be fair, he had successfully completed missions before.
"If we work together, I think we have a chance." spoke Tanjiro. Perhaps part of the reason he had been sent to work with him was to boost Zenitsu's confidence.
Considering that Tanjiro was injured and Zenitsu was lacking confidence, maybe they would make for an ideal team.
"O-of course!" shouted the blonde.
He just hoped that they didn't get separated.
How many demons were in the mansion anyway?
They hadn't received much information.
Hopefully they wouldn't end up being outnumbered.
Though Tanjiro knew from experience that he could survive even if he encountered multiple demons at a time.
'How many demons are in the mansion?" asked Tanjiro.
'There shouldn't be many inside. Demons don't gather together in large numbers." explained Giyu.
"I guess Muzan is afraid that demons will rebel if they band together.' thought Tanjiro.
It was nice to know that the demon slayer corps had one advantage over demons.
Still, even with this knowledge, he was glad that he had another demon slayer with him.
Strength in numbers.
It looks like Tanjiro and Zenitsu have met for the first time.
Perhaps if they work together, they can defeat Kyogai.
Of course, Inosuke will be involved as well.
I'm of course making creative liberties with the source material as usual.
I didn't consider the Tzumuzi Arc to be really dark but I figured maybe Kyogai can be purified. I feel like he deserves a chance at redemption.
Either way, I think it would be a bad idea to let him eat a marechi. The hand demon ate roughly half the equivalent of a marechi and look how strong he became.
I could have given Zenitsu a Psyduck but I felt that Wishiwashi suited his character more. Though maybe I could give one of our heroes a Psyduck.