Wishes From Beyond The Grave
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Winds, Waves, And Chains! We got Final Selection happening this chapter and you better believe there's at least one surprise waiting for our heroes on Mt. Fujikasane. And speaking of surprises, some slightly more pleasant ones await you at my Pat reon where you'll find news, scene samples, and commissions! Now then I believe that's everything and with no guest review questions to answer this week, to the story we go!
The Home of Sakonji Urokodaki
The reason the Kellers managed to cut through their respective obstacles was through discovery of a phenomenon known as 'The Opening Thread'. Upon reaching a certain level of skill, a warrior's honed instincts allow them to locate the weaknesses in an enemy's stance or attacks. Oftentimes people with enhanced senses, like Urokodaki and his sense of smell, are able to find it through said senses. But in the case of those without enhanced senses, they often rely on their sight to spot the thread.
Once seen, a warrior's weapon is drawn to the thread as it becomes taut. Said warrior also attacks the weakness with maximum force, their body instinctively adjusting to the required angle as they do so. The parents would learn all of this later, but first, they would learn something else. "Sensei," John turned to see Urokodaki approaching, somehow knowing the boulder had been cut, "I'm sorry it took so long, but that was the last test, right?"
"I am the one who should be apologizing to you," the masked man looked at the boulder as he spoke, "the truth is I was being cruel in hopes of sparing you pain."
"Sparing me pain," the former hunter glanced at the obstacle he'd just overcome, "you did a bang-up job of that."
"You misunderstand," Urokodaki turned to face him, "I had no intention of sending you to Final Selection. You were not supposed to be able to cut this boulder."
"Are you saying you expected me to quit," John narrowed his eyes, "to give up on my own son?"
"You are a father so I believe you'll understand this," he sighed, sounding older than John had ever heard him, "I cared for each and every student I trained. So many of them were children who lost their parents and other family members to demons. In many instances, they came to see me as more than a mere mentor. And so many of them have lost their lives as slayers. It was almost tantamount to losing my own children and grandchildren, over and over again. Then you came to me in hopes of saving your own son."
"I don't see how holding me back here would help save my son," the swordsman-in-training responded in confusion.
"It wouldn't," Urokodaki revealed, "you are not a terribly old couple, you still may be capable of having a child together."
"So you thought I'd what? Give up, let my son die and have another one as if nothing happened?!" John clenched his fist. He'd been annoyed by the masked man many times during his training because of how ridiculous it seemed on occasion, but this was the first time the former hunter recalled feeling actual anger towards his teacher.
"As I said, it was cruel of me," his sensei couldn't meet his eye, "but so is the life of a demon slayer. You'll face the possibility of death on every mission and if both you and Mary died, your son would be alone, assuming he ever woke up. But you succeeded, overcame an obstacle I thought impossible for you to overcome and if you accomplished that, perhaps you can accomplish more." He bowed then, "as of today, John Keller, you have completed your training."
About The Same Time: In the Windy Mountains
"You gave me an impossible test?!" Mary practically yelled, "why in the world would you do that?!"
"It wasn't my idea," Izumo sighed while tossing away her latest reed, "that damn old man's been sending me letters, begging me to make your last test as hard as possible. The old softie seemed to think one person dying was less of a big deal than two."
"That one person is my son!" The Mother growled, "You think I'm not going to fight for his life just because I could have another kid?! But what am I even saying, you wouldn't understand what it is to be on the verge of losing a child." She regretted those words immediately as her sensei slammed her fist into the rock wall she was leaning against, cracking it.
"I have lost more people dear to me than you could possibly know," the Breath of Wind Cultivator spoke with a low, dangerous tone, "I've more than just been on the verge. Understand this and understand it now, no matter how powerful you become as a slayer you won't be able to save everyone. You will lose comrades, people you'll grow to care about. It's a cruel, twisted way of being kind but in comparison to the life you'll lead as a slayer losing one child is almost lucky, almost."
"I," Mary looked away, unable to meet her eye, "I'm sorry, I-."
"Forget it," her sensei sighed before putting another reed back in her mouth, "it's only natural you'd get upset at someone telling you to let your child die. But you don't have to worry about that now anyway. You passed the test, a test that only those with a bit of remarkable ability could pass, so there's no reason for me to stop you from going to Final Selection. Just remember to be careful and should you become an official slayer, you'll be that much closer to helping your son."
"Thank you, sensei," the mother bowed, "I won't forget what I've learned here today."
"Thank me by staying alive," Izumo pushed off the wall and began to walk down the mountain, "now come on. I'm starving and we've got reason to celebrate tonight."
The Next Day: Mt. Sagiri
John finished up tying the black belt of the kimono top Urokodaki had given him. It was blue with wave patterns, greatly resembling that of his sensei's own outfit. As soon as he was finished, he opened the door to the next room and went to kneel by his still sleeping son. "Hey kid," he began, "it's been two whole years, but your old man is finally going out to become a demon slayer. After all this time I don't know whether or not you can hear me, but feel free to cheer me and your mother on while we're at Final Selection. And don't worry, I promise we're both going to come back alive, no matter what stands in our way."
The father stood up then and headed out the door where his now former sensei was waiting. "Don't worry about your son," Urokodaki assured, "I'll take good care of him."
"I know you will, thank you," John bowed, "and thank you for everything else up to this point. I'll be back in a week or so." He turned to leave but remembered something and called back. "Oh, and if Sabito and Makomo stop by, tell them I said thanks as well. Anyway, I need to be going."
Once again, the slayer candidate turned and headed off. But even if he hadn't the reaction on Urokodaki's face was hidden by his mask. 'How is that possible,' the Cultivator wondered while recovering from the shock. It would be on his mind for the rest of the day until Izumo showed up on his doorstep again.
"Hey, I'm guessing that student of yours passed," She noted while leaning against the doorframe.
"He did," Urokodaki confirmed while preparing a fire for the evening, "I threw the toughest obstacle I had at him but John overcame it. The same appears to be true for you as well."
"Mary's pretty stubborn when it comes to her kid," the Breath of Wind User sighed, "but a part of me wonders, as ridiculous as it is, if she had a bit of help."
"Did she mention a name she shouldn't have known," the old man already suspected the answer.
"Shihoze," Izumo took off her hat and looked towards the sky, "she knew Shihoze's name. What about you?"
"Sabito and Makomo," Urokodaki responded, a frown forming beneath his mask, "it shouldn't be possible, but John knew their names, almost as if he'd spoken to them."
"But how could they speak to children who've been dead for ages" Izumo mused, "Just who in the world did we wind up training?" It would be some time before they received an answer to such questions.
Nighttime: Mt. Fujikasane
'This mountain is absolutely covered in Wisteria,' Mary mused as she walked along, feeling some of the lower hanging purple flowers of the wisteria trees. "I thought these would be out of season, what sort of place is this," she couldn't help but say out loud this time.
"It must be something in the soil," the most welcome voice she'd ever heard caused her to whirl around and see John approaching, "I've heard trees lose their leaves because they're going dormant during the Fall and Winter to preserve nutrients. But if there's plenty here then there's no reason for them not to bloom year-round."
"John!" She cheered and threw her arms around her husband, "you passed your final test to?"
"It wasn't easy," he hugged her back before looking in her eyes, "sensei did everything he could to stop me."
"So did mine," Mary sighed, "apparently we're very likeable people."
"Of course you are, I married you after all," John smiled even when his wife hit him in the stomach playfully.
"Anyway, what's with the mask," she pointed to the white fox mask hanging off the side of his head which had blue wave patterns on the forehead.
"Sensei called it a 'warding mask'," John explained while pointing to said mask, "it's supposed to help keep demons away, but I doubt it actually works that well. I do like the robe he gave me, though."
"What do you think of mine," Mary did a twirl of sorts, showing off her white robe top with swirling black wind patterns and the kanji for 'wind' on the back.
"It suits you," her husband crossed his arms and nodded in approval, "but you aren't wearing it because that hard ass sensei of yours is making you wear it, are you?"
"She gave it to me, and I accepted," the dark-haired woman clarified, "being honest I kind of like it. What about you?"
"I like it, but it's also a reminder of how much our lives have changed," John looked at his outfit.
"By the way, I probably know the answer from the letters we've been exchanging, but Jonathan, is he?" Mary didn't want to finish the question.
"He's alive, but his condition hasn't changed," the father sighed, "you don't have to worry, though, Urokodaki is taking care of him right now, so let's just focus on what we have to do here."
"Right," the mother nodded before the duo turned and headed up a flight of large stone steps. At the top of the stairs, they passed through a red Japanese Torii gate and found themselves in a courtyard of sorts. Papers were strung from the trees to red pillars, indicating they'd arrived at the entrance to the testing site. And if that wasn't enough of an indication, the presence of several individuals littered around the area with swords was a definite giveaway.
The majority of them were teenagers, save for a few who were a year or two older and even a couple who might've been a year or two younger. Several sported scars, no doubt the result of demon attacks. 'I never realized,' John mused, 'I know Urokodaki told me the Corps numbered in the hundreds, but I never thought too deeply about just how many of them joined because of the demons.' Mary was having similar thoughts, along with her odd feeling acting up again.
In this case it seemed to happen when she looked at a few certain people. A guy with blond hair, another kid with a Mohawk of all things, a shirtless guy wearing a boar's head, and a girl with a ponytail hanging on her right side. The strange thing about the last one was while several of the others looked like they'd just gotten out of training, the girl was pristine, having no visible traces of dirt on her whatsoever. 'What's someone like that doing here,' the mother wondered, 'she doesn't seem dangerous but she's also completely calm.'
The mother was broken from her thoughts when a couple murmurings reached her ears. Most of them were saying something along the lines of 'who let the old folks up here?' The duo might've commented on that, assuming it was directed at them, but everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to a couple of twins wearing purple kimonos speaking up. "Good evening, everyone," they both spoke at the same time, their voices eerily similar, "thank you for coming to the Final Selection."
'They talk about it like it's some sort of little event,' John mused. He noted that the twins didn't appear to be that old, possibly not even in their double digits. They were both girls, as far as he could tell, with just above shoulder length hair. The only way to distinguish them was the one on his left had white hair and a wisteria flower on the right side of her head while the other one had black hair and a wisteria flower on the left side of their head.
"Here on Mt. Fujikasane, there are several demons who've been captured alive and imprisoned by demon slayer swordsmen," the white-haired twin explained in the same upbeat yet monotone voice they'd both been using.
"The blossoms of wisteria prevent them from leaving," the black-haired twin continued, "they bloom year-round here and cover everything from the base to halfway up the mountain."
"But from this point on, the wisteria ends," spoke the white-haired girl once again, "you will find demons lurking all over the upper half of the mountain, and they are very hungry."
"In order to pass Final Selection," the black-haired girl concluded, "you will have to survive for seven days beyond the protection of this wisteria." The two of them bowed then, "now, your trial begins."
"Here we go," Mary took a steadying breath before nodding towards her husband. He returned the gesture, and they proceeded up the mountain with the rest of the slayer candidates.
A Short Time Later: On the Upper Half of the Mountain
The numerous swordsmen and women rushed down the trails, through the trees and bushes of the expansive mountain forest. Or at least most of them were rushing. "Is there a reason we're only walking fast," Mary glanced at her husband.
"Anyone with a good head on their shoulders has probably already figured out they need to be heading East," John explained while walking along with his hand on his sword, "the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, so the first rays of sunlight will hit there. But there's a slight error most of the younger folks are making, being in a hurry."
"Because even if they get as far east as possible it won't change the fact that sunrise is still a few hours away," Mary realized, "and if any of the demons have figured out that we're likely to go that direction, they'll be waiting for us."
"Those girls said the demons here are extremely hungry," the former hunter recalled, "likely hungry enough to risk getting close to areas where sunlight would be. If we just rush over and set up on the eastern half of the mountain, we could be fighting a swarm until morning."
"So the plan is to take it slow and steady to conserve our energy until we reach the eastern half of the mountain," his wife mused, "but there's just one problem."
"Yeah, the younger slayers aren't the only impatient ones," the parents stopped and put their hands on their blades as a rustling caught their attention. The duo stood back-to-back, stretching out their senses as best they could. That's when the first demon struck. It leapt out of the trees above them and dove downwards.
The two candidates separated as he hit the ground where they'd just been. Mary had just enough time to note the demon had horns, long purple hair and jagged spikes on his elbows before glancing over at her husband. "John!" She called in warning. It was just in time as he whirled around and deflected an attack from a brown-haired demon with his sword before leaping away to avoid his follow-up kick.
"Two at once," he remarked while joining up with Mary who'd also drawn her sword, "guess that's the risk we take traveling together."
"Hey, this is my territory," the first demon tried shoving the second one away.
"Screw you," the brown-haired demon shot back, "I'm starving so I'm going to eat them!"
"Should we just leave while they're fighting it out," the mother glanced at her husband.
"You won't escape!" The first demon charged at them with the second close behind, clearly having heard the comment.
"I haven't tasted human flesh in forever!" The second demon snarled. John and Mary took their stances then. 'Remember the training,' the duo called upon Total Concentration Breathing, 'watch their movements and find the weaknesses within them.' The couple saw it then, time seemed to slow down as the threads became visible and stretched taut. 'Breath of Water First Form, Breath of Wind Second Form,' they charged forward, 'Water Surface Slash, Claws Purifying Wind!'
In an instant the two techniques sliced through the demon's necks, decapitating them in midair. John and Mary landed gracefully, for the most part, while the two monsters collapsed to the ground in quickly dissolving heaps, the second one being in pieces due to the Breath of Wind Form used. "That…was it," Mary looked back in slight confusion.
"Neither of those demons came anywhere close to Sabito's speed," John mused, "I guess it's only natural they'd go down easy."
"Makes me wonder if our teachers are scarier than any demon we'll ever meet," his wife contemplated.
"Doubt it," the father shook his head, "Urokodaki gave me a warning about how demons become stronger."
"Oh right, the more humans they've eaten, the stronger they become," the mother recalled now, "that means any demon who's managed to survive Final Selection more than once, is gonna be a pain in the ass." She held up her sword then, "but the good news is they all have the same weakness. Cut their heads off with one of these nichirin blades or shine some sunlight on 'em and they're ash."
"I certainly won't complain about the simplicity of it," the duo sheathed their swords, "now let's get going." They continued on at a fast walk, and on occasion jogged, but as before they weren't in a hurry. A couple more demons attempted to attack them but were cut down just as easily as the first. But there came a point where John noticed something strange.
"Is something wrong?" Mary asked after he'd been quite for a while.
"Hard to say," he put a hand to his chin, "it's possible we've just entered the halfway point and there are fewer demons since the majority of them might be at the entrance or on the eastern half, but we haven't encountered any for the last several minutes."
"There shouldn't be any Wisteria here," his wife pondered, "but what other reasons would there be besides this being the halfway point?" The answer to her question came almost immediately as a bad feeling washed over her, like an ominous wind had suddenly blown in. Before she could say anything, a scream was heard. The two candidates rushed over to find another participant wearing a brown haori fleeing from something.
The duo caught sight of what he was running from and recoiled, quickly hiding behind some nearby trees. The reason had become clear. The reason there weren't any other demons in this area was because a much larger, much stronger one was present. He was easily between nine to ten feet tall, and his flesh was putrid green.
But that wasn't the strangest or most disturbing thing about the demon. This particular monstrosity had numerous arms of varying sizes, the majority of which were wrapped around his upper body, including two that encircled his neck and a hand that covered his bald head. The demon was also girthy, lumbering along on two large, grotesque legs, his waist hidden by a fat stomach. Still, it was clear he was dangerous if the fleeing candidate was anything to go by, along with the presence of another dead swordsman being carried in one of his hands.
His prey tripped and fell, turning around in time to witness the demon lift up a couple of its arms, revealing a large, drooling maw. It was more than wide enough to swallow the dead candidate whole. John and Mary saw it then, how his body expanded just the slightest bit upon consuming a person. 'How many has he eaten to gain that size,' the former hunter wondered while trying to decide what to do.
They had only really wanted to join the Corps to save Jonathan. It's not that they didn't want to save anyone else, but fighting a demon who was potentially beyond their skill level at the entrance exam to becoming a slayer could end their journey before it even truly began. But the decision would be taken out of their hands. "AHAHAHAHAHA!" Another demon came crashing through the treetops.
John and Mary both managed to move in time to avoid the attack and where glad they did. The new arrival cut through the trees they'd been hiding behind with surprising ease. "Oh dear, it seems you're a little more aware than my last prey," the apparent female demon laughed as she stood up to her full height. The duo thought this night couldn't get much freakier but that turned out to be untrue.
The parents weren't even sure what they were seeing for a few seconds. It was like looking at an eight-foot-tall lizard with the lower body being that of a goat. There were some features that gave away the beast's status as a female, namely the presence of a rounded chest and the face of a woman at the top of the lizard neck with goat horns protruding from either side of her head. But most disturbing of all was her completely blacked out eyes.
"What in the fuck is that supposed to be," Mary asked while readying her sword.
"Well, well," the multi-armed demon turned to see the other two slayers and the newly arrived demon. "Come to try and take a meal from me again, Saw?" His voice sounded surprisingly normal, save for the devious sound laced within it.
"Please, it's you who're getting too close to my territory again, Hand," the now named Saw smiled evilly as her oddly child-like voice grated on the couple's ears.
"I remember exactly where my territory is-well now, what do we have here," Hand turned towards John, "it seems another little fox has been sent to me. Though you're a lot older than the usual ones. Has Urokodaki finally run out of children to send?"
"What are you talking about," John asked while taking a defensive stance.
"First, why not tell me something," the Hand Demon held up a finger, "what year of Meiji is it?"
"Meiji," the father repeated, "it's the Taisho period, last I heard."
"Taisho," the demon tilted his head questioningly, "so we've passed into another era? RAAAAAAGH!" He began to rage, beating some of his fists on the ground while others clawed at his arms, peeling off skin. "Another era has passed, and I'm still trapped here! Unforgivable, unforgivable! Damn you Urokodaki! Damn you, damn you, DAMN YOU!"
"I take it sensei is the reason you're here right now," John surmised, "he must've been a young man back when he captured you."
"It was forty-seven years ago he captured me," the Hand Demon revealed, "the Edo Period during the Keio Era, back when he was still hunting demons like me."
"That's not possible," the scared candidate spoke up suddenly, "no demon could survive here that long, you all get wiped out during Final Selection. Most of the demons brought here have only eaten one or two people, you even resort to eating each other after a while."
"And yet, here we are," Saw gave a toothy grin, revealing her sharpened teeth, "Hand and I have eaten give or take fifty people, and that's not between the two of us, that's fifty each. Surely you aren't that surprised that outliers exist, even in a place like this."
"Which brings me back to my original point," the green monster counted on several of his fingers, "you'd be number fourteen."
"Fourteen," Mary's eyes widened, "you don't mean?"
"That's right," the demon's smile was evident even when hidden behind his arms, "I've devoured thirteen of Urokodaki's students. I vowed to kill every last one of them until that bastard finally croaks. The last two stood out to me the most, a boy with peach colored hair and a scar on his face who was accompanied by a girl in a flowery kimono."
"Wait, Sabito and Makomo were," John felt his hands tremble a bit at the realization. How was it possible? He'd felt every blow from Sabito's bokken and the surprisingly delicacy of Makomo's hands when she was helping him position his sword correctly. Had he been speaking, to the dead?
"But you're probably wondering how I'd even recognize you as one of his students," the Hand Demon pointed with several fingers, "that mask he gave you. I've memorized the texture of them, the exact same type of carving as his Tengu mask. It's ironic, isn't it? The objects he calls 'warding masks' are exactly how I've been finding them this whole time!"
"You bastard!" John charged forward; his blade ready to taste blood. The Hand Demon responded by retracting several of his arms before sending them stretching out at high speed. The slayer candidate cut through them one after another in quick succession. As he leapt up with blade poised to strike his opponent's neck, however, another limb came out of nowhere.
Thankfully, John's reflexes were quick as he turned and slammed his sword into the fist. It was enough to block the blow as he went falling a few feet away before landing on his feet. "John," Mary moved to help him but was cut off as the Saw Demon intercepted and slashed at her with a clawed hand. The dark-haired woman deflected the first two swipes and leapt back to avoid the third.
"Don't worry about me, Mary," John called, "I'll handle this one. Focus on your own fight!"
"That's right," Saw giggled, "I want to have fun too. You'll have to get past me if you want to help your boy toy."
"That's my husband you virgin bitch!" The Mother charged forward again, this time with a technique. "Breath of Wind Sixth Form: Black Wind Mountain Mist!" She rotated her body and hit her target with an uppercut slash. It impacted with plenty of force, but for some reason the demon only took a single step back when it hit her arms.
"Oh, a Breath of Wind user," the hybrid demon grinned wickedly before something started spinning on her arms. She jabbed forward with her left hand and even thought Mary blocked it the blow still sent her flying back. "It's been a minute since I last carved up one of you."
"What in the world," the swordswoman could see it now. Blood had sprouted from her opponent's arms and had somehow created jagged blades. What was worse, the blades could spin?!
"Do you like them," the female demon asked gleefully, "my father was a doctor, and he told me about these, they're called chainsaws. They were originally invented by a couple of Scottish doctors to cut through the pelvises of mothers having trouble delivering their children. Naturally I've improved on them, but I have to ask now, are you a mother?"
"That's none of your damn business you goat-assed freak," Mary narrowed her eyes while deepening her stance.
"Well I was going to cut open your pelvis either way," Saw giggled before rushing forward, "so make this fun for me!" As the battle between them began, John was running through the trees, cutting through an arm here and there while trying to get the rest of the stretching limbs wrapped around the foliage.
"You'll have to do better than that," the Hand Demon taunted, "if I let my arms get twisted up so easily, I would've died here a long time ago and just slicing them off won't do you any good either. Then again, my skin's so hard even that peach-haired brat wasn't able to cut off my head!" 'So that explains it,' John surmised, 'no way a demon moving this slow would've been able to survive this long otherwise, especially against Sabito and Makomo. He developed an incredibly tough hide around his neck so it wouldn't be easily cut.'
"And once he died, that girl lost it and attacked me as well, oh how I enjoyed tearing her limb from limb!" The green creature laughed.
"Oh yeah, well I know something you don't," John shot back, "you've already failed to achieve your goal!"
"What are you talking about," the demon tilted his head in curiosity, his attacks halting long enough for the former hunter to stop running.
"The guy who first told me about the Demon Slayer Corps," he explained, "is also the one who sent me to Urokodaki. I learned during my training that he was in fact another student of the old man who passed Final Selection and has been out slaying demons for the past few years now."
"That's not possible," the Hand Demon growled, "I've been killing every student of his that's entered this forest since I was imprisoned here."
"Did the thought ever occur to you that there might've been one or two students who were lucky enough never to encounter you," John smirked, "it is a big mountain, after all, and with the way you move it probably takes hours to get anywhere. Since you have to hide from the sun you've likely been sticking to a heavily shaded area. All he or anyone else needed to do was just take a different route well out of your hunting range."
"Shut up," veins appeared on the monster's arms as his voice took on a low growl and his yellow eyes narrowed.
"Face it, hand job," the former hunter laughed, "One of Urokodaki's students is out there right now slaying demons while you're trapped in here. He's forever out of your reach."
"I said SHUT UP!" The demon unleashed several arms then, all of which were converging on the candidate's location. 'Water Breathing Third Form,' John moved forward with his blade at the ready, 'Flowing Dance!' As the hands came at him, he bent and swung both his blade and body in a dancing, flowing pattern, slipping and slicing through the limbs like a raging river. 'This prick was trying to get me angry, hoping I'd make a mistake. But Urokodaki and Sabito both taught me better than that.'
It was thanks to both these teachings and his time as a hunter that John was able to remain calm. He nearly got taken out before due to being impatient, but now that his temper was in check, everything around him was clearer than ever. John was even able to react in time when several hands suddenly burst out of the ground in an attempt to ensnare him. The former hunter evaded them by leaping upwards into the air, avoiding the lethal appendages.
The Hand Demon attempted to capitalize on him not being able to dodge in midair by sending an extra-long, and slightly larger, hand at him. But the candidate didn't panic, instead deciding to meet the blow head on with an attack of his own. 'Breath of Water Second Form,' John spun his body forward in a somersaulting maneuver, 'Water Wheel!' He slashed the arm vertically down the middle, the momentum of his attack carrying him towards the demon as he continued to cut through the limb.
'Damn, I let him get this close,' The Hand Demon realized while withdrawing the severed appendage, 'but it's no matter. My neck is tough, more than tough enough to withstand his next attack. When it fails, I'll crush his head like I did the last one!' "Breath of Water First Form," John spoke aloud this time while still sailing towards his target, "Water Surface Slash!"
The demon smiled in triumph as the blade raced towards his neck, only for it to change to an expression of shock beneath his hand. Instead of the sound of snapping metal like he was hoping to hear, the squelching noise of a blade slicing through flesh met his ears instead. 'I-Impossible,' Hand couldn't believe what had just happened, 'did he just…. decapitate me?!' At about the same time this was happening, Mary was matching blows with her own foe.
'Breath of Wind Third Form,' She readied her blade as Saw moved in for another attack, 'Clear Storm Wind Tree!' A whirlwind of slashes met spinning blades of blood as the two opponents attempted to batter away each other's defenses. "This is incredible," the hybrid demon laughed, "no one matches my blades like a Breath of Wind user! It's always so refreshing to meet someone who can take me head on!"
The two fighters broke apart from their clash and retreated a bit to reassess their tactics. 'Those blades spin in both directions,' Mary analyzed while slowly moving into her next stance, 'I'm going to have to counter with a different type of spinning attack, and that's assuming she's shown me every trick she's got. Remember what sensei taught you, always be aware of what's happening around you.' "Let's try to kick things up a little," Saw suddenly crouched down to the ground, "try to follow my movements, if you can!" The demon launched herself towards a tree and bounced off it, then she jumped off another, and another one after that.
"Oh great," Mary began deflecting blow after blow as the demon shot by her, jumped off the trunks of a few trees and attacked again. "I see why you have goat legs now." She continued to block the incoming blows while formulating a plan in her mind. 'Keep calm, you're starting to get the timing, so just wait for the right opportunity.'
Said opportunity would present itself when Saw jumped off one extra tree to adjust her direction back towards the swordswoman. As the demon came flying at her again, Mary unleashed another form. 'Breath of Wind Sixth Form,' she rotated her body and slammed her blade into the enemy's weapons in an uppercutting slash, 'Black Wind Mountain Mist!' The arcing slash was so powerful that not only did it stop the demon's momentum, but it also sent her backwards in the air.
Naturally Mary wouldn't let such an opening go to waste and readied another form in nearly the same instant. 'Breath of Wind Fourth Form: Rising Dust Storm!' She unleashed several whirlwind slashes in quick succession, intending to eviscerate her target before she even hit the ground. But despite the situation, Saw smirked.
"Try this!" Circular blood saws suddenly shot out of her chest, intercepting and canceling out the wind slashes all in the span of a second as Saw landed on the ground a short distance away. "Not bad, you followed up so quickly I couldn't bring my chainsaws down in time to defend myself. You're certainly faster than that blond I killed."
"You what," Mary narrowed her eyes, "you don't mean Shihoze, do you?"
"Oh yeah, that was her name," Saw's smile somehow got wider and more demented, "she was fast but not quite fast enough to avoid my buzzsaws. Sliced her foot right off. Still, I have to give her credit, she hopped around pretty good for another minute until I cut off her head! I mean it's not everyday you have to deal with someone who's still dangerous even after they lost a foot, right, HAHAHAHAHA!"
A shadow fell over Mary's eyes upon hearing this. Had she been training with a ghost? But it had all felt real, painfully so. 'Don't tell me,' The dark-haired woman's grip tightened on her katana, 'did you call out to a stranger from beyond the grave in hopes that I'd kill this bitch, Shihoze?'
"Ah, what's the matter," Saw titled her head, "was that girl a friend of yours? If she is, I'll be happy to reunite you with her."
"No, we had our time together," the mother looked up with eyes filled with determination as she took her stance defiantly, "and she'd absolutely kick my ass if I saw her again so soon. No, I'm going to send you to meet her and everyone else you killed!"
"Then come at me old lady!" Saw roared gleefully. The two fighters charged then with the demon leaping up and producing chainsaws from not only her hands but her knees as well. 'Breath of Wind Fifth Form,' Mary rushed straight into the jaws of the beast, 'Cold Mountain Wind!' She swung her sword and created several arced slashes around herself.
With each swing of her sword the wind blades got bigger and bigger until they finally clashed with all four chainsaws. 'Incredible,' Saw couldn't hide her surprised smile, 'the wind force is so intense I can't push through, however.' A fifth chainsaw appeared on her tail and swung between her legs while she was still in the air. At the same time, she fired another buzzsaw from her chest. "Breath of Wind First Form," Mary shifted her stance and unleashed another attack within that same instant, "Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
She swung with all of her might, becoming a horizontal cyclone as the slayer candidate slashed continuously at her foe. Due to the shape and greater power of the technique, it not only deflected the buzzsaws but also parried the chainsaw on her tail. 'Did all of my blades just get…. deflected,' Saw's smile turned nervous for the first time as Mary burst forth out of the cyclone she'd created. As the demon landed back on her feet she'd tried to retreat but the dark-haired woman stepped on her tail, which she hadn't pulled back, slowing her movement just enough to keep her enemy within striking range.
Mary jumped and swung then, aiming for the opening thread. Saw felt as if a stiff breeze had hit her neck, before her world suddenly turned upside down. "What," she asked as her head hit the ground, "that's so strange. I thought it would hurt more."
"I'm not a sadist who gets a kick out of cutting people up," the swordswoman sheathed her weapon, "and to answer your earlier question, yes, I'm a mother. A mother who wants to see her son go back to normal. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? You mentioned your father was a doctor."
"I'm afraid he only specialized in humans," Saw gave an actually apologetic smile for once, "I became a demon because I thought it might be a way to help people by providing dad with the material for an immortal being. But the hunger drove me crazy, and I killed him. After that, I got captured and started carving people up to survive. Guess I kind of went the other way on all that."
"Guess so," Mary sighed, "but it's over now. For you, Shihoze, and everyone else who lost their life to you."
"Heh never thought I'd be thanking someone for killing me," the demon girl's body had turned to ash by this point, "but thanks. At the very least, maybe I can finally apologize to my dad." Her head finished turning to ash then. As this happened, a similar scene was playing out over by John as the Hand Demon completely dissolved.
"Sabito, Makomo," John held one of the demon's dissolving hands, "it's done. You and the other children who died can finally rest easy. The Hand Demon will haunt this place no longer." He clenched his hand then, feeling the limb crumple into ash before releasing it to the wind.
"Are you alright," Mary came over to check on him.
"I am," he embraced his wife who, after a moment of slight surprise, hugged him back, "just processing a realization or two, like how cutting that boulder was thankfully more difficult than cutting the demon's neck. What about you?"
"I'm fine but I've got a question," Mary looked him in the eye, "Could you tell me what you think of all this? You've been a hunter for years, is this anything like that?" It's not that she'd never taken life before, she'd shot a few animals that might've proven potential predators for them and their son and had killed a few demons earlier. The mother was simply trying to figure out how to feel about everything.
"The tracking part is similar," John mused, "but the fighting and killing isn't quite the same. We're fighting former humans who've been turned into something that devours their fellow humans. When it's done there's, nothing left, which is probably for the best. Hunters are typically able to make use of what they kill, but these demons offer nothing with their deaths other than the elimination of a threat. It truly is just slaying."
"I don't want Jonathan to end up like these other demons," his wife sighed, "but I think I realize now that we can do more than just help our son. How many of the demons we've fought so far do you think were once kindhearted people?"
"I honestly couldn't say," the former hunter shrugged, "but if we can find the cure to demonification, it could end all of this. Still, we can't afford to let our sympathies cloud our judgement."
"I know," Mary nodded with determination in her eyes, "I'm a selfish enough mother that I'll destroy any obstacle in the way of helping Jonathan, so don't worry. When we encounter our next batch of demons, I won't hesitate."
"Then it's the same as before," John began walking with his wife quickly catching up to him, "we keep fighting and keep surviving until we reach our goal. Until we find that cure, we're Demon Slayers."
And thus, John and Mary have taken their lessons to heart and used them to slay demons that were beyond the abilities of many of the other candidates! Now they need only survive another six nights in order to become demon slayers! So in the meantime while we wait on that, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! And for news, updates and other fun tidbits, check out my Pat reon! Last thing, stop in next time as the mother and father head to the finish line to become demon slayers! 'Til then.