A Surprisingly Crowded Homestead
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of The Heart of the Asura! First order of business, this chapter is actually coming out at or around my commissioner's birthday, so Happy Birthday Mokashi! Hope this serves as a good enough birthday present. And speaking of presents and gifts, you can find news, scene samples, and even commissions if you stop by my Pat reon and become a patron! Now then, while this chapter is admittedly a short one I believe I've kept you all waiting long enough, so without further ado, and with no guest review questions this week, let's get to the story!
The Day Before: Asakusa
"Oh this is so embarrassing!" Honoka berated herself while hurrying down the road. "I don't know what that weird doctor lady did but that can't have all been a hallucination!" It had been a strange sequence of events, however. The police officer had felt the need to listen attentively to the woman's explanation at first with everything around her suddenly seeming less important.
She'd explained so many things including the existence of demons, the slayers who hunted them, the demon leader known as Muzan Kibutsuji. Honoka clearly remembered every detail yet somehow she dozed off near the end and by the time she came back to her senses everyone in the damaged house was gone! Naturally she couldn't just let a lead like that go and had decided to pursue anyone matching their descriptions. For whatever reason there was no trace of the doctor and her assistant but she did manage to pick up a possible trail on the other three after hearing that a boy matching the description of the one in the checkered haori had just left the city.
Juzako had possibly abused her authority as a police officer a little bit and caught a ride with a wagon heading in the same direction. It was faster than walking and she needed proof as quickly as possible in order for her report to have any credibility. Admittedly, the thought didn't cross her mind that she was operating a bit beyond her jurisdiction. Or that she was actually on a different road than the one being taken by her suspect.
When a few hours had passed and she still didn't see any sign of the boy or his companions, Honoka spoke to the driver about any weird happenings in the area. The man confirmed that there was an old mansion nearby where some had claimed to glimpse monsters coming and going during the nighttime. Remembering that the boy was apparently one of these so-called demon slayers, the police officer had asked to be dropped off there, figuring that's where he'd be. He was kind enough to take her to the main path leading there but not any further, meaning she had to walk while carrying her hastily packed bag.
Thankfully, it wasn't a far walk to the mansion, though the sun was starting to come up by the time she arrived. Even so, Honoka knew that if there was something in there she'd find it whether it was daytime or nighttime and hopefully, she'd find the slayer too. But as she stepped into the mansion, an unfortunate thought occurred to her: what if he wasn't there yet or what if he wasn't coming at all? By that time, however, it was too late. When she turned to try and leave, a drum sounded and everything changed.
Now: Within The Tsuzumi Mansion
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The sound of a certain blond slayer could be heard echoing throughout the hallway. It wouldn't be surprising to anyone at the moment if the entire mansion could hear the racket he was producing.
"I said shut up already!" Susamaru yelled, clamping a hand on Zenitsu's mouth and another one on his head. "You are without doubt the noisiest person I have ever met and I've been alive for nearly two centuries damn it! If you really want to be protected then act like someone worth protecting and not some whiny bitch whose only use is going to be bait if he doesn't put a sock in it!" She added emphasis to all of this by shaking the slayer from side to side.
"Take it easy Susamaru," Tanjiro pleaded, "if you keep shaking him like that, he might pass out." The Temari Demon glanced at him for a brief moment before letting out a 'hmph' and dropping the blond to the floor.
"Just keep the shrieking to a minimum," she crossed her arms before turning fully to the other slayer, "so what's the plan now? This place is huge and while we've both got a fairly good sense of smell you actually know how to track with yours. Splitting up would probably be a bad idea."
"I was thinking the same thing," the boy in the checkered haori agreed, "since we don't know the enemy's blood demon art, splitting up might be what they want us to do."
"This is all assuming there's only one demon here," Susamaru looked down the hall with narrowed eyes, "but I'm smelling more than one."
"We'll have to check some of the rooms then," Tanjiro surmised while sliding open a door further up the hall and walking in to inspect what he assumed to be a small dining area. The Temari Demon was about to do the same but was stopped once again by nervous ranting.
"Hold on!" Zenitsu pointed at her, "just what in the world is going on here?! Why are you talking so casually with a slayer? You're a demon, aren't you, so how…wait, you were that voice I was hearing in the box!"
"Just figure that out now, genius," she patted said box which Tanjiro had sat down on the floor after her quick exit from it. He'd been checking on Nezuko who'd somehow managed to keep sleeping through this whole thing. "Look, it's a little complicated and would take too long to explain the whole situation right now. All you really need to know is that I'm with him and that I don't plan on eating you. Whiny bitches give me gas."
"Oh, well, you're here to help," the cowardly slayer didn't look relieved in the slightest as he turned and opened the nearest door to him, "in that case we should get started. I'll look for the demon in this room and you can go way down the hall to check another room."
"Oh please, you're just going to try hiding in-BOOP!" Susamaru's sentence was cut short as the sound of a Tsuzumi drum echoed throughout the mansion. Strangely, the moment it did, the hallway seemed to change. "What in the w-BOOP! BOOP!" The drum sounded a couple more times and every time it did the hallway would change in the blink of an eye.
"Tanjiro," Susamaru called, looking around, "hey Tanjiro where in the world are you?!" She quickly opened a couple of doors in the hallway where the slayers should've been and found both of them empty. "Well shit," she looked over to the box where Nezuko was still residing, "looks like it's just you and me now." The answer she received was a scratching from the inside of the box.
About The Same Time: Closer To The Back of the Mansion
"Oh, what have you gotten yourself into," Honoka tried not to tremble as she slowly walked the halls of the mansion, her pistol out and eyes peeled for even the slightest movement. Sure she'd dealt with common criminals in large houses before but never in her short career as an officer had she ever encountered anything like this. As she'd continued to explore the mansion the sound of what she had now identified as a Tsuzumi drum kept echoing at random intervals. Every time it did Honoka would find herself in a different part of the mansion, sometimes a part she visited and sometimes a part she'd never been to.
Because of this, the police officer had gotten turned around numerous times and was now completely lost. About the only thing she could think to do was keep opening doors until she found a path that led back to the entrance or some other way outside the mansion. "If I can just get outside," Honoka theorized, "I can scope out the rest of the building and find a better way in and start marking an actual trail." With this encouraging thought in mind, she opened the next few doors.
When she opened one particular set of doors, however, she was greeted by someone on the other side. It was a shorter individual with blue pants and a boar skin wrapped around his waist. His completely bare, and fairly muscled, upper body denoted him as a male. As this person turned to Juzako, though, she found the head of a boar staring back at her with steam expelling out of its nostrils. Naturally, Honoka reacted with all the professionalism she'd learned over the years, by yelling at the top of her lungs and firing her gun wildly.
"Hey!" The boar boy ducked low, lower than one would've expected, to the point of practically splitting as a couple of the bullets impacted a foot above his head on the wall behind him, "what's the big idea noisy lady!" His voice was gruff but high-pitched enough to identify him as a younger individual.
"Huh," Honoka paused in her display, "you can…talk?" Once again, she wondered what in the world she'd gotten herself into.
"Of course I can talk!" The stranger waved the two jagged swords around that he'd been holding before pointing one at her, "and I can fight too! Do you want to fight noisy lady?!"
"No, no, I don't want to fight!" She waved her hands frantically, "I just want to know what's going on here?!"
"What's going on," the boar boy chuckled somewhat evilly, "what's going on is that I, Inosuke Hashibira, have come to this big house to slay monsters! And come to think of it, you're stupid tall, lady, are you sure you're not a monster?"
"I'm a police officer!" Honoka corrected vehemently, "and how do I know you're not a monster with that boar head of yours?!"
"Me, a monster," Inosuke grasped around his head and pulled up, revealing the boar head to be nothing more than a mask, "does this look like a monster to you?"
"It, uh, looks," her eyes kept going back and forth between his face and his body, noting they didn't seem to completely match, "human, I guess."
"That's right," he shoved the mask back down over his face, "now if you'll excuse me, I got monsters to fight!" The boar boy turned to leave but was stopped by Honoka.
"Wait a moment," she pulled out a little something she'd been carrying in the bag she'd packed for this particular trip. It was something that wasn't necessarily approved for normal police work within the city.
"What in the world is that supposed to be," Inosuke tilted his head in confusion, "is that another noisemaker?"
"This is an MP18," Honoka explained while loading the submachine guns oddly-shaped snail magazine into the left side of the gun, "and it makes a lot more noise and a lot more holes than the one I used earlier. I thought it might be overkill to bring but now, it's seeming plenty appropriate."
"Whatever," the boar boy moved to the end of the room and slid the other door open, "just stay out of my way, because I'm coming through!" He took off at a run then, forcing Honoka to do the same.
"Hey wait for me!" The police officer yelled, "This isn't the best place to get split up in!" the only answer she received in response was more of the strange boy's excited laughter.
Another Section of the Mansion
"AAAAAAAAAH! Where'd the front door go?!" Zenitsu screamed in fear while opening one after another and finding only vacant rooms of various types. "Did I get turned around or go out a different door? Maybe I misremembered." The blond slayer was nervous before but he was panicking now.
He'd already been scared and then he found out Tanjiro was injured and traveling with a demon for some reason which wouldn't have been so bad as long as she wasn't interested in eating him but now the both of them were gone and he was all alone! "Tanjiro and that demon girl should be able to handle themselves," the cowardly slayer reasoned, "I wasn't going to be much help anyway. I'll go wait outside and make sure the kids are okay." So he continued opening one door after another, each one more frantically than the last until at one point he opened a door and froze.
The reason being was because unlike the other rooms, this one had someone in it. It was a girl who was surprisingly tall, possibly over six feet. Adding to her oddness was her weird, faux side-shaved paradox hairstyle that was not only burgundy red but also grey in color. She had fair skin and copper eyes that shifted towards him with an almost predatory glint.
"Who's there," the strange girl asked while tilting her head at a slight angle, "a slayer? You have the uniform of one, but you're trembling. You didn't happen to steal that, did you?"
"No, this is my uniform," Zenitsu answered quickly while also holding up his weapon, "and this is my sword, forged by the swordsmiths in the hidden village, just like everyone else's nichirin blades!" It was at this moment he realized she was also wearing a slayer uniform, albeit one with shorter sleeves, a skirt, black shoes, and a red bandana around her neck.
"Ah," she ran the new information through her head for a moment, "I suppose that checks out. A simple thief wouldn't know the first thing about these uniforms or the blade." The girl held up her sheathed blade and hugged it like a little child then. "Before I forget I should introduce myself, I'm Kazagami Kagabara, wielder of Yandere Breathing."
"What in the world is-," the boy slayer was about to ask before Kagabara held up a finger in front of his face.
"Uh uh," she chided, "you have to introduce yourself now, fellow slayer."
"Oh, right," the blond was suddenly getting a very eerie vibe from this supposed member of the Corps, "I'm Zenitsu Agatsuma and I use Thunder Breathing."
"Huh, I've heard of that one, supposed to be flashy," the strange girl put a hand to her chin, seeming to mutter to herself, "I wonder if it'll make my heart flutter."
"What does that mean," Zenitsu asked, his enhanced hearing picking up her words despite her attempt to hide them. Ordinarily he'd be going into womanizing mode but for once his instincts were telling him that might not be a great idea. He had other concerns, however, as another noise alerted the both of them. Kagabara stuck her head out the door, looking around for the source of the noise.
The blond slayer followed close behind her, trying not to tremble as they traversed the dirt path that was this particular hallway. A task which would prove impossible when a grey hand reached out from underneath a lower part of the floor on the left side. A second limb followed after it as a demon with short horns, four eyes and a long tongue hanging out of its mouth emerged. "A couple of kids," the demon smiled with his tongue still hanging out of his mouth, "I bet you'll taste delicious."
About the Same Time: Another Part of the Mansion
'Never thought I'd miss that uptight germaphobe, Yahaba,' Susamaru thought in annoyance, 'then again I swapped him out for another boy with a good sense of smell who's, admittedly, way more tolerable to be around. Guess I relied on them more than I thought.' The reason for this train of thought was the fact that she was absolutely lost! She'd been wandering around this ever-changing mansion for several minutes now and realized, yet again, that while she could identify individual scents she couldn't pick up a damn trail!
"What do you say, Nezuko," she sighed while adjusting the box on her back, "if I let you out would you be able to pick up a scent for me?" The answer she received was more scratching on the box. "Of course, you're still apparently getting the hang of what all you can do as a demon." That fact would've grated at her pride before, considering the fight she'd put up against her, but ever since finding out she wasn't truly a kizuki she'd had to do a lot of reevaluating.
That would be a matter for later, however. The sound of a heavy footstep got her to halt as she gazed down towards the end of the hall. It had a split in it that led to the left or to the right but didn't go any further forward. Another footstep told her the perpetrator was coming from the right hallway.
She wouldn't have to wait long to find out who or what it was as a lumbering form emerged and turned towards her section of the hallway. "Well now, what's this," the demon asked as he turned towards her, "more fellow demons come to visit. I don't blame you, there's an especially exquisite meal to be had today."
At the Same Time: Close to the Center of the Mansion
"The rooms keep changing," Tanjiro took a steadying breath, "but it's alright, I'll be able to find everyone again by scent." He was confident in that but there was a more immediate problem he had to deal with. He was in a larger room with only two ways out. One of the doors to the main hallway was open.
Unfortunately, he caught a scent from this hallway that didn't belong to any of his friends, not even Susamaru or Nezuko. A large, muscular figure stepped into view then, wearing only a large loincloth to cover his lower body. Short horns stuck out of his head and long unruly black hair fell down his back. The most striking feature about the demon, though, were the Tsuzumi drums that were sticking out of his body.
Two stuck out near his shoulders, one on the left side of his stomach and a final one sticking out of his right hip. "Annoying pests," the drum demon growled, "that was my meal, found on my own property!" He didn't seem to notice Tanjiro but the boy slayer was certain he was aware of his presence. "And now even more uninvited guests are here."
Tanjiro decided there was no point in attempting a surprise attack and drew his sword. "Demon," he began, "my name is Tanjiro Kamado! I've been sent by the Demon Slayer Corps to end you!" Again he received no response as the apparent master of the mansion continued to glare down the hallway with blood red eyes. So Tanjiro made the first move and leapt towards his latest battle.
Meanwhile, a fair distance from the mansion, another figure walked along. "Hmm," an old woman mused while looking up towards the sky for a moment, "there seems to be a shifting of sorts. I wonder what the night sky will look like tonight?"
And so the monsters of the mansion have been revealed! What sort of challenge will they pose for our heroes and is their new ally someone to be trusted? Let me know what you think in your comments and reviews along with what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! And, of course, swing on by and see about becoming a patron for all kinds of other neat features. Stop in next time as the battles within the mansion begin and Susamaru's allegiance faces its first test! 'Til then.