Episode 7: Tanjiro you lucky bastard!
The city of Asakusa, a bright city with all the newest technologies. Cars are driving through the streets and fashion trends even from the west are starting to become more common. Everything seems rather calm, well besides the silent fight going on inside a house...
FLAME BREATHING, 6TH FORM. FLAME WHEEL!
Tanjiro lunges forward in a full 360 front flip as he slashes through the demons arm. The demon, an older looking man with hair growing down to his mouth and greenish skin, growls in rage as he tries to swipe at Tanjiro. Thankfully this demon doesn't have a blood demon art, and so is much more simple to fight.
Tanjiro had gotten quickly overwhelmed when got to Asakusa and so went to a quieter part of the city, where he smelled blood from one of the houses. Inside he found a demon and is currently in battle with it.
'This demon seems rather inexperienced, I wonder how long ago he was transformed?' Tanjiro ponders curiously as he rushes towards the demon.
The old demon tries to bite at Tanjiro but he quickly slices off the man's mouth, before delivering a strong slash to the old demons neck, not quite slicing all the way through.
The old demon gasps in pain as he tries to attack but Tanjiro just uses his moment of distraction to finish the job and fully slice off his head.
The old demon's head falls to the ground and turns to ash and his body quickly follows.
"Damn it! I didn't even get to ask him questions!" Tanjiro yells in frustration as he sheathes his sword. Tanjiro checks his surroundings quickly, thankfully nobody had come around so he doesn't have any unfun conversations to have.
Tanjiro begins walking through Asakusa again, his nose is keeping track of any smells or signs of a demon. There is a lot of people and it's very uncomfortable for Tanjiro, after all the most amount of people he's ever seen in one place is maybe a couple dozen at most. Now there seems to be hundreds just on the streets alone!
After a while Tanjiro finds a place to rest, an empty park, well mostly empty. There is a few children and adults but it's as close to empty as Tanjiro could find. He opens the box and finds Nezuko awake and active.
"Oh Nezuko are you ready to walk around?" Tanjiro asks curiously, it is in the late afternoon so the sun has set about an hour ago.
The demon girl just nods although with a little confusion. She looks around and scowls at seeing other people.
"Sorry Nezuko, I can't seem to find a place more private." Tanjiro says with a little chuckle but something else seems up with Nezuko. She seems...angry? Like downright furious. "Nezuko...? Is something the mat-" Tanjiro wouldn't get to finish that sentence as suddenly Nezuko starts running at top speed.
Tanjiro panics for a second before chasing after her. "Nezuko! Nezuko what are you doing?!" He yells out to other families confusion. They give a stare at the strange boy and girl before continuing on their way.
Nezuko pov
'There! No there! I won't let him get away! I can sense him!' Nezuko thinks with a growl as she runs through the streets without care. Passing people and running across streets, she doesn't care. She has to reach him! She must make him pay!
Kind boy who's following behind her sniffs the air and seems to have figured out what Nezuko has. Due to her demon instincts she could tell he was here but now that there close enough Kind boy seems to have figured it out himself. The demon lord is nearby...
Tanjiro pov
'There's no way! The chances of him being here of all places!' Tanjiro thinks with slightly gritted teeth as he and Nezuko turn into an alleyway.
Inside the alleyway they find a demon, a female looking one with an ugly face. She has large lips, almost comically large, and dramatic eyelashes that seem an inch long. Her clothes are covered in blood and her hair is undone.
Tanjiro smells the air and growls. 'Dammit he's gone! He must have just created this demon! We can still find him though!'
Nezuko doesn't waste time as she lunges at the demon and bites into her arm. The ugly demon hisses as she tries to wrestle Nezuko to the ground, way too hungry to question anything that's happening.
Tanjiro grits his teeth and clenches his blade. "You poor person...You've just been turned and haven't killed a single person or drawn blood..." Tanjiro closes his eyes and makes a small prayer. 'Please, she is truly innocent. Let her go to heaven when I kill her.'
Tanjiro takes a step as he breathes in deep, his lungs fill with air as blood flows through his body faster. His muscles tighten as strength courses through him. Tanjiro opens his eyes and rushes forward at an incredible speed.
The ugly demon barely got to see Tanjiro as he swiftly slashed off her head with ease. Afterall, compared to the demons at final selection or that demon Murata, this is a free kill.
The demons head falls to the ground as her body quickly dissolves, although for a second Tanjiro could've sworn he saw relief on the demons face before she turned to ash.
Tanjiro sighs before he rushes to Nezuko. "Are you hurt?" He asks but Nezuko just leaps up and points in a direction.
"Oh right!" Tanjiro exclaims as they run out of the alleyway on the other side. They find themselves on a busier side of the city with even more people. Tanjiro and Nezuko don't care though, they both rush forward.
'There!' Tanjiro thinks angrily as he smells the scent, the horrible scent he caught at his house when his family was killed. The horrible scent of...
Tanjiro grips the shoulder of a man stopping him in his tracks. The man slightly turns and his red eye is shown looking with disgust and anger. The man has on a fancy suit that seems familiar to western suits. Along with also modern shoes, a white hat, and medium length midnight black hair, everything about the man seems normal, besides his pale complexion that makes it seem like he's never been in the sun and his red crimson eyes. Although he does seem well off but otherwise any other person would walk right past him. But not the Kamado siblings, afterall...This man has the scent of...
"Muzan Kubutsuji." Tanjiro practically snarls as he glares right back at those deep crimson eyes.
Muzan simply looks down at the boy. He could easily kill him, no matter how young hashria seem to be this kid is clearly not one of them. Besides it would be a huge hassle.
"Daddy is something wrong?" A small voice calls out.
Tanjiro looks and sees with shock as Muzan is carrying a small child with pig tails and dark brown eyes. His grip on his sword weakens. 'W-wait why does he have a child?! W-who?!'
"Darling is everything all right?" A pretty woman with a blue hat and a nice blue dress asks curiously. She has a small accent and seems foreign.
Tanjiro just stands there in shock. 'D-don't they know how much danger their in?!'
Muzan notices the child's shock. 'He seems surprised, I can use this to get out without this getting messy.' He decides as he smiles. "Oh nothing darling, this child here seems a bit lost. Are you okay little one?" He asks in a sickeningly sweet voice.
Tanjiro can't find the strength to respond and Nezuko just glares with all the hatred she possesses.
As people pass by Muzan sees an easy opportunity. 'This child doesn't want other people to get hurt, so let's end this quick while also having some fun.' The demon lord almost smirks as he swipes at a man's neck fast enough that no civilian would notice, but slow enough so the slayer child would see.
The man grabs his neck in pain. A claw swipe starting to slowly disappear as his veins appear and his eyes turn demonic. The new demon lunges at a person but is stopped by Tanjiro, who grabs the demon and uses his scarf to choke him out.
The people start screaming as they watch a boy trying to choke out and take down a diseased man. Maybe they are related?
Nezuko growls at Muzan as he begins to walk away silently with his "family"
"What's happening daddy?" The little girl asks as she clings to her father.
"Nothing of our concern, it appears that boy is trying to help a drunken man." Muzan answers calmly as he starts to dissappear from the crowd.
"Nezuko help me in pinning him!" Tanjiro yells out as Nezuko is still just standing there, growling in anger at Muzan. After a few moments though she rushes over to Tanjiro and tries to help him
Tanjiro looks up as he can still see the Demon lord calmly walking away. "Get back here you bastard! You think you can run from me! But I will find you! I will drag you down to hell with my bare hands if necessary! I will never forgive you! And the last thing you will see before enternal flames with be my blade! You hear me demon lord!" Tanjiro yells out with fury, the anger he's tried to contain these past two years. What he had to ignore in order to become stronger.
Muzan doesn't even spare a glance as he disappears into the crowd...
As Tanjiro struggles to hold down the newly turned demon with Nezuko he hears more shouts as police start rushing to the area.
"Hey what's happening here?" One of the men asked as he held his baton.
'Frick! I can't tell anyone here about this man becoming a demon, and even if I did decide too. Nobody would believe me.' Tanjiro looks down at the struggling demon. 'Maybe I could just kill him? It would be easy, but that's saying if I even got the chance to slash his neck. And even after, what would my plan be?'
"Get off the man right now!" Another man shouts as he begins to rush towards Tanjiro and Nezuko.
"Wa-" the words die in Tanjiro's throat ad suddenly a fog enters the area. It's so dense and Tanjiro can hardly see.
"Where'd they go?!" The last officer asked in confusion.
Tanjiro looks up and sees two figures. The first is a guy with orange hair and a scar across his cheek. He had a kinda green checkered haori like his but with lighter colors and no black. His eyes are a light blue and he has a serious yet kind smell.
The other figure is a smaller girl with blue eyes and dark black hair, she has on a sorta black and pink outfit. She has a very kind smile and soft eyes. The fog, seems to be coming from her. It's pouring out of her wrists like a machine...or a...demon art.
Tanjiro takes in another sniff and his eyes widen, both this people. They may look like children around his age, maybe the orange haired boy one is a little older and the girl with the kind smile is younger, but they are both undoubtedly...demons.
"Did...he send you to finish me off?" Tanjiro asks nervously as be grips his sword. If Muzan personally sent them both then they would be much stronger then any demon he's fought before.
"Oh no young one, we are here to help." The girl says with her soft voice, it reminds Tanjiro of his mother.
"My name is Sabito, and the girl is Makomo. We are kind demons, you better come with us." Sabito says in a deeper voice that seems to radiate power
Tanjiro just looked at two with an amount of doubt. After all, "demon" and "nice" did not go together very often.
Makomo thinks for a moment, they don't have much time before the civilians really get confused about the fog from her blood demon art.
"We can help that demon your pinning." Makomo offers.
"Wh- Makomo! You know how we do things!" Sabito says with surprise.
Tanjiro thinks for a moment before sighing, these demons are clearly stronger then him. If they wanted him dead, they wouldn't have to use trickery.
"Okay, I'll come with you two, but you have help this man. He didn't deserve this." Tanjiro says with a determined look.
Sabito just sighs before he chops at the demons neck, instantly knocking him out. "Fine, just follow us."
???
"Say goodbye sweetie." Rei, the wife of her husband Muzan says as she holds their daughter.
"Bye-bye daddy!" Haruka says with a happy smile as their car drives off.
Muzan stands there for a few moments, then he simply walks off. Muzan walks through a couple alleyways, he is not happy right now and needs a way to let out some anger.
As Muzan passes through another alleyway, there is two people. A drunk man and woman. Muzan attempts to walk past them but the man starts talking.
"M-man you don't look so good man! You have a good night like m-me?" The man says with his voice slightly slured.
"I am fine, move on." Muzan says simply, he's had to spend hours speaking with his "family", he can't tolerate another moment.
"Yooouuu sure?" The woman asks as her eyes are barely open.
"Yes, move." Muzan says with his fist clenched.
"No neeeeed to be ruuude man." The man says as he steps closed, unaware of the danger he's in. If he wasn't drunk, maybe the part of his brain that hasn't evolved beyond their instincts would tell him to run, run like hell. Instead, he takes another step.
"Today has been...frustrating, now move. I have somewhere to be." Muzan answers simply.
The man and his wife just laugh. "Haha, hey man your face is really pale!" The man's put a hand on Muzan's shoulder, the same one Tanjiro had grabbed earlier. "Honestly you look kinda sick-"
It happened faster then the blink of an eye, all the skin of the man just disappeared as the man suddenly screamed in pain feeling his body practically being turned inside out. Muzan let's him feel the agony for a moment before he grabs the man's head and simply gives it a squeeze, turning the top half of his body into nothing but blood and a few spare organs.
The woman looks very confused at the events unfolding, she's clearly so drunk she can't even understand that her husband was just violently killed.
Muzan walks over to the woman and stares her straight into the eyes with his piercing red eyes. "Well? Do you agree with your husband there? Do you THINK I look sickly? Like I might keel over at any moment?"
"Whaaaaa?" Was the woman's response.
Muzan just snarls and within an instant the woman's body falls apart into several clean slashes.
Muzan stands up and snaps his finger. A demon appears before his side. He has a greenish tint to his skin along with pointy ears and fluffy brown hair. His eyes have several strange circles almost like a target. He seems in his mid-twenties and has a respectful look on his face as he bows.
"Ukyo, there was a demon brat who dared to touch me with his filthy hands. He claimed something about killing me. I don't want a bunch of annoying hashria coming in and taking away precious time I could spend on my goals. You will find the boy, and end his life. You do it well enough and I may even give you enough blood to finally reach the ranks of a kizuki." Muzan explains simply with a commanding tone
"Yes my lord." The demon named Ukyo answers.
"Am I fully understood in my wishes?" Muzan says making sure there's no tedious misunderstandings.
"No my lord, I will find this child and dispatch him." Ukyo says with respect.
"Good, go." Muzan says
Ukyo disappears as he begins his search, Muzan just stands there taking deep breaths. 'Killing these bugs helped relieve some stress, no matter. Let's move on.' Muzan thinks as he begins walking away, not sparing another thought for that boy that dared to claim he would kill him.
???
Tanjiro stands in front of a gate, just an average gate. It's wood and has hinges along with some moss, but otherwise it's a completely normal gate.
"May I ask how this is the secret entrance to your base?" Tanjiro asks incredulously as Sabito and Makomo walk towards the gate.
"Well my blood demon art allows me to create a fog that makes anything inside it invisible." Makomo explains. "So we just pour my own fog over the gate every few hours and it stays invisible."
Tanjiro just sighs. "Okay, can we go inside then and help this man?"
Makomo walks over to the gate and knocks on it twice in quick succession, before giving it three slow knocks, and finally 4 last quick ones.
The gate opens to show another demon holding the door open! She has blue hair styled in pigtails with cyan skin and an annoyed face.
"I thought you would only be gone for an hour, not half the night." The demon says with her arms crossed.
"Sorry Aoi, we got a little side tracked." Sabito says a little sheepish as he points towards Tanjiro and Nezuko, and gestures at the demon in his arms.
The demon girl, Aoi, just rolls her eyes. "Really? A human and two demons in one day? Do they even have any potential?"
"Well the demon girl is actually the boys sister and apparently hasn't attacked him in two years!" Makomo says excitingly.
Aoi sighs. "Okay whatever, come on in." She opens the gate wider as they enter.
The inside was a beautiful garden and medium sized house. The garden had all sorts of plants and trees and many beautiful flowers. Red, orange, blue, yellow, green, brown, and every other color you could think of! The house was a kinda boring brown but had an old theme to it, it seemed like it belonged in a time period long before Tanjiro was born.
"So who are you people exactly? How are demons just...living here?" Tanjiro asks incredulously.
"Oh I'll explain." Sabito says. "You see it was about hundred years ago when I became a demon with Makomo, we were just students learning at a dojo when the demon lord appeared. He turned me and Makomo into demons. You see though, I'm a bit of a special case. From our own research on myself, apparently I have a lot nerves that don't work properly, mainly ones in my stomach. So even though I'm a demon, I don't get cravings."
Makomo nods sadly. "I wish, I was closer to what you expect of a demon. But with Sabito's help I managed to learn how to control myself after a while and now I can perfectly ignore human blood or flesh even when it's right in front of me!"
"Wow, that's actually incredible. And you guys have survived this long?" Tanjiro asks.
"Yup, with Makomo's blood demon art we can hide ourselves easily." Sabito explains.
"What about you Aoi?" Tanjiro asks.
"Well I'm a lot younger then these guys, I'm only 40 years old. I was turned into a demon and killed my entire family in a blood craved hunger." Aoi says.
"I'm so sorry..." Tanjiro says but yet the fact that this demon had tasted blood before makes him keep better track of his sword.
"Afterwards I regained some sense of self and I was about to walk into the sun as a way of repent when Makomo found me. She convinced me I could do better ways to repent then just death, and so they trained me how to resist human flesh and now I help them." Aoi finishes as they open the front door of the house.
'Wow, it's hard to believe friendly demons could actually exist. I wish more could be like this.' Tanjiro thinks sadly as they enter a living room and find seats as Aoi takes the demon man and starts taking him downstairs.
"Aoi is skilled in medicines so she treats anyone we decide to take with us. Most of the time we only take demons that have potential to resist human flesh and blood." Sabito explains.
"Huh...Hey I have a question?" Tanjiro says
"Yeah what is it?" Sabito asks curiously.
"So...I've heard of the demon kings curse, can Muzan take control over you guys?" Tanjiro asks nervously.
"Well we haven't exactly tested it, none of us want to pay the price of saying his name and suffering the consequences. " Makomo says. "But we at least know that he's not aware of our existence."
"How? Can't he see through your eyes?" Tanjiro says worried.
Sabito laughs. "The old man may be powerful but there's a few thousand demons. Even he can't keep track of all them. I'd bet he can't see through more then fifteen at a time at maximum."
"Okay, why have you guys never worked with the demon slayers? You guys could be amazing allies!" Tanjiro says confidently.
Sabito and Makomo shudder. "Let's just say the last time we tried to work with a demon slayer, we almost lost our heads." Sabito says simply.
"Okay...I have one last question." Tanjiro says with his eyes downcast.
"Yes?" Makomo asks.
"Can a demon ever turn back into a human again...?"
elsewhere
Ukyo smirks as he gazes upon a trail, to many it would seem unordinary and normal. To a demon with super powerful senses, it's a trail. The demon brat and slayer child still have the faint scent of his master, and how he will find them...
Taisho Era Secret!
Tanjiro: Hooray we're here for another Taisho Era Secret!
Sabito: Yes we are. Makomo, how about you tell the audience?
Makomo: My pleasure, you see my blood demon art only generates fog for those of exceptional strength. For others it seems as though we just disappear and become invisible. One day maybe 30 years ago when Asakusa when still just a big village, a few strong samurai who were unaware of demons saw our fog and got glimpses of me and Sabito. Because of that, to this day there rumors of "ghost children" in Asakusa.
Tanjiro: That's really interesting Makomo. You know what else is interesting?
Makomo: What?
Tanjiro: Next episode! "Against A Fake Moon!"
(Author's notes)
Hello again. Honestly I was planning on making this chapter longer but I wanted to get it out in the time I said I would, plus it was starting to feel too expository. Now onto some thoughts. The reason this chapter calls Tanjiro a "lucky bastard" is because of the previous chapter and how Tanjiro thought he'd have to get insanely lucky to find Muzan. When I was making this chapter I was worrying it would be too boring so I spent a few hours thinking of a pair to replace Tamayo and Yuishiro, before I thought of doing Sabito and Makomo, and I later also Aoi because I couldn't think of a good moment to kill her off as a demon. I mainly did them because I wanted more of demons not just being evil, this way Nezuko doesn't feel like a complete Deus ex machia. Next I also want to write Muzan as much more kill happy and evil, I just think it would be fun. Also big thing! Muzan does not, NOT see the resemblance between Tanjiro and Yorrichi yet. From his perspective Tanjiro is just a little annoying so that's why he's only sending Ukyo and not like an upper moon.
Besides that I can't really think of anything else so I'll try to write soon, it may be a bit later since next chapter has a lot I got to tackle. Maybe expect 3 weeks? I'll try to get it out sooner then that though. Otherwise, bye and write soon!