Chapter Text
The sun danced behind the clouds of the warm day. Nezuko sat on the roof of her house and waited patiently for Zenitsu since Ukogi had told her he was holding an emergency meeting. She wondered what he needed and where Inosuke was. Did her masked friend locate a clue about the missing Demon Slayers?
Nezuko fell onto her back and stared up at the sky, at the rolling clouds. Tanjiro was back at the Kyogoku House finishing some sewing for her. She itched the pink scars on her wrists, her mind drifting to the new nightmares that she associated with them.
~~~
The pink-eyed girl watched a few droplets slip from Sanemi’s left hand, his sword held weakly in his right, almost slipping from his grasp. Then the arm fell off all together.
The only sound was Sanemi’s breathing as the blood from his wound slowed to a stop. The air held still, anxiously anticipating his next move.
Nezuko’s body trembled from where she sat on her knees. The wind had died down, only Rui’s foul scent floated around. It was overwhelming, overpowering.
~~~
Stop it, you have a mission to complete.
Nezuko smelled Zenitsu approaching and sat back up, brushing her hair behind her ears as she did. “Everything alright?”
Zenitsu sat himself down next to her on the roof, yellow kimono a little wrinkled from climbing and his face painted with a little bit of makeup. “I know where the demon is.”
“Holy shit, really?” Her two-toned eyes widened.
Her yellow haired friend explained his encounter with the demon drapes, how it snuck into the rafters and escaped him. She could smell his frustration coming off of him in waves, so she took his hand to help him calm down.
“When do we want to move in on it?” She asked softly.
Zenitsu grumbled and squeezed her hand back. “Immediately. If it’s an Upper Moon like Hashira Douma thinks, we need to eliminate it as quickly as possible.”
Nezuko frowned. “But we’re just Mizunotos, we don’t stand a chance against Upper Moons. You said that back when--”
“I know what I said. But we’re not Mizunotos anymore. We’ve risen in the ranks.” He pulled his hand away and held it up, making a fist in front of her. “ Show Me My Rank! ”
As he finished his chant, a red kanji appeared on the back of his hand, spelling out the word Kanoe .
“See?” He grinned. “We’ve gotten stronger. I think we can do it. Not that we have a choice, it’s our duty to eradicate demons.”
“Wow you two are naive.” Douma sighed.
The two young swordsmen yelped and nearly fell off the roof as they noticed the Hashira sitting next to them.
“You two are only Kanoes. I’ll admit, it’s impressive how quickly you rose the ranks, but I’ve seen it be risen faster. If the two of you really think you can take an Upper Kizuki demon in a fight, then by all means go for it, but it won’t end the way you think it will.”
Nezuko stared him down, mismatched pink eyes glaring at rainbow. “You have no idea what me and my friends are capable of. We may just impress you with our skills.”
“Or you’ll die uneventful deaths without completing your goals.” Douma shrugged, the smell of his Wisteria perfume overpowering Nezuko’s senses. “As it stands, I am the Demon Slayer Corps’ resident demon expert. You may not trust me or like me, but I know how the demons work. Attempt to fight it alone and you will die.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but Zenitsu clapped a hand over her face before she could say something she potentially could regret. “So then what do we need to know, sir?”
Tanjiro glared harshly at Nezuko as she explained the plan, chopping one hand into the palm of the other to cut her off.
“But if Inosuke’s been compromised--”
He chopped again, this time with a gruff hum. His eyes read: “ as if I would let any of you do anything so dangerous! ”
“Tanjiro, think about it!” She grabbed his hands. “We’ll be one step closer to defeating Ubuyashiki if we kill this demon. One step closer to getting revenge for everyone we’ve lost.”
The demon pulled his hands away and dug out his trusty pencil and a piece of paper from his pocket. He slapped the parchment against the wall and scribbled furiously before pushing the paper into his sister’s hands.
“And where will be your Hashira Douma during this? When he sends you and Zenitsu along ahead alone, where will he be?”
Nezuko scoffed. “Obviously he’ll be right behind us. We’re just the bait to lure the demon out.”
Tanjiro widened his eyes and pointed to them, the hand gesture they made up for Inosuke.
“Zenitsu and Hashira Douma both said that they could sense him. He’s alive, probably being held captive by the demon. See? Even more reason to go take its head.”
He didn’t look convinced. Nezuko was sure that if he could speak, he would give her a number of reasons that she and Zenitsu approaching the demon first - alone no less - was a terrible idea, but he resigned himself to shrinking down and sitting himself in his box.
Nezuko knelt down in front of him and pat his head with a frown. “Don’t look at me like that, Tan-Chan. I, no we have done nothing but train for an opportunity like this. It’s not like we’re fresh out of Final Selection again staring the Devil in the face--”
Tanjiro jabbed a finger into her chest in an accusatory manner. Nezuko smacked his hand away with a small smile. “Okay, yeah, that was me--”
The tiny demon scribbled words down on a new piece of paper he pulled from a pocket within the box and shoved it in his sister’s face.
“Yes, it was you. You carrying me into battle and rushing into danger, as always. Father made me promise to keep you safe, but this plan - if I can even call it that - keeps me from doing that. I have sat in here for weeks waiting for you to come up with a better plan than “wait for Zenitsu to draw the demon out and then jump in hoping that the Hashira provides support”. Where is he? Where is the Hashira?”
“Tanjiro, where has all of this come from?” Nezuko sat on her knees as her brother glared at her furiously from inside his box. “Hashira Douma is searching for his niece and the other missing Demon Slayers. Zenitsu and I just have to trust that he’ll be there when he says he will be. That’s what being a Demon Slayer is about: trusting your comrades.”
He tucked his pencil away and pulled the door to his box shut. Nezuko shook her head in disbelief and stood up, retrieving her uniform and sword that she stored in the rafters of her attic room.
“Fine, if you’re gonna be stubborn, then so will I. Like it or not, this plan is happening. If you wanna stay in your box then so be it. I’ll just kill this demon all by myself!” She grunted as she slipped out of her expensive kimono and wiped her makeup from her face.
Nezuko readied herself for battle, yet her stomach churned. Buttoning up her gakuran jacket was a chore, her pink haori felt weighted down and her hand shook slightly as she strapped her sword to her belt. The pink ring scars around her wrists itched and burned as she thought about the spider demon Rui.
~~~
“You cannot hope to come out on top in a fight to the death, Sanemi.” Rui’s voice floated through the static atmosphere. His blue on red eyes narrowed slightly. “Become a demon, become my brother, and the pain will go away. Your arm would be instantly restored, your cuts sealed. Yet here you stand: bleeding, dying.”
Nezuko tried to get to her feet, but the strength in her body vanished. Her stab wound throbbed, threatening to reopen, her wrists burned and her shoulders ached from attempting to use the Hinokami Kagura without proper training. She was useless.
~~~
Nezuko clapped her hands to her cheeks to pull herself out of her mind and hoisted Tanjiro’s box onto her shoulders. It was an action she had performed hundreds of times, but it felt unfamiliar now.
The sun had set, the sky was a brilliant display of orange and purples outside of the windows of the Kyogoku House. The scent of sweet honey filled the air, the scent of the oiran Soyokaze.
Perhaps I should say goodbye to her. It would help me get out of my own head.
She moved silently to the oiran’s room and slipped inside. If anyone in the House saw her, the demon she hunted could potentially be alerted somehow. The oiran’s room was just as it had been when she visited the day before, beautiful clothing and jewels strewn about in a perfect chaos. However, the person sitting in front of the vanity mirror was not the same beautiful woman she remembered.
Yet, they shared the exact same scent.
“Miss Soyokaze?” Nezuko knelt down on her knees behind this person.
The short haired man turned around, a scratch-like scar on the side of his cheek and chin. His smile was the same one that made Nezuko feel warm and fuzzy inside. “I was wondering when you would be returning.”
“You’re a--”
“A man?” He giggled. “Indeed. My real name is Kumeno Masachika. Soyokaze is my stage name.”
Nezuko glanced around the room, spying a fancy wig next to a packed trunk. “You’re leaving?”
Masachika nodded. “Tonight is my last night in Yoshiwara. One of my regular clients has bought my contract and I am to marry his daughter next month. It’s exciting, isn’t it? Not that I won’t miss this place, but I look forward to the next chapter of my life.”
“I’m leaving too.” She looked back at him. “I came to say goodbye.”
“I can tell. You’re a Demon Slayer, aren’t you?”
Nezuko nodded and bowed her head. “Leave as soon as you can. The monster I’m after is incredibly dangerous.”
“Oh, I’m aware. I knew something was off when you first got here, before that even. New girls would go missing or commit Ashinuke without a reason. I tried to keep myself above the gossip, but you do hear things in this line of work.” He clasped his hands together in his lap with another smile. “Be careful, will you? You have such good hands, it would be a shame if you were to injure them.”
The young swordswoman returned the oiran’s smile. “Yes ma’am-err, sir.”
The mistress of the Tokito House sipped tea as she overlooked records spread out on the small table in front of her. Her eyes were dull, fitting of a woman whose husband had thrown himself from the roof only a few weeks prior. She still had her establishment to run, regardless of how she mourned.
The lantern illuminating the room was blown out by a sudden gust of freezing wind. The woman nearly got up to relight it when she felt cold metal pressing against her neck.
“W-Who’s there?” She gasped out, stiffening as the dangerous edge of a knife pressed against her soft skin.
Out of her line of sight, rainbow eyes glowed in the dark, followed by a deep yet airy voice. “Four months ago, a young girl’s contract was leased out between your house, the Kyogoku House and the Ogimoto House. One month ago, she left the upper end of the district’s service, why?”
The woman sweat nervously. “Y-You mean Kiriena? She was becoming sick! Yes, I remember her! She was such a hard worker, made friends with everyone, but she was getting sicker and sicker as she worked. I had her move down to the lower end of the district for her health!”
The knife pressed harder against her skin, the man holding it growled darkly. “You had an employee come down with an illness and instead of treating her, you sent her away?”
“Yes, yes! I did!” Her voice was frantically high. “I didn’t want to risk contamination and she insisted that she was to go!”
“You deserve everything that is coming to you.” The knife retracted and the fiend holding it vanished with another gust of ice-cold wind.
~~~
Douma and Kaigaku, both younger than our readers know them now, sat facing each other in a sitting room in the Kibutsuji Mansion. Kaigaku’s blue eyes burned into Douma’s panicked rainbow ones.
“Something on your mind, Kuwajima?”
“I still don’t know why Muzan invited you here.” He grumbled. “You--”
“Ah, ah, ah… that’s Master to you.” Douma’s lips curled over his sharp teeth despite the nervous sweat dotting his forehead. “And why not? I am his brother, am I not? It is only fitting that both of us would be in attendance.”
Kaigaku looked ready to snap his neck. As he shifted, probably to do just that, a young woman wearing a maroon haori over her Demon Slayer uniform stepped into the room. “Oyakata-Sama has requested Mister Kuwajima’s presence.”
Kaigaku sneered at the rainbow-eyed boy and stood up. “Thank you, Tomioka-Chan. Tell me, how's she doing?”
Tsutako frowned. “There was some difficulty during the procedure…” Douma’s eyes flicked over to her quickly as he itched his right forearm. “The Master has asked for you to be by his side as we finish in here.”
The giant man followed her out, giving Douma one last malicious smile before vanishing out the door.
~~~
Douma leaped from one dark rooftop to another, eyes shut as he ran but never stumbling. This part of Yoshiwara was desolate at best, most of the houses without bright lights and desperately needing repairs.
All Stone Breathers - or those who know some variant of the technique - could sense vibrations. It was an essential part of performing the technique, regardless of variant or weapon used. Douma had never seen a more acute honing of this skill besides Inosuke Hashibira, by far triumphing his own ability. However, Douma was a Hashira for a reason. And he was trained by the best of the best.
He slid down a building and skidded to a stop in a quiet street, eyes still closed and searching with his hands as he dropped down to his knees. He pressed his palms to the ground, searching and focusing as he pinpointed a familiar heartbeat, his own heart sounding in his ears.
~~~
“Douma-err, Mister Kibutsuji, you may come in now.” Tsutako returned a short while later.
Douma rose to his feet a little too quickly and followed the young woman through the halls of the mansion. His blood roared in his ears and his palms sweat in a way he had never experienced before. They paused in front of a cracked open door and stood back as Kaigaku stepped out. He glared at Douma and almost didn’t move, but the voice of Rei Kibutsuji called out.
“Is Douma there?” She sounded hoarse, exhausted. “Send him in, please.”
Kaigaku reluctantly stepped out of the way. As Douma moved to enter the room, the blue-eyed man grabbed his arm harshly.
“Try anything and I’m dragging you out by your tonsils.” He snarled.
Douma kept his eyes low, but pulled himself free to finally make his way into the room.
~~~
The Hashira opened his eyes and darted down the street at an incomprehensible speed. He skidded to a stop in front of one run down building. His heart pounding now being the only sound he heard. Douma drew his pale blue katana and kicked the door in.
Inside the small ground-floor room was a small girl wrestling with something under the blanket covering her body. Douma yanked the blanket off of her to find that little Kiriena had lodged a knife between the skin of her throat and a coarse looking piece of fabric that was attempting to choke her.
“ Oji ! Thank god! Help me!” She choked out as the fabric tightened again, straining against her knife.
Douma dropped his sword and pulled out his own Nichirin knife, grabbing the fabric and sawing it off. The black fabric fell to the ground and writhed around like a snake before it turned to ash, both of the Kibutsuji’s letting out sighs of relief.
Douma pulled his niece into a strong hug and pressed a kiss to her messy hair. “Oh my sweet dear, how glad I am to have made it in time. I feel compelled to sing about how much I missed you!”
Kiriena coughed and tried to push him away. “Douma, you smell again! Let me go, that’s an order!”
He released her only to brush her hair out of her face and examine her over. “When was the last time you bathed? Had a proper meal? You look like you haven’t seen the sun in ages!”
She retrieved a small vial from the pocket of her dirty kimono. “Well, poison does that to you. I found out who the demon was, but she also discovered me. To get out, I began poisoning myself and got transferred out of the upper level of the district. Don’t worry, I’ve already taken the anecdote. Guess that snake-thing figured it out too and hitched a ride.”
“You little schemer, you!” Douma laughed and ruffled her hair. “Good news, my operatives and I are heading to the Ogimoto House to slay the demon now.”
Her brown eyes went wide. “No, you’ve got the wrong place! The demon is the oiran of the Tokito House, Lady Kokushibo! She’s Upper Moon Six!”
“The oiran of the Tokito House, Lady Kokusibo… Upper Moon Six…” Douma repeated her words as a whisper, his own eyes widening. “I’m sending them into a trap…”
Kiriena pushed him again. “Why are you still here? Get lost, go fight! Only you know what Upper Six is capable of!”
“And leave you? Absolutely not!” Douma returned his weapons to their respective storage mediums. “My mission was to retrieve you and finally get you married.”
“I still have time--”
“No, Kiriena, you don’t.” His voice turned deadly serious. “Do you know what tomorrow is?”
Her face somehow paled more than it already was. “... oh.”
The Hashira shook his head. “No, no, this is on me. I take full responsibility for this. Don’t you worry, I’ll find a solution for this.”
“ Oji ?”
“Hmm?”
Kiriena helped him to his feet and stared him in the eyes with a strength that did not match her frail form. “Kill Upper Moon Six then, find me my husband. That’s an order from the Master of the Demon Slayer Corps.”
He poked her in the forehead. “You’re not the Master until your old man kicks it. Don’t get too big for your britches there.”
She pushed him out the door. “Just go! And you’re not allowed to die on me!”
Douma laughed and put a hand on his sword. “As you wish, Oyakata-Sama.”
~~~
“There he is!” A young Muzan clapped Douma on the shoulder as the door was shut behind him. The Master of the Demon Slayer Corps held a cane in his hand, but did not lean against it. “Here, come see!”
Muzan’s pale red eyes were sparkling with excitement as he dragged his older brother deeper into the room to a bed where a beautiful young woman lay. Her brown hair was messy and her eyes exhausted, but she visibly perked up when she caught sight of the blonde boy.
“It’s about time, young man.” She laughed. “Tsutako said that you weren’t available, so Kaigaku of all people ended up being the first in the room.”
Douma chuckled nervously, glancing back at the door. “Well, I certainly don’t wish to be responsible for a rift between best friends.”
Muzan ruffled his hair. “Nonsense, you’re my older brother! And I told Kaigaku that we would have preferred you in here first. After all, she is your niece.”
The rainbow-eyed boy looked back to Rei and finally noticed the small bundle in her arms. “My… niece?”
Rei followed his gaze. “Would you like to hold her?”
Muzan’s smile grew. “Not even Kaigaku has gotten to do that yet, and he’s the god-father.”
Douma looked between the couple, taking a step back. “I don’t know…”
The woman on the bed rolled her eyes and held out the bundle of blankets in her arms. “Kibitsuji Douma, come hold your niece while my darling husband fetches me some water. I was just in labor for an entire day and I want to take a nap.”
He gingerly took the bundle and cradled it in his arms as gently as he physically could as Muzan moved away to find water. The baby was sleeping soundly, safely in his arms, a tiny tuff of brown hair decorating the top of her smooth head. She stirred slightly in her sleep and her impossibly tiny fingers wrapped themselves around one of Douma’s innocently, not quite reaching all the way around his slender index finger.
~~~
Nezuko grunted as she pulled herself out of a window and onto the roof of the Kyogoku House. Hand on her sword, she began leaping and running across the rooftops of the Entertainment District towards the Ogimoto House where Zenitsu would be waiting for her.
I wonder what this demon will be like. Obviously it’s got some Demon Art related to fabric, based on Zenitsu’s report, but what else? Will it be like Lower One and have multiple Blood Arts? What will be the power scaling between the two? Is my Sun Breathing even strong enough?
She pushed her anxieties out of her mind as a sickeningly sweet scent smacked her in the face. Nezuko skidded to a stop and put her nose in the air, searching for the scent again. It reeked of bloodthirst and malice.
There it is. Now where are you?
Nezuko sniffed the air, trying to determine where the smell was coming from. She spun around in place until she decided on a direction and darted off, chasing the demonic trail.
Wait, I’m heading back in the direction I just came in…
Nezuko tracked the demon back to the Kyogoku House. She halted on a roof across the street from the top floor and peered in through a window, gasping at what she saw.
A beautiful demon with waxed hair, a painted face and wearing a black leotard with giant, billowing sleeves held Masachika in the air by his neck, blood dripping down where her nails dug into his skin. The human oiran kicked his legs frantically as his face turned red from a lack of oxygen, but the demon’s grip did not waver. Instead, she lifted her other pale hand and gently stroked his cheek.
“Such a shame, Soyokaze,” she spat his stage name out venomously, “such a shame indeed. Here I am, coming all the way to your House to bid you farewell from Yoshiwara before I eat you and here I find that you’re a liar, a fraud! You have no powers like I do, no gifts or natural beauty, so you cake your face in all the makeup you can and play pretty tunes on your biwa, right? All for money, right?”
He gasped for air pathetically. “P-Please…”
Nezuko drew her sword. “Hey! Ugly!”
The demon snapped her head around. Nezuko noted that her teal eyes carried no number indicating her Kizuki rank. “And who the hell are you?”
“Kanoe Kamado Nezuko, the Demon Slayer who is gonna stop you! Now put Lady Soyokaze down!” She yelled back, holding her sword up ready to strike.
“Okay.” The demon said sweetly before letting go of Masachika. However, the man didn’t hit the ground. He fell into the billowing fabric of the demon’s sleeves and like a heavy rock in the sea, disappeared without a trace. Nezuko’s pink eyes widened in shock.
“What did you just do to him? Where did he go?”
“Just a safe place… consider it my personal food locker!” The demon covered her mouth and giggled. “Would you like to go there too? I have more than enough room for any stinky Demon Slayer who wants to see it. I mean, just ask that green-eyed boy who looked just like a girl! Walked right into my arms, he did! Like a stupid boar!”
Nezuko grit her teeth and launched herself at the demon, sword raised and nose searching for the kill-line.
Total Concentration Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!
The demon easily side-stepped her and with a flick of her arm, her sleeve smacked into Nezuko’s torso and sent her flying back into the roof she was just standing on moments ago.
Nezuko smacked into the roof shingles and felt the air get punched out of her lungs. She struggled to get back to her already shaking legs as the demon moved to the edge of the window with a truly evil sneer.
“Nice to meet you, Kamado Nezuko. The name’s Yuchiro and I’m gonna be the demon that tears you to shreds.”
Yuichiro was caught off guard by a streak of blue flashing in front of her eyes. The blue Nichirin dagger embedded itself between her eyes and knocked her on her back. As Yuichiro recovered and pulled the dagger out of her skull, she barely dodged the black blade that appeared next to her, a furious Nezuko following the strike.