Chapter 219: The Son Shall Not Pay For The Sins of the Fathers
Back at Demon Slayer Headquarters, the day after the information was given to the Demon Slayers on all the Upper Moons.
"Obanai, it is time for you to unlock your Spiral Energy." I say as I stood steadfast while I looked upon Obanai who was now facing off against his doppelgänger from The Changling.
He didn't say anything and just slowly pulled his katana out of it sheathe before getting in a combat ready stance while Changling did the same thing.
With a snap of my fingers a 25 by 25 by 25 meter cube surrounded them both and cutting them all off from outside sight, and this time I stayed out of this fight entirely as no words I could say would work on Obanai.
'Changling I leave the rest to you.' I thought to myself as it was the Changlings job to hopefully unlock the Spiral Energy within the one who will have the hardest time unlocking it out of all the others.
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(3rd Person POV)
"Ahh, now it's just the two of us, but me fighting you won't be enough to unlock your Spiral Energy." The Changling said before suddenly his staff appeared in his free hand, a item he hadn't needed to summon at all for all previous battles with the Hashira's.
"…. And what is that supposed to mean?" He said with squinted eyes as he still didn't like the fact this thing could easily wear his face and mimic his voice perfectly either.
Hearing this the Changling spun his staff before planting it into the ground before various magic circles appeared from the center where he planted his staff in the ground.
Soon enough the scenery shifted, the ground was soaking in blood and a black sludge, the place Obanai soon realized with widened eyes was his old family home of his fallen clan.
All around him were the bodies of his family members, all that were killed by the Snake Demon that had been haunting his nightmares all his younger life.
Soon enough the bodies rose up and gripped onto Obanai's body, but he did nothing as they cursed him for what he had done, "You Killed Us!" "If it wasn't for you we would still be alive!" "Why did you run from your fate you ungrateful bastard!" They all began to spew words of hatred towards him which shook him.
But this wasn't uncommon for him to feel this way, he always had immense self loathing for himself and his own personal hatred for the family he was born into, humans that were no different than demons and that their sins were ingrained within his very body and soul due to the blood flowing through his very body making him the way he is now, a man who will sacrifice his own life to do good deeds just so he can wash away all the sins of his family from his body with an honorable death in battle.
"They don't know when to shut up now do they?" Changling said to him as their shouts became whispers of hatred instead while they clawed and scratched at his body but no real harm was being done.
"You think that it's all your fault that they died, your not wrong, but your not right either, humans are such fickle creatures and demons once being humans are as well, there was in all likelihood a good chance that the snake demon that kill your entire family was going to do so at some point anyway." The Changling said but Obanai stayed quiet.
"'If I just accepted my fate and died by that demons hands then my family wouldn't have been slaughtered' is that what you think? That my friend is a rather arrogant way of thinking, the second your family began worshipping a demon like a god is the moment that they sealed their own fate, they made their choice and you made your own, you think a prisoner trapped in a cage your entire life had any right to choose while you were trapped there? No, had you done nothing you would have died and become nothing but nourishment for that demon." The Changling said as he manifested the snake demon as she bared her fangs before he promptly severed her head without a second thought.
"And what, your going to take what your cousin said to you before you became a Demon Slayer at face value? You and I both know that what she said isn't true, but low self esteem, self hatred and the death of your entire clan makes you feel that everything that happened along with everything that they were was also your fault as well." The Changling kept going while Obanai's eyes became hidden under his hair.
"There is a saying to the west that takes precedence in your current situation, do you want to hear it Obanai?" The Changling asked but got no response, but he didn't say he wished not to hear it either.
"'The Son Shall Not Pay For The Sins of the Father' It means that the child should not be burdened by the crimes ones parents or family has caused, you think your blood is filthy and filled with the darkness of what your family had done, but your wrong!" The Changling shouted out as he unleashed spiral energy that began to push away at the black sludge and blood covering the ground before pulling down his mask to reveal his slit mouth.
"Listen well boy, you had no part in anything that your family ever did, how could a caged snake ever hope to hurt a person when all they had ever known was the cage they had resided in, I maybe repeating myself but you need to get this through your thick skull, never forgive your family for what they had done, but if you wish to move on and find happiness you need to let the past go and forgive yourself." He said as the shadows of his dead family began to let go and fade from his body.
"…. Forgive myself huh?" He said to himself as all the shadows of his family completely faded before he entered a complete and proper stance of his Snake Breathing before he began to breathe while activating his poisonous aura as his Snake Demon Slayer Mark coiled around his left arm.
Seeing this the Changling smirked before also getting into the same stance and copying his style to the letter, but with a clear difference in their powers as Spiral Energy surrounded his body.
""First Form! Winding Serpent Slash!"" Both of them said together as they both moved in a winding snake like pattern with their feet before reaching each other and having their weapons clash over and over but with Obanai being pushed back from the attacks as he was weaker than the Changling in his attacks.
"Look, you still haven't moved on as your Aura even poisons the very earth you stand upon instead of the enemy you are facing, as you are you will never become your strongest self!" He calls out before putting more force into his attacks as he began to launch a barrage between the both of them.
But be it through battle or words this fight would be the longest out of them all before Obanai could ever truly hope to move past his dark past and see the light before him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone