章 45: Swordsmith Village Aftermath
Having killed Gyokko after a rigorous battle, I look around at the destroyed area, giving a strange look to the still polishing Haganezuka.
I was ripped from my judgment of Haganezuka by Kotetsu and Kanamori, who asked, "Shiro-dono!! Are you okay? I have no idea what happened just now."
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Now, why don't we go and check on the rest of the village."
"What about Haganezuka?" Kotetsu asked, giving Haganezuka the same weird look I probably did as well.
"Leave him. I don't think we can ever beak that trance of his unless we take the blade straight from him."
Hearing that, Kotetsu and Kanamori immediately whipped around, pointing to the village, "Well, I guess that we should check on the village chief, shouldn't we."
Trudging through the forest, I become wide eyed upon seeing that a large portion of the Swordsmith Village was destroyed. Even amongst this destruction however, I could see the laughing and smiling faces of every Demon Slayer I had brought along for this "relaxing" trip.
As I make my way towards them, Shinobu is the first to spot me, rushing towards me, carefully checking to see if I was injured, before then going on to explain the demon that they had fought.
"We fought a rather ugly demon, but when he first introduced himself, he had managed to hide his presence until he was right in front of us. And worst of all, he crawled directly into our sleeping chambers. I had tried to cut him with my blade, but the demon was absurdly fast, having been able to grip the ceiling before he could be cut."
"Though, the demon was rather scared, always whimpering." Nezuko adds, receiving a nod from Shinobu.
"This demon didn't retaliate in the slightest, allowing us to play with his body until Tokito swiftly entered our room and beheaded the demon."
"Even with his head gone though, that in turn allowed for the demon to split into two separate entities, one forming from the cut head, the other from the body." Tokito inputs.
"And these demons were absurdly strong compared to the wimp of a demon. The first one held a leaf which could generate an absurd amount of air pressure that it even blasted away the entire roof of the building." Shinobu continues. "The other demon had control over lightning, creating shocks of a high enough voltage to stun even Mitsuri."
"Even with this though," Mitsuri begins, "this demon greatly overestimated who it was going against as with a gunshot from Genya nearly beheading the two of the demons plus the addition of four other highly trained Demon Slayers, we beheaded these two other demons."
"But that is not all!" Rengoku starts. "This demon preformed the same trick that it had before, now having four bodies with the remaining two having the ability to control the spear the one demon held and the other had a bird-like physiology."
"Upon discovering that we couldn't kill them, I thought that the demon most likely had a main body which was hiding, So, while the Hashiras were holding off the four demons, it was our job to find this other body." Tanjiro explains.
"Yet the thing was absolutely miniscule, almost like a bug that I could squash in an instant!" Inosuke screams. "No matter how hard I stepped on it though, it wouldn't die!"
"And even when we tried to cut off its neck, our blades couldn't cut through it, so we had to resort to switching off a Hashira in order to decapitate the mini demon." A sleeping Zenitsu builds on.
"However, now that the Demon felt that he was under threat, the four of his bodies combined into a singular one. I even watched as one of the demons tried to fight back against this mutation, but the demon with hatred written on his tongue, simply chopped his other part in half and then consumed it through his body." Shinobu adjoins. "This thing was much more dangerous and a lot faster than the previous versions. And it's what caused such a great amount of destruction to the surrounding areas."
"Its ability was to be able to control wood. Plus, this demon had access to each of the annoying abilities that the other demons had. The moment that we tried to get close to the new demon, it'd use its wood creations to scream at us, almost rupturing our ear drums."
"I am but a weakness to the wood user himself! So, I of course cleaved through such weak wood, giving us Hashiras and these brave Demon Slayers of yours a path to this demon!"
"Yet, no matter how hard we tried to behead it, nothing worked." Mitsuri whined.
"I fought… the main body." Kanao began slowly, "I used… my art… to cut through parts of his neck. Yet… the demon grew… in size… and near gripped my head… had Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu… not interfered, giving me… the chance to behead the demon. Even so… the demon lived… inside the heart… of the one I just killed… so sister came rushing in…. plunging her poisoned sword… into the main demon…"
"I see," I grab both Shinobu and Kanao, bringing them into a tight hug, "The two of you went through a lot, I'm glad to see that neither of you are hurt."
Shinobu scoffs, "We should be saying the same thing. What were you even doing anyway?"
"I killed the Upper Moon Five, the creator of those putrid fish demons that had been attacking the Village." '
"You fought another Upper Moon." Shinobu rubs the brook of her nose, "Of course you did. Why am I even surprised?"
"By the way, who even dealt with the fish demons that were attacking the Village?"
"Mama did." Kanao smiles.
Giving a nod of appreciation in Kanae's direction, our little reprieve in the Swordsmith Village came to a close and we would head back home very soon.
Yet, I took this time to finally meet with Tecchin again, yet I'm taken aback when I find him in a similar trance that Haganezuka was placed in and surrounding him were a multitude of blades. This ranged from a whip-like katana to twin cleavers and all these swords were pitch black in color, very similar to the original color of my own blade.
Leaving Tecchin be for the time being, I arrive back at the Demon Slayer Headquarters just to be placed in a Pillar Meeting.
"Aagh. I envy you guys. Why can't I bump into Upper Moons?" Shinazugawa complains.
"It's not like people bump into them all the time. But it does seem like Shiro has a knack for stuff like that. How long before those demons start showing at our doorstep, hmm."
"There's no need to be like that Obanai, I think that Shiro just has bad luck."
"Ugh, not you too Muichiro."
Yet, Obanai's comment is overlooked by Gyomei's booming voice, "If we lost any Pillars, the Demon Slayers will be in trouble… but defeating two Upper Moons without a single casualty is very noble, indeed…"
"Oyakata-sama probably wants to talk to us about everything, including where we go next."
And just at that very moment, a different Ubuyashiki walks in.
"I'm very sorry for the wait." She begins, "For our meeting today, I, Ubuyashiki Amane, will be attending in place of Ubuyashiki Kagaya. Right now, the disease affecting our Master Kagaya has gotten worse. And he sends his apologies for being unable to attend this meeting in front of you all."
Bowing to Amane, Gyomei states, "Understood… I will pray for Oyakata-sama's flickering flame of life to last a bit longer, even just for a day. And for you to stay strong, Amane-sama."
"He would like to give his thanks to all the pillars. However, I have to inform you that the time for an all-out battle is approaching. Even though Muzan has tended to be hesitant in the past, he won't take the insult of now one, but two more of his Upper Kizuki being killed off. Additionally, we have a person in our presence who Muzan would very much like to kill, beside our Ubuyashiki family of course."
All eyes then turn to me, and I crack my knuckles, "Well then, we should get to training then, right?"
"Of course, all active Hashiras should participate in teaching our next generation to prepare for the final battle." Standing up, Amane then left the area, leaving us Hashiras amongst ourselves.
"Now that Amane-dono is gone, I'll take my leave."
"Whoa. Hold it. Don't leave just yet man. We ought to make our future plans now, am I right?"
"Then you six can talk about it. It's got nothing to do with me." Giyu responds.
"What do you mean, nothing to do with you? You don't understand your position as a pillar here. Or what? You planning on getting a head start on training without us? You didn't say a thing during the meeting."
Even with Obanai's words, Giyu still tried to walk away.
"Hold it! Just tell us why you're leaving!" Shinazugawa yells.
"…I'm not like you guys."
Facepalming at Giyu's answer, Shinazugawa of course took it as a challenge.
"Now you're pissing me off… You said the same thing before. Tomioka. Are you making fun of all of us?"
Yet, he's completely ignored, receiving silence.
As Shinazugawa goes to yell at Giyu again, Gyomei claps his hands together, instantly silencing everyone.
"Take a seat… Let's talk a bit more… I have a proposition…"
Watching the tears drip from Gyomei's eyes, I lean forward, wondering what the plan would be.
Skipping home happily after the meeting, I meet someone completely unexpected at the door to the Butterfly Mansion. Hearing my steps, Haganezuka and Tecchin whip their heads towards me. In Haganezuka's hands, there was a single blade wrapped carefully in cloth. On the other hand, Tecchin was carrying a woven bag on his back which carried five separate blades, all covered in cloth.
"Shiro! I finally finished." Tecchin appears in front of me, "I finally finished the task I was set to complete."
"And may I be so rude to ask what that task may have been?"
"You see," Tecchin begins to lecture, "I have been informed multiple times that you use a multitude of breathing arts, yet you don't have a single other Nichirin Blade to fit those arts. So, using your weapon as a base, I began to construct more weapons for you, all from the same rock that came hurtling down from the sky. And I'm here to present the final products to you. But first…"
Handing me what I presume to be my first sword, I tear away the cloth covering it, revealing a finely carved sheath, giving it a beauty that easily rivaled the sword that lay inside.
Hurriedly handing me the next package, and the next, and the next, I revealed a whip-like katana, twin cleavers, twisted katana, and a flail and axe. Meeting each, the color, compared to the original, was backwards, in which the edge of the blade was pitch black and the neck of the blade was instead the light blue almost snow-like color.
"How interesting…" I hear Tecchin mumble.
"I don't know how to thank you Master Tecchin." I graciously accept.
"Well, you can start off by finishing this bloodied war. And then use these blades to influence a generation yet to come. If you can do that, then I can die happy." Standing righteously, all is broken by Haganezuka who shoved Tecchin out of the way.
"Yes, yes, those may all be great weapons, but I finished polishing this weapon." He hoisted up what I presume to be the rusted blade we pulled from the doll.
Pulling it from its sheath, the Nichirin Coloring was already set, leaving for it to have a blade edge with a flame like hamon line.
"The previous wielder must have been a very strong swordsman, and this must have been forged by a very talented swordsmith whose sole intention was to slay demons as he didn't even leave his name on the blade. So, I present to you, the strongest swordsman in the Demon Slayer Corps right now, a blade that probably belonged to the first Demon Slayer to ever exist. Use it well, for it could be the key."
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