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(*)
In a hallway of the demon mansion, the grotesque big head of a fish flew nearly artfully from its human-like body, which crappled down the floor. Head and body started to dissolve, as Yua took a deep breath and sheathed her katana back in its scabbard.
"With this, I killed now five demons.", she mused quietly. "It seems like I have been in this mansion since forever, but honestly, it's probably been just an hour, so give or take a few minutes."
The young woman checked herself quickly over.
Her long, dark blue hair was still in its five wild braids. The demon slayer corps uniform with a skirt was not even bloody, and her pale purple haori with the moon phase on the back was also still clean.
She adjusted her thigh-high black stockings before she fixed her grey ankle boots.
Alright, she could keep looking for Tanjiro and the others.
The young woman ran along the hallway in the mysterious, ever-changing mansion, the katana back in her hand, her senses sharp.
She concentrated harder, trying to pick up a familiar presence.
What she felt was another dark, looming presence before her.
Fast Yua hides behind a wall.
Carefully, she looks around the corner.
There.
The familiar black colour, tripping off a demon!
This time it's a female one, with long hair, wearing a short kimono.
No other colours shone from the demon…which meant it hadn't sensed her yet.
Good.
Once again, Yua was grateful for her ability to see and feel auras.
This gift greatly aided her in her battles against demons and in her interactions with others.
It was challenging for people to lie to her because she could perceive the colours they emitted, and each colour carried a specific meaning.
Yua had dedicated her entire life to understanding these meanings.
She makes herself ready to take out the female demon.
Total Concretion!
Running up to it, the demon senses her, turning around.
Moon Breathing!
But it's already too late for it.
First Form: Clear Moon, Nightfall Palace!
She draws her katana and performs a singular horizontal slash following a crescent shape. The demon screams, blood runs down in a cascade down its body, and with a simple slash from left to right, Yua beheads it.
With cold, grey eyes, she looks down at the man-eating monster.
Even in death, no regrets.
Disgusting.
Demons are a disease; all need to die!
And yet you didn't call out Tanjiro and his little demon secret…
Yua shakes her head, trying not to listen to the voice in her head. She needs to find the others.
So she starts running again.
I don't know why I just didn't kill the demon Tanjiro has with him on the spot…just…the aura it gave off…it was gentle and bright…like Tanjiro's aura was calm and sincere…He is a good guy…there must be a reason…And I want to find out what it is!
The house began to rotate once more, and she was grateful to grab onto a doorway for support. Once it stopped, she continued running.
She could sense their auras, but she couldn't pinpoint their exact locations, which was starting to irritate her. She knew she needed to improve her tracking skills. That had never been her speciality, and now it was becoming crucial.
Awesome.
For a while, she runs through the mansion.
Opening doors, finding vacant rooms and trying to not break her neck when the mansion starts to imitate a crazy carousel.
Screaming, Yua falls out of a window, crashing down hard onto the forest ground. She feels the crack in her rib before the pain makes tears spread in her eyes.
Not a demon broke a rib, at least she could have said she earned a battle wound, no, a stupid, pathetic fall from an open window did it.
Her grandfather was right to tell her that she had to give more.
This was downright embarrassing!
That's when she also hears the sound of battle.
Confused and careful, she sits up, holding onto her broken rib.
…What the fuck is she seeing?!
Did she also hit her head?
Or was Tanjiro fistfighting a boar-headed man with the weirdest aura Yua ever encountered?
It's nearly animalistic in its wild and crazy colours. That's not normal for a human, but a demon, the boarhead was also not.
"Yua-San!", Teruko calls over, in the embrace of Shouichi and another boy. Probably Kiyoshi. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Teruko-Chan…just…is Tanjiro fighting Manbearpig or am I hallucinating?", Yua answered confused.
"I don't really see the bear…", mumbles Shouichi loud enough for her to hear.
As she opens her mouth to answer the child, Tanjiro yells at Manbearpig to calm down and gives him the hardest headbutt Yua had ever seen!
She can't help but make a face.
That must hurt like a bitch!
"Ahh!! That sound!,", a bloody and beat-up Zenitsu yells beside Tanjiro's red box. "Are your skulls fractured?!"
It would be a wonder if not!
Manbearpig staggers backwards, his head, aka, it was a mask the whole time, falling off.
Yua blinks rapidly and can't help the blush from rising in her cheeks. What a beautiful face on such a well-trained body!
Wow!
Zenitsu doesn't share her sentiment since he shrieks: "Huh?! A Girl?! Huh? Ah… Your face!"
"What the hell? You've got a problem with my face or something?" yells back the blue-haired boy with these pretty green eyes.
"You're one creepy guy, you know that? You've got such a ripped body, but there's a girl's face sitting on top of it."
"That's mean…", mumbles Yua with crossed arms.
Zenitsu was sure just jealous he wasn't that pretty!
"Why the hell are you staring at my face like that?", hollers pretty boy at Zenitsu.
Like the chickenshit the blond was, he hides behind the little Teruko and denies having a problem with the pretty boy's face.
Tanjiro even adds that the pretty boy's face was quite petite, fair-skinned, and therefore attractive! This makes Yua wonder if Tanjiro is hitting on the other male, or does he just tell the truth, so she checks his aura.
Well, Tanjiro wasn't lying and doesn't have an underlying motive, huh.
Pretty Boy was offended and wanted to fight Tanjiro again, yet the other boy declined.
Their conversation turns only crazier and kind of funny as Tanjiro wants that Pretty Boy rests, Pretty Boy tells anybody his name is Hashibira Inosuke and the red-haired boy actually asks him which characters do you use to spell that?
Inosuke was so shocked that he froze for a moment, saying something about a loincloth, before he fainted.
Yua just deadpanned at this.
Kudos for lasting that long, boar-head-boy.
Meanwhile, Teruko compliments Tanjiro's forehead for being so hard and even touches it.
Zenitsu and Yua didn't know how the other thought the same, but both asked themselves how freacking hard Tanjiro's head was and why he wasn't bleeding.
Absolutely crazy day!
(*)
Currently, Yua, her fellow Demon Slayers, Tanjiro and Zenitsu, and the siblings were working together to make another grave for one of the victims of the demons in the mansion, while Inosuke slept on Tanjiro's haori and used Zenitsu's and Yua's ones as blankets.
They had done good work already, and if they kept it up, they would be done by sundown.
Out of nowhere, Inosuke starts yelling and jumping up from his makeshift bed.
"Ahh!! He's awake!", Zenitsu screams, scared.
A stupid idea to open his mouth, since Inosuke now targets and wants to fight Zenitsu.
He chases Zenitsu around till he hides behind Teruko, which makes the blue-haired boy stop in his tracks and stare in utter confusion at them.
"What the hell are you guys doing?!", Inosuke demands to know.
"It's a burial.", deadpans Yua, fixing a stone. "That's what you do with dead people."
"You help you, too, Inosuke.", adds Tanjiro. "There are still people who were killed inside the house."
"What's the point of burying the corpses of creatures? I'm not doing that! I'm not helping out! Forget that! Fight me!"
Yua facepalms and grumbles something about all pretty outside and inside, nothing.
"I see. You can't do it because your wounds are hurting you."
Not only did Yua look at Tanjiro in disbelief, but Zenitsu was right with her.
Only because she saw how sincere Tanjiro Aura was, she didn't think he was stupid.
Tanjiro seems to be always gentle and caring.
Her conclusion shows true as Tanjiro reassures Inosuke that he should rest while they all will do the work of burying the bodies.
Of course, seeing how proud Inosuke was of his Aura colours alone, the wild boy offended proclaims he will bury more bodies than anyone.
"As long as you do something, I don't care. Come on, guys, we aren't finished yet, and Agatsuma, stop pestering Teruko!", Yua commands, which gets everyone moving.
Inosuke had already moved before she opened her mouth.
Well, as long as the job gets done, she doesn't care.
(*)
In the late afternoon, the group finally finished burying all the bodies.
Eight.
Eight human lives…just snuffed out like a candle.
All, besides Inosuke, who randomly headbutted trees, were praying before the graves in silence.
Yua sent her prayer to her family patron god, Tsukuyomi, the God of the Moon. She asked that he helped these poor souls entering the afterlife, to be reunited with their loved ones, to find peace.
It's then that they heard the familiar caws of Kaguya and Matsuemon, telling them to descend the mountain.
So the group, with Inosuke, who demands that Tanjiro fight with him, started to track down.
At the base of the mountain, Yua, Tanjiro, and Zenitsu prepare to split from Kiyoshi, Shouichi, and Teruko, while Inosuke again randomly headbutts trees.
Zenitsu clings to Shouichi, crying like a baby.
"I won't have it! I won't have it, I won't have it! You can't go, Shouichi! You're powerful, Shouichi! Shouichi is the one who's gonna protect me!"
"Can't you see Shouichi doesn't want to stay?!" Tanjiro tells him, seeming to lose his cool with the crybaby.
Yua simply hit Zenitsu over the head, so he fell down on the forest ground, whimpering and holding his new bump.
"I'm sorry for this shameless crybaby.", she apologises and bows before the siblings. "Go in peace, children."
Pointedly, she ignored Zenitsu as he cried out that he wasn't shameless, trying hard to suppress a smirk when Tanjiro mentioned that he would have hit Zenitsu on the head too if she hadn't done it first. Zenitsu was embarrassing them all and creating unnecessary problems.
The sound of his betrayal was amusing.
Matsuemon handed Kiyoshi, the boy with the rare blood, a small sachet filled with wisteria flowers to ward off any demons.
With that, the Demon Slayers said goodbye to the children, who were finally going home, and followed the crows to their next destination.
If Yua had to guess, it would be a Wisteria House, as they all needed to tend to their wounds and find a place to sleep after such a long day.
It was somewhat challenging, but in the end, Tanjiro agreed to let Yua carry his box while he transported Zenitsu on his back. Her strike had been harder than expected and had ultimately knocked the blond boy out.
For Yua, it was a unique experience to feel the aura of the demon in the box so close to her. This confirmed that Tanjiro's demon was truly different from all the other demons she had encountered. The blue-haired beauty felt the kind and gentle aura of the demon a tenfold like this. She wondered when she would have the chance to ask Tanjiro about his story, especially as she had to endure Inosuke challenging the red-haired boy to a fight at that moment.
"Fight me!", Inosuke howled. "I swear I'm gonna find a weak point and bring you down, loser!"
"My name is not 'loser"! It's Kamado Tanjiro!", corrected Tanjiro.
"Kamaboko Gonpachiro!"
How in the name of Tsukoyomi could someone mess up a name so much? Yua was astonished.
"I'm gonna bring you down!"
"Who the hell are you talking about?!"
"That would be you!"
"No, it's someone else!"
"Can you talk any louder?!", Zenitsu screamed, startling anybody.
Done with all, Yua looks up to the sky at the crows.
"Kaguya, how long till we reach our destination?"
The I'm this close to committing homicide, she doesn't say.
Who is she travelling with? One is crazier than the next one.
"We are nearly there, Yua-Chan!"
"Thanks, my princess."
Kaguya let's out a happy caw.
"You and your crow are close, hm?" says Tanjiro with a little smile, which makes Yua just deadpan.
"I'm since four years a Demon Slayer and Kaguya is since this long my crow. Of course, we are close."
Awkward silence was now over the group.
Not that Yua cared. She isn't in the Demon Slayer Corps to make friends but to become a Hashira.
Night has fallen over them as they finally reach the Wisteria House.
Kaguya was sitting on Yua's shoulder, while Tanjiro held his crow in his hands.
"Caw~! Rest time! Rest time!", Matsuemon declares. "Since you've sustained injuries, you're to rest until you're fully recovered!"
"Huh? Are you sure it's okay to rest?", Tanjiro wonders. "I just fought a demon while injured, you know."
"Ke-ke-ke."
""Ke-ke-ke"?"
Kaguya and Yua facepalm together.
"Let's eat this thing.", Inosuke decides, pulling at Matsuemon's tail feathers.
"What?!", the poor crow shrieks.
Kaguya and Yua facepalm harder.
Once again, who in the name of Tsukuyomi did they meet?
Frustrated, Yua knocks on the manor door.
She has a feeling it will be a long night with these three idiots.
(*)
Taisho Secrets!
First Form: Clear Moon, Nightfall Palace is Kokushibo. First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace.
I headcanon that his kata's had more positive names before he turned evil demon, so I changed the name's up to something more positive for the original Moon Breathing Yua's family uses.
The ones who know Yua note in this chapter how I changed her apparence. I decide on a hairstyle and a new haori.
So why does Yua have five braids? Five is a lucky number in Japan.
Why a pastel purple haori with the moon phases? Simple, Yua likes the color and since she is currently the only offical Mochizuki with Moon Bretahing she wears of course something moon relatend on her haori.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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