//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Training and Recovery 
// Story: Demon Slayer: The Strange Demon 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Following the meeting with Kaguya and the Hashira, and her battle with several of the Hashira, Pinkamena stood on the roof of the Butterfly Mansion and watched over everything that was around the structure, keeping her eyes and senses open for any Demons that might be lingering in the nearby area, not that she was expecting any since this area was one of the safe locations for the organization. One of the things she did was tap into her Mindscape and extracted a few samples of Rui's blood, where once that was done she called for Chachamaru, Tamayo's cat helper, to appear without actually revealing its existence to those who worked in the Butterfly Mansion. She slipped the vials into the pack that the cat was wearing, where she made sure to mark Rui's with a marking that indicated it was from a Lower Moon, before adding a few more vials that contained some samples of the other Spider Demons, just to give the doctor more samples to work with. Once that was done she nodded her head and let the cat depart so the samples could be delivered to Tamayo, allowing her to focus on keeping the area secure, or at least just watching over it as Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke recovered from their fights with the Spider Demons.

It wasn't too long before the one called Murata came to visit them, who apparently had been called to the meeting of the Hashira and informed Tanjiro as to what happened, since he felt that he owed him such a thing, though all she felt from him was someone who complained and grumbled, so she tuned him out, only listening when Shinobu returned and her mere presence caused Murata to flee.

"You are a strange one, Pinkamena." Shinobu commented, as she had been expecting to find the Demon near Tanjiro and the rest of her injured friends, instead of on the roof of the Butterfly Mansion, where she suspected that she was keeping an eye out for Demons, despite this place was one of the safest for their soldiers, "Though you'll be pleased to know that the others have accepted both your existence and Nezuko's, and given your abilities you might be assigned some of the more difficult missions."

"Good, that means I can lock horns with the Lower Moons." Pinkamena remarked, where a smile appeared on her face, as those were her main targets right now and she needed to find them, so she could prepare with her eventual battle with Muzan, since she wasn't going to stop until him and the Upper Moons were dealt with, before she considered something for a few seconds, "I take it you, or at the very least Aoi and Kanao, are going to be training Tanjiro and the others, so they can get back into fighting condition?"

"That's correct. We'll be starting their functional recovery training soon." Shinobu said, though she still found it odd to be having a conversation with a Demon who didn't want to rip her head off or kill her to get revenge on those she had slain so far, giving her a chance to study Pinkamena some more, as in her form and the one she had seen earlier, "Why are you so eager to face the Lower Moons?"

"Like I said earlier, I gain more power by devouring other Demons, and the Lower Moons are greater sources of strength for me to claim," Pinkamena replied, where she could see that Shinobu was surprised by that fact but said nothing, rather she was interested in what that might mean for her Blood Demon Art, which was understandable, before she turned her thoughts to the Demons in question, "I take them out and get an explosive growth to my power, and I'm sure that once all of the Lower Moons are dead, and I've devoured each of them, I'll be as strong as Upper Moon Six... from there it'll be an ordeal to track down the highest six Demons under Muzan and take them down, because even with Chaos World I'm sure it'll take a while to take them down."

"Well, I'm sure that you'll learn this soon enough, but we've heard rumors of another Lower Moon and were planning on sending a Hashira after them," Shinobu said, something that definitely caught Pinkamena's attention, since she turned her head for a moment, mostly because she still had five more targets to hunt down before moving onto the Upper Moons, a task that she and the other Hashira had, for the most part, failed to do, "however, to prove that you're on our side, we had the idea to send you and make sure you'll fight Demons... not that we were doubting you, but we want to make sure you remain true to what you said earlier."

As Pinkamena thought about it she had to assume that the figure in question was Lower Moon Six, the weakest of them all based on the number system, which meant she wouldn't have to worry about someone stronger than Rui showing up, but at the same time she knew that it was a rumor and the Corps had no idea which number it was, so it could be Lower Moon Four or even Lower Moon One. If the report was about the highest ranking member of the Lower Moons she was going to have to pull them into her personal realm to make sure no Humans were harmed during whatever battle took place, and part of her was looking forward to seeing which Demon she ended up being sent against. Rui had been an interesting foe, with all of the spider thread based techniques he had access to, not counting what his family could wield in battle, and it made her wonder what sort of powers the other members of the Lower Moons had, since they had to be stronger than all of the majority of the Demons she had faced so far. Shinobu realized that she was thinking about the foe she might find in the area they were planning on sending her to and apologized for not having any additional information for her, but she didn't seem to be the type that needed intelligence on her foes, save for knowing which foe she might find, so this seemed to be a good position for her.

Before Shinobu left she explained the training that Tanjiro and the others would be partaking in, as they would be resting in their beds for a while and the first thing was three of their helpers massaging their stiff bodies to loosen the muscles and prepare them for the true training. The next thing was that they would be facing off against Kanao in an attempt to get their hands on some medicated broth, a test of reflexes to be exact, while the third event they would be tackling would be the whole body training, which was essentially tag. Pinkamena knew what she was talking about, the training was made to get their bodies back into shape while trying to boost their natural abilities, such as increasing their stamina and speed, which meant it was designed to also boost their skills with whatever Breathing Style they possessed, so they could fight for longer and not fall down after a few minutes. Of course, being a Demon, this was something she didn't have to partake in and that meant she would be heading out in the near future, which she was perfectly fine with since there was more that needed to be done to save the Humans of this world from Muzan, so for now Pinkamena wished Tanjiro and the others well as she focused on her end of this.

When morning arrived, and nothing had happened in the area around Butterfly Mansion, Pinkamena's Kasugai crow came down and gave her the destination of her target, which was a few days from where Tanjiro and the others were resting, to which she nodded and jumped down to the ground so she could head out and see who her target was.





Muzan was enraged beyond measure, as not that long ago he had been found out by a young boy who happened to wear a pair of earrings that triggered some of his repressed memories, ones he would rather forget about since there was no reason for him to be worried about them, and the Demon Slayers had sent scouts looking for him in Asakusa, ones he had chosen not to kill this time around. His reasoning had been that if he killed those individuals, after being found out, more Slayers would come looking for him and he didn't want to be bothered by them, so he left them alone and focused on his own plans, which meant leaving behind the family he had taken over and finding a new place to live. To that end he took to his hidden fortress, the Infinity Castle, and created a new persona to wear as he looked for something or someone that he could use to further his goals of obtaining the perfect body, to walk in the sun without fear, though this guise was more of a simple one that no one would recognize. He decided on an elegant and young woman that had fair skin, much like his last form had, while his hair, or rather 'her' hair, would be tied in a bun in the back, her eyes would keep the crimson color she was known for, as the Slayers never noticed it before, and she picked out a black yukata to wear, in place of the suit her previous form wore almost all the time.

She also made sure to add decent sized breasts and make her voice more feminine, just to seal the deal, though as all that happened she also recalled the other Slayer she had seen, the girl who wore a fox mask over her face, another nuisance that needed to be dealt with in due time, before Muzan focused on what she was going to do next.

Just before her transformation into her new form she had ordered Nakime, the Demon in charge of the Infinity Castle, to track down and summon the other members of the Lower Moons, as she wanted to speak with them and see if there was a way to make them more useful to her, since they were the ones who kept dying all the time. It was frustrating that none of the Lower Moons could kill a Hashira or mortally wound them, that they were always falling to the Corps and unable to do anything important during their lives, something that was making her wonder why in the world she bothered to keep them around. Her problem didn't stop there, because while the members of the Lower Moons constantly changed, either due to one being killed by the Demon Slayers or her determining that the Demon in question was no longer useful to her plans, like how she removed Kyogai some time ago, in favor of one who had room to grow stronger, though the members of the Upper Moons rarely changed. In fact, when she thought about it, it had been a hundred years since she lost such a powerful minion to the Demon Slayers and their Hashira, a battle that had cost her Upper Moon Six and took down one of the Hashira, plus a squadron of lesser Slayers, though such a thing brought her back to the original point, the fact that the Lower Moons were always being replaced and were totally useless to her plans.

As she thought about that Nakime made a single note that informed her that all of the Lower Moons were here, though all of them were scattered throughout the castle and would be called together when she was ready, to which she glanced out at the area and found the frightened Demons with ease. The first one she located was Kamanue, Lower Moon Six, a male Demon who had a thick green line between and below his eyes, while he wore a white haori with a yellow scale pattern on the sleeves, and he was freaked out by what was going on right now. After that was a female Demon who wore a plain red kimono with a white furred collar, though she had a pair of small white horns on her head, where Muzan reminded herself that the Demon was Mukago, Lower Moon Four. Near her was Lower Moon Three, a male Demon with an X shaped mark on his forehead, though other than that Wakuraba was a forgettable face to her, before she focused on Lower Moon Two, an older male called Rokuro, who had a vein-like pattern on his forehead, though like the one before he was forgettable as well. After that was Lower Moon One, the most promising of the bunch in her eyes, Enmu, who had square markings right under his eyes, three large ones separated by two smaller ones, who wore a black button up coat, a white dress shirt, and a few other things that made him fit in with the Humans of the land, and of the five Demons he was always growing, never straying from his orders.

With a single command to Nakime she was able to bring the five Lower Moons to a single area, a platform that was right in front of where she decided to stand, so she could stand over them and glare down at the Demons with Nakime sitting off to her right, who were definitely confused as to what was going on right now.

"Lower your heads and squat. Prostrate yourselves." Muzan ordered, where she focused her gaze on them for a couple of seconds and found a wave of shock and surprise, as none of them seemed to realize that she was still Muzan, that he had altered his form into this so she could hide from the Demon Slayers for a time, before they dropped down and lowered their heads, showing her the respect she deserved.

"W... We are incredibly sorry, oh Great One... your form and presence are completely different..." Mukago started to say, her tone revealing that she was definitely freaked out about this, just like the others were based on what Muzan felt right now, though the slight change in Muzan's energy caused everyone to stop while Nakime remained perfectly fine, since she was one of the Demons who never got on her nerves.

"Who said you could SPEAK?!" Muzan stated, her words silencing the Demons in front of her instantly, as they knew that they were kneeling before their lord and master now, while at the same time she left no openings for them to speak, not until she was done and allowed them to say something, "Don't say anything out of your pathetic violation. You can only reply to whatever questions I ask you. Rui was killed earlier this week... that was Lower Moon Five. I have only one thing I want to ask the lot of you: Why are the Lower Moon Demons so damn WEAK?!"

Muzan could see that her words caused four of the five Demons to flinch for a moment, while she could hear them starting to form excuses in their minds, before she raised a hand and stopped them from speaking for a few seconds, as there was more she wanted to say before forcing them to answer her question.

"Just because you're part of the Twelve Kizuki doesn't mean that you can get lazy or relax... oh no, joining the faction is just the beginning." Muzan continued, allowing them to hear the information that she wanted them to gain before bothering to acquire the information she wanted from all of them, even though she noted that Enmu was the most calm of the five, a fact that reminded her of why she made him Lower Moon One, a Demon who could potentially become an Upper Moon if he kept growing, "The beginning of one eating more Humans, becoming stronger as they devour more individuals, and becoming of greater use to me. If you didn't know, the members of the Upper Moons haven't changed for over a hundred years... in fact, they're the ones who keep laying to rest all of the Hashira that have challenged my authority, dealing more crippling blows to the Corps. But what about the Lower Moons? How many times have I had to replace you, to keep the balance of power intact?"

In that moment she heard Kamanue think about how she 'couldn't just tell them that', something that caused her anger to rise instantly and the sheer fact caused the five Demons to pause once more, as many were unaware that she could read the minds of her minions, where the shorter the distance the greater her powers were, so if one was on the other side of the land it was hard for her to sense their thoughts.

"'You can't just tell us that'? Oh, then tell me!" Muzan stated, as it was rare for a Demon to actually talk or think back while she was talking to them, in fact many Demons just closed their minds to keep their fear to themselves, which failed more often than they thought and she said nothing about it, but this just infuriated her more than before, something that they were feeling at the moment.

There was the other thing that infuriated her, the fact that there was another Demon out there that she couldn't grasp the position of, Nezuko to be exact, but for now she turned her attention on the Lower Moons that were in front of her as she waited for Kamanue to make an excuse to save himself, even if she wasn't planning on sparing any of them, as she just so happened to have a plan for all of them. When she returned her attention to the Demons in front of her she found that Kamanue didn't have any excuse prepared and was repeatedly saying 'sorry' over and over again, as if she would show the likes of him mercy, though if her plan worked she could cut out an annoying Demon Slayer and most of the weak Demons that served her. Normally she would just stab whoever annoyed her and watch them explode from too much of her blood, or turn her arm into a thick tendril that would crush whatever dared to annoy her, but this time around she created some small tendrils that wrapped around Kamanue's legs and hauled him into the air, along with sealing his mouth for now, so she didn't have to listen to him speak. Such a thing served as an example for the other Lower Moons, who were freaking out as they wondered what was going to happen to them over the next couple of minutes, though she could tell that the majority of them were more afraid of her and were less afraid of the Demon Slayers, and that the majority usually went into hiding when a Hashira came to their hunting grounds.

It was annoying that these Demons could bare to call themselves members of the Kizuki, that they let the power of their Lower Moon status go to their heads, and it wasn't long before Mukago tried to beg for her life by saying that she'd fight for her master's honor, Wakuraba considered fleeing if they were going to die, and Rokuro actually tried to get more blood from her, where it wasn't long before the three of them joined Kamanue up in the air.

"Normally, each of your sins would be worthy of death, but I have other plans." Muzan stated, as part of her wanted to just kill them now and get it over with, because they were embarrassments to Demon kind, especially when she took a second to consider that Rokuro demanded some of her blood to be of greater use to her, before she gestured to a viewing screen Nakime created, showing the fox masked Demon Slayer, "From this point forward the Kizuki will solely consist of the six members of the Upper Moons, and normally I would dismantle you myself... however, the four of you will be given a brief chance at redemption: kill the Demon Slayer wearing the fox mask and I might spare you."

The reason she was excluding Enmu was because she wanted him to watch and listen to what happened, and if the four Lower Moons failed her she might just cut down the last Demon and end the Lower Moons entirely, though she remained silent as Nakime opened the way for the four Demons to head out into the area their target was in and simply waited to see what the outcome was.





Pinkamena walked down the path that was in front of her, as she had chosen to remain on the outskirts of the area she had been sent to for the time being, mostly to get a good idea of the lay of the land before heading into the city, because she was sure that the Demon she was hunting wasn't ready to make a move yet. As she thought about that, however, she came to a stop as something in the air changed and four Demons surrounded her without delay, one at each direction to stop her from leaving this area, though she had to grin as she glanced around and noticed who had come looking for her, something that likely surprised the Hashira that was assigned to follow her. Lower Moon Six was to her south, who had a thick green line between and below his eyes, while Lower Moon Four was a girl who had a pair of horns that poked out of her white hair and she appeared to the west of her. After that it was easy for her to find Lower Moon Three standing in the eastern position, who had a few X shaped scars on his face, as one was on his forehead and the other two were under his eyes, and Lower Moon Two stood in front of her, to the north, who had a black vein pattern on his head.

She wasn't sure if the report had been wrong, or if Muzan had decided to send multiple Lower Moons at her, but this was something she wasn't about to complain about as she drew her blade, as they seemed ready for a fight, even if she could practically smell the fear radiating from all of them, so she needed to be ready for whatever Blood Demon Arts they had to throw at her.

As Pinkamena wondered where Lower Moon One might be resting, since it seemed odd to see only these four and not all five of the remaining members of this portion of the Kizuki, her foes made their move without much delay, where Six, as she was going to call them by their numbers until she learned their names, brought his hands to the ground and created two shadowy clones of himself. At the same time Four raised her hands and seemed to emit a gas or smoke into the area that they were standing in, where Pinkamena noticed that the other Lower Moons seemed unaffected by it, which told her all she needed to know, it was designed to weaken or knock out her targets, so Four could devour or kill them whenever she wanted to. Three, on the other hand, seemed to be a speed based Demon and moved somewhat faster than what she was used to, in terms of Demons anyway, though his speed paled in comparison to the Hashira she had seen earlier, so it wasn't something she was too worried about, hence why she focused on Two. The last of the Lower Moons had scales that formed on his arms and legs, lizard scales to be exact, which meant that his power was either heightened regeneration, so he could fight without slowing down, or some sort of body strengthening, to let him penetrate the attire of a Demon Slayer and let him take down whoever he was fighting at the time.

So far, by just observing her foes and not fighting them, Pinkamena was slightly disappointed in their powers, as none of their abilities seemed stronger than Rui's was, in fact most of them seemed far weaker than Rui's, and in Six's case that was the truth, but part of her wondered if Muzan might have messed up the rankings, as she was sure that Rui was more deserving of Lower Moon Two, instead of the position he got.

In the following moments she made her move as they approached her at different speeds, where she spun around for a few seconds and focused on her Chaos Breathing techniques, Violent Vortex Slash to be exact, which drew in the shadows for a moment and Six at the same time, surprising the other Lower Moons as she sliced Six apart. As that happened Four glanced down at her hands for a few moments, no doubt wondering why her smoke or poison wasn't working on their foe, and such a thing opened her up to be carved up by Pinkamena's First Form, as she sliced the Demon apart with a couple of well placed swings of her blade. She found that both Three and Two appeared to be questioning their chances of even surviving this battle, against a Demon Slayer who was capable of eliminating two Lower Moons with ease, and Three just decided to flee, causing Pinkamena to sigh as she rushed over to him, grabbed his head, and slammed him into the stone below him, allowing her to hack him apart as well. Once that was done she found that Two was approaching her and just pushed his body to the absolute limits, as his arms and legs were totally covered in scales and she was sure that he had a lizard's tail, a black one to match his facial markings, before finding that he was able to move faster than the other Lower Moons and packed more power in his attacks.

Two, for the most part, earned his position as a Lower Moon, that much she could tell from facing his might, and his own regeneration was rather quick, meaning he was definitely stronger than the others, especially since he regrew the limbs she cut off, including the tail as she discovered, but in the end it didn't matter as Pinkamena cut him down as well, leaving her with four fallen enemies.

"Well, the Hashira can't complain now, not when I've shown that I'm willing to fight and kill the Lower Moons," Pinkamena commented, where she made sure to collect the pieces of the fallen Demons and arranged them in her Storehouse by the numbers she knew them by, while thinking that this would be a decent boost to her own power, though she decided that this time she'd wait to draw their blood, since the cat was no where nearby right now, "though now I'm curious about the power of Lower Moon One, not to mention the might of the Upper Moons."

Since there was nothing else for her to do in the settlement she had been walking to, and she could sense no additional Demons in the area, Pinkamena turned around and headed back to the Butterfly Mansion, to report her success before waiting for another mission to be given to her, all while waiting for Tanjiro and the others to recover from their injuries so they could head out on their next adventure.