Demon Slayer: The Strange Demon

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: A New Mission

After departing from the Rengoku House, and leaving Senjuro to deal with his father at some point in time, Pinkamena and Tanjiro made their way back to the Butterfly Mansion, as she knew that the girls were likely upset after discovering that her friend was missing. Part of her was still mad that he had just upped and moved without any regard for his own health, as the wound could have been more serious and he was lucky that he only got off without something more serious, though what he was doing right now was aggravating his wound, however her anger had cooled off after finding something else to be angry at. She was still peeved about how Shinjuro could act in regards to his own children, one who was unable to step up and continue their family's respected history, by becoming the next Flame Hashira, and another who had perished while holding back an Upper Moon Demon, which the other Hashira likely respected him for. She wasn't sure he would change, even if Senjuro told him the last words that Kyojuro had for him, but in the end she let out a sigh as she determined that it would be best if she focused on mastering her new power and helping Tanjiro learn how to wield his Sun Breathing skills, a fact he seemed oblivious to right now.

Her thoughts were interrupted as they reached the Butterfly Mansion and found Hotaru standing some distance in front of them, though this time he was wearing black clothing, had a knife in each hand, had a headband around his forehead that had two more knives pointed at the sky, and he seemed angry, based on the veins she could see in his exposed chest, as his attire was open in the middle.

"Ho... Hotaru?!" Tanjiro fearfully inquired, because he knew why the man was here, looking like that, as it had to be about the letter he had sent about getting a replacement blade due to Akaza breaking the last one before he fought Kyojuro, but he had been expecting a letter and then this.

"What the hell were you thinking, letting that blade break so soon you bastard!" Hotaru exclaimed, confirming that he was angry right now and that there was nothing Tanjiro could say to calm down the man who made his swords, though at the same time Pinkamena said nothing as she stood off to the side, making sure to take Nezuko's box since she knew Tanjiro needed all his speed for what was about to happen, "You deserve death! You absolutely deserve death!"

Pinkamena jumped onto the roof of the Butterfly Mansion, surprising Tanjiro with her speed as she slipped inside and put Nezuko's box down in a safe area, his room anyway, before moving to a high point to watch the pair, as Hotaru rushed at her friend and Tanjiro had to run for his life. The reason she was fine with this was because it ended up training Tanjiro's body more, ignoring the wounds that weren't life threatening while increasing his speed, as he needed it to avoid his now angry blacksmith, where they dashed around the forest and Tanjiro used the trees to get up and around Hotaru, who was able to keep up with him rather well. Such a thing made her think about why her friend's blades were so different from all of the other Nichirin Blades she had seen during her time with the Corps, as, for the most part, Tanjiro's kept breaking in battle, with Rui cutting his first one in half and Akaza crushing his second with his foot, while the blades of the others were in near perfect condition and were rarely sent in for sharpening and repair. It was as if weaker Demons couldn't break the powerful Nichirin Blades, which made sense due to the fact that they were far weaker that the Kizuki, while Akaza and his ilk could likely chip, even break, the blades of those weaker than them, or at least that was her thoughts on the matter, at this point in time anyway.

Either way her blade was likely influenced by her Blood Demon Art, as in Chaos World might be reinforcing her blade to the point where it could handle anything and everything she encountered on her quest, or maybe it was due to it being forged by the best blacksmith in the land, Tecchin Tecchikawahara, whose skills surpassed Hotaru's, but in the end she decided that it really didn't matter all that much and focused on Tanjiro.

What she found that was Hotaru chased him throughout the evening, for more than an hour or two, and even went well into the night, which she found to be amazing since she wasn't even messing with reality, it was them and their own skills at work, and it only benefited Tanjiro. When dawn arrived, and both were slowing down after the sheer amount of time they had spent running around the forest that was around the Butterfly Mansion, Aoi opened one of the side doors for a few seconds and actually ushered Tanjiro inside, closing the door before Hotaru saw it. After that they delivered a couple of mitarashi dango, or rice dumplings skewered on a stick in groups of three to five, to him and he seemed to calm down in a matter of moments, meaning it had to be a favorite snack or something for the swordsmith, as he no longer desired Tanjiro's blood over losing his latest blade. Tanjiro, of course, was exhausted and couldn't really eat when breakfast was served, so Inosuke stole it all for himself and he did it with glee, but the amazing part was that, while it was wrong, he did use chopsticks to eat his food, showing them that the mountain boy was capable of learning more than weapon styles and slaying Demons.

While they ate, with Pinkamena refraining from eating demonic parts in front of her friends and the girls, Zenitsu asked her how long she was going to remain in this form, since he and the others were so used to her previous form, to which she informed him that it all depended on her mood. Sure, with her power she could hide her new form with ease and had done so not that long ago, just to test out what she could do now, but since the Lower Moons had been destroyed, and it seemed like they might be walking into the domain of the Upper Moons, she knew that she would be in this form far more often than before. If Akaza was any indication the six Demons that were Muzan's direct underlings were stronger than any of the other Demons they had faced in the past, meaning they would have to train themselves to master their skills and get ready for their next encounter with one of the powerful Kizuki. Zenitsu whined when he heard that, as he really didn't want to run into an Upper Moon, the Lower Moons were bad enough for someone like him, before going back to his food as the others focused on their own things, which Pinkamena was a little grateful for as she finished her own meal.

After that she waited for a couple of days and, when Tanjiro's wound was healed, Pinkamena dragged him into her world, bringing her friend to an area she had prepared over the last couple of days, a dojo of sorts that had everything he might need to bring out his power. Part of her reasoning was due to what she had seen back on the Mugen Train, Tanjiro's body was more in tune with his Sun Breathing techniques and less in tune with the Water Breathing forms he had learned over the two years training under Sakonji, so her training was designed to rapidly restore his body to its peak state before even worrying about his other Breath. To that extent she brought in the echoes of the Demons that they had slain, and she had taken the parts of, surprising Tanjiro when he realized that Rui, Kyogai, and a few others were standing nearby and were far more pleasing to be with, a side effect of dying and coming here. Sure, to anyone watching them it might look like her friend was playing games and not training, though since the Echoes were using their powers to help him, while holding back to avoid seriously hurting him, it was some harsh training and would help him whip his body back into shape, which was the first step they had to overcome.

While Tanjiro did that Pinkamena explained the concept of the Demon Mansion, it was where the Echoes went after she or one of the others killed a Demon and she claimed the pieces of the figure in question, though Akaza wasn't here since he was still alive, and the fact that she hadn't actually eaten part of his arm, mostly out of fear that too much of Muzan's blood at a time might rapidly corrupt her. The other aspect Tanjiro noticed was that none of the Echoes retained the dark personalities he had disliked when he encountered each of the Demons in the real world, meaning death liberated them from Muzan's influence and brought their original personalities back to the surface, often causing some conflict for those who came to this place. She went on to explain that what he was seeing right now wasn't her taking the spirits of the slain Demons and bringing them here, rather their souls moved on to the next stage of existence and might be reincarnated at some point in time, like a hundred years from now or something, so Tanjiro didn't have to worry about her disrupting the natural order of the world, despite the nature of her Blood Demon Art. What surprised her friend was that there was an Echo of Kyojuro lingering in the dojo, as she had cleaned off Akaza's arm after taking it and must have taken in some of the fallen Hashira's blood, though it was also perfect since he proved to be another great trainer for Tanjiro, due to all the respect he had for Kyojuro when he was alive.

Of course there was more for him to do in the Waking World, as their superiors sent him, Zenitsu, and Inosuke on more missions to cover the section of the land that Kyojuro had patrolled while he was alive, even alone at times, though she made sure to follow each of them and claimed the fallen bodies of the Demons they slew, as well as bringing them back to the Butterfly Mansion if they sustained terrible injuries.

After the first month of training and work, however, Pinkamena started forcing Tanjiro to utilize his Sun Breathing forms and not rely on all of his Water Breathing forms, as while he could only perform one or two at a time, in succession, she did know if he constantly pushed himself he could be able to use more of them in due time. She forced him to perform all twelve forms to the best of his ability, going from Dance to Clear Blue Sky, then to Raging Sun and the other moves that were beyond it, only finding that he seemed to be making a lot of unnecessary moves with the forms, meaning they might not have the power they were supposed to have. It gave her a chance to test out some of her own powers, as she wanted to see if she could have Tanjiro relive some of the memories that were inside his body, those he received from some of his ancestors, and she went with him to make sure he didn't get lost while he was reliving watching his father perform all the steps of the Dance of the Fire God. The success of that technique allowed her to ensure that Tanjiro adapted to her rather intense training, as when he faced deadly odds he underwent sudden bursts of growth, meaning he would be able to fight for longer and not fall as easily as he did back when he first started being a Demon Slayer, which meant he'd soon have the power to stand up to an Upper Moon.

One of the memories she refused to have him relive, for the time being, was of his ancestor who met Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the legendary Slayer that had nearly killed Muzan, where she found that she could observe the memories of those that she brought to this world, if she so desired, without having to drag the person with her, meaning while Tanjiro trained she could see what the past held. It was actually rather interesting when she considered everything, as she could observe the various Sun Breathing users in action while they were performing the dance, where the further back, closer to the time of Yoriichi, she went the less movements each dancer used, meaning it brought her closer to the true forms of the twelve forms of the ancient Breathing Style. Such a thing allowed her to accurately mimic the movements of those who learned of the Dance, if she so desired anyway, and when Tanjiro was busy training in the real world she found herself practicing the motions of each form, creating flames that mimicked what she saw in Tanjiro's memories, or at least what the users of this Breath imagined when they used it for dancing or fighting. After all of that she found what had to be the most interesting aspect of all of this, the fact that, unless her eyes were deceiving her, Yoriichi could see her, or at least sense her, as there were instances were she was off to the side, observing what was going on, and he turned his head to look right at her, as if she had been there, when the moment happened, and in the next instant he was back to normal.

Yoriichi was a legend among the Slayers, even if many had forgotten about him and his exploits, save for certain people like Sakonji, and he was said to be very perceptive of the area and people that were around him at any given moment, as when no one could use Sun Breathing he taught them how to make the other Breaths that everyone used today. It made sense that even a memory of the figure could do something like this, or at least it did when she thought about it, though part of her knew that if she told anyone they would believe it was her using Chaos World to do something while training Tanjiro so he could face what the future held for him. As such she told no one about the fact that she had seen Yoriichi in the memories of her friend, focusing on making sure Tanjiro knew the steps of each form and could use them to a degree, as it would take him some time before he fully mastered each form, despite her training. Her own training by observation allowed her to correct some of his movements, making it seem like she was only correcting how he positioned his body for each form, and when she was alone in her Mindscape she danced with the potent Sun Breathing forms, adding to her own arsenal as she waited for some new orders to arrive.

What surprised her was that it was four months after Kyojuro's death when something happened, she and Tanjiro were on the way back to the Butterfly Mansion, as she had joined him to collect the body after her training session, when she felt a visitor at Shinobu's place, though as she turned the corner she was surprised to find the Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui, out in front of the main entrance.

"Tengen, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company on this fine day?" Pinkamena asked, because the majority of the orders she had gotten were to make sure Tanjiro and the others survived their missions, as there were no Demons for her to fight, meaning Kaguya must have wanted to make sure her power had stabilized before sending her out again.

"Pinkamena, just the Slayer I was hoping to run into. I'm currently hunting a Demon and have need of a female member to help me out, and your power is invaluable right now." Tengen replied, which explained why he came here, as this had to be the only place that had female members that were there almost every single day, yet he had refrained from touching Aoi or her companions, meaning he wanted her power and nothing else, "My first thought was to use Aoi and the others to aid me, but then realized that you would be coming back soon and realized that acquiring your assistance was better in the grand scheme of things."

She knew that it couldn't be a low level Demon, otherwise he would have simply found the target and killed it without this happening, and with the deaths of the Lower Moons, and Enmu confirming that Muzan had dismantled the lower six, that meant he was either hunting the Demon King or one of the Upper Moons, or a Demon who had the potential to join the upper ranks at some point.

"I see. You want me to be there to prevent casualties, among other things." Pinkamena said, though a smile appeared on her face for a time, because if it was an Upper Moon that Tengen was hunting it would provide her with the perfect chance to test her new skills out, both Demon and Slayer alike, "Maybe we should bring along Tanjiro and his friends, as more sets of eyes will let us track down the target that much quicker... and, if this Demon has taken hostages, they might be able to free them before things get worse."

Tengen stared at her for a moment before glancing around the surrounding area, as Zenitsu and Inosuke had returned from their missions, without injuries no less, and all three of them seemed interested in what he had to say, to which he shrugged and guessed more eyes would be nice, to which he started to leave and the group fell in behind him as they started to depart for their next destination.

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