Demon Slayer: The Strange Demon

by Blackdrag-rose

Selection: Sakonji's Training

What happened after speaking to Urokodaki, and getting his permission to join him and Tanjiro, was that they left the area that the temple was resting in and returned to the road for some time, though not without making sure those who had been slain by the ashen Demon had been laid to rest, something that had been done before Pinkamena's arrival. As they traveled she discovered a few things, like how Tanjiro's last name was Kamado, he came from a family of charcoal sellers, and he was on a quest to save his sister from her fate, as he explained that while he was in a village close to their home a Demon came and attacked his family, leaving them as the survivors. Pinkamena had to wonder if he had been attacked by the same man she had seen, a Demon who had to be in the process of creating more of his kind while looking for something specific, likely the power to walk in the sunlight if she had to guess at his motives, but she kept her mouth shut as she listened to him talk for a couple of minutes. Another thing she learned as they walked was that Urokodaki's name was actually his last name and Sakonji was his first name, like how he was Tanjiro Kamado and his sister was Nezuko Kamado, though when asked she told them her name, not bothering to go into her middle or last names, since they were more tied to Pinkie.

After that both she and Tanjiro discovered something interesting, Sakonji picked up the pace and moved like he was far faster than someone of his age, as she suspected that he was far older than her new companion was, where it looked like his movements offered no sound at all, almost like he might be testing Tanjiro or something. It also allowed her to confirm a few of the abilities that came with being a demonic being, she seemed to have a greater level of endurance than before, even if she had no knowledge on her Human limits since she had been in that state for a short period of time, and she never felt the urge to blink, like something was up with her eyes. Such a thing allowed her to keep up with Sakonji, even though she could tell that he wasn't trying that much and was using a level of skill that was more around Tanjiro's current level, who was huffing and seemed ready to drop as he forced himself to follow after them. Given the space between them and Tanjiro she had to wonder if Sakonji might talk to her or not, though for the time being it seemed like he was going to simply move towards wherever he was taking them, which appeared to be a mountain or something, given where the road was leading right now.

She didn't think about too much as they traveled through the land, or a small portion of it since she was sure there was a whole world out there, though it took a great deal of time for them to reach what appeared to be a wooden building that seemed to be the size for a few people to reside in, which had to be Sakonji's residence, as it was nearly sunset by the time they reached their destination.

"So... So did..." Tanjiro spoke up, where his voice was rough and labored, from having to run behind Sakonji and force his legs to keep moving, despite the pain that he might have been in as he pushed himself to the breaking point, all while it was easy for Pinkamena to find that he had collapsed onto his knees outside the hut, while the man stood in front of the wooden structure, "did I... pass the test?"

"Not yet, as the test has only just begun." Sakonji replied, though as he said that Pinkamena came to the decision that the true meaning behind part of this had to be whether or not Tanjiro had the potential to be someone who fought Demons, or at least that was her current thoughts since she had missed what happened to the Demon before it crashed into all the stones behind where she stopped, before he opened the sliding door, "We're going to climb this mountain... and for you to be at your best, you need to leave your sister here. Don't worry, I'll make sure to watch over her."

Tanjiro, of course, was shocked by this discovery and seemed exhausted just thinking about climbing up the mountain, no doubt due to it's size or something, though this time around Sakonji allowed him to set Nezuko's container down inside his place before carefully laying her slumbering form on a mat. Once that was done the pair closed the door, making sure that Nezuko was safe from the last of the sun's rays, before they started to climb the side of the mountain, where Pinkamena tagged along to see what was going on and if there was anything for her to learn. One thing she found was that Tanjiro had a pair of earrings she had missed earlier, a rectangular set that had a design that looked like the sun was rising, and that his hair seemed to have burgundy colored tips, but she could tell that Sakonji seemed wary of her presence and she had to assume the moment she stepped out of line he would fall on her in seconds. Of course she could tell that Tanjiro was exhausted, as it looked like he had gone without food for a day or so and they had been running almost all day, so he had to be sleep deprived and starving, on top of being exhausted, though she guessed that being a Demon had a number of perks, especially when she considered her unique power.

Eventually they came to a stop in a part of the mountain, far away from where Sakonji's house rested, where Tanjiro made sure to take a few moments to gather his breath and stead himself, where Pinkamena found that the air around them was thinner than when they were at the foot of this particularly large mountain, which was when Sakonji turned and glanced at them, even though she knew he was never going to take his mask off.

"Now, Tanjiro, I want you to make your way back down to my place at the foot of the mountain," Sakonji stated, where it was easy for them to tell that this had to be the next part of his test for Tanjiro, though at the same time he glanced over to Pinkamena for a moment, no doubt considering whether or not he could trust her, or at least she assumed he did that since he didn't move his head at all, "this time I won't be waiting until dawn."

In that moment, with his directions given, the thick fog Pinkamena had spotted washed over the area and Sakonji quickly vanished, no doubt using whatever skills he had been using during his travels back to his house, where Tanjiro seemed to think that he was going to complete this task in due time as he turned back and started to retrace his steps, or attempted to thanks to the fog. Pinkamena watched as Tanjiro, filled with renewed vigor, turned for a moment before rushing down the path they had walked up, where she raised an eyebrow as he stumbled over a rope trap and a number of stones just flew out of a bush, striking him in the side of his face and caused him to stagger for a moment. This told her that Sakonji was testing him and making him experience some sort of grueling training at the same time, likely to see if he was capable of handing the training so he could become someone who fought Demons, before he tumbled right into some sheets that covered a pit, which he fell into. She stood there for a moment and glanced around the area that they were in, where she found a few more rope traps that were just waiting to be sprung, meaning that Sakonji had been told about Tanjiro, likely by someone who knew the old man, and had set up an obstacle course of sorts, though as she did that she watched as her new companion pulled himself out of the small hole and accidentally triggered another trap.

This one, as it turned out, loosed a log that slammed into him and knocked him to the side, where Tanjiro picked himself up and huffed as he accessed the situation he was in, all while Pinkamena jumped into some of the trees and watched him from above, as this was all for him and she figured that aiding him would only annoy Sakonji. A few moments later he did exactly what she thought he was going to do, he started off down the path once more and paid her no attention, focusing on completing the test that had been thrown at him, though once he got a good distance away from her she started to move as well, jumping from tree to tree as she decided to test her own agility. Sure enough she found that her abilities, as she was still coming to terms with her demonic empowered body, were capable of keeping up with her companion, not to mention make a few laps around the area before he was able to make a lot of progress, before she found that Tanjiro just stopped for a moment. It seemed like he was trying to control his breathing, so he didn't exhaust himself even quicker, but it only lasted for a few seconds before something happened, as he surged forward with a look of determination in his eyes and his vigor had been renewed, where whatever he had discovered allowed him to dodge a few traps, but in the end one struck him and it was the beginning of him blundering into some of the other traps.

The process repeated for some time, her watching as Tanjiro did his best to avoid the various traps that had been set up along this path, where Pinkamena spotted a number of additional traps on the other directions one could take, though he did trigger a few more along the way, since he couldn't suddenly become more agile in a matter of seconds, but in the end she came to a stop outside Sakonji's place and waited as Tanjiro caught up... and as the sun's rays came up behind him he had his skills recognized by the older male, before he collapsed.

"It seems that you worked him into exhaustion," Pinkamena commented, where she waited for a few seconds, mostly to make sure Nezuko was safe and found that she had been moved into a back room that Sakonji kept closed so the light of the sun didn't reach her, before moving Tanjiro inside and placing him in the area his new mentor wanted him placed in, all before leaning against a wall as the door closed.

"If he wishes to be a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, he'll be experiencing this everyday," Sakonji replied, meaning he felt that Tanjiro was weak and that he needed to be trained from the ground up, which told her that something must have happened before she found them outside that temple, though he remained sitting in the spot she found him in, likely due to the unease of having an unknown Demon standing nearby, "Tell me, what do you remember?"

"What, about Humans, Demons, and the Demon Slayers?" Pinkamena asked, because it seemed like an odd question for him to ask, especially since he and Tanjiro had assumed she had been Human some time before she appeared in front of them, where she found that Sakonji nodded his head a little, indicating that she was correct, causing her to sigh, "To tell you the truth... I know nothing."

That was the honest truth, she knew nothing about the inhabitants of this world, though it appeared that Sakonji still had a feeling that she was a transformed Human, that this was her demonic form after being twisted into a Demon, and that the change into this state had cost her all of her memories, the 'Human' ones to be exact, where he started to tell her things about the species she supposedly had been previously. She learned a number of things about the Human body, like where the heart, lungs, and stomach rested, even though it wasn't something she needed to know and kept her mouth shut since it seemed Sakonji had made up his mind about her, along with a name for the mounds on her chest, though he did tell her a few more facts that interested her. There were apparently hundreds of Demon Slayers within the organization, even if it wasn't recognized by the government and anyone claiming to be one in public were usually threatened by the police for all sorts of things, which made sense to her, where the leader of their Corps was mostly unknown, as you had to be a certain rank to gain that information, and their strongest members were the Pillars, or the 'Hashira'. The Corps had been around for a long time, for nearly a thousand years based on what he remembered, and it was their mission to hunt down and kill Demons, with their ultimate goal being the downfall of Muzan Kibutsuji, the Demon King, who Sakonji suspected might be the one who turned her and Nezuko into Demons.

Sakonji then told her that they weren't sure if Muzan was the first Demon or if there were others before him, though that hardly mattered since the Corps existed to end all demons, where he informed her of the fact that Demons ate Humans, tore their flesh and devoured them whole, their physical abilities were incredibly powerful, they regenerated wounds in no time at all, they could even heal hacked off limbs, and some even had the power to alter the structures of their bodies, as in shapeshifting.

"One can only kill a Demon by removing it's head with a blade made out of a special metal... or using the sun," Sakonji said, reminding Pinkamena of what nearly happened to her after she transformed into a Demon, the burning sensation that just tore through her body and nearly burned her alive, and he stared at her while he said that statement, no doubt a warning to her as well, that if she stepped out of line he was getting his blade to put her down, "anyway, there are all sorts of lesser Demons scattered around the land, though there are twelve powerful Demons under Muzan, which are called the Twelve Kizuki, or the Twelve Demon Moons, and are divided into two sets, the Lower Moons and the Upper Moons."

"I see. The Upper Moons sound like the type of Demons we'll want to avoid for the time being," Pinkamena commented, where she had to think about what she had been told and wondered what the difference was between the ranks, as in something other than strength, and assumed that she would learn what it might be at some point in time, though that was when she focused on Sakonji once more, "you, on the other hand, sound like someone whose fought Demons before, as in a retired member of the Corps, and decided to retire to cultivate the next generations of Demon Slayers."

"That is correct. I am one of the 'Cultivators' that are scattered across the land," Sakonji replied, though while Pinkamena felt it was odd that he was admitting all of this to her, a Demon in his eyes, she also knew that he suspected that there was something different about her, something odd that set her apart from the rest of her new kind, and that there was no real harm in sharing this information with her, "and each Cultivator teaches a specific set of techniques to those they pick out, which we call Breathes. In order for one to fully join the Corps they must pass the Final Selection that takes place on Mt. Fujikasane, and I get to decide when my pupils are ready to take it... so for Tanjiro to become a Demon Slayer, to take revenge on the Demon who killed his family and turned his sister, he must face my training and then, when I'm sure he's ready, survive the Final Selection. The mountain training is to increase his stamina, so he won't die during the test, the traps to improve his sense of smell, and, once I'm sure he's ready, he'll start swinging a blade to get used to it's weight and not collapse in the heat of battle."

"And, in the process, you'll pass on your Breathing Style to him?" Pinkamena asked, though the way Sakonji spoke, and how he acted some times, made her wonder if he was linked to Water, especially when she considered some of his motions on their way to this particular mountain, where Sakonji paused for a few seconds before nodding a little, causing her to sigh for a moment, "I take it the other Corps members would frown upon you teaching a Demon? Especially one that's totally different from the rest of her kind and has a bone to pick with their leader?"

"I... am unsure. While you smell like a Demon, you don't act like one." Sakonji said, making her wonder about this sense of smell that he and Tanjiro seemed to have, given what she had seen so far, before he got up and walked over to another part of his residence, where he moved something before producing a blade that was inside it's scabbard, which looked like a katana, an ordinary one at that, "I will send a letter and ask about it, especially since you're so different from the rest of the Demons we've encountered over the years... but for the time being you will move onto the next stage of my training, at least until I figure out what to do with you."

Pinkamena took the blade and pulled it out a little, finding a steel blade on the other side, or whatever metal it was since it clearly wasn't a special weapon designed to kill Demons, before sheathing it as she picked herself up and followed after Sakonji, as she had a feeling that things were going to get interesting for her, and eventually Tanjiro when he reached this point of his training.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

so thats either the classic Katana, or more likely a Kodatchi, Katana are quite expensive blades and very distinctive...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11207008 Given that the Slayers use katanas, as according to the wiki all the Nichirin Blades are katanas, it would make sense for the Cultivators to train you to become familiar with the weapon most Slayers use, so its likely a katana.

[Tower of gray]

Im already invested in this one. Good job.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11207342 Thanks. I'm glad you like it so far.

[Tower of gray]

11207422
So, I got it so far, Pinkamena can eat demons, and use their blood to get stronger, and her blood demon art let's her warp reality.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11207444 That's correct.

[Tower of gray]

11207450
Gonna make her use Breathing?

[Blackdrag-rose]

11207484 Indeed. While she might be learning Water Breathing, since Sakonji is going to be teaching her and Tanjiro, I have plans for her own Breathing Style.

[Fluffy-Boi]

Did not know anything about Demon Slayer. Went in and watched the first season and the movie to learn... Kind of wish I'd done that earlier tho.