Demon Slayer: The Strange Demon

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Hellish Training

Following the Hashira meeting with Kagaya, and determining what everyone was going to do, Pinkamena got to work on her end of things, using her chaotic powers to hide each training ground, linking them together via 'Doors' so the trainees would be able to head from place to place in seconds, and preparing her own training for everyone else. While she did that Inosuke heard about their training session and informed Tanjiro and Zenitsu about it, even though he had no idea what they were going to be doing, and Hotaru insisted on seeing her so he could see the blade in its full glory. The only reason she did so was because the man was so annoying and would threaten to break things until he got what he wanted, so the smith got his wish, though she prevented him from touching it, as she didn't know if he was going to do something drastic once it was in his line of sight. All he told her was that it was a wonderful blade, forged by a master who only left the character she had seen on all of the Hashiras' weapons, that being 'akki messatsu', or 'destroy all evil demons', and he bemoaned the fact that he had been forbidden to work on such a weapon, causing Pinkamena to sigh as she sheathed Yoriichi's blade and returned to her new duties.

Once she was done setting everything up, and informed the other Hashira via special crystals like the one she gave Tengen during their mission together, the training started and every member of the Corps, those who would be fighting Muzan and the remaining Upper Moon Demons, plus anything else that was thrown at them, was called in, as once Nezuko gained her ability to walk in the sunlight the other Demons just disappeared. It was the calm before the storm, she and Kagaya knew it and many of the Hashira knew that, so most of the duties that a Hashira had were retracted so they could prepare for the main event, so all they had to do was train during the day and patrol at night, with some time to sleep so they didn't fall over and die before Muzan made his move. Pinkamena knew more about Akaza, Doma, and Kokushibo than she did before, as those were the three remaining Upper Moon Demons that they had to worry about, thanks to the information she gained from Gyokko and Hantengu, the Demons who attacked the Swordsmith Village, though while she also learned about Nakime, and what her power might be, she didn't see any new Upper Moons being born. As she took the time to gather more information the first wave of Slayers arrived at the start of the training course and, sure enough, Zenitsu ran to Tanjiro to tell him that it was living hell, as he seemed to hate putting forth the work to improve himself, a sad fact since she knew that, if he applied himself, he might become even stronger than before.

Pinkamena learned that the first bit of training that the Hashira wanted the lower ranks to go through was training their stamina, similar to what Tanjiro did so he could utilize his abilities better than he did in the past and to help him stay up for longer periods of time. It was being overseen by Tengen, who had agreed to come and help them so the other Hashira would focus on their own methods of training, while all three of his wives focused on making food and ensuring that the lower ranks didn't pass out from the constant training. After that anyone who passed Tengen's basic training, and it was basic when Pinkamena thought about it, moved through the Door that she had created, a white set of double doors that only let those who had permission to leave to pass through them, preventing someone from running to the next challenge while they were stuck on the current one. The Door in his training area connected to Mitsuri's residence, where she put all those who came to her through some sort of training to improve their flexibility, though when Pinkamena investigated it she found that the Hashira forced her trainees to dance before used her strength to aid them in flexing and making it far easier for others to move.

From there one would move onto Muichiro's training, who would be training others to make quick movements, such as how he fought when he engaged Gyokko, which might as well serve as a barrier for most of the Slayers, since many of the lower ranks didn't have the skills that Tanjiro and his friends possessed. Obanai would follow that up with some training that was designed to improve one's sword skills, he called it 'revision', meaning he was likely going to attack others with his serpent movements and force them to adapt to the situation, much like how someone had to adapt to how a Kizuki might fight. After him the lower ranks would be sent to Sanemi for what he called the 'infinite pounding' training, which seemed to be the Wind Hashira venting his frustrations by beating down all of his trainees with his wooden sword and had no real purpose, but Pinkamena guessed that it might be to survive being torn down and get back up, even when one's own body was screaming for them to stop. Those that survived Sanemi's intense training would travel to Gyomei's place in the mountain, where they would begin his muscle reinforcement training and fulfill some intense conditions to move onto the next and final stage of training, they would enter Pinkamena's training ground, an area of her inner world that had been specially made for this event.

Her training was for the Slayers to face the Echoes of the Demons she had collected since her quest had started, meaning they would start with some of the weaker Demons, such as the Temple or Swamp Demons, and when she was sure they were ready they'd move onto Kyogai, who stood as the barrier between the weaker foes and the Kizuki. Once someone made it passed him, by using a wooden sword since she didn't want the Echoes to die, they would move onto what she liked to call the 'Tower of Peril', where they would face the Kizuki Demons in an area suited to match their Blood Demon Arts. Of course Rui and the others weren't allowed to kill anyone, but they were allowed to push them to their breaking points, to try and force each Slayer to manifest their Marks, and when one was 'beaten' the Slayer would be allowed some time to rest before being sent to the next member of the Twelve Demon Moons. Given the power of the Upper Moons, a fact she had seen for herself, those three were off limits to the lower ranks of the Corps, rather they were reserved for the Hashira who came to train with either her or Zeroshiki, both being good ways for one to improve themselves and gain all sorts of experience.

Sanemi called her training 'more hellish than anything else', meaning that he believed that she had knocked the ball right out of the park with her special training session, especially since it was designed to push them past their limits and bring out each of their Slayer Marks, though once they knew about it the Hashira got to work preparing for those who would be training with them for some time.

Of course, as that happened, Tanjiro was called away for some time to deal with Giyu, as it appeared that he wasn't going to be taking part of the Hashira training, nor was he offering to help the others master part of their body, so, since Tanjiro had a way of talking to people and bringing them around, Kagaya had silently agreed with Pinkamena to send him to talk with the Water Hashira. She had a feeling that it would work, in fact she would be surprised if her friend failed since there was only one person who wouldn't listen to Tanjiro, that being Sanemi, and she had already advised him to not enrage the Wind Hashira, rather just mention how important family was and go about his business if they interacted with each other in the future. At the same time she found that Shinobu wasn't going to be training either, rather it seemed like she hoped to defeat Doma by presenting herself as a weakling and be absorbed into his body, to use poison against him since she didn't have the strength to behead him or do what the other Hashira would do in her place, though upon knowing about Pinkamena's place, and how Echoes existed there, it made her offer her a vial of her blood. Apparently some of them got the idea that part of them could live forever, after seeing Kyojuro insisting on joining the training so the Slayers could be better prepared for whatever the future held for them, and, after some time, she accepted some vials from Shinobu and Kagaya, plus Amane and two of his kids.

While she considered what he was asking of her, as they came with a letter explaining his plan and that Amane was in on it as well, a crow that was far more intelligent than the others came by and asked Pinkamena to join her, to which she did so and found that they were heading to one of the cities of Japan, one that reminded her of Asakusa, and that they found out where Tamayo was living.

"Good evening, Tamayo. You should know that it is dangerous to leave the window open," the crow said, speaking as he landed on the open window that he had mentioned, though the fact that he was speaking confirmed that he had special training, more than all of the other crows that worked beside the Corps, and sure enough Tamayo turned as he said that, surprised by his arrival, "especially at night, given who is hunting you, but the moon looks quite lovely tonight, so I can't fault you for that. It is very nice to meet you, for I am Kagaya Ubuyashiki's messenger... to be honest, you are rather good at hiding and it took us quite some time to find you, long enough for my master to stop moving."

"How... How did you find me?" Tamayo asked, though at the same time she felt a familiar change in the air, as she had felt it back when Pinkamena fought beside Tanjiro's side and stopped those two Demons from taking her head to Muzan, so she had a feeling that the Demon was somewhere, no doubt protecting this area with her power.

"People's connections. We looked up the previous owners of this place, who you bought the property from, and during the evenings I observed Yushiro... I might have special training, but almost no one pays attention to us." the crow answered, a fact that Pinkamena found to be interesting and had to wonder if she was one of the few that he was referring to, though his statement was correct, most people didn't pay attention to the animals around them, save for the Slayers who got all of their orders via crow delivery, "Please be at ease, my master and I aren't planning on doing you or Yushiro any harm... in fact, you can hear him upstairs, going about his business... besides, even if someone wanted to harm you, we have an ally who would lecture our heads off."

"Pinkamena." Tamayo stated, as she had a feeling she knew who the crow was talking about and understood the position of the strange Demon she had encountered, she was like a Slayer but insisted on protecting the innocent, in fact she had to agree with the bird, if someone in the Corps had decided to threaten her they would have drawn the fury of the strange Demon in no time.

"Correct. Long time to no, Tamayo." Pinkamena said, where she stepped into the room with little effort, causing Tamayo to raise an eyebrow as she spotted her for the first time since their last meeting, only for her eyes to widen in shock when she noticed the amount of tails she possessed, far more than when she first pulled her, Yushiro, and the others into her inner world to keep Asakusa safe, "I was briefed on the way here, but the reason we're here is to ask if you'll join us in our efforts to take down Muzan... one of our Hashira is well-versed in Demon physiology and pharmaceuticals, and Kagaya wishes to ask that you join our research efforts, especially after the change in Nezuko. You also don't have to worry about being attacked, as the other Hashira have learned that there are good Demons out there... and they know that if they try anything, well, they'll have to answer to me."

Tamayo considered her options for a moment, she could refuse and Pinkamena would likely see to it that she was ignored by the Corps, so they could focus on Muzan, or she could accept the invitation and finally open the way for them to take down the Demon King, causing her to sigh as she realized that it wasn't much of a decision, with Pinkamena as a guardian angel she had nothing to fear and joined them, and she made sure to drag Yushiro along. Besides the desire for revenge, against the one who ruined her life, she understood what hadn't been said, that Pinkamena, who was a Demon, had been accepted into the ranks of the Hashira and was likely seen as an equal to the others that supported the Corps, meaning the statement about them accepting good Demons had to be correct. In addition to all of that this gave her a chance to see Pinkamena and understand that her powers over reality had grown since the last time they were near each other, in an explosive manner based on what she was seeing, and she carried herself in a refined manner, like she was a goddess who came down to help them with Muzan. Of course this was with only six tails, as she knew that kitsune could have nine tails and that their power was said to be connected to the amount of tails one possessed, so it made her wonder what in the world would happen if she got her hands on the remaining Upper Moons, a thought that caused her to focus on taking down Muzan, as once again Tamayo found that she didn't want to think about Pinkamena's madness.

After that Pinkamena focused on observing the training sessions that the other Slayers went through, keeping an eye on where everyone was and if anyone would be coming to her realm, though in the early days she trained with Zeroshiki, just to keep her skills sharp, especially since the restored battle doll was more impressive than when Muichiro fought it back in the Swordsmith Village. Tengen and his wives, as she discovered, were happy to see Tanjiro, because as soon as Giyu was convinced to join the training, despite it taking four days to actually convince him to do anything, her friend started facing the training that each of the Hashira, both former and present, had created for them. Due to the fact that Tanjiro knew the basics of stamina training, even though his body had suffered a little from being in bed for a while, Tengen released him after ten days of hard work, allowing him to pass through the Door and head to Muichiro's place. Of course, thanks to his memories returning, the Mist Hashira was in a far better mood than he was used to and was pleased to see that Tanjiro had come to tackle his training, where the two clashed with their weapons and, once again, Tanjiro showed that his skills had improved since the last time the two of them were near each other.

Such a thing lead to Muichiro allowing him to leave his residence and head to Mitsuri's next, though he frowned when the batch of Slayers he had been working on for two weeks asked if they could go on as well, which he refused since none of them had met the conditions he was looking for, even though it still took Tanjiro five days to get through his training, a fact that showed everyone that he understood the basics.

From there he joined the ones who had moved onto Mitsuri's training and Pinkamena chuckled as she observed them, as her friend had to dress up as a dancer and do all sorts of moves to improve his flexibility, and when they weren't dancing to her music she was helping them stretch with her strength, much to the dismay of the trainees. After five days of that type of training Tanjiro moved on again, once more showing everyone that he understood the skills needed to be a decent Slayer, before he ran into Obanai and found that the Serpent Hashira didn't care much for him, due to the letters that he and Mitsuri shared with each other. Apparently his training consisted of sword swings while avoiding targets, those being the lower ranking Slayers that had annoyed him in some manner, so he tied them up and attached them to each of the wooden targets he had set up, which worried Tanjiro when he saw it. Pinkamena found that Obanai's serpent style was a good way for Tanjiro to continue to improve, given that he adapted to battle much faster than anyone else, and fighting a Hashira who hated him, and struck to hurt him, seemed to do exactly what she had been expecting, he got better at just reading his foe's movements while avoiding the obstacles, which annoyed Obanai to no end.

It took him four days of training to reach that point, where he was able to deal damage to Obanai's haori, something that caused the Serpent Hashira to dismiss him as he waited for someone else to come challenge him, leading to Tanjiro being sent to Sanemi and Pinkamena made sure he remembered her earlier warning. Apparently Sanemi hadn't accepted him or Nezuko yet, so he told Tanjiro not to get cocky since he was friends with Pinkamena, where she chuckled as her friend informed him that he didn't accept Sanemi either, due to the fact that he had stabbed Nezuko once upon a time, though he did have to carry Zenitsu back to the next training ground. Sure enough Sanemi's training was brutal and hard on those he fought against, especially since he gave no breaks, unlike Obanai and the other Hashira who came before him, and this was the second time Tanjiro encountered a hard wall that he had to climb over. He also encountered Genya talking to his brother, who denied his existence, though this time Pinkamena stepped in to prevent Tanjiro from doing anything stupid, despite her earlier thoughts on the matter, and told the Wind Hashira that they had no idea what the future might hold for all of them, so bridging the gap between him and his brother was a worthwhile thing to do.

Of course Sanemi blew her off and went back to his training, but at the very least he'd think about it, how could he not due to the fact that she had talked to him about it, and she found that Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Genya were pushed onward after five days of training, all because Sanemi didn't want to think about them, so sending them to the next Hashira meant that he could focus on other things and not them.

Gyomei's training was up in the mountains, by a mighty waterfall that he had people stand under to train their muscles to some degree, while the Hashira himself was standing in a ring of fire, with three full logs resting on his shoulders and were weighed down by two large stones each. When he explained it to the new arrivals Pinkamena learned that he trained their core, as in their limbs, and while the first thing was having the waterfall beat down on you, while repeating a sutra that let others know if you were conscious or not, before moving onto carrying three huge logs on their shoulders and finishing up with pushing a huge boulder through a town. With Pinkamena assisting him the town they had to move their large rocks through was deserted and they could focus on their training, all designed to match Gyomei's desires, and he even had the Slayers fish for their dinner, which also served as another part of their intense training. While Tanjiro and the others talked about the Marks, however, Zenitsu initially believed that Gyomei was lying about the boulder pushing, only to find that the Hashira in question was pushing a larger boulder down the other side of the river, much to their surprise, causing many of them to either give up or fueled their desire to pass this part of the training.

Those who decided to give up, despite not passing the training that Gyomei offered, were allowed to move on anyway, but it was up to him who did enough to pass and who failed, though those who 'passed' came to Pinkamena's training ground, an area that many of the lower ranks called 'Hell on Earth' after seeing the Echoes of the Kizuki. Eventually the Hashira, as in those who no longer had people to train, came and joined those that were training under her, while those who still had trainees would come every now and then to pick up where they left off, and Pinkamena found that while many were able to pass Kyogai and his Lower Moon replacement, Kamanue, the roadblock for many was Rui. The former Lower Moon Five displayed why Pinkamena thought that the lower ranks of the Twelve Kizuki had been arranged wrong, as he was stronger than most of the other members of his sect, in fact she believed that he was worthy of being Lower Moon Two, and most of the lower ranking Slayers were unable to defeat him, or get close to even beating him. The Hashira, of course, were able to beat him and moved onto the rest of the Lower Moons, before heading to the three Upper Moons who resided inside the Demon Mansion, which proved to be quite the challenge given the powers that Daki and Gyutaro possessed, including Gyokko's water based powers and Hantengu's emotional powers.

While that happened, and Genya taught Tanjiro about repetitive actions, she knew that Muzan was out there, preparing for the big event, especially since she found an eyeball in one of the cities and left it alone, as it had some demonic energy to it and meant he was getting ready, so all Pinkamena had to do was be patient and wait for the war to begin.

Comments

[Tower of gray]

So it's finally time.

[badninja]

Compressing down an entire arc I see. Now I am trying to remember but has Discord been in contact with Pinkamena yet? With the final battle fast approaching I wonder how it will change and if Muzan will try and get Pinkamena or go with his canon plan? Because if he targets Pinkamena I hope she gives him a massive dose of Pinkie’s song Smile.

[Vibrant Emotion]

So I have been noticing that the next chapter of the story comes out three days after the next chapter is released which I find that tactic interesting none the less. By the way keep up the great work on the story Blackdrag-rose.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11300711 Indeed. It is time for the Infinite Castle arc.

11300766 Discord has not made contact with Pinkamena. He usually reaches a displaced once they complete their adventure.

11300767 The every three days thing is just my update schedule, but I'm glad that you are enjoying the story.

[Vibrant Emotion]

11300832 Your welcome it’s not the only story of yours I like the others are ‘Bleach: Heart of a Hero’ but also ‘Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar’ as of right now.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11300854 Good picks. Some of my best work.