♧︎︎︎

|| 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 ||
044

ꨄ︎

third person pov

"you're different, man. different from all of the pillars i've killed up to now."

"you were a special guy from the moment you were born. you got that chosen talent. the envy, man. i just wanna put an end to you right this instant." said gyutaro with full of venom, he wanted nothing but to cut off the head of uzui because of jealousy.

how could someone look fabulous, and have talent?

that wasn't the case for him, he looked horrible.

"talent? hah."

"do i look like i have some kinda talent? if that's how you see someone like me, you must have had a wonderful life. you've lived hundreds of years, yet you shut yourself up in this place. i'm not surprised you don't know how the world works. this country's huge. there are swarms of amazing people."

"there are some really strange guys out there."

"there are some who became pillars just two months after picking up a blade."

"there are some who became pillars the day they were introduced in the whole headquarters."

"i got chosen? don't mess with me. how many lives do you think have slipped through my fingers?"

"yes, i can never be like rengoku."

said uzui with full of rage as he thought of the talented chosen people who're a member of the demon hunters, his comrades, his fellow co-pillars that are blessed with such amazing bloodlines. they were more special than him, compared to the other pillars he's nothing but dust that could disappear and crumbled upon. but that didn't discourage him and instead he moved forward, he after all have reliable teammates that could lend a helping hand.

he's not alone in this matter, there are those who're lower ranked than him but is capable enough to withstand the wrath of these upper moons. they will win this fight, and dispose of these upper moons and end the cruelty they brought upon this district.

"then how do you explain this? why are you still alive now? my blood sickle is full of deadly poison but you still haven't dropped dead yet, right?" questioned gyutaro, looking over at uzui who stood tall and didn't flinch one bit despite the poision running through his veins.

"i'm from a family of shinobi. i developed some resistance, so poison won't work."

"don't lie to us! the shinobi went extinct in the edo era."

uzui didn't answer daki and instead thought about his horrible past, he's very thankful to oyataka for taking him in, and even ranked him as one of the highest in the demon slayer corps. he's sure to repay his kindness, even if it is meant to die.

"hee hee hee, well would you look at that. the poison's working, slow and steady. that whole 'not working' thing was a bluff, wasn't it."

"laaaameee!" said gyutaro, laughing at uzui's panting form. a purple mark forming on the side of his forehead.

"no it's not working at all. how about i dance for ya? i'm in tip-top shape, and i can eat a hundred tempura bowls flamboyantly!" shouted uzui, before swinging his blade and going after the siblings who remained standing, which caught them off-guard.

daki sent her obi sash but was blocked by y/n who followed behind uzui, supporting him from behind as he aggressively makes his way towards the two siblings. he then kicked daki from gyutaro's shoulder, causing her to fly upwards.

"don't you dare kick my sister!"

"you piece of shit!"

uzui ignored the both before throwing the small balls, gyutaro observed closely and left it untouched while daki who's brain is not functioning as much as her brother does, she ended up cutting the small balls in half causing it to explode on her.

"GYAAAAAA!"

the three namely, uzui, y/n, and gyutaro ignored daki who got caught in the explosion and instead focused on fighting each other. uzui focused on frontal attacks, he aggressively swing his blade as he trusts that y/n would be behind his back supporting him from the flying sickles made by gyutaro.

the pair continued their aggressive attacks, not wanting to leave any opening that would be an advantage to the demons. they were swinging, slashing, curving, kicking, grunting, and all sorts of fighting styles that they could perform in this fight.

"tch. i missed the chance to kill him." grunted uzui as he held back his blades, glancing towards gyutaro who had a small gash on his neck because of the contact it made with uzui's blade.

"UUUUGHHHHH!!"

"MY HEAD GOT CUT OFF AGAIN!!!"

"SHITHEAD!! SHITHEAD!! YOU'RE SO GONNA PAY!!"

"THIS SUCKS, THIS SUCKS! WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE GETTING CUT UP!!"

"WAAAAHHHH! WAAAAHHH!"

"can you shut your damn mouth, you squealing pig."

"you got your head cut off because you're a weak, and pathetic. must you not understand that?"

"slow-witted fool."

everyone stopped whatever they were doing as they heard y/n spoke, her insults towards upper moon six daki echoed throughout the area. gyutaro merely stared, silently agreeing with the said statement but still this is his sister that was getting bullied by these demon hunters, no doubt would he protect her from them.

daki remained silent, while tears started forming on her eyes as the insults deeply grazed her feelings. someone insulted her, calling her a squealing pig and a slow-witted fool. daki ended up brawling, letting out a loud screech as she throwed a tantrum.

"here she goes again." sighed uzui, looking over at daki who's sulking and throwing her hands in the air while throwing a tantrum. her traumatizing screech kept on getting louder and louder, piercing through the demon hunter's eardrums.

"hey, have you noticed now?" said gyutaro, completely ignoring his sister who's crying her lungs out while y/n stared at the female upper moon with distress and disgust, a part of her wanted to just shut her mouth up by continuously wounding her mouth.

"noticed what?" retorted uzui, his face started to become pale while sweat started dripping from his forehead. y/n's vision landed on uzui, a worried look on her face as she knew that uzui was lying about being resistant to poison.

"no point realizing it now, bud. you are slowly dying over there. so now we're gonna beat you slow and steady. and after you've died, i can finally have an alone time with that beautiful young lady over there." muttered gyutaro before pointing at y/n, noticing her features once more.

before the conversation could further, the sound of a familiar husky voice came.

"DON'T FORGET US, BUDDY! INOSUKE-SAMA AND HIS UNDERLING ARE HERE!" shouted the loud boar-headed boy as he and zenitsu showed up in the scene, causing uzui to smirk a little while y/n could only sigh because of how stupid they look right now, but nevertheless she smiled and wave at them.

"what? who're they-

before gyutaro could finish his sentence, another footstep coming from the other side could be heard. all of them turned their heads and notice a certain burgundy-haired boy running towards the scene before landing in front of uzui with such a flamboyant posture.

"some of your underlings just came, but there won't be a happy future waiting for you, man. you're all gonna die, so don't go all sparkly eyes on me, man." explained gyutaro with an annoyed look, he's dealing with two pillars and now their underlings came to help as well.

"we'll win. we are demon hunters." said uzui calmly, trying to boost the confidence of the three lower-ranked demon hunters that shortly arrived.

there is no doubt that two of them are pillars, but they have three lower-ranked demon hunters that came to help thus this wouldn't be an easy fight. their lives depended on both uzui, and y/n, it's for them to call the right orders to maintain and avoid the deaths of these young boys.

"no, you can't!"

"that sound pillar of yours, your last ray of hope, will die from poison!"

"and that other pillar of yours will soon die from all her major injuries, lost her right eye, lost her hand, and even her foot. how pathetic indeed." shouted daki causing the three young boys to turn their heads towards the two pillars, a look of concern and anger could be seen on their facial expressions.

"we'll win easily, you dumb underlings! there may be poison in my body, but i'm running high! don't look down on humans!"

"these three boys are my prized successors. they won't run away, they've got guts. even if you cut my limbs off, i'll come biting at you and i've already figured out how to beat you guys."

"just cut your heads off at the same time. you'll both die simultaneously. that has to be it, i have no reason to split you guys apart and take the weak little sister alive!! HAAAAHHHH YOU GUYS ARE EASY!!"

shouted uzui, a few pants after his speech before regaining his breathing while y/n looked unimpressed, a stoic look on her face before sighing.

"you talk to much uzui-san, why don't we save the time and continue our bullying session towards these filthy blooded demons." said y/n before readying her blade while tanjiro stared in bewilderment, not wanting his cousin to fight any longer because her body is going through so much right now.

"that simply can't be easily done, because you demon hunters are dead, man. as for pillars, we ate a number of them. i got fifteen, my sister got seven."

"that's right. nobody's gonna be alive by sunrise. the long night will always be our ally. you're all gonna meet your deaths here!"

explained both the siblings with a huge smile, their confidence filling the air while both of pillars stared in boredom. not impressed by their boosting and such.

"okay, good to know. now shut up and take this." muttered y/n before disappearing from her place because of the speed of her run, and she appeared right in front of gyutaro in a matter of second which caught him off-guard.

while y/n started fighting gyutaro with one hand, and one foot. she heard a thunder sound occurring from the back, she glance for a second, seeing zenitsu came rushing to daki with full force that they were sent outside of the house. she had on a small smirk before focusing her attention towards gyutaro who struggled to keep up with her phase.

"leave maggot girl to me and sleepyhead. you guys get mantis boy!" shouted inosuke as he started running towards the roof where zenitsu and daki landed on.

"my sister won't get put down." muttered gyutaro with a smile as he blocked another attack from y/n, he could see how aggressive she swung her blade as she changes from different breathes to another.

she uses an aggressive attack, the sun breathing and uses another breathing for defending herself from the flying sickles, the water breathing. for someone who's newly made pillar, she sure is capable of handling herself. but something about her screams terrifying to gyutaro, he felt an obnoxious aura seeping through her body.

✰★✰

"apologize to the girl whose ear you pulled." stated zenitsu, his eyes close as he remained asleep but despite that he's able to attack and defend himself, a surely skilled swordsman despite sleeping whenever he fights.

"even though you provided them with food, clothing, and shelter with the money you earned. that doesn't make them your property, that is just unforgivable, on all accounts." explained zenitsu, the memory of the young girl getting injured by the ear irritates him, causing his blood to boil in anger and disbelief as to how demons could commit such cruel actions.

"don't give me that lame lecture. you think a freak like yourself has the right to talk to me on equal ground? in this town, women are commodities. just like objects. the owner can sell them, buy them, break them, do whatever they want. freaks have no right to eat food. people who can't do anything won't be treated like humans." said daki, despite the lack of her braincells she could progress the flow of this district, and of how much cruel and monsters the human beings are.

"don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you." said zenitsu but daki disagreed with his opinion.

"that's wrong."

"we're just returning all the pain and suffering people did to us and collecting what they owe us. we have to pay our past misfortunes to those who are fortunate, or we can't break even."

"that's how we lived our lives and we killed every single person who had a problem with that idea, man."

"just like you guys, so we'll claw out your windpipes, man." the voice of daki and gyutaro speaking together could be heard, daki's forehead opened a third eye revealing the upper moon six word.

on the other area where tanjiro, y/n, and uzui are at. tanjiro stood still with a shocked look on his face, his body trembled from the pressure of the atmosphere lingering on the air as he could smell the scent of gyutaro who had eaten a bunch of humans for the past years of his living.

tanjiro tried convincing himself to move, and get a hold of himself but his body said otherwise when he stayed frozen on the ground as gyutaro appeared in front of him out of nowhere, completely leaving the fight between him and y/n.

the sickle is pointed on his chin, wanting to pierce through the skin but before he could do so uzui acted and tossed tanjiro out of the way. uzui started battling gyutaro while y/n hurried towards tanjiro to check up on him.

"tanjiro get a hold of yourself!" shouted y/n as she run towards him, stopping in front of his kneeling floor while he gasp for air.

tanjiro's eyes landed on y/n's worsened body, she failed to perform the recovery breathing and wasn't able to stop the bleeding leaving her body. her form is painfully obvious that she only have a few more minutes left before her body gives out, how long has his cousin been like this?

just how long and where was he when she got injured like this? it's happening all over again, y/n's always the person getting injured to save him and his sister from harm, he's the oldest among his siblings but y/n is the oldest among them relatives that's why she had a huge burden laying on her back. a pressure of wanting to save and keep her cousins from harm.

tanjiro can understand what y/n is going through, but this time he had to force y/n to stop fighting and find a place where she could get treated. these injuries are not minor, just like the mugen train battle, she almost died and y/n could die any minute now.

"STOP WORRYING ABOUT ME AND RUN AWAY! YOU'RE CLEARLY INJURED!"

"STOP PROTECTING ME DAMN IT! I CAN PROTECT MYSELF, ALL THOSE THREE MONTHS OF TRAINING THE SUN BREATHING, THE WATER BREATHING, BECAUSE I WANTED TO HELP YOU OUT BUT LOOK AT YOU!"

"HAVE YOU SEEN YOURSELF, YOU'RE IN NO CONDITION TO FIGHT! SO JUST WATCH FROM THE SIDELINES AND BET YOUR LIFE ON ME!" bursted tanjiro in anger, he then gasped in surprise with his words before clamping his mouth and looking over to y/n who had her eyes widened.

she processed his words for a moment before slightly smiling, she patted his head before shaking her head. not agreeing with his words.

"as much as i want to continue this talk, we have to help uzui-san. he can continue aggressively attacking while we support his side, making sure that no flying sickle would hit him."

"for the last time tanjiro, please listen to me and after this battle we'll have a talk and i'll follow you."

"for me, for uzui-san, and for humanity's lives we're protecting. let's finish this battle, then have a good rest."

"let's go for the win." said y/n as a flash of obi sashes started penetrating through the ceiling while y/n avoided it easily before moving towards uzui's back where she started protecting him while he focused on gyutaro.

tanjiro gritted his teeth, a shame plastering over his face as he tried to stop his cousin from saving the lives of many people. he stood still earlier, y/n was the one who took the hit for nezuko, she lessened the amount of obi sash from making contact with the people and the houses, they were casualties and some are dead yes, but she's able to save 70% of the people from that area while he remained standing and in vengeance.

he lost himself amidst the battle, and y/n chase and tried stopping him, because of this nezuko came to his rescue which awakened her demon form and she lost herself from that fight, and y/n was the one who chase her down and tried talking to her but ended up getting heavily injured because she didn't pay too much attention to daki.

"what the hell am i doing?"

"what have i been doing?"

"stop acting useless tanjiro, and be useful for once!"

thought tanjiro to himself as he deflected the sashes, and avoiding them while making his way towards the two pillars.

"the whole successor thing is a lie, isn't it? you guys don't have control over your movements. totally incompetent." insulted gyutaro, a menacing smile plastered on his face as he easily avoided uzui's attacks.

the continuous attacks of the upper moons were unleashed as the demon hunters had a struggle for their lives. they were doing their best, to defeat an upper moon demons and free this district from cruelty and fear, they are the last bet of humanity and if they failed then who knows what would happen to the evacuated people.

they will not miss this opportunity and would give their all, this mission is completely different from the mugen train battle. everyone in the train were saved, and none of them died. while in this battle, this district a lot of lives were taken because they failed to protect the people. because they fought in an area swarming with human beings.

it's a great loss for them, but this battle would end in this day, even if the sun have to show up in the process. the more the advantage the human holds if the sun started radiating with light.

the fierce battle inside the house continued on, uzui started releasing some of his breathings while y/n and tanjiro deflected the upcoming flying sickles attack from gyutaro.

the longer the fight exceeds, the slower y/n becomes. she didn't want to admit it but her body is slowly numbing, she couldn't feel her lost hand and foot, she felt like her knees would buckle any moment now. but that didn't stopped her from fighting back, she wanted to end this now.

the fight left the house and they were by the streets, the attacks from both the siblings had made the demon hunters struggle for their lives. most of them started getting tired, as they felt their bodies tensing from the fast movements they have to perform to avoid the attacks.

tanjiro penetrated through the sash just like how he did the last time, he held it with his full strength, wanting to support the pillars in any way possible. y/n glance at tanjiro and saw how he couldn't even hold his blade that's why he tie it to his hand with a cloth.

"AHAHAHA! DIE, DIE, YOU UGLY TURDS!" they could hear the shout coming from daki as she sent more and more sashes towards inosuke and zenitsu who wasn't able to close the distance and instead got pushed more and more away from her.

"THERE ARE BLOOD BLADES AND SASHES COMING AT US NOW!"

"I CAN'T GET CLOSE TO MAGGOT GIRL AT ALL!"

"SHHIIITTT! THESE BLOOD BLADES ARE REALLY BAD, KNOWING THAT EVEN A SCRATCH WILL KILL IS MAKING MY SKIN TINGLE!" shouted inosuke while avoiding the sashes, and the blood blades.

tanjiro who tried keeping the sashes in place had failed, the sash had been freed from the penetration of his blade, and instead had sent him flying away. y/n wanted to help out tanjiro but couldn't do so because she's busy blocking the sashes and