THE SUN GREETED YET ANOTHER NEW DAY, and the nine hashiras have gathered at the Butterfly Estate even in the early hours like this. Well, after nights full of resting and preparing themselves up for their important mission and apparently, they sure are more than prepared. Shinobu Kocho have prepared breakfast for the eight hashiras and herself to enjoy before leaving for Haganamoto Mountain. It sure indeed was quite the morning, despite it being full of shouts, chopsticks being thrown here and there, and Sanemi VS. Tengen content. Quite the morning indeed.

Aoi, Kanao, and the other girls have prepared bag each hashira will bring. The bag itself includes foods accompanied with drinks, also some healing tools here and there. The bag was made with a strong material, so it would not break easily. And so, after their amusing breakfast -- the nine hashiras decided to make their way towards Haganamoto Mountain, it's not far and not that close either so perhaps they're in a safe spot. The journey won't take any longer than two days anyway.

The nine hashira walked in three lines; three people in the front, three in the middle, and another three in the back. Of course, our flamboyant captain Tengen leads the way with Gyomei and Kyoujuro by his side. The three radiates what seemed to be a socially awkward person in a crowd of social-hyper version, what can you say when you see Gyomei all quite between the two loud duo such as Kyoujuro and Tengen?

But, behind the three men, stood Obanai with Mitsuri and Shinobu by his side. Mitsuri is being her own usual self, complimenting the people around her in her own little mind. A blush can be seen clearly painted across her pale skin tone. Obanai just keep his mouth quite along the road, he was never really the talkative type anyway, he was the one who observes anything and he liked to keep his thoughts to himself or share them with his cute little snake sometimes. On the other hand, Shinobu seemed to be doing pretty well, listening to Kyoujuro and Tengen's bicker as she made comments here and there.

The three men walking behind weren't the best thing to be put together with, especially Sanemi and Giyuu -- a fight could explode in any seconds now! But luckily, they can still use their brain properly because they don't want to disappoint Oyakata-sama by causing a childish disaster during this mission. Sanemi was the short tempered one, he tends to shout whenever Kyoujuro or Tengen laughed in a loud voice, he gets annoyed easily, even at the smallest of things. Shortly said, Sanemi Shinazugawa have some serious anger issues right here.

Giyu himself wasn't the talkative person ever, well, it's not like the person besides him is talkative -- Muichiro always seems to daydream and gaze towards the sky as if he was pondering about something. If Giyu have this mysterious, quiet, and cold man aura surrounding him, then Muichiro must have a mysterious, quiet, and dazed man aura around him.

The nine hashiras do have a big contrast of personality, but they got along just well. Surely they must have gotten a hard time blending in, but it was worth the pain. Even if they don't seem to close, sometimes there are certain moments that they treasure deep within their hearts. And, all of them have vowed to fight together against the demons until they vanished from the earth.

Soon, the sun begun to set from where it usually rises. It had changed into night time yet the hashiras didn't find a place to rest peacefully at, they seemed to be lost in this mountain considering there's no signs of a temple nearby and none of the hashiras sense any kind of presence. Then again, the girl used illusion to hide her presence away from the world so their only way in finding the girl is to spot an old looking temple somewhere in the mountain.

From what Urokodaki-san have wrote in his letter, Tomioka Giyu have come to the conclusion that the temple or the owner can disappear whenever she pleased. But, Giyu know that people couldn't just disappear from their site -- so he's a hundred percent sure that the girl must have used some kind of an illusion technique to make her and her temple become invisible.

"Oi," A voice emerged from the white haired man as his purple orbs began to trail from left to the right, scanning their surroundings, "I think I sense a demon, it's-" Sanemi's words were cutten off by a loud voice of explosion, it came a mile away from where the hashiras was at. Without any commands needed, they roused themselves towards the source of the explosion with their nichirin blades in hand. On their way to the source, they encounter a bunch of small demons, but they manage to banish it effortlessly.

It didn't take too much of their time to arrive at the destined place, there they saw a hideous looking demon and a big one too, around 200 cm more and have muscular features, but, rather than having more of a human like features, this one demon seemed to take the shape of an ape most. Its eyes shone with anger within his yellow orbs and the red sclera of his. His sharp teeth gritted in anger as he thrashed around the mountain, but what caught the most attention is; there was another mouth in the center of his stomach, and a pair of extra eyes attached to his back. It was an amusing sight, but the hashiras have seen worst.

"What is this, a demon slayer?" The demon cooed at the demon slayers in front of him, examining them closely before laughing his heart out to them. His fingers pointed towards them as a twisted grin made it way to his face, at first he only started to chuckle, but soon his chuckle turns into a loud boom of laughter, "Ohohoho, I, Shigoku, will eat every one of you so I will make him proud! And, you.. You have a rare blood, that will increase my level more in his eyes!"

"The way you speak is not flamboyant enough for me, it is utterly disgusting I must say," Tengen grabbed one of his large blade from his back, pulling it out from its sheath before he pointed it towards the demon with a grin that was drawn over the pale man's face, "Besides! We, hashiras, won't lose towards a pathetic demon like you. We will win against you with style," He finished his words, his signature smile still plastered onto his face and of course, the demon wasn't buying it at all. He was pissed.

Shigoku gritted his sharp teeth, 'How dare these human underestimate me? I will show them who is the boss here!' He growled in anger, making his way towards them, but a certain black haired man manages to throw the demon away, "Breath of Serpent, First Form: Winding Serpent Slash," Obanai rotates in front of the demon, before his sword releases a circle slash towards the apelike creature, sending him flying away from them. Yet, just like any other demon -- Shigoku were blinded with the lust of satisfying Muzan and becoming one of his upper moons, he needed to eat more human to become much stronger.

A monstrous growl escaped the demon's lips, he raised his hand in the air before dropping it towards the ground harshly. But, Shinobu seemed to take a notice on what he was doing, "Watch out!" And just at the right time, the nine hashiras jumped upwards, landing on the nearby tree before the earthquake attack could destroy them to pieces -- a mist of the explosion covered the demon's vision away from the hashiras, they took this opportunity to hide and make a plan.

"There's nine of us, it wouldn't be hard to take this demon down. But his size is larger than all of us, so we should distract him to get the opportunity to cut his neck," Himejima stated in his serious tone, sensing as the demon is searching for them, "Shinazugawa-san should be able to attack the demon from a far range easily as the eight of us distract the big guy, is it settled?" The other gave the blind man a nod, before preparing their position to attack the demon.

"In one, two, th-" A loud growl emerged from the other side, causing Himejima's words to stop abruptly. After a bare second -- the mist that covered their view to the demon was gone and there stood a (H/C) haired girl, her (E/C) eyes looking down at the hideous looking apelike demon below her feet with a disgusted look. Yes, the girl was standing on the demon's stomach (despite her being quite small and not that heavy looking) it was actually a mystery on how she pinned the demon down effortlessly by just standing on its stomach.

Shigoku himself seemed to be in shock before thrashing around on the ground. But it was useless, somehow he couldn't move an inch of his body parts. He could feel his internal organs getting crushed slowly but surely, he didn't like being so weak like this. 'Damn it!' The demon mentally cursed to himself, eyes kept on the girl who stared at him with a cold, sinister look, the ape demon would be lying if he says that he isn't terrified of what might happen to him, 'If only this bitch didn't come all of the sudden then I could eat those demon slayers easily!'

"Hey, who send you here?"

Each of her words dripping with hatred which matched her cold tone, those (E/C) orbs piercing its way into the demon's rotten soul. She had her nichirin blade on her right hand held tightly, ready to slash the demon's head off if it did anything that displeased the girl on top of him. To Shigoku, this situation is unescapable, he couldn't move any of his body parts and he couldn't understand why. Something is off though, the presence of this girl is not from above him but it came from.. somewhere else. 'How can this be? The girl is on top of me! I see it with my own eyes!'

"I always knew that demons were stupid, you can't even notice my first form of breathing, how disappointing," The girl shook her head in disapproval, before taking her nichrin blade and line it in front of her face, "Breath of Illusion, First Form: Unreal," Shigoku widened his eyes at the sight in front of him, it was no longer the girl -- it was large boulder that is crushing him instead. He can't escape this easily, he knows that he can only escape if he have eaten enough human to develop a blood art technique.

Footsteps after footsteps were heard heading towards the demon, and there besides him stood a girl with her long (H/C) flowing along with the shooting wind of the night, her (E/C) eyes glistening under the moonlight. Her black haori, it had red streaks on it, and a drawing of a white fox on her left arm -- it looked beautiful even if it was dusted with dirt, and surprisingly, she wore a signature red kimono -- a soft, silky, and light kimono that was tinted with a deep red color.

"Since you are not answering, I might as well kill you, I'm sorry," (Y/N) (L/N) stood there with her calm, mysterious, yet sadistic aura merging all around the place. The nine hashira couldn't believe what they are witnessing either, they couldn't believe that she was the second hashira, the one who was cursed by Kibutsuji Muzan and the one who fought along the person who discovered the sun breathing; Tsugikuni Yoriichi. But somehow from her calm aura or from the way she hold her blade elegantly, all of the speaks; A True Warrior.

"Breath of Illusion, Third Form: Avidya Wild Slash," She rose her nichirin blade, it glows under the moonlight perfectly, reflecting its red color which soon radiates to black. In a gentle yet strong movement, the (H/C) haired girl slashed the demon's neck; creating a multiple black colored slash when she did. It might seem like a normal attack, but she made this attack with an illusion. An illusion of the past, letting flashbacks and regrets filled the demon's head before they die. At least they would die peacefully, right?

"O-otou-san.." The demon cooed, tears gleaming in his widening eyes. (Y/N) stood her ground, watching as the demon crumble to pieces. Her eyes watched the demon's hand which seemed to be trying to grab something, without any bits of hesitation, the girl held his fingers, "Don't leave me alone.. again.." Happiness, his eyes flashes bits of happiness before he finally disappear into the air.

"Such a horrible life isn't it? May you rest in peace," The girl clasped her hand together, silently praying before looking over her shoulder. There, stood the nine hashiras.

'Hashiras today are so weird..' (Y/N) manage to held back her laughter when she saw some interestingly dressed person, and it took a lot of strength on keeping a straight face, you see here; the hardest thing to do is keeping a straight face is when you rests your gaze to a tall guy with too many accessories over him, 'What is that weird looking creature?!' She mentally screamed inside her mind.

"Miss (L/N)," The girl's thought were stopped when one of the person started to speak, it was another weird looking one, this time it was a man who had double eyebrows, and a yellow colored hair.. along with some red streaks.

"We're genuinely sorry if we interrupted your time but we need you to come with us!" The man spoke, a smirk painted clearly within his face.

____

author's note : sorry if it's all rushed up and
poorly written, but i hope you enjoy it! ♡
let's get me a 80 reads, 50 votes, and 10
comments for the next chapter! wc: 2366.