Action Story

The sky was a hazy light shade of blue and dawn was on the verge of breaking from the horizon as all the Hashira’s and the Trio of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke faced Muzan Kibutsuji who stood on the other side of the cliff. The weather felt like it was teasing the demon slayers with the idea of freedom and a few optimistic ones found it a good omen, a symbolic gesture from the universe.

A vast canyon was laid out between them from where came the guzzles, screams, and groans of Muzan’s demon army. The smell of blood was dreadful, the hundreds of demons slipped in the mud that was drenched with the blood of the powerless humans they had devoured.

Muzan stared right back at the demon slayers with a grin.

“How are we ever going to cross their valley without letting him get away?” Tanjiro asked in his desperation.

The Flame Pillar, Kyojuro, simply gazed to the other side like the rest of his comrades, reading every twitch and movement of the Demon Emperor while he pondered how to not let him slip away from their hands again.

They had no other option but to face the army and fight with as much strength and speed they could. But it was a destined loss. Muzan would be far away by the time they would be done with the valley of demons.

“T-Tanjiro…,” called Zenitsu breaking the silence with the tone he always used when he was most afraid. The gazes of all the Hashira’s turned to the yellow-haired wimpy kid that had been dragging himself along with them. They had not seen him kill a single demon in their journey of 14 days. Zenitsu had only cried and run away. A few assumed that his duty and incidents in the past had caused him severe trauma, but the majority had grimaced at his weakness and inability.

Tanjiro turned his head towards his friend who he had never seen fight but had always suspected to be a formidable warrior. His trust still rested in his friend and never once doubted him.

“…I have an idea,” Zenitsu said looking directly at Tanjiro. His shame on his inactions and cowardice didn’t let him look into the eyes of the Pillars that despised him already.

But Zenitsu was comfortable with his closest friend, Tanjiro and so he continued, “There’s no way all of you can get to Muzan, and even if you did I am afraid most of you would have lost half of your strength. Therefore, defeating Muzan would further become an even greater difficulty.”

“What are you getting at?” called out the short-tempered Wind Pillar, Sanemi. “Stop wasting our damn time with your nonsense if you can’t bloody do anything about it.”

This abrupt rage of a Pillar pushed Zenitsu to even further shame and his head stooped lower than before.

“What I mean to say is, let me fight these demons,” replied Zenitsu not believing his own words. As those words left his mouth, his Gramps image, who he had always looked up, flashed in his mind to give him some courage.

All Hashira’s stood stunned at the words that had just reached them.

“Don’t be a fool,” replied Kyojuro. “I count this army to be made of 634 demons. You will be dead in no time. Besides, even if you were strong enough to take an entire army, then we should by that law allow you to take on Muzan alone.”

“Muzan’s death is not my destiny,” answered Zenitsu. “It is Tanjiro’s.”

“Just let him do it, if he can help us all get through then he would have paid his debt, and if he cannot then it is only good riddance,” shot Sanemi with spite.

The words were met by silence and it revealed how everyone had fallen into a shameful agreement.

Muzan had been seeing them talk and lost his curiosity. He had no respect for the talkers. If they couldn’t defeat his army then they were far away from being a threat to himself, he concluded.

With a sneer, he leaned his shoulder and began to walk away when a movement caught his eyes. The small kid with yellow hair had taken a stance. “I’ll amuse myself a little more,” he said to himself and changed his mind to stay for a moment to witness the young boy get dismembered into a hundred pieces and be devoured by his demon army.

Muzan, his army and the Pillars felt the air suddenly charged with electricity and the sky turned dark with grey clouds. As Zenitsu’s breath turned to steam, the entire ground below their feet trembled. Muzan’s smirk was wiped off his face as soon as it had come.

“What is this power?” asked the Kyojuro in astonishment.

“Is it really him?” mumbled Sanemi, as he stared dumbfounded with the others.

Tanjiro and Inosuke looked with awe at their comrade. They had waited forever to see their friend in all his glory.

Zenitsu had accepted his fate and he was okay with that.

The tremors caused the rocks to come apart from the edges of the cliff and large boulders came crashing down on the demons. A few unlucky got crushed underneath but most were quick on their feet and dodged.

“Thunder Breathing, 7th form, Flaming Thunder God!” said Zenitsu and charged at the ground.

Zenitsu had disappeared to all eyes, in truth, he moved faster than any eye could catch up. Every swift movement of his blade slaughtered dozens before they could even tell.

Zenitsu’s legs began to crack from the burst of speed. The attack was meant for a single strong enemy but sometimes rules had to be bent; even if at a cost. His wrists cracked and both his shoulder dislocated before he slaughtered half the army. He held his breath as his lungs screamed louder than ever. He could hear his own heartbeat but it wasn’t over and so he plowed on without a second thought. All stakes were on him.

Before Muzan’s mind could even acknowledge the calamity before him, his eyelids decided to involuntarily blink, only to open to see his entire army slaughtered in that fraction of time.

The screaming heads of the demons had not even touched the ground when the yellow-haired boy stood before Muzan staring back at him as lightning thundered in the black sky above. He felt his death standing before him on the edge of the cliff.

Most cells in Zenitsu’s lungs had burst from the pressure. His breathing made a painful sound and in a creaking voice he said, “Tanjiro... he is all yours.”

Zenitsu’s words helped Muzan’s senses escape the shock and he looked up to see Tanjiro come leaping above the boy with his sword unleashed and vengeance in his blood.

Zenitsu’s legs out of strength gave up and his body flew down the cliff while his mind lost all consciousness. Inosuke caught him mid-air and laid him gently on the ground.

All the Pillars were now on the other side with all their strengths intact to fight the demon king and saw Tanjiro holding on his own against him.

The fire Hashira decided he could spare a moment, so he walked up close to Zenitsu’s collapsed body while everyone looked on. He felt ashamed at having thought so wrong about the little boy who had proved himself better than any living man he had known.

Kyojuro bowed to pay his respect at the fallen comrade who was so near his death. Looking at this, the remaining Demon Slayers followed; with their knees bent and heads lowered, they paid their respect to the strongest man they had ever known.