Demon Slayer; Kyameron Kamado

Chapter 37.

Cracking his eyes open revealed the highly unpleasant sight of Tanjiro rushing at the demon with reckless abandon. Swiftly rising to his feet, he joined his brother in his advance. Now aware of the demon's ability, he looked over to Tanjiro, "Watch his hands! If you get caught in that wave, they can put you to sleep!" he shouted.

"I know! He's caught me once, but we know how to counter it, right?!" Tanjiro yelled back.

Through a slight hesitation, Kyameron replied, "Yeah. We know."

Exchanging nods, they refocused on the demon ahead of them, gripping their katanas opposite each other. Kyameron was on the left, with Tanjiro on the right. Barrelling closer, the demon began raising his hand once again, "Shit!" Kyameron thought.

"Go to sleep," the hand whispered, followed by a wave of blue energy exploding around it. Acting on instinct, Kyameron dove in front of Tanjiro, shielding him from the wave, though taking it full force. Immediately he felt all his strength being sapped from him as he crumpled to the ground.

Tanjiro forced his way forward while leaping into the air, "Water breathing, tenth form!" he thought, "Constant flux!"

A watery dragon emerged from his blade as he swung down for the demon, missing it by mere millimetres. Leaping backwards, the demon refocused, raising its hand once more, "Go to sleep!" it said, this time with more force.

Tanjiro took the blast head-on, keeling backwards as the watery dragon faded away. Though asleep, he kept his footing. Soon after, his eyes burst wide open, swinging his sword at the demon once again. This time he connected cleanly, slicing its arm clean off.

Horrified, the demon attempted to retreat once more, only to hear a soul-shaking roar of fire close by. Wrenching its head around, the second slayer was now standing once more, and was hurdling right at him, "Flame breathing, third form," Kyameron thought while taking a mighty leap, "Modified!"

"Modified? What does this mean?" The demon pondered, preparing its sleep-inducing attack.

In mid-air, Kyameron began to spin round and round, leaving waves of fire in his wake. At the apex of his leap, he stopped spinning, now surrounded by many slashes of fire, "Blazing multiverse!"

The waves of fire rained down like a monsoon on the demon, restricting its movements and locking it in one place; the perfect opportunity. A revitalized Tanjiro resummoned his water dragon and resumed his early charge, navigating the seemingly neverending barrage of flames from above. Kyameron, now on his way down, pulled his katana behind his head and came down in a ball of flames akin to a meteorite. With Tanjiro rapidly closing to his left and Kyameron barreling down on him from above, not to mention being locked in place by the still prominent shower of fire, the demon unleashed its blood demon art. While momentarily causing the slayers to stumbled, they quickly reawakened and resumed their attacks.

"These two are utterly insane! How can they kill themselves so quickly and with so little regard?!" he thought. Seeing only a single way out of his predicament, he outstretched his hand and unleashed another wave.

Screaming, crying, grief, every negative emotion filled the air. A heavy and muggy air filled the home as Rokutas' tears rang out, "Why did you leave us?!" he shouted, "Why didn't you protect us?"

A mortified Kyameron stood frozen like ice, unable to do anything but listen to his youngest sibling cry. A forceful shove cam from behind, spinning him around and revealing Takeo, "Useless brother. While you were out sleeping like a baby, we were suffering."

Shigeru then grabbed his arm, "You were never anything to us. We loved Tanjiro more than you," he said coldly.

Hanako then gripped his other arm, "That's right. We never cared about you. Tanjiro was much nicer. I'm glad Nezuko doesn't have to remember you. I envy her,"

Though frozen to the core, he could still feel three things. One the deep pain from his siblings' words, another the hatred that filled the room, and third, the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Suddenly the entire area shifted. Kneeling in front of two figures he recognized as his parents, neither spoke to him. His father then stood and firmly slapped him across the face, "Useless. Simply useless. Not only could you not bear the Hinokami Kagura, but you also couldn't do the one thing we kept you for," he said.

His mother stood, "We shouldn't have suffered for your incompetence. It should have been you who died, you and the other failures,"

Hearing those words cut some metaphorical line in his head, causing his entire psyche to unravel. Blood dripped down into his eyes, seemingly coming from his brain itself. Veins popped up and down his body, muscles shaking from the stress. The world around him began to burst into flames, burning everything within this nightmare. His tears began melting away, along with the dream itself. Only one thing remained in this hellscape; pure, unbridled,

Hatred.