The Demon Queen

Ended Bloodline🌙

A/N: I had to take out part of the end of the previous "moon" chapter, because I rewrote this fight scene. I wasn't satisfied with it, it's so hard to write fight scenes 😐 So this is beginning from when they sense that there is a Slayer behind the door, but it hasn't been broken open by Gyomei like I wrote in the chapter. Sorry for the confusion 😓

Kokushibou cautiously opened the door. The room was completely dark without a single source of light inside it. It was difficult to see. With becoming human again, I had lost my precise ability to see in the dark.

Kokushibou was facing the same problem. He took my arm and moved so that we stood back-to-back with each other. "Get ready."

A crow cawed.

BOING.

We were suddenly transported out of the room and landed in an other one. This room was large and bright with many ornate wooden columns rising from the floor to the ceiling. I heard Kokushibou control himself as he almost gasped in shock.

"This is my quarters," he said.

"So, it did make you humans," the voice of a teenage boy said from a distance in the room.

Hashira! I thought. Why didn't I sense them?

With our backs still to each other, Kokushibou and I turned our heads towards the direction of the boy's voice. At the other side of the room stood a long-haired boy wearing a Demon Slayer Corps uniform.

"But you will never be humans," the boy continued. "Only demons. It's just easier to kill you now."

Almost as if we were connected, Kokushibou and I pointed our swords at the boy. He suddenly froze, feeling our heated auras and recognising the strength we held that continued to prevail despite our mortal bodies.

"We can do this," I said and started to direct my energy into my sword.

"Wait," Kokushibou said. His eyes concentrated on the boy's body. In that moment, the boy ceased to tremble and had regained his focus to fight us. "Boy," he said. "What is your name?"

"Tokito Muichiro," the boy replied.

"Hm," Kokushibou said and rubbed his chin to think. "Then the Tsugikuni name died out. I would say it's a shame, except that --"

"Mist Breathing: First Form."

"Concentrate, you idiot!" I yelled and pushed Kokushibou back to block the Mist Hashira's attack with my sword. I yelled again as I caused my sword to turn a bright white and used a Sun Breathing attack back at the Hashira.

"Sun Breathing ...!" I heard the Hashira utter in shock as he was pushed back.

My face grew red with anger. "Michikatsu! You're always telling me to pay attention, but now you're --"

Kokushibou started to applaud, his sword tucked into his obi and secured to his waist. "Well done, well done. Mist Breathing. Not bad at all." He smirked as he watched the boy named Muichiro. "And you've regained your composure again, too, after the Sun Breathing gave you a shock. I'm proud, my descendant."

"Descendant?" I asked.

"Descendant ...?" Muichiro asked. He looked like he was about to vomit. 

"Yes," Kokushibou said. 'I have the sight of a Marked Slayer, perfected over 500 years, and I can see into your cells, Muichiro. You are the descendant of the child I left behind when I set out to become a Demon Slayer." Kokushibou put his hand on his sword. "I am proud to see that my cells succeeded to create a fine swordsman. But, I regret for you that becoming a fine swordsman won't be enough for you. I have been reborn, you see, and I do not wish for the remnants of my old self to be out to remind me of my failures." He removed his sword from his obi. "My descendant, I, Tsugikuni Michikatsu, will be the one to bring my bloodline to an end." He swung his sword. "Moon Breathing: First Form."

As Kokushibou swung, a mass of crescent moon-shaped blades were sent at Muichiro. Muichiro sent back a Mist Breathing attack to counteract, but the crescent moon-shaped blades broke through. Using his advanced speed, Muichiro managed to dodge the attack.

"You're putting up a fight. Well done, my boy," Kokushibou said.

"Don't call me your boy," Muichiro said matter-of-factly. "I'm not your family. You said you've been around for 500 years. Any essence of your blood has been long washed away, and nothing of you remains in me."

Kokushibou said nothing.

"You're nothing but a faded-away piece of history that no longer has its place in the world," Muichiro continued. "Even if you didn't kill people as a demon, your unnatural existence is more than enough reason for us to kill you."

Muichiro came at us, seeing how Kokushibou froze from his comment. He was fast, and I couldn't see him through the mist, but just as he was about to cut me, I sensed him and blocked his attack. We were at a standstill with our blades crashing, a small amount of fire emerging from mine and interacting with the mist to create a dark grey-coloured smoke.

I had to increase my attack strength.

"All right. Sun Breathing: First For--"

Kokushibou stormed at Muichiro, stabbing his sword through his chest and pushing him to a column where he impaled him. He held his sword firmly in Muichiro's body, staring at him with harsh eyes. Muichiro winced from the pain and started to pant.

"Thank you, Sakura, for distracting him," Kokushibou said, his eyes still burning into Muichiro's.

"You won't ... win ..." Muichiro uttered and coughed out blood.

Kokushbou pushed his sword deeper into the column he was impaling Muichiro to. Muichiro coughed out more blood, some of which splattered into Kokushibou's face. "My blood has not been washed away into nothingness ..." he said. "But now, I make the decision to end the Tsugikuni bloodline." He pushed his sword further into Muichiro's body before swiftly pulling it out.

Muichiro's body fell to the ground, collapsing. A pool of blood oozed out from his body. His eyes were vacant and completely blank. He was dead.

"Sakura," Kokushibou said and looked at me. "We shall end your bloodline too, won't we?"

I looked at him, seeing the pain in his eyes as he spoke. I couldn't understand the sentiment he held towards the concept that he would somehow fuel future generations into his legacy.

It was almost as if he cared for them as a distant extension of himself, and I ...

... I felt nothing.

"We need to find Muzan," I said.

Kokushibou paused for a moment before nodding. "Yes."

We turned towards the door at the other end of the room.

"Do you think Nakime is still hijacked?" Kokushibou asked.

"Only one way to find out."

Just as we started to head towards the door together, a large spiked ball attached to a chain broke through the wall. It didn't come close to hitting Kokushibou and I, but we still jumped back to dodge it. The debris and dust from the wall breaking blew at us with a gust of wind.

"Are you safe?" Kokushibou asked once the wind passed.

"Yeah. Nothing hit me."

A manic male laugh shot through our ears. "They're humans! It worked! Heh. This'll be easy!"

We looked to see two Demon Slayers standing at the door: a tall, largely-built man in monk's attire, wielding the spiked ball on a chain and spinning it above him, and a white-haired young man with a scar across his face. The white-haired man wielded a sword.

"The name's Shinazugawa Sanemi!" the white-haired man announced loudly. "Remember that name when I kill you, fucking demons!"