The Human That Remains

Chapter Thirteen

'Breath of Water: Second Style, Water Wheel!'

Tanjiro swung his sword down on the spider demon. It was blocked by his arm. The sword wouldn't even make it half way through his arm. Inosuke brought his swords down on the male as well. His didn't go through the arm either.

"He's too tough!!"

The demon tossed them high in the air, throwing them a good distance. "STAY AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!!" Inosuke jumped behind the demon. He was about to hit the demon, but the demon knocked the male back into the river. The demon went after Inosuke.
Tanjiro looked at a tree behind him. 'Breath of Water Second Style Modified: Horizontal Water Wheel!!' Tanjiro sliced the tree. The tree fell on the demon.

"Gaahh!"

Inosuke stared at Tanjiro impressed. 'He cut down the tree? Impressive, damn it!'

'Full Focus Breath of Water: Tenth Style!!'

The demon picked up the fallen tree. Tanjiro swung his sword down. The demon swung the tree with great force, hitting Tanjiro. Tanjiro flew up high in the sky.

"Kentaro!" Inosuke cried out to the boy.

"Don't die Inosuke!! That guy is on of the Twelve Kizuki! Until I return, Don't die!!"

*****

'Breath of Water: Second Form, Water Wheel!'

Tanjiro sliced his sword in a downwards motion towards the ground. He softened his landing.
"Ahh!" A voice cried out. He looked in the direction that the yelp came from. He spotted a girl on the ground holding her face and the boy from earlier, standing over her. The boy was messing with spider webs that were wrapped around his fingers.

"What are you doing!! Isn't she your ally!?" Tanjiro yelled at he male.

"Ally? Don't liken it to such a shallow thing. We are family. We are tied by strong bonds. Besides this is between me and Nee-san. If you're gonna meddle in this needlessly, I'll dice you up." The male said in a monotone. Tanjiro glared at the boy.

"Both family and allies are tied by strong bonds. They are just as valuable. There's nothing shallow about it if you're not connected by blood. Moreover, people who are bound by strong bonds have the scent of trust. But for you guys... fear. Hatred. And disgust is all I smell. I won't call this sort of thing a bond! It's a sham.. it's all fake!" Tanjiro said to the male.
The two were interrupted by another demon slayer.

"Oh. Perfect timing. There are demons here. If they're gonna be these kiddy demons, even I can do this." He said in a cocky tone.

"Who are you?!" Tanjiro asked the male.

"You pull back. I wanna get safely promoted. And if I do, the higher ups are gonna give me a lot of money. My squad's pretty much decimated, but I'll defeat a fairly tough demon then decend down the mountain." The boy was about to attempt to kill the demon. Tanjiro cried out, "No stop!! You're not..."

The boy was in pieces, blood was everywhere. The demon's web sliced through the Demon Slayer's flesh and bone slicing him in to pieces. Tanjiro stared at the blood in horror.

"What did you say?" The demon asked Tanjiro. Tanjiro looked at the male. "What did you say just now?" The demom glared at Tanjiro.

"I'll say it over and over again. Your bonds are fake!!" Tanjiro said to the boy.

****

"I won't kill you at once. I'm gonna mince you up after I'm done completely shredding you. But if you take back what you said awhile ago, I'll kill you in a single blow." The boy said. Tanjiro refused to take back what he said.

"What I said isn't wrong!! You're the strange one! I will not take it back! The one who's wrong is you!!" Tanjiro yelled out, dodging webs that shot out of the boy's fingers. Tanjiro ran at the boy.

"I know!! I know the pungent smell of strings that have gotten weaker."

'Breath of water: First Style, Surface Slice!'

*Cling*

The sword broke. The demon cut the sword down to the hilt with spider webs. Tanjiro fell to the ground, hard. 'I don't believe it. The strings are being manipulated. It's even stronger than the body of the demon that I couldn't cut down awhile back.' Tanjiro was dodging webs left and right, getting nicked a few times. The demon had enough. More strings went towards Tanjiro, this time there was no way out for him.

'I can't avoid it!'

Blood splattered everywhere.

Nezuko blocked the attack.

"Nezuko!!" Tanjiro caught her sister. Tanjiro took her over by a tree. Checking if she was okay.

'A girl came out of the box he was carrying... But she has the presence of a demon.' The girl demon watched the two.

"Siblings?" The boy said out loud.

"So what of it!!" Tanjiro yelled out holding on to Nezuko.

"Siblings... siblings.." The boy said to himself. "His sister became a demon... and yet they're still together."

"Rui..."

"The sister protected the brother... she offered her body. These genuine bonds!! I want them!" Rui said.

"Wait a minute!! Rui, I'm your big sister! Please wait! Don't abandon your big sister!" The girl demon cried out to her brother, crawling towards her brother.

"Shut up! Be quiet!!" Rui yelled at his sister. Strings sliced the girl into pieces, along with some of the trees. "In the end, you guys always couldn't even handle your own duties... No matter the occasion." Rui said staring down at his sister. Rui's older sister begged him to let her recover.
"Then go kill off the guys darting about the mountains right now. Then I'll forgive you for that incident awhile ago." Rui said.

"I-I understand I'll kill them." The girl said, fixing herself. Her body was reattached like nothing happened. The girl ran off into the forest.

"Boy. Let's have a talk." Rui said to Tanjiro.

"Talk?" Tanjiro questioned.

"You see. I was moved by watching your bonds. My body quivered. I think there are definitely no words to describe what I'm feeling." The two stayed silent listening to the boy.

"But I have to kill you guys. It'll be sad if things turned out this way. But, there is only one way to avoid this. Give me your little sister. If you hand her over quietly. I'll spare your life alone." Rui said.

"I don't understand what you're saying." Tanjiro said, looking at the demon.

"I'll make your little sister my own, starting today." Rui said. Tanjiro refused to let that happen.

"It's okay. You're connected by unaided bonds. So my bonds of fear are stronger than yours. I'll teach you what'll happen if you oppose me for sure." Rui said.

"Don't get to carried away with your jokes!! Poisoning your family with fear is not a bond in my book! If you don't correct thise misunderstandings you'll never get your hands on what you want!! I'll never hand Nezuko over to you!!" Tanjiro yelled at the demon.

"It doesn't matter. I'll kill you and take her."

"I'll take your head off first."

"Someone sure is mighty. Come get me if you can. You can't beat me. One of the Twelve Kizuki." Rui said rasing his hair away from his eyes. Lower Moon Five.

************************ Taisho Secret *************************

Five, Eight and Eleven: *Drawing on a piece of paper.*

Paper: "Were wooried aboat Mono, becoaus she doesn't sleep aloot. The Teesho secret for tooday is about whie Mono doesn't sleep."

Mono: "What are you three doing?"

*Five, Eight and Eleven scatter*

Mono: *slight smile on her face* "Time for a Taisho Secret. I was the one who taught Five, Eight and Eleven to write. Their vocab still needs work, but they're getting there."