The Human That Remains

Chapter Twenty-Three

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The strings of the biwa was plucked. Demons were led into the infinity fortress. The Lower Moons had been summoned. The group had been summoned to the center of a wooden platform.

Lower Moon One, Enmu. Enmu is a pale young man with black to red hair. Two longer strands were a different color, black to blue. He had light blue eyes. He has three square shaped markings on each cheek, seperated by a smaller square in between. He wore a long black button-up coat that arches upwards on either side of his legs so that only the two tails in front and behind fall. Behind the coat was a white dress shirt with cuffs. He wore apear of pinned stripped pale grey pants and plain shoes of a smiliar color.

Lower Moon Two, Rokuro. Rokuro is an older man with a stocky build with pale skin, decorated with black veins. He has long dark purple hair that's left down and a short jagged beard around his jawline. He has two golden cat like eyes. The male wore a dark cyan version of a typical karate gi.

Lower Moon Three, Wakuraba. A man of an average stature who has pale, greyish-white skin, with what appears to be three large, criss shaped scars cut into his cheeks and the center of his forehead. He has noticable elf-like ears. His eyes are wide and sharp with orange irises. He has short black hair and a widow's peak. Wakuraba wears a dotted, bamboo-colored yukata with a pinstripe pattern, a piece of dark cloth around his waist, and a lighter one around his neck. He has two golden hoop earrings on each ear, and a pair of wooden sandals with black straps.

Lower Moon Four, Mukago. The only female among the Lower Moons. Mukago has sickly yellow looking skin, two dark red stripes across her cheek. She has a pair of white horns sticking out from her forehead. Her eyes are grey with white rings around the sides and dark red sclera. She has white chin length hair with bangs between her horns. Mukago wears a plain red kimono with black and white fur lining the collar. Tied around the back was a dark purple bow.

Lower Moon Six, Kamanue. A short young male with incredibly pale skin. Kamanue's face is decorated by a thick green line under both his pale blue eyes and across his nose that ran up vertically into another shorter horizontal line on his forehead. Four large dots were also placed at the far ends of the line on his cheeks, the middle one on his forehead, and below his lower lip. Kamanue has dark brown hair with bright orange tips, that were swept back but fluffed out on either sides of his head and neck. Kamanue wears a white haori with a yellow scale pattern down the sleeves, as well as a white button-up shirt and dark hakama pants.

Their attention was turned to a female with long black hair that was put up in a bun. She had plum red eyes and wote a black kimono with a flower pattern. "Lower you heads and squat. Prostrate yourselves." The voice was all to familiar to them. That was Muzan in disguise. Makago spoke up, "W-we are very sorry. Your figure and presence are completely different..." Mukago was cut off by Muzan. "Who said you could speak?" The white haired demon trembled under his gaze. "Don't say anything out of your pathetic volition. You can only reply to whatever questions I ask." Muzan stared down at the Lower Ranks.

"Rui had some how disappeared, he was never killed. That was Lower Moon Five." Muzan said. "I only have one question to ask you. Why are the Lower Moon Demons so damn weak?" Muzan asked, enraged. "Just because they say that you're part of The Twelve Kizuki doesn't mean that it's over. It's only the beginning. The beginning of eating more people, becoming stronger, and being of much more use to me. For over a hundred years, The members of the Upper Moons from The Twelve Kizuki have never changed. The ones who have laid The Demon Slayer Hashiras to rest are always The Upper Moons. But how about The Lower Moons? How many times have they been replaced?" Muzan asked. He stared down The Lower Moons.
'You can't just tell us that...' Kamanue thought. "'You can't just tell us that'? Oh? Then tell me. What's wrong? Tell me." Muzan glared at the male. The demon was picked up by a large flesh like tentacle. The male squirmed in Muzan's grasp. "Please, have compassion!" The demon screamed out. The demon apologized repeatedly. Bones crunched and flesh tore. A waterfall of blood fell to the floor. One demon tried to run away, but ended up being caught and killed. Another was slaughtered and another one after that. Now it was only The Lower Moon One who was left. He stared at Muzan with admiration. He would be happy to die by the hands of Muzan. That's all Muzan needed to hear. A tentacle shot out from the side and plunged itself into the demon's neck. Muzan had just giving him some of his blood. The demon started coughing, and gagging, he felt nothing but pain, but he liked it.

"You've won me over. I'll give you an abundance of my blood. Well, you might be unable to endure the quantity of blood and just die. But if you can 'adapt', you'll probably obtain even more strength. Now be useful to me. Go kill The Demon Slayer Hunter Hashiras. And if you kill The Demon Hunter who has hanafuda earrings, I'll share even more of my blood with you." Muzan said. "Oh, and bring me Setsuna Mono. I want her alive."

The biwa strummed. A shoji door the male lied upon, slid wide open. The demon fell through. He landed flat on the dirt covered ground. 'What's this? I can see something.' Images of Tanjiro appeared in his vision. 'It's flowing in with Muzan-sama's blood.' "If I kill The Hashira and the boy and bring back the girl, I can have more blood. It's like a dream...!" Enmu saw an image of a white haired girl, her dark pink orbs stared at him. This didn't seem like a dream, more like reality. The girl stuck her hand out to him. It was almost like he could reach her hand.

*******

"MONO-SAMA!!!!!" Mono stood up from the engawa and stared at the sky. A familiar looking crow flew down to the girl. "Hey Makero-chan, I haven't seen you in a while." Mono said, greeting the crow. "I've got a message for you!" Makero said. "Well, what is it?" Mono asked. "Your estate is done!" Makero said loudly. "Shhhh. Makero-chan, you need to calm down. It's way too early for you to be screaming like this." Mono hushed the crow. "Sorry." The crow apologized. "It's okay, just try to keep it down next time. Thank you for letting me know about The Estate. I'll go check it out later." Makero flew off leaving the girl alone. "See ya, Mono-sama!!"" Makero cried out. Mono rolled her eyes and shook her head. The young teen went back to training.

'I should probably quit soon, I shouldn't use up too much energy.'

***

Mono walked around The Estate with Tanjiro. Tanjiro paused for second. 'Hm? Someone's coming.' A tall male had bumped Tanjiro in the shoulder and Mono in the chest. Tanjiro rubbed hus shoulder while Mono held her chest. "I think he went out of his way to do that, don't you think?" Mono asked. Tanjiro just stared at the male. "Tanjiro-san?"

"Isn't he from Final Selection?" Tanjiro asked. "Yeah, you broke his arm." Mono stated, bluntly. Tanjiro gave the girl a dot eyed expression. He turned back to the male. "It's been a while!! I'm glad to see you look okay!!" The male ignored Tanjiro and continued down the hallway. Mono had went up to her room and saw Rui messing with his web design that was wrapped around his fingers. He'd stretch the piece out, looking it over. "Hey, you ready to go?" Mono asked. Rui looked at the girl and nodded. The male shrunk down and climbed into Mono's bag along with her stuff. he four left The Butterfly Estate and left for their mission.

The group stood infront of the train. Tanjiro and Inosuke had no idea what this thing was. Mono turned to Tanjiro and explained to him that this wasn't a god. This was an inanimated object. Tanjiro seemed to understand bits and pieces of what the girl was trying to say. While Inosuke on the other hand decided to challenge the train. He head butt a side of a train car, which caught the attention of some officers. The officers chased the group, before the police could catch them, they hopped onto the train that was now leaving the station.

"Mono-chan, Tanjiro." Zenitsu suddenly said. The two looked Zenitsu. Was it really a good idea for you to bring Nezuko-chan and Rui?" Tanjiro and Mono looked at each other. The two nodded at Zenitsu.

Mono slid open the train door and the two walked inside. What could be waiting for them now?

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

Mono: "Time for a Taisho Secret. The mark on Rui-san's hand was made special for demons who have been cursed by Muzan. With the mark, Muzan can't find him, hear his thoughts. It's almost like the demon was never to exist in the first place."

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So I'm just gonna say this now, basically if you only watch the episodes of Demon Slayer. Literally everything from here on out will be Spoilers alright? So don't say "BuT YoU dIdN'T WarN Us AutHoR!!" Yes I did it's at the bottom of this chapter so, I guess. I'm sorry you weren't smart enough to red this part, that's not my problem.