Slayer of the Five Leaf Clover

Chapter 25: Hashira Meeting

  (Asta's p.o.v.)

It's been 2 years since Liebe's first assignment as a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. And he had improved greatly since then. He even quickly achieved the conditions to become a Hashira like me in just one year. But, what could you expect for a devil, who's naturally stronger than average humans. We were heading to the Master's mansion for the annual Hashira meeting when we ran into some of old friends, the other Hashira.

The Flame Hashira: Kyojuro Rengoku.

The fellow Water Hashira:Giyu Tomioka.

The fellow Wind Hashira: Sanemi Shinazugawa.



The Serpent Hashira:  Obanai Iguro.



The Love Hashira: Mitsuri Kanroji.



  The Stone Hashira: Gyomei Himejima. A large blind man with short spiky black hair.



  The Mist Hashira: Muichiro Tokito. A 14 years old boy with black and blue hair.



  The Insect Hashira: Shinobu Kocho.



The Sound Hashira: Tengen Uzui. A muscular man with silver hair and wearing a jewel embedded headband.



Iguro, Sanemi, and Kyojuro walked up to me and said, "It's been a while, Asta!" They all happy to see me, and I was happy to see my friends again. I greeted them, "Hey guys, it's good to see you again." Sanemi said, "Likewise old friend." He turned his attention to Liebe and continued, "I see you're keeping this knucklehead out of trouble as usual, Liebe." Liebe replied, "Thankfully, I don't have to do much." I replied, "I love how you guys talk like I'm not here." The others chuckled and Tengen said, "We better catch up later, the meeting is about 3 days away and we gotta get moving." He was right, so we all had to beat feet over to the Master's mansion right away, and we were less than 3 days away from there. "You're right, Tengen. We need to hurry." Liebe replied and we all started running towards our destination.

3 days later

We arrived at the mansion' front gate and were greeted by the Kakushi. "Welcome, follow us to the meeting room." They said and lead us to where the meeting would take place. They brought us to large room with 11 zabutons for the us Hashira, and one sitting farther away from the others for the Master to sit. The Kakushi said, "The Master will be here shortly, please sit and wait." They left and we all sat down on the zabutons. We sat around talking chatting until one of the Kakushi came and announced, "Thank you for waiting, the Master has arrived." As he walked in, we all bowed to him. After he sat down, the Master said, "It's so good to see you all again." Sanemi greeted, "I'm happy to see you are still in good health, Master." "Thank you, Sanemi." Master turned his attention to me and Liebe and continued, "Asta. Liebe. I hear your skills have been improving none stop." Liebe replied, "Yes, Master Kagaya. However, there is always more to improve for us." Master nodded and said, "Now, let's start the annual meeting."

"Let's hear everything you have encountered over the past year." The Master asked. Kyojuro started, "In this past year, I seen demons on the loose have increased since the year before, not only in number, but in power as well. Kibutsuji has been busy increasing his ranks." Muzan Kibutsuji, the original demon and progenitor of all the demons alive today. He has been around for over a millennium, and most of all, he's the only demon who can kill another demon. But let's get back to the meeting.

Master responded to Kyojuro's statement, "This is disturbing, but what's more disturbing is the fact that the number of demons are growing stronger, this has never happened before." I spoke, "It's like they've been binge eating." Sanemi replied, "There's no way they could be doing that, there are no reports saying the body count has increased as well." We all thought about what could be causing the demons' strength to burgeon. Giyu said, "I can think of one way they're getting stronger." We all turned to him and Liebe asked, "What Giyu? Let's hear it." He said, "Marechi." "Marechi?" Liebe and I asked confused. Giyu explained, "Marechi is a term for someone with a rare blood type. Those with such a blood type are a bountiful feast to demons. One marechi is equal to a hundred humans to a demon. The mere scent of their blood can intoxicate a demon and make them ignore other humans in favor of eating the marechi." After hearing his explanation I remembered something. I looked to Sanemi and said, "Sanemi, when we first met and you told me your story, you said that your blood intoxicated every demon who smells it, right?" He replied, "That's right, about a year after I joined the Corps, I learned that I was a marechi. But I'm surprised you didn't know about this already." I explained, "Well, I never encountered someone with marechi on any of my past assignments." Master said, "That's not surprising, like Giyu said, marechi are rare. But back to the topic at hand, even if the demons are consuming marechi, it still doesn't explain why so many are getting stronger." I thought about it for a moment and remembered something Liebe and I encountered this year. "What if they found an alternative to Marechi?" They all looked at me shocked and Kyojuro asked, "What do you mean, Asta?" I said, "About 5 months ago, Liebe and I were on an assignment in Diamond Kingdom...."

Flashback

Liebe and I had been assigned to exterminate a demon in a town in the northern region of the Diamond Kingdom who had been eating people in the safety of their own homes. It was nighttime and we had begun the hunt. After searching for a couple of hours, we finally sensed the demon's Ki coming from the direction of the mansion belonging to the regional lord. We rushed over as quickly as we could and by the time we arrived, we saw that the demon had just started eating the noble. But the alarming thing was that as the demon was eating him, it was growing in power. We decided to kill it while it was busy eating, it would've been stupid to just let it keep eating while it was getting stronger. I took care of it with my Water Breathing technique.

   "Water Breathing: First Form: Water Surface Slash!"

The attack decapitated the demon before it had time to react. After that was done, the both of us got out of dodge before the guards saw us think we think their boss.

  Flashback ends

  The other Hashira's were surprised and shocked by what I had told them, even Master Kagaya was disturbed by this information. "Asta, could you tell how much power the demon was gaining from the noble it was eating?" I thought about it for a second to try to get an estimate before saying, "If I had to make a guess, if it had completely devoured that noble, it would gain enough power to equal eating 50 humans." Iguro questioned, "Still, how are nobles any different than ordinary people, besides the fact they they're no better than demons themselves?" I replied, "No argument on the last part, but if I had to make a guess, it's probably their mana reserves." They all seemed to agree on that. "I think you're right, Asta. Nobles and Royals are born with greater mana then those of the commonwealth, so demons maybe be absorbing their magic power as they consume an aristocrat." Shinobu stated. Master replied, "If this is the case, Muzan Kibutsuji maybe have learned of this too and is planning to send some demons to confirm it." Liebe said, "If this is the case, what shall you have us do to counter such an infestation, Master Kagaya?" The Master replied, "I think it's best to station all of you to the four kingdoms  in order counter this impending threat. And also, if the demons are growing in strength quickly, it would be wise to train the other Demon Slayers so that they may have a better chance at defeating them. Tomorrow, we will continue this meeting to discuss it further. For now, rest up my children." We bowed and said in unison, "Understood, master!"