boketto || t. kamado

thirty

Thirty chapters, woohoo! The longest book I've ever written, actually haha. Hyperfixations, amirite?

Our pace was quick and unchanging through the forest and I glanced around frantically for any sign of an aura. There was nothing yet but we continued our journey to try and find the main source of all this.

Tanjiro's anger was still rather potent, as it had been before but it'd shifted into determination and resolve. His typical orange resting aura had shifted for a more reddish hue and shone brightly. I preferred it to the anger from before. But I also just didn't enjoy seeing my friends angry. Even Inosuke was somewhat growing on me.

In hopes of getting a better advantage, I took a bigger leap upwards and into the tree branches, somewhat startling Tanjiro from my side but we continued onward. I found it easier to travel this way anyways, and I had a broader few with my sight, with fewer intrusions and obstacles.

We changed the trajectory for some reason, but I continued to follow. They were both tracking something in their own ways but when I glanced ahead, my brow furrowed. There was no aura that way, so why..?

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro called out.

But he was met with, "I detected that thing before you did! I'm going to hack its head right off!"

My brow furrowed a little further as Inosuke leaped into the air, but I finally caught sight of what they were tracking and my eyes widened.

"Wait!" I called out quickly, dropping back to the ground next to Tanjiro, who was now looking at me with full attention. But we were already too close and he'd spotted the issue.

I called to Inosuke, "It's a puppet, not a demon!"

But he was already making landfall with both his blades meeting the hooked blades on the hand of the figure. It was giant - bigger than the three of us combined - only wearing a pair of trousers and lacking its head. The threads on its back twinkled in the moon.

"That thing has no head!" The boar called out incredulously. That's why it had no aura. It wasn't alive in any way - not human or demon. They were tracking the wrong thing. But it was too late and we'd hit the roadblock already with no avoidance.

The beast wasted no time in trying to slam its hook down into us, but we leaped to the side and caused it to slam into the ground. It ruptured the surface creating a ripple of cracks and uprooted boulders. It would've been a quick death getting hit by that strength.

"That thing's got no weak spots! I can't slash something that's not there!" Inosuke angrily shouted. Tanjiro called his name but he continued to ramble, "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?!"

"Calm down!" Tanjiro instructed, "We'll inflict a monk's robe cut on it!"

He moved his sword as an example while continuing to explain, "Let's try slashing from the base of its neck on the right side to his left waist! It's a lot to cover, and I'm sure it's really tough, but I bet..."

No time was wasted for Inosuke, who dashed forward before Tanjiro could even finish. He tried to do it on his own but proved ineffective due to the speed and size of the beast. A few wounds were earned on his own skin as he didn't even scratch the puppet. Hardly a second later, Inosuke was suddenly stuck still as threads glistened in the moon connected to his very being. We couldn't forget about the little creatures crawling around, either.

Tanjiro and I proved more in sync than the boar boy, with my warm friend deflecting a powerful strike from the beast and myself slicing through the threads holding our reckless pal. The odd pink tone to his aura returned and I furrowed my brow at it but tried to stay focused on the mission at hand.