Spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba chapter 64 (Infinity Train Arc) and onwards!
Don't read this entire story and description if you have not read that far!
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"Wait, really?" He asks, voice falsely cheerful and excited, while on the inside, he realises he's just walked into the lion's den.
It was a fear of death, of inevitable doom, of horrible, horrible choices that had been made. When prey walked into their own death, and into the hunter's hands. It was a paralysing, all consuming fear which drowned all other emotions out, and only overwhelmed by the hunter's sadistic content and glee.
He did not for one second doubt their abilities, but why had Masahiko-san brought him here? He was going to die surrounded by demon hunters. He feigns excitement, though he knows he's not all the best at it. He cannot hesitate. Not for a single moment.
He tells his mind to move, and move, and keep on thinking on possible ways to escape the two of them. Snow falls faster, and heavier around the three of them.
"It does sound hard to believe, but I'm sure the Director must have scouted you out to join us," Hiromi speaks quickly, as Yousuke watches him closely. He smiles at the two of them.
"That's...unexpected! But I've always wanted a chance to join a more professional group of hunters!" He keeps up the facade. If he lost it, the two would turn on him. Hiromi was ecstatic.
"Let's return to confirm this," Yousuke speaks, voice cautious, yet calm and gentle. Kyojuro nods in response.
He's aware that the snow is falling at a much heavier pace. Their footprints barely last a few minutes in the snow before they are covered up, and the entire town turns empty and cold as lights burn out, and are put out, and everyone retreats back into the warmth of their own home. A large bell rings in the distance, a gong, a warning alarm for what was to come.
As Hiromi seemingly steps across the pure white snow with footsteps so light that there is barely a trace on the ground, and Yousuke calmly faces the snow head on, steps confident and yet patient, as if the weather was but a child to him, he's left behind.
He feels a pair of hands drag him forward.
They are cold, like ice, and they do not exist.
The three of them step into the building.
As they remove their outer layers, and step onto the raised platform, a girl steps out from one of the rooms and whispers a few words to Hiromi, who leans down and nods as she listens to what she has to say. He takes the time to remove his own scarf, seeing how he doubts that any of the troupe members would recognise him as a Hashira.
Dread builds in his heart. It creeps like frost and growing ice across a window pane, as his eye darts around.
Hiromi seemingly dismisses the girl after listening to what she has to say, as she turns to Yousuke and then to him.
"It's going to be a bit chilly, so it'd be better if you brought in your outerwear," Hiromi smiles as she picks his up and hands it to him, as she does the same for herself as well. Yousuke raises an eyebrow at that, but remains silent, as he follows them into the first room.
In his outerwear, he has his wakizashi.
"You." The single word directed at him was filled with so much venom, hurt and distrust that his hands instinctively reach for his sword.
Everyone in the room gazes at him, and he knows somehow, his cover has been blown.
A woman, who stood at the centre with waist long hair that was tied up in a messy ponytail, with a heavy deep grey winter cloak as well as hiking boots, and gloved hands, she turned to him.
And he saw that her clothes were drenched in frozen blood.
"You fucking demon."
Her eyes, pierce his soul.
The edge of the sickle barely misses his neck. It grazes his skin, leaving behind a trail of cut flesh, as he raises his wakizashi and deflects the heavy metal ball at the end of the chain, but it hooks onto the cloth he has tied around his left eye, and removes it.
"It's him."
The woman easily swings the ends of both the sickle and the heavy ball, withdrawing the thin yet sturdy metal chain from his field, as she twirled the centre length of the chain with her fingers, and transferred them from one hand to the other.
Her weapon is a Kusarigama.
He's only ever seen this weapon used a few times, and against a person who used a sword, it was highly effective. Against him.
She shifts her right leg forward, as she launches the sickle end of the Kusarigama at him, and he ducks, as it strikes down at him. Fire ignites in his lungs, as he instinctively moves and sidesteps the follow up heavy ball, only to find himself surrounded on all sides by enemies.
He raises the wakizashi and cuts through the throwing daggers sent flying at him, as he uses a leg sweep against the opponents crowding around him, while one one of them places his arms in a cross and holds it up, and the woman wielding the kusarigama uses it as a launch pad, as she twirls in the air, and swings the heavy ball of the weapon at him, and he deflects it with his blade once again.
He catches the kunai coming from behind him, knocking it off its course as he retreats, trying to find space where he could back up to.
"Yousuke! Hiromi! Stop defending this demon!" The woman shouts once more, as Yousuke promptly elbows and twists the arm of one of the troupe members, flipping her onto the ground as he pulls out a steel fan and guards him from another wakizashi, catching the blade with simple ease.
Hiromi shrugs.
He smells the scent of blood.
"We haven't heard the Director's verdict yet." She states calmly, with respect as when he had first met her.
The woman steps onto the ground, as she held the sickle end of her weapon in her left hand and the ball end in the other.
"He's the one that tore Aiya's leg into shreds, and the reason why Tatsuo's in a coma," The woman replies, a cold fire in her eyes. She walks forward to him, as the others all give her space, and she removes her outer cloak, showing how the entirety of her clothes were all drenched in blood which had crystallised in the snow.
"I did not." He growls, angry that they had assumed he was the demon that had attacked them. His heart raced, as he maintained the breath of flames.
"Are you sure?" Her eyes stare into his own. The scent of blood grows.
They are orbs of electric green intertwined with cold, void black, as she raises a bloodstained cloth up to him. His gaze immediately switches to the cloth.
It awakens a hunger in him.
Kusarigama - A weapon consisting of a sickle and a small heavy metal ball attached to a chain.
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Explanation
'"We haven't heard the Director's verdict yet." She states calmly, with respect as when he had first met her.'
- So here's the thing. They knew that he already was a demon before hand.
