REGEND-OF-THE-SAMURAI

The Swamp Demon

You lunged past Tanjiro at the demon, Monohoshiazo aimed to sever its head, but it ducked into the puddle just as you made the slice, making you miss and cut off its horns instead.

Kojiro: Damn. *turns towards Tanjiro* Is she okay?

Tanjiro: *snapped out of his silent daze* Oh, yeah. She's unconscious but fine.

Kojiro: Good.

Kazumi caught up, still wondering what's going on while you watched for any signs of the demon resurfacing.

Tanjiro: Behind you!

You turned around, too late to bring your sword down on the arm emerging from a puddle, when Tanjiro severed it, making the demon retreat once more. Having handed the girl to Kazumi he now stood beside you, sword at the ready. Nobody had the chance to say anything before the demon attacked again, you and Tanjiro splitting up to protect Kazumi and the girl from both sides.

Kojiro: *slowly becoming frustrated with the Demon evading him* If it wasn't for this nonsense it would be dead by now.

The demon resurfaced, facing off with Tanjiro, but not attacking. What happened next surprised you, to say the least.

#2: BASTARDS!! SHE'LL GO STALE!MOVE OUT OF THE WAY YOU LITTLE PUNK!! The girl's already 16, she's losing flavor by the second! If I don't eat her soon there won't be anything left to eat!

Then, another puddle appeared on the other side of your group, the upper half of what looked like the same demon emerging from it.

#1: Calm down other me it's no big deal. Nights like this happen, right? I've already feasted on plenty of this town's 16 year old girls, every one of them was meaty and delicious. I'm satisfied with that.

#2: Well I'm not satisfied at all! I want to devour ALL of them!

Kazumi: Monster! Bring Satoko back, the girl you took the other night.

#1: Hmm, which one was she? *opens shirt to show a number of hairpins* If her hairpin is part of this collection then I've already eaten her.

The horrified look on Kazumi's face said everything you need to know.

Kojiro: *grimaces* Such a foul creature, even for a demon. *holds sword ready* Your life ends here.

The first demon looked at you with an amused smirk before all three disappeared again. You and Tanjiro continued to fight with the demons, its demon blood art ruling out the use of your usual tactics for combating demons. After avoiding an attack from the third demon your gaze shifted towards Tanjiro's direction, witnessing him sink into a puddle, disappearing before you could pull him out. Cursing silently, you returned to your position defending Kazumi. Continuing to fight the demon off you noticed something, that only one of them was attacking you and it behaved more like a beast than the other two, now knowing this you used the information to anticipate its next attack, a second later it leapt from the ground and in one swift motion you severed its head. Letting out a breath you didn't know you were holding, you saw Tanjiro come back with one of the demons and, much to your confusion, began asking it questions. It refused to say anything, terrified of something that would happen if it did answer, instead lunging at Tanjiro and forcing him to kill it. Now that the all three parts of the demon were dead, Kazumi went off to take the unconscious girl home, soon after morning came and a sense of relief washed over you and Tanjiro. This rest was short-lived as a talking crow landed on Tanjiro and began squawking his next assignment at him.  Keeping any thoughts on the situation to yourself you shook your head and accompanied Tanjiro to Asakusa, Tokyo.  However, not long after you began the journey, a single question came up in the conversation.

Tanjiro: So, who are you?

{End Chapter}

Yep, I left it on another cliffhanger. I honestly pains me to know how long this chapter took to write. Well I hope you all enjoyed this in some way, off I go to take another 3 years writing the next chapter.