40. Daki and Gyutaro

Tengen Uzui stood tall, his dual cleavers catching the moonlight. Beside him stood Hana.

Gyutaro craned his neck, his sickly green eyes scanning Tengen and then landing on Hana. A creepy smile stretched across his face.

"Look at you," Gyutaro rasped, his voice like grinding stones. "Nice face, tall, muscular" He then turned his gaze to Hana. "And a pretty girl, too. Such a cute face girl. It makes me want to tear it off. I'm so jealous of you both...It hurts... it really hurts."

Tengen grinned, though his eyes remained sharp. "Well yeah I'm a flashy, glamorous ladies' man, so that's a no-brainer...I even have three wifes And don't get your hopes up, creep, she's already taken by a guy thought he isn't nearly flashy as me-he's a hashira too, you know. He wouldn't take kindly to you scratching her."

Hana's face turned bright red despite the danger. "This is not the time to talk about Giyu-san! And he isn't...we aren't...it's not like that!

"Don't be shy, kid!" Tengen laughed.

Daki, whose head had just finished reattaching, pointed a trembling finger at Hana. Her eyes were full of rage. "Onii-chan! That's her! That's the girl I told you about! She attacked me, she bullied me, and she used those horrible flames to burn my skin! She's mean and she's ugly and I want her dead!

Gyutaro's aura shifted instantly. The jealousy turned into a cold, murderous rage. His veins bulged. "You hurt my sister? You burned her face? That's unforgivable. Truly unforgivable. I'll make you pay for every tear she shed."
He didn't wait. Gyutaro swung his sickles, releasing his Blood Demon Art. "Flying Blood Sickles!"

Thin, razor-sharp blades of blood flew through the air, curving with a mind of their own.

"Hana, move!" Tengen shouted.

Hana dropped low, the wind of the blood blades whistling just inches above her. She rolled across the floor, her heart hammering. Tengen reached into his gear and slammed several small black spheres onto the ground.

BOOOM!

The gunpowder bombs exploded, shattering the floorboards and sending a cloud of smoke upward. The force of the blast pushed the demons back. As the dust cleared, another blood sickle curved through the air, aiming straight for Hana's throat while she was mid-air.

​Before it could strike, a heavy hand grabbed the back of her uniform and yanked her backward. Tengen landed on the ground below, holding her steady.

As they landed on the street below, Tengen and Hana looked the, terrified civilians. "Run! Get out of here if you want to live!"

The blood sickles hadn't stopped. They bent in mid-air, following them down like heat-seeking missiles. Tengen spun his blades, his movements a blur of silver and gold as he parried every single one.

He's incredibly fast, Hana thought, her heart racing. But these two... they are different. If we behead Gyutaro, will they both die? Or do we have to take them both down at the same time? "Uzui‐san, they're different. The way they move together..it's like they're one entity in two bodies."

"I know," Tengen muttered. Through his hearing, he scanned the area. The vibrations told him the house was empty. "Everyone is out. Now we can really let loose."

He hurled more bombs into the air and struck them with his swords to direct the blasts. The street erupted in fire.

When the smoke cleared, Daki was curled tightly on Gyutaro's back, her body wrapped inside a protective ball of her own obi.

"You're good-looking, you have three wives, and on top of that, you're full of swagger. He looked at Tengen with pure envy. You're different. You're not like any of the other Hashiras I have killed," Gyutaro said, his voice dripping with malice. "You're special, aren't you? Born with talent. A chosen talent, right? That makes me so jealous I hope I kill you quickly."

"Talent? Do I look like someone with any talent. You may be centuries old, but you've stayed shut up inside a place like this... Tengen spat. "Don't make me laugh. This country is huge. It's full of people who would make your skin crawl. There's Gyomei Himejima, a man who is a total enigma. There's Muichiro Tokito, who became a Hashira only two months after picking up a sword. I'm nothing like them."

He thought of Rengoku, the flame that had gone out too soon. "I've let so many lives slip through my fingers. I could never be like Kyojuro Rengoku."

"Then why are you still alive?" Gyutaro asked, tilting his head. "My sickles are coated in a poison. Yet you refuse to die.

Gyutaro narrowed his eyes "The poison's affecting you, after all! Slowly but surely! But look at the girl. She's smaller. It's already working on her, isn't it?"

Hana felt a sharp sting in her side. A small scratch from a stray sickle earlier was pulsing black. Her vision blurred for a second, but she bit her lip until it bled to stay focused.

Tengen's hearing picked up the shift in her heart rate. "Hana! You're hit. Back away, that's an order! I've spent years building resistance to poison as a shinobi, but you can't fight like this!"

"No!" Hana cried out, stepping forward. "I'm not leaving you to fight two Upper Moons alone. I can still swing my sword! I'll fight till I can."

"This isn't going to be an easy one, Hana." Tengen said sternly, standing tall.

"I know that and I'm still willing to fight." She said.

Tengen looked at her, seeing the fire in her eyes that reminded him of Rengoku. He grinned. "Fine. Then stay behind me and look for the opening!"

Tengen lunged. He forced Gyutaro and Daki back with sheer brute force.

"Now, Hana!" Hana sprang forward, her feet barely touching the ground. She slammed her boot into Daki's chest, launching the female demon high into the air, separating her from her brother.

​"You brat!" Daki screamed.

"How dare you kick my little sister." Gyutaro spat.

With the siblings separated, Tengen saw his opening. He swung at Gyutaro, but the demon was fast. Tengen had to use his fingertips to hold the very edge of his blade, extending his reach by an extra few inches.

Slash!

Gyutaro, his throat slit but still standing, looked at Tengen and Hana with a cold, dead stare.

The siblings tried to converge again, but Tengen hurled bombs around his own body, creating a zone of constant explosions. Gyutaro managed to move through the blasts, his movements fluid and unnatural. Daki, however, wasn't as skilled.

​She tried to fly in with her obi, but she hit one of the floating bombs her head spun off her shoulders again

​"Again?! Why am I always the one getting hit?! Onii-chan!" Daki wailed as her head landed in the dirt.

​Gyutaro's eyes widened, but he didn't stop. He lunged at Tengen, his sickles glowing with dark energy. "It doesn't matter," Gyutaro hissed. "You'll fail in the end. The poison is already inside you. And the girl... she's already fading. She'll be dead before the moon sets."

​Hana stumbled, her knees hitting the ground. The world was spinning. She looked at Tengen, who was covered in cuts and blood, yet he still stood tall.

​"We aren't... losing..." Hana gasped, forcing herself back up. "Not today."

​The poison was starting to burn in Hana's veins. Every time her heart hammered against her ribs, it pumped the venom deeper into her muscles.
Not yet, she hissed to herself, biting her lip until the metallic taste of her own blood cleared her head. I can't fall yet.

Gyutaro noticed. He crouched like a spider, his tongue lashing out to lick the blood from his own cheek. "Look at that. The pretty girl is wilting. Your heart is small, little human. It's working so much faster on you than the big guy. Why don't you just lay down? I'll make it quick. I'll carve that pretty face into something much more interesting."

"In your dreams, you creep." Hana spat. She forced herself to stand upright, her legs shaking but her grip on her sword firm.

Tengen glanced at her, his jaw tight. He was breathing heavily now, the poison affecting even his massive frame. "Hana! I told you to back off! This isn't a joke. You're reaching your limit!"

"I'm not leaving you to fight both of them alone, Uzui-san!" Hana shouted back, her voice cracking but steady. "I know my limits better than anyone. I just need to hold on. Tanjiro is coming. Zenitsu and Inosuke too. I can feel them nearby."

Daki, whose head was still resting precariously on her shoulders as the flesh knitted back together, let out a piercing scream. "I'm going to tear you apart! I'm going to start with your legs so you can't run, and then I'll take your eyes!"

Daki launched her obi sashes, dozens of them unfurling like whip-cracks. They sliced through the air, cutting through the remaining pillars of the house.

"Watch out!" Tengen roared. He swung his giant blades, creating a curtain of steel to deflect the sashes, but there were too many.

Hana moved...She moved swiftly between the sashes, her blade ringing as she parried the sharp edges.

Clang! Clang! Rip!

A sash caught her shoulder, tearing through her slayer uniform and drawing a line of red. She didn't even flinch. She stepped into the gap, lunging toward Daki.

"Get away from me you filth!" Daki screamed, sending more fabric her way.

"Make me!" Hana retorted. She spun in mid-air, her sword a blur of silver. She sliced through three layers of obi, landing right in front of the Upper Moon.

Hana leaned in close, her eyes burning with a cold fury that made Daki hesitate. "You call yourself an Upper rank? You're just a spoiled child hiding behind her brother's shadow. Without him, you'd have been dust a hundred years ago."

Daki's face contorted in pure, unadulterated rage. "I'll kill you! Big Brother, kill her!"

Gyutaro lunged at Hana's back, his sickles raised to split her in half. "Don't insult my sister!"

Tengen was there in an instant, his heavy blade clashing against Gyutaro's sickle. The force of the impact sent a shockwave through the floor. "Don't ignore me! I'm the one you should be worried about!"

The four of them became a whirlwind of violence. Tengen and Gyutaro traded blows that sounded like cannon fire,
While Hana kept Daki busy, slicing through the endless obi sashes that tried to interfere with the main fight.

Hana's lungs felt like they were filled with glass. Every breath was a struggle. Just a little longer, she told herself.

She parried another sash, but the effort sent a spike of pain through her chest. She stumbled, and Daki saw the opening.

"Got you!" Daki cheered, her obi tightening around Hana's waist like a boa constrictor.

Hana gasped as the air was squeezed out of her. She gripped her sword tighly.

"Hana!" Tengen yelled, trying to break away from Gyutaro, but the demon wouldn't let him.

"Stay right there, Hashira!" Gyutaro laughed. "Watch your little friend get crushed. That's the last thing you'll see before the poisen takes over you."

Daki began to pull, the fabric lifting Hana off the ground. "I'm going to snap you in half like a dry twig!"

Hana looked down at Daki, her face turning blue from the lack of oxygen, but she didn't look afraid. Instead, she managed a small, bloody smirk.

"What are you laughing at?!" Daki shrieked.

"They're here." Hana wheezed.

At that exact moment, the wall of the neighboring building exploded.

"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"

A streak of yellow lightning tore through the night. Zenitsu, eyes closed and face set in a mask of unconscious focus, slammed into Daki's side. "Don't you dare... hurt Hana-chan!" his voice echoed with a strange, deep hateful resonance.

The force was so great that the obi around Hana's waist loosened instantly.
She fell to the ground, gasping for air, just as a familiar, loud voice echoed through the street.

"Lord Inosuke has arrived! Make way for the King of the Mountains! I've come to save the day!"

Inosuke tumbled into the fray, his twin jagged blades spinning. And right behind them was Tanjiro.

"Hana!" Tanjiro cried out, his eyes wide with horror as he saw his sister on the ground, pale and poisoned.

Hana pushed herself up on one arm, coughing. She looked at her younger brother and gave him a shaky thumbs up. "Took you long enough, Tanjiro. I was starting to get bored."

Tengen let out a booming laugh, even as he blocked another strike from Gyutaro.
"Hey you guys talk about flashy entry tengen grinned. That's what I like to see."

"You can summon all the underlings you want but there'll still be no blissful future waiting for you!" Gyutaro growled, looking at the three new arrivals. "You can't win not when the Hashira who's your only hope is ravaged by poison! The girl is already on the verge of death."

Tanjiro gasped, looking between Tengen and Hana. He could see the dark veins on Hana's neck. "Poison..."

"Oh, we're going to win easy, you dumbass bottom-feeders!" Tengen said.
"All four of these are my brilliant Tsuguko! Even if their limbs fall off, they won't let go!"

Hana reached out and grabbed her sword, using it as a cane to stand up. She stood next to Tanjiro, their shoulders touching.

"Leave that worm woman to me and Sleepyhead! You two go defeat that praying mantis!" Inosuke said as he and Zenitsu went after daki.

Hana stood her ground, Even with the poison clawing at her insides, Every time Gyutaro swung his lethal, blood-coated sickles, Hana was there to meet him. Her blade clashed against him with a sound that cut through the roar of the fire.

Gyutaro's eyes widened. "What is wrong with you?" he hissed, his voice cracking with genuine shock. "I can see the venom turning your blood black! You should be screaming on the ground, clawing at your throat! How are you still moving like this?"

Hana didn't answer with words. She answered with a strike so fast it clipped the hair from Gyutaro's head.

Tengen, fighting alongside her, found himself momentarily stunned. He had seen many slayers in his time, but he had never seen a Hinoto rank fight through this level of Upper Moon poison with such sheer willpower.

She's incredible, Tengen thought, She isn't just surviving, she's pushing him back. Her spirit is even flashier than mine!

But the human body has its limits, no matter how strong the spirit.

As the minutes ticked by, the adrenaline that had been keeping the poison at bay began to fade. Hana's movements, once fluid and sharp, became heavy. Her vision didn't just blur, it began to go dark at the edges, like ink spilling onto a map.

"Hana!" Tanjiro cried out from across the roof, sensing her tremor.

Hana tried to lift her sword for another form, but her arms felt like they were made of lead. Her heart gave a painful, stuttering leap in her chest. She looked at Gyutaro, who was now grinning, sensing his victory.

"There it is," the demon whispered. "The light is going out. Goodbye, pretty girl."

Hana's knees hit the charred wood first. She tried to push herself back up, her fingers scraping against the floorboards, but her strength was gone. She had burned through every ounce of energy she possessed to keep the demons occupied.

"Tanjiro..." she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. Her grip on her Nichirin blade loosened. The sword clattered to the floor.

Before Gyutaro could deliver a finishing blow at her, Tengen threw himself in front of her, his massive body acting as a shield. "I've got her!" Tengen yelled, his voice desperate. "Tanjiro! Get over here!"

Hana didn't hear him. The world had gone silent. Her head tilted back, her long hair spilling over her face, and she slumped into total unconsciousness. She had fought until her very refused to move.

As she lay there, pale and still, Tanjiro let out a roar of grief and rage that shook the district. The Hinokami Kagura erupted from his blade as he lunged at the Upper Moon.