Poison

The wound on Douma's eye disappeared as he watched Hiroto and Shinobu. "You know, that was a nice stab you did. But you can't kill Demons with just stabbing. It's the neck. You really gotta go for the neck."

Shinobu lowered her body into a stance, "Well, I may not be able to kill you with stabbing, but how about with poison?"

As soon as she finished her words, a black and purple hue spread from Douma's eye and neck. Gripping his neck in pain, Douma doubled over and started coughing out his blood.

"GH! AGAGH!" Douma screamed out, as the poison spread through his body. Taking this chance, Hiroto jumped over to Douma and brought his sword down towards his neck.

"You!" Douma barely had enough time to react as his body was trying to dispel the poison from his body. Grabbing his fan, Douma parried Hiroto's strike off to the side and jumped away.

Not giving him time to relax, Hiroto pressured Douma again.

'Dance of the Fire God, Sunflower Thrust'

Hiroto thrust his sword forward, aiming to immobilize Douma. "*COUGH* *HACK*" Douma puked out a large amount of blood along with some purple and black mixture.

Just as Hiroto's sword was about to stab through Douma's chest, Douma quickly recovered and smiled with his face covered in blood, "Too bad I already dispelled the poison."

*clang*

Douma raised his left fan to protect against the strike and swung his right towards Hiroto. Quickly reacting, Hiroto took his left hand off his katana and drew his wakizashi to quickly block the strike.

*clang* *crack*

Although Hiroto managed to block the strike, the force from the fan still pushed through and hit the side of Hiroto's body, sending him tumbling away.

Douma was about to pounce towards Hiroto when Shinobu made her move.

'Insect Breathing, Dance of the Dragonfly'

Shinobu blocked Douma's advance and swung her needle-like sword at him six times, aiming her strikes to inject Douma with multiple doses of poison at his weak spots.

*SPURT*

Shinobu's strikes managed to land on Douma, as the blood sprayed out from his wounds. Shinobu jumped away from Douma after her move set, as Douma looked at her and said, "You really are fast! Maybe the fastest Hashira I've met so far!"

*splrt*

Blood gushed out of Shinobu's shoulder, chest, and side just as she landed on the wooden platform, causing her to stumble.

"Shinobu!" Hiroto shouted, seeing Shinobu bleeding profusely. Hiroto narrowed his eyes and sheathed his wakizashi.

'Breath of Silence, Second Form: Crescent Moon'

Hiroto propelled himself towards Douma, who in turn retaliated and brought his fans down towards Hiroto with extreme speed. Just as the fans were about to hit Hiroto, he dropped himself to the ground and used the momentum from the fall to push forward and slash towards Douma's chest.

*shik*

"Gah!! It burns!" Douma cried out, gripping the side of his body as the wound, no matter what wouldn't regenerate. "You! I'll rip your arms off! Let's see how you can use your sword after that!"

'Blood Demon Art, Lotus Vines'

Douma spread his arms and fans out wide, creating a blizzard of lotus petal-shaped shards of ice, sending them towards Hiroto to tear him to shreds.

'Crap, that's bad.' Hiroto thought, as he readied his next move.

'Dance of the Fire God, Fake Rainbow'

Hiroto ran forwards towards Douma and evaded his attacks by twisting and rotating his body before they landed. Midway through his moveset, Hiroto switched to another attack.

'Breath of Water, Striking Tide'

Hiroto sent out multiple consecutive slashes, breaking the lotus attacks as his movement pattern was similar to that of a harsh tide.

'Blood Demon Arts, Barren Hanging Garden'

Douma swung his fans 8 times as Hiroto got closer, sending out gusts of razor-sharp wind attacks.

'Dance of the Fire God, Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance'

Resembling a dragon, Hiroto moved in a circle to avoid the gusts of wind and deflected every other attack that was bound to hit him. However, some attacks still got past his defenses, cutting Hiroto along various parts of his body.

"My, you're quite something, aren't you? No wonder Akaza lost to you." Douma said, rushing forward to Hiroto and smiling, "Too bad you're slow."

As Hiroto got closer, Douma rushed with incredible speed and swung his fans towards Hiroto's heart and head. Hiroto quickly parried the closest strike away and ducked under his second attack.

Low on the ground, Hiroto stabbed forward to Douma's stomach but was blocked as he spread his fan out to cover his stomach, causing sparks to fly.

Having missed his attack, Hiroto swapped his katana to his left hand and drew his wakizashi with his right, aiming for Douma's arm. Douma's eyes narrowed, as he jumped back and sent a kick towards Hiroto at the same time.

Hiroto blocked the strike with his arms but was sent flying from the sheer force.

*splash*

"Grg!" Shinobu tried to cry out but was unable to talk due to the blood coming out of her mouth.

"Phew, he's a tough one," Douma said, pretending to wipe his sweat away. "Now that I think about it, it's quite flattering, that I get to have 2 Hashira's all to myself!"

Shinobu clenched her hands as she was still hunched over on the ground, with tears streaming down her eyes. 'My lungs are punctured. He cut my collarbone and ribs. I lost so much blood, I can't stand… and I can't breathe.'

'Blood Demon Art, Wintry Icicles'

Douma launched multiple ice spears towards where Hiroto fell into the water.

'Breath of Water, Ninth Form: Splashing water Flow - Turbulent'

*splash*

Hiroto jumped out of the water, his uniform soaked with water. However, this didn't hinder his movement. As the ice spears closed in on Hiroto, he quickly jumped out of the way and onto the various wooden beams erected in the water.

Hiroto was able to move around without limits, even if he was unable to have a solid foothold due to this particular moveset.

*boom boom boom*

Ice spears after Ice spears rained down on Hiroto, who dodged and slashed them with ease.

"Wow, I'm surprised you're able to move so well," Douma said sarcastically. Hiroto landed on the wooden platform where Shinobu was and stood next to her, breathing heavily.

'Hiroto…' Shinobu thought, looking up at Hiroto's drenched face as he tried to adjust his breathing.

"Shinobu. Do you remember the promise I told you that night?" Hiroto said, standing behind Shinobu to guard her against Douma.

Shinobu clenched her hand.

-----

"Demons tell nothing but lies to protect themselves. They have no sensibilities, and their bare instinct is to kill people." Shinobu then looked over to Hiroto and said, "Please do your best, Hiroto-Kun, please protect Nezuko-chan to the very end."

Hiroto paused for a moment, before saying. "I may not be the one who can carry out your sister's dream of being a Demon." Shinobu's eyes looked downfallen.

"Tanjiro is more suited for that dream… but…" Hiroto paused, making Shinobu look into his eyes "I can make sure that the smile your sister loved so much never burn out." Hiroto said, smiling at her.

-----

"I promised you that day, to protect your smile. So don't stop fighting. Remember the promise you made to your sister. Win, Whatever the cost. Kanao's still going to need her sister." Hiroto said, eyeing Douma down as he approached them.

"Oh my, how touching. I didn't know that you two were together. Well, this just makes it all the more interesting, doesn't it?" Douma gave off a big grin.

*thud*

"Oh?" Douma muttered out, seeing Shinobu slowly getting up.

'Look at me, how can I stay like this and let Hiroto protect me.' Shinobu thought, slowly getting up as she tried to control her breathing as best she could.

Hiroto gave a small smile. "This is going to be one hell of a fight, so do your best."

"How can you still stand?" Douma pointed towards Shinobu with his fans. "Losing all that blood, and still being able to get back up. Agh! I see! The pain from the blood gurgling in your lungs is beyond Imagining! Okay, I'll lop your head right away, so don't push yourself!"

"Do you ever shut up?" Hiroto said, running towards Douma.

'Breath of Silence, Third Form: Howling Abyss'

Hiroto's eyes shone bright purple as he watched Douma make his move, waving his fans to block Hiroto's strikes. Hiroto sent numerous strikes towards Douma, causing him to back up to block each of his strikes, as sparks flew all around them.

*clang clang*

Each time his sword cut through the air it carried out a vibrating sound, similar to a howl. Douma had to speed up, even more, to be able to match up to Hiroto's slashes that seemed to have blurred as he kept slashing and slashing.

'Blood Demon Art, Barren Hanging Garden'

Douma picked up even more speed to match Hiroto's moves, sending out numerous point black wind strikes aimed at Hiroto's vitals. But as each of them was about to land, Hiroto would quickly deflect them off and push on with his own attack.

'Dance of the Fire God, Fire Wheel'

Hiroto arced his arms behind his back and swung forward, bringing down a circular strike to cleave Douma into two. Douma, at the last moment, jumped back, causing the strikes to miss and destroy the bridge he and Hiroto stood on.

Hiroto feinted an attack and thrust the butt of his sword forward, knocking into Douma's chin, sending him up into the air. "Shinobu! Now!" Hiroto shouted, falling onto the bridge.

'Breath of the Insect, Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag'