Chapter 12: Jenova

"Fine... I'll make the choice of what to do." Muzan said as he scoffed, he looked over to where Queen was at as he noticed she had vanished. "Tch, she couldn't even have waited for my answer. Not that it matters right now, I will see her again very soon, but for now." He turned his attention towards what remaining Demons there were. "We will go to war, and be humanities down fall!"

The demons cheered and roared loudly as they were seemingly waiting for this day to come, Muzan had decided it was time to put Scarlet in her place, and teach her what happens when she messes with the Demon King.

Queen smirked as she had vanished from sight and went on her merry way, of course she was still going to watch from a distance to see the action play out. But she was also planning on what the next course of action would be, she did have some ideas but something tickled her fancy as one idea popped into her head. "Hmm, I wonder... Seeing as that Scarlet isn't a spirit like Kurumi and the others, I wonder if there exists a different timeline where she was never created." She grinned as she decided to go take a look and see. "Perhaps if there is, I'll have to drag her to that said timeline to see what happens."

Scarlet grabbed Shinobu by the throat as she slammed her down onto the ground, she blinked as time resumed, Shinobu gagged as she was surprised at how quick Scarlet had found her. She didn't even get a chance to lay a finger on her, yet she lied there on the ground being choked by Scarlet.

Tanjiro and the other three came up from behind as they saw what was going on, Inosuke charged in blindly as he swung both of his swords at Scarlet. The Grimm girl could smell him behind her as she quickly shot up and headbutted the back of her head against Inosuke's face, she then turned around and threw Shinobu at him.

"What are you doing?!" Tanjiro yelled out while looking at Scarlet.

Scarlet scoffed as she twirled Black Rose around and slammed the tip of the scythe down into the ground. "What does it look like? I'm doing my own job."

Hero was over off to the side as he just watched, he could sense demons coming as he meowed. Scarlet glanced over to the ginger cat hearing him meowing, even though she wondered why he wasn't speaking. She had a feeling that meant more danger was coming.

Zenitsu was scared to the core, he didn't know who Scarlet was, he just knew he was scared and locking eyes with her didn't help any. "S-Stay back... I'll have to fight you."

Scarlet ignored him as she scanned the area carefully, she could smell blood in the air. This wasn't her doing though. A bellowing roar and growl could be heard within the shadows, sure enough it was demons. The once risen sun was blocked by the moon making a eclipse happen, everything went pitch black once more.

"Tch, looks like we have company." Scarlet scoffed as she yanked Black Rose out of the ground, she slit her arm as she drenched the blade with her blood.

~~~

"An eclipse? That's different." Scarlet mumbled as she kept her guard up. "That must mean Muzan is planning on something, but what would that be exactly?" Her eyes glowed red in the darkness, she held onto Black Rose tightly.

"What's going on, why did it get dark all of a sudden?" Hero asked as the feline stayed where he was at, of course Tanjiro and the others didn't know it was him speaking. Shinobu was supposed to be unconsciousness from being choked by Scarlet, but being tossed at Inosuke brought air back into her lungs.

Tanjiro, Inosule and Zenitsu stood back to back as Shinobu was also on her guard as well. A demon came rushing out from the darkness and threw a punch at Scarlet, to which she simply blocked it and sliced the demon in half. It seem Muzan had recruited weaker demons as the decoys while the stronger ones were waiting to strike from every direction.

The demon that was split in half, its blood spewed from its body all over Scarlet, covering her from head to toe in blood. Scarlet quickly turned around as she cut another one in half, more and more blood spewed all over her.

"There's too many of them." Zenitsu said defending himself, he then got knocked back as he stumbled backwards. "Crap, what do we do?"

Tanjiro was focused on trying to keep the demons at bay, that's when the stronger ones started to appear out of the blue. One had four arms and two heads. It also had shoulder and knee spikes, it put all four of its fists together to hammer down on Tanjiro's head. Scarlet swung around and sliced the demons arms off, she then kneed the demon in the face as she followed that with a quick neck snap.

"Pay attention." Scarlet said with a growl, her glowed red eyes was the only thing Tanjiro saw in the darkness. The Grimm girl sprouted her Nevermore wings as she took off into the night sky, she glanced around from above to see where the demons were currently at. She then turned Black Rose into its mini-gun form and started shooting dust bullets down at the ground below.

Muzan was watching everything, he growled as he kicked a tree down and then threw it up at Scarlet. The tree came hurdling at her at a fast pace, she stopped shooting for a moment and stopped time once more. Scarlet moved out of the way as she turned Black Rose back into its scythe mode, she glanced around at the ground below to see where Muzan was at. She eventually found him as she flew down to where he was, she blinked allowing time to resume.

The tree crashed down on top of a small horde of demons killing them on the spot, Muzan and Scarlet were locked with each other as their eyes met. Muzan threw a gut punch at Scarlet as she tried to block it, but Muzan's fist snapped and broke Scarlet's hand. His fist landed hard in Scarlet's stomach as she puked up blood, Muzan then grabbed Scarlet by the hair on her head and smashed her against a tree before throwing her cross country.

~~~

Scarlet crashed different environments, wildlife and plants. She then eventually splashed into a lake as she was sinking into the depths, the Grimm girl cursed under her breath as she swam up, her wings were drenched and wet and the blood that covered her was washed off. Floating there in the lake, she grabbed her wings and ripped them off.

"I'm surprised, you're still alive after all that." Queen mocked as she sat at shore looking at Scarlet. "You can't win against the demon king."

Scarlet glared at Queen as she swam over towards her and tried to grab her leg to pull her into the lake with her. Queen smirked as she sliced Scarlet's hand off before jumping up, she watched as the lake went from crystal clear to a small red tint and then to an inky black. Scarlet's hand grew back as her other hand went under the lake to the bottom, she glanced up as she noticed Queen was gone again. Instead Muzan stood there.

"Hmph, all high and mighty. And for what?" Muzan asked glaring down at Scarlet. "You can't even last ten minutes against me, and yet you still want to kill every last one of my kind." He knelt down to eye level with Scarlet and grabbed her by the hair again lifting her out of the lake. "Pathetic."

Scarlet spits in his face as she smirked. "I'm not the one who's hiding behind his army of demons." She clawed at his eyes and then ripped into his flesh tearing his arm off before being dropped back into the lake.

Muzan didn't seem to be fazed by this, yet he healed himself anyway as he noticed Scarlet was gone. "Where did you go? You think hiding in the darkness will save you? That won't work... or perhaps, you don't know yet."

Scarlet was curious, what did he mean by that. She appeared behind him after she had taken a longer trail to get up to shore. "What do you mean?"

Muzan smirked as he turned around. "Your mother is alive, in fact... you can thank Queen for that."

"Bullshit." Scarlet said and held her nails against Muzan's throat. "You're lying, I made sure my mother was dead. There's no way she's alive."

Muzan closed his eyes as he punched Scarlet in the gut, once again causing her to spew up blood He held her chin in his hand and looked at her. "She is, Queen told me everything. So.... how about we make a deal?"