Aftermath

[3rd POV]

Tanjiro watched in abject horror the landscape of destruction that had once been a forest. He did not have other words to describe the feeling in his chest. How could something that has been for so long be gone in one night, just like that?

"What happened here?" he asked with a shaky voice, barely coherent.

There was a young man in front of him, wearing a white haori with black stripes. He had bandages covering his lower face and he had the same words as Seiji written on the back of his haori.

'A Pillar,'

"It was a battle between us and the Demon King. Unfortunately, the enemy manages to escape at the last minute," Obanai answered while leading them.

Behind Tanjiro was the rest of the Kamado. Their expression was full of confusion and unease. Unlike Tanjiro, they had never even seen a demon before so what Obanai said didn't even make sense to them.

Tanjiro gritted his teeth when he heard the reply. He knew a battle had taken place here. He had heard the shockwaves and explosions from miles away. His nose could also smell the sheer blood and violence that had taken place in the battle.

Even though he was not there, he could clearly feel the ghost of what had transpired. And what happened was beyond human limits.

Maybe he had asked the wrong question. What he really wanted to know was how it was possible. How could a small number of people compley raze the forest and how could the enemy even survive?

He knew now that he had gravely underestimated Demons and Demon Slayers. He knew they were strong enough - they could destroy trees with their bare hands. But that estimation was laughable. They were basically a walking army.

"Careful there," Tanjiro said and helped his younger siblings jump over a huge wound on the earth. It looked like the earth had been sliced open by a hundred-foot blade.

That was not the only one as marks of destruction littered the place like fallen leaves. The snow could not cover the deep craters and cracks that made solid ground look like glass.

Even the few layers of snow were decorated in the colour of red. The Demon Slayers bled a lot, but the Demon King was even worse. His blood was everywhere in the forest and Tanjiro could literally smell the evil off them.

The Kamado family looked at everything in fear. In the span of one night, the region where they lived had virtually become inhabitable. the fact that it was man-made challenged their belief of what was possible.

Eventually, they came back to Kamdo Compound. It was a small clearing that surrounded their home. They saw many people there and a few new faces.

The majority of the people wore black clothes that covered thier whole body, even their faces. They looked like ninjas as they swiftly moved around and helped in any way they could. Some of them were cleaning the area of blood, others were wrapping bandages around the injured, and some were making fire and cooking food.

They saw Seiji who sat on the half-broken veranda with a pretty lady attending to his wound. The Kamado family immediately went to him as he was the only person they knew out of all the strangers.

"Seiji-nii!!"

"Seiji-san!!"

They ran up to him and thier tone was worried when they saw that his whole body was covered in a white bandage. He had been gravely injured, they could tell even with their untrained eyes.

But what shocked them even more as they got closer was the dull look in his eyes. His eyes looked exhausted and defeated.

"Seiji-san..." Tanjiro simply stood in front of him, unsure of what to do next.

"You're here," Seiji greeted them with the weakest smile they had seen on him yet, "I'm glad to see that everyone is safe,"

"Nezuko?" He called out specifically and when the girl stepped forward, his smile became a bit brighter.

"You're human," he said and chuckled at a joke only he knows.

"With the confirmation of your safety, I would say this battle was not a total loss on our part," he said with a nod.

"Are you okay, Seiji-san," Kei, the mother of Tanjiro asked in concern.

"I'm fine. I suffered no fatal injuries and the ones I did will heal soon. But for now, may I talk to you in private? I have something urgent to discuss with you," Seiji asked to which Kei nodded.

"Shinobu, please can you take Tanjiro and his siblings inside? I'm sure they must still be in shock after what happened," Seiji asked the lady who was tending to his wound.

Shinobu seemed not too appreciative of being asked to move away from him but she did not say anything. She got up and gestured at the children to follow her inside.

Tanjiro and the rest went inside the house, where they saw more of the people who wore the same uniform as Seiji. They were too injured just Seiji, their body was covered with white bandages.

"Civilian?" A gigantic man with jewels decorating his head asked. He was sitting next to an unconscious man with yellow hair.

"They are the Kamado siblings," Shinobu said and let the children sit down. She herself went to the unconscious man to check on him.

"The name is Tengen Uzui, the flashiest Hashira and this short stuff is Shinobu, she's a doctor," Tengen introduced with a smile. "And our friend here whom we put to sleep so that he doesn't go berserk and eat everyone is Rengoku,"

You could hear the forced jollyness in his voice. He was anything but happy at that moment.

"Sorry for using your house like this, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind since it is the pleasure of everyone to have me as a guest," he said in a faux arrogant tone while laughing.

"Things are a little complicated as of now but everything should be fine soon. By sunrise, more reinforcement will come and we will start moving you to the headquarters," Shinobu said curly.

"Wait, we are moving?" Tanjiro asked.

"Yes. It is too dangerous for you to continue living here so you will move to the Demon Slayer headquarters at the moment before the master decides to do next,," Shinobu said.

Tanjiro was silent after that. He contemplated how his life was going to change so drastically after one night.

He looked over to his siblings and he felt a deep sense of relief to see them. The resolve in his heart tightened and he bowed to the two Hashira.

"Thank you,"

After that, they were given warm blankets and food along with the others to keep themselves warm on the cold winter night. The house had a gaping hole in the wall so it was an imperfect shelter.

By sunrise, they were moved to the Demon Slayer Headquarters.

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[3rd POV]

"How is it?" Shinobu asked Gyomei while tying the bandage on his chest. Compared to her size, Gyomei was a giant so she literally had to walk around him to cover his wound.

"I told you Shinobu, I do not mind the pain," Gyomei said, trying to smile but he barely could do it. No one at the moment was in the mood to smile.

A huge chunk of his chest was torn off so there was nothing much she could do. The Hashira had great control over their body through their breathing style so Gyomei could stop the bleeding. The only thing she could do was sterilize the wound to avoid infection and give him painkillers.

And yet the giant man would not let her do even that.

"Just answer me properly, do you still feel the pain?" she asked again. She had given him painkillers but it was hard to determine the correct dose. Gyomei was many times larger than the average human being.

Gyomei stayed silent for some time before he said, "I will need a little more,"

Shinobu gave her more doses of painkillers after she was done.

It was frustrating for her. No, frustration was not enough to describe her feelings.

She ran to the Gifu region immediately after she got the message from Raven but by the time she reached there, everything was already done. The Demon King had escaped and what remained was her friends who were half dead with injuries and poison while one of them had met a tragic fate.

Rengoku had become a demon.

She did not how to react to the devastating news. It was a fate worse than death. It explained the state Seiji was in when she found him. Completely broken beyond just a physical sense.

She wished she got there in time. She knew she wouldn't make much of a difference with her level of strength but she would've made a difference. Maybe then things wouldn't end up this way.

This was why she hated being a doctor. She was tired of only fixing what was broken and being unable to protect.

She was fated to always be late.

It was the same when her sister faced Douma.

"Are okay?" Gyomei brought her out of her thoughts. It was comical that he was asking her that question when he was covered with a bandage.

"..Yes," she answered.

"You shouldn't feel helpless, Shinobu. We are all fighting in our own way. You have a lot of work ahead of you," Gyomei said and he turned his head towards the house where Rengoku lay unconscious.

She had given him medicine and poison to keep him sleeping for now.

She turned to look at the house and pondered on whether it would be possible to turn someone back into a human.

"Yeah, a lot of work," she admitted.

"Thank you for always looking after us. Without you, we wouldn't be able to fight our battles a long time ago," Gyomei said.

"...." Shinobu remained silent but the words made her feel better.

Although she couldn't be on the front lines most of the time, it was true that her work mattered. In fact, maybe it was more important than anything else because now they only have her.

 Just then, she saw Sieji run off back to the forest with a woman in his arms. The woman is the mother of Tanjiro.

"Where is he going?!" Shinobu asked in agast. Seiji was in no state to run off again. She got up and tried to go after him but Gyomei stopped her.

"He'll be fine," he said and she decided to trust him. He had likely overheard the conversation and knew the situation was important.

She sighed but still walked away. She would not go after him but she had other important things to do.

"Lady Kocho, we have collected blood samples and all the body parts we can find," A Kakushi reported while holding a container that held the remaining parts of the demon.

"Make sure you don't reveal them to the sunlight and take them back to the Mansion," she said and the Kakushi nodded before doing as she was ordered.

Now they had not only blood samples but also body parts of Muzan Kibutsuji. It was great research material that can be used to learn more about demons but mostly for Shinobu, to create effective poison

Normally, it would be impossible to take parts of Muzan as he had absolute control over his cells. But these were cut off using Sun Breathing and the red blade.

It was another gain from the seemingly lost battle.

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[IMAGE]

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Monday special 500 stones = One chaptee

Author : I'm not sure what you guys think about getting Muzan's body part for research since it seemed impossible. But I like to think that when Seiji cut Muzan's legs off, he also sliced off all the connection Muzan had over that specific body part and thus cannot even control it anymore.

It would make sense, considering Sun Breathing could inflict fatal wounds and even put permanent weakness on him.