The macabre of the absurd (Tengen vs Gyokko)
With the sealing scrolls in place, Tayuya’s reanimated body began to disintegrate, not in the way that a demon’s did, but seemingly so much more unnatural.
The Kocho sisters watched as her skin became white, and flaky, almost as though it were covered in gray peeling paint.
Her body cracked like a clay pot, and floated away like actual ash in the air. It did not smell like decomposition, it smelled like a funeral pyre.
When the last of the ashes that gave Tayuya her shape floated away, what was left, was the face of a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, wearing a maid’s uniform. Her gentle face, wore an expression of terror, but there was no light in her eyes. “That…” Kanae began in a trembling voice, “...must be the human sacrifice that Sasori-san mentioned.” Shinobu looked down, and her small fists began to tremble. “Its alright,” Kanae white-lied as she put a hand on Shinobu’s shoulder. It was not until she made contact that she realized how truly livid Shinobu was…
Kanae felt goosebumps. Shinobu was the angriest she had ever seen her.
“Nee-san” shinobu said in a voice that was perfectly calm. “How can someone exist who toys with human life in such ways? Even the demons Nee-san… even they weren't so…”
There were no words in her vocabulary, or the vocabulary of any language she spoke. Neither Japanese, nor English, nor Mandarin to describe the pain and disgust that saturated every cell in her body. It had now clicked that the torment she had faced at the hands of Tayuya, was nothing compared to the torment that had molded her captor into what she had ultimately become, and Orochimaru specifically brought her back from the dead with this in mind.
She pictured Orochimaru laughing at the mere thought of what what happened to her… she and Tayuya both, were nothing more than playthings to him, and for no other purpose than that; he sacrificed the life of an innocent girl.
In that moment, she even found herself hating Sasori again, for the mere fact that he had once been friends with this demon… a demon more demonic than the demons.
“Shinobu,” Kanae said and a voice that was soft, but commanding, and gently bade Shinobu turn around and face her. It was a tone that carried all the authority that the older sister held at her disposal. “You must remain focused, Shinobu. We do not stand a chance against Orochimaru. Right now, my priority is to get you home. We will defeat those evil men, by the will of the Kami we will defeat them tonight. But you mustn't let your anger guide your actions.”
Shinobu closed her eyes. She knew she wasn't in her right mind. “Nee-san… I'll do whatever you say, just please just take me home.”
Kanae smiled, and pulled Shinobu in for an embrace. “We'll talk about it all you want when you're ready,” she said sweetly. “Just you and me”
***
Tengen’s blade slashed through thin air, again. His second sword had destroyed the pot at the same time, but the result was still the same. “Ho hyo hyooo,” Gyokko taunted. “It seems your fancy sword tricks still can’t reach me, can they?” The demon’s eyes narrowed into a sneer. “Absolutely pathetic.”
“Hah!” Tengen scoffed. “I’m just getting warmed up, and getting used to the mediocrity of these pots.” He twirled his swords and got into a lower stance. “True flamboyance, does not rush!”
“How scummy of you,” Gyokko sneered. “Your comrade, Shinobu was it? she is our little thrall, and you showboat. Even by a demon’s standards, thats inconsiderate.” He summoned a pot from each of his six hands. “I’ve killed and eaten many demon slayers, but you, I think I will not eat. Would you like to see what I will do with your body instead?”
From the pots, sprang a hideous monolith. Grotesquely contorted bodies wearing the demon slayer uniform, uniforms that Tengen recognized has having been from many different eras. Some were still armored, others wore uniforms that Tengen did not recognize, but he recognized all of them as comrades… members of the corps…
Tengen did not let his anger show. Neither his tone, nor his expression betrayed any emotion. “Your quite a disgusting fella aren’t you?” He stretched, and cracked his neck. “I think my nightly sake will taste extra sweet, after I’ve lopped your head off.”
“Hyo hyo hyo,” Gyokko snickered in a low tone. “You call it disgusting, but this is art my boy. Look at the beautiful blend of old and new, look at how many of these demon slayers are still posed in their final positions. Look at the eclectic of their faces, some accepting death, while some clinging painfully to the lives they cannot keep. THIS is art! Not your vane and gaudy bling. What you call ‘flashiness’ or ‘flamboyance’ is an insult to art!”
“Tch,” Tengen voiced, unamused. “I knew you were a creep, but now I see that your also an idiot. You understand my flamboyance even more poorly than you understand the concept of art.”
In the blink of an eye, Tengen disappeared from where he stood and shot forward!
The apparitions of goldfish ‘swam’ out of Tengen’s pots,and glided through the air.
Blood Demon Art: Thousand Needle Fish Kill!
Needles shot from the fish’s mouths aimed for the Sound Pillar!Tengen took his twin swords in front of him, slashing with expert precision, the needles clanged harmlessly against his blades.
He closed distance with the demon, and even Gyokko was astonished by the Hashira’s speed!
Sound Breathing, Sixth Form: Koto’s Ribs!
Tengen’s blades came down from behind his shoulder, and barely missed his target as Gyokko popped out of a different pot, on the platform above the sound pillar. “Hyo hyo hyo hyooo, you surprised me there with how easily you deflected my needles and how aggressively you attacked, but your slow with your swords once you lose your momentum. Is that fancy jewelry of yours slowing you down?”
“It is not the Jewelry at all,” Tengen said confidently. “Among my fellow Hashira, my main strengths are the physique I have been blessed with, but I am not quite as strong in direct swordsmanship. This handicap gave me a bit of trouble against upper moon six.” He then pointed his blade at Gyokko. “But since your arms are about several sizes too small to wield a pencil, I think my chances are pretty good here.” Tengen gave a derisive smirk.
But Gyokko was not intimidated either. “You really are a miserable lowlife. Not just in art, but in combat, your mind can only comprehend things in the simplest possible terms. Allow me to show you- the grandiosity of both!”
From Each of his arms, a vase appeared, and from each face came a massive demonic fish!
Ten of them, pots stuck to their backs, they emitted a foul stench that made Tengen think of burnt fish-oil.
As the beasts converged on him, he grabbed the chains of his twin swords and counter-attacked, aiming for the pots on their backs at the same time as their necks!
Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes!
Blood Demon Art: Ten Thousand Gliding Slime Fish!!!!
While Tengen was preoccupied with slicing the larger fish to their atoms, Gyokko aimed his pots at his target, and thousands of demonic fish shot forward!!!
Tengen held out his arm in preparation to deflect, only for the fish to take a bite out of his flesh!
Tengen winced in pain, but recovered from his shock almost immediately! His blades slashed in double-time, disbursing the maelstrom of fish!
Closing his right eye so that he saw only through the scope, he saw through the mist, and charged towards Gyokko!
Fifth Form: String Performance! Tengen bursts through the vaporized fish twirling his blades! Gyokko reeled back, but Tengen extended his reach holding the tip of one blade that was attached by chain to the other!
Gyokko’s blood spattered in a crescent shape as he disappeared into his vase.
Gyokko let out a groan as he reemerged from another pot. His neck had been cut, as well as a portion of his face, which now healed slowly.
“That was a close call,” The demon strategized as he observed Tengen from a distance. “I underestimated his ability to see my attacks, but it doesn’t matter now, he’s been bitten by the slime-fish, and inhaled their poisonous fumes…” Gyokko’s mouth’s broke into cocky grins.
Tengen who had been looking around, now spotted the demon, and charged towards him. But Gyokko was ready!
Blood demon art: Octopus Vase Hell!
From the vases Gyokko held out in front of him, Giant tentacles sprang forth, converging on Tengen! But he launched himself between them! Spinning like a bullet towards Gyokko, slicing through the tentacles like a scythe through wheat!
Tengen’s eye went wide as Tengen’s blade felt his neck yet again!!
But instead of beheading a demon, the Sound Pillar had only beheaded a husk. Tengen’s gaze now shifted to the sound of slithering around one of the pillars of the corridor.
Gyokko now came down and oriented himself in front of his opponent. “I thought the poison would have made it harder for you to move…. Hyohyohyo… So you have some resistance to it it seems… No matter, no one survives once they see my true form. Consider yourself lucky noy, you are the third person to see it.” Gyokko spread his arms and threw his head back! “Behold me! In this beautiful form of mine, I am invincible! Each of these scales-”
He was interrupted as Tengen charged! “Are you going to keep running from me then?” He asked as he swung his sword at the demon’s next.
Gyokko smirked, and met Tengen’s sword with his fist!
The edge of the Nichirin blade broke, and where pieces of metal would have fallen, minnows fell instead.
Tengen instinctively retreated. “Hyo hyo hyo…” Gyokko laughed, “Had you known your place, and let me finish speaking, then you would know that my scales are harder than diamonds, and anything my fists touch turn into adorable little fishes, now tremble before me…”
Tengen looked at his damaged blade, and then at Gyokko. “I know a thing or two about diamonds,” he said. “Enough to know that you're exaggerating…”
The stillness was broken as the two opponents bolted from their spots! The sprawling and ever-shifting corridors of the Infinity Castle twisted into jagged angles as the clash of blade and scale rang out.Tengen gritted his teeth as he deflected a barrage of grotesque tendrils extending from Gyokko's mutated form. The demon's laughter reverberated like a mockery of the Hashira's battle prowess.
"Look at you, flailing about like a monkey!" Gyokko sneered, his monstrous hands curling into fists that gleamed with malevolence. "You think your garish ‘flamboyance’ holds a candle to my art? Laughable! Truly laughable!" Gyokko’s tail lashed out, smashing the ground and sending splinters into the ar!
Gyokko slithered through the flying debris, smirking arrogantly as he unleashed a barrage of punches!
Tengen twisted mid-air, narrowly avoiding the deadly fists! As Gyokko’s blows collided with the ground, the polished floor and pillars dissolved into a writhing mass of grotesque, flopping fish. Tengen counterattacked, his expression cool but his movements sharp as he launched a series of spinning slashes with his dual Nichirin swords. The clash of blades against Gyokko’s scaled skin sent sparks flying, but the demon’s final form proved resilient, his movements unnervingly fluid as he evaded the Hashira's attacks.
“Take this!" The scales formed blades on Gyokko’s forearm as he swiped at Tengen’s head! The sound pillar dodged, but the kamaiitachi left a gash across his forehead protector, and cut the precious crystals!
“Hyo hyo hyo! What was that about me exaggerating? You lurid monkey!”
Tengen didn’t dignify the insult with a response. Instead, he lunged forward, blades gleaming as he aimed for Gyokko’s torso. But Gyokko slithered out of harms way with a blur of motion, countering with a devastating punch. Tengen managed to block with crossed blades, but the force sent him skidding backward, his arms trembling from the impact. The spot where Gyokko’s fist grazed the wall erupted into a cascade of flopping fish, their mouths gasping for air.
One of Tengen’s twin blades was now gone. The upper half hell to the ground as the center was turned into grotesque fish.
"What's wrong, Sound Hashira? Losing your rhythm?" Gyokko jeered, weaving his elongated arms in mocking flourishes as though conducting an orchestra. "No amount of bravado can save you now."
Tengen adjusted his stance, his chest heaving as he analyzed the demon’s newfound speed and strength. His mind raced, searching for an opening, a pattern in Gyokko’s erratic movements.
"I have to admit," Tengen said, his grin unfaltering, "you’re not a bad fighter, but you know jack about art…."
The veins popped on Gyokko’s forehead. “You really need to learn your place monkey-boy,”
“Then come at me fish-bitch,” Tengen breathed.
The platforms of the infinity castle seemed to move slowly between the two opponents.
As Tengen leapt through the air, he pushed the face of Hinatsuru out of his mind’s eye. He watched his opponent’s smirk grow in slow motion… He knew that in this form, though he had defeated an Upper Moon before, he did so with the help of others.
He knew how outmatched he was.
He knew…
It was late one evening, the glow of the setting sun casting an amber hue across the garden of their estate. Makio, Suma, and Hinatsuru sat in a semi-circle, their gazes fixed on him with a mix of concern and curiosity. The faint chirping of crickets filled the silence as Tengen broke the news.
“We’re shinobi,” he began, his voice steady but carrying a weight that silenced even Suma’s usual chatter. “We’ve lived our lives knowing they could end at any moment. But in this case, as you three know, we are fighting a different kind of fight.”
Hinatsuru, ever the composed one, nodded, her eyes filled with understanding. Makio folded her arms, her brow furrowing. “You’re not planning on doing something stupid, are you?” she asked, trying to mask her worry with her usual bluntness.
Tengen chuckled softly, his broad shoulders shaking. “Stupid? No. Necessary? Yes.” He crouched to their level, resting his large hands on his knees. “I want you to promise me something,” he said, his tone suddenly earnest. “Don’t plan for me to live forever. Don’t hold onto that hope.”
Suma’s eyes widened, her voice trembling. “But… why would you say something like that?”
“Don’t worry,” he said, his voice softening, “I’m not planning to die young, I'm only saying that I believe in Oyakata-sama’s fight, so I am going to fight a little bit less selfishly, thats all.”...
Tengen hit the ground hard, his body sliding to a halt against the wall. Blood trickled down his face, staining the white bandages wrapped around his head. His lone sword clattered out of reach. Despite the pain, he tried to rise, his vision swimming, his muscles trembling.
Gyokko approached with smug satisfaction, his grotesque lips curling into a sneer. "How quaint," he said, his voice dripping with mockery. "A tasteless monkey felled by true artistry. Your existence was a blemish on beauty, but your death will be a masterpiece."
The demon raised his hands, summoning a gargantuan jellyfish that pulsed with eerie bioluminescence. Its translucent tendrils writhed as its bell kept it hovering in the air. Gyokko gestured grandly toward the immobilized Tengen, as if presenting an exhibition to an imaginary audience. "Behold! The centerpiece of my eternal gallery. Observe how this dazzling fool is dissolved, consumed by the pinnacle of elegance."
The jellyfish descended slowly, and the Sound Pillar’s muscular arms were wrapped in its stinging tendrils. Frilly tentacles cascaded down over his body.
Gyokko’s cruel eye narrowed, as he watched Tengen’s body disappear into the Jellyfish’s bell.
And then it happened…. A pulse, that reverberated from inside the jellyfish, and then a blade protruded from its bell! It sliced down the jellyfish’s body, and the creature was cut in twain!
Gyokko’s eye went wide. Staring back at him, his one eye wild and crazed, the blades sticking out from in between the knuckles of his prosthetic hand, Tengen stood there. His expression was as though he was now fully awake! And a red pattern, like the lines of a music sheet, flowed across his face.
“How the hell can you still move!?” Gyokko sneered.
Tengen did not respond to Gyokko. “Suma, Makio, Hinatsuru… I’ll keep my word to you all. But if this is where I fall, I’ll make it the flashiest end possible.”
“I’ll make sure to finish you off good this time,” Gyokko snarled. He blitzed towards Tengen! From his perspective, the Hashira wasn’t even moving at all. His smiles curled, he still had the speed advantage!
He raised his fists, and prepared to turn his enemy’s head into a school of sardines, but then a sharp pain came into his wrists, and he could not bring them down.
A cold sweat trickled down his brow, and then his vision began to register… Tengen had not only seen through his attack, but stabbed his blades through the demon’s wrists before he could even finish his attack!
Gyokko then realized with terror, that Tengen had not appeared to be motionless because he was so much slower than he was, Tengen had moved so quickly that he couldn’t even see him move!
“EEP!” Gyokko’s hands were severed as Tengen twisted his blades, and Gyokko jumped back, eying the Sound Pillar with fear, even as his hands regenerated instantly.
“Why won’t you die! You wiley monkey!”
“I don’t quite understand it myself,” said Tengen as he walked slowly to where his sword had fallen, the knuckle blades swinging with his prosthetic arm, “But I’m feeling a little extra flashy all of a sudden.”
He picked up his sword, and crossed it with his knuckle blades. “How about yourself fish-bitch?”
Gyokko shook as he composed himself. “Don’t mock me you swine!”
Gyokko shot forward, and so did Tengen! The clash was over in an instant. Gyokko’s arms were cut off again before his fists could even reach the Sound Pillar, and his head fell from his body.
The expression on the demon’s face was one of astonishment, as he slowly began to realize that his head was rolling along the floor. Then, his grotesque features twisting into a livid sneer.
“Haha, just look at you fish-bitch.” Tengen breathed, “I guess I was the flashier one after all.”
“YOU! You vile, uncultured MONKEY! You wouldn’t know art if it stabbed you in that gaudy, over-muscled chest of yours! Do you think—do you DARE think—that your pathetic flashes, and your vulgar displays of mediocrity have anything in common withTRUE ART AND BEAUTY!!?”
His eyes bulged in manic fury, though his voice faltered with the strain of his injuries. “I was a visionary! My creations transcended the mundane filth of this world! You… YOU are a walking circus, a bottom-feeder parading about as if gold, silver and jewels could compare to my divine masterpieces!!! What do you know of elegance? Of refinement? You’re a walking affront to the sublime! A GAUCHE CLOWN ! You—hah—just show off your fancy muscles and your bling without an iota of vision or creativity!!!!”
Tengen crouched nearby, wiping blood from his blades as Gyokko’s hateful gaze locked onto him one final time. “Laugh at me now, you barbarian. But know this: my work will outlive the likes of you. My vision—my GENIUS—will linger in the memory of this wretched existence far longer than your tawdry displays ever could!”
Tengen only began to laugh harder “Haha! You- you have me all wrong fish-bitch. I’m not trying to be an artist or anything like that, I’m not gonna be here for a long time, so I just wanna steal the show while I’m here. Now hold still for me will ya?”
“Wha-what are you doing?” Gyokko asked in a panic, as Tengen backpedalled, and then prepared to run forward again.
“And a one- and a two-...”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!!?” Tengen ran to Gyokko’s head, and then kicked the head from the ground!!!
Gyokko screamed as his head flew into the endless chasm of the Infinity castle, and it began to disintegrate as it tumbled into the abyss.