Become Human Again (Sasori in Demon Slayer)

Muichiro’s breath came in ragged gasps. He had exhausted every breathing technique he knew, and now he felt as though he were on the verge of fainting. He had already begun to cough up blood, and just holding his sword was now becoming a struggle. 

His Nichirin Katana trembled in his hands, reflecting the faint glow of the lanterns lining the Infinity Castle’s walls. Across the room, Kokushibo’s towering figure radiating an otherworldly menace. The demon’s six golden eyes glowed with eerie calm, observing Muichiro as if he were an item of curiosity rather than an opponent.

“You are far too young,” Kokushibo said, his voice deep and almost mournful. “And yet, you have trained yourself to your body’s very limits. Even now, you control your fear so that you do not show me your back. There is a seed of greatness within you, waiting to be awakened. If you survive long enough to nurture it.”

Muichiro gritted his teeth, his legs quaking as he forced himself into a defensive stance. He lunged forward, his movements fast but frantic, slashing at Kokushibo’s midsection. The demon didn’t even move. Muichiro’s blade clashed harmlessly against him, not even tearing his hakama.

“At this point Muichiro, you're too exhausted to even wield your blade with proper strength, You would be eaten even by a weak demon at this point.”

“Is that your blood demon technique?” Muichiro asked breathlessly. “Talking me to death?”

Kokushibo’s hand lashed out, faster than Muichiro could follow. A single blow to his chest sent him crashing into the wall, his sword clattering from his hand. Pain lanced through Muichiro’s back, but he forced himself to stand again, clawing for his weapon.

“I haven’t struck a debilitating blow against you,” Kokushibo said, still unmoving. “Because you have potential. Once you awaken your slayer’s mark, I will take you before that man, and if he accepts you, you will have potential to become an upper moon. In time, you may even become second to me.”

Muichiro struggled to his feet. His breathing was labored and ragged as he attempted to use the pillar to support himself. His head was hung, and a line of blood hung from his mouth. In his free hand, he clutched his sword with bloodied fingers. “I remember… What Muzan did…”

Kokushibo raised an eyebrow.

“Compared to how I felt on that night…” Muichiro said, lifting his head, and showing Kokushibo the defiance that burned in his eyes, “Compared to the ‘weak demon’ I fought on that night, this fight isn’t scary or painful at all!”

With a roar that sounded more like desperation than fury, Muichiro charged again, Mist appearing to envelop him in a veil of fog. Mist Breathing, Seventh Form: Obscuring- 

-ACK! Muichiro coughed up blood, and fell flat on his face, sliding across the floor, and stopping at the demon’s feet.

“You use the Breath of the Mist well,” Kokushibo said. “But your body is at its limit. If you were strong enough for it to have any effect on me, it would have happened by now.”

Muichiro pressed his palms against the ground, pushing himself up once more. His entire body ached, and his vision swam, but his resolve burned brighter than his pain. “I won’t let him break me. Not here. Not now.”

He felt a heat creep upon his cheeks, but he forced it back.

“I don’t need to beat him, I just need to hold on… until the others come. And they will.”

Kokushibo betrayed a slight frown, as Muichiro struggled to his feet again. “He is close to manifesting the mark, I can see it, but I will need to push him a bit further.”

Muichiro cried out in pain as Kokushibo grabbed his wrists and held them together. Before he knew it, he was held against a pillar, and then his eye widened in fear as he saw Kokushibo holding his sword, pointed at his wrists like a lance!

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

The blade went through both of his wrists, pinning him to the pillar, through the median nerve, causing excruciating pain. Muichiro began to cry, kick, and scream in pain as Kokushibo stepped back, and let his body weight tear his wound even more.

“Tanjiro!” Muichiro’s voice cracked as cried out. “Someone!... Anyone!!!”

“I suppose that is the end of your resolve,” Kokushibo said with disappointment. “Now that you have shamed yourself by calling for help, do you still intend to defy-”

“Yes!” Muichiro cried, tears of anger boring into Kokushibo’s eyes. “I’ll keep fucking defying you! You can do whatever you want to me, but I’ll never become what you want to turn me into!”

Kokushibo was taken aback. “Stop looking at me like that… stop looking at me with those eyes.” 

Muichiro continued to express his pain and fear, and struggled in vain to alleviate the painful position he was in, but the hate that Kokushibo now felt emanating from him, stirred something within the ancient demon.

He drew, and raised his own sword. “If you will not awaken the mark and become a demon, then die!”

He swung the blade down onto Muichiro! 

Flame Breathing, Fifth Form: Flame Tiger! 

From behind the pillar, Rengoku Charged in, blocking Kokushibo’s swing and pushing him across the palace floor! 

“Tokito-san!” Kanao cried, as she frantically pulled out the sword that bound him, and Genya eased him down.

“TOOOOORRRAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”  From behind Kokushibo, Tanjiro raged, his eyes flaming as he attacked with the full might of the breath of the sun! 

Hinokami Kagura: Solar Heat Haze! 

Kokushibo’s eyes went wild….

“Tokito!” Genya cried as he looked down at the smaller boy in his arms, “hang in there!”

“How awful,” Kanao whispered as she bit her lip. “Look at what that cruel demon’s done to him!”

She and Genhya simultaneously looked up, and saw across the room, the massive Kokushibo stood there, with Tanjiro and Rengoku flanking either side of him.

Rengoku clenched his teeth. Tanjiro caught his breath. His blade had taken Kokushibo’s left arm and shoulder, but the demon grew them back instantly. His eyes were wild… livid… he growled, his demonic fangs bared.

“Boy… where did you learn that technique?”

“I… from my father…” Kokushibo’s dignified and stoic demeanor broke. His angry growl rose as did his sword.

“HOW DARE YOU USE THAT TECHNIQUE! MOON BREATHING, SEVENTEENTH FORM…”

Tanjiro and Rengoku instinctively jumped back!

LAKE REFLECTION MOONGAZING!

Kokushibo’s blade morphed, and countless powerful slashes shot from it at Tanjiro, completely carving up everything it its path!

Kanao screamed! Muichiro called out Tanjiro’s name, and Kokushibo turned around, his eyes glowing with hate. 

Fourteenth Form: Catastrophe, Tenman Crescent Moon!

The multiple curved slashes from Kokushibo’s altered Katana expanded in every direction! 

Suppressing his fear, and remembering his fallen student, Rengoku rushed in! 

Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!

Rengoku slashed away at every strike from Kokushibo’s blade, but the demon’s six eyes were as livid as ever. He began swinging his altered blade upwards, and Rengoku braced for the attack, but it did not come to him!

Sixteenth Form: Moonbow, Half Moon! Kamaiitachi began to rain down on Genya, Kanao, and Muichiro like deadly comets! 

“He’s targeting them!?” Rengoku cried. “And those strikes are too heavy for them to block!”

They crashed upon the three! Dust flew into the air as Kokushibo’s strikes left craters!

“Bastard!” Rengoku cried, turning back to Kokushibo, as an enraged Tanjiro reappeared from behind. Kokushibo screamed with malice when he saw him! And swung his Katana violently! As Tanjiro dodged the Kamaiitachi, Rengoku continued his attack from behind!

Meanwhile, as the dust cleared, Genya rose from the rubble. Kanao and Muichiro huddled together underneath him. 

“Genya!!” “Genya-kun!!” they cried in unison.

But Genya was not so easily defeated. Lacerated by Kokushibo’s strikes, and barely standing, he picked up a piece of his blade, and opened his mouth…

“Kamado!” Rengoku cried. Tanjiro lay bleeding, cut all over by Kokushibo’s strikes. He tried to get up, but he was slipping in his own blood.

“This is the end,” Kokushibo declared. 

“No you don’t!” cried Rengoku as he charged, unleashing his most powerful technique.

Flame Breathing…        Ninth form….

Purgatory!!!!!

Fourteenth Form: Catastrophe, Tenman Crescent Moon!!

Rengoku had already seen this move, but Kokushibo’s blade was now morphed with fury! The flame pillar sustained significant damage as he clashed with the monster, but in that moment, a shotgun shell took Kokushibo’s knee.

“Sorry, Rengoku-san,” Genya muttered, “But thats about all I can do right now.” he was still shaking, and sweating, as Kokushibo’s demonic energy from the piece of blade he had eaten coursed through him.

Kokushibo instantly healed his energy, and pressed his attack against Rengoku, who was struggling against the upper moon’s massive strength.

Rengoku’s eyes went wide as Kokushibo’s blade began to morph even further. 

“Your trapped now,” he said venomously. Moon Breathing, Eighth Form: Moon-Dragon Ringt-

Kokushibo gasped in pain as Genya’s blood demon art took effect right on time! His own technique used against him! Metal flesh from shotgun shrapnel shot through his body! It wasn’t enough to seriously hurt him, or even stop him from executing his technique, as his blade swiped in a massive long-ranged curved slash that leaves dozens of crescent moon blades along its path, but Genya’s interference had slowed him down just enough to allow Rengoku to escape!

Kokushibo now turned his attention towards Genya. Kanao bravely was prepared to run to his aid, but Genya turned back and barked at her!

“Kanao! Don’t worry about me! Protect the mist pillar at all costs!”

Muichiro was tearing up as he watched with chagrin. 

“Dammit all!” he squeaked, as he tried to get his hands to work, but it was no use. The tendons in his wrists had been damaged badly, and he couldn’t fully close his middle, ring, and pinky fingers. He couldn’t hold a sword. 

“Why does it have to be everyone protecting me? Why am I so useless.”

In front of him, Genya fired at Kokushibo, but the demon effortlessly dodged, and chopped off Genya’s legs right below his waist!

Genya cried out in pain, but as he went down, he tried stabbing at Kokushibo, who then swiftly chopped off his arms!

Genya lay on his back, helplessly, as Kokushibo raised his blade, but as it came down to deliver the finishing blow, a bloodied and wounded, but very-much alive Rengoku, rushed in and blocked it! His right hand on his blade’s handle, and his left pushing against the blunt side of his katana, the force from Kokushibo’s strike was still powerful enough to force the flame pillar to his knees!

Kokushibo pressed down further, and his blade cut into Rengoku’s shoulder.

“Damnit man!” Genya cried, “You're a Hashira! Why didn’t you just let him cut me! You’d be way more valuable as a fighter than me!”

“That is not the point, young Shinazugawa,” Rengoku huffed, his voice strained from pain and fatigue. “Part of my duty as Hashira, is to protect the younger generations, as they will one day surpass us. Shinazugawa Genya, you may not believe it yourself, but you have talent, and potential.”

Tears pricked the edges of Genya’s eyes, as Rengoku’s grip broke, and Kokushibo’s blade cut through him!

The flame pillar vomited blood, and went down, as Genya roared with rage, launched his body upwards, and sank his teeth into Kokushibo’s thigh meat!

“Insolent dog!” the demon shouted as he sent Genya flying across the room with a kick, until he smashed into the wall, and was obscured by dust.

Kokushibo now looked around the room. To his left, Muichiro was weeping in the wariza position. He held his hands uselessly in front of him. Kanao sat protectively in front of him. Her sword was trembling in her hands, and her legs were shaking so much that she wasn’t able to stand either.

Rengoku lay bleeding on his back in front of him, and a few paces to his right; Tanjiro lay immobile, barely conscious in a puddle of his own blood.

“So… the Sun Breath user is still alive…” He began to creep slowly to Tanjiro, his executioner’s weapon in hand.

“NO!””NO!” Muichiro and Kanao cried out in unison, as they jumped to their feet and began running desperately towards him, not even thinking of the consequences… but then, something made them stop in their tracks. Kokushibo sensed it too, and turned around to see, the lumbering figure of Shinazugawa Genya, standing over the very spot where he had been cut down just moments before… His body was not only completely healed, but his hair was much longer, forming a thick unkempt mane that reached down almost to his knees, and muscles now bulged so much that they were starting to tear his shirt. 

He bent down, and picked up his Wakizashi, and it’s blade was immediately wrapped in a multi-eyed growth of flesh!

Kokushibo’s six-eyes widened as he realized what had happened. That boy had assimilated his abilities by eating his flesh! 

Genya turned around! His eyes were practically glowing! His teeth had become jagged fangs, and he drooled like a ravenous dog! 

Then he vanished from his spot, and blitzed toward Kokushibo!

His movements were animalistic as he clashed swords with his opponent! The ground cracked beneath his feet as he lunged, his Wakizashi slicing wildly! Kokushibo’s morphed katana met Genya’s blade with a resounding clash! Kanao and Muichiro shielded their heads as the force of their collision sending shockwaves through the twisted architecture of the room! 

The room bent and shifted as if responding to the ferocity of the duel. Kokushibo moved with calculated precision, each strike a masterful execution of Moon Breathing. Crescent arcs of energy radiated from his blade, illuminating the darkened room with pale, ominous light. One after another, the crescent slashes rained down, slicing Genya over and over again, but he healed as quickly as though he were an upper moon himself.

Genya darted through the onslaught of crescent slashes, his Wakizashi now morphed into an antler-like monstrosity that locked with Kokushibo’s. Sparks flew as steel met steel!

“You fight me with raw aggression,” Kokushibo observed, “Like a wild best in the form of a man, but even though you have the strength and healing powers of a demon, your anger alone cannot match what I have, which is innate talent, perfected through three hundred years of arduous training!”

Moon Breathing, Eighteenth Form: Perpetual Moonlit Abyss.

Kokushibo’s blade glowed with a ghostly light, carving an intricate, spiraling arc through the air. The attack was massive, its energy warping the very space around it. Genya barely dodged, his instincts screaming as the spiraling arc cleaved through the floor where he had been standing moments before.

Undeterred, Genya closed the gap again, this time feinting left before slashing upward with savage force. Kokushibo tilted his head ever so slightly, his additional eyes tracking Genya’s movements with inhuman clarity. With a flick of his wrist, Kokushibo redirected the Wakizashi’s trajectory, sending Genya off balance.

But Genya recovered almost instantly, planting a foot against the wall and springing back with a brutal overhead swing. Kokushibo met the attack with his katana, but Genya’s sheer ferocity pushed him back a step.

Blood dripped from Genya’s wounds, staining his tattered clothes, but his body moved as if he were unstoppable. He unleashed a flurry of attacks, his Wakizashi clashing with Kokushibo’s, and their eyes met, and then the demon saw as Genya’s mouth opened wide. He lunged at Kokushibo, trying to take another bite out of his arm!

“You insult me,” Kokushibo snarled. Thirteenth form: Moon’s cursed vortex!

Genya felt the Wakizashi shake in his grip as he was pushed back! Kokushibo’s strength was immense as his blade swung in 360 degrees sending Kamaiitachi in every direction! Kokushibo then took a low stance, and pressed again! First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace!

Blood spilled from Genya’s mouth as he was bifurcated. His body fell to the floor.

“There was a man who ate demons in my own time,” Kokushibo mused, in a calmer voice now. “He died when his body was cut in half. Yet you are still alive. Perhaps if I cut off your head…”

Breath of the Serpent, Second Form: Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head!

Kokushibo looked over his shoulder just in time, and jumped out of the way as Iguro Obanai slashed past him with blinding ferocity! They skidded across the floor in opposite directions from one another, and Kokushibo felt the sting on his right shoulder, which fell off where Obanai’s blade had sliced through it. 

“He’s fast…” Kokushibo observed. “He aimed to take my head from behind… That was quite close.” and then out of his periphery, he noticed Tanjiro’s immobile, but still living body… He bit down… “Every time I am about to kill one of these annoying little bugs,” Kokushibo snarled, “New cockroaches come immediately out of the woodwork!”

As he said this, Himejima Gyomei arrived on the scene, standing in front of Genya with his weapon ready.

“You did well to hold out for as long as you did,” he said to his apprentice. “Now sit back and let us do the rest. Rengoku!” He bellowed, “Do you still have any fight left in you!?”

“I do, Himejima-san…” Rengoku said in an unusually quiet voice as he rose to his feet. He had sustained massive damage, but now a fairy slayer’s mark manifested across his face. “More so than ever…”

“Good,” said the marked Himejima, as he spun his mace. “”I too, on this night, am seeing things that I’ve never seen before.”

“He must have awakened the transparent world, in addition to his slayer’s mark,” Kokushibo mused, as he watched all three of them through the transparent world. “A pity the large one is at an age where he will likely die tonight, even if he escape’s this battle.”

“I see you have it too, Himejima-san,” Uzui Tengen said, as he swooped in.  “I was on the back foot against upper moon 4, and would have been fishfood until I suddenly got this burst of energy that made my fight go easy-level, and then I noticed this mark on my face.” Tengen paused, and gave Rengoku a curious look. “I notice you’ve got one too.”

“Like the one Himejima-sensei has!” Genya exclaimed, “But what does…”

“We will have time to figure it out,” Gyomei said calmly, “after we complete our mission.”

Rengoku and Tengen nodded in agreement.

“Before we begin,” Obanai now said with a calm rage, “I’d like to ask you, demon… where is Orochimaru?” There was an unmistakable wrath in his voice when he said that.

A twisted smile formed on Kokushibo’s lips as he watched Obanai’s heart. “There is no mistaking it. This one’s anger is coming from a broken heart… that will likely mean…”

“I have not seen Lord Orochimaru,” Kokushibo answered, “not since… he killed that pink-haired woman at the swordsmith village.”

Obanai’s pupils practically disappeared, and Kokushibo’s smile widened as his suspicions were confirmed. 

Upper Moon one had normally styled himself as an honorable Samurai, but after what he had witnessed, he saw no reason not to twist the knife further.  “Where is he now!?” Obanai screamed. 

“I wouldn’t know that,” Kokushibo admitted, “but I did hear from the grapevine, Orochimaru mentioned how that woman he killed… cried and begged quite pathetically.”

“Don’t listen to him Iguro!” Gyomei cried, “He’s trying to bait you!”

But Obanai had already taken the bait! The mark spread across his face as he charged!

“That fool,” Kokushibo mused. Fifteenth form: Moonlight through clouds!

The others watched in horror as Obanai was stabbed over and over again from Kokushibo’s long-ranged thrusting attack!  But Kokushibo’s smirk dropped when he saw that Obanai did not even slow down!

Kokushibo’s face flashed with shock, then realization, and regret.

“WHA-” 

Breath of the Serpent, Fourth Form: Twin-Headed Reptile!

Kokushibo’s throat was cut! It was only because he had thrown his body backwards that he avoided total decapitation!

Obanai fell to his knees, panting heavily, and Kokushibo’s back hit the ground.

Everyone in the room held their breath, no one made a sound but for the wounded serpent pillar’s ragged breathing.

And then, Kokushibo rose in a terrible rage. 

“For a Samurai’s back to hit the ground…” he snarled, as more blades began to grow from his body, “...is a mark of shame. This has not happened to me once since I became a demon… unforgivable… My pathetic descendent… that brat who dared to use the breath of the sun… that dog who took a bite out of me, and now you… None of you will live to see another day!!!”

Rengoku rushed over to his comrade. “Obanai, answer me! Obanai!!”

“I can still fight,” Obanai wheezed, as he stood back to his feet. He had endured sixteen stab wounds to the body, seven of them were deep, including a stab to his right lung, yet he was still in the fight.

“Upper Moon One,” Himejima said as he walked forward to stand by his friends, “We the demon slayers, will exist in perpetuity until the very last of your accursed kind are eradicated from the earth. You are no Samurai. A true Samurai would have never dishonored himself by becoming a demon.”

“Damn right! Himejima-san!” Genya commented, as he rose to his feet, Kokushibo’s severed arm in his hand. He ripped off a chunk of flesh from it, and now stood shoulder to shoulder with his master.

“Every man who stands here to face you,” Himejima continued, his words directed at Kokushibo, “has resolved themselves to die for this cause. Your reaction to Iguro’s courageous charge at you, even as his vital organs were stabbed, tells me that you lacked such a conviction. Even Tokito Muichiro, whom you called ‘pathetic’ shows more courage in his 13 years of age, then you have ever known in your centuries of regrettable existence. The fact that you have the temerity to call yourself a Samurai is truly laughable. Pathetic…” Himejima’s mouth twisted in disgust. “...You child.”

The demon began to shake with anger. He bit down so hard that his teeth shattered and bled.

Tanjiro, Muichiro and Kanao watched in terror as their four comrades faced off against the demon king's right hand man.

The air felt thicker. The room felt hotter. Time seemed to slow down. 

And then from behind Kokushibo, another figure entered the room. Renkogu’s eyes went wide when he saw him. “His eyes… they're exactly as Sasori-san described how the subjects of Orochimaru's Edo Tensei would be!”

“But who the hell is he?” Obanai asked. 

Tanjiro and Kokushibo alone seemed to recognize him, and Tanjiro's eyes filled with tears at the sight of him.

He was resurrected by Orochimaru outside of the abandoned Temple. He was the man shown to Muzan by Orochimaru that night.

He was the fraternal twin brother of Tsugikuni Michikatsu-Now known as Kokushibo.

He was the strongest swordsman in Japan's history, and the first to discover the breaths.

He was the one man Kibutsuji Muzan feared.

He was Tsugikuni Yoriichi.