Archive of Our Own

Within a realm beyond comprehension of time and space, four figures have come together to create a world of confusion and chaos, where mighty heroes wage war against unjust odds and evils. A secret test, a tournament of a sort, to select the greatest of either good or evil.

These are the stories of those selections, the hardships it took to become chosen, and the great battles of mythical proportions.

Separate worlds combine to create the ultimate challenges, new histories and cosmic laws, alien concepts conjoined in a new union never meant to mingle.

A glimpse of this selection process is shown below.

Tanjiro leans out from the cover of a thick tree. The night is young, his sister restless within her hiding basket that hangs off of his back, and two grotesque creatures are squabbling between each other. He has seen and knows the scent of the first one, a demon. It has the horns, the fangs, and the bloodlust within it. The other is a decaying body held together by... Something. An unfamiliar scent yet all the more nauseating. The demon shouts at the walking corpse.

"Be silent, freak! You have some kind of death wish?! Don't you dare speak that name if you know what's good for you!"

The shambling cadaver sputters out, no lips but a long tongue that flaps about between long fangs, unblinking eyes that squint in perverted glee.

"Muzan! Muzan! Muzan! How does it feel? How's it feel I get to say your master's name but you can't?! Gyahahaha! ~"

The two were cut from the same cloth yet looked so different, with the demon being around Tanjiro's own height, the undead fiend towered over them so much that it has to bow to even speak at eye level.

"Shut Up! Shut up, shut up! I was chosen! You're just a creature, a piece of shit risen up from the grave, less than dirt!"

"And yet, Lord Dio doesn't stop me from singing his praises! I give glory and thanks to Lord Dio! I got to kill before I was killed, I happily get to kill again thanks to him, and that's all he asked of me! I should kill you too!"

They go deathly silent for a brief moment before the sound of tissue and bone snapping alerts Tanjiro as their heads turn to him. He had leaned out too much and decided to step out into the open, sword drawn.

"That's enough! I will not let you pass!"

The two monsters stare at him, then look at each other, before both throw their heads back in laughter. The demon lunges at him.

"We'll settle this by killing this brat! Whoever kills him faster is superior!"

The zombie shoves its arms into the ground.

"Then I already proved my worth! Lord Dio! Watch me!"

Tanjiro braces himself but smells snakes nearby, directly under him! He jumps as several moldy snakes erupt like spindly fingers trying to crush him in their grasp.

"What-!?"

He swings his blade swiping a pair of claws away from him, landing on his heels, he keeps from falling over as his sister kicks her legs out to stand in his place. In joint maneuver, she lifts and tosses him back to face her fellow demon, while the much larger zombie starts to charge at Tanjiro.

"Ooh? Oh! Oh! There's a demon with him?! How curious!"

The zombie cries out in glee. The demon hisses as it finds itself overpowered at once by Nezuko, who had already kicked one of its arms backwards.

"Gah! What the Hell is this!? He's a demon slayer! Why is he traveling with a demon!?"

Tanjiro prepared himself to meet his newest foe, but something in his mind, his instincts strike him with a revelation as he dodges the charge with ease. Demons are power, he has seen and fought his fair share by now, but the strongest he fought was a pair of demons with one able to change directions of things. The more physical of the two was a girl with a kemari ball, who could tear a small building down with what was essentially a toy.

But this dilapidated carcass was something else entirely. It smelled different, felt different, and even the language it spoke. He understood the demon, but this creature spoke another language he hadn't ever heard, but when it did speak, the voice was like listening to pigs feasting. It made him cringe with sheer disgust.

"Ooh? Oh! Oh! You're fast! Nimble too! You're the perfect kind of victim for me! Come, come!"

It took a step, and more vipers came from the ground that Tanjiro evaded, landing next to a tree wrapped in vines.

"Ah-! No!"

The vines came to life, snakes lying in wait for their prey, but their heads came clean off in a practiced motion of fluid movement. Like water, his blade cleaved through their ruined flesh, but he coughed blood as he was sent airborne by the zombie from a kick in his side.

"Ooh! Oh? Oh? You didn't splatter into pieces? The demon slayers truly are special humans, huh? That'll make killing you so much fun!"

Tanjiro rolls onto his back and kickflips to his feet in time to block an incoming punch. His sword only made it half into the large hand of his foe, and it was then that Tanjiro realized just how massive the creature truly was. That very hand was bigger than his head and shoulders, it's body half as large as the trees that surrounded them, yet it moved with such ferocious fervor that it defied logic.

But he has fought such things before. He will prevail. By the time his foe thought to pull back, Tanjiro had already done in one breath, in one stroke. The thread was visible, the path to victory certain, he had cut the head clean off after pulling his sword out himself.

"Done! I did it!"

"Oo-Ooh! Oh...! Oh...! Lord Dio...! It's been proven...! Who is superior...!"

Tanjiro found himself caught in a vice as the other hand wrapped around him fully. His breathing strained as he was forced to exhale a spurt of blood from the crushing grip. The veins of this beast had shot from its stump and reconnected to the head before it hit the ground.

"You Are, Lord Dio! Those special blades that were made to kill demons, they weren't made with the glory of Lord Dio in mind, for we are beyond these whelps!"

Nezuko blurs in a flash of movement to save her brother, her opponent alive but beaten to a pulp on the ground in disbelief, as Nezuko manages to swing her leg and break the giant's arm.

"H-How can this be...?! I'm supposed to be stronger than her, aren't I!? How...?!"

Tanjiro falls into his sister's arms, coughing and wheezing past fractured limbs, his arms numb and legs screaming in unspoken agony.

"I'm fine-! I just need a moment...!"

He says between clenched bloody teeth. Nezuko holds him tight glaring angrily into the freak that stumbles back from her. Its lipless face twists into a deranged grin as it lowers itself down to its comrade.

"You don't need that blood anymore. Give it to me...! Give it to, Doobie!"

Doobie jolts and catapults away from his ally like a cat. Tanjiro found a new scent approaching them, a mix of iron and hate. The smell of fresh air and fire, a storm brewing yet so strangely lacking in the hint of rain, no it was as though something burning is drawing near. The demon had nearly put itself together and stood up.

"What was that!? You dare try to eat me?! I won't let that slide, you freak-!"

The demon stops. A hand on its shoulder from a cloaked figure. They are gently pushed aside as the stranger walks past the stunned monster, caught unawares by not even noticing this human, stunned by the sheer audacity of this newcomer.

"Who the Hell are you!? I'll feast on you first!"

They reach out, but have no arm to grab with, their shoulder a smoldering stump of burnt flesh as a golden fire wreathe in red-orange sparks spreads all over them in mere moments, and all as a witness see it. Tanjiro knew, his sister as well, the demon that had turned to white ash before their eyes died as though the Sun had risen.

From a mere touch.

Tanjiro could tell that this person is human, yet their scent was so different, so pure. Warmth, sadness, and rage all fluctuate within them as Doobie shudders in his barely stitched together boots.

"Ooh..!? Oh!? Oh?! Oh not, you...! Not you again...! You won't get me! I was just revived after what you did...!"

The beast glares at the two children with a lick of its fangs. Tanjiro could feel it under the ground, smell the coming rot of its heinous surprise.

"Nezuko! Jump!"

She did and barely in time as the snakes jutted out of the ground for their legs, a feint that they would both learn far too late as Doobie caught them midair, landing with each Kamado Sibling in an arm. Nezuko struggled, her veins bulging and Doobie's arm trembling, but his hold remains unyielding as he cackles.

"Hostages! You wouldn't dare approach me with hostages! I'll drink these kids here and now if you take another step!"

Tanjiro was growing faint, internal bleeding, his head a pool of delirium and hazy noise, but he was still conscious enough to know what was happening. To see what happened next. Doobie's head bent backwards for a moment and dropped them, his sister snatched him first before kicking Doobie away, and they watched as those same glowing sparks course through the giant's body. They were so colorful, like starlight on a mountain peak stretching into the night sky, like the rainbow glitter of sunlight beaming off of water in a lake or river.

The venomous undead snakes within Doobie's body begin thrashing, convulsing, before they turn on their host. Each one, even those Tanjiro had yet to even see, all burst from its body and began to consume him violently. There was no malice in their scent, but that same burning, a purifying smell that washed away the filth of their evil. As they were eating their deplorable master, their bodies were burning away, a double punishment unto the foul monster known as Doobie.

"Again!? How did you do it again! No! Stop! Ah-! I don't...! Want...! To d-"

It sputtered out weakly until only ashes and old tattered clothes remained. Tanjiro's vision began to clear now that the immediate danger passed, his sister by his side, but a large shadow looms over them both.

The stranger.

The size of him is comparable to Doobie, the largest humanoid they have seen yet, and just as broad. A hood hid most of his face, but enough for Tanjiro to know that it is a man, the scent of him says as much yet so much more. Morning mildew? No, a summer's gentle breeze? No, an evening sun resting over the land? So vague yet so distinct was this man's unique smell that the only consistent thing Tanjiro could think of was something impossible.

He smelled like the Sun.

"Allow me."

He said in a language neither of the Kamado Siblings understood, and so Nezuko growled at him, throwing herself on top of Tanjiro. The boy stood with her aid, but the stranger still held a hand out to them, a genuine sad smile on his face. He speaks again, but in Japanese, though one clearly of a foreign dialect. Tanjiro could only compare it to the youngest of his late siblings when they were learning.

Thinking on them then made him sad, and he had sensed that the stranger had caught that. He pulls his hood back revealing his face fully. Dark hair and bright eyes that seemingly shine on their own.

"I mean you no harm. My name is, Jonathan Joestar. I cannot say that I am a friend... But I am no enemy."

Tanjiro steadily stands on his own. His grueling training is kicking in. his breathing, his past experiences, he finds the strength to continue on in spite of grievous wounds.

"My name is Tanjiro Kamado, and this is my sister Nezuko... Whatever you did to that demon, please, don't do it to her. She won't eat anyone!"

Jonathan blinks at Tanjiro's words.

"She is... Not human? I thought it odd that she could move so fast but..."

Tanjiro bites his lip. How did the man not know?! Why did he tell him!? Honesty is the best policy and so Tanjiro stands firm.

"I'll protect her! No matter what! I'll do so until my last breath!"

Jonathan nods slowly raising his outstretched hand.

"Then I shall hold you to it. A man's word must be as strong as he is. My power... It can heal you. I swear on my honor as a gentleman, and as a man that fights for those he has left as well, I will not harm either of you."

There is a reluctant standoff between the three of them. Eventually, Tanjiro takes Jonathan's hand. That same spark he saw in Doobie, the strange fiery aura that disintegrated the demon, that very power soon enters into him and does wonders. Magic. That is all Tanjiro could describe it as, his lungs burned so well, his breathing so fresh as he could feel everything in a new way, see the world in new light. The pain did not subside, it completely vanished, replaced with renewed vigor as a light glows beneath him. All three are shocked when they look down to see a small garden of lilies. Jonathan releases Tanjiro but finds himself stepping forward pleasantly surprised, excitement filling him, though he does his best to maintain a calm genial tone.

"How are you feeling? Is there any stiffness? Discomfort?"

"No, no! I feel... New."

Tanjiro and Jonathan jump at an abrupt shrieking. A crow flaps down onto the young swordsman's shoulder.

"GO WEST! GO WEST! ASAKUJA VILLAGE IS MISSING CHILDREN! A DEMON IS KIDNAPPING CHILDREN!"

"No time to waste! Nezuko!"

He turns to see her nod. She hops onto his back with both pausing then despite the crow's heckling and pecking.

"We're forgetting something... Your box!"

"Here you are."

Jonathan places the box before them.

"I'm on my way there as well. The demon plaguing there may be the one I am hunting."

Nezuko shrinks down and climbs into her box, but she listens intently from within as Tanjiro inquires for them both.

"Are you a demon slayer as well?"

Jonathan shakes his head.

"Not exactly. I am on a selfish quest, but if I can help, I will."

He brings a hand to the hilt of his blade.

"I am aware that the warriors here use a special blade to eliminate the evil in this country. I'd like to learn more if I could about the demon slayers."

"I'd be happy to tell you! In exchange, could you tell me about that strange power you have, Joestar-san? Where did you come from? You spoke something else earlier..."

The older man laughs.

"You can just call me JoJo. I came here with another man, but we were separated due to a shipwreck near shore... I'm sure we'll run into each other sooner than later."

Guts is not a good person. Anyone can look at him and see as much. He wanders aimlessly following an ethereal path, pain in his neck being his only indicator if he is close or not to his targets, to the Apostles of the God Hand.

Despite their holy name, these inhuman abominations are anything but, often hiding their true forms in the guise of humans until they feel the need. Either for battle, for hunger, or even pleasure. These demigods of damnation that he wages an unending war against often underestimate him, a mere human. Time and time again, like so many before them, he shows them all why they should fear him. Fear the Black Swordsman.

A moniker they have given him as others are hearing his war path. The world as a whole knows not of the Apostles, let alone their true leaders, but that does not matter to Guts. The world can label him whatever they desire. It has never wanted him. He is alone in his war, a lone soldier fighting behemoths and titans, but this has always been his life for as long as he has lived.

Some Apostles live in squalor, pleased to be as the monsters they are, while others use their ungodly gifts to reach heights of political positions to obtain even more power. Killing those have made him a target not just with the supernatural, but now with his fellow mankind, which leads him to his situation.

"You! Halt!"

A kid, probably in his early teens if Guts had to guess, stands in his way on a path in a rainy grass field. His grey hair in the messy style of devil horns and bright green eyes full of the same light he has seen in countless men he has killed before. His black adventurous attire is only similar to his grimdark armor in color alone.

"You're that guy who assassinated the Count! You may have fled the country, but I'm here to capture you!"

Who was a giant slug creature in disguise that regularly ate his subjects when they spoke out against him. Guts tilts his head, for the Count did raise his town into a sparkling city rivaled only by the Clover Kingdom's splendor, but a piece of shit layered in a casting of gold is still shit.

"And?"

"Why did you do it!? He had a daughter, that whole castle was in pieces, she's all alone now!"

"Yeah."

The boy glares, a black book on him opens, a rusted black sword just a little larger than the runt himself slithers out into his hand, and he takes a stance.

"Doesn't that mean anything to you!?"

Guts merely raises a hand to grasp the hilt of his rugged weapon resting on his back.

"Save your breath if you're going to get in my way."

"I'll take you in, Black Swordsman!"

The boy moves fast, showing both martial prowess and experience that his youth betrays, but it is not enough. Their blades clash and immediately there is a reaction. Guts simply finds it amusing that someone so small, yet still human, can be as strong as he is. The boy however finds his arm feeling numb from strange tremors in his bone.

No pain, not even an injury, but there is something about that sword that bothers him. He thought his anti-magic blades were big, but this thing is massive, it barely looked real.

And then Guts swings again.

The boy had just blinked and he nearly found himself cleaved in twain, his body moving on its own and still suffering a minor wound across his chest, he leaps back but finds himself in the same position with his foe barely a foot away from him!

Guts had pursued him with not a moment to rest, already near the end of another swing, Asta blocks it causing sparks to fly as well as his arm.

"Argh-! S-So fast-!"

"You're breathing hard."

They exchange heavy swings, Guts' arms a blur of motion, his younger opponent narrowly catching up as he finds himself battered and beaten in his defense. They are so different, yet they are the same, and that bothers him. In one climatic clash they push each other back.

"My name is Asta, of the Black Bulls, and I ain't letting you go any further!"

Guts raises a brow.

"A mage? No, wizards are what you guys call yourselves. I know you don't have magic. Otherwise you wouldn't bother getting in close."

Asta raises his blade up before pulling out a smaller one from the black book, a one edged blade, the right side of his body begins to layer in a black miasma.

"Oh, I've got magic. Anti-magic! It negates and nullifies all magic! Think you can keep up with this!?"

The power of a devil flows through Asta, enhancing his already near superhuman capabilities into another league of power, meaning he should outclass this foul terrorist!

And yet Guts still puts up such a casual yet stalwart defense that Asta is on the immediate back foot again! Asta finds himself winded after being struck in the chest, his body reacting to the blunt edge of Guts' thick blade as if it were a hot skinning knife.

"What-!? B-But...!"

"So you're one of them? An Apostle hiding behind the guise of some kid? Who did you sacrifice for that power, huh?"

Asta looks up at him caught off guard by his words.

"Sacrifice?! I didn't do anything like that-!"

"Don't lie to me demon. You feel it too, don't you?"

Asta would shake his head, but his other half, the demon from within and his brother speaks up in his mind, their union spiking in power by the moment.

"Asta... I'm... Hungry...!"

("Liebe?! We can eat later, get yourself together!")

"I can't -! I'm... Suddenly hungry... I... I can't stand it!"

Asta soon finds the unending starvation within him.

"This guy is... Radiating something! My power is swelling, but my mind ain't thinking straight! It ain't like me at all but...! All I wanna do is eat him! KILL HIM! I NEED TO KILL HIM!"

Asta's eyes become bloodshot as the bloodlust within him starts to grow, their union destabilizing, and with little choice... He undoes it. Asta ceases their conjoined power to save his sanity, saving himself, yet leaving him open to the merciless swordsman looming over him with a titanic blade held high.

"You're not an Apostle."

He swings and black blood spills, as the upper body of a walking corpse falls to the ground, a small legion of undead starting to crawl out of the ground around them. Droplets begin to collect floating in the air from the rain clouds above, forming ghastly poltergeists made of hate and water, all feeling the same as Liebe to Asta. The sensations of a devil.

And they ignore him. The corpses don shattered armor and wield rusted blades, old flesh and broken bone forced back together, the rainy specters slither in the air like foul snakes hunting in the grass. They lunge, they pounce, they gnash their teeth and swing their arms with such furious frenzy that without any self-preservation. They attempt to kill Guts with their all, sacrificing their bodies, using their very damned souls to attack him, even going as far as to try and possess the man as multiple spirits house themselves within his large frame.

But he always fends them off. His blade crushes the zombies and splashes the water spirits, his own willpower expels the demons from his body, that his cursed blade then cleaves into nothingness. Something that only Asta has only seen himself do. It occurs to him then, that this threat he has been sent to deal with, is a man with no magic being hunted like a dog for reasons he does not truly understand. If he wants to know the truth then he needs this man alive.

Guts finds himself caught in a bind as the water demons manage to wrap around him in a constricting hold, merging their bodies together to hold him tight as the shambling carcasses ready themselves to stab him. Their arms are severed and Guts freed by Asta's efforts as the young wizard cuts him free.

Guts snarls out.

"So you want to fight me by yourself after your minions tire me out?"

"Shut Up!"

Asta clears out the surrounding monsters leaving the winded brute stunned. Asta turns to him, the two of them still surrounded by an unending number of undead.

"I told you! I'm here to take you in for your crimes! Not to mention, none of my allies does anything like this, so for now...! I'm on your side!"

Asta swings, and he swings, but they simply don't stop coming. Liebe is causing a ruckus within him, these demons for all their weaknesses start to wear down on him, he starts to slow down and finds himself open for an attack.

"D-Dammit-!"

"MOVE, IDIOT!"

Guts roars pulling Asta back from his shoulder, spinning him around as the larger swordsman cleaves four undead in one swing, Asta recovers immediately blocking a blind swing for Guts' back.

"DON'T YELL AT ME!"

"THEN STAY AWAKE!"

"I'M FINE!"

"THEN KEEP SWINGING!"

"QUIT GETTING IN MY WAY!"

They argue and bicker between fighting the unholy army. Hours pass, the clouds part revealing a bright full moon, a starry violet night begins to brighten into a cyan morning sky. Asta pants as he slowly raises his aching arms blocking a falling sword. He stands there groaning caught with his blade locked with the zombie soldier until Guts sends it flying.

"You're going to end up dead if you slow down now."

"How... How many hours...?!"

"Twelve. They stop coming at daybreak. Which is about, now."

Asta looks around watching the corpses fall to the ground, the wandering ghosts fading away with echoing moans sounding so far away now, a welcoming change from the ear piercing shrieks sent directly into his ear from the last twelve hours.

"We need to... Find the caster... And stop him...! He might've fainted after using up all his-"

"There is no caster, kid. This is just how things are. Every night, a war is fought, and they don't stop coming until daybreak."

Guts marches past the exhausted youth.

"You should quit chasing me while you're ahead, or focus on killing me, I'll be dead any day now. It's like this, every night."

Asta turns around and slaps himself to keep awake. Liebe speaks to him from within.

"Sorry, about earlier... I don't even know the guy but, for that whole time something inside me was just screamin', I ain't ever felt anything as crazy as that."

Asta nods and responds aloud in a mumble.

"I'm not mad at you, something is off about him. I'm gonna figure out what."

He then raises his voice as he walks by his side.

"Aren't you gonna take advantage of me being tired?"

Guts simply keeps marching.

"I'm serious about capturing you! Aren't you going to do anything about that!?"

He remains silent, neither moving faster nor slowing down.

"What was that back there!? You didn't summon those things-!"

"I did."

Asta stumbles at the abrupt response, sleep deprivation and his minor wounds collectively bleeding him make him slightly delirious, though by no means in critical or fatal condition.

"Whaddya mean by that?"

Guts turns to him and grabs Asta by his head with a crushing grip that lifts him off the ground.

"Quit asking questions and pass out already. I'm sick of looking at you."

Asta sputters and rambles incoherently as this criminal gives him a startling flashback to his guild captain and impromptu master.

"Argh! Ack! But-! I need to know! Evil people, wouldn't fight with the guys trying to capture them!"

"Who said I wasn't evil? I killed the Count, didn't I?"

"Then why haven't you killed me, or his daughter!?"

There is a flinch. Both saw Guts do it and Asta, in spite of his current state, speaks first.

"She said you were the worst kind of monster, but you saved her when the castle was collapsing, saving her from people angry at the Count for... For some reason."

"Sacrifices."

Guts drops the boy scowling, then, a sinister sneer as his lips curve up.

"Missing people cases were common in the town, because it was in a dangerous part of the country, isn't that what you were told?"

He then leans over him, his shadow casts over Asta as the boy grows more confident, as confrontation and adversity is his natural element.

"Yeah, that's right, why?"

"Isn't it odd that if you went around the area outside of town, there were no bandits? No monsters, no out of control predators, just the Count's guard and tired farmhands?"

"He-Hey, you can't be saying that-"

"Were any of you allowed to go investigate the basement or dungeons? Did you even see the torture chamber they had me in?"

Asta pales for a moment before his face flushes red with frustration.

"There wasn't a dungeon to begin with! There couldn't have been! Even if there was then the guys that got here before us would've told everyone!"

"And did they bear this symbol on their stuff?"

Guts reveals a wound on his neck, no. A brand. A symbol that Asta has seen before. The symbol of the White Hawk Guild, an unofficial guild of magic and non-magic users independent of any kingdom, yet powerful enough to be their own. Their official symbol is their namesake, but an infamous division uses that mark as their symbol, and the rumors surrounding it are anything but good.

"They... Did... Why do you have it? Were you one of them?!"

Guts' face goes back to a stoic glare as he marches ahead once more. His ebony shroud wraps around him like darkness hiding from the light.

"It's called a Brand of Sacrifice. Anyone who has one is to be hunted by all manner of evil, from the undead to monsters, and further beyond. One is branded, when they are sacrificed by someone becoming an Apostle, people that give up parts of themselves to achieve great power."

Asta thinks inward to his brother.

("Liebe, have you ever heard of this stuff?")

"I have... Apostles serve the God Hand. Those guys are another league of power beyond anything we've faced yet. I'm confident we could take on their minions, but the God Hand themselves? ... I ain't too sure..."

Liebe lets out a groan.

"A Branded like this guy is hunted since they're meant to die. He's the Devil's Property, and at night in the mortal realm is said to be when our power is at its greatest. I never met a Branded before, and I ain't ever seen a God Hand either, but I do know some Apostles..."

The demon finishes with a stern tone.

"Asta, when it's nighttime, it's as if a portal to the Underworld is open all around him. That's why I'm fine now but I was freaking out earlier. I'm a demon, and I hate to say it, but it's in my nature to kill guys like him... But maybe, just maybe with our anti-magic-"

"We can overcome their power and break the curse...! Hey! I wanna try something!"

Asta shouts at him. Guts keeps marching but grabs the hilt of his sword.

"You can do what you want but I'll be ready for a back attack."

"That ain't how I operate! I'm gonna follow you until next nightfall, and then you're gonna hold onto my sword!"

Guts turns his head stopping to look at the foolhardy boy with an incredulous stare. Asta holds his weapon out.

"I told you, didn't I!? This thing negates, all magic, and ain't nothing ever proved that wrong! That brand of yours is what causes those monsters to show up, and its magic coming from your body, so holding this should stop it from happening!"

Guts remains skeptical. However, he turns fully to the foolish swordsman.

"Fine. Have it your way."

"... Really?"

Asta blinks surprised at that, but smiles wide.

"Hehe! If this works, then you can't go on without me, can't you!"

"I've made it this far without a runt shackled to my ankle. If you're so insistent then do what you want."

They make their way down the path together until coming near a village. Asta rubs his neck chuckling nervously.

"Hey uh, can you speak the local language?"

"A little bit. There was this guy, annoyed the shit out of me like you do, but he taught me some things before our ship wrecked near shore."

Guts looks to the evening sky then towards the dense woods.

"It's getting late. I'm going in shortly then to the forest. Find an inn and rest."

Asta snickers.

"Was that your way of being nice? I can hunt and don't think you can escape from me now!"

Guts scoffs at his remark.

"Like I need to be seen babysitting some brat. Do what you want."

Night falls over Asakuja Village. A strange isolated city with Western buildings scattered amongst the more Eastern native architecture. Though small, the people seemingly flourish with an abundance of food and resources, but something is off with the people. They are distant, cold, and at times despondent to the point of silence. For all that they have, Tanjiro has never seen a more miserable state of affairs regarding the people, and his newest comrade gives him a potential answer.

"There are those like Dio or even Muzan out there in the world, those with the power to hide in plain sight, and to rise up the ranks of political power and abuse their status. There are barely any children around, bizarre for such a well kept land, wouldn't you say?"

He whispers to the young Kamado. Tanjiro noticed it before it was mentioned. Plenty of adults, even teenagers around his age if not older, but children? He only ever saw a handful, and they were being led away by a woman holding them with rope. He would have freed them, but he knew acting out now could cause more trouble than service, much to his own fury.

He needs to know what is happening, but before any of that, he needs a meal.

Tanjiro moans delightfully as he devours his meal at a food stand with JoJo sitting next to him. The two graciously devoured a much needed dinner after a day's worth of travel. They spoke much on their way, Tanjiro learning of Hamon and of the United Kingdom, of JoJo's youth and the bizarre nature of vampires that he hunts. JoJo learned of Kamado Siblings' past and of Japan as well as the Demon Slayers and the uncanny nature of demons that plague Japan. However, one thing bothers Tanjiro.

"You never told me about this vampire you're after. He isn't related to Muzan, but I heard the demons earlier arguing between two names, and the other one was one called Dio. Demons of Muzan, they're not allowed to speak of him at all, but the other one was singing his name."

JoJo grows quiet and grim. He keeps his smile but the young slayer could feel the bitterness in him, smell the immense sadness that JoJo tried so hard to hide.

"Dio is my brother."

Tanjiro could not believe it. He stopped eating and nearly coughed from the involuntary gasp sucking food down his windpipe.

"He was adopted after his father died, and we were raised together up until a year ago, glued to the hip for over a decade. We did everything together. We... Never quite saw eye to eye."

Through a sardonic laugh, JoJo told them of his childhood with Dio. From being bullied by his peers due to Dio leading the charge, to fighting Dio so fiercely that those same peers had no choice but to accept him, to Dio's false redemption by becoming his most fastidious ally. They started out as vile rivals to true brothers, from the outside looking in, but things could not be further from the truth.

"My father was dying from an illness. When I decided to investigate it myself after weeks of the doctors failing him, I discovered not only was he being poisoned, but that Dio was poisoning him the whole time by swapping out his medicine. When I confronted him, he revealed his plan to kill me as well, and nearly succeeded as he attempted to use an artifact my father procured in his youth called the Stone Mask."

Nezuko peeks out of her box watching JoJo as he tells his tale.

"When blood touches the surface of the stone, spikes jut out from the sides, piercing the brain directly. In our struggle, I managed to force the mask on him instead, but I did not want him to die. I realized that our shared blood was on it, mere droplets, but that was enough as it pierced Dio's skull. Rather than die, he was transformed into something else, into a vampire. From there... I was the only one that survived. I burned my home to the ground, hoping to kill him, but I learned months ago that he was still alive."

He wistfully looks into the broth of his bowl until he feels a hand on his thigh. Nezuko pats him with Tanjiro speaking for both of them.

"That's why you learned your breathing magic. It's strange, how similar our stories are..."

"As they say, it is a small world. However, I couldn't be more grateful for it. Together, we can stop these evils. If only we had Guts by our side..."

"Who?"

JoJo grows a bit awkward, which even for as brief as their meeting is, feels odd to Tanjiro. Jonathan Joestar radiates the confidence he wishes he had, divisiveness and clarity that is admirable, yet now he becomes quite reluctant. Uncomfortable.

"Guts is one man I think suffered more than any other... He is the one I had originally partnered with after battling through a dungeon infested with thralls of the undead. We have the same goal of eliminating evil but he is... Excessive. I cannot find it in myself to judge him too harshly, but he is still a man of sound mind, and thus I can't excuse some of his actions."

JoJo rubs his chin thinking on the man.

"I stand out quite a bit in this country, but Guts is larger than even myself, and he is always clad in armor black with a funeral shroud acting as a cape and bedsheet. His giant blade is the easiest indicator, the Dragonslayer. Yes... He'd be hard to miss but I've yet to even hear of anything like him around here."

He and Tanjiro look down at Nezuko pulling at them both, following her finger as she points ahead at the very topic of their discussion, Guts being flanked by a handful of officers stopping him in the streets. Asta stands between them all trying to keep peace, but unable to speak Japanese, his attempts of diplomacy fall on deaf ears.

"I don't get what he did wrong, can't you guys just back off!? We'll leave, alright?"

Tanjiro and JoJo are quick to interfere, the Kamado speaking for them while JoJo confronts Guts.

"There you are! What the devil have you been doing?! You reek of death!"

Guts grows a face of discomfort having reunited with his chivalrous cohort.

"I don't want to hear that from you. You smell like snakes and dead flowers. Ow!"

He leans down as JoJo pulls on his ear.

"I bet you were up to your suicidal war path again! You look a mess, new wounds all over you and those bags under your eyes are back! Agh!"

Guts lifts JoJo up to his tiptoes by his throat.

"Don't Touch Me! Don't coddle me like some nagging mother hen either, you soft-spoken bastard!"

Sparks fly between the two of them until Asta attempts to break them up, surprising JoJo quite a bit at the young man's strength to do so.

"H-Hey! If you two fight now, we'll be in more trouble! O-Oi, help me out red hair!"

Tanjiro would, but something is wrong with the officers here. They stink of bloodlust and venom, their faces contorted between anger and perverse pleasure, as while the three swordsman may have a hard time understanding them? Tanjiro understands their speech perfectly.

"More meat for the Baron... Enough to split evenly amongst us for once!"

"How lucky, the taxes this year were woefully underwhelming."

"There's one with cursed blood among them! How did he get so near without his Brand activating?"

"We'll just arrest them and torture them later... There's a woman I've been dying to see again."

Tanjiro knows the scent of demons all too well and draws back ready for a retreat.

"These men aren't human-!"

A loud clang rings out shortly after the rush of wind, stunning Tanjiro completely once he realizes what happened. Faster than he could think, faster than what should be possible for a human, Guts splatters four out of six officers in one fell swoop of his titanic blade.

Could it even be called that given its crude form? Looking at it made him feel squeamish, the metal rough yet somehow not rusted from all the bloodstains, its edge sharp but too broad to cut anything in a practical manner. One would need to be an ogre, or a demon, to ever find any use out of it. A feat that Guts has no issue doing as the remaining two officers stumble back in shock.

There is a brief delay between all as momentary silence fills the area until one woman finally screams.

"MURDERER!"

The people begin to panic and the officers draw their own blades as attack. Guts swings through their swords and bodies in another swift yet massive show of force as their pulped remains go flying across the road. Asta draws his own sword ready to attack Guts.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!

"N-No, wait..."

Tanjiro would have agreed were the corpses not so obvious in their true form now, holding back the western wizard pointing the demonic remains. Asta grows nauseous but sees the slit eyes and forked tongues, the foul fangs and scaly skin hiding underneath clothes and hats.

Guts casually responds.

"More snakes... Why so many, lately? I might as well make a wallet out of them."

JoJo scolds his dastardly foil.

"Regardless of their true nature, would it not have been better to have taken them out in a subtle manner?!"

Guts gives him a challenging smile.

"Why waste time with tact when we can force the enemy out of their hiding hole? Whoever's in charge wants to use the civilians as a shield. Get rid of the pawns..."

He says stomping on one of the heads crushing it like a watermelon under his boot.

"And the king will have no choice but to send out his knights and rooks."

Something is wrong with this scene in Tanjiro's eyes. They were demons, his demons, Muzan's blood did flow through them and yet another source as well. Something old, like the dusted dirt on a tombstone or the ancient miasma of an unearthed fossil, something that was radiating the same evil that is all over the Black Swordsman. This means they should not be dead, they should be healing, but Guts killed them without severing the head.

Sure he made their torsos explode like fireworks from sheer blunt force, but demons should survive such a thing, as well as the undead JoJo is hunting yet these creatures in the disguise of peacekeepers remain still. Lifeless.

The slab of iron in Guts' hand is like a nichirin sword, but not. It oozes with a force almost visible to the empathetic Kamado, but before he can think on it any longer, loud footsteps signal the coming of trouble.

No, hooves.

The people shriek louder, men and women flee caught in a frenzy, pure terror fills the air. A cavalry comes riding in with javelins and spears in their arms, some already holding bodies impaled on them, small bodies.

"What is this racket? I was so thoroughly enjoying my game until the screams of children were drowned out by the screams of my men. Is this your doing?"

The leader of the pack hisses out. Dressed in elaborate snake armor the likes neither Tanjiro nor Asta has ever seen, a man in similar stature to the Western Duo sits atop a mighty steed, his spear holding a body hidden in the darkness just above the light of the town. He lowers it to his shrouded face and takes a large bite out of. The pleasure in the taste is something he dares not hide from anyone.

Asta is the first to speak out, blood boiling at the gruesome inhuman act.

"What are YOU doing...!? Are you some kind of monster!? Who eats their own kind like a cannibal?!"

"My own kind?"

The Snake responds in Asta's tongue, catching the wizard off guard.

"Dear boy, you misunderstand. Have you ever eaten beef, or pork? Ever dined on fish or even poultry?  If so then who are you to judge me for my diet? I am the Count, ruler of this area, and protector of my herd of cattle... And you four are the wolves that I shall cast out of my little haven."

A third party arrives, and an older man casts himself from the crowd to the hooves of the Baron's horse.

"My Lord! Please! We don't know these fools! P-Please, spare us oh Great Lord...! We are loyal to you...!"

Tanjiro draws his sword at last ready to dispense due justice.

"Sir! Remove yourself from the area! I'm a demon slayer here to kill this-"

"SHUT UP!"

The old man shrieks. The Baron however, chuckles lowly, as three of his men lower their own pole arms, revealing some of the corpses to be wearing his very uniform. Demon Slayers made into playthings and meals.

The old man shudders out between choking breaths.

"There's nothing we as the people of Asakuja love more... Than our... Benevolent Baron... There is no need for a Demon Slayer..."

"The village elder speaks the truth. I saved them from monsters that you yourselves could not slay. All I ask in return is a pittance of their flesh..."

"My Lord... My granddaughter... She wasn't meant to be a part of the tax-!"

"I know. She snuck in to be with her friends. I recognized her immediately."

The vile Baron gestures to the four swordsmen.

"Which of you killed my men? I'm willing to let bygones be bygones here and now for their blood. Ganryu here will take their lives as a show of loyalty, and as punishment to you for undue acts of violence upon my authority here, unless you would like to risk the lives of this entire village for a mere battle?"

Three of them were caught in a bind, but Guts steps forward, tossing his own knife to the ground at the old man.

"Fine. Go ahead. Do it."

Ganryu took no delight in the action yet did not hesitate, snatching the knife up and in a stumbling sprint, runs it through Guts. The stalwart man nary budges nor flinches at first, but falls to a knee with a cough of blood, as Ganryu shakily removes himself turning to the Baron.

"I-I DID IT... NOW PLEASE... MY-MY GRANDDAUGHTER..."

The Baron grins showing nothing but even blades in his mouth as he lowers his spear further into the evening night light of the town. The elder falls to his knees heartbroken as his only remaining relative hangs staked on the Baron's spear half-eaten.

"... Yuki..."

"HAHAHAHAHA! THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE? ISN'T THAT HOW THE SAYING GOES?! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Tanjiro shakes in rage, Asta starts taking a step forward with JoJo, but it is Guts who stands to his feet holding the knife in his hand who speaks. Having bit his inner cheek and tongue to spit up a minor amount of blood, he caught the blade's edge to make the bleeding seem real. His armor defended him as well, and with such thick callouses on his hand, it hardly made a difference for him in performance.

"The truth is, that until someone puts you down, you're the one that's nothing more than a rabid dog gone wild. Why don't you show us all who you really are behind all those well spoken words?"

No more words left. The cavalry charges the four swordsmen, Asta and Tanjiro leap into the air, Nezuko uses her box as a platform to catapult herself towards the Baron himself, as her brother and western wizard deal with his minions.

The Baron catches a kick with a casual hand, but her follow up assault forces him to drop his spear as he blocks many of her attacks, annoying him to a marginal degree.

"Begone you fledgling harpy. Scuttle back to your demon king- What!?"

She uses all her strength to kick his arms up in a backwards flip, leaving him open to JoJo's attack, his arm stretches long and moves like lightning. For the Baron, it felt as though he had kissed a cannonball as he was knocked off of his horse.

"Ugh!? W-What!?"

He lands on his stumbling feet. Nezuko leaps off of his horse aiming to take advantage of his daze with a heel kick, but is caught between two spears that stab into her torso from his rear guard, the shafts soon sliced by Guts as he advances further cutting down both spearmen and their horses as he draws near the Baron.

The vile snake man draws his own serrated blade made to catch swords, but with the Dragonslayer's form such a function is void, only the inhuman strength of this monster keeps him standing as he enters a deadly battle with Guts.

"That mark on your neck-! It is you! The Black Swordsman! What is your purpose for hunting God's Chosen?!"

"Like you'd understand, inhuman freak."

Tanjiro attempts to reach his sister, but the serpent soldiers fight him off, setting their weapons ablaze as others fire burning arrows attempting to bring him and Asta down.

"N-Nezuko!"

"Oi, quit getting distracted! The nice guy has her!"

JoJo catches her and helps her to her feet. A nod between them as he points towards the panicking crowd and Ganryu.

"You're the fastest one of us all, do what you can to save the civilians, then back your brother up!"

She nods but snatches the corpse of Yuki up first before dragging Ganryu away. Asta shouts out again, blocking an attack for Tanjiro's blind spot.

"Anyone that can move like that after getting stabbed is strong! If you worry about her too much you'll end up getting hurt yourself!"

Tanjiro could not understand his words exactly, but he understands the sentiment, putting his back to Asta as they're surrounded by horsemen. They begin to convulse and twitch until their limbs start to stretch slightly, move oddly, as if they were transforming.

Not that it would matter.

With renewed fervor and a partner that can back him up properly, Asta and Tanjiro become a whirlwind of blades, the slayer dicing up limbs while the wizard bashes and smashes heads and torsos. It felt like an eternity, but it was only moments, as the two of them eliminated all the remaining guards leaving the Baron by himself. The guards' incendiary weapons bring fire to a few buildings that begins to spread, displeasing their lord as he watches the destruction of his domain.

"Worthless spawn! I should have known it would've been better to use the vampires instead."

He declares as he fends Guts off with a fencing style before kicking dirt up to his face. He would have skewered the feral warrior were it not for the need to dodge another fist from JoJo. He is swift to open his mouth wide like a python and nearly swallows the whole hand, fangs digging into the sparking flesh, JoJo wincing from the poison entering his body.

"None has ever lived once my toxin enters their blood! Now, allow me to grant you a merciful death...!"

The Baron acts as an anchor forcing JoJo to draw himself in closer, but is forced to retreat from a volley of arrows from a crossbow attached to Guts' armored arm. The Baron dodged and parries the bolts, catching the last one with his long forked tongue as a taunt.

"Or struggle and die screaming. It makes no difference to me."

JoJo raises his arm and with a flex, uses his Hamon to control the flow of his blood, squeezing out the horrid venom attacking his body before bringing his sword out as well.

"Your evil ends now, monster. Pay for your crimes!"

The Baron would have chuckled were it not for his senses kicking in. He swings one arm up catching Asta's blade and locking Tanjiro's between the serrated edges of his own sword.

"The one who wins in the end is righteous! Die!"

Asta grunts as the arrow caught in the snake's tongue is stabbed into his chest, blood already filling his mouth, but he smiles as he watches the Baron buckle to a knee.

"What-!? M-My body...! My... My-My strength...?!"

"Hehe... So, your very being is magic, huh? That means you're nothing to me!"

Tanjiro and Asta make use of the weakened state of the Apostle, and break from his hold, both cutting an arm off of him with a shout. His tongue spills from out his mouth whipping them both away drawing blood, but not enough to stagger them, nor did he recover enough to stop the Black Swordsman's relentless approach as the feral man bisects the monster with the Dragonslayer.

"Show us, your true power."

How intolerable. How ineffable. The Baron's fury is without end as he roars, a burst of fog and mist, a searing steam cloud that hides the transformation of the demon. A titan in the form of man yet the head of cobra erupts from within, the Count's face visible from inside the cobra's gaping jaw with his mouth full of the thick long tongue barbed with edges just like his blade. A long tail whips back and forth, slamming Tanjiro into Asta, and a clawed hand roughly larger than Guts' whole body sends him flying into JoJo. The two adults collide as JoJo braces himself, crashing into a wall of one of the burning buildings.

"Be careful, Guts!"

"Don't get in my way! I've got a plan so listen closely..."

Asta helps up Tanjiro, the two of them tasting iron, but the wizard has been hit far harder.

"C'mon man, up! I know you still got some fight in you."

Tanjiro nods giving him a confident smile. Were he alone, he would still fight, but even as he finds himself cornered he holds no fear in his heart. Something about these three men, about him meeting them and being right here, it all feels right. It feels like certainty.

They will win.

"TOO WEAK TO STAND AGAINST ME?! THAT IS THE NATURE OF MAN! WEAKNESS!"

The Baron bellows in a perverted distortion of sound, speaking between the two languages to make certain that his words are understood, that his pride is satiated through their suffering.

"I AM OF THE UPPER ECHELON OF EXISTENCE! I AM A DEMIGOD GIVEN TRUE POWER! WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH BITS OF IRON AND WOOD?!"

Tanjiro responds first.

"Not a lot. But enough to deal with you."

Asta brings two of his anti-magic blades out, Demon Slayer and Demon Dweller, bloodied teeth on full display as he shouts.

"All that high and mighty talk but you're the one caught in a panic right now!"

JoJo steps forward with Guts side by side.

"The likes of your kind are less than that of worms and roaches. You'll fall like any other pest."

"You knew your days were numbered after that day... I'll pay you and all of your friends back."

The Baron looks between them perturbed. Enraged. Wrath filling his every being! How?! How could these lowly mortals still be standing, still have the spirit to defy him, him?! Caught in a manic episode, he throws his head back in a fit of laughter.

"As if you all can do anything to me! I am invincible! Indestructible! I am-! AIE!"

Nezuko, using the very spear he had used on Yuki, gouges out one of his eyes, pole vaulting off of him as he thrashes around.

"Damnable Bitch! I'll skin you alive! You, and that miserable brother of yours!"

His tongue catches her in the air before she can land. He hurls her into a burning building, dragging her across the debris, her arm falls off as her flesh burns away. Tanjiro roars as he and Asta advance!

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The Baron's tail whips towards them again, but Asta is prepared this time, and waits for the tail in preparation. He plunges his two swords into its thick leathery hide, and with all his strength, stabs the other ends into the ground anchoring the demon in place forcing the Baron to shudder as his movements slow considerably.

"GO RED HAIR!"

Tanjiro runs up the tail, his breathing different than before, his body moving so much faster now as he radiates a golden aura. The overwhelming stench of death and violence, of burning wood and great misery, they fall away to the scent of the Sun. The Baron is still fast and turns his upper body in a near 180 ready to snatch him up with his clawed hand, but just as he thinks to do so, that very arm falls to the floor as JoJo flies past him. At the same time, a massive explosion nearly blasts the monster's head away, a good half of the cobra's hood missing exposing the Baron's neck.

Guts had used the Dragonslayer as a platform to hurl JoJo off of the blade, the Hamon Warrior using his own power to propel him even further becoming like a rocket, severing the arm as Guts finished their maneuver with his secret weapon: his fake hand. A metal prosthetic attached to him with a magnet to make holding his blade easier, but its true purpose is a small cannon, fit with the firepower of a real one used to defend large castles.

The Baron could hardly believe it. He sends his tongue out yet Tanjiro dices it apart as he speeds up towards him, a living lightning bolt coming to end the demon's tyranny, and as Tanjiro raises his blade over his shoulder for the finishing blow... Fear strikes the Baron for the first time in many decades.

"N-NO! STOP! NO-"

With half the hood gone and the power of the Sun itself invigorating him even further than before, power Tanjiro had never felt bursting out of him as colorful sparks fly from his being, the Demon Slayer decapitates the fiend in one fell swoop. He lands in a tumble, but a pair of burnt hands helps him to his feet, a healing Nezuko pats him on the head as she looks over him worried.

"I-I'm fine... Just... Very tired..."

Asta slaps his back caught in the excitement of their victory.

"That was so cool! Dude, what kind of magic was that?!"

Tanjiro winces but laughs all the same as JoJo approaches the kids.

"I knew you had a talent for it, but I never imagined you'd be so potent with Hamon. Well done, Tanjiro."

While they were celebrating their victory, Guts alone stood over the large head of the Baron, half the hood sizzling from where Tanjiro cut him. He raises the crossbow affixed to his prosthetic and fires one arrow after another, garnering a pathetic yelp.

"Ahh! Augh! Ough..! N-No more... Leave me be!"

"I knew you were still alive. Don't go so soon. I've got questions. Tell me about the God Hand."

At that, Asta and JoJo looked over, Tanjiro trying to stop the giant man but too winded to move on his own.

"H-He's had enough! There's no need to-"

"QUIET!"

Guts roars. Tanjiro usually wouldn't especially not when faced with such cruelty. However, his nose filled with such intense scents, all coming from him, so much anger and pain. So much sadness and desperation. The torture was simple, but the way his face twisted into such a broken copy what a human face could express, a terrible fusion of glee and despair.

"I don't care what you have to say, kid. I want to know what their plans are, where they are, right now!"

The Baron sheds a tear in his remaining eye.

"This... This wasn't how things were supposed to go...! I was supposed to live...! They... The God Hand cannot be here... You'll not get to them without making a doorway yourselves... And if you do that...-!"

JoJo finishes for him, having more knowledge on the matter, the same as Guts who remains deathly silent.

"It would be no different than letting them into this world... Even if we had the means, doing so would be too foolish of a strategy."

Again, Guts says nothing. He merely raises his blade and lets it fall on top of the Great Snake's skull. His large body shrinks into a wrinkly humanoid one. JoJo turns to the kids.

"When an Apostle dies, they revert to their original form, as all were once humans before their transformation. In a way, they're not unlike the demons of Muzan, or the thralls of Dio."

With things dying down, and the fires put out, the party leaves the village to no fanfare. A solemn impromptu funeral for the children lost to the Baron's depravity, a hollow victory in being freed of his reign, weighed down by the loss of so many homes.

Asakuja Village would struggle, but their people would endure, and the party was needed elsewhere.

Asta's face turns snow white as JoJo and Guts explain in detail the process of what and how the Apostles come to be, through the accursed item called a Behelit: an egg-shaped bauble with human facial features randomly set around it. When a chosen individual reaches a point of utmost despair in their lives, the facial features line up and summon the God Hand into the mortal world, granting the summoner untold power at the cost of that which they hold dearest to their hearts. A sacrifice of not just another, but of oneself, their humanity lost with the acceptance of the price for power.

As well as the fate of those sacrificed. The Baron's soul enters into a spiral chain of tortured spirits, as does any Branded, the fate that awaits Guts upon his death for being a sacrifice.

They make camp in a clearing and Asta speaks as he processes the information.

"There's still a lot I gotta ask, that I gotta know, but there's already so much to take in..."

Tanjiro tilts his head, having gotten the story in his language as well.

"So much evil concentrated in one country... Muzan and Dio are working together, but now these Apostles are involved as well, that can't be a coincidence."

JoJo nods.

"My ultimate goal is Dio himself, but I cannot tolerate evil potentially greater than himself, nor ignore the victims of those evils."

Asta jumps to his feet.

"Then there's no choice. My job was to arrest Guts! I still gotta bring him back with me, but so we can tell the others! You guys got my help as long as we make it back to the Clover Kingdom some time soon!"

Tanjiro looks at his sister's box.

"My goal is Muzan's death, and curing my sister of her demonhood, but... If all this is connected to him, I'd be a fool to go it alone! Please, Asta, JoJo, lend me your aid and you'll have my sword in return!"

Asta grins.

"Then it's settled, huh? Hey... Where's Guts?"

Tanjiro looks around before noticing his box empty. Morning just around the corner.

"Aah! Nezuko-! Where could she be!?"

Guts fights by himself not too far away from the others. He had no intention of letting a bunch of kids and some white knight wannabe weigh him down on his crusade. He did not need companions, did not need anyone. He was a burden. A living curse, a child born of blood and guts as he fell out of this world, a child of death.

He swings his sword as it cuts down damned beasts, animals twisted from their possessed spirits, trees coming to life once more as they attempt to impale him on their branches.

Time after time, he kills and kills, but he always fights something else. Always fighting against unending odds. Always fighting. No rest. No respite. Only himself.

And then after his body reaches his limit, sleep deprivation and adrenaline running thin, a small blur saves him from being an ornament on one of the demonic trees.

Nezuko fights with him. A demoness, this he can tell not just from her performance earlier against the Baron, but from his Brand. The evil within her cannot hide from him and he waited for her to sneak a kill, to make an attempt on his life like now.

But she does not. She defends him, striking and batting away corpses with her kicks, grabbing and uprooting trees from the ground to slam into each other. Her blood is of the Devil, but her soul, her heart remains human. She fights harder, faster, fiercer after every mistake that results in a wound for her.

She nearly loses her head from a stray strike after being caught by skeletal hands from underground.

"STOP ACTING SO RECKLESS!"

Guts roars. He defends her. A demon, but he cannot see that in her, for he saw her defend the humans with her life. She helped when she could bury the dead, she wept with Ganryu over his granddaughter Yuki, and now she is about to give her life for someone like him. Someone unloved and unwanted.

It makes his stomach churn with such putrid wrath that he gains a second wind.

"Your body can heal but it still takes time to do it! Learn to fight better or stay out of danger!"

She looks at him, unsure of what he said, but knowing that he has opened up to her even in the smallest degree. Guts fights with such a brutal flair that it could only be described as berserk, but with Nezuko by his side who has an air of grace to her movements, they enter a bloody dance until the monsters are finally no more.

When the Sun begins to rise. She whines, and tries to hide behind the debris of a crushed tree, her fingers caught on sunlight burns away her flesh and bone. It stops as a dark shadow brings a cool safe shade for her rest under. Guts holds his arm out with his shroud sparing her from the baleful sunlight.

"... You're meant to be attacking me, not them."

She looks up at him and shakes her head. Her mouthpiece lost some time during the fight against the Baron, she opens her mouth, speaking slowly but clearly. Guts however, did not understand her, but watched her shrink into the size of a small child before resting in his shadow.

He was never one for sentiment, not for a long time. However, not even he can find it in himself to do what would be right, to let the Sun claim her. Caught between his desire for vengeance and what he knows to be true, Guts acts on impulse, and takes the girl into his arms as his shroud drapes over them both. An ebony shield as he makes his way back from where he came and meets the party on a path. Tanjiro shouts out between rasping breaths glaring with bloodshot eyes.

"Where's my sister!"

Guts parts one of his arms to keep her safe from the light but show her off. At once the older Kamado calms down. Nezuko fell asleep whilst being carried by the Black Swordsman, and was carefully placed back in her box, which was carried by JoJo for the time being. An awkward silence permeates the air between the four swordsmen, until Guts breaks it.

"Why are you still keeping her around?"

With JoJo acting as a translator between the three, Tanjiro explains his situation, and Guts tells them of Nezuko's kind act. Asta looks at the box with awe.

"So she's a demon... But even with Guts' Brand acting up, she didn't try to hurt him at all! That's some willpower! I can't even use my Full-Power around the guy because of that thing, at least not at night."

JoJo shakes his head.

"Not willpower. Love. Nezuko has a kindness to her that could only be found in a human heart. Even with her body transforming into something else, her spirit remains pure."

Tanjiro finds relief in having others understand his sister, but Guts takes him by surprise with his question.

"Do you really think a cure for her exists?"

His cynicism, his nihilism, all of it is gone from him when he speaks. Tanjiro nods answering firmly.

"I know so. Even then as days have gone by, she's gotten more control over herself, I won't let her fall victim to this curse."

Skepticism. Hope. Guts grunts turning his back to the party.

"We'll just have to see. All our enemies are gathering here, so I'll stick around for now."

JoJo sees right through his reluctant ally walking ahead of him.

"I'm grateful that you're starting to behave."

"Bite me, star boy."

Asta runs past them both, jumping up to slap Guts'shoulder.

"You're still under arrest! Even if ya ran, I'd find you again!"

"Don't Touch Me."

Tanjiro walks by his side to give his thanks, but Guts asks him a final question.

"Your sister called me something. What did it mean?"

"Hm? What did she mean? Oh! That word means, family."

Guts knew the girl had been hypnotized, but it had to have limits, and even then that she would see him as family. It felt, odd. Foreign.

Has it really been so long since he felt happiness?

Tanjiro gives him a smile.

"I'm not sure how I feel about you... But anyone that can see Nezuko for who she is can't be a bad person."

"Hmph. Save your strength and keep from wasting air. The Sun has finally risen."