Demon Slayer Book 1: Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: OLD SCARS, NEW SCARS,
AND A KNACK FOR FIGHTING!


She was ready for battle and the rest of them knew not to stand in her way. She leapt from the high rafters and landed right in front of one of the werewolves, locking her bow around its neck. Another one tried to stop her but found the point of her blade, her hand-to-hand weapon, and immediately found itself headless. During this one handed action she had pulled her bow against the neck of the captured creature, the string of which was so small and strong that it had no trouble decapitating yet another victim. Only one werewolf remained and it found no other way out but to turn into a human and plead for its life! Too bad for it Sceran knew the score and wanted to settle it, she threw a dagger that drove into the heart of the creature, releasing a silver liquid that rushed through its veins and solidified, immediately killing it! Sceran was back and ready for action!
A week later and Torsion was finally ready to put his new weapons in action. He had finally worked out the kinks in his guns and was ready to go on a shooting rampage. He had made the bullets the same way as he had made Radoms’; only this time he had covered them in an acid that solidifies at even a temperature of zero degrees after one minute. This acid also hardened once it had been at work for thirty seconds, making it the most deadly thing Torsion had ever made, much less used. He went out on the hunt with the others in One-Man-Down formation, or in other words, Sceran went with Tsuichi and was supposed to stay on rooftops and call when she was in trouble. Meanwhile Radom and Torsion went out into the forest, where they were sure to find a fight, and a target for Torsions' new toys.
They were in the center of the city when they heard screams coming from the town square, not two blocks away. When they got there they realized what had caused the trouble, a lone Reborn, also known as zombies, not like in the movies, zombies here are given their original bodies and some nice abilities along with them. They usually just walk around outside the city, looking for food (human skin and blood to use as their own until digested,) but this one had most likely gotten tired of waiting around and decided to hunt in the open.
It was already using one of its' powers, animation, the ability to give life to lifeless objects, to tie up one of the humans. Tsuichi signaled the plan to Sceran using the special sign language that Torsion had come up with, he was going to distract it, while Sceran was supposed to sneak up behind it and drive a dagger into its heart. Once its heart stopped beating again it would die, or they had to cut off its head and let its body starve. Tsuichi came at it with his throwing axes, hitting it in the head; this stunned the creature for five seconds for each blow. Sceran was right behind it when its eyes glowed, it was using its second power, shadow-walk.
It sank to the ground as a dark blob, it then proceeded to glide across the ground as an evasive action, Sceran however had been ready for this event, and she shot an arrow into the shadows center. It immediately became solid again, she had hit it in the leg, pinning it to the ground, where it used its third power, possession. Sceran began to turn pale, it had known that she was hurt and had thought her, because of this, the easier target for mind control... it was wrong. A second later its' eyes stopped glowing and it howled in pain, Sceran regained her color and Tsuichi then cut a gaping hole in the chest of the thing, exposing its heart, then Sceran shot it with ease. Tsuichi knew not to kill it while it was linked with Sceran, she would have died too, but he also knew how strong Scerans will was, easily strong enough to fend off a zombies possession power. While this was going on Torsion and Radom found a bit of trouble that threatened death for Torsion, the Immortal.
Torsion and Radom had finally found the perfect target for Tosions' new weapons, a gnall (In a former life they had been human but they had slaughtered too many innocents to be allowed into heaven, so they were sent to hell where they were given new lives to terrorize humans, they were also given a thirst for blood and a hunger for flesh!) It stooped over its new meal, its pale green skin showing clearly, even in the forest at sundown. Torsion drew his weapons slowly and took aim; he squeezed the trigger, and down went one dead gnall, a perfect shot. However, Torsions' weapons had made a bigger bang than expected, he had just given away their positions to anything that might want to have a human feast!
A rustle behind Torsion alerted the two, Torsion started to warn his friend. "Radom..."
"Yeah, T, whatta you want?"
"RUN, NOW!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!"
The warning came too late; the creature leapt out of the shadows and landed in front of Radom and Torsion before they could move. It was the most disgusting and horrifying thing they had ever seen! Looming in front of the two companions stood an eight-foot tall spider! They were paralyzed with fear, wanting to run and yet not being able to even move, Radom did the only thing he could... SCREAM!
Torsion awoke from his shock just in time to get most of his body out of the way before the creature launched a string of webbing that caught his arm and side, binding them together with a substance that hardened instantly and was as strong as steel! Torsion knew he had to warn Radom of the effects of the webbing but there was not time for that now, the spider was moving in on him, fast!
Radom finally woke from his daze when he realized that Torsion was in trouble, and leapt to action. He jumped into the air, while twisting his staff to the right, exposing small blades that ran along cracks in his staff, two at each end of the weapon. They just barely stuck out far enough for him to cut with them, but the idea was that the enemy not be able to see the deadly blades before he felt them. As he came down he found a clear mark, the top of the spiders head, and brought his bladed staff down hard.
The staff has done no damage on top, thought Radom as he landed lightly on the ground, but maybe on the bottom... He brought his staff back up, the blade on the other side of his staff catching the spider right under the mouth, knocking it backwards while he performed a back flip that landed him next to Torsion. He heard Torsion start talking the second he landed, "Radom, stay away from the webs! It’s sticky as hell and stronger than Tsuichi on a bad day! They come from its mouth, not its spinners!" Those were the last words he heard before he started to move again, if he didn't he would be an easy target for the creature.
He again decided that he would attack from the air, this time however he would use his gun and he would not go for its head, that was too heavily shelled to do any real damage, but its body seemed a softer substance... it seemed to ripple as he came down for the strike. He realized only too late what was happening, the body wasn't rippling, it was morphing! Changing shape, becoming a hideous creature with eight eyes and six legs with two human arms and two human legs. A human head and a spider’s mouth, it seemed like an old lady crossed with the creature they had just fought!
Radom was so shocked by the transformation he forgot that he was falling from the sky and landed hard against the rocky earth below, and with a cry of, "Torsion!" was knocked unconscious, easy prey for a Jyorogumo, as Torsion now understood it was. The thing was a Japanese demon, a woman with a choice to show herself as a giant spider, an old lady, or the horrible thing now standing over Radom. It does not have a 'true' form to revert to when it is weary from holding one shape for too long, like the shape changing Golems of American lands. This fact only makes it more deadly because it does not take energy for it to morph from one to another.
They were not up against anything Torsion had been expecting, this creature should not have been anywhere near America, it was an oriental creature, there were thousands of questions in his head, but one shown clearly "How did it get here? They protect their boats with one spell caster or specter at the least. This thing would never have made it across the ocean without inside help. So who brought it to America, who brought it here, and why?"
While he was thinking, the creature was waiting, it had tried to catch Radom but he had rolled out of the way so it only caught his gun hand to his side, but he had rolled underwater and it could not go in after him so it waited for him to come up for air, then it, instead of having one and looking for the other later, could have both now. Radom woke under the water and knew he could hold his breath only so long, but he was trying to buy time and hoping he could find a way out of this mess.
It hadn't counted on them having any more friends coming on their way to save them though, so it had not been ready when an arrow flew straight into its leg, tearing it off as it kept going. The creature toppled and became enraged, it had lost one of its hind legs in cross form, but in any other form it would be ready for combat and it knew it. Tsuichi came running into the clearing, seeing Torsion immediately he snatched him from the middle of the clearing and ran him into the trees, where he could watch and still be safe. He then remembered that he had not seen Radom in the clearing and, fearing the worst ran out to face anything that got in his way, however he was not prepared for an uninjured gigantic spider looming over Sceran, near the small pool of water.
Tsuichi could not move, as if he was frozen in fear, that is impossible, thought Sceran as she saw him out of the corner of her eye, he is afraid of nothing, I have seen him stand against the strongest armies and never once did dread cross his face! A boulder three times his size almost smashed him and he just stood there and stopped it with all his strength and was almost killed again when he lifted it out of our path, and he stood tall and straight as a tree! She could not believe that fear was even in this mans list of emotions, compassion surely, hatred definitely, and a boundless confidence in himself that no other person dares venture toward, but fear was certainly not one of the emotions he had ever shown in his life before... yet there it was, a look of agonizing pure terror that seemed to freeze his very blood, rooting him to the spot.
Radom couldn't hold his breath any longer without passing out so he decided to leap out of the water and attack before it had a chance to. He twisted his sword to the left, replacing the blades with his own specially designed weapons, he called them 'dicers', and they activate when he spins his staff, he was ready to strike. Sceran was still staring down the spider, both of them were waiting for the other to make a move, she was hoping however that Tsuichi would attack it from the side when she moved so it would be hit by at least one. He was still rooted to the spot; the only good thing about his fear was that he had been completely silent; the spider had not yet spotted him... The bad part of it was that he could not help Sceran with a double attack against the spider as she had hoped.
But what none of them counted on was Radom leaping out of the water and firing his deadliest weapon, Sceran saw her opening and fired her fire arrow right at the spider’s head. Radoms weapon had charged and was firing the deadly pressure blasters behind the spider, moving slowly up towards the head. The weapon had absorbed power from the sun and launched out water and air at 5,000 P.S.I. in a jet stream! Both attacks hit the spider, it hadn't known which to block and therefore had not been ready for either of them!
It faltered in its attack, giving Tsuichi his wake up call, the spider was already almost dead, and they all knew it, but still Tsuichi attacked with everything he had, he threw all twenty of his mini-axes, grabbed his giant axe, charged in and switched out axe blades by turning the handle, now he was using the electro-blades. These had holes in the blades, around which were lined electromagnetic chargers that, when activated, sent 2,000 volts between their opposites on the blades, for a total of 20,000 volts charged and ready to be released when the axe struck.
It did strike, 15 times, before he switched yet again, this time to the extended acid-blades, blades that had acid generators that fired out streams of acid when enough kinetic energy (moving energy, so when he swings the axe fast enough they fire,) was built up! With this new weapon he attacked 20 times, and when he was through there was no spider left, just a steaming mass of melted dark red/ black goop! Yet still fire and hatred burned in his eyes, he switched weapons to his most deadly, the bomb blast blades. These charged with energy from the sun and added to it, making it strong enough to explode, which it did on contact with any solid mass.
He already had the axe raised and was about to bring it down with everything left in him when he heard Torsions voice ring out behind him, "STOP!!! Tsuichi, We have won, there is no need to attack again..." then, when he saw that he still had the axe raised, "...it won't change the past! Be happy, at least you have finally conquered your fear. It's over Tsuichi; now put it down.... THAT"S AN ORDER!" At this Tsuichi finally lay down his weapon, dropped to his knees and stared wide-eyed at the carnage before him. Then, as if he was waking from a trance, he screamed in terror and ran into the forest, straight back to their hideout. The others slowly followed, Radom and Sceran more confused than they had ever been before, but all Torsion would say was that Tsuichi held a grudge and that if he wanted them to know, he would have to tell them.
Once they were safely back home Torsion went straight to work analyzing the webs and trying to find a solution for getting it off, while Tsuichi decided to retell the tale he had told Torsion many years ago, when they had first met.
"I was only five when it happened. A witch had come to our village and had started to take over, killing anyone that tried to stop her. She started to take the money of the few citizens that were still alive after the third day, we couldn't leave either, and she had placed a spell on the land. No one could come in, or go out, I was living with my mom and dad at the time. My father was a lumberjack and a woodworker; my mom sold his art door to door. When the witch came we had been doing well, money wise, but my sister was sick. My mom was a worker of healing and protection spells, she helped people if they asked her to. She still couldn't heal my sister though, my mom knew it couldn't be a natural sickness, it stood up too strongly against her healing spells, but there was nothing we could do. None of us would let her go so easily, so mom and dad confronted the witch, asking her what she was doing to my sister, she replied with a rhyme.
'A thousand creatures live within,
A child afoul of her masters’ whim,
Once live they swarm the spiteful caster,
That tries to fight the spell wise master.
Your daughter shall bring my children,
And feel the pain of my hearts descend.
They come to hear their masters call,
And destroy the good inside you all!'
We couldn't make sense of the rhyme; it was like a riddle. All we knew was that they were there to cause my sister pain and suffering and that once whatever was inside her came out... it would try to get my mom, she was the only other spell caster in the town and the rhyme clearly targeted a spell caster trying to stop the witch. We could figure out nothing more, the one line that we kept coming back to was the one that talked of my sister bearing the pain of a thousand. Surely it had some meaning that the witch was trying to hide, she wouldn't put it in her rhyme just to emphasize my sisters suffering, we were already worried enough about that... but something about that line seemed like a hint as to what was inside my sister, a thousand, something that is born in the thousands. But we could think of nothing." He paused and took a long slow deep breath, as if bracing himself to relive one of the most horrible moments of his life. They didn't coax him; even Radom had enough sense to know that this was painful for Tsuichi. He resumed a minute later.
"We all decided to sleep with my sister, to comfort her. We woke up in the middle of the night, my sister was screaming. Her stomach had almost tripled in size, and it was growing. We couldn't do anything for her, but we couldn't leave her, she was in pain and she kept saying that she wanted mom. But once we saw what was happening we had to leave her, she was going insane with pain and anguish. She was swelling up and nubs were appearing on her back, along the spine. It was like there was something trying to break through her skin, on every side, all her teeth disappeared, becoming tiny sharp needle-like spikes in her mouth. But her cheeks were growing out, moving forward until something began to tear through, spikes that were on the ends of what seemed to be tiny arms. Then we realized what was happening, she was releasing a spider, from her body. It was a spider that had probably been growing inside her for weeks, making her sick... or so we thought." He paused yet again, taking another deep, quivering breath. Even without the rest of the story Sceran had figured out what happened, "It wasn't a spider coming out of her, was it?" Then without waiting for him to answer, "She was becoming a... a... what did Torsion call it... Jyorogumo." All he could do was nod in response but Radom was enthralled, he had to know what happened and Tsuichi saw it, so he continued.
"We were watching through the food hatch in our medical room door, the room we had my sister in…. The room that mom placed all her terminally ill patients in. No matter how good you are, you can't save them all, and we knew there was nothing we could do for her except wait for the spider to come out, but it didn't come out, it looked like it stopped with the legs, the eyes, and the mouth of the spider. My sister sat up, fear in her eyes, a ghostly white complexion in her face. We watched as she stood up and walked around, I wanted to open the door but mom said I couldn't because she may have still been taken over by the spider and might try to kill us, and even if she hadn't been, in there she was safe from any further spells the witch might try to cast on her to make her attack us. She didn't need any further coaxing than what she already had though. The look in her eyes changed from fear, to hatred in seconds, she started screaming about how much she hated us for leaving her in there, alone. She swore to kill mom, saying that she could have saved her, based on mom’s promise that she would, but had chosen to let her suffer. I couldn't take it, I opened the door and told her I was here, and that mom and dad were outside, I tried to explain that we were just scared of what she had become and that the witches spell had been too powerful for mom to break, but she said I was lying and swore to kill me and dad for not trying to make mom save her, she screamed so loud I thought my ears would shatter. Then she stopped as if there was something in her throat that had cut her off, webs came flying out of her mouth, right at me... I ducked on pure instinct, up until that moment I had been trying to convince myself not to think about her horrible transformation, but with those webs I just couldn't fight it. I ran from the room, crying, and bolted the door, ran to my room and lay down on it, bawling into my pillow. I heard her scream again; from all the way across the house, but this time it wasn't in anger... it was in pain. I ran back down to the door, but mom and dad kept me back, saying that I wouldn't want to see it, when the screaming stopped, I heard a crash from inside the room. Mom sent me up to my room again, telling me to lock the door and hide, I did as I was told, wondering what the crash was and finding out minutes later when thousands of tiny spiders came under the door of my room. My sister had given birth to these unholy things, I leapt out of my window, heading for the shed and finding it locked. I could only find one thing to protect me, my fathers double-sided axe, taking it I realized that attacking the spiders would be suicide, so I went after the next best thing, their creator... the witch. I ran in and was stopped in my tracks as her spell hit me; it lifted me off the ground and held me in front of her. 'Oh, I have a guest' she jeered at me, 'I do so hope that your sister is doing well. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her.' I was so angry that, for the first time in my life, I cursed at her, screaming 'BITCH! Your creatures killed my sister!' ‘Yes, and you my little pest shall soon feel the pain your sister felt while she was changing.' She began to chant, and closed her eyes, I saw my chance and hurtled the axe right into her skull, she fell limply, and the spiders, just breaking through the door disappeared. Ever since I have had a terrible fear of spiders, my only fear... I froze up because I didn’t think that I would ever have to face another on of those things, it felt like facing my sister. I still haven’t found my sister, I looked for her for two years after that day."
Sceran had begun to comfort Tsuichi, telling him it would be alright, that it was over and he needn't worry, when Torsion gave an enraged shout and tore the webbing, which had hardened almost like a cast, off of his arm. He flexed it as if to see if it still worked, then began to pace the room, wonderingly, staring down at the floor with his arms behind his back. Radom apparently became irritated at this continuous pacing so he decided to break the silence that had fallen over the room since his pacing began. "Oh, will you go ahead and tell us what's on your mind already before I force it outta ya?"
Torsion, feeling a sudden urge to make sure his arm had not been damaged replied, rather angrily, "Oh, so you wanna fight, huh? Well then I'll get my staff and meet you in the training room!"
Radom, who decided he had better back up his words almost yelled his answer, "Guess I'll see ya there then... Oh, and by the way... Staff-on-staff; no changing your weapon, and no holding back, got it T?"
"Yeah, I got it, and I'll still kick your butt!"
Sceran, who was watching this scenario in disgust tried to calm them down by saying "I guess our opinions don't matter-” Where she was cut short by Radom, "Then you're right, they don't!" She continued anyway, as if she had never been interrupted. "So we'll see you there and referee so that neither of you get out of hand and try to kill the other... AGAIN!" She was referring to the first fight between the two, Radom being so ignorant and sharp tongued and Torsion being witty and sharp minded; they were almost made to clash, but their first fight had ended with a broken arm (Radom,) and a fractured tibia! So they had built an arena just for when they decided that they wanted to duke it out again. Tsuichi and Sceran were always refs, though Tsuichi was really more of a cheerleader for both combatants, they had not (yet,) managed to kill each other inside the ring, though many attempts were made.
Once they were inside the ring Sceran started the countdown to the fight, "Are you both ready?" She continued after receiving a nod from both of them, "Three... two... one... HOLD!" She had said it as a joke, trying to keep them on their toes, but apparently they had both gone deaf. When she said 'hold' they charged forward and began the battle with Torsion blocking a fierce downward bash intended for his head! Torsion swung himself, and his staff, off to the side with a standing spiral that made Radom stagger backwards into the wall. Radom charged, intending to stick the end of his staff right into Torsions midsection while he was still spinning, but right as Radom got close he stopped spinning himself and revealed a spinning staff that parried Radoms attack and left him open for the spinning staff thrown at him by Torsion! Radom was on the ground, seemingly outmatched, when he shoved his staff in between Torsions legs, kicked off the ground completely, supporting his weight on his staff, and kicked Torsion in the head, knocking him to the floor!
As he came down he attempted to spear Torsion on the end of his staff but Torsion Rolled away and tried to trip Radom who merely back flipped over Torsion. This move was merely a diversion, however, for while he spun he grabbed his staff and leapt to his feet. Torsion charged, his staff high, Radom moved to block his head, but Torsion had other plans. He pushed down on the back of his staff and pulled up on the front, sending the back end flying into Radoms jaw. He spun around and shoved his staff right into Torsions chest, forcing him back against the wall, where, he hoped, he could not pull any fancy moves. He knew he was hoping against hope, but he had to try his most recent move, though still unfinished it would provide a rather nasty shock for Torsion, so he began to charge at Torsion, staff pointing, yet again, to Torsions middle. Torsion however saw the staff drop, just barely, in preparation, for the move, and so was able to place his staff on the ground in front of Radom before he pulled it. Radom knew he would foresee this as his strategy, he had used it before, but Radom was not aiming at the ground, he was aiming at Torsions exposed back; as Torsion was leaning this was a small task. Radom slammed his staff into Torsions back and pole-vaulted up to the roof, kicked off, and came back down, staff first, right at Torsions head, he had straightened in pain. Yet Torsion seemed to have figured out the move, despite the pain, for he promptly leapt out of the way, dragging his staff along behind him to catch Radoms staff, the only loop hole in the move! Radom was sent sprawling to the ground, head first as his staff had failed to catch him, thanks to Torsion, too low for him to even turn his body.
Tsuichi, who had been yelling at whoever seemed to be losing at the time, stood up and screamed "Good goin' Torsion, I knew you could do it!" Sceran claimed the fight officially over and Torsion asked Tsuichi, jokingly of course, "If you knew I could do it then how come you were shouting that Radom was about to finally beat me?" Tsuichi just shrugged his shoulders and, with a sheepish, grin said "I was trying to let him think he was going to win... But I knew you where gonna win it the whole time!" Torsion didn't believe him but decided to let it go with a roll of his eyes.
"Hey T..." Torsion turned as he heard Radom shout, Radom walked over to Torsion, a stern look on his face, and finished his sentence, "Good fight, I almost had you that time. Hey ya gotta gimme credit for trying, that was a risky move, and I almost won with it." He stuck out his hand for Torsion to take.
Torsion answered with a smile, to let him know he wasn't trying to start another fight, "Tch, whatever. You are just too predictable, if you'd land a hit now and then you might have a chance next time!"
Radom, who was also smiling, recoiled with "I'll do that. But I still say you're too fancy, that'll get you into trouble one of these days."
"Thanks for the tip loser."
"Anytime, freak show, anytime!" At this comment they both burst out laughing, just like always, after their fight, which Torsion usually wins, they were friends again!