first update of 2024!! sorry it took a while, school just started for me and i'm already dying.

here's the question of the chapter::

what's your favourite subject in school?

my favourite is biology !!

thanks for reading and have a night day/night!!

ps: we're reaching the end of this book soon

20 : duties to carry out

shinsou swung his sword at the demon approaching to close for comfort. he knew that since the demon slayers were busy killing the swarm of demons, he would have to be the one looking out for any demons that slipped past the slauers and hold them off until one was free to kill the demon. 

shinsou had tried again and again (a total of seven tries) to use a breathing style, but him being born with a quirk and his lack of practice over the years made it extremely hard, amd he eventually stopped, using the sword like a normal person would without breaths.

every now and then, a crow would fly in, reporting news.

"upper moon three has been defeated by these three! giyuu! tanjirou! kyojuro!"

"upper moon two has been defeated by shinobu! kanao! inosuke!"

these announcements, along with the hours to sunrise, instilled hope within the slayers and gave them motivation.

"come on!" one of the demon slayers among the seven who were protecting the heros said. "if the hashira are all securing wins, we need to do our part too!"

"yeah! if eiko sama and tokito sama, the youngest, can do it, so can we!"

"shinsou, please give us an explanation." aizawa asked, patience wearing thin, the lack of sleep hitting him.

"yea. why are they cuttung off the villian's head? i get that they are villians but as heros, we shouldn't kill." mirko added.

"lucky for them, they aren't heros." came shinsou's mumbled reply. he almost snapped at them right there and then.

there he was, trying to save their lives and possibly killing his lungs in the process, amd they wanted an explanation? they wanted him to talk and waste precious oxygen taken in?

"what do you mean?" came some of his classmates voices. "who are they? where are we?"

"we are demon slayers, and the villians we are killing are man eating demons." a slayer said. the demons had stopped approaching, possibly cause they had erdicated all of the weaker ones sent their way. "we are part of the demon slayer corps and are a number in the hundreds. we have existed since ancient times to hunt down demons and we are recgonised and sort of funded by the government."

"which took forever for them to do so." a grumble was heard. "hey! i'm not wrong! they only recognise us cause only we can stop the demons!"

"demons?" endeavoir's deep voice piped up, flames still lit and burning. "you really think we are dumb enough to fall for that? that stupid childhood bedtime story used to keep kids indoors and asleep?"

"those are not fairytales endeavour. these demons are real."

"who are you tricking?" bakugo asked with a sneer. "only a young child woud fall for that!"

"that's right. we appreciate your help in stopping villians, but please stop trying to play hero." mirko added, a polite smile on her face.

"unless you have a license, we will have to arrest you after we make our way out of this place, for illegal usage of quirks and mass murder." aizawa added.

"but the bodies are gone...?" mina observed.

the door creaked open.

"caw! caw! upper moon one had been defeated by himejima gyomei, shinazugawa sanemi, shinazugawa genya, tokito muichirou and tokito eiko! caw!"

the slayers cheered at yet another victory and the heros were confused after recognising two of the names, one being their previous teacher and the other being their ex-classmate.

"tokito san?"

"who's this muichirou guy?"

"do you think that shinazugawa sanemi is shinazugawa sensej?"

"hey, that's your student's name isn't it? the villian we're chasing?"

"all of you. and everyone else in this place will be arrested." hawks continued, directing the conversation back to what it was before. "i'm sending a text to the police to prepare enough handcuffs right now. and if you don't comply, we'll have to resort to violence."

the demon slayers looked at them as if they grew another head.

"what the actually fuck are they going on about?" shinsou asked to no one in particular in disbelief. he couldn't believe the heros' behaviour. 

"and we'll bring shinsou in for questioning as well." endeavour said, arms crossed, eyes narrowed and glaring at the purple haired boy. shinsou glared back.

he knew he shouldn't have saved endeavour back then from the hands of a demon.

"illegal quirk usage? but we're quirkless. the whole corps is." one slayer pointed out, causing a few to scream in shock.

"and we are recognised by the government. you can't arrest us." another said to the heros among the chaos.

"what's...that?" ochako asked when a blue obi came flying into the room, aiming straight for shoto. mirko kicked it away, but the obi diverted towards mineta instead. endeavour burned it with fire but the obi was fine, until a slayer came a cut it with his sword using a breathing style.

"look, i think we've made it clear." hawks said as he directed his feathers at another incoming obi. "leave it to the proheros. stop putting your life in danger when you're not properly trained."

"and leave it to those with quirks." endeavour snarled. "just because you couldn't make it to a hero school doesn't justify you becoming vigilantes, you know?" he pushed past the slayers and released a blast of fire towards to incoming obies.

the slayers were shocked. they never expected the number one hero to be quirkist. the other proheros and the students were equally shocked.

the smoke that came along with endeavour's fire blast finally cleared and the one responsible for the obi attacks appeared. it was a female demon dressed similarly to daki. 

"would you look at that. a feast all laid out for me!" the demon smirked, sending out her obi to attack. 

"get behind us!" aizawa yelled out as the proheros pushed past the students and slayers, in a stance to fight. aizawa used eraser of the demon while ysing his capture tape to fight the incoming obi, hawks, mirko and endeavour all combatting the obi strips.

"huh?" aizawa asked, activating and deactivating eraser. "why doesn't my quirk cancel hers...? her quirk should be something related to the obi and since i'm looking at her shouldn't her quirk be erased?"

one of the slayers jumped in and cut up all of the incoming obi, stopping the attack. "attack the demon!" he yelled as his teammates nodded, going straight for the demon.

"hey! get back! it's dangerous!" hawks yelled.

"i get that it's a villian, but do we really have to dehumanise them by calling them demons?" iida asked at the same time, hands chopping. he was one of the many there who did not believe in the existence of demons.

the demon smirked as she listed up her head, her eyeballs with the kranji of 'upper moon five' engraved in it glimmered with danger.

"it's upper five! be careful!" a slayer pulled his friend back and countered the incoming obi. 

"upper five's been replaced already?"

"what is this bullshit?" endeavour snarled. "let's take care of this villian now, arrest her and these seven vigilantes and get out of here." 

"oh my gosh. big talk for a mere human!" the demon laughed. "what makes you think you can defeat me? my teacher was the all ppwerful ex-upper moon six daki!" she unleashed a large scale attack from her sash tied around her waist, coming out of it like a spider going straight for its target.

it went straight for the students and shoto burned one and froze another, mineta threw his sticky ball at it in attempt to keep it stuck somewhere so that it would no longer be a threat. kaminari and mina shot some electricity and acid at the obi slashes respectively and midoriya tried to punch it or use blackwhip to stop it. tokoyami summoned dark shadow to help him and momo made a sword after seeing that swords could be used. bakugo used his explosions, jirou used her ultimate move to emplify her heartbeat and tsuyu used her tongue to pull anyone out of danger

they succeeded, and the obi sashes retreated.

the students's guard was up as they looked around and noticed that the pros were not having any luck with arresting the villian.

the slayers were also having trouble. the heros were getting in their way of trying to behead the demon. since it was and upper moon, they all knew that they had to kill it as fast as possible. they aimed straight for the neck, but a hero would appear and try to stop the demon using their quirks, making it hard for the slayers to land a hit. 

endeavour eventually unleashed a large blast of fire at the demon, which charred the surrounding walls and floors. 

the demon blinked, sighing. "ah, i guess i left my guard down." she said, her face regenerating to good as new, the burn marks disappearing on her face, but the one on her arm was taking a little longer, considering that that arm had taken most of the blow. 

she pulled her arm off impatiently, and the watching heros gasped.

a new arm popped up shortly and the demon smirked. 

"why are you doing this?" midoriya asked, trying to buy more time for the proheros. "why be a villian? did society fail you?"

"why? because," the demon smirked arrogantly. "strong, beautiful demons can do anything. daki taught me that. and i'm gonna get revenge for her becase she was killed!"

the heros and students gasped at the self proclamation that she was a demon.

"so demons...are real?" ochako asked. 

"of course! we've been around since forever! i've lived for centuries! and now i'm finally strong enough to join  the upper moons!"

sweat dripped down the hero's faces.

what exactly were they dealing with?

"time to get serious-" the demon suddenly seemed to dodge something as a dark coloured blur just as more obi sashes were released. her head was cut down the middle amd the demon blood splattered onto the ground.

everyone was in shock, until the cries on the demon slayers were heard. 

"hashira! thank goodness you are here! we did our best to protect them!"

shinsou looked on. that figure was familiar...eiko! his friend was alive!

"sorry for arriving so late." she apologised, swinging the demon blood off. she wore small smile, her eyes still slightly red. "thank you for protecting them. you did your best. now continue to protect them. i'll be incharge of killing upper five."

-

eiko parted ways with gyomei and sanemi, the two going on to muzan. she had explained the situation to them and they exchanged good lucks and left. 

shiyo came flying down and landed on her shoulder, giving her the directions and a piece of paper which she stuck on her forehead, another one on his own forehead. 

"wow." she was surprised at what a singular piece of paper could do. "i'm sharing vision with you? thank you shiyo!" 

shiyo simply cawed in response.

they soon entered the room and eiko was filled with anger. 

how dare this demon threaten the lives of so many young fiften year olds and the innocent lives of the four heros and the seven slayers?

so she unsheathed her sword after a quick examination of the demon and jumped in.

she saw how the demon used obi sashes to attack and heard about daki. 'okay so this demon would most likely have a obi sash that makes it hard for the head to be cut off...'

she tested this theory, cutting off the demon's head.

and she was right.

"tokito?!" aizawa yelled. 

"tokito san...what happened to you?" tokoyami asked worridly as the whole class observed her appearance. scratches and cuts decorated her entire body, especially her face and her legs. she had a hole at the side of her uniform from the stab wound from kokushibo, and the white bandage underneath was stained red. dried blood surrounded the wounds, but her head had this gash where blood was still in the process of drying. and of coirse, her eyes were still a little red, her demon slayer mark was still there, and the paper shiyo gave her was stuck onto her forehead.

the demon snarled. "hashira? i'll kill you!" obi sashes were released, but eiko easily combatted them, having prior knowledge on how to defeat this type of demon from her fight with daki and her conversation with tanjirou about the fight after they both recovered.

the only difference was that now, she had people to protect in this fight. if the demon got her hands on any of them, she would lose immediately. so...

"bring the heros aside." 

"hai eiko sama!"

"you won't get away!" the demon yelled, eight obi sashes appearing from behind her back from the sash around her waist, aiming straight for the heros who were moving to the side.

"we have to help her!" midoriya said. "we're heros in training! heros help others!"

"you'll be more of a nuisance if you don't stay here. eiko sama doesn't need a bunch of people in her way of defeating the demon! you'll only bring trouble!" one of the slayers snapped. let's call him sam.

"yah, why do you call her eiko sama? and why do you call her hashira? what's that even?" bakugo asked.

"because she's a higher rank than us." sam explained. "hashiras are the ten highest ranking swordsmen in the corps. they are the most powerful sword masters in all of the demon slayer corps." 

"huh?! there's no way that quirkless murderer is a-" 

"shut it mineta!"

they watched as eiko skillfully cut off the demon's obi sashes, their conversation clearly being heard. 

"so a upper moon six copycat?" eiko asked with an eyebrow raised. 

"copycat?! no! daki's my teacher."

"oh, good for me then, i've got experience killing demons like you. moon breathing, first form: dark moon evening palace!" 

the demon dodge, her arm being cut off as she launched her sashes towards eiko and the students. 

"you killed daki?! i'm gonna kill you! i'll grab a marechi and eat it! then i'll be way more powerful!" she laughed out, hand slowly regenerating.

eiko jumped, two out of eight of the sashes going after her. she cut them up, and ran after the other six. 

midoriya had the great idea to try and jump in to punch the sashes away after seeing that they were coming straight for his friends.

but before he could die from the sashes, he was kicked away. "sam, catch him. sorry midoriya." eiko jumped infront of the students, narrowly stopping the sash from hitting momo in the head, getting slashed across the chest herself, falling to the ground and coughing out blood.

blood still seeped through her crumbled and already bloodied uniform.

"tokito!" they yelled in worry and horror. eiko coughed violently, eventually using her sword to dig into the ground, pushing herself up shaky knees. she got up and held her sword out, battle stance ready. 

midoriya was caught and yelled at by the slayers for interfearing even though he had good intentions. 

"move away hashira!" the demon yelled, the intensity of her attacks increasing, as eiko put her entire focus into combatting them. as soon as any obi sash would go for a student, she would have cut it off immediately, her reaction speed unmatched thanks to all the training she did.

the adrenaline from the constant fights ran through her veins. she had been slashing for non-stop. the wounds on her body had dried, peaving dry, crusty scabs in place of the red, wet oozijg blood. 

with the other demon slayers helping her in making sure the heros and students were safe, she went full out. the only injury she got was another scratch on her arm.

that's when she decided to end things, recalling how tanjirou fought daki when all of her obi sashes were targeting him.

she leapt around, gathering the sashes together with curved slashes and pierced through them all at one go one when they were gathered in a stack.

the demon struggled. "...what?" she tugged at her obi sashes, trying to get back her weapon, but eiko pressed her sword down into the ground further. "how is she still so powerful? how does she have so much strength? she should be dying off blood loss!"

eiko bent her knees and pushed off.

"moon breathing, ninth form: waning moonswaths." she performed multiple curved slashes, cutting up the obi sashes as she got closer and closer to the demon's head, the crescent moon blades she left in her path slashing up the sashes even more, making it harder for the demon to regenerate. 

she went with such speed and power, which was enhanced by the demon slayer mark, that the demon had a hard time keeping up with her.

the demon's eyes widened as she toughened her neck and tried to use her trick to prevent decappitation, but eiko was prepared. she leapt oven the demon, her precense disappearing due to the help of the paper on jer forehead, leaving the demon confjsed as she stopped toughening up her neck.

she look around, trying to figure out where eiko had gone, when she felt the cold blade against her neck, and felt the obi keeping her neck from flying off being ripped when more force was applied. 

"huh? my head...? i've been decapitated...?" the demon muttered as the reality hit her. "no! this can't be!"

her head hit the ground. 

"new upper five was a lot weaker than ex upper six?" eiko wondered why her fight with this demon was way easier than with the two demon siblings even though it was a higher rank. "eh, whatever. i'm not complaining." she flicked the blood off her sword and sheathed it, walking away from the demon's disintergrating body.

"eiko, are you okay?" shinsou asked.

"i'm...i'm fine." she lied. she looked at the students and proheros' traumatised faces and sighed. "i am so sorry you had to witness and experience a demon attack and it being killed. i will pay for all of you guys therapy if needed. once again, very sorry. no one deserves to witness such things in their entire lifetime." eiko bowed.

"tokito, are you really okay?" aizawa asked shakily. it was the first time in his entire career as a prohero that he had felt so helpless and terrified of the villian, or demon in this case.

"yeah, are you not scared?" 

"why would i be?" eiko smiled, masking her true feelings. "i've trained for this since i was young. this is my job. now, we must get you out of here and i must leave."

"why do you do this?"  kirishima asked. "why don't you just join yuuei and be a hero? it's less life threatening!"

eiko snorted at that. "less life threatening? what a lie. besides. as if yuuei would let a quirkless in."

"you got in though?"

"i was assigned a mission to protect 1A. kanao with 1B. now, if you excuse me for a moment." she pulled out here first aid kit and pulled out another bandage, turning away and lifting up her shirt to reveal the bloodied bandage around her waist. she then realise that she could be seen and went behind a nearby pillar, changing the dressing and wrapping the wound on her chest behind the pillar.

those who saw the bloodied bandage gasped.

eiko returned to the slayer and heros not so civilly conversing, the slayers and endeavour glaring at each other as the students bombarded shinsou with questions. she opened her mouth to speak when the ground shook.

"caw caw! muzan has revived! the pillars must gather at once!" a direct order from kiriya, the new oyakata sama, was given through a crow.

"shit. we need to get you out of here now." if muzan's strength could be felt from where she was in his mere revival, how powerful was he going to be?

she felt the ground tremble as squeaks were heard from the floors, doors and walls all around them. "caw! mission for the moon hashira! from oyakata sama! protect the students and heros!"

"the fortress is about to collapse!" she saw through the paper (idk how these papers actually work) and saw from a flying crow that muzan had killed the demon controlling the fortress.

the whole fortress started trembling and shaking and they screamed.

eiko thought hard. "think, eiko! quick or everyone will die!"

the wooden floors and doors of the infinity fortress so disappeared as the heros, students and slayers began falling.

"shit shit shit!" eiko screamed in frustration as they fell. the demon slayers would be okay, but there was no guarantee that the heros and students would survive. 

"todoroki!" she yelled above the chaos and managed to get his attention mid air. "are soon she got an idea. "make an ice platform! now!" she saw him nod and reply with a nod. 

a voice rang out, clearly heard throughout their fall. "muzan, you have committed the heaviest sin in the world. you took tamayo sama away from me! i'll make you kneel in regret! from here on, i will drive you above ground!"

a tall ice tower sprounted from the ground, as the temperature dropped and the heros landed one by one, some on their feet, some on their butts, some using their quirks to aid them in landing.

"all of you, stay here until the battle had ended, unless we bring him away from this place, or it is absolutely necessary. if i see anyone coming down from this tower, i will personally come up here and stab you so you cannot move and is forced to stay here. understand?"

they gulped and nodded.

"alright then. let's go." she gestured to the slayers.

"can't you not go?" shinsou asked the question he knew the obvious answer to. he didn't want to lose one of his closest friends. 

a memory flashed through her brain as that question.

"mummy, must you really go?" a young eiko asked her mother as she wore her haori, ready to go out on patrol. "daddy hasn't even returned." 

her mother took a deep breath. "ei, i'm a hashira. we must carry out our duties, or the innocent will suffer." 

that was the last time she saw her mother.

"shinsou, i'm a hashira, and we mist carry out our duties, or the innocent will suffer."

"then promise me. promise me that you'll stay alive?"

"i'm sorry, i can't. but i'll try. i'll try my best. now i must go. my fellow hashiras need me."

eiko turned and jumped down the ice tower, landing nimbly on her feet. she pulled her sword out in preparation, taking in a deep breath, dazhing straight into the ongoing battle.

"moon breathing, fourteenth form: catastrophe, tenman crescent moon!"