Disclaimer: I do not own Demon Slayer : Kimetsu no Yaiba or any of its characters/story.

Hikaru, which is the name I chose for the Mother Spider Demon, is actually a male name. Whoops. I'll be keeping the name, but just ignore that fact and pretend that this is fine. Thanks.

XV: Hikaru

She wasn't very aware at the time, but behind Nezuko was both Shinobu and Giyuu Tomioka, a man who she had met a few times but not many. Supposedly he was the person who recruited Tanjiro into the Demon Slayers.

But Kanao only stared at Nezuko, who was supposed to be in a coma. It was a miracle that she was even awake, so why was she here, at a place that practically screamed "Danger"?

Her amethyst eyes then turned to the gun in the girl's hands. If she wasn't mistaken, that was a Demon Slayer-issued pistol. Tanjiro said that his sister was gentle and kind, so why would she have a weapon made for destruction? She felt as though she was trying to complete a puzzle when she only had a few pieces to work with. Nothing clicked together.

Realizing that the fight couldn't be over yet, Kanao whipped her gaze to Rui, who was already shaking off his shock. So he was clearly more powerful than the other low-level Mafia members in the mansion.

The silver-haired boy's leg was bleeding profusely, but he didn't appear to care. If anything, he just looked more battle-ready. Kanao did a quick mental inventory check, taking note that she had six standard knives plus Kanae's blade, but no ammo for either of her guns. She had her disguised hard drive for information, plus a few spare tools that wouldn't be particularly useful at the time being.

Narrowing her eyes and taking out both Kanae's dagger and the standard knife, she faced her new enemy. Keeping her guard up and never turning her back from Rui, she carefully made her way to Tanjiro. Taking some of the bandages that she had hidden in a small skirt pocket, she crouched next to him.

After she gave him the bandages for his shoulder, he quietly gave her some ammo. Leave it to him to figure out what it was she needed. Part of their training was a situation similar to this, but both knew that you were supposed to train your gun on the enemy as you approached them. He must have noticed that since she didn't have it out, she didn't have any ammunition. While bluffing and holding out her gun anyway could have worked, it was a risky plan that she didn't want to try.

Loading her pistol, she stood and began walking in a large circle around Rui. In her peripheral vision, she could see Shinobu and Giyuu standing at the ready in case anything went wrong.

Nezuko slowly began moving towards her brother. Kanao caught her eyes, which were a mysterious pink colour. A silent understanding came between the two, and Kanao changed tactics so that she was covering Nezuko as the girl moved to help Tanjiro.

Rui seemed to notice this, and without warning dashed past both girls and began attacking Tanjiro instead. "The one with the flame-like scar isn't allowed to live." His monotone voice, young sounding since he was still a child, cut through the tense atmosphere.

At that instant, many things happened at once.

The first was that Nezuko began running quicker towards her brother, panic spreading across her pale face.

The second; Shinobu turned to Giyuu, and after a brief second the two seemed to have come up with a plan to both get Tanjiro to safety and defeat Rui.

The third was in the form of a silver-haired girl, who leaped between the two teachers and Tanjiro. The girl must have been a member of the Aranea family. Perhaps something Rui said could have been a signal for her to come out?

The fourth was Kanao. Time seemed to slow down as she stood, needing to make a choice or be given her orders. Does she go after Tanjiro like Nezuko? Does she help her sister and Giyuu with the girl who just appeared? Does she aim and shoot at Rui, hoping that she doesn't miss and hit Tanjiro instead? Everything seemed to spin around her, getting faster and faster.

My coin. I need my coin. But things were steadily speeding up, and there was no time. Her breathing got quicker as the decisions floated around her, needing her to pick the right one at the fear of someone she cares about dying because she made the wrong choice-

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About a Half-Hour ago...

After Kanao had pushed him out of the room, shutting the doors, Tanjiro stood a bit dumbfounded at her move. But instead of being given time to think, several Demons came around a turn and began walking in his direction, luckily not noticing him. Ducking behind a nearby couch, he silently examined the state of his equipment as he waited for the group before him to pass by.

He had seven knives and two guns with about half the original ammo. While he did have extra in his pockets, he didn't want to waste his shots.

Once the patrol of Demons turned another corner, Tanjiro stood and dashed to the nearest window. Opening it and jumping out the short distance, he found himself to be in the mansion's large garden. He didn't see anyone there, friend or foe, so he moved once again.

He took all of three steps before a bullet hit the ground at his feet.

"Don't move." A feminine and almost desperate-sounding voice rang out, Tanjiro threw his head up in the direction the shot came from, but he saw nothing. Knowing that someone must be there, he took another look. This time his deep red eyes landed on a tree with branches that moved a little bit unnaturally. Found you.

He trained his gun on a spot just next to the supposed sniper, and fired. He heard a small gasp, then a rustling of leaves as the person jumped down from their hiding spot.

It was the woman from before, who was talking on the stage before all the chaos ensued. Her name was… Hikaru, if he remembered correctly. Her long platinum blonde hair was blowing gently in the wind, and her flowing white dress had smudges of dirt because of climbing and hiding. While she did train her gun on him, he felt as though the action wasn't something she actually wanted to do, more so something she was ordered to accomplish. With this, he made a risky choice.

"You don't actually want to do this, do you." His words were less of a question and more of a statement.

Hikaru said nothing, her eyes wide at his unaggressive, almost kind tone.

"My friends and I previously fought the man who was apparently your husband. But I noticed something out of the ordinary." Zenitsu, Inosuke and himself indeed fought a tough battle against a man who had plates of armour under his clothes, making it difficult to pierce his skin. He had said at some point that his family and himself would kill all the people who oppose the Demons, or something along those lines.

"Neither you, nor your 'husband' have wedding rings. That, and Rui seemed to be the one in command of everyone, not you or your partner. Why is that?" Now Tanjiro was just going off of small bits of information he noticed, and his gut feeling. Despite that, his guess appeared to be correct.

Hikaru smiled sadly. "You are right, young Slayer. I do not wish to do this anymore. Rui is the one practically controlling us." Her voice was resigned and peaceful in a way, as if she was waiting for someone to guess her fate. "He recruited us into his 'family', ordering us to behave certain ways and change our appearances." She placed her gun hand at her side. "You might not know why I'm telling you all this," Her grip loosened on her weapon, a small clatter sounding as it dropped to the ground next to her. "But you'll understand later on."

That's when he realized it. She just wanted to be free. She didn't wish to fight, to kill. She knew that if she tried to live a normal life, if she tried to redeem herself, that she'd probably be killed in a more brutal way than what she wanted. And he knew what she was silently asking him to do.

Fishing a small vial out of his pocket, he walked towards her.

"This is a fast-acting poison. It guarantees little to no pain." Both of them heard the unsaid when it kills you. "Are you sure you want to…?" He trailed off.

"Yes. I'm sure." She carefully took and opened the vial. "Thank you. Be on your way, you have to help your comrades." Downing the contents of the vial in a few gulps, she slowly sat down against a nearby tree.

"I saw the girl you were with before running by me. She's… okay… heading in the… direction of Rui. Go, young… Slayer…"

They say Hikaru Aranea died with a peaceful smile on her face.

"Thank you. Rest in peace now." Tanjiro shakily walked towards a patch of flowers, picking a white one and bringing it back to the woman. He placed it in her hand, then ran off to find his friends.

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Present

Seeing Rui coming towards him, he rolled out of the way of a gunshot. His brain was still trying to get over the fact that Nezuko was out of her coma and helping him on his mission, but he tried to put off the thoughts for later. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shinobu and Giyuu taking out the other Aranea member, the other woman he saw previously on stage at the start of the whole event.

At least Rui wasn't attacking Nezuko or Kanao. But why him? He thought back to what the silver-haired boy had said before. The one with the flame-like scar isn't allowed to live.

He could dwell on why he was being hunted later on. Now, he had to take down Rui. Meeting the eyes of Kanao, he formulated a plan. While he didn't like the fact that he might have to put Nezuko in danger, he saw it as the only option available.

Dashing towards Rui, he began the battle.

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I'm tired. I spent half the day trying to write this over and over, with no actual good results. Over 2,000 words of me attempting to figure out what I was doing. But hey, this is the longest chapter in the book so far.

Anyway, I had a kind of "Alternate" version of the Hikaru/Tanjiro scene, one that would more suit an abridged version of the series than anything else;

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Hikaru smiled sadly. "You are right, young Slayer. I do not wish to do this anymore. Rui is the one practically controlling us." Her voice was resigned and peaceful in a way, as if she was waiting for someone to guess her fate. "He recruited us into his 'family', ordering us to behave certain ways and change our appearances." She placed her gun hand at her side. "You might not know why I'm telling you all this," Her grip loosened on her weapon, a small clatter sounding as it dropped to the ground next to her. "But…"

Tanjiro waited in anticipation, curious as to why she was revealing her secrets to him.

"I don't really know, either." She made a flat line with her mouth, shrugging. "I mean, whenever the villain of the story tells their plan and/or past to the hero, it means that said villain is going to get stopped and probably killed."

He blinked, confused. "If you knew you were going to get killed, why tell me everything anyway?"

"You tell me. Maybe it's because the author of this story," - Hikaru turned her eye to someplace Tanjiro couldn't see - "Needed a way to kill me off peacefully like I died in the original anime."

Cocking an eyebrow, he questioned what was happening. "Are you saying that this is to be a story?"

Once again she shrugged. "Maybe you get the ability to break the fourth wall if you're a side character that's about to die. Who knows?"

"Fourth wall? Do I even want to know what you're talking about now?"

"To be honest, no. You really don't." She picked up the gun she dropped, spinning it around on her finger. "Can you hurry up and kill me so you can go have a dramatic scene with your girlfriend and sister?"

"I- Huh?"

"Did I stutter? Come on and kill me, coward."

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