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Demon Slayer Chronicles: Namahage Sedo

by ThAtGuY101

ThAtGuY101 Happy spooky month! This is a stand alone episode to the series... A filler episode, a term the uneducated might be able to relate to... I digress. In this episode. Kishi along with many other people celebrate the japanese festival known as Namahage Sedo. One of his future students is a young boy named Dolan Larch. Dolan isn't a demon slayer yet though. he's still a young boy. You might be wondering, what's Namahage Sedo? Yes? I'm glad you didn't ask, because I'll give you a brief description of the festival in the story.
According to this tale, Emperor Wu came from China with five bats, looking to find a medicinal plant. This plant was the key ingredient in an elixir of immortality. Fortunately, the bats shapeshifted into demons and worked non-stop to find the plant. Eventually, they became burnt out and asked for some time off.

Emperor Wu let them take off on the “15th of the New Year”. Much to his chagrin, the demons really let loose. They went down to the nearest village and “stole crops, animals, and even young girls.” The angry villagers proposed the following deal to Emperor Wu.

“If the demons could make a thousand stone steps from the beach to Goshado shrine, located on the summit of the mountain, in a single night before the roosters crowed, they would offer a girl to them every year. If they could not, the demons were never to return.”

Contrary to the villagers’ expectations, the demons built the 999 steps well before dawn. In a last ditch effort to protect their home, the village commissioned their fool to imitate the rooster’s crow well ahead of time. Defeated, the demons ran away into the mountains, never to be seen again.

If you are interested in learning more about this festival there will be two links at the bottom of the written work.

I'll go ahead and start the story now...

It was nightfall when the festival began. It was fairly dark outside. Various village members sat outside waiting for the festival to start. Several men covered head to toe in straw could be seen walking down the mountainside with Deba-bocho(large chopping knives) and Gohei(sacred wooden wands decorated with paper streamer) in hand. an older man began chanting the festival ritual. This older man was none other than Kishi himself! Several other people in ceremonial garbs waved Gohei over the men.

Within moments Namahage masks were being presented to the men adorned in straw outfits. The masks were of various colors from red, to gray, to brown, but all of them were scary ogre-like masks that would scare most people. Kishi shot Dolan a nasty glare when he looked over, almost as if he were weeding him out of the crowd. Dolan nearly fell out of fear and nervousness.

These men would bow before recieving their masks ,and were presented the masks one at a time. Once the last person was presented a mask, they were now Namahage. These men began to stomp and thrash about ,and letting growls and roars in low rough voice. Most of the kids seemed scared to be sure, Dolan was no exception. In fact, he was probably one of the first of the kids to nearly scream. The Namahage would leave for a short while ,but the festival was far from over. loud drums could be heard, as well as chanting. Soon enough the rough troll-like roars could be heard but now their Gohei was set ablaze. As they headed towards the festival once more as they brandished their weapons they began to shout things like; :ARE THERE ANY CRYBABYS!?" "ARE THERE ANY DISRESPECTFUL CHILDREN!?" "ARE THERE ANY CHILDREN THAT DON'T LISTEN TO THEIR PARENTS?!" "ARE THERE ANY LAZY PEOPLE?!".

That was just a few things said. Dolan stood there too scared to move. He hadn't exactly been handling his chores like he was supposed to as of late ,and somewhat felt targeted. As the Namahage shouted, the sound of the beating drums seemed to be getting faster, then louder, and then faster again. The Namahage began walking past some of the people ,and continued to grunt and roar in harsh voices. Dolan especially fewlt targeted since a two of them made a point to single him out at the same time. They had a rather enjoyable feast afterwards. Most of the people seemed rather contempt with the festival. Dolan was more than happy to perform his chores like he was supposed to ,and nobody was harmed. Well nobody was physically harmed.

Here's a link to the website I used predominantly

Here is a second link I also gathered information from

and heres a brief youtube video if you'd like to see it.
~Rinko~ likes this.