Chapter 159: Dominating the Heroes x Roy's Sermon
Wind Breathing?
It was him... Eiichiro Kamado!
A sudden typhoon rose from the ground, snatching the teru teru bozu hanging from the eaves. The wind snapped the string and sent both the doll and Sanemi Shinazugawa flying into the sky!
"How do you know Wind Breathing?!"
It was noon, the sun shining brightly. The white-haired youth landed in a whirlwind, eyes wide with fury, staring Roy up and down. He voiced the question on everyone's mind.
Everyone knew the boy was the disciple of the former Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki, and the junior brother of the current Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka. But no one had heard anything about him switching schools to learn Wind Breathing. Many stole glances at Giyu.
Giyu Tomioka remained his usual stoic self, his expression unreadable.
From the day he met Eiichiro, he knew his junior brother could do anything, and it wouldn't be surprising. Even if...
One day, Eiichiro suddenly told him, "Senpai, I killed Muzan Kibutsuji!"
Giyu would probably just think it was natural. Surprised, yes, but not making a fuss like everyone else. He said coldly, "Wind Breathing is nothing special."
Sanemi Shinazugawa glared. Tengen Uzui, Obanai Iguro, and the other Hashira looked at Giyu. Expressionless, Giyu continued, "Back then, Eiichiro practiced Water Breathing with Master for only one day, and the next day he was creating his own forms. Learning Wind Breathing now isn't strange at all."
"Senpai knows me well." Roy stroked his training blade, drawing it for the first time. He smiled warmly. "However, it's not that exaggerated."
The boy flourished his blade. "All variations return to the source. Breathing Styles, in my view, are the same... Water, Wind... once you master the rhythm and rules of 'breath control', you naturally learn them."
Fundamentally, Breathing Styles are about oxygen intake, strengthening cardiopulmonary function to enhance combat performance. Plus, Roy had the foundational 'Sun Breathing' as a base. Learning other styles was easy.
"What about 'Sun'?"
Suddenly, Muichiro Tokito, who often spaced out, asked a question. His innocent eyes reflected the boy's fiery hair. He stared at Roy. "What Breathing Style do you use?"
An invisible, impenetrable wall... stealing Sanemi's techniques mid-battle, seemingly mastering 'Wind'... and as Giyu's junior brother, having already learned 'Water'...
Muichiro watched curiously. The teru teru bozu drifted down with the wind, and Roy caught it one-handed. A brief silence fell.
Kyojuro Rengoku watched... Tengen Uzui watched... Obanai Iguro, Mitsuri Kanroji, even Shinobu Kocho, who usually wasn't interested in combat and only cared about making poisons to kill Douma, watched...
"Namu Amida Butsu..." Gyomei Himejima had taken Amane's place supporting Kagaya Ubuyashiki. Kagaya smiled gently. Though he couldn't see, his ears perked up. He thought wistfully, 'It is truly regrettable not to witness the boy's grace...'
Whoosh~ A gust of wind blew, scattering more wisteria petals. Sanemi Shinazugawa regulated his breathing and gripped his Nichirin Blade again. He had learned his lesson; no more reckless charging.
Roy toyed with the teru teru bozu and smiled. "Good question."
He casually tossed the doll, hanging it securely back under the eaves. Then, he slowly raised his training blade. What can I do?
Wherever the sun shines, it enters my eyes, enters my heart, and is perceived by me...
For example... the ubiquitous [Magnetism].
Roy pressed his blade down... [Gravitational Blade]!
Nen transformed into magnetism, coating the blade, instantly turning [Purple]. Sanemi felt his blade grow heavy, then his hands, shoulders, back... like a giant boulder had slammed onto his head. His knees buckled, and he nearly knelt!
Voom... The training blade shimmered with purple light, outshining even the perennial wisteria flowers.
It swept across instantly. Following Sanemi, Kyojuro Rengoku... Tengen Uzui... Obanai Iguro. Apart from Giyu Tomioka and the Ubuyashiki couple protected behind Gyomei Himejima, almost everyone suddenly felt a mountain-like downward pressure on them.
Forcing them, one by one, to bend their straight backs!
"So heavy!"
"What Breathing Style is this?"
Hiss— Kaburamaru shrieked as it was slammed to the ground!
"Serpent Breathing, First Form: Winding Serpent Slash!"
Obanai Iguro drew his blade, attempting to cut through the bizarre "downward pressure." Unlike the others, the Serpent Breathing blade, derived from Water Breathing, was even more flexible, curved like a wave. But slashing out, he suddenly realized... why Sanemi couldn't even lift his blade in front of the boy. It was simply... too heavy!
"Don't draw your swords in front of him!"
Sanemi, bearing the brunt of the pressure, gradually realized something. He shouted a warning to the others.
Too late. Kyojuro Rengoku, Tengen Uzui... even Mitsuri Kanroji and Shinobu Kocho instinctively drew their blades. In a flash, it was too late. Roy raised a hand... [Magnetism: Attract]!
Clang... One by one, the Nichirin Blades tore free from the Hashiras' hands as if rebelling. Driven by Roy, thud... thud... thud...
A series of thuds echoed as they pinned themselves to the courtyard wall behind Roy!
In the end, they were mortal bodies. Enhanced by Breathing Styles, they were superior to ordinary humans, but in terms of physical stats, except for Gyomei's innate strength, they couldn't withstand a powerful Nen user tempered by Nen abilities. Let alone Roy.
The boy stood in white, his fiery hair spirited. Asking himself, or perhaps contemplating... What else can I do?
He rubbed the training blade... Shoot to kill, [Shinso]!
Swish~ The purple faded, gravity vanished. Just as the Hashira were straightening up, gasping for breath... they saw...
The ordinary training blade in Roy's hand suddenly extended. In the blink of an eye, it crossed a hundred meters, grazed past Sanemi's ear, pierced the wall behind him, and incidentally... cut off a lock of his white hair.
Sanemi looked at the blade sideways. For only the second time in his life, he felt fear. The first was when his mother turned into a demon, and he killed her to protect his brother Genya. Since then... he had walked a path of slaughtering demons, becoming more violent than the demons themselves!
As for... the Sun!
The hundred-meter-long blade spanned nearly half the courtyard.
The boy looked up at the sun climbing to its zenith. Twin suns fwoosh ignited in his pupils. He whispered, "Fire, come!"
The long blade turned red in one second, ignited in two, erupted with raging flames in three, and turned white-hot in four. It singed Sanemi's white hair, forcing the young man to retreat, unable to withstand the heat, patting out the embers.
"This is... Sun Breathing?" Kyojuro Rengoku's fiery eyes burst with unprecedented light. As the user of "Flame Breathing," the closest derivative to "Sun Breathing," his nose twitched. He could clearly smell...
Just how hot the white-cored flame wrapping the hundred-meter blade truly was!
The Flame Hashira, usually as warm and enthusiastic as a big brother to everyone, spoke with rare obsession. Including Sanemi Shinazugawa and Obanai Iguro, all the Hashira narrowed their eyes. They clearly knew what the words "Sun Breathing" meant!
"I heard this legendary Breathing Style was lost long ago. I didn't expect to see the real thing today..." Shinobu Kocho watched silently, her eyes gleaming. Beside her, Tengen Uzui, stripped of his dual blades, felt uncomfortable all over. Yet he had to admit... "Uncuttable," "Unable to draw a blade in his presence," "Unleashing a legendary Breathing Style at the drop of a hat"... the boy was far more flamboyant than his own sparkly outfit!
"I think that's enough." The heat wave rolled out. Closer... about to scorch the teru teru bozu. Roy sheathed his sword.
Clang~ The blade shrank, the flames extinguished, quietly returning to the scabbard.
The boy smiled at everyone. He didn't even raise his hand, just said, "Return."
The Nichirin Blades, seemingly having communicated with Roy's spirit, obeyed his will, pulling free from the wall and flying back into the hands of the Hashira.
Gyomei Himejima chanted a Buddha's name. "Is that sufficient, everyone?"
Sanemi Shinazugawa... Obanai Iguro... fell silent. At this point, it wasn't about whether the boy would drag them down, but... they had to seriously consider whether they would drag Roy down if they acted together.
In short, the Ubuyashiki estate, having weathered a storm, finally returned to its usual tranquility.
Inside the main house, Kagaya Ubuyashiki had Amane bring cushions for everyone. Amane, a former priestess, respectfully approached Roy and invited him to sit.
The boy didn't stand on ceremony, sitting down openly. Listening to Kagaya discuss the recent movements of the Twelve Kizuki and the investigation into the causes... Roy thought of the demon face disguised as a child he had seen through the Swamp Demon. He spoke up. "He's looking for me."
"You've seen Muzan Kibutsuji?"
Sanemi, Shinobu... everyone looked over.
Roy didn't speak. He immediately activated [Deception]. In a flash, he transformed into the "young boy" appearance Muzan used.
The Hashira: "..."
They exchanged bewildered glances.
Sitting in the lower right corner of the corridor, far from Roy, Sanemi almost thought he'd encountered another demon using a Blood Demon Art. He nearly drew his sword, but stopped himself just in time, remembering the hundred-meter flaming blade. He calmly withdrew his hand.
This was the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, and the boy was the suspected user of the legendary "Sun Breathing." He couldn't be a demon!
Seeing Giyu, Gyomei, and the Master so calm, as if they had seen the boy use such methods before, Sanemi suppressed his temper and kept his mouth shut.
"I saw him twice a few days ago."
Once through the Swamp Demon, once through the Eye Demon... Roy explained truthfully. He transformed again, searching his memory. Following the original story, he transformed into the geisha guise Muzan used in the Red Light District to investigate the Blue Spider Lily...
Then Muzan disguised as a wealthy merchant, the form he had when he first encountered Tanjiro on the streets of Tokyo...
Then the form he would take in the future when he came to the Ubuyashiki estate in person to take Nezuko, lured by Kagaya...
He changed, and changed... and changed again. Even Giyu, Gyomei, and Kagaya, who had seen [Deception] before, couldn't help but marvel internally. If the boy didn't have such a strong "human scent," someone who didn't know better might really treat him as a demon.
Finally, Roy stopped transforming, maintaining Muzan's original appearance. "That is Muzan Kibutsuji as I have seen him... He is cunning and cowardly. Since the Twelve Kizuki are moving, he has likely summoned them for a meeting. As for the target of that meeting..."
Roy canceled [Deception], reverting to his original appearance, and smiled. "It should be me."
Everyone was silent. Gyomei clasped his hands and looked at Kagaya. "Master."
Kagaya sat on his cushion, ripples in his pale eyes. He listened quietly, pondered for a moment, and listed several incidents of people being eaten...
"The Tokyo Red Light District Cannibalism Case..."
"The Kanagawa Village Massacre..."
"The Mugen Train Disappearances..."
"Eiichiro..." Kagaya "looked" at Roy with his sightless eyes. "You are right. Muzan Kibutsuji is creating death traps to lure you in."
"But he doesn't need to create three traps at once, does he? Wouldn't one be enough?" Mitsuri scratched her head, stealing a glance at Roy.
Kagaya said calmly, "He is cunning. He never puts all his eggs in one basket. If I'm not mistaken, whichever of these three traps Eiichiro chooses, there will be an Upper Moon lying in ambush behind it. And..."
Kagaya paused, his voice heavy. "Likely more than one!"
"..." The Hashira fell silent. The room plunged into a dead silence. The Demon Slayer Corps had killed many demons over the years, even occasionally harvesting a Lower Moon, but...
Since Kagaya took power, counting back several generations, they hadn't killed a single Upper Moon. This showed just how terrifyingly strong the Upper Moons were.
Moreover, many present had personal vendettas against the Upper Moons. Like Shinobu with Douma... With the deep hatred of her sister's death, just hearing Kagaya mention it made the Hashira's hearts heavy. Shinobu's breathing grew ragged with emotion.
"Then kill them all!" Sanemi said roughly.
Kagaya didn't look at him, facing Roy instead, seeming to wait for something.
The boy said nonchalantly, "Then let's start with the Mugen Train. Kill them all."
On that day, the meeting ended.
At the same time, he tried to start preaching in the Demon Slayer world...
His first glance fell on Kyojuro Rengoku.
☆☆☆
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