"It's not over!"
Rui let out a low, guttural roar. At this moment, he could feel the threat to his life closing in. The calm, almost gentle expression he wore at the beginning had long since twisted into something hideous—befitting, really, because he was a demon.
As he spoke, the blood within his body surged into the spider threads with reckless abandon. His hands were drenched in red, as if he were wearing gloves woven from his own blood.
His Blood Demon Art flared to its limit, coating every thread with a faint, luminescent sheen—maddeningly beautiful, and lethally sharp.
In this state, his threads were tougher than steel.
Web after web wove across the forest, dense and suffocating, layer upon layer pressing toward Okane Kichiro. Meanwhile, Rui himself continued to withdraw, widening the distance. Against an opponent like this, close-quarters was far too risky.
"Water Breathing, Ninth Form—Splashing Water Flow, Turbulent!"
Okane Kichiro tapped lightly against the ground and vanished.
From afar, he looked like he was gliding through the air—light, weightless, fluid.
A closer look revealed the truth: every step he took was as brief and delicate as a water-skipping stone. He barely touched the ground—a whisper of contact, a flash of movement—so fast it created the illusion of flight.
Speed and rotation—that was the essence.
No matter how fast Rui manipulated his webs, they could not catch him. Each attack appeared only a hair's breadth away from slicing through Okane Kichiro—yet every time, he was already gone.
Just a phantom.
Just a ripple.
Seeing Okane Kichiro closing in with such impossible speed, Rui panicked. Blood-soaked threads erupted from the ground, sweeping outward in a massive circle. His fingers danced, pulling the strands into a rotating structure—a spinning, suffocating cage.
"Blood Demon Art—Killing Web Cage!"
Blood is the wellspring of a demon's power, and Blood Demon Arts are born through blood itself. To unleash techniques of this scale consecutively—even for a Lower Rank demon—came at a steep cost. Rui's breathing had turned ragged.
Dodging alone was no longer enough.
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form—Constant Flux!"
Okane Kichiro's footwork did not change. He maintained the same airborne, gliding rhythm of Splashing Water Flow—but now, his upper body moved with fluid, spiraling motion. The Nichirin Blade danced with him, tearing open a path.
He broke through the cage—through blood, through steel, through inevitability.
"Impossible!"
Rui's shrill cry echoed across the forest. He had fought enough Demon Slayers to understand the basics of their techniques. Never—not once—had he seen someone use two different Water Breathing forms at the same time.
Even within the same Breathing Style, each form required a different rhythm, a different flow of power.
Splashing Water Flow focused on footwork—rapid, continuous steps that required high-frequency breathing concentrated in the lower body.
Constant Flux relied on rotational momentum—upper-body strength and breath synchronized with the spinning arc of the blade.
To combine both?
Not multitasking.
Not talent.
A miracle.
This level of control was the consequence of Okane Kichiro's Transparent World—absolute awareness, absolute precision, and inhuman concentration. Only with that could he adjust his breathing instantaneously, fusing the two forms into one seamless technique.
Even in the original canon, Tanjiro had momentarily achieved something similar—transitioning mid-form from Constant Flux into Hinokami Kagura. Though only possible once, it proved the concept: form fusion existed.
But to execute it repeatedly?
To maintain it?
To weaponize it?
Only Okane Kichiro could do that now.
In just a few seconds, he was already in front of Rui. The blade hovered, ready to fall. Rui knew with certainty—his neck would not withstand that strike.
"Die!!"
Rui yanked both hands back, snapping dozens of threads tight.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form—Whirlpool!"
Still midair, Okane Kichiro shifted his grip. Using the momentum from Constant Flux, he twisted his body, the Nichirin Blade dragging every thread aside—violently, decisively.
The whirlpool's force even pulled Rui toward him.
Off-balance, helpless, Rui's neck aligned perfectly with Okane Kichiro's descending blade.
His head rolled.
(Good thing I cut my own head off first!)
Rui's severed head tumbled across the ground, eyes fixed on Okane Kichiro—filled with fear, venom, disbelief.
This man wasn't a Pillar, yet had the strength of one.
(But this is the end! I still win!!)
Rui's body, still standing, raised a hand behind Okane Kichiro. Threads churned in his palm, condensing into a final killing blow.
"Blood Demon Art—Wh—"
He never finished.
Okane Kichiro cleaved him straight down the middle—body and technique split cleanly.
"I knew something felt off. You reacted fast."
He spoke calmly. He had been waiting for the notification from the Paradise System. Without it, there was no way Rui was truly dead.
"Now then… how should I kill you?"
Okane Kichiro chopped Rui's body into multiple pieces—just in case—then picked up the severed head.
Demon lore was simple:
A demon doesn't die because the neck is weak.
A demon dies because the Nichirin Blade severs the connection between consciousness and body.
If the head is removed by anything other than a Nichirin Blade, the demon won't die. Some can even grow twisted limbs from the head alone.
However, losing the body drains most of their blood, lowering their power. Demons almost never choose to discard their bodies.
"What are you doing?" Rui's voice trembled—for the first time. The curiosity in Okane Kichiro's eyes terrified him.
"Just running a little experiment."
"Wait! No—stop! STOOOOP!!"
Screams filled the forest—raw, violent, echoing for a long, long time. Then, at last… silence.
It took far more effort to kill this Lower Rank Five than expected.
As it turns out, yes—smashing a demon's head into tiny pieces does kill them.
It's just… excessively gruesome.
Not ideal for a heroic persona.
Next time, Okane Kichiro decided, he should really stick to cutting necks.
If someone else saw this, they'd definitely misunderstand.
[Slayed an Upper-level Demon – Reward: 2000 Paradise Coins]
[You obtained: Treasure Chest (Deep Blue)]
[You have slain Rui, one of the Twelve Kizuki]
[Main Quest complete. You may return to Paradise for reward settlement, or remain until mission time ends.]
[NO]
It was far too early to return. At the very least, he needed to kill a few more Kizuki to boost his quest rewards.
"Treasure chests? Seriously?!"
Okane Kichiro's eyes lit up. He quickly picked up the palm-sized key on the ground and stored it.
Then, of course—there was the storage space. A complete scam.
Only ten slots.
Each slot holds exactly one item.
Size limits: one cubic meter per slot.
Anything bigger must use another slot.
And only Paradise-certified items count.
Thankfully, the dropped key didn't need certification—one rare moment of normalcy from the Paradise System.