"What is this?"
Sanemi arrived at the foot of Mount Shaku and found a waterfall there, its spray billowing into the air.
Blazing flames had set all the surrounding trees alight, and at the center of it all, two figures were locked in battle.
On one side stood the puppet of the former Flame Hashira. On the other was Yajima Hina.
That girl, who had only just passed Final Selection this December, was actually crossing blades with the former Flame Hashira—and not even losing ground.
Something was wrong.
Sanemi frowned. Footsteps sounded behind him, and he spun around, only to find Sui standing there, eyes closed, a red-wood sheathed blade in hand.
"It's the cursed sword," Sui said.
But that was not what Sanemi cared about.
"You already killed that demon?"
Sui nodded calmly, showing no trace of grief. That, if anything, made Sanemi more uneasy. He was the eldest son in his own family too, with only one younger brother left alive. If one day his brother turned into a demon, Sanemi knew he would roar as he cut his head off, then clutch that severed head and curse him to hell. If there were no outlet for that kind of emotion, he thought he would go mad.
"That demon… was your sister, wasn't she?" Sanemi asked.
"Her name was Koka. My little sister." Sui nodded. "Don't overthink it, Sanemi. A demon is a demon. Even if she was once my family, she became a demon and committed unforgivable sins. Death was her only destination."
"But it still hurts, doesn't it?" Sanemi jabbed a finger toward her chest. His voice had gone strangely quiet, like the instant after a gale dies down, when the whole world falls silent and only one person is left speaking.
Sui blinked, then smiled faintly. "I didn't know you could sound like that, Sanemi. You're very gentle."
Sanemi scowled and instantly returned to normal. "Don't make that face, woman. If you want to cry, then cry. There's only a few of us here—nobody will know. And even if you don't cry, at least curse that bastard Muzan a few times! You didn't do anything wrong by killing your own kin. The one at fault is that damned Demon King!"
Seeing him wave his Nichirin Blade around in agitation, Sui let out a soft laugh.
"What?" Sanemi barked.
"You're cute," Sui said.
"What?"
"I didn't know you had such a cute side to you. I've learned something new."
With that, she stopped lingering and walked toward the steaming heart of the battlefield. Behind her, Sanemi finally processed her words and roared, "Hey! You damned woman, say that again! Cute? I'm the Wind Hashira!"
"He's trying to escape."
Sui drew Hachigū.
Terrifying heat rolled off Shinjuro's body, but the situation on the other side was even worse.
Yajima Hina had completely lost consciousness. Her eyes were now narrow, savage slits, and it was the sword that was driving her attacks and defense. No matter how one looked at it, that blade was hiding some terrible secret.
And with Sui and Sanemi's arrival, Shinjuro seemed to sense that the situation had turned against him. Instead of mindlessly continuing to tangle with Hina like a beast gone mad, he took several backward steps, reaching a position from which he could flee.
The wind Sanemi controlled caught that intent at once, and it made him realize all over again just how horrifying that fox demon's Blood Demon Art was.
A desecration of the dead. A puppet that could still retain the swordsmanship—and even combat instinct—it had possessed in life. In an instant it had already determined the optimal path of retreat.
No—
Sanemi suddenly realized something.
When a demon dies, its Blood Demon Art should vanish immediately. But Shinjuro was still moving as if nothing had happened.
He was running.
And Sui reacted faster than Sanemi did.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap Flash."
She swung.
A streak of dark violet lightning tore through the mist. Sensing danger, Shinjuro raised a sword form like flowing fire to block. The instant their blades met, Sui landed by the waterfall, sword in hand, and with only a few light steps, sealed off Shinjuro's escape route as neatly as a hunter pinning down its prey by the throat.
"Get Yajima Hina out of here. Take that sword away from her. Be careful, Sanemi."
There was no need for her to say more. The moment she entered the curtain of mist with Thunder Breathing, Sanemi had already moved to stand before Hina.
It was the same tacit understanding they had once shared while hunting demons on Fujikasane Mountain.
"Wind Breathing, Sixth Form: Black Wind Mountain Mist!"
With a shout, Sanemi's gale tore the mist apart and he attacked without hesitation, overwhelming Hina with a sword form so dense it left no room to breathe.
"Forgive me, Shinjuro-san."
Sui let out a quiet sigh.
Dark violet lightning surged like a tide.
Both battles exploded at once. The crash of steel rang out amid the waterfall's spray.
In Mount Shaku's forest, Demon Slayers were gathering.
Kasugai crows flew through the snowy night, relaying orders.
Kanae had arrived. She immediately took command of the situation and began sending the wounded away.
"Incredible…"
Running through Mount Shaku, Kanae stopped near a stretch of scorched ground. There, one could just barely make out the remains of something human-shaped—charred to black by lightning and already crumbling into ash in the cold wind.
So this was the ultimate form of Thunder Breathing.
It seemed Sui had truly created the Seventh Form of Thunder Breathing.
At the foot of the mountain, steel flashed and collided. Lightning and fire devoured one another in violent succession.
Sui's eyes remained closed. At that moment, the serpent-swarm carried by the chime of her earrings had completely taken over for her senses. The feedback they gave her was even more useful than direct perception—at times, it bordered on prophecy itself.
Shinjuro, in life, had once brought his swordsmanship almost to the absolute peak. For a time he even managed to suppress Sui in their exchange.
But he was not strong enough.
Not for the Sui of now.
She knew the paths of Flame Breathing. She had spent days clashing swords with the Stone Hashira. After only a handful of exchanges, she had already fully predicted the flow of Shinjuro's attacks.
In the end, he was a puppet, not a living man.
He was rigid.
Sui changed forms. Lightning tore open a gap in the flames, and she thrust straight through.
She seized the flaw in Shinjuro's swordsmanship.
From that point on, it was her battlefield.
"Thunder Breathing, Fourth Form: Distant Thunder."
A flash of light.
Sui's rapid, precise slashes came one after another. Shinjuro somehow still managed, by instinct alone, to respond to the speed of her strikes. In the spray of the waterfall, their blades met dozens of times in the span of a heartbeat. If they had not both been Hashira-class, any one of those exchanges would have been fatal. Shinjuro was stronger than Sui in raw force, but in swordsmanship and understanding of forms, Sui was far beyond him.
The final exchange.
The conclusion was at hand.
"Goodnight, Shinjuro-san."
Sui's blade swept toward the man's neck.
From afar, Kanae suddenly went on guard.
Someone shouted, "Look up there! What is that?"
A figure shot through the trees of Mount Shaku like a cannonball, sending the snow into chaos.
Sui's sword tip dipped ever so slightly.
She did not complete the strike against Shinjuro.
At this distance, nothing should have been able to interfere. With the speed of Thunder Breathing, beheading Shinjuro should not have taken even the time of a blink.
But the remains of the trees around her began to tremble in an eerie rhythm. Birds burst from the mountain forest. It was as though some colossal beast had turned over in the earth a thousand meters below.
She could not bring the blade down.
If she did, she would be utterly defenseless.
She would die.
Boom!
Sui altered the trajectory of her strike and slashed into the snow behind her instead.
This time, her blade did not cut through empty air.
A fist crashed into Hachigū.
"I found you, strong one."
A low voice sounded by Sui's ear with no warning at all.
Because everyone asked for it, I made a group.
Group number: 544752053
Question: Snake > Wind > Water, right?
Answer: That's right.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 126)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter130)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter157)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 133
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 125
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 143
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 115
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 99
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 75
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 75
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 51
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
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