Chapter 118: Entertainment District -8-
BOOM!!!
“Ugh...! Cough!”
Tanjiro’s body flew through the air like a paper doll and slammed into the wall of the building on the opposite side.
Pain that felt like his lungs were being shredded surged through him, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
“Haa... haa... She's fast... too fast...!”
Tanjiro barely managed to stand up while blinking back his blurring vision.
Daki. She had become far stronger than her original Upper Moon Six self.
She hadn't split her power into her obi belts, and above all, the aura radiating from her body had been overwhelmingly strengthened by the blood of Akira, who had surpassed Muzan.
In terms of raw power, she was now stronger than when Gyutaro could properly utilize his awakened strength.
Of course, since she wasn't as intelligent as Gyutaro, she lacked the advantage of strategic fighting.
“What’s this? I had some expectations since you’re a subordinate chosen by a Hashira. Is this all?”
Daki sat arrogantly in mid-air with her legs crossed, mocking the blood-covered Tanjiro.
Behind her back, dozens of obi belts wriggled like a massive swarm of living snakes.
Their ends were sharper than steel and more flexible than silk.
‘Water Breathing... isn't working! The obi are too fast to parry! I can't see any openings!’
Tanjiro grit his teeth.
Fear tried to seize his ankles, but Tanjiro dredged up the memory of the dance his father used to perform—the memory of those intense flames.
If cold water didn't work, he had to cut through everything with a searing flame that burned all.
“Hinokami Kagura, [Dance!]”
WHOOSH!
A fierce shape of flame enveloped Tanjiro's black Nichirin Blade. An explosive propulsive force, different from Water Breathing, launched Tanjiro forward.
“Oh? Fire? This has become slightly worth watching.”
Daki arched her eyebrows as if interested.
Tanjiro dove in, reading the trajectories of the obi belts. The explosive power of the Hinokami Kagura allowed him to momentarily cleave through Daki’s reinforced obi.
This was his one and only chance. Tanjiro poured all his strength into swinging his blade toward Daki's neck.
CLANG!
However, it didn't reach. Just before the blade could strike her neck, countless obi belts layered over each other to form a shield, and Tanjiro's sword was stopped by that thick barrier of fabric.
“This is the power granted by that person. Did you think you could pierce it with that crude sword of yours?”
“Ugh...!”
“Boring. Die now. I'll cut your head off neatly and use it as a coaster for my Master's sake cup.”
With a single gesture from Daki, the obi that had been acting as a shield twisted and transformed into sharp offensive spears. There was nowhere to run.
The blades of the obi surging from all directions flew toward Tanjiro’s neck.
CRASH!
It was then. The door of the wooden box Tanjiro was carrying shattered, and a pitch-black shadow leaped out.
THWACK!!
With a bursting sound that tore the air, Daki’s head exploded without a trace.
Her headless torso flew powerlessly through the air before slamming into the ground.
“Ne... Nezuko?!”
Tanjiro's eyes widened in disbelief.
The being standing in the thick dust was not the small and cute younger sister Tanjiro knew.
Nezuko was agitated to an incomparable degree. The skin around her eyes began to crack like parched earth.
“You... you... you damn bitch!!”
Daki, who had instantly regenerated her head, rose while screaming in rage. Her pride was shattered by the fact that she, an Upper Moon, had been decapitated by a surprise attack from a low-class demon with no pedigree.
“How dare you touch my face! My face that the Master dotes on!!”
A furious Daki swung her obi. Nezuko, who was charging at her, was sliced and blown away by the belts.
“A demon that belongs to neither Muzan nor us. It feels disgusting.”
Daki brushed her hair back and walked toward Nezuko with a neurotic expression.
However, Nezuko rising from the debris of the broken wall was different.
She bit through and spat out her bamboo muzzle, revealing sharp fangs. A demon horn grew from her forehead, and red leaf patterns were etched onto her body like burning markings.
Transforming into an adult woman's physique, the spirit Nezuko radiated was as ferocious and wild as Daki's Upper Moon presence.
“What’s with that form? A growing Blood Demon Art?”
With an indifferent look, Daki swung dozens of obi belts like whips. It was a fierce onslaught that felt as if the space itself would be shredded.
But Nezuko didn't dodge. No, she had no intention of dodging.
STAB! THUD!
The obi severed Nezuko’s limbs and pierced her abdomen. However, at that moment, something bizarre occurred.
Before her severed limbs could even fall, blood congealed at the stumps and regenerated them instantly. If anything, that hardened blood firmly caught the obi.
“What...?! What is this regeneration speed? It's on par with an Upper Moon?!”
While Daki was reeling in shock, Nezuko grabbed the obi to close the distance and delivered an upward kick to Daki's jaw.
CRACK!
Daki was sent flying backward, but she immediately regained her stance.
Although Nezuko had grown as strong as an Upper Moon, Daki's own power had been boosted beyond her original Upper Moon level. She steadied herself and swung her obi.
“You're just a brainless bitch with nothing but strength! No matter what you do, you can't kill me!”
Just as Daki was about to mince Nezuko with her obi again, Nezuko slashed her own wrist with her nails, splattering her blood.
Nezuko’s crimson blood splattered across Daki’s flamboyant clothes and body.
[Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood]
ROAR!!
As a battle cry erupted from Nezuko's mouth, the blood on Daki's body exploded all at once, and fierce crimson flames surged up.
“AAAAAGH!! It's hot!! Fire...! FIRE!!!”
Daki rolled on the ground, letting out a beast-like scream. It wasn't just a simple burn.
The horrific pain and terror of being burned alive as a human—the trauma engraved into her soul—was resurrected by the flames of the Exploding Blood.
“Get it off! Put it out! Master! Brother! Save me!!! It's hot!!!”
Consumed by terror, Daki lost her reason. She swung her obi frantically in all directions to extinguish the flames.
BOOM! CRASH!
The uncontrolled onslaught of her obi belts sliced through the pillars of nearby buildings. With a thunderous roar, the annex of the Kyogokuya and surrounding structures collapsed helplessly.
“Kyaaaa!”
“H-help me! My leg... my leg!”
Desperate screams of people erupted from beneath the rubble. Along with white dust, the thick scent of blood spread through the night streets of Yoshiwara.
The moment she smelled it, Nezuko’s pupils narrowed into vertical slits and shook violently.
The instinct of a demon. A command from the brain to replenish the stamina consumed during her extreme state of excitement.
The fresh humans laid out before her began to look like prey.
“Grrrr....”
Thick saliva dripped from Nezuko's mouth.
She turned her back on the burning Daki and began to walk slowly toward the humans groaning and bleeding.
“Ne... Nezuko! No! Stop!”
Tanjiro screamed, crawling and trying to grab Nezuko's ankle, but his injured body wouldn't listen.
Nezuko was already a beast who had lost her reason.
The moment Nezuko lunged toward a man trapped under the debris, raising her claws—
FLASH!
A pink afterimage streaked through the darkness.
A soft yet undeniable force bound Nezuko's arms and hugged her tightly from behind.
“Oh my, calm down! You mustn't do that!”
Flamboyant hair blending cherry blossom pink and lime green, and a bold pink kimono that bared her chest.
It was Mitsuri.
“GRAAA! GRRRR!”
Nezuko growled like a beast and struggled. Despite Nezuko's Upper Moon-level brute strength, Mitsuri didn't budge.
Adding demonic power to the muscle density she was born with as a human, Mitsuri was the strongest in terms of pure physical strength, excluding Akira and the Servants.
No, in terms of raw muscle, she was even stronger than some Servants.
“Good girl, okay? The people of this district are our family. They're my Master's precious source of money... no, customers! So you'll get in trouble if you eat them!”
Mitsuri hugged Nezuko with crushing force, as if soothing a tantrum-throwing younger sibling.
But those words didn't reach Nezuko, who was already crazed with hunger. Instead, the most sweet and powerful scent stung the tip of her nose.
The scent of highly concentrated life force wafting from Mitsuri—incomparable to that of an ordinary human—drove Nezuko mad.
“Grrrr...!”
The irrational Nezuko whipped her head around and bit down hard on Mitsuri's white shoulder.
CRUNCH!
“Ow! Yo-you bit me?! That hurts!”
Crimson blood spurted from Mitsuri's shoulder. With the jaw strength of an Upper Moon-level demon, Nezuko could indeed wound Mitsuri.
Nezuko gulped down that blood like a starving animal.
However, it was no ordinary meal.
What flowed in Mitsuri's veins wasn't just blood.
It was the blood of the Grail, a dense concentration of cells from Akira, who had conquered the sun through the Blue Spider Lily and stood at the pinnacle of evolution.
The moment Nezuko swallowed that blood—
TH-THUMP!
Nezuko’s heart lurched, making a terrible sound as if it were about to explode.
“Gah...! AAAAAAAGH!!”
Nezuko slipped from Mitsuri’s grasp and rolled on the ground. It wasn't just a simple rejection response.
Akira's cells were invaders. They attacked the Muzan cells inside Nezuko’s body, devouring them and forcibly fusing with them, beginning to rewrite Nezuko's genetics at the molecular level.
“Urgh! GYAAAAH!”
Nezuko's body twisted grotesquely. Her spine curved as if about to burst through her skin, and her entire body became covered in blood from bursting veins only to heal instantly, a cycle repeating again and again.
Her skin flushed red before turning as pale as a corpse. It was a searing pain as if molten lava had been poured into her body.
“Oh my? What's wrong?! Did my blood taste that bad!?”
Mitsuri approached in a panic to check on Nezuko, but the heat radiating from Nezuko’s body was so intense she couldn't even touch her.
“This... aura is...?”
Even Daki, who had extinguished the flames and regenerated in the meantime, stopped her attack and stared at the scene in a daze.
The vibration felt from the suffering Nezuko as she rolled on the ground—
Rather than a demon, it was an aura creepily similar to her absolute master, Akira, yet even more unstable and violent.
Under the glamorous lanterns of Yoshiwara, the screams of the girl who had tasted the forbidden blood echoed as if they would tear the night sky apart.
And then there was the Ruler of the Night, sensing that sensation.
“Sigh, Mitsuri. You’ve gone and caused an accident with your clumsy personality. I can't exactly scold my wife, though. This has become troublesome. She isn't a threat, but now I’ll have to put a leash on her myself.”
Sensing the rapid shift in the situation, he slowly rose from his throne.
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