Sagiri Mountain lay buried beneath a blanket of mist.
Before the raindrops clinging to the tips of the grass could even scatter, a flash of steel tore through the fog.
Katane's sword flew first at Kokushibo. His strike was as supple as flowing water, yet it carried the heat of youth within it.
“――Haaat!”
As the blade cut through the air, Kokushibo's six eyes all flared at once. Without moving an inch, he scattered Katane's attack with a single swing of his sword.
“So you are Iwanai's disciple...”
His voice echoed darkly and long.
“And yet your technique is crude and sloppy... You have not made the art of breathing your own.”
“Shut up!”
Katane twisted on his heel and swung again. But before the blade could even reach him, the shadow before his eyes warped and vanished into the air.
Boom
Only a beat later, the delayed impact gouged into the rocky cliff.
Kokushibo's slash had left a massive wound across the mountainside.
“Ghk――!”
Katane barely rolled aside in time, pain lancing through his forearm as it split open. Blood sprayed across the rubble like droplets of rain.
His breathing turned ragged.
Still unable to properly complete even a single form of his own breathing style, he forced his body onward.
Facing the ruined cliff carved apart by one strike, Katane finally understood that Kokushibo was a being on an entirely different level.
“Your eyes resemble your master’s. But your sword... is far behind. He created two forms of Water Breathing.”
“...So the swordsmanship I learned under such a great master was worthless after all.”
Kokushibo's voice reverberated through the mist.
Katane gritted his teeth and got back up.
“Even if I’m lacking, even if I’m still not enough, I have to keep moving forward. Because I have to――carry on my master's end!”
Water Breathing.
The shattered current from the tip of his blade surged into the mist, but Kokushibo's sword pierced straight through every stream.
Fsh!
The instant the light flashed, a red line burst from Katane's shoulder.
His body swayed as if his breath were about to be severed, yet he did not stop his feet.
“Master... please watch over me.”
His sword continued more fiercely, mixed with the stench of blood, but every movement was ultimately crushed beneath Kokushibo's overwhelming presence.
“Come. Pour all of your breathing into me.”
“...I shall also respond with the courtesy due a swordsman.”
――Gooooo.
―――Hooooo.
The sounds of their breathing overlapped and then scattered in a strange dissonance. Katane's Water Breathing and Kokushibo's Moon Breathing began to sink into Sagiri Mountain.
Katane swung sword energy shaped like a dragon made of water. It was the strongest technique, one that increased the force of his strikes by adding rotation.
“Water Breathing――Third Form! Flowing Dance――!!”
Katane's blade rose, shaking the rocks beneath it.
The surging torrent took the shape of a dragon, tearing through the mist and shattering even the raindrops as though they were being sucked toward the blade's tip.
That sword aura was certainly inherited from the breathing pattern left behind by his master, Iwanai. The strike he unleashed as if vomiting blood was desperate enough to cover the incompleteness of his youthful vigor.
And yet――
“Pathetic.”
His opponent was none other than Kokushibo.
Kokushibo's six eyes lit simultaneously, and moonlight-like blades scattered into dozens of slashes in the air.
――Total Concentration Breathing.
Moon Breathing――Second Form. Pearl Flower Moongazing.
Kokushibo swung his sword in rapid succession. The wide-ranging slashes collided head-on with Katane's blue dragon.
KRAAANG!
The afterimages of moonlight ripped the mist to shreds, mercilessly carving apart Katane's dragon shape.
The water dragon scattered like a scream, and a thunderous crack echoed all the way up the mountainside.
“Ghk――Aaaagh!”
Katane's body was blown backward. Blood gushed from his split shoulder and side, and his vision began to darken.
His knees buckled, but he forced himself up with the last of his strength. Even if his grip shattered, he did not let go of his sword.
“Not... yet. It’s not... over yet. My sword is――”
Then it happened.
Kokushibo's shadow surged like lightning, and his blade came crashing down.
“It is over.”
For an instant, Katane saw his master's back overlapping the scene. The gaze that had never broken until the very end beside the stone lantern――
Boom
The clash of steel against steel rang out. Before Katane's eyes, already certain he was about to die, a new sword barely blocked Kokushibo's strike.
“Tch――my hand is shaking.”
It was a clear voice. Yet the groan that slipped through it carried a hint of weight.
Out of the darkness, parting the mist, a figure appeared.
A yellow haori embroidered with floral patterns, and a light burning deep within his eyes.
It was the Flame Hashira――Tsuyomi Ren.
Kokushibo's six eyes trembled slowly. He had managed to block Kokushibo's blade with difficulty, but it had been a long time since anyone had stopped him without yielding even a single step.
Ren, having blocked Kokushibo's strike, leapt back sharply. He turned toward Katane, who had collapsed behind him.
“The old man already knew this battle would happen. That’s why I came here ahead of time.”
Katane coughed up blood and dropped to one knee.
“Flame Hashira-sama...”
“You’ve done enough, Katane. Just enduring this long while carrying on your master's will is more than enough.”
Kokushibo gave a low laugh.
“How amusing. But young blood from the Demon Slayer Corps will never reach my blade.”
Ren quietly narrowed his eyes and raised his sword.
“Then――I shall be your opponent now, Upper Rank One.”
The mist over Sagiri Mountain thickened even further.
On the ground where moonlight and waterlight had scattered, the breathing of moon and lightning was about to collide.
§§§
The air on Sagiri Mountain twisted taut.
Beyond the mist, Kokushibo's slash flared once more like moonlight.
“If that is what you desire――then I shall oblige. The Flame Hashira of this generation.”
Sensing the presence of lightning, Kokushibo immediately swung his sword.
――Moon Breathing, Tenth Form, Piercing Face Slash: Moon.
Layer upon layer of oval, saw-like slashes instantly swallowed Ren's field of vision. As the massive blades carved away the ground like blocked escape routes, they swept over Ren and Katane behind him.
The sawblade-like slashes that ground everything around them to dust completely shattered the surface of Sagiri Mountain.
Moonlit blades crashed in overlapping waves, and the sound of the earth being torn apart rang out like thunder.
“Kgh...!”
Ren spread his feet and held his sword high. But that was not all. A primal warning flashed through his mind like a life-before-his-eyes vision.
The dark image was painted pale and clear: if he took this head-on, death was certain.
Ren grabbed Katane by the nape of the neck and began dodging the sawlike slashes.
Every blood vessel in his body tightened as if it might burst.
'This slash... it’s not ordinary. A merciless strike that completely splits the mountain's surface.'
And at that moment, Ren realized it.
Upper Rank One――Kokushibo was using Total Concentration Breathing.
'A demon... using breathing?'
His gaze sharpened at once.
'This one uses the same breathing style as us. I don't know what kind it is, but... the important thing is that he can use Total Concentration Breathing too.'
'A chain of things I’ve never seen before... Is this what Upper Rank One is!'
Without a moment to hesitate, Ren lowered his body.
“Thunder Breathing――Fifth Form! Heat Lightning!”
KRRRRAAAANG!
Lightning burst from the tip of his sword. The upward slash shot out like a flash of light and collided head-on with the moon blades rushing in like saw teeth.
KRAAANG!
A roar as if the sky itself were being torn apart.
The collision of lightning and the full moon vaporized the mist completely. In an instant, every raindrop resting on the ground turned to steam and scattered.
Thick sweat ran down Ren's brow.
'This monster... even the way he wields his sword, the texture of his breathing, it's similar to the Demon Slayer Corps.'
He stared at Kokushibo again. The purple haori marked with moonlight, and the demon's six eyes.
And yet his stance was unmistakably that of a swordsman from the Demon Slayer Corps.
The purple of the sword hilt and blade in Upper Rank One's hand reflected softly in the moonlight, shimmering beautifully.
He had never seen a purple Nichirin sword before, but that blade was unmistakably one of the Demon Slayer Corps.
“You... were a demon slayer.”
Ren ground out the words.
“You wield a sword, you control breathing, and you even wear the same kind of uniform as the Demon Slayer Corps... and yet you abandoned the path of humanity and became a demon.”
Kokushibo's six eyes narrowed at the same time.
“...From which generation did the oral history of me end? No... perhaps...”
“From the beginning, the Ubuyashiki family must have buried the truth about me.”
His voice pressed heavily into the mist. With that one line, Ren and Katane's reactions shifted again and again.
Ren tilted his head slightly and furrowed his brow.
“What... do you mean by that? The Ubuyashiki family buried the truth about you...”
“Exactly as I said. I was the predecessor to the Demon Slayer Corps' Moon Hashira...”
“...the origin of the Hashira, and your senior.”
That single statement left Ren and Katane stunned. Their breathing grew more and more disjointed.
Kokushibo raised his sword once more, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly as he said, “This generation's Hashira... seem to have formed a rather close bond.”
“Interesting. It feels as though a long-stagnant heart has finally found excitement.”
“Katane, move!”
Ren sensed the chilling presence in an instant. A blazing Red Blade born from the purple Nichirin sword. Kokushibo was about to swing it.
“As a senior of the Demon Slayer Corps, I shall show you proper courtesy.”
――Moon Breathing, Eleventh Form, Full Moon Slaughtering Ray.
Moonlight-like afterimages burst forth through the clouds. Dozens of sword flashes scattered in all directions, drawing a perfect circle as they surged toward Ren and Katane.
An overwhelming encirclement of slashes with nowhere to flee and nowhere to hide.
They were beginning to yield, little by little, to Kokushibo's true power.
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