Chapter 122: The Dragon Hashira!
Makio and Suma stopped what they were doing and turned toward Hinatsuru at the same time.
"Hinatsuru, what are you doing?"
Hinatsuru froze.
"I'm not doing anything...?"
Makio and Suma blinked, then instinctively looked at the five-stringed instrument in Hinatsuru's hands.
"Derr~"
Another note rang out.
This time, Suma and Makio clearly saw that Hinatsuru hadn't touched the strings at all.
Moreover, the sound seemed to have come from outside the alley rather than from where they were standing.
From somewhere they couldn't see.
The surroundings fell completely silent.
At this hour of the early morning, the shops on the outskirts of the Entertainment District would normally have long since closed, and pedestrians were rarely seen.
In a place that should have been completely deserted, the sudden sound of an instrument was unnerving.
No matter how they looked at it, something about it was frightening.
Suma nervously swallowed.
"Do you think some oiran are still working overtime on a side job?"
Smack!
Makio decisively smacked Suma on the head.
"Makio, you @#...#%@!"
"Stop fooling around."
Hinatsuru stood up, her voice more serious than it had ever been.
They all knew that any disturbance occurring this late at night was highly likely to have something to do with a demon.
With that thought, everyone except Suma immediately drew their weapons and cautiously pressed themselves against the walls.
If they had been in an open area, the three of them would have stood back-to-back, covering one another's blind spots.
But they were currently in a narrow alley where visibility was extremely poor.
Moving in sequence while keeping their backs against the walls was the wisest choice.
As Demon Slayer Corps members who frequently carried out missions—and as the wives of a shinobi who had trained them in combat—if they didn't even understand such basic principles, they would have died countless times already.
Hinatsuru held her instrument and slowly tiptoed toward the direction from which the sound had come.
Seeing Hinatsuru move, Makio and Suma immediately followed.
Makio even drew the hidden kunai she carried on her person.
The atmosphere was as cold as an ice cellar.
The closer they got to the source of the sound, the more nervous the three of them became.
The moonlight was hazy.
The street was completely deserted.
What could possibly appear here at this hour?
A demon.
Without a doubt.
Suddenly—
A sound tore through the air.
Hinatsuru reacted the fastest.
She immediately shoved Makio and Suma down, sending all three of them crashing to the ground!
The next instant—
BOOM!
The wall behind them exploded apart!
Countless pink strips of fabric surged through the enormous hole in the wall.
They looked soft and delicate, but at that moment, they were as sharp as steel blades!
Makio and Suma were still shaken as they turned their heads.
If Hinatsuru hadn't reacted first, they might have already been sliced in half.
A clear, bell-like voice came from behind the ruined wall.
"Hehe... Talking about her behind her back like that. How wonderful!"
The three women turned around.
A slender female demon had already been waiting inside the hole.
Her skin was deathly pale. Two pink flower-shaped markings of different sizes adorned her face, while countless obi belts were wrapped around her back.
The aura radiating from her made the three women feel an unprecedented sense of oppression.
Savage.
Cold.
Corrupt.
Those were their most immediate impressions.
Most importantly, they saw the shocking inscription in her eyes.
Upper Rank Six!
She was one of the Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki!
Makio had never imagined that she had just been lamenting the fact that she had never killed an Upper Rank demon, only to encounter one the very next moment...
Moonlight slipped through the clouds and fell diagonally into the alley, illuminating half of Daki's face through the gaps in the wall.
Under the swaying moonlight, the three women saw the faint smile curling across her lips.
There was something strangely provocative about her expression.
"Scatter!"
Hinatsuru commanded the other two women.
Without hesitation, the three female shinobi drew their kunai and rapidly spread out!
Hinatsuru even discarded the weapon in her hand and pulled a broad, crossbow-like device from inside her clothing, capable of firing multiple kunai at once.
Bang!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Hinatsuru pulled the trigger.
A barrage of kunai instantly flew toward Daki.
Seeing such a weak attack, Daki immediately put on an expression of disdain.
Then a bubbling, almost boiling sound rang out.
"Hahahaha! You really think an attack like that can defeat an Upper Rank demon?"
Daki crossed her arms arrogantly.
The obi belts behind her began rippling like waves.
"What do you take an Upper Rank for?!"
Snap! Snap! Snap!
The pink obi suddenly unfurled in all directions, forming a temporary barrier in front of Daki.
The kunai struck the wall.
Just as Daki's arrogant tone suggested, they couldn't even penetrate her defense.
And that wasn't all.
The obi continued stretching and retracting freely through the air.
One of the belts hidden within the shadows suddenly shot out!
The belts varied in length and seemed to possess a life of their own.
While the three female shinobi hurriedly dodged the attacks, one of the obi silently curved at an impossible angle and shot toward Suma's back.
"Suma, watch out!"
Seeing this, Makio shouted and rushed forward with her kunai!
But even as a trained shinobi, her speed was still far too slow compared with an Upper Rank demon.
All she could do was watch helplessly as the pink obi transformed.
It went from soft to rigid—
Then from rigid to razor-sharp.
The seemingly harmless strip of fabric instantly revealed its most vicious form!
Suma felt as though a gigantic, blood-filled mouth had opened before her, radiating an overwhelming and deadly aura.
On the other side, Hinatsuru and Makio looked horrified.
They hadn't even had time to react.
Was Suma really going to be beheaded just like that?
Daki stood completely still.
She hadn't even taken a single step.
This was the strength of an Upper Rank demon.
To her, battle was nothing more than child's play.
Despair surged through the three women.
The feeling was especially intense for Makio.
When Hinatsuru had attacked earlier, Makio had carefully watched Daki's movements.
But those obi belts were simply too strange.
Makio hadn't been able to react at all.
And now, because of their weakness, Suma was about to die!
High in the air, Suma trembled violently.
As the obi drew closer and closer, she could even make out the plum-blossom patterns carved into the fabric.
Tears poured from Suma's eyes like a broken dam.
"Makio!!"
"Dragon Breathing, First Form: Dragon Soars Through the Heavens!"
It was as though a startled dragon had roared across the heavens!
A young man's figure flashed through the hazy moonlight.
A faint fragrance of wisteria flowers followed in his wake.
The next instant—
A flash of steel.
The obi was severed at the waist.
The attacker moved so quickly that none of them saw exactly what had happened.
Daki's expression immediately became solemn.
"Who?! Who was that?!"
She raised her head and stared blankly into the sky.
There, a young figure that had appeared out of nowhere had forcibly snatched Suma away and carried her to the rooftop.
Suma had been saved.
After surviving the ordeal, Suma let out a relieved smile, though tears continued streaming down her cheeks.
She had never felt the air taste so sweet!
At first, Suma thought Makio had been the one who rescued her.
After all, although Makio often bullied her, whenever Suma was in danger, Makio was always the first person to rush to her aid.
But then she realized something.
Makio was nearly two hundred meters away from her.
Makio herself stood frozen in place, looking completely bewildered.
That's right.
Suma suddenly realized.
Makio couldn't possibly have moved that fast.
This must be reinforcements! Could it be Tengen-sama?!
The young man gently set Suma down.
She looked up at him happily.
Under the moonlight, the young man possessed an extraordinary bearing, and his eyes were clear and calm.
But Suma soon noticed something.
Aside from his height, bearing, and appearance, which resembled Tengen-sama's in certain ways, everything else about him was completely different.
This wasn't Tengen-sama at all!
And the person who understood the current situation most clearly was Hinatsuru, who had just fired the weapon.
The moment she recognized him, her astonished voice rang out from a distance.
"Dragon Hashira-sama!!!"