"If I don't eat you tonight, you'll leave this place… and then I'll never find you again, right… Koinatsu?"
Daki stood there with several ornate sashes coiled around her like living serpents, her figure brazenly exposed. She licked her lips, eyes fixed on Koinatsu with naked hunger.
Tanjiro had just left the room and was moving across the rooftops, step by careful step.
"It's already night. This is when demons hunt," he thought grimly. "I can't let her succeed."
He froze mid step.
"What is that smell? Sickly sweet… no!"
His face tightened.
He spun around instantly.
"It's a demon. Koinatsu is in danger!"
He sprinted, cutting through corridors and rooftops, retracing his path at full speed.
He reached the room in a heartbeat.
Boom!
One kick shattered the window. Tanjiro flipped inside.
"Oh?" Daki drawled, not even startled. "A Demon Slayer brat?"
She was in the middle of sealing Koinatsu into one of her sashes, her gaze sliding over Tanjiro like he was nothing.
"How many of you are there? That ugly little blond runt is one of yours, right?"
"And a Hashira? Did one come?"
She tilted her head, smiling.
"With strength this pathetic, you're definitely not one. You're not even close."
Her tone turned contemptuous.
"In that case… I don't need you. Understand?"
Daki didn't move from her spot. She was about to complete the seal, and Tanjiro's sudden arrival didn't make her tense up even a little.
"Dirty little freaks and old trash aren't what I'm looking for. Got it?"
Then she simply brushed past him.
Tanjiro did not even have time to react.
A brutal impact slammed into him and sent him flying.
He crashed through two walls in a row and landed in a heap of rubble.
"My body… it's numb," he realized, teeth clenched. "Back took the hit. I hesitated. Fear, maybe… She's strong. Ridiculously strong…"
He set the box on his back down and patted it.
"Nezuko, I can't bring you this time. Don't come out. Only… only if my life is truly in danger…"
Suddenly, the sound of combat erupted outside.
"Someone ran into her. No, I have to go!"
Tanjiro shot forward.
"Water Breathing, Fourth Form!"
"Striking Tide, Turbulent!"
He cleaved aside the debris in his path and burst out.
A figure was already locked in combat with Daki.
"Vincent Fox!"
Tanjiro shouted, and the roaring surge of his blade rushed toward the demon.
Bang!
The ground shattered. Daki sprang up, dodging the strike.
A moment earlier, Vincent Fox had followed his memory and arrived here, only to see Daki leap from a window. He attacked instantly.
"Vincent Fox, she's Upper Rank! Be careful!"
Tanjiro warned.
At once, more than a dozen embroidered sashes shot from Daki's back, whistling through the air toward both of them.
"Flame!"
Vincent Fox's Nichirin blade glowed red hot in an instant. He swung hard.
The sashes rushing him were severed cleanly, and blood seeped from their cut edges.
"Blood Demon Art?" Vincent Fox raised an eyebrow, finally studying the sashes behind her.
One of them carried Koinatsu's face, printed like a living portrait.
In the next breath, Vincent Fox extinguished the flame along his blade and lunged straight at Daki.
"So fast!"
Daki panicked and recalled her sashes to defend.
Vincent Fox slipped sideways through the dense storm of attacks, then moved.
One clean draw.
Thud.
The sash bearing Koinatsu's face fell. Koinatsu's form began to emerge, fading into reality.
Vincent Fox exploded forward. While parrying the incoming sashes with his Nichirin blade, he scooped Koinatsu up with his free arm and flashed back to Tanjiro.
"Koinatsu is unconscious, but she's alive," Vincent Fox said quickly. "Take care of her."
Tanjiro nodded and accepted Koinatsu's limp body.
"Understood. Her sashes can seal people. Don't let them wrap around you."
"Don't worry," Vincent Fox replied with a faint smile.
Then he launched himself at Daki again.
Seeing his face up close, Daki couldn't help but laugh softly.
"Not bad. Better than most of my collection."
Her smile sharpened.
"But…"
Countless sashes wrapped around her from all directions, forming a giant cocoon.
"I'll capture you alive, then take my time."
Vincent Fox ignored her words completely.
He stepped in and slashed down.
His Nichirin blade tore a massive gash across the cocoon.
In the next instant, every sash vanished, diving back into Daki's body.
"What are you plotting?"
Vincent Fox's voice dropped. His blade snapped around.
Bang!
His Nichirin sword smashed into Daki, severing an arm clean off.
The sheer force sent her flying.
"Is he a Hashira?" Daki's eyes widened with shock, terror blooming fast. "That strength…!"
Her mind screamed one thing.
Run.
"Once I eat my collection, I'll come back and capture you!"
She turned and fled the opposite direction.
Her appearance shifted as she ran. Her black hair turned white, and black markings spread across her skin.
"Running?"
A low voice sounded behind her.
Daki's body froze.
She couldn't move.
She twisted her head.
Vincent Fox was already there, gripping her ankle in one hand.
"If I let you escape," he said coldly, "how would I face the people you butchered?"
He yanked.
With a brutal tear, her leg ripped off at the hip.
Blood sprayed in a thick arc.
His Nichirin blade flashed toward her vital point.
Daki tried to twist away, but Vincent Fox still carved off half her head.
She flew backward, skidding and tumbling, then forced her regeneration to work.
The missing foot grew back instantly.
Flesh buds writhed along her mangled skull, trying to complete the repair. It would take a moment.
"The living people you slaughtered… didn't have this," Vincent Fox said, voice steady, murderous. "They didn't get to heal like you do."
He flicked his wrist.
The blood coating his Nichirin blade vanished, clean as if it had never touched flesh.
"You think this is fun?" Vincent Fox's eyes hardened. "What do you think a life is?"
Nearby, several injured civilians lay on the ground, wailing in pain from being caught in the chaos.
Something hot surged in Vincent Fox's chest.
Rage.
Crack!
Daki punched into the bricks, smashing tiles apart, then sneered viciously.
"I don't care about those disgusting things. I'm a demon. They exist to be eaten."
Her expression twisted into something ugly, blood seeping at the corners of her mouth.
"Demons are the most beautiful, the most powerful. We never go hungry. We never sleep in the streets. We do whatever we want…"
"Enough," Vincent Fox cut in, voice sharp.
He pointed his blade at her.
"I'm killing you. Right now."
"Then try it," Daki hissed.
"Blood Demon Art: Eightfold Sash Slash!"
Multiple sashes burst from her body, shooting toward Vincent Fox from vicious angles.
"Too slow."
Vincent Fox swung once.
Several sashes were severed midair.
"Die!"
Vincent Fox was already in front of her.
He slashed straight for her neck.
Crunch.
Daki clenched her teeth.
Her neck transformed into sash material, soft yet impossibly tough.
Vincent Fox's Nichirin blade sank only halfway before it stopped, locked in place.
Daki smiled, eyes gleaming with malice.
"Someone like you… you think you can cut my head off?"
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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