Boom! Crack! Bang!
On a mountain path far from the village, a deafening roar tore through the silence.
It was not mere noise. It was the fierce performance of a commander dominating the battlefield.
The Demon Slayer Corps' Sound Hashira, Uzui Tengen.
His sword strikes, combining the brute force emanating from his nearly 2-meter-tall frame with the agility of a ninja, were close to a disaster.
"Splendidly! Explode even more splendidly!!"
With Uzui's shout, the two massive nichirin swords connected by chains rotated like a windmill and bore down on Shuten.
Wherever the blades touched, special explosive beads detonated, creating brilliant flames like fireworks painting the night sky.
A power that would reduce an ordinary demon to dust without a chance to regenerate. Even Daki, the weakest Upper Moon, would have suffered sufficient damage.
But, Shuten at the center of the flames... was smiling.
"Hahaha! Nice instrument sounds! I'm getting excited, excited!"
She walked elegantly, as if a noble on a spring outing.
The moment an explosion tried to cover her face, she tilted her head slightly to evade, and when the slashing attack of the nichirin swords aimed at her neck, she lightly tapped with the gourd she was holding, deflecting the trajectory.
Minimal movement. She was taking a stroll through the storm.
Uzui was sweating profusely as he desperately rolled his eyes.
It was to complete his specialty, the musical score. If he could convert the enemy's attack habits, breathing, and muscle contractions into rhythms and read them, victory was assured.
But, nothing was heard.
'Damn it... I can't read it! There's no rhythm!'
There was no preparatory movement or fluctuation in breathing that should be present in a living being.
Her movements were not music that could be drawn as a score. They were a natural disaster irregularly bouncing, or a ghost ignoring gravity.
Far from a score being drawn, the only sound reaching Uzui's ears was the thudding of his own heart, pounding with fear as if it would burst.
"Sound Breathing, Fifth Form: String Performance!"
Uzui closed the distance and unleashed a series of slashing attacks with rotation pushed to the limit. The explosions continued like one long scream.
Shuten Douji yawned and extended only one index finger of her left hand, which wasn't even holding a sword.
Ting~ Titing, Ting!
Her finger moved at an invisible speed, deflecting Uzui's massive blades as if flicking toys.
Each time the blades were deflected, a shock that felt like his wrists would break transmitted to Uzui.
"With one finger... my sword strikes?!"
Uzui gritted his teeth.
"Sound Breathing, Second Form: Roaring Vibration!"
Uzui crossed his dual swords and vibrated the blades minutely but at ultra-high speed.
Along with an ear-splitting noise, invisible blades that didn't cut but vibrated the space, directly destroying the opponent's internal organs and eardrums, covered Shuten Douji.
A technique only he could withstand due to adaptation through harsh training as a ninja, used only when alone with no humans or comrades around.
Shuten's eyebrow twitched.
"Oh?"
Her body staggered for the first time. Uzui didn't miss that gap.
"Now! Sound Breathing, Third Form: Resounding Explosion!"
Uzui extended the chains long and wrapped them around Shuten Douji like a snake. Then, he ignited the high-density explosives planted throughout the chains simultaneously, compressing the shockwave inward instead of outward.
Kwaaaang!!!
A massive explosion and smoke billowed up. A roar loud enough to shake the entire mountain. The ground melted, and surrounding trees were uprooted.
Uzui's strongest technique and area-of-effect attack.
He breathed heavily, staring into the thick smoke.
"Haa... haa... did I finish her? Internal organ destruction followed by compressed explosion... even if she's an Upper Moon, this should have worked splendidly."
However. As the smoke cleared, what was revealed was Shuten Douji, lightly dusting off the soot from her kimono.
Her basic strength was beyond specification. A Servant with a rank to rival divine spirits despite being a heroic spirit. The child of a dragon god, a divine spirit, a being with the attribute of human evil.
As a Berserker with madness enhancement buff, plus fame correction and land correction. All parameters except Luck and Noble Phantasm are EX.
The strongest among Akira's Servants was, undoubtedly, her. Of course, if they fought each other, Benienma with her advantage against evil, or Okita with her conceptual bombardment and top speed, etc.
In combat, superiority might be ambiguous, but in terms of basic strength alone, she was the strongest.
"Ouch, my ears hurt. Hey, that last one was pretty interesting? My stomach felt ticklish... my stiff shoulders loosened up."
"...What?"
Uzui's pupils shook as if an earthquake had occurred. The vibration that destroyed internal organs and the compressed explosion were nothing but a ticklish massage to her. That smooth skin without a single wound.
A strength far beyond human common sense.
In a trembling voice, but as if squeezing it out, he asked.
"You... what exactly are you? Upper Moon One... no, are you Muzan or something?! My attacks aren't working at all!"
At that moment, the smile vanished completely from Shuten's face.
The surrounding air instantly froze. The playful drunkard atmosphere from earlier was gone, replaced by a heavy, sticky killing intent that made it hard to even breathe, pressing down on Uzui's entire body.
Even the chirping of night insects ceased abruptly.
"...Hey. Watch your mouth."
Shuten Douji's purple demon eyes shone coldly.
Those eyes weren't looking at Uzui. As if something like Uzui wasn't even in her sight, they were the eyes of an absolute being looking down from a much higher place.
"Don't compare me to those hybrids. With Muzan or whatever hybrid, and the fake toys made by that guy sharing a bit of his blood... treating a true demon who has lived since the Age of Gods the same as them..."
Crunch, Groooan!
The ground she was standing on began to turn to dust and settle down, merely reacting to her anger.
"It really pisses me off. The rank is different, the rank."
Uzui was pressed down by overwhelming fear, unable to move a finger. It was the manifestation of a calamity itself, something that would appear in old tales, incomparable to Upper Moons.
"My mood is ruined. Let's end this."
Shuten Douji lightly stomped the ground.
Kwoong!
Just by stomping the ground barefoot, the earth split as if an earthquake occurred, and a massive shockwave covered Uzui. Uzui was sent flying into the air without even being able to scream.
At the critical moment when his posture crumbled, Shuten Douji was already stepping on the void and in front of his eyes.
Thud!
Her kick embedded in Uzui's abdomen. Pain as if steel-like abs were pierced like tofu. His intestines twisted, and Uzui plummeted to the ground.
"Cough...!"
He vomited blood and collapsed, but he was a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. He couldn't die like this. Uzui grasped his fading consciousness and squeezed out the last power honed as a ninja to leap again.
'She's careless. Right now, she's looking down on me like an insect. That's the only chance for victory!'
Uzui expanded his muscles to the limit. Erasing his presence with a ninja's stealth, he concentrated all the explosive power of Sound Breathing on the sword tip that seemed about to break.
"Even if I burn my life for it!!!"
Uzui's nichirin sword accurately struck Shuten Douji's white nape, which was defenselessly exposed. Perfect timing, perfect trajectory.
Clang!!!
A clear, pure, but desperate metallic sound echoed through the night sky. It was not the sound of cutting flesh.
"Ah...?"
An unbelievable sight entered Uzui's vision. His proud nichirin sword, the famous blade that had cut down numerous demons, the moment it touched Shuten Douji's neck, cleanly broke in half and flew into the void.
The broken blade spinning and embedding into the ground. And Shuten Douji's neck, still without a single red mark or even a hair out of place.
Uzui stood dazedly, holding the broken sword hilt. Loss of will to fight. This was not a battle.
Just as a human cannot cut a typhoon with a sword, this being was not within the realm of what he could handle.
"You should take better care of your sword. If the metal is weak, where can you use it?"
Shuten Douji sighed and lifted Uzui's chin with her finger.
Her nails grew long and aimed at Uzui's carotid artery. Uzui did not close his eyes.
Because staring down the enemy until the moment of death was the pride of the Demon Slayer Corps. But inwardly, he had no choice but to admit.
'Complete defeat. I lost... splendidly.'
At that moment. Just as Shuten Douji's sharp nails touched Uzui's neck skin, with a drop of blood about to form, they stopped abruptly.
"...Ah, right."
Her expression twisted strangely. The killing intent faded, replaced by annoyance.
"The master said not to cause trouble. If I kill people, he won't give me food, right? That fussy sparrow Benienma will probably nag too."
Shuten scratched her head and retracted her nails.
Returning to the lazy atmosphere of a neighborhood drunkard, she picked up the fallen sake bottle and dusted it off.
"Consider yourself lucky, kid. My master is imitating a good person these days, so your life is spared."
"Mas... ter...?"
Uzui asked back with a blank expression. This overwhelming monster has a master?
"Yeah. Ugh, the taste of sake is gone. Hearing annoying talk about Muzan or whatever. I'm leaving. You go home and suck on your mother's milk some more."
Shuten left Uzui, who was slumped on the ground, and walked into the darkness, humming a tune again.
Uzui Tengen could not move a muscle until her back completely disappeared.
The sense of defeat that all his techniques were ineffective. Humiliating survival.
But more than anything, what dominated his mind was a shuddering realization.
'The rank is different. And... there's a master who controls such a calamity? If not Muzan, then what?'
Cold sweat dripped down Uzui's spine. It was a night where he keenly felt that there was a vast darkness, or another power, lurking in the world that the Demon Slayer Corps couldn't even imagine.
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