Those words echoed through the silent night sky, louder than the most violent thunder.
Kokushibo's six crimson eyes narrowed slightly. The Kyōkoku Kamushi hung at his side, the eyeballs along the blade restlessly swiveling as if scrutinizing the being before him—one who had once been his subordinate.
He froze.
Even after living for centuries, he had never seen something this absurd.
"Akaza…"
Kokushibo's voice was cold, carrying the innate authority of one who stood above all others.
"You have overstepped."
"No sense of occasion. No sense of hierarchy.
You dare raise your fists against me?"
A trace of genuine disappointment surfaced in his gaze.
He had once held a measure of respect for Akaza. Among the Twelve Kizuki—this nest of freaks and lunatics—Akaza alone had resembled a pure martial artist, someone who pursued the pinnacle of combat for its own sake.
But now…
"Your current state disgusts me.
That strange power—and that weak, softened fighting spirit…"
Kokushibo could sense it keenly. Akaza's fighting spirit had changed.
It was no longer the predatory killing intent of one who sought strength through plunder, but something far heavier—and far more nauseating to him.
The intent to protect.
"What exactly… are you fighting for now, Akaza?"
The three Hashira at the edge of the battlefield were stunned as well.
Rengoku Kyojuro leaned on his sword, his face smeared with blood. His blazing eyes were filled with shock.
"What's going on… another Upper Rank Three?
Is today the day we die here?
What is he talking about? A Blood Battle for Rank?"
Shinazugawa Sanemi spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, his gaze fierce yet tinged with confusion.
"Hey… that pink-haired bastard… is he helping that kid?"
"SHUT UP!!!!"
Akaza let out a soul-rending roar, cutting off everyone's thoughts.
VMM!
The Compass Needle beneath his feet spun wildly—an embodiment of his raging emotions.
"I'm fighting for myself!!!
I'm fighting for what I lost for hundreds of years!!!"
The seal on his memories had completely shattered.
Master Keizo's smile.
Koyuki's face.
Fireworks filling the night sky…
Only now did he finally understand.
The strength he had pursued for centuries was nothing but a cruel joke.
Unable to protect the people he wanted to protect.
Forgetting the most precious memories.
Becoming this ugly, twisted thing—
What kind of strength was that?!
"KOKUSHIBO!!!!
I… WANT TO ATONE!!!!"
Boom!
Akaza moved.
He opened with everything he had.
"Destructive Death · Disorder!!"
His punches exploded like artillery shells, the air collapsing into visible ripples with each strike.
Every blow carried monstrous force capable of pulverizing mountains, smashing straight toward Kokushibo's face.
The sheer pressure alone forced Rengoku and the other Hashira several steps back.
"Foolish."
Kokushibo merely shifted his body slightly, his grotesque blade carving a violet arc.
"Moon Breathing · Second Form · Pearl Flowers Moongazing."
Slash!
Akaza's right arm was severed instantly, the cut as smooth as a mirror.
But Akaza didn't retreat. He didn't even frown.
The severed arm regenerated in an instant—far faster than ever before.
Using his forward momentum, his left fist slammed into Kokushibo's blade.
CLANG!!!
The tremendous impact actually forced Kokushibo back half a step!
Rengoku Kyojuro clenched his sword at the sight.
"No matter the reason… if he's protecting Inosuke, then we help!"
Rengoku roared—
"Flame Breathing—"
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!
RENGOKU KYOJURO!!!"
Akaza shouted without even turning his head.
"This is my fight!!!
This is between me and him—personal business!!!
Take Inosuke and leave! GO!!!"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Fists and blades collided. Flesh clashed with steel.
Akaza completely abandoned defense.
His body was sliced open, severed, shattered by moon blades—
and every single time, it regenerated as he charged forward again.
He was laughing.
A laugh of release.
A laugh of madness.
"Destructive Death · Annihilation Type!!"
"Destructive Death · Leg Type · Flowing Flash Swarm!!"
His attacks came like a violent storm, every strike aimed straight at Kokushibo's vital points.
In that moment, driven purely by the burning blood of atonement, he actually managed to contend with the godlike Upper Rank One.
At times, his fist wind even grazed Kokushibo's cheek, leaving a shallow streak of blood.
The contempt in Kokushibo's eyes faded, replaced by furious offense.
"Just because you recovered those trivial human memories?"
"How utterly… hopeless."
SHING!
The Kyōkoku Kamushi shrieked sharply. The blade doubled in length, splitting into countless smaller edges.
Kokushibo grew serious.
"Moon Breathing · Sixteenth Form · Moonbow — Lone Moon."
RUMBLE—!!!
Countless gigantic moon blades descended from the sky, completely engulfing Akaza.
Slash.
Slash.
Slash.
Akaza's body was instantly cut into pieces.
Both arms flew off. His legs were severed. Half his head was shaved away.
"THIRD UNCLE!!!"
Inosuke screamed, tears bursting from his eyes.
"Don't worry about me… run…"
Only one eye and half a mouth remained, yet Akaza still stubbornly stood in front of Inosuke.
Flesh buds writhed wildly.
In his mind, the figures of his master and Koyuki kept appearing.
"Kyoji… protecting the weak is the duty of the strong."
"Kyoji-san, let's go home."
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
Akaza's body fully regenerated as he let out a mournful cry.
"I walked the wrong path…
I walked the wrong path for hundreds of years!!!!
At least this time…
I'll do one thing right!!!
For that idiot… who helped me reclaim my memories…
I'll atone!!!"
"KOKUSHIBO!!!!"
Akaza's fighting spirit surged even higher.
Once more, without hesitation, he charged toward that invincible blade.
Infinity Castle
Kibutsuji Muzan clutched his own hair, nearly tearing his scalp apart.
"Mad… they're all mad…
Does the Paradise Cult have some kind of curse or magic?!
Why does everyone who goes there turn insane?!"
"What is Akaza doing?!"
Muzan roared.
"A Rank-Swap Blood Battle?! NOW?!
Didn't I tell him to bring Inosuke back?!"
The situation was completely out of control.
Even with Akaza's eruption, he was still no match for Kokushibo.
And Kokushibo was now fighting with true killing intent—swinging to kill Akaza outright.
At this rate, Upper Rank Three would fall there.
"Ahh~ my, my…"
A playful voice sounded nearby.
Doma, whose limbs had fully regenerated, stood up gracefully.
He dusted himself off, then once more appeared behind Nakime, his icy fingers gently closing around her skull.
"Lord Muzan,"
Doma smiled, a calm confidence in his expression.
"See? Lord Akaza is a fool, isn't he?
So impulsive—he went straight at Lord Kokushibo."
"And also…"
He glanced at the scene playing out.
"Now that Lord Akaza has taken over the fight, those human Hashira can't interfere at all.
The situation right now… is quite delicate~"
"Let me go."
Doma lightly tapped Nakime's head, as if knocking on wood.
"I'll bring Inosuke back.
Keeping him in the Infinity Castle—even breaking his limbs and locking him up—
is far safer than leaving him in that Paradise Cult full of lunatics, wouldn't you agree?"
Muzan's expression darkened to the point of dripping malice.
He glanced at the utterly useless Daki siblings.
Then at Akaza, on the verge of being beheaded.
There was only one choice left.
"…Go."
Muzan ground the word out between his teeth.
"Doma.
If you dare betray me—"
"Yesss~"
Doma cut him off cheerfully, waving his hand.
"Don't worry. I'm the most peace-loving cult leader there is."
CLANG!!!!
The biwa rang out again.
Paradise Cult
Slash!
A moon blade skimmed across Akaza's neck, nearly severing his head.
His regeneration was slowing.
"It's over, Akaza,"
Kokushibo raised his sword.
"As a warrior… you disappoint me."
Inosuke knelt on the ground, watching Akaza rise again and again from the brink of death.
Watching that shattered body being torn apart to protect him.
"Third Uncle…"
Inosuke's fingers dug into the ground until his nails broke.
He forced down his despair and terror.
He watched—intently.
He watched every punch Akaza threw.
The contraction of his muscles.
The flow of his fighting spirit.
That feeling… it was back.
The feeling beaten into him through countless training sessions under Akaza.
The world grew quiet again.
Kokushibo's movements slowed in his vision—muscles, blood vessels, the gaps between each breath… he could see them all.
—
Transparent World — Activate!!!
Whoosh!
Inosuke's figure vanished.
In the instant between Kokushibo's swing, he slipped inside.
CLANG!
The twin fans jammed hard against the guard of the Kyōkoku Kamushi.
The difference in strength was overwhelming—Inosuke's arm bones shattered instantly.
But he laughed.
"Third Uncle!!! HIT HIM!!!"
Akaza froze for a split second—then erupted with joy.
"Destructive Death · Annihilation Type!!!"
Seizing that instant, Akaza's fist smashed straight into Kokushibo's abdomen.
BOOM!!
Kokushibo was blasted back three steps.
"BIG BROTHER!!!"
Golden lightning followed immediately.
Zenitsu saw Inosuke charge in—and followed without hesitation.
"Thunder Breathing · Seventh Form · Flaming Thunder God!!"
He became a lightning dragon, this strike terrifyingly precise, crashing straight into Kokushibo's back.
Rengoku Kyojuro.
Shinazugawa Sanemi.
Tomioka Giyu.
The three Hashira looked at the chaotic melee at the center of the battlefield.
They didn't understand everything that was happening.
But one thing was crystal clear.
"That Upper Rank Three… is fighting to protect Inosuke."
Rengoku laughed loudly, flames reigniting around him.
"If that's the case—then let's all go together!!!"
"Wind Breathing!!"
"Water Breathing!!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The three Hashira charged in without hesitation.
Blades.
Fists.
Lightning.
Flames.
—
The battle was deadlocked, yet Kokushibo still appeared composed.
Then—
The temperature of the air plummeted abruptly.
The atmosphere that had been heated by Rengoku's flames froze solid in an instant.
Even several moon blades Kokushibo had just swung were frozen midair.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
Above the shattered roof—
A colossal ice Buddha, radiating a sorrowful, divine aura, slowly descended.
"Blood Demon Art · Mist Ice · Lotus Bodhisattva."
RUMBLE—!!!!!
The giant Buddha slammed down.
Kokushibo was forced to retreat, avoiding the blow that could have crushed mountains.
Ice fog billowed.
A man in a red cult-leader's robe stood elegantly atop the Buddha's shoulder, golden folding fan in hand, his face wearing that familiar smile.
Doma.
He looked down upon the battlefield.
When his seven-colored eyes swept across the scene—there was no mirth in them.
He saw—
Inosuke lying in a pool of blood, struggling to breathe.
Akaza, drenched in blood, fighting to protect his "son."
"Ahh, my, my…"
Doma covered half his face with the fan, his voice gentle—yet chilling to the bone.
"How cruel of you, Lord Kokushibo.
You've torn my home apart like this…
and beaten my foolish son into such a state."
He leapt down lightly from the Buddha, landing before Inosuke.
Reaching out, he gently wiped the blood from Inosuke's face.
"Does it hurt, Inosuke?
Daddy came a little late."
He turned, facing that peerless Upper Rank One—the strongest swordsman.
The smile vanished from Doma's face.
He raised his golden fan, pointing it straight at Kokushibo, and spoke words that made everyone's scalp prickle.
"Even if Lord Akaza is a fool…"
"There's something he said that I quite like."
"Come."
"A Rank-Swap Blood Battle."
"KOKUSHIBO!!!!"
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