Sui vanished from where she stood.
This time, the sword form was utterly silent.
Lower Rank Two and Lower Rank Three were slain in an instant.
Ash from their burning demon bodies drifted through the air. In Sui's vision, everything had turned gray and white, leaving only the crimson cracks of death crisscrossing the galleries and corridors. Her blade followed those red lines as it cut, and the space before her gave off a warped, twisting sensation, as though this strike had punctured the bubble encasing the pocket dimension itself.
The huge eye on Nakime's face could no longer conceal its shock.
Where the blade passed, portions of Infinity Castle seemed to peel away, stripped from it, no longer belonging to that realm and no longer subject to her control.
Strum!
The biwa rang out like falling rain, and Infinity Castle's movement surged like a storm under that rain.
In Sui's eyes, there was only the glaringly obvious red line at Nakime's throat.
She stilled her breath.
Inhaled.
Exhaled.
Swung.
Her heart was tranquil as still water, and so was the sword she wielded—calm to the extreme, like the peace that came at the very end of life.
In total contrast to that serenity, the buildings of Infinity Castle exploded apart around her. Every structure standing between her and Nakime was destroyed, the blade cutting straight through the writhing warped spaces. In the next moment, Sui was directly above Nakime.
Nakime looked up.
Sui lowered her gaze.
The ice-blue Mystic Eyes trembled like the heart of a flower.
Strum!
Sui landed.
The lights vanished.
The buildings vanished.
The world before her became the broken, decaying manor once more.
She had been expelled from Infinity Castle.
Rain poured outside.
That one stroke fell—
and the entire manor was split cleanly in two.
The upper half slid apart before Sui's eyes, then crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar.
Sanemi stared blankly at the sight.
Rain drenched Sui's hair. The Mystic Eyes closed, and the icy blue light faded from her gaze.
She turned to Sanemi and said, "The Kakushi are already on their way. They'll be here soon."
"I…" Sanemi's voice came out hoarse. "Masachika—"
"He can still be saved. Don't worry."
Sui crouched beside Masachika and treated the wounds at the base of his severed legs as simply and quickly as she could, stopping the bleeding first.
A swordsman's constitution was stronger than an ordinary person's, and Masachika's body was already close to the level of a Hashira's. Even with both legs severed and so much blood lost, he was not yet especially weak. Sui could still hear the strong, forceful beat of his heart.
"This was my failure," she said quietly.
The Kakushi arrived and worked with swift, practiced efficiency, tending Sanemi and Masachika before carrying them into an inner room of the manor untouched by the rain.
The slash Sui had unleashed was too shocking to ignore. Most of the estate had been cut away. As the Kakushi moved through the wreckage, they murmured in amazement over the Thunder Hashira's strength. They were cleanup personnel, and they had not yet heard that it was Sanemi and Masachika who had slain Lower Rank One. Naturally, they assumed the Thunder Hashira had arrived and resolved everything herself.
About half an hour later, Masachika woke.
Having overheard Sui and Sanemi speaking, he shook his head and said, "No. We're the ones who should be thanking the Thunder Hashira for her kindness. After something like that, surviving at all is already the greatest luck in the world."
Sui paid the words no mind.
She was replaying in her head the strike that should have killed Nakime.
The Mystic Eyes' power to kill all things only manifested after the blade touched the crack. Inside Infinity Castle, she had not been able to kill Nakime before Nakime activated her Blood Demon Art.
Her training still wasn't enough.
If only Thunder Breathing had a form even faster and more destructive than Thunderclap and Flash.
Thunderclap and Flash was easy to use. Though it was the First Form, it was in truth the core technique of Thunder Breathing. In the hands of both the former Thunder Hashira Jigoro Kuwajima and the current Thunder Hashira Sui, it had always been a demon-killing trump card.
But for Sui now, it was no longer sufficient.
Thunder Breathing possessed six forms in total. As the sixth, Flaming Thunder God was far too weak—in both difficulty and destructive power—to deserve the title of Thunder Breathing's ultimate technique.
Reportedly, the same had once been true of the Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka's Water Breathing. At the start, it had not possessed that breathtaking Eleventh Form—Dead Calm.
Perhaps the breathing styles preserved today were incomplete and lacked a true final form.
Or perhaps they had never been incomplete at all.
Perhaps they had been designed that way from the beginning: if the wielder found them lacking, then they were meant to extend the style on their own foundation and create a final form that belonged only to themselves.
Sui sat alone in a corner, thinking quietly, wondering whether she ought to seek Giyu's advice on how he had created his ultimate form.
In the distance, Sanemi was still noisily protesting as the Kakushi lifted him onto a stretcher. Ever since Masachika had regained consciousness, Sanemi had been grinning nonstop. One of the Kakushi had even gently reminded him to lower his voice.
"Thunder Hashira-sama?"
A girl from the Kakushi waved a hand in front of Sui.
"Hm?"
"There's someone asking for you. An old man named Takizawa Koro."
Sui looked outside.
The old man stood anxiously in front of the ruined estate, stopping one of the Kakushi to ask after her.
At the Takizawa residence, the old man served Sui a cup of hot tea.
"My home is humble. I hope you'll forgive that."
He sat opposite her, then said, "You are one of the Demon Slayer Corps, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Cradling the hot tea in her hands, Sui nodded lightly. Since her identity had already been seen through, there was no point in hiding it.
The old man sighed.
"I never imagined the successor to Princess Crimson Moon would still be hunting demons. You left in such a hurry earlier that I had no chance to explain. The reason I tried to stop those two young men was because I didn't want them entering that manor. I had long suspected that Miei had become some powerful demon. The other demon slayers who entered the manor and the missing children only confirmed my fears. That was why I tried to stop them—I wanted them to leave as quickly as possible."
"The buttons on a Hashira's uniform are different from those of ordinary members," he said, pointing to the golden button at Sui's collar. "Those two boys were only regular swordsmen. I'm right, aren't I?"
Sui sipped her tea. "You know a great deal about the Corps."
"Princess Crimson Moon was a blind songstress from the Warring States period," the old man said, "but she was also the Thunder Hashira of that age. The acute sense of hearing attached to Thunder Breathing was a special discipline she established in order to perceive the outside world."
As he spoke, he took out an old booklet from his robes.
"You must have noticed already. The wind chime hanging from Floating Dream Bridge can help expand auditory perception. The lady who gave you those earrings likely knew little about their true nature. Yet in the end, Floating Dream Bridge still found its way into your hands. Sometimes, one cannot help but believe in fate."
He extended the booklet toward her.
"This is for you."
Sui accepted it carefully.
"Princess Crimson Moon's demon-hunting journal."
She held it as though it were precious beyond measure.
After the Warring States period, the history of the Demon Slayer Corps had suffered a massive rupture, and many valuable records had been lost. A document from that era was unimaginably rare.
The old man continued, "Princess Crimson Moon once saved the life of my ancestor and entrusted this journal to him, ordering that it be hidden far away. At the time, the Demon Slayer Corps was facing utter ruin. Even Princess Crimson Moon believed she herself would not escape it. My family has hidden and hidden ever since. That demon likely came specifically to find me. If not for you, my whole family would already have been killed."
The old man bowed deeply to Sui.
At that moment, a younger man from the Takizawa household came out carrying a wooden case. He set it down beside Sui, then sat next to his father.
When the lid was lifted, Sui paused.
It was a biwa.
Another biwa.
At this point, Sui felt that biwas were destined to become the stuff of her nightmares.
"This is the instrument Princess Crimson Moon carried with her while traveling the provinces," the old man said. His gaze rested on the gold leaf ornamentation on its body, which had not faded even after several hundred years.
"This biwa is called Scorched Tail. It was made using the same principles as the famed Chinese qin of the same name, and borrowed its title as well. The master craftsman Ono Muneyoshi carved it from a piece of paulownia wood that had not fully burned and produced a strangely beautiful sound. Because Princess Crimson Moon moved publicly as a performer, it was inconvenient for her to openly carry a Nichirin Blade. So a narrow hidden compartment was built into the hollow resonating body of the biwa. It can conceal a short sword about forty centimeters long. The opening is on the lower back of the instrument, and it can only be opened by pressing a hidden joint in the neck."
As the old man explained, Sui found the mechanism and pressed it.
A finely wrought short blade slid out.
Its edge was bright as snow, while the blade itself had a slightly aged dark gold hue—a mark that its former owner had once wielded Thunder Breathing as a Thunder Hashira.
"The strings have been replaced, but the tuning pegs and resonating body are the originals. Now I give it to you. It is only right that it returns to its proper owner."
"Please, you must accept it!"
The old man bowed all the way to the floor.
It was the highest form of prostration, an expression of the utmost reverence toward Sui and the title of Thunder Hashira she bore.
"Please, you must accept it!" his son echoed, bowing just as deeply.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 80
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 74
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 48
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 50
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 47
Uma Musume: From Beginner 42
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