On that snowy night, the moon suddenly emerged from behind the clouds, silvering heaven and earth.
The messenger crows guided Sui from ahead, constantly relaying updates from the battle raging on Mount Shaku.
"The Wind Hashira is holding that demon back! The demon ranks as Lower Rank One! Lower Rank One!"
Lower Rank One…
Just like the biwa, Lower Rank One was another thing that always seemed to appear around Sui. As though, every so often, a new one would spawn just to dance and sing around her.
Sui tightened her grip on her sword, then suddenly sprang into the air. Lightning churned through the falling snow, throwing her figure into sharp relief.
"The Wind Hashira is in a hard fight! The Wind Hashira is in a hard fight! Mizunoto-ranked slayer Yajima Hina has lured away the former Flame Hashira! Mizunoto-ranked slayer Yajima Hina has lured away the former Flame Hashira!"
The crow's shrill cry rang out all at once.
Sui said nothing.
She simply accelerated again.
She was already moving at the charging speed of Thunder Breathing's First Form, yet even at that level she still had strength to spare.
Her crow, Chihua, could no longer keep up.
Ahead, another messenger crow was waiting—clearly arranged by the Master.
The Master understood Sui's speed, so he had stationed crows only further ahead along the route. As long as each one could keep pace with her for a short stretch and deliver a message, that was enough.
"The Wind Hashira is still fighting! The Wind Hashira is still fighting! The slayers are providing cover! The slayers are providing cover!"
Each crow cried out a string of updates.
But no crow could pass on more than a single message, because before a second could be delivered, Sui had already streaked beyond its flying range.
From above, she looked like a long, dark-violet line cutting across the black wilderness.
Before her, the heavy snow was ripped apart by lightning.
Then a towering mountain came into view.
Deep in the night, Mount Shaku looked drenched in ink. Its ridgelines split into jagged silhouettes under the moonlight, like the fangs of some giant beast opening and closing in the dark.
Riding the freezing mountain wind, Sui caught the reek of blood.
And in her ears came the deafening clangor of weapons.
"The Wind Hashira is losing ground! The Wind Hashira is losing ground!"
"One by one, the crows' cries skimmed over the battlefield buried deep in the mountains."
"The fox demon has eaten three slayers! The fox demon has eaten three slayers! Its wounds are healing! Its wounds are healing!"
Here, the trees had been torn down, the earth split apart, the ground pocked with craters. Even a river in the distance had been severed outright. The place was as devastated as a scorched wasteland.
And as the snow drifted down, it seemed as though heaven and earth were dressing it in funeral white.
Sanemi's gaze was locked onto the demon drifting before him.
Behind the fox mask, it smiled coldly, three tails swaying in the moonlight with a metallic sheen.
In its hand hung the corpse of a Demon Slayer.
Blood dripped from the corner of its mouth.
"Heh…"
A girlish laugh rolled from the fox demon's throat.
"You bastard!"
Sanemi exploded forward.
Wind Breathing launched him in a sudden assault, his blade shrieking as it cut through the air.
The fox demon twisted aside like a living serpent, its three tails stabbing at the charging Sanemi.
"Wind Breathing, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
He roared low, reversing his grip in an instant as he held the sword with both hands.
It was astonishing technique and reaction speed.
Since becoming the Wind Hashira, Sanemi had never once stopped training. He was stronger now than he had ever been before.
If Ubume stood before him again, he was certain he could sever her head within three moves.
From the beginning, his attack had been a feint.
The moment his blade brushed the fox demon, a tearing gale erupted from it.
Then, like a storm devouring the earth, it burst outward.
The pressure of the wind knocked the fox demon's tails aside. Seizing the opening, Sanemi drove off the ground with his legs and forced his way straight through the sword form he had created.
He leapt behind the fox demon, cold light flashing in his eyes, and crossed his Nichirin blade in a slashing arc toward its neck.
Rip—
Even before the blade touched, the wind-blades alone shredded its robes.
The fox demon suddenly turned its head and looked at him, giving a piercing laugh.
"How rude. You've dirtied my clothes."
Just before the attack landed, the fox demon dissolved into an afterimage.
"Damn it!"
The strike hit nothing. Using the force of the blow that gouged into the earth, Sanemi kicked backward and spun around.
He already knew the demon had moved behind him.
Without hesitation, he raised his blade and rotated—
his sword becoming a tornado.
In Sanemi's vision, that demon never once left his sight.
But the thing was too fast.
A truly troublesome enemy.
And worse still was its Blood Demon Art.
He remembered the swordsman that had moved like a puppet—the former Flame Hashira, dead and yet still driven by this fox demon.
Sanemi had barely held his own fighting two enemies at once, until, at the very point he was about to break, a girl named Yajima Hina stepped in and lured away the former Flame Hashira.
He remembered Hina had only just become a full-fledged slayer. She had completed barely any missions at all, yet she was already stronger than many Kinoe-ranked swordsmen.
Was it the same monstrous talent that woman had?
Sanemi had no time to think about what might have become of Hina.
His wind-blades struck nothing. The fox demon danced out of range and landed lightly in an open patch between the trees.
Then it touched the wound on its cheek.
A moment later, it healed completely.
"You hurt my face," the fox demon said softly.
Then its voice turned suddenly cold.
"So you can die now, Hashira."
It spread open its hand, a bead of blood凝固 within the palm.
"Blood Demon Art: Kagura Flame, Cleansing Heart."
The bead of blood ignited into blue fire.
Unlike the crimson flames it had used to summon Rengoku Shinjuro, this was a different flame entirely.
Ahead of it, Sanemi crouched low, his Nichirin blade raised, then burst forward again.
The roar of the wind from his attack crushed even century-old trees.
He charged the fox demon once more, breath surging through him like raging thunder. On every side, cutting planes of wind gathered, as if he had summoned a wind-spirit from legend to fight in his stead.
"Fourth Form: Rising Dust Storm!"
His blade cleaved through the blue flames and struck straight at the fox demon's neck.
Sanemi's pupils contracted sharply.
"Wrong!"
The instant the sword passed through the neck, he withdrew.
The next moment, the fox demon's body shattered—and the blue fire he had scattered with his blade surged upward into a prison of purgatory flames.
A decoy.
Sanemi shifted into guard, eyes scanning all around him.
The fox demon was nowhere in sight.
Had it fled?
No. Impossible. That thing had been lingering here all along. It had never shown any intention of running.
Sanemi remained alert, unaware that a single thread of blue fire had slipped in through his back.
Then—
Thrust.
A dark-red blade punched straight through the man's chest.
Blood burst from his mouth.
Sanemi turned his head.
Behind him stood Sui, her expression cold and distant.
"You… why?" Sanemi asked.
His eyes were empty.
It was as though he had never even thought about why Sui—who should have been in the middle of breathing-style training—would suddenly appear on Mount Shaku, much less why she would drive a blade through his heart.
"Because you angered Lady Huojianyue, Sanemi-kun," Sui said, caressing his cheek.
Then she pulled the blade free again.
Sanemi discovered that his body would not move.
All he could do was watch as Sui cut him to pieces.
First his arms.
Then his knees.
And finally… his head.
The blade descended toward him.
In Sanemi's eyes, all he could see was that dark-red sword falling.
But at that very instant, the shriek of a messenger crow exploded overhead, like a dream-bubble suddenly bursting.
"The Thunder Hashira has arrived at Mount Shaku! The Thunder Hashira has arrived at Mount Shaku!"
Across the snowy mountain, crows flew in frantic relay.
"The Thunder Hashira has arrived at Mount Shaku! All slayers below Hashira level retreat! All slayers below Hashira level retreat!"
Boom!
A thunderclap crashed through the depths of the mountain.
Sanemi jolted awake.
He saw a white fox tail stabbing straight toward him—
and a dark-red blade intercepting it.
He looked down.
His limbs were all still there.
That scene of Sui killing him had only been an illusion.
So it was… a hallucination?
It had always been Sanemi who used his rare blood to intoxicate demons. He had never imagined a demon might possess some sinister sorcery capable of ensnaring him in turn.
A terrifying Blood Demon Art that could kill without him even noticing.
If he had failed to react, it would have been over.
The dark-red blade scraped across the fox tail, throwing sparks like clashing steel.
Dark-violet lightning flickered, illuminating a face Sanemi knew well.
That stance, that pressure, the force of that strike—
it was unmistakable.
The woman standing before him was Sui.
Clang.
Standing between Sanemi and death, gripping her blade with both hands, she hacked that fox tail clean off.
As the wind chimes on her earrings rang, the air began to hum.
Sanemi's sensitivity to the wind was so acute that he could clearly feel something new moving through it.
It was as if unseen eyes were opening all around them—like invisible serpents gliding through the dark.
After severing one tail, Sui rose and flicked the demon blood from her sword.
Never before had Sanemi seen such an expression on her face.
Colder even than the face she had worn in that illusion.
Cold enough that snow falling on it would never melt.
The Demon Slayer Corps' Thunder Hashira had arrived upon the demon-plagued grounds of Mount Shaku.
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 126)
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 (Chapter130)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter157)
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 133
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 125
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 143
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 115
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 99
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 75
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 75
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 51
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
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