Chapter 3: A Cheat of One's Own
The demon felt no hunger now, only a primal, all-consuming need to escape. It had to get away from this man—this terrifying human who was more of a monster than any demon it had ever known.
But how could Gyoumei possibly let it go? A creature of such filth and malice, one that possessed a cursed form of immortality, could not be allowed to flee. If it escaped, it would only sneak back to slaughter innocents another day.
Had it not been for Kanzaki Akira's shout moments earlier, Gyoumei would never have arrived in time. A delay of even a few seconds would have seen most of the children in the temple maimed or killed. This demon, which could barely resist the blind man's onslaught, was an unstoppable force of nature to the terrified orphans cowering behind him.
"You have truly angered me!"
With a guttural roar, the demon forcibly tore off its own arm. The sickening rip of flesh and sinew gave it a split second of freedom from Gyoumei's iron grip. Though its unnatural body would not let it die, the agony of having its limbs and head repeatedly broken was very real. To avoid another beating, to prevent being dragged out until sunrise or the arrival of the Demon Slayer Corps, it had to pay the price.
Gyoumei's condition wasn't much better. Maintaining such a high-intensity assault was a tremendous drain on his chronically malnourished frame., the demon's desperate, injury-for-injury counterattacks had left him with several wounds. He had protected his vital points, but the gashes were deep, and his combat strength was steadily being worn away.
Gasping for breath, Gyoumei pressed his advantage once more. His congenital blindness made it difficult to suppress the demon's unnatural agility; if the creature broke free completely, the children behind him would be in grave danger.
Its ferocity ignited by pain, the demon met his charge head-on.
The man and the monster clashed again, but this time, the dynamic of the fight began to shift. Previously, the demon's carelessness had allowed Gyoumei to pin it down, subjecting it to a relentless pummeling with no room to retaliate. Now, having sacrificed an arm, it had bought itself a precious moment of freedom. While Gyoumei's flurry of attacks was still too dense for it to break away and reach the children, it could now dodge more effectively—and inflict wounds of its own.
Gyoumei was only human, after all. The demon was confident it could win a war of attrition.
As for running away? Why run now that a glimmer of victory was in sight? To flee would be to waste the agony it had just endured. Besides, escaping Gyoumei's relentless assault would be no simple task.
Watching the tide begin to turn, Akira felt a knot of anxiety tighten in his stomach. He knew from his memories that Gyoumei possessed the strength to hold this demon until dawn. But with his own life on the line, how could he possibly gamble on the hazy recollections of a past life?
His focus sharpened to a razor's edge, and in that state of heightened concentration, Akira noticed something strange.
He could see the movements of both combatants with impossible clarity.
The demon and Gyoumei were both far beyond the peak of human physicality. A well-trained adult moved with a speed that would be a blur to a ten-year-old child, yet Akira could perceive every single motion from both fighters.
It was more than just seeing. He could even predict their next moves by observing the subtle flex of a muscle, the almost imperceptible shift in tension before an attack. This was no longer something that could be explained away as good observation skills.
After watching several more exchanges, Akira confirmed it wasn't an illusion. His predictions were validated time and time again as the brutal dance unfolded before him.
There was no time to ponder the nature of this special ability. The fight was shifting from a one-sided suppression to a dangerous stalemate. Seeing his chance, Akira began to move.
He first found a piece of gravel, its size and weight feeling just right in his small hand. He waited, his eyes tracking the frenzied battle. When the demon lunged again, attempting to trade another wound for a decisive blow, Akira threw the stone. It struck the inside of the demon's elbow with a sharp crack, causing its punch to stall for a fraction of a second.
That was all Gyoumei needed. The demon took a solid blow that nearly tore its entire shoulder from its socket, while Gyoumei managed to twist aside, the demon's claws only grazing the skin of his arm without drawing blood.
Its rhythm broken, the demon was once again forced onto the defensive, suppressed by Gyoumei's overwhelming assault.
Akira acted several more times, his throws targeting the back of the demon's knees, the base of its skull, its eyes, and its wrists—all points where a small impact could have a major effect on its movement. When he ran out of suitable stones, he began picking up the prayer beads that Gyoumei had scattered across the floor. Their size was perfect for his grip, and though he didn't know what they were made of, their weight was surprisingly similar to the gravel.
With Akira's interference, the battle returned to Gyoumei's complete control, the demon once again being brutally suppressed.
Just as Akira prepared to continue his efforts, he noticed a few of the braver children trying to creep forward, wanting to help. Perhaps seeing Gyoumei beat the demon senseless, and watching Akira disrupt its movements by simply throwing things, had given them a false sense of confidence. The monster suddenly seemed less terrifying, merely a grotesque thing to be struck.
An illusion of 'I can do that, too,' coupled with a child's innate desire to show off, spurred them to action.
Akira immediately darted back and held them down.
'Are you kidding me?' he thought, his heart pounding. Even he, who could see and predict the demon's every move, only dared to interfere from the sidelines. These children, who knew nothing, wanted to join the fray? They would be nothing but a distraction for Gyoumei and a fresh source of energy for the demon. They couldn't even see the combatants' movements clearly; if they tried throwing stones, they were more likely to hit Gyoumei than the monster.
"Stay back and be quiet!"
Akira's stern shout and fierce glare quickly intimidated the overeager children. Fortunately, Gyoumei had already seized the opportunity Akira had created, pinning the demon to the ground and resuming his merciless pummeling. This time, he threw his entire body weight onto the creature, giving it no chance to break free.
Every punch was heavy and powerful, making the very ground tremble with each impact.
"Big brother, I was wrong..."
"Please, spare me..."
"I won't do it again..."
Suppressed once more, the demon's ferocity evaporated, replaced by desperate pleas for mercy.
But Gyoumei paid it no mind, his fists rising and falling in a brutal, steady rhythm. He remembered that this monster could only be truly killed by sunlight. And so, he focused on one singular task: maintaining his assault until the sun rose.
As the sky outside gradually began to lighten, the demon abandoned its futile pleas and resistance, resorting instead to a stream of curses.
"You monster!"
"You blind freak!"
"You'll die a horrible death!"
"I was just hungry! I just wanted something to eat! What did I do wrong?!"
"It was that other brat! He's the one who led me here! He even destroyed the incense that keeps demons away! Why are you only picking on me?!"
Akira listened to the demon's repetitive curses and flimsy justifications, shaking his head with a sense of speechlessness. This demon clearly wasn't very well-educated; it didn't even know how to curse properly.
Demon:?
More time passed. Finally, the first ray of sunlight pierced the night, pronouncing the demon's death sentence.
However, Gyoumei couldn't see the light, so he continued to throw punch after punch. Akira didn't dare speak up to remind him. What if Gyoumei stood, and the demon, in its final moments, seized the chance to take a few children with it? No matter how low the probability, Akira was unwilling to take that gamble.
Because Gyoumei had arrived in time, their battlefield was near the broken door, and the temple's orientation allowed the morning sun to spill inside quickly. Seeing that Gyoumei still had plenty of energy, Akira abandoned any thought of interrupting.
And so, Gyoumei continued to punch, his fists landing on a body that was already beginning to crumble. He punched until the sunlight streamed through the shattered wooden door and fell directly upon the demon beneath him. The fanged creature finally stopped struggling as its body began to dissipate into ash in the morning light.
Gyoumei's descending fist stopped mid-air. He froze for a moment, stunned, as the monster beneath him vanished into nothing.
"The sun is out," Akira said, stepping forward. His voice carried the deep relief of someone who had survived a catastrophe. "That monster has completely dissipated. Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Gyoumei."
If events had followed the original plot, Gyoumei would have arrived a few seconds too late. Some of the children would have died, and others, trying to help, would have been slaughtered. In the end, only Gyoumei and one little girl would have survived. When the authorities arrived, the demon would have already turned to dust, and the traumatized girl, unable to speak, would have only been able to point at the empty space beneath Gyoumei before fainting.
As a result, Gyoumei would have been framed as the murderer of the children and thrown into prison. The experience would have shattered his ability to trust others, a scar he would carry until the master of the Demon Slayer Corps saved him from his cell.
But now, because of Akira's intervention, Gyoumei might be spared that fate. More, he had saved the lives of all the children in the house, including himself.
However, just as the demon finished disintegrating in the sunlight, Akira's excellent vision caught a flicker of movement—a figure flashing past the edge of the temple grounds, just outside the broken doorway.
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