"Or perhaps..."
"You are a demon?!"
Giyu Tomioka stared coldly at Su Yan.
His right hand rested on the hilt of the sword at his waist, looking ready to draw it at a moment's notice.
Binding defenseless women and children with iron chains—anyone capable of such a thing, even if not a demon, was undoubtedly a villain.
*Evil must be rooted out entirely!*
Faced with such a person, even if they weren't a demon, he would still have to teach them a harsh lesson.
"Senior Saeko, I'll leave him to you. It's the perfect opportunity for you to test out the breathing style you just learned."
Su Yan didn't answer Giyu Tomioka's question, instead turning to look at Busujima Saeko beside him.
"Alright."
Busujima Saeko nodded, not refusing Su Yan's proposal.
She then stretched her body slightly and shifted her gaze to Giyu Tomioka standing a short distance away.
She said faintly, "Although he's a bit weak, it's at least much better than those zombies we killed before. I'll treat it as a warm-up."
It wasn't just her weapon, Spirit Slash, that felt this way; even Busujima Saeko herself felt that over the past year, slaughtering zombies had gotten a bit tedious.
Reflected in Spirit Slash, this was perhaps exactly why the weapon had stopped feeding Nen back to its master when killing zombies later on.
"Weak?"
Giyu Tomioka raised an eyebrow.
*True, compared to Sabito, I really am pathetically weak.*
*If only the one who survived the Final Selection back then had been Sabito, instead of a useless person like me...*
*What do they mean by breathing style?*
*Could they be swordsmen trained by a former Hashira?*
Giyu Tomioka once again looked at Busujima Saeko, who was slowly walking toward him.
Suddenly, his pupils shrank.
Because he saw a long sword slowly materializing in the hands of the purple-haired girl before him.
"Blood Demon Art?"
Regarding this kind of supernatural ability, Giyu Tomioka's first reaction was to identify it as a Blood Demon Art possessed by demons.
At this point, a trace of anger couldn't help but rise in his originally calm and unruffled heart.
*A demon that knows a breathing style?*
*Just learned it.*
*Does that mean this demon killed other Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen not long ago and acquired the breathing style from them?*
*Otherwise, there's no way to explain why the stench of blood nearby is so heavy.*
*This isn't just a desecration of the Demon Slayer Corps, but also a desecration of the breathing styles.*
*He had to kill this demon before him and make her atone for this blasphemy!*
As Giyu Tomioka thought this, he drew his Nichirin Sword at the person before him.
"Water Breathing! First Form! Water Surface Slash!"
With no time to overthink, Giyu Tomioka quickly adjusted his breathing rhythm and unleashed the very first form of Water Breathing at Busujima Saeko.
"Sun Breathing! First Form! Dance!"
Similarly, Busujima Saeko also swung her sword, executing the First Form of Sun Breathing.
The difference was that Giyu Tomioka executed the First Form of Water Breathing as a probe.
Meanwhile, the reason Busujima Saeko used the First Form was simply because she had just started learning Sun Breathing.
Due to the specific breathing rhythm required by the breathing style, she couldn't execute the sword forms as effortlessly as Giyu Tomioka could.
If she wanted to master it quickly, she naturally had to start from the First Form.
She needed to slowly perform all twelve forms of Sun Breathing one by one.
*Clang!*
The two swords clashed together under the night sky.
Brilliant sparks erupted in a fleeting flash.
At this moment, only Su Yan, who was watching the battle from the sidelines using *Gyo*, could see that the sword Giyu Tomioka swung was wrapped in a thin aura shaped like flowing water.
And Busujima Saeko's sword was similarly covered in an aura resembling flames.
However, Busujima Saeko wasn't using any of her own Nen abilities; the Nen on her blade was entirely generated by the breathing style.
Not only that, but the weapon she had conjured wasn't even her special-ability weapon, Spirit Slash.
Instead, it was the incredibly ordinary white oak wooden sword she had used in the very beginning.
Otherwise, with Giyu Tomioka's level of strength, he probably wouldn't have been able to take even a single strike from her.
Yet even so, Busujima Saeko's offensive still made Giyu Tomioka feel a considerable amount of pressure.
*Such immense strength.*
After the clash, Giyu Tomioka's body was forced back repeatedly, his feet sliding across the ground and leaving two long trails.
After quickly steadying his posture, he lowered his body, gathering his strength while unable to stop himself from marveling inwardly, *And this breathing style...*
*It looks somewhat similar to my Water Breathing, but it gives off a completely different feeling.*
*Is it a derivative of Water Breathing?*
*Or is it due to the nature of her Blood Demon Art?*
*However, judging from that brief exchange, her physical strength is clearly much greater than mine.*
*So, it seems I can't use power-based forms to clash head-on with her anymore.*
"Water Breathing! Tenth Form! Constant Flux!"
Giyu Tomioka pushed off with his feet, launching himself toward Busujima Saeko like a cannonball.
A massive dragon head made of flowing water seemed to condense over his Nichirin Sword, sweeping forward alongside the blade as he slashed at Busujima Saeko.
"Sun Breathing! Second Form! Clear Blue Sky!"
Busujima Saeko methodically shifted to the next form of her breathing style, charging at Giyu Tomioka once again.
Meanwhile, outside their battlefield.
Watching the two of them fight, Tanjiro asked Su Yan anxiously, "Mr. Su Yan, what exactly is going on?"
He couldn't understand it at all.
How did a swordsman suddenly emerge from the darkness right after Su Yan finished his three-two-one countdown?
And after just exchanging a couple of sentences, Mr. Su Yan's female companion started fighting him.
Furthermore, she was using his family's Hinokami Kagura.
However, when his family's Hinokami Kagura was executed by her, it looked incredibly powerful!
It was completely different from when he performed the Hinokami Kagura dance.
If his performance of the Hinokami Kagura was a dance to offer sacrifices to the gods, then in her hands, it was as if a god had personally descended to dance.
Even though it was the exact same movements and the exact same breathing rhythm.
She simply gave off the feeling that this was how the Hinokami Kagura dance was always meant to be.
"Didn't you want to become a demon-slaying swordsman and do your part?"
Hearing this, Su Yan glanced at Tanjiro and explained, "That man is named Giyu Tomioka. He is the Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps."
"The Demon Slayer Corps, as the name implies, is an organization of people who, just like you, have a vendetta against demons. They specialize in learning breathing styles like the Hinokami Kagura and gather together to secretly hunt demons."
"And the Hashira represent the most powerful individuals within the Demon Slayer Corps."
Tanjiro scratched his cheek and asked Su Yan hesitantly, "Then why did the two of them suddenly start fighting? Aren't you members of this organization called the Demon Slayer Corps? Shouldn't you be comrades?"
"I don't believe I ever said I was a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, did I?" Su Yan asked back in a calm tone.
"Wait, what?!"
Hearing this, Tanjiro instantly froze in place, dumbfounded.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]