On the other side of Mount Shaku, a wall of flame-formed sword arcs rose into the air.
Yajima Hina had no way to withstand the attacks of a Hashira.
As a swordswoman, against someone who had perfected Flame Breathing, she would collapse in a single blow.
"Damn it… how is this happening?"
One of Hina's eyes had already been washed red with blood, her vision dim and murky. But what shocked her was not the danger of the situation.
It was herself.
She was actually crossing blades with the Flame Hashira in this clearing.
Her body felt as though it were no longer under her control, yet her reflexes had become astonishingly sharp. Power kept surging into her through the sword in her hands, wave after wave—breathing, drawing, deflecting. In Hina's eyes, gaps had begun to appear in the former Flame Hashira's flawless sword forms, and what she saw had been replaced by something else.
That nameless cursed blade.
Not long after the shrine had been restored, Sui had returned to Peach Mountain and brought the cursed sword back to be enshrined there.
When the fox demon and the former Flame Hashira attacked, Hina had been summoned by something and drawn that blade.
It was the demon sword controlling Hina like a puppet and forcing her to fight the Flame Hashira.
The strain of that overloaded clash had already become agony—her muscles, her bones, all of them twisting under the pressure of this power. It was as if the sword did not care if the puppet broke apart.
"But that's fine by me too, isn't it?"
Hina bared her teeth in a wild grin, blood running down her brow, her wrist already dislocated, yet still clamped tightly around the hilt.
The inscription on the demon blade was soaked through with blood.
So vivid. So searing. So full of hatred.
"Eight-Headed Tsushita, Stirring of Yomi!"
Blood dripped from the guard. Hina's dislocated wrist gave a sickening crack as the sword forcibly twisted her bones back into place. Eight serpent patterns slithered across the blade.
She had no idea what this thing was.
But she knew it could give her power.
"Flame Breathing, Ninth Form: Rengoku!"
The puppet of the former Flame Hashira exploded with a blazing white radiance. Trees burst into flames under the heat.
Yet when that strike, which should have incinerated everything, touched the cursed sword, it warped.
Facing that tide of heat, Hina saw black mist seeping from every pore in her body.
She did not feel fear.
She only grew more frenzied.
"So you're excited too?"
Hina whirled, slashing with manic laughter. Her spine twisted under the sword's control into the shape of a serpent.
"Look, Shinjuro-san—this is the supreme realm you were seeking…"
The inscription on the blade erupted with a towering murderous aura.
In a daze, Hina heard countless voices murmuring under their breath—the priests and shrine maidens who had once tried to cleanse the slaughter bound to the blade.
But now that evil had been released, gathering behind the girl's swaying body into the shadow of an enormous monster.
Yamata no Orochi.
—
Moonlight traced a violet arc across Sui's blade as the severed fox tail turned to ash before it even hit the ground.
Sanemi heard the roar of thunder. Lightning coiled along the dark-red blade in her grasp, forming writhing thunder-serpents around her.
The pale blue flames summoned by the demon were crushed beneath the violet light. Sui held her sword level and pointed it at the demon before her.
The creature standing in the shadow of the giant tree seemed frozen in place.
It stood there stupidly, staring only at Sui's face.
"Thunder Breathing, Fourth Form: Distant Thunder."
She released the technique, flinging out dozens of streaks of lightning that covered the surrounding area for tens of meters. Thunderbolts twisted and coiled like giant serpents, lunging for the fox demon.
Sui tapped the point of her blade lightly against the ground.
She bent her knees, lowered her stance, and beneath the cover of the Fourth Form launched an even more terrifying strike.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap Flash!"
Half the mountainside was illuminated by the blinding flare. That woman of impossible beauty wielded a sword style just as impossibly powerful.
It was utterly impossible to track.
The moment she launched Thunderclap Flash, she vanished from Sanemi's sight.
Only when the wild lightning ripped through the fox demon's blue flames as though tearing paper, and her blade swept across its neck, and its head began to fall, did its arms remain stretched slightly forward—as if trying to embrace something.
Sui did not sheath her sword. The tip dragged across the scorched ground.
This thing wasn't dead.
The fox demon had one tail left, and the body it had left behind dissolved into dreamlike blue fire.
A safeguard against decapitation.
Sui frowned.
If three tails meant three lives, then—
She rose, the wind chimes on her earrings ringing softly as her perception spread outward.
Total Concentration: Serpent.
This was a technique she had created by fusing the extraordinary hearing of Thunder Breathing with her own sensory perception—turning electric sparks into minute currents in the air, like serpents that slithered outward and returned with distant and hidden information.
The chime of her earrings, Floating Dream Bridge, served as the medium through which the serpent swarm carried those signals back.
Chime, chime, chime—
For a brief moment after the fighting paused, the entire mountain fell silent.
Only the trembling of the wind chimes could be heard.
"Sanemi!"
Sui shouted sharply.
The man reacted at once.
That demon was standing right behind him.
Sanemi spun instantly, leaving dozens of wind-blades in his wake. He had already trained his body to the point where he could release the forms of Wind Breathing without relying entirely on his sword.
The moment he withdrew from the danger zone, Sui flashed out from behind him, her blade reflecting the full moon, wrapped in surging lightning.
It was not the first time Sanemi had seen Sui in battle.
But tonight was different.
So violent.
So dazzling.
Nothing like the quiet, gentle woman he saw in ordinary moments.
This—this was thunder from the heavens themselves.
Sanemi's blood burned.
"This is the kind of demon hunt I've been craving!"
Sui's strike was blocked.
The fox demon was still standing in the shadow of the giant tree.
In just three seconds, Sui unleashed hundreds of blows, the lightning bursting from her blade enough to create sonic booms in the air.
After regaining a little breath, Sanemi hurled himself forward again, stirring a storm with his attack and driving at the demon.
Sui used the opening to draw back.
She stayed tight along the edge of the battle between Sanemi and the fox demon, her Nichirin Blade already aligned with its neck.
The demon wanted to escape, but Sanemi's sword forms clung to it like a swamp it could not break free from.
Whoosh—
Sui leapt high, gripping her sword in both hands. Behind her, it was as though a thundercloud had gathered.
The fox demon raised its tail to block, but in the face of that overwhelming lightning, it seemed pitifully frail.
Her blade, wrapped in thunder, came crashing down from above.
That was how it should have gone.
The shriek of metal striking metal stabbed through the night. Its final fox tail had somehow caught that thunderous blow.
Sui froze for the briefest instant in midair. The sensation transmitted through her sword did not feel like demon flesh at all—it was like striking against an unbreakable wall.
"Why… why… why?" the demon murmured.
From the surface of the fox tail rose another kind of flame—an eerie blue blaze that took the shape of a wall and stopped the strike.
Then it looked at Sui and said softly:
"Why is it you, Sister? I looked for you for so long."
Within the lines of the fox mask, the patterns flowed and shifted, then gathered into the clear and lovely face of a young girl.
Sui knew that face intimately.
Because it was her own.
As she locked eyes with the fox demon, it was as though she were staring into a mirror.
"So when you kill people, you wear this face?" Sui asked.
"Yes. Isn't it beautiful?" The fox demon touched the mask on her face.
Now Sui understood why the injured swordsman, half-conscious, had mistaken her for a demon.
Because this demon wore her face.
And yet the feeling the two gave off was entirely different. Sui was quiet and gentle; the demon was savage and mad. In the eyes of others, the ugliness of that demon warped the face into something completely different.
Only in a moment of haze could anyone realize they were looking at the same face.
Sui let out a faint sigh.
She lowered her blade and landed a short distance away.
The Wind Hashira dropped behind the demon, cutting off its retreat.
"Sister… am I beautiful now?" the demon asked.
Sui shook her head.
That instantly enraged it.
"Why?! Don't I look exactly like you?"
But then it curled up again.
"No… I can't be angry at Sister. You'll protect little Koka just like before… won't you?"
Behind them, Sanemi had heard everything, his gaze flicking between Sui and the demon.
His eyes were bloodshot and feral.
So this demon was Sui's blood kin?
Damn it. Damn it all.
Then he would kill it himself.
He lifted his sword, ready to rush in, but Sui's voice stopped him.
"Go help Hina. She's fighting Shinjuro-san alone."
"You—" Sanemi hesitated.
"It won't get away. I'm the Thunder Hashira."
"Little Hina… who is that?" the demon asked suddenly, her voice startlingly lovely.
Sui's heart stirred. Her hearing was keen beyond ordinary limits, and in that voice she caught an unmistakable echo of herself.
The fox tail stabbed forward, but Sui vanished instantly. The speed of Thunder Breathing was simply beyond what the fox demon could track.
Sui continued probing, testing.
Though the demon's eyes bore the mark of Lower Rank One, its strength far exceeded that of Ubume or White Serpent.
"Who is little Hina?" the fox demon asked again.
Sui flashed to a distant spot and brushed a finger down her blade.
"My Tsuguko."
"Oh—the girl. She's your Tsuguko. So because of her, you never came to find me. Is that it?"
Sui said nothing. She only adjusted her breathing and searched for the opening that would kill.
To be safe, she could sever the final tail first, then cut the neck. That way, no matter what life-saving Blood Demon Art it still had, it would have no chance to regenerate.
The blade of Hachigū hummed softly. Sui lowered the sword. Snow quickly covered the footprints she had left behind.
"Did Sister know who I was from the beginning?" the fox demon asked.
"The moment I stood before you, I knew," Sui replied. "After all, I'm your sister."
The mountain fell silent beneath the snow.
For one suspended instant, the snowflakes hung unmoving between them, and the moonlight lit Sui's earrings until they shone like crystal. The fox demon's tail slowly drooped, blue fire flickering through her hair like the shrine lanterns of long ago.
The warm lantern-light of those days, when little Koka used to curl up in Sui's arms.
"You knew who I was?" the demon asked, its claws sinking into its own palm, blood dripping onto the snow. "Then why… why… why did you hurt me?"
But what the demon could not bear even more was Sui's calm.
If only there had been even the faintest sadness on her face…
Back then, whenever Koka scraped herself even a little, Sui would come immediately, coaxing and comforting her in a soft voice. Whenever Koka went out alone, Sui would always look worried.
Sister…
I vanished for so long. I stand before you now as a demon. Why are you so cold?
Sui's crimson haori snapped in the wind. The tip of her blade traced the ice, violet sparks crackling along the snow.
"But the night the shrine burned, my little sister died."
"Died? Died?" Koka suddenly burst into shrill laughter, blue flame exploding from her fox tail. "Then look at this endless snowfall! That night I burned with fever in your arms, and you said you'd always make snowmen with me—where did that sister go?!"
The memory split open the night like lightning.
Sui saw thirteen-year-old Koka curled against her, while she herself ran barefoot over burning beams and took the demon blade from the altar. Kannazuki's skin was peeling away. The smell of char and blood mixed in the collapsing roar of the shrine.
And within the crying, there stood a man.
"But you became a demon. You hurt many people. You committed sins that cannot be forgiven." Sui's voice was colder than snow.
"Because I wanted to protect you! Because I wanted to be with you forever!" Koka suddenly lunged, her fox tail transforming into a spear of blue fire. "But when I crawled back out of hell, I found that my sister had become a demon slayer!"
"Sister, do you know how long I searched for you? I heard from someone that you were suffering in the slums of Osaka, so I killed all those filthy people. I heard someone say you had come to the shrine on Mount Shaku, so I came here full of hope. Do you know how happy I was when I saw this Inari shrine? I thought—I'd found you."
"But inside the shrine there were only two demon slayers."
Her voice turned cold.
"Two demon slayers. No sister."
Lightning exploded. Sui moved through the blue flames, Hachigū grinding against the fox tail in a spray of sparks.
"Why are you asking about little Hina?" the fox demon said.
Sui was suddenly in the distance, her blade wrapped in lightning.
Koka could not track her at all.
"My Tsuguko," Sui repeated.
"Oh… that girl is your Tsuguko. So because you had her, you didn't come looking for me."
Still Sui kept her face composed. She was measuring the demon's rhythm, waiting.
Then Koka lowered her voice.
"Sister… do you know?"
Around them, the blue fire of the Blood Demon Art blossomed.
"Blood Demon Art: Kagura Flame, Cleansing Heart!"
Hundreds of fox-faced lanterns formed out of the blue flames, hanging in the snow-filled air. Within every flame was a reflection of memories from the sisters' childhood.
Far away, the Demon Slayers still on the mountain looked up and saw the deep forest glittering as though with floating lights.
The year she was twelve, when she and Koka chased fireflies outside Kyoto.
Her fifteenth birthday, when she tied a fox mask into Koka's hair.
The New Year's Eve when the two of them shared a still-steaming rice cake.
"Come with me into eternity!" Koka's voice echoed from every direction, the fox tails winding around Sui's ankles. "Look how warm these memories are! We can live forever in that summer night!"
Koka pulled Sui into her arms.
Then, in the darkness, a single point of light pierced through.
Sui had never once fallen into those memories.
Now she quietly drove Hachigū into the demon's chest.
"Thunder Breathing, Seventh Form: Susanoo-no-Mikoto."
Her voice was like song as she invoked the name of that ancient god and unleashed the final form of Thunder Breathing.
Wrapped in lightning, Sui swung her blade.
The earth boomed like a war drum. A blinding spear of thunder split open the night, like the heavenly weapon of a god hurled down from the sky.
The snow had no time to fill the black scar carved into the land.
Sui lowered the point of Hachigū. The demon blood on the blade burned away into ash.
Her haori fluttered in the freezing wind, and softly, quietly, she began to sing:
"Kagome, kagome…"
"The bird in the cage—when, oh when will it come out?"
"In the dawn of night…"
"The crane and the turtle slipped."
"Who is the one behind you?"
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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