"How is this possible?!" Zenitsu couldn't believe it. "Weren't demons supposed to die by cutting off their heads?!"
Beside him, Inosuke was just as stunned, his mouth hanging open beneath his mask.
Only Tanjiro held on to something resembling his composure.
He had experienced something similar with Rui, and although his heart was also in his throat, he wasn't paralyzed. He could still think.
"His head and body must be rejecting each other! Nichirin blades leave something behind when they decapitate, he won't hold out for long! DON'T GIVE HIM TIME!"
He was ready to launch himself.
But how was he going to get there before Rengoku?
'Flame Breathing: Fifth Form – Flame Tiger!'
With flames majestically blooming from his blade, taking the shape of a tiger, the distance separating him from Akaza was closed in a single leap.
Swish
A red flash tore across the place.
By the time the flames started to dissolve, everyone could see that Rengoku was already behind the Demon.
And Akaza's hands, the very ones that were holding up his own head, dropped to the ground with it in the middle.
"NO! AKAZA-SA-AAAH!"
Enmu's anguished scream was choked off on the spot when four swords plunged into his body.
"Shut up!"
"…"
…
Rengoku helped Marcus stay on his feet, watching as Akaza's head began to crumble into ash.
"Is it over?"
Lifting his eyes with difficulty, Marcus smiled bitterly.
"It could've been over... but it seems Akaza misunderstood something..."
Rengoku was thrown off by those words, and just as he was about to speak.
!!!
A chilling aura burst out from Akaza's decapitated body, still standing, making the ground seem to tremble.
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE…?!" The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. "THAT I…?! THAT I'M GOING TO DIE…?! FROM A POISON?!"
???
Inosuke looked around in every direction: "But… but he doesn't even have a mouth. Where's the voice coming from?"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?!" Zenitsu cried, tears shooting out sideways. "YOU THINK THIS IS THE TIME TO GO LOOKING FOR LOGIC?!"
"Hahaha!"
Enmu laughed out loud arrogantly: "Pathetic humans…! Pathetic! You'll never be able to understand the true greatness of demons…!"
This time, nobody paid him any mind.
Rengoku tightened his grip on the hilt and planted himself in front of Marcus.
"Sigh…"
Marcus sighed, resigned.
'Yeah. Okay. Yeah.'
Part of all this, being honest, was his own fault.
He knew Akaza, knew he had a head obsessed with the martial arts, with the code, with the duel. And that was why he knew how he worked.
If Akaza had faced several at once and was losing, there would have been a sky-high chance of him losing control. Of him awakening that state from the Infinity Castle, that version that dragged Tanjirō and Giyū down into the most absolute despair.
But in a one-on-one, it was different.
If Akaza lost a clean duel, there was a small chance he'd accept it.
Because it would be a fair duel.
And he had just lost. And he had lost cleanly… or that's what it should have been.
Marcus smiled wearily. He had used the Seventh Form.
Ha…
For Akaza, facing a poison was enough to make him lose it. He understood that.
But put yourself in his shoes for a moment.
You've fought for what feels like an eternity. You've dealt your opponent wounds that would be fatal for anyone. And the son of a bitch is still right there in front of you, untouched and smiling at you.
You've got a finishing move saved up, the one that could end it all, and it turns out you can't use it. Why? Just because. Because the rule of the duel forbids it. Because your own code ties your hands.
SUFFOCATING. That was the definition of how it felt.
And on top of that, there was a detail. [Beauty Bee] didn't inject poison.
What Marcus introduced into the enemy's body with each thrust was his own Breathing Technique. His breath infiltrating the body to sabotage the muscles from within, to muddle the reflexes, and so on.
The procedure was identical to Shinobu's. But it wasn't the same!
Only someone as sensitive as Akaza would have confused one for the other.
Rengoku glanced sideways at Marcus, seeing him so silent and hurt… A colossal fighting spirit burst out of his body.
"Marcus, you've already done more than enough! Leave the rest to me!"
Every breath that came in and out of his lungs was literally fire.
"If I can't manage to defeat him after this, I wouldn't be able to look Oyakata-sama in the face again!"
Without another word, he hurled himself into the attack wrapped in flames.
A second later, he came flying back.
Akaza had kicked him and sent him flying backward.
"Cough!"
Coughing against the ground, Rengoku had a slightly reddened face, but he was already getting up again, as if nothing had happened. "I never imagined he still had that much strength left!"
And he hurled himself back at Akaza.
This time they really clashed, and the fight tangled into a whirlwind of flames and knuckles.
"You're still way too naive, Rengoku." Marcus murmured, shaking his head.
He drove his swords into the ground and brought his hands up to the back of his neck, beneath the collar of his uniform, feeling around.
"The messes a man gets himself into," he finally found what he was looking for, "in the end, he has to clean up himself."
When he lowered his hands again, he had something between his fingers.
A tiny pendant like a little glass vial, and inside it, a transparent liquid.
Tamayo had given it to him.
She considered it, without any exaggeration, one of the most perfect works she had produced in her entire life.
In all his previous battles, Marcus had worn it hanging on his back, far from his chest, far from his stomach, far from any area where a fist could destroy it.
But now there was no longer any reason to keep it hidden.
Holding the vial in one hand, he pulled at the cord with the other.
The little vial separated from the pendant, and beneath it, where there should have been a simple clasp, something else appeared.
Something thin, shining, and pointed.
A needle… Yes. A syringe.
The pendant was a syringe, and what it contained was a letter of resignation for Muzan.
Because Marcus's plan for tonight, from the start, had only contemplated two endings.
One: finish off Akaza.
Two: make Akaza and Muzan break apart spiritually, open such a deep rift between them that they could never again look each other in the face.
And what he couldn't allow to happen was letting Akaza return to Muzan's side. NOT A FUCKING CHANCE.
He wasn't about to leave a loose end when he had, right now, the chance to cut it off.
What he wanted was that, when the day of the decisive battle came, there'd be no one left at Muzan's side.
But things were what they were.
He was badly wounded and Akaza had entered his out-of-control state. Continuing to trade blows with him in these conditions was flat-out suicide.
Plan A was therefore officially scrapped.
Which left, naturally, only one way out.
He was going to have to bother Koyuki and ask her to talk some sense into Akaza.
And just as he finished his train of thought, Rengoku's voice snapped him out of it.
"Marcus, grab the kids and get the hell out of here! As long as you're still here, he won't fight me!"
Marcus looked up, and sure enough.
Akaza, facing Rengoku, wasn't even bothering to dodge. Why would he dodge? Since he no longer had a head, Rengoku could slice him up wherever he felt like and it wouldn't affect him.
The decapitated body was advancing toward Marcus.
And Rengoku didn't dare attack with everything he had. Every time he made a real move to cut, he'd be hit by the fear that Akaza might use that half-second to slip past on the side and hurt Marcus, who could barely stay on his feet. So he limited himself to blocking and desperately repelling him.
Protecting someone has always been infinitely more complicated than just fighting.
Aware of this, Marcus lifted Makomo with his right hand and with the other he gripped the syringe.
"Rengoku, let him through."
"…?"
"Let him come."
"If I clear a path for him, he'll kill you!"
"Relax. He's not going to kill me."
"What do you mean he's not going to…?!"
"If I'd wanted to run, I'd have done it already."
"If you can run, run! Why would I let him through?!"
"Because I want to talk to him."
"…You cut his head off and now you want to talk to him?"
"Yeah. Why couldn't I talk to him?"
__________
Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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P-a-t-r-e-o-n → Athome790