Mang Jian sat on the roof of the Butterfly Mansion, just like he had for the last few months.
He held his sheathed blade on his lap, his face pointed forward.
It was as if, even with his eyes closed, he could see what was happening miles away.
He could see a majestic dragon with a body of lava, hundreds of meters long, clawing at an icy tornado, sonic booms originating with its every gust of wind.
The world was sundered where the dragon and the tornado clashed.
Mang Jian lifted his finger and knocked off the shockwaves before they could reach the mansion.
[Stop them,] Kai said in his mind for the third time.
The Blind Executioner turned a deaf ear to those words, though.
He was fascinated.
He was extremely fascinated by these different Storyline Characters, who were so obviously from the Demon Slayer Bubble but could use Bankai, a concept from a different Bubble.
This wasn't the first time Mang Jian had found a Character from one Bubble using abilities from another Bubble.
Most notably, Characters from major Bubbles, like Fate, Star Wars, and others, always found a way to go beyond the restrictions of their Bubbles, obtaining a hint of laws from lesser Bubbles. Some of them, the strongest from the Pillar Timelines, were known to outright steal concepts, leaving the lesser Bubbles broken.
This wasn't one of those cases.
Having a Zanpakuto, capable of releasing Bankai, of his own, Mang Jian could tell that Hashiras' Bankai were not stolen laws or abilities.
These Bankai stemmed from the inborn laws of this timeline.
And, even if he didn't know how, Mang Jian could sense that the Demon Slayers had their own methodology that explained this odd but fascinating fusion of concepts.
"Verse Fusion…" Mang Jian said, putting a stop to the voice in his head. "So that's why the old fools are so riled up to take you out…"
Fire roared as Rengoku blasted across space, leaving behind a fiery trail.
From the other side, a bone-armored, tailed Akaza shot forward, laughing, the echoes of whiplash resounding in his wake.
The two met.
They exchanged a hundred blows.
Then, they kept separating and coming back at each other, rising higher and higher.
It was as if a storm of fire and ice was shooting up from the earth, reaching for the sky, threatening to burn and freeze its way into space.
[If Rengoku dies, then you will never leave this place,] Kai warned casually.
Mang Jian smiled at that. "You should have let me die, then, Red," he countered. "You hired my blade to protect the woman and her child. Do not expect me to run all your errands."
Death…
The word left a bitter taste in the Blind Executioner's mouth even as he mentioned it so nonchalantly.
One moment, he had burned through everything to take down the Five-Crowned Prince, falling to the guy's trump card—a clone with the same strength as the original!
The next moment, he had woken up in this world, next to Kagaya Ubuyashiki—the leader of the Demon Slayers.
Mang Jian still couldn't believe how Red had saved him.
He knew his body and the level of destruction that had raged within him while fighting the guy in the Vault of Fear.
If the Prime Executioner had known of Red having such a clone, he wouldn't have allowed Mang Jian to become a part of this fiasco to begin with.
That only pointed toward why Red had kept the clone's existence a secret. And, if he had kept that secret, who knew what more secrets he possessed; secrets powerful enough to bring an almost dead man back to life.
Mang Jian had no intention of shying away from the generous help bestowed upon him, though.
Death was so absolute.
He had already died once, hoping to resurrect and exact his revenge.
So, when Red had brought him back from the threshold of death, he had known that he would have to repay this debt.
It didn't take a genius to know that the man known to survive one of the worst Holy Grail Wars in the Fate Bubble wouldn't save someone out of goodwill.
But Red's request had turned out to be much simpler, and more shocking, to Mang Jian.
Protect Shinobu and the child she carried for as long as Red's Main Mission lasted in the Harry Potter Bubble.
It had seemed simple because Mang Jian found that this timeline could accommodate his entire strength as a Top-level 12th Floor Contestant.
Conversely, it had seemed shocking for Red to have someone to protect.
Demons like them shouldn't have people they needed to protect… not until they had risen to the very peak of the Power they lusted for. Only then could they afford to have someone by their side; only then could they afford to love, have a family… a child…
Mang Jian had failed to fathom what Red had been scheming by hiring him for such a task, because, at that time, the only thing the guy seemed to accomplish by saving him was keeping his neck intact.
The entire Tower knew that the 100 Zanpakuto School never let an Executioner's death go unavenged.
No matter how strong Red was, even with all his trump cards, he wouldn't have survived a full onslaught from ninety-nine Executioners.
Unlike others, though, the School could tell if an Executioner had died or not.
Once they had learned that Mang Jian was still alive, they had subtly decided to retreat, assuming silence.
Mang Jian had thought that Red must have been aiming for exactly this.
But only after studying the Hashiras' Bankai did the Blind Executioner learn the truth.
The child within Shinobu's womb wasn't some random Character, but Red's own blood.
And if it was indeed Verse Fusion, then having such a child could let him turn the entire Demon Slayers into a Clan.
Mang Jian, despite having no interest in such schemes, couldn't help but praise Red within his heart for thinking and planning so far ahead.
But it was obvious that not everything was working out in his favor.
"You should have let me finish Muzan," Mang Jian said, ignoring Kai's words to stop the fight again. "In a few months, I won't be able to cut off his head so easily. Then…"
He turned his head down and sensed the pregnant Hashira clenching her blade, her face drenched in sweat and pain.
Then, a mighty BOOM overwhelmed the world, forcing the Executioner to look up.
The fateful fight had finally taken a drastic turn, it seemed.
Someone… was about to die.
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