"I'm really looking forward to this~" Doma rested his folding fan against his chin. "I wonder who'll be the first to find me… Hmm?"
Doma turned and looked toward the door that had just been pushed open, the smile on his face widening further.
"Oh my~ A cute young lady~ Welcome~"
Kanae's expression darkened as she looked at the white-oak-haired demon before her.
"…So it really is you."
"Hmm?" Doma snapped open his folding fan and waved it lightly, his eyes falling on Kanae. "Ah, I remember you. You were the one who came to greet Akiwa before. Tell me, did Akiwa come here with you?"
To Doma's surprise, all three people in front of him, Kanae included, looked completely bewildered.
He tapped his forehead with the fan in mild frustration.
"Oh dear, ever since Akiwa read my memories last time, things keep going wrong. Right, as for you all, your names should be..."
Boom!
The sudden explosion made both Doma and Kanae's group turn at once.
The large door on the other side of the room had completely transformed into pale gray crystal, and a huge hole had been blasted through the lower half of it.
Standing in the opening was a tall young man dressed in the Demon Slayer Corps uniform, with a gray-blue haori over it. He brushed crystal dust from his shoulders as he stepped forward. Through the gap behind him, they could see the corridor beyond had likewise been turned into crystal.
Kanae watched him walk in over the shattered fragments. When his gaze passed over them, the faint irritation on his face clearly deepened, but he only turned to Doma.
"…So all my paintings really were here with you. What a pain."
"Of course~ I had to plead with my Lord for ages before permission was granted~" Doma covered half his face with the fan. "It's been such a long time since we last met, Akiwa~ I've missed you dearly~ So? Won't you really consider joining us? Honestly, I'd rather not fight you~"
"I already told you that isn't my name... Forget it. Call me whatever you want."
Hiru let out a long sigh and looked toward Kanae and the others, who were still stunned.
"Don't stay here watching. You can't take part in this fight. If you have time to waste, go help the others."
Before the three of them could answer, Doma frowned.
"That won't do. If they leave, what happens when you get hungry later, Akiwa? Better they stay. Blood Demon Art: Frozen Clouds."
A visible wave of frost spread outward with the sweep of Doma's fan, surging through the room.
Kanae felt the light in front of her dim. At the same instant, Hiru, who had been standing on the far side of the room, appeared directly in front of them.
Crystal dust pattered softly to the floor.
Doma laughed again.
"Wow~ Just what I'd expect from Akiwa~ Amazing! You saved all three of them in an instant~
But what a shame. Look over there. Hasn't the ice already grown thick? The whole room is surrounded by ice this dense now~ Even if you can instantly convert my Blood Demon Art, those crystals should be harder than my ice, right? In that case, protecting these three while dealing with everything would be difficult for you, wouldn't it?"
Hiru glanced back the way he had come.
Just as Doma said, the route had already been sealed off by an extremely thick wall of ice.
He clicked his tongue irritably.
"You've gotten smarter..."
"Oh my, how cruel. Last time I only lost so quickly because of the sunlight. My combat instincts have even been praised by Kokushibo-sama himself~" Doma gently waved his fan. "And when I went to see Kokushibo-sama before, I even told him we'd soon be one family~"
The three observers were stunned by those words.
At the same time, they clearly heard the sound of teeth grinding from Hiru's direction.
Makomo, standing farther out, even saw him wearing an indescribably complicated expression, both fists clenched tight. He looked disgusted to the absolute limit.
"Ah, yes, thank you so much. Because of you, an old man over four hundred years old got hunted down across great distances by my onii-san and had his sexual orientation questioned... What exactly did I say back then for you to misunderstand things this badly? You make me want to turn back time and slap myself."
"Now, now~ Don't say that~ Didn't Akiwa once hold me so gently in your palms and say you liked me?"
Watching the two of them, or rather, the two demons, chatting casually with no sense of battle in the air at all, more and more questions rose in Kanae and the others' minds.
Why was Hiru, clearly a demon, wearing a Demon Slayer Corps uniform?
Why did he let Doma call him Akiwa without correcting him?
And why did he feel so strangely familiar?
But this was clearly not the time to dig deeper.
They had no idea how long the demon in Corps uniform would remain on their side, but while he still did, they needed to gather as much information as possible.
That way, if they died here, the comrades who came after them would have an easier fight.
...
"This is splendid! Two Water Hashira!" Akaza threw a punch that forced Sabito to abandon offense, switch to defense, and retreat. "Come now, what are your names? It's time you introduced yourselves!"
"Urokodaki Sabito."
After a brief sway, Sabito charged forward again, his Nichirin Blade rising upward in a slash.
"Do you want that badly to know who'll be the one to kill you?"
"I'm simply thrilled! To fight three warriors who have honed their martial skill to the utmost. Just imagining it is enough to excite me!" Akaza's golden eyes turned toward Giyu, who attacked from the flank. Faint blue fist shadows separated from his strike and shot toward him. "And you! What's your name?!"
Facing the incoming barrage, Giyu lowered the tip of his blade.
The fist shadows vanished like stones sinking into the sea.
His expression remained as cold as ever.
"I have no obligation to tell you my name. I don't like talking. Don't speak to me."
"Is that so! You don't like talking! I do! No matter how many times it takes, I'll ask until you answer!" Akaza spun and launched a side kick at Kyojuro's descending blade. "What was that move just now?! First time I've ever seen it! Past Water Hashira never used such a technique! Have you seen it before, Kyojuro?!"
"Indeed! Without question, I have!"
Kyojuro twisted his sword, the blade cutting straight toward Akaza's Achilles tendon.
"Giyu is an outstanding and gifted man of action!"
"Is that so! So that one is called Giyu!"
Akaza drove off both legs. As the ground shattered beneath him, he shot forward like a cannonball toward Sabito, who had been preparing to strike from behind.
"A fine name indeed!"
Faced with Akaza's sudden reversal, Sabito responded instantly.
His body moved at high speed like flowing water, leaving only several afterimages amid the storm of punches.
But because the attack had come so abruptly, the violent force of the passing strikes still snapped the cord securing his mask, and a thin line of blood appeared along the side of his face.
Sabito still wore a faintly roguish smile.
"Hey, hey, Kyojuro, don't talk with him that seriously. Giyu already said he doesn't want his name known!"
"Indeed! Is that so? My apologies! I didn't hear him!"
Giyu simply moved in silence with Kyojuro's attack rhythm, closing in on Akaza once more without a word.
After all, he had just lied. He liked talking. He just didn't want to talk to demons. Now that this demon knew his name, it should at least quiet down a little, right?
But Giyu had greatly underestimated Akaza.
Just as he had claimed, Akaza showed not the slightest intention of shutting up. If anything, he became even more eager to talk.
"Kyojuro! What happened after you went back that day?!
That eyesore exposed his identity, didn't he! How did you deal with him? Did you kill him or drive him out? No matter how much that guy likes humans, when faced with death, he still ran away, didn't he!"
"Indeed! I have no idea what you're talking about!" Kyojuro swung his sword to knock aside Akaza's hand strike. "Kamado boy's identity had already been made known among the Hashira before that! He is without question an ally!"
"I'm talking about the one called Hiru. The younger brother of the former Upper Moon One, Kokushibo!" Akaza hurled a savage downward punch, and the ground around them instantly fractured under the terrifying force of the blow like veins in a leaf. "Don't tell me you forgot! Didn't he become that so-called Human Hashira?!"
"I don't know who you're talking about!" Kyojuro's swordsmanship lost none of its force as he attacked Akaza, yet he still answered him seriously. "The Demon Slayer Corps has never had a Hashira named after a human!"
"Even if you're trying to shake our minds, this method is way too crude!" White breath spilled from Sabito's lips. His movement even dragged out an afterimage as his water-blue blade slashed straight for Akaza's neck. "In a line of work like ours, how messed up would your head have to be to pick something as ill-omened as Human Hashira for a title!"
Giyu stepped in as well, following Sabito's movement and cutting toward Akaza's neck from the opposite side.
"…Messed up in the head."
At the very instant the three of them, working in perfect harmony, nearly forced Akaza into a dead end, an azure technique pattern, far larger and clearer than before, bloomed beneath his feet.
Then it surged upward violently, transforming into hundreds of fast, devastating projectiles that shot toward the three of them, who were less than half a step away.
At that distance, against such a dense barrage, there was no way the three of them could evade it completely.
They could only each use their own methods to defend, and were forced to pull away from Akaza once more.
But after driving them back, Akaza did not continue pressing the attack.
Instead, he stood where he was and burst into wild laughter.
"Is that so? Is that so?! So there's no Human Hashira! Hahaha!"
Sabito spat out the blood foam in his mouth and breathed lightly.
"What's so funny?"
"Of course it's funny!" The smile on Akaza's face looked almost twisted. "That guy talked so nicely, but in the end he was still afraid! He still ran away! And he even erased your memories! How interesting! Too interesting!"
...
"How is he not dead when he's not even that strong?" Uzui wore a somewhat irritated look as he split the demon in front of him apart again. "If this fight drags on any longer, it won't be flashy at all!"
"He'll die eventually." Muichiro once again took off the demon's head with a single slash. "He feels a lot easier to deal with than that sickle monster and crying woman we fought together last time."
"Yeah, at least there's no poison." Yuichiro also wore a look of disgust. "Though this guy's Blood Demon Art is disgusting too."
"Amitabha... perhaps this place should be left to this monk. You three should go support the others."
Watching Himejima swing his chain flail and precisely smash the demon's head and upper body into minced flesh together, Uzui started to feel like the rest of them were unnecessary.
"Yuichiro and Muichiro, go help the others. I, the God of Festivals, will stay here and deal with this demon."
"If we're being honest, shouldn't Uzui-san be the one to go?" Muichiro swiftly cut off the demon's limbs. "This Upper Moon split into four bodies, so leaving three people here is safer. And Uzui-san is the fastest, plus his hearing is sharp. He'll definitely find the people who need help faster than my brother and I can."
"You're so damn noisy! Are you giving orders to the God of Festivals now? Just listen obediently!"
"But Uzui-san just dresses like a display rack. He's not really the God of Festivals, is he?"
"What? You unpleasant little brat!"
"I'm just stating facts."
After dodging the Blood Demon Art of the headless corpse once again, Yuichiro cut off the demon's limbs with a swing of his blade. His expression looked utterly fed up.
"…Instead of wasting time arguing, why not think about how we're actually supposed to kill this thing? Dragging it out like this isn't a solution at all."
"Then we mince it up!" Uzui swung his twin blades even faster. "We'll flashily chop all four bodies to pieces! Let's see whether this demon can still recover after all four clones have been turned into meat paste!"
Naturally, the others had no objections.
Yuichiro and Muichiro also stopped conserving their stamina, both increasing the speed and force of their slashes.
But just as Muichiro's white Nichirin Blade passed across the demon's abdomen before him, a demon with a swollen forehead suddenly burst out from that body, swinging a giant claw viciously at Muichiro's throat.
But the claw only tore through drifting mist.
Then, in the very next instant, both of its arms dropped to the ground, covered in bloody gashes.
Before the swollen-foreheaded demon could make another move, a viciously spiked chain flail, a pair of heavy twin blades, and a blue-green long blade struck all at once, reducing the demon before them to pieces.
Muichiro still looked a little shaken.
"What the heck, why is it always trying to scare people? I was halfway through cutting it when this ugly face suddenly popped out. I tensed up so hard my hand cramped."
"I brought some ointment. I'll put some on it for you later." Yuichiro clicked his tongue as he looked at the flesh on the ground, which still had not turned to ash and vanished. "Honestly, it's about time you read the room and died already."
"The ones who deserve to die are you people who bully the weak."
A somewhat hoarse boy's voice rang out behind them.
They turned around and saw that the chunks of flesh they had cut apart earlier had somehow gathered together, forming a young demon with several Raijin drums engraved with the character "Hate" on his back and an S-shaped drumstick in hand.
At that moment, the young demon looked at them with open disgust, and his voice was full of malice.
"You villains who show no mercy to the weak, today I, Zohakuten, will bring down heavenly punishment upon you!"