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Watching the girls walk away with a grin from ear to ear, he hopped back to his post on the wall.
In that brief span, Tanjiro had evened the odds against the three abominations. Free of his burden, he unleashed a total offensive.
Water Breathing stances chained one attack after another, keeping the demons pinned against the ropes.
"..."
Meanwhile, Marcus rubbed his chin.
That eyesore's Blood Demon Art was an extremely attractive ability.
They controlled a pocket dimension shaped like a swamp, perfect for kidnapping their prey.
Dragging an enemy into a suffocating terrain with zero mobility granted a brutal tactical advantage in any fight.
On top of that, it worked beautifully as a personal inventory.
And the fact that the system hadn't given him an inventory was something that had always annoyed him.
Stealing that ability would be hitting the jackpot.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any available slots to devour a Blood Demon Art at the moment.
On the other hand...
Watching the trio of bugs fight to the death against Tanjiro while screaming insults at each other, Marcus crossed off the idea of saving them for later.
A resounding no.
He'd rather avoid the monumental headache of generating independent clones ready to argue all damn day. And thinking long-term, splitting his body into three brought a very big dilemma. Which of the three would get his future wives?
Would he end up cheating on himself?
He shook his head, erasing that bizarre mental image. The cleanest, most logical solution was to slice them to bits and call it a day.
And noticing the trio's nervous glances scanning the perimeter for an escape route, he knew they were preparing to retreat.
"Tanjiro, I think you've played around long enough. Let me try out my new form."
Tanjiro leaped backward to create distance and looked at him curiously. "You want to jump in?"
"The clock's ticking." Marcus hopped off the wall, landing gracefully in the courtyard, and placed both hands on the twin hilts at his waist. "We've got a tight schedule to make it to Asakusa."
The trio of demons turned toward Marcus and, hiding their unease behind a mask of aggression, spat out their provocations.
"One more idiot begging to get torn apart…"
"Could've attacked us together, but he chooses to die alone. What delicious arrogance!"
"His blood smells... fantastic. Way sweeter than those little girls'…"
"Oh? Interested in me?" Marcus arched an eyebrow with a smile. "Don't move—the main course is on its way."
He lowered his center of gravity, bending his knees. A rosy vapor began to flow between his nose and lips.
"Breath of Desire, Third Form…"
Swish
His figure blurred completely, transforming into a pink gust that devoured the distance to the first demon in a blink.
"Floral Traverse!"
Both blades left their sheaths simultaneously, tracing a pair of purple lightning bolts through the darkness.
Marcus spun on his own axis, unleashing a storm of successive cuts. At the exact intersection of the dazzling flashes, a lethal flower of energy seemed to burst its petals open all at once.
SLASH!
"Ugh…!"
The first demon's head went flying, while a boiling geyser erupted from the decapitated neck, painting the night red and forming the perfect scarlet center of that lethal flower of destruction.
But the pink gust didn't stop. Maintaining its rotation, the attack projected forward with violence, reaching the second demon in an instant.
A new spin of the twin blades made a second scarlet flower bloom in the night's darkness.
Immediately after, the lethal cycle claimed its third victim…
Before Tanjiro's astonished gaze, the three flowers blazed simultaneously.
So that by the time Marcus reappeared at his side...
Surrounded by the last glimmers of rosy vapor, the three demonic heads were still in the air.
Tanjiro watched the scene with his mouth hanging open.
"What a beautiful and… penetrating flower."
The hollow thud of the heads hitting the ground accompanied the end of his sentence.
"Obviously, it's a work of art."
Flicking the drops of blood off both blades, Marcus returned them to their sheaths.
Breath of Desire, Third Form: Floral Traverse.
The Form he had grasped during Final Selection, inspired by Kanao.
In contrast to the Fox's Walk, focused entirely on agility and close-quarters combat, Floral Traverse bet everything on maximum linear speed and continuous charges.
A frontal, absolute attack—perfectly reflecting Kanao's personality: direct and completely pure.
Upon closing in on his target, he used the momentum of the charge itself to unleash a rotational cut. After executing the movement, he transferred all the weight and inertia of his body directly toward the next prey, chaining a new charge, spin, and slash in a fluid sequence.
The cycle repeated continuously until he burned through his last drop of energy or ran out of targets.
This technique prioritized extreme fluidity, demanding he leap to the next target immediately after delivering a single attack.
That very mechanic was what drove him to wield two swords.
Tracing a lethal circle with dual blades guaranteed a level of impact immensely superior to that of a single sword. Facing two edges spinning simultaneously demanded incredible reflexes.
Marcus flashed a triumphant smile.
"What'd you think? Pretty incredible, right?"
Tanjiro nodded with pure enthusiasm.
"That was awesome!"
But upon immediately remembering what this guy had been doing while luring the demon, he twisted his lips in reproach.
"All flash, no substance!"
"That's pure jealousy talking."
"Hmph. You're a complete shameless bastard."
The two fell back into their usual routine.
Meanwhile, on the edge of the wall, the Kasugai crow with gray-tipped plumage made its appearance in total silence. Turning its back to them and pointing its beak directly toward a particular direction, it screeched.
"¡Asakusa!"
The screech dripped with obvious fury, instantly catching Tanjiro's attention.
Marcus raised both hands in surrender.
"Understood, received, and noted. Ruffle down those feathers."
He cast one last glance toward the main hall, where dozens of girls waited, ready to "celebrate" the victory in grand fashion.
He clicked his tongue with regret.
A real shame...
If he'd kept his breathing technique active and partied with them until sunrise, at least a third of them probably would have fallen head over heels for him.
But well... Duty called, and a quick round of farewells guaranteed he'd stock up on a bit of meat, devour a couple of warm mouths, and rub up against those soft bodies as an exquisite consolation prize before heading out.
…
Ten minutes later, Tanjiro and Nezuko, who had been waiting at the main entrance, finally saw Marcus emerge from his intense farewell session.
Female voices cheered his name from inside, and looking at Marcus with his haori collar wide open, his clothes wrinkled, and his face plastered with lipstick marks.
A dense, overwhelming cloud of women's perfume floated around him.
Tanjiro let out an icy snort, took his sister's hand, and turned on his heel to start walking.
And though she was being dragged along by her brother's pull, Nezuko kept her longing gaze fixed on Marcus.
Marcus, licking his lips after devouring those bold girls, stopped dead when he noticed the lump in her free hand. Nezuko was clutching a Kasugai crow that was letting out desperate screeches.
After a brief chat, he discovered the truth. During his farewell session, the bird that had been waiting on the wall was captured by little Nezuko.
Now she was using it as her stuffed animal…
Laughing, Marcus lifted Nezuko to carry her against his chest, and took the opportunity to give the bird a good whack on the head. The feathered prisoner stubbornly insisted on pointing its rear end at him.
"You deserve it!"
Completely ignoring the mayor and dodging any sort of public ceremony or expression of gratitude, the two of them resumed their route in the middle of the night.
Their only objective was always to kill demons.
....
Right on schedule, Tanjiro and Marcus set foot on the streets of Asakusa as the sun went down the following day.
Although it had already grown dark, the metropolis gleamed, flooded with artificial lights and an endless sea of pedestrians.
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Thank you for reading! The Asakusa arc is about to begin. Let me know what you expect to happen in the comments, and remember to drop your Power Stones!
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