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Outside of the Twelve Kizuki, Blood Demon Arts that were actually useful for anything were few and far between.
Back when he used to watch the anime, aside from having his jaw drop at the art of that bystander in Asakusa—who could forcibly immobilize Muzan—there was another one that always struck him as absurdly broken.
The Arrow Demon's Koketsu Arrow.
And what the hell did it do? Simple: it let you summon invisible arrows that normal people couldn't see. Not even regular demons could detect them.
Those arrows didn't hit particularly hard, but they could pierce anything and exert force in whatever direction you damn well pleased.
In plain English: you touched the target and from that point on, you could send it wherever you felt like.
It was like a pocket-sized Vector Control, a bootleg Shinra Tensei, a real-life remote control…
And it didn't stop there. The arrows had a physical form, so the force they carried could deflect attacks and even trap enemies.
But on top of all that: the art came with brutally effective tracking and scouting abilities. If he wanted, he could distinguish footprints just by reading the distribution of dust on the ground. Lock onto a target and track it down.
That was why those demons had found this place.
And he'd always been insanely jealous of Tanjiro's sense of smell.
And while he did have the sense of smell his Breathing Technique gave him, that sense of smell was for one specific thing: it only detected the scents he himself gave off and had a ridiculous sensitivity toward female scents.
Basically a perverted nose.
But if he got the Arrow Demon's ability, it was game over… Detection would no longer be his weak point!
Fuck!
A GODDAMN SURPRISE DROPPED STRAIGHT FROM THE SKY!!
Looking at Nezuko, who was still sitting there calm as could be, gnawing on his finger like it was a lollipop, unable to contain himself, he leaned down and planted two big fat kisses on her chubby little cheeks.
'You're my lucky star!'
"Miss Tamayo, Yushiro, are you all right?" Tanjiro turned his head for a second and immediately looked forward again. "Marcus, take care of Nezuko."
There he was, sword in hand, planted in front of everyone like a wall.
Watching his back for a moment, Marcus made a decision.
"Fight with everything you've got, Tanjiro! I need you to buy me ten minutes! Give me ten lousy minutes and I'll handle whatever happens in here—don't you dare look back!"
He hadn't even finished speaking when his free hand had already drawn Makomo. The blade shot out and flashed like lightning.
Swish
One precise cut and the ball that had been bouncing around like it was possessed split into two perfect halves that dropped to the floor with a dry thud.
Tanjiro looked at him over his shoulder with wide eyes, and Marcus flashed him a crooked smile.
"What are you waiting for? Move your ass."
"..."
Tanjiro stood there stunned for a moment.
Even in that situation—Marcus, in the middle of the wreckage, with debris everywhere and the echo of the ball still ringing... and the guy was still dead set on not moving a single millimeter of the finger Nezuko had clamped between her teeth. In fact, he was shielding her with his body.
Anyone would think he was insane.
But Tanjiro, connecting this with the strange breathing technique Marcus used, as well as with the private advice Urokodaki had given him:
"Tanjiro, Marcus walks the path of a breathing style he created himself. That path is far more complicated than following the rules, and it depends much more on 'revelation' and 'opportunities.' If one day, in the middle of a fight, something strange suddenly happens to him... like that time he met Nezuko for the first time... that could be his 'destiny.' His 'opportunity.' And when that moment comes... it'll be up to you to protect him."
His gaze slowly shifted toward the outside of the house.
The panic that had crossed his face a moment ago was fading. The worry about what was happening inside the house, too. All of it was falling behind, and in its place, something else was growing.
Determination.
It was always Marcus who protected him. It was always Marcus who had his back, who stepped in front, who solved everything.
But not today…
Today it was finally his turn to create an "opportunity" for his big brother!
"Understood!" He nodded with eyes burning so fiercely it was scary to look at him. "Leave it to me! Not a single one's getting through!"
…
When Tanjiro leaped through the hole and landed in the yard… there, on the other side, two silhouettes emerged from the shadows little by little, as if the darkness itself were spitting them out.
On the left, a demon. Female, but with a musculature that was anything but normal: thick arms, broad shoulders, a body barely covered by clothes that looked about to burst on her. She was tossing and catching several colorful balls with her hands, one after another, effortlessly, with a crazy grin plastered across her face.
On the right, a demon. Male, tall and thin, dressed in a dark robe that swayed in the breeze. His hands were extended forward, palms open... and on each one, where the lines of the skin should have been, there was an eye. Golden. Unblinking. Fixed on Tanjiro without a single flicker.
"Oh my!" Smiling, the female demon looked Tanjiro up and down and then fixed her eyes on the inside of the house, hungrier now. "They only send a brat to greet us? Where's that blood we smelled earlier? And our fellow demon? What… did they all hide?!"
Tanjiro didn't open his mouth. He simply took the opening stance of Water Breathing and stood there, blocking the entrance like a wall.
"Oh, you don't talk?"
Her smile twisted into something dangerous, and one of the balls in her hand began spinning faster and faster, humming. "Well then, first I'll kill you, and then I'll go inside to find my meal."
Swish
With her final words, a ball had already shot from her hand like a cannonball.
Tanjiro's gaze hardened and he didn't dodge.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
The water-wrapped blade went straight to split the ball clean in half, perfect… and the ball turned.
"WHAT?!"
It changed direction out of nowhere, as if something had pushed it. It veered left, bounced, and came at Tanjiro again from an unexpected angle.
"How?!" Eyes going wide, Tanjiro suddenly threw his body backward, swinging his sword diagonally to block as best he could.
CLANG!
He managed to deflect it... but the force that traveled through the blade was brutal. His entire arm vibrated and his fingers moved on their own, on the verge of dropping the hilt.
"Hehehe~"
Laughing with amusement, the female demon swung her arms, launching two more balls. "Enjoy, brat~!"
Three balls dancing at once, tracing different paths, coming from every angle: head-on, from behind, from the left, from the right.
There was no pattern, no logic.
Tanjiro gritted his teeth and his feet began moving on their own—fast, gliding across the yard.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
His silhouette turned into a blur and the blade never stopped flashing, deflecting the balls one after another every time they came at him.
But it was useless. Every time he sent them flying, the balls came back. They stopped in midair as if it were nothing, ignored gravity, inertia, every law of physics that existed, and returned to attack him without giving him a single second to breathe.
And the worst part wasn't even that.
The Arrow Demon, who up until now had been standing there still with his eyes closed doing nothing, had moved his hands.
He extended them toward Tanjiro from a distance, palms open, and those arrow-shaped pupils locked onto him.
Something inside Tanjiro screamed at him to move.
And the next second, he understood why.
An inexplicable force yanked his body to one side all at once, as if a giant hand had grabbed him and shoved. He lost his balance, his feet went out from under him…
And right there, a ball was coming at full speed.
BAM!
Caught off guard, he took the hit square in the back, making him cough up a bit of blood.
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Tanjiro is finally the one protecting Marcus! 🛡️ But facing two demons with crazy powers alone won't be easy... Will he survive the 10 minutes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and drop your Power Stones!
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