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"How—cough!... H-How is that possible...?"
Gritting his teeth, Tanjiro got up, swaying. "Why… why won't my body listen to me?"
Without answering, Yahaba aimed his palms toward Susamaru with annoyance.
"Hurry it up. The Master made it very clear—no playing around."
"He gave us his blood ahead of time precisely so we wouldn't screw around."
"Tch! You're so annoying…"
Clicking her tongue, Susamaru shoved her hands down through the collar of her clothes, ripped her coat open in one pull, and exposed her muscular body.
And then, with a wet sound, two pairs of hypertrophied arms, bulging with veins, sprouted from her sides.
Six arms. Six balls. And that beastly grin that wouldn't leave her face.
"If I've gotta get serious... then I'll get serious."
Swish
And the next instant, all six balls launched at once.
But they weren't aimed at Tanjiro.
They were headed straight for the hole in the house.
She had ignored him completely. With Yahaba controlling him, Tanjiro couldn't get close anyway. On the other hand, that guy sitting in there cross-legged, cool as could be... that one made her hair stand on end. That one had given her a bad feeling from the start.
"You can stop one, handsome, but let's see how you handle six!"
And as she said it, the balls had already reached Marcus.
"You think so?"
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Several pink flashes cut through the air and wove a net of slashes right in front of Marcus, so fast they were barely visible.
He lowered the blade without standing up. He didn't even move from his spot.
A second later, the six balls stopped dead. They cracked like eggs, one by one, and dissolved into a few wisps of red energy that vanished into the air as if they'd never existed.
The smile was wiped clean off Susamaru's face, and Yahaba narrowed his eyes.
He hadn't attacked alongside her, but Susamaru's brute force alone was no joke.
They shouldn't have been neutralized that easily… not like that.
But while they were still standing there trying to figure out what had happened, someone else was already moving.
"Don't underestimate me, you bastards!"
"Water Breathing, Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!"
Tanjiro came in like a tsunami, engulfed in a brutal torrent of water currents roaring around him. Yahaba reacted late, raised his hands toward him in a rush, and clamped the eyes on his palms shut…
Causing countless invisible red arrows to burst forth and shoot straight at Tanjiro.
But this time was going to be different.
As if he already knew exactly what was coming, Tanjiro leaped at the last moment and switched forms midair.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
With a sudden burst of agility, his body turned liquid, sliding through Yahaba's gaps, and he lunged at Susamaru, who was caught off guard.
Seeing him coming, her expression changed and she jumped back, fast… but not fast enough.
The blade grazed her shoulder and a spray of blood splattered her clothes.
"You bastard...!"
Rage clouded everything. She forgot about Marcus, forgot about the house, forgot about everything. All she wanted was to destroy the boy who'd dared to cut her.
She generated more balls and started hurling them like a maniac, one after another, all at Tanjiro.
But thrown like that, in a straight line, without Yahaba's arrows guiding them... they were nothing. Tanjiro dodged them as if he could see them coming in slow motion, weaving between them without losing his rhythm.
And speaking of Yahaba, the guy was still standing there, still trying to process how Tanjiro had managed to dodge his arrows. Until he saw it… The paper stuck to Tanjiro's forehead.
"Tch! So you can see them..." He gritted his teeth and extended his hands again. "But what good does it do you if you can't dodg—?!"
"UGH?!"
He couldn't finish.
Something invisible—something he didn't see, didn't smell, didn't feel coming—connected a monstrous blow right to his chin, sending him flying like a ragdoll.
And below, on the ground, Yushiro was clenching his fists with the veins on his forehead about to burst.
"How dare you attack Tamayo-sama, you piece of garbage?!"
Yahaba spun his palms mid-flight and fixed the eyes on his hands on Yushiro, unable to believe it.
"Invi... invisibility?!"
From inside, Marcus watched the fight wanting to applaud.
Because the truth was, in the original canon, having Yushiro fight Susamaru and Tanjiro fight Yahaba was stupid.
Yushiro didn't hit particularly hard, but he could turn invisible. He was the perfect counter for Yahaba, who relied entirely on his arrows and his eyes to fight.
If he couldn't see you, he couldn't control you. Simple as that. And there he was, beating the crap out of him without the poor bastard being able to do a thing.
And Susamaru without Yahaba guiding her balls was nothing but muscle without a brain. Exactly the type of enemy that Tanjiro—used to dealing with traps and weird attacks day after day—could handle with room to spare.
Now THIS was a fight that made sense!
Forget about holding out for ten minutes... at this rate, he was going to have to ask both demons to please not die so fast.
However… things rarely go as smoothly as you'd hope.
Although Tanjiro and Yushiro had caught the demons off guard, very quickly the situation changed.
First, on Tanjiro's side.
When Marcus saw what Susamaru had just done, he nearly choked on his own spit.
"She... she caught the sword with her bare hands?!"
Just like that, plain and simple.
That lunatic had six arms and had pressed the top two together as if she were praying, with Tanjiro's blade squeezed between her palms. Firm. Without cutting herself.
"Come on, cut me! Cut me all you want!"
Grinning sinisterly, Susamaru slammed Tanjiro's abdomen with her other four fists like pile drivers.
"Pffgh...!"
Vomiting blood, Tanjiro lost Total Concentration in an instant and went flying like a bullet.
Luckily, he used the momentum to wrench the sword free from between her hands, and although he landed half doubled over with his legs shaking, he was still on his feet.
And Yushiro wasn't having a better time either.
Yes, he was invisible, and yes, at first he'd beaten the hell out of Yahaba without him being able to do a thing. But that guy's eyes were no joke.
They could track footprints by reading the distribution of dust on the ground, identify presences by the tiniest marks.
And this was a yard full of grass.
That the surprise attack had worked at the start was pure luck. Yahaba simply hadn't imagined that someone with invisibility could exist.
He wasn't prepared, that's all.
But the moment he figured it out, all he had to do was look down. The footsteps on the grass, the flattened blades, the trail Yushiro left behind... it was like following a trail of breadcrumbs.
And now Yushiro was paying the price. Yahaba had him caught with his arrows and was using him as a ball, slamming him against the ground, against the walls, side to side, like a doll some kid had taken his anger out on.
"Tch..."
Marcus frowned. He'd been wrong.
These demons weren't the same ones he knew—they'd clearly been powered up.
Susamaru didn't remotely have the ability to catch Tanjiro's sword barehanded. Yahaba shouldn't have been able to use his arrows and simultaneously maintain that brutal tracking ability either.
Unless someone had given them a boost…
So the fight against Muzan really had made him nervous... Even if he wasn't sure whether Marcus and Tanjiro were together, that son of a bitch had decided not to take any chances and had pumped his blood into these two beforehand.
"Mr. Marcus... even so... do you really not plan to intervene?"
Tamayo whispered from behind him, unable to hide her disbelief. It wasn't about Yushiro, honestly. A demon can't kill another demon, and giving the boy a vial of blood would fix him up good as new.
It was about Tanjiro.
Marcus narrowed his eyes, holding back Nezuko, who wanted to run out and help.
He could do it.
Of course he could. Go out, wipe out both demons in the blink of an eye, and then finish Nezuko's analysis in peace. Even if he wanted to keep Yahaba's ability, all he had to do was not kill him for now.
There was no complication whatsoever.
But…
Was that good for Tanjiro?
Ever since they'd parted ways with the Old Man, he had always been there in the background. No matter who Tanjiro fought, he always had that calm in the back of his mind, that certainty that if everything went to shit, Marcus would show up.
Today was the first time he'd told him he needed his help. The first time he'd asked him to hold the line for him.
And if at the first sign of trouble Marcus jumped in again and solved everything one more time…
What kind of message was he sending?
That he'd never be able to handle things on his own?
That he'd always need someone watching his back?
He was a safety net, not a lifelong bodyguard.
With that in mind, he shook his head and didn't move.
"I trust him."
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Marcus is using tough love! 😤 He knows Tanjiro needs to fight his own battles to grow. Do you agree with his decision or should he step in? Let me know in the comments and please support the story with your Power Stones! 💎
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