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Twelve Kizuki!?
Marcus went blank for a second.
As far as he remembered, this clown didn't belong to that group—not by a long shot.
But what if, because of him—because of that slash he'd landed on Muzan—the guy had gotten paranoid and promoted both of them at the same time he powered them up?
He knew perfectly well that getting distracted mid-fight was idiotic, but he couldn't help it. As the invisible arrows pushed him back, he snuck a quick glance at the eyes on Yahaba's palms.
Orange, with a pale ring around each iris. An arrow engraved in the center. Sclera a brilliant dark green… nothing else.
No mark. No number. No "upper moon," no "lower moon," no nothing.
'...'
'Son of a bitch! I swallowed the bait like a moron!'
In the anime, Susamaru and Yahaba had proclaimed themselves Twelve Kizuki. When they dropped that bomb, even Tanjiro had gone pale.
Of course, at that point Tanjiro didn't have the slightest damn clue that the real members of the Twelve Demon Moons had marks in their eyes.
He couldn't have known.
The Twelve Demon Moons were the elite. The twelve strongest and most dangerous demons in existence under Muzan's command, divided into two categories: six Upper Moons and six Lower Moons.
The ones on top had the kanji for "upper" engraved in one eye and a number from one to six in the other, according to their rank. The ones below carried "lower" and their number in a single eye.
And the eyes of the idiot standing in front of him were completely clean.
Marcus nearly burst a vein from the rage.
'So since this time he didn't get the chance to give his speech in front of Tanjiro... he wanted to show off in front of me to hype himself up!'
'He puffed up all cocky screaming that he was a Kizuki and I bought it like an idiot!'
Without saying another word, Marcus stepped back. And in that shift of stance, he launched another [Floral Crossing]
At that distance, the attack was practically teleportation. He vanished, and in that same instant he was already in front of Yahaba, the blade centimeters from his neck.
And he missed again.
An invisible force exploded in his face from the front. Like a wall of air, like something pushing him, it stopped him dead and forced him back again.
"You think you can hit me with attacks that straightforward?!" Yahaba spat, his mouth dripping with arrogance.
But his voice said one thing and his body said another.
His back was drenched in sweat. He'd felt the wind from the blade graze his skin. One centimeter more and he wouldn't be talking.
The first slash had given him a window. He'd had time to pull all the arrows he'd had pinned in Tanjiro and release them at full power right in front of Marcus. That pushed him back without too much trouble.
But the second strike was a different story.
Too fast and too savage. The arrows he'd used for the first defense hadn't even dissipated yet when the edge was already coming at him again.
If it weren't for the boost Muzan had given him, that second thrust would have taken his head clean off.
Swish
To his left, Marcus's silhouette reappeared.
And after missing two consecutive attacks, instead of being disappointed, he was so excited he was shaking.
'I wasn't wrong… This ability is insane.'
First, the invisibility—and that was the most terrifying part of all.
Forget Tanjiro not being able to see them; he couldn't see them either... In both attacks, he'd felt perfectly how the ground beneath his feet moved backward like a treadmill, and in the air there was something pulling him, slowing him, pushing him.
Real, physical forces yanking at his body. But when he looked... there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing!
A moment ago, he'd asked Tamayo and Nezuko, and they couldn't see shit either.
Meaning, unless you were a demon with visual abilities like Yushiro, the only way to deal with those arrows was through pure instinct.
Blindly, basically.
And second, the function. That was what truly had him excited.
With the two attacks he'd made, it was more than clear that Yahaba couldn't keep up with his speed. Not even close.
But even so, by unleashing arrows like crazy right in front of him, he'd managed to push him back half a meter.
The pull distance seemed short, but that was only because the power gap between the two of them was enormous. In someone stronger's hands—in his hands… The possibilities were infinite.
"Your ability is very special..." he murmured, licking his lips. Like a wolf eyeing a fat rabbit.
And then his footwork changed abruptly.
"And since going in a straight line doesn't work, let's try something else. Breath of Desire, Second Form..."
This time, his pink silhouette began moving in a way that made no sense whatsoever. Left. Right. Back. Forward. No pattern, no logic, leaving glowing trails around Yahaba as if there were ten Marcuses moving at once.
"Wh—What is this?!"
Yahaba was instantly dumbstruck, whipping his hands frantically from side to side, trying to lock onto something—anything. But every time he thought he had him, Marcus was already somewhere else.
Sweat was pouring down his forehead. And in an act of desperation, he opened the red eyes on his face. The ones he always kept closed.
But it didn't help.
His arrows needed a fixed target to work. Without one, the most he could do was predict where the attack would come from and fire arrows into empty space to create a wall of push, like he'd done before.
That was how he'd stopped him the first two times.
But now Marcus's movements were completely nonsensical. There was no direction to predict. No pattern to read. It was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.
"I-I can't! I CAN'T KEEP UP!" he screamed hysterically.
Terror was eating his face alive, because something didn't add up… Something that was driving him insane!
That man didn't have any talisman stuck to his forehead. He didn't have any special visual ability.
He couldn't see his arrows—that was a fact… SO HOW THE HELL WAS HE DODGING THEM WITH THAT KIND OF PRECISION?!
But the reality was different.
Marcus wasn't fully dodging them either. He simply changed position the instant he brushed against an arrow. That fast, that simple.
[Fox Walk] was based on exactly that: agility and speed.
And with the level gap between them, that millisecond of contact didn't give Yahaba enough time to react.
Yahaba watched that pink shadow cut through the few arrows he still had deployed, closing in with each flash, getting closer, getting faster—and he knew.
If this kept up… he was going to die.
Terrified, he shut the eyes on his face and poured every last drop of concentration into the eyes on his palms.
Then he turned them outward, crossed his arms in front of his body, and those two eyeballs—the heart of his entire Demon Art—began weeping tears of blood.
And they closed.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!"
Accompanying his shriek, countless arrows burst from his body in every direction at once. Like a hedgehog exploding outward.
'Don't know where you're coming from? Then I'll push EVERYTHING!'
BOOOOOM!
An invisible wave shook the entire yard. Stones flew, grass was ripped out by the roots, the air itself compressed and shot outward like a shockwave that leveled everything around him.
Everything… Except what he was hoping for.
No human silhouette went flying, no scream of pain… Nothing.
Instead, a murmur reached him from afar. "Breath of Desire, First Form: Valkyrie."
Marcus was already over ten meters away.
The moment he saw things getting ugly, he'd bolted without a second's hesitation—he wasn't some hardheaded fool who'd stand his ground to take a kamikaze attack.
Couldn't get close? Perfect. Then he wouldn't get close.
That's what ranged attacks were for.
An enormous blade of pink light formed silently at the edge of his sword, and without fanfare, he released it at maximum speed, sacrificing power for precision.
The flash crossed the distance in a blink and vanished, leaving only pink currents scattering across the night sky like petals torn away by the wind.
And at the end of that trail of light, Yahaba's two arms appeared… Severed at the root.
"AAAAAH!!!"
A gut-wrenching scream, a searing pain, and the terror of feeling his ability shut off all at once without the hands that controlled it. Yahaba stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet.
He c-couldn't… HE COULDN'T BEAT HIM!!
That human had been toying with him from the start. Every movement, every slash, every shift in stance... It had all been a game!
Like a cat entertaining a mouse before eating it.
He couldn't match him in speed, even less in strength… He didn't have a single card left to play!
'Run… I have to get out of here.'
He turned around and broke into a run. And Marcus didn't stop him either.
That should have relieved him, but it didn't.
Why was he letting him escape? Why wasn't he just killing him outright?
Scrambling to his feet, Yahaba glanced back… The eyes on his face flew open.
Under the moonlight, Marcus was already standing next to his severed arms. He was simply there, on his feet, in silence, looking down with a chilling gaze.
The arms were dissolving, turning to ash little by little.
Lowering the tip of his sword, Marcus slid it under one of the palms with a delicate movement—a light touch and a flick of the wrist…
And one of the Arrow Eyes popped out of the palm and flew upward.
It traced a slow arc under the moon and fell right toward Marcus's hand, which was already open. Waiting.
The entire yard went silent.
And then, under the gaze of everyone present—humans and demons alike—Marcus raised his hand, tilted his head back, and opened his mouth.
"Marcus…" Tanjiro went white. "What are you going to d—?!"
Tamayo stepped forward: "Please, don't...!"
"ARE YOU INSANE?!"
Over their screams of disbelief, Marcus didn't listen and released his fingers, letting the eye drop in just before it turned to ash.
"Gulp."
One clean swallow—clear, visible to all.
Tanjiro's eyes watered. "It's over... Marcus has lost his mind... Master, I'm sorry, I didn't take good care of him..."
Tamayo covered her mouth, her eyes full of disbelief.
Even Yushiro, propping himself up with the half of his body he'd barely managed to regenerate, stood there slack-jawed.
And the most shell-shocked of all was, without a doubt, Yahaba himself.
He watched with his own eyes as his eye was swallowed, and for an instant, he forgot even the excruciating pain of his amputated arms.
Unconsciously, he looked at his arms, which were regenerating rapidly.
New palms had grown—the skin, the nails, the lines... exactly the same.
But on the palms of his hands, where his two eyes should have regenerated... all that remained were two closed slits of flesh.
Where were his eyes?!
As if realizing something, he tried to release his Arrows again.
But… Nothing.
It felt empty.
Dis... disappeared?!
His Blood Demon Art... his ability... had disappeared?!
A terrifying thought crossed his mind.
Jerking his head up, he pointed at Marcus in disbelief: "You... you swallowed my—"
But before he could finish speaking, a "force" that was incredibly familiar to him surged suddenly from right in front of him.
It seized him violently, dragging him toward Marcus!
"It can't be!!"
Terrified, he flew involuntarily toward the demon in human form.
When he was forced face to face with Marcus and their eyes met, the last shred of Yahaba's sanity... shattered.
Those green eyes that had been smiling before had now... transformed into a pair of eyes he knew all too well!
Those were...
THOSE WERE HIS EYES!
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