Chapter 119: Massive Leak of Upper Rank Information
After a grueling, high-tension round of emergency treatment, Akira's battered body finally stabilized. The chaotic rush of the infirmary gave way to the quiet, rhythmic routine of scheduled dressing changes and enforced bed rest.
The lingering damage was extensive, though he considered himself lucky. The strained muscles in both of his legs were actually in better shape than the severe micro-tears he had suffered during his last major battle. His right arm throbbed with a deep, aching muscle strain, accompanied by varying degrees of angry swelling and inflammation around his wrist and elbow joints. The webbing of his thumb had split open from sheer kinetic impact—but relatively speaking, these were minor inconveniences.
The true problem lay in his right shoulder. The violent dislocation and subsequent bone fracture were severe. Even factoring in his naturally monstrous constitution and accelerated recovery rate, it would take a solid two to three months before the joint was fully battle-ready again.
As for his back, the injuries looked absolutely horrifying. The skin was shredded, a patchwork of raw, bloody abrasions earned from his reckless "skipping stones on land" stunt where he had been violently launched across the rough terrain. Yet, despite the gruesome appearance, they were superficial. With the Butterfly Mansion's specialized ointments generously applied, the skin would scab over and heal in a matter of days.
"You... what exactly did you promise me last time?"
Securing the final bandage with a sharp, deliberate tug, Shinobu glared down at Akira, who was currently forced to lie flat on his stomach against the pristine hospital bed.
"This time was purely an accident," Akira muttered, his voice muffled by the pillow. "It's entirely that Upper Rank Three's fault. The moment he realized his targeted strikes couldn't touch me, he just panicked and went for full-area coverage. I was so close to a flawless, no-damage clear..."
"Why do you always have to push yourself to the absolute brink?" Shinobu interrupted, her voice trembling. It carried a thick, nasal weight, the edges of her words fraying.
She had clearly been crying.
Hearing the raw emotion in her tone, Akira frowned. He ignored the flare of pain radiating down his spine and tried to push himself up. Before he could even lift his chest off the mattress, Shinobu's small, firm palm pressed flat against his uninjured left shoulder, shoving him right back down into the sheets.
"Don't move," she ordered, sniffing quietly. "If you tear those stitches open, I'm the one who has to clean up the mess."
Akira exhaled a soft breath, turning his head to look at her. "As long as those man-eating demons are still breathing, none of you are truly safe. I told you I would protect you, Shinobu. Naturally, that means I have to find every possible method to slaughter them all."
How do I protect my teammates? Akira thought dryly. Simple. Just completely eradicate the opposition.
"Sophistry..." Shinobu muttered, sniffing again. She raised her small fist and delivered a remarkably light, entirely harmless punch to his shoulder.
As their quiet moment settled, the sliding door to the ward gently rattled open, and the rest of the girls filed into the room. Aoi had already stepped out earlier to deliver the news of his stabilized condition, but the others had tacitly lingered in the hallway, giving Shinobu a few precious minutes alone with him.
"Brother."
Kanao immediately moved to the side of the bed, squatting down so she was at eye level with him. Her usually calm demeanor was entirely absent; her mood was visibly sunken, and her voice was barely more than a fragile whisper.
Looking at the small, worried face hovering near his pillow, Akira managed to free his good hand, reaching out to gently ruffle her dark hair.
"Alright now, don't look so down. Aren't I doing just fine? Give it a little while, and I'll be out of this bed and moving around freely."
He wasn't lying just to comfort her. The muscle damage in his legs was far less debilitating than his previous injuries. He estimated that by the time the gruesome abrasions on his back fully closed up, his legs would be functional enough to walk. He would be out of bed relatively soon, even if his right arm remained strapped in a sling for months.
Ironically, while the sheer physical trauma he sustained this time far exceeded the damage from his fight against Gyokko, his actual bedridden recovery time would be significantly shorter.
"You... the only thing tough about you right now is your mouth," Makomo teased from the foot of the bed, crossing her arms, though the relief in her eyes betrayed her strict tone.
"I'm not bragging," Akira shot back with a faint, dry smirk. "I was a hair's breadth away from using 'Talk-no-Jutsu' to convince Upper Rank Three to just end himself."
"Yes, yes, our Sound Hashira is simply the most amazing," Makomo replied, waving a hand dismissively, naturally taking his bizarre claim as a lighthearted joke.
Yet, it wasn't entirely a joke. If Muzan hadn't sensed the dangerous shift in Akaza's psyche and forcibly hijacked his consciousness to suppress his returning human memories, Akira's psychological warfare might have actually worked. Given just a few more minutes, Akaza very well might have remembered his tragic past and chosen to obliterate himself on the spot.
The girls lingered in the ward, filling the sterile room with warm, quiet chatter for a while longer before eventually stepping out to handle their respective duties. Kanae remained behind, pulling up a wooden chair beside his bed to keep watch over him.
They had already established a strict, unspoken schedule among themselves—taking turns to personally nurse him day and night until he could walk on his own.
Ten days later.
The Hashira Meeting was officially convened.
This gathering had been explicitly requested by Akira himself. Originally, Kagaya had intended to delay the meeting until Akira was fully healed, just as he had done previously, allowing him to present his intelligence on the Upper Ranks in comfort. However, the moment Akira sent word that he possessed critical data on multiple Upper Ranks, even the usually placid Kagaya couldn't sit still. He immediately approved Akira's proposal to hold the meeting ahead of schedule.
Because he was still technically a patient—even though his legs were functioning perfectly fine now—Akira, flanked closely by Makomo and Kanae, was the last to arrive at the Ubuyashiki Estate's serene courtyard.
"Hey, Akira! Your wounds haven't even knitted together properly, yet you're rushing us all into a meeting. What could possibly be this urgent?" Shinjuro called out, waving a hand as the trio approached the pebble-strewn gathering area.
"I have complete intelligence on the remaining Upper Ranks, as well as a concrete method to drastically increase our overall combat strength," Akira replied smoothly, his voice carrying across the courtyard. "I'd say those two things are important enough, wouldn't you?"
The casual weight of his words instantly silenced the garden. Every single Hashira turned their intense, unblinking gazes toward him.
To date, Akira was the absolute anomaly of the Demon Slayer Corps. He was the only living swordsman to have crossed blades with an Upper Rank and walked away breathing., in the span of less than a single year, he had encountered three separate Upper Ranks in succession—and had personally decapitated one of them.
No one present possessed the sheer audacity to question the validity of his intelligence.
As for his mention of a method to further elevate their strength? That hooked their attention even deeper.
Sabito and Giyuu, in particular, stared at him with deep gravity. Because they had been operating in the vicinity of the Mugen Train, the two Water Hashira had personally arrived at the battlefield where Akira and Akaza had clashed, long before the Kakushi had managed to clean up the wreckage.
The sheer scale of the devastation had chilled them to the bone. The earth had been pulverized, the forest shredded into splinters, and the ground cratered as if a mythical beast had violently plowed through the landscape for hours. One look at that apocalyptic ruin was enough to comprehend the terrifying intensity of the battle.
Both Sabito and Giyuu silently acknowledged a grim truth: with their current level of strength, even if they fought side-by-side, they would have been slaughtered by Upper Rank Three. They wouldn't have even been able to stall the monster for half the time Akira did.
Akira didn't keep them in suspense. The moment Kagaya stepped out onto the engawa to formally preside over the meeting, Akira took the floor and began his report.
"The intelligence regarding the current Upper Ranks is something I managed to pry out of Upper Rank Three during our encounter," Akira stated, his tone calm and measured. "The bastard was dead set on inviting me to become a demon, so I played along just enough to extract some vital information."
He opened his presentation with a smoothly fabricated source to solidify the credibility of his meta-knowledge. The other Hashira absorbed the explanation without a shred of doubt. Off to the side, however, Makomo and Kanae subtly exchanged a fleeting, knowing glance, their eyes flickering with silent amusement.
"Upper Rank Six," Akira continued, his voice echoing in the quiet courtyard, "is actually a pair of siblings named Daki and Gyuutarou. They operate as a single entity, sharing a life force. To kill them, their heads must be severed simultaneously. Their exact raw power is difficult to gauge, but given their rank at the bottom of the Upper Moons, a coordinated assault by two or three Hashira should be enough to corner and execute them."
He paused, letting the tactical requirement sink in before moving on.
"The former Upper Rank Five—Gyokko, whom I killed—has already been replaced. The new Upper Rank Five is not a frontline brawler. Her Blood Demon Art is heavily tied to spatial manipulation. I don't have the exact parameters of her technique, but as we all know, anything involving the manipulation of space is going to be an absolute nightmare to deal with, regardless of her physical strength."
Akira shifted his weight slightly, his gaze hardening. "Then there is Upper Rank Four, Hantengu. I actually had an accidental run-in with this creature back in Asakusa. This demon's primary characteristic is its ability to manifest physical clones. Each individual clone possesses combat power significantly higher than a Lower Moon, and worse, they can fuse together to create an even more devastating entity. In terms of sheer threat level, he is vastly superior to Gyokko."
The atmosphere in the courtyard grew suffocatingly heavy.
"But the most crucial detail about Hantengu," Akira warned, his eyes sweeping over the gathered Hashira, "is his absolute mastery over concealing his presence. His main body is tiny, cowardly, and incredibly difficult to locate. As long as that main body remains alive, his combat clones can regenerate infinitely. During our encounter in Asakusa, I only managed to slip away after tangling with his clones for a while. If you cannot locate and execute his main body, you will simply be dragged into an endless, unwinnable war of attrition."
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