Chapter 120: The Past Scars of the Demon Slayer Corps
Akira's voice remained steady, cutting through the tense silence of the meeting room. "Upper Rank Three, Akaza, represents a massive leap in raw strength compared to the demons we've faced previously."
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle over the gathered Hashira. "Among his arsenal, the most troublesome is a Blood Demon Art he calls the Compass Needle. Through this technique, he can perfectly sense all attacks directed at him within a certain radius. It allows him to instinctively defend, evade, or counterattack with lethal precision."
"Combine that absolute defense with the fact that demons possess only one fatal weakness—their neck—and the difficulty of slaying him skyrockets." Akira leaned forward slightly, his gaze sweeping across his comrades. "He possesses devastating means for both long-range and close-quarters combat..."
Akira systematically broke down his brutal encounter with Akaza, detailing every martial arts form the demon employed, and even the terrifying techniques he suspected Akaza hadn't fully unleashed.
A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the room as Akira finished his report.
Based on his careful breakdown, the harsh reality was obvious. Among everyone present, perhaps only Gyoumei possessed the sheer physical fortitude to go head-to-head with Akaza in a direct clash. Even then, securing a kill would be a monumental task, and the Stone Hashira would likely suffer catastrophic injuries in the process.
As for the rest of them? If they encountered Upper Rank Three alone, merely stalling for time until sunrise would be a desperate, agonizing struggle.
Even Akira, with his extraordinary capabilities, had been pushed to the absolute brink. Had the dawn broken just a fraction of a second later, he would have perished in that forest.
While the group wrestled with these grim thoughts, a sudden, flat voice broke the quiet.
"You didn't die?"
The words hung in the air. Giyuu stared at Akira, his expression perfectly blank. In his own mind, he was offering high praise: To be able to hold out until dawn against such a terrifyingly powerful demon, Akira is truly amazing.
Unfortunately, it sounded entirely like an insult.
Akira's eyebrow twitched. He offered the Water Hashira a dry, utterly devoid-of-amusement smile. "Just wait until my injuries heal, Giyuu. I'll let you experience firsthand what 'Justice Surrounds Giyuu' feels like."
Because everyone had been so deeply lost in their own grim reflections, Sabito, who was sitting right next to his junior, hadn't reacted fast enough to clamp a hand over Giyuu's mouth.
Now, every single pair of eyes in the room was fixed squarely on Giyuu, who merely blinked back at them, looking genuinely confused and entirely innocent.
Beside Akira, Kanae's serene smile deepened, though the sudden, chilling aura radiating from her carried a distinct hint of mortal danger.
"Sorry! So sorry!" Sabito practically lunged forward, slapping a hand over Giyuu's mouth before he could dig his grave any deeper. "Giyuu didn't mean any offense! He just thinks it's incredible that Akira managed to return alive from Akaza's hands. He's just completely hopeless with words, as you all know! I'm really sorry!"
Sabito bowed his head repeatedly, desperately restraining a muffled Giyuu, who still looked like he wanted to clarify his statement.
Akira waved off the apology, his expression softening. "It's fine. Let's move on to the intelligence regarding the remaining Upper Ranks."
The room immediately sobered.
"Upper Rank Two is the demon pulling the strings behind the Eternal Paradise Cult we investigated earlier. His name is Douma," Akira explained, his tone turning clinical. "In terms of raw, destructive power, he is stronger than Akaza, though the power gap between the two of them isn't quite as vast as the chasm between Akaza and Hantengu."
"However," Akira warned, his eyes narrowing, "Douma is arguably the single worst matchup for the Demon Slayer Corps. He is our natural enemy."
A few Hashira shifted uneasily.
"His Blood Demon Art allows him to generate and manipulate a specialized Ice Mist. The moment you inhale it, the ice instantly freezes and shreds your lungs from the inside out. For swordsmen who rely entirely on Breathing Techniques to fight, getting close to him is a death sentence."
Akira let that sink in. "While I don't have the full scope of his offensive abilities, the fact that he outranks Akaza, combined with that lethal Ice Mist, is more than enough to prove how dangerous he is."
He took a slow breath before delivering the final piece of intelligence. "Then there is Upper Rank One. Kokushibou."
The very name seemed to drop the temperature in the room.
"He is a monster whose strength is great enough to completely crush Akaza. The Demon King, Muzan, doesn't even treat him as a mere subordinate, but rather as a business partner." Akira's gaze hardened. "And, if my deduction from Akaza's slip-ups is correct... Kokushibou knows how to use Breathing Techniques."
Eyes widened across the room. Shock rippled through the Hashira.
A demon who could use Breathing Techniques? That implied an unthinkable truth. It meant Upper Rank One was a traitor to the Demon Slayer Corps.
, for a demon to possess such overwhelming, world-shattering strength now, he must have been a terrifyingly powerful swordsman during his time as a human. He might have even been...
No one wanted to follow that line of thought to its logical conclusion. Slowly, as if drawn by a magnetic pull, every gaze in the room turned toward the head of the table, resting on the quiet figure of Ubuyashiki Kagaya.
Sensing their silent questions, Kagaya let out a soft, melancholic sigh.
This was a topic Akira had discussed with him in private beforehand. The betrayal of Tsugikuni Michikatsu was a deeply buried, indelible scar in the history of the Demon Slayer Corps. But to ensure his children fully understood the threat of the Upper Ranks, Kagaya had agreed it was time to tear that old wound open.
"In the long history of the Demon Slayer Corps," Kagaya began, his soothing voice tinged with ancient sorrow, "there was indeed a dark era where we were nearly wiped from existence."
The Hashira listened with bated breath.
"It happened hundreds of years ago. The Corps plummeted from its absolute peak of glory into a state of near-total ruin. It is a tragedy that successive generations of the Ubuyashiki family have been deeply reluctant to speak of."
Kagaya closed his sightless eyes. "The older brother of the swordsman who created the original Breathing Technique... a man named Tsugikuni Michikatsu. For reasons known only to him, he betrayed the Demon Slayer Corps, abandoned his humanity, and murdered the Oyakata of that era."
A heavy, suffocating pressure settled over the room.
"The specific motives behind his betrayal have been lost to time," Kagaya continued softly. "However, if there was ever a Demon Slayer whose foundational strength was great enough to reach the pinnacle of the Upper Ranks after becoming a demon... it would undoubtedly be him."
Kagaya's narration ended there. Too much time had passed since the Sengoku Era. Following Michikatsu's betrayal, Muzan and the newly christened Kokushibou had scoured the land, orchestrating a ruthless bloodbath targeting anyone who knew Sun Breathing. The Corps had suffered catastrophic casualties, and the vast majority of their historical records from that golden age were burned to ash.
Akira stepped in, drawing the room's attention back to the present. "The Upper Ranks, especially the top three, are existences that the current Corps will find incredibly difficult to deal with. But," he stressed, his voice ringing with quiet absolute certainty, "it is not impossible to defeat them."
He met their eyes one by one. "For example, I have already deduced the exact method required to kill Akaza."
Hope flickered in the eyes of the Hashira.
"This brings me to the second half of this meeting—a concrete method to drastically elevate our overall combat strength." Akira explained. "During my fight with Akaza, I managed to figure out the underlying principle of his Compass Needle. It relies entirely on sensing 'Battle Spirit'."
"'Battle Spirit'is the term Akaza uses. In martial arts, it is essentially a warrior's'Qi' or fighting intent. Just as releasing our aura is enough to intimidate ordinary people or paralyze weaker demons, his Compass acts as a radar that locks onto that exact aura."
Akira gestured to his own chest. "When we lock onto a target to strike, we instinctively direct our killing intent and 'Qi' toward that specific point. If that target is Akaza, his Compass instantly captures that focused intent, providing him with a perfect, split-second warning of where and how the attack will land."
"That is why I could easily decapitate the lesser demon that guided Akaza to my location, yet found it nearly impossible to land a clean, lethal blow on Akaza himself. He was reading my intent before my blade even moved."
Akira's expression grew intensely serious. "To counter this absolute defense, we must learn how to completely erase our 'Qi'. This requires stepping into an entirely different world of martial mastery. Akaza refers to it as the 'Supreme Territory'. I prefer to call it the 'Transparent World'."
He let the term hang in the air for a moment.
"Once you step into this realm, you achieve absolute, microscopic control over your own body. Your blood flow, your breathing, your muscle contractions—everything is perfectly regulated so that not a single drop of your aura leaks out. It renders Akaza's Compass completely blind."
Akira continued, detailing the benefits. ", in this state, your perception shifts. You can literally see through your opponent's body structure—their muscles contracting, their blood flowing, their lungs expanding. By observing these internal mechanics, you can naturally predict their attacks before they even launch them, allowing you to react perfectly."
"According to Akaza's own admission, Kokushibou has already mastered this realm. That is likely one of the primary reasons he can so casually crush Upper Rank Three."
"Then how do we reach this realm?"
The sudden, urgent question came from Shinjuro.
If one were to ask who among the gathered Hashira was the most desperate to increase their strength, it was undoubtedly the former Flame Hashira.
His jaw was tight, his fists clenched on his lap. Just a few short years ago, he had been the absolute pinnacle of the Demon Slayer Corps' combat power. Yet, in recent years, one monstrously talented junior after another had rapidly caught up to him, and then effortlessly surpassed him. No matter how broad-minded a veteran might be, that kind of psychological disparity gnawed at the soul.
If he knew he had hit his absolute ceiling and it was hopeless, he might have accepted it. But hearing Akira speak of a higher realm—a tangible path to further improvement—reignited the dormant fire within Shinjuro's chest. He desperately wanted to grasp it, to prove he could still protect humanity alongside them.
Shinjuro leaned forward, his fiery eyes locked onto Akira. "Also... how exactly do you know the method to reach this state? That Akaza couldn't possibly be stupid enough to just hand over his own fatal weakness to an enemy, right?"
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