Land of Crimson Cherry Blossoms: Destroyer of Demons!

"Cough, cough... pfft!"

Jinhua fell from midair and barely managed to steady himself, only to spit out a mouthful of purple-black, foul blood. The flames that had blazed around him dwindled to a few scattered sparks, and his face was as pale as paper.

His ultimate Blood Demon Art had been forcibly broken, and the backlash was severe.

He stared fixedly at Giyu, lingering on his excessively young and handsome face. Doubt and alarm flickered in his eyes before he forced out a twisted sneer:

"You're that Water Hashira? Giyu Tomioka?"

He snorted, his voice hoarse.

"You actually managed to block my [World-Burning Ashen Plain] by chance? Hmph, you look like some pretty boy who hasn't even grown up yet, all soft and delicate!!"

Shadows writhed, and Yeshu slowly emerged in full from behind a broken wall. His face was dark as thunder, and his tattered tailcoat had long since lost its elegance.

Yuelian pressed a hand to her chest, suppressing the turmoil of her blood and the fear within her. The silver threads at her fingertips had dimmed.

She tried to put on a seductive smile, her gaze wandering over Giyu's youthful face and aloof bearing. Her voice took on a deliberately softened, alluring tone:

"What a handsome and capable little brother you are... All this fighting and killing is no good. Why don't you... come over to big sister? I'll take good 'care' of you, you know?"

Giyu Tomioka listened quietly, his face utterly expressionless.

"Why?"

A simple question, without context.

Jinhua, in the air, frowned. Enduring the agony of the backlash and the unease in his heart, he roared impatiently:

"Why what? You humans are about to die, and you still have so many questions? Quit wasting time!"

Giyu raised his ice-blue eyes and swept his gaze over the three demons one by one, finally settling on the ruins of the village, strewn with wreckage and steeped in blood.

In his hand, Azure Tide's blade glimmered with a faint, cold light, and the air around him seemed to grow colder with it.

"Why did you kill... so many people?"

He paused, each word as clear as if carved by a blade.

Yeshu snorted as though he had heard something utterly ridiculous, an expression of utter absurdity on his face.

"Why? Do you even need to ask? Demons eat humans just as humans eat and drink. It's only natural!"

"We're the noble Twelve Kizuki. Our appetites are a little bigger than those of those small-fry demons, so isn't it perfectly normal for us to clear out our food supply?"

He licked his lips, red light flickering in his eyes.

"And today... you'll become our food too, a delicious offering for Lord Muzan!"

Yuelian spread her hands in a show of helplessness, though her smile was cruel.

"Who told you to kill the Lower Rank that Lord Muzan valued most? If we don't bring your head back, he'll 'clean us up' instead."

"To stay alive, we killed a few people to draw you out. Isn't that... a perfectly reasonable deal?"

For a moment, they seemed to forget the horror of Yannu's instant death, Gyomei's mountain-like defense, and their shock at how easily World-Burning Ashen Plain had been neutralized.

Immersed in greedy fantasies of a "Hashira's flesh and blood" and the twisted logic they used to defend their atrocities, they tried to work up their ferocity again.

Giyu fell silent.

He lowered his head slightly, the stray locks over his forehead hiding part of his gaze.

Then he raised his head once more.

In that instant, the aura around him changed.

A deeper, vaster aura erupted!

"Rumble—!!!"

Centered on Giyu, a damp, heavy, frigid aura surged outward like a tangible tide!

The air grew thick, the temperature plummeted, and the phantom sound of ocean waves seemed to echo faintly through the ruins.

"Uh...?!"

The seductive smile on Yuelian's face froze completely, giving way to endless terror.

Her hands trembled violently beyond her control as she clutched the hem of her damaged kimono, her knuckles turning white.

Her teeth chattered, and her voice came out in fits and starts:

"Th-this aura... why... why can't my body... move?!"

Yeshu felt as though invisible chains bound his entire body. His shadow Blood Demon Art had grown sluggish, and the darkness he normally commanded as easily as his own limbs now seemed to resist him.

Cold sweat beaded on his temples. He wanted to retreat, but his legs felt as though they were filled with lead.

Jinhua let out a muffled groan. His already weakened demonic aura was suppressed almost to the point of extinction. He stared at Giyu with wide, terrified eyes, as though looking at his natural enemy.

"To slaughter others so wantonly..."

Giyu's voice rang out, still quiet, yet it pierced through the suffocating pressure, driving every word clearly into the souls of the three demons.

"To treat other people's lives as playthings to be harvested at will, to turn a peaceful village into a purgatory of blood..."

"Do you really think..."

He took a step forward.

It was an ordinary step, yet it landed with a dull thud, like a great wave crashing against the shore.

"...you can still leave here alive?"

Yeshu's pupils contracted sharply. His shadow Blood Demon Art activated instinctively, and his form began to dissolve into the nearest patch of darkness.

But under the suppression of Water Breathing, vast as an ocean tide, his escape was a fatal instant too slow.

"Water Breathing: Second Form: Modified: Water Wheel: Vortex."

Giyu's figure seemed to merge with the suddenly accelerating air currents, tracing a perfect blue arc around Yeshu.

In an instant, a rapidly spinning vortex visible to the naked eye formed around Yeshu!

As the vortex spun, it distorted the light within its range and utterly churned up and scattered every shadow!

"What?! My shadow escape—!"

Yeshu was horrified to find his connection to the shadows forcibly severed. His form was fully exposed at the center of the vortex, with nowhere to hide.

The instant the blue arc reached its end, the power of the vortex climbed to its peak.

Giyu appeared before Yeshu like a flood dragon leaping from a whirlpool.

"Water Breathing: First Form: Water Surface Slash: Speed."

The blade's light was no more than a single line.

It was too fast for the eye to follow, leaving only a straight, razor-sharp streak of deep blue.

Yeshu did not even manage to raise his guard. He only felt a chill at his neck.

The horror on his face froze. He opened his mouth to say something, but only a rasping wheeze escaped.

His head slowly tilted and parted from his body, turning to drifting ash within the vortex, where the deep-blue mist had yet to disperse.

Even in death, he did not understand why his Blood Demon Art had been broken so easily.

"The first."

Yuelian's scream had only just escaped her throat.

Giyu had already changed direction like a phantom, his sights set on her.

"Water Breathing: Third Form: Flowing Dance."

Its unpredictable trajectory and speed were compressed to the utmost, becoming a right-angled leap that defied inertia!

One instant he was where Yeshu had vanished; the next, his blade, trailing icy mist, was bearing down on Yuelian's face!

"Ahh!"

Yuelian screamed, all ten fingers dancing frantically. Countless glowing white threads surged out like a startled swarm of venomous snakes, weaving into a net to entangle and impede him.

Azure Tide's blade cut into the web without flourish.

"Shhk—!"

Yuelian saw only a speck of icy blue rapidly expanding before her eyes. Then her consciousness sank into eternal darkness.

The blade swept past, and her head flew high into the air, utter terror and unwillingness still on her face. Her body, together with the severed silver threads, turned to drifting ash.

"The second."

Last was Jinhua.

The Lower Rank Five, who had just unleashed a devastating Blood Demon Art, was now at his weakest.

The backlash was severe and his demonic aura scattered. Faced with Giyu, who had slain two demons in an instant and was closing in with icy killing intent, he could not even muster a decent purple-black fire lotus.

"No... don't come any closer!!"

Jinhua howled in despair, stumbling backward in vain and waving his hands wildly.

"Water Breathing: Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust."

His body and blade became a straight, piercing torrent of deep blue.

"Pfft!"

A soft sound.

The sword tip emerged from Jinhua's back, trailing a stream of purple-black sparks.

Jinhua froze and looked down at Azure Tide buried in his chest. He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to curse and rage, but in the end it all became a sigh mingled with pain and relief.

Purple-black flames poured from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, a sign that he was falling apart.

His body rapidly turned into fiercely burning purple-black embers, which then vanished without a trace in the night wind.

"The third."

From the moment Giyu took that step to the complete annihilation of the three Lower Rank demons, only a dozen or so breaths had passed.

Fast, precise, ruthless!

There had been no earthshaking exchange of blows, no drawn-out, savage struggle.

Only deep-blue blade light flickered past like a fleeting shadow, and with each flash, another demon was reduced to nothing.

It was efficiency taken to its utmost, overwhelming strength, the cold and merciless form of a world-cleansing force that swept away filth.

Giyu Tomioka stood quietly where he was, Azure Tide already back in its sheath.

His white haori was spotless. In the fading firelight and the first faint glimmer of dawn, he was as silent as a mountain.

He turned his head slightly, his gaze falling behind him once more!

Gyomei Himejima was working to steady his breathing.

The Kocho Sisters leaned against each other, staring at him in a daze. Their bright eyes reflected his aloof, powerful figure, as well as the devastated land gradually being bathed in the faint light of dawn.