"Ah, I got careless..."
Araki opened his eyes, rubbed his head, and muttered softly.
But immediately afterward, his expression turned somewhat grave.
"Although I'd been fighting with the intention of seeing more new moves, at the final moment, even with my eyes buried, I could sense Tanjiro's aura undergoing an earth-shaking change in that instant. That was the real reason my sword strike failed to kill him."
His sure-kill sword strike had clearly landed, yet it had failed to kill its target. That was why he had later ended up getting counter-killed while holding a girl in his arms.
To verify his suspicion, Araki entered the Consciousness Space once more.
The familiar process repeated itself as specks of golden light gathered into form.
This time, after summoning the Tanjiro siblings, Araki did not hold back.
Although Tanjiro, with Transparent World, was no worse than Araki in terms of techniques and reactions, relying solely on the explosive power provided by Water Breathing soon left him firmly suppressed by Araki's speed advantage.
After fighting for some time, Tanjiro, wounded in many places and looking somewhat disheveled, finally entered his second phase.
After taking another deep breath, the color manifested on his Nichirin Sword was no longer a clear, translucent blue like water, but a vivid red like the blazing sun!
Tanjiro had finally used the strongest Breathing Technique he possessed: Hinokami Kagura, or rather, Sun Breathing!
Sun Breathing was the origin and ancestor of all Breathing Techniques, and was therefore also known as the Beginning Breathing.
It had been created by Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni was the strongest swordsman in the history of the Demon Slayer world.
Nearly every technique later mastered by the Demon Slayer Corps had been created by him.
He had been born able to use Breathing Techniques and