A spray of blood burst into the air!
Then came a heartrending scream!
The phantom vanished... The trees stopped swaying... Snow so white it hurt the eyes fell in soft flurries. The demon slammed heavily into the ground, one arm flying off and rolling right to Tanjiro's feet.
[Martial Arts +1]
Tanjiro's pupils abruptly widened. He stared blankly as the severed arm dissolved into black smoke... His heart surged like a churning sea!
He excitedly raised his fist and shouted to Roy, "Well done, Nii-san!"
From stillness to movement and back to stillness, Roy had swung the hoe in the blink of an eye.
It was an utterly simple motion, yet the "something" it contained sent chills down Sato Takeichiro's spine!
"Are you a Hashira?" Sato Takeichiro scrambled up from the snow and stared fixedly at Roy, his expression grave.
The Hashira were the Demon Slayer Corps' answer to demons, just as the Twelve Kizuki were the elite among demons. Sato Takeichiro had once been lucky enough to see Upper Rank One. From far away, on the outskirts, he had watched that lord casually swing his sword, unleashing slashes ringed with countless moons.
They said he had been a Hashira-level swordsman in the Demon Slayer Corps when he was alive.
Later, while he was eating people at the foot of the mountain, the Water Hashira hunted him down. Only because his opponent was old and frail had he managed to escape with the help of his companions.
And today, in this godforsaken old forest, he had run into a third one!
Unfortunately... Roy wasn't one.
To become a Hashira in the Demon Slayer Corps, one had to either defeat one of the Twelve Kizuki or kill fifty demons.
But Roy, who knew the story, understood that the most important factor in identifying a Hashira wasn't these rigid requirements. It was how well they had mastered their Breathing Style.
It was like in the Hunter world, where the only real way to tell if a Nen user was a first-rate fighter was to see how well they had developed and mastered their own Nen.
If their mastery was poor or they had developed their abilities in the wrong direction, even the most talented person would struggle to become a skilled Nen user.
Take Kastro, who had suffered from a lack of a good teacher. Though he was clearly an Enhancement type, he had mistakenly developed a Conjuration-type clone.
So, besides his goal of mining coal and selling charcoal to improve the Kamado family's meals, Roy had another task during this dream: find a master and learn a Breathing Style.
The former Water Hashira, Urokodaki Sakonji, was the best choice nearby.
Roy dragged his hoe along the snow, drawing a straight, thin line.
He didn't answer Sato Takeichiro's question. Instead, he watched with interest as the demon grew a new arm and asked curiously, "How many more times can your demon blood keep you alive?"
Sato Takeichiro snarled, "Long enough to rip out your heart and liver!"
Roy nodded. "Good. You'd better keep your word."
"Until I rip out your heart and liver, nobody's leaving."
Sato Takeichiro and Tanjiro: "?"
Both were utterly baffled...
The latter had no idea what his big brother was thinking. Why wasn't he attacking again while the demon's arm was still growing back?
The former immediately went on high alert... Then—
He quickly bent down, scooped up a handful of snow, and threw it at Roy... Using the flurry to block Roy's view, Sato Takeichiro put every ounce of speed he had into turning around and running!
"Bullet... Bullet... Bullet! I'll shoot! I'll shoot again!" Tree after tree shook as he bounded from branch to branch. In the blink of an eye... Sato Takeichiro had fled more than a hundred meters!
Tanjiro stared wide-eyed, still unable to make sense of what was happening.
Then he saw his Nii-san's face darken!
"My experience pack... My experience pack, right there in my grasp..." Roy flew into a rage!
A demon shouldn't be this crafty... So the whole point of awakening a Blood Demon Art like Bullet Kill was to run away the second things looked bad?
Watching his opponent get farther and farther away...
Roy angrily raised his right foot and kicked hard. A pebble shot off with a whoosh, streaking after Sato Takeichiro like lightning.
But without having learned En, Roy still couldn't imbue an object after releasing it with Nen to boost its speed... And his opponent remained on high alert; his Blood Demon Art was also perfect for dashing through the mountains and forest...
As a result, Sato Takeichiro easily dodged the attack with a quick duck.
"Guess I have no choice."
Two hundred meters, three hundred meters. Once his opponent got any farther, Roy wouldn't be able to track him with the naked eye.
Roy simply rolled up his sleeves.
For the first time, he brought out a Breathing Style.
The wind stirred the clouds. A ray of sunlight pierced a gap in them and shone down on Roy's handsome face.
The young man raised his hoe like a long sword, set his feet apart in a lunge, and sucked in a deep breath.
In an instant, it was as though his body had been switched into overdrive. His blood surged, his heart raced, and the capillaries beneath his skin burst one after another, spreading throughout his entire body!
The change was immediately visible on his status panel... The number recording Roy's physique underwent a tremendous shift!
Right before his eyes, it leaped from—
[Physique: 10.051] to [Physique: 20.102]!
It had doubled!
Sun Breathing used breath as fuel...
Two divine flames seemed to ignite in Roy's eyes. Taking advantage of the brief boost, he thrust forward and shot off!
"Whoosh—" The hoe sliced through the cold wind with a piercing shriek!
Tanjiro's vision blurred. He thought he saw something flash by, and when he looked again—
His big brother, Eiichiro, had crossed nearly three hundred meters in the space of one breath and appeared above the demon.
Then came a sword strike descending from the heavens—
Sun Breathing—Waltz!
"Shing—"
A fiery streak carrying a fierce blade flash evaporated the wind and snow, forming a circle around Sato Takeichiro.
At first, Sato Takeichiro felt nothing. But when he realized he was flying through the air, with everything below his waist still where it had been, he finally understood... He'd been cut in half!
He glared at Roy with resentful, bloodshot eyes and pointed at him, shouting, "You still want to tell me you're not a Hashira?"
Then darkness swallowed his vision. With a thud, he fell stiffly into the snow.
Blood trickled across the ground. His anguished wailing came, late but inevitable.
A figure in wooden clogs and thick cotton socks approached at an unhurried pace, a hoe resting on his shoulder... Sato Takeichiro's eyelid twitched. Ignoring the pain, he spent more demon blood to restore his body...
But this time... It didn't work!
Terror, panic, and fear overwhelmed him as he trembled, clearly feeling the life drain from his filthy body...
He raised his head unwillingly and demanded of Roy, "What kind of move was that?"
Roy stopped and looked out over the snow-covered mountains. He sighed softly. "You really don't know how to keep your word. You forced me to kill you with Sun Breathing."
"Are you happy now?"
Sato Takeichiro's pupils shrank...
He cried out, "Y-You... Who... are you?!"
Roy smiled gently, raised his foot, and stomped his head to pieces. "I'm Kamado Eiichiro, in name and in person!"
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