Ever since Sanemi had visited Mount Sagiri and Haruto had deliberately let Genya find out, the boy had looked noticeably brighter.
With that burden lifted from his heart, he no longer wore a bitter, brooding expression every day. Sometimes, he even smiled.
Giyu stood silently behind the door, watching Genya wash the dishes with a smile. A trace of wonder crossed his poker face.
"So Genya can smile."
"..." Haruto ambled past him with a bowl in hand. "So there's only ever been one person on Mount Sagiri who doesn't smile."
Giyu slowly turned his head. "You're not talking about me, are you?"
"Who knows?" Haruto shrugged. "I've seen Master Urokodaki smile, anyway."
When Genya finished washing the dishes and stepped out of the kitchen, this was the scene that greeted him.
His teacher walked ahead while Giyu hopped after him on one foot, explaining with utter seriousness, "I can smile."
"..."
"I just don't think there's any need to."
Genya yawned and went inside for an afternoon nap. Plenty of sleep would help him grow taller, or so his teacher had told him.
As for the farce in the yard-this sort of thing happened all the time.
His teacher loved teasing the stone-faced Giyu, and it worked every single time.
Once winter arrived, the number of demons active across the land increased as usual.
Sabito, Giyu, and Makomo were run off their feet, with barely any time to stay on Mount Sagiri.
Though Haruto rarely went on missions after his promotion, he had to patrol Mount Sagiri and a large stretch of the surrounding area every day.
This had originally been Urokodaki's territory. After Urokodaki stepped down, Kagaya had assigned it to him.
"Sorry, sorry. The area might be a little large, but someone of Haruto's abilities should have no trouble looking after it, right?"
Haruto listened as Cang Kong, perched on his fingertip, relayed Kagaya Ubuyashiki's words. "That really doesn't sound sincere at all."
A faint chill touched the tip of his nose. Snowflakes had begun drifting down from the sky.
"Ha. I'd better hurry up with the patrol so I can get back early for some hot tea."
He wrapped his haori more tightly around himself and broke into a swift run.
Yet heaven always seemed to delight in crushing wishes spoken aloud. As he left the mountains and entered the plains, the flickering stars overhead signaled the presence of a foul demon nearby.
Southeast.
He gripped his sword hilt. Before he even drew close, he heard a commotion.
Were there victims?
His heart lurched, and he quickened his pace.
At the source of the noise stood several wooden houses in a row out in the wilderness. Haruto had passed this place before. Three or four families lived here, tending their ancestral graves and farming for a living.
The demonic presence grew stronger. Such a thick stench of foul demon...
Haruto's heart sank. Perhaps this was another member of the Twelve Kizuki!
"Suma, Makio, Hinatsuru! Get them out of here!"
"Tengen!"
"What are you crying for? Pull yourselves together! This isn't the time for tears!"
Tengen Uzui turned to his three wives. "I'm telling you, this isn't the time to argue. Take them and retreat! I'll hold her off!"
Ahead of him, a white-haired female demon with two horns stood in the treetops, leisurely licking her claws.
Damn it, what the hell was this thing?
Her features were somewhat flamboyant, but those blood-red whites of her eyes were impossible to like!
Why had I run into something like this as soon as I left my homeland? Was this divine retribution? Were the gods condemning me for leaving?
Tengen Uzui clenched his teeth and urged his three wives on with growing impatience.
Suma was already a mess of tears and snot, Makio was angrily scolding her, and Hinatsuru was gently soothing a farmer's crying child.
Even amid all that chaos, the three never stopped working, dragging and hauling the weak-kneed civilians out of their homes.
Good! Just what I'd expect from my wives!
"Boring. Sooo boooring."
The white-haired demon studied her sharp claws, then gave the tense Tengen Uzui a mocking smile.
"You think you can save them that way?"
She jumped from the towering treetop and landed lightly on the ground. That faint, almost inaudible landing sent a chill through Tengen Uzui, a ninja.
Such a tall tree! Such a light landing!
This was a terrifying opponent!
He drew the twin blades from his back and held them before his chest, twitching his ears as he tried to catch a weakness in her sounds.
"An ordinary human who doesn't even know a Breathing Style dares draw his blades on me..."
The white-haired demon raised her head, her lips twisting into a sickly grin.
In the moonlight, Tengen Uzui saw the words engraved in her right eye-
[Lower Rank Four]!
Lower Rank Four!
Haruto's heart jolted. Surging battle lust instantly set his body ablaze!
Another Lower Rank!
He swooped down like a swallow returning to its nest, sweeping his Nichirin Blade sideways and trailing a dazzling aurora of sword light.
"Star Breathing, First Form: Bright Tears!"
It was as fast as Thunderclap and Flash, but even more powerful.
His figure became a streak of light shooting through the night sky.
Lower Rank Four swept her sleeve, and countless blood-red sprouts burst from within it, lashing at Haruto like wildly writhing snakes.
Blood Demon Art: Bud Gluttony!
These blood sprouts, formed from the people she had eaten, would pierce human flesh and infect it with corrosive poison!
Shing!
A clear ring of steel sounded in midair. Haruto's sword light whirled around him, its flashing silver weaving an impenetrable barrier that shredded every blood sprout!
What a flamboyant technique. What a-flamboyant man!
Tengen Uzui's eyes suddenly lit up. That dancing blue-violet sword light, those blue robes and white hair-it was simply flamboyant enough to drive him wild!
Compared with the flamboyance woven into that man's bearing and movements, his own diamond-studded headband, golden armbands, and carefully painted red sunburst makeup were hardly worth mentioning!
Lower Rank Four abruptly frowned. "Your sword techniques are exceptionally powerful... Are you a Hashira?"
"And you? What are you?"
Haruto curled his lips in a cold smile. "Lower Rank Four? You didn't get promoted after Byōha died?"
"You're... the one who killed Byōha?" Lower Rank Four's pupils abruptly contracted. Her expression was entirely different from the one she had worn while facing Tengen Uzui.
"Yes." Haruto nodded without hesitation. "Give me your name. This Hashira doesn't slay nameless demons."
What a flamboyant line. I have to remember that!
"Heh... Hashira, so what..."
Lower Rank Four shouted harshly, "So what if you killed Byōha? You really think you're something special?!"
She swept up her sleeves. The ground around her kept trembling, as though something was about to burst out from beneath it.
"Hey!" Haruto turned toward Tengen Uzui, shifting his gaze away from the multicolored fingernails wrapped around his blades. "Can you look after yourself?"
"Of course, my flamboyant friend!"
Tengen Uzui raised his two short blades, a wildly excited smile spreading across his face. "Night, a clear starry sky, a foul demon, and a flamboyant performance!
"On a night so perfectly suited to the occasion, the god who presides over flamboyance-the Festival God-shall make his dazzling entrance!
"Come, let us fight together!
"Upon this stage, let us play a symphony of blood and pain!"
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