Inosuke Hashibira

"Wh... who...?"

The Corps members struggled to lift their heads, their vision blurred by pain and the ravages of poison.

Yet that figure, still shining with a faint platinum glow in the deathly darkness, instantly seared itself into their minds.

"Is... is that a Hashira?"

Kirishima Bupai did not even glance down at them. With a flick of his wrist, he shook the lingering green venom off his blade.

As though he had merely cleared away a few pieces of unsightly trash, he never paused.

Rolling his neck, he continued deeper into the mountain forest.

The deeper he went, the denser the webs became...

Before he had gone far, an extremely noisy roar, brimming with primal wildness, pierced the forest's silence, instantly shattering the deathly hush.

"Aaaah!! You goddamn ugly bastard! Get down here!!"

"What're you shaking for?! Did I scare you shitless?! Gahahaha!!"

"Damn it!!! This stupid tree! How am I supposed to get up there and hack you to death?!"

"Bastard! Making me use my brain! Once I get up there, I'm chopping you into mincemeat!"

The voice sounded like a wounded beast's howls, full of frantic rage and... a slight shortage of brainpower.

Kirishima Bupai paused, an eyebrow lifting behind his sunglasses.

He recognized that signature screaming.

It was Inosuke Hashibira, the clown in the main cast whose energy was always overflowing and whose brain could never keep up with his muscles.

He pushed aside the thick bushes ahead, and the scene came into view.

Beneath an enormous tree that would take several people to encircle stood an exceptionally conspicuous figure.

His upper body was bare, his knotted muscles covered in scars, and he wore only a pair of ragged hakama pants.

Most striking of all was the fearsome gray-black boar mask on his head, its two tusks gleaming coldly in the dim light.

Clutching a jagged, sawtoothed Nichirin Blade in each hand, he jumped about like an enraged gorilla, hurling abuse at a massive black shape in the treetop.

The dark shape crouched on a thick branch.

Only a terrifying, twisted outline could be faintly made out, combining the features of a burly human and a giant spider as it writhed in the darkness.

The demon in the tree seemed thoroughly enraged by Inosuke's insults.

Its massive body began shaking violently, giving off a frightening, heavy thudding sound.

As it shook, its body visibly swelled and grew taller.

With a tearing sound, a layer of grayish-white material peeled off its body like flaking plaster from an old wall...

Had it finished molting?

"ROOOAAARRR!!!"

A deafening roar rang through the mountain forest. The reborn demon was nearly twice its previous size.

Its muscles bulged like chunks of stone beneath a glossy black carapace.

Its previously severed arm had not only regenerated but become extraordinarily thick.

The enormous fangs occupying half its face flashed with a metallic chill.

The densely packed, insectlike compound eyes covering the upper half of its face all swiveled at once, locking onto the tiny Inosuke beneath the tree, their vicious glare laid bare.

It waited no longer. Its massive body hurtled down from the tree with the crushing force of a mountain.

An enormous shadow instantly engulfed Inosuke.

"Bring it on! Beast Breathing, Second Fang! Slice!!"

Rather than retreat, Inosuke advanced with a wild battle cry, swinging both blades upward with brute force.

BANG!!!

With a dull impact, the jagged blades struck the carapace on the demon's thick arm. Sparks flew, but they left only two shallow white marks.

The demon's heavy fist, packed with terrifying power, smashed straight into Inosuke's crossed blades as he blocked.

CRACK!

A heartbreaking snap rang out. The two sawtoothed Nichirin Blades Inosuke was known for were smashed clean through by that single punch.

The tremendous impact transferred into his body without any loss.

"Pffft!"

As though struck by a heavy hammer, Inosuke spewed blood and flew backward like a kite with its string cut.

After crashing through several saplings as thick as a bowl's rim, he slammed into a patch of mud.

His boar mask slipped sideways, revealing half a young face smeared with blood and mud, filled with shock and defiance.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Inosuke struggled to get up, every bone in his body groaning, the broken sword hilts still clenched tightly in his hands.

But the Spider Demon, its transformation complete, clearly had no intention of giving him any breathing room...

With a heavy stride, it closed the distance in a single step. Its enormous fist, comparable to a battering ram, rose high again before smashing down at the prone Inosuke with devastating force.

Inosuke's pupils contracted sharply as the shadow of death engulfed him.

Gritting his teeth, he still tried to block with his broken swords on animal instinct, but his grievous injuries left his movements far more than a beat too slow.

Standing in the shadows a short distance away, Kirishima Bupai watched Inosuke's so-called Beast Breathing, driven solely by instinct and brute strength, and sighed silently.

This boar kid... what Breathing Style did he even have?

Wasn't he just hacking and screaming at random, relying on animal instinct?

Just as that devastating fist came within half a meter of Inosuke's head, Kirishima Bupai moved.

There was no earth-shaking display, no dazzling prelude.

One moment he was standing beneath the trees' shadows; the next, he had appeared out of thin air like a phantom, right in front of Inosuke and beneath the demon's fist.

It was as though space itself had folded, his speed exceeding the limits of sight.

An icy, terrifying killing intent suddenly erupted, sweeping across a ten-meter radius like an invisible cold wave.

The muscles beneath the attacking Spider Demon's carapace abruptly stiffened, and its raised fist stopped dead in midair.

Its densely packed compound eyes abruptly turned in utter horror toward the platinum figure, whose aura was more monstrous than its own.

Reflected in its compound eyes was Kirishima Bupai, his head tilted slightly as he leisurely... straightened the collar that the branches had snagged and fuzzed?

He did not even look directly at it, as though the enormous fist about to fall and that hideous demonic face were nothing but air.

"ROAR!!!"

Driven by utter fury and fear, the Spider Demon let out an enraged roar, unleashing its gathered strength once more.

Its halted fist hurtled down toward the crown of Kirishima Bupai's head with even greater force.

It would smash this posturing human and the brat on the ground into pulp together.

Yet its fist had only just begun its downward path-

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!

Four slicing sounds, so soft they were almost inaudible yet as distinct as tearing silk, rang out almost simultaneously!

"AAAAAARGHHH!!!!"

A shriek so agonized it distorted erupted, and the Spider Demon's massive body lost all support and toppled backward.

Only as it fell did its four limbs, each as thick as a structural pillar, fly off in different directions as though on delayed playback, foul-smelling blood gushing from them like fountains.

THUD!!!

The massive, limbless body crashed heavily into the muddy ground.

Like a stump of flesh with its hands and feet chopped off, only its torso and head remained, twisting and convulsing wildly.

It kept letting out broken howls of pain, green blood rapidly staining a broad stretch of earth black.

Meanwhile, Kirishima Bupai was still straightening his collar. He even adjusted his sunglasses slightly, as though he had merely brushed away a speck of dust.

Only then did he speak, unhurriedly, with a trace of irritation at being disturbed. "Tsk. The collar on this new sweater really is itchy."

Once he had finished straightening it, he finally lowered his head slightly, his sunglass lenses reflecting the last faint light among the trees.

Kirishima Bupai looked toward Inosuke Hashibira in the mud beside him, who had been left utterly dumbstruck.

Inosuke lay half-reclined in the mud, still holding the broken sword hilts.

His boar mask had slipped completely askew, revealing his emerald-green eyes, wide and round with utter shock.

Neither the blood nor the mud on his face could conceal his dazed disbelief.

What had happened in that instant?

He had only seen the figure of the man in the platinum cloak blur for a moment.

Then... then that terrifying giant demon that had nearly beaten him to death had somehow become a lump of flesh that could do nothing but howl?!

So... so strong...

Inosuke's mind was blank, with only that thought echoing wildly through it.

I couldn't... I couldn't even see him draw his sword!

How did he get here? How did he cut it?!

That's... that's ridiculous... this guy... he's so strong... he's practically inhuman!

For the first time, a trembling awe he had never felt before, born of the sheer gap in strength, overwhelmed the wildness in his heart.