The air seemed to freeze.
Jigoro Kuwajima's refusal struck Uesugi Sasuke's heart like a cold hammer.
A demon living in my heart?
Sasuke lowered his head, his lips curling into a self-mocking smile.
Yes.
If that overwhelming hatred was a demon, then he had long since invited it into his body, beyond all redemption.
But he did not care.
For revenge, he could become a true demon.
Kuwajima turned away.
His movements were slow.
But every step seemed to tread on Sasuke's nerves.
The blond boy named Zenitsu Agatsuma hid behind a peach tree, not daring to breathe loudly.
He looked at Sasuke kneeling on the ground, then at his master's resolute back, his heart full of confusion.
His master was strict, but he had never been so unfeeling toward someone he had just met.
Just who was this black-haired guy?
Just as Kuwajima's hand was about to touch the door.
Sasuke moved.
He neither begged for mercy nor questioned him in anger.
He simply rose slowly from the ground.
Dirt slid off his knees.
He brushed the dust off himself, his movements unhurried, as though he had not been the one kneeling and pleading a moment earlier.
Kuwajima stopped, but did not turn around.
"I didn't come here to beg for charity."
Sasuke's voice was even colder than before, without a trace of emotion.
"This is a transaction."
"I possess a power you've never seen, but it has a flaw. You possess the knowledge I need to remedy that flaw."
"I'll give you the privilege of witnessing my power, and you'll teach me how to perfect it."
Arrogance.
Utter arrogance.
Watching from a distance, Zenitsu's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Was this guy insane?
He actually dared to speak to Master in that tone?
Kuwajima slowly turned around, fury burning in his single eye.
"You brat, you have no idea how far out of your depth you are. Who do you think you're talking to?"
Sasuke did not answer.
He raised his right hand.
He would let his actions replace all words.
He would make this stubborn old man understand that he had no right to refuse.
He formed hand seals.
Ox-Hare-Monkey.
So fast they were almost impossible to see.
"What is that?"
Kuwajima's pupil abruptly contracted.
He had never seen such strange hand gestures.
The next second.
Bzz... crackle-!
A piercing cry erupted without warning in the silent courtyard.
It sounded like a thousand birds shrieking at once, sharp and grating, making everyone's scalp prickle.
A mass of violent blue lightning appeared out of thin air in Sasuke's palm.
That was not the electric light produced by a Breathing Style.
That was real, pure lightning, brimming with an aura of destruction!
"Aaaaaah!"
Zenitsu Agatsuma fell onto his backside in fright, pointing at Sasuke's hand, unable to get any words out.
"L-lightning!?"
Jigoro Kuwajima's body went rigid.
His grip on his cane tightened until his knuckles turned white.
For the first time, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.
As the former Rumble Hashira, he had spent his entire life in the company of lightning.
He was more familiar with the aura of lightning than anyone.
He could sense the true nature of the mass of lightning in the boy's hand.
What pure, violent power it was.
It was as though someone had forcibly seized lightning from the heavens and held it in his hand.
This was already beyond the realm of "technique."
This was a "spell"!
It was a domain that almost only gods could command!
Sasuke's face was somewhat pale, his arm trembling slightly from the uncontrollable power.
But he still stood straight, his black eyes fixed intently on Kuwajima.
He did not launch a thrust.
He merely presented that mass of destructive lightning before Kuwajima.
"Now, am I qualified?"
He asked, enunciating every word.
His voice was not loud.
Yet it plunged all of Mount Momoyama into deathly silence.
Before you continue