Sasuke knew full well that the battle ahead was already far beyond anything Shinobu Kocho and the others could intervene in.
Never mind taking part in the fight—the omnipresent aftershocks of the Moon Blades alone could easily tear them to pieces.
His own ocular power had already been greatly depleted in the battle against Doma. Every additional concern now brought him one step closer to death.
To defeat the man before him-or rather, to survive against him-he had to cast everything aside and enter a fight to the death without holding anything back.
And their presence was his greatest opening.
"Leave here immediately and return to Headquarters to report."
Sasuke did not look back. His eyes fixed on Kokushibo in the distance, he issued the order in a cold tone that brooked no argument.
"What did you say?" Inosuke was the first to jump up. "This boar-headed boy isn't running away! I'll fight him for three hundred rounds!"
"Lord Thunder Hashira, we are Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. We ought to fight alongside you!" Shinobu Kocho immediately objected as well. Although she understood the gap in strength between the two sides, abandoning a comrade and fleeing violated her dignity as a Hashira.
Kanao said nothing, but the way she gripped her sword hilt and stood firmly beside Shinobu Kocho already made her resolve clear.
"Shut up."
Sasuke's voice abruptly turned colder, carrying a murderous aura born of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
"Your mission was to subjugate Upper Rank Two. That mission is now complete. Returning alive and bringing Oyakata-sama the intelligence from here is what you should be doing now."
"If you stay here, you'll only get in the way."
His words were utterly blunt and utterly cruel, piercing deep into the pride of Shinobu Kocho