There was only the sound of blades slicing into flesh as the lower legs of the other two demons, who were preparing to ambush Sabito from the flanks, were cleanly severed below the knees! The demons lost their balance and pitched forward, howling. The instant they fell, Makomo flicked her blade upward, following the gaps beneath their chins with unerring precision and sending their heads flying.
Clean, efficient, and utterly brutal.
At the edge of the battlefield, a black-haired boy with spiky hair stood quietly in place. Giyu Tomioka had not even changed his stance for drawing his sword. A massive, two-meter-tall Abnormal Demon roared as it charged him, its fist bristling with bone spurs about to smash his head apart.
"Water Breathing, First Form..."
Giyu's eyes were empty and calm, as though what stood before him was not a demon, but a rotten log he had chopped ten thousand times on Mount Sagiri.
Draw, slash, sheathe. All three movements were completed within a second, as fluid as breathing.
"-Water Surface Slash."
Squelch!
A blue line of water, so fine it was almost invisible to the naked eye, flashed across the Abnormal Demon's neck. The giant Abnormal Demon froze. A second later, its enormous head slowly slid off the mirror-smooth cut, and its ashes scattered on the wind.
"Nicely done!"
A languid voice carrying a hint of approval suddenly rang out from the canopy of a wisteria tree above the three of them.
Whoosh! Sabito, Makomo, and Giyu tensed almost simultaneously, instantly forming a defensive formation back-to-back. But when they looked up and recognized the figure drifting down from a branch more than ten meters high, their wariness instantly turned to delighted surprise and resignation.
Rokuya wore his specially tailored black Demon Slayer Corps uniform beneath a deep blue haori,