Domain Expansion! Malevolent Shrine!

Riiip!

The piercing whistle sounded like scissors slicing through cloth, and the violently trembling ripples in the air proclaimed the presence of something.

For a moment, Hirakane seemed to see the world before him filled with densely interwoven slashes, running horizontally and vertically to form a net with no escape!

The loose mud-brick floor tore apart effortlessly. Dust danced wildly as the incredibly fast slashes destroyed everything in their path in the blink of an eye!

The surrounding wooden houses were sliced into uniform blocks.

"You've got to be kidding me!!!"

With a furious roar, he raised his hand, trying to struggle!

Pfft... but in an instant, blood spurted from his body like a fountain, splashing onto the broken ground and into the dust-choked sky.

Hirakane's ugly face twisted!

The intense pain brought him to his senses. By then, his entire body had been sliced into chunks, a horrifying sight, and his blood had nearly filled the cracks in the ground.

Yet even so, he still did not fall apart.

A normal human sliced into thousands of pieces could never remain standing, but a man-eating demon could.

Or rather, Hirakane's Blood Demon Art could.

Fine threads of blood connected the separate chunks of flesh, keeping his body roughly human-shaped rather than letting it collapse into a heap of sludge.

Frantically writhing buds of flesh struggled to repair the wounds and mend his severed body.

"Let's end this here."

The quiet voice sounded beside his ear again. Suddenly, Hirakane felt an unprecedented sense of relief. He paused slightly, then sighed in acceptance.

He stopped maintaining his Blood Demon Art.

A brilliant gleam slowly swept across his neck, the circular arc of water revealing a sacred edge.

"Water Breathing-Fifth Form: Benevolent Rain After the Drought!"

Drip, drip...

Blood from the cut flowed onto the ground.

The wrinkles on the back of his head faded away in agony, and Hirakane's face at the front regained consciousness.

Even covered in dense lines of cuts, it still looked terrifying.

He neither raged nor cursed, merely smiling bitterly as he said to Lu You:

"Tomorrow, could you give the sushi to those children for me? Though it's a request from an ugly man-eating demon."

His voice was hoarse and filled with regret.

"I can, as long as they aren't scared."

Lu You slowly sheathed his blade with a clear ring and nodded slightly.

"Hahaha, they won't be... they're all brave little ones..."

Hirakane laughed loudly. His body was turning into crimson ashes, drifting away on the night breeze.

"Thank you, Demon Slayer.

Sachiko will surely blame me..."

Hirakane Ryusuke had originally been an ordinary sushi chef. Once, while he was away from home, a drunken samurai had barged into his shop and killed his wife and six-year-old child.

From then on, his life had changed completely.

"He was a pitiful man, too."

Vaguely, Lu You seemed to glimpse his past-nearly a century spent in a muddled haze.

[Slayed a long-lived man-eating demon. The template character is pleased that you upheld justice. Synchronization +2%]

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Lu You felt a tightness in his lungs and coughed twice. He gently rubbed his chest and let out a long breath.

Honestly, Hirakane was by no means weak.

The fight just now had not been that simple, either. His strength was no less than that of a Lower Rank.

It was only his disposition that had kept him from wanting to become a Lower Rank. Otherwise, getting a few extra characters in his eyes really would not have been difficult for him.

That Blood Demon Art was quite formidable.

If Lu You's guess was right, the blood threads could control things, and the strength of that control could be considerable.

He could even control an entire house and squeeze it into a ball. That was already absurdly powerful.

There were probably limits, though. For instance, the threads were very slow when shot out, or perhaps they simply could not control other people's bodies. It was the exact opposite of Rui, Lower Rank Five in the original story.

One controlled objects, with no destructive power of its own.

The other controlled people and also had considerable destructive power of its own.

"Unleashing that many slashes still takes too much breath. I almost couldn't catch mine."

At present, he used his Cursed Technique by converting the energy of his Breathing Style into cursed energy through Reverse Cursed Technique.

So if he fought normally, using both sword techniques and his Cursed Technique, he would expend twice as much as anyone else.

"I need to put Constant Total Concentration Breathing on the agenda. I have a feeling that once I break through to that level, I'll undergo an earth-shattering change."

Clack...

A sudden, dull footfall sounded, as though someone had stepped on something.

Dust swirled all around, amid nothing but ruins.

Lu You frowned and glanced to his right.

A young man in black stood atop the wreckage of a house. He had black hair, blue-green eyes, thick eyebrows, and a tomoe pendant around his neck. He was staring coldly at Lu You.

On the back of his clothing was the character for "destroy."

"Someone from the Demon Slayer Corps?"

As the dust gradually cleared, Lu You rubbed his chin, feeling that the person before him looked somewhat familiar.

But reality was still rather different from anime, and for the moment, he actually could not recognize him.

Otherwise, he would not have failed to recognize Tanjiro, Giyu Tomioka, and the others before.

"A mere demon, daring to wreak havoc in a town. You're asking to die!"

The young man in black spoke coldly, his manner aloof and arrogant as he slowly drew the long blade at his waist.

"Oh, it's the scumbag senior. That explains it."

The moment the other man spoke, Lu You knew who he was: Kaigaku, the only scumbag in the Demon Slayer Corps, the fellow who had sold out his benefactor and betrayed the Corps.

Of course, both the former and the latter could be called compromises made to stay alive. Lu You did not entirely despise such behavior.

Survival was a human instinct.

But he disliked the man's personality.

This fellow was far too jealous. As the saying went, jealousy twisted people beyond recognition.

Just like now.

"Interesting. When did I become a demon? How come I didn't know?"

Lu You chuckled, not treating the other man's drawn blade as a threat in the slightest, all but ignoring it.

His attitude only fueled the anger in Kaigaku's heart. He had already been seething, and now he was even angrier.

It had been over a year since he had become a student of Jigoro Kuwajima, the former Rumble Hashira and current Thunder Breathing cultivator, to study Thunder Breathing, yet he still could not master Thunder Breathing's First Form.

A while ago, the old man had even brought back a useless brat, saying he wanted him to learn Thunder Breathing too. It was utterly idiotic!

That blond-haired fellow was timid and cowardly, and he had no sense of proper behavior... infuriating, utterly infuriating!

As it happened, his Kasugai Crow had a mission. After following it here, he had discovered Lu You, who had just finished fighting.

He held a spare Nichirin Blade and possessed exquisite Water Breathing skills, yet he was not even an official member.

Besides, he had only heard of such powerful special abilities from Demon Slayer Corps members.

Like the Wind Hashira's rare blood.

Envy, jealousy, and the hatred they gave rise to.

"Excuses! What was that bizarre ability of yours?! Only man-eating demons have those strange tricks!"

With a cold snort, Kaigaku felt no concern about being discovered by the Demon Slayer Corps. Though the Corps strictly forbade infighting, the person before him was not a member yet!

So many people died every day. Who would care?

"See, I was originally going to spare you."

Lu You shook his head. Seeing that he had just fought a fierce battle, the other man thought he would be easy prey, and malicious thoughts had arisen.

So Kaigaku's ending in the original story had all come down to his personality.

"Spare me... hahahahahahahahaha!!! Did you say you'd spare me?!"

Kaigaku laughed in fury, then his face twisted.

"Even a swordsman like you, who hasn't passed the selection yet, dares to look down on me? Do you think I can't learn Thunderclap and Flash too?!!!"

Lu You gave him an odd glance and said flatly:

"Who asked?"

"Aaaah, I'll kill you!"

Kaigaku snapped.

"Getting worked up."

Lu You sneered disdainfully, watching Kaigaku charge at him as thunder roared.

He did not draw his Nichirin Blade. Instead, he brought both hands before his chest and slowly formed the Yamāntaka Hand Seal.

His ten fingers interlocked tightly, their tips raised. His gaze was deep and distant as he thought:

Sword techniques would work too, but I'm only in so-so shape right now. Besides, someone might already be on their way. It wouldn't be good to be discovered. Better end this quickly.

The world seemed to fall silently still.

An endless darkness rapidly shrouded the sky...

"Domain Expansion... Malevolent Shrine!"