"Don't mess with me, bro."
Reiyu let out a helpless sigh. The guy wearing the pig-head mask was throwing attacks that, to Reiyu, were full of glaring weaknesses. With casual ease, he guided the arm of his Susano'o and swung it, slamming it down toward the masked attacker.
But this time, just as Susano'o's arm was about to crush the pig-masked guy, his body slid low to the ground, legs spreading wide in a crouched stance, and the twin blades in his hands stabbed straight toward Reiyu's feet.
Apparently, he had noticed that Susano'o's first form only protected the upper body, leaving the lower half exposed. Smart move… but not smart enough.
In a split second, Reiyu drew his Nichirin blade and swung hard at the incoming blades.
"Clang!"
The clash of steel rang sharply through the forest. The twin blades aimed at him were shattered against Reiyu's sword, stuck fast in the ground, unable to advance even an inch.
Before the masked guy could react, Reiyu's knee shot up, smashing against his chin. Controlling Susano'o, he followed up with another swing of its massive arm, sending the guy flying.
"Whoa… is this guy made of rubber or something? Flexibility like that?" Reiyu wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, a twinge of respect—and fear—creeping into his chest. Without his Mangekyō Sharingan, those blades would've left two holes straight through him.
At that moment, the system notification chimed:
"Ding!"
System Analysis – Inosuke Hashibira:
Personality: Reckless, headstrong
Background: None; raised by wild boars on the mountain
Skills: Beast Breathing
Combat Power: 189
Overall Rating: Rank 2
Host Affection: 0
"Finally… someone whose first impression of me isn't negative," Reiyu muttered, oddly satisfied. Seeing that Inosuke's affection rating wasn't below zero gave him a strange sense of accomplishment.
He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "And this guy… he's pretty beastly. A pig… good name. Fits him perfectly."
Meanwhile, Inosuke, knocked down a second time, got up, intending to trade blows with Reiyu again. But when he looked up, Reiyu had already vanished.
Standing there like an idiot for several seconds, a cold breeze whipped past Inosuke's ears, finally snapping him out of it.
"Argh! Damn it! Don't let me run into you again!" His roar cut through the forest, nearly drowning out all other sounds.
The angry shouts continued, punctuated with countless "Pig Rush! Pig Rush!" as Inosuke barreled through the trees.
Not wanting unnecessary conflict, Reiyu silently slipped away before Inosuke could react, continuing his path of demon slaughter.
Activating the Mangekyō Sharingan consumed a lot of energy, but he could maintain it for about half an hour. During that time, his perception of the forest was terrifyingly precise—every falling leaf, every subtle movement could be tracked. While excessive for practical purposes, it showed just how monstrously powerful the Sharingan's insight was.
With such vision, spotting demons in the forest became trivially easy.
In just half an hour, Reiyu had slain over twenty low-level demons. While weak individually, the kills boosted his combat power to 441, a jump of over 70 points from before arriving at Fujikasane Mountain. Normally, gaining that much strength would take a full month—but here, he had done it in under an hour. Clearly, coming to the final selection had been the right choice.
After continuous use of the Mangekyō for half an hour, his eyes began to ache unbearably. Reluctantly, he deactivated it.
The world returned to near-total darkness, and his vision, dulled by the strain, was now the worst it had been since finishing his special training on Sagiri Mountain.
"The Mangekyō is powerful… but overusing it comes with consequences." Reiyu muttered, lying down on a large, relatively clean boulder. He picked a stray foxtail grass from the ground and held it between his teeth, closing his eyes—not to sleep, but just to let them rest.
The Mangekyō Sharingan, from Naruto's original lore, was a high-level ocular ability that could only be awakened by witnessing the death of someone beloved—or killing someone you loved. Reiyu had chosen it the first day he entered this world, and for the past two years, he had barely used it, aside from occasional observational exercises.
He had never even used the subsidiary techniques, Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi, partly because he rarely had enemies who warranted such power. He certainly couldn't risk them on Tanjirou or Urokodaki—those two could easily end up dead if he miscalculated.
More importantly, overuse of the Mangekyō Sharingan came at a cost: gradually deteriorating vision and even physical degradation. By limiting himself to observational use, Reiyu had avoided such downsides completely.
Lying back on the boulder, grass in his mouth, eyes closed, Reiyu's ears remained alert. Every rustle, every subtle shift of the forest could be heard. Should anything appear, he would unsheath his Nichirin blade in an instant.
Of course, if the threat wasn't a demon, he would sheath the sword—he wasn't reckless.