"Ughhh…!!"
Daki's body, slammed into the floor, trembled as if convulsing. Shame, fear, and survival instinct mingled as she screamed.
In her human form, in her current state, she couldn't even scratch this monstrous woman.
"My obi, my obi…!!"
Daki shrieked with blood-stained lips. At that moment, her hidden clones in the underground storage of Kyogokuya responded to their master's call.
Crrrrack!
The floor exploded outward, and dozens of silk ribbons surged upward. The obis wrapped around Daki's body like a swarm of living snakes and burrowed into her flesh.
"Kyaaah!!"
With a bizarre sound, Daki's hair turned white, the tips dyed a poisonous green, and the complete form of an Upper Moon demon was revealed.
"I'll kill you… I'll tear you to shreds!!"
Daki, now in her complete form, roared. But she had to hesitate the moment she tried to attack.
Shuten was still tilting her sake cup.
Whether Daki transformed or regained her power, it was met with indifference, as if watching a weed on the roadside grow a little taller.
'Di… different.'
Daki's instincts sounded a warning. Even with her power restored, she felt as small as an ant before this woman.
It didn't seem like she could win. No vision of victory appeared.
Then, bizarre flesh swelled from behind Daki's back, and a skeletal man slid out.
"Ahh… Our cute little sister… Why are you so frightened…."
It was Gyutaro.
He appeared with his usual sneer, but the moment he fully separated from Daki's back and stood on the floor, his expression hardened stiffly.
Gyutaro's dull eyes turned toward Shuten.
He smelled it. This wasn't the scent of a human or a demon (blood demon). It was the fragrance of death, sweet yet rotten and decayed, existing since ancient times.
"Brother! That woman! She…!"
Daki clung to Gyutaro and vented her rage. But Gyutaro ignored her words and whispered in a trembling voice.
"Run."
"…Huh?"
"Run now!! You idiot!!"
Gyutaro shouted as if tearing his throat. He sensed it. A pressure he had never felt in his hundreds of years of life, except from Muzan.
Even if both of them fought, no, even if all the Upper Moons fought, he couldn't be sure they could win—it was calamity itself.
"Brother…?"
"I'll hold her off! Run! Don't look back!"
It was the moment Gyutaro tried to grip his sickle.
Thud!
It was invisible. Faster than sound. Shuten's bare foot pierced Gyutaro's abdomen.
"Guh…!?"
Gyutaro's eyes bulged wide. The impact felt like all the bones in his abdomen shattering and his organs bursting apart.
Kaboom!!
Gyutaro's body flew like a cannonball, piercing through Mugenrou's wall and slamming into Yoshiwara's night streets. Dust rose, and building debris crumbled down.
"Brother!!"
"Hmm, can't I play with your brother a bit later?"
Shuten hummed a tune and lightly jumped down through the broken wall gap.
In the middle of the moonlit street. Amid the dust, Shuten's form began to change.
The gorgeous oiran's kimono fluttered, and the voluptuous adult female body shrank.
As the dust cleared, what appeared was the figure of a small girl wearing a kimono that barely covered her body.
Her horns became more distinct, and her skin turned pale to the point of whiteness.
Daki looked down at the sight through the broken wall gap in shock.
"What… a child…? That little brat…?"
But Gyutaro was different. Struggling to rise with his bloodied body, he saw the true form emanating from the small girl before him.
A mountain range in the shape of a girl. A typhoon in the shape of a girl.
"Cough… cough…!"
Gyutaro nervously wiped the blood flowing from his mouth. Regeneration was slow. It wasn't just physical damage. A single kick that shook his very soul.
Shuten waved her small hand in the air. Then, purple mist enveloped Yoshiwara's pleasure district like a dome.
"Since we're playing, we don't need any interruptions. Right?"
Shuten smiled a vicious smile.
"I've set up a barrier. No one can leave from inside, and no one can enter from outside. Demon Slayer Corps? Other demons? No one will come. This is now our playground alone, okay?"
Those words were no different from a death sentence. There was no escape.
Gyutaro gritted his teeth and felt that there was no chance of victory.
But to save his sister, he had to buy time.
"Daki… hide when you see an opening. This monster, I'll…!"
Gyutaro swung his sickle with bloodshot eyes.
"Blood Demon Art: [Flying Blood Sickle]!"
The virulent blood gushing from Gyutaro's body transformed into dozens of sharp slashes, rushing toward Shuten.
They were blades sharp enough to cut rock like tofu.
But Shuten didn't dodge.
She walked down the street barefoot. The blood slashes struck Shuten's small body directly.
Clang! Kaang! Clang!
However, what echoed wasn't the sound of flesh being cut, but metallic clangs as if steel were clashing.
The Upper Moon's virulent slashes shattered like glass the moment they touched Shuten's skin and scattered.
"What?"
Gyutaro's jaw dropped as if it would fall off. Not a single scratch. She didn't even slow her walking pace.
"Is that all? Make it more fun."
Shuten closed the distance. Gyutaro stepped back in fear, then desperately prepared his strongest technique.
"Blood Demon Art: [Circular Slashing Whirl]!!"
Gyutaro's arms rotated at an invisible speed. Blood slashes formed a massive whirlpool, threatening to engulf Shuten. The destructive power tore through surrounding buildings and dug up the ground.
Shuten finally stopped walking. Her expression showed a hint of interest instead of boredom.
"Spinning around? You're putting on a show."
Then, a sword gripped in her hand.
As she swung the sword with force, a slash wrapped in malevolence flew high into the sky, erasing the blood slashes.
Gyutaro was astonished as his strongest technique was broken.
Shuten took out a gourd from her waist.
[Divine Demonic Poison Wine].
When she opened the gourd's stopper, a purple liquid flowed out with a sloshing sound. It was sake, but also a curse containing all the poisons of the world.
The liquid defied gravity and swirled around Shuten.
"Then shall I try copying it?"
Shuten narrowed her eyes.
"Like this?"
Shuten flicked her finger. The poison wine floating in the air began to rotate fiercely.
"Blood Demon Art: [Circular Slashing Whirl]."
The same rotation as Gyutaro's Circular Slashing Whirl, but the density and power were on a different dimension.
Swoosh!!
Shuten's poison wine whirl swept over Gyutaro's entire body.
"Aaaah!!"
It wasn't the pain of being cut.
Sizzle!
"Gyaaaah!! Aaaah!!"
Gyutaro rolled on the ground, screaming miserably.
The skin touched by the poison wine was melting. Bones were exposed, and even those bones blackened and corroded. It was a speed that even an Upper Moon's regeneration couldn't handle.
Pain like being doused in boiling sulfuric acid all over. No, even more terrible, a sensation as if his soul was melting.
"It's not… recovering! Hot! It's hot!!"
Gyutaro thrashed, scratching at his own body. His eyes, visible through the melting flesh, were filled with despair.
Shuten stored the Divine Demonic Poison Wine back at her waist and coldly looked down at the melting Gyutaro. A smile coexisting with a child's innocence and a demon's cruelty.
"It's no fun if you collapse already."
Shuten grabbed Gyutaro by the hair and lifted him up. Gyutaro's half-melted face met Shuten's.
"This is just the beginning. The night is long, and I have plenty of sake left."
Daki, watching the scene from atop the building, covered her mouth and collapsed.
This wasn't a fight. It was helplessness before a natural disaster. Exactly that.
"Kyaaah! Die! Just die!"
Gyutaro had already lost his will to fight.
But he couldn't stop. He swung his partially regenerated arms, and when his legs were cut off, he crawled with his remaining arms to attack Shuten.
It was the desperate struggle of a brother protecting his sister, Daki, trembling in fear behind him.
Gyutaro flailed, launching blood slashes.
But Shuten Douji walked leisurely into the storm of blood as if strolling on a spring day path.
Each time the flesh-cutting slashes touched her white skin, only clear metallic clangs—clang, clang, kaang—echoed through the night streets, unable to leave a single scratch.
"Boring. Do you find this fun? A weakling with only flashy techniques."
Shuten yawned widely and caught Gyutaro's sickle flying toward her with her bare hand.
And as she exerted force, the demon's sickle, said to be harder than steel, crumpled like taffy.
"Huff, huff… Monster…."
Gyutaro dropped the sickle and knelt on the ground.
It was the limit. His instincts screamed warnings as if his brain would burn. This existence could never be defeated. Even Muzan couldn't be sure before this overwhelming gap.
Gyutaro shed tears of blood from his bloodshot eyes, abandoned his pride, and pressed his head to the ground.
"Please… I beg you…."
His voice trembled wretchedly.
"Me… do whatever you want with me. Tear me to death, boil me to death, as you wish…. But my sister… please spare her…."
These were not words an Upper Moon demon, who had been a terror for over a century eating people, should say. A miserable plea for life, abandoning all pride and dignity.
But at that moment, Shuten's eyes turned cold as sub-zero weather.
"Huh? What did you just say?"
All playfulness vanished from Shuten's voice. The silence was heavier than the calm before a storm.
"A demon, and you're begging for your life before me? How shameful?"
"Please… just my sister…."
"Shut up! It's disgusting to hear!"
Shuten's small hand pierced into Gyutaro's back.
Crack!
As if piercing tofu, Shuten's hand broke through Gyutaro's skeletal backskin and gripped his spine.
"Ku… huk!?"
"Demons, you see, must maintain their pride and struggle until the moment of death to be demons. A wretched one like you doesn't deserve to breathe."
Shuten exerted force on the hand gripping Gyutaro's spine.
"[Hyakka Yororan (This Collector)]."
Crunch! Splurch!!
With a gruesome tearing sound, Shuten ripped out Gyutaro's entire spine.
"Gyaaaaaah!!!"
Gyutaro's body arched backward like a bow as he let out a horrific scream.
The pain of severed nerve bundles and bones being ripped out was beyond what a blood demon's regeneration could handle.
At the end of the ripped-out spine, severed nerves and blood clots dangled.
"Brother!!"
Daki screamed, but her legs were frozen in overwhelming terror, unable to approach.
Gyutaro lay sprawled on the ground, flapping like a fish. Flesh wriggled from the hole in his back, trying to forcibly regenerate the spine, but the pain felt as if it were gnawing at his soul.
Shuten flung Gyutaro's bloodied spine bone aside like dirty trash.
"I originally thought I'd play a bit and let you go. But your appearance is too disgusting, so I can't."
Shuten took out the Divine Demonic Poison Wine from her waist. This time, she didn't just open the stopper slightly, but pulled it out completely.
"Feel the crime of tarnishing the name of demon to the bone."
A cruel smile hung on Shuten's lips.
"Noble Phantasm release. [Thousand-Fold Crimson Colors: Divine Demonic Poison Wine]."
As Shuten tilted the gourd, a dark red liquid poured out.
At first, it flowed like trickling sake, but the moment it touched the ground, it swelled massively, ignoring physical laws.
As if a dam had broken, a wave of purple poison wine surged toward Gyutaro, threatening to swallow Mugenrou's front yard.
Along with the sweet sake scent, a piercing virulent stench vibrated. It was cursed sake that melted everything it touched.
"This… this is…!"
Gyutaro, crawling on the ground, instinctively knew. If that touched him, it was over. Regeneration or anything, his very existence would be erased from this world.
"Uwaaah!! Blood Demon Art: [Rampage]!!!!"
Gyutaro raised his body and desperately launched blood slashes to form a defensive barrier. Hundreds of slashes formed a dome to block the poison wine.
Sizzle!
But it was useless. The moment the poison wine touched, the blood slashes sizzled and evaporated with smoke.
"A lie… my Blood Demon Art…."
The barrier was pierced like paper, and the giant purple tidal wave covered Gyutaro's small body.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Gyutaro's scream tore through Yoshiwara's night sky.
Gyutaro's body, submerged in the poison wine, began to melt instantly.
Skin peeled off, muscles turned mushy, bones were exposed, and even those bones blackened, corroded, and disappeared.
Upper Moon's regeneration speed? Meaningless. It was melting a hundred times faster than it could regenerate.
An endless cycle of pain where flesh regenerated only to melt again immediately.
"Brother!! No!!"
Daki wailed and launched her obi. To rescue her brother from the poison wine.
Sizzle~!
But even Daki's steel-like obi melted like cotton candy the moment it touched the poison wine.
"Ugh! My obi…?"
Daki stared blankly at the severed end of her obi.
Meanwhile, Gyutaro's figure struggling in the poison wine gradually vanished.
"U… me… run…."
With his last words, even Gyutaro's head melted away into bubbling foam within the poison wine.
All that remained was a pool of purple liquid on the ground and the acrid, disgusting smoke rising from it.
Upper Moon Six.
Gyutaro.
Vanished without a trace.
"Ah… ahh…."
Daki sat collapsed, trembling. Her mouth wouldn't close.
Her brother was dead. Not beheaded, not burned by sunlight.
He just melted and disappeared. As if he never existed in this world.
Step, step.
Footsteps were heard. When Daki looked up, Shuten was walking through the smoke with an expressionless face.
Though in the form of a child, to Daki, she appeared as the greatest terror in the world.
"Now, it's your turn, right?"
Shuten roughly grabbed Daki by the hair.
"Eek?! Sp, spare me…!"
Bang!!
Shuten slammed Daki's face into the ground. The ground cracked, and Daki's face became bloodied.
"With your brother in that state, is there any reason to spare you? I'll send you off together. So you won't be lonely on the path to the underworld."
Shuten gathered demonic energy in her hand.
She aimed to smash Daki's head and chew up her very soul. Daki tightly closed her eyes. It was the end. She could do nothing.
"That's enough, Shuten-san."
Then, an elegant and calm voice grasped Shuten's arm.
It was Tamamo-no-Mae, pressing down on Shuten's wrist with a fan.
"What? Are you stopping me now?"
Shuten twitched her eyebrows as if displeased. Her killing intent turned toward Tamamo.
"No. It's not stopping."
Tamamo smiled without blinking an eye at Shuten's killing intent.
"But killing them all is problematic. Master said, didn't he? To leave one alive."
Tamamo looked down at Daki, groaning on the ground, and smiled coldly.
"Gyutaro was useless impurity, but this child still has product value. Pretty face, strong power, and above all… the look when this arrogant pride is broken. Isn't it very suitable as Master's toy?"
"Tch…."
Shuten clicked her tongue and withdrew the demonic energy she was holding.
"Boring. Fine. Do as you please. I'm going to sleep since the sake taste is gone."
Shuten let go of Daki's hair and turned away without hesitation.
"Thank you, Shuten-san."
Tamamo crouched in front of the trembling Daki. She forced Daki's chin up with the tip of her fan, covered in blood and dirt.
"Now, Warabihime Oiran. No, Daki-chan."
Tamamo's fox-like eyes curved beautifully.
"Your brother is dead, your boasted power doesn't work, and your pride has hit rock bottom, right? If you return to Muzan, you'll be killed, and you have nowhere to go?"
Daki looked at Tamamo with trembling eyes.
"Now, there's only one place in this hellish world that will accept you."
Tamamo pointed to the splendid Mugenrou behind her.
"Become the dog of our Akatsuki Trading Company, and the great Akira-sama. Wag your tail, bark when told, crawl when told… become a pretty pet."
Tamamo whispered into Daki's ear.
"Then… I'll let you live."
A single tear dropped from Daki's empty eyes, wetting the dirt ground.
It wasn't the resentful tear of a proud Upper Moon demon. It was the tear of a miserable slave, having lost everything, waiting for a leash to be placed by her master to preserve the only life left.
But, they didn't know.
When Akira said to leave one alive, it wasn't Daki but Gyutaro.
He was a very smart schemer. And since he was the real Upper Moon Six in essence, searching his mind might have revealed the coordinates of the Infinity Castle.
A stepping stone to get Nakime, more troublesome than Muzan.
He never particularly wanted Daki, but they misunderstood about Akira and messed things up. Like this, Muzan's lifeline seemed to lengthen a bit more.
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