The two stared at each other, their gazes locking in a deadly standoff. If Tetsuya twitched his finger on the trigger, he would blow Kanae's head off. But if Kanae pressed her Nichirin Sword even a fraction of an inch further, she would decapitate him.
'What an incredibly straightforward gaze.' Kanae stared deeply into Tetsuya's crimson eyes. They said the eyes were the windows to the soul. Every demon she had encountered before was despicable, cruel, and treacherous, willing to stoop to the most sickening depths just to escape her blade.
Yet the boy standing in front of her was entirely different. Her lips parted slightly, her voice gentle. "Is there a reason..."
Sharingan: Genjutsu!
Before she could finish her sentence, Tetsuya—his nerves stretched to their absolute limit—acted. A blinding crimson light flared in his eyes. The twin tomoe spun wildly, flooding the space between them with an overwhelming surge of ocular power.
She was instantly dragged into the illusion!
The world before Kanae's eyes warped and fractured, rapidly reforming into an achingly familiar environment.
She was back at the Butterfly Mansion. The sun was shining warmly, and her younger sister, Shinobu Kocho, was pouting at her. "Sister, you're finally awake."
'A Blood Demon Art that manipulates the mind and creates illusions?' Kanae mused internally, genuinely surprised that he was still hiding such a trick.
That explained everything. The human who had nearly been murdered by this demon was actively helping him because he was trapped in an illusion, completely unable to distinguish friend from foe.
The sound of Shinobu's endless nagging, the gentle, comforting breeze brushing against her skin—it was all so impeccably real. For a fleeting second, Kanae almost believed this was reality.
Bang!
Seeing Kanae's eyes go blank as the Genjutsu took hold, Tetsuya let out a mental sigh of relief. Without an ounce of hesitation, he squeezed the trigger. Sparks flared from the muzzle as the bullet tore through the air.
But in that exact fraction of a second, Kanae tilted her head. The bullet grazed past, tearing through the flesh of her left cheek instead of her skull.
'What?!' Tetsuya was stunned. To instinctively dodge a lethal threat in the real world while completely submerged in an illusion... She had drilled her combat awareness so deeply into her bones that it was pure reflex!
The concussive shockwave from the passing bullet ruptured Kanae's left eardrum. Dark crimson blood trickled down the side of her face, lending a tragic, haunting beauty to her features.
Hiss!
The sharp jolt of pain was enough to shatter the Sharingan's hold on her mind. Kanae's eyes snapped wide open, clarity instantly returning. "Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!" she whispered.
Swish!
She unleashed a devastating, upward-curving double slash. The blade traced an arc of brilliant light, cleanly slicing through the void. With a sharp clang, the Nichirin Sword sheared straight through the rifle's steel barrel, the momentum of the second strike carrying the blade right toward Tetsuya's neck.
Soul Manipulation: Devourer!
His ruined rifle slipping from his grasp, Tetsuya's pupils constricted in panic. He frantically activated his Blood Demon Art. The harvested souls stored within him instantly converted into raw energy, flooding his system.
Fueled by that ceaseless torrent of power, his demonic regeneration skyrocketed to terrifying speeds. The arm Kanae had severed earlier instantly knitted itself back together.
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With absolutely no time left to dodge, Tetsuya had no choice but to reach out and grab the incoming Nichirin Sword with his bare hands. The moment his flesh met the steel edge, his palms were sliced wide open, blood spraying wildly into the air.
Sacrificing his hands managed to drastically decelerate the blade. Seizing the tiny window of opportunity, Tetsuya scrambled backward, forcing Kanae's lethal slash to cut through empty air.
Bang!
Kanae locked her unwavering gaze onto Tetsuya. She was just about to press the attack when, out of nowhere, another gunshot tore through the room.
'Oh no!' Kanae's heart dropped. Because Tetsuya had proven to be such an incredibly dangerous and unpredictable threat, she had focused all of her attention solely on him—completely forgetting the other man in the room.
John Deere had pulled the trigger. The bullet struck Kanae squarely in the abdomen, a spray of warm blood splashing onto the tatami mats.
Having fired the shot, John Deere—mentally and physically exhausted from the psychological torture of the Genjutsu—collapsed to his knees, gasping for air.
"Haa... Haa..." Tetsuya panted heavily. The strength of a Hashira truly lived up to the rumors. But it was finally over.
Kanae clutched her bleeding abdomen with one hand, the healthy color rapidly draining from her flawless face. The two stared at each other, the air between them taut with suffocating tension.
"I win," Tetsuya declared, a cold, murderous glint flashing in his eyes.
He took a step forward—but suddenly, an overwhelming wave of lethargy crashed into him. The floor rushed up to meet his face.
His body collapsed heavily onto the ground. He couldn't muster a single ounce of strength. Tetsuya's expression twisted into a scowl. "What is this?!"
"It is a specialized poison synthesized from Wisteria flowers by my younger sister. It's designed specifically to combat demons. She asked me to test it out during my missions." Kanae glanced down at the edge of her Nichirin Sword. It had finally taken effect.
From the very first shallow cut she had managed to land on his cheek, the Wisteria poison had been slowly seeping into his bloodstream.
The boy lying before her clearly lacked seasoned combat experience, but his mind was sharp and his raw talent was staggering. He knew exactly how to maximize his strengths while fiercely protecting his weaknesses, pushing his advantages to the absolute limit.
If it hadn't been for Shinobu's experimental poison, there was a very real chance she would have been killed here tonight.
Tetsuya's expression darkened to the point where it looked like it could drip ink. She already possessed overwhelmingly superior strength, yet she still chose to coat her blade in poison? Her power and extreme caution had completely exceeded his expectations.
He was in deep trouble now.
"You think a measly dose of poison like this is enough to kill me?" Tetsuya spat, forcing himself to his feet. Trembling slightly, he propped up his heavy body and glared fiercely at Kanae.
In reality, he was sweating bullets. Based on his rough calculations, even if he focused all his stored energy into purging the poison at maximum speed, it would still take him at least three full minutes. Three minutes didn't sound like much, but in a battle between monsters, it was more than enough time for Kanae to decapitate him fifty times over.
Just then, Kanae did something that caught Tetsuya completely off guard. She slowly lowered her Nichirin Sword. A gentle smile touched her pale face. "Can we talk for a moment?"
"Sure," Tetsuya nodded instantly. If she wanted to chat, he was more than happy to oblige. It gave him the perfect excuse to stall for time and silently purge the Wisteria poison from his system.
"Why did you kill all of these people?" Kanae asked. Demons were slaves to their instincts; they slaughtered humans to eat them, never needing a reason. But her intuition told her that this boy hadn't done it for food.
The look in his eyes, his every movement—none of it matched the feral, mindless brutality of the demons she had slain in the past.
"Why don't you see for yourself? Open that door," Tetsuya challenged, pointing toward a large warehouse out in the syndicate's spacious courtyard.
His enhanced demonic senses could detect a dense cluster of life signatures trapped inside that building. If Rinka hadn't exaggerated the rumors, then the "cargo" the Black Dragon Syndicate was holding inside was exactly what he thought it was...
Creak...
Kanae frowned. Dragging her injured, bleeding body forward, she approached the warehouse and slowly pushed the heavy metal doors open.
The horrific scene that greeted her dealt a massive psychological blow to her heart.
The gloomy, foul-smelling warehouse was lined row after row with rusted iron cages. The prisoners locked inside weren't animals—they were living, breathing human beings, ranging anywhere from ten to forty years old.
"It hurts so much..." "Please, just give me a little more! I'll do anything you ask! Anything!" "Mother... Father... are you there? I can finally see you..."
The people collapsed inside the cages were emaciated to the point of looking like skeletons. Deep in the throes of severe withdrawal and delirium, they tossed and turned, low, agonizing moans constantly escaping their lips.
Tetsuya let out a cold, mocking laugh. "In the span of a single month, a typical demon might kill and eat three or four people. Meanwhile, this lovely syndicate traffics human beings like cattle, gets them hooked on heavy narcotics, and has ruined the lives of hundreds of innocents. Tell me, Hashira... which side is the true evil here?!"