The battle erupted once more without any warning.
Under Shokyu's control, Akaza had lost a great deal of his autonomy.
Much of the time, Akaza's movements were like those of a stiff puppet.
However, having overcome his weakness to decapitation, Akaza's regenerative abilities had reached an absurd level.
With the weakness of beheading gone, Shinichi was momentarily at a loss for how to kill Akaza, aside from using sunlight.
His gaze sharpened.
Shinichi quietly altered his breathing rhythm, his senses growing keener with each breath.
Catalyzed by the Breath of Life, Shinichi was attempting to re-enter that profound state of resonance with life force, hoping to find some kind of opening in that transparent state.
However, Shokyu's control seemed to have sealed off most of the life force within Akaza's body.
Forget finding an opening; Shinichi couldn't even sense any vitality from Akaza's body.
It was like looking at a large, rigid slab of dead meat.
"Destructive Death: Annihilation Type!"
"Breath of the Forest, First Form: Iron Birch Slash!"
Fists and sword flashes continuously exploded before Shinichi's eyes!
Faced with a reckless Akaza, Shinichi found the situation exceptionally difficult.
But the turning point came in a single instant.
At a certain moment, Shinichi keenly sensed that deep within the body manipulated by the gray-black demonic aura, there seemed to be... a single, extremely faint flicker of "life" struggling tenaciously.
But that spark of "life" was too weak, so faint it was almost negligible.
Yet, under the ultimate perception of Shinichi's Breath of Life, it was like a firefly's glow in the darkness, on the verge of being swallowed at any moment.
"This kind of life force? Is it Akaza?" Shinichi wondered as he parried the attacks.
In truth, his guess was correct.
That spark of life, or rather, soul... was indeed Akaza's.
No, it was the soul of "Hakuji" after his memories had awakened....
A voice, faint yet resolute, seemed to echo directly in the depths of Shinichi's mind.
"Forest Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps... My sins... can no longer be atoned for... The only thing I can do now... is to stop this body... from being used for further slaughter... You... have comprehended the 'Supreme Realm'... so you can surely sense the flow of 'aura.'
So... feel my 'aura'! The aura that once belonged to Hakuji, not Akaza.... Use this aura to shatter my body.
Then... let me go to her..."
As this soul's voice was transmitted, Shinichi felt a weak yet incredibly clear "life force" enter his perception.
In a trance, he seemed to see the image of a stubborn young boy practicing martial arts, punch by punch, kick by kick, under a snowy night sky.
That was not Akaza.
That was Hakuji.
It was the Soryu style of fist fighting he had forged through a thousand trials before becoming a demon—the simplest, yet most powerful, martial art, honed under his master's guidance and with the blessing of the girl he loved.
In that instant, enlightenment struck Shinichi!
He no longer used the sword forms of the Breath of the Forest to fight the Akaza controlled by Shokyu.
Now, having perceived Hakuji's life force, all of Akaza's moves and actions were full of openings in Shinichi's eyes.
Hakuji's words flashed through his mind.
Shinichi closed the distance, forcibly knocking Akaza back to create space.
He then reversed his grip and sheathed his Nichirin Blade, slowly assuming an ancient and steady stance with both hands.
A completely different aura began to rise from his body.
On the ground beneath Shinichi's feet, a faint flow of aura faintly outlined a simple, unadorned, yet incomparably solid circular pattern.
Across from him, the Shokyu-controlled Akaza seemed to sense something.
A flicker of instinctual fear flashed through its gray-black eyes, only to be replaced by an even more violent will to control.
It condensed all the gray-black mist and blue battle aura into its fists, the distorted snowflake compass beneath its feet spinning madly!
"Stop with the tricks! Technique Development, Destructive Death, Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow, Convergent Climax!"
This time, Akaza's battle aura was not a scattered beam of light but a terrifying torrent of energy several meters in diameter, formed by compressing all its power.
It roared toward Shinichi like a gray-blue dragon!
Faced with this world-destroying blow, Shinichi inhaled slowly, his eyes reflecting the torrent of destruction.
On his fists, the verdant power of life force merged perfectly with a pure blue aura.
Then, he moved, charging head-on toward Akaza.
There was no earth-shattering roar, only the simplest, most direct punches!
His fists, like exploding meteors, unleashed countless trajectories before him.
Each fist shadow was incredibly solid, not a feint.
As he threw the punches, faint figures seemed to appear behind Shinichi, throwing countless punches in unison with him!
"The Way of Soryu..."
Shinichi's voice was calm and solemn.
He was respectfully sending a former martial arts prodigy, who was now a demon, to the underworld.
"Way of Soryu: A Thousand Fists, Ten Thousand Blades!"
Boom!
A thousand fist shadows converged into an indescribable torrent, colliding head-on with the gray-blue light of destruction!
There was no explosion, no shockwave.
The gray-blue light was torn apart and disintegrated from the outside in by the countless fist shadows!
The gray-black mist mixed within it melted away like snow and ice upon contact with the fist shadows, which were infused with the essence of both the Breath of Life and the Soryu style.
Shokyu's malicious controlling force was shattered, unable to hold on for even a second.
The moment the light of the Destructive Death: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow completely shattered, countless fist shadows pierced through the residual energy, raining down like a storm, without pause, upon Akaza's body behind it.
Thud thud thud!!!
A dense, drum-like series of muffled impacts became one.
Under the "Thousand Fists, Ten Thousand Blades," which contained the true meaning of the Way of Soryu, the powerful demon body was instantly covered in countless cracks.
The blue battle aura was extinguished along with it.
Akaza's body stood frozen in place.
A moment of silence, and then...
Crack... crackle...
Faint cracking sounds began, rapidly spreading across his entire body.
Finally, with a soft sound of disintegration, the body that had endured centuries of slaughter and carried endless sin completely turned into countless motes of faint, blue-gold light, slowly drifting away in the air.
In the final moment before the dust completely dissipated, Shinichi seemed to see the phantom of a black-haired young man in a simple martial arts uniform, his eyes clear and resolute, emerge from the dust.
...
With a relieved and gentle smile on his face, the young man reached out his hand toward the void.
On the other side of the underworld, Hakuji stood still.
Across the shore, he seemed to see three warm lights waiting for him.
His frail but kind father smiled at him, "Welcome back, Hakuji."
His master's tall figure stood like a great tree, sizing him up with an encouraging gaze.
"Hakuji, you good-for-nothing, you're finally back. You didn't bring shame to our Soryu style!"
And then, the warmest light of all...
Beneath a tree with scattering petals, a gentle young woman in a cherry-blossom-colored kimono, her eyes as beautiful as the blossoms themselves, slowly opened her arms to him with tears in her eyes.
"Welcome home, my love."
"I... I'm home!!"
Hakuji's soul completely merged into the light and vanished, leaving behind only specks of blue-gold dust that lingered on the ruined battlefield like fireflies on a summer night, refusing to disperse for a long time.
...
The dust settled.
Shinichi slowly retracted his fists, standing in place, silent for a long while.
Obanai struggled to his feet from the rubble, clutching his chest.
He looked at the scene before him, his eyes filled with confusion.
Was it over? He hadn't even processed what had happened.
But with the body's disintegration, the outcome was clear.
Upper Rank Three, Akaza, had fallen