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Chapter 91: Tomioka Giyuu VS Busujima Saeko
"Or perhaps..."
"You are a demon?!"
Tomioka Giyuu glared coldly at Suyan. His right hand rested on the hilt of the sword slung at his waist, ready to draw his blade at a moment's notice.
Binding defenseless women and children with iron chains—anyone capable of such an act, even if not a demon, was undoubtedly a villain.
Evil must be eradicated completely! Faced with such a person, even if they weren't a demon, he couldn't let them go without a harsh lesson.
"Saeko-senpai, I'll leave him to you. It's the perfect opportunity to test out the Breathing Style you just learned." Suyan ignored Giyuu's question and turned to Busujima Saeko beside him.
"Alright." Saeko nodded, accepting Suyan's proposal without hesitation. She stretched her body briefly before shifting her gaze to Giyuu. "He's a bit weak, but at least he's better than those zombies we were killing before. I'll treat it as a warm-up," she said indifferently.
It wasn't just her weapon, Reizan; Saeko herself felt it too. Over the past year, killing zombies had gotten a bit tiresome. This feeling reflected on Reizan, which was perhaps why the sword had stopped feeding Nen back to its master after killing so many zombies later on.
Weak? Giyuu's brow twitched. True, compared to Sabito, he really was pitifully weak.
If only the one who survived the Final Selection had been Sabito, instead of a useless person like me.
What does she mean by Breathing Style? Was she trained by a former Hashira?
Giyuu looked again at Saeko as she slowly walked toward him. Suddenly, his pupils contracted. He watched as a long sword slowly materialized in the purple-haired girl's hand.
Blood Demon Art? Faced with such supernatural power, Giyuu's immediate assumption was that it was a Blood Demon Art used by demons.
At this, a trace of anger swelled within his normally placid heart. A demon that can use a Breathing Style?
She said she 'just learned' it. Does that mean this demon recently killed another Demon Slayer and stole their Breathing Style?
Otherwise, there's no way to explain the heavy stench of blood in the area. This isn't just a desecration of the Demon Slayer Corps, it's a desecration of the Breathing Styles. I will kill this demon and make her atone for this blasphemy!
With that thought, Giyuu drew his Nichirin Sword against the person before him. "Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
Without time to overthink, Giyuu quickly adjusted his breathing rhythm and unleashed the very first form of Water Breathing at Saeko.
"Sun Breathing, First Form: Dance!"
Similarly, Saeko swung her blade, executing the First Form of Sun Breathing.
The difference was that Giyuu's First Form was a probing attack, while Saeko used hers simply because she had just started learning Sun Breathing.
Because Breathing Styles required specific breathing rhythms, she couldn't execute the forms as effortlessly as Giyuu. To get the hang of it quickly, she naturally had to start from the First Form and slowly perform all twelve forms of Sun Breathing in sequence.
Clang!
The two swords clashed under the night sky, sparking a brilliant, fleeting shower of sparks.
Only Suyan, observing from the sidelines using Gyo, could see the thin aura shaped like flowing water coating Giyuu's blade.
Likewise, Saeko's sword was enveloped in a flame-like current of aura. However, Saeko wasn't using any of her own Nen abilities; the aura on her blade was entirely generated by the Breathing Style.
Moreover, the weapon she conjured wasn't her special sword, Reizan. It was just the ordinary White Oak Bokken she had used in the very beginning. Otherwise, with Giyuu's level of strength, he probably wouldn't have been able to block even a single strike.
Yet even so, Saeko's assault put Giyuu under considerable pressure.
Such overwhelming strength. After the exchange, Giyuu was forced back, his feet sliding across the ground and leaving two long trails. He quickly stabilized his stance, lowering his body to gather power while marveling inwardly. And this Breathing Style...
It looked somewhat similar to his Water Breathing, but it gave off a completely different feeling. Was it some derivative of Water Breathing? Or was it due to the nature of her Blood Demon Art?
Judging from their brief clash, her physical strength was clearly far greater than his. He couldn't rely on power-focused forms to clash with her head-on anymore.
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!" Giyuu pushed off the ground, shooting toward Saeko like a cannonball. A massive dragon head made of flowing water seemed to form over his Nichirin Sword, surging forward as he slashed at her.
"Sun Breathing, Second Form: Clear Blue Sky!" Saeko systematically shifted to the next form of her Breathing Style, charging forward to meet Giyuu's attack.
.....
Meanwhile, outside their battlefield.
"Umm..." Watching the fight, Tanjiro turned to Suyan anxiously. "Mr. Suyan, what exactly is going on?"
He couldn't understand it at all. Right after Suyan counted down from three, a sword-wielding man had suddenly leaped out of the darkness. And after just a few words, Suyan's female companion had started fighting him. She was even using his family's Hinokami Kagura.
However, seeing his family's Hinokami Kagura being used by her, it looked incredibly powerful! It was completely different from when he performed the Hinokami Kagura dance.
If his Hinokami Kagura was a dance to offer respects to the gods, then in her hands, it was as if a god had personally descended to perform it.
They were clearly the same movements and the same breathing rhythm. Yet, she gave off the feeling that this was exactly how the Hinokami Kagura was meant to be used.
"Didn't you say you wanted to become a demon-slaying swordsman and do your part?" Suyan glanced at Tanjiro and explained, "That man is Tomioka Giyuu, the Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps."
"The Demon Slayer Corps, as the name implies, is an organization of people who hold grudges against demons, just like you. They specifically learn Breathing Styles like your Hinokami Kagura, banding together to secretly hunt demons."
"And the Hashira represent the most powerful members within the Corps."
Tanjiro scratched his cheek, hesitating before asking Suyan, "Then why did they suddenly start fighting? Aren't you members of this Demon Slayer Corps? Shouldn't you be comrades?"
"I don't recall ever saying I was a member of the Demon Slayer Corps," Suyan replied calmly.
"Huh?!" Tanjiro froze on the spot.
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