Deep within Mount Momoyama, the clamor of clashing blades rang out without end.
Sudden flashes of lightning shook the branches of the peach trees, sending pale pink petals drifting down in showers.
The old man watched the two crossing figures in the distance with satisfaction. Whatever feelings Sui might have had, she had not held anything back in teaching Kaigaku. If anything, she had been remarkably attentive, guiding the boy to the threshold of Breathing Techniques just as the Final Selection drew near.
That was extremely important.
There were very few swordsmen left who used Thunder Breathing, and a large part of the reason was simply that this Breathing Style was too difficult to master. Many swordsmen spent their entire lives without ever fully grasping it.
"Too little force," Sui said flatly, drawing an arc with one hand and knocking Kaigaku's sword flying.
The dark expression on the boy's face lasted only an instant before it shifted into something bright and open. He bowed to Sui, walked over to retrieve his blade, and took his stance again.
When he trained under Sui, he could never truly calm his mind.
The shadow she had left on him that night was too terrifying, like the shadow of a demon wrapping itself around him layer after layer, never allowing even a moment to breathe. But gradually, he realized that he simply could not grasp what this woman was thinking.
Her disgust for him was real.
The fact that she knew the secret that could ruin him was real.
And yet she also seemed to have absolutely no interest in him at all, instead teaching him, stroke after stroke, how true strength ought to be used.
What exactly did she want?
Every time Kaigaku thought about that question in the dead of night, it drove him mad. The suffocating pressure returned as though that night had come again, and even the ugly scar on his chest began to throb faintly.
"Kaigaku! Stop spacing out!"
The old man's shout snapped the boy back to himself. The first thing he saw when he came to was the faint upward curl of the woman's lips.
That touch of soft color on her flawless face was alluring, and her closed eyes only made her seem more delicate and pitiable. But Kaigaku's nerves instantly tightened, and the veins on the hand gripping his sword bulged out.
"Still can't grasp Thunder Breathing, First Form?" the woman asked, smiling.
The boy said nothing.
"The Final Selection is about to begin. Today will be the last lesson I teach you. After this, I'll have to leave you in the old man's care."
Sui gave a small shrug, her smile unchanged, though to Kaigaku that smile looked unbearably false and repulsive.
But hearing that Sui was leaving, the boy still relaxed for a single instant.
Only a single instant.
She vanished.
Vanished from Kaigaku's sight. Even Jigoro's face changed in shock—she had truly disappeared from everyone's senses at once.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
Someone spoke softly.
The voice was so gentle it sounded like poetry, and it seemed to come from the distant heavens and from right beside one's ear at the same time.
—ting—
Kaigaku's ears rang.
All he could see was light and shadow in black and white. That straight line of lightning split every petal along its path cleanly in two without making a sound. He had never seen thunder so serene, nor a sight so brilliant. All colors were overwhelmed by it, until heaven and earth seemed to contain only black and white.
Jigoro was horrified.
Was Sui trying to kill Kaigaku?
This was Thunder Breathing at its most extreme—an unsurpassed strike of godlike speed that could cleave through all things. Beneath that supreme sharpness lay unstoppable force. Once that blade left its sheath, no one could stop it.
Not even the one who drew it.
That strike would definitely take Kaigaku's head.
Jigoro dropped his body and launched the same First Form himself, but he was too late. Before the old man could even fully start, the slash had already fallen.
Boom—!
Lightning crashed down from the heavens and vanished into the peach grove. Pale pink petals were whipped into chaos by the turbulence, blinding the old man.
Even then, faint arcs still danced across the falling petals.
By the time the old man could finally make out the slender figure at the heart of the swirling air, the wind split by that flash-fast strike came roaring in after it, scattering the blossoms and lifting the crimson haori. The crane patterns embroidered upon it seemed to come alive, as if letting out a fierce cry.
But that was no crane's cry.
It was thunder.
Jigoro froze, and the lightning on his own blade faded.
Because Sui was smiling at Kaigaku.
Her sword rested only against his neck. There was not so much as a trace of blood.
She could clearly see the look on Kaigaku's face—both twisted and pitiful, two utterly incompatible expressions spasming together on the same features, while his eyes had gone completely blank.
Scared witless?
Sui lifted the blade from his neck, patted his shoulder lightly with the flat of the sword, and then sheathed it.
She could tell the old man was looking at her, so she answered him with a faint smile.
Jigoro noticed it.
He had already believed that he had given this student the highest praise imaginable, but now it seemed even that was still not enough.
As a cultivator, he had taught many students, and among them were swordsmen strong enough to become Hashira.
But only Sui—
The old man looked toward the girl. Even after spending so much time with her, her beauty was still startling. With her eyes closed, she looked especially calm and serene.
And yet she was the strongest of them all.
During training alone, relying on swordsmanship alone, she had already reached the level he himself had once possessed at his youthful peak. It was hard to imagine what heights this girl would reach in the future.
Perhaps the Demon Slayer Corps' final destination was finally drawing near.
Perhaps she really could slay that original demon and bring everything to an end.
"The Final Selection," the old man said.
"I know," the girl replied with a nod.
"If necessary, you may open your eyes." He was not even sure why he said it. He had long since acknowledged Sui's strength, and the difficulty of the Final Selection would be trivial for a swordsman at Hashira level. Even so, he could not help but remind her.
"You're still far too nagging," Sui said, carrying her sword as she wandered off. Then, as though something occurred to her, she turned back and added, "You don't need to bother with him. That strike was the furthest point I've reached in my training. Let him take his time appreciating it."
"This old man understands." Jigoro nodded.
That was far more than merely the furthest point of her training.
It was practically the ultimate strike of Thunder Breathing itself.
That seemingly casual sword technique of hers was already no different from the old man's peak in years past. It filled him with both relief and melancholy—relief that the ancient art of Thunder Breathing had found a worthy successor, melancholy because it proved beyond doubt that he was now an old man long past his prime.
The future belonged to the young.
He looked Kaigaku over a few times. The boy seemed still trapped in the shock of that astonishing strike, standing there in a daze.
"Old man, go make dinner. I'm hungry!" Sui called out with a wave, and the old man agreed and followed after her.
Only once Sui and the old man had gone far away, once the crimson haori had vanished completely from sight, did Kaigaku finally move.
And the moment he did, his whole body gave out beneath him. He collapsed to the ground like a spineless heap of mud. His eyes were empty as he picked up a single petal at random. The petal was thin and soft, and only half of it remained. The other half ended in a smooth, immaculate cut.
Jigoro had not faced the edge of that strike directly, so he did not know that Sui's slash had truly carried killing intent like that of an asura.
That woman had not been joking.
At least in that instant, she had genuinely intended to kill him.
Kaigaku did not know why she had changed her mind at the last moment. Perhaps it had merely been a warning before leaving—a way of telling him that even with the former Thunder Hashira standing right beside him, taking his head would still be as easy for her as reaching into a bag.
But none of that mattered now.
The Final Selection was beginning.
That damned woman was finally going to leave.
Kaigaku cursed viciously in his heart, but out here in this deserted place, he still did not even dare let those curses pass his lips.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 150)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter95)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 55
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 45
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 32
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 31
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 31
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