Screech—
Losing the traction of the locomotive and the support of Enmu's flesh, the massive Mugen Train made a terrifying grinding sound on the tracks.
In the rear cars, Kyojuro decisively performed various sword forms of Flame Breathing, using the reaction force to forcefully stabilize several cars that were about to derail and flip.
Boom!
The train finally came to a strained halt in the wilderness, kicking up clouds of dust.
"Phew... that was close."
Tanjiro clutched his nichirin blade, panting heavily. "Is everyone okay?"
"Thanks to Yamada-san quickly slaying the main body, only a few passengers in the cars suffered minor injuries, everyone survived!" Kyojuro laughed heartily.
Zenitsu and Inosuke collapsed on the grass in exhaustion.
Yamada leisurely jumped down from the roof of a broken car, while sheathing the Kusanagi Sword in his hand.
Just as Tanjiro and the others thought the battle had ended successfully and were about to relax their tense nerves.
Boom!
In the open space less than fifty meters from everyone, an extremely terrifying explosion suddenly erupted.
The ground burst open as if hit by a meteorite, clouds of dust soared into the sky, and even the surrounding air distorted violently under this frantic shockwave.
"What?!" The smile on Kyojuro's face vanished instantly as he gripped his sword hilt.
Tanjiro felt the hair all over his body stand on end in an instant.
That aura emanating from the dust was countless times more terrifying than the Lower Moon One he had just faced. It was so heavy it almost made breathing impossible.
The dust slowly dissipated.
A demon with short pink hair and deep blue tattoos all over his body appeared in everyone's sight, maintaining a posture of kneeling on one knee with a fist smashed into the ground.
In his eyes, which flickered with bright golden light, three large characters were engraved.
Upper Rank, Three!
"Oh? It seems I've arrived just at the right time."
Akaza slowly stood up. He didn't even spare a glance at the nearby, battle-ready Kyojuro Rengoku and Tanjiro, but instead locked his gaze firmly on Yamada not far away.
"That violent lightning power just now... was it you who emitted it?"
The smile at the corner of Akaza's lips became increasingly fanatical as he suddenly struck a standard martial arts starting stance, and a giant snowflake array pattern instantly appeared on the ground beneath his feet.
Technique Development: Destructive Death: Compass Needle!
"You look very strong. Fight me. Or become a demon, and let us fight forever."
Facing this Upper Rank Three whose presence was overwhelming, Yamada not only showed no panic but instead casually reached out to tug at the black haori draped over his shoulder. In those pitch-black pupils, three tomoe emerged once more.
"Want me to become a demon?"
"Sorry, I'm only interested in twisting your head off and kicking it around like a ball."
"Rip off my head and kick it like a ball?"
Hearing this, Akaza wasn't angry. Instead, his eyes narrowed sharply with extreme excitement.
"Hahaha! Fantastic! Your arrogance is exactly to my liking!"
Akaza laughed crazily, the snowflake pattern beneath his feet instantly bursting with blinding blue light.
Within this Blood Demon Art domain called "Destructive Death: Compass Needle," any opponent's Fighting Spirit, killing intent, or even the slightest muscle twitch would be accurately captured like a red dot on a radar.
"Since you're unwilling to become a demon, then take that pride of yours and die!"
Boom!
The ground beneath Akaza's feet instantly exploded into a crater several meters deep. He turned into an afterimage invisible to the naked eye, closing in on Yamada instantly amidst a terrifying sonic boom.
Destructive Death: Disorder!
Without any testing, Akaza used a killing move right from the start.
His fists threw out hundreds of punches in a very short time. Each punch carried terrifying destructive power capable of turning steel into powder, raining down on Yamada's vital points.
"So fast! I can't see his movements at all! Is this the strength of an Upper Rank?!"
Tanjiro, standing dozens of meters away to protect the passengers, could only smell a thick, suffocating scent of blood even with his keen sense of smell activated.
"Ugh! Such terrifying pressure from those punches. If I were to face it head-on, I'm afraid I'd have to push Flame Breathing to its limit in an instant just to barely block it." Kyojuro gripped his sword hilt solemnly, veins bulging on the back of his hand, ready to support at any moment.
However...
Facing this terrifying barrage capable of heavily wounding a Hashira, Yamada, at the center of the storm, didn't even draw the Kusanagi Sword at his waist.
His crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan cut two cold red streaks through the dark night. The ultimate insight of the Sharingan was displayed to its fullest at this moment.
In Yamada's field of vision, every trajectory of Akaza's fists—so fast they created afterimages—was clearly slowed down and dismantled.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Yamada's body moved in small increments, calmly dodging through Akaza's rain of punches.
A tilt of the head, a side-step, half a step back.
Akaza's punches, capable of shattering boulders, narrowly grazed Yamada's clothes every time, only creating deafening air blasts in the empty space.
"How is this possible?!"
The fanaticism on Akaza's face instantly froze.
His "Compass Needle" could sense an opponent's Fighting Spirit, allowing him to predict their movements. But what felt eerie to him was that this young man didn't emit even a trace of Fighting Spirit.
All of his movements were extremely rational. Even his killing intent was perfectly contained within his body, making it impossible to sense.
"Your punches are full of openings."
Just as Akaza was in shock, Yamada's voice suddenly rang in his ear.
Not good!
Akaza's keen combat instincts made his scalp tingle, wanting to retreat and defend.
But Yamada's counterattack was much faster than him.
Bang!
Yamada's right hand clenched into a fist. Relying on his freakish physical strength, he slammed a punch into Akaza's chest.
Crack!
A crisp sound of bone fracturing rang out.
Akaza's sternum, harder than steel, actually caved in cleanly under Yamada's punch.
"Pfft!"
Akaza spat out a large mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward, pathetically plowing a deep trench dozens of meters long into the wasteland ground.
"My god... Yamada-san... he actually knocked that Upper Rank away using only physical strength?!" Zenitsu rubbed his eyes, his jaw nearly hitting the ground.
"What a hard fist! This definitely isn't something an ordinary Breathing Style can achieve!" Kyojuro was equally shocked.