"Increase their strength…"
Tanjiro looked at Rui, suspended in the air, completely at the mercy of anyone, and felt a pang of helplessness.
"Senpai, with a single look you can subdue a Twelve Kizuki. Do you really need to upgrade them more?"
"Tsk."
Marcus clicked his tongue.
"I still have a long way to go. Among the Twelve Kizuki, the difference between the Upper Six and Lower Six is massive." He gestured with his chin toward Rui, who was still bleeding out, "Besides, this clown didn't even go all out. Just to play happy family with the demons he created himself, to feel loved and pampered, he distributed a good chunk of his abilities among them. I mean… you were basically fighting a defective product."
"D-Defective?" Tanjiro opened his eyes wide and looked at the wounds covering his body.
"And he left me like this!?"
"Don't blame yourself." Marcus patted him on the head, "You've seen very little. Wait until…"
Mid-sentence, he sharply turned his head toward the path they had come from.
"Looks like you won't need to wait." A slow smile formed on his face. "In a moment you'll be able to see what it means to be strong."
"Mmh?"
Tanjiro, not understanding, followed Marcus's gaze into the thicket.
From the shadows of the forest, a figure emerged with slow, measured steps. A black-haired slayer with an impassive face, dressed in a two-colored checkered pattern haori.
"H-Him… !" Tanjiro's eyes opened wide, "Giyū Tomioka!?"
That's right. The one arriving was none other than the current Water Hashira, one of Urokodaki's former disciples:
GIYŪ TOMIOKA
But a smack on the back of the head brought him back to earth.
"Show some respect. You should call him Senpai"
Urokodaki's living disciples were three in total, and at that moment, for the first time, all three had gathered in the same place: Mount Natagumo.
However, the atmosphere of that historic encounter was… somewhat strange.
"Four demons and two people…" Giyū muttered with an expressionless face, "Are you two... hostages captured by the demons?"
Marcus: "..."
Tanjiro: "..."
Nezuko: "Mmh?"
Ivy and Pearl: "???"
"SHIT!!!" Rui screamed, "A FUCKING BLIND GUY SHOWED UP!!!"
"No?" Giyū narrowed his eyes, "Then maybe you're enemies."
The moment he rested his hand on his hilt, Tanjiro panicked.
"Stop, stop, stop! Senpai! Don't attack!! It's me! Tanjiro Kamado! From the snowy mountain! Are you going to tell me you don't remember me!?"
"Kamado…" Giyū's hand stopped and he tilted his head, processing.
But Tanjiro wasn't going to stick around waiting for his brain to start up. He ran over to Nezuko, stuck his hands under the little girl's armpits and lifted her in front of him like Rafiki with Simba in The Lion King
"And her?! NOT HER EITHER?! My sister Nezuko! You're the one who recommended I go train with Master Urokodaki!"
Hearing that, Giyū finally remembered.
"Tanjiro... Master talked about you in his letter and…" his expressionless gaze shifted to Marcus, "... Anonymous."
"ANONYMOUS!?"
A vein immediately bulged on Marcus's forehead.
"That fucking decrepit old man! I busted my ass training with him and the bastard didn't even bother to put my name in the letter! What am I, an extra?!"
Hearing this, Tanjiro was stunned at first, then carefully put Nezuko down and ran over to Marcus to try and calm him down.
"Senpai, don't get mad, I'm sure master just forgot…"
"No."
Giyū interrupted him without an ounce of tact.
"It's not that he forgot. Master mentioned 'Anonymous' several times in his letter, but he refused to write his real name. He said it was bad luck."
"BAD LUCK?!" Marcus's jaw dropped, "Fucking sterile old piece of shit! The second I get back I'm burning his hut to the ground!"
Tanjiro turned to Giyū with teary eyes and his hands clasped in pleading, "Senpai Giyū, please, talk less!"
"Alright." Giyū nodded without his expression changing one bit, "The truth is, if even master considers him bad luck, I didn't want to mention him either."
"###!!!"
"..."
"HAHAHAHA!! You deserve it!" Rui was dying of laughter in the air, tears welling up at the corners of his eyes. "Your own master considers you BAD LUCK? Hahahaha, this is too good!"
"Now it all makes sense… A slayer who walks hand in hand with demons, whose own master refuses to name! You're not a disgrace, you're a JOKE!"
Marcus shot him a cold sideways glance and the arrows wrapping him kept his upper half immobilized, while his lower half began to twist.
"AHHH!!!"
Accompanied by the sound of bones shattering, Rui's entire lower half was twisted like a braid.
Blood gushed out, and the amount expelled by both filtering devices spiked all at once.
Breathe in… breathe out….
After dealing with Rui's big mouth, Marcus took a deep breath.
It had been a long time since he'd gotten this mad.
He knew full well that Giyū wasn't a man of many words. What he didn't imagine was that the few he let out could be so fucking irritating.
'… No wonder everybody hates him.'
Meanwhile, Giyū, now warned to keep his mouth shut, silently examined the demons present.
He already knew Nezuko. He himself had decided to leave her alive.
As for Rui, seeing the number [Lower Five] engraved in his left eye was enough to know who he was. Although, evidently, whatever it was that had him immobilized in the air and twisted up like a rag, he no longer posed any threat.
Only the other two were left, two female demons who had already slowly hidden behind Marcus.
Unlike Nezuko, they weren't clean. They gave off the unmistakable scent of those who have devoured humans.
"Kill them both." For the first time, Giyū showed a serious expression, "If you do, I'll pretend I didn't see any of this."
"Regarding the Hand Demon matter, master is very grateful to you. And me too… I owe you a lot. But there is a line that cannot be crossed within the Demon Slayer Corps!"
"Tsk... figured as much." Marcus shook his head, unsurprised.
He had already foreseen it all.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed to make those two little spiders his own. He needed to obtain new Forms and increase his strength in the shortest time possible, because for him the real battle on this mountain was never against Rui.
It was, from the very beginning, against two Hashiras
With his palm on the scabbard and his thumb resting on the guard, he narrowed his eyes.
"If you're really grateful… how about you turn around and get out of here, pretending you haven't seen a thing?"
Swish
The Makomo Blade revealed a small section of its pinkish-purple edge.
Tanjiro turned around alarmed. "Marcus, keep your sword sheathed! He is our superior!"
On the other side, feeling the faint pressure emanating from Marcus, Giyū also rested his palm on the hilt of his sword
"I think I finally understand why master avoided mentioning you."
Swish
The sky-blue blade was half exposed, shining brightly.
Tanjiro turned to the other side, equally alarmed:
"Senpai Giyū, keep yours sheathed too! He is your younger brother! And the master's situation is different from what you believe, he has other reasons!"
Right after that, he turned back to Marcus.
"Senpai, just explain it to him! You took them to conduct experiments! Tests to find a way to exterminate the demons!"
"Tch."
Marcus clicked his tongue.
"Look, Tanjiro, I'll save you the effort. Basically all the weirdos and meatheads in this country are in the Demon Slayer Corps. Do you really think a guy like him is going to listen to reason?"
"You will only know if you try! If you refuse to tell him, I will do it myself!"
Tanjiro, who by now was dizzy from turning around so much, faced Giyū one more time.
"Senpai, the truth is that senpai…"
"Save your breath."
Giyū cut him off, with absolute certainty in his voice.
"Nezuko is innocent of devouring humans, so I can overlook her. But demons who have done so… are beyond forgiveness under all circumstances."
"But his experiments could change things! They could be key to wiping out the demons!"
"Oyakata-sama sent me to exterminate demons. He stayed completely silent about experiments."
"But…!"
"Tanjiro."
As he spoke, Giyū had already unsheathed his sword completely. He gripped the blade with both hands and adopted the starting stance of Water Breathing.
"Take your sister and leave this place. Today, on Mount Natagumo, with the exception of Nezuko, every demon will perish."
Tanjiro froze, "Wait… why…?"
"Relax." Giyū's voice softened just a bit, "He owes Sabito a favor. I will spare his life."
____
Hashira vs "Bad Luck"! Who will win? Drop a Power Stone for the upcoming clash!💎💎💎💎💎💎