Chapter 52: Her Sister Betrayed Her
In this moonlit clearing.
Kocho Shinobu stood in place, her gaze passing over the cherry blossoms drifting in the night sky, locked firmly onto the boy standing side-by-side with her most beloved sister—Tatsu.
He was a demon.
A demon with the sickening blood of a dark creature flowing through his veins.
Kocho Shinobu had never felt such anger before.
That anger felt like a rusty, dull blade slowly and repeatedly cutting and scraping against her heart.
She gritted her teeth so tightly that she drew blood from the inside of her mouth; the faint taste of iron spread across her tongue, yet it could not suppress the volcanic rage deep within her soul.
Kocho Shinobu's slender fingers gripped the hilt of her nichirin sword so tightly that her knuckles turned a ghastly white from the exertion.
It was a specially crafted nichirin sword, its blade covered in barbs, lacking a continuous edge, designed solely to inject poison.
"If I don't completely slay this demon, my sister will never give up... Her heart, bewitched by this demon, will never be able to wake up."
Tatsu's figure was reflected in Kocho Shinobu's purple pupils.
"I must slay this demon tonight! No matter the cost!"
Even if her sister were to blame her after waking up, even if her sister were to hate her forever because of it, she would not care.
As long as she could rescue her sister from the clutches of this demon, as long as she could let her sister continue to live under the sun, she would gladly bear her sister's resentment for a lifetime, even if it meant falling into the Avici Hell!
"Sanemi-san! Help me stop my sister—!!!"
With a sharp cry, Kocho Shinobu's petite body instantly shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.
"Insect Breathing, Butterfly Dance: Caprice!"
Refracted under the moonlight, her butterfly-wing patterned Haori resembled a venomous butterfly truly flapping its wings in the night.
Moving in an eerie, zigzag trajectory almost impossible for the naked eye to track, the tip of her blade aimed straight for Tatsu's throat and heart!
The speed was too fast, so fast that it left several purple afterimages in the air, like a swarm of deadly venomous butterflies flying out of hell, baring their poisonous fangs to tear the prey before them to shreds.
"Shinobu!"
A trace of heartache and anxiety flashed in Kanae Kocho's eyes.
How could she watch her sister attack Tatsu?
She knew all too well what kind of excruciating, living-hell torture the poison on her sister's blade meant for a demon.
Kanae's body reacted instinctively; the flow of Flower Breathing circulated through her lungs.
She gripped her nichirin sword with a backhand grip, stepping lightly as she tried to move sideways to block in front of Tatsu, intercepting this fatal thrust.
However, the very next instant after Kanae had taken half a step—
"Swoosh—"
Accompanied by a violent gust of wind that seemed capable of tearing through space itself, a figure exuding a brutal aura instantly cut into the gap between Kanae and Kocho Shinobu like a ghost.
"Wind Breathing, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
Sanemi Shinazugawa did not give Kanae any time to react; the nichirin sword in his hand whipped up a violent green tornado, slashing down fiercely toward Kanae's face.
"Kanae! Don't protect that disgusting thing!"
Sanemi Shinazugawa stared fixedly at his colleague before him, "A demon is a demon, just a maggot that only deserves to rot in a gutter! Don't draw your sword against your own kind for such trash!"
He had dedicated his entire life to the cause of slaying demons; his body flowed with Marechi blood, and every one of his scars was a testament to his extreme hatred for demons.
And now, Kanae Kocho, also a Hashira, was actually going to cross blades with a comrade from the Demon Slayer Corps for the sake of a demon?
In his eyes, this was an insult to all the innocent lives lost to demons and to all the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen who had died in battle!
"Clang—!!!"
Kanae was forced to raise her nichirin sword, parrying Sanemi Shinazugawa's heavy strike at an incredibly precise angle.
The violent power of Wind Breathing traveled along the blade, numbing Kanae's wrists, but her form remained as resilient as a willow in the wind, and she did not retreat a single step.
But with this interference from Sanemi Shinazugawa, she had completely lost the chance to help Tatsu block Kocho Shinobu's attack.
Watching her sister's figure, which had turned into a purple lightning bolt, closing in on Tatsu, Kanae's heart leaped into her throat.
She knew her sister's fighting style too well; although Shinobu lacked the wrist strength to decapitate a demon, her research into poisons had reached the pinnacle.
That specially crafted wisteria poison could make a demon melt in extreme agony with just a mere scratch.
In her desperation, Kanae gritted her teeth to fend off Sanemi Shinazugawa's subsequent attacks, which were like a raging storm, and turned her head, shouting with all her might toward where Tatsu was:
"Tatsu! Watch out for my sister's blade! Her blade is coated in wisteria poison!!!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire battlefield fell into a brief, deathly silence.
Sanemi Shinazugawa, who was brandishing his nichirin sword and suppressing Kanae, felt his pupils constrict sharply, his face full of disbelief.
And Kocho Shinobu, who had turned into an afterimage as she rushed toward Tatsu, stiffened imperceptibly for a fleeting moment.
No one had expected that Kanae, as the Flower Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps and Kocho Shinobu's most beloved sister, would actually shout out the most fatal intelligence and trump card of a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman—her own sister's—to a demon on a life-or-death battlefield.
Tatsu, in the distance, heard Kanae's desperate warning.
As a transmigrator who knew the plot well, he certainly knew that Kocho Shinobu was a master of using poison; he knew better than anyone that the blade contained wisteria poison capable of killing a demon.
But... Kanae didn't know that he knew!
From Kanae's perspective, she was telling him this fatal information while risking the huge danger of betraying the organization and her sister.
What kind of trust was this? What kind of gentleness was this?
Tatsu took a deep look at that gentle figure struggling against Sanemi Shinazugawa, feeling his eye sockets heat up.
He absolutely could not die here; he absolutely could not let down this girl who was gentle to the bone.
"I know!!!"
Tatsu roared toward Kanae's direction.
However, this heartwarming, perhaps even tragically beautiful interaction, in Kocho Shinobu's eyes, became the final match that ignited the powder keg.
"You demon... what exactly have you done to my sister!!!"
Kocho Shinobu let out a shrill scream, like a cuckoo crying blood.
Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes due to extreme anger and grief.
Her sister had betrayed her! Her sister had betrayed her intelligence for the sake of a demon!
How could this be possible?
That sister who would feel sad even after stepping on an ant, that sister who vowed to kill all the demons in the world to avenge their parents—how could she do such a thing?
There was only one explanation: this demon had used an extremely evil brainwashing method on her sister!
"Unforgivable... absolutely unforgivable! I will cut you into pieces! I will soak every inch of your flesh in poison!"
Kocho Shinobu's originally light, agile footwork became somewhat chaotic now due to extreme rage, but her speed soared again to an incredible limit under the stimulation of adrenaline.
"Insect Breathing, Bee Sting Dance: True Flutter!"
Kocho Shinobu concentrated all her strength into her legs and her right hand holding the sword.
She abandoned all defense, transforming herself into a venomous sting released from a bowstring, and thrust fiercely toward Tatsu's heart in a resolute and tragic manner.
The air emitted a piercing sonic boom under her blade tip, and the pungent aroma of wisteria poison permeated the night wind.
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