Chapter 58: Transparent World
"Tatsu."
Tanjuro spoke.
"Do not be deceived by appearances."
Anger, killing intent, the trajectory of the blade, the flow of air..."
These are all just the outermost layers of the world."
Tatsu gripped the nichirin sword in his hand. Although he didn't turn around,
his hearing, which far exceeded that of ordinary people, captured every word of Tanjuro's clearly.
"A Transparent World..."
Tanjuro spoke slowly,
"When you close off redundant senses, when you liberate yourself from the shackles of this physical shell,
when you no longer 'look',
no longer 'listen', but instead 'perceive'..."
Sanemi Shinazugawa saw this sickly man actually dare to ignore him,
still there preaching to a demon.
"Stop playing your damn tricks!
I'll send you both to hell right now!"
"Wind Breathing, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
The ground beneath Sanemi's feet shattered with a boom as he transformed into a violent green tornado,
charging toward Tatsu at breakneck speed.
"Tatsu! Get out of the way!"
However, Tatsu stood his ground, motionless.
In this instant, time became incredibly slow in his perception.
"A Transparent World..."
Tanjuro's words echoed continuously in Tatsu's mind.
At this moment, his Astonishing Insight began a frantic process of deduction and reconstruction.
"Don't 'look' at appearances, don't 'listen' to sounds.
Perceive..."
Tatsu slowly closed his eyes.
He cut off the interference of vision on his brain and the stimulation of hearing on his emotions.
He withdrew all his attention and Spiritual energy inward,
then radiated it outward in a brand new way.
"What is the world made of?"
Tatsu asked himself in his heart.
"Matter, energy, and motion."
In a flash, Tatsu's consciousness seemed to break through some inherent genetic shackle.
He felt a strange fluctuation,
the rhythm of life emanating from Sanemi Shinazugawa.
In Tatsu's mind, the dark world suddenly lit up with a strange light.
He "saw" it.
He didn't open his eyes, yet he saw more clearly than ever before.
What he saw was no longer Sanemi Shinazugawa's scar-covered face,
no longer the cold gleam of the nichirin sword in his hand,
and no longer the violent green wind blades.
He saw a "human model" composed of bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs.
He clearly saw Sanemi's heart beating frantically due to anger and intense exercise,
"Thump—thump—thump—"
with every contraction, pumping a large amount of oxygen-rich blood into the vessels.
He saw the expansion and contraction of Sanemi's lungs,
saw how oxygen entered the alveoli through the trachea,
how it merged into the blood, and finally flowed to every part of the body.
He saw the muscle fibers in Sanemi's right arm,
the contraction of the biceps, the tension of the deltoids,
the friction of bones at the joints,
and even the faint glow of bioelectricity as signals passed between neurons.
"So this is... the Transparent World."
A wave of realization surged in Tatsu's heart.
In this world, there were no secrets, no disguises.
Before the enemy's every attack was even launched,
their muscle contractions, blood flow, and shifts in center of gravity
already completely exposed their intentions.
Under the vision of the Transparent World, Sanemi's lightning-fast "Dust Whirlwind Cutter"
seemed to Tatsu like a slow-motion replay.
He could even calculate in advance every inch of the blade's trajectory,
and predict Sanemi's next point of muscular exertion.
Too slow.
Too many openings.
Tatsu suddenly opened his eyes.
Those originally dark red eyes had now lost all emotional fluctuation,
becoming like a bottomless ancient well,
cold, transparent, and devoid of even a trace of emotion.
"It's over."
Tatsu softly uttered those two words.
Facing the violent wind that had already closed in and was enough to shred him into pieces,
Tatsu did not retreat; instead, he took a small step forward into the storm.
It was this seemingly ordinary small step
that precisely landed him in the "eye of the storm" of Sanemi's violent strike.
It was the only blind spot, the moment where the power was weakest during the transition between moves!
Sanemi Shinazugawa's eyes widened mid-air.
He couldn't understand for the life of him
how this demon, who he had been suppressing just a moment ago, could suddenly see through his proudest charging technique.
He tried to forcibly change the blade's trajectory, but Tatsu, under the Transparent World,
had already predicted the inclination of his muscle exertion.
The nichirin sword in Tatsu's hand did not leave its scabbard; or rather, he didn't need to use the blade at all.
In the millisecond of space where Sanemi's blade grazed the tip of Tatsu's nose,
Tatsu's wrist twisted at an incredibly impossible angle,
flipping the nichirin sword so the back of the blade faced outward.
There were no redundant movements.
Tatsu simply used the back of the blade, with absolute precision,
to strike upward and slam hard against Sanemi Shinazugawa's defenseless right carotid sinus!
"Thud!"
A dull sound of impact rang out.
The force of this blow was handled with exquisite precision,
neither directly shattering Sanemi's cervical vertebrae
nor failing to perfectly transmit the power to his brainstem nerves.
The violent wind instantly ceased.
Sanemi Shinazugawa's bloodshot eyes suddenly rolled upward,
the anger and ferocity on his face not even having time to fade,
as if all strength had been drained from him,
he crashed heavily to the ground from mid-air like a pile of mud.
One strike, an instant knockout!
The current Wind Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps was knocked unconscious by a demon using the back of a sword.
Kanae covered her mouth, staring blankly at Tatsu, who stood beside Sanemi in a striking posture, her mind a complete blank.
She hadn't even seen how Tatsu moved before Sanemi had already fallen.
Tatsu slowly withdrew his nichirin sword.
He looked down at the unconscious Sanemi Shinazugawa,
the transparent state in his eyes gradually fading, returning to that deep dark red.
At this moment, a strong killing intent surged uncontrollably in the depths of Tatsu's heart.
"Releasing the tiger back to the mountain will only lead to future trouble."
Cold logic told him the most correct option.
Sanemi Shinazugawa was an absolute extremist; his hatred for demons was etched into his bones.
If he let him go today, he would surely return with more Hashira and more swordsmen to hunt him down in the future.
As long as he swung his blade lightly now and severed this man's head,
all his troubles would be solved.
The blade tilted slightly, aiming at Sanemi's defenseless neck.
But just then, a breeze blew by,
carrying the faint scent of flowers from Kanae Kocho behind him.
Tatsu's movement paused.
He turned his head and looked at Kanae standing not far away.
Her Haori, like butterfly wings, fluttered gently in the wind.
Though she was stained with dirt and blood,
her gaze toward Tatsu was still so gentle, worried, and... held a hint of silent pleading.
Kanae was too kind.
She hoped for humans and demons to coexist peacefully and didn't want to see any life perish before her,
even if the other party was a colleague who had just tried to kill her.
"If it weren't for Kanae being here, you would definitely die today."
Tatsu said coldly to the Sanemi on the ground in his heart.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the violence and killing desire belonging to a demon in his heart.
"Clang—"
Tatsu returned the hooked nichirin sword to its scabbard.
He looked up at the eastern sky.
The sky was gradually brightening.
"Kanae."
Tatsu turned and walked toward Kanae Kocho.
"It's almost dawn. Let's go."
Kanae looked at Tatsu walking toward her and saw him sheathing his blade.
She knew that Tatsu clearly had the opportunity and reason to kill Sanemi just now, but he had given it up for her sake.
"Okay."
Kanae nodded heavily,
a beautiful smile as warm as a spring breeze blooming on her face.
"Tatsu, thank you."
She said silently in her heart.
Tatsu said nothing more and walked over to Sanemi Shinazugawa.
Although he had spared this madman, he couldn't just leave him here,
for if he were eaten by wild beasts in the mountains, Kanae would still be sad.
So, Tatsu bent down and, like carrying a bag of rice,
roughly grabbed Sanemi Shinazugawa by the back of his collar,
then directly tucked the over-six-foot-tall man under his right arm.
Sanemi's head hung limply, swaying with Tatsu's movements.
Next, Tatsu turned and walked to the other side of the clearing.
There, the black-short-haired Kocho Shinobu lay quietly on the grass.
Compared to his rough treatment of Sanemi, Tatsu's movements were noticeably gentler when facing Kocho Shinobu.
He bent down and carefully picked up the petite Kocho Shinobu,
then adjusted his posture to tuck her steadily under his left arm.
With the petite and light Kocho Shinobu under his left arm and the muscular Sanemi Shinazugawa under his right,
Tatsu walked back to Kanae's side in such an extremely strange, even somewhat comical, manner.
"Let's go to Mr. Tanjuro's house to hide from the sun."
Tatsu said to Kanae.
The two walked side by side toward Tanjuro's family.
As soon as they approached, the Kamado children immediately surrounded them.
"Wow! Big Brother Tatsu is so amazing!
Just now, with a 'whoosh', that scary uncle fell to the ground!"
Takeo excitedly threw away the branch in his hand, looking at Tatsu with shining eyes.
"Yeah, yeah! Big Brother Tatsu is even more amazing than the big heroes in stories!"
Hanako clapped her small hands, her face full of admiration.
"Big Brother Tatsu, how did you do that move just now? Teach me, please!"
Shigeru hugged Tatsu's leg, looking up and pleading.
Even the usually steady Tanjiro had stars in his eyes at this moment, his admiration beyond words:
"Mr. Tatsu, your strike just now was simply perfect!"
Nezuko didn't speak. She walked to Tatsu's side, reached out her small hand, and gently pulled on the corner of his clothes,
tilting up her delicate little face and giving Tatsu an incredibly bright smile.
Listening to the children's chirping praise and feeling their defenseless closeness,
a faint, heartfelt smile couldn't help but appear on his pale face.
"It was nothing, just good luck."
Tatsu said softly, his tone carrying a sense of doting on the children.
Kanae, watching Tatsu surrounded by the children,
and seeing the smile on his face, felt all her worries and fears vanish in this moment.
She felt that as long as she could always see such a smile,
even if the road ahead was a mountain of blades and a sea of fire,
even if she had to betray the entire Demon Slayer Corps, she would have no regrets.
"Tatsu, children, let's go quickly. The sun is really about to come out."
Tanjuro's gentle voice came from ahead.
He had already turned around and, with Kie's support, began walking toward the wooden house.
"Okay, Mr. Tanjuro!"
Tatsu responded, with Shinobu under his left arm and Sanemi under his right,
surrounded by the group of children, and together with Kanae, walked toward the Kamado Family's wooden house
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