^ Chapter 44 - The Butterfly's Vengeance ^
"Shinobu nearly died, but she was saved by the Blaze Dance Hashira, Kamado Tanjirō. Currently he will engage Upper Moon Two along with slayers Tsuryui Kanao and Hashibira Inosuke."
"The other Hashira are still alive as well. Are Shinobu and Tanjirō the only ones to confront an Upper Moon?"
"No, they're not. Upper Moon Three was just met by the Water and Flame Hashira."
The three remaining children of the Ubuyashiki family were hard at work within the family room of the Rengoku Household, with the head of the bunch being Kagaya's only son, Ubuyashiki Kiriya. With his two sisters sitting on his left and right and all three of them wearing Yushirō's seeing eye tags, they used the crows dispatched into the Infinity Fortress to help them expertly map the layout of the abyss with each passing second. Using brushes and a ruler, the three children were making map after map as more information was relayed to them by the tags, an excellent tool that allowed them to participate without being physically there.
When his father and most of his family died in the explosion meant to stun and help trap Muzan, Kiriya had become the head of the Ubuyashiki Family instantaneously at the age of eight. With remarkable maturity for his age, he refused to let himself feel sad for the deaths of his family members. He couldn't give time to shed tears in this critical situation.
His two sisters Kuina and Kanata, both younger than him, were also holding themselves back so that they could perform the tasks they were assigned as his assistants.
Their father had been caring, but also strict. Because he couldn't live for long, he raised them to be adults as quickly as he could. Their mother was the same way, so when both of them left this world, he had to step up and become the father of his young Demon Slayer children.
"There's a lot of information being processed with each passing second. Tell the crows to spread as many of the 'eyes' as possible." politely ordered Kiriya to his sisters before looking down at the map in front of him, pointing at one specific spot. "Muzan hasn't moved from his spot at all. At this point in time, everyone is far from him. Guide everyone we can muster north."
"I've just received an update...Hunter Agatsuma has bumped into Upper Moon Six. They're currently fighting as I speak."
For Kaigaku, there were only a few simple rules that he followed in life. Firstly, it wasn't shameful to kneel in front of an overwhelmingly strong opponent. As long as he was alive, and he could do something, it wouldn't be a loss. He'd only lose if he died.
Whether his head scraped against the earth, or if he didn't have a home to live in, or if he slurped up dirty water, as long as he was alive, Kaigaku could one day show everyone how wrong they were.
He remembered his meeting with the strongest person he had ever met, a man who showed himself to be Muzan's strongest supporter, the one who sported the rank of "Upper Moon One". He remembered how scared he was, how his body trembled in the demon's mere presence. The blood that he was given on the pretext that he joined them, and not drop a single bit of it, was what had allowed him to become the Upper Moon Six. What remained with him though was the imposing presence that demon had over his weak, human body, where every single cell in his body was so scared they were screaming and crying.
"Compared to that, this punk's absolutely nothing. Even thought he got stronger he can never beat an Upper Moon." Kaigaku thought after his wounds healed from the first blow he received from Zenitsu. He snarled at the boy he remembered would always cry and complain, who chose to run and hide, rather than fight. "Agatsuma Zenitsu is just dirt. He has no pride or guts. And that sack of bones wanted me to share the succession with this trash!"
Kaigaku snarled as he brandished his sword once more and began trading blows with Zenitsu, their lightning fast attacks damaging the room around them each time their swords clashed. Sparks flew, lightning surged.
Zenitsu grunted as his left cheek was slashed by one of the bolts of black lightning that Kaigaku's techniques unleashed, leaving behind a lightning-shaped cut that stretched from the bridge of his nose down towards his ear. Regardless, he held his ground, relying on all of his training to hold his ground against the new Upper Moon. Kaigaku unleashed the third form of Lightning Breathing, dancing around Zenitsu and cutting him even further.
"Those who judge me correctly and accept me are right! And those who judge me badly and don't accept me are wrong! That's how things work with me, trash!" bellowed Kaigaku with a vile laugh as he then unleashed the fifth form, shooting his opponent up towards the ceiling of the small room.
Blood flew from the lightning-shaped cracks on his body and the pain started to get to Zenitsu, making him think of running away. The cowardly way out tempted him, growing stronger and stronger in his gut, but still he remained resolute as the past flashed through his mind. Training with Kaigaku, being berated by their master, but also being cared for. All of it was coming back with a reckoning like the boom of thunder.
"So!? How do my Blood Demon Technique reinforced techniques taste?" demanded Kaigaku pridefully, his smile stretching from ear to ear. "A slashing attack that cracks your skin and flesh, then burns them both! Kaminari no kokyū, Roku no Kata: Dengō Raigō!"
With a devastating series of strong, ranged electricity attacks, he sent Zenitsu flying through one of the walls of the room straight into a seemingly bottomless pit that he started to fall down along with the shattered pieces of the paper wall he had broken through. Kaigaku stood victoriously at the ledge looking down at his opponent, watching with a sneer as he fell further and further down with blood seeping from his burn wounds.
"I am special, unlike you. Unlike all of you!" Kaigaku announced to spite his junior, his laugh bouncing off the walls of the pit.
As Zenitsu fell with sword in hand, blood staining both his hair and his yellow haori, he only continued to remember and think of the past. "Learn from Kaigaku!" he remembered being constantly pounded into his head by his master, even though he only resumed to cry and complain rather than train.
He recalled hearing two slayers talking about Kaigaku behind his back, berating him about not being able to master even the simplest form of Lightning Breathing. As soon as he had heard one of them say he was just going to die out in the field, Zenitsu had struck him in the jaw. After that he was reprimanded by the very person he had defended, being called an embarrassment as the cherry on top.
"Kaigaku...you hated my guts, and I knew that very well. I hated you back just as much, but I really did respect you from the bottom of my heart. You worked hard. You were driven...and I was always watching you from behind." Zenitsu thought as his eyes slowly came to a close, his fingers relaxing a tiny bit around the handle of his sword. "You were special. Just as special and important as Gramps was for me, but I guess that just wasn't enough. You always made a dissatisfied sound. The box of happiness in your heart was open, and your happiness just kept leaking out….you have to notice and close it quickly or you'll never be satisfied."
Zenitsu's shot wide open as he offered an apology to his master before he flipped himself around and slammed his feet into one of the walls of the pit, sheathing his sword and grasping the hilt so firmly that every single one of his knuckles popped. Static electricity built up around his body as his power grew with each passing second, surprising even Kaigaku.
With a slight bend in the knees, all of the built up energy in his legs surged upward with such strength his haori was instantly shredded when his sword and right arm became consumed with lightning that took on the visage of a roaring dragon.
"Kaminari no kokyū, Shichi no Kata: Honoikadzuchi no Kami." he barely uttered as he blinked in and out of existence, Kaigaku having barely any time to gasp as his head was lopped off cleanly by Zenitsu's sword.
With the sheer speed of the technique alone, all of the air around him and Kaigaku was instantly burned and vaporized, leading to an utterly deafening crack of thunder that shook the walls of the chasm and shattered almost everything around them.
Kaigaku's severed head fell along with his body down the chasm, blood trailing from both ends of his neck, with Zenitsu soon following a few meters above him with the few remaining pieces of his haori fluttering away from his arms.
"I couldn't see that! What the hell was that just now!? What form did he just use?!" Kaigaku asked frantically in his mind over and over again with seething rage and disbelief. "Dammit! Dammit! So the old man really was playing favorites! He taught you something he never taught me!"
"No. Gramps was never like that. This is my form...one I cam up with myself. I wanted to fight alongside you using this one day…"
Kaigaku was utterly astonished, unable to say anything past his own mad ravings. He refused to believe that somebody beneath him both in strength and will could come up with an entirely new form to a Breathing Technique that only had six forms. He absolutely refused to accept that notion.
He denied and denied and denied that he was going to die to a loser, even as his body was starting to crumble and turn to ash. It was only after watching Zenitsu for a few more moments that he realized that maybe not everything was lost. He wasn't going to die alone, because Zenitsu had used up all his stamina to defeat him. While his body would crumble away, he was going to eventually find a bottom to this chasm they were in and perish. Finding slight solace in that thought, it was suddenly ripped away from him when Yushirō appeared beside him from thin air.
"Those who don't give to others will never receive anything back from them. Just like those who only desire will end up with nothing. Because you can't create anything." Yushirō said harshly with bloodshot eyes as he brought his face within inches of Kaigaku's, poison rolling off his lips. "Dying alone sure is pathetic, huh?"
Leaving it at that, the primary aid to Tamayo then leapt and bounded from wall to wall, snatching Zenitsu from the air and carrying him up the shaft back to level ground. Setting him down, he sighed deeply at the successful rescue while looking over his injuries.
As he did that, Zenitsu came face to face with the one person he thought he'd never see again. Standing across a river lined with red spider lilies in a bright world was his master, the former Lightning Hashira. He knew what this place was, but he didn't care.
"Gramps! I'm so sorry! I couldn't get along with Kaigaku, I never answered you even when you wrote me a letter! If I wasn't around, Kaigaku probably wouldn't have turned out the way he did!" Zenitsu cried as tears started to roll down his cheeks, the taste of salt making his tongue tingle when some entered his mouth past his lips.
Apology after apology escaped his lips as he tried to reach for his master, but no matter how hard he tried to cross the river, the red spider lilies refused to let him pass. He was dead, right? Why couldn't he be let through then? And why was his master not saying anything back to him? Did he hate him?
"Zenitsu." The yellow-haired slayer whipped his head up and looked at his master's eyes, seeing the old man shed tears of joy as he smiled with his big, puffy moustache. "I could never hate you. You are my pride and joy."
Zenitsu's lower lip quivered when his master's words reached him, the rate at which his tears came out doubling before the red spider lilies further entangled themselves around his legs. In a matter of moments, everything turned to white and he soon found himself beginning to wake up in the real world again.
He was alive, and he had received recognition from his master. He wasn't dirt. He wasn't a coward, or a weakling. He was alive, and he had become his successor. As Yushirō tended to his wounds while under guard from other slayers, he began to cry as those words rang inside of his head.
"You are my pride and joy."
Meanwhile, in a secluded chasm of the Infinity Fortress, far away from the battles currently being waged between the demons and the Demon Slayer Corps, Tamayo was struggling to try and maintain herself as she remained lodged to Muzan.
He had transformed and locked himself away inside of a giant sphere of flesh that suspended itself in the air by multiple arms stuck to the four walls around the, with Tamayo helplessly on the outside. A quarter of her body had already been absorbed by the demon lord's flesh, yet she still struggled to resist his influence for as long as possible. She figured he was trying to dissolve the medicine that makes him human, and at this point she was also certain she'd be assimilated as well.
Tamayo grit her teeth and growled, hoping for somebody to come to her and rescue her from Muzan's clutches. Even with her indomitable will and her hatred for Muzan keeping her alive, she couldn't hold out forever.
^ Personal Chamber of Upper Moon Two ^
"Kekkijutsu - Testuchi Shōheki!" said Tanjirō while biting his thumb, before he flung his arm out in a wide arc and from the blood that splattered onto the floor around him, he erected a giant, study barrier made entirely of his demonic blood.
With their little secluded area of the chamber now protected from the Upper Moon, Kanao and Inosuke stood close to Tanjirō as he kneeled down, gently setting Shinobu onto her side and sheathing his sword. Since she was in the process of being absorbed, when Tanjirō had pulled her free, the parts of her body that had already been devoured hadn't come with her. Her entire left shoulder up to the base of her neck and part of her chest appeared melted and dripping with blood, as did her hip and her entire left leg below the thigh.
It almost made Kanao want to throw up, but she shuddered and kept herself under control, the relief of seeing Tanjirō rescue her overwhelming those emotions. Inosuke even grunted to show that he was happy as well, and lastly Tanjirō sighed once he fully calmed down.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner...if I was here, I could have helped her...I…" started Tanjirō, the strong façade he had when he had decimated Dōma a few moments before dropping entirely as he began to cry in front of his friends over Shinobu.
"Tanjirō, it...if she had been eaten, it-" Kanao said, stopping herself short when he brought his eyes to her and shook his head.
"I knew...I knew that she had been ingesting wisteria poison, so that she could use herself as a final trump card against that demon...I made her promise to stop! I promised to never leave her side, so that she wouldn't have had to do this!"
Tanjirō's rage slipped past the surface when he slammed his fist into the floor by his side, splintering the wood with little effort and making Kanao jump a little. She bit her lip and lowered her gaze, feeling the full brunt of his sorrow come out all at once as they kneeled over Shinobu.
Inosuke had nothing to say at that moment, not because he couldn't think of anything, but because he was trying to be considerate to his friend. What's more is that for some reason, whenever he had seen Dōma upon entering his chamber, a strange kind of sensation stirred in the pit of his stomach.
He knew how much Shinobu meant to him, and quite frankly, she meant a lot to him as well. Whenever he'd return to the Butterfly Mansion if he got injured, Shinobu was always there to help him by giving him medicine and taking care of him with that smile on her face. To see her in such a wounded state hurt him as well, so he could only imagine what Tanjirō must be feeling at that moment.
Tanjirō cried for a few more moments before he sniffled and wiped his eyes, their gaze coming to rest on Shinobu's face as tiny wisps of air escaped her lips. If nobody did anything at that moment, she would surely die from her injuries. It was a miracle in itself that she was still breathing. With no other options and a most likely recovered Dōma waiting for them past his barrier, he was unsure of what to do before he heard the faintest whisper come from her lips.
With wide eyes Tanjirō hunched over and brought an ear right up to Shinobu's mouth, listening closely to try and make out what she was trying to say. Kanao and Inosuke were silent, the only sound anyone could hear being the beating of their hearts. Time seemed to stand still.
Shinobu's lips moved slowly, barely formulating words, before Tanjirō then leaned back and sighed a little to himself. He had definitely heard what she had asked him, and he was prepared to do it, but was she even sure? Almost as if she sensed his apprehension, Shinobu slowly nodded her head once with a tiny whimper. Seeing this, Tanjirō closed his eyes and cast away his doubt in order to trust her in her moment of need.
Balling up his hand into a fist he held it above Shinobu's mouth and grit his teeth, feeling his sharp fingernails dig into his palm and start to draw blood. Drop by drop, the blood fell past her lips onto her tongue and rolled down her throat. Under his breath he counted each and every one before he stopped at twenty to twenty five drops in total, then pulled his hand back and loosened his fist so that the palm could heal up.
"Tanjirō, did you…" Kanao uttered before he got to his feet, a tiny smile on his face.
"Let her rest...right now, we still have an Upper Moon to defeat right outside. Kanao, Inosuke, get ready. I'm here to help." Tanjirō replied while using his thumb to pop his sword out a tiny bit. "I'm guessing this is the demon that killed Kanae, right?"
"It is...Sensei told me herself during Hashira Training…"
"Alright...we'll definitely kill him. That's how we'll make it up to Shinobu, and to Kanae."
Kanao looked back once at her master, biting her lip a tiny bit when it seemed like Shinobu stopped breathing for a few seconds, before she nodded and rose up too. Inosuke followed suit with a grunt and held both of his swords tightly, ready for what would await them on the other side of Tanjirō's blood wall.
Tanjirō drew his blade and turned, narrowing his eyes as his smile was replaced by his suppressed anger, the scowl on his face enough to make any human who looked his way tremble. No one was going to get away with nearly killing the ones he cared about, never again.
"Once I drop this barrier, he'll be waiting for us. He's the Upper Moon Two from what I remember, so the second strongest after Muzan. As I am right now, I should be able to match him, but even I'm not sure just how strong he really is."
"From what you remember? Wait, Tanjirō, does that mean the memories you had...from when you were taken here, are they back?" Kanao asked, the young man turned Hashira standing before her nodding once.
"Khehe, Inosuke-sama will allow this only once. Let's go already, we're gonna shred this guy to pieces!" Inosuke urged on with a snarl, the young man grinning beneath his mask.
Tanjirō glanced back at the two of them and grinned slightly before he held his hand out and manipulated his blood to form a doorway that they could walk through. He left the secluded space first, followed by Kanao and then Inosuke, before he closed the hole up behind him so that Shinobu remained safe as long as he remained breathing.
Waiting for them with all of his injuries healed and a smile on his face was Dōma, who was sitting in the center of the room with his elbows on his knees and his chin popped up on his hands.
"Wow, I figured it was you based on your presence! You finally came back after going away for all that time, Tanjirō-kun~! Did you get a different outfit?" he asked with a light giggle, the way he spoke immediately getting on their nerves.
Tanjirō was the only one to remain relatively composed because this wasn't the first time he had met Dōma, but he still wished he could scrub those thoughts out of his mind. He already decided he despised the person in front of him, and for nearly killing Shinobu, there was no hope of redemption for him.
Not only that, this was the demon that had caused the death of Shinobu's sister, the only real family that she had left. Just thinking of that alone and the tears she had shed in his lap that night on the roof of the Butterfly Mansion infuriated him even more. He wasn't going to stop until he saw Dōma's severed head lying at his feet.
"Shut it. You tried to kill someone precious to me, and for that you're getting no sympathy for me." Tanjirō snarled as his anger caused his demon transformation to flare up, the horns on his head growing in size as well as his hair.
"Oh, so harsh! Whatever, even if I can't kill you, I'll still have plenty of meals to have on the side. That girl next to you is especially cute too, she kind of reminds me a little of Hashira-chan. What's your name, sweetheart?"
"I...am Tsuyuri Kanao. Kochō Kanae and Kochō Shinobu's little sister…" Kanao responded with a frown, her stance widening ever so slightly as she kept her blade drawn. She and the others were ready for anything, the air between them tense as they had a battle of wills.
"Oh? Really? But judging from your flesh, you aren't blood related. Ah well, most young girls are delicious anyways!" Dōma remarked before he lifted a hand up as he shed a single tear, wiping it away while looking at Kanao with apparent sadness. "It must've been hard to see your beloved sister hurt so badly, I was trying to end her suffering, but in the end I only caused more of it...truly, I'm sorry…"
Tanjirō clenched his teeth as did Inosuke, but Kanao's expression lost any sort of emotion as she saw right through the mask the Upper Moon had on because of the knowledge she had learned from Shinobu. Taking a step forward to be equal with Tanjirō, she lowered her gaze and scowled heavily.
"Enough with the lies. You're not fooling anyone with that pitiful act of yours." hissed Kanao, her verbal poison shocking Tanjirō.
"W-What? What do you mean?" Dōma asked, surprised.
"I know that every single word that comes out of your mouth is nothing but bullshit. You don't even feel the least bit sad, do you? The color of your face hasn't changed at all, and those tears of yours are nothing but fakes meant to stir up emotions."
Dōma remained perfectly still, bringing himself up off the bridge he was sitting on while keeping his mouth hidden behind one of his unfurled fans. He had stopped crying and she gazed at her out of intrigue, the smile on his face not as big as usual.
Inosuke had his mouth open beneath his mask while Tanjirō could only gaze at the girl he thought was kind-hearted and sweet, albeit a little on the distanced side of the spectrum, utterly tearing into the Upper Moon without a single hint of fear. It amazed him, and it made him realize why she had been made Shinobu's Tsuguko.
"Just as she was about to die, Kanae-san told us that she felt sorry for you. You don't feel anything, do you? Every person born into this world feels something as natural as happiness, or even anger and sadness. But you can't understand any of those feelings, can you?" Kanao pressed on, her lips curling upward into a sickening smile as she sadistically kept biting into Dōma with her words. She was actually enjoying herself while talking to the man who took one sister from her and very nearly took the other away. She was in pain, and had such immense anger welling up inside that it could match even Shinobu's. "But you're a smart guy, so you cover that up by spitting out lies. You pretend to be happy or sad, all to hide the fact that you can't feel anything in that shriveled heart of your's."
Kanao accused him of never feeling any of the basic human emotions, from happiness and enjoyment to pain and bitterness. She went so far as to call the Upper Moon a basic, empty shell devoid of anything even resembling an emotion, and Dōma just took all of it.
So excited from her bashing she was, that Kanao actually began to giggle in a slightly unnerved manner, a chill going up and down Tanjirō's spine as he witnessed first hand just how sadistic the former emotionally distant girl could get with her enemies.
"Fufu, it's quite comical. It's so comical it's stupid...why were you even born?" Kanao finally asked, finishing her rant with a sneer so cold it would've made burning hot magma turn to stone.
"In all my time, I've talked with dozens of young girls...but I've never come across a bully like you." Dōma remarked in an equally cold voice, the demon's natural carefree attitude dropping to reveal the unfeeling individual that he really was. He wasn't even smiling anymore, a sight that made everyone tense up. "How can you say something so cruel to me?"
"Don't you get it? I hate you. We all hate you. I want to lop your head off so goddamn much and send you to hell this instant."
"I second that, bastard…" snarled Tanjirō as flames escaped out from behind his fangs, lighting up his face briefly.
"You're such a disgrace, it would be better for you to die quickly. After all, your life is utterly pointless and meaningless."
Finally tired of hearing her talk, Dōma appeared right behind Kanao with a fan unfurled, ready to decapitate her in the next few seconds. When the leading edge of his gold fan was just a couple centimeters away, his arm was instantly stopped by Tanjirō, who had used his non-dominant hand to grab him by the forearm.
They stared one another in the eyes before Tanjirō then turned around and with his arm completely wrenched the Upper Moon's arm in a circle three times over, breaking every single bone in the blink of an eye and turning the limb into a hanging sack of bone shards and flesh.
Kanao ducked down at the same time and slashed at his gut, nearly bifurcating him and spraying his blood all over the floor. He swept at them with his other arm, using his Blood Demon Art to create a whirlwind of super-cold air and ice flowers, which made his organs spill out from the cut in his gut.
Tanjirō, Kanao and Inosuke avoided the attack, retreating to three different points around him so that they surrounded him. He licked his lips when his blood oozed out up from his throat.
"His reaction speed is equal to mine, he's definitely grown since when I last saw him. I can sense those two with him aren't slouches either." Dōma thought calmly while his disemboweled intestines were sucked back up into his body with a sickening squelch, the blood on his clothes drying up with a hiss. "That's fine. I still have 'that' with me if I need it."
The three opponents stared one another down after Dōma's wounds fully healed, either side waiting for the other to make the first move. The silence became unbearable, and finally the fight picked up again as they vanished. Faster than the eye could track the three slayers engaged the singular Upper Moon in an utter battle to the death, each of them aiming to decapitate them while Dōma used his ice and reflexes to stay one step ahead.
It was Tanjirō who was well and truly able to match him move for move, but his two friends were right behind them, and with each time they clashed they were adjusting to the Upper Moon and starting to catch up. He needed to remove them from the equation as soon as possible, and then he could focus on freezing Tanjirō solid so that he could devour them in peace.
"I'm fighting with Tanjirō, and it's utterly amazing just how strong he's become. With the memories he once had now back, would he even be able to take on this guy on his own? What difference will I make here?" Kanao thought as she ducked below Dōma's fans, refusing to breathe in the frigid air, and sliced his arm off so that Inosuke could follow through. She shook her head when an inkling of doubt snuck its way into her head and she snarled, the image of her Master being absorbed by the Upper Moon reinvigorating her. "No, no time for that! I need to go on a rampage and keep up with him! He nearly took away my family, and for that, I can't forgive him! Hana no kokyū, Go no kata: Ada no Shakuyaku!"
As soon as Tanjirō and Inosuke were out of the way, failing again to behead Dōma because of his swift, superhuman reflexes, she unleashed an undulating attack of nine connecting slashes that generated pink streaks of sakura petals each time her blade cut through his flesh.
"Seven, eight, nine straight attacks! How pretty! Now it's my turn! Kekkijutsu - Karesono Shizuri."
Moving at superhuman speeds he assaulted Kanao with a series of nine successive fan attacks right back at her, each swing creating gusts of razor-sharp ice shards that threatened to cut her to pieces if she didn't react quickly. Thankfully she was by using another Flower Breathing form, managing to repel each of his attacks with little difficulty.
Surprised by her combat prowess, he quickly deduced that it must be due to her eyes having an ungodly ability to analyze even the slightest motions in his body from his fingertips down to his toes. She was guessing what he was going to do next and countered that action when he made it.
"Kanao! Watch out!" Tanjirō yelled as he gripped his sword with both hands, flames escaping his lips as he set his sights on Dōma. "Tsuki no kokyū, San no kata: Enkidzuki - Tsugari!"
Dōma's eyes widened when Tanjirō's blade developed a white sheen to it before he performed two rapid sword swings that produced giant crescent moon slashes, from which produced a swarm of smaller crescents that nearly overwhelmed him. He grunted as his body was practically cut to ribbons in his retreat, his ice preventing any further damage that would leave him open.
"Whoa! What the hell was that, Gonpachiro?! Is that like what you did to that bitch demon in the Red Light District?" Inosuke exclaimed once Tanjirō finished the attack, a slight grin appearing on his face.
"It is. I finally remember everything now. The way I had to fight for my life against the strongest opponent here, learning from him his own techniques...it's all back now!"
"You monster, you copied Kokushibō-dono's techniques and you're using them against me?" asked Dōma, faking the emotion in his voice as his wounds healed instantly.
"Oi oi, nobody asked you, shitface! Why don't you just shut up and let us cut you already!"
Inosuke snarled at him and waved a fist at him angrily, his teeth clenched while he did so. Kanao and Tanjirō looked his way and gasped to find that his boar mask had suddenly gone missing, the pair eventually finding it in Dōma's hand when he had snatched it from him while they weren't paying attention. Tanjirō then noticed that in that brief moment Dōma had even snatched all of their swords, carrying them in his hands before dropping them at his feet with a laugh.
"You guys are supposed to hold onto these, you know? Don't worry, I'll just keep these right here with me so we can play around some more! Also this mask is super interesting…" Dōma remarked while examining the boar head more closely, earning Inosuke's ire as he shouted at him to give it back.
"Give it back you ass, or I'll gnaw your flesh into bits!" Inosuke bellowed, a vein throbbing from the side of his head.
Dōma brought his gaze up from the mask to look at him with a better eye and his lips slowly curled upward into an innocent yet malicious smile as he pointed at him and chortled.
"Oooh? I remember you from somewhere. That face, it reminds me of someone...have we met somewhere before?"
"I don't remember ever meeting a maggot like you before! Don't touch my fur with your dirty hands!"
"Inosuke, now's not the time to argue with him! We have to get our swords back!" yelled Tanjirō to try and get his friend to focus, his mind going at a hundred miles per hour to try and figure out what the best way to get their swords back were.
If he tried to get them back himself, he ran the risk of Dōma attacking his friends immediately after and killing them, something that he could not let happen whatsoever. Taking their only weapons away from them was a clever mood by the Upper Moon, and it infuriated him to admit that.
Furthermore, there was still Shinobu, who was still recovering behind his blood barrier. He knew that what he erected was durable, but even then he didn't know how much punishment it could take from Dōma if he decided to go after Shinobu. He cursed himself for not staying focused on his enemy and balled his hands up into fists, snarling like an enraged beast.
"No, no, we have. I know you. I treasure my good memory, so much so that I remember the time I was human quite well." Dōma said as he put one of his fans into his mouth and brought the hand that held it to the side of his head. Before their very eyes, with a twisted, deranged look in his eyes, he plunged his finger right through his temple and skull, digging into his brain to try and job his memory. "Mmm...aha! Fifteen, no, seventeen years ago? That's pretty recent. There was a woman carrying a baby...her husband punched her every day, and her mother-in-law abused her too. So my Eternal Paradise Cult took in that poor woman."
Dōma started speaking of the past, recalling his memories and telling them about it while removing his finger from his head to let the wound seal itself shut. The woman had no parents or siblings, and there was not a single place she could go to be safe. She had a face so beaten and swollen, he couldn't even tell what she actually looked like, and to add insult to injury she was rendered partially blind.
Thanks to his abilities though she healed her blindness and once her injuries fully went away, he saw her for what she was. A beautiful young woman in the midst of the springtime of youth.
"She had the same face as you. But she looked far more delicate and soft...it was your mother, am I right?" Dōma inquired with a slight grin, the boarless Inosuke grunting and exhaling air through his nostrils.
"I've got no mother! I was raised by the boars!" he barked back, annoyed.
"So a boar gave birth to you? That sounds quite silly! You're a human, so obviously a human must've given birth to you."
"Zip it already! You stupid piece of trash!"
Inosuke blindly rushed the Upper Moon without a blade in his hands, Kanao gasping at his reckless charge while Tanjirō lowered himself down and used this as an opportunity. Remembering Zenitsu's teaching, he channeled every amount of strength into his legs and burst forth from the bridge he was on, blasting it apart from the power alone.
Dōma saw both of them coming at him and seeing Tanjirō as the lesser threat because he couldn't be killed, he waved his fans and aimed to eliminate Inosuke first. Surprisingly he was met by Tanjirō, who had immediately cloaked himself in his Iron Blood Armor and easily took the brunt of the blows without so much as suffering a single scratch.
Inosuke snatched their weapons during the distraction thanks to a hand signal from his friend, and he made it back to Kanao's side with all of them carried in his arms. Tanjirō leaped back to them as well after avoiding being frozen by Dōma's ice, before he grabbed his sword from the pile and twirled it around a few times.
"Nice one, Inosuke. Good job getting his attention with that yelling of your's." Tanjirō said with a grin, his more effeminate-looking muscular friend grinning back and tapping his chest with a thumb.
"Of course! Inosuke-sama is clearly the master here!" he replied, Dōma blinking a few times before he shrugged.
"Ah well, that was fun while it lasted. But seriously though, you should hear the end of my story! It's nothing short of a miracle!"
"You're still talking? Just shut up already you-"
"I had no intention of eating your mother, you know. Having someone beautiful next to you feels pretty good! She wasn't all that smart, but she was really good at singing. For some reason all she sang was that Pinky Promise lullaby. Actually it was all that she sang."
Inosuke stopped mid-shout as he remembered a time with Shinobu in the past when he had made a pinky promise with her to not get hurt so much, a fact that made him get a little closer to her as a person and see her as a mother-figure. That feeling in the pit of his stomach became a little stronger as memories he thought he didn't have began appearing in his mind. A light, delicate voice was singing to him, the lyrics of the lullaby reaching down into the depths of his soul.
"Pinky promise, pinky promise. I will protect you, I promise that. Until you get big and strong, you mommy will protect you. Sorry Inosuke, you may be feeling lonely, but your mom is doing her very best to fill your dad's shoes and protect you. Lives can be replaced, but Inosuke, your mom will protect you...always."
Tanjirō and Kanao looked at their friend as his shoulders slumped a little, his face losing that fiery vigor he recently had. An unrecognizable face appeared in his mind, a face that he thought was his own from looking into the mirror every day.
They were worried about what was going to happen to him if Dōma kept going, and with how he always referred to her in the past test, as well as talked of eating her, they figured out the end far before Inosuke did.
"I really wasn't to eat her, that's not a lie. I purely planned on having her by my side until she passed away. But your mom...right, 'Kotoha', was very sharp, despite being so stupid. She found out I was eating my worshippers, and despite all my explanations, she couldn't understand my benevolence."
Dōma's voice by this time was so far away to Inosuke that he could hardly hear him. Only Tanjirō and Kanao listened with disgusted faces as Dōma, at the same time as Inosuke was remembering it piece by piece, told them of how his mother had flown out of his temple with him in her arms and into the surrounding forest. He pursued her, intent on not letting her spread the information about his cult to others, and eventually found her at a cliff that overlooked a steep drop into a tumultuous river down below.
Insouke remembered how his mother had cried and cried while running apologizing over and over again for being so stupid and for always making mistakes. In the end, he was let go off the cliff just so he had a chance to survive right before Dōma slit her jugular and ended her right then and there.
"My...My mother...she….he…" Inosuke told himself over and over again in his mind, his chest slowly beginning to heave when his breaths began deeper and more ragged. Tanjirō could smell his anger welling up inside of him, as well as Kanao, before Dōma then chuckled and played around with Inosuke's mask.
"Anyways, after that I ended up eating her to the very bone! If she went home, she'd get beat by her husband. And if she was by herself, she would've ended up on dead by the road with you because she's hopelessly pathetic." said Dōma with yet another laugh and a shake of his head. "Kotoha was so unfortunate...such a pointless existence."
"Shut the fuck up, you bastard!"
"Cut it out already! You sleazebag!"
Tanjirō and Kanao's shouts mixed together as they prepared to fight the Upper Moon just to get him to stop talking, the former's sword becoming engulfed with flames while Kanao's knuckles turned white from gripping hers so tightly.
Inosuke meanwhile was still deep in his own head, his mother's sweet smile and pure voice talking to him again and again. He had missed out on everything that life could have offered him if he still had his mother, and it was all because of the demon before them. His mother was killed, Shinobu and Kanao's sister was killed, and countless other women met a gruesome fate at the hands of Dōma.
"It truly is a miracle, meeting you here…" murmured Inosuke when he finally came back to reality and brought up his swords. He was angrier than ever before. His vision was nothing but a deep, dark red. Murder was on his lips. "The demon who killed my mother and my friends...is right before my eyes!"
"Oh my! You three look so angry! Was it something I said? It was just a fun little story, you know?" asked Dōma as if he was clueless about how wrong it was to speak of how he had devoured someone's mother to the bone.
"Tanjirō, Flower Girl...let's fucking slaughter this guy…"
"Couldn't have said it any better myself."
Starting their battle once again, Dōma brought out all the stops to fight against his now three enraged opponents. Using every single trick in the book he battled back, keeping them away from his neck with a smile the entire time. Halfway during the fight he retreated for a moment and used his Blood Demon Technique to form multiple miniature ice clones of himself that rapidly evened the odds.
Able to utilize all of his techniques at pretty much the same caliber as himself, Kanao, Inosuke and Tanjirō were forced to deal with one for each of them while Dōma merely watched from the sidelines and laughed.
"You coward! Fight us like a man instead of hiding behind these cheap knock offs!" Tanjirō shouted as he blasted the clone he was fighting to pieces with the Hinokami Kagura, only for two more to take its place, bringing up their total to four.
"That's quite alright, Tanjirō-dono! I'll just let you play with them for a little bit, while I visit your other friend behind that wall of yours!" replied Dōma cheerfully with a little wave.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"
"Calm down Tanjirō, we still have time! Just a little bit more!"
Tanjirō grunted when he was pierced through the back by dozens of ice shards from one of the ice clones harassing him, only for them to melt soon after from the sheer heat his body was giving off. A quick glance at Kanao and her eyes immediately told him what she meant and he nodded before focusing again on the clones, keeping them in check.
Meanwhile Dōma chuckled as he turned his back on them, certain that his replicas could occupy them long enough for him to break through Tanjirō's barrier and finish what he started. He stepped up to the tall red wall of solidified blood and was about to use his fans on it before his hand started to quiver. Unsure of what was happening, his eyes widened as he started to tingle around the left side of his face.
His skin started to turn dark purple and red and even began to melt, starting with his eye coming clean out of his socket with just the optic nerve keeping it attached to his skull. His eyebrow and cheek then drooped and he coughed while stumbling, eventually falling to his knees while grasping the right side of his head. More of his skin began melting off, eventually revealing white as even his cheekbone lost its rigid composition.
"Yes, yes! Even with the parts that he absorbed, the poison Shinobu had in her body is starting to attack him finally!" Kanao thought when she noticed Dōma fall, Inosuke and Tanjirō quickly seeing this too.
"Shinobu...even when you're down, you're still helping us…! You're amazing!" Tanjirō thought with a confident smile before he grabbed the two clones harassing him and smashed them to pieces with just his bare fists. He then signaled to Kanao and Inosuke, going over to help them out with their ice clones so that they could get to their enemy faster.
"Kanao, just how much poison did Shinobu ingest before being sent in here?" he asked once he joined her, Kanao biting her lip and looking away momentarily as the clones regrouped.
"Honestly, Tanjirō...she told me she had stopped for a time after you asked her to, but...she ended up doing it again later on. She wanted to apologize to you first thing after this whole ordeal…"
"Kanao...how much? That doesn't matter to me, I just want to know."
"The original goal was thirty seven kilograms, seventy times the lethal amount of wisteria poison that could kill a poison...when she and I talked during training, she admitted that the concentration in her body had been raised to 50 kilograms."
Tanjirō's brow furrowed a bit at the reveal, and he felt a little bit hurt that Shinobu would keep such a thing from him. But at that moment in time that hardly did anything to him. Her doing that might have just given them the edge they needed to finally kill Dōma once and for all.
When he had found her upon his explosive entrance, Dōma had already absorbed a fair portion of her body. With that matter mixed in with his along with the highly concentrated wisteria flower poison within it, it was bound to severely weaken their enemy.
This was proven true when Dōma's right arm separated in two, the bones themselves turning to mush from the intensity of the poison coursing through him. As a result of losing focus while his body suffered the effects, his last two remaining ice clones shattered and faded to nothing, freeing Inosuke, Tanjirō and Kanao to finally go after him.
"My bones...they're melting…! It's that girl's poison...from what I was able to absorb! I have to regenerate, to heal!" he frantically thought, his efforts only causing his rotting blood and flesh to bubble and continue to degrade.
"Go, go! Press him all at once! Shinobu's poison has given us the opening we need!" Tanjirō shouted, the three slayers all running towards Dōma from the other end of the grand hall so that they could finally finish him off for good.
Dōma heard their footsteps and even with half his body turned to a messy slush of blood and poison, he used his one remaining arm to muster all of his strength into one final Blood Demon Technique.
"Kekkijutsu...Muhyō - Suiren Bosatsu." he uttered with a gurgle, the floor upending itself below him as an absolute titan of ice formed from the water, taking on the shape of a monumental Bodhisattva ice statue that separated its hands and immediately began to attack them.
The bridge they were running on was destroyed by the statue's fist, sending the three of them flying into the air with a spray of water and wooden shrapnel. Tanjirō tried to right himself in the air and press the attack again, but he was quickly discouraged when a huge cloud of super-frigid ice was created from the statue to act as a barrier between them and it.
All the while Dōma was on top of an ice flower that generated from its shoulder, still suffering from the wisteria poison but slowly beginning to recover from it. They had to move fast if they were to end this fight, and it was that feeling that made Kanao decide it was now or never.
"This technique...it's of desperation. A last-ditch effort...even if it does happen to me, I still have to try!" Kanao thought before she focused all of her focus and energy right into her skull, the pain around her eyes dramatically increasing before she opened them wide, revealing their deep red color and the veins bulging around them. "Hana no kokyū, Tsui no kata: Higan Shugan!"
As her kinetic vision was raised to the utmost upper levels of what was possible for someone like her, time around her really did seem to slow down as she perceived everything occurring in real time as if it were in slow motion. Even while knowing that her eyes were in danger of permanent damage, she took that risk without second thought and ran forward.
She opened up a path for herself by slicing through the right arm of the statue, leaping all the way up to the flower Dōma was laid out on with her killer instinct at its maximum. Her blade struck true and it pierced the side of his rotting neck, but even with the poison it still didn't fully go through. She grunted, trying to push it through, but she felt an intense cold when Dōma made the statue turn its head and start to blow on her with his lethal wind.
"Hraaaaaah!" shouted Inosuke from the statue's left hand, his body aching and hurting from being grabbed and squeezed within an inch of his life by the ice construct. Rearing back with both arms he aimed at Kanao's sword and threw them with all his strength. "Take this, you bastaaard!"
Dōma coughed when Inosuke's swords struck Kanao's, pushing it deeper through his neck past the halfway point. But with her arms becoming more rigid from the freezing air, she couldn't hope to finish him off herself.
"Hinokami Kagura: Yōkatotsu!"
The cold embrace of the statue's freezing breath instantly vanished when Tanjirō plunged his flaming blade right into the side of the head, obliterating it in an explosion of fire and ice shards.
Tanjirō yelled at her to finish him off once that issue was removed, the flames he created melting her free from the frost that had formed on her body, allowing her to firmly plant her feet right into Dōma's chest without fear and yank her sword harshly through the rest of his neck.
A sharp gurgle escaped his puffy, rotten lips when his head was sent flying off towards the right, trailing rotten purple blood as it did while Kanao fell away from his body and down towards the ground. As the both of them fell, Dōma looked at her with a befuddled expression that broke through his disfigured face while it disintegrated. He had actually been decapitated by her, even when he was so sure they couldn't reach him.
"To think...that I'd get beaten in the end by a nobody with no proper swordsmanship...a poisoner who wasn't even strong enough to cut my head off herself…" he thought when Kanao was then rescued by Tanjirō while his beautiful ice statue crumbled to pieces all around him
His half-decomposed head bounced once off a bridge before coming to rest, his headless body smacking into the ground close by with a loud, wet splat. There was no way he was going to be able to regenerate his body, but despite that, he wasn't afraid. He wasn't even frustrated.
Dōma's father had been a lecher who dallied all the time with female cult followers one after another, until he was discovered by his wife and stabbed to death. Even when she then killed herself with poison after that brutal act, Dōma only wished that they hadn't messed up the room with their blood. That was before he became a demon, so he couldn't stand the smell. Since becoming a demon in Muzan's service at age twenty, he's lived for over a hundred years, but it all felt the same to him in the end.
Human emotions were nothing to him, just like the existence of a God or Buddha. They were dreams, mere fabrications.
"Oh well...I guess this where this life comes to an end...see you guys all really soon…maybe then, I'll have a better chance...haha..."
Tanjirō, Kanao and Inosuke watched as Dōma's head and body finally decomposed and went away, leaving practically nothing behind that gave any evidence of his existence. Once he was gone Kanao collapsed to her knees, her loose hair falling around her face as she put her hands on the ground and looked straight down.
Inosuke fell down onto his rear as well from exhaustion and started to process what had happened earlier again, thinking about the new memories he had regained of him and his mother. Something Tanjirō had said to him at one point during training when talking about parents came back and, in another second, Inosuke started to cry and mourn his mother.
"We...we did it...we beat it…" uttered Kanao with slow breaths, Tanjirō kneeling down next to her and placing a soft hand on her back.
"You were amazing, Kanao...a tad bit scary earlier, but really amazing nonetheless. If Kanae were here, she'd be proud of what you've become."
Kanao sniffled and leaned back in order to sit on her legs, looking at Tanjirō and surprising him with the blood dripping from her eyes. Using the Flower Breathing's final form had caused such severe strain on her eyes, that she was lucky enough to still be able to see out of her left eye.
Her right eye, on the other hand, had gained a defined pupil with a dark ring around it and lost the gradient of her other eye. She could barely see out of it, but it was because she had used her sister's technique that they were able to win.
"I think this also belongs to you too…?" Tanjirō asked softly as brought up Kanao's broken hairpin, the same that she had gotten from Shinobu. It had belonged to her older sister Kanae before she died, and when she saw one of its wingtips broken, she clutched it close to her chest for a few moments. "This was Kanae's hairpin, right? I'm sorry that it got broken, Kanao...maybe when we get back, we can-omph!"
Tanjirō was cut off by Kanao suddenly throwing herself around him in a deep hug, surprising him at first. A couple of seconds later, he smiled and put his arms around her in return, giving back her hug and allowing her to rest against him. When that happened, Kanao let out the smallest of whimpers before she started to cry on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry Kanae, I'm sorry…I'm sorry I couldn't cry for you...no one criticized me, but still...I'm sorry…" she thought out of sadness while hugging Tanjirō, the warmth and compassion he radiated digging past her exterior to reach her heart and full free it from the shackles that had been put upon her by her past. "I did it properly this time though, right? Did I do well? I valued my comrades like you said...and they helped me. It would've been impossible alone, but...they came and helped me...my precious friends…"
A soft, warm hand placed itself on top of her head and she gasped a tiny bit when in her exhaustion, it appeared as though Kanae herself was standing right there next to them. She was smiling proudly at her, as if to say "You did well, Kanao".
That alone made her let out another whimper and she began to cry even harder, her hand digging into Tanjirō's haori more. Inosuke heard her wails and he turned his head, sniffing up some snot and wiping his eyes a little before standing up and shuffling over to them. He had a soft look on his face and he and Kanao looked at one another for a few moments, before he smiled too and crouched down next to them, putting his hand on Tanjirō's opposite shoulder.
For a few moments they remained like that, taking in the relief and letting out all of the emotions of the fearsome battle they had just waged. It was only after Kanao had finally stopped crying that they stood up and looked to Tanjirō's blood barrier. They all hoped for the best as they waded through the water over to it, since the main bridge had been destroyed by Dōma's ice statue. Once they were right in front of its dark red face Tanjirō held up a hand to make it all come down and destabilize, not knowing what could be waiting for them on the other side.
"So you were all able to do it, huh…" spoke a soft and gentle voice as the barrier came down, Kanao and Inosuke's eyes widened when they came face to face with the figure standing just on the other side.
"Yeah, but the one who cut his head off was Kanao...she did her best, and pulled out on top." Tanjirō replied as he smiled softly when his eyes met that of Shinobu's, the joy in his heart multiplying tenfold.
His blood had done exactly what he had hoped it would when he gave it to her. While they had been fighting Dōma, away from prying eyes, his blood had done the impossible. Shinobu's wounds had healed, and with her new blood she had brought her sister's precious haori back to its full glory, making it truly a part of herself like she had always believed it was. Her black hair had gained a few more purple streaks in it aside from what was in her bangs, and coming out from the top of her hair were a pair of small, thin horns that ended in a rounded point, almost like they were antennae. Like Tanjirō's eyes before they were changed by Muzan, she had gained slit pupils like those of a cat, the pupils themselves colored white to contrast her usual purple eyes. Light purple wisp-like markings were now on her cheeks as well, with two dots under both of her eyes near the corners, as well as a slight point in her ears.
A human she was no more. Thanks to Tanjirō's blood, not only did she fully recover from the brink of death, but she had been transformed into a demon in the exact same way that Muzan would have done to a human, just without the horrible side effects he would force upon them like the desire to devour human flesh. She smiled sweetly at them, her canines and the two teeth on either side of each now fangs, leaving Kanao and Inosuke speechless.
Leaving them to process this new revelation, Tanjirō closed the distance between them with but a step, bringing him to within a foot of the person he cared about as much as his dear sister Nezuko. She silently adjusted his haori a little as if he were her husband, before looking up softly into his eyes for a moment, only to move them away again.
"You...must be angry with me, right? I threw aside your trust and kept injecting wisteria into my system, even when I promised you I-" Shinobu started before she found herself squished tightly against his chest, Tanjirō's arms coming together around her petite frame, hands clasped together.
"I don't care...you're alive, and that's what matters. I thought I was going to lose you…" said Tanjirō softly with his eyes closed, Shinobu's eyes watering up a little before she gently put her arms around his waist. "Your poison let us beat Dōma...you weakened him...and Kanao finished him off…"
"So...he's gone…? That demon is dead…?"
"Yes, Sensei...we all watched him perish…"
Kanao came up next to them after coming to terms with Shinobu's transformation, a small smile on her face before she added herself to the embrace. Tanjirō gladly brought her in as well, and the three of them all hugged one another in joy.
"Don't go dying on us again, okay? That'd be...really bad…" muttered Inosuke while trying to not make eye contact with Shinobu, the Insect Hashira giggling softly at him before she brought a hand up to him, pink extended.
"I won't, Inosuke-kun...it's a pinky promise…~" she said softly, Inosuke blinking a few times before he allowed himself to smile a little and met Shinobu's pinky with his own.
"Yeah...pinky promise."
After that Shinobu brought her hand back to Tanjirō's waist so she could keep hugging him with Kanao, the three of them and Inosuke staying like that among the scene of what could have been a terrible disaster. It never came to be, thankfully, and for that all of them were beyond relieved.
Shinobu's, and by extension Kanao's and Tanjirō's, promise to Kanae was finally fulfilled. The anger, the sorrow, the pain, it was now more. With Dōma's death, they were finally free. Kanae was finally free.
A/N DONT WORRY BOYS, PAPA GOT YOUR BACKS. She back now, good as new! Maybe even better now, haha! MAN it felt great to write this chapter, I practically started writing as soon as I woke up because I wanted to get this out to you guys ASAP, especially after the doozy of a chapter that came before it. Word to the wise though, when reading the manga, do NOT listen to Burying the Dead from Clone Wars S7 while reading the part with Shinobu, because I couldn't see my screen through all the rain. ;-;
Not really much else to say with this one other than I hope you enjoyed it! Drop a fav or follow if you haven't already, and also give me a review telling me your thoughts especially with this chapter!
Hope you guys are excited for what comes next, because I think we ALL know what's gonna be happening next. The rematch of the century. Ultimate Strength vs Ultimate Spirit. LESGOOOOOOO.
Translation(s):
Kaminari no kokyū, Roku no Kata: Dengō Raigō
- Lightning Breathing, Sixth Form: Electric Lightning Shower
Kaminari no kokyū, Shichi no Kata: Honoikadzuchi no Kami
- Lightning Breathing, Seventh Form: Flaming Thunder God
Kekkijutsu - Testuchi Shōheki
- Blood Demon Art - Iron Blood Barrier
Hana no kokyū, Go no kata: Ada no Shakuyaku
- Flower Breathing, Fifth Form: Peony of Futility
Kekkijutsu - Karesono Shizuri
- Blood Demon Art - Snowfall in a Wilted Garden
Tsuki no kokyū, San no kata: Enkidzuki - Tsugari
- Moon Breathing, Third Form: Loathsome Moon - Chains
Kekkijutsu - Muhyō - Suiren Bosatsu
- Blood Demon Art - Rime - Water Lily Bodhisattva
Hana no kokyū, Tsui no kata: Higan Shugan
- Flower Breathing, Final Form: Equinoctial Vermilion Eye
Hinokami Kagura: Yōkatotsu
- Dance of the Fire God: Sunflower Lance