Meiji 44, August 15
Nishitama-gun, Hinohara-mura
Over four years before the Kisatsu-tai's final battle against Kibutsuji Muzan and his Jōgen no Kizuki, a fourteen-year-old Kochō Shinobu was sitting on her knees in the northeastern part of Hinohara-mura, beads of sweat on her forehead and tears falling from her large, compound-like eyes as she held a dying Kanae in her arms. The seventeen-year-old Hanabashira's Nichirin Katana lay broken next to her and there was blood dribbling down her chin.
"Shinobu..." Kochō Kanae said weakly, putting a hand on her younger sister's cheek. "Please, leave the Kisatsu-tai. You're trying really hard... But perhaps you..."
"..." The Hanabashira paused, considering her next words before continuing to speak. "I want you to be happy, like a normal girl...and live until you become an old woman. You've already done enough."
"No!" Shinobu protested, taking her older sister's hand in her own and lowering it, a mixture of sadness and anger filling the fourteen-year-old's face. "There's no way I can quit! I must avenge you! Tell me! What kind of oni was it? Who defeated you?!"
Kanae didn't respond, a look of deep sorrow forming on her face as she stared up at Shinobu.
"Tell me, Kanae!" Shinobu cried desperately. "Please! After all this, there's no way I can live a normal life! Kanae!"
"..." The Hanabashira closed her eyes as tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
滅
Taishō 5, January 2
Infinity Castle
"It was an oni..."Eighteen-year-old Kochō Shinobu recalled her older sister telling her, standing in the open doorway of a particular room in the Infinity Castle, a mixture of disgust, recognition and shock on her face as she stared at the rainbow-eyed oni sitting on a wooden bridge amongst the bodies of at least a dozen girls."...who looked like blood had been dumped over his head."
"Hi there!" Jōgen no Ni said with a grin, blood staining his chin. He briefly removed his black crown to reveal that there indeed appeared to be blood dumped over his pale-gray hair. "My name isDōma.Nice night, huh?"
The Mushibashira's large, compound-like eyes widened and her brow furrowed.
"He's grinning and laughing..."Kanae had said."...and speaks calmly and directly."
"H... Hel... Help..." One of the girls murmured, crawling away from the others to reveal that she was still alive. She looked up at Shinobu and reached out for the Kisatsu, tears spilling from her golden-brown eyes as a look of terror filled her face. "Help me!"
"Shhh!" Dōma told the terrified girl, holding a finger against his lips as he looked down at her.
"I'mtalking,right?"
HWOOSH
Two things happened simultaneously. Jōgen no Ni flicked open a golden tessen and swung it at the golden-brown-eyed girl, releasing a spray of ice shards, while Shinobu bolted into the room with immense speed and scooped up the oni's would-be-victim. The Mushibashira landed on a nearby bridge with the terrified girl in her arms, leaving behind a seemingly confused Dōma.
"Are you okay?" Shinobu asked the golden-brown-eyed girl.
"Wow!" Dōma exclaimed with surprise as he turned his attention to the Mushibashira. "You're fast! Are you a Hashira?"
"Gasp... Gasp..." The terrified girl stared up at Shinobu in shock, beads of sweat dripping down her face. But before she could respond, there was the flash of a deep-blue blade and a golden fan as Tomioka Giyū suddenly appeared behind the Mushibashira with his back turned. Jōgen no Ni, meanwhile, was standing on another bridge with his back turned to the humans. His right arm had been sliced off at the elbow and his severed forearm was crumbling away into nothing in the water while one of the tessen that he had been wielding burst into a puff of blood-red mist.
"Oh!" Dōma exclaimed as he turned around to face Giyū with a look of surprise. "I can't believe I didn't notice you until now! It's like you had faded into the background... But you're really fast as well! Are the both of you Hashira?"
The Mizubashira didn't respond as he held his Nichirin Katana out in front of himself. There was a cut along his upper arm left from Jōgen no Ni's tessen and blood was beginning to trickle down the sleeve of his two-toned haori, but the wound wasn't deep enough to cause him any trouble.
"What's your name?" Shinobu asked the golden-brown-eyed girl as she gently set her down.
"H-Hanabi..."
"Hanabi? That's a really pretty name," the Mushibashira remarked with a kind smile. "My name is Kochō Shinobu. The man right behind me is Tomioka Giyū. We're Kisatsu. Go find someone with a uniform like ours, and they'll help you. Okay?"
Hanabi nodded and shakily got back up to her feet. Without looking back, the terrified girl broke into a run, sprinting for the open doorway and escaping out into the hall. Dōma watched her go with a seemingly disappointed expression, but fortunately he decided to not give chase.
"I'll let her go for now..." Jōgen no Ni sighed, returning his attention to the Kisatsu as Shinobu got up to her feet and turned to face the gray-haired oni. Dōma's right forearm regrew with a closed tessen clutched in his right hand that he opened with a flick of his wrist. "But after I'm done with the two of you, I'll go track her down and make a proper meal of her."
"The weapon...that oni uses...is a pair...of tessen,"the Mushibashira recalled her older sister telling her, tensing up again as everything fell into place and she came to a realization.
"Kochō...?" Giyū asked, noticing Shinobu's demeanor while keeping his attention on the oni.
"This is the oni...who killed my older sister," the Mushibashira replied.
"I see."
"I am the founder of theEternal Paradise Faith,"Jōgen no Ni informed the Kisatsu as he raised his left arm out to the side and swiftly brought it down, flicking open his other tessen. "My role is to be happy with all of the faithful. I will devour her thoroughly and let nothing go to waste."
"Everyone's happiness?" Shinobu asked. "Ridiculous! She didn't like it and pleaded for help!"
"So I tried to help her, right?" Dōma asked in return, glancing at the Mizubashira. "If you had just let me do so, then she would no longer be in pain. Nor would she be suffering. And nor would she be afraid. Everyone fears death. That's why Ieatthem. They live on with me forever. I firmly take the believers' feelings...blood...and flesh...and save them, leading them higher."
"You're insane," the Mushibashira spat with a mixture of contempt and disgust. "Is your head all right? You really make me sick."
"Huuuh?" Jōgen no Ni asked, seeming to be confused by Shinobu's anger. "We've never even met but you're really prickly. Oh...I get it. Poor you. Something painful must've happened to you. But I'll listen. You can tell me."
"What do you mean 'painful?!'" The enraged Mushibashira demanded, furrowing her brow and gritting her teeth as she glared at Dōma and tightly gripped the left side of her butterfly-patterned haori. "You killed my older sister! Do you remember seeing this haori?"
"Hm?" Jōgen no Ni stared at Shinobu as two images came to mind, one of Kanae facing him on a darkened road in Hinohara-mura with her light-pink Nichirin-tō drawn and then one of the young woman with a spray of blood behind her. "Oh! The girl who was using Flower Breathing? She was kind and cute. I couldn't finish eating her because the sun came up. I remember. I really did want to finish..."
Filled with a fiery rage, the Mushibashira lunged across the water at Dōma with almost blinding speed, drawing her Stinger Nichirin Katana and driving it through the gray-haired oni's left eye.
"...her."
SHAK
Caught off guard, Jōgen no Ni tried to raise his left hand to block the Mushibashira's attack, but she was too fast for him. The needle-like blade plunged into his eye and went through his head.
Insect Breathing, Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter!
"Whoops!" Dōma exclaimed as blood spurted from his injured left eye. "An amazing thrust! I couldn't stop it with my hand."
Blood Demon Art, Frozen Lotus!
Jōgen no Ni suddenly lunged forward and slashed at Shinobu with one of his tessen, spraying a volley of ice shards at the Mushibashira as lotus flowers made from ice grew all around him and bloomed, forcing Shinobu to backflip out of the way. As the Mushibashira landed on the bridge, Giyū stepped forward before ceasing all movement and entering a state of complete tranquility.
Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Dead Calm.
Then, much to Dōma's surprise, the shards of ice that he had flung at the Hashira with his tessen shattered into thousands of tiny glittering pieces as they seemed to strike an invisible shield.
"Well, well...I've never seen such a technique used by a swordsman before," the oni remarked as his injured left eye healed within seconds. "It was incredible! I didn't see youoryour katana move at all, but you completely blocked my attack! How were you able to do that?"
The Mizubashira narrowed his dark-blue eyes and took a deep breath as he charged at the oni.
Water Breathing, Fourth Form...Giyū swung his deep-blue Nichirin-tō at Dōma's head, only for Jōgen no Ni to block with one tessen and slice at the Mizubashira's unguarded abdomen with the other. However, Giyū pushed back against Dōma and twisted out of the way of the second tessen as he sliced through both of Jōgen no Ni's wrists and knocked him off balance...Striking Tide!
Insect Breathing...Shinobu resheathed her Stinger Nichirin Katana and took a deep breath before charging and leaping at Dōma, unsheathing her weapon and stinging him in the head, neck, chest and abdomen before landing behind the rainbow-eyed oni...Dance of the Butterfly: Caprice!
The force of the attack knocked Jōgen no Ni off of the bridge and he fell on his butt in the water, but when Dōma tried to get back up to his feet, a pang shot through him and his rainbow-colored eyes widened as dark-purple rashes began to form on the gray-haired oni's face and neck.
Insect Breathing...The Mushibashira sheathed her Stinger Nichirin Katana again and blitzed the rainbow-eyed oni from behind as she unsheathed her lavender-blue Nichirin-tō, striking Jōgen no Ni six times, once in the head, once in the neck and four times across his back. Then, she flipped over Dōma and landed next to Giyū...Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon!
"Gah!" Jōgen no Ni exclaimed as he fell to his hands and knees, vomiting blood. Then, he raised a newly-regrown hand to his face. "This is...stronger than the poison used on Rui's mountain."
Water Breathing, First Form...The Mizubashira charged at Jōgen no Ni and swung his katana at the gray-haired oni's head. However, Dōma shot up his left hand and blocked Giyū's Nichirin-tō with his tessen. Gritting his teeth, the Mizubashira pressed down on the rainbow-eyed oni, trying to overpower him. Unfortunately for Giyū, what ended up happening was the exact opposite.
"Get out of here," Jōgen no Ni coldly told the Mizubashira, lowering his right hand from his face and pulling his tessen back a little before shoving Giyū with enough strength to send him flying.
"Tomioka-san!" Shinobu cried out as the Mizubashira crashed into the wall.
"Now it's just the two of us," Dōma remarked with a grin as he got back up to his feet and turned to face the Mushibashira, his chin dripping with his own blood. Some of the veins around his left eye were bulging and its sclera had become red. "Oh, and it seems that I was able to break down the poison! I must apologize, especially since you were kind enough to use it on me!"
A look of shock formed on Shinobu's face as she began to feel disheartened. The fight had been going in her and Giyū's favor, but then Jōgen no Ni had thrown him into the wall and he hadn't gotten back up yet. And now it seemed that her poison wasn't going to work on Dōma at all.
"That katana..." Jōgen no Ni said, pointing at the Mushibashira's weapon. "When you sheathe it, the sound is peculiar. Is that where the compound changes?"
Dōma closed his eyes and clapped his hands together, holding a closed tessen between them.
"Well! This is fun!" He exclaimed. "Getting poisoned is interesting! I could make a habit of it! Do you think the next compound will work? Let's try!"
SHING
"All right, good idea," Shinobu agreed, twirling her katana and pointing its needle-like tip at the -san, please be all right..."After all... I've anticipated everything so far!"