Chapter 17
"Show you... the Hinokami Kagura?" Tanjiro froze for a moment, but once he understood, his gaze turned firm.
"I understand. I’ll demonstrate it for you right now, Kiriya-san."
With that, he drew his Nichirin sword and walked to the open space in front of the house.
Whether it was Zenitsu or Inosuke, both of them were extremely interested in this legendary strongest Breathing Style.
They sat up perfectly straight, hands on their knees, holding their breath as they watched Tanjiro’s every move.
Only Nezuko tilted her little head and stared at the scene, as if she still had not quite understood what was going on.
"I’m starting."
Tanjiro took a deep breath, then began demonstrating the Hinokami Kagura passed down through his family.
"First Form, Dance."
"Second Form, Clear Blue Sky."
"Third Form, Raging Sun."
"Fourth Form, Fake Rainbow."
"Fifth Form, Fire Wheel."
"Sixth Form, Burning Bones, Summer Sun."
"Seventh Form, Sunflower Thrust."
"Eighth Form, Solar Heat Haze."
"Ninth Form, Setting Sun Transformation."
"Tenth Form, Beneficent Radiance."
"Eleventh Form, Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance."
"Twelfth Form, Flame Dance."
Every movement of the Hinokami Kagura in Tanjiro’s memory was displayed one after another.
While everyone watched in a trance, Kiriya had already activated his Sharingan, copying every motion completely.
Once the full sequence was finished, Inosuke and Zenitsu stared blankly ahead, both of them slightly dazed.
"This is the strongest Breathing Style?" Inosuke turned his head toward Kiriya, but his finger pointed at Tanjiro. "The strongest Breathing Style is just that?"
"Yeah. Rather than a swordsman’s technique, doesn’t it look more like a dance?" Zenitsu immediately hit the key point.
"Yes. When my father passed it on to me, he said clearly that it was a dance offered to the fire god," Tanjiro said, also a little confused.
He had not felt anything especially strange about it either.
"The key is the breathing." Kiriya smiled and pointed at his temple, reminding Tanjiro, "Kid, Breathing has a method to it. A way of breathing that lets you keep moving without growing tired."
"Breathing?"
Tanjiro’s eyes widened as if he had been struck over the head, and he unconsciously murmured the word.
"That’s right. As long as you can breathe correctly, Tanjiro, you’ll be able to keep dancing forever. The cold won’t stop you. Exhaustion won’t stop you either."
At that moment, Kiriya’s voice became extremely gentle, like a kindly old father patiently guiding a child.
Tanjiro stared blankly into the distance, as though he had fallen into a flashback.
Seeing this, the corner of Kiriya’s mouth lifted slightly.
"Clang—"
His Nichirin sword left its sheath, and Kiriya rushed straight toward Tanjiro with the blade in hand.
After learning Thunderclap and Flash, his speed at this moment was as swift as lightning.
"Wai—"
Zenitsu’s face changed dramatically, and the sudden turn of events completely threw him off.
Weren’t they friends?
Why had they suddenly started trying to kill each other?
Inosuke’s hair stood on end as well, because his beast-like instincts had just sensed a bone-chilling coldness—a murderous aura so intense it felt almost tangible.
And yet, faced with that thrust aimed directly at his vital point, Tanjiro stood frozen in place as if he had gone stupid.
’Dodge, you idiot!’ ×2
Inosuke and Zenitsu both roared inwardly, but their bodies had already rushed forward.
One meter...
Half a meter...
Ten centimeters...
Just as Tanjiro was about to have his heart pierced, Inosuke and Zenitsu felt their own hearts leap into their throats.
"Dance!"
All at once, Tanjiro moved.
He swung his Nichirin sword and unleashed a slash brighter than anything he had ever shown before.
In that instant, Inosuke and Zenitsu seemed to see the sun rising over the horizon.
"So bright!"
"Clang!"
The two blades touched lightly.
Kiriya changed his move in time and dispersed the force, otherwise, with Tanjiro’s sword momentum in this world, he might have cut straight through the Nichirin sword in Kiriya’s hand.
After that, the two of them fell into a fierce exchange.
Clear Blue Sky, Raging Sun... the Hinokami Kagura was displayed by Tanjiro once more, form after form.
Only this time, it was completely different from the soft, dance-like movements from before.
Now the sword techniques had become sharp and ferocious, blazing and explosive, like a blazing sun pouring out light and heat with reckless intensity, as if it meant to burn everything away.
"Amazing."
Inosuke and Zenitsu were both stunned.
At this moment, Tanjiro looked like a completely different person.
His movements had improved by several levels.
If his earlier demonstration had been like an old ox slowly plodding forward, then now he was a thousand-mile horse galloping like the wind!
Thankfully, the one fighting him was Kiriya.
If either of them had gone up instead, they would probably have been defeated within a few exchanges.
"Damn it, was this guy always this strong?" Inosuke clenched his fists, feeling a sense of danger unlike anything he had ever felt before.
Lord Inosuke had never lived his life falling behind anyone!
How could he let that guy leave him in the dust?
’No. I have to train harder. I need more training, more fights, way more fights.’
Inosuke secretly made up his mind.
As for Zenitsu, his thoughts were much simpler.
’My future brother-in-law is that strong? Doesn’t that mean I’ve got another powerful wall to hide too?’
That was about the full extent of his ambition.
The fight did not last very long.
After Tanjiro barely managed to perform five forms, he was already so exhausted that he crouched on the ground, panting heavily.
"S-Sorry, Kiriya-san... I... I can only... do this much..."
Tanjiro’s chest heaved like a bellows, and sweat the size of beans rolled down his face.
It was easy to imagine just how much strain those movements had placed on his body.
"No, you’ve already done very well," Kiriya said.
That was not just empty comfort. It was the truth.
Why had Sun Breathing never spread widely? Because its power was far too overwhelming.
Ordinary people simply could not withstand that force, which was why they had no choice but to settle for derivative Breathing Styles and develop various offshoot schools instead.
Tanjiro was a rookie who had only just left the beginner stage, yet he could already perform these few forms.
That was already beyond Kiriya’s expectations.
"Rest for a bit. We’ll continue later."
"Yes!"
Tanjiro agreed without hesitation.
After all, he was carrying a blood feud on his shoulders, and not a moment went by where he was not thinking about how to become stronger.
Now that the opportunity was right in front of him, he naturally had to seize it with both hands.
And so, Tanjiro would rest for a while, then demonstrate the Hinokami Kagura again.
Kiriya used the Sharingan to copy all of the movements and the principles behind the breathing, and before long, he had perfectly mastered the Breathing Style.
In fact, because his physical ability far surpassed Tanjiro’s, the smoothness and completeness of his movements left Tanjiro dumbfounded.
So much so that before long, Tanjiro went from being the teacher to the student, obediently listening to Kiriya’s guidance.
Naturally, Kiriya did not hold back with his advice either, treating it as repayment for Tanjiro’s generosity.
During this process, Inosuke, who had been watching from the side, also grew restless.
With both swords in hand, he joined the fight as well, honing his own combat skills.
...
Just like that, two days quietly passed.
Early that morning, after a night’s rest, the group was full of energy.
Not long after they had lunch, they heard the piercing cry of a Kasugai Crow in the sky.
"Run, run! Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, start running!"
"All three of you are to go to Natagumo Mountain. All three of you, go to Natagumo Mountain!"
Hearing that there was a new mission, Tanjiro and Inosuke both perked up.
"Uwahahaha! Finally, a new mission!" Inosuke planted his hands on his waist. "Lord Inosuke’s Nichirin swords have been starving for action. Damn demons, are you ready to take Lord Inosuke’s slashes head-on? Beast charge!"
With that, he charged off in the direction of Natagumo Mountain.
"Is that guy an idiot?" Zenitsu muttered.
Then, together with Tanjiro and Kiriya, he said goodbye to the three siblings before setting off on the new journey.
Everyone was in perfect condition, so naturally, they moved quickly.
Before sunset, they had arrived at their destination, Natagumo Mountain.
Looking at the mountain forest shrouded in darkness, an eerie, terrifying feeling rose in their hearts.
Zenitsu’s legs had already started trembling like they were playing music on their own.
"Um, I..."
He had only just opened his mouth when Kiriya turned toward him with an extremely "kind and friendly" look—friendly in the way a nuclear blast was warm.
"You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. But are you really okay with that? The three of us are going inside, and you’ll be left here alone."
"Eek—"
The moment Zenitsu imagined that horrifying scene, he immediately shut his mouth.
Tanjiro smiled, but the smile was a little strained. Because just now, he had smelled something unusual.
Savage and sinister, a scent that made every muscle in his body tremble.
A powerful enemy, no doubt about it.
This was a demon stronger than any they had faced before.
If this had been before, he might have hesitated. He might have wavered.
But now...
"I’m different now."
Very quickly, Tanjiro’s gaze became firm.
He had grown stronger, and he had a powerful companion like Kiriya-san with him.
There was nothing to fear!
The group continued forward, but their speed dropped by more than just a little. It was not for any complicated reason—the spiderwebs here were far too dense.
Everyone ended up dusty and annoyed, and their mood naturally worsened.
"So damn annoying! There are way too many spiders here!" Inosuke was starting to lose his temper.
Suddenly, he heard movement constantly approaching, and his ears twitched.
"Footsteps! Someone’s coming!"
Even without his reminder, the others had also noticed someone approaching.
They turned toward the sound and saw several swordsmen wearing Demon Slayer Corps uniforms staggering toward them.
"Ah, they’re Demon Slayer Corps comrades."
Tanjiro’s face had just begun to brighten with a smile, only for it to freeze.
Inosuke and Zenitsu reacted the same way.
Because those Demon Slayers’ eyes were empty, and their movements were stiff and mechanical.
They looked exactly like puppets on strings!
What made their hearts sink even more was that these people had both hands gripping their sword hilts, their sharp blades pointed directly at them—their own comrades.
"Why... are they attacking us?" Zenitsu said in disbelief, shrinking back. "Aren’t we supposed to be on the same side?"
"Their movements are strange. It’s like they’re being controlled by something," Tanjiro said, noticing the abnormality.
These people’s movements did not fit the structure of a human body at all. Many of their joints had been twisted backward.
"Exactly."
Faced with one Corps member’s slash, Kiriya directly caught the blade with his bare hands, then casually cut the spider thread connected to the man’s back.
Although the threads were extremely fine, under the Sharingan, there was nowhere for them to hide.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss—"
Seeing this, Tanjiro and Inosuke copied him. Before long, they had cut all the threads attached to the backs of those Corps members.
With no one controlling them anymore, the people all collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
"Phew, finally handled it."
Zenitsu let out a breath of relief.
Fighting against fellow Demon Slayers was something he truly did not want to do.
But that brief sense of ease did not last long. Soon, a dense rustling sound came from all around them.
They looked down and, by the moonlight, saw many white spiders closing in from every direction.
Once the spiders climbed onto the Demon Slayers’ bodies, the Corps members who had been lying face-down began moving again and attacked them once more.
"This will never end at this rate."
They realized that if they did not deal with the one controlling everything from behind the scenes, cutting the threads again and again would be meaningless.
"Not necessarily."
Kiriya smiled faintly.
His strikes were as fast as lightning. After cutting the threads, he used Forest of All Things, wrapping each Demon Slayer Corps member in hard strips of wood.
He left only a tiny gap for them to breathe through, while making sure the spiders could not crawl inside.
"Amazing!"
"As expected of Kiriya-san. He always has a solution!"
Just as the group was getting excited, Zenitsu felt spiders landing on his body and immediately screamed.
"Hey, hey, hey! This thing is trying to control me!"
"This bastard still dares to use the same trick?" Inosuke said furiously. "Watch me drag you out!"
With that, he stabbed both blades into the ground, dropped to one knee, and held both hands out flat.
"Beast Breathing, Seventh Form: Spatial Awareness."
In an instant, an image inside his mind began to expand.
It was a three-dimensional map centered around him, with sound feeding information back into his brain and allowing him to detect unusual presences.
"Found you! Long-haired bear-woman demon!"
Inosuke was so excited that he almost roared.
Just as he was about to charge over, he sensed another figure rushing toward the female demon.
That figure, those movements—why did they look so familiar?
"Ah, that one? It’s probably Kiriya-san," Tanjiro said.
"When did he leave?" Inosuke’s eyes widened, and hot steam began blasting from his nostrils again.
"Right when you activated your Seventh Form," Tanjiro said.
"He got ahead of me again!"
Inosuke felt a little wounded.
If this kept up, wouldn’t he end up being completely useless?
"Let’s look for the other Corps members first," Zenitsu suggested. "What if some of them are still alive?"
To him, it was perfect if Kiriya went off to handle the powerful demons.
That meant they did not have to charge into the most dangerous fight themselves.
Winning while lying down sounded wonderful!
The suggestion was exactly what Tanjiro wanted as well.
There was no need to worry about Kiriya’s side; rescuing their fellow Demon Slayers was the more urgent matter.
Once they made up their minds, they immediately got moving.
...
Meanwhile, Kiriya’s figure flashed through the forest like he was flying.
Before long, he arrived at a clearing among the trees.
At the center of the clearing, on top of a round boulder, sat a female demon with long hair.
Her hair was pale, her skin was pale, and only the bridge of her nose and the sides of her mouth were marked with several red dots.
This female demon clearly had not expected Kiriya to arrive so quickly. Her entire body was thrown into panic.
"Those people are here? No, I have to think of something. Otherwise, Rui... Rui won’t forgive me."
Under the heavy pressure of danger, she used the strongest puppet she had kept hidden.
"Whoosh—"
A tall figure charged out.
It had no head, only a torso and four limbs.
Both of its arms had been transformed into blades, and it swung them down toward Kiriya.
"So this is your last struggle? How pitiful."
Kiriya thought this as the Nichirin sword in his hand had already swung out.
"Hinokami Kagura, First Form: Dance."
The blade slid cleanly through the large demon, cutting through it as easily as slicing butter.
Then Kiriya twisted his waist and followed through with a horizontal slash, sending the female demon’s head flying into the air.