"What nonsense are you spouting now?" Koji Kamiya frowned, raising his Nichirin Sword.
"Oh my, it's not nonsense at all. I'm taking a huge risk here," Doma said with a pitiful expression. "If that man finds out I let a Demon Slayer go, I'll definitely get a scolding!"
Doma put on a conflicted look, though he couldn't care less.
"This is a life-or-death relationship. There's no 'letting go' to speak of," Koji said gravely.
"Eh—how unreasonable," Doma said, looking heartbroken.
"I have no reason to be reasonable with a demon!" Koji shouted.
"But, you see, even though I'm a demon, I haven't done anything evil," Doma said, closing the fan in his right hand with a snap and wagging his index finger, his smile pure and compassionate. "I have always been saving others, trying to reduce the suffering in this world."
"You saw it, didn't you? My cute believers are all living happily, right?"
"Many pitiable people have also accepted my help, and they are all doing very well now." Doma maintained his perfect smile, gazing quietly at Koji with his clear, beautiful, rainbow-colored eyes. "So, my dear Mr. Demon Slayer, would you say I am an evil demon?"
"How are you not? What about all the people you've eaten?" Koji tightened his grip on the hilt of his Nichirin Sword, his eyes burning with fire.
"Mmm—" Doma tapped his chin with his fan. "Some of them were trapped in suffering and couldn't escape, wanting only to be free from the hardships of this world, so I saved them, guiding them to a new life."
"Some were people who brought pain to others, 'villains' in the eyes of the world, but I was still willing to grant them salvation so they could atone for their sins in hell sooner..."
"None of that is for you to judge!" Koji interrupted him fiercely. "To arbitrarily take lives based on your own ideas is evil in itself!"
"Besides, you talk about saving the world from suffering, so why don't you go and exterminate the very demons who bring the most suffering to the world?" He stared at Doma with blazing eyes.
"Because I'm saving people, not demons," Doma said matter-of-factly, with a look that said, 'How can you be so dense as to not understand the difference?'
"It's in a demon's nature to eat people," he said, tilting his head slightly to look at the night sky. "While it is tragic, I don't think there's any need for their salvation, nor do I think I can give it to them."
"It feels like that would require a whole different set of doctrines~" he muttered to himself.
"I don't understand you!" Koji said forcefully. "I think there's something wrong with your head!"
"Eh? You won't listen to reason." Doma tapped his head with his fan, looking troubled. "What a headache."
"Further talk is useless. I will exterminate you here today!" Koji kicked off the ground and charged forward.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash."
A seemingly ordinary horizontal slash cut through the air with astonishing sharpness, the blue blade flowing like water. He aimed for Doma's neck, but in the next moment, his sword swung through empty air. The figure before him had vanished.
"My eyes couldn't even track his movement. It was like teleportation..." Koji quickly scanned the area for his target.
"Wow! A Water Breathing swordsman!" Doma stood on a nearby roof, looking down with a smile, the hem of his clothes fluttering elegantly. "You're the first Demon Slayer I've met. It must be fate, don't you think?"
"But I told you, you can't beat me. My offer still stands, you know~"
Koji said nothing, leaped onto the roof in a few bounds, and swung his sword again.
Seeing his less-than-fast movement, Doma showed a bit of his own speed, closing his fan and striking at the back of his neck.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
Feeling a hair-raising tingle on the back of his neck, Koji didn't hesitate to drop low, performing a backflip with a sharp, circular slash.
"Ooh—" Doma blocked with his fan, using the force to leap back onto the roof of another house, his leisurely smile never fading. "That reaction speed... you're no ordinary swordsman, Mr. Kamiya."
He mentally assessed Koji's combat power against the Lower Moons. Without a doubt, Koji had the strength to kill the last few Lower Moons. Killing one Lower Moon is enough to become a Hashira...
"My, Mr. Kamiya has Hashira-level strength~" Doma glanced at his Nichirin Sword, noting it wasn't engraved with the words "Destroyer of Demons." He tilted his head. "You're not a Hashira yet? It would be a real shame if you died here."
Seeing his opponent charge at him again without a word, Doma narrowed his eyes and waved the fan in his right hand.
"Blood Demon Art: Sprawling Lotus Vines."
Seven ice vines with sharp ice lotuses snaked flexibly towards his opponent.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
Koji's body moved like flowing water, swiftly cutting through the ice vines in his path and approaching Doma again along an unpredictable trajectory.
"Wow~ What a beautiful slash!" Doma praised with a brilliant smile, swinging his fans in front of him. A circle of sharp ice crystals with ice lotuses scattered from the edges, forcing Koji to retreat.
"Blood Demon Art: Lotus Ice."
In an instant, the surrounding temperature plummeted, as if winter had arrived in a flash.
"So cold..." Koji grit his teeth. The skin on the back of his sword hand was already frozen. Just then, his body suddenly stiffened. The hair on his skin, which was extremely sensitive to demonic auras, stood on end. The tingling sensation had even become a sharp pain.
"Damn it! This demon's aura was hidden so well, it led me to misjudge him!" Koji stared intently at the figure behind the ice crystals. "He's far stronger than any demon I've slain so far!"
When the ice crystals dissipated, he saw the characters "Upper Moon Six" appear in Doma's rainbow eyes, leaving him speechless.
"Upper Moon Six? Wasn't he killed by Master and the others?"
"Damn it! Did they already find a replacement?" Koji clenched his teeth, a hint of despair rising within him for a moment.
"Mmm~ I didn't release any ice mist, you know," Doma said, twirling the fan in his right hand. "That's too dangerous for humans." The microscopic ice crystals were not much of a threat to demons, but for humans, once their alveoli became necrotic, it was difficult to recover, leading to lifelong injuries.
"Hey, seeing as I'm being so gentle, won't you tell me how you saw through me? Please?" Doma was genuinely curious, but he didn't want to try using "Hisōten" to find out just yet. It was more fun to keep a little mystery.
Koji didn't speak. In fact, he had already cleared his mind of all distractions.
"Can I defeat him? No, I'll probably die..." he thought. In that instant, the faces of his master and comrades flashed through his mind, along with the smiles of his family... engulfed in a sea of blood.
"But... there are always reasons not to back down!" He raised his sword again, a certain resolve in his eyes.
"Let's not fight anymore. Just tell me~" Doma pouted, feeling that communicating with Demon Slayers was exhausting. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!" he said with a wave of his hand.
Koji exhaled a puff of white breath and charged straight ahead, his grip on the sword firm.
"Tsk, I'm getting serious now!" Doma was starting to get bored.
"Blood Demon Art: Falling Lotus Flowers."
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!"
Amidst the shower of ice petals, Koji's body spun forward, gaining speed, his blade carrying the aura of a water dragon. The rotating blade deflected the surrounding ice petals, and his body was cut by one after another. But the injuries didn't stop his advance. The Nichirin Sword in his hand let out a ferocious howl, making even Doma feel a sense of threat.
"How impressive~"
Just before being cut, Doma suddenly pushed his speed to the maximum, appearing behind Koji in the blink of an eye. He brought his closed fans together and struck the back of his neck.
"Haah..." Koji's eyes rolled back and his knees buckled, but he fought to stay conscious, as if supported by something unseen.
"Eh?" Surprised, Doma struck again, watching as his opponent collapsed onto the roof, unconscious.
Looking down at the fainted man, Doma tilted his head, a shimmering light flashing in his rainbow eyes.
"Never underestimate the will of man, is that it?" he murmured to himself. He suddenly covered his face with his hands, and crystalline tears fell from his eyes.
"That was... so moving!" He wept silently for a moment, then casually flicked the fan in his right hand. The Kasugai Crow, which was about to fly away in the distance, was pierced by a sharp icicle and fell from the sky.
"It would be troublesome if the crow escaped." Doma muttered, then continued to immerse himself in the emotion of the moment.
-------
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