[Hint: 'Life Energy' +41...]
[Hint: 'Life Energy' +37...]
[Evil Demon 'Mameng' innate Blood Demon Art has precipitated... 'Nen Ability Property Change' +10...]
['Nen Ability Property Change': [Yin] has been activated]
[Talent 1: 'Dream Parasitism'. Note: The host can convert 'Nen' into 'Drowsiness' and forcibly hypnotize others through 'Gaze' or 'Whispers', dragging them into a dream realm created by the host...]
[Talent 2: 'Dream Realm Domain'... Detecting a certain correlation with the 'Gate of Cognition', beginning upgrade...]
[Hint: Upgrade complete...]
[Talent 2: 'Generalized Gate of Dreams'. Note: The host can randomly open gates through 'Dreams' and pull people into dreams. The target of the opened gate possesses a certain randomness and is not controlled by the host...]
[Hint: Evil Demon 'Rui' innate Blood Demon Art has precipitated... 'Nen Ability Shape Change' +20...]
[Talent: [Steel Threads]. Note: Due to a certain overlap with [Ken]... [Ken] +20...]
The notification sounds dripped like rain on banana leaves.
Rui's severed head flew through the air, looking at Roy in disbelief mid-flight.
The blade in the boy's hand turned red and ignited, two dragons of flame surging forth as he rose to his full height. Akaza's pupils contracted; he retracted his stance, instantly raising his vigilance to the maximum!
'So hot...' In a corner of the carriage, the Eye Demon blinked. Trembling, it turned its head, wanting to slip away. But just as the thought arose, it was ruthlessly suppressed by Muzan, forcing it to shrink back into the corner aggrievedly to continue monitoring the battlefield!
'Crimson Sword... Flames... Is it "Flame" or "Sun"?'
Muzan Kibutsuji stared at Roy in the image with a gloomy expression. Mameng was dead, Rui was dead too... none of that mattered. The key was Akaza!
"Michikatsu, does Akaza have a chance of winning?"
Kokushibo rested his hand on Kyokokukamusari, squinting at the boy in the image whose fiery red hair swayed in the wind. His memory was instantly pulled back to the past, to the day he first discovered his brother Yoriichi was a god-given genius who displayed extraordinary swordsmanship talent.
Just as young, same hair color, same earrings, same insufferable arrogance and high spirits. The difference was that one knew it, and the other did not. But both were equally despair-inducing, making one feel that no matter how hard they tried, they could never catch up. And this... was the world of geniuses!
"Why must you ask me, Master?" Kokushibo's gaze was distant. "When you asked this question, you already had the answer in your heart, didn't you?"
Kokushibo spoke deeply, "Hakuji... will not be his opponent."
"Flee!" Muzan was concise, issuing the order to Akaza through telepathy.
Lower Moons could die; he had plenty of demon blood to create more. But... every Upper Moon was a rare talent from when they were human, a 'treasure' he had personally cultivated with hundreds of years of effort. He cherished them greatly. The fact that not a single one had died until now spoke volumes.
'But... Master still does not understand Akaza enough...'
Kokushibo looked at the young man in the image—red brows, golden eyes, dressed in simple martial attire, bare-handed, burying his head in excitement, his body trembling faintly. He narrowed his eyes and said, "He will not flee. He will choose to fight to the death."
If asked which of the Upper Moons Tsugikuni Michikatsu admired the most, it would be Akaza, who pursued the pinnacle of martial arts just like him.
They were companions, and even more so, 'fellow travelers' pursuing the same dream. Unlike Doma or Hantengu who sought power only to eat humans and toy with hearts, they were undoubtedly much purer!
Facts proved Kokushibo right.
Pressing his body low and stomping fiercely on the floor, the speeding train seemed to stall for an instant under the downward pressure.
Akaza raised his head, looking at Roy with excitement. He dropped into a horse stance, left hand open as a palm in front, right hand clenched as a fist behind. He took a deep breath and said, "You are very strong. I am very happy... The disgusting trash is gone. Now... Come, let us kill to our hearts' content!"
"[Technique Deployment · Destructive Death: Compass Needle!]"
Battle spirit erupted from Akaza in the shape of a snowflake, sweeping outwards and instantly enveloping Roy within it.
Compass Needle, as the name implied, was like a compass. After activating this move, Akaza would act like a needle attracted by invisible magnetic forces, capturing the opponent's position, movements, breathing, and rhythm, ultimately finding their weak points to deliver a fatal strike.
To some extent, it was somewhat similar to [En], but... upon seeing that snowflake-shaped 'compass'...
Roy sensed a trace of grief, a sorrow hidden deep in someone's heart, treated as a 'memory' to be forgotten, yet instinctively unwilling to be completely erased.
"What is that look in your eyes? Are you pitying me?"
The boy remained silent.
Akaza could clearly see a trace of pity in those pitch-black eyes, like a strong person looking at a weak one.
A thick sense of humiliation welled up from the depths of his heart, and he became furiously angry!
"Please do not compare me to that disgusting trash!"
"[Destructive Death: Void Style!]"
His fists struck the air, forming shockwaves that smashed abruptly toward Roy.
The boy moved his feet, neither fast nor slow, weaving through the fist winds like a ghost. He always dodged Akaza's battle spirit fists at just the right moment—tilting his head, turning his body, or bending backward at the waist... walking slowly toward Akaza.
In the corner, Muzan Kibutsuji, capturing all this through the Eye Demon, looked ferocious. He spread his hand, fingernails suddenly elongating, intent on killing!
"He dares to disobey my order!"
"Akaza, don't force me to kill you!"
"Twang..." Nakime strummed the biwa, producing a sharp note.
Kokushibo kept his hand on his long sword, silent.
Was it 'disobedience', 'excitement', or perhaps... a death wish, an act of ultimate loyalty?
"Master, let him be."
Muzan looked over with cold eyes.
Kokushibo said indifferently, "It is useless... You have realized it too. That boy named Kamado Eiichiro dodges Hakuji's attacks with ease, which means..."
"His perception of attacks is even superior to Hakuji's!"
Pausing for a moment, Kokushibo looked at Muzan with a grave expression. "Forgive my bluntness, but I suspect the opponent possesses the ability to read the inner thoughts of others, just like you, Master. That is why... he can be so composed..."
"Enough!"
A sharp shout interrupted Kokushibo!
Veins popped out ferociously on Muzan's forehead. After a long while, he took a deep breath and said, "I understand."
Looking again at Akaza—the former Upper Rank Two, now Upper Rank Three—his attacks were raining down like a storm; he had fallen into a state of madness!
"[Destructive Death: Leg Style - Crown Splitter... Destructive Death: Leg Style - Explosive Flurry... Destructive Death: Leg Style - Flying Planet Thousand Wheels... Annihilation Style... Crushing Style... Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow...]"
"Crack!"
The roof of the carriage was blown off by the chaotic punches.
The coupling was severed by a flying fist from Akaza, disconnecting it from the carriage ahead.
The screams of passengers and the roar of the train exploded in the pitch-black night.
Akaza used every ounce of his skill. His eyes saw only Roy, nothing but Roy. The more he fought, the more excited he became, and the more despair he felt. He gradually understood... why there was pity in Roy's eyes. It turned out it was all true; he was just like the trash he once despised—pitifully weak, disgustingly weak. "Hahaha... Why don't you fight back?!"
"Come on!"
"Kill me!"
"Step... step..."
Footsteps, neither hurried nor slow, tread upon Akaza's heart, getting closer.
Roy casually deflected a fist from Akaza with his blade, brushing past his shoulder.
A subtle glint of the blade appeared, then vanished in a flash.
Akaza only felt a chill on his neck. He turned his head abruptly. "Splurt." A jet of blood sprayed out. His body maintained the forward punching motion, but his head had already turned one hundred and eighty degrees, looking straight at Roy's back.
"You have misunderstood," the boy sheathed his sword, back to Akaza, looking up at the sky. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, eternal and ancient. He spoke slowly, "I am feeling heartache for the woman you loved deeply, Koyuki, your respected master, Keizo, and... your father, who committed suicide hoping you would walk the right path and not steal anymore because of him."
The boy turned around, his eyes filled with pity once more, and said, "Tell me, if they were still alive and saw you in this ghostly state, how heartbroken would they be..."
Evil demons deserved no pity; they all deserved to be killed!
But among the Demon Moons, if there was anyone who could make Roy take a second look, it was the human Hakuji before he became a demon, not the current Akaza.
"You..."
The sealed memories were pierced through by Roy's words!
Akaza's head fell, rolling to Roy's feet with a thud.
Following this, his fleshly body lost control from the brain and collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
He stared at Roy with his golden pupils, bewildered. As his consciousness blurred, a revolving lantern of memories appeared.
Hazy and indistinct, he seemed to see the girl who always smiled and called him Hakuji, and the master who always patted his shoulder and told him to take good care of 'Koyuki', and also...
His father, riddled with serious illness, who patted his head for the last time and told him to go buy medicine, only to take his own life the moment he turned away.
Unknowingly, Akaza, who had never known what tears were, shed two streams of hot tears.
He reached out, wanting to take Koyuki's hand, wanting to say a few words to his master, wanting to hug his father and be held in his arms to be fed medicine like when he was a child...
Unexpectedly, Koyuki's face changed, and she dodged in disgust... His master glared at him in anger, disappointed... His father was even more direct; he didn't even look at him, simply stating, "I have no such son."
He slit his throat, committing suicide once again.
Akaza's outstretched hand froze instantly.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something... An abyss opened beneath his feet. In an instant, hundreds of hands drilled out from the endless darkness, grabbing him, tearing at him, trying to drag him down to hell.
Only then did he suddenly realize that he was no longer the affectionate and righteous Hakuji, but an evil demon burdened with sins, who trampled on the weak like dirt!
"It's all him... It's Muzan Kibutsuji... It's you who turned me into this ghostly state!"
The revolving lantern vanished. Akaza's eyes, which had closed, suddenly snapped open in a terminal lucidity. He shouted angrily at the Eye Demon, "It was you who harmed me!"
"Bang!"
As the words fell, the demon blood belonging to Muzan inside Akaza detonated instantly!
Amidst a rain of blood...
The Eye Demon shrank back.
Its pupil revealed a man in a suit jacket, flustered and exasperated, flying into a rage out of humiliation!
Pitiful... ridiculous... lamentable... sigh-worthy... Roy's calm gaze cast over. He pointed his fingers at the Eye Demon and mouthed silently, "You are next."
His pitch-black pupils were suddenly coated with a layer of gray 'Nen film'... Upon entering Muzan's eyes, the Demon King who had ravaged the world for a thousand years felt his blood-red pupils freeze, and he involuntarily yawned, feeling... so sleepy...
[[Nen Ability 'Yin' · Dream Parasitism]...]
Through eye contact, projecting 'Drowsiness' onto the target.
Roy blew gently at the Eye Demon: "Sleep."
In a hazy blur, Muzan had a dream... In the dream, he returned to that night when the wind rustled through the bamboo forest. Leading Tamayo, he encountered a red-haired swordsman wearing clogs, slowly walking toward him...
Immediately, he chose... self-destruction!
"Yoriichi Tsugikuni, it's you again!"
"After so many years, you are still this ugly..."
A faint blade light wrapped in flames lit up...
"Bang!" This time, Muzan was faster and fiercer than in the past... Before the blade light could hit him, he split directly into three thousand six hundred pieces!
Right there in the Infinity Castle, right in front of Kokushibo... he exploded with a boom!
"Master?"
"Twang?"
The string of the biwa Nakime was playing snapped.
Blood mist filled the air in the directionless Infinity Castle.
Kokushibo and Nakime fell silent simultaneously.
"Pop." The dream was interrupted by Muzan Kibutsuji's 'Broken Jade' self-destruction. Consciousness returned. A moment later, Muzan woke up, wriggling and condensing a new body in a wretched state, emerging!
"You ate Mameng?!"
It was a false alarm. Muzan finally realized what happened, looking at Roy in the image with a dark expression. A single remark woke the dreamer.
Kokushibo frowned and looked over.
Separated by the Eye Demon, Muzan locked onto Roy deadly and said, "That is Mameng's Blood Demon Art. You are a human; how could you learn it?"
Unless he ate, just like a demon!
But, a human eating a demon?
Unheard of!
Kokushibo quietly pressed down on 'Kyokokukamusari', feeling a chill down the back of his neck for some unknown reason.
In carriage number seven, the young man glided through the night sky along with the derailed train. His fiery red long hair danced wildly in the wind like a lion's mane.
He flipped his hand to put away the Asauchi, shaking his head and sighing, "I hid it for so long, but you discovered it after all. That's right..."
Roy stuck out his tongue and licked his lips, looking at Muzan Kibutsuji with burning eyes. "Wash yourself clean and wait for me. I... will come to visit any day now!"
"Bang!"
The Eye Demon exploded abruptly!
At the very end, Roy seemed to see someone's panicked appearance and heard someone's disorganized roar...
"Meeting!"
"Everyone, all of you, return to the Infinity Castle immediately!"
"Buzz..." As the Eye Demon exploded, the image dissipated.
In the messy carriage, only the boy remained, standing against the wind, a faint smile on his lips.
[Hint: 'Life Energy' +112]
[Evil Demon 'Akaza' innate Blood Demon Art has precipitated...]
[Destructive Death: Compass Needle. Note: A 'Directional' formation based on 'Perception'. Detected high overlap with [En], upgrading and modifying...]
[Hint: Modification complete... [En] +30...]
[Note: Host's current [En] coverage radius: 140 → 170 (meters)]