Gyutaro's fury came from Kurosaki Rei severing his sister's head; his terror came from the fact that he could no longer sense Daki.
The two of them had always been bound in both body and soul. Whether it was him lending power to Daki, or the two of them surviving even when beheaded separately, it was all because of that shared power.
But now, he was clearly still alive—yet he could no longer feel Daki at all. It was as if she had… truly died.
But how was that possible? His own neck hadn't been severed. By all logic, as long as he didn't die, Daki should have been able to reattach her head. Even if this man had some special method that made recovery difficult, his sister shouldn't have died outright.
"Oh?"
Kurosaki Rei wore a smile that, to Gyutaro and the explorers, looked like that of an evil spirit. "So she didn't revive after all."
He casually swung his blade, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, cleaving apart a sniper round fired at him. "I thought I'd have to cut off both your heads at the same time. Looks like there was no need to make things that troublesome."
The Zanpakutō was far more effective than he had expected. Because of its soul-cutting nature, it didn't rely on sunlight to kill demons—once he severed the head, it was true annihilation of the soul.
So even though Upper Rank Six had the rule that both siblings had to be beheaded simultaneously to die, it didn't apply before Demon-Imprisoning. As souls, they were still independent individuals.
"You… how dare you…"
Gyutaro shouted hoarsely, rage and despair filling his eyes. His sister was the only reason he had lived on.
In life, he hadn't been able to protect her and had been wracked with guilt. It was only by meeting Lord Muzan in despair that he gained new life—yet in the end, he still failed to protect her.
His sister dying before him was something Gyutaro absolutely could not accept.
Rage and despair flooded his mind. The only thing left for him to do was kill Kurosaki Rei to avenge his sister—and then choose death himself.
Because he feared the road to the underworld would be dark, and that his sister would be afraid to walk it alone.
"So killing your sister makes me unforgivable?"
Facing Gyutaro's fury, Kurosaki Rei remained unmoved. "Then when you and your sister killed people, did you ever think that they might also have sisters, families of their own?"
"Huh? Who cares about that? Our happiness was destroyed long ago—anyone happier than us deserves to die!"
Gyutaro's voice was heavy and cold. He took a stance, pushing his Blood Demon Art to the limit. Right now, all he wanted was to sever the black-clad man's head.
Seeing this, the remaining explorers were secretly delighted. Gyutaro now harbored a will to die, and without his sister holding him back, he would definitely be stronger than before. If they coordinated with him, killing this terrifying man wasn't impossible.
"Because you were soaked by rain, you want to tear everyone else's umbrellas apart as well…"
Even though he already knew Gyutaro's mindset, Kurosaki Rei couldn't help but sigh. "It's not something I can't understand."
He too had once had his happiness destroyed. He knew better than anyone the despair of losing someone important. After his master and senior sister died, as a child he had envied those with complete families.
He envied them for having parents while he had been abandoned, envied them for eating their fill and staying warm while he hid, freezing and starving.
But as he grew older, beyond that envy, what he felt more was longing for the warmth he once had. That envy gradually faded, eventually turning into a faint, quiet blessing.
What he truly couldn't tolerate were those who committed heinous acts yet still stood high above, enjoying everything. He had even thought that if he succeeded in his revenge and survived, he would join the resistance and overthrow the corporation's rule.
He understood Gyutaro very well. Gyutaro's past was even more tragic. Human evil had stolen the only light in his life, making him the least regretful demon in the world—he truly believed Muzan had done him a favor.
Gyutaro was a monster born from human malice. Because he endured the coldest winter, he wanted to bring that cold to everyone else.
Kurosaki Rei tilted his head to avoid a bullet and sighed. "How pitiful…"
"We don't need your pity!"
Gyutaro roared as he charged. Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles activated, countless crimson blades slashing toward Kurosaki Rei. At the same time, Gyutaro himself closed in at high speed, the twin sickles in his hands—one cutting for Kurosaki Rei's arm, the other for his neck.
In the next instant, amid thunderous轰鸣, lightning erupted where Kurosaki Rei had stood. Gyutaro was blasted backward, several wounds opening across his body, blood flowing freely—his injuries didn't close right away.
Thunder Breathing, Third Form — Thunderclap and Flash: Constant Thunder.
Kurosaki Rei held his blade at his side, dodging another sniper round. "I'm not pitying you. That would be an insult to the dead."
He shifted sideways, evading Steel Plate's brutal charge, then drove a knee into Steel Plate's abdomen, launching the man into the air. In the next moment, Demon-Imprisoning fell, severing the thick neck cleanly.
Kurosaki Rei moved through the battlefield as if strolling through a garden. This didn't look like slaughter at all—casually, he cut down several people. "I also know you won't repent. Given another chance, you'd still become a demon, so there's nothing more to say…"
"Crimson flames—"
Seeing Kurosaki Rei speaking, the female mage began chanting, trying to release a spell from behind to attack him.
But in the next instant, Kurosaki Rei vanished. With Flash Step and Thunder Breathing combined, he became a deathly phantom on the battlefield. When he reappeared, he was already in front of the mage.
Already under crushing pressure, she was trembling. Seeing Kurosaki Rei come straight for her, that lethal sense of danger made her instinctively tense up, her chanting voice shaking uncontrollably.
In the end, her spell was never completed.
A blade pierced straight into her mouth, pinning her to the wall behind.
Kurosaki Rei maintained his lunging posture, Demon-Imprisoning embedded in the mouth of the mage—whose "valves were all wide open"—and wore a devilish smile in her eyes.
"Such bad manners," he said. "Didn't you see I was talking to someone? Who asked you to interrupt?"
The mage was both terrified and desperately wanted to say she hadn't interrupted—but with her mouth quite literally being "interrupted," she couldn't say a word.
"Let her go!"
The sniper roared in fury, firing continuously at Kurosaki Rei. To his despair, Kurosaki Rei didn't dodge—and wasn't injured.
The poorly aimed bullets slammed into Kurosaki Rei's back with metallic clangs. Through the holes torn in his clothing, only faint white marks were left behind.
Kurosaki Rei drew Demon-Imprisoning sideways. With a burst of force, the blade flashed—and a head, still streaked with tears and saliva, rolled to the ground.
Leaving aside factional hostility, since these explorers had chosen to become demons and start eating people, Kurosaki Rei would show no mercy in killing them.
As for gender—once on the battlefield, it made no difference to him. Whoever needed to be cut, he cut.
A rush of wind came from behind—Gyutaro's grief-fueled strike. Kurosaki Rei turned, bracing Demon-Imprisoning against Gyutaro's twin sickles. The fine blood blades generated by the Blood Demon Art struck Kurosaki Rei's body, leaving only pale marks.
This was the power of level ten Armament Haki combined with Pure Black Nightmare. Ordinary attacks found it difficult to injure him now.
Gyutaro's close-combat skills were formidable, but the raw power of his Blood Demon Art was fairly average. Even in the original story, it hadn't inflicted fatal wounds on the Sound Hashira. His greatest threat lay in wielding a blood sickle in each hand—and the poison within them.
As long as Kurosaki Rei's skin wasn't broken, he wouldn't be poisoned. And he even suspected that the toxin might not be lethal to him anyway—his physique exceeded 30 points, something neither the Sound Hashira nor Tanjiro could compare to.
Of course, he had no intention of testing the poison himself. When he could crush the enemy head-on, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
"What… exactly are you?"
Even drowned in rage and despair, Gyutaro couldn't help but voice the question. In his eyes, the man before him was simply far too abnormal.
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