"How strange. Nakime didn't tell me she brought you here, so... you found this place and came here on your own?"
Tilting her head to look at Shinazugawa Sanemi who had suddenly rushed out before her, Mitsuba asked curiously.
"That's right!"
Holding his Nichirin sword and standing before Muichiro, Shinazugawa Sanemi had a ferocious grin on his face.
"I am the fierce wind that will snap your neck!"
"Such big words."
Hearing this, Mitsuba laughed directly. She raised her finger pointing at him and simply said one sentence softly.
"Drop dead."
The next instant, Shinazugawa Sanemi's entire body exploded like a shattered watermelon!
Literally exploded.
His skin split apart along old wounds, and the blood, muscles, and various internal organs inside burst out, splattering everywhere.
Just like that, completely unexpectedly, Shinazugawa Sanemi shattered before the other two, without even making a sound.
"Brother?!"
"Shinazugawa?!"
Seeing this scene, Genya who was nailed to the wall by the Nichirin sword, and Muichiro who lay on the ground unable to get up, both froze in place.
Wind Hashira Shinazugawa... he was dead?
That Shinazugawa who wouldn't die no matter how severe his injuries, just suddenly... died like this?
Looking up at the still smiling expression on Mitsuba's face, an emotion called despair instantly filled Muichiro's heart.
Though he had heard rumors about Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art, though he had already guessed at her strength.
When this unimaginable fact truly happened before his eyes, it still caused an unimaginable impact on Muichiro.
This demon, she could really decide someone's life or death with just one casual sentence?
Such an enemy had already exceeded the limits that mortals could handle.
Such an enemy, how could they possibly be defeated?
"Brother!! Ugh!! Demon! I'll kill you!"
Beside them, Genya who had witnessed his brother's death with his own eyes completely lost his reason. He desperately grabbed the sword hilt before him, wanting to pull out the Nichirin sword impaled in his chest.
But no matter how hard he tried, the sword remained motionless, firmly nailing him to the wall.
"Hmm... this way, it's indeed somewhat too boring."
Completely ignoring Genya beside her, Mitsuba looked down at the pile of flesh before her, raised her hand to stroke her chin, and showed a thoughtful expression.
"After all, no matter what, this is the final concluding battle between us. Ending it just like this is still somewhat too hasty..."
Saying this, she suddenly raised her hand and lightly snapped her fingers.
The next instant, that pile of flesh on the ground instantly reassembled, and under the power of causality's restoration, combined once more into a complete Shinazugawa Sanemi!
Shinazugawa... came back to life?
This bizarre scene that could be called terrifying deeply shocked Muichiro and Genya once again.
"Ugh!"
The moment he came back to life, Shinazugawa Sanemi knelt on the ground as if exhausted. He raised his hand to cover his chest, breathing heavily, cold sweat pouring down.
What happened just now? He died?
He really died once?
The feeling of death from just now still lingered throughout his body, deeply stimulating Shinazugawa Sanemi's nerves, making his body tremble uncontrollably.
"Yes, just like this."
Turning to walk toward Genya not far away, taking the Nichirin sword that suddenly appeared at his waist, Mitsuba slowly spoke:
"As the finale of the final battle, we really should use everyone's favorite swordsmanship after all..."
This was a Nichirin sword with a black blade. Its appearance wasn't much different from ordinary Nichirin swords, just somewhat heavier.
The only thing worth noting was the characters engraved on its blade.
According to the internal regulations of the Demon Slayer Corps, only Hashira-level swordsmen could have characters engraved on their Nichirin swords, and they were all uniformly the four characters "Destroy Demons".
But this Nichirin sword was different—only one character was engraved on its blade: "Destroy".
Such unique engraving—without a doubt, this was the sword that Yoriichi had used hundreds of years ago.
Back then, after burying her brother Yoriichi, Mitsuba didn't bury this Nichirin sword together with him.
First, she felt Brother Yoriichi wouldn't like it.
Second, it was for tonight, for this very moment.
As revenge against the god who toyed with their sibling bond, Mitsuba would definitely use this Nichirin sword... she would use this Nichirin sword to completely sever the future of the Demon Slayer Corps!
"This was Brother Yoriichi's sword. Hundreds of years ago, it nearly killed Lord Muzan.
Now using it to kill you, I think it's truly most appropriate. What do you think?"
Slowly drawing out this ancient and heavy Nichirin sword, her fingertips lightly gliding across the blade, Mitsuba asked with a smile.
Almost the instant this Nichirin sword appeared, a memory also suddenly flooded into Genya's mind who was nailed to the wall.
He remembered that when he was rushing to this empty city just now, he had gone to observe that castle keep in the distance.
It was inside that castle keep, in a room decorated like a woman's residence, that he had unintentionally seen this Nichirin sword and then taken it out...
Without a doubt, this memory and experience were "real."
But they were a reality that Mitsuba had shaped for him using her Blood Demon Art.
Since the Infinity Castle appeared hundreds of years ago, Brother Yoriichi's Nichirin sword had indeed always been stored by Mitsuba in that castle keep shaped according to her memories of where she lived as a human.
But the real Genya had never entered that castle keep at all.
After separating from Shinazugawa Sanemi, he wandered here in a daze, and was finally nailed to the wall by Mitsuba with one sword, still unable to get down even now...
It was Mitsuba who used her "Karmic Overwrite" ability to forcibly create this experience for Genya, thereby achieving the result of transferring Brother Yoriichi's Nichirin sword onto him.
And the reason Mitsuba did this was very simple—
Because she was lazy.
At this critical moment, she couldn't be bothered to run back to the castle keep to fetch the sword, and that would be too undignified...
Directly using her Blood Demon Art to twist past causality, letting the Nichirin sword come to her on its own—wasn't that better?
"To be honest, though I've always felt my talent is quite good, actually, swordsmanship has always been somewhat of a weak point for me.
Moreover, I truly haven't used swordsmanship to actually fight someone in a very long time."
Holding the sword in her left hand, Mitsuba turned around, her gaze falling on Shinazugawa Sanemi.
"So, if we're only comparing swordsmanship, you might actually have a tiny chance of winning, you know?"
"This is the first time I've seen a demon like you..."
Relying on his astonishing willpower, forcibly overcoming the fear that the death experience had brought to his body, Shinazugawa Sanemi once again stood up from the ground.
"Giving up your strongest ability, you actually want to compete with me in my best swordsmanship? Are you out of your mind?"
"Who knows, perhaps after living so long, one's thinking does become somewhat different from ordinary people?"
"Perfect. I also really want to experience what level of swordsmanship a demon with the title of 'Child of God's younger sister' has! Take this!"