"It looks like another one of your companions has been defeated by us."
Across from Akaza, Sabito and the other two gripped their Nichirin Blades, confronting him.
Among the three, except for Makomo, the other two more or less bore injuries.
Clearly, both sides had already exchanged blows.
But judging from the severity of their injuries, the exchange just now was still in the warm-up phase for Akaza—he had yet to get serious.
"Ah, yeah. Seeing that guy die once, honestly, I'm quite happy about it."
"It sounds like your relationship isn't good?"
"Old history. Talking about it now is pointless. Brat, focus on the fight!"
His entire aura suddenly shifting, Akaza assumed his stance. Looking at the three before him, he laughed wildly:
"Let me say this first! From now on! I'm getting serious!"
Technique Deployment! Final Form: Chaotic Blue Silver Afterglow!
"Be careful! He's attacking again!"
The floor cracked layer by layer, dense demonic aura surging skyward. The Snowflake Rashomon emerged from beneath his feet once more, expanding further in all directions.
At the ends of the Rashomon's eight pointers, eight phantom images of Akaza simultaneously condensed and manifested.
Akaza stood at the very center of the Rashomon, and together with these eight phantoms, simultaneously unleashed punches and kicks at incomprehensible speeds in all directions!
With his movements, countless cyan-blue energy blasts shot out like cannonballs in every direction, sweeping across every building in the vicinity!
Boom!
Boom boom boom!
Space itself trembled. Under this bombardment equivalent to dozens of cannons firing simultaneously, the buildings surrounding them were almost instantly reduced to rubble!
Splintered wood flew everywhere, buildings collapsing one after another. Facing this terrifying onslaught at close range, the three Water Hashira were the first to be overwhelmed.
"Cough!"
Inherently weak in terms of raw power, even if she could react, she simply couldn't withstand many of Akaza's attacks.
After barely deflecting several incoming energy blasts with her blade, her arms already numb, she could no longer keep up with Akaza's speed. A blast of energy struck her square in the chest, sending her stumbling back several steps as she violently spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Makomo?!"
Water Breathing: Eleventh Form—Dead Calm!
Noticing this scene immediately, Sabito was about to rush over to help, but Giyu had already charged to the kneeling Makomo's side, unleashing his self-created Water Breathing sword technique.
Eleventh Form: Dead Calm—even among Water Breathing, renowned for its defensive capabilities, this was the technique with the strongest defensive power, even called absolute defense.
Water-patterned marks emerged on his cheeks. His wrist shook rapidly, swinging his Nichirin Blade to form a dense defensive net before him. Standing before Makomo, Giyu continuously intercepted the fist-shadow energy blasts Akaza sent flying.
But even the strongest defensive technique among all Breathing Styles was insufficient when facing Akaza's relentless bombardment.
Giyu had pushed his speed to its absolute limit, yet still couldn't block all the energy blasts.
Out of every ten energy blasts Akaza sent, one or two would still break through his defense and strike his body.
"Ungh!"
His body took several energy blasts in the blink of an eye, blood already spilling from the corner of his mouth. Yet Giyu still stood firm in place, silently swinging his blade to deflect with all his might, never moving a single step.
Without turning to help Giyu, at this critical moment, Sabito decisively chose to launch an assault on Akaza!
Defending together with Giyu would only leave all three of them in a passive position of being beaten. The only way to break this deadlock was to force Akaza to stop his attacks!
"Take this! **Water Breathing: Tenth Form—Constant Flux!**"
Beneath his fox mask, deep blue wave-patterned marks emerged on his forehead. His blade brought forth surging currents like ocean waves, a sky-blue water dragon faintly visible within, rising and falling with Sabito's swinging motions, roaring toward Akaza!
Tenth Form: Constant Flux—the Water Breathing technique that perfectly combines assault and offense.
Through special techniques of power generation, while charging at the enemy, the user continuously swings their blade to build momentum, with each slash growing more powerful than the last!
By the time they close in on the enemy, the final slash accumulated through layer upon layer of momentum would unleash terrifying destructive power!
To fully bring out the power of this technique required extremely high demands on the user's physique and swordsmanship.
Even among past Water Hashira throughout history, only a rare few could truly master this technique.
And Sabito was undoubtedly the one who had reached its pinnacle!
If one were to compare all the Constant Flux techniques used by the Water Hashira Akaza had faced in the past to streams or rivers.
Then Sabito standing before him at this moment had undoubtedly reached the realm of "ocean waves"!
"Truly astonishing! I've never seen any Water Hashira master your technique to such a realm!
As expected, I wasn't wrong! Masked brat! That night, you were indeed the strongest among them!"
"Come! Let us fight to the very end!"
His fighting spirit completely ignited, facing Sabito who had forcefully broken through his fist-shadow energy blasts, Akaza withdrew his stance, clenched both fists to gather power, and laughed wildly as he swung forward with all his might!
Technique Deployment—Destructive Death: Annihilation Type!
It was the same technique.
At the Infinity Castle, Akaza had used this very move to break through Rengoku Kyojuro's Flame Breathing ultimate technique.
And this time, the power of this technique was even greater than it had been at the Infinity Castle!
Boom!
In the next instant, an enormous cyan fist shadow that nearly distorted space collided head-on with the overwhelming sky-blue tidal wave!
Boom!
The moment the two collided, under the impact of the overflowing shockwaves, the already riddled building beneath their feet finally could bear no more and collapsed with a thunderous roar!
"Sabito!!"
"..."
While Akaza was enjoying his battle, Doma was enjoying his chat.
"And so, the final decisive battle began like this～"
In the darkness, Doma sat cross-legged on the ground, recounting his experiences over the past two hundred-plus years to the large group of ancestral spirits of the Kocho Clan gathered around him.
Of course, the stories were primarily about Mitsuba.
"I never thought that although I always knew Mitsuba loved to play, she would actually drag out the Demon Slayer Corps matter for so long.
Really, never learning from her mistakes. Wouldn't it have been better to resolve troublesome things earlier..."
Kocho Sumire let out a deep sigh.
Hearing that after the Tokugawa Shogunate incident, Mitsuba had still kept the Demon Slayer Corps around for so long, she was deeply pained.
If she weren't already a spirit now, she truly would have wanted to return to the human world immediately and give Mitsuba a thorough scolding.
"What's the big deal? Mitsuba should just do whatever she wants, as long as she's happy～"
"It's precisely because of people with your attitude that Mitsuba has become so irresponsible!
That's why I've always said we should interact with Mitsuba more and properly correct her bad habits!"
The one speaking was another ancestor of the Kocho Clan.
It was said that over the past two hundred years, she had been the most proactive among all the Kocho Clan ancestors in making contact with Mitsuba.
"That won't work. If you always try to control her so much, Mitsuba will definitely run away..."
"What's there to worry about! With Mitsuba's soft heart, just kneel down and beg her not to leave! Grab onto her legs and never let go—wouldn't that solve everything!"
"Wow! What a terrible idea! Tell me quickly! Did you actually do this when you were alive?!
What dirty desires did you coerce Mitsuba into satisfying using this method?!"
"I didn't!"
"You coward with the heart of a thief but not the guts! How can you say you didn't?!
You should say you did! And then tell us all the filthy things you did to Mitsuba and share them with everyone!"
"Don't argue, everyone please don't argue..."
"Um, Mr. Doma..."
Amidst the clamor, a Kocho ancestor dressed in the most modern clothing suddenly spoke, asking Doma:
"May I ask how my two daughters are doing now?"
Without a doubt, this was the mother of Kanae and Shinobu—Kocho Shizuka.