"Incredible..."
No longer dodging, raising her blade to block Tanjiro's Nichirin Blade head-on, Mitsuba tilted her head and looked at the fiery red, scorching-hot blade, saying in surprise:
"Besides Brother Yoriichi, this is the first time I've seen a human actually activate the Bright Red Blade..."
[The Bright Red Blade? So this is the Bright Red Blade?]
[Is this the special form of the Nichirin Blade that Miss Tamayo mentioned before — the one said to suppress a demon's regenerative ability?]
Only now noticing the change in his own Nichirin Blade, Tanjiro's face also showed a flash of astonishment.
But he reacted immediately, retreating without hesitation to put distance between himself and Mitsuba.
Mitsuba didn't pursue. She simply stood in place, tilting her head slightly upward, a brief flicker of distraction crossing her eyes.
"Ah, it's over..."
She said suddenly.
"It's over?"
"Yes. Just now, the battle on Akaza's side has also ended.
Tanjiro, right now, of all the Demon Slayers inside the Infinity Castle who still have the strength to fight, only you remain.
So — do you feel lucky?"
Tanjiro remembered that it was the three Water Hashira seniors who had been fighting Akaza.
[That means Senior Sabito and the others have now also...]
A trace of grief welled up in his heart unbidden. Tanjiro shook his head hard, and his eyes turned resolute once more.
"Not bad. Your performance now is far better than before."
Looking at him, Mitsuba said with a smile:
"By the way, little one — your father also entered the Infinity Castle. Don't you want to ask me how he's doing?"
"No need."
Tanjiro's tone was firm.
"The only thing I have to do right now is give everything I have to defeat you."
"Mm, a completely different aura from when you first arrived. So it's the Bright Red Blade that gave you this confidence?"
"It's for my fallen comrades!"
Tanjiro roared and launched another attack at Mitsuba!
But this time, he didn't charge recklessly forward as before.
Instead, he first rolled across the ground, snatching up the Nichirin Blade from beside Shinazugawa Sanemi's mouth near his feet, then spun and hurled it at Mitsuba with all his strength!
"Tsugikuni Mitsuba! Do you dare catch this blade of mine?!"
"Unfortunately, I don't dare."
Even though Tanjiro used his spinning motion to obscure her view, under the Transparent World, Mitsuba still saw his little trick clearly.
In that instant of turning, by grinding and colliding the two Nichirin Blades together, Tanjiro had successfully "transferred" the Bright Red Blade form from his own blade onto Shinazugawa Sanemi's.
It sounded unbelievable.
Could the Bright Red Blade actually be "transferred"?
The answer: as absurd as it sounded, it was true.
The essence of the Bright Red Blade was maximally stimulating the solar energy contained within a Nichirin Blade.
Through a certain degree of contact and collision, that stimulated state could indeed be transferred to another Nichirin Blade.
It worked on the same principle as the activation of the Demon Slayer Mark.
This was the greatest nemesis of demons, bestowed by the gods above.
Even with Mitsuba's nearly five hundred years of accumulated lifespan, taking a direct hit from a Bright Red Blade would be more than she could bear.
So she had no intention whatsoever of catching the blade with her body. She immediately raised her own blade and deflected it away.
Fortunately, what she held in her hand right now was Brother Yoriichi's Nichirin Blade.
If she were like Brother Michikatsu, shaping her blade from her own flesh and blood, she wouldn't have been able to pull off this maneuver at all.
The instant the two made contact, her own blade would have begun to melt and shatter.
[Just as expected! Even the Upper Rank One fears the Bright Red Blade!]
In that case...
Let the next move decide victory or defeat!
Mitsuba stood in place, making no further movement.
Tanjiro understood this was because she still wanted to toy with him a little, curious to see what other techniques he could bring out.
So he absolutely couldn't afford to drag this out.
In his mind, he quickly worked out a plan of attack. Tanjiro moved again.
Still not charging straight in, this time he chose to grab the meteor hammer's chain, lying on the ground, that belonged to Himejima Gyomei.
The Nichirin Blade struck the meteor hammer. Gripping the thick, heavy steel chain in both hands, Tanjiro forcibly swung the massive meteor hammer, which was gradually turning fiery red and scorching hot.
"Take this!"
The Bright Red Blade-charged meteor hammer flew through the air, hurtling again and again toward Mitsuba's position as the chain pulled it along.
"Tanjiro, this weapon doesn't suit you. You're much slower with it than that Stone Hashira was."
Mitsuba commented, effortlessly dodging with sidesteps amid the whirling meteor hammer and chain.
[True — this special weapon was custom-made for Senior Himejima. Without a physique and strength like his, it's simply impossible to wield it properly.]
But in truth, Tanjiro had never intended to use the meteor hammer to settle the fight with Mitsuba.
If even Himejima Gyomei couldn't manage it, he certainly couldn't either.
He only wanted to use it to create an opening for himself.
An opening that would give him cover!
After swinging the meteor hammer several times in a row, gradually reading Mitsuba's evasive habits, Tanjiro began his real move.
He'd noticed that Mitsuba's dodges followed a very particular pattern.
Each evasion was extremely precise, always measured to perfection.
Not a fraction more, not a fraction less — always exactly beyond the reach of his attack. Fluid and graceful, effortlessly elegant, truly bearing the presence of a peerless master.
But at the same time, this also gave Tanjiro a certain predictive edge.
Of course, under normal circumstances, that prediction meant nothing between two people who had both activated the Transparent World.
After all, every change within each other's bodies was plainly visible to both sides. Neither could hide even the smallest movement from the other. However predictable something was, a countermeasure could always be prepared in time.
But Tanjiro had thought of a method.
A method that could only be tried once.
[Now!]
Pulling the chain once more, he swung the meteor hammer hard at Mitsuba.
Having instantly read the blood flow in Tanjiro's arm and quickly judged his attack's trajectory from it, Mitsuba —
just as she had with every attack before — lightly shifted her foot to the side once again, making a perfectly measured evasive movement.
But this time, things were slightly different.
Because Tanjiro changed his technique midway.
The instant Mitsuba had just made her evasive move, he used his Breathing Style to forcibly exert power, wrenching the blood flow in his arm's vessels to forcibly reverse from its original direction.
At that critical instant, he forced through a second exertion of power, changing the meteor hammer's landing point at the very last moment!
It wasn't without cost.
The forced reversal of blood flow burst the arteries in Tanjiro's arm outright. The muscle tissue in his arm tore apart instantly from that brutally forced second exertion!
But even so — at last, he saw a flicker of astonishment cross Mitsuba's ever-smiling face.