Breath of the Void

Beath of the Void: Chapter 25

Have you guys read the Kyojuro chapter yet? I might've cried.

Also posting this a bit early because I'm pretty busy tomorrow so yeet.

————————

Shinobu couldn't stop herself from gasping softly when she saw it.

The defining trait behind Oni and Demons— aside from the explained hierarchy, creation, and other abilities— was the healing factor. Oni just didn't heal as seamlessly as Demons. She had seen it a few times before, when Shuten made use of her and Tamayo's makeshift lab to add or adjust her own poisons. When her "outer skin" flickered and gave way because the Oni was "bored" and was "leaving them to go do something more fun".

Pale scars across her back, like claw marks.

She said that they were from other Oni, as the path to power was always going to be clawing desperation up the ladder of power. One doesn't become the top Oni by doing absolutely nothing to get there. And Oni liked to fight to, it was a sport to them, and getting injured was normal.

Still, those scars were small, faded, and easily hidden against Shuten's pale skin.

The one that Shinobu was seeing now though? This one was different.

The scar was much darker against the Oni's neck, dark and jagged. Shinobu knew the story of Shuten Dōji— most everyone did. She knew about how the Oni was tricked into slumber and was decapitated as such. And she supposed that when she met the Oni, somewhere, in the back of her mind, Shinobu had expected the scar to be smooth and clean, that Minamoto no Yorimitsu had severed Shuten's head as easily as paper.

This, though... this looked like Shuten Dōji's head had been sawed off. There's no doubt it had been painfu— it looked painful. Nichirin blades cut cleanly through the head of Demons with help from Breaths, but this... It just had to have been painful.

Painful enough to wake Shuten from her slumber. Enough for her to bite that god-given helmet of the Minamoto Warrior. An Oni's skin was tough, and it appeared that Minamoto no Yorimitsu's blade had failed to make the decapitation clean.

And of course, Shinobu realized that Douma must have realized it too. If she hadn't believed that Shuten was who she was before, she certainly did now.

Demons didn't carry scars and Shuten was certainly not human.

Douma had to accept the fact that he was dealing with an Oni.

An expression, one of fear, flickered across the Second Demon Moon's face before it was gone. "You're not just any old Oni, are you?" he asked. "Only an idiot would mistake you for one with that ugly scar on your neck."

His eyes hardened suddenly.

"But I was certain you were dead."

Shuten just laughed. She was so unbothered and Shinobu suddenly realized just how powerful the Oni before her was.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead as well? Little pests like you should be swatted out when they buzz too close," Shuten hummed before she flicked her hand. In it, a double— no quadruple-bladed sword appeared in her hand. "Enough chatter, I have a time limit and I'm running late."

Shuten shot forwards, easily dodging the frozen attacks that Douma sent her way. She seemed to be doing it almost leisurely, twisting and turning in ways only she could— and drinking as well. Douma was keeping her at a distance, and she seemed to be staying there, but in a blink of an eye— Shinobu would have missed it if she did blink— she was in front of him and she thrust her sword forwards.