The Good Demon [KNY]

Part 85: Heat

"This is your last chance to leave for anyone feeling apprehensive. What comes next is for keeps." Akai said. 

No one took the offer.

"Alright..." Akai smiled and returned to a serious expression. "Can't say I didn't warn you."

Akai Suisei burst a vein in his wrist, the blood coiling as he raised an open palm to the sky. He flexed his arm and a torrential spray of blood spewed out of his wrist and into the sky. The blood coalesced together into multiple serpentine globs, looking like tiny dragons as they flew down from the sky. The blood settled in a wide, circular area around the training ground and a large section of forest, before lighting up in a blazing red inferno. The recruits were shocked, suddenly surrounded by a giant ring of fire.

"This whole time I've wanted to teach you to survive a fight with demons, but to learn to survive a fight with a demon, you must fight a demon." Akai began as his arms began to heat up. "So uh..."

"We're gonna fight."

Akai's eyes glowed as the ring of fire in the distance flared, the flames visible above the trees. 

"Day and Night." 

Akai's limbs glowed with a searing heat.

"For the next two months."

Akai exhaled a long breath, steam billowing from his mouth as he took a crouching stance.

"Question, sir-"

"TRAINING BEGINS NOW!!!" Akai roared and rocketed forward. Instantly, the recruits moved in unison and evaded Akai as he surged into the crowd. The recruits reached for their swords, ready to box him in and attack, only for Akai to place an open palm on the ground.

"EVERYONE, RUN!!!" Tanjiro realized what Akai was doing as the Red Comet's hand began to glow. 

"Kaboom." Akai cracked a vicious smile as-

KABOOM!!!

Dozens of people were sent flying as Akai detonated an explosion in the center of the masses. Akai was surprised as a few recruits immediately went to attack. Seemed most of them were fast enough to avoid any serious damage. Akai parried their strikes easily and floored them with single blows. 

"Piercing Raindrop!!!" Akai effortlessly dodged the thrusting strike from Tanjiro and spun, grasping the blade firmly.

"Sweet, heroic Tanjiro. Always first to jump in." Akai smirked as Tanjiro struggled to free the blade from the Red Comet's grasp. Tanjiro improvised and violently headbutted Akai, flattening his nose with that iron forehead of his. Akai stumbled back as Tanjiro readied to follow up.

"Dance of the-"

"Little ember." Akai shot forward and planted a fist into Tanjiro's gut before he could even breathe. Akai sighed in disappointment as Tanjiro gasped for air. "Cmon, man. I know you're better than that." Akai shook his head and walked past the floundering slayer. He turned to a few recruits who came to aid the water-sun breather. In a red haze, he planted brutal strikes into their abdomens, crippling them instantly.

Akai grunted with annoyance, angered by how easily they went down.

"REMEMBER THAT YOU'VE GOT YOUR HAMON NOW, TRY TO USE IT!!!" Akai roared into the sky, wanting to be heard by every recruit. "Now, where was I..." Akai rolled his arms as he strutted into the woods to hunt for more recruits.

---------

"Well that didn't take long." Akai dusted off his hands as the bodies of hundreds of recruits lay in the center of the clearing. He had taken two hours to round up this many. They did much better than last time, but it was still a disappointing amount of growth. He had dragged every person he had knocked out back to the center. Besides Tanjiro, who he was lucky to snag at the start, a good portion of the strongest trainees and Hamon users were still out in the woods.