Tengen groaned as he left the start room and looked beyond the weird stone formations. More pedestals and locked doors.
"As beautiful as the scenery is, I'm really starting to hate this place..", Tengen sighed. As he walked near the blue pedestal, several Filth, Strays, and Schisms spawned.
"Sound Breathing, Fifth Form: String Performance!"
Tengen blitzed forward, spinning his dual blades and grinding every enemy he came in contact with, taking out his anger on them.
"I really don't see how the puzzles are that bad.", Obanai said, seeing Tengen demolish Limbo's inhabitants.
"Because they're boring and time-consuming!", Tengen replied, stopping as he killed the last Stray. "Where do we even go from here?"
"There seems to be a door above us.", Giyu pointed out. "We can reach it if we climb this tow-"
With no hesitation, Tengen expertly parkoured on top of the tower to the door, reaching it in seconds. Giyu sighed. "..Wait for us, Tengen."
Tengen gave a thumbs-up and watched as the other Hashira slowly reached the door as well. With that, he opened the door.
Inside was a dark room illuminated with torches. Ten Filths spawned in, cornering the Hashira.
"Serpent Breathing, Fifth Form: Slithering Serpent."
Obanai burst forth, his blade twisting and turning, decapitating every Filth one by one until their bodies fell. Two Drones and four Schisms took their place, projectiles filling the enclosed space.
"Mist Breathing, Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash."
"Sound Breathing, Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes!"
On one side, the projectiles were blown back by Muichiro's slash. On the other, the projectiles were being returned to sender by Tengen's blades. Soon enough, each side was cleared out. With that, the front door unlocked and a new room awaited the Hashira. A winding staircase was present, and a blue skull awaited them once they went up it. As Sanemi picked it up, three Drones, two Strays, and five Filths spawned nearby.
"Wind Breathing, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
Sanemi dashed forward, slashing continuously in a horizontal pattern and clearing out the stairwell in seconds. A Drone shot a burst of projectiles at him, which he deflected, causing the projectiles to hit the drone. In return, the Drone fell towards Sanemi who knocked it back into the two others, exploding them as well.
"I've gotten used to you bastards..", Sanemi scoffed before heading back, blue skull in hand.
"Hey, Rengoku, can I borrow your shotgun?", Muichiro asked on the way there.
"Hm? Of course! Why?", Rengoku said, handing over the Core Eject.
"Well, I just-"
Muichiro was interrupted by the undeniable scent of smoke. As he turned a corner, the bodies of husks were set aflame.. but by what?
"..Rengoku, was this you?", Tengen asked.
"I haven't even used a Flame Breathing technique yet!", Rengoku responded. As they walked further into the hallway, the scent of flames got stronger and stronger. And once they reached the starting door, a peculiar sight greeted them.
Everything was on fire. The stone formations, the trees, the floor, EVERYTHING. Rengoku jumped down, safely avoiding the flames, and identified some sort of robot holding something. He approached it cautiously, before it turned around and started blasting out fire at him. Rengoku barely managed to evade to the right, part of his clothes being set on fire as a result. It was quickly smothered out by Rengoku before two more of the same robot came from nowhere. Rengoku unsheathed his blade, facing the three Streetcleaners.
"Flame Breathing, Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!"
The Streetcleaners' flames were met by Rengoku's own, creating an eye-opening clash between the two. Rengoku repeatedly slashed at the Streetcleaners, empowering his Blooming Flame Undulation, and soon overpowering all three flamethrowers combined. The Streetcleaners were hit by a series of slashes, all soon falling to the ground in pieces. The other Hashira dropped down soon after.
"So, these were the things that caused this?", Obanai said, watching Mitsuri panickedly try to snuff out a small flame on her haori.
"Seems like it.", Rengoku responded, sheathing his blade. "Watch your step, everyone! We don't want ourselves burning up, now do we?"
Sanemi walked to the blue pedestal and placed the blue skull on top of it, opening the door and revealing another room with a red pedestal and skull at the end of it. As Giyu walked to pick it up, three Streetcleaners broke the glass wall behind the pedestal, their flamethrowers raised at Giyu as a blue flash was emitted in front of it. However, Giyu entered a calm, unwavering stance, his serene gaze never faltering.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form.."
As fast as the Streetcleaners burst Giyu with streams of flame, their bodies fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Dead Calm."
He picked up the red skull and walked back, Mitsuri clapping ecstaticly for him. Giyu put the skull on top of the pedestal, revealing a new room. On the left of the room was a stairwell that led to another door, which led to a room with a pit of lava, and a weird blue orb in the middle. Tengen clung to the wall and entered the room where the orb was. As he touched it cautiously, the Soul Orb exploded. Other than that, it didn't really do anything else.
"Huh, weird..", Tengen muttered, returning to the Hashira. "Anyway, I think that's it for this room, let's go back, everyone!"
The Hashira left the room and returned back, everyone except for Muichiro.
"Hold on.", Muichiro said, grabbing Mitsuri's arm to make her stop.
"Ah! What is it, Muichiro-kun?", Mitsuri asked, a bit shaken up by the sudden stop.
"There's a weird crack in the wall..", Muichiro said, checking the corners of the stairwell. "Maybe if I.."
Muichiro shot at it with an explosive round from the Core Eject. And sure enough, the wall broke, revealing an entirely new passageway.
"Woah, it's like a secret!", Mitsuri said in awe. "You're so smart, Muichiro!"
"..Don't mention it.", Muichiro replied. With his help, he got Mitsuri and himself through the wall safely and securely, their surroundings resembling that of a sewer. On the side of one wall was another crack. Just as he did last time, he shot an explosive round at it, breaking another hole in it and revealing another secret passageway.
He didn't know if Mitsuri felt it too, but for some reason, Muichiro felt a sense of impending doom when walking through the crack in the wall. As he turned a corner and walked forward, the cause of this would soon be revealed. As Muichiro got close to a wall, Mitsuri following beside him, it suddenly cracked, and what came out of it made his eyes widen..
"CANCEROUS RODENT"
..widen in disbelief that the thing they were looking for was a small, slow-moving rat. Why did this thing even have a health bar? Muichiro looked at it dumbfounded, surely there was more to this, right..?
"Aww, it's so cute!", Mitsuri squealed excitedly, running to it and petting its head. "Can we keep it, pleaseee? It's so adorable!", she said, booping its nose. "I'm naming it Nibbles!"
The small rodent made tiny little squeaks at Mitsuri's affectionate pets. These squeaks were eventually stopped when Muichiro stomped on it, instantly killing it. Blood splattered on Mitsuri's hands.
"MUICHIRO!", Mitsuri exclaimed. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!"
"It was obviously dangerous; it's a rat, it could've had a disease or something like that.", Muichiro said nonchalantly. "Now come on, this was a waste of time.."
Mitsuri reluctantly followed Muichiro, disheartened by her new pet's immediate death. As Muichiro got near the exit, however..
"VERY CANCEROUS RODENT"
A large rodent with a skull-like face blocked the way. It fired three slow green homing projectiles at Muichiro.
"You've got to be kidding me..", Muichiro sighed as he raised his blade.
"Mist Breathing, First Form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze."
Muichiro's blade thrust into the projectiles, attempting to negate them. However, the orbs exploded on impact, knocking Muichiro into the wall.
"Muichiro!", Mitsuri exclaimed as she took out her sword.
"Love Breathing, Sixth Form: Cat-Legged Winds of Love!"
Mitsuri's sword expertly weaved in between the Very Cancerous Rodent's projectiles, creating an arced slash that hit the Rodent multiple times, bringing it to only a quarter of its HP. Mitsuri leaped into the air, preparing her blade for another attack. "..I'm sorry, Nibbles!"
"Love Breathing, First Form: Shivers of First Love!"
Mitsuri's blade winded through the air, slicing the Very Cancerous Rodent's head. Its body pulsated before it exploded into blood and different organs. Mitsuri avoided the sight and focused on helping Muichiro, shaking him violently.
"Wake up, Muichiro!", Mitsuri said, continuously shaking him until he slowly looked up at Mitsuri.
"..Ah.. is that thing dead now..?"
"Yeah..", Mitsuri said, a single tear falling from her cheeks. "But come on, we've got to get to the others!", she quickly responded, grabbing Muichiro's arm and pulling him up.
Meanwhile, Sanemi tapped his foot impatiently, looking at the dead Streetcleaners and Strays he killed ages ago from inside the red door. "Where the hell is Mitsuri and Muichiro? What are they even doing?"
As if on cue, Muichiro and Mitsuri rushed to where the other Hashira were, entering the red door.
"We're here!", Mitsuri said, looking at Sanemi's angry look.
"What the hell were you doing for the past ten minutes?", Sanemi asked.
"..Basically, we killed a rat.", Muichiro said, jumping into the hole before anyone could question what he meant by that. With a shrug, Tengen did so as well and the others followed swiftly, Mitsuri being the last one to jump down.
"Rest in peace, Nibbles..", she muttered before eventually jumping down.
1-2: COMPLETE
RANK: P