"Nngh.. what happened?", Tengen muttered, slowly opening his eyes to the familiar sight of the start room.
"You were passed out.", Gyomei replied, lending a hand for Tengen to grab. "Do you remember the fight?"
"Oh, yeah, that red robot thing..", Tengen recalled. "What happened to it?"
"Muichiro managed to make it retreat."
"Muichiro? But he's injured, how could he even fight?", Tengen remarked. "He must've done something stupid.."
"He fought, even with his injury. Muichiro is a valiant one.", Gyomei said. "He's by the terminal, passed out."
Tengen sighed as he slowly got up with a pained grunt. He walked over to Muichiro, checking his body to see if he was okay. Muichiro's body slowly stirred at Tengen's touch.
"Nngh.. Tengen?", Muichiro muttered, his eyes slowly fluttering open.
"You did great, Muichiro. Good job.", Tengen said, patting Muichiro's head a bit.
"..Is everyone still asleep?"
Tengen was startled a bit by the sudden voice. He looked over to find Giyu, leaning against a wall and waiting for everyone to wake up. "How long were you here for?", Tengen asked, still keeping his eyes on Muichiro.
"I forgot the time.", Giyu replied. "My injuries aren't that bad, though."
"That's good.", Tengen said, seeing Mitsuri and Sanemi wake up next. "Everyone should be up in a couple of minutes, though."
Soon, Shinobu, Obanai, and Rengoku regained consciousness as Tengen faced the door in front of them. "Right, here we go again. Is everyone ready?"
With a small nod from everyone, Tengen opened the door, seeing a dim hallway with puddles of water in the middle; real water. "Huh, that's new.."
"What if we're somewhere completely different? Like how we transitioned from that one gray area to the sunshine place? Is that too farfetched?", Mitsuri suggested.
"Seems the same to me.", Sanemi said, looking at the walls and ceiling. "I admit, it's a bit darker, though."
The Hashira turned a few corners and came across a unique circular-like door. Once they went through it, they saw two pillars for them to jump on. As Rengoku did, a Schism and two Strays spawned on top of the pillars.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
Rengoku dashed forward to the next pillar, slashing in a circular motion and killing both Strays. The Schism charged up its attack, but was kicked off into the void by Rengoku. He signaled the others to keep moving, as he kept ascending above the tower. Two Drones spawned once they reached a certain point, but Sanemi tricked one of them into firing its projectiles at the other Drone, and he took care of the last one himself. Once they reached a small box-like part of the tower, four Strays spawned in each corner.
Sanemi sighed as he was surrounded. "I'm too tired from fighting that damn robot for you bastards..", he scoffed, grabbing a Stray and throwing it at the other two, causing them to fall to their demise. Finally, they reached what appeared to be the final part of the tower, as Giyu took the lead and walked through a checkpoint. Two Schisms blocked the door in front of them, as their hands filled with hell energy.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash."
Giyu's blade struck and sliced both Schisms in half, leaving the front door unguarded. As Giyu walked forward, he stepped on something that suddenly launched him up in the air, bringing him to an entirely new surrounding. There were luxurious city lights below him, the sky was purple, and most frighteningly, there was something ginormous in the far back, its eyes shining down on the ground. Giyu landed on a bridge of some sort, as the others were launched up like he was and fell near him.
"What the HELL is that thing?", Tengen said, pointing to the giant in the far back. "Jeez, that thing's ginormous!"
"Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to see us.. yet.", Obanai said, slowly moving forward. "I think it's too far away to affect us. As long as we keep our distance, we should be fine.. unfortunately, this bridge only seems to go forward; closer to that 'demon', if that even is one.."
"Well, what's the worst that can happen?", Sanemi said, reaching an area that summoned two Streetcleaners and four Strays. "We're not progressing TOO far anyway.."
"I guess you have a point.", Tengen said before expertly slicing apart a Streetcleaner's gas tank, exploding every enemy near it in the process. Filths, Schisms, and Drones replaced them.
"Stone Breathing, Third Form: Stone Skin."
Gyomei's axe unleashed a series of slashes around him, immediately killing the Filths and soon killing the Schisms. Gyomei launched his flail at the Drones, which took care of them easily. As they progressed through the bridge, a Cerberi near the side began to become active. Before they could deal with it, however, the portion of the bridge they were on suddenly collapsed, bringing them to a lower area with a Streetcleaner, several Filth, and Schisms at the top. The Streetcleaner sprayed flames at Shinobu, who sidestepped to the left and swiftly redirected the flamethrower to point at the horde of Filth, scorching them in the process. She then stabbed the Streetcleaner in the neck, poisoning it and killing it shortly after.
"I'll take care of the demons at the top!", Tengen said, throwing his dual blades which spun around and ground the Schisms until they were nothing. The blades then boomeranged back to Tengen, who grabbed them flamboyantly. The Cerberus dropped down, rumbling the ground a bit. It approached Mitsuri, who readied her blade.
"Love Breathing, First Form: Shivers of First Love!"
With one fluid swing, her blade decapitated the Cerberus, instantly turning it into rubble. Tengen clapped for Mitsuri at the fast defeat. "We done here now?"
"Seems like it.", Sanemi replied, walking through a checkpoint. There was a platform they had to get to, separated from them by a large gap. Tengen motioned the others to watch him as he jumped with great momentum, easily bringing him to the platform.
"Good for you, show-off, but how are WE gonna get to the other side?", Obanai sighed. Gyomei grabbed his axe and threw it full force at the platform, hooking onto it. "Use the chain to get across."
"Good thinking, Gyomei!", Rengoku beamed as he grabbed the chain and used it as a sort of zipline, slowly getting across. "This thing's sturdier than I thought!"
Eventually, he made it to Tengen, high-fiving him. Obanai went next, and so did Giyu, Shinobu, Sanemi, Mitsuri, Muichiro, and finally Gyomei.
"Took you guys long enough.", Tengen smiled as he walked inside the tower's entrance. Inside was a long, vertical gauntlet of platforms, some of which had the same blue pads that launched them into the air when they were inside the previous tower. As Obanai took a step forward, two Drones and two Strays greeted him as he deflected a Stray's orb into a Drone, sending it crashing into the other Stray and Drone.
Obanai walked down the small flight of stairs and stepped on the blud pad in front of him, launching him flying into the air and reaching the next area in the process. Eight Filth spawned and bombarded the unprepared Serpent Hashira, but he quickly concentrated his breathing.
"Serpent Breathing, Fifth Form: Slithering Serpent!"
Obanai dashed to the right and decapitated the first line of Filth, then he dashed backward and successfully decapitated the second line, clearing the area. Giyu also reached the platform Obanai was on and greeted him. There were two symmetrical platforms from which they could choose to get on. Giyu went right while Obanai went left. A singular Stray spawned on both sides, blocking their path.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel."
Giyu's rotating slash took care of his Stray, while Obanai just pierced his, killing it swiftly. As they were launched to the middle of the tower, there were two diagonal jump pads on the platform. Two Drones and two Schisms spawned, preventing them from getting to either one. Obanai kicked a Schism off the platform, while Giyu took care of the other one with carefully timed slashes. The Drones were somewhat of a problem, as they kept their distance. Giyu carefully dodged their projectiles and waited for one of them to come within sword's reach.
"Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust."
Giyu stabbed forward, impaling a Drone. He threw it at the other, causing the second one to be launched towards Giyu.
"Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust, Curve."
Giyu pierced the Drone with his blade before it could reach him, nullifying the impact and seemingly canceling its kamikaze explosion. Giyu got rid of the Drone and both he and Obanai stepped on the bounce pads, launching them to yet another platform. Four Filths and two Streetcleaners were summoned, as Giyu maneuvered around the flames and decapitated both Streetcleaners, and the Filth were easily taken care of by Obanai. Reaching the final platform, the exit doors were blocked by two Drones and a Malicious Face.
"Serpent Breathing, Fourth Form: Twin-Headed Reptile!"
Obanai dashed at the Malicious Face and, with full force, slashed it through the middle, killing it instantly. The Drones were an easy kill, as Giyu walked to the doors, opening them to reveal a bridge down below; they were going to have to make a humongous jump safely in order to reach their next destination.
"Any ideas?", Obanai said, looking down at the bridge. With no hesitation, Giyu built up momentum and jumped off. He took out his sword and stabbed the tower that held the bridge, slowing his fall. Giyu scaled the tower until he reached a safe enough jump, making it onto the bridge. He motioned Obanai to do the same.
"Sigh, here goes nothing..", Obanai muttered as he took out his sword and jumped off, stabbing the tower as well. Since his blade was more curved, it didn't work as well, but Obanai still managed to get onto the bridge safe and sound. The red door opened, and Giyu walked through. Obanai took one more look at the giant in the distance. "I hope we'll never have to fight that thing anytime.."
With that, he followed Giyu and jumped down, Giyu doing the same as well. Soon, the other Hashira caught up.
2-1: COMPLETE
RANK: P