In a single moment, the presence of the four other forms of Hantengu disappeared. The winged demon, the staff demon, the fan demon and the spear demon vanished. And not even a moment later Righty felt something immense. Something huge. Righty could only compare it to the pure pressure of Akaza's aura.
Righty's first instinct was to leap into the air. This allowed him to narrowly avoid a mass of tree roots in the shape of serpentine dragons. His foot narrowly missed getting chomped as the massive mass of roaring wood tried to crush him in its jaws. He looked back and saw the tiny old man form of Hantengu being surrounded by a mass of wood. There was a second figure. This new form looked no older than Tanjiro's age. It wore intricate clothing that made it look like some sort of ancient god and bore horns. Behind it was a wheel adorned with drums that displayed the symbols for different emotions in Japanese kanji. (did I forget to mention the previous forms of Hantengu were based on core emotions? Cause they are.) It seemed that the separate forms of Hantengu had all been forced together into something much, much stronger.
Righty landed on two feet and let out a hot steamy exhale.
"Spite. Enmity. Pure hatred." The demon said in a venomous whisper.
"Fuck. Here goes." Righty began to take in deep breaths to get as much oxygen as possible.
"For those who bathe in pure evil." The demon half-raised its hands, showing it was wielding small items that appeared to be crafted from bull horns. Righty tried to remember if similar items were used in ceremonies. Apparently, those were the demon's weapons of choice.
Tanjiro saw the small form of Hantengu being swallowed by the wood and cried:
"Stop right there!"
The demon shot his gaze towards Tanjiro. Even though it wasn't directed to him, Righty could feel the aura. It was unlike the hatred of normal demons. It wasn't out of defiance or spite. Instead, this hatred was very... human.
"What is it, you scum? Don't like what I'm doing here? You evil fuckers." The demon hissed.
"Did..."
"Did I just hear him right?"
This was the question that rang through the minds of Genya, Righty and Tanjiro.
"How is the one trying to put an end to the creature that has taken the lives of hundreds of people... Evil? And how is that monster the hero..?"
"Why... Are we the evil ones?" Tanjiro whispered.
"Isn't it obvious? You're tormenting the weak. You're trying to bring harm to an innocent being no bigger than your palm. Only a monster would do that." The demon said. This 'Justice Demon' seemed to have quite a warped sense of reality.
"Small weakling..? What is this?" Tanjiro growled. His quiet malice changed into raging fury. "YOU REEK OF BLOOD, YOU'VE DEVOURED HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE! WHAT ABOUT THEM!? DID YOU NOT CARE WHEN THEY SCREAMED IN PAIN!? WHEN THEY CRIED FOR HELP!? WERE THEY NOTHING AT ALL!? STOP PLAYING THE VICTIM!!!" Tanjiro roared. "YOU'RE SICK!!! IT'S ABSOLUTELY UNFORGIVABLE!!!" The water/fire breather roared further. "EVIL DEMON. I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD!!!" Tanjiro declared.
"Well said buddy." Righty smiled.
-----------
"WRYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!" Lefty gurgled as he tried to vaporize the watery cocoon that enveloped him by heating his body. But the water only bubbled and fizzed out.
"Well, I'll leave you both to drown. I'll make sure to kill your friends in the slowest ways possible!" Gyokko laughed and turned towards the shed that Haganezuka was sharpening the sun sword in. Kanamori, who was guarding the door, lunged at Gyokko, only to be sent flying back with multiple gashes left in his upper body. Gyokko chuckled and slithered to the doorway.
"COME ON COME ON THINK!" Lefty thought vigorously. He had to protect Mr. Haganezuka, Mr. Kanamori, and Kotetsu. He had to protect the sun blade!
Lefty felt his blood begin rushing. Blood seemed to be coming from nowhere. His veins started to bulge and swell with pressure. Where was this blood coming from?
It was his stomach.
For one thousand years straight. Akai Suisei drank his own blood. That blood formed an ocean inside of Lefty's stomach. And right now, that ocean of blood was being released.
Lefty felt the pressure build. He felt every vessel, every possible canal for the blood to travel expand. The pressure rose and rose and rose and-
POP!!!
Lefty quite literally popped. Making a scarlet cloud envelop the bubble he was trapped in.
"Huh?" Gyokko turned around to look at the bubble. "What was that loud noise?" Gyokko wondered.
At that very moment, the bloody bubble lit up, and only a bright flash was visible.
BOOM!!!!
The blood that filled the bubble had been ignited and Lefty had been freed.
"Huh?" Gyokko turned around and stared at the glowing red figure. Lefty let out a long, heated his of an exhale and opened his eyes.
His body had accumulated so much blood that his skin had turned red. His body emitted a fast, constant drumming boom. His heartbeat was deafeningly loud. His eyes were beyond bloodshot, having turned completely black, excluding blood-red pupils. Blood slithered and squirmed at his exposed wounds, but they never ventured far from it. A constant red mist poured from his body. His blood was being vaporized.
"Breath of The Cosmos...."
...
...
...
"No..."
"This isn't a breathing style..."
"This is a blood demon art."
"Okay now."
"Blood Demon Art:"
Lefty looked up at Gyokko and smiled a bloodthirsty smile.
"RED ASURA!!!"
"What!?!?!" Gyokko froze in terror.
"What-"
"WHAT IS THIS!?!?!" Gyokko began to tremble in the face of this true demon.
-----------
"This whole time. Something was missing."
"The heat. This allowed me to burn them to ash."
"The heartbeat. This allowed me to keep on going."
"The blood. This will help me rip them to pieces."
"All of this together. It is perfection."
----------
In the brief silence that lasted between Gyokko and the destroyer, he dared to take in a breath. Like the flip of a switch, it set Lefty off. Lefty flew forward and blasted his fist straight into Gyokko's chest. Gyokko vomited blood and was sent flying through the wall of the flimsy shed. Lefty was fast enough to meet him on the other side, and planted his red hot knuckles into Gyokko's ribcage. He pummelled the upper moon with a barrage of mighty blows. Each hit left craters in Gyokko's vitals. First the heart, then the liver, the pancreas, the shoulders, the neck, the jaw! Lefty left no vital area unravaged. Blood sprayed from Gyokko like a fountain and splattered onto the ground in all directions. It seemed the upper moon would be pulverized without even getting a chance to retaliate!
However...
"What!?" Lefty barely noticed. His attacks were getting slower. Ever so slightly he noticed the speed at which his fists flew was beginning to decrease. It got slower, slower, slower still. Gyokko was able to sneak a quick cut, and sliced open Lefty's chest. Lefty's power began to wane. "What's happening to me!?" Lefty thought with pure terror as his skin returned to normal, the red vapor stopped being produced, and his heartbeat waned. His body finally slowed to a cracking halt.
His heart had given out.
This new form was the product of his heart kicking into hyperdrive, along with his new access to the sea of blood. The heartbeat of Red Asura was twice the speed of Akai Suisei's heartbeat when he faced Akaza, Daki, and Gyutaro. That form only lasted around five minutes. But the hyperdrive of this new Red Ashura form exponentially increased the amount of damage it did to his system. The heat and energy this produced should have killed him instantly, but this is where the blood ocean played in. Normal temperature Blood poured out from his stomach and into his body, cooling it maintaining a sustainable state. But the blood would soon vaporize, and he would need more. Despite the constant supply of cooling blood, his heart worked too fast and he was burning away more blood than he could produce. This meant his body was utterly destroyed in only thirty seconds. To add to this despair, the energy needed to heat his limbs were instead all poured into his heart, meaning he wasn't able to heat up properly. Gyokko had taken no serious damage!
"What the fuck is this!? I can't move!" Lefty thought with sheer terror. He felt his heartbeat slow to a crawl then stop. He was frozen, he couldn't breathe and his entire body screamed with pain. Gyokko pieced himself together and growled with rage.
"Why did you stop...?" He hissed.
"I'm gonna die!!!" It was Lefty's turn to be terrified.
"It's funny really." Gyokko chuckled. "You achieved a greater form, oh so much more powerful, and yet you failed to recognize its new limits and you paid for it. You were done before you could ever even shine! Oh the tragedy of your hubris!" Gyokko laughed with glee. "I can feel my artistic spirit surging!" Gyokko laughed harder. "You will be my next greatest work!" Gyokko readied a pot to begin the process.
"Nooo!!!" Kotetsu sprinted from his hiding spot and ran into Gyokko. Despite knowing it would do nothing, Kotetsu punched and kicked Gyokko with all his might. "You damn bastard!!!" Kotetsu cried.
"Tch. Annoying." Gyokko tossed the pot onto the ground. The pot shook suddenly and released a koi fish with sickle-shaped fins. The fish quickly showered Kotetsu in deep, destructive cuts. Kotetsu screamed and fell forward. Gyokko slithered past him and towards Lefty.
Kotetsu groaned and crawled towards Muichiro's bubble, where the mist pillar was fading in and out of consciousness. He lifted his mask and pressed his face to the cocoon. Using the last of his breath, Kotetsu exhaled a small bubble of air into the water. The bubble floated to the center and into Muichiro's mouth. After a moment, his eyes opened.
"Breath of Mist, Second Form: Layered Mist!" Muichiro's bubble was destroyed from within. Muichiro collapsed on the ground and coughed up water.
The sickle fish darted towards Muichiro, but he dispatched it easily. Muichiro coughed a little more and stabilized himself.
Muichiro saw Kotetsu and Lefty on the ground, dying, and glared at Gyokko. As he began to drown in the water cocoon earlier, Muichiro had a dream. He remembered his mother dying of sickness. He remembered his father falling to his death trying to get herbs for his mother on a cliff. He remembered his brother's death at the hands of a demon. He never wanted to see it again. He never wanted to let the people around him die again.
two small, cloud-shaped symbols appeared on the right side of his forehead and his left cheek.
"What is with my opponents and dramatic transformations?" Gyokko growled.
Muicciro drew his dulled sword and flew towards Gyokko.
"Octopus Pot Hell!" Enormous tentacles blasted out of Gyokko's pot and lashed about. They were so large and numerous that Gyokko was nowhere to be seen in the writhing masses. The huge tentacles slithered towards Muichiro. Muichiro clenched his teeth, his sword was too dull to cut through them all.
"Tokito-Kun!" Kanamori ran out of the shed carrying a sword. It wasn't the sun sword, but it seemed to be the one that Muichiro requested. It was the reason he had come to the Swordsmith Village.
Just as Kanamori reached Muichiro, the tentacles sprang. They enveloped Muichiro and Kanamori, squeezing the life out of them.
"I let my guard down. But now I can crush and absorb you without any problems.
In that very moment, the Tentacles were sliced into pieces.
"Are you fucking kidding me..?" Gyokko seethed even more.
"Thank you, Kanamori-san." Muichiro raised his new nichirin sword above his head.
"No no. I just followed the notes of your previous swordsmith." Kanamori waved his hand.
"Right... Old Tetsuido-san." Muichiro muttered. "He died of a heart attack..." Muichiro paused for a moment. "Thanks anyway Kanamori-san." Muichiro turned his head to look back at Kanamori.
Gyokko yelled and thirty seventy feet tentacles lashed towards Muichuro.
"Breath of Mist, Fifth Form:"
In an instant, the area was bathed in a thick fog.
"Sea of Clouded Mist." In an instant, the tentacles were sliced to pieces, and Muichiro was right next to Gyokko. Gyokko dodged the attack, moving so fast he appeared on a tree branch less than a second later.
"That was close. You minced it pretty fast, but you can't match the speed of my pots." Gyokko chuckled.
"Your senses must have dulled in these past few hundred years then." Muichiro responded.
"Huh?" Gyokko went as a large clean slash opened up in his neck. Gyokko growled with defiance.
"Next swing, it's coming off. I'm done playing games." Muichiro said.
"Don't underestimate me, brat." Gyokko seethed.
"It's not like I'm looking down on you. You're just gonna die in a bit." Muichiro began. "I'm feeling much better than normal, I wonder why."
"You're pretty disrespectful, you damn brat." Gyokko chuckled.
"Shit. I blacked out for a bit." Lefty awoke and lifted his head. He saw Muichiro keeping Gyokko busy with talk. Judging by the disintegrating octopus tentacles and fading mist strewn about, Muichiro had been fighting Gyokko for some time. Lefty unhitched a blood cup and popped its lid He took a good three gulps. All that did was make his minuscule cuts close. He was gonna be here for a while.
"Your looks and voice are downright disgusting." Muichiro said calmly, he was no longer put on edge by Gyokko.
"I am the apex of beauty. A fool like yourself would never understand." Gyokko said condescendingly.
"You sound like you live in a chamber pot." Muichiro insulted.
"Quiet you insect. You can't even reach my neck." Gyokko bit back.
"I did a second ago. Oh, were you muttering to yourself? I'm sorry." Muichiro tried to get under the upper moon's skin.
"Hyohyohyo! Trying to provoke me? You must be desperate. Did you think the great artist Gyokko would lose his cool?"
"I've been thinking. Are your pots malformed? They looked shitty and misshapen." Muichiro asked the upper moon.
"THAT'S BECAUSE YOUR EYES ARE FUCKING DAMAGED!!! THEY ARE PERFECT!!!!" Gyokko screamed, unable to take insults to his art. "Blood Demon Art: Thousand Gliding Clay Fish!" A torrent of flying fish sporting razor-sharp teeth poured out of Gyokko's pot. "My fish will strip you to the bone! Then I can make a new masterpiece!" Gyokko screamed with glee.
Muichiro sighed and steeled himself.
"Breath of Mist, Sixth Form: Moonlit Mist." Muichiro spun rapidly, cleaving the swarm of fish in two.
"Fool. The fish are filled with poison!" Gyokko smiled.
"Breath of Mist, Third Form:" Muichiro made a circular slice, pulling all of the fish guts away with a mist vortex. The moment it was clear Muichiro went in for the kill.
"Tch. I can molt." In a split second, Muichiro swung his blade, Gyokko shed his skin, leaving behind a husk that Muichiro sliced in two. "You will now see my final form. Only two others have seen this, so congratulate yourself." Gyokko chuckled.
"Woah, so scary." Muichiro said nonchalantly.
"Shut it. Once I get serious,I leave no survivors." Gyokko said.
"Wooooow." Muichiro went, unimpressed.
"SHUT IT! Ahem- These see-through scales are harder than diamonds, I kneaded them together in my pot." His entire body was lined with, carp like scales. His hands were webbed with jet black nails and he sported a mane of gill-like flesh. Instead of legs, he had a ten feet long snake or eel-like tail. he was quite the disgusting creature. "Now, prostrate yourself before my perfect beauty."
Muichiro: *confused staring*
Gyokko: WHY AREN'T YOU SAYING ANYTHING!?!?!??!
Muichiro: I'm not impressed.
In the blink of an eye, Gyokko's fist was inches from Muichiro's face. Gyokko lit up the area with a barrage of punches, that left toxic flying fish in its wake.
Muichiro had retreated to a tree. One of his sleeves were torn and a few flying fish nipped his clothes. Muichiro brushed them off and said:
"Man, you stink."
"How do you like my godlike power? My unparalleled speed? My soft and flexible body allows me to move faster than anything!" Gyokko exclaimed.
"Well, you couldn't catch me." Muichiro shrugged and smiled.
"YOUUUUUUU FUCKIIIIING!!!!" Gyokko seathed even further.
"Hey."
Gyokko turned around.
No one was there.
He turned back around and was met with a flaming fist. The fist didn't do any major damage, but it sent him flying off into the woods.
"Took you long enough." Muichiro said.
"Hey, I got careless and burnt myself out." Lefty shrugged and smirked.
"You're gonna have to repay me for making me fight hin alone for so long." Muichiro said.
"And how would I do that?" Lefty raised an eyebrow.
"Hmmm..." Muichiro thought for a moment. "Set me up for a killing blow." Muichiro decided.
"Can do, Amigo." Lefty chuckled.
"NYAH!!!" Gyokko flew out of the woods and went to claw Lefty in half. Lefty weaved around it without too much difficulty. He dodged the barrage of blows that came his way without too much trouble, which only made Gyokko madder.
"Wow, you're as fast as Akaza." Lefty commended Gyokko's speed.
"DON'T COMPARE ME TO THAT MARTIAL ARTS SCUMBAG!!!" Gyokko screamed and raised a fist. Lefty caught it and delivered a fiery punch to his neck, making Gyokko choke and lean back. Lefty followed it by planting his heel into Gyokko's chin, sending him flying into the air. Gyokko landed and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"What the hell... You were so much stronger before, how are you doing better when you're weaker!?!?" Gyokko yelled.
"I went nuts and burnt out too fast. Now that I'm focused I can make sure I put just the right amount of effort into everything. Lookee here." Lefty put his hands in his short pockets.
"My hands don't have to leave my lockets for you to die." Lefty declared.
"You punk ass!!!" Gyokko flared his claws and charged. Lefty shifted to the side, but a single claw snuck by and tore open his neck, spraying blood all over Gyokko. "I got him!" Gyokko smiled. But it was all according to plan. The blood came alive and wrapped around Gyooko, pinning his arms to his sides loke chains. "WHA!?!?!?" Was all Gyokko could think before Muichiro flew down from the tree and cut off his head, effortlessly cutting through diamond-hard scales. Gyokko's head rolled away and his body collapsed to the ground.
"That was quite ballsy, letting him do that to you." Muichiro said.
"I'm a demon, so it's not so bad." Lefty shrugged, not caring about the blood pouring out of his neck.
"Now, Gyokko." Lefty used his blood to mangle and disfigure Gyokko's disintegrating body and picked up Gyokko's head. Gyokko's eyed were full of malice and rage.
"Don't be so grim, come see what I made for you!" Lefty placed the head down next to the mangled corpse and spread some of his own blood around it, setting the blood aflame and making sure it burned Gyokko's cheek and parts of his body. Lefty scraped up some sand and melted it into a glass mirror.
Lefty held the mirror in front of Gyokko's head allowing them to see the work of art Lefty had made out of his body. It was his mangled corpse and severed head, bent and broken in every way, covered in flaming blood. "I present to you: 'pescado quemado'."
Gyokko stared at the artwork for a moment, then chuckled. It was quite ironic. He insulted Lefty for being taken out at his best in only thirty seconds, yet he himself suffered the same fate. It couldn't beat his works, but Lefty's was rather pleasant.
"You have quite some talent, young man." Gyokko chuckled.
"Maybe you were once a good artist when you were human. I hope you can be a good artist again, in the next life. Rest in peace..." Lefty bowed as Gyokko's head faded to ash.
"Was that a foreign language?" Muichiro asked.
"Yea, my dad kept a lot of foreign books. I picked up some vocab." Lefty said and chuckled. "Anyways, I'm gonna go help the others." Lefty said.
"I'll patch up the swordsmiths. The kakushi will be here soon anyway." Muichiro said. "If the sun sword is finished soon, I'll take it and deliver it to you guys." Muichiro said.
"Alright, see ya later." Lefty waved and ran off into the woods.
----------
Note: The picture I used earlier is from the manga 'Kengan Ashura'
Fuck, that felt good.
Howdy fam, author here. It's been a while huh? Well just so you know I'm back, or I think I'm back. Finals soon so y'know. But I think I'm back. Anyways, Anyways.
MAKE SURE YOU READ HERE it's VERY IMPORTANT.
So, a reader by the name of 'NormalDude06' has decided to do a crossover of a sorts. He has asked me for permission to use my character, Akai Suisei, In his story to spice things up. His book is titled 'Kimetsu City: The World's Unknown'. Don't worry, there (probably) won't be any interdimensional portal or anything to disrupt my story. He is using my character in his own continuity, so there won't be any connection to other universes (yet...). Anyways, if you like my story you might like his as well.
Also: 3,616 words! I think that's a new record!
See you soon readers!