Chapter 74: Hinokami Kagura. Angry Zero!

Boom!

With another kick, he sent Tanjiro flying into the distance.

The force was so great that Tanjiro vomited another large mouthful of blood.

"Cough, cough... so strong! Stronger than any demon I've encountered so far! Is this the Twelve Kizuki?! If a Lower Moon demon is this strong, then the Upper Moon demon Zero-aniki encountered must be..."

Nezuko, hanging upside down in mid-air by spider silk, saw her brother fighting the demon alone and attempted to break free from the restraints to help him!

But unfortunately, the hardness of the spider silk was not something her current strength could break free from.

She could only roar there.

"So noisy, be quiet for a while."

Whoosh!

Crack!

The spider silk on Nezuko's body tightened suddenly, and her bones creaked.

The wounds were also tightened deeper, and blood slid down the spider silk.

"Nezuko! Stop it!!!" Tanjiro shouted.

Struggling to no avail, Nezuko slowly closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

"Eh? She fainted? Is she asleep? A demon with such a unique scent, it seems a bit different from us... how interesting!"

Whoosh~

Tanjiro adjusted his somewhat chaotic breathing; he knew very well that now was not the time to be emotional.

The disparity in strength between the two sides was too great; he could only think calmly, otherwise, he would fall right into the other party's trap!!

"Concentrate, adjust breathing, release the final form with the highest precision!"

Total Concentration!

Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!

This was the final form of Water Breathing, and also the strongest form! The more it rotated, the stronger its power would be!

Tanjiro held the broken blade, like a giant water dragon, rotating his body and sprinting forward!

"Don't you understand that this is meaningless?" Seeing him still making futile resistance, Rui's eyes were filled with disdain.

He continued to throw out silk threads with both hands.

Unexpectedly, all the thrown silk threads were cut by the broken blade.

"Cut! All cut! I can do it!"

Afterward, he continued to advance, closing the distance, determined to cut off the demon's neck!

Similarly, Rui also discovered the principle behind this.

He found that with every rotation, the power would increase, feeling somewhat tricky.

But it was just a feeling.

"I say, you don't think this is the limit of my silk thread strength, do you?"

Rui's hands were covered in blood, which condensed on the silk threads.

All the silk threads turned from white to red, and their hardness was several times stronger than before!

Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage!

Instantly, a terrifying aura enveloped Tanjiro, and red spider silk surrounded him from all directions.

Once he broke through by force, even a Nichirin blade would be cut into pieces!

"No... I can't cut this thread! The aura of this thread is completely different from before! The number of rotations isn't enough, I can't cut it at all! I clearly can't lose..."

"Die... I'm going to die..."

Just in this short moment, a lantern of life appeared in Tanjiro's eyes, flashing through one scene after another.

【Tanjiro, breathe...】

Recalling his childhood, his father had once danced the Hinokami Kagura.

At that time, his father was weak and sickly.

However, every year at the beginning of the year when dancing the Hinokami Kagura, he could dance for three days and three nights!

【Tanjiro, look, your father is dancing the Kagura dance!】

【Our family has been engaged in work related to fire for generations. To avoid fires related to fire, we offer a dance to the Fire God every year at the beginning of the year to pray...】

At that time, Tanjiro was still young.

He didn't understand why his father, who was clearly weak and sickly, could dance for so long on such a snowy day?

Childhood memories surfaced one by one in Tanjiro's mind...

Later, it was his father who told him: it's breathing!

Breathing has a method; as long as the breathing is correct, you won't feel tired no matter what you do.

Even, you can do things that ordinary people can't do...

【Tanjiro, this Kagura dance and the earrings, you must pass them down from generation to generation; we have an agreement.】

Kagura dance... Breathing Technique...

At this moment, Tanjiro's thoughts returned to reality, and unprecedented power erupted from his body!

Whoosh...

Hinokami Kagura: Waltz!

Switching from Water Breathing to Hinokami Kagura, that water dragon also turned into a fire dragon, breaking through the silk thread cage in one fell swoop, burning and cutting them all.

And then, in one go, he continued to advance!

He knew very well that even if the thread, which was like a living creature, was cut, new threads would spread out quickly.

After he forcibly switched from Water Breathing to Hinokami Kagura, he couldn't have any retreat!

Once he retreated, the side effects would occur.

In the end, he would be unable to move!

He would only be at the mercy of the demon!

Therefore, at this very moment, no matter what obstacles were in front, he couldn't stop!

Rui hadn't expected that his strongest thread would be burned!

He accelerated his hand movements, radiating more red spider threads to stop Tanjiro.

But now Tanjiro was completely fearless, cutting all the threads while using Hinokami Kagura, and accelerating his pace to close the distance!

Even if his body was scratched and bleeding by the threads, it still couldn't stop his determination to move forward.

There were more and more threads, but as Tanjiro danced and swung his blade, they were all burned to ashes!

"Can't stop! Continue forward! Run! I must protect Nezuko!"

Determination that broke through bamboo, even if covered in wounds, he had to move forward bravely!

"This guy...!!" Seeing this, Rui had no choice but to retreat while manipulating the silk threads.

However, precisely because of this action, Tanjiro saw the 【Line of Interval】 on his neck!

"I see it! The 【Line of Interval】! Now is the time, I must defeat him! Even if it means dying together, I must cut off the demon's neck!"

At the same time.

Nezuko, hanging upside down in mid-air and fallen into a deep sleep, was being awakened by her father.

【Nezuko, wake up, Tanjiro is in danger!】

【Tanjiro needs help, only you can help him now...】

【If this continues, Tanjiro will die!】

Suddenly, Nezuko opened her eyes wide, and her aura changed.

The blood on her body and the blood on the silk threads turned bright red and started to burn.

Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood!

The high-temperature flames scorched the silk threads, and Nezuko could even manipulate the flames to burn whatever she wanted to burn.

The battle between Rui and Tanjiro was still continuing.

Just then, a flame rushed over, separating the two of them, and Rui's silk threads were all burned!

Ding!!!

Tanjiro also rushed out from the flames, swung his broken blade, and struck Rui's neck, emitting a crisp sound!

The erupted power went directly through the other side of the neck!

And those flames didn't cause any substantial damage or scorching signs to Tanjiro!

"The bond between me and Nezuko, no matter who... cannot be cut!!!"

Boom!

Pfft!

He slashed a curved arc wrapped in flames at Rui's neck with the broken blade in his hand, cutting it off instantly!

Coupled with the high-temperature flames triggered by Nezuko's blood dripping onto the broken blade, the power was strengthened once again.

After the battle ended, Rui's head fell to the side, and Tanjiro fell down because his body was somewhat overloaded.

In mid-air, the silk threads were burned, and Nezuko fell to the ground not far away.

Seeing Nezuko, Tanjiro climbed up with difficulty, wanting to walk over.

However, the side effects of Tanjiro switching from Water Breathing to Hinokami Kagura also erupted at this moment.

His body became incomparably heavy, his vision blurred, he felt dizzy, and his tinnitus was quite severe!

He could only crawl over little by little.

Even, he had to take Nezuko with him to help Inosuke.

"Nezuko... Nezuko..."

Suddenly, Tanjiro smelled a pungent odor in the air.

"The scent of blood has become stronger?!"

He recalled the previous battles, the demons he had killed, whose bodies would slowly turn into ashes.

But he hadn't smelled that kind of burning body scent just now, which made his nervous heart tighten again!

"Could it be... but I clearly cut off his neck!"

Behind him, Rui's headless body slowly walked toward him.

Whoosh!

The headless body manipulated the silk threads to lift Rui's head.

Rui's voice reached Tanjiro's ears: "You think you won? Truly pitiful! Is it happy to indulge in delusions?"

"I used my own silk threads to cut off my neck, that's enough, I'm going to kill you and your sister!"

It turned out that at the moment his neck was about to be cut, Rui had used his own silk threads to separate his head from his body in advance.

That was how he avoided being beheaded!

The headless body took Rui's head and reattached it to his neck; at this moment, Rui only felt a burst of anger and rage.

Tanjiro dragged his exhausted body, crawling with all his might toward his sister; he had to protect Nezuko.

"I only feel a burst of irritation now! In the end, why didn't you burn? Only I and my threads burned?

I don't know if this is your sister's power, but I'm very grateful that you actually made me so irritable! Now, I'll send you on your way!"

"I'm going to tear you two apart without mercy!"

Blood Demon Art: Killing Eye Cage!

The silk threads in his hands, like cat's cradle, wove a spider web that bound everything in all directions, trapping Tanjiro inside, preparing to strangle him in one go!

The surrounding air made Tanjiro unable to breathe, his body felt as if it were being cut, and blood flowed freely.

Suddenly, a figure fell from mid-air, quickly rotating his Nichirin scythe, cutting all the silk threads to pieces!

"Who came? Zenitsu?"

When he lifted his head, he saw that familiar figure.

"Sorry Tanjiro, I'm late! I let you and little Nezuko suffer! Next, leave it to me!"

"Zero-aniki..."

The person who came was Zero.

"If you can still move, watch little Nezuko first!"

As soon as he finished speaking, another figure appeared beside Tanjiro.

Giyu Tomioka.

"Giyu, you're just in time, I'll leave the two of them to you to take care of, I'll solve him! Hehehe..."

Giyu Tomioka didn't speak, did as Zero said, and drew his Nichirin blade to guard beside Tanjiro and Nezuko.

He felt anger in Zero's tone!

That kind of anger was the first time he had seen it.

He had never seen him get angry in the Demon Slayer Corps before; he was always calm and chatting happily with everyone.

But this time...

Looking at the situation, it was that Lower Moon demon that had touched some bottom line of Zero's.

Seeing people appear one after another, "That's enough! One after another... a bunch of scum only hindering my business!"

Blood Demon Art: Thread Wheel Rotation!

He manipulated the hardest silk threads in his hands, weaving a giant vortex-shaped cocoon, and fired it at Zero.

Just as it was about to approach Zero, a blue light radiated from his body to block it.

All the silk threads were torn apart, unable to move forward even a fraction!

"How is that possible?! My silk threads are ineffective against him! I don't believe it! Again!"

Blood Demon Art...

Boom!

Zero flashed in front of Rui, threw a punch, hit the ground, and smashed a large pit!

Rui was dazed by this punch, opened his eyes again, met Zero's gaze, and a sense of fear arose spontaneously!

It was as if what he saw was a black figure surrounded by blood-red aura, with red light glowing in his eyes!

Like a grim reaper who had come to claim his life!

"Now, I say, you seem very irritable~ Who gave you the courage?"

Thump!

He kicked Rui, sending him flying into a tree trunk, and he even seemed to hear the sound of bones breaking.

Crack!

The massive force caused the tree behind Rui to be knocked to the ground.

These injuries were irrelevant to Rui; he could regenerate quickly.

But, inside, he only felt a burst of humiliation!

However, it wasn't over yet; Zero appeared in front of him again and said: "I don't know why I'm so angry either? Maybe it's because Tanjiro called me an aniki~ As an aniki, failing to protect my younger brother and sister makes me feel very uncomfortable~"

As an aniki... protecting younger brother and sister...

This sentence kept echoing in Rui's ears, and it also reminded him of the scene where Nezuko protected her brother just now.

Is this their bond?

Why? Why, why, why?

Why is their bond so deep!

I want a bond like this too!

Since I can't have it, then destroy it!

Blood Demon Art...

Pop!

Before Rui could launch his Blood Demon Art, he was punched to the ground again.

Vomiting blood.

Just as he stretched out his hands wanting to release his Blood Demon Art, his arms were forcibly torn off by Zero!

"Ahhhhh!!!" A heart-rending scream erupted from Rui's mouth.

"The wounds on little Nezuko were also caused by you, right?"

Pop!

With another kick, he sent Rui flying, knocking down a tree.

Tanjiro, not far away, only felt that the Zero he saw now... seemed very strange!

However, hearing that Zero was standing up for him and Nezuko, he felt a burst of warmth in his heart.

In an instant, Nezuko also woke up.

Seeing Zero, she wanted to rush forward, but was blocked by Giyu Tomioka with his Nichirin blade.

"Don't go over!"

Nezuko was about to get angry, but when she saw Giyu Tomioka's face, she realized it was an acquaintance, so she didn't make any further moves.

Instead, she returned to Tanjiro's side and hugged him.

Seeing this scene, Giyu Tomioka seemed to remember who this pair of siblings were?!

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt a killing intent locking onto Nezuko.

He immediately rushed forward and raised his Nichirin blade to block the attack!

Clang!

The weapons collided, sparking a fire.

"Tomioka-san, why are you stopping me?" The person who came was Butterfly Shinobu.

She was very dissatisfied with Giyu Tomioka's actions.

It seemed that if he didn't give her a good explanation, she wouldn't let it go!