Demon Slayer : The Silent Journey-Chapter 182: We are so back!!

[Seiji's POV]

It's been a long time.

Almost too long.

I really miss you guys. I hope you feel the same way.

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That's what I wanted to say, but the circumstances wouldn't allow me. My eyes observed the people below, in just a split second, I saw the deaths and casualties the attack had cost.

My eyes focused on the living next, the ones that still could be saved. My eyes lingered on those important to me, Shinobu, Kanao, Tanjiro, Inosuke and a few familiar faces.

Only after all that, I spared a glance at the demons. But even then, I barely looked. I no longer searched for their weakness, no longer eyed for an opening.

Why?

Becuase they were weak, everything about them was their weakness. I could cut them at their most armoured part, at their erected defences, it wouldn't matter. I knew I would kill them with one swing.

"Renjiro is back!!" Inosuke bellowed from my side, "You're so screwed now, demons!!"

I allowed a small smile to stretch my face at that. Indeed they were screwed.

My eyes counted seventy remaining demons in the vicinity, but they were frozen due to my killing intent from Living's Malice. They were the disgrace of Muzan's attempt to create stronger demons. Raw power and no brain to use it.

To be honest, it was not my plan to return so early. I was still waiting for my new sword, and I thought I would return after Hatori finished making it.

But circumstances required me to come back earlier than expected. The firework, which was an idea Kanae and I came up with when we talked about our first date, was only to be used as a call for reinforcement in an emergency.

You could say it was a call for me specifically, since I had eyes that could cover an insane range. That was the idea in the first place.

Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.

"Let's finish this quickly," I muttered and pulled out my sword. It was the same sword I had when I first set out to become a Demon Slayer.

A sword that a renowned blacksmith created for me after I won my national kendo competition. I remember giving it to Hatori when I first received my nichirin blade.

My eyes stared at the sharp edge that had eroded a bit due to constant use. It was not a nichirin blade, but I rarely need those to kill demons these days.

I had made myself the bane of demons, I could slay them with any blade.

"Ice Breathing : Third form,"

A combination of Water Breathing, Wind Breathing and Mist Breathing. It was a new breathing style I created in the early stage of my one year journey.

Breathing Styles were basically about maintaining a pattern of breathing to strengthen the body. Initially, it was a great invention to increase the power of humans, but later on, it became a limitation.

The thing was, before Breathing Styles were invented, humans still fought the demons. They had to make up for the difference in strength in some way. But that was long forgotten after the emergence of breathing styles.

The modern demon slayers' main fighting style was solely built around their Breathing Style. To get stronger, they just became more proficient with their breathing style or learn multiple like me.

Due to this, we've overlooked things like pure sword skills, footwork, balance and techniques. It was why I was the best in sword skills even among the Hashira ever since the start.

A swordsman's techniques should have never been limited to a dozen forms.

I created Ice Breathing to escape that flawed custom. It was my first step to breaking out from the path Yoriichi had carved for every Demon Slayer.

"Avalanche slash,"

The main concept behind breathing styles had always been heat. The father of all styles was Sun Breathing, the red blade was just a heated blade, and the weakness of demons was the heat of the sun.

In such a case, Ice Breathing should be impossible.

I fell from the roof and landed on the ground in absolute silence. Then I blurred. I was not fast enough to outrun sound, but my movement was silent. Heat roared, but cold was hush.

The techniques of Ice Breathing encompass the whole body. It was not just about breathing patterns, it was how you moved every inch of your body.

I did not pull up my feet further than one inch from the ground with each step. That allowed me to step faster with the same effort. From an outside perspective, it looked like I was gliding on the floor like it was made of ice.

When I reached my target, I swung my sword. But I swung with the flat part facing the demons until the last moment, where I changed my grip and the edge easily bit through the demon's neck.

My swing created a vacuum in the air, messing up the atmospheric pressure. In one single swoop, I sliced off five demon heads and appeared in front of Shinobu.

"Long time no see, Shibi," I said with my face right in front of hers. I could feel her laboured breath on my skin.

Everything had happened in a split second.

She blinked before she returned my small smile with her own, except hers looked relieved. "It's been a year,"

"But you came back just in time," she said.

I shook my head, "I came a few minutes too late,"

There had been casualties, there had been deaths. All of which could be avoided if I were slightly faster. I quickly buried the guilt at the depths of my soul.

Such guilt had been piling up ever since I started hunting demons, I would deal with them after this whole war was over. It was something every Hashira had in common.

The groans and screams of agony coming from the ground caught Shinobu's attention. I followed her gaze and looked at the five demons lying on the floor, their head and bodies separated by they were alive.

"That's...." Shinobu said, looking at the part where my blade cut. The wound on their neck was all covered in a layer of cold ice, which prevented them from regenerating.

Unlike other Breathing Styles, Ice Breathing could also produce its element. The shift in pressure from my swing had created ice through a Joule-Thompson effect.

"I'll explain it on the dinner table," I said with a wave, then I focused on the other demons.

After the first attack, they came out of their stupor and were moving with different intentions. Some tried to run, some came to attack me, while others continued attacking the humans in front of them.

I moved again, Shinobu following me soon after. We made quick work of the demons in the vicinity, there were no exceptional demons among them. They were stronger than most, but not enough to matter to me.

A cockroach could be a hundred times bigger than an ant, but they were equally small under the boot.

My boot.

After that was done, my eyes looked towards the ongoing fight in the distance. It was a fight between two individuals, but it was more intense than anything else.

I moved towards the battle immediately,

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[3rd POV]

"69 face remaining!! You are never going to be able to kill me at this rate," Omburo said while wearing a woman's face that was smiling from ear to ear.

Giyu released a shaky breath, and he felt the muscles coiling around his body. He was tired and exhausted. The demon was right, there was no way he could kill Omburo more than ten times.

The demon was getting weaker with each mask he lost, but Giyu was tiring out faster. As expected, the demon had an advantage in its endless stamina and regeneration.

Giyu felt the demon slayer mark on his face disappearing, and his fatigue got better. The mark was indeed powerful but it was burning through his stamina more than necessary.

Giyu moved, still a blur even after deactivating his mark, but this time Omburo was able to dodge by leaning back at an impossible angle, effectively breaking his own spine.

"Nope! Not letting you kill me again! 69 is perfect," Omburo said in a voice familiar to a clown before he leapt into the trees and bounced around like crazy.

"Can't catch me, can't catch me, can't catch me," Omburo mocked while Giyu observed his pattern, learning it to predict the next move.

"YOU CAN"T CATCH ME-"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*

The atmosphere ruptured.

The whole section of the forest was literally carved out. The trees were minced into pieces like they were put in a blender. The earth bore a deep scar that revealed browner soil.

The whole place buckled under the might and anger of the wind.

A calamity.

Giyu had a deadpan face, his eyes rounded in surprise. Amid the smoke and chaos, a familiar man was revealed, but he was a bit different from how Giyu remembered.

"COME THE FUCK OUT DEMON!!!" Sanemi bellowed in anger. He had veins all over his body, and his face was the definition of anger. It could be put in a dictionary, and every language would understand anger.

Instead of eyes, he had slitted holes of anger. His teeth looked feral, like the teeth of a wild beast.

He turned towards Giyu, and the Water Hashira had to take a step back as killing intent flooded out from Sanmei. But luckily, nothing happened as he looked away again.

"Oh no, you really caught me at an embarrassing moment," Omburo came out from the rubble with a new mask on his face. This time, it was truly a demonic face. The demon had decided to pull out a stronger mask since the last attack was quite powerful.

Sanemi turned his gaze towards the demon, and for a moment, he paused. He was rightfully confused as he thought he had killed the demon.

"That's one of the Twelve Moon Demons. His blood demon art allowed him to have multiple lives," Giyu took the moment to explain. "We need to kill him at least 68 more times,"

Sanemi paused at the news before he looked down at the ground. His eyes were hidden.

"Hehehehe, despairing already? That's no good, you should give it your best," Omburo said, his demonic face grew six eyes, eerily similar to Kokushibo's face/

"No.." Sanemi said, and then looked up with the most savage face yet. It was a mix of euphoria and raw rage.

"That is bloody perfect!!" he disappeared and landed a kick at the demon, which immediately caved in the entire chest of Omburo.

Sanemi just found a punching bag where he could release all his anger.

"Don't die yet!!" Sanemi shouted as Omburo shot forward like a ragdoll above the forest.

Snamei blurred in a green light, and his afterimage seemed to split the dark forest in two. Cannon or not, Sanemi was still the third strongest among the Hashira.

"...." Giyu just stared with a straight face at the now-empty space.

"I guess I will look for other demons," he said and then run along to a different direction.

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Author : We're back!!

Give stones!! I might update extra Chapter if I can finish tonight.