“Burp~”
Shimizu, letting out a satisfied burp, walked through the forest outside the Swordsmith Village with Yoriichi Type Zero following behind.
Having just finished a hearty meal of wild vegetables, he planned to take a stroll, digest his food, and then take a dip in the hot spring bath built by the nearby swordsmiths.
Just thinking about it was extremely satisfying.
The sun was setting, and the brief twilight was about to fade.
On the way back, Shimizu suddenly stopped, his hand reaching for the hilt of his sword.
“You're very vigilant! Konnichiwa, I'm Douma. I came because I smelled a pleasant scent and wanted to ask for directions.”
A young man wearing a red hat walked up to Shimizu a short distance away, a smile on his face as he extended his hand in greeting.
Notably, his eyes had a dazzling array of colors, with the words 'Upper Rank' written on his left eyeball and the number 'Two' on his right.
“Scent?”
“Ah, yes, I smelled the fragrant scent of young women over there, and I was hungry, so I thought I'd ask a passerby!”
Douma pointed with a smile towards the mountaintop in the distance.
That was where the hot spring was located.
Could he be referring to Kanroji Mitsuri?
Was she taking a bath right now?
“Ah! That's right!”
Douma clapped his hands together, as if remembering something, and looked at Shimizu:
“You seem quite strong. Are you a Pillar? Don't worry, I don't eat men. At most, I'll borrow your head for a bit. Would you do me this favor?”
Douma clasped his hands together, held them under his chin, and looked at Shimizu with an expectant expression.
“You make a very good point! But in that case, please forgive my impoliteness!”
Douma bowed to Shimizu, still wearing a smile.
“Also, although I know you're deliberately talking to me for so long, probably to buy time for reinforcements, I'm still very happy that you're willing to talk to me for so long. After all, my colleagues don't seem to like talking to me very much~ Ah, except for Gyokko. He should already be in that village, visiting you, right?”
As Douma's words fell, two golden fans emerged from his sleeves, scattering countless lotus-shaped ice crystals, sweeping towards Shimizu and Yoriichi Type Zero by his side.
“Blood Demon Art: Frozen Lotus Leaves!”
Yoriichi Type Zero took a step forward, blocking in front of Shimizu, and quickly swung his sword to deflect all the ice crystals.
“It's quite cold…”
Shimizu drew his Nichirin Blade, his expression somewhat grave as he looked at Douma.
After all, he was Upper Rank Two, so he couldn't afford to be careless.
Fortunately, he had brought Yoriichi Type Zero with him, which meant he had an extra Pillar-level combatant on his side.
The only pity was that he hadn't brought the puppet armor, otherwise his own combat power would have been even higher.
But it wasn't like he couldn't fight.
Douma's greatest strength was that his Blood Demon Art could create low temperatures, adding tiny ice crystals to the air, damaging the lungs of Breath Style users and preventing them from using their Breathing Techniques.
But for Shimizu, this wasn't a problem.
Even without Breathing Techniques, his overall combat power was still high with the addition of Chakra. The only thing he needed to worry about was that the puppet might freeze up due to the low temperature.
But…
“Lightning Release: Lightning Prison!”
A hand filled with lightning pressed against the ground, injecting a large amount of Lightning Release Chakra into the earth.
In the blink of an eye, bolts of lightning rose vertically from the ground, like a cage surrounding the area.
The high temperature carried by the lightning instantly decomposed the tiny ice crystals in the air and continuously bombarded Douma.
At the same time, Yoriichi Type Zero also tapped the switch on his right hand with his left hand, activating the battery connected to the Nichirin Blade, and then charged towards Douma.
“Hmm?”
Douma waved his fan, creating a lotus flower sculpted from ice crystals, rising from beneath his feet to protect himself. At the same time, his right hand waved his fan again, condensing countless ice vines entwined with ice lotus flowers, wrapping around Yoriichi Type Zero.
“Why… does this person's appearance give me a familiar feeling? No… I've never met him. Is it the memory of Muzan-sama's cells…”
Douma touched the area around his eyes, feeling that something was wrong.
What exactly was this cold, silent, red-haired samurai? Why did he feel like he wasn't alive?
And that Pillar could control lightning? Was the Thunder Breathing of the Demon Slayer Corps this strong?
Shimizu was also extremely cautious at the moment.
He had only been training Chakra with this body for less than a year. Even though his body had developed to a certain extent, his Chakra reserves weren't that high, so he couldn't maintain large-scale Lightning Release ninjutsu for long.
There was no mistake in every single word!
But demons had almost infinite stamina, and Douma could continuously create ice over a wide area.
It wasn't a wise choice to fight a war of attrition with a demon.
However, he seemed to have other ways to deal with these ice crystals.
Shimizu diverted a portion of his mind, sinking his senses into the lungs within his body.
Good, having trained the Heart-Seeing Technique, his sensory abilities had also improved. Although he wasn't sure if he could use the Microscopic Illness Extraction Technique on others without the aid of medical equipment, it was more than enough to use it on himself.
The lightning gradually subsided, and Douma waved his fan again.
“Blood Demon Art: Frozen Clouds.”
This time, the scale of the ice crystals was much larger than before, as if a cold wave was sweeping in.
Not far from here on the mountain, the bodies of two youthful and fair young women rose from the water.
“Oh my, why has the weather suddenly become so cold! Shinobu, look, there's even fog outside the window!”
Kanroji Mitsuri wrapped herself in a yukata and pointed to the window.
Kochou Shinobu hastily tidied up, put on her clothes, frowned, and picked up the slender Nichirin Blade beside her.
She endured the excruciating pain every day to inject herself with concentrated wisteria poison, so sometimes, when she had free time, she would come to this mountain to relieve the pain with the healing power of the hot spring here.
“No, it's summer now. Even if there was hail, there wouldn't be such abnormal weather, let alone such sudden changes in a short period of time.”
Such an abnormal change reminded her of the murderer who killed her sister.
“Waa! Waa! Demons are attacking the village! Demons are attacking the village! All swordsmen, quickly provide support! All swordsmen, quickly provide support!”
Kochou Shinobu's eyes instantly became fierce, and she put on her butterfly-like haori, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Kanroji Mitsuri also hurriedly picked up the Nichirin Blade that she hadn't had time to change and chased after her.
“Breath of Separation, Third Form: Revolving Whirlwind of Separation!”
“Blood Demon Art: Scattered Lotus Blossoms!”
The dense plasma and endless ice crystal petals annihilated each other.
Shimizu bit the Nichirin Blade in his mouth, using one hand to manipulate Yoriichi Type Zero with Chakra threads to continue blocking Douma's attacks, and the other hand to activate the Microscopic Illness Extraction Technique, extracting the tiny ice crystals from his body.
