How was the white-haired man going to reach Swordsmith Village in time?
The Hashiras had asked this question to themselves.
They had never expected the answer to take this form, though.
Wind rustled in their ears, the twilight sun glowing in their eyes.
Around them, the hint of distant clouds burned against the golden glow.
They were flying.
High in the air, they were all shooting forward without wings.
Kai's Telekinesis was powerful enough to not let the Hashiras feel its pressure around them if he wished to. However, he wanted them to have this experience at its full might.
He carried the Hashiras as if he was a plane's body and they were his Wings, Shinobu, of course, sitting on his back, no gust of wind slapping her face.
Black and the rest of the gang were flying behind the Hashiras and Selene had already fused with him.
"Will we reach in time?" Shinobu asked, a hint of blush still lingering on her face. "It's almost dark."
Kai smiled, tapping her leg. "Hold tight."
Then, with one great push, the speed almost doubled.
The Hashiras gritted their teeth as they almost passed out because of the sheer pressure falling on their bodies.
Still, it was much better than the pressure they would have to put themselves through if they had run to the Village, instead.
There were faster ways to reach the Swordsmith Village.
But Kai didn't want to use Shadow Space to instantly appear near Rengoku. If he did that, then it would defeat the entire purpose.
Fighting against the wind, whistling and screaming, by the time all spied the hint of a village in the distant grounds, it had already gone dark.
The heat found their bodies before the cold could seep into their bones.
ROAR!!!!!!!!!
A giant fire dragon shot from the ground, coiling up and up.
Then, brandishing its boiling, magma-like claws, it fell, raging.
It felt like a volcano had erupted, spattering lava in all directions.
Rengoku's Bankai —
— Hi-no-Kagutsuchi!!!
…
When they finally arrived in the skies over the village, the scene was anything but optimistic.
Countless fish demons, carrying a vase over their backs, were attacking the villagers.
Houses were ruined, with craters here and there. Trees were uprooted. Magma was flowing like streams of river.
A dark wind was howling, now and then.
Deafening, golden sound waves echoed far and wide.
Bolts of electricity were raining down, scorching the living and dead.
Spiritual, demonic spears were tearing through all and everything in the village.
And, in the thick of everything, was Rengoku, surrounded by not two, but five Demons.
This?!
…
Rengoku, the Flame Hashira, was covered in Flame Cursed Marks.
The curved, bloody sword in his hands was drenched with flames, letting out draconic roars.
There were such wounds on his body that one could see bones underneath the ruptured flesh.
Blood was sputtering out of the wounds, but the moment it left Rengoku's body, it evaporated, enshrouding him under a thick, bloody mist.
It didn't take a genius to guess that Rengoku's plan to catch the demons off-guard had backfired.
Not only that, but now, even after in his Bankai state, he was having trouble merely standing.
Much less needed to be said about facing off the demons and retaliating.
The Flame Hashira was dying, right in front of their eyes. If they had been late by even a few minutes, then all they would have found was a village laden with corpses with Rengoku's flaming, lifeless body.
All Hashiras looked at Kai with a complicated gaze.
"Let's go!" the Wind Hashira screamed. "What are you waiting for?!"
Kai smiled at him. "Even if you all throw yourself into the fight, it wouldn't matter."
The complicated gaze suddenly gained a darker touch.
"Amitabha!" the Stone Hashira put his palms together. "You are underestimating us."
Yes, the Hashiras were incapable of reaching their peak, but with all of them working together, surely they could fend off two Upper Moons, if not kill them.
But they had misunderstood Kai.
He didn't mean that the Hashiras' joining the battle wouldn't change the outcome.
"I meant…" Kai said, Shinobu already vanishing off his back, "… there's no need for any of you to go down there."
…
Panting, Rengoku eyed the two Upper Moons.
He had to admit. This time, he had been fooled.
He had underestimated the queer powers of Upper Ranks, by far.
At first, Rengoku had thought that he would be able to claim at least one of the two demons' heads by faking the injury, as advised by Kai.
But he couldn't blame Kai, either. His plan had actually worked. However, the moment he landed the killing blow, decapitating one of them, that one Upper Demon became two.
Then, the two became four.
By the time Rengoku realized what was going on, the stakes had already fallen against him.
Meanwhile, the Upper Rank Five, who called himself Gyokko, kept attacking him with weird attacks.
He had the form of a pale white, grotesque humanoid with a muscular upper torso that had no arms. He had multiple underdeveloped and infant-like hands with red fingernails; four on his head that replaced his ears and several lining up his body and tail.
In the place of his eyes, he carried distorted mouths.
One of his eyes was in the place of his mouth, while the other hung on his forehead.
The worst thing was that Rengoku had failed to land even a single blow on Gyokko till now as the demon kept teleporting from one place to another using the vases.
Then there were fish demons that were terrorizing the village.
Rengoku looked at the five demons surrounding him from all sides and smiled.
"You can still laugh?!" Sekido shouted. "Why aren't we killing him?!!"
Upper Rank Four, Hantengu, had split into four demons, each representing his one emotion.
Sekido, the manifestation of Hantengu's anger, was a tall young man with a lean muscular build, and narrow, deep red eyes that had Upper Rank engraved on his right eye, and the Four engraved on his left.
As his face contorted with rage, bolts of electricity thundered around the Khakkhara he held.
"He's fighting well," Karaku commented. "Let's play with him a bit longer, eh?"
The manifestation of Hantengu's pleasure, Karaku wore a sadistically gleeful expression on his face. Bare-chested, he waved the fan in his hand, generating gusts of howling wind.
"He's waiting for us to make a mistake," Aizetsu analyzed. "It means no reinforcements are coming…"
Hantengu's sorrow, Aizetsu had sorrow etched into his tongue.
The Jumonji Yari he wielded kept letting out reddish-purple demonic light, materializing spiritual spears around him.
"Hey, come on!" Urogi exclaimed. "Where's the fun in that?! Let's fight him one by one!"
Manifestation of joy, Urogi was flying high in the air with two large wings on his back. In place of arms and legs, he carried raptor-like feet armed with sharp talons.
Suddenly, not waiting for anyone to counter him, Urogi launched himself toward the dying Hashira.
Rengoku straightened his bleeding spine.
However, midway, Urogi canceled the dive and opened his mouth.
A burst of Spirituality overwhelmed the surroundings, the back of Urogi's throat lighting up with golden rays.
Blood Demon Art —
Then he screamed, the very space shaking around him.
— Sonic Scream!
Rengoku had already faced the attack several times.
He gritted his teeth and prepared himself for the waves when suddenly he sensed another presence to his right.
A vase manifested at that spot.
From the vase, Gyokko came bursting out, holding two more vases.
Blood Demon Art —
Goldfish-like fish demons came lunging out of the vases, which then spat thousands of poisonous needles at Rengoku.
— Thousand Needle Fish Kill!
The scream arrived, pinning Rengoku's at the spot.
The sword he carried exploded with dense Spiritual Pressure, spitting out magma, but it got scattered by the sonic waves as well.
Then the needles fell, tearing through the undulating space.
"Ban-kai…"
A voice buzzed through the surroundings.
"Cry!" the Insect Hashira landed softly. "Koduko Higurashi!!"
**************
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