CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 107: LET ME IN!

"Because... you’re just a dabbler."

Sosuke watched the Demon Head fall to the ground and gradually dissipate, gently answering her unspoken question.

However, his explanation only deepened her confusion.

Alas, she would never have the chance to voice her doubts. Gradually, she vanished before Sosuke’s eyes.

Only then did Sosuke realize that every inch of his body was throbbing with pain.

During the fierce battle, he had truly pushed himself to his limits, repeatedly teetering on the brink of life and death. A single misjudgment would have meant instant death.

His body was covered in bloody wounds. When he glanced down at his excruciatingly painful toes, he discovered that the tip of his big toe was missing.

"I must have failed to completely evade that crossed Sword Form," he muttered, staring helplessly at the spurting blood.

Ignoring his injuries, he immediately grabbed his Nichirin Blade and hurried back.

What was the situation inside the house?

Where had Tengen gone? If he had been lured away, why were there no traces of a struggle?

Most importantly, how was Kanae?

These questions demanded answers!

***

Let’s rewind time a little...

Sosuke danced through the forest with his Breath of the Moon enthusiast. After Tengen had slain the coward, he learned that Zenitsu had been dragged into the wall.

Unsheathing his twin blades, Tengen prepared to strike the wall with a single, decisive slash.

A wall capable of snatching people away could only be the work of a demon. Blood Demon Arts, utterly defying logic, could manifest in countless bizarre ways.

The strangeness itself wasn’t frightening. Once the source of the anomaly was identified, a single strike from his blade would likely resolve most such anomalies, or at least force the demon to reveal itself.

Yet Tengen’s blade never fell.

Just as the blade light was about to descend, a head emerged from the wall.

The face on that head wore an expression of utter vulnerability, its wide eyes staring with even greater bewilderment than Tengen’s.

The moment Zenitsu recognized Jigoro standing nearby, he burst into a torrent of wails.

"Grandpa!! Save me!!!!"

Zenitsu bellowed his utterly pathetic plea with surprising lung capacity.

Kaigaku stared in disbelief, then quickly turned and left. Jigoro was momentarily at a loss.

Blood Demon Arts varied widely. Though he had spent his entire life slaying demons, he couldn’t possibly have encountered every technique. For a moment, he didn’t know how to save Zenitsu.

Tengen, his lips trembling and turning purple, stammered, "It must be fake, right?!"

With that, he raised his sword to strike.

"Wait!" Jigoro quickly intervened. "What if it’s real?"

He only had two disciples—he couldn’t afford to lose either of them!

’Even though this one is quite useless, he actually has great potential!’

Tengen paused, then grabbed Zenitsu by the head and began dragging him out.

"Ahhh! I’m going to die! My head is going to fall off!" Zenitsu wailed desperately.

"His pathetic crying must be a trick by the demon to confuse us!" Tengen declared confidently.

"No, please believe me! This is just his personality!" Jigoro insisted. "Even a demon couldn’t come up with such spineless nonsense!"

Tengen was momentarily speechless, stunned by the depth of Zenitsu’s painful realization.

"Grandpa, they’re trying to catch me! I’m trying so hard to climb out, but I can’t," Zenitsu said. "There’s a huge space behind me, and inside, there’s this beautiful girl I want to marry. She’s killing demons, one slash at a time, so brutally. And there’s this menacing-looking demon drinking tea on a high platform. He’s the one who caught me, Grandpa... Am I going to die?"

As he spoke, Kaigaku walked in from outside and said, "There’s nothing beyond the wall."

"So the Flower Pillar is inside too," Tengen murmured, nodding silently after hearing both Zenitsu’s and Kaigaku’s accounts.

Suddenly, his eyebrows shot up. "But I have a question."

"Spit it out!"

Jigoro was frantic with worry. Although Zenitsu was a troublesome child who cried incessantly, he called Jigoro "Grandpa" at every turn. Even if Jigoro hadn’t been old and soft-hearted, anyone who heard that term of endearment every day would eventually soften, no matter how hardened their heart.

"This head appeared just as I was about to cut through the wall," Tengen said. "Based on what he said, I believe..."

He trailed off, instead seizing Zenitsu’s head and bringing his blade down, striking the wall directly.

A flash of blood stained the wall, and Zenitsu, who had been firmly stuck, suddenly seemed to lose his grip. Tengen yanked him free from the wall in one swift motion.

The rippling wall momentarily transformed into a mirror-like surface.

Without hesitation, Tengen lunged forward, attempting to dive through the wall.

In the next instant, countless arms erupted from the wall, pushing against Tengen’s body.

A flash of blade light, and bloodied Demon hands rained to the floor!

The wall reverted to its placid state, appearing once again as an ordinary, unremarkable barrier.

"Grandpaaaa!"

Zenitsu’s wails shattered the brief silence that had fallen over the room.

Jigoro ignored Zenitsu’s cries, pointing behind him. "Stand properly."

Tengen stared at the wall, nodding slightly. "So you won’t let me through, huh?"

With those words, the blade light was about to fall again.

But at that moment, a mouth appeared on the wall.

"Have you thought this through?" the mouth asked, its tone brimming with defiant confidence. "I may be wounded, and my Blood Demon Art will be shattered. But when it collapses, everything within the space created by the Blood Demon Art will be annihilated. Are you truly willing to let that woman die like this?"

"Then let me in!" Tengen retorted, his voice ringing with righteous indignation.

The mouth seemed exasperated. "Why should I let you in?"

"If you don’t let me in, I’ll cut you down!"

"If you cut me down, the woman will die too!"

"But after weakening you, she’ll definitely find a way out!" Tengen declared, his conviction unwavering. "Who do you think she is? She’s a Pillar!"

As the words left his lips, the blade light crashed down on the wall.

In the instant of crimson flash, the mouth let out a bloodcurdling scream. "Stop!!!"

"Oh? More to say? Letting me in?" Tengen was clearly beyond reason.

"...Let’s compromise!" Faced with Tengen’s relentless aggression, the Demon began to retreat. "I’ll release the woman. Just stop attacking!"