Kapitel 44: Swordsmith Village Arc (Part 2)

(Shiro POV):

Kanao, upon hearing that the pot was the belonging of an Upper Moon immediately used 'Flower Beathing First Form: Orchid Blossom', bursting the pot into a multitude of pieces.

"Even more reason to make haste to Tecchin's residence now, right?"

Nodding in response, we begin to run, yet soon find ourselves stopped by a multitude of misshapen demons in front of us, it's presence not even close to a real one, but instead like one of the summonses of an Upper Moon. But the main thing that I could spot, was the giant pot that sat on its back.

"Aim for the pot, Kanao."

Jumping from her spot, Kanao appears above the demon and uses 'Orchid Blossom' again, destroying the pot on the demon's back, causing it to drastically decrease in size and then keel over and die. Yet, I feel a presence in the forest beside us and I immediately cringe.

"Kanao, continue to Tecchin and have him alert the rest of the village. I'm going to save someone."

"Sword?"

Gritting my teeth, I answer, "I'll figure something out. Now, go!"

Sprinting away from one another, I arrive to find Kotetsu barely defending against the disfigured fish demon. Watching as he's grabbed, I rush forward faster and use the only weapon that I have at hand, my hand.

Using my hand much like I would a sword, I strike the demon's arm into the ground, in turn also freeing Kotetsu. Arriving in front of Kotetsu, I take the sword that he had dropped and then proceed to appear above the fish demon, slicing its pot apart, making it shrivel up and die.

Immediately jumping towards me, Kotetsu clings to me, crying, "Waaaah! Thank Youuuu!! I thought I was gonna die! I thought… I was so scared Waaaahh!"

"Now's not the time, I have an invasion I have to deal with Kotetsu."

"Wait!" Kotetsu stops me. "Kanamori-san's under attack too! Haganezuka-san's been working nonstop on the blade… so please help! If we delay for even a second, it might be too late, so please…!"

Huffing out in reluctance, I nod my head and then grab Kotetsu, heading towards Kanamori.

Upon arrival, I can see that my trip wasn't in vain as Kanamori was in fact under attack from a deformed fish demon. Cleanly cutting through its pot as well as its head, Kanamori begins to shout out thanks. Kanamori then crouches down next to my blade.

"Oh no! This blade won't do. I'll make sure to give you a better one. Now, let's go to Haganezuka-san."

Rushing through the woods once again, we appear before a shed.

"Oh thank the Gods!! They're no fish monsters here!! He's working in that shed. We have a sword to give you!! So, take it!! And go to the Village Chief!"

"No, I can't"

Grabbing Kanamori by the neck of his uniform, I stop him in his tracks, just in time for us to hear a "Hyo!"

Looking at an entity that started to come from a pot that was hidden in brush, it spoke. "You noticed me, huh? I guess that means you're a pillar. Is something important in that abandoned shed? I wonder what all the rustling is about. Hyo Hyo!"

"And what do I owe the pleasure, Upper Moon Five?" I stare.

"Hyo Hyo, I see that you can see my eye. It's nice to meet you. My name it Gyokko. May I have a minute before I kill you?" The identified Gyokko begins, "My dear guests, would you like to look at my artwork tonight?"

"No."

"Well, too bad, let me show you anyway."

Then, from a pot right next to Gyokko, a black ooze comes out before then forming into a figure. Yet, this scene instantly caused my Demon Slayer Mark to activate unconsciously and rage to boil to the surface.

"Presenting "L'agonie Des Forgerons"!!"

In other words, it was a bunch of swordsmiths that he killed and then mashed their dead bodied together as well as with the swords that they were trying to forge.

"Behold these hands! They're full of blisters, unique only to swordsmiths. Intentional, mind you! That's why I put them up front."

"Kongouji-dono, Tetsuo-san, Kanaike-san, Koutarou…" Kanamori begins to list off names.

"Ahhh… Tetsuhiro Oji-san…!" Kotetsu weeps.

"Yes! You are right!! I used five luxurious swordsmiths for this one!! Quite a lavish number. I didn't think that you'd be so moved by this!! And the swords stabbed through them reinforce the "blacksmithness" of this work! Now, I left these comical masks on to express the emptiness and absurdity. This plan is… mind you, also intentional! And guaranteed!! If I twist the sword like so…"

Watching as Gyokko twisted the sword in the dead blacksmith's body, my stomach also begins to twist. "So? Wonderful, right? I plan on mass-producing this beautiful piece!!"

"Hey, fishface, I guess that eye of yours doesn't work all that properly, cause you're choosing the wrong person to antagonize."

"Hyo… and wha-"

Trying to slash at Gyokko by using 'Ice Breathing First Form: Frost Fang', Gyokko hurriedly ducks back into his pot.

"I'm not even done explaining yet!" A pot on the roof of the shed calls out, Gyokko soon emerging from it. "Make sure to listen until the end. My pride is in the pots…"

As if to antagonize Gyokko, I stab the pot next to me feet and then immediately chop the pot on top of the shed's roof. Yet, Gyokko once again disappeared.

Slightly off to the distance, a pot that clearly hadn't been there before, appeared. Slithering from his pot with anger oozing from him, Gyokko growls, "How dare you cut through my pot… my art!! You uncultured swine!! You pigs have nothing but muscle in those brains. You lack intelligence to appreciate my art. But that's okay too!!"

Gyokko then has a pot appear in his hands and two little fishes come out of it. As these fish float in the air, their cheeks suddenly expand and then they shoot thousands of needles at me. Both in my direction, and in the unfortunate direction of Kotetsu and Kanamori.

Appearing in front of them, I barely manage to defend them and myself by using 'Sun Breathing: Burning Bones, Summer Sun' defending against the imminent needles.

"Go hide, this isn't a battle you can stay around for."

Shaking for a moment, Kotetsu and Kanamori soon run away, just in time before another wave of 'Fish Assassin: Thousand Needles' comes hurtling towards me. Flinging my sword around, all the needles are knocked away.

"Hyo Hyo Hyo! You should stop defending against those needles. You'd look really funny if they were all in you. And then it'd be truly comical as you'd then lose your life." Gyokko laughs. "Hyo Hyo! But pillars remain true to their name, so I guess that preparing something nice truly wasn't in vain. Now what kind of piece should I make? I'm tingling with excitement!"

"Shut it." Dashing towards Gyokko, I slice at his neck, yet this time he chooses not to dodge.

'I should've used a breathing art.' I curse myself, only having my blade cut through ¾ of his neck.

Immediately alarming Gyokko, he hurriedly pulls out another pot, sending a pool of water out towards me. Finding myself floating in water, I can't get a single breath of air.

"Suffocation is quite chic. Quite beautiful. Then again, having the cold sensation of a sword through your neck is quite nice too." Gyokko boasts. "I've obstructed the greatest weapon for you demon slayers, your breath. Imagining your face warping from pain brings me joyous ecstasy. Hyo Hyo!"

Gyokko then looks off into the distance, seeming to reminisce about something, "If we destroy this village, the demon slayers will suffer a huge blow. And if we weaken the Demon Slayers, Ubuyashiki's neck will be right in the open. Hyo Hyo!"

Just as Gyokko says that, I can hear the faint sound of a bell tolling, signaling that Kanao had delivered the message of invasion to Tecchin. As I lay there inside of the bubble of water, staring blankly at Gyokko, he turns his back to me, most likely to go an chase after Kotetsu and Kanamori.

Smiling inside the bubble of water, I use 'Sun Breathing: Clear Blue Sky', cleaving the water bubble in twain and freeing myself.

"Hyo?" Gyokko slowly turns around, but I don't give him a chance.

Charging forward, I use 'Sun Breathing: Raging Sun', trying to cut through Gyokko's neck, this time completely. Yet, like before, Gyokko dove back into his pot just in time, leaving me to use my second horizontal slash on the pot he dove into.

Feeling his disbelief, I stalk towards Gyokko, who appeared a few feet away. Pulling another pot from his side, a singular octopus tentacle pops out, closely followed by seven more, engulfing an entire area with sheerly their own size.

I wanted to cut through it, but my blade slid off the flesh of the octopus, letting me get knocked away as the tentacles grew even larger in size.

"Hyo Hyo! So? How do you like the power of octopus flesh? You can't cut through that."

In Gyokko's attack, he had also managed to break the shack, revealing a still polishing Haganezuka, completely unaffected by the clatter going on around him. Gyokko was of course irritated that Haganezuka wasn't paying him the least bit of attention, "But that's okay too. The Pillar first, then the smith."

Trying to strangle me with the octopus tentacles, I use 'Sun Breathing: Fire Wheel', cutting through it and escaping. Landing safely on the ground, Gyokko's tentacles reel backwards before then shooting forwards.

Stamping my foot into the ground, I hoist my arm backwards and use 'Sun Breathing: Sunflower Thrust', bursting apart the onslaught of tentacles and giving me a clear path to Gyokko. Going for Gyokko's neck once again, he does what he's done every single time, leaving me to cut the pot he leaves behind.

"You pierced it pretty easily. But you can't catch up to the speed of my pots."

"I wonder about that." I begin, "Looks like your senses have dulled. But that's because you've lived for hundreds of years."

Seeing as blood gushes from Gyokko's neck, Gyokko grimaces.

"There's not a single thing praiseworthy about you. Your looks and words are downright disgusting."

"I am the apex of beauty… you just can't understand elegance because you're an uneducated bumpkin. You're like a fly or cockroach that can't read when I show you a book."

Completely ignoring Gyokko's words, I tilt my head, "I've been wondering about this… is that pot of yours deformed for something? The left and the right sides look a bit uneven. Completely unprofessional if you ask me."

Emerging from a pot, I watch as blood gushes from his head in anger, screaming, "That's because your eyes have maggots in them, you as**ole!!! My pots!! How exactly ate they deformed?!!"

Watching as Gyokko grows eight more arms and then have a pot in each, ten-thousand sand gliding clayfish come hurtling towards me.

"I'll have ten thousand assassins feast on your body, leaving nothing but bones!! Then you'll be one of my art pieces!!!"

Looking at all the partial demons, and even though I didn't have the correct sword for this technique, I change breathing arts, causing slight pain, but allowing for me to use 'Serpent Breathing Sixth Form: Shéquán'.

Replicating the movements of a snake in a mere second, I look through the eyes of the giant aura snake that formed behind me and lock onto all ten thousand clayfish demons before then slashing my blade forward, decapitating each one of them. I watch as each fish explodes outwards, exposing their poison, yet none of it reaches me.

However, the one drawback of using this technique without the correct sword is that the blade itself shatters apart. Leaving me almost nothing.

Yet, with barely any of my blade left, I still appear in front of Gyokko and slice at his neck. Even as I 'decapitate' him though, Gyokko molts, reverting to his true form.

"I will show you my true form now. You're the third person to see me like this. Once I get serious, I never leave anyone alive. These see-through scales are harder than diamonds. I kneaded them together inside my pot. Now prostrate yourself before my perfect beauty."

Looking at the new Gyokko which sat on a tree branch, I had to force down the vomit that tried to make its way up.

"Why aren't you saying anything, you retarded puppet!!! You really know how to get on people's nerves, kid!!!"

"Well, I was trying to keep my vomit from coming out, so I kinda had to stay quiet."

Gyokko's fist then appeared in front of me, yet by simply dodging backwards, Gyokko instead punches the ground, sending up springs of fish around where he had punched.

"So, how do you like my godlike power? Everything I touch with my fists turns into sweet little fish. Then there's my speed!! This body is not only soft, but also springy. On top of that, these scales are faster than waves. I am an existence that knows no bounds." Gyokko boasts.

"You know, I get the feeling that you and Uzui would get along great since all you do is talk about nothing but yourselves, but even with your boasting, it's all useless if you can't touch me."

"But you don't have a sword, so you can't do anything to stop me."

Giving just as big a grin as Gyokko, I activate transparent world and I hold up my broken sword. "I can beat you with just this."

Gyokko's muscles then contract before he moves towards me, using his 'Blood Demon Technique: Deadly Scales of War' to make a series of attacks as random as they can possibly be, making Gyokko a free existence in other words.

Even so, I could see each of his muscles move, therefore giving me all his movements.

Dodging each attack by just a hair's breadth, I whisper to Gyokko, "I wasn't serious before, so I shall now grant you an audience just the same as I did Muzan."

"Wait, you're hi-"

Before Gyokko can even finish his sentence, I use 'Ice Breathing Ninth Form: Twin Image', creating a near exact replica of myself only through intent and then simultaneously cutting through Gyokko's neck with the short blade.

Hearing as the blood gushes from the headless body of Gyokko, I cough up a mouthful of blood and think to myself, 'I really should stop switching breathing arts so often, it's rather painful.'

"Farewell Gyokko, you probably won't born into this world ever again."

Gyokko's head then bounced a few times on the ground, and I could visibly see as sweat was streaming from him face, alarmed by the fact that his head was cut from his supposed 'immortal' body.

"This is absolutely unbelievable!!" Gyokko begins to scream, "You're just a human!! How dare you do this to the great Gyokko-sama!! You repulsive, inferior creature!! I have more value than a hundred of you beings! I am a chosen one, a superior being! Weak!! All you do is age after you're born! With these hands, not the gods' hands!! I turned those truly worthless lives into the greatest pieces of all time! You inferior little maggo…"

Gyokko then suddenly stopped, remaining completely silent until he gasps, "This is all Muzan-sama's fault. If only he hadn't had us wait for so long to receive his reinforcements, then I wouldn't have died. But, because we had to wait, I was forced to fight some abomination like yourself… Yes, it all makes sense now! I did not lose to a mortal; it was simply because I was unlucky! Hyo! Hyo!"

And that was the last "Hyo" that Gyokko would ever make. May that phrase burn in a fire.