章 1: Waking up
(Asahi POV)
Imagine waking up in a different world after you seemingly died. It isn't very nice, to say the least. I am unhappy with my situation right now and hope that I at least have a ...
*Bonk*
Alright, let's get it together. I do have a cheat to help me along the way. I was granted, by whoever thought it was funny to do this to me, the Essence of the Knife. As uninteresting and stupid as it sounds, it is not like that at all. On the contrary, it is quite broken in fact.
--
Essence of the Knife
This quicksilver-like beverage tastes like steel and has a sharp fizz.
* Upon imbibing, you are granted a knife, which can take on any shape and design you wish, though no smaller than a scalpel's blade and no larger than a shortsword.
* This blade cannot be detected by magical or technological means. You may summon or dismiss it into a pocket dimension at will.
* As long as enough pressure is exerted, the Knife will cut through any material. It can even cut intangible things such as sickness, space, time, enslavement or even Fate. It will not cut you unless you want it to, and even then it will not cause you pain.
* Just as you may teleport the Knife to you, you may teleport to it.
* You gain intimate knowledge and muscle memory that allow you to wield the Knife in all its forms like a master, whether it be for combat or cooking.
* You can kill anything that lives with the Knife, ignoring any and all forms of immortality. Any being killed by the Knife will have all its powers and abilities added to it, granting it a new form. Those abilities can then be accessed through the Knife and wielded as if they were your own. You may decide on the conditions that might lead to using said abilities.
* Abilities and forms can also be unlocked by allowing the Knife to absorb materials.
* The Knife may be used as a focus for magic of all sorts.
* With enough focus, you can learn to multiply the Knife into many and control each of them telekinetically.
--
Yeah, this is an amazing ability to have. The fact that I can not only cut through any material but also intangible things and even aspects makes this broken. Sickness, space, time, enslavement or even Fate can be cut and that is seriously OP but also amazing. I know that I am in Japan right now because of the memories I regained. This body belongs to a young man by the name of Asahi, which means sunrise.
'My' family died by an attack from what is known as a demon in this world and therefore telling me, that I am in the Kimetsu no Yaiba world. Great. Although this is a 'relatively' weak world compared to many others, this is still my first one and therefore makes it dangerous for me. This can only mean one thing, I have to grow stronger as fast as possible and use this knife to amass abilities or simply strength.
The year is currently 1900, giving me roughly 12 years to train and grow stronger before the time for canon begins. Since I am 13 already, this will give me more than enough time to grow more powerful and despite being injured and crippled right now, I have the perfect way to grow in strength and get rid of this weakness and injuries of mine.
I take the knife which looks like a normal combat knife right now and focus on what I want it to do. I want to cut all of my injuries, be they new or old and completely remove them from my body once and for all. With a conviction that doesn't suit a reincarnate such as myself, I cut through my stomach from the left to the right.
Thankfully, I don't feel any pain. But what I do feel, right after I cut myself, is a massive loss of weight and pain. All of the injuries I gained from my life and when my family was slaughtered are gone and I am left in the peak state of a human in this world at my age.
But that isn't the only thing that happens. I suddenly feel all of my senses enhance tremendously and my eyes seem to pierce through my hands and see my bones ... I can hear the fluttering of birds and butterflies and feel the subtle changes in air pressure. I also feel my strength rise and my reflexes being enhanced. What just happened?
...
My mind is so clear and the answer to this question comes to me right away. The strongest Demon Slayer in this world, Yoriichi Tsugikuni was able to overwhelm an experienced Kenjutsu instructor when he was a small child. He was so strong and talented in all areas, making him the strongest to ever have lived. Imagine what he was like at 13 ... yeah. I'm not as powerful as he is at his peak, but I'm as strong as he was at 13 if he had trained to the maximum possible.
I got rid of all weakness and injuries and by the OPness of my Essence, catapulted myself to the peak of humanity at my current age, without working out one day in my life. I feel like I cheated. Could this be a problem?
... nah, it'll be fine. But this gives me a lot of ideas. If I have reached the top of humanity in this world at the age of 13, I should be at least as powerful as Yuriichi was, if he was at the peak of humanity. This also explains, why I just unlocked Transparent World. Transparent World makes his perception of time slow down and allows the user to see directly their opponent's muscles, blood flow and movements which allows them to predict their next moves.
But it also means something else. In this world, humans enhance themselves using breathing styles. Does that mean, I have reached the stage of strength they use with breathing styles? And if yes, am I incapable of using a breathing style, because it wouldn't make me stronger? Or can it stack?
So many questions and only one solution... I will have to try it out.
.
A few months have passed. I have been training almost nonstop which shouldn't be possible because humans have basic needs, but it is true. The Essence of the Knife is truly and utterly broken. After training for an entire day, I tried out my essence to see what the limits were of what I could cut. I tried to cut my 'hunger'. Yeah, it worked. I could cut my hunger and then just continue training.
But I was surprised about a day later when I just lost all control over my body. I didn't understand what was going on as I was perfectly fine a second before. I tried to use my knife to cut through my inability to walk but to my utter surprise, it didn't work. I was very confused and started to become scared. I used the knife again and cut all of the damage to my body. Thankfully, that was it and I managed to stand back up again.
This was very strange to me. But after thinking for a moment I understood the grave miscalculation I had done. When I cut my hunger, I simply cut the feeling of hunger and not my body's need for food and nourishment. This made me ignorant of what my body needed and caused it to shut down after another day. I understood that this was not a game and I had to be specific with what I cut.
After this initial setback, I was smarter about it. I used my knife to cut my need for food and water ... I was such an idiot. I tried to see whether this would work and prepared for the worst. After days of training and waiting, nothing happened. I didn't feel any hunger or thirst anymore. I am unsure whether I am an idiot or a genius, but I cut my need for food and water entirely, making me function without it. You could see this as an absolute win, but I wasn't sure. It just made me a stranger to 'humans' as I no longer took time for myself. Eating and drinking were ways to relax and I removed those chances for myself. I could still eat and drink, but it wasn't necessary anymore.
To not lose myself in training or delusions, I made sure to take the time and eat, whenever I achieved something or it was evening. That way, I could still focus on my goal to grow stronger, while not losing myself in that goal.
.
I continued to wander the land and searched for Sakonji Urokodaki the one who trained Tanjiro Kamado and made him ready to enter the Final Selection. I feel like it would be beneficial for me to learn the Total Concentration Breathing from the old man ... although he isn't that old yet. The timeline is unclear to me at least. I know that Gyomei was the oldest Hashira at 25 or 23 at the start of the story. He is probably a Demon Slayer already. No, he is most likely one already since he became a Hashira in 1906. There are still 6 years left.
I suddenly stop walking and look to the left. The night has fallen surprisingly and a rather dangerous presence is approaching from the forest. My senses have sharpened tremendously and I can feel and smell as well as hear and see someone or something approaching. I hear heavy steps and after a moment, a man steps into the moonlight.
The kanji for Lower, 下か Ka, and the daiji for Six, 陸ろく Roku, are etched onto his right eye, which tells me an interesting story. This signifies his position as Lower Rank Six of the Twelve Kizuki ... a demon and a rather strong one has appeared before me. How interesting, I wonder how strong I am compared to the current Lower Moon 6 of this era. He stops walking and looks at me. I can see greed in his eyes and a cruel glint shining from them.
"Ah, you're a strong one I can tell. I will enjoy consuming you and growing stronger. Our Lord will be pleased to hear that I have weakened the Demon Slayer Corps this way."
"I find your lack of manners disturbing. It is proper decorum to first introduce yourself before threatening someone. You say 'Nice to meet you Demon Slayer Sir. Understand?"
"Haha..."
*Boom*
His form disappears from his position and shoots towards me. Honestly, I don't know what I expected, but I can see him move rather slowly. Without doing it consciously, 'Transparent World' activates, revealing the entire biology of the demon to me. All of his secrets are shown and I can read his movements perfectly. I don't feel a strain in my brain or an unnatural feeling of any kind. I see how his muscles contract and can tell where his trajectory will take him. He is aiming for my heart and wants to rip it out, to watch me bleed out most likely.
I move to the side just slightly to make him pass by and miss his target.
*Whoosh*
"Huh?"
"Fascinating," I say as I study him.
He is like a new specimen for a biologist to me. Like a mystery or a secret that I am unravelling right now and I have to say, that it is impressive to say the least. Something this unnatural and yet so ... possible. The way his muscles are so much denser than any other human I have encountered up to this day and the way his energy seems limitless ... all that strength and power inside his form ... it reminds me of myself honestly.
Ever since I used my knife to 'purge weakness' or something like that, I have looked similar. My muscles are so dense and both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles are plenty inside me. He in comparison ... is lacking.
"What was tha-"
*SWING*
I appear at his side and swing my knife through his neck, severing his head from his shoulders and killing him immediately. By the time the Lower Moon Six's head hits the ground, I feel a new sensation from the knife and understand that it just absorbed all abilities and powers from the demon. How marvellous, this will be very useful in the future.
I like this Essence more and more.
_________________________________
I am using the knife to its fullest potential. To clarify what happened and how he became so strong.
He used the knife to cut his weakness and thanks to the Essence, that happened. So he is now as strong as Yoriichi Tsugikuni (who I take as the peak human strength in verse) would be IF he had trained all his life up to the point of 13, which is the MC's current age.
So he is most probably stronger than Yoriichi at this stage.
週次パワーステータス
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