Anime/Manga: Bankai Starting with Demon Slayer

Chapter 12 The Selection of the Demon Slayer Corps

Three days later, outside the Hayama Breeding Center.

With Rika's help, Asuka got a neat black short haircut today, and left his old cotton coat, which had always been with him, at Hayama Training Center. He changed into a bright green kendo uniform.

Kenichi, who was seeing him off, seemed to only realize today that the kid was actually quite handsome... but he had always been so gloomy and unkempt that he hadn't noticed before...

Damn it... He's handsome and talented, I'm so envious...

"Asuka, remember what I said: if you encounter an enemy you can't handle, try cooperating with your teammates! In this world, it's always easier to have companions to walk hand in hand with..."

This child's physical abilities far surpass those of ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members, but his psychological issues... Arashizaki thought that perhaps letting him interact with people for a while longer would help...

"I understand, Arashizaki-sensei." Asuka nodded in agreement, tightening the straps of her belt around her neck again.

Pear Blossom handed him the prepared luggage and instructed him:

"Mount Fuji is quite far from here. You can travel south along the main road for about seven days, or you can rent an oxcart in the town at the foot of the mountain. Once you see the mountain covered in wisteria blossoms, you'll understand... Be careful."

"Thank you."

Arashizaki Tesshin briefly explained the itinerary along the way and the precautions for the final selection, and then Asuka ran down the mountain without looking back.

This is the first time in two years that he has left Yeshan.

"Are you really alright, teacher?" Rika gazed at Asuka's retreating figure and spoke softly, "Wouldn't it be better for Asuka to stay here and be a breeder?"

"...The wind is howling outside the mountains, pear blossoms."

Arashi's gaze did not follow the birds, but instead looked towards the gloomy sky in the distance.

"The power of the demons is growing stronger... The Demon Moons are becoming more frequent in their actions, while the quality of the Demon Slayer Corps is declining..."

"Time waits for no one, Pear Blossom. Asuka is a resilient child; he will help our lord..."

"I hope so." Pear Blossom bowed slightly.

The final selection.

It is the final test before becoming a full-fledged Demon Slayer Corps member.

The swordsmen who participate in the selection will enter a training ground called Fujisayama and be required to survive there for seven days.

In the Fujisayama Mountains, a large number of minor demons captured by the Demon Slayer Corps are imprisoned. These demons have only killed one or two people and are not very powerful.

For powerful swordsmen, this is an easy goal to achieve. Therefore, the final selection is more about eliminating ordinary people who join the Demon Slayer Corps without formal training and rely on bloodlust and brute force.

In the brutal battlefield of Ghost Hunt, one cannot succeed without absolute strength and the courage to face death.

A few days later, Asuka followed the path instructed by Arashisaki-sensei and arrived at a stream.

Having lived two lives, this was the first time he had traveled such a long distance alone, which touched his closed-off heart to some extent.

The wind in the forest, the wind by the stream, the wind in the rice paddies—they're all different...

Sitting by the stream, the bird felt more and more that the life it had lived before was worse than that of a dog, where it was just struggling to survive every day.

“Aizen…” He had already remembered the name of the bespectacled man.

At that time, he was tricked into Aizen's secret laboratory by a group of black-clad Shinigami under the pretense of cooperating with the Gotei 13's investigation, and they offered him a few meals and water.

There, he felt his soul being constantly torn apart and reassembled, and even his concept of time was shattered.

In the end, he was brutally thrown into this world, but the man named Aizen left him no explanation.

How do I get back? What am I now? Human or a wandering ghost? Asuka had no idea.

He gripped the qing in his hand tightly; it was his deepest obsession that had kept him going during training for the past two years, whenever he was on the verge of giving up.

I'm going back, back to Soul Society, to kill that bastard!

"You look quite angry?"

A thick, cold voice suddenly rang out from the stream in front of them, and the bird's expression changed drastically.

He leaped back, quickly creating distance between himself and the stream, his hand already on the hilt of his knife, watching the writhing water in front of him warily.

Although he wasn't a Demon Slayer Corps member yet and didn't have his own Nichirin Blade, Arashi-sensei still found him a handy old sword to use for the selection process.

"Would you mind telling me, little one?"

A grown woman dressed in a mud-covered kimono slowly rose from the water and appeared on the shore with a twisting sound.

Although she was covered in mud and her hair was wet and stuck to her pale forehead, her features were unusually delicate and beautiful, with a strange kind of beauty.

The woman stared intently at the handsome Fei Niao with her eyes that shimmered with a bluish-gray light, uttering an unpleasant, sticky sound:

"Such a beautiful face... I'm so envious... I really want to have her..."

Is it a ghost?

Asuka quickly accepted the other's identity.

He calmed himself and sensed the spiritual pressure emanating from the other person...

Arashizaki Tesshin once said that demons feed on humans. Generally speaking, the more people they have eaten, the stronger they become, and they will also awaken various terrifying superpowers. We cannot be careless.

And this ghost in front of me... is very strong... it feels about the same as Miss Rika...

It appears to be a powerful demon that has devoured many lives.

The female ghost seemed quite pleased with Asuka's reaction, a trickle of sticky saliva even dribbling from the corner of her mouth. "So good, so good... quick reaction, and a sharp mind... I really want to kill her..."

The next moment, the female ghost twisted her body and pounced on the bird.

Although she didn't seem to move very fast, the ghost was filled with an eerie sense of agility.

The ground beneath the ghost's feet instantly became soft and slippery, as if it had turned into ice or been coated with soapy water, carrying her entire body forward.

In the blink of an eye, the female ghost was already in front of him!

With a sudden jolt, the female ghost's pale arm lashed out like a whip, and several dark red waves surged up on her arm, seemingly a deadly move hidden in the physical attack. Instantly, Asuka's spiritual pressure senses detected it!

The female ghost condensed countless fine, bead-like arrows of blood, which shot out from her arm joints! She intended to take Fei Niao's life while he was distracted!

"Wind Breathing - Third Form: Haruaki Fuuki!"

Almost the instant the blood arrow left its body, Asuka reacted.

He took a deep breath, his lungs bulging like bellows, instantly drawing in the airflow throughout his body.

A vibrant green vortex arose out of thin air, hissing and swirling around the blade.

With itself at the center, the bird instantly unleashed a storm of counter-clockwise rotating sword blades, shattering the fine blood arrows that were coming straight at it!

Not only that, after the blood arrow was cut and shredded by the wind blades, the female ghost's arm, which was swinging down, was also cut off by the flying birds!

She frowned, quickly leaped backward to create distance between herself and the bird, and her expression turned serious.

"The Demon Slayer Corps? I just dodged one, and now I'm running into another... What bad luck..."

She shook her severed arm, and the broken end of the female ghost made a twitching sound. Then, flesh and blood tissue began to frantically condense and intertwine, rapidly assembling together at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just a few breaths, a long, slender arm, white as jade, grew back.

You hurt her.

Chapter 13 Blood Ghost Art

She knows Blood Demon Art and can quickly heal wounds inflicted by Wind Breathing...

Asuka tightened her grip on the knife, quickly assessing the threat posed by the demon before her.

According to Arashizaki-sensei, above the giant demon that devoured many people, there is an even more terrifying existence.

The Twelve Ghost Months.

It is said that these twelve demons are all very powerful. Each demon has a number engraved in its eye representing its rank. Defeating any one of them will qualify you to become a "Pillar" level swordsman.

Similarly, Arashizaki-sensei warned himself that if he really encountered the Twelve Demon Moons...

Run away immediately!

Although it may sound cowardly, Arashiki believes that Asuka is currently powerless against the Twelve Demon Moons, and there is nothing shameful about learning to back down when faced with difficulties.

Is that thing in front of me one of the Twelve Demon Moons?

The female ghost stretched her newly grown arm and looked at the bird with great interest. "A swordsman who uses wind? It must taste delicious."

As she spoke, the female ghost seemed to get more serious, and layers of dark red blood plasma began to adhere to the surface of her body, enveloping her like sticky armor.

“My name is Red Swamp. What about you, little one?” Red Swamp began to pace around the bird, its slime dripping onto the ground, quickly spreading into a slippery, fungal carpet-like filth.

Asuka didn't respond, but instead moved backward. He sensed that the female ghost in front of him wasn't trying to talk to him, but rather had some evil intentions.

That is indeed the case.

Asuka retreated silently, Red Swamp realizing that her plan to use slime to create terrain advantageous to herself had been seen through...

A surge of anger welled up inside him, and with a roar, Red Swamp charged forward!

Using the spreading dark red fungal carpet beneath his feet, Red Swamp's figure seemed to glide across the water, instantly closing the distance between himself and the bird at an extraordinary speed!

At the same time, she swung her arms, and dozens of tiny, needle-like blood arrows shot out again, covering all the space around the bird to dodge!

"Wind Breathing, Second Form: Claw Claw - Koto Wind!"

With lightning speed, Asuka slashed out four sharp, intersecting wind blades in front of her. Her reaction was incredibly fast.

With a whooshing sound, the emerald green wind blades mercilessly shredded the blood arrows at the forefront and dispersed most of the encirclement attack.

However, the blood spurs were so dense that a few streaks still managed to slip through, grazing his left arm and right leg.

hiss--!

A burning pain and numbness came over her, and Asuka felt a bit of her strength being drained away, causing her movements to become distorted.

Poison? His heart sank, and he knew something was wrong.

"Quickly reacted," Kannazuma chuckled, his laughter devoid of warmth. "Too bad, this is just an appetizer!"

"Blood Demon Art: Blood Swamp!"

Instead of attacking the bird directly, the red swamp slammed its hands into the ground as it approached the bird!

Om-!

The dark red fungal carpet seemed to come alive, and began to churn and expand violently, instantly spreading dozens of meters from the area under Fang's feet until it reached most of the riverbank!

This completely put Asuka's area within the range of Red Swamp's Blood Demon Art, further amplifying her terrain disadvantage.

These fungal mats wriggled, like a strongly adhesive swamp, pulling at the bird's ankles, and even threatening to spread upwards and grab the bird's body!

He felt his legs sink as if he had fallen into a quagmire, his movements became slow and numb, and the numbing toxins he had just taken made him clumsy.

Whoosh! The Red Swamp's demonic claw swooped down, and the bird barely dodged it, about to retaliate.

The other's figure, however, became increasingly agile and swift, moving and flashing rapidly across the fungal carpet, occasionally swooping down on the birds that were unable to move easily, leaving them with new wounds.

"So, can your wind catch up with me?" she laughed mockingly.

Red Swamp's attacks were so cunning and ruthless, not only fast, but also with claws sharp enough to tear through rocks, making it difficult for Asuka to even parry, let alone find an opportunity to counterattack.

Every time the bird tries to gather its strength to unleash a powerful wind form, it is either dodged by the opponent at an extremely fast speed, or it is interrupted by a suddenly enhanced suction force under its feet or a tricky blood spike.

Swish! !

Having finally found an opportunity, he unleashed a powerful Wind Breathing strike, but still failed to hit the rapidly sliding Red Swamp.

This won't do; we can't let her lead us by the nose!

"Three Forms - Modified: Rolling Rain!"

If the prototype of Seiran Kazeki is the surging mountain wind that rolls through the mountain mist under a clear sky.

The bird is now about to sweep up this surging, thick fog and create endless clouds!

Emerald green sword energy roared out, and the howling wind blades that should have risen against the current turned into a large swath of sword wind that slashed horizontally close to the ground!

Swish!Swish!

The sword wind spread rapidly, and the fungal carpet under the birds' feet was rolled up in large swaths, like paper meeting flames, or flames meeting a torrent, quickly annihilated and dissipated!

Hongnu's expression changed; she hadn't expected the boy to respond so quickly.

Her Blood Demon Art itself has mediocre lethality, but by using this special domain to increase her speed, she can often kill Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen before they can react.

Seeing that the birds had cleaved open a large area of ​​the Bloodswamp Fungus Creep, and that the advantage of her territory had disappeared, her expression became even more serious.