Crossover Anime: Starting with Bankai from Demon Slayer

Chapter 436 Resurrect, My Beloved

The bird was clearly moving forward, but he found that the distance between himself and the long table had not shortened.

With each step he took, the surrounding space receded rapidly.

The woman with the long, dark green hair, and the library filled with sunlight and warmth, all became more and more distant and blurred with his ever-forward steps.

"Wait! Don't go!"

Asuka felt a surge of anxiety and quickened her pace, even attempting to unleash her spiritual pressure to break the spatial barrier.

But no matter how hard he tried, that heartwarming scene remained an insurmountable chasm between him and the world.

Like the moon reflected in water, or a flower in a mirror.

You can see it, but you can never touch it.

"How long will you keep chasing after that illusory shadow? What a pitiful yet adorable child..."

A voice suddenly rang in the bird's ear without warning.

The voice was extremely close, so close that it felt as if the speaker was right behind him, and the warm breath could even spray onto his neck.

The bird shuddered.

His combat instincts, honed through years of living on the brink of death, allowed him to react instantly.

He turned around abruptly, his right hand instinctively reaching for his waist, wanting to draw his Zanpakuto.

But his hand touched nothing.

In the dream, the leopard was not hanging from his waist.

When he saw who was standing behind him, Asuka froze on the spot again.

It's another woman.

A tall and slender woman dressed in a luxurious and exquisite pure black dress.

She had long, flowing hair as black as night and as smooth as a waterfall, which was casually draped over her shoulders.

That face looked as if it had been meticulously carved from mutton-fat jade by the most skilled craftsmen, so perfect that not a single flaw could be found, yet it exuded an unsettling pallor.

But what truly shocked Asuka, even horrified and frozen him in place, was the woman's appearance.

Those sharp eyes, that high-bridged nose, those thin, cold lips...

Aside from having softer facial features and a more feminine softness,

This woman's appearance is exactly the same as Asuka's!

If a bird is a sharp, cold blade that can cut through a hair with a single blow and drink blood, then the woman before you... is a peerless sword hidden in a magnificent scabbard, capable of cutting through iron like mud.

"Who are you?!" Asuka demanded, her eyes filled with wariness.

The woman was not angry because of the bird's hostility.

She tilted her head slightly, a gentle smile appearing on her lips.

"How have you been all these years?"

She slowly took a step forward, her dark eyes, almost identical to those of a bird, filled with an intense and unyielding affection.

"The nights in the East Shore Bureau must be very cold, right? You must have suffered a lot of injuries and hardships fighting with those lowly evil creatures, right?" As she spoke, she scanned the bird with the same look she had when looking at a beloved treasure.

Feiniao frowned and subconsciously took half a step back, trying to distance himself from the strange woman.

"I don't understand what you're saying. Answer my questions. Who are you? Why are you in my dream?" The woman's voice was melodious and captivating, with a mesmerizing magnetism. "You've been wandering outside for so long, suffering so much injustice, yet when you see your family, you don't even offer a greeting?"

An exaggerated expression of sadness appeared on her face. She sighed softly and continued to approach: "Have you missed everyone?"

Have you ever thought about...me?

family?!

The word coming from the mouth of this strange woman struck Asuka with utter absurdity.

Apart from Arashizaki-sensei and Rika in Hayama, and Shinobu Kocho and the Ubuyashiki family whom he met later, he never felt that he had any so-called family.

Even if we were to include Tokihime, whom he is currently investigating, there would be no other woman like this who looks so much like him and exudes an unsettling aura.

"I have no family, and I don't know you."

Asuka calmed herself and mustered all her strength to mobilize the spiritual pressure within her that she had no connection with: "If you continue with this pointless trick, I will kill you even in a dream."

"Heh...kill me? With that crude and savage Zanpakuto given to me by a thief?"

The woman let out a clear laugh upon hearing the bird's threat.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, a look of arrogance and sorrow remarkably similar to that of a flying bird flashing within them.

"You still love to hurt people so much, my love."

"What the hell?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the bird's head began to throb with pain in the dream, and he uncontrollably knelt on the ground.

At the same time, the woman moved.

She reached out her pale hand and gently placed it on the bird's shoulder.

"Ugh!!!"

A soul-wrenching pain shot through me.

The bird let out a painful groan, its eyes widening instantly.

A chaotic, frenzied, and terrifying energy, like a black torrent bursting its banks, was surging wildly into the depths of the bird's soul through the woman's palm!

It was an extremely ancient and extremely evil curse.

It was like countless venomous snakes with sharp teeth, frantically slithering along the bird's thoughts, greedily gnawing at his will, trying to completely strip away his soul!

And this power... it was all too familiar to him...

"You! You're a kidnapper?!"

"Tao? What kind of name is that? It's a strange name."

"Get out...get out of here!"

Asuka gritted his teeth, desperately resisting the force that wanted to erase his personality.

But it didn't work.

In this bizarre dreamscape dominated by the woman's will, Asuka finds her power seemingly frozen.

He couldn't muster even the slightest bit of spiritual pressure, nor did he have the strength to even move a finger.

Even though it was just a woman's hand on his shoulder, he felt like a prisoner nailed to a cross, firmly imprisoned in place, unable to move.

"Don't struggle anymore, darling."

The woman's face drew close to the bird, her expression one of chilling fervor and obsession.

She reached out her other hand and gently stroked the bird's face, which was contorted with pain, her fingertips tracing the spot at the corner of his eye where the mark had not yet appeared.

"Look at you, how much filth you've picked up outside... those lowly death gods, those disgusting monsters, they've tainted your pure soul."

"But it's okay... Soon, very soon I will help you clean up all these dirty memories."

"I will take you back to that place that belongs only to us, a place where there is no war, no killing... and I will always be with you."

The bird's vision began to blur, and its consciousness was being dragged into an abyss.

Under the corrosive influence of that terrifying force, he felt his memories being gradually extracted and altered.

Those sweat and toil at Hayama Training Center, the bickering between Tanjiro and Inosuke, and Kyojuro Rengoku's warm, sun-like smile...

Even the purple eyes of Shinobu Kocho, where she whispered a promise under the moonlight...

Under the influence of this chaotic force, they all became increasingly faint...