The Water Tsuguko

Chapter 13

'Lower Moon Six'

It took everything in Takeo to not let his breathing falter. He had come head to head with a lower moon before, but he had not been completely alone. He had Tanjiro and Giyuu to help him. It was kind of pathetic, really, being a kinoe and still relying on those around you to defeat a lower moon.

"You're a quiet one, aren't you," the demon inquired, a teasing smirk on his face. "And quite young to be out all on your lonesome."

Takeo clicked his tongue in annoyance, wishing that the demon would just shut up. He hated the demons that did nothing but tease and taunt. It just gave Takeo an ache in his temples.

"Can you just shut up and die already," Takeo mumbled, though he knew that the demon would be able to hear him.

"Feisty one, you are," the demon chuckled again. "It would be amazing to add your beautiful bones to my collection of brats."

Takeo said nothing else, just rolling his magenta eyes. He bolted forward, not wanting to waste anymore time. No matter how intimidating this demon was, he wouldn't hesitate, and he wouldn't back down. He would fight this demon and dispatch it back into the hellhole that it climbed out of.

He breathed in, letting the oxygen travel to every part of his body, fueling his muscles and accelerating his endurance.

Water breathing, first form. Striking tide!

Takeo moved through the first form effortlessly, already having the movements etched into his brain so that he would never forget it. The kizuki moved fast, moving its neck out of the way of Takeo's nichirin ax, only losing an arm which he would quickly regain in the matter of seconds.

Takeo used up all of the forms he had, not stopping for a second to give the demon more of an advantage than he already had. He wondered where Giyuu was, and more importantly, if he was alright.

"Haha," the demon cackled, throwing its head back, practically teasing Takeo with its barred neck, silently letting the slayer know that his neck wouldn't be departed from him so easily. "You're a feisty little thing, aren't you. Too bad your mortality holds you back."

Takeo still refused to speak, having his fair share of blood demon arts that evolved around talking. He just wanted to get this over with, but the demon was the thirteenth strongest demon in all of Japan, and it was giving him a hard time.

"Don't talk much do you," the demon chucked, flicking his hand upwards and releasing some sort of gas from his palms. "Well, that's okay, because I love to talk."

Takeo rolled his eyes, lifting his ax up once again. He charged forward, taking a deep breath and-

His lungs felt like they were on fire, burning with every breath of air that he took in. So that's what the demon did with the gas. It made the air toxic to breath, which was the best defense against breathing techniques. They couldn't be performed properly if you weren't able to breathe.

Nevertheless, he continued forward, ignoring the neverending burn in his chest. He swung his ax, repeating all the water breathing forms without end. He was slowly suffocating himself, and he knew this well. But he couldn't breathe in the air around him due to the tricky blood demon art of lower moon six. He was able to get more strikes on the demon, but none of them were anywhere near the neck. He had to come up with a strategy, though he couldn't let the vile beast out of his sights. The last thing he needed was another person to die to this monster.

Thinking while fighting for your life wasn't exactly an ideal situation, but what else could Takeo do against one of the twelve kizuki? For obvious reasons, it was avoiding a match against a hashira, having decided to fight a kinoe rather than get promoted after killing a hashira.