Bait

"I am fine," Yuu said simply but Kanae thought he was lying.

"Lose your bravado! One of your feet is already in the grave," Daki wasn't having it. This is what it seemed like to Kanae felt her heart drop.

"Shut up ugly, I am totally fine you should be worrying about yourself," Yuu said as Daki's face twisted in anger.

"You Bastard!! Who are you calling ugly? I'll kill you!! Gyutaro I want to tear him into pieces," Daki was screaming her head off at this moment while Yuu looked at Kanae.

"You look injured,"

"It isn't anything major," Kanae took a deep breath after saying that.

'Calm Down, it still isn't too late, we need to end this and get Tachibana-sama some medical treatment,'

"Hey stop flirting, Don't you care for the feeling of the people watching? Huh?" Gyutaro was also getting angry once again.

"F-Flirting?" Kanae stumbled over her own tongue as she didn't understand what Gyutaro was talking about.

"Gyutaro I found the insects, they are still some on the east side!!" Daki said and Yuu understood how Kanae got injured, there was no other way Kanae was getting hurt by Daki.

"Well isn't that just great," Gyutaro said as Yuu and Kanae went on the offensive, his plan wasn't that hard to guess.

'Two pillar-level demon slayers, but I can count one of them out,' Gyutaro looked at Yuu who had started breathing heavily, it was clear that he won't be standing for long.

Gyutaro had been aiming for this when he started to stall for time, it was so he could see how long could Yuu act he had cured the poison fully.

Leaving that aside, his main concern was Kanae, she seemed a little troublesome. But Gyutaro knew he had the advantage here.

As long as Yuu fell, Kanae would also follow soon after.

Gyutaro sent out numerous blood slashes as he had already reattached Daki's head so she joined the fray by using her Obis as well.

"Tachibana-sama I'll handle the attacks that come from behind," Kanae said as Yuu moved forward cutting through the Obi and blood slashes.

'He only uses the same moves, over and over again,' Gyutaro had been observing Yuu for a while but he hadn't used anything special like those Pillars he had fought before.

His movements were plain and simple, basic even. But…

'He is the most troublesome one I have faced,' Gyutaro had to admit that Yuu had kept him on his toes but even then, in the end, he was the one who had the upper hand all along.

Even currently while Yuu and Kanae were coming near them, Gyutaro only dodged direct confrontation and kept away while controlling Daki's body so that she didn't make a mistake.

He knew that a slip-up could get him into trouble with someone like Yuu.

'But it seems like he is out of tricks here,' Gyutaro hadn't seen those explosions from before, not to mention the poison thing also seemed like a bluff to him now.

"Well well," Gyutaro sighed as they reached the main street.

"There were people here I swear!!" Daki shouted.

"That doesn't matter right now," Gyutaro turned around and used his Kama to block Yuu's attack, and Daki's attacks were concentrated on Kanae.

They kept clashing as Gyutaro and Daki tried to break free from the two.

'Did they already evacuate everyone? No, they should be nearby,' Gyutaro wondered while dodging Yuu.

"If you are looking for humans, by this time there shouldn't be any here," Yuu easily read that and Gyutaro smiled.

"That's too bad," Gyutaro had no plans to finish this fight quickly, if anything he was looking to prolong it so that Yuu's body wear downs because of the poison before killing Kanae in front of him since that seemed like a great idea.

'There are too many attacks to dodge,' Meanwhile, Kanae was facing Daki while dodging the blood slashes, the latter had gotten stronger once again with the eye on her forehead.

'And I don't have a technique to cut a lot of them down continuously,' This was one of the biggest problem Kanae had while facing Daki in her buffed state 'Think, what can I do to reach her quickly?'

Kanae knew that they had to cut off the heads of both demons for them to be killed, and it would be better if they are beheaded simultaneously.

Kanae kept thinking since this way she won't be able to reach Daki who was maintaining a distance by breaking her speed so that she can't come close enough. If she was a Lightning breath user this wouldn't have amounted to that much trouble, but she wasn't.

Kanae had to deal with the Obis that attacked her and Yuu from behind along with the blood slashes from Gyutaro that came in from blindspots.

But Kanae didn't have any forms that could help in the current situation, her breathing style didn't have it but…

'The Water breathing style has a move that allows for continuous attack and increasing in power over time,' Kanae knew it because Flower breathing was created from Water breathing.

And the Fourth form Crimson Hanagoromo was based on Water breathing's tenth form constant flux, but unlike a continuous attack, her style's attack was only a single one.

'I need to do it, No I have to do it, that way I will be able to reach her,' Kanae made up her mind, she had been looking into Water breathing for some time to understand Flower breathing more. She couldn't study it in depth but that didn't matter right now.

Kanae started to tweak her breathing slowly while moving her body in tandem with both breathing styles.

And slowly but surely she was able to reproduce what she had in mind.

SLASH* SLASH* ZING*

Cutting the Obis or blood slashes that came towards her while also deflecting some Kanae was twisting her own body rather than just the sword stroke to be able to achieve her goal.

Fourth Form: Improved, Continuous Crimson Hanagoromo.

"No matter how flashy you try to be now, you won't reach us," Daki didn't look amused by Kanae's changed movement, she was just that confident.

'They are making way faster now,' But Gyutaro was able to see it, Kanae was taking on the brunt of the obi and blood slashes which gave Yuu the chance to move forward without worrying at all.

And he was going all out in using this opportunity to attack Gyutaro.

'With this, we can win,' Kanae was sure as she Daki moved back to get away from her attack range but that didn't matter catching up wasn't that difficult now. The thing that was difficult was keeping herself from breaking the form.

"Is anyone here?" A shout from a distance made Kanae's heart drop while...

"Now isn't this a good twist," Gyutaro kicked Yuu's katana and sent him back to regrow his arm. Then he turned towards the scream from before and grinned.

This was perfect, he had found someone he can use.

"You seem desperate now, I wonder why that is?" Gyutaro smiled while exchanging blows with Yuu who was trying to stop him from going in that direction.

SLASH* SLASH*

Yuu even got more cuts on his body from Gyutaro while doing so which only delighted the latter more. Till now Yuu had avoided his poison like a plague even going as far as to stop the beheading attempt to get away from him.

But now he wasn't doing that.

'Even if the cuts aren't lethal they'll add up and soon he'll be unable to move,' Gyutaro thought as even with Yuu and Kanae trying hard they weren't able to stop the two from reaching the place where the voice came from as it was just a few alleys away.

"There's the bait," Gyutaro sent blood slashes towards the two girls who were walking around in search of someone.

They didn't even know what was coming towards them as they were too scared.

"No!!" Kanae was the first one to rush towards them and that proved to be fatal.

Not only did she get more cuts from the Obi. But in forcefully changing the trajectory of her sword strike against the momentum to save the girls.

"Cough* ACk, Cough*" Kanae fell to the ground coughing violently. It was her first time trying to incorporate another breathing style into her own.

And not to mention her abrupt change in between, a violent backlash such as this was normal. If it was someone else they would've been incapacitated.

"HIII!!" The small girls shrieked in horror as the whole shop in front of them was torn down and then saw Kanae falling in front of them.

"Nee-san!!" The two girls knew Kanae as...

"Why did you Cough* girls come back?" Kanae looked at them while coughing, these were the girls that got caught up in the fight between her and Daki before.

....

I recently checked that this fic has a rating 3.9 stars.

So, I wanted to ask, what happened?

If you are reading this note, that means you have read the fic to this point ...Hopefully.

Then I'd like to ask you what do you think is wrong with the fic for it to get that rating?

I want to know because I put a lot of thought into writing this fic.

This is why seeing that rating makes me want to know what I did wrong.

Hopefully, I'd get proper responses other than the fic is slow and the chat group took 11 chapters to be introduce, I am sure you understand that these alone aren't strong enough points to get a 1 star rating.

Then I'll look forward to it and Thanks in advance.

cause depending on the response I might put this fic on hold till I can fix the problems that might come up.

That's all bye.