Poison?

"I'm gonna smash you up before we reach there," Gyutaro sent out many blood slashes towards Yuu and blasted off to attack him when he saw the opening on the left, and just like before, there was an explosion under his feet.

BOOOM* BOOOM* BOOOOM*

This continued on as Gyutaro pushed to attack Yuu but just when he was about to reach the latter, his feet would blow up no matter if it was the ground, wall, or even rooftops.

It was like they were planted everywhere Gyutaro stepped.

'He keeps on baiting me with his movements, and I end up getting blasted even if I don't follow the feints, and I have to keep an eye out for the mirrors as well as wires,' Gyutaro was pissed, since no matter what he was getting hit, even though he wasn't scared of the wires he still did his best to spot them if he can since it would help him reduce his overall damage.

But even then it was a lot harder for Yuu to keep up with Gyutaro since the latter sent a lot of slashes that came from front and behind, so he had no choice but to slash them all to destroy it.

BOOOM* SMASH*

Not to mention the attacks of Gyutaro that got through even when he was injured by the bombs. They blew Yuu away without giving him any chance and just like this the battle had ended up in an open plaza just a few alleys away from the main street on the east side of Yoshiwara.

Gyutaro stopped here to assess the situation, He could already see that each of Yuu's breath was getting more labored than the previous one.

In Gyutaro's eyes, Yuu was already on his last leg, and because of that, he was wondering…

'Why did he bring me here? He had already set up that path with traps before? So what is his plan now?' Gyutaro looked at the empty ground around them, there has to be a trick here, otherwise, Yuu wouldn't have baited him so much to change their directions.

"Still buying time for the people to run away, huh? Such a good deed, too bad it will all go to waste," Gyutaro said while walking toward Yuu.

"I …don't care about them," Yuu said through the heavy breathing.

"You say that but it is all obvious to me, all of you demon slayers are the same in the end, a few of the Pillars were the same and died without being able to save anyone,"

To worry about others when your own life is in peril, Gyutaro found it ridiculous since it was something only those with easy lives could think of.

Thinking that, Gyutaro appeared in front of Yuu and kicked his chest.

WHOOSH*

But Yuu ducked easily and before Gyutaro could understand he could see an upward slash coming towards him.

'Did I go too easy on him? No, he got faster,' Gyutaro didn't even have his guard up as he felt the blade touching his neck and slicing in quickly 'And stronger,'

TING*

Gyutaro used his Kama to stop the slash as it nearly sliced into his neck bone.

PUCHI* PUCHI* PUCHI*

Gyutaro's eyes widened as he sent flying sickles from all over his body to push Yuu back as he felt needles piercing his midsection and arm.

It was done by Yuu as he slashed at Gyutaro with only one arm before so that he can use his other to do some other tasks.

"What happened? Is this some sort of power you got on death's door?" Gyutaro smirked as his neck healed, it was clear from his face that he was pissed, plus…

'You'll pay that debt later,' Gyutaro grinned and Yuu sighed, all of his tiredness and weakness just vanished.

The change was so sudden that Gyutaro thought that this was an act, but…

"You are arrogant," Gyutaro's grin stopped when he heard that as Yuu continued, "I told you before right? That medicine cures all poison, but even while knowing that it could be true you chose to believe in your own power and wanted to play around with me, That's arrogance."

Yuu was basically telling him that 'You should've ended the fight when you had the chance.'

But he already knew Gyutaro won't do that, he was someone who got off on toying with the ones who were gifted. He wanted others to suffer, especially so if they had an easy life according to his own standards.

"And now I am back to full strength, and you are one who is poisoned, what do you think I'll do now?" Gyutaro remembered those needles from before.

'It was poison? But I don't feel anything in my blood?' Gyutaro thought and then he looked around him.

If Yuu had injected the poison in Gyutaro's arm or leg he would've cut it off immediately, but Yuu did it in the midsection so there was no way to get rid of it without becoming too vulnerable.

"Neat, isn't it? the moment you let your guard down you lost your advantage," Yuu said with a smile that once again ignited the anger inside Gyutaro.

To think that this was all a set-up, That he was being fooled the entire time.

'No that isn't true, I am sure the poison is still affecting him and he is just suppressing it with that medicine, it isn't that easy to make an antidote for a poison you've never encountered, the cureall is surely just horse shit,' Gyutaro understood that Yuu was stalling for time, and he knew how Yuu was going to go about doing that from here on forward.

'How many did he place around here? How does he control them to blow up? No, he is too careful to do that,' In a sense Gyutaro could see what was happening, this area was rigged with those explosives, and the only time they went off was went he stepped on them.

So, what he had to do was very simple.

"I already understand it, you are a tricky bastard just like I said," Gyutaro smiled and circular blood slashes started to rise from all over his body.

Rotating Circular Slashes: Flying Blood Sickle, It was the technique he had used before but this time instead of his arms waves of blood slashes were sent from all over his body.

SLASH* SLASH* SLASH* BOOOM* SLASH* SLASH* BOOM* SLASH* BOOM*

'There weren't as many,' Gyutaro was shocked as a cloud of dust covered his vision thanks to his slashes and the occasional explosions.

'There are two footsteps now and it isn't the lady from before, Who is it?' Gyutaro thought as he felt like something was wrong, but just when he was focusing on the footsteps that were getting further he saw something shine through the dust, it was a katana.

"Damn it," Gyutaro moved back as the katana knicked his neck.

Yuu was getting faster and faster with each slash as Gyutaro moved back.

TING* TING* TING*

'No, it is me who is getting slower,' Gyutaro understood that with every clash, he had used a lot of blood to smash the ground of the open area here.

He chose to do this one-time attack rather than having to regenerate his limbs every time when they'd be blown off in the fight that he thought was going to happen. Plus it helped Gyutaro to get rid of most of the blood that could be poisoned.

But he made a miscalculation thanks to Yuu. Not to mention that Yuu's footsteps made no noise along with the falling rocks from Gyutaro's own rampage, and the presence of another person that he wasn't able to sense till now.

And if this wasn't enough, there was another thing that Gyutaro had to think about.

'Is that poison working?' Gyutaro started to consider that the poison had spread really quickly.

It wasn't a ridiculous thought seeing what Yuu had done till now.

So considering his situation now this…

'…is really bad,' Gyutaro grinned as he saw Yuu in front of him swinging at his neck, but now Gyutaro had both his eyes open and he had recovered a good amount of blood.

WHOOOSH* TING

But then someone came flying into the scene, It was Daki, and she sent her Obis to attack Yuu making him block the attack losing his opportunity.

Using the opportunity Gyutaro tried to slash at Yuu but he could only cut the air.

"Gyutaro!! I found th-SLASH*" Daki was about to say something but her head was cut off by Kanae who came zooming after her.

"AHHHHHHH!! This bitch cut off my head!!!" Daki shouted as her head dropped to the ground.

"We need to hurry!!" Kanae's face was full of urgency looking at Yuu.

'Kanae has small cuts and injuries?' Yuu could feel something was wrong.

"I wasn't just stalling for my strength to recover," Gyutaro grinned as he jumped up to attack Kanae who was trying to reach out for Daki's head.

TING* BANG*

'He is a lot strong than the other one,' Kanae was knocked down on the ground but she regained herself quickly and didn't get injured.

"Tachibana-sama, are you alright?" Kanae asked as that was the only thing on her mind when she noticed him. She was worried sick about his state and...

"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 and Kanae felt her heart drop.