Chapter 10: Conclusion (3400+ words)

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Chapter 10: Conclusion

"Narak" is a term from Hinduism/Buddhism, meaning "Hell".

In a situation where the existence of "hell" cannot be confirmed, "Narak" in everyday language refers to the scenes that a person least wants to experience.

And the D-Rank Genjutsu, can vividly present those scenes that one wishes to avoid right before their eyes.

In other words, the power of this technique depends on how strong an individual's fear is.

Uchiha Enka utilized his Sharingan to enhance this technique and completely immerse Giyu into the most terrifying illusion, making him forget his current identity.

...

"Monjirou (Tanjiro)! What are you doing?, That's Half-and-half Haori Guy. Don't you recognize him?"

Giyu was sent flying by Tanjiro, who had absorbed Muzan's cells. His claws tore through Giyu's flesh, but that wasn't the source of his suffering.

[Even though we had already won, and even killed Muzan...]

[Why did Tanjiro become a demon and overcome the weakness sunlight...]

Giyu knelt on one knee, using his sword to support his body, his eyes full of despair as he looked around.

Amid the dismembered limbs of the Demon Slayer Corps members, Kagaya Ubuyashiki lowered his head.

Kanroji Mitsuri held Nezuko in her arms, motionless, having already stopped breathing.

Even though Muichiro Tokito was alive, judging from the shocked expressions and actions of the remaining Hidden members around him, the situation was probably not great.

[I'm the only one who can move...]

[No one can defeat him anymore!]

Giyu, as a Pillar, wavered.

At that moment, the pig-headed boy- Inosuke who tried to stop Tanjiro was caught by a thick and sturdy skeletal chain that wrapped around his throat and slammed into the ground.

Under the cruel and terrifying blood-red vertical pupils' gaze, he was smashed into pulp by Tanjiro, and only the empty pig-head mask was flung away, rolling to Giyu's side, no longer its previous shape.

"Roar!!!"

Tanjiro, with fangs protruding from his mouth, landed on all fours like a wild beast, howling to the sky, and a massive shockwave cleared the surrounding bodies. Numerous cold, warm, and scorching hot blood stuck to Giyu's numb face.

Tanjiro faced Giyu with a ruthless expression, seemingly having decided on the next target to kill.

[Have you truly forgotten everything, Tanjiro...]

Giyu felt a deep sorrow, unable to move under that gaze.

He had lost an arm, and the other hand could no longer grip his weapon. He had multiple fractures all over his body and was losing too much blood, making it impossible for him even to stand up.

He felt like he had returned to that night many years ago, only able to helplessly watching everyone dying in his bloodstained hands, as his surroundings were emitting a pungent scent, and meaningless mumblings, crawling towards him.

[Is it over?]

Giyu closed his eyes.

[I am so useless... I'm sorry...Tanjiro, Sister, Nezuko, and everyone who sacrificed themselves.]

[Someone as weak as me truly isn't worthy of being a Pillar.]

Just as he was prepared to welcome his own death, shouts echoed from all around.

"Protect the Water Pillar! Protect the Water Pillar!"

It was the voices of Murata and other surviving members.

Giyu opened his eyes again.

"We can't let Tanjiro kill the Water Pillar!"

"Stop Tanjiro! The Water Pillar is our last hope!"

"Block him!"

The remaining dozen or so members immediately left the injured and treated patients and picked up the nearest Nichirin swords, rushing towards Giyu.

"Water Breathing: First Form - Surface Slash!"

"Wind Breathing: Third Form - Clean Storm Wind Tree!"

Not one of them was a match for Tanjiro. They were easily torn apart, their throats slit, and their spines broken, tossed aside like trash.

Giyu saw that after all the ordinary members had died, theKakushi, who didn't even know the Breathing techniques, rushed up to stop the frenzied Tanjiro.

The remaining few people stopped his arms and dragged him into a hard-to-find corner before returning to the battlefield.

One of the Kakushi stayed behind. She removed her mask, revealing the face of Tsutako his older sister.

"Giyu, Giyu, can you hear me?"

She looked at him with tender eyes, just like in his memories.

"What's wrong with you? Why aren't you moving?"

"Can you still understand me, Giyu?"

"Giyu, now you're the only one in the Demon Slayer Corps who can defeat Tanjiro. Please, move—"

Before she finished speaking, a pale shadow dashed over from the battlefield, and a sharp, monstrous bone pierced her sister's heart.

However, Tsutako couldn't say a word.

He shed tears but couldn't do anything, just watching this familiar scene repeat itself.

"Giyu..."

Her warm hand suddenly turned icy, sliding down his cheek. "You must stay alive."

The long bone spur, like a scorpion's tail, pulled her lifeless body back.

Footsteps approached, calm and unhurried, even a bit relaxed.

At some point, Tanjiro had returned to walking upright, but he was wearing Muzan's black suit and the flashy top hat, with a frivolous smile on his face.

He carried Tsutako's body on his right shoulder, with one corpse in his left hand and another on his left shoulder.

Giyu widened his eyes, exhausted, and enveloped by deeper fear.

The remaining two were Sabito and Nezuko.

Their pale faces were full of disappointment, as if blaming Giyu.

Even they, too, were killed by the demonized Tanjiro's brutality.

"Why show such an expression?" Tanjiro looked down at Giyu, using Muzan's voice. "I told you before, Demon Slayers are all insane, actually wanting to face me."

Using the bone stained with Tsutako's blood, he wiped away the tears on Giyu's face, leaving behind a red mark.

"Just think of me as a flood, earthquake, or volcanic eruption. Does anyone want to retaliate against natural disasters?"

"Even if you change your way of thinking, it's easy to live a more comfortable life by finding a part-time job."

"What's the result now? Besides your own life, there's nothing left. Almost everything important, everyone you knew, has become an illusion. To be honest, seeing you in such pain, I can't bear to kill you."

At this point, Tanjiro paused, seeming to recall something, and grinned with a very wicked smile.

"Oh, I forgot, there's still someone very important to you, it seems like they're still alive."

Giyu's heartbeat stopped for a moment; he knew who Tanjiro was talking about.

[It's Urokodaki-sensei!]

"Oh my."

The demonized Tanjiro, with crimson eyes, glanced meaningfully at the bodies of Sabito and Nezuko.

"Back then, I didn't give him a proper disciple's greeting, but now it's just perfect. When he sees these two gifts, he'll surely be delighted. After all, both of us, including them, were the children Urokodaki-sensei cared for the most."

As he spoke, he turned around and took steps toward the direction where the sun was rising—the direction of Mt. Natagumo.

"Of course, I'll tell him that I could give him these gifts thanks to your help.

"Live like this, Giyu."

"Forever protected by someone stronger, forever surviving battles, even though you should be the luckiest one, you insist on wearing the most unfortunate face to survive.

"That's how it should be. You'll live together with me, forever and ever!"

[Tanjiro!]

Giyu looked at Tanjiro, who was walking further away, in astonishment and cried out with sorrow in his heart.

[Please! Wake up!]

[Please! Kill me! Don't disturb Urokodaki-sensei!]

Tanjiro seemed to sense something and turned his head slightly.

But this time, Giyu clearly saw that it was not Tanjiro's face anymore—it was the triumphant face of Muzan Kibutsuji himself!

He showed a mocking expression and continued walking with the three bodies.

[It's him! It's him!]

[That's right! The gentle Tanjiro would never do such things!]

[This damn monster!]

Giyu's eyes widened, and raging flames surged through his body, helping him regain control of his body.

He stared fixedly at the receding figure of Muzan Kibutsuji and spewed endless white smoke from his mouth and nose, like a factory chimney.

[I absolutely cannot let him harm Urokodaki-sensei.]

He reached the broken arm of Murata and connected it to his broken arm, and it surprisingly succeeded (since it was an illusion).

[I absolutely cannot let him take away Sabito, Nezuko, and Tanjiro again—]

[They are all my family!]

The blue Nichirin sword of Murata seemed to sense his determination and unleashed a surging wave of water.

Just like Giyu, it eagerly wanted to exert its last bit of strength and vitality to deliver a final blow to the enemy twenty meters away.

"Water Breathing: Tenth Form…"

Muzan Kibutsuji seemed to sense something and turned around in surprise.

"Do you still have the strength?"

He tossed the three bodies away from him, fueling Giyu's rage even more.

"Then, I'll play with you!"

As he made a series of strange hand movements, the surrounding buildings collapsed, blocking the space between them.

The bodies of the Demon Slayer Corps members along the way were desecrated again, and the illusionary screams turned Giyu's eyes completely blood-red.

"Constant Flux!"

With a terrifying dragon roar, the ferocious water dragon charged like a speeding train, crashing into the obstructing buildings.

Giyu had never felt this powerful before. He rotated his body to restore his sword, and the water dragon swept its giant tail, obliterating the obstacles in front of him.

With each turn, the dragon's roar grew louder, and its body became more solid. Its two empty eyes gradually glowed, as if living souls resided within.

One wall, two walls, three walls, four walls, five walls—

Each wall was destroyed more thoroughly than the last, especially the last one, over three meters thick, which was directly shattered into pieces by the dragon's head!

Fear finally appeared in Muzan Kibutsuji's eyes!

He suddenly leaped high, trying to avoid the jaws of the dragon, but how could Giyu let him escape!

He stomped on the ground, and the blue blade and the dragon head flew into the air together. On that face, known as expressionless, appeared a more vicious expression than a demon's.

In his anxiety, Muzan Kibutsuji made various gestures, spewing out a huge ball of flames, but they were instantly extinguished by water splashes, and the rising steam was of no use at all.

As Giyu turned around for the last time, the giant dragon opened its big mouth, and just as it was about to kill the enemy on the spot--

Suddenly, the eastern sun turned into more than a dozen suns.

Each sun turned crimson and grew strange jade patterns, rotating slowly.

In the next moment, Uchiha Giyu woke up.

He was "flying" in mid-air but was surrounded by six or seven Shisui with Sharingan eyes.

[What am I doing?!]

Giyu didn't have time to think and wasn't sure what had just happened, but he knew that Shisui was a friend. Therefore, he quickly dispelled the chakra gathered in his hand and stopped his attack, but blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth.

The water dragon, more than fifty meters long, turned into countless raindrops pouring on the trees, and Giyu was completely exhausted, falling towards the ground.

In mid-air, all the Shisui blocking him disappeared instantly.

Just as Giyu was about to touch the ground, the original body of Uchiha Shisui suddenly appeared directly below him and caught him in his arms.

As for Uchiha Enka, who almost died, he sat exhausted on the ground, covered in sweat.

After using large-scale Earth Release and several Fire Release: Great Fireball techniques continuously, he had almost depleted his chakra.

He had never seen a water dragon jutsu that could change its trajectory and protect the caster, especially when the person was in mid-air and couldn't even use the substitution technique.

Especially the expression the opponent gave him at the end, that intense disgust and hatred, made him shiver.

[What is the thing that little devil is most afraid of...]

Before he could recover, Uchiha Shisui put Giyu down and suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Sorry, I can't let you remember these things."

Shisui stared in his eyes, and the three tomoe in his left eye rotated for five or six rounds until they showed signs of deformation, successfully causing him to collapse.

He just modified some small details in his memory; there was no need to use the Mangekyou Sharingan; a simplified genjutsu was enough.

When he woke up, he would forget about Giyu's fighting powers and mistake the water dragon as Shisui's creation.

As long as his visual prowess couldn't surpass Shisui's, his original memories wouldn't resurface.

After doing all this, Shisui returned to Uchiha Giyu's side in an instant.

"Little Giyu, you really impressed me this time."

Shisui carefully took the ninja sword from Giyu's hand, threw it far away, and then pointed behind him. "Of course, the aftermath will not be easy to handle."

Giyu turned his head, his eyes wide with disbelief.

The originally neat and tidy central area of the training field had become a muddy ruin.

An arc-shaped pit, more than two meters wide, pierced through a distance of twenty to thirty meters. The training ground looked as if it had been plowed by a huge plow, not to mention the broken stones around...

"Did I do this?"

He asked hoarsely.

He saw Sasuke sitting paralyzed on the other side of that pit, breathing heavily, as if he had seen something terrifying.

But Giyu was already exhausted and had no strength to go over and comfort him.

"Oh, did you completely forget?" Shisui patted Giyu's shoulder. "You directly defeated a Chunin. On the first day of practicing Chakra extraction, you've come this far. You're really amazing."

[Though I don't think anyone else could do it.]

He carefully observed Giyu's face, filled with curiosity.

He wanted to know what kind of tricky water ninjutsu was more formidable than the water dragon bomb.

Unavoidable, continuously strengthening water dragons, that could advance with the caster and even change their attacking direction freely with Taijutsu—this could be considered an A-rank ninjutsu, right?

Not to mention the speed, it looked much more impressive than Kakashi-senpai's Chidori.

Most importantly, this technique didn't require hand seals!

And what about Giyu's fierce swordsmanship, which shattered the Large Earth Wall? Could it be developed just by cutting vegetables in the kitchen?

Shisui, who thought he had seen many strange things, was truly amazed by Giyu's performance today. Unfortunately, Itachi wasn't here; otherwise, he could see Itachi's expression.

Hadn't Sasuke on the other side already been scared silly?

[Should have used a camera to capture this and show it to him when he grows up...]

Giyu didn't feel anything about Shisui's praise. Instead, he lowered his head with a low mood.

[If only I had such power back then.]

He looked at his right hand, which was both painful and burning, knowing that he was in a genjutsu state. Subconsciously, just like the previous Genin, he mobilized his chakra to cover the muscles near his hand acupoints, causing such extensive destruction.

As for that ninja sword, it's just for show.

Although this power surprised him, it came too late.

And another thing that troubled him was that he had just lost control and almost killed that child.

"What about the other three?"

Glancing at Uchiha Sasuke, who was sitting soundly over there, Giyu remembered the other three Uchiha Genin.

With such a big commotion, if it had affected them…

"What about the other three?"

Uchiha Shisui saw Giyu's face turning paler and quickly pointed to the three neatly hung people on the tree over there, "Don't worry, they're all fine. The one with the most serious injuries here is you."

He looked a bit more serious as he said to Giyu, "Remember, you must never use up all your chakra and physical strength/stamina at once in the future. Otherwise, you'll die."

Giyu sensed his own body and found that what Shisui said was true.

The chakra extracted in the morning had been completely exhausted, but the unconverted physical energy still remained, but not much, reaching a dangerous edge.

It seemed that such a powerful circulation had its price.

"I understand."

Giyu stood up with Shisui's support and said, "Take me to Sasuke."

"No need, someone will bring him over."

As Shisui spoke, Giyu saw Itachi's figure appearing next to Sasuke.

Itachi looked a bit bewildered as he glanced at the messy ground, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes. Then he asked Sasuke a question, but Sasuke just stared ahead with an ugly expression.

It seemed that he was scared.

Helpless, Itachi had to carry him on his back and walked towards Giyu and Shisui.

Seeing Itachi's inquiring expression, Shisui gently shook his head and said, "Let's send these two kids home first. We'll talk about it later when we clean up here."

Itachi glanced at Giyu's swollen right hand, knowing that Shisui was right; they needed to attend to the injuries first.

He divided two shadow clones, one serving as Shisui's "helper," and the other carried Giyu.

Then Itachi's original body, after expressing gratitude to Shisui, carried Giyu and Sasuke and left.

Meanwhile, the shadow clone came to Shisui's side and listened to him talk about what had just happened.

...

The three brothers - or rather, four brothers with the shadow clone - didn't speak on the way.

Itachi could feel Sasuke's whole body was ice-cold, while Giyu was visibly exhausted. Unfortunately, the shadow clone on Shisui's side hadn't been dispelled yet, and he didn't know exactly what had happened, but he could guess some things.

The dragon's roar just now and the traces on the ground must have been caused by the Water Dragon bomb.

But Shisui didn't have Water Release chakra.

Itachi was well aware of Uchiha Enka's situation as a potential troublemaker. But even he didn't have the qualification to release a large-scale Water Release ninjutsu.

Then, the only possible answer...

Uchiha Itachi sighed.

So much had happened today, one thing after another, making this young man feel extremely tricky.

Fortunately, his father didn't know much about it.

He had lurked there only when the three brothers started having lunch. He had the high-ranking members of the clan lure Uchiha Enka over to make the two brothers suffer a bit, hoping to stimulate Giyu's motivation to learn ninjutsu.

After all, how many children could tolerate being bullied? Even if Giyu didn't care about himself, what about seeing Sasuke being bullied?

In his father's eyes, although this move was a bit despicable, it was still a better choice; otherwise, they would have to find a way with the high-ranking members of the clan, and by then, Giyu would truly lose his freedom.

After thinking it through, Uchiha Itachi decided to reach an agreement with his father, with both sides compromising.

Firstly, his father would keep the fact that Giyu awakened his eyes a secret from the clan.

Secondly, Uchiha Itachi would gently encourage Giyu to learn ninjutsu, especially persuading him to go to the Ninja Academy for further studies.

Thirdly, Uchiha Itachi promised his father that he would take the Chūnin Exam next month and then, as per his father's arrangement, join the ANBU, becoming a spy planted in the Hidden Leaf Village.

But what he would never expect was that the higher-ups in the village had exactly the same idea.

After returning home, he carried Sasuke and Giyu to their room, letting them rest for a while, and then personally went to find a familiar medical ninja to treat Giyu—too many shadow clones had been used today, and there wasn't much chakra left.

In the spacious room, only Sasuke and Giyu remained. Similar faces, similar expressions.

After a while, Giyu reached out his hand towards Sasuke. He felt that any child from any family would be frightened by that scene, so it would be better to comfort Sasuke as if he was comforting Nezuko.

What he didn't expect was that Sasuke turned his body and gave him a firm hug first.

"Giyu, from now on, I will never let you shed tears again."

He remembered the words described in a picture book.

If a person who you thought would never cry suddenly cried so despairingly, it must be because they had suffered great pain.

Compared to the power Giyu had shown, Sasuke was more shocked by the tears he shed.

Giyu was stunned, then he used his uninjured hand to embrace Sasuke's shoulder without saying anything.

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