Chapter 22: Peaceful Ending

Just because of a moment of distraction, Gyutaro, who could have held on for a while longer, ended up dying.

As the scorching demon-killing axe blade slashed across his neck, Gyutaro felt his head lighten and his vision spun dizzily.

He instinctively wanted to control his flesh and blood to regenerate.

But the flames burning on the neck burned every bit of regenerated flesh and blood.

In fact, it soon burned into his body along the esophagus and began to burn from the inside out.

Although the Burning Demons-Slayer does not have the power of the sun, it can still effectively prevent the regeneration of flesh and blood.

The head fell off, but the body could not regenerate, and Gyutaro's consciousness gradually became blurred.

On the other side, Daki in Tanjiro Kamado arms also felt the power drain away.

Death comes.

The bodies and heads of the two men soon turned into ashes and disappeared from this world.

"Finally...it's finally over."

Exhausted, Tanjiro Kamado sat down on the ground, gasping for breath.

Fighting against the Upper Ranks was indeed too much of a stretch for him now.

During the battle, he lost control of his muscles several times due to excessive use of breathing techniques. If he had not had two reliable teammates by his side, he would have died countless times.

In the end, it was only by relying on the combined swordsmanship of Water Breathing and the Fire God Kagura that he was able to successfully cut off Daki head.

He really has no strength left.

"Si, Commander..."

Looking at Kotori Itsuka who came in front of him, Tanjiro Kamado forced a smile.

Just when he wanted to celebrate the success of the war against the Twelve Kizukis with her, Kotori Itsuka grabbed his collar and pulled him up from the ground.

"It's time for overtime."

Kotori Itsuka eyes were as sharp as torches as she threw down the last sentence, leaving Tanjiro Kamado disheveled in the wind.

"Muzan is nearby, use your dog nose to find him immediately!"

The Demon Slayer Corps finally killed an upper-rank demon for the first time today, even though they had not killed one in hundreds of years.

This is an extremely meaningful thing.

But no one present had time to celebrate.

It was as if the recently deceased Daki and Gyutaro were not remembered at all and were simply forgotten.

In the flower street, all the members of the Demon Slayer Corps were searching for something in a hurry.

Even Tengen Uzui, who was supposed to be healing his wounds and detoxifying immediately, abandoned his usual gorgeous demeanor and searched house by house for suspicious people and hiding places without any grace.

Because there is a high possibility that Muzan is nearby.

The Demon King, the ultimate target of the Demon Slayer Corps, whom the Demon Slayer Corps has been searching for for a thousand years without ever catching a glimpse of, is nearby.

He didn't even doubt the authenticity of the information. After hearing what Kotori Itsuka said, he immediately dragged his seriously injured body to search.

However, after searching for twenty minutes without any results, the Demon Slayer Corps members and Ratatoskr members who were busy in the Flower Street gave up the search.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't find Muzan whereabouts."

Having been given high hopes by Kotori Itsuka, Tanjiro Kamado was unable to track down Muzan Kibutsuji through his keen sense of smell this time. He said unwillingly: "That guy escaped too fast. I could only find his last location."

"Forget it, it's not your fault."

The speedrun plan did not succeed, but Kotori Itsuka was not too disappointed. She just said with a hint of regret: "There will always be a next time. Our target this time was not him. Meeting him was a pleasant surprise, but it was no loss if we didn't find him."

These words were not just to comfort Tanjiro Kamado.

Before this action, she did not consider the possibility that Muzan Kibutsujiwould appear here.

In order to save time and end the battle with Gyutaro as soon as possible, she used some real strength and beat the Upper Six so hard that he couldn't even fight back and could only defend passively.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Muzan Kibutsujiran away was partly because he didn't want to fight Kotori Itsuka head-on.

To be honest, in the battle just now, most of her fighting ability was not displayed.

Not only was the spiritual power output only 50% of the normal state, the defensive stance of the Divine Power Spirit Armor was not activated, and even the cannon form of the Burning Demons-Destroying Armor did not appear.

With the strength of Muzan Kibutsuji, he should not be afraid of Kotori Itsuka who has hidden all her cards.

After all, the gap between the upper and lower ranks is like a chasm, and the same is true of the gap between the upper ranks.

The gap between the Demon King and the Upper-rank Demons is even greater.

Muzan Kibutsuji can also easily deal with Daki and Gyutaro.

However, it seemed that his usual caution showed that Kotori Itsuka was not using her full strength.

Without an accurate estimate of her true fighting power, Muzan Kibutsuji, who acts extremely cautiously, naturally would not take action.

Even if he decides to kill Kotori Itsuka, the unstable factor, in the future, he will definitely do so after he has a deep understanding of her and has grasped her true strength.

"Hmph..." Kotori Itsuka murmured to herself, "After this battle, there will definitely be a lot of temptations from Muzan Kibutsuji. He will try every means to test my limit of strength, so as to formulate the next plan..."

And she could just take advantage of the situation.

Just as Kotori Itsuka was thinking about what to do next, Tengen Uzui came over.

Behind him were three beautiful women.

Although he did not find Muzan, he found the place where Daki imprisoned his wife and rescued them.

Tengen Uzui and Kotori Itsuka eyes met.

No, it would be a bit strange to look into each other's eyes because Kotori Itsuka was wearing a mask.

But even with the mask on, Tengen Uzui could still feel that the other party was staring at him.

After all, now that the common goal of the two organizations has been achieved and there are no enemies left, only the Demon Slayer Corps and Ratatoskr are left.

But the two organizations are far from pally.

Although Ratatoskr has been doing things that are in the same interest as the Demon Slayer Corps so far, and has even helped them many times, for many members of the Demon Slayer Corps, they cannot trust an organization with demons.

Tengen Uzui is one of the members who is unwilling to trust Ratatoskr.

I accepted help this time simply because I had no choice.

"Thank you for your assistance."

But in the end, he did nothing and just nodded slightly to Kotori Itsuka in thanks.

Although he really wanted to bring back Tanjiro Kamado, a defector from the Demon Slayer Corps, as well as Nezuko and Kotori Itsuka, two demons who were not under the control of Kibutsu and Muzan.

But his strength did not allow him to do so.

Anyone who can kill an Upper Six alone in a short period of time must be at least an Upper Rank.

Not to mention that he is now seriously injured and poisoned, even if he was in his prime, he felt that he had no way to deal with them.

Therefore, the first meeting between the Demon Slayer Corps' top brass and Ratatoskr did not end in a conflict.

Both sides tacitly did nothing and left the half-destroyed flower street before the government intervened.

However, the next time we meet, it may not end peacefully.