Ice Breathing. Eleventh Form. Winter's Conclusion.
Eira had created the eleventh form at the Butterfly Mansion, she had a desire to set herself apart from the previous users of Ice Breathing in her family, the breathing style had been passed down from generation to generation, and even Eira didn't have an idea how many centuries ago it was first established. However, she knew for a fact no one had dared to change or add to the elegant breathing style, even her own father, the boldest of all the users that ever utilised Ice Breathing. Eira used to ask her father about his years at the Demon Slayer Corps often, he would describe them well, his tales never failing to entertain Eira. Eira's dad's years were short yet extremely prosperous, he was able to reach the title of Hashira in less than 4 years, after he had reached Hashira status, he served for a year and retired. Even after retirement, he still practised the breathing style almost every day and taught it to his two children. However, through the intense battles he faced, the strong demons he battled, and the extreme danger he faced with every second he fought, never once did he ever experiment with the breathing style, instead he only performed and perfected what he had already been taught and knew. Eira wanted to set herself apart from her ancestors, who followed the breathing style like a rulebook. She had created a brand new form, through immense practice and creativity she had finally got that single form that she was so proud of.
Eira stood up firmly once again, her eyes met Rui's. The tension between them was bursting with anticipation, their similarities in experience but the difference in ideals and attitudes had made them natural enemies with an undying passion to defeat the other.
Eira took a deep breath of the cold air that lingered through the entire mountain. The deep wound on her back throbbed and stung, exposed to the cold air. She was fully aware of how deep her wound was and how much blood she was losing, she had implemented the breathing styles she learnt at Butterfly Mansion to drastically slow the amount of blood flowing from the wound, she had a fight to focus on at the moment. She had to finish it quickly before she was too weakened by blood loss.
She watched as the red strings all swayed in unison, Rui's fury flowed through the strings, his crimson aura tainted the strings with bloodlust. The bold red strings were coming from all directions. Rui thought Eira had no direction to dodge, he was definite that this would be the sequence of strings to end this tormenting battle with Eira. Eira's perception of the attack was much different, in fact, the arrangement and movement of the strings matched up to her liking. There was only one possible avenue to dodge all the strings. Eira looked upwards, the bright moon directly above her.
Eira wasted no time in diving head-first into the complex battle, in a fraction of a second she implanted her sword halfway into the soft ground. She pushed herself off the ground using the sword, while also jumping upwards. This combination led to her being rocketed upwards, as her sword departed the soil, she hurriedly put the sole of her shoe on the non-sharp side of her sword. As the strings came rushing at her, she deflected the strings with her sword, the strings didn't break but the force at which they hit Eira's sword further accelerated her rise upwards.
"What… the hell?!" Rui was confused by the complex acrobatic skills that Eira showcased, he was utterly lost for words for the succession of moves Eira used to take to the air. He clenched his jaw in anger and swung his arms faster and stronger, his strings constantly being deflected or evaded by Eira. Eira removed her sword from the bottom of her feet, she had finally got to the position she needed to be at. She was right next to the top of a tall tree, she powerfully stabbed her sword into the bark of the tall tree, she then twisted her body and placed her feet on the strong log of the tower-like tree. She was metres above where Rui's strings could reach.
"Ice Breathing. Eleventh Form. Winter's Conclusion." Eira's mind echoed with her unique form name. Finally, she got to use it.
Eira's heart burst with energy and adrenaline, she grunted as her feet pushed off the tree, as she soared backwards, the moon shone right at her face, the moon felt so close. Eira's body slowly rotated, facing the ground. Rui was like a small bug from where Eira was, she was at least 50 metres high in the air. As she rapidly lost height, skydiving downwards, she held her sword tightly.
Rui's eyes were locked on Eira, her silhouette right in the middle of the moon, red strings in a web formation above Rui so when Eira fell down her body would be sliced into hundreds of different pieces.
Rui couldn't help but grin widely as he imagined the brutal scene of Eira's body mutilated after his elegant performance of an attack. Without any time for Rui to react, the web of red strings was torn apart, the strings breaking one after another at a rapid rate. The ground around Rui clouded with dirt and dust as whistling sounds echoed from above. Eira expeditiously swung her sword in all different directions and forms below her, flying slashes being sent down with a violent blizzard. This was her Eleventh Form, she would find a way to get high into the sky and then unleash a flurry of powerful swings to form flying slashes straight at the ground below. It was like a violent blizzard of unpredictable slashes that no one would be able to dodge. Rui's eyes were wide and he tried to reform the strong web pattern with his strings. His heart dropped as he felt his arm be sliced off in an instant, as soon as the arm dropped to the floor several other slashes diced through the arm leaving it looking as if it was finely chopped. Rui attempted to escape, as soon as he took a step his foot came off, then his other arm. The paralysing emotion of fear erupted across his body, he knew this was it. This was death. The cold slashes seared through his body one by one, they tore through his body, fingers, limbs, and chunks of his body all fell off randomly. Rui let out a blood-curdling scream as he felt his body being violently massacred by Eira's eleventh form. Then he felt his tough neck attacked by multiple slashes at once, his neck exploded with blood as his head was completely removed from his head. Rui was defeated. Rui's head flew off his body, it twisted mid-air as if someone had kicked it, the last glimpse he caught was Eira's silhouette contrasted by the moon in the background.
Eira was now 20 metres above ground level, all her energy had been spent on the highly effective yet exhausting form. She hadn't thought of the fact that to use the form, she would have to transition from the breathing style that stopped blood flow to her wound to Ice Breathing. Mid-air as she swung her sword over and over, her wound went back into full effect, it bled immensely. Eira grunted as she skyrocketed downwards at a rapid rate, she wouldn't be able to break the fall.
"Come on… I have to…" Eira felt her whole body weaken, the blood loss had taken effect on Eira. Her whole body was unable to move in the powerful air resistance as her face saw the grey dirt get closer and closer.
"Father… Mother… Brother…" Eira's eyes slowly closed, "I love you."
The cold wind blew across Eira's face violently as the ground got terrifyingly close. Eira felt her body stop moving downwards suddenly. She felt two arms wrap around her body. Hurriedly, she opened her eyes. It was the Water Hashira, a nonchalant expression on his face as he continued to dash forwards as if he didn't even care about Eira.
"I'm impressed." He softly spoke, he had only arrived on the scene once Eira performed her powerful form.
Eira's voice came out raspy and broken. Her whole body was weak but she managed to say a simple two words.
"Thank you." Eira's words meant so much more than she could put into speech, she was thanking him for a variety of things. The battle, her almost death, and her being saved happened in such little time. It was sort of confusing and overwhelming. Eira started to implement the breathing style to slow bleeding once again. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed. Mount Natagumo had been completely rid of demons, the combined efforts of Asumi, Kaze, Eira and all the other demon slayers that contributed to the mission eradicated the demons on Mount Natagumo. Most importantly, Eira defeated Lower Moon 5, this event was notified to Muzan telepathically almost immediately.
On another mountain, two demons still resided. Akaza and Ali strolled through the peaceful paths of the desolate mountain. They would often go on pointless walks if not already busy on missions set by Muzan. Recently, Ali started to join Akaza on missions that Muzan set, often he would find a demon to absorb and gain power. Akaza didn't mind Ali's technique of gaining power, he was supportive of Ali's morals of not wanting to harm humans. Akaza understood Ali's morals, as he also had a moral code of not killing women.
The moon shone brightly as the two demons slowly walked through the forest.
"Wait." Akaza stopped in his tracks, his yellow eyes which read "Upper 3" glowed. Akaza turned around as the wind blew softly. A certain bush rustled aggressively. Akaza and Ali instinctively got ready to fight. A small demon fell out of the bush, splinters stuck on its soft red body and its loose clothing stained by dirt.
"Akaza! The Demon King has sent a message for you and your pupil. Lower Moon 5 is… dead." The demon kneeled on the floor and held out a letter that rested on top of a sleek wooden box. The trees swayed in unison as the wind silently brushed past the three demons.
Akaza grabbed the letter and passed the box to Ali as he opened the letter. While Akaza read the letter, Ali let curiosity take the better of him and he opened the box. Ali's stomach turned as he saw the gruesome sight of two round eyes that stared right back at Ali. The two eyes had a single word etched onto each eye, one read 'Lower' while the other read 'Five'. Ali's brain took a while but he finally connected the dots, if Lower 5 had died, and Muzan sent Lower 5 eyes…
"Alright, we're going to make this quick and easy, open your eyes." Akaza cracked his knuckles and stretched his fingers out. Ali shot a glance of horror towards Akaza, he was about to get his eyes gouged out and replaced with these random ones.
"Hell nah, this is what demons have to do every time they move up the Twelve Moons?" Ali took a step backwards, the box firmly clamped shut in his hands. He had never injured or felt any pain of any type in his eyes, and he didn't desire to anytime in his life, especially not getting his eyes scooped out.
"Oh no, usually the eyes change by themselves once you prove yourself worthy, Lord Muzan uses some demon powers to change them. But you can't be altered or changed by him, so you have to do it yourself." Akaza explained quite bluntly. Ali's eyes started to ache just from hearing Akaza talk about it.
"What's that behind you by the way?" Akaza acted confused and pointed behind Ali. Ali stupidly fell for the oldest trick known to mankind and looked behind him.
"I don't see any-" Ali felt Akaza's hand grab at his neck and slam him into the ground. The ground trembled from the amount of force Akaza put into the slam. Akaza's grip tightened as Ali's hands grabbed at Akaza's wrist.
"Yo, we can talk about this!" Ali's voice came out choked as he struggled and resisted, he desperately wanted to avoid this practice. Why did he only have to do this?!
"This is going to be a lot easier if you relax," Akaza's yellow eyes stared down at Ali. Akaza's hand reached and his fingers surrounded Ali's eye sockets. Ali swung a fist right at Akaza's face. Ali started to whack Akaza with both left and right fists. He punched where-ever he could, ribs, face, back. The punches were so hard that the sounds echoed through the forest. Akaza just took the punches straight, he dealt with the pain as if it was nothing and he began to dig his fingers into Ali's eye socket.
Ali's entire body shivered as he felt a sharp pain in his eyes. He screamed with agony, his eyelids were clamped shut. His entire body jolted as he felt the extreme discomfort attack his eye. Ali's hands dug at the ground as he felt his right eye hurt in pain more and more. POP! Ali went silent.
"Ew… Alright, now I need to get the eyes before it heals." Akaza hurriedly grabbed the box, he opened the bloody mess that resided in Ali's right eye socket, and swiftly he removed the disgusting remains of Ali's right eye and replaced it with the new eye. Akaza watched as the eye rested inside Ali's eye socket, flesh and tissue slowly growing alongside the new eye, the originally grey colour of the eye changed to Ali's signature brown.
"Can you see?" Akaza asked, a bit worried. Ali had gone silent, his right eye now read 'Upper'.
"Yo… That was… Yeah, I can see…" Ali was a bit shocked and impressed at the whole thing, he had changed eyes. His heart had calmed a bit, he blinked a bit. His eye didn't feel different and his vision remained the same. It was interesting.
"Alright now for the left one" Akaza quickly said and got to business. Ali started to scream again.
5 minutes later, Ali's eyes were brand new and read his rank. Akaza was proud and patted Ali on the back.
The messenger demon hadn't moved a single inch, it still kneeled on the floor, its soft red skin colour glowed in the moonlight.
"The Demon King has also ordered a Twelve Moon meeting at tomorrow midnight." The demon stated as it looked up at Akaza and Ali.
"Oh… Right." Akaza spoke softly, he resented meetings with the fellow Twelve Moons. The demon scurried away quite quickly.
"Good luck at that meeting tomorrow, me on the other hand, I'll have fun at home" Ali laughed and started to walk away. Akaza's hands quickly grabbed at Ali's collar and tugged him backwards.
"You're Lower 5 now, you have to come too." Akaza sinisterly grinned, Ali knew of Akaza's hate for meetings and always made fun of him when he had to go to meetings.
"Shit…" Ali sighed.