Demon Slayer : The Silent Journey

Chapter 71: Vengeance

[Seiji's POV]

"I have so many things to tell you..." my breath hitched, there were so many things I wanted to say so they clogged my throat.

In the end, the biggest and most honest sentence came out of my lips.

"I hate you so much,"

My hatred was so intense that it felt like swallowing lava. His mere existence - the fact that he stood in the same reality as me, incited so much resentment that I wanted to tear this reality like a child throwing a tantrum.

'This is not me. This cannot be me.' the sanest part of me screamed in the corner of my mind.

I was not funny, I was not nice, I was not good. I was nothing I thought I was at the moment. It felt like all the challenges I had gone through, all the character development I had, they were all meaningless.

At that moment when he was in my direct line of sight, I still felt like the little boy who just lost everything.

I was so petty, I was so bitter and so hateful. I wanted to burn this world of fiction to ashes just for having someone like him. In my mind, I did not want to live in a world stained by this vermin.

Words couldn't describe my feelings, and I seethed.

I hate that he made me this hateful so I hated him more. It became this endless cycle where my spite and hate doubled infinitely, again and again and again.

Confronted by traumas I had been ignoring all this time, I was surprised to see what I had turned into. Was this really me? Was I this cynical and malevolent deep down?

I thought I was a better person. I thought I was kinder.

"It's all because of you," I said with a face void of emotion. My voice was even more hollow.

Because at this point, facial expressions could not mirror the emotions in my heart and they just gave up. But my eyes were a window to my soul so they were glowing in ominous light.

The old demon narrowed his nasty eyes at me. He had seemed to come to the conclusion that I was completely insane.

"I know you," he said, "They say to be wary of you,"

Then he opened his mouth and released a sonic scream that shook the earth. The vibrations washed over me, rattling my bones but it did no other damage.

"...."

"...."

His attack had no effect on me.

"You are deaf," he said. "That's fine."

He opened his mouth again and I predicated his next action. He was going to release a sonic scream again but this time, it would produce intense shockwaves that could rip apart the ground and destroy boulders.

But he never got to that part because....

"Thunderclap and Flash,"

I appeared in front of him in an instant. Instant was too quick for him to react. Instant was too fast for him to think of counterattacks. But it was also enough for him to despair and just enough for fear to engulf his whole body as I plunged my sword into his mouth.

I drove my long blade down his throat and sliced open his voice box and his vocal chords which was where the shrilling screams were produced.

Then I pushed my knee against his chest, driving all of the momentum I had into his ribs. His chest caved in and air was knocked out of his lungs.

A sonic boom exploded and he was sent flying away.

*BOOOM!!!*

His body crashed and shattered against many trees. His bones bent in the wrong ways and tendons snapped when he crashed so violently against the ground.

I've said it before but I was not here to fight.

This was not a moment where the main character faced his trauma and fought bravely against the enemy who hurt him in the past. It was not an inspiring moment where he overcame challenges and finally grew as a person.

This was just me, hating on someone with my entire being like the little child I am deep inside.

I have not moved an inch. I haven't grown a single day.

"Wind Breathing : First form," I dashed forward with the violence of a storm.

"Whirldwind Cutter,"

I slashed continuously in a horizontal cyclonic pattern. Sharp wind blades encased my body and I shot forward like a tornado.

Everything was cut in my path. The trees were cut down and so were the rocks and the bushes. I literally carved out a path leading to the demon.

Even with his regeneration, he had no time to heal completely. By the time he was about to get up, his body was finely minced into tiny little pieces.

But I sliced him only with the wind blades so they did not inflict the damage a direct cut from the nichirin blade would have. So he slowly came together again under me.

When his face fully formed, I could finally see the terror in his demonic eyes. Yet he was nowhere near as terrified as I was that night.

They said an eye for an eye, I disagree. For an eye, I wanted everything.

It was not about letting him experience the same pain I did. It was about letting him experience worse.

"You don't remember, do you?" I said while waiting for him to fully regenerate. "That night when you slaughtered my family right before my eyes and left me with their remains - your leftover meal,"

It was understandable. What was the saying again? A hammer doesn't remember the nails but the nail remembers the hammer.

After his legs regenerated, he immediately pushed himself off the ground to flee. He was fast - he was as fast as you would expect a demon running for his life to be.

I watched him run like I watched him leave my house back then.

The two different scenes merged in my mind.

I lept into the air, jumping high above even the tallest trees.

"Thunder Wind Breathing : Unerring Lance," I threw my sword with speed far surpassing sound. A sonic boom erupted and it nailed the demon on the ground with a terrible explosion.

I landed on the ground and made my way towards the demon. He was trying to take out my sword which pinned him to the ground but his hand burnt when he grabbed my nichirin blade.

The ores which were used to make the nichirin swords were like solar batteries. They absorbed sunlight.

When I reached him, I took a moment to appreciate his helplessness. The memories of when I tried to crawl helplessly to my sister merged with the scene.

He was screaming helplessly too. I wished I could hear his screams. I really wished I could.

I grabbed the hilt of my sword and pulled it out.

Immediately the demon jumped at me. He realized he couldn't run so he decided to attack me with everything he had.

I saw everything he tried to do as if I could see the future. But before anything happened, I cut off both his arms with a swift stroke of my blade.

"Water Breathing : First Form," his planned attacks were stopped before they could happen, "Water Surface Slash,"

He staggered back, blood spurting out of the stump of his limbs.

..

I hated how easily I was able to cut him. It did not hurt enough.

I looked at my pristine sword and after a single second of hesitation, I smashed my sword against a stone nearby. I hit the rock with my blade in such a way that the sharp edge was chipped away.

I cringed while doing so. Due to my eyes, I always wanted things to be perfect and beautiful.

But all that was discarded as I chipped my sword like how Inosuke did. By then, the demon had already healed and he was just standing still.

Running doesn't work, and fighting doesn't work. So he did nothing.

"Fire Breathing : Second Form,"

I picked what I thought would hurt the most.

"Scorching Sun."

..

..

Words couldn't describe how much I hated him. So I let my actions describe my hate. After all, they said actions speak louder than words.

I wanted him to know. I wanted to feel.

What that child felt on that night.

..

..

..

[Must see image (The child)]

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Author : I'm thinking one more Chapter. I wanna tie up this part in one ho.