With the break of a new dawn, there were intense and continuous training sessions. Jack stood in the middle, his feet firmly pnted on the ground and his eyes focused, while Zenitsu and Inosuke moved around him at high speed. There were not many words, only short signals and quick gnces, as if they had begun to understand each other without the need for expnation. No one mentioned exactly what they were training for, but something had changed. Zenitsu was not screaming, Inosuke was not boasting, and Jack was not fighting alone.

  At a distance, Giyu Tomioka was watching silently. He did not interfere, did not approach, only observed. Their steps had become more synchronized, and their movements were no longer as random as before. Giyu Tomioka murmured as he watched them:

  “They’re progressing quickly.”

  After long and exhausting hours of training, the three sat on the grass, their breaths heavy but their gazes steady. Inosuke spoke first and said:

  “You’re weak, you idiots. This is nothing in training, hahaha. Even together, you won’t be able to defeat me.”

  Zenitsu added seriously:

  “This time, we won’t be a burden.”

  Jack smiled faintly. He did not respond but slowly nodded his head. As evening fell, a small mission was sent to the area near the northern forest. A report of two missing people in a small vilge. There was no clear evidence of a powerful demon, but the scent Jack picked up made him agree immediately. The three moved through the trees in silence. The night was dense, and the moon was half full.

  There was a demon darting rapidly toward the trees. Zenitsu saw it, but the demon disappeared from his sight. Before he could finish, a bck mass lunged out from between the trees at an unnatural speed. It was a powerful demon, though not one of the Upper Moons. Its body was deformed, its arms unnaturally long, and its eyes moved in an uneven manner. Inosuke charged immediately without waiting and shouted enthusiastically:

  “Found you!”

  He delivered a strong strike at it, hitting its back. The demon counterattacked Inosuke but failed to hit him. The demon was fast, moving between the trees, striking and vanishing. But this time, no one was fighting alone. Whenever it tried to circle around one of them, another was there. Whenever it tried to flee, its path was blocked. Their coordination was clear, and in a fleeting moment, at incredible speed, Zenitsu appeared, his eyes more serious than ever before, then—

  Thunder Breathing – First Form: Thundercp and Fsh

  He severed the demon’s head in the blink of an eye. The battle did not st long. The demon’s body fell and slowly disintegrated under the moonlight. The three took deep breaths. Zenitsu spoke and said:

  “See? No one died.”

  Jack looked at the scattered ashes for a long moment and then said:

  “Not yet. I smell a powerful demon nearby.”

  His words were not pessimism but awareness. They looked right and left, but there was no demon in the vicinity. Eventually, they returned to the headquarters. By the time they arrived, the night had deepened. The headquarters was quiet, nterns dimly lit. Inosuke left first, followed by Zenitsu after a slight compint about hunger. Jack remained alone because he felt something strange, something not natural. There was a faint scent barely noticeable, not like the demon they had killed. This one was colder, purer, and more dangerous.

  Then, in an unexpected moment, quiet footsteps sounded behind him, followed by light cpping.

  “Oooh, wonderful, truly wonderful.”

  Jack’s body froze. The voice carried neither anger nor bloodlust. It was amused. He slowly turned and saw him. Sitting atop the headquarters wall was a young man with light blond hair, his multicolored eyes shining under the moonlight, the number 2 written in his eyes, and a wide smile drawn across his face. It was Doma, Upper Rank Two.

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t come to kill anyone tonight.”

  He leapt lightly to the ground as if he were a welcome guest. Jack did not move. Then Doma added calmly:

  “You know, I was very curious to see you up close. You’re the boy who annoyed Akaza-dono and the boy who caught Muzan-sama’s interest.”

  Jack quickly raised his sword and said:

  “If you’re here to fight, then do it.”

  Doma ughed lightly.

  “Oh no, no. You misunderstand me, boy. If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t be able to smell me in the first pce.”

  He stepped closer again, and the air grew heavier.

  “I was just wondering how you changed the course of a battle that was supposed to end with a Hashira’s death. Was it coincidence? Or do you see what others cannot?”

  He mentioned the Hashira without naming him, but the image of Kyojuro Rengoku, the Fme Hashira, fshed before Jack’s eyes. He lowered his sword calmly and said:

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Doma’s smile widened as he stepped even closer until the distance between them was short.

  “That’s good, because I love riddles. But listen carefully—next time we meet, I won’t be just a spectator.”

  He said it, his eyes gleaming in a strange and frightening way, then stepped back as if he had finished a casual visit. In the blink of an eye, he vanished. The scent disappeared, but the cold remained. Seconds ter, Giyu Tomioka arrived at the pce, looking around sharply, then said:

  “Was a demon here?”

  Jack replied without looking at him:

  “Yes.”

  Giyu was silent for a long moment, then said calmly:

  “Then why are you alive?”

  Jack raised his eyes toward the moon and said:

  “Because he didn’t come to kill.”

  Giyu asked with interest:

  “What did he say to you?”

  Jack answered:

  “He wants to py.”

  Giyu looked at him for a long time, his suspicion of the boy Jack increasing once again. As he was leaving quietly, something light fell to the ground. It was a drop of blood, not from Jack and not from Giyu. A cold drop of blood that had not evaporated. Jack stared at it and smelled it. The scent was clear. Doma had left it deliberately. Giyu froze for a moment and said:

  “Why would he leave a trace?”

  Jack replied in a low voice:

  “So that we know he can enter and leave whenever he wants.”

  Giyu began to grow slightly angry and said in a raised voice to Jack:

  “What do you mean? Do you mean he enters our headquarters and we can’t detect it?”

  Jack looked at Giyu seriously and said:

  “That’s what it seems like. And as I told you, he’s trying to py with us—or rather, with me.”

  The silence returned, but it was no longer the same. In a distant pce, atop a tall tree outside the headquarters’ boundaries, Doma stood watching again, his smile never fading, and said calmly:

  “How long will you st, I wonder, when I decide to py seriously?”

  Above, the moon was almost full, as if the sky itself were watching the coming saga. Doma had not come in vain; he had come to threaten the boy Jack, and next time would be his end at Doma’s hands.