Chapter 39: Unable to recover for a long time
"Is this for real? The Sound Pillar is already out of commission? What about the promised secret technique? You're messing with me, right?!"
"Now everyone's down, only Tanjiro is left. How can they turn this around?"
"This is too frustrating… Can Chihiro even write? If not, I'll do it!"
Eriri grumbled with deep resentment.
However, in such a desperate situation, a comeback, using the technique of building up tension before releasing it, is always effective.
The key is whether it can stir the readers' emotions.
Everyone hopes that the protagonists will achieve final victory, and with this anticipation, the protagonists' breakthroughs are what is expected and ignite passion.
Otherwise, if you suddenly get a power-up for no reason, it won't be as exciting.
Tanjiro's character development is perfect as a catalyst at this moment; his resilient personality would never choose to give up now.
Zenitsu and Inosuke both had moments of fear, but only Tanjiro, when faced with despair, would still gather his courage and face it head-on.
In his ears, Gyutaro's contemptuous words echoed.
The opponent was not in a hurry to kill him, perhaps out of a cat-and-mouse mentality, or perhaps other factors…
Tanjiro believed this was his only chance to cut off his opponent's head.
He cleverly hid the kunai with wisteria poison, delivered an unexpected headbutt, then endured the pain of two bent fingers, and firmly brought his sword down towards the opponent's head.
Such an inspiring scene made readers empathize, wishing they were the ones taking action.
Everyone's disgust for Gyutaro had reached its peak, and they naturally felt a common hatred.
Utilizing emotions is a compulsory course for a creator.
Here, Izumi Chihiro had described the expressions of both sides in great detail, with a very clear contrast.
One side showed the admirable resilience of humanity.
The other side showed the demon's contempt for mortals, claiming to be superior.
By this point in the reading, the emotional arousal had largely reached its maximum, so the next step required a thrilling battle to fully unleash the accumulated emotions!
Zenitsu, using his 'Godspeed' which could only be used twice in a short period, escaped the ruins, aiming to decapitate Daki and cooperate with Tanjiro to complete the slaying of Upper Moon Six.
However, Gyutaro's power was certainly not fake, and he quickly decomposed the wisteria poison and counterattacked.
At a critical moment, the Sound Pillar, Uzui Tengen, reappeared, taking on the opponent's attack with one hand, and then joyfully exclaimed, "My score is complete…!"
There was also text below, explaining that this was a unique attack method of the Sound Pillar.
By studying and judging the rhythm of the enemy's attack movements, converting them into musical notes, he could understand the opponent's attack habits and blind spots, like adding chords to a song; by attacking the gaps in the rhythm, he could hit the enemy.
"I get it, isn't that just memorizing the score in a rhythm game?"
Eriri understood very easily.
Because she had also played similar games, and even played dance machines with her childhood friend before, she knew that the dance steps were usually memorized, and she could dance without even looking at the screen.
This explanation was easy to understand, making it very simple for readers to grasp the Sound Pillar's secret technique.
And they wouldn't feel it was strange or abrupt.
Because, since Uzui Tengen is the Sound Pillar, isn't it normal for him to play rhythm games?
The subsequent battle completely escalated to its climax.
In a life-and-death struggle, Uzui Tengen, at the cost of losing an eye, created an opportunity, allowing Tanjiro, after awakening his demon slayer mark, to successfully decapitate Gyutaro!
On the other side, the unusually resilient Inosuke, despite heavy bleeding, cooperated with Zenitsu to take down Daki.
The normally fatal poison was also burned away by Nezuko's Blood Demon Art.
The Demon Slayer Corps members finally survived, much to the readers' delight.
Although the Sound Pillar lost an eye and an arm in this battle, which made some people sigh and even express dissatisfaction with 'Izumi Masamune' again.
They wouldn't know what they would think when they looked back much later and finally realized that the Sound Pillar was the luckiest person in the Demon Slayer Corps…
The subsequent flashback sequence was also the final key part of this volume.
The two siblings, Tanjiro and Nezuko, finally witnessed the demise of the Upper Moon Six siblings.
The same relationship, different endings, especially after reading the memories of the Upper Moon Six siblings, was even more poignant.
Those who were harmed by others became demons.
And those who were harmed by demons joined the Demon Slayer Corps.
Such a depiction is not to tell readers 'every hateful person has a pitiable side,' but to tell everyone 'no matter how pitiful a demon was before becoming a demon, after committing atrocities, they should go to hell to atone for their sins'—such a simple truth.
Do not invert cause and effect.
Such a shaping of values, such a depiction of the protagonist, in a work born in the current environment, is undoubtedly a rare and valuable aspect.
Enough to leave a deep impression.
Izumi Chihiro chose to write "demon slayer" as a novel because he felt his values aligned well with it, allowing him to describe it better, using his own writing style.
It's not because the original itself was so good; the original indeed had many criticized aspects, and there's no need to boast about its achievements.
These are not the main points, no need to worry about them.
He simply wrote this seemingly similar but different work because he deeply understood the original's mode of expression.
Sometimes, the quality of a work truly doesn't have much to do with the complexity of the plot; instead, whether it can be handled properly is the real issue.
Unfortunately, many people still don't understand such a simple truth.
He remembered that before his reincarnation, many authors messed up in the later stages of their works, creating all sorts of chaos, leading to a scarcity of works that could even finish normally.
At the end of the third volume, the story freezes on Ubuyashiki Kagaya's extreme excitement upon hearing the news that Upper Moon Six had been slain.
Ubuyashiki Kagaya's feelings were also understandable to the readers, because they had already thoroughly experienced the difficulties along the way, and their hearts were still burning.
But the plot of the third volume ended here, and there was nothing further when they turned the page.
The readers reluctantly closed the book.
"Click."
Eriri looked at the cover of the third volume again, unable to recover for a long time…