The other Hashira lingered under the painted eaves of the courtyard, still murmuring about the name and age of the strange creature that sat crouched in the middle of the circle—barefoot, shirtless, silent, and steaming with animal heat.
Inosuke tore the last of the rice ball's leaf wrapping with his teeth.
He didn't look at anyone. Not even when the weight of nine killer stares pressed in on him like falling trees.
"HO!"
The booming voice broke the air like a war drum.
Rengoku stepped forward—sun catching in his flame-tipped hair, his haori billowing behind him like smoke. His presence hit the courtyard like a rising sun.
He smiled—wide, bright, electric.
"HASHIBIRA INOSUKE!"
No response.
Rengoku's smile didn't falter.
"YOU ARE STRONG! I RESPECT THAT!"
Inosuke tilted his head slightly confused by the shiny hair man sounds. The boar mask didn't move.
Rengoku blinked once. Then spoke again, slower.
"I. WANT. TO. FIGHT. YOU!"
Inosuke scratched his ribs unbothered by the shiny hair man loud sounds.
Rengoku turned, confused, toward Shinobu.
"He doesn't understand," she said calmly. "He can't. He was never taught language."
A brief pause.
Then Rengoku's smile widened.
"…AH!"
He planted his feet, drew his katana in a single arc that sang against its scabbard.
The other Hashira tensed.
The flame-patterned blade rose into the air—held high.
Then Rengoku pointed the sword directly at Inosuke's chest.
The courtyard froze.
Inosuke blinked once.
Then again.
His head slowly turned toward the blade. Toward the fire in Rengoku's eyes.
And something inside him snapped awake.
No words were needed to explain what shiny hair wanted .No signal were required for a fight to start.Just instinct from two warriors.
Inosuke exploded off the ground like a pouncing beast.
The earth cracked beneath where he had lept from.
He drew both serrated swords mid-air, and the roar that tore from under the boar skull wasn't human—it was the sound of hunger, rage, and excitement all tangled into one voice:
"RAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!"
The Hashira stepped back.
Not from fear from respect of seeing a battle between one of their strongest against this monsterous bot.
A duel was about to begin—and neither warrior needed language to agree to it.
CLANG!
Their first clash split the courtyard open with a sound like lightning striking steel.
Inosuke's twin blades met Rengoku's katana mid-swing—and the impact didn't just send sparks. No it sent Rengoku flying through the air.
The Flame Hashira twisted mid-air, cape flaring behind him, boots scraping against the ground as he landed on one knee—laughing.
"HAH! That strength! Incredible!"
He launched forward without hesitation, sword raised aiming to test inosuke.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
The flame-shaped arc roared toward Inosuke's neck, cutting through the mist—
—and landed.
The blow connected onto his neck.
Clean. Direct. The kind meant to decapitate a demon in one strike.
And it did nothing inosuke.
The blade struck the flesh of Inosuke's neck—and stopped. Not deflected. Not dodged.
It simply… didn't go through his skin.
The skin didn't break it held up.A heartbeat passed.
Then Rengoku's eyes widened in astonishment. "Unbelievable…"
Across the courtyard, the other Hashira stepped forward unconsciously.
Sanemi whispered, "He took it head-on…"
Shinobu's smile faded. "That… shouldn't be possible."
Gyomei's prayer beads slipped slightly in his grip.
Muichiro narrowed his eyes. "No breathing form… no counter-step… he just stood there."
Inosuke didn't roar in pain.He growled in excitement happy to face a strong opponent.
Then came the counterattack—a wide, unpredictable slash it was filled with strength and speed.
Rengoku barely dodged, heat licking his haori as the wind of Inosuke's swing passed him.
Another slash swung .Then another one steel rang against steel as blades met each other with force.
The two warriors became a blur—flames and fangs flashing, blades screeching with the speed of their exchanges.
Then—separation.
Both slid backward, dust curling beneath their feet.
Rengoku raised his katana and shouted loud enough for the courtyard to echo:
"HE'S NOT USING A BREATHING STYLE!"
The other Hashira gasped.
"He's killed demons without one," Rengoku continued. "That strength… that speed… that ferocity—it's not trained. It's born."
Rengoku's face lit up again with pure joy.
"Flame Breathing—Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun!"
He dashed forward, blade rising in a vertical flame arc.
The strike landed—hard.
This time, it cut just barely. A thin red line across Inosuke's collarbone.
A moment of silence.
Then:
"RRRAAAAAAGH!"
Inosuke's fists clenched. He reared back and punched the ground with all his strength.The impact of the blow cracked the stone.Then shattered it completely.
A crater spread outward beneath him like a bomb had gone off underneath his feet.
Dust surged up in a ring. The air shuddered.
The other Hashira leapt backward on instinct.
Sanemi gawked. "He created a crater… with his fist?!"
Mitsuri's hands flew to her mouth.
Giyu blinked hard.
Rengoku stood firm, sword in hand—laughing.
"YES! YES! THIS IS WORTHY!"
He dropped back into a stance.
"Third Form…"
CRACK—!
Before the words could leave his mouth, Inosuke was already moving.
He lunged with the force of a cannon blast, shoulder slamming into Rengoku's ribs before the Hashira could even raise his sword.
Rengoku stumbled, boots skidding across broken stone.
The crowd flinched. Not even Giyu saw the movement clearly.
Inosuke didn't wait.
His blades came next—slash, slash, slash, a relentless storm of jagged arcs and chaotic fury. Every strike unpredictable, wild, angled like an animal trying to tear flesh, not win a duel.
Rengoku ducked, pivoted, parried—his arms a blur of red and gold.
"HAH! YES!" he laughed between breaths, deflecting a cross-slash that would've torn out his throat.
He retreated one step at a time, eyes blazing with fire, sweat beginning to form.
But Inosuke pressed on, snapping at the air through the boar mask, blades crashing forward again and again.
Cornered. Rengoku's back hit the garden wall.His foot found no more space to move to.
Inosuke seeing a chance for victory lunged again, both swords overhead.
"NOW!"
"Fifth Form: FLAMING TIGER!"
Rengoku twisted his entire body with the swing—his blade igniting with roaring flame as it curved into a full-bodied slash that seemed to leap forward like a tiger on fire, howling as it moved.
The technique was beautiful—fluid and alive, like a creature made of wrath and honor.
It slammed into Inosuke's chest.
This time—it left a mark.
Inosuke flew backward. His body skidded across stone, gouging the earth in a trail of sparks and smoke.
The courtyard trembled.
Rengoku stood panting, sweat trailing down his temple.
His eyes widened.
The flames hadn't faded.
They still flickered down his blade—longer, brighter than before.
"What…" he whispered. "My breathing… it's—changing."
He looked toward the crater where Inosuke lay rising.
Inosuke's torso was scorched—smoke drifting off his bare skin—but his mouth opened in a feral grin.
He wasn't afraid.
He was excited.
Inosuke's chest smoked where the flames had kissed him.
He rose from the crater in a low crouch, blades twitching in his grip, head cocked like a beast who'd just found something it couldn't kill on the first try.
"Rrrhh…"
No words.
Just hunger.
He charged.
Rengoku stepped in to meet him—sword already rising.
CLANG!
They collided again—steel to steel, sparks to stone, muscle to flame.
Then again.
CLANG!
Then again.
CLANG! CLANG!
Each impact shook the ground. Every slash roared louder than the last.
Across the courtyard, the other Hashira were no longer watching idly.
They were leaning in.
Giyu's eyes widened a fraction.
Mitsuri was gripping the railing, knuckles white.
Shinobu's mouth was slightly open.
Sanemi whispered, "…He's getting faster."
In the center of it all, something had changed in Rengoku.
Every breath burned cleaner.
Every swing struck deeper.
His footwork—sharper.
His blade—blazing.
He wasn't just holding his own anymore.
He was pushing Inosuke back.
The boy's body was still stronger, still heavier—but Rengoku's sword was everywhere at once, now moving with a precision and pressure that hadn't been there moments ago.
Inosuke's next slash was caught mid-swing—and for the first time, he staggered.
Rengoku's follow-up nearly broke through his guard.
Then came another.
Then another.
Fast. Relentless. Sharp as fire.
"His technique…" Shinobu said softly. "It's evolving."
Gyomei nodded, blind eyes fixed in Rengoku's direction. "He's passed a threshold. Pushed by the boy's power."
"From just this fight?" Sanemi muttered, jaw clenched.
Muichiro's voice was quiet. "This isn't training. It's transformation."
In the center of it all, Rengoku roared, his face a mask of fire-lit joy.
"YES, INOSUKE! DRIVE ME FURTHER!"
The courtyard trembled under the thunder of their blades.
Rengoku's blade flashed in a flaming arc, each swing sharper than the last.
Inosuke snarled with every parry, blades vibrating with the shock of impact.
His breath came fast and wild—hot steam pouring through the boar mask's jaw.
But with every clash, something changed.
His breathing began to slow.
Not from fatigue—from focus.
He didn't understand the name of what he was seeing…
…but his body did.
The rhythm.
The flow.
The inhale before the strike.
The exhale on impact.
The Flame Hashira's movements weren't just strikes—they were calls to the body, signals carried through the lungs, through the core.
Inosuke's body absorbed it.
Not the technique.
The feeling.
His own breathing shifted.
Deeper. Lower in the belly. Rougher.
Not refined—feral.
Each breath rattled in his chest like the growl of a sleeping beast. His shoulders rose slower. His nostrils flared wider.
A sound, deep in his lungs, like a snorting boar.
The others saw it.
Giyu frowned. "He's mimicking…"
Shinobu whispered, "No. He's creating."
Inosuke lunged again—but this time, his entire body moved differently.
More compressed. Hunched like a predator on all fours.
His feet slammed harder.
His momentum curved, unpredictable.
Rengoku's sword came up—just in time.
CLANG—!
And then Inosuke vanished—low, fast, under the guard.
Rengoku gasped—his haori sliced from the back.
He spun. Blocked the follow-up just in time.
"HE'S SHIFTED!" Rengoku laughed. "BRILLIANT!"
Inosuke didn't know it.
But he had taken his first steps into Beast Breathing.
A style with no legacy.
No names.
No forms.
Only instinct.
Only teeth and breath.
Their blades flashed one last time.
Steel sang through heat.
Flame met fang.
Inosuke's form had become something strange and ungraspable—lunges like a boar, sidesteps like a wolf. His body coiled and sprang in unnatural rhythms, powered not by technique, but by some deep-rooted instinct that had never tasted language.
Rengoku watched him charge again.
He saw it all.
The flared nostrils.
The wild pupils.
The spiraling breath that bellowed from the ribs outward—untamed, explosive.
"It's not chaos…" Rengoku whispered to himself, stepping back into stance.
"It's a style."
"Beast Breathing."
Rengoku's feet burned against the earth.
His chest swelled.
Flames flickered around his shoulders before his blade even moved.
The other Hashira felt it—A pressure of power . A heat. A presence like a sun forming inside the body.
"INOSUKE!" Rengoku roared, voice filled with battle-fueled joy.
"ALLOW ME TO HONOR YOUR STYLE—WITH EVERYTHING I AM!"
His eyes widened—
"NINTH FORM…"
"RENGOKU!"
His body became flame.
The sword carved the air like a comet—screaming, not with hatred, but with admiration.
Inosuke met it head-on confident in his strength.Both swords raised to stop the attack.Feet thundering.Snorting through his mask with wild, animal triumph.
CLAAAAAAAAAAAAANG—!!
The impact detonated through the courtyard—stone tore free, the wall behind them cracked, fire and wind howled outward.
Inosuke's blades split in his grip.He dropped to one knee.Then both.
Smoke poured from his chest, his shoulders, his hair. His arms trembled, not from pain—but from defeat.
For the first time in his life, his body had reached a limit.
And in front of him, Rengoku stood tall—blade pointed to the sky, breathing hard, smiling wide.
"YOU FOUGHT GLORIOUSLY!" Rengoku shouted, chest heaving.
"AND NOW I NAME YOU: THE FIRST TO MASTER—BEAST BREATHING!"
Inosuke didn't speak he didn't need to.
But he looked up to the sky.Through the boar skull's hollow eye sockets, something glinted.
Not anger he fought someone powerful.Not shame that was a good fight.Recognition that person was strong.