Wind Sweeps the Scent of Rice, a Blade Cuts Through the Bloody Wind

The sun was about to set over Inaba Village.

Cooking smoke rose in thin wisps, much fainter than usual. The wind scattered it, carrying a hint of unease.

People hurried through the streets, casting wary glances at the corners growing darker by the minute.

Beneath the old scholar tree in the village center, several villagers huddled together with their necks tucked in. They kept their voices very low, but they couldn't hide their fear.

"Have you heard?"

"Sakichi's family over on the east side... there was no sound from their house last night either. The door was open this morning, and they were gone. Inside..."

A middle-aged woman in a headscarf wrapped her arms tightly around herself, her voice trembling. "There were scratch marks on the tatami, and a... a foul, bloody smell I can't describe."

"That's the third one!!!"

The young man beside her went pale. "It's always at night. The doors and windows are untouched, but the people are gone! What... what the hell is doing this...?"

"Pah! Quit talking nonsense!"

An old man smoking a pipe spat and knocked its bowl against a rock with a clack. "It has to be some heartless thief! Or they stirred up something unclean in the mountains themselves! There can't be that many ghosts and demons!"

"But Genzo said..." a timid voice interjected.

"Genzo?"

The old man clicked his tongue. "That drunk? What the hell can those booze-soaked eyes of his see?"

"He was definitely drunk and mistook a wild dog for a monster!"

Everyone's eyes drifted toward the listless figure crouching under the tavern's eaves.

His clothes were disheveled, his hair was a mess, and he clutched an empty sake flask to his chest as he muttered over and over, "It's real... I saw it... deathly pale... eyes like burning coals... Why... why won't anyone believe me...?"

No one paid him any attention.

Darkness fell all at once. Every household had shut its doors early, and the lights went out sooner than usual.

Deathly darkness enveloped the whole of Inaba Village. Only the wind howled, as though playing a prelude for something.

Genzo staggered to his feet. The empty sake flask rolled onto the ground with a hollow clatter.

He let out a belch heavy with the smell of alcohol and dragged his feet toward his dilapidated house at the edge of the village.

"I saw it... I really saw it... a huge mouth split all the way to its ears... sharp claws... Heh heh... you don't believe me... just wait till it comes for you..."

He talked to himself, his voice drifting through the empty street and sounding even more eerie.

Thick clouds covered the moon, and only a few points of starlight barely outlined the houses.

When he turned into a narrow alley leading to his door, the darkness swallowed him like a solid tide.

An indescribable chill pierced his thin clothes, and Genzo sobered up considerably in an instant.

He stopped, every hair on his body standing on end.

It was too quiet!!!

A faint bloody scent hung in the air, cloyingly sweet with a hint of rust.

"Who... who's there?" His voice was dry and trembling.

"Hee hee..."

A shrill, distorted laugh came from the shadows a short distance ahead.

Genzo stopped breathing.

He widened his eyes and strained to see what was in the dark.

By the faint red light, Genzo could vaguely make out a twisted outline.

It looked human, but the proportions of its limbs were strange. Its skin was deathly pale, and black, curved claws grew from the tips of all ten fingers.

Its mouth was exceptionally wide, stretching almost to its ears even when closed. Now it slowly curved upward, revealing pointed teeth.

"Another... 'little snack'... delivered itself right to my door..."

The demon's voice was cloying as it slowly emerged from the shadows, its movements graceful and cruel like a cat's. "Just as well... yesterday's one... wasn't quite enough to eat..."

It took a deep breath and narrowed its blood-red eyes in bliss. "The smell of fear... mixed with the aroma of flesh... is the best~~~"

Genzo finally gasped as though someone had seized him by the throat, and what remained of his drunkenness turned to cold sweat.

He had seen it!

It was exactly the same as what he had seen that night!

It wasn't a dream or a hallucination!

"Aaaah!!!"

His survival instinct overcame his frozen body, and Genzo turned and ran for his life toward the light at the mouth of the alley.

His heart hammered in his chest, ready to burst.

"Run... run..."

The demon followed him at an unhurried pace, its claws scraping the earthen wall with a grating screech, as though enjoying its prey's struggle before death. "How fast... can human legs run?"

"Let me think... that hunter the day before yesterday ran the fastest... so his thighs... were the chewiest too..."

The air in Genzo's lungs burned like fire, and his throat was full of the taste of blood.

He didn't dare look back. All he could do was force his leaden legs onward.

He burst out of the alley onto a slightly wider street, but there wasn't a soul there either. The few lights shining through cracks in doors seemed so distant and unreal now.

Behind him came a faint scraping sound, as though something were gliding along the ground, always keeping the same distance.

The demon... was playing with him!!!

"This village... is really quite nice..."

The demon's voice drifted from left to right, carrying the laziness of someone who had eaten their fill. "Not too many people, not too few... and they taste all right... When that 'master' gave me new life... they didn't tell me finding food would be this much fun..."

Genzo's mind was filled with fear, but the demon's muttering still reached him.

"Master"?

"New life"?

Together, those words pointed to a terrifying truth he couldn't begin to comprehend.

"What a shame... I only just became a 'demon'... my appetite isn't big enough yet..."

A hint of regret entered the demon's voice before it grew excited again. "But that's all right... one a day... I'll take my time eating... turn this place into my 'granary'... Hee hee... human villages... aren't they there to raise people for meat?"

Granary? Meat?

Genzo's stomach churned. His extreme fear stirred a surge of anger, but even stronger was a chill that reached his bones.

In this monster's eyes, living, breathing people like them were no different from pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered!

His strength rapidly drained away, and his vision began to darken.

Genzo turned into an even narrower dead end and slid down the cold wall to the ground, no longer able to run.

He watched in despair as the deathly pale figure slowly approached, its scarlet eyes filled with mockery and greed.

"Playtime... is over."

The demon licked its lips, its pointed tongue like a forked snake's tongue. "For tonight's late-night snack... I choose you!"

Its hind legs bent slightly, its pale muscles bulging. The next second, its whole body leaped high into the air, becoming a blurry white streak as it opened its mouth full of pointed teeth and swooped down on Genzo, who was sprawled on the ground!

Genzo's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and boundless darkness was all that remained in the last sliver of his consciousness.

He closed his eyes.

Just as the demon's claws were about to touch Genzo's scalp and its foul breath washed over his face—

"Shing!"

The clear ring of a blade pierced the dead silence without warning!

A cold, clear, deep-blue light burst forth!

Too fast!

It was so fast the eye couldn't follow, like a bolt of blue lightning striking out of nowhere, or a silent tsunami in the dead of night!

At the heart of the light was an arc of a blade, concentrated to its very limit.

Squelch!

With a soft sound, the vicious-looking demon froze in midair.

An extremely fine, even, smooth cut appeared across its waist.

Its upper and lower halves slipped slightly apart from their momentum, its face still showing the excitement of a predator about to catch its prey and the cruelty of one about to succeed.

But in an instant, its red eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.

What happened?

That was the last question in its mind.

It wasn't given any time to think, regenerate, or even scream.

Before the first blue light had completely faded, a second followed!

The blue light brushed lightly across the demon's neck.

Its hideous head separated completely from its body and flew upward.

As its field of vision tumbled through the air, the last thing it saw was:

A figure had appeared at some point in front of the collapsed human.

A red haori covered a black Demon Slayer Corps uniform.

Short, tousled black hair stirred gently in the night wind.

The boy stood sideways, gripping a long sword.

The long blade was slowly sliding back into its sheath. The last trace of blue sword light vanished into the plain scabbard, leaving only a cool, lingering trace in the air, like moisture.

The boy turned his face toward the place where it was falling, his expression blank.

His eyes... were an icy blue, like the surface of a frozen lake. Not a trace of emotion could be seen in them, only absolute, pure "execution."

—Giyu Tomioka.

The demon's consciousness plunged completely into eternal darkness. Its body and head turned to ash before they hit the ground, falling in a soft shower and leaving nothing behind.

It had all happened too fast.

Only two or three breaths had passed from the ring of the blade to the demon turning to ash.

The alley fell quiet again. Only Genzo's heavy breathing and the frantic pounding of his own heart roared in his ears.

The pain and death he had imagined never came. Trembling, he opened his tightly shut eyes very slowly, little by little.

At some point, the moon had emerged from the clouds, shedding its cold light over the scene in the alley.

There was no monster.

Only a small pile of ash on the ground, being scattered by the wind, and... standing before him, looking down at him with his head slightly lowered... a boy?

Genzo blinked blankly.

A boy?

He really was a boy!

He looked no older than thirteen or fourteen, and his build was still a little slight. His face was fair and handsome, but largely expressionless.

Most striking of all was the long sword at his waist, which he had just sheathed. It lay quiet now, as though it had nothing to do with the earthshaking strike that had killed the monster in an instant.

His worldview lay shattered.

The monster that could easily snatch strong villagers away like chicks, the one that had filled him with fear and despair to his very bones...

Had been killed by this boy, who looked barely older than his own son...

In two strokes... like chopping vegetables?

It hadn't even had time to scream?

Genzo opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Shock, lingering fear, wild joy, bewilderment, and a sense of insignificance before something he couldn't understand churned together inside him like spilled seasonings.

Giyu's gaze swept over him, lingering on his neck and exposed skin, before he asked in a cold, nearly flat voice:

"Were you bitten?"

"...N-no!"

Genzo abruptly came to his senses and scrambled back a little on his hands and feet. Then, feeling that wasn't right, he hurriedly shook his head, his voice hoarse. "It... it hadn't touched me yet!"

"Y-you are...?"

"Demon Slayer Corps." Giyu kept it brief.

He looked around at the quiet surroundings. "How many people in the village have gone missing? When did it start?"

"Three! Three days in a row, one every night!"

Genzo answered hurriedly, as though grasping a lifeline. "They all disappeared from their homes! The doors and windows were untouched! Everyone was scared to death, but nobody except me believed... nobody believed something like that existed..."

His voice dropped as he spoke, carrying grievance and lingering fear.

"The demon has been slain."

Giyu nodded, having confirmed the information and announced the outcome.

He thought for a moment, then added, "Lock your doors at night."

That was... it? Genzo froze.

The disaster that had plagued the village for three days, killed three people, and brought limitless terror had ended just like that?

He looked at Giyu. The boy had already turned around, the hem of his red haori sweeping through a sharp arc. It looked as though he was about to leave.

"W-wait! Sir, you saved me!"

Genzo didn't know where he found the strength, but he struggled to his feet. "Where... where are you going? Everyone in the village... everyone should know! They should thank you!"

"There's no need."

Giyu didn't look back. His voice drifted over. "My mission is to kill demons."

His figure soon merged into the shadows at the mouth of the alley. Only that flash of red remained, flickering once in the moonlight before vanishing, like a pebble tossed into a deep pool, raising a few ripples before disappearing from sight.

Genzo stood there in a daze for a long time before his strength gave out and he sank to the ground again.

The night wind blew past, scattering the last pinch of ash on the ground until it was gone.

He felt his neck. It was completely unharmed.

He looked up again in the direction Giyu had disappeared, but only an ordinary night remained.

Everything that had just happened had passed so quickly, like an absurd dream.

But the very real fear, the dazzling flash of the blade, the boy's cold gaze, and his own heart pounding in his chest after surviving the ordeal all told him... it wasn't a dream.

The Demon Slayer Corps... huh?

He murmured the unfamiliar words, looking at his hands, which were still trembling slightly.

The image of an ordinary world in his mind quietly split open, revealing a glimpse of the cold, cruel truth hidden behind it.

And what had split it open was a flash of blue water and a boy in a red haori who didn't like to talk.