One month later.
The night was as dark as ink, and the moonlight was fragmented and cut off by the dense canopy of trees.
"Help! Stop chasing me!!"
A piercing scream shattered the silence of the jungle in the dead of night.
A three-armed ghoul was scrambling and crawling through the forest, its face contorted with the terror of its worldview collapsing.
Behind it, a yellow-orange figure followed closely, moving at a moderate speed, always maintaining a distance of about ten meters, like a cat toying with a mouse in its palm.
"Hey, run faster!"
A mocking voice came from behind, laced with undisguised ridicule.
"Weren't you supposed to be the tyrant of Black Wind Mountain? How come you run slower than a rabbit? You've really disappointed me."
The boy wearing a fox mask had his hands behind his head, walking leisurely as if he were strolling in his own backyard.
"What... what exactly do you want?!"
The little fish demon was almost in tears; its three legs were about to cramp from running so much.
It couldn't understand it.
The intelligence report said that the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen have been incredibly weak lately, so how come I ran into two freaks the moment I stepped outside?!
One wore a fox mask, and the other wore a strange haori that was half red and half white.
These two guys are the ultimate nightmare roaming the mountains!
They don't kill ghosts.
But they catch ghosts!
Rumor has it that ghosts captured by them are imprisoned in a hellish place called Mount Fujikasane, where they are slaughtered by hundreds of novice swordsmen every year, unable to live or die!
This is a hundred times more terrifying than being killed outright!
What do you want?
The Sabito tilted its head, its tone innocent and naive, "I don't want anything, I just want to play a game with you. Look, you run, I chase, isn't that fun?"
"What a load of rubbish! I don't want to play this game!"
The little monster was roaring inwardly, but it dared not say it aloud. It could only exert all its strength and charge forward desperately.
"Ugh, this is so boring."
The Sabito yawned, seemingly having completely lost interest.
In the past month, they have captured no fewer than thirty ghosts.
At first, he found it quite novel, but these weaklings were so weak that he didn't even have the desire to draw his sword.
He finally understood why Giyu always seemed uninterested in anything.
When the strength of an opponent surpasses another to a certain extent, the battle becomes a one-sided massacre, which is indeed quite boring.
"Fine, I'm not playing with you anymore."
The Sabito pursed its lips and stopped in its tracks.
A figure emerged silently from the shadows of the trees behind him.
Giyu Tomioka, wearing a half-red, half-white haori, rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. His icy blue eyes were filled with an expression of utter helplessness at Sabito's perverse sense of humor.
"Have you had enough fun?"
He asked casually.
"Hehe, I'm just getting bored." Sabito scratched his head.
"Wow! Two! Two jinxes!"
When the lowly demon turned around and saw Giyu's iconic haori, his legs went weak and he fell face-first into the mud.
"It's over! It's all over! Today we're going to be taken to Mount Fujikasane as live target practice!"
Giyu ignored Sabito and flashed past him in an instant.
The speed was so fast it seemed like an illusion.
The lowly ghost only felt a blur before his eyes, and a chilling coldness rushed towards him.
"Water Breathing - Fourth Form: Striking Tide!"
Without the slightest unnecessary movement, only a pure, condensed blade of light, like a surging tide, swept across at a tricky angle in an instant!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
Three muffled thuds.
The three legs of the small fish demon were cleanly severed at the base, the cuts as smooth as a mirror.
The excruciating pain struck, and before it could even scream, it lost its support and crashed heavily to the ground, leaving only its three arms futilely clawing at the earth.
Giyu sheathed his sword with fluid, graceful movements.
The entire process, from drawing the blade to sheathing it, takes no more than one second.
"Hey, Giyu, you're too quick! I haven't had enough fun yet."
The Sabito came closer, complaining, but its eyes, hidden behind the fox mask, were filled with shock.
Over the past month, he had witnessed Giyu take action more than once.
Each time, he felt his understanding of the word "powerful" was refreshed.
Giyu's sword has completely transcended the realm of mere techniques.
It was instinct, it was art, it was the perfect combination of strength and skill.
Even the most basic Striking Tide, when used by him, is more terrifying than the ultimate techniques of ordinary swordsmen.
"Sigh, working with you is both incredibly easy and incredibly frustrating."
The Sabito said, half with emotion and half with envy.
"I don't have to do anything, I just follow behind you and pick up the credit. It's just that I feel more and more like a useless person."
Giyu glanced at him, too lazy to waste words, pulled out a signal gun from his pocket, and pulled the trigger towards the sky.
A red firework exploded in the night sky.
Soon, several members of the Kakushi Division, dressed in black uniforms and with their faces covered, appeared silently in the woods.
They skillfully used a specially made iron cage to lock the small, wriggling monster inside, then bowed deeply to Giyu and Sabito.
"Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen. We will escort him to Mount Fujikasane immediately."
After saying that, the group carried the cage and quickly disappeared into the darkness.
The entire process was conducted without a single superfluous word, highlighting professionalism.
"Quack--!"
Just then, a hoarse, aged cawing of a crow descended from the sky.
The old, nearly molting Kasugai Crow, Kanzaburo, flapped its wings and landed unsteadily on Giyu's shoulder.
"Paycheck! Paycheck's here!"
Kanzaburo preened his few remaining feathers with his beak, then took out two folded checks from a small bamboo tube tied to his leg.
"Giyu Tomioka, 10 million yen! My Master said there's no upper limit to the salary of a Pillar-level swordsman, but you lack nothing, so this is all I'll give you for now! Hah!"
"Sabito, 5 million yen! The highest standard for A-Rank swordsman! Gaa!"
Five million?! That's a lot!
Sabito snatched his own check and stared wide-eyed at the long string of zeros on it.
This was the first time in his life he had ever seen so much money!
He excitedly approached Giyu, wanting to share his joy, only to find that Giyu calmly took his check, didn't even glance at it, and casually stuffed it into his pocket, his expression as if he hadn't received ten million, but a piece of waste paper.
"Hey! That's ten million! You should at least give me some kind of response!" Sabito felt like he'd been hit hard.
"Hmm," Giyu responded faintly.
"New mission! New mission! Gaa!"
Kanzaburo ignored their interaction and announced to himself:
"Kyoto Prefecture, Asakusa Ward, a ghost has been suspected to have appeared! The Oyakata-sama orders you two to investigate immediately! Hush!"
"Asakusa?"
The Sabito was stunned for a moment, its excitement instantly replaced by curiosity.
"Isn't that... the legendary most prosperous place in the country? Could there be ghosts in a place like that?"
In his mind, ghosts preferred to stay in deep mountains and forests and rarely went to places with so many people.
Giyu's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
Asakusa... is one of the weakest points in the Demon Slayer Corps's operations. It's too bustling and has a mixed population, so if a demon is hiding there, it's like a drop of water in the ocean, making it extremely difficult to find.
"It seems this mission won't be as simple as catching small fry."
~~~
When I first set foot on the land of Asakusa, even someone as composed as Sabito was completely overwhelmed by the sight before me.
The streets were as bright as day.
Countless electric lights illuminated the entire city, towering Western-style buildings stood side by side, the streets were bustling with traffic, and men and women dressed in fashionable kimonos and Western suits moved about in an endless stream. The air was filled with the aroma of food and the cheerful laughter of people.
This is a completely different world from the deep mountains where they have lived for more than ten years.
"Wow... is this Asakusa?"
The Sabito's mouth opened involuntarily, its eyes widened like copper bells, and everything it saw seemed new and exciting.
"Look at that! That thing called an automatic car, it's going so fast!"
"And those houses! How could they be built so tall?!"
"Giyu! Giyu! Look! Lots of girls on the street aren't wearing kimonos! They're wearing Western-style dresses! They're so pretty!"
Like a country boy visiting the city for the first time, he tugged at Giyu's sleeve, chattering incessantly, his face full of excitement.
Giyu was getting a headache from his noise, but looking at Sabito's naive and unworldly appearance, a rare, faint smile appeared in his icy blue eyes.
He ignored the astonished and curious glances directed at them from those around him.
Especially those bold and intense gazes that fell upon me.
"Wow, young man, you're really handsome. Would you like to join us ladies for a cup of tea?"
Several stylishly dressed young women surrounded him with smiles, their eyes lingering undisguisedly on Giyu's cool and handsome face.
The combination of a cool and handsome young man wearing a half-red, half-white haori and carrying a long sword is fatally attractive to them.
Sabito watched in stunned silence, then grinned mischievously, ready to see Giyu make a fool of himself.
However, Giyu simply glanced at them calmly, then pulled the still-dazed Sabito along, and slipped through the gaps in the crowd with movements as fluid as a fish.
Excuse me, could you move aside?
The cool, clear voice, along with that tall, upright figure, disappeared into the crowd.
The women stood frozen in place, staring in the direction he had left. Instead of being angry, their faces showed an even more infatuated expression.
"Wow, that's so cool! I like it even more!"
"He walked away with another boy... could it be..."
Their imaginations have started to take a strange turn.
Giyu, unaware of the farce unfolding behind him, pulled the still bewildered Sabito along and led him straight into a noodle shop filled with a rich, fragrant aroma.
Hey! What are you doing?!
The Sabito stumbled as he pulled it, and cried out in dissatisfaction.
"Have a meal."
Giyu uttered two words and found a seat by the window.
Let's fill our stomachs first.