Crossing two mountains was nothing to Demon Slayer Corps members with astonishing stamina, especially since both Yoru Machi and Giyu Tomioka were Pillars of the Corps.
Thus, from the moment they received the information to their arrival at the Maneating Demon incident site, it took less than an hour.
But when they reached the designated location, they found a young man and a young woman in the snowy field.
A girl with long black hair, dressed in a pink kimono, was pinning a reddish-brown-haired boy beneath her.
The girl pressed both hands against the boy's shoulders, clearly intending to take a bite out of him. Yet the boy resisted desperately, tears welling in his eyes as he repeatedly said, "Nezuko, I'm your brother, Tanjiro!"
The moment they saw this scene, Yoru Machi and Giyu shot forward like arrows loosed from a bow.
As the boy was still resisting the girl's attack, he saw the two figures rushing toward them from behind Nezuko, filled with killing intent.
Realizing something, he immediately exerted force with both hands, flipped the girl who had been straddling him over, and shielded her beneath his body.
Yoru Machi and Giyu Tomioka, who had originally intended to kill the girl Maneating Demon, clearly had not expected the boy to do such a thing and use his own body to protect her.
Just as Giyu Tomioka's blade was about to cleave into the boy's back, and he was too close to withdraw it in time, another flash of steel suddenly changed the course of the attack.
"Clang—!"
A crisp metallic collision rang across the snowy field. After taking that blow, Giyu Tomioka's body slid backward through the snow for a considerable distance from the impact.
Feeling the astonishing force transmitted through his Nichirin Blade, Giyu Tomioka inwardly marveled