Ghosts Are More Cunning Than Humans - Demon Slayer's First Kill

A spray of blood erupted!

Followed immediately by a shrill, miserable scream!

The phantom vanished... the trees ceased their swaying... and the blindingly white snow fell in soft flurries. The demon crashed heavily to the ground, an arm sent flying instantly, rolling across the snow until it came to a stop at Tanjiro's feet.

[Combat Arts +1]

Tanjiro's pupils dilated sharply as he stared blankly at the severed arm dissolving into black smoke... his heart surging like a crashing tide!

Excitedly, he raised his fist and shouted at Roy, "Well done, Nii-san!"

From stillness to motion and back to stillness, Roy's swing of the hoe had taken only the blink of an eye.

It was a movement that could not have been simpler, yet the "substance" contained within it made the hair on the back of Sato Takeichiro's neck stand on end!

"Are you a Hashira?" Sato Takeichiro scrambled up from the snow, staring fixedly at Roy with a grave expression.

The so-called Hashira were the counterparts to the Twelve Kizuki among demons. Sato Takeichiro had once been fortunate enough to see Upper Rank One from afar; that lord had unleashed a slash filled with crescent moons with a mere flick of his blade.

It was said that he had been a Hashira-level member of the Demon Slayer Corps before his transformation.

Later, while eating humans at the foot of the mountain, he had been hunted by the Water Hashira. Only because the man was old and frail, and thanks to the cover provided by his companions, had he managed to escape with his life.

And today, in this godforsaken forest, he had never expected to run into a third one!

But unfortunately for him... Roy was not one.

In the Demon Slayer Corps, to become a Hashira, one must either defeat one of the Twelve Kizuki or kill fifty demons.

But Roy, who knew the plot, understood clearly that the most important criterion for distinguishing a Hashira was not these rigid rules, but the level of mastery over Breathing Styles.

Just as in the world of Hunters, the only condition for determining if a Nen user was a top-tier powerhouse was the level of development and mastery they possessed over their own Nen.

Without precise mastery or if the development path was flawed, even the most talented individual would struggle to become an elite Nen user.

Take Kastro, for instance, who suffered from a lack of proper mentorship and mistakenly developed a "Conjuration" clone despite being an "Enhancer."

Therefore, in this dream-entry, aside from the goal of digging coal and selling charcoal to improve the Kamado family's diet, Roy had another mission—to find a master and learn a Breathing Style.

At present, the nearest candidate, the former Water Hashira Urokodaki Sakonji, was an excellent choice.

Roy dragged his hoe, carving a straight, thin line into the snow.

He did not answer Sato Takeichiro's question, but instead watched with interest as the demon grew a new arm, asking curiously, "How many more times can your demon blood sustain your regeneration?"

Sato Takeichiro snarled viciously, "It can sustain me long enough to rip out your heart and liver without any trouble!"

Roy nodded, "That's good. A man must keep his word."

"If you don't rip out my heart and liver today, no one is leaving."

Sato Takeichiro & Tanjiro: "?"

Utterly bewildered...

The latter did not know what his older brother was thinking, or why he didn't seize the gap before the opponent's arm regenerated to launch another attack.

The former, however, instantly heightened his vigilance... and then—

He quickly bent down to scoop up a handful of snow, throwing it at Roy... then, using the flying snow to obscure his vision, Sato Takeichiro unleashed his maximum speed and turned to run!

"Bullet... Bullet... Bullet... Bullet Kill! Take this!" Trees shook violently as he trampled past them, and in the blink of an eye... Sato Takeichiro had fled over a hundred meters!

Tanjiro's eyes widened, still unable to process what was happening.

Then he saw his Nii-san... his face turning pitch black!

"My experience points... my experience points that were right in my grasp..." Roy was beyond furious!

A demon shouldn't be this cunning... was the only reason he awakened a Blood Demon Art like "Bullet Kill" so he could run away the moment things went south?

Watching the figure grow smaller in the distance...

Roy lifted his right foot in frustration and kicked hard. A pebble whistled through the air, chasing after Sato Takeichiro's retreating back like a bolt of lightning.

But without having learned "Gyo," Roy could not yet imbue his Nen into an object once it left his hand to increase its speed... coupled with the fact that the opponent remained on high alert and his awakened Blood Demon Art was perfectly suited for sprinting through the forest...

This resulted in the demon easily dodging the strike with a slight dip of his body.

"In that case, there's no other way."

Two hundred meters, three hundred meters; it was clear that any further and the target would be lost to the naked eye.

Roy simply rolled up his sleeves.

For the first time, he unleashed a Breathing Style.

At that moment, the wind stirred and the clouds shifted, the sun casting a ray of light through a gap in the clouds, illuminating Roy's handsome face.

The youth braced his hoe as if it were a long blade, his feet set in a staggered lunge, and he took a massive, deep breath.

In an instant, it was as if an accelerator had been pressed inside his body; his blood surged, his heart rate spiked, and even the capillaries beneath his skin began to burst one after another, spreading across his entire body in a heartbeat!

The intuitive reaction on the system panel was... a massive change in the column recording Roy's physique!

Visibly, it jumped from—

[Physique: 10.051] to [Physique: 20.102]!

It had actually doubled in an instant!

Sun Breathing uses qi as fuel...

Two divine flames seemed to ignite within Roy's pupils. Seizing this brief surge in power, he lunged forward with a thrust!

Whoosh— The hoe tore through the freezing wind with a piercing, sharp whistle!

Tanjiro felt his vision blur as if something had flashed past, and when he looked again—

His big brother Eiichiro had crossed a distance of nearly three hundred meters in the span of a single breath, appearing directly above the head of that evil demon.

Then came a sword technique descending from the heavens—

Sun Breathing—Waltz!

Swish—

A ribbon of fire, carrying a biting blade-light, evaporated the wind and snow, circling around Sato Takeichiro to trap him within.

Sato Takeichiro felt nothing at first, but when he realized he was soaring through the air while his lower body remained rooted to the spot, he finally understood... he had been cut in half at the waist!

He glared with frustrated, blood-red pupils, pointed an angry finger at Roy, and shouted, "And you still claim you aren't a Hashira?"

Then, his vision went black, and with a thud, he collapsed face-first into the snow.

Blood flowed like a trickling stream, staining the ground red, and his agonizing screams arrived, albeit a moment late.

A figure wearing wooden clogs over thick cotton socks, carrying a hoe on his shoulder, approached at a steady, unhurried pace... Sato Takeichiro's eyelids twitched; ignoring the pain, he once again burned demon blood to regenerate his flesh...

But this time... it didn't work!

He felt terror, panic, fear, and tremors, clearly sensing his life force draining away from his filthy body.

Unwilling to accept his fate, he lifted his head and demanded of Roy, "What kind of technique is this?"

Roy paused his steps, looked out at the snow-covered mountains, and sighed softly, "You really are untrustworthy, forcing me to kill you with Sun Breathing."

"Are you satisfied now?"

Sato Takeichiro's pupils constricted...

He shrieked, "Who... who exactly are you?!"

Roy offered a gentle smile, raised his foot, and crushed the demon's head with a single stomp: "I do not change my name when I walk, nor my surname when I sit—I am Kamado Eiichiro!"