Sanemi Shinazugawa

On a dark, windy night, a Demon ran for its life across the boundless wilderness. One of its arms had been severed. With a Demon's regenerative abilities, regrowing a lost arm should not have been a problem, but a human had shattered its dream of regeneration.

The Demon twisted its head around, staring wide-eyed behind it, its expression as if it had seen the end of the world.

It truly had no idea what sins it had committed in its past life to encounter such a deranged Demon Slayer.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Demon ahead, listen up! Please stop resisting. You are already surrounded by me alone!"

"Resist harshly, confess leniently!"

"Get lost, you lunatic!" the Demon cursed as it sped up. It did not want to die, especially not at this guy's hands.

The deranged Demon Slayer the Demon spoke of was none other than Tendo Hiruma. More than half a year had passed since the Fish Scale Village incident, and during that time, he had not encountered a single one of the Twelve Kizuki.

His wish to kill a Twelve Kizuki had yet to come true, and it was making him miserable.

Over the past six months, Hiruma had completed more than eighty missions. He had long met the requirements to be promoted to Hashira, but those were the Demon Slayer Corps' standards, not his own.

He had told Ubuyashiki Kagaya that he would not become a Hashira until he killed a Twelve Kizuki. Oyakata-sama knew Hiruma was someone who did as he pleased, so he let him be.

"Mr. Demon, want to tell me where your boss, Muzan Kibutsuji, is?"

"Don't be scared. I'm very gentle when I kill Demons!"

Hiruma continued spewing nonsense, driving the Demon to the brink of collapse.

"Mr. Demon, want a bottle of Wisteria Flower tea? Guaranteed poisoning after one sip."

"Why can't you be a Lower Rank?"

"Arghhh! I'm going to kill you, you chatterbox!" The Demon gave up running, turning around to fight Hiruma to the death.

Under the night sky, a crimson-gold meteor streaked across the grassland. The Demon died with a smile on its face.

Hiruma spun his blade before sheathing it, then complained, "Sigh! Are Demons these days really so mentally fragile? Looks like that trash boss needs to improve his employees' psychological support."

Just then, a breeze swept over the grassland, fluttering his Tanjiro-style Sun Earrings and Yoriichi-style high ponytail.

Over the past six months, Hiruma had grown out his hair and deliberately tied it in the same style as Yoriichi Tsugikuni's. Combined with his naturally dark crimson hair, he bore quite a resemblance to him.

"That's the tenth quota for this month. Time to eat, time to eat!"

In the blink of an eye, he vanished across the wilderness in a blur.

Kyobashi District, Tokyo Prefecture. A suburban slum.

The dilapidated slum was filled year-round with crimes such as theft, robbery... and even murder. The Shinazugawa family lived in such a place.

A drunken middle-aged man staggered through the front door. He had white hair and a vicious face. The instant he entered, the entire family was too frightened to move, as though the air had frozen.

Inside were a woman with bruises all over her face and her seven children. The eldest among them was Sanemi Shinazugawa.

He stared at the bastard some distance away with utter contempt. That man did not even deserve to be called human. Sanemi would never acknowledge him.

Gambling, alcoholism, beating his wife and children, even nearly selling his daughter into the red-light district for money—did someone like that deserve to be called a father?

"Bastard, what kind of look is that? You looking down on me?" The man hated the look in his eldest son's eyes. The undisguised contempt and ferocity made him look like a young wolf cub.

"You've never earned a single cent for this family, and you've never raised us either. We rely entirely on Mom. Why should I respect a stinking drunk and worthless gambler like you?" Sanemi Shinazugawa's fiery temper erupted at once as he snapped back without mercy.

"You're courting death!" The man hurled a liquor bottle at him, but Sanemi easily dodged it.

"Damn it, I'll beat you to death, you unfilial brat!"

The man grabbed a stick beside him and swung it at Sanemi with all his strength, regardless of whether he might hit his wife and daughters nearby.

With a loud bang, the straw mat on the floor was split apart. The wooden stick came crashing down in front of Sanemi with a howl of wind. If he had dodged even a little slower, he would have died.

"Waaah!"

"Waaah!"

The younger siblings beside them burst into terrified tears. The noise irritated the man, and he immediately raised the stick again. Sanemi's mother wanted to stop him but could not get to her feet, because she had been brutally beaten just yesterday.

"Bastard!" Sanemi lunged forward and tackled the man. He could tolerate that beast laying hands on him, but he could not tolerate him hurting their family.

Fueled by alcohol, the man was all bluster and no substance. The stick was knocked away, and he and Sanemi began brawling outside.

One fought to protect his family from harm; the other fought to harm his family.

"You bastard, let go of my brother!"

A child with a dark pompadour roared as he charged out of the house. He was the Shinazugawa family's second son, Genya Shinazugawa.

Though Genya was only ten years old, he had always wanted to help his older brother and mother support the family.

At last, with the Shinazugawa brothers working together, they drove the man away by trading injury for injury.

As he ran, the man hurled vicious threats at his own sons.

"You two ungrateful little bastards! Sooner or later, I'll kill both of you!"

"Damn bastard!"

For the man, the most painful part was failing to get gambling money from the house. That had been the reason he came home in the first place. After all, he had not returned home in two months.

"Sanemi, Genya, come back quickly! Let him take the money! If anything happens to you two, how am I supposed to live?"

Mrs. Unyielding looked at her two battered, bloodstained sons with aching sorrow, tears streaming uncontrollably from her eyes.

She shakily reached out and gently caressed their faces and hair. Then, she carefully pulled both children tightly into her embrace.

"Mom, tomorrow I'll collect even more scrap. Sooner or later, I'll give you all a good life!" Sanemi Shinazugawa smiled, his eyes filled with hope, because he still had his family.

At this time, he was not yet so sharp-edged, because his family was still with him.

"I'll help Big Brother too. We'll definitely make everyone happy," Genya said with a smile.

After being driven away, the man resentfully turned into a filthy alley, still endlessly cursing his family.

Before he knew it, he had walked out of the alley. Across from it stood a restaurant, and seated by the window directly opposite him was a young man.

The table before the young man was piled high with a dazzling spread of delicious dishes. One look was enough to tell that it had cost a great deal of money.

"Waiter, bring me another table of the same dishes later!" The young man slapped a stack of money onto the table. His puffed cheeks moved back and forth, crammed so full he could barely fit any more food inside.

"Honored guest, please wait a moment. The kitchen is still preparing it!" The waiter wore a fawning smile. After all, this customer ordered food by the tableful.

Watching all this, the man was consumed by jealousy.

Damn it!

How does that little bastard have so much money? Why don't I have any?

You like showing off, huh? That money will be mine soon.

As he thought about it, the corners of his mouth curled up. Wasn't his gambling money right there?

The first rule of the slums: if you lack strength, do not flaunt your wealth.

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Mwah! (?ˉ??ˉ??)