A Slap for You

Obanai Iguro, lying off to one side, froze. His mind went blank as he watched Hiruma's bloodied body fly away.

What was this?!

Why had he saved him? He was a sinner!

Damn it!

Obanai roared and punched the ground again and again, guilt filling his heart.

The attacking Demon revealed itself. Its gaunt, hunched body was covered in blue fish scales that opened and closed in the rain as though breathing.

"Hehehe!"

"So it's Rare Blood. What a jackpot!"

The Fish Demon greedily licked the blood from its claws. At that moment, Hiruma was the only person left in its eyes.

The Fish Demon strolled toward Hiruma without any hurry, every cell in its body cheering with excitement.

Just then, Obanai Iguro ran in front of Hiruma. He spread his arms and used his small body to shield him.

"Monster, if you want to eat someone, eat me first!"

The Fish Demon looked at Obanai with disdain. With such premium Rare Blood as Hiruma, the human before it was like dry bark too tough to swallow—not even a dog would eat him.

"Get lost! Don't interrupt my meal!"

It slapped at Obanai. With a sizzling sound, what flew away was not Obanai's head, but the Fish Demon's forearm.

"I ambushed you too, you dried-up fish!"

Hiruma rested one hand on Obanai's shoulder and mocked it without mercy.

Both the Demon and Obanai were stunned, and they turned to look at Hiruma at the same time.

"Weren't you..."

"Ow!"

"It's just a little blood. I'm not dying, so don't make such a fuss!" Hiruma said with a grin, patting Obanai's shoulder as though it were nothing.

Obanai: "..."

As he spoke, Hiruma had already dragged Obanai several meters back.

The Fish Demon barely came back to its senses. He still wasn't dead? Was Hiruma the Demon, or was it?

"Tch!"

"Eating you alive works too!"

"Brat, if I can kill you once, I can kill you a second time!"

The Fish Demon pressed its chest to the muddy ground and swam through it with the agility of a fish. It was incredibly fast, reaching the two of them in the blink of an eye.

Hiruma tightly gripped the hilt of his sword, his gaze firm and focused. In an instant, crimson-gold arcs of electricity burst from his legs and spread through his entire body like lightning.

Thunder Breath Form and Flash.

With a crisp draw of his blade, Hiruma swung at astonishing speed.

The blade flashed with dazzling crimson-gold light, and at the same time, deafening thunder rang out through the rain.

From above, it looked as though a crimson-gold meteor had sliced through the curtain of rain. The Fish Demon's head and body separated, though the entire process lasted only an instant.

Obanai stared at the scene before him in utter disbelief, inwardly overwhelmed.

So strong!

This guy clearly looked about the same age as him.

Hiruma coolly spun his sword before sheathing it.

He glanced at the speechless Obanai and invited him.

"Obanai, do you want to become as strong as me? Come join the Demon Slayer Corps!"

"We're an organization that specializes in hunting monsters like this!"

"Young man, come save the world with me!"

Hiruma's face was filled with absolute sincerity. Determination shone in his eyes as though a blazing flame burned within them.

His voice was low and powerful, brimming with endless strength. His tone carried an irresistible charm, like the leader of a pyramid scheme.

"I... can I?" Obanai Iguro hesitated as he looked at the boy who seemed to glow with golden light in the rain.

Before he knew it, Hiruma grabbed his hand, treating his question as an affirmation.

"Thanks for joining!"

Obanai: "???"

"This is too cringe. I can't take it anymore!"

Hiruma awkwardly mocked himself, while Obanai looked utterly baffled. He could not understand the nonsense this person was spouting.

Still, this person had saved his life, and he could kill monsters to atone for his sins. He would just go along with it.

Suddenly, a tall figure hugged both of them from behind. Rengoku Shinjuro's hearty laughter made their heads ache.

"Hiruma, not bad!"

"I never expected there to be another Demon here. That was dangerous."

Hearing that, Hiruma shot the enthusiastic uncle a glance and complained, "Uncle, don't tell me you were watching from the sidelines the whole time?"

"Ahahaha... how could that be?" Shinjuro's gaze unconsciously drifted aside. He had only returned after Hiruma was attacked, so he had watched to see how the boy would slay the Demon.

"By the way, I'm sorry. Before I arrived, that Demon had already killed your entire family. Only one person survived." Shinjuro spoke with deep self-reproach.

Hearing that his entire family had been killed, Obanai felt no ripples in his heart. Those demons should have died long ago.

They had sacrificed their own relatives to monsters and helped those monsters ambush passersby. Every one of their deeds was an unforgivable crime.

That family was rotten to the core. It should have been wiped out long ago.

"Oh, right. I brought out the surviving girl. She said she's your cousin!"

As he spoke, Rengoku Shinjuro pointed into the distance. A girl stood there holding an umbrella. She looked traumatized, but her gaze toward Obanai was filled with hatred.

"Obanai, why did you run away?"

"Why couldn't you just obediently let yourself be eaten?"

"Why didn't you just die?"

"It's all your fault! Everyone was killed because you ran away! As the sacrifice, couldn't you have just obediently let yourself be eaten?!"

"Why didn't you die? Then no one else would have had to die!"

The girl cried as she viciously questioned Obanai, even though everything she said was completely unreasonable.

Obanai silently looked at his cousin, a trace of emotion stirring within him. It was not as though he had never considered what would happen to the Iguro Family after he escaped, but he did not want to be eaten by that monster.

At the very least, he could not die such a suffocating death. Even if he died, he wanted to die fighting.

"Obanai Iguro, why couldn't you just obediently let it eat you? Why?!"

All the fear in the girl's heart turned into rage. She was hysterical, her hateful gaze stabbing into Obanai like daggers.

Splash!

In this world, only the girl's curses and the unceasing sound of rain remained.

Suddenly, a crisp slap rang out among them.

The girl's curses stopped as she watched Hiruma withdraw his hand.

"I usually don't hit women, but don't keep yapping at me."

"Why don't you go let a Demon eat you? What obligation does he have to be eaten?"

"Your clan's deaths were nothing more than what they deserved!"

"Go live somewhere else. You should go back home and take a look. There should still be money the Demons stole there!"

Obanai's cousin returned to her senses. She clutched her face, dropped to her knees, and burst into tears.

What they deserved.

Did we deserve it?

Hiruma ignored her and turned around, his gloomy expression instantly brightening as he smiled.

"Uncle, Obanai, let's go, let's go!"

"I'm starving to death!"

At that moment, the sky suddenly cleared. A warm beam of sunlight pierced through the heavy clouds and fell upon Obanai Iguro.