Yūki and Saori

"Yūki disappeared three days ago.

After he came back from fishing that day, he went to deliver fresh seafood to two hot spring inns. Even late that night, he still hadn't returned."

"Did he often come home late?"

"No, never. Since Rika was born, he never came home late."

Haruto rubbed his chin. "Then the problem lies with those two hot spring inns?"

Saori merely shook her head. "I don't know."

The boy hesitated, then asked, "Why do people say... your husband ran off with a geisha?"

"They're making it up!"

Saori raised her voice in a sharp shout. Startled by the sound, the half-asleep Rika began to cry softly.

Her anger deflated, and she gently rocked the baby in her arms. "Rika, my Rika..."

After a while, Saori murmured, "Maybe this is retribution."

Haruto said nothing, making it clear that he was listening.

Three years ago, Yūki, a boy from the countryside, met Saori, a geisha from Asakusa, at a festival in town.

Saori was beautiful and knew how to entice men. Yūki, who came from a small rural village, failed to resist her charms. He abandoned the parents who had raised him and his younger siblings, who were still children, and followed Saori to Asakusa.

What work could a boy who knew only how to fish find in bustling Tokyo?

All sorts of menial, filthy, exhausting jobs, of course.

The boy who had grown up carrying his rural parents' hopes now lived at the very bottom of Asakusa's society. Watching his beloved Saori return to a life of pleasing men with her beauty filled him with anguish.

Saori's feelings for Yūki were not entirely false, either. When she was lonely and helpless in Tokyo, his love had given her the courage to keep living.

And so, one day after the New Year, the two fled Asakusa together.

Saori stole the madam's purse and boarded a train with Yūki, shaking off their pursuers from the Entertainment District. In the end, they boldly settled in Chiba Prefecture, right next to Tokyo.

With that money, the young couple built a comfortable life.

Yūki fished to support the family, while Saori became a devoted wife, supporting her husband and raising their child in harmony.

"But Yūki made a vow to me before the gods. He swore he would never betray me, that we would spend the rest of our lives together..."

Saori's shoulders trembled, and tears silently slid down the bridge of her nose.

"Nothing has been settled yet."

Haruto asked, "What are the names of those two hot spring inns?"

Saori lifted her head, her eyes blurred with tears. "...What do you mean?"

"Maybe there really is something wrong with the inns. If you decide so quickly that your husband abandoned you... then what have you been struggling so hard for?"

Whether out of unwillingness to accept it or genuine, absolute trust in her husband, Saori gave Haruto the names of the two hot spring inns.

One was called the Late Sea Inn-the very place he had entered to ask questions when he first arrived in Hirano.

Goosebumps rose on Haruto's arms.

A hot spring inn filled with delicious sea bream, fresh lobster, and sweet king crab might actually be hiding a man-eating demon!

That was terrifying!

He had blundered straight inside like a complete idiot!

If they had shut the doors and trapped him...

He really would have been a sitting duck.

"I'd better investigate the other one first."

Haruto made up his mind to investigate the other hot spring inn, the Hot Steam House, before the other Demon Slayer Corps members arrived.

As evening fell, the fishermen who had toiled all day shuffled in their wooden clogs toward the town's brightly lit Hot Spring District. If Tokyo residents went to Asakusa and the Yoshiwara Entertainment District for amusement, then Hirano's Hot Spring District was the perfect place for the people of Chiba to unwind.

The Hot Steam House stood in the busiest part of the district. Haruto tried to slip inside with the crowd, but the guard at the entrance stopped him.

"No swordsmen allowed."

If the front way was blocked, he would have to sneak in.

Haruto vaulted over the wall into the Hot Steam House without any trouble. Wrapping his Nichirin Blade in his haori, he strolled brazenly around the inn.

It looked no different from the hot springs of later times: crowds of people packed into the hot water like dumplings in a pot, each with a warm towel perched on their head.

Nothing seemed wrong to the naked eye...

Haruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His awareness spread outward like a surging tide.

Huh, so not everyone comes to a hot spring inn to soak...

There are body scrubs, foot massages, and...

Haruto raised an eyebrow, skipped the room where a couple was busy becoming one, and carefully swept through every secluded room.

He found nothing.

Was he really that lucky? Was the Late Sea Inn the actual demon haunt?

Frowning, he withdrew his awareness. As it passed the room where the couple had been enjoying themselves, he suddenly noticed something wrong.

Why had one person's consciousness disappeared?

The hazy presences of a man and a woman had both been there just moments ago. Now only the woman's remained.

"That was quick... Did he already leave?"

Sensing that something was amiss, Haruto turned and headed that way.

The closer he got, the clearer the room's interior became in his awareness.

He saw a woman half-reclining in a private hot spring bath, her long hair hanging loose. Like a beast after a full meal, she licked her palm in satisfaction.

That hand... bulging veins, thick bones, sharp nails-

It was unmistakably a demon's claw!

The woman sitting in the hot spring was a man-eating demon!

Just then, the long-haired demon sensed someone watching her. She bared her teeth at the empty air, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs!

"Ugh..." Haruto grunted, and his awareness rushed back into his body like a retreating tide.

Was he lucky or unlucky? On his very first attempt to scout ahead, he had stumbled upon a demon devouring a human.

Haruto broke into a sprint. His haori, embroidered with green mountains, fluttered as he ran, and his Nichirin Blade was already in his hand.

Crash!

The white-haired boy reached the room where he had sensed the demon and kicked open the wooden door.

The room was empty. There was no demon, not even a single person.

Only the private hot spring bath remained, steam rising from its surface.

"She escaped?"

He stepped forward and leaned over to look into the bath.

"Gah!"

Countless human bones lay submerged in the faintly yellow spring water!

This room... was the long-haired demon's lair!

There was no telling when these people had died. Every scrap of flesh had been devoured, leaving only their bones.

Nor could he tell whether Asai Yūki's remains were among them.

Creak-

The wooden door, which had swung shut after Haruto kicked it open, was pushed open again.

A young girl with glossy black hair timidly poked half her head inside. Her eyes, clear as glass marbles, were filled with apprehension.

"Excuse me... who are you looking for?"

Haruto said nothing and quickly glanced back at the hot spring.

The faintly yellow water carried a distinct sulfurous smell. The bath was perfectly clean, as though the heaps of bones he had just seen had all been an illusion.

"Are you the guest who booked me? Shall we begin now?"

When Haruto remained silent, the girl leaned halfway into the room. The neckline of her kimono hung so low it nearly reached her waist, revealing a broad expanse of snowy skin.

Haruto narrowed his mist-blue eyes, a mocking smile tugging at his lips.

"Listen, lady-or should I say granny? Didn't the one who turned you into a demon tell you that when you meet a Demon Slayer with sharp senses..."

He bent forward and gripped his sword, his body taut as a fully drawn bowstring.

"You should do something about that stench first?!"

Scorching breath ignited his chest. His blade swept out, blazing into a Blazing Tree of Silver Flowers.