How do you read that character? Qing-tu?

During the Meiji era, it was said that evil demons devoured people after sunset.

"Hah-"

Haruto's eyes snapped open from sleep. His master, Godogawa, stood before him.

Like all the swordsmiths in the Swordsmith Village, Godogawa usually wore a Hyottoko Mask.

Beneath that strange, ugly mask was a stern little old man with short, thick eyebrows.

The little old man still held his smithing hammer, and the scorching smell of flames clung to him.

"What's wrong? Had a nightmare?"

"I think so..."

Still dazed, Haruto slowly reached toward his chest. Only after feeling his heartbeat did he let out a long breath.

"So it was a dream..."

But that dream had been far too real.

He could still remember the helpless feeling of strength draining from every corner of his body as that enormous demon hand pierced his chest...

It had been absolutely terrifying.

"Since you're awake, get up. The Kakushi should be here soon."

Godogawa kept it brief, then carried his hammer back to his forge.

Hearing his apprentice's voice earlier had startled him so badly that he hadn't even put on his wooden clogs.

Yet he hadn't said a single word of concern. He was as silent as the iron hammer in his hand.

His handsome apprentice sat beneath the eaves, staring blankly at the wind chime swaying in the breeze.

Was it really a dream?

Then why could he remember so clearly how that Hand Demon had shielded his neck with his arms?

And there had been that boy with long, peach-pink hair, wearing a fox mask just like his fellow disciple.

He must have killed the demon in the end. Had he contacted the Ubuyashiki Family to have Haruto's body sent back to the Swordsmith Village?

Haruto meant... in the dream.

What expression would Godogawa have worn when he saw his body in the dream?

Shock? Grief?

Or would he have hammered away at the sword blank in his hands without a word, just as he was doing now?

Haruto's thoughts wandered, drifting out of the Godogawa Family home and over the village. He vaguely sensed someone with steady footsteps hurrying toward them.

"It's the Kakushi!"

Haruto immediately snapped out of his daze, scrambled up from the floor, and went to pack his carrying basket.

It was heavy, stuffed with the two hundred rice balls Godogawa had stayed up late making the night before.

His basket, his Nichirin Blade, and... his haori.

He walked over to the clothes rack, where two haori hung.

One was his own, patterned with red and yellow flames.

The other belonged to Godogawa, a somewhat old-fashioned blue-green haori embroidered with a landscape.

...In the dream, he had died wearing that red-and-yellow haori.

Haruto raised his eyebrows and put on the landscape-embroidered haori.

Only when the Kakushi arrived at the Godogawa Family's door did Godogawa set down his work and turn toward Haruto. His gaze froze.

"Master, I'm wearing this today."

The boy stood in the hall in his blue-green haori, a long sword at his waist, looking full of youthful confidence.

...He really did resemble Godogawa's son, who had been dead for thirty years.

Back then, Ryoji, who had only recently joined the Demon Slayer Corps, had told him with that same high-spirited confidence, "Father, I'm wearing this today!"

Though the haori was no longer the same one, that spirited face was remarkably similar.

Godogawa swallowed and nodded blankly. "All right."

Wearing a blindfold and earplugs, Haruto lay on a Kakushi's back, swaying through the darkness.

Hmm... This was his first time leaving the swordsmiths' village, but he kept feeling as though he had already traveled this route once in his dream.

As before, whenever he was handed over, he took out rice balls for the Kakushi carrying him and called loudly, "Thank you for your hard work! Please enjoy these!"

When the last Kakushi set Haruto down at the designated spot, she removed his blindfold and earplugs, then lost herself for a moment in those blue eyes, as though veiled in mist.

Haruto's pupils suddenly contracted, and he stared fixedly into the Kakushi's eyes.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Takanashi...?"

The Kakushi quickly asked, "Have I done something rude?"

Haruto hurriedly replied, "No, sorry. I was just a little distracted."

This Kakushi looked exactly like the one he had seen in his dream...

"Well then, Mr. Takanashi, you'll have to make the rest of the journey yourself."

The Kakushi said exactly the same words he remembered. Haruto handed her two rice balls as before, but his nerves kept him from chatting with her.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

He swallowed several times and stood at the roadside, unsure what to do.

When in doubt...

Fill your stomach first.

He ate rice balls in the shade of a tree as he thought.

If everything in the dream had been real, what was happening to him now?

Had he loaded a save?

Would the things that had happened before play out again?

Haruto looked down at his chest, imagining a hole opening in it once more.

Still, the best news right now was that he already knew where the Hand Demon would first appear. He just had to avoid that spot and take a detour.

Or he could find a skilled swordsman and tag along behind him. That boy in the fox mask seemed like a good choice.

With that thought, his stomach half full and his confidence restored, he rose and broke into a run toward Mount Fujikasane.

The sea of wisteria on Mount Fujikasane was dazzlingly beautiful.

Haruto climbed the long flight of steps, and a scene identical to the one in his dream appeared before him again.

The swordsmen's cold eyes, the two boys in fox masks standing in the corner...

[Senior disciple, my destined husband.]

After a few more strange scrolling comments drifted past, Haruto held his breath. Here it came.

His... death notice.

[Ms. Crocodile is so weird. She drew this white-haired guy in blue-green so handsome, only to make him an extra who appears in a single frame?]

Huh?

Had that comment appeared before?

Haruto frowned slightly, doubt rising within him.

[To the person above, he appears again later during the battle in Infinity Castle.]

[True. With that face, I thought he was part of the main cast. Didn't expect him to be an extra lololol.]

[He's probably the hottest character in the entire series. A brooding white-haired guy with azure eyes, lick lick lick.]

[Too bad he's weak. He can't save Sabito.]

The comments had... changed?

His eyes stayed fixed on the drifting words. That was right-there was nothing about him "croaking" or "getting killed off."

And they even said he would appear again in some "battle in Infinity Castle."

Had his fate changed? Why?

And... come on, why did all these comments have to roast his strength?!

Had my incompetence crossed dimensions already?

Besides, I'm just an independent demon-slaying swordsman with two and a half years of training. Don't pin your hopes of saving whoever-it-is on me!

And... how do you read that character? Qing-tu, o_O?

If a character's importance could be judged by clothing and art style, then aside from him, the two boys in fox masks were the most likely main characters in this scene.

Haruto also vaguely remembered the Hand Demon mentioning "those fox brats of Urokodaki's" before fighting him.

If his guess was right, he must have meant these two boys.

He had seen the boy with long, peach-pink hair when he was about to die before. From his voice and tone, he seemed like a very gentle kid.

But the aloof, cocky-looking boy beside him, holding a long sword... clearly wasn't easy to get along with.

Haruto quietly edged a few steps closer, ready to stick close to them once things began.