I Didn't Hurt You Just Now, Did I?

"E-excuse me! What are your names?!"

After getting up from the ground, Random Passerby looked at the two before him. He hesitated for a moment, then decided to ask Chinatsu and Tanjiro their names.

"Tanjiro Kamado."

"Chinatsu Kamado."

"Older brother and younger sister?"

"Older sister! Younger brother!"

A little annoyed, Chinatsu immediately pointed a finger at him to correct his mistake. Random Passerby jumped at her fierce reaction, inwardly surprised that she was actually the older sibling.

His gaze swept over Chinatsu, slowly sliding down from her face to her chest.

Noticing that subtle shift in his gaze, Chinatsu's mouth twitched. When she unleashed a wave of intense hostility, he hurriedly turned and scrambled out of her sight.

"Honestly, how can someone be so rude?"

Chinatsu planted one hand on her hip and clicked her tongue in irritation. Beside her, Tanjiro stood awkwardly, not daring to say a word.

He remembered his sister being like this before, too. Once, their youngest brother, Rokuta Kamado, had made a comment about her chest. His normally gentle sister had immediately set down her kitchen knife, narrowed her eyes, and driven both fists into Rokuta's temples with a grinding motion. For quite a while afterward, Rokuta Kamado had been terrified of her.

Once the Hand Demon, whose level far exceeded the beginner area, had been eliminated, the demons on Mount Fujikasane returned to the level expected of a normal Final Selection.

Although they could have left things alone, Tanjiro was far too kindhearted. How could he stand by when he saw demons killing people? Chinatsu, meanwhile, simply used the low-level demons to hone her swordsmanship without using a Breathing Style.

The Final Selection lasted seven days. The first few days were nothing unusual, just the normal monster grind, but in the last few days, the situation across Mount Fujikasane took a complete turn.

Demons killing people?

Whenever these demons spotted Chinatsu and Tanjiro, they trembled all over, turned tail on the spot, and ran without daring to look back.

Thanks to those two little monsters, the demons had entered the ultimate hide-and-seek mode by the final days of the Final Selection, concealing themselves so thoroughly that even Tanjiro's navigation-system-like nose couldn't confirm whether they had cleared out every last demon on Mount Fujikasane.

When they left Mount Fujikasane's demon-hunting area and reached the exit, the surviving Demon Slayers were standing there. Chinatsu gave them a quick once-over and found that there weren't many more survivors than in the original story-only a handful extra.

That made sense. After all, the trial lasted a full seven days, and there were too many unpredictable factors. Ultimately, though, it came down to them being too weak. Even if people with so little strength became members of the Demon Slayer Corps, they wouldn't be useful fighters. They might even become burdens who held everyone else back.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die. Even if I survived here, I'm still going to die in the end..."

A blond boy muttered softly with his head bowed, radiating such a dense aura of negativity that he drew Tanjiro's attention.

Chinatsu, meanwhile, focused on Kanao. Of everyone present, her clothes were the cleanest, without even a speck of dirt or sand on them.

As Chinatsu watched her, Kanao soon noticed her gaze. She turned her head slightly toward Chinatsu and once again gave her practiced smile.

The kimono-clad boy and girl who had announced the rules before the Final Selection stepped out again, their eyes wide open. Their pupils were so unusual that Chinatsu inwardly quipped that those ringed eyes could give the Rinnegan from Naruto a run for its money. That version had fewer rings, this one had more, and even the base color was about the same.

After briefly explaining that everyone who had passed the selection was now a member of the Demon Slayer Corps at its lowest rank, Mizunoto, the two gently clapped their hands together. A chorus of caws suddenly rang out overhead.

"From today onward, Kasugai Crows will accompany you. Their main function is to communicate with other crows, allowing information to be transmitted over long distan... Oh? How could this..."

Before they could finish, a sight that surprised even them forced them to stop speaking.

Crows perched on the arms of Tanjiro and the others. The blond Zenitsu Agatsuma blinked in bewilderment, because what sat on his arm wasn't a crow at all, but a Little Sparrow.

But that wasn't the main issue!

Although Zenitsu's situation was strange, at least some living creature had landed on him. Chinatsu, standing beside Tanjiro, had her head tilted back as she looked upward. The crow above her kept flapping its wings and circling in the air, showing no sign of coming down to perch on her.

"Oh? How could this happen? Specially trained Kasugai Crows shouldn't be wary or afraid of people. This has never happened before..."

The two spoke in unison, while Chinatsu soon lowered her head.

This crow... Oh, forget it. If I don't get one, then I don't get one. I can still use Tanjiro's crow, can't I?

With that thought, Chinatsu turned toward Tanjiro beside her. The crow on his arm saw her look its way and hurriedly flapped its wings in fright, hopping from the arm closer to Chinatsu onto his other arm.

Everyone fell silent...

Chinatsu's expression turned rather peculiar. Apparently, even a crow wouldn't show her any respect.

Watching this scene, the two fell silent. They had wanted to observe a little longer, but one hot-tempered participant who had passed the selection abruptly flung the crow off his arm.

He strode toward the pair, declaring as he went, "I don't care about some crow! A sword! Give me a sword! A Demon Slayer Corps sword! A color-changing sword! A Nichirin Blade!"

Just as he reached out to grab one of them by the hair, two figures suddenly flashed to either side of him.

Tanjiro stood on his right with a serious look in his eyes, his outstretched hand gripping the wrist of the arm he had raised. Chinatsu stood on his left.

Did you think Chinatsu had reached out to grab his other hand?

No, no, no. Chinatsu had grabbed his hair. The scene was utterly ridiculous.

"Calm down."

"Huh?!"

His eyes widened as both of them began applying pressure. Tanjiro was already strong from chopping wood, and with his physique enhanced by Total Concentration: Constant, he could easily break someone's bones with grip strength alone if he used his full power.

Yet despite that crushing grip, his wrist wasn't what worried him. Chinatsu was also pulling harder, and he suddenly had a feeling that in another few seconds, a great clump of his hair might come out with a snap!

"Tch, fine, fine. Let go already."

The pressure from both sides vanished at once. Tanjiro released his hand, and Chinatsu let go of his hair.

Their expressions immediately changed, and they looked at him with cheerful smiles.

"Sorry, I didn't hurt you just now, did I?"

"..."