A Swift Demon Kill

On a country path, a boy trudged forward, carrying a basket on his back and pushing a wheelchair.

His younger sister, Nezuko, was inside the basket, while his older sister, Chinatsu, sat in the wheelchair.

They were heading for Mount Sagiri, and Tanjiro had done so much for them along the way. With him carrying one sister and pushing the other, Chinatsu felt a little guilty.

Her recovery was still far from ideal. If she really pushed herself, she could move for a short while, but only a short while. Chinatsu estimated that it would take another month or so before she regained a normal person's full mobility.

Chinatsu lowered her head in the wheelchair and sighed. A month wasn't long, but it wasn't short, either.

As he pushed the wheelchair, Tanjiro quietly watched Chinatsu, still worried about his older sister's condition.

Was she really all right after suffering such serious injuries?

But so much time had passed, and aside from her impaired mobility, she really didn't seem to have any other symptoms. Had she turned into a demon like Nezuko, or been affected somehow, too?

As Tanjiro pondered this, the dazzling sunlight shining down from above interrupted his thoughts.

Mr. Tomioka said demons feared sunlight, but my sister doesn't show any sign of that. Honestly... I just can't figure it out.

Tanjiro pushed the wheelchair with one hand and raised the other to scratch the back of his head.

The three continued onward and soon reached the foot of a mountain not far from Mount Sagiri.

"Mount Sagiri? You'll have to cross this mountain to get there. You're going over it with that huge load on your back and a young girl who can't walk properly? That's dangerous."

Tanjiro had politely asked for directions at the foot of the mountain. The woman answering him couldn't help taking a few extra looks at his unusual arrangement.

After getting a general idea of the route, Tanjiro bowed slightly to thank the woman, then turned and headed up the mountain. Time waited for no one, after all. He wanted to find Sakonji Urokodaki as soon as possible and learn from him.

The sky gradually darkened. With the glaring sunlight gone, Nezuko's head popped out of the basket on Tanjiro's back.

Naturally, she would rather be with her brother and sister than stay inside the basket.

The three chatted as they traveled. As Chinatsu spent more time with Tanjiro and Nezuko, the original owner's hazy memories and emotions gradually surfaced in her mind.

Tanjiro kept talking to liven up the mood, while Chinatsu closed her eyes and "speed-watched the series" inside her head from a first-person perspective.

Although this character hadn't existed in the original story, Chinatsu Kamado was a real person in this world-the Kamado family's eldest daughter, who had grown up alongside Tanjiro and Nezuko.

While Chinatsu was immersed in her marathon catch-up session, Tanjiro suddenly stopped, his gaze trembling as he sniffed hard.

"I smell blood. The paths on this mountain are narrow. Someone must be hurt!"

Kindhearted Tanjiro immediately wanted to rush over after catching the scent of blood, but he hadn't taken more than two steps before Chinatsu opened her eyes and stopped him.

"Tanjiro, wait."

"Chinatsu, someone might be hurt!"

"Calm down first. Didn't we hear before coming up here that people often go missing on this mountain? The smell of blood, plus missing people. Think carefully, Tanjiro. What do you think could cause something like that?"

Chinatsu spoke calmly from her wheelchair. She knew what would happen next. If Tanjiro rushed over like this, he would encounter his first real demon other than Nezuko and become locked in a fight with him. The whole ordeal would be a close call without any actual harm, but if not for his incredible luck, he might have died here.

Chinatsu's reminder immediately made Tanjiro think of demons. People disappearing at night, combined with the strong scent of fresh blood-the likelihood of a demon being here was certainly high.

Tanjiro hesitated. A demon was very likely, but there was also a good chance that someone was injured. If a mistaken judgment kept him from saving someone he could have saved, he would blame himself terribly.

"So, should we ignore it?"

"Ignore it? Why would we ignore it? Of course we're going to kill it!"

Chinatsu's answer took Tanjiro completely by surprise. He had assumed she wanted to play it safe and was therefore against investigating.

Of course, she did want to play it safe, but this was also part of the plot. She didn't yet have the strength to break away from the plot or change it, so naturally, she had to follow it for a while first.

Chinatsu asked Tanjiro to lean his head closer, then quietly explained their tactics for what came next. As Tanjiro listened, his expression went through quite a remarkable series of changes.

Ten minutes later.

Tanjiro arrived at the source of the blood scent with Chinatsu and Nezuko. It was a Buddhist temple hall in the mountains, with lamplight still glowing inside. There were no voices, but it wasn't exactly silent, either.

Tanjiro took a deep breath, pushed open the front door, and shouted, "Are you all right?!"

All right? Of course not.

As the door opened, several bloodstained human corpses came into view, lying on the floor. A demon stood beside them, both hands covered in blood.

At Tanjiro's shout, he muttered irritably and turned to look behind him.

"Of course not. I'm starving. Don't interrupt my mea-"

Thwack!!!

The demon was only halfway through his sentence and had just turned his head toward Tanjiro when a spinning axe came hurtling toward him with a sharp whoosh. It struck dead center, splitting into his head and lodging there.

The demon... was stunned.

Low-level demons could regenerate, but their regeneration wasn't particularly strong. They also felt pain like humans did, though their senses were much duller. Still, this sudden blow to the head had truly caught him off guard, and the pain spoke for itself.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

The demon threw his head back, letting out agonized, heart-rending screams. But demons adapted to pain quickly. It would only affect him for a few seconds.

So... they had to press the advantage!

Tanjiro's eyes widened. Mustering his courage, he charged at the demon with a shout. Before the demon could fully adjust to the pain, Tanjiro pulled the axe out of his skull, then brought it down in a sweeping vertical blow, chopping into his head again.

For a demon, a blow to the head wasn't fatal. Strictly speaking, there were four ways to kill one.

The first was human firearms and gunpowder. A firearm loaded with special ammunition could kill an ordinary demon by shooting through his neck, and large quantities of black powder also posed a considerable threat to demons.

The second was sunlight, the most direct method. Even the Demon King feared sunlight and would burn to death under direct exposure.

The third was a Nichirin Blade or a weapon made from the same material. These weapons harbored the power of the sun, and severing a demon's neck with one would kill him.

The fourth was exhaustion. A demon's regeneration consumed stamina, and once his stamina ran out, he could no longer regenerate. Thus, a demon could be worn down to death. Under normal circumstances, however, demons had far more stamina than humans, so this rarely happened.

But the method Tanjiro intended to use now was the fourth. The demon before him was merely one of the lowest-level demons. With a weapon in hand, the fourth method was not impossible.

Don't be afraid. Give it everything you've got!!!

With a shout, Tanjiro used the strength he had developed chopping wood and the sharpness of his axe to hack rapidly and relentlessly at the demon's head.

One blow! Two blows! Three blows!

Under the unbroken barrage of axe strikes, the demon was pinned down and hacked apart by Tanjiro until he could no longer get back up. Everything had happened so suddenly that, before dying, the demon had managed nothing but "Aaaah!" followed by more "Aaaah!" Tanjiro hadn't even given him a chance to complain.

Tanjiro: Time for slaughter!

Low-level demon: N-no fair!!!