The choice

"H-Hotaru..." The boy's voice trembled, and his body shook as he stared at the scene before him in disbelief.

Moonlight shone into the hole corroded through the tree trunk, revealing a familiar cherry blossom hair ornament to the boy.

"I want to eat..."

A soft murmur, slender slit pupils, sharp teeth, a petite body drenched in blood. She held a slender severed arm in one hand, drool clinging to her lips.

Someone both familiar and unfamiliar had appeared before the boy.

Drip! Hiss-

The drool fell to the ground, quickly corroding a small pit into the earth.

"What happened... Xiao Ying... is that you? How did you end up like this? You..." The boy's mind went blank as he questioned her in a trembling voice, fear and confusion making his words difficult to understand.

But before he could finish, the demon who looked like a little girl reached straight for his throat.

An instant later, a figure dressed in white appeared between the human and the demon, scooped up the boy, and carried him away from the Corrosion Demon.

"So you were hiding inside the tree. It looks like you ate those children from earlier."

Chiba Yo set the boy down some distance from the demon, then turned and drew his Nichirin Blade as he spoke.

The slender arm clutched in the Corrosion Demon's hand clearly belonged to a small child.

"Blood Demon Art: Blood Corrosion!"

Seeing Chiba Yo rescue the boy enraged the Corrosion Demon. She squeezed her right hand, crushing the arm into a thick mass of blood and flesh. Blood dripped onto the ground with a hiss. Empowered by her Blood Demon Art, the mass had become intensely corrosive, and she hurled it at Chiba Yo.

This is the first demon I've seen using a Blood Demon Art. Her ability must be corrosion. That would explain why there's only blood here, with no scraps of clothing.

Chiba Yo tightened his grip on his Nichirin Blade as he thought.

"Sun Breathing, Fourth Form: Sun Flame Garment."

A white Niji of breath escaped Chiba Yo's lips. His black Nichirin Blade suddenly turned fiery red, flames springing from nowhere to cover it. The surrounding temperature soared, and the area lit up as brightly as day.

Then Chiba Yo swept his blade in a circle before him. The flames around it wrapped around him like a garment, shielding him within.

The flesh hurled by the Corrosion Demon struck the flames surrounding Chiba Yo and disintegrated in an instant, leaving nothing behind.

"You can go to hell now," Chiba Yo told the Corrosion Demon before him. He already had a complete read on her movements.

When the Corrosion Demon saw Chiba Yo block her attack, she let out a low growl and charged, drooling as she stared at the boy behind him.

"Sun Breathing, Second Form: Threefold Heaven."

Holding his blade in both hands, Chiba Yo unleashed three flaming slashes forward in an instant.

"No!!!"

Suddenly, the boy behind Chiba Yo screamed and threw himself at him.

Chiba Yo had not been guarding against the boy. Though he reacted quickly and adjusted his stance to avoid being knocked down, the boy's interference still threw his attack off target.

One of the three slashes flew past the Corrosion Demon's hair, while the other two severed her arms, leaving severe burns on the wounds.

"Aah!!!" The Corrosion Demon let out a piercing scream, fear creeping into her gaze as she looked at Chiba Yo.

"She's my little sister! Don't hurt... cough, cough..."

The boy clung to Chiba Yo and shouted at him hoarsely, but before he could finish, he began coughing violently. His throat was already injured from shouting for so long.

Chiba Yo swallowed the reprimand he had been about to deliver and looked up at the Corrosion Demon again. Her figure was indeed that of a little girl, and she wore the cherry blossom ornament the boy had described.

Chiba Yo had entered the Transparent World the instant he saw the demon, paying no attention to her appearance. He had not clearly heard what the boy said earlier, either. Only now, after hearing the boy's shout, did he realize it.

"Please, spare her..." the boy begged Chiba Yo in a hoarse voice.

Has she only just become a demon? What should I do?

Listening to the boy's plea, Chiba Yo hesitated for a moment.

"These demons used to be human, too." Tanjiro's words echoed in Chiba Yo's mind.

Now he understood what Tanjiro had told him before. Demons had once been human. They, too, had loved others and been loved in return.

"The monsters that attacked your village were demons, creatures that have to eat humans to survive. Once they come into being, they kill humans for food." ...

An instant later, Kyojuro's words also echoed in his ears. The devastation in the village and the sight of the Corrosion Demon holding a child's arm surfaced before his eyes.

Chiba Yo tightened his grip on his Nichirin Blade.

"...How must he have felt when he pushed the monster out of the house and realized that dark figure was his mother? After killing his own mother with his own hands, when he was on the verge of a breakdown, how must he have felt hearing the little brother he had risked his life to protect lash out at him?" ...

There's nothing to hesitate over. Even if she was once human, she's a man-eating demon now. The boy before her, her own flesh and blood, is her first target...

"I'm sorry..." Chiba Yo gave the boy an apologetic, sympathetic look, then shook him off.

The Corrosion Demon's severed arms could not regenerate at all. Now filled with terror of Chiba Yo, she turned to flee.

"Sun Breathing, First Form: Red Sunset Glow..."

An instant later, a flame as beautiful as the evening glow swept across the Corrosion Demon's neck.

"Aaaah!!!" The Corrosion Demon let out an even more piercing scream, and her body crumpled limply to the ground.

"Xiao Ying!!!"

The boy cried out in anguish at the sight, then raced recklessly toward the Corrosion Demon's corpse.

"Stay back! The corrosion on her body will kill you!" Chiba Yo hurriedly warned him, then reached out to grab him.

Through the Transparent World, Chiba Yo could see that the surface of the demon's body carried the same substance as the Blood Demon Art she had used earlier. Any human body that came into contact with it would be completely eaten away.

Chiba Yo caught the boy's clothes, but the boy slipped out of his outer garment and threw himself straight onto the Corrosion Demon's corpse.

With her head severed by the Nichirin Blade, the Corrosion Demon's corpse had already begun turning to ash. At the same time, the body of the boy embracing her was gradually being corroded.

"Don't be afraid, Xiao Ying. Your big brother will stay with you..." the boy murmured hoarsely, his eyes vacant, as he vanished from the world together with the Corrosion Demon...

Having witnessed it all, Chiba Yo stood frozen, a shadow settling over his eyes...