The girl held the bowl in both hands and offered it to the man, her pinkish-purple eyes full of anticipation.
She knew what hunger felt like. It was an awful feeling, one that was hard to endure, and she could sense that the man was truly hungry now.
Only by eating, by filling his stomach with food, would that awful feeling go away.
"I'm not hungry."
Su Mu shook his head and refused.
The girl couldn't understand.
He clearly felt hungry, yet he refused to eat.
There was perfectly good food right here, yet he wouldn't touch it.
This food was really, really delicious. After eating it, his whole body would feel warm. And if he went too long without food, he would grow weak and listless, and...
"Go on, eat."
Su Mu added a piece of dry wood to the campfire, watching the flames leap as it caught.
The girl didn't quite understand why he wanted to endure hunger, but she was obedient. She lifted her little bowl and began eating in small bites.
Once the girl had nearly finished, Su Mu stood up. "It's time to take you home."
"Okay."
Although she wanted to stay with the gentle man a little longer, she was sensible enough not to pester him.
He picked her up and quickly left the dilapidated courtyard, carrying her back to her home. Only after watching her go through the door did Su Mu turn away, his figure silently vanishing into the darkness.
Hiko Dojo
Su Mu met Arakawa Akihiro again. After receiving payment, Arakawa Akihiro became much more welcoming and began formally teaching him the Hiko Dojo's swordsmanship.
Of course, before practicing swordsmanship, he first had to build a solid foundation. His body needed to be healthy enough, and the hands gripping his sword needed to be strong and steady...
Originally, Arakawa Akihiro hadn't thought much of Su Mu. He had simply regarded him as an ordinary student drawn by his admiration for Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Casually teaching him a few fundamentals would give him enough to study for a long time. Plenty of people like that came along every year.
So at first, Arakawa Akihiro only intended to teach Su Mu a few simple sword forms before sending him off to practice on his own. Yet before long, Su Mu returned, claiming he had already learned them.
This surprised Arakawa Akihiro, who even suspected that Su Mu was lying.
But after briefly examining Su Mu's execution of those sword forms, Arakawa Akihiro fell silent. He hadn't expected him to have truly mastered them.
When teaching Su Mu those simple forms, he had recognized him as a complete beginner. Su Mu hadn't even known how to grip a sword correctly or how to stand while holding one.
Yet in such a short time, he had grasped all the simplest forms. For a moment, Arakawa Akihiro wondered whether Su Mu had trained before. But recalling his bewilderment during the earlier instruction, he knew that couldn't be the case.
Having immersed himself in swordsmanship for decades, he wouldn't misjudge whether someone had genuinely practiced with a sword before.
In other words, Su Mu had mastered those simple sword forms in a very short time.
He remembered taking three whole days to master them when he had first begun learning, and that had already been considered a sign of considerable talent.
That alone showed just how gifted Su Mu was, how monstrously talented he must be.
In truth, Su Mu might have possessed a fair amount of talent for swordsmanship, but he wasn't nearly as extraordinary as Arakawa Akihiro imagined.
The main reason he could master them so quickly was his powerful demonic physique. Sword forms that seemed fast enough to ordinary people were as slow as snails to him. When Arakawa Akihiro demonstrated them, his movements appeared before Su Mu's eyes like slow motion, frame by frame, making them extremely easy to learn.
Recognizing Su Mu's talent, Arakawa Akihiro began taking his instruction seriously. He no longer intended to teach him a few ordinary things and send him away. At first, he hadn't even planned to teach him the Hiko Dojo's Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. After all, it was the dojo's core sword style, taught only to its true disciples.
But now, having witnessed Su Mu's talent, Arakawa Akihiro changed his mind.
With Arakawa Akihiro teaching him earnestly, Su Mu naturally studied just as earnestly. He had never truly trained in swordsmanship before and was merely an ignorant beginner. Now, he did his best to absorb this knowledge.
Although he possessed a demon's powerful, almost immortal body, immense strength, and formidable regenerative abilities, and even an ordinary sword striking his body couldn't kill him, he wouldn't look down on swordsmanship because of that.
True swordsmanship could even break through the limits of this world. Yoriichi Tsugikuni could deliver fifteen hundred effective slashes in a single second. Even Muzan Kibutsuji, the progenitor of demons, had been forced to flee from him.
After studying swordsmanship under Arakawa Akihiro for about two hours, Su Mu said goodbye and left. After all, humans were unlike demons, who preferred to be active at night. For humans, nighttime was primarily a time to rest.
After leaving the Hiko Dojo, Su Mu didn't linger in town. He got his bearings and headed out through the town gate.
Once he was some distance from the gate and had confirmed that no one was around, he immediately sprinted toward his destination at full speed. With every step, his explosive power made the ground shudder with a boom. At the same time, his figure vanished almost instantly from where he stood, flashing into view more than ten meters away.
He raced through the night without tiring. A journey that would take an ordinary human one or two days took Su Mu only two to four hours.
Following the directions he had obtained from questioning a traveling merchant the day before, he kept up his tireless pace for nearly four hours before spotting a towering mountain range in the distance. Lush trees covered its slopes, and hazy mist shrouded parts of it. The entire range was pitch-black, save for two faint lights halfway up the mountain.
"This should be Mount Sagiri."
While still far from the mountain range, Su Mu stopped and murmured as he gazed at it.
This was where Sakonji Urokodaki, the Demon Slayer Corps' Water Hashira, lived in seclusion. It was also where he served as a cultivator, training fresh recruits for the Corps.
As a Hashira, he was extremely powerful. If he discovered Su Mu, the likely outcome would be decapitation. Su Mu wouldn't have any ability to resist.
Moreover, Sakonji Urokodaki wasn't merely powerful; his sense of smell was also exceptionally keen. If Su Mu carelessly left even a trace of his scent behind, he could easily be
noticed.
So Su Mu merely watched the mountain range from afar, with no intention of approaching.
"Next, I'll use Mount Sagiri as a starting point and search the surrounding area. Hopefully, I can find where Tanjiro Kamado lives soon."
Su Mu spoke softly, a glimmer of anticipation hidden in his eyes.