(If I keep posting 20,000 characters a day, the next five chapters may come out very slowly. Twenty thousand characters a day really is too exhausting.)
The smoke over the ruins of Downtown Central Station had yet to clear completely, and a pungent, burnt smell filled the air.
The remaining lights cast grotesque shadows between twisted steel frames and shattered concrete, illuminating a scene like a hellscape left behind by war.
Rescue efforts were still proceeding urgently, with Kakushi members and cleanup workers weaving through the rubble.
In the sky, black Kasugai Crows darted madly over the city like burning ashes.
Their cries were no longer their usual instinctive calls of caw, caw, caw and more caw, caw, caw.
Now their cries were almost crazed in their shrill urgency:
"Caw-! Upper Rank Three! Akaza! Slain!"
"Void Hashira! Kirishima Bupai! Single-handed kill! Upper Rank Three! First in a hundred years!"
"Caw! Relay it! Quickly! Headquarters! All Hashira! Caw-!!"
These living messengers of the Demon Slayer Corps had fallen into a collective frenzy because the news they carried was simply too earth-shattering.
An Upper Rank demon...?
They were beings who had stood at the pinnacle of demonkind, their ranks unchanged for a hundred years. The fall of one alone was enough to rewrite history.
And the words "single-handed kill" had elevated the name Kirishima Bupai into the realm of myth.
Like a boulder dropped into a stagnant pool, the news sent ripples spreading at an incredible speed toward Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters, toward every Hashira, and toward Corps members in every corner.
On the ground, some Demon Slayer Corps members still assisting with rescues or tending to minor injuries happened to look up and see the unusually agitated Kasugai Crows overhead.
Their hands involuntarily paused, their faces filled with incredulous shock.
Some