Tanjiro lay on a stretcher. By now, he could remove his blindfold, earmuffs, and nose plugs.
Seeing sunlight for the first time in a while, he gazed at the cliffs towering into the clouds on either side like enormous blades, and an inexplicable heaviness settled in his heart.
The devastation in Yoshiwara and Kirishima Bupai's cold figure still lingered in his mind.
He simply could not imagine how anyone could be that strong...
There seemed to be an extremely faint, indescribable scent lingering in the air.
It was neither blood nor anything burnt, but a sort of... hollow coldness that reminded him of that smooth, mirrorlike crater.
He instinctively tightened his grip on the Nichirin Blade in his arms.
Just as the escort team was about to step into the thick fog at the mountain pass-
"Caw-!!!"
A shrill crow's cry, distorted by terror, suddenly rang out from high above.
Everyone started in alarm and looked up.
A Kasugai Crow tasked with keeping watch high above the outskirts of the Swordsmith Village and relaying messages was screeching as though drunk.
As it cried, it circled and tumbled erratically along the edge of the thick fog above the pass.
Then it seemed to slam into an invisible wall, or to be frantically torn at by something unseen, its feathers scattering through the air.
"What's going on?!" The Kakushi member leading the team blanched.
Kasugai Crows underwent special training and were extremely sensitive to barriers and danger. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
The Kasugai Crow let out broken, incoherent screeches as it struggled to fly away from that area, but it seemed trapped in an invisible mire, its movements becoming extremely sluggish and strange.
At the same time, the Kasugai Crow that had been escorting Tanjiro's group all along, standing