Tanjiro watched Sasuke's aloof, indifferent back, his heart filled with conflicting feelings.
This person gave off such a dangerous aura, yet at a crucial moment, he had shown extraordinary insight.
He had even temporarily accepted Nezuko's existence.
Although his words, "I'll eliminate you along with her," were still chilling enough to send a shiver down Tanjiro's spine.
Tanjiro had no time to think further. He hurriedly secured the wooden box on his back and followed Sasuke.
One behind the other, the two returned to the dark alley where the missing girl's scent still lingered.
The young man named Kazumi was still sitting there, utterly distraught, muttering to himself.
Tanjiro sniffed hard.
This was the place.
The Swamp Demon's damp, cold, putrid scent was strongest here.
It was almost as though a huge, rotting beast had rolled around here.
But the scent ended here.
It lay evenly across the ground like a layer of thick fog, with no clear source to be found.
Tanjiro paced anxiously through the alley. He even crouched down and brought his nose close to the ground, trying to pinpoint where the scent was strongest.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
No matter how he sniffed, the scent seemed to seep out from every direction. He could not pin it down.
"Damn it... where on earth is it hiding..."
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Tanjiro's forehead.
Sasuke stood at the mouth of the alley, watching him quietly.
He watched Tanjiro circle the spot anxiously and fruitlessly, like a hunting dog that could not find its quarry's den.
There was no flicker of emotion in Sasuke's eyes.
A sense of smell?
What a primitive, inefficient ability.
He slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, two black tomoe slowly revolved within the blood-red world of his right eye, as though they had lives of their own.
The entire world was completely reconstructed in his vision.
The traces of "demon" energy in the air, imperceptible to ordinary people, were now as clear to his eyes as ink on white paper.
Wisps of ominous black-purple aura seeped from the alley's walls and the ground.
But these were merely remnants leaking out.
There was only one true source.
Sasuke's gaze slowly shifted to a seemingly unremarkable stone slab in the middle of the alley.
Through his Sharingan, he saw a huge vortex of black energy lurking beneath that slab.
It was like a filthy entrance leading to another dimension.
All the leaking demonic aura originated there.
He looked at Tanjiro, who was still diligently sniffing the ground, and frowned almost imperceptibly.
What a waste of time.
Sasuke stepped forward and walked over to Tanjiro.
Hearing him, Tanjiro looked up. At the sight of Sasuke, he hurriedly asked a question.
"Um, Uesugi, have you found anything? The scent here is strange..."
Sasuke did not answer his question.
He simply walked past Tanjiro to the very center of the alley.
Then he raised his foot and lightly tapped the stone slab beneath him with the tip of his shoe.
Next, in his cold, utterly flat voice, he stated his conclusion to the bewildered Tanjiro.
"It's underneath."
"What?"
Tanjiro froze, disbelief written all over his face.
Underneath?
There was solid stone paving below.
He had spent so long sniffing with his face to the ground, but there had been nothing except the smell of cold stone and that demonic aura.
No trapdoor, no cracks, much less a cave.
How could it possibly be underneath?
Even Kazumi, sitting at the far end of the alley, cast a puzzled look their way at Sasuke's abrupt remark.
Looking at Tanjiro's foolish expression, Sasuke seemed to have no desire even to explain.
Since you don't believe me...
I'll let you see for yourself.
He slowly placed his hand on the jet-black Wakizashi at his waist.
However, just as he was about to break open the ground with brute force...
The stone slab he had tapped suddenly underwent a strange change.
Black, tar-like liquid began to seep from its edges.
In that instant, the putrid demonic aura abruptly grew dozens of times stronger.
Tanjiro's expression changed drastically.
He could smell it!
That scent was coming from beneath that very slab!
Sss-
There was a faint sound.
The hard stone slab turned into a pool of black swamp, like a melting candle.
Then a hideous demon with two horns on its head slowly rose from the swamp.
It stretched its mouth into a grin and licked its lips with its scarlet tongue, making a teeth-grinding noise that set their teeth on edge.
"So you've found me..."
"You Demon Slayer Corps fellows really do have sharp noses."
Clearly, it had given the credit to Tanjiro, whose sense of smell was superior.
The bizarre sight before him left Tanjiro too shocked to speak.
A Blood Demon Art!
Turning the ground into a swamp it could pass through-this was this demon's Blood Demon Art!
He looked at Sasuke, his eyes filled with shock.
How on earth had this person done it?
Without a single clue, he had pinpointed the demon's hiding place with a single statement!
What exactly were those blood-red eyes?
The Swamp Demon did not give them much time to think.
At the same time it appeared, two identical swamps emerged in two other directions in the alley.
Two more identical demons crawled out of them.
The three demons formed a triangle, completely surrounding the three people in the alley.
"Two more have come to die."
"Perfect. I haven't had my fill yet."
"Those girls' flesh is the freshest of all..."
The three demons let out nauseating, sinister laughter in the same voice.
Tanjiro instantly tightened his grip on his sword hilt and assumed a Water Breathing stance, shielding the distraught Kazumi behind him.
Sasuke merely watched the three demons that had split apart, his two-tomoe Sharingan slowly revolving.
Within his field of vision...
The flow of energy through the three demons was clearly visible.
Two of them were merely masses of energy.
But inside the one that had appeared first, there was a core.
A core that connected the other two duplicates and sustained the entire swamp.
"Duplicates?"
"A boring trick."
Before you continue