First mission

Under the Demon Slayer Corps' rules, lower-ranked Swordsmen always carried out missions in teams. Those below Tsuchinoto required groups of at least three, those from Tsuchinoto to Kinoto worked in pairs, and only Kinoe Swordsmen and Hashira usually went on missions alone.

But Kanzaki Kumo and Makomo were both considerably stronger than ordinary Mizunoto Swordsmen. Kanzaki Kumo in particular had already earned the recognition of both the former Rumble Hashira and the former Water Hashira, who believed he was no weaker than they had been when they first became Hashira.

So Kanzaki Kumo was actually a little surprised that he was still being paired with Makomo for his first mission. With the Demon Slayer Corps currently short-handed, the arrangement was somewhat unreasonable.

Still, since he could have a teammate helping him, and a beautiful girl at that, Kanzaki Kumo naturally had no objections.

"Senior Urokodaki (Master), we're heading out on our mission."

"Yes. Be careful, and may fortune favor you in battle."

"Don't worry, Senior."

"Ink Shadow, lead the way. Let's go."

"Caw!"

To conserve their strength for dealing with the demon, the two did not travel particularly fast, even though it was daytime. By the time they reached Matsuda Village, evening had already fallen.

"It looks like we don't have much time left to investigate. We should've run faster."

Makomo muttered as she watched the setting sun. After all, once the sun went down, it would be time for demons to come out, and there was little time left to slowly investigate and learn about this demon.

"According to the Kasugai Crow's information, several households have disappeared from this village recently. In each case, the entire family went missing at night, one after another. No one witnessed what happened."

Recalling the information compiled by the Kakushi after their preliminary investigation and delivered by the Kasugai Crow when it issued the mission, Kanzaki Kumo was also somewhat at a loss as to where to start.

"Besides, most of the other villagers are extremely reluctant to talk about it."

"Maybe they think it's bad luck," Makomo added beside him.

"Who knows? Let's find the Kakushi stationed here first and get the latest information."

"Okay."

After walking a little longer, Kanzaki Kumo looked around, then raised his head in puzzlement.

"Ink Shadow, are you sure you haven't led us the wrong way?"

The two had intended to meet up with the Kakushi near this village first to learn more details, but Ink Shadow had led them outside a half-collapsed house.

Ink Shadow said nothing and merely rolled his eyes at Kanzaki Kumo.

Just then, the seemingly precarious wooden door slowly opened a crack, and an eye that Kanzaki Kumo found somewhat familiar peered out from behind it.

At the sight of Kanzaki Kumo, that eye widened briefly, before the door was slowly pulled open.

Only then did the two see that the collapsed portion of the house was merely camouflage. The actual house consisted only of the intact section, with some fake patterns added to the exterior.

Standing behind the door was someone wearing a Kakushi uniform.

Although the uniform covered everything but her eyes, Kanzaki Kumo still used his Super Vision to discover why she seemed familiar—she was the woman he had rescued from that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

He had not expected her to join the Kakushi, which came as something of a surprise to Kanzaki Kumo.

But now was not the time to chat. It would soon be completely dark, and the sooner they learned about the demon, the sooner they could deal with it.

"Did the missing villagers have anything in common? The order in which they disappeared, for example, or the number of people in their households?"

"Something in common... All the missing households had children. In every case, the children fell mysteriously ill first, and then the whole family disappeared. At first, the villagers thought the parents had taken their children to find a doctor, but after it happened repeatedly, people began to feel something was wrong."

At this point, the demon's general method was clear-it used children as an opening to silently kill an entire household. Though they did not know why it did this, that was not important for now.

"Roughly how long was the interval between these households disappearing?"

"Anywhere from one to three days."

"Are there any households like that now?"

"There are still a few households with children in the village, but so far, I haven't heard of any children falling ill."

"Do you have a map of the village? Mark those households on it."

The Kakushi took out a simple drawing outlining Matsuda Village's general layout, then marked the few households with children.

Looking at the widely scattered marks, Kanzaki Kumo had no choice but to split up with Makomo.

Although Kanzaki Kumo's eyesight allowed him to see clearly from one end of Matsuda Village to the other, the houses still created blind spots.

So Kanzaki Kumo found the highest point in the village and stood atop it, keeping as many marked locations as possible within his view, while Makomo patrolled the few blind spots he could not see.

As for whether Kanzaki Kumo might draw a demon's attack by standing somewhere so conspicuous?

He was actually rather hoping the demon would show itself.

And so, from nightfall onward, the two each attended to their duties.

But nearly five hours passed without incident.

Just as Kanzaki Kumo moved a little to loosen up after standing for so long, he suddenly noticed something wrong with a shadow within his field of view.

At its very edge, where the shadow should have grown lighter, one patch was darker instead.

And that dark patch was moving.

Seemingly sensing Kanzaki Kumo's gaze, the shadow, which had been moving very slowly, abruptly sped up. Kanzaki Kumo immediately gave chase.

"Makomo, south!"

By the time Makomo heard Kanzaki Kumo's shout, he had already thrust his sword at the space above the shadow.

"Aah-!"

Accompanied by a piercing scream, a short, somewhat deformed figure appeared.

Seeing that his thrust had only pierced its collarbone from behind, Kanzaki Kumo immediately followed with a horizontal slash, beheading the demon, whose appearance could put it in the same league as Hantengu.

By the time Makomo arrived, all she saw was the demon's gradually disintegrating body.

"This is the demon?"

It stood just over a meter tall, with a pronounced hump where the back of its neck met its back. Even with part of it sliced off by Kanzaki Kumo, it remained conspicuous. Its entire body was extremely gaunt, its right side was severely atrophied, and with its partly disintegrated, sallow demon face, the whole demon looked particularly deformed.

"This demon had a powerful ability to disguise itself. Most likely, it killed the children first, then disguised itself as them to kill the others."

"But it couldn't hide its own shadow, and when it moved quickly, it gave itself away a little."

It was precisely that small tell Kanzaki Kumo had spotted that had prompted him to thrust at the space above the shadow.

He simply had not expected the demon's body to be so severely deformed. He had mistaken the hump on the back of its neck for its head, causing his thrust, originally aimed at its neck, to land at its collarbone instead.

By the time Kanzaki Kumo finished speaking, the demon's body had completely disintegrated.

"Mission complete. Time to clock out." Seeing that the demon had disintegrated, Kanzaki Kumo spoke in a cheerful tone.

His first mission had been handled that easily. The greatest difficulty in dealing with this demon had been finding it. For Kanzaki Kumo's uniquely gifted eyes, that was not difficult, but an ordinary Mizunoto member really might have failed to spot this demon with its chameleon-like ability.

"Ah, I should've known. Going on a mission with you, I don't get to feel involved at all."

Although Makomo sounded somewhat resentful, the playfulness in her eyes made it clear to Kanzaki Kumo that she was only joking.

"Well, sorry for being too strong. Besides, it's not like you didn't get involved at all. Didn't you patrol for hours?"

"But it didn't accomplish anything."

"How did it not? At least-you got some exercise, didn't you? Haha!"

"Get back here!"

After fooling around beneath the moonlight for a while, the two returned to the house where the Kakushi was staying.

They observed the village for several more nights, and after confirming there were no signs of other demons, the two set off back toward Mount Sagiri.

On the way back, Makomo suddenly spoke. "Kumo, are you... leaving soon?"

"Yes. Once we get back, I'll say goodbye to Senior Urokodaki, Sabito, and the others."

This had been Kanzaki Kumo's plan all along. Since Makomo had asked, there was nothing to hide.

"I've learned pretty much all the forms and fundamentals of Water Breathing. All that's left is to keep refining them and find a way to incorporate them into my Thunder Breathing. Besides, although I've enjoyed spending time with you all, it's been almost a month since Final Selection. I need to go back and see the little old man at home, too. Otherwise, he'll probably get bored all by himself."