Swordsman ranks

The promotion system for swordsmen in the Demon Slayer Corps was actually quite simple.

Below Hashira, there were ten ranks corresponding to the ten heavenly stems, from Kinoe to Mizunoto. Every five demons slain earned a promotion of one rank.

Those five demons were measured in ordinary demon equivalents. Stronger demons, such as the one with special abilities Kanzaki Kumo had slain on his first mission, or the Hand Demon on Mount Fujikasane, could count as two or three ordinary demons.

Even stronger demons-those with Blood Demon Arts-counted as anywhere from five to ten, depending on their strength.

The details were recorded separately by the Kasugai Crows and the Kakushi, with the head of the Demon Slayer Corps making the final judgment on the merit earned from each mission.

Anyone who slew fifty demons or killed one of the Twelve Kizuki qualified to become a Hashira.

But there was also one mandatory condition: anyone promoted to Hashira through their number of kills had to slay at least five demons possessing Blood Demon Arts over the course of their advancement.

Before Hashira, there were no such requirements. Any demon counted.

Promotion might sound easy, but that was only how it sounded.

Every demon, even the most ordinary, was physically stronger than an ordinary adult, and had no fatal weaknesses besides decapitation with a Nichirin Blade and exposure to sunlight.

For weaker swordsmen, every mission was a trial of life and death.

Moreover, the higher a swordsman's rank, the more dangerous the missions assigned to them.

Even when they successfully slew a demon, many could not avoid being wounded.

What was more, before actually confronting a demon, all information about it consisted only of deductions the Kakushi had made through preliminary investigations. Its reliability was very limited, and mistaken judgments had occurred before.

It was even possible for a demon to be considered ordinary, only for a low-ranking swordsman to arrive, run straight into one of the Twelve Kizuki, and be killed on the spot.

That was why, even though promotion required only fifty demon kills, and even allowing for time spent recovering from mission injuries, a Hashira should have emerged every three to five years, yet in reality, the current Demon Slayer Corps had nearly suffered a gap in its succession of Hashira-level swordsmen.

Too many members had died on missions, or suffered injuries so severe that they could no longer slay demons.

Previously, the Demon Slayer Corps had only the Flame Hashira, Shinjuro Rengoku, struggling to hold things together. Although Gyomei had become the Stone Hashira some time ago, they were still not enough to deal with the suspected highly dangerous demons appearing in various places.

Now, Kagaya Ubuyashiki had learned from Jigoro Kuwajima and then Sakonji Urokodaki that Kanzaki Kumo's strength could rival that of the weaker Hashira. Despite Kanzaki Kumo's young age, he had no choice but to assign him more missions, including some dangerous ones.

For his first mission, Kanzaki Kumo had been assigned a fairly strong teammate as a precaution. No such arrangements would be made afterward.

It was just like Gyomei back then.

Why had he been able to become a Hashira within a year, even though there had been no news of him killing any of the Twelve Kizuki?

Naturally, it was because he had been assigned enough missions and encountered sufficiently powerful demons. On top of that, he had almost always slain them without injury or with only minor wounds, leaving sufficiently short intervals for recovery. Only then had he accumulated enough merit to become a Hashira in less than a year.

However, although higher-ranking swordsmen faced more dangerous missions, they also received better benefits.

The fixed salary of even the lowest-ranking Mizunoto swordsman was enough to support a very comfortable life in some prosperous small towns, and that did not include the bonuses awarded for each mission according to the strength of the demons slain.

The highest-ranking Hashira were even allocated property outright. Anything that could be solved with money would be handled immediately, as long as they asked.

All one could say was that the Ubuyashiki Family was truly wealthy, and willing to spend.

Kanzaki Kumo had already expected his future missions to grow more demanding, so he was not surprised when his second mission arrived less than a week later.

On his way to his destination, he even had the leisure to wonder whether this target would let him advance a rank outright.

This mission's location was not a village, but an abandoned temple at the foot of a mountain.

According to the intelligence, multiple disappearances had already occurred at that temple. Everyone who passed it at night had vanished.

Kanzaki Kumo rather liked missions with clear targets like this, where he did not need to investigate the demon's whereabouts himself.

Running the whole way, Kanzaki Kumo reached the vicinity of his destination by noon.

Looking at the temple, which still seemed eerie even in the sunlight, Kanzaki Kumo kept grumbling inwardly.

Who in their right mind builds a temple with its entrance facing north? Sunlight could barely get in all day long. No wonder it was abandoned.

It was noon, and the sunlight was blazing. The temple was so dilapidated that it no longer even had a door, yet its interior remained dark. The sunlight simply could not reach inside.

Wasn't this the most comfortable shelter a demon could ask for?

Suppressing his inward complaints, he had already drawn his Nichirin Blade and was walking slowly into the temple.

"Having beheld this Buddha, why do you not bow?"

The moment he stepped inside, a deep, resonant voice reached Kanzaki Kumo's ears-in surround sound, no less.

Ignoring the slight power in that voice that clouded the mind, Kanzaki Kumo quickly scanned the temple's interior before finally fixing his sights on the Buddha statue in the center, its paint peeling.

"Lay down your butcher's blade and become a Buddha at once!"

Just then, an even mightier voice struck straight at Kanzaki Kumo's head. The power within it caused him intense discomfort, and he swayed slightly, his brows knitting tightly.

Sensing that something was wrong, Kanzaki Kumo immediately attacked the Buddha statue.

"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"

The Buddha statue was decapitated with a single slash, but the voice did not stop.

"Lay down your butcher's blade and become a Buddha at once!"

Under the impact of that voice, Kanzaki Kumo, who had leaped into the air, could barely keep his sword hand steady.

Just then, a dark figure rushed out of the shadows behind the Buddha statue, its sharp claws gleaming coldly as they closed rapidly on Kanzaki Kumo's chest.

At the same moment, Kanzaki Kumo's seemingly uncomfortable expression vanished. His apparently unsteady hand tightened its grip at once, and he changed moves in midair.

"Sixth Form: Rumble and Flash!"

Blazing, violent lightning instantly engulfed the dark figure.

By the time the lightning faded, Kanzaki Kumo had landed steadily and sheathed his blade.

The dark figure's true appearance had also been revealed. It was a demon with shifty, ratlike features-quite literally, without any embellishment.

The head Kanzaki Kumo had cut off looked like an oversized rat's, with a somewhat shorter snout.

"Why..."

The slowly disintegrating head seemed to want to ask something else, but Kanzaki Kumo did not respond. He simply watched it disappear completely.

After checking the rest of the temple and finding nothing but some bleached bones, with no trace of any other demons, Kanzaki Kumo turned and left.