Nine days later, night fell.
In the woods west of Aomori City.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
Hurried footsteps rang through the woods as Teiichi flitted like a phantom through the dim trees. A faint scent of blood hung in the air, an invisible trail guiding him swiftly forward.
Suddenly, a mother and child appeared in the distance.
They were coming toward Teiichi. Tears streaked the mother's face, and her eyes were filled with terror and despair. She clutched her child tightly in her arms, her steps faltering as though she might fall at any moment.
As the distance between them narrowed, the mother spotted Teiichi as well. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, but more than that was an indescribable hope.
"Please..."
"Don't worry. I'm here to deal with this."
The woman's trembling voice had barely sounded before Teiichi swept past her with lightning speed, racing toward where she had come from. His words lingered in the air, firm and powerful.
Seemingly startled, the woman stopped in place and turned to watch his retreating figure. After thinking for a moment, she took her child's hand and continued running in her original direction.
Shortly after passing the mother and child, Teiichi arrived at the wall surrounding a wooden house. Wooden walls enclosed the property, blocking his view of the interior. But the sounds of fighting, sinister laughter, and cries of pain were clearly audible.
"No one's dead yet!"
Hearing the fighting inside the courtyard, Teiichi felt a little relieved.
Night had only just fallen. Judging by the sounds, the demon was in no hurry to eat anyone and was probably looking to amuse itself by fighting its food first.
If no one came to the rescue, this would undoubtedly be a more painful ordeal for a human, and a quick death would be better. But unfortunately for this demon, its luck was bad.
As he thought, Teiichi reached the foot of the wall. He paused briefly, drew a deep breath, then leaped forcefully, landing lightly atop it.
Inside the courtyard, a man was fighting the demon with an axe in his hands. His face was full of resolve and determination. Though he already bore several wounds, blood staining the clothing around them, he did not back down at all.
His opponent was a demon whose appearance scarcely differed from a human's. Four flesh-colored tentacles sprouted from its lower back, supple and terrifying as they writhed through the air like venomous snakes.
One tentacle waved in front of it, nimbly blocking every attack the man made, while the other three remained poised to strike from unexpected angles.
Whenever a tentacle managed to cut the man, the demon let out a sinister laugh, as though his resistance and pain were a source of enjoyment.
As Teiichi stepped onto the wall, both combatants stopped fighting at once and looked toward the figure above them.
One gaze was wary, worried, and grave; the other was puzzled, its owner frowning.
The man watched the figure on the wall warily, unsure whether the newcomer was friend or foe. But he could not retreat. He had to do everything he could to buy his wife and child time to escape.
The demon initially looked at the figure on the wall in puzzlement, but when it saw the sword slung behind Teiichi's waist and the clothes he wore, it could not help frowning.
"The Demon Slayer Corps?"
When the Tentacle Demon spoke those words, seemingly with a hint of gravity, most of the tension and fear on the man's face instantly vanished, replaced by excitement he could barely conceal.
"I'm saved!"
Teiichi, however, did not answer the Tentacle Demon. His gaze remained fixed on it as he slowly drew the Nichirin Blade from behind his waist, its blade gleaming blue-green in the moonlight.
"Whoosh-"
At that moment, the Tentacle Demon suddenly attacked, sending three tentacles hurtling toward the man like lightning.
The excitement had yet to fully fade from the corners of the man's eyes when he saw those three tentacles closing in like the Grim Reaper's scythe. Instinctively, he tried to fall sideways to dodge, but everything happened so suddenly that he could barely react.
It's too late!
Am I going to die?
Keiko, Abao, you have to live well without me!
Staring at the tentacles less than a hand's length away, the man could not help thinking in despair.
A streak of blue-green light flashed before his eyes, severing all three tentacles cleanly. Like severed snake heads, they thrashed in the air a few times before retracting into the demon's body.
Having narrowly escaped death, the man could not help taking several great gasps of air before turning toward the figure still standing on the wall.
The figure stood straight, holding the blue-green sword in his right hand. Rather than resting normally at his sword-bearing side, the blade was on his left, as though he had just swung it.
"Th-this... is this... sword qi? A-are you an immortal?"
The man stared wide-eyed at the blue-green light Teiichi had just unleashed and stammered his question. He could not believe his eyes. Sword qi, something that existed only in legends, had actually appeared in reality.
"..."
"I'm not an immortal, just a Demon Slayer. Leave this place first. I'll take care of this demon."
Hearing the man's words, Teiichi was left somewhat speechless, though unleashing sword qi in this world was a little outrageous.
Calling it sword qi was not entirely accurate. More precisely, it was a Wind Blade, a technique formed by combining sword qi with Wind Breathing.
Recalling his train ride with Rena a few days earlier, Teiichi felt that his connection to this world seemed to have grown closer. Although that experience had not greatly improved his combat strength, it had given him a deeper understanding of cultivation. Wind Blade was another technique he had gradually learned through training since then.
Teiichi knew that his ability to unleash Wind Blades was largely due to his practice of Wind Breathing. Wind had a natural advantage when it came to techniques such as releasing sword qi with a slash. He reckoned that if he practiced Stone Breathing or Thunder Breathing instead, he would probably have found this technique very difficult to learn.
Moreover, his sword qi could currently travel only a few meters, and it consumed a tremendous amount of stamina. Even with his current stamina, a dozen or so slashes would leave him exhausted.
"O-okay. Thank you, immortal! Ah, no, thank you, sir!"
The man stammered his reply and moved aside to rest.
Teiichi's sword qi seemed to have filled the man with confidence. Instead of leaving the courtyard, he found a more distant stretch of wall and sat down against it, watching the battlefield.
Teiichi was somewhat speechless at the sight, but did not stop him.
The Tentacle Demon did not stop him either. That burst of sword qi really had impressed him.
It was not as though he had never seen Demon Slayers before, but since when had there been ones who could unleash sword qi like that? Curious, he asked.
"What Breathing Style is that?"