Koki didn’t trust his own eyes.
The blow Tatsuo had unleashed, the one that pierced straight through the blood demon’s head in a single strike, sent its shockwave all the way to Koki as he came running.
During his nine years in the Demon Slayers, Koki had met all kinds of fighters.
That included the Hashira.
The Hashira were on a completely different level from ordinary Demon Slayers.
They could cut down Lower Rank blood demons in an instant, as easily as swatting away common trash demons.
Every attack they made radiated overwhelming power.
And from Tatsuo’s strike, Koki felt a force that matched the Hashira—perhaps even surpassed them.
I expected him to be no ordinary rookie, but… this is a monster even I didn’t see coming.
Koki swallowed a groan.
**
It was supposed to be a two-hit technique, but there was no need for it.
The Second Form, [Heavenly Body Piercing Strike], was originally a two-strike technique: one thrust to the enemy’s head, then a vertical slash to split them in two.
But the blood demon had died from the first blow, so the follow-up never happened.
“The blood demon is dead.”
“Yeah, I saw.”
Koki answered with a bitter smile as Tatsuo sheathed his sword.
“That was truly extraordinary. It clears up every question I had.”
Koki was genuinely impressed.
“Having a swordsman like you in the Demon Slayers is a blessing. At your level, becoming a Hashira won’t be hard.”
“You’re looking down on yourself, Shuya.”
Koki fell silent.
With his head lowered, he spoke.
“Honestly, I envy talented strong people like you. I’ve seen so many people over the past nine years.”
“Some of them had less talent than me, but there were also people with such brilliant talent that they made me look like nothing.”
“Nine years ago, I lost my only younger brother to a blood demon. I trained until I was practically breaking my own bones, but I never got any stronger than this… I hit what you’d call my growth limit.”
“You’re different. At fifteen, you already have that kind of skill. I can’t even imagine how strong you’ll be in the future.”
“If I’d had better talent… if I’d had strength like yours… I could have saved and protected so many more people…”
“...I could have protected my brother that day, too.”
As Koki quietly told his story, resignation seeped into his voice.
“Straighten your back, Shuya.”
At Tatsuo’s words, Koki lifted his head and looked at him.
“Strength isn’t something else. It’s the body that has trained relentlessly to its limit, and the spirit that drove it there. And over nine years, you must have cut down countless blood demons and saved people.”
“Shuya Koki. You are unquestionably strong. I acknowledge that.”
Tatsuo spoke like he was making a declaration, staring into Koki’s face.
“...Thank you.”
Koki answered with the same smile he’d worn at the start.
“Caw! Tatsuo! Mission complete! Complete!”
A loud voice rang out. It was Tatsuo’s crow.
“Next mission! East! East!”
“Are crows always this noisy?”
Tatsuo asked, pointing at his own raucous crow.
“They’re all different, but… that one does seem especially loud.”
“Of all the crows to get, I ended up with this one.”
Tatsuo sighed at Koki’s answer.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Yeah! Become one of the brilliant pillars of the Demon Slayers someday!”
Koki answered enthusiastically to Tatsuo’s farewell.
**
The second mission was a solo assignment, and it was just as easy for Tatsuo.
Less than a day after arriving at the village, he found the blood demon and killed it, completing the mission.
The next mission was the same. And the one after that, too.
Every time he reached a location, Tatsuo finished the mission in less than a day.
Just two weeks after passing the Final Selection, he had already completed eleven missions.
He was advancing at a terrifying pace. Even if you searched through the records of the past two hundred years, there had never been anything like it.
**
After finishing his twelfth mission, Tatsuo was sheathing his sword when—
“Caw! Reinforcements! Reinforcements!”
Another crow, not his own, came flying in while shouting.
“Upper Rank Twelve has appeared! Lower Rank Two! Three Demon Slayers are currently on the mission! All of them are in danger of dying! Direction is north!”
After reporting the situation at top speed, the crow—whose owner he didn’t know—flew past Tatsuo, apparently on its way to call for help from other Demon Slayers as well.
Tatsuo immediately kicked off the ground and sprinted north.
The Twelve Kizuki were the blood demon group led by Kibutsuji Muzan.
Among demons across the land, the strongest were the Upper Ranks, numbered one through six. Beneath them were the Lower Ranks, also numbered one through six.
That group of twelve was the Demon Slayers’ greatest fear.
As for the Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki, they had not been defeated for over a hundred years. And the Lower Ranks were nearly impossible to kill unless you were Hashira-level.
That’s why defeating a member of the Twelve Kizuki can make you a Hashira.
Because the Twelve Kizuki were such a powerful force among demons, there was a way to become a Hashira by defeating one of them.
After running for a while, Tatsuo caught the scent of blood coming from beneath the ground.
Below.
He sensed two presences underground. One had to be the blood demon from the Twelve Kizuki, and the other would be a Demon Slayer.
So two of them are already done for.
The crow had said there were three people in total. But from the presences he could feel now, it seemed two had already fallen.
Where’s the entrance?
If the enemy was underground in a cave, then there had to be an entrance somewhere for the Demon Slayers to get down there.
He widened his senses and focused.
He sharpened his already keen perception and pushed it further.
Found it.
Before long, he found the cave entrance without difficulty.
He raced toward it at once.
The entrance was sealed by blood woven so densely it formed a lattice across the opening.
Tatsuo slashed through it with a swift swing of his sword and charged inside.
After passing through a fairly deep tunnel, Tatsuo reached a cavern.
There, in the center of a vast chamber that looked almost artificially made, stood a blood demon.
The demon had pale skin, wore glasses, and had long hair that fell all the way to its legs.
It held a book in its hands, and a large eye was embedded in the center of the cover, staring out at the surroundings.
On the demon’s left eye, the characters for Lower Rank Two were written.
“So you’re Lower Rank Two.”
Tatsuo said, his golden eyes flashing like he had found prey.
“You’ve come all this way again, blood demon hunter.”
The demon narrowed its brow as if annoyed.
“Fool. I had already filled my quota of blood. No more sacrifices were needed!”
“And yet you came down here and hastened your own death.”
The demon’s voice carried more anger than before.
What happened to the living Demon Slayer?
While Tatsuo quickly scanned the cavern for the surviving fighter, he found a man collapsed in a corner.
“You bastard, I’m talking to you righ—?!”
The demon roared in outrage, then froze in shock.
For an instant, Tatsuo had vanished from in front of its eyes.
Tatsuo looked down beneath his feet.
A man lay there, cut cleanly in two across the middle.
“H-Hey… Tsunokake… Didn’t think we’d meet again like this…”
Tatsuo knew this man.
The man who had worked with him on his first mission. The man Tatsuo had acknowledged as strong.
The dying man was Shuya Koki.
“The enemy’s pretty strong… Though maybe not for you…”
He was speaking while blood poured from the cut.
Honestly, the fact that he was still alive at all was astonishing, but he was holding on through sheer willpower.
“Please… protect the future of the Demon Slayers…”
With those words, the light in Koki’s eyes began to fade.
He had survived by force of spirit, but the massive blood loss had finally reached its limit.
In the end, Koki died with his eyes open. Tatsuo crouched down and gently closed them.
“Distasteful.”
Tatsuo’s quiet words echoed through the huge cavern.
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