I Became a Demon Sword and Traveled the Anime Worlds Chapter 4 4: This System Is a Keeper, It Really Delivers

Tanjiro and the demon were deadlocked in a brutal contest of strength.

Its jaws were clamped around the sword. Its writhing green hair had coiled around the steel like ropes, trying to wrench it from his hands. Tanjiro's arms trembled from the strain, his feet digging into the dirt as he fought to hold his ground.

He knew he could not keep this up for long.

In raw strength, he was no match for a demon.

And Nezuko was still behind him.

A ragged breath tore from his throat. Then Tanjiro roared, every ounce of panic and resolve pouring into that one cry.

"I have to save Nezuko! Get out of my way!"

As he shouted, he suddenly threw his head back.

The demon sneered.

A human wanted to headbutt it?

Pathetic.

In its eyes, that was the act of a cornered fool. A desperate child flailing at death. The mont Tanjiro rattled himself and lost focus, the demon would finish him.

But the next instant, reality smashed that thought to pieces.

Tanjiro drove his head forward without the slightest hesitation.

Bang!

The crack of skull eting flesh was sickeningly solid.

The demon's eyes bulged wide. Its mouth fell open. The savage sneer that had been hanging on its face collapsed into stunned agony. Even the hair wrapped around the sword drooped for a mont, as if the entire creature had gone numb from the impact.

Its mind reeled.

How was his head this hard?

Was this brat's skull made of iron?!

Even Alex nearly lost it at the sight.

That headbutt was outrageous.

But this was no ti to admire Tanjiro's absurd forehead. He imdiately shouted, "Tanjiro, now! Cut off its head!"

Tanjiro's arms moved before the hesitation in his eyes could settle.

He wrenched the sword free and swung.

The edge flashed through the night and sliced cleanly across the demon's neck.

For a split second, the demon still looked dazed, as though it had not fully understood what had happened. Then its head separated from its body and tumbled to the ground, rolling several tis across the dirt before coming to a stop.

Its headless corpse swayed once, then crashed down stiffly.

As the last light faded from its eyes, the look it cast at Tanjiro was filled with nothing but hatred.

[Ding! Negative emotions detected from the man eating demon before death. Obtained 100 Emotion Points!]

[Detected first kill of a man eating demon. In order to better integrate into this world, the system has loaded the corresponding properties of a Nichirin Blade for the host!]

Alex froze.

Then his eyes widened.

"One hundred Emotion Points? And it even loaded the Nichirin Blade properties for ?"

A grin nearly split his face.

What kind of treasure system was this?

It gave out actual rewards. Real, practical rewards. No vague promises, no useless trash, no fake suspense. Kill a demon, get a windfall. Simple. Direct. Beautiful.

This system was a keeper.

It really delivered.

At the sa ti, Alex understood sothing else.

A demon's negative emotions peaked at the mont of death.

Sure, it was a one ti burst and could not compare to long term harvesting from a steady source like Tanjiro. But in terms of efficiency, it was absurdly good.

That realization imdiately opened a new line of thought in his mind.

anwhile, outside in the temple courtyard, Tanjiro was in no state to think about systems or rewards.

He stood there gasping for breath, shoulders heaving, the hand holding his sword trembling slightly from exhaustion. Sweat ran down his face. The battle had been short, but to him it had felt like a struggle on the edge of death.

As for the demon's corpse, it began to crumble before his eyes.

The flesh blackened, collapsed, and scattered into ash, quickly breaking apart in the wind.

Tanjiro stared in shock.

"So demons do not even leave a body behind...?"

But that thought lasted only an instant before his expression changed.

Nezuko.

He turned and rushed toward the temple at once, desperate to stop her before it was too late.

Yet the mont he took a step, he saw her.

Nezuko was still standing at the entrance, still staring at the corpses inside.

Saliva glistened faintly at the corner of her mouth.

But she had not moved closer.

Instead, she slowly tore her gaze away from the bodies and walked toward him.

Tanjiro stopped.

Then he let out a long, shaky breath that seed to empty his entire chest.

Relief washed over him so hard it almost left him weak in the knees.

He had truly been terrified.

Terrified that Nezuko would lose control. Terrified that she would cross a line there was no returning from.

And when he rembered Alex's words from earlier, his heart clenched again.

If that day ever ca, if Nezuko really ate a human...

Then perhaps the only thing left for him would be to kill her with his own hands and follow it with seppuku to atone.

That possibility was so heavy it made his chest hurt.

Tanjiro forced himself to calm down and raised his hand to sheath the blade.

But just as he moved, a large hand suddenly settled onto his shoulder from behind.

A deep, aged voice sounded at his back.

"Let see your sword."

A chill ran through Tanjiro's body.

A bead of cold sweat slid down his temple.

He turned at once and found himself face to face with an old man in a hooded cloak, wearing a red tengu mask.

The man had approached without making a sound.

Tanjiro's first instinct was to ask Alex what to do.

But before he could, the old man casually took the sword from his hand with one swift motion. He held it up and examined it in silence, his nose beneath the mask twitching slightly.

After a mont, he returned the blade.

"Where did you get this sword?"

Tanjiro answered honestly, without thinking too deeply about it.

"It is a family heirloom."

The old man gave no response. He simply turned and walked toward the temple.

Tanjiro watched him go, then slid the sword back into its scabbard.

By then, the sky was already beginning to pale.

The night was nearly over.

Nezuko seed to sense it as well. As dawn approached, a clear instinctive fear appeared in her movents. She shrank her body down and crawled back into the bamboo basket, hiding from the coming sunlight.

By the ti Tanjiro had fully collected himself, the morning sun had risen.

The old man had already begun carrying the mangled bodies out of the temple for burial.

Tanjiro hurried over imdiately.

"Please, let help."

Together, the two buried the dead in the temple courtyard.

The morning light spilled across the mountain. The air was cold and clean, utterly at odds with the bloodshed of the night before.

With the rising sun behind him, the old man finally spoke again.

"I am Sakonji Urokodaki. You are the one Giyu Tomioka sent to , correct?"

Tanjiro blinked.

Only then did he realize who this was.

This old man was the person Giyu had told him to seek out.

Tanjiro straightened at once.

"Yes. I am Tanjiro Kamado."

As he spoke, he gestured toward the bamboo basket on his back.

"My sister is inside. Her na is Nezuko."

But Sakonji seed to ignore the introduction completely.

Instead, he asked a question that cut straight to the heart.

"Tanjiro. What will you do if your sister eats a human?"

Because Alex had already forced him to confront that nightmare, Tanjiro did not flinch this ti.

His answer ca imdiately.

"I would kill her, and then commit seppuku."

His voice was steady.

"But I will never let that happen."

For a mont, Sakonji said nothing.

Then he gave a faint nod beneath the tengu mask.

"It is good that you possess that resolve."

He turned away.

"Now I will see whether you are fit to beco a Demon Slayer. Carry your sister and follow ."

And so they ran.

One after the other, the two of them crossed the mountain paths and pressed deeper into Mount Sagiri. They ran from morning until the sun dipped westward, through winding trails and steep slopes that seed to go on forever.

By the ti they finally stopped in front of a small wooden house, Tanjiro was completely spent.

His lungs burned.

His legs shook.

The mont they halted, he collapsed to the ground, breathing so hard it felt like his chest might split open.

He looked up at Sakonji with difficulty.

"Does... does this an I passed?"

"The test has only just begun," Sakonji replied.

His voice was calm, almost rciless.

"Settle your sister first. Then co up the mountain with ."

With that, he pushed open the door, removed his hood, and entered the house ahead of him.

Tanjiro nearly broke on the spot.

He had thought the run was the test.

Apparently, that had only been the warm up.

As for Alex, he had been in excellent spirits the entire way.

He had spent the day doing almost nothing except watch events unfold and harvest Emotion Points.

Tanjiro alone had contributed well over a hundred.

Add in Nezuko and Sakonji, and the total haul for the day was close to one hundred and fifty Emotion Points.

At this rate, unlocking more abilities was no longer so distant fantasy.

That thought left him deeply satisfied.

After settling Nezuko inside, Tanjiro followed Sakonji back up the mountain.

By then, night had fallen again.

Mount Sagiri was wrapped in thick fog, and the darkness only made it worse. The deeper they went, the worse visibility beca, until the entire mountain felt like a white maze where even the nearest tree trunks were barely visible.

When they reached the middle of the mountain, Sakonji suddenly stopped.

He turned to face Tanjiro.

"From here, find your own way back to the house at the foot of the mountain."

That was all he said.

Then his figure slipped into the fog and vanished completely.

Tanjiro stared for a mont, then quickly crouched and drew in a few sharp breaths through his nose.

If he could catch Sakonji's scent, then he could trace the route back.

After a few sniffs, he lifted his head and fixed on a direction.

"This way!"

He rushed forward at once.

But he had only taken a few steps when Alex's warning exploded inside his mind.

"Careful! There are traps!"

The words ca just a fraction too late.

Tanjiro's foot caught a rope hidden beneath the grass.

The instant it snapped taut, several stones swung out from the darkness and smashed straight into his face.

Caught completely off guard, Tanjiro stumbled backward in pain, only to lose his footing and drop straight into a deep pit that had been dug in advance.

Thud.

The impact made his vision spin.

For a second, all he could do was lie there at the bottom of the pit, head ringing, staring blankly up at the fog veiling the night sky above.