The others followed Tanjiro onto the roof one after another.
The night wind struck them at once.
The Mugen Train thundered forward beneath their feet, its iron body shuddering over the tracks as sparks flew from the wheels. Darkness stretched endlessly on both sides, broken only by the moonlight spilling over the roof of the train.
At the front of the first carriage stood Enmu.
The demon slowly turned around.
His hair fluttered in the wind, yet his expression remained soft and composed. He looked at them as though they were guests who had arrived too early to a performance.
"Oh? You're all awake already?" Enmu lifted one hand and waved with a faint smile. "You could have slept a little longer, you know. It's almost complete."
His gaze settled on Tanjiro's fox mask.
"But how strange… I couldn't see your face clearly in the dream. Wearing a fox mask, too… don't tell you're another one of that boy's substitutes?"
Then his smile deepened.
"And the rest of you—wasn't it wonderful? Reuniting with your families. Returning to what you lost. Being surrounded by warmth again…"
His voice turned sweet, almost tender.
"How about next ti, I show you a nightmare instead? A dream where you watch your families die before your eyes."
The words slipped from his mouth like poison.
"I adore it, you see. That mont when soone has just tasted happiness… only to be dragged straight into despair."
The wind howled.
No one spoke for a mont.
Beneath that gentle, almost harmless face, every sentence Enmu uttered stabbed straight into the most painful wounds in their hearts.
Tanjiro stood still.
His breathing remained steady.
The characters carved into the demon's eyes confird his identity.
Lower Rank One.
The last surviving Lower Moon.
Inside Asuramaru, Alex's voice rang out at once.
"Don't waste your breath on him. That isn't the main body. His true neck is under the deck in the locomotive."
"I understand!"
Tanjiro did not hesitate.
He drew Asuramaru from his waist, lowered his stance, and launched himself forward.
"Hahahaha! Wild boar charge!" Inosuke followed right behind him, twin swords raised high. "Lord Inosuke is here!"
Zenitsu's face twisted with rage as well.
"How dare you give that nightmare!" he roared, teeth clenched. "I'll cut you to pieces!"
The three young swordsn rushed straight across the train roof.
Behind them, Kyojuro Rengoku and Sanemi Shinazugawa did not imdiately move.
A Lower Moon was dangerous, but not beyond Tanjiro's current ability. If they stepped in for every threat, Tanjiro would never sharpen himself.
Their task was simple.
Let him grow.
And if anything truly went wrong, they would cut down whatever stood in his way.
Tanjiro's grip tightened around Asuramaru.
"I will never forgive anyone who tramples on people's hearts!"
Enmu watched them approach, his smile not faltering. He raised his right hand.
A mouth opened on the back of his palm.
"Blood Demon Art…"
The mouth widened.
"Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis."
An eerie voice rippled through the air.
"Sleep."
Invisible force washed over the three of them.
For an ordinary person, consciousness would have been severed in an instant. Even a skilled Demon Slayer could have collapsed before realizing what had happened.
But Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu kept charging.
Their eyes remained clear.
Their movents did not slow.
Enmu's smile twitched.
"…What?"
He took a step back.
"They didn't fall asleep? Did my Blood Demon Art fail?"
The three closed in.
Enmu's composure cracked. He retreated across the roof, lifting his hand again and again.
"Sleep."
The mouth on his hand opened wider.
"Sleep."
Another wave surged out.
Inside Asuramaru, Alex rely moved his fingers.
The Demon Power he had left within the three stirred and dispersed the effect before it could settle.
Alex's lips curled faintly.
"Running into of all people… you're unlucky."
This was no contest of technique.
It was suppression.
Absolute suppression.
Enmu still refused to accept it.
"Sleep!"
Alex flicked his finger.
Wake.
"Sleep!"
Wake.
"Sleep!"
Wake.
Enmu's expression finally broke.
What is this?!
The Blood Demon Art was clearly activating. The waves were reaching them. He could feel it.
So why?
Why were they still awake?!
"Water Breathing—Fourth Form: Striking Tide!"
Tanjiro stepped in.
Water surged around Asuramaru as his body flowed forward in a chain of swift, connected slashes. His sword cut through the night in several clean arcs.
Enmu had no ti to scream.
His body was carved into pieces.
His head flew from his shoulders and struck the train roof with a wet thud.
For a brief mont, it seed over.
But Tanjiro did not stop.
Without even glancing at the severed head, he continued sprinting toward the locomotive.
Enmu's rolling head froze.
Why?
He was beheaded.
Why wasn't the Demon Slayer stopping?
And why was he heading straight for the locomotive?
Did he know?
Did he already know where the main body was?
Panic flashed through Enmu's eyes.
The severed head swelled violently.
Flesh burst from the cut at his neck, twisting into thick, pulsing tendrils. His head rose atop the mass, grotesque and mismatched, while the train itself began to writhe.
Inside the first few carriages, walls bulged. Veins crawled over the ceiling. Slick flesh spread across the windows and seats, wrapping the interior from the inside out.
The passengers scread.
Tentacles erupted from the fleshy growths and lashed toward them.
Enmu's voice rang out across the train, shrill with triumph.
"Did you think killing would be so simple? While you were all sleeping so peacefully, I fused with this train!"
His head twisted, mouth stretching wide.
"In other words, all two hundred passengers are already inside my belly."
The flesh covering the carriages pulsed.
"Now beco nourishnt for my strength!"
Tanjiro looked back.
Inside the carriage below, tentacles were already lunging toward the passengers.
Before he could turn, Inosuke leapt high into the air.
"Leave the back to !"
His twin swords glead beneath the moon.
"Lord Hashibira Inosuke is going in!"
He crashed through the carriage roof.
"Beast Breathing—Fifth Fang: Crazy Cutting!"
Steel flashed wildly.
Inosuke's movents were savage but precise, his jagged swords tearing through every tentacle that reached for the passengers. Flesh splattered across the carriage walls, only for new growths to twist forward a mont later.
He laughed through the chaos.
"Co on, you disgusting at train! I'll chop you into strips!"
In another carriage, Zenitsu stood trembling.
The flesh spread toward him.
The passengers scread.
Zenitsu's expression darkened.
Then, with all the solemnity of a man making the ultimate sacrifice, he punched himself in the stomach.
Hard.
"Guh—"
His eyes rolled back.
He collapsed forward.
And fell asleep in one second.
This was the secret technique he had gained from special training.
It looked ridiculous.
It worked.
The instant Zenitsu's consciousness faded, the air around him changed.
His breathing slowed.
His posture steadied.
One hand settled on the hilt of his sword.
"Thunder Breathing…"
Lightning snapped across the carriage.
"First Form: Thunderclap and Flash—Sixfold."
The world flashed gold.
Zenitsu vanished.
Six streaks of lightning tore through the carriage in rapid succession, severing every tentacle before it could touch a single passenger. Flesh fell in twitching pieces. The passengers stared, stunned, as Zenitsu reappeared at the far end of the carriage with his sword already sheathed.
Then he began snoring.
At the rear, the two Hashira finally moved.
Kyojuro Rengoku stepped into the aisle, his fiery gaze bright.
"Excellent! Leave this carriage to !"
His Nichirin sword swept out in a blaze.
"Fla Breathing—First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
Flas burst through the train car, burning away the fleshy growths before they could reform.
On the other side, Sanemi Shinazugawa's eyes narrowed as wind gathered around his sword.
"Annoying bastard."
He swung once.
A violent gale shredded the tentacles crawling across the windows and ceiling, reducing them to scraps.
For the first ti since boarding the train, Enmu truly felt helpless.
Impossible.
He had planned everything.
He had rged with the train.
He had hostages.
He had the advantage.
So why?
Why had every piece of his plan been crushed so quickly?
Why were these swordsn moving as if his Blood Demon Art ant nothing?
Why was that masked boy already at the locomotive?
Unreasonable.
This was completely unreasonable.
Tanjiro did not look back again.
He trusted the others.
His task was ahead.
Holding Asuramaru, he charged across the roof as water coiled around his sword. Flesh erupted in front of him, forming thick walls of tentacles to block his path.
He cut through them.
One layer.
Then another.
Then another.
"Water Breathing—Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
His footwork shifted.
Tanjiro moved as if stepping across flowing water, his body weaving through the mass of flesh with graceful precision. Asuramaru carved through every obstruction, leaving severed tendrils tumbling into the darkness on both sides of the train.
The locomotive ca into view.
A dense knot of flesh rose before him, forming a final barrier.
Tanjiro's eyes sharpened.
He stepped forward, leapt, and slashed.
The fleshy wall split apart.
For a heartbeat, he hung in the night air above the locomotive.
Then he brought Asuramaru down.
His sword tore open the iron plating on top of the engine with a shriek of tal.
Inside, the conductor whipped his head around, face pale with terror.
Tanjiro's eyes swept the interior.
The demon's stench was overwhelming.
Asuramaru's voice ca from the sword, calm and certain.
"Under the deck."
A faint smile touched Alex's voice.
"That's the demon's neck."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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