As soon as Tanjiro entered the town and began walking its streets, he noticed the atmosphere was off.
People still ca and went. Shops were still open. Lamps still glowed warmly behind paper screens. But beneath the ordinary bustle, there was unease. Fear lingered in every conversation, slipping out in lowered voices whenever soone thought no one important was listening.
Then a man passed by.
He looked utterly hollowed out, like a soul that had been left behind while the body kept walking. His face was bruised by exhaustion, his eyes dim, his whole figure carrying the weight of soone who had not slept in days.
The people nearby imdiately began whispering more openly.
"Look, that's Kazumi, isn't it? He's gotten even worse."
"I heard his fiancée was taken too. Another girl disappears every night in this town. It's terrifying."
"At this rate, another one will vanish tonight. Who knows when it'll finally end..."
Tanjiro's footsteps slowed.
He turned to watch the man's retreating back, then quickly followed after him and called out before he could disappear into the crowd.
"Mr. Kazumi—please wait!"
The man stopped and turned around.
At first his face was blank, but when he saw the seriousness in Tanjiro's expression, a faint spark returned to his eyes.
Tanjiro stepped closer.
"There are a few things I'd like to ask you, if that's all right."
The two spoke only briefly.
But when it was over, Kazumi led Tanjiro to a narrow alley tucked away from the main road.
He stood there in silence for a mont before speaking in a voice that sounded close to breaking.
"You may not believe ... but my fiancée, Satoko, disappeared right here."
Tanjiro's answer ca without the slightest hesitation.
"I believe you."
Kazumi looked startled.
Tanjiro had already crouched down, one hand resting lightly against the dirt as his nose twitched.
There it was.
A demon's scent still lingered here.
But unlike the ones he had slled before, this one was strange. Thin. Slippery. Unstable. It drifted through the air in a way that made it hard to pin down, as if it were never fully staying in one place.
Tanjiro followed that lingering trace little by little, moving through the town as the day wore on.
The sun sank.
Evening deepened.
By the ti lanterns were lit and the last of the pedestrians had mostly vanished from the streets, he finally caught sothing fresher.
The scent had strengthened.
Tanjiro's eyes sharpened at once, and he imdiately broke into a run.
Alex observed everything from within the sword, silent and attentive.
Only when Tanjiro reached a walled courtyard did he finally beco certain.
The demon was here.
And not only the demon.
There was also the sll of a young girl nearby.
Tanjiro could tell she was close—very close—but no matter how he looked around, he could not imdiately find her. Instinctively, his hand moved toward the Nichirin Blade at his waist, intending to draw it and guard against an ambush.
Then Alex spoke.
"Draw , Tanjiro. I can feel it. The demon is underground, to your right."
"Understood, Asuramaru!"
With that warning, Tanjiro imdiately drew Asuramaru. His gaze snapped to the right while his nose twitched again, locking onto the strongest point of the scent.
Then he thrust downward without hesitation.
The blade pierced the ground—
And the earth rippled like the surface of black water.
A burst of shadow spread out in a circle, and from within it, the body of an unconscious girl rose into the air.
Tanjiro's expression changed.
He moved at once, catching the girl before she could fall, then leapt backward to create distance.
The next mont, sothing began crawling up from the shadow pooled on the ground.
Half a body erged first.
Then a face.
Red eyes.
Three horns.
A grotesque man eating demon dragged itself out from the darkness beneath the earth, its expression twisted with rage. One of its arms had been pierced by Tanjiro's strike, and blood was still pouring from the wound without stopping.
The mont Tanjiro saw it, Sakonji Urokodaki's teachings flashed through his mind.
A demon like this—
One that hid itself in an unnatural way—
Had likely awakened a Blood Demon Art.
Still holding the unconscious girl, Tanjiro demanded, "Where are the other girls you abducted?"
Before the demon could answer, Alex's cool voice sounded in his mind.
"Do you really need to ask? They've obviously already been eaten."
Tanjiro's jaw tightened.
He understood that.
Of course he did.
But so part of him had still been clinging to hope.
That flicker of hope shattering sent grief and anger surging through him at once.
At the sa ti, system notifications began chiming inside Alex's mind.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro. Obtained 17 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro. Obtained 9 Emotion Points!]
anwhile, the demon's mouth began to distort. Its teeth ground against one another with shrill, ear-scraping force, producing a sound like shards of glass being dragged across stone.
Tanjiro stepped back several paces, then turned toward Kazumi, who stood nearby in shock.
"Mr. Kazumi," he said seriously, "please take this girl and move back. Stay where I can protect you."
Kazumi swallowed hard, but he forced himself to steady his nerves.
"Leave it to ."
He took the girl from Tanjiro's arms and retreated just a little, staying close enough to remain within reach.
Tanjiro turned back toward the demon, Asuramaru held ready in his hands.
His mind was already racing.
A Blood Demon Art that let it hide underground...
But no matter how well it hid, a scent was still a scent.
It could vanish from sight.
It could not escape his nose.
Tanjiro drew in a slow breath, focusing all his attention on the sll in the air.
And just then, Alex's voice cut in again.
"Tanjiro, there are three of them nearby. They're behind you, underground, waiting to ambush you."
Tanjiro did not question him for even a second.
Alex continued imdiately.
"Use that. Let them co together and take all three at once with the Second Form."
At the sa ti, Tanjiro's nose caught the strongest concentration of the scent.
Exactly where Alex had said it would be.
He turned in an instant, gripping the sword with both hands.
Then he charged.
His footsteps burst forward like wind over stone, carrying him straight toward the strongest trail. But just before he reached the point where the scent converged—
Alex barked, "Now!"
Tanjiro moved without the slightest delay.
He planted one foot, leapt, and spun.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
Water-like currents flowed along the blade as he rotated through the air in a perfect horizontal arc.
At that sa mont, the ground split open.
Three demons burst up from below in a coordinated ambush—
And ran straight into the strike.
The wheel of water flashed once through the darkness.
Tanjiro landed lightly.
Behind him, three heads flew into the air at the sa ti.
They struck the ground one after another, rolling across the dirt. In their eyes were despair, shock, and total disbelief.
"This... how is that possible...?"
None of them managed to finish the thought.
Their heads and bodies began to crumble at once, turning to ash that scattered into the night. When the remains finally dispersed, only a small, inconspicuous cloth bag was left behind on the ground.
At the sa mont, another system notification rang out in Alex's mind.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from the man eating demons before death. Obtained 300 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Devoured 50 Demon Power. Would you like to provide feedback to the Sword Master, Tanjiro Kamado?]
Alex did not answer imdiately.
Instead, he asked, "Can I decide how much Demon Power to feed back to Tanjiro?"
[Ding! Yes.]
Alex thought for a mont.
Then he made his decision.
"Return thirty percent first. I want to see the effect."
[Ding! Feedback ability activated.]
[15 Demon Power returned.]
[The physical attributes of Sword Master Tanjiro Kamado have been enhanced accordingly.]
As the system prompt sounded, Tanjiro—who had just begun lowering his sword—suddenly saw thin strands of black mist erging from Asuramaru's hilt.
They wrapped themselves around the back of his hand.
Before he could even react, a strange change swept through his body.
It was not pain.
It was not heat.
It was sothing deeper.
His muscles tightened and steadied. His breathing grew more solid. His body felt lighter, cleaner, stronger—as though, in the space of a single breath, he had sohow completed half a month of brutal training all at once.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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