"If I remembered correctly, a few hours ago, our group stumbled on a pink haired girl fighting against a few demons." The girl spoke as she was being carried by Akio.
Akio remained silent as he listened.
"We wanted to help, however, she easily took care of them by herself. It was incredible! She was so fast and agile!" She spoke with a hint of admiration.
Akio gave a nod, happy that Mitsuri seemed to be doing fine.
"We had asked her if she wanted to join our group, but she had declined and said she was searching for someone." The woman carefully told Akio how they had met.
Akio had a thoughtful expression. "I see, but this information won't exactly help me in finding her." Akio said, giving the woman he was carrying on his back a chill down her spine.
"Hehe, I'm getting onto that part..." She nervously spoke before continuing, "If we keep going this direction, I should be able to recognise where the battle took place before our group and her had separated."
Akio gave a silent nod, not revealing any of his inner thoughts.
The forest once again turned silent as the woman on Akio's back became a little bored and spoke, "My name's Chiyo."
Akio just gave a casual response, "Komiya."
Chiyo gave Akio a careful look. Truth be told, now that Akio had saved her, despite him being so cold and almost emotionless, he gave off a unique aura that fitted with his image. It made him seem more... reliable and cool?
Chiyo blushed at this thought, before shaking her head aggressively. She simply thought how he would've left her for dead if she didn't have any useful information. However, she felt her heart strings stir when she remembered how he had saved her from that demon, saving her from that cruel fate...
Furthermore, she thought of that pink haired girl and how she was probably in a relationship with him.
However, she still wanted to know. "Say... are you and the girl you're looking for in a relat—"
But before she could finish her sentence, Akio had quickly grabbed her arm around his neck and threw her to the side a few metres away from him.
She landed on the ground quite hard, making her feel a sharp pain on her bottom, causing her to slightly curse in pain.
"Hey! What was that fo—"
When she tried asking for an explanation from him, suddenly, the ground begun to shake slightly from where she was.
A brief moment later, the ground exploded below Akio as large tendril-like hands erupted out — reaching for Akio.
However, Akio had already sensed the danger, quickly unsheathing his blade and blocking a few arms coming out of the ground.
He then swiftly side stepped out of danger before assessing his situation.
Akio smirked after recognising the attack. "Hand demon!" He thought.
Sounds of thumping echoed through the forest as trees broke apart as a large figure emerged from the darkness.
What came out of the shadows was a massive, grotesque creature with multiple hands and arms wrapped around its body and head.
"Hihihi, another little fox has come to me. Huh? No, I recognize that bastard Urokodaki's carvings. The texture isn't right." The massive demon spoke towards Akio. It seemed Akio's little mask had been seen through, however, at the very least it had lured him in.
The woman watched the scene in pure terror. "How can a demon like this even exist?" She covered her mouth in fear.
"Urokodaki! Urokodaki! I want to rip all your children apart!" The demon grinded his teeth. Akio was aware that Tanjiro's breathing instructor had captured this demon, causing a great amount of resentment to be built where this demon goes after all of his students.
"Just being reminded of that bastard has really irritated me! I'll give you a painful death!" The hand demon was furious towards Akio.
"Hmm. Human, what is the year of Meiji." The demon first asked Akio, before he begins attacking him.
Akio was unphased by the demon's killing intent before giving a casual response, "It's the Taisho Period."
"Huh, Taisho? Taisho..." The demon had a thoughtful expression before quickly freaking out like it did in the show.
"AHH! Damn you UROKODAKI!" The demon screamed in rage.
"47 years I have been stuck here! That bastard, I want to rip and shred you into pieces!"
The girl who was hiding behind a tree gasped at this revelation. "No way! 47 years is impossible! Why would final selection have such a demon residing in this place!" The woman paled at this thought. She simply can't fathom how something like that could be beaten. She knew the durability of demons and their regeneration from experience. Even though she knew how strong Akio was, how could he possibly beat it by himself?
"Are you done talking?" Akio spoke lightly.
"Hihihi. Confident are you? Your aura reminds me of that brat with pinkish hair with a scar by his mouth. He was the strongest, yet I had crushed him like a bug, hihihi." The demon laughed sinisterly, reveling at the thought of killing one of Urokodaki's student.
"It's a shame you aren't one of his students, but I'll still enjoy devouring you and that girl behind the tree, hihihi." The demon spoke in an ominous tone, as the woman once again felt despair creeping inside her.
Akio simply kept a calm posture. Perfecting his swordsmanship required a serene state of mind. Truth be told, Akio was more of a greatsword or a straight hands kind of guy as he always preferred strength builds in games, but katanas were still cool. As long as it gets the job done, Akio wouldn't mind using most weapons.
Akio's caution had rewarded him as the demon had launched multiple arms at him like a rocket, trying to grab his limbs.
Akio quickly countered by using the fourth form of his breathing technique, slashing multiple times as flames seemed to circle around him — cutting the countless arms coming his way.
Quickly following up this move, Akio dashed towards the demon, reducing the space between them.
The demon, realising what Akio wanted to do, launched a few arms directly at him and a few at his blind spots. Seeing through the demon's plans, Akio slowed down briefly before slanting his katana so it grazes one of the arms to redirect it off course.
Akio then quickly spun his torso and split a hand down the middle using one of his techniques: Rising scorching sun before jumping up and running up one of his arms.
Akio was extremely nimble and could see the attacks coming from a mile away, allowing him to easily evade the attacks that almost looked like nets from an outsider's perspective.
"This brat is fast." The demon thought before coming up with a plan.
As Akio was swiftly closing in on the demon, the ground exploded once again as arms emerged from underneath.
Akio, feeling the ground's vibration briefly, had quickly swung his blade down as flames rained down underneath him to block against the attack. However, due to the force of the demon's attack, Akio was propelled into the air.
"Hihihi, you won't be able to dodge this one." The demon spoke as a myriad of arms encircled Akio who was helpless in the air.
However, unbeknownst to the demon, Akio had a calm heart. He merely used a technique he had created after being inspired by water breathing. Being a swordsman, he should have his own creativity. Being a true master isn't simply mastering everything someone teaches you, It's developing a new path for ones self, being a pioneer where others can follow in your footsteps.
Akio had been inspired by the third form of water breathing where the user almost attacks like the flow of water, dancing in a pattern, giving the impression of after images. Akio had combined this attack with the first form of flame breathing, combining the powerful nature and defensive nature of both forms seamlessly.
In the sky, in the encirclement of the arms surrounding Akio, a red lotus seemed to bloom as all the hands were quickly torn to shreds.
Akio was pleased inwardly, "Haha, it worked!" Akio had always thought of this move and tried developing it when he had waited for Mitsuri to master total concentration breathing. So this was his first successful attempt!
Akio could have simply used his systems abilities, but he felt that he can easily defeat the demon by him self.
After all, he was in this world to learn the fundamentals of combat.
"Impossible! How can all my hands be so easily cut apart!" The demon slightly panicked. "No matter! I'll just regenerate them back and wait for an opportunity to immobilise him. Then I'll tear him limb from limb!" The demon snickered evilly.
Akio was quickly falling down back to the floor whilst the demon was directly below him. The demon launched even more arms at Akio, however, he simply kept cutting the arms down like grass as the speed as he was falling down became even faster.
All his forms were constantly switching just to simply adapt to the opponent's countless moves. This battle was what Akio had always wanted! It gave Akio a sense of thrill and excitement he rarely felt!
As Akio dropped down like a meteor, it almost felt as if a fire dragon was following him, causing the demon to feel a great sense of danger about to befall him.
Yet, he could do nothing as Akio's blade had already arrived at his neck.
Despite his confidence in his durability, the demon knew that the difference in strength between the two was as vast as the sky.
The last thing the demon saw was Akio's maniacal grin etched on his face as a burning sensation enveloped him.
"It was fun." Akio lightly muttered to the demon as he landed on the ground with a loud crash. A small crater was formed where the culprit, Akio, was at the centre. If it weren't for his physique, he probably would have some broken bones.
Shortly after, the demon's entire body slowly evaporated into dust.
[Host has defeated a mutated demon for the first time: Received 2 attribute points.]
Breathing out a breath of cold air, Akio nonchalantly placed his katana back into his sheath as he walked to the terrified girl behind the tree.
"I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die." The girl muttered over and over as if she was possessed. Chiyo was currently curled into a ball, looking quite pitiful if Akio were to judge.
"Being a demon slayer is definitely not a suitable job for this woman." Akio thought.
"Get up. We're done here." Akio spoke.
"...Huh? A–Are we both dead and I'm seeing you in the afterlife right now?" The woman still had a perplexed expression as she slowly sat up, her eyes not seeing the collosal demon a few minutes ago.
"Afterlife? This is very much the real world." Akio replied casually.
"W–What happened to the demon that attacked us." Chiyo asked with a hint of fear.
Akio just gave her an annoyed stare. "It peacefully left us alone." Akio replied with a hint of sarcasm. "What do you think? it's dead."
"D–Dead? That thing could be beaten?" Chiyo spoke with a hint of disbelief.
"Stop asking questions, you still need to give me directions." Akio spoke in an annoyed tone, receiving a nod from Chiyo.