"Mist Breathing, Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash."
Sssshhh! Thud!
A flash of the blade, and yet another demon collapsed to the ground.
Along with the demon's fall, Yuichiro's expression darkened.
"Muichiro! Stop this. You've already slain too many demons. There's no need—these weaklings aren't even worth our effort."
Muichiro tilted his head slightly, giving his brother a puzzled yet oddly innocent look.
"But, brother, isn't slaying demons the duty of a Demon Slayer Corps member? If we encounter a demon, we should eliminate it."
Yuichiro hesitated. "But..." He fell silent, unable to refute his younger brother.
After all, even though their master had warned them before departure, who could resist the urge to strike down a demon when it stood right before them?
Just then, a lurking demon behind Yuichiro could no longer restrain itself.
Driven mad by hunger, it let out a roar and lunged at him.
"BROTHER!" Muichiro cried out.
Yet Yuichiro remained unfazed.
In an instant, his hand gripped the hilt of his Nichirin Blade, his eyes flashing with a verdant glow.
"Forest Breathing, Fifth Form: Soaring Bamboo Slash!"
Crack!
A brilliant emerald light erupted as a sweeping slash, like towering bamboo shooting from the earth and tore the demon apart in an instant.
Watching the demon's dissolving remains, Yuichiro's expression grew complicated.
Muichiro, however, simply grinned.
"See, brother? You're hunting demons too. So it's settled—let's have a competition! Whoever slays more demons wins!"
*****
"Eeeek!!!"
A girl's scream shattered the forest's silence, startling birds from their perches high in the trees.
"No! No! Stay back! Stay away! Water Breathing! Water Breathing!"
The young girl, eyes tightly shut, wildly swung her Nichirin Blade.
The faint blue glow coating the blade only further enraged the approaching Hand Demon.
Hand Demon despised two things above all else: Water Breathing and Forest Breathing.
The mere presence of either technique instantly clouded its mind with hatred.
"More Water Breathing?! I'll devour every last one of you Water Breathing swordsmen! Just die already, brat!" The grotesque Hand Demon slithered closer to Kanzaki Aoi, who brandished her blade.
Though its once-powerful arms had weakened, after prolonged hiding and recovery, it had regained a fraction of its strength.
Enough, at least, to deal with this human girl.
And indeed, when faced with a towering, putrid-green monstrosity—devoid of human form, writhing with countless grotesque limbs—Aoi nearly fainted from terror.
How could a demon be this hideous?
But no matter what, the Hand Demon's strength was undeniable.
Despite Aoi's desperate attacks, her slashes did nothing to halt its advance.
Swoosh!
Suddenly!
One of Hand Demon's arms stealthily snaked around from behind Kanzaki Aoi, seizing the moment when she was frantically fending off the other attacking limbs.
It wrapped around her ankles and yanked hard.
"Ahhh!!" Kanzaki Aoi let out a startled cry before she could even comprehend what was happening.
In an instant, she found herself dangling upside down, her Nichirin Blade unfortunately flung away, her mind completely dazed.
In the blink of an eye, Kanzaki Aoi locked eyes with a pair of sinister, yellowish orbs.
She could clearly see the cross-shaped pupils within those sickly yellow eyes and distinctly smell the overwhelming stench of the Demon.
Hand Demon gazed at the girl it had captured, unable to restrain its greed as it opened its massive maw.
It couldn't wait any longer—it had to devour this little brat now to avoid complications later.
Whoosh!
Hand Demon's grotesque body suddenly split open, revealing a gaping mouth dripping with viscous saliva and lined with terrifying mandibles.
Finally, Kanzaki Aoi realized she had been captured by a Demon.
"No! I don't want to be eaten! I haven't even joined the Demon Slayer Corps yet, haven't avenged my family—I don't want to be eaten!" Kanzaki Aoi struggled desperately, but Hand Demon paid no heed and immediately prepared to shove her into its gaping maw.
Yet, just at this critical moment, an abrupt change occurred.
Hand Demon suddenly halted its movements, its gaze fixed in a particular direction.
From the dark forest, something seemed to be emerging.
The surroundings fell eerily silent except for Kanzaki Aoi's cries.
Hand Demon stood as if frozen, motionless like it had been struck by a paralysis spell.
Suddenly!
Several dark figures burst out of the bushes, entering Hand Demon's line of sight.
Under the moonlight, Hand Demon could clearly see that these figures were none other than several other Demons.
'Here to steal my prey?' was Hand Demon's first thought.
But the expressions on these Demons' faces were far from those of food thieves.
Instead, each one wore looks of sheer terror, as if they were fleeing in panic from something horrifying.
The moment these Demons appeared, they sprinted madly towards Hand Demon's direction, which naturally led Hand Demon to assume they were after its meal.
However, when the Hand Demon readied itself for a fight, the Demons rushed past it without even a glance, not daring to pause for even a second—as if stopping would cost them their lives.
The Hand Demon was utterly baffled.
Unable to contain its confusion, it reached out and grabbed the slowest Demon, snarling.
"What the hell are you running from?!"
The captured Demon struggled even more violently than Kanzaki Aoi had, its face twisted in fear as it shrieked.
"Let me go! You bastard! Release me! I need to get out of here—those two monsters are right behind us! Run! The Demon Slayer Corps' purge is coming!"
Hand Demon was stunned.
What the hell was this?
While Hand Demon was still processing this, the Demon it had captured gritted its teeth and in desperation, slashed off its own arm where Hand Demon had gripped it, then continued its frantic escape.
Hand Demon stared at the severed limb, pondering its fellow Demon's repeated words.
"The Demon Slayer Corps' purge?"
Before it could finish the thought, an all-too-familiar, deeply loathed presence erupted from the forest—one that could give it nightmares for weeks just at the memory.
Yes!
This feeling!
It couldn't be mistaken!
This was the very presence it would never forget, even if it turned to ashes!
"Forest Breathing!?"
Squelch!
A Nichirin Blade radiating a green glow cleanly sliced through the neck of a Demon whose face was filled with terror, sending its grotesque head flying into the air.
Standing beside Yuichiro, Muichiro smiled as he swiftly swung his blade, taking down another Demon with equal efficiency.
"Brother, you're being sneaky. Didn't you say at first that you wouldn't slay Demons? Yet now you're about to surpass me in kills."
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