The ink pooled black against white paper. Numbers that reduced lives to statistics.
Tanjiro set his brush down and rubbed his eyes. Morning light streamed through his window, but it did nothing to ease the weight pressing against his chest.
Six months since Muzan's defeat. The casualty reports still arrived daily.
Twenty-three wounded this week. Four dead.
Corps members injured hunting scattered demon remnants. Civilians caught in encounters that should have been routine. The great evil was gone, but smaller evils lingered in remote valleys and forgotten villages.
As a newly appointed Hashira, these numbers fell under his responsibility.
Footsteps approached in the corridor outside. Light, hurried.
"Kamado-san?" Koji's voice carried through the thin walls. "Are you awake?"
Tanjiro straightened. "Come in, Koji."
The young messenger slid open the door and bowed quickly. Dark circles shadowed his eyes. He'd been running messages since before dawn.
"Master Kiriya requests your immediate presence in the main hall."
"This early?" Tanjiro glanced at the sun's position. Barely past sunrise. "What's happened?"
"He said to tell you something unusual is happening." Koji shifted his weight from foot to foot. "A new Hashira, sir. Someone we've never heard of."
The brush slipped from Tanjiro's fingers.
"How can there be a new Hashira? We know everyone who survived the final battle."
"That's what makes it strange, sir." Koji's voice dropped to a whisper. "She appeared three days ago claiming mastery of an unknown breathing technique."
"Unknown technique?" Tanjiro rose so quickly his chair scraped against the wooden floor. "That's impossible. All breathing styles trace back to Sun Breathing."
"That's what everyone thought, but Master Kiriya seems convinced." Koji wrung his hands. "She's going to demonstrate today."
A familiar tingle touched Tanjiro's scar. Not pain, exactly, but awareness. The same sensation that had warned him of danger countless times during the war.
"Demonstrate on what?"
"A captured demon, sir."
---
They walked briskly through the headquarters' wooden corridors. Their footsteps echoed off polished floors. Other Corps members moved with purpose around them.
Tanjiro caught fragments of hushed conversations.
"—never seen anything like it—"
"—claims she can pacify them—"
"—Master Kiriya actually believes—"
"How long has she been here?" Tanjiro asked as they passed beneath paper lanterns that cast shifting shadows on the walls.
"Three days, like I said. But sir..." Koji glanced around nervously. "Nobody remembers her arriving. She was just suddenly here, talking to Master Kiriya like they'd been planning this for weeks."
"That doesn't make sense."
"No sir, it doesn't."
They reached the main hall where morning light revealed clusters of Corps members speaking in low voices. The usual easy camaraderie felt strained. An undercurrent of nervous energy made Tanjiro's scar tingle more insistently.
"Tanjiro!" Zenitsu waved from across the room, his yellow hair catching the sunlight. "Did you hear about this new person?"
Tanjiro approached his friend. Tension locked Zenitsu's shoulders tight.
"Just now. What do you make of it?"
"My hearing's been picking up strange things." Zenitsu's voice dropped so low Tanjiro had to lean closer. "People are excited, but there's fear underneath. Like when you hear thunder before seeing lightning, you know?"
"What kind of fear?"
"The kind that doesn't know what it's afraid of yet."
Inosuke pushed between them with his usual lack of subtlety. "Who cares about some newcomer? I bet I could beat her easily!"
"Inosuke, we don't even know—"
"Attention, everyone." Kiriya's young voice cut through the conversations like a blade through silk.
The room fell silent. Snow settling on a roof.
The assembled Corps members turned toward the elevated platform where their young master sat, and Tanjiro felt the familiar weight of anticipation settle over the hall like morning mist—dense with possibility and heavy with the unknown.