"As I thought, one of them really was a demon! No wonder I felt something was off!" The severed head's furious cries echoed even as it rolled across the ground.
Although Li Xuan already knew demons could not be killed so easily, seeing it with his own eyes still felt uncanny.
"Tanjiro, give me the axe." Li Xuan slid his pistol back into his small satchel and extended his hand.
"Here." Though unsure what Li Xuan intended, Tanjiro obediently passed the weapon over.
The next instant, Li Xuan swung the axe downward toward Tanjiro himself.
Tanjiro's eyes widened in shock. Yet his trust in Li Xuan ran deep enough that he did not flinch or dodge.
Blood sprayed into the air, spattering across Tanjiro's face until half of it was painted scarlet.
"I… I'm not hurt?" Tanjiro quickly touched his body, astonished to find no wound at all. Glancing back over his shoulder, he finally understood.
The demon's severed head had grown two arms and was crawling swiftly toward him, one hand already reaching to strike. Li Xuan's axe had sliced clean through the incoming arm before it could touch him.
The disembodied head shrieked in a piercing, hideous voice.
"It still isn't dead?" Tanjiro gasped. "Li Xuan, that strange attack you used earlier from afar… what was that?"
"I will explain later," Li Xuan replied curtly, his eyes narrowing as he pointed toward the headless body beginning to twitch and rise once more. "A demon's vitality is ferocious. Never let your guard down."
He pressed the axe back into Tanjiro's hands. "You and your sister deal with that corpse. Leave the head to me."
As Tanjiro and Nezuko moved to engage the staggering, headless form, Li Xuan slipped a small knife from his sleeve, one he had "borrowed" from Tanjiro days earlier.
His lips curled into a cold smile that contained no trace of warmth. "Let me see just how well you can recover."
For some reason, the demon's head, now sprouting only two crude arms, felt a chill ripple through it. Its twisted face froze in hesitation, as if sensing its doom.
…
By the time Tanjiro and Nezuko had finished with the flailing corpse, Li Xuan too had ended his grisly work.
It turned out that even a demon's regenerative ability was not without limits. Sufficient damage, sustained long enough, could indeed destroy them.
The reason only sunlight and Nichirin blades were known as true demon killers was because an ordinary human lacked the strength or stamina to push a demon's resilience to that breaking point.
Had this demon possessed its full body, Li Xuan might not have been able to manage it. But now, reduced to a crawling head and two arms, it had been little more than a test subject.
In the end, Li Xuan had even activated his Demonization ability. Under its horrified gaze, he destroyed it again and again, erasing any possibility of recovery.
"Li Xuan." Tanjiro approached, his breathing unsteady. "Is this man-eating demon truly dead?"
"Yes." Li Xuan gave a simple nod. "Its vitality was immense. I had to kill it many times over before its strength finally failed."
Tanjiro lowered his eyes. "It must have suffered terribly… Is there no way to grant a demon a clean death?" His tone carried not hesitation, but genuine compassion even for a creature that had slaughtered humans.
Li Xuan studied him silently. This boy…
He did not argue. He felt no need to adopt Tanjiro's outlook, but he could not dislike such bone-deep kindness either.
Others might dismiss it as naïve or hypocritical, yet Li Xuan understood. This was simply the purity of a teenager's heart.
"Do not waste sympathy on demons steeped in sin."
A deep, steady voice rang out from nearby.
All three turned at once. There stood a white-haired man wearing a long indigo robe embroidered with drifting white clouds.
His face was concealed behind the fierce features of a tengu mask, and his gaze swept across the group with measured weight.
Not a single footstep had betrayed his approach.
Neither Li Xuan's sharpened instincts nor the heightened sense of smell he had taken from Tanjiro had noticed him until he spoke.
The gulf in power was undeniable.
Sakonji Urokodaki.
The former Water Hashira had likely been observing for some time before choosing to reveal himself.
His eyes lingered on Li Xuan only briefly, filled with both approval and suspicion, before moving past him to address Tanjiro.
That was close.
Li Xuan understood the meaning of that look. Approval for his calm decisiveness in eliminating a demon without the proper weapon.
Suspicion because Urokodaki had surely caught the faint trace of his Demonization.
Thankfully, he had not witnessed the transformation itself. Otherwise, he would have interrogated Li Xuan at once instead of overlooking him.
At this moment, Urokodaki's stern focus fell on Tanjiro. Where Li Xuan saw empathy, Urokodaki saw hesitation and weakness.
Previously, Giyu Tomioka had sent Urokodaki a letter, explaining the siblings' circumstances and recommending Tanjiro as the inheritor of the Water Breathing style.
Yet the boy's behavior today fell far short of his teacher's standards.
"This child is not suitable," Urokodaki muttered inwardly as his questioning turned sharper. His conviction grew with each exchange. Almost without realizing it, his eyes flicked toward Li Xuan.
Giyu, you may have chosen wrongly. This one seems more fitting.
The letter had mentioned Li Xuan, though only in passing, without much detail. Now, meeting him in person, Urokodaki's impression was markedly different. Still, he did not discard Tanjiro outright.
"From this moment, prove to me that you have what it takes to be a Demon Slayer," he commanded.
"Carry your sister on your back and follow me!"
The horizon was already softening with the first pale light of dawn. Nezuko quietly withdrew into her bamboo basket to avoid the rising sun.
As Urokodaki strode past Li Xuan, he paused just long enough to ask, "And you? Do you wish to become a Demon Slayer?"
"Yes," Li Xuan answered simply with a nod.
He had already slain a demon. All that remained for his main objective was to join the Corps. Once that was accomplished, he could turn his attention to side missions.
"Then you will come as well."
With no further words, Urokodaki broke into a run. Despite his pace, not the faintest sound rose from his feet.
Tanjiro followed with Nezuko on his back, struggling to keep up. Li Xuan trailed last, moving at an even pace, conserving his strength.
By the time the three reached the base of Urokodaki's mountain dwelling, Tanjiro was drenched in sweat, his breathing ragged and broken. Li Xuan, in contrast, remained composed, barely winded at all.
"Now return to the mountaintop," Urokodaki instructed the moment they arrived. His voice was calm, but the words struck like a hammer.
"Ah!" Tanjiro cried out in dismay. Still, he did not protest. His determination to become a Demon Slayer was unshaken.
Only by doing so could he hope to restore Nezuko's humanity and protect others from suffering the same fate. For that reason, he would never quit.
"You need not go," Urokodaki told Li Xuan.
Though puzzled, Li Xuan did not complain. He welcomed the chance to rest and carried Nezuko's bamboo basket inside.
In Urokodaki's mind, Li Xuan had already demonstrated the qualities required to be a Demon Slayer. Tanjiro, however, still fell short.
He would need to be tempered through hardship, and keeping Li Xuan out of the trial ensured Tanjiro could not lean on him for aid.
Inside, Nezuko lay fast asleep in her basket. The lingering scent of blood and her own gnawing hunger had driven her into a deep, almost protective slumber.
[Water Breathing Mastery: One of the five foundational Breathing Styles, derived from the Sun Breathing technique. Mastery of a Breathing Style grants a Demon Slayer extraordinary combat ability, essential for fighting demons.]
This was the reward Li Xuan had received from a casual brush against Urokodaki earlier, another sign-in benefit.
The system's gifts were astonishing. In the instant he acquired it, Li Xuan's body already understood the rhythm, flow, and execution of Water Breathing.
His sword techniques felt ingrained, his movements fluid as though he had trained for years.
Though he had not instantly risen to the level of a Hashira, he had become powerful enough to face Lower Rank demons on equal ground.
He was no longer merely human.
At last, Li Xuan truly had the means to survive in this world. Even against demons wielding Blood Demon Arts, he would not fall easily, and with a Nichirin blade, he might even slay them.
Yet this was only the beginning. He would continue signing in, staying near Urokodaki for as long as possible, squeezing every ounce of value from the master's presence.
He set Nezuko gently on a futon, then heated water for instant coffee from his satchel. The bitter aroma filled the quiet room, mingling with the cool air drifting down from the mountainside.
As he sipped, Li Xuan gazed out at the rugged slopes beyond the doorway, thoughts drifting to the distant comrades of Central State's Fourth Squad.
How were they faring now?