The moment Gyomei finished his warning.
"Roar!!" The figure of the cowardly demon in front of Tanjuro suddenly transformed, quickly gaining mass from the size of a mouse to more than two people high.
The kanji on the tongue of the timid demon gradually twisted and turned into the word '恨' (Resentment).
A huge shadow enveloped Tanjuro's figure, and the newly formed demon, Urami, quickly turned around. Opening his mouth angrily with his fangs exposed.
"DON'T BULLY...!!" He roared.
Tanjuro's sword was still stuck in his neck.
And so, Urami turned around to face Tanjuro. They were face-to-face with each other.
In the eyes of Urami, Tanjuro's hanafuda earrings were slightly shaking in the winds and reflected in Urami's gaze.
Whether it was Sekido or Karaku, he had never been so close to Tanjuro before.
"...the weak..."
The words that Urami uttered suddenly died in his throat. His tone of voice, which was ferocious and indignant, changed into a weaker whimper.
Somehow,
The appearance of Tanjuro was inciting his memory.
The images of the greatest slayers in history were reflected in his eyes. The blood in his body quivers with existential fear.
A feeling of dread and a sense of suffocation welled up in Urami's heart.
For a man wearing the maroon haori...
...was standing in front of his sliced-up body.
'W... What is this...'
Urami looked at Tanjuro. The image in his mind refused to leave, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
Such a moment of distraction was fatal in battle.
Tanjuro raised his head and calmly took out Kusabimaru, which was stuck on Urami's neck. He did not care about the struggle that was plaguing Urami right now.
He still had a job to do. After Urami was formed, Hantengu still existed.
Said demon was hiding in the heart of Urami.
"...so familiar." Tanjuro slid into a shinobi execution stance. For in his vision, there was a crimson assassination point to aim for.
Feeling the sword in his neck move, Urami finally reacted. His tone was different from his previous indignation.
"W-Wait... Wait!!" He said hastily.
But Tanjuro didn't hesitate.
The red-hot Kusabimaru was tilted slightly and plunged deep against Urami's chest, where his heart was located.
Tanjuro stabbed upward with force!
Puchi!
Crimson blood showered down from the blade wound but was quickly evaporated into a blood mist by the high-temperature Kusabimaru.
Tanjuro, with his Transparent World, skillfully executed a Shinobi final deathblow into the heart of Hantengu once again.
The pierce straight through the main body hiding inside Urami.
"Agh, cough, ha!!" A mouthful of blood spurted out of Urami's mouth.
Sha—
Which immediately turned his body to ashes.
"No... no cough cough..."
Urami knelt weakly and grabbed Tanjuro with his hands. His mouth was trying to say something, anything, to not be killed.
Tanjuro flicked his blade and watched slowly as Urami collapsed to the ground and turned to ash.
"Hesitation leads to defeat."
His voice echoed the lesson people in his journey had said several times.
However, not long after, as Hantengu turned to ash...
There was another sound coming his way from the forest.
The grass rustled and parted to show a child of ten years old coming through.
"Hey, he's really here!"
His exclamation caused Tanjuro to turn his head to look in his direction.
The young Tokito Muichiro was pulling his father and brother along, smiling happily as they saw Tanjuro's presence in the clearing.
Muichiro let go of his father's hand and waved at Tanjuro.
"Hello there!"
"Ossan, are you here for a combat test too?"
"???" Tanjuro blinked his eyes as he stared blankly at the Tokito family arriving in the Swordsmith village.
His eyes refocused several times between the three of them before he was sure that he wasn't hallucinating.
'Muichiro...?' He looked at the young child in surprise.
Muichiro... is appearing in the Swordsmith village... three years before canon.
Tanjuro's gaze slowly moved to Soichiro, who quickly caught up with his son. He has dark red hair and a small braid and a smile on his face.
Tanjuro only recognized the man because of Muichiro's memory flashback.
Since he noticed the Upper Moons' positions of Hantengu and Gyokko had advanced and the time of the attack on the Swordsmith Village had also been forwarded.
He knew the original plot had long been messed up.
But—
Tanjuro moved his eyes to the katana at Muichiro's waist.
'Has it been deviated to such an extent?' He was greatly shocked by this.
A flash of orange entered Tanjuro's vision.
He looked over to see Shinjuro leaning against a tree while crossing his arms.
The two looked at each other, and the latter nodded to Tanjuro.
"Idiot!"
Yuchiro slapped his younger brother on the back of his head. He was astonished at the audacity with which Muichiro said with his mouth that it took him a second to act.
"We're the only ones who are here for the test thing!"
He frowned as he spoke and secretly glanced at Tanjuro with vigilance. "Don't talk nonsense with strangers!"
"It hurts, Nii-san!" Muichiro's hand covered the spot where he was hit.
"Stop hitting my head! I'll get stupid because of you!" He shouted at Yuichiro.
Yuichiro clicked his tongue as he stayed silent.
'My father and Muichiro were the same idiot!'
'They were clearly strangers that they had just met in a forest!! How did we follow them without any precautions!?'
Yuichiro pouts to himself.
Then, he remembered Gyokko's and Hantengu's forms that he had just seen and felt a chill back in his heart.
'Those things are obviously not humans! How can you deal with them so calmly!?'
Yuichiro turned his head to process what he had just seen and said nothing more.
Muichiro rubbed the sore spot on his head and looked at his brother strangely. He shook it off because he recalled what he wanted to do.
"Oh, right, Ossan!" He addressed Tanjuro.
Muichiro started to animate what he had seen Tanjuro do with the lightning.
"How did you manage to do that?? And... and hit that tree with your sword in one go that goes 'whoosh' and then 'crack'!?"
Muichiro excitedly recalled so much that he lost his breath and gasped at the end. "So powerful!"
His eyes held a longing as he clenched his fist.
Tanjuro stared at Muichiro without saying a word. He was surprised by the boy's unusually cheerful and lively personality.
However,
He glanced at Soichiro and Yuichiro.
Perhaps the kid is this kind of personality with his family still alive.
-!!!-
Tanjuro looked to the side with his eyes only and kept his head still so as to not startle the child in front of him.
His brows furrowed as a chill surged in his heart.
'Something feels wrong.'
Tanjuro felt his skin was prickled like he was sitting on pins and needles, but he couldn't pinpoint the source of the feeling.
"Ahaha..." After Muichiro finished speaking, Soichiro patted his two sons' heads.
He smiled warmly at Tanjuro in a little embarrassment. "Sorry about that; my boys were excited to meet other people."
Soichiro straightened up and bowed his body with his hands together in front of him.
"Nice to meet you; my name is Tokito Soichiro."
"We were just... in a combat test."
As he explained, Soichiro pointed to the ashes that Hantengu had turned into and asked.
"Sir, do you know where there are more trees like this? I've already cut one down, but my two sons still need to pass."
Tanjuro could only stare blankly at Soichiro.