Disclaimer: Demon Slayer is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
---
It felt like their souls were locking eyes, and Tanjuro couldn't help but shiver.
Yoriichi smiled, slowly withdrawing his gaze.
Born with the Transparent World, he had noticed something was off about Sumiyoshi from the very beginning.
The way he walked, the tone of his voice, even the subtle shift in the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Though he didn't understand the situation, he surmised that the Sumiyoshi standing before him now was likely not Sumiyoshi.
As for who it really was,
Yoriichi's expression was relaxed as he gazed into the distance.
He focused his eyes.
It didn't matter.
Shing—!
He stepped back slightly, picked up the wooden stick broken in two from the ground, and assumed a drawing stance. The rhythm of his breathing grew deeper.
"Here I come, Sumiyoshi-san."
Thus spoke Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
---
-Location: Butterfly Mansion-
"What's Dad doing?"
Hanako stood at the doorway, peeking her head cautiously inside and asking softly with confusion.
"He's resting. He was out on a mission all last night, after all."
Nezuko held Hanako's hand, looking towards their father, who sat on his bedding with his eyes closed, and explained in a low voice.
"Alright, let's go. Let's not disturb Father."
"...Okay." Hanako obediently nodded, glancing once more at Tanjuro before slowly stepping away from the door.
"I wanted to play with him..." She mumbled under her breath.
"How about playing with your big sister instead?" Nezuko replied with a smile.
"Ok!" Hanako immediately jumped for joy hearing Nezuko's offer.
Around the corner outside the hallway.
A single yellow dandelion swayed slightly.
Drip.
Sweat dripped onto the wooden floor.
Zenitsu crouched there, his face pale with panic. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead as he stared with terrified eyes toward Tanjuro's room.
'No way, impossible!'
'There's no way he's just resting!'
'If he were, his body wouldn't be making sounds like that!'
Zenitsu's pupils contracted as he swallowed hard.
His ears twitched slightly.
Just moments ago, as he'd come up to the second floor, he'd heard a strange whooshing sound coming from somewhere.
After listening carefully, he realized.
It was the breathing sound of Tanjuro!
'So terrifying! Is he even human?!'
"...Maybe I shouldn't come to the second floor." Zenitsu turned his head, his earlier intention to walk down the second-floor hallway vanishing completely. He turned around dejectedly and started down the stairs.
His legs bent, and the weakness from overexertion during training immediately hit him, nearly sending him tumbling down the stairs.
Stumbling, he caught himself on the wall and steadied himself for a long moment.
Then he looked up, pursed his lips tightly, and called out in a frustrated, low voice.
"Tanjiro~" He reached out a hand as he stumbled down the stairs. "I slept like you told me to, but why am I still so tired?"
"I feel even more tired after waking up... I hate it..." he sniffled.
Downstairs.
Tanjiro heard Zenitsu's voice and was momentarily taken aback from his rest.
Recalling the sight from the other day of [Zenitsu training even in his sleep], Tanjiro couldn't help but smile wryly.
At the same time, he looked down at his own hands, covered in rough calluses.
He clenched his fists tightly! His gaze firm, Tanjiro suddenly looked up!
Zenitsu, Yuichiro, Muichiro—everyone was working so hard. He had no reason to keep resting like this!
'I'm the eldest son!'
He stood up abruptly, his slightly dusty face filled with determination, and turned his head toward the side. "Rengoku-san!"
"Let's continue practicing!"
"Hmm?" Kyojuro Rengoku turned his head. Certain he hadn't misheard, he laughed heartily and nodded vigorously. "Good!"
"That's the spirit, Tanjiro boy!"
---
-Location: Mount Sagiri-
Meanwhile.
The Kasugai crow, tasked with delivering messages, cawed loudly, flapping its wings and soaring high into the sky.
"Caw! Caw!"
Crackle! Pop!
Sakonji sat before the hearth, burning firewood. He removed the mask from his face, squinting as he looked at the letter in his hand.
"...A letter from Giyu?"
His rough fingers smoothed the letter paper, his eyes scanning line by line.
The firelight, filtering through the paper, faintly illuminated his white-haired temples.
"...Golden lightning."
Sakonji's gaze paused on the content of the letter. As he read Giyu's written phrase [Tanjuro-sanusedlightning], a flicker of emotion stirred in his eyes.
After reading the entire letter, he carefully folded it away. Only then did he look up at the sky visible beneath the eaves.
He murmured to himself.
"...As I thought, it wasn't a coincidence."
Sakonji, with his keen sense of smell, had detected a hint of a deceptive lie from Tanjuro back at Mt. Koboshi. But the man's emotion had been very murky, so he hadn't been sure.
Now, however, it seemed a power even more inhuman than a demon's had appeared.
"...That boy Zenitsu, is he unlucky... or..."
Sakonji's muttering voice faded softly.
---
On a certain mountain.
The somewhat trampled grass seemed to lament the events that had just transpired.
Beneath a tree.
"Hey, bastard! Let me go!!"
Inosuke shouted angrily at being tied tightly to a tree. He kicked wildly with his still-free legs, struggling with all his might. "I haven't settled the score from our match yet!!"
Inosuke strained his neck to shout, his boar head twisting in anger, but he couldn't break free from the ropes. "Hey—!"
Pat, pat.
Muichiro dusted off his hands nearby. His sword had long been sheathed. He looked with satisfaction at his handiwork before him.
"Not bad, if I do say so myself." He put his hands on his hips and nodded.
"Hmm..." Their father leaned in at that moment, looking at the way Inosuke was tied up. He patted Muichiro's head affectionately and smiled.
"You did very well, Muichiro. You can even hold your own against a wild boar now."
"...?" Yuichiro stood woodenly to the side, his expression blank and speechless as he looked at his father and younger brother.
They'd been practicing swordsmanship and breathing techniques for so long now.
Not being able to handle a wild boar would be the abnormal thing!
No!
That wasn't the point!
Yuichiro whipped his head around to look at Inosuke, who was still struggling desperately.
This guy called himself something like Inosuke, right?! He had a name!
He was clearly not a wild boar!
"Bastard!"
Inosuke grew even more furious watching the father and son chatting right in front of him. White vapor streamed incessantly from his boar's nose:
"Are you even listening to me!!"
"Let's settle this—!!"
A shadow fell over him. Someone stood before him.
Inosuke froze, looking up in confusion.
It was Yuichiro, a vein bulging on his forehead.
"Huh?" He raised his voice, looking at Inosuke with an incredulous expression, his brow deeply furrowed, his tone extremely impatient.
"Are you an idiot?"
"Wha!" Inosuke was stunned. The sudden verbal attack caught him off guard, and for a moment he was speechless, unsure how to respond.
"What did you say?!" He shouted out his frustration and anger back at Yuichiro.
Yuichiro stood before him. He glanced sideways at his father and brother beside him, his clenched fists trembling slightly.
"One after another..."
He turned and vented his anger as he yelled at Inosuke.
"You got yourself tied up without even noticing, and you still say the match isn't settled?!"
He pointed a finger at him.
"You've already been completely defeated, you fool!"
"Idiot!"
"Airhead!"
"Brainless!"
Inosuke, who had spent years in the mountains, only ever exchanging blows with beasts or "playing" with farmers down the mountain, had never experienced such a verbal lashing.
Inosuke was completely stunned.
Breathless after delivering his tirade, Yuichiro regulated his breathing, straightened his uniform, exhaled, and then ignored the stunned Inosuke.
He turned and looked at his father and brother.
"Let's go."
"At this rate, by the time we cross this mountain, the sun will be setting."
Then without waiting, he headed off toward the direction leading over the mountain.
Behind him, Muichiro and Soichiro exchanged glances.
"Wait for me, brother!"
Muichiro quickly hurried after him.
Soichiro smiled kindly at Inosuke, discreetly dropping a small knife near him, then followed suit.
Watching their retreating figures.
Inosuke slumped down, staring blankly in the direction the Tokito family had gone.
'Why was that guy so angry?'
When the Tokito family disappeared from sight, he looked away, his boar's head drooping low.
'Airhead? What did that mean?' He thought about it for a moment.
"...thinking too much made my head hurt."
Inosuke decided not to think about it anymore.
His attention was quickly caught by the small knife, the one Soichiro had dropped.
His gaze slowly moved to the ropes binding him. He fell silent.
"Hah—?!" Inosuke jerked his head up, struggling furiously, white vapor gushing from his boar nostrils. "Are you looking down on me?!"
"Watch this!"
Crack!
Several disturbing pops came from Inosuke's body as he writhed and squirmed like a caterpillar. Parts of his body instantly caved in.
His arms became disfigured and loose, pressing tightly against his torso, creating space to slip through the tightly bound ropes!
He leaped up, jumping free from the ropes.
With a quick flick of his arm...
Crack!
The dislocated bones snapped back into place. Inosuke clenched his fists tightly.
His muscles tensed as he turned his head toward the direction the Tokito family had gone.
"Hahahaha! How's that?!" he shouted, casually popping his other dislocated arm back into place as well. "Bet you didn't expect I could do that!"
After shouting for a while and realizing no one was paying him any attention, Inosuke lowered his raised hands.
His blue boar eyes stared at the footprints left on the ground by the departing Tokito family.
Inosuke had never encountered creatures as strong as those three before.
Since becoming the king of the mountain, he hadn't felt this excited, this thrilled that seeped into his body and bones!
He hasn't stopped trembling for a while.
The moment their clash happened, the quiet one tied him up before he could even react.
"Incredible. This is truly incredible."
White vapor shot out in two straight lines from his boar nostrils!
Inosuke's eyes sparkled with a light called excitement.
"A contest of speed! I won't lose!!"
He jumped up and shouted, then began sprinting wildly along the trail of footprints they'd left.
"Wait for me!"
...
Not long after, Inosuke chased after the Tokito.
A middle-aged man carrying a hoe cautiously poked his head out from the nearby bushes.
After confirming Inosuke was long gone.
"...He's really gone?" he muttered hesitantly to himself. The ecstatic joy he'd imagined he'd feel upon Inosuke's departure didn't come.
Instead, he felt a bit hollow, somehow bereft of something important.
---
Time passed.
The Tokito family had already crossed Inosuke's mountain.
Standing at the foot of a new mountain, they looked at the expanse of rice paddies around them and exchanged glances.
Muichiro suddenly remembered as he jerked his gaze toward the crow in his arms, lifting its wing and shouting in alarm.
"Hey! Mr. Crow! Mr. Crow!"
"Are you okay?!"
Muichiro shook the crow vigorously.
Shaken awake, the crow groggily came to, looking around dazedly.
"East-northeast... Head east-northeast..." A hoarse voice rasped from its throat:
"...Natagumo Mountain."
"Caw."
Then its neck lolled to the side, and it passed out again.
Muichiro's pupils contracted. He cried out in alarm as he held up the crow. "No! Mr. Crow! Don't die!"
---
-Location: Natagumo Mountain-
A faint mist permeates through the dark mountain forests. Dim sunlight struggled to filter through the dense trees and the fog.
The trees were glistening with spider webs, but the moment they touched the sunlight, they turned to ash and were swept by wind.
An old, dilapidated mansion sat halfway up the mountain, with countless spider webs patching its broken wooden walls.
It was pitch black inside, the exterior worn and broken, yet no sunlight could penetrate it.
Candles lit the room.
A pale boy with white hair, the ends twisted to wrap around his face, sat in the middle of the family gathering.
His skin was pale, his blue eyelashes motionless in the candlelight.
"What is this?"
A female demon with narrow, scarlet pupils before him looked down at the small, crimson-red dish filled with blood.
"Blood?" She looked up, her eyes trembling as she stared at the white-haired boy before her.
Engraved in the boy's pupils were the characters. [Upper Moon] [Four]
"Drink it." A cold voice issued from his mouth.
"I will grant you power."
'Can such a thing even be done?!' The female demon's brow twitched slightly.
'Wasn't only the Demon King capable of doing such a thing?'
"Drink it."
Seemingly chilled by his stare, the female demon shuddered, no longer daring to meet the boy's gaze. She simply grabbed the dish before her and raised it to her mouth.
Gulp.
Her throat bobbed as the blood in the dish continuously poured into her mouth.
"Yes." The boy stared straight at the scene before him, completely devoid of emotion.
"You no longer need to fear demon slayers." He stated calmly.
"Congratulations."
He spoke each word deliberately.
"This way, we can truly be family."
Clatter!
Halfway through drinking, the female demon's hand suddenly stiffened. The dish fell from her grasp uncontrollably.
"Cough! Hah!" She clutched at her neck as dense, bulging veins spread across it, screaming in agony.
Crystalline saliva dripped from her mouth as she screamed.
The boy showed no reaction whatsoever.
The candle flame danced in his silver-white pupils, his eyes utterly devoid of emotion.
"Rui's family."