Chapter Two: After Five Years!
『RYON』
Enjoy~~
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Ren stood in the backyard of his house, night wrapping everything in its black cloak. The stars shimmered beautifully above him, yet to him, the sky looked like the gaping maw of a massive beast about to swallow him whole.
The blue system window still floated before his eyes, the red words
[Current World: Demon Slayer]
pulsing slowly, like the countdown of a time bomb.
"Demon Slayer…" Ren repeated hoarsely, as if his throat were filled with ash.
He slowly turned toward the house. The paper windows glowed with a warm orange light. The shadows of his mother and sister moving inside looked like the most innocent shadow-play in the world.
But his mind—tainted by manga and anime memories—saw a different scene.
He imagined the door being smashed open. He imagined a man in a stylish Western suit, a white hat covering his curly hair, entering with dance-like steps reminiscent of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal.
"Are you alright?" the monster might ask in a soft, velvety voice—before turning this warm home into a slaughterhouse.
Kibutsuji Muzan.
The Demon King.
A walking nightmare.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Ren smacked his forehead repeatedly with his small hand.
"Why this world of all worlds? Why not Pokémon? Or even Naruto? At least in Naruto I could live as a civilian and only die if Pain decided to wipe out the entire village! But here? Humans are just an open buffet!"
"Or maybe a romance anime world full of beautiful heroines… wouldn't that be perfect with my handsome looks?!"
He squatted down on the damp grass, analyzing his situation with the seriousness of a pro "gamer" facing a boss level in starter gear.
"Alright, calm down. Panic won't help. I'm five years old. My sister is three. We live in a remote mountain village… wait."
His eyes froze.
"A remote mountain village? A happy family without a father? Potential smell of blood? We're literally living in the tragic backstory settings of every Hashira!"
"Damn it! I don't want to become a Hashira or a Demon Slayer! I want to live happily, with lots of money and a simple woman who loves me!"
Yukihara Ren almost cried, imagining his peaceful future with a beautiful wife and a warm family.
A cold wind blew through the trees. Ren jumped in fear, instinctively taking a ridiculous fighting stance suitable for a five-year-old.
"Nothing… just the wind."
He exhaled in relief and looked back at the system.
"The system is my only hope. If this game is hardcore, one life only, then I need to break the rules."
He tapped the [Quests] icon with his small finger.
---
[Daily Quest: The Path to Power]
Description:
To survive in this world, your current body is nothing but a handicap. Turn soft flesh into steel.
Requirements:
• 50 push-ups (0/50)
• 50 squats (0/50)
• 50 sit-ups (0/50)
• Run 5 kilometers (0/5)
Reward:
+1 Strength, +1 Endurance, Random Box (Rank E)
Failure Penalty:
No dinner.
---
Ren read the list and raised an eyebrow.
"Is this Saitama's training from One Punch Man—kid version? Fifty push-ups? I'm five! My arms are basically marshmallows!"
Still, he didn't hesitate. He lay down on the grass and started.
"One…"
His arms trembled violently.
"Two…"
It felt like gravity had increased tenfold.
"Three…"
His face fell straight into the mud.
"Damn it…" He spat dirt from his mouth, tears gathering in his emerald eyes.
"Muzan won't wait for me to grow up. Demons won't spare me just because I'm a cute kid."
An image of Sakura smiling flashed through his mind.
He clenched his teeth and pushed himself up again.
"Four!"
That night, Ren didn't fall asleep until his body completely collapsed. When his mother found him unconscious in the backyard, covered in mud and sweat, she carried him to bed—thinking he had simply played too hard, unaware that her son had begun his own private war.
Days passed.
They became weeks.
Then months.
The village's quiet routine changed with the presence of a strange child.
Villagers often saw "little Ren," the beautiful doll-like boy, running through the village at dawn with a bag full of stones strapped to his back.
"Good morning, Ren-chan! Training hard again today?" the baker would call out.
"I need to protect Mom and Sakura!" Ren would shout back without stopping, eyes fixed straight ahead.
The villagers laughed kindly, thinking it was just a childhood phase.
But for Ren, it was a matter of life and death.
As the years passed, his body began to change. His childish softness faded, replaced by lean, flexible muscle beneath pale skin.
But physical strength alone wasn't enough.
He knew that.
"Judo. Kendo. Karate. I need to learn everything," Ren decided on his seventh birthday.
He began visiting the only dojo in a neighboring village. The instructor, a lazy old man, didn't take him seriously at first.
"Kid, this place isn't for play—"
He didn't finish his sentence before finding himself slammed onto his back, thrown with perfect technique as Ren used the old man's own weight against him—a skill learned from the system.
[Skill Acquired: Hand-to-Hand Combat (Beginner) – Level 1]
Ren didn't stop at learning.
He needed money.
In this world, money meant safety.
Money meant buying a house in a large city, far from dark mountains, close to wisteria trees—flowers demons hated.
And so, the "Martial Arts Demon" was born.
In children's martial arts tournaments across nearby regions, the same scene repeated again and again:
A big, bullying opponent mocking Ren's long hair and beautiful, feminine features.
"Lost, little miss?"
Then the match would begin.
Less than three seconds later, the opponent would be staring at the ceiling, questioning the meaning of life.
Ren collected prize money and saved every single yen.
On his ninth birthday, he shocked his mother.
"Mom, we're moving."
"What? Where, Ren? And why?" Yumi asked in surprise.
Ren placed a bag full of money on the table.
"To Akasaka City. I found a house there. Bigger than this one—and close to a major hospital that needs your expertise."
He didn't tell her the real reason.
He didn't tell her that the night before, he had woken up to a rotten stench from the forest—a smell that made him freeze and vomit his dinner.
They had to leave.
Now.
---
Five years later (Current Age: 10)
Akasaka City became their new home. It was lively, its streets lit by lanterns at night, police patrols roaming around—useless against demons, but the density of people gave a false sense of safety.
In the yard of their new house, which Ren had surrounded with so many wisteria trees that neighbors complained about the strong scent, stood Ren—now a ten-year-old boy.
His appearance was striking.
His black hair had grown longer and thicker, tied into a high ponytail. His green eyes were sharper, deeper. His body was perfectly sculpted—a balance between agility and explosive strength.
[Name: Kurogane Ren]
[Level: 15]
[Strength: 35 (Average adult: 10)]
[Speed: 42]
[Skills: Judo (Expert), Kendo (Expert), Cooking (Intermediate – thanks to pleasing Sakura), Stealth (Advanced), Others…]
Impressive stats for a ten-year-old.
He could defeat ten adult men with one hand.
But Ren wasn't smiling.
In his hand was a wooden sword made of solid oak. In front of him lay a large rock he had dragged from the river.
"Focus… breathing…"
He closed his eyes, trying to imitate what he had read in manga.
"Breathing… water? No, I don't know how. Breathing… thunder? How do I electrify my lungs?"
He tried to regulate his breathing, channeling all his physical strength—35 points—into his arms.
"HAAAA!"
He swung the wooden sword down with all his might.
CRAAASH!
Fragments flew everywhere.
Ren looked at the result.
The wooden sword had split cleanly in half.
The rock… had only a small scratch.
Ren fell to his knees, gripping the broken handle. Despair seeped into his heart.
"This is useless…"
he whispered angrily.
"My physical strength is increasing, yes. But without Breathing Techniques, without a Nichirin sword, I'm just a strong human. If I face a demon, I might hit it—but I won't kill it. It'll regenerate in seconds and eat me as dessert."
He remembered Tanjiro's fight against Rui.
The speed. The power. The threads that sliced through iron.
He remembered the Upper Moons.
"What's the point of being a judo champion if my enemy can regenerate its head?"
Ren stood up and brushed the dust off his black hakama.
(If you find something confusing but are curious, look it up on Google)
He looked up at the sky as clouds began to gather.
He had hit a wall.
The system gave him stats—but not supernatural techniques out of nothing. He had to learn them.
"I need a teacher."
Ren decided, throwing the broken sword aside.
"I need to find the Demon Slayer Corps. I need to find a Hashira—or even a retired trainer. I can't stay here forever playing bodyguard for my family. The best defense is offense."
That night, for the first time in years, Ren dressed entirely in black, covered his face with a scarf, and slipped out of his room—not to train.
But to hunt.
Not demons—but information.
He was looking for crows.
Kasugai Crows.
"You ominous, talking birds…" Ren muttered as he leapt lightly across the rooftops of the city, moving far beyond normal human limits.
"Where are you hiding?"
This was the beginning of his true journey—
the journey that would take him from an "otaku" to a Demon Slayer.
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End of Chapter Two
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