[Check Out My P4treon For +30 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!! And get chapters before publishing them here for free on my p4treon][https://p4treon.com/talkfictome]
===
The sky had fully darkened, and a biting chill settled over the mountain.
Sakuragi Rukawa had survived as a hunter long before he ever picked up a blade, and he hadn't forgotten the art of the trail. After years in the Demon Slayer Corps, he had learned to tune his senses to a frequency most humans ignored. He had been prowling Tiger Head Mountain for days, and in the dense, high-altitude forest, he finally caught the scent of something that didn't belong to the natural order.
He stopped before a cedar tree as thick as a man's embrace. The trunk had been violently snapped, splinters of wood white and jagged against the dark bark. Rukawa leaned on his wooden staff, his eyes narrowing. This wasn't the work of a landslide or a bear. This was raw, inhuman power.
He leaned closer, catching a faint, cloying stench. He knew it well: the copper tang of blood and the rot of a man-eater.
As he moved deeper, the aura of the demon thickened, a heavy pressure that made the hair on his arms stand up. He found tracks in the loam—footprints that started human but warped into something beastial.
Ordinary demons were limited by their birth, but those that gorged on human flesh could break those chains. They became Mutant Demons, their bodies twisting into grotesque displays of physical excess. While they lacked the supernatural trickery of a Blood Demon Art, they possessed a raw, terrifying strength that could overwhelm even seasoned Slayers. If Rukawa didn't put this thing down now, the nearby villages would become a buffet.
Finally, he found it: a hidden cave tucked behind a mountain stream.
This place had once been a tiger's den. Decades ago, Rukawa had come here to slay the beast that lived within, using its pelt as a betrothal gift for the woman he loved. The tiger had been gone for years, but the cave was no longer empty.
Rukawa stared into the abyss of the den, hesitating. The narrow space was a deathtrap for an old man. He drew his Nichirin Blade, the steel well-maintained despite its long retirement. Before he could decide on a plan, a gust of foul wind erupted from the shadows behind him.
His Calculating Survivor instincts—honed through a lifetime of combat—saved him. Rukawa rolled forward, the air whistling over his head as a massive claw missed his skull by an inch. He came up in a crouch, his blade flashing in a rising arc.
Whoosh—
The sound of rising flames filled his ears—a phantom echo of his power. The blade turned a dull, fiery red in the moonlight.
"A Nichirin Blade? The Corps?" a low, gravelly voice rasped.
In the pale light, Rukawa saw his hunter. It was a demon the size of a water buffalo, crouched on all fours like a predator.
"The Corps sent an old man to die?" The Tiger Demon straightened, towering three meters high. Its muscles were slabs of meat, its bloodshot pupils fixed on Rukawa with predatory amusement. It preferred younger, firmer flesh, but it would settle for the old man's marrow.
Rukawa didn't waste breath on words. He inhaled, a deep, rattling pull of air that flooded his aging lungs with oxygen, forced the blood to pump with a long-lost vitality.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
Rukawa exploded forward. The blade seemed to ignite, a streak of crimson fire cutting through the night. It was an all-or-nothing thrust; his body couldn't handle a prolonged engagement.
The Tiger Demon's hackles rose. It sensed the sudden, lethal heat and realized it had underestimated the "old meat." It lunged back, raising its massive forearms to shield its throat.
The sound of steel biting into bone echoed through the trees.
"Haha... Old man, you're weak!" the demon shrieked. Rukawa's blade was buried deep in its forearm, but it hadn't reached the neck.
Rukawa's face went pale. The backlash of the Breathing Style was tearing through him. Overclocking his bio-rhythms at his age was like redlining an engine that had been sitting in a garage for thirty years.
The Tiger Demon lunged, its hand closing around Rukawa's throat. It lifted him off the ground, baring its yellowed fangs. "That hurt, old man. I think I'll eat your eyes first."
Before the demon could close its jaws, a blur of motion emerged from the tree line.
CRACK.
The sound of the demon's neck snapping was as clear as a gunshot.
The Tiger Demon was sent flying like a cannonball, smashing through a dozen trees before coming to a halt in a cloud of splinters and dust.
"Cough... Kael?!" Rukawa stared at his grandson in disbelief. The boy stood there, looking completely unruffled, despite having just kicked a three-meter monster through a forest. When had his grandson stopped being a normal man?
"Are you alright, Grandfather?"
"Wait, Kael! It's a demon! You can't kill it with brute force! You need my blade!" Rukawa shouted, realizing his Nichirin was still stuck in the demon's arm.
"This old bag is right! You can't kill me!" the Tiger Demon roared. Its head was hanging at a sickening angle, its skull caved in from the impact of Kael's kick, but it was already knitting back together.
Kael didn't reply. He rolled his shoulders, his Calculating Survivor mind analyzing the demon's regeneration rate. Brute force wouldn't finish the job, but it would certainly soften it up.
The Tiger Demon scrambled to its feet, pulling the Nichirin blade from its arm and tossing it aside. It looked at Kael, and for the first time in its immortal life, it felt a primal, shivering fear. Its animal intuition was screaming at it to run.
"Damn you! I'm a Mutant Demon!" it bellowed, but its body was already turning. It dropped to all fours and bolted into the dark.
"I'll come back for you after I've eaten the village!" it promised itself.
It covered a hundred meters in seconds, a blur of shadow. But Kael was faster. He leaped from a standing start, a mid-air strike sending the demon rolling across the forest floor once more.
Before it could stand, Kael was on its back, one hand pinning its neck to the earth. The power of the Six Kaels made the demon's struggles look like a kitten's.
"What... what are you?!"
Kael's response was a heavy, downward punch that detonated the demon's head on contact.
He shook the blood off his hand, watching the headless torso. He was curious: without a brain, how would it process? Would the consciousness migrate to a secondary organ, or would the soul sustain the body? In Night City, Tony Stark would have paid millions to dissect a specimen like this.
"Kael! The neck! Use the blade!" Rukawa shouted, limping toward him.
"Does it have to be the neck, Grandfather? Can't I just pulp it?" Kael picked up the Nichirin blade, testing its weight.
"This is the law of the Corps. Only Nichirin steel can sever the connection."
Kael nodded. He didn't just want the "what"; he wanted the "why." But the demon was already starting to heal, and Rukawa was looking increasingly frantic. Kael gripped the hilt, executing a precise vertical and horizontal slash that reduced the demon to cauterized chunks.
The Tiger Demon finally dissolved, its soul sent back to the abyss.
"You brat," Rukawa wheezed, finally catching his breath. "Why did you follow me?"
"If I hadn't, I'd be picking your bones out of a tiger's den," Kael retorted. He went to return the blade, but his movement froze. He tightened his grip and turned toward the dark treeline.
"Something's coming. Fast."
"Human or demon?" Rukawa asked, his hand going to his spare tanto.
A figure burst from the forest, a blur of motion that seemed to shake the very ground. The newcomer wore a flame-patterned haori, his golden hair streaked with red. His aura was like a sun, bright and overwhelming.
"That haori... that hair... are you from the Rengoku family?" Rukawa whispered.
Kael looked at the youth. Fiery hair, thick dark eyebrows, and eyes that seemed to burn with an inner light.
Rengoku Kyojuro sized them up, his eyes wide and unblinking. After confirming they were uninjured, he let out a loud, booming sigh of relief.
"Senior Sakuragi! I hope I am not too late!"
It seemed the old man's message to the Corps had been heard after all.
===
Note: So far this story is published up to chapter 65 on my patreon, go check it out
exclusive 18+ character images, and early chapters, please visit my Patreon. Thanks for your support!
p4treon.com/talkfictome
if you want more updates == supports with power stones
Every 40 Power Stones == Bonus Chapter
every three 5-star reviews == Bonus Chapter