Ryomen Sukuna slowly opened his eyes. The scenery that greeted him was unfamiliar.
He lifted his head, gazing blankly at the scattered, gentle snowfall in the sky.
"...Is this hell?"
In his memory, just a moment ago, he had encountered Mahito within the cycle of souls and exchanged a few brief words with him.
He looked at his small, rough palms, felt the beating heart of this body, the cold winter wind hitting his face, and the warm breath from his mouth. This was undoubtedly proof of life.
At that moment, the memories of this body's owner, Kamado Tanjiro, flooded into Sukuna's mind like a tidal wave.
"..."
After a minute of digesting the information, Sukuna roughly understood where he was.
To sum it up in one sentence, this was a world without curses or sorcerers, but it was far from peaceful, as beings called demons existed.
"Demons, huh? Interesting."
Sukuna examined the body. He could clearly confirm that he had incarnated into it.
But he had no memory of why this happened or the entire process of his incarnation. Even Tanjiro's memories contained nothing related to it.
It probably wasn't Kenjaku's doing. Sukuna was certain of that.
Could it be that some god really heard his wish?
Sukuna didn't dwell on the issue. Rather than worrying about the reason, it was better to make good use of this second life.
Just then, Sukuna heard a meaningless roar coming from behind him.
"GAAAAAAAH—!"
Through Tanjiro's memories, Sukuna knew the source of the voice.
It was the only possible survivor of the massacre Tanjiro had been searching for a doctor to treat: his sister, Kamado Nezuko.
But since the current user of this body was Sukuna, not Tanjiro, Nezuko's thrashing didn't affect his stance, let alone cause him to fall off a cliff.
Feeling Nezuko's erratic pounding on his back and her tireless, meaningless roars, Sukuna couldn't help but speak.
"Shut up. Be quiet."
With that, he simply let go of Nezuko, dropping her directly onto the ground.
"Ah—!"
Clearly, Sukuna's action displeased Nezuko. She pushed herself up from the snow and lunged at him.
But Nezuko's attack didn't land. Sukuna calmly turned and smacked her into a snowbank.
Sukuna didn't check on Nezuko immediately. Instead, he looked at his own outstretched palm and muttered.
"Shorter than those two brats."
The two brats Sukuna referred to were, of course, Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro, the vessels he had incarnated into before. Compared to their heights of 173 cm and 175 cm, Tanjiro's 165 cm was indeed inferior.
"Ah—!"
Nezuko quickly got up from the snowbank and let out an aggressive roar toward Sukuna.
Sukuna crossed his arms and calmly observed Nezuko.
Looking at the large bloodstains on Nezuko's kimono, by normal human standards, she should have been immobile from blood loss long ago.
She shouldn't have been able to continuously roar with such vigor or move with such unnatural speed.
But more than that, what caught Sukuna's attention was the bulging veins on Nezuko's ferocious face, the fangs, and her serpent-like pupils.
"So this is a demon? Interesting."
Sukuna's eyes were full of curiosity toward this new phenomenon.
Because Sukuna's earlier actions had successfully angered Nezuko, she lunged at him even faster.
Sukuna simply sidestepped, dodging her claw strike, and still found time to comment.
"Oh? You got faster."
Feeling mocked, Nezuko glanced at Sukuna beside her, clenched her left fist, and threw a punch.
Sukuna also threw a punch, meeting hers directly.
With a dull thud, the clear sound of bones breaking and piercing through skin rang out, followed by Nezuko's howl of pain.
"AH—!"
The blood spraying from Nezuko's wound instantly dyed the snow beneath them red.
Seeing that Nezuko, as a demon, was only this strong, Sukuna's interest was temporarily extinguished.
After all, she was just an animal incapable of communication, so there was no need to waste more effort. Besides, from Tanjiro's memories, demons didn't seem to be rare. He could just find a stronger one to study later.
Sukuna walked over to Nezuko, placed his hand on top of her head, and said quietly.
"Cleave"
As Sukuna had expected, he successfully activated his technique. However, due to the state of this body, he was not at full power and would need some time to adjust.
The existence that was once named Nezuko, now turned demon, was completely diced into three-finger-sized cubes by Sukuna's Cleave, scattering across the ground along with her blood.
Sukuna felt liquid slide down his face.
Was it the residual consciousness of this body's original owner?
But Sukuna didn't care. That was the extent of the influence he could exert.
After all, the owner of this body wasn't like Yuji Itadori, a cage specifically made by Kenjaku to contain him.
Having experienced the death of his family and then watching his own body kill his sister in such a short time—the shock of that was several levels above what Megumi Fushiguro had suffered.
Sukuna looked at the chunks of flesh on the ground. He figured that using demon blood for a Bath would probably have a similar effect as using cursed spirit blood.
Sukuna suddenly missed Uraume. If he were here, all of this could be left to him.
Just then, Sukuna sensed movement and killing intent from behind. He tilted his head slightly and dodged the blade aimed at decapitating him.
Giyu Tomioka paused briefly. He had attacked from behind, yet the man had dodged so easily?
Having followed Nezuko's voice here, he didn't act rashly after his failed sneak attack. He locked eyes with Sukuna.