Kochou Shinobu took a deep breath of the icy air, her mind filled with a thousand thoughts.
Once doubt is born, the hand holding the sword is no longer absolutely steady.
If a swordsman harbors confusion in their heart, the blade will hesitate, and their steps will falter.
She felt as if she were bound by invisible shackles, every step sinking into a quagmire of guilt and confusion.
Behind him, Hanayuki Ichika’s vision blurred completely as Kochou Shinobu’s trembling purple silhouette gradually receded, finally melting into the endless darkness.
His consciousness sank into a cold abyss.
…
…
Time flowed silently; several hours passed.
Amidst the ruins, the “corpse” that should have completely crumbled and dissipated under the Wisteria Poison and fatal injuries suddenly twitched its finger ever so slightly.
Immediately afterward, the heart that had stopped suddenly began to beat again!
“Cough… cough, cough, cough!”
Hanayuki Ichika snapped his eyes open and bolted upright from the ground, coughing violently and gasping for the cold, pre-dawn air.
He looked down at his chest in astonishment—where there had once been a horrific bloody hole, it was now completely intact, with only his tattered clothes and dried blood serving as proof of the severe trauma he had endured.
Not only that, he felt an unprecedented power surging through his body.
His muscles were firmer, his bones denser, and his five senses had become exceptionally sharp…
The Wisteria Toxin that had been ravaging him earlier was now long gone without a trace.
Instead, it seemed like a sort of catalyst, causing incomprehensible changes to his demon physique, making it tougher and more powerful.
He had survived!
“Ding! Host detected at the threshold of death. ‘Strongest Demon Hunter System’ awakening…”
“Host physique undergoing sublimation and improvement. Kibutsuji Muzan’s bloodline control has been severed…”
“Current main quest: Join the Demon Slayer Corps and become a Demon Slayer.”
“Quest reward: Physique and bloodline strengthened to the level of the Twelve Kizuki Lower Ranks; maintain human reason and memory without loss under normal conditions;”
“Greatly increased swordsmanship comprehension; greatly increased mastery over demonic power; obtained basic Breathing Style adaptability…”
The system’s cold yet pleasant voice echoed in Hanayuki Ichika’s mind.
The latter was stunned for a moment, then couldn’t help but complain wildly in his mind:
[Wait, man… you only awakened after I died twice?]
[And besides, I’ve already become a demon, yet you want me to bind to a Demon Slayer System?]
[And join the Demon Slayer Corps? If I go, I’ll probably be chopped into mincemeat by those Hashira in minutes…]
However, the faint dizziness in his mind and the sense of emptiness as certain memories slowly blurred forced him to face reality.
When he first became a demon, it was already his limit to barely maintain his sanity and memories using the combined mental strength of two souls.
Although his physique had been enhanced as a blessing in disguise, the erosion of his memories by demonic instincts didn’t seem to have stopped.
If he delayed any longer, he feared he would truly lose everything that made him “Hanayuki Ichika” and completely degenerate into a man-eating demon.
Completing the system quest might be his only hope…
…
At the same time, in “Tsukimi Village,” about thirty li away from the ruins of the Hanayuki residence.
This was a peaceful village nestled in a valley, famous for growing medicinal herbs and brewing sake.
However, at this moment, Tsukimi Village had been reduced to a living hell.
The scent of blood permeated the night air, ruined houses, scattered limbs, bloodstains that hadn’t yet dried…
everything told the story of a brutal attack that had just taken place.
Kochou Shinobu knelt on one knee in the open space in the center of the village, panting heavily.
Her purple uniform was torn in multiple places, with deep, bone-deep claw marks on her left shoulder, right abdomen, and outer thigh.
Blood continued to seep out, staining her purple haori a dark red.
The nichirin sword in her hand was dripping blood, and her hand holding it was trembling slightly.
It wasn’t fear, but excessive blood loss and physical exhaustion.
Around her lay the corpses of five demons, scattered in various directions.
Those were the results of her giving it her all and performing every form of Insect Breathing.
“Insect Breathing: Butterfly Dance: Caprice”—with ultra-high-speed thrusts, she had slain two demons lunging from the front.
“Insect Breathing: Bee Sting Dance: True Flutter”— a swift thrust like a venomous bee, piercing the throat of the third demon.
“Insect Breathing: Dragonfly Dance: Compound Eye Hexagon”— a wide-range six-strike thrust that forced back the fourth and fifth demons’ encirclement and blinded one of them.
“Insect Breathing: Centipede Dance: Hundred-Legged Zigzag”— high-speed footwork that wove through the group of demons, avoiding fatal attacks while slashing multiple demons with her poisoned blade.
Every form was exquisite, and every strike was precise and lethal.
But what she faced was an encirclement of fifteen demons, and—
“Truly wonderful, Hashira-sama,” a frivolous voice came from ahead.
The speaker was a male demon who appeared to be in his twenties.
He wore a magnificent dark red kimono, his face pale and handsome, with the characters for “Lower Rank Six” clearly engraved in his eyes.
His name was “Aburako,” the current Lower Rank Six of the Twelve Kizuki; his Blood Demon Art could manipulate shadows and create illusions.
Surrounding Aburako were ten other demons of various forms.
They were all Aburako’s minions; though not on the level of the Twelve Kizuki, each was brutal, cunning, and worked in perfect coordination.
Kochou Shinobu had realized this was a trap the moment she stepped into Tsukimi Village and detected something was wrong.
She hadn’t sent a distress signal to Kanao Tsuyuri, who might have been on a mission nearby— she didn’t want Kanao to step into this nearly certain death trap with her.
Just like back then, when her sister Kanae had begged her to quit the Demon Slayer Corps before she died…
“Hashira-sama, your breathing is completely disordered,” Aburako paced forward elegantly.
“You’ve used all the forms of Insect Breathing, haven’t you?”
“What will you do now?”
Kochou Shinobu forced herself to stand up and said coldly, “Even without a Breathing Style… I will kill every single demon!”
Before her voice had even faded, she charged forward with her blade once more!
But this time, her speed was noticeably slower.
Blood loss, physical exhaustion, and multiple severe injuries caused a fatal sluggishness in her movements.
Slash—
The claws of a long-armed demon swiped across her back from the side, tearing another bone-deep wound!
“Ugh!” Kochou Shinobu groaned and stumbled forward.
Aburako took the opportunity to lunge from the front, his fingers pressed together like a blade, stabbing straight for her heart!
She couldn’t dodge.
Kochou Shinobu’s pupils contracted; her sister’s gentle smiling face flashed through her mind, along with the innocent faces of the children at the Butterfly Mansion, and…
that handsome Demon Youth who had spoken absurdities but protected her with his life.
Am I going to die…
At that critical moment— a figure rushed in from afar and slammed down hard between Aburako and Kochou Shinobu!
“Boom!”
The ground cracked, and dust flew everywhere.
Aburako was forced to jump back several meters, looking at the newcomer in surprise.
It was a black-haired youth in tattered clothes, his face handsome yet pale, his skin bore dark demonic markings, and his eyes glinted with an inhuman sky-white luster under the moonlight—the characteristics of a demon.
“Mr. Demon…?” Kochou Shinobu murmured in disbelief.
She recognized that face—the youth who should have died from the Wisteria Poison hours ago!
Hanayuki Ichika didn’t look back, only whispering, “Can you still move? If you can, run.”
His voice was somewhat raspy from tension.
The thick scent of blood from the demons before him made him want to retch.
“Who… are you?” Aburako narrowed his eyes, sizing up Hanayuki Ichika.
“The aura of a fellow demon… but it’s strange.”
“You have that gentleman’s bloodline, yet you don’t seem entirely under control. And—”
His gaze suddenly sharpened.
“Why are you protecting a Demon Slayer?”
The ten surrounding demons also showed confused and hostile looks.
A demon protecting a Demon Slayer?
They didn’t dare believe their eyes, hoping it was just a hallucination…
This simply overturned their understanding of the world!!!
Hanayuki Ichika didn’t answer.
He just stood in front of Kochou Shinobu, hands clenched into fists, his nails involuntarily growing longer.
“Not talking? Then die together!” Aburako lost his patience and waved his hand.
“Kill him, then capture that Hashira!”
The demons roared and lunged.
Hanayuki Ichika let out a low growl and met them head-on.
He punched, kicked, and bit—fighting in a savage manner based entirely on instinct.
His claws could tear through demon flesh, and his strength could crush demon bones, but he soon discovered a problem:
Without a nichirin sword, he couldn’t deliver a fatal blow to these demons!
A demon whose throat he had torn open saw its wound heal in seconds.
Another demon whose spine he had shattered actually struggled to stand and stabbed at his abdomen with regenerated bone spikes!
Slash!
Hanayuki Ichika dodged his vitals, but a wound was still slashed across his ribs.
Demon blood mixed with his own, dripping onto the ground.
“Attack the neck or the heart! Use a nichirin sword!” Kochou Shinobu shouted from behind.
She gritted her teeth, trying to stand and help, but collapsed to her knees again due to excessive blood loss.
Hearing this, Hanayuki Ichika snapped his head back to look at her.
Without hesitation, Kochou Shinobu tossed her nichirin sword to him.
“Catch!”
The thin-bladed purple nichirin sword traced an arc through the air.
Hanayuki Ichika reached out and caught it—the hilt was warm, still retaining the temperature of Kochou Shinobu’s small hand.
The moment he gripped the hilt, a strange sensation welled up in his heart.
This wasn’t the first time he had held a sword.
It was as if some long-buried instinct had been awakened; his fingers naturally adjusted to the most precise grip, and his wrist, elbow, and shoulder formed a perfect chain of power.
This thin-bladed nichirin sword felt weightless in his hand, yet also like an extension of his arm.
More incredibly, images of Kochou Shinobu fighting suddenly flashed through his mind— the purple figure dancing like a butterfly, the tip of the blade tracing lethal paths, the rhythm of breathing perfectly synchronized with muscle contractions…
“Hmph, so what if you have a nichirin sword?” Aburako sneered.
“Do you think just anyone can use a Hashira’s sword?”
Hanayuki Ichika didn’t answer.
He looked down at the sword in his hand, took a deep breath, and then— moved.
There was no Breathing Style, no sword skills—only the most primal speed and power.
But his speed was astonishingly fast!
Whoosh!
A flash of purple light passed, and the head of the demon with the bone spikes in the front flew high into the air!
Before the sneer on its face could even vanish, its body began to disintegrate.
Every demon, including Aburako, was stunned.
The next second, Hanayuki Ichika’s figure appeared before the second demon.
A horizontal slash!
Another head flew.
The third, the fourth…
He was like a purple whirlwind, weaving through the group of demons.
Every strike was aimed precisely at the neck; every blow was clean and efficient.
Though it was without technique, his extraordinary speed and power, combined with the sharpness of the nichirin sword itself, created terrifying lethality!
Aburako’s expression turned completely somber.
He saw the problem— this demon that had suddenly appeared…
not only could use a nichirin sword, but was also exceptionally familiar with a demon’s anatomy, with every strike aimed directly at a vital spot.
Even more terrifying was his ridiculously strong combat intuition; he could always dodge attacks by a hair’s breadth and then counterattack in the simplest, most direct way.
“Everyone, back off!” Aburako barked, stepping in himself.
His figure merged into the shadow at his feet, and the next moment, he emerged from the shadow on the wall to Hanayuki Ichika’s left, his fingers like blades, stabbing straight for the temple!
As if he had anticipated it, Hanayuki Ichika didn’t even turn his head, swinging his blade behind him in a backhand slash—
Clang!
Aburako blocked the strike with an arm covered in black shadow armor, but the immense force left his arm numb.
He used the force to leap back, a hint of alarm and doubt flashing in his eyes.
“What on earth… are you?”
Hanayuki Ichika panted heavily, his hand holding the sword trembling slightly.
Slaying four demons in a row was also a huge drain on him.
Yet he still stood before Kochou Shinobu, refusing to retreat a single step.
And as Kochou Shinobu looked at the figure resolutely protecting her, her eyes were filled with complexity and emotion…
One must realize that she, was a Hashira, one of the people in the Demon Slayer Corps who hated demons the most…
and the scene of a demon risking his life to protect her, a Demon Slayer—she wouldn’t have dared to imagine it even in her dreams…
Aburako’s gaze sharpened, and he suddenly transformed into three afterimages, attacking from three directions simultaneously!
These were illusions created using shadows, with his true self hidden within one of them.
Hanayuki Ichika’s pupils contracted; he couldn’t distinguish them for a moment.
At this critical moment—
In his mind, Kochou Shinobu’s butterfly-light figure flashed once more.
How she moved, how she breathed, how she found a chance for survival in a desperate situation…
His body reacted faster than his consciousness.
Exhale—
A strange breathing rhythm naturally formed.
His lungs expanded, his blood surged, and demonic power gathered from his entire body into his wrists…
A bizarre black current of air swirled around his body…
The next moment, Hanayuki Ichika’s figure suddenly blurred!
“Breath of Darkness: Dark Butterfly Dance: Caprice—!”
He had actually performed Kochou Shinobu’s technique!!!
Although it was a slightly modified version of the Breathing Style…
the ultra-high-speed thrust trajectory and the butterfly-light yet lethal movement were identical to Kochou Shinobu’s!!
Pfft!
Pfft!
Pfft!
Three purple blade lights bloomed almost simultaneously, accurately piercing Aburako’s three illusions!
The moment one of them struck, there was a physical sensation—
Squelch!
Aburako’s true self was forced to manifest from the shadow, his left shoulder pierced by the nichirin sword!
He groaned and retreated rapidly, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief:
“What the hell!!! You… how can a demon know Insect Breathing?!”
Kochou Shinobu’s eyes also widened like bells, looking at Hanayuki Ichika with a shocked expression…
He stole her skills after just a few glances??