“Thank you all for coming tonight to participate in the Demon Slayer Corps’ Final Selection.
Within this Mount Fujikasane, demons captured by the Demon Slayers are imprisoned.
The demons cannot leave because wisteria flowers cover the area from the foothills to the mountainside.
However, if you proceed further, there will be no more wisteria flowers.
Surviving for seven days in the area ahead is the requirement to pass the Final Selection.”
The two of them stated the basic requirements of the Final Selection in a flat tone.
Upon hearing that passing only required surviving for seven days, some of the participants breathed a sigh of relief, while others tensed up.
It didn’t require killing demons, merely surviving.
This indirectly spoke to the brutality of the demons.
As the two finished speaking, they stepped aside, clearing the path up the mountain.
The crowd began to move, step by step, forward onto this mountain where demons dwelled.
“Sis, what kind of tactics do you think we should adopt?”
“Tactics?
Of course, it’s kill!
Kill indiscriminately!
Kill like crazy!”
“…”
Chika crossed her arms, and two puffs of air snorted from her nostrils.
Beside her, Tanjirou’s mouth twitched slightly, thinking to himself that perhaps playing it safe would be better at a time like this…
Suddenly, the scent of a demon was caught by his nose, and in almost an instant, he judged it to be coming from above him.
“Sister, watch out!”
Tanjirou immediately drew the blade at his waist and struck towards the direction from which the demon’s scent emanated.
Swish!
A clear, flowing sound like water rang out from the blade.
Tanjirou had intended to block the attack of the demon charging at him, but in the blink of an eye, the blade in his hand actually severed the arm the demon had stretched out.
Tanjirou: Huh?
Is…
is this a scam???
Tanjirou blinked in confusion.
This was completely different from the scenario he had imagined.
Are the demons here…
all this weak?
Or is this demon trying to scam me or confuse me?
the latter, right?
Tanjirou gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands, exhaling and inhaling, perfecting the cycle of Water Breathing.
At that moment, his nose caught the scent of a demon again.
Behind!
Behind sister!
Tanjirou turned his head, intending to warn Chika, but he saw that Chika had already drawn the sword at her waist, swiftly raising it to block behind her, defending against the attack of a demon that charged almost the very next second.
Chika took a deep breath.
With a sharp turn and a horizontal slash, she executed the First Form of Water Breathing, “Water Surface Slash.” The neck of the demon behind her was instantly severed.
“Tanjirou, hurry up on your end too.”
“Oh…
right, okay!”
Hearing this, Tanjirou quickly snapped back to attention, focusing seriously on the low-level demon in front of him, which had already had one arm cut off and was in the process of regenerating.
If sister can do it, then so can I!
Tanjirou took a deep breath.
He didn’t need to deliberately enter a state of “Total Concentration” to unleash the power of his sword techniques, because both he and Chika had already mastered “Total Concentration Breathing Constant,” their bodies always maintaining a low-consumption version of “Total Concentration.”
“Fourth Form: Striking Tide!”
Tanjirou stepped forward, and ripples of water surged from his blade.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind the demon that had been in his line of sight.
As the sound of flowing water faded, the demon’s head was separated from its body.
“Well done!
What a beautiful ‘Water Melody Head-Cutter’!”
Chika narrowed her eyes and clapped.
Tanjirou’s mouth twitched slightly.
Although he was used to the nicknames his sister gave to the various techniques of Water Breathing, he couldn’t help but retort.
“This is the Fourth Form, Striking Tide…”
Retorts aside, Tanjirou was now more surprised that he had so easily dealt with the low-level demon before him.
Am I perhaps incredibly strong right now?!
Tanjirou tightened his grip on the sword in his hand, an expression of excitement and joy spreading across his face.
After all, after two years of training in the mountains, constantly being overshadowed by his sister, with his opponents being either his sister or Master Urokodaki, Tanjirou had always thought his own strength was still far from adequate.
So I’m actually this strong already!
Tanjirou had only been happy for a few seconds when Chika delivered another “Love Chop” with a *thump* on his forehead.
This strike wasn’t very forceful, as Chika was well aware of the hardness of Tanjirou’s skull; using too much force would simply be asking for trouble.
“Are you still planning to just lie low until the end?”
Now that I have the power to defeat demons, of course I should kill more of them!”
“Good, very spirited.
Then I’ll take the east side, and you take the west side.
How’s that?”
“No problem!”
Tanjirou and Chika decided to split up and act separately.
Just like Sabito back in the day, they would conduct a thorough sweep of the demons within Mount Fujikasane, especially that one demon that clearly shouldn’t exist in this beginner’s area.
“Water Breathing: Water Melody Head-Cutter!”
Chika swung her blade, using the Fourth Form of Water Breathing, swiftly advancing and clearing away the demons she encountered with high efficiency.
The demons present in Mount Fujikasane are all low-level.
The rule that one can become a full-fledged Demon Slayer Corps member simply by surviving seven days among these low-level demons has a certain threshold, but it’s also reasonable.
However, a demon clearly one level stronger than the low-level ones had appeared in Mount Fujikasane.
It reigned supreme on the mountain, and many promising candidates who should have been capable of passing the qualification line were snuffed out in the cradle.
Of course, for those who have already mastered “Total Concentration Breathing Constant,” whether it’s this “Mount Fujikasane Demon King” or a large number of low-level demons, the difference is merely one slash versus a few slashes.
After beheading several low-level demons that appeared along the way seeking death, Chika still hadn’t found this “Demon King.” Wondering if she might have run past it or if it was in the area Tanjirou was responsible for, she stopped and turned around, preparing to head back.
And at that moment, her eyes caught sight of a girl wearing pink, kimono-like clothing not far away.
Tsuyuri Kanao!
The strongest person at this stage of the Final Selection in the original story.
A disciple of one of the strongest members of the Demon Slayer Corps, the “Flower Pillar.” One could say that if low-level demons came at her one by one in an orderly fashion, she might even be able to fulfill “one of the two conditions for promotion to Pillar: slay 50 demons” and become a new Pillar.
Of course, under the same circumstances, replacing Kanao with Chika and Tanjirou wouldn’t be a big issue either.
After all, if low-level demons came at them one by one head-on, both of them, having reached the “Constant Breathing” realm, could handle them quite easily, with perhaps only stamina being a slight concern.
However, most demons aren’t the communal type.
Just finding 50 demons would take a lot of time, not to mention the various life-threatening situations that could occur during confrontations with them…
Seeing Kanao, Chika momentarily abandoned her plan to turn and run.
Instead, she fixed both eyes on Kanao’s direction.
There was a low-level demon in front of Kanao, attempting to lock onto her as its prey for a satisfying meal.
To this, Chika thought this demon really knew how to pick an opponent.
It probably saw her looking harmless and thought she’d be easy to bully.
The demon opened its mouth, revealing its sharp fangs.
After a moment of gathering strength, it charged fiercely towards Kanao, extending its equally sharp claws.
Swish!