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DISCLAIMER
[T/N: THIS ARC WILL HAVE MASS GENOCIDE]
"Alright, let's move out!"
"Everyone, into the city! Cut down anyone who gets in your way! If you run into a Civil Security officer and their Initiator, take out the officer on the spot and capture the Initiator if you can!"
"If capture isn't possible, your own safety comes first. As for the objective, use your own judgment!"
Rengoku Kyojuro's voice rang out over the assembled force, and the troops, having received their orders, pushed forward into the city.
On the commercial street, a couple strolled hand in hand through the lively crowd, talking as they walked.
"Honey, there are more and more of those filthy things showing up in the city lately. Why doesn't the government just throw them all out?"
"Ha, don't worry about it. They'll be gone sooner or later."
"My cousin works in the government, and she said a lot of people are really unhappy about that bill Seitenshi is trying to pass."
The wife's face lit up at that, and she leaned in eagerly.
"Really? Is that true?"
Her husband gave a confident nod, and she broke into a wide smile.
"That's great! I have no idea what Seitenshi is thinking, trying to protect that trash. Hmph!"
"Come on, let's not ruin the mood talking about that. I'm taking you out for a proper meal!"
"You're so good to me!"
Just as the couple was looking around for a restaurant, a wave of panicked shouts erupted in the distance.
The noise grew louder fast, and soon a large crowd of people came rushing toward them.
The couple stared at the oncoming mob, thoroughly confused, and called out:
"What's going on up there?!"
A man sprinting past them screamed back:
"Run! There are monsters! They're killing everyone they see, just run!"
They watched him tear past them, more puzzled than ever. Monsters? Here, on the commercial street?
But as more and more people came flooding by, the couple began to feel that something was very wrong.
"Aaaaah!!!"
"Please, spare me!"
"Aaaaah!"
The screams and desperate pleas grew closer, and then they finally saw it.
Countless Orcs in heavy armor, each carrying a massive axe, were cutting through the crowd without mercy.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
"Damn it, we can't get through their armor!"
A handful of police officers had drawn their pistols and were fighting back, but the bullets just sparked off the Orcs' plating without leaving a scratch.
Then one of the Orcs came right at them. Staring up at that massive frame with an axe raised overhead, the officers felt their hearts sink.
"Pfft!"
"Takagi!"
One of the officers choked out his comrade's name as the man was cleaved in two beside him.
"You monsters, I'll kill you, I'll kill you all!"
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
He emptied his gun at point-blank range, then shut his eyes, staring down the axe raised above him.
"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
As the Orc finished off the last of the officers, its red eyes swept around and locked onto the couple still standing there, frozen in place.
"Aaaah! Run!"
The husband grabbed his wife's hand and tried to pull her away, but a Hobgoblin Rider on a Tempest Wolf cut them off from the side.
"Swish!"
A flash of a blade, and they both crumpled to the ground. Blood spread out around them as their eyes went wide and still, filled with the quiet anguish of a life cut short.
"Bang!"
"Clang!"
"What?! He deflected a sniper round with his axe? What kind of reaction speed is that?!"
On the rooftop of a tall building some distance away, Nagisawa Shouma, his silver hair catching the wind, stared down at the Orc who had just knocked aside Fuse Midori's shot. The shock on his face didn't fade for a long time.
"Shouma-san, it's no use. I can't penetrate that armor at all."
Fuse Midori, a small girl with long white hair braided in front of her chest and a large witch's hat pulled low over her head, lay flat on the rooftop with her sniper rifle, staring down at the completely unharmed Orc.
She turned her head and spoke in a soft voice.
"I saw that! What are these things?!"
Nagisawa Shouma raised his binoculars and watched the Orc army still tearing through the streets below, his brow creasing tighter by the second.
Just as he was trying to think of something, Fuse Midori set down her rifle, stood up, and pulled a deck of tarot cards from her pocket.
She drew one, looked at it, and said:
"The cards are telling me we need to leave right now, or something bad is going to happen."
"This is no time for that. If we don't find a way to stop these things, something bad is already happening!"
Nagisawa Shouma lowered his binoculars and snapped back at her, exasperated.
"I think the girl is right. Something bad is indeed about to happen to you."
"Who's there?!"
Nagisawa Shouma spun around toward the voice.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tomioka Giyu, Captain of the Seventh Company of the Security Force under the lord of the Jura Forest Alliance. A pleasure."
Tomioka Giyu stood before them in his Demon Slayer Corps uniform, a nichirin blade forged by Kaijin held at his side, and introduced himself with his usual flat calm.
"Huff, huff!"
"Seriously, Giyu-san, you're way too fast. I had to run up every single floor!"
Tomioka Giyu turned to look at the young man doubled over beside him, gasping and leaning on his own nichirin blade, and spoke in a stern tone:
"Tanjiro, you still have a long way to go. When we get back, I'm having Hakurou give you special training."
Tanjiro's face went pale at that. The image of that smiling old master whose training had nearly broken him more than once flashed through his mind, and he snapped to attention immediately.
"I was wrong, Giyu-san! I'll add extra sessions myself when we get back, there's really no need to bring Hakurou into this!"
"Hmph."
Tomioka Giyu responded with a cold snort and turned back to face Nagisawa Shouma and Fuse Midori.
"Who exactly are you two, and what are you doing up here?"
Nagisawa Shouma crossed his arms.
"Didn't I just say who we were?"
"Then stop lying. I've never heard of any Jura Forest Alliance."
Tomioka Giyu didn't bother arguing the point. He simply said:
"So, will you come quietly and hand over the girl, or do I have to take her after I deal with you?"
"Your target is Fuse Midori?"
Nagisawa Shouma glanced at the small girl beside him, then back at Tomioka Giyu, and asked in disbelief.
"That's right. Our target is every Cursed Child."
"What do you want with them? And what do you have to do with those things slaughtering people down there?"
Nagisawa Shouma drew his SIG P226 X-Five and leveled it at Tomioka Giyu.
"They are also troops under our lord. As for what we want, I already told you. It's for the Cursed Children."
Tomioka Giyu looked at the man across from him and decided he simply wasn't listening, even though he felt he had been perfectly clear.
"For the Cursed Children? Then why are you slaughtering people?"
"That's because..."