Well fed and pleasantly full, Sui left Mount Momoyama.
She put on the sedge hat she had worn when she first arrived, hiding the faint flush in her cheeks. Even her breath carried the slightest trace of drunkenness.
The old man had added something extra to the meal before her departure—namely, a treasured sake he had been saving for years. Sui was not someone who couldn't drink. On the contrary, she was quite familiar with alcohol. It was one of the small habits taught to her by the shrine maiden who had raised her. That woman liked to drink, and when she was especially merry, she would drag Sui into it as well.
Jigoro's sake had been mellow, fragrant, and rich.
That had actually surprised Sui. She had assumed a man as thunderous as him would prefer something so fierce it burned on the way down.
"Sui-chan?"
As she passed through the town, a voice suddenly called out from behind her.
Sui knew who it was without even turning around—the girl from the flower shop. She stopped walking, but she had no intention of looking back.
Once her training was over, once she took up a true Nichirin Blade and stepped onto a battlefield where she would kill demons for a living, they would no longer belong to the same world.
That girl would one day manage the flower shop, care for her parents, and in the near future marry the man she loved.
As for Sui—
Even she had no certainty whether she would survive one desperate battle after another.
So she lowered her voice, making it rough and subdued.
"You've mistaken me for someone else."
"Eh? But..."
The girl seemed to hesitate, but by the time she reacted, there was already no one left in front of her.
Ayaumi Fei puffed out her cheeks and stared at the spot where Sui had just been standing.
"You heartless woman. You might pretend not to know me, but would I ever mistake you? Hmph!"
Her voice dripped with disdain.
Sui, hurrying along the road, of course knew that such a flimsy disguise would be completely useless in front of Ayaumi Fei.
She had learned many things from that woman who raised her.
Including how to deal with girls.
At times like this, all she had to do was pass by without stopping.
No extra farewell was needed.
Having mastered Thunder Breathing, Sui's pace had become unnaturally fast. From Mount Momoyama to the site of the Final Selection—Mount Fujikasane—it took her only a single day. By the time she arrived, only a handful of people were already waiting on the stone plaza at the entrance.
The mountain, covered in blooming wisteria, glowed faintly violet, dreamy and eerie all at once.
Sui looked around, then walked off toward a secluded corner.
On the way up the mountain, she had already been told to remove the sedge hat that hid her appearance. Sui knew full well how unnervingly beautiful she looked, and on top of that, she moved with her eyes closed instead of keeping them open like a normal person. Drawing attention was inevitable. She had already noticed the unconcealed amazement in the eyes of the few apprentice swordsmen who had arrived before her.
So while there were still not too many people around, it was easier to simply find a quiet corner and wait.
Once her figure disappeared into the shadow of a wisteria tree, Sui began to think.
The old man had once explained to her the origins of Mount Fujikasane and the Final Selection. This mysterious mountain was ringed with wisteria flowers, which demons loathed and avoided. The wisteria bloomed all along the foothills and wrapped the entire mountain in a floral barrier. Deep within the mountain were the weaker demons the Demon Slayer Corps had captured alive over the years. Most had eaten only one or two people, and for swordsmen skilled in Breathing Techniques, they were not meant to be a major threat.
Still, Sui could not help frowning at an परीक्षा whose only failure condition was death.
Now and then, the old man would reminisce about how perilous the Final Selection had been in his own day—how the companions he had trained beside were swallowed by demons one after another. They had certainly been prepared to stake their lives, but that did not mean failure in training ought to end in death.
Sui thought the method was wrong.
Selection could be strict.
It should not be cruel.
Those who failed should still have somewhere to go, rather than being carelessly thrown away into a demon's stomach like this.
But at present, she was not even a proper swordsman yet.
Naturally, her words carried no weight.
Still, there were other things she could do.
Sui leaned lightly against the trunk of a wisteria tree and waited in silence for the Final Selection to begin, calmly conserving her strength. Every now and then, dark-violet arcs of electricity flickered faintly at the corner of her eyes. Thunder Breathing had begun to merge into her ordinary state of being.
As one swordsman after another arrived, the desolate plaza gradually became more crowded.
Though that was only Sui's way of putting it.
Every swordsman still kept some distance from the others. Some lowered their heads and thought quietly; others looked around in silence. Not a single person seemed willing to speak.
Sui was happy enough that no one was making noise.
With her eyes closed, she relied on her senses to observe the entrance to Mount Fujikasane from within the shadows. There stood a torii gate, its presence old and weathered, clearly built many years ago.
"How alike..." she murmured softly.
There had been a torii like that in the courtyard where she grew up as well. That woman had often boasted to her about how long its history went back, how exquisite the craftsmanship was, and so on. Whenever Sui asked exactly how old it was, the woman would make a troubled face, then solemnly tell her it was probably as old as a hundred girls like her.
Perhaps she thought a child could not possibly calculate what "a hundred of you" meant.
But that torii, with a history equal to a hundred Sui lifetimes, had also been buried in that great fire.
Sui drifted blankly through the memory until a stranger came to stand beside her.
It was a very beautiful woman, her skin white as snow, her hair white as snow as well. She wore an elegant kimono and had her hair arranged in an elaborate style. She was obviously not a swordsman—she looked more like a noble young lady from some distinguished household.
Before Sui could ask what she wanted, the woman spoke first.
"Are you Miss Sui, by any chance?"
She bowed.
Sui nodded, still unsure what the woman wanted.
"My name is Amane Ubuyashiki. I have come on behalf of my husband, Kagaya, to trouble Miss Sui with a request."
Her voice was soft, her manners flawless to the point that not the slightest fault could be found in them.
Ubuyashiki?
Sui paused.
The Ubuyashiki family stood at the core of the Demon Slayer Corps. Which meant the woman before her was the wife of the current Master of the Corps.
"Let me hear it," Sui said.
Her eyes stayed closed, her unnervingly beautiful face unreadable, her tone flat and unaffected. The woman's status had stirred no visible reaction from her at all.
"In the letter Lord Rengoku passed on to the Ubuyashiki family, it was written that Miss Sui possesses a pair of eyes capable of perceiving death directly. Though I have heard it mentioned more than once since then, I still wished to see them for myself. Would Miss Sui be willing to grant me that request?"
"Yes," Sui answered.
"Then I am truly—"
Amane Ubuyashiki lifted her head in delight, only for the rest of her words to catch in her throat.
Because those eyes were already open.
Those eerie Mystic Eyes stared straight at her.
It felt as though strange flowers were blooming in their depths—beautiful enough to bewitch the soul, yet accompanied by a freezing wind that seemed to seize the spirit itself.
In that instant, it was as if the gates of the underworld had swung open before her, and the demons within had reached out, seized her soul, and begun dragging her down into darkness.
By the time Amane managed to breathe again, Sui's eyes had long since closed, restoring her to that serene and placid appearance.
"Thank you, Miss Sui, for your willingness to oblige."
The woman bowed deeply.
She could tell that Sui's opinion of the Demon Slayer Corps was not exactly one of approval. But that did not matter. As long as such a terrifying talent remained within the Demon Slayer Corps, it would be an enormous source of strength for her husband.
And to draw such a talent—or rather, such a monster—closer, she was willing to set aside all pride.
"I must still oversee this Final Selection, so I shall take my leave for now. The selection is about to begin. Please wait a moment longer, Miss Sui."
With that, Amane stepped back and left the shade of the wisteria tree.
The white-haired woman came to a stop in front of the torii gate and swept her gaze across the surroundings.
Standing before the crowd, her entire presence changed completely.
She became a ruler—stern, dignified, standing above every apprentice swordsman gathered there.
"Welcome, all of you, to the Final Selection. Though demons lurk within this mountain, the entire foothills are covered in wisteria blossoms."
"The demons captured by the swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps have all been confined upon this mountain. Because the mountain is encircled by wisteria, which demons despise, those demons cannot escape into the outside world and bring harm to humankind."
"When the sun rises on the eighth day, the selection will end."
Before Amane had even finished speaking, movement had already begun stirring in the plaza.
Sui sensed an intense killing intent.
In one corner of the plaza stood a swordsman with a terrible scar across his face, his expression savage and twisted. His weapon was equally unusual—a pair of iron shears attached to a chain.
He stared at the entrance beneath the torii as though gazing at livestock waiting to be slaughtered.
Everyone who came here carried some measure of hatred toward demons.
But this man's killing intent toward them was especially heavy.
He waited for Amane to finish explaining the rules, while waves of force seemed to rise from his body.
"So if you wish to survive these seven days safely, you must make full use of the results of your training and successfully eliminate those threats."
"To return alive would, naturally, be for the best."
Amane smiled, placed her hands upon her knees, and bowed, then stepped aside and opened the way.
"I wish all of you victory in battle."
The Final Selection—
began.
Sui lifted her sword and followed the flow of people into Mount Fujikasane, the mountain overflowing with blooming wisteria.
Behind her, the path formed by the wisteria closed once more, swallowing her figure from sight.
Join here to read ahead.
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter95)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 55
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 45
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
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From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 31
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