A crescent moon hung high in the sky, casting a pale glow over everyone on the mountain.
This was the first night.
There had seemed to be quite a few people in the plaza, but once the crowd entered the deep forest, Sui could no longer see a single human figure.
The trees twisted and interlocked overhead, while a faint mist drifted through the woods. From time to time came the hoarse cry of a night crow. Other than that, the entire mountain wilderness held not the slightest trace of living human presence.
The weeds rustled slightly.
A black shadow, ghostlike in shape, suddenly sprang out, bringing with it a foul wind as it lunged straight at the girl's back. At the instant the shadow thought its claws were about to reach her and that victory was certain, an unsheathed white-scabbarded long sword appeared in front of it without warning. The scabbard struck sideways and sent the demonic figure flying.
The shadow slammed into an old tree not far away, shaking the trunk so hard that withered yellow leaves scattered down over it. Blood spilled from its mouth as well.
It had been drawn over by a certain strange fragrance, the scent so intoxicating it had nearly lost itself in it. But now it had been stopped. That woman looked delicate, yet in truth she was overwhelmingly strong.
"Damn it, this woman... why won't she just let me eat her obediently?" the pale demon cursed viciously.
When it tried to raise its head and get a clear look at its target, it found that the leaves shaken loose from the tree trunk had obscured its vision.
Then the falling leaves were split cleanly down the middle, and a bright arc of steel flashed out, lovely as a shining stream.
Blood spilled.
Then came the smell of scorching flesh.
...
After casually taking the demon's head, Sui continued deeper into the mountain.
The farther in she went, the more weeds and dead trees there were, and the narrower the path became. Yet she seemed completely unaffected, still walking straight ahead, her haori spotless.
By this point, the number of demons that had ambushed her was already in the double digits. In just half a night, it was more than the old man had described across seven whole days. She knew full well that her constitution held a fatal attraction for demons, and that had been one of the most important reasons behind the idea she had formed before the Final Selection began.
Suddenly, she stopped.
There was a demon ahead.
And a person.
"So a rare-blood like you actually came to be a demon hunter? Really got a death wish, huh? Never thought I'd find a hundred-man share of rare blood in a place like this!"
The demon, draped in a tattered kimono, laughed as it fought a young man. Its black hair danced wildly, revealing the face of a mature woman.
That face could once have been called beautiful, but blood-red veins like centipedes crawled all across her cheeks, and the whites around her eyes were so flooded with blood that it looked as though it might drip down at any moment. Her sleeves hung loose, while black, sharp blades extended from her fingernails. Those blades collided against the young man's iron shears, sending blinding sparks flying.
Sui frowned.
The aura around that demon was anything but weak. If anything, it could be called forceful.
A demon of this level should not exist on Mount Fujikasane. For apprentice swordsmen fresh from training, facing something like this would be no different from throwing their lives away.
Sui held her breath and concealed her presence, disappearing into the darkness.
She observed the battle and began to search for an opening.
The young man was the one she had noticed back in the plaza—a white-haired youth with a savage scar running from the bridge of his nose across both cheeks. He possessed a deep, unshakable hatred of demons, and unexpectedly, he also had the strength to match it. The demon that could have easily killed most people here was forced to circle and probe when facing him, while her ten blade-like claws, swift as a demon's, were parried one after another amid the shriek of the wind.
Every swing of his iron shears was sharp and heavy, forcing the demon back with each blow.
At the same time, he used the chain to restrict her movements and guard his own vital points.
An extremely impressive instinct for battle.
The kimono-clad demon darted through the woods, using her wide sleeves to conceal her blades. Then, with a sudden burst of force, she leapt from the trunk of a tree and shot toward the young man's head like a stabbing knife.
The young man took a deep breath and assumed his stance, then slashed upward with the edge of his weapon.
At the same time, four claw-shaped blades of wind suddenly appeared ahead.
The wind blades tore through the demon's kimono, and the iron shears snapped shut, their long, sharp blades slicing off one of the arms beneath the robe. An injury like that would have halted any normal human attack, but the demon merely smiled. With her remaining arm, she passed straight through the wind blades and reached for the young man's throat without the slightest hesitation.
—Clang!
Her claw struck his weapon, yet the sound was like iron slamming into iron.
The young man had forcibly drawn back the shears and turned them into a guard right in front of himself.
When the iron shears were brought together, they resembled a small shield. After taking the demon's blow, he used the impact to retreat and widen the distance. Aside from the dull ache in his chest from the force of it, he was unharmed.
But the expression on the young man's face had grown incomparably grim.
"You're not one of the demons from this mountain."
He gripped the iron shears tightly, shaking off the severed fingers with a snap of the blades, while his other hand wound the bloodstained chain tighter.
"Kh-kh-kh..." The demon covered her mouth and laughed softly. The severed fingers regenerated almost immediately.
Her posture was like that of a noblewoman from a distinguished house.
"This mountain's full of worthless curs—pathetic losers beaten and captured by demon slayers. Of course I'm not one of them. Running into me just means your luck's terrible, kid. Then again, who told you to smell so delicious?"
"You're trapped here and can't escape. For a strong swordsman, cutting off your head would be child's play. This place is so dangerous for demons—why do you act as though you're eager to be here?"
"You really want to know?" the demon bared her teeth.
The young man said nothing, though the veins on the back of the hand gripping his shears stood out sharply.
"I'm not interested in telling you. Not even if you're about to become a corpse." The smiling demon's face suddenly turned cold, each word she spat out carrying a chilling, murderous frost.
The young man lowered his center of gravity.
She was serious now.
He had no confidence at all that he could defeat her—but if things truly became hopeless, he still had one final method left.
His gaze lingered for an instant on the scar across his arm before shifting away again, locking tightly onto the kimono-clad demon. She picked up the arm that had been cut off earlier and casually pressed it back into place. Blood-red threads were drawn into the wound as it sealed over at terrifying speed.
That kind of regenerative speed...
The young man's expression darkened still further.
"This question is beyond the scope of the exam. Step back."
A voice sounded by the young man's ear without warning. It was cool and clear, yet carried a trace of seduction. Just from the sound alone, one could tell its owner had to be a rare beauty.
But what actually stunned him had nothing to do with that.
Someone had approached his side without making the slightest sound, and he had failed to notice at all. That meant the other party could have taken his life before he ever had a chance to react.
That person walked past him, stirring a breeze laced with a delicate fragrance.
"Who are you?" the demon asked, eyeing the suddenly appeared woman.
"A disciple of the former Thunder Hashira," Sui answered.
At a time like this, she could hardly say she was merely an apprentice swordsman. If she did, that young man would assume she couldn't handle the situation and insist on stepping in himself, which would only create more trouble. By invoking Kuwajima Jigoro's name, Sui was clearly declaring that she possessed the ability to deal with this demon.
Only after the demon's attention shifted to someone else did the young man finally manage to breathe again beneath the pressure. At the same time, he could not help growing curious about this newcomer. Could it be that among the Final Selection candidates, there was secretly a high-ranking swordsman present to ensure that the selection proceeded properly?
A disciple of the former Thunder Hashira...
Among the current Hashira, there was no Thunder Hashira. Rumor had it that Thunder Breathing was simply too difficult, and that no exceptional swordsman had emerged from it in quite some time.
The young man carefully studied the woman standing before him.
Her black hair, dark as ink, was pinned up with a wooden hairpin, revealing a pale, slender neck. She wore a deep-red haori, over an altered white court-style dress that had been shortened from floor-length to mid-calf for ease of movement. In her left hand, half-concealed by the haori's sleeve, she held a white-scabbarded long sword whose guard was richly gilded and engraved with patterns of lightning.
He could not clearly see her full face.
Though the woman was indeed as beautiful as he had imagined, that fact was of no help whatsoever in the present situation. She was not wearing a Demon Slayer Corps uniform.
Under normal circumstances, any official demon slayer on a mission would wear the Corps uniform. For a disciple of the former Thunder Hashira to make such a basic mistake was difficult to believe. Sanemi's first instinct was that she was also a candidate, merely bluffing by invoking the former Thunder Hashira's name.
A demon's claws would rip through cloth that delicate in an instant, then pierce straight through her flesh.
The young man took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the weapon.
Two people were better than one.
"Put away that idea. I'm enough on my own."
Sui turned her head slightly as she said it, the half of her face lit by moonlight so flawless it looked like porcelain, and the young man lost focus for the briefest instant.
"How beautiful..." Jealous fire rolled through the demon's throat, though she was still smiling. "If I eat you and stitch your skin onto myself, I'd be beautiful too, wouldn't I?"
"You're welcome to try."
Compared to her, Sui's expression was much colder.
"Kh-kh-kh..." The demon laughed.
Then she vanished from the young man's sight.
From every direction among the surrounding trees came the sound of blades scraping, impossible to tell where it was coming from. It was everywhere.
Which meant the demon was moving at extremely high speed—fast enough to launch a fatal strike from any direction at any moment.
"Hey! Woman, you—"
The young man frowned and instinctively moved as though to pull Sui behind him.
But he touched nothing at all.
Only a flash of lightning swept past together with the roar of thunder.
Someone was laughing softly, reciting the name of a technique.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
Join here to read ahead.
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter95)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
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
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 32
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 31
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 31
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