In the dim light of early dawn, the sun that could dispel darkness had not yet risen.
Tanjiro bid farewell to the old man Saburo and jogged toward his mountain home, carrying his bamboo basket on his back.
For some reason, he felt an urgent need to return home.
Last night, he had dreamed of Kie and Hanako.
Kie wore her usual gentle expression, while Hanako and his three younger brothers all smiled cheerfully at Tanjiro.
The others didn't speak, but Kie's voice, soft as feathers, said to Tanjiro: "Tanjiro... Tanjiro..."
Tanjiro's body trembled as he suddenly knelt on the ground, pressing his forehead against the snow. "Please, I beg you, don't kill Nezuko."
"I have nothing left to lose. My family... my brother left without saying goodbye, my mother, my brothers, my sisters... they all died at the hands of demons."
"Now Nezuko is all I have left. Please don't take her away from me. I have nothing else to lose. Nezuko is my everything..."
Seeing Tanjiro kneeling on the ground, trembling uncontrollably with tears streaming down his face, Giyu Tomioka's expression gradually darkened, turning fierce.
"Why are you kneeling? Why are you begging for mercy?"
"Don't grovel like a weakling."
"Earlier, why did you protect your sister in your arms? What you should have done was pick up your axe and swing it at me, not gamble on someone else's pity."
"I could have killed both you and your sister just now!"
"Don't you want to turn your sister back into a human? Demons might have a way. Do you think if you beg them, they'll give you the method?"
"No, demons won't help you. And neither will I."
After speaking, Giyu Tomioka ignored Tanjiro's confused, pained gaze and thrust his nichirin blade into Nezuko's heart, making her cry out in agony, though she couldn't struggle free.
Sighing inwardly, Giyu saw in Tanjiro the weak person he himself used to be.
Back then, it was Sabito, like an elder brother, who always protected him from behind.
However, because of his own weakness, incompetence, and cowardice...
Sabito died at the hands of a demon while protecting him and the others.
Don't cry or despair. That's not what you should be doing now. Your family is dead, your brother might have turned into a demon and fled, your sister has become a demon—you must be in great pain.
I understand all of this.
If I had arrived just one day earlier, your family might have been saved, and you wouldn't be suffering like this.
But what's done cannot be changed. Time cannot be reversed.
What you need now is to become strong, to make yourself powerful, not to hope for others' pity in your current state.
Be angry, rage, let fury become your motivation. Move, change your weak behavior, attack me in your own way.
Let me see what you're capable of.
Giyu Tomioka's face remained as he prepared to thrust his nichirin blade down again.
His exterior was cold as a thousand-year glacier, but his heart was gentle as water...
Seeing Nezuko's painful struggles and realizing that pleading was useless, Tanjiro suddenly stood up and threw a stone at Giyu Tomioka.
Giyu didn't stab Nezuko again but instead used his sword hilt to deflect the stone.
By then, Tanjiro had already picked up his axe and run into the shadows of the thick fir trees, circling around the mountain-rooted firs as he approached Giyu Tomioka.
Then he charged straight at Giyu, swinging his axe.
Seeing this, Giyu felt immensely disappointed. He said sharply, "Foolish! Will emotional recklessness defeat your enemy?"
"You can be angry, but you must maintain rational thought too."
He felt frustrated at Tanjiro's potential being wasted. How could emotional recklessness defeat demons?
Tanjiro threw another stone, and while Giyu was blocking it, he charged at him.
Giyu raised his nichirin blade with a dark expression. As Tanjiro leaned forward to slash at him, Giyu struck Tanjiro's back with the sword hilt, knocking him face-first into the snow.
The tremendous force sent Tanjiro sprawling. His body had long been exhausted, and his mind had been in a state of shock and torment. Now, he simply passed out.
"Huh? Where's the axe?"
Giyu suddenly sensed something wrong—he didn't see the axe in Tanjiro's hands.
His heart tightened, and he slightly turned his head.
An axe came slicing through the air, embedding itself fiercely in the tree beside Giyu's head, shaking loose some accumulated snow.
In that instant, Giyu understood what had happened.
When Tanjiro stepped into the fir tree shadows, he had thrown the axe toward Giyu while simultaneously tossing a stone to distract him.
When charging forward, he had deliberately mimed swinging an axe.
His posture, with his hands hidden by his body, had deceived Giyu into thinking he still held the axe.
"Did you plan for the axe to have a chance to defeat me after you were knocked down, creating an escape opportunity for your sister?"
"Good. Very good."
Tanjiro's approach was exactly what Giyu had hoped to see.
Courage wasn't recklessness—courage required strategy even more.
Meanwhile, Nezuko, restrained by Giyu, saw Tanjiro knocked unconscious on the ground, and her eyes filled with rage.
Her body suddenly grew several sizes larger, and her strength increased accordingly.
While Giyu was distracted, she broke free from his grip and kicked at him.
Giyu blocked with his sword blade but was kicked several meters back by the tremendous force.
"Not good, that child is in danger!"
After kicking Giyu away, Nezuko reached directly for the unconscious Tanjiro on the ground with her sharp claws. Giyu prepared to stop her.
But he suddenly stopped, frozen in place.
Because Nezuko didn't make any further moves against Tanjiro. Instead, she positioned herself in front of him, her sharp nails glinting coldly as she growled threateningly at Giyu.
"A demon... protecting a human?"
Giyu had seen many cases of relatives turning into demons. There had been people like Tanjiro today who begged him not to harm their loved ones.
Giyu had relented and agreed to their pleas, but those people were then devoured by the demons their relatives had become...
A hungry demon wouldn't care if you were family—they would devour any human around them.
This girl, just wounded by me and using energy to heal, and having consumed energy when turning into a demon—she must be desperately hungry right now.
But even so, this demon girl resisted her hunger, steadfastly positioning herself before her brother, wanting to protect him from harm.
This was something Giyu had never seen before.
So demons really could maintain reason in the face of hunger and the temptation of human blood?
Nezuko snarled, baring her fangs and extending her claws as she charged at Giyu. Instead of using his nichirin blade, Giyu simply struck Nezuko's neck with a karate chop, knocking her unconscious.
As Nezuko lost consciousness, Giyu tied a green bamboo muzzle over her mouth to prevent her from suddenly attacking people.
After waiting calmly for a while, Tanjiro woke up and saw Nezuko still breathing beside him. His perpetually anxious heart finally relaxed.
At that moment, Giyu was leaning against a tree. He said to Tanjiro, "Do you want me to spare your sister?"
Tanjiro froze for a moment, then struggled to sit up, exclaiming joyfully, "Yes! Nezuko would absolutely never eat humans. Please spare her!"
Giyu moved away from the tree and slowly approached Tanjiro. Looking down at him seriously, he said, "Then I need your guarantee. If your sister loses control and becomes a man-eating demon, you must personally behead her, then kill yourself to atone."
Tanjiro was silent for a moment, then solemnly promised, "If Nezuko ever eats a human, I will personally behead her and give my life to atone to the victim."
"Nezuko has always been so kind since childhood. She definitely wouldn't want to hurt others, wouldn't want to become a man-eating demon..."
Hearing the answer he wanted, Giyu said softly, "Your sister... she protected you just now."
"Do you want to turn her back into a human? Do you want to gain the power to fight demons?"
"Go to the foothills of Mount Sagiri. Find a man named Sakonji Urokodaki and become his disciple."
"Tell him Giyu Tomioka sent you. He will accept you and teach you methods to kill demons."
"Oh, and don't let your sister be exposed to sunlight. Demons die when they touch sunlight. Take her and leave now, before the sun rises."
After their conversation, Tanjiro carried Nezuko on his back and set out on the road to Mount Sagiri, embarking on his path to strength and demon slaying...
By now, Tanjiro understood Giyu Tomioka's well-intentioned efforts and couldn't help but feel grateful.
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