'This is the first time Niisan's praised you…
'Tanjiro, don't you dare waste it!'
Tanjiro had never felt so fired up.
Doihara's goading failed; rage had nowhere to go. He snarled viciously, "Fine! I'll snap his neck right in front of you and rip out his heart and liver!"
If he couldn't go around, he'd go through.
Doihara swore he'd make this human who looked down on him pay for his arrogance.
"Shff!" His foot hammered the floor, leaving two deep prints as he lunged at Tanjiro at blistering speed.
Hands in his pockets, Roy kept [Gyo] fixed in his eyes. "Left," he said softly.
Tanjiro clenched his hatchet and, without thinking, ripped a rising diagonal cut from the waist—
and slashed Doihara's chest wide open.
A spike of pain nearly tore Doihara's consciousness apart. He was ruthless enough to know he couldn't back off now; with Roy calling out his lines of attack, sooner or later he'd be crippled if not killed.
So—
He gambled on injury and unleashed a Blood Demon Art.
"Blood Demon Art—Head-Binding Cords!"
Using rapidly healing muscle to clamp the embedded hatchet so Tanjiro couldn't pull it free, he whipped his head; his hair surged, twisting into several "ropes" that whipped for Tanjiro's neck to strangle him.
"Watch his hair."
Roy saw it clearly. It wasn't a special Blood Demon Art so much as a basic demonic trait—regeneration.
Doihara was clever: by accelerating hair growth, he launched a cheap shot. Anyone ignorant of demons would never expect it; getting caught was almost guaranteed.
"Niisan… you said it too late." In a blink, Tanjiro was trussed like a rice dumpling by those long locks.
In truth, Roy hadn't spoken late—Tanjiro just reacted slow, blindsided…
The baby fat still clinging to Tanjiro's cheeks went visibly blue. He blinked frantically at Roy—
then, as the cords cinched tight, he lashed a kick at Doihara's chest!
He went for the lame leg—panic birthing a flash of wits.
But with the demon blood's blessing, Doihara's regeneration was too fast. The hatchet wedged in his chest clanged free; in the next instant the wound closed.
"Grnh-heh-heh… feel it, human!" Doihara clamped Tanjiro's throat and hoisted him into the air. Through the swirling snow he cast Roy a savage grin. "I told you—I'll make you pay for looking down on me!"
"Guh—" Tanjiro thrashed in agony. This time, pride refused to let him call to Roy.
'Stubborn as a mule…' Leaning against a tree, Roy ignored Doihara's posturing and, hating the iron for not becoming steel, said to Tanjiro, "If you can't use hands and feet… does that mean you can't fight back?
"What, your head and your teeth are decoration?
"Bite him. Headbutt him."
!
Thunder out of a clear sky.
Tanjiro snapped to—'Right, I still have my head!'
And at last our Head Pillar remembered his loyal forehead—just like in the original: he dropped his head and rammed.
"Thunk—"
You could almost hear skull crack.
Caught completely off-guard, Doihara blacked out for a heartbeat and toppled.
The hair binding Tanjiro slackened. The boy hit the ground, seized the moment, snatched up the hatchet—one chop—
"Rrrroll…" The head tumbled free.
Tanjiro slumped onto his rear, hands shaking on the haft, gulping air. He turned toward Roy, split a grin—
"Niisan, it's over…"
The fool beamed, giddy with proving he wasn't a coward who hid behind trees and waited for big brother to save him.
But humans get cocky.
Halfway champagne often ends in a crash.
A shadow rose, swaying, behind him—blocking out the snow overhead.
Tanjiro stiffly tilted up his head—razor claws were already descending.
'Demons can't be killed by ordinary blades…' Roy's words outside the smithy that afternoon flashed through his mind. Only then did Tanjiro realize that lopping off a demon's head wasn't enough.
'So yeah—always finish the job…'
"Fshh—" With "Dark Step," a lithe form blitzed out faster than the eye could track.
Under Tanjiro's horrified gaze—
one "Serpent's Life" thrust split the headless torso and ripped out the heart.
"Thump…" The fresh heart still beat.
Roy's sun earrings swayed in the wind and snow. He glanced down at Tanjiro. "That was your 'over'?"
"Sorry," Tanjiro murmured.
His face went crimson like a monkey's rump.
Roy snorted, crushed the heart to ash in his fist, and said, "If all you can do is apologize, you don't need to follow me."
Without a heart to sustain it, Doihara's body crashed into the snow with a spray of white—
but the desperate gambit had bought him a sliver of time. His severed head sprouted arms, and, crawling away from the Kamado brothers, he tried to sneak off…
"Too ruthless!
"He's got to be a Hashira!"
"Only a Hashira has that kind of power!"
Demon and Demon Slayer had crossed blades for a thousand years—they knew each other well.
Doihara knew a retired Water Hashira lived just one mountain away on Mount Sagiri. He'd been afraid once—but rumor had it the man had issues in recent years. So Doihara settled comfortably in this blind spot "under the lamp," fishing for "guests."
Who'd have thought his luck would hook a Hashira today?
"Shff… shff…" Doihara scuttled on hand-feet like a spider. A hiss of air whistled behind his ear; he glanced back on reflex—and that single glance doomed him.
Tanjiro had shouldered the hatchet and pinned the two freshly sprouted arms; striking late yet arriving first, he'd already caught up. One swing nailed the head to a tree.
"Rustle… rustle…"
Snow slid off the branches and thumped onto Tanjiro's head.
He didn't notice. He picked up a stone, berating himself inwardly.
'Too crafty… even without a body he can run…
'Niisan was right. I shouldn't have dropped my guard—or celebrated too soon…'
He raised the stone over his head—
He knew Roy was watching, yet his hands stalled in the air, refusing to fall.
Because Doihara had already changed his face and, hoarse, was pouring out his grievance:
"You think anyone wants to be a demon?
"I didn't ditch a decent human life to become this for fun—this damned world forced me!
"It was Yamada Kōnosuke who undercooked the beans and poisoned the guests—why did I have to take the blame?
"He bribed the officials to force a confession—and after I confessed, he paid the gaolers to kill me!
"You… and you… tell me, what was I supposed to do?
"Just because I was honest, I deserved a blade at my throat?"