Chapter 119: Roy vs Giyu Tomioka × Beginner? No, A Master!
Whether mule or horse, you have to take it out and run it. No matter how pretty the talk sounds, when you step onto the floor, the truth comes out.
Roy had no objection to joining the Demon Slayer Corps. In fact, once he graduated, if he wanted to kill more demons and stockpile life energy, he would need the Corps' intelligence network behind him.
If Ubuyashiki wanted to see him, then he would show what he could do. Of course, before that…
"Senior, I have one condition."
Roy looked at Giyu Tomioka calmly. "If I join the Demon Slayer Corps, I want access to a complete list of all known demons and the intel on them."
Beyond the demons that had appeared in the original story—the Hand Demon, the Swamp Demon, the Temari Demon, the Arrow Demon, the spider family on Natagumo Mountain led by Lower Moon Five, Rui, and the other Lower and Upper Moons—Roy wanted every last scrap of information the Corps possessed.
If a goose flew by, he would pluck it. Not a single point of life energy would be wasted.
Giyu fell silent. Sabito glanced his way, then asked evenly, "What do you intend to do with that?"
Makomo, Shinsuke, Fukuda, and the others all looked over. At the end, Sakonji Urokodaki, who had been quietly observing, felt the shape of it.
The old master fixed Roy with a long look.
Roy stroked the short blade at his side and smiled, showing a neat row of white teeth. "Wipe out evil. Kill every demon I see. I plan to hunt them all down and give this world safe nights again."
Urokodaki thought, As expected.
Sabito and Makomo traded a look. No words came at first.
Giyu froze, remembering the day the Master of the Corps permitted him, upon recognizing him as a Hashira, to carve the words "Destroy All Demons" into his Nichirin Blade. When he looked at the boy again, something in his chest slipped and shifted.
Because of his sister. Because of Sabito. Because of the countless scenes of demons feasting on humans he had witnessed, Giyu had once held that same thought.
Only after he became a true demon slayer did he understand how wildly unrealistic it was. How impossible.
"It is difficult," Urokodaki said. As a former Water Hashira, he had walked that road himself. He understood the young man's heart, but understanding did not change reality.
"You cannot kill all demons unless you kill Muzan Kibutsuji."
He was right. Becoming a demon took only one key: the ability to withstand Muzan's blood. The more demon blood a person could bear, the stronger they became.
The Demon Slayer Corps, by contrast, needed years to raise a single swordsman who could hold his own against even an average demon. Three years. Five. Ten.
Of course…
"Eiichiro, it is good that you think this way," Urokodaki added, afraid of dousing the boy's spirit too harshly.
Roy drank a sip of tea and said nothing. In his heart, he knew the truth: he simply was not killing fast enough yet.
Once the Upper Moons Muzan relied on most were all dead, Roy did not believe the king of demons would remain calm.
"That is not my decision to make," Giyu said, coming back to himself. He met Roy's eyes squarely. "When I return, I will petition the Master of the Corps and fight to win this for you."
"Senior's word is enough," Roy replied, standing. He understood perfectly. In the end, you fought for leverage with strength. He took up the short blade and flicked it into a neat flourish, smiling at Giyu. "No time like the present. Senior, please."
Giyu held his gaze, then rose and set a hand on his Nichirin Blade. He slid the door open and stepped out into the night, heading first into the depths of Mount Sagiri.
Wind trailed at their heels. Shinsuke and Fukuda looped in lazy circles around Roy. "Eiichiro, hurry up. We will be waiting at the usual place," they called over their shoulders.
Roy smiled and looked back at Urokodaki. "Master, what about you?"
"I will stay," the old Water Hashira answered, finishing his tea and picking up a carving knife. "I will wait for you all here."
He stepped outside, sat on a stump, and began carving another mask. Age had blurred his sight. He worried, quietly, that time might run out before he could see all his disciples off.
At least let me finish before I send Eiichiro to the Final Selection on Mount Fujikasane, he thought.
"Let us go," Sabito said, clapping Roy on the back. "Let Makomo keep Master company."
"No. I want to watch too," Makomo said, darting away in a streak of wind. "I will come right back after."
Sabito: "…"
He could only shake his head. This time, Roy's hand landed on his shoulder instead. "It is fine. It will be quick."
Sabito: "?"
He studied the boy's face.
Roy tightened his grip on the short blade, offering no explanation. He simply turned and walked away at an easy pace that did not feel like a joke.
"One after another… You really do leave me speechless," the fox-masked youth muttered as he launched himself after them.
Ten minutes later, the waterfall roared between two stone walls. Roy and Giyu stood on opposite banks, each with one foot on a big blue rock, facing each other across the water.
Shinsuke, Fukuda, and the others picked their trees and took their places. Sabito arrived last, drifting on the breeze. He balanced on the tip of a birch and came to rest at Makomo's side.
Just then, Giyu spoke.
"I heard you have not learned a Breathing Style yet. To keep things fair, I will not use mine either."
This was an "inspection," not a fight to the death. Giyu had no interest in overwhelming Roy with technique.
"That was two days ago," Roy said, slowly drawing his short blade. Two fingers ran down the flat of the steel as he narrowed his eyes at Giyu. "Master taught me yesterday. Please go all out, Senior. Do not hold back."
Giyu stared at him, surprised, then glanced at Sabito.
Sabito nodded, still sounding faintly amazed. "It is true. Master taught him yesterday."
So it was not that Urokodaki's letter had been too vague. It was that this junior changed by the day. His growth was so fast that even Master's written reports could not keep up.
Giyu suddenly remembered the detailed training log Urokodaki had appended, charting Roy's sword practice over the past weeks. His expression grew solemn as he drew his Nichirin Blade.
Steel rasped against scabbard with a bright, ringing note.
The four characters "Destroy All Demons" shone with a cold, sharp light.
Giyu kept it simple. "Very well."
He met Roy's gaze.
The boy moved first. A flying slash roared off his blade and leapt the gorge in an instant, aimed straight at Giyu's chest.
The ravine was nearly thirty meters across.
Giyu's pupils tightened. He remembered the report saying ten meters.
That confirmed it. From the New Year letter to now, his junior has advanced again.
A thirty-meter flying slash. The reach alone was astonishing.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash."
Water rose in a rushing arc. Giyu's hips led his hand, his hand led the blade, and the blade drew the current. He cut horizontally across the incoming sword aura, found its center, caught it on his edge, and heaved up.
The slash bent and veered off, sheared away into the sky.
In that heartbeat of breathing room, Giyu's ears twitched. He heard the slap of feet on water. He turned his head.
Roy was already crossing the river, feet flying over the surface with a perfected Dark Step. A matching Water Surface Slash thrust for Giyu's heart, the form clean, the motion smooth—nothing at all like someone who had learned it only yesterday.