Chapter 4: The Selection Begins
Mount Fujikasane
Having ascended the hundreds of steps leading to the mountaintop, twenty demon slayers, including Aoki and Genya Shinazugawa, had gathered for the final selection.
"Tsk, more people than I expected," Aoki muttered, scanning the crowd for Tanjiro. "My foolish little junior brother isn't here yet." Disappointed at not finding Tanjiro, he sighed. If Tanjiro were here, he'd have given him a couple of extra whacks before the selection began. It was a habit born from the past six months of rigorous training.
Without waiting for the selection rules to be announced, Aoki plunged into the deeper parts of the mountain. As he passed a stone statue, a young girl with white hair suddenly appeared. Seeing Aoki's disregard for the starting signal, she didn't stop him, simply calling out,
"Stay on the mountain for seven days. Return here to assemble then."
Ignoring her words, Aoki continued his ascent. His powerful absorption ability allowed him to increase his strength by killing demons. If he killed every demon on Mount Fujikasane, he might reach A-level.
The thought thrilled him, but the time limit dampened his ambition to kill every demon. He had limited time to maximize his demon kills and achieve a significant power boost.
Meanwhile, Tanjiro, breathless, arrived at the gathering point after Aoki's departure.
"Huh? I can't smell Senior Aoki's scent," Tanjiro noticed, his keen sense of smell failing to detect Aoki's presence. Aoki had already started his climb, leaving only faint traces of his scent, masked by the numerous people present.
"He couldn't have arrived already, could he?" Tanjiro shrugged, dismissing any concern for Aoki. He knew that few demons posed a threat to Aoki, so his senior didn't need his concern.
High on Mount Fujikasane, the necks of two demons were severed almost simultaneously by a flash of cold steel. Their eyes wide with disbelief, their bodies dissolved into ash, and two faint, almost invisible, lights were absorbed into the blades that had dealt the killing blow.
The slayer was, of course, Aoki.
"Ding!"
"Congratulations, host, on killing two low-level demons. Combat power increased by 5 points!"
"Total combat power: 377 points!"
"Overall rating: Level Three!"
Brushing dust from his shoulders, Aoki, his face hidden by the tengu mask, said calmly, "The demons on Mount Fujikasane are pathetically weak. I wonder why Old Man Urokodaki was so insistent on caution before the selection."
Before leaving the mist-shrouded mountains, Urokodaki Sakonji had given Aoki a lengthy warning about the dangers of the final selection. Aoki had initially taken it seriously, but now it seemed ludicrous. The demons here were incredibly weak.
They were not only weakened from lack of human consumption, they often fought amongst themselves over prey, making them easy targets.
This ease was only apparent to Aoki, however. Most of the participants were barely Level Two, struggling to defeat even a single demon. This explained the low success rate of the final selection.
Sighing, Aoki resumed his hunt, his figure flitting through the moonlight.
As he passed a large tree, a figure wielding two swords lunged at him. Just as the blades were about to strike, purple light erupted around Aoki, quickly coalescing into a skeletal figure with only ribs and one arm.
The attacker's blades struck the skeleton, missing Aoki entirely.
"Susanoo!"
Aoki's voice echoed as the skeletal arm, with lightning speed, swatted the attacker away. Aoki immediately activated his Sharingan, his eyes transforming into crimson orbs with intricate black patterns.
"Sharingan!"
The darkness obscured his opponent's features, forcing him to rely on the Sharingan.
"Is it a demon?" Aoki wondered, quickly dismissing the thought. The attacker's strength far surpassed any demon Aoki had encountered. And he wielded a sword, which demons typically didn't.
But when the Sharingan revealed the attacker's face, Aoki's eyes narrowed. It wasn't a demon, but a humanoid creature with a grey Boar's head, boar fur around its waist, bear fur around its legs, a bare torso, and a powerfully built physique.
"What in the world? Are there creatures like this in Kimetsu no Yaiba?"
Before he could ponder this, the creature roared and charged.
"Boar Rush! Boar Rush!"
The creature, emitting a bestial roar, attacked with its twin blades.
"Dude, even if you're not human, you don't have to go this hard," Aoki sighed, realizing the creature wasn't a supernatural being, but a human wearing a Boar mask—another participant who had started early.
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