Yuko reached the very center of the village. It was a large settlement—its central clearing nearly a hundred meters wide—with corpses lying haphazardly across the open space.
Hunched silhouettes appeared in the distance.
Several grotesque demons were fighting over territory in the middle of the square.
"Hey! You lot! This is my turf—get the hell out of here!"
A vicious voice rang out. Yuko walked forward without changing expression.
"Hehehe… don't joke around. With this many humans, can you really eat them all alone?"
"Don't think you can hog everything~"
"If I eat all these humans, I'll advance to the Twelve Kizuki!"
Not far away, a female demon was nervously trying to slip away.
Her movement drew the attention of the others.
"Hey, don't you guys think this woman looks familiar?"
"Yeah… I feel like I've seen her somewhere~"
"Isn't she the one that Lord Muzan put a bounty on?"
Tamayo's face turned pale. She had only come because she saw smoke rising and hoped to scavenge a few corpses to survive. She didn't expect more and more demons to show up right after she arrived.
Muzan forbade demons from gathering in groups, but the abundance of fresh corpses from the war had drawn them together.
Ever since the Sun Breathing swordsman spared her, Tamayo had never eaten a living human again—surviving only on human and animal corpses.
To fulfill her promise to the swordsman, she had to wait for the chance to kill Muzan.
She couldn't die here!
"You can have the corpses—but that woman is my prey!"
"Bullshit! If we capture her, Lord Muzan will reward us with blood! Compared to his blood, these corpses are nothing but filthy scraps!"
"Get lost! I'm not giving up my prey!"
"The seat of the Twelve Kizuki will be mine!"
The moment they recognized Tamayo, every demon abandoned the corpses they had been fighting over and surged toward her with greedy faces.
Tamayo paled and turned to flee immediately.
Her Blood Demon Art wasn't suited for combat—she could never win against them.
She barely made it two steps before a dark figure flashed past her, landing upside-down on a wall in front of her, head twisted unnaturally as it stared at her.
"Don't even think about running~"
Tamayo's pupils shrank. Before she could react, a water-blue slash of sword energy appeared out of nowhere and sliced off the demon's head.
Even as it fell and crumbled to ash, the eerie smile on its face never faded.
It was so fast he didn't even have time to react.
Before Tamayo could recover from the shock, someone stepped out from behind a house—a figure wearing a bamboo hat, lower face wrapped tightly in white cloth, concealing her features.
The only clue to her being a woman was the visible shape of her chest.
In her hand was a blue Nichirin blade wrapped in white cloth. Another sword hung at her waist, its blade still sheathed.
Yoriichi's Nichirin blade had been black, but the blade's color changed with its user's breathing style and affinity.
Yuko, however, naturally possessed near-perfect talent for all five major Breathing styles. Changing the blade's color as her style shifted was not difficult.
A Demon Slayer.
Tamayo felt ice-cold terror run through her, like falling into a frozen pit.
The demons behind her also froze in place.
"Damn it! A Demon Slayer?!"
"Wait—looks like she's alone!"
"But she just one-shotted that guy…"
"He was just trash. If we work together, we can handle her—then settle the reward afterward. How about it?!"
"Perfect~ I've never tasted a Demon Slayer before~"
The demons exchanged only a few words before charging at Yuko in unison.
Tamayo's gaze flicked backward. The swordswoman hadn't attacked her immediately—probably because she was the weakest combatant here.
Tamayo quietly stepped aside, planning to slip away once the fighting started.
Even though she'd promised Yoriichi she would help kill Muzan, she wasn't foolish enough to think any random Demon Slayer would believe her.
She looked at Yuko and silently whispered an apology.
In her mind, Yuko's defeat was only a matter of time.
After all, it was one versus many.
"Water Breathing—First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
A cool, clear voice echoed through the silent night. A brilliant azure arc flashed across the square.
Moonlight glinted off the blue blade, making Tamayo squint.
When she reopened her eyes, Yuko was already sheathing her Nichirin blade.
Tamayo stiffened, her gaze shifting.
Several heads spun high into the air. Headless bodies, carried forward by momentum, staggered a few steps before collapsing in unison.
The heads thudded onto the ground and immediately turned to ash—none of the demons even managed to scream.
So strong.
Stronger than the Lower Moons, perhaps.
A Hashira?
Tamayo's pupils trembled violently. Against power like this, escape was impossible.
As the now-sheathed swordswoman walked toward her, Tamayo was about to speak—one last attempt to explain.
But the woman slowly removed her bamboo hat and unwound the white cloth from her face.
Tamayo's confusion turned into shock.
"…Yoriichi…?"
Aside from gender and height, the resemblance was uncanny.
But only for a moment—Tamayo quickly realized how absurd that was. That had been decades ago. Even if Yoriichi had survived, he would be eighty or ninety. He couldn't possibly look this young.
Yet the face before her was nearly identical to Yoriichi's.
Then…
A descendant?
Tamayo's eyes lit with a faint, trembling hope.
Sensing the expectation beneath Tamayo's calm expression, Yuko hesitated slightly before saying:
"I am Yoriichi's younger sister."
She knew exactly what Tamayo was thinking—wondering whether she possessed power comparable to Yoriichi's.
And the situation before them likely gave Tamayo great hope.
But unfortunately, even now—even after gaining strength far beyond her past self—Yuko still had not surpassed Yoriichi.
Tamayo blinked, stunned.
She hesitated. "But… your age…"
Yuko didn't answer. Her wine-red eyes simply shifted into golden, slitted pupils.
Tamayo's heart, which had fluttered moments ago, now pounded even harder.
She opened her mouth, then closed her eyes as though accepting her fate.
"Did Muzan send you to kill me?"
Yuko froze, caught off guard by the misunderstanding.
"No. Like you, I've broken free from Muzan's control."
Impossible.
That was Tamayo's immediate reaction.
She herself had only escaped thanks to the fluke of Yoriichi slicing Muzan into pieces and leaving him weakened.
Could there truly be a second Yoriichi in this world?
Doubt filled her eyes.
But…
There was not the slightest trace of foul scent on the woman. It was as if… she had never eaten a human at all.
Most importantly—if this woman truly worked for Muzan, there would be no need for talk.
With her level of power, Tamayo would already be dead.
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Currently at chapter 240 for advance chapters
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