In the spacious, exquisite courtyard, the evening wind stirred the late-blooming cherry blossoms, scattering them across the shaded wooden steps.
A young man with shoulder-length black hair sat quietly beneath the eaves, a messenger crow perched on his arm with its wings folded.
A Kasugai Crow—the crows used to communicate with Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
Every member had one. They were impossible to distinguish by appearance alone, yet each had its own distinct personality. And the message this Kasugai Crow had delivered came from one of the Corps' Hashira.
"Lord Rengoku says he has found someone extraordinarily gifted..." The young man smiled, his voice carrying a gentle warmth that seemed to calm the heart.
He lifted his head. Around his left eye spread a strange, terrifying dark violet discoloration, like twisted veins or grasping markings. The light in that eye flickered between bright and dim, its gaze unfocused and scattered.
"Extraordinarily gifted?"
Behind him stood an exceptionally beautiful woman with rare pure-white hair. Surprise tinged her voice. As the wife of the Demon Slayer Corps' leader—and someone who had long assisted her husband in handling all matters related to demons—she knew full well how powerful the Flame Hashira, Rengoku Shinjuro, was. For a man like him to praise a child as "extraordinarily gifted"...
What kind of uncanny being must that child be?
"Yes. According to the letter, that girl can completely kill demons even without a Nichirin Blade. She possesses a pair of eyes that can see through death itself. Before her, even the so-called 'undying' demons are as fragile as withered branches—shattering at the slightest touch."
The young man smiled as he spoke.
"She's that remarkable..."
The woman could not help but marvel.
So there really existed such a person in this world?
Eyes that could perceive death—surely those were hands clutching the key to Yomi Hirasaka itself.
"Has she decided to join the Demon Slayer Corps?" the woman asked.
Someone like that could easily become one of the Corps' pillars in the future. No matter what, they had to bring her in.
"That girl was the one who asked Lord Rengoku to let her join." The young man paused for a moment. "A gifted person... yet it seems she is also someone who suffered misfortune because of demons."
High above the mountains, the bright moon hung in the sky.
Night always seemed to fall so quickly.
Sui gently wiped the blood from her blade, her movements as tender as if she were tending to a lover.
The blade's name was Yasokotsu Shimo Yomigaeri. It was the only thing she had taken from the estate: an ancient sword that had tasted oceans of blood.
Its guard was forged from brass, carved into eight lifelike serpent heads biting and coiling around one another, forming the shape of a lotus blossom. The curve of the blade itself was clear and beautiful, like still water.
That person had once said the lives claimed beneath this sword were as numerous and terrifying as the victims devoured by the eight-headed serpent of legend, and that it had been stained by the karmic fire of the netherworld. That was why her family had worshipped it for generations, praying to dispel the malice clinging to the blade.
But now, there was no need for that anymore.
The girl's eerie Mystic Eyes turned forward, where a demon's corpse lay sprawled on the ground.
It had taken only a single exchange.
The demon had been cut clean through by the girl. Irreversible death had claimed it in an instant; it had not even been granted the right to scream.
"Excellent, girl!" the man praised loudly.
The Flame Hashira was never stingy with praise when it came to people he favored, and his booming voice was so exaggerated in volume that it seemed capable of shaking the branches throughout the forest.
"You flatter me."
Sui slowly sheathed her sword, closing her icy blue Mystic Eyes. When she opened them again, they had returned to the ordinary dark brown of a normal person.
"However, there is something you need to be careful about from now on."
The swordsman stepped forward.
Sui watched as he drew the blade at his waist—the demon-slaying sword housed in that snow-white scabbard. Even the faint exposure of its edge carried a scorching aura like blazing sunlight. It was difficult to imagine what kind of spectacle it would become once this man truly drew it in earnest.
Rengoku Shinjuro gripped the sword and cut off the demon's head. It was already dead, of course, so it did not resist.
As the blade fell, the scent of something burning filled Sui's nose.
The demon's corpse turned to ash the moment it was decapitated, like a moth rushing into the sun and being incinerated. Even the ashes scattered into the air, mingling with dust, burying the demon's remains so that no one would ever have to see them again.
"Nichirin Blade," the man explained when he noticed the girl staring. "It is forged from Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand and Scarlet Ore, metals that have absorbed sunlight. It is also called a color-changing blade, because it changes according to its wielder and reflects the breathing style best suited to them."
"A demon decapitated by a Nichirin Blade dies completely. But as of now, aside from Nichirin Blades, we have no truly effective means of dealing with demons."
He sheathed his sword, his flame-patterned haori stirring in the wind.
The powerful swordsman's gaze shone brightly.
"But you are the exception!"
"You possess eyes that can look directly upon death. In your sight, a demon's immortality is nothing but a joke! But the demons you kill do not turn to ash like this. Girl, those traces may one day be used against you."
Sui was briefly taken aback, then smiled and shook her head.
She understood what he meant.
Demons killed along the Lines of Death through her Mystic Eyes left corpses behind. Unlike a Nichirin Blade, which reduced a demon to dust the moment its head was severed, her killings left remains. And demon corpses were not a convenient thing to leave lying around. Worse still, people with ulterior motives might find ways to make use of them.
However...
"You're overthinking it."
Those ice-blue eyes, blooming like frost-touched flowers, lit up again.
Turning slightly to the side, the girl extended one pale, slender arm and lightly brushed her fingertips across the trunk of a nearby tree.
Her hands had always been carefully protected, smooth and fine like polished jade, without the slightest callus. According to that person, a girl's hands were her second face; if they had ever seen her pick up a broom, they probably would have scolded her and made her put it back.
And yet, that same person had never once cherished their own so-called second face.
"Honestly..."
The girl sighed, so softly it was almost inaudible.
At the same time, her fingers danced along the trunk, nimble as a mountain spirit. But beneath the light of those Mystic Eyes, her hand was tracing the tree's Line of Death—this great old tree that had stood for roughly a hundred years.
The tree died.
Before Rengoku Shinjuro's eyes, the vigorous ancient tree withered at a speed visible to the naked eye. Its moisture was forcibly stripped away, and the yellowing of death raced upward from the roots. What should have taken hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, was compressed into a single breath before the girl.
Rengoku Shinjuro fell silent, deep in thought, and then—
"I see!"
He shouted it aloud, his whole face radiating the pride of someone who had solved the problem. It gave Sui the odd impression of a grade-schooler finally cracking a math question.
"So that's it!" the man declared, hands on his hips. "It is not merely simple killing—it is death bestowed upon them. Girl, even without a Nichirin Blade, you can still reduce demons to ash, can't you?"
Sui nodded.
She closed her eyes, and the icy blue light gradually faded.
Then, almost at once, a heavy sensation surged down over her, making her vision swim. The burden of using these eyes was still not something she could easily bear.
"Tired?"
The swordsman turned around and looked at the slightly weary girl.
Above the road hung a pale full moon, vast as a millstone. Open woods stretched out on both sides.
At the far end of the path, the outline of an estate gradually came into view, its high walls painted vermilion. All around it bloomed wisteria flowers, their colors dreamlike in the night.
It seemed they had arrived.
The Wisteria Crest House.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 135)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter67)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter85)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 60
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 65
From Junkman to Wasteland 50
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 35
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 40
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 37
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 27
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 26
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 26
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