Night was as dark as ink.
Marumori Village lay in a small mountain hollow along the road toward Sendai, and tonight it looked even more dilapidated and desolate.
Asuka leaned against the outside of a mud house with a thatched roof, holding his Nichirin Blade and waiting quietly.
He had arrived here at dusk. Under Asano Mori's guidance, he had found this half-dead laborer.
Honestly speaking, even without any shadow sickness, this man's condition would not have allowed him to survive the winter.
His skin clung tightly to his bones. His sunken eye sockets made him look like a skeleton. Every cough tore at his lungs, phlegm mixed with black threads and bloody foam, and his entire body exuded an air of death.
"Although I haven't seen Asano Shigeru, judging from his brother's description and this man's condition, it's probably the same situation."
"This doesn't look like ordinary tuberculosis or dye poisoning… Is this the influence of a demon?"
Recalling that the Demon Slayer Corps had tasked him with going to Sendai to search for an evil demon, Asuka suddenly felt that he had found a lead.
As he was thinking, Asuka suddenly sensed a fluctuation in the air filled with extremely strong malice.
It's here.
The dying laborer lying on the tatami suddenly had his shadow, which had already been as thin as morning mist, violently wriggle. Then, as if it had come alive, it was torn away, trying to leave the man's body.
Someone so gravely ill could not endure such torment. He immediately broke into a violent coughing fit, nearly losing consciousness.
Asuka did not hesitate at all. His figure vanished from the spot in an instant, then reappeared in the courtyard like a raging wind. He drew his blade and slashed directly at an abnormal shadow at the corner of the wall outside the mud house.
"Wind Breathing, First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
The Nichirin Blade hummed as it traced a crescent arc through the air at such speed that Asano Mori, who was hiding in the darkness of the courtyard ready to help, could not even see it clearly.
Sensing this sudden surge of killing intent, the shadow twitched violently.
Pitch-black matter rapidly gathered and took shape. A Demon Shadow formed entirely of pure darkness separated from it.
It had no facial features, only a vague head outline and humanoid limbs and torso. Its entire body was jet black, as if it could absorb all surrounding light.
Tss!
The expected sensation of cutting through flesh did not appear.
Although the Demon Shadow failed to evade Asuka's swift strike and was struck solidly, Asuka felt a strange sense of emptiness from his blade.
Like a cloud scattered by the wind, the Demon Shadow's abdomen instantly dispersed into black mist.
Guided by threads formed from invisible air currents, the split body of the Demon Shadow slowly merged back together, restoring itself completely.
"No physical body, or is this some kind of Blood Demon Art…" Asuka could not judge and could only watch its movements warily.
After recovering, the Demon Shadow drifted toward the wall like a mass of black fog and fused into the wall at incredible speed.
Seeing the demon about to enter the house, Asuka showed no courtesy. He kicked open the wooden door and rushed inside.
The Demon Shadow had already seeped into the walls. At times, ghostly hands stretched out from the roof; at others, they reached from the floor toward the laborer.
Asuka's Nichirin Blade danced up and down, nearly tearing the mud house apart, yet he could not find the demon's true body.
He could only passively protect the laborer, preventing the evil demon from stealing his last remaining life force.
Seeing the withered laborer's breathing grow weaker and his face grow ever paler, Asuka knew he could not drag this out any longer.
"Sorry. This is also to save your life!"
Asuka lowered his body. Powerful breaths surged through him, and a domineering, violent force began to gather in his arms.
"Wind Breathing, Fourth Form: Rising Dust Storm!"
The blade swept upward with explosive force.
A spiraling gale swept up everything inside the room, forming a clattering, violently ascending spiral tornado.
As the technique erupted, the fragile thatched roof was blasted apart. The Demon Shadow was forcibly cut out of the wall and sent tumbling backward in a sorry state.
What was strange was that from beginning to end, the Demon Shadow had focused solely on the withered laborer. Facing Asuka's attacks, it only defended and never counterattacked, even though its defensive capabilities did not seem weak at all.
The Demon Shadow slowly drifted down along the chaotic airflow, like a bedsheet blown by the wind or willow branches swaying, giving Asuka an unsettling feeling.
"Is this your true body? Or is this just an illusion?"
"…"
Since coming to this world, this was the first time Asuka had encountered a being even quieter than himself. Whether it did not want to speak or for some other reason, the Demon Shadow never exchanged a single word with him.
Asuka glanced with the corner of his eye at Asano Mori behind him, who was tending to the laborer, and at the laborer whose complexion was growing increasingly ashen.
No good. This thing was still draining his vitality. It had to be resolved quickly.
"Since you won't come to me, I'm coming to you."
With a tap of his toes, Asuka shot forward again. The colorless Nichirin Blade in his hand flipped and danced, carving precise and razor-sharp slashes under the moonlight.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
However, when these slashes struck the Demon Shadow, they only kicked up dust and fierce winds, tearing open its mist-like body before it quickly healed again, causing no real damage at all.
But suddenly, when Asano Mori showed concern for the laborer and intended to carry him away on his back—
The Demon Shadow reacted far more violently. For the first time, it launched a proactive attack at Asuka, seemingly trying to force him back in order to stop Asano Mori.
Why…
Clang!!
Asuka's Nichirin Blade collided head-on with the Demon Shadow's condensed body for the first time, producing a violent crash.
What is it afraid of?
Thoughts raced through Asuka's mind. A sudden flash of insight struck him, and his gaze snapped toward the laborer on Asano Mori's back.
The shadow! He remembered the three children he had seen during the day. Their shadows carried the scent of a demon, which meant the demon was marking its prey.
And this laborer had reached the time of harvest… which meant the scent on him must be the strongest!
Asuka immediately activated his spiritual pressure perception to examine the abnormality on the laborer, and sure enough—
Within the laborer's shadow, thin as mist, a mass of extremely malicious darkness was clinging tightly to him, as if gripping his legs.
"So that's where you are!"
Asuka instantly changed tactics, no longer fixating on intercepting the elusive Demon Shadow.
The blade light withdrew as his body spun.
He flashed downward from above. The Nichirin Blade, carrying chilling killing intent and wind pressure, stabbed straight into the nearly vanished ground projection beneath the laborer!
Squish!
"Ahhh—!!"
A piercing scream rang out instantly!
The Demon Shadow, which had been impossible to injure until now, suffered real damage for the first time!
It convulsed and thrashed wildly. The black mist forming its body fluctuated violently, and the edges even began to collapse unstably.
Seeing this, Asuka wasted no words. He gathered all the wind pressure into a single point and drove it fiercely into the ground!
Boom!!
The ground split open instantly. Asuka did not stop, continuously striking every patch of shadow on the ground.
The Demon Shadow let out even more agonized screams. Its entire form trembled as its silhouette grew ever thinner!
Now!
When all the malice in the area had been completely swept away by Asuka, the Demon Shadow's illusory form could finally no longer hold. Asuka also realized that the opponent might not even be a true demon at all!
It carried dense demonic aura but had no physical body. Now, a mere gust of wind would be enough to scatter it!
"Get lost!" Asuka shouted, his sword momentum roaring outward!
Whooo—!!
Like a raging gale sweeping through, the Demon Shadow was completely shattered by Asuka's sword wind!
"Cough… cough cough…"
Almost simultaneously, violent coughing came from the courtyard.
Asuka sheathed his blade and looked back, only to see the laborer trembling violently as his shadow slowly regained its color. Within a few breaths, it turned jet black once more.
After that, the deathly pallor on his face recovered a hint of color, though his breathing remained weak.
The shadow had returned, but the life force that had already been taken was like spilled water, impossible to reclaim.
"What exactly is going on…"
Looking at the damaged courtyard and the faint residual demonic aura lingering in the air, Asuka felt that something was not right.
At that moment, Sendai City, Osaki Hachimangu Shrine.
A small jade talisman shattered.
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