Inside the Hayama Dojo, the sounds of wooden blades clashing rang incessantly, every collision accompanied by heavy breathing and suppressed grunts.
"Haah! Beast Breathing, Second Fang: Slice and Dice!"
Inosuke let out a beastlike roar, tearing wild arcs through the air with his twin wooden swords as he unleashed a sword form of his own creation.
Yet although his strength was great, his footing was unstable. His forward charge was too fierce, leaving his entire centerline wide open.
"Your opening is too big!"
A clear, sweet female voice rang out.
Rika's figure slid lightly to the side, and the wooden blade in her hand mercilessly tapped against Inosuke's completely exposed waist.
"Ugh!"
The sharp sting instantly distorted Inosuke's movement.
His powerful momentum, struck at a vital point, deflated like a punctured balloon.
He staggered forward several steps in embarrassment, nearly falling flat on his face. Only by planting both swords against the ground did he barely manage to stabilize his unbalanced body.
"I lost again!"
Inosuke grabbed his boar mask irritably, his eyes burning with unwillingness and frustration.
"Why?! I'm clearly stronger than you, and I'm fast enough too, but I just can't hit you! This is infuriating!"
Rika slowly lowered her blade and looked at the young man before her, a piece of raw stone filled with primal strength yet never carefully polished.
"Your problem isn't that you lack strength, Inosuke. Your fundamentals are simply too poor."
She pointed to his legs.
"Every time you exert force, there are unnecessary movements and huge openings. Even a second-rate swordsman like me can easily find your weakness."
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Although Inosuke refused to accept it emotionally, he knew Rika was right, and he ended up sulking at himself instead.
Seeing his frustrated expression, Rika smiled and gently patted the boar head on his mask.
"Don't be discouraged. Let's train again. Remember, don't just think about landing a hit on me. First learn to stand firmly, and learn how to protect yourself from being struck in vital spots while attacking."
Faced with such concern, Inosuke felt his head grow dizzy. He hurriedly suppressed the anger in his chest and forced himself to recall the countless demonstrations and explanations Rika had given him before.
Scenes like this had been repeating in the dojo of the Hayama Training Center for nearly three months.
In the mornings, it was tedious foundational stance training and corrections to footwork. In the afternoons, Rika subjected him to relentless sparring sessions like a raging storm.
Tetsushin Arisaki occasionally appeared in a corner of the dojo, silently observing without interfering in Rika's teaching.
In his view, Rika would become the next instructor of the training center sooner or later. It was better for her to adapt early.
He also knew that a wild beast like Inosuke needed patient and calm guidance like Rika's, rather than his own overly fierce style.
To be honest, Nanajūhachi Asuka had never received treatment like this when he trained at the Hayama Training Center.
Back then, he had practically undergone two years of closed training focused solely on physical conditioning and sword forms before being thrown straight into the Demon Slayer selection by Teacher Arasaki. As a result, much of his real combat experience had only been accumulated during actual battles with Demons.
Time passed amid sweat, bruises, and the constant clash of blades.
One late night, all was silent except for the howling mountain wind.
The training from earlier that day had long ended. The dojo was empty.
Cold moonlight spilled across the courtyard, illuminating Inosuke as he sat there in a daze.
"...Damn it. I was just a little bit away from beating that woman today."
He looked up at the night sky gloomily, wondering whether he had truly grown stronger during this period of training.
Just as he concentrated on recalling the day's practice—
His beastlike instincts began screaming in warning.
A chill shot up his spine in an instant, spreading through his entire body. Every hair on his body stood on end.
Inosuke's body suddenly stiffened.
This was a primal terror, the instinctive trembling of prey facing an apex predator.
"This feeling... it's the same as that day..."
He abruptly drew his Nichirin Blade, his eyes locking onto the direction of the mountain gate.
Almost at the same moment Inosuke sensed it, the paper doors of two quiet rooms deeper inside the training center were violently pulled open.
Tetsushin Arisaki and Rika rushed out at full speed. Under the moonlight, both their expressions were grave to the extreme.
Tetsushin gripped his thick and sturdy Nichirin Blade, while Rika silently drew her own sword. Its slender blade shimmered with a green glow beneath the moonlight.
"W-What kind of demonic aura is this...?" Rika's voice trembled with undisguised shock. Her hand gripping the sword shook slightly under the unprecedented pressure. "A Lower Rank... no, could it be an Upper Rank?!"
Tetsushin Arisaki's gaze darkened, every muscle in his body tensing.
His lifetime of fighting Demons told him that the approaching enemy was anything but ordinary.
"Rika, take the students and escape through the back mountain!"
He had no idea how this Demon had found the Hayama Training Center, but against such a terrifying existence, the only thing he could do was preserve the lives of the other trainees.
"Teacher! I can't—"
"There's no time! Take them and run!"
But the visitor gave them no chance to gather or evacuate.
Boom!
The torii gate at the entrance of the Hayama Training Center, along with a section of the stone wall beside it, exploded apart with a deafening blast.
Broken stones and splintered wood shot outward like torrential rain, smoke and dust filling the air.
The noise echoed across the entire mountain, shattering the silence of the night.
The training center instantly woke in panic, voices of alarm rising everywhere.
Within the dust, a figure slowly stepped forward.
Short pink hair shone brightly under the moonlight. Savage tattoos covered his entire body, writhing like living creatures. In his golden eyes burned an almost fanatical desire for battle and undisguised fury.
Upper Rank Three.
Akaza.
"So this is the home of that unpleasant swordsman? You certainly made me search for quite a while..."
Akaza glanced at Tetsushin Arisaki, Rika, and Inosuke standing ready in the courtyard. A bloodthirsty smile spread across his face.
"Which one of you is the teacher of the black-haired swordsman? Come out and spar with me."
"Demon! This is not a place for you to run wild!"
The one-armed Tetsushin Arisaki stepped forward to shield Rika and the others. His beard and hair bristled as his furious shout rang like thunder.
He knew that against such a terrifying being, probing attacks would only lead to death.
He had to fight with everything he had.
With a powerful stomp, Tetsushin burst forward like a raging gale, his Nichirin Blade cleaving straight toward Akaza's head.
"Wind Breathing, Eighth Form: Gale Slash!"
"Tch... this is rather disappointing."
Facing Tetsushin's full-power strike, Akaza looked mildly irritated.
A large snowflake-patterned battle diagram bloomed beneath his feet.
His body shifted slightly, almost as if he could foresee the attack, effortlessly avoiding the violent sword form.
At the same time Tetsushin attacked, Rika's figure had already merged into the night wind, slashing a swift Wind-style sword strike toward Akaza's blind spot.
Akaza, having dodged Tetsushin's attack, moved his left hand with lightning speed.
His five fingers precisely grasped the tip of Rika's blade.
The razor-sharp edge capable of slicing iron was caught with his bare hand.
"Honestly, is this really the place where that black-haired swordsman trained? You people are far too weak."
Fierce fighting spirit condensed instantly as Akaza threw out a punch with clear impatience.
Clang!
Tetsushin Arisaki felt an overwhelming force slam against his blade.
His Nichirin Blade snapped in half.
The impact numbed his arm and sent his blood surging violently as he was blasted backward uncontrollably.
Rika felt as if struck by lightning as well.
The blade tip caught in Akaza's grip transmitted an irresistible force, instantly tearing open the skin of her palm.
She decisively released the sword and pushed off the ground with the tips of her toes, flipping backward with astonishing flexibility and barely avoiding the shockwave that followed.
Even so, the violent air current scraped painfully across her face, her clothes whipping loudly in the wind.
In just a single exchange, the two strongest fighters of the training center were defeated—one injured, the other forced back.
"Rika! Old Iron Lump!"
Inosuke's eyes were bloodshot.
'If this keeps up, I'm still standing in the same place! I can't protect anything!'
Seeing the two people who had taught him struck down instantly, an unprecedented fury overwhelmed his instinctive fear.
Summoning his courage, he forced his body forward and slashed two fierce arcs of blade light toward Akaza's neck.
"Foolish insect."
What Akaza hated most were weaklings who failed to recognize their own strength.
Watching Inosuke charge forward, he felt no joy of battle at all—only irritation.
Being assigned to exterminate weaklings like this was truly punishment from Lord Muzan.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Inosuke only saw blurred shadows of legs.
In the next instant, several heavy blows struck his body.
He felt at least two of his ribs snap. His organs seemed to shift as he was kicked violently away.
His body slammed into the wooden pillar of the dojo corridor, breaking the thick beam in half. Darkness flooded his vision as his twin beast-fang Nichirin Blades flew from his hands.
"Cough...!"
Inosuke spat out a mouthful of blood, struggling to rise, but the agony nearly suffocated him.
"Boring. Too boring!"
Akaza looked at the three struggling figures with disappointment.
"Is this really all you've got? You can't even warm me up!"
His gaze locked onto Inosuke's boar mask.
"You look a little familiar. Let's start with you."
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Akaza vanished.
Inosuke only saw a flash of pink light before a chilling aura of death engulfed him.
Akaza appeared directly before him, his right fist packed with terrifying fighting spirit as it came crashing down.
"Inosuke! Move!!"
Rika gathered every ounce of strength in her body.
In a flash she drew a spare Nichirin Blade and stepped in front of Inosuke.
[Stop it, Hakuji!!]
Akaza's fist paused.
In the end, he did not throw the punch.
His knuckles hovered only inches from Rika's face. The wind of the punch tore open the skin of her cheek, blood sliding down her face.
It appeared again.
Who exactly was speaking?