Chapter Text
I stood near the foot of Mount Natagumo, the night air thick with the smell of rotting leaves and wet iron.
My Kasugai crow had just screeched my orders, sending me straight into this death trap. It was my first official mission since surviving Final Selection—an ordeal that had left me so physically drained I had been bedridden for months just trying to recover.
I wasn't weak. The problem was that in the heat of battle, I was an absolute idiot.
As I stepped past the tree line, a translucent blue screen hovered in my peripheral vision, reminding me exactly what I was working with:
[SYSTEM STATUS]
- Rank: Mizunoto (Lowest)
- Missions Completed: 0
- Strength: 65 (Above average. Can decapitate demons reliably).
- Speed: 79 (Far above average. Nearing baseline Hashira speed; can easily blitz lower ranks).
- Stamina: 15 (The cardiovascular endurance of a coughing baby).
- Battle IQ: 16 (Absolute monkey-brain under pressure).
I immediately started hiking up the mountain with absolutely zero tactical plan. My only goal was to conserve my pathetic stamina, so I forced myself to walk slowly.
A few minutes in, I spotted a fellow Demon Slayer up ahead in the shadows.
"Hey," I called out softly, approaching him. "What's the status?"
He turned around. His eyes were completely blank, rolled back into his skull, and his limbs were being held up by thick, shimmering strings. Without a word, he violently slashed his sword directly at my neck.
My heart rate violently spiked. My mind went completely, entirely blank.
To my 79 Speed reflexes, his sword looked like it was moving in slow motion. A smart fighter would have parried, cut the strings, and saved him. But with a 16 Battle IQ, I forgot every single ounce of my training. My primal survival instincts took over, and I just jumped backward and sprinted uphill at maximum speed like a frightened deer.
I ran blindly through the trees until my lungs started burning. I slid to a halt midway up the mountain, violently gasping for air. Half of my energy was already gone.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Stamina at 10!]
Okay, this might not end well, I realized, my chest heaving. I tried to calm my breathing and slowly sneak back down the mountain without being noticed.
My plan was thrown completely out the window a second later.
A massive, hulking humanoid demon with the terrifying face of a spider stepped out from the shadows. Before I could even process its size, it ripped a massive tree trunk out of the earth and launched it directly at my head.
I was caught completely off guard. Once again, my brain short-circuited. With only 10 Stamina to my name, my pure instincts decided to burn it all to survive.
To me, the flying tree trunk looked like it was traveling through thick mud. I immediately dropped to my knees, ducking under the splintering wood as the wind pressure tore past my face.
[Stamina: 8]
I gasped, dragging a massive breath into my lungs.
I was born with the genetics of a Thunder Breathing user, but my father had beaten a completely different, ancient breathing style into my bones. I had zero efficiency with it, but the raw power was undeniable.
In a blinding burst of speed, I dashed forward, closing the distance and entering the Father Spider's blind spot before his massive eyes could even track me.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Stamina 5!]
The words left my mouth, carrying my final, desperate breath.
"Hinokami Kagura: Clear Blue Sky."
My body twisted in a flawless, 360-degree vertical arc. My blade ignited with blinding solar fire, slicing through the massive demon's incredibly dense neck bone like a hot knife through butter.
As the head separated from the shoulders, the demon's face twisted into absolute fear. It wasn't just the cut—its very cells were reacting violently to an ancient, deep trauma embedded into its DNA from the original Sun user. In an instant, the demon's flesh burned and disintegrated into quiet ash.
[Target Eliminated: Lower Moon Family (Father)] [EXP Gained. Level Up!]
I didn't even get to read the rest of the prompt. I hit the ground hard. I had killed a massive demon with a single form, but the fire on my blade vanished, and my vision instantly tunneled.
[Stamina: 0]
I was knocked clean into sleep.
I don't know how much time passed. I woke up to the low hum of the forest. I could hear the terrifying, skittering sounds of smaller spider demons approaching my paralyzed body in the brush.
Then, the bushes exploded.
"HEY!"
A feral guy wearing a hollowed-out boar's head leaped from the shadows, landing heavily right next to my body. The sheer aggressive noise of his arrival shocked me fully awake and sent the smaller spider demons scurrying back into the dark.
My eyes were wide open, but my body refused to move. I was a literal meat sack.
Inosuke Hashibira pointed his two jagged, chipped swords directly at my face, puffs of angry air shooting from his boar snout.
"Hey! How did you do that?!" Inosuke screamed, pointing one of his blades at the massive pile of burning ash beside me. "You stole my kill! Stand up, you flaming weakling! I, the great Lord Inosuke, challenge you to a duel!"
I was lying in the dirt of a demon-infested mountain, entirely unable to move a single muscle, being screamed at by a maniac. If I stayed here, the Lower Moon 5 would find me, and I was dead.
It was time to exploit the 16 BIQ monkey-brain loophole.
I kept my cheek pressed against the wet dirt, coughing weakly. "I... I can't fight you right now," I wheezed, pouring every ounce of pathetic desperation I could muster into my voice. "You're clearly... far too strong, Lord Inosuke."
Inosuke completely froze. The hostile aura around him vanished, instantly replaced by a radiant, sparkly aura of pure, unadulterated pride.
"If you carry me down this mountain... to heal..." I gasped, making my eyes look as defeated as possible. "I will give you the greatest battle of your life."
"GAHAHAHA!" Inosuke threw his head back, pointing his jagged swords at the moon. "You admit it! The King of the Mountains has infinite stamina, while yours is pathetic! Fine! I shall drag your useless body to safety so I can beat you to a pulp later!"
Without a single shred of gentleness, Inosuke violently grabbed me by the back of my uniform belt and hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and his shoulder immediately dug right into my bruised ribs.
But it worked. I had secured a taxi.
As the feral boar-boy began sprinting down the mountain at top speed, carrying me away from the danger zone, I managed to keep my eyes open just long enough to see two blurs moving through the canopy in the opposite direction. One was water-blue, the other a flutter of butterfly wings.
The Hashira had arrived.
I closed my eyes, letting the rhythmic, bouncing pain of Inosuke's sprinting lull me back into the dark. The tutorial was over.