Tanjiro’s body trembled as he suddenly dropped to his knees, his head pressed against the snow. “Please… I beg you, don’t kill Nezuko.”

  “I have nothing left to lose—my family: my brother who left without a word, my mother, my younger siblings… they were all slain by demons.”

  “Now, Nezuko is all I have. Please, don’t take her away from me. I have nothing left to lose. Nezuko is my everything…”

  Seeing Tanjiro prostrate on the ground, shivering uncontrollably and weeping, Giyu Tomioka’s usually calm expression darkened and grew menacing.

  “Why do you kneel? Why beg for mercy?

  Don’t be a weakling, tail-wagging for pity.”

  “Why did you hold your sister in your arms before? Instead of relying on others’ compassion, you should have picked up your axe and swung it at me!”

  “I could have easily slain you and your sister together just moments ago!”

  “Weren’t you the one who claimed you wanted to restore your sister to human form? Do you expect that if you beg a demon, it will grant you a way out?”

  “No—the demon won’t help you, and neither will I.”

  With those words, Giyu ignored the desperate, confused look in Tanjiro’s eyes and drove his Nichirin Blade into Nezuko’s heart. Nezuko cried out in agony as she struggled helplessly.

  Sighing inwardly, Giyu saw in Tanjiro the reflection of his once-weak self—back then, like an older brother, he had always shielded others. But because of his own weakness, incompetence, and cowardice, that very protector had perished at the hands of demons…

  “Don’t cry. Don’t despair. This isn’t the time for that. Your family is gone—your brother may have fled as a demon, and now your sister has become one too. You must be in unbearable pain.”

  “I understand it all.

  If only I had come one day earlier, perhaps your family could have been saved, and you wouldn’t suffer so.”

  “But what’s done cannot be changed. Time is irreversible.

  Now, you need to grow stronger—become powerful. Not by wallowing in your current state and begging for pity.

  Let your anger fuel you. Rise up and, in your own way, attack me.

  Show me just how far you can go.”

  Giyu’s face was as grim as a millennia-old glacier, his Nichirin Blade poised to strike again. Yet beneath that cold exterior lay a heart that was tender and gentle as water.

  Seeing Nezuko’s agonized struggles and realizing that pleading was futile, Tanjiro suddenly rose to his feet. With a desperate motion, he hurled a stone at Giyu.

  Giyu did not drive his blade into Nezuko this time; instead, he swung the hilt to deflect the stone. Meanwhile, Tanjiro snatched up an axe from nearby and darted into the shadow cast by a sturdy, age-old cedar that clung to the mountainside. Circling around its trunk, he crept closer to Giyu.

  Then, brandishing the axe, he charged straight at Giyu. Witnessing this, Giyu’s disappointment was palpable as he barked, “Foolish! Do you really think that emotion alone can defeat an enemy?”

  “Anger is fine—but you must also think rationally!”

  He chided, frustrated that such raw emotion was no match for a demon.

  Tanjiro, undeterred, tossed another stone. As Giyu parried it, Tanjiro surged forward once more. Giyu raised his Nichirin Blade with a dark scowl. As Tanjiro leaned in to strike, Giyu used the hilt to deliver a crushing blow to Tanjiro’s back, knocking him to the ground.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The force sent Tanjiro sprawling face-first into the snow. His body, already worn out from endless running and heart-wrenching loss, could take no more; he soon slipped into unconsciousness.

  “Hm? Where’s your axe?”

  At that moment, Giyu sensed something amiss—he couldn’t find the axe in Tanjiro’s grasp. His eyes narrowed, and he slightly turned his head. Out of nowhere, an axe flew through the air and crashed into a tree near Giyu’s head, sending a spray of snow down.

  In that instant, Giyu understood the full story.

  Tanjiro, upon entering the cedar’s shadow, had tossed his axe toward Giyu to distract him, even flinging a stone to catch his attention. In his charging posture, Tanjiro had deliberately concealed his arms behind his body, fooling Giyu into believing he was still unarmed.

  “Was that your plan—to get knocked down so that your axe could strike me, giving your sister a chance to escape?”

  “Very good… truly very good,” Giyu murmured.

  Tanjiro’s tactic was exactly what Giyu had hoped to see.

  True courage isn’t just brute force—it requires cunning and strategy.

  Meanwhile, Nezuko, still held by Giyu, glared at the scene with burning fury upon seeing Tanjiro fall unconscious. Suddenly, her body swelled in size, and her strength surged.

  Before Giyu could react, she broke free of his grasp and delivered a powerful kick aimed at him.

  Giyu used his blade to parry the kick, but the tremendous force sent him tumbling back several meters.

  “Damn, that kid is dangerous,” Giyu muttered.

  After kicking Giyu away, Nezuko lunged toward the fallen Tanjiro, extending her sharp claws toward his prone form. Giyu took a step forward to intervene, but then he suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed in disbelief.

  Because Nezuko made no further move, she stood in front of Tanjiro, her sharp claws glinting as she let out a low, threatening growl toward Giyu Tomioka.

  “Is a demon protecting a human?”

  Giyu had seen many cases of kin turning into demons. There had been others like Tanjiro before, pleading with him not to harm their loved ones. Moved by those memories, Giyu had once relented on such pleas—only to see that person devoured by the very demon their family had become…

  A ravenous demon cares nothing for kinship; it devours every human within reach. The young girl before him had only just been wounded by my strike—a wound I had spent great effort healing. Even the transformation into a demon drains one’s strength. By now, she must be desperately hungry, teetering on the edge of madness.

  Yet, even so, this demon girl managed to resist that overwhelming hunger. She stood resolute before her “brother,” determined to protect him from harming him further.

  Giyu had never seen anything like it before. Could it be that a demon could maintain its sanity in the face of hunger and the urge to feast on blood?

  With a ferocious, twisted expression, Nezuko bared her fangs and extended her claws, charging at Giyu. Instead of using his Nichirin Blade, Giyu simply delivered a sharp slap with his hand to her neck, knocking her unconscious. While she lay dazed, he tied a pale-green bamboo tube around her mouth to prevent her from lashing out violently when she revived.

  After waiting a while in silence, Tanjiro finally awoke. Seeing Nezuko still breathing by his side, his ever-tormented heart eased for a moment.

  At that moment, Giyu was leaning against a tree. He addressed Tanjiro in a calm yet steely voice, “Do you want me to let your sister go?”

  Tanjiro froze for a moment, then struggled to sit up, his eyes widening with hope. “Yes—Nezuko would never, ever harm anyone. Please, let her live!”

  Giyu stepped away from the tree and slowly approached Tanjiro. Lowering his gaze to study him intently, he said, “Then I need your word: if there comes a time when your sister loses control and turns into a man-eating demon, you must be the one to behead her—and then commit suicide as atonement.”

  Tanjiro fell silent for a moment before solemnly promising, “If the day ever comes when Nezuko devours a human, I will be the one to kill her, and I will offer my life as penance to those she harmed.”

  “Your sister has always been so kindhearted; she would never want to hurt anyone, nor turn into a flesh-eating demon…” Giyu murmured, as if seeking confirmation.

  After hearing the answer he hoped for, Giyu softened his tone. “Your sister—she protected you just now.”

  “Do you wish to restore her humanity? To gain the strength to fight demons?”

  “Then go to the foothills of the Sayama Mountains and seek out a man named Sunadate Sakonji. Take him as your master.”

  “Tell him that I, Giyu Tomioka, sent you. He will take you in and train you in the methods to slay demons.”

  “And one more thing—make sure your sister never sees the sunlight. Demons perish when exposed to it. While the sun hasn’t yet risen, take her away.”

  After a brief conversation, Tanjiro, still carrying Nezuko on his back, set off toward the Sayama Mountains—embarking on the path to grow stronger and to become a demon slayer.

  In that moment, Tanjiro finally understood the depth of Giyu’s earnest intentions, and his heart overflowed with gratitude.