After leaving the cabin, Giyu Tomioka looked back every few steps. He knew that once he left this time, it would be difficult to return.
He would spend the next year aiming to become a Hashira. There was no other way. He estimated it would take at least a year to slay fifty demons.
This didn't mean he was slow—it was simply that demons wouldn't line up and wait for him to cut them down.
They wouldn't knock on his door at night and offer up their heads.
If he were lucky enough to encounter a Lower Rank demon of the Twelve Kizuki, perhaps it wouldn't even take a year.
Why not an Upper Rank? Heh—he wasn't suicidal.
After becoming a Hashira, he would have even less free time. Currently, only the Flame and Sound Hashira were active.
The Demon Slayer Corps was in desperate need of elite combat power.
By his calculations, the soonest he could return would be five years later—on the day he met Tanjiro. Perhaps then he could visit his master again.
Once the storyline picked up, he would be swamped, running all over the place.
He was lost in thought along the way, and before he knew it, Giyu had already arrived at the foot of the mountain.
At that moment, his Kasugai Crow, Kanzaburo, circled overhead and loudly announced:
"Giyu Tomioka! A mission order!"
"Proceed to the bamboo grove in the southeast! All who entered have vanished—without a trace!"
Giyu stretched and murmured, a hint of excitement in his tone, "My first demon…"
But half an hour later, all that excitement turned into exasperation. He remembered the particular quirks of his crow, Kanzaburo.
Pressing a palm to his forehead, Giyu sighed in resignation.
"Can you recall more clearly? We're surrounded by nothing but forest, except for that village up ahead."
But it was clear Kanzaburo's memory lapse had struck again. The crow entered a deep freeze, desperately trying to recall the correct direction.
With no other choice, Giyu headed toward the village to ask around for any nearby bamboo forests.
However, the moment he entered, he noticed something was very wrong.
His sense of smell wasn't as sharp as Tanjiro's, but he could still detect the heavy stench of fresh blood in the air.
It hadn't even been thirty minutes since the blood was spilled.
Just then, a young voice cried out from the distance:
"Help! Help! D-Don't come any closer! Ahh!!"
Moments later, a boy around thirteen or fourteen appeared in Giyu's sight—his body covered in blood.
Giyu's eyes widened. The moment he took a step to rescue the boy, a black figure leapt from the shadows and bit the boy's head clean off.
The demon then dragged the boy's body into a nearby house without hesitation.
"Tch… Don't tell me I really ran into a member of the Twelve Kizuki on my first mission?"
Quickly giving chase, Giyu kicked the door open—only for the black figure to pounce, lying in wait.
Unfortunately for the demon, Giyu had already anticipated such a move.
Lowering his stance, he gripped his blade tightly and called out:
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
A horizontal blue arc sliced through the air, and the demon's head fell with a wet thud.
Now that Giyu had a better look, he saw the demon had one large eye, two sharp horns on its cheeks, and an eerie mouth and nose.
"Only one eye? Maybe the other one's somewhere else…"
Disappointed, Giyu shook his head.
"Tch, no number… definitely not one of the Twelve Kizuki."
Suddenly, his instincts screamed danger. Without hesitation, he gripped his sword with both hands and struck down hard:
"Water Breathing, Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!"
Boom—
A pillar of water smashed downward just as two more demons burst through the windows.
But they were no match—Giyu's strike crushed both of their heads together in an instant.
"…They're all wearing the same clothes." Giyu frowned. "Could this be a Blood Demon Art?"
Tap, tap, tap, tap—
"Footsteps? So there are more…"
Looking up, he saw dozens of identical demons charging toward him at high speed.
Giyu inhaled deeply and braced himself.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
He moved like water itself—gliding, twisting, evading. In mere moments, over ten demons had fallen, their heads severed.
His clothes remained untouched, not a scratch on him.
But Giyu wasn't pleased. From within nearby houses, more and more identical demons were pouring out, like they were being spawned.
"Tch. Where's the real one? Could one of these be it?"
Though none of the clones were strong individually, if they continued to spawn, he would eventually wear out.
He had to find the original—fast.
Retreat? He dismissed the idea immediately. If he fled at the first sign of trouble, he wasn't worthy of being the Water Hashira.
"There has to be a difference—calm down and look for it…"
While fending off attacks, Giyu examined each demon carefully. But after ten minutes of intense combat, he still found nothing.
None fled, none stood still, none avoided him. They even had the same expressions.
After felling three more, he leapt onto the roof of a house and caught his breath.
His condition was starting to decline.
"Why… Could the original be hiding farther away?"
Just then, he noticed a strange pattern—some demons circled behind a particular house.
Boom—
Before he could follow the thought, several demons leapt onto the roof, breaking through tiles to attack.
Instead of countering, Giyu jumped to another rooftop, gaining a better vantage point.
"…So that's it."
He landed silently, his eyes narrowing.
From up high, it became clear—the seemingly endless horde of demons wasn't coming from all directions.
They were all emerging from one single courtyard.