05. The Hand Appeared

Author's Note: I'll be on a trip and will be off a few hours later. so, no chapter for the next day. ciao. 

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In the morning, the mountain area is bathed in soft, golden light as the sun rises. The air is crisp, carrying the scent of pine and earth. Birds chirp, and a serene calmness envelops the rugged peaks. Dew glistens on leaves, and the distant valleys are shrouded in a gentle mist, creating a tranquil and picturesque landscape.

"I believe it should be around this place," I muttered while looking at the mountain in front of me. Although I couldn't say that the mountain was high, it was a little bit too vast. It would be troublesome if I couldn't find the location in time, so I decided to mimic eagle wings to fly and eagle eyes to inspect the surroundings from above.

Around an hour later, I effortlessly soared over the mountain area, my eagle eyes keenly scanning the landscape. In the midst of the rugged terrain, I noticed a distinctive cluster of lavender-like trees. Their vibrant colors stood out against the lush green forest, drawing my attention.

The lavender-like trees encircle an eerie mountain, creating a picturesque scene. Their delicate blooms contrast with the ominous mountain, casting a soothing atmosphere over the spacious area near them, telling me it was a place for gathering before the final selection began.

I didn't have to guess, as I believed that was the location for the Demon Slayer Corps final selection. But the selection started at night, so I had to wait a little while.

By the way, I successfully acquired a resistance, [Fire Resistance], after bathing myself in the sea of flame I created. Not just that, I also got another skill, [Ignition], a skill to set a fire. Anyway, the [Heat Resistance] was gone and absorbed into the [Fire Resistance].

With that, I decided to use my [Shapeshifter] skill. This skill wasn't a skill to change your appearance; it's completely different. Anyway, this skill had two sub-skills, [Synthesis] and [Separation].

What I did was use [Synthesis] to combine these: [Water Pressure Resistance], [Air Pressure Resistance], [Electricity Resistance], [Geokinetic Resistance], and [Fire Resistance] into one.

And then, a notification popped up.

[Merging successful. [Elemental Resistance] successfully acquired].

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Later at night, as I dived down towards a certain spot nearby covered by the lush of those beautiful trees, I suddenly noticed a young boy appreciating the beauty of his surroundings.

In that instant, I retracted my pair of wings, but that was a stupid mistake.

*Bang!*

I fell down, and that hurt… Hurt, huh? I guess not really. I just forgot that I have [Pain Resistance].

"Hey, are you alright?" The young boy I saw approached me while checking my condition after falling.

I didn't reply but stood up immediately after seeing him.

"Whoa…" He was somewhat surprised by my sudden movement. But I didn't care about that. I looked at him curiously without paying attention to him while holding my chin.

'He looks alike,' I said in my mind while getting closer to him. It wasn't like I was interested in him romantically, okay! I still prefer girls since my mentality was that of a young man.

The reason was, the young man in front of me had the same appearance as the main character in a certain anime. Ruffled black hair with maroon tips, a scar on the top left of his forehead, dark red eyes, and a pair of rising sun over mountain earrings. Although it had been years, I still remembered the characteristics of the main character in that anime. Yep, he's Kamado Tanjiro. By the way, Kamado is his family name while Tanjiro is his given name. I think only Korea, Japan, and China are the countries that use such naming, probably.

In my country, when I was a human in Indonesia, I had never heard of people using the term "family name", at least in my era. The names of people in my country sometimes had 1 to 4 words. For example, a man's name, Pravda Deenadayaal Ganapatih Kastara, and people would call him "Tara" for convenience. If it's one word, Supriyanto, people would call him "Pri". Well, the cultural difference, I guess.

Let's set aside that matter. Anyway, it seemed I was really thrown into the anime world. And it wasn't strange enough for me to accept this reality. After all, I'd never have imagined that the anime world would exist if I didn't become a slime.

This world is the Demon Slayer world. And it seemed I was thrown into this world in the timeline when the main character of this world, Kamado Tanjiro, was about to participate in the final selection to become a demon slayer.

Hmmm… I had a little bit of knowledge of this world up to the something district arc…err…what was that called again? I forgot. But, let's just call it the shopping district since people would buy women's bodies.

I had a little bit of an advantage in knowing that future. But what if my arrival in this final selection made me mess up the future I knew? Do I have to mess up the plot? Hmmm, why not? Based on what I would do in the future, I would definitely get attention from the last boss while getting stronger and stronger.

I didn't know whether this Tanjiro would kill the last boss alone or together with his sister, but I expected a huge price for defeating the last boss. Hehe, sorry, Mr. Main character. I'll take over your duty to slay the last boss from now on.

I didn't realize that I looked at him a little bit longer than I expected. And when I just returned from my thoughts, I could see him already took a step away while stuttering, "W-what is it?"

Well, my face was considered cute, and I have a feminine appearance after all. But, based on my height and my appearance, he might be afraid of being called a lolicon or something.

"Ah, my bad. I thought I saw you somewhere, but I couldn't recall. Well, never mind. Since you're going to participate in the selection, see you later, I guess!"

Before he could reply, I had already strode away. Honestly, I wanted to get closer to him to learn his breathing techniques. Unleashing a sword technique with a water element was so damn cool. Or perhaps I could learn the Dance of The Fire God (Hinokami Kagura) from him. But, it was weird to ask him directly as we had just met. Perhaps I could learn just by observing him. Let's try that. After all, I had to get stronger as quickly as possible since I remembered that a stronger Oni would appear shortly after this final selection.

Passing through a Torii gate, I arrived at the gathering spot for the participants. All the people around me used katanas as their weapons, except me, since I was the only one who used a metal bat. 

'Hmmm, except the background characters I have no knowledge about, the Genji hairstyle dude, Zenitsu, Tanjiro, and Kana-something are here. Where's the boar-masked dude, by the way? He should be in the same year as Tanjiro. Oh, that's him.'

It seemed the boar-masked dude also participated in the same final selection as Tanjiro and the others.

Just as I was thinking, the twins, one with white hair and another one with black hair, appeared before us.

The black-haired twin spoke, "Greetings everyone. Thank you all for joining the Final Selection tonight. There are a lot of onis held captive on this mountain brought back by demon slayers. They are unable to leave."

Then, the white-haired twin followed, "Because from the mountain foot to halfway up, there are a lot of oni-repelling wisteria that bloom all year around."

The black-haired twin spoke once again. "However, from here on out, there are no more wisteria, but onis. If you can survive this for 7 days…" The black-haired twin stopped talking, but the white-haired one continued, "Then, you pass the final selection. Now, let the final selection begin!"

As the white-haired twin finished saying that, the participants began to enter the dark forest of the mountain. I didn't rush out immediately while seeing those participants begin to enter. Honestly, I wanted to see Zenitsu's breathing style with my own eyes. But it seemed he didn't budge from his spot even after all the participants rushed inside.

Then, I heard footsteps from behind, and that person said, "Are you using that weapon to fight the oni? You know, the oni has a vital weakness, which is their neck. With that weapon…"

Without turning around, I knew it was Tanjiro. I interjected him by saying, "I know. But, that doesn't matter since I already killed a lot of them with this." I pointed at my bat.

"Ah, then be careful." With that, Tanjiro strode forward.

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'That girl is so weird. Somehow, her smell isn't like humans. But, she isn't an oni either.' Tanjiro thought about Arjun. After training for two years under Urokodaki, not only his swordsmanship, but even his sense of smell developed to another level.

Even so, he still couldn't guess how strong Arjun was. So, when he saw Arjun only brought a metal bat as a weapon, he was somewhat worried about Arjun. An oni could regenerate, so if Arjun couldn't cut its neck if Arjun met one, Arjun would be dead.

He shook his head.

'It's better if I just focus on this selection. I just hope that she's alright.'

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Around an hour after I got inside, I finally met an oni.

"Hehehe, a prey." The oni licked its lips, but then frowned. "You don't smell like humans? Oh well, who cares about that? Young flesh must be delicious."

I could only chuckle as a response. Then I said, "Well, well. Allow me to test my physical power!" As I said that, I immediately used [Strengthen] and [Infusion] to reinforce my physical strength and weapon attack power.

"Bonk Style, First Bonk: Go to the Horny Jail!"

Then, I dashed toward it.

The oni, who was just about to attack, was stunned at my sudden rapid movement.

"What!!???" It wanted to dodge, but it was too late as I already swung my metal bat vertically downward.

*Bonk*

A crisp sound resounded as its head to its body splattered all over the place. And then, its body started to scatter into ashes.

I didn't know this; after all, I didn't try this before. Even the knowledge from the anime told me that its neck was the weakness, yet it could only be done by using the Nichirin Sword. However, it seemed that there was another way. As long as one could destroy an oni's vital spot with a weapon created by using materials containing sunlight energy, it could die as well.

"Ermmm, experiment success, I guess. Ehe…"

I was sure that my strength was at least 8-C level. However, if I add my skills, my strength might increase to 8-B level. But, did you know? The difference between 8-C to 8-B is quite significant. 8-C is the building level, which is a level that can destroy buildings such as houses, supermarkets, etc. And although 8-B is the level above, there's a level in between; let's call it High 8-C, which can destroy large buildings such as skyscrapers. After all, 8-B is a city block level.

After confirming the extent of my strength, if there was no enemy I could take advantage of to hone my fighting style or fighting sense, I planned to absorb them instead of using my skills. After all, if I didn't absorb them, I couldn't gain exp to increase my strength.

For me, strength is essential, especially if I could become stronger before returning to my original world. I wonder what happened to my little sister and brother. I kind of miss them. Sigh…

That's right. I had a little sister back in my world. Since my father died due to the gate outbreak, I always took care of my mother, little sister, and little brother. But now, I am somewhat worried about them. It would be good if I could be transferred back to my world in the next half year. But, I understand that I shouldn't hope for that much.

I roamed around the mountain, sometimes saving other participants, sometimes just absorbing them to gain strength. Unknowingly, I met Tanjiro when he was saving a participant from a huge oni with a lot of hands, which I'll just call "The Hand."

But what I didn't expect was...

'Ugh… Where's the water effect? He should have used the second form of water breathing style, right? There's no way that my eyes are deceiving me since I used my eagle eyes all the time. Damn, the anime fooled me with the visual effects.'

It seemed all those breathing styles didn't produce their elemental effects, but the demon slayers would replicate a certain element of nature, so their techniques, movements, and abilities would mimic the said elements.

And Tanjiro's technique just now seemed to mimic the flowing of water, not to infuse his sword with the water element.

'But then again, gaining all of the breathing styles might be good for me as I can infuse my sword with elements later. After all, I have magical power. I just need to learn from a master how to turn my magical power into magic elements. Moreover, didn't I have some elemental skills without magic?'

Speaking of my elemental skills: [Water Current Control], [Electric Conductivity], and [Ignition] were purely elements without magical power. I wondered if I added them with my magic power, would I get an elemental magic? I guess I had to try that later.

I waited for Tanjiro to gain a little bit of experience before he killed that oni. If I guessed right, that oni was the strongest in the mountain. And I could tell that only a participant with the breathing technique could kill it. While observing, I also looked at Tanjiro's breathing technique carefully, in case I could copy it.

I watched Tanjiro get blown away and immediately become unconscious. When I saw that scene, I wondered whether he would wake up just like in the anime or if he would die because of the butterfly effect.

Well, I couldn't let him die since the main character should be an indispensable force. So, if he really didn't wake up, I should save him before receiving the blow.

And as I expected, he woke up the moment the blow was about to land on him. Well, I had already prepared my thread near him, though.

And he didn't seem to notice me just yet. Probably because of my [Magic Manipulation], I could control my magic power inside me, avoiding leaking it out.

Just as Tanjiro was about to deliver a finishing blow to the oni, I immediately moved out.

Bang

I hit its body and sent it flying before Tanjiro could decapitate it. Actually, Tanjiro was stunned as his attack that should have killed the target missed. Then, he saw a little girl figure not far from him. And that girl figure was me.

Well, I wouldn't retort even if I knew he thought of me as a girl or boy since I didn't care about my gender anymore.

"Hey, hey. Don't send it to Jesus; that's my job. I will send it to Jesus," I said to him nonchalantly.