A young boy patrolled the thick forest in the middle. of the night, this was the time Demons haunt for flesh and blood to sustain themselves and give more strength
He wore a brown Haori and with black Hakama, he carried a long katana strapped to his side. This young boy is non other than Tatsuya himself on his first mission
"Oi Hanabi-chan are you sure this is the place"
Tatsuya asked the black crow resting on his shoulder
"I can never deliver a wrong message kwa" She replied
"Okay lets continue moving"
Tatsuya and the crow kept moving deep into the forest.
Afte some minutes of walking Tatsuya decided to take a rest. He gathered some leaves and set a bed for rest.
"I guess tomorrow we shall return back to the village" Tatsuya went asleep
The following day, Tatsuya was woken up by the morning sun striking his eyes. He yawns lazily and stretches his body.
"You're finally awake Tatsuya-chan"
Hanabi said
"Yeah, did anything odd happened"
"Nope nothing at all kaw"
"Alright then, let's head into the village"
Tatsuya got up, and both of them heads into the village
After journeying for around 30 minutes Tatsuya got into the village, and his first priority was to make money
"Hey Old man can i help you with that"
Tatsuya spots an old man struggling with some sack of rice
"How much you pay if i help with that" Tatsuya asked the old man, the old man ponders for while before giving in.
"50 Sen per sack" The man says
"Alright deal" Tatsuya rushed to the sack of rice and began his work
Later that day in the evening Tatsuya was done with the work. The man brings a bag of coin and hands it over to Tatsuya. Tatsuya humbly bowed down in appreciation and was about to leave when the man invited him over for Dinner.
Tatsuya humbly accepted and heads over to the old man's house.
As they entered the old man's wife had already prepared dinner and it was already set on the table. It was Ramen, Tatsuya's favourite.
"You can dig in don't hold back" The man's wife said
"Thanks for the meal" Tatsuya clapped his hand and began to devour the food infront of him
The atmosphere was calm and friendly, Tatsuya used the opportunity to bring in the matter about the demon
"If i may ask as they been any strange occurance in the village, like strange attack like demons and..."
Tatsuya noticed that upon hearing the word "Demon" They both flinched
"...Is there any?" Tatsuya asked
"No no no...they isn't" The man laughed awkwardly
After the meal, the man offered him a room to sleep in for the night.
Tatsuya was in his room when Hanabi flew in through the window.
"Any information??" Tatsuya asked
"Yes, the villagers are acting all strange, like dull" Hanabi said
"That's strange for sure"
"What about your end, any discoveries" Hanabi asked
"Yeah, well all i can say is that, they are too nice to be actually nice, lets sleep for now and watch them"
Tatsuya wore his cloth on top of his katana and covered himself to sleep.
Just outside the room, the old couple were monitoring Tatsuya, after a few minutes of idleness, they figured he was fast asleep.
"Summon the master, I'm sure he is fast asleep" The man commanded his wife.
Soon after the entire villagers garthered round the house, and inside the house was the couple and a Masculine figure dressed in a priest attire, he carried a war hand fan as a weapon and nothing else.
"Oh my, is this the only loot today, if you guys don't get me more humans I'll end up eating the entire villagers" The demon said with a grin on his face
He slowly walked towards Tatsuya
"Now about the meal..." The demon tried to lay his hand on Tatsuya, but was shocked with Tatsuya's suprise attack straight to his neck, the demon moved back a little dodging the slash but not entirely as blood dripped from it's neck
"Oh my, what do we have here?" The demon scans Tatsuya head to toe
"The Demon slayers, ohh this will make this night even more pleasant, the flesh of a Demon slayer....haa exquisite" The Demon wraps it's hands around himself in enjoy
"Humm...It seems like you don't know what's going on do you?" Tatsuya asked
"What do you mean Demon slayer-san?"
"Well, incase you don't know I'm here to kill you, but more importantly..." Tatsuya looked at the couple in disgust
"...I hate cowards who will do anything to live"
Tatsuya said and enters a fighting stance
"Well then shall we begin" Tatsuya rushed at the Demon
"Fufu..." The Demon swing his war fan creating a huge air waves that flew at Tatsuya at incredible speed
"What the Fu..." The air blows Tatsuya out of the buliding sending him to crash on multiple buildings
"Is that all you've Demon Slayer-san" The Demon as he came out of the building moving towards Tatsuya
Tatsuya forcefully got up and noticed the Villagers around
"You all should get away from here, things are about to get messy"
Tatsuya said and focused on the enemy before him.
'This isn't like those human battle I've fought up till now, this is the real deal, i have to think and fight like a Demon slayer'
The demon swing his fan as another wave of wind head towards Tatsuya, Tatsuya leaps up towards the Demon while dodging the violent wind
Tatsuya spins mid air and swing his katana at the Demon, both of the weapons clashed, Tatsuya was able to put the Demon at the defensive side
"Oohhh?? not that good in close combat, well that's my fort" Tatsuya said and lauch different slash from different sides. The Demon was able to counter some, but failed to counter most of them and lost his hand holding the war fan, without giving it much time to regenerate Tatsuya cut off the other hand and went for a clean cut on the neck
*thud
The demon body withered slowly away
"Damn that was rough" Tatsuya breath heavily as ge looked at the rising sun
"Time to head back..."
"That was good for a newbie Tatsuya-chan kaw"
Hanabi says
"Where were you, you coward, you leave me during battle"
"We can't fight, we only aid"
"Tch...still cowardly to me" Tatsuya and Hanabi the crow started their journey back, that was when another set of thought ran through Tatsuya's mind,
'Not enough, not strong enough... i need more training, i need to get stronger'
NEXT: TRAINING WITH RENGOKU