Inside the tent, some people were staring intently at the digital displays with tense expressions, while others rushed back and forth treating the wounded, moving with the frantic air of people whose hands were completely full.
Suddenly, everyone froze, staring at the screens in dead silence. Kotaro stood up in anger and shouted, "Don't stop! We still have hope!"
Kotaro's words rang clear enough for everyone outside the tent to hear, and they resumed their work.
"Fifty-six minutes. Hideharu and Muzan's fight lasted a full fifty-six minutes. There are still more than two hours until sunrise."
Kotaro was not speaking to the others, but to Nijio Ran, who was sitting hunched over, working away with single-minded focus.
"Amane. Only Amane is left now. We have no choice... but to place all our hope in Amane."
On the battlefield, Muzan Kibutsuji regenerated his severed arms, glaring with intense hostility at Hideharu, whose body had already lost all signs of life.
"To think you could push me this far. Well then, this is your reward."
A white sphere of energy condensed in Muzan's palm, ready to be fired, but instead he blasted it behind him. A high-rise building collapsed once more. When he turned back, Hideharu's corpse had vanished.
"Yushiro—no, he's not the main point."
Muzan locked his gaze once more on the ruins ahead. A head rolled out from the rubble.
A figure stepped out with cyan eyes, wearing the old uniform of the Demon Slayer Corps, his cheeks bearing the mark of the Demon Slayer Mark. He pointed his crimson blade at Muzan.
"Oh, the aura you're giving me makes me furious! You must be Kamishiro Amane? You actually defeated Hantengu?"
Battered and bruised, Amane took a deep breath. As the crimson tip of his blade touched the ground, raindrops gathered around his Nichirin Blade. Taking a step forward, the edge of his sword reflected Muzan's form.
"Rain Breathing. First Form. Reverse Whirlpool: Thunder Rain Clouds."
"Tick, tick, tick—time's up! Time's up! Fresh out of the oven! Fresh out of the oven!"
The alarm clock repeated its message over and over. A baker turned off the alarm and gave a gentle tap to Amane, who was fast asleep.
"Amane, wake up."
Amane opened his sleep-fogged eyes, let out a yawn, and saw his cousin, Wujitian, standing right in front of him.
"Bro, I had such a weird dream. I felt like I was in a fight with someone."
"A fight? Who on earth would you be fighting? Do you know your bread was almost baked to a crisp just now?"
Amane stood up, put on his heat-resistant gloves, and hurriedly rushed to open the oven.
"I'm heading out. Honestly, falling asleep like this—if I hadn't woken you up, you probably would've slept straight through until dawn."
The shop's television was broadcasting a report concerning a man-eating demon: "Citizens, please be sure to secure your doors and windows at home tonight. The military has entered the city limits. If you require assistance, please call the following number. The city is now completely under lockdown..."
The news on television had been broadcasting these reports for days now, and the two of them were well aware of the situation.
Working together in the bakery, they changed into their work uniforms and stepped out of the shop.
"It's so quiet. Could that news actually be true? They said those things even eat people... Bro, do you think you could beat a man-eating monster like that?"
"Of course I could, no problem at all."
At that moment, the streetlights along the road flickered to life, casting their glow over the two figures. With the night already pitch black, a tense atmosphere began to settle over them, and Wujitian suddenly broke into a run.
"Bro, why are you running so fast? Wait for me! Are you scared?"
"Not at all! Amane, you must be starving. This is the only way I can get home faster to cook dinner."
"You are totally scared! Wait up!"
The two of them ran all the way home. As Wujitian reached for his keys, a coin slipped from his pocket and rolled into the opposite stairwell.
Handing the keys to Amane to open the door, Wujitian walked over to retrieve the fallen coin and bent down.
"Bro!"
A wave of fishy stench drifted out from the neighboring stairwell, accompanied by the faint, sickening sound of bones being chewed to pieces. Wujitian backed away with extreme caution, while Amane froze in place.
"Run, Amane!"
The commotion instantly startled the monster lurking in the darkness.
"One person isn't even going to satisfy me."
Moving with terrifying speed, the monster was right on their heels within seconds. Ahead lay a fork in the road.
"Amane, let's split up! I'll draw that thing away!"
The monster chased after Amane, only for a soda can to slam hard into the back of its head.
"Hey, ugly, useless bastard! If you've got the guts, come get me!"
The monster glared back with fierce malice, successfully enraged by the provocation.
Realizing the monster had turned away from him, Amane immediately pulled out his phone and bolted toward the city center to seek help.
"Hang in there, Bro! I'm coming back to save you!"
As Amane prepared to pass through an alley, he abruptly stepped back out.
Another man-eating demon emerged from the alleyway, spotted the phone on the ground, and picked it up.
A leering grin spread across its face as drool dripped down to its chin, its eyes darting left and right.
"It's right around here! Right around here! There's no mistake, humans are right around here!"
Amane held his breath with his hand clamped over his mouth, terrified that the sound of his breathing would give him away.
The man-eating demon stalked toward Amane's hiding spot, drawing closer and closer by the second. Amane's chest tightened with panic.
"This is bad, if things keep going like this I'm going to die. What if I just make a run for it now!"
The beam of a flashlight suddenly illuminated the demon—it was a military patrol.
"Halt! Who's there?"
The demon spun around, baring a ferocious expression, and the patrol immediately raised their weapons.
"Dammit, it's a man-eating demon! Open fire, everyone!"
Before the demon could notice Amane, he slipped away into the night.
After a burst of gunfire, the patrol members lay brutally slain at the hands of the demon. Smeared in the blood of his victims, the creature was still unsatisfied.
"I noticed you, you little stray fish."
The Foul Demon sprinted madly in Amane's direction, moving with the terrifying speed of a leopard.
"I'm going to tear you to pieces, heh heh heh!"
Out of breath and entirely exhausted, Amane collapsed heavily to the ground, unable to run another step.
Just as the demon raised its lethal claws to strike, a blade suddenly flashed through the air, slicing the monster's hand clean off. The creature stared at its severed limb in sheer disbelief.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
Bathed in the moonlight, a young woman materialized, having just saved Amane. She possessed striking green eyes and long hair, and she looked down at Amane with a reassuring smile.
"Sorry I'm late. You must have been terribly frightened, but everything will be fine now."
Her expression then hardened, and she turned her gaze toward the demon, shouting, "That last strike missed its mark, but this time I'm definitely taking your head!"
Convinced she stood no chance against the creature, Amane urged her to run as well.
"This monster slaughtered the entire patrol unit ahead! You can't possibly beat it!"
"Please, trust me."
"I'll tear both of you into bloody shreds!"
Without waiting for her next move, the demon lunged fiercely toward them, thrusting its razor-sharp claws at the woman.
The woman simply exhaled a calm breath, raised her long blade with both hands, and closed her eyes.
"(Breath of Cherry Blossoms. Third Form: Dance of Flowers)"
The demon's form was sliced apart as effortlessly as a peeled apple, its head included. In a blur, the woman was already standing behind the creature, sliding her sword smoothly back into its scabbard.
The man-eating demon crashed to the ground, entirely stripped of its earlier arrogance, utterly unable to comprehend how it had all happened. The speed had been so blinding that it hadn't even caught her movements.
She walked over to Amane, crouched down beside him, and offered the same gentle smile.
"Are you hurt? I heard gunshots coming from this direction and came to help, but unfortunately, I was a step too late to prevent this tragedy."
Two figures in suits and dark sunglasses emerged from the shadows—a man and a woman. The female agent handed a walkie-talkie to the sword-wielding woman.
"Miss Hideharu, it's head family member Nijio Ran. He has something to say to you."
Hideharu took the walkie-talkie and listened to the voice on the other end, while the two agents walked over to Amane, crouched down, and began patting him down all over.
Startled, Amane scrambled back a few paces.
"W-what are you doing?"
"Checked. Nothing unusual."
Hideharu clicked off the walkie-talkie, walked over to Amane's side, and fussed over him with her hands.
"Don't be afraid, we aren't going to hurt you. We're just giving you a quick physical check."
Amane suddenly grew frantic.
"I have an older brother! He's being hunted by a man-eating demon right now, please, I'm begging you to help! His name is Wujitian, and he has to be right around here!"
The two suits hoisted Amane up between them, and the female agent gave him a light smack on the head.
"Where do you live? Spit it out! Hurry! Don't waste my time, once we drop you back off we get to clock out, so make it quick."
After Amane gave his address, he kept calling out to Hideharu, over and over again.
"Don't worry, Amane, I'll find your brother. You can rest assured."
"You two, I'll leave the rest in your hands."
With that, Hideharu broke into a sprint toward the front, vanishing from the spot in the blink of an eye.
"Left or right? Make it snappy! Tell us already or you'll ruin my off-work time!"
"We're almost there."
The two agents dumped Amane unceremoniously onto the ground. The only injury Amane sustained all day was from being tossed onto the pavement by them; he groaned, rolling on the ground and clutching his lower back.
"Walk the rest of the way yourself, we're off duty. Pay attention to whatever's up ahead and don't make a fuss, you hear me? The stuff you saw earlier was way more exciting, just leave it for someone else to deal with tomorrow. Remember, mind your own business."
Amane got up and brushed the dust off his clothes as the two agents turned and walked away, acting as though they couldn't bear to linger for even another second.
Stepping into the entrance of his apartment building and pulling out his keys, Amane was suddenly struck by the heavy stench of blood he had smelled earlier—the corpse ravaged by the demon was still just across the way. He unlocked his door, stepped inside, and gagged from the sickening odor wafting in from outside.
Once inside, he slid down the door and collapsed onto the floor, wrapping his arms tightly around his knees. Too much had happened today.
"Bro, you have to be okay."
Inside a high-rise office building, a conference hall was packed to capacity as a presentation began on the podium.
"I am a representative of the military, here to break down a very strange group of individuals who have recently appeared in our city. They like to prowl about at night and possess extreme hostility. Citizens and nearby security cameras have even captured footage of them feeding on human beings."
"This matter has become the talk of the town, and citizens have dubbed them 'man-eating demons.' This is hardly the first time such an incident has occurred."
The audience beneath the podium murmured amongst themselves in private discussion.
"Quiet, please, everyone quiet."
A man then wheeled a square iron cage from backstage onto the podium. The cage was draped in a red cloth, and from inside came the sound of intermittent impacts.
"Did you bring everything?"
"It's here, Captain Kangmaru."
Right in front of the crowd, Kangmaru loaded rounds into his handgun, then opened rapid fire directly through the red cloth. The deafening gunfire left the audience stunned into speechlessness.
After emptying the magazine, he pulled out a long blade and thrust it straight into the cage, prompting a steady stream of blood to spill onto the floor.
Kangmaru yanked the red cloth away. Inside the cage was a creature with a horrific, distorted expression and drool dripping from its jaws; its entire body had been pierced by bullets and the long blade driven deep into its abdomen, yet it showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Wheel it down. This thing is going to give the audience nightmares."
His assistant pushed the iron cage back stage, and Kangmaru resumed his briefing on the man-eating demons.
"At present, what we know is that these creatures are afraid of sunlight. During daylight hours, there is simply no need for panic."
Whispers rippled through the crowd below.
"Then what do we need to do?"
"Just make sure you don't create extra trouble for us. The directive I have received is to lock down the city and cut off internet access to prevent widespread panic. Our military will initiate comprehensive patrols, so please rest assured."
"Leave dealing with these creatures to us. Meeting adjourned."