Akamine Station.
An elderly woman pulled a small cart while a young girl helped push from behind. They were the grandmother and granddaughter who sold bentos, the same ones who, the day before, had shared a brief moment with Rengoku.
Their daily life was like this: they spent the night cooking and, long before the first ray of sun peeked out, they hauled their merchandise toward the station.
There they waited for the trains to depart so they could offer the meal packages to the passengers starting their day.
Today seemed like just another day. At four-thirty in the morning, under the protective cloak of the gloom, both had already set up their stand with the freshly made cargo.
However, something had changed.
Today, the first to arrive at the station was not an early-rising traveler, but a murderer who knew no mercy.
A blue glow shot across the tracks like a fleeting flash.
That movement was so fast that it was invisible to anyone; even an experienced Hunter would have had trouble fixing his eyes on it. But there were no Hunters there, only a grandmother and her granddaughter surrounded by the aroma of freshly prepared bentos.
The glow landed on the platform without making a sound. Slasher sniffed and his expression turned ferocious.
"It's the same smell as that guy's… so you've got friends here."
Licking his lips, he advanced toward the inside of the station, savoring the chaos in advance.
"What would you do if I killed them right now? Would you cry? Would you spend your whole life regretting your incompetence? Hahahaha! HOW EXCITING!"
…
In front of the stand.
The young girl with glasses finished arranging the bentos and dusted off her hands with satisfaction. However, from the nearby gloom, a chilling whisper emerged.
"I smell you… I smell you…"
At first she thought it was an employee, but when she turned around and saw the creature emerge from the shadows, her world came to a halt.
That bluish skin, sharp claws, and bared fangs left her frozen in place.
"Your body is steeped in that disgusting smell of bentos," Slasher said with a sinister smile, "Friend of that Hunter, huh."
The young girl didn't understand his words, but instinctive terror brought sweat pouring out as her legs weakened.
"Scared? Are you afraid of me?" Slasher smiled at her, delighted. "And you're right to be afraid of me! I have nothing against you, but I'm going to kill you anyway. If you're looking for someone to blame, blame him."
His steps didn't stop. He was enjoying the pleasure of inflicting terror.
And just when the girl, not knowing what to do, had been left completely frozen…
Pak!
A bento box smashed Slasher right in the head, scattering the fresh food all over his body.
And for him, who detested that smell, it was as if a bucket of shit had been dumped over his head.
He cracked his neck around with a sharp snap, locking a murderous gaze on the elderly woman who had thrown the box at him.
"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!"
The grandmother ignored the threat. She clutched another bento against her chest and shouted with all her strength:
"Fuku, run!"
The young girl named Fuku, as if waking from a nightmare, screamed and stumbled away toward the end of the hallway.
She burst through the door in one go, leaped over the railing, and hurled herself desperately toward the tracks. However, the moment she touched the ground, panic for her grandmother made her stop dead in her tracks to look back.
In that instant, a blue flash sliced through the air.
Swish
Slasher appeared behind her.
Before Fuku could even scream, hands seized her by the neck and slammed her against the cold metal of the rails.
This time he wasn't planning to use his claws to gut her. That would be too quick, too merciful.
He wanted her to suffocate slowly… He wanted the hunter, when he arrived, to witness every one of her spasms. FOR HIM TO SEE HOW LIFE SLIPPED AWAY FROM HER BETWEEN HIS FINGERS BECAUSE HE HAD BEEN TOO SLOW!
A muffled gurgle escaped the girl's throat as the light in her eyes began to fade.
Just as Slasher was savoring the moment with a deranged smile…
Fwoosh!
A blaze of intense red roared across the tracks at dizzying speed.
It was so fast he barely managed to catch a flash in his peripheral vision before he felt the danger at his back!
Terrified, he made his blue tattoos blaze with all their intensity and pulled a desperate aerial pirouette to dodge the deadly blow.
He managed to save his life, but the attack was so precise that it sliced his ankle clean off in midair.
When he landed, he watched with frustration as the flames dissipated to reveal that familiar figure who was now holding the young girl in his arms.
'SON OF A BITCH!!!' he roared inwardly, gritting his teeth.
He had completely underestimated his speed.
However, he wasn't willing to leave empty-handed.
He looked up toward the inside of the station: the elderly woman was still there. Though she was old, the emotional impact would be the same.
Dragging his wounded limb, he prepared to launch back into the attack.
But this time, what he had in front of him was one of the most powerful Humans in the Demon Slayer Corps, and there was no escape now.
The Flame Pillar had him cornered!
Faced with the demon who had been about to commit an atrocity right before his eyes, Rengoku's mask of serenity remained unaltered. However, in the depths of his golden pupils, the usual fire transmuted into a cutting ice.
He gripped his sword in both hands and, with a blinding burst that didn't envy the demon's at all, turned into a living blaze!
"Flame Breathing, First Form…"
But, right at that crucial instant, a shout tore through the air: "SPARE THE DEMON'S LIFE!!"
Right after, a pink storm burst onto the scene with an unprecedented violence. However, a sword that has already been unsheathed knows no path back.
In that moment, not even if Kagaya himself had ordered him to stop would Rengoku have been able to halt the blow. And what was more decisive: he had no intention of doing so.
"Unknowing Fire!"
"Flower Crossing!"
The pink whirlwind's speed surged suddenly.
CLANG!
The red and pink figures collided in a burst of sparks.
Rengoku's blade, which had already sliced more than halfway through the demon's neck, was abruptly blocked by a straight pink-colored blade.
The place was plunged into absolute silence, a deathly pause in the middle of the chaos. A second later, Slasher let out a tearing scream that broke the calm.
Narrowing his eyes, Rengoku lowered his gaze.
The one blocking his katana was a man wrapped in a flashy blood-red robe.
The garment was torn to shreds; the hem had ripped from the ankle all the way up to the crotch, revealing, between the movement of the fabric, a pair of blue boxer shorts.
He was barefoot, the soles of his feet caked with mud, his hair messed up like a bird's nest, and his chest rising and falling with an erratic violence.
There he stood, with one hand gripping the katana and the other braced on the ground, almost on his knees, planting himself like a wall between Rengoku and Slasher while gasping desperately for air.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Rengoku assessed him.
He looked at the robe.
He looked at the sword he was holding, which felt vaguely familiar.
…Who is this?
But when the man slowly raised his head, he finally recognized his face.
MARCUS!!?
He opened his mouth, but the words got stuck.
It was Marcus who, with a supreme effort, gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace of pain than a gesture of joy.
"Hah… thank god… I made it in time…"
"…"
No matter how much composure Rengoku had, in that instant he was left completely dumbfounded.
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