"Blood?" Tanjiro's voice trembled, his face filled with an incredibly deep worry.
'The only people in this area are my family...'
Following closely behind the frantically running Tanjiro, Lexon had already prepared himself mentally.
Prepared to witness the hellish scene.
The journey to his house was not long; they arrived quickly.
What was presented before the two of them was a cruel and bloody picture.
Nearly all of Tanjiro's family had been slaughtered.
The bodies were strewn about, and blood stained many parts of the house.
Seeing the scene with his own eyes was far more heart-shaking than watching it through a screen. It made even Lexon, who was by nature cold and possessed extremely high emotional self-control, struggle to keep his expression in check.
"Ahhhhhhhh!!!"
Watching the painfully wailing Tanjiro, Lexon stood to the side in silence. At this moment, he didn't know what to say to comfort him.
Tanjiro whimpered and cried, frantically searching through the bodies of his family, checking if anyone was still alive.
Finally, he found one.
There was still someone breathing.
It was his younger sister, Kamado Nezuko.
The young girl was covered in blood, her arms wrapped tightly around the body of a deceased family member.
It seemed that even in the moments before death, she had tried to protect her younger siblings.
A trace of pity flashed in Tanjiro's eyes, but the current situation didn't allow him much time to think. He pried his sister's hands apart, hoisted her onto his back, and ran outside.
'Nezuko is still alive! If I hurry down the mountain to find a doctor, she might still be saved! I have to be fast! I have to be fast!'
Tanjiro's heart was burning with anxiety, and he completely forgot about Lexon who was standing nearby.
Lexon didn't mind. He just silently fetched a bucket of water, briefly washed the bloodstains in front of the door, and closed it to prevent animals like bears from being drawn to the scene.
Then, he followed after Tanjiro.
'As expected of the world's protagonist, his physical fitness is extraordinary.' Because of his sign-ins, Lexon's physical condition was naturally at the peak level for a real-world human, but now he was having a little trouble keeping up with Tanjiro. If it weren't for the obvious tracks Tanjiro left in the snow, he might have lost him.
One had to remember, Tanjiro was just a teenager and had never undergone any special training.
One could only say that the physiques of people in the anime world and the real world could not be judged by the same standard.
However, Lexon wasn't in a hurry. Next up was the plot where the demonized Nezuko attacks Tanjiro, and the current Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps appears to save the day, leading to the conflict between "slaying the demon" and "not slaying."
'It's not strictly necessary to get involved.'
Lexon's small bag actually contained medical supplies, and healing items from the Main God were of exceptional quality.
He had a [Single-Use Adhesive Bandage] with the effect of instantly stopping bleeding... but Lexon also knew that these things were completely useless on Nezuko.
Although she was injured, she had already fully recovered after her demonization.
She looked scary right now, but in reality, nothing was wrong with her. She was simply a little hungry and wanted to eat someone.
"I see them."
Lexon was already close to Tanjiro.
At this moment, Nezuko, having lost her sanity due to demonization, was pinning Tanjiro down and trying to bite him, barely being held back by the handle of Tanjiro's axe.
Tanjiro continuously called out his sister's name, his face covered in tears. He remembered the old man's words, and his heart was filled with pain and self-blame.
'I'll save him first and figure out the rest later.'
The Water Hashira had not yet arrived, and Lexon couldn't possibly ignore the scene before him.
He quickly approached the confronting pair. The moment before Nezuko noticed him, Lexon rotated his hips to generate immense leg power, unleashing a swift whip kick that slammed viciously into Nezuko's body.
Nezuko's body flew like a kite with a broken string, crashing violently against a tree trunk with a loud thud.
"Nezuko!" Tanjiro cried out in alarm.
"Are you alright?" Lexon asked.
"I'm fine." Tanjiro got up and shook his head. "Thank you, Lexon."
He hurried towards Nezuko. He believed his sister had just lost her mind for a moment; it was only because she didn't recognize him that she acted that way.
Lexon's kick seemed heavy, but it hadn't actually caused much damage. On the snow, Nezuko stared at the approaching Tanjiro and let out a terrifying roar.
But before Tanjiro could get close to Nezuko, a gust of wind blew past.
Both Tanjiro and Lexon's vision blurred. The next moment, Nezuko, who had just been roaring, was now held with a sword to her neck, her body restrained and unable to move. She could only struggle ceaselessly, but it had no effect on the person behind her.
It was a handsome, black-haired man with a cold expression, wearing a haori with a different pattern on each side and a black uniform. The blade of the sword in his hand was inscribed with the four words "Annihilate Destructive Demons."
His name was Giyu Tomioka.
He was the Water Hashira, one of the nine Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps.
"Who are you? What are you doing?!" Tanjiro saw Giyu's sword at Nezuko's neck and couldn't help but panic, shouting loudly.
"I am a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. My duty is to slay demons," Giyu Tomioka replied coldly.
"She's my sister! My sister! I don't know why she's like that, but Nezuko hasn't hurt anyone, she hasn't eaten anyone! There was a scent in my house that I've never smelled before, from someone else. The one who killed everyone was probably that guy! It wasn't Nezuko! Don't hurt her!"
Hearing Tanjiro's response, Giyu's heart was shaken. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for the siblings, but his past experiences and his steadfast beliefs urged the blade in his hand to press closer to Nezuko's neck.
"Your sister must have gotten demon blood in her wounds, and that's why she turned into a demon. This is how man-eating demons multiply."
"No, that's wrong! Nezuko would never eat people! I won't let her hurt anyone! I will definitely turn Nezuko back into a human! I will absolutely cure her!"
"She can't be cured. Once you become a demon, you can never turn back into a human."
"I'll find a way! I will definitely find a way! So please, don't kill her! I'm begging you!" Tanjiro said, his voice tearing from his throat. Nezuko was the only family he had left; he didn't want to lose anyone else.
He pleaded, he hoped, wishing that the man before him would spare his sister.
Giyu Tomioka's face remained cold, seemingly unmoved by the boy's actions.
As one of the nine Hashira, he had slain too many demons. Almost all of them completely disregarded family ties after their transformation.
There had been people in the past who had sworn to him that their demonized relatives would never harm them, but the endings were often disappointing.
Suddenly, a straight punch came from the right.
It was Lexon's fist.
Giyu reacted extremely quickly, raising his blade to block the punch and turning with a kick.
How the tables have turned. A moment ago, it was Lexon kicking someone else; now, someone else was kicking him.
Lexon, sent flying by the kick, lay motionless in the snow.
Giyu's kick wasn't particularly heavy; a normal person could definitely take it.
It wasn't that Lexon was knocked out by the kick.
He simply wanted to lie down.
'I'll just lie here for a bit.'
Lexon thought to himself. He was too lazy to get involved in their "melodrama," but he couldn't guarantee that the plot wouldn't deviate in an unknown direction due to the butterfly effect he had caused. So, by showing Giyu that someone else supported Nezuko's survival, he was making a small effort to ensure the smooth development of the plot.
It saved him both thought and energy.
The argument between Giyu Tomioka and Tanjiro did not last long. After Tanjiro prostrated himself and begged, and Giyu angrily reprimanded him for his weakness, the fight began.
However, the power gap was obvious. Although Tanjiro's tactic of throwing a rock as a feint to hide his thrown axe slightly amazed Giyu Tomioka, the end result was still the axe being dodged and Tanjiro being knocked unconscious.
Afterward, the escaped Nezuko's protective actions toward the unconscious Tanjiro finally moved Giyu, so he chose not to kill her.
Throughout the ordeal, Lexon just lay on the snow, slacking off. A thin layer of snowflakes even covered him.
'I just decided to try a little harder, but I guess I can't change my lazy nature overnight...'
In the past, because of the sign-in system, he could just sign in for any skill or ability he needed. If he lacked money, he could just sign in at a bank... He lived a peaceful life, wanting for nothing, so it was inevitable that he would become lazy.
Giyu had already left.
After waking up from his brief knockout, Tanjiro was given some instructions—"Don't let your sister see the sun," and "Go visit an old man named Urokodaki Sakonji at the foot of Mount Sagiri, and tell him that Giyu Tomioka sent you"—before he departed coolly.
Tanjiro felt as if everything had been a dream. Seeing Nezuko sleeping beside him with a bamboo tube in her mouth, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Nezuko was still here, still alive... That's great.
"You okay?" Lexon walked over.
Tanjiro remembered the kick he had taken and asked with a worried face, "Lexon, are you alright?"
"It's nothing serious. I gave your sister a kick earlier, and now I've taken one. I guess it's karma," Lexon joked.
Tanjiro shook his head. "In any case, thank you."
Lexon had kicked Nezuko to save him, so Tanjiro didn't hold it against him. Besides, he now understood that his sister had become a demon, and her regenerative abilities and physical fitness had been enhanced.
"Lexon, I have to go find a way to cure my sister. I'm going to follow that person's advice and find the old man at the foot of Mount Sagiri, so you..."
After spending more than a day together, Tanjiro already considered Lexon a friend. Now, he was all alone and about to embark on a directionless search for a cure for his sister. He could no longer offer Lexon a place to stay.
'Should I bury Mom and Rokuta and the others, and then let Lexon live in the house?'
Tanjiro was not a sentimental person; he wouldn't think that letting someone else live in a house full of his memories was a desecration. In his mind, it was fine as long as it could help someone.
"Let's travel together for a while," Lexon spoke up.
'Are you kidding me? How could we part ways now? Everything you're about to go through is my objective.'
'Whether it's the demon you'll encounter at the temple, or Urokodaki Sakonji whom you'll meet later, or the Final Selection you'll participate in after training to become a member of the Demon Slayer Corps—all of it is my goal...'