The night sky hung still and silent, yet Tanjiro felt it—
a ripple.
A faint disturbance, like a dying heartbeat trembling through the wind.
He stood atop the ruined subway station, eyes narrowed as he scanned the broken cityscape. Nothing moved. Yet the signal in the air was unmistakable.
Something powerful had passed here.
Tanjiro floated into the night sky once more, riding reishi as effortlessly as breathing. His vision sharpened as he took in the landscape—twisted steel, collapsed towers, shattered highways.
Then he saw it.
A broken bridge jutting out over the black ocean like a giant skeleton.
Tanjiro descended onto the cracked asphalt and crouched, running his fingers over the deep gouges carved into the concrete.
"They aren't cracks," he whispered.
"They're… claw marks."
He stepped back, looking at the destruction from above.
The marks were massive. Each groove was thick enough for him to stand inside. From the sky, it formed a pattern—five long arcs slashing downward, as though a hand larger than a house had crushed the bridge from above.
His brows furrowed.
If a demon this large existed… where is it now?
Tanjiro's senses expanded.
But before he could draw a conclusion—
SPLASH!!!
The ocean erupted.
A massive black shape burst from the water like a missile. Saltwater sprayed across the air, and a roar—wet, deep, gurgling—shook Tanjiro's bones.
"GRAAAAAAHHH!!"
Tanjiro's eyes widened.
It was a shark.
But not a normal one.
Its flesh was pale like a corpse, stitched with demonic veins. And sprouting from its sides—like grotesque wings—were massive demon arms, each ending in claws that matched the ones carved into the bridge.
Sakura's sheltered world… the ruins of Japan…
Tanjiro now understood.
This was no ordinary demon evolution.
The shark lunged with shocking speed, its demonic arms swinging in a brutal arc.
"Move!"
Tanjiro leapt backward, flipping high into the sky. The claws shredded the bridge where he had stood a heartbeat earlier, sending chunks of cement crashing into the ocean.
CRAAAAASH!!!
The shark roared again, leaping after him with impossible strength.
"So fast!"
Tanjiro dodged mid-air as the giant claws swept past him. The creature's monstrous fins slapped the water, launching it even higher.
This thing…
It wasn't just a demon.
It was an experiment.
A mutation.
Something Muzan had personally crafted.
Tanjiro's eyes hardened.
He clenched his fist, then released everything.
"Reiatsu… 100%."
The air warped.
The clouds trembled.
And the ocean bent under the sheer weight of his presence.
The demon shark screamed as if crushed between colossal stones. The water around it sank, forming a deep crater as if gravity itself had spiked a hundredfold.
Tanjiro hovered above, aura blazing like a second sun.
"Stay down."
The pressure intensified.
The demon was pinned—half of its body pressed against the collapsing surface of the sea. Bones cracked. Fins tore. Its demonic claws splintered under the force.
But—
In the next instant, its flesh quivered.
Regeneration.
Fast.
Violent.
The shark's organs twisted, rebuilding itself in seconds. It rolled its body sideways, forcing itself out of the 100-meter zone of pressure—
And escaped.
Tanjiro shot forward in shock.
"That regeneration rate…!"
The shark dove into the sea, vanished, then surged upward again—
This time dragging chunks of the broken bridge in its claws.
It hurled them like giant spears.
WHOOSH—WHOOSH—WHOOSH!!
Tanjiro slashed through the first concrete slab.
Dodged the second.
Shattered the third with a burst of reishi.
But the demon didn't stop.
It kept throwing, roaring with unholy rage.
"Persistent creature…"
Tanjiro reached for his sword.
The moment he gripped the hilt, the air around him shifted—
Solar warmth bloomed through the darkness.
His shihakushō fluttered in the wind as he raised the blade.
A quiet sigh left his lips.
"Breath of the Sun God…"
The sword ignited—
Not with ordinary flame, but with primordial fire, brighter than dawn.
The demon shark lunged—
Tanjiro swung.
"Hollow Sun — Great Dawn Eruption."
The world exploded in light.
A pillar of golden fire erupted from his blade, slicing through the shark's body. Flames devoured flesh, boiled blood, and evaporated the seawater in towering columns of steam.
The demon let out a howl—
And then it was gone.
Ashes scattered over the steaming ocean, the demon erased completely.
Tanjiro exhaled and lowered his sword.
Slowly, deliberately—
He sealed his reiatsu again, letting the world breathe.
But even as he floated alone above the dead sea, he felt it.
A presence.
Watching.
Somewhere far away—through a maze of shadows—
a figure smiled.
A soft, mocking chuckle echoed through the unseen dark.
"So you've grown that strong… in merely a hundred years."
A pair of crimson eyes glowed like burning coals.
"Not bad, Kamado Tanjiro."
The voice dripped with ancient malice.
"I suppose you truly intend to kill me."
The silhouette tilted its head.
"Very well. Show me… if you can."
The presence vanished.
And the night grew colder.