The girl held the bowl out to the man with both hands, her pinkish-purple eyes full of expectation.
She knew what hunger felt like—it was painful, unbearable. She could tell that Uncle was truly very hungry right now.
Only by eating, by filling the stomach with food, could that painful feeling go away.
"I'm not hungry."
Soma shook his head and refused.
The girl couldn't understand.
He clearly felt hungry, yet he wouldn't eat.
There was clearly such good food, yet he wouldn't eat it.
This food was really delicious—truly delicious. After eating, the whole body would feel warm. But if one went without food for too long, the body would grow weak, lifeless, and then…
"Eat quickly."
Soma added another piece of dry wood to the bonfire, watching the flames leap higher as it caught fire.
The girl didn't understand why Uncle insisted on enduring hunger, but she was obedient. She lifted the small bowl and continued eating in small bites.
When she had nearly finished, Soma stood up.
"It's time to take you back."
"Mm."
Although she wanted to stay by the side of this gentle uncle a little longer, she was sensible and did not cling to him.
He picked her up and quickly left the dilapidated courtyard, carrying her back home. Only after watching her enter through the door did Soma turn around, his figure silently disappearing into the darkness.
…
Hiko Dojo
Soma met Arakawa Akihiro again. After paying the tuition, Arakawa became much warmer in attitude and began formally teaching the swordsmanship of the dojo.
Of course, before sword training could begin, the foundation had to be built—maintaining a healthy body, strengthening the grip, stabilizing one's stance, and so on.
Originally, Arakawa hadn't paid Soma much attention. He simply regarded him as another ordinary admirer of the "Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu," planning to teach him a few basic fundamentals—enough to keep him occupied for a long time. There were many such students every year.
So at first, Arakawa only intended to teach Soma a few very simple sword forms and then send him off to practice on his own.
But before long, Soma returned, claiming he had already mastered them.
This surprised Arakawa. He even suspected Soma was lying.
Yet when he examined Soma's execution of the forms, Arakawa fell silent. Soma had truly grasped them completely.
When he first began teaching Soma, it had been obvious that he was a complete beginner. He didn't even know how to hold a sword properly or maintain the correct stance.
Yet in such a short time, he had mastered the simplest forms. Arakawa briefly wondered whether Soma had some prior training, but recalling how utterly clueless he had seemed at first, he knew that was impossible.
After decades immersed in swordsmanship, Arakawa could easily tell whether someone had trained before.
Which meant Soma had genuinely mastered those basic forms in a very short time.
Arakawa remembered that when he first learned them, it had taken him a full three days just to grasp the basics—and that had been considered quite good talent.
From this, one could imagine just how extraordinary Soma's talent must be.
In truth, Soma might have some aptitude for swordsmanship—but he was not quite the monstrous genius Arakawa imagined him to be.
The reason Soma was able to master the forms so quickly was mainly due to a demon's powerful physical abilities. Sword movements that appeared fast enough to ordinary people seemed as slow as a snail to him.
So when Arakawa Akihiro demonstrated during instruction, his movements appeared in Soma's eyes almost like slow motion, frame by frame. This made learning exceptionally easy for him.
Sensing Soma's talent, Arakawa grew serious. He no longer intended to simply teach a few ordinary techniques and send him away. In fact, at first he hadn't planned to teach the dojo's core art—the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu—since it was the most important sword style of the Hiko Dojo and was only passed down to true disciples.
But now, after witnessing Soma's talent, Arakawa changed his mind.
…
With Arakawa teaching earnestly, Soma naturally studied with equal seriousness. He had never truly undergone formal swordsmanship training before—he had only been an ignorant beginner. Now, he worked hard to absorb all the knowledge he could.
Although he possessed a demon's nearly immortal body, immense strength, and extraordinary regenerative abilities—so that even ordinary swords could not kill him—he did not look down on swordsmanship because of it.
True swordsmanship could even break through the ceiling of this world. Yoriichi Tsugikuni had once been able to unleash 1,500 effective slashes within a single second—an existence before whom even the progenitor of demons, Muzan Kibutsuji, had fled in terror.
…
After about an hour of training under Arakawa, Soma took his leave. Humans, unlike demons who thrived at night, regarded nighttime primarily as a time for rest.
After leaving the Hiko Dojo, Soma did not remain in town. Determining his direction, he exited through the town gates.
Once he was some distance away and certain no one was around, he immediately sprinted at full speed toward his destination. With every step, explosive force shook the ground. His figure vanished from where he stood and, in a flash, reappeared more than ten meters away.
Running swiftly through the night without fatigue, a distance that would take ordinary humans a day or two to cover took Soma only about one or two hours.
Based on the information he had gathered from merchants the previous day, after maintaining his tireless pace for nearly two hours, he finally saw a tall mountain range in the distance. The mountains were thick with lush trees, and in some places a hazy mist drifted between them. The entire range lay in darkness, except for two faint lights glowing midway up the mountain.
"This should be Mount Sagiri."
Still far from the mountain, Soma stopped and murmured softly as he looked ahead.
This was the secluded dwelling of the Demon Slayer Corps' Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki, who also served as a cultivator, training new members for the Corps.
As a Hashira, his strength was tremendous. If discovered, Soma would likely lose his head without any ability to resist.
Moreover, Urokodaki possessed an extremely keen sense of smell. If Soma carelessly left even the slightest trace of his scent, he would easily be detected.
Therefore, Soma merely observed the mountain range from afar and had no intention of approaching.
"Next, I'll use Mount Sagiri as the center point and search the surrounding area. Hopefully, I can soon find the residence of Tanjiro Kamado."
Soma spoke softly, a trace of anticipation hidden in his eyes.