Demon Slayer: I am a Demon.

"Father... is just asleep."

Tanjiro tried to smile, but the smile looked worse than a grimace.

Seeing her son's appearance made Kamado Aoi unconsciously place her hand on the table next to her to support her somewhat weak body.

I was actually prepared for the possibility that my husband might not live much longer, but no matter how prepared I was, when the day came, sadness, confusion, and pain still overwhelmed me all at once.

As the only adult in the family, he could only grit his teeth and persevere.

"Yes, she's just asleep."

The kitchen door radiant sunflower bowed its head, its shoulders trembling slightly.

Tanjiro couldn't bear to look at his mother's grief, so he carried his father's body into the inner room. Nezuko, wearing thick clothes, came out of the next room and happened to see this scene.

The girl's lips tightened instantly, her eyes reddened, and she felt so sad that she wanted to cry, but she was afraid of waking her sleeping younger siblings, so she could only let her tears flow silently.

Tanjiro saw his sister's silent tears and felt a heavy weight in his heart. He had told his sister countless times that their father would get better and had repeatedly given her confidence.

But in the end

Father was still 'asleep'.

And I will never... wake up again.

…………

The winter wind is still bleak.

Early in the morning, as soon as the first rays of sunlight touched the ground, Makomo got up early.

Donning a fine fox mask and grabbing his Nichirin Blade, he pushed open the door. Not long after, Hiroshi Furukawa and the other swordsmen also emerged from the room, greeting each other.

"Please wait a moment, I'll make breakfast for you."

Saburo also came out of the room and started talking as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Grandpa Sanlang, let me help you too."

Makomo followed with a smile.

"How could we trouble you? Fighting demons is dangerous enough; these are things we should be doing."

"It's nothing. I often help my master and junior brothers cook when I'm in the Misty Mountains."

The girl behind the mask spoke softly, her voice gentle and melodious, like the song of a lark suddenly appearing in winter.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I, the 'hermit,' should have made arrangements for you. It's my fault, I went to bed too late last night."

"It's because we disturbed Grandpa Sanlang; we should be the ones feeling embarrassed."

Makomo smiled and skillfully busied herself in the kitchen. Soon, the aroma of food began to waft out, and even the swordsmen outside the door couldn't help but sniff.

"Since Miss Makomo came with us, our lives have improved considerably."

A swordsman patted his stomach.

"Yes! Miss Makomo is such a good girl."

Another swordsman sighed.

Then, everyone looked at Hiroshi Furukawa, who was standing on tiptoe and peering into the kitchen.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

A swordsman chuckled.

Hiroshi Furukawa turned his head and saw that everyone was looking at him. His face immediately turned red: "Well, I just wanted to see when the food would be ready."

"I think the boss wants to see when Miss Makomo comes out, right?"

One of the swordsmen spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Hiroshi Furukawa was a little annoyed and stepped forward to cover his companion's mouth. He didn't care about himself, but it would be bad if Makomo heard it.

"The food is here..."

A light, pleasant voice came from beneath the smiling fox mask.

Hiroshi Furukawa immediately stood up straight, trying to appear serious, and then instructed everyone to start serving the food.

The meal wasn't lavish; it was actually quite simple. But everyone was happy to have hot food in the winter.

Hiroshi Furukawa was also eating heartily, the steam from the food hitting his cheeks. Perhaps because he was eating too roughly, some food water splashed into the corner of his eye. He was about to raise his sleeve to wipe it off when a small towel was handed to him.

Hiroshi Furukawa looked up in surprise and saw a smiling fox mask that was slightly bent over, and a pair of beautiful eyes under the mask.

"Thank you."

He said something in a low voice.

"nothing."

The girl's voice was light and airy, causing the man's hand holding the rice bowl to tremble slightly.

The girl behind the smiling mask tilted her head and glanced at him curiously. 'Hiroshi Furukawa' immediately buried his face in his rice bowl, as if to hide his flushed face.

Makomo, hidden behind the mask, didn't notice any of this. She just watched as everyone enjoyed the food she had made. Her beautiful eyes, hidden behind the mask, curved into crescents. She lowered her head and happily took a small bite of food. For a chef, seeing everyone enjoying their meal made her feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Just as everyone was enjoying their meal, suddenly, a boy with dark red hair and red eyes, wearing a green and black checkered shirt, barged in.

Seeing the large family in the house, the boy paused for a moment, then unconsciously stopped in his tracks, clearly not expecting guests to come to Grandpa Sanlang's house.

"Tanjiro! What brings you here?"

Saburo put down his work, stood up, and walked over with a kind smile.

Tanjiro knew it wasn't good to disturb Saburo's grandpa's house when there were guests, but nowadays, there were some things that neither he nor his mother could handle well, and some of them required the help of older people, which neither he nor his mother knew much about.

"Grandpa Sanlang, Father..."

He wanted to say that she was dead, but he couldn't utter those three words no matter what he said, and his voice became choked with sobs.

"Okay, I understand. I'll come to your house right away to help you with this."

Saburo glanced at the child and roughly understood what was going on. He stepped forward and patted Tanjiro on the shoulder as a form of comfort, but he didn't know what to say as encouragement.

"I'll go inside and tidy up a bit, then I'll go back with you."

"Grandpa Sanlang, what about your guests?"

"These guests are also planning to visit your home today."

Tanjiro looked at the people carrying swords, and each of them exuded a strong aura of menace. Except for the woman wearing a smiling mask, the others all seemed like people he was not to be trifled with, which made Tanjiro's heart tighten slightly.

"They are all good people, not bad people, Tanjiro, don't be shy."

Saburo added with a smile.

Hearing Saburo say that, Tanjiro felt a little more at ease.

As Saburo went inside to prepare his tools, Makomo also walked over with light, graceful steps.

Tanjiro looked up, puzzled, at the girl wearing a smiling fox mask with her eyes closed and sporting bangs.

Here's a piece of candy for you.

Makomo reached out and offered a piece of candy that looked like a twinkling star.

Tanjiro naturally recognized it as konpeito, Nezuko's favorite treat. When their father was still healthy, he would bring some back for his sister every time he went to town to sell charcoal. But since their father fell ill, he hadn't bought konpeito for Nezuko for a very, very long time.

Tanjiro hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take it.

"Sugar is very sweet. Eating sugar will make the bitterness in your heart feel much better."

Makomo looked at the boy, her voice very soft.

Tanjiro looked up at the girl's bright and gentle eyes behind the mask, then lowered his head, his gaze slightly downcast: "Thank you."

"I've experienced similar sadness before, but you always have to get through it, and I hope you can too."

As Makomo gazed at the rising sun in the sky, she seemed to see Sabito's enthusiastic smile, and her beautiful eyes lowered slightly.

At this moment, Saburo had already brought out his tools from inside the house. Hiroshi Furukawa and the other swordsmen had almost finished eating, put down their bowls and chopsticks, and followed him out.

Tanjiro looked at the people dressed in the same clothes with some doubt. These people all looked like they were full of murderous aura. He wondered what they did and why they wanted to come to his house.

…………

"Your name is Tanjiro, right?"

While traveling through the snowy mountains, Hiroshi Furukawa came over and patted Tanjiro on the shoulder.

Tanjiro looked at Hiroshi Furukawa with some confusion.

"I want to ask some questions."

"You said."

"Here's the thing, have any people come to your house at night recently, or have any people gone missing in the neighborhood?"

"No."

Tanjiro shook his head.

"Besides that, has anything unusual happened around your home? Like, anything particularly unusual?"

Something special?

Tanjiro immediately thought of Su Mu and Kanao, whom he had seen the previous night. They had appeared in the cave near his home at some point, and seemed to have been living there for some time, looking somewhat like refugees. Moreover, these people were carrying swords and looked menacing...

What are you people doing?

Tanjiro instinctively became wary. Although he was a child, he wasn't stupid. What if the two people in the cave were really fleeing?

Although he had a bad impression of the other person last night, he was worried that casually exposing someone else's information might put them in danger.

"What?"

Hiroshi Furukawa paused for a moment, then said as if joking, "Do you know what demons are? We are the ones who slay demons."

Tanjiro's eyes widened in disbelief.

Do ghosts really exist in this world?

'Hiroshi Furukawa' stared into Tanjiro's eyes and saw that his expression didn't seem fake. He felt a little disappointed. It seemed that the other party really had never seen a demon before.