"Take him to the police station!"
"We can't let the murderer get away! Avenge the Kamado family!"
"Tanjiro was such a good kid. How could something like this happen to him?"
The militiaman's words whipped the crowd into a frenzy, everyone shouting to drag Riku to the police station.
It was clear the villagers felt deep sympathy for the Kamado family up on the mountain, but they obviously didn't know the full story.
If they had even a clue about what really happened, they wouldn't be pointing fingers at Riku just for carrying a blade. The Kamado family didn't die from knife wounds, after all!
"Sorry, there might be a misunderstanding here. I'm a friend of Kamado Tanjiro. I'm here to help find the real culprit. This blade? It's a family heirloom, brought out for self-defense."
Riku gave a polite bow to the crowd, explaining himself with the calm confidence of a seasoned pro.
"Nonsense! That blade looks brand new. I'm a blacksmith—you can't fool us!"
One of the militiaman's buddies shouted, a burly guy wielding a hammer, looking every bit the part of a blacksmith.
Riku's mouth twitched. You're a blacksmith, so why aren't you at your forge instead of stirring up trouble out here?
Still, the guy who sold him the blade hadn't lied—it really was a fresh-off-the-forge katana! Riku couldn't help but marvel. He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, but those 150 credits were well spent.
"You say… you know Tanjiro? Is he okay? Where is he?"
Despite Riku's lie being called out, the mention of Tanjiro caught the villagers' attention.
The militiaman still looked wary, but he couldn't help asking with concern. The others around him wore similar expressions.
Three or four days ago, something happened to the Kamado family up on the mountain. The whole family was wiped out, except for Kamado Tanjiro and Kamado Nezuko, who survived.
The villagers figured this out from the graves at the Kamado house, but they hadn't seen the surviving siblings. No one knew where they'd gone, and the village was worried sick.
"They're fine. Tanjiro and Nezuko are safe. They went to Narutaka Mountain to stay with an old man named Urokodaki Sakonji—probably a distant relative or something."
Seeing the crowd finally calm down, Riku let out a sigh of relief. He didn't want to be branded a psycho killer the moment he arrived, nor did he want to take the fall for Kibutsuji Muzan's crimes.
What he didn't expect, though, was how much weight Kamado Tanjiro's name carried in this village.
"Good, good. They're okay. That kid—why didn't he come to us for help?"
The militiaman and villagers visibly relaxed. They knew Tanjiro and Nezuko were alive, but they hadn't been able to shake their worries.
"…"
Riku fell silent. It made perfect sense that Tanjiro hadn't come to the village. After all, he was traveling with his sister, who had turned into a demon.
Judging by the villagers' attitudes, they were likely familiar with Nezuko too. There was no way Tanjiro would risk exposing her by bringing her here.
"So, how's your investigation going? Found any leads?"
After a moment of reflection, the militiaman spoke again, his tone softer as he questioned Riku.
"I found something. It wasn't a human. It was a demon."
Riku's expression turned serious as he studied the villagers' reactions closely.
"?"
"A demon? What's this guy talking about?"
"Demons? Those are just fairy tales!"
The villagers erupted in disbelief, shooting Riku strange looks.
It clicked for Riku in an instant: the existence of demons wasn't common knowledge in this world. So what about Demon Slayers?
"Could you be… a Demon Slayer?!"
Amid the uproar, an old man stepped forward, his eyes sharp with scrutiny.
"Uncle Saburo, don't listen to his nonsense! Demons? Demon Slayers? Those are just old legends!"
Most of the villagers—especially the younger ones—didn't buy Riku's story. The older folks, though, stayed quiet.
The old man, Saburo, lived at the foot of the mountain. He was the one who'd spotted Riku hurrying down with a blade and alerted the village militia.
"That's right. I'm a Demon Slayer."
Riku leaned into the role. Who says a demon can't be a Demon Slayer? Heck, vampires can be vampire hunters, right?
Still, it surprised him that demons and Demon Slayers weren't widely known, only passed down among the elderly as legends dismissed by the youth.
Maybe it was the era? Taisho-period Japan had already undergone Westernization, so the old native myths were brushed off by the generation raised in the Meiji era.
"I don't care if you're a Demon Slayer or not. The police will handle the Kamado family's case. For Tanjiro's sake, just leave the village."
The militiaman clearly wasn't convinced, but he didn't push to drag Riku to the station anymore. Instead, he just asked him to leave.
"Alright, thank you."
Riku nodded briskly. From the villagers' heated chatter, he'd already learned what he needed. No reason to stick around.
Under the militiaman's wary gaze, Riku left the village.
As he stepped outside, for some reason, Riku felt a strange kinship with another profession that specialized in hunting monsters.
Compared to Demon Slayers, though, Witchers probably had a broader scope. The supernatural creatures in the Witcher world were at least known to people, and far more dangerous than this world's threats.
"The time flow's about 1:1. Only three or four days have passed here."
Walking along a forest path, Riku summed up what he'd gained from this trip. First, the time flow was clear, which was critical.
Second, he needed to hide his blade. Throwing it away wasn't an option—if a fight broke out in daylight, he couldn't rely on claws, only his katana and gun.
Riku gathered some dry grass and wrapped it around the blade. It was a bit like hiding in plain sight, but at least it was less conspicuous now.
While gathering the grass, he confirmed something else: when Shadow Wolf killed animals, it generated that same blood essence feedback.
The feedback was faint, though—probably because the animals were so weak.
While Shadow Wolf couldn't exist in direct sunlight, it was fine in the forest's shadows, still able to help with hunting.
"The rats in these mountains are really out of luck."
Riku chuckled. His "Hundred Rat Slayer" title wasn't just for show.
Just one glance, and the rat that scurried out froze, only to get swatted dead by Shadow Wolf's claw.
"I wonder if killing a hundred of something else would have a similar effect, or is it just because rats are too weak?"
Riku started to ponder. Besides rats, the things he'd killed the most were probably monkeys and the biotech company's mechanical guards.