When the last ray of sunlight faded and the day departed, night descended at that very moment.
It is said that whenever midnight arrives, terrifying demons appear to devour people.
Therefore, very few choose to go out late at night. Every household keeps their doors and windows tightly shut, and the bustle of daytime has long since returned to silence.
On such a night, however, a slender and petite girl stepped outside instead. She had beautiful pink eyes, though her gaze seemed somewhat vacant. Her light green clothes clung closely to her thin body, making her appear even more frail.
When the gentle moonlight fell upon the girl's delicate face, it highlighted the pale complexion of someone clearly malnourished.
Under the pitch-black night sky, ordinary people would find it difficult to see the road ahead. In such darkness, it would be almost impossible to walk. Yet the little girl's eyes seemed special—able to keenly capture everything before her. With the dim yet soft moonlight, she could see the path clearly, avoid muddy puddles, and walk along the town streets, her pink eyes searching in all directions.
Whenever night fell and her stomach growled with hunger, she would sneak out while her parents weren't paying attention, searching outside for anything edible—perhaps leftovers from a restaurant's scraps, or some abandoned rice balls…
What others might consider garbage was, to her, a delicious meal enough to fill her stomach.
Girls her age would normally live in warm rooms under their parents' care, enjoying tasty food and gentle love. But none of that existed for her. Her parents did not take care of her; they would beat and scold her and her older sister without reason.
No—now they no longer beat her sister without reason, because her sister had already been beaten to death. Now she was the only child left alive in the family.
Today, her father had spent the whole day gambling at the casino before returning home, bringing back no food. There was nothing to eat at home. Her stomach was painfully hungry, so she sneaked out while her father slept to search for food.
Passing by the entrance of a restaurant, the girl hurried to a nearby trash pile to rummage through it—this was the place most likely to have food.
Her luck seemed good today. She quickly found a rice ball wrapped in lotus leaf. It made her very happy, and she clutched it tightly in her small hands.
She gently took a bite. Grain after grain of rice filled her mouth. The taste of food brought a trace of bliss to her pale little face.
After taking another bite, she noticed a long shadow stretched across the ground. This made her look up.
On the eaves of the restaurant roof sat a man dressed in simple robes, quietly gazing at the moon.
Uncle… it's that strange uncle again.
Recently, every time she came out at night to look for food, she would see him. He appeared every night, sitting high on the eaves for a long time. Sometimes, even after she had searched the town for quite a while and returned, he would still be there.
Though they had seen each other many times, they had never spoken.
At first, going out alone at night in such silence had frightened her. Especially the first time she saw him—she had nearly thought he was one of the demons from the legends. But after seeing him several times, she wasn't so afraid anymore. In fact, she even felt a strange sense of safety.
"Out looking for food again today?"
The man's voice came from the rooftop.
"Ah! Y-yes."
The sudden voice made her stutter in reply. This was the first time the strange uncle had spoken to her after all this time.
"My name is Soma. What's your name?"
...
Soma looked at the girl and asked softly. He had noticed that the girl before him looked very much like Kanao Tsuyuri.
He was not originally from this world. In another world, he had merely been an ordinary employee at a small company, living an ordinary life. In his spare time, he liked watching anime and films. He had never imagined that he would end up in a world like this—the world of Demon Slayer.
When he had first transmigrated to this world, he had been quite excited, imagining how he might make a name for himself here.
However, before he could even begin, he encountered Muzan Kibutsuji—the first demon who had lived for over a thousand years, the absolute ruler of demons.
Then he was turned into a demon by Muzan—one of the demons under Muzan's control, a wicked creature that fed on humans. This left him deeply distressed, even despairing.
Since becoming a demon and losing the ability to see sunlight, he had stayed here every night. It was during those nights that he often encountered the girl searching for food.
At first, he didn't pay much attention to the little girl rummaging for food. It wasn't until he saw her face that he suddenly realized how much she resembled Kanao Tsuyuri.
When he first noticed the resemblance, he became very cautious. After all, Kanao Tsuyuri was a swordswoman of the Demon Slayer Corps. If the Corps discovered a demon like him, they would not hesitate to use a Nichirin Blade to sever his head.
Though he had become a demon—a pitiful being unable to walk in sunlight and forced to feed on what had once been his own kind—he did not want to die.
But after observing her carefully, he realized she wasn't what he had imagined. She wasn't a Demon Slayer at all, just a poor girl who snuck out every night to search trash piles for something to eat.
"I… I don't have a name," the girl replied softly.
"How can a person not have a name?" Soma shook his head.
The girl pressed her lips together and remained silent.
"Then what does your family call you?"
"My sister used to call me Kohatsu."
"So you have a sister?" Soma showed a hint of curiosity. He had always seen the girl alone and hadn't expected her to have a sister. It seemed she merely resembled Kanao Tsuyuri and wasn't actually the same person from the Demon Slayer Corps. After all, he had never heard that Kanao had an older sister.
"She's no longer here," the girl said quietly, lips still pressed together.
Soma fell silent for a moment, feeling both speechless and awkward.
But the little girl didn't seem particularly bothered anymore—or perhaps there was no use in being bothered. She simply continued to nibble at the rice ball she had just found.
Feeling awkward about his previous question, Soma changed the subject. "I see you come out every night looking for food. Don't your parents cook for you?"
"My father spent the whole day gambling at the casino. He came back without bringing any food."
"You can't live on just this. It's not nutritious."
"Having something to eat is already very good," the girl answered softly.
"How about this—if you come out at night again, I'll bring you some food. You really need some nutrition. You're far too thin right now."
The little girl looked up at him, her eyes suddenly bright. Then she lowered her head again, and in a tender, childish voice asked:
"Uncle… why are you being so kind to me?"