The next morning.
On 10 A.M., 18th October, 1947
In the same forest, demon slayers and kakushis found the corpse of the light Hashira.
The corpse and the body parts were on the Pentacle drawn on the ground.
"Oh my, Hideyoshi-Sama. What happened to you? How can someone kill you so brutally?" screamed Kakushis.
"How is this even possible?!! Even a hashira isn't safe. How can a demon kill you so easily? That must be Kibutsuji, only he can do that," said the demon slayers with a frightening tone.
They come close to the corpse and start collecting its body parts. Ren and Chikafusa were also there and Chikafusa was too scared. Ren is constantly looking at the corpse without even blinking.
"If it were Kibutsuji then why would he create such a mysterious circle? Is it related to the occult or some black magic?" said one of the Kakushis.
"Aren't demons enough to scare us like you're adding such things? If it's another demon and not Muzan then how are we supposed to kill it?"
There are 4 slayers, 4 Kakushis, Ren and Chikafusa in the forest.
In the other scene, we see 8 different voodoo dolls in a dark room. A mysterious black hand appears, it holds one of the voodoo dolls and spins the doll's head.
Now, in the forest. When they were picking the body parts, Ren suddenly screamed, "Get out of the circle right now!!!."
"Huh?" their reactions.
In an instant, one of the Kakushis' heads starts spinning and his body explodes.
Everyone starts screaming.
In the darkroom scene again, we see the thing pick another voodoo doll and stab it with an iron nail.
In the forest scene, one of the demon slayers starts vomiting blood. He vomits so much blood that he suddenly falls to the ground and dies.
Ren brings his katana and jumps on the pentacle.
SUN BREATHING 2ND FORM: CLEAR BLUE SKY
He destroys the ground and demolishes the pentacle.
"What's going on with us? WE WILL DIE!!!" moans one of the Kakushis.
"Now you're safe," says Ren calmly.
"Tch..." sounds the thing in anger.
The thing's red eyes glow and we see "Upper-3" in his iris. Then he disappears instantly.
In the forest again, "How can demons attack even in the daytime?"
"Thank You, Ren-Sama. We would die if you weren't here. Anyway, how did you know that that symbol was suspicious?" asked one of the demon slayers.
2 Years Later.
21st December, 1949.
At night, 1 A.M., during snowfall.
There is a small house on a mountain. A demon slayer fighting some demons to protect his family.
"Ai, take care of your mom. Do not go outside," said the demon slayer.
"Okay papa," sobbed the little girl, Ai Hanako.
Ai Hanako is an 8-year-old girl. She is the daughter of Flame Hashira's Tsuguko, the demon slayer who is fighting the demons right now. Her mother is extremely sick.
Tsuguko are the successors of their respected hashiras.
He has 10 demons in front of him.
"Are you kiddin' me? How am I supposed to defeat 10 demons simultaneously?" thinks the demon slayer.
But then 3 more demon slayers come and help the Tsuguko of the Flame Hashira.
"Sorry for being late, Matsuda-San," said one of the slayers.
Demons still have advantages over slayers whether it's quantity or cold weather.
FLAME BREATHING 1ST FORM: UNKNOWING FIRE
WATER BREATHING 4TH FORM: STRIKING TIDE
SNOW BREATHING 1ST FORM: DASHING SNOWFALL
WIND BREATHING 6TH FORM: BLACK WIND MOUNTAIN MIST
Demons and Slayers attacked each other at the same time.
A few moments later, the demons were defeated. Only the wind-breathing user was killed while other slayers were heavily injured.
"Is it… over?" thinks Matsuda, the flame-breathing user and the tsuguko.
But then they all see something mysterious flying towards them. It was white coloured with black eyes and a beak. Its body was like a humanoid with fully white furs. Its appearance is similar to the Opium Bird but it's more humanoid and is 6'3 feet tall.
"Matsuda-San, be careful! It's not a bird," said the snow-breathing user.
That humanoid thing like a bird flies so fast towards them that others couldn't even react.
It suddenly appears in front of the snow-breathing user and slashes through his chest with its sharp nails.
"Nakamura-Kun, are you okay? Tch…" said Matsuda.
He's bleeding so much, but still he stands up and says,"Matsuda-San, Yoshida-San, I am fine. Don't care about me," said the snow-breathing user, Nakamura.
That bird-like thing talks with them via telepathy, "Are you Matsuda, right? I have a proposal for you. I'll leave everyone right now, I won't hurt anyone here but only on one condition. Oh, let me introduce myself first. I am Xeran, the god of this land–,"
"Shut up, I don't wanna listen to any of your bullsh*ts. Just tell me what's the condition?" Matsuda interrupts the demon and says in anger.
"Hah… you're even worse than I thought. Anyway, I won't kill you or your companions, but only on one condition. I want your daughter," said Xeran.
"How dare you, you scum. I'll eradicate you from this world. Don't even dare to lay a finger on my daughter," shouted Matsuda furiously.
"As I thought, you mortals are so pathetic. You should go to hell and die. If you won't give me your daughter, I'll kill everyone and take her myself. I am God of this land, the Lower Moon-4, Xeran. Hahahahaha…," said Xeran with excitement.
FLAME BREATHING 3RD FORM: BLAZING UNIVERSE
WATER BREATHING 2ND FORM: WATER WHEEL
SNOW BREATHING 4TH FORM: DAZZLING HORIZON
They attacked the lower moon 4, Xeran at the same time. Xeran dashes towards them as well and attacks them with his claws and blood demon art.
Xeran instantly matched their speed. His blood demon art is freezing their lungs and dodging their lethal attacks.
Xeran overpowers them in some time.
"Oh sh*t! He's stronger than us, I don't care if I become a Hashira after this battle or die here. My only obligation is towards my family, my daughter. No matter how strong your opponent is, they can never defeat a lovely family.
That's right! A man can be destroyed but not defeated," thinks Matsuda and self-motivates himself.
Xeran stabs the water-breathing user, Yoshida with his claws. Nakamura successfully holds Xeran for a while with Yoshida's sacrifice.
"You bastard! Whoever hurts my family, I will never forgive him. No matter how strong you are, you can never defeat a family," shouted Matsuda at Xeran.
FLAME BREATHING 1ST FORM: UNKNOWING FIRE
Matsuda crosses his limits and goes beyond his strength, he finally cuts Xeran's thick neck. But as he crosses his limits, his hand's bone gets broken.
"Is it… over?" says Matsuda.
"Yes… for you," says Xeran via telepathy.
When Matsuda looks at his belly, he sees that he has been stabbed by his claws.
"MATSUDA-SAN!!!!!!"
"PAAAPPAAA!!!!!!"
Xeran instantly kills the other two slayers as well.
"You love your family right? Just watch me humiliate your entire family in front of your eyes," says Xeran.
He instantly reaches Matsuda's house where he finds his sick wife who couldn't even walk but not his daughter.
Xeran holds his wife's hair and drags her to Matsuda. She's suffering from a lot of pain but they can do nothing.
"Matsuda, I admire your courage to go beyond and save your family. But there's nothing you can do against me. You're too weak. You can't save your family. All you can do is see me murdering your wife and daughter," said Xeran.
Xeran stabs her chest with his claws and takes her heart out in an instant. After that, he squishes her heart and her husband, Matsuda, passes away due to blood loss.
Xeran suddenly notices that Ai isn't here. So he flies high into the sky to find her. Her mother already sent her away before he could see her.
Ai is just running away as much as she can to escape from Xeran.
Out of nowhere, Xeran appears in front of her. He is coming towards her to take her with him. Ai accepted her fate and was ready to die.
But Xeran suddenly stops moving towards her and stares right above her. She didn't understand why he stopped moving and he looked frightened as well.
As she looks behind her, she sees a 7'4 feet tall man standing behind her. He is none other than Kenzo Fuji, the current stone Hashira. He wields a hand axe complete with a spiked flail attached to the hilt through a long chain, basically Gyomei's weapons.
Xeran slowly steps back. Now he has increased his speed, and now he runs away with his full speed.
But Kenzo instantly chopped his head before he could even realise it.
"This man is even taller than me. I couldn't even blink. If I would kill everyone on this mountain then I would be able to get close to that woman. I instantly fell in love with her when I saw her for the first time," thinks Xeran.
"— you're nothing but an idiot. Do you really think you can kill a child just to impress me?"
...
"That… that's the woman. No… I can't die… I want to live…"
Xeran vanishes into ashes.
The little girl is crying so much as she lost her parents. The stone Hashira tries to calm her and rescues her.
Ai Hanako is a beautiful girl with wolf hairstyle, black hairs, big almond eyes, natural crimson lips et cetera. Kenzo Fuji has never seen so much beautiful girl like her before even though she is just 8-years old.
"Poor child, she must've suffered as she lost her parents," says Kenzo Fuji.
Now they've arrived at the Demon Slayer hideout.
4 months later.
She finally gets recovered from her wounds but not from her tragedy. She looks outside the window and finds Chikafusa and Ren training for sun breathing.
"Mama… Papa… I miss you so much… How can I live alone in this horrible world," cries Ai Hanako.
"I won't let anyone suffer from the miseries that I've faced. This is what you wanted me to become. That's right, I'll become a demon slayer. I'll save everyone."
"Wait!!! I think I've seen this boy before, even papa told me about a boy who is as old as me but he has feats which seems next to impossible. He looks like the boy papa told me about. Could it be… this boy?"