Chapter 9: Ore
The wisteria flowers illuminated above Inei, there were so many that they even blocked the view of the sky.
He stretched his right hand toward his waist and grabbed the Kitsune mask gifted to him by his master, he wore the mask and held onto his Nichirin blade.
Inei ascended the steps and entered a ground filled with various people similar, above, and below his age.
They all carried their Katana, and some of them stood out from the others.
Inei didn't pay any attention to them, he was busy examining the two identical, yet different twins that stood under a red gate of sorts.
""Dearest participants""
They spoke simultaneously, which was kind of fascinating and creepy at the same time, Inei decided to hear what these twins had to say.
""Thank you for gathering here to join the Demon Slayer Corpse's final selection""
The twins were different by their hair colors, on the left stood the white-haired one, and the black on the right.
Instead of speaking together, only the left one spoke.
"Here on Mt. Fujikasane, we have in captivity a lot of demons caught alive by our own very slayers, they is no way they can get out of here"
The black-haired one spoke this time.
"That is because wisteria blossoms which demons fear the most bloom all year from the hillside to the foot of the mountain"
Again it switched to the white one.
"But from the point onward, there will be no wisteria blossoms, so demons may appear"
Black again.
"If you can survive in this place for seven days, you are qualified for the Final Selection"
""Thus, we wish you all the best""
They ended up saying simultaneously.
***
Inei slowly walked through the forest, searching for demons, and he did not have to wait long as a demon tried to pounce on him from the trees.
The demon could not even put up a fight, Inei swiftly took out his blade, slashed the demon's head, and sheathed his Katana again.
Unlike in the past, the demon did not regenerate this time, it slowly burned and turned into ashes, which was swept by the air and left no traces of its existence.
It was only day one, but Inei was already beheading his 14th demon, he breezed through them.
The demons he faced until now posed no threat to him and were quickly dealt with, although they seemed intelligent enough to communicate, they weren't anything special.
On, his way, he met several other candidates, most of them were struggling against even the weakest ones, which Inei decided to deal with.
It wasn't because he wanted to save them, or any kind of heroic desire, he just couldn't let a demon who entered his sight go out alive, he lived to exterminate them in the first place.
So after the third day, he already dissipated half of the demons residing in the whole trial, which proved to be a bit taxing, but it was simply his purpose, he sliced them apart one by one.
His streak was going fine until he stumbled upon a hideous demon, two meters tall with several limbs and a massive body.
As Inei tried to sneak behind the demon, he felt his senses go to the utmost extreme, without hesitating, he quickly jumped away.
Several huge arms shot up from the ground, hitting only air, he scanned his surrounding only to find the huge demon smirking at him.
"Ha... Haha....hahahahaha!!"
The demon burst out in laughter.
"So... So close, you got lucky... But don't expect to be lucky twice! You're good as dead!!"
Saying so, the abnormally large demon swung one of its arms toward Inei, the latter sliced it before it even made contact.
The demon laughed as it continued its assault, Inei jumped from tree to tree, the huge arms of the demon broke the trees in half with immense strength.
"Damn, you! Just die!!"
The demon raged as it sent limbs from underground, Inei quickly evaded by rolling on the ground and he swiftly got back up again.
The limbs chased after him, as he cut, another rose, the assault seemed endless. After a good while, Inei grew bored of toying with it.
'Sigh... I thought it would put up atleast a nice fight for me to learn something, but...'
"Total concentration breathing..."
Inei suddenly burst forth with a speed that shocked the demon, it quickly got out of its frenzy and combined all its arms to send a giant, devastating attack.
"Water Breathing, second form..."
Inei tore everything in his path as he constantly spun vertically in the demon's huge arm, ripping through it like a chainsaw.
Upon reaching the demon, Tatsumi twisted his body midair and angled his sword toward the neck of the demon.
The demon shivered as it made eye contact with Inei, it felt time itself slow down as the sword was brought down toward its doom.
"Water wheel"
Elegantly steering his body forward, Inei spun and slashed the demon's neck with ease, the huge arms covering its neck stood no chance as his blade sliced through them.
"Arghh!!!"
It screamed, Tatsumi landed on his feet and continued forward, paying no heed to the rotting body of the vile creature.
Another 3 days passed, and the trial was over, Inei ascended the steps and climbed uphill, the same red gate was in front of him, but apart from him and the twins, there was not another soul to be found.
'Not that I care'
He sighed and walked forward, the twins congratulated him and informed him of the ranks and some other basic information about the demon slayers he already knew from Urokodaki.
He was then ordered to choose an ore from the several laid before him on a table, Inei squinted his eyes.
'Why... Am I feeling so... I... I don't really know to describe this feeling but... Why does this one feel so familiar to me?'
Inei could not make sense, it was as if the ore was calling out from him, begging him to claim it.
He instinctively stretched his arm and picked up the ore, it was really weird, every ore seemed the same, but this one... It just felt... Right?
Inei shook his head of these thoughts and handed the ore to the black twin, the child said it normally took 10 to 15 days to forge a Nirichin sword, he nodded and headed back to Mt. Sagiri.
On his way back, he noticed a guy slightly older than 14 climb up the steps, he took a glance at the boy to examine him.
'Hmm, he definitely is strong judging by his aura, but this guy... he's really ghostly, like he doesn't even exist'
He was tall, his facial expression hidden by his purple hair, pale as a dead snake, and looked really fragile.
The most eye-catching part was that he did not even bear a single injury, Inei concluded that he was really, really strong.
Inei was growing more and more bewildered as he learned more about the outside world, there were some 'unique' people for sure alright.
He focused back on his journey and continued forward.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone