Although Shin Arashi had saved the boy, the young man had already been bitten on the neck. Blood flowed from the wound, staining his clothes a deep red.
Shin didn't show much concern. He simply looked down at the injured boy and asked calmly, "You're not going to die, are you?"
The boy stared up at Shin in surprise. He still remembered him—after all, Shin had shocked everyone during the start of the Final Selection with his incredible display of power.
Wincing from the pain, the boy shook his head and managed to whisper, "Thank you…"
"If you want to stay alive, go where you see a tree marked with a water pattern," Shin said flatly, then turned and left without hesitation, continuing his demon hunt.
The young man watched Shin's back fade into the distance, a bitter realization forming in his heart.
"Am I really that weak?" he thought to himself, now fully aware of the difference in their strength.
Throughout the night, one demon after another fell under Shin Arashi's blade. It wasn't that Shin was overwhelmingly powerful—though he certainly was—it was more that the demons selected for this Final Selection were simply too weak.
Having been imprisoned on Mt. Fujixi, these demons rarely got to feed on humans, which meant their strength had barely grown over time. For Shin, they were nothing more than practice dummies.
Strangely, during his entire hunt, Shin never ran into the small girl he had noticed earlier at the start of the selection. This felt odd to him. He had been combing through the mountain non-stop, and had even crossed paths with Tanjiro—though he had chosen to avoid him deliberately.
"Why haven't I seen her?" Shin wondered. "I've run into almost everyone else..."
When Shin saw Tanjiro earlier, he had intentionally stayed hidden. He wanted Tanjiro to face the demons head-on—to experience real combat for himself.
As the sun finally rose, the remaining demons fled and hid deep within Mt. Fujixi to escape the light.
Shin had spent the entire night clearing demons within a three-kilometer radius. He estimated that the rest of them must have retreated farther into the mountain.
Because of Shin's relentless purge, many of the other participants in the Final Selection ended up gathering together. Word of Shin's actions spread quickly, and soon everyone was discussing his motives.
Some believed Shin Arashi held an intense hatred for demons and was hunting them out of revenge.
Others speculated that he was trying to attract the attention of the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps to earn a better position once the Selection ended.
In truth, everyone had their own theories—and Shin had become the center of attention without even realizing it.
Later, Tanjiro and Zenitsu stumbled upon the group of candidates who were discussing Shin's feats. Seeing that Tanjiro also wore a disaster-averting mask like Shin the group immediately treated him with respect and told him everything they had heard.
"Tanjiro, your Senior Shin is amazing!" Zenitsu exclaimed. "While the rest of us were just trying to survive, he was out there hunting demons! That's seriously cool!"
But Tanjiro didn't respond to Zenitsu. Instead, he stood in silence, processing everything he had just heard.
He felt a mix of awe and confusion.
Why?
Why would Shin go out of his way to seek out demons like this?
Wouldn't it be enough to just survive the seven days?
Was there really a need to push himself that far?
Or...
Was he doing all of this to clear a path—for me?