The Sun Is My Ally
Inosuke spent days on the road before turning up at the site of the demon slayers' examination.
He stayed in a village down the chain of forest mountains where the exam was scheduled to take place.
When the evening and time of the exam came around, he climbed the hill to the temple.
His stay had garnered a lot of attention from town residents, and he was glad to leave this small village. People weren't used to seeing a dazzling, elegant teenager walking around wearing a boar mask. The only time they saw his face was when food was passing down his throat. But that was another type of issue for Inosuke.
The young ladies in the village were about to eat him and have him start a family due to his stunning facial features.
Fortunately, his innocence was preserved.
He was reserving it for more beautiful women.
Alas, the pool of idyllic beauty was a little too small in that village.
"Weirdo."
Someone said.
Inosuke wasn't the first to arrive at the hill at the temple where candidates were supposed to gather.
Even though piercing stares of puzzlement and curiosity fell on him, the place was silent. Mostly. The majority of the stares at him were wary and cautious.
Inosuke recognized the person who spoke aloud and made a comment: Shinazugawa Genya.
In the original, he was the guy who ate demons. The Wind Hashira's younger brother.
With a snort, he shifted his gaze away from the magnificent Inosuke. He seemed to have a lot of internal struggles and demons to deal with, and he didn't want to waste any more time investigating Inosuke's strangeness.
Soon, the exam administrators arrived. They were two children with wide eyes, their irises swirling in a chaotic manner like sorrowful whirlpools. They were dressed in kimonos, both looking like girls and wearing a lot of makeup.
According to Inosuke's memories, one of the two, the black-haired one, was a boy—the son of the current leader of the demon slayers corps.
He belonged to the Ubuyashiki family, which had a thousand-year curse of producing short-lived men. The world seemed to have turned against them because Muzan was a member of their family.
Inosuke also knew the second exam administrator, a cute little girl with the same big eyes and white hair. She was the kid's younger sister, but he couldn't recall her name.
After announcing the rules, they directed everyone who still wanted to participate to go inside the forest behind them. Those were mountains full of demons who couldn't leave that region because of some sort of magical barrier.
It was one of those mysterious abilities that only the Ubuyashiki family understood.
Inosuke was drawing his own conclusions, recalling the manga. He was intrigued, but now was not the time to be concerned with such matters. He had to kill his first demon.
For him, anything was fictional, aside from getting Halos and ensuring his future survival.
He decided to pursue Tanjiro after spotting him and Zenitsu in the crowd. The guy would fight a lot of demons from the start, and Inosuke would be able to kill one of them.
...
"Why have you been following me?" Tanjiro thought it over before asking, wary and cautious.
As he paused his race for the east, he finally expressed his concerns aloud. He could no longer pretend he hadn't noticed.
He carried his trademark wooden box crafted by Urokodaki on his back, with the straps slung over his shoulders. There was no need to inquire about the contents…
His face was marked by a long blood-red scar on the right side of his upper forehead. It resembled a birthmark, despite not being one.
"Who said I was following you? Aren't you going to the east to be closest to the rising sun tomorrow morning? I am doing the same." Inosuke lied without being embarrassed.
He did not even bother to act in order to make himself appear convincing. Even wearing the boar mask, he sounded suspicious.
"..."
Tanjiro was speechless as he stared at the magnificent boar head, which stood still, waiting for him to move again.
Nevertheless, he refrained from publicly exposing and embarrassing Inosuke for his poor, blatant lie.
Not that Inosuke would care…
Before he could ask Inosuke his name, he smelled a mutation and whispered quietly, "There are demons nearby... I can't protect you. How well can you fight?"
"Thanks for the warning, but you don't need to worry about me." Inosuke replied, sensing something coming.
It was a sneak attack on his back.
He didn't intend to move until the last second because he didn't want to waste time obtaining the second Halo.
"Be careful!" Tanjiro screamed.
Before Tanjiro's voice came, Inosuke felt a prickly, stingy sensation build up in him, so he spun around and swung his sword, intending to fight it head on and hard when it became painful.
Pain was a sign of danger!
All he needed was blood, so it didn't matter if he traded blows for blows!
"Yahoo, Demon Slayers! Die Bastards!"
When the vengeful but dimwitted demon realized its cunning attack was about to succeed, it let out a squeal of delight.
Unfortunately, the next instant, it let out a cry of wrenching pain as its right arm dropped to the ground after landing behind Inosuke in the tree.
Inosuke, unscathed, was the first to be taken aback.
As he looked at the blood-stained blade of his sword, he thought to himself, 'This Halo of the Land King is very useful... Weapons that won't break is a huge boon!'
He then went for the 'Extraction!' without thinking too hard as Tanjiro grappled with the demon just as it was about to rush toward Inosuke in a fit of rage. Like an aggravated prisoner.
The guy's arm was trying to regenerate as quickly as possible, but it wasn't going very fast. Inosuke was briefly concerned about the speed with which he was regenerating.
Seeing the Halo that popped up, Inosuke realized that genes and blood were more important than actual strength when it came to defensive and healing halos.
As he suspected, there weren't many Halos he could obtain in this world due to the system's current limitations.
In fact, it appeared that the restrictions made it even more difficult to obtain Halos from demons.
[Ding! Extraction successful!]
[...]
[Blood of Kibutsuji (Level 1): Blood of the thousand-year-old scourge. A healing halo that dramatically increases your healing and regeneration abilities, as well as your defensive powers, directly transforming you into a supernatural creature. Can stop you from aging if you wish so.]
It sounded cool and all, but thinking of a problem, Inosuke asked inside while watching Tanjiro win over the demon, 'System, what about the vulnerability to sunlight and the other weakness of demons?'
[Ding! The host's Halos have no weaknesses other than their strength!]
Inosuke smirked after hearing this clarification. At the very least, there was some good news.
Even though he was trapped in this world for an unknown period of time, he did not have to suffer the shame of the sun like Muzan.
Since this was the case, he didn't even need to turn off the Halo.