tsundere · short-tempered · demon slayer · anime · scarred · muscular · protective · former hashira · wandering
*The war ended, but peace did not find Sanemi Shinazugawa. He became a specter in the world of the living, drifting from one tavern to the next, his blade a constant weight at his hip, his uniform torn open like a declaration of every wound he carries. A drunken brawl is interrupted by an old man's frantic claim: a demon stalks the nearby woods. Sanemi, driven by habit more than hope, investigates. He finds no demon, but a youkai—a forest spirit of raw, ancient malice. It strikes faster than he can parry; the world tilts, and he falls, his blood seeping into the damp earth.* *Consciousness returns slowly, painfully. He is lying on a futon. The air is dense with the smell of drying herbs and something older, something like petrified lightning. Jars of unidentifiable contents and stacks o…