Chapter 31

Seeing that Tanjiro was awake, Zenitsu was a bit surprised.

— Tanjiro, you're not asleep yet?

Tanjiro shook his head and said with a smile:

— Zenitsu, you knew I protect you, yet you still protected the box. You're such a good person. Thank you.

Hearing Tanjiro's words of praise, Zenitsu suddenly felt awkward and rolled on the floor with a pillow.

— You! Why are you complimenting me! He-he-he!

Tanjiro pointed to his nose and said:

— My nose is very sensitive. I realized from the beginning that Zenitsu is both gentle and strong.

Hearing the word "strong," Zenitsu immediately became indifferent.

— No! I'm not strong! Stop joking! I still haven't forgiven you for not letting me take Shoichi with me!

Hearing this, Tanjiro hesitated for a while, not knowing what to say.

At that moment, Tanjiro's wooden box trembled several times.

Zenitsu, whose ears were extremely sensitive, heard the sound of the wooden box and his nerves instantly tensed up.

— Uh-oh! Hey! Is she coming out? Is she coming out?

Tanjiro reassured him:

— It's all right!

— What do you mean, it's all right? Ah! — A nervous Zenitsu couldn't hear what Tanjiro was saying.

— Shhh! It's the middle of the night! Zenitsu! — Tanjiro tried his best to calm Zenitsu down.

Suddenly, the door of the wooden box opened.

Seeing this, Zenitsu became even more nervous.

— Wow! It's not locked! Protect me! Senior Xander! Zenitsu immediately climbed onto Xander's bed.

Xander was furious and kicked Zenitsu out.

"Get out of the way!"

Xander kicked Zenitsu straight at Inosuke, and then Inosuke kicked him again.

"Don't come near here!" Zenitsu was tossed right in front of the wooden box.

At this moment, the door of the wooden box slowly opened, revealing a small hand with sharp nails.

"Come out!" Zenitsu, using his hands and feet, crawled to the closet, opened it, and hid inside.

Then Nezuko crawled out, and her body returned to its normal size.

Seeing that Nezuko had woken up, Tanjiro smiled and called out:

"Nezuko."

Xander also woke up because of Zenitsu, and upon seeing Nezuko awake, he approached and patted her on the head.

"Did Nezuko have a good rest?"

Nezuko couldn't speak, so she just grabbed Xander's hand and put it on her head, her two big eyes turning into two crescents (literally 'turned into two crescent moons').

Zenitsu, hiding in the closet, didn't hear any sounds outside, so he peeked his head out.

When he saw Xander patting Nezuko on the head, he was shocked.

"Zenitsu, Nezuko is my..." Tanjiro was about to introduce Zenitsu to Nezuko, but Zenitsu interrupted him.

"Tanjiro!"

— Hmm? Zenitsu... ?

Zenitsu stood with his head down, yellow electricity emanating from him.

— You... you're truly amazing! So you always carry such a cute girl with you?! You travel happily every day with such a lovely girl!

Seeing that something was wrong with Zenitsu, Tanjiro hurried to explain:

— Zenitsu, that's not it!

— Give me back my blood! I! I worked so hard, not so you could play with girls every day! Was it because of this that I got beaten up by a strange wild boar?!

— Zenitsu! Calm down! Why are you suddenly... — Tanjiro tried to explain, but Zenitsu wouldn't listen.

— The Demon Slayer Corps! You can't just join it for fun! People like you need to be eliminated! Eliminated immediately!

Seeing this, Xander didn't want to go without rest that night, so he stepped forward and said:

— Nezuko is Tanjiro's sister, stop fooling around!

Hearing Xander's words, Zenitsu, who was about to draw his sword, instantly calmed down.

— Really... really?

Seeing that Zenitsu had calmed down, Tanjiro finally sighed with relief.

— Well, even though Nezuko has become a demon, she's still my sister. I will turn Nezuko back into a human!

Hearing what Tanjiro said, Zenitsu understood why Tanjiro always had to carry a wooden box with him and stopped causing trouble, approaching Nezuko instead.

— Nezuko-chan~

Seeing Zenitsu's creepy look, Nezuko spread her legs and tried to run away, but how could Zenitsu let her go?

— Nezuko-chan~ Nezuko-chan~

Seeing Zenitsu's expression, Xander struck Zenitsu on the neck with a knife. Zenitsu fell to the ground, drool dripping from the corners of his mouth, and he kept laughing.

Xander and Tanjiro looked at each other and couldn't help but smile bitterly:

— It seems like it'll be hard to have any peace in the coming days.

— Yes.

The next morning, before dawn,

Xander woke up and was about to see what he could get from the treasure chest that had dropped from kyogai. To his surprise, he found a person in his arms.

Looking at the small figure in his embrace and recognizing the bamboo gag, Xander was startled.

— Nezuko! — Nezuko seemed to sense that Xander had awakened, so she also woke up, looked at Xander, and then rubbed against his hands before returning to the box.

Gazing at the now still wooden box and the lingering scent in his arms, Xander froze for a moment.

— Ever since Nezuko woke up, she's been getting closer and closer to me, even as close as Nezuko and Tanjiro. What's going on?

— I think when we were in the Sagiri mountains, Nezuko hadn't woken up yet. I wanted to try using my blood after consuming the Devil Fruit to see if Nezuko could change, so I secretly gave her a few drops of my blood. Could it be because of that?

— But nothing happened then! Why does it seem to have happened today... No! I need to find time to ask Tamayo what's special about my blood.

Xander gathered his thoughts and entered his consciousness into the System.

— System! Open the bronze treasure chest.

[Ding! The host currently has 1 bronze treasure chest. [Ding! Would you like to open it?]

— Confirm! — Xander gave the command, and a dark-yellow bronze treasure chest appeared in Wen Yan's mind.

Then the bronze treasure chest slowly opened, and a swirl of black and purple energy continued to flow, eventually fully immersing into Xander's body.

[Ding! Bronze treasure chest opened. Congratulations to the host for obtaining the unique skill: Predator]

[Ding! The unique skill cannot be transferred to others and has fused with the host.]

[Unique Skill: Predator: From the world "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime," it can devour anything and analyze the consumed items, with a certain likelihood of acquiring the abilities of the consumed items.

After being stunned for a couple of seconds, Xander pointed at the vase next to him and whispered:

— Predator! — A stream of black and purple energy erupted from Xander's palm, enveloped the vase completely, and then suddenly returned to Xander's hand.

[Ding! The Predator consumed the vase. Analyzing in progress... A Taisho Era ceramic vase. Composition...Hearing the system's voice, Xander confirmed that he had indeed gained the incredible Predator skill.

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