Chapter 61: The Truth About Not Fearing Sunlight

It wasn't long before the authorities finally arrived. Several coroner-like individuals bagged the noodle shop owner and took him away, while a few police officers questioned people in the vicinity.

Before long, he was transported to the morgue...

The lights flickered on. The noodle shop owner was laid out on an autopsy table. In truth, it was merely a procedural step; with numerous witnesses, the coroner didn't need to go to great lengths to determine the cause of death.

"How tragic, this person..." a coroner wearing glasses remarked, holding a scalpel and performing a cursory examination.

"No need to investigate further. Cause of death is decapitation from the front... This head..."

Just as the coroner touched the severed head, its eyes suddenly twitched and turned to look at him.

"Aaaah... A monster?!" The coroner—or rather, forensic examiner—was so terrified by the horrifying scene that he wet his pants. In all his years as a medical examiner, he had never encountered anything so dreadful.

The head suddenly snapped its mouth open, and a dark shadow shot out from within, lunging swiftly towards the coroner's face.

The coroner was scared witless, completely unsure how to dodge. Besides, he was just an ordinary person and couldn't possibly evade something so fast.

Swish—

At that very moment, a kunai flew swiftly from a corner, grazing the coroner's face by a hair's breadth, and struck the dark shadow dead center, pinning it firmly to the wall.

"So that's it. Your Blood Demon Art is parasitic..."

A figure slowly emerged from the corner. Beneath the dim, hazy lights, a pair of red eyes shone with exceptional brightness. It was Uchiha Nagi, who had been concealed.

He hadn't been able to figure it out earlier, but that didn't mean he would simply leave. Doubling back for a surprise attack was standard procedure for a ninja. Often, to ensure nothing was overlooked, many ninjas would stealthily lie in wait after a battle to check for any hidden enemy accomplices.

"Let me go! Let me go! The Buddha will not spare you~~" a fist-sized ball of flesh struggled desperately.

This was the true form of the bald owner. Or rather, it was a parasite-like demon itself. The owner it parasitized was human, which was why it didn't fear sunlight. Because the sunlight couldn't reach its true form. The outer body was not only human but also alive; it was just that its brain had long been devoured by the demon, which then took its place, turning the body into a mere puppet.

However, such a flesh puppet couldn't be maintained for long before it would start to decay, so it had to change bodies periodically.

"No wonder even Giyuu Tomioka-san couldn't find you. So your ability is this peculiar, hehe..." Uchiha Nagi chuckled and walked over.

Pathetically weak on its own, but once it parasitized a strong body, it was a different story. However, the Upper Moons wouldn't fear being parasitized by it. If it dared to parasitize someone like Akaza, Akaza would probably just smash his own head to get it out. When parasitizing humans, it couldn't find anyone of Hashira-level strength...

"No wonder Muzan, who yearns for the sun, looks down on you. Your ability is quite useless. I believe you mixed your blood into the ramen, and that's why Heiji couldn't move after eating it, right?"

Uchiha Nagi took out a scroll, along with several talismans and bindings with sealing effects—similar to what the Allied Shinobi Forces used to seal the Edo Tensei army in the later Great Ninja War. Even for this demon, which only possessed parasitic abilities, he couldn't be careless. It was safer to seal it before taking it away.

As for why he didn't just kill it with a Nichirin Blade—of course, it was to capture it and take it back as experimental material...

"The Buddha will punish you... will punish you..." the meatball, or rather, the octopus-like creature, just muttered to itself.

"Why... why couldn't I foresee your presence? It's like you appeared out of thin air..."

"Sorry, although I know the answer, I won't tell you, hehe..." Uchiha Nagi said with a smile, then proceeded to seal it and put it into the scroll to take away.

The answer? Of course, it was because Uchiha Nagi was not from this world. Therefore, the demon's ability to foresee impending disasters naturally couldn't predict him...

Before leaving, Uchiha Nagi looked up at the terrified coroner with his Sharingan and hypnotized him. It had to be said, the Sharingan was truly convenient at times...

Back in the ramen shop's kitchen, Heiji, who had been unable to move, had already been treated by Uchiha Nagi's Shadow Clone. It wasn't anything major; the clone had just made an incision in his blood vessel and used Medical Ninjutsu to expel the paralyzing substances from his body along with some blood.

Heiji, having lost a fair amount of blood, had a dazed expression. He stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling the intense pain from his lower body, wondering if he was going to become a eunuch. He simply couldn't accept this reality; it was worse than dying in battle.

"Hey, hey, what are you spacing out for? Bandage your wound yourself. Don't let it touch water for a while, and don't go looking at pretty women..." Uchiha Nagi said with a look of disdain, tossing him a bottle of medicine and some bandages.

"Huh?!" Heiji looked bewildered.

"What 'huh'? It's just a layer of skin that was cut. Your 'little brother' will develop healthier now that it's exposed. Don't you guys have circumcision surgery here?" Uchiha Nagi finished, casually tossing him a pair of pants he'd 'borrowed' from somewhere on the road.

"Huh? Skin? I'm not a eunuch?" Heiji sat up joyfully, lifted his covering, and looked between his legs.

"Aaah, hahaha, it's still there! It's still there! Senpai, this is great! My 'little brother' is still here~~"

Watching the boy dance around for joy like an idiot, Uchiha Nagi decided to pretend he didn't know him...

Afterward, Uchiha Nagi used his Kasugai Crow to report the matter to the Demon Slayer Corps' logistics team, stating that the situation was resolved. He also informed them about the target's abilities and that there were some remaining Nichirin Blade fragments at the ramen shop, left behind by members the demon had previously killed.

By evening, someone from the Demon Slayer Corps' logistics had arrived and taken care of the subsequent troubles, so Uchiha Nagi didn't need to handle the aftermath.

He and Heiji, who had performed meritoriously this time, were already on a train, preparing to head back.

Upon returning this time, Uchiha Nagi planned to visit the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, to seek his guidance and train, and then return to the Ninja World to retrieve what was originally his.

Gyomei Himejima was one of the nine Hashira who had cultivated his physical body to its peak. Standing at 2.2 meters tall, he was a complete giant, wielding a flail and axe, yet his movements were incredibly agile. Due to tragic past experiences, he deeply mistrusted children and young people, though he was later persuaded by the protagonist's 'talk-no-jutsu'...

Even more incredibly, he was blind in both eyes, fighting entirely based on his hearing and senses. He was only half a step away from the Transparent World, and finally, in the life-and-death battle against Upper Moon One, after striving with all his might and enduring immense pain, he directly awakened it.

And on that night, Akaza, after being decapitated, relied on his body's instincts to unleash his Destructive Death techniques, also coming just one step short. The Flame Hashira, who had likewise gained deep understanding from and 'copied' that battle, and Uchiha Nagi, were both in the same position—just one step away themselves.

Sometimes, a distance of just one step requires taking over nine hundred more to reach...

"It's about time I made a trip back..."

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