Night descended upon the land, and the crowds in Asakusa flowed like a tide, moving throughout the city. Sanemi Shinazugawa could clearly see the smiles on every one of their faces.
Could it be that, for these people, the Demon Slayer Corps is truly dispensable? The thought crossed Sanemi Shinazugawa's mind for a moment.
If it were truly as Kurozawa said, that the number of Demons would never change, then was everything the swordsmen did in vain?
No, that wasn't it.
Sanemi Shinazugawa violently shook his head, glaring at Kurozawa.
"You're trying to shake my resolve?"
"Perhaps what you said makes sense, but the Demons killed my family. Everything I do is for revenge."
"I don't care why other swordsmen slay Demons, but I just want to extinguish the fire of hatred that constantly burns in my heart!"
Ever since Sanemi Shinazugawa witnessed the tragic deaths of his family, anger had been burning in his heart.
This fire made him irritable and constantly furious.
His eyes were often bloodshot because Sanemi Shinazugawa rarely slept well, frequently waking up from nightmares.
Perhaps only when all the Demons were gone would he feel peace.
...
Kurozawa shrugged and smiled.
In this world caught in a cycle of reincarnation, no matter what you do, if you don't find a way to break the cycle, it's essentially meaningless.
Tanjiro would repeatedly experience the despair and sorrow of the snowy night of his family's massacre, and Kocho Shinobu would repeatedly hold Kanae's gradually cooling corpse... unendingly.
Kurozawa didn't know exactly how to break the cycle and get this world functioning properly again.
Kamado Kawarutoki hadn't told him.
However, Kurozawa guessed that leading the ending towards the complete opposite of the cycle might work.
The ending of the Demon Slayer World was that the human swordsmen, after various sacrifices and bloodshed, at the cost of being nearly wiped out, finally killed the source of the Demons, and ultimately ushered in dawn and hope.
So, what Kurozawa needed to do was completely annihilate the Demon Slayer Corps, and find a way to sever the transmission of the Breathing Techniques, allowing Demons to firmly take root in this world as an overt, new race.
Kurozawa didn't know if this was right or wrong, but he didn't care about right or wrong. Right now, he just wanted to go against the Divine Will. Since it was obstructing him at every turn, he couldn't let it have its way.
The two were on opposing sides, locked in an endless struggle. As long as it was something that could harm the other party, Kurozawa was happy to do it.
...
Not long after entering the city, Kurozawa slowly arrived at a residential area with noticeably luxurious houses, following the direction Hongyue had mentioned earlier.
The buildings here had many Western-style villa features, mostly two or three stories high, enclosed by a fence about two meters and twenty centimeters tall.
Most of the people walking within the residential area wore well-made clothes and had a confident aura in their strides.
In Asakusa, this was likely the wealthy district.
Following the unusually clean and tidy street, Kurozawa reached an area resembling a main entrance and was stopped.
It was security personnel. There was one person on each side of the entrance, both tall and burly.
"Residents only, no entry," the person on the left said in a deep voice.
Kurozawa nodded politely and waited to the side without saying much.
In his Fighting Spirit Perception, Hongyue's aura was already approaching.
Although Hongyue didn't have Fighting Spirit, her five senses were sharp, and she could sense the Demon blood within Kurozawa. The moment Kurozawa stepped into Asakusa, she knew he had arrived.
A few minutes later, wearing a fiery red dress, like a burning flame of passion, Hongyue's exquisite face, filled with joy, appeared before Kurozawa. Her fair skin seemed to be adorned with a layer of bright moonlight.
She loved red clothing.
This vibrant color, along with her unique temperament, made Hongyue stand out like the stars and moon wherever she went, drawing frequent glances from others.
Walking up to Kurozawa, Hongyue first stared at Sanemi Shinazugawa for a moment. When she smelled the scent of Marechi Blood, her ruby-like pupils suddenly contracted.
She looked up at Kurozawa, who whispered, "A gift for you."
Upon hearing Kurozawa's words, a bright smile slowly blossomed on Hongyue's face, as beautiful as a rose.
"I like it very much, thank you," Hongyue said softly.
Hongyue's strength had reached a limit and hadn't broken through for a very long time. A Marechi Blood Pillar swordsman indeed had a high probability of helping her take another step forward.
Sanemi Shinazugawa heard their conversation, and his face became even more grim.
No one liked being treated as an object.
He looked around and felt that there was no dangerous aura from Hongyue, and her relationship with Kurozawa was clearly unusual.
Thus, Sanemi Shinazugawa suddenly erupted, pushing off the ground with his feet and pouncing towards Hongyue.
His intact left hand was wide open, reaching to grab Hongyue's fair and slender neck, intending to take her hostage.
"Always thinking about how to escape, your resolve is truly firm." Kurozawa stood in place with his arms crossed, watching with interest.
At the same time, Sanemi Shinazugawa's heart sank when he saw that Kurozawa was unmoved.
Simultaneously, he saw Hongyue's eyes.
Those ruby eyes, which had just held warmth, had somehow turned into narrow, vertical pupils like those of a ferocious beast.
filled with cold cruelty.
In an instant, a bone-chilling killing intent enveloped Sanemi Shinazugawa's entire body. The hairs on his neck stood on end, and he felt a wave of coldness shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
His eyes blurred, and before he could even see Hongyue's movements clearly, he found that his wrist had been seized by her. Then, a crushing force came through.
With a flick of Hongyue's slender, beautiful arm, Sanemi Shinazugawa's body was uncontrollably sent flying upwards from where he stood. When he was high up, Hongyue gently moved her hand downwards, and he immediately hit the ground with a loud bang, making intimate contact with the earth.
The commotion was quite significant, drawing the attention of many people. Because of Hongyue's beauty, many were already secretly looking this way.
When they saw Sanemi Shinazugawa suddenly attack, some even cried out in surprise, shouting warnings.
However, the outcome left the onlookers utterly astonished. They never expected that a beauty who seemed to have stepped out of a painting would, with a simple gesture, toss a person around like a rag doll.
Watching Sanemi Shinazugawa struggle a few times before slowly kneeling up, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, the onlookers felt a chill in their hearts.
You truly can't judge a book by its cover. Many thought this to themselves.
"Let me introduce you," Kurozawa said to Sanemi Shinazugawa.
"Hongyue, my partner. She was previously called Muzan Kibutsuji."
As soon as these words were spoken, Sanemi Shinazugawa's body instantly stiffened. He abruptly looked up, staring intently at Hongyue.
Muzan Kibutsuji, the source of all Demons that the Demon Slayer Corps had been searching for, their thousand-year nemesis. His or her true form was unknown to anyone, their identity unclear.
So, it was actually a woman?
Watching the gentle-eyed Hongyue, who was looking at Kurozawa, a sense of disbelief grew in Sanemi Shinazugawa's heart.
-----------
Machine Translation by: https:// randomtranslator.com/
Read 777+ original & fanfic translations in English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, or Русский at: https:// randomtranslator.com/
Join our Discord: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------