Kamado Asaki looked up at the sky, but he couldn't see anything clearly.
The snowstorm was fierce, stirring up the clouds and making the sky unpredictable.
Plus, his consciousness had been hazy earlier, and he had no idea how long he'd been running. Right now, he couldn't tell what time it was at all.
Moonlight spilled over the snowy ground. The glistening snow reflected and refracted the light over and over, making the night seem bright as day.
"I heard from the old folks, demons are immortal and indestructible—only afraid of sunlight."
"When the sun rises and the light shines down, even the strongest demon will burn to ash and vanish from the world."
"If this snowstorm suddenly stops, and it just happens to be daytime… if the sunlight comes through, wouldn't I be fucking dead?"
He had wanted to figure out where he was and what time it was, but his gut twisted in hunger again, breaking his train of thought.
Left with no choice, Asaki bent down, grabbed a handful of snow, and stuffed it into his mouth. The freezing flakes melted into icy water inside his warm mouth, then slid down his throat.
He felt a rush of cold spreading from his throat into his stomach, dulling the hunger that burned in his gut—just slightly.
But the next second, nausea surged up. His stomach churned, rejecting the snowmelt.
Not long after swallowing it, Asaki vomited it all back up...
The hunger didn't lessen. In fact, it grew even worse.
"Demons… can't eat anything except humans?"
"If I don't eat people, I have no strength. And energy is conserved—even if demons don't die, they probably fall into a dormant state when their energy runs out, right?"
"If I've got no strength… how the fuck am I supposed to get revenge? How am I supposed to kill demons? Does this mean I have to eat people?"
As long as it wasn't his family—if it gave him power, if it let him find the killer and avenge his family…
Asaki didn't mind eating humans.
"No, I can't just eat anyone. If I have to eat, it has to be evil people. Or those who've already died from other demons' attacks."
"Otherwise… if I ever see Tanjirō again, how the hell would I face him?"
Even eating evil people—it'd only be because he had no other choice. If there were another way, Asaki would never eat a person.
Forget having a twisted personality—even the most vicious bastard wouldn't eat another human being.
That's not evil. That's fucking deranged.
But… if only I could devour demons.
In the depths of his mind, Asaki's subconscious kept whispering the urge to devour demons. The thought was so strong, it made him forget his hunger for a moment.
The footprints he had left behind in the snow were already being buried by new flakes falling from the sky.
Asaki looked around. This world of snow had no sense of direction.
The still-falling blizzard erased his ability to navigate.
"I can't waste time. I can already feel my body getting weaker. If this keeps up, I'll lose control soon."
Severely injured, pushed to exhaustion, and since turning into a demon, he'd only licked a little bit of Kie's blood. Now, he was on the brink of collapse.
Even though his body was now a demon's—perfectly intact and stronger than it ever had been—
In reality, every cell in Asaki's body was screaming for energy. If it didn't get nourishment soon, those cells would start shutting down, waiting to be reawakened by flesh and blood.
Realizing how bad his condition was, Asaki knew he couldn't just stand here in regret and guilt anymore.
"I need to find something edible and a temporary place to avoid the sunlight."
Unable to tell directions, he picked one at random and walked quickly, thinking about what to do next.
Though he called it walking, his speed was equivalent to a normal person's jog.
Even as a newborn demon, even without feeding, even while weakened—his body was far superior to that of any human.
After all, demons were predators. And humans were their prey.
As he moved, Asaki mentally kept count of his steps. After walking briskly for about half an hour, he stopped.
He flared his nostrils.
Instantly, blood vessels spread densely across his eyes.
He had to take a deep breath, letting the freezing air chill his lungs before he could calm his surging thoughts.
That familiar sensation took all his willpower to suppress.
"Hah…"
"This smell… that's the scent of blood…"
"And there's another one… violent, savage, chaotic… it's a demon."
They were family. Their innate talents were roughly the same.
Tanjirō's sense of smell was strong enough to pick up people's emotions. Asaki wasn't nearly as good—but even before, his sense of smell had far surpassed the average person's.
Now that his body's functions were fully enhanced by becoming a demon, his already-keen nose became sharper still.
It still didn't match Tanjirō's current ability, but it was already approaching how good Tanjirō's nose had been as a child.
"Demon…"
Asaki clenched his fist. His sharp nails dug deep into his flesh. But he didn't even flinch at the pain.
Before that man appeared, his head had already been crushed by that black-haired demon.
At the time, gravely wounded, Asaki had never seen Kibutsuji's face clearly—he had only vaguely sensed the presence of that man.
"That guy turned me into a demon. But I can feel it—I don't have the ability to turn others."
"Does that mean only he can create demons? Or maybe there's a specific group of demons that can?"
"Either way… demons who can create more demons must be extremely rare."
"Then I'll start from there."
His guess was nearly spot-on. Only Kibutsuji Muzan had the ability to create demons.
"Wait for me. One day, I will find you."
At that moment, Asaki made a decision. He was going to track the nearby demon.
It wasn't just the smell of blood that drew him. More than that, he needed to find a trail—any trail—that would lead him to Kibutsuji.
In Asaki's mind, there had to be a link between Kibutsuji and the other demons.
As long as he kept following traces of demons, he believed he'd eventually learn something about Kibutsuji.
The blood of demons carried fragments of inherited knowledge.
That's also how Asaki understood that he couldn't create other demons.
And that inherited memory told him the very nature of demons.
It was an endless greed for human flesh.
An insatiable thirst for slaughter.
No matter how kind or harmless a person had been while human, the moment they became a demon, every shred of their goodness would be twisted.
Brutality and violence were a demon's true nature.
But Asaki… was different from other demons. He felt he was… somehow special.
Yes, he still craved blood and flesh. But his human reason and memories hadn't faded.
To some degree, he could resist his instincts.
(End of Chapter)
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Sunday is the ranking reset. If you've been enjoying the story,
Consider throwing your power stones before then.
The more we hit, the more exposure this gets, and I'll try doubling down on updates soon.