In an abandoned warehouse on the west side of town.
A demon with two pointed horns on her head and four full, large eyes was holding a two-month-old infant, murmuring incessantly:
"My child, you're eating from Mommy now. Once you're full, Mommy will eat you tonight. How does that sound?"
As she spoke, saliva dripped from the corners of her mouth.
"Hold back, I must hold back. You eat, I eat you. That's fair, that's fair..."
However, the baby in her arms started crying loudly as it ate.
It was sucking but getting nothing, like sucking on a bottle without formula. Its stomach was still empty, so it naturally cried.
The demon paid no attention, just kept repeating the same words.
"Hey, Auntie, is the child in your arms not yours?"
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out in the warehouse, interrupting the demon's frantic murmuring.
She looked in the direction of the voice with some confusion. It was a boy wearing a strange robe.
"You called me Auntie?"
Although she wasn't sure when the boy had appeared in the warehouse, she was clearly angered by his address.
"If you're not an Auntie, are you an Uncle? But your butt is clearly on your chest, and you have two butts."
Goku was stunned. Had he misjudged again?
After a year at Hogwarts, interacting with so many wizards, he thought he could now distinguish genders without resorting to physical contact.
He didn't expect to make a mistake again.
Sigh, distinguishing genders is truly too difficult!
"You pervert brat!"
The demon's face was as cold as ice.
"Uncle, are you a demon? Are the missing children from this town related to you?"
To avoid finding the wrong person, he asked more carefully.
The strength of one's aura doesn't fully determine their power. For example, when he first met Grandpa Dumbledore, he didn't feel Grandpa Dumbledore's aura was particularly strong.
But he couldn't beat Grandpa Dumbledore at that time either.
However, those with powerful internal auras are generally not too weak.
The aura of the person in front of him far exceeded that of ordinary people, and it also felt very evil to him. Most likely, she was a demon of this world.
"Little one, your eyes are good. I am a demon. Those missing children have long since entered my stomach and become one with me.
Soon, you will be just like them.
Although your body is a bit old, it can barely serve as a snack before the main course, just to tide me over."
The demon licked her lips and did not deny it, because she felt there was no need to deny it.
"If that's the case, then I must kill you."
Goku assumed the Turtle School's starting stance towards the demon.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't actively kill people, because Grandpa and Master Roshi had both taught him that they were martial artists, not assassins.
But for the demon in front of him who stole and ate other people's children, he already had murderous intent in his heart.
"Hahahahaha, you, with your strength, want to kill me?"
A cruel smile appeared on the demon's face:
"Since you're so brave, I'll eat you alive later, starting from your feet, then slowly moving up to your head."
If the boy in front of her had a nichirin blade, she might have been more careful.
Because the boy might be a Demon Slayer Corps hunter.
If a hunter's nichirin blade cut off her neck, she would die.
And some hunters, though young, were not weak in strength.
But the person opposite didn't even have a nichirin blade, so what did she have to fear?
She leaped onto the warehouse roof, used the roof for leverage, and landed behind Goku. Her left hand held the infant, and her right hand grabbed for Goku's nape.
"What's going on?"
Her right hand passed directly through Goku's nape, grabbing nothing but air.
"Ah!"
Immediately after, she let out a scream and rapidly retreated backward.
When she stood firm again, she found that her entire left arm was gone.
Goku threw away the demon's arm and carefully held the infant.
The demon had attacked the afterimage he created with the Afterimage Fist. His true body had already moved behind the woman.
Because he was worried about the infant getting hurt, he first disarmed the demon's left hand, which was holding the infant, and rescued the infant.
"Damn it, give it back to me!"
Seeing the delicious meal in her hand gone, the woman's face immediately showed an enraged expression, and she attacked Goku again.
"Huh, she recovers so quickly?"
Goku didn't care about the woman's attack at all.
Because in his opinion, the demon's speed and strength were only comparable to Yamcha's, specifically Yamcha when he first met him in the desert.
What truly surprised him was the demon's recovery ability.
Her left arm, which he had torn off, had grown back in less than ten seconds.
This reminded him of Mita's description of demons on the way.
Besides possessing terrifying strength and speed beyond ordinary humans, demons also had incredible regenerative abilities.
Even if their bodies were torn into pieces, even if only a head remained, they wouldn't die and could slowly recover.
There were generally two ways to kill a demon:
One was to use the Demon Slayer Corps' special nichirin blade to cut off the demon's neck. Only when a nichirin blade cut off a demon's neck would the demon die.
If other weapons were used to cut off the neck, the demon could still recover.
The other, more powerful method, was to expose the demon to the Sun, but this was very difficult to achieve.
Because demons would hide during the day, making them difficult to find.
"Smack!"
Goku dodged the demon's claw attack with a sidestep, then raised his hand and slapped downward. The demon was swatted to the ground like a fly, an unknown number of bones broken in her body.
"You're too weak."
"Are you from the Demon Slayer Corps?"
The demon retreated urgently in a spider-like crawl, her face full of surprise as she looked at Goku.
If the first time was due to her carelessness, then this time she had attacked with full power, yet she was severely injured by a single slap.
If she weren't a demon and didn't have a demon's regenerative ability, she would now be paralyzed on the ground, unable to move.
One must know that her strength among demons was not weak.
Even if she was far from the Twelve Demon Moons, she could still be considered one of the top demons.
But the speed and strength the boy had just displayed far exceeded hers, something a normal human could definitely not achieve.
Unless it was one of those demon hunters from the Demon Slayer Corps who used breathing techniques.
However, she did not see a nichirin blade in the boy's hand, and it was a good thing he didn't have one.
If he had a nichirin blade, and that slap had been a cut to her neck with it, she would already be dead.
"I'm not from the Demon Slayer Corps. My name is Goku, and I'm here to kill you."
The demon's strength was too weak; he no longer had any desire to fight and intended to finish her off with the next move.
"Kid, you're too arrogant!"
The demon was instantly enraged.
Although her speed and strength were inferior to this human, this human had no nichirin blade and therefore couldn't kill her at all.
And she still had a trump card:
"Blood Demon Art: Mist Shadow Assault!"
The demon opened her mouth and quickly exhaled a large cloud of smoke, completely enveloping the entire warehouse.
This smoke could not only deprive enemies of their sight but also greatly enhance her speed and strength.
It allowed her to approach enemies silently and complete assassinations.
"Die!"
The demon stealthily appeared behind Goku, her fingernails extending and becoming harder than metal, quickly plunging towards Goku's heart.
However, just as her hand was about to touch Goku's body, Goku vanished before her.
Then she heard Goku's voice from behind her:
"Your speed has increased a bit, but you're still very weak."
In Goku's opinion, the demon's current speed was indeed much faster than before, but it was only comparable to Yamcha in his first World Martial Arts Tournament.
As for the smoke blocking his vision, it had no effect whatsoever.
Not to mention he could locate the demon by sensing her ki.
Even without sensing ki, relying on his powerful hearing and smell, he could easily pinpoint the demon's location in the smoke.
"How could you possibly find me!"
The demon turned her head to look at the boy behind her, feeling a great sense of unease.
She prepared to flee quickly, but Goku had already extended a hand, pointing it at the demon.
"Kikoho!"
A powerful Kikoho instantly blasted towards the demon. After the Kikoho passed, the demon had completely vanished from the warehouse.
"It seems that as long as the body is completely destroyed, it cannot recover."
The Kikoho was a simplified version of the Kamehameha he created during his year of training.
The full Kamehameha required gathering ki with both hands, while the simplified version could be performed with just one hand.
However, its power was much weaker than the full version.
"First, I'll return this child to his mother."
Holding the crying baby, Goku walked out through the hole he had blasted in the warehouse with the Kikoho.
He didn't use Apparition to return directly with the baby but chose to walk.
Because the process of Apparition was like being squeezed in a rubber tube, which wasn't very comfortable.
The baby's body was too weak, and he was worried Apparition might harm the infant.
"Goku!"
Just then, Mita's figure rapidly ran from a distance.
It turned out that after Goku disappeared, Mita immediately jumped onto a nearby rooftop and began searching everywhere.
He had just heard movement to the west and rushed over to investigate, coincidentally seeing Goku emerge from the warehouse holding the baby.
"This child is...?"
"The baby that old lady on the street lost just now."
Goku explained:
"I found that demon, then killed it and rescued this baby. He hasn't been eaten by the demon yet."
"You found and killed that demon!"
Mita's eyes widened instantly.
Goku didn't even have a nichirin blade, how could he kill a demon?
However, when he saw the large hole in the warehouse wall, he gradually began to understand.
Goku didn't have a nichirin blade, so he used the power of the Sun to kill the demon.
This made sense. Goku possessed superhuman strength from birth; he could lift a four to five hundred jin stone with one hand.
If the child-eating demon was of average strength, it was indeed possible for Goku to push it out of the warehouse with a sneak attack.
But to make such a large hole in the wall, it seemed Goku's strength was even greater than he had previously estimated.
"How did you find and kill it? And how did you suddenly disappear just now?"
Mita took the baby from Goku's hands, and they walked together towards the center of the town.
Goku didn't hide anything about this either:
"I sensed its location, then I teleported over..."
"It was a demon that could use Blood Demon Art!"
After hearing this, sweat immediately broke out on Mita's face.
Demons capable of Blood Demon Art were already considered elites among demons. In a one-on-one fight, he might not necessarily be an opponent for such a demon.
If he hadn't brought Goku along but had carried out the mission alone, then tonight, he would most likely have gone and never returned.
At the same time, the look in his eyes towards Goku became even more fervent.
Not only did this child have a special physique, but his sensory abilities were also very strong; he could even sense the demon's location.
Crucially, he had even mastered teleportation, which only demons could master.
Powerful demons all had their own Blood Demon Art, and he had heard of Blood Demon Art of the teleportation type.
However, Blood Demon Art could only be used by demons; he had never seen a human use it, not even the nine most powerful Pillars.
He felt that if Goku could be brought back to headquarters and trained properly, he might become the strongest Pillar in history.
After returning the baby to the mother, and amidst her tearful gratitude, Mita took Goku and left the town.
However, they hadn't gone far when a pitch-black crow landed on his shoulder.
"Northeast direction, northeast direction, Mount Natagumo, Mount Natagumo, urgent mission, urgent mission..."
"Urgent mission, Goku. It seems we can't return to headquarters for now. We need to go to Mount Natagumo first."
Mita's face showed a solemn expression.
Normally, Demon Slayer Corps members would have a period of rest after completing a mission before being assigned the next one.
After all, every battle with a demon was a fight to the death, and even if they won, the exhaustion was considerable.
At least for members of their rank, this was the case.
But now, he had just completed this mission, and the communication crow immediately told him to undertake the next mission, an urgent one at that.
It was clear that something significant must have happened at Mount Natagumo, which was why surrounding members needed to be urgently gathered to help.
"Then let's go to Mount Natagumo first."
Goku nodded.
After learning about demons from Mita, he was no longer in a hurry to go to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
The strongest demon slayers in the Demon Slayer Corps were the Pillars, but even as Pillars, many had died at the hands of powerful demons.
This indicated that there were also very formidable experts among the demons.
If he went on a mission with Mita and encountered a powerful demon, it would also be a good training experience.
"Let's eat first. We'll have the strength to fight after we eat!"
Although the urgent mission was urgent, eating was also very important. If they fought on an empty stomach and couldn't perform at their best, going to Mount Natagumo would be suicide.
So Mita took Goku to the nearest restaurant for a meal before officially setting off for Mount Natagumo.
Of course, during lunch, he gained new insight into Goku's appetite.
It turned out that forty bowls of ramen were not Goku's limit.
As night fell, two figures, one large and one small, appeared at the foot of Mount Natagumo.
The large one was Mita, and the small one was Goku.
"I have a bad feeling!"
Mita looked at the dark forest ahead, a sudden fear of death welling up in his heart.
His intuition told him that powerful demons might be hidden in this mountain.
"I smell a strong presence."
Goku's feeling was the opposite of Mita's; he vaguely felt that there seemed to be an expert in this mountain who could pique his interest somewhat.