Chapter 8: Arriving at Mount Sagiri, the Demon in the Cabin!
After gathering all the information, Nanaha had originally wanted to ask for the exact location of the Eternal Paradise Faith.
But in the end, that demon could not hold on. Under the damage inflicted by the blood blade, it finally turned into a wisp of black smoke.
As for the demon's death,
neither Nanaha nor Kanae felt any sympathy. They only found it a little regrettable.
Still, the Eternal Paradise Faith was a large religion. If they wanted to find out where it was located, it probably would not be too difficult.
The people who had been drugged gradually shivered awake deep into the night.
When they heard Nanaha explain that the one who had deceived them was a demon, all of the villagers' expressions changed dramatically.
"Thank you, thank you for saving us, benefactor!"
The village chief of Luyu Village was about to kneel before Nanaha, but Nanaha stopped him.
"Alright. The most important thing right now is for everyone to go back home and get some rest."
The villagers all thanked Nanaha one after another.
Just as Kanae had said, these old people were all very kind and gentle.
The reason they had been deceived by that boy was simply because they had been fooled by his promise of immortality.
Immortality by becoming a demon?
That was worse than having none at all.
Nanaha followed the old village chief home and rested there for the time being.
But no one had expected that a sneaky figure would arrive beside the square.
He searched carefully, and soon a delighted smile appeared on his face.
"It's still here, just as I thought!"
Trembling, the man picked something up from the snow.
It was a small jar, the very jar the boy had been carrying, the one that had contained demon blood.
After picking it up, the man quickly left.
Once he got home, he lit a lamp, then raised the jar and examined it with his right eye through the light.
"There's still some left…"
The next morning, Nanaha woke up on time. Since he still had to continue on his journey, he did not alert the villagers and left quickly.
He did not want to end up being surrounded and thanked again.
Not long after Nanaha left, a figure suddenly flashed past the entrance of the village.
Nanaha subconsciously turned to look back at Luyu Village.
"What is it?"
Nanaha shook his head.
"Nothing. I need to hurry on my way."
After leaving Luyu Village, Nanaha's pace clearly slowed quite a bit.
The reason was the heavy snowfall over the past few days.
But even in this kind of environment, Kanae still set up all sorts of training and tests for him.
It exhausted Nanaha terribly. Several times, he even completely ran out of strength and rolled straight down snowy slopes.
Kanae, meanwhile, grew more and more curious about him. This boy whom she was inhabiting mastered breathing techniques at an astonishing speed, and his comprehension of techniques was at the level of a genius.
The most outrageous part was his blood. Every time Nanaha was utterly exhausted, his blood would seem to boil and burn along with his breathing, rapidly restoring his stamina.
"The fact that my soul can dwell here is probably no coincidence," Kanae could not help thinking. "If it were a normal person with two souls in one body, they might have gone mad before long. And yet he has been able to accept me…"
"The future may be changed because of him…"
She suppressed those thoughts and continued observing Nanaha.
At last, after a full seventeen days, Nanaha finally arrived near Mount Sagiri.
The snow and ice had gradually begun to melt. Nanaha found a clear stream and could not wait to take a huge gulp of water.
There had been very few clean water sources along the way, and sometimes he had only been able to moisten his throat with snow and ice.
"I'm alive again!"
Nanaha panted heavily and sprawled on the ground.
"You've worked hard, Nanaha-kun," Kanae's gentle voice sounded.
Nanaha could not help complaining,
"I seriously felt like I was about to die. Is Hashira training always this brutal?"
Kanae covered her mouth and laughed.
"My, my, I think Nanaha-kun has actually had it pretty easy. Some of the children I guided in the past would sometimes start with three days of unconsciousness."
"That's way too exaggerated. How could that possibly be…"
"It's true~"
"…?!"
A chill rose in Nanaha's heart, and he hurriedly changed the subject.
"We're finally almost at Mount Sagiri. I can get some proper rest."
"Hehe, Nanaha-kun, Mr. Urokodaki is an even stricter cultivator."
Why did he suddenly feel a kind of despair stretching endlessly before his eyes?
Ah, as expected, maybe he really should not join the Demon Slayer Corps…
For a moment, Nanaha felt as if Zenitsu's soul had possessed him.
—
After becoming a cultivator, Urokodaki Sakonji had secluded himself in Mount Sagiri, and very few people were able to find his whereabouts.
Unless they had an introducer or a letter of introduction. Back then, Tanjiro had also been sent here through the recommendation of the Water Hashira, Tomioka Giyu.
In the anime, Urokodaki Sakonji's house had seemed to be near the foot of the mountain.
So Nanaha planned to search around the surrounding area first.
After circling around for a while, Nanaha finally sensed signs of human habitation nearby.
"This is…"
Looking at the mess all over the ground, Nanaha almost thought some wild beast had come down from the mountain and attacked.
Broken pieces of dead wood were scattered everywhere, and the ground was covered in footprints.
"My, looks like this is the right place. There are sword training marks everywhere," Kanae said. "Mr. Urokodaki must have taken in a new disciple."
"If I follow the footprints, I should be able to find Mr. Urokodaki's house, right?" Nanaha said.
Sure enough, after passing through a winding path, he saw a small wooden cabin not far ahead.
"Found it. Though, would it be rude to visit just like this?"
"Don't worry. Mr. Urokodaki may seem rather serious on the outside, but in truth he is a very gentle and considerate person," Kanae reassured him. "Back then, Mr. Urokodaki also taught me and little Shinobu. He was the one who told us that we did not necessarily have to rigidly follow conventions. Later, with his guidance, I was also able to find the Flower Breathing that suited me better."
"I see." Nanaha nodded.
Nanaha and Kanae chatted as they moved closer.
But Nanaha's expression immediately turned serious.
After using the blood blade for a long time, he had discovered that his senses had grown sharper and sharper.
And right now, he could clearly sense it.
"There's a demon inside the cabin?!"
"That's right," Kanae replied.
"Could Mr. Urokodaki already have…"
Kanae answered with ease,
"Don't worry. The demon inside has a weak presence. Even if Mr. Urokodaki is retired, he is still the former Water Hashira. That demon cannot do anything to him."
After hearing Kanae's answer, Nanaha suddenly thought of something.
Wasn't Tanjiro's little sister, Nezuko, once under Master Urokodaki's care as well?
Could it be that he had arrived at exactly the point in time when Tanjiro was training under Urokodaki Sakonji?
That was way too much of a coincidence.
While lost in that thought, Nanaha had already reached the cabin. He raised his hand, just about to knock on the wooden door—
"Grrr—!!"
A low, hoarse roar suddenly came from inside!
Bang!!!
The wooden door was violently smashed open from the inside. Nanaha swiftly stepped back as the entire door panel whistled past his side and crashed onto the ground several meters away.
He slowly turned his head and looked inside.
A young girl wearing a pink kimono and a coarse old black haori was standing in the doorway.
She looked small and cute, but a green bamboo tube was clenched in her mouth, and her eyes were a beast-like crimson red.
At this moment, she was facing Nanaha, letting out a warning growl from the depths of her throat.
Kamado Nezuko!
Without any surprise, the girl before him was the very important character from the anime, one could even say one of the key figures driving the main story forward—
Kamado Nezuko.
But the Nezuko before him had clearly already entered a restless, demonized state!
Even with the bamboo blocking her mouth, Nanaha could still see clear saliva trickling down along the bamboo tube.
She really was a demon!
But what Kanae could not understand was why this demon was in Mr. Urokodaki's house.
And this demon's aura, which had clearly been very faint just a moment ago, was now abnormally powerful.
It was practically…
practically at the level of a Lower Rank—