CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 104: HUMAN AND DEMON

"Hey, you Breath of the Moon amateur! Your swordsmanship is utterly hideous!"

After shouting, Sosuke turned and fled.

The Demon tilted her head back, gazing skyward. Using some unknown method to pinpoint Sosuke’s location, she suddenly charged forward.

Her passage tore through the ground like a plow, sending clods of earth and debris tumbling toward Sosuke in a violent surge.

Just as the pair vanished, a trembling figure emerged from behind the house.

At first glance, he appeared to be a child of fourteen or fifteen.

Were it not for the third eye on his forehead, glowing with a crimson light, it would have been difficult to believe he was a Demon.

His face was etched with fear as he watched the departing figures. After a long moment, he turned back to gaze at the house.

After a moment of silence, he pulled out a rope and peered through the window, his hand trembling as he raised the rope.

"I have to seize this opportunity to feed!" he muttered to himself. But in that instant, he saw the figure inside the window, huddled under a blanket and shivering, suddenly lift a corner of the blanket.

Their eyes met, and both let out simultaneous screams of terror.

The figure inside yanked the blanket back over their head, curling into a tight ball that shook with the intensity of an egg beater.

The demon outside bolted away as if he had witnessed some unspeakable horror.

As he fled, the third eye on his forehead began to emit a hazy, crimson glow.

Inside the house, Zenitsu instantly stopped trembling, his vision returning to its usual gray haze.

The demon, meanwhile, had scrambled behind a large tree and collapsed onto the ground, shaking uncontrollably.

"So terrifying, yet so delicious... I want to eat them... but they’ll bite me, won’t they?"

He shakily picked up the rope, his mouth watering uncontrollably. Instead of using it to strangle the person inside the house, he impulsively looped it around his own neck.

After wrapping it twice, his eyes bulged violently outward before he finally regained his composure.

Using this moment of clarity, he stood up again. "Eat... eat... They’re trapped by the barrier, no longer a threat. As long as I don’t show any real intent to attack, and as long as they lack the will to fight, they won’t break through the barrier’s illusion and return to reality. If I want to feed, this is my only chance. While they’re helpless, I’ll hang them from the ceiling with this rope!"

"This is... a rare opportunity!"

He turned and staggered toward the house, muttering to himself as he walked. "The adults have their prey, so I’ll just eat these ordinary ones. I used to only get the scraps they left behind—it was so painful... Dying was painful, and living was just as painful. To escape the pain, they should become part of me."

As he spoke, he had already returned outside the house.

Three eyes, all glowing crimson.

Looking in from outside, the room was eerily silent.

Finally, he silently pushed open the window.

The sound of the window opening didn’t cause a ripple. He struggled to climb through the opening, but still landed with a clumsy thud.

Picking himself up, he retrieved the rope from around his neck and pulled back the covers.

The boy beneath the covers was clutching his head, desperately trying to appear asleep, but his entire body trembled uncontrollably.

The tremors had spread from his body to the tips of his hair, yet he still stubbornly pretended to be sound asleep... truly, no one could match his tenacity.

The demon glanced at the rope in his hand, then at the boy on the bed, before silently slipping the rope around the boy’s neck.

The boy clamped his head down, refusing to lift it.

His tightly closed eyes had narrowed into slits, allowing him to see everything happening before him.

He knew that once the rope settled around his neck, he would be utterly doomed.

Frustrated by Zenitsu’s lack of cooperation, the demon tossed the rope aside and began forcefully tugging at Zenitsu’s head.

Zenitsu instinctively resisted, pushing upward with all his might while the demon pressed down with equal force.

Neither side yielded.

In the end, human ingenuity prevailed. Zenitsu knew that continuing this struggle would only lead to a disastrous outcome.

He decided to yield to the demon’s force, throwing himself forward with a violent lunge.

His forehead collided squarely with the demon’s nose.

Zenitsu let out a pained cry, his eyes snapping open. With a primal roar, he bolted upright from the bed, reaching the window in two swift strides. Just as he was about to escape, he suddenly remembered Jigoro and Kaigaku.

’If I leave, what if this demon hangs them and eats them?’

Despite his legs trembling like sieves, Zenitsu forced himself to stay put, slowly turning around.

The demon, knocked to the ground by the collision, struggled to its feet. It stared at Zenitsu, who was trembling violently. As a demon, it too was shaking uncontrollably.

’I’ve never seen anything like this before!’

Since becoming a demon, it had awakened its Blood Demon Art, using it to devour humans. Its victims typically died without even realizing what was happening.

’After being discovered by Lord Lower One, I remained by his side, using my Blood Demon Art to help him capture and devour humans. I rarely found myself in situations like this.’

Now, the trembling human and demon stared at each other, each deeply wary of the other.

Finally, realizing it was a demon and the other was merely its prey, the demon steeled its resolve. It wrapped the rope around its neck several times, tightening it until its veins bulged, its eyes bulged, and its tongue lolled out.

Seeing this, Zenitsu burst into tears.

"Don’t eat me! I don’t want to die yet!"

His voice boomed like a thunderclap, shaking the surrounding area!

The demon collapsed to the ground with a thud, utterly terrified.

What kind of person is this? How can he make such a loud noise? My ears are ringing!

Zenitsu wailed, "Why? Why is this happening? Why do demons suddenly appear out of nowhere? Why did I have to wake up needing to pee? And how did I end up in this hazy, gray space? Now I wake up to find a demon staring at me! What kind of nightmare is this?! I’d rather be back in that gray space! Why did I suddenly get pulled out? Even if I have to die, please spare me this much pain and terror!"

Hearing this, the demon suddenly realized: So, he’s afraid of me too!

The adults had always told him he was useless and worthless, that if humans saw him, they would capture him and drag him out into the sunlight.

He never imagined humans could be such fragile creatures.

His expression twisted into a snarl. "Shut up!"

Whether it was newfound courage or something else, his voice, though not loud, seemed to carry an echo as he spoke.