Chapter 24: Zero: Thanks for the hospitality!

Rengoku Shinjuro knelt on the cushion, looking at the small tombstone in front of him, with the name 【Rengoku Ruka】 written on it, clearly the name of his late wife.

A few days ago, he drank with Zero and revealed a lot of things to Zero.

He thought Zero would persuade and comfort him like others, but that was not the case.

He just told himself that he couldn't do the thing of "don't persuade others to be kind without experiencing their suffering," and he wouldn't do it.

And Zero also told Rengoku Shinjuro why he became like this.

That was because he loved his wife very much, loved her to the bone, and couldn't forget her.

So there was no right or wrong in this matter...

On the second day after returning, Rengoku Shinjuro had already sobered up and had been guarding in front of Rengoku Ruka's small tombstone for the past few days.

He wanted to say something but didn't know what to say. He picked up the white wine Zero gave him and wanted to drink a sip, but stopped again.

Thinking about it, he finally covered the bottle cap and didn't drink it.

"Father, lunch is ready, I put it on the table for you!"

Rengoku Senjuro came to his mother's room after preparing lunch to call Rengoku Shinjuro to eat lunch.

During these days, he saw his father always guarding in front of his mother's small tombstone, except for eating, he was always inseparable, even if he bought wine for him, he rarely drank it.

These changes Rengoku Senjuro had always seen in his eyes, but he didn't step forward to ask. He guessed that maybe it was because Zero said something to his father that he became like this.

Seeing his father still sitting there unmoved, he closed the door and left the room.

Arriving at the backyard, he picked up the wooden sword on the side and began to continue practicing swinging the sword.

"If only I could become as powerful as older brother or Zero-dage..."

But Rengoku Senjuro didn't know that not far away, Rengoku Shinjuro was holding wine and watching him, and what he said was also heard by him.

Rengoku Shinjuro looked at Senjuro swinging his sword in the backyard, and a bitterness surged in his heart.

Over the years, since his wife died, he had resigned, drowned his sorrows in wine every day, ignored his two children, and Kyojuro and Senjuro had always been taking care of this family.

【Rengoku-san, you love your wife so much, I believe your wife must be accompanying you in a place you can't see.】

The sound of this sentence echoed in Rengoku Shinjuro's mind.

"Ruka, maybe he's right... I didn't expect that I couldn't compare to a young man like Zero, I'm really old..."

But that's not the case! If he knew that Zero was a human who had lived for more than two thousand years, he wouldn't have such thoughts.

But even if Zero said it, they probably wouldn't believe it.

In this world, besides evil demons who could live so long, they had never seen any human who could live longer than the Demon King Kibutsuji Muzan?

If that were really the case, wouldn't Kibutsuji Muzan become his grandson or great-grandson?

Finally, he took another look at Rengoku Senjuro and returned to the room to eat the lunch Rengoku Senjuro prepared for him.

…………

Time passed quickly like an hourglass. On a night half a month later, there was thunder and lightning in the sky, and a heavy rain fell.

Bang!

On this stormy night, Zero was jumping back and forth in the trees with a scythe in one hand, shuttling through the forest.

Under the light of thunder and lightning, his figure appeared and disappeared, like a god of death in the dark night, seemingly ready to claim his life at any time.

And in front of him was an evil demon, with sharp teeth and claws, and a slightly twisted small horn on his forehead, and the evil demon's strength had reached just below the Lower Rank.

At this time, this evil demon was running away desperately, not daring to have any slack.

While running, he looked back at the person behind him from time to time, and found that the demon hunter was still chasing him, his heart suddenly panicked, and he had to speed up his escape.

Pat!

Zero jumped and landed in front of the evil demon. The evil demon had to stop his steps, looking at the demon hunter in front of him with full fear, his body trembling uncontrollably!

The rain dripped from the hood of Zero's cloak, and the cold light from the scythe blade shone on the evil demon's face.

"Damn! I'll fight you!!"

Blood Demon Art—Entanglement!

I saw the evil demon's hands on the ground, and suddenly several vines appeared on the ground around Zero's body, breaking through the ground and hitting his body directly.

Zero stood on the spot and quickly rotated the scythe in his hand for a few turns, cutting off all the vines that approached.

Seeing that his Blood Demon Art was useless to him, the evil demon's heart fell into the abyss.

He originally thought that the things he heard from his own kind were just rumors, and he sneered at them, not taking them seriously at all.

He felt that they were too weak, so they were caught and then wiped out.

And now that it was his turn, he had to believe this.

He originally hid in an extremely secret cave, eating a human body he had just caught to fill his stomach, but he didn't know how this demon hunter found him.

Those scarlet eyes made him unable to look directly, and the idea of running away arose...

Zero approached the evil demon slowly with the scythe in one hand, and the evil demon also retreated backward.

The next second, Zero's figure flashed, and I saw a blade light flash, and the evil demon was already separated from his body.

Looking at the world upside down and the dissipating body, the evil demon couldn't believe it was true.

"This demon hunter is really a Hashira..."

Zero shook the scythe, the rain hit it, looked back at the dissipating evil demon, and there was no emotion in his eyes.

For the past half month, he had been walking in a straight line, wiping out nearly twenty evil demons, and some of them had strength that was about to reach the Lower Rank level.

Looking at the evil demon who had turned into ashes, he continued to move forward without looking back...

The next day.

The weather had cleared up, and the area where Zero was located had gained a short period of peace.

Now he was resting in a Wisteria Family house. Last night he was chasing the evil demon, and because of the thunderstorm, his clothes were all wet.

So after completing the mission, he came to the nearby Wisteria Family to rest, and by the way, organized his equipment and washed and dried his clothes.

Zero was wearing the clothes prepared for him by the Wisteria Family's servant, sitting at the door, writing down last night's events in his diary:

【X month X day, dawn, weather: God is coughing + severe diarrhea.】

【Early this morning, I met four evil demons again, but the other three were already dead, and the last evil demon fainted because he hit a tree while running away! This is fine, but before fainting, he actually shouted "Demon" or something, this is too shameful! Isn't he a demon himself...】

After a while, he put the diary back into the 【Nano Space】, and the voice of the Wisteria Family head came from behind him.

"Hashira-sama, your clothes have been washed, and you can wear them tonight!" An old woman with white hair came behind Zero and knelt on the side.

"Thank you for your hard work, thank you!"

"You're welcome, the meal is being prepared. If you need anything else, please tell me."

"Mm, thank you for your trouble."

After the old woman left, Zero didn't know what to do next, so he called the messenger crow Yuki who was organizing feathers on the side.

"Yuki, are there any other places where evil demon incidents are happening?"

"Master, the area you are in charge of is temporarily free of evil demons. Except for a few who ran away or hid, most of them have basically been cleared by you."

"None left?!"

Zero patted his forehead speechlessly, feeling that these evil demons didn't respect his current job at all.

Clearly being evil demons, they were so unprofessional! Not running away or hiding in other places, it was too shameful for Kibutsuji Muzan.

If Kibutsuji Muzan knew they were so "unprofessional," would he kill them himself?

Having nothing to do, he didn't plan to do anything next, so he prepared to go to other places to walk around and see if there was anything fun.

After coming to this world and joining the Demon Slayer Corps, he was either killing evil demons or on the way to kill evil demons, and hadn't given himself much time to relax.

Since there were no evil demons in his area for the time being, it was a good choice to give himself some time to relax.

"Yuki, where is a place that is relatively close to here and very lively?"

"Master, forty miles away to the southwest, there is a city, which is Asakusa, Tokyo. There are many fun places and it is also very lively."

"Really? In that case, let's go and see together tonight!"

"Yes, Master!"

Deciding on the itinerary for tonight, planning everything, he took out the scythe from the 【Nano Space】 and continued to swing it in the backyard.

Even during rest time, he couldn't stop training...

Night.

Zero put on his clothes, and the old woman of the Wisteria Family sent Zero to the door, taking out two flint stones from her arms.

She sparked with the flint stones in front of Zero, implying to drive away evil and pray for peace.

Afterward, he waved goodbye under the old woman's gaze.

Old woman: "I wish you success in your mission."

Leaving the Wisteria Family, following the messenger crow Yuki, Zero rode a motorcycle for several hours and arrived at Asakusa, Tokyo.

Before arriving at the destination, he put the motorcycle into the 【Nano Space】 and walked the rest of the way.

Looking at the scene in front of him, it was indeed as the messenger crow Yuki said, brightly lit and very lively.

People were coming and going on the street, every shop was decorated with lanterns, and under the shining streetlights, it looked so prosperous.

And some people were confessing to the girls they liked on the small street illuminated by streetlights.

Even when passing some quiet small alleys, he could hear some sounds coming from inside that made people think about it.

"It's really lively here! Let's relax tonight!"

Thinking of these, he started to walk around, looking at the clothes in the shop for a while, and buying some snacks at the snack shop as gifts for Xiao Yue.

Tossing and turning in Asakusa, he didn't know that several hours had passed, and he had bought many gifts and snacks for Xiao Yue and put them in the 【Nano Space】.

Preparing to find a hotel to rest for the night, passing by a relatively quiet small street, he met three drunks who were drunk.

He didn't pay attention and walked straight past, but the three drunks saw Zero's exquisite face, and under the influence of alcohol, their lust arose, revealing ill-intentioned eyes.

One of them looked at Zero's back with lust, revealing a lewd smile.

"This little girl looks really beautiful!"

"Yoshi, beautiful flower girl!"

"Let's follow her quietly! Hehehe!"

However, they didn't know that what they said was heard by Zero word for word, and he gradually started to have killing intent.

But there were still some passersby here, so it was not convenient to do it, so he pretended not to know anything and deliberately walked into the small alley.

The three drunks saw this and immediately followed, blocking behind Zero, and Zero was also in a dead end in front of him.

"Little sister, it's very dangerous here, do you want brother to protect you? Hehehe!"

"Why don't you go home with us, our home is very safe!"

"That's right, that's right, although it's a bit crowded, but the four of us... oh no, the four of us are still fine!"

The three people who thought they were winning, didn't know that they were already in big trouble!

I saw Zero turn around, revealing a charming smile, but behind this smile was killing intent!

However, Zero didn't really intend to kill the three of them, but gave them a little lesson.

The three drunks saw Zero's smile and thought she didn't intend to resist, so they rushed over...

Bang! Bang! Bang...

Duang! Duang! Duang...

Crack! Crack! Crack...

The three drunks were beaten up by Zero before they could make a sound, their noses bruised and faces swollen.

One had his chin broken, all his teeth were knocked out, and he spat out a large mouthful of blood.

One had his limbs broken, his eyes were beaten into panda eyes, and full of blood clots bulged out.

The last one had his chest broken, his chin and limbs dislocated, and several red big bags bulged on his head!

But none of them died, and they still had half a life left.

Zero looked at the three drunks who were beaten down by his slightly used "a little bit" of strength with his scarlet eyes, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, stuck out his tongue and licked his lips, saying: "Thanks for the hospitality! Slurp~"

Finally, he raised his leg and stepped hard on the third leg of the three of them. Looking at their appearance, they must have done many similar things just now, which was a small lesson for them!

"Ah ah ah!!!"

"Ah ah ah!!"

"Oh? ~"

Zero: "!!!"

When he stepped on the third leg of the third drunk, the sound he made felt strange!

"Could this guy be a masochist?! Eww!" Recalling the sound just now, he got goosebumps all over.

He didn't continue to pay attention to the three of them, walked out of the alley, came to the trash can not far away, took out a tissue from the 【Nano Space】 to wipe the blood on his hands, and then threw it into the trash can.

Finally, he left here directly, as if what happened just now didn't happen.

As for those three people, if they were found, they were lucky.

If they weren't found, let them fend for themselves.

Every cause has an effect, they did something, so the consequences must be borne by the three of them!

Walking and walking, he came to a quiet street, but Zero felt that something was wrong around here, but he couldn't say what was wrong.

"Strange? Why do I feel like there's something strange here? Clearly this street looks normal, but I can't say where it's normal?"

Although he said so, Zero still checked around, kept walking around here, wanting to find that feeling of being normal but not right.

When he came to a small alley, he found that there was a dead end in front, and there was no way to go.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly saw a corner that was not normal.

He slowly leaned forward to check and found that a small plant root was extending from that corner. If you didn't look carefully, you couldn't find it.

Generally speaking, it's not strange for plant roots to grow in the corner of the wall, but the plant root Zero saw was a bit different.

It didn't grow from the corner of the wall, but rather grew from inside the wall, and there was no sign of other roots on the wall, nor any cracks.

The more he looked, the more wrong it felt. He reached out and touched the wall, only to find that his hand went straight through!

"!!!"

Zero finally understood what the strange feeling in his heart was. It turned out that this wall was not a real wall at all, but an illusion!

If you don't look carefully or touch it, you can't find it at all.

"Could this be... an evil demon's Blood Demon Art!?"

He didn't think too much, took out the scythe directly from the 【Nano Space】, passed through this "wall," and came behind the "wall" to find out.

"If it's really an evil demon, then don't blame me for being impolite!"

When Zero passed through the "wall" and came inside, he found that this was a luxurious villa backyard. Not far in front of him stood two people, or rather, two demons! A man and a woman.

The female demon was a beautiful woman with long black hair, parted in the middle, combed into a large, low bun, fixed by a flower hairpin.

Her eyes were gentle, like pale pink mist, and her lips were red, forming a sharp contrast with her pale face.

She was wearing a dark purple kimono decorated with wavy light purple branches and red flowers, and a beige wide belt around her waist.

The male demon was wearing a white shirt and a white jacket, wearing a pair of dark blue loose pants, with green medium-short hair.

He stood behind the female demon, staring at Zero with fierce eyes.

Zero didn't rush to do it, but he didn't relax his vigilance, but took this opportunity to activate the 【Analysis Glasses】 to analyze the data of the two demons in front of him.

... ===== CHAPTER 25 =====