Chapter 36

Leaving Tokyo's Asakusa, Zero returned to his own jurisdiction to continue his patrol.

Yet he found his area in a state of peace, with not a single demon in sight!

Even scanning the most hidden places with the 【Analysis Glasses】 failed to find any, which made Zero somewhat puzzled: "Strange? How come I can't see a single demon? Did they all run to other areas?"

After thinking it over and coming up with no conclusion, he simply gave up on thinking, prepared to patrol once more, and if there were still none, he would head straight back to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw a demon running wildly in the woods not far away, as if something were chasing him from behind.

"Finally, a demon!"

Seeing the demon, Zero felt as though he had met a long-lost good friend, and immediately charged forward wielding his scythe.

"Stop!" Zero appeared before the demon in the blink of an eye and shouted.

The demon also stopped in its tracks, and seeing the demon slayer before it, despair instantly filled its heart: "D-Death... Death God!"

Just as Zero raised his scythe to end the demon's life, another voice came from behind the demon: "Laozi, stop! This demon bug is my prey!!"

Seeing the person behind the demon, Zero knew why the demon was running! It turned out another Hashira wielding a Nichirin Blade was hunting this demon.

Zero: "Shinazugawa!?"

The newcomer was none other than the Wind Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps—Shinazugawa Sanemi!

Zero: "Why did you come to my jurisdiction to hunt demons?"

Shinazugawa Sanemi: "Tch, you guy, you killed all the demons in my area! I don't even know what to do next! This demon bug is Laozi's prey, only I can kill it!"

Zero: "But this is my jurisdiction. Since a demon has appeared in my area, I must be the one to resolve it personally!"

Shinazugawa Sanemi: "Isn't it enough that you killed all the demons in my area?! Isn't it enough that you killed all the demons in the areas governed by other Hashira too!?"

Zero: "Speak as if you haven't done the same!"

Shinazugawa Sanemi: "..."

In fact, ever since Zero wiped out all the demons in his own area and found it boring, he had gone to other Hashira's areas and cleared out every demon he saw there as well.

As a result, it stirred up Shinazugawa Sanemi's competitive spirit, so he imitated Zero's method and went to other Hashira's areas to exterminate demons too.

This left the remaining Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps speechless; every time they received notice of a demon injuring people and rushed to the scene, they found only the Mui... cleaning up the area.

If they were lucky, they might even see the demon's ashes fluttering in the wind...

Never before had anyone seen two people this competitive.

Zero was one thing, after all, this was his own method, and currently at least half of the Demon Slayer Corps' intelligence and combat strategies came from Zero, which also reduced the Corps' casualty rate to the minimum.

Furthermore, he was the examiner at Fujikasane Mountain; every examination at Fujikasane Mountain injected fresh blood into the Demon Slayer Corps.

But no one expected Shinazugawa Sanemi to be the same, which made the other Hashira feel if they were somewhat superfluous...

Shinazugawa Sanemi and Zero stared at each other across a distance, while the demon was stuck in the middle, at a loss, its legs trembling uncontrollably.

Bad luck to go out; meeting the Death God was one thing, but encountering another Demon Slayer Corps demon slayer was another; judging by the situation, the one chasing him might also be a Hashira...

After staring at each other for a moment, Zero spoke first: "In that case, how about we change the method?"

"Speak!"

"The two of us, no weapons, let's see who kills him first! How about that?"

Shinazugawa Sanemi thought for a moment and replied: "Fine! Even without a Nichirin Blade, Laozi can still kill this demon bug!"

Just like that, Shinazugawa Sanemi stuck his Nichirin Blade into the ground, holding only the scabbard; obviously, he intended to torture the demon with the scabbard.

And Zero stuck the handle of his Nichirin Scythe into the ground, took out a large gold brick from the 【Nano Space】, upon which the character "De" was carved...

This large gold brick was a gift from a wealthy man Zero had saved from a demon a few months ago; as for the character "De", it was the name of the merchant house where the wealthy man belonged.

Shinazugawa Sanemi: "...?!"

Looking at his own scabbard, then at Zero's large gold brick... Even killing demons is done with such extravagance!?

Demon: o_0

Zero holding the large gold brick, Shinazugawa Sanemi holding the scabbard, each slowly approached the demon from its left and right sides.

Seeing this, the demon's body trembled more and more violently, its legs turned to jelly, and it collapsed directly onto the ground in a sitting position; finally, unable to bear it any longer, it shouted directly: "Muzan my lord!!"

Pfft! Pfft!

Two huge alien arms grew from the demon's belly and mouth area; one grabbed its head, the other choked its body, and then with a "Boom" sound, they were crushed into pieces, turning to ash and dissipating into the air.

Zero/Shinazugawa Sanemi:........

It was too sudden; neither of them expected the demon's psychological defense line to be so fragile...

"Tch, Zero, Laozi won't lose to you!" Throwing down these words, Shinazugawa Sanemi directly pulled his Nichirin Blade from the ground, sheathed it, and prepared to go to other Hashira's areas to continue exterminating demons.

Leaving only a helpless Zero standing there.

"This demon really shames that guy Muzan Kibutsuji..." Zero thought.

Throwing the large gold brick directly into the 【Nano Space】, he picked up his scythe and continued his patrol.

In the blink of an eye, two more months passed.

On this day, Zero continued to patrol in a straight line as before, arriving at a place very far from his own jurisdiction.

He didn't know how he had walked here, but thinking that since he had already arrived, he might as well wander around casually; perhaps he would find some unexpected gains.

This was a small town rarely visited by people, with only some scattered households living around it, not many.

Walking a distance, he arrived at a site turned into ruins; a broken door lintel still hung a tattered small plaque, from which the three characters 【Sword Dojo】 could be vaguely made out.

Standing at the entrance, one could still smell a musty odor coming from inside, even mixed with an extremely faint fishy stench.

It looked like this place had once been a dojo dedicated to teaching swordsmanship, but something must have happened causing it to become like this.

Staying for a short while, he continued walking forward.

However, not long after walking, he encountered another ruin, except this place was even larger than the 【Sword Dojo】 site he had just met.

A plaque blocked the path at the dilapidated entrance; Zero blew a breath, blowing the dust off the plaque, upon which the two characters 【Karate】 were carved.

"It seems this place was once a dojo as well... What exactly happened? Why have both dojos ended up like this?"

Moreover, just now at the 【Sword Dojo】, I smelled a particularly faint stench of blood. It might have been diluted by time, but I could still catch a whiff of it.

"Soryu... hmm... let's try it."

【Search "Soryu"】

【Searching... Search successful】

【Soryu: A martial arts path of unarmed combat, divided into: Soryu Hand Style, Soryu Foot Style】

"Hmm..." Looking at the introduction on the 【Analysis Glasses】, Zero fell into deep thought. He felt something was missing, yet no matter how he pondered, he still couldn't figure out what it was.

"Never mind, let's stop thinking and keep walking..."

Walking further, he arrived at a dense forest path. On a relatively open clearing not far away, there were several small mounds rising from the ground.

"What is this?" Zero, curious, stepped forward to investigate, only to find three small graves.

Perhaps due to the passage of time and years of decay, the small graves were already in ruins, covered in moss, with weeds growing all around.

Zero approached the graves, brushed aside the surrounding weeds, and scraped off all the moss. The characters on the graves were revealed.

"Tomb of my beloved wife, Koyuki."

"Tomb of my master, Keizo."

"Tomb of my father, Nozo."

Squatting down and looking at the names on the graves, Zero felt it wasn't that simple. He also noticed a line of small text beneath each grave: "Erected by Komaji."

"Komaji... It seems there's a story here..."

Not only that, Zero also noticed a pattern carved at the very bottom of the "Tomb of Koyuki." Touching it with his finger, it felt like a twelve-pointed snowflake. He didn't know what it represented.

Just as Zero was pondering, a woodcutter who had finished chopping wood and was preparing to descend the mountain emerged from the forest.

Seeing a girl in a hooded cloak there, the woodcutter shouted, "Hey, little girl over there, what are you doing here? Leave this place immediately."

Zero turned to look at the woodcutter, then glanced around. He was the only one there. Was he being addressed?

Pointing a finger at himself, he asked the woodcutter, "Are you talking to me? I'm a man."

The woodcutter then realized he had mistaken him. However, with Zero's appearance, he did indeed look like a girl if one didn't look closely.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you were a girl. But it's very dangerous here at night, so leave while it's still light."

Zero wasn't angry; after all, the woodcutter had simply mistaken him, and his intention was merely to offer a kind warning.

However, from the woodcutter's words just now, Zero noticed something: he had said it was very dangerous here at night.

If there is danger, there must be a reason! For example: demons?

He made up his mind to see if he could get some information out of the woodcutter.

Approaching the woodcutter, he said, "Uncle, I am a traveler. Since I am new here and unfamiliar with the area, I accidentally wandered this way."

Seeing Zero's attire and noting that he indeed looked extraordinary, the woodcutter didn't suspect much: "I see. In that case, I'll take you down the mountain."

"Thank you for your trouble, Uncle."

Led by the woodcutter, Zero left the forest path. Passing the dilapidated 【Soryu】 dojo again, Zero feigned curiosity and asked, "Uncle, what is this dojo for? Why has it become like this?"

Speaking of this, the woodcutter sighed slightly and replied, "Actually, there is a legend about this dojo."

"What legend?"

"I've only heard this legend and remember only a little, not much. To tell this legend, we must go back a long time, roughly two hundred years ago. There were two dojos here: one is the one you see now, and the other is the Sword Dojo not far ahead..."

Then, the woodcutter began to recount the legend of this place.

Long ago, this place was quite prosperous. Among them, two dojos were the most famous: one was the Sword Dojo, which had many disciples.

The other was the Soryu Dojo, but it had very few visitors, with only the dojo master and his daughter living there.

One day, the master of the Soryu Dojo met a young boy with exceptional talent, so he took him as a disciple and taught him everything he knew.

However, the Sword Dojo, despite having the most disciples, had a smaller grounds than the Soryu Dojo. In contrast, the Soryu Dojo, with just the master, his family, and his disciple—three people in total—occupied a grounds several times larger than the Sword Dojo, which made the Sword Dojo envious.

Therefore, they would occasionally cause trouble for the Soryu Dojo.

But every time, the disciple taken in by the Soryu Dojo master defeated them all single-handedly...

Many years later, the young boy gradually grew into a robust youth. The Soryu Dojo master betrothed his daughter to his only disciple and hoped he would inherit the Soryu Dojo together with her...

After that, they confirmed their relationship and decided to marry.

One day, after the youth returned home from paying respects to his father, he discovered that his master and beloved were dead!

The cause of death was poisoning; someone had poisoned the well in their Soryu Dojo!

After the youth investigated, he learned the truth: the culprit who poisoned the well was the Soryu Dojo's rival—the Sword Dojo!

The reason was that the Sword Dojo had always coveted and envied the Soryu Dojo, which had only one disciple but possessed vast land. Since they couldn't defeat the Soryu Dojo master and his disciple, they shamelessly chose to poison the well of the Soryu Dojo...

After understanding the truth, the youth's will collapsed. In extreme rage, he went to the Sword Dojo and began a massacre!

The youth, unarmed, single-handedly killed all 67 people of the Sword Dojo, including its disciples, leaving only a maid alive.

However, that maid went mad after witnessing such a scene...

And after that, the youth's whereabouts became unknown...

"That is the legend. But now, probably not many people believe such things, as in their eyes, legends are just legends. Sigh..." the woodcutter sighed.

Despite his words, Zero still recorded everything, planning to analyze it carefully after returning to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.

"We've arrived. This is it. Just walk straight along this road, and you can leave here." The woodcutter brought Zero to the exit of the small town and pointed to the road ahead.

"Thank you, Uncle. You've been a bother."

"No bother at all. But you should be careful yourself at night."

"Okay, I will."

After waving goodbye to the woodcutter, Zero walked a distance, took out his motorcycle. Judging by this distance, it would probably take several days to return to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.

However, the information collected today was at least quite good. In a way, Zero felt that the youth in the legend the woodcutter spoke of might not have disappeared, but rather... became a demon!

As for the specifics, I'll have to wait until I'm back at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters to analyze them slowly on my own.

…………

(Edo period, early 1603 — early Taishō period, 1912, over two hundred years ago, probably somewhere between the mid-to-late Edo period. The exact timing, I'm not entirely sure.)