A cold night wind swept by, swirling up a few withered yellow leaves that danced in the empty street.
The entire Nara Prefecture Town now resembles a giant tomb.
Giyu Tomioka and Shinobu Kocho stood side by side on the roof of a three-story restaurant.
The cool moonlight shone down, casting long shadows of the two people.
Not a single dog bark could be heard in the city; every household had its doors and windows tightly shut, and all sorts of yellow talismans were pasted on their doors.
Giyu's perpetually expressionless face remained completely devoid of any emotion.
He stood there quietly, his deep blue eyes narrowing slightly.
[Transparent World] -- Open!
In the vision of those eyes, the once pitch-black town instantly transformed into a three-dimensional image.
The thickness of the surrounding bricks and tiles, and the direction of the street, all became transparent lines.
"There's one at 11 o'clock, 3 kilometers away."
"At four o'clock, 1,500 meters away, two people were crammed into an abandoned dye shop."
"Three slugs are hiding in the stinking ditch south of the city..."
His gaze swept across the city like radar, quickly locking onto his prey hidden in the darkness.
"There are fifteen lurking Demon Aura in the city."
"Fourteen of them are scattered in various corners, their auras weak; they can be dealt with with a single strike!"
"But..."
Giyu's gaze was fixed on the spire of the tallest pavilion in the city lord's mansion in the very center of the town.
"A restrained aura lingers there."
"Cellular activity, muscle density, and energy fluctuation frequency far exceed those of ordinary grunts."
"Preliminary assessment - Lower Rank level."
Giyu quickly came to a conclusion in his mind, and casually placed his right thumb on the hilt of his sword at his waist.
Just then,
"Oh, Mr. Giyu, it seems there are quite a few rats in this city~"
From the side came Shinobu Kocho's sweet, yet dangerously alluring voice.
Those beautiful purple eyes were also fixed precisely on the pavilion in the city lord's mansion.
"There's a huge thing hiding there that smells like a stinking ditch."
Shinobu Kocho's lips curled into a cunning smile as her delicate white hand gently rested on the hilt of her Nichirin Blade.
"Mr. Giyu, I'm leaving those scurrying little rats to you to clean up, so they don't run around and hurt civilians."
"As for that large creature, which is at the Lower Rank level..."
Shinobu Kocho tilted her head slightly, winked at Giyu, and her purple eyes flashed with undisguised competitiveness.
"Leave it to me to handle. It'll be a good opportunity to test my newly concocted Wisteria Poison and see how effective it is against prey of this caliber."
Hearing this, he volunteered.
Giyu Tomioka turned his head, his deep blue eyes quietly looking at Shinobu Kocho's delicate, doll-like face, which was full of confidence.
Shinobu Kocho's agility and speed are among the top tier of Pillar-level athletes.
Although lacking the strength to decapitate, the high concentration of the custom-made toxin was enough to deliver a fatal blow to a Lower Rank- level demon.
Let her fight the Lower Rank one-on-one; her chances of winning are over 90%...
So, Giyu nodded slightly and responded in a calm, even voice:
"Okay, you go to the main battlefield, I'll handle the smaller enemies."
"Hehe, then thank you very much, Mr. Giyu, for letting me have this big prey~"
Shinobu Kocho smiled contentedly and lightly tapped her toes on the roof tile.
With a "whoosh" sound!
She moved like a purple butterfly, tracing a graceful arc in the moonlight as she sped towards the city lord's mansion.
Watching Shinobu Kocho's figure disappear into the night.
Giyu did not act immediately.
"Clearing the fourteen small fish will take approximately three minutes."
"Although her win rate is high, anything can happen on the battlefield."
Giyu gripped the hilt of the sword with a slight pressure from his thumb.
We absolutely cannot let her get hurt in the slightest.
Then--
"Bang!"
Giyu transformed into a streak of deep blue lightning, hurtling towards the nearest group of small fry demons.
The city lord's mansion, on the highest spire of the tower.
The wind was much stronger here than down below, making the roof tiles creak and groan.
A shadow, almost blending into the night, clung to the rooftop like a lump of mud.
It was the Lower Rank demon that had been entrenched in the city.
In his previous life, he was an assassin who specialized in doing dirty work in the dark of night. After becoming a demon, his Blood Demon Art brought this dark attribute to its extreme.
"Hiss..."
A bloodthirsty red light flickered in the completely black whites of the Dark Demon's eyes, which had no pupils.
He was enjoying the terrifying feast that this desolate town offered.
Sudden!
"Clatter."
A sound like a leaf hitting the ground rang out behind him.
The Dark Demon suddenly turned around!
Under the cool moonlight...
A petite, purple-haired girl wearing a butterfly-feathered kimono stood gracefully on the rooftop ten meters away.
Shinobu Kocho stood with her hands behind her back, her fair face adorned with her signature sweet smile that could kill.
Good evening, you disgusting ghost!
Shinobu Kocho tilted her head slightly, her purple eyes crinkling into two crescent moons with a smile.
"Lying on the roof in the middle of the night, are you looking at the moon? But looking at your face, which looks like a lump of mud, even the moon would find it an eyesore~"
Hearing this greeting...
The Dark Demon slowly rose from the rooftop.
His body, which resembled a withered tree, was shrouded in layers of solidified black mist.
When he clearly saw the prey before him.
"Hehehe!"
"I thought the Demon Slayer Corps had sent some powerful figure, but it turns out she's just a little girl who hasn't even grown her first hair yet!"
Dark Demon's eyes revealed undisguised amazement, pity, and extreme disdain.
"How pitiful! Such a delicate little face, with such thin arms and legs, she probably couldn't even swing a samurai sword."
"Is the Demon Slayer Corps out of anyone? They actually sent a weak woman like you, who's only good for being a plaything, to die?"
The Dark Demon looked down at Shinobu Kocho from his superior position, exerting direct pressure.
"Just give up and surrender, little sister. I was a top-tier assassin in my past life."
"As long as you behave, I'll try my best to peel off your pretty face little by little with the gentlest touch, I promise it won't hurt you too much, hehehe!"
Faced with such foul language...
Shinobu Kocho's smile didn't disappear; instead, it became even brighter.
But within that brilliance lay a chilling coldness that could freeze one's very bones.
"Oh dear, so he was an assassin samurai in his previous life~"
Shinobu Kocho extended a slender, white index finger and gently tapped her chin, speaking in a very innocent, even somewhat adoring tone:
"That sounds really impressive."
"But..."
Then the conversation shifted.
Shinobu Kocho's purple eyes flashed with extreme contempt, as if she were looking at trash!
"So-called assassin samurai, to put it bluntly, aren't they just a bunch of lowlifes who only dare to hide in stinking ditches and rely on despicable means to ambush others in the shadows?"
In life, he was a coward who dared not fight anyone openly in the sunlight; even as a ghost, he can only lie on the roof like a lump of mud, playing tricks on people.
"You said you'd skin me alive? Ha! You think a piece of trash like you, all bark and no bite, reeking of a loser, could even touch a single hair on my head?"
Shinobu Kocho took a step forward, her smile like a poppy flower coated with deadly poison.
"You know what? A piece of trash like you, who only knows how to bluff, isn't even as good as a cockroach that gets stepped on in my eyes~"
"I truly feel sorry for you. Having lived so long, whether as a human or a ghost, you're nothing more than a pathetic creature deserving only to live in the shadows."
Boom--!
These words struck right into the heart of Dark Demon's most vulnerable pride!
In life, he was despised by orthodox samurai as an assassin; after death, he became a ghost and could only hide. This was his deepest wound!
Now, he's been completely exposed by a petite girl he looked down upon, using the most vicious language!