She Will Lie in Wait, Awaiting the Chance to Devour Demons

Blood was smeared onto Namiko's hand and foot wounds, which quickly healed, and Namiko's breathing gradually improved.

In contrast, Yuko was somewhat weak at this moment.

She had just transformed and urgently needed to feed, but now, not only had she not eaten, she had to give away her flesh and blood.

Namiko's breathing gradually stabilized, and she let out a groan, slowly opening her eyes.

Yuko's face lit up with joy, "Namiko, you..."

Before she could finish, Namiko, illuminated by the moonlight, saw Yuko's current state clearly. The confusion on her face turned to terror at a visible speed.

"Ah!" she screamed, kicking Yuko away with both hands and feet.

Yuko quickly explained, "Calm down! I still have..."

Without giving her a chance to finish, Namiko scrambled out of the room in a panic and fled.

Yuko stared blankly as she ran out the door, her outstretched hand unconsciously retracting.

After a long moment, she sighed.

She didn't resent Namiko; people of this era couldn't possibly understand her.

This had already been proven with Kokushibo.

Frankly, her fear of demons was merely a fear of her own consciousness being distorted, a fear that Muzan would know her inner thoughts.

If she had become a ghoul by eating human flesh, she wouldn't have been afraid.

Because ghouls could control their own minds, but demons couldn't.

Once she learned she wasn't controlled by Muzan, she calmly accepted her current identity.

So what if she had become a demon?

As long as she didn't eat people or do bad things, wasn't she still a good demon?

Plus, she could regenerate her head, which sounded incredibly powerful.

Yuko thought to herself, chuckling, and got up from the ground, slowly walking to the doorway.

Moonlight spilled into the courtyard, possessing a desolate beauty.

She stepped out, but her head suddenly tilted back, nearly causing her to fall.

Steadying herself, Yuko couldn't help but touch her head, where two long branches had grown.

It was these two branches that had gotten caught on the top of the doorway.

She had checked her face for changes earlier, but unexpectedly, there were no changes to her face, only new growths on her head.

How was she supposed to go out and see people like this?

Yuko grumbled inwardly. If she remembered correctly, Nezuko could control her body size, so this should be controllable too.

She touched the long branches on her head and concentrated.

Indeed, with her effort, the branches on her head slowly retracted.

Thank goodness, thank goodness.

Yuko breathed a sigh of relief.

She looked down at her body, confirming there were no other abnormalities, and then stepped out of the room.

Yuko looked up at the cold moon in the sky, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath of the cool night air.

What did this feel like?

It was as if she had walked through a narrow passage, and a point of white light appeared before her, opening up to a vast expanse.

Ever since her lungs had been injured, she had never felt so at ease.

Just then, a gust of cold wind blew, entering Yuko's nostrils.

It was... the smell of blood.

Not far outside the door.

"Snow Breathing: Fifth Form: Snow Rush."

Yuko's figure vanished from her spot like a streak of white light.

Using the breathing technique felt incredibly smooth, with none of the usual blockages.

She had never experienced such a wonderful sensation.

She felt... reborn.

Arriving outside the door, she saw several Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen lying scattered along the mountain path.

They were almost all dismembered, a gruesome sight.

Yuko's saliva began to secrete again.

These people must have been reinforcements Namiko had called, but Kokushibo hadn't left immediately and happened upon them.

Yuko suppressed her hunger and collected their bodies, burying them to the side.

Just as she was about to leave, Yuko suddenly reacted.

She had broken free from Muzan's control, and Muzan couldn't sense her presence now.

Kokushibo might return to check, so she should hide and wait for an opportunity to slay the demon.

Yuko returned to the mansion and searched her room for a few sets of clothes, which seemed to belong to the samurai's wife and daughter, and were still brand new.

She changed out of her own clothes and threw them into the courtyard, creating a scene of being destroyed by the sun.

This would explain why Muzan couldn't sense her presence.

Tossing the clothes by the entrance, she noticed her Nichirin Blade, broken on the ground.

Her usual partner in battle, now emitting a faint chill under the moonlight, sent a shiver down her spine.

No wonder Kokushibo abandoned his Nichirin Blade after becoming a demon.

Even the so-called Scarlet Blade only had a special effect against demons; its impact on humans was negligible.

Humans were such fragile beings; it made little difference whether they were burned or not, as they would die in a single strike anyway.

Kokushibo's peculiar Demon Blade was formed from his own flesh and blood, so there was no reason she couldn't do the same.

However, she was too weak now; separating more flesh and blood might turn her into the first demon to die from weakness.

After doing all this, Yuko left the mansion under the moonlight.

She needed to find something to eat.

Almost immediately after she left, Kokushibo and a swordsman from the Demon Slayer Corps arrived one after another.

Kokushibo calmly looked at the human-shaped clothes placed in front of the entrance, a shape formed only when the body disappears from the inside.

Destroyed by the sun...

After receiving confirmation from Muzan that he hadn't sensed Yuko, he had vaguely suspected this.

Could she achieve this much through sheer willpower?

Or perhaps...

He looked up towards the inner room; the woman who should have been completely devoured was nowhere to be found.

Kokushibo, with his keen sense of smell, knew clearly that she hadn't been eaten by Yuko but had somehow escaped.

Kokushibo's expression flickered. After a moment, he abruptly drew his sword, and the powerful offensive of Moon Breathing instantly destroyed Yuko's clothes along with the house behind them.

"This... this is Miss Yuko's sword, no doubt about it!"

A swordsman who had trained under Yuko recognized the broken Nichirin Blade.

His companion beside him said mournfully, "Does that mean Miss Yuko...?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" the person next to him shouted, interrupting him. "Miss Yuko is a swordsman who awakened her Markings and Transparent World. How could she possibly die here?"

"But..." a team member looked desperately at the completely destroyed house before them, bearing several sword marks like claw slashes.

That was simply not a swordsmanship achievable by humans.

If a demon possessed such power, even Miss Yuko...

By the time Yuko came down from the mountain and found a nearby town, the sky was already showing a hint of dawn, and morning was fast approaching.

Did I eat a Blue Spider Lily? Can I be immune to sunlight now?

Yuko thought this, but she didn't dare to try it.

Using the small amount of money she had taken from the samurai's home, she found lodging at an inn in town to hide from the sun.

The innkeeper brought her food, and she took a few tentative bites. The food she normally disliked now tasted like chewing wax.

In Yuko's eyes, it wasn't even as appealing as the server who brought the food.

The nutritional value was minuscule, doing nothing to replenish her energy.

Only after becoming a demon did Yuko truly understand the torment of not being able to starve to death.