"Ah..."
A sigh rang out unexpectedly...
The demon's alarm bells blared. He instinctively turned around... The boy wearing a pair of sun-shaped earrings had appeared behind him at some point, as if out of nowhere.
He was sitting squarely on his back.
"Friend, could you let him go?"
"My little brother may be a bit of an idiot, but he's kindhearted. If you really squeeze him to death, he won't taste as fresh, will he?"
"! When did he appear? Why didn't I sense him at all?" Dohi was shocked.
In life, he'd been a chef and had spent years working in kitchens, so his sense of smell was sharper than an ordinary person's. After he was turned into a demon in the second year of the Taisho era, it had been enhanced even further.
Not only could he locate his prey by their scent, he could also accurately track the routes humans took to escape by the scent they left behind.
But tonight, his nose had failed him!
"You've got no scent at all! Are you even human?!" Dohi suddenly swiped at Roy with his claws.
The gust of wind brushed past Roy's face. He could even smell the nauseating stench of blood on the demon's claws.
Roy sidestepped, slid beneath Dohi's arm, reached out, grabbed Tanjiro by the collar, and lifted him off the ground.
"Cough... cough... cough..." Finally freed, Tanjiro clutched his throat and gasped for air.
His face had gone blue. Embarrassed, he didn't dare look at Roy.
He couldn't stop berating himself...
I'm so useless. In the end, Nii-san still had to save me...
"Tanjiro, when are you going to get stronger?"
Roy flicked his foot and scooped up the ax Tanjiro had dropped on the ground. Pretending not to notice his dejected expression, he put the ax back in his hands and said, "Keep going."
Tanjiro: "Huh?"
He was still dazed when Roy kicked him in the backside again, sending him charging toward Dohi once more.
"If you ask for a fight, you have to see it through yourself..."
Roy's words echoed after Tanjiro's retreating figure through the quiet shrine...
To Dohi, they sounded grating!
He wasn't a fool. He'd managed to "put down roots" in these mountains, close to Mount Sagiri, for so many years thanks to one thing: cunning!
After testing them earlier, Dohi had figured out that the hotheaded kid with the ax wasn't a threat. The one standing behind him was!
He immediately focused ninety percent of his attention on Roy, then darted forward and leaped right over Tanjiro's head, swiping at Roy!
"Whoosh—"
Roy shifted sideways, dodging Dohi's attack.
Seeing his strike miss, Dohi adjusted his approach in midair, turned, and launched a side kick. His size-sixty demon foot was practically about to stamp into Roy's face.
But Roy simply bent backward, ducking out of the way.
"Damn it! I can't predict his movements at all!"
"Why..."
"Why don't you have a scent?"
Dohi couldn't understand!
His two attacks had missed... He darted aside, dodged an angry ax swing from Tanjiro behind him, then hopped backward several times to put some distance between himself and the Kamado brothers.
[Zetsu]: Tighten and isolate all the "aura" and "scent" in the body, greatly reducing one's presence.
Using notes Jager had recorded, Roy imagined blocking all the Aura Nodes in his body. Naturally, that cut off the channels through which "aura" and "scent" escaped into the outside world.
It was only natural that Dohi hadn't noticed him.
"Yeah... Nii-san, I can't smell you either..."
Tanjiro had noticed Dohi's strange reaction. The hotheaded boy was best known for two things: first, his hard head—he dared to see whose skull was tougher, his or a demon's; second, his keen sense of smell. He could smell both humans and demons, and even detect the faint traces they left on objects.
He tightened his grip on the ax, quietly moved to Roy's side, and sniffed carefully. He soon noticed something odd.
"Wait... Nii-san does have a scent. It's just much fainter..."
That nose of his really was like a dog's...
Tanjiro's assessment was right. Roy hadn't actually learned [Zetsu]. He wasn't Gon, who'd grown up immersed in nature and instinctively knew how to conceal his presence. After opening his Aura Nodes, Gon had quickly mastered the technique of [Zetsu] with Wing's guidance and Hisoka's pressure. He'd truly achieved "separating himself from nature, existing as a world apart."
But—
Inspired by the clever trick of Water Walking, Roy had thinned the aura attached to the soles of his feet into a membrane, temporarily wrapping it around his Aura Nodes. That blocked the aura from escaping through his skin. Of course, the drawback was just as obvious—
The membrane clung to his skin and was exposed to the air, so it naturally gave off a faint trace of aura.
It was just that the scent of blood could easily mask it. Anyone without an especially keen sense of smell wouldn't notice.
"Is this really the time to get distracted?"
"Watch your right..."
Two flames of "aura" ignited in Roy's eyes. Using [Gyo], he caught sight of Dohi charging at them again!
He reached out and pulled Tanjiro aside...
Tanjiro tilted to one side. Taking advantage of the opening, he swung his ax hard to the right!
The blade cut through the night, trailing a frigid arc as it cleaved through the snow and wind, aimed straight at Dohi's lower abdomen...
"Shhk—" Blood sprayed out, and his intestines spilled onto the ground...
Dohi let out a scream, leaped backward, and flipped away again. When he landed, he glared straight at Roy, his expression especially savage!
"Damn it. If I don't take this guy out, I won't stand a chance. Do I really have to give up this 'dojo'?"
Become a god... become an ancestor. If the gods could have shrines, why couldn't demons have their own palace?
Dohi had heard that the supreme lord had an extremely luxurious dojo of his own. Supposedly, that dojo could freely manipulate space... Whether the demons inside walked, lay down, stood upright, or stretched out horizontally depended entirely on that lord's whim... It was known as the "Infinity Castle"!
So unless he had no choice, Dohi would never give up this shrine. It was his dining hall, the foundation of his survival. He didn't like moving, let alone wandering far from home...
That meant there was only one choice now: "We fight!"
Dohi restored his body, took a deep breath, and sneered...
"Humans are such filthy creatures."
"When danger comes, all you do is put the weak in front of you."
"Know what? I used to be an honest man, too. Then my boss made a mistake and pushed me out to take the fall. I had no choice but to eat him!"
"And you—" Dohi pointed at Roy, sparing no effort in mocking him. "You're a coward who can only hide behind his little brother. Do you dare fight me alone?"
Uh... "Is Nii-san being mocked?"
By a demon, no less?
Tanjiro secretly glanced at Roy, feeling a little sorry for him.
The boy remained expressionless and unmoved. Since the panel hadn't indicated that—
The fight would increase his "martial arts" experience,
he had no reason to step in at all.
Besides—
Roy calmly looked at Dohi and said earnestly, "Friend, you must never judge a book by its cover."
"My little brother may look like an idiot, but... in my eyes, he's strong."
"Nii-san!" Tanjiro suddenly raised his ax, two streams of breath bursting from his nostrils like dragons!
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