How Old Is Miss Tamayo?

Those who understood demons best were, of course, demons themselves.

As he walked, Haruto kept turning Kagaya Ubuyashiki's words over in his mind.

Kagaya wasn't fond of speaking in riddles. Could it be... that there was something unusual about Tamayo's origins?

The viewer comments had been scrolling past intermittently over the last few days, suggesting that Tamayo might be another key character.

[So Miss Tamayo got in touch with Oyakata-sama this early?]

[Miss Tamayo wants you to come get your blood drawn!]

[The boss really does know everything!]

Haruto discreetly curled his lip. Why were these people beyond the screen just like the swordsmen around him, with their inexplicable adoration for that Ubuyashiki fellow?

What did they mean, "How does the boss know everything?" Read more books! Read more books, you hear?!

A bunch of anime shut-ins who spent all day watching cartoons and calling Makomo "so kawaii"!

Cang Kong settled gently on his shoulder. Haruto pulled a strip of raw pork from the little bamboo container hanging at his waist and stuffed it into the bird's beak.

"Over four hundred."

Cang Kong craned its neck, swallowed the meat, and spoke.

"Huh?"

Haruto's hand froze in midair as he was closing the bamboo container.

Was that an answer? An answer to what?

The boy carefully tried to recall what he had asked, then glanced at Genya, only to find him looking pale.

"Earlier, you asked Mr. Ubuyashiki..."

Genya stammered, "How old Miss Tamayo was."

Oh, right.

Not wanting to turn up empty-handed, Haruto had asked Kagaya how old Miss Tamayo was so he could choose a suitable gift to bring.

And the answer was...

Over four hundred?!

"Teacher, should we bring a gift?"

"...Let's bring Oda Nobunaga's autograph."

Asakusa, Tokyo Prefecture-a commercial district spreading out around Asakusa Temple.

Night fell, and lights and shop signs fluttered in the breeze, leaving Haruto momentarily unsure whether this was early-twentieth-century Japan or a Japanese-themed shopping street in the twenty-first century.

"Wow..." Genya's mouth fell open. "Cities have already developed this much?"

Pedestrians came and went along roads paved with neat stone slabs, with streetcars running through them.

Haruto tightened his grip on Genya's hand so the crowds wouldn't jostle them apart.

As far as Haruto was concerned, Asakusa was certainly bustling, but it was nowhere near advanced. So rather than the streetcars and flashing neon lights, he preferred to focus on the shops displaying their signature dishes along the street.

"Teriyaki chicken skewers!"

"Tempura!"

"Okonomiyaki!"

"Snow crab-ah, not as fresh as the ones in Chiba."

The Demon Slayer Corps' swordsmen never had empty purses. The Ubuyashiki Family was wealthy enough to pay them generously.

Besides, Kagaya had said Miss Tamayo would contact him herself once he reached Asakusa.

So neither of them was in a hurry to find her, and they feasted their way through the street's shops-mostly Haruto. After eating at two shops, Genya was stuffed up to his throat. He had no idea how Haruto managed to fit over thirty chicken skewers, two basketfuls of tempura, more than twenty okonomiyaki pancakes, and six bowls of pork-bone ramen into his stomach.

Just as Haruto was eagerly preparing to visit a fried pork cutlet shop next, a meow suddenly sounded at their feet.

Genya quickly looked down and lifted his foot, afraid of stepping on a cat's tail.

Haruto raised an eyebrow. Before he had even swallowed the teriyaki chicken in his mouth, his free right hand was already resting on the sword hilt at his waist.

There was... a demon's presence nearby.

He lowered his head. A little calico cat stood beside his feet.

Its large golden eyes were wide open, and a talisman bearing a design hung against its chest.

This cat... was a demon.

It had appeared silently at Haruto's feet. If it hadn't meowed of its own accord, he would never have noticed it.

Behind it was a powerful demon.

"Teacher?"

Genya felt Haruto's muscles tense.

[It's Chachamaru!]

[It's even got Yushiro's Blood Demon Art hanging around its neck.]

Chachamaru, Yushiro, Tamayo...

More and more unfamiliar names, and more and more unfamiliar demons.

"It's fine. Let's see what it wants."

Chachamaru didn't want anything. Chachamaru just wanted to show them the way.

The calico glanced back at them, as if signaling for them to follow.

Haruto let out a half-full belch, draped an arm around Genya's shoulders, and ambled along behind the cat.

Chachamaru led them away from the busy district. Beside a dimly lit street, they encountered their second demon in Asakusa.

He was a sullen boy wearing Western-style clothes beneath a white haori.

Very sullen indeed. The moment he saw Haruto, his purple eyes narrowed into triangles and his brows knotted tightly together. He muttered things like "big idiot," "what's the point of being that tall," and "his proportions are so ugly."

Well... compared with the boy's height of around 160 centimeters, Haruto, who had shot up past 175, certainly qualified as "big."

"That white hair is so weird. I really don't know why Lady Tamayo wants to see this ugly guy..."

As the sullen boy's muttered attacks shifted from height to appearance, Genya finally couldn't hold back. "That's nonsense!"

"Huh?" Haruto looked at his little apprentice in surprise.

The mohawked boy sucked his teeth. The scar on his face made him look even more delinquent than the sullen boy.

"Ugly? Teacher is the best-looking man in the Demon Slayer Corps!"

Genya clenched his fists and argued his case. "All the handsome guys in the Demon Slayer Corps live on Mount Sagiri! Sabito has a scar on his face, and Giyu never shows any expression, so Teacher is the most handsome!"

"Miss Misaka Miki, Miss Ikawa Nami, and Miss Maeda Naoko at headquarters, as well as both Miss Kochos, have all asked me about Haruto!"

Even Cang Kong flapped its wings and chimed in.

Huh? When did that happen?

Haruto's misty-blue eyes went round.

He knew Misaka Miki; she was a physician at the Wisteria House. But who were Ikawa Nami and Maeda Naoko?

And how had the Kocho Sisters entered the picture?

Am I really that popular in the Demon Slayer Corps? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Master Goto gives me hell every year about getting married!

The sullen boy ground his back teeth. Beneath his green hair, his expression grew even uglier.

"This... this is exactly why you're so annoying!"

He reached out and shoved down hard on Genya's mohawked head. "Why does Lady Tamayo want to see you?

"Why did Lady Tamayo make me leave her side to come get you?

"What makes you worthy of an audience with the beautiful Lady Tamayo?!"

Haruto swiftly snatched Genya out of the boy's clutches. "Shut up! It's about work!

"Do you have a crush on Miss Tamayo? You're acting like a creep!"

The sullen boy immediately fell speechless. He stepped back twice and turned his head away without a word, a blush creeping across his face.

*?*

What was this?

Was he a tsundere?

A mischievous smile suddenly curled at the corners of Haruto's mouth.

This old uncle just loves-ptui, ptui, ptui!

I, Haruto, just love teasing tsunderes.