Chinatsu groggily climbed out of bed early that morning. Looking at the rays of light filtering inside, she realized she had slept for at least twelve hours.
"Haah~ The more I sleep, the more I feel like it's never enough~"
Chinatsu yawned a few times and stretched luxuriously. When she stepped out of her room, she found Tanjiro, Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Nezuko sprawled across the floor, sound asleep.
What on earth did they get up to last night?
Puzzled, Chinatsu crouched beside the sleeping Tanjiro. She had been about to pat his face, but thought better of it.
Disturbing someone so hardworking while he slept would be terribly rude. Putting myself in his shoes, if someone dared to slap my face and wake me up, I'd probably unleash a Rozan Rising Dragon Strike before my brain even caught up.
"Keep at it. Build up your base stats as much as you can now. If you can avoid awakening the Demon Slayer Mark, you're better off without it."
After murmuring those words softly to Tanjiro as he slept on the floor, Chinatsu turned and left the estate.
The Demon Slayer Mark was one of the Demon Slayer world's three major cheats.
Put simply, it boosted every base stat throughout the body at the cost of shortening the user's lifespan. Almost everyone awakened it later on, which meant that even those who survived the final battle only had a few peaceful years left.
If only simply training twice as hard could make up for the physical boost the Demon Slayer Mark provided...
Chinatsu pondered that, but the upcoming Mugen Train storyline involving the Flame Hashira was clearly a far more pressing concern, and it made her anxious.
In that battle, the Flame Hashira would face an Upper Rank demon-and not just any Upper Rank, but Upper Rank Three!
Avoid the Demon Slayer Mark if possible. Rather than chasing the elusive Transparent World, I should find a way to activate the Bright Red Nichirin Sword first!
As she thought, Chinatsu wandered through the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, searching for the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku.
She failed to find the Flame Hashira, but instead ran into the Love Hashira.
The Love Hashira was sitting on a long, wide stone bench, quietly enjoying the pink sakura mochi resting on her lap.
"Om nom~ Om nom~ Mmm! I could eat these forever. They're so delicious~" The Love Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, ate her sakura mochi with little moans that made her enjoyment unmistakable.
Perhaps because those moans sounded so blissful and rapturous, Chinatsu couldn't bring herself to interrupt Mitsuri's feast and simply stood where she was.
It would be best if Mitsuri noticed her on her own. If not, she could wait until Mitsuri finished. After all, Mitsuri was eating each mochi in a single bite, so the few on her lap wouldn't take long.
In only a minute or so, Mitsuri polished off every sakura mochi on her lap. Seeing this, Chinatsu was about to walk over and greet her, but Mitsuri's next move froze her raised foot in midair before she could complete even one step.
"Whew~ A few sakura mochi every day really lift the spirits~ Now that I've finished my sweet appetizer, it's time for the main meal!"
Grinning, Mitsuri pulled an enormous, unmistakably three-tiered lunchbox out of Chinatsu's blind spot.
One tier held sticky rice.
One tier held pork cutlets.
One tier held assorted barbecued pork.
After announcing, "Time to dig in!" Mitsuri tore through the tiers of her lunchbox like a whirlwind. In roughly five minutes, she had eaten everything clean. Only once she had truly finished did she notice Chinatsu standing awkwardly a short distance away.
"Huh? When did you get here? I didn't scare you, did I? My appetite is just a little bit bigger than most people's..."
Mitsuri lowered her head shyly. Seeing that, Chinatsu hurriedly waved her hands and said, "I was a little surprised, but you don't have to explain yourself to me. What's wrong with having a big appetite? Mine's actually pretty big too. If I eat as much as I want, even two of my little brother couldn't keep up with me."
Chinatsu wasn't merely trying to comfort Mitsuri. Her appetite really was enormous. Her current body granted her tremendous physical abilities, but it also burned through her stamina at an alarming rate.
Naturally, there were only two ways to replenish that stamina: eating or sleeping. When Chinatsu ate to her heart's content, even two Tanjiros couldn't match her.
At those words, Mitsuri immediately raised her head, excitement written all over her innocent, sunny face. Although nobody in the Demon Slayer Corps judged her for her enormous appetite, meeting a kindred spirit was even better.
Mitsuri was different from the other members of the Demon Slayer Corps. She bore no deep, blood-soaked grudge against demons. Her only reason for joining the Corps was to find a good husband who was stronger than her and could protect her.
That reason might have seemed flimsy, but in the original story, Mitsuri still stood on the front lines of slaying demons without ever entertaining the slightest thought of retreat.
Chinatsu could clearly feel the distance between them shrinking. Smiling, Mitsuri reached out and patted the empty space beside her on the stone bench, inviting Chinatsu to stop standing around and come sit.
Given the chance to sit, Chinatsu certainly wasn't going to remain standing. She sat beside Mitsuri and turned to speak to her, only for her gaze to get stuck on Mitsuri's exposed cleavage...
It hadn't been obvious from her previous angle, but at this distance and from this direction, the pale curves peeking out at Mitsuri's chest had a very, very commanding presence.
Mitsuri's Demon Slayer Corps uniform was different from everyone else's. When she first joined, a lecherous tailor had played a trick on her. Everyone else received a normal uniform, while hers had an open front that exposed part of her breasts.
At first, Mitsuri had thought this was the official uniform for female Corps members. Only after seeing Shinobu Kocho's clothes did she realize she had been tricked. Still, she hadn't made an issue of it and simply kept wearing it.
Looking at Mitsuri's outfit, even though Chinatsu had no interest in that sort of thing, she briefly imagined what she would look like wearing it.
And the result... was too awful to contemplate!
Chinatsu cleared her throat awkwardly. Thinking her throat was bothering her, Mitsuri quickly produced a bottle full of miso soup from somewhere and offered it to her.
Chinatsu waved her hands to decline, inwardly marveling at just how much wife material Mitsuri was.
The two went on to chat about all sorts of things, their closeness soaring as though it had boarded a rocket.
Ten minutes later, they left the stone bench and moved to a stone table.
One sat on the left and the other on the right. Both rolled up their sleeves, planted their elbows on the stone tabletop, and clasped their outstretched hands together.
What they were about to do was already perfectly obvious.
One was a muscular woman with eight times the muscle density of an ordinary person!
The other was a Supergirl who had fused with demon blood!
Their arm-wrestling match was about to begin!
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