"Only by devouring flesh and blood can we keep growing stronger. The way you are now reminds me of when I first became a demon. I once held to the same principles as you, but I discovered how laughable those so-called principles were in the face of a true desire to feed. Once you devour flesh and blood, feel the pleasure in your cells, feel yourself growing stronger, feel yourself drawing ever closer to perfection, only then will you truly understand..."
The demon stared at Su Mu, his eyes blood-red. "Hunt with me. We can keep growing stronger together, and even become new members of the Twelve Kizuki."
Su Mu did not answer the demon. Instead, he asked quietly, "Do you still remember your life as a human?"
The demon froze. Memories stirred unbidden in his mind, and vague fragments of his human life flashed through his head. Yet when he tried to recall them again, those fragments seemed to grow hazier.
Without his noticing, the memories of his human life had slowly faded from his mind, leaving only a few indistinct moments of "happiness" he had once known as a human.
Even those had gradually slipped away without his realizing it.
When he looked back again, an inexplicable fear vaguely rose within him. It seemed... he could no longer face the time when he had still been a frail human.
"Do you still remember who you used to be?"
Su Mu looked at the demon before him. "Or are you even still yourself?"
The demon clutched his head in anguish, as though trying to remember something, to hold on to something, but
he could hold on to nothing.
He even
refused to remember, refused to face the person he had once been. All he wanted was to keep feeding, to keep growing stronger.
Yet even as he continued down the path toward greater strength, there were occasional moments when he felt empty inside, as though he had lost something precious. When he examined himself carefully, however, he found nothing missing. Still, that hollow feeling lingered in his heart.
"What good would remembering do? Could we change anything?"
After a long while, the demon recovered from his melancholy. "Do you think holding to your principles will do you any good?"
"Heh..."
The demon suddenly laughed. "No demon is an exception. Even demons as powerful as the Twelve Kizuki cannot change that. As we grow stronger, we inevitably lose something too. Haven't you felt how wonderful it is to grow stronger? That powerful body, that unparalleled ability to heal, that almost endless life..."
Su Mu said nothing. Across a thousand years, apart from Nezuko, who would become an exception after turning into a demon, no demon had ever been different.
Unless something unexpected happened, the demon's instinctive desire to keep "feeding" would make him just like all the others. But he did have a way.
"Even as a demon, I will still live the way I choose."
Su Mu spoke calmly.
The demon stared at Su Mu with his blood-red eyes. This time, he said nothing more and silently went back to sit on the ground.
Su Mu said nothing more either. He simply searched the cave for money and valuables.
The bones in this cave belonged to people who had died in the demon's attacks. The demon was interested only in flesh and blood, not money or valuables, so a fair amount had been left behind.
It took him only a short while to find quite a bit.
The money was enough to pay the fees for studying at the Hiko Dojo.
The sun slowly set, and every household shut its doors and windows tight.
With rumors of a demon haunting the town lately, almost no one would choose to leave home on such a pitch-black night.
Yet a girl who was little more than skin and bones carefully pushed open her door at that very hour.
Outside, everything was pitch-black. Her surroundings were empty and silent, save for the wind's faint, ghostly howls.
The setting was undeniably eerie. Even an adult would have felt uneasy, let alone a little girl.
But the girl did not seem to mind. Instead, a hint of anticipation lay hidden in her lovely pinkish-purple eyes.
She quietly crouched in a corner by the door, hugging her knees.
When a man's figure finally dropped from the eaves, the girl who had been crouching quietly by the door immediately stood and hurried toward him.
Her pinkish-purple eyes seemed to shine at that moment.
Once she reached him, she said nothing, merely gazing at him quietly.
Su Mu reached out and ruffled her hair, then bent down gently and picked her up. With a push of his foot against the ground, he leaped onto the roof. Another push sent his figure bounding from rooftop to rooftop.
The girl rested quietly in Su Mu's arms, her pinkish-purple eyes flickering slightly. It seemed that being carried across the rooftops so quickly for the first time felt quite novel to her.
Soon, Su Mu brought her to a somewhat dilapidated courtyard. It looked as though no one had lived there for a long time.
He carried her into a room in the rundown courtyard, where a fire was burning. The crackle of the burning wood was clearly audible.
A small pot sat over the fire, steam drifting from it as the flames burned.
The delicate fragrance of rice mingled with the aroma of chicken.
Su Mu brought the girl beside the fire and let her warm herself. He picked up a small bowl and ladled a serving from the pot. The fragrance of rice and chicken rose with the hot steam, brushing her long eyelashes and filling her nose.
"Eat."
Su Mu spoke.
The girl looked up at him, moisture glistening on her long eyelashes from the steam. Then she lowered her head again, murmured a soft "Mm," and cradled the little bowl as she ate in small mouthfuls.
The warm chicken porridge passed between her lips and over her tongue, like spring rain nourishing a field after a long drought.
It was delicious, and warm.
Before she knew it, she had emptied the little bowl of chicken porridge. Even then, she stuck out her tongue and gently licked the bottom.
"There's plenty more."
The man's gentle voice came from beside her, and then he filled her empty bowl to the brim again.
Though she longed to start eating immediately, the girl did not continue. Instead, she looked at Su Mu, holding the bowl in both hands. "Uncle, you should eat too."
Looking at the bowl full of chicken porridge she offered him, Su Mu shook his head. "I won't
eat."
"But you're clearly very hungry, Uncle."
The girl still held the bowl in both hands. "If you stay hungry for too long, you'll die. My sister and brother were hungry for too long, and then they died."
Having often endured hunger herself, the girl could recognize what it felt like to be starving.
She did not want him to end up like her sister and brother...
to starve to death.