They looked up in terror, only to find that Kirishima Bupai had gotten to his feet at some point.
And he stood just a few steps in front of them, his gaze cold enough in the moonlight to freeze someone to death.
An utterly nasty smile hung on his lips, as if to say, "I knew you wouldn't behave."
He hadn't been asleep at all! He had been setting them up!
"Kakushi," he said flatly.
Several members of the Kakushi Squad who had rushed over from the warehouse at the commotion quickly stepped out. "Lord Void Hashira!"
"Drag them back."
And so, under the dumbstruck gazes of the Kakushi Squad members, who looked at him as though he were a god, the three unlucky demons who had tried to escape were dragged back to the middle of the fields like dead dogs.
What awaited them was an even more inhumane beating!
Kirishima Bupai did not draw his sword. He used nothing but his excessive strength, fists, and feet, like a short-tempered boxing coach pounding a punching bag.
"Aaagh! Stop hitting us! My lord! Great Lord Hashira! We were wrong!"
"We'll never run again! We'll plow! We'll plow properly!" The masked demon rolled on the ground with his hands over his head, begging for mercy. Even his wooden mask had cracked under the blows.
"Boohoo... spare me... my back... my throat..." The amber-eyed male demon curled into a ball, crying like a three-hundred-pound child.
"My face... my hair... boohoo... I'll plow! I'll plow, all right?!" The female demon's hair hung in disarray. Not a trace of her seductive charm remained, only a battered face streaming with tears and snot.
The three demons wailed for their parents, their miserable howls carrying far across the quiet fields.
Even the conscious villagers in town who had just been rescued shrank back in fright.
"What are you looking at? All of you, get the hell to bed!"
After glaring at the villagers, Kirishima Bupai went on beating them as though he hadn't heard anything.
Only when the three demons barely had the strength left to groan did he stop, still not quite satisfied.
He straightened his immaculate white-and-gold cloak and sat back down on the large rock on the field ridge.
This time, he sat even more leisurely, even casually picking up a coil of sturdy hemp rope and slowly running it through his hands.
With a cold chuckle, Kirishima Bupai exchanged for a pair of sunglasses from the System Shop and put them on.
"Come here." He crooked a finger at the three demons sprawled on the ground.
Scared out of their wits, the three demons scrambled and crawled, supporting one another as they shuffled before him. They dropped to their knees together with a thud, trembling like leaves in the wind.
Kirishima Bupai crossed his legs and leaned forward slightly, his eyes behind the sunglasses brimming with undisguised, malicious amusement.
On that handsome yet icy face, he now forcibly conjured an expression.
His mouth stretched into an outrageously exaggerated, unnaturally wide grin, his eyes opened perfectly round, and his vacant gaze held a touch of pure, idiotic glee.
The impact of that expression on a cold-blooded Hashira-rank swordsman was comparable to a nuclear explosion.
The three demons and the Kakushi Squad members beside them all turned to stone, feeling as though their entire worldview had suffered a devastating blow.
This... this was even scarier than the Bright Red Blade earlier!
"Now," Kirishima Bupai said with that Patrick Star grin, uttering words like a devil's, "let's play a game to ease the tension."
The three demons: "???!!!"
"You three, next, right now, guess..."
He raised one finger, his tone as light as if he were discussing what to eat for dinner.
"Of all the numbers from 1 to 100, which one am I thinking of right now? There's a prize if you get it right."
The three demons: "..."
Trembling, the masked demon tried to speak. "Uh... is... is it 50?"
The Patrick Star grin vanished from Kirishima Bupai's face in an instant, replaced by icy coldness. "Wrong."
With that, he flicked his wrist. As though given life, the hemp rope whistled through the air and lashed viciously across the masked demon's back.
Crack!
"Aaaaaagh-!"
The masked demon screamed.
"Next." Kirishima Bupai's smile bloomed again.
The female demon spoke through tears. "Then... then it must be... 7?"
"Wrong." The hemp rope whistled again, this time landing on the female demon's arm.
Crack!
"Boohoo... it hurts!"
In a flash of desperate inspiration, the amber-eyed male demon shouted hoarsely, "99! It must be 99!"
Crack! "Aagh!!"
The hemp rope struck his backside with precision.
The next hour became a hell the three demons would never forget.
"25!"
Crack!
"68!"
Crack!
"13!"
Crack!
"100!"
Crack!
"1! It's 1!"
Crack!
Guesses, screams from the beatings, and the whistle of hemp rope cutting through the air rose one after another, weaving into an absurd symphony across the fields.
The three demons guessed until sweat covered their heads and their vision swam, beaten until their skin split open, wailing for their parents.
"Great Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps! Please! We really can't guess it!"
"My lord! We were wrong! We'll never do it again! Let us go!"
"Boohoo... just tell us what you're thinking! We'll do anything!"
Kirishima Bupai elegantly flicked the blood off the hemp rope, his smile unchanged. "Hmm? Let you go? Sure."
Hope instantly blazed in the three demons' eyes!
"Now, face the moon..."
Kirishima Bupai's smile grew even brighter, but his voice was as cold as ice. "Face the moon and shout 'Doma is a fucking idiot' a hundred thousand times! Loudly, and from the bottom of your hearts!"
"If you're even one repetition short, or you aren't loud enough..." He hefted the hemp rope in his hand.
The three demons: "..."
The air instantly froze.
Insult that utterly cruel Upper Rank Two, who wore a fake smile all day long?
That was even more terrifying than being killed! But...
Looking at the hemp rope in Kirishima Bupai's hand, which seemed to burn with hellfire, feeling the searing pain across their bodies, and thinking back to those terrifying fists...
"Do... Doma... is..." The masked demon's voice shook like a sieve.
"Louder! Haven't you eaten?! Oh, you really haven't 'eaten' in a long time. You fucking eat people!" Kirishima Bupai made to lash him.
"Doma is a fucking idiot!" The masked demon squeezed his eyes shut and roared with every ounce of strength he had!
"Doma is a fucking idiot!" The female demon threw caution to the wind as well and shrieked.
"Do... cough, cough... Doma is a fucking idiot!" the amber-eyed male demon shouted in his hoarse voice.
"Very good. Keep going! Another 99,999 times."
And so, in the darkest hours before dawn, miserable cries filled with humiliation echoed over the fields outside Suzuran Town:
"Doma is a fucking idiot!"
"Doma is a fucking idiot!!"
"Doma is a fucking idiot!!!"
Over and over, they rang through the heavens, a cacophony of ghostly wails.
The Kakushi Squad members stared in utter stupefaction, their mouths open wide enough to fit an egg.
Was this... how the new Lord Void Hashira did things?!
Truly... extraordinary!
Kirishima Bupai, meanwhile, leaned comfortably against the rock with his legs crossed, enjoying the play he had directed.
The torment continued until a pale band of dawn appeared on the horizon.
When the final hoarse cry of "Doma is a fucking idiot" ended, the three demons were utterly drained, sprawled on the ground like three puddles of sludge, their eyes hollow as they questioned their demonic lives.
Before you continue