The journey home

After finding an inn in town and enjoying a comfortable night's sleep, Kanzaki Kumo bought some dry provisions, left town, and set off home.

Since he had decided to investigate that suspicious village, there was no need to hire another carriage. Otherwise, the driver's safety would be an issue too.

The night before last, he had only taken the driver into the village to seek lodging because there really were no other villages nearby, and sleeping out in the wilderness would have been more dangerous.

Now that he knew something was wrong there, there was naturally no need to drag an ordinary person along.

After all, when it came to traveling speed, Kanzaki Kumo was now faster than a horse-drawn carriage. His main reason for hiring one had been to spare himself the exhaustion.

But for now, Kanzaki Kumo could only accept a little extra exhaustion and treat it as Breathing Style practice.

Still, to preserve enough stamina to face whatever danger might be in the village, Kanzaki Kumo did not use a Breathing Style to travel. He simply maintained Total Concentration Breathing as he jogged, deliberately timing his journey so that he arrived outside the village just as the sun sank toward the west.

After all, demons only came out at night. During the day, only the demons knew where they were hiding.

But when Kanzaki Kumo reached the outskirts of the village, he found a crowd gathered beside the stream, shouting about something.

Judging by their numbers, practically the entire village was probably there.

It was the complete opposite of the eerie silence he had encountered outside the village last time.

Kanzaki Kumo moved a little closer, using the houses to conceal himself, and began to observe.

An elderly-looking man stood before the crowd, shouting at the top of his lungs. Beside him was a woman whose hands and feet had been bound and whose mouth had been gagged-the very woman who had given Kanzaki Kumo lodging that night.

The shouting was so hoarse and distorted that Kanzaki Kumo could not understand what the man was saying at first.

Only after listening carefully for a while did he make out the words.

"This vile woman sought to defy the River God's will, betray our village, betray our faith, and secretly amass money of unknown origin..."

The old man was practically hysterical. Bloodshot veins appeared in his already yellowing eyes, and his aged face looked even more hideous as he gritted his teeth.

The villagers seemed infected by his fervor. Most wore expressions of anger and contempt, with pity flickering across only a few faces.

"Tonight, in my capacity as village chief and the River God's emissary, I shall hand this disloyal, unrighteous person, who sought to bring disaster upon our village, over to the River God himself for judgment! Everyone, disperse."

As the village chief finished speaking, the villagers gradually scattered and returned to their homes. Only the elderly chief and the bound woman remained beside the burbling stream as night fell.

Having listened to the village chief's speech, Kanzaki Kumo inwardly ranted.

For some unknown purpose, this man had enslaved the entire village in the name of a so-called "River God," forbidding people from leaving without permission and demanding regular payments of money and grain as "offerings." He even claimed that defying the "River God's" will would bring disaster, that the entire village would be submerged in a flood, and so on.

And the woman had been tied up there because someone had discovered she was hiding money and planning to sneak out of the village.

In short, this village was both utterly absurd and deeply pitiful.

Unless something unexpected was going on, that so-called "River God" was probably a man-eating demon, and the village chief was its accomplice.

There were probably people among the villagers colluding with the chief as well.

After all, faith was not easy to establish, even in a rural village so clearly lacking in education. It would take at least one or two displays of "miracles," along with people leading the way and stirring up support, for it to take shape.

Kanzaki Kumo did not care how this village's so-called faith had been established. He only wanted to know how powerful the demon behind the "River God" really was.

Logically speaking, a demon capable of performing "miracles" ought to possess a fairly powerful Blood Demon Art. Kanzaki Kumo had little confidence in slaying a demon of that strength.

But given how thoroughly the village chief's outrageously poor speech had fooled these villagers, perhaps those original "miracles" had merely been clumsy performances too.

Most importantly, the village chief had repeatedly said that abandoning their faith would provoke the "River God's" wrath and unleash a flood that would swallow the entire village.

Yet as Kanzaki Kumo looked at the nearby stream, less than two meters wide, he wondered what sort of being could use its water to cause a flood in such flat, open terrain.

If a demon really could do that, wouldn't even Muzan's position as Demon King be in jeopardy?

The more Kanzaki Kumo thought about it, the more he felt that this so-called "River God" had been built up through clumsy performances and a few people colluding beforehand to stir up the crowd.

The only uncertainty was how strong the demon actually was.

So he decided to observe a little longer. Given the distance between his position and the village chief's, he was confident he could escape as long as it was not one of the Twelve Kizuki.

And a demon on the level of the Twelve Kizuki would not need such methods to eat people.

Time slowly passed. As the last glow of sunset vanished, Kanzaki Kumo carefully loosened up his body and assumed the opening stance of First Form, ready at any moment to rush forward and kill the demon or turn tail and run.

Under his tense gaze, movement appeared in the middle of the stream, and a dark figure slowly rose from the water.

Then Kanzaki Kumo saw a...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

As Kanzaki Kumo looked at the demon standing in the moonlight, with its turtle-like shell and dark green skin-especially that huge bald head gleaming green beneath the moon-he nearly broke the rhythm of the Total Concentration Breathing he had been maintaining.

But at the sight of its vicious teeth and ferocious expression, Kanzaki Kumo quickly collected himself and began watching its every move, assessing its strength in his mind.

The demon walked from the middle of the stream toward the bank. A normal person could have crossed that distance in a step or two, yet this thing took at least four or five to reach the edge, and nearly slipped while climbing out.

So far, this demon's performance was worse than that of the one Gyomei had beaten up all night.

"Lord River God. Please judge this person's sins."

The moment the demon appeared, the village chief had respectfully dropped to his knees, trembling slightly, with his head lowered as though he meant to bury it in the dirt. As a result, he missed the demon's rather comical entrance.

The woman, on the other hand, witnessed the whole thing. Surprise, fear, and a measure of relief appeared on her face.

As those sharp claws were about to close around her neck, the woman trembled and shut her eyes.

Vaguely, she seemed to hear thunder ringing beside her ears.

Thunder Breathing, First Form, Thunderclap and Flash.

Kanzaki Kumo silently recited the words, his entire body becoming a streak of blazing white lightning as he shot forward. When he appeared again, he was already behind the demon.

Turning back to look at the demon he had decapitated with a single stroke, now gradually disintegrating, Kanzaki Kumo felt conflicted.

His first demon kill had been a little too easy. All that time he had spent being nervous had been for nothing.

Still, a demon that needed to hole up in a tiny place like this and play god to eat people could not have been particularly powerful to begin with.

The woman opened her eyes and looked at the somewhat familiar boy, then at the demon, more than half of whose body had already disintegrated. Her face was filled with shock and bewilderment.

After cutting the ropes binding her hands and feet and removing the rag from her mouth, Kanzaki Kumo pointed at the village chief, whom he had already knocked unconscious, and slowly said, "What happens to him is up to you."

With that, Kanzaki Kumo rose and left.

Information concerning demons could not be disclosed lightly. He had been told this during his past correspondence with Kagaya Ubuyashiki, who had also explained in detail the reasons for suppressing that information. Kanzaki Kumo agreed with them.

As for the village chief, if the woman killed him for revenge, so be it.

In any case, he would tell Kagaya about this man. Having colluded with a demon to harm others, he certainly could not be allowed to live much longer.

The only reason Kanzaki Kumo did not do it himself was that he did not want to sully Jigoro Kuwajima's blade.

Feeling excitement, regret, disappointment, and a little disgust toward evildoers, Kanzaki Kumo resumed his journey home to Mount Momiji.

As for what would become of this village, he had no interest and did not care.